One of the Most Successful Arguments for God’s Existence

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Sometimes you know how worthwhile something is because of how much it is hated by some people. And the famous Kalam Cosmological Argument is such a thing.

The argument, affectionately known as the “Kalam” by some, has been promoted by popular apologist (guy arguing in debates that God exists) Dr. William Lane Craig, and it is simple but powerful. It has inspired passionate resistance among atheists—even whole documentaries devoted to trying to explain it away—all of which always falls short. (Concerning the categories of proof and evidence in our booklet The Real God: Proofs and Promises, it seems to fit in the “Creation Demands a Creator” category.)

The argument says, essentially, that everything that begins to exist at some point has to have a cause behind it, and, since the universe began to exist at some point in the past, the universe, therefore, has to have a cause. Pretty normal stuff. Yet, the cause of the universe can’t be some “ordinary” thing—the cause has to exist beyond space, beyond time, and matter, and beyond energy, since all of those things are part of the universe. In fact, the more you explore what that cause must be, the more you find yourself exploring attributes of God.

While apologetics (reasoned arguments in favor of something—in this case, in favor of God’s existence) are not everyone’s cup of tea, being able to defend why you think God exists is increasingly important. If those sorts of discussions are interesting to you, then the video below might be of interest, as well.

Sermon Snippet: Rights vs. Responsibilities

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If you listened to last week’s podcast, you heard us talk with Mr. Mark Sandor about the U.S. Constitution, and we noted how the freedoms our governments provide shouldn’t prevent us from restricting ourselves based on God’s laws and desires, and how a “return to the Constitution” is not enough to save the U.S.—we need real repentance and a turning to God’s laws, not man’s.

As I thought about it, I was reminded of a recent sermon by Mr. Jonathan McNair in which he made a very similar point. The video below is cued up to the moment in that sermon where he explains a major reason why those of us who are Americans currently live “in a land that is being torn apart [and] ripped apart.” It’s a reason that illustrates a key difference between man’s approach to government and God’s.

It’s worth a listen, and the video below is cued up to that specific point in the sermon.

Ezekiel’s Temple modeled in Minecraft by the Wilsons!

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You know, when you throw out a suggestion in services, you have to be careful, because someone might take you up on it! At the Feast in Lake Geneva last year, I mentioned to the crowd at the Friday night Bible study that I’d always hoped someone would model Ezekiel’s Temple for me in Minecraft so I could walk around, and, lo and behold, someone did! At the recent Merrill Family Weekend, Allen Wilson showed me the version of the Temple he and his brothers, Jonathan and Benjamin, built their model of the prophetic Millennial Temple in Minecraft, and it looks great.

There are some details where their build differs from what others have done, mainly in some of the heights—which is an area of the description most open to question. I actually plan on touching on that in the Ezekiel 40–48 Bible study that Mr. Jonathan McNair has asked me to do for Living Education, so hopefully I can get my act together and do that soon.

There are two videos are embedded below, and then below that is a gallery of images, including Allen showing it to some of us at the family weekend.

Thanks, Allen, Jonathan, and Benjamin, for your hard work and for being willing to share it!

Video 1: Walking around the build.

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New This Week!

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It’s easy to miss everything that gets posted over the week, so here’s what’s new this week:

Check them out below, or click/tap the item in the list to go straight there. And have a wonderful Sabbath!

Pics from the Merrill Family Weekend!

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Below are a few pictures from the Merrill Family Weekend! These are all from the sledding and football activities on Sunday. It was a blast!

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How We Do Prophecy in the Church—A Quick Example

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Howdy! On our way back from the Merrill Family Weekend, which was wonderful! Our thanks to everyone who pitched in to make such a fantastic weekend event. The food, fellowship, sledding, football-in-the-snow—all of it was so enjoyable. Again, thank you!

This is a quick post about how we do prophecy in the Church. I know it can seem intimidating sometimes when you are young, but when you get the basic idea, it all starts to make sense. I hope this quick video (recorded in the car, so apologies about the quality!) is helpful. For the interested, the BBC article I mention can be found here.

P.S. My thanks to the early viewer who saw my mistake about the Merrill Family Weekend festivities! Definitely Saturday night, not Friday night. Friday night was my thrilling Bible Study.

P.P.S. UPDATE, 3/4/22: If you want to see an example of this in action, click here to see Mr. Weston’s most recent TW Update, in which he talked about the situation in Ukraine and reports this same fact. When you know the basics of what the arc of biblical prophecy tells us to expect, then you know what to look for in the news. Don’t let prophecy intimidate you!

What Rick Astley Taught Me About Getting It Waaaaaaaay Wrong

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I know Rick Astley is an 80s phenomenon, but Rickrolling has kept him more prominent in the culture a lot longer than anyone expected (the Wreck-It Ralph 2 post-credits scene is the most recent example I’ve heard of), so hopefully referring to him will not be too out of date for you to understand my point. In fact, if you can read, you should be able to get it regardless of Rick Astley’s place in your life. (If you can’t read, how did you get this far?)

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