A Glimpse of the Kingdom by David W. Pendergrass, Ph.D.

   Hey David!! I had a question about something I see come up a lot online when atheists and theists/religious believers debate the reasons why mass murders occur around the world. For example, with the Paris attacks, the murderers are clearly motivated by Islam, and this gives fuel for the atheists’ fire to say "See?!  Religion causes all the bad things in the world and all the wars!  Atheists are the superior beings, both morally and intellectually!"  And every time someone brings up the evil, murderous atheists that have existed throughout history (i.e. Stalin, Pol Pot, etc.), atheists ALWAYS say, "Well, those murders weren't done 'in the name of atheism.'"  So, apparently, they think this gets the atheism worldview out of being the cause of any wrongdoing among atheist murderers, but religion is bad because these other mass murders are done "in the name of (some religion)."  Even with Christianity, they will constantly point to the Crusade...

Hey brother! Thanks for the email. Great questions. Let me respond to your email in   blue . . . but anyways, I have some questions.. Been trying to figure out how to word it.. You have said in the past everyone gets the same blessings. there is no choosing by god. everyone gets life, sunlight etc.   Well, kinda’. Jesus said in Matt 5:45 that the Father sends the “sun” and the “rain” on the righteous and unrighteous. That is, God, to some degree,   takes care of people   who love Him and those that don’t. Jesus’s point is that we, too, must take care of those who don’t love us. So, to be clear, not “everyone gets the same blessings,” as you said in your email, since the Bible never says that (some people get healed of sicknesses, others don’t…some get demons removed, others don’t…etc.). Therefore, God   sustains people in the Laws of Nature equally , but not everyone receives the same “blessings.” Ive always heard, Give yo...

I have always been struck by Saul’s testimony of what he endured as a God-sent apostle of Jesus. In an effort to defend his apostleship in the face of certain persons at Corinth who claimed otherwise, Saul retorted that he was just as Jewish and Christian as any other leader. “22 Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they offspring of Abraham? So am I. 23 Are they servants of Christ? I am a better one- I am talking like a madman- with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death. 24 Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; 26 on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; 27 in toil and hardship, throug...