Christian Author, Philosopher, and Apologist
A valid question that is frequently asked by many people is, “Why Christianity is the only way and the Bible, only the true words of God?” In order to understand these things, we must fill-in a little background information. Continue reading “What Jesus Can Do For You That No Religion Can”
The title of this post presents a strange proposition
We might ask why anyone would ask such a question. After all, isn’t there only one Savior who is called Jesus? No, there are actually others who are called “Jesus,” and are not the Jesus of the New Testament. Continue reading “Is The Jesus You Believe In, The True Jesus?”
In the discussion of God’s existence, the evidence that proves this certainty is resident within a variety of sources. This brief article notes a short list of the hundreds that are available in order to make the most logical and empirical conclusions in the smallest space possible. Let us begin with a logical examination of the facts: Continue reading “The Ease Of Proving God Exists From Empirical Evidence”
Crucifixion is described as one of the most horrific ways to put a man to death. Reserved for only the worst of criminals, what had Jesus done that warranted such vicious treatment?
As we read the accounts of His life in the four gospels, we see a man who is full of love and compassion. Every sick person who came to Jesus—He healed. Every hurting man or woman, Jesus loved and encouraged. Every lost sinner who came to Him in sorrow for their sins, Jesus forgave and bestowed a new life.
Jesus stood against injustice, religious hypocrisy, and pretentiousness by those who claim to know God. When the woman at the well sought to turn the discussion to religion, Jesus turned her back to a relationship with God.
Everything that Jesus did, was good, righteous, and Holy.
The testimony of those who had been with Him every day of His three and one-half year ministry, described Him as perfect and without sin (Prophecy 21). None of the people from Nazareth came to Jerusalem when Jesus proclaimed Himself as the Messiah and opposed Him on grounds that He was a sinful man. Every person who listened to Jesus and watched the way that He treated people was struck by His grace.
This was no ordinary man, this was no sinner, this was not a man who deserved to die by crucifixion.
Continue reading “What Did Jesus Do That He Deserved To Die?”
Jesus As A Matter Of History
No credible Biblical scholar today believes that Jesus was not a real person of history. The evidence for His existence is so overwhelming, that to deny Jesus lived in Galilee at the time depicted by the New Testament would place any writer in a classification of incompetency.[1]
All opposition to the existence of Jesus has now been refuted; and the fact that He lived and conducted Himself in the events described by the four Gospels of the New Testament, is incontrovertible.
A recent publication by Richard Carrier, entitled: “On the Historicity of Jesus,” fabricates a new theory that the Jesus who is alleged to have existed in the New Testament, was a sort of mystical being—not a physical entity.
This is similar to the atheist—theoretical physicists of late, who cannot explain the fine-tuning of our universe by any naturalistic cause. In an attempt to remove any possibility that an intelligent Being is responsible for the Cosmos, the newest hypothesis—described as the, “multiverse,” designates our universe as one of an infinite number of other parallel universes (which no one can see). If we have an unlimited number of universes, then we would certainly expect to find at least one like ours that is finely tuned for life.
Although cosmologists do not have the ability to see beyond our own universe to test this theory, nevertheless, this has become the newest explanation for why the universe appears to be designed for life. This allows the atheist to make the assertion that God is not necessary as the source of our universe, since in their view, it came into existence by itself.[2]
Much like the multiverse, which no one can see, Richard Carrier also creates an ancient mystical Jesus, which no one could see, who was simply a figment of the imagination.
This premise ignores the vast evidence that exists from the Jewish Talmud. The ancient scribes of Israel who chronicled Jesus in their writings, had no interest in preserving any historical information about Him, nor Christianity. The Jews who recorded their commentary about Jesus in the Talmud, regarded Him and His followers as the latest of many cult religions of their day. These leaders of Israel had no desire to document the existence of Jesus, His crucifixion, nor those who followed Him—yet this is precisely what they accomplished by their adversarial comments regarding His arrest and execution. These records were written during the period of history in which Jesus is reported to have been in Israel, as described by the narrative of the New Testament scriptures.[3]
Regardless of how many inferences Richard Carrier makes in his book that the historical Jesus is a fabrication, we must understand that this publication exists—exclusively as a result of a large financial grant from an atheist organization. It should be obvious to those who read Mr. Carrier’s book, that his entire purpose for writing—to deny the historicity of Jesus, was because he was paid to refute the existence of Jesus Christ.[4]
In essence, Richard Carrier is a mercenary for the atheist cause, not a literary or historical scholar who has followed the evidence to a credible conclusion. The facts are, Mr. Carrier cannot refute the certainty of recorded history. Both the Jews and the Romans would rather that Jesus had not existed, yet they found themselves recording many of the events of His life and death—in their preserved records of history. The evidence of antiquity demands that Jesus existed as a real person in Palestine during the period of history in which the New Testament describes Him.
Most people are intelligent enough to understand that a person who has already determined what the end result will be, before he begins to write—cannot be objective in his conclusions.
What was the Star that the kings from the East saw over Bethlehem? They believed that it was a sign from God that a great King was about to be born. They arrived at this conclusion from reading the Hebrew prophecies that concerned the coming of the Messiah. In Numbers chapter 24, Balaam is acting in the capacity of a Prophet. He describes the coming of the Messiah at a later date–by “a Star out of the line of Jacob.” This was likely one of the Prophecies that these wise men from the East had read, and determined to follow this Prophecy to Israel during an astronomical event of great significance, as it had been observed in the night skies, all over the world.
Numbers 24:17b “I see Him, but not now; I behold Him, but not near; A Star shall come out of Jacob…”
