I was wondering if you could provide me with a list of the New Testament books in chronological order. I’m trying to prepare for an upcoming discussion about the reliability of Bible texts so if you could point me in any specific direction…that would be great Do you mean chronological order of when they were […]
Would you please share some scriptures for learning respect and responsibility. For passages in the Bible on respect and responsibility, I would definitely suggest turning to the book of Proverbs. In fact almost any aspect of one’s character will be addressed in the Proverbs. Specific passages I would mention would include; Prov 1:8 Listen, my […]
I came across your email about why people do not believe in God. I am an atheist, but I do not deny a god. For me there is no God to deny. I don’t suppress any truth. I have found some truths in science. If there were indeed a God, which I cannot prove either […]
Where did Christianity originate? Christianity originated in the city of Jerusalem in present-day Israel. The founder of Christianity, Jesus Christ, was born in the small town of Bethlehem, just a few miles southwest of Jerusalem. He was raised in the town of Nazareth in the region of Galilee, about one hundred miles north of Jerusalem. […]
How would you respond to the question: can’t you use existing facts to prove any claim, in this case Christianity, but in reality any thing you wish? I would say you raise a very good and valid question. The fact is that if one chooses to suspend use of correct lines of reasoning, then one […]
Did the “disciples” get baptized again on the day of Pentecost or was Jesus baptism the same as for the forgiveness of sins? This is a fairly common question. Unfortunately, to answer the question requires speculation. The Bible simply does not answer this questions. You can assume that the answer you get to this question […]
I was just reviewing that article you wrote about people believing God isn?t real. When you try to explain how God is or isn?t real, you can’t use the Bible because the Bible is a human written book. There is absolutely no proof that any of these actions occurred, well little if any. There is […]
“Jews do not believe that Jesus was the moshiach. Assuming that he existed, and assuming that the Christian scriptures are accurate in describing him (both matters that are debatable), he simply did not fulfill the mission of the moshiach as it is described in the biblical passages cited above. Jesus did not do any of […]
I have a question for you. I was wondering if you could give me advice on helping people who argue that the Bible we have today cannot possibly be the original Bible. I obviously cannot tell them that I believe by faith that it is the inspired word of God and that He protects His […]
*Did the messianic prophecies foretell of the “second coming?” *Does God explicitly reveal to Moses the 8 day circumcision decision procedure or is it more like it was a “best practices” act that was handed down over generations and then was written down by Moses? *Do we know how long Jesus was in Egypt? There […]
Why do we have Good Friday? Why is it called Good Friday? First of all, Good Friday is a religious tradition, and its celebration as an official church holiday is not supported or encouraged by the Bible (although it is not outlawed by the Bible either). Many Christian groups do not celebrate this holiday, as […]
Note: The question is quite long. The answer is about five paragraphs down the page How does Christianity justify its staunch and abusive criticism of so called “Pagan” Religions in the light that it developed well after many other religions that were also the belief of many people before it? Too often “pagan religions have […]
In the recent movie, The Passion of Christ, there was a reference to Pilate being warned by Caesar twice not to allow any more uprisings. Is there any historical basis for this? I’m sure there was some political reason Pilate allowed a man he considered innocent to be executed. Melissa (Denver) Relatively little is known, […]
“What needs were answered by Christianity?” Please help me out. I will do something different from my usual pattern, and simply quote Bible verses in answer to your question. Romans 3:23-25 There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through […]
Do you have information on the changing of the Sabbath Day by Constantine? I have no information on this because it never happened. One of the most persistent false claims about the early history of the church is that somehow Constantine was able to change Christian doctrine of even the scriptures of the New Testament. […]
Have you noticed there are two accounts in the bible of Jesus cursing the fig tree and when Jesus drove the money changers out? In one account, Jesus drove the money changers out and then cursed the fig tree the next day. (Matthew 21:10-22). And in the other account he cursed the fig tree first […]
How do I know that Christianity is the one true faith, and that Buddhism, or Hinduism, or any other religion isn’t the "right one?" I have received a couple of questions which are pretty similar to this one. Below I have included two similar questions and the answers I gave. After these two questions/responses, I […]
What about unicorns? I have received a question about unicorns before. This question is not very specific, so I will simply copy my answer of a previous question. John Oakes In the Bible, what do the Unicorns symbolize and where in the Bible are they talked about? That is a pretty easy question. Unicorns do […]
They have taken Jesus as Lord and claim to descend from the Jews in the book of Acts. I have a friend who is into this up north and I am trying to better understand this. They seem to thrive on the tenet that because NT scripture points them back to the OT that they […]
How do you explain Christianity to a black Muslim? The extremely simple answer is that I would explain it to this person the same way I would anyone else. I would present the true Jesus, son of God, fulfiller of prophecy, worker of miracles, sacrificial lamb to take away the sins of the world. Of […]
The way I understand the compilation of the NT Canon is that the books that were accepted by the church and said to have apostolic authority, were the books put into the canon. However, this doesn’t make sense to me, because some gospels were not written by apostles… likewise we have no idea who wrote […]
Why did celibacy become mandatory for priests? Let me start by copying and pasting an answer to a similar question received previously. You will find the rest of my answer to your specific question after the following: Can you tell me when the Catholic church started insisting its priests were celibate? How celibacy became common […]
I’m writing to ask if you have any explanation for one apparent discrepancy that I have often wondered about: “three days and three nights”. I have read that the “days” part of that statement was due to the Jewish tradition of counting any part of a day as a whole day in the description of […]
I was reading the introduction of the Jerusalem?s Bible (Biblia de Jerusalem), which is translated and commented by Catholics. I don?t know if this translation exists in English. For me is the best translation for Portuguese. The problem is about the authorship and the dates of some books. The comments say that Daniel was written […]
Why dopastors still preach teach and insist on Old Testament laws when the same stand cancelled in the New Testament? Preachers teach the need for Christians to follow the Old Testament law because of bad theology. This is one of the most common false doctrines in the “Christian” world. Different religious groups teach the need […]
I am currently reading Dan Brown’s “The Da Vinci Code” and he makes a convincing claim of the possibility that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene. Is there any possibility of truth in this? (I am a dedicated Christian, and an answer either way wouldn’t shake my convictions about following Jesus’ teachings, but I was […]
Would you please give me some information on the prophet Daniel. This is a really general question, so I am not at all sure what kind of information you may want. It so happens that I have published a book on Daniel. You will find a lot on Daniel in my book! To buy a […]
It’s been a while since I posed any questions however I’m currently reading several of your articles and in your article Biblical Prophecies Fulfilled you state the following: While the writings of John preceded the persecutions of Domitian and his successors by less than a generation, they nevertheless show the continuity of the New and […]
Who was the author of Ecclesiastes? The general consensus of conservative scholars is that King Solomon wrote Ecclesiastes. The introduction certainly implies this. It describes the author of the book as “the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem.” There is only one person who we know was described in his own time as the […]
My question revolves around the true role of the Council Of Nicea. Some have argued that the council canonized certain texts to fit their purposes. I have heard the counter argument that the council merely canonized what was already widely accepted as Inspired Word, but even this wide acceptance does little to guarantee that the […]
I have been studying the new testament for the past 6 months and found a lot of encouragement generally throughout and it was leading me to begin to believe, though some parts of the text I found a bit troubling and not often addressed by other Christians other preachers. I even discovered some misinformation on […]
The Bible is generally used as the primary reference for Christians. Even if I accept that the Bible is actually God’s word, you have to admit that it was put on paper by humans. And since humans are imperfect, how do you put such faith in the Bible? Also, what about the books of the […]
In anew Comparative Religion course I’m taking at school. we’re currently studying Hinduism and will soon move on to Buddhism its actually quite fascinating. Hinduism, with all its splendid contradictions and incongruities, is really not that bad of a religion. Dont get me wrong, my faith is not wavering but I found that studying the […]
Were there real dragons? Do you mean were there ever actual, living, giant reptiles which could fly and breathe fire? I believe it is safe to say, at least from a scientific perspective, that almost certainly no such creature ever lived. Of course, many cultures, most notably the Chinese, but many others as well, have […]
What happens when all nine planets line up? The answer to this question is pretty straightforward. Nothing! From a scientific perspective there is no reason to believe there would be any significant effect at all if all the planets were to line up. First of all, it is literally impossible for all nine to line […]
What does the Bible say about Polygamy. Can polygamist serve God? Most believers would probably say that this is an easy question, but that is not necessarily true. Most would say that it is a sin to be a polygamist and that this is a clear and unambiguous teaching of the New Testament. The fact […]
Genesis 11:1 says that the world at that time “had one language and a common speech.” However, Genesis 10:5 seems to imply that there was more than one language at that same time. Please explain this. I can think of a couple of possible explanations, but the most obvious one is probably correct. Although Genesis […]
What evidence do we have that the stories on Christianity are real? Unfortunately, this is a rather vague question. I will give a fairly vague answer in response. If you have a more specific question in mind, please send me another question. I am not sure what you mean by “stories” in Christianity? Do you […]
My question revolves around the true role of the Council Of Nicea. Some have argued that the council canonized certain texts to fit their purposes. I have heard the counter argument that the council merely canonized what was already widely accepted as Inspired Word, but even this wide acceptance does little to guarantee that the […]
Every one knows the story of Noah and his ark. Some believe it, some don’t, but that is irrelevant. The Epic of Gilgamesh is the fist written story ever found. This epic describes how Gilgamesh took two of each animal plus his family into an ark to avoid a world wide flood sent by the […]
I have been studying the new testament for the past 6 months and found a lot of encouragement generally throughout and it was leading me to begin to believe, though some parts of the text I found a bit troubling and not often addressed by other Christians other preachers. I even discovered some misinformation on […]
The Bible is generally used as the primary reference for Christians. Even if I accept that the Bible is actually God’s word, you have to admit that it was put on paper by humans. And since humans are imperfect, how do you put such faith in the Bible? Also, what about the books of the […]
The Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity and is credited (by some) as being responsible for Christianity flourishing. But, Constantine chose one form of Christianity and killed anyone who practiced any of the other forms. What about these other forms? Combine this with the crusades and we get the classic line “history is written by the […]
I was brought up to believe that Christ was born on September 11th, either 3 BC or 4 BC (I can’t remember the year). Supposedly all nine planets were lined up in a straight line on that day. Does this claim have any validity? The fact is that no one knows the exact date of […]
For some time I have held the view that the age of the earth, dinosaurs, and remains like “Lucy” can be explained by the gap between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2. The earth was created “in the beginning”, not the first day. The earth was then “formless and void”, a phrase that can be rendered […]
I have recently heard an argument for creationism using the third law of [thermo-dynamics/ thermo nuclear physics] as it’s catalyst against the idea of the big bang theory. Namely stating that things left to themselves have a tendency to decay – not grow in complexity. What is this law – I have only guesses at […]
No one outside Christians claim that Jesus rose from the dead. A few mention he had been crucified- and they admit Christians believe he rose from the dead, but no one outside Christian writers say he rose from the dead. And there’s no writings from the actual existence of Jesus that say he was crucified […]
As usual I have another query. This is regarding the Baptism for the Dead mentioned in 1Cor15:29: “Now if there is no resurrection, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized for them?” Now I know this cannot mean that Paul […]
Many people follow religions, based on some sort of Bible, as if a god would choose to give us something to know he existed. All religions have doubts, loopholes, seeming contradictions. You’ve said before that a whole college degree could be devoted to simply the interpretation of the Bible (among other aspects of religion). Faith […]
In general, why is philosophy a problem for many people of faith? That is a good question. I would say that, in general, philosophy does not pose a big problem for people of faith. It is for people who do not have deep faith in God and in the Bible that philosophy poses a big […]
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