Articles by BibleThinker

Examining the slogan “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence”. It may seem simple and true when you first hear it but when you really think it through it’s full of problems. In reality this slogan is often used to keep people from following evidence to things they simply don’t want to believe in or things that they don’t already believe in. This video will be an attempt to thoughtfully work through this issue in the hopes that it will help people to avoid the subjective confirmation bias that tends to come with the slogan, “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.”

I mentioned an upcoming interview with Dr. Tim McGrew on the topic of Extraordinary Events Require Extraordinary Evidence?” on Capturing Christianity’s YT channel. I highly recommend you check it out, Dr. McGrew is knowledgeable and explains things well. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvAA-ypUQnw

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This is part 1 of a new series in the gospel of Mark. Today we look at evidence that Mark really is the author of the Gospel of Mark and that Peter and other named eyewitnesses were sources of the information in it. I’ll generally be uploading one new video each week. Special thanks to Richard Bauckham and Tim McGrew whose work was really helpful in preparing for this teaching.
HERE is the playlist for every video in the series (new ones added as they come out) https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZ3iRMLYFlHuGenHwUdeiQ5M-uj5XW4sF

You may want to click on my channel page and see some other playlists and videos. I have many hours of bingeable Bible-Thinking.

If you want to support my ministry work please click here. https://biblethinker.org/index.php/donate

At the end of a long day when I was abnormally busy, and cutting back on my coffee intake, I did a 2 hour debate review video. Haha. I may be a bit tired but I think the content here is valuable and I’m looking forward to getting some feedback on it.

Here are the timestamps (though I strongly recommend you watch this whole video)
8:00 Matt’s flawed treatment of history
8:55 “Claims not evidence”
17:43 How history actually works
21:01 How a cumulative case works
25:48 Matt vs history and historians
57:20 Double standards which avoid the evidence
1:13:59 Elvis sightings and testing miracle claims
1:25:26 Summary of historical problems in Matt’s criticism of the case for the resurrection.
1:27:55 BIGGEST ISSUE IN THE DEBATE: Philosophy
1:50:55 When I offended Matt.

Dr. Craig Blomberg’s article on the potential ages of the gospel writers. https://ntscholarship.wordpress.com/2012/02/22/did-none-of-jesus-disciples-live-long-enough-to-write-a-gospel/

How we really got the books of the New Testament (watch 4 consecutive videos in this playlist) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hItK8IY-Us&list=PLZ3iRMLYFlHuhA0RPKZFHVcjIMN_-F596&index=12

Journal of the American Medical Association article “On The Physical Death of Jesus Christ” https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/403315

Inspiring Philosophy’s video “Matt Dillahunty vs Science” https://youtu.be/2TfLsHl2INE

Dr. Tim McGrew “How to Think About Miracles”
https://youtu.be/l3PW-2X-9bA

Matt implied that we didn’t really know what the New Testament originally said. Here’s 3 videos about textual critcism https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WclIZwBFhq0&list=PLZ3iRMLYFlHuzJhPtmrgqpVoXhjvqiIjW

How “inference the best explanation” (my method for concluding that Jesus rose from the dead and God did it) is solid epistemology https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/abduction/

Great video from Acts17Apologetics called “Scooby Doo and the Silly Skeptic”, which helps explain the problem of special pleading https://youtu.be/YrGVeB_SPJg

Lastly, for those who want more info on why “inherent improbability” of a miracle is not a good reason to reject one outright check out these two podcast episodes from Capturing Christianity. Calum Miller walks through the problems this philosophical position which is called “frequentism”. https://capturingchristianity.com/tag/calum-miller/

If you would like to support this ministry please click here https://biblethinker.org/index.php/donate

Special Guest Dr. Sean McDowell gives us help on reaching youth.

The book is called “So The Next Generation Will Know” and can ordered here https://amzn.to/2Uvl0Pn (May 1st 2019 is the release date and this is an affiliate link)

These tips should help parents, educators and ministers in effectively discipling youth so that they can have and hold a strong Christian faith.

Based on results from a recent poll on the definition of faith we can see that Christians and non-Christians seem to have opposing views of the word “faith”. Here’s what I think has caused this divide and what I think we can learn from it.

Here’s the original poll on Twitter https://twitter.com/MikeWingerii/status/1111422821396156418
Here are the graphs developed from the poll https://twitter.com/MikeWingerii/status/1111857443980500992

Here’s my debate with Matt Dillahunty https://youtu.be/Z2FGgkubhZM

To support this ministry go to https://biblethinker.org/index.php/donate

If we show that the eye-witnesses to the resurrection also endured great suffering as a result of their claims then we have good reason to think that they were being sincere. They really did believe they saw Jesus after He had risen from the grave and this made them willing to suffer and even die for Jesus.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL96Nl_XJhQEgRshQs5R8PikeRX3andH2K
In this playlist, three Christian YouTubers (Cameron Bertuzzi of Capturing Christianity, Mike Winger, and Jon McCray of Whaddo You Meme) respond to the “Atheist Voice” and his “20 Short Arguments Against God.”

The book “A Manual for Creating Atheists” has sparked an entire movement of atheists with a special set of tools which are supposed to help people restore their “sense of wonder”. But I’m wondering if this continual misrepresentation of facts and reason is actually brainwashing the very people it purports to help. If you are into “Street Epistemology” then I hope you will watch and consider the following. I’ve spent many hours interacting with people who use some form of Street Epistemology (Pine Creek, Paulogia, etc.) and I have some things I’d like to share about it.

Here’s the link for the live stream on Capturing Christianity (Jon, Cam and I talk about our series on 20 arguments against God). https://youtu.be/5HNj7C1mRA4

My video on how faith is not belief without evidence https://youtu.be/SIJORjiOWeI

My special guests, in the order they appeared
Tim Barnett https://www.youtube.com/user/clearthinking4Christ
Jon McCray https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1okSIA8UEY8OqvtjGHFvzA
Cameron Bertuzzi https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCux-_Fze30tFuI_5CArwSmg
Greg Koukl https://www.youtube.com/user/STRvideos

The 1 chapter book of Philemon is about a runaway slave (Onesimus) being sent back to his master by the suggestion of Paul the Apostle. While some would want to mine this little book for attacks on the Christian worldview it’s actually very profound in what it teaches us about Christian brotherhood and loving others not by compulsion but from the inside out. This study will also get into how Paul’s appeals on the behalf of Onesimus are much like Jesus’ appeals on our behalf to love and forgive one another. May you be reminded of our calling in the letter to Philemon.

What Paul the Apostle knew about Jesus is important if for no other reason than the dismantle poor arguments against the resurrection of Christ. This is a systematic look at what historical details Paul had about Jesus so that we can rule out the idea that Paul didn’t know of a historical Jesus or that Paul was merely making things up as he went along.

Link to our playlist answering objections to God’s existence. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL96Nl_XJhQEgRshQs5R8PikeRX3andH2K

Evidence for the empty tomb – https://youtu.be/C8BU_R7QoYo