A Very-YSLT Wednesday!

Tonight's WNY started off with a very fun, and extremely popular event-BPBBBB! For those who have not attended before, or have simply never seen that acronym... It stands for "Bed-Post, Backpack, Bed Bunk! This is a very fun game, but difficult to explain, so I will not go into all of that. If you are curious, come visit us sometime and ask! We then went into a time of worship, led by our youth praise band, followed by a great teaching from Cody and Tyler, representing the YSLT (Youth Servant Leadership Team).

I hope you enjoy the audio below, I know I enjoyed listening it live. Speaking of listening live, if you weren't with us tonight... Why don't you join us on Sunday for Sunday School, and Wednesday for WNY? I can assure you these events are much more fun in person than listening online.

That's all for now, enjoy the audio and pictures below! I hope to see you soon!

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11th & 12th Grade DGroup

Last night, we talked about the three major worldviews: Theism (God made all), Pantheism (God is all) and Atheism (No God at all).

 

Then we discussed that although we don’t physically see God, we know he exists by his effects. One effect appears to be the universe itself.  This is the first argument for the existence of God that we are discussing in this course. It’s known as the cosmological argument. It is stated this way: Everything that had a beginning has a cause. The universe had a beginning. Therefore the universe had a cause. 

We learned an acronym, “SURGE,” that represents five lines of scientific evidence that the universe had a beginning (in other words, the universe is not eternal).

S-second law of thermodynamics

U-universe is expanding

R-radiation afterglow

G-great galaxy seeds

E-Einstein’s general theory of relativity

SURGE evidence shows that time, space and matter came into existence together; the universe came into being out of nothing, commonly referred to as the “Big Bang” or ex nihilo. For this to have happened, something outside of time, space and matter had to cause it. A theist God best explains the cause. Even though most scientists refute this, some have admitted that the evidence points to a cause that is super-natural.

Next week we will start looking at the second argument for the existence of God—the design or teleological evidence.

In the meantime, here are some resources for you:

For a great, quick video clips that give quick, credible answers to curious questions about faith, check out: www.oneminuteapologist.com.

For a fabulous video (4 minutes) on the Cosmological Argument check out this link.

 

11th and 12th Grade DGroup

The 11th and 12th graders began digging into the meat of their apologetics DGroups Sunday night and started by exploring truth. We discussed the law of noncontradiction and how laws of logic flow from God. That truth is absolute--it is true for all persons at all times in all places. We discussed what Frank Turek calls the Road Runner tactic which is turning a claim on itself to explore if it is true. When someone claims "You can't know truth" ask them if that is true. This tactic exposes self-defeating claims. We discussed how and why society today believes that religious beliefs are mere opinions and not truth. We have to be able to show that truth exists to be able to talk to others about Christianity being the only way to salvation. We explored what faith is and the difference between evidence and proof, between assertions and arguments. 

 

For a brief summary of these points, go to the Cross Examined app, quick answers and explore the entries under the 'truth' tab. 

 

The 12-point progression we will cover in this course:

1. Truth about reality is knowable

2. The opposite of true is false

3. It is true that the theistic God exists (we'll learn the major arguments)

4. If God exists, then miracles are possible

5. Miracles can be used to confirm a message from God

6. The New Testament is historically reliable (evidence will be explored)

7. The New Testament says Jesus claimed to be God

8. Jesus' claim to be God was miraculously confirmed (evidence will be explored)

9. Therefore, Jesus is God

10. Whatever Jesus (who is God) teaches is true

11. Jesus taught that the Bible is the Word of God

12. Therefore, it is true that the Bible is the Word of God (and anything opposed to it is false). 

 

The Four Major questions explored:

1. Does God exist?

2. Does truth exist?

3. Are miracles possible?

4. Is the New Testament reliable?

 

Resources of the week: Check out--

www.oneminuteapologist.com 

Great short interviews on tough questions. See episode #429 for Frank Turek talking about the truth issues above. You can search by topic, etc. Very cool. Explore them together as a family and discuss. Let everyone pick a topic. 

 

And for a free chart on logical fallacies:

www.yourlogicalfallacyis.com

 

Julie

WNY 2/12

Below you will find the audio from this past week's Wednesday Night Youth. While I was not there, I heard it was really good, so definitely check the recording out! Our next event is Sunday School, but this is getting posted as Sunday School starts, so our actual next event is D-Groups on Sunday night. Snack Supper at 5, D-Groups at 5:30. See you there!

11th and 12th Grade D-Groups Letter from Mrs. Loos

While the title says this is for the 11th and 12th graders, anyone will be able to get some use out of this, it will just make the most sense to the 11th and 12th graders. What follows is a note from Mrs. Loos:

Hello Youth parents, and especially parents of 11^th and 12^th graders.

I am helping Michael Crews and Pat Budde teach these high schoolers during DGroups on Sunday nights as we introduce them to apologetics—Christian case making; defending their faith, knowing what they believe, why and how to share it in a world hostile to Christianity. We are using Dr. Frank Turek’s “I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist” material as our basis for curriculum. I now work with a ministry called Ratio Christi which does just this. We set up chapters on college campuses to train Christian students how to defend their faith historically, philosophically and scientifically. We also mentor adults to train high school students in apologetics. My main job with our youth, and you, will be as a resource assistant. I hope to contribute weekly to Debbie’s update with resources for both you and your youth to help them in this critical area.

Did you know that easily 75% of Christian students leave their faith once in college—and many are checking out in high school. The number one reason given is intellectual skepticism. They don’t see how Christianity answers the hard questions, how it applies to their lives, how it stands up to science and more. That is why training in apologetics is so critical.

I gave your students an easy homework assignment and I’m passing it on to you as well. If you have a smart phone, go to where you get your Apps and download the Cross Examined app. (This is the ministry of Dr. Frank Turek.) It has an incredible “quick answers” section which is like flashcards for apologetics. Great to review when you have a few moments or a lot. Why don’t you and your student discuss them together and quiz each other?

Have your child tell you about our special guest last night and how he demonstrated the importance of apologetics in their lives.

Sunday night was an intro to apologetics. Next week we start digging into truth—does it exist?

Julie Loos

Shoe-Per Bowl Party!

This past Sunday, or, Super Sunday as it should be called, we traveled to Living Word Church, to join them in their "Shoe"-per Bowl party. Not only did we get to enjoy company and good food, on top of watching the Super Bowl, we also got to support a great cause, by donating shoes to the Shoeman Water Project. This Project uses used shoes, to pay for water sources, in countries where the people do not have easy access to drinking water, like we do in the US. Below are two pictures, one of the MASSIVE pile of shoes, and the other is of the youth loading the shoes onto the Shoeman's van.

It was a ton of fun, even though the game was not... Regardless, it was nice to be able to fellowship with others in this way.

Our next event will be Wednesday Night Youth on, you guessed it, Wednesday!

Hope to see you there!