General

/Category Archive for "General"

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

Question: We are told in the Talmud that an assembly of priests were about to reject the books of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Ezekiel because those writings were contradictory to the Law but a certain Rabbi had tried to reconcile them and they were preserved as “canonical”. Those three books are confessedly presented to us as […]

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

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 […]

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

 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 […]

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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 Bible Manuscripts and Textual Questions, General, Q & A, Reliability of the Bible .

Question: Although the Isaiah scroll [Editor’s comment: The questioner is referring to the Dead Sea Scrolls] is similar in structure to today’s book of Isaiah, it contains alternative spellings, scribal errors, corrections, and other variant readings. Strictly speaking, the number of textual variants is well over 2600, ranging from a single letter, sometimes one or […]

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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 Bible Manuscripts and Textual Questions, General, Historical and Messianic Prophecy, Q & A, Versions of the Bible .

Question: Christians deliberately corrupted the Jewish Scriptures to prove that Jesus is God, for e.g. they altered the translation of Isa. 9:6. They translate:  “And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”  but the Jewish translation is:  “The wondrous adviser, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, called his name, “the prince of […]

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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 End Times, General, Historical and Messianic Prophecy, Q & A, Reliability of the Bible .

Question: Ezek. 38:17 mentions the Israelite prophets who prophesied about Gog, but no prophecy earlier than Ezekiel’s prophecy talks about Gog. Then who were those Israelite prophets and why did Ezekiel not name them? Answer: I do not know for sure what prophets Ezekiel is referring to.  He does not tell us.  However, it is […]

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

Question: Why did Peter boast about Jesus that all the prophets testified about him (Acts 10:43) although they have a meagre record of 15-16 prophets and among them Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Obadiah not talk about Jesus?  What is your response? Answer: My response is that all the true prophets of Jehovah did in fact prophesy about […]

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

Question:  I often hear Jesus Mythicists arguing that Paul believed Jesus was a celestial being who put on a body of flesh to be crucified by demonic powers in the heavens. Hence I ask: did Paul ever situate Jesus on earth? Answer: First of all, unless you make reference to an actual person who makes […]

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

Question:  I have a question regarding a man who was baptized in my local church for the forgiveness of his sins. We found out later that this man did not know about the passage in Romans 6:1-7 when he was baptized. How does this lack of knowledge of Romans 6:1-7 affect his baptism? Should this […]

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

Question: Could Jesus have received a proper burial by the Jews, rather than be tossed into an unmarked grave? Answer: The Jewish perspective is influenced by the passage Deuteronomy 21:23, which is referenced by Paul in Galatians 3:13 and possibly in 2 Corinthians 5:21.  Here is the Deuteronomy 21:23 passage: (NIV) “If someone guilty of […]

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wrote in General, Historical and Messianic Prophecy, Q & A, Supposed Inconsistencies in the Bible .

Question: Jer. 23:6 does not talk about Jesus because it says: “this is his name whereby he shall be called, The Lord Our Righteousness.” Jesus was never called by this name or title in his lifetime as New Testament depicted.  What is your response? Answer: As they say, lack of evidence is not evidence of […]

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wrote in General, Historical and Messianic Prophecy, Prefigures and Foreshadows, Q & A, Types .

Question: Amos predicted that God will plant Jews in their own land, never again to be uprooted (Am. 9:15), but they were banished by Titus in 70 CE. Zechariah predicted that ten people from all nations will take firm hold of one Jew and say, Let us go with you, because we have heard that […]

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

Question: If John the Baptist was sure that Jesus was a Messiah (Matt. 3:14), then why did he doubt him in the other place (Matt. 11:3)? Does that mean NT accounts have contradictions? Answer: This question has troubled me in the past as well.  It seems surprising that John the Baptist was the prophesied “one […]

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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 General, Historical and Messianic Prophecy, Q & A, Reliability of the Bible .

Question: Dr. Oakes,  After deep study of the prophetic books, I come to the conclusion that, on one hand, the Bible portrays opponents of Jeremiah & Ezekiel as false prophets and blames them for lying, adultery and wickedness and, on the other hand, its accepted prophets did the same things for e.g. Hosea had an […]

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

Question: I have a serious question about the Bible’s authenticity. Why did the biblical Prophets borrow characteristics from Canaanite/Ugaritic epic poetry and apply them to Yahweh? For e.g., Nahum (1:4-6) and Habakkuk (3:14-15) describe God as an avenging warrior God similar to Canaanite/Ugaritic storm god Baal.  Your response? Answer: First of all, you say this […]

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

Question: My question is about Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) In the case of a Christian married couple where the wife is said to be infertile, and doctor recommends ART. This means that the wife accepts a donor egg of which her husband’s sperm will be used to fertilize and eventually the embryo transferred to wife’s […]

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wrote in Bible Interpretation, General, Historical and Messianic Prophecy, Other Religions, Q & A .

Question: I read that:  Deut. 18:15 is about Muhammad because he was similar to Moses, i.e. he brought law to, and war against non-believers, etc. The same is true of Isa. 2:2-3, which is about Mecca, not Zion, because millions of pilgrims visit Mecca but nothing like that happens at Jerusalem. Isa. 42:4 is not […]

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

Question: Jesus failed to bring universal peace (Mic. 4:1-4; Isa. 11:6-9) because, after him, bloodshed occurred multiple times in Jerusalem. Former dominion was not restored nor was kingship established as predicted (Mic. 4:6-8).  What’s your response? Answer: Jesus fulfilled Micah 4:1-4 word-for-word and in detail.  He died to establish the Church, which is the Mountain […]

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wrote in General, Historical and Messianic Prophecy, Q & A, Uncategorized .

Question: Theologian Bernhard Duhm (1912) wrote:  “This process of editing the Prophetic Writings, with such added expositions, enlargements, and supplementation, went on to so large an extent that now no single prophetic writing exists in its original form. Indeed, more than once we find that what was originally not at all the work of Prophets […]

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

Questions:  I have a few questions concerning baptism and repentance. For baptism my 3 questions are: If someone has repented and has made the decision to be baptized and make Jesus Lord of their life and is on the way to their baptism, and tragically dies in a car accident, is there any way to […]

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

Question: Liberal Rabbi Mark L. Solomon says:  “We have no way of knowing for certain the authorship of any of the Biblical books, including the prophecies in Neviim (Prophets), since they were probably based on oral teaching handed down for generations before being written down by anonymous scribes.”  What’s your opinion? Answer: My opinion is […]

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wrote in Bible Manuscripts and Textual Questions, General, Historical and Messianic Prophecy, Q & A, Reliability of the Bible .

Question: Jesus had no need to prove himself Messiah through corrupted Jewish prophecies. Jews fabricated the concept of “King like David”. Those prophecies will neither be fulfilled in the distant future for Jews, not as the Davidic Kingdom will never come to exist. Indeed, Jesus came as Messiah to teach Jews to leave their worldly […]

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wrote in General, History, Reliability of the Bible .

Question: If the Levites and Priests already knew the criteria for recognizing the true prophet and false prophet (Deut. 13:1-5; 18:21-22), then why did false prophets flourish among Israelites? Why is there no mention of the execution of false prophets by the hands of Levites and Priests? Answer: The answer to this question is really […]

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

Questions: I’ve got a couple of questions. Some atheists and Jesus-mythers claim that a book like the Bible and the miracles in it are not surprising because during that time such writings and legends were common, with even serious historians like Tacitus adding miraculous or bizarre things to their writings. They say it was very […]

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

Question: Is the New Covenant everlasting? Will we be under the New Covenant in heaven? Answer: Believe it or not, this is a difficult question.  Logically, it would seem that if the answer to the first question is yes, then the answer to the second question also needs to be yes, but this is not […]

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

Question: Mary (mother of Jesus) was a devout woman who was well aware of God’s scriptures, then why did she doubt Gabriel about virgin birth, when she already knew the prophecy of Isa. 7:14? Did it mean Christians fabricated the prophecy of Isa. 7:14? Answer: Mary was indeed a devout woman.  And we can assume […]

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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 General, Other Religions, Q & A, Reliability of the Bible .

Question: A Jewish friend of mine says:  According to Megillah 14b, eight prophets, who were also priests, descended from Rahab the prostitute, and they are: Neriah; his son Baruch; Seraiah; Mahseiah; Jeremiah; his father, Hilkiah; Jeremiah’s cousin Hanamel; and Hanamel’s father, Shallum.  ​None of them are considered prophets by Christians except Jeremiah. If Christians are […]

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wrote in Bible Interpretation, General, Historical and Messianic Prophecy, Other Religions, Prefigures and Foreshadows, Q & A .

Editor’s Note: This question comes from a Muslim, which might explain the tone of the question. Question: 1. The Christian Zionists claim that the modern Israelite state is made according to the Biblical prophecies for e.g., Ezek. 37:21-22, but the problem is: where is that king who will rule over them? Did all Jews return to Israel? […]

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wrote in Bible Interpretation, General, Practical Christianity, Q & A .

Question: My question is going to be about Romans 13:1-7.  Here, Paul talks about submission to authorities. My question is this… Is Paul only referring to authorities in the time of him writing Romans, (especially when he says the authorities have been established by God) or does this apply to today as well?  If this […]

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wrote in Bible Manuscripts and Textual Questions, General, Historical and Messianic Prophecy, Q & A, Reliability of the Bible, Supposed Inconsistencies in the Bible .

Questions: Do we have the exact words of Jesus or a paraphrase? How does it affect the credibility of Jesus’s words?What is your definition or understanding of a contradiction? Did Jesus say to loose and bring one or two animals( a colt and donkey) Thanks Answers: No, we definitely do not have the exact words […]

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

Question:  If Amos, Nahum, Habakkuk, Haggai, Malachi were names of real people, why are they not found elsewhere in Biblical history? Answer: You are asking the wrong question, in my opinion.  Here is the correct question to ask:  Are Amos, Nahum, Habakkuk, Haggai and Malachi real people?  It is not the job of a historian […]

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

Question: Amos, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel allegedly received “Oracles against Nations”, but what purpose do they have other than consoling Jews? On the one hand, God used foreign nations to punish Israelites, then on the other hand, God wants to punish them without giving them a chance of repentance. Although the Israelites continuously mocked Moses, […]

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

Question: Where does your soul go when you die? Some say heaven (or hell) but if that’s true then the people that were raised from the dead were taken out of heaven and brought back to earth…? Jesus raised people before his crucifixion and Peter and Paul did too after Jesus died and rose again. […]

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wrote in General, Historical and Messianic Prophecy, Other Religions, Prefigures and Foreshadows, Q & A .

Question: According to Jewish tradition, four messianic figures, called the Four Craftsmen, from a vision found in the Book of Zechariah (Zech.1:18-21). The four craftsmen are discussed in the Babylonian Talmud Suk. 52b. which identifies these four craftsmen as Messiah ben David, Messiah ben Joseph, Elijah, and the Righteous Priest. My question is: If Jesus […]

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wrote in General, Historical and Messianic Prophecy, Other Religions, Prefigures and Foreshadows, Q & A .

Question:  Jeremiah Ch. 33:17-18 foretold false things which have not happened, because there is no temple that exists and no king lineage runs on. What’s your response? Answer: The person making this statement (I assume it is not you and that you are finding this at a Muslim anti-Christian website) does not know what they […]

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wrote in General, Historical and Messianic Prophecy, Other Religions, Q & A .

Question: Why does the Bible not record the words of Jonah referred to in 2 Ki 14:25? What about prophets/seers alluded to in 2 Chr 33:10, 18? Hosea prophesied more than 80 years but only small quantity survived. Why? Answer: My Bible is already about 1150 pages long.  If the Scriptures were to record all […]

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wrote in Apocrypha, Bible Manuscripts and Textual Questions, Daniel, General, Historical and Messianic Prophecy, Other Religions, Q & A, Reliability of the Bible, Versions of the Bible .

Comment: I have some comments regarding accuracy of biblical texts and the importance of genealogies in the Bible in response to your reply to my question: Which is correct on the time Adam to Abraham–the Masoretic text or the Septuagint?   [Editor’s note: Here is the article: https://evidenceforchristianity.org/which-is-correct-on-the-time-from-adam-to-abraham-the-masoretic-text-or-the-septuagint/ There were statements made in the article that weren’t […]

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