How Does God Really Want Us to Prove Christianity Christian apologetics is the endeavor to prove "There is salvation in no one else [but Jesus Christ] (Acts 4:12). The most popular approach is an intellectual one that marshals scientific, historical, and philosophical arguments to defend the Christian faith. However, this book makes the following claims: - Intellectual apologetics has no biblical support, including the often quoted 1 Peter 3:15. - The Apostle Paul actually denounced the use of intellectual apologetics for evangelism. - Virtue apologetics, which proves the Gospel by the superior love and holiness of Spirit-indwelled believers, is repeatedly commanded in Scripture and demonstrated in real life and history. - Claims to Christian immorality in both history and modern research are not true. - While there are a multitude of books on intellectual apologetics, this author could not find a biblical study that explains, defends, and encourages virtue apologetics. So he wrote one.

How does God supernaturally reveal Himself? This book is a detailed introduction to the complex, controversial, but vital topic of miracles. The topic would be difficult enough, but the claims and teaching of charismaticism have made a biblical understanding of miracles even more critical, but also more complicated. In the course of this Bible study we endeavor to answer such questions as: - What is a miracle? - How do we avoid the extremes between anti-supernaturalism which claims there are no miracles, and super-supernaturalism which claims an abundance of them? - What are the different types of miracles and why is it critical to distinguish them? - What are the myriad of ways that God has miraculously "spoken" and which of these can we expect today? - What is the biblical place and attributes of dreams and visions? - What is the embarrassing history and alarming dangers of the super-supernaturalism at the heart of the "charismatic" movement?

Is God still doing miracles today? Because of the many claims of charismaticism, a rather detailed biblical study of the matter is warranted. We defend the following conclusions: - Modern "miracle workers" cannot demonstrate the attributes of biblical ones, and are lying when they claim similar gifts. - There are no God-sent miracle workers in Scripture that were not also sources of new, direct, divine revelation to be believed and obeyed as the word of God. - The faith to perform or receive a miracle is just as supernatural and God-given as the miracle itself, and modern "faith healers" are wrong to blame disappointed followers for their lack of such faith. - The Church has universally testified that the gifts of miracle working ceased in the early Church with the completion of the NT. - The fraud in the modern miracle movement has been immense. -Other legitimate explanations for modern "miracles" are intriguing and even alarming.

What is God's purpose for human reason? About 2000 years ago, the crucifier of the truth, asked Jesus, "What is truth"? (John 18:38). Such questions are fundamental to human life and make up the field of epistemology. It reminds us that there is a human being between us and God. Epistemology has been a hot topic in Christian theology because of how our postmodern culture has questioned the very foundations of knowledge and truth. It is also an important part of a systematic theology as it is helpful to understand how we know what is true, before deciding what is true. This is why Calvin began his Institutes discussing the knowledge of our self, before the knowledge of God. Thomas Oden has said, "No study of God is complete without dealing with the limits and resources of human reasoning in God's presence." While many modern Christian philosophers are neglecting the God-given place of human reason in the process of divine revelation, we defend it here, and offer several critiques of popular views.

Faith is a vital topic in Christian theology. However, the concept is more complex than is assumed. John Stott writes: "One wonders if there is any Christian quality more misunderstood than faith." We demonstrate that Scripture uses faith in a variety of ways, including saving faith, false faith, miracle faith, empowering faith, and visionary faith. Failure to recognize this leads to serious error in both Arminianism and charismaticism. Included is an extended section on visionary faith that enables us to step out in courage, taking risks to pursue human plans to fulfill God's commands. In our defense of the fact that biblical faith must rest on biblical revelation, we critique the inclusivism of John Wesley, Billy Graham, and C. S. Lewis which claims salvation can be apart from a revelation of the Gospel. Finally, we demonstrate that the strength of our faith depends on reason, and the evidences it perceives and evaluates. There is no such thing as a biblical "leap of faith" apart from reason.

What is the best Bible? Because of the myriad of Bible translations, Christians have wondered. Against much popular opinion, we defend the following: - Dynamic "thought-for-thought" translations (NIV, NLT) are superior to more literal "word-for-word" translations (NASB, ESV). - More "literal" Bible translations often fail in a critical part of accurate translation: producing good contemporary English. - The criticisms of even great men like John Piper, John MacArthur, and J. I. Packer against dynamic Bible translations are either exaggerations, errors, and/or even slanderous against the word of God. - When a Scripture writer is addressing all Christians, it is a good thing to translate the meaning as "brothers and sisters" instead of just "brothers." - The updated NIV is the overall best translation, the NLT a very good one, and the ESV an unnecessary one. We also provide a chapter offering some suggestions and commentary regarding the best tools for studying and interpreting Scripture.

How and why has God spoken to us? Answering these questions involves the immense topic of divine revelation. Our purpose in this book is to provide a biblical study of the various types and purposes of the myriad of different methods of divine revelation. In the process we endeavor to answer such critical and controversial questions as: - How do we know when God is 'speaking'? - What has been the progression of divine revelation? - What are the only two methods of revelation that God uses to communicate to all of humanity? - Why is Scripture so authoritative and sufficient for the Christian life? - What are the several vital but often neglected ways that God "speaks" to us apart from Scripture? - How does God expect us to make decisions and does He have a "personal" will for our lives that cannot be found in Scripture? - Does God "speak" to us by planting thoughts in our mind?

How was NT Scripture created? The Apostles are our only link to the truths of the New Covenant we are saved by and live by. Who were these men? How did they obtain such divine revelation? How can we know they did? We make the following claims in this book: - It was through the "Scripture gift" of divine knowledge and wisdom that Apostles obtained a store of revelation from which they wrote from. - This revelation was not received through some subjective, mystical experience referred to as "inspiration," but the Apostles physically saw or heard the revelation, or received it in visions, and then accurately recorded it. - 1 Corinthians 13:8-13 teaches that the "Scripture and sign gifts" claimed by charismaticism today, were predicted by the Apostle Paul to cease with the completion of the NT revelation-and history confirms this very thing. - Theories of "inspiration" for the creation of Scripture are unnecessary and no where supported in Scripture.

What extra-biblical doctrines and traditions did early Christian leaders teach? How do we evaluate these teachings? Of course, Roman Catholicism (Romanism) has always given a great deal of authority to these writings. Accordingly, in the course of our study we provide a biblical critique of several of their foundational beliefs, including: - The early Church leaders taught some weird stuff that cannot be backed by Scripture. - Romanism has a history of teaching and practicing extra-biblical or unbiblical "traditions" like indulgences, celibacy of the priesthood, and restricting the reading of Scripture, all with horrible consequences. - The authority claimed by the Papacy has no biblical support, was denounced by several early Church Fathers, and has been rightly questioned because of its historical errors, ineffectiveness, and immorality. - The Roman doctrines concerning Mary are unbiblical and result in the idolatrous worship and deification of a good woman.