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Biblical Difficulties

Apologetics, Articles, Atheism, Biblical Difficulties, Book Reviews, Family Time

Science and God: Pre-release Preview Part 2

This summer, our church’s Sunday School program pulled together a curriculum for the K-5th grade students. They focused on God and science. Biologists, mathematicians, astronomers, nurses, and chemists from our church congregation presented lessons to the children each Sunday morning, accompanied by group experiments, worship songs, and more. The kids came alive with each presentation and excitedly discussed God and science in one breath. We could all see that something uniquely important had taken place this summer.  God and science aren’t two opposed “things” to these children; they go hand in hand. It was a beautiful effort on the part of our teachers and members, and is one of the many reasons we’re thankful to presently be part of this church body.

This should be happening in our homes, too! Continue Reading

mom, the skeptic
Articles, Biblical Difficulties, Family Time, Tools, Worldviews

Mom, the Skeptic: “The Authors of the Bible were Liars”

Last week, I wrote about Natasha Crain’s forthcoming book, and as I composed that post, I asked one of my sons what they would say if a skeptic asked “How do you know God exists?”

He replied, “Let’s start with this, God made everything, right? But if people said He didn’t, it couldn’t just exist by itself! Only God can make everything by saying a word… and because He’s doing many miracles. (pause) And the Bible.”

At the time, I made a mental note of those points, in the hope that we could circle back and address them at a future date. Providentially, my son brought that conversation up today and rather confidently reasserted that a person who doesn’t believe God exists should just read the Bible.

While that is true, and that the Holy Spirit often brings people to a saving knowledge of God through the Word, my child’s smug tone called for some correction and guidance; So I became the skeptic. Continue Reading

Apologetics, Articles, Biblical Difficulties, Book Reviews, Family Time

Talking with Your Kids about God: Pre-release Preview Part 1

Have you asked your kids “How do you know God exists?” lately? I’m not sure I’m brave enough to ask mine and share their answers here. I like to think my husband and I do a pretty good job of helping them think carefully about God… but we all know how kids have a way of humbling us. Often publicly. However, in the interest of encouraging you to continue/start talking with your kids about God, I’ll ask one of them and share their answer. Here we go. Continue Reading

Apologetics, Articles, Biblical Difficulties

4 Faith Questions that Used to Make Us Sweat

There are some questions about the Christian faith that you’ve undoubtedly heard, wondered, and/or been asked. When the questions arose, it’s very likely that you either already had an answer, didn’t have an answer but felt confident you could find one, or were straight up stumped. All of us have been stumped at one time or another (or more frequently than that for some of us!) but it’s our response to being stumped that’s important. We either let our puzzlement fester into doubt or seek out an answer from respected sources. I hope you’ll always choose the latter! Continue Reading

Apologetics, Articles, Biblical Difficulties, Book Reviews, The Problem of Evil

Book Review: Why Does God Allow Evil?

Friends, we recently finished reading Why Does God Allow Evil? by Dr. Clay Jones. It’s the fantastic culminating work of decades of teaching and research. Buy it. Read it. The end.

I’m tempted to leave this as is and let that be the extent of our review. But, lest you still need convincing that this book belongs in your hands and on your shelf, I’ll say a bit more. Continue Reading

why can't we be friends? YEC vs OEC age of the earth
Articles, Biblical Difficulties, Creation, Evolution, Intelligent Design

Why Can’t We Be Friends? The Age of the Earth

There’s something that has been weighing on me, as I’m sure it has weighed on some of you. If it hasn’t, please bear with me and try to see where I’m coming from.

Young Earth Creationism and Old Earth Creationism.

There. I’ve said the terms in the same sentence and already many of you are probably getting nervous, or upset, or disappointed, or whatever. But like I said, please bear with me. Up front I’d like to say that I’m not advocating for either position in this article, per say, but rather advocating for respectful, honest dialogue, and grace. Naturally, I have an opinion, but that’s not the point of this article, and it’s not something that we want to take a hard line on at Youth Apologetics Network. We see great value in non-inflammatory conversations that avoid using straw man and ad hominem and all of the other unreasonable tactics that are too often used during these age of the earth conversations (so much so that we made a book for families).

This isn’t an article about who is right and who is wrong; it’s about how we interact with each other. It’s about how we raise up the next generation of children to interact with each other.

Continue Reading

Step out of your bubble
Apologetics, Articles, Biblical Difficulties, Scripture Habits, Worldviews

Step out of Your Bubble: Investigate Belief

It’s easy to stay in your bubble. It’s cozy and familiar. Even on the occasion when one belief is causing friction with another, as long as no outside source shines light on the cognitive dissonance, we can keep on keeping on.

But that’s not what we’re called to do. And it’s not really what we’re content with, is it?

Continue Reading

Articles, Biblical Difficulties, Logic

Quick Thought: Can God Make a Rock so Big He Can’t Lift It?

This week marked the beginning of a new year of Sunday School classes at our church. Each year provides a fresh opportunity to help young minds think well and further their relationship with and understanding of God. I like to ask the incoming first graders for their biggest, hardest question about God. That gives us the whole year to make sure they hear the answer.

After recovering from the question of one child who asked “How do mommies and daddies make babies?” (“for the love of everything, child, ask your parents!!”), one boy volunteered that he has “at least 500 questions” but “can God make a rock so big he can’t pick it up?” Continue Reading

Apologetics, Articles, Biblical Difficulties

Jesus: Begotten or Created? (for Kids & JWs)

This week, my Jehovah’s Witness friends are stopping by for a visit. It will be the first time my boys can understand the conversation, so I’ve started thinking of terms that should be clarified with them before the meeting (just in case). “Begotten” and “created” come to mind.

When these Witnesses and I met to study “What Does the Bible Really Teach?” together, we had some very tough conversations, and though the meetings ended after a year and a few difficult questions, we were able to end on friendly terms and they still stop by from time to time.

One topic of conversation that we come back to time and time again was the matter of whether Jesus is God or a created being. Was he begotten or created?  The Bible tells us:

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

-John 3:16 NASB

 

that God has fulfilled this promise to our children in that He raised up Jesus, as it is also written in the second Psalm, ‘You are My Son; today i have begotten You.’

-Acts 13:33 NASB

The word we see is “begotten.” Helping our children avoid the confusion that binds Watchtower adherents is important to me. If Jesus is anything less than fully God, we are all in a lot of trouble. So what is the difference between begotten and created?

Beget= be father of/to
Create= to make

Human men beget baby humans, swallows beget baby swallows in eggs, and cats beget kittens. One thing begets a thing that is the same kind of thing as itself. They are equal things. Though a baby is smaller than a man, it is no less human than the man. Same with cats and swallows and all other living things.

Now what of creating?

A swallow creates a nest of mud. Has the swallow made something that is the same kind of thing as itself? Nope! A cat makes something in the litter box -I don’t need to be more descriptive than that, do I?- and it is definitely not another cat! Would you ever say that a nest or litter box leaving is equal to the creature that made it? How about a man? What does he make? In The Joyful Christian, C.S. Lewis writes:

“A man makes […] a statue. If he is a clever enough carver, he may make a statue which is very like a man indeed. But, of course, it is not a real man; it only looks like one. It cannot breathe or think. It is not alive.”(p.39)

Lewis then continues to clarify the differences between begetting and creating:

“Now that is the first thing to get clear. What God begets is God; just as what man begets is man. What God creates is not God; just as what man makes is not man. That is why men are not Sons of God in the sense that Christ is. They may be like God in certain ways, but they are not things of the same kind. They are more like statues or pictures of God.”(p.40)

It is easy to see how the misunderstanding can come about when we don’t understand the difference between begetting and creating. If we assume they are the same thing, or use the words interchangeably, we miss the important difference that a begotten thing is the same kind of thing as the thing that begot it, and a created thing is a different thing than the thing that created it. However, we can also deduce, even without the understanding of the two words we are discussing, that God did not “create” another God or god, nor could he have “begotten” one in the exact sense that man “begets” man. Consider these verses (emphasis mine):

“You are my witnesses,” declares the Lord,
    “and my servant whom I have chosen,
that you may know and believe me
    and understand that I am he.
Before me no god was formed,
    nor shall there be any after me.

-Isaiah 43:10 ESV

 

Remember the former things of old;
for I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is none like me,

-Isaiah 46:9 ESV

 

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

-John 1:1 ESV (in the NLT it says “the word was A god”)

 

Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.

-John 8:58-59 ESV

 

When I [John] saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.

-Revelation 1:17 ESV

Jesus said “I AM” and the Jews prepared to stone him for blasphemy. He calls himself “the first and the last.” If there are no other Gods before or after God, and God will not give his glory to another, and Jesus claims to be God and God is still pleased with him, we can reasonably believe that Jesus must be the same God.  If Jesus were a created God (or a God begotten in the way that men beget), then all of the verses above are contradictory and confusing and suggest that God doesn’t know what he is talking about. Or he is a liar. That is not the God we worship or that JWs worship. So, perhaps our understanding of the way “begotten” is used in the Bible needs to be refined a bit further. Let’s take a look at what the actual greek word we are translating as “begotten” – monogenes – means:

According to the Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (BAGD, 3rd Edition), monogenes has two primary definitions. The first definition is “pertaining to being the only one of its kind within a specific relationship.” This is its meaning in Hebrews 11:17when the writer refers to Isaac as Abraham’s “only begotten son” (KJV). Abraham had more than one son, but Isaac was the only son he had by Sarah and the only son of the covenant. Therefore, it is the uniqueness of Isaac among the other sons that allows for the use of monogenes in that context.

The second definition is “pertaining to being the only one of its kind or class, unique in kind.” This is the meaning that is implied in John 3:16 (see also John 1:14, 18; 3:18; 1 John 4:9). John was primarily concerned with demonstrating that Jesus is the Son of God (John 20:31), and he uses monogenes to highlight Jesus as uniquely God’s Son—sharing the same divine nature as God—as opposed to believers who are God’s sons and daughters by adoption (Ephesians 1:5). Jesus is God’s “one and only” Son.

The bottom line is that terms such as “Father” and “Son,” descriptive of God and Jesus, are human terms that help us understand the relationship between the different Persons of the Trinity. If you can understand the relationship between a human father and a human son, then you can understand, in part, the relationship between the First and Second Persons of the Trinity. The analogy breaks down if you try to take it too far and teach […] that Jesus was literally “begotten” as in “produced” or “created” by God the Father.

GotQuestions.org

I plan to be more precise when we discuss procreation with our children (even that adds confusion to the mix, doesn’t it? Shouldn’t it be pro-begetting?!). Instead of saying parents make babies, they beget. This distinction will lay groundwork for helping our children understand that nature of Jesus. Though Jesus could not have been “begotten” in the exact way that a man begets a man, we see that the New Testament writers wanted to convey something very important about who Jesus is, namely that he is the same kind of uncreated thing as God… and unique.


This post was edited for clarity on August 4, 2015. Thank you for your input!