Jesus often told the PhD’s of the early first century that they were making errors concerning Him, “because you don’t know the scriptures.” The Pharisees were the Doctors of the Law, and they claimed to be experts in the Hebrew scriptures. In spite of their self proclaimed expertise, Jesus told these men that they had failed to understand that He is the fulfillment of all the Law and the Prophets wrote:

Jesus said: “You search the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me!” ~John 5:39

“If you really believed Moses, you would believe me, because he wrote about me.” ~John 5:46-47

“For before John (the Baptist) came, all the prophets and the law of Moses looked forward to this present time.” ~Matthew 11:13

“Then Jesus said, “When I was with you before, I told you that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and in the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. And he said, “Yes, it was written long ago that the Messiah would suffer and die and rise from the dead on the third day. It was also written that this message would be proclaimed in the authority of his name to all the nations, beginning in Jerusalem: ‘There is forgiveness of sins for all who repent.’ You are witnesses of all these things.” ~Luke 24:44-48

A PhD has never meant that a person really knows and understands the Bible

Today universities indoctrinate young people into the particular ideology of the professors who teach at their institutions. Many of these professors are atheists and progressives who either don’t believe God exists, or that most of the Bible is not true. These unbelieving teachers, proselytize young people into atheistic ideology and turn them away from their former trust in Jesus and the Bible.

There are also Genuine Christian Universities and Bible Colleges where the professors are born again by the Spirit, as Jesus described in John 3:3. These professors believe that God exists and He has revealed Himself through the Bible.

For these believing professors, they see the texts of the Bible correctly; through the lens of the Holy Spirit, not by the wisdom of this world or the opinions of men.

The Bible is specific in that only those born again by the Spirit, can really understand the deep principles of the Bible. The only true Bible scholars are men and women who are believers, and who have the Spirit of God living in them To the rest of the world who seek to make commentary on the Bible from a secular perspective, they are always in error.

• Who Is Qualified To Be A Biblical Scholar?
• Impeaching Dr. Josh Bowen And and ;The Atheist Handbook To The Old Testament;
• Impeaching The Poor Scholarship Of Yale Professor Joel Baden
• Impeaching Bart Ehrman

The end result of students who are education in the Bible by atheist and progressive scholars, is often the loss of former faith in Jesus Christ. Students feel that if a professor with a PhD, believes the Bible is not true, it must not be true. Not understanding that the conclusions and opinions of atheists and progressives are based upon a cognitive bias against God and the Bible, these young people forfeit their eternal life because they believed liars.

The Ruse of Atheist New Testament Scholars

Regarding the attacks of atheists concerning Old Testament reliability, Dr. Josh Bowen is one of these contemporary sources of deception. Writing two “handbooks,” for atheists, Bowen makes repeated errors in his exegesis of the Hebrew Bible texts, asserting that the Pentateuch was not written by Moses, and is, therefore, a fabrication.

See: “Proving The Pentateuch: Impeaching The Documentary Hypothesis”

In former essays at this website I have refuted some of the major false assertions published by Josh Bowen in his atheist handbooks. You can see these refutations HERE

Unfortunately today there are many young people who lose their faith because of the lies of non-believing professors who assert the Bible is not the word of God, and it is not accurate or trustworthy. None of these claims are true, and in fact, it is very easy to prove the New Testament testimony about Jesus is historical, eyewitness testimony that displays no evidence of fraud or deceit.

• 203 Eyewitness Statements About Jesus In The New Testament
• Were The Gospels Written By Eyewitnesses?
• When Were The Gospels Written?
• Is The New Testament A Valid Historical Narrative?
• Historical Evidence That Proves The Resurrection Of Jesus

There are also atheists and progressives that don’t believe the Bible, who seek to obtain a PhD from a college or university, so that they might act as an adversary of the Bible to prevent people from trusting in God and His word.

Two such persons with this agenda are Professors Joel Baden, and Dr. Josh Bowen. I have had the unfortunate experience of reading the books and essays of these two men. Their words and publications are a prime example of the current atheist deception that has permeated biblical schools and poisoned the minds of many young people.

Social media is filled with young people who were once believers in Jesus, and, in their own words, they fell away and stopped believing in Jesus and the Bible, after they received an education by atheist and progressive professors and scholars.

These young men and women assert that their eyes were opened by men like Bowen and Baden, and now that they know the truth about the Bible, Christianity, and Jesus, they can never believe again. In fact people who have a predisposition to unbelief, are often looking for justification to turn away from Jesus and the Bible.

These individuals assert that the Bible is the problem, but Jesus said that it is a personal desire to continue in sin, that is the true cause of unbelief. Many atheist and progressive persons identify as transgender or wanting to participate in a same-sex relationship. Because the Bible is specific that these practices are sin and must be repented of before salvation is given, these persons reject God and the Bible.

Jesus said: “There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son. And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants.” ~John 3:18-21

Jesus said that the claims of unbelievers who say that the Bible is filled with contradictions and inconsistencies, and this is the cause of their unbelief, is a lie. Jesus said that these people, “love darkness,”—they want to continue in their sins, rather than come into the light by repentance from all sin, and fully trust in Jesus for all of their life.

A large part of the Bible is devoted to people who claim to have once believe in God and the Bible, but now no longer believe either

Jude writes a brief letter in which he states that he had determined to write concerning the common faith that all believers have in Jesus, but now he finds that he must write to “defend the faith.”

Jude describes the Israelites whom God delivered from Egypt, only to be destroyed by Jesus in the desert after they ceased to trust in the Lord. In the correct translation of this text, Jude says that Jesus is the one who delivered the Israelites out of Egypt, but when they later betrayed and abandoned the Lord, they were destroyed by Him.

“So I want to remind you, though you already know these things, that Jesus first rescued the nation of Israel from Egypt, but later he destroyed those who did not remain faithful.” ~Jude 1:5

Jude them moves to the example of the angels who also fell away from God and departed from the path they were on. These angels are being held in prisons of darkness in the abusso. Then Jude cites the men of Sodom and Gomorrah who departed from the natural use of the body that God created us for and began to give themselves to same-sex sin.

“And don’t forget Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighboring towns, which were filled with immorality and every kind of sexual perversion. Those cities were destroyed by fire and serve as a warning of the eternal fire of God’s judgment.” ~Jude 1:7

Jude describes these men as, “filled with immorality and every kind of sexual perversion. These two cites were destroyed by fire and serve as a warning of the eternal fire of God’s judgment,” for all who go down this path (Jude 5-7).

Paul makes reference to people who claim to have once believed, in Hebrews 6:4-7, by citing those who, “were once enlightened, experienced the good things of heaven, and shared in the Holy Spirit,” who fell away from Jesus and became unbelievers. Paul states that, “it is impossible to bring back to repentance these persons (6:4).

People who identify as atheists and progressive Christians, are the modern version of this group of people that Jude addresses. Today many of these persons claim that they were at one time, a “true believer,” but the Bible defines these people as the “zizanion,” pretenders. Jesus said that satan plants these false believers in the Christian church in an attempt to create havoc.

“Jesus replied, “The Son of Man is the farmer who plants the good seed. The field is the world, and the good seed represents the people of the Kingdom. The weeds (Gr. zizanion) are the people who belong to the evil one. The enemy who planted the weeds (Gr. zizanion) among the wheat is the devil. The harvest is the end of the world, and the harvesters are the angels.” ~Matthew 13:37-39

The deception of people who claim to be former believers in Jesus, now atheist, is exposed by Jesus. These people are the “zizanion”, pretenders planted by satan in the Christian church.

Jesus references four types of heart that hear the Good New about salvation in Jesus, but only one heart continues to trust in Jesus (Matthew 13, Mark 4, Luke 8)

The Hard Heart that is on a path of life that all people travel, who hear the Good News about Jesus, but because they are given to the pursuit of things in this world, their heart being hardened towards God. The evil one, satan, comes quickly to take away the good word of salvation that Jesus delivered to us, and these people who are captured by satan, do not follow Jesus.

The Stoney Heart is a person who hears about Jesus, claims to believe, but when trouble and persecution comes into their life, they do not have deep roots in the Bible, and so they give up and fall away.

The Thorny Heart is the person who hears about Jesus, but they do not remain with Him because they love the things of this world and are preoccupation with the things of this world. These persons also fall away from Jesus and they are lost.

The Good Hearted person hears the Good News about Jesus, believes it and continues to remain with Jesus for all of their life. This is the only one who is saved and acquires heaven and eternal life.

The false teachers and professors who tell young men and women that the Bible is not true and the events described for Jesus never happened the way they are described, are responsible for the first three types of heart that hear about Jesus, but give up and do not believe and continue with Jesus for all of their life.

Dr. Josh Bowen And The False Assertions of His Atheist Handbooks

Although Dr. Josh retains the Hebrew name, Joshua (Yeshua), the same name given to Jesus, which mean, “Salvation,” Joshua Bowen is an atheist and his views on the Hebrew texts originate from those of a non-believer in God and the Bible.  Atheists and progressive Christians—love the opinions of Josh Bowen because they confirm the view they have of the Bible: It’s not true and it cannot be trusted.

On Twitter Josh said that he was, “an evangelical Christian for 26 years.” What he doesn’t say is that a likely reason he departed Jesus, was his desire to live as a gay man. As Jesus said: it is not problems with His message, or what the Bible states, that causes people to fall away; it is the inner desire to continue in sin, that causes people to no longer believe in Jesus or the Bible.

The following is a new example of how inept a PhD can be in their views of the Hebrew Bible, because they begin with the certainty that the Bible is not true.

A young man called, Nick Adams, made a comment on Twitter regarding marriage as defined by the Bible, to Dr. Josh Bowen. The following is the exchange that followed:

My comments regarding what Josh posted, follows this exchange. In the balance of this essay I will add to this conversation, the parts of the texts Josh seeks to impeach, with the context and correct exegesis Jesus gave us regarding the Law of Moses. Paul adds to this discussion in his commentary in Hebrews whereby the Law of Moses is described in terms of its original intent by God, and the current understanding of these texts today, in light of what the New Testament writers placed into the historical record.

You will see that the conclusions of Dr. Josh Bowen are not proven by the texts of the Bible, but are impeached in their entirety by the texts of the Hebrew scriptures.

The difficulty that Josh Bown exhibits in his comments reveals that he doesn’t understand the difference between the old covenant, based upon the Law of Moses, v. the new covenant based upon the death and resurrection of Jesus. Paul describes the old system of Moses’ Law, in contrast with the completed work of Jesus upon the cross, which was the illustrative purpose of the Old Testament Law of Moses.

Hebrews 10:1 “The old system under the law of Moses was only a shadow, a dim preview of the good things to come”

Hebrews 10:8-10 “First, Christ said, “You did not want animal sacrifices or sin offerings or burnt offerings or other offerings for sin, nor were you pleased with them” (though they are required by the law of Moses). Then he said, “Look, I have come to do your will.” He cancels the first covenant in order to put the second into effect. For God’s will was for us to be made holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all time.”

Matthew 5:17 Jesus said: “Don’t misunderstand why I have come. I did not come to abolish the law of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No, I came to accomplish their purpose.“

The Laws that Josh Bowen cites from Exodus 21, and Deuteronomy 21, were clearly designated by God, for the Israelites, not the world:

Deuteronomy 1:1, “These are the words that Moses spoke to all the people of Israel while they were in the wilderness east of the Jordan River.”

Exodus 21:1, “These are the regulations you must present to Israel.”

Regarding the Law of Moses concerning marriage from the book of Genesis, Josh Bowen will assert that since the laws of Moses were changed in the New Testament, so also was the law of Marriage from Genesis. The problem with this exegesis of the texts is that Jesus did not confirm the Law of Moses cited by Bowen in Exodus 21, and Deuteronomy 21:

Jesus confirms marriage between one man and one women in the New Testament:

Mark 10:6-7, Jesus said: “But from the beginning of the creation, God made them male and female.’ For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife (woman, γυνή gynē;).

One of the purposes of the Messiah coming to earth was to clearly define the true meaning of God’s law.

“The LORD is well pleased for His righteousness’ sake; He will exalt the law and make it honorable.” ~Isaiah 42:21

We see this principle demonstrated repeatedly by Jesus in His confrontations with the Pharisees and other leaders of Israel.

(Jesus speaking) “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.

Jesus never confirmed the Law of Moses that God commanded the Israelites in Exodus 21, and Deuteronomy 21. He did confirm the Law regarding marriage, in Mark 10:6-7

What the readers of Dr. Bowen’s comments will miss, because he doesn’t state the reason he takes these views, is that he is a gay man in a marriage with a woman, who supports,”Queer/Transgender.” persons and relationships.

It is clear that when Josh Bowen decided that he could no longer reconcile his desire to live as a gay man, with the texts of the Bible, and specifically the words of Jesus, this contributed to his decision to become an atheist and deny the truths of the Bible. Josh said he was gay at his Twitter feed in 2022.[1]

In many situations where a person claims to be a former Christian, the real reason these persons depart from Christ, has very little to do with their belief that the texts of the Bible are wrong. A primary factor in falling away from Jesus is the ideology and choices that people make to live in fornication, adultery, and a same-sex relationship. This desire, as Jesus stated, propels many away from a belief in the God of the Bible.

The purpose of this essay is not to condemn Josh Bowen for his choice to live as a gay man, or Megan Lewis in her support of Queer and Transgender persons. This is their rights as human beings. My intent is to teach the Bible to people who are seeking its truth in light of the claims that people, like Josh make, concerning what the Bible teaches. In this regard, it must be stated that people often make choices that they claim are due to biblical inconsistencies, when in fact, it is their desire to justify a lifestyle choice, or continue in a particular sin, that is the real cause.

Update: As with every attempt at making a sound determination concerning the true facts, the current transgender agenda our world is facing, makes it sometimes difficult to determine what biologic gender a person really is. In the personal description written by Megan Lewis, she states that she is “Queer, and supports transgender rights.” Josh Bowen stated publicly that he is gay.

I have been informed that Megan is a biological female, not a transgender female. Reasonable people would find it nearly impossible to know this, based on her own words. My sincere apologies. This is one of the reasons that straying from a biblical definition of gender; biologic males and females, and a rejection of all sexaul relationships between same-sex persons, is critical to a functioning and moral society. Anything else brings confusion and chaos. The facts remain that both Josh and Megan support and participate in behavior that is in opposition to the purpose that God created human beings for. This decision by both Josh and Megan has been a profound influence upon their rejection of the Bible which prohibits the types of relationships that Josh and Megan endorse.

NOTES:

[1] In his own words, in 2022, Josh Bowen said at his Twitter feed that he was, “coming out,” as gay. I would have no way of knowing this, if he had not written it in a post. It is of no consequence to me if Josh is gay or not. I am simply stating what I saw. Some people have said that Josh is not gay. I have Josh’s statement on a screenshot. If Josh wants to retract his statement, or make a comment to me about what he said, he can write to me at my website.

It should be noted that the point of this essay was not whether Josh was gay or not, but that choices people make regarding their personal sins, is a huge contributing factor in their denial of God and the Bible. This is well known and published by several sources. Being gay is only one sin that causes people to deny God and the Bible. There are many other sins that people struggle with and refuse to end, and these people are not gay or transgender. It is sin that is the primary issue that prevents people from repentance and fully committing their life to Jesus. In His statements to Nicodemus in John 3, Jesus left no doubt that sin is the real problem with people who fall away, not evidence, or education. I have statements in my library from several reputable sources, by persons who have conducted extensive research, regarding the high prevalence of struggles with sexual sins, as a preeminent reason people turn away from Jesus and no longer identify as a Christian. Jesus confirmed that sin is the primary reason that people will not repent and turn to Him. We find his statements about this in John chapter 3.

Categories: Robert Clifton Robinson

Tags: Atheists objections to Christianity, Josh Bowen, Megan Lewis, Same-Sex Relationships and the Bible