More beautiful words, from beautiful hearts, crafted by the Beauty-maker,
on their journey to that Beautiful Future...
July 2001...
Thanks again Glenn for your awesome website.You have pulled me out of
the gutter (again) of OVERLY-reductionistic thinking/speculation.Whenever
I get stumped in a thought (usually while perusing different web pages)
The Tank helps clear the fog w/ data and facts - putting back on course
into the light of truth/freedom.
Funny how the Lord works things out. I first came to your site
from the Infidels.org site. As a Christian, I can't remember right
now how I ended up on their site in the first place, LOL, but I can certainly
say it was with great relief that I discovered your site. It was
great to find a Christian site that dealt with questions raised by skeptics
in a honest and forthright manner. Your site has been a real blessing
to me, encouraging me in my faith, and deepening my own personal interest
in apologetics.
God bless you for the work you're doing. I am a fourth-year concentrating
in economics at the University of XYZ. I am undergoing a reconstruction
of my Christian faith at this time. Since first being exposed to
anthropology and history classes while studying abroad, my faith has been
torn apart, partially rebuilt, and torn apart again, in varying degrees
of severity. I thought a good approach to take would be to systematically
examine key areas of modern academic fields in the light of the Bible and
a Christian worldview. I'm finding that the more I study, the more
brilliant Christians I find, from psychology to philosophy. Although
this campus and its faculty and student body are overwhelmingly liberal,
I find web sites like yours very encouraging. Please continue to
strengthen the faith of yourself and your web site visitors through your
diligent and lucid thinking.
Dear Glenn,
I just wanted to thank you for providing such a wonderfully challenging
yet informative website. I have been brooding on so many questions and
doubts for so long and struggling to find answers. Your insights and rigorous
research have been like a breath of fresh air and have brought me a sense
of peace and understanding that I have been searching for. To be honest
I was starting to think that the whole message of Christianity was really
mythological with little relevance in our current time. I am now beginning
to realise how much more there is to the Bible than I ever appreciated
and am hoping that I will be able to start to live in a relationship with
God rather than living in the periphery of denial and questions. Thank
you so much for all your hard work and time. May God continue to bless
this work you are doing,
Hey,
Wanted to say that you have an AWESOME website going here. I'm a college
student at the University of XYZ, and have for many semesters debated with
my friends about the gospel and it's validity. Thanks for all the effort
you've put into this site.
Dear Glen:
Just a word of thanks and encouragement to you. I have always
found Christianity to be intellecutally fulfilling (in addition to spiritually
fulfilling). This is why apologetics is such a draw to me.
Your site is awesome - your site was the only one where I found an answer
to the Shealtiel + Zerubabel (S+Z) question pertaining the Jesus messianic
lineage. Great job.
I used to hang out in Christian chat rooms and I got a crash course
in apologetics there as well as the utter meanness and hostility of god-hating
skeptics. If it weren't for you and your website, my young faith
may have been damaged. But I held on to the Truth for all I was worth.
Thank you very very much for caring enough to build your website!
God bless you my brother! Your reward will be waiting for you
in heaven! I wish there were many more like you.
I am not sure how I even found your website, but I am grateful
that I did.
I feel very compelled to write, but I am not sure what I am to say.
I am very grateful that I found your web-site.
I know this sounds stupid, but I think I have just been "saved".
For you this is probably a black and white issue, for me it is gray.
But, the statement you made about now worrying about how sincere I feel,
gave me motivation. I struggle not so much with sincerity, but with
having the strength to follow through. What I mean is that I feel
sincere in my desire to know God and to live a life that pleases him, but
my faith is not very strong, and I can not even say to myself that I am
without doubts. I have been trying to learn about God and his nature,
and what is expected of me, but have nagging questions that weaken my resolve
to do what I feel inside that I should do.
Well, that last paragraph probably does not sound very well thought
out. I should probably delete it, but I will not.
I will end this confused note by repeating my thanks to you for sharing
your faith with me. I believe you put alot of effort into what you
do on your website, and my hopes and prayers(if they qualify as that yet)
are that the burden of what you do does not overwhelm you.
Your followup article on the "Is there evidence for the existence of
a soul?" question is a breath of fresh air for people like me, who find
themselves teeter-tottering on the brink of nihilism after reading Dennett's
"Consciousness Explained" (I'm reminded of the Pope epigram: "A little
learning is a dangerous thing / drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring:
/ There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, / And drinking largely sobers
us again.") My gut instinct has always told me that he reads like
a man on the fringe and now, after taking a look at some of your footnotes,
I'm convinced that he is in fact a man on the fringe. Thanks for
your excellent work.
2/19/2001 Almost midnight, I just can't stop reading!!!
All I can say is WOW!!!! I prayed today for answers to some tough
questions weighing on my mind and tonight I find your sight with at least
one (if not more) answer to each one. I must force myself to go to sleep
now!! But I will be back. I just wanted to say "Thank You"
I wanted to thank you for your Christian Thinktank webpages! They are
truly inspirational.
I'm a rational minded Christian with a background in computers and math
and many of my friends and associates are skeptical atheists and pagans
from whom I often have to face tough questions.
My faith is strong and is grounded in a sound intellectual basis, but
like yourself I always like to further strengthen my foundation and answer
skeptics.
I was extremely delighted to find your web pages. I find the material
and presentation thoroughly absorbing and enlightening.
It is always reassuring to see other believers who demand a solid intellectual
basis for their faith and who have the courage to face and answer tough
questions in a manner which befits them.
Your work is a true blessing!
By far it's that I can't just tell you how stinking cool your work
is without given you my bloodtype in an 18-page thesis :-) Here's the deal:
I love what you're doing.
I just wanted to praise you for your website. I'm a teenage Christian
and just into this whole apologetic stuff but I'm addicted already.
The content of your website seems amazingly good and is really useful
when I try and defend Christianity in other internet chat-rooms. Its just
a shame my in-built short attention span means I get bored before the end
of some of the essays!
I'll pray that God allows you to do what you do best full time and if
it helps, then know that your brain just became my new role model!
Dearest Brother in Christ,
I just wanted to take to encourage you in this wonderful ministry that
you've started. Surely, the presence of the Lord shows in your life.
I have been touched emotionally by your testimony, enlightened by your
research, and encouraged by your ministry overall. I hope that I
will one day walk into a bookstore and see your name gleaming from titles
on a rack. May God bless you greatly.
I just wanted to say...well, I was reading over your prayer requests
and have been really struck again by the pressures you've been under for
the last couple of years...and the fact that throughout the whole thing
you've been getting thousands of emails from people at all levels of needs
and urgencies, asking for your help...I mean, we'll see warmth/food in
your stuff on the net and realize how cold and hungry we are, and all we
can think of is getting to bask in it and drinking every drop we can.
(Holy mixed metaphor, batman...) And because it's the real thing,
the love of God, we don't think about the fact that it's coming through
a human, that it may not 'cost' the Lord but it sure costs you.
Well, and I'm especially sorry, because I've 'pressured' you into responses
to my questions...and your replies have always been utterly gracious...
but I have some idea of what kind of a pressure cooker environment they've
come out of and I'm really sorry.
I cannot over emphasize my appreciation of your site. I know that you
must have spent a long time compiling and editing all of your information.
I feel liberated by the truth because I had deceptive information dragging
me down a road of confusion. I haven't found all my answers yet, but I
wanted to express my sincere thanks to you. You have helped me confess
my sins and repent. I now have a deeper faith, and more passion for God.
Thanks again!
I want you to know that a young friend of mine, previously an atheist,
came to Christ in part due to your web ministry! I referred him to
it during a study of Noebel's 'Understanding the Times'. He is a
very bright 16 year old who just needed some answers to questions.
He has spent a great deal of time on your site (said he's read 90% of it)
over a 4-5 month period, culminating in his acceptance of Christ.
Thanks so much!!
I've slowly been posting links to your papers one at a time [on a discussion
group I host]. Just want to let you know that the Lord is using your
papers to slowly get through to some people who really need these kinds
of answers.
Personally, I don't have the sort of personality that needs quite that
detailed a proof. But God made each of us differently. And
some people DO need that level of detail.
A couple people on the Board that have been scoffers, have recently
remarked that they really are reading these closely. They appreciate
the level of thought you've put into these. And they appreciate your
non-judgmental attitude. In fact, one gentleman in XYZ even said
he'd really just love to spend an afternoon talking with you.
Praise God! And thank you for all the work you've put into these
papers.
Hey, I just absolutely LOVE your thinktank! For my personal ministry
I go on the chats and I've been able to refer people on to your site.
Your site is one of my favorite links on my little website. God is
using you greatly! Glory be to God!
Found your site not too long ago, and it's been a regular gold mind
of information. Thanks for taking the time to post your research
in this manner. I've already had occasion to post a link to one of
your articles on belief.net in the Christianity Challenge and Critique
area. So thanks again.
Have discovered your web site in the last few days. I have been
devouring the material like a banquet feast. I love it. Meat T bone
style!!!!!!! I'm new on the computer. I was never that interested.
I recently completed a Doctoral of Ministry Degree and since discovering
your web site my husband has had to nudge me off, so he can use it.
I want to just say "THANKS" for all the work and effort you have put in
to share your tremendous insights. How much they have enriched my
life and my walk with the Lord.
I wanted to write to encourage you in your ministry. The Lord has obviously
blessed you richly as an apologist for the gospel. I was astounded by the
depth of your knowledge and by the detail of your responses to these problematic--even
thorny questions of faith. Especially impressive is your clear desire to
anchor your responses in the bedrock of scripture. Many so-called Christian
intellectuals base so much of their argument on the shifting sands of humanistic
scholarship.
Anyway, I was praying last evening and the Holy Spirit prompted me to
write to you with a word of encourgagement.
Keep contending for the faith, brother.
Thank you so much for your wonderful sacrifice - Im sure it must be
a pleasing fragrance to our Master.
I am mailing your from Africa - Cape Town and pastor a small church
in one of the suburbs. I have a tent making ministry - I am passionate
for truth and reality and dislike any form of meaningless tradition. I
find your site truly stimulating and extremely graceful.
We have a vision that God is going to rebuild His kingdom as Nehmiah
did with the burnt stones - Father is going to rebuild the broken down
walls of humanity -
Greetings in the Name of Him who paid it all -
This is actually the only reason I am doing this. I just wanted to
let you know how much of a blessing and a service this site is to the Body
of Christ. I encounter people regularly who sometimes ask questions that
I cannot answer fully. I usually say to them, "I'm not sure about that,
but I'll research it and get back to you. But now, along with that, I regularly
give this web adress out to people...especially folks who are skeptical
concerning the claims of Jesus Christ. Many times these folks have been
bamboozled by something like the "Jesus seminar", or the arrogant unbelief
of the "intelligensia" who scoff at the foundational claims of the Christian
faith, and ridicule it as being "myths and fables" for the unlearned. May
God richly bless you for this wonderful web site. Your efforts are not
unnoticed in heaven, I can assure you of that. By the way, I am very sorry
to hear of the loss of one of your children. I can not imagine the heartbreak
of it. But, I had to smile when you said, very "matter of factly", that
one of children "...lives in heaven now." I smiled because that is the
1st time I have ever heard anyone else say what I routinely say to people
when referring to my parents and my sister! I say those very words...and
isn't it a blessing to know that they are not "dead"...but are simply living
somewhere else waiting for us. What a reunion that will be!
Grace and peace
Remember when I remarked as an aside about your "harsh tone," then
you wrote me and had me furnish some examples (which you did change)? That
was back when I was really new to your site, but now looking at more things
here, particularly your more personal stuff (and your other dealings with
"GK"--just who is that guy?), I realize that even that first assertion
was premature. I must say that you are one of the warmest, most tactful
and respectful apologists on the Internet I've ever seen (not to mention
the most detailed, thorough, etc.--it's no wonder most skeptics don't bother
with you as much as with people like J.P. Holding, whom they can at least
complain about his ad hominem when they can't deal with his arguments).
In both of those areas I hope I can become an apologist like you someday.
The Christian ThinkTank...[https://www.Christianthinktank.com]
(Reference Abbreviations)