Fast Apologetics Video

Dr. James White of Alpha and Omega Ministries has been putting a lot of videos of his debates and commentaries on YouTube. I learned something new from this video about what Mormons believe.

You can check out his other videos here.

The True Story of St. Patrick

I posted this about this time last year, and I’ve turned it into a tract, which you can download stpatwp.doc. We’ll be passing it out this weekend. Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

The truth about St. Patrick is much more fascinating than any myth. He was kidnapped in Britain by Irish pirates and sold into slavery in Ireland. He said that he had two constant companions in his six years of slavery—hunger and nakedness. In those tough times, he remembered the words of his preacher father: “God is able to deliver you.” He committed his life to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and Master of All. Patrick’s life changed, and his captors began referring to him as “that holy youth.”  

Eventually, Patrick escaped back to England. After 20 years at home, he believed God wanted him to go back to Ireland. He returned and told the Druid chieftains about Jesus Christ. Over the next 30 years, he criss-crossed Ireland. Every day he spent in Ireland, he was in mortal danger, but he lived out the Bible verse, “to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21), with a desire to whole-heartedly follow Jesus Christ, and a knowledge that he would one day go to heaven. Because of his dedication to God, 120,000 people decided to follow Jesus, and 300 churches were built. Patrick’s whole life was devoted to telling others how they could repent (turn from sin) and find forgiveness and eternal life in Jesus.  

Why did Patrick do this? And how did he know that “to live is Christ, and to die is gain”? Long before he returned to England, he had remembered the words of his father, and knew that God was able to deliver him not only from slavery but also from his sin. He knew that he had broken God’s law. 

This St. Patrick’s Day, consider this: Have you kept God’s law (the Ten Commandments)? For example, have you ever told a lie? Have you used the name of God or Jesus as a cuss word (blasphemy)? Have you ever looked at someone with lust? 

If you’re like the rest of us, you can honestly say that you have broken all of those at some point in your life. God says if we’ve broken even one of the commandments just once, we’re lawbreakers, and it’s like we’ve broken them all.

Because God is infinitely just, He must punish sin wherever it’s found. And because we’re all guilty of sin, we all deserve to go to hell, a horrible place of eternal punishment. But God doesn’t want you to be a slave to sin on this earth, and he doesn’t want you to go to hell when you die. God’s Son, Jesus, came to earth and lived a perfect, sinless life. When Jesus died on a cross, He took the just punishment for our sins—for all the times we’ve lied, blasphemed, or otherwise broken the law— so He could set us free. Jesus rose from the grave just three days after his death, and He’s alive today.

Justice has been served, and Jesus extends to you a wonderful offer of eternal life. He asks you to simply receive it by turning from your wrongful ways (repenting), and trusting Jesus to remove the shackles of sin, be the leader of your life, and take you to heaven. There is nothing you can do to earn your way into heaven. All you can do is humble yourself before God, and accept this free gift. 

How would you complete that sentence from the Bible? “To live is _________.” If your answer is anything other than Christ, you cannot say the second half of that verse: “to die is gain.” If you’re living for adventure, sex, money, or something else, then to die is to lose it all. To learn more about God and how to follow Him, take time daily to read and obey the Bible, and talk to God in prayer.

Did Joseph Smith See God?

Joseph Smith claimed that when he was 14 years old he went into the woods to pray, and both the Father and Son appeared to him. According to the Bible, this is impossible.

• Exodus 33:20 says, “And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live.”
• John 1:18 says, “No man hath seen God at any time, the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.
• 1 Timothy 6:16 says, referring to the Father, “Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen.”

Many people have seen God when they see Jesus (such as Genesis 18 and Isaiah 6), but the above verses refer to the Father. Jesus made that clear in John 6:46 when He said, “Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God, he hath seen the Father.”

So we’re left to decide whether the Bible is wrong or whether Joseph Smith is wrong. I’m going to stick with the Bible, and say Joseph Smith was either lying or terribly confused. If a prophet contradicts previous revelation, we know we should disregard him.

Jehovah’s Witness Tract

Last summer, we took a quick road trip to the other side of the state, and as we would drive through various towns, I would see a Jehovah’s Witness Kingdom Hall, and wish I had an applicable tract to slide under their door. I decided to write one, and anyone is free to download it and pass it out. It prints 2 tracts per 8.5×11 sheet, front and back. I also plan to stop and talk to Jehovah’s Witnesses when I see them out witnessing, so I’m going to keep a few copies in a secure place in the car, along with a Bible.

The topic of the tract is about being born again, and Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that only the 144,000 people who will go to heaven are born again. The rest of them aren’t born again, but believe this is only relevant for determining whether they go to heaven, or paradise on earth. They illustrate their lack of understanding of biblical topics when they want to argue that point. After discussing this topic with a few Jehovah’s Witnesses, and reading some Watchtower articles, courtesy of a commenter on this blog, it’s clear that they don’t have an answer for this line of reasoning. So you can download it here: jwflyer.doc, and read it below.

A Choice for Life
What does “born again” mean for us?

According to the Bible, all people are born dead in their sins (Ephesians 2:1-5, Colossians 2:13, Luke 15:24, 32, John 1:12-13, Romans 6:13, 8:14-17, 1 John 3:14), unable to obtain righteousness. Something must happen for us to be raised to life so that we can have arelationship with a holy God and live forever with Him.

This is where the term born again comes in. We are born once from our mothers, and then we are born again spiritually. At this point, God sees us as righteous through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for our sins; He adopts us as His very child.

Whether we spend eternity in heaven or on paradise earth is not the question. Those who are not alive spiritually are dead in their sins—and they will go to neither place. Those who are not born into God’s family as a child of God remain a child of the devil.

1 John 5:1 (NWT) says, “Everyone believing that Jesus is the Christ has been born from God…”

Even though Jehovah’s Witnesses believe in Jesus Christ, most say that they are not born again (w68 12/1, pp. 733-735 What it Means to be Born Again). Why aren’t most Jehovah’s Witnesses born again? Is it possible that they believe in the wrong Jesus—one who isn’t capable of fulfilling the promise found in 1 John 5:1?

Maybe you don’t believe you were born dead in your sin. Take a moment and consider the Ten Commandments. If you’re like me and the rest of the world, you’ve told a lie and are a liar. If you’ve ever stolen anything, regardless of value or how long ago it was, you’re a thief. Jesus said that if you’ve ever looked at a woman with lust, you’ve committed adultery with her in your heart (Matthew 5:28). The Bible is clear that these sins will not be ignored by Jehovah (Revelation 21:8, 1 Corinthians 6:9-10). No one has to teach us how to break His law—it’s our very nature. There is no one who hasn’t broken it; we are all born dead in our sins.

If the Jesus you believe in can’t bring you from the death of sin to life with Him, the Bible says you are still spiritually dead. Please carefully consider the verses I mention. If you like, try to prove me wrong. As you do, remember the Bible is inspired (2 Tim. 3:16); by its own admission, the Watchtower is not (Awake! Mar. 22, 1993, pg. 4; see other side). As the Bereans were commended for verifying what Paul said to be true, so God will commend us for verifying the Watchtower’s teaching with the Bible (Acts 17:11). Present yourself to God as an approved workman who correctly handles His Word (2 Timothy 2:15).

This is your life and your choice, but I implore you to repent and trust in Christ alone so that you won’t die in your sins (John 8:24). Remember, you’re either born again, or you’re still dead in your sin.

YouTube Commenters

I’ve made three videos and put them on YouTube. All three point out to Jehovah’s Witnesses that they’re missing the big picture of the Bible in favor of a handful of verses the Watchtower uses incorrectly to mislead them. On this blog, it’s been very difficult to get Jehovah’s Witnesses to have a conversation, but I’ve had a few conversations with them on YouTube.

In the first video, I tried to show that Jesus is the Alpha and Omega, and therefore is God Almighty (Revelation 1:8, 17-18, 22:13), and no Jehovah’s Witness explained to me how this is wrong, although one did discuss other objections.

The second video is about how people have seen Jehovah, but no one has seen the Father, indicating that Jesus is God. Very few people commented on this one; I’ve even tried to point a few JWs toward it to try to get them to comment. This leads me to believe that they don’t have an answer.

The third video is about how humans are born dead in sin (Ephesians 2:1), and we must be born again if we wish to avoid hell. Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t believe they’re born again, and from the commenters I’ve learned that they think being born again has only to do with whether they’re going to heaven or paradise on earth.

I don’t believe Jehovah’s Witnesses can answer these objections. I would urge them repent of their sins and trust in Jesus alone. I also encourage Jehovah’s Witnesses to leave a comment, trying to answer my objections, whether on this blog or on YouTube.

Was Abe Lincon a Christian?

Someone once asked Mr. Lincoln whether he was a Christian, and he replied, “When I left Springfield, I asked the people to pray for me; I was not a Christian. When I buried my son, the severest trial of my life, I was not a Christian. But when I saw the graves of thousands of our soldiers, I then and there conscerated myself to Christ. I do love Jesus.”

From Words of Lincoln, by O.H. Oldroyd

Polonium Halos and Creation

Polonium is a radioactive element, and decays quickly. As it decays it leaves behind halos, but these halos disappear very quickly, unless there is a means to capture the evidence of them. It turns out that these halos are captured in granite all around the world.

Evolutionists say the universe created itself, and the earth was a hot molten mass for millions or billions of years until the rock cooled and hardened. The thing about that is that if the rock is molten and fluid, the evidence for the decay of polonium will quickly disappear. If the evolutionists are right, there should be zero evidence of polonium decay in earth’s rock.

Dr. Robert Gentry is a creationist who has been working on this topic for decades, and has published this information in prestigious, secular, scientific journals. No one has ever been able to answer how these polonium halos could be there from an evolutionary viewpoint.

Dr. Gentry compares the polonium halos to a tablet of Alka Seltzer being dropped into a glass of water. If you leave it undisturbed for a few minutes, the bubbles from the tablet disappear. But, if you drop the tablet in, and instantaneously freeze the water, the bubbles will be encapsulated in the frozen water. This is what happened with the polonium in the granite. The polonium decays, and within 3 minutes or less, the granite is hardened, and the polonium halo is frozen for future generations to see.

Atheists have faith that science will someday be able to explain these difficult issues. I agree that science will someday find an answer; it just won’t have anything to do with the big bang or evolution.

Here’s a couple of websites to look at for more information:
Dr. Gentry’s site
Answers in Genesis article on halos in coalified wood.

While you’re at it, take a look at this website.

Why Aren’t Jehovah’s Witnesses Born Again?

Here’s another video about Jehovah’s Witnesses, and their inability to harmonize the entirety of the Scripture. I think it covers a topic that they don’t have an anwer for. It revolves around 1 John 5:1 and being born again. That verse might be a good verse to memorize for the next time they knock on your door. It is my sincere hope that all Jehovah’s Witnesses find that verse and meditate on it. I’ve found that it’s easy to explain the Gospel when the topic of being born again comes up.

Enjoy the short video!

Are Mormons Really Pro Life?

I found the following quote from the Latter-day Center for Moral Liberalism.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints considers the elective termination of pregnancy one of the most sinful practices of modern society, though abortion is not necessarily murder. The Lord has commanded, “Thou shalt not . . . kill, nor do anything like unto it” (D&C 59:6). Members of the Church must not submit to, be a party to, or perform an abortion, except in cases such as pregnancy resulting from incest or rape, or where competent medical authorities certify that the life of the mother is in jeopardy or that the fetus is so severely defective that it cannot survive birth. But even these exceptions do not justify abortion automatically. Church members are counseled that they should consider abortion in such cases only after consulting with their bishop and receiving divine confirmation through prayer. Church members who encourage, perform, or submit to an abortion are subject to Church discipline as appropriate to help them repent.

abstracted from “Abortion,” in Encyclopedia of Mormonism, ed. Daniel H. Ludlow, 4 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1992), 1:7.

Scott Klusendorf from Life Training Institute is a pro-life apologist who debates pro-choicers. He often starts out the debate saying that if the pro-choicer can prove that the unborn child isn’t human, then he’ll have no problem becoming pro-choice as well. I think he’s safe in saying this, because the baby is clearly human, and no one has ever shown otherwise. So the question we all have to answer is whether there is ever a situation when it’s okay to murder an unborn child. It was news to me that Mormons answer in the affirmative. Apparently, there are three such situations—rape or incest, when the life of the mother is in jeopardy, or if the child is so defective he’ll be a waste of time and money to carry to full term.

I would like to say the same thing to Mormons that Scott Klusendorf says in his debates. If you can show me how the child of a rapist, a child who puts his mother’s life in jeopardy, or a child that is less likely to live isn’t human, I’m the first one to say let’s kill them. However, if you can’t show me that they’re less than human, it’s murder, and those responsible for killing those children will stand before God as murderers.

There are plenty of people who call themselves pro-choice, but still say it would be wrong to kill babies in certain situations. The only difference between Mormons and staunch pro-choicers is where they choose to draw the line.

I would urge Mormons or anyone else who is guilty of killing an inconvenient child to repent and trust in Jesus alone to forgive their sins—even murder. However, you must seek forgiveness from the true Jesus, the Creator of the universe who is the one true God.

Frightening Statistics

On D. James Kennedy’s Coral Ridge Hour this week were some statistics that scared me into action.

• 3,000 softcore porn images are shown by MTV every week.
• MTV is the number-one viewing choice of teenage girls.
• Teens see 15,000 sexual references on TV annually.
• Only 4 percent of teens are predicted to become Bible-believing Christians.

When my wife and I went to Pizza Hut for lunch, I noticed a group of five teenagers at a table close to ours. Seeing them reminded me of the report I’d watched that morning, and I felt the urge to do something to counteract the influence of the media. I had some Smart Card gospel tracts on me, and I thought I could just drop them off at their table as we left. My imagination ran wild, envisioning the teens yelling at me to stay away from them, and the employees calling the cops to have me arrested for proselytizing on private property, but I decided to go ahead with the plan. As we left, I went up to their table, and handed each of them one, telling them they could take the test while they waited for their pizza. They seemed grateful and curious to find out what I was giving them. The Pizza Hut employees didn’t notice, and they probably wouldn’t have said anything if they had.

I hope the teens had an interesting conversation about eternity—and I hope they will choose to follow God instead of the path the media is pulling them down.