Reasonable Faith Adelaide is a Christian apologetics group that is a local chapter of Reasonable Faith in the US, which is led by Dr William Lane Craig. We aim to provide a specific voice on Christian apologetics in South Australia, are non-denominational and adhere to mainstream Christian beliefs as summarized in the Nicene Creed.
The purposes of Reasonable Faith Adelaide are to:
Provide an articulate, intelligent voice for biblical Christianity in the public arena,
Strengthen the faith and foundational beliefs of believers,
Equip believers to engage unbelievers,
Reach out to unbelievers, and
Create an environment in which the Christian faith is perceived as a viable intellectual option such that the gospel can be heard.
The aim will be to provide events that are of interest to people of all persuasions.
I encourage you to invite friends or acquaintances who are likely to be interested in this venture.
We usually meet at 7-9 pm on every 2nd and 4th Thursday of the month via Zoom. Sign up to receive our twice monthly email using the sign up form on the right hand pane. This does not commit you to pay any money and you can unsubscribe at any time.
The Incredulity of Saint Thomas by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio) (1601)
It is a common perception that Christian faith is belief without evidence or reason. Knowledge is justified, true belief. If it is not justified, then how do we know it’s true? Then it is just a subjective choice, often inherited from parents. In fact, Richard Dawkins claims that this notion of faith is
Wow! Perhaps this is true, but only if faith is belief without evidence. Is this the Biblical meaning of faith and are any of these objections valid? The memes that are circulated in society may represent peoples’ perceptions, but ultimately, they are irrelevant. What matters is what the Biblical authors meant when they mentioned faith. Nothing else matters. So, what is the true nature of faith and why do the Biblical authors deem it so fundamental and important?
A video of the presentation is available on YouTube.
Dr Kevin Rogers
Dr Kevin Rogers is the director of Reasonable Faith Adelaide. After a 40-year engineering career, he was a Research Fellow and lecturer with the University of South Australia but is now mainly retired.
This presentation describes eye-witness accounts of numerous healing and other miracles that took place in Bungoma in Kenya, as investigated by Gordon Stanger.
Patrick and Joseph at Bungoma: Eyewitnesses to the Kenya miracles.
And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.”
However, for those who act upon these words with child-like faith, this text is validated; these, and other miracles do occur. Some extraordinary miracles occurred in a Christian children’s ministry in a remote part of Kenya, as reported in a book by Jennifer Toledo. These included practical deliverance from the evils of witchcraft, which sound bizarre from our cultural perspective. Gordon happened to be working in that part of Africa, so he made a detour to check out the reality of these miracles, the results of which are reported here.
We also discuss the purpose of such miracles. God’s extraordinary miracles aren’t confined to places ‘far away’ in different cultures. Raf has been walking close to the Lord for many years, here in Australia as well as overseas. He relates some personal testimonies of remarkable healing, words of knowledge, and other modern-day miracles.
Dr Gordon Stanger is a geologist, hydrologist, water resources specialist, and a climate-change impact analyst. He also spent significant time in Africa, where he came in contact with many people who received miraculous healing or who had other experiences of the miraculous. He is an RFA committee member and is semi-retired.
In a number of passages in the 4 gospels, Jesus claims that he is the fulfillment of the law and the prophets and that the scriptures testify about him. For example, on the road to Emmaus, Jesus joined 2 of his disciples.
Luke states: 25 Jesus said to them,
“O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. (Luke 24:25-27)
I wonder what scriptures Jesus referred to. It doesn’t explicitly tell us here, but can we find out? We do get some hints. There are a number of Old Testament passages that are cited in the NT as referring to events during Jesus’ ministry, especially his birth, baptism, trial, death, burial, resurrection, ascension and coming again. There are also references in the OT that seem to apply to Jesus even, though they are not cited in the NT. I survey a number of these prophecies. They show how the life of Jesus has always been central to God’s eternal plan. They also demonstrate that the scriptures are God-breathed and inspired by God.
Dr Kevin Rogers is the director of Reasonable Faith Adelaide. After a 40-year engineering career, he was a Research Fellow and lecturer with the University of South Australia but is now mainly retired.
The apostle Paul encouraged believers to work with their hands so that they could give to those who are in need.
However, much of our giving supports church ministry, particularly paying the wages of full-time Christian workers. In addition, there are numerous para-church organizations who frequently appeal for money to support their ministry. There is a lot of competition for the Christian dollar. Is financial support for Christian ministry diverting funds away from the poor?
Paul says that gospel workers deserve financial support, but he did not exercise that right. Paul and his co-workers worked with their hands to supply for their own needs and offered the gospel free of charge. They did this to not be a burden on anyone and to be an example to others. And what was Jesus’ approach? This presentation also covers the historical development of church organisations from
• voluntary shared leadership from elders, to
• power and control centred on the bishop.
This was changed somewhat during the reformation, with emphasis on the priesthood of all believers, but do we have the balance right, and should unpaid lay Christians be more involved in church ministry rather than relying on the minister/pastor to do it on our behalf?
Dr Kevin Rogers is the director of Reasonable Faith Adelaide. After a 40-year engineering career, he was a Research Fellow and lecturer with the University of South Australia but is now mainly retired.
During the first 300-400 years after Jesus’ ministry, the early church formalised the doctrine of the trinity and finalised what books would be included in the New Testament canon. The orthodox believed that there was one God in 3 persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Christ is eternally pre-existent, divine and became incarnate as a human being through the virgin Mary. However. the orthodox position was strongly contested by a range of ‘heresies’. There were those who taught:
• Jesus was just a man and was neither pre-existent nor divine (e.g., the Ebionites),
• Jesus was a man, but was adopted as son of God at his baptism or resurrection (adoptionism), or
• Jesus Christ was divine, but his humanity was an illusion (Docetism)
All of these positions deny either Christ’s divinity or humanity.
In “The orthodox corruption of scripture”, Bart Ehrmann claimed that, when copying the New Testament manuscripts, orthodox scribes modified (corrupted) some of the New Testament text to strengthen the orthodox position and refute the heretics. These variants were sometimes introduced prior to the earliest extant manuscripts thus creating uncertainty regarding what the original authors wrote. Textual criticism is the science of resolving the differences between the New Testament manuscripts to recover what the New Testament authors actually wrote. What Bart Ehrmann is saying is true to a degree. There are variants where scholars debate which is the original and you can see them in the Biblical footnotes (some manuscripts …). I go through some examples and then discuss the following issues:
• How bad is the uncertainty in our knowledge of the what the authors wrote?
• Does it affect our beliefs or theology?
• Does it affect the historicity of the Biblical accounts?
Dr Kevin Rogers is the director of Reasonable Faith Adelaide. After a 40-year engineering career, he was a Research Fellow and lecturer with the University of South Australia but is now mainly retired.
