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Author "john-oakes"

wrote in Bible Manuscripts and Textual Questions, General, Reliability of the Bible .

Question: Andrew B. Davidson (1902) wrote that Scribes were arrangers of the scattered fragments, many of them anonymous, existing in their time. They arranged small anonymous prophecies under general headings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Zechariah, just like all Psalms were gathered together under the name of David. Dr. Oakes, is it possible that anonymous prophecies became part […]

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wrote in Bible Interpretation, General, Prefigures and Foreshadows, Q & A .

Question: Thank you for taking my question, My question is about the meal talked about in Exodus, that was eaten in haste, in which they ate the lamb they sacrificed. My question is this: in Jesus’s day, would that meal have been eaten on Friday night? Is that called the Passover meal? If it was […]

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wrote in Bible Interpretation, General, Q & A .

Question: Why don’t Christians need to follow the Old Testament Laws (especially the Old Testament Civil Laws) anymore? Answer: Christians do not need to follow the Old Testament law because Jesus fulfilled the Law (Matthew 5:17).  Jesus replaced the Law of Moses with the Law of Christ (1 Corinthians 9:21, Galatians 6:2).  The requirements of […]

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wrote in General, Practical Christianity, Q & A .

Question: What are some key problems with Christian theocracy? Why shouldn’t Christians seek to have a Christian theocratic nation? Answer: There is no direct statement in the New Testament which commands Christians to not create a theocratic state.  If believers in some country decided to found a state based wholly on Christian principles, I suppose […]

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wrote in General, General Apologetics, Other Religions, Q & A .

Question: How would you respond to these common claims that Muslims make with the intention of trying to show that Islam is true i.e. the one true religion 1) ‘Islam is not a religion in the common and distorted sense, for it does not confine its scope to one’s private life. It is a complete […]

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wrote in General, History, Other Religions, Q & A, Reliability of the Bible .

Editor’s note: I answered the question above in 2011. At that time, I had no knowledge of non-Christian sources supporting this claim, and said so.  However, a visitor to the web site has shared with me an article which does provide good support from a Jewish source in the first century that there was a […]

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wrote in General, Historical and Messianic Prophecy, Q & A .

Question:  How can Isaiah 42:2 apply to Jesus when he did cry out for people to repent, cleansed the temple and argued with the Pharisees? Response: I suppose you have a point here if we take Isaiah 42:2 to be literal.  Clearly Jesus “shouted” at times, otherwise how could his teachings to groups like the […]

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wrote in Bible Interpretation, General, Historical and Messianic Prophecy, Q & A .

Question: I have some questions regarding the interpretation and fulfillment of Joseph’s second dream.  1. What do the sun, moon and 11 stars represent in the dream?  2. Was Jacob right at the interpretation of Joseph’s second dream?  3. If Jacob was sun, 11 stars were 11 sons of Jacob, then who was moon?   Do […]

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wrote in Uncategorized .

[Editor’s Note: This is a two-part question, as the one asking clarified his initial question] Question: Can you explain to me why there is such a difference in the Genesis 5 and 11 chronologies of the antediluvian and post-flood patriarchs? I understand there is about 1380 years difference between the Septuagint and Masoretic translation texts, […]

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wrote in Anthropology, Creation, General, Q & A, Science and the Bible .

Question: This question pertains to your response regarding “Evolution” posted on September 15, 2022. I was somewhat surprised that you weighed in on Calvinist theology as the question was not overtly suggestive of that theology. (I was once espousing that theology until I came across your website). But that made me curious of what you […]

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wrote in Apologetics, Articles, Bible, Bible Teaching, Jesus, Other Religions, Spanish Articles, Theology, Theology, Uncategorized .

Dr. John Oakes is teaching a five part series on how Christians ought to respond to false teachings which are found out there in the “Christian” world for a church in Guadalajara, Mexico.  The recording is in both Spanish and English.  Areas that will be covered include Roman Catholicism, Calvinism, Evangelicalism, Pentecostalism, Premillennialism, Mormonism and […]

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wrote in General, Other Religions, Q & A .

Question:  I’m from Cameroon, Africa. I mention this because having been to Africa and in Cameroon in particular you may have noticed that many African families still worship ancestors. The reason for this is that The Bible was one of the powerful tools European Countries used to Conquer Africa.  SO my question is: HOW CAN […]

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wrote in Creation, General, Q & A, Science and the Bible .

Question: I have a few questions about evolution and the Bible. First of all if we evolved then in 100 million years could humans have evolved into a different animal like how apes apparently evolved into humans? Secondly if evolution is true then that means there were land animals before birds but the Bible says […]

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wrote in Church History, General, Q & A, Reliability of the Bible .

[Editor’s note: These are two questions of a similar nature from the same questioner, so are being put together in one article.] Question: Why does it appear that Matthew’s version of the last supper was copied from Mark? They’re so similar and it wouldn’t make sense for Matthew to copy Mark for the last supper […]

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wrote in Bible Interpretation, Creation, General, Q & A, Science and the Bible .

Question:  I have a few questions about evolution. First of all evolution means death of animals before sin and that is super inconsistent with the Bible and there is no way God would allow death and suffering. And the last thing is if we evolved over time couldn’t we humans evolve into something else? Would […]

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wrote in Bible Interpretation, General, Historical and Messianic Prophecy, Other Religions, Q & A .

Question:  Isaiah 42 does not talk about Jesus if you read with a broad mind, because KJV says.  “and the isles shall wait for his law.”  But the truth is Jesus did not bring new laws for Jews and he never nullified the laws of the Torah. Paul, who never met Jesus, distorted the true […]

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wrote in General, Q & A, Reliability of the Bible, Uncategorized .

Question: If we don’t know who wrote the gospels then why should we trust them? Anyone could have just made them up. I want to be able to trust the gospels but since their anonymous I don’t know if I can. Answer: First of all, we very likely DO know who wrote the gospels.  It […]

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wrote in Church History, General, Q & A .

Question: The early church is unanimous in attributing the four gospels to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John but they are also unanimous that Matthew wrote first. However Mark probably wrote first since most of Mark is in Matthew. So my question is if they’re wrong on who wrote first then why should we believe that […]

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wrote in Apocrypha, Bible Manuscripts and Textual Questions, Church History, General, Q & A, Reliability of the Bible .

[Editor’s Note: This is a rather long question with a fairly long response] Question:  I read your article “Is Chapter 2 of Wisdom (part of the Apocrypha) inspired prophecy of Jesus?” and wanted to address your points. First, you asked where the Messianic prophecy is. Wisdom 2:12-20 contains a very clear Messianic prophecy: “For if […]

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wrote in Bible Interpretation, General, Q & A, Theology and Doctrinal Questions .

Question: I was reading your article on baptism and have a question. What happens to believers who are not baptized e.g the person who repented on the cross next to our Saviour? Answer: The person who repented on the cross is not a particularly helpful example for your question for a couple of reasons.  First […]

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wrote in General, History, Other Religions, Q & A .

Question: Hello Dr Oakes. I saw a video about why Muhammad was far more peaceful than Moses. The man claimed that Christian’s don’t read the Quran and Hadith everyday in context from Muslim scholars, so we have no right to say Muhammad was violent or to quote the violent verses without historical context. But he […]

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wrote in Church History, General, Q & A .

Question:  Jews say: “None of God’s prophet came after Malachi among them.” On the contrary, Justin Martyr said to Trypho: “you had prophets in succession until John; there never failed to be a prophet among you, who was lord, and leader, and ruler of your nation.” Who has the correct view in your opinion? Answer: […]

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wrote in Apocrypha, General, Q & A .

Question; The Ascension of Isaiah mentions unknown Hebrew prophets named Aged, Ananias & Josab. Why did they not get canonical status? Answer: The so-called Ascension of Isaiah is an apocryphal book.  One thing we can know with certainty is that it was not written by Isaiah (and therefore it is pseudepigraphal, ie. falsely attributed), as […]

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wrote in General, Practical Christianity, Q & A .

Question: If Jews were such honest keepers of God’s word, then why did they reject and kill true prophets although Deut. 13:1-5 & 18:20-22 tells criteria for judging true prophets? Answer: It is always difficult to judge people’s motives.  We can observe what they do and we can observe what they say.  However, as Samuel […]

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wrote in General, Historical and Messianic Prophecy, Other Religions, Q & A .

Question: If Jews had uncorrupted prophetic books, then why are they blamed for rejecting Jesus, albeit they expected what they were told by canonical prophets? It was not their fault but their prophets who spoke overwhelming promises. What do you say? Answer: In John 5:39 Jesus called out the scribes and Pharisees because, as he […]

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wrote in General, Historical and Messianic Prophecy, Q & A, Reliability of the Bible .

Question: Hello Dr Oakes. I read your articles about the Zeitgeist movie and they did help a lot. However, after viewing a video by Acharya S, she made a rebuttal to not only your claims but the claims by other apologists. She said there are many details that apologists don’t take into consideration when trying […]

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wrote in Apologetics, Apologetics, Archaeology, Archaeology, Articles, Bible and Science, Bible and Science, Bible Teaching, Existence of God, Manuscript/Textual Issues, Manuscripts/Textual Problems, Other Religions, Other Religions, Pain and Suffering, Pain and Suffering, Philosophy, Spanish Articles, Spanish Content, Theology, World View, World View .

Dr. John Oakes is traveling for eleven days in the Caribbean, teaching for churches in the Dominican Republic and Haiti.  Lessons, including notes, PPT and audio will be made available here.  The first five audios are in English and Spanish. The rest are in French and English. Worldview PPT    World View Notes  World View […]

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wrote in Church History, General, Other Religions, Philosophy, Q & A, Reliability of the Bible .

Note: This is a rather long question with a relatively short answer. Question: Recently I found some interesting claims about the Gospel of John.  These are quotations of the Muslim critic Misha’al Al-Kadhi and his references to Christian scholars, that should bring doubt about the Gospel of John:  1. “Even at that, it is recognized […]

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wrote in Bible Interpretation, End Times, General, Q & A .

Question: Mark 13:30 has bugged me for some time now. For context, in chapter 13 Jesus predicts the Temple’s destruction, then lists events that signal the end times, saying, “Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.” (NIV)  But this doesn’t make sense: how can Jesus’ […]

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wrote in General, Practical Christianity, Q & A .

Question: I have some questions about fasting.  First, what is fasting according to the Bible?  Second, what is the correct way to do it according to the Bible?  Third, can I fast not only from food but also from my favorite activities?  Fourth, what are the purposes of fasting other than to increase our faith […]

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wrote in Apologetics, Articles, Bible and Science, Bible Teaching, PowerPoints .

Dr. John Oakes is teaching several classes at a discipleship conference in Orlando.  We will be posting the audio immediately after the classes are offered.   After this, he will be in the Dominican Republic and Haiti and will be posting classes.  Here is the schedule: Monday 8/1 9:30 AM  King Jesus, Human Philosophies, Traditions and […]

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wrote in Articles, Bible Teaching, Prophecy .

Dr. John Oakes is teaching a four hour class on the Book of Daniel for a student group in Merced June 29-30, 2022.  Notes, ppt and audio are attached.  Daniel Notes    Daniel PPT    Daniel Merced Audio I    Daniel Merced Audio II    Daniel Merced III    Daniel Merced IV       […]

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wrote in Bible Manuscripts and Textual Questions, General Apologetics, Q & A, Versions of the Bible .

Question: 2 Corinthians 10:5 mentions the ‘casting down of reasonings’ but this phrase is omitted in the Douay-Rheims Vulgate version. Why is this the case, and which translation should we trust? Answer: The Vulgate is a Latin translation of the Greek New Testament, so I am not all that sure why the content of the […]

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wrote in Bible Manuscripts and Textual Questions, General Apologetics, Other Religions, Q & A, Reliability of the Bible .

Question: I watched a debate between a Muslim and a Christian. The New Testament has by far more number of Greek/other manuscripts. The Muslim debater said that 94% of these manuscripts come 9th century onwards. It wasn’t clear if he was referring to the Greek manuscripts alone or every manuscript we have of the New […]

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wrote in General, Q & A, Supernatural, Theology and Doctrinal Questions .

Question:  I have questions to ask you.  First about angels and humans. If both of us have free will, why is it that God still create human? Does the Bible talk about this topic?  Second about soul and spirit. Are these the same things? And if not, what is the differences between them? Also, do […]

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wrote in Bible Interpretation, Bible Manuscripts and Textual Questions, General, Other Religions, Q & A, Reliability of the Bible, Versions of the Bible .

Question: I’ve been comparing some “Messianic passages” from the Tanakh (the Hebrew Bible) to the corresponding verses in our Christian Bible (KJV, NKJV, NASB).  And I’ve noticed that, in many passages, the Tanakh translation differs significantly from our OT/NT translations.  Psalm 22, Isaiah 53, and Zechariah 12, for example, are quite different in the Tanakh, […]

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wrote in Bible Manuscripts and Textual Questions, General, Q & A, Reliability of the Bible .

Question: I’m new to your website. I only have three questions:  1. How should we, Christians, react to textual criticism and to what extent we should believe their opinion about the Bible?  2. How should we react to several textual criticism opinion that some Bible verses are “doubtful”?  3. Should we be afraid? Answer: A […]

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wrote in General, Q & A, Science and the Bible, Supernatural .

Question: What diseases known to modern science would be considered demonic?  Thank you Answer: This is an interesting question.  Actually, we had a conference on “Christianity and the Paranormal” a few years ago at which we had a presenter take a stab at this question. (The audio is available at www.ipibooks.com) Please allow me to […]

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