Praise the Lord, everybody! Pastor D.M. and The Essential Church want to wish you a Happy New Year! We’re thankful to the Lord for His goodness, His grace, and His mercy that has brought us through 2017 and has given us 2018. We’re here not because of our goodness, or because of our worthiness, but because He alone is good, He alone is worthy of praise, and He alone is wise, mighty, and King.

There’ve been quite a few things going on here at The Essential Church this week. Among them has been the opportunity the Lord has given us to speak a word for Him in a culture where atheism is seen as an intellectual position in which Christianity can’t compete. I’ve been vigorously going after the so-called intellectual claims of Dr. Richard Dawkins, author of one of the best-selling books of all time called The God Delusion (yes, the book title says it all, unfortunately.) as well as preaching on the divine nature of the birth of Jesus (the virgin birth) as well as the supernatural circumstances of His birth (the angels proclaimed His birth to the shepherds).

If you’ve been too busy this week to read on all the good stuff, we’ve compiled the links to all the Dawkins statements we’ve covered. You can find them below:

The Virgin Birth: Answering Questions About the Inconceivable (Luke 1:26-38)

Divine Revelation: Going Where Naturalism and Science Cannot (Matthew 1:18-25)

Coming out of the Physical? Why Minds, Emotions, and Moral Values argue against Atheism

Contrary to Reason: Richard Dawkins and the Spectrum of Probabilities

Small Probabilities, Big Decisions: Richard Dawkins and Empirical Evidence for God’s Existence

Why Science Cannot Comment on God

Defending the Gospels of Matthew and Luke: A Response to Richard Dawkins

Literalists need not worry: reconciling Jesus genealogies in Matthew and Luke

God as infinite regress: Darwinian evolution and the “designer God” argument

Design, Chance, and Darwinian Evolution: Is there Room for a Third Option?

Divine Creation is No Magic Trick: The error of the Dawkins analogy

A Believing Atheist: The Speculative Dawkins Theory of the Origin of Life

“Who Designed the Designer?”: the mixing categories fallacy

The Illusion of Design: Dawkins’ anti-naturalist argument

These are the sermons and blog posts we’ve been busy crafting these last several days, so feel free to give them a read or two (or three) if your time permits. Feel free to save this page so as to access it in the future.

Tomorrow, January 7th, will be Doctrine Sunday here at The Essential Church. We’ve had some 3 months without Doctrine Sunday, particularly due to our Harvest Sunday at the end of October, followed by Thanksgiving Month in which we covered How to Worship God, the problem with church exclusivism that doesn’t leave room for extra-church worship, and Christmas Month (December), how deadly the tongue can be, and last but not least, I preached on the controversial issue of saluting the American Flag in the Pledge of Allegiance or honoring God through peaceful protest. These are both church and social issues of our time that God’s Word speaks to.

Tomorrow, though, is a Doctrine Sunday devoted to a doctrine that I believe is becoming more relevant considering that it is currently under attack: that is, the idea that God’s Word contradicts, that God’s word has inconsistencies in it. Some would say that the inerrancy and infallibility of Scripture are under attack.

Now, I believe that some who are invested into this discussion really do love and honor the Lord — but I believe that to view Scripture as being inconsistent in its message is to fail to give Scripture the same respect Jesus gave it in His day. How can we honor God, the Subject of the Scriptures (John 5:39-47), and then demean, whether explicitly or implicitly, the very source of spiritual authority that even Jesus submitted to (Matthew 26:54; Mark 14:49)?

There’s more to say about God’s Word and contradictions, but I’ll save it until tomorrow. I encourage you to make time tomorrow to listen to this teaching on God’s Word, not to rush this and treat it like you would any sermon on the radio, television, or any other podcast. Expect the audio recording to go live around 1pm (no later than 1:45pm). We’ll share it then, so stay tuned to get it when it’s released. You don’t wanna miss it!

Well, that’s all for now. We love you, thank God for your continued support, and ask for your constant prayers as we seek to continue to lift up the name of Jesus.

For Him and In Him,

Pastor D.M. Richardson,

The Essential Church

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