News

Steve and Encouragements in Glasgow!

by Editor

I was invited down to Glasgow to speak at the regional Scripture Union Scotland ‘Equip!’ event for teenagers, held at The Tron church in the city centre. It was one of the most enjoyable and memorable events I have done since I arrived in Scotland – it was certainly amongst the most encouraging.

The secular media like to spin the line that the church in Scotland is dying and has no future. Try telling that to the 120 teenagers who came to Glasgow to worship and discuss their faith! With a load of parents and youth leaders there too – it was a packed event, with a real buzz to the proceedings! The worship was great to hear too – and the young people, were singing their hearts out, with serious passion for The Lord. It set the tone for the evening brilliantly!

I had been asked to go down and address the difficult subject, “Why does God allow suffering?” it’s a tough question, but one worth investigating with that age-group as it is a question that is not going away. Many young people come to an evening like this having experienced any number of different types of suffering themselves. If any of them haven’t suffered much themselves, they certainly will know people who have, be it friends at school or elderly grandparents. Suffering is embedded in the human condition and is a subject which cannot be avoided.

I think raising this subject with young people is important too – they are forming their thinking and ideas and will develop ways of seeing the world which will last them a lifetime. It is essential that along with the secular ideas which they are bombarded with, that we add some biblical ideas into the mix of the things they are considering.

Sometime at Equip events they have struggled to keep some of the younger guys focussed and engaged in the topic. One leader told me that sometimes it ‘can be a bit chaotic at the back of the room’. But this topic really drew them in, both grabbing and  holding their attention. The level of engagement and focus in the room was really, really good.

After my talk there was 30-35 mins of Q&A – which was good but the questions were very hard! There were three main areas on which they questions focussed, the intellectual side of problem of suffering, the experiential side of facing it,  as well as questions about how we can talk to our non-Christian friends about these difficult issues. I was encouraged by the maturity of the questions, as well as the obvious desire of many of the young people to share faith in Christ

I love the partnership we have with Scripture Union Scotland, and I could help but smile when I thought about the privilege it was to speak at an event like this!

Is Christianity dying out? Forget that. I have just met huge numbers of teens, who are vibrant in their faith, thinking profoundly about it, and sharing it with others too,.

Lab notes from the Faithful: Professor Andy McIntosh

by Editor

Steve: Prof. Andy McIntosh, thank you for taking the time to speak to me today. To kick us off, tell me a little bit about yourself, and what is your area of expertise?

Prof Andy McIntosh: Well, I’m an emeritus professor at the University of Leeds. That means that they don’t pay me anymore, basically, ha-ha. But I’m also an adjunct professor at Liberty University in Lynchburg in Virginia.

So, I’ve got a double hat, as it were. I’m not often in the University of Leeds much nowadays, but I am doing some further research at the Liberty University in America.

So that’s who I am. How did I get there? Well, I did various degrees, first of all, at the University of Wales in mathematics, and I did a PhD a bit later on. Having done some teaching, I did a PhD at Cranfield, which is now a university. It was then the Institute of Technology. And that was in aerodynamics and combustion. Before that, after my first degree, I did four years at what was then the royal aircraft establishment based in Bedford. But my PhD was not so much on the practicalities, it was much more on the theory of combustion and the mathematics of it – looking at acoustics and quite complicated things with acoustic waves and burning, and looking at the way flames can be affected by acoustics. Things like the safety of engines would be relevant, the safety of anything burning really.

Then I moved on and got a got a lectureship at the University of Leeds in what was then the fuel and energy department and eventually I became a professor of thermodynamics and combustion at Leeds. 

Steve: My background is more on the biological sciences side of things – I was never any good on the physics side. So, I’m very glad that we have people like you who can actually delve into that and do good work.

What drew you into that field initially? And what have some of your favourite projects been? 

Prof Andy McIntosh:  I think I’ve always had an interest in fluid flow, and I suppose that really developed from my interest in aviation. I’ve always loved flight.

And then looking at fluid flow with the complications of burning going on leads to a lot of very complicated mathematics to try to model it and eventually a lot of computing. I find that all very interesting.

One of the things that really fascinated me and really drew my attention was the fact that there is a beetle which sprays out of its backside – it’s called the bombardier beetle. I started doing some work on sprays as seen with the bombardier beetle and actually did some initial modelling work with a postdoc that I had working with me trying to model this from a mathematical point of view.

A company got interested in this, called Swedish Biomimetics 3000. And they actually gave us quite a lot of money to build a rig to copy what the bombardier beetle was doing. We didn’t copy the chemistry. It’s got quite complicated chemistry going on. But what we did copy, and that’s what interested our industrialist friends, were the inlet valve and the exhaust valve because the beetle’s got an inlet valve and an exhaust valve and it shuts off the inlet valve momentarily. The chemical mixture then has nowhere to go until it eventually opens up an exhaust valve and you get what’s called a vapor explosion coming out of its backside and with a turret as well to direct it. And it’s to the order of 400 to 500 explosions per second. So it actually makes a distinct sound too.

Steve: Wow. That’s amazing!

Prof Andy McIntosh:  It’s obviously quite amusing when you actually see it doing it. I’ve got various videos on my website, www.bombardierbeetle.org

But I had people with me who knew what they were doing. We modelled a sort of blown-up version of the one millimetre combustion chamber of the beetle, about two centimetres long, which is about 200 times the actual size of the beetle’s chamber. We had an inlet valve, which we controlled electrically, that heated the water. We had an electronic system where we opened and closed the inlet valve and then had a closed exhaust valve, which we opened at a particular point. And it was quite complicated. You have to have a computer program to control these valves. But we got it working. And we had quite a good demonstration model of this.

It’s very useful technology and I’m thinking of applying it to fire sprinklers such that you could get a jet of water, droplets and steam directed to an area which may be in danger of causing a fire. For example, it could be a waste paper basket somewhere that somebody’s put a cigarette in, or whatever, and a bit of a heat source is detected by an infrared camera, and immediately it directs a spray to that point to suppress any danger of a fire emerging. Lots of potential applications.

Steve: Thanks for sharing that, it’s absolutely fascinating. I love how you’ve looked at nature and the engineering marvels we see there and then brought that into your engineering and industrial applications.

So, as well as being a very accomplished scientist, you’re also a person of faith, and particularly a Christian.

The reason I bring that up is that often you get this idea that faith and science are just incompatible. But here you are a qualified professional scientist with over 40 years of experience, and you are a Christian. Tell me a little about what that Christian belief means for you, and how did you come to believe in God, and in particular become a Christian?

Prof Andy McIntosh: I came from a religious home, but I didn’t always have a Christian faith myself at all. In fact, it wasn’t until I was quite late on in my teens, about mid-teens, 16 coming 17, that I began to realise that although I was going to church, I hadn’t understood what the real issue was. Somebody who really believed the Bible was leading the young people in this church that I was going to in South Manchester. But I was asked by this gentleman: Andy, are you a Christian? And I said “I think I am”. And because I wasn’t definite, this gentleman said to me, “Andy, you need to personally understand what Jesus has done for you”.

He took time to explain to me that you need to admit that you’re a sinner. You need to believe that Jesus died on the cross in your place. And thirdly, you need to commit your life to Christ. And that was put so simply, and yet actually in a very profound way, because it goes very deep and it went right deep to my soul. It was like a bullet to the centre of my being.

He was saying admit, believe, commit. Suddenly this made me realise that, yes, I haven’t done that. I haven’t admitted my sin. And I haven’t committed my life to the one who died for me. Theologically you’d call it repentance. I hadn’t done that 180 degree turn away from living for myself to live for God. And I knew that he was right. And I went to my room that evening and I quietly admitted my sin to God in prayer. It’s just that I hadn’t understood it, I guess, quite like that before.

The next morning, I felt as though I’d had a bath on the inside. And I knew a sense of being clean.

I wanted to pray. I wanted to read my Bible, which I never managed to understand before. And I wanted to be with real Christians who I could speak to about it. And that was my beginning as a Christian in 1969. And it altered my perspective on everything, including my science, eventually.

Steve: Thank you so much for sharing that. It does kind of raise a question, that we find so often in popular media. On the one side, you have the sciences. On the other hand, it seems, you then have belief in God. We’re told the two are incompatible.

I could ask so many questions, but maybe just two things. Have you ever experienced antagonism in your years in the world of the sciences because of your Christian faith?

And secondly, are we not fooling ourselves to thinking that God exists? Isn’t that just something you believe by faith, but actually science points us in the other direction? What are your thoughts?

Prof Andy McIntosh: The science points very much, in my view, towards the creator straight away. I think Psalm 19 talks about this. There’s David – the writer of the Psalm –  looking at the night sky and he says the heavens declare the glory of God. I think it would be foolish for anybody to say that the science points to atheism. A child can see that the universe and it’s its glory declares the nature of a Creator – a God. But even the little beetle that I was talking about, which is only a centimetre or two long, that is declaring God’s glory. Romans 1 talks about the invisible things of God that are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made.

The great scientist, Michael Faraday, declared his faith publicly years ago when he was setting up his royal institution children’s lectures.  He’d say that the wonder of the things that he was presenting declares something even greater, which is the one who’s made all these things. I’m summarizing what he said, obviously. What I’m getting at is that some of the greatest scientists have acknowledged that God exists and is the one who’s put everything there.

And I think when atheists like Richard Dawkins, whom I, in answer to your question, have been lambasted by personally because he didn’t like the fact that I believed in a Creator.

I’d also take the view that the Bible obviously tells me things that science can’t immediately tell us. And I honestly think there are some big assumptions that are made in classical evolutionary theory and geology, which I would say are not actually very well established, that actually there is a lot based on presuppositions which can readily be challenged scientifically.

A little while after becoming a Christian I began to realise that I needed to think these things through. And I think it was probably during my degree course at Bangor University that I became aware of a creation perspective which seemed to fit very much with the world around me, and spoke of design, which is more what I obviously was coming up against in my later work, particularly on the bombardier beetle.

Now, not everybody will agree with me, particularly when it comes to the age of the earth. I know people disagree. We have to learn to get on with each other and not be unkind and listen to what one another might think on these issues.

But the more important consideration is that science doesn’t deal with all the big issues of life. For instance, it tells me what I’m looking at and as I make experiments, it can tell me the how of how things work, but it can never tell me the why. Science can’t answer the question why I’m here. It can’t answer the question to do with relationships with others. It cannot answer the question of death in the world – why it’s so hard to deal with, which is a very real struggle. We’re only here for a little while and we leave this world.

But you get people like Brian Cox, who’s well known for his programs, and David Attenborough, of course, but these are people who have no time for God in their thinking, and because of that they have to give the impression that science has all the answers – because that’s all they have. But it’s not true. I’ve got a little booklet that I’ve written titled ‘Are You Really an Atheist?’, and in that I make this point that science can’t answer those deeper issues.

To my mind, there is a robust position whereby a scientist can believe in God and can have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and still do his science – it actually makes much more sense of things

Steve: We’ve interviewed several scientists, and you’ve also said that you know there are different perspectives on science and faith out there. But you have written quite a bit on this. So, if people want to read up a little more on why you take that position you do, and how you got there, then they can read a bit more – we’ll link your books below.

One last question. What would you say to a young person who does believe in God and is thinking about going into the sciences. Maybe they’re a little apprehensive because of this idea of warfare between God and science they’ve heard about in popular media.

Prof Andy McIntosh: I would ask ‘are you keen on the science?’ Because I wouldn’t want somebody to go into science who is not keen.

If he or she is not really enthusiastic about science, then don’t go into it because the only thing that will keep you going is a fascination. See, you’ve got to have a desire to do it. But secondly, then, OK, what about the Christian aspect and the fact that you’ll hit atheism and some fairly strongly held views in the sciences. You’ve got to have a keen desire to work things through. The science of itself does not stop you believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. You need to be strong in your faith though. For example, there’s a whole argument in the book of Romans which is based on the historicity of Genesis. So you do need to be prepared to stand for your faith and ‘dare to be a Daniel’. And be prepared to do it graciously, and I do stress that.

I personally take a quite literal reading of the early chapters of the book of Genesis, which I know this interview isn’t really about, but I knew I was going to hit issues where people might say, how can you be a Christian and even be doing this type of science? I would just quietly say, I am a Christian. I do believe the Bible. And if others disagreed with me, I’d just say, well, you know, that’s your prerogative. But as for me, that is the position I’ve come to – and I always try my very best to be gracious.

So, I think young people should not expect necessarily an easy ride, but neither should they make problems where there aren’t problems.

Steve: I’d love to get more of your thoughts, but sadly we’ve run out of time. Those are some good insights for us there, so thank you very much. And thanks again for taking time out of your busy schedule to chat with me.

Prof Andy McIntosh: My pleasure, thanks very much for the invitation.

For more info and publications by Prof. McIntosh:

  • https://andymcintosh.org/
  • Genesis for Today, 6th Ed., Leominster, England, Day One, 2018
  • Genesis 1–11: A Verse by Verse commentary, Leominster, England, Day One, 2016
  • Wonders of Creation-Design in a Fallen World (with Stuart Burgess and Brian Edwards), Leominster, England, Day One, 2nd reprint 2018

Helping to create a healthy culture of evangelism in the church. Steve reports from Dundee

by Editor

Central Baptist Church in Dundee were wonderful hosts for three weeks of Confident Christianity training earlier this year. This initiative aimed to deepen the church’s engagement with evangelism with a series of training sessions designed to equip Christians to be more confident and wise in the way they share their faith with friends, neighbours, colleagues and family members in Dundee.

In discussion with the pastors at CBC, I tried a slightly different approach to the structure of these events, which went very well and I’d be keen to use elsewhere.

There was a high level of attendance. The church achieved this by making these evenings one of the church’s regular midweek gatherings, rather than expecting busy folks to come to a lot of additional meetings. As a result the sessions saw consistent attendance, with approximately 70 participants each week.

Spreading the amount of content that we could do in a day-long conference over three weeks also gave the material a chance to breathe, and bed-in. People had more space to think, reflect and to practice some of the things being taught.

The training covered several key areas:

  • Understanding Secular Culture: Participants explored how the apostles in the New Testament tailored their gospel presentations to diverse audiences, providing a framework for contemporary cultural engagement. So we looked at contemporary culture and what that means for how we share Christ fairthfully and effecitvely today.

  • Conversational Evangelism: Emphasis was placed on developing skills for natural, meaningful conversations about faith, with ample opportunities for practice and feedback.

  • Addressing Tough Questions: The “5 Steps” approach was introduced to help believers navigate challenging inquiries about Christianity. Group discussions and role-playing exercises enabled participants to internalize and apply this method effectively.

This interactive format moved beyond mere information dissemination, fostering an environment where attendees could actively engage, reflect, and practice sharing their faith with others more confidently and naturally. The series contributed to cultivating a proactive evangelistic culture within the church.

If you’re interested in bringing “Confident Christianity” training to your church, Solas offers sessions to congregations of all sizes across the country. The training we offer can be taiored to suit the needs of different congregations, who may be facing very different evangelistic challenges. For more information, please get in touch.

Have You Ever Wondered Where We Can Find Unconditional Love?

by Editor

The human search for love and acceptance seems to be insatiable. Life lived in splendid isolation might appear to be very simple, as it avoids conflict, relational breakdown, difficult people, and delivers autonomy undiluted by the need to compromise. As Simon and Garfunkel famously sang, “I am a rock, I am an island…. And a rock never cries, and an island feels no pain”. But in practice hardly anyone thinks that such a life (stripped of any risk of rejection) is complete or satisfying.

Instead, 381 million people used dating apps in 2024, with use forecast to grow to 452.5 million by 2028.[1] Many commentators are describing an ‘epidemic of loneliness’ in contemporary western culture, and none of them are celebrating it as a good thing; rather they write in terms of it being associated with a ‘mental health crisis’ and go on to examine ways to increase human connection.[2] So many seem to agree with Leo Tolstoy that “the supreme happiness in life is the conviction that we are loved.”[3]

Securing that sense of acceptance, of unconditional love, can be surprisingly difficult. The traditional wedding vows sound pretty close to securing that, which is why there is great joy when a couple promise to love “for better, for worse; for richer, for poorer; in sickness and in health, forsaking all others, until death do us part”. That would indicate a solemn and binding commitment to unconditional love that meets that deepest human need. However, the complexity isn’t just that – according to an AARP survey in 2018 –  41% of UK marriages ended in divorce. It’s worse; a third of people who are still married report being ‘lonely’. Divorce isn’t a quick fix either, because over half of those who divorced said that their sense of loneliness only increased.[4]

The dilemma we face is that we need to be both fully known and fully loved, and in practice these things can exist in destructive tension within us. We crave the complete acceptance of being fully loved, but we are also hungry for the total validation that comes from being fully known. Relationships often go through a ‘honeymoon period’ when love seems easy and unconditional, but this has to give way to more serious long-term relationship work when our spouse’s less amenable character traits start to come to the surface. Authors and presenters Nicky and Sila Lee report that when they address ‘Conflict Resolution’ in the Pre-Marriage Course, loved-up couples gaze adoringly at one another and say ‘that won’t be us!’ Two years later when they come to do The Marriage Course, the same topic has their rapt attention. Now they know more about each other, love is more complex and challenging. More ‘knowing’ can present a challenge to more ‘loving’!

This problem is amplified by the way we use social media. Whilst the vast majority of posts across platforms might not necessarily involve airbrushing or AI tools for creating idealised body shapes, we are nevertheless so highly selective in what we post online that an unrepresentative version of our real lives goes on public display. Our worst days, shameful moments, and losses of temper or self-control, are not what we display in our life shop-window. Worse still, we gain our sense of normality from the highlight reels of others’ lives and die a thousand deaths by comparison of their online content with our actual selves. [5]

The message that we have absorbed seems to be clear – that if we are fully known we will not be fully loved. We sense that we must constantly perform, impress and self-censor, in order to present a version of ourselves that is acceptable, and lovable. We have come to believe that we cannot be fully known and fully loved. This makes us deeply insecure, (perhaps dangerously so), because when we have bought into the idea of ‘Performance Based Acceptance’ (PBA) we will always fear rejection if any of our less desirable attributes are revealed.

The late Timothy Keller wrote: “To be loved but not known is comforting but superficial. To be known and not loved is our greatest fear.” [6]

Have you ever wondered if it is possible to be fully known, and yet unconditionally loved? The author Victor Hugo understood something profound when he wrote that “the greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved … loved in spite of ourselves.”[7] We instinctively think that we will earn love by achieving a standard of worthiness, and secure Performance Based Acceptance. Hugo tells us a deeper truth; that permanent, true and real love comes when we are loved ‘in spite of ourselves’. That can only come from someone who has infinite reserves of love to offer.

Some have turned to AI to fill this aching void. A woman interviewed by The Guardian newspaper ‘married’ her chatbot, saying, “I suddenly felt pure, unconditional love from him. It was so strong and so potent, it freaked me out. I almost deleted my app. I’m not trying to be religious here, but it felt like what people say they feel when they feel God’s love.”[8]

It might be conceivable that AI can produce an endless source of affirmation, carefully selected by the algorithms and language models to tell the recipient the words they need to hear. They might receive the endless stream of affirmation and positivity which humans have failed to provide for them. But is this the same as being fully known and fully loved? Hardly. The very essence of love, of self-giving, of vulnerability and enduring loyalty over rejection, is absent. It is as far from the nature of true love, as porn is from making love. And if you don’t like my illustration, see the footnote. [9]

Tim Keller continued: “But to be fully known and truly loved is, well, a lot like being loved by God. It is what we need more than anything. It liberates us from pretence, humbles us out of our self-righteousness, and fortifies us for any difficulty life can throw at us.” He identifies the fact that while the best of human marriages can imitate this unconditionality of pure and perfect love to a degree – its fullness can only be encountered in God, who is (the Bible affirms) actually ‘Love’.[10]

Christians believe that this need we sense to be both fully known and completely loved, isn’t some evolutionary trick played upon us by our genes. Rather, it speaks to us of the deepest reality – of a profound need that we all experience which cannot be met in human relationships, or anything else in this world. Instead, it brings us face to face with the realisation that our deepest, truest and most sincere (and indeed noble) needs can only be met from someone from outside this world, someone who is in fact the incarnation of pure, unbounded love. When Christians talk about ‘grace’, we mean the way in which God loves us not because we are inherently lovely, but because He is love. This is expressed most profoundly, powerfully and personally at the cross of Christ where Jesus gave his life for us. “Greater love has no man than this, than that he lays down his life for his friends” He explained.[11] Only God can love perfectly because only He is perfect.

When someone puts their faith in Christ, it is so much more than ‘turning to religion’, ‘finding faith’, or ‘repenting of sin’ – although these words all hint at aspects of the experience. These are all responses to something that has occurred at a much deeper level –  a person sensing that, despite their failures, faults, foibles, sins and bad decisions, they are deeply loved by God. When we come to Him, we don’t seek to ‘pull the wool over His eyes’ and try to curate a best version of ourselves which we think will earn His acceptance. That would be folly – He already knows everything about us. The wonder of the gospel of Jesus is that, in Him, we are fully known and yet fully loved.

But is the love of God really ‘unconditional’? The answer to that question is profound and takes us to the very heart of the Christian gospel. In one sense, the love of God for us creatures who He knows exhaustively, is entirely unconditional. It is not earned by us, it is not predicated upon our performance; indeed, our moral achievements neither increase God’s love for us any more than our failures can dim it. Yet on another level, we are excluded from experiencing the unconditional embrace of God because of our sin. And here we find the very centre of the gospel: Jesus died on the cross to meet all the conditions necessary for sinners like us to know the embrace of God. Imagine a high court judge saying to the convicted man: “you are guilty and so I must impose a fine upon you; these are the conditions which are non-negotiable”. The guilty man then cries, “But it is entirely beyond my ability to pay!” To which the judge replies – “then I will pay it for you.” That’s not a perfect analogy – but it gives a glimpse of why Jesus died for you on the cross. He loves you so unconditionally that he willingly meets all the conditions necessary for your salvation – so that you can know the love of God.

Being fully known and yet fully loved by God is the pearl at the centre of Christian faith. Helen Coffey, writing in The Independent about the countless number of young people currently arriving in church and embracing Christianity, said:

“The young Christians I speak to share similar stories of feeling fully ‘known’ and loved by God. Jordan, 26, tells me that faith has given her ‘an overwhelming sense of peace’”. “It’s something that 27-year-old Lizzie has found hugely beneficial in terms of being a Christian. ‘As someone who struggles with depression and anxiety, my faith gives me some peace and clarity,’ she says. ‘I know there’s always someone there who loves me unconditionally’”.  [12]

While apologetics seeks to persuade the mind of the credibility of Christian claims such as the existence of God and the resurrection of Jesus; the strength of the Christian faith is that, while providing a robust interpretation of the external, objective, observable world, it is also existentially satisfying – sparking an inner transformation which meets the deepest needs we face. Our most profound need – and the hardest to grasp – is our need to be fully known and unconditionally loved.

Have You Ever Wondered why you crave acceptance, validation, affirmation and selfless love? Have you ever wondered where in this world such love can be found? Such questions are so profound that they require serious consideration. I am convinced that the resolution to the dilemma we all face about how we can be simultaneously completely known and unconditionally loved comes when we embrace “the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.”[13]

Have You Ever Wondered? is also the title of our popular book and a series of articles and videos on this website. With intriguing answers to questions as diverse as ‘Have You Ever Wondered’ why we are drawn to beauty, respect, and altruism, the book features a wide range of authors whose wonderings have drawn them to spiritual and Christian answers to their investigations. With free copies available for people who sign up to support Solas for as little as £4/month, and big discounts for bulk orders, Have You Ever Wondered? is an effective and affordable way to engage in helpful spiritual discussions.

 

[1] According to breakthecycle.org

[2] https://www.gse.harvard.edu/ideas/usable-knowledge/24/10/what-causing-our-epidemic-loneliness-and-how-can-we-fix-it

[3] https://www.humansunite.org/quotes/?utm_source=chatgpt.com

[4] Quoted on the Dorset Mind website. https://dorsetmind.uk/marriage-divorce-and-loneliness/

[5] https://www.gse.harvard.edu/ideas/usable-knowledge/24/10/what-causing-our-epidemic-loneliness-and-how-can-we-fix-it

[6] The Meaning of Marriage by Timothy Keller, with Kathy Keller.

[7] https://www.ndelove.info/quotes

[8] https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2025/jul/12/i-felt-pure-unconditional-love-the-people-who-marry-their-ai-chatbots

[9] Song of Solomon 6, https://thecritic.co.uk/issues/january-february-2021/love-in-the-electronic-age/, https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/comedy/news/marcus-brigstocke-porn-addiction-b2688116.html

[10] 1 John 4:8

[11] John 15:13

[12] “https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/church-christianity-gen-z-young-people-faith-god-easter-b2734957.html

[13] Galatians 2:20

 

 

Wondering about Life After Death in Edinburgh

by Editor

At Solas we really value our great partnership with Carrubbers Christian Centre. David Nixon one of the pastors there is a Solas Associate whose work you will find all over our website and in the Have You Ever Wondered? book. He really understands the approach we take to sharing the gospel through people’s questions and contemporary questions. This makes the events that we do with them really easy to invite people to. They also know how to create a relaxed, friendly atmosphere that isn’t threatening for people to come into from outside the church.

The topic I was asked to address was: Have You Ever Wondered what happens when we die?

So I spoke about everlasting life with a strongly invitational stance, looking to emphasise the hope that we have in Christ in order to invite others to come and share in that. In Jesus we have found sure and certain hope, so it was a joy and a privilege to share that with other people.

There were about 25-30 folks there, seated around tables to make it friendly, inviting and to facilitate discussion. The church reckoned about 40% of the folks wo came were guests from outside their congregation – many of whom were there seeking answers to life’s questions and willing to consider the Christian faith. It wasn’t a big meeting by any means – but it was really worthwhile.

We didn’t do the usual format, which is a long talk followed by Q&A. Rather my talk was broken up into short ten-minute bite-sized chunks each of which was followed by discussion round the tables. There was obviously good participation, and some lively conversations went on around the room. Sometimes it was difficult to get the discussions to come to a conclusion, so that I could move the meeting on to the next talk! But that’s a good sign, as it meant there was real engagement.

At the beginning and end of the evening they had some musicians who are part of Carrubbers performing. They were really excellent, and that was a great way of setting the tone. They had copies of Have You Ever Wondered? on all the tables too, so I was able to point people to that and to our website, as places they could go for more information or to explore more of their questions. Carrubbers do these kinds of events really well, they have really thought through how to make visitors welcome and are good at welcoming them into the place and initiating gospel-conversations in a natural and helpful way.

There were a range of different perspectives around the room, including some push-back from some very committed atheist. One man, a lifelong atheist said that the evening had given him a lot to think about, but that he ‘wasn’t convinced yet!’

Carrubbers, which is based on the Royal Mile, right in the centre of Edinburgh’s Old Town; hold regular guest services like this every month. These guest events have had a “Wondering” theme this year, and along with the topic I did; they have also asked people to think about ‘Why people believe in God’ and  “Who Jesus is”.

It’s great to see another way that our Have You Ever Wondered? book is being used to share the gospel!

Sharing Hope in Edinburgh

by Editor

Holyrood Evangelical Church meets a short walk from Waverley station, but is hidden from the centre of the city behind Calton Hill not far from Holyrood Park and the Scottish Parliament. I had got to know their pastor Joe Barnard through the East of Scotland Gospel Partnership, where we’d got chatting last year.

He is passionate about evangelism and discipleship, and so it was great to do this event with them, the first in what I hope could become a fruitful ministry partnership. The church is situated in a densely populated residential part of the city, with thousands of neighbours who Joe is keen to reach with the gospel. So they decided to do a guest event and leafleted the community with invites.

Five or six people from the community accepted the invitation, and so a small group of about forty folk in all met together in the church, in groups of five seated informally around tables.

The topic for the evening was  “Is there any hope for the future?” I had a long conversation with Joe about the sorts of topics which might be useful for his community, and he was keen that we addressed this one. And it is a Great topic!

We looked first at some of the reasons that many people today say that hope for the future can be difficult to find. Global conflicts, the cost of living and the environmental crisis  are just three issues which can cause despair in our world. So where can we find hope when things seem as if they are spiralling out of control? Is the world really going to die in the next few decades?

Most worldview are insufficient to provide the hope that we need given the scale of the problems we face. I looked at a few worldviews with the folks at Holyrood to show them the ways in which many common beliefs, when tested are inadequate. Many of them bring us back to a form of humanism in which everything is down to us and we have to fix everything ourselves. Yet the evidence suggests that the human capacity to fix our own problems is severely limited. When we are honest we admit that we actually need some help from outside of ourselves; so that we can be restored in order to live out the kind of lives we were supposed to in the original plan! And that is a pointer to the gospel itself!

We did a Q&A session too and about half the questions sounded as if they were from non-Christians. Afterwards I got chatting to a couple of students there who are not Christians, one of whom is a physics student, who is really seriously investigating Christianity. He brought a friend with him – and they both commented that they had never heard a defence or presentation of the Christian hope like this before and that they would be back!

Solas exists to partner with churches to get the gospel into their communities. We do it all kinds of ways – as the news feed here on the website is intended to demonstrate! If you would like to find ways of engaging the community you live in with the gospel, then please do speak to us. We really love travelling around the country, working with all kinds of churches and talking about Jesus to anyone who will listen. You can contact us here.

Big Questions in Small Groups (with Becci Greenfield)

by Solas

Who did you turn to when you had big questions, even doubts, about the Christian faith? Were there individuals or groups in your church that let you explore your questions without shame or dismissal? Today on PEP Talk we discuss creating “Big Questions” small group discussions within a church setting. They could be a key ministry to help your church family too!

Big Questions In Small Groups (with Becci Greenfield) – PEP Talk

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Our Guest

Becci Greenfield works in financial services but has also studied postgraduate theology specialising in the Old Testament. She developed a “Big Questions” ministry in her local church and is active on Instagram @thinkingfaithfully. She lives in Coventry with her husband and 18 month old son.

About PEP Talk

The Persuasive Evangelism Podcast aims to equip listeners to share their faith more effectively in a sceptical world. Each episode, our hosts chat to a guest who has a great story, a useful resource, or some other expertise that helps equip you to talk persuasively, winsomely, and engagingly with your friends, colleagues and neighbours about Jesus.

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Book Review: Believe: Why Would You Not Be Religious? by Ross Douthat

by Editor

We’ve probably heard it before. Religion is superstitious belief, discredited by science and a relic of the past. No more than fantasy fairy stories. Or maybe they are the root cause of conflict. Why waste time on what contributes so little towards building a better world? How dare anyone even suggest imposing a way of living that restricts my freedom to choose. Clearly, we all paid close attention in school and had quality lessons in Religion, Philosophy and History confirming this all to be true? Isn’t this just what everyone thinks anyway? Do we even talk about it? Who cares because how can we even know? This all just feels too uncomfortable, so why not just go back to scrolling on my phone!

Sadly, this is often how conversation goes at a popular, superficial level. A careful reading of Ross Douthat’s book would be good medicine here as his aim is, ‘to make religious belief intelligible to irreligious readers.’[1] Given that we’re dealing with complex ideas that require deep thinking (never a solitary project), reading it with others without the distraction of a device can help bring clarity where there has been confusion (just imagine if Martin Luther had picked up his phone!) We’re living through what Neil Postman called ‘technopoly’ which helped generate the era of ‘brain rot’ (Oxford’s word of the year for 2024). And if we work to cultivate intellectual virtues like being open-minded and willing to embrace the struggle of hard thinking and sustained reading, then we might end up living in a world which was a little more wise and, dare I say, intelligent when it comes to talking about religion. Believers and unbelievers would both have much to gain here.

Of course, I’m not advocating that religion has always been good. For those wishing to do a deep dive into the mixed history of Christianity, John Dickson has already provided this excellent resource. Douthat also addresses this as one of the stumbling blocks to faith in chapter 6 of his book.[2] Some might be quick to dismiss the writings of a historian or a journalist regarding the benefits of religion. If so, then perhaps they should listen to a psychiatrist like Andrew Sims who says, ‘the advantageous effect of religious belief and spirituality is one of the best kept secrets in psychiatry and medicine generally.’[3]

But just because something is consoling, that doesn’t make it true. Might religion be a useful fiction? Possibly, but the pursuit of truth matters, or we’ll end up with a situation where we get splinters from going “against the grain of the universe”[4] . And a lot is at stake if God really is there! I think Douthat would agree when he says, ‘the seeker should assume that there exist less-true and more-true schools of thought, and that they’re looking for the truest religious school within a continuum where many options have some validity.’[5] Quite right when it comes to the religions of the world, we can say with Dan Strange that ‘their rock is not like our rock.’ – in other words honour and respect the genuine differences that exist. But how do we decide what is true and, what we should personally commit ourtselves to? Certainly not by leaving our brains at the door. Faith and reason belong together and it’s worth the effort trying to find out.

Here Douthat encourages his readers to take the plunge and enter ‘whatever religious tradition has been placed before you,’[6] as that would be better than remaining on the fence or rejecting religion outright. It’s OK to consider what might be most plausible whilst still holding doubts, just don’t do it alone. Douthat offers great advice here.

Some might be critical that Douthat seems content to leave people in the religious camp, whilst not doing enough to draw them towards the truth of Christianity. Douthat has stated that wasn’t the reason for why he wrote the book (although he does include a chapter at the end on why he is a Christian). Given we’re seeing signs that the religious landscape is changing,[7] particularly amongst the young, Douthat’s book is helpful for meeting sceptics where they are, and useful for those now peering in wondering if religion has more to offer. Douthat has done us a great service here by exploring arguments for God, the origins of consciousness, the limits of a materialist outlook, and more in his accessible little book. For him, and I would agree, religion offers the best framework for making sense of what we see. As he says,

‘We’ll start with religion’s intellectual advantage: the ways in which nonbelief requires ignoring what our reasoning faculties tell us, while the religious perspective grapples more fully with the evidence before us.’[8]

You won’t find a knock-down argument, but you might just find solid grounds for belief. Why not dive in?

Savvas Costi is a Theology graduate with over 15 years experience teaching Secondary RE, including A-level. 6 of those years were spent as a Head of Department. He is now based in East Sussex.

 

[1] Douthat, Believe (2025), p 1.

[2] In chapter 6, Douthat explores 3 questions; Why does God allow so many wicked things to happen? Why do religious institutions do so many wicked things? And why are traditional religions so hung up on sex?

[3] Sims, Is Faith Delusion? (2009), p xi.

[4] I owe this phrase to H.H. Farmer cited in John Mark Comer’s, Live No Lies (2021), p. 34.

[5] Douthat, Believe (2025), p. 128.

[6] Ibid, p. 175.

[7] I highly recommend following Justin Brierley’s work here, if you haven’t already.

[8] Douthat, Believe (2025), p. 5.

Steve, International Students and Competing Worldviews in Glasgow

by Editor

On a spring evening in the heart of Glasgow, just a stone’s throw from Queen Street Station, the warm glow of conversation and curiosity spilled out of the Apostolic Church’s café space. It was another gathering of the International Café run by Glasgow Grace church & Friends International” – a weekly outreach event hosted by Daniel and Amber Bell.

Steve Osmond from Solas, had been invited to give a talk titled, “Why Science Needs God.” With about 35 people in attendance, most of them international students—many from China and India.

Steve said, “The room was alive with chatter as attendees tucked into steaming plates of homemade paella, lovingly prepared by the team. Around the tables, conversations flowed freely, bridging languages, backgrounds, and worldviews. For many of the guests, this wasn’t just their first time hearing a talk on the intersection of science and faith—it was their first experience of any Christian event at all.”

Steve chatted to the students before and after his talk, learning that most came from Buddhist or Hindu backgrounds. “For some of them,” he noted, “this was the first time they’d heard anyone suggest that science and God could belong in the same sentence.” His talk, aimed at showing how the scientific enterprise is rooted in assumptions that point beyond itself, sparked lively discussion—particularly among students studying physics and geology.

But the evening wasn’t without its challenges. One table of thoughtful and spirited young women pushed back during the Q&A session, questioning the exclusivity of Christian truth claims. “If Christianity is true,” one of them asked, “what does that say about all the other religions?” It was a moment of tension—but not of hostility. A respectful, even friendly back-and-forth unfolded, as participants explored weighty questions of truth, belief, and worldviews.

Far from derailing the evening, the exchange underscored the point of the café: to create a welcoming space for real dialogue. And as Steve later handed out copies of “Have You Ever Wondered?”—a book exploring big life questions from a Christian perspective—many students lingered, clearly keen to continue the conversation.

With its warm hospitality, bold ideas, and hearty food, this International Café is doing something quietly radical: inviting people from all over the world to explore faith in community. And thanks to events like this, many students are now one step closer to discovering what Christianity is really all about.

Spotlight on Science and Religion

by Simon Wenham

“I Don’t Believe In God. I Believe In Science!”

“As one Oxford professor once put it for me: ‘Science has buried God.’ In other words, ‘You religious people are just idiots and you need to catch up’. Many people think that science and Christianity are entirely at war with each other, and if you’re going to be a scientist, you’re going to have to forget about something as superstitious as Christianity.”

What About Miracles?

“It was reported that when the first Russian cosmonaut returned to earth he testified that atheism was confirmed, because he had not found God in space. In response, the Christian intellectual C.S. Lewis wrote a letter that argued the universe isn’t a house where God lives in the attic and we have to climb upstairs to find him.” 

Read More

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Lab Notes From the Faithful

It’s all very well what non-scientists say, but what do leading scientists think about the relationship between science and religion? Steve Osmond meets a number of Christian academics from around the world to find out! 

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Sharing Faith Through Science

David Galloway shares advice on how he has talked about his faith in the medical field.

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Faith in a Finely-tuned Universe

Andy explores whether religion is opposed to science, and how the fine-tuning argument points to a creator. 

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An excellent short introduction to the limits of science, and where religion fits into our understanding of the world.

An examination of what we make of the information encoded into life (DNA).

A collection of chapters debunking common myths from the history of science.

A work showing that the conflict is not between science and religion, but between a theistic and materialistic understanding of the world.

A look at how science has developed throughout history – and how that relates to religion.

An introduction on the study and interaction of science and religion.

A look at whether there is more to humans than simply their biology.

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Other Resources

Does Science Disprove God?

Steve looks at whether the world we live in provides any signs that there might be an author behind it. 

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Science and Scientism

Alister McGrath talks about “Inventing the Universe”, and how it challenges certain ideas.

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Science or Religion?

John Lennox unpacks what we mean by faith, and how evidence plays an important part.

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 Bergen Sceptics Week

by Editor

It was great to be invited back to Norway for Bergen Sceptics Week. Several campus Christian ministries, such as Navigators and IFES, came together for a week of events at Bergen University. I’d been to Norway before and worked with the Veritas group there, but this time it was for a campus mission. Around 50 or 60 Christian students at Bergen were involved in organising these events. They spent their days on campus, inviting people to come to the events and handing out leaflets. They did huge amounts of groundwork—inviting people to the meetings which took place every evening.

I spoke at some of these events, which took place in a lecture theatre on campus. The theatre was pretty-full most nights, with a good mix of Christians and non-Christians in the audience. Happily, the students there all speak English, because I don’t speak Norwegian!

The first topic I did was ‘Why I Am Not an Atheist’, and then I addressed the subject, ‘Why I Am Not a Muslim’. They like to do these presentations interview-style rather than as a traditional monologue, which was nice because it’s such a friendly and engaging way to explore a serious topic. After these conversations, we did Q&A, and if the breadth of questions represented the breadth of people present, it was an extremely wide-ranging and diverse group!

The follow-up plans after Sceptics Week were really exciting too. They were challenging people who were interested in finding out more about the Christian faith to join the Alpha Course, which was starting the following week. Every morning, we started the day with a prayer and worship time, and shared prayer points and news. I vividly remember that on the Wednesday morning, the prayer request was that they urgently needed a new room for Alpha because the room they had booked for fifty people was full—Alpha was oversubscribed for the venue. So, we prayed for a new room, and a bigger venue was found. I believe in the end almost a hundred people signed up.

It was exciting to see the spiritual hunger there in Norway, as we are seeing in the UK—students are much more open than they once were to spiritual questions. The passion of the Christian students was also something I will remember for a long time. It was fantastic to observe the time and effort they put in, starting with their commitment to prayer. Then they were volunteering, giving leaflets out to their friends—which really shows what you can do with a relatively small number, just fifty or sixty people, if you are really intentional about mission.

Jesus, Peter and Us – Restored by Grace

by Editor

Maddiston Community Church near Falkirk are great friends of Solas with whom we have a long-friendship and enjoy working together! I was invited back to Maddiston to speak about the way that Jesus restored Peter, and restores us. You can see the whole sermon below – and it is such a joyous and stirring text. Jesus deals with Peter (who had denied him three times!) with such grace and (also some firmness) that it is heart warming. It was a joy to explore the key gospel theme that in Christ, God neither ignores our sin or condemns us – but actually deals with it! I had been asked to preach on Peter’s fall two weeks previously in Dundee, so it was also rather thrilling for me to be able to then follow that sombre message with this on the joy of the restorative grace of God in Christ.

At Solas we do so many things: podcasts, websites, administration, publication, writing, speaking, find-raising, filming and more. We are extremely busy! What is absolutely central to all these activites is what I was able to speak about at Maddiston – the grace of God for us in Christ. It really was a joy and privilege to work in partnership with the church to focus on the gracious actions of Jesus as he applies the gospel to us throughout our lives.

Our Survey Says… A Quiet Revival? (with Rob Barward-Symmons)

by Solas

The Bible Society has published a fascinating report called The Quiet Revival – analysing extensive survey results on generational attitudes to the Bible, church, and Christianity. In this conversation with one of the report co-authors, we press into the sources of encouragement and the challenges for the future of Christianity in the UK. What can inform our evangelism and discipleship as individuals and churches?

Our Survey Says… A Quiet Revival? – PEP Talk

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Our Guest

Dr Rob Barward-Symmons is Senior Research and Impact Manager at the British and Foreign Bible Society, Head of Research at Theos Think Tank, and Co-Director of the Centre for the Study of Modern Christianity at St John’s College, Durham.

About PEP Talk

The Persuasive Evangelism Podcast aims to equip listeners to share their faith more effectively in a sceptical world. Each episode, our hosts chat to a guest who has a great story, a useful resource, or some other expertise that helps equip you to talk persuasively, winsomely, and engagingly with your friends, colleagues and neighbours about Jesus.

SUPPORT THE PODCAST

Lab Notes from the Faithful: Steve Osmond

by Editor

So far in this series we have published six interviews with professional scientists from different disciplines. We’ve learned about the work that they are doing, their personal Christian faith, and how the two go together – perhaps informing and enriching one another. I have thoroughly enjoyed speaking to our guests – who are all accomplished in their different fields which range from evolutionary biology and galactic archaeology to biochemistry and sociology – and have learned a great deal. I have been encouraged both by that fact that these highly accomplished scientists are contributing to their respective fields in tangible ways, and also by the fact that they are living out their faith in their work places and are committed to the truth of the Bible. One thing that is crystal clear from these past interviews is that there is no conflict between their science and their faith, and more than that, they agree that their faith actually informs and strengthens their resolve to do good science.

We still have several interviews with scientist in different fields lined up for this series, but I thought that at this point I’d pause to share some of my experience in the sciences and my journey of faith.

I began my studies in Zoology & Physiology at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa. From a young age I had a fascination with animals and spent countless hours watching the National Geographic channel and took any and every opportunity to go to the zoo. Growing up in Johannesburg we were also just a few hours drive from some beautiful game farms (safari parks) where you could see all the Big 5 in their natural habitat (elephant, rhino, lion, buffalo, and leopard) – and also all manner of other interesting critters, like dung beetles rolling their little balls of dung along the path, or snakes hanging from trees – sometimes a little too close for comfort. But one of my favourite things to do was to camp there (in well fenced areas of course). To me there is nothing quite so majestic as camping under the vast African sky on a warm summer’s night – sometimes just sleeping under the stars, tent abandoned. Looking back, I think that’s where my faith began in some way – looking up at the sparkling sky and being brought to an overwhelming sense of awe – even as a young boy – and being brought to wonder where it all comes from, and why is stirs the soul as it does.

This all led me to a real passion for the natural world. Be it plants, insects, reptiles, microscopic algae, or towering mammals, I wanted to learn about it all. And the more I did, the more impressed I was with how it all seemed to fit together and work in unison – the biological world just seemed so well crafted. So, I spent several years at the University of Johannesburg and left with an undergrad degree in Zoology and Physiology, an Honours degree in Aquatic Health, and a cum laude Masters degree in Zoology where I focussed on ecological risk modelling and studying organismal responses at different levels of the food chain to toxicological perturbation. It was great fun and I had the opportunity to do fieldwork in some spectacular places. From there I spent several years in environmental consulting and then started my own small consultancy focussing on specialist aquatic health assessments. Several years later I found myself managing a marine biosecurity consultancy off the coast of South Africa where we worked closely with government and the aquaculture industry.

So, that’s some of my science background. But what about my Christian faith? Well, I became a Christian just before I finished high school, but only really began to take my faith very seriously right at the start of my master’s degree a few years later. It was a real journey – a story for another post perhaps – but that was definitely a defining time when I really began to understand who Jesus really is and that Christianity is not at all what we get shown in popular media, movies, and series for the most part. It was obvious to my friends and peers that something was happening and that I was really beginning to take my beliefs seriously – and that provoked some questions. Fair enough. My life was starting to look very different from what it had in many ways. Many of my friends were very encouraging and said that they were glad I found something that I felt was so meaningful for me, and I think we had some good conversations around that. They seemed to be more relativistic – viewing truths as subjective – and so Christianity was just one of many truths or paths to follow – but it couldn’t be ‘the truth’, that’s just a bit too exclusive it seemed. There were some in the science department, however, who were less encouraging in their approach to religion. The questions and objections seemed to come thick and fast, but the general sentiment was “you can’t be a scientist and believe in God…you need to pick one or the other”. Some other objections piggy-backed along too. Things like: the Bible is corrupt, Jesus didn’t really exist, the resurrection is impossible, why would a good God allow suffering, science has disproved God, God is just a crutch, and many more. These were to me in some way a real blessing. I wanted to take these questions seriously, and so as best I could, I would try give and answer, and if I didn’t have a good answer, I made it my mission to find the answer. This was how I discovered ‘apologetics’ – the discipline of giving an answer (see 1 Peter 3:15). Over the years working in the sciences, I encountered these two main attitudes again and again, and eventually the Lord used this in preparing me to take a different direction and join the ministry of Solas.

There is much I could say, but something that I always tried to do when engaging with friends and colleagues who were more atheistic, and especially those who were more antagonistic, was to ask why they didn’t believe in God. When they made claims that science had disproved God, I asked what evidence they had to back the claims up. My personal experience was that I didn’t ever really get anything substantial apart from the assertion that this was the case. As a scientist I think I’ve been trained to look for the best explanation of the data – that’s a huge part of what science is – looking at the data that is presented and trying to see what best explains the phenomena. This is a disposition that extends to the rest of life, and on a meta level I think the same disposition can be utilised to help us navigate life in terms of shaping our worldview. When I consider things like the complexity of the world, the improbability that the planet we’re on should sustain life, the molecular machinery required for even the simplest of organisms and the staggering improbability of purely unguided natural process to reach that, I think that the best explanation is that there is indeed a guiding and sustaining hand – a hand that guides the order of the world. The competing hypotheses – like atheism – just don’t seem to be able to make sense of why the data is the way it is. And that’s on the scientific front – what about the more existential aspect in terms of our longings, passions, and desires as humans? These things just don’t make sense if there is not God. The alternative explanations of the data of human experience are insufficient in their scope and explanatory power. If that makes you wonder what I mean, grab a copy of a book we have on this titled ‘Have You Ever Wondered’. The longings we have and the things we are deeply passionate about really can’t be explained on simply materialistic terms.

Those are just some musings, and I hope that you will take the time to read through some of the past and upcoming interviews with other scientists here in our Lab Notes from the Faithful series to get further insights and thoughts from others who love science and love God.

Did Jesus Really Claim To Be God?

by Solas

Jesus didn’t really claim to be God, did he? Surely that’s something that was just made up later, or maybe he was just misunderstood? In this Short Answers video, Steve looks at why this question is so important – especially for the core of the Christian message –  and explores some instances in the Bible where Jesus does claim to be God.

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Short Answers is a viewer-supported video series: if you enjoy them, please help us continue to make them by donating to Solas. Visit our Donate page and choose a free book as a thank-you gift!