Why did God permit the 2nd Temple in Jerusalem to be destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD? Were the ancient Jews given any signs from God that this would happen? Which Biblical rituals of the highest Jewish holiday, Yom Kippur, could no longer be performed after the Temple’s destruction? And how do all of …
External, Ancient Evidence in Support of the New Testament by Harry Stark
If you've been on social media to share the Christian good news, you've likely encountered people who claim we have little or no ancient evidence in support of the New Testament. To the contrary, we have an abundance of ancient Christian and non-Christian sources in support of Jesus' social environment, peers, life, ministry, crucifixion, resurrection, …
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Got Hope? A Martyr, a Miracle, and a Christian Conversion (from Eusebius)
In trying times, we all need a little dose of hope. Imagine living in ancient times when Christians really needed hope. They were slaughtered for the mere "sin" of being Christians by ancient and evil pagans. Imagine being one of those slaughtered Christians who stood up for Christ no matter the gory levels of abuse …
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How Are the Prophet Daniel, Antiochus IV, and Hanukkah Related?
In the 6th century B.C., Daniel prophesied the four kingdoms of Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome through Nebuchadnezzar’s dream in Daniel 2 and in his own visions and dreams in Daniel 7 and 8. Greece would be like a leopard with “four wings of a bird on its back.”[1] Alexander the Great ruled Greece between …
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Deutero Isaiah’s Faulty Premise and Logic
In a prior blog, I shared a quote from a critical scholar called Ulrich Berges on the book of Isaiah that made clear the faulty premise upon which the Deutero Isaiah theories are based, which is that fulfilled prophecies aren't possible. Access that blog here: https://christian-apologist.com/2021/10/25/evidence-of-a-dogmatic-anti-theistic-originator-of-the-deutero-isaiah-theory/?preview_id=3205&preview_nonce=4c93ae6e04&preview=true&_thumbnail_id=3165 This blog continues this discussion with several rebuttals to …
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Evidence of a Dogmatic, Anti-Theistic Originator of the Deutero Isaiah Theory
It has been my hunch that scholars who originated the Deutero Isaiah theory in the 18th century did so because of the theological implications of prophecies, which give them hemorrhoidal levels of discomfort. To scholars with atheistic leanings, fulfilled prophecies are impossible, so they simply date the authorship of those prophecies to the time in …
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Josephus Debunked Critical Scholars’ Late Dating Claims of Daniel and Isaiah
Around the 1800s, "critical" scholars in German universities realized the divine implications of fulfilled prophecies in the Bible, so rather than accept their possibility, they produced theories to discredit the original authorship and dating of books by Isaiah, Daniel, and others. Their theories are often complicated (such as proposing multiple authors over centuries and mysterious …
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Why Did Jesus Come as a Carpenter?
Mark 6:3 states, "Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him." Of all of the occupations Jesus could have chosen, why did He choose to be a carpenter? Those …
Hostile Ancient Sources Point to Jesus’ Divinity
We have extrabiblical hostile sources that support Jesus’ ministry, crucifixion, and claims of His resurrection. Jesus’ existence was supported by Tacitus (56 – 117),[1] Josephus (37 – 100), Pliny the Younger (61 – 113), Mara Bar-Serapion (70 - ?), Suetonius (75 – 160 ), Thallus (5 – 60), as recorded by Africanus, Phlegon (80 – …
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Bart Ehrman’s Blunders in His Debate with Mike Licona
I listened to a debate between Bart Ehrman and Mike Licona where Ehrman cited what he considered to be Bible contradictions and in several cases, Licona seemed to agree with him. Both questioned the dating of Quirinius' census, which is reported in Luke's gospel. Licona did say that scholars have offered some solutions, yet he …
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