It’s an understatement to describe Father’s Day as less promoted than Mother’s Day.

Throughout my professional career as both a college professor and a Christian scholar I have been asked thousands of questions. However, whenever I’m asked about suicide it always strikes an emotional chord deep within me. A close member of my familydied by suicide more than 40 years ago when I was just a teenager.My wife also lost a member of her family in the same tragic way.

In thispost I’ll makefour points about the tragedy of suicide.My central focus will be on the question of whether God forgives this act.

1. The Serious Nature of Suicide

To intentionally take one’s life is indeed a sin of great magnitude. Why? Because suicide is self-murder. And what makes murder such a horrific act is not just the stealing of innocent life, but also the fact that all human beings are made in the image of God (Genesis 1:26–27). Therefore, murder constitutes…

What role does persuasion play in communicating Christian truth to people?

To engage in Christian apologetics is to enter into the enterprise of personalpersuasion. When apologists defend the faith it is for the purpose of persuading people of the truth of historic Christianity.But what actually goes into making a good case of persuasion in general and for Christian apologetics in particular?

Rhetoricis the field of discourse aimed at persuasion. And persuasion is involved in many critical areas of life such as education, law, science, politics, and religion, including Christian efforts at evangelism and apologetics. However, too often people associate rhetoric with disingenuous attempts to sway people through slick manipulation—but abuse doesn’t rule out the proper use of rhetoric.

Five basic elements have come to be accepted as legitimate tools of persuasion. While these broad principles were first systematized by pre-Christian Greek philosophers, the modes of persuasion themselves…

Recently someone asked me how you can know if you have had a successful apologetics encounter. My immediate answer was that defending the faith (Greek:apologia) is never easy and one must trust in God’s grace for the results. Ultimately, I believe thatonly God by his extraordinary grace can instill a desire for himself in a human being.

Yet I do think there are important goals to strive for in apologetics interactions. So whether it’s a television or radio interview, a formal debate, or a personal discussion with someone, I generally have three goals in mind when engaging in the enterprise of apologetics. If I can work toward accomplishing these goals, then I think my time of defending the faith has been well served.

3 Broad Goals of Christian Apologetics Interactions

First, I try to present clear, careful, and cogent arguments for my faith. Whetherpresenting arguments for God’s existence…

Is the Christian faith a reasonable religion?

Some believers throughout church history have agreed with many nonbelievers in proclaiming that Christianity is not a reasonable religion. Nevertheless, a powerful theological-philosophical consensus within the history of the faith has argued that the historic Christian religion involves knowledge and is indeed compatible with reason. This historic agreement has often been expressed in the common statement: “faith seeking understanding.” Its most articulate and persuasive spokespersons through the centuries have been such distinguished Christian thinkers as Augustine, Anselm, and Thomas Aquinas.¹Five Aspects of Christianity’s Reasonableness

Since the perception that the Christian faith is not a reasonable religion persists today, it is important to examine five ways that historic Christianity is reasonable.²

First, the Christian worldview offers a plausible explanation for affirming an objective source for knowledge, reason, and rationality. That basis is found in a personal and rational God. Infinitely wise…