The Increasing Learning Blog

Laws on Selling Women in the Book of Exodus

4/30/2018

I have often been asked to explain how Exodus 21:7-11 can be reconciled with the goodness of God.

And if a man sell his daughter to be a maidservant, she shall not go out as the menservants do. If she please not her master, who hath betrothed her to himself, then shall he let her be redeemed: to sell her unto a strange nation he shall have no power, seeing he hath dealt deceitfully with her. And if he have betrothed her unto his son, he shall deal with her after the manner of daughters. If he take him another wife; her food, her raiment, and her duty of marriage, shall he not diminish. And if he do not these three unto her, then shall she go out free without money.

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What are the Pillars of the Earth Mentioned in the Bible?

2/5/2018

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Yesterday, a facebook acquaintance asked me for help understanding a common misconception about the Bible. He said that one of his friends wanted to know how anyone could believe the Bible when it contains such outrageous claims like the claim that the earth is resting on pillars instead of being a globe suspended in space. Here is the answer that I gave:

The Bible does not say that the earth rests on pillars. There are only three verses which speak of the pillars of the earth, and all three are using figurative language to refer to leaders among men. This is the same figure of speech that Paul used in Galatians 2:9 where he spoke of Peter, James and John being pillars in the church.

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The Biblical Date of Christmas

12/24/2017

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One of the popular trends among Christians recently has been a rejection of December 25th as the date of Christ's birth. Now, I can't claim to know for certain whether Christ was born on any particular day, but after studying the history of the Christmas celebration, I've come to the conclusion that the December 25th date has some significant biblical support and was not likely to have been chosen because of it's significance in the pagan calendar as many Christians now claim. I recently taught a Sunday School lesson on this question, and I'd like to share my outline with you to aid in your own study.

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10 Christian Movies Every Godly Teen Should Watch

11/25/2017

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Over the years, I've browsed through several online lists of movies recommended for Christian teens. Unfortunately, the vast majority of them include films with decidedly anti-Christian content. Crosswalk.com's recent list of "10 Classic Movies Every Christian Teen Should Watch" provides a great example. Crosswalk has been promoting this list very heavily on facebook, but it includes films like Schindler's List with graphic and explicit nudity as well as Saving Private Ryan which is filled with R rated cursing.

Every time I read one of these lists, I end up complaining to my wife about how superficial mainline Christianity has become, and she, in turn, reminds me that I still haven't published my list of 100+ Clean Movies for Christian Families. Well, I'm still not quite ready to publish the full list of over 100 movies, but I think that I can match Crosswalk.com's list of 10 by providing my own list of 10 Christian Movies Every Godly Teen Should Watch.

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Is One Child of More Value than Many Embryos?

10/27/2017

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There's an old pro-abortion argument that has received a lot of attention on twitter lately. It goes something like this:

Imagine that you are in a burning building along with a five year old child and an incubator of human embryos. You know that you can save either the single child or the entire incubator full of embryos, but you cannot save both. Which one will you choose to save? If you chose to save the child, then you have proven that a child is more valuable than a human embryo which means that unborn humans do not have as much moral value as born humans.

There have been several excellent responses to this argument, but I'd like to point out the two responses that I think are the best of the lot.

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Who are the voters of Alabama?

9/24/2017

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I've interacted with hundreds of voters over the past few weeks, and I've noticed that there are very few people who actually want Luther Strange to be our Senator. Those are mostly the ones in the "good-ol'-boys" club of Alabama politics. They like Strange because he's one of their own.

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Thou Shalt not Oppress the Stranger: A Review of "The Immigration Crisis" by James Hoffmeier

9/16/2017

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The Purpose of the Book

The purpose of this book was to prove that the commands regarding Israel’s treatment of strangers were only intended to apply to legally resident aliens. In order to prove this point, Hoffmeier put forward the claim that

“In the Hebrew Bible the alien (ger) was a person who entered Israel and followed legal procedures to obtain recognized standing as a resident alien.”

In contrast, Hoffmeier described the foreigner (nekhar) as

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There is no Moral Argument for Killing Children

5/29/2017

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A review of the book "Life's Work: A Moral Argument for Choice" by Dr. Willie Parker.

Let me begin this review by pointing out that Dr. Parker would take exception to my use of the word “children” in the title. He made it very clear in his book that he does not like people using “the loaded term ‘unborn child’ interchangeably with the more medically accurate ‘embryo’ or ‘fetus’” According to Dr. Parker, “Before twenty-two weeks, a fetus is not in any way equal to ‘a baby’ or ‘a child.’” Of course, he also says that he sees nothing wrong with abortions after twenty-two weeks either, so I’m not real sure why he objects to using the term “child” in reference to prenatal humans prior to twenty-two weeks of gestation.

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A Debate Challenge for Dr. Willie Parker

5/23/2017

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On April 4th, 2017, yet another book was published which claimed to present a moral argument for abortion. Dr. Willie Parker – the book’s author, a native of Birmingham, Alabama, and a nationally celebrated child killer – claims that he is “doing God’s work” by providing abortions. I disagree. I think that Parker’s “God” is a construct of his own imagination and that his so called “moral argument for choice” is a farce. I’ve challenged Dr. Parker to a public debate in Birmingham, and I am eagerly awaiting his response.

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The Problem with Finding Problems with Standards

4/15/2017

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This past Thursday, April 13th, evangelist Dave Young published a very thought provoking article on standards. He explained that there are five categories of standards in the life of a Christian: (1) standards that are pure obedience to the Bible, (2) standards that are applications of biblical principles, (3) standards that protect us from our own weaknesses, (4) standards in response to the culture, and (5) standards that help a weaker brother.

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<<Previous

Laws on Selling Women in the Book of Exodus

What are the Pillars of the Earth Mentioned in the Bible?

The Biblical Date of Christmas

10 Christian Movies Every Godly Teen Should Watch

Is One Child of More Value than Many Embryos?

Who are the voters of Alabama?

Thou Shalt not Oppress the Stranger: A Review of "The Immigration Crisis" by James Hoffmeier

There is no Moral Argument for Killing Children

A Debate Challenge for Dr. Willie Parker

The Problem with Finding Problems with Standards

An Apologetics Blog by Bill Fortenberry

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