The Vision — If We Will Live
“Where there is no vision the people perish”
-Proverbs 29:18
This blog is about looking to Scripture to find out who God is, why we worship him, and how we flourish. It’s about what we must do, if we will live.
Why Did the Disciples Have Faith in Jesus?
Faith comes at the conclusion of a reasoning process—not as the presupposition to it. Let’s look at the disciples for a demonstration.
The disciples saw Jesus heal the sick and bring the dead to life. They saw him walk on water and calm a storm. These facts convinced them to have faith in Jesus, believing him to be the Son of God (Matt 16:16).
Why Have Faith in Jesus? Is It Reason vs. Revelation?
In his guest post at The Gospel Coalition a couple days ago, Jason Helopoulos wrote on Evangelism, Reason, and Faith.
I enjoy reading Helopoulos, so I was surprised to find him setting up the false dichotomy between reason and faith. His article revealed a mystical approach to what knowledge is and to why we have faith in Jesus. My mission includes helping people value their own reason. I have to argue against Helopoulos on this topic.
Inductionism: A Philosophical System
In this blog I advocate the principle that “if we will live,” we must choose to value our own lives, our reason, and our faith. I seek to reproduce my philosophical convictions in other people. For the sake of clarity, I’ve created an outline of my system. This and future posts will expound my system.
A philosophical system must answer three basic kinds of questions: What kind of world is it? Why am I able to know it? How will I act? The central tenets of my philosophy are epistemological objectivism and a Christian morality of rational self-interest.
Why Believe the Bible? Evidence.
In response to a previous post, a friend of mine asked, “How can you know that the Bible is true, that it is inspired by God, or that it is inerrant, without appealing to the Bible as the source for these claims?”
My friend was pointing out that Christians tend to make a circular claim: We know the Bible is true because it is God’s word–We know it is God’s word because it says it is–God wouldn’t lie.
Of course, this answer fails to address the unbeliever’s question: “What if someone else wrote the Bible and only claimed it was from God?”