My senior pastor recently presented a lecture on apologetics. He took us on a whirlwind tour through classical apologetics, evidential apologetics, presuppositional apologetics, and the moral argument against relativism. Along the way we visited Tertullian, Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Pascal, C. S. Lewis, Cornelius Van Til, and many others.

There are no atheistic arguments that have not already been dealt with centuries before we were born. And when you flesh out its true roots and implications, it is atheism that is shown to be truly irrational.

Listen to Phil’s outstanding lecture (in two parts), and download the lecture outlines from Sovereign Grace Church.

Tags: apologetics, atheism, atheist, Augustine, Aurelius-Augustine, belief, Blaise-Pascal, C.-S.-Lewis, classical-apologetics, Cornelius-Van-Til, evidential-apologetics, lecture, moral-argument, moral-relativism, morality, Pascal, Phil-Sasser, presuppositional-apologetics, rationality, relativism, resource, Tertullian, Thomas-Aquinas, unbelief, Van-Til

We ought to cultivate an understanding of God’s goodness in all things. Gideon Strauss recommends this:

I post a list of things I love every now and then, every time with a few tiny updates. Making lists of things we love is an important practice, I believe, because we learn more about ourselves from thinking about what we love than from any other kind of reflection on ourselves. Our deepest loves, our strongest commitments, our most intense concerns and cares — these are the most basic forces shaping who we are and how we live.

Gideon sees this as a way of understanding ourselves better, and a way of identifying our vocations. In another post he quotes Augustine, saying that “when there is a question as to whether a man is good, one does not ask what he believes, or what he hopes, but what he loves.” But this is also a rich way to practice seeing the sovereign hand of God — and the goodness of God — in all things. In my experience this fuels both gratitude and joy.

What do you love, from great to small? Don’t feel compelled to over-spiritualize — we know that lightning, chocolate, traffic jams, Bach, the musty smell of wet fall leaves, the quiet beauty of a lit Christmas tree in a dark room, and orthodontic retainers are all gifts from God. My wife and I have found this to be one of our favorite date-night questions; you can easily fill an entire evening answering it.

Tags: Augustine, calling, Christian-living, Christianity, Gideon-Strauss, God, goodness-of-God, gratitude, joy, providence, Questions, quotation, sovereignty, thankfulness, things-I-love, vocation