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]." The popular intellectual approach 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 salvific exclusivity of Christianity 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 giving revelation today? That question is at the heart of the claims of the largest theological "movement" of Christianity since the Reformation, charismaticism. And the foundation of their position is that the gift of prophecy is still operating today. This book is a detailed study of the gift and it defends the following: - Modern claims to prophecy are one of the most widespread and dangerous frauds in Christianity. - Real biblical Prophets spoke divinely authoritative revelation, and always predicted the future with perfect accuracy in order to authenticate themselves. - Modern so-called "prophets" either make mistaken predictions, or claim they don't even need to try. - There was no difference between the authority and purpose of OT Jewish Prophets like Jeremiah and NT Christian Prophets like Agabus. - The Church universally testified that the gift of prophecy ceased by the third century. - God really hates modern false claims to be speaking for Him.

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.

Is there a super prayer language? Somebody is wrong. Either the gift of tongues was intended to be a more intimate way for us to pray, or the modern tongues movement (glossaism) is one of the greatest frauds in Christianity. In this study we defend the following: - Glossaists cannot match the biblical attributes of the gift. - The definition of "tongues" has significantly changed even in glossaism due to embarrassment, not exegesis of Scripture. - In 1 Corinthians 14, the Apostle Paul was attempting to eliminate the same pagan, counterfeit "private prayer language" version of "tongues" that is occurring today. - Glossaism has no answer for the Apostle's clear statement: "Tongues are a [miraculous] sign for unbelievers" (1 Cor 14:21). Rather, the counterfeit version today makes Christians look crazy, just as Paul warned. - The early Church testified universally to the cessation of the gift of tongues. - Legitimate explanations for the current "tongues" phenomena are alarming.

Does God speak to us apart from Scripture? The belief that God provides us with extra-biblical revelation for extra-biblical decision making (what we term as mega mysticism) is incredibly popular. Hence, there are a multitude of books explaining how to "hear" from God. Once again, we go to Scripture to answer vital questions regarding how God communicates with us today, and come to the following conclusions: - The idea that God grants extra-biblical, amoral revelation directly to our minds is not supported in Scripture. - God does not have a private, personal will for our lives that we must discern outside of Scripture. - The translation of paraklēte in the Gospel of John as "Counselor" is incorrect. - The "wisdom" we are to ask for in James 1 is entirely moral in nature as described in James 3. It does not include answers to all the questions that mega mystics claim God wants to answer. - Mega mysticism is leading many Christians astray in dangerous ways.

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.

What does Scripture say about the human heart? The human "heart" is where we meet God, believe Him, and obey Him. Which is why the psychological use of "heart" is used over 1000 times in Scripture, not including the hundreds of synonymous references to the human mind, spirit, soul, and conscience. Contrary to many, there is a lot of psychology in the Bible. This book is first a biblical study on the different aspects of the human "heart" including our reason, will, and emotions. Included is an important chapter on how we change our "heart" and thus our life. Secondly, we discuss the dangers of how the Charismatic movement has elevated emotion over reason in both worship and prayer. Finally, we correct the common mistake in theology of not distinguishing between the abilities of the devil-darkened reason of the unregenerated and the Spirit-liberated reason of the regenerated. In the process, we describe the psychological aspects of conversion.

How and why has God spoken to us? 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?

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.