The Founder
"The purpose of Giving an Answer is to demonstrate to an unbelieving world that Christianity is the true Faith, and that the true Faith is based on sound evidence."
Dr. H.C. Felder
Ministering to a fallen world.
Dr. H.C. Felder
Of course I heard the name Jesus when I was growing up. My parents made me go to church every Sunday when I was a child. That name was common. But it was just that a name. Jesus was a man that lived a long time ago. He was important, I just wasn’t sure why. In fact I remember very little of those Sundays. One thing I do remember very clearly is an incident that occurred one morning while sitting in Mrs. Young’s Sunday school class. I was acting up a usual when she walked up to me and pointed her old bony finger in my face and said “if you sin, you are going to hell.” I figured why bother, I might as well bust hell wide open.
That was the beginning of my downward spiral. I drifted further away from God toward a life style of rebellion and debauchery. My teenage years were a blur of marijuana and alcohol. I remember stealing my brother’s car when I was around 19. He only had the car for 3 days when I stole his keys and decided to drive from DC to New York on a tank of gas and a case of beer. I never made it out of DC before wrecking the car in an accident that surely should have killed me. I also remember being hospitalized for three days as a teenager for alcohol poisoning. A stranger actually found me literally laying in the gutter. He lifted me out of the gutter and took me home. My parents sent me away to GA to live with my grandparents in an attempt to remove me from my negative influences.
After finishing school I joined the Navy and saw the world. As a young man in Asia I participated in every type of vice I could conceive. I became an alcoholic and worse, a professing atheist. I not only turned away from God but I was openly hostile to anything Christian. My alcoholism increased as well as my insatiable appetite for sin.
It was many years later that a young lady invited me to church. I went, not because I wanted anything to do with church but because I wanted something to do with her. That was the night that my whole life came to a head. While sitting in that service I experience the power of God. That very night, October 3rd 1997, I accepted Jesus as my Lord and savior.
Soon after my conversion, God supernaturally delivered me from alcohol and gave me a passion for apologetics, that I might reach those who are now as lost as I once was.
In 2003, I made the commitment to follow my Lord full time. So I quit my job as a Software Engineer at NASA, sold my house, and moved to the Charlotte NC area where I became a full time seminary student. In May 2005, I graduated from Southern Evangelical Seminary with a Masters Degree in Apologetics (defending the Christian faith). In May 2015, I graduated from Southern Evangelical Seminary with a Doctor of Ministry in Apologetics. I currently reside in Charlotte NC with my lovely wife Tina.
I often think back to my childhood and of the man that pulled me out of the gutter when I was a mere youth. He later said that he initially walked right on by after hearing me asking for help. But he could not leave me there and came back and lifted me out of the gutter. I am grateful to that man; but even more grateful to another man who also lifted me out of a spiritual gutter. He took me, cleaned me up and called me his own. It is to that second man, Jesus, that I owe everything.
While watching the local cable access channel one day, I became grieved at the state of the Church. There was very little true biblical teaching that I saw. There was an abundant of unbiblical and self aggrandizing teaching. There were also a number of shows from various religious and cultic groups. I did not see one show that defended the historic Christian faith.
Now when I say “historic Christian faith,” I am talking about the faith passed down from the apostles through the church leaders throughout history. Much of what we see on TV now is a “new gospel.” It is a self-serving gospel that surrounds man, not God. It is a gospel that encourages people to join because Jesus can solve all of their problems.
The historic gospel is one of repentance, not self-serving self-centered gratification. We need salvation because we are sinners who need to be forgiven before a holy God. Sadly, many come into the church without acknowledging their sin and as a result the church has become a reflection of the culture. Instead of becoming salt and light and leading society, we merely emulate society. This is why the divorce rate is the same, if not higher, in the church than in society at large. This is also why so many Christians vote based on how a political candidate might benefit them instead of voting biblically on moral issues. It is a me Christianity. Oh how far we have strayed from words of Christ “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Mark 8:34). No longer do we come to the table of God to fellowship with the All Mighty but because we want something from the table, whether it is healing or prosperity. God has simply become another means to the end and not the end itself. One of my favorite passages in the Bible is what God said to Abraham “I am your shield, your very great reward” (Gen. 15:1). He is our reward, not was He does for us.
Not one show, that I was aware of, presented or defended basic Bible doctrine. There is a growing need in our country to be able to defend our faith. No longer can we simply say to someone “because the Bibles says so.” They will want to know why they should trust the Bible as authoritative. Christians should be able to answer this as well as other questions about their faith. Christians should be able to defend their beliefs in the market place of ideas. Out of this Giving An Answer was born.
Giving An Answer first aired on local public access cable July 1, 2004. It is apologetically based, meaning its purpose is to defend the historic Christian faith. It started out with me teaching the Twelve Points that Prove that Christianity is True. I filmed the show from my living room on my dining room table. Starting in September 2004, I changed the show to its current format which is a talk show. The show is now filmed at the studio at the public access studio in Charlotte NC. I usually invite a guest and we talk on a topic that I think is of apologetic value. These topics has thus far included the attributes of God, Moral Relativism, Creation of the Universe, Abortion, Christian in Politics, The Trinity, The Problem of Evil and more.
Keep me and Giving An Answer in your prayers. God Bless.
Dr. H. C. Felder
Founder
The African American Guide to the Bible deals with the arguments used to support the idea that Christianity and the Bible are incompatible with people of color. The book demonstrates that the Bible alone is God’s word, people of color are central and prominent in the biblical landscape, and God views all of humanity as one.
The purpose of Giving An Answer is to demonstrate to an unbelieving world that Christianity is the true Faith, and that the true Faith is based on sound evidence. The ministry equips Christians with solid answers to tough questions. As a result, Christians are both built up in their own faith and better able articulate the truth and win others to Christ.
Read articles that deal with various topics concerning the evidence for Christianity. Topics include the nature of God, biblical prophecy, biblical inspiration, evidence for the resurrection, the nature of evil, the Qur’an and more.
In his book titled Twenty-Six Reasons Why Jews Don’t Believe in Jesus, author Asher Norman outlines twenty six reasons why Jews reject both Jesus and Christianity. He attacks the person of Jesus, the reliability of the New Testament, and the need for salvation as taught in Christianity. It would take a book to respond to each and every argument proposed by Norman. However, this paper will address arguments that lie at the heart of his objections. It will respond to his objections concerning Jesus as Messiah, the New Testament as inspired, and the need for atonement as taught in the Bible. The paper will also demonstrate that Norman’s objections to Jesus and Christianity are without merit.
Throughout the history of western thought, numerous philosophers and great thinkers have struggled with what is known as The Problem of Evil. A number of influential philosophers have posited the incompatibility between the existence of God and the existence of evil. A number of theists have defended their co-existence. Former Oxford professor of Philosophy J.L Mackie took the theist to task by attempting to expose their arguments as invalid and unpersuasive. Mackie represents a number of non-theistic criticisms of theistic arguments for The Problem of Evil.[1] Because of this, I will examine Mackie’s arguments from a theistic perspective and demonstrate that it is Mackie who has failed to be persuasive in his arguments against the positions that reconcile the existence of God with evil.
As a Christian Apologist, I often engage people who are atheist or of different faiths. If we talk long enough, the topic of the Crusades is bound to come up. In this paper, I would like to present a view of the Crusades that goes against the commonly held beliefs of most people. This paper will focus on the First Crusades. It will examine the Crusades from a traditional view and then from a historical view. Both views will then be evaluated.
I remember when I first started learning about the three great arguments for the existence of God. The first argument is the argument from the universe. It basically goes like this: everything that comes into existence needs a cause, the universe came into existence, therefore the universe needs a cause. The argument goes on to demonstrate, scientifically, that the cause is consistent with the God of the Bible.
If there is one assertion that can safely and accurately be made about the Muslim view of the Bible it would be that there is no one unified Muslim view of the Bible. The truth is that Muslims and their scriptures often differ on this subject. Additionally, Muslims differ with one another concerning how to view the Bible.
Did Jesus rise from the dead? Why is it important? What is the evidence? Even if He did rise from the dead, what difference does it make anyway? These are the questions that I, H.C. Felder, will be answering in this article on the evidence for the resurrection.
Aspects of Word of Faith theology varies from teacher to teachers, however, there seems to be one constant. That constant is this view on the nature of healing. In this paper, I will look at some of their most visible teachers to examine what they teach. I will present their view in their own words. I will then evaluate this view in light of what Scripture truly teaches. I will also expose the occult source of this teaching and why it is not only unbiblical, but dangerous.
This paper will examine Open View Theology, particularly from the view point of God's immutability as defined by Boyd in God of the Possible. The Open View will be examined first, along with a presentation of the biblical and historical basis, as well as its implications as presented by Boyd. Next, the traditional view of God will be examined with its biblical and historical basis. Then, both views will be contrasted, exposing the weaknesses, contradictions, and fallacies inherit in Open View Theology. Finally, the conclusion will summarize of the information presented and give a few closing remarks.
There are a number of scholars who claim that Scripture is not "God-breathed." Some claim that it cannot be God-breathed because there is no God to breathe it. These scholars pride themselves on the academic knowledge and alleged scientific approach to the study of Scripture. They claim to have scientifically proved that that the Bible is a book written by a number of uninspired men over hundreds of years for their own selfish reasons. They developed what is known as the Document Hypothesis to explain the man-made origin of Scripture and reject divine involvement.
For many Christians today, the Gospel is not Christ centered but self centered. One can hardly turn on Christian television without hearing how God promises them this or that; how God guarantees them health and wealth in this life; how life is to be blessing filled. It is sad to see those who follow after Christ for their own sake. It grieves me that so many are turning to Christ as a new way to prosper or as a new method of happiness. This is a very skewed view of the Gospel. At the center of the Gospel message is Christ and Him crucified. In order to be obedient to Him, we are told that suffering, tribulation, and persecution come along with following Him. Paul understood suffering very well. He considered his suffering for Christ an honor and privilege and this is a reoccurring theme throughout his epistles. We can learn much from Paul about what it truly means to follow Christ.
Plato lived from approximately 428-328 B.C. in ancient Greece. He was the student of Socrates and teacher of Aristotle. St. Thomas Aquinas lived from A.D. 1224-1274, during the medieval period. Although separated by more than fifteen hundred years, few philosophers have had as much impact on western thought as these two men. Both introduced revolutionary ideas in the study of reality and knowledge. The purpose of this article is to present and compare the metaphysics and epistemology of Plato and St. Thomas Aquinas.
The topic of philosophy has intimidated many throughout modern history. Many believe that it is reserved for the intellectually superior; that it is a discipline studied by a club of exclusive members of academia, with little or no practical value to the general masses or everyday life. In reality, many people simply do not know what philosophy is and how it applies to them. The purpose of this article is to define and explain philosophy. It will also discuss some of the main issues of philosophy and the questions that it seeks to answer.
The Faith movement has introduced cultic teaching about the sacrifice of Jesus and diminished His finished work. This paper will first explore the orthodox view of atonement and then examine the origins of the Faith movement and its views on atonement. The paper will conclude with an analysis of the Faith movement’s theology on the atonement in light of the Bible and reason.
There are those who deny the Deity of Christ. Of those, there are some who believe in the inerrant Word of God, yet allege that Jesus Himself never claimed to be God. Those who would make such a claim are simply wrong. Either they have never read the New Testament or simply refuse to acknowledge the abundance of evidence of Jesus’ claims of Divinity. This paper will demonstrate that Jesus certainly did claim to be God; both indirectly and directly. The scope of this study will be on the Gospel of John and deal with the direct saying of Jesus as recorded by His apostle John.
Islam maintains that the Qur’an that we have is the unalterable word of God. It is now exactly what it has always been. Muslims use this as a proof that the Qur’an and the Qur’an alone is inspired and that only the Qur’an has been saved from human corruption. Allah personally preserved the text as his true, eternal, and perfect testimony. This article will demonstrate that the text of the Qur’an is neither eternal nor perfect. Instead, it is a book of purely human origins, evolving over a period of time.
Islam maintains that the Qur'an that we have is the unalterable word of God. It is now exactly what it has always been. Muslims use this as a proof that the Qur'an and the Qur'an alone is inspired and that only the Qur'an has been saved from human corruption. Allah personally preserved the text as his true, eternal, and perfect testimony. This article will demonstrate that the text of the Qur'an is neither true, eternal, nor perfect. Instead, it is a book of purely human origins, evolving over a period of time.
In this paper, I intend to expose Darwinism as being even more racist than their accusations against Christianity. I will look at the seed of scientific racism as planted by Charles Darwin and how that seed matured into full blown racism. I will also examine and contrast the theological consequences of Darwinian evolution with the theological consequences of God’s existence as our Intelligent Designer, as it relates to racism.
The Bible contains numerous prophesies about events far into the future-events verified by historical evidence. As a matter of fact, the Bible contains 1,817 prophecies. Twenty-seven percent of the Bible is prophecy! Other religions do not have specific, repeated, and unfailing fulfillment made many years in advance of contingent events over which the predictor had no control. In an effort to prove this, I selected a number of predictions from the Bible, made by prophets who claimed to be speaking from God. These predictions cover a wide range of topics. All the events are verified as historical events hundreds and thousands of years after the predictions. Additionally, I validate these events with historical, secular, non-Biblical sources.