BOOKS & RESOURCES
Grasping These Truths Will Change Your View of God Forever
If God is good, why is there so much evil in the world? Christians and non-Christians alike struggle with the concept of a loving God who allows widespread suffering in this life and never-ending punishment in hell. We wrestle with questions such as…
- Why do bad things happen to good people?
- Why should we have to pay for Adam’s sin?
- How can eternal judgment be fair?
Clay Jones, a professor of Christian apologetics at Biola University, takes an unflinching look at the Bible’s response to these questions and more. As you explore what Scripture truly says about the nature of evil, you’ll discover afresh the contrasting abundance of God’s grace, the overwhelming joy of heaven, and the extraordinary destiny of believers.
Why does God allow evil? The answer might surprise you—and bring you to your knees.
Immortal: How the Fear of Death Drives Us and What We Can Do About It
Is there life after death?
For many, death Is terrifying. We try to live as long as possible while hoping that science will soon find a way to allow us to live, if not forever, then at least a very long time.
Whether we deny our mortality through literal or symbolic immortality or try to turn death into something benign, our attempts fail us. But what if the real solution is not in denying death’s reality, but in acknowledging it while enjoying a hope for a wonderful forever?
Clay Jones, a professor of Christian apologetics, explores the ways people face death and how “immortality projects” are unsuccessful, even destructive. Along the way, he points to the hope of the only true immortality available to all—the truth that God already offers, in Christ, a path to glorious resurrection to eternal life
SOFTWARE
Prepared Defense 2.0
$12.00 interactive apologetics software for Windows*
Available from Biola University.
Prepared Defense is an interactive apologetics program designed to give the Christian almost immediate answers to many of the toughest questions Christians are asked. The program provides succinct answers from some of the world’s most skilled apologists to questions about truth, the Bible, the resurrection, Darwinism, why God allows evil, and terrible acts done in the name of Christ—Crusades, inquisitions, witch-hunts, slavery, Nazi Christians, and the oppression of women.
The answers are intended to be brief, but accurate, arranged for quick access by category, and arranged in order of gretest suasion and impact first. Prepared Defense provides links to some of the best online resources, enabing the user to be just “one click” away from further argumentation or documentation. Note: if you have a ministry related need but finances are tight, please email me.
*Requires Windows XP or higher. Apple users require a CHM viewer such as iCHM.
PAPERS, POSTS & PODCAST
- Evil & Suffering. Apologetics 315 interview on May 17, 2010.
- Human Evil and Suffering(pdf). This is a slightly modified paper I presented at the 2009 annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society. In it I examine the theology, examples (warning: there is some unsettling information in this section), studies, reflections of researchers and victims, and what the Scripture says about human goodness and evil. I encourage you to read it. I end it with twelve ways a deeper understanding of human sinfulness benefits the Christian.
- “Is Determinism Scriptural?” I assigned this paper to my classes every semester for my course at Biola University.
- We Don’t Hate Sin(pdf). “We Don’t Hate Sin So We Don’t Understand What Happened to the Canaanites: An Addendum to ‘Divine Genocide’ Arguments.” Originally published in Philosophia Christi 11:1 (Spring 2009). The Editor of Philosophia Christi grants permission for this article to be posted. To read more of the discussion on this topic, please purchase our 11:2 (Winter 2009) issue: http://www.epsociety.org/philchristi/current-issue.asp.
- “Killing the Cannanites: A Response to the New Atheists’ ‘Divine Genocide’ Claims.” This article first appeared in the Christian Research Journal, volume 33, number 4(2010).
The following podcasts are from Apologetics 315.
- The Crusades – Part 1. Apologetics 315 interview on January 20, 2011.
- The Crusades – Part 2. Apologetics 315 interview on January 27, 2011.
- The Crusades – Part 3. Apologetics 315 interview on February 3, 2011.
Blogger Papa Giorgio combined the three podcasts into a single format here: http://vimeo.com/24218108.
- Journey of Childlessness. If you’d like to know more about me and what I’ve gone through, you can visit my wife’s article about our not being able to have children and her journey to finding contentment.
- The Hope of Adoption. Recorded at Calvary Chapel Camarilloin Camarillo, CA.
- A Test for Wisdom: Do We Listen? Recorded June 6, 2010, at Sunridge Community Churchin Temecula, CA.
Here’s an example of how I study the Bible that goes with the blog, How I Study the Bible and Love It.
- How I study the Bible example (MS Word document)
