Is Jesus real?

What do you reckon?

Michael Paulkovich reckons He isn't.  His study led him to the conclusion that

“When I consider those 126 writers, all of whom should have heard of Jesus but did not – and Paul and Marcion and Athenagoras and Matthew with a tetralogy of opposing Christs, the silence from Qumram and Nazareth and Bethlehem, conflicting Bible stories, and so many other mysteries and omissions – I must conclude that Christ is a mythical character.

However, J Warner Wallace reckons that "the Christian faith is an evidential faith".  He said that the Scriptures call us to use our minds, examine the evidences, examine what we believe, and be convinced with the truth.

Indeed, Paul wrote that

if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied. But now Christ has been raised from the dead.

Have you studied the evidences?  What do you believe about the Bible?  What do you believe about Jesus?  Why?

Tweeting Scripture

I have been playing this game on Twitter for a number of years already.

If a Bible verse excites me, I would tweet it.  Or, if I think of a Bible verse that fit in the context of what somebody else has tweeted, I would tweet that verse as a response.

It excites me when enough people "favourite" or "retweet" such tweets.

Does this imply that the Bible is relevant today?

It seems that less people are quoting Scripture nowadays, even though the Bible has been a most quoted book in the past.  Is this a false impression?

If the Bible were to be quoted, then which language/version would be best to use?

Do we make an effort to memorise the Scriptures the way our grandparents used to?  Or the way persecuted church members do?

Does the Bible contain God's word?  Or are they just words that contain inspiring thoughts?  Is it any more relevant than other scriptures, eg. the Hindu Vedas or the Islamic Quran?

What do you believe?  Why?

Blood moon

The world is getting excited again, as the sighting of the blood moon coincides with the Jewish Passover.

It reminds people of these prophecies from the Bible:

• I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD. (Joel 2:30-31, NIV)

• The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. (Acts 2:20, NIV)

• I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red, (Revelation 6:12, NIV)

Blood moons are set to happen at both Passover and Sukot in 2014 and 2015.  Is there a significance to this?

Some people seem to think so.

Stakelbeck cites history, where:

1492: Spain expelled the Jews, Columbus discovers America which became a safe haven for the Jews.
1948: Israel reborn as a nation.
1967: Israel won the 6-day war.

all happened during the time when blood moons were seen.

Perhaps this season's blood moons has something to do with Israel, Syria and Egypt?

Perhaps the coincidence of blood moons with Jewish festive calendars is not so special.  Since the calendars are based on the lunar cycles, and since blood moons are the effect of eclipses of the Earth over the Moon, perhaps it is only natural that the coincidences happen when they happen, as Faulkner analyses.

What do you think?  Is there any significance to blood moons?  Are they just astronomical phenomenons that bear no relevance? Or does God, who uses Sun, moon and stars for signs, tell us something through them?

Do they, at the very least, signify something about Bible prophesy to you?

Do you believe in the Devil?

Justice Scalia surprised the New York Magazine by saying that he believes that the Devil is real.  Do you believe that the Devil is real too?

Apparently the interviewer doesn't.  It seems that the interviewer was surprised that any learned people today would believe in the devil.  So Justice Scalia had to explain himself.

He has read the Screwtape Letters.  He has read the Bible.  He believe that the Devil is alive and deceptive and continues to try to trick people away from the ways of the true and righteous God.

What do you believe?  Is it folklore to believe in the Devil?  Is it superstition?  Is it a concept from the old days that we no longer need today?  Should the devil be confined to the horror genre of fiction, and not be treated seriously?

What about the Bible?  Should the Bible be treated as fiction too?

Why do you believe what you do?

Real faith

Hement Mehta told us Rachael's story.

Rachael is the daughter of an apologist.  She was taught the Bible while she was young.  She knew the words to say to defend the Bible.  Her father was proud to show off what she knew.

Then one day, she asked herself a question she could not answer.  From that point on, she turned her back on the faith that her father had taught her.

Did she do the right thing?  What do you think?

Is she right to turn her back on what her father had taught her?  Should she stay believing in that if it had been wrong?

What if her father had taught her something else, and she left that for the God of the Bible?

What makes it right?  What makes it wrong?  Does Rachael have enough power to discern?  Does anybody?

Is truth relative to a person's perception?  Or is there only one truth, and that is God's; we only need to agree on what that truth is?

What do you believe?

Guards at Jesus tomb

Who were the guards outside Jesus' tomb?

Matthew 6:62-66 says that the chief priests and Pharisees requested of Pilate that Jesus' tomb be guarded.  They thought that if word breaks out in the future that Jesus had come back to life, then "all hell would break lose".  People would believe in Jesus.  The religious leaders would lose control.  So to make sure that such a rumour would not be fabricated, they wanted the tomb sealed and guarded.

Pilate consented.  He either said "You have a guard of soldiers. Go, make it as secure as you can." or "Take a guard of soldiers. Go, make it as secure as you can." (according to the ESV version of the Bible, and noting the footnote).

The two possible meanings leave us some ambiguity.  Were the guards from Pilate's Roman soldiers?  Or were they temple guards?  Does it make a difference to the story?

I read an article that studied the difference, and thought about it.

In a way, yes, it does make a difference.  Roman soldiers are better trained, and more committed to the tasks assigned to them.  They face a penalty of execution if they slept on the job.  Temple guards can be forgiven more easily.  Temple guards report to the chief priests.  Roman guards report back to their centurion, and ultimately back to Pilate.  Hence Matthew 28:11 could imply that they were temple guards instead of being Roman guards, although the word "some" leave the ambiguity there.

For Jesus' followers to steal the body would be less likely to happen in the case of Roman guards.  However, Jesus' followers were feeling sad, depressed, confused and afraid at the time.  They were not in a position to overcome either guard or to roll away the stone.  Matthew 28:2 says that there was an earthquake, and an angel of the Lord rolled the stone away.

The story about the guard stopped at this point.  It was deemed to be no longer significant enough to write about, as in either case, their story was no longer credible.  The main point, regardless of which guard, is that Jesus did rise from the dead.

If Jesus' followers did fabricate the story, then the details of the fabrication would have come out during torture or threat of death.  But they were too afraid at the time to try something so heroic at the time anyway.  If Joseph of Arimethea changed his mind and moved the body before the guard was placed, then either he or his accomplices would have confessed ... or the body would have been found at some stage.

I think Jesus' resurrection really happened.  What do you think?  What plausible stories can you think of to say it didn't happen if you don't believe it?  What convinces you that the story is true if you believe it?  Please share.