Jesus himself testified to his coming resurrection from the dead.
The tomb was empty on Easter.
The disciples were almost immediately transformed from men who were hopeless and fearful after the crucifixion (Luke 24:21, John 20:19) into men who were confident and bold witnesses of the resurrection (Acts 2:24, 3:15, 4:2).
Paul claimed that, not only had he seen the risen Christ, but that 500 others had seen him also, and many were still alive when he made this public claim.
The sheer existence of a thriving, empire-conquering early Christian church supports the truth of the resurrection claim.
The Apostle Paul’s conversion supports the truth of the resurrection.
The New Testament witnesses do not bear the stamp of dupes or deceivers.
There is a self-authenticating glory in the gospel of Christ’s death and resurrection as narrated by the biblical witnesses.
There is a major problem with the analysis of the names on these ossuaries.By this I mean one has to explain why one is in Hebrew, several are in Aramaic, but the supposed Mary Magdalene ossuary is in Greek.This suggests a multi-generation tomb,not a single generation tomb, and indeed a tomb that comes from afterA.D. 70after the Romans had destroyed the temple mount and Jewish Christians fled the city.
At the Walter Martin Ministries Blog, Jill Martin Rische, daughter of the well-known apologist and cult specialist Walter Martin, expresses her concern regarding Christians’ ignorance of Mormonism. She shares ten things that most Christians don’t know, but should.
Mormons can become gods and goddesses.
Goddesses will spend eternity in full submission to their god-husband.
Mormon women will give birth “forever and ever” to spirit-babies.
Mormon men can have multiple wives in heaven-eternal polygamy.
Heavenly Father is an exalted man who lives with his goddess wife, Heavenly Mother, on a planet near the great star Kolob.
American Indians are descendants of the wicked Lamanites, who were Israelites that God cursed with dark skin.
God the Father had sex with Mary to conceive Jesus, who is the half brother of Lucifer.
All Christian churches are an abomination.
Mormons need 4 secret handshakes to get into the Celestial heaven.
Joseph Smith revealed that the actual Garden of Eden is in Jackson County, Missouri.
As the PC(USA) continues its decline, many theologically conservative evangelical churches are pondering breaking away. In response the denomination has written a letter to the churches, appealing to them to stay.
At least eight churches have left since a Presbyterian General Assembly last summer, which voted to give leeway to install practicing homosexuals as clergy and allowed church officials to propose experimental phrasings for the divine Trinity in place of “Father, Son and Holy Spirit.”
. . .
The New Wineskins Association of Churches, which represents Presbyterian traditionalists, is developing a breakaway strategy. Departing congregations could join the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, a theologically conservative group independent of the Louisville-based denomination.
Gore’s mansion, located in the posh Belle Meade area of Nashville, consumes more electricity every month than the average American household uses in an entire year, according to the Nashville Electric Service (NES).
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Last August alone, Gore burned through 22,619 kWh—guzzling more than twice the electricity in one month than an average American family uses in an entire year. As a result of his energy consumption, Gore’s average monthly electric bill topped $1,359.
Since the release of An Inconvenient Truth, Gore’s energy consumption has increased from an average of 16,200 kWh per month in 2005, to 18,400 kWh per month in 2006.
Gore’s extravagant energy use does not stop at his electric bill. Natural gas bills for Gore’s mansion and guest house averaged $1,080 per month last year.“As the spokesman of choice for the global warming movement, Al Gore has to be willing to walk the walk, not just talk the talk, when it comes to home energy use,” said Tennessee Center for Policy Research President Drew Johnson.
In total, Gore paid nearly $30,000 in combined electricity and natural gas bills for his Nashville estate in 2006.
Of course, he does have a large house, so one would expect that his numbers would be higher. The real question is whether living in a house that consumes that much electricity and natural gas is consistent with the message that Gore so adamantly preaches.
My friend Ben Witherington is at the head of the pack in confidently telling his readers at his Blog and elsewhere of the errors being made by those of us who have worked on this project now for over two years. The problem is he does not have the most basic facts straight. Below I list his ten reasons the case for the Talpiot tomb being that of Jesus of Nazareth are “bogus” that are making their way all over the Internet today. Almost all of them are incorrect. I offer here just a few brief comments but urge those interested in this topic to read the book just published which addresses almost all of these. It seems to me that it is a waste of time to be discussing things back and forth when the very content of the evidence is not clear to those who are making these assertions.
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My own view is that with or without the James ossuary included, the cluster of names is quite striking and significant, but with the James ossuary included there can be little doubt that in March of 1980 a bulldozer accidently uncovered the Jesus Family tomb.
What bothers me most about the approach of Witherington, Bock, and others is their beginning assumption that this can not be the tomb of Jesus of Nazareth. In other words, their approach is not an open quest for evidence but an apologetic effort to save the faith. The conclusions one draws then are determined without even looking at the evidence. The only task is to refute and charge others with “bogus” ideas, not to examine and consider what we can know. I think there is a better way.
Scot McKnight is reading Steven Keillor’s new book, God’s Judgments, and starts a discussion on the relationship between catastrophes and God’s judgment. McKnight opens his post with this:
Here’s my simple contention: if you believe God is in control of all, then you are driven to think either (1) that catastrophes are divine judgments or (2) that God has surrendered “control” to cosmic or human forces.
But does this really present all the options? Doesn’t this create a false dichotomy? Take Job for example. That God was in complete control of the tragic events in Job’s life is without question. Are we then forced to draw the conclusion that Job was being judged by God? Certainly not. That was the fundamental flaw of Job’s friends. If we learn anything from Job, we learn that there is another answer to the question of why bad things happen. God is in complete control, but He may bring hardship for reasons other than judgment.
Perhaps I’ve misunderstood McKnight’s contention. Perhaps he will clarify further in a later post. But so far, it seems to me that McKnight starts the discussion with too few options.
Read the first post at McKnight’s blog, Jesus Creed.
Alvin Plantinga, perhaps the most influential Christian philosopher in the world today, has issued a devastating review of The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins. It is not to be missed.
Here are a couple snippets from Plantinga’s review:
Now despite the fact that this book is mainly philosophy, Dawkins is not a philosopher (he’s a biologist). Even taking this into account, however, much of the philosophy he purveys is at best jejune. You might say that some of his forays into philosophy are at best sophomoric, but that would be unfair to sophomores; the fact is (grade inflation aside), many of his arguments would receive a failing grade in a sophomore philosophy class. This, combined with the arrogant, smarter-than-thou tone of the book, can be annoying. I shall put irritation aside, however and do my best to take Dawkins’ main argument seriously. . . .
The God Delusion is full of bluster and bombast, but it really doesn’t give even the slightest reason for thinking belief in God mistaken, let alone a “delusion.”
The naturalism that Dawkins embraces, furthermore, in addition to its intrinsic unloveliness and its dispiriting conclusions about human beings and their place in the universe, is in deep self-referential trouble. There is no reason to believe it; and there is excellent reason to reject it.
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Scot McKnight
