Head-dibs

Must we choose between God or Science? What if there is another option? Where does "love" reside ( "Interstellar" fans should find that question compelling )? There must be another option.  26 minute video here Again, what scientific theory defines "love?" Also, what scientific imperatives demand that one be honest in one's scientific findings? Is science able to explain everything? Ravi Zacharias answers these and more of the Biggest Objections to Christianity in this Q & A. 90 minute video here .

Some opponents of the Bible point to Jesus' baptism by John as inconsistent, recording the event happening in two different locations. Matthew 3:6 and Mark 1:9 records the location as the Jordan river. John 1:28 says that John was baptizing in Bethabara, beyond the Jordan. Which is it? "Bethabara" is the place where one crossed a stream that fed into the river Jordan in order to enter Judea. The place is also known as "Bethany" in the gospels. Matthew and Mark were simply not inspired to be as precise and John. We use generalizations without difficulty. If I ask where you were born, would you report the state, city, street address, floor and room number, naming the hospital you were born; or, simply name the city of your birth? Or at least the state. Are we inconsistent if we withhold information? Consulting a map, one finds no contradiction.

"Recently I read the statement, 'Jesus was a vegetarian.' Supposedly, since Jesus did not eat meat, neither should we. There are several problems with this line of reasoning ."

[July 2004 I went to Kenya, Africa to speak in two Pastor’s Conferences on the subject of Man, Sin and Salvation. At the end of each day I left just over an hour for questions: half the time were questions touching the subject of my lectures and the other half for “open questions” Here is one of the questions asked by a Bible student] Question:  “Men and women who saw God in the Bible: Why did they not all die?” “ But He said, ‘You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live! ’” (Exodus 33:20) Answer: First, consider those who did see God—how did they respond when they saw Him? They were instantly aware of their sinfulness, and God’s holiness and righteousness (to name a few. And notice also that each responded in an attitude of worship, bowing down): Abraham built altars, worshipping on his face; Isaac and Jacob set up heaps of stones as memorials when they saw the LORD in visions; Moses was told to remove his sandals for he was on Holy ground; only one priest could ...

Someone actually came up with 17 reasons as to “Why God Never Received a PhD.” While my initial thought was “who would award it to Him?” here are my responses to each point: 1. “He had only one major publication.” This is like saying a Library only has one book. There are sixty-six books of the Bible, each “published” over the course of time. 2. “It was in Hebrew.” There are doctoral students who do publish dissertations in languages other than English. (I can’t believe I actually had to mention this). Besides, the Bible was written in Aramaic and Greek as well. 3. “It had no references.” What is one to do with Ancient Near Eastern law code (such as “the goring ox” law) and the other extra-biblical books referenced there (such as those mentioned in the books of Kings and Chronicles)? 4. “It wasn't published in a refereed journal.”  The quotations of scripture in the works of early Christian writers alone are so extensive that the New Testament can be reconstru...

Question: How can it be taught that God is not the author of confusion (1 Corinthians 14:33), when God Himself is quoted as saying “Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.” (Genesis 11:7)? Answer: There are a couple of approaches to find our answer, the first being to recognize the involvement of three languages: Hebrew, Greek and English. The Hebrew word translated “confuse” in Genesis 11:7 is balal , better be understood as “pour together” or “mix.” The second approach is to look at the narrative again. God commanded Noah and his descendants to spread out, fill the earth; instead, they came together in one place. Rather than obey God’s command to fulfill His purpose and receive the subsequent blessing of ruling the earth as His vice-regent they kept to themselves, even speaking the same language. Genesis 10 contains the table of nations as they were divided according to their languages, but Genesis 11 gives the ...

Objection:  Christmas is a pagan holiday. There is nothing in the Bible that says we must observe Jesus birthday. Answer:  Our culture is pagan saturated so unless we change everything, why select this one day above all? Should we revert to the Puritan system and identify the days of the week by their number (First day, Second day, etc) instead of using pagan names? For example, today is named "Torsdag" or "Thor's day" (Norse) while the Romans called it "deis Jovis" or Jove's day. Why do we use solar months to measure time when the Hebrew calendar is lunar? Why do we name the 12th month on our calendar December when "decem" is Latin for 10 and what should we do when January rolls around (named after Janus, god of endings and beginnings)? The Bible is silent about a number of things. You know, there is nothing in the Bible that says Jesus took a bath, nor does He instruct his disciples to take one. Yes, he does wash their feet--on...

Genesis 12:16 reads ”And for her sake he dealt well with Abram; and he had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys, and camels.” Many opponents of the Bible use this passage and say that the presence of camels is an anachronism, that domesticated camels did not appear in Israel until after the time of King David; therefore, the mention of camels in the time of Abram is incorrect. When I visited the passage at “ The Skeptics Annotated Bible ” I found this statement in the margin: In case you can't read it, the margin is “Camels were first domesticated in the tenth century BCE more than a thousand years before Abram supposedly lived.” Camels were domesticated BEFORE Abram? The biblical text has no problem with that. The link provided by the site (above) directs us to Science Daily and a short article from the American Friends of Tel Aviv University. Here we find an analysis of archaeological digs that the writer says can pin-point the mom...

“I’m confused. Three times in Genesis (10:5, 20, 31) we are told that people were divided according to the languages they spoke; however, the next chapter (Genesis 11:1) says that the whole earth spoke one language. Please explain this contradiction.” We all enjoy a good movie or story, but what is the one element that keeps us engaged? It is the creative story telling. We are never given all the information up front! Sherlock Holmes would never have existed if Doyle gave us the details of the crime in telling the story! It is true that the people were divided into their nations according to their languages--but how did those different languages come to be? While Chapter 10 gives us a “table of nations,” Chapter 11 explains the language detail of Chapter 10. The whole earth spoke one language before the Tower of Babel! It makes sense in our culture to have all the information presented in a chronological order; however, we are not the original audience, so good students will be c...

I was on the campus of the University of South Carolina a few years ago sharing the gospel with students in "The Horseshoe." One student got extremely agitated in our conversation and raising his voice in objection, “You can’t quote what Jesus said because his words are contained in a humanly written book that is filled with errors!” While I wanted to ask him who wrote the textbooks in his hand, I held out my Bible and asked him to show me some of those errors. He stepped back and declined my offer. He shot back, "prove walking on water archaeologically!” I confessed I could not, but that’s why such events are called “miracles.” He wanted to go eat, and thus ended our conversation. I’ve not been able to shake his comments about errors in the Bible. The more I think about it, the more I realize he is right. There ARE errors in the Bible. The Bible is full of mistakes and I will highlight a few: Genesis: God told Adam to eat of any tree of the garden, but of the tr...

Objection: The contradiction is plain: the Bible states there is no righteous person, yet many biblical figures are described as righteous (Job, Joseph, Noah, to name a few)--even Christians go around talking about being made righteous. I can't believe in a religious contradiction.  Answer: The apparent contradiction is very plain, but is anyone asking “what does ‘righteousness’ mean?” The central text from which we learn “there is none righteous” is found in Psalm 14 where we also find one definition. Other biblical uses quote this passage or point back to this place, so instead of addressing each one individually, we will consider the source. First, it helps to know who is writing and it takes no scholar to find the answer as the first line reads “Of David,” who incidentally is also one of the biblical figures whose righteousness is called into question. What is he writing about? Well, the first verse explains his topic as “the fool [who] says in his heart, ‘ther...

Question: Exodus records the incident of the parting of the Red Sea by a wind that blew all night. How is this possible? Answer:  We can get an idea by observing this phenomenon recorded in England, where a 98 foot waterfall is reversed by high winds .

One topic often heard from objectors concerns the repentance of God where is often quoted, “God [is] not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do [it]? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?” (Nu 23:19 KJV) against “And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart” (Gen 6:6 KJV). These and other scriptures seem to suggest contradiction concerning the nature of God. Perhaps in it’s most simplistic form, the question is really “how can one who does not change have a change either in mind or heart?” One way to answer the question is found in the Hebrew word "nacham", which is often translated “comfort” throughout Genesis (5:29; 24:67; 37:35; 38:12; 50:21--to select one book). This demonstrates how the Hebrew mind understands a wider range of meaning beyond simply, “to be sorry.”  The word carries the concepts  of lamenting, grieving over one’s actions ...

Question: “The Bible speaks of Jesus as God’s only begotten son, but there are many passages that say God has many sons. How many sons does God have: one, or many?” Answer: God has many sons, but only one “only begotten” son. Perhaps the best approach would be to discover “how” one is made a son. The first and most obvious answer is that one is made a son by birth, when a father brings a male child into the world, as in Adam being the son of God ( Luke 3:38 ). Adam’s also had children: Abel, who was pleasing to God and Cain, who displeased the Lord by keeping a hard heart. After Cain killed Abel, Adam had another son (Seth) who was pleasing to the Lord. The descendants of Abel (“sons of God”, nobility) took wives from the descendants of Cain (“daughters of men”, peasantry) as described in Genesis 6:2-4 . A second option would be that one is made a son by adoption. This is how “son” is applied to the Christian. “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the s...

Answer:  two different questions--seemingly related, but different. The answer to the first is, “yes, everyone dies.” The answer to the second question is “no, Enoch did not die.” Everyone dies because death has been the paycheck for sin since Adam and Eve disobeyed God in the garden--and for them, death was spiritual before it was physical. The same remains true for us, as we come in to the world spiritually stillborn in sin. The reasons Enoch did not die is explained in the New Testament. “By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death, ‘and was not found, because God had taken him’ for before he was taken he had this testimony, that he pleased God.” (Hebrews 11:5) Genesis 5 records a fact about Enoch we should not miss. The text says Enoch was 65 years old when his son, Methuselah, was born (Genesis 5:21). The next verse says that it was not until after Methuselah was born that he started walking with God (Genesis 5:22).  In other words, Enoch only walke...

Question: Jude 14 says that Enoch was the 7th from Adam but when we count the fathers mentioned in the genealogies of Genesis 5:3-18, 1 Chronicles 1:1-2 and Luke 3:37-38, we find Enoch is the sixth and not the seventh. The Bible is clearly wrong. Answer: We do count six, yet Jude says there are seven. Perhaps Jude knows something that we do not and since he is quoting what we call "The Book of Enoch," perhaps we could find a clue there. Noah (supposedly writing) describes his “ ancestor who was man, from Adam the first of men, whom the Lord of spirits made .” (1 Enoch 58:9). Following this lead, Jude is correct to say that Enoch is the seventh men from Adam, who is counted as the first of men. This means the genealogies and Jude are both correct and the Bible remains without error: Adam, the first of men; Seth, the second of men (note that Jude draws a contrast between Godly and ungodly men and has already counted Cain in a different category); Enos, the third of m...

Question:   God tells Cain, “ A fugitive and a vagabond you shall be on the earth ,” (Genesis 4:12) yet Cain “ went out from the presence of the LORD and dwelt in the land of Nod on the east of Eden. And Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch. And he built a city, and called the name of the city after the name of his son—Enoch .” (Genesis 4:16-17). So which is it: was he always on the run, or did he settle down and build a city? Answer: Why could it not be both? What is meant by “city”? The Hebrew word (‘iyr) has two meanings. The first meaning is “excitement; anguish (terror).” The second meaning is “a place of waking; guarded.” Basically, a city in the ancient world is a place, an encampment, guarded by a watch. We must be careful not to superimpose our present understanding back into the text or history. There is no ancient world implication (or concept for that matter at this point in time) of large populations, of trade, tradition, culture or of permanent...

QUESTION: “I read many times in the scripture where laws are given regarding animal sacrifices; yet, I also read many injunctions against killing, including statements where God does not accept sacrifices. Please address this contradiction.” ANSWER: First, anyone who reads should be commended because reading demonstrates the desire to know. When we read we are challenged to think, which is better than merely hearing something and drawing a conclusion without checking out the facts. There are many laws and instructions regarding the animal sacrifices and there are statements of God’s displeasure in them. What God desires is obedience, not sacrifice; but, since man would rather disobey, sacrifice was to remind man of God’s perfection. Remember: from the beginning God and man enjoyed unbroken fellowship until man disobeyed God and brought death by his sin. So that man may keep before him the seriousness of the consequences of sin and the need to be clean before God, God required ...

If God says don't kill, how could he command that every Canaanite man, woman and child be killed by the Israelites? R.C. Sproul writes, " Among the countless nuggets of wisdom I have received over the years from my father is this bit of gold—when you are reading your Bible and you come across something that makes you uncomfortable, resist the temptation to simply move on to something else. Where the Bible makes us uncomfortable is precisely where we need to slow down. It is compelling evidence of a specific weakness. When our thoughts or feelings bristle under God’s Word, He is right and we wrong." Read the rest here .

Covenant Theology answers " the most important question that we can ask about God ," addressing two fundamental claims behind a common misunderstanding.