Happy New Year! - 12.30.09

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Merry Christmas - 12.24.09

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Year End Blessings - 12.11.09

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Many Thanks! - 12.4.09

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New and Exciting Video

Check it out!

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Apologia Newsletter - 11.23.09

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Get AMPed!

Dear Apologia Supporter,

We are very excited about the amount of ministry opportunities God is providing for us! Since launching Apologia on October 1, 2008, we have had the opportunity to teach at many different churches across several states, minister to thousands of Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Jews, and Atheists, and have seen God spread our ministry worldwide via the internet. We literally receive opportunities to evangelize the lost and equip the body from around the world every day! Because of this, and through much prayer, we feel that God is leading us to make the next step; to take the ministry to the next level. We have more than enough ministry opportunities, and could very easily create many more, to make Apologia our full-time ministry and occupation, we simply lack the needed funding.

We are seeking believers and churches to join what we are calling our A.M.P. Team, or Apologia Monthly Partnership Team. We are asking for Two Year Commitments on a monthly basis to help support our ministry costs. We ask that you please prayerfully consider supporting us. Those who make a two year commitment of $25 or more a month will receive some really cool perks, such as:

A free Apologia T-shirt

A free copy of Jeff’s upcoming book, “Reaching Mormons,” before it is made available to the public

An AMP Team Certificate

Exclusive Messages by Jeff and Evangelism Videos

A 25% Discount off anything we sell, including, but not limited to, Books and Apologia Supplies

Other AMP team exclusives, TBD

If you feel that God is leading you to make a financial commitment to us, please let us know. We would be privileged to partner with you. You can simply fill out the following form and return it to us. You can mail it back, or scan and email it to Luke Pierson at luke@defendthefaith.org. If you have any questions, please let us know. I can be reached on my cell at (480) 251-5376 and Luke can be reached on his at (219) 746-1746. Thanks and God Bless!

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Exciting and Important News from Apologia! - 11.15.09

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Classic example of the foolishness of unbelief.

One of the most popular debates held between a Christian and an Atheist in the last 25-years was between Dr. Greg Bahnsen and Dr. Gordon Stein held in California. This clip is a classic portion of the debate. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.

This is just one more example and encouragement that the unbelieving worldview inevitably leads to irrationality and inconsistency. The Christian position is intellectually rigorous and easily engages the atheistic worldview. To reject the existence of God is to abandon our intellect, the foundations of scientific method, morality, etc. My prayer is that Christians will stand-up and reach the neo-atheists of our day with the love of Christ and the Gospel.

Atheist proselytizer Richard Dawkins is on a campaign to have atheists "come out of the closet" and begin winning people to the fundamentalist atheist movement (ASU gammage, 2008). This creates a wonderful opportunity to engage and reason with people who need the Gospel. May God open the eyes of those we reach to the Gospel of God's love and grace to sinners. :]





Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
1 Corinthians 1:20


Jeff Durbin
President
Apologia

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Upcoming Ministry Event - 11.18.09!

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Atheism examined and found wanting...

I gave a lecture a few nights ago. During the lecture someone began to challenge me and debate me on the Bible and the existence of God. Here is some of the audio and what followed. I hope you are blessed by it and you are encouraged to be bold in your faith!

Ultimately, what you should discover is that all the while this young man was attacking the Christian God he was showing evidence of "knowing" Him despite His denials. He lives practically as though he believed in God (at a minimal level) and yet denies God by his profession. As Christians, we need to "dig-in" and show the atheist that he does know God--but, something is wrong. Although the Atheist knows God (and evidences that fact at every turn of his life) he suppresses the truth about Him. After we have demonstrated that this is the case we can then be in a position to call him to repentance and faith to receive the Lord Jesus as Savior and Lord and the gift of eternal life!

Romans 1:18

Jeff Durbin
President
Apologia

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Bishop McKay Jones agreed to the possibility of a public discussion.

Last evening the LDS church held a public lecture on "Are Mormons Christian?" We are tremendously grateful for the opportunity presented for a public discussion and dialogue between Bishop Jones of the LDS church and myself. Mr. Jones seems like a gracious and very nice guy and I have tremendous respect for his willingness to engage in such a discussion. We still need to connect with all the parties involved and iron out details that would make both of us comfortable. We will announce more details as they become available. Please pray for us as we begin the process.

One of the greatest challenges presenting itself to Mormons and Christians alike is misunderstanding. Misunderstanding creates confusion and erects walls between us. Walls that exist between us only serve to create further divides and destroy any possibility of us having ANY effective dialogue or having any meaningful relationships. This should not be. God has presented an opportunity for us to begin an honest, loving, respectful and effective dialogue. When we held our public event in April, we allowed the audience to come up to the microphone and ask questions publicly and challenge what we were saying. Yet, the complaint from the LDS in attendance was that they would like to see the LDS church represented by an apologist. We agreed that that would be most effective. Last evening the complaint from the audience was that it was not truly an "open forum" event as the audience was not allowed to "ask" (verbally) questions or dialogue. The questions had to be written on cards. The complaint was that the LDS were allowed to go unchallenged and were simply pontificating. With an event like this, we can put both of those charges to rest.

Jeff Durbin
President
Apologia

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Audio of "Bible Answer Man" is finally up.

Sorry for the delay everyone. Although I spoke with Hank last week (Tuesday) it took them until today to actually broadcast it. I wanted to speak with Hank and have him on record before I respond specifically point-by-point to Andrew. I chose to do this, so that Andrew could see the inconsistency with his gospel and the Gospel that Hank is preaching just before his show airs. I know that "Christians" are not the sole infallible rule of faith-- Scripture is. However, I think it is important to point out that Andrew's gospel is in conflict with the men who share the station with him (Sproul, Macarthur, Stanley, etc.)... even with the man whose show airs before his. What kind of message is that sending to the world and to the kingdom of the cults?

Please hang on for further response.

He is Glorious!

Jeff
President
Apologia

Here is the audio. I was the last caller.

You can fast forward easier on oneplace.com.

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Response coming soon...

I want to thank you all (including the very gracious Mr. Tallman) for being so patient with our response to this issue. I have been extremely busy with ministry from around the country (and locally) and had to perform a funeral for a brother of mine who passed. Lord willing, I will be posting a quick biblical response as well as the audio from a conversation I had with Hank Hanegraaff that is extremely relevant and needs to be heard. I would like to say, I am very impressed and encouraged by Andrew's willingness to change his views if they are not in accord with Scripture. I also would like to compliment him on how he handles his blog. :]

More coming soon! Please stay tuned!

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Praise, Response and Support

APOLOGIA is so exciting! Luke and I get emails every day, from people all across the globe. Sometimes we get questions or challenges from people who are part of the Watchtower, LDS church, atheist organizations, etc. But, we also get a bunch of emails from fellow believers from all over the place. We are so encouraged. People get a hold of us from the U.K., Australia, Africa... everywhere! We have people tell us that they have watched our Youtube videos and were inspired to start reaching the cults. Many people write to us and tell us that they are using the material they heard from our videos or something in our blog. Many times people rely on us for one-on-one help and will call us for help just before they meet with some Mormon missionaries or JW's. Praise God! We just received this one from the Philippines:

Hi Jeff,

I like the way you dialogue with the Jehovah's Witness guy. You are full of patience, grace, and love that comes from the Lord while sharing the truth with him. Continue doing what you both are doing and may the Lord expand your ministry by equipping the Christians to reach out the kingdom of the cults.

Blessings,

Justyn

Well, Justyn thank you brother for your support.

I wanted you all to see an example of what we see everyday!

UPDATE:

Andrew Tallman got back to me. He said he didn't receive my emails where I asked him to check out our blog and get back to me (I sent two to the same address he emailed me from). I definitely want to give him the benefit of the doubt. I'm sure he's really busy and maybe he overlooked or missed it. He seemed interested in a dialogue. Hopefully we can look forward to some answers from him. Please pray for him. Ultimately our desire is that he would believe in the Biblical Gospel and publicly renounce what he has promoted. Stay tuned...

REQUEST FOR PRAYER AND SUPPORT:


Have you ever considered giving through APOLOGIA? We are moving into a new-phase of ministry. In the last 6-months we have spoken to countless people from the cults, given out thousands of tracts, held public events to equip Christians as well as created direct relationships with the lost.

To be transparent...we need your support. Luke and I (along with our families)are in ministry full-time. We have VERY low overhead costs. But, we cannot continue to do what we do without your prayers and financial support. We want to thank you if you have given in the past and would be blessed if you would consider giving again or giving for the first-time. God is changing lives and bringing people to Himself. We are humbled to be a part of it. We need your help to keep doing it. Would you consider giving to support the work of bringing the Gospel to the lost?

We have a ministry goal. We would like to be able to raise 5,000 of support in the next 30-days. For ministry that is a pretty small budget. But, we can't make it without you. Please continue to pray for us and thank you so much for standing with us!

He is Glorious!

Jeff Durbin
President
Apologia

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Mr. Tallman has shortgospel

Mr. Tallman has not responded to my emails. However, he has done us a very great service. He has now admitted publicly to believing and promoting a gospel contrary to God's Gospel. You can find his admission here.

What is marvelously thought provoking is that Mr. Tallman claims that I "won" the debate yesterday by a small margin. This is not a game. These are weighty matters that cannot be broken down to a simple contest of my view vs. his. We are talking about which Gospel saves--not who is a better debater. Also, he claims that after our conversation at approximately 5:30 yesterday evening he was driven to study Scripture on this issue for the "next day or so". He now admits to being committed to a Gospel that goes like this:

1. Faith + Baptism = Salvation/Justification
*in other words we are not justified until after we are baptized.

He admitted with me on the show on Monday that he "used" to believe we are saved when we put our faith in Christ but, now he believes we must also be baptized before we receive salvation. So it is faith and then a work of obedience that saves--according to Andrew Tallman.

I will deal with his deadly gospel soon. I have to prepare for a funeral service. But, let me whet your appetite with a quote from an article by Hank Hanegraaff (Bible Answer Man)the president of the Christian Research Institute. Now, I know, Scripture Alone is our only infallible authority. But, I do think that it is peculiar that Hank's show is broadcast the hour before Andrew's. If you listen to Hank you will hear one Gospel and if you listen to Andrew you will hear another. Here is the quote:

The most critical mistake one can make with regard to baptism is to believe that it is necessary for salvation. Several aberrant or cultic movements, such as the International Churches of Christ (Boston movement), teach that belief is not suffi­cient for salvation — baptism is also required. In concert with other cultic groups, they distort passages such as Acts 2:38 to defend this deadly doctrine.

Acts 2:38 climaxes Peter’s powerful proclamation of the gospel on the day of Pentecost. Those impacted by his message cried out, “What shall we do?” Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

Groups that believe baptism is necessary for salvation mistakenly regard Peter’s words, “Repent and be baptized” as evidence that belief plus baptism results in salvation. Scripture, however, does not support this view.

First, the Book of Acts itself demonstrates that baptism is the sign of conversion, not the means of conversion. Acts 10:47, for example, describes believers who were indwelt by the Holy Spirit (and therefore saved — see Rom. 8:9) prior to being baptized.

Furthermore, the Bible as a whole clearly communicates that we are saved by faith and not by works (Eph. 2:8-9). As Paul pointed out in Romans, our righteous standing before God is “by faith from first to last” (Rom. 1:17). When the jailer asked the apostle Paul, “What must I do to be saved?” Paul responded, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:30-31).

Although baptism is not the means by which we are saved, it is the means by which we are set apart. By baptism, we testify that we are no longer our own — we have been bought by Christ’s blood and have been brought into the community of faith. This is the significance of Peters command in Acts 2:38. He was not telling them that they could not be saved without baptism. He was telling them that their genuine repentance, which by the grace of God accompanies salvation, would be evidenced by their baptism.

Mr. Tallman, what do you say about discussing this issue live on your show? You run a program that is on the same station as men like R.C. Sproul, Hank Hanegraaff, Dr. John Macarthur, Dr. Charles Stanley, Dr. Michael Youssef, Greg Laurie, Alistair Begg, etc... And yet, you have now publicly stated to believe a gospel that is in conflict with ALL of these men. Whom do I believe? If I listen at 4, I can be saved by grace through faith alone(like Abraham and the thief on the cross). If I tune in at 5, I can come by faith, confession and baptism which will then lead me to attain salvation. I wonder if Mr. Tallman also believes you can lose your salvation? Hmmmnnnnn.... Yes, Mr. Tallman this is no small matter (Galatians 1, 2 Cor. 11:4, 2 John 9). I am calling you to account Mr. Tallman. I am hopeful that you will see the truth of God regarding the Gospel and that you will publicly renounce your promotion of a false-gospel.

I would love a reply from you Andrew. God says:

but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence. 1 Peter 3:15

*I encourage all of my brothers and sisters in Christ to write or call the radio station and notify them of the confusion brought on by Mr. Tallman's gospel. God's Word says:

Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them. Romans 16:17
*note, this is in the glorious book where Paul taught a doctrine on justification that Andrew Tallman is publicly denying. It is the responsibility of God's people to refute those who contradict (Titus 1:9).

Jeff Durbin
President
Apologia

--Here are the links for the statements of faith for a few of the men who share the radio waves with Andrew Tallman on 1360AM. None of them would agree with Mr. Tallman's view of the Gospel. All of them, preach one which is contrary to his.

Dr. John Macarthur--Here
Dr. R.C. Sproul--Here
Hank Hanegraaff--Here
Dr. Charles Stanley--Here
Greg Laurie--Here
Dr. Michael Youssef--Here
Alistair Begg--Here
Dr. James MacDonald--Here
Dr. J. Vernon McGee--Here
Dr. Paul Sheppard--Here

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What is the Gospel Mr. Tallman?

I have listened to the "Bible Answer Man" (Hank Hanegraaff) for about as long as I have been a Christian. I love CRI! Walter Martin (founder of CRI)is one of my heroes. So for the last couple of years I have also listened to a show that is lined-up after Hank by a gentleman by the name of Andrew Tallman. I can't say that I LOVE his show but I have listened to some fun programs he has done and enjoyed them. And after you read this post, I think you would agree that it is ironic that Mr. Tallman's show follows Hank's, considering Hank's view on justification by faith alone.

A couple of weeks ago, Mr. Tallman had a gentleman on his program whose wife had passed away. It was very moving. But, the guest made a comment near the end of his conversation with Mr. Tallman that disturbed me. He said something to the effect that he wanted to live a "good" life so that he could get to heaven and be with his wife. Basically, he communicated the fact that he wanted to be a good person so he could get to heaven. Imagine my surprise when Mr. Tallman did nothing to correct his statement. I felt compelled to call in and ask that Mr. Tallman make a gentle correction just in case any unbeliever was listening and got the impression (from a "Christian" station)that salvation was dependent upon us being "good" people or that righteousness was something that we "attain" through good-works or obedience to the law. So I called in. The gentleman screening the calls asked me why I was calling in. I asked him if Mr. Tallman would be making a gentle correction to the man's statement. He put me on hold to ask Mr. Tallman. About a minute later the gentleman came on and told me "no, we're not going to do that". He asked me if I understood why. I told him no. I told him that they had a responsibility as a CHRISTIAN radio program to make a correction when someone promotes a false-Gospel on their program. He told me they were not going to do it. I was severely disappointed, went home told my wife and committed (so I thought) not to listen or support Mr. Tallman's show again.

Well, I wish the story stopped there. Today I left the rehab center I also pastor at, hopped in my Mustang and caught the end of Hank's program. I had all but forgotten my commitment to not listen to Mr. Tallman's show when I heard the subject that would be under discussion-- Baptism. Mr. Tallman wanted to discuss whether or not water baptism was essential for salvation. At first, he didn't seem to be taking a position necessarily (which bothered me). And, I wouldn't have had any desire to call-in until Mr. Tallman stated that the problem with this issue is that the Bible is not clear on this issue. Not clear?! He stressed the fact that God had not really spelled out clearly enough whether baptism is something someone must do to be saved. Mr. Tallman seemed to be stating that God's revelation just was incomplete on this issue or wasn't adequate to answer our questions with regard to baptism. I felt the need (considering Mr. Tallman's history) to call-in and at least defend the fact that God was clear about how someone is justified, credited righteousness, forgiven or saved. Mr. Tallman immediately got aggressive--more aggressive than I have ever heard him in all my time listening. He stated that he "used" to believe that salvation was simply by faith and was applied to you when you believe but that now he leans towards water baptism as an essential element of what must take place in-order to be right with God. He said that he wasn't sure whether or not justification took place when you "believe" or when you are baptized. At one point, he even brought in the issue of tithing and whether I believed a person was right with God or going to heaven if they didn't tithe properly.

So my questions... What is the Gospel Mr. Tallman? How and when is someone justified and credited righteousness in God's sight? Is righteousness credited when I believe? Or is it after I "do" something (baptism)? Do I enter the water justified or do I leave the water justified? When I stand before God, is it Christ's righteousness that has been applied to my account that gives me peace with Him; or do I stand with my personal righteousness that comes from obedience to some law? When do I receive eternal life? Is it when I hear and believe or after I hear, believe and am baptized? What do you say about Jesus' parable about the Pharisee and the publican? What took place before he "went home justified"? Did the thief on the cross go to heaven Mr. Tallman? What must I do to be saved?!

Sadly, when Mr. Tallman returned from his break (and I was unable to respond) he felt the need to rattle off a couple of proof-texts for his position: that we are saved by faith and baptism. I would be more than happy to discuss this issue and those texts in detail on his show live--So as to not give his listeners the impression that he has done the proper work and exegesis in interpreting those texts. Also, I was told by a friend who was listening that Mr. Tallman did a little backtracking as time went on and later was communicating that we are saved by faith alone. I can't seem to find any audio archives for his show online. But, if it is true, it certainly makes sense. Here you have a man who professes to be a Christian and operate a Christian radio show who simply doesn't want to disenfranchise his Christian audience. Here is an excellent question:

Mr. Tallman, if you get the Gospel wrong, does your show qualify as a Christian radio program?

So yes, this is a request for Mr. Tallman to allow me back on his radio program to discuss with him the issue of justification/salvation. What do you say Andrew? Apologia Christian Ministries would be more than happy to discuss this issue with you publicly. Will you defend your view on the Gospel publicly?

Andrew, we must not divide on non-essentials. Unity is key (John 17). The Gospel is an essential. If someones disagrees with Scripture on the Gospel and how someone is justified in God's sight-- they are not classified as a Christian (Galatians 1:6-9, 2 John 9)nor should they claim to be running a Christian radio program. This issue (justification by faith alone)is what differentiates the Gospel from all other man-made religion. It is what separates Christ's Kingdom from the Kingdom of the cults. I wholeheartedly disagree with you Andrew. God is clear in His revelation about HOW I am made right with Him and WHEN it takes place. God says:

and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3:15-17

Contrary to your claim that God's Word is not clear to answer our questions about baptism, Scripture teaches that it is able to give us the wisdom that leads to salvation (that seems clear to me), and is profitable for teaching (baptism included), correction (certainly on issues related to baptism) & training in righteousness (even about baptism).

Andrew, I worry about you. If you were unwilling to correct a man, who on your program just a few weeks ago said that we get to heaven by being good people and today you argued that we are not saved by faith alone (that is what you said to me)--what is a Christian supposed to think about what you believe about the Gospel? What kind of confusion does your show create when your show follows a man (Hank Hanegraaff)who believes, teaches and defends a different Gospel than you? Andrew, the most unloving thing to do would be to leave someone in error. Please take my rebuke to you as a gentle but very serious one.

"Controversy for the sake of controversy is sin. Controversy for the sake of the truth, is a divine command." Dr. Walter Martin

Jeff Durbin
President
Apologia

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Charlie Kingston entered the joy of the Lord

This morning, my friend and brother in Christ (Charlie Kingston) layed aside his earthly dwelling and departed to be in the presence of the One Who bought him with a price. Here is a video of Charlie giving his personal testimony to the grace of God and His glorious Gospel. Please pray for the Kingston family as they are carried through this trial by our precious Savior.

May Charlie's departure awaken us to our need for the Gospel of God's Grace through Jesus Christ alone by faith alone!

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Quick post!

Recently, Luke and I went to Ojai, California where we were able to evangelize some LDS. It was a wonderful opportunity. One of them (April) gave here life to Christ and the other two are still praying about what we talked about. Please lift them up!

We baptized 5-people in the Pacific Ocean-- Including April (the former Mormon). Here is a photo of one of the most amazing little disciples of Christ I have ever met (Ethan Czuppa).

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The poverty of the Atheistic Worldview

I have been working on a new book critiquing the atheist/materialist worldview. Lord willing I'll be done by the end of this year. It is difficult considering the fact that ministry keeps me pretty busy from morning to evening. My hope is to produce a work that will function as a refutation of the atheistic worldview as well as an apologetic manual for dealing with the atheistic worldview and presenting the Gospel of God's grace. God says, "the fool says in his heart there is no God" (Psalm 14:1). My intention in writing this work is to demonstrate (from a Biblical perspective) that the atheist really does 'know' God but that he/she is suppressing the truth about Him. The ultimate goal is to dig into the unbeliever's worldview and show that "something is wrong" with their relationship with God and that they can repent and believe in Christ to receive forgiveness and eternal life.

Here is a quick excerpt (please forgive any typos :]. Also, all of the references are in the actual work. ):

What one believes about man and his place in it will have serious and lasting consequences on how they think personally and how they affect others during their time in this life. This is no trivial matter. Any thinking person needs only to take a quick glance at history to agree with me on this point. Christian or not, the questions related to the existence of God and the Atheistic vs. Christian Theistic worldview are devastatingly important. For, if as atheists claim, we are simply matter-in-motion and all of life really only devolves to a simply naturalistic, materialist explanation of the universe then ultimately… nothing matters. I’m not simply speaking about personal significance in this world. I’m talking about science, reason, logic, explanations, debate, language, education, love, beauty, family, morality--- you name it… it doesn’t matter.

Mushy mindedness

Not only does atheism make all of life meaningless, but nothing in life can be coherent or intelligible. What I am describing is the materialist worldview that leaves us with no foundation for reason, logic, science, the uniformity in nature or morality. If Atheism were true, why should we be logical or moral? It will be argued by the atheist, “Because we want to be good to each other and logical in our thinking.” And to this I say “why should I be consistent or logical in my thinking or be concerned with being good to anyone?” To which the Atheist declares, “Because we want to be honest and work towards a greater good that will lead to the most happiness for others.” But you see the atheist is being entirely arbitrary and inconsistent. If his claim were true that humans amount to suitcases of biological goo randomly moving throughout the universe; I would have no foundation, need, reason nor moral requirement to be consistent, logical, honest or in any way ethical. In point of fact, why should I care at all about the happiness of others? What if this bag of biological goo gets his ultimate happiness from injuring and exploiting others? What if I develop a civilization that values hurting others and thinking irrationally? If atheism were true, atheists would be totally inconsistent to be morally indignant or upset with me for doing so. Hitler, Stalin and the terrorists who crashed their planes into buildings on 9/11 were very happy to do what they did. Atheism is intellectual poverty.

Sadly, atheists are seemingly quite content with a worldview that is internally inconsistent and unintelligible. Apart from the Christian worldview we cannot make sense out of our everyday experience. If the atheistic/materialist worldview were in fact true and reality amounts to nothing more than matter-in-motion then what you are doing right now reading this book wouldn’t make any sense at all. As a matter of fact your reading this work at this very moment presupposes a Christian theistic worldview. All of language, thought, science and debate rest on the foundation of induction. Put more popularly… the uniformity in nature. In other words all of us every day assume that the future will be like the past; and rightly so. You can’t live in this world otherwise. You can’t get out of bed, brush your teeth, listen to the news, drive your car or do anything at all without assuming the uniformity in nature. More simply that future events will be like past events. Yet the atheist tells us that "The Cosmos is all there is, or was, or ever will be." -that all of life is in the end simply matter moving throughout space. Matter in motion is an appropriate way to put it. There shouldn’t be any reason to look for uniformity in nature, apply scientific principles or appeal to immaterial and universal abstract entities such as the laws of logic. So in the end the atheist affirms one thing with his lips and lives his life according to different principles every step he takes.

The word hypocrite comes to us from the Greek word hupocrites. This word had its origin in the world of ancient theater. In the ancient theater the actors didn’t wear makeup, they wore masks. For each character they portrayed they placed a different mask upon their face. While on the inside they truly were someone else they placed a facade upon their face pretending to be someone they truly were not. Atheist’s live every day according to certain presuppositions and principles. They have as it were a Christian theistic approach to the world and daily life. They live as though they are practical theists every day with every breath and at every turn. They look to the uniformity in nature to function as well as appeal to universal and invariant laws. Atheists listen to professional musicians and applaud at the majesty and beauty of their skill. They kiss their wives and hug their kids as if there were such a thing as the reality of love. Yet, when engaging the world on the subject of God they hide themselves behind the profession of atheism and thus don the mask of hypocrisy and play the role of the unbeliever. Atheism is woeful and deplorable hypocrisy.

The Christian claim is that we live in a world that is governed by a sovereign, all-knowing God who has ordered it in such a way that he carries everything along to its intended purpose . Christians can make sense out of what we are doing. We have a rational basis and explanation for applying scientific method, utilizing the laws of logic and for the assumption that nature is uniform. Because we believe in a sovereign God who governs this universe and sees to it that it is uniform. Even your reading this work is an exercise in the uniformity of nature. You are assuming that I will attempt to utilize and adhere to the laws of logic, that I will make my arguments coherent and that I will attempt to be consistent, honest and fair. From a Christian perspective to be illogical, unreasonable or dishonest would be a sham. Our thinking is to reflect God’s thinking and to engage in contradiction is in fact to lie. Christians can make sense out of science, reason, logic, morality and the like because we have a view of life that satisfies the preconditions of intelligibility of all these issues. In other words, we have a rational foundation for all that we think and do every day--- atheists do not. Christian apologist and philosopher Dr. Cornelius Van Til brilliantly likened the unbeliever to the small child who reaches up to smack his father in the face yet is dependent upon his father to hold him upon his lap to do so. Atheists have hijacked the Christian view of life and reality in order to live and function daily. And yet sadly, atheists spew forth constant denials about the reality of and existence of their creator. It will be demonstrated that atheists are in the end, willfully and actively suppressing the truth about God.

Only the Christian theistic worldview can answer the simplest and most complex questions about reality, knowledge or how we should live our lives in relation to one another. Put more philosophically the questions that relate to metaphysics, epistemology and ethics. I will argue in this work that apart from the Christian worldview you cannot prove anything. Now obviously atheists prove things. They try to be logical, utilize scientific method and appeal to morality. However, their worldview cannot make intelligible use of these things and in the end the atheist is only borrowing from the Christian worldview all the while arguing against it. Atheists are crypto-theists. In the depth of their being, they know the God Christians are speaking about.

Atheism is a cancer

Think for a moment about the utter foolishness of unbelief and how unworkable atheism is as a worldview. Atheists are always reveling in the many supposed benefits of their unbelief. They speak about the freedom, superior morality and overall betterment of life and mankind connected to their view. Yet, how many hospitals have atheists built? How many orphanages or homeless shelters? How many atheistic institutions have been created in the name of atheism’s beliefs and ideals to feed the poor, clothe the naked or heal the sick? How many of Richard Dawkins devotees have sacrificed their lives to make sure the hungry eat, widows are cared for, children have homes or clean water, rent is paid or the sick are healed? I am not suggesting in any way that atheists are the worst people in the world-- by no means. But, how many hospitals have been erected in the name of Charles Darwin? Atheism as a view of the world is a cancer on mankind and is shamefully unworkable. It takes everything and gives back nothing. To quote the late Christian apologist Dr. Walter Martin, “Atheists are the gadflies of civilization.”

Famous atheist Dr. Richard Dawkins claims that Christians are happy with not knowing. Or that they are satisfied with being blind-faith religionists. This is only a demonstration of his total failure to do adequate work in his critique of Christians or to be fair and honest in his arguments. Of course his thoughts do sell a lot of books and do appeal mightily to the modern anti-Christian bias--- about that there can be no question. Many thinking readers’ dissatisfaction with his work is that he wrestles with a false-characterization of Christians and doesn’t really accurately portray what Christians think or argue and have promoted historically.

Christians rest on a foundation of objective truth. Christians are quite capable and comfortable answering the tough questions and have a long history of doing so. We are in fact commanded to give a reasoned defense of what we believe. As a matter of fact, reason and truth are foundational to all Christians think and do. It’s in our blood. We believe in a God who has revealed Himself to His creation both supernaturally and ultimately personally in the person and work of Jesus Christ. This God says “Come let us reason together”. The Christian faith is based on the objective facts of God’s existence, Personal revelation and all of the implications that come from those truths. Jesus entered into the world and claimed that He was in fact “the Truth”. The early Christian claim was not “let go of your mind and follow Jesus” but is summed up best by the Apostle Peter who said, “we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty”. The Christian claim is and always has been based on objective and historical truth. God is not the author of confusion.

The dark path of atheism

If we take a brief look at some of the underlying implications of the atheistic view of the world what do we get? We have to believe that there is no ultimate foundation for ethics, no ultimate meaning or purpose in life, no reason to assume the uniformity of nature (thus making all scientific inquiry meaningless), no real beauty, no real love, no human dignity and no reason to believe in objective truth. Atheism forces us to belief in the absurd. Atheists believe that life comes from non-life, that non-intelligent matter becomes intelligent, that non-moral matter suddenly starts trying to be nice to each other and is expected to do so on a regular basis, that inorganic matter becomes organic matter and that simple biological components of matter magically become more complex--- Oh, how marvelously miraculous! And remember atheists claim to not believe in miracles. It takes an enormous amount of blind-faith to buy into the atheistic worldview and we must remember that atheists aren’t supposed to have any.
The end result of the atheistic worldview can be summed up very succinctly in a public statement by evolutionist Dr. Will Provine, professor of the history of biology at Cornell University. While describing the evolutionary worldview’s implications he stated:

“No gods, no life after death, no ultimate foundation for ethics, no ultimate meaning in life and no human free-will. We are all deeply connected to an evolutionary perspective. You are here today and gone tomorrow and that is all there is to it…It starts by giving up an active deity. Then it gives up the hope that there is any life after death. When you give those two up the rest of it follows fairly easily. You give up the hope that there is an imminent morality. And finally there’s no human free-will. If you believe in evolution you can’t hope for there being any free-will. There’s no hope whatsoever of there being any deep meaning in human life. We live, we die and we’re gone! We’re absolutely gone when we die!”

Thankfully some atheists are thinking clearly about the lasting results and implications of their worldviews. This statement from Dr. Provine is chilling indeed and gives us a small glimpse into the inevitably dark nature of Atheism.

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God grant America repentence, please.

Today my heart is officially broken for our country. I am deeply saddened by the actions of our President since his inauguration. Since the beginning of his presidency he has succeeded almost majestically in bringing our country into the worst moral collapse in its history. He has supported measures that only help end the lives of millions of children worldwide with his pro-abortion policies-- all under the guise of reproductive freedom. He has muddied the distinction between the rights of defenseless human beings in the womb and terrorists who are enemies of our country and want to kill us. He defends the rights of our enemies and destroys the rights of our children.

I'm sorry Mr. President, but when you give more rights and protection to those who are enemies of this country and allow defenseless, helpless and precious babies to be butchered in the wombs of their own mothers-- you make yourself a defender of our enemies and hostile to your own citizens. This is a contradiction that must be reconciled. How can you claim to desire to defend the health and reproductive rights of these women when it leads to the destruction of 500,000 little-women a year (John Piper, "No, Mr. President")? There is just no way around it. You cannot avoid it. It is a fundamental contradiction that is deplorable.

And today, the President once again displayed his desire to radically change the moral fabric of American society. He desires to destroy the pillars of objective morality that this great nation was founded. He wants to promote a lifestyle that is immoral, physically and spiritually destructive and detrimental to the advancement of mankind. Here is what he did today:

THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release
June 1, 2009

LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENDER PRIDE MONTH, 2009
- - - - - - -
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

A PROCLAMATION

Forty years ago, patrons and supporters of the Stonewall Inn in New York City resisted police harassment that had become all too common for members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community. Out of this resistance, the LGBT rights movement in America was born. During LGBT Pride Month, we commemorate the events of June 1969 and commit to achieving equal justice under law for LGBT Americans.

LGBT Americans have made, and continue to make, great and lasting contributions that continue to strengthen the fabric of American society. There are many well-respected LGBT leaders in all professional fields, including the arts and business communities. LGBT Americans also mobilized the Nation to respond to the domestic HIV/AIDS epidemic and have played a vital role in broadening this country's response to the HIV pandemic.

Due in no small part to the determination and dedication of the LGBT rights movement, more LGBT Americans are living their lives openly today than ever before. I am proud to be the first President to appoint openly LGBT candidates to Senate-confirmed positions in the first 100 days of an Administration. These individuals embody the best qualities we seek in public servants, and across my Administration — in both the White House and the Federal agencies — openly LGBT employees are doing their jobs with distinction and professionalism.

The LGBT rights movement has achieved great progress, but there is more work to be done. LGBT youth should feel safe to learn without the fear of harassment, and LGBT families and seniors should be allowed to live their lives with dignity and respect.

My Administration has partnered with the LGBT community to advance a wide range of initiatives. At the international level, I have joined efforts at the United Nations to decriminalize homosexuality around the world. Here at home, I continue to support measures to bring the full spectrum of equal rights to LGBT Americans. These measures include enhancing hate crimes laws, supporting civil unions and Federal rights for LGBT couples, outlawing discrimination in the workplace, ensuring adoption rights, and ending the existing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy in a way that strengthens our Armed Forces and our national security. We must also commit ourselves to fighting the HIV/AIDS epidemic by both reducing the number of HIV infections and providing care and support services to people living with HIV/AIDS across the United States.

These issues affect not only the LGBT community, but also our entire Nation. As long as the promise of equality for all remains unfulfilled, all Americans are affected. If we can work together to advance the principles upon which our Nation was founded, every American will benefit. During LGBT Pride Month, I call upon the LGBT community, the Congress, and the American people to work together to promote equal rights for all, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim June 2009 as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month. I call upon the people of the United States to turn back discrimination and prejudice everywhere it exists.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this first day of June, in the year of our Lord two thousand nine, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-third.

BARACK OBAMA

Don't misunderstand the Christian's problem with homosexuality. Homosexuality is a sin. Adultery is a sin. Lying is a sin. You get the point. The adulterer needs Christ and His forgiveness as much as the homosexual. Christians would be aghast if President Obama officially pronounced June as national adultery pride month. Or National Thief appreciation month. You cannot call evil good and good evil. The fear is that Obama is leading us down a path where if Christians try to impress the necessity for preserving the sanctity of life or the protection of sexually moral standards we may (in a short time to come) be accused of hate-crimes. The truth is the homosexual lifestyle (like any sexually deviant one) is destructive. It does not create the harmony and unity in relationship that God designed between a man and a woman. God declares it evil. And the moment you disagree with the ultimate authority (God) on objective morality where will you stop? Should child molestation, rape, murder, theft and the like be up for discussion? Should we rethink the moral foundations of these practices as well?

Ultimately it boils down to your worldview and authority. Our post-modern society just can't decide which worldview it wants to live-by. It wants to borrow from the Christian worldview to get a sense of human dignity, morality, preconditions of intelligibility of science and logic; yet, it wants to jump-out of that worldview when it suits its fancy. It just goes to show how utterly inconsistent and incoherent the unbelievers system of thought is and that only the Christian Theistic worldview can make sense out of reality, how we know what we know and how we should live our lives.

God grant America repentance. Cause America to turn to you and seek salvation through Jesus Christ alone.

Woe to those who call evil good and good evil,who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and shrewd in their own sight! Isaiah 5:20-21

Jeff Durbin
President
Apologia

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Awesome... simply awesome.

Our event is over! It was a great success. I'll blog more about it later. But, for now here is some of the audio from the Q & A period.

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Is Mormonism Christian?

Come find out! Tomorrow evening Apologia Christian Ministries is teaming up with Lifequest church in Phoenix Arizona, to bring you an evening of testimony, Biblical analysis and questions & answers about Mormonism. We will have lots of Ex-Mormons, current Mormons and Christians present. Please let all of your friends know and prepare for an exciting evening of building bridges with the LDS community. See you there!

Also, please pray for us as we prepare for the event. Ask the Lord to help me to be clear and to allow His Spirit to speak through me to touch the lives of the LDS for time and eternity.

Jeff Durbin
President
Apologia

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Resurrection Sunday Message

Here is the message I delivered from the resurrection Sunday service.

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Very special guest announcement!

I am EXTREMELY pleased to announce that my friend Judy Robertson will be attending and speaking at our "Is Mormonism Christian" event on May, 2nd. Judy Roberston is the noted author of the best-selling Christian book "Out of Mormonism". Judy and her husband Jim Robertson were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints for many years. God called them to Himself and they have faithfully served and reached out to the Mormon community with their whole lives. Judy is retired now. And we feel blessed and are honored to have her come! We are also tremendously thankful for her continued willingness to reach out to the LDS and to share Christ.

Please continue to pray for the event. Again, it is May 2nd @ 6pm located at Lifequest Church in Phoenix, Arizona. If you want to read Judy's story you can pick up her book at virtually any major bookstore or here on Amazon.

Jeff
Apologia

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Mormon event open to the public!

We handed out 1,000 of these invitations at the temple this year! And we are handing out 1,000 more over the next few-weeks. Numerous churches in the valley are ready to support this. Invite your Mormon friends. Invite your Christian friends. Prepare for a great night of dialogue. Pray for us as we prepare. Pray for those who will be in attendance. Bring me chocolate chip cookies! Well, the last one is optional. But, not really. :]

Jeff
President
Apologia

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Bibles, hats and backpacks full of tracts

Yep. That's us. This is Luke and I (and some more of our team) at the temple during a few of the many conversations we had over a week and a half. See? No signs, no yelling and no cheesy t-shirts! Just good old-fashioned reasoning from the Scriptures. Oh! And it wouldn't be complete without the cool hat and very hip t-shirt.

Thanks for the pic Ray! And Luke, don't get any ideas about trying to copy my style. :]

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Christians are corrupt?!

Over the last 13-years that I have brought the Gospel to the LDS here in Mesa, some common questions or objections come up:

"Why are you attacking us? Shouldn't you be respectful of other religions? Do we come to your church and bother you?"

This is one of the most common complaints we hear. To answer these questions honestly and fairly we have to take a look at the LDS church's "official" first-vision account (actually there is more than one, and they don't match each other):

"My object in going to inquire of the Lord was to know which of all the sects was right, that I might know which to join. No sooner, therefore, did I get possession of myself, so as to be able to speak, than I asked the Personages who stood above me in the light, which of all the sects was right (for at this time it had never entered into my heart that all were wrong)--and which I should join.

I was answered that I must join none of them, for they were all wrong; and the Personage who addressed me said that all their creeds were an abomination in his sight; that those professors were all corrupt; that: "they draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, they teach for doctrines the commandments of men, having a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof."

He again forbade me to join with any of them"

It is clear from the LDS church's official first-vision account that it is not the Christian church that has initiated the attack. The Christians are and have been on the defensive with regard to Mormonism. Mormonism teaches a corrupt view of God and His Gospel. Christians are commanded to preach the Gospel (Matthew 28:18-20), to give a reasoned defense of the Faith (1 Peter 3:15) and to put up a stiff-fight for the Faith (Jude 3). We are lovers of God and His Truth. It would be the ultimate act of hatred to the Mormon community to leave them to an organization that is leading them to destruction. If you love someone you will tell them the truth, regardless of how painful it might be. I admit it is difficult. But, I have seen countless people that God has drawn to Himself through our outreach and that of other Christians who are willing to lay their lives down and suffer ridicule and shame for the cause of Christ.

So, when my Mormon friends ask me why I come to their event to dialogue with them, to that I say:

"First of all, I love God. Second, I love Mormons. Also, every-day you come to my door and to doors around the world telling people God's church is not to be joined, that the teachings of Christians are an abomination and that Christians are corrupt. You come to our homes and tell us that! I have a right as a Christian to preach the Gospel and defend the faith against any false-prophet that attacks the God of the Bible and His precious Gospel--- I am in-fact commanded to do so."

This is an older video. But, it might give you a good overview.

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Ehrman gets an intellectual spanking.

You have to check this out. Bart Ehrman (critic of the Bible)did a mini-debate with Stephen Colbert. What is amazing is that in Ehrman's debates with reputable scholars (such as Dr. James White) Ehrman usually has a sort of hardened pompous arrogance and cavalier attitude. And yet when he goes head-to-head with Colbert in what would be expected to be a funny debate---Ehrman is as soft as a pillow and gets totally dismantled.

Ehrman grossly misrepresents Scripture on a regular basis in his books and debates. He generally has an audience that is ignorant of the Bible and it's textual history so he usually is not challenged at a scholarly level. I find it amusing that Stephen Colbert had him totally flustered in this quick exchange.

By the way. I nearly jumped out of my seat at the assertion that Jesus didn't claim divinity in Matthew, Mark and Luke. Um, hello?! The Old Testament itself spells out the fact that Messiah will be God Himself with us (Isaiah 7:14, 9:6, Micah 5:2). Notwithstanding the fact that Matthew, Mark and Luke DO clearly portray Christ as Yahweh. This is not something that is a novelty in the gospel of John as Ehrman would like us to believe. If you want a great resource for a deep-study of this go to Alpha and Omega's website and get this great book.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Bart Ehrman
colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor NASA Name Contest

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Did Elohim have sex with Mary (Part 2)? With Radio show!

We have been having a great time at the Mormon Temple in Mesa! We have had countless conversations. We have been creating new and healthy relationships with the LDS in attendance and we even have made a couple of connections with some of the LDS and are scheduled to meet with them off site! Praise God!

I had a very interesting discussion with one member last night---til' about 10:30pm actually. While discussing some Mormon claims he was quite bothered by the fact that we were saying that Mormonism teaches that Heavenly Father (Elohim in Mormon theology) physically had sexual relations with Mary to produce Jesus. Initially he was stating that the church has never taught such a thing. He was violently opposed to the idea and stated quite emphatically that Jesus was miraculously conceived by the "Holy Spirit". To that I heartily agreed and cheered. But, I told him that is not what the "official" teaching of the Mormon church is on the subject. This is an awful teaching that denies the Biblical teaching on the subject and logically leads us to the conclusion that (within the Mormon view) God committed incest with Mary because Mormon's teach that He first created her in the pre-existence as one of his spirit-children. Thankfully, a guy I have known for almost 12-years (Craig) who is a devout Latter-Day Saint and a friend, told him that that was in fact the teaching of both the early prophets of Mormonism as well as the modern leadership. To this he said, "well, I don't believe that. That is just speculation!"

So for the benefit of those who are witnessing to their Mormon friends about this subject I am going to reproduce some of the references I have had in dialogue with this gentleman. Remember the Biblical Teaching on the subject as you read this:

And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. Genesis 3:15 (Notice the promise of Messiah being the SEED of the woman--ie. the virgin birth)

Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. Isaiah 7:14

Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. Matthew 1:18 (KJV)

18Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. (NASB)

18And of Jesus Christ, the birth was thus: For his mother Mary having been betrothed to Joseph, before their coming together she was found to have conceived from the Holy Spirit (Literal translation)

Now here is the official Mormon teaching:

If none but gods will be permitted to multiply immortal children, it follows that each God must have one or more wives. God, the Father of our spirits, became the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ according to the flesh. (Orson Pratt, The Seer, page 158)

The fleshly body of Jesus required a Mother as well as a Father. Therefore, the Father and Mother of Jesus, according to the flesh, must have been associated together in the capacity of Husband and Wife; hence the Virgin Mary must have been, for the time being, the lawful wife of God the Father: we use the term lawful Wife, because it would be blasphemous in the highest degree to say that He overshadowed her or begat the Savior unlawfully. (Orson Pratt, The Seer, page 158)

Inasmuch as God was the first husband to her, it may be that He only gave her to be the wife of Joseph while in the mortal state, and that He intended after the resurrection to again take her as one of his own wives to raise up immortal spirits in eternity. (Orson Pratt, The Seer, page 158)

The man Joseph, the husband of Mary, did not, that we know of, have more than one wife, but Mary the wife of Joseph had another husband. (Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, 11:268)

The birth of the Savior was as natural as are the births of our children; it was the result of natural action. He partook of flesh and blood- was begotten of his Father, as we are of our fathers. (Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, 8:115)

"When the Virgin Mary conceived the Jesus, the Father had begotten him in his own likeness. He was not begotten by the Holy Ghost... (Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, Vol. 1:50-51)--- Compare this to Matthew 1:18

In relation to the way in which I look upon the works of God and his creatures, I will say that I was naturally begotten; so was my father, and also my Savior Jesus Christ. According to the Scriptures, he is the first begotten of his father in the flesh, and there was nothing unnatural about it. (Heber C. Kimball, Journal of discourses, 8:211)

'Now Remember from this time forth, and forever, hat Jesus Christ was not begotten by the Holy Ghost. will repeat a little anecdote. I was in conversation with a certain learned professor upon this subject when I replied to this idea- "If the son was begotten y the Holy Ghost, it would be very dangerous to baptize and confirm females and give the Holy Ghost o them, lest he should beget children to be palmed off on the Elders by the people, bringing the Elders into great difficulties."...But what do the people in Christendom, with the Bible in their hands, know but this subject? Comparatively Nothing." (Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, Vol. 1:50-51)

'What a learned idea' Jesus, our elder brother was begotten in the flesh by the same character that was in the garden of Eden, and who is our Father in heaven." (Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, Vol. 1:50-51)

"God the Father is a perfected, glorified, holy Man, an immortal Personage. And Christ was born into the world as the literal Son of this Holy Being; he was born in the same personal, real, and literal sense that any mortal son is born to a mortal father. There is nothing figurative about his paternity; he was begotten, conceived and born in the normal and natural course of events, for he is the son of God, and that designation means what it says."(McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, page 742)

"..but the Holy ghost is not the Father of Christ and when the Child was born, he was the Son of the eternal Father." (McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, page 743)

"These name-titles all signify that our Lord is the only Son of the Father in the flesh. Each of the words is to be understood literally. Only means only, begotten means begotten, and Son means son. Christ was begotten by an Immortal Father in He same way that mortal men are begotten by mortal fathers." (McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, page 546)

"The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints proclaims that Jesus Christ is the Son of God in the most literal sense. The body in which He performed His mission in the flesh was sired by that same Holy Being we worship as God, our Eternal Father. Jesus was not the son of Joseph, nor was He begotten by the Holy Ghost" (The Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson, pg.7).-- Is this Modern enough?

"Thus, God the Father became the literal father of Jesus Christ. Jesus was born of a mortal mother and an immortal father" (Gospel Principles, pg.57)

"As far as this life is concerned, [Jesus] was born of Mary and of Elohim; he came here as an offspring of that Holy Man who is literally our Father in heaven. He was born in mortality in the literal and full sense as the Son of God. He is the Son of his Father in the same sense that all mortals are the sons and daughters of their fathers" (Bruce McConkie, Mortal Messiah 1:330).

"Jesus Christ is the Son of Elohim both as spiritual and bodily offspring; that is to say, Elohim is literally the Father of the spirit of Jesus Christ and also of the body in which Jesus Christ performed His mission in the flesh..." (The Articles of Faith, James Talmage, pp. 466-467)

Now the struggle we come to is that there is constant contradiction about this. On the one hand we clearly see that Mormonism teaches that Heavenly Father produced Jesus the same way we are produced. And then on the other hand Mormons try to affirm what God teaches in passages like Matthew 1:18 and Luke 1:35. Well, you can't have your cake and eat it to! This of course will also lead us to the discussion of the Mormon teaching about God having a body of "flesh and bone as tangible as man" (D&C 130:22). This is something the Lord Jesus explicitly denies (John 4:24, Luke 24:39).

I hope that helps! Thank you to all of you who are praying for us. We need your prayers and support. Bless you!


UPDATE:

I was asked by Vocab Malone of Backpack Radio to do an episode on whether or not Mormon leaders have taught that Elohim had sexual intercourse with Mary. Check-out the show and share it with your friends! We pray that it will be useful in showing the corrupt teaching of the LDS church on the subject as well as the inconsistencies prevalent. Please share!

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He is Glorious!

Jeff
Apologia

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Fishing in Mesa....

I am not a fisherman. As a matter of fact, I only recently started liking fish. Growing up in my house my family wasn't really big on things with fins, gills and scales. And when I grew up in Northern Honshu Japan, I had some "really" bad experiences in the Japanese markets with some fish that would make the hardest atheist believe that the world is definitely under the curse of sin. Y-U-C-K! So, naturally I didn't really "dig" on fish. And I haven't really been fishing much. I have a hard time with it. I mean, I get really frustrated when they ignore my line and make me wait to catch them. "HEY FISH! IT'S a WORM! EAT IT!" I suppose it would be easier if I knew exactly where they were so I could catch as many as I could all at once!

And that is exactly what is happening the next two-weeks here in Mesa, Arizona! Jesus said He would make us "fishers" of men. And we have the most wonderful opportunity to reach out with the love of Christ to the LDS community here in Mesa. The Mormon church is putting on their annual Easter Pageant and there will literally be tens-of-thousands in attendance! We have the privilege of bringing the Gospel of God's Grace through Jesus Christ to thousands of people here at the temple in Mesa.

This year is something special! Not only are we going to go to create a healthy dialogue with the local Mormons. We are going to present the Gospel to them through discussions and our tract distribution. I have so many stories of God bringing people to himself through what we are doing out here! But, this year we will also be presenting invitations to Mormons to a public message I am giving on May 2nd at Lifequest Church- 'Is Mormonism Christian?'. At this event I will give a talk that is basically an overview of classic Mormon theology and then I will compare and contrast it to what God says in Scripture. After the message we are going to allow a question and answer period to try and get an opportunity to answer questions and open lines of communication with the Mormons in attendance.

So, lots of great stuff happening with Apologia! Keep us in your prayers! And thank you so much to all of those who have helped us prepare for this event.

Jeff
President
Apologia

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The Lone Danite wants to fight James White too?!

This one will make you chuckle and cry at the same time. A little while back we received some nasty emails from a guy who has a blog called "the Mormon hater show". My feelings were kind of hurt! Before we had a chance to introduce ourselves he sent me this (I apologize for the vile nature, but you need to see it to get a picture of Mormonism with it's mask off):

You are a coward, no make that _ _ _ _ _, who is scared of muslims. You preach in front of Mormon Temples but not in front of Mosques because you are afraid of the consequences and legal repercussions you would have to deal with if you preached to muslims outside a mosque.

If you were here, I would knock your _ _ _ _ing teeth out you Mormon hating _ _ _ _ _.

Well, if Weston Krogstadt (his real name), would have taken a moment to get to know me, he would realize that I have spent countless hours at Muslim Mosques and on the street reaching the Muslim community with the Gospel. Nevertheless, he seemed to want to bypass any logical, coherent or even Christlike discussion and jump right into wanting to punch my teeth out. Ouch! Well, I sent him this:

Interesting. Well, not sure it is worth even responding to this, but, for your edification I witness to Muslims quite regularly and not only go to their Mosques but, go INSIDE and speak with them and create relationships. Christians aren't afraid of Muslims. There are COUNTLESS ministries just like mine who reach out to Muslims. And if you would have even taken 5-seconds to read the introduction on my page you would see that our ministry also reaches out to Muslims.

I read your blog. Can't really say that I am impressed. You practice "ad hominem" argumentation that has absolutely no impact whatsoever. Attacking the person rather than the arguments they put forth, really has no lasting impact whatsoever.

I can tell from your use of vile language and insults that you are not interested in logically coherent conversation. So with that, I'm going to ask you not to respond back to me. We don't want to waste our time with your dribble. And we certainly aren't bothered by your bullying. We live in America where there are laws. Yes, even laws that protect ministries like ours from people like you who threaten physical harm and violence.

I can't imagine that you are even Mormon. I have countless Mormon friends and acquaintances that would take you to task over your vile behavior and language.

If you email us again with threats such as the ones you already posted our next stop will be to the police department. Thank you for giving me your name and location where they can locate you.

I pray that you turn from your sin and to the Lord Jesus Who can give you life.

Jeff
President
Apologia

So with that he sent 2-more nasty emails that I won't even bother to post here. Put it this way, he wants to make me a man and thinks that he knows what I look like without clothes on!

Well, not suprisingly, he has now gone on to use the same tactics with someone I really respect and care deeply for-- Dr. James White (Alpha and Omega Ministries). You can check out the nonsense here. Basically he does the same thing. Apparently Dr. White invited this guy onto his radio show to have a discussion. Again, not suprisingly he declined and instead suggested that they go to the "desert" and have sparring match. Doesn't he realize that Dr. White isn't a cage fighter?! Dr. White rides bicycles! I'm not even sure if he owns a pair of UFC fighting gloves! Well, at any rate, it does show the utter weakness of this guys theological system. Can you imagine the Apostles behaving that way? Picture Peter preaching in Jerusalem, "O.K. you Jesus haters, either turn from your rejection of Jesus or I will knock out all of your teeth! No, better yet, quit dissing Jesus or we can go to the desert where I can crack your head open". Doesn't seem to be the "apologia" of the Apostles. When Peter encourages all believers to always be ready to give an "apologia" (1 Peter 3:15) of the faith, he uses a word that is the same word used to give a response in a court of law. A reasoned defense. That means verbally. Not physically.

It only shows the shameful weakness of a theological system and that you have truly LOST the debate when you resort to threats of physical violence. Lets pray for this guy.

BTW, If James does want any lessons in cage fighting, I'd gladly exchange some free lessons (I have 5 Black-Belts) for free tickets to his next debate with Dan Barker! LOL! :]

Jeff
President
Apologia

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