Author Archives: Duane Caldwell

About Duane Caldwell

Duane has served in many different capacities including pastor, elder, project coordinator and flight instructor. He is an ordained minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ by the Evangelical Church Alliance and holds a Master of Divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, a Trinity International University school and a BS in Aeronautics from Parks College, St. Louis University.

Q.34 People with real courage will face up to the cold hard realities of a godless universe.

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Does consciousness arise out of a lifeless, mindless explosion of nothing?

Does consciousness arise out of a lifeless, mindless explosion of nothing?

It seems this questioner has been imbibing too deeply into the flawed philosophy of atheists such as Richard Dawkins. Dawkins, in his 2006 book “The God Delusion”, is often quoted as saying:

“The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but blind, pitiless indifference.”

This is clearly Dawkins’ way of restating his view that there is no God, because God’s universe is quite different from Dawkins’. God’s universe is of course created by God with superintelligent design, purpose, meaning, and no evil when created. God created it so he could show love to man, the pinnacle of his creation (Ps 8.5), and man could show love back to God. So Dawkins’ assertion about the meaninglessness and purposelessness of the universe can be falsified by demonstrating that his root assertion—that there is no God—is false. Continue Reading

Q41 Didn’t Constantine tell the bishops what to put in the Bible?

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Constantine's Vision - By this sign, you will conquer

Constantine’s Vision – “By this sign, you will conquer”

This question deals with the canon and history. Before we can answer the question concerning Constantine “the Great”, we must understand what the canon is and get a little background on what was happening in the time of Emperor Constantine. Let’s start with the canon.

The Canon of Scripture

As it is used today, the canon is the list of 66 books which are included in the Bible. Here is how the word “canon” and its usage came about:

“Etymologically, kanōn is a Semitic loan word that originally had the meaning “reed.” From this came the figurative sense of a “measuring rod” or “ruler” and from this the general idea of a “norm” or “standard.” Finally, the term could adopt the purely formal sense of a “list” or a “table.” [1]

The 66 books of the Bible—39 Old Testament books and 27 New Testament books—were not wantonly placed in the Bible by kings or bishops. Books were included in the canon because they were recognized to be from God using a process that contained a number of criteria.  As the McDowells put it: Continue Reading

Q18 Hasn’t Science Proved Miracles aren’t Real?

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Five men roll a massive stone to seal Jesus' Tomb - AD - The Bible Continues

Five men roll a massive stone to seal Jesus’ Tomb – AD – The Bible Continues

This question is from someone who clearly does not understand the limits of science or the scientific method. So let me start with a comparison to demonstrate why science can neither prove nor disprove miracles. Asking if science has proved miracles are not real is like asking if your bathroom scale has showed how much your pet [cat, dog, whatever – insert here] loves you. It should be readily apparent why your bathroom scale, which measures physical weight, cannot measure a non-physical quantity like love, particularly in a creature that is not even human. So there is no way for it to determine if your pet is even capable of “love.” Careful – behavior is not love. Even if your pet exhibits certain behaviors, that is not proof of love, and, even if it were, it (love) is still not a quantity that your scale could measure. Continue Reading

An Advent Sign by Faith – A Christmas meditation

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An angel announces the birth of the messiah to shepherds watching their flocks by night

An angel announces the birth of the messiah to shepherds watching their flocks by night


This Christmas I wanted to bolster the faith of those who believe, inspire faith among those have not yet believed, and I wanted to do so by means of a clear sign or, alternately, a vision–not necessarily a supernatural sign but a natural (non-supernatural) sign. I wasn’t sure that would be possible since it is God who is the author and producer of signs, and I wasn’t sure he’d give one for this humble article. But as I was meditating on the advent narratives and praying about this, God graciously granted my request by opening my eyes to a sign I had not seen before. As I pondered it, it occurred to me that I was not the only one who missed it all these years for reasons explained below. We’ll get to that sign in a moment.

Now, with regard to signs, some may not realize this, but not all signs from God are supernatural. God does not always supernaturally manipulate the natural. Sometimes he simply works behind the scenes to bring about the indicated signs using only natural (non-miraculous) means.

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The Minimal-Facts Fallacy

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Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden with a Therapod dinosaur

Adam, Eve and a therapod dinosaur in the garden of Eden (Gen 1.24-30)

Having just dealt with similar issues in the previous article on Hugh Ross’ mis-directions, I felt a twinge of déjà vu as I read through an “A Minimal-Facts Case for Genesis”[1]. The author appears to have a problem with the teachings of origins as laid out in Genesis. He summarizes the main points of the Biblical origin account as:

1. God created the universe, Earth, and all life in six 24-hour days.
2. The Earth is only 6000 years old.
3. Common descent (i.e. “evolution”) is false.
4. Humans coexisted with dinosaurs.
5. Noah fit the ancestors of all present-day animals on the Ark.
6. The Flood covered the entire Earth, killing all other humans and land animals.[2]

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Creation and Inerrancy: Evaluating the Mortenson vs Ross Debate

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Wolf in Sheep's clothing in lab coat with bible surrounded by sheep.

“Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. (Mat 7:15)

There was a recent[1] debate on creation and inerrancy which addressed the question: “Does belief in inerrancy necessitate a particular view of the age of the earth?”[2] In contrast to U.S. political debates this election cycle where moderators prop up one candidate and challenge the other one, this debate was moderated fairly by apologist Frank Turek who holds to the old earth position[3], though you couldn’t detect it from the way he moderated. Debater Terry Mortenson holds to the young earth position, as do I, and the other debater, Hugh Ross, holds to the old earth position. Continue Reading

Q33 Why does God hide? Where’s the evidence?

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Father walks bride down the aisle

Every time a father walks a bride down the aisle they provide evidence of God by recreating the first wedding when God walked Eve to Adam

I shortened the follow up question for the sake of making it fit in a title. The full question is:

Why does God hide? If God wants us to believe, why doesn’t he give us more evidence?


Is God Hiding?

First off, regarding God supposedly concealing himself: God is not hiding. When you read your Bible, the following facts are made clear.

1. In this age of the gospel, God is not hiding. He is spirit (John 4.24) and therefore invisible (Col 1.15, 1 Tim 1.17) to our physical eyes.

2. It is a good thing that God has separated himself from us so that we cannot see him, because sinful man cannot come into the presence of the holy God and live. Before man sinned he could see God and be in his presence. We learn this from the first marriage. After God created Adam the first man, God saw that it was not good for the man to be alone. (Gen 2.18) So God created a “suitable helper” for the man and brought her (Eve) to the man. (Gen 2.22) By the way, this bringing of Eve to Adam by God is why, during a wedding, fathers walk their daughters down the aisle to present their daughter to the groom. It is a reenactment of the first marriage. Continue Reading

CIB: Like Superman with no Kryptonite Weakness

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Super CIB - Creation Information Barrier

“To what can I compare this generation?” Said Jesus (Matt 11.16) preparing to use a simile as an illustration of what the people of his day were like. In the same vein, to what can I compare the power of the Creation Information Barrier evidence/argument/truth compared to other arguments in support of the necessity of a supernatural intelligence in the creation of life when discussing the origin of life? Superman, I think, is appropriate.

Superman, with all his powers, is clearly the most powerful superhero. He is so powerful in fact, that they had to give him a weakness just to make a way to have a story line without Superman defeating the villain in the first few seconds of a fight. Because a fight between Superman and a human is like a fight between a 150,000 pound sauropod dinosaur and, not a human (as in the graphic below) but, a mouse. It is simply no contest.

Sauropod and human - size comparison

Humans compared to Sauropods

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Q27 Christianity is anti-intellectual. I’d be embarrassed to say I believed any of it.

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The Thinker by Auguste Rodin

“The Thinker” by Auguste Rodin

Before showing the foolishness of being embarrassed when said embarrassment is caused by ignorance of Christian belief, we must deal with the lead and clearly false statement “Christianity is anti-intellectual” which shouts a demand for a definition of “anti-intellectual.” So let’s start there.

From Merriam Webster online:

anti-Intellectual: (adjective) “opposing or hostile to intellectuals or to an intellectual view or approach” [1]

So what’s “Intellectual”? Again from Merriam Webster online:

Intellectual (adjective)
a : of or relating to the intellect or its use
b : developed or chiefly guided by the intellect rather than by emotion or experience : RATIONAL
c: requiring use of the intellect

2 a: given to study, reflection, and speculation
b: engaged in activity requiring the creative use of the intellect [2]

Christianity meets all the definitions of being intellectual, therefore based on the logical principal of non-contradiction, since Christianity is intellectual, it cannot be anti-intellectual. To be precise, Christianity meets all the above uses of the word “intellectual.” For intellectuals who may question it, following is a brief illustration that Christianity in fact meets all aspects of being intellectual.

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