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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Question: Do you have any apologetic resources in the Russian language? My sons are adopted from Ukraine, and are very skeptical about Christianity. They believe it is all “fake” and unsupported by any logic or science. I think some resources could help them immensely, especially videos because they are not avid readers. Thank you very […]
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 […]
[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, […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
[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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Dr. John Oakes taught a 12-hour class on the history of Christianity for the West Coast School of Ministry Fall, 2022. All outlines, Power Points and audio are available here. Church History Notes Church History PPT Church History Audio I Church History Audio II Church History Audio III Church History Audio […]
[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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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: […]
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 […]
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 […]
Question: How do you assess the Messianic Jewish movement – what are the things we can learn from them and where are they in error? Answer: I am sure you do not need me to tell you, as you already know, that we can learn from any sincere-minded group of believers, even if we do […]
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 […]
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 […]
Question: Please can you clarify about speaking in tongues. Some say it is just fake and is not inspired by the Holy Spirit or by God. If the speaking in tongues is genuine, why do only certain people seem to have this and in most cases there is no interpretation of what is being said, […]
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 […]
Question: In what sense, if any, ought I to love myself? The way that our culture defines “self-love” is unbiblical and worldly. And many verses in the Bible make me hesitant to believe that there is anything inherently lovable in me. (“There is none who do good, no not one.”) Nowhere in the Bible can […]
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’ […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
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 […]
Question: Can you please explain to me why Baptist think they are the chosen one? Jesus was a Jew, not Baptist. I feel like I’m being condemned because I don’t believe in denominations of today. What I do believe is, I am a child of God, and he is my Heavenly Father. Is the KJV […]
An EFC subscriber named Michael has written an article about whether or not the textual variant in Luke 23:34 was in the original autograph of the Book of Luke. He concludes that the phrase, “forgive them father, for they do not know what they are doing” was most likely in the original of Luke. This […]
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 […]
Question: Dr Oakes, how do you respond to Muslims’ argument such as this: “Even if your Bible is 99,5% accurate, the Quran is more. It is 100% accurate. Unlike your Bible that have forgery verses added and changed many times, the Quran didn’t have anything like this and perfectly preserved from the start. All our […]
Question: I read that: Book of Daniel is forgery because his author was very ill-informed about history. He said: Belshazzar succeed Nebuchadnezzar as his son (Daniel 5; cf. Daniel 7:1 and 8:1). But Belshazzar was neither his successor nor his son; and abundant contemporary records show he was never King of Babylon, but only served […]
Question: Dr. John, Bible Expert Mr. Naveed Khan writes: The Quran consists of God’s verbatim. It does not have “human words” or “interpretations” like the Bible. Christians misinterpret the Jewish scriptures and try to show that Isaiah 53 or Daniel 9 were fulfilled prophecies, but the truth is: they are misinterpretations, nothing else. Moreover, Christians […]
Question: Dr. John, recently it has been claimed that nothing in the prophetic books came from the 8th and 7th centuries and that the prophets are fictional characters created by post-exilic authors who produced an imaginative history for the Jewish community of their time. It is also confirmed by the fact that books of Kings […]
Question: Jesus is not from the “David Lineage” and he did not fulfill the Hebrew scriptures. Proofs are: 1) Messiah must be a descendent of David through his son Solomon (2 Sam. 7:14; 1 Chr. 17:11-14, 22:9-10, 28:4-6) but Luke 3:31 describes the lineage of David’s son Nathan, not Solomon. 2) Ezekiel (37:26-28) said “he […]
Question: How are the dates of biblical manuscripts determined and all other ancient manuscripts? Answer: This is a somewhat complex question. A number of factors are used. First is the type of script used. The style of script used in writing changed over time. The way letters were written, the kinds of punctuation (of which […]
Question: This question came from my atheist friend. I recommended him to read at your website and books, but he was curious regarding your answer on certain textual variations, particularly your response that “No, Christianity doctrines are affected by these variations” in your website. He asked back that: 1.) Isn’t God supposed to preserve His […]
Question: When was 1st Peter written? Answer: According to the letter of 1 Peter itself, the author of the letter is the apostle Peter. Multiple sources, including Church historian Eusebius, tell us that Peter was crucified in Rome by Nero. We know that Nero was murdered in AD 67. Therefore, Peter was probably killed in […]
Question: How would you respond to the following Muslim claim made in https://www.islamic-awareness.org/quran/miracle/ijaz ‘The Qur’an in many places challenges the people to produce a surah like it. It appears that the Christian missionaries who call the challenge irrelevent or an utterly subjective criterion are pretty much unaware of how the Arabic poetry and prose compares with […]
Question: I see in the Bible lots of references to God stretching out the heavens l.e, Isaiah 44:24, Isaiah 42:5 etc. Is this a potential reference to the universe’s expansion as approved by the vast majority of scientists today? Is there any Hebrew to support this view in these “heaven stretching” passages with the universe’s […]
Question: Israel, in the singular, is called God’s servant throughout the Bible, for e.g. Isa. 45:4; 48:20; 49:3; Jer. 30:10. Also, note that in Jer. 30:17, the servant Israel is regarded by the nations as an outcast, forsaken by God, as in Isa. 53:4; Jer. 46:27-28; Ps. 136:22, a messianic reference. Also, given the Christian […]
Question: Moses died presumably around 1410 BCE, and Malachi existed around 430 BCE. During this period of 1000 years, hundreds of prophets came to the Jews, but the Jews/Christians know only a few dozen Hebrew prophets. What’s the reason? Answer: The reason is that God decided that the most appropriate prophets through whom to speak […]
Question: Dr Oakes, can you view this article: https://quranandbibleblog.com/2022/01/02/what-did-the-ante-nicene-church-fathers-believe-about-jesus/ What did the Ante-Nicene Church Fathers Believe About Jesus? بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيْم What did the Ante-Nicene Church Fathers Believe About Jesus? Read as PDF “…but of His Son the Master said thus, Thou art My Son, I this day have begotten thee. A… quranandbibleblog.com This came […]
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