I really liked the movie God’s Not Dead and not just because it was inspired by the work of my longtime employer Alliance Defending Freedom (a Christian legal ministry that along with shutting down Planned Parenthood clinics also protects Christians and Christian groups on campuses) as well as the fine book by Rice Broocks but because it presents real challenges and real answers.  Apologetics (and the freedom to engage in it) is not a luxury but a necessity on university campuses.  The battle for the hearts and minds of young people begins with the mind and although there is an embarrassment of apologetic riches out there for Christians to mine, the film God’s Not Dead is a great place to start.

While every other person in America was trying to figure our why the rest of the world loves soccer so much, I was compiling the Three Things You Need to Read this Week:

Every week I receive great questions and I try to answer as many of them as possible.  This week in response to a question on what the Bible says about ghosts, I linked to an earlier article on what the Bible has to say about where people go when they die.  In short, the post follows Biblical scholar Michael Bird in arguing that before the resurrection of Jesus Christ, people went to Sheol, a place that is neither heaven nor hell.  Sheol is divided into two realms and the righteous go to paradise (Παραδείσῳ. Luke 23:43) while the unrighteous go to Hades.  Once Jesus was resurrected, the souls of the righteous followed him to heaven but the unsaved wait in Hades for final judgment (Revelation 20:11-15).

Every week I receive a number of questions from my blog’s readers and I try to answer as many as I can.  Last week I received two questions along this line, “What does the Bible say about ghosts?” One young woman believes her apartment may be haunted. Believe it or not, this is one of the most frequent questions I have received over the last 16 years in ministry and I have addressed it several times, which is evidence that it is a pressing issue. In fact, as I was putting together this post, I had a friend in New York ask me about paranormal activity in her old apartment.  Here is how I responded to this question  a few years ago:

Every week I receive great questions via email or Facebook or Twitter and I pick one to answer here.  I’ve let a bunch stack up as many have required a lot of research and my schedule has been jammed lately.  I apologize to those of you who have submitted questions and waited patiently for answers.   Here is one I received from a good friend several weeks ago: “How should a Christian understand the Sermon on the Mount? Literally as the Christian version of the Ten Commandments or allegorically?”