Although a primitive form of the ontological argument for God’s existence can be found in St. Augustine, St. Anselm of Canterbury provided its classic formulation in the 11th century. The argument purports to prove God’s existence from the concept of God itself: God is “than which no greater can be conceived”; he must therefore have all properties;

Within Step 2, an additional sticking point often surfaces in the mind of the skeptic—namely, the problem of evil, which is generally addressed as a subset under God’s existence, known as theodicy.

Whereas Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John were written during the first century, the alternative gospels were not written until the first half of the second century.

adherents to all three positions accept that no logical or evidential argument could bring a person to faith in Jesus apart from the special work of the Holy Spirit in the heart. In addition, all agree that the unbeliever must recognize the existence of God and also his own sinful condition.

Matthew, Luke, Mark, John were written either by direct apostolic eyewitnesses (Matthew, John) or based on apostolic eyewitness testimony (Mark was based on Peter’s preaching, and Luke [Luke 1:1-4] gathered his information by interviewing eyewitnesses and traveling with Paul [Acts]).

“Enlightenment” philosophers included Immanuel Kant, who claimed that the traditional proofs of God’s existence were inadequate and that only an absolute ethic could be established (the “categorical imperative”); Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, who dug his “Ditch” between absolute, philosophical truth on the one hand, and what he considered the inadequac

Each of these theologians and philosophers believed that because humans are fallen and sinful creatures, they are not able to understand spiritual truth about God. Consequently, presuppositionalists do not believe that there is any common ground between the regenerated and the unregenerated, so that logic and rational arguments are ineffective. Acc

We have nearly 30,000 New Testament manuscripts in various languages (versions). Of these, more than 5,800 are in the Greek language, with the oldest verified copy (fragment) of a New Testament document from the Gospel of John, with a gap of fewer than 50 years from the original composition.3 No other ancient text comes close to the quantity or ear

Faith is contrasted with mere assent (Matthew 13:20-21; John 2:23-25; 1 Corinthians 15:2; Galatians 5:6; Ephesians 2:10; James 2:14-26; cf. James 2:19).