Apologists and Pastors Connecting for Ministry: Stories of How You Can Do It
Thinking Christian Blog
by Tom Gilson
2y ago
(Hear more of the story at the Thinking Christian podcast.) Apologists need to connect with pastors, and vice versa. We need each other. Pastors need the best possible understanding of changes in our culture, which apologists are uniquely equipped to offer. Apologists need to learn practical ministry from pastors, and they also need church leadership to open doors from them when they’re ready for it. Last time I spoke of ways to build relational connections between apologists and pastors. My one best piece of advice was to have lunch together. I got a lot of response to that, and it included p ..read more
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A Conversation with Gay/Progressive Leader Brandan Robertson
Thinking Christian Blog
by Tom Gilson
3y ago
I had a most interesting conversation on Thursday with Brandan Robertson, who’s a leading spokesman for gay and progressive Christianity, on everything from the character of Jesus, to the nature of the Bible, to Christianity’s connection to slavery. Not much on homosexuality; it wasn’t one of our topics this time.  We connected originally through an article I’d written at The Stream. As always, there was more that could have been said. I’m still curious why he’s so critical of Jesus, whom he takes to be God in the flesh, and in the same light also, how he could think Christians and Muslim ..read more
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Streaming Live on Thursday: Conversation with LGBT Activist Pastor Brandan Robertson
Thinking Christian Blog
by Tom Gilson
3y ago
Brandan Robertson is a globally prominent gay activist pastor with whom I’ve been exchanging emails over the past couple weeks. It’s been a cordial conversation, and he and I have agreed to move to a live online video conference tomorrow evening. It starts at 7 pm Eastern time, and will be showing live on The Stream’s Facebook page as well as my YouTube Channel. We’ve agreed it’s to be a conversation, not a debate. We certainly disagree on many things. I’ve written about some of it at The Stream, which is where our conversation began. I believe (and I think he does, too) it should be possible ..read more
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Heat to Light 2: Grace and Truth
Thinking Christian Blog
by Tom Gilson
3y ago
(This post accompanies my latest podcast, Episode 2-2, Grace and Truth in Heat-to-Light Conversations.) I’m continuing today with my extended series on “Heat to Light: From Cultural Conflict to Spiritual Transformation.” (That title is still a bit in flux, but it’ll settle in soon enough.)  Here’s where we’re heading with this. I see three principles that must be included in any heat-to-light conversation, preaching, or teaching: Christ at the center Relating with others through grace and truth Knowing what we’re talking about, which includes 4 parts in turn: Understanding the issue at ..read more
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Cincinnati-Dayton Apologetics Meetup March 20!
Thinking Christian Blog
by Tom Gilson
3y ago
Greetings! If you live in or near southwest Ohio, you're invited to the first Cincinnati-Dayton area apologetics fellowship gathering, 10 am March 20, online via Zoom. This is the first of many gatherings. [button] We'll meet in person after this first online introduction meeting. Cade Cover, Ratio Christi director for the University of Cincinnati, will be co-hosting with me. Eric Chabot, RC chapter director at Ohio State will be there as well. (Maybe we'll call him a guest host?) It's for anyone in the area who's interested in apologetics. You don't need to be an expert, you only need t ..read more
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This Week: Presenting a Strictly Bible-Centered Case for the Truth of the Resurrection (Without Circular Fallacies)
Thinking Christian Blog
by Tom Gilson
3y ago
This might be a completely new case for the Resurrection. I could be wrong on that; I haven’t done the extensive research to know for sure. I do know that I haven’t heard it before. This week I’ll be sharing the keynote stage with William Lane Craig, Frank Turek, and Fazale Rana at the Areopagus Apologetics Conference, hosted by SAFT Apologetics. Find the schedule here. If there’s one good thing that’s come out of COVID, it’s that we can all speak at a conference based in India, and it hardly seems out of the ordinary now. Except for the talk times, that is. My keynote, for example, starts at ..read more
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Refutation Fail: Benjamin Cain Utterly Destroys an Argument I Didn’t Make
Thinking Christian Blog
by Tom Gilson
3y ago
Benjamin Cain is an atheist who “did a doctorate in philosophy.” If I can tell his books by their covers, he spends much of his time now writing dark fiction. He’s also done me the favor of reading and responding to Too Good to be False, which I certainly appreciate. I’d appreciate it more, though, if he’d actually responded to it. He didn’t. He left a comment here last week to notify me, “I refute your book’s underlying argument here on Medium.” He refuted something, there’s no denying that. He stated an argument and took it apart most effectively, but it wasn’t my argument. He refuted some o ..read more
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Forget the Myths, Ignore the Hype; Here’s What We Really Know About Jesus’ ‘Missing Years’
Thinking Christian Blog
by Tom Gilson
3y ago
I’ll bet you missed this in the post-election brouhaha: “Christmas” began for Hindus with their Divali celebration in November. It fits for them because Jesus is the son of Brahman, one of their avatars (divine incarnations), the son of (Brahman). He spent six of his “missing” years in India, then went on to Tibet for further study in Buddhism. So some folks say, anyway. It makes me ill just quoting them. The one good thing I can say is that it shows the great power of Jesus’ name. Every religion except Judaism, it seems, wants Him as one of theirs. But how do we know it’s not true? And what d ..read more
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Faith at Work at Exxon-Mobil: A Conversation on Too Good to be False
Thinking Christian Blog
by Tom Gilson
3y ago
A few weeks ago the Christian Community at Exxon-Mobil (Houston Campus) invited me to share with them on Too Good to be False. The host is Samuel Ortiz. I have to tell you, it was encouraging for me to be with some 85-90 people for a lunch-time fellowship there. It was virtual, of course. There would have been more, they said, but a hurricane had some of them occupied. (Come to think of it, when has there not been a hurricane offshore in the Gulf this year?) I’m a great fan of the faith at work movement, but only from a distance, you might say, since I’ve always worked with Christian organiza ..read more
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My Puzzling Problem with Too Good to be False
Thinking Christian Blog
by Tom Gilson
3y ago
I’m looking for some help. Here’s the challenge I’ve been facing. It’s a good one; I’m not complaining; but it’s also a head-scratcher. I’m sure you’ve heard them (whoever “they” are) talking about “elevator pitches.” I’m supposed to come up with one for Too Good to be False: How Jesus’ Incomparable Character Reveals His Reality. The mysterious “they” also say it’s great if you can put it in just one sentence. I’m finding with this book, its just not that easy. It’s not your usual kind of book, it doesn’t use your usual Bible study approach, it’s not your usual case for the Gospels, yet i ..read more
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