A coupe of weeks ago I spoke at Snellville Baptist Church in Georgia. The youth pastor, Jody Shelton, is a friend of mine. Check out his brief blog about my visit there. You can listen for free to the three talks I gave: (1) Shattering the Myths of Evolution; (2) Understanding Intelligent Design; and (3) Why the New Testament Can Be Trusted.

Jody also gave a little shout-out for the Apologetics Study Bible for Students, which was just released last week. This Bible is revolutionary for students. I just received a message on Facebook from a fellow apologist, Lenny Esposito from Come Reason Ministries, who helped write some of the articles in the Study Bible. He received this note about the Bible from a brand new user:

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Next month I will be debating James Corbett from Capistrano Valley High School on the topic: "Is God the Best Explanation for Moral Values." This promises to be an interesting and informative evening! Jim got his Ph.D from Ohio State University and has taught for 37 years. The debate will be held at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo, California, on Friday, February 26 from 7 to 9:30 pm. If you're interested in attending, you can get more information from my website, where I've posted a pdf announcement of the event. If you can't attend in person, be sure to watch it live right here at ConversantLife.com.

 

The year is 2154, and humans are attempting to mine the valuable mineral unabtanium from the planet Pandora. Humans have virtually destroyed their own planet and desperately need extra-planetary resources to survive. Jake Sully, a wounded marine, is assigned to infiltrate the seemingly hostile indigenous aliens (the Na’vi) to win their trust and talk them into relocating their colony, which happens to be situated right atop a massive amount of unabtanium.

If he can successfully infiltrate the Na’vi people and negotiate their relocation, then the humans will not have to force them to move through military intervention (those of you who are observant already notice the political insinuations about the U.S. allegedly only going to war in Iraq for oil).

To infiltrate the Na’vi, Jake transposes his consciousness into an Avatar body under the supervision of Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver).

It's finally (almost) here.  Amazon has it listed here.  You can pre-order, even though the Bible will officially ship on January 31.  This is something I've been working on for two years and I am absolutely thrilled about it.

The Apologetics Study Bible for Students will anchor younger Christians in the truths of Scripture by equipping them with thoughtful and practical responses for whenever the core issues of their faith and life are challenged.

Multiple research studies have shown that spiritual focus often weakens among teenagers as they head into the attention-dividing realm of young adulthood. Up to 66% of them leave church altogether.

This article really captures the nature of the terrorist struggle we are in. It's amazing the lengths the current administration has gone to in order to downplay the reality of Islamic terror. Why is this recent attempt to blow up an airplane deemed an act of terror, but not the recent mass killing by Hasan?

Check out this video my dad and I recently produced with ConversantLIfe.  I love doing TV and radio interviews, but there's something particularly special about partnering with my dad.  In this Livestream interview, we discuss apologetics and ministry today as well as take questions from a live online audience. There's some great content here.  Don't miss it, and pass it on!

 

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Is death the end, or is there something more? Does life continue after the grave? According to Dinesh D’Souza, in his new book Life After Death: The Evidence (Regnery Press, 2009) this is the ultimate question that any of us will face. “Death is the great wrecking ball that destroys everything, “ says D’Souza, “Everything that we have done, everything we are doing now, and all our plans for the future are completely and irrevocably destroyed when we die” (3).

Nevertheless, some people still find this question uninteresting and unimportant. D’Souza finds this attitude “utterly incomprehensible.” After all, if you found out that you had six months to live, undoubtedly you would make some big changes in the way you live now. According to D’Souza, ignoring the question of mortality is “the product of deep denial” (5).

In February 2010, we will be releasing one of the most powerful youth products I have seen in awhile--The Apologetics Study Bible for Students. This has been a long time coming! This video briefly captures why this Bible is unique and how it can help you in your ministry. Check it out here. If you are a student or youth worker, please link to this video to help get the word out.

SM

I love a good challenge. I would much rather read a difficult book that makes me think deeply about my convictions than one that provokes little thought. This is why I eagerly anticipated the release of The Greatest Show on Earth, by Richard Dawkins.

With The Blind Watchmaker, Climbing Mount Improbable, River Out of Eden, and many more, Dawkins has established himself as one of the foremost contemporary defenders of Darwinian evolution. As soon as a copy of his book arrived at my doorstep, I enthusiastically opened the Amazon.com box and jumped right into the book, hoping to be challenged to take another hard look at the evidence for evolution.

With this background information in mind, it’s difficult to express how disappointed I was at the demeaning rhetoric and lack of substance that characterizes The Greatest Show on Earth.

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Every so often some new fossil discovery is heralded as the "missing link" that will finally corroborate Darwin's theory.  A few months ago the fossil "Ida" was released to the public (it was actually found years ago) and heralded as the "eight wonder of the world" that would finally silence Darwin-doubters. Ida was proclaimed in major newspapers, covered in a cable-TV special, and the feature of a new book. However, new discoveries are showing that it's a complete evolutionary dead-end. This should not come as a surprise to those of us who are skeptical of Darwinism, but it is surprise how strongly the media has come out against it.

Check out this link!

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