Christian Apologetics – Issues Relevant to the Afterlife – What God Reveals to the Human Family in and Through Nature

I was born in Phoenix, Arizona, the youngest of three siblings. From birth to the eighth grade, I lived in two states, six cities, and twelve houses (that I can remember). My wife and I were both nineteen when we married, and we have two children and four grandchildren, and now two great-grandchildren! My hobbies include hiking, wildlife photography, traveling (especially to national and state parks), and walking/hiking with my sweet dog, Maggie.

I have had two great passions in my life. The first is rooted in one of my earliest childhood memories. At the time, my family lived in Seal Beach, California, and my father owned or had stock in a mining claim in a remote section of the Tonto National Forest in central Arizona. When I was four or five years old, I visited the mine with Mom and Dad. I credit that trip into the arid wilderness as the beginning of a lifelong love for nature, wildlife, and all things wild, lonely, and beautiful—an enchantment that has never weakened nor ever departed during all the ensuing years.

When I became an adult, my love for nature became the focus of my life (other than my family and closest friends) and dominated my recreational and writing activities throughout the 1970s and early 1980s. With my wife, kids, and friends, I camped, backpacked, hiked, and explored numerous wilderness areas throughout the Western United States. My wife and I joined the Sierra Club, volunteered at a wildlife rescue center, and were active in various local environmental undertakings, including promoting California’s “Bottle Bill” and helping to establish a large open space preserve in the city where we lived. My first published magazine article in 1974 was titled “Helping Children Learn an Ecology Value,” followed by “The Wild Chaparral,” “Clocking the Cuckoo” (about the Roadrunner), and for about two years a series of “Animal of the Month” articles published in a Sierra Club newspaper. In short, nature was my life, and protecting and enjoying it was my passion.

This changed dramatically after I became a Christian in the early 1980s. My passion soon changed from delight in nature (creation) to worshiping the Creator. Although my enthusiasm and love for nature did not diminish, it was no longer the center of my life. In fact, my thesis for a master’s degree in Christian Apologetics was a 330-page book titled Environmental Stewardship: A Biblical Approach to Environmental Ethics (which in 2012 became the basis of my book, Should Christians Be Environmentalists?). After graduating in 1988, however, my focus on writing changed. Instead of defending the wilderness, I took up the case for Jesus Christ and began to write books and booklets and teach classes and workshops on how to defend the Christian faith.

I no longer offer apologetic seminars/workshops and I rarely teach apologetics classes. Until fairly recently, I wrote a weekly blog that was usually on apologetic topics. However, my writing ministry recently has focused more on nature-related topics written from a Christian perspective and issues relevant to the Afterlife–both with an apologetic emphasis. My most recent book investigates the probability of animals in the Afterlife (see my Homepage). My current project, still in process, explores what God has revealed about Himself, the human family, and Heaven through general revelation (what I all call “The Book of Nature).  It will be spiritually edifying for Christians, and I pray God will also use it as evangelism with non-Christians.

For a list of the books and articles I have published in the area of Christian apologetics, Christian environmentalism, wildlife, and nature, click on “Published Works.” For my credentials and ministry experiences, click on “Credentials.”