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.

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.

Continue Reading

Q4: If Christ came for all, why do Christians exclude LGBTQ+ People?

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The Rainbow - sign of a promise of God, not a symbol of pride

As the gay pride flag misappropriates the rainbow, the sign of the covenant God made (Gen 9.12-17),  this question misappropriate the message of the gospel. So let’s clear it up. The question is:
Question 4 – Christ says he came for all, so why do Christians want to exclude LGBTQ+ people?
There are indeed a number of biblical texts that indicate God’s desire to save all people. You find them in both the Old and New Testaments:

Salvation is offered to all

Old Testament:

For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign LORD. Repent and live!
(Ezek 18:32)

Continue Reading

Q14 – Age of the Earth – The Bible vs Science – Is the Bible wrong?

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Blue Stars - NASA

Blue Stars – Image – NASA

Q14 – The Bible says the universe is just a few thousand years old, but science says it’s actually billions of years. The Bible is wrong!

Let’s start by understanding the entities we’re discussing. The Bible is the written word of an almighty, omniscient, omnipresent God who brought into existence every created thing—in the heavens and on earth. The Bible is the word of this God who knows everything. This brings us to an interesting question. Do you know everything? If you don’t know everything, how do you know what you think you know is correct? How do you know whether or not that you, in your lack of knowledge, are missing a key piece that could change everything you think you know now? How do you know your knowledge, which is incomplete, is not unlike the picture you get of suspects during a mystery movie? You look at all the evidence you’re given and all of the suspects. For an hour and forty-five minutes of a two-hour movie it’s clear that the butler did it. Then, at an hour and forty-six minutes, a new clue is revealed. All of a sudden it’s clear that the butler didn’t do it. It’s the [insert your new obvious suspect here]. Maybe your new suspect is guilty, maybe not. You’re still not sure until they do all the revelations and resolutions in the last five to ten minutes of the movie. Continue Reading

Q17: You say everything needs a creator, so who created God?

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God is eternal

The question “Who created God?”, is at the heart of the matter for Question 17:  “You say everything needs a creator, so who created God?” and it shows a severe misunderstanding of both the nature of God and the cosmological argument for the existence of God—specifically the Kalam cosmological argument [1]. Let’s start with the Kalam cosmological argument, which makes it easy to see where the error crept in.

Apologist William Lane Craig has used this argument as one of the premiere arguments for the proof of the existence of God, so it’s in many of his books. As he points out in “On Guard”, it’s simple, easy to memorize, easy to share and logically “airtight.” It goes like this:  Continue Reading

Q10: Why do Christians want to control women’s bodies?

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Year AD 2000 – Picture of the Century

This question “Why do Christians want to control women’s bodies” shows how willing people are to deceive themselves when they don’t want to accept the truth and instead would prefer to believe a lie. (cf 2 Thess 2.12). Before I get to this question concerning a woman’s body, let me ask three questions that will help put things in context:

1. Is murder contingent on a person’s location? For example, if you murder someone outside their house, is it still murder if you unjustifiably with “malice aforethought” (Num 35.20-21) kill them inside their house? Continue Reading

Q15: Psychology, evolution, agency and creation

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Robin Hood splits the arrow

Robin Hood splits the arrow

This question is too long to be an article title. The title I used just captures the elements involved. Here is the full question:

Question 15: Psychology says evolution has wired people to find “agency” — a personal cause — in everything, even when we know it’s not true. If they think the world and what happens here has a personal cause, it’s just another case of imagining agency when it isn’t really there.

This is a complex question filled with assumptions and bad reasoning. So let’s start by identifying the assumptions and bad reasoning, and then we’ll go on to the core of the question and the answer. Continue Reading

Left Behind: The Biggest Sign after the Eclipse

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Total Solar Eclipse, April 8th, 2024, NASA

Total Eclipse April 8th, 2024, NASA

In 2017 we traveled down near St. Louis to be in the path of totality for the eclipse that year. It was such a wondrous, awe-inspiring event that, when my wife asked if we were going to do it again this year, I thought, “How many more chances are we going to get?” (It turns out that the next one viewable in the States is in twenty years). So, with no further debate needed, I said, “Yes, we’re going.” No matter that hotels were doubling and tripling their fees for the occasion, traffic was predicted to be horrendous and Indiana, our destination for viewing, declared a state of emergency to make sure they had enough emergency services available.

The free solar glasses the hotel gave upon arrival, knowing why most people were there, didn’t make up for the highly overpriced room, but the event itself more than compensated for it. At the moment of totality I was once again filled with awe, wonder and amazement. The moon, appearing to be the exact same size as the sun, smoothly slid in front of the disc of the sun and perfectly covered it. This allowed the sun’s corona to be viewed with the naked eye, eclipse glasses off, with the sun no longer a blindingly bright light but a dark circle. I’m no photographer, and my phone and camera are a few years old, but here is the modest picture I took: Continue Reading