Volume 35:Issue 5

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CONTENTS:

04 From the Editor
Reclaiming Civility as a Christian Virtue

06 Response
The Sacrament of the Supper

08 What Has Poetry to Do with Evangelism?
by Sharon Fish Mooney
Cultural Apologetics: Poetry has the power to convert or provoke a serious reorientation of one’s beliefs and values. While this power has often been used to promote error, Christians in the past have utilized it to illuminate spiritual truth, and a new generation of Christian poets is doing so today. A feature-length Effective Evangelism

12Practical Hermeneutics
Robbing Paul to Pay Peter and James

14 Pro-Con: Should Christians Attend Same-Sex Weddings?
by Michael F. Ross and Joe Dallas
Ethical Discernment: Should Christians accept invitations to same-sex weddings? Would saying yes signal endorsement? Would saying no signal a lack of commitment to the loved one? There are no easy answers and so we have enlisted proponents of both options to facilitate the process of thinking it through. A feature-length Viewpoint

20The Politics of Abortion: Should Christians Vote Straight Ticket?
by Elliot Miller
Ethical Discernment: Because of the primacy of the abortion issue, are Christians morally obligated to vote across the board for the party whose platform opposes abortion? In a previous issue, JOURNAL contributor Scott Klusendorf argued yes, but in this feature-length Viewpoint, Elliot Miller

28 Confronting the Apologetic Challenges of a Secular Culture: Reflections on The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
by Holly Ordway
Cultural Discernment and Apologetics: The late Swedish author Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy has become a worldwide hit. The books are New York Times bestsellers, and a Hollywood adaptation of the first book appeared in 2011. Should Christians take note? Yes, but with caution

34 Did Daniel Accurately Predict a Succession of Nations?
by Hank Hanegraaff
Biblical Apologetics: One of the most significant demonstrations that the Bible is divine rather than merely human in origin is the prophecy of Daniel. Writing in the sixth century BC, he not only foresaw the ascendancy of the Median and Persian empires but also the rise to dominance of Greece

42 Muhammad and the Messiah: Comparing the Central Figures of Islam and Christianity
by David Wood
Today’s Religious Movements/General Apologetics: The greatest apologetic for Christianity is its founder: all He was, said, and did. Muslims, too, believe that their founder stands apart and that his book, the Qur’an, is their greatest apologetic. A natural avenue for Christian apologetics to Muslims, then, is to contrast the words and works of Jesus and Muhammad

50 Sci-Fi, Free Will, and the Problem of Evil
by Clay Jones
Cultural Apologetics: Science fiction books, movies, and television programs frequently explore free will as a major theme. Surprisingly, these fantastic stories have great utility for illustrating to nonbelievers why a world where evil could never occur might not be the best of all
possible worlds

56 Reviews
A Summary Critique:Lawrence M. Krauss’s A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather than Nothing...Arthur Goldwag’s The New Hate: A History of Fear and Loathing on the Populist Right…John Gribbin’s Alone in the Universe: Why Our Planet Is Unique