33rd. Anniversary of Roe V Wade

<a href="http://salemnet.vo.llnwd.net/o29/bibleanswerman/hankspeaksout/roe_wade.mp3">Click Here to listen</a>   Sunday, January 22nd will be the anniversary of the 33rd year since the holocaust that was initiated by the Roe Vs Wade Supreme Court decision which legalized abortion in the United States. While rhetoric so often serves to camouflage the carnage of abortion, it remains the painful killing of an innocent human being. <div dir="ltr"> Abortion is painful in that the methods employed to kill a preborn child involve burning, smothering, dismembering, and crushing - and never forget this - on live babies who have not been specifically anesthetized. Furthermore, abortion involves killing. The zygote, which fulfills the criteria needed to establish the existence of biological life, (such as metabolism, development, the ability to react to stimuli, and cell reproduction), is indeed terminated. Abortion kills innocent human beings. The child that's terminated is the product of human parents. The child has a totally distinct human genetic code. Although the emerging embryo does not have a fully developed personality, it does have complete personhood from the moment of conception. Thankfully, in God's economy there is hope for those who have experienced the ravages of abortion. Not only can they receive God's forgiveness in the here and now, but they can yet look forward to the ecstasy of reuniting with their unborn loved ones in eternity. Ultimately, when I think of abortion my mind goes back to the words of King David, the psalmist who wrote: </div> <div dir="ltr"> For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. </div> <div> When we talk about abortion, never forget it is the painful killing of an innocent human being. </div> 2009-03-17T20:50:40Z January 20, 2006 9 33rd-anniversary-of-roe-v-wade 33rd. Anniversary of Roe V Wade

2009-10-16T15:27:54Z

January 22, 2009 marks the 36th anniversary of Roe V. Wade, the infamous Supreme Court decision that initiated a holocaust of legalized abortion in the United States. I still remember exactly where I was; I was 22 years old at time, and it’s hard to believe that now 36 years have passed,  each one with an incredible carnage ––the blood of literally millions of unborn children crying from the grave. Those who continue to fight legislation restricting abortion are in reality not pro-choice; they are singularly pro-death. While rhetoric so often serves to camouflage the carnage of abortion, it remains simply this: the painful killing of an innocent human being. Let me stress that again: the painful killing of an innocent ––an innocent human being that has done nothing to deserve capital punishment. Allow me to explain each aspect of that definition. It’s painful in that the methods employed to kill the pre-born child are painful. It’s killing in that the zygote, which fulfills the criteria needed to establish the existence of biological life, is killed. This is not a metaphysical contention. This is plain, old experimental evidence. The zygote has metabolism, development, the ability to react to stimuli, and cell reproduction. This is a human being. It doesn’t have a full blown personality, but it does have full personhood from the moment of conception. Abortion kills innocent human beings in that the child that is terminated is the product of human parents. The child has a totally distinct human genetic code. Also, as I said, though it does not have a full-blown personality; it does have full personhood from the moment of conception. Thus, far from deserving capital punishment, these innocent human beings deserve protection. Thankfully, in God's economy, there is hope for those who have experienced the ravages of abortion. Not only can they receive God’s forgiveness in the here and now, but they can also look forward to the ecstasy of being reunited with their unborn loved ones in eternity. When my wife has given birth to our children, which has been many times now, she has not just given birth to a body but a body/soul unity. That body/soul unity is a human being, and we believe in a Christian worldview that that body/soul unity will exist for all eternity, so there’s an absolute certainty that we will see even aborted children in eternity. Their DNA will flower into complete perfection. They will be what they would have been if death, destruction, and decay hadn’t entered our world. Ultimately, when I think of abortion, my mind goes back to the words of King David: “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb.  I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.  My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” (Psalm 139:13-16, NIV). We have a holocaust in our midst, it is unseen, often unnoticed, but I don’t want you as a Christian to forget that there is a particular day in which we celebrate life and we remember the anniversary of Roe V Wade that has terminated the lives of so many people that ultimately we’ll only know from the perspective of eternity. 2009-06-12T14:59:14Z January 28, 2009 55 36th-anniversary-of-roe-v-wade 36th Anniversary of Roe V. Wade

2010-01-27T15:41:49Z

Tomorrow is the 37th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, which of course, is the 1973 Supreme Court, and I thought on the eve of that anniversary, we should take an Old Testament history lesson to heart. For hundreds of years, the Lord warned the Israelites through His prophets, and then all of a sudden, it was too late. Darkness descended upon the Promised Land. The people of Israel had become slaves to the mighty Assyrians. Although the tribe of Judah to the south had miraculously survived the initial onslaught, somehow they blithely managed to ignore the lesson of history.   2 Kings tells us that Ahaz, king of Judah, walked in the way of the kings of Israel and that he even sacrificed his own son in the fire. In other words, he followed the detestable ways of the nations the Lord had driven out before the Israelites. The nation of Israel had become a mere reflection of the pagan culture that surrounded it. True, prophets continued to warn God’s people that their wickedness would inextricably lead to destruction, but the words simply fell on deaf ears. The rulers of the land had become so corrupt they even hired false prophets to tell them what their itching ears wanted to hear. Of course, the inevitable finally occurred. The axe of God’s judgment fell. Babylon leveled Jerusalem, and the people of Judah were driven from their land of promise.   What has this to do with us today? I think this fact from 2 Kings is poignant and profound, because like ancient Israel, we are turning a deaf ear to the lesson of history. We have repeatedly violated God’s commands as if we could do so with impunity. We have failed to heed the warnings of His prophets. We have embraced the new paganism of our times. Our ways have become detestable to the Lord, and we have forgotten His commands.   Christian philosopher Francis Schaeffer warned us that abortion would be the watershed issue of our era. He said of all the subjects relating to the erosion of the sanctity of human life, abortion was the keystone. It is the first crucial issue that has been overwhelming in changing attitudes towards the value of life in general. Schaeffer’s warnings have tragically fallen on deaf ears. For more than two decades we have sacrificed our children on the altars of hedonism, and even now the axe of God’s judgment has been laid to the root. 2,000 years ago Christ warned us that the time would come when you would say “blessed are the barren women, the wombs that never bore, the breasts that never nursed.” Well the present day abortion holocaust has driven those words home in dramatic fashion. Perhaps the most frightening of all—as you ponder this horrifying reality—is the fact that the present day holocaust is government funded. In other words, you and I are footing the bill. Make no mistakes, pro-choice advocates, like the Congress and the courts, are not the friends of children. America’s unthinking submission to their twisted argumentation is moving us progressively towards social genocide of an unfathomable magnitude and the movement’s own label “pro-choice” is, well it’s, nothing but a twisted deception covering up a nationally sanctioned holocaust in which the right to choose to kill a child reigns supreme over the baby’s human rights, the rights of the parents of a pregnant minor, the rights of a baby’s father, the woman’s right to accurate information about fetal development and the negative consequences of an abortion, and the rights of society to protect all of its members no matter what their social status, what their economic situation, or what their physical limitations. Those who continue to fight legislation restricting abortion are in reality not “pro-choice;” rather, they are singularly “pro-murder”! The rhetoric serves to camouflage the carnage, but abortion is the painful killing of innocent human beings.   Well what does that have to do with you? What I would say is that we need today not to be microcosms of the culture, but change agents in the culture. On the one hand, we need to be involved in the legislative process, but we need to ultimately recognize that, if you want to change the culture, you have to be a change agent, a tool in the hands of God of changing the hearts of people, because abortion at the end of the day may not be the real problem. It may simply be the cover-up exercise. The real problem is promiscuity and the sexual revolution, and the only way that changes is for you to be an ambassador of Jesus Christ, ready always to give an answer, a reason for the hope that lies within you, and to be able to do that with gentleness and with respect. That’s why we do what we do at the Christian Research Institute and it’s why we ask you to join us in a stand for truth. To do what you do because truth matters.   Today, if you want to join a ministry making a difference in changing the hearts of people not only here but abroad, pray for this ministry and support this ministry financially. You can do that on the World Wide Web at equip.org, via the mail at P.O. Box 8500 Charlotte, NC 28271, or through our resource consultants at 888-7000-CRI. One thing I will guarantee you. I will never pull punches. I’m going to tell it like it is no matter what the cost. 2010-01-25T15:12:45Z January 21, 2010 197 37th-anniversary-of-roe-vs-wade 37th Anniversary of Roe vs. Wade

2010-02-01T20:05:08Z

<a href="http://salemnet.vo.llnwd.net/o29/bibleanswerman/hankspeaksout/5_Ways_to_improve.mp3"></a>Click Here to Listen. As we approach the New Year, my question to all of you is, “How are you going to improve your life in 2009?”   When I picked up a copy of U.S. News and World Report the cover story was 50 Ways to Improve Your Life in 2009. Some of their suggestions are: Investigate tales of Edgar Allen Poe, Be a Microblogger, Do a Crossword puzzle, Watch TV free online, Choose Obama Stocks, Spread Tolerance, Learn to Play Bridge, Play music video games, and Read the book before you go to the movie. Well I can’t give you 50 ways to improve your life, but I can give you 5.   The first way is to make a paradigm shift. Stop seeing prayer as merely a way of obtaining your requests. Start seeing prayer as a means of enjoying the riches of a relationship with God.   Second, confess your sins daily. Every single prayer, including the Lord’s Prayer, will bounce right off the ceiling if there is unforgiveness in your heart. This is precisely why Jesus ended his public sermon on prayer with, “For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.” (Matt 6:14-15).   Third, get into the Bible. God’s will is reveled in His Word. Thus the only way to know His will is to know His Word. The more we meditate on His Word, the clearer His voice will be as we daily commune with Him in prayer.   Fourth, discover your secret place. The secret to prayer is secret prayer. Your public presence is a direct reflection of your private prayer life. If you spend time in the secret place you will exude peace in the midst of life’s storms. If you don’t you will be a poster child for busy-anity not Christianity.   Fifth, make prayer a priority. Wisdom is the application of knowledge. As Jesus put it, “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” (Matt 7:24) My experience in teaching memory for over two decades demonstrates that if you faithfully practice a new discipline for twenty-one days it may well stay with you for the rest of your life.   Well, it certainly is my prayer that 2009 will be a banner year in your life as you prepare yourself with a brand new life with the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.   Over the past year, we’ve had the experience of having some people in our home who are very elderly. At one time, they were able to lead themselves, — walk, drive, — and now someone else leads them by the hand. Their eyes grow dim, their memory falters, their world becomes smaller and smaller. But if you have Jesus Christ in your life, if you built a relationship with Him over all the years, the best is yet to come! One day you will have perfect eyesight again, and you will live in a new heaven and new earth in which indwells righteousness. Christianity doesn’t give us a peaceful way to come to terms with death; it gives us something far greater — a way to overcome death through the power of Christ’s resurrection.   Recommended Resources: <a href="http://www.equipresources.org/c.muI1LaMNJrE/b.2537845/site/apps/ka/ec/Product.asp?ProductID=430984"><img src="http://www.equipresources.org/atf/account26032/images/b622.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a> <a href="http://www.equipresources.org/c.muI1LaMNJrE/b.2537845/site/apps/ka/ec/Product.asp?ProductID=430984">The Prayer of Jesus - softcover w/Study Guide</a> B873 $12.99 2009-06-12T15:05:38Z January 5, 2009 56 5-ways-to-improve-your-life-in-2009 5 Ways to Improve Your Life in 2009

2010-01-27T15:46:51Z

<table style="width: 100%; height: 100%;" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="10"> <tbody> <tr height="57"> <td width="501" height="57" valign="top">   </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="501" valign="top"> <div> <table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6"> <tbody> <tr> <td valign="top"> Suggested Resources: <a href="http://www.equipresources.org/site/apps/ka/ec/product.asp?c=muI1LaMNJrE&b=2537845&en=jkKNL1POKkLRJ2OMK9IMJ6MVJtLZK3MJLkJ5JdOVLuIbE&ProductID=430722"><img class="photo" src="http://www.equipresources.org/atf/cf/%7B9C4EE03A-F988-4091-84BD-F8E70A3B0215%7D/B767.JPG" border="0" alt="" align="left" /></a>Hardcover Book The Bible Answer Book Resource# B767 Price:$14.99 Audience: General <a href="http://www.equipresources.org/site/apps/ka/ec/product.asp?c=muI1LaMNJrE&b=2537845&en=7fJMLTOuEbJCKNPsE7KKK5NAL7IEJWOGKhJQL6OME&ProductID=431008">Order</a> <a href="http://www.equipresources.org/site/apps/ka/ec/product.asp?c=muI1LaMNJrE&b=2537845&en=jkKNL1POKkLRJ2OMK9IMJ6MVJtLZK3MJLkJ5JdOVLuIbE&ProductID=430722"><img class="photo" src="http://www.equipresources.org/atf/account26032/images/b942.jpg" border="0" alt="" align="left" /></a>Hardcover Book The Bible Answer Book, Volume 2 Resource# B942 Price:$14.99 Audience: General <a href="http://www.equipresources.org/site/apps/ka/ec/product.asp?c=muI1LaMNJrE&b=2537845&en=7fJMLTOuEbJCKNPsE7KKK5NAL7IEJWOGKhJQL6OME&ProductID=430722">Order</a> <a href="http://www.equipresources.org/site/apps/ka/ec/product.asp?c=muI1LaMNJrE&b=2537845&en=jkKNL1POKkLRJ2OMK9IMJ6MVJtLZK3MJLkJ5JdOVLuIbE&ProductID=430722"><img class="photo" src="http://www.equipresources.org/atf/Account26032/images/Case-for-real-Jesus-small.jpg" border="0" alt="" align="left" /></a>Hardcover Book The Case for the Real Jesus Resource# B973 Price:$21.99 Audience: General <a href="http://www.equipresources.org/site/apps/ka/ec/product.asp?c=muI1LaMNJrE&b=2537845&en=6eJKLQOqHaIAJKNoE6IIL2NwG6JCLTMCKgKOI3MIF&ProductID=505244">Order</a> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </div> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> 2009-06-12T15:16:50Z September 13, 2007 57 9-11-anniversary 9/11 Anniversary

2009-10-16T15:28:25Z

I am persuaded that the Bible teaches a form of Christian capitalism—responsibility associated with wealth. It does not promote the possession of money for the sake of money, but instead encourages us to use money for the sake of the kingdom. A Biblical view of wealth involves having an eternal perspective. It is crucial that we understand Psalm 24:1 “The earth is the LORD’s and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.” God is the landlord; we are just tenants. We didn’t arrive with them and we won’t take them with us; they all belong to God. So it’s important for us to live with eternity in mind and live our life here below as responsible stewards. Whether we have a little or a lot, God at the judgment will richly reward us. The Bible chronicles the very prayer of David who considered it a privilege to give to the work of the Lord. He said, “But who am I and who are my people that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand…And now I have seen with joy how willingly your people who are here have given to you.” (I Chron. 29:14, 17) There’s no telling what we can accomplish in our generation, if we too can catch the joy of contagious giving. Not only would we be empowered to spread the gospel around the globe but we might yet leave an indelible mark on the 21st century. We can make a difference. During our recent Listener Appreciation Week, we thanked so many people who give sacrificially to our ministry. To listen to these shows, please go to the Bible Answer Man tab on our website at <a href="../..//">www.equip.org</a> and click on “Listen to the Bible Answer Man show”. To give to Listener Appreciation Week, please go to (<a href="../../site/listener_appreciation_week">http://www.equip.org/site/listener_appreciation_week</a>) or call us at 1-888-700-0724. Also please check one of our newest resources "What is Truth?"   2009-06-09T17:34:06Z May 8, 2009 45 a-biblical-view-of-wealth A Biblical View of Wealth

2010-01-27T16:23:29Z

As most of you know by now we are dedicating this year, our 50th year of ministry, to the problem of biblical illiteracy. As I have said so often, this is not a problem, it is the problem. So we are urging people to get into the Word of God and get the Word of God into them. As a result of that I’ve developed a Legacy Bible Reading place marker that you can place in your Bible. It teaches you how to read the Bible, not in bits but rather in books, by genre and by author. We’re teaching people to read a Proverb a day—which is to say a chapter of Proverbs every single day—and then to meditate on three Psalms per week. In that way, every single week you read seven chapters of the book of Proverbs, and you meditate on three Psalms, the Psalmistry of ancient Israel. It is a way to sing to the Lord, to praise Him, to magnify His holy name.   I’m reminded particularly today of how important it is to not only get into the Word of God but to get the Word of God into you. Many years ago I spent a good bit of time memorizing the book of Proverbs. In fact, I developed a course called “Your memory and the Proverbs: Keys for Successful Daily Living,” which would teach people how to memorize the book of Proverbs in order by chapter and verse. I was reminded of that process I developed many years ago, and got back into it this year in earnest.   Proverbs chapter 3, and that’s the Proverb we’re on today, reminds us of how important it is to write the Word of God upon the tablet of our consciousness:   My son, do not forget my teaching,           But let your heart keep my commandments;  For length of days and years of life           And peace they will add to you.           Do not let kindness and truth leave you;           Bind them around your neck,           Write them on the tablet of your heart. So you will find favor and good repute           In the sight of God and man (Prov. 3:1-4).   And then the familiar words:   Trust in the LORD with all your heart           And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him,           And He will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes;           Fear the LORD and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your body           And refreshment to your bones. Honor the LORD from your wealth           And from the first of all your produce; So your barns will be filled with plenty           And your vats will overflow with new wine. My son, do not reject the discipline of the LORD           Or loathe His reproof,           For whom the LORD loves He reproves,           Even as a father corrects the son in whom he delights. How blessed is the man who finds wisdom           And the man who gains understanding. For her profit is better than the profit of silver           And her gain better than fine gold. She is more precious than jewels;           And nothing you desire compares with her.  Long life is in her right hand;           In her left hand are riches and honor. Her ways are pleasant ways           And all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to those who take hold of her,           And happy are all who hold her fast .(Prov. 3:5-18)   And then these words that have been emblazoned upon my mind:   The LORD by wisdom founded the earth,           By understanding He established the heavens. By His knowledge the deeps were broken up           And the skies drip with dew. (Prov. 3:19-20)   How beautiful is the Word of God, and how often have we forgotten the beauty of the Word of God. We are more enamored by the color of our Bibles than the content of our Bibles, but that has to change. When Josiah found the book of the Law, revival was a result. And I’ve often said that people look for revival in the culture, but it’s looking for revival in all the wrong places. What has to happen is reformation in the church, and then you will find revival in the culture, but not a revival that lacks substance—that it’s mere external trappings that end up showing—but rather a revival that changes the hearts of a people so they no longer live by the dictates of their own will. Instead, they follow Jesus Christ, and He gives their lives meaning, purpose, and fulfillment. It may yet be that America can be a great mission sending agent to the world, but it will only be, if we take seriously the problem of biblical illiteracy and correct it. I hope this year, all this year, you’ll stand with me, not in pointing the finger someone else, but saying, I myself am going to become immersed in the immortal everlasting Word of God. There are only two things that last for all eternity, the souls of people and the Word of God. Get into the Word of God. Involvement produces commitment. Do it as a discipline and it will turn to be one of the greatest joys, moments, times everyday of fulfillment from now until the time that you meet your Savior face to face.   If you want the tools that help you in the process of reading the Bible for all its worth, just check it out on the World Wide Web at equip.org. You can write me at P.O. Box Charlotte, NC 28271. You can talk to our resource consultants at 888-7000-CRI. 2010-02-04T18:53:31Z February 3, 2010 203 a-look-at-proverbs-3 A Look at Proverbs 3

2010-02-04T18:53:31Z

I’ve said it before and let me say it again, the Bible is under siege. It is under siege in the classroom, the media, in the books we read, in entertainment, and on the Web. If you are a genuine believer in Jesus Christ, you had better wake up to that fact. As you know, over the last couple weeks I’ve been talking about a professor Ehrman, who is bent on demonstrating that the Bible is hopelessly riddled with discrepancies, that Jesus Christ was a false prophet[1], and that the Bible simply cannot be trusted as the infallible repository of redemptive revelation.   Now I don’t have a personal ax to grind with Professor Ehrman, I don’t even know him, but I have a completely different mission. He talks about how “the more conservative students–– resist for a long time, secure in their knowledge that God would not allow any falsehoods into a sacred book, but before long, as students see more and more of the evidence, many of them find that their faith in the inerrant and absolute historical truthfulness of the Bible begins to waver."[2] My goal is not to cause students to lose their faith; my goal is to cause students to find their faith, to trust the Bible, and I am particularly focused on this goal right now in that we are reading and recognizing on the basis of research that the vast majority of kids that come from conservative evangelical homes are walking away from the faith. Some say 75% of them[3], Josh McDowell said it could be upwards of 94% of them[4], which is to say that only 6% of them survive the onslaught against the Bible and the historic Christian faith.   So I’ve been devoting some time to demonstrating that the supposed discrepancies are just that, supposed.   According to Professor Ehrman, the first of the key discrepancies with respect to the resurrection involves the female or females who allegedly discovered the empty tomb. Ehrman writes, “Who actually went to the tomb? Was it Mary alone (John 20:1)? Mary and another Mary (Matthew 28:1)? Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome (Mark 16:1)? Or the women who had accompanied Jesus from Galilee to Jerusalem––possibly Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the Mother of James, and ‘other women’ (Luke 24:1, see 23:55)."[5]   Well, it all depends on what Gospel you read, and in responding to a dogmatist, who has made a virtual art form out of exploiting the discrepancies in the secondary details of these Gospels, a number of thoughts spring immediately to mind. Let me share them with you.   First, it’s helpful to recognize that the gospels are complementary rather than contradictory. If John had stipulated that Mary Magdalene was the only female to discover the empty tomb, and the other Gospels had claimed more than one women was involved in the process, we’d be faced with a genuine contradiction. Instead the complementary details provided by the four gospel writers simply, as Paul Harvey used to say, flesh out the “rest of the story.”   Furthermore, credible scholars are always looking for a reliable core set of facts in order to validate historical accounts. In this case, liberal and conservative historians agree that the body of Jesus was buried in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea. As credible scholars have noted, a member of the Jewish court that condemned Christ to death is an unlikely candidate for Christian fiction.[6]   Additionally, when we consider the role of women in 1st century Jewish society, what’s remarkable is that the empty tomb accounts feature females as heroes of the story in the first place. This, of course, demonstrates that the gospel writers factually recorded what happened even if it was culturally embarrassing.   One final point, if each of the gospel writers presented secondary details in exactly the same way, Professor Ehrman would no doubt dismiss their accounts on the basis of collusion. Instead of course the gospels provide unique yet mutually consistent perspectives on the events surrounding the empty tomb.   These principles not only revolve and resolve the conundrum I’m discussing now, but include all the supposed resurrection contradictions that are highlighted by Ehrman in his latest book. Indeed, we can safely conclude that far from being contradictory that the gospel accounts are clearly complementary, that a consensus of credible scholarship consider the core set of facts presented by the gospel writers to be authentic and reliable, and that the unique perspectives provided by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John preclude the possibly of collusion. For further information on supposed Bible contradictions please see my <a href="https://www.kintera.org/site/c.muI1LaMNJrE/b.4487367/k.DD74/The_Complete_Bible_Answer_Book__Collectors_Edition/apps/ka/sd/donor.asp?c=muI1LaMNJrE&b=4487367&en=fwLRL6PZKrJWK6OXLgJQKfP1IqKbLkOVIlI5IfNZJnIVJfN7LAL" target="_blank">Complete Bible Answer Book</a>.    -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [1]  Bart D. Ehrman, Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium  (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 244. [2]  Bart D. Ehrman, Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (And Why We Don’t Know About Them) (New York, Harper One, 2009), 6. [3]   Southern Baptists of Texas Convention,  “Youth ministry summit to explore mass exodus of young from churches” This news release cites LifeWay Christian Resources’ Glenn Schultz in his book Kingdom Education on the 75% number. (http://www.sbtexas.com/default.asp?action=article&aid=3313&issue=11/7/2006). [4] North American Mission Board, “Studies Show that Once Students Graduate from High School They Struggle With Their Faith”, this News Article cites McDowell’s 94% statistic. (http://www.namb.net/site/apps/nlnet/content3.aspx?c=9qKILUOzEpH&b=1594365&ct=3237289) [5]  Ehrman, Jesus Interrupted, 48. [6] Raymond Brown as quoted in Wilkens, Michael J. and J.P. Moreland, eds., Jesus Under Fire: Modern Scholarship Reinvents the Historical Jesus (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1995), 148.   2009-06-12T15:21:28Z April 15, 2009 58 addressing-women-at-the-resurrection Addressing Women at the Resurrection

2010-01-27T16:31:34Z

I want to spend just a few moments talking about the word “Advent.” We’re celebrating the advent season. Very few people seem to know when I talk to them what Advent means. It actually literally means coming. As such, Advent is a season in which the Christian church celebrates the “coming” in flesh of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.   The Advent church calendar is rife with all kinds of traditions from biblical readings to the lightings of candles on an Advent wreath, but the glory of Advent finds its genesis in the Old Testament prophecies that point forward to the coming incarnation of Jesus Christ.   Moses’ prophecy, that God would raise up a prophet like him from among the Israelites, typologically points forward to the greatest of all prophets—the prophet Jesus Christ. Within the context of the Old Testament, the prophecy that God would raise up another prophet like Moses, was fulfilled in the forefuture in Joshua, who led the children of Israel into the Promised Land. In addition to this near future-fulfillment in Joshua, this prophecy came to be understood as pointing forward to an eschatological prophet who would lead the people of God as a new Moses and new Joshua. As Joshua, and the name means salvation, led the children of Israel into the land of promise, so Jesus Christ will lead his people into the New Jerusalem coming down out of Heaven from God.   The Gospel of John reveals that this hope was alive and well in the first century and Stephen implicitly identifies Jesus as the ultimate fulfillment of this prophecy in his impassioned sermon, the very sermon for which he was martyred. In this way both Moses’ prophecy and its near future fulfillment in Joshua serve as types of the great prophet of God, who not only spoke the words of God, but was himself the Word made flesh.   The beauty, the majesty of the gospel is that Abraham, the father of many nations, was promised a royal seed, and that seed is Jesus Christ. However, as the apostle Paul explains, all who are clothed in Christ constitute one congruent chosen covenant community connected by the cross. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed and you are an heir according to the promise. The mystery is this according to the Apostle Paul: That through the gospel, gentiles are heirs, heirs together through Israel, members together of one body and sharers together in the promise in Jesus Christ and if you cannot celebrate that, pray tell what can you celebrate? There is nothing more exciting than the celebration of Jesus Christ coming in flesh.   Now I’ve written a book called The Heart of Christmas, and the purpose of The Heart of Christmas is for you to prepare your heart just as you prepare your home. So often Christmas comes and goes and we have lost the import, the meaning, the significance, that God tabernacled among men in flesh.   The Heart of Christmas is available through the ministry of the Christian Research Institute. You can get a personalized copy for your donation of $100 or more to the Christian Research Institute. You can get discounted packages for family members and friends. There’s an audio version—a lot of different ways in getting The Heart of Christmas. We’ve been talking about making it more than just a book but making it a movement, so order today for not only your own family but co-workers and friends so that just as you prepare your heart for Christmas, they too will prepare their heart for Christmas. Order via the phone lines at 888-7000-CRI, or log onto the World Wide Web at equip.org. You can also write me at P.O. Box 8500, Charlotte, NC 28271. 2009-12-10T20:57:16Z December 9, 2009 193 advent Advent

2010-01-27T16:42:50Z

<a href="http://salemnet.vo.llnwd.net/o29/bibleanswerman/hankspeaksout/contradictions.mp3"></a>Click Here to Listen. I want to deal with some of the issues that have been brought to my awareness by one of our listeners who wrote me a letter saying that he was a non-Christian for a number of reasons. In fact he gave me his top ten reasons for why he is not a Christian. I felt, as I read through those reasons, that these are some of the reasons that are commonly cited as opposition to Christ and a Christian worldview. Earlier I dealt with one of his reasons, the idea of hell. He found that to be horrendously cruel, primitive and just a horrible idea. Today I want to deal with another reason he gave, namely that the Bible is full of contradictions and thus is not a divine work of God and has to be the ruminations of human beings rather than being uniquely inspired by God. Many of the alleged contradictions in the Bible can be reverted back to what we find in the Gospels. For example, a frequently cited alleged contradiction involves the female discoverers of the empty tomb. According to Matthew the discoverers were Mary Magdalene and another Mary. If you go to the Gospel of Mark you'll read that they were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome. Luke claims that it's Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and then others. If you read the Gospel of John he focuses solely on Mary Magdalene. To provide a defensible argument against this kind of dogmatic assertion with respect to contradictions it's helpful to point out that Gospels are complimentary, not contradictory. If John, in the example I just cited, had stipulated that Mary Magdalene was the only female to discover the empty tomb while the other Gospels claimed that more than one woman was involved, we'd be faced with an obvious contradiction. But that's not what's going on. The complimentary details provided by the  Gospel writers simply serve to flush out the rest of the story, as Paul Harvey likes to say. Not only that, but credible scholars always look for a reliable core set of facts to validate historical accounts. In other words, they look for this reliable core, and in this case liberal and conservative scholars agree that the body of Jesus was buried in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, and as a member of the Jewish court that convicted Jesus Christ to death, he's unlikely to be Christian fiction. When we consider the role of women in the first century, Jewish people were very, very clearly oriented to thinking that women were mere chattel. What's remarkable is that the empty tomb accounts would feature females as heroes of the story. This demonstrates that the Gospel writers recorded what happened, even if they felt it culturally embarrassing. One other point, and that is, if each of the Gospel writers presented secondary details in exactly the same way, critics would dismiss the accounts in the Gospels on the basis of collusion. Instead, the Gospels provide unique, yet mutually consistent, perspectives on the events surrounding the empty tomb. So we can safely conclude that, far from being contradictory, the Gospel accounts are clearly complimentary. A consensus of credible scholarship considers the core set of facts presented by the Gospel writers to be authentic and thus reliable, and the unique perspectives provided by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John actually preclude the possibility of collusion. In a court of law, someone is considered innocent until proven guilty. Sadly, when it comes to the Bible people often render a guilty verdict without considering all the evidence.       <table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6"> <tbody> <tr> <td valign="top"> Suggested Resources: <a href="http://www.equipresources.org/site/apps/ka/ec/product.asp?c=muI1LaMNJrE&b=2537845&en=jkKNL1POKkLRJ2OMK9IMJ6MVJtLZK3MJLkJ5JdOVLuIbE&ProductID=430722"><img class="photo" src="http://www.equipresources.org/atf/cf/%7B9C4EE03A-F988-4091-84BD-F8E70A3B0215%7D/B767.JPG" border="0" alt="" align="left" /></a>Hardcover Book The Bible Answer Book Resource# B767 Price:$14.99 Audience: General <a href="http://www.equipresources.org/site/apps/ka/ec/product.asp?c=muI1LaMNJrE&b=2537845&en=7fJMLTOuEbJCKNPsE7KKK5NAL7IEJWOGKhJQL6OME&ProductID=431008">Order</a> <a href="http://www.equipresources.org/site/apps/ka/ec/product.asp?c=muI1LaMNJrE&b=2537845&en=jkKNL1POKkLRJ2OMK9IMJ6MVJtLZK3MJLkJ5JdOVLuIbE&ProductID=430722"><img class="photo" src="http://www.equipresources.org/atf/account26032/images/b942.jpg" border="0" alt="" align="left" /></a>Hardcover Book The Bible Answer Book, Volume 2 Resource# B942 Price:$14.99 Audience: General <a href="http://www.equipresources.org/site/apps/ka/ec/product.asp?c=muI1LaMNJrE&b=2537845&en=7fJMLTOuEbJCKNPsE7KKK5NAL7IEJWOGKhJQL6OME&ProductID=430722">Order</a> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> 2009-06-12T15:25:30Z October 19, 2007 59 alleged-contradictions-in-the-bible Alleged Contradictions in the Bible

2009-10-16T15:28:51Z

Have you ever noticed how many people seem to be metaphorically drunk on the millennium? You go back to the early 1800s and you have a broad range of people that are seeking to time the approaching terror and the turmoil of the tribulation correlated with the Second Coming by correlating current events with biblical prophecy. They’re forever trying to “pin the tail on the Anti-Christ.” <a style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title="blocked::#_edn1" name="_ednref1" href="../#_edn1">[1]</a> On the cultic fringe you have people like Mormon founder Joseph Smith, who was propagating that notion that his generation was living in the very shadow of Christ’s return. Joseph Smith alleged that God told him the return of Christ would take place before he—Joseph Smith—was 85 years of age. Of course, that didn’t happen. In more main stream millennial circles, the gifted Baptist orator William Miller was circulating the conclusion that his generation was living on the very edge of the millennium. In fact, in 1831 he publicly identified the year of Christ's return as 1843. How did he do it? Well, he used millennial mathematics. He calculated a day in prophetic parlance as equivalent to year in prophetic history, and so according to Daniel 8, exactly 2,300 days after Artaxerxes’ decree the millennium would commence. Does this sound a little bit like Jack Van Impe today? Nineteenth-century Historic Premillennialists used millennial mathematics not only to date the time of Christ’s descent but to determine details like the time of Anti-Christ’s demise. Then in 1831 you have [John Nelson] Darby, who adds a unique twist to the dating game by introducing the concept of a secret coming, seven years prior to a second coming. He said that one can determine the time of Christ’s Second Coming after the time of Christ’s secret coming. Later dispensationalists like [Tim] LaHaye found a variety of new rules to ensure that the dating game could be played on and on. He demonstrated this idea of forwarding the notion that the “generation” who heard the Austrian Declaration of World War I in 1914 would not pass away before Christ’s Second Coming. <a style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title="blocked::#_edn2" name="_ednref2" href="../#_edn2">[2]</a> So you have the people in the past content to be spectators to unfolding events and timing the events, but today’s brand bent on ensuring that these events become a self-fulfilling prophecy. The problem is if the evangelical death march toward the end time of Armageddon can be subverted, it’s going to be because believers recommit themselves to faithful illumination. In other words, what I’m saying is, it will be because believers recommit themselves to faithful exegesis—which is to mine what the Spirit has breathed into Scripture as opposed to reading our own predilections into the text. Look, sudden flashes of intuition or inspiration are poor substitutes for the scrupulous study of the Word of God. We must pray that the Holy Spirit gives us clear minds and open hearts as we dig into his Word. That means a willingness to sacrifice treasured traditions on the altar of biblical fidelity. It means learning to read the Bible for all its worth. Ultimately, it means turning away from sensationalism and marching undeterred toward reading the Bible, studying the Bible, and being intoxicated with the Word of God again, instead of turning on the television and being titillated by the sensationalists. We are dragging Christ’s name through the mud and we need to get back to the Bible, it is critical. To learn more about reading the Bible for all it’s worth check out my Legacy Study Bible and The Apocalypse Code at <a title="http://www.equip.org/" href="../../">www.equip.org</a>. <div style="mso-element: endnote-list;"> <hr size="1" /> <div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;"> <a style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title="blocked::#_ednref1" name="_edn1" href="../#_ednref1">[1] Principles sources for the following discussion of Smith, Miller, and Darby are Timothy P. Weber, </a>Living in the Shadow of the Second Coming: American Premillennialsim, 1875-1982 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983, ed), Timothy P. Weber, On the Road to Armageddon: How Evangelicals Became Israel’s Best Friend  (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2004), Ernest R. Sandeen The Roots of Fundamentalism: British and American Millenarianism 1800-1930 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970), and George Eldon Ladd, The Blessed Hope (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1956).   </div> <div id="edn2" style="mso-element: endnote;"> <a style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title="blocked::#_ednref2" name="_edn2" href="../#_ednref2">[2] Tim Lahaye, </a>The Beginning of the End (Wheaton: Tyndale, 1972), 38-39; also see the whole of chapter 3, “The First Sign of the End,” and Chapter 15, “Is This the Last Generation?” LaHaye argued that World War 1 uniquely fulfilled the prophecy of Matthew 24:7, which in his mind was the sign to indicate “the beginning of the end.” In 1999 Lahaye coauthored with Jerry B Jenkins Are We Living in the End Times? (Wheaton: Tyndale, 1999) in which he had not yet ruled out the possibility that the generation that saw World War 1 would not pass away until the Lord returns, saying that scenario, “should not be ruled out for another five years or so” (59). </div> </div> 2009-07-10T19:53:47Z July 9, 2009 166 are-some-people-drunk-on-the-millennium- Are some people drunk on the Millennium?

2010-01-27T16:50:54Z

Within my “<a href="http://www.equip.org/site/legacy_reading_plan">Legacy Study Bible Reading Plan</a>,” we are now in November and staring to read the book of Romans. You want to get into Romans, one of the great pieces of literature in general, but from the perspective of a Christian, this is the infallible repository of redemptive revelation.   You see in Romans chapter 1 Paul talks about the light of creation and demonstrates that all people everywhere have the light of creation. Then in Romans chapter 2, he talks about the light of conscience, the fact that the knowledge of God is emblazoned on the tablet of our heart. So, on the one hand, in Romans chapter 1 we have an outer light, but on the other hand, in Romans chapter 2 we have an inner light.   If we respond to both the light from without and the light from within, we are assured by the Apostle Paul in Romans chapter 3 that we will receive the light of Jesus Christ. This is why Paul can say in the book of Acts, “From one man he made every nation of men that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.” (17:26-27).   I am often times comforted by those words from the Apostle Paul, for recently I was in Asia. I visited Korea, Taiwan, and mainland China, and there I often times saw the teeming masses beguiled by ancestral worship or folk religions. I stood in Shanghai and watched the faces as they went by, and I wondered do they know the Lord? How can they come to know Christ? Again, I was comforted by the knowledge that they have the light of creation, and that God has placed within them the light of conscience, and if they love light as opposed to darkness, God will give them the light of Christ.   God can do this supernaturally, He doesn’t need human agency, but in God’s economy He is determined that we are the agents of Good News in a normative fashion of salvation. In other words, we have the privilege of having the Holy Spirit move through us in the process of communicating the grace, peace, and love that only Jesus Christ can bring to the human heart.   Now the question is “are we ready to seize the opportunity or are we consumed by apathy?” We stand in Western Christianity on the precipice of a great divide. Are we going to continue conforming our selves to the culture or are we going to conform ourselves to Christ, take up His cross and follow Him? If we are we can turn things around in Western Civilization, we need to get back to the basics that made Western Civilization great. Western Civilization became great because it was built on the DNA of Western Christianity.   If we fail to do so, we may well watch a shift of power, not power in terms of military power (although that is possible as well) but in terms of an economic resurgence of power in Pacific Rim nations that is unprecedented, which is something we are seeing today. We are also seeing a resurgence of authentic New Testament Christianity growing at such a rate that—quite frankly—the Communist Chinese government doesn’t know what to do with it. If you have a 1,000, 10,000, or even 100,000 Christians, you can imprison and persecute them, but when it comes to numbers like 100 million, perhaps now you have a force so great that it can turn an empire upside down, very much like what happened in the first century.   So we see a balance of powers that is shifting and changing in a very dynamic fashion before our eyes. The question the West faces is, “are we going to go back to the Cross or are we going to be consumed by the culture?”   The mission of the Christian Research Institute is to equip committed Christians to go back to authentic New Testament Christianity, to take up their cross, follow Christ, to become ambassadors for Christ, as opposed to secret agents who are unwilling or unable to communicate the Gospel but haven never blown their cover before an unregenerate world. So secularism, hedonism, and humanism are on the march and Christianity is on the decline. We can change things, if we will get back to basics. Again, our mission is to equip people, and we want to equip literally hundreds of millions to think Christianly and therefore not be conformed to the culture but rather be transforming agents in the culture.   For a good start check out my Complete Bible Answer Book at our Website <a href="http://www.equip.org/">www.equip.org</a> or by calling us 1-888-700-0274.   2009-11-09T18:41:57Z November 5, 2009 189 are-you-ready-to-reach-the-masses- Are You Ready to Reach the Masses?

2010-01-27T17:00:14Z

<a href="http://www.equipresources.org/atf/cf/%7B9C4EE03A-F988-4091-84BD-F8E70A3B0215%7D/PSN001.PDF">view response as pdf</a> Position Statement: PSN001 Response to National Liberty Journal article   on The Apocalypse code   To the Editor:  Thank-you for this opportunity to respond to the recent National Liberty Journal article titled, “Hanegraaff Calls Tim LaHaye a Racist and Blasphemer,” by Thomas Ice (http://www.nljonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=688&Itemid=0). In November 2004 an article appeared in the Dallas Morning News titled, “Last Disciple vs. Left Behind: New Take on Rapture Puts Authors in Apocalyptic Feud.” In the article Tim LaHaye supposed that I subscribe to the “nonsense” that “Christ came back in AD 68.” As LaHaye’s charge was circulated via newspapers and the Internet, I was summarily branded a “preterist” and a heretic who believes the second coming of Christ has already come. Pre-Trib Research Center fellow Mark Hitchcock not only associates me with preterism but uses the label to suggest I may be prone to anti-Semitic proclivities. And now the National Liberty Journal headline: “Hanegraaff Calls Tim LaHaye a Racist and Blasphemer.” The article begins by characterizing The Apocalypse Code as “a sub-Christian attack,” proceeds to say “Hanegraaff is certainly no lover of Israel,” and concludes with the assertion, “Hanegraaff embraces and argues for Replacement Theology.” First, a careful reading of The Apocalypse Code demonstrates that I do not call LaHaye a racist or a blasphemer. Rather, it is the implications of his theology that I call into question. For example, as I explain, LaHaye divides people into two categories on the basis of race. He goes so far as to assert, “After carefully analyzing the temperament of the first Israelite as he is described in the Bible, I have found Jacob to be a ‘dead ringer’ for the twentieth-century residents of Israel.”  The good news for Jews is that LaHaye believes that on the basis of their race they have a divine right to the land of Palestine. The bad news, according to LaHaye's worldview, is that as a direct result of the crucifixion of Christ twenty-first century Jews will soon die in an Armageddon that will make the Nazi Holocaust pale by comparison. In sharp contrast, I hold the very suggestion that Jews are under a national blood-guiltiness for the murder of Christ to be abhorrent. Furthermore, the accusation “Hanegraaff is no lover of Israel” is flatly false. The Apocalypse Code clearly underscores my conviction that “the modern state of Israel has a definitive right to exist.” What I object to is the notion of a racially exclusive state. Indeed, in light of the Incarnation, the Zionist suggestion that the modern land of Palestine, along with its capital Jerusalem, is to be reserved for a single ethnicity, or that the temple must be rebuilt and its sacrificial system reinstituted, borders on blasphemy. Moreover, to suggest that native Palestinians—many of whom are our sisters and brothers in Christ—must be forcibly removed from the land is not only unbiblical but unethical. Just as it is a grievous sin to turn a blind eye to the evil of anti-Semitism, so it is a grievous sin to turn a blind eye to a theology that divides people on the basis of race rather than uniting them on the basis of righteousness, justice, and equity. As I affirm in my book, God is not pro-Palestinian, He is pro-peace; He is not pro-Jew, He is pro-justice!   Finally, I have never argued for Replacement Theology. As demonstrated in The Apocalypse Code, far from having two people divided by race, God has only ever had one chosen people who form one covenant community, beautifully symbolized in Scripture by one cultivated olive tree. Indeed, the precise terminology used to describe the children of Israel in the Old Testament is ascribed to the church in the New Testament. Peter calls them “a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God” (1 Peter 2:9). Ultimately, they are the one chosen people of God, not by virtue of their genealogical relationship to Abraham, but by virtue of their genuine relationship to “the living Stone—rejected by men, but chosen by God” (1 Peter 2:4). As such, the true church is true Israel, and true Israel is truly the church—one cannot replace what it already is. Rather than reason together in collegial debate, dispensationalists have coined the phrase “Replacement theologian” as the ultimate silencer. Far from facilitating race-based discrimination on the basis of our eschatological presuppositions, Christians must be equipped to communicate that Christianity knows nothing of dividing people on the basis of race. Just as evangelicalism now universally repudiates the once-common appeal to Genesis 9:27 in support of slavery of blacks, we must thoroughly and finally put to rest any thought that the Bible supports the horrors of racial discrimination wherever and in whatever form we encounter it, whether within the borders of the United States or in the hallowed regions of the Middle East. —Hank Hanegraaff, president of Christian Research Institute, host of the Bible Answer Man broadcast, and author of The Apocalypse Code Suggested Resources: <img src="http://www.equipresources.org/atf/Account26032/images/B958.jpg" border="0" alt="" align="left" />Hardcover Book The Apocalypse Code Resource# B958 Author: Hank Hanegraaff Price:$21.99 Audience: General <a href="http://www.equipresources.org/site/apps/ka/ec/Product.asp?c=muI1LaMNJrE&b=2537845&en=jrJLKRNGIlIKKSMyHaLILRNyHcKVI4MyE8KRLaOILkI1LgI&ProductID=431266">Order</a>   2009-06-12T15:28:40Z May 3, 2007 60 article-by-thomas-ice Article by Thomas Ice

2009-06-12T15:28:40Z

I'd like to talk about something that happened on CNN, the Democratic Candidates Compassion Forum, where Jon Meacham, editor of Newsweek, asked Senator Obama and Senator Clinton questions. These questions are issues that we deal with frequently on the Bible Answer Man broadcast, questions about the problem of evil and suffering, questions about the end of life and whether euthanasia is ever permissible, questions about the origin of life, and questions such as when life begins and what is an embryo. Is an embryo something that has potential life or does all life begin at conception? Jon Meacham, editor of Newsweek, asked this question to Barack Obama and he said in essence "I don't know if life begins at conception." This is what he said: Jon Meacham, editor of Newsweek: Senator, do you personally believe that life begins at conception? And if not, when does it begin? Barack Obama: This is something that I have not, I think, come to a firm resolution on. I think it's very hard to know what that means, when life begins. Is it when a cell separates? Is it when the soul stirs? So I don't presume to know the answer to that question. What I know, as I've said before, is that there is something extraordinarily powerful about potential life and that that has a moral weight to it that we take into consideration when we're having these debates. (Democratic Candidates Compassion Forum, CNN, April 13, 2008) The last thing that he said was particularly interesting. He used the phrase "potential life" and he went on to say there is something extraordinarily powerful about this potential life and that this power has to do with the moral weight that the issue would have if this has life, if this is, in fact, a human being from the moment of conception. So he understands the issue. By the way, this is a guy who was the head of the Harvard Law Review, educated at Harvard, so this isn't your average guy. This isn't the first time he's thought about these issues. It seems to me that his answer is a typical political answer - it's big on rhetoric, small on reason, and even smaller on logic. Of course life begins at conception. What is it if it's not living? The zygote, the conceptus, the embryo, fulfills the criteria needed to establish the existence of biological life. It has metabolism, development, the ability to react to stimuli and cell reproduction. That's why taking the life of an embryo is terminating the life of the embryo, which is killing. While it's true that everyone is born and conceived in sin, according to the Christian worldview, preborn children are innocent because they have done nothing to deserve capital punishment. They deserve, instead, protection. What Obama is unwilling to embrace is the full human potential of the embryo. He wants to hide behind the phrase "potential life." The reality is the living baby in the mother's womb is a human being. The child is the product of human parents and has a totally distinct human genetic code. If Barack Obama was living in the 19th century, we could give him a pas, but he's not living in the 19th century - he's living in an age of scientific enlightenment and he should know what someone from the school in which he was educated knew, namely Dr. Mathews-Roth, a principal research associate at Harvard Medical Schools Department of Medicine, who may have been saying this when he was being educated there." "It is scientifically correct to say that an individual human life begins at conception, when egg and sperm join to form the zygote, and this developing human always is a member of our species in all stages of its life." Therefore, if you're Barack Obama you cannot discriminate. You can't decide "I'm Barack Obama. I'm going to decide that I can take that life, and it's perfectly okay to take that life when it's 10 minutes old or it's 10 days old or when it's 8 months old" or, in his case he cannot decide that it's okay to kill that baby in the most ghastly of all experiments, partial birth abortion, of which he is in favor. Now think about this for a moment. I have a lot of children. I have seen my children being born and it's one of the most awesome experiences any human being will ever have, to see one human being come out of the other. It has always reduced me to tears. What is even more tearful - and my tears were tears of joy, are tears of pain - to imagine that we have a politician who is saying it is okay to kill that child. Remember, in partial-birth abortion I don't think there's a whole lot of mystery to it. The only difference is a difference of location. In other words, it's okay in his view to kill the child, to terminate it, execute it, if it's partially born. But if it's fully born, well he would probably be crying for the death penalty for anybody who did this, or certainly think it was a horrendous act, at best. Imagine this - think with me for a moment - what is the difference between that child two minutes before the umbilical cord is severed and afterwards? Is there any difference? If you've ever seen a birth you know there is no difference, and yet he is for partial-birth abortion. Dr. Hymie Gordon is a professor of Medical Genetics and a physician at the prestigious Mayo Clinic. He summarized the perspective of science, and I think he did it well when he said "I think we can now also say that the question of the beginning of life — when life begins — is no longer a question for theological or philosophical dispute. It is an established scientific fact. Theologians and philosophers" - and I would add politicians - "may go on to debate the meaning of life or purpose of life, but it is an established fact that all life, including human life, begins at the moment of conception." I would add that since science has demonstrated that a pre-born child is human, and since all human beings have transcendent value, it follows that taking the life of an innocent human being through abortion is unthinkable. Remember when this is debated on television that you, as a Christian, ought to be armed with the ammunition, because the questions are now coming up, they're being dealt with, they're being discussed, and you shouldn't be in the dark. You should know you didn't come from an embryo - you once were an embryo, and that, my friends, makes all the difference in the world. So we should be listening to these debates with Christian ears, ears of Christians in an age of scientific enlightenment, the ears of Christians who know how to take these kinds of issues and use them as springboards or opportunities for communicating a Christian worldview. We should to this with power and passion because we're talking about life. The life issues are significant. Are they the only issues? No. But they are significant. In fairness, I could have reported Senator Clinton's remarks, because she deals with the life issue as well. Or we could play John McCain's remarks. The point isn't to isolate a politician but to point out the ghastly reality that these people are getting a pass when they are standing for some of the most ghastly things imaginable in human civilization. Partial birth abortion is unthinkable. Even if you think it's okay to terminate a zygote, the very notion of terminating a child that's just about to emerge into a world that God created for them is unthinkable. It's simply ghastly and it should never be permitted in a civilized society. At least that's one issue we've made some progress on in the last eight years. We didn't make much progress on the life issue but that's one place where we made progress, and yet Obama is still in a backward condition on this articular issue. <a href="http://www.equipresources.org/c.muI1LaMNJrE/b.2537845/site/apps/ka/ec/Product.asp?ProductID=430742"><img style="border: 0px;" src="http://www.equipresources.org/atf/account26032/images/b800.jpg" alt="" width="100" height="165" /></a> <a href="http://www.equipresources.org/c.muI1LaMNJrE/b.2537845/site/apps/ka/ec/Product.asp?ProductID=430742">Why Pro-Life? : Caring for the Unborn and Their Mothers</a> B800 $10.99 2009-06-12T15:34:41Z June 13, 2008 61 barack-obama-on-when-life-begins-and-partial-birth-abortion Barack Obama on When Life Begins and Partial Birth Abortion

2010-01-27T17:14:20Z

From the time that Barack Obama burst upon our collective consciousness he has demonstrated more than a passing interest in biblical theology. On the one hand I've been taken by his eloquence and his willingness to speak forthrightly about his personal religious convictions. In fact he well said that "the majority of great reformers in American history were not only motivated by faith, but repeatedly used religious language to argue for their causes. So to say that men and women should not inject their personal morality into public policy debates is a practical absurdity." And I think that's well said. It's correct. On the other hand, I am very troubled by Obama's twisting of the biblical text. It's one thing to openly take issue with the Bible. It's quite another to overtly mischaracterize the message of the Bible. In his "Call to Renewal," a keynote address to religious leaders, he made at least three such mischaracterizations. He said: "Which passages of Scripture should guide our public policy? Should we go with Leviticus, which suggests slavery is okay and that eating shellfish is an abomination? Or we could go with Deuteronomy which suggests stoning your child if he strays from the faith." Well, to begin with, in that clip Obama said that Leviticus suggests slavery is okay. In reality, nothing could be farther from the truth. Far from extolling the virtues of slavery, the Bible clearly and categorically denounces slavery as sin. I've written about that in detail in Bible Answer Book, Volume 1. His second mischaracterization is far more subtle. While he's right in suggesting that Leviticus characterizes the eating of shellfish as an abomination, he is wrong in isolating this injunction from its biblical context. If he had an adequate appreciation of the rich tradition of biblical Judaism I think he would have been far more restrained in his characterization and I dealt with that subject in principle in an article that appeared in the Christian Research Journal called "President Bartlett's Fallacious Diatribe." It was an article I wrote on the television show West Wing. His third mischaracterization is perhaps the most egregious and easy to dismiss because nowhere does Deuteronomy suggest stoning your child if he strays from the faith. You will not find that anywhere in Scripture. It is a clear mischaracterization of what the biblical text actually says. To begin with the son in question is not an adolescent guilty of nothing more than slamming doors. The son described by Moses in the Book of Deuteronomy is old enough to be morally culpable of extravagantly wicked behavior. It's the kind of behavior that threatens the health and safety of the entire community. The parents' desire in the context of this passage to spare their own son serves as a built-in buffer against an unwarranted or frivolous enforcement of the law. Likewise, ratification by the elders precludes a precipitous judgment on the part of the parents. Thus, the standard of evidence prescribed by the Mosaic Law exceeds that of modern jurisprudence. For Obama to claim the moral high ground over the Scriptures is the height of hypocrisy. For over three decades Western society has sanctioned the systematic slaughter of children, guilty of nothing more than being unwanted. Worse still, Obama did not have the moral conviction to vote for the civil rights of the partially born child. Mischaracterization serves a purpose, though. it reminds us that we should learn to read the Bible for all it's worth. If we genuinely believe that God has spoken the attendant question for all of us should be "What has God said?" I think in our society if we can counter these kinds of objections we can use them as springboards or opportunities to lead people to Christ. If we can't, these kinds of objections which are circulated on popular television shows and on the internet are leading people away from the faith. If you heard me the other day, a man called up and asked me questions like this because his son was now walking away from the faith because he didn't think there were credible answers to questions like this. It is incumbent upon Christians to always be ready to give an answer, to do it with gentleness and with respect, but to do it. Don't let the question remain unanswered as though the historic Christian faith doesn't have a credible answer. It's why I answer questions on the Bible Answer Man broadcast and why I wrote the Bible Answer Books. We want people to be able to counter these kinds of mischaracterizations, whether they come from the highest realms of political leadership or a person in a grocery store. We need to know that the Christian faith is not for obscurantists who lost their brain somewhere in the narthex of the church. The Christian faith stands the test of time. It's credible, it's reliable, it's defensible and ultimately it is the way to have a relationship with the living Lord of the universe.   2009-06-12T15:36:45Z August 4, 2008 62 barack-obama-s-twisting-of-the-scriptures Barack Obama's Twisting of the Scriptures

2010-01-27T17:18:40Z

<table style="width: 100%; height: 100%;" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="10"> <tbody> <tr height="57"> <td width="501" height="57" valign="top"> <a href="http://salemnet.vo.llnwd.net/o29/bibleanswerman/hankspeaksout/promise_keepers.mp3"></a>Click Here to listen     </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="501" valign="top"> <div> <table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6"> <tbody> <tr> <td valign="top"><img src="http://www.equipresources.org/atf/cf/%7B9C4EE03A-F988-4091-84BD-F8E70A3B0215%7D/B913.jpg" border="0" alt="B913.jpg" hspace="10" width="100" align="left" />Paperback Book 7 Questions of a Promise Keeper Resource# B913 Authors: Hank Hanegraaff, Thomas S. Fortson, Jr. Publisher: Nelson Reference Price:$7.99 <a title="Question or Comment" href="mailto:store@equip.org?Subject=Online Resource Question: 7 Questions of a Promise Keeper (B913)"><img src="http://www.equipresources.org/atf/cf/%7B9C4EE03A-F988-4091-84BD-F8E70A3B0215%7D/ico-comm.gif" border="0" alt="Question or Comment" width="18" height="13" /></a> <a href="http://www.equipresources.org/site/apps/ka/ec/product.asp?c=muI1LaMNJrE&b=2537845&ProductID=431249">Order</a></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </div> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> 2009-06-12T14:56:16Z February 28, 2007 54 being-a-promise-keeper Being a Promise Keeper

2009-06-12T14:56:16Z

A common mistake that Christians make is to suppose that someone, by your apologetic or by your well-reasoned answer, can be talked into the Kingdom of God. The motivation might be sincere but the consequences are often devastating. No matter how eloquent you may or may not be, you can't change anyone else's heart. Only the Holy Spirit can do that. Thus, while it's your responsibility to always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have, it is ultimately God who changes the heart. The problem is not that people cannot believe - it's that they will not believe. In other words, it is often not a matter of the mind. It is a matter of the will. As Jesus Christ explained, "This is the verdict. Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates light and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed." This is Jesus talking. The Christian faith is reasonable, but as Jesus Christ made clear, reason alone will not compel a person to embrace our Lord. I'm utterly convinced that if we're prepared to give an answer God will bring into our paths those whose hearts He has prepared, so it's our responsibility to prepare ourselves to be the most effective tools in the hands of almighty God. That's what we're doing - preparing. We're getting ready to give an answer. Then pray that the Holy Spirit will use our answer as the means through which He transforms a life for time and for eternity. Often in our thrill-oriented society, we're looking for the next experience. You want a real experience as a Christian? Try learning how to give a defense of the faith and then see God use your well-reasoned answer as a springboard or an opportunity to communicate the Gospel and see a son or daughter of Adam come into the Kingdom. Let me tell you, there is no more wonderful experience than that. You will be exhilarated. What you thought was a duty will become a delight. All too often the Christian church has missed the experience because they're looking for experience in all the wrong places. They go to Pensacola or to Toronto or now to Lakeland, Florida, and I hear about barking in the Spirit or laughing in the Spirit or the gold dust revival. God is etching crosses on gold teeth today, and people buy into it and wait in line for it and they get all jazzed up and all worked up, and a week later they are more depressed than ever before because they bought into something that over-promised and under-performed. But if you get back to basics and get into the Word of God and get the Word of God into you - now that takes some work, there is a reward. There's a real payoff. It will enhance your witnessing, your prayer life, your counseling, your relationship with mother and father, with husband and wife, with siblings and with friends. Try it sometime. Try becoming an equipped Christian. Your life will be revolutionized, a foretaste of what will happen when you cross the veil into eternity and meet the person that God brought into your path, and you were able to share the Gospel or provide it for ministries like this that did so, and realize that you had a part in that process, and then hear Jesus say this to you: "Well done, good and faithful servant." Recommended Resources:   <div id="ec_container_vert"> <div class="lstprod_1"><a href="http://www.equipresources.org/c.muI1LaMNJrE/b.2537845/site/apps/ka/ec/Product.asp?ProductID=612253"><img style="border: 0px;" src="http://www.equipresources.org/atf/Account26032/images/B982small2.jpg" alt="" width="100" height="170" /></a> <a href="http://www.equipresources.org/c.muI1LaMNJrE/b.2537845/site/apps/ka/ec/Product.asp?ProductID=612253">The Complete Bible Answer Book - Collector's Edition</a> B982 $21.99</div> </div> 2009-06-12T15:39:25Z August 8, 2008 63 being-prepared-to-give-an-answer Being Prepared to Give an Answer

2010-01-27T17:24:50Z

Over the past 15 years Benny Hinn, along with a lot of other Faith teachers, have continued to add to a list of spurious prophecies and pronouncements, Benny Hinn in particular. On October 19, 1999 he predicted that instead of burying the dead people around the world were going to line up caskets around television sets, place their hands on the dead, take those hands of the dead, place them on TV screens and then marvel as their loved ones arose from the dead. Here's how Hinn put it: "But here's first what I see for TBN. You're going to have people raised from the dead watching this network. You're going to have people raised from the dead watching TBN....I'm telling you, I see this in the Spirit. It's going to be so awesome - Jesus I give you praise for this - that people around the world - maybe not so much in America - people around the world who will lose loved ones, will say to undertakers 'Not yet. I want to take my dead loved one and place him in front of that TV set for 24 hours'....I see rows of caskets lining up in front of this TV set and I see them bringing them closer to the TV set and as people are coming closer I see actual loved ones picking up the hands of the dead and letting them touch the screen and people are getting raised as their hands are touching that screen." He made this prophecy back in 1999. This is rows of caskets, all kinds of people being raised from the dead, and to date there is not a single credible testimony of a single person watching the Trinity Broadcasting Network being raised from the dead. They might have died watching the program, but there's no evidence that they were raised from the dead. Then on January 1st, 1990 Hinn attempted to delude his devotees into believing that God spoke to him and revealed the fate of Fidel Castro in Cuba as well as homosexuals in America. This is what he had to say about Fidel Castro: The Spirit tells me Fidel Castro will die in the '90s. Oh, my! Some will try to kill him and they will not succeed, but there will come a change in his physical health and he will not stay in power and Cuba will be visited of God. So we have three prophecies in the space of two sentences in terms of what is going to happen with Fidel Castro and what is going to happen in Cuba. What's particularly chilling about this - and this is what I want you to catch as you're listening to these clips - is Benny Hinn is not saying "This is my opinion." He is attributing this go God Himself. Remember, he started by saying "The Spirit has revealed to me." Not only did the Holy Spirit reveal to Benny Hinn that Castro would die in the 90s - which, of course, hasn't happened - but he also said that Almighty God revealed to him both the timing and the method through which homosexuals in America would be destroyed. The Lord also tells me to tell you in the mid-90’s, about ’94, ’95, no later than that, God will destroy the homosexual community of America. [Round of applause] But He will not destroy it with what many minds have thought Him to be. He will destroy it with fire, and many will turn and be saved, and many will rebel and be destroyed. Again, Benny Hinn says "The Lord also tells me." In other words, God revealed this to him. Now, what I don't understand about that particular clip is the audience listening to Benny Hinn applauding when Benny Hinn says that God said that homosexuals would be destroyed. Why would you applaud that? Do we as Christians really want homosexuals to be destroyed? Is that what Christianity is all about? Or is Christianity about reaching people no matter what condition they are in? In 1993 Hinn pontificated that because Jesus promised that He would return within a generation of Israel's restoration in 1948, and because a generation in his view was 51.4 years, only six years remained before Christ would come back to rapture the saints. Seven years later, on March 29th, 2000 he began predicting that Jesus would appear physically in his crusades. Again, according to Hinn, the Lord spoke to him. In fact, the Lord spoke to Hinn audibly, and the Word of the Lord came to him saying "Tell Benny I'm going to appear physically on the platform in his meetings." What is particularly noteworthy about this prophecy is that Hinn here was prophesying that Jesus, God's Son, was about to appear physically in meetings and that the supernatural appearances would take place in Nairobi, Kenya. I believe - hear this, hear this - I believe that Jesus, God's Son, is about to appear physically in meetings and to believers around the world to wake us up. He appeared after His resurrection and He's about to appear before His second coming. You know, a prophetess sent me a word through my wife right here, and she said "Tell your husband that Jesus is going to physically appear in his meetings." I'm expecting to see - I'm telling you, I feel it's going to happen. I'm careful in how I'm saying it now, because I know that people in Kenya are listening. I know deep in my soul something supernatural is going to happen in Nairobi, Kenya. I feel that. I may very well come back - and you and Jan are coming. Paul and Jan are coming to Nairobi with me - But Paul, we may very well come back with footage of Jesus on the platform….Now hear this - I'm prophesying this: Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is about to appear physically in some churches and some meetings and to many of His people, for one reason - to tell you He's about to show up. Now why did I say that this is worthy of particular note? It's because scarcely weeks before Hinn's prophecy a Florida newspaper drew attention to New Age guru Benjamin Crème's prediction that the second coming of Christ had taken place in Nairobi, Kenya. Florida Today reported that in a photograph utilized by Crème, this dark-skinned, heavily bearded man in a white headdress and a white robe seemed to float above a crowd of worshippers at a healing service in Nairobi, Kenya. Florida Today not only noted the mass healings that allegedly took place but reported that even though Christians present firmly believe that Jesus Christ appeared to them that day, Crème held that Maitreya, the fifth and final incarnation of the Buddha, had materialized. Interesting. In any case another eight years has gone since the prophet Hinn predicted that Jesus would appear physically in churches and crusades. We're now in 2008 and his prophecy remains unfulfilled. One thing does not remain unfulfilled: the Apostle Peter predicted two thousand years ago "Jesus must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything." Another thing that is being fulfilled today is that we are having a proliferation of false prophets like Benny Hinn with mega-platforms around the world seducing people with prophecies that fail. I just gave you half a dozen or so prophecies. They've all proven false. They're all sensationalistic. People fall for them because they don't know the Scriptures. They cannot discern between wheat and chaff and heat and light. I want to underscore once again that this is why we exist as an organization. It is to make you so familiar with truth that when counterfeits loom on the horizon you'll know it instantaneously. Recommended resource: <a href="http://www.equipresources.org/c.muI1LaMNJrE/b.2537845/site/apps/ka/ec/Product.asp?ProductID=612253"><img style="border: 0px;" src="http://www.equipresources.org/atf/Account26032/images/B982small2.jpg" alt="" width="100" height="170" /></a> <a href="http://www.equipresources.org/c.muI1LaMNJrE/b.2537845/site/apps/ka/ec/Product.asp?ProductID=612253">The Complete Bible Answer Book - Collector's Edition</a> B982 $21.99 2009-06-12T15:42:00Z June 25, 2008 64 benny-hinn-s-false-prophecies Benny Hinn's False Prophecies

2010-01-27T17:39:52Z

I get a lot of letters that come across my desk and some of them are letters from people who are just plain angry. Why are they angry? They don’t like what I’m saying about some of their favorite teachers. I recently got a letter from a man named William who wrote “I heard you once again distraught over the Benny Hinns, Kenneth Copelands, and now there's Todd Bentley on the scene. I’ve heard your disapproval but scripturally I haven’t heard you disprove anyone or any of their practices.” Anyone who has listened to the Bible Answer Man or read my books knows this isn’t the case but William continues on, “the Scripture says no one can call Jesus Lord except by the Spirit of God. Does Benny Hinn, Ken Copeland and all the others you call counterfeit revivalists call Jesus Lord?” Well I would answer William,"Yes they do." The question is what do they mean? No one can say Jesus is Lord rightly, by biblical standards, except by the Holy Spirit. In fact that’s precisely why Jesus Christ can say “Many will say to me on that day, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles? Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!”(Matt 7:22-23 NIV). What’s important for William or anyone asking that question is to learn to read Scripture in light of Scripture, so that they do not falsely interpret the Word of God. Of course William goes on to say many other things. He asks, “What are these Counterfeit Revivalists motives regarding such things as healing the sick?” The question that I’ve addressed before on the Bible Answer Man, in my book Counterfeit Revival, and in my pamphlet Aping the Practices of Pagan Spirituality is do they really heal the sick or do they merely pretend to heal the sick? The answer is healing is conspicuous by its absence in the ministries of men like Benny Hinn, Kenneth Copeland, Todd Bentley and a host of others. By the way, when someone like William asks about calling Jesus Christ Lord and by whose spirit do they call Jesus Lord; I would say the real question is who do they say Jesus is in the first place? The answer to that question is unfortunately they say Jesus Christ is satanic at the very point of His atonement on the cross. Now if that is true Jesus Christ could not have paid for our sins. Biblically, Jesus is the unblemished lamb upon whom the sins of the world were placed. He is the sin bearer but He certainly is not a satanic being. To do what the faith teachers do, relegate Jesus to hell where He purchases our redemption in the cauldron of hell in a fight with Satan, is simply unthinkable and certainly unbiblical. That he then became the first born again man, born from satanic to divine, is contrary to scripture. It is contrary to the creeds of the historic Christian faith. It is contrary to reasoning. It is consistent with the kinds of things you hear in the Kingdom of the Cults. When are we going to come to the place where we recognize that if we’re going to say that Mormons have a different Jesus because they say that Jesus is the spirit brother of Lucifer or the Jehovah Witnesses because they say Jesus was created as the archangel Michael or the New Agers because they say Jesus is an avatar or a messenger; when are we going to realize that if the Kingdom of the Cults have a different Jesus and Kenneth Copeland, Benny Hinn and Todd Bentley and a host of other pretenders have a different Jesus as well? If we don’t call it as it is, we ought to apologize to the kingdom of the Cults. To say that Jesus didn’t claim to be God as Kenneth Copeland and Paul Crouch do is simply unthinkable. Yet that is precisely what they do over and over again. On the March 24th, 1989 broadcast of Praise the Lord on the Trinity Broadcasting Network there was the following conversation: Ken Copeland: “We're still questioning what was said about that prophecy. That prophecy never mentioned the Son of God. Never said anything about the Son of God.” Paul Crouch: “What did it say?” Ken Copeland: “It said "I did not claim to be God." That's all it said.” Paul Crouch: “In other words, in so many words, you're right. No where in the New Testament did He literally get up…” Ken Copeland: “Preach and claim that He was God”. Paul Crouch: “… and say "I am God" did He? Now I stand corrected.” Here you have an inane conversation going on on what is supposedly Christian television about whether Jesus Christ claimed to be God or not. You have Ken Copeland and Paul Crouch here saying that Jesus never claimed to be God but Jesus did claim to be the unique Son of God. As a result the Jewish leaders tried to kill Him because they said in calling God His own Father Jesus was making Himself equal with God. In fact, in John 8 Jesus went so far as to use the very words with which God reveled Himself to Moses from the burning bush. To the Jews this was the epitome of blasphemy for they knew in doing so Jesus was clearly claiming to be God. On another occasion Jesus explicitly told the Jews ”I and the Father are one” (John 10:30) and again they picked up stones to stone him but Jesus said to them “I have shown you many great miracles from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?” and the Jews replied, “We are not stoning you for any of these but for blasphemy because you a mere man claim to be God.” Of course there are many other examples that could be given through which Jesus demonstrated and claimed to be God. So to say that Jesus didn’t claim to be God is expressing an unfathomable ignorance about Jesus and about Scripture. We’re not just talking about anyone here, we’re talking about the man who, along with his wife, founded the largest Christian television broadcasting network in the history of the human race, and they can’t get it with respect to essential Christian doctrine. Now when I speak out on this I get all these letters denouncing me for speaking out. Someone needs to sound the alarm. In fact this is proof positive that the body of Christ needs to become so familiar with the genuine article that when counterfeits loom on the horizon they will know it instantaneously. The sad thing about the letter I read, and I only read portions of it, I didn’t read the parts where he gets quite strong in his denunciations and uses some pretty strong language, but this letter is indicative of the fact that people like William are simply unfamiliar with the Bible and therefore do not understand where their favorite teachers depart from orthodox Christianity. A lot of people want to be cavalier about this and say, “Live and let live!” These men are not blurring the line of demarcation between the kingdom of Christ and the Kingdom of the Cults. They are obliterating that line. Never forget that the essentials of the Christian faith are the very doctrines for which the martyrs spilled their blood. We may be cavalier about these things today but they were not. They were willing to defend them to the point of shedding their own blood. For more information on the deity of Christ please see <a href="http://www.equipresources.org/site/apps/ka/ec/product.asp?c=muI1LaMNJrE&b=2537845&en=6eJGIZMrG3JLLQMkE9IKJZMwH6JCKTMCJgKOL3NIF&ProductID=431008">Bible Answer Book Volume 1</a>. Recommended Resource: <div id="ec_container_vert"> <div class="lstprod_1"><a href="http://www.equipresources.org/c.muI1LaMNJrE/b.2537845/site/apps/ka/ec/Product.asp?ProductID=645300"><img style="border: 0px;" src="http://www.equipresources.org/atf/Account26032/images/_6209921469011.jpg" alt="" width="100" height="155" /></a> <a href="http://www.equipresources.org/c.muI1LaMNJrE/b.2537845/site/apps/ka/ec/Product.asp?ProductID=645300">Christianity In Crisis: 21st Century</a> B995 $22.99 </div> </div> 2009-06-12T15:45:39Z August 18, 2008 65 benny-hinn-kenneth-copeland-todd-bentley Benny Hinn/Kenneth Copeland/Todd Bentley

2010-01-27T17:51:53Z

As we discussed previously the Bible is increasingly under siege. This is present in a very visible way through people like Bart Ehrman who is succeeding in his mission to shake the faith of multitudes. He even seems proud to be causing the faith of many of his students in the classroom to waver. He says, “the more conservative students–– resist for a long time, secure in their knowledge that God would not allow any falsehoods into a sacred book. But before long as students see more and more of the evidence many of them find that their faith in the inerrant and absolute historical truthfulness of the Bible begins to waver.”[1]  As this professor has managed to shake the faith of multitudes in the classroom, he’s now bent on shaking the faith of multitudes in the culture. He has systematically forwarded the notion that Bible is not only hopelessly contradictory, but from his perspective a dangerous book in which to believe. In fact, he’s gone as far as to intimate that had we embraced the Gospel of Judas, a Gnostic gospel, instead of the Gospel of John, a canonical gospel, we might well avoided, nothing less than the holocaust itself. [2] So in light of this onslaught by Bart Ehrman and many others like him in the media, I’ve developed a booklet in order to expose the skin of the truth stuffed with a great big lie. In this new booklet entitled, The Bible Under Siege, you will encounter the memorable acronym L-E-G-A-C-Y as an apt means of remembering factors that credible historians consider in determining the historical reliability and meaning of the Bible. It’s also includes the acronym S-H-A-F-T as means of unearthing and undermining contentions of the Bart Ehrman’s of the world. The “shaft” of the archeologist’s spade is a method by which you can remember that contra Ehrman, what has been discovered in the soil corresponds to what is detailed in the Bible. In addition to exposing the sophistry and scriptorture of professors and pundits the booklet systematically demonstrates that the Bible is divine rather than merely human in origin. To help equip you to counter the attacks, I encourage you to get a copy. You can do so either by going to our website at <a href="../../">www.equip.org</a> or by calling 1-888-700-0274. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [1] Bart D. Ehrman, Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (And Why We Don’t Know About Them) (New York, Harper One, 2009), 6.   [2] Gospel of Judas, National Geographic Channel, aired April 16, 2006, see <a href="http://www.nationalgeographic.com/lostgospel">http://www.nationalgeographic.com/lostgospel</a>  (accessed April 9.2009).       2009-06-09T17:34:58Z May 13, 2009 46 bible-increasingly-under-siege- Bible Increasingly Under Siege

2009-10-16T14:51:55Z

An example of always being ready to give an answer for the hope that lies within us with gentleness and respect ( 1 Peter 3:15) comes from a recent clip of Bill Maher from his new movie Religulous. There is a conversation between Bill Maher and the Jesus actor at the Holy Land Experience in Orlando, FL. Maher’s contention is that Jesus is ridiculous or as Maher tries to convey, pun intended, that’s He’s Religulous. This was on the August 19, 2008 edition of Larry King Live Bill Maher: "Having no other gods before you, that's not moral. There's nothing moral about that. It's just -- it's just something a jealous God would do." Jesus actor: "It does say that our God is a jealous God." Bill Maher: "But your God is jealous? That seems so un-godlike, that God would have such a petty human emotion." Jesus actor: "He's also..." Bill Maher: "I know people who have gotten over jealousy, let alone God." Jesus actor: "There's two sides of the coin. He's a just God, and He's also a merciful God. He casts down our sins..." Bill Maher: "He spends the first five books wiping out people." Jesus actor: (laughter) "That's what he chose to do. His ways are higher than ours, Bill." Bill Maher: "Maybe your thinking should be higher." Jesus actor: "That's a good point." Is the Messiah Religulous? Or is Maher just another benighted fundamentalist on the left? Well to begin with contrary to Maher’s shallow thinking, there is such a thing as sanctified jealousy. For example, jealousy is the proper response of a wife when her trust has been violated through infidelity. When an exclusive covenant relationship is dishonored sanctified jealousy as a passionate zeal that fights to restore a holy union is the high point of virtue. Just as there is sanctified jealousy, of course there is also sinful jealousy. In this sense jealousy is painfully coveting another’s advantages. This is why the apostle Paul lists jealousy as an act of the sinful nature. (Gal 5:20). Just as God personifies sanctified jealousy, so too those who reflect the character of God should be zealous for the things of God. The Bible is replete with heroes like Elijah, David, and Paul whose jealousy for God’s glory motivated their self-sacrifice and their radical reform. The quintessential example is found in the incarnate Christ who exercised the epitome of sanctified jealously by overturning the tables of the money changers in the temple (Mt 21:12). In Maher’s world God should allow His creatures to do anything they want, anytime they want to do it. That’s because in Maher’s world there’s no such thing as right and wrong, but then of course Maher’s world is simply the figment of his own imagination. The only thing Religulous about jealousy is to suggest that it is merely a petty human emotion. Unlike Maher, who is a master at making dogmatic assertions, followers of the Master should master the art of using even the Religulous assertions of Bill Maher as opportunities for communicating truth. This is another example of a man who is communicating an idiosyncratic form of fundamentalism from the left to make assertions and another warning to all Christians that we should be ready to take these assertions and use them as opportunities. Having a lot of kids, I’m well aware of the fact that kids are constantly being bombarded with these kinds of assertions to undermine their faith. Is it effective? Absolutely! My kids came to me this past weekend asking me questions, I had to have an answer to so that they would not only be reinforced in their faith but they could use the answer as an opportunity to help someone else who is shaken by these kinds of assertions. Bill Maher and a whole new brand of village atheists are seeking to undermine the gospel and we better be ready to give an answer and if we're not, we are AWOL. We are those who have been called to be ambassadors for Christ but unfortunately often times we are secret agents who never blow our cover before the unregenerate world. 2009-06-12T15:48:05Z September 12, 2008 66 bill-maher-and-biblical-interpretation Bill Maher and Biblical Interpretation

2010-01-28T14:39:07Z

Christians are often accused of having blind faith. Punmesiter Bill Maher has said that Christianity stops people from thinking and in essence gives them blind faith. Here’s what he said on Larry King Live   <blockquote style="margin-right: 0px;" dir="ltr"> You know, I always love to go off on religion; I think it’s one of those most deleterious things ever to come down the pike in human history. I think it has caused more misery. I think it stops people from thinking. Just think of the wasted energy. What could be done if people would channel the energy that they waste towards silly, superstitious pursuits?<a name="_ednref1"></a> </blockquote> Now I think Maher is involved in silly superstitious pursuits himself, because in reality nothing could be farther from the truth. Ultimately, what is blind and bigoted is the erection of an imaginary dichotomy between faith and reason. Speaking to followers of Christ, you might recall that the Apostle Peter says: “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have” (1 Peter 3:15). The Bible not only claims that it’s God Word and thus true, but God cannot lie or contradict that which corresponds to reality. Therefore, the Bible presupposes the validity of reason. Not only so but biblical faith is never blind faith, but rather faith placed in history and evidence. Put another way, the Bible makes many factual claims about reality and offers reasons or evidences in support of such truth claims. For example, the apostle Paul sets forth a list of people who saw Jesus Christ alive again for three day after His Death by crucifixion to remind the Corinthians that the resurrection was a testable and proven fact of history (1 Cor. 15:3-8) In stark contrast to people like Bill Maher, the Bible promotes open-minded reasoning. Far from letting the facts lead where ever they may, Maher closes his mind to the possibly of supernaturalism and blindly places faith in philosophical naturalism, even when it’s tenets fly directly in the face of reason and evidence. He demonstrates a unique brand of idiosyncratic fundamentalism, because he begins with an anti-supernatural bias and thus rejects God a priori. In place of reason and evidential substance, he traffics in rhetoric and emotional stereotypes as he did in Religulous. Thankfully, God often uses evidence and sound reasoning, through the witness of reasonable Christians, to break through the blind faith of skeptics in order to turn them towards open-mined contemplation. Truly, the hearer can only fully rejoice in what the mind comprehends. We need to be prepared to confront the New Village Atheists like Bill Maher and a host of others like Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens and the list goes on and on. They're becoming ever more militant, and in the face of this assault against the historical Christian faith, we need to be ready to give an answer. In light of this I’ve prepared a new resource called Confronting The New Village Atheists: Are Christians Really ”Ignorant,” “Stupid,” “Brainwashed,” Or “Insane”? To get your copy log unto our Website at <a title="http://www.equip.org/" href="../..//">www.equip.org</a> or call us at 1-888-700-0274. <div> <hr size="1" /> <div id="edn1"> <a name="_edn1"></a> Bill Maher, CNN: Larry King Live, January 28, 2004.   </div> </div> 2009-06-12T16:13:32Z April 24, 2009 68 blind-faith Blind Faith

2010-01-28T15:00:38Z

I noticed in the news recently that over the Memorial Day weekend the Brownsville Revival leaders have reunited in Pensacola, FL. They’re celebrating what was supposedly one of the greatest and longest lasting Pentecostal revivals in history. It was called the Pensacola Outpouring and the leaders are reuniting to “remember, refresh and re-fire."[1] I think it’s interesting to look back from the perspective of history as well, because there’s not a lot to remember. John Kilpatrick, who was the pastor of the Brownsville Assembly of God, said that “millions, millions, millions, millions, millions” would come to faith in Christ as a result of the revival.[2] Steven Hill. who was the evangelist that started the revival once prophesised that the Senate would be ablaze for God.[3] All the while in the Brownsville Assembly of God, they had people aping the practices of pagan spirituality. One of the most bizarre manifestations I witnessed in that particular scene was in the sanctuary as I watched in horror as a woman in the choir began to jerk her head spasmodically from side to side. An hour went by, then another. All the while the shaking continued unabated as intermittently she bent spasmodically at the waist. A church member, noting the look of concern on my face, quickly attempted to assure me that this woman was merely under the influence of the “Holy Ghost.” When I asked if she was certain it was the Holy Ghost, she seemed incredulous. “What else could it be?” she snapped. “We’re in church, aren’t we?’ She went on to report that this woman had been shaking wildly in the sanctuary for more than a year and a half. What was once practiced only in the cults is now present in our churches. What heightens the danger is that Christians do not expect a counterfeit in church. While virtually the same methods employed in cultic communes can now be experienced in Christian churches there is a difference. At the altars of Pensacola the practices were cloaked in Christian terminology and were attributed to the Holy Spirit. Pensacola practices such as jerking spasmodically, laughing uncontrollably, and falling backward into trancelike states were conspicuous by their absence in the ministry of Jesus and the apostles. In fact, Peter warned them to be wary of such pagan practices. He said to be “clear minded and self controlled.” (1 Peter 4:7). My concern for the woman who was shaking spasmodically and many others like her prompted me to plead with Pensacola pastor John Kilpatrick to consider the physical and spiritual consequences. He did acknowledge that the woman I identified in his church “shakes like she has palsy” but then defiantly paraded her across his platform as a trophy of the “Pensacola Outpouring.” He then shouted, “If you don’t want your head to start shaking…come here a minute, girl. Come down here a minute. Hurry up. Hurry up. If you [referring to me] don’t want your head to do like this, you better lay your mouth off her.”[4] Of course this is the same person that predicted that in 90 days I would be dead.[5] As I previously mentioned, Stephen Hill made all kinds of dogmatic declarations from the platform, he said that “congressmen are weeping under the power of God”[6], but never provided a shred of evidence to support his claim. Well, I suppose as we look back fifteen years, this is at best an unrealized fantasy. The problem in all of this and the reason for bringing it up is that millions are looking on in amazement and dismissing Christianity as little more than a succession of hoaxes. They’re thinking: if Christians are willing to embrace current mythology, they must be just as prone to embracing mythology that’s 2000 years old. When Christian standards have more in the common with The National Enquirer than The New Testament, it’s time to examine ourselves all over again. When selling and sensationalism become more tantalizing than truth, the very foundation of our faith is compromised. Blaise Pascal was right when he wrote in his Pensees “Truth is so obscure in these times and falsehood so established, that unless we love truth, we cannot know it.” Again the revival has come and gone and now they're celebrating it fifteen years later, but the truth of the matter is revival didn’t happen. In fact for revival to take place in the culture, for the Senate to truly be ablaze with the power of God, reformation has to take place in the church, so that revival can take place in the land. Unless we get back to basics we’re not going to see revival. Unless we find the book of the law like Josiah and adhere to its words, embrace the glory of the gospel of grace, become ambassadors for Christ and not secret agents, and understand the difference between genuine and counterfeit revival, we are resigned to repeat the mistakes of the past. I’ve addressed this topic in depth in my book Counterfeit Revival to help people understand the genuine article and the counterfeit that passes as genuine as people look for God in all the wrong places. You can get this at our website of <a href="http://www.equip.org">www.equip.org</a> or by calling us at 1-888-700-0274. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [1] Brownsville Revival Leaders, Students Reunite by Felicia Mann, May 21, 2009, Charisma Magazine News  (<a href="http://www.charismamag.com/index.php/news/22059-brownsville-revival-leaders-students-reunite?tmpl=component&print=1&layout=default&page">http://www.charismamag.com/index.php/news/22059-brownsville-revival-leaders-students-reunite?tmpl=component&print=1&layout=default&page</a>), Accessed 5/27/09.   [2] John Kilpatrick, Brownsville Assembly of God, April 6, 1997 Videotape entitled “God’s Ears” . This was number five of 10 proclamations that Kilpatrick gave about what would happen at Brownsville. [3] Stephen Hill, Brownsville Assembly of God, April 6, 1997 Videotape entitled “God’s Ears” [4] John Kilpatrick, Brownsville Assembly of God, April 6, 1997 Videotape entitled “God’s Ears”  [5] Ibid. It also should be noted that Kilpatrick did later publicly apologize for this. [6] Stephen Hill, Brownsville Assembly of God, April 6, 1997 Videotape entitled “God’s Ears” 2009-06-09T17:40:30Z May 26, 2009 50 brownsville-revival-revisited-in-2009- Brownsville Revival Revisited in 2009

2010-01-28T15:11:06Z

There was a recent article in USA Today in the Forum section entitled, “We Believe in Evolution and God”. It also has the subtitle, “Nearly half of Americans still dispute the indisputable: that humans evolved to our current form over millions of years. We’re scientists and Christians. Our message to the faithful: Fear not.” It’s written by Karl Giberson and Darrel Falk. They write, “Like most scientists who believe in God, we find no contradiction between the scientific understanding of the world, and the belief that God created that world. And that includes <a title="http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/darwin_charles.shtml" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/darwin_charles.shtml">Charles Darwin's theory of evolution</a>.”<a name="_ednref1"></a> What I find difficult to believe is these men are lending credibility as Christians, as believers in God, to Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution. Charles Darwin was a racist and sexist. Darwin said, “Looking to the world at no very distant date, what an endless number of the lower races will have been eliminated by the higher civilized races throughout the world.”<a name="_ednref2"></a> Darwin had a bulldog that popularized his notions, Thomas Huxley. Huxley had the temerity to say that the Negro stock would not “be able to compete successfully with his bigger-brained and smaller jawed rival, in a contest which is to be carried on by thoughts and not by bites.”<a name="_ednref3"></a> As far as sexism is concerned, Charles Darwin was clear, just read his works. He once said in his book The Descent of Man under the subheading “Difference in the Mental Powers of the Two Sexes,” that “the chief distinction in the intellectual powers of the two sexes is shewn [sic] by man’s attaining to a higher eminence, in whatever he takes up, than can woman.”<a name="_ednref4"></a> It’s one thing for Giberson and Falk to say that they believe in evolution, as believers in God, it’s another thing to say that they believe in Darwin and want to save Darwin. Why save the racism and the sexism? My goodness, we live in an age of scientific enlightenment.   They go on to say, “Darwin proposed the theory of evolution in 1859 in On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection. This controversial text presented evidence that present-day life forms have descended from common ancestors via natural selection…Christians hoped the advance of science would undermine Darwin's novel theory, which threatened their understanding of traditional biblical stories such as Adam and Eve, and the six-days of creation. In the years since, Darwin argued natural selection was the agent of creation, the evidence for evolution has become overwhelming.” Earlier in the article he had said that “evolution is as well-established within biology as heliocentricity”<a name="_ednref5"></a> What do they give as this overwhelming evidence? They say, “The fossil record has provided evidence of compelling transitional species such as whales with feet.” This is his overwhelming evidence. Now of course the Bible says that living creatures produce according to their kinds (Gen. 1:24). This doesn’t take anything but reading the Bible for all it’s worth, that’s clear and consistent. It’s incontrovertible. That’s what the Bible teaches. This is in stark contrast to the evolutionary hypothesis. Where is the evidence in the book of nature for common descent? Scant fossil evidence is around for the notion of common descent or for one kind evolving into another kind, a hippo evolving into a whale.   Furthermore, in an age of Scientific Enlightenment there is molecular evidence that contradicts fossil evidence. To go from a hippo to a whale requires the stretching of credulity beyond the breaking point. It means that it would require: changes in the skin to make it impermeable to water; an eye protective system that would require massive alterations of brain; diving/emerging mechanisms and a respiratory system so that the whale doesn’t contract the bends; the lactation system; not to mention the existence of sonar. In other words, to believe that hippos became whales takes a lot of a faith. Not faith in evidence—faith in blind faith—not at all faith in reason! This isn’t reasonable faith. In the article, they continually make a false dichotomy between faith and reason. As though the scientist has reason, the Christian has faith, so let’s all get along and dance and be happy and sing. The truth is that the Christian believes in faith founded in a reputable fact. I’m still amazed, quite frankly, that USA Today in the Forum would publish an article like this. Again, it’s one thing to believe in evolution, it’s another thing to blame God for it. But in the worse of all cases, you have these guys not only believing in evolution, blaming God for it, but then defending Darwin's 19th century view of evolution as if it is now proven to be true. If you're going to laud Darwin, don’t forget what I said earlier, he was a racist and a sexist. If you don’t think that ideas have consequences, just think back to eugenics. For eugenics to succeed, it is crucial that the unfit die, as the fittest survive. If the unfit continue to survive indefinitely, they would infect the fit with their unfit genes, and evolution wouldn’t take place. So eugenics took Darwin’s theory of evolution to its logical conclusion. That’s why they took the unfit and sterilized them, or as it unfolded in the Nazi’s death camps, they exterminated them. All done in the name of Darwinian evolution! I think it’s about time we woke up in this age of scientific enlightenment and realized that Darwin was anything but enlightened, and the Bible is anything but obscurantist. This doesn’t mean that we have to allegorize the Bible. It means we have to read the Bible for all it’s worth.   In this article, they set up straw-man after straw-man. The straw-man is always you people that don’t believe in theistic evolution, you try to shoehorn humans and all of human history into only having been around 10,000 years. They attack this straw-man as if this were the only option provided in the Christian community. There are many in-depth resources of both books and DVDs on this topic. I would recommend checking out the resources we recommend at our Website at <a title="http://www.equip.org/" href="..//">www.equip.org</a>, included in this is a book I wrote about the subject entitled Fatal Flaws: What Evolutionists Don’t Want You to Know.       <div style="mso-element: endnote-list;"> <hr size="1" /> <div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;"> <a name="_edn1"></a> “We Believe in Evolution and God” by Karl Giberson and Darrel Falk, USA Today, 8/10/09 (<a title="http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2009/08/we-believe-in-evolution-and-god-.html?loc=interstitialskip" href="http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2009/08/we-believe-in-evolution-and-god-.html?loc=interstitialskip">http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2009/08/we-believe-in-evolution-and-god-.html?loc=interstitialskip</a>)   </div> <div id="edn2" style="mso-element: endnote;"> <a name="_edn2"></a> Letter from Charles Darwin to W. Graham, 3 July 1881, Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, vol. 1, 316, quoted in Gertrude Himmelfarb, Darwin and the Darwinian Revolution (London: Chatto and Windus, 1959), 343, quoted in Henry M. Morris, Scientific Creationism, public school edition (San Diego: C.L.P. Publishers 1981), 179; emphasis added. </div> <div id="edn3" style="mso-element: endnote;"> <a name="_edn3"></a> Thomas H. Huxley, Lay Sermons, Addresses and Reviews (New York, Appleton, 1871), 20, quoted in Henry Morris, The Long War Against God (Grand Rapids, Mich, Baker, 1989), 60.   </div> <div id="edn4" style="mso-element: endnote;"> <a name="_edn4"></a> Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man, in Robert Maynard Hutchins, ed., Great Books of the Western World, vol. 49, Darwin (Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, 1952), 566. </div> <div id="edn5" style="mso-element: endnote;"> <a name="_edn5"></a> “We Believe in Evolution and God” by Karl Giberson and Darrel Falk, USA Today, 8/10/09 (<a title="http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2009/08/we-believe-in-evolution-and-god-.html?loc=interstitialskip" href="http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2009/08/we-believe-in-evolution-and-god-.html?loc=interstitialskip">http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2009/08/we-believe-in-evolution-and-god-.html?loc=interstitialskip</a>) </div> </div> 2009-08-13T13:55:38Z August 11, 2009 170 can-a-christian-believe-in-darwin-s-theory-of-evolution- Can a Christian Believe in Darwin’s Theory of Evolution?

2010-01-28T15:35:49Z

In 2009 we’re going to be releasing my new book, Christianity in Crisis 21st Century, and in that vein I want to address something a lot of people ask me about. You hear the mantra over and over again, “By His stripes you are healed.” You hear this repeated breathlessly by Christians; however, these words extracted from Isaiah 53:5 focus on spiritual rather than physical healing. A quick look at the context makes it crystal clear that Isaiah had spiritual rather than physical healing in mind. Christ was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon Him and by His stripes we are healed. Peter in context builds on this when he says, “He Himself borne our sins in His body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by His wounds you have been healed.” (1 Peter 2:24). While healing for the body is not refereed to in Isaiah 53:5, it is referred to it in the verse immediately preceding it. In context, Isaiah writes, “Surely He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered Him stricken by God, smitten by Him and afflicted.” Physical healing here is not only clear in context but it’s affirmed by the gospels where it is given a very significant clarification or qualification. We read in Matthew 8:16-17, “When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to Him, and He drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: “He took up our infirmities and carried our diseases.” In other words, the healing here was fulfilled during the ministry of Jesus Christ, and does not guarantee healing today. One final note, in a very real sense, Christ’s atonement on the cross does extend to physical healing. It is in this sense there one day will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away (Rev 21:4); however as the apostle Paul points out we hope for what we do not yet have and we wait for it patiently (Rom. 8:25). In the meantime, we’ll all experience sickness and suffering. Indeed all those who live before Christ returns will all die of their last disease. The death rate is one per person and we're all going to make it. Recommended Resource:   <div id="ec_container_vert"> <div class="lstprod_1"><a href="http://www.equipresources.org/c.muI1LaMNJrE/b.2537845/site/apps/ka/ec/Product.asp?ProductID=645300"><img style="border: 0px;" src="http://www.equipresources.org/atf/Account26032/images/_6209921469011.jpg" alt="" width="100" height="155" /></a> <a href="http://www.equipresources.org/c.muI1LaMNJrE/b.2537845/site/apps/ka/ec/Product.asp?ProductID=645300">Christianity In Crisis: 21st Century</a> B995 $22.99</div> </div> 2009-06-12T16:22:19Z January 5, 2009 70 christianity-in-crisis-21st-century-guaranteed-healing Christianity in Crisis 21st Century/Guaranteed Healing

2010-01-28T15:41:01Z

<a href="http://salemnet.vo.llnwd.net/o29/bibleanswerman/hankspeaksout/chris_hitchens.mp3"></a>Click Here to listen <table style="width: 100%; height: 100%;" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="10"> <tbody> <tr height="57"> <td width="501" height="57" valign="top"><img src="http://www.equipresources.org/atf/cf/%7B9C4EE03A-F988-4091-84BD-F8E70A3B0215%7D/Christopher%20Hitchens.jpg" border="0" alt="" width="100" align="right" /> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="501" valign="top"> <div> <table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6"> <tbody> <tr> <td valign="top"> Suggested Resources: <img class="photo" src="http://www.equipresources.org/atf/account26032/images/b780.jpg" border="0" alt="" align="left" />Hardcover Book The Case For A Creator Resource# B780 Author: Lee Strobel Price:$19.99 <a href="http://www.equipresources.org/site/apps/ka/ec/product.asp?c=muI1LaMNJrE&b=2537845&en=ksINLUNKImLMKVPCJbJKIUOCIdLXJ7PCJ9KTJdOMIlI3KjI&ProductID=431002">Order</a> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </div> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> 2009-06-12T16:36:53Z July 18, 2007 71 christopher-hitchens-and-the-new-atheism Christopher Hitchens and the New Atheism

2009-06-12T16:36:53Z

Technologically we’re wiring the planet; theologically we are short-circuiting our psyches. April 20, 2009 is the tenth anniversary of the Columbine killings. The title of the late Robert Bork’s book Slouching Toward Gomorrah[1], pulsated through my mind like neon 10 years ago as I watched the aftermath of the killings. While a cacophony of Christian voices claimed we were in the midst of revival, to me it was apparent when Columbine happened that Western Civilization was as Bork said, “A monster of decadence” and “we are now slouching not towards Bethlehem but towards Gomorrah!"[2]   The tragedy at Columbine High 10 years ago is merely the latest in a series of wake up calls. While presidents are intoxicated by the prospect of wiring schools for the information age, we are losing the souls of our children. Visual stimuli and information bombardment have become a sick substitute for wisdom and understanding. As our kids travel down this information highway, they’ve picked up a basis against reason, rationality, and responsibility. The problem is that by and large our children lack the necessary skills to process information, and as a result they become increasingly nihilistic[3].   Out of this nihilism has emerged a culture of death. While this culture has produced a muddy mixture of the macabre, two distinct images have emerged. I call them white knuckled and bare knuckled. White knuckled kids are best characterized by the Gothic scene. Goths live on the edge, they're fascinated with death and a love of the morbid. They watch scary movies and walk thru graveyards in their dark gender-bending clothing and fingernail polish contrasted with white pancake makeup, portraying a sense of the haunted. They pride themselves as being individualistic and introspective, and consider their preoccupation with the dark side just a harmless form of artistic self-expression. Bare knuckled kids are characterized by the industrial scene, and are more apt to manifest violence and aggression. Their songs not only satirize social and spiritual virtues, but fixate on shocking musical expressions of serial killing, suicide, and sadomasochism. As with the Columbine killers, these industrial teens often display a bizarre fascination with blood drenched video games. Rather then being merely fascinated with death, bare knuckled kids are often fixated on destruction.   Those who suggest that there is no connection between what are kids seeing and hearing and how they're acting are just dead wrong. Studies suggest a direct causal relationship between violent behavior and the kind of violence portrayed in movies, music, and magazines,[4] and billions of advertising dollars are spent each year on the very premise that behavior is going to be impacted.   As underscored by the late Robert Bork “music is used everywhere to create attitudes—armies use martial music, couples listen to romantic music, churches use organs, choirs, and hymns."[5] It has been well said the information industry is “on the verge of becoming a hallucinogenic barrage of images, whose only grammar is pacing, whose principal theme is energy. We are losing our ability to manage ideas; to contemplate, to think."[6]   The insights of Carl Bernstein are poignant and direct. I remember him saying, We are creating “the idiot culture…For the first in our history, the weird and the stupid and the coarse are becoming cultural norms maybe even cultural ideal."[7]   Christians, however, should not be content to just curse the darkness, we have to be prepared to build a lighthouse in the midst of the gathering storm. It’s imperative that we look beyond the destructive behavior of troubled teens and minister to their alienation and despair.   We must see our children as even a higher calling than our careers. Our children don’t care how much we know until they know how much we care. They are not unreachable; they are an often  neglected mission field in our very own homes. We have to come to grips with the fact that Congress and the courts are not the real problem. The real problem is Christians who have abdicated their responsibility to be salt and light. I love what Os Guinness once said, “The time has come for evangelicals to wake from our lethargy or turn from our fear, blaming, and victim-playing. We must move out into all spheres of society, presenting the case for the gospel of Jesus in ways that are fresh, powerful, imaginative, compassionate, and persuasive."[8]   Having said all that, I think it’s important to celebrate rays of sunshine peering through the clouds. I see them all the time with the kids that come into my home. I too am thankful for a houseful of children that love the Lord and use their gifts for his glory and the extension of His kingdom; kids that look forward to the future, and of course the future beyond the future, because this life is here today and gone tomorrow. We see this in the tragedies of our children, when their friends die at young ages. We see death all around us. As a result it is ever more critical that we begin living for that which is eternal and that we put our priorities straight.   To help you minister to adults and children I’ve developed a new resource called Memorable Keys to Essential Christian D-O-C-T-R-I-N-E. It’s available at our Website at <a href="../..//">www.equip.org</a> or by calling us at 1-888-700-0274. Also check out my <a href="http://www.equipresources.org/site/apps/ka/ec/product.asp?c=muI1LaMNJrE&b=2537845&en=5dLILNMfHbLGJEMfF5KIIMPfHcJKITNsE5KAKQNyEfLMK0NEH&ProductID=471957" target="_blank">Bible Answer Book for Students</a>.   -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [1] Robert H. Bork, Slouching towards Gomorrah (New York:  HarperCollins, 1996). [2] Bork, front cover flap. [3] Nihilism is the view that existence has no meaning or purpose, thus denying any objective ground of truth. [4] Bork, 144. [5] Ibid. [6] From a speech delivered in October 1995 to the International Radio and Television Society by Ted Koppel, New York City, as quoted in Os Guinness, Fit Bodies Fat Minds: Why Evangelicals Don’t Think and What to Do about It (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1994), 80. [7] Carl Bernstein, “The Idiot Culture,” The New Republic, 8 June 1992, 24-25, as quoted in Guinness, 70.   [8] Guinness, 150. 2009-06-12T16:38:02Z April 20, 2009 72 columbine-10th-anniversary Columbine 10th Anniversary

2010-01-28T16:27:29Z

I would say that evolution is one of the most spectacular examples of how a speculative idea, for which there is no hard evidence, can come and overtake the thinking of a whole society––in fact dominate a civilization. In light of the tragic consequences of the evolutionary dogma, it is incredible to think that evolution is still being touted today as truth.   As I’ve noted in my book Fatal Flaws, outside of Scripture, Darwin’s magnum opus, The Origin of Species By Means of Natural Selection, could well be the most significant literary work in the annals of recorded history. In other words, this is not some minor issue. Sir Julian Huxley called the evolutionary dogma it spawned “the most powerful and most comprehensive idea that has ever arisen on earth.”<a name="_ednref1"></a>   It is the most fundamental of all intellectual revolutions. The twentieth century cannot be understood apart from this intellectual revolution. The far-reaching consequences of it can be felt in “virtually every field—every discipline of study, every level of education, and every area of practice.”<a name="_ednref2"></a> The most significant consequence, however, is that it undermines the very foundation of Christianity. Nowhere was this more evident than at the Darwinian Centennial Convention, which celebrated the hundredth anniversary of the publication of Darwin’s The Origin of Species. With great pomp and ceremony Sir Julian Huxley proudly boasted,   “In the evolutionary system of thought there is no longer need or room for the supernatural. The earth was not created; it evolved. So did all the animals and plants that inhabit it, including our human selves, mind and soul, as well as brain and body. So did religion. Evolutionary man can no longer take refuge from his loneliness by creeping for shelter into the arms of a divinized father figure whom he himself has created.”<a name="_ednref3"></a>   Of course humanity’s newfound autonomy ended up sacrificing truth on the altar of subjectivism. Ethics and morals were no longer determined on the basis of objective standards, but rather by the size and strength of the latest lobby group. With no enduring reference point, societal norms were quickly reduced to mere matters of preference.   The responsibility for demonstrating that it is not truth but in reality is a farce should no longer be left in the hands of a few hired guns in the bastions of higher learning. It is crucial that all thinking human beings are involved in the process of battling for truth. In this line of thinking, we recently featured a new DVD on the Bible Answer Man to help in this matter. It’s called Darwin’s Dilemma: The Mystery of the Cambrian Fossil Record. I talked with Dr. Jonathan Wells and Dr. Stephen Meyer, who are featured in the DVD on the September 10th and 11th  2009 editions of the Bible Answer Man broadcast, which you can access off our Website at <a style="FONT-FAMILY: " title="http://www.equip.org/" href="..//">www.equip.org</a>. You can purchased this specific DVD and other books regarding evolution and Intelligent Design at our Website or by 1-888-700-0274. <hr size="1" />   <div> <div id="edn1"> <a name="_edn1"></a>r Julian Huxley, Essay’s of a Humanist, (New York: Harper & Row, 1964, 125, quoted in John Ankerberg and John Weldon, Darwin’s Leap of Faith (Eugene, Ore: Harvest House, 1998), 39. </div> <div id="edn2"> <a name="_edn2"></a>  </div> <div id="edn3"> <a name="_edn3"></a>Associated Press dispatch, Address at Darwin Centennial Convocation, Chicago University, 27, November, 1959. See Sol Tax, ed. Issues in Evolution (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1960), 252, quoted in Henry M. Morris, That Their Words May Be Used Against Them (El Cajon, Calif.: Institute for Creation Research, 1997), 111. </div> </div> 2009-09-15T18:47:00Z September 10, 2009 177 confronting-the-influence-of-darwin- Confronting the Influence of Darwin

2010-01-27T14:54:41Z

In his latest book titled, Jesus Interrupted, Bart Ehrman— who is now a media darling—says that “the Bible is filled with discrepancies, many of them irreconcilable contradictions. Moses did not write the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Old Testament) and Matthew, Mark, Luke and John did not write the gospels…the exodus probably did not happen as described in the Old Testament. The conquest of the Promised Land is probably based on legend…its hard to know whether Moses actually existed and what, exactly the historical Jesus taught. The historical narratives of the Old Testament are filled with legendary fabrications and the book of Acts in the New Testament contains historically unreliable information…”[1]  and, on and on he goes. Then in his book, he cites a litany of discrepancies and errors, some of which caused him to transition from a fundamentalist Christian to a happy agnostic. Now his mission in life is to shake the faith of his students.   One of the alleged inconsistencies that he cites in his book is that the gospel of Mark indicates that it was in the last week of Jesus’ life when he cleansed the temple by overturning the tables of the money changers, saying; “This is to be a house of prayer...but you have made it a den of thieves.” Whereas, according to Ehrman, the gospel of John says that this happened at the very beginning of John. Then Ehrman says, “some readers have thought that Jesus must have cleansed the temple twice, once at the beginning of his ministry and once at the end. But that would mean that neither Mark nor John tells the “true” story, since in both accounts he cleanses the temple only once.” He further asks, “Moreover, is this reconciliation of the two accounts historically plausible? If Jesus made a disruption of the temple in the beginning of his ministry, why wasn’t he arrested by the authorities then?” He concludes with the following dogmatic assertion: "Historically speaking, then, the accounts are not reconcilable."   Well is Professor Ehrman right? Is this just one more in a litany of errors made by a pseudonymous gospel writer, or is this just indicative of a professor gone wild? I would first say, in answer to that question, it is not only uncharitable but unquestionably wrong headed to suggest that neither Mark nor John—who by the way Ehrman demeans as illiterate—would be telling the true story had the temple been cleansed twice. As is no doubt obvious to even the most unlettered of Ehrman’s students, neither Gospel writer provides an exhaustive account of everything Jesus said or did. As the apostle John indicates in hyperbolic parlance, no doubt lost on a wooden literalist like Bart Ehrman, “Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.” (John 21:25).   Furthermore, the gospel of John itself provides a more than historically plausible insight as to why Jesus might not have been arrested during His initial temple cleansing. The proverbial straw that breaks the camel’s back leading to the arrest and trial of Jesus quite logically would have resulted from a late, not an early temple cleansing. Not only so, but as the gospel of John makes clear, the Jewish leaders did not arrest Jesus in the early stages of his ministries for fear of the multitudes who were in awe of Christ’s teaching and miracles.   One final point, as even a cursory reading reveals, John kairologically orders his gospel by theme. I think that is an important point. John as such says, the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us, which fulfills the Old Testament promise that God’s glory would again return to His temple. Moreover, John reinterprets the meaning of Passover by revealing Jesus as the quintessential Passover. As such it would be logically, and I would say charitable, to surmise that John might introduce his account of Christ’s temple cleansing early in his Gospel narrative and within a context in which Jesus is reveled as the substance that fulfills the types and shadows of temple priests and sacrifice.   While such a notion does not sit well with a fundamentalist reading of scripture, it accords well with the nuanced and highly sophisticated reckoning of time particular to the ancients. A kairological interpretation, which reckons time not in terms of our familiar chronological ordering, but in terms of a quality of purpose in which an event is said to occur at just the right time. In other words, even if there was just one temple cleansing, one might logically assume that John communicates it kairologically, as opposed to chronologically.   Of the course the very fact a number of plausible resolutions have been forwarded precludes the charge that the gospel accounts are in fact contradictory.   So, Bart Ehrman set this up as a way of dissuading his students, particularly the ones he calls his conservative students, from believing that the Bible is the infallible repository of redemptive revelation. He writes, “some students accept these new views from day one. Others––especially those among the more conservative students––resist for a long time secure in their knowledge that God would not allow any falsehoods into a sacred book, but before long as students see more and more of the evidence many of them find that their faith in the inerrant and absolute historical truthfulness of the Bible begins to waver.”[3] This is of course his goal, he’s shaking the faith of his students, because he wants them to know what he thinks is true, and that is that the Bible is riddled with errors.   In the face of this onslaught on the Bible, we always need to be ready to give an answer. For further information on supposed Bible contradictions please see my <a href="https://www.kintera.org/site/c.muI1LaMNJrE/b.4487367/k.DD74/The_Complete_Bible_Answer_Book__Collectors_Edition/apps/ka/sd/donor.asp?c=muI1LaMNJrE&b=4487367&en=fwLRL6PZKrJWK6OXLgJQKfP1IqKbLkOVIlI5IfNZJnIVJfN7LAL" target="_blank">Complete Bible Answer Book</a>.         --------------------------------------------------------------------------------   -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [1] Bart D. Ehrman, Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (And Why We Don’t Know About Them) (New York, Harper One, 2009) 5-6. [2] Ibid., 7   [3] Ibid. 6   2009-04-09T18:42:22Z April 3, 2009 34 critiquing-ehrman-on-jesus-cleaning-of-the-temple- Critiquing Ehrman on Jesus’ Cleaning Of The Temple

2010-01-28T16:51:21Z

I would like to deal with another supposed problem with the Bible that Bart Ehrman addresses in his book Jesus Interrupted. Ehrman states, “In John’s gospel, Jesus performs his first miracle in chapter 2, when he turns water into wine…and we’re told that ‘this was the first sign that Jesus did’ (John 2:11). Later in that chapter we’re told that Jesus did ‘many signs’ in Jerusalem (John 2:23). And then, in chapter 4, he heals the son of a centurion and the author says ‘This was the second sign that Jesus did.’ Huh? One sign, many signs and then the second sign?”[1] Truthfully, what I have a hard time understanding is how a simple problem like this can stump a world class scholar like Bart Ehrman. In any case, let me try to present the solution to the problem as simply as I can. This isn’t something that should cause any of his students that are Christians to lose their faith. To begin with, as clearly communicated in the Gospel of John, the first miraculous sign that Jesus performed at Cana in Galilee was to change water into wine (John 2:1-11). Once again class, the first miraculous sign, number one in Cana in Galilee was changing water into wine. Furthermore, in the Gospel of John, the second miraculous sign Jesus performed while at Cana in Galilee was healing the son of a centurion (John 4:26-54). What was the second sign Jesus performed at Cana while in Galilee? All together now class: healing the son of a centurion while at Cana in Galilee. As should be patently obvious to Ehrman, the fact that Jesus did many signs in Jerusalem is not a problem with the Bible at all. It exposes a problem with Bart. In this case, it appears to be the problem of obfuscation. So if you’re a Bartonian student, if your professor is Bart Ehrman, watch out for the obfuscation! Theirs nothing wrong whatsoever with what is chronicled here in the Bible. The first miracle was changing water into wine; the second was the son of the centurion. Those two miracles happened in a particular place. So the obfuscation of the many signs shouldn’t be problem particularly when the Bible tells us that those signs occurred in Jerusalem. To address issues like this and the reliability of the Bible as a whole I’ve developed a new resource called The Bible Under Siege. I encourage you to get a copy. You can do so either by going to our website at <a href="../../">www.equip.org</a> or by calling 1-888-700-0274. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [1] Bart D. Ehrman, Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (And Why We Don’t Know About Them) (New York, Harper One, 2009), 8-9.   2009-06-09T17:37:59Z May 15, 2009 48 critiquing-ehrman-on-the-signs-of-jesus- Critiquing Ehrman on the Signs of Jesus

2009-10-16T14:55:36Z

I was looking at the statistics in terms of death and people who are homeless as a result of the cyclone that hit Burma a while ago. Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, is in southeast Asia, bordered by India, China and Thailand. Deaths now are estimated at over 100,000 and over 2 million homeless. I was considering these statistics in light of a quote I read by Bart Ehrman. He's the Chair of the Religious Studies Department at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He said that "The problem of suffering is ultimately the reason I lost my faith." I was thinking about that because God certainly could have, in an Ehrman world, created a context that had absolutely no suffering. But had He done so it would also have been a world without freedom. We must ever be mindful of the fact that while our Creator made natural and moral evil possible by granting us freedom, it was humanity, it was men and women, that actualized that evil. In other words, we can't put this at the Master's feet. We have to realize that the fingers point back at us. It might be popular today to refer to the cyclone devastation as unthinkable, but the history of humanity graphically demonstrates that there is virtually no limit to the possibilities of disease and disaster and death. The cyclone reminds us that this world is groaning in travail, but the Gospel equally reminds us that creation will yet be liberated. Paul puts it this way: "One day creation itself will be liberated itself from its bondage to decay." This liberation begins with the conquest of the cross but it will be completed at Christ's Second Coming. As Christ's conquest assures our bodily resurrection we must ever remember that His conquest also ensures the resurrection of this cosmos. Those in the cyclone who die in Christ will experience the new heaven and the new earth as both a physical place in creation as well as a personal experience and existence with the Creator. "The dwelling of God is with men," said John, "and He will live with them. They will be His people and God Himself will be with them and be their God. He'll wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death, mourning, crying or pain, for the old order of things" - cyclones and hurricanes and earthquakes - "will have passed away." And then God Himself said "I am making everything new." It is my prayer that these images of devastation that we see on television and on the web will arouse us from lethargy and engage us to give water and food to those in need and then to use the testimony of our love and the testimony of our lives as an ultimate witness which will lead us to give them the bread and the water of life so that they truly, as Jesus put it, will never hunger and thirst again. The worst thing that can happen is not to die young. The worst thing that can happen is to live a long, robust life and then to forever be separated from the love and grace of the One who knit us together in our mother's wombs. Ultimately, when we see things like this cyclone - things that we simply cannot cope with - we can have hope in the midst of the devastation because we believe that like the resurrected body God will resurrect this universe. That's the hope of the believer and I would say that without that there is no hope. Christianity does not give us a peaceful way to come to terms with death and suffering. It gives us something far greater - a way to overcome it through the power of resurrection. That is a hope that you and I as Christians are called to communicate to a searching world. This becomes just one more opportunity to be a witness in the midst of tragedy, to point people beyond the suffering to the hope, to the words of Job who said "Though He slay me, yet will I hope, or yet will I trust in Him." God has given us evidence that He is trustworthy and that we can look forward to a bright tomorrow. Paradise lost will one day, indeed, become Paradise restored. Recommended Resource:   <div id="ec_container_vert"> <div class="lstprod_1"><a href="http://www.equipresources.org/c.muI1LaMNJrE/b.2537845/site/apps/ka/ec/Product.asp?ProductID=431149"><img style="border: 0px;" src="http://www.equipresources.org/atf/account26032/images/b823.jpg" alt="" width="100" height="151" /></a> <a href="http://www.equipresources.org/c.muI1LaMNJrE/b.2537845/site/apps/ka/ec/Product.asp?ProductID=431149">Unspeakable: Facing Up to Evil in an Age of Genocide and Terror</a> B823 $21.00</div> </div> 2009-06-12T16:45:52Z June 17, 2008 73 cyclone-in-myanmar Cyclone in Myanmar

2010-01-28T17:18:32Z

Being that February 12, 2009 was the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, and also this year being the 150th anniversary of the publication of The Origin of Species, which by the way was sub-titled The Preservation of the Favored Races In the Struggle For Life, I would like to highlight some of the problems of the evolutionary dogma.        Consider a dogma virtually unheard of before the nineteenth century. Within years it morphed from humble beginnings in the British Isles into a worldwide phenomenon. Millions extolled its virtues with unbending devotion and evangelistic fervor. By the twentieth century, its cardinal doctrines permeated bastions of education, and penetrated corridors of influence and power. Masters of mass communications championed its tenets and academic institutions churned out its messengers. Despite being a misreading of data, it is so assumed that those who oppose it are shouted down as reactionaries. Its proponents consider themselves keepers of orthodoxy and react with cult-like fanaticism when their presuppositions are questioned. Though its underpinnings are racist, luminaries from politicians to playwrights laud its virtues.         The dogma to which I refer is Darwinian evolution. The intellectual revolution it initiated provided the scientific substructure for some of the most significant atrocities in human history. Hitler’s genocidal mania was fueled by Darwin’s racist contention that “civilized races of man will almost exterminate, and replace, the savage races throughout the world.”[1] In the end, Hitler’s philosophy that Aryans were superhuman and Semites subhuman, led to the extermination of some six million Jews.             Like Hitler, Karl Marx, the father of communism, saw in Darwinism the scientific and sociological support for an economic experiment that eclipsed even the horrors of the Holocaust. Sigmund Freud, the founder of modern psychology, was also a faithful follower of Charles Darwin. His belief that man was merely a sophisticated animal led him to postulate that “anxiety, paranoia, and other mental disorders each embody modes of behavior that were once adaptive for the human species in the stages of evolution.”[2] Dr. John L. Down labeled Down syndrome “Mongoloid idiocy’ because he thought it represented a ‘throwback’ to the ‘Mongolian stage’ in human evolution.”[3]          “Throwbacks,” of course, are undesirable. For evolution to progress, it is crucial that the unfit die as that the fittest survive. Marvin Lubenow aptly portrays the ghastly consequences of this notion in his book, Bones of Contention: “If the unfit survived indefinitely they would continue to ‘infect’ the fit with their less fit genes. The result is that the more fit genes would be diluted and compromised by the less fit genes, and evolution could not take place.”[4]         Nowhere were the far-reaching consequences of such cosmogenic mythology more evident that in the pseudo-science of eugenics. Eugenics hypothesized that the gene pool was being corrupted by the less fit genes of inferior people. As Michael Crichton has pointed out, the theory of eugenics postulated that “the best human being were not breeding as rapidly as the inferior ones––the foreigners, immigrants, Jews, degenerates, the unfit, and the ‘feeble-minded.’…The plan was to identify individuals who were feeble-minded––Jews were agreed to be largely feeble-minded, but so were many foreigners, as well as blacks––and stop them from breeding by isolation in institutions or by sterilization.”[5]           The logical progression from evolution to eugenics was hardly a surprise. What is breathtaking, however, is the vast rapidity with which this baseless theory was embraced by the cultural elite. Crichton notes that its supporters ranged from President Theodore Roosevelt to Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger. Eugenics research was funded through philanthropies such as the Carnegie and Rockefeller foundations and carried out at prestigious universities such as Stanford, Harvard, Yale, and Princeton.         Legislation to address the “problem” posed by eugenics was passed in blue states ranging from New York to California. Eugenics was even backed by the National Academy of Sciences and the American Medical Association. Those who resisted eugenics were considered backward and ignorant. Conversely, German scientists who gassed the “feeble-minded” were considered forward thinking and progressive and were rewarded with grants form such institutions as the Rockefeller Foundation right up to the onset of World War II.         It wasn’t until the ghastly reality of eugenics reached full bloom in the genocidal mania of German death camps that it quietly vanished into the night. Indeed, after World War II, few institutions or individuals would even own up to their insidious belief in eugenics. Nor did the cultural elite ever acknowledge the obvious connection between eugenics and evolution.           Eugenics has faded into the shadowy recesses of history but the tragic consequences of the evolutionary dogma that birthed it are still with us today. Ideas have consequences and the consequences of this cosmogenic myth can hardly be overstated. This is not just an issue, this is the issue; how one views their origins ultimately will determine how they live their life. I talked about this at length with my guest Dr. Jay Richards, Dr. Jonathan Wells, and Dr. Stephen Meyer on the February 12th and 13th editions of the Bible Answer Man broadcast, which you can access off our Website at <a title="http://www.equip.org/" href="../..//">www.equip.org</a>. I also recommend the following resources which can be purchased as a package at our Website or by 1-888-700-0274, these resources are <a href="http://www.equipresources.org/site/apps/ka/ec/searchit.asp?c=muI1LaMNJrE&b=2537845&en=ahKHJROFKiLIKRNzFdLJLSPyFbLVK4OyF8IRLaPIKkI1LgL">Fatal Flaws </a> <a href="http://www.equipresources.org/site/apps/ka/ec/product.asp?c=muI1LaMNJrE&b=2537845&en=6dJzGFOpHeIAJFOjE9KBIGPiG6LMISOiE4LJKYMsGgITK4K&ProductID=431161">The Case for a Creator DVD </a> <a href="http://www.equipresources.org/site/apps/ka/ec/product.asp?c=muI1LaMNJrE&b=2537845&en=dkINJ0ORLlIOL0NLIgJPK1NKIdK0JdMKLbLXLjOUJnJ7KpL&ProductID=430670">The Privileged Planet DVD </a> <a href="http://www.equipresources.org/site/apps/ka/ec/product.asp?c=muI1LaMNJrE&b=2537845&en=7oKBIINtGfLCIIPnFaIDIJMmF7IOIVPmG5LLJ1NwEhIVL7K&ProductID=431168">Icons of Evolution DVD</a>      <div id="edn1"> 1.       <a name="_edn1"></a>The Descent of Man, chap 6, “On the Affinities and Genealogy of Man,” in Robert Maynard Hutchins, ed.,           Great Books of The Western World, vol. 49, Darwin (Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, 1952), 336. </div> <div id="edn2"> 2.       <a name="_edn2"></a>New York Times, February 10, 1987. </div> <div id="edn3"> 3.       <a name="_edn3"></a>What is Creation Science? Rev. ed. (El Cajon, CA: Master Books, 1987, 67; also see Stephen Jay Gould,          “Dr. Down’s Syndrome,” Natural History (April 1980): 142-148. </div> <div id="edn4"> 4.       <a name="_edn4"></a>Bones of Contention: A Creationist Assessment of Human Fossils, rev.ed. (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2004), 62. </div> <div id="edn5"> 5.       <a name="_edn5"></a>State of Fear (New York: HarperCollins, 2004), 575-80. </div>   2009-06-12T16:47:37Z February 16, 2009 74 darwinism Darwinism

2010-01-27T14:58:33Z

I would like to address something that’s circling the globe and is hot in the news and it’s called Darwinius Masillae. Some news stories have sensationalized this to the degree of saying, “It’s like finding the lost ark,” or “It’s the scientific equivalent of the Holy Grail.”[1] The hyperbole is breathtaking. It’s been called “the most important find in 47 million years,”[2] and “the mother of all monkeys.”[3] In actuality all this is, is a silly debate among evolutionists as to whether Darwinius Masillae is an ancestor of lemurs or humans. It’s doesn’t do anything to settle the creation/evolution debate. In light of all the fanfare, we would do well to remember that past candidates like “Lucy” have bestowed fame on their finders but have done precious little to distinguish themselves as prime exemplers of human evolution. As the corpus of hominid fossil specimen grows, it has become increasingly evident there’s an unbridgeable chasm between hominids and humans. Similar structures on different species don’t provide proof of genealogical relationships. Common descent is simply an evolutionary assumption that’s used to explain similarities. To assume that hominids and humans are closely related because both of them can walk upright is like saying humming birds and helicopters are related because both can fly. I’ve said this before, but the distance between an ape that can’t read or write and a descendent of Adam who composes musical masterpieces or sends men to the moon is the distance of infinity. Bottom line—evolution can’t satisfactorily account for the genesis of life, the genetic code, or the ingenious synchronization process needed to produce life from a single fertilized human egg. It also can’t satisfactorily explain how physical processes can produce metaphysical realities such as consciousness or spirituality. This incessable drive to produce a missing link is fraught with selling sensationalism, and subjectivism. Instead we should not be pandering, but we should promote solid science. If you’ve looked at this for any period of time, you’re aware of the fact that this hype supposes that Nebraska, Piltdown, and Peking Man, along with Pithecanthropus Erectus are not so significant now, because supposedly now we found the mother of all fossil finds, we’ve found the missing link, or “the most important discovery in evolutionary processes in 47 million years.” You can't make this stuff up. As Christians we need to be able to see through the hype and help others as well, because this has been touted in every newspaper or periodical that I’ve laid my hands on in the last 48 hours. At its root, though, it’s just plain old selling and sensationalism! I’ve addressed the evolution issue in depth in my book Fatal Flaws: What Evolutionist Don’t Want You to Know. You can pick up a copy at our Website at <a href="../../">www.equip.org</a> or by calling us at 1-888-700-0274. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [1] “Missing Link Found? Scientist’s unveil Fossil of 47 million year old primate, Darwinius masillae” by By Samantha Strong and Rich Schapiro, New York Daily News (<a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/news/us_world/2009/05/19/2009-05-19_missing_link_found_fossil_of_47_millionyearold_primate_sheds_light_on_.html?print=1&page=all">http://www.nydailynews.com/news/us_world/2009/05/19/2009-05-19_missing_link_found_fossil_of_47_millionyearold_primate_sheds_light_on_.html?print=1&page=all</a>). All Websites Accessed 5/22/09.   [2] The Missing Link: Worth the Hype? By Robert Bazell (<a href="http://dailynightly.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2009/05/19/1937065.aspx">http://dailynightly.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2009/05/19/1937065.aspx</a>)   [3] Fossil Frenzy, Is this the Mother of all Monkeys? NBC Nightly News Video (<a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/30833464#30833464">http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/30833464#30833464</a>).   2009-06-09T17:39:05Z May 21, 2009 49 darwinius-masillae-fossil-find- Darwinius Masillae Fossil Find

2010-01-28T17:33:12Z

<a href="http://salemnet.vo.llnwd.net/o29/bibleanswerman/hankspeaksout/birth_of_jesus.mp3">Click Here to listen</a> I want to draw your attention to “Dateline NBC: The Birth of Jesus,” a special that ran this past Friday, almost a carbon-copy of Peter Jennings’ “The Search For Jesus.” In this particular special what’s called into question is the biblical account of the virgin birth, the idea that Jesus was actually born in Bethlehem , and they note that the Gospels are really contradictory in nature. So far from being complimentary, one with another, they’re contradictory. The one thing that they drive at over and over again is this idea that Luke is not a credible historian, and they use his census as the basis for saying that his history is not accurate and therefore, if you can call into question Luke as a historian you can call into question all the supernaturalism which is chronicled in his account as well.       I want to play a clip. Here’s Keith Morrison, who’s an on-site Dateline reporter, reporting for Stone Phillips and Dateline NBC’s “The Birth of Jesus,” and he starts out talking about Matthew’s Gospel, then segues into the Gospel according to Luke and then into the census, and then you’ll hear the voice of John Dominic Crossan, who is co-founder of the Jesus Seminar, call into question the idea that at the time when Jesus was born Augustus had decreed a census of the whole earth. Listen to this:     Keith Morrison:(Voiceover):  It's an abiding image of the Christmas story: the long, exhausting journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem . Mary, heavy with child, rides a donkey. Joseph is at her side. At least that's the popular image. In Matthew's Gospel there is no such journey. They are already living in Bethlehem . Luke has the journey but no donkey, no mention of how they made the trip. And why, according to Luke, were they heading to Bethlehem ? A decree that everyone in the empire would travel to his or her ancestral home to register in a census so they could be taxed. Or so Luke tells us. But there's a problem in the story, a problem that has occupied many generations of scholars.   John Dominic Crossan: Luke tells us the story that at the time Jesus was born, Augustus had decreed a census of the whole earth. Now, every scholar will tell you there was no such census ever.   That, again, is John Dominic Crossan, and it’s interesting that if all of the Gospel writers would give the accounts in exactly the same way they would be accused of being in collusion, and that’s why the Gospel writers give complementary accounts. They do not all say the exact same thing, so the idea that Keith Morrison cites that Luke contains some details that Matthew does not, and vice versa, should not surprise us. It actually buttresses the defense of the Gospels being accurate.   With regards to the census, let me say this: the statement by John Dominic Crossan that every scholar will tell you that there was no such census under Augustus ever is simply, patently false. It’s not only presumptuous, it’s false. In truth, Caesar Augustus was famous for census taking. So famous, in fact, credible historians don’t even debate the issue anymore. The Jewish historian Josephus refers to a Roman taxation in AD 6, and considering the scope of the taxation it’s logical to assume that it took a long time to complete. It no doubt began with Caesar Augustus around 5 BC and was completed approximately a decade later.   Luke is a meticulous historian and he notes that the census was first completed when Quirinius was governor of Syria . In fact, as Paul Maier, my co-author of The Da Vinci Code: Fact or Fiction explained during a Bible Answer Man broadcast not all that long ago, the Romans took 40 years to get a census done in Gaul, so for a province 1500 miles away from Rome, in Palestine, to take a decade is pretty quick, and since that census would finally come in under Quirinius’ administration, it could correctly be called by Luke the Census of Quirinius. Not only that, but given Luke’s impeccable credentials as a historian it would have been far more circumspect in this piece for John Dominic Crossan to give Luke the benefit of the doubt.   One need only remember the experience of the brilliant archaeologist Sir William Ramsey who set out to disprove Luke’s historical reliability. Through his painstaking Mediterranean archaeological trips he discovered that, one after the other, the historical allusions that Luke provides are accurate. If, as Ramsey points out, Luke does not err in referencing a plethora of countries, of cities and islands, all the details surrounding them, there’s no reason to doubt him concerning the census. So why they bring this census up, ad nauseum, ad infinitum, is beyond me.   This is what it is: it is making dogmatic assertions without providing defensible arguments. It is an idiosyncratic form of fundamentalism that denies the supernatural prior to examination, and it is a way of setting faith and evidence in opposition to one another when, in fact, they’re not in opposition to one another. We, as Christians, have faith in evidence, so the suggestion that “we reporters like Stone Phillips and Peter Jennings have facts and you Christians have faith” is simply a regurgitation of the enlightenment’s false dichotomy between faith and reason. We have faith in evidence. As Christians today, more than ever, we need to be ready to always give an answer for the hope that lies within us. We have reasonable answers and we need to be able to give them.   I want to mention that I did a little booklet called “The Search For Jesus Hoax” and it actually was in response to the Peter Jennings special, but it applies directly to this special by Dateline NBC called “The Birth of Jesus.” In it I rebut the kinds of dogmatic assertions without defensible arguments that are made to undermine the faith once for all delivered to the saints.   Here’s what’s going on: a lot of non-Christians watch specials like this and they say “You know what? You Christians really don’t know what you’re talking about. Here I finally have the evidence,” and they might even tell you that. Here’s what you need. You need to be fortified with the truth so you can take their objection and use it as a springboard or an opportunity to share the good news of the Gospel. If you don’t, what happens is people are solidified in their doubts. But you can make a difference.   There’s a large full-scale attack right now on the Christian faith. It is no longer veiled. It’s unvarnished, it’s head-on frontal and it’s happening with more and more rapidity. I mean, there was an attack on the ID movement on the West Wing recently. It was blatant. You want to yell at the television set. It was so falsely positioned it was almost breath-taking. But the problem is they get away with it because Christians aren’t equipped and that’s exactly what we’re trying to do, we’re trying to equip you. “The Search For Jesus Hoax” is available at the Christian Research Institute and you can get it on the web at equip.org.   2009-03-18T20:26:22Z March 19, 2006 15 the-birth-of-jesus Dateline NBC's "The Birth of Jesus"

2010-01-28T17:40:29Z

<a href="http://salemnet.vo.llnwd.net/o29/bibleanswerman/hankspeaksout/revelation.mp3"></a>Click Here to listen Adapted from the Afterword of The Last Sacrifice Tuesday, October 18, 2005 The Last Disciple series is based on an interpretation of Scripture that holds that the entire, not just Revelation, but the entire New Testament was completed prior to the destruction of the Temple in AD 70. In contrast, the Left Behind series is based on the assumption that Revelation was written in AD 95, long after Jerusalem's destruction. It asserts, in fact, that Revelation describes events that will likely take place in the twenty-first century rather than the first century. This is how Tim LaHaye puts it: "Revelation was written by John in AD 95, which means the book of Revelation describes yet future events of the last days just before Jesus comes back to this earth." Dr. LaHaye has gone so far as to dismiss the notion that Revelation was written before AD 70 as "historically ridiculous." A closer look at the evidence, however, reveals not only that such dismissive language is unwarranted but that the late-date position is untenable. First, let me say this: it's instructive to note that the late dating for Revelation is largely dependant on a single -- and markedly ambiguous -- sentence in the writings of a church father named Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons. That sentence can be taken to mean either that John or that John's apocalyptic vision was seen toward the end of Domitian's reign. Moreover, the credibility of Irenaeus as a source is called into question by his contention in the same volume that Jesus was crucified when he was about fifty years of age. I don't think there are too many evangelicals that hold to that proposition. Furthermore, if the apostle John were indeed writing in AD 95, it seems incredible that he would make no mention whatsoever of the most apocalyptic event in Jewish history -- the demolition of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple at the hands of Titus. This would be tantamount to writing a history of New York City today and making no mention of the destruction of the World Trade Center at the hands of terrorists on September 11, 2001. More directly, imagine writing a thesis on the future of terrorism in America and failing to mention the Manhattan Massacre. Here's another parallel. Imagine that you are reading a history concerning Jewish struggles in Nazi Germany and find no mention whatsoever of the Holocaust. Would it be historically ridiculous or historically reasonable to suppose this history had been written prior to the outbreak of World War II? The answer is self-evident. Just as it stretches credulity to suggest that a history on the Jews in Germany written in the aftermath of World War II would make no mention of the Holocaust, so too it is quite unlikely that Revelation could have been written twenty-five years after the destruction of Jerusalem and yet make no mention of the most apocalyptic event in Jewish history. Finally, those who hold that the book of Revelation was written in AD 95 face an even more formidable obstacle! Consider one of the most amazing prophecies in all of Scripture. Jesus was leaving the Temple one day when his disciples called his attention to its buildings. As they gazed upon its massive stones and magnificent structures, Jesus uttered the unthinkable: "I tell you the truth, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down....This generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened." Less than forty years later, this prophecy, no doubt still emblazoned upon the tablet of their collective consciousness, became a vivid and horrifying reality. Josephus describes the utter devastation as the altar was surrounded by "corpuses, blood flowing down the steps of the sanctuary." He says "The temple was in flames, the victors stole everything they could get their hands on. They slaughtered all who were caught, no pity shown for age or rank, old or young, children, men, women, the laity, the priests, they're all massacred." And he also notes that the Temple was doomed August 30 AD 70, "the very day on which the former temple had been destroyed by the king of Babylon." As incredible as Christ's prophecy and its fulfillment one generation later are, it is equally incredible to suppose that the apostle John would make no mention of it. And we're going to tell you exactly why. Because as a student of history knows, as the student of the Bible is well aware of, when prophecy is fulfilled, the biblical writers mentioned it. And when the mother of all prophecies is fulfilled, it is inconceivable that John is not going to mention it. Suggested Resources:   <img style="float: left; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px; border: 0px;" src="http://www.equipresources.org/atf/cf/%7B9C4EE03A-F988-4091-84BD-F8E70A3B0215%7D/B820.jpg" alt="B820.jpg" />Hardcover Book The Last Sacrifice Resource# B820 Authors: Hank Hanegraaff, Sigmund Brouwer Publisher: Tyndale House Price:$19.99 <a title="Question or Comment" href="mailto:store@equip.org?Subject=Online Resource Question: The Last Sacrifice (B820)"></a> <a href="http://www.equipresources.org/site/apps/ka/ec/product.asp?c=muI1LaMNJrE&b=2537845&ProductID=430990">Order</a>   <img style="float: left; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px; border: 0px;" src="http://www.equipresources.org/atf/cf/%7B9C4EE03A-F988-4091-84BD-F8E70A3B0215%7D/cd768.jpg" alt="cd768.jpg" />AudioBook CD The Last Sacrifice Audio Book Resource# CD768 Authors: Hank Hanegraaff, Sigmund Brouwer Publisher: Tyndale House Price:$29.99  <a title="Question or Comment" href="mailto:store@equip.org?Subject=Online Resource Question: The Last Sacrifice Audio Book (CD768)"></a> <a href="http://www.equipresources.org/site/apps/ka/ec/product.asp?c=muI1LaMNJrE&b=2537845&ProductID=430989">Order</a> <img style="float: left; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px; border: 0px;" src="http://www.equipresources.org/atf/cf/%7B9C4EE03A-F988-4091-84BD-F8E70A3B0215%7D/pk827.jpg" alt="pk827.jpg" />AudioBook CD The Last Disciple and The Last Sacrifice Audio Book Package Resource# PK827 Authors: Hank Hanegraaff, Sigmund Brouwer Publisher: Tyndale House Price:$53.99 <a title="Question or Comment" href="mailto:store@equip.org?Subject=Online Resource Question: The Last Disciple and The Last Sacrifice Audio Book Package (PK827)"></a> <a href="http://www.equipresources.org/site/apps/ka/ec/product.asp?c=muI1LaMNJrE&b=2537845&ProductID=431232">Order</a>   2009-06-12T16:54:28Z February 28, 2007 76 dating-the-book-of-revelation Dating the Book of Revelation

2009-06-17T14:47:12Z

<div> Click <a href="http://salemnet.vo.llnwd.net/o29/bibleanswerman/hankspeaksout/howard_dean.mp3">Here</a> to listen to Hank's Response on the Bible Answer Man broadcast (Thursday, August 18th, 2005) <div> Click <a href="http://salemnet.vo.llnwd.net/o29/bibleanswerman/hankspeaksout/bam20050818.wma">Here</a> to listen to the entire Bible Answer Man broadcast (Thursday, August 18th, 2005) </div> </div> 2009-06-12T16:57:08Z February 28, 2007 77 democratic-national-committee-chairman-howard-dean Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean

2009-06-17T14:48:52Z

I want to discuss something I’ve been focused on for a couple of days, which is Bart Erhman. He has made it clear from his perspective that the Bible is filled with discrepancies, many of them irreconcilable contradictions. He says that scholars have known this for hundreds of years, but the sad thing is that the general public is yet in the dark. Now through his books and media appearances, he is trying to enlighten those who have darkened minds. He wants them to know that Moses did not write the Pentateuch; Matthew, Mark, Luke and John did not write the Gospels; the exodus probably did not happen; the conquest of the Promised Land is probably based on legend and on and on it goes. He says of his students, “the more conservative students–– resist for a long time, secure in their knowledge that God would not allow any falsehoods into a sacred book. But before long as students see more and more of the evidence many of them find that their faith in the inerrant and absolute historical truthfulness of the Bible begins to waver.”[1] Bart Ehrman says that one of his favorite discrepancies is that Jesus evidently had a painfully short attention span. This discrepancy would be easy to resolve had not Bart Ehrman been hopelessly lost in a wooden literal labyrinth of his own making. Here how’s he cites the problem, “In John 13:36, Peter says to Jesus, ‘Lord where are you going?’ A few verses later Thomas says, ‘Lord we do not know where you are going’ (John 14:5).  And then a few minutes later at the same meal Jesus upbraids his disciples saying, ‘Now I am going to the one who sent me, yet none of you ask me where are you going?’”That leaves only two possibilities according to Ehrman, “either Jesus had a very short attention span or there is something strange going on for the sources for these chapters…”[2] How does one respond to that? The first thing I would say to Professor Ehrman, and those who he is proud of causing to waver in their faith, that it’s instructive to note is that, if I were to take Professor Bart in a woodenly literal sense, in that same sense he takes the Bible, I’d be doing him a grave injustice. It would hardly be fair to suppose that he really thinks it possible that Jesus really had a short attention span. Anyone who reads his book in context knows full well that Ehrman is convinced that John, who by the way he characterizes as a lower class illiterate and an Aramaic speaking peasant, did not write the Gospel attributed to him, and that the sources that cobbled together the text were decidedly unreliable. Furthermore, we must be careful not to fall for historical revisionists who, like Bart Ehrman, would have us believe on the basis of Acts 4 that John was illiterate, and therefore could not have written the fourth gospel. John may have been unlettered—in the sense that he was not educated beyond the primary schooling available to boys at that time—but he was clearly not illiterate. Not only is it an uncharitable stretch to demean John as illiterate from the standpoint of his formal education, but this characterization neglects the immediate and overall context of the book of Acts where the supposed unlearned apostles continually astonish the Jewish teachers of the law with their knowledge and wisdom, in much the same way that Jesus himself had; though he too was without the prerequisite rabbinic training demanded by Ehrman. Moreover, following the resurrection of our Lord, there is every indication that the apostles devoted themselves to the study and ministry of the Word of God. An entire adult lifetime of that kind of study can easily account for John’s ability to produce an astonishingly sophisticated and nuanced literary masterpiece. Finally, allow me to underscore what is painfully obvious to anyone who engages Bart’s so called problems with the Bible. Professor Ehrman, it seems, is wholly incapable of comprehending the subtlety of sophisticated literacy nuances. Instead he’s bent on forcing the text through a fundamentalist filter. Peter and Thomas obviously utter the words, “Where are you going?’ with a decidedly different drift. As has been well said, Peter’s question was only a selfish exclamation, which would not hear of Jesus’ going away alone. The assertion of Thomas was nothing but an expression of discouragement and dullness of mind. So here Jesus is leaving, He’s going to his sender, means so much to His disciples and yet none of them request one word of this precious information. Put another way, while the disciple focused on mean earthly vanities, Christ intended to elevate their gaze to eternal verities. Well, was Jesus a dummy with a painfully short attention span as per Professor Ehrman or it is Professor Ehrman who is hopelessly lost in a wooden literal labyrinth of his own making? I ask you to be the judge, but remember while I responded to this discrepancy, Professor Ehrman has thrown so many up against the wall that his students are wavering in their faith and many of these evangelical Christians, who went to Sunday School, church, and made professions of faith, and now don’t know what to think. This is why the Bible Answer Man broadcast and the Christian Research Institute continually tackle these issues head on because make no mistake about it the Bible is under siege. For further information on supposed Bible contradictions please see my Complete Bible Answer Book.  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [1] Bart D. Ehrman, Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (And Why We Don’t Know About Them) (New York, Harper One, 2009), 6.   [2] Ibid., 9. 2009-06-12T17:42:40Z April 24, 2009 79 did-jesus-have-a-short-attention-span- Did Jesus Have a Short Attention Span?

2010-01-28T18:00:42Z

October 12, 2009 was Columbus Day, and it's kind of ironic for me because just the other day, maybe about a week ago, my 10 year old daughter came up to me and told me the most incredible story. She told me the story of Christopher Columbus and his raw courage in the face of mutinous sailors who were in mortal terror of sailing over the edge of a flat earth. I thought to myself, my goodness, for a 10 year old, you’re waxing eloquent on Christopher Columbus. So I asked her; “Where in the world did you get that type of information?“ “Social studies,” she replied, “My teacher taught it to me.” And I thought, how incredibly bizarre that a teacher in an age of enlightenment would teach such a thing?   The truth of the matter is for the first 15 centuries of the Christian era, unanimous scholarly opinion pronounced the earth was a sphere. In other words, everybody knew that the earth was not flat. In fact, the whole notion of the flat earth was concocted as a way to discredit Christianity. They tried to point out even after Christopher Columbus had established the world to be round in 1492 that the church by its highest authority continued to erect theological barriers to this geographical truth. In other words, the church was bent on teaching flat earth even though Christopher Columbus had demonstrated that the earth was a sphere. So this is a story or myth concocted to discredit Christianity, and yet the irony of ironies is that even in Christian schools, Christian school teachers are teaching young Christian students this myth. Again, this is a complete myth, and the ancient Greek philosophers knew that the earth was spherical.<a style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" name="_ednref1" href="../#_edn1">[1]</a>   So one of the things that you as a Christian need to do, and this is one of the purposes of the Bible Answer Man show, is to learn to put on your baloney detector, because this ministry and the Bible Answer Man broadcast is all about discernment, learning how to exercise your God given discernment skills. You have to discern between wheat and chaff and heat and light. There are all kinds of myths circulating in the secular and spiritual world and you have to know the difference between truth and error. Why? Because we are told in the Word of God to put on the belt of truth (Eph. 6:14), it is the belt of truth that holds up the Christian’s armor. When that buckle breaks the cloak that protects you against the devil’s schemes simply falls from your shoulders and crumples to the ground.   We live in an age in which lies travel halfway around the world before truth has had a chance to put its boots on. An Internet lie flies around the world in micro seconds, so it is ever more important for you as the believer to distinguish truth from error because if not, we’re going to fall for all kinds of things.   We’ve got a guy coming to Charlotte; his name is Bishop John Shelby Spong. He is a former bishop in New Jersey and he’s writing all kinds of books, and in his books, he is making the following declarations:   ·        There is no supernatural God who lives above the sky or beyond the universe.   ·        There is no parental deity watching over us from whom we can expect help.   ·        The idea of Jesus in perpetual orbit doesn’t mean much to me.<a style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" name="_ednref2" href="../#_edn2">[2]</a>   In other words, this guy is a sort of fundamentalist on the left. He thinks that when the Bible says, “Jesus ascended into Heaven” that He’s traveling out of our little universe now and struggling with oxygen deprivation. He doesn’t understand that Jesus as the God-Man transcends time and space. In other words, he’s not particularly sophisticated, but he’s writing and speaking under the guise of sophistication that we now live in a scientific world and there is no need or room for the supernatural. He goes on to say,   There are no record books, and no heavenly judge. Heaven and hell are human constructs designed to make fair in some ultimate way the unfairness of life. <a style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" name="_ednref3" href="../#_edn3">[3]</a>   Well, if you look at his background you get some kind of an indication of where he’s coming from, and we can all commiserate with him. Spong tells the story that he lost his father—a man given to alcoholism, gambling, cigarette smoking and profanity—and yet “when callers coming to our home to express their regrets,” told him “what a fine Christian man” his father was, and that he “should be comforted by the conviction that he was to receive his reward.” Spong says, “The words simply did not add up. If religion was designed to comfort me, it failed. It brought me, rather, into intense emotional conflict."<a style="mso-endnote-id: edn4;" name="_ednref4" href="../#_edn4">[4]</a>   So he uses this experience as a way of getting rid of the supernatural. There wasn’t any great relief in the story he was being told, therefore, the biblical story from his perspective can’t be true. He’s now going around the country asking disaffected Christians to consider his crucial questions such as “What will happen if our suspicions are validated and this defense shield called religion loses its credibility?” In other words, we live an age of scientific enlightenment, religion doesn’t work any more, it’s the belief of the obscurantist. So can we still survive even though we have demonstrated that God does not exist? He goes on “What will happen if the external supernatural God of religion dies? Can the human psyche bear the experience of self-consciousness without the narcotic of supernaturalism?"<a style="mso-endnote-id: edn5;" name="_ednref5" href="../#_edn5">[5]</a>   This is the idea Spong has of God, who was a bishop in an Episcopal church by the way. Spong thinks that Christianity is a crutch for weak minded people. It’s a narcotic that we take to feel good, but all of Spong's thinking is a delusion and it’s in this age when God is said to be a delusion, which by the way Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion is also coming to Charlotte. That we have to demonstrate—not as an apologetic issue but as the apologetic issue is true—that the universe didn’t spring out of nothing, but that God created the universe. This should be obvious to every thinking person anywhere that an effect requires a cause equal to or greater than itself. You don’t have a cosmos without a cosmos creator. This wouldn’t make any sense. Spong and Dawkins are 19th century thinkers living in the 21st century—that’s the problem—and they act like the Christians are a 19th century thinkers living in the 21st century, nothing could be farther from the truth.   We have all the evidence and support we could possibly want for a biblical worldview, and John Shelby Spong is headed in the wrong direction. Should I feel sorry for him? Well of course, he’s 78 years old and he’s facing his own mortality. Of course I feel sorry for him. But what I don’t feel sorry for is the fact that he is a man with premeditation leading all kinds of people into a ditch.   It was Spong who said all of the following: no biblical scholar thinks that John wrote the fourth gospel;<a style="mso-endnote-id: edn6;" name="_ednref6" href="../#_edn6">[6]</a> John’s Gospel does not contain “a single word…actually spoken by the historic Jesus;”<a style="mso-endnote-id: edn7;" name="_ednref7" href="../#_edn7">[7]</a> the Gospels presented a Jesus who is sometimes as “narrow minded, vindictive and even hypocritical;”<a style="mso-endnote-id: edn8;" name="_ednref8" href="../#_edn8">[8]</a> no reputable scholar accepts the virgin birth;<a style="mso-endnote-id: edn9;" name="_ednref9" href="../#_edn9">[9]</a> the miraculous works of Jesus were myths;<a style="mso-endnote-id: edn10;" name="_ednref10" href="../#_edn10">[10]</a> Paul was a “self loathing” “rigidly controlled gay male;”<a style="mso-endnote-id: edn11;" name="_ednref11" href="../#_edn11">[11]</a> the Bible is full of errors and contradictions;<a style="mso-endnote-id: edn12;" name="_ednref12" href="../#_edn12">[12]</a> and anyone who holds that the Bible is without error is ignorant, culturally backwards<a style="mso-endnote-id: edn13;" name="_ednref13" href="../#_edn13">[13]</a>, fearful and insecure people who are not serious Christians who don’t even read the Bible they pretend to defend.<a style="mso-endnote-id: edn14;" name="_ednref14" href="../#_edn14">[14]</a> Now I’ll give him that last point that he is generally right that Bibles are gathering dust, but what is not gathering dust is those that discredit the Bible.   We live in an age of professors gone wild: Daniel Dennet, Christopher Hitchens, Bart Ehrman, Richard Dawkins, and Bishop John Shelby Spong. They are touring the country. They are on television shows, and radio shows.   Our local newspaper talks about Spong’s venues as being overpopulated by people, and that everyone wants to come hear him talk, and they are so intrigued. They don’t know that he’s talking nonsense. Why? They don’t know truth.   At CRI and the Bible Answer Man we have a tag line, “Because Truth Matters.” We do what we do “Because Truth Matters.” We defend the reliability of the Bible and the divinity of Jesus Christ “Because Truth Matters.” We demonstrate that the universe is not eternal and that it did not spring out of nothing “Because Truth Matters.” We say how one views their origins will ultimately determine how they live their life, that evolution is the great cosmogenic myth of the twenty-first century, and we ask people to live with eternity in mind “Because Truth Matters.”   John Shelby Spong is dead wrong when he says, “Heaven and hell are human constructs”<a style="mso-endnote-id: edn15;" name="_ednref15" href="../#_edn15">[15]</a>. The ancients knew better. Without a Heaven and Hell, Hitler dies in the comforting arms of his mistress without any eternal consequences. The ancients knew better than to think such rubbish. Ideas have life and death consequences; consequences not just for time but for eternity.   I’ve addressed a lot here on history and John Shelby Spong. I would recommend three resources, first on the Bible and theology I recommend my Complete Bible Answer Book. On history I recommend the book Truth and Transformation by Dr. Vishal Mangalwadi and his CD series Must the Sun Set on the West. All available at our Website of <a href="../../">www.equip.org</a> or by calling us at 1-888-7000-0274.   <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"> <hr size="1" /> </div> <div style="mso-element: endnote-list;"> <div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;"> <a style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" name="_edn1" href="../#_ednref1">[1]</a> See Inventing the Flat Earth: Columbus and Modern Historians by Jeffrey Burton Russell (Praeger Paperback 1997) </div> <div id="edn2" style="mso-element: endnote;"> <a style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" name="_edn2" href="../#_ednref2">[2]</a> “Controversial Bishop Returning Home,” by Miriam Durkin, The Charlotte Observer, 10/9/09, More Information Section of Web article, under What Spong Thinks (<a href="http://www.charlotteobserver.com/479/story/993680.html">http://www.charlotteobserver.com/479/story/993680.html</a>).   </div> <div id="edn3" style="mso-element: endnote;"> <a style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" name="_edn3" href="../#_ednref3">[3]</a> Ibid. </div> <div id="edn4" style="mso-element: endnote;"> <a style="mso-endnote-id: edn4;" name="_edn4" href="../#_ednref4">[4]</a> Ibid. Main article   </div> <div id="edn5" style="mso-element: endnote;"> <a style="mso-endnote-id: edn5;" name="_edn5" href="../#_ednref5">[5]</a> Ibid. Main article </div> <div id="edn6" style="mso-element: endnote;"> <a style="mso-endnote-id: edn6;" name="_edn6" href="../#_ednref6">[6]</a> Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism, John Shelby Spong (HarperSanFrancisco, 1991), 193.   </div> <div id="edn7" style="mso-element: endnote;"> <a style="mso-endnote-id: edn7;" name="_edn7" href="../#_ednref7">[7]</a> Ibid. 191. </div> <div id="edn8" style="mso-element: endnote;"> <a style="mso-endnote-id: edn8;" name="_edn8" href="../#_ednref8">[8]</a> Ibid. 21.   </div> <div id="edn9" style="mso-element: endnote;"> <a style="mso-endnote-id: edn9;" name="_edn9" href="../#_ednref9">[9]</a> Ibid. 215.   </div> <div id="edn10" style="mso-element: endnote;"> <a style="mso-endnote-id: edn10;" name="_edn10" href="../#_ednref10">[10]</a> Ibid. 129-33, 143-44 </div> <div id="edn11" style="mso-element: endnote;"> <a style="mso-endnote-id: edn11;" name="_edn11" href="../#_ednref11">[11]</a> Ibid. 109-126.   </div> <div id="edn12" style="mso-element: endnote;"> <a style="mso-endnote-id: edn12;" name="_edn12" href="../#_ednref12">[12]</a> Ibid, 16-23.   </div> <div id="edn13" style="mso-element: endnote;"> <a style="mso-endnote-id: edn13;" name="_edn13" href="../#_ednref13">[13]</a> Ibid.9.   </div> <div id="edn14" style="mso-element: endnote;"> <a style="mso-endnote-id: edn14;" name="_edn14" href="../#_ednref14">[14]</a> Ibid., 3-5, 79, 133, 217   </div> <div id="edn15" style="mso-element: endnote;"> <a style="mso-endnote-id: edn15;" name="_edn15" href="../#_ednref15">[15]</a> “Controversial Bishop Returning Home,” by Miriam Durkin, The Charlotte Observer, 10/9/09, More Information Section of Web article, under What Spong Thinks (<a href="http://www.charlotteobserver.com/479/story/993680.html">http://www.charlotteobserver.com/479/story/993680.html</a>) </div> </div> 2009-10-14T16:05:27Z October 12, 2009 185 discerning-myths-that-abound- Discerning Myths that Abound

2010-01-28T18:27:02Z

I must confess that I did more than one double take when I encountered Bart Ehrman’s first problems with the Hebrew Old Testament. He not only complains that Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 use different names for God but that the two chapters are very difficult to reconcile.<a title="blocked::#_edn1" name="_ednref1" href="../../#_edn1">[1]</a> This is of course hardly true. The notion of different names for God must surely have Ehrman’s language students rolling their eyes in utter amazement and utter disbelief. As Hebrew students will immediately recognize the author of Genesis uses Elohim to identify God in both chapter one and chapter two. The only notable difference is that in chapter two the author adds Lord or Yahweh to Elohim. It is hardly a stretch to suppose that a single author would underscore the power of God in creation in chapter one and then emphasize that God in creation is likewise God in relationship with respect to humankind in chapter two. Furthermore, I wonder why the consternation over topical recapitulation. Ehrman himself frequently brings up a topic in general terms and then restates the self same topic in different order with added detail and perspective and, frankly, I’m surprised one of his university Hebrew students hasn’t taken the time to unpack the problem for the professor. One final point, I’m certainly surprised that in added detail and perspective, Ehrman wonders how light could have been created on the first day when the sun, moon, and stars were not created till the fourth day.<a title="blocked::#_edn2" name="_ednref2" href="../../#_edn2">[2]</a> It seems to me that even a full blown fundamentalist on the left would recognize that electromagnetic radiation inherit in the big bang produces more than a little light and, certainly, Ehrman believes in the big bang. These are the kinds of objections that professor Ehrman, and other professors around the country, are using to dissuade their students that the Bible could be the infallible repository for redemptive revelation. There are good answers to the objections he raises over and over ad nauseum and ad infinitum. They're not unusual objections, they’ve been raised before, and we provide those at the ministry of the Christian Research Institute and Bible Answer Man radio broadcast. To help equip you in the area of doctrine I’ve developed a new resource called Memorable Keys to Essential Christian D-O-C-T-R-I-N-E. It’s available at our Website at <a title="http://www.equip.org/" href="../../">www.equip.org</a> or by calling us at 1-888-700-0274. <hr size="1" /> <div> <div id="edn1"> <a title="blocked::#_ednref1" name="_edn1" href="../../#_ednref1">[1] </a>Bart D. Ehrman, Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (And Why We Don’t Know About Them) (New York, Harper One, 2009), 9. </div> <div id="edn2"> <a title="blocked::#_ednref2" name="_edn2" href="../../#_ednref2">[2] Ibid, 9-10. </a> </div> </div> 2009-06-12T17:44:10Z April 23, 2009 80 do-genesis-chapter-1-and-2-contradict- Do Genesis Chapter 1 and 2 Contradict?

2010-01-28T18:54:17Z

Indeed, truth is under siege and there is a consequence to our ideas. So often we think that ideas come out of ivory towers and scholars debate them but we fail to realize that ideas have consequences.   If you don’t think ideas have consequences, just think back to October 1917. The Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin; he was campaigning on the promise of change, and he led his Bolshevik party to victory promising that change would come. He was convinced that redistribution of wealth would draw heaven down to earth and so the Bolshevik bureaucrats in Moscow began printing money. They began seizing church assets and began confiscating private property. They nationalized Russian banks, factories, and farms. They provided a system of socialized medicine; in fact, in 1918 Lenin introduced a cradle to grave healthcare system that utterly bankrupted the Soviet economy.   We would think that the utter failure and devastation that ensued in the wake of Lenin’s failed socialist experiment would have precluded any other government from following the same fool hardy foot trend, but it didn’t, and all you had to do was think back to another October. This was in 194., Mao Tse Tung established the People’s Republic of China, and he began a similar socialist experiment. It was called the “Great Leap Forward”. Well ideas have consequences and the Chinese economy was ultimately devastated, 20 million or more died of starvation; 20 million more died in reeducation camps.   So many more examples could be given, but the truth is, ideas have consequences, and it’s not just true in geo-political circumstances. It’s true within the Christian faith. When I say, “Truth Under Siege,” it is because I want people to recognize that the Christian church needs to undergo paradigm changes.   Millions, and I mean literally millions, within the Christian faith have been sucked into Word of Faith Churches. Some have paid the ultimate price of the ideas being communicated by popular prophecy pundits. One woman believed that words could create reality, and thus denied the symptoms of cancer paid the ultimate price with her life. Ideas have consequences. Or think of the person that buys into the Faith movement’s view of faith and becomes disillusioned and falls out of the back door of a church into the Kingdom of the Cults, maybe sipping cyanide.   Cyanide sounds kind of Draconian; but think about a person who ends up in a Christ-less eternity because a Word of Faith teacher dragged Christ’s name through the mud. We don’t have to think any further than Luke 16 where a rich man experiences torment. He wants to go back and warn his five brothers so that they do not come to a place like this apart from the goodness and grace of God for all eternity. Think sipping cyanide is bad? Imagine forever, forever, forever being separated from the grace of God.   We do what we do at the Christian Research Institute because ideas have consequences. For your gift to our ongoing work, I’d like you to get a copy of message I delivered in Los Angeles earlier this year, entitled Truth Under Siege. You can get this at our Website of <a title="http://www.equip.org/" href="../..//">www.equip.org</a> or by calling us 1-888-7000-0274. 2009-07-29T14:01:29Z July 20, 2009 167 do-ideas-really-have-consequences- Do Ideas Really Have Consequences?

2010-01-28T18:59:20Z

The day before Good Friday on The Colbert Report Bart Ehrman attempted to demonstrate that the Gospels of Mark and Luke stand in hopeless contradictions to one another with respect to the death of Jesus Christ.<a style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title="blocked::#_edn1" name="_ednref1" href="../#_edn1">[1]</a> Ironically, Tom Krattenmaker notes Ehrman’s claims on this same issue in USA Today on April 13th, 2009.<a style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title="blocked::#_edn2" name="_ednref2" href="../#_edn2">[2]</a> Ehrman makes the following charge: “In Mark’s Gospel, for example, Jesus goes to His death in deep agony, over what’s happening to him, and doesn’t seem to understand why it’s happening to Him.” Conversely, says, Ehrman, “When you read Luke’s Gospel, He’s not in agony at all.”<a style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title="blocked::#_edn3" name="_ednref3" href="../#_edn3">[3]</a> Well, has Ehrman discovered the crux of the matter? Are Mark and Luke irreconcilable at odds with respect to the death of Jesus Christ? I think not. To suggest that in Mark’s account of the crucifixion Jesus doesn’t seem to understand what is happening to Him is more than a little baffling. Even a child reading through Mark’s words knows better than to think such a thing. Who can forgot Christ’s poignant defense of Mary after she’s broken an alabaster jar and poured perfume on the head of Jesus Christ. “She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial” says Jesus (Mark 14:8). Or His anguished prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane “Abba, Father, everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.” (Mark 14:36).   Indeed, as Mark’s gospel makes crystal clear, Jesus knew precisely what would happen to Him and, of course, He knew precisely why. As He explained it during the last supper, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many,” (Mark 14:24), or as He put it just prior to entering Jerusalem, the Son of Man came “to give His life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). Jesus had in fact repeatedly predicted His suffering, His life, His death, His resurrection, and to say otherwise is both a insult to Christ and common sense.   Furthermore, it’s almost beyond belief that a scholar with the kind of prestige that Bart Ehrman has wrestling with the text of Scripture would conclude that Christ in Luke’s Gospel—as Ehrman put it on Colbert—is “not in agony at all.”<a style="mso-endnote-id: edn4;" title="blocked::#_edn4" name="_ednref4" href="../#_edn4">[4]</a> As documented by Doctor Luke, Christ’s torment started in the Garden of Gethsemane after the emotional Last Supper. There Jesus experienced a medical condition known as hematidrosis. Tiny capillaries in His sweat glands ruptured, mixing sweat and blood. As a result, Christ’s skin became extremely fragile.<a style="mso-endnote-id: edn5;" title="blocked::#_edn5" name="_ednref5" href="../#_edn5">[5]</a> As Luke’s gospel says, “being in anguish, He prayed more earnestly, and His sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.”(Luke 22:44) Subsequently He’s arrested, He’s beaten and He’s executed in grotesque and humiliating fashion. The Roman system of crucifixion has been fine-tuned to produce maximum pain. In fact, the word excruciating (literally “out of the cross”) had to be invented to fully codify its horror.<a style="mso-endnote-id: edn6;" title="blocked::#_edn6" name="_ednref6" href="../#_edn6">[6]</a> To tell Colbert and vicariously the world that in Luke’s Gospel Jesus is not in agony at all, takes more than just a little gall on the part of Ehrman.   Finally, allow me to drive a nail into the heart of Ehrman’s methodology. Unless biographers such as Mark and Luke say exactly the same thing in exactly the same way, Ehrman stands ready to crucify them on the pretext of contradiction. Here’s how he restates the shop worn charge on the television broadcast; “And what people have done, is they’ve taken Mark’s Gospel and Luke’s Gospel and combined them together to one big Gospel, which is unlike either Mark or Luke.”<a style="mso-endnote-id: edn7;" title="blocked::#_edn7" name="_ednref7" href="../#_edn7">[</a>7] That is, of course, precisely what biographers do and for good reason. The very nature of biography is to pick and choose elements of a congruent story that one wishes to emphasize. As such no single biographer captures every detail of a subject’s life and experience. Indeed one of the most amazing realities with respect to the composite biography presented through the Gospel writers is that they were empowered to present a living portrait of the most interesting, complex, and significant being who has ever walked among us and that without contradiction or the possible charge of collusion and they do it with such eloquence and eradiation.   Well to answer the question, was Jesus in agony on the cross as per Mark and not as per Luke? The answer is there is no contradiction. Together the accounts along with John and Matthew give us the whole story wonderfully balanced, eradiate, glorious, and ultimately a story by which we can be saved.   We live in an epic of time in which our faith is being systematically attacked, vilified, ridiculed, and marginalized. In this epic of time we are going to continue to make it known on the Bible Answer Man radio broadcast, the Christian Research Journal, and our Website, <a title="http://www.equip.org/" href="../..//">www.equip.org</a>, that the Bible is not hopelessly contradictory but it is indeed divine as opposed to merely human in origin. We thank all of you who stand with this ministry prayerfully and financially so that we can go out to the world each and every day countering claims that contradict and denigrate the Bible. For further information on supposed Bible contradictions, please see my <a href="https://www.kintera.org/site/c.muI1LaMNJrE/b.4487367/k.DD74/The_Complete_Bible_Answer_Book__Collectors_Edition/apps/ka/sd/donor.asp?c=muI1LaMNJrE&b=4487367&en=fwLRL6PZKrJWK6OXLgJQKfP1IqKbLkOVIlI5IfNZJnIVJfN7LAL" target="_blank">Complete Bible Answer Book</a>. <a style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title="blocked::#_ednref1" name="_edn1" href="../#_ednref1">[1] Bart Erhman interview on </a>The Colbert Report with Stephen Colbert, Comedy Central, April 9, 2009.   <div style="mso-element: endnote-list;"> <div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;"> </div> <div id="edn2" style="mso-element: endnote;"> <a style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title="blocked::#_ednref2" name="_edn2" href="../#_ednref2">[2] Tom Krattenmaker, Columnist’s Opinion’s, “Fightin Words” </a>USA Today, April 13, 2009 (<a title="http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2009/04/fightin-words.html#more" href="http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2009/04/fightin-words.html#more">http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2009/04/fightin-words.html#more</a>). Accessed April 14, 2009. </div> <div id="edn3" style="mso-element: endnote;"> <a style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title="blocked::#_ednref3" name="_edn3" href="../#_ednref3">[3] Ehrman, </a>Colbert Report </div> <div id="edn4" style="mso-element: endnote;"> <a style="mso-endnote-id: edn4;" title="blocked::#_ednref4" name="_edn4" href="../#_ednref4">[4] Ibid. </a> </div> <div id="edn5" style="mso-element: endnote;"> <a style="mso-endnote-id: edn5;" title="blocked::#_ednref5" name="_edn5" href="../#_ednref5">[5] All medical data and descriptions c</a>oncerning Christ’s suffering are adapted from C. Truman Davis, “The Crucifixion of Jesus: The Passion of Christ from a Medial Point of View,” Arizona Medicine (March 1965): 183-187; and William D. Edwards, Wesley J. Gabel, and Floyd E. Hosmer, “On The Physical Death of Jesus Christ,” The Journal of the American Medical Association  (21 March 1986): 1455-63. </div> <div id="edn6" style="mso-element: endnote;"> <a style="mso-endnote-id: edn6;" title="blocked::#_ednref6" name="_edn6" href="../#_ednref6">[6] Lee Strobel, </a>The Case for Christ  (Grand Rapids, Zondervan, 1998), 197-198. </div> <div id="edn7" style="mso-element: endnote;"> <a style="mso-endnote-id: edn7;" title="blocked::#_ednref7" name="_edn7" href="../#_ednref7">[7] Ehrman, </a>Colbert Report       </div> </div> 2009-04-15T18:26:42Z April 13, 2009 37 do-mark-and-luke-contradict-on-the-death-of-jesus- Do Mark and Luke Contradict on the Death of Jesus?

2010-01-28T19:29:41Z

Recently, Bart Ehrman was making the media circuit talk about his new book, Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (And Why We Don’t Know About Them). Another of his alleged discrepancies in the Bible is that “in Mark’s Gospel Jesus tells Peter that he will deny him ‘three times before the cock crows twice.’ In Matthew’s gospels he tells him it will be ‘before the cock crows.’ Well which is it–––before the cock crows once or twice?” [1] In response let me first point out that—as his more attentive students have likely discovered—Professor Ehrman is engaged in a cocky game of slight-of-mind. The truth is that Matthew does not tell us how many times the rooster crowed, he simply tells us that the rooster crowed (Mt. 26:34). As such Ehrman is only knocking down a straw man. Furthermore, only an extreme literalist bent on undermining Scripture would attempt to make this particular passage walk on all fours. In recounting past events or stories, we obviously don’t all highlight the same details. In the case at hand, Mark simply provides a bit more detail than does Matthew (Mt.26:34; Mk 14:30). Finally, Ehrman has set up a rigged game in which it’s impossible for him to lose. Since Matthew and Mark do not provide identical testimonies he cries contradiction. Conversely, if they had provided identical testimony he would charge them with collusion. In sharp contrast to Ehrman’s methodology, credible scholarship looks for a reliable core set of facts in order to validate a historical account. In this case, Matthew and Mark merely provided complementary perspectives. So there’s no problem and we don’t have to make a big deal out of Bart Ehrman’s all too convenient cock crowing conundrum. It’s easily explained, it’s not a problem and certainly isn’t a reason for us to say that the Bible can’t be trusted. In fact, the reasons the Bible can be trusted are overwhelming including the evidence for the manuscripts themselves, archaeological evidence, predictive prophecy and scriptural synergy. All this is available in various sources, especially in my new resource Memorable Keys to Essential Christian D-O-C-T-R-I-N-E. It’s available at our Website at <a href="../..//">www.equip.org</a> or by calling us at 1-888-700-0274. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [1] Bart D. Ehrman, Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (And Why We Don’t Know About Them) (New York, Harper One, 2009), 7. 2009-06-12T17:45:32Z April 24, 2009 81 do-mark-and-matthew-contradict-on-jesus-words-on-peter-s-denial- Do Mark and Matthew Contradict on Jesus Words on Peter’s Denial?

2010-01-28T19:33:32Z

We have yet another installment of Professors Gone Wild. Once again our main character is Professor Bart Ehrman. In this episode, he asks his readers to consider one of his all-time favorite passages, namely the Exodus account of the ten plagues. He is particularly pleased with what he perceives to be a discrepancy between the fifth and seventh plagues. The fifth plague he writes, “Was a pestilence that killed ‘all of the livestock of the Egyptians’ (Exodus 9:5). How is it, then, that just a few days later the seventh plague, of hail, was to destroy all of the Egyptian livestock in the fields (Exodus 9:21-22)? What livestock?”<a style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title="blocked::#_edn1" name="_ednref1" href="../#_edn1">[1]</a>   In truth there is little warrant for delighting in this alleged discrepancy. Indeed an array of resolutions rules out Bart’s dogmatic declaration that these passages stand in contradiction.   First, at the risk of pressing the text into a wooden literal labyrinth it should be noted that the words “all the livestock” are qualified by the phrase, “in the field.” (Ex. 9:3) As such a consistent literalist ought to suppose that all other livestock would be spared.   Furthermore, it might credibly be argued that the word “all” can be used in less than an exhaustive sense. For example, when Scripture tells us that all the people of Jerusalem went out to John the Baptist (Mark 1:5) no ones supposes that every single person without exception went to see the prophet. Likewise, when broadcasters gush that “everyone was following Tiger Woods during this past Masters,” I seriously doubt that anyone supposed that no one was following the leaders.   Finally, while the solutions offered above are more than sufficient, a range of other solutions can be deduced. For example, it’s quite plausible that the Egyptian slave owners having lost their horses and their donkeys would have absconded with some of the livestock of the slaves.   The bottom line is this: it is more than a little baffling that Bart would want to hang his hat on such a tired old canard. The Bible and Christian doctrine is under assault. To help equip you I’ve developed a new resource called Memorable Keys to Essential Christian D-O-C-T-R-I-N-E. It’s available at our Website at <a title="http://www.equip.org/" href="../..//">www.equip.org</a> or by calling us at 1-888-700-0274.     <div>   <div class="MsoNormal"> <hr size="1" /> </div> </div> <div style="mso-element: endnote-list;"> <div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;"> <a style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title="blocked::#_ednref1" name="_edn1" href="../#_ednref1">[1] Bart D. Ehrman, </a>Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (And Why We Don’t Know About Them) (New York, Harper One, 2009), 10.   </div> </div> 2009-04-17T20:20:40Z April 16, 2009 39 does-the-5th-and-7th-plague-on-egypt-contradict Do the 5th and 7th Plague on Egypt Contradict?

2010-01-28T19:36:49Z

A recent caller to the Bible Answer Man broadcast asked for further clarification as to whether 2 Samuel 12:8 might well suggest that God approves of the practice of polygamy. I promised to provide additional perspective to this very significant question, and I say “significant” in that one may legitimately question a God who approves the practice of polygamy.  In 2 Samuel 12, the Lord, speaking through Nathan the prophet, says to King David, “I gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives into your arms, and I gave you the house of Israel and Judah; and if that had been too little, I would have added you many more things like these.” At face value, this seems to suggest that God gave David multiple wives, and then stood ready to add to his harem with divine sanction. Of course, that’s precisely the problem with pressing Scripture into a wooden literal labyrinth, because—in truth—if Nathan’s words are anything at all, they are ironic. David had just murdered a man in order to have another woman appended to his harem. Despite the generosity of the very God who had made him sovereign ruler of the land, the king had stolen the wife of a servant and that to satisfy his carnal lust. Thus, in language that dripped with irony, Nathan the prophet pronounces judgment against Israel’s king. As such, 2 Samuel 12 hardly constitutes divine approval for the practice of polygamy. And this is not a singular case. As with David, Solomon, David’s son, had extravagances in multiplying not only horses, but multiplying wives, and that was a significant factor in the unraveling of a kingdom. Who can forget the explicit admonition of Moses in Deuteronomy 17:17: Do not multiply wives or your heart will be led astray! If this applied to the great kings of Israel, how much more the subjects of the kingdom. Moreover, monogamous marriage is clearly taught in Genesis (2:22-24), and then reiterated by Christ himself. Indeed, Jesus went on to say that, “Anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, and marries another woman commits adultery” (Matt 19:9). Not only so, but marriage is an analogy for the relationship that God has with his people, with the Church, His one and only bride. Furthermore, reading the Bible for all its worth involves recognition that the narratives of Scripture are often descriptive as opposed to prescriptive. The fact that Scripture reveals the patriarchs with all their warts and moles and wrinkles is to warn us of their failures, it’s not to teach us to emulate their practices. Far from blinking at David’s polygamous behavior, the Bible reveals that as a result of his sin, the sword never left his home. Finally, let me say this; As God permitted divorce because of the hardness of men’s hearts, so too He put up with polygamy because of humankind’s insolent stubbornness. Indeed, God causes even the wrath of man to please Him. Thus, in His sovereign purposes, He might well have tolerated the practice of polygamy for the very purpose of providing economic stability and security for women trapped within the confines of a patriarchal society. Yet, as redemptive history reveals, God does not simply leave His people where they are—He moves to sanctify them. In the effulgence of Scripture, women are elevated from the confines of a patriarchal society to the status of complete ontological equality with men. As such, the apostle Paul in definitive fashion says just as there are no slaves but only free in the economy of God, so too there is no male or female but all are one in Christ. Indeed, one might well say that the words of Paul in Ephesians 5 have ennobled and empowered women in the West such that far from being chattel, they're considered co-laborers in Christ with the very men who are instructed to give up their rights for them. While Islam abides polygamy, it certainly plays no part in the Christian ethic. Speaking of Islam, we have a brand new book out on Islam, entitled, Islam: What You Must Know. It equips you now how to correctly think about Islam. Unfortunately, we have all sorts of pre-texts about Islam. Sophistry, sloppy journalism, and sensationalism has won the day even in the Christian church. We put together this book to help you determine questions such as, “Is Islam a maniacal monolith or is it multifaceted?” “What’s the difference between Shiite and Sunni?” Islam is a mission field on our own doorstep, and I encourage you to get a copy of this book at our website of <a title="http://www.equip.org/" href="http://www.equip.org/">www.equip.org</a> or by calling us at 1-888-700-0274. 2009-08-05T20:29:23Z August 4, 2009 169 does-2-samuel-12-approve-of-polygamy- Does 2 Samuel 12 approve of Polygamy?

2010-01-28T19:42:55Z

<a style="font-size: 8pt" href="http://salemnet.vo.llnwd.net/o29/bibleanswerman/hankspeaksout/evolution_genesis.mp3"></a>Click Here to listen Phil: Why does evolution have to equal atheism or philosophical naturalism as Hank says it? It is usually perceived as such, but this does not have to be the case. I can't believe why Hank has to hold that Genesis 1, with a clear thought rhyming scheme and repetitious structure is literal. I see that Hank is doing so much good but perhaps he is allowing a fundamentalist view of Scripture to taint his ministry. Hank: Evolutionary biologists assume methodological naturalism. This is the idea that only natural causes and processes are allowed to account for the complex, information-rich structures of living organisms. So even if God exists we would have a God who has nothing to do with origins, the development of life. Instead, undirected natural causes explain the origin and development of life. So, for all practical purposes you assume the position of a philosophical naturalist or a scientific atheist if you're going to hang your hat on the notion of "undirected natural processes." There's another point here, and that has to do with Genesis. Is it literal or non-literal? Well, that might be a false dichotomy. Genesis, like the rest of Scripture, has to be read as literature. In other words, if you want to interpret the Bible literally you have to interpret it as literature, and then pay close attention to genre and figures of speech. This is particularly true of Genesis, which is a historical narrative that's interlaced with symbolism and repetitive poetic structure. If Genesis were reduced to a mere allegory conveying merely abstract ideas about temptation, sin and rebellion, devoid of any correlation with actual events in history, the very foundation of the Christian faith would be destroyed. If the historical Adam and Eve did not eat the forbidden fruit and descend into a life of habitual sin resulting in death, there is absolutely no need for redemption. On the other hand, if we consider Satan to be a slithering snake, we would not only misunderstand the nature of fallen angels but we might also suppose that Jesus triumphed over the work of the devil by stepping on the head of a serpent rather than through His passion on the cross. There's one last point I want to make in response to this question and that is, the biblical account of creation specifically states that God created living creatures according to their own kinds. As confirmed by science, the DNA for a fetus is not the DNA for a frog. The DNA of each creature is uniquely programmed for reproduction after its own kind. Evolution is fighting for its very life. Rather than prop it up, thinking people everywhere must be on the vanguard of demonstrating its demise. It is no longer tenable in an age of scientific enlightenment. We can suppose, in 19th century science, that a fertilized human egg is merely a microscopic blob of gelatin, but in an age of scientific enlightenment we now know it is among the most ordered, complex structures in the entire known universe, and to suppose that something so sophisticated can be the product of undirected natural processes, I think, stretches credulity beyond the breaking point. Suggested Resources:   <img style="float: left; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px; border: 0px;" src="http://www.equipresources.org/atf/cf/%7B9C4EE03A-F988-4091-84BD-F8E70A3B0215%7D/B767.jpg" alt="B767.jpg" width="99" height="150" />Hardcover Book The Bible Answer Book Resource# B767 Author: Hank Hanegraaff Price:$14.99 <a title="Question or Comment" href="mailto:store@equip.org?Subject=Online Resource Question: The Bible Answer Book (B767)"></a>   <a href="http://www.equipresources.org/site/apps/ka/ec/product.asp?c=muI1LaMNJrE&b=2537845&ProductID=431008">Order</a> <img style="float: left; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px; border: 0px;" src="http://www.equipresources.org/atf/cf/%7B9C4EE03A-F988-4091-84BD-F8E70A3B0215%7D/B717.jpg" alt="B717.jpg" width="100" height="140" />Hardcover Book Fatal Flaws Resource# B717 Author: Hank Hanegraaff Publisher: W Publishing Group Price:$9.99 <a title="Question or Comment" href="mailto:store@equip.org?Subject=Online Resource Question: Fatal Flaws (B717)"></a> <a href="http://www.equipresources.org/site/apps/ka/ec/product.asp?c=muI1LaMNJrE&b=2537845&ProductID=430968">Order</a> 2009-06-12T17:48:15Z February 28, 2007 82 does-the-theory-of-evolution-conflict-with-the-book-of-genesis- Does the Theory of Evolution Conflict with the Book of Genesis?

2010-01-28T19:47:32Z

It is insightful to recognize that Eckhart Tolle is a number one best-seller. Even now we can see him on the New York Times Best-Seller List in the Paperback Advice books for two books in a row, the number one and two book, A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle, who is dubbed a "spiritual teacher who is going to help end conflict and suffering," as well as The Power of Now, which is allegedly a guide to personal growth and spiritual enlightenment. Eckhart Tolle is a man who believes that if we go deep enough in our religion then we will all get to the exact same place. In other words, all roads lead to the same destiny. Do all religions lead to the same place? Before I answer that question, let me issue a warning. Anyone who answers in the negative may well be ostracized for being narrow-minded and intolerant. That being said, here's my answer: no. Not all religions lead to the same place. It is incorrect as well as illogical to maintain that they do. When you begin to examine world religions, religions like Judaism or Hinduism or Buddhism, you will immediately recognize that they directly contradict one another. Moses taught that there was one God. Krishna believed in many gods. Buddha was agnostic. Logically they can all be wrong, but they cannot all be right. Not only that but the road of religion leads steeply uphill. The road of Christianity descends downward. What I mean by that is religion is fallen humanities attempt to reach up and become acceptable to God through what we do. Christianity, on the other hand, is a divine gift based on what Christ has done. He lived the perfect life that we could never live and He offers us His perfection as an absolutely free gift. Jesus taught that there was only one way to God. "I am the way and the truth and the life" said Jesus. "No one comes to the Father except through Me." Tolle, who is promoted by people like Oprah Winfrey, says that all religions offer only glimpses of truth and no religion has total truth. In the final analysis his final arbiter of truth is subjective experience. As I've said many times on the broadcast, experiences are notoriously unreliable. Eckhart Tolle says the moment you say "only my belief is true" and you deny other beliefs, then you've adopted an ideology. That raises the question: What is truth? That was the very question Pontius Pilate asked Jesus Christ. In the irony of the ages he stood toe to toe with the personification of truth and yet he missed its reality. Unfortunately we today, as postmodern people, are in much the same position. We stare at truth but fail to recognize its identity. That's why people like Eckhart Tolle can deceive us. We have to recognize that truth, at its root, is an aspect of the nature of God. So if we're going to put on truth we've got to put on Christ, because Christ is truth and we, as Christians, are called to be the bearers of truth. Christianity is not true because it works. It's not true because if feels right. It's not true because it's my truth. It's true because it's anchored in the Person and work of Jesus Christ who demonstrates that He is God - the one who spoke and the universe leapt into existence - through His resurrection. Truth is anything that corresponds to reality. It doesn't yield to the size and strength of the latest lobby group. It's not a mere matter of preference or opinion. Truth is true even if everyone denies it, and a lie is a lie even if everyone affirms it. Truth is essential, as such, to a realistic worldview. When sophistry and sensationalism and superstition sabotaged truth our view of reality is seriously skewed. The bottom line is that the death of truth spells the death of civilization.   2009-06-12T17:50:11Z July 1, 2008 83 eckhart-tolle-and-the-death-of-truth Eckhart Tolle and the Death of Truth

2010-01-28T19:52:01Z

The cover story of our newest issue of the Christian Research Journal is titled Navigating the Emerging Church Highway and this is one of the most chilling articles that I’ve come across in the entirety of my Christian ministry. It is absolutely chilling to read what some of the liberal emergent church leaders like Rob Bell are saying. Bell says, “This is not just the same old message with new methods. We’re rediscovering Christianity.” Brian McLaren echoes this sentiment and says, “I don’t think we’ve got the gospel right yet. What does it meant to be ‘saved’…I don’t think the liberals have it right. But I don’t think we have it right either. None of us have arrived at orthodoxy.” Many other chilling things in this new article, including this notion by Rob Bell, again one of the liberal emergent church leaders, he speculates that if “Jesus had a real, earthly, biological father named Larry, and archeologists find Larry’s tomb and do DNA samples and prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the virgin birth was really just a bit of mythologizing” that we would not lose any significant part of our faith because it is more about how we live.[1] To be fair, Bell does not overtly deny the virgin conception of Jesus, but he does deny that it is of any notable theological importance. What’s the alternative? If this is not significant, you’re saying that infallible Scriptures are not significant, that it wouldn’t be a big deal if Matthew was mythologizing a little bit. It wouldn’t be a big deal if we discovered that Mary was a sexually sinful woman who conceived Jesus illegitimately. That is the conclusion, but it gets so much worse you have to read the article to believe it. Here’s one more example of why the Christian Research Journal is such a critically important magazine for you to read. It’s not just critically acclaimed, it’s critically crucial.  You need to know what’s going on within the body of Christ. This article alone is worth the price of the Christian Research Journal. You can subscribe today in a safe and secure fashion at our website of <a href="../../">www.equip.org</a> or by calling us at 888-7000-CRI. [1] Christian Research Journal, Volume 31, Number 4, Cover story article, Navigating the Emerging Church Highway by Mark Driscol.     2009-06-12T17:51:37Z August 25, 2008 84 emergent-church Emergent Church

2010-01-29T16:38:50Z

I would like give a small perspective from where we’ve come from since the 16th century. The English Bible had it’s genesis in the writings of Oxford theologian John Wycliffe. He was remembered as the Morningstar of the Reformation and his translation from the 1380’s remained the only English Bible until the invention of moveable type in the 16th century. He held that the Bible was the exemplar of Christianity and the sole authority for faith and practice. So his writings were condemned as heresy. To put the Bible into the hands of the laity was an outrage against the authority of the church. In fact forty-four years after Wycliffe died Pope Martin V had his bones unearthed, incinerated, and the ashes unceremoniously thrown to the wind.  Perhaps no single person made a greater contribution to the legacy of the English Bible than Oxford and Cambridge scholar William Tyndale. Like Wycliffe, Tyndale purposed to make the Bible available to the commoner so that a boy who drives the plough would be as familiar with the Bible as the Pope. After a lengthy imprisonment, Tyndale—like Wycliffe before him—was tried for translating the Bible into the English language, He was martyred. In fact, October 6th, 1536, his body was ablaze and he cried out "Oh Lord, open the eyes of England's king!" His prayer found an answer, ironically enough, in King Henry VIII, who authorized an English translation of the greatest volume to be chained to every church pulpit in the land. The popularity was so great that parishioners gathered in parishes to experience formal readings from its pages. Thus within 3 years of his death, the translation work of Tyndale became virtually ubiquitous.   This legacy of a common English Bible from Wycliffe to the New King James Version however, is just one part of the story. The even greater legacy, to my mind, is God's faithfulness in preserving His Word from the time of the original writings to the present. You can be absolutely certain that the Bible is a faithful representation of the original writings. It’s not a copy of copy, of a copy, with fresh errors cropping up in each stage of the process. It is divine as opposed to merely human in origin.   Think with me for just a moment. From the 16th century and the invention of moveable type to the twenty-first century, we have had the Bible, and today I fear that we have Bibles of every color, shape and size but few people are familiar with what’s encapsulated in its pages. The reason is that we have so many things that capture our attention: television, movies, sports, video games, but the Word of God has been gathering dust. In light of wanting to get you to get into the Word of God like never before, we are offering a new product that is unprecedented. This is a Bible for the 21st century. It’s an audio theatre that could produce a surge of faith and Bible literacy. It’s the Word of Promise Complete Audio Bible that has over 500 actors and sound effects for each book of the Bible. I encourage you to check it out at our Website of <a href="..//">www.equip.org</a> 2009-09-15T18:48:21Z September 14, 2009 178 english-bible-over-the-past-500-years- English Bible Over The Past 500 Years

2010-01-29T16:44:46Z

<a href="http://salemnet.vo.llnwd.net/o29/bibleanswerman/hankspeaksout/english_translations.mp3"></a>Click Here to listen I would like to reinforce in your minds where we have come to at the beginning of the 21st century. Many of you are probably not all that aware of the fact that it wasn't all that long ago that we did not have an English Bible. Indeed, until the 16th century and the invention of moveable type, the only English translation of the Bible that was extant in the world stemmed from the work of John Wycliffe. He held that the Bible, not the pope, was the exemplar of Christianity, the sole authority for faith and practice. So his writings were condemned as heresy. In other words, it was not popular, it was heresy, to translate the Bible into the English language. As a result, this outrage was condemned by the church, and 44 years after Wycliffe died Pope Martin V had his bones unearthed, incinerated, and then the ashes were unceremoniously thrown to the wind. As significant as Wycliffe’s contribution was, though, I think no single person made a greater contribution to the legacy of the English Bible than William Tyndale. He purposed to make the Bible available to the commoner so that a boy who drives the plough would be as familiar with the Bible as the Pope. After a lengthy imprisonment Tyndale, like Wycliffe before him, was tried for translating the Bible into the English language and was martyred. His body ablaze, he cried out "Oh Lord, open the eyes of England's king." Ironically, his prayer found an answer in King Henry VIII, who authorized an English translation of the greatest volume to be chained to every church pulpit in the land. People would come from far and wide and they would experience for the first time the reading of the Word of God. A number of years later the Geneva Bible came along and added verse numbering to the Bible and italicized English words to enhance the literary flow of the text. That became the Bible aboard the Mayflower when it set sail for America in 1620. It was the Bible of choice for William Shakespeare and John Milton and John Bunyan, who wrote Pilgrim's Progress. Then, of course, King James I of England commissioned an English translation of the Bible which was destined to become preeminent among English Bibles. For the next 400 years the King James Version, which was commissioned in 1604 and completed in 1611, became the most cherished Bible in the English speaking world. I think it's important to recognize that the translators themselves were the leading academicians of prestigious institutions like Oxford and Cambridge and Westminster. They had a stated mission: to deliver God's Word to God's people in a language that they could understand. They carried out that mission with linguistic artistry and stylistic majesty, and I think above all else enduring reverence for the divine Author. This King James Version would likely have remained preeminent among English Bible translations if it were not for three principle factors: the evolution of language, progress in knowledge and understanding of original biblical languages, and the discovery of earlier and better manuscripts. Recognizing the need for faithfulness to the earliest and most reliable manuscripts, the advances in our understanding of biblical languages and changes in the meaning and spelling of biblical words, my good friend Sam Moore, who is the former president of Thomas Nelson, the leading publisher of Bibles in the world, commissioned a new English translation of the Bible in 1975 which came to be known as the New King James Version of the Bible. This legacy of a common English Bible from Wycliffe to the New King James Version in 1975 is just one part of the story. The even greater legacy, to my mind, is God's faithfulness in preserving His Word from the time of the original writings to the present. Suggested Resources: <a href="http://www.equipresources.org/site/apps/ka/ec/product.asp?c=muI1LaMNJrE&b=2537845&en=jkKNL1POKkLRJ2OMK9IMJ6MVJtLZK3MJLkJ5JdOVLuIbE&ProductID=430722"><img class="photo" src="http://www.equipresources.org/atf/cf/%7B9C4EE03A-F988-4091-84BD-F8E70A3B0215%7D/B767.JPG" border="0" alt="" align="left" /></a>Hardcover Book The Bible Answer Book Resource# B767 Price:$14.99 Audience: General <a href="http://www.equipresources.org/site/apps/ka/ec/product.asp?c=muI1LaMNJrE&b=2537845&en=7fJMLTOuEbJCKNPsE7KKK5NAL7IEJWOGKhJQL6OME&ProductID=431008">Order</a> <a href="http://www.equipresources.org/site/apps/ka/ec/product.asp?c=muI1LaMNJrE&b=2537845&en=jkKNL1POKkLRJ2OMK9IMJ6MVJtLZK3MJLkJ5JdOVLuIbE&ProductID=430722"><img class="photo" src="http://www.equipresources.org/atf/account26032/images/b942.jpg" border="0" alt="" align="left" /></a>Hardcover Book The Bible Answer Book, Volume 2 Resource# B942 Price:$14.99 Audience: General <a href="http://www.equipresources.org/site/apps/ka/ec/product.asp?c=muI1LaMNJrE&b=2537845&en=7fJMLTOuEbJCKNPsE7KKK5NAL7IEJWOGKhJQL6OME&ProductID=430722">Order</a>   2009-06-12T17:54:09Z October 19, 2007 85 english-translations-of-the-bible English Translations of the Bible

2009-06-12T17:54:41Z

<a href="http://salemnet.vo.llnwd.net/o29/bibleanswerman/hankspeaksout/doctrine.mp3"></a>Click Here to listen The importance of essential Christian doctrine simply can't be overstated. These are the doctrines that form the line of demarcation between the Kingdom of Christ and the kingdom of the cults. As believers, we can debate nonessentials without dividing over them, but there has to be unity when it comes to essential Christian doctrine. Hence the maxim that I repeat over and over again on the broadcast: in essentials, unity, in nonessentials, liberty and in all things, charity. Not only so, but essential Christian doctrine is the North Star that sets the course for Christianity. Just as the North Star is an unchanging reference point that sailors use to safely guide their ships, essential Christian doctrine has safely guided the church through doctrinal storms that have sought to sink it. Shooting stars can light the sky for a moment, but following them inevitably leads to shipwreck. Essential Christian doctrine is also the foundation on which the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ rests. From His Deity to the certainty that He's going to appear a second time to judge the living and the dead, essential Christian doctrine is foundational to the Gospel. All other religions compromise, confuse or contradict essential Christian doctrine. Muslims, for example, dogmatically denounce the doctrine of Christ's unique Deity as the unforgiveable sin of Shirk. They readily affirm the sinlessness of Christ but adamantly deny His sacrifice upon the cross and His subsequent resurrection as the only hope of salvation. We are so passionate about essential Christian doctrine at the Christian Research Institute that we have spent a good deal of time in the present issue of the Christian Research Journal dealing with essential Christian doctrine because doctrine is under attack - not only particular doctrines like the resurrection or the incarnation or the Trinity, but the very idea of doctrine itself is considered today to be antiquated, irrelevant and downright divisive. Suggested Resource: <a href="http://www.equipresources.org/site/apps/ka/ec/product.asp?c=muI1LaMNJrE&b=2537845&en=jkKNL1POKkLRJ2OMK9IMJ6MVJtLZK3MJLkJ5JdOVLuIbE&ProductID=430722"></a> <img style="float: left; border: 0px;" src="http://www.equipresources.org/atf/Account26032/images/J081-small.jpg" alt="" width="100" height="127" />Magazine The Christian Research Journal Price:   Single Issue: $9.50           6 Issue Subscription: $39.50           12 Issue Subscription: $72      <a href="http://www.equipresources.org/site/c.muI1LaMNJrE/b.2536405/" target="_blank">Read More</a> 2009-06-12T18:07:23Z February 13, 2008 86 essential-christian-doctrine Essential Christian Doctrine

2010-01-29T16:56:21Z

Anybody out there remember the Great Commission? In the Great Commission Christ called us not only to make converts but to make disciples. A disciple is, of course, a learner and follower of Jesus Christ. We are called to the task of making disciples through the testimony of our love, our lips and our lives.   One of the secrets of growth in the early Christian church was the testimony of its love. The love of Christ not only compelled early Christians to be ambassadors but constrained the world to take note of these ambassadors as well. The love of Christ was so contagious that it swept through the Roman Empire like wild fire.   The early Christian church transformed an empire not only through the testimony of its love but also through the testimony of its lips. The book of Acts in particular tells us that on the day that Stephen was martyred “a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria”(Acts 8:1) Those who were scattered preached the word wherever they went. I think therein is the secret of growth in the early Christian church: every believer was a witness for Christ.   While it is true that not everyone is called to be an evangelist, everyone is called to evangelize. That’s why we here at the Christian Research Institute and Bible Answer Man radio broadcast take seriously the task of equipping for “works of service so that the body of Christ may be built up” (Eph. 4:12).   Of course closely related to the testimony of our lips is the testimony of our lives. I remember the story of a man who was working in a factory in the north of England. He was standing on a ladder and lost his balance and was skewered on a red hot metal disc and his workmates ran around frantically looking for a doctor, and the man cried out, “Forget the doctor. I’m dying. Can anyone tell me how to get right with God?” Of the more than 300 men in the factory, not one stepped forward. Later one of the men confessed that he could have stepped forward but the testimony of his life had long ago silenced the testimony of his lips.   If we testify only by our lives, we’re in danger of testifying only to ourselves. On the other hand, if our lives belie the testimony of our lips, we might well be dragging the name of Christ through the mud. We have to testify both by our lives and our lips. It is clear to me that it is not the pastor’s calling to do the work of ministry by himself. The pastor is called to “prepare God’s people for works of service so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature” (Eph 4:12-13).   I want to ask you a question as we start this broadcast. Are you missing one of the most exhilarating and fulfilling dimensions of the Christian life? Are you missing the thrill of being a witness for Jesus Christ? To answer those questions and much more, I had Lee Strobel and Mark Mittelberg on the April 21st and 22nd shows of the Bible Answer Man discussing their new book The Unexpected Adventure: Taking Everyday Risks to Talk with People About Jesus. I highly recommend picking up a copy, you can do so at our website of <a title="http://www.equip.org/" href="../..//">www.equip.org</a> or by calling us at 1-888-700-0274.     2009-04-23T12:56:19Z April 21, 2009 42 evangelism-by-our-love-lips-and-life- Evangelism by Our Love, Lips and Life

2010-01-29T17:03:49Z

<a href="http://salemnet.vo.llnwd.net/o29/bibleanswerman/hankspeaksout/charisma.mp3"></a>Click Here to listen         Suggested Resources: <img class="photo" src="http://www.equipresources.org/atf/account26032/images/chrincrisispaperbk.gif" border="0" alt="" align="left" />Paperback Book Christianity In Crisis Resource# B400 Author: Hank Hanegraaff Price:$12.99 Audience: General <a href="http://www.equipresources.org/site/apps/ka/ec/product.asp?c=muI1LaMNJrE&b=2537845&en=hfIHKLOyFjLGJMNqG8KEKLMqHaLRJYMqF6LNL4PAKiJXIaL&ProductID=430655">Order</a> 2009-06-16T14:54:16Z August 2, 2007 88 even-charisma-says-enough-is-enough Even "Charisma" Says Enough Is Enough

2009-06-16T14:55:07Z

In his landmark publication The Origins of Species by Means of Natural Selection, Charles Darwin avowed that “to suppose the eye with all of its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberrations could have been formed by natural selection seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest degree possible.” Darwin went on to label this dilemma as the problem of organs of extreme perfection and complication. Let’s consider what Darwin was talking about. Think for a moment about the incredible complexity of the human eye. It consists of a ball with a lens on one side and a light sensitive retina that’s made of rods and cones inside the other. The lens itself has a sturdy protective covering; it’s called a cornea, and sits over the iris designed to protect the eye for excessive light. The eye contains a fantastic watery substance that is replaced every four hours. Tear glands continuously flush the outside clean. In addition an eyelid sweeps secretions over the cornea to keep it moist. Of course there are also the eyelids or the eyelashes that protect the eye from dust. Well, it’s one thing to stretch credulity by suggesting that the complexities of the eye evolved by chance; it’s quite another to surmise that the eye could have evolved in concert with a myriad of other coordinated functions. Here’s a case in point. You have extraordinarily tuned muscles that surround the eye for precision motility and shape the lens for the function of focus. Not only this,  but consider the fact that as you look around there are a vast number of impulses that are traveling from your eyes through millions of nerve fibers that transmit information to a complex computing center in your brain,  which is called the visual cortex. Linking the visual information from your eyes to motor centers in the brain is absolutely critical in creating a vast number of bodily functions that are axiomatic to the process of daily living. With this coordinated development of the eye in synergistic fashion, the isolated developments would not only be meaningless they would be counterproductive. Well, what’s happened? We no longer live in Charles Darwin’s 19th century science; we live in an age of scientific enlightenment. What Darwin once thought to be relatively simple actually involved staggeringly complicated biochemical processes that demand explanation. Evolution simply cannot account for this inexplicable Lilliputian world of complexity. I’ve written on this more in my book Fatal Flaws: What Evolutions Don’t Want You to Know. You can get a copy at our Website at <a href="../..//">www.equip.org</a> or by calling us at 1-888-700-0274. Remember this is not just an issue. This is the issue. How one views their origins will determine how they live their lives. 2009-06-16T14:56:57Z September 22, 2008 89 evolution-of-the-eye Evolution of the Eye

2010-01-29T17:08:08Z

<a href="http://salemnet.vo.llnwd.net/o29/bibleanswerman/hankspeaksout/evolution_wars.mp3"></a>Click here to listen to Hank's response on the Bible Answer Man broadcast. <a href="http://salemnet.vo.llnwd.net/o29/bibleanswerman/hankspeaksout/bam20050816.mp3"></a>Click here to listen to the entire Bible Answer Man broadcast with Lee Strobel. Hank Responds to Harvard's Steven Pinker <a href="http://salemnet.vo.llnwd.net/o29/bibleanswerman/hankspeaksout/evolution_wars2.mp3"></a>Click here to listen to Hank's response on the Bible Answer Man broadcast. <a href="http://salemnet.vo.llnwd.net/o29/bibleanswerman/hankspeaksout/bam20050817.mp3"></a>Click here to listen to the full Bible Answer Man show with Lee Strobel. 2009-03-27T16:45:02Z January 4, 2006 30 evolution-wars Evolution Wars

2009-03-27T16:45:02Z

<a href="http://salemnet.vo.llnwd.net/o29/bibleanswerman/bam_bonus/monologue_and_interview_with_guillermo_gonzallez_-_for_web.mp3"></a>Click here for audio. One answer to where the life came from was presented by the Emmy Awarded winning PBS NOVA broadcast The Miracle of Life which said, <blockquote>  Four and half billion years ago, the young planet Earth was a mass of cosmic dust and particles. It was almost completely engulfed by the shallow primordial seas. Powerful winds gathered random molecules from the atmosphere. Some were deposited in the seas. Tides and currents swept the molecules together. And somewhere in this ancient ocean the miracle of life began…The first organized form of primitive life was a tiny protozoan. Millions of protozoa populated the ancient seas. These early organisms were completely self-sufficient in their sea-water world. They moved about their aquatic environment feeding on bacteria and other organisms…From these one-celled organisms evolved all life on earth. </blockquote> The real miracle of life is how someone can stand for such utter nonsense in the Twenty-First century. How could the protozoa be the first form of primitive life if there were already organisms such as bacteria in existence? Molecular biology has demonstrated empirically that bacteria are incredibly complex. Far from being primitive, the protozoa that were thought to be simple in Darwin’s day have been shown by science to be enormously complex. Molecular biology has demonstrated that there is no such thing as a primitive cell. If you give evolutionists every possible concession, postulating a primordial sea with every single component necessary and speeding up the rate of bonding a trillion times, the probability of a single protein molecule being arranged by chance is 1 in 10 raised to the power of 161. In other words, it’s a one with 161 zero’s behind it. Even if a protein molecule is eventually formed by chance, forming the second one would be infinitely more difficult and forming a living cell, well I have no frame of reference for that. Yet, despite the above, for those that believe in Intelligent Design, there are jokes and ridicule. An example would be Bill Maher, a pun-meister who has an enormous platform, who can be seen on Larry King Live all the time, on HBO, on all the nighttime talk shows, in comedy forums, and in his new movie Religulous, he mocks those who believe in Intelligent Design by saying, <blockquote> Even though there is a debate in schools and government about this there is no debate among scientists. Evolution (Audience applause) is supported by the entire scientific community. Intelligent Design is supported by guys in line to see the Dukes of Hazzard. (Audience laughter and applause). The reason there is no real debate is that Intelligent Design isn’t real science; it’s the equivalent of saying that the thermos keeps hot things hot and cold things cold because it’s a God. (Audience Laughter and applause). It so willfully ignorant you might as well worship the US mail. It came again! Praise Jesus! (Audience applause) </blockquote> I’m not sure if Maher realizes this or not but the audience was probably laughing at him, not with him. In any event, we just featured on the Bible Answer Man the movie Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, which documents how those in the Intelligent Design community are ridiculed and suppressed for their beliefs. My guest was Dr. Guillermo Gonzalez, who was featured in the movie. Read what Ben Stein says about Dr. Gonzales in the movie, Ben Stein: Astronomer Guillermo Gonzalez found himself in a fierce shootout with Iowa State University following the publication of his book arguing that the universe is Intelligently designed. Despite a stellar research record that has led to the discovery of several planets. His application for tenure was denied putting his career in jeopardy. Guillermo Gonzalez: I worried about my tenure a little bit in 2005 when the petition was being circulated because I viewed that as a strategy of Hector Avalos and his associates to try to poison the atmosphere on campus against me cause he knew I didn’t, I wasn't tenured yet and I was very vulnerable. I have little doubt that I would have tenure now if I hadn’t done any professional work on intelligent design. Ben Stein: Dr. Gonzalez had this advice for scientists who might be thinking about following his example. Guillermo Gonzalez : If they value their careers they should keep quiet about their intelligent design views. To view more about the academic suppression of those involved in the Intelligent Design debate, I encourage you pick up a copy of the movie Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed featuring Ben Stein, Dr. Guillermo Gonzalez, and many of others at our website <a href="../..//">www.equip.org</a> or by calling our resource consultants at 1-888-700-0274. For more information about Intelligent Design and Evolution, please also see our Website. Recommended Resources: <a href="http://www.equipresources.org/site/apps/ka/ec/product.asp?c=muI1LaMNJrE&b=2537845&en=9hIOKXMvHbJSIYPwGcLOJUPwE9KLL6MII9LIK2OOIjLULcOUH&ProductID=622097">Expelled:No Intelligence Allowed</a> 2009-06-16T15:00:08Z October 30, 2008 90 evolution-intelligent-design Evolution/Intelligent Design

2010-01-29T17:25:27Z

<a href="http://salemnet.vo.llnwd.net/o29/bibleanswerman/bam_bonus/monologue_and_interview_with_guillermo_gonzallez_-_for_web.mp3"></a>Click here to listen to Hank's monologue and interview with Guillermo Gonzalez. Just a note about a movie I saw this weekend. I actually didn't want to go and see the movie because it has been broadly disparaged as being inept and ridiculous and unintelligent. In fact, one commentator said that there's not a shred of intelligence on display in this just-released documentary. Well, the documentary I'm talking about is the movie "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed" by Ben Stein. I was kind of surprised, quite frankly, that this movie was disparaged, knowing that Ben Stein is a trained lawyer, a political speech writer, formidable wit. He's a credible actor. And so I was wondering how this Jewish actor would do such a horribly lamentable job in this documentary. Long story short, I was telling my kids - two of them, Paul Steven and Christina, who wanted me to go see the movie with them. I really didn't want to go see the movie and they just begged and begged and I was tired and I said I really didn't want to go, but they persisted, and I finally went. After I saw the movie I said it may well be the most significant movie that I have seen in my lifetime. The implications, if you watch the movie thoughtfully and carefully, are world-changing. In other words, we have in our epic of time bought in to a position on the basis of "science" which is more tantamount to brainwashing. Which is to say, if you adduce all of the information on one side of the ledger and you repress all the information on the other side of the ledger, that, by definition, is not education. Richard Dawkins is prominently displayed in this piece. He's a Professor of the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford, arguably the best known Darwinist on the planet, and says that those who do not believe in evolution are ignorant, stupid or insane. But if you see him in this documentary you wonder whether or not those words might actually apply to his positions. When he's asked about the origin of life I have never seen anyone who supposedly is an expert on the subject more tongue-tied. He simply doesn't know what to say except that maybe life emerged on planet earth as a result of extraterrestrials, which, of course, must mean that life did come from some sort of intelligent design. Of course he doesn't recognize that he actually spoke in favor of intelligent design while disparaging it. I think in light of this you will see that rhetoric and emotional stereotypes are winning the day in the arguments against intelligent design. I think that the day should be won through reason and empirical science, not rhetoric, because worldview clearly is driving the science rather than the science driving the worldview. ID proponents are willing to follow scientific evidence wherever that scientific evidence leads. They neither presuppose nor preclude supernatural explanations for the phenomena that they encounter in an information-rich universe. As such the ID movement rightly practices what I like to call open-minded science - let the evidence lead wherever it may. Not only that, but ID begins with the common scientific principle that intelligent design is detectible wherever there's specified, organized complexity. In other words, wherever there's information. And when applied to information-rich DNA, irreducibly complex biochemical systems, as well as the fact that the earth is perfectly situated in the Milky Way for both life and scientific discovery in the first place, the existence of an intelligent Designer is the most plausible scientific explanation, period. Although it's conclusions are not worldview neutral, the intelligent design movement lends no more support to Christian theism than Darwinian evolution lends to atheism. So I'd say this: the appropriateness of the intelligent design movement for public education ought to be judged on the basis of the theory's explanatory power, not on its metaphysical implications. Unfortunately, those who even mention the words "intelligent design" today in academic situations, contexts, pay a huge price. I recommend everyone watch this documentary. I have now made it must-seeing for all of my kids. I'll tell you what - you better be ready when you see this with your kids or see it by yourself, to really think credibly and clearly through the issues involved. I went to see the movie quite late with my kids, and late became later and then later because they wouldn't stop talking about it. They asked me question after question after question, and in the end my kids are more grounded in their beliefs than they were prior to seeing the documentary, and they were pretty grounded to start with. In other words, answers to questions that are being asked in our culture, if there are satisfying answers to questions that are being asked, only serve to solidify your faith and make you a more capable witness. One of my daughters, the daughter that went to see the movie with me on Saturday, Christina, was quickly on the phone speaking to some of her skeptic friends, using this as an opportunity. She kept running back to ask "Dad, what do I say now?" But she was going through the process of being equipped, and what happened as a result of that will serve her for a lifetime, and that's the point of the Bible Answer Man. We are seeking to demonstrate that the Christian faith is reasonable, that it stands up under scrutiny. Even though Ben Stein is not a believer in the historic Christian faith, what he did was a credible job of exposing error, separating between wheat and chaff, heat and light. I take my hat off to him. This was a brilliant piece, and if you go see it I can't wait to talk to some of you about the piece in which he has Richard Dawkins on the hot seat. It's amazing. You've got to see it for yourself to believe it. This, I hope, is a movie that doesn't just come and go, but a movie that starts breaking down the Berlin Wall. That wall should be crumbling and falling and you should have a part in bringing it down.   Recommended Resources:   <div id="ec_container_vert"> <div class="lstprod_1"><a href="http://www.equipresources.org/c.muI1LaMNJrE/b.2537845/site/apps/ka/ec/Product.asp?ProductID=622097"><img src="http://www.equipresources.org/atf/Account26032/images/DVD785small.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a> <a href="http://www.equipresources.org/c.muI1LaMNJrE/b.2537845/site/apps/ka/ec/Product.asp?ProductID=622097">Expelled DVD</a> DVD785 $26.99</div> </div> 2009-06-16T15:15:31Z June 11, 2008 91 expelled Expelled

2010-01-27T15:08:26Z

At the Christian Research Institute, it's Christmas a couple of months early, and the reason for this is not just because we want to you get a book this year; rather, we want you to experience a tradition, and I want to start that tradition today by talking just a little bit about Immanuel.   Paul in Colossians 2:9 says, “In Christ all the fullness of the deity lives in bodily form.”   The reason we rejoice at Christmas is that the baby born to Mary and Joseph on the First Advent was no ordinary child. As Matthew records, this baby was the ultimate fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy of Immanuel––“God with us” (Matt. 1:22-23). It was the ultimate self revelation of God to humankind! Jesus the Christ was and eternally is God incarnate (literally, “in flesh”).   Although John’s Gospel does not include a narrative of the birth and infancy of Jesus, the doctrine of the Incarnation is aptly summed up in his introduction when he writes: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God...the Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:1, 14).   The clear testimony of Scripture is that, in the Incarnation, Jesus Christ was fully God and fully man; in other words, He existed as the perfect unity in one person of a divine and a human nature. Paul eloquently expressed the profound truth of the Incarnation in his letter to the Philippian Christians when he stated: “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus, who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death even death on a cross (Phil. 2:5-8).   I’m going to pause for just a minute and remind you what death on a cross means. The word excruciating literally had to be codified or developed to fully communicate the horror of Christ’s passion on the cross.<a style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" name="_ednref1" href="http://www.equip.org/hank_speaks_outs/#_edn1">[1]</a>   As Theathropos the God-Man, the spotless “Lamb of God” (John 1:29) lived a perfectly sinless human life and died a sinner’s death to sufficiently atone, once and for all, for the sins of humanity (Rom. 5:1-21; Heb. 10:11-18). Without both natures, Christ’s payment would have been insufficient. As God, His sacrifice was sufficient to provide redemption for the sins of humankind. As man, He did what the first Adam failed to do. Says Paul, “For just as through the disobedience of one man, the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of one man [the second Adam] the many will be made righteous” (Rom. 5:19). Or as Paul explained to the Corinthians, “As in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive” (1 Cor. 15:22).   I love Paul’s letter to the Philippians. I love Paul talking about our attitude and that that attitude, the attitude that you have, that I have, should be the same as the attitude that Jesus Christ had. He was in very nature God and yet in the incarnation did not consider equality with God something to be grasped. He made Himself nothing. He’s the one who spoke and the limitless galaxies leapt into existence, and yet he made Himself nothing. Taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness, and being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God exalted him to the highest place and gave Him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philip. 2:5-11). Think about that for just a moment…   The Heart of Christmas this year. It’s not just a book, it’s a movement. I talked with various guests on the October 22nd and 23rd, 2009 editions of the Bible Answer Man broadcast about just how special this book is and how significant the movement is. You can listen to those <a title="http://www.equip.org/broadcasts/the-heart-of-christmas20092210" href="http://www.equip.org/broadcasts/the-heart-of-christmas20092210">here</a> and <a title="http://www.equip.org/broadcasts/the-heart-of-christmas20092310" href="http://www.equip.org/broadcasts/the-heart-of-christmas20092310">here</a>.   This year I want you to begin early so you don’t miss the heart of Christmas. We want you to begin at the very beginning and take a trek to the heart of Christmas. Every year you no doubt prepare your house for Christmas. This year we want you to prepare your heart for Christmas.   If you’re honest with yourself, Christmas sneaks up on you just like it sneaks up on me. All of a sudden December 25th knocks at the door and we have been hustling and bustling, we have been involved in all kinds of activities, but we missed the heart of Christmas.   There is nothing as significant as recognizing, celebrating and sharing the spirit of Christmas with others, because with Christmas we have God invading time and space so that we could have a relationship with Him not just for time but–––think about this for a minute––for eternity. Now that’s an overwhelming thought. Forever, and ever, and ever, something that never ends. Think about the reality that every single person who knows Jesus Christ will experience Jesus Christ in flesh, in incarnation, in a new heaven and new earth.   We have many different options with The Heart of Christmas, from the hardcover book with an audio CD of instrumental Christmas carols (B1012/$21.99+shipping), the audio book (CD958/$9.99 + shipping), or six or twelve packs of the book and audio CD of instrumental Christmas carols to give to your family and friends (6 pack PK961/$71.99+shipping; 12 pack PK962/$134.99+shipping). All this is <a title="http://www.equip.org/heartofchristmas" href="http://www.equip.org/heartofchristmas">here</a>! Also share your testimony about Christmas with us by calling toll free at 866-253-4656, e-mail us at <a title="mailto:testimonies@equip.org" href="mailto:testimonies@equip.org">testimonies@equip.org</a>, and share your Christmas stories, videos, and photos with our FaceBook fans <a title="http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=150311249367" href="http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=150311249367">here</a>. <div style="mso-element: endnote-list;"> <hr size="1" /> <div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;"> <a style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" name="_edn1" href="http://www.equip.org/hank_speaks_outs/#_ednref1">[1] Lee Strobel, </a>The Case for Christ  (Grand Rapids, Zondervan, 1998), 197-198. </div> </div> 2009-11-04T21:43:01Z October 22, 2009 188 experience-the-tradition-of-christmas- Experience the Tradition of Christmas

2010-01-29T17:44:17Z

I was aware of and had even begun reading Richard Dawkins’ new book, The Greatest Show on Earth, but then I saw the promotional material around it and it’s absolutely shocking.   On the dust jacket inside cover it says, “The Greatest Show on Earth comes at a critical time: systematic opposition to the fact of evolution is menacing as never before. In American schools, and in schools around the world, insidious attempts are made to undermine the status of science in the classroom. Dawkins wields a devastating argument against this ignorance”<a name="_ednref1"></a> In other words, as Dawkins has said elsewhere, if you don’t believe in evolution “that person is ignorant, stupid, insane, or wicked.”<a name="_ednref2"></a>   The promotional piece also says,   “In 1859 Charles Darwin’s masterpiece, On the Origin of Species, shook society to its core. Darwin was only too aware of the storm his theory of evolution would provoke. But he surely would have raised an incredulous eyebrow at the controversy still raging a century and a half later. Evolution is accepted as scientific fact by all reputable scientists and indeed theologians, yet millions of people continue to question it’s veracity. Now the author of the iconic work The God Delusion takes them to task.”<a name="_ednref3"></a>   How does Dawkins take people to task in his latest work, The Greatest Show On Earth? His presupposition is that Darwinian evolution based on common descent is an established fact as reliable as the law of gravity. In other words, you can know beyond the shadow of a doubt that you are the product of common descent, that you came from monkeys. Well, even worse maybe you came from a turnip or a banana. Surely Dawkins would not go that far would he? Actually he does:   Evolution is a fact: beyond reasonable doubt, beyond serious doubt, beyond sane, informed, intelligent doubt, beyond doubt, evolution is a fact. The evidence for evolution is at least as strong as the evidence for the Holocaust, even allowing for eyewitnesses to the Holocaust. It is the plain truth that we are cousins of the chimpanzees, some what more distant cousins of monkeys, more distant cousins still of aardvarks and manatees, yet more distant cousins of bananas and turnips…continue the list as long as desired.<a name="_ednref4"></a> Let’s think about that for just a second. Here Dawkins is suggesting that you and I are the distant cousins of bananas and turnips. If you don’t believe that you're “ignorant, stupid, insane, or wicked.”<a name="_ednref5"></a> He is saying Darwinian evolution is a fact. He is saying that inequality within in the races is an established fact. In other words, he is saying that there is a degradation of races.   Remember he’s not just touting evolution in general, he’s touting Darwinian evolution. He must be as aware as anyone else that Darwinian evolution postulates survival of favored races in the struggle for survival. This was the subtitle of Darwin’s magnum opus, The Origin of the Species. Dawkins must know that Darwinian evolution postulates that:   The more civilized so-called Caucasian races have beaten the Turkish hollow in the struggle for existence. Looking to the world at no very distant date, what an endless number of the lower races will have been eliminated by the higher civilized races throughout the world. <a name="_ednref6"></a>   So Dawkins must understand that for evolution to succeed it is as crucial that the unfit die as that fittest survive! If the fittest give up survival for the sake of allowing the unfit to survive, the unfit would infect the fit with their unfit genes, rendering evolution inoperable. So Dawkins is the latest militant purveyor of inequality and to believe in the biblical Christian position of equality is “ignorant, stupid, insane, or wicked.”<a name="_ednref7"></a>   No doubt since he is taunting Darwinian evolution, he is well aware of Darwin’s statement in his book The Descent of Man under the subheading “Difference in the Mental Powers of the Two Sexes,” he attempts to persuade his followers that “the chief distinction in the intellectual powers of the two sexes is shewn [sic] by man’s attaining to a higher eminence, in whatever he takes up, than can woman.”<a name="_ednref8"></a> In this sense, he is well aware of sexism.   Yet, here we are in the twenty-first century and he’s touting Darwinian evolution and saying that any theologian who doesn’t buy it or believe it is ignorant. He saying that there is an insidious attempt afoot to undermine evolution and that fact of the matter is nobody is trying to destroy evolution.   Evolution is crumbling! We now, Mr. Dawkins, live in an age of scientific enlightenment. We now know that a fertilized human egg is not merely a microscopic blob of Jell-O. It is among the most complex, ordered structures in the entire known universe. So we’re no longer in 19th century science, Richard Dawkins, we’re in the twenty-first century and because we are evolution is crumbling under the weight of evidence.   There is no real evidence for Dawkins’s ape to man icon. That’s a dogmatic declaration, not a defensible argument. The icon has become the argument. Again we should be able to question that which does not appear in the book of nature; which is the odd predilection of people like Charles Darwin and his new rottweiler Richard Dawkins.   You know of course that Darwin’s has had a lot of dogs. He’s had his bulldog Thomas Huxley who said,   No rational man, cognizant of the facts, believes that the average Negro is the equal, still the less superior, of the white man…It is simply incredible [to think] that…he will be able to compete successfully with his bigger-brained and smaller jawed rival, in a contest which is to be carried on by thoughts and not by bites<a name="_ednref9"></a>   In other words, Huxley carried on the racist idea of inequality suggested by his mentor, Charles Darwin. Now in the twenty-first century, you could maybe give a pass to Thomas Huxley. He was a 19th century guy, but Dawkins in the twenty-first century is carrying on the legacy and now wants to believe that nothing produced everything but that we evolved from turnips.   It’s simply amazing to me but I’ve said this numerous times. Pagans are going to exercise their job description. They're going to march lock step unthinkingly into the abyss. That’s not the problem. The problem is Christians who do not have an answer to Richard Dawkins. They don’t have an answer when Richard Dawkins suggest that a woman reproduces the evolutionary process or that “ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny.” This is basically the idea that the emerging embryo goes through all the evolutionary processes. Here’s how Dawkins’s puts it, That irascible genius J.B.S. Haldane, who did so much else besides being one of the three leading architects of neo-Darwinianism, was once challenged by a lady after a public lecture. It’s a word-of-mouth anecdote, and John Maynard Smith is sadly not available to confirm the exact words, but this is approximately how the exchange went: Professor Haldane, even given the billions of years that you say were available for evolution, I simply cannot believe it is possible to go from a single cell to a complicated human body, with its trillions of cells organized into bones and muscles and nerves, a heart that pumps without ceasing for decades, miles and miles of blood vessels and kidney tubules, and a brain capable of thinking and talking and feeling. But madam, you did it yourself. And it only took you nine months.<a name="_ednref10"></a>   And he calls “that irascible genius”? I mean this is a plain old, simple category mistake. First, in Dawkins view life is not frontloaded to become all that life is it has to gain information along the way over billions of years. Conversely, a conceptus or zygote contains chemical instructions that fill more than 500, 000 printed pages. In other words, it is front loaded every aspect of the developing embryo from height to hair color is included in that genetic library.   So this is a plain old category mistake, but Dawkins brings this out and calls it “irascible genius” and the gullible buy it! And Dawkins gets millions of dollars, an advance on a book, puts it out, and he says there you have it, an iron clad case for evolution against Intelligent Design.   Now if you watched the movie Expelled with Ben Stein, you see that Dawkins does possibly believe in Intelligent Design of some sort, to see this is priceless, first he sweats and then stumbles and there is this exchange between Ben Stein and Richard Dawkins   Ben Stein: What do you think is the possibility that Intelligent Design might turn out to be the answer to some issues in genetics or in Darwinian evolution? Richard Dawkins: It could come about in the following way: It could be that at some earlier time, somewhere in the universe, a civilization evolved by probably some kind of Darwinian means to a very, very high level of technology, and designed a form of life that they seeded on to, perhaps this planet. Now that is a possibility, and an intriguing possibility. And I suppose it’s possible that you might find evidence for that, if you look at the details of bio-chemistry, molecular biology, you might find a signature of some sort of designer. Stein: Wait a second! Richard Dawkins thought that Intelligent Design might be a legitimate pursuit? Dawkins: And that designer could very well be a higher intelligence from elsewhere in the universe. But that higher intelligence itself would have to had have come about by some explicable or ultimately explicable process. It couldn’t have just jumped into existence spontaneously. That’s the point.<a name="_ednref11"></a> Dawkins doesn’t have an answer for the most basic questions, yet he provides an iron clad case for evolution.   Well, again pagans are going to exercise their job description. They’re going to be pagans. The question is: are you as a Christian going to exercise your job description? Can you take the very weak arguments that are militantly portrayed, deceptively communicated, with great pomp and circumstance and use them as springboard or opportunity for sharing truth? Not the caricature of Christianity but truth and then do this with gentleness and respect. If you can, be on the vanguard of doing something totally significant in the twenty-first century. That is, you can be announcing the demise of evolution, and demonstrating that it is no longer tenable in an age of scientific enlightenment.   Then we can get back to the basics, and that is Richard Dawkins and all else who don’t believe in the design revolution are sitting in a very dark room. They may have very good eyesight, but the room is dark, and they can’t see.   We have many resources on this topic such my book, Fatal Flaws and the DVD I mentioned earlier Expelled and much, much more. Check these all out at our Website of <a href="../..//">www.equip.org</a> or call us at 1-888-7000-0274. <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"> <hr size="1" /> </div>  Recommended Resources:     <div style="mso-element: endnote-list;"> <table style="width: 600px;" border="0" align="center"> <tbody> <tr> <td> <a href="http://www.equipresources.org/site/apps/ka/ec/product.asp?c=muI1LaMNJrE&b=2537845&en=7fJKIROnH9JOLSNoHaLKLOMnFfLQL0OAJ7IELWMGKhJQK6OMF&ProductID=622097">Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed <img title="Expelled" src="../../images/DVD785small.jpg" alt="Expelled" width="100" height="137" /> $26.99 Order NOW!</a> </td> <td> <a href="http://www.equipresources.org/site/apps/ka/ec/product.asp?c=muI1LaMNJrE&b=2537845&en=btJSJ3ODLdIWL4MEJeISJ0PEIbKPLcMQJbKMJ8PWKlKYKiP2G&ProductID=568096">Fatal Flaws <img title="Fatal Flaws" src="../../images/b717.jpg" alt="Fatal Flaws" width="100" height="140" /> $12.99 Order NOW!</a> </td> <td> <a href="http://www.equipresources.org/site/apps/ka/ec/product.asp?c=muI1LaMNJrE&b=2537845&en=6eIIKONjF8IMKPMkG9JIKLPjFeJOIXPwF6JCLTMCJgJOL3PIG&ProductID=431018">Creation 3 Pack <img title="Creation 3 pack" src="../../images/pk719.jpg" alt="Creation 3 pack" width="100" height="139" /> $45.00 Order NOW!</a> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <hr size="1" /> <div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;"> <a name="_edn1"></a>The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution (Free Press, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc, 2009). Inside front cover of the dust jacket to the hardcover edition.     </div> <div id="edn2" style="mso-element: endnote;"> <a name="_edn2"></a>The New York Times, section 7, April 9. This is also quoted by Phillip E. Johnson, Darwin on Trial, (Downers Grove: IVP, 1993), p. 9.   </div> <div id="edn3" style="mso-element: endnote;"> <a name="_edn3"></a>The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution (Free Press, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc, 2009). Inside front cover of the dust jacket to the hardcover edition.   </div> <div id="edn4" style="mso-element: endnote;"> <a name="_edn4"></a>   </div> <div id="edn5" style="mso-element: endnote;"> <a name="_edn5"></a>” (of Donald Johanson and Maitland Edey’s Blueprint), The New York Times, section 7, April 9. This is also quoted by Phillip E. Johnson, Darwin on Trial, (Downers Grove: IVP, 1993), p. 9.     </div> <div id="edn6" style="mso-element: endnote;"> <a name="_edn6"></a>Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, vol. 1, 316, quoted in Gertrude Himmelfarb, Darwin and the Darwinian Revolution (London: Chatto and Windus, 1959), 343, quoted in Henry M. Morris, Scientific Creationism, public school edition (San Diego: C.L.P. Publishers 1981), 179; emphasis added.   </div> <div id="edn7" style="mso-element: endnote;"> <a name="_edn7"></a>     </div> <div id="edn8" style="mso-element: endnote;"> <a name="_edn8"></a>The Descent of Man, in Robert Maynard Hutchins, ed., Great Books of the Western World, vol. 49, Darwin (Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, 1952), 566. </div> <div id="edn9" style="mso-element: endnote;"> <a name="_edn9"></a>Lay Sermons, Addresses and Reviews (New York, Appleton, 1871), 20, quoted in Henry Morris, The Long War Against God (Grand Rapids, Mich, Baker, 1989), 60.     </div> <div id="edn10" style="mso-element: endnote;"> <a name="_edn10"></a>The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution, 211.   </div> <div id="edn11" style="mso-element: endnote;"> <a name="_edn11"></a>Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed with Ben Stein (Vivendi Entertianment/Premise Media Corporation, 2008).   </div> </div> 2009-10-22T19:43:32Z October 20, 2009 187 exposing-richard-dawkins- Exposing Richard Dawkins

2010-01-29T18:50:04Z

<a href="http://salemnet.vo.llnwd.net/o29/bibleanswerman/hankspeaksout/faithandreason.mp3"></a>Click Here to listen   Suggested Resource <img style="border: white 10px solid;" title="Total Truth" src="../../images/totaltruth.jpg" alt="Total Truth" width="100" height="151" /> Total Truth:  Liberating Christianity from Its Cultural Captivity Hardcover Book $25.00 Order <a href="http://www.equipresources.org/site/apps/ka/ec/product.asp?c=muI1LaMNJrE&b=2537845&ProductID=431085">Total Truth:  Liberating Christianity from Its Cultural Captivity</a> NOW! 2009-03-27T16:21:20Z December 21, 2005 28 false-distinction-between-faith-and-reason False Distinction between Faith and Reason

2009-06-17T14:53:12Z

A brand new issue of the Christian Research Journal is now out and you can get your copy by calling 1-888-700-0724 or logging onto our Website at www.equip.org. There is a particular article I’m excited about in this issue written by Douglas Groothuis, a professor of philosophy at Denver Seminary and frequent contributor to the Christian Research Journal. He did a viewpoint article titled, Recovering from Fetus Fatigue. He says that millions of evangelicals, especially young evangelicals, are experiencing fetus fatigue. They’re tired of the abortion issue taking center stage, so they’re moving unto newer, hipper things such as AIDS in Africa, the environment, and cool tattoos. Abortion has been legal now since 1973 —before they were born—so it’s the old guard that get worked up about the millions of abortions that have taken place over the years, to wit the idea of fetus fatigue. That Barack Obama and the entire Democratic Party are pro-choice is a secondary concern to them. After all, these young people reason that Obama could not do much damage concerning abortion. They may be thinking, “No he wouldn’t enact Pro-Life policies but he says he wants abortions to decrease.” In the midst of such causal sentiment Groothuis says, “I’m compelled to say in no uncertain terms ‘For God’s sake evangelicals, if that word has any meaning today, please wake up and consider the acres of tiny bloody corpses that you cannot see.’” Yes, the Christian vision is holistic and we should endeavor to restore shalom to the whole of this beleaguered planet under the lordship of Jesus Christ, and that includes helping Africa, preserving the environment, combating human trafficking and much, much more. The leading domestic moral issue however, continues to be the value of helpless unborn human life. Since Roe V Wade over 1 million unborn human beings have been killed through abortion each and every year. That puts the total well over 35 million. The Russian, Marxist, totalitarian Joseph Stalin said “One death is a tragedy, a million dead is just a statistic.” Too many evangelicals are Stalinists on abortion since the numbers apparently mean nothing to them. Things have declined to the point where bumper stickers say, “Don’t like abortion; then don’t have one.” How about “Don’t like slavery; don’t have one.” The two cases are exactly parallel, if slavery is not a private issue then neither is abortion. Since they both involve questions of the value of human lives. Again, Groothius says, “For God’s sake evangelicals wake up; remember the least, the last, the lost, the millions of unborn human beings whose lives hang in the balance. This is not the only issue of moral significance but it is a titanic issue that cannot be ignored. Rouse yourself to recover from fetus fatigue. God is watching and waiting even as the blood of the innocent unborn cry’s out from the ground.” To read the entire article, order your subscription to the Christian Research Journal today. It’s a must read. 2009-06-16T15:18:51Z October 24, 2008 92 fetus-fatigue Fetus Fatigue

2009-06-16T15:18:51Z

<a href="http://salemnet.vo.llnwd.net/o29/bibleanswerman/hankspeaksout/for_the_bible_tells_me_so.mp3">Click Here to listen</a> 2009-03-17T20:37:49Z January 16, 2007 3 for-the-bible-tells-me-so For the Bible Tells Me So

2009-03-17T20:37:49Z

<a href="http://salemnet.vo.llnwd.net/o29/bibleanswerman/hankspeaksout/protein.mp3">Click Here to listen</a> 2009-03-17T20:48:44Z March 16, 2005 8 forming-a-protein-molecule-by-random-chance Forming A Protein Molecule by Random Chance

2009-03-17T20:48:44Z

We should always underscore the reality of Scripture and its importance in the Christian life. The Bible not only forms the foundation of an effective prayer life, but it is foundational to every other aspect of Christian living. While prayer is our primary way of communicating with God, the Bible is God's primary way of communicating with us. Nothing should take precedence over getting into the Word of God and getting the Word of God into us. If we fail to eat well-balanced meals on a regular basis we'll eventually suffer the physical consequences, and what is true of the outer man - our physical body - is also true of the inner man. If we don't regularly feed on the Word of God we're going to suffer spiritual consequences. That's why Jesus said man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. Great physical meals are one thing - great spiritual meals are quite another. In fact, in the Legacy Study Bible I use the word MEALS as an acronym so that people can understand what it means to eat great spiritual meals from the Word of God. The M stands for memorization and meditation. The E stands for the examination of the Word of God. The A stands for the application of the Word of God. Wisdom is the application of knowledge as Jesus taught. The L stands for listening to God as He speaks to us from His Word and the S has to do with studying the Bible for all it's worth. In examining Scripture it's typically best to start with one good translation and then stick to it. This will provide you with consistency as well as help you in the process of memorizing the Word of God. In studying - and here's the contrast - it's best to use a number of good Bible translations. Since there are so many translations available today, we are in a blessed time when there are many different translations that give us the range of meanings that are acceptable for words of phrases as they come from one language - either the Greek or the Hebrew or the Aramaic - into the receptor language, in our case English. My exhortation today is to get into the Word of God and get the Word of God into you. Recommended Resources:   <div id="ec_container_vert"> <div class="lstprod_1"><a href="http://www.equipresources.org/c.muI1LaMNJrE/b.2537845/site/apps/ka/ec/Product.asp?ProductID=597694"><img style="border: 0px;" title="Legacy Study Bible" src="http://www.equipresources.org/atf/Account26032/images/B971small.jpg" alt="Legacy Study Bible" width="100" height="127" /></a> <a href="http://www.equipresources.org/c.muI1LaMNJrE/b.2537845/site/apps/ka/ec/Product.asp?ProductID=597694">The Legacy Study Bible - Peacock Blue Leathersoft</a> B971 $33.99</div> </div> 2009-06-16T15:21:52Z June 30, 2008 93 getting-into-the-word-of-god Getting Into the Word of God

2010-01-29T17:53:05Z

<a href="http://salemnet.vo.llnwd.net/o29/bibleanswerman/hankspeaksout/global_warming.mp3"></a>Click Here to listen With Special Guest Jay Richards <img src="http://www.equipresources.org/atf/Account26032/images/_23307825302169.jpg" border="0" alt="" align="right" />           Recommended Resources: <img class="photo" src="http://www.equipresources.org/atf/account26032/images/b826.jpg" border="0" alt="" align="left" />Hardcover Book The Privileged Planet Resource# B826 Author: Jay Richards, Guillermo Gonzalez Price:$19.99 Audience: General <a href="http://www.equipresources.org/site/apps/ka/ec/product.asp?c=muI1LaMNJrE&b=2537845&en=nlKTK3PWJpISI4OOLeKQI3MOLgI3JgMOLcLZLmOYIoL9LsJ&ProductID=430901">Order</a> <img class="photo" src="http://www.equipresources.org/atf/account26032/images/dvd719.jpg" border="0" alt="" align="left" />DVD The Privileged Planet DVD Resource# DVD719 Price:$18.95 Audience: General <a href="http://www.equipresources.org/site/apps/ka/ec/product.asp?c=muI1LaMNJrE&b=2537845&en=nlKTK3PWJpISI4OOLeKQI3MOLgI3JgMOLcLZLmOYIoL9LsJ&ProductID=430670">Order</a> 2009-06-16T15:25:18Z March 22, 2007 94 global-warming Global Warming

2009-06-17T14:54:09Z

<a href="http://salemnet.vo.llnwd.net/o29/bibleanswerman/hankspeaksout/fantasy.mp3">Click Here to listen</a> 2009-03-18T20:05:26Z February 18, 2006 11 good-and-bad-fantasy Good and Bad Fantasy

2009-03-18T20:05:26Z

As you know, last Friday we celebrated Good Friday. We celebrated the fatal suffering of Jesus Christ as recounted in the New Testament. This is one of the most well established facts of ancient history. The reason we can say we celebrate the brutal death of Jesus Christ is because, as we celebrated on Sunday, Jesus Christ rose again. Imagine that, when you take communion you celebrate the broken body and shed blood of Jesus Christ, but you do it with joy, because of the resurrection. For Good Friday, though it is appropriate to remember that the best medical minds of ancient and modern times have demonstrated beyond a shadow of a doubt that Christ’s physical trauma was fatal.[1] His torment began in the Garden of Gethsemane after the emotional Last Supper. There Jesus experienced a medical condition known as hematidrosis. Tiny capillaries in His sweat glands ruptured, mixing sweat and blood. As a result, Christ’s skin became extremely fragile. The same night, Jesus was betrayed by Judas, disowned by Peter, and arrested by the temple guard. Before Caiaphas the high priest, He was mocked, beaten, and spat upon. The next morning, Jesus, battered, bruised, and bleeding, was led into the Praetorium. There Jesus was stripped and subjected to the brutality of Roman flogging. A whip replete with razor-sharp bones and lead balls reduced His body to quivering ribbons of bleeding flesh. As Christ slumped into the pool of His own blood, the soldiers threw a scarlet robe across His shoulders, thrust a scepter into His hands, and pressed sharp thorns into His scalp. After they mocked Him, they took the scepter out of His hand, and repeatedly struck Him on the head. Now Jesus was in critical condition. A heavy wooden beam was thrust upon Christ’s bleeding body, and He was led away to a place called Golgotha. There the Lord experienced ultimate physical torture in the form of the cross. The Roman system of crucifixion has been fine-tuned to produce maximum pain. In fact, the word excruciating (literally “out of the cross”) had to be invented to fully codify its horror.[2] At “the place of the skull,” the Roman soldiers drove thick, seven inch iron spikes through Christ’s hands[3] and feet. Waves of pain pulsated through Christ’s body as the nails lacerated His nerves. Breathing became an agonizing endeavor as Christ pushed His tortured body upward to grasp small gulps of air. In the ensuing hours, He experienced cycles of joint-wrenching cramps, intermittent asphyxiation, and excruciating pain as His lacerated back moved up and down against the rough timber of the cross. As the chill of death crept through His body, Jesus cried out, “‘Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?–––which means, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?””(Matthew 27:46). And in that anguished cry was encapsulated the greatest agony of all. For on the cross, Christ bore the sin and suffering of all humanity. And then with His passion complete, Jesus gave up His spirit. Shortly, thereafter, a Roman legionnaire drove his spear through the fifth inter-space between the ribs, upward through the pericardium, and into Christ’s heart. From the wound rushed forth blood and water, demonstrating conclusively that Jesus had suffered fatal torment. Jesus Christ, who spoke and the universe leap into existence, was willing to lay prostrate in the pool of His blood before His creation. He was the creator and yet willing to lay in the pool of his own blood because He loved us so much He wanted a relationship with us, not only for time but also for eternity. A relationship purchased by His passion on the cross. Those of us who have been redeemed know that Christ is more real than the very skin upon our bones. We know beyond the peradventure of a doubt that Christ has left us here for a purpose. We have received the greatest of all gifts and we now have an opportunity to share that gift with those who so desperately need it. God ordains the ends as well as the means and you are the means through which the Holy Spirit moves in the process of changing lives. The goal of equipping God’s people to make a difference was highlighted in a recent book we had on the Bible Answer Man that I hope you will check out. It’s called, <a href="https://www.kintera.org/site/c.muI1LaMNJrE/b.5072893/k.682D/emGolfs_Sacred_Journeyem/apps/ka/sd/donor.asp?c=muI1LaMNJrE&b=5072893&en=9rLOKXMvFbJSJYPwEcJOLUPvFhKYKaOQKkIOKWOCKdJQI2MCKcJRIgI" target="_blank">Golf’s Sacred Journey: Seven Day at the Links of Utopia</a>. It’s a great book on how you can change and influence someone’s life for Christ. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- [1] All the following medical data and descriptions concerning Christ’s suffering are adapted from C. Truman Davis, “The Crucifixion of Jesus: The Passion of Christ from a Medial Point of View,” Arizona Medicine (March 1965): 183-187; and William D. Edwards, Wesley J. Gabel, and Floyd E. Hosmer, “On The Physical Death of Jesus Christ,” The Journal of the American Medical Association  (21 March 1986): 1455-63. [2] Lee Strobel, The Case for Christ  (Grand Rapids, Zondervan, 1998), 197-198. [3] More specifically, the spikes were driven through Christ’s wrists, which in Jewish understanding were part of the hands.   2009-04-13T20:16:40Z April 10, 2009 35 good-friday Good Friday

2010-01-29T17:59:07Z

<a href="http://salemnet.vo.llnwd.net/o29/bibleanswerman/hankspeaksout/halloween.mp3">Click Here to Listen</a>   Today is "all Hallows Eve," or you probably are familiar with the term Halloween. Every Halloween we get so many questions about Halloween. People want to know whether they should participate in Halloween, accommodate Halloween, or whether we, as Christians, ought to vigorously denounce Halloween. To answer those questions it's always helpful to have a little history or perspective on Halloween. A lot of people don't even know where Halloween came from. If you look at the background of Halloween, it's rooted in the ancient Celtic feast of Samhain. The Druids believed that on the eve of Samhain the veil between the present world and the world beyond was pierced, releasing demons, witches, and hobgoblins en masse to harass the living. In order to make themselves immune from attack people would disguise themselves as witches, devils, and ghouls to attempt to ward off evil spirits. They would also carve grotesque-looking faces on gourds illuminated with candles, and they would try to placate the spirits with a variety of treats. I think we can also learn a lot from the early Christians and how they responded to Halloween, because on October 31st, the eve prior to All Saints Day, they would designate this day as a spiritually edifying holy day on which to proclaim the supremacy of the gospel over the superstition of ghosts. So, "all Hallows Eve," from which the word Halloween is derived, was an attempt, an overt attempt on the part of Christianity, to overwhelm the tradition of ghouls with the truth of the Gospel. Today Halloween is predominately pagan, but there still is a silver lining. Like our forefathers, we can choose to celebrate "all Hallows Eve" by focusing on heroes of the faith who were willing to stand for truth no matter what the cost. We might also use today as an occasion to introduce our children to great classics or to the quintessential victory over ghouls and demons and death which is found in 1 Corinthians 15, the great chapter on resurrection. You ought to read that chapter today with your children before they go to bed, because in the end the trick is to treat Halloween as a strategic opportunity rather than seeing it as a time of Satanic oppression. If you want more information there's a Perspective I did. It's called "Halloween: Oppression or Opportunity." 2009-03-18T20:36:57Z October 31, 2005 18 halloween Halloween

2010-01-29T18:03:41Z

Imagine living in a country in which members of Congress would mandate researchers 'either destroy embryos or risk imprisonment.' Imagine a nation that not only permits the killing of the most vulnerable among us but mandates such mayhem for the purposes of research. Imagine no further—the day has arrived. As the former Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork has well said, we have began inexorably “slouching toward Gomorrah.”<a style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" name="_ednref1" href="../#_edn1">[1]</a>I’ll never forgot the words of George Will, when he said, “we are experiencing the slow motion barbarization of America.”   The founders of our Republic could only in their darkest nightmares have imagined relativism trumping objective moral standards in a free society. The rise of technology and the fall of ethical consensus have brought us to a society full of moral dilemmas. This stark reality was born out in 1973 when Christians quietly passed in a battle in the war against abortion.   The far reaching impact of that abdication is felt in the raging battle over embryonic stem cell research. In the wake of the current moral and ethical tsunami, it is incumbent upon Christians to not only provide relief but bring the rebuilding process. Nothing less than Western Civilization is at stake.   I’ll never forget what Christian philosopher Francis Schaeffer said many years ago: abortion would be the watershed issue of our era. “Of all the subjects related to the erosion of the sanctity of human life abortion is the keystone.”<a style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" name="_ednref2" href="../#_edn2">[2]</a> Of course, his warning tragically fell on deaf ears.   Consider the statements of some of the leading spiritual and secular leaders of our age. Beverly Harrison, a professor of Christian Ethics at Union Theological Seminary, “Infanticide is not a great wrong. I do not want to be construed as condemning women who under certain circumstances quietly put their infants to death.”<a style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" name="_ednref3" href="../#_edn3">[3]</a>Esther Langston, Professor of Social Work at the University of Nevada, “What we are saying is that abortion becomes one of the choices and the person has the right to choose whatever it is that is… best for them in the situation in which they find themselves: be it abortion, keep the baby, adopt the baby, sell the baby, leave the baby in a dumpster, put it on your porch, whatever. It’s the person’s right to choose.”<a style="mso-endnote-id: edn4;" name="_ednref4" href="../#_edn4">[4]</a> Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, who famously remarked “that the most merciful thing a large family can do for one of its infant members is to kill it.”<a style="mso-endnote-id: edn5;" name="_ednref5" href="../#_edn5">[5]</a>   Where does this slippery slope lead? Think only to the words of James Watson, the Nobel prize winner and the co-discover of the structure of DNA, “Because of the limitations of present detection methods most birth defects are not discovered until birth; however, if a child was not declared alive until three days after birth the doctor would allow the child to die if the parents so chose and save a lot of misery and suffering.”<a style="mso-endnote-id: edn6;" name="_ednref6" href="../#_edn6">[6]</a>   This is the epoch in which we find ourselves. In view of this reality, we should go back to the words of Scripture. “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made” (Ps. 139:13). A song was written with those words in mind. It was haunting, not only to hear the music but to see the images. It was the first pro-life song by Cindee Martin Morgan, who is the daughter of the late Dr. Walter Martin, the founder and former president of CRI. It was recorded by her daughter Sharon at the tender age of seven. We featured that song on the Bible Answer Man broadcast and we lauded the fact that Cindee Martin Morgan and her husband Rick Morgan were vigilant in the battle against abortion.   The reason we did that is because the reality is today there are very few Christians who will put their lives on the line for this issue. Christians have become apathetic. There was a recent Pew Research Poll that found that among all respondents to the poll concern about the abortion issues has dropped. Only 15% of respondents said that abortion was a critical issue.<a style="mso-endnote-id: edn7;" name="_ednref7" href="../#_edn7">[7]</a> It’s an issue to which we have been anesthetized to. This does not mean that we shouldn’t be involved in the debate or the discussion. It’s a watershed issue of our era; we should be involved.   So Cindee and Rick have continued the battle, recognizing it’s not about whether we win or lose. It’s about being faithful with the platform that God gives us. They have now come out with a new pro-life song called, “Who will Save the Little Ones?” It’s a call to lawful action on behalf of the unborn. You can hear this at our Website (<a href="../../site/savethelittleones">http://www.equip.org/site/savethelittleones</a>). I also did an hour long interview with Cindee and Rick on October 6, 2009; this can be heard also at our Website (<a href="../../broadcasts/who-will-save-the-little-ones-20090610">http://www.equip.org/broadcasts/who-will-save-the-little-ones-20090610</a>). To visit their Website go to (<a href="http://www.MtMoriahMusic.com">http://www.MtMoriahMusic.com</a>) Also to equip you in defending the Pro-Life position we recommend the book Whose Ethics? Whose Morals? available at our Website or by calling 1-888-7000-0274.   Recommended Resources: <a href="http://www.equipresources.org/site/apps/ka/ec/product.asp?c=muI1LaMNJrE&b=2537845&en=9hKOKXNvEbKSKYNwHcKOKUNwG9LLK6PIJ9JII2POLjKULcOUG&ProductID=685170">Whose Ethics? Whose Morals?</a> <a href="http://www.equipresources.org/site/apps/ka/ec/product.asp?c=muI1LaMNJrE&b=2537845&en=9hKOKXNvEbKSKYNwHcKOKUNwG9LLK6PIJ9JII2POLjKULcOUG&ProductID=685170"><img title="Whose Ethics? Whose Morals?" src="../../images/whosethicssmall.jpg" alt="Whose Ethics? Whose Morals?" width="100" height="133" /> $9.99</a> <a href="http://www.equipresources.org/site/apps/ka/ec/product.asp?c=muI1LaMNJrE&b=2537845&en=9hKOKXNvEbKSKYNwHcKOKUNwG9LLK6PIJ9JII2POLjKULcOUG&ProductID=685170">Order NOW! </a> <div style="mso-element: endnote-list;"> <hr size="1" /> <div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;"> <a style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" name="_edn1" href="../#_ednref1">[1] Robert H. Bork, </a>Slouching towards Gomorrah (New York:  HarperCollins, 1996). </div> <div id="edn2" style="mso-element: endnote;"> <a style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" name="_edn2" href="../#_ednref2">[2] Francis A. Schaeffer and C. Everett Koop, "Whatever Happened to the Human Race?" reprinted in </a>The Complete Works of Francis A. Schaeffer: A Christian Worldview, 5 vols. (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 1982), 5:293. </div> <div id="edn3" style="mso-element: endnote;"> <a style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" name="_edn3" href="../#_ednref3">[3] Quoted in </a>Policy Review, Spring 1985, 15. </div> <div id="edn4" style="mso-element: endnote;"> <a style="mso-endnote-id: edn4;" name="_edn4" href="../#_ednref4">[4] Debate with Francis J. Beckwith on the campus of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, December 1989</a> </div> <div id="edn5" style="mso-element: endnote;"> <a style="mso-endnote-id: edn5;" name="_edn5" href="../#_ednref5">[5] Margaret Sanger, </a>Women and the New Race (New York: Brentano’s, 1920), 63. </div> <div id="edn6" style="mso-element: endnote;"> <a style="mso-endnote-id: edn6;" name="_edn6" href="../#_ednref6">[6] </a>AMA Prism, May 1993, 2. </div> <div id="edn7" style="mso-element: endnote;"> <a style="mso-endnote-id: edn7;" name="_edn7" href="../#_ednref7">[7]</a> “Support Appears to Drop for Abortion Rights,” by Laurie Goodstein , 10/2/09, The New York Times, (<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/02/us/02abortion.html?pagewanted=print">http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/02/us/02abortion.html?pagewanted=print</a>) </div> </div> 2009-10-07T17:42:37Z October 6, 2009 184 have-we-given-up-on-the-issue-of-abortion- Have We Given Up on the Issue of Abortion?

2010-01-29T19:12:09Z

I'd like to say a couple of words about having an eternal perspective, which I think is so critically important for believers. We need to elevate our gaze from mean earthly vanities to eternal verities. To develop an eternal perspective we need to saturate ourselves with Scripture and of course, Jesus modeled daily devotion to the Word of God. Because of that, so should we. Remember, in the ultimate spiritual battle Jesus took up the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. Not only that but we need to begin to view this world with an eye towards eternity by focusing on the needs of others. As Jesus sacrificed Himself for the sins of the world, we need to learn to live selflessly rather than selfishly. At the Judgment those who fed the hungry, who gave drink to the thirsty, who clothed and fed the naked, cared for the sick and visited people in prison are going to be rewarded as if they had done these things for the Lord Himself. One more point, and that is we develop an eternal perspective by withdrawing from the invasive sounds of the world so that we can hear the sounds of another place, and maybe more importantly, another voice. Doctor Luke tells us that Jesus often withdrew to lonely places to pray. He wasn't like the religious leaders of the day. He didn't pray to be seen by men. He prayed because He treasured fellowship with His Heavenly Father. If you too wish to develop that kind of perspective, a perspective that leads to abundant living now and for all eternity, go into your room, close the door, said Jesus, and pray to your Father who is unseen and then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. It's not about having palaces in this life. It's about having a relationship with Christ for time and for eternity. Remember, we're looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwells righteousness. No more death, mourning, crying or pain, because the old order of things will have passed away. All things become new. That eventuality is right around the corner. I can say that as I am now 57 years of age and I think about the fact that my dad died when he was 74. I think of the span between 57 and 74 and it's not a long period of time. You start realizing how mortal we are and how important it is to leave it all on the field, as it were, to live our life for things that really matter, the souls of people. Recommended Resources:   <div id="ec_container_vert"> <div class="lstprod_1"><a href="http://www.equipresources.org/c.muI1LaMNJrE/b.2537845/site/apps/ka/ec/Product.asp?ProductID=431226"><img style="border: 0px;" title="Resurrection" src="http://www.equipresources.org/atf/account26032/images/b545.jpg" alt="Resurrection" width="100" height="153" /></a> <a href="http://www.equipresources.org/c.muI1LaMNJrE/b.2537845/site/apps/ka/ec/Product.asp?ProductID=431226">Resurrection</a> B545 $14.00</div> </div>   2009-06-16T15:29:21Z July 8, 2008 95 having-an-eternal-perspective Having an Eternal Perspective

2010-01-29T18:29:15Z

<a href="http://salemnet.vo.llnwd.net/o29/bibleanswerman/hankspeaksout/hope.mp3">Click Here to listen</a> 2009-03-18T20:03:43Z January 19, 2006 10 having-hope-in-the-midst-of-suffering Having Hope in the Midst of Suffering

2009-03-18T20:03:43Z

<a href="http://salemnet.vo.llnwd.net/o29/bibleanswerman/hankspeaksout/gay_lifestyle.mp3"></a>Click Here to listen           Recommended Resources: <img class="photo" src="http://www.equipresources.org/atf/cf/%7B9C4EE03A-F988-4091-84BD-F8E70A3B0215%7D/SB317.jpg" border="0" alt="" align="left" />Paperback Book The Gay Gospel Resource# SB317 Author: Joe Dallas Price:$13.99 Audience: General <a href="http://www.equipresources.org/site/apps/ka/ec/product.asp?c=muI1LaMNJrE&b=2537845&en=goJFLIOuHiIEIJMmE7ICJINmF9JPLVOmG5ILI1PwEhLVJ7K&ProductID=430912">Order</a> <img class="photo" src="http://www.equipresources.org/atf/cf/%7B9C4EE03A-F988-4091-84BD-F8E70A3B0215%7D/J066.jpg" border="0" alt="b545.jpg" align="left" />Magazine The Christian Research Journal: A Christian Response To Gay Rights Arguments Resource# J066 Price:$6.50 Audience: General <a href="http://www.equipresources.org/site/apps/ka/ec/product.asp?c=muI1LaMNJrE&b=2537845&en=fdLDLFPqEhLCLGMiE6JAKFMiF8LNLSPiG4IJLYOsHgKTI4I&ProductID=430542">Order</a> 2009-06-16T15:32:08Z March 20, 2007 96 hillary-clinton-and-barack-obama-gay-lifestyle Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama - Gay lifestyle

2009-06-17T15:17:53Z

I was reading an article in Newsweek titled "Will My Marriage Last?” David Jefferson of Newsweek writes “On Tuesday, Californians will head to the polls. How millions of strangers cast their votes will affect the most intimate parts of my life.” He goes on to say, “I got married on Saturday. I'm just hoping it lasts through next week. Few newlyweds enter a marriage with such low expectations (except for maybe Britney Spears, whose 2004 Vegas quickie was annulled after two days). But my new spouse, Jeff Bechtloff, and I are gay men living in California, and like thousands of couples who've tied the knot since the state Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage this spring, we rushed to get wed before voters could decide on Nov. 4 whether or not we should.” He goes on to say, “It's difficult to explain how it feels now, as Jeff and I face the possibility that our marriage could lose its validity come next Tuesday. The absurdity of having the most personal aspect of your life determined by a ballot proposition is best summed up by the slogan on a T-Shirt I saw a gay man wearing this month: CAN I VOTE ON YOUR MARRIAGE? Proposition 8 would change the state Constitution to stipulate "only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California." A few paragraphs later, David Jefferson writes, “Look, I'm a realist. ‘All men are created equal’ may be the cornerstone of what we call “liberty,” but it has taken a couple of centuries for the American populace to digest the meaning of those words, and I suspect it will take centuries more. When my mother was born, women didn't have the right to vote. When my sister was born, ‘separate but equal’ was the law in the South. When I was born, blacks and whites couldn't marry in several states.” What I would like to point out here is the need for discernment because David Jefferson of Newsweek has just created a slight of mind. He has cleverly changed the argument from an argument regarding identity. He is right. It’s wrong to be sexist and it is wrong to be racist but he has taken that argument which has to do with identity and used it as an argument for a behavioral lifestyle. So he’s confusing identity and behavior. In other words, he has cleverly made a category mistake. This is once again my way to tell you how critical it is for us to exercise discernment skills, to see arguments for what there are. Are they cogent? Are they clear? Are they concise? Are they correct? Or are these arguments slight of hand and slight of mind? We need to learn discernment skills so that we can use our well-reasoned answer as an opportunity to share the truth. Not truth that stifles, not truth that paints or caricatures God as a cosmic kill joy, but the kind of truth by which God places parameters around our life so that our joy may be complete. The problem today is a lot of people want to be God. They want to be the final court of arbitration. They want to decide what sin is and what sin is not. They want to decide which behaviors are ok and which behaviors are not ok, but we have a Creator and an owner’s manual, and we say He, not I, is the final court of arbitration. Even if I don’t agree, I bow the knee, I submit to the one who spoke and the limitless galaxies leapt into existence because He is a far more brilliant intellect than I. We don’t want to do that. We want to say, “Has God said?” and then make the rules of the game ourselves and determine right or wrong not based on a final court of arbitration but on the size and scope and strength of the latest lobby group. For more information on Homosexuality and Gay Marriage, please see our Website at www.equip.org and my new Complete Bible Answer Book: Collectors Edition. 2009-06-16T15:35:15Z November 3, 2008 97 homosexual-marriage Homosexual Marriage

2010-01-29T18:49:33Z

I found myself virtually screaming out the words, “Will someone please help Professor Bart Ehrman figure out how many angels were at the tomb!” It is a problem he brings up ad nauseum and ad infinitum as his way of showing the Bible is riddled with discrepancies. This problem is cited in his book Jesus Interrupted and involves again the angels at the tomb of Christ.   After reading the synoptic gospels, Ehrman was unable to figure out whether the women saw a man, as Mark says (Mark 16:5), or two men as Luke says (Luke 24:4), or an angel as Matthew says (Matt. 28:2).<a style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title="blocked::#_edn1" name="_ednref1" href="../#_edn1">[1]</a> I’m left to wonder why one of professor Ehrman’s students didn’t pause for a brief moment to unpack the mystery for him because as Professor Ehrman himself has figured out, wherever there are two angels there is also one angel<a style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title="blocked::#_edn2" name="_ednref2" href="../#_edn2">[2]</a>, always, always, always, without exception. The fact that Mark only references the angel who addressed the women shouldn’t be problematic for someone who has made a virtual art form out of exploiting discrepancies and secondary details of the Gospels. Furthermore, even though Luke does not specifically refer to the two men as angels; the fact that he describes these beings as “men in clothes that gleamed as lighting” should have been a dead give away. Moreover, as a historian addressing a predominately Gentile audience, Doctor Luke—no doubt—measured his words carefully so as not to give rise unnecessarily to pagan superstitions. Finally, as with Mark, the fact that Matthew only references one angel does not preclude the fact that two angels were present. After reading the accounts of Matthew, Mark, and Luke or John, for that matter, there is ample data by which a real historian can determine that the man described by Mark was indeed an angel and that “men in clothes that gleamed as lighting” were angelic, and that though Matthew only mentions an angel, he clearly does not preclude the possibility that another was present. Contra Ehrman then, what credible scholars look for is a core set of reliable facts that either validate or invalidate historical accounts. Here, as elsewhere in the Gospels, one can objectively conclude that the core set of facts presented by the Gospel writers are authentic and reliable. To help equip you I’ve developed a new resource called Memorable Keys to Essential Christian D-O-C-T-R-I-N-E. It’s available at our Website at <a href="..//">www.equip.org </a>or by calling us at 1-888-700-0274. Also check out my <a href="https://www.kintera.org/site/c.muI1LaMNJrE/b.4487367/k.DD74/The_Complete_Bible_Answer_Book__Collectors_Edition/apps/ka/sd/donor.asp?c=muI1LaMNJrE&b=4487367&en=fwLRL6PZKrJWK6OXLgJQKfP1IqKbLkOVIlI5IfNZJnIVJfN7LAL" target="_blank">Complete Bible Answer Book</a>. Recommended Resources:  <a href="http://www.equipresources.org/site/apps/ka/ec/product.asp?c=muI1LaMNJrE&b=2537845&en=asLQK0PzHcJUL1MAJdJQLXMAIaINL9PMLaLKK5PSIkKWJfNYF&ProductID=682248">Memorable Keys to Essential Christian DOCTRINE <img title="DOCTRINE" src="../../images/doctrinechartfront.jpg" alt="DOCTRINE" width="100" height="145" /> $9.99 Order NOW!</a>  <div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <hr size="1" /> </div> </div> <div style="mso-element: endnote-list;"> <hr size="1" /> <div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;"> <a style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title="blocked::#_ednref1" name="_edn1" href="../#_ednref1">[1] Bart D. Ehrman</a>, Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (And Why We Don’t Know About Them) (New York, Harper One, 2009), 8. </div> <div id="edn2" style="mso-element: endnote;"> <a style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title="blocked::#_ednref2" name="_edn2" href="../#_ednref2">[2] Ibid.</a> </div> </div> 2009-04-21T13:02:42Z April 17, 2009 40 how-many-angels-were-at-the-tomb-of-christ- How Many Angels Were at the Tomb of Christ?

2010-01-29T19:05:40Z

“Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols?” (1 Corinthians 6:14–18 NIV)     Since Swami Vivekananda first introduced yoga to the West more than a hundred years ago, yoga has steadily gained in popularity, becoming as American as apple pie. In fact, you can find classes at the local gym as well as the local church!  And according to the Columbia Journalism Review,   Everybody loves yoga; sixteen and a half million Americans practice it regularly, and twenty-five million more say they will try it this year. If you’ve been awake and breathing air in the twenty-first century, you already know that this Hindu practice of health and spirituality has long ago moved on from the toe-ring set. Yoga is American; it has graced the cover of Time twice, acquired the approval of A-list celebrities like Madonna, Sting, and Jennifer Aniston, and is still the go-to trend story for editors and reporters, who produce an average of eight yoga stories a day in the English-speaking world.….Consumers drop $3 billion every year on yoga classes, books, videos, CDs, DVDs, mats, clothing, and other necessities.   With the growing attraction of yoga and its “rock-star status,” I have put much thought into the appropriate Christian response.  In short, believers need to “think Christianly” about yoga; to facilitate this understanding, I have created the acronym Y-O-G-A.    “Y” reminds believers that the word “yoga” comes from the Sanskrit word “yogah,” which means “to yoke or to unite.” Indeed, the goal of yoga is to uncouple oneself from the material world and to unite oneself with the God of Hinduism, commonly understood to be Brahman, the impersonal cosmic consciousness of the universe. Put another way, yoga is the means by which the user’s mind is merged into the universal mind.   “O” represents the Hindu mantra “Om”—a sacred Sanskrit syllable cherished by Hindu yogis as the spoken quintessence of the universe. Repeating such mantras as Om over and over is a principal means by which participants work their way into altered states of consciousness with the objective of dulling the critical thinking process.  As noted by the late Indian guru Bhawan Shree Rajneesh, the mind is an obstacle to enlightenment. Shockingly, what was once relegated to the kingdom of the cults is now being replicated in churches. In the ashrams of the cults there is no pretense. Despite such dangers as possession or insanity, Hindu gurus openly encourage trance states through which devotees tap into realms of the demonic and discover their “higher selves.” Whether experiencing involuntary movements or encountering illusory monsters, all is written off as progress on the road to enlightenment.   “G” recalls the gurus who developed and disseminated yoga for the express purpose of achieving oneness with the impersonal God of Hinduism. Most noteworthy among the Guru’s is Patanjali—the Hindu sage who founded Yoga around the second century b.c. Of particular significance in the West is the aforementioned guru, Swami Vivekananda, a disciple of the self-proclaimed “god-man” Sri Ramakrishna. In 1893 Vivekananda used the Parliament of World Religions to skillfully sow the seeds for a new global spirituality. Second only to Vivekananda in the Westernization of yoga was Yogananda—proudly hailed as “Father of Yoga in the West.” In 1920 he founded the L.A. based Self-Realization Fellowship, a principal means of disseminating Yoga to multiplied millions of Americans. Finally, of special note is Swami Muktananda, popularizer of kundalini yoga, a method by which divine energy thought to reside as a coiled serpent at the base of the spine is aroused; ascends through six chakras; and aims for union with the Hindu deity Shiva in a seventh center allegedly located in the crown of the head.   Finally, the “A” in Y-O-G-A brings to mind the Hindu word asana. As repetition of the word “Om” is used to work devotees into altered states of consciousness, so too a regiment of asanas—or body postures—are used to achieve a feeling of oneness with the cosmic energy flow of the universe. Coupled with breathing exercises and meditation practices, asana positions are considered to be the pathway to serenity and spirituality. According to the Yoga Journal, “asanas are their own type of meditation; to perform difficult postures you have to focus on your body and breath and relax into the pose.” While multitudes are being seduced into believing that asanas are spiritually neutral, nothing could be farther from the truth.     In sum, while an alarming number of American Christians suppose they can harmlessly achieve physical and spiritual well-being through a form of yoga divorced from its Eastern worldview, in reality attempts to Christianize Hinduism only Hinduize Christianity.     If you want to read more on the subject, see Elliot Miller’s three-part article series, “The Yoga Boom: A Call for Christian Discernment,” which was published in Christian Research Journal, Volume 21 / Numbers 2, 3, and 4; available on-line through Christian Research Institute at www.equip.org. 2010-01-21T16:12:38Z January 20, 2010 196 how-should-christians-respond-to-yoga How Should Christians Respond to Yoga?

2010-01-21T16:12:51Z

One of the questions I get over and over again is "How wide is the divide between Mormonism and Christianity? Is it really substantive?" Well, in 1997 Stephen Robinson, a professor at a Mormon university, BYU, and Craig Blomberg, a professor at a Christian seminary, attempted to answer that question in a book that was titled "How Wide the Divide?" In the end the book, released by a major Christian publishing house, concluded that the divide might not really be as wide as we had thought it was. With respect to the central doctrine of the nature of God, for instance, the authors concurred that both evangelicals and Latter-Day Saints believe in an omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, infinite, eternal and unchangeable God. Blomberg and Robinson forward this claim despite the words of Mormonism founder Joseph Smith who emphatically declared that the first principle of the gospel was to know that God has not been God for all eternity. Now Smith put it like this: "I'm going to tell you how God came to be God. We have imagined and supposed that God was God from all eternity. I will refute that idea and take away the veil so that you may see. It is the first principle of the gospel to know for a certainty the character of God. He was once a man like us, yea that God himself, the Father of us all, dwelt on an earth." Sounds like there's a wide divide between the God of Christianity and the god of Mormonism. Well today, a full decade after the release of "How Wide the Divide?" presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, like Blomberg and Robinson, has made a concerted effort to minimize the differences between Mormonism and Christianity. His references to Jesus Christ as Son of God and Savior of mankind might sound orthodox, but in reality, as a temple Mormon who has served as a bishop and a stake president, Romney knows full well that the Jesus of Mormonism is clearly not the Christ of Christianity, and as such he's obscured the face of Mormonism through the manufacture of a Mormon mirage. Again, our goal isn't to tell you who to vote for or even to say that he wouldn't be a good president. Our goal is simply to say this: We should not be fooled by those who say that the divide between orthodox Christianity and Mormonism is a bridgeable chasm. It's not. It is clearly an unbridgeable chasm. Recommended Resource: <a href="http://www.equipresources.org/site/apps/ka/ec/product.asp?c=muI1LaMNJrE&b=2537845&en=jkKNL1POKkLRJ2OMK9IMJ6MVJtLZK3MJLkJ5JdOVLuIbE&ProductID=430722"></a><img class="photo" src="http://www.equipresources.org/atf/Account26032/images/P341-small.jpg" border="0" alt="" align="left" />Booklet The Mormon Mirage&l