In this short video, Dr. Braxton Hunter, President of Trinity’s online seminary and online Bible college, explains the S.L.E.D. test, which debunks several pro-abortion arguments.

If you would like to be better prepared to answer questions like this, consider taking an apologetics course online or earning an online apologetics degree with Trinity at a bachelors, masters, or doctorate level.  For more information,  complete the “Request more information” form on the right side of this page.

Video Transcript

Welcome to Trinity Insight, the home of the thinking Christian. And today we’re asking the question how can Christians respond to the problem of abortion.

So, how can Christians respond to this problem of abortion in our time? Well, obviously, Bible believing Christians have a good basis for standing against abortion. Check out the Trinity radio podcast and the Trinity Insight blog for more on that. But what are some other good arguments against abortion?

Well first it’s important to understand what happens at the moment of conception. Often we hear that at least in the first few weeks what we have is not what we might call human life, but this is just patently false. The biological material from the human mother is human biological material as is the biological material from the father, and the combination of that material results in new human biological material. Now since biological material is by definition life, at the moment of conception we have new human life.

The question just becomes at what point, if ever, is it ok to terminate human life. One of my favorite cases is called the S.L.E.D., or sled, argument given by Stephen Schwartz.

S stands for size. Is it ok to terminate human life based on size? Well clearly not. My six-year-old daughter is a lot smaller than I am, as are individuals with disabilities that prevent their development in size, but we don’t consider these people to be less human or say that it’s more acceptable to terminate them.

L stands for level of development. It’s not ok to terminate human life because it’s less developed, since also my three-year-old daughter is less developed than my six-year-old daughter, who is less developed than my wife. Yet again, we wouldn’t say that it’s more okay to end the lives of either of my human daughters.

E is for environment. Some may say that since the unborn are in the environment of the womb it is permissible to terminate them, but in no other area do we say that one’s environment changes their value. We wouldn’t say that of someone living in another country.

D stands for dependency. Since the unborn are dependent on someone or something else, they may be terminated some might say but by this logic anyone on insulin or any other medication that keeps them alive is less valuable someone else.

Simply put, the typical arguments in favor of abortion fail. Check out the blog and podcast on these issues at Trinity Insight by visiting TrinitySem.edu today, so you can continue growing in your faith as a thinking Christian.

The post The Best Pro-Life Arguments Against Abortion first appeared on Trinity College of the Bible and Theological Seminary.

Dr. Braxton Hunter addresses this question from both a theological and practical perspective in the short video below.

If you would like to be better prepared to answer questions like this, consider taking an apologetics course online or earning an online apologetics degree with Trinity at a bachelors, masters, or doctorate level.  For more information,  complete the “Request more information” form on the right side of this page.

Video Transcript

Welcome to Trinity Insight, the home of the thinking Christian. And today we’re asking the question, can you be morally good without God?

So, can you be good without God?

Well, yes and no. Just hear me out…

One of the favorite proclamations of the new atheist movement is to say we can be good and moral people without God. Now untrained Christians will often jump at this and demand that we need God’s presence in our lives to ever do anything good at all, but this just a nice reality. Non-Christians often give to good charities, get involved with medical missions, and even help little old ladies across the street.

So, in one sense yes you can be good without God, but on the other hand, no you can’t be good with without God for two serious reasons.

First, if God does not exist then nothing really is good or bad it becomes merely a matter of opinion, whether it is wrong to torture children for fun or good to build wells for thirsty people. If someone declares that those things are good or bad, one could always just ask, “But says who?” For more on that check out chapter 3 of my book, Core Facts.

The second reason you can’t be good without god from a Christian perspective is that if Christianity is true, including what Isaiah 64:5-7 says, “all our righteous acts are like filthy rags,” then mankind is so wicked that even our good acts seem sinful, although I think this passage is often distorted and misused by Christians to the point of saying that no acts are good at all. But it does still point out the conditions of our human hearts.

So, can man be good without God? Well he can do some good things, but it can’t even call them good without borrowing from theistic world views to do it.

Check out the blog at Trinity Insight at TrinitySem.edu for more on this, and please share and comment and link these videos. Thank you so much.

The post Can You Be Good Without God? first appeared on Trinity College of the Bible and Theological Seminary.

This quick Christian apologetics video explains two specific ways Christianity and Islam differ in their understanding of who God is. Watch the video so the next time someone asks you, “Do Muslims and Christians worship the same God?” you can clearly explain the differences.

If you want to understand your Christian faith better and be able to better explain it to Christians and skeptics, consider taking online theology courses or earning an online apologetics degree through Trinity Bible College and Theological Seminary. Complete the “Request more info” form on the right side of this page.

Video Transcript

Welcome to Trinity Insight, the home of the thinking Christian. Today we’re asking the question, “Do Christians and Muslims worship the same God?”

So, is Allah, the God of Islam, one in the same with the Christian God?

Well, it’s worth pointing out that of the three dominant monotheistic religions in the world – Christianity Islam and Judaism – all three points the God of Abraham as the one true God. This is why it’s so frequently heard in pop culture that at least these three religions all worship the same God.

Christians claim that the god of the Old Testament, i.e. the Jewish God, came to Earth incarnate as the Son, Jesus. So, Christians affirmed the God the Jews. And Islam sees itself is coming after Christianity and embracing Jesus, albeit as a prophet and not as the divine only begotten Son of God.

So, what’s the problem?

Well, at least Islam and Christianity have strikingly different understandings of who God is. Most importantly Islam makes the claim that there is only one God. Well, you might be thinking, “So do Christians.” But what Muslims mean when they say that there’s only one God is that he is not only one essence but also one person. In other words, they aren’t real big fans of the idea of the Trinity.

Christians agree that God has one essence, but He exists in three persons. This is a big difference, since the unforgivable sin for Muslims is called “shirk,” which is committed when one asserts that God has any partners or that there are any other divine beings. (By the way, if you believe the earliest Muslim biographers Muhammad himself committed shirk when he claimed that the popular deities of the day, Al-Lat, Al-Uzza and Manat, could also be considered divine.) So, good Muslims know that Christians are guilty of shirk for affirming that God exists in three persons.

Muslim apologists also argue that the Trinity is logically contradictory since it is a contradiction to say one God exists as three gods. Well, Christians agree with this. That’s why we say, “one God who exists as three persons.” If we said “one God and three gods” or “one person and three persons,” those would both be contradictory instead we say “one God and three persons” which is a mystery but it’s not a contradiction.

But there are some more serious problems with the idea that Allah and the Christian God are the same. Orthodox Christians don’t think of God as two using to do things that are intrinsically good, and they also don’t think of God as deciding arbitrarily on what is good. Christians believe that goodness comes from God’s own good nature.

For Muslims, it’s not so much that God is good at least not the way Christians believe. Instead whatever Allah wants to do becomes good. This is known as voluntarism, and it leads to a God who acts in contradictory ways. According to Norman Geisler and Abdul Saleeb, in one place God is referred to as the one who leads astray and elsewhere is the one who guides. He is described by terms like “the bringer down,” “the compeller,” “a tyrant” and “haute.” As they conclude, Muslim scholars cannot avoid the contradiction that God has logically opposed characteristics.

So, is Allah the same as the Christian God?

Absolutely not!

Check out the blog at Trinity Insight by heading over to TrinitySem.edu today for more that will help you grow as a thinking Christian.

The post Do Muslims and Christians worship the same God? first appeared on Trinity College of the Bible and Theological Seminary.

In this highlight from a recent Trinity Radio episode, Dr. Braxton Hunter and Dr. Jonathan Pritchett respond to “Why I’m a Calvinist.” Watch the video below for a discussion of Christian apologetics, theology, and Calvinism.

If you are interested in getting online apologetics degree or taking an online apologetics course, complete the “Request More Information” form on the right side of this page.

Video Transcript

The claim is that if you respond to God through a libertarian type of free will, then you can glorify yourself.

But this is a misunderstanding of what glory is about. It’s a misunderstanding of what salvation is about. Because when people ask me, “Are you born again because of you or because God?” God. God is the one who puts you in a new family. Your belief does not put you in a new family.

If God was a whimsical God, you could repent and believe in Jesus and him like, “So.” “We have it… the Bible says…” “So.” And that’s not who God is. So that there is a mechanism for this doesn’t mean that you “born-again” yourself.

By the way, that whole mechanism is a gift. But it doesn’t mean that you are not interactive. And if you have a problem with my saying “interactive…”

Let’s break it down. You said glory, that it’s a misunderstood glory. Glory is an honor term. It’s honor. Glory is honor. So, if you reject God’s gift, is that dishonorable? Yes. If you accept God’s gift, is that honorable? Well, it’s not dishonorable, right? You would be dishonoring him not to accept the gift, but it doesn’t mean that it’s so honorable…

But if you understood how to proclaim the honor of your patron, that’s what exactly goes into faithfulness. The patron is the one who gives you the gift, okay, that you can’t obtain on your own. So, in the ethos is the ancient Mediterranean world, the glory is demanded – in just the just the social expectation – to be given to the giver of the gift. You don’t get credit for getting something you couldn’t obtain on your own in the first place. So, it’s unthinkable in the ancient Mediterranean world that you would give some of the glory to yourself for having done this.

And here’s the thing, I have never met a single Christian ever who takes credit for their salvation. Never! Never ever! “Look how awesome I am. I believe in Jesus.”

Well, that’s what I said in the debate. I’m like, nobody… you give me a Christmas present and I’m like, “Look how look how cool I am that I received that present. Look how well I received that present.” No. And I think Dave Hunt way back – you know David Hunt? – I think he did a great job of putting it very simply:

If you… I am going to… and don’t take… No, I’m not even going to add a bunch of details to this analogy because then you’ll say it’s not a correct analogy. So let’s just say, if I owe a debt, and you write me a check that will pay off that debt or something like that, and you give it to me, and I couldn’t have gotten it on my own… I had no way to get it, but I do have to…

Let’s just change this one thing just to make it makes sense. You are the last person in the world that should have someone write that write that check. You’re so not just undeserving but ill-deserving. And yet somebody’s given it to you.

And I’ve even done the one writing the check wrong. I’ve done him wrong, and he writes me the check. Okay but before I can put it in the bank, I do have to endorse the back. And when I endorse the back, I earned every cent. Who says that?!? Nobody! Nobody says that!

The post Trinity Radio Highlight: A Response to Calvinism first appeared on Trinity College of the Bible and Theological Seminary.

Are Christians scrambling for some new explanation of what the Bible means?

In this Trinity Insight video, we look what one new scientific study claims about evidence of early humans and whether it is incompatible with the biblical story of creation in Genesis, and specifically the existence of a literal Adam and Eve.

If you are interested in getting online apologetics degree or taking online theology courses, complete the “Request More Information” form on the right side of this page.

Video Transcript

Welcome to Trinity insight the home of the thinking Christian. Today we’re asking the question, has science removed the possibility of a literal, historical Adam and Eve.

Bryan College in Dayton, Tennessee is under fire this week after making a change to its belief statement, which affirms that Adam and Eve were actual historical figures. A number of professors either resigned over fired because they could not agree with the idea that Adam and Eve actually existed in a literal sense.

This prompted University of Chicago ecology and evolution professor Jerry Coyne to demand that claiming bible-believing literalism is compatible with science is like saying that eating broccoli is compatible with being a lion. He says that the latest studies on this – although he fails to give us any citations – say the smallest size of population that could have initially spread from Africa would have had to have been 20,250. Then he makes the lead to say that since 20,250 isn’t 2, that Adam and Eve must have never existed as the Bible claims they did.

So, are Christians in trouble here?

Well, not really.

First of all, that there were 20,250 that came out of Africa just begs the question, where did the 20,250 come from? Atheists will answer this question in one way and believers in another. Moreover, even if the uncited studies were right – not that I think they are – it would not mean that Christianity was in any danger.

Christians have had young-earth creationists, old-earth creationists, and progressive creationists for a long, long time. Any one of those could believe in a historical Adam and Eve. They would just describe how Adam and Eve got there and when they existed a little differently.

Coyne then goes on to complain that to a rationalist all of these sophisticated theological gymnastics are amusing. But as I said orthodox Christians have understood the when and how of the historical Adam and Eve in slightly differing ways for hundreds and hundreds of years. Now I don’t agree with what many Christians say about this, but it’s not as though the church is all of the sudden trying to come up with new understandings just because of a couple of new studies.

So, has science destroyed the idea of a literal Adam and Eve? Absolutely not.

Check out the blog and podcast at Trinity Insight today by visiting TrinitySem.edu to learn more and continue growing as a thinking Christian.

The post Christian Apologetics: Did Adam and Eve Really Exist? first appeared on Trinity College of the Bible and Theological Seminary.

One of the featured components of Trinity Insight will be videos of Trinity Radio episodes.

In this Trinity Radio episode, Dr. Braxton Hunter and Dr. Johnathan Pritchett look at the issue of abortion from the unusual perspective of comedian Louis C.K., examine the idea of meaning coming from somewhere other than God, and how the two are related.

Video Transcript

Due to the ~1 hour length of this Trinity Radio episode, we cannot include a transcript of the full episode, but we’ll conclude with this excerpt from the end of the episode from Trinity president, Dr. Braxton Hunter:

Come find out about Trinity College of the Bible and Theological Seminary in beautiful Evansville, Indiana. This isn’t 100% distance learning school – you can come on campus, but no matter where you are in the world, you can talk to us about classes, and we’d love to talk to you about becoming a student here.

We’re flexible. We think it’s offensive what some schools charge for tuition, and it is a revolution in theological education. It’s an overused term, but I’m bringing it back! This is a revolution in theological education that you are missing out on.

Students from Trinity become presidents of other accredited schools, and they become professors at those schools and department heads, they write books that become great selling books and movies and things like that. Anything that’s been accomplished by evangelicals in the 21st century, we’ve got Trinity students, Trinity alumni who have done that and we want you to come be a part of what’s going on here, and for the primary purpose of learning how you can better serve the kingdom.

To learn more about Trinity College, our online bible college or online seminary, complete the “Request More Info” form on the right side of this page.

The post Trinity Radio: Abortion & the Meaning of Life first appeared on Trinity College of the Bible and Theological Seminary.

Trinity President, Dr. Braxton Hunter, addresses that question in the video below.

We encourage you to subscribe to the Trinity YouTube channel and check back here a couple times a week for thought-provoking articles and videos.

And if you are looking for an online bible college or online seminary to further your Christian education, prepare your for ministry, or help you grow in your faith, consider enrolling at Trinity College of the Bible and Theological Seminary.

Video Transcript

Welcome to Trinity Insight: The home of the thinking Christian, and today we’re asking the question can a loving God really be just in allowing people to go to hell for all eternity.

So, how can God be just in allowing people to go to hell for all eternity? I mean after all, the punishment doesn’t really seem to fit the crime.

If you think about it, if this is true as atheist often remind us, Adolf Hitler, if he prayed to receive Christ on his deathbed, might be in heaven and six million Jews in hell. It just doesn’t seem right. After all, I’m a very conservative evangelical man, but I couldn’t hold for a man’s hand to the fire for 10 minutes to the fire even if he was the worst pedophile. So how could God send someone to a place of absolute suffering for all eternity? Better yet, how is he just in doing this?

Christian philosophers answer this question and number of ways. One of hte more popular ways  is like this and this is my rendering of it…

Imagine that you’re sitting at home one night watching television, and your neighbor’s cat is whining at your window, and you can’t watch the television show. And so you get up and after enough nights of putting up with this cat – sorry if you’re a cat person – you go out and strangle the cat in the middle of the night.

Now there’s probably a penalty for that. I don’t know what it is – maybe spend the night in jail maybe have to pay a fine, I don’t know what the penalty is for killing cats, because I usually… scratch that, I never kill cats.

On the other hand let’s imagine now that my neighbor keeps buying more and more cats and I keep strangling them. Ultimately, I might go across the street and strangle my neighbor – I mean not me, I mean somebody.

Now the penalty for this is much greater. I’m now going to have to spend the rest of my life perhaps in jail. I might receive capital punishment. The point is that there’s a penalty for sinning against a cat that is not really all that great. And there’s a penalty for sinning against a man which is equal to my own life. So, what must the penalty be for sinning against an everlasting God? Our own sense of justice that you can see as we walk through this progression leads you to the realization that it is an everlasting punishment

Now, you might say, “But God is God. Can’t he just ignore that and forgive people and let them go to heaven anyway without a sacrifice?”

Well not really. Justice is a part of God’s nature, just like the number of other things are, and just as you can’t change your own nature, God’s nature doesn’t change either. He must act justly. As a result we’re all destined to an eternity an everlasting amount of time in a place called hell unless there’s an everlasting person who can pay the price for us. But there’s only one everlasting person, or at least the godhead is everlasting. And so Jesus came to Earth as the everlasting person who paid the everlasting penalty, so that we all might go to heaven through him. And that, my friends, is how you answer the problem of hell.

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The post How can God send people to hell? first appeared on Trinity College of the Bible and Theological Seminary.