It is often difficult to watch inexperienced, unprepared Christians, seek to debate persons who claim to be atheists. Shannon Q and Paulogia prey on these types of Christians who are clearly unprepared to debate the deception of militant atheists. It is necessary for Paul and Shannon to publish videos on their YouTube channel with people who don’t know much about God or the Bible so that they can impress their atheist audience with their ruse of knowledge. (After two weeks, no evidence to prove the false statements of Paul or Shannon has been placed here in this essay.)
The Deception Of Paulogia Before A Large Audience
June 26, 2024***See The Update At The End of this Essay: paulogia refuses to debate the evidence that proves God exists***
First, I will present you with a brief video clip hosted by Shannon Q and Paulogia, where they discuss God and sin with a caller.
The clip is 2 minutes and 37 seconds. The transcript of this conversation is below the video clip.
Transcript:
Shannon: State your position
Caller: My question is that do you believe that. Do you need a Savior, do I need a Savior, that we are all sinners who need a Savior?
Shannon: No I don’t believe in the concept of sin and I think the concept of a Savior is an abusive paradigm.
Paulogia: What do you think sin is?
Caller: What I believe sin is… Sin is you choose not God. Like God is the good…
Paulogia: Okay, so, If that is the definition of sin and if also, while that is the definition of sin if God didn’t exist, would sin exist?
Caller: Ugh, If God didn’t exist, nothing, there would not be anything.
Paulogia: No no, no no, my (laugh)
Caller: Yeah I guess in that, i guess.
Paulogia: That aside, if, if there was a material world where God didn’t exist…let’s say it’s not even ours, but if there was one where God didn’t exist, could sin also exist?
Caller: ummmm…
Paulogia: God is, God is, a prerequisite for sin, right? So anytime you are talking to an atheist, anyone who doesn’t believe that God exists, is definitely not also gonna think that sin exists. Those are just, those are ugh… Those go together.
Caller: Yeah so, in the non-God world, I don’t believe sin would exist…in that…
Paulogia: Okay, so that’s, and that’s where were at. I’m just telling you, I hope we can be a little straight. That’s kind of where we’re at with sin.
Caller: Yeah…
Shannon: So we don’t think there is sin.
Caller: Alright, so like there is no evil? Evil doesn’t exist?
Paulogia: Well. how do you define evil
Shannon: (unintelligible)
Caller: Ugh… to choose not God.
Paulogia: That’s just another word for sin.
Shannon: So we’re evil, then? So you’re calling Paul and I evil then? We both definitely choose not God.
-End of Video Clip-
The Premise of Shannon Q and Paulogia In Asserting That There Is No Sin, Is That “God Doesn’t Exist”
The problem with this claim is that there is tremendous evidence that God does exist.
Jesus is proof that God exists.
- He claimed to be God.
- He performed over 40 miracles only possible by God.
- Men who saw and heard Jesus, recorded His words and works.
- This eyewitness, historical narrative has existed intact, since 44 AD.
- The New Testament is the largest extant record of one person in all of antiquity.
If you say “no” to any of the above, show me the evidence that proves 1-5 is not true.
Post the evidence you have, here at this essay, at the bottom, in the comment section. I have issued this challenge to thousands of atheists over the past 49 years. No one has ever presented evidence these 5 are not true. Do you know why? It doesn’t exist. The New Testament is the historical record that proves God exists.
I have read thousands of comments and opinions from atheists, progressives, and critics of God, the Bible, and the testimony about Jesus. No one has provided evidence that disproves these 5 points.
If you have a scholar who says that any of these five points that prove Jesus is God, are not true; is this merely their opinion, or did they include evidence that proves their assertion that any one of these is not true? Post this evidence here:
Each of the five points above is linked to an essay I published, on this website. Each of these points is thorough, conclusive, and evidentiary
If you have the ability to impeach these 5 proofs for the existence of Jesus as God, then show your evidence to me. I know that it doesn’t exist because not once in nearly five decades has anyone provided proof these five are not true. Your feelings or comments are not evidence.
The Deception of Shannon Q’s Opening Statement
Shannon’s first response to the caller’s question, tells us about her training as an atheist: Shannon: “No I don’t believe in the concept of sin and I think the concept of a Savior is an abusive paradigm.”
How many persons have ever heard the term, “abusive paradigm?” This is a fabricated term, created by atheists, that has no basis in fact.
What exactly, is Shannon talking about?
The idea that God created a world where He permitted sin, and then condemned us for our sins—requiring the death of God’s Son to pay for our sins, so that we could have eternal life, Shannon believes, is Abusive.
- To deny the existence of sin, first a person must seek to denigrate the source of the sin idea, the God of the Bible. This requires an impeachment of the evidence cited in my five points that prove Jesus is God, above.
- Atheists claim that since God is all powerful, and all-knowing, why did He create us with the ability to sin, then blame us for committing sin?
- Atheists assert that God could—with His power—prevent evil, sickness, suffering, and death. So why hasn’t He? Atheists like Shannon and Paul say that this is proof that God doesn’t exist. If He did, we would not see the world of evil that we live in.
- When Christians assert that we need to repent from our sins and trust in Jesus for our salvation, according to Shannon, this is an “abusive paradigm.” In other words, God seeking to save people from a future judgment for their sins is seen by atheists today, as abusive.
With these suppositions being stated, persons like Shannon and Paul assert the idea that a Savior who is necessary to save us from sin is an “abusive paradigm.”
The creation account found in the Book of Genesis states that God created man in His image.
Genesis 1:27: “So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”
- As God is a self-determinate Being, He created us as self-determinate beings. God gave us life and the choice for how we will live our life, and direct our future.
- We cannot determine the course of our life without a choice. God placed before Adam and Eve, the choice between good and evil.
- Everything that God made is Good, but if we choose evil, then we create evil in our lives and the lives of other people.
- So that we might have a choice to choose good or evil, God created many trees for Adam and Eve to eat from, but just one tree that we should not eat from.
- God presented a choice; this made it possible to choose.
- There can be no genuine choice if God does not respect the choice we make, good or evil. God wants us to choose good, but we can make our choice to choose evil.
- God told us the consequences of our choices: Good: the choice to believe what God said and obey the laws He created to bless and protect us in our lives. Evil: the choice to live as we please, with the consequences of this choice being realized in this physical life, as well as the eternal life to come.
Since everything that God made is Good, if we see Bad in this world, God did not create this, we did, by our choices.
Genesis 1:3: “Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good.
Genesis 2:9: “And out of the ground the LORD God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. (1) The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and (2) the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”
Genesis 2:16-17: “And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
“Die:” heb. מוּת mûṯ;”To die as a penalty.” Although God gave man a choice and He respected the choice Adam made, God also told Adam and Eve what the result of choosing Bad would bring to earth: Evil. This choice would cause the penalty of death.
It is a fundamental premise of eternal life, as a natural law of the universe, that choosing evil, designated as sin, will cause eternal death; the loss of eternal life. Only perfectly moral beings possess the power of a life that never ends.
Ezekiel 18:4: “Behold, all souls are Mine; The soul who sins shall die.
Shannon’s question as to whether this caller was stating that she and Paul are evil, is answered by the texts from our creation: If we choose Good, we are good; if we choose evil, we are evil.
In the video references in this essay, Paulogia states that first, we must prove the existence of God, before we can assert the existence of sin.
An interesting idea, but fully impeached because sin exists whether or not we believe God exists. Even in the secular world, sin is a real and relative issue. Even amongst civil secular citizens, doing wrong, hurting others, stealing, raping, murdering, lying, and many other evils of human behavior, are considered sinful behavior.
The Existence of God Has Been Proven
The 260 chapters of the New Testament provide us with a historical, eyewitness narrative of true events, that prove God exists. When Jesus arrived on earth, one of the primary reasons He came to our world, was to prove once and for all, that God exists.
The New Testament contains 203 eyewitness statements. The men who were with Jesus for three and one half years, state in their own words, that they “saw Jesus with their own eyes.”
These men state that Jesus claimed to be Yahweh from the Old Testament. These men record that Jesus fulfilled all 400 Messianic Prophecies that were written for the Messiah. These men record that they didn’t know or understand, at first, who Jesus was. It was not until after He had been Crucified and risen from the dead, that they realized who He was—God in human flesh.
John 12:16: “His disciples didn’t understand at the time that this was a fulfillment of prophecy. But after Jesus entered into his glory, they remembered what had happened and realized that these things had been written about him.”
Prove Your Assertions
I am issuing a challenge to Shannon Q and Paulogia, to participate in a genuine written debate concerning the eyewitness, historical testimony about Jesus in the New Testament. According to the five points I detail above, write an argument that impeaches each of these facts of the New Testament, with evidence.
Written debates are the only format where a desire to make a public show is eliminated. Each person participating in a written debate must think about the question, think about their answer, and publish it in a public forum for everyone to see.
If we do not see your evidence here in the comment section of this essay, everyone who reads this essay will know that your claim that God and sin do not exist, is a ruse.
I do not believe that Paulogia and Shannon Q can write a successful impeachment of the five points of the New Testament testimony about Jesus I detailed in this essay. Prove me wrong, if you are able: (After two weeks, this fact has been proven true; Paul and Shannon have not placed any evidence here at this essay.)
There is no evidence that can prove the New Testament is anything less than the five points listed below. This is why Paul and Shannon have not, will not, place any evidence here that proves these five points are not true. God does exist, and He has proven this fact by the arrival of Jesus on earth—documented by the men who saw and heard Jesus in the New Testament.
Jesus is proof that God exists.
- He claimed to be God.
- He performed over 40 miracles only possible by God.
- Men who saw and heard Jesus, recorded His words and works.
- This eyewitness, historical narrative has existed intact, since 44 AD.
- The New Testament is the largest extant record of one person in all of antiquity.
UPDATE: June 26, 2024, 10:16 am PT
Paul is not able to provide any evidence to impeach the historical, eyewitness testimony that proves Jesus is God, and therefore, sin, is also proven as true.
First Paul agreed to a written debate, then he changed his mind, when he found that he cannot refute the evidence of the historical, eyewitness, narratives about Jesus in the New Testament:
“It is better to not enter into a debate and be thought a fool, than to enter unqualified and remove all doubt.”
Look for a new video publication by Paulogia, declaring that he won this debate, stating his opinions, but not presenting any evidence to prove what he claims, here, where it was requested. I cannot imagine why any intelligent person listens to Paul or Shannon or watches their videos.
The New Testament is a historical, eyewitness narrative of true events. There is no evidence anywhere that proves that what these men recorded for the historical record, is not true. Jesus claimed to be God, then proved He is God by over 40 miracles only possible by God. Nine of these miracles display Jesus’ mastery over the physical laws. God exists, we have the evidence to prove He exists.
Update: June 27, 2024. The Following Is Shannon’s Response To A Request For Written Debate:
The following was my response to Shannon:
How can Paul “eat my lunch,” when he is too afraid to attend the meal? To eat someone’s lunch, means “to defeat, outwit, or win against someone. (In the way that a school bully takes away children’s lunches and eats them at recess.”)
You and Paul are the bullies who prey on untrained Christian’s who don’t know how to answer you. Try this with me, and the outcome will be far different.
You are both cowards. A written debate is where everyone learns how little you really know about truth and evidence.
You and Paul love to parade yourselves in video before your adoring audience of atheists. You are not capable of writing an intelligent argument in a written debate.
Paul refused written debate because he is incapable of proving the historical eyewitness testimony about Jesus in the New Testament, is not true.
These narratives have remained in the historical record for nearly 2K years, unimpeached by anyone. What these men heard and saw, they recorded for posterity. Either their testimony is true, or it’s not. Their eyewitness testimony is the evidence. If you say they lied, you must prove this by evidence.
Neither you or any other person can prove these men lied. There is no evidence anywhere their testimony about Jesus is not true.
If you say these narratives are not true, prove it!
Your opinions and scoffing as atheists, are not evidence. This is why you will not participate in a written debate. In a video you can continue your scoffing; when you must write your answers and provide evidence to prove your arguments, you will not be able to meet this demand.
You have weighed this matter and determined that It is better for both of you to not enter into a written debate and be thought a fool, than to enter unqualified and remove all doubt.
If we press an atheist and demand they provide evidence to prove the eyewitness, historical narratives about Jesus in the New Testament are not true, they will not be able to provide this evidence. This is why atheists will not participate in a written debate.
- In a written debate, all public spectacle, pretense, and a desire to be seen, are removed.
- In a written debate the participants have to know their subject and have the ability to provide evidence to prove their assertions.
- In a written debate the participants have the ability to give evidence and allow their fellow debater the opportunity to examine and respond to their evidence.
- The end result of a written debate is an outcome that allows us to see the real purpose of debate: to prove facts by evidence, or to impeach assertions and opinions by evidence.
- In any other public forum or debate that is on social media, the above are not possible and very little that is substantive, is achieved.
Categories: Archeological Confirmation, Atheists uneducated observations, Atheists, Agnostics and Skeptics, Christian Killed For Believing the Resurrection, Common objections by Atheists, Contradictions in the Bible, Defending the Gospel, Eyewitnesses, God is perfect, God's Sovereignty, He Is Risen, Historical Validity of the New Testament, How The NT Writers Remembered, Jesus confirmed by secular sources, Jesus is God, Literary authenticity of the New Testament, Messianic Prophecies, New Testament Criticism, New Testament Manuscripts, Origin of the four Gospels, Reliability of the Bible, Reliability of the New Testament, Robert Clifton Robinson, Salvation is a free gift, Salvation through Jesus, Secular sources for Jesus, Sickness and Suffering, The Crucifixion of Jesus, The Existence of God, The Historical Crucifixion of Jesus, The Historical Jesus, The Miracles of Jesus, The Nature of God, The only way to heaven, The Resurrection, We must repent
Robert Clifton Robinson 
You said:
“Jesus is proof that God exists.
“1. He claimed to be God.
“2. He performed over 40 miracles only possible by God.
“3. Men who saw and heard Jesus, recorded His words and works.
“4. This eyewitness, historical narrative has existed intact, since 44 AD.
“5. The New Testament is the largest extant record of one person in all of antiquity.
“If you say “no” to any of the above, show me the evidence that proves 1-5 is not true.”
1. No, we have *stories* that say Jesus claimed to be God. And even if we’re certain those stories are accurate, so what? *You* could claim to be God. That doesn’t mean you’re correct.
2. No, we have *stories* that say Jesus performed miracles.
3. That’s right—these are the stories. That doesn’t make them history. In fact, in every instance of supernatural claims written down outside of Christianity, historians reject the claim of historicity. (So you don’t want historians evaluating your holy book.)
4. You’re saying that the gospels were written by 44 CE? That’s not the historical consensus, but we can set that aside. A decade is plenty of time for a story to grow with the retelling, especially in a pre-scientific time like the Roman Empire 2000 years ago. As for eyewitness claims, we have stories of such claims; that doesn’t mean they really were eyewitness claims. And even today, we don’t automatically conclude that if someone claims to be an eyewitness that it really happened the way they describe.
5. So what? This is like saying, “Hermes Trismegistus made the most credible claims for alchemy; therefore, transmuting base metals into gold is really a thing” or “Person X made the most impressive argument for a flat earth; therefore, the earth is flat.”
It’s not my job to prove 1-5 to be false (though I think I have). Rather, it’s your job to prove them to be true.
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Thank you, Bob, for proving the point of this essay directed at atheists Shannon Q and Paulogia.
Although you presented me with your opinion as an atheist, you did not provide any evidence that disproves these 5 points.
This is a reality that I am constantly seeking to demonstrate to Christians, skeptics, people trying to decide if they want to follow Jesus, or continue following Jesus, and those who assert that there is no evidence for God:
There is no evidence anywhere, that the testimony given to us by the historical events recorded for Jesus in the New Testament, are not true.
The 24,593 surviving manuscript copies of the autographs penned early in the first century, were written in response to the events that men who were with Jesus, saw and heard.
You call them “stories,” the men who recorded these events say they are testimony of what they saw with their own eyes.
These men who wrote their testimony about Jesus, wrote these texts as historical narratives, not poetry, as a novel, or like any other ancient works of antiquity. The New Testament was written as a historical record.
These men say that they didn’t understand at first, that Jesus was Yahweh from the Old Testament, a fulfillment of all the Messianic Prophecies. It was not until Jesus began performing miracles that were not possible by a mere human, that they started to understand who He was.
A critical moment in their awareness of who Jesus is, came after Jesus commanded Lazarus to come out of his tomb. After four days of decay, Lazarus’ body was in an advanced state of decomposition. When Lazarus came out of the tomb alive, this changed everything for the disciples of Jesus.
The final moment when these men realized who Jesus was, came in John’s description of Jesus taking the foal of a donkey and riding into Jerusalem on the precise day Daniel 9 predicted the Messiah would arrive at Jerusalem, declaring that the Messiah of 400 prophecies had arrived.
John states that when these events happened, they later realized that Jesus had been systematically fulfilling all that the prophets wrote, all along. It was at that time that they late realized, Jesus was God, He was no mere human being.
John 12:16 “His disciples didn’t understand at the time that this was a fulfillment of prophecy. But after Jesus entered into his glory, they remembered what had happened and realized that these things had been written about him.”
We can understand that if we saw a man performing miracles, while saying that He is God, we would feel some apprehension.
Jesus understood that it would take some time for these men to observe Him and realize who He was.
These men were seeing things that no one had ever seen before.
After Jesus had risen from the dead, He instructed the Apostles who He had chosen as His witnesses, to record all that they had seen and heard, and send this testimony to the churches in Asia who were located on a postal route. We learn who these seven churches were from John in the first chapter of Revelation.
Jesus instructs John: “Write in a book everything you see, and send it to the seven churches in the cities of Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.”
These 7 churches were only a few of the hundreds that existed in Asia Minor. These churches were the post offices of letter distribution for all of Asia, and then the world.
In Acts chapter 1, Jesus gives His command to these men who had seen Him, to write and send their testimony out to the world:
Acts 1:8 Jesus speaking: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Before Jesus was crucified and risen from the dead, He told these men that after He was gone, He wold send the Holy Spirit who would remind them of all they had seen and heard, so they could write an accurate account.
John 14:25-26 Jesus speaking: “I am telling you these things now while I am still with you. 26 But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you.”
When Peter and the other Apostles were before the leaders of Israel in Acts 2-4, He told them that Jesus had appointed them as His witnesses, to tell the world what they had seen and heard.
Acts 13:29-31 “When they had done all that the prophecies said about Jesus, they took him down from the cross and placed him in a tomb. 30 But God raised him from the dead! 31 And over a period of many days he appeared to those who had gone with him from Galilee to Jerusalem. They are now his witnesses.”
The Synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke were completed within 12 years of Jesus saying these things, in 44 AD.
When Paul departed for his first missionary journey to Asia in 45, he carried these written testimonies with him to prove who Jesus was.
It was impossible that Paul could have convinced the people living in Asia Minor that Jesus was the Messiah without the eyewitness testimony of the Apostles.
The evidence that the early church considered these written testimonies by the men who saw and heard Jesus, as scripture—equal to the Old Testament scriptures—is proven in the text of the New Testament:
1 Thessalonians 2:13: “Therefore, we never stop thanking God that when you received his message from us, you didn’t think of our words as mere human ideas. You accepted what we said as the very word of God—which, of course, it is. And this word continues to work in you who believe.”
If we conduct a personal investigation concerning the Canonical Gospels of the New Testament, we quickly discern that we are reading testimony from men who were present when Jesus said and did the things recorded in these texts. These men state repeatedly that they saw and heard Jesus and there is no ambiguity in what they meant:
Paul: 1 Corinthians 9:1: “Am I not an apostle? Haven’t I seen Jesus our Lord with my own eyes?
Peter: 1 Peter 1:16: “We saw his majestic splendor with our own eyes.”
John: 1 John 1:1: “We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands.”
James, Paul, all the Apostles: 1 Corinthians 15:7: “Then Jesus was seen alive by James and later by all the apostles.
Last of all, as though I had been born at the wrong time, I also saw him.”
Mary Magdalene: John 20:18: “Mary Magdalene found the disciples and told them, “I have seen the Lord!”
Peter: Acts 5:29-32: “But Peter and the apostles replied… We are witnesses of these things…”
John: 1 John 1:2-3: “This one who is life itself was revealed to us, and we have seen him. And now we testify and proclaim to you that he is the one who is eternal life. He was with the Father, and then he was revealed to us. We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us.
You can find a list of all 203 of these eyewitness statements found in the New Testament, in an essay located on my website: https://robertcliftonrobinson.com/2022/06/24/203-eyewitness-statements-about-jesus-in-the-new-testament/
When we compare all of the copies of these surviving manuscripts with each other, we find the same consistent narrative within the same primary events:
• The claims of Jesus to be God and Messiah
• The fulfillment of over 400 prophecies from the Hebrew prophets that predicted a Messiah exactly like Jesus1
• The validation that Jesus performed works that would only be possible if He were God
• Jesus healed every person who came to Him. He opened the eyes of the blind, caused the lame to walk, opened the ears of the deaf, and even raised a man who had been dead for four days.
• These specific events of healing are exactly what Isaiah 35 predicted for the Messiah.2
• Jesus claimed to forgive sins—a right that only God has.3
• All 12 of the Apostles saw Jesus crucified, dead, and risen three days later.
• Over 500 eyewitnesses saw Jesus alive at one time after He was crucified.4
• These fundamental truths about Jesus are found in all of the surviving manuscript copies we have of the New Testament.
In Acts 11:27-28, Luke writes: “During this time some prophets traveled from Jerusalem to Antioch. One of them named Agabus stood up in one of the meetings and predicted by the Spirit that a great famine was coming upon the entire Roman world.” (This was fulfilled during the reign of Claudius).
This reference to Roman Emperor Claudius allows us to date this verse from the book of Acts. Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus was emperor from 41-54 AD. Agabus said that this famine was fulfilled during the reign of Claudius. In the fourth century, Roman historian, Orosius, writes that this famine described by Agabus took place in 46 and 47 AD. A translation from Orosius is found in the historical record written by King Alfred of England during the Middle Ages in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.
This Chronicle lists British history from 1 AD to 1154 AD and contains the following text: “AD 46. In this year, Claudius, the second Roman emperor to invade Britain, put much of the island under his control and added the Orkneys to Rome’s kingdom. This took place in the fourth year of his rule. In this same year, a great famine in Syria took place which Luke mentions in his book, ‘The Acts of the Apostles.’ Due to his incompetence, Emperor Claudius Nero almost lost control of the British Isle.”
Jewish historian, Josephus, also records in Antiquities 20 chapter 1.3-2.5: “Herod, the brother of Agrippa who had perished, was allowed to govern over Chalcis. He asked Claudius Caesar for control over the temple along with the sacred treasury, and the ability to choose the high priests, and he was given all that he had asked for.” Around this time lived Queen Helena of Adiabene, along with her son Izates. They both began to follow the Jewish way, turning away from their past lifestyle . . . Her arrival was of great help to the masses in Jerusalem, for there was a famine in the land that overtook them and many people died of starvation.
Queen Helena sent some of her stewards to the city of Alexandria to purchase as much grain as possible. She sent others to the island of Cyprus to bring back dried figs. Helena’s efforts to save many people left a legacy in the historical record, that allows us to verify the date of this famine described by Luke in the book of Acts.
Roman historian, Suetonius, also mentions this same famine in his writing, “Life of Claudius” Chapter 18: “There was a scarcity of food, which was the result of bad harvests that occurred during several years.”
Roman historian, Tacitus, also writes in describing the famine, in his Annals, Chapter 11:4: “A vision that came to him at night was the reason charges were filed against the man. In this dream, he claimed to have seen Claudius crowned with a wreath made of wheat, the ears of which were folded downward. And from this vision, he predicted lean harvests to come.”
This presents us with a substantial secular and Biblical confirmation that the text of Acts, written by Luke, is not only accurate but confirmation that Luke’s Gospel of Christ was written by 44 A.D.
All of this is documented in my book “New Testament Apologetics.”
The Gospel Was Being Taught In Jerusalem, Asia Minor, And The World
• Acts 2:21 (Jerusalem): “Whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Just 50 days after Jesus had ascended back to heaven.
• Acts 8:25 (Jerusalem): “So when they had testified and preached the word of the Lord, they returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel in many villages of the Samaritans.
• Acts 14:6-7, 14:21 (Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia): they were preaching the gospel there…
• Acts 16:10 (Macedonia): “We sought to go to Macedonia, concluding that the Lord had called us to preach the gospel to them.”
• Acts 15:1-3, Paul received the Gospel from the eyewitnesses and directly from Jesus: “I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved if you hold fast that word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received.”
• Romans 1:15 (Rome): “I am ready to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome also.”
• 1 Corinthians 1:17 and 4:15 (Corinth): “For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect…in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel.”
• 2 Corinthians 8:18 (by Titus), 9:12-13 (proof of the ministry), 10:14 (authority of the Gospel), 10:16 (teach the Gospel in regions beyond Corinth), 11:7 (teach the Gospel free of charge)
• Galatians 1:7-9 (warning not to believe any other Gospel)
• Ephesians 1:13 (received the Gospel and believed), 6:19 (Paul declaring the ministry of the Gospel)
• Philippians 1:15 (fellowship of the Gospel), 1:17 (Paul appointed to defend the Gospel)
• Colossians 1:5 (Paul taught the word of truth from the Gospel), 1:23 (the hope of the Gospel)
• 1 Thessalonians 2:2 (speak the Gospel), 2:4 (entrusted with the Gospel), 2:8 (Paul imparts the Gospel), 3:2 (Timothy taught the Gospel of Christ)
• Hebrews 1:2 (The Gospel is preached)
• 1 Peter 1:12, 1:25, 4:6 (The Gospel was preached)
By the term, “stories,” you imply that these miracles recorded for Jesus, are nothing more that myths.
In the records of history, the average time it takes to discover that something written in antiquity is a myth, is about 12 years.
The 260 chapters of the New Testament present us with personal letters that were not written as myths, but communications between real people who lives early in the first century. The purpose of these letters was to inform Christians in Asia Minor of what the men who had been with Jesus since the beginning of His ministry, had seen and heard concerning Jesus.
In the science of literary forensics, these letters display no evidence of myth, contrivance, deceit, or embellishment.
These letters meet the highest standard possible for valid historical events, by their nature as personal letters. In the forensic examination of ancient texts, where we seek to determine whether written statements are lies or truth, the testimonies of these men who write and described the miracles of Jesus, do not reveal a desire to deceive. They were not written as myths, or novels; they were composed to inform people of what had taken place so that they could know the truth.
It is expected that an atheist will seek to refute the testimony of the men who saw these things take place. It is not possible for you to accomplish this, because of the tremendous amount of extant manuscript evidence that proves these testimonies are truthful.
Not once in the 1900 years since these men penned their testimonies, has any evidence to refute these testimonies as myths or “stories,” as you assert.
You can regurgitate the assertion of stories, but you cannot provide any evidence from the historical record that proves that these men lies when they wrote these 260 chapters with 203 eyewitness statements. The testimony about what these men saw and heard, is true. There is no evidence anywhere they lied or contrived these letters.
According to the standards of both lower and higher literary criticism, the historical narratives recorded and preserved in the New Testament, meet every literary standard for valid historical events.
See my extensive essay that documents these facts:
In The New Testament A Valid Historical Narrative? Is The New Testament A Valid Historical Narrative?
You mean that the 44 AD is not the historical consensus of atheist and progressive scholars, who are not a majority.
These atheist and progressive scholars who assert a “consensus,” did so by their opinions as atheists and progressives, not because they possessed or presented evidence that proves the New Testament was written late in the first century by men who never saw Jesus. They have no evidence to prove their consensus. They have only their feelings that the Synoptic Gospels were written far from the time the events took place.
Why do they maintain this consensus? They want to refute the veracity of actual eyewitness testimony which proves the events described for Jesus are true.
The problem is that this consensus of atheists and progressives, can’t prove this is true by evidence.
They expect people to believe them because they have a Phd. An atheist who has a Phd in Biblical Studies, is not considered an authoritative source for biblical truth.
How can a person who doesn’t believe God exists, or the Bible is true, tell us anything reliable about God and the Bible?
It’s not possible.
The Texts of the New Testament themselves, present us with the evidence that these texts were written by 44 AD. Jesus told these men to write what they saw, immediately, and send their testimony to the world (Acts 1:8).
Paul could not successfully prove to people in Asia that Jesus was crucified and rose from the dead, performed over 40 miracles that prove He is Yahweh, the Messiah, without the eyewitness testimony of the men who saw and heard Jesus.
This attempted equal comparison, fails due to its irrelevance to the texts of the New Testament. You sound really desperate, Bob.
Isn’t it time to accept the reliable eyewitness testimony of the men who saw and heard Jesus?
…unless of course, evidence has never been your problem. It is as Jesus said: “light came into the world, but men love darkness instead of light…”
At the end of your comments, there is still no evidence presented by you that proves the eyewitness historical testimony of the men who saw and heard Jesus, are lying.
This means that the five points I presented in this essay for Shannon Q and Paulogia, have not been impeached by evidence.
God exists, proven by the arrival and documentation by eyewitnesses, for Jesus as the Eternal God, Creator of all that Exists. He is the judged of the living and the dead.
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For anyone who wishes to hear what drives MY faith. May the One True God, the God of Abraham, Issac and Jacob, thus my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ allow His Grace and Blessings to continue to benefit all the peoples of the Earth. My prayer for anyone. See Matthew 5:43-48 for the foundation of this prayer.
I did not come to my belief in the One True God because someone told me that I had to. No that did not happen. I did not come to my belief in the One True God because someone told me that he existed. No, that did happen either. I did not come to my belief in the One True God because someone told me that I would burn in hell. That was not it either. I was stubborn. I just knew better because I saw myself as smarter than anyone else.
Then one day I learnt about the Roman General Titus. He destroyed Jerusalem in 70AD. And as part of that destruction he destroyed the Second Temple to a point where no stone was atop another. Then a friend pointed out Matthew 24:2. I found that point interesting so I began to explore more. Then I discovered Isaiah 66:8 and Leviticus 26.
Then my mind exploded. Everyone has heard the stories of Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians. The point here is that God laid out in Leviticus 26 the rewards and the punishments. One of the punishments would be punishment 7 times. The books of Jeremiah, Isaiah and Ezekiel help to establish the start and end dates of that punishment. If you are interested you can see that laid out for yourselves in Rob’s Book The Feast of the Trumpets and The Rapture near the end of Chapter 3 (subtitled The Prophesy of 360 Years).
So now we have a modern day biblical prophesy at hand. What I was amazed at was Isaiah 66:8. He wrote this would happen in a single day. And it happened just as he wrote that it would that is in a single day on May 14, 1948. Further, those prophecies also layout the Six Day War and Jerusalem’s return to Israel in 1967. So YOU go read and decide for yourselves.
Further, the back half of Luke 21:24 has been seen for nearly two thousand years – all foretold.
So as I see it the calendar looks like the following:
And for those Jewish readers. You will rebuild your Temple again (Revelations 11 in conjunction with Ezekiel 40-48 – as to how it will be built). Notice how Revelation 11 talks about the Rock of Dome and how it will not be disturbed from the measurements that were taken.
I am not writing this to scare anyone but to prepare you for what is coming. Many people will be saved in the Great Tribulation because Revelations foretold that. You don’t have to believe it because many of you will live through it. You do not have to convince yourself to believe before the Rapture (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 – Verse 18 is important because we are instructed to comfort one another because of this promise) because Revelations states that people will be saved during that period Revelation 6:9-11. God applies His Grace and the Savior until the absolute last moment (YOUR Death or the 2nd Coming).
So now that you know that I believe because of the Prophesy. I could not ignore the Helper that God sent me because He knew that I was looking for Him and He allowed himself to be found. Jesus said that he would send a Helper and He did in my case – John 15:26-27 (promised kept).
My faith now is truly based on my hope which is stated in Revelation 21:4. I state it here: He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.
This is my hope because the Men of this World and Their God Satan the Devil have failed to deliver on anything but the exact opposite. So Hebrews 10:23 will hold me until my Lord arrives spectacularly. Therefore I will repeat it here: Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.
Jesus reminded his apostles to let nothing deceive them – Matthew 24:4. He said that to ensure they (an we by extension) understood what was to come as he explained the future in the Matthew 24 itself. We must be careful not to fall in the trap that is outlined in Proverbs 21:2. Because there is a Creator and He is the One True God and knows all including your hidden thoughts.
It does not matter to me whether this is believed by all or not, because, I already know that it will not be because that too was foretold. 2 Thessalonians 2 makes that pretty clear more specifically verses 9-12. So I rejoice knowing that the Day of My Lord draws near. For He commands me to stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near (Luke 21-28).
Believe what you wish it is truly your choose. I choose life. I choose love. I choose hope. I choose Jesus Christ. I cannot save you only Jesus can. So please keep Ephesians 2:8-10 in mind.
May the One True God provide extra Grace and Blessings to reader of this post whether agree or not.
God Bless to All.
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