Volume 45:Issue 1/2
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CONTENTS:
04 Historical Theology (From the President):
Adamic Denial and Distortion
by Hank Hanegraaff
While a growing cacophony of Christian voices reject the historicity of Adam and Eve, others argue that Adam and Eve were members of a species of apes on which God effected physical and spiritual renovations. And some contend that Adam was created mortal, such that he would have died even if he had not sinned. Incessant innovations riddle the evangelical landscape.
10 Effective Evangelism
The Adoption of God
by Robert Barnes
12 Lessons Learned (and Not Learned) from the Evangelical Debate over Adam and Eve
by Casey Luskin
Scientific Apologetics: For the past decade, proponents of theistic evolution have convinced many evangelicals that modern-day human genetic diversity has refuted a historical Adam and Eve. But recent analyses have shown these arguments to be wrong. An important lesson is that one should never rush to abandon important biblical doctrines based upon unclear evidence.
20 Just So Science
by Louis Markos
Philosophical Apologetics/Scientific Apologetics: The inventive and memorable tales in Rudyard Kipling’s Just So Stories explain how the elephant got his trunk, the leopard his spots, and the camel his hump. Evolutionary naturalists tell their own Just So stories to explain why humans think and desire, behave and interact the way they do. But with one major difference. Evolutionists, who ground their cause/effect explanations in a Darwinian worldview, believe their tales are true.
24 Trusting Jesus in a Universe that Doesn’t Have Your Back: A Christian Looks at Manifesting
by Anne Kennedy
Cultural and Doctrinal Discernment: Increasing numbers of people today claim to bring about the good things they desire by intuitively controlling their own energy fields — simply thinking thoughts. The name for this is manifesting. What should a Christian say to someone who explains that they just moved into their dream house because they manifested it?
32 Doctrinal Discernment (Viewpoint):
What Can Eastern Orthodox and Evangelical Christians Learn from Each Other?
by Brad Nassif
The Wesleyan scholar William Abraham observed: “Sorting out the relationship between Orthodoxy and Evangelicalism can be a spiritual and intellectual nightmare.” But we can build a bridge between these two very different traditions by exploring ways we can learn from each other for the sake of Christ and His gospel.
36 Sexual Identity and the Biblical Philosophy of Gender
by Doug Groothuis
Cultural Discernment/Ethical Apologetics: Does the phenomenon of intersex justify “gender fluidity,” the rejection of fixed and God-given categories of gender identity and the decoupling of gender from biological sex? Supposedly, sex is “assigned” at birth based on sexual organs and chromosomes but need not define one’s gender identity. Why are people abandoning the biblical basis and norms of gender and sexuality?
40 The Problem with Improving Abortion
by Jay Watts
Ethical Apologetics/Cultural Discernment: In anticipation of a Supreme Court decision that may have consequences for Roe v Wade, two New York Times opinion pieces argue that America ought to grow more and more comfortable with abortions performed early in pregnancy because early abortion is less problematic than later abortion. But “less problematic” does not change the basic nature of the act of abortion.
44 Corey Goode: Time-Traveling Secret Space Program Whistleblower
by Lindsey Medenwaldt
Today’s Religious Movements: Among the most popular promoters of Extraterrestrials (ETs), space travel, and government conspiracies, Corey Goode has a wide following on social media. Big claims without evidence include ETs live among us and benevolent ones are trying to save humanity from malevolent ETs. New Age beliefs like karma, reincarnation, and humans as gods also permeate his worldview.
48 Cultural Apologetics (Postmodern Realities):
No More Desires: Ian Fleming, James Bond, and Acedia
by Cole Burget
The James Bond of Ian Fleming’s novels is not the Bond of the films (until Daniel Craig perhaps), the suave secret agent too graceful to falter. In light of the historic Christian notion of acedia, Fleming’s Bond ceases to be an escapist fantasy and has something to say about the world in which we live. Fleming, as Flannery O’Connor once wrote of the American South, was hardly Christ-centered but was most certainly Christ-haunted.
52 The Age of Opportunity: How the Bible Gives Hope for Aging
by Elizabeth Reynolds Turnage
Christian Living: Should aging be thought of as a disease and that one day, it may be cured? Although death would still come through accident or infection, we might eventually be able to attain what computational biologist Andrew Steele calls “biological immortality.” Agelessness appeals in a culture in which the elderly are often mocked and marginalized. Yet, as Christians, we must ask, is agelessness really God’s plan for us?
60 Ask Hank
What Is the Secret?
by Hank Hanegraaff
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