Book Review: Christian Endgame: Careful Thinking About The End Times by Ken Samples

This reviewer writes quite often about the importance of internal theological discussions to apologists. Eschatology (end times) tends to be one of the most fascinating, heated, and damaging debates within the Church. As prophecy enthusiasts keep attempting to predict the date of Christ's return (and fail), it makes the Christian worldview appear to be falsified from the perspective of unbelievers. In order to address these challenges, it is important that Christians think carefully about eschatology. Kenneth Samples (Reasons to Believe) attempts to provide a starting point for responsible thought and discussion in his most recent book, Christian Endgame: Careful Thinking About The End Times.

This is a short book of only 59 pages divided into eight chapters, plus three appendices. This review will provide an abbreviated chapter-by-chapter summary in an effort to not give away all the content of the book.

Kenneth Samples Interview Transcript

The following transcript is from an Apologetics 315 interview with Ken Samples. Original audio here. Transcript index here. If you enjoy transcripts, please consider supporting, which makes this possible.

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BA: Hello, this is Brian Auten of Apologetics 315. Today I’m speaking with philosopher and theologian, Ken Samples. He is senior research scholar at Reasons to Believe, and he is the author of Without a Doubt and A World of Difference. He’s contributed to numerous other books as well. He’s written articles for Christianity Today and Christian Research Journal, and he regularly participates in RTB’s podcasts, including Straight Thinking, a podcast dedicated to encouraging Christians to utilize sound reasoning in their apologetics. So, thanks so much for speaking with me today, Ken.

KS: Hi, Brian. It’s a pleasure to be with you. I enjoy your site and enjoy an opportunity to interact with you.

BH: Well, for those who may not be familiar with you, could you tell us a little bit more about your background and how you came to be a philosopher and a theologian?

KS: Yeah. Brian, I grew up in a kind of a nominal Catholic family, and by the time I kind of hit my teens, I was really kind of looking for deeper answers in life. I just kind of felt like I needed a greater sense of purpose and significance and meaning, and I began kind of asking the big questions: How do I know that God exists? Where do I find meaning in my life?

Book Review: 7 Truths that Changed the World by Kenneth Samples

Philosopher Kenneth Samples (Reasons to Believe) recently published his third book: 7 Truths That Changed The World: Discovering Christianity's Most Dangerous Ideas. The idea behind the book is to examine ideas in the Christian worldview that stand in direct opposition to the majority of worldviews, making them dangerous to believe. Samples' approach to defending the truth of Christianity in this book is based on building a cumulative case for the worldview (not just a single doctrine, such as the existence of God). He introduces each idea by explaining the idea that Christianity will challenge, then he goes into a good amount of detail of the idea as he provides evidence for its truth versus the challenged idea.

Dangerous Idea #1: Not All Dead Men Stay Dead
Samples begins his presentation with what he calls "Christianity's most dangerous idea." He examines the claim that Jesus of Nazareth died and came back to life. Samples goes over seven pieces of evidence that critical scholars tend to agree took place. He explains the significance of each one and how they all come together to support the conclusion that Jesus bodily resurrected from the dead. Samples also examines several different naturalistic explanations for the evidence offered. He explains the weaknesses of each one and concludes that there is no other sound conclusion than that Jesus did rise from the dead.

Apologist Interview: Kenneth Samples

Today's interview is with philosopher and theologian Ken Samples, senior research professor at Reasons to Believe. (Hear a prior interview here.) He talks about the Straight Thinking Podcast, the Unbelievable? Conference 2012 in London, an abductive approach to apologetics, the explanatory power of Christianity over atheism, morality and the human condition, the problem of evil and suffering, the different kinds of evil in the world, God's purposes in suffering, gratuitous evils, how to address the problem of evil with tact, and some of the key ideas in his newest book 7 Truths that Changed the World: Discovering Christianity's Most Dangerous Ideas. To enter the drawing for a copy of the book, just fill in this the quick entry form here.

Full Interview MP3 Audio here. (49 min)

Enjoy.
Subscribe to the Apologetics 315 Interviews podcast here or in iTunes.

Reasons to Believe Conference: London 2012

Premier Christian Radio presents an apologetics day conference on Sat, 26 May 2012 in London aimed at equipping everyday Christians with reasons for the truth of their faith. This year's conference partner is Reasons To Believe. Guest speakers include: Hugh Ross, Ken Samples, John Lennox, Michael Green, and more. Hear Ken Samples on a recent Unbelievable? Radio program here. (MP3)

Sign up here.

Blaise Pascal Audio Series by Ken Samples

Blaise Pascal was one of the greatest thinkers of his day. He was a scientist, inventor, philosopher, mathematician and theologian. His book the Pensées is popular to this day. In today's featured resource, philosopher and theologian Ken Samples provides a multi-part series on Blaise Pascal. This is part of Ken Samples' excellent Straight Thinking podcast (subscribe via RSS or iTunes). More parts will be added below as they become available.

• Part 1: Man of Reason & Faith
• Part 2: Two Apologetics Insights
• Part 3: The Wager (part 1)
• Part 4: The Wager (part 2)

Enjoy.

More podcasts from Reasons.org here.

Ken Samples New Blog: Reflections

Philosopher and theologian Ken Samples has a new blog called Reflections. Some may already be familiar with Ken's Straight Thinking podcast, and will most likely want to follow his blog as well. His goal is to help and challenge Christians to think carefully about the implications of their worldview. Check out his phenomenal inaugural post: 100 Academic Commandments, which covers the classroom, study skills, student life, and the development of the Christian mind.

Visit Reflections and subscribe.
Check out more resources by Ken Samples.

Enjoy.

13 Good Reasons for Studying Logic by Ken Samples

Philosopher and theologian Kenneth Samples hosts the Straight Thinking Podcast over at Reasons.org. (It's one of our Top16 apologetics podcasts.) He is in the middle of a series of five episodes on the topic: Thirteen Good Reasons for Studying Logic, based on content from Peter Kreeft's Socratic Logic book. Good stuff:

Thirteen Good Reasons for Studying Logic
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

Subscribe to the podcast here: RSS feed | iTunes | website

Enjoy.

More logic resources here!

The Cosmos Had a Beginning: Creation Ex Nihilo MP3 Audio by Ken Samples

Philosopher and theologian Kenneth Samples presents this talk on the dangerous idea of the beginning: Creation Ex Nihilo. More of Samples' great stuff can be found here and at Reasons.org. Original audios in the "dangerous ideas" series can be found here.

Full MP3 Audio here. (95min)

Enjoy.

You may also enjoy this interview with Ken Samples.

Apologist Interview: Kenneth Samples of Reasons.org

In this interview with philosopher and theologian Kenneth Samples, he talks about how he became a philosopher, influential books, advice for apologists, the academic route, logic, tips for learning, the character of an apologist, the Biola apologetics program, Reasons to Believe, and more.

For many other resources by Ken Samples, click here.

Check out his books: A World of Difference: Putting Christian Truth-Claims to the Worldview Test, and Without a Doubt: Answering the 20 Toughest Faith Questions.

Full MP3 Audio here. (42min)

Subscribe to this interview and more apologist interviews in iTunes here, or get the RSS feed here.

Enjoy.

What was last year's post? See here.

Apologist Ken Samples Featured Resources

If you have a list of your top 5 apologists to learn from, put philosopher and theologian Kenneth Samples on your list. His bio is here.

Samples' 8-part series on Learning 101 is now online and episodes can be downloaded individually or as a podcast. See here. This was an excellent series of lectures based on the book How to Read a Book by Adler & VanDoren, which covers intelligent reading, learning strategies, critical thinking, and logic.

As staff apologist for Reasons to Believe, Samples is part of a number of great podcasts:
• Straight Thinking - RSS Feed | iTunes Link
• I Didn’t Know That - RSS Feed | iTunes Link
• Without a Doubt - RSS Feed | iTunes Link (based on his book)

A number of his audios have been featured here, including a set of 5 audio series here, and one great lecture called: Is Jesus Man, Myth, Madman, or Messiah?

For more audio and articles by Ken Samples, check out Monergism's list here.

Samples also has a 12-part series of articles on logic that begin here.
Part 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 <-- Print them out and read them.

Finally, check out Ken Samples' excellent books:
• A World of Difference, A: Putting Christian Truth-Claims to the Worldview Test
• Without a Doubt: Answering the 20 Toughest Faith Questions
• Lights in the Sky & Little Green Men: A Rational Christian Look at Ufos and Extraterrestrials

Enjoy.

Is Jesus Man, Myth, Madman, Messiah? MP3 Audio by Kenneth Samples

Philosopher and theologian Kenneth Samples of RTB presents a talk entitled: Is Jesus Man, Myth, Madman, or Messiah? This is an outstanding talk with an engaging Q&A by one of today's most outstanding apologists. See also Ken Samples' "Learning Skills 101" series, his Straight Thinking Podcast, and his Without a Doubt podcast.

Four part audio for download can be found here.

Enjoy.

Learning Skills 101: Series by Kenneth Samples MP3 Audio

Philosopher and apologist Kenneth Samples is doing a series of lectures on the topic of Learning Skills. This is a tremendous series. This is based upon Adler's "How to Read a Book," but Samples adds lots of personal insights and challenges. RSS Feed here.

• Learning Skills 101: Introduction (Part 1)
• Learning Skills 101: The Academic 10 Commandments (Part 2)

• Learning Skills 101: The Renaissance Christian (Part 3)

• Learning Skills 101: Ideas (Part 4)
• Learning Skills 101: Introduction to Logic 1 (Part 5)
• Learning Skills 101: Introduction to Logic 2 (Part 6)
• Learning Skills 101: Three Types of Arguments (Part 7)
• Learning Skills 101: Logical Fallacies (Part 8)

Enjoy.

Kenneth Samples Apologetics MP3 Audio

Kenneth Samples is an apologist with Reasons to Believe. He is author of numerous books, including: World of Difference, A: Putting Christian Truth-Claims to the Worldview Test and Without a Doubt: Answering the 20 Toughest Faith Questions. The lectures below were found here.

Here are a number of audio resources on MP3:

A World of Difference: Putting Christian Truth-Claims to the Test
Part 1 - A Worldview Model For Christian Theism
Part 2 - Christian Theism’s Logical Consistency
Part 3 - Christian Theism’s Explanatory Power and Cumulative Support
Part 4 - Christian Theism’s Correspondence and Verification
Part 5 - Christian Theism’s Practicality and Existential Livability

Lectures on A Christian World View
Part 1 - What in the World Is a World View?
Part 2 - Naturalism: A Secular Worldview Challenge
Part 3 - Postmodernism: A Skeptical Worldview Perspective
Part 4 - Pantheistic Monism -- An Eastern Mystic Point of View

Series on St. Augustine
Part 1 - St. Augustine's Spiritual Quest (Intro missing)
Part 2 - Apologetic Factors in Augustine's Conversion
Part 3 - Augustine as Bishop and Theologian
Part 4 - Augustine: Philosopher and Saint

Islam and Christianity
Part 1 - Islam, Growth, Influence and Divsersity
Part 2 - Islam: Five Core Beliefs
Part 3 - Islam: The Five Pillars and Jihad
Part 4 - Islam's Revelatory Achilles Heel
Part 5 - Islam: Unknowable and Unfathomable
Part 6 - Why Can't Islam and Christianity Both Be True

Jesus and the Other Religious Faces in the Crowd
Part 1 - Part 1
Part 2 - Gautama (Buddha)
Part 3 - Krishna & Mahavira
Part 4 - Confucius & Lao-Tzu
Part 5 - Muhammad
Part 6 - Zoroaster, Nanak & Baha'ullah

Also added to the Ultimate Apologetics MP3 Audio page.