General

/Category Archive for "General"

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

Question: Bible critics and atheists say that none of the nine non-Christian writers like Thallus, Josephus, Tacitus and others actually wrote about Jesus of Nazareth of the Bible in their documents.  They say those documents were all fabrications by a Christian.  Your response? Response: This is quite simply a lie, and ought to be labeled […]

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

Question: Is there any extra-biblical evidence for the triumphal entry? Answer: No.  There is no mention of the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem.  The non-believers who mentioned Jesus and Christians only mentioned the most general facts, such as their devotion to Christ, the death of Jesus, the fact that people believed in his resurrection […]

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

Question: If everything comes from God, doesn’t that mean that evil comes from God as well? Thanks Answer: Yes and no, but more no than yes.  Let me explain.  God created everything, and it was all good.  In fact, it was very good (Genesis 1:31).  At creation, everything God made was good and there was […]

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wrote in Daniel, General, History, Q & A .

Question: Since the 360 day Hebrew calendar should be used when calculating the 70 weeks, if we calculated from 457 BC we would end up in 18 AD before the ministry of Christ. How can this be explained? David: According to whose authority must the 360 day Hebrew lunar year be used to make this […]

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wrote in General, Q & A, Supposed Inconsistencies in the Bible, Theology and Doctrinal Questions .

Question: In John 9:39 Jesus says, “For judgment I came into this world.” But then in John 12:47-48 Jesus says “I did not come to judge the world but to save it.” Are these not a contradiction and how do we resolve this? Answer: A great question.  I had never noticed this potential contradiction.  When […]

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wrote in General, General Apologetics, Other Religions, Q & A, Supposed Inconsistencies in the Bible .

Questions: I have 3 questions to ask you. Why did God not do anything when Abraham has a concubine and when Solomon had multiple concubines?  What did Jesus mean when he said that if your eye causes to see a women lustfully pluck it out and when a hand causes you to sin cut it […]

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wrote in Bible Interpretation, General, Q & A, Social Issues .

Question: What do you think about people that criticise christianity, because they reject the idea of using a condom. Thanks Answer: The Bible does not address the topic of birth control.  Birth control techniques on the ancient world were primarily through abortion–either by the taking of poisonous herbs in non-fatal dosages, or by surgical killing […]

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

[Editor’s note: this question is an “insider” question from someone in the churches of Christ. For those who are not part of this fellowship, please understand and perhaps excuse that I am publishing a question that you may not be able to relate to.] Question: I am a college student and a part of the […]

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wrote in General, Other Religions, Q & A, Social Issues, Theology and Doctrinal Questions .

Question: Does our Eurocentrism harm the way we live in the church? Some say that our Eurocentric or Western perspectives hinder our reading of religions. Therefore, we cannot talk about the inferiority of other religions as this would be Eurocentric. Answer: I am guessing that you have read an article which claims that Eurocentrism is […]

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

Question: Why do you think God allows natural disasters?  Also, why do people not believe in God, although its clear that he exists? Thanks. Answer: This is a common question.  The atheist asks the Christian believer why God, if he is so loving and so powerful, does not prevent natural disasters.  Actually, I assume that […]

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wrote in General, Miracles, Q & A .

Question: Do coincidences happen? Or does God cause them? Thanks Answer: This is a fun question to think about.  I am sure many believers have asked themselves this intriguing question. My answer is yes, of course coincidences happen.  For example, when someone wins the super lottery, it is a fantastic coincidence that they happened to […]

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

Question: What would you answer to someone that asks you: what if universes are the only thing that doesn’t need a Creator? I hope you can answer me, thanks Answer: The Bible says in Proverbs 26:5, “Answer a fool according to his folly, or he will be wise in his own eyes.”  So, I will […]

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

Questions: I listened to all the 1 hour lectures you gave at a university recently. The evidence about the life of Christ, and lack of info about other claimed messiah types like Zoroaster was very helpful. I’m definitely struggling with your views on a approx 14 million yrs old earth ( I’m not sure that […]

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

Question:  Is it true that Christianity endorsed Hermeticism at the beginning? Answer; I am going to guess that you saw someone somewhere claim that Christianity borrowed its belief system in part from Hermeticism. The simple answer to your question is a hard no.  No, Christianity never has endorsed Hermeticism and especially primitive Christianity certainly did […]

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wrote in Bible Interpretation, End Times, General, Other Religions, Q & A, Theology and Doctrinal Questions .

Question: Please respond to this article: https://www.jw.org/en/bible-teachings/questions/jesus-body/    Is it true that Jesus’ resurrected body was a spiritual one only according to 1 Peter 3:18, and that we too will have spirit, not physical bodies in heaven? Answer: First of all, you will do well to not listen to Jehovah Witnesses, both in person and […]

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

Question: I read a passage in the Bible where it said that there was a blackness and an earthquake after Jesus died. [Editor’s note: Luke 23:44 for the darkness, Matthew 27:51 for the earthquake] Is there historical evidence of people seeing this? Answer: Many people fail to recognize that we have very little information about […]

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

Question: I have a question about the Temple mentioned in Ezekiel Ch 40-48. It says that there will be sin sacrifices, but how can that be so if Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice? I know that there are both literal and figurative interpretations, but everything I have seen has favored the literal view of these […]

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wrote in Bible Interpretation, General, Other Religions, Q & A .

Question: How should I respond to Dr. Kauffman’s clever and humorous attack on Dr. Laura when she says that, as a Jew, homosexual behavior is blasphemy to God? [Editor’s note: Kauffman’s criticism is contained in the response] Response: I will have to say that I agree that this letter is clever, but I am not […]

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

Question: What is the name of God according to Exodus 6:2-3 based on the Hebrew Old Testament and the Septuagint? [Editor’s note: this is the early Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible in the late third century BC] Answer: God has many names in the Bible, as I assume you know.  He is called El, […]

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

Question: What did Jesus mean he said “I am the resurrection and life and those who believe in will live and those who live and believe in me will never die?  The fact is that those who believe in him are still dying.  So, what did Jesus mean?  When he said that those who follow […]

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

Question: I want to know about the reliability of the Bible because many of my friends who are Muslims tell me that Jesus did not die on the cross nor was he risen.  They tell me that this is not written 600 yrs later but from 2nd century or the end of 1st century itself […]

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

Questions: We know that the Bible prohibits idolatry.  If Catholics were the first denomination of Christians, why then do they do everything contradictory to the Bible? Can we trust the additional books of OT in the Catholic Bible?  Why did Protestants came years later after Catholics?  It seems to me that they should have come […]

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wrote in General, Other Religions, Q & A, Reliability of the Bible, Theology and Doctrinal Questions .

Question: I have a question. Muslims always say that Bible corrupted, but there is no evidence for it, in fact there is evidence for reliability of the Gospels. Now in gospel of John we can see how Jesus made claims about His divine nature, but is the Gospel of John reliable, since it latest of […]

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

Question: In a recent debate Muslim imam Shabir Ally tells us that John’s gospel is contradictory to synoptics because in John Jesus said to the people who arrested him I am he without forcing his arrest but in synoptics it’s different.  In John, Jesus carries his cross, indicating that he was strong, but in the […]

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wrote in General, Other Religions, Q & A, Supposed Inconsistencies in the Bible .

Question: My question is this.  I have been seeing claims, specifically by atheists and Muslims, that the Christianity that exists today is Pauline. Paul interpolated on everything that Jesus taught, contradicted Jesus’ teachings on the law, and changed the gospel. Their ultimate point is, the critics, that the Christianity we have now is from Paul, […]

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

Questions: I’m not being able to protect my faith because of Muslims and they are telling that the Bible I hold in my hand is corrupted and the original manuscripts are lost. They showed me the video of a debate of Micheal licona a Christian apologist and Shabir Ally who is a Muslim apologist.  They […]

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wrote in General, Theology and Doctrinal Questions .

Question: Can I be saved just by choosing Jesus as my savior, asking for forgiveness and repenting of my sins? Answer: The best thing I can do for you is point you to the first gospel sermon ever preached.  Surely the means of salvation was clearly laid out in this essential sermon.  After preaching about […]

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

Question: I have a question concerning the kings of Syria as mentioned in Isaiah 7:1, it identifies the kings Uzziah, Pekah,and Rezin. Do we have evidence for these three kings?  My special concern is for Rezin, the king of Syria.  Do we have evidence for Rezin as a Syrian King? Alexander: Yes we do.  He […]

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wrote in General, Q & A, Supposed Inconsistencies in the Bible .

Question: I always get confused and I’m also asked by skeptics regarding the first miracle of Jesus and he selecting his apostles. If we read the Synoptics they say that after being baptized Jesus went to wilderness and was tempted by the devil, rejected at Nazareth in a synagogue and then he selected his apostles […]

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wrote in Anthropology, General, History, Q & A .

[Editor’s note: The questioner is from India and is attempting to respond to unsubstantiated claims that Judaism and/or Christianity have ideas substantially borrowed from Hinduism] Question: 1.Is it true that the Phoenicians traveled to India and brought some arts and ideas of Hinduism and conveyed them back to Palestine where they had influence on Judaism […]

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wrote in Daniel, General, Q & A .

[Editor’s note: This question involves a personal Bible study which has been used in the International Churches of Christ called the “kingdom study.”] Question: I’ve been writing an article for my blog, theWitheredFigTree.com, about the Kingdom-related prophecies in Daniel. In the process of researching this, I found several articles on the web about the authorship […]

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

[Editor’s note: the one asking this question did some follow-up research, finding his own really useful additional information on what Nebuchadnezzar did to fulfill the prophecies in Ezekiel and Jeremiah.  His additional information is at the end of my original response.] Question: I want to ask some things relating to some answers you’ve given on […]

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

Question: Bible says that the disciple whom Jesus loves was at the cross. But it doesn’t specifically mention the name so how do we know that it’s John?And some of my friends who are Christians and pastors also say that Islam came before Christianity because of Ishmael.  They say that Ishmael traveled to Arabia with […]

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wrote in Archaeology and the Bible, General, General Apologetics, Other Religions, Q & A, Reliability of the Bible, Resurrection of Jesus .

Question: How can I keep my faith strong when people of great faith are walking away from my faith? And if we have historical evidences for Jesus outside the Bible that are more convincing than any other religion, why is it that people who are Christians convert into other religions like Hinduism or Islam? If […]

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

Question: As for Acts 8:37 none of the most ancient manuscripts include this material. The King James Version is the one which got it wrong. You are telling here here that the King James Version of the Bible is wrong. So how can we trust the other versions of the Bible because KJV is the […]

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wrote in General, Q & A, Uncategorized .

Question: When Jesus said to Thomas “blessed are those who have not seen and yet believed” what does he mean? Does he mean that we should have a blind faith without looking for facts? Today we search for answers regarding the evidences of Bible’s reliability, we find solutions for apparent Biblical contradictions, we search for […]

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

Question: I am a Christian but I have become very doubtful. I ask you to pray for me, and maybe you will be so kind and answer one of my questions.  Is there any other historical documents or archeological evidence that tells us about the Prophets of the Old Testament? For example Daniel became a […]

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wrote in General, Q & A, Uncategorized .

Question: If we are 100 percent sure that the 4 gospels are written by authors whom we attribute them to, why don’t they identify themselves in the gospels? Let’s exclude 2 and 3rd gospels (Mark and Luke) because they were not eyewitnesses, but let’s take 1st and last gospel (Matthew and John) if these gospels […]

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

[Editor’s note: This is a rather long question, the essence of which is that the questioner doubts that the deity of Christ is established in Philippians 2:6-9. The questioner thinks that this is the principle support in Paul of Christ’s deity, but he believes that this claim is not supported by the passage] Question: How […]

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

Question: How can we trust the Bible? We know that Jesus existed for sure which every historian would agree but what about what he did ? If his miracles were true as gospels record them why don’t we have historical records of them outside the Bible?There were books that say that the 1st prime minister […]

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wrote in General, Q & A, Uncategorized .

Question: In Matthew 11:25-27 (Luke 10:21-22)  Jesus says, “I praise you Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned…this is what you were please to do…no one knows the father except the son and those to whom the son chooses to reveal him…come to me all…”  […]

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

Question: If the gospels are eyewitness accounts how do we deal with contradictions in them?  Most of them can be reconciled but what about things that cannot be reconciled?  For example, the denial accounts of Peter differ heavily.  Is this not a contradiction? The possible solution would be Peter denied Jesus 6 times and if […]

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