Apologetics and Evidence

"Either the doers of the law will be justified as 2:13 says, or the deeds of the law do not justify as 3:20 says. You can't have it both ways." Like I mentioned before, these are letters from which the reader is only receiving information from one side. A grammatical survey is only one small step in the hermeneutical "process." In other words, there are calculations that are incomplete. At first glance, it may appear that the two Romans verses contradict each other, but further hermeneutical analysis will reveal that this letter was written to both Jews and Gentiles, and that the audience didn't seem aware that the Law places people in a position that they are unable to fight against because of the sin nature in humans. Even Jesus says in John 7:19, when speaking to Jewish contemporaries that oppose Him: "Has not Moses given you the Law? Yet none of you keeps the Law..." (NIV; NIV citations for readability purposes). Paul knew this, and this unders

            At some point, a new believer (or old believer) might consider going to church. The rationale of that person might also taunt him or her into questioning the reliability and credibility of organized religion, or in other words, the question of whether or not church in and of itself is ordained by God. I have often heard it said that organized religion is bad because it teaches people to be what God does not want them to be, or that organized ministries teach that the path to true Christianity is too narrow and does not include Christians that can “come as you are (or, ‘as you were’).”             Biblically speaking, it is said that we are to encourage one another in the faith and not forsake the fellowship of other believers: “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together , as some are in the habit of doing, but let u