Volume 38:Issue 2 

CONTENTS:

04 From the CAO
Why I Am Here

06 Effective Evangelism
Morality, Therefore God: An Evangelistic Strategy

08 Practical Hermeneutics
Is Jesus’ Name Used in Vain? Answering the Sacred Name Movement

10 Is Christianity Bad for Your Health?
by A. A. Howsepian
Behavioral-Scientific Apologetics/Critical Thinking: Recent atheist writers claim to find real physical and psychological harm in Christian teachings and practices. However, careful analysis of this literature reveals numerous methodological flaws, false assumptions, and factual errors. The real question is whether it is the Christian life or the atheist life that best corresponds to reality and provides for genuine human flourishing.

18 The Seven Deadly Sins and the Path to Virtuous Character
by Paul Copan
Christian Growth: The soul- and relationship-destroying seven deadly sins are vices that undermine loving God and loving others. The virtuous life, by contrast, is one that resembles the image of the truest human—Jesus. Character cultivation begins not with moralistic endeavor but with a relationship with God in Christ, which in turn transforms our character.

24 Discerning the Times: Why We Lost the Culture War and How to Make a Comeback
by Donald T. Williams
Cultural Discernment (Viewpoint): We lost the culture war, not because of bad arguments but because we already had lost it on the more fundamental ground of hermeneutics: we missed the changes taking place in the English departments of our colleges, and postmodernism followed. To reverse this, we must first recognize the importance of reading and how it is taught.

32 Homesick for Heaven: A Story to Share with Non-Christians
by Dan Story
Natural Theology (Effective Evangelism): There is something about the wilderness, wild animals, and even our gardens and pets that humans intuitively find gratifying. Clearly, deep within the human soul, something beckons us to nature. But why? And how can we use this yearning as a point of contact with unbelievers?

38 State School? Christian College? Navigating the Many Choices
by Maren Halvorson
Christian Education: As the cost of college education increases, parents and students are asking if the return on investment justifies the expense. Why go to college? What kind of college should one attend? Grounded in biblical wisdom, Maren Halvorson, EdD, helps parents and students wrestle through the options for the post–high school path.

44 Does the Levitical Prohibition of Homosexuality Still Apply Today?
by Sean McDowell
Ethical Apologetics/Biblical Discernment: Many critics are quick to reject the Levitical prohibition against homosexuality as culturally relative and antiquated. But careful examination shows that God condemned pagan nations for committing the same “abominations” and that the prohibition is rooted in the Genesis creation narrative, implying that it is a universal moral principle.

50 Grace upon Grace: 1 John 1:8–9 and the Forgiveness of Sins
by Steven Parks
Doctrinal Discernment (Practical Hermeneutics): Does 1 John 1:8–9 straightforwardly teach that Christians are not without sin and therefore stand in daily need of confession and forgiveness? Or, as a growing number of evangelicals contend, does this passage apply only to nonbelievers, such that, beyond confession at conversion, Christians need not seek forgiveness for daily sins?

58 Reviews
A Summary Critique: Karen Armstrong’s Fields of Blood…Richard B. Hays’s Reading Backwards

62 Ask Hank
Annihilating A-B-O-R-T-I-O-N Arguments