In the 1960s movie Pollyanna, a cheerful young orphan girl by that name convinced the local minister to preach on the many ‘Glad’ passages from the Bible. It is a trend that has been going on for at least a century as we do not want to disturb people who come to church about their sin or the coming judgement – they might be offended and not come back. But is this how the Christian faith started – do all atheists have a similar optimistic view as Pollyanna?
The presentation attempted to answer these questions and looked at instances of powerful conviction of sin in recent times. The presentation is available on YouTube.
Stephen White has had a career as a physicist and is now retired. He has been a very supportive member of the Reasonable Faith Adelaide committee for a number of years.
Between now and the end of August, Ann and I will be away, mainly on cruise around the world. Somebody has to do it. In the meantime, Brian Schroeder will takeover most of my activities. I still hope to participate in most of the meetings via Zoom and will prepare the meeting announcements. However, Brian will host the live meetings, record the meetings, control the zoom sessions and upload the recordings onto YouTube. A lot of this is pretty tricky. I am very grateful to Brian for doing this. Please pray for him and support him in whatever way you can.
The wrath of God is not a popular or frequent topic for Sunday sermons. There is more focus on the positive aspects of the Biblical message. Why upset people? Will it offend people? Will it help build a church? Is it an apologetic liability?
However, it is mentioned frequently in the Bible and is a common theme from Old Testament prophets.
It is also a common topic of ridicule cited by Christianity’s opponents. Thus their criticisms should be considered and answered carefully. Otherwise, we fiddle while Rome burns.
Also, is the Biblical teaching on the wrath of God part of the whole counsel of God, and is our proclamation deficient if we ignore or suppress it?
Dr Kevin Rogers is the director of Reasonable Faith Adelaide. He was an electrical engineer and then became a lecturer, researcher, and research supervisor at the University of South Australia. He is now mostly retired but continues with part-time research. He is also learning New Testament Greek, attends Ingle Farm Baptist Church and is blessed with a wife, 4 children and 8 grandchildren.
Here is Gordon’s summary of what he will be presenting:
Jesus’s instructions to His disciples are: “Heal the sick, raise the dead, cure those with leprosy, and cast out demons. Give as freely as you have received!” Most Christians in the Western world dismiss Matthew 10:8 as absurd and out-of-date babble from another age. They have enough faith to be saved, but zero faith for going further. For many, being led by, and abiding in the Holy Spirit, are evidently nothing but words without power. There are mainstream conservative denominations which, in direct contradiction to our Lord’s instructions, teach that wielding our Lord’s authority is unsound emotional foolery. For example, in the Lutheran church, pastors who get interested in healing and deliverance risk being hauled before their district authorities and held to stern account, or even expelled from their church duties! Demonstrating ‘kingdom authority’ is dismissed as ‘schwarmerei’ (fanatical rubbish). Other traditional churches have a similar attitude. Fortunately, a growing number of Christians recognize the contemporary reality and scriptural authenticity of the authority that they discover in Christ.
Dr Gordon Stanger is a geologist, hydrologist, water resources specialist, and a climate-change impact analyst. He is an RFA committee member and is semi-retired.
The Bible, along with Christianity, is regularly portrayed as being anti-women, misogynistic, responsible for the suppression & oppression of women, and a tool of “the patriarchy” to subjugate women.
On the other hand, Christianity is often accused and derided for appealing more to women than men. Churches seem to have a higher proportion of women than men and this was also true in the early church. So – what is going on? If the stereotype is true, why are women attracted to Christianity more than men are? What are we missing in all this?
Brian’s presentation answers the above questions and will also address the following issues:
What has been the historical norm for relationships between men & women?
What has been the Christian heritage?
How should the Greco/Roman culture be taken into account when interpreting the Bible?
Has Christian teaching and practices failed women?
What are the current popular opinions within Western culture?
Are they a reliable guide for what is right?
What is a Biblical perspective?
What is the difference between authority and value?
Should we preference responsibility or rights?
What is the created order for male and female?
Was Moses enlightened compared with other nations?
What were Paul’s teachings on relationships between men/women and husbands/wives?
Brian Schroeder is a Reasonable Faith committee member. He has BSc and BA degrees from Adelaide University (Computer Science, Physics, Mathematics), and an MA in Theology.
The format will be a presentation followed by open discussion, which will include both local and remote participants. The total meeting duration will be approximately 90 minutes. We follow this with a small supper to encourage social interaction.
When I was a young Christian (in my teens), I thought I knew what the gospel was. It was an explanation of how a person became a Christian. I joined a church youth group, and we explained the gospel to people on Rundle Street using a booklet containing the 4 spiritual laws:
God loves you and offers a wonderful plan for your life,
Man is sinful and separated from God,
Jesus Christ is God’s only provision for man’s sin, and
We must individually receive Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord to be saved.
Eventually, I suspected this definition was simplistic and so I went back to reading the Bible to find out what it said about what the gospel was.
The Sermon on the Mount
Carl Bloch, 1890
So, I did a word search on ‘gospel’, especially in the 4 gospels. I found this approach to be frustrating. There are numerous mentions of Jesus preaching the gospel in the 4 gospels, but the meaning seemed to be assumed rather than defined. Try it yourself and you will see what I mean. However, others have asked the same question as me and there are good answers. The gospel includes how a person becomes a Christian, but there is much more. It also describes how we live in this world and what is our ultimate aim and destiny. It is very important.
Kevin Rogers is the director of Reasonable Faith Adelaide. He was a practising electrical engineer and then became a lecturer, researcher, and research supervisor at the University of South Australia. He is now mostly retired but continues with part-time research. He is also learning New Testament Greek, attends Ingle Farm Baptist Church and is blessed with a wife, 4 children and 8 grandchildren.
The Bible describes events that have certain geographical implications. This results in some debate that require interpretations.
In 1858 when Antonio Snider-Pelligrini produced his global map of a super-continent he was mocked by scholars but his theory led to more helpful investigations.
When the Apostle Paul addressed the scholars in Athens he appealed to the claim that the true God was the creator of the world and who founded the early nations and their regions. What is the evidence for this claim outside the Bible?
Defining the route of Israel’s exodus from Egypt and their 40 years of wandering has many candidates. Are there some clues for the required logic?
Archaeology and topographic logic can be used to identify many of the sites of biblical Israel. Even today this topic causes passionate responses among scholars and politicians.
The New Testament describes key events in the life of Jesus. Where are some of the important locations?
The Apostle John was given a profound geographical description of the final destiny of the earth. Is it real or a surreal imagination?
Trevor Harris has an Honours degree in Architecture and a Masters degree in Urban and Regional Planning. He has practiced in these areas for 45 years. Twenty years ago he formed a company Key-line Christian Research dedicated to identifying and researching Bible sites and their history. This has included extensive field trips to the Middle East.
The strongest argument against the existence of a loving God is supposedly the problem of evil, but probably the second strongest argument is called the hiddenness of God. The argument is basically as follows:
If God wants us to believe in him, why doesn’t he make himself known more clearly and unambiguously? But He doesn’t. So, the most likely explanation is that he doesn’t show himself clearly because he doesn’t exist.
Paul claims that God’s ‘invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So, they are without excuse’ (Romans 1:20). Apologists also use arguments for God’s existence based on the observable world and from logic. However, many are not convinced. They object that these general arguments are not convincing enough. and that God could or should have made his existence more obvious.
In this presentation, the following questions will be considered:
Is general revelation sufficient?
Are we without excuse?
Does God deliberately make his existence known only to those who have eyes to see?
Does he reveal himself personally to some and hide himself from others?
If we seek, will we find; If we knock, will God answer?
Is the Divine Hiddenness argument a good argument?
Kevin Rogers is the director of Reasonable Faith Adelaide. He is a former electrical engineering lecturer, researcher, and research supervisor at the University of South Australia. He is now mostly retired but continues with part-time research in acoustic atmospheric tomography. He is also learning New Testament Greek, and is blessed with a wife, 4 children and 8 precocious grandchildren.
Sensus Divinitatis is a Latin term that refers to a natural sense of God that is present within every human being, but what does this actually mean?
This talk covered:
What were the views of major Christian figures on the Sensus Divinitatis?
What does the Bible say about it?
Can it be suppressed?
Is it innate or
Is it derived from observation of the creation?
Is it dependent on culture and upbringing?
What are the major objections to the sensus divinitatis?
How does it affect Christian apologetics and the proclamation of the gospel?
Kevin Rogers is the director of Reasonable Faith Adelaide. He is a former research fellow, lecturer and research supervisor at the University of South Australia. He is now mostly retired but continues with part-time research.
An image of Mount Sinai
The Bible (both Old and New Testaments) has a lot to say about the fear of God. Is this fear good and could it be beneficial, or is it “old hat” and no longer relevant, and how should we understand this fear?
Geoff Russell is a professional electrical engineer. He has a Bachelor of Engineering with Honours from the University of Adelaide, a post-graduate Diploma in Engineering & Computer Applications and an Associate in Theology from the Bible College of South Australia. Two years ago, Geoff retired to Warrnambool, but he’s as busy as ever. In a sea change from engineering, he’s become an Associate Pastor at a local Baptist Church and the sole Chaplain at the Warrnambool Campus of Deakin University. He’s doing what he loves!
On the 23rd February 2023, Kevin Rogers provided a presentation on What is an experience of knowing Christ?’
He describes his talk as follows:
It is often claimed that being a Christian means having a personal relationship with Christ, but what does this mean, how should it feel like, and do I have one?
Within conservative protestant circles, assurance is often based on scriptural promises. E.g., we can know we are a Christian if we have put our faith in Christ, or ‘Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so’. However, although these statements are true, they do not go far enough. Both Jesus and Paul state that assurance goes beyond this, and Paul expects his readers to share in his own experience.
Apologetics by reasoned arguments is commanded and is useful for providing intellectual support, but it does not go the whole way. God can do more than that such that we can we truly know. The Spirit can attest with our spirit that we are children of God.
During this talk, I will cover:
The value and limitations of apologetics,
My own Christian experience,
The Biblical warrant for Christian experience and assurance,
Paul’s teaching on knowing Christ, and
The conditions for knowing Christ,
Kevin Rogers
Dr Kevin Rogers
Kevin Rogers is the director of Reasonable Faith Adelaide. He is now mainly retired after having an electrical engineering career for 40 years and then working as a research Fellow, lecturer and PhD student at the University of South Australia.
