Church History

/Category Archive for "Church History"

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

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

Question: Why did Jesus not make efforts to stop the promulgation of apocryphal/pseudepigraphal books, for e.g. the apocalypse of Enoch, apocryphon of Ezekiel, apocalypse of Zephaniah, etc.? Answer: A good question.  At the time Jesus lived, these books were NOT considered part of the Jewish canon.  They were non-canonical but popular spiritual books.  Toward the […]

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

Question:  If Jesus’ followers were thousands at the time of crucifixion, why did they not save him? They were such cowards who let their Prophet/Messiah beaten by the Romans. Muslims were far more brave, whose 15,000 men fought against the Byzantine Empire’s army of 140,000 in 636 CE and captured the Christian Levant. Why were […]

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

Question:  I read that in the 7th century, Christians of Najran interacted with Muhammad in Medina. The event of the mubahala (mutual cursing) took place to resolve a theological dispute between Muslims and Christians circa 632 CE by invoking the curse of God upon liars. The Christian delegation withdrew from the challenge and negotiated a […]

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wrote in Church History, General, Historical and Messianic Prophecy, Other Religions, Q & A, Reliability of the Bible, Supposed Inconsistencies in the Bible .

Question: Jesus came to the Jews to show them the right path, which was unacceptable for them. The New Testament tells us that he brought the concept of “God’s Son” or “Human-God” which was not prophesied in the Jewish Scriptures. That’s the reason the majority of the Jews rejected him. Similarly, when Muhammad came to […]

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

Question: What does the Bible say about reincarnation? Answer: That is an easy question.  The Bible says nothing about reincarnation except to deny the reality of reincarnation.  In fact, the Bible quite specifically, denies the reality of reincarnation.  Hundreds of passages could be used to prove the biblical reality that after this life we die […]

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

Question: Is there any scripture evidence for the way that Apostolic/Pentecostal churches operate in tongues today? Is it biblical for people to gather and have many different people in the congregation speaking in tongues at the same time? Answer: Let me be honest with you.  This is a debatable matter.  I have a rather strong […]

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wrote in Church History, General, Historical and Messianic Prophecy, Q & A, Theology and Doctrinal Questions .

Question: Did Jesus have two fathers, as Luke mentioned in 1:32, i.e. God and David? If Jesus was not a Son of God in a literal sense, then why did Christians make him a deity? Answer: Good question. I am not sure what your background in Christianity is, so I will start with the basics.  […]

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

Question: Sir,  Literalist Christians frequently employ the argument that the gospels represent objectively reliable “eyewitness accounts”, but this contention is disingenuous. The reasons are:  (1) Literalist Christians have no way of authenticating any of the gospels. In fact, all four were originally written anonymously.   and     (2) These gospels constitute unreliable hearsay and not true […]

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

Questions: Doctor,  There are historical problems in the trial & crucifixion accounts of the Gospels. 1) Passover was a family holiday. Would the entire Sanhedrin (and the high priest) get up and leave their families, first as a group to arrest him, and second, for a trial of a Galilean wonder-worker? According to later Rabbinic […]

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

[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 […]

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wrote in Church History, General, Q & A .

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 […]

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

[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 […]

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wrote in Church History, General, Q & A .

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: […]

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

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 […]

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

Question:  If Jesus Crucifixion was so evident then why some early Christian sects denied it?  Some said: Simon of Cyrene was crucified.  Some said: Judas Iscariot was crucified.  Some said: someone substituted him. What is your response? Answer: This is a flat-out, blatant lie.  Plain and simple.  There is absolutely no truth to this claim, […]

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

Question: My friend says:  Josephus and Tacitus are not reliable sources of Jesus’ Crucifixion. They presented vague references based on rumours. NT authors had no ability to know what the truth was. What should be Christian reply? Answer: I think you had better find a more reliable source than this “friend” who says this rather […]

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

Question: A Muslim friend proposed this to me: I have seen this “issue” before and I haven’t done a proper investigation into it. He said there’s no evidence to support Jesus’ divinity in the first century. I believe (although I am yet to see) that there is evidence of early Christians in first century honoring […]

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wrote in Bible Interpretation, Bible Manuscripts and Textual Questions, Church History, Daniel, General, Historical and Messianic Prophecy, History, Other Religions, Q & A, Reliability of the Bible, Supposed Inconsistencies in the Bible .

[Editor’s note: This is a series of challenges from a Muslim regarding Jesus to be the fulfillment of Old Testament messianic prophecies.  My answers are interspersed among the questioner’s examples in italics] Claim: There are many biblical prophecies which do not fit into Jesus, for e.g. Response: Whether Jesus fulfilled all potential messianic prophecies is […]

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

Questions: My Muslim friend says:  The Major and Minor Prophets echoed the words of pagans i.e. God has wife, God has sons & daughters. The New Testament authors followed them and create God’s-Son in the form of Jesus to attract Roman public. Also, if thousands of people witnessed his crucifixion (which is a hoax) and […]

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

Question: This person claims that there have been entire books removed from the bible. https://quranicwarners.org/gospel They all seem legitimate.   What’s your opinion? Answer: It is hard to know exactly how to respond to this article, because the author is not specific as to which “entire books” were removed from the Bible.  If he does not specify […]

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wrote in Bible Interpretation, Church History, General, Historical and Messianic Prophecy, Q & A .

Question: How do you view Isaiah 19:18-24?  It seems that the prophecy has not been accomplished yet from my understanding of the scripture. I’ve seen some commentaries claiming that Assyria and Egypt unification is more related to Christianity and that the Coptic and Syriac churches united as one in fellowship with our Lord. Could there […]

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wrote in Church History, General, Versions of the Bible .

Question: I understand that Catholics came into existence first and then later the Protestants. The Catholic’s Bible has additional material such as extra chapters of Esther and extra books like 1 Maccabees, unlike the Protestant Bible with 66 books. This causes me to think that Protestants removed the additional books and chapters from the Bible […]

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

Question: How do we know that Mathew Mark Luke and John were actually written by the people whose names they were accredited to? I will grant that it was probably at least written by a member of the church because it was widely accepted as the holy word of God by the early church who […]

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wrote in Church History, General, Other Religions, Q & A, Reliability of the Bible, Resurrection of Jesus .

[Editor’s note: This is a VERY long question, which is simply copied and pasted from a web site.  There are far too many issues raised for me to answer all of them in limited time.  What I do afterward is give a general response, rather than address all of the issues raised. If this article […]

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wrote in Church History, General, Q & A .

Question: Was Peter the first pope? If true, would this prove Catholicism: Answer: Catholicism can neither be proved nor disproved.  You cannot “prove” a religious group.  Catholicism has beliefs and practices which are biblical and Catholicism has beliefs and practices that are unbiblical.  I am sure this is true of all Christian groups. One of […]

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

(Editor’s note: Questions are in italics and answers are in normal type) Questions: It is said that the Gnostic Gospel of the Judas shows a gospel where God (our Lord Jesus Christ of Nazareth) is the bad guy and a fascinating contrast from the theology of Nicean Christianity. Early Christianity was diverse, unlike how many […]

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

Question; Why was there so much confusion even in the first and second century about whether Jesus Christ of Nazareth even existed as a historical person or not. One example of someone who questioned the reality of Jesus was Marcion of Sinope, a 1st century historical person. Also there were the Docetists, Gnostics and others […]

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

Question: I want to ask one question. One skeptic New Testament scholar Robert McNair Price says that since our Lord Jesus Christ of Nazareth was a miracle working historical person who did many miracles like multiplying thousands of bread and fishes, raised the deaths, turning water into wine, healed the sick persons, resurrected, ascended and […]

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

Question:  I have three questions.   1. The New Testament says that non believing Jewish leaders were accused of handing Jesus over to be killed by the Romans. The first century Jews did not deny this historical fact, as they knew that they played a role in killing Jesus by handing him to the Romans soldiers. […]

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

[Editor’s note: This is a long question with an even longer answer.  The questioner makes some rather personal comments, so my response is more personal that I normally would use.  Feel free to give me feedback.  J. O.] Question: Bart Ehrman claims the Bible was changed and is unreliable in his book “Misquoting Jesus–The Story […]

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

Question: Help me!    Mythicists insist that Josephus’ account of Jesus of Nazareth in BK XVIII of his *antiquities* is a wholesale forgery.   They also insist that the passage about “James the brother of Jesus who was called Messiah” is not, in fact, about Jesus of Nazareth but “Jesus, son of Damneus”   They also insist […]

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

Question: There are some people influenced by NT Wright, and some are even Christians, who have doubt whether Paul was a genuine Christian.  It is said that one must study the second temple period of Jewish history if we want an unfiltered understanding of the first-century church and all things about Paul.  More so, it […]

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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 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 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 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 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 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 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 Church History, General, Practical Christianity, Q & A, Social Issues .

Question: Why should Israel punish heretics with death? in the NT it does not seem to happen in the same way.  Should a Christian country tolerate pagan philosophies and religions, or should you pursue for the good of all? Answer: First of all, let me acknowledge that the distinction you notice is certainly real.  The […]

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