Question: There is a long version and a short version of “Epistle to the Trallians” by Ignatius of Antioch. Which version would you use? Answer: I do not “use” the writings of early church fathers, in the sense that I use the inspired biblical books. I read them, and I study them, but I do […]
Question: Why do Catholics use a rosary? Is this unbiblical? Answer: To be honest, I am not aware of the precise history by which what we now call the “rosary” developed. What we can say for sure is that it emerged out of a Catholic Church which had already firmly committed to the semi-deification of […]
Question: How would you respond to secular feminists who say “The ancient pagan culture was more pro-woman in comparison to the Christian culture”? Answer: This is so untrue. I am assuming here that they are talking about the Pagan culture in the time of Jesus. The Graeco/Roman world was extremely Patriarchal, as has been documented […]
Question: Please respond to an article I found by an atheist guy named O’Neill regarding the evidence for the resurrection. https://www.quora.com/What-evidence-is-there-for-Jesus-Christs-death-burial-and-resurrection/answer/Tim-ONeill-1 [Author’s note: O’Neill claims that the physical resurrection of Jesus was an invention of Paul and others, made many years after the death of Jesus] Answer: This is typical argumentation from unbelievers. O’Neill begins […]
Question: Did females have leadership role over grown men in the churches (not private settings) during the 1st century AD? Answer: That is a debatable point, depending on your definition of leadership roles. There is no evidence that women were preaching or teaching the entire, assembled church, and there certainly were no women elders. But […]
Question: It is debatable which is more reliable–the Septuagint or the Masoretic Text. Let me put it this way: in making English translations of the Hebrew Old Testament, as a general rule, the opening text to be used in the Masoretic. One obvious advantage of the Masoretic Text, even though it is not as old […]
Question: How would you deal with a person who said, “Paul was not a real apostle. Therefore, we can disregard the book of Romans?” Answer: If someone chooses to ignore Paul, that is up to them. It is a free world, as they say! But what I can say is that the apostles of Jesus […]
Question: Can these statements about Mark 10:18 be fact checked? The Muslim gentleman argued the earliest findings of Mark 10 say “Don’t call me good because only my father is Good” and quoted Justin Martyr and others. https://youtube.com/shorts/zSiB6sq_EnU?feature=shared The Christian didn’t get to respond. Answer: What this Muslim person did is irresponsible. To me, it borders […]
Question: Can these statements about Mark 10:18 be fact checked? The Muslim gentleman argued the earliest findings of Mark 10 say “Don’t call me good because only my father is Good” and quoted Justin Martyr and others. https://youtube.com/shorts/zSiB6sq_EnU?feature=shared The Christian didn’t get to respond. [Editor’s note: In this youtube a Muslim apologist claims that there […]
Question: How do we know what New Testament scripture is inspired apart from tradition? I understand Luke and Paul are quoted as Scripture but here is the problem. Luke wrote 2 books and Paul wrote 13. There are only 7 of Paul’s letters that are recognized by modern scholarship as “undisputed” (there is no contention […]
Question: Is this evidence for infant baptism being practiced in the early church? Hyppolytus: “Baptize first the children, and if they can speak for themselves let them do so. Otherwise, let their parents or other relatives speak for them” (The Apostolic Tradition 21:16 [A.D. 215]). Origen: “The Church received from the apostles the tradition of […]
Question: In a post on original sin, you claim that the Roman Catholic Church teaches that we inherit sin that God must judge us for (I will leave the link of the article below for context.) however, it is my understanding that this is false. It seems to me that the Catholic Church teaches that […]
Question: How would you respond to people who say that Christianity caused the Holocaust? Answer: The immediate cause of the Holocaust was racial hatred from a person who was definitely not even a Christian, and from those who supported him. Hitler did not profess to be Christian. His immediate circle of criminal gangsters were also […]
Question: Dear doctor. I wanted to ask you about the bias in mainstream Bible scholarship. You say that almost all scholars agree that Mark was written in the 50’s-60’s AD, but when I look it up the first thing I see is that mainstream scholars all put Mark around after 70 AD. Of course they […]
[Editor’s Note: This Q & A is about matters internal to the Christian group known as the International Churches of Christ (ICOC). I normally do not post such in-house articles, but think that it might be relevant to others as well, so take it for what it is worth!] Question: I have been going through […]
Question: I’m wondering if there is any historical or biblical evidence behind there being a strain of Christianity that got it right throughout the centuries? I have heard Baptist apologists say that there is always a remnant (sometimes maybe only one person) with biblical truth. I have also heard mainline Church of Christers claim to […]
Question: Tertullian says that Sentius Saturninus was the governor of Judea at the birth of Jesus. Is Tertullian correct, or is he wrong here? Answer: I believe that Tertullian is wrong here. Saturninus ruled over Syria (and indirectly over Judea) from 9-7 BC, which is almost certainly too early for the birth of Jesus, which, […]
Question: The Ebionites had very similar beliefs to the Koran about Jesus and the Bible. They believed that Jesus was merely a prophet (same in the Koran) and the Torah had been distorted with false texts. Specifically, laws relating to animal sacrifice were later corruptions (similar to the Koran). It makes me believe that the […]
Question: According to Christianity, the sacrifices mentioned in the Pentateuch are replaced by the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, after which no sacrifice can take place, but the historical fact is that the followers of Jesus Christ went on participating in the sacrificial system of the temple in Jerusalem until its destruction in 70 […]
Request: Thank you for responding to my earlier question regarding the blog post written by Bart Ehrman on Messianic Prophecy. Your answer was very helpful and I learned a lot from it. click here for article I was wondering if you could respond to one of his claims he makes later in the post. Ehrman lists […]
[Editor’s note: The article below concerns an article the inquirer found by Richard Carrier. Carrier is an atheist who tries to present himself as a scholar, but who writes fantastically poorly reasoned nonsense. My suggestion: Do not waste your time reading his blog, but it is up to you.] Request: Could I ask you to […]
Question: It’s is common knowledge that the early church held to what is called baptismal regeneration. We can find this through quotes and epistles from the fathers. What about quotes on infant baptism? I’m sure you’ve read a few that can supported infant baptism. What is your response to these quotes? Also, if we are […]
Question: I have a Catholic vs. Orthodox Church-based question… Does the Holy Spirit proceed from the Father or the Son and the Father? Where in scripture can we find an answer and what are your thoughts on this? Answer: It is not my job, or even my desire, to clear up a controversy between these […]
Question: My question is about the story in John’s gospel about the woman caught in adultery. This has always been one of my favorite, go-to, stories about Jesus to share with people. So, I was pretty disappointed when I learned from a textual critic standpoint that the story is very weak and was likely a […]
Question: My question is about the story in John’s gospel about the woman caught in adultery. This has always been one of my favorite, go-to, stories about Jesus to share with people and to teach on. So, I was pretty disappointed when I learned that from a textual critic standpoint that the story is very […]
Question: Please clear up for me the discussion below I found on line in which the writer tries to argue that the resurrection of Christ was invented by the later Christians for religions reasons: Christian apologists and conservative scholars have tried to argue that, while there was a belief in a coming general resurrection, the […]
Question: Could you please make a response to this atheist who claims Galatians 1:9 is an interpolation?https://vridar.org/2011/06/03/a-case-for-interpolation-does-not-rely-on-manuscript-evidence/ Response: First of all, I am pretty sure you are talking about Galatians 1:19, not Galatians 1:9. This question has been “out there” in the internet lately, so I assume you made a little error in your question. […]
Question: I’ve come across this interesting question that Catholics love to argue for… if we all interpret the Bible a specific way and we can even agree or disagree with certain church fathers, who’s interpretation is correct? Holding to “sola scriptura” seems like it comes down to someone’s word vs someone else’s word at the […]
Question: Some Apostolic-Pentecostal Christians claim that being baptized “in the name of Jesus Christ” (Acts 2:38) is the correct form of baptism, and disregard baptism in the name of the Trinity (Matt. 28:18-20). They claim that there is a great importance concerning what you are baptized into. My question is this: are these baptisms the […]
Question: I read several early church father quotes on baptism, A Baptist’s view on this would simply be that baptism is a metonymy. [Editor’s note: A metonymy is a smaller thing used as a symbol of a greater thing. For example, “bread” is used as a metonymy for all food in Deuteronomy 8] In the […]
Question: I read your post on original sin and have several issues/questions on the matter. No offense but I don’t believe that your interpretation of original sin is accurate. It seems to me that original sin is more of a human nature issue. Adam sinned, we all have the desire to sin, or we all have […]
Question: I have some Bible questions for you that I’ve been trying to figure out from Revelation 13 as it appears those events are now happening. I’m sure you’re familiar with “One of the heads of the beast seemed to have had a fatal wound, but the fatal wound had been healed.” from Revelation 13. […]
Question: Are you a believer in Christian Universalism (restoration of ALL) Apocatastasis rather than Unitarian Universalism? I believe the Bible in the original writings support this. You mention in some of your writings you believe in heaven but don’t mention hell. Hell–meaning eternal, conscious torment for all who don’t believe in Christ. To me that […]
Comment: I have been questioning reformed theology for a few years. I have many books with historical evidence to show others why it’s heresy. I am in need of a deluxe Deep Bible study to combat this disease called reformed theology. Historically, I have traced back to Zwingli as one of the main culprits in […]
[Editor’s note: I am doing the reverse of what I normally do here. The question is so long, that I despair anyone would read to the end of it to find my response. So, I am doing something that might be a bit confusing here, which is to publish my response before the question] Response: […]
Question: Jewish Christianity was the actual Christianity because Jesus was thoroughly Jewish, kept the Torah, and never disciplined [editor: discipled?] the Gentiles. The earliest Christians were all Torah observant Jews and saw Jesus as their Messiah, nothing else. Jewish Christianity, which emphasized keeping the Torah (among other ideas), came into conflict with Greek and Latin […]
Question: Did Alice Whealey prove conclusively that Agapius was translating the Syriac edition not of Josephus, but of Eusebius and did she refute the thesis that the Arabic fragment of the Testimonium supports its authenticity? Answer: I have not read Alice Whealy’s discussion of the Testamonium Flavianum in its entirety. In fact, I have only […]
Question: Thank you very much, Dr. Oakes. Thank God I found you. There are also 6 more objections I found and was wondering what you think of these: [Editor’s Note: This is a follow-up to fourteen previous questions from the same person. The answers are interspersed between the questions.] 15. The historians who supposedly offered […]
Editor’s Note: This is a series of 14 questions, so I disperse my answers after the questions. Most of these criticisms are already refuted elsewhere at the web site, but since this poor unfortunate believer has been assaulted with so many false claims, I am including answers to all of them below. My responses are […]
Editor’s Note: The list of questions is long enough that I have interspersed the questions and the answers. Questions and Answers: 1. Are there any early church fathers preferably from 1st mid-century to the 2nd century who discussed the virgin birth of Jesus in their letters or literature? Yes, definitely. Ignatius in his Letter to […]
Question: Up to what percentage can we reconstruct the New Testament text/ content from early church fathers’ quotations/citations? And I want to know from when in the church’s history did believers start using NT scriptures as a base to preach the Gospel as we do now in our churches. When did Christians start having serious […]
Question: I just read your refutation of Jesus being plagiarized off of previous Mediterranean deities and I must say you cannot believe your own drivel. To argue that it couldn’t be plagiarized because only portions of the stories are similar is beyond ridiculous. I have several questions for you: 1) Was Jesus the first deity born […]
[Editor’s note: This exchange is part of a longer discussion in which the questioner believes that there are literally no mistakes in either the Greek text or in the King James translation of that text.] Comments and Questions: I just wanted to thank you for responding so quickly again and wanted to say a few […]
Question: What are your best biblical and historical arguments against the Roman Catholic doctrine of Purgatory? I am interested in hearing both sides and I would like to hear some insight from yourself as I do not believe you believe in Purgatory. Thank you for all you do and God bless. Answer: Honestly, you should […]
Question: Authors of prophetic books added their fantasies into God’s word for e.g. 1) Gentiles will come over to Israelites in chains and they will bow down before them (Isa. 45:14). David Guzik affirms this in his commentary. 2) A Gentile nation or kingdom that will not serve Israelites will perish and be utterly ruined (Isa. 60:12). […]
Question: My teacher says: The current Gospels are not reliable because they were written in Greek, whereas the language of Jesus and his followers was Aramaic. Christians don’t have manuscripts from 40 AD in Aramaic. Further, when Titus destroyed Jerusalem in 70 CE, his speech was translated from Roman to Aramaic. It means Greek/Latin was not […]
Question: Jesus was also a borrower who copied text from the book of II Esdras 1:30-33 and presented it as an inspired word. “I gathered you as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings. But now, what shall I do to you? I will cast you out from my presence. When you offer oblations […]
Question: St. Eucharius (3rd Century) said: “It is evident why we have not remaining the books which the Holy Scriptures approve of, because Judea having been ravaged by the Chaldeans, and the ancient bibliotheque being burnt. There remaining only a small number of the books which at present make up the Holy Scriptures and which were […]
There is a short prophecy appended to the book of Jeremiah in Ethiopic Bible which August Dillmann translates: A Prophecy of Jeremiah. And Jeremiah spake thus unto Pashur: But ye all your days fight against the truth, with your fathers and your sons that shall come after you. And they shall commit a sin more damnable […]
Question: Adam Clarke (1831) wrote a commentary on Jeremiah 8:8 that: It is too bold an assertion to say that “the Jews have never falsified the sacred oracles;” they have done it again and again. They have written falsities when they knew they were such. John Chrysostom (4th Century) wrote in his homily on Matthew 2:23 that: The […]
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