• The following questions can be asked to highlight the fact that Jesus is fully God and a member of the Triune Godhead, the Trinity.
• JW’s claim that Jesus is simply ‘a god’, a created being. Ask them, “How can the Word be ‘a god’ (John 1:1) if there are no gods together with Jehovah, as Deuteronomy 32:39 says?”
• JW’s claim that Jesus is actually Michael the archangel, the first creation of God. If so, “Why does Michael not dare to bring a judgment against Satan, but instead says, ‘May Jehovah rebuke you’ (Jude 9); yet in Matthew 4:10 Jesus rebukes Satan directly himself?”
• JW’s claim that Jesus is ‘a god’ and the first creation of Jehovah, who created all other things (John 1:3; Colossians 1:16). If that is the case, “Why does Jehovah say in Isaiah 44:24 that He created the heavens and the earth by Himself and then questions, ‘Who was with me?’”
• JW’s claim that Jehovah alone is God. Ask them, “If Jehovah alone is God, why then does Jesus not condemn Thomas for blasphemy when after the resurrection he calls Jesus, ‘My Lord and my God!’ (John 20:28-29)?”
• JW’s affirm the numerous statements in Scripture declaring Jehovah God to be the ‘First and the Last’ (ex. Isaiah 44:6). An interesting question to ask them is, “When did the First and the Last, Jehovah God, die (Revelation 1:17-18)?”

For more information on witnessing to the Jehovah’s Witnesses, please check out the documentary DVD titled, Jehovah’s Witnesses: A Non-Prophet Organization, available in our online store.

• Salvation is a gift of grace that we receive through faith alone (Ephesians 2:8-9).
• We are justified, or made right in God’s eyes, through faith in Jesus Christ, not by keeping the law (Galatians 2:16).
• Jesus removed the debt we owed, and its obligations, through his death on the cross (Colossians 2:13-15).
• The Bible declares that human efforts to obtain our own righteousness are misguided (Romans 10:1-3).
• Jesus taught that outer works of righteousness don’t address the inner, spiritual problem of our sin (Matthew 23:25-28).

For more information on the unique nature of the salvation available through Jesus Christ, please consider Dr. Carlson’s lecture, World Religions & the Uniqueness of Jesus Christ available in MP3 or CD in our online store.

• In 1835 Joseph Smith prophesied the Lord’s return within 56 years (History of the Church, Vol. 2, pg. 182). By 1891 this was proven to be a false prophecy.
• In 1843 Joseph Smith prophesied that the United States government would be overthrown and wasted within a few years if they refused to redress the wrongs committed against the Mormons in Missouri (History of the Church, Vol. 5, pg. 394). The United States government has never formally redressed any wrongs committed against the Mormons in Missouri and the government still stands nearly 170 years later.
• In 1832 Joseph Smith prophesied that the present generation of Mormons would not pass away before the temple of the New Jerusalem would be built in Zion, Missouri (Doctrine & Covenants Section 84). The Mormons were forced to flee Missouri and no temple was constructed there in Joseph Smith’s lifetime or within the generation that witnessed this prophecy.
• In 1832 Joseph Smith prophesied that the United States civil war would eventually engulf all nations (Doctrine & Covenants Section 87). This prophecy did not come close to being fulfilled.
• Joseph Smith made many other false prophecies in his lifetime. By the standards of God’s word, he must be labeled a false prophet (Deuteronomy 18:20-22).

For more information on the history and beliefs of the Mormon Church, please check out Dr. Carlson’s lecture, Mormonism: Christian or Cult? available in MP3 or CD in our online store.

• A true prophet of God will affirm that Jesus Christ is God come in human flesh (1 John 4:1-3).
• A true prophet of God’s prophecies about the future will come true (Deuteronomy 18:20-22).
• A true prophet of God will preach and commend allegiance to the one true God who has revealed Himself in Scripture (Deuteronomy 13:1-5).
• A true prophet of God will bear good fruit, not only their life, but also in their doctrine (Matthew 7:15-23 & 24:4-5, 10-11, 23-25; Galatians 1:6-9).

For more information on the Bible’s test for determining a true prophet from a false prophet, consider Dr. Carlson’s lecture, The Jesus of the Cults, available in MP3 or CD in our online store.

• Pseudo Christian Cults – These groups claim to be Christian and claim to believe the Bible, but they embrace additional man-made teachings that they place over the authority of the Bible. They thereby end up denying or distorting the basic doctrines of true, biblical Christianity. Examples: Mormonism and Jehovah’s Witnesses.
• Oriental Cults – These groups find their philosophical basis in Hinduism and Buddhism. Their basic philosophy is monism & pantheism – all is one and all is god. They teach that the physical material world is an illusion and we must transcend this world to achieve peace by becoming one with the impersonal, universal force they call god. Transcendence is achieved through techniques like transcendental meditation, yoga, or the chanting of a mantra. Examples: The Hare Krishna Movement and Transcendental Meditation.
• The New Age Cults – This movement combines three false philosophies to create a hybrid spirituality – Western Secular Humanism, Eastern Hindu Mysticism, and the Occult. The New Age Movement teaches that humans have evolved physically and now must evolve spiritually to discover our own inherent divinity. Different Eastern meditative practices and various Occult techniques are used to discover the divine within. Examples: Eckhart Tolle and A Course in Miracles.
• The Occult – The word “Occult” is a Latin term that means “Hidden or Secret Things”. This philosophy teaches that wisdom and power may be attained by tapping into mystical, secret forces or by appealing directly to Satan. Examples: Wicca, Satanism, and Channeling.

For more information on the many cults in our world today, please check out Dr. Carlson’s book, Fast Facts On False Teachings, available in our online store.

• The philosophy of Religious Pluralism is the idea that all religions are equally valid paths to God.
• The law of non-contradiction, a universal law of logic, is a major problem for religious pluralism. It states that two mutually exclusive claims to truth cannot be equally true. Either one is true, or both are false, but they cannot both be true. For example, God cannot be both a personal being and an impersonal force. God is either one or the other, or neither, but cannot be both.
• The claim that 'all roads are equally valid paths to God' can only be true if God is impersonal by nature, but if God is personal, and if God has communicated how He wants us to relate to Him, then how we respond to that truth really matters.
• Jesus Christ made very clear, exclusive claims about himself being the only true way to salvation. Thus, it becomes imperative that each of us weigh Jesus' question from Mark 8:29, "Who do you say that I am?"

For more information on the Christian response to Religious Pluralism, please check out Jason Carlson's DVD lecture titled, Salvation: Is there really just 1 way? available in our online store.

• Both the Bible and the Koran claim to be the word of God, but only the Bible bears the marks of divine inspiration while the Koran contains numerous errors, for example...
• The Koran is internally inconsistent in a number of places. One example, in Sura 2:256 the Koran says, "Let there be no compulsion in religions", while in other places, such as Sura 9:5 and 9:29, the Koran advocates fighting and killing non-Muslims who refuse to embrace Islam.
• The Koran also contradicts itself on key theological matters. For example, in regards to creation the Koran says in Sura 7:54 that the world was made in six days, but in Sura 41:9-12 it says God took eight days.
• The Koran is also wrong on basic issues of science. For example, in Sura 23:14 the Koran says that human beings are formed from a clot of blood; and Sura 18:86 states that the sun sets in a muddy pond.
• Contrary to the errors we find in the Koran, the Bible is internally consistent and scientifically accurate. The Bible contains no errors or contradictions.

For more information on the Bible vs. the Koran, please see Dr. Carlson's audio lecture titled, The Religion of Islam, available in our online store in MP3 or CD.

• The Law of Biogenesis states that life only comes from life, life cannot come from non-living matter. Darwinian evolution requires the impossible, that chemical reactions created the first living organisms.
• DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid) is found in all living organisms and is essential for life to exist. Yet DNA can only be produced by life. How when no life existed did DNA come into being? Darwinian evolution has no explanation.
• Science has consistently demonstrated that the Earth is literally fine-tuned for life, meeting dozens of highly restrictive astronomical and physical parameters necessary for life to exist (For example, the distance of the earth from the sun and the earth's force of gravity). The odds of Earth meeting these necessary parameters, by chance, are literally "astronomical".
• The evidence of irreducible complexity in biology is a serious challenge to Darwinism. These are all or nothing systems, structures so complex that all of their parts must be initially present and working together or else they cannot function. A classic example would be the bacterial flagellum.

For more information on God's incredible design in nature, please check out our selection of Documentary DVD's on creation vs. evolution, available in our online store.

• The Old Testament contains over 300 prophecies regarding the coming of the Messiah, all of which were fulfilled by Jesus Christ.
• Remarkably, in Micah 5:2 Bethlehem was named as the birthplace of the coming Messiah, some 700 years before the birth of Jesus.
• The "suffering servant" passage of Isaiah 52-53 accurately depicts Jesus' substitutionary atonement for our sins.
• Psalm 22, Psalm 34:20, and Zechariah 12:10 are amazing prophecies depicting the crucifixion of Jesus Christ roughly 400 years prior to the invention of crucifixion.
• Isaiah 53:9 foretold Jesus' burial in a rich man's grave while Psalm 16:10 prophetically declared his triumphal resurrection.

For more information on the remarkable prophecies of Scripture, please see Dr. Carlson's CD or MP3 lecture titled, The Bible: God's Word?, available in our online store.

• Relativism is the belief that there are no objective, absolute truths. What's true for one person may not be true for another.
• The relativist's position is self-defeating because the relativist is making an absolute truth claim when they say, "all truth is relative."
• If truth is relative, on what basis can we judge or condemn the actions of people with whom we disagree (For example, Adolph Hitler or Osama Bin Laden)?
• Truth is simply the correspondence of what you know or say to what actually is.
• Without a society governed by absolute truths civilization would fall apart. For example, imagine a world where red stop signs didn't absolutely mean, "stop" for all people.

For more information on the nature of truth, relativism, and the dangers of postmodern philosophy, please see Jason Carlson's 5-CD album titled, Answering the Postmodern Challenge, available in our online store.