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.
The Incompatibility of Christianity and Racism
Legislating Morality, Culture & Politics, Theology and Christian ApologeticsBy Brian Chilton This past Saturday, I returned home from our church’s annual Vacation Bible School. The topic for this year’s VBS was on putting on the full armor of God. When I sat down in my office chair, I turned on my laptop to check the website and look over a few final details […]
Debating Atheists: Introduction (part 1/5)
Debates, Theology and Christian ApologeticsBy Dan Grossenbach On November 27, 2016, I debated a local atheist leader, retired podiatrist Dr. Gil Shapiro, the spokesperson of Freethought Arizona (video here). I’ve blogged on general post-debate thoughts here but now will cover a series of five consecutive blog posts covering each of the four arguments that the atheist couldn’t answer. This is no […]
Who Wrote the Letter of James?
4. Is the NT True?, Theology and Christian ApologeticsBy Bryan Chilton As you know, we have been examining the authorship of the New Testament letters over the past few weeks. Thus far, we have learned that good reasons exist to accept the apostles Matthew and John as authors of the First and Fourth Gospels; John Mark as the author of the Second Gospel, […]
Did God Use Evolution? Is the Earth Old? New Book Review
Theology and Christian ApologeticsQuestions related to origins are some of the most divisive in the church today: How old is the earth? Is there good evidence for intelligent design? Did God use evolution?Sadly, rather than discussing differences in a sober and gracious manner, conversations are often characterized by defensiveness, misunderstanding, and personal attacks. What a shame! But this need not […]
A Simple Case for Religious Liberty
Legislating Morality, Culture & PoliticsAs John Stonestreet and I argue in our book Same-Sex Marriage, we are currently undergoing one of the most sweeping social revolutions in world history. Until theObergefell v. Hodges SCOTUS decision in 2015, the definition of marriage as a union of a man and a woman was the understanding of virtually every civilization throughout history. But this has […]
Why Apologetics Won’t Work
Theology and Christian ApologeticsBy Dan Grossenbach If apologetics is so great and its arguments compelling, why isn’t everyone convinced of Christianity? This is where the doctrine of election debate between Calvinists and Arminians normally comes in, but I think both sides are overlooking a simpler and self-evident truth of human nature – one they can both agree on. People […]
Freedom Through Obedience: A Lesson from Star Wars
2. Does God Exist?, Theology and Christian ApologeticsPersonal autonomy has become the reigning virtue of our day. If it feels true to you, then it must be true for you. As SCOTUS Justice Anthony Kennedy famously said, “At the heart of liberty is the right to define one’s own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life.” On […]
Making Apologetics Personal: A Quick Lesson from John 4
Theology and Christian ApologeticsIt’s no secret that I love apologetics. I love to read apologetics blogs, study apologetics books, and have apologetics conversations. But there is a constant temptation I have to battle that I believe is common among many apologists: the temptation to simply study apologetics but not put it into practice. Let me state something clearly up […]
How Living Counter-Culturally Can Lead to Your Kids’ Resentment of Christianity
Apologetics for ParentsBy Natasha Crain Our family just returned from a wonderful vacation to the mountains of British Columbia. It was stunningly beautiful! We spent our first day there relaxing at this picture-perfect lake. My husband and kids had a blast swimming out to a wooden platform in the middle of the lake and taking turns jumping off. […]
Objections to Objective Morality
Legislating Morality, Culture & Politics, Theology and Christian ApologeticsBy Cole James I took a philosophy class while I was in college. The topic of this class was on contemporary moral issues, so you know we got into some heated topics. I heard every objection under the sun to objective morality. Everything from it was not very “tolerant,” to different cultures act differently so therefore […]
Did Paul Write All Thirteen Letters Attributed to Him?
4. Is the NT True?, Theology and Christian ApologeticsBy Brian Chilton In the New Testament, thirteen letters are attributed to the apostle Paul. Paul is, of course, the individual who had persecuted the church, but became a Christian missionary after an encounter with the risen Jesus on the road to Damascus. But, did Paul actually author all thirteen epistles believed to have been […]
Miracles Are Useless, If…
3. Are Miracles Possible?, Theology and Christian ApologeticsBy Rajkumar Richard The Bible is replete with miracles[1]. Sincere Christians who worship the Triune God will objectively believe every recorded miracle in the Bible. Miracles are intended to glorify God, meet human needs and establish the supernatural basis of revelation. Sincere Christians will also affirm miracles subjectively. They will subjectively assert their existence as a […]
God, Patience, and Creation
Theology and Christian ApologeticsBy Luke Nix Introduction One of the challenges skeptics raise against God as the Creator is the idea that He took entirely too long to create: God is inefficient and wasteful with time, if He did, indeed, take 13+ billion years to create the universe. Why did God take so long to create the universe when […]
Do Your Kids Know Why They Should WANT God to Exist?
Apologetics for ParentsBy Natasha Crain I’ve written over 250 blog posts here since 2011. People still come across my old posts by searching for something on Google, so nearly every day I receive new comments on a wide variety of old posts. Many of the comments are from atheists. As I read the latest comments this week, I […]
So you say you want a Revolution, what about Romans 13?
Legislating Morality, Culture & PoliticsBy Steve Williams Many Christians believe that the first section of Romans 13 – verses 1-7 — forbids any form of resistance to government… even when it clearly goes tyrannical. If one analyzes this passage of the Bible carefully, however, as The USA’s founding fathers did, we can see that Paul was speaking in generalities in […]
Objective Morality: Much Ado About Nothing?
Legislating Morality, Culture & PoliticsEarlier this year, an early-morning storm passed through our area, causing schools to open late. Some counties announced they would open schools one hour late. Others announced that school would begin at 9:30 am. Our county? Officials announced that school would begin “after the storms were over.” Imagine the confusion this created, as the storms […]
The Contingency Argument For God’s Existence
2. Does God Exist?, Theology and Christian ApologeticsBy Evan Minton Why does anything at all exist? Why isn’t there just nothing? This is the first philosophical question I ever remember asking myself. I remember lying in bed at night when I was about 6 years old, and I asked and pondered this very question. I thought to myself “Everything must have been […]
Who Wrote the Gospel of Luke and Acts?
4. Is the NT True?, Theology and Christian ApologeticsBy Brian Chilton We have been engaged in a series of articles discussing the authorship of the books of the New Testament. In this article, we consider the Third Gospel, the Gospel of Luke. Who wrote the Gospel? What clues do we have from the internal and external evidence, the date, and the location and […]
Should We Be Moral Relativists?
Legislating Morality, Culture & Politics, Theology and Christian ApologeticsBy Rajkumar Richard INTRODUCTION This is a short introductory essay to defend objective moral values. In philosophy, the term ‘objective,’ is defined as the existence of an object independent of human mind (mind-independency); “the object would “be there,” as it is, even if no subject perceived it.”1 In contrast, the term ‘relative’ refers to the […]
Why Does God Love Satan?
CrossExaminedBy Rajkumar Richard The question, “Does God love Satan?” seemingly yields diametrically conflicting answers from conservative Christian theologians. Some assert that God cannot love Satan. In contrast, others claim that God loves Satan. So does God love Satan or not? Answers to the question, “Does God love Satan?” cause further complications. If God does not […]
Progressive Christianity is as Much of a Threat to Your Kids’ Faith as Atheism
Apologetics for ParentsBy Natasha Crain In our backyard we used to have a beautiful lime tree. One day I noticed that a thorny vine of some kind had started growing around it. It looked enough like the rest of the tree that I figured it was just another stage of growth. A quick Google search told me […]