David Pratt has been a Lutheran high school teacher for twelve years. In his theology classes, no matter the course title, he constantly sprinkles apologetics into the lesson plans. After listening to episodes 22 and 29 of Reconnect, which both explained and critiqued the use of various approaches to Apologetics, he had a lot of feedback to provide. In this episode, David shares his commentary on those episodes, correcting what he thought was not always an accurate depiction of presupositional apologetics in those episodes. Hopefully, you’ll learn as much from his feedback as I did. His explanation and use of presuppositional apologetics has certainly given me a much better understanding of the usefulness and tactful approach to take with presuppositional arguments for the purpose of sharing both the Law and Gospel of God’s Word. – Andy Wrasman
Show Links:
Episode 22: Mixed Martial Apologetics with J. Warner Wallace
Episode 29: What’s up with Presup? with Andy and Ben
David’s School: Faith Lutheran Middle School and High School in Las Vegas
Andy likes to surf the New Age shops to see the new lingo and directions of the oneist, pagan lefties. He discovered a sticker that read, “Christianity Has Pagan DNA.” Andy snatched one (after purchasing it) and used it as a centerpiece for a small group church discussion guide. Ben and Jonathan join Andy for this episode of Reconnect to discuss this sticker. Hopefully you like the conversation that ensues and if so be sure to go to Episode 54 at www.andywrasman.com to access the guide Andy created so you can have this same discussion with your local small group Bible study, Sunday school class, or youth group.
Christianity Has Pagan DNA! Questions
Who is a pagan? What’s paganism?
Does the Bible give any indication that there is pagan DNA within Christianity?
Even if there are real and intentional connections to pagan mythology and beliefs in the Bible do these connections in any way discredit the Christian message?
Do you we have any pagan practices, imagery, or carry-overs from pre-Christian culture within modern day expressions of Christianity? How do you respond to these?
What do you think this sticker means by pagan DNA within Christianity?
Show Links
Christianity Has Pagan DNA Sticker Group Discussion Guide
Episode 43 of Reconnect: Jesus’ Plagiarized Resurrection Myth
Episode 12 of Reconnect: Faith, Hope, Love, and the Club
Episode 13 of Reconnect: God is Too Big to Fit into One Religion
Christians believe that Jesus Christ rose from the dead. Eyewitness testimonies attest to the truth of this belief, testimonies that are reliable on account of the witnesses’ willingness to die for their claims, as well as the solid physical evidence of the empty tomb with a corpse that was never found. However, many non-Christian skeptics assert that it is more likely these eyewitnesses were lying, or that we have no eyewitness testimonies at all, but instead the New Testament is simply plagiarized by the apostles or imposters in the second century who applied resurrection narratives of other gods to the man, Jesus of Nazareth.
This episode of Reconnect presents both sides of the arguments through the use of multiple audio clips downloaded from Youtube with Andy giving commentary throughout the show.
The central claim of Christianity is that Jesus died for sins, was buried, and rose from the dead for our salvation. Episodes 50 and 51 of Reconnect shared 14 evidences that indicate that Jesus did in fact rise from the dead confirming his claims to be God in the flesh, the savior of all men.
When faced with these evidences, not everyone comes to the conclusion that Jesus did rise bodily from the dead. Alternative theories are thus offered to naturally explain the evidences. Sometimes these theories offer evidence also. This episode looks at an elaborate explanation for the empty tomb of Jesus that involves the theft and reburial of Jesus’ corpse in a different location, a location that that is speculated to have been found by the discovery of a family tomb that contained an ossuary with the name, “Jesus, Son of Joseph”, inscribed on it.
This theory was put forth by The Lost Tomb of Jesus, documentary that was produced by James Cameron. Andy Wrasman plays audio clips from this documentary and offers rebuttals to the documentary’s claims.