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?
Some of the topics that I will cover are:
My conversion and personal experience,
Does the Bible claim that God can be wrathful?
Historic treatments,
Common objections,
Can it be misused?
The kindness and severity of God, and
Is wrath an essential attribute of God?
Kevin Rogers and William Lane Craig
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.
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.
On the 9th February 2023, Kevin Rogers provided a presentation on Apologetics for young people.
It covers:
Is there a decline and how great is it?
What are the causes?
Are deficiencies in lack of apologetics for children a significant factor?
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.
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.
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the idea that this is the best of all possible worlds was popular in Europe, particularly in many leading philosophical circles. To Francois-Marie Arouet, more commonly known as Voltaire, this was nonsense, and he set out to lampoon the concept in brilliant satire.
But:
What was the basis of this belief in the first place?
How effective is Voltaire’s response?
And what should we make of it today, particularly in our covid-ravaged world?
There’s an aspect of Christianity that most churches are uncomfortable with, and that is directly hearing from God.
This can be by such means as:
Hearing an inner voice,
Two-way conversational prayer,
Dreams,
Visions, or
Prophesy.
Some churches argue that the Bible is all-sufficient. Nothing more is necessary, and such forms of direct human-God communication died out in apostolic times. Others, generally of a more ‘charismatic bent’, regard at least some of the above as still valid for today but are wary of such teaching as applying to the ‘normal Christian life’. So, can we hear God?
