Perhaps I'm stating the obvious but most discussions of origins seem to generate far more heat than light. They preach to the choir of those who agree, fail to engage those with whom they disagree on their own terms and perpetuate the unfortunate notion that Christianity and science are at war with each other. Gerald Rau's Mapping the Origins Debate: Six Models of the Beginning of Everything (InterVarsity Press, 2012) is a notable exception to that trend in that it is intended to promote understanding and … [Read more...] about Book Review: Mapping the Origins Debate
creation
Nature as a Christian Apologetic: The Open Secret
Introduction In previous blogs, we've seen that God reveals himself to man through nature and through scripture and we've been addressing questions about how man's interpretations of these revelations can be reconciled. In the next two blogs we are going to address a different question: can nature be used as a Christian apologetic? In other words can Christians use nature in some way for evangelism? The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth … [Read more...] about Nature as a Christian Apologetic: The Open Secret
Owning education
The Marks of a Christian Teacher: A Vocational Description (Part Two)[1] Mark Eckel, ThM PhD, Professor of Leadership, Education & Discipleship Capital Seminary & Graduate School, Washington, D.C. The true function of the teacher is to create the most favorable conditions for self-learning. True teaching is not that which gives knowledge, but that which stimulates pupils to gain it. One might say that he teaches best who teaches least.[2] “I do not want you to believe anything I tell you.” My mantra was … [Read more...] about Owning education
Getting a “Big Head”?
The Marks of a Christian Scholar: A Vocational Description (Part One) Mark Eckel, ThM PhD, Professor of Leadership, Education & Discipleship[1] Capital Seminary & Graduate School, Washington, D.C. “The Christian scholar-teacher must be a person who believes in Christian higher education, who is committed to the mission of his or her institution. It is not enough to hire faculty who happen to be Christians, even if they are fine scholars. We must find and keep faculty who are committed to the project.” … [Read more...] about Getting a “Big Head”?
Does Intelligent Design Rule Out Evolution?
In the next series of blog posts we are going to look at Christian questions about evolution. In my last post we saw that two of the Christian views of creation, Young Earth Creationism and Old Earth Creationism, disagree with the scientific account of the mechanism of creation. Because of this we need to ask, is evolution true? Perhaps the strongest recent challenge to evolution has been the Intelligent Design movement. For the rest of this post we are going to look at Intelligent Design and ask if it is a better … [Read more...] about Does Intelligent Design Rule Out Evolution?