CrossExamined Blog
Tackling today’s toughest questions, these posts explore topics on God, morality, science, and culture.
Whether you’re a skeptic or believer, each article challenges your worldview and sharpens your thinking. Engaging, thought-provoking, and unapologetic, this is a place to dig deeper and follow the truth wherever it leads.
You Can’t Make Your Kid a Christian
Apologetics for ParentsBy Natasha Crain I thrive on control. I love projects that can be broken into goals, tasks, and success or failure criteria. Nothing motivates me more than the opportunity to strive toward the successful completion of something. I actually have spreadsheets that outline every hour of my life with a color code for the activity, […]
When C.S. Lewis Warned Us About Alfie Evans and Charlie Gard
Legislating Morality, Culture & PoliticsBy Bob Perry Unfortunately, everybody has heard about Charlie Gard and Alfie Evans. They were both born with eerily similar and rare genetic disorders. They both died before they reached age two. Sadly, those kinds of things happen too often. But neither of them are the reason you’ve heard of Charlie Gard and Alfie Evans. […]
The Kalam Cosmological Argument NOT Debunked
2. Does God Exist?, Atheism, Legislating Morality, Culture & PoliticsBy Evan Minton I discovered a YouTuber called “Rationality Rules” very recently. One of his many videos is “The Kalam Cosmological Argument Debunked – (First Cause Argument Refuted)” which you can watch here. One of my patrons brought this video to my attention and requested that I respond to it, so here we go. For the […]
How Can God be Sovereign over Evil and not Morally Culpable for It?
Theology and Christian ApologeticsBy Ryan Leasure It’s not uncommon to hear those in the non-Reformed tradition make the claim that Reformed belief necessarily makes God blameworthy for evil. After all, if God has sovereignly decreed everything whatsoever to come to pass — including evil — how is he not morally culpable for it? It’s certainly a good question, […]
Who Made God? A Cosmological Argument for Kids
Apologetics for Parents, Theology and Christian ApologeticsBy Mikel Del Rosario Who Made God? Here’s a Simple Answer Watching Phil Vischer’s Jelly Telly show with my little boy reminded me that accessible apologetics training is for kids, too! One day after church, we sat down to watch a little clip online. There was a puppet newscaster hosting a segment called “Buck Denver’s Mail Bag.” At […]
Desire and God: Should I Always Do What I Feel?
Legislating Morality, Culture & Politics, Theology and Christian ApologeticsBy Robby Hall The debate over homosexual behavior has taken many surprising turns. The national debate has involved a Fast Food franchise and a maker of Duck Calls. It has involved extremes from Fred Phelps and his clan to groups like GLAAD comparing the whole thing to the civil rights movement of the mid-20th century. […]
Transcending Spiritual Gymnastics
Atheism, Theology and Christian ApologeticsBy Nathan Howe “Spiritual” people, specifically non-believers, can have some pretty comical explanations of the supernatural as they come out of Atheism. Coming from a perspective that attributes no part of existence by any Spiritual guidance or conscious force, is a horrible building block to start learning about spirituality. Truly, the case consists of individuals […]
19 Essential Bible Verses and Passages on Apologetics
Theology and Christian ApologeticsBy Erik Manning Sometimes you gotta make an apologetic for apologetics. Often well-meaning Christians spout off pious-sounding platitudes like “faith isn’t based on reason, that’s why it’s called faith,” or “God doesn’t need us to defend him, just preach the gospel.” That sounds spiritual, but it isn’t biblical. That’s not the way Jesus operated, and that’s […]
A Clarifying Journey of Intervention, Detox & Recovery
Legislating Morality, Culture & PoliticsBy Terrell Clemmons Oh, joy, somebody selling something, I thought when my doorbell rang. It was getting dark, so I switched on the porch light before stepping out to a tall, spunky, clipboard-clutching brunette waiting ever so patiently for the homeowner to come to the door. Katie represented an organization that protected consumers from unreasonable […]
25 Quotes On Tolerance
Theology and Christian ApologeticsBy Luke Nix “Most of what passes for tolerance today is not tolerance at all but actually intellectual cowardice. Those who hide behind that word are often afraid of intelligent engagement and don’t engage or even consider contrary opinions. It’s easier to hurl an insult than to confront the idea and either refute it or […]
Book Review: So the Next Generation Will Know by Sean McDowell and J. Warner Wallace
Theology and Christian ApologeticsBy Timothy Fox You’ve probably seen the statistics and heard the concerns. Young people are leaving the church in greater numbers than ever. While the youth of every generation share many common characteristics, this generation – dubbed Generation Z – faces new and unique challenges thanks to the ubiquity of smartphones and easy access to […]
Did The Historical Jesus Rise from The Dead?
Jesus Christ, Theology and Christian ApologeticsBy Luke Nix Introduction – Why Is Jesus’ Resurrection So Important? Those who have followed this blog know that I focus a lot of my writing on defending the compatibility of science with the Christian worldview and that I spend much energy addressing philosophical and logical challenges to some of the finer details of Christian […]
14 Ways I Teach Apologetics to My 5-Year-Olds
Apologetics for ParentsBy Natasha Crain Recently, several people have asked me, “How do you actually do this apologetics stuff at home? How do you talk to your kids about these topics?” When I get the question, the person asking usually looks a bit baffled, as if they are asking how I build rockets. The word apologetics sounds […]
Messianic Prophecy and the Resurrection
Jesus Christ, Theology and Christian ApologeticsBy Brian Chilton My class and I recently completed a wonderful Ph.D. seminar entitled Issues on Messianic Prophecy with Dr. Randall Price and Dr. Ed Hindson at Liberty University. Unfortunately, messianic prophecy has received less attention than in times past. Even in evangelical circles, hyper-critical views are being taken on the Old Testament which seemingly […]
Why was the Head Cloth of Jesus Wrapped to the Side?
3. Are Miracles Possible?, Jesus Christ, Theology and Christian ApologeticsBy Brian Chilton A friend asked me about a supposed Jewish tradition concerning the head wrapping of Jesus in the tomb. The Gospel of John notes that Peter and John (if the beloved disciple is the writer of the Fourth Gospel which this writer accepts) run to the tomb of Jesus. They investigate the tomb […]
16 Bad Atheist Arguments and How to Respond to Them
Atheism, Theology and Christian ApologeticsBy Jeremy Linn With the NCAA Final Four coming to the Twin Cities this weekend, it seems appropriate to have our own little March Madness Tournament. Instead of college teams, we built a bracket with some of the “top” bad Atheist arguments. Below we list 16 of these bad arguments and list at least one […]
J. Brian Huffling Discussion with Dr. Michael Shermer on God and Evil
2. Does God Exist?, Atheism, Theology and Christian ApologeticsBy J. Brian Huffling Having seen Dr. Michael Shermer debate many times, I was excited to be able to get a chance to have a discussion with him. Shermer, the founding publisher of Skeptic magazine, accepted Southern Evangelical Seminary‘s invitation to have an informal, but moderated, discussion with me on the topic, “Is the Reality of Evil […]
Twitter suspends account of pro-life movie “Unplanned”, deletes 99% of their followers
Legislating Morality, Culture & Politics, Theology and Christian ApologeticsBy Wintery Knight Wow, big social media companies like Facebook, Google, Youtube, and Twitter are really ratcheting up their suppression of any accounts that challenge their allies in the Democrat Party. For example, on the weekend Twitter decided to suspend the account of the new pro-life movie “Unplanned.” And then they deleted 99,000 of their […]
Apologetics and Preparing Christian Students for College
Theology and Christian ApologeticsBy Mikel Del Rosario On an episode of the Table Podcast, I sat down with Jonathan Morrow of Impact 360 via Skype to discuss preparing Christian students for college, focusing on Generation Z. We talk about the top social and intellectual challenges facing college students today and suggest ways parents and the church can help […]
Meet the New Apologists (Part 2: Advice)
Theology and Christian ApologeticsBy Jordan Apodaca In the last post we met seven “new apologists.” Now, we ask them crucial questions about how to start and run a young apologetics ministry. What advice would you give to newer apologists about finding their niche/focus? How important is it? How does one find a niche? Here is Scott Olson’s case […]
The Abortion Debate: Dr. Mike Adams vs. Abortion Doctor
Debates, Legislating Morality, Culture & PoliticsDr. Mike S. Adams takes on Dr. Willie Parker, an abortion doctor who has performed thousands of abortions. This debate took place on February 21, 2019 at UNC Wilmington. Although Dr. Parker claims to be a Christian, he says in his book that there are no moral absolutes and there is no right interpretation of […]