Kerby Anderson
Christians have always needed to know how to defend the Christian faith ever since Peter admonished us to “always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.” That is even more true with so many people skeptical about God, Jesus, and the Bible.
Douglas Groothuis and Andrew Shepardson are the co-authors of an introduction into classical apologetics with the title, The Knowledge of God in the World and the Word. The primary focus is to put forth various arguments for the existence of God and then finish with a defense of the Bible and a presentation of the truth about Jesus and His resurrection. Here is a summary of just three of the chapters in their book.
The cosmological argument recognizes the relationship between cause and effect. This then points to a First Cause of the cosmos that is transcendent to the cosmos. This argument is even more powerful now that scientists believe the universe had a beginning.
The moral argument derives from the realization there must be objective morality. If God did not exist, then objective moral values and duties would not exist. But they do exist and point to God’s existence.
The design argument claims that God’s fingerprints can be found all over creation. William Paley proposed this argument, but scientists in the 19th century and early 20th century dismissed it. However, we now see what has been called the “return of the God hypothesis” because of the discovery of the fine-tuning of the universe.
In my interview with the two authors, I mentioned that more and more scientific evidence has accumulated to bolster some of these arguments. No wonder some have described us as living in the golden age of apologetics.

Kerby Anderson
John Whitehead has been warning us about the growing surveillance state in America for decades. The increase in surveillance has taken place under both Republican and Democratic presidents. But he is seeing another element that concerns him even more.
To illustrate it, he reminds us of the Steven Spielberg movie, Minority Report. This dystopian film is set in the future “where police agencies harvest intelligence from widespread surveillance, behavior prediction technologies, data mining, [and] precognitive technology.” The goal is to stop a crime before it takes place.
He reports that we have more than 123 real-time crime centers in the country. This is where local police agencies can upload and share massive amounts of surveillance data along with other data and intelligence gathered from state and federal agencies. This comes not only from surveillance cameras but includes facial recognition technology, gunshot sensors, and social media monitoring.
The natural reaction from some people is that we shouldn’t be concerned about all this surveillance if we have nothing to hide. In fact, I heard that very comment last week in a meeting I attended.
Yes, you should be concerned because even saying the wrong word or attending the wrong meeting can turn you into a suspect. He mentions a few harmless words that can be trigger words for certain algorithms. Attend a political rally and you might be listed as a potential threat. Leaked materials have shown these centers tracking people at rallies for racial justice, environmental issues, conservative issues, and third-party candidates.
Authors like George Orwell, Aldous Huxley, and Phillip K. Dick warned about a future police state. This election you need to ask candidates what they plan to do about this growing surveillance state in America.