tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-69596938160424250532024-03-06T03:52:00.283-05:0025 Undeniable Reasons to Believe in the Christian Faith25 Undeniable Reasons to Believe in the Christian FaithDavid Riekehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402251536347033893noreply@blogger.comBlogger26125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6959693816042425053.post-22749676408498199962020-12-26T07:50:00.007-05:002021-01-13T17:16:55.915-05:00December 26 The Altogether Astonishing Religion of Jesus<p><b style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica;">Reason 26 The Altogether
Reasonableness and Goodness of the Christian Faith</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">As seen in our “25 Undeniable Reasons to
Believe” series, the Christian faith deserves the deep reverence and loyalty of
all people everywhere. Unlike atheism and other world religions, the Christian
faith alone adequately accounts for two monumental and air-tight realities: our
finely-tuned universe which certainly could not have come into existence out of
absolutely nothing (see articles #1, 2, 25); and the immediate and unparalleled
historical commotion set off by the inexplicably empty grave of Jesus (see
articles #3-6).</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">The
Christian faith also stands alone in adequately accounting for the many
credible and modern-day reports of miracles and answered prayers (see articles
#22 and 24), and for the credible and modern-day accounts of demon possession
(see article #13), and for the credible experiences of human “souls” that
continue to exist beyond damaged human brains and beyond bodies in need of
resuscitation (see articles #19-20). <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Again, the Christian faith stands alone in
possessing a sacred book which foretold with unearthly accuracy the career of
its Messiah (see articles #14-15), and which has maintained remarkable freedom
from corruption even after centuries of copying (see article #17), whose
academic value has been confirmed by countless historical documents and
archaeological discoveries (see articles #16-18), and whose solid
psychological principles have been
proven effective and copy-catted by modern-day counselors for the good of
people everywhere (see article #21).<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">And finally, the evangelical Christian
faith, not atheism or other world religions, deserves to be deeply reverenced
by people everywhere for being the true source and driver for our modern
conceptions of fundamental human rights—the equality of peasants and royals and
of both sexes, as well as the value of each and every human life—a value far above the
life of animals (see article #12), and the importance of giving each and every
person a say in government policies (see article #23). The evangelical faith
also deserves to be deeply appreciated for being the source and driver for
the abolition of slavery everywhere (see article #9), for turning shattered and
dangerous individuals into emotionally well and gentle people and making
church-goers the most statistically kind, gentle, and generous people in
society (see articles #10-11), and for inspiring non-church-goers around the
world to new levels of gentleness and integrity (see articles #7-8).<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><i><span style="background-color: black; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Because the observable facts speak for
themselves in all these matters, the religion of Jesus surely deserves the deep
reverence and loyalty of every thoughtful person in the world.</span></span></i></b></p>David Riekehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402251536347033893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6959693816042425053.post-61423472951324468532020-12-25T08:05:00.003-05:002021-01-03T22:22:14.369-05:00December 25 In the Beginning Was the Word: Our Amazing Information-Based Universe<p><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica;"><b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">Reason #25 </span></b><b>The
Scientific Evidence for an Information-Based (Not Matter-Based) Universe</b></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><b><i>Science and logic
strongly indicate that the laws of nature operate on a foundation of
information and mathematical precision, not randomness.</i></b><b><o:p></o:p></b></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">The atheist believes that
any discussion about the beginning of the universe must begin with a discussion
of matter and space-time, but the Christian believes that it must begin with a
discussion of information. The idea of information is embedded in the earliest
Christian creeds—“In the beginning was the Word” (the <i>Word</i>, not <i>matter</i>), and
words express <i>mind</i>; words express <i>information</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">The debate between
atheism and Christianity, therefore, is not a debate over science versus God,
but over a random-based cosmos versus an information-based cosmos. The atheist
is a person of faith (in a randomness that stands behind the story of the
cosmos) just as much as the Christian is a person of faith (in an intelligence
that stands behind the story of the cosmos). <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">This is why it is so
striking to hear atheists admit to the appearance of design in the universe. Of
course, this appearance of design is most naturally explained by the actuality
of design. And if the scientific data available to us demonstrates a reliable
sort of mathematical design and precision, then the idea of randomness
certainly loses its intellectual appeal.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Nobel Prize-winning
physicist Eugene Wigner spoke about “the unreasonable effectiveness of
mathematics in the natural sciences.” Over and over again, the laws of physics
are stated as mathematical formulas—<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">E</span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">=mc<sup>2
</sup>(mass-energy equivalence),<sup>
</sup></span><span class="mwe-math-mathml-inline"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; display: none;">{\displaystyle
F=}</span></span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">F=<span class="frac"><sup>dp</sup>⁄<sub>dt</sub></span> (Newton’s second law), etc. Galileo
came to believe that “mathematics is the language with which God has written
the universe.” Indeed, math is </span>often regarded as the primary “language” of
science and the key to crafting tight chains of logic that make possible
everything from rocketry and nuclear fission, to simple banking and telling
time. Our daily routines, and the universe itself, rely on a foundation of
brilliant information, not randomness.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">This same brilliant
information is seen in the field of DNA research. The DNA of the human genome is frequently likened
to an instruction book for life, or a codebook for life—a “book” with something
like 3.2 billion “letters” (genetic base pairs) in it! In fact, it is almost
impossible for scientists to refer to DNA without referring to “information.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Therefore, whether
viewed through a telescope or a microscope, it is abundantly clear that the
cosmos is operating on the basis of astonishing information, calculations, and
codes, not the randomness that atheism requires. And anytime we require our hourly
wages to be paid accurately, or our phone numbers to be dialed correctly, or
our speedometer readings to keep us safe, we are admitting to our dependence on
a cosmos that operates on the basis of information—the information that stands
behind a mathematically reliable natural world. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<b><i><span style="background-color: black; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"> </span></span></i></b><div><b><i><span style="background-color: black; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Science and logic strongly indicate that
the laws of nature operate on a foundation of information and mathematical
precision, not randomness.</span></span></i></b></div>David Riekehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402251536347033893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6959693816042425053.post-89160121772772132012020-12-24T06:19:00.002-05:002021-01-10T22:03:57.530-05:00December 24 The Awe-Inspiring Evidence for the Christian Faith from Modern-Day Miracles<p><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica;"><b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">Reason #24
</span></b><b>The Evidence for the Christian Faith
from Modern-Day Miracles</b></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Credible reports of modern-day miracles strongly discredit the
anti-supernatural worldviews of atheism.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Of course, by definition, miracles don’t
happen “all the time.” If they did, they would no longer be miracles, they
would be commonplace. But neither are miracles so rare as to be unheard of among
honest and intelligent human beings. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Author Craig Keener has researched miracle
reports from around the world and can address the medical documentation and
Social Security disability reports behind Greg Spencer’s blindness from severe
macular degeneration which was suddenly and completely healed at a Christian men’s
retreat. Drs. Thomas Marshall and Harold Adolf can provide first hand
documentation for Barbara Snyder’s sudden healing in 1981 from a 15-year battle
with severe Multiple Scleroses (involving the Mayo clinic at one point) which
had progressed to the point of causing her hands and extremities to curl in
atrophy and requiring a tracheostomy and oxygen to help her breathe. Her
doctors say there is no medical explanation for Barbara’s overnight healing. In
fact, Dr. Keener’s book on miracles includes dozens of recent and credible
miracle accounts from the U.S. and elsewhere.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">The simple truth is that improbable happenings
do indeed occur, and sometimes the improbabilities behind these happenings are
so astronomically high, that naturalism and atheism are simply less
intellectually satisfying than faith. It is possible to spend so much energy
searching for escapes from the obvious—ways to explain away these
phenomena—that we become more like zealots than scholars. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="bodytext" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"> </span></span></p><p class="bodytext" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">What is the probability, for example, that
Paul Rader’s experience should be fully accounted for by coincidence? He had a
banker friend in the 1920s who always professed to be too busy for religion.
Eventually, the banker came down with a health problem that required him to be admitted
to a health resort for complete rest and recovery. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While he was there Rader was impressed by the
thought that he should catch a train and pay a visit to his friend.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="bodytext" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"> </span></span></p><p class="bodytext" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">As soon as the banker saw him, he said, “<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Oh, Rader, I am so glad to see you.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p>
<p class="bodytext" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"> </span></span></p><p class="bodytext" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Rader greeted
him humorously, “I received your telegram.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="bodytext" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"> </span></span></p><p class="bodytext" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">The
banker answered, “That’s impossible. I wrote a telegram begging you to come,
but I tore it up. I didn’t send it.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="bodytext" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"> </span></span></p><p class="bodytext" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Of
course, Paul had no idea that his friend had almost sent him a telegram, and
then decided against it, but he again retorted in good humor, “That may be, but
your message came by way of Heaven.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">By this time, Rader’s banker
friend was very ready to accept Christ’s offer of rescue from sin, and he did
indeed accept it with a prayer of gratitude. Talking a few minutes later, the
banker asked Paul, “Rader, did you ever see the sky so blue or the grass so
green?” <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Paul replied, “Sometimes we
sing a song that has these words: ‘Heaven above is softer blue, Earth around is
sweeter green; Something lives in every hue Christless eyes have never seen.'"<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Suddenly the banker leaned against Paul Rader, fell into his arms, and
died, a brand new convert to the religion of Jesus, and just in time.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">Again,
what probabilities were standing against John G. Paton’s rescue from agitated
and violent islanders in New Hebrides (now Vanatu) in the late 1800s? Two of
their former missionary colleagues had already been attacked and killed, and
now Paton and his wife were left in similar circumstances for an entire </span>terror-filled night. When daylight
finally came, the Patons were astonished that they had not only survived the
night, but also that their attackers had simply gone away.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">A year later, the chief of that tribe was
converted to the Christian faith, and Paton, remembering what had happened on
that dark night, asked him what had kept him and his men from burning down the
house and killing them. The chief replied in surprise, "Who were all those
men you had with you there?" The missionary answered, "There were no
men there; just my wife and I." <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">The chief argued that they had seen many
men standing guard—hundreds of big men in shining garments with drawn swords in
their hands. They circled the mission house, making the islanders afraid to
carry out their attack. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Or what
sort of improbabilities stand behind the reports of captured and astonished
Nazi pilots who reported being engaged by “hundreds” of fighter aircraft during
the Battle of Britain when only a very few airplanes were anywhere near them?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Or what
sort of probabilities stand behind Charles Ryrie’s story of an exhausted friend
who was obligated to drive all through the night on one occasion, and who
prayed for someone who might ride with him to help him stay awake, preferably a
Christian? <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">The
hitchhiker he picked up turned out to be a delightful person, one who actually
knew some of the driver’s friends. Early in the morning, the hitchhiker asked
to be dropped off at a roadside coffee shop where the two men chatted a few
more minutes over a cup of coffee before parting.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">A few
minutes down the road, the driver regretted that he didn’t get his new friend’s
full name and contact information, so he did a quick U-turn hoping to catch the
hitchhiker before he got away. Back in the café, he asked the cook if he had
seen which direction the man who was with him had gone. The cook replied, </span>“What
other man? I thought it was unusual that you would order two cups of coffee. As
a matter of fact, the other cup is still sitting there on the table, hasn’t
been touched. I thought you were maybe just sort of talking to yourself there.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">It is a fact that credible
reports of hopelessly improbable occurrences do exist—many, many credible
reports from honest and intelligent individuals. And if even one of these
supernatural accounts is true, then the worldviews of naturalism and atheism
are deficient and false. Zealots may be motivated to avoid miracle stories in
general, and to appeal to loopholes they claim to find in each miracle story
they<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>ever encounter, but in doing so,
they will be required to exercise greater faith in their naturalism, and less
sheer reason, than devout Christians exercise when they believe in miracles.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Credible reports of modern-day miracles strongly discredit the
anti-supernatural worldviews of atheism.</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></b></p>David Riekehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402251536347033893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6959693816042425053.post-61333655417987932102020-12-23T06:10:00.003-05:002021-01-03T22:23:48.358-05:00December 23 The Astonishing Depths of the New Testament Roots of Democracy<p><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica;"><b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">Reason
#23 </span></b><b>The New Testament Roots of Democracy</b></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><i style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">The facts of history strongly indicate
that the Christian faith deserves credit for being the true impetus behind our
current conceptions of democracy.<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Most people today appreciate the utter
importance of democracy—allowing every person to have an equal say in the way
society functions. The premise of
democracy just seems obvious to us in modern times. Giving potential victims and
their oppressors an equal vote in matters that affect the pursuit of happiness will
keep the would-be victims from having their human rights violated and the
would-be oppressors from executing their self-serving schemes. When seen
against the entire backdrop of human history, however, this principle of
“government of the people, by the people, and for the people” is actually both
rare and new. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Chiefdom, monarchy, and tyranny seem to be
the default settings of human government, and virtually all the governance we
see in historical times was enjoyed by warrior chiefs and kings who helped
themselves to the best spoils of what their societies could offer. And although
we admire the early democratic policies of Athens and Rome, these democracies actually
excluded huge portions of their populations who were slaves and non-citizen
residents. Additionally, because they had no Constitutions to set boundaries on
their liberties, the self-interested majorities in Athens and Rome were free to
trample the human rights of minorities (and they routinely did).<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">All true human rights-based democracies
owe their existence, not to Athens or Rome, but to the New Testament. This is
because Jesus taught His followers that an entire congregation should be called
upon to settle disputed matters—to make decisions collectively, as a group, and
not to rely on leaders alone for direction (Matthew 18:17-18).<sup>1</sup> And this
explains why the first Christians chose their first ministers by consensus, a
policy they learned from Jesus and which served them very well (Acts 6:3-5).<sup>2
</sup>But this was not the way the chiefs and kings around them did things.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Even in Britain, before the 1500s, popular
elections were unheard of. After all, Britain was still a firmly entrenched monarchy,
and the law-making role of parliament was quite limited and unclear. But during
the back-to-the-New-Testament fervor of the Puritan Reformation, Christians
began to choose their pastors by vote. This was considered a radical idea by
most of their Church of England brethren who opposed it. We have the account
from as early as 1634, for example, of a Puritan congregation in the
Netherlands that met to vote on a new minister. The emcee of the meeting noted
the vote: “'I<i> see the men choose him,
but what do the women do?' Hereupon the women lift up their hands too."<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">It was in the U.S. that true
democracy first spread beyond the church. In 1620, the Puritan pilgrims aboard
the Mayflower created and signed, with no monarch’s input or consent, a pledge
of self-governance and cooperation, the Mayflower Compact. They also elected
John Carver to be their governor, choosing him just as they had chosen their
pastors back home, by the voice of the congregation. One historian referred to
this as “the first experiment in consensual government in Western history
between individuals with one another, and not with a monarch.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">By 1632 when Puritan
investors rose to leadership in the Massachusetts Bay Company (forerunner to
the city of Boston), the governor, the deputy, and the assistants were all
chosen by election.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Even as late as the 1780s,
only 20 percent of the adult males in Britain were permitted to vote, while 55
percent were voting in the newly formed United States. In fact, as late as the
1790s, the highly respected parliamentarian Edmund Burke was acting as the
spokesperson for a substantial number of British politicians and thinkers who
opposed democracy as a dangerous and oppressive form of government.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">In our current age of
anti-Christian sentiment, critics may be reluctant to admit that, actually, it
was not Athens, or Rome, or even Britain, that brought the world democracy as
we know and revere it today—democracy under a Constitution of human rights. It
was in fact the founder of the Christian faith and the people who followed His
instructions who handed us this remarkable gift, and we are all deeply indebted
to them for it.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><i style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">The facts of history strongly indicate
that the Christian faith deserves credit for being the true impetus behind our
current conceptions of democracy.<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><i style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"> </span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica;"><i><sup>1</sup></i><i> Matthew
18:17 Tell it to the congregation: but if he refuses to hear the congregation, let him be
to you as a Gentile…<sup>1<b>8 </b></sup>Whatever you judge on earth shall
be confirmed in heaven.</i><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<i style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica;"><sup><span style="line-height: 115%;">2</span></sup><span style="line-height: 115%;"> Acts
6:3 Brothers, pick out from among you seven men…whom we may appoint over this
business.... <b><sup>5 </sup></b>And the saying pleased the whole multitude:
and they chose...</span></span></i>David Riekehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402251536347033893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6959693816042425053.post-8230425967538709652020-12-22T07:13:00.002-05:002021-01-03T22:24:57.481-05:00December 22 The Amazing Evidence for the Christian Faith from Answered Prayers<p><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica;"><b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">Reason
#22 </span></b><b>The Evidence for the Christian Faith
from Answered Prayers</b></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><i><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: black; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; background: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">The
sheer abundance of credible reports of answers to prayer strongly discredits the
anti-supernatural worldviews of atheism.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">"All I know is that when I pray,
coincidences happen.” For 2000 years now, Christians have been praying to God
for their “daily bread” and other needs, and “coincidences” keep happening as
they do. At some point, these phenomena become so numerous and striking that explanations
along the lines of randomness and coincidence are no longer intellectually
satisfying. The sheer preponderance of evidence is enough to overwhelm our
natural reluctance to believe.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Believers love to recall the day when
George Muller’s orphanage in Britain had so completely exhausted its food
supply and financial reserves that there was no food left for the orphans’ breakfast
and no funds left for buying groceries. They sat at the table anyway and were
praying for daily bread when a knock at their door brought the baker—who spent
a sleepless night worried about the orphans—carrying with him a generous supply
of bread. And a second knock on the door immediately afterwards brought the
milkman whose delivery wagon had broken down in front of the orphanage, making
it convenient for the milk to be “disposed of” by the orphans for free.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Similarly, when George and Sarah Clarke’s
Pacific Garden Mission in Chicago was in danger of being shuttered for their
inability to pay the rent, they appealed to God for help. On the day when their
rent was due, the Clarkes were astonished to wake up to a yard filled with the
kind of gourmet mushrooms coveted by Chicago restaurant owners and chefs. The
sale of the mushrooms was adequate to meet the Clarkes’ rent obligations, and
more curiously still, no similar mushroom crop had ever been seen on that
property before that day or since.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">In the 1950s, Dr. Helen Roseveare’s work
took her to Nebobongo, in Congo, Africa, to establish a mission hospital. The
routine medical needs at that time were unending, but Helen also soon became distressed
over the plight of the victims of leprosy in her area. She was eager to help
these destitute people, but the financial needs of her clinic were already
taxed to the breaking point, and there seemed to be no way to fund a separate
endeavor for providing the long-term care leprosy patients would require. Finally,
when she could bear it no more, she ordered her first leprosy medical supplies,
praying that charitable donations might arrive from her supporters in time to
pay the bill at the end of the month. Sure enough, just before the bill came
due, a donation arrived from the U.S. marked as a contribution “for the leprosy
ministry.” The most uncanny detail associated with this event is that it took
five months for that mail to be delivered from the U.S. to Roseveare’s clinic
in Congo, and when that donation was first sent, there was no leprosy ministry
in Nebobongo, and no real reason to suppose there ever would be.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Henry W. Adams relays the account of a
pastor in the mountains of California, during the early 1900s, who ran
completely out of food and money one afternoon and began praying for God to
send some help for his family of seven. When it was almost time for dinner, a
Christian woman they had never seen before came to their door offering them a
large sack of flour with a most unusual explanation for her visit.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">The nice woman once lived in the pastor’s
area, and she still owned a house in that area, but now lived in San Diego. She
was back in the area to visit her brother and, on an impulse, decided to look
in on her old house which had been sitting vacant for some time. There she
found the bag of flour, still perfectly good, and decided it would be a shame
to let it go to waste. Back in her buggy, she just felt inclined to give the
flour away, and she prayed for God to help her find a person in need of it.
When her horse turned off the main road without being directed to do so, and
then came to a stop in front of a particular house, she wondered if this was a
home that might need a sack of flour.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">As impossible as it sounds, this is the
true account of how an ordinary horse was used to motivate a perfect stranger,
in possession of a large sack of flour, to knock on the door of a praying
pastor’s needy family. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">These kinds of answers to prayer don’t
happen to believers every day, but they have been happening from time to time
in the Christian family for 2000 years. It may be convenient to regard an
isolated instance of answered prayer as a mere coincidence, but tens of
thousands of such instances? Not so.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<b><i><span style="background: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><div><b><i><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></i></b></div>The sheer
abundance of credible reports of answers to prayer strongly discredits the
anti-supernatural worldviews of atheism.</span></span></i></b>David Riekehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402251536347033893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6959693816042425053.post-47890669312588914102020-12-21T07:28:00.002-05:002021-01-03T22:26:02.855-05:00December 21 The New Testament’s Uncanny Pioneering of Our Most Effective Psychological Therapy<p><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica;"><b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">Reason #21 </span></b><b>The
New Testament Roots of Our Most Effective Psychological Method (Cognitive
Behavioral Therapy)</b></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><b><i><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">The Christian faith deserves to be revered for anticipating and pioneering the most effective psychological treatment method of modern times.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Even though psychology
is considered a “soft science,” it is still significant to realize that what is
arguably the most effective therapy technique in that field today is actually a
therapy with New Testament Christian roots.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Cognitive Behavioral
Therapy (CBT) has been described as the “gold standard of psychotherapy” (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Frontiers in Psychiatry</i>) a therapy that
“w<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">orks as well or better than
medication to treat depression. […] The best-proven form of psychotherapy”
(<i><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Web</span></i></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">MD</span></i><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">); “</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">as<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span>effective as, or more
effective than, other forms of psychological therapy or psychiatric
medications” (</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">American
Psychological Association); “r</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">ecommended
as the first line of treatment for the majority of psychological disorders in
children and adolescents,” (</span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Wikipedia</span></i><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">); “w</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">ell-established,
highly effective, and lasting,” (</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Anxiety
and Depression Association of America); having a “c</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">onsiderable amount of scientific data
supporting its use,” (</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">National
Alliance on Mental Illness); a therapy that “</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">works about as well as Prozac and similar drugs for relieving the
symptoms of anxiety disorders and mild to moderate depression, and it does so
with longer-lasting benefits and without negative side-effects […] The therapy
with the strongest evidence that it is both safe and effective,” (<i>Coddling
of the American Mind</i>, by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt).<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">CBT is based on the idea that since one’s feelings seem to be deeply
influenced by one’s thoughts and behaviors, a person may overcome his feelings
of anxiety and depression by changing his thoughts and behaviors. It is common,
for example, for depressed or anxious individuals to unintentionally habituate
a focus on unpleasant prospects (e.g. “I’ll probably flunk out of college”)
while overlooking the more pleasant realities of their situations (e.g. “I can
pass this course,” or “Pleasant jobs don’t always require college,” etc.). CBT
therapy coaches people with negative patterns of thought to recognize their
unhelpful thought-patterns, and then intentionally turn their focus towards more
realistic and pleasant possibilities. This also usually involves encouraging
the depressed or anxious person to do what emotionally healthy people do in
order to experience for themselves the pleasant outcomes these activities tend
to produce (e.g. perhaps going ahead and signing up for a college course,
getting a little private tutoring along the way, and seeing how it goes).<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">But all of this is very familiar territory for anyone acquainted with
the New Testament. The followers of Jesus are actually commanded to practice
this kind of self-therapy at all times in their Christian journey. Perhaps the
most striking example of what we now call CBT is found in Paul’s instructions
to Christians: “Whatever things are true….and lovely…think always on these things,”
and “those things which you have learned…now do, and the God of peace shall be
with you.” <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><sup>1</sup></b> This
much-loved passage of scripture succinctly addresses both the cognitive aspects
of CBT (redirecting your focus to thoughts that are true/realistic and lovely/positive)
as well as the behavioral aspects of it (doing wise things in order to
experience peace).<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Besides being <i>implied</i> in Scripture too many times to count, these
CBT concepts are explicitly stated on a number of occasions. Jesus commanded his
followers, for example, to “take no thought” about tomorrow’s troubles<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><sup>2</sup></b>, and other passages appeal
to believers to find “peace” through thoughts of gratitude<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><sup>3</sup></b>, to direct their thoughts to joyful things “always”<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><sup> 4</sup></b>, even in times of great
hardship <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><sup>5</sup></b>, to redirect
the focus of their thoughts (“meditate”) on the things that are true and good
“day and night”<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><sup>6</sup></b>, and
even to directly confront and change their destructive thought patterns as a
way of life (the word “repent” actually means to change one’s mind about a
matter).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Readers of the Psalms are also familiar with the positive self-talk, as
we now term it, which dominates the cherished 103<sup>rd</sup> Psalm, for
example, in which the author tells his own “soul” to “bless the Lord” and to
“remember all his benefits.” This same kind of positive self-talk is actually
found many times in the Psalms<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><sup>7</sup></b>,
and throughout the Christian scriptures.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">In spite of the strong anti-Christian sentiment in our culture today,
the “soft sciences” strongly indicate that devoted Christians are indeed more
emotionally well than other people. They are more kind and generous than others
(see Reasons #7-10, 12, and 24), they are better at family relationships than
others (see Reason #11), and they have fewer symptoms of psychological disorders
than their neighbors (suicides, addictions, criminal activities, domestic
violence, broken families, etc.). The Christian faith deserves credit for
bringing about all these realities.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">The Christian faith deserves to be revered
for anticipating and pioneering the most effective psychological treatment
method of modern times.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica;">Notes: <o:p></o:p></span></span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i><sup>1 </sup></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i>Philippians 4:8</i></b><i>
Finally, brothers, whatever things are true…honest…just… pure…lovely…of good
news, if anything is a virtue, if anything is a praise, <b><u>think on these
things</u></b>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><sup>9</sup></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> <span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Those things which you have learned…do. And the God of peace shall be
with you.</span><o:p></o:p></i></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica;"><b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><sup><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">2</span></sup></i></b><b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">Matthew 6:34<sup> </sup></span></i></b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">Therefore,
take no thought for tomorrow: for tomorrow shall take thought for the things of
itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil of it.</span></i><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><br /></span></i></span></span></p>
<p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i><sup>3</sup></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i>Philippians 4:6 </i></b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Be worried for
nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication <u>with thanksgiving</u>
let your requests be made known unto God. <b><sup>7 </sup></b>And the <u>peace
</u>of God, which passes all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds
through Christ Jesus.<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><sup><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">4</span></sup></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">Philippians 3:1</span></i></b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"> Finally,
my brethren, rejoice in the Lord.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Philippians 4:4</b> Rejoice in the Lord
always: and again I say, Rejoice.</span></i><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">1 Thessalonians
5:16</i></b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">
<u>Rejoice</u> always.<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><sup>5</sup></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">James 1:2</i></b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various temptations.<o:p></o:p></span></i></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica;"><b><i><sup>6</sup></i></b><b><i>Joshua
1:8 </i></b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">This book of the law…you shall <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">meditate</span> in day and night, that
you may observe to do according to all that is written in it: for then you
shall make your way prosperous, and…have good success. 1 Timothy 4:15 <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Meditate</span> upon these things; give
yourself entirely to them.</span></i><b><i><o:p></o:p></i></b></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica;"><b><i><sup>7 </sup></i></b><b><i>Psalm</i></b><i>
42: 5 Why are you cast down, <u>O my soul</u>? and why are you disquieted
in me? <u>hope in God</u>: <u>for I shall yet praise him for the help</u> of
his countenance….11 Why are you cast down, <u>O my soul</u>? and why are
you disquieted within me? <u>hope in God: for I shall yet praise him</u>, who
is the health of my countenance, and my God. 43: 5 Why are you cast down, <u>O
my soul</u>? and why are you disquieted within me? <u>hope in God: for I shall
yet praise him,</u> who is the health of my countenance, and my God. <b>Psalm</b>
103: 1 <u>Bless the Lord, O my soul</u>: and all that is within me, <u>bless
his holy name</u>. 2 <u>Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all
his benefits</u>:3 Who <u>forgives</u> all your iniquities; who <u>heals</u>
all your diseases; 4 Who <u>redeems</u> your life from destruction; who <u>crowns
you with lovingkindness and tender mercies</u>; 5 Who <u>satisfies</u>
your mouth with good things; so that your<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>youth is <u>renewed</u> like the eagle's.
6 The Lord executes righteousness and judgment <u>for all that
are oppressed</u>. </i></span></span><i><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica;"><b>8</b> The Lord is <u>merciful and gracious</u>,
slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. 10 He has <u>not dealt with us
after our sins</u>; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. 11 For as
the heaven is high above the earth, so <u>great is his mercy</u> toward them
that fear him. 12 As far as the east is from the west, so far has he
removed our transgressions from us. 13 <u>Like a father pities his
children, so the Lord pities them that fear him. 14 For he knows
our frame; he remembers that we are dust.</u> 22 <u>Bless
the Lord…bless the Lord, O my soul</u>. <b>Psalm</b> 104:1 <u>Bless
the Lord, O my soul</u>. O Lord my God, you are very great; you
are clothed with honor and majesty….33 <u>I will sing unto
the Lord as long as I live</u>: I will sing praise to my God while I
have my being. 34 <u>My meditation of him shall be sweet</u>: <u>I will be
glad in the Lord</u>. 35…<u>Bless the Lord, O my soul. Praise
the Lord</u>. <b>Psalm</b> 116:7 <u>Return unto your rest, O my soul;</u>
for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you. <b>Psalm</b> 146:1
Praise the Lord. <u>Praise the Lord, O my soul</u>.</span></span></i></p>David Riekehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402251536347033893noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6959693816042425053.post-84740043821775770442020-12-20T14:34:00.001-05:002021-01-03T22:27:00.654-05:00December 20 The Awe-Inspiring Evidence from Near Death Experiences for a Soul-Mind Beyond the Body<p><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica;"><b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">Reason
#20 </span></b><b>The Evidence from Near Death
Experiences for a Soul-Mind Beyond the Body</b></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><i style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">The existence of a soul that continues to
function even after death is indicated by credible reports of Near Death Experiences</span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Recent medical science has made
resuscitation from cardiac death quite common, and there are even a number of
well documented cases on record for full or partial recoveries from brain
death. These advances in medicine have resulted in a growing body of reports
from people who have “experienced death” and are alive today to tell about it.
A number of these reports involve patients who claim to feel somehow removed
from their bodies—having out of the body experiences—sometimes even looking
down at their own bodies from another nearby location. This naturally suggests
the idea of a soul—the “real person” of a human being—which is somehow distinct
from the human body and brain. Of course, we would expect a medicated and
oxygen deprived brain to be subject to hallucination and confusion, but these
expectations do not seem to fully account for the evidence now at our disposal.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">One
well-known case, for example, involves a seven-year-old girl who was found face
down in a YMCA pool. Young Katie had no pulse for 19 minutes, and was
profoundly comatose for three days. When
she awakened from her coma, she addressed the doctor standing next to her bed:
“You’re the guy that saved me. Thank you. Where is the other doctor, the tall
doctor without the beard?” <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">In utter
surprise, the presiding doctor answered, “I’ll go get him for you.” In her
unconscious state, with no apparent upper brain activity, Katie should not have
been able to describe the appearance of her doctors.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Katie
also reported that an angel allowed her to view her family while she was in her
coma, and she correctly reported what her mother was cooking for dinner on that
occasion (roast chicken and rice), where her dad, sister, and brother were
sitting in the house, the toys her brother was playing with, and the song her
sister was listening to at the time.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Hypoxia
and medication cannot easily account for Katie’s knowledge of these details,
and her experience is not an isolated case.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Another
near death case involves a young man who was diagnosed as clinically dead from
anaphylactic shock. After Dan’s heartbeat ceased, he was resuscitated and
reported that he saw himself lying on the floor while the doctors and nurses
were resuscitating him. He also reported that he saw Jesus, and heard a voice
say, “You have not lived as I intended. Go back and glorify me.” Dr. Bernard J.
Klamecki followed up on Dan’s
experience and found that Dan was so impacted by his Near Death Experience that
he left his homosexual lifestyle and became devoted to a Christian lifestyle. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Gary
Habermas recalls the Near Death Experience of a woman who viewed herself from a
vantage point above the scene of her emergency. She reported that she saw
herself being carried to the ambulance on a stretcher, and she noticed
(correctly) the ambulance number that was printed on the rooftop of the
vehicle.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">We might
all wish for more conclusive evidence that would either substantiate or refute
reports such as these, but until that kind of evidence is available, the
evidence we <i>do</i> possess favors the existence of the human soul beyond the
mortal body and brain.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><i><span style="background-color: black; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">The existence of a soul that continues to
function even after death is indicated by credible reports of Near Death Experiences.</span></span></i></b></p>David Riekehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402251536347033893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6959693816042425053.post-3628602034630933832020-12-19T05:30:00.001-05:002021-01-03T22:27:44.045-05:00December 19 The Awe-Inspiring Evidence from Medical Science for a Soul-Mind Beyond the Brain<p><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica;"> <b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">Reason
#19 </span></b><b>The Evidence from Medical Science for
a Soul-Mind Beyond the Brain</b></span></span></p><p><b><i style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">The existence of the soul is strongly
indicated by the "clone brains” of identical twins with vastly different
personalities, and by the evidence of personality still found in the victims of
severe brain injury.</span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">It is common in some academic circles to
hear people suggest that the 3.3-pound brain that fills your cranium is the
exact same thing as your “mind,” the exact same thing, by itself, as the real
and actual “you,” your soul, your entire personality. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Francis Crick has said, “’You, your joys
and your sorrows, your memories and your ambitions, your sense of personal
identity and free will, are in fact no more than the behavior of a vast
assembly of nerve cells and their associated molecules.” And Professor Colin Blakemore of Oxford
agrees, “The human brain...alone accounts for all our actions, our most private
thoughts, our beliefs.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">If they’re right about this, then all our
sense of true love, as we normally think of it, or evil, or spirituality, or
the immaterial world, or life after death—it’s all just foolish sentiment. And
if this is the case, we should all define our lives as nothing more than brief
bursts of electrochemical energy that will go dark very soon as our brains
disintegrate into compost.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Medical science, however, is leading us to
the conclusion that your mind is much, much more than just your brain. The two
are closely tied together, of course, as a newborn baby’s personality develops
alongside the changes in his brain, and an Alzheimer’s victim’s personality is
twisted by the lesions that form on his brain. Still, the mind and the brain
cannot easily, scientifically, be categorized as one and the same.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Even though identical twins are not
entirely “identical” at the DNA level, their brains are very, very
similar—extremely similar. Identical twins are sometimes referred to as
“natural clones.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">We would expect identical twins to behave
in very similar ways, even if they are raised apart from one another,
especially if the human brain actually <i>is</i>
the human personality. And twins really do behave very similarly in many
cases—even displaying uncanny similarity sometimes. The real puzzle, however,
is why they are sometimes extremely different.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Conrad and Perry McKinney were born in
1942 and raised together in the same New Hampshire home, identical twins.
Conrad grew up to be a successful businessman, but Perry became addicted to
alcohol and found himself homeless in his mid-life years, living under a
bridge. That’s not a small difference!<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">It’s common to find other sets of
identical twins which include one sibling who is autistic and one who is not,
one who is gay and one who is not, one who is obese and one who is not, one who
is schizophrenic and one who is not, one who is religious and one who is not.
And the list goes on. These twins frequently live enormously different lives in
spite of their “clone brains” which bear only miniscule differences at birth.
They are manifestly so much more than just their brains.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Neuroscientist Adrian Owen has been able
to document through functional MRI technologies that something like one out of
every five to seven patients diagnosed with “persistent vegetative state”
actually have active minds and are able to communicate with the outside world.
They have enduring personalities in spite of their extremely damaged brains.
Neurosurgery professor Michael Egnor claims to have patients who have “quite
good minds” even after having significant portions of their brain completely
removed.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Maybe the human brain is something like
the autopilot device on a jetliner. It controls the airplane for a substantial
fraction of that airplane’s total life of service, but not all of it, and is
usually subject to the real pilot’s veto power. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Or maybe the brain is like the first draft
of a manuscript that is handed off to an intelligent editor for adjustments
over a lifetime. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Of course, no one knows precisely how the
brain must be bridging human beings to the non-brain world around us. But as
long as “clone brains” exist in identical twins with vastly different
personalities, and very damaged brains exist within individuals with good
minds, we can hardly ignore the scientific likelihood of a non-brain world.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><i style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">The existence of the soul is strongly
indicated by the "clone brains” of identical twins with vastly different
personalities, and by the evidence of personality still found in the victims of
severe brain injury.</span></i></b></p>David Riekehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402251536347033893noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6959693816042425053.post-9014819770417642022020-12-18T06:06:00.001-05:002021-01-03T22:28:38.501-05:00December 18 The Surprising Admission by Talmud Rabbis that Jesus Did Indeed Work Miracles<p><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica;"><b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">Reason
#18 </span></b><b>The Admission by Talmud Rabbis That
Jesus Worked Miracles</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><b><i>Jesus’ earliest enemies agreed with his earliest followers on this one very
important point, that Jesus really did work miracles.</i></b><b><i><o:p></o:p></i></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">The Talmud is the authoritative
representation of Jewish religious traditions from antiquity and, as such, the
Talmud is understandably hostile to the Christian faith. It is highly
significant, therefore, to observe the Talmud rabbis actually admitting that
Jesus did miracles—an admission they would clearly prefer not to make
concerning one whom they saw as a rival to their faith, even the <i>chief</i> rival to their faith. Since,
evidently, the rabbis regarded the fact of Jesus’ miracle-working ability as
indisputable, the only recourse left to them for discrediting the religion of
Jesus was to attribute his miracle-working ability to dark magic.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">One ancient passage in the Talmud (95-110
A.D.) states that “Jesus the Nazarene…practiced sorcery,” <i>Sanhedrin 43a.</i> A different passage from the same early time
period repeats this admission to Jesus’ miracles: “Jesus the Nazarene…practiced
magic,” <i>Sanhedrin 107b. </i><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Finally, perhaps the most revered rabbi in
the Talmud, Eliezer Ben Hyrcanus of Lydda (late 90s-early 100s A.D.) is quoted in
the Talmud this way: “Rabbi Eliezer said to the wise men, Has not Ben Stada [most
probably a rabbinical name for Jesus whom the rabbis thought had a father named
Stada] brought magic spells from Egypt in a scratch in his body?” <i>Shabbot
104b.<o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Friendly
and hostile eyewitnesses to Jesus’ life and ministry all agreed on this
point—that Jesus did miracles. Furthermore, the Talmud rabbis agree with the
New Testament authors that Jesus’ detractors did not question the
miracle-working abilities of Jesus, only the source of those abilities. In both
cases, the question was not whether Jesus could do miracles, but whether Jesus
did his miracles by the power of God or the devil (Matthew 9:34; 12:24; Mark
3:22; Luke 11:15). Setting aside the debate over how Jesus came by his
supernatural powers, however, we are left to conclude that in the first
century, both Jesus’ friends and enemies reported exactly the same thing—that
Jesus did miracles.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<b><i><span style="background-color: black; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><div><b><i><span style="line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></i></b></div>Jesus’ earliest enemies agreed with his earliest followers on this one very
important point, that Jesus really did work miracles.</span></span></i></b>David Riekehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402251536347033893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6959693816042425053.post-51584184041360119992020-12-17T06:03:00.001-05:002021-01-03T22:29:15.302-05:00December 17 The Remarkable Evidence from the Dead Sea Scrolls for the Reliability of the Biblical Record<p><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica;"><b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">Reason
#17 </span></b><b>Evidence from the Dead Sea Scrolls for
the Reliability of the Biblical Record</b></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">The Dead Sea Scrolls strongly indicate
that the Christian scriptures were not corrupted by years of copying, and that
first-century Jewish people were already in possession of an ancient tradition
having to do with an almighty, messianic Son of God.<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Even the
most caustic critics of the Bible have been forced to admit that the “Great
Isaiah Scroll” in the Dead Sea Scroll collection (referred to in academic
circles as 1QIsa), being dated well before the birth of Christ (300-150 B.C.),
is virtually identical to our current copies of the book of Isaiah. Gleason
Archer compared the Isaiah scroll to our current text of Isaiah and reported
that the Isaiah scroll is “identical in more than 95 percent of the text. The
remainder is chiefly of obvious slips of the pen and variations in spelling.” This
discovery eloquently answers the oft-heard criticism about the Christian Bible
being grossly corrupted over the centuries.</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Similarly,
the Dead Sea Scrolls have corrected those who scoffed at the New Testament
(especially John’s Gospel) for supposedly blending Jewish messianic notions
with pagan notions about a human person actually being the son of a god. No ancient
Jew, the critics scolded, would have ever suggested that Messiah was the Son of
God. That was a common pagan concept, they say, but one that would have never
been tolerated in first-century Judaism. But then “The Aramaic Son of God Text”
(scroll 4Q246) was discovered which states that Messiah “will be called the Son
of God, and they will call him the Son of the Most High.” This excerpt
powerfully demonstrates that some substantial fraction of Jewish people in the
first century rightfully thought of their coming messiah as the son of God, and
that the concept of Messiah being God’s son was not a later doctrine attached
to Jesus by gentile Christians with roots in pagan thought.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Additionally,
those who argue that the Jewish religion has never had any concept of Messiah
actually being Deity were corrected by Dead Sea Scroll 4Q521 (circ. 30 B.C.) which
states, “Heaven and earth will obey his Messiah.” This scroll powerfully demonstrates
that Jewish people before the birth of Christ did indeed understand their
messiah to be deity—the Master even of heaven. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">The
Dead Sea Scrolls strongly indicate that the Christian scriptures were not
corrupted by years of copying, and that first-century Jewish people were
already in possession of an ancient tradition having to do with an almighty,
messianic Son of God.</span></span><span style="background: white;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></b></p>David Riekehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402251536347033893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6959693816042425053.post-26342759226975917982020-12-16T06:22:00.002-05:002021-01-03T22:29:57.775-05:00December 16 The Amazing Archaeological Evidence in Favor of the Biblical Record<p><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica;"><b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">Reason
#16 </span></b><b>The Archaeological Evidence in Favor
of the Biblical Record</b></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><b style="background-color: transparent;"><i><span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">The trustworthiness of Christian scripture has been freshly substantiated by the many discoveries of archaeology.</span></span></i></b></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">One of the great differences between
Christianity and other religions is that Christianity is actually grounded in
history—with real people experiencing real conditions in real places. The
Germanic tribes have their Thor being sired by Odin somewhere in the tree-shaped
universe, wherever that is, and no one can say exactly when Odin, Thor, and
their colleagues did any particular thing on earth or elsewhere. Egyptian paganism
has its beloved Isis putting her dismembered husband back together, making him
not quite dead and not quite alive, and then giving birth by him to Horus, but
no one can say when, precisely, any of this happened or whether it might have
happened only in a metaphorical way between Isis as the sky-goddess and Osiris
as the god of the underworld. Even Mormonism has its non-historical heroes like
the Nephites and Lamanites living in non-historical North American places like
Zarahemla and Cumorah.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">But the Christian Bible is nothing at all
like this. In it we read about places that can be visited by tourists even
now—Jerusalem, Babylon, and Bethlehem—and people who are mentioned in
history—Abraham, David, and Jesus. Of course, skeptics are very careful not to
credit the Bible with any more correctness than what is absolutely forced upon
them by archaeology. But even then, the Bible shows itself to have an uncanny
reliability when it comes to history.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Dozens
of archaeological discoveries have substantiated unlikely biblical accounts.
Beyond substantiation for an untold number of general customs, conditions, and
geo-political situations, there are many archaeological discoveries that
substantiate the authenticity of very specific persons and events in the
biblical record. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">·<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span><!--[endif]--><b>The
authenticity of Abraham</b>. An engraving on the wall of the great temple
of Karnak in Upper Egypt (circ. 925 B.C.) depicts King Shishaq (also named in 2 Chronicles 12:2) striking
down his enemies, and this engraving lists “the field of Abraham” as one of his
conquered territories. This attests to the existence of Abraham (and even the
story of him buying a field from the Canaanites in Hebron, Genesis 23:17). </span></span></li></ul><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoFooter" style="margin-left: 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: .5in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">·<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span><!--[endif]--><b>The
authenticity of the Hittites.</b> The Tell el Amarna letters of Upper Egypt
(circ. 1350 B.C.) include letters of correspondence between the Pharaoh of
Egypt and the king of the Hittites. This attests to the reliability of the
biblical references to Hittites. Even the existence of Hittites was often
doubted by historians until the publishing of <i>The Hittites: the Story of a Forgotten Empire</i>, in 1888, by
Assyriologist Archibald Sayse (who was once teased for being the “inventor” of
the Hittites).<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoFooter" style="margin-left: 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: .5in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">·<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span><!--[endif]--><b>The
authenticity of Sodom and Gomorrah</b>. On October 29, 1976, Professor
Giovanni Pettinato, University of Rome, announced that he had found in the Ebla
Tablets [circ. 2300 B.C., at Tell Mardikh in N. Syria] a reference to the five
cities of Sodom on one tablet and in the same order that they appear in Genesis
14:2 (“…with <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">Bera king of Sodom, and with Birsha
king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah, and Shemeber king of Zeboiim, and the
king of Bela, which is Zoar”).</span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">·<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span><!--[endif]--><b>The
authenticity of the Table of Nations (Genesis 10).</b> Archaeologist William
Albright said this list of ancient nations in Genesis 10 “remains an
astonishingly accurate document.” He said that it “shows such remarkably
‘modern' understanding of the ethnic and linguistic situation in the modern
world, in spite of all its complexity, that scholars never fail to be impressed
with the author's knowledge of the subject." To be more specific, Albright
writes in Recent Discoveries in Bible Lands: “The tenth chapter of Genesis has
long attracted students of ancient Oriental geography and ethnography. It
stands absolutely alone in ancient literature, without a remote parallel, even
among the Greeks, where we find the closest approach to a distribution of
peoples in a genealogical framework. But among the Greeks the framework is
mythological and the peoples are all Greek or Aegean tribes. Many of the names of peoples and countries
mentioned in this chapter have been discovered on the monuments for the first
time: e.g., Tubal—Tabal; Meshech (properly Moshech with the Greek Bible), Mushke;
Ashkenaz—Ashkuz; … Togarmah—Tegarama; Elishah—Alashi (Alashiya);
Tarshish—Tarsisi; … Cush—Egyptian (E)kosh, Assyrian Kusi; … Phut—Putu; Seba and
Sheba—Saba; Dedan—Ddn; Accad—Akkadu; Shinar—Shanghar; … Asshur—Assur
(Babylonian Ashshur); Rehoboth—Rebit Ninua; … ; Calah—Kalkhu; Pathrusim—the
inhabitants of Patorese (Upper Egypt); Caphtorim—the inhabitants of
Caphtor—Kaptara; Heth—the land of the Hittites, Khattu; the Amorites are the
inhabitants of Amurru, etc. In this list we have not included the numerous
names of places and peoples which were already known from Graeco-Roman sources,
upon all of which the monuments have shed much additional light.”</span></span></li></ul><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoFooter" style="margin-left: 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">·<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span><!--[endif]--><b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">The authenticity of David</span></b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">. </span>A stone
slab (circ. 841 B.C.) was discovered in 1993 at Tel Dan (the ancient city of
Dan) which contains a reference to the “House of David.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoFooter" style="margin-left: 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">·<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span><!--[endif]--><b>The
authenticity of King Jehu and King Omri</b>. The Moabite Stone/Mesha Stele (800s
B.C.) was discovered in 1868 at Diban, Jordan. It contains a reference to the biblical
king of Israel, Omri (who “humbled Moab many days”). And the Black Obelisk of
Shalmaneser III (late 800s B.C.) also refers to “Jehu, the son of Omri,” and
even shows an engraved depiction of Jehu bowing before Shalmaneser.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoFooter" style="margin-left: 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">·<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span><!--[endif]--><b>The
authenticity of the decree of Cyrus</b>. The Cyrus Cylinder (500s B.C.) was
discovered at the ruins of Babylon in 1879 and contains a reference to Cyrus’
policy of repatriation: “<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">I gathered all their
inhabitants and returned to them their dwellings.” This seems to synchronize well
with the king’s repatriation of Jews to Israel in the time of Ezra and
Nehemiah. </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoFooter" style="margin-left: 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">·<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span><!--[endif]--><b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">The authenticity of King Ahab</span></b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">. Scholarly consensus
translates a line on the Monolith of Shalmaneser III (800s B.C.) as a reference
to “10,000 soldiers of Ahab, the Israelite.” Additionally, the fragments of the
Tel Dan Stele (800s B.C.) are often arranged by scholars to read: “I killed
Jehoram son of Ahab king of Israel, and killed Ahaziahu son of Jehoram king of
the House of David, and I
set their towns into ruins and turned their land into desolation.” In this
arrangement, the authenticity of King Ahaziah is also substantiated.</span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoFooter" style="margin-left: 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">·<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span><!--[endif]--><b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">The authenticity of King Hezekiah</span></b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">. Tourists to
Jerusalem are well acquainted with Hezekiah’s tunnel that connects the pool of
Siloam (John 9:7) with the Gihon spring. Additionally, the Lachish relief
(circ. 690 B.C.), discovered in the middle 1800s in Nineveh, depicts King
Sennacherib’s defeat of Lachish, in Judah, in 701 B.C. The Taylor Prism (also
found in Nineveh and dated circ. 690 B.C.) contains King Sennacherib’s Annals
in which he boasts, "As for the king of Judah, Hezekiah, who had not
submitted to my authority, I besieged and captured forty-six of his fortified
cities, along with many smaller towns, taken in battle with my battering rams.
... I took as plunder 200,150 people, both small and great, male and female,
along with a great number of animals including horses, mules, donkeys, camels,
oxen, and sheep. As for Hezekiah, I shut him up like a caged bird in his royal
city of Jerusalem. I then constructed a series of fortresses around him, and I
did not allow anyone to come out of the city gates. His towns which I captured
I gave to the kings of Ashod, Ekron, and Gaza."</span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoFooter"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">To
these may be added historical substantiation for the authenticity of King Ben
Hadad of Syria (1 Kings 15:18) by the Milgart Stele which was found in Aleppo,
Syria, in 1939; the authenticity of the career of Festus (Acts 25:1) whose name
appears on coins dated at 56 A.D.; the authenticity of the career of Gallio
(Acts 18:11) by an inscription in Delphi, Greece, dated in the spring of 51
A.D.; the authenticity of Luke’s term “politarch” in Acts 17:6 (once considered
an error in Luke’s account) by an inscription from the ruins of the
first-century Roman Vardar Arch in Thessalonica which begins with the words,
“In the days of the politarchs...”; </span>the authenticity of the career of
Lysanias the Tetrarch (Luke 3:1) by an inscription from the time of Tiberius
(14-29 A.D.) that was found in the early 1900s, in Abila, Syria, which reads:
“Nymphias, freedman of Lysanias the tetrarch”; and the authenticity of the
career of Pontius Pilate by the 1961 discovery of the “Pilate Stone” which
bears his name and by coins that bear his name.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">And the list goes on. <em><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-style: normal;">Even in spite of our
culture’s anti-Christian sentiments and an entrenched </span></em>guilty-until-proven-innocent
approach to the biblical narrative, the Bible keeps gaining witnesses in its
favor from the world of archaeology. “W<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">ith<i> </i><em><span style="font-style: normal;">every turn of the
archaeologist's spade</span></em><i> </i>we<i> </i>continue to see evidence for the
trustworthiness<i> </i>of<i> </i><em><span style="font-style: normal;">Christian Scripture.”<o:p></o:p></span></em></span></span></span></p>
<b><i><span style="background-color: black; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><div><b><i><span style="background-color: black; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white;"><br /></span></span></i></b></div>The trustworthiness of Christian scripture
has been freshly substantiated by the many discoveries of archaeology.</span></span></i></b>David Riekehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402251536347033893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6959693816042425053.post-41648647643321220942020-12-15T06:56:00.003-05:002021-01-03T22:30:30.596-05:00December 15 The Astonishing Prophecies About the Coming Messiah in Scripture<p><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: x-small;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica;"><b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">Reason
#15 </span></b><b>The Messianic
Prophecies of the Christian Scripture</b><b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><b><i>The biblical prophecies about Messiah’s career are without parallel in
human history and deserve to be revered for the miraculous accuracy they
represent.</i></b><b><i><o:p></o:p></i></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Taken together, the many prophecies concerning Messiah in the Old
Testament form a composite picture that matches the career of Jesus in an unearthly
way while simultaneously bearing witness to the reality of supernatural
prophecy in general. The basic profile of Messiah as foretold in prophetic scripture
is clear and straightforward.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">A Jewish<b><sup>1</sup></b> God-Man
(“from everlasting”<b><sup>2</sup></b>,
whose name is “mighty God” and “everlasting Father”<b><sup>3</sup></b>) would rise from Bethlehem<b><sup>4</sup></b> for the blessing of all nations<b><sup>5</sup></b>. He would be rejected 483 years after Nehemiah’s
commission<b><sup>6</sup></b>, and die as a
substitute for the sins of others<b><sup>7</sup></b>.
But even after dying, he would somehow live long<b><sup> 8</sup></b>, his prosperity would multiply<b><sup>9</sup></b>, and Gentiles throughout the entire world would devote
their lives to him<b><sup>10</sup></b>. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Almost every element in this ancient profile defies easy explanation.
For example, in a world with a clear history of antisemitism, why would a
Jewish person ever become the adored hero to more than 2 billion people on
planet Earth today? And why would a rabidly monotheistic religion like Judaism
even think to produce scriptures that refer to their human messiah as God from
an everlasting past—a God to be worshiped by Gentiles everywhere as He now is?
And why would scripture predict that their super-man “Mighty-God-Rescuer-Messiah”
would die a violent death at all? And how in the world could a prophet predict
that the death of Messiah would occur 483 years after Nehemiah’s commission? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><i><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">The biblical prophecies about Messiah’s career are without parallel in
human history and deserve to be revered for the miraculous accuracy they
represent.<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: x-small;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i><span style="background-color: black;"><br /></span></i></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: x-small;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></i></b><!--[endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Genesis 22:18</i></b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> And in your <u>[Abraham’s]
seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed</u>; because you have obeyed
my voice.<o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: x-small;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></i></b><!--[endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Micah 5:2</i></b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> But you, Bethlehem
Ephratah, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet <u>out of you
shall he come forth</u> unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; <u>whose goings
forth have been from of old,</u> <u>from everlasting</u>.</i><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i></b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: x-small;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></i></b><!--[endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Isaiah 9:6</i></b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> For unto us <u>a
child is born</u>, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his
shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, <u>The mighty God,
The everlasting Father</u>, The Prince of Peace.<o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: x-small;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">4<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></i></b><!--[endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Micah 5:2</i></b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> But you, <u>Bethlehem</u>
Ephratah, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet <u>out of you
shall he come forth</u> unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings
forth have been from of old, from everlasting.</i><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i></b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: x-small;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">5<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></i></b><!--[endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Genesis 22:18</i></b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> And in thy
seed shall <u>all the nations of the earth be blessed</u>; because thou hast
obeyed my voice.<o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: x-small;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">6<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></i></b><!--[endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Daniel 9:25</i></b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> <sup> </sup>Know therefore and
understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to
build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be <u>seven weeks, and sixty-two
weeks</u>: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous
times. <sup>26 </sup>And <u>after sixty-two weeks shall Messiah be cut off</u>,
but not for himself. (See also Reason #14.)</i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: x-small;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">7<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></i></b><!--[endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Isaiah 53:5</i></b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><sup> </sup></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">But he was wounded <u>for our transgressions</u>,
he was bruised <u>for our iniquities</u>: the chastisement of our peace was
upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Daniel 9:26 </b>And after sixty two weeks shall Messiah be <u>cut off</u>,
but <u>not for himself</u>: </i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: x-small;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">8<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></i></b><!--[endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Isaiah 53:10</i></b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><u>When
you shall make his soul an offering for sin… he shall prolong his days</u>, and
the pleasure of the <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span> shall
prosper in his hand.<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: x-small;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">9<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></i></b><!--[endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Isaiah 53:10</i></b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><u>When
you shall make his soul an offering for sin</u>… he shall prolong his days, and
<u>the pleasure of the <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span> shall
prosper in his hand.<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b></u></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><u><o:p></o:p></u></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: x-small;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">10<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></i></b><!--[endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Isaiah 11:10</i></b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">And in that day there
shall be <u>a root of Jesse, which shall stand for a signal of the people; to
it shall the Gentiles seek</u>: and his rest shall be glorious.</span><o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i><span style="background-color: black; line-height: 115%;"><o:p><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: x-small;"> </span></o:p></span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: x-small;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">Note: </span></b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">Many other messianic prophecies are less easily verified
from history but still noteworthy: certain specific details about the execution
of Messiah (that he would be betrayed<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><sup>11</sup></b>,
beaten, whipped<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><sup>12</sup></b>, pierced<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><sup>13</sup></b>, and associated with both
criminals<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><sup>14</sup></b> and wealthy
people<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><sup>15</sup></b> at the end of
his life); certain details about Messiah’s upbringing (that he would be
associated with a famous messenger<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><sup>16</sup></b>,
that he would be virgin-born<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><sup>17</sup></b>
in the royal bloodline of David<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><sup>18</sup></b>,
that his work would have a special role in Galilee of Zebulon<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><sup>19</sup></b>, that he would be famous
for performing healing miracles<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><sup>20</sup></b>);
and certain remarkable symbolic depictions of Messiah’s life and work (seen in
the Seven Festivals of Israel, in the Davidic psalms, in the history of
Bethlehem—which includes Ruth’s redeemer, the tower of the flock, and the
burial of Rachel—in the architecture of the tabernacle and temple, and in the
sacrifices of Israel<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><sup>21</sup></b>).<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: x-small;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">11<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></i></b><!--[endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Zechariah 11:4<span class="apple-converted-space"><sup> </sup></span><sup> </sup></i></b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><u>Thus saith the <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span></u></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> my
God….<b><sup>12 </sup></b>If you think it good, give me my price; and if
not, refrain. So they weighed for my price <u>thirty pieces of silver</u>. <b><sup>13 </sup></b>And
the <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span> said to me,
Cast it to the potter: <u>a magnificent price that I was priced at by them</u>.
And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them to the potter in the
house of the <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span>.</i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: x-small;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">12<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></i></b><!--[endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Isaiah 50:1</i></b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> <u>Thus
saith the <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span></u><span style="font-variant: small-caps;">…</span><sup>2 </sup>Is my hand shortened at all, that it cannot redeem? or have
I no power to deliver?... <sup><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">3 </span></sup>I
clothe the heavens with blackness…<sup><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">6 </span></sup><u>I
gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair</u>:
I hid not my face from shame and <u>spitting</u>. </i><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Isaiah 53:5</i></b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><sup> </sup></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">But he was <u>wounded</u> for our
transgressions, he was <u>bruised</u> for our iniquities: the chastisement of
our peace was upon him; and <u>with his stripes we are healed</u>. </i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: x-small;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">13<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></i></b><!--[endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Zechariah 12:10</i></b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">And I will pour upon
the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace
and of supplications: and they shall <u>look upon me whom they have pierced</u>,
and they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for his only son. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Psalm 22:1</b> </span>My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?...<sup><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">16 </span></sup>the assembly of the
wicked have enclosed me: they <u>pierced my hands and my feet</u>.<o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: x-small;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">14<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></i></b><!--[endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Isaiah 53:9</i></b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">And he made his grave <u>with
the wicked</u>… </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><sup>12</sup></b>
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">and he was numbered <u>with the
transgressors</u>.</span><o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: x-small;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">15<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></i></b><!--[endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Isaiah 53:9</i></b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">And he <u>made his
grave with the…rich</u> in his death.</span><o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: x-small;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">16<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></i></b><!--[endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Isaiah 40:3</i></b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> <sup> </sup><u>The voice of him that cries out in the wilderness, Prepare
the way of the <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span></u>, make straight in the desert a highway for our God…. <sup><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">5 </span></sup><u>And the glory of
the <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span> shall be
revealed</u>, and all flesh shall see it together.<o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: x-small;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">17<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></i></b><!--[endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Isaiah 7:14 </i></b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">Therefore the Lord himself shall give
you a sign; <u>Behold, a virgin shall conceive</u>, and bear a son, and shall
call his name Immanuel.</span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: x-small;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">18<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></i></b><!--[endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Isaiah 11:10</i></b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">And in that day there
shall be <u>a root of Jesse</u>, which shall stand for a signal of the people;
to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">2 Samuel 7:16</b> And your [David’s] house
and <u>your kingdom shall be established forever</u> before you: your throne
shall be established forever.</span><o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: x-small;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">19<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></i></b><!--[endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Isaiah 9:1</i></b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> Nevertheless the dimness shall not be
such as was in her anguish…by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, <u>in Galilee</u>
of the nations. <b><sup>2 </sup></b>The people that walked in darkness
have seen <u>a great light</u>: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of
death, upon them hath the light shined….<b><sup>6 </sup></b><u>For unto us
a child is born</u>, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon
his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty
God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. <b><sup>7 </sup></b>Of
the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne
of David.<o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: x-small;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">20<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></i></b><!--[endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Isaiah 42:1</i></b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> Behold my servant, whom I uphold; my
elect, in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring
forth judgment to the Gentiles. <b><sup>2 </sup></b>He shall not cry, nor
lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. <b><sup>3 </sup></b>A
bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench: he
shall bring forth judgment unto truth.<span style="font-variant: small-caps;">… </span><b><sup>6 </sup></b>I
the <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span> have called
thee in righteousness…<b><sup>7 </sup></b><u>To open the blind eyes</u>,
to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out
of the prison house.<o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: x-small;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">21<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></i></b><!--[endif]--></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: x-small;">These prophetic pictures of Messiah would require more space to
describe than this short article can cover, but we are glad to provide more
details to those who have an interest. </span><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>David Riekehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402251536347033893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6959693816042425053.post-57915851961071794392020-12-14T07:48:00.001-05:002021-01-03T22:31:10.850-05:00December 14 Daniel's Astonishing Prophecy About the Timing of Messiah's Arrival<p><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica;"><b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">Reason
#14 </span></b><b>The Prophecy
About Messiah in Daniel 9</b></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-outline-level: 2;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Daniel’s prophecy about the time of Jesus’
death is a stunning example of supernatural predictive prophecy.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-outline-level: 2;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">The seven-year-block-of-time is one of the
unique institutions of ancient Jewish culture, and it serves as the backbone of
Daniel’s miraculous dating of the crucifixion of Jesus, long before it
occurred.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In place of our modern
practice of crop rotation to prevent the depletion of nutrients in agricultural
soil, the Jewish law stipulated a “sabbath year of rest to the land” after
every six years of planting and harvesting (Leviticus 25:2-5). Rabbis took the
persistent violation of this agricultural “week” to be the reason behind the
70-year-long judgment of the Babylonian captivity “until the land had enjoyed her
sabbaths” (2 Chronicles 36:16-21). This, of course, has special significance
for Daniel’s prophecy since it was presented in the setting of Babylonian
captivity. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-outline-level: 2;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">It was also the ancient tradition of
Jewish law to release all debt-servants in the seventh year of their bondage
after completing six years of servitude (Deuteronomy 15:12). Even more
importantly, the ancient Jewish tradition of Jubilee required an entire year of
celebration after the completion of every 49 ordinary years—after every seven
“sabbaths of years, seven times seven years” (Leviticus 25:8-11).<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-outline-level: 2;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">This seven-year unit of time in ancient
Judaism is embedded in the remarkable prophecy of “weeks” in Daniel 9:24-27.
Daniel promised that “Messiah” would be “cut off” (the biblical terminology for
both shunning and execution) after 69 of these seven-year blocks of time, that
is, after 483 years. The time, Daniel says, “unto Messiah the prince shall be
seven weeks and sixty-two weeks…and after the sixty-two weeks [69 altogether]
shall Messiah be cut off.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-outline-level: 2;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">D</span>aniel instructed his followers to begin
counting the 483 years leading up to Messiah’s rejection as soon as they saw
the issuing of “the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem” (v.25). As
articles in any standard encyclopedia will confirm, this would have happened in
either 444 or 445 B.C.*, the twentieth year of the reign of Artaxerxes I, when
Nehemiah was commissioned to return to Jerusalem to rebuild “the city of my
fathers” (Nehemiah 2:1, 5, 8).<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-outline-level: 2;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">We may also take for granted that Daniel
followed the normal Jewish and Babylonian calendars for years containing only
360 days, rather than 365 days, as was the custom in both ancient Israel and
Babylon (cf. Genesis 7:11 and 8:3-4).<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-outline-level: 2;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">By beginning with Nehemiah’s decree in 444
or 445 B.C., and counting 483 years, each year containing 360 days, we arrive
at 31 or 32 A.D. as the date for when Messiah should be “cut off.”
Interestingly, as Nehemiah’s decree occurred in the month of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Nisan</i>, the Passover month, our
arithmetic also happens to point us to Messiah’s execution in the Passover
season of that year.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-outline-level: 2;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">So there we have it. According to Daniel’s
prophecy, we should be able to locate in history a Jewish man, with messianic
associations, who was publically executed in Jerusalem, around 31 or 32 A.D.,
during the Passover season. This person, says Daniel, would be the true
messiah.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-outline-level: 2;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Daniel’s prophecy about the time of Jesus’
death is a stunning example of supernatural predictive prophecy.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-outline-level: 2;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">*<b>Note</b>:
There is agreement that Artaxerxes I began his reign in 465 B.C., but we don’t
know if “the twentieth year” of his reign should include the partial first year
of his reign (making the twentieth year in 445 B.C.), or whether the
calculation should begin with his first full year of reign (making the
twentieth year in 444 B.C.).</span></span><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 5.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>David Riekehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402251536347033893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6959693816042425053.post-86887078362427429522020-12-12T23:25:00.001-05:002021-01-03T22:31:57.365-05:00December 13 The Astonishing Reliability of the Claims of the Christian Faith Regarding Demon Possession<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica;"><b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">Reason
#13 The </span></b><b>Evidence
for Supernatural Phenomena from Credible Accounts of Demon Possession</b></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">For three months in 1671-1672, Samuel
Willard, a minister in Groton, MA, carefully observed and documented the
bizarre behaviors of Elizabeth Knapp, whom he believed to be demon possessed.
Pastor Willard made detailed notes about the disturbing symptoms of demon
possession displayed by Elizabeth—speaking with a guttural voice, experiencing
irrational pain and strangulation, suicidal tendencies, violence, bodily
contortions, extreme agitation and hysteria, imitation of wild animals, etc.
These, of course, are possible to account for without resorting to supernatural
explanations. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">On the other hand, this evidently
conscientious minister also carefully recorded seeing Elizabeth speak with her
mouth closed tight, or wide open but without making any movement with her lips
or tongue, and seeing a lump swelling to the size of a fist in Elizabeth’s neck
when the demon spoke through her body. </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">When we read these particular aspects of
Samuel Willard’s report, if we do not believe them, we are left to decide
whether he was grossly naive (entirely unaware of ventriloquism and of how
necks might swell), or whether he was simply lying about these things, or
whether he was psychologically incapable of accurately reporting the realities
of the world around him. These are the only kinds of explanations we have at
our disposal for why people intentionally or unintentionally make false
assertions. The problem is that Pastor Willard doesn’t seem to be ignorant, dishonest,
or mentally unwell. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">On April 19, 2012, Latoya Ammons brought
her sons, ages 8 and 9, to see their family doctor in Gary, Indiana. At the
office of Geoffrey Onyeukwu, M.D., the two children began behaving
irrationally, first cursing at the doctor in a deep voice, then falling
strangely unconscious. After the doctor’s staff member saw the youngest son,
eight years old, "lifted and thrown into the wall with nobody touching
him," 911 was called, the boys were transferred to the hospital, and the
appropriate police reports and Department of Child Services reports were
initiated. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></p>
<p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">DCS case manager Valerie Washington
interviewed the family at the hospital examination room, along with registered
nurse Willie Lee Walker. Washington’s report says that she personally observed
the nine-year-old boy as he walked backwards up a wall to the ceiling, after
which he flipped over his grandmother and landed on his feet. According to the
police report, the police later asked Valerie Washington whether the boy had
run up the wall, as though performing an acrobatic trick. Washington told them
he did not. She said the boy "glided backward on the floor, wall and
ceiling." She also told the police she was so frightened when she saw this
that she ran out of the room. Nurse Walker confirmed Washington’s report:
"He walked up the wall, flipped over her [the grandmother] and stood
there." Walker later told newspaper reporters, "There's no way he could've
done that," and "We didn't know what was going on. That was crazy.”
The DCS report also quoted a doctor at the psychiatric ward saying, “That’s not
real, that’s not human. No human can do what that little boy just did.” Later,
when a police captain and another DCS case worker visited the Ammons’ home,
they reported experiencing additional paranormal phenomena.</span></span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">So, what shall we do with the reports of
these medical professionals, police, and social workers? Are they all ignorant
of how the human body interacts with gravity? Are they all lying? Are they all mentally
unwell and unable to grasp the reality of what they were experiencing up close
that day? All of them?</span></span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></p>
<p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">And were the police officers who were
called to the home of a frantic family near Glasgow on August 8, 2016, just
ignorant, lying, or insane when they reported seeing untouched clothing flying
across rooms in that home, and the family’s small dog lifted off the ground in
an unearthly way?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></p>
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">And what shall we do with the assurances
of the Ivy League educated professor of clinical psychiatry, Richard Gallagher,
who reports that demon possession is a real phenomenon, including instances of
victims in trances fluently speaking languages they have never studied and
demonstrating uncanny knowledge of individuals’ private lives. He reports that
one particular patient once correctly boasted to him that she knew his mother
had died of ovarian cancer and that his cats, very uncharacteristically, had
behaved wildly the previous night. This same patient was once observed by six
people speaking in multiple languages she had, evidently, never learned, and
was once observed levitating in the presence of seven people, including two
nurses and a nun. </span></span></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Most
of us believe that international spying and espionage, all done in secret, is indeed
taking place, even on a daily basis. But proving it—capturing the most
sensational moments of it on video, for example—is not something we can easily
do. The word “occult” means hidden, or secret, and we shouldn’t expect demonic
creatures to blow up their own masterpiece of naturalistic atheism with overt
demonstrations of supernatural power. But it seems that sometimes the veil
really is lifted, and honest observers see the reality of what the confirmed
anti-supernaturalists of our generation hope never to face.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></p>
<p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">An anti-supernatural worldview can only be
maintained by twisting the evidence and grasping at far-fetched explanations
for all the credible reports of demon possession that occur around the world
even today.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></p>
<p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Credible reports of demon possession
strongly discredit the anti-supernatural worldviews of atheism.</span></span></i></b></p>David Riekehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402251536347033893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6959693816042425053.post-12444345371976352522020-12-12T06:22:00.004-05:002021-01-10T22:38:14.811-05:00December 12 The Astonishing Truth That Christianity Is the Architect of Human Rights (Ideals of Good and Evil, Justice, and Compassion in Civil Society)<p><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica;"><b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">Reason
#12 The Evidence That </span></b><b>Christianity
Is the Architect of Human Rights (Ideals of Good and Evil, Justice, and
Compassion in Civil Society)</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><i><span style="background-color: black; line-height: 18.4px;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Logic and the facts of history strongly indicate that the Christian faith, not atheism or other world religions, deserves the credit for being the true impetus behind our current conceptions of foundational human rights.</span></span></i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">The grand guiding principles
of human civilization revolve around the ideas of justice, compassion, the
“inalienable rights” of every person, the equality of all people, and the
inherent worth of each person, rich or poor, male or female, young or old,
black or white, able-bodied or disabled—everyone. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">And because ideas have
consequences (and bad ideas have victims), these foundational principles of
society have served as a mighty protective force, for many millions of people, against
oppression of every kind. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Where then did these grand ideas come from? If they
come from atheistic presuppositions, or from Eastern religions, then we should
give credit where credit is due and devote ourselves to atheism, Hinduism, or
Buddhism. But, of course, these liberating ideas don’t come from atheism or the
Far East. They come from the religion of Jesus.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">There is a stark and
striking contrast between Jesus’ core ideas and the core ideas of atheism and
other religions, and all these core ideas come with predictable consequences.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Jesus taught that you
must “treat others as you wish them to
treat you…love your neighbor…love your enemies…turn the other cheek…and go the
extra mile.” Atheists teach us that: “The universe has no design, no purpose,
no evil, no good, nothing but blind pitiless indifference” (atheist Richard
Dawkins), and that “A rat is a pig is a dog is a boy” (atheist Ingrid Newkirk
of PETA).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Beginning with the idea that humans are just accidents of nature—accidentally
combined chemicals sharing a common origin with any ordinary drop of water, cabbage,
or reptile, we must also then conclude that there can never really be such a thing
as justice or evil. Salt water cannot be evil, and there’s no such thing as an
evil cabbage. Neither is a large python evil for eating a smaller python. In
fact, “a rat is a boy,” and sometimes rats must be exterminated.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">The “accident of nature” premise of atheism would never lead a
population to believe in the equal worth and rights of every individual (see
also Reason #10). Oppositely, it could only lead to the belief that it is only
sensible for pythons to eat other pythons if the right opportunity arises. It
would logically lead to belief in a tooth-and-claw survival of the fittest, and
in the benefits of acting opportunistically. Even recent world history bears
this out with records of entire nations which have curtailed the human rights
of those whom they came to regard as “useless eaters” or “human lives unworthy
of life.” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Therefore, atheism (with
its random electro-chemical view of human beings), and other religions (with
their notions of Karma, and notions of plants and humans being equally divine) have
no way to account for their belief in the “equality” of all people,
“inalienable rights,” and the value of every human life. It is clear that they
have plagiarized these ideas from the Christian faith and then shamefully
refused to give the Christian faith credit for them.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Metaphorically
speaking, non-Christian humanitarians have a sort of “carjacker” worldview. A
carjacker is found driving a car not
registered to him—a car that has the real owner’s fingerprints and possessions
all over it—and he himself has no way to account for how he ever came to be
driving such a car as the one he is now driving. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Kindly atheists are intellectual carjackers.
They speak and look like Christians in so many ways, but they cannot <i>account</i>
for their beliefs in the ethical defectiveness of theft, rape, slave-trading,
etc. They themselves say that their universe has “no design, no purpose, no
evil, no good, nothing but blind, pitiless indifference.” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">In fact,
the atheist’s worldview, when he can bring himself to be loyal to it, inspires
him to come to the defense of so-called evildoers who simply behave as
chemicals naturally do. Since the atheist does not consider rape or theft in
the animal kingdom to be evil, he has no reason to argue that these are evil in
the case of human animals.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Now, if
the kindly atheist doesn’t defend evil or, more accurately, doesn’t deny even the
possibility of evil in an electro-chemical world but, instead, spends his days
preaching “love thy neighbor,” we should ask ourselves how he ever arrived at
that high ethical standard which stands in direct opposition to his stated
worldview. What pitiless chemicals taught him to think such a kind thought as
that?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">To
restate the atheistic dilemma plainly, a survival-of-the-fittest scheme can
certainly account for the frightening sexual aggression of a male baboon towards
the females in his troop, and for the mob violence of chimpanzees against one
another, but it can never account for any sort of moral objection to these same
behaviors in humans. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">In fact,
naturalism’s “red in tooth and claw” worldview should inspire logically
consistent atheists to defend sexual predation and turf wars. And we must remind
our atheist friends that this is exactly what their atheistic brethren in
Joseph Stalin’s regime did when they murdered 65 million of their own
countrymen in a turf dispute, and what their brothers in Chairman Mao’s
atheistic regime did when they murdered 35 million of their own countrymen. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">But if
instead of taking his cues from nature, as he should, a nice atheist goes about
preaching “do unto others as you would have them do to you,” we should ask
ourselves how his own “survival-of-the-fittest-electrochemical” worldview ever
drove him to such puritanical convictions about universal human worth, good,
evil, justice, and compassion for the underdog. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Clearly,
these kindly atheists, nurtured by our Western culture, actually learned these
lofty ideals from others—from the teaching that is traced all the way back to
the One who taught us, not survival of the fittest, but that the stronger have
a special obligation to take care of the weak.* <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">The
foundational premises of atheism and other world religions would never lead us
to believe that every human life is valuable, equally valuable with every other
human life, and far more valuable than any plant or animal life. When these
ideas are promoted by atheists and other religions, they are being plagiarized
from the Christian faith.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><i><span style="background-color: black; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Logic
and the facts of history strongly indicate that the Christian faith, not
atheism or other world religions, deserves the credit for being the true
impetus behind our current conceptions of foundational human rights.</span></span></i></b></p>David Riekehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402251536347033893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6959693816042425053.post-32306669284027912172020-12-11T04:22:00.001-05:002021-01-03T22:35:09.785-05:00December 11 The Spectacular Uplifting of Family Happiness by Christianity<p><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"> </span><b style="font-family: helvetica;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">Reason
#11 </span></b><b style="font-family: helvetica;">The
Spectacular Uplifting of Family Happiness by Christianity</b></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">The facts of history strongly indicate
that the evangelical faith possesses an unrivaled record for lifting the level of
family love and happiness in society.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">People everywhere seem
to appreciate the immense importance of family in their lives. Even those who
have known very few happy family interactions in life sense that they’re
missing out on something of great personal significance. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The prospect of holiday gatherings with
family evoke deep feelings and are featured in our songs and movie scripts. Parent-child
social bonds tend to dominate the child-raising years for both the parents and
their children. Young adult children tend to rely on their parents for a sense
of financial security, or for support in caring for their own small children
while they establish their career paths. Grandparents and grandchildren are
often bonded in powerful ways. And at the end of their lives, elderly people
tend to rely on their families for sympathy and assistance. For all of human
history, at a very core level, both emotionally and practically, family has functioned
as a kind of psycho-spiritual “money in the bank”—the basic social unit of
humanity.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">That’s why the statistical data available to
us on this topic from the field of social science is so crucial. It turns out
that Christian faith is the most statistically sturdy predictor of family
happiness in our society. Besides the data which indicates that devoted
Christian people are more charitable, kind, and emotionally stable than the
other populations around us (see reason #s 7-10), there is also an enormous
block of data to indicate that devoted Christians are better at fostering
family happiness than the other populations of our society. The hard data is
actually quite clear. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">•<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]-->Evangelical
men spend more time with their children and spouses, and are more affectionate
towards them than the average American man, or even men in other faith
traditions.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">•<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span>Evangelical
mothers praise and hug their children more often than other mothers do.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">•<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span>Evangelical
parents are significantly less inclined than other parents to yell at their
children.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">•<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span>Evangelical
women tend to be happier in their marriages than other women, and report the
highest levels of satisfaction with their sexual lives.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">•<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span>Regular
church-going children and teens have lower risks of mental illness, higher
rates of volunteering, lower probabilities of drug use and early sexual
initiation compared to other children.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">•<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span>Religious
Americans adopt more than twice as many children as other Americans.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">•<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span>Regular
church attendance—for all demographic backgrounds—is correlated with less
poverty, fewer divorces, fewer births out of wedlock.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Like those who criticize the medical community for its flaws, critics of
the Christian faith will provide long lists of self-indentifying Christians who
have failed to live up to the New Testament family ethic. But as surely as
medical science is impacting the health of its adherents for good every day, so
Christianity is impacting the family happiness of its adherents for good every day.
And as all our songs, poetry, and movie scripts indicate, that’s no small
matter!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">The facts of history strongly indicate
that the evangelical faith possesses an unrivaled record for lifting the level of
family love and happiness in society.</span><o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p>David Riekehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402251536347033893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6959693816042425053.post-30125385207488066652020-12-10T07:09:00.002-05:002021-01-03T22:35:40.952-05:00December 10 The Spectacular Gentling of Lives by Christianity<p><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica;"><b>Reason #10 The Spectacular Gentling of Lives by Christianity</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><b><i>The facts of history strongly indicate
that evangelical Christianity possesses an unrivaled record for making people
good.</i></b><b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Atheists tell us that it doesn’t take
religion to be good. You just have to realize what is obvious, that if you
don’t knife me, and I don’t knife you, we’ll both be happier, and happiness is
what all people naturally want.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">And they say it’s just common sense that
if I share my rice with you when you’re hungry, you might do the same for me
someday when I’m hungry and then, again, we’ll both be happier in the long run.
Of course, this assumes that the long run is what all people naturally focus on.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">And they say this purely-reason-based
approach to life is what has motivated the recent taming of the whole civilized
world as more and more people voluntarily refrain from “knifing” one another,
on both a personal and national level, and choose instead to send their rice to
destitute strangers far and near. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">They say it’s just simple common sense,
but for those few who just can’t seem to grasp the advantages of cooperation,
the atheists are willing to rely on tax laws, the police, the courts, and the
prison system to keep the population in line.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Of course, for this “good without God”
theory to work, the vast majority of human children and adults would have to
possess an intuitive bent towards <i>postponed</i>
gratification. If immediate gratification were too tempting for too many
people, then too many people would do something like act upon a sexual impulse
and then abandon the baby that results from that impulse. And too many would fight
with their spouses and abandon their children, leaving psychologically wounded family
members in their wake. And too many people would choose not to work, and live
off the largesse of others instead. And too many people would risk abusing
alcohol and drugs for the sake of a few euphoric moments. And too many
governments—atheistic and anti-Christian governments—would imprison and
persecute citizens with differing religious, or political, and economic views.
And these same governments might even attack other nations for the immediate
gratification of increasing their own prestige and national treasure.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Maybe we all have to admit that the
good-without-God explanation sure seems to break down a lot in the real world.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">And as for how the taming of the world in
recent decades actually came to pass, the atheists should ask themselves afresh
whether it took place because there are more smart atheists in the world these
days, or because one particular nation—a nation with a critical mass of
Christians—used its extraordinary global influence for the cause of human
rights, and assumed the role of primary protector for the liberties of Nordic
and other European neighbors during the atheistic Soviet era, etc.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">The original atheist celebrity, Voltaire,
seems to have been more realistic than the atheists of our generation. He said,
“I want my lawyer, my tailor, my servants, even my wife to believe in God,
because it means that I shall be cheated and robbed and sexually betrayed less
often.” Even <i>he</i> had to admit that
good-without-God is a hard sell. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">As reported in a recent Wall Street
Journal article, Harvard researchers found that: <b>“<strong>children or teens who reported attending a religious service at
least once per week scored higher on psychological well-being measurements and
had lower risks of mental illness.</strong></b> Weekly
attendance was associated with higher rates of volunteering, a sense of
mission, forgiveness, and lower probabilities of drug use and early sexual
initiation.” Research in the social sciences yield many other similar data
points as well. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .75in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">·<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>Evangelical
men spend more time with their children and spouses, and are more affectionate
towards them than the average American man, or even fathers in other faith
traditions.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .75in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">·<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>Evangelical
mothers praise and hug their children more often than other mothers do.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .75in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">·<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>Evangelical
parents are significantly less inclined to yell at their children.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .75in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">·<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>Evangelical
women tend to be happier in their marriages than other women, and report the
highest levels of satisfaction with their sexual lives.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .75in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">·<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>Religious
households donate far more of their time to volunteer efforts than
non-Christians, and far more of their money to charity each year—$1600 compared
to $700, and 3.4 percent of their income compared to 1.4 percent.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .75in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">·<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>Christians
donate far more blood than non-Christians . <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .75in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">·<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>Religious
Americans adopt far more children than non-Christians.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .75in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">·<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>Regular
church-goers among black males have better academic performance, more success
in holding jobs, and are far less likely to engage in crime and drug use. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .75in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">·<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>Regular
church attendance—for all demographic backgrounds—is correlated with less
poverty, fewer divorces, fewer births out of wedlock, less suicide, less
alcohol abuse, less depression, and better relationships.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Along these same lines,
one astute observer actually presented this amusing prospect in a public
debate:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">“If you
were stranded at the midnight hour on a desolate Los Angeles street and if, as
you stepped out of your car with fear and trembling, you were suddenly to hear
the weight of pounding footsteps behind you, and you saw ten burly young men
who had just stepped out of a dwelling coming toward you, would it or would it
not make a difference to you to know that they were coming from a Bible study?”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">All the audience laughed heartily, and the
non-Christian opponent in the debate conceded that it would indeed make a
difference because, really, we all know about the unparalleled good influence
of Christianity in the world.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">In the nineteenth century, Charles
Bradlaugh, the most prominent British atheist of his
generation, challenged a Christian minister to debate the validity of the
Christian faith. The minister was Hugh Price Hughes, an active evangelist
who worked among the poor in the slums of London. Hughes agreed to debate
Bradlaugh on one condition:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">"I
propose to you that we each bring some concrete evidences of the validity of
our beliefs in the form of men and women who have been redeemed from lives of
sin and shame by the influence of our teaching. I will bring 100 such men and
women, and I challenge you to do the same."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Hughes then added that if Bradlaugh could
not bring 100 individuals, then just 50 would suffice, and if he couldn’t come
up with 50, then 20 would still be satisfactory. In fact, Hughes said, he would
still bring 100 rehabilitated people with him to the debate even if Bradlaugh
could only bring one person with him whose life had been lifted out of
addiction, violence, and despair through his conversion to atheism. Bradlaugh withdrew his challenge.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">When conditions are favorable, most people
can behave towards others in civil ways. They can be “good without God” (albeit
not as good as evangelical church-goers when it comes to metrics like
charitable giving, wholesome teen lifestyles, etc.). But when conditions aren’t favorable, it’s
hard to be good. When unwanted babies come along it’s hard to be good, or when unpleasant
seasons in a marriage drag on, or when owning up to the bad choices of one’s
past would cause embarrassment, or when peer pressure or oppressive regimes
make being good costly, or even criminal—that’s when people start to run out of
motivation for being good. And this is especially true when people mostly
believe that this brief life on earth is the only chance at pleasantness
they’ll ever have, and that this life, such as it is, is really just a product
of cold, pitiless randomness. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Indeed, any questions over whether people tend
to be good without God would seem to be easily answered by a brief introduction
to the recent atheistic “Dear Leaders” of North Korea, or the much-loved Ivy
League ethics professor who teaches that infanticide is a really good idea.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<b><i><span style="background-color: black; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">The facts of history strongly indicate
that evangelical Christianity possesses an unrivaled record for making people
good.</span></span></i></b>David Riekehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402251536347033893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6959693816042425053.post-46554630665307748072020-12-09T07:56:00.003-05:002021-01-03T22:37:19.876-05:00December 9 The Spectacular and Single-Handed Abolition of Slavery by Christianity<p><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica;"> <b>Reason #9 The Spectacular
and Single-Handed Abolition of Slavery by Christianity</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The facts of history strongly indicate
that the Christian faith should receive credit for being the true impetus
behind the abolition of slavery around the world</i></b>. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">By a truly masterful act of misdirection,
the U.S., and Christians in particular, have somehow been blamed for the
practice of slavery on planet Earth. This may be the verdict of twenty-first
century anti-Christian bias, but it’s certainly not the verdict of history or truth.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">The historical record
clearly indicates that cruel slave-trading was not the unique fault of any one
particular nation or race. Slavery was practiced from very ancient times on
every continent (except Antarctica), by even Native Americans against other
Native Americans, and Africans against other Africans. In fact,
African-American historian Thomas Sowell reports that “Africans retained more
slaves for themselves than they sent to the Western Hemisphere.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">There was an unchallenged acceptance of
slavery in the ancient Roman Empire. It is even commonly estimated that an
astonishing one-third of all the people in Italy, the heartland of the Empire,
were slaves, mostly from European nations. Josephus estimated that 97,000
Jewish people were made slaves as a result of the Jewish Wars of his
generation, and that these slaves could be purchased for the price of a horse.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Arabs (Muslims) began their practice of
slave-trading in Africa in the 800s A.D.—a very long time before the Americas
were colonized.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tens of thousands of
African slaves were kidnapped every year by Arab slavers and sold to Arab
masters. Arab slave-trading continued until 1960, and legal slave ownership in
Arab lands continued until 1980. Even today, some Muslim Mauritanians in
northwestern Africa own slaves. In light of these realities, it is more than a
little ironic to see certain African-Americans choosing to take on Arab names
in an apparent protest against the history of white slave-trading. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Henry Louis Gates, Jr., himself an
African-American, and a professor of African and African-American studies at
Harvard University estimates that far less than half a million Africans were
brought to North America as slaves between 1525 and 1866 (approximately
388,000), but more than 10 million went directly to other places in the world.
Brazil alone received almost 5 million African slaves.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">We Americans must take full blame and
responsibility for our less-than-half-a-million kidnapped African slaves, but
someone else will have to take full blame and responsibility for the other
more-than-ten-million sufferers trafficked from Africa.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">And we Christian Americans rightly hang
our heads in deep shame for our participation in this barbarous cruelty on any
level—and certainly for our heinous level of participation in slave trading—but
history clearly shows that America was nowhere near the first or the greatest
offender in this ancient crime against humanity.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">What is truly remarkable in history,
however, is not the practice of global slavery from time immemorial, but the
recent abolishing of slavery. Again, as the black historian Thomas Sowell has
said, “While slavery was common to all civilizations…only one civilization
developed a moral revulsion against it, very late in its history—Western
civilization….Not even the leading moralists in other civilizations rejected
slavery.” And this deep revulsion to slavery eventually led to the Civil War,
the bloodiest war in our nation’s history, a war that was fought for the
benefit of slaves, and fought mostly by concerned Caucasian people who had
never themselves been slaves.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">And while the blame for slavery cannot be
fixed on any one particular party, the credit for abolition certainly <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">can</i> be. That credit belongs to the
Christian faith. In fact, as even atheists will admit, abolition was an
overwhelmingly Christian movement. The campaign against slavery was invented by
Christians, led by Christians, taught, funded, staffed, and populated by
Christians. Virtually all the nationwide chapters of the American Anti-Slavery
Society were affiliated with churches. And virtually all the well-known
abolitionists were Christians.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Evangelical pastor John Newton,
evangelical parliamentarian William Wilberforce, and evangelical activists
Thomas Clarkson and Granville Sharp successfully led the campaign against
slavery in Britain. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">In the U.S., the Puritan magistrates in Massachusetts (1646) and Rhode
Island (1648), along with all Americans in the Quaker denomination, forbade
slavery. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">William Garrison began publishing America’s most influential antislavery
newspaper in 1831 after reading a Presbyterian minister’s book on
abolition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Charles Finney, America’s foremost Christian leader in the early 1800s,
established the New York Anti-Slavery Society in his own church in 1833. He
forbade slaveholders from being members of his church, and he established
Oberlin College in 1833, the first college to welcome African-American
students. In 1852, he said, “</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Christian men of the North are all agreed that
Slavery is a great sin.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Abolition leader Theodore Weld, “the most
mobbed man in America,” was a convert of Finney.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Arthur and Lewis Tappan, leaders in the
Congregationalist denomination, used their wealth to campaign against slavery.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">The author of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Uncle Tom’s Cabin </i>(1852), Harriet Beecher Stowe, was the wife of a
Christian seminary professor.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">African-American abolitionist Frederick
Douglass was a licensed minister who required his own children to read the
Bible each day. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Harriet Tubman was famous for her devout
Christian faith. </span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And the list goes
on.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">The American Christian population, it is
true, was shamefully slow to follow their Founder’s commands to love their
neighbors and to treat others as they themselves would like to be treated. And
a very small fraction of Christians treat people of color unkindly even today.
For all of this, we who follow Jesus are deeply embarrassed and sorry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Of course, the anti-Christian voices of
our day are very quick to remind us that most early American Christians were in
favor of slavery. What these same voices fail to acknowledge, however, is that
most Christians were no longer in favor of slavery by the time of the Civil
War, and neither were most Americans, and this is precisely because Christians,
almost single-handedly, pulled off the magnificent miracle of changing the
world by abolishing slavery.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The facts of history strongly indicate
that the Christian faith should receive credit for being the true impetus
behind the abolition of slavery around the world</i></b>. </span><span style="background-color: white;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>David Riekehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402251536347033893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6959693816042425053.post-26689275791356068362020-12-08T05:15:00.002-05:002021-01-03T22:37:57.101-05:00December 8 The Spectacular Influence of the Christian Faith Abroad<p><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><b>Reason #8 The Spectacular Influence
of the Christian Faith Abroad</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The facts of history strongly indicate
that evangelical Christianity deserves credit for being the true impetus behind
the increased levels of fairness and equality that have marked the last two
centuries of world history.</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">At least some of the eye-rolling that was
directed at Christians over the past few decades was paused in May of 2012 when
the latest edition of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">American
Political Science Review</i>—the top journal in its field—published the bombshell
research of Dr. Robert Woodberry: "The Missionary Roots of Liberal
Democracy." Against all the cherished presuppositions of our skeptical
generation, Woodberry’s article argued the benefits of Christianity around the
world so convincingly that scholars simply had to acknowledge the strength of
his data.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">That data, rigorously crosschecked to
include every imaginable variable, indicates that countries in which
proselyting Protestant missionaries had a significant presence in the 1800s are
the same ones which enjoy, on average, more liberty, better treatment of women
and children, higher literacy and educational attainment, lower infant
mortality rates, better health, and stronger economies than similar nations
which had no such missionary presence. One commentator offered this summary of
Woodberry’s article, “Want a blossoming democracy today? The solution is
simple—if you have a time machine: Send a 19th-century missionary.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Proselyting missionaries came to their
fields of service with New Testament ideas that were at first very foreign to
their hearers—that all people should be educated to learn to read (so at least
they could “search the Scriptures”), and that women and children were equal in
importance to men in God’s eyes and should be treated with respect, and that
all people should have a say in choosing their leaders. The missionaries also
worked against their own countrymen to end the opium trade in China and the
barbarism of colonialism in the Belgian Congo, planting the seeds of abolition
wherever they went as well. They influenced individuals and governments to
abandon the traditions of female infanticide in China and India, the
consummation of marriage with young children in India, the practice of
footbinding in China, and female genital cutting in North Africa. And the
missionaries sponsored the first newspapers that many areas of the world had
ever produced in their own language, furthering the ideals of freedom of speech
and freedom of the press.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">When skeptics suggest that the
missionaries were oppressors, Woodberry points out: "We don't have to deny
that there were and are racist missionaries. We don't have to deny there were
and are missionaries who do self-centered things. But if that were the average
effect, we would expect the places where missionaries had influence to be worse
than places where missionaries weren't allowed or were restricted in action. We
find exactly the opposite on all kinds of outcomes. Even in places where few
people converted, [missionaries] had a profound economic and political
impact."<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Woodberry also points out that Catholic
missionaries and the Protestant clergy missionaries who were financed by the
state had no comparable positive impact on democracy as the proselyting
Protestants had (probably partly because of the ties these other missionaries
had with colonial governments).<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Daniel Philpott, professor of political
science at Notre Dame, referred to Woodberry’s research as “devastatingly
thorough,” saying of the missionaries’ role in fostering democracy around the
world, “Not only is it another factor—it turns out to be the most important
factor.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">The facts of history strongly indicate
that evangelical Christianity deserves credit for being the true impetus behind
the increased levels of fairness and equality that have marked the last two
centuries of world history.</span></span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>David Riekehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402251536347033893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6959693816042425053.post-33584741995638641392020-12-07T07:45:00.005-05:002021-01-03T22:39:20.614-05:00December 7 The Spectacular Goodness of Christianity Compared to Other World Religions<p><span style="color: white; font-family: helvetica;"><b style="background-color: black;">Reason #7 The Spectacular
Goodness of Christianity Compared to Other World Religions</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The facts
of history strongly indicate that evangelical Christianity is unrivaled among
the religions of the world in the areas of compassion and justice.<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">In their zeal to
promote diversity, most influencers in our current culture are careful to represent
the Christian faith as just another religion in the world, neither better nor
worse than the rest. This, however, has the intellectually stifling effect of blindly
crediting other religions for the amazing good Christianity has done in our
world, while at the same time blaming Christianity for the cruel violence that
other religions have perpetrated. In truth, even a very brief survey of world
religions will reveal that Christianity stands far above and in opposition to
all the other religions of the world, and should never be grouped together with
them.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Very few people today
realize that, for centuries, almost half of all the baby girls in ancient China
were killed by their parents. Even as late as the 1800s, a survey of forty Chinese
mothers found that they had killed 78 of their own daughters, usually by
drowning. Additionally, for more than a thousand years, until 1949, little
Chinese girls were subjected to “footbinding”—the practice of breaking the
bones in the arches of young girls’ feet and tightly wrapping the broken feet
in order to make them permanently small and hoof-like. Again, even as late as
the 1800s, almost half of the women in China were found to have their feet
deformed by this cruelty. Christian missionaries were chiefly responsible for
curtailing both of these violent practices in China.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">In India, well into the
1800s, it was common for children to be sacrificed to the Hindu goddesses by
the thousands. Throughout Hindu history, <span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">high-caste
Hindus could be found stepping over their low-caste brothers without compassion
because their religion taught them that grinding poverty is the karma that poor
people actually deserve.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As one
historian observed, “</span>high-caste Hin<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">dus did not organize to assist Dalits (untouchables) before the mass
conversion of Dalits to Christianity.” Again, it was Christian missionary
activity that inspired changes in Hindu lands for good.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><span>The tribal religions of Africa, South America, and the Pacific Islands
are well-known for their cruel barbarism in the forms of “homicide rates that
are unheard of in civil societies,” infanticide, rape, pedophilia, domestic
violence, intertribal violence, and general violence of every kind. Early
missionaries to Polynesia, for example, were shocked to find that two out of
three infants in those areas were killed by their own parents, and that sexual
abuse of children by adults was considered perfectly normal. </span><span>The horrible
practice of female circumcision has been widespread in Africa from time
immemorial, including 29 different countries, and observers of the practice have
often admitted to having erotic motivations.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Native American
populations, often glamorized as peaceful, were known in history for their
human sacrifices (Aztecs), brutal tribal massacres (Yellowknives, Crows,
Eskimos), and infanticide of baby girls (Shoshones and Mariames).</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Despite all the preferential
treatment extended towards Islam in our current cultural atmosphere, the second
largest religion in the world is renowned for its abuses of human rights. Atheist
Stephen Pinker has correctly argued: “The Muslim world, to all appearances, is
sitting out the decline of violence. More than two decades of headlines have
shocked Westerners with acts of barbarity in the name of Islam.” A hundred
million living Muslim women have endured genital mutilation, Islamic countries
were the last in the world to outlaw slavery (Saudi Arabia in 1962 and
Mauritania in 1980), and Islamic terrorism and oppression of women is
well-documented to this day.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Of
course, in European lands where the Christian faith was professed but not
obeyed, conditions were sometimes as deplorable as in other nations. To live
immorally, in opposition to the dictates of Jesus, is to be unchristian
regardless of what religion a person might claim when asked. But wherever a
critical mass of New Testament admirers has been reached in any given time and
place, violence has been diminished. And as the Protestant missionary movement
took hold in the 1800s and 1900s, the effects of biblical Christianity spread
to the entire world.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Had
it not been for the impact of Christianity (not to be confused with
colonialism) in the world, how many Chinese women living today would have been
killed by their own religious mothers or had their feet broken and deformed by
them? How many more Hindu children would have been sacrificed to the gods, and
how many low-caste Hindus in destitution would have been left “untouchable” by
the religious leaders of their own homelands? Were it not for the influence of
Christianity, how many more tribal brutalities would be being perpetrated even
today in South America, Africa, and the Pacific islands?</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Detractors may wish to equate the evangelical faith with the other religions of the world, but the actual data shows them to be as different as darkness and light.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">The facts
of history strongly indicate that evangelical Christianity is unrivaled among
the religions of the world in the areas of compassion and justice.</span></span></i></b></p>David Riekehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402251536347033893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6959693816042425053.post-55146338621837295912020-12-06T14:17:00.004-05:002021-01-03T22:40:14.181-05:00December 6 The Surprising Importance of Female Testimony in the Resurrection Record<p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><b>Reason #6 The Importance of
Female Testimony in the Resurrection Record<o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">A motive of simple
truthfulness is evidenced in the biblical narratives of Jesus’ resurrection by
the important role women played in these accounts at a time in history when
women were not considered equal with men in intelligence or reliability. In the
100s A.D., the Christians were mocked, predictably, for following a religion
based on the word of a “hysterical female” (Celsus, as quoted by Origen). We
have many ancient Roman and rabbinic documents which refer to women much as
they refer to children with respect to their legal rights and intelligence.
Therefore, it would have been a somewhat scandalous breach of cultural norms
for early Christian teachers to rely heavily on the testimony of women while
introducing others to their new religion. But this is what they did anyway.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">So if the objective of
the early Christian leaders was to make up a religion that would impress their
skeptical first-century neighbors, then featuring the testimony of women would
have surely had the opposite effect. If, however, their purpose was simple truthfulness,
then the endorsement of female testimony would have been only right, even if
that testimony was considered culturally offensive and somewhat damaging to
their case. If it was the real intention of the Gospel writers to fabricate the
kind of tale that would convince their neighbors to believe in the resurrection
then, surely, they would not have featured women in that tale. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">The emphasis on female testimony in the
narrative of Jesus’ resurrections, in the midst of the anti-female cultural sentiment
of the first century, strongly indicates that the real intention of the ancient
Gospel writers was simply to relay what happened, and not to fabricate the kind
of tale that would convince their skeptical neighbors to believe.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></b></p><br /><p></p>David Riekehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402251536347033893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6959693816042425053.post-20975702824675431162020-12-05T05:17:00.011-05:002021-01-03T22:41:12.468-05:00December 5 The Sudden Astonishing Interest in Resurrection Seen in History<p><b style="font-family: helvetica;">Reason #5 The Sudden
Interest in the Topic of Resurrection Seen in History</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">History reveals that there was a sudden
and sustained spike of interest in resurrection that can be traced directly
back to the empty grave of Jesus.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">For all of us living in the Western world
the idea of resurrection is very familiar. Every Easter Sunday our popular
culture is freshly reminded about the topic of Jesus’ resurrection, and many
funeral services conducted around the world each day include references to the
“sure and certain hope of resurrection,” etc. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Where did this enormous interest in
resurrection ever come from, anyway? And when did it start?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">History indicates that there was actually
very little interest at all in resurrection until Jesus’ grave was discovered
empty.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Even today, the third and fourth largest
religions in the world, Hinduism and Buddhism, have no interest in the concept
of resurrection. These ancient religions are occupied instead with
reincarnation and the eventual transcendence of the soul and its absorption into
the spiritual plain.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Similarly, Chinese, African, Native
American, and South American folk religions have no recognizable doctrine of
resurrection. And, historically, the pagan religions of Egypt, Babylon, Greece,
Rome, and the Nordic and Germanic lands never displayed any interest in
resurrection. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">It was common in the late 1800s and early
1900s to hear academics claim that pagan religions included resurrection
legends, and that Christianity actually borrowed its doctrine of resurrection
from these pagan stories. That claim has been largely abandoned, however, upon
further review.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Paganism has always been focused on the
soul moving about in the underworld, and on invisible ancestors interacting
with their descendants. These ideas actually tend to oppose resurrection. This
probably explains why the pagans of the first century, after showing real
interest in Paul’s sermon to them at Athens, began to mock when “they heard of
the resurrection of the dead” (Acts 17:32). Evidently, resurrection was not in
vogue in Athenian paganism.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Claims are still made from time to time
about the Greek god Adonis being resurrected, but Adonis was actually only
revived, not resurrected, and his myth has him dying and reviving each year
with the planting seasons. This is far from the idea of being raised from
death, never to die again. Osiris, as the story goes, was cut into 14 pieces,
and the pieces were gathered up by his wife, Isis, and wrapped together in
proper order, but it is not clear whether Osiris’ next exploits were done
bodily, or just in the netherworld. Additionally, the tomb of Osiris, where his
dead body was supposed to be hidden from Typhon, was a matter of keen interest
to pagans, so resurrection was never really the point in his mythology.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Da Vinci Code </i>novel famously included a dialog about the god Mithras being
buried and resurrected like Jesus, but real-life experts in Mithraism don’t
find any Mithraic writings or artwork supporting that claim. And so it goes
with all such claims. Resurrection, it seems, is actually a very unique
teaching.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Of course, it was the relatively small
Jewish religion of the Old Testament that introduced the concept of
resurrection to the world. Job, Daniel, and Isaiah made overt references to
resurrection (Job<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>19:26; Daniel 12:10;
Isaiah 26:19). And a few less obvious references to resurrection may be seen in
Psalms 16:10; 71:20, Isaiah 53:10, and Ezekiel 37:7-10.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">But even in Judaism, the resurrection
doctrine was surprisingly overlooked. By the time of Jesus’ arrival on earth,
the most respected leaders in the Jewish nation, the Sadducees, were teaching
that “there is no resurrection” (Acts 23:8; Mattew 22:29-31).<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">So, what caused the sudden spike of
interest in resurrection that we see in the early centuries A.D.? Not paganism,
because the pagans cared nothing about resurrection. Not Hinduism and Buddhism,
for the same reason. Not Islam, because it didn’t even exist yet when resurrection
first became an empire-wide topic of conversation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And not even Judaism, because resurrection
was not a prominent feature of that faith in the early years of the
first-century. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">In fact, it’s nothing short of astonishing
to realize that so many Jewish and formerly pagan people suddenly got so interested in
resurrection that they began to proclaim it at every turn, even at great risk
to themselves, until the idea of resurrection became the shared belief of the
greater Roman world. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">What, then, caused the world-wide spike of
interest in resurrection after 30 A.D.—enough interest to invoke eight imperial
persecutions of Christians from the 60s to the 300s A.D., and then the official
Roman sanction of Christianity after 313 A.D.? <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">History reveals that this sudden and
sustained spike of interest in resurrection can be traced directly back to the
empty grave of Jesus.</span><o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p>David Riekehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402251536347033893noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6959693816042425053.post-7625598795266150352020-12-04T06:17:00.005-05:002021-01-03T22:41:46.194-05:00December 4 The Awesome Conversion of the Apostle Paul<p><b style="font-family: helvetica;">Reason #4 The Authenticity
of Paul’s Stunning Conversion</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><i><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The facts of history would never lead you
to believe that Paul never existed, that his life was not drastically and
suddenly changed, or that he never truly believed in what he claimed about seeing
the resurrected messiah.</b></i><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Because the apostle
Paul left us such a large body of literature and was so frequently referred to
in antiquity, there is a very strong consensus that he existed in history, and that
he was once a fierce persecutor of the church. But the consensus also concludes
that Paul then converted suddenly to become the undisputed leader of the church
by the early 50s A.D., and was perfectly willing to suffer and die for his Christian
claims. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">None of this is
seriously called into question by reputable historians. For example, a<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">n article in the <i>Encyclopedia Britannica</i>
says: </span>“Paul spent much of the first half of his life persecuting the
nascent Christian movement, an activity to which he refers several times.”
Another article, in <i>Wikipedia</i><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">,</span>
says: “Paul is generally considered one of the most important figures of the
Apostolic Age and from the mid-30s to the mid-50s AD he founded several
Christian communities in Asia Minor and Europe.” The historical data is actually
pretty straightforward.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">But there are two
salient questions about Paul’s life that must be faced in all honesty by
truth-seekers. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">First, why would anyone
change from being the staunchest of Jewish Pharisees, and a rabid hater of
Jesus Christ, as well as a persecutor of the church, to becoming the number one
advocate and spokesperson for Jesus, as well as the special apostle to
non-Jewish people? Diehard Jewish rabbis today do not easily convert to
Christianity and take up with Gentiles. And yet Paul did, and he was once <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">violently</i> opposed to all of this. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Paul’s claim was that
he suddenly and utterly changed because he one day encountered the resurrected
messiah in a powerful sensory way on the road to Damascus. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">And this brings us to
the second salient question about Paul’s life. Was he a charlatan, or did he
really believe in his encounter with the resurrected messiah—believe in it even
enough to suffer and die for his belief? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">The comments of skeptic
Bart Ehrman—no friend to the Christian faith—are helpful in this regard. Ehrman
refers to Paul’s letter of Philippians as “<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">one of the seven ‘undisputed letters’ of Paul.” While we cannot prove
from history that Paul was beheaded by Nero in the mid-60s A.D., we can see in
his “undisputed letter” (Philippians 1:12-23 and 3:20-21) that he was already suffering
in prison for his Christian claims, and that he still proclaimed the resurrection
of Jesus and his willingness to die for his belief in it. Once again, therefore,
the data concerning his suffering of deprivation and imprisonment is actually a
simple matter of historical record.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">History says that something extraordinary happened to drastically change
Paul from a rabid persecutor of the Christian faith to the premiere leader of
that faith, and that he suffered dearly for that change of heart. He said his
conversion was accounted for by his meeting of the resurrected messiah.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">History also indicates
that Paul didn’t live like a liar (gladly suffering deprivation and
imprisonment for his resurrection claims), and he didn’t die like one.</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>David Riekehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402251536347033893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6959693816042425053.post-17410866807992539322020-12-03T08:15:00.003-05:002021-01-03T22:42:31.469-05:00December 3 The Eyewitness Evidence for Jesus’ Resurrection<p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"> </span><b style="font-family: helvetica;">Reason #3 The Eyewitness
Evidence for Jesus’ Resurrection</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i>The facts of history would never lead you
to believe that nothing particular happened at Jesus’ graveside or that no
actual eyewitness accounts fueled the new religion of Christ.</i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Eyewitnesses in a time and place—that’s
what history is all about. Like good detectives, historians must interview
eyewitnesses to establish whether a “suspect” was at a particular place at a particular
time when a particular happening took place. They do this because establishing
time and place is the time-tested path for arriving at the truth of what
happened in the past.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">T</span>ime: Even die-hard atheists agree that
Paul's detailed address on the resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15 was written in
about 55 A.D.—within 25 years of Jesus’ death.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>So the resurrection story simply has to be at least as ancient as 55
A.D.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Furthermore, the rabbinic formula
Paul uses in that passage ("For I delivered unto you first of all that
which I also received...")<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>is the
traditional Jewish way of indicating that a teacher’s position comes from an
already-existing tradition that was handed down to him by others. In other words,
the resurrection tradition was handed down to Paul by other eyewitnesses long
before 55 A.D. This means we can never escape the conclusion that the
resurrection of Jesus was being publically preached at the very time when
eyewitnesses were still on hand to point out that a commotion surrounding
Jesus’ tomb did indeed recently occur in Jerusalem. To avoid the implications
of a guarded tomb coming up surprisingly empty, the skeptics of those days
would have had to ask eyewitnesses not to believe their eyes. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Place: As the apostle Paul put it when he
was being tried for preaching about the resurrection of Jesus, “The king knows
of these things, for this thing was not done in a corner” (Acts 26:26). Once
again, even die-hard atheists acknowledge that Paul proclaimed the resurrection
and that he had interactions with a substantial church in Jerusalem in the 50s
A.D. And Jerusalem was not a large city! Mark Twain visited Jerusalem in 1869
and said, “A fast walker could go outside the walls of Jerusalem and walk
entirely around the city in an hour. I do not know how else to make one
understand how small it is.” This means that a person listening to the
resurrection message in Jerusalem from the 30s through the 50s A.D. would not
have any trouble walking across town to verify whether a Jerusalem VIP buried
Jesus, whether the tomb was guarded, whether the tomb came up inexplicably
empty, etc. Indeed, the people who lived in Jerusalem at that time undoubtedly
already knew these salient points of history because “this thing was not done
in a corner.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Summary: All people are understandably
reluctant to believe in miracles and the resurrection of Jesus. And they were
reluctant in Jesus’ day, too (bearing in mind that his detractors were numerous
enough to orchestrate his public execution). But in spite of this, the account
of Jesus’ resurrection took hold at the very time and in the very place (a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">little</i> place) in which eyewitnesses were
on hand to report what they saw. And eyewitness reporting from a particular time
and place is the prescribed path for finding historical truth.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">The facts of history would never lead you
to believe that nothing particular happened at Jesus’ graveside or that no
actual eyewitness accounts fueled the new religion of Christ.</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>David Riekehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402251536347033893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6959693816042425053.post-38430444123140790262020-12-02T04:32:00.010-05:002021-01-10T21:28:25.029-05:00December 2 The Awe of Life, and the Scientific Impossibility of Spontaneous Generation<p><span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> </span><b style="font-family: helvetica;">Reason #2 The Scientific Impossibility of Spontaneous Generation</b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: black; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Life is complex and awe-inspiring, and it didn't come into being by spontaneous generation.</span></i></b></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: black; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Sure, we all smile
now when we speak of Belgian chemist <span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Jean
Baptiste van Helmont (1580-1644). He believed mice came into our world through
spontaneous generation—the supposed rise of life from non-life. He taught his
students: <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; margin: 0in 0in 0in 0.5in;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: black; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">"If a soiled shirt is placed in the
opening of a vessel containing grains of wheat, the reaction of the leaven in
the shirt with fumes from the wheat will, after approximately 21 days,
transform the wheat into mice." <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: black; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Of course, that’s not quite right. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: black; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">It was Louis Pasteur who orchestrated the
final triumph of science over the error of spontaneous generation. He was given
an award in 1862 from the Paris Academy of Sciences for disproving once and for
all the theory of spontaneous generation. He concluded, “Life only comes from
life,” and he is the one who referred to spontaneous generation as a doctrine.
“Never will the doctrine of spontaneous generation recover from the mortal blow
of this simple experiment.” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: black; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Indeed, all our biology text books agree
with Louis Pasteur. Except when they try to defend naturalistic evolution.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: black; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Atheistic evolution is utterly dependent
on the doctrine of spontaneous generation, or abiogenesis as it is more
commonly referred to now. According to this view, all life sprang forth from
the original non-life of the Big Bang, etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: black; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">But if, as we are taught in school, the
scientific method requires a conclusion to be testable, observable, repeatable,
and falsifiable, then naturalistic evolution, with its reliance on spontaneous
generation, should never be honored as a science-based belief.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While we <i>actually</i> observe the “life
from life” principle every day, spontaneous generation has never been observed,
not even once. A person may believe in it as a doctrine, to use Pasteur’s term,
but not as a scientific reality.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: black; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Nobel Prize-winning physiologist George
Wald summarized the position of atheism perfectly: “We choose to believe the
impossible: that life arose spontaneously by chance.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: black; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The joke is on us as long as our favorite
scientists laugh at van Helmont’s ignorance and then, with an appropriately
somber tone, teach us that mice, actually, do not come from “shirt leaven” and
“wheat fumes,” but from “<i><u>soup</u></i>”—the non-living primordial soup of
prehistory. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">If spontaneous generation was a
cringe-worthy idea for van Helmont in the 1600s, then it’s also a cringe-worthy
idea today, and a “doctrine” that needs to be challenged by actual scientific
observations.</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><i><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Science is solidly on the side of
believers, not atheists, in this matter.</span></i><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: black; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">S</span>cience would never lead you to believe in
spontaneous generation. Quite the opposite!</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>David Riekehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402251536347033893noreply@blogger.com0