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Bart Ehrman's Bias on the Author of Mark

06/27/2010 - Alan Kurschner

Darrell Bock calls out Bart Ehrman on his bias here. Bock comments on Ehrman's The New Testament: An Historical Introduction. I have read this book cover to cover so I can attest to Bock's lament. Ehrman's MO is to prejudice his conclusions with, not so much to what is said, but on what is not said (Ehrman does this as well in his popular textual critical books). In that blog article, Bock takes the example of the author of Mark and demonstrates Ehrman's lack of scholarly fairness with the evidence.

14:07:14 - Category: General Apologetics - Link to this article -


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Biblical Apologetics Defined and Defended

06/25/2010 - James White



15:50:06 - Category: General Apologetics - Link to this article -


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Harold Camping Describes the End of the World

06/17/2010 - James Swan

Here's a video clip of Mr. Camping explaining what the end of the world will be like. Mr. Camping explains exactly what will happen on the last day. This video clip is from an interview in Camping's Oakland office a few weeks ago. From the article which accompanies this video:
"He's also unafraid to talk about the toll his evangelical beliefs have taken on his personal life. Camping has seven children and grandchildren into the double digits, yet only his daughter Susan, who works as his executive secretary, shares his take on the Bible. 'She's the only one who's with me on this,' he told me."



Update: TurretinFan comments:

Back in 1994, Harold Camping's predictions regarding the end of the world did not come true. The world continued on. He has new predictions that the rapture will occur on May 21, 2011, with world continuing for another 153 days from then. One of his predictions, as you will see in the clip, is that there will be a massive earthquake that is large enough to open all of the graves of, in essence, everyone who has ever been buried. I hope that those who have been following Camping's teaching will realize on May 22, 2011, that this was a serious mistake.Mr. Camping's method of Biblical interpretation is flawed. Rather than using the grammatical-historical method of exegesis, Mr. Camping applies a highly arbitrary method of trying "decode" a "hidden meaning" in the text of Scripture. The arbitrary method permitted him to predict late 1994, and now permits him to predict May 21, 2011. If that date fails, it will permit him to pick a new date, and again and again.What's more, folks should be aware that Camping is running his organization this way: "we make decisions as if the end could be quite far away ... contracts are negotiated as if the future was altogether indefinite ... " (source - Time Has an End). May I strongly urge those who have gone along with Mr. Camping's teachings to please at least imitate this aspect of Camping's organizations. Continue to make plans for the future beyond May 21, 2011. When the earthquake does not arrive, find a Bible-believing church near you and join yourself to that fellowship.


04:37:44 - Category: General Apologetics - Link to this article -


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The Sin-Forgiving God

06/13/2010 - Tur8infan

One of the attributes of God is the ability to forgive sins. This is stated explicitly in Exodus:
Exodus 34:7 Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.
Furthermore, it is found implicitly in the passages of the Old Testament where God promises to forgive sin:
  • 2 Chronicles 7:14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

  • Jeremiah 31:34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
Additionally, it is found implicitly in the passages of the Old Testament where men ask God for forgiveness of sin:

  • Psalm 25:15-18
    Mine eyes are ever toward the LORD; for he shall pluck my feet out of the net. Turn thee unto me, and have mercy upon me; for I am desolate and afflicted. The troubles of my heart are enlarged: O bring thou me out of my distresses. Look upon mine affliction and my pain; and forgive all my sins.

  • Psalm 85:1-4 (To the chief Musician, A Psalm for the sons of Korah.)
    LORD, thou hast been favourable unto thy land: thou hast brought back the captivity of Jacob. Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people, thou hast covered all their sin. Selah. Thou hast taken away all thy wrath: thou hast turned thyself from the fierceness of thine anger. Turn us, O God of our salvation, and cause thine anger toward us to cease.
We also see the same thing implicit the prayer which Christ taught his disciples:
Luke 11:4 And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil.
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00:01:00 - Category: General Apologetics - Link to this article -


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The Unchanging God

06/04/2010 - Tur8infan

One of God's attributes is immutability. All Creation changes, but God does not change. This is expressed in two ways. The first way is directly:
  • Malachi 3:6 For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.

  • James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
A second way is indirectly using the concept of "enduring forever":
  • Psalm 9:7 But the LORD shall endure for ever: he hath prepared his throne for judgment.

  • Psalm 72:17 His name shall endure for ever: his name shall be continued as long as the sun: and men shall be blessed in him: all nations shall call him blessed.

  • Psalm 102:12 But thou, O LORD, shalt endure for ever; and thy remembrance unto all generations.

  • Psalm 145:13 Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and thy dominion endureth throughout all generations.
We begin to see this applied to Christ even in the Psalms. There the seed of David is said to endure forever:
  • Psalm 89:4 Thy seed will I establish for ever, and build up thy throne to all generations. Selah.

  • Psalm 89:29 His seed also will I make to endure for ever, and his throne as the days of heaven.

  • Psalm 89:36 His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before me.
While "seed" can be collective, we learn from Paul's epistle to the Galatians that in the Old Testament prophecy it was was intentionally singular:
  • Galatians 3:16 Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.
That was referring to the promise to Abraham, but the same is the case here in the promise to David. It was a promise first given by Nathan the prophet:
  • 2 Samuel 7:12-13
    And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build an house for my name, and I will stablish the throne of his kingdom for ever.

  • 1 Chronicles 17:11-12
    And it shall come to pass, when thy days be expired that thou must go to be with thy fathers, that I will raise up thy seed after thee, which shall be of thy sons; and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build me an house, and I will stablish his throne for ever.
While there was a typological fulfillment of this promise in Solomon, Isaiah shows us that the complete fulfillment was yet to come:
  • Isaiah 9:7 Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.
We can also see another cross-connection in that the LORD's throne is described as unending:
  • Lamentations 5:19 Thou, O LORD, remainest for ever; thy throne from generation to generation.

  • Psalm 45:6 Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: the sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre.
In any event, the final link of this proof of Jesus' divinity is the implicit application to Jesus:
  • Hebrews 1:12 And as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail.
And the explicit application to Jesus:
  • Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.
Let us, therefore, worship Jesus our Immutable Lord!

-TurretinFan

00:01:00 - Category: General Apologetics - Link to this article -


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