by Matthew Tingblad
Probably the greatest need in Christian apologetics today is to help others understand that God is good. This can be a challenging prospect because God does many things in the Bible which do not appear to be good.
For instance, God commanded the Israelites to drive out the people of Canaan (Deut 7). God flooded the earth in Noah’s day (Gen 6–8). God struck down the firstborn sons of Egypt (Exod 12:19). Moreover, there are challenging doctrines such as hell, and difficult questions such as how God could be morally right to forgive sinners by having his innocent Son killed.
Thus, the Christian apologist seeks to show that these challenging aspects of God in the Bible are appropriate and even proclaim the goodness of God. But does this mean we come to the text of the Bible with a bias? Is this really an honest, objective approach to biblical interpretation?
Hermeneutical spin
In the musical Wicked, the Wizard of Oz sings a defense…
