Question: How do we know the Bible, a collection of books and letters written of centuries, is the word of a deity? Answer: Given the amazing evidence for the inspiration of the Bible, the fact that it is a collection of writings written over many centuries makes it even more impressive.  The Bible contains the […]

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Question: Why are the twelve apostles all men? Answer: God does not tell us why all the apostles were men.  To attempt an answer is to speculate, as God did not tell us his reasons.  So…. My response is just my own opinion, and you should take that for what it is worth. There are […]

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Question: I have a question regarding Mat 5:33-36 where Jesus forbids us to take oaths of any kind. Would this include pledges of allegiance to our nation, especially for immigrant Christians who would like to become American citizens? Answer: I believe you may be putting words into the mouth of the Jesus.  He did not say that […]

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Question: In Matthew 14:25-26, it looks like the disciples believed in ghosts, though Jesus never mentions it?  Does the Bible validate or invalidate the existence of ghosts? Any evidence that ghosts roam the earth, haunt houses etc?   Mat 14:25-26  25 Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake.26 When the disciples saw him […]

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Question: What was the oldest manuscript we had before the Dead Sea Scrolls?  Was it the Aleppo Codex or Leningrad codex?  If  it is the Leningrad Codex, why do we compare the Aleppo codex with the Dead sea scrolls?   Can you please give me the dates of these manuscripts?   On the internet every site has a  different […]

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[Editor’s note: This question is coming from a person responding to Muslim claims that Jesus never claimed to be God] Question: I’d like to ask you 2 questions.  1 What’s your comment on the New World Translation of Zechariah 12:10  “I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem […]

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Last weekend we brought together eight teachers from across the US for a conference on History, Archaeology and Christianity.  We are really grateful to York College in York, Nebraska for hosting the conference.  A few of the notes and power points from the conference are attached here.  The audio is available through the membership option […]

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Dr. John Oakes gave many lessons to eight different churches in India, Bangaladesh and Sri Lana Jan 5-22, 2017. From Shadow to Reality India Audio   Existence of God DelhiAudio    Reliability of the Bible Delhi Audio   Marriage Divorceand Remarriage Delhi Audio   Acts and Church History Delhi Audio    Holy Spirit Delhi Audio    Hebrews Living by Faith Audio    Freedom in...

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Question: I have a question on Matthew 19:28.  Does this passage mean that Paul will have to judge the people of Israel?  When Judas killed himself they chose Matthias, but Paul was also an Apostle.  In a commentary I read Barkley and McDonald claim that God approved the selection of Matthias through Zareba.   In Acts […]

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Question: What is your impression of the excavation of Christ’s tomb going on right now? Answer: No one knows exactly where Jesus’ tomb was, although archaeologists and Bible scholars have a general idea where to look.  Besides, he was only there for three days and surely there would be no physical remains from his stay […]

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Question: How can I decide if a particular writing by one of the church fathers is authentic?  I’m asking this question because critics [editor’s note: he is talking about Muslim critics of Christianity] criticize any writing, not only Irenaeus.  They say, for example, that we don’t know who wrote the writings of Justin Martyr, Origen… […]

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Dr. John Oakes gave a lesson for Proyecto Esdras in Mexico City on the sacrifices and festivals in the Covenant of Moses as prefigures of things in the New Testament.  The Power Point is attached. John Oakes dio una leccion para el Proyecto Esdras en D. F sobre los sacrificios y festivales en el covenento […]

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Question: Are Richard Dawkins points valid in his response against faith as the only way to morality?   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgHoyTvyh4o       [note: in this youtube video Dawkins claims that secular humanists have created a better kind of morality than religion] Answer: As usual for Richard Dawkins, he resorts to pure rhetoric and chooses to simply […]

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Mark your calendar:  Nov. 11-13 The Apologetics Research Society is excited to announce our tenth International Christian Evidences Conference.  The theme will be the evidence from History and Archaeology which supports the reliability and the message of Old and New Testaments.  The dates will be Nov 11-13.  The conference will begin on Friday morning.  Speakers […]

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[Editor’s note: This question is coming from a believer who lives in the Middle East and is clearly receiving a lot of attacking questions from his Muslim friends.  They are using rhetoric, false dilemmas and other logical fallacies to try to prove that the Bible is corrupt.  This will explain why I get a bit […]

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This ARS Christian Evidence conference was held at York College in York, Nebraska.  Below is the audio from the conference as well as the schedule of the conference.  Archaeology Mark Ziesse   Archaeology and the Book of John  Acts and Church History Oakes   First Second and Third Quest for Jesus Kurka   2016 ICEC Forum   If Christ Has...

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[Editor’s Note:  This is two different but similar questions from the same person, so I am joining them as one article.  These questions concern letters from the church “Fathers” of the late first and the second century AD which help to inform us how the early church lived and what they taught.] Question: I’d like […]

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Dr. John Oakes taught a new class on the controversial biblical topic of divorce and remarriage for the staff of the Delhi Church of Christ.  Audio and notes are attached.    Marriage and Divorce Notes    Marriage Divorceand Remarriage Audio

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Questions: Why would God even create a hell? Why will souls live eternally in damnation?  If they don’t make it into heaven, their soul is destroyed.  Also, I was reading on your site about Jesus and examples you give for believing He is the Messiah. One is His fulfillment of prophecy. One of the prophecies […]

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Question: What is the evidence that Matthew, Mark, Luke and John really wrote the four gospels? I have searched and found that the oldest man (whose writings are available now) who said that the four gospels were written by these four men was Irenaeus.  Irenaeus said that about 180 AD about a century after the […]

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Question: I have a question about something in the Bible that bothers me. In Genesis 19, Angels come into Lots home. When under attack, Lot offers the men his daughters to, basically rape. I find this hard to understand? Is there any explanation to understand Lots mindset? Answer: I will have to say that this […]

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[Editor’s note: This question is more personal than we normally post, but the person raises important questions so we are posting it, hoping that noone will be offended] Question: My question is why did you say that the Holy Catholic Church is “corrupt?” How is the Church, who brought the Holy Bible to the world, “corrupt?  The […]

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Question: Is thinking a physical process, or is it spiritual? Answer: I believe that the answer is that thinking is both physical and “spiritual.” One thing we can be sure of is that thinking is a physical process.  This has been shown by experiment and our experience agrees with experiment.  MRI (magnetic resonsance imaging) experiments […]

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Question: I have recently moved from a church that taught things like tattoos are wrong, celebrating Halloween is wrong, kids dressing up in costumes (even unrelated to Halloween, and even if little girls dress up as princesses while having a tea party in her room) is wrong. I’m trying to reconcile some of the things […]

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Question: Protestants such as myself use the Masoretic Text for the translation of our Bibles. However, the Eastern Orthodox Church uses the Septuagint, a Greek translation we get primarily from the three large codices: Vaticanus, Sinaiticus, and Alexandrinus. How can I explain to someone why the Septuagint is good, but has problems (aside from the […]

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Dr. John Oakes is taught a five week series on The Reliability and Inspiration of the Bible on Saturdays in October, 2016. Class Outline is below.  Notes, PPT and audio are attached.    Reliability and Inspiration Notes     Reliability and Inspiration PPT    Reliability and Insp Audio I     Reliability and Insp Audio II    Reliability and Insp Audio III  […]

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Question: I am glad to be emailing you again on biblical matters.  I found our conversations quite insightful.   I wanted to ask you a question about the cause of disabilities per Exodus 4:11 and John 9:3 (about Jesus healing the man born blind).  Some translations render the text in John as “this happened so that the works […]

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Dr. Jack Cotrell gave a ten-hour class on the Meaning of Baptism for the Apologetics Research Society in Los Angeles September, 2016.  Outline and audio are attached.    Meaning of Baptism Syllabus    Meaning of Baptism Audio Part 1    Meaning of Baptism Audio Part 2   Meaning of Baptism Part 3 Audio   Meaning of Baptism Audio Part...

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Question: I’ve searched your site regarding marijuana use, and have found a few articles. However, they are a bit dated, and I’m wondering if you have any updated information given its current legal status in some states – and pending legal status in California.   My husband and I lead a group where two women smoke […]

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Question: I watched a recent debate (online) between Theist Dr William lane Craig and cosmologist Lawrence Krauss.  Krauss’s favorite example seems to be the divine command in the Old Testament for the Israelites to exterminate the Canaanite men, women and children (Deuteronomy 20:7). I would say Krauss and most other atheists use this brilliantly to […]

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Question: I was reading on your website an article about Nimrod and any evidence for Nimrod. I would like to take it a step farther. What if Sargon of Akkad was actually Moses?  What if the Enuma Elish which talks about Apsu the fresh pure water god and Tiamat who was the bitter salty water […]

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Question: Before Jesus’ birth at ~7-2 BCE, there were thousands of different religions around the world from the those of the Native Americans to thoses of the Africans and of course, those of the Far East. 1. Why do they exist? 2. Why did God choose the Jewish people? 3. What could make Christianity true […]

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Question: Paul said in Romans chapter 7 that he wanted to do the right thing and yet he continued to do the wrong thing, even though  he knew is bad for him,  I feel torn between being a saint and a sinner…  I do not understand why God has planned it that way especially when […]

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Question: It is becoming a more and more accepted theory that humans have no ability to truly make “willful decisions.” Under this assumption, how can one come to salvation? Wouldn’t this render John 3:16 useless, because we cannot choose to believe in God?  I understand the argument that this just points to predestination, but as […]

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Question: As we know God is infinite and eternal. Could there be several infinite and eternal Gods? Many thanks Answer: In principle, if we knew nothing about reality, and were simply asking the most basic question about how to explain the universe, I suppose if one were starting from scratch, with no assumptions, one could not […]

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