Question: You talk a lot about the violent depictions of God in the Old Testament. But what about God’s slaying of Ananias and Sapphira in the New? How do you explain that?
Answer: The same way I explain divine violence … read more
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Why Did Jesus Curse The Fig Tree?
One of the strangest episodes recorded in the Gospels is Jesus cursing a fig tree because he was hungry and it didn’t have any figs (Mk 11:12-14; Mt 21:18-19). It’s the only … read more
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Question: In Luke 11:21-22 Jesus said: “When a strong man, with all his weapons ready, guards his own house, all his belongings are safe. But when a stronger man attacks him and defeats him, he carries away all the weapons … read more
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* This essay has been adopted from G. Boyd and Paul Eddy, Lord or Legend? (Baker, 2007).
One of the standard tests historians put to ancient documents to assess their veracity is self-consistency. Generally speaking, fabricated accounts tend to … read more
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Question: Ephesians 1 refers to believers as predestined before the foundation of the world. How do you reconcile this with your view that free actions of people (like choosing to believe in Christ) can’t be predestined or even foreknown ahead … read more
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Warfare in Jesus’ Ministry
The theme of God striving to establish his sovereign will (his Kingdom) on earth over and against forces that oppose him is prevalent in the New Testament. In keeping with the apocalyptic climate of the time, … read more -
The quest for a “merely human” Jesus
The various radical views of Jesus now being advocated by certain scholars and propagated through the press are buttressed by a number of different historical arguments. Some argue, for example, that the evidence … read more -
Few biblical topics have captured the imagination of contemporary evangelicals like the book of Revelation. The recent unprecedented success of the Left Behind series is evidence of this popular fascination. Many evangelicals don’t realize that the futuristic interpretation of Revelation … read more
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On March 4th, 2007, the Discovery Channel aired James Cameron’s much celebrated documentary, “The Lost Tomb of Jesus.” The documentary basically gives a new spin on an old discovery.
In 1980, a first century tomb was discovered in Talpoit (a … read more
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Question: I and my husband have become increasingly uncomfortable with the many sermons on tithing we’ve been recently hearing at our church. Our pastor insists we tithe 10% to the church regardless of what else we give to other ministries. … read more
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*This essay is adapted from G. Boyd & P. Eddy, Lord or Legend? (Baker, 2007). For a fuller discussion, see P. Eddy & G. Boyd, The Jesus Legend (Baker, 2007).
There are a number of questions historians ask when they … read more
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Three possibilities exist in terms of reconciling Revelation 13:8 with open theism.
1) First, the “from the foundation of the world” clause can attach to either “everyone whose names have not been written” or to “the lamb that was slain.” … read more
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As in Revelation 13:8, the clause “from the foundation” (apo kataboleis) need not mean “from before the foundation” but simply “from the foundation” (= since the foundation). It’s not that names either were or were not written in … read more
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One of the many tests historians typically submit documents to in accessing their historical reliability concerns the extent to which archeology supports or undermines the historic claims the document makes. So we need to investigate the extent to which archeology … read more
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Question: If Jesus is opposed to violence, why did he tell his disciples to buy swords (Lk 22:36-37).
Answer: Given how Jesus responds to Peter’s use of the sword (he rebukes him), and given everything Jesus says about loving enemies, … read more
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Question: I just read Bart Ehrman’s book Misquoting Jesus and it’s sort of rocked my world. How can we believe the Bible is God’s inerrant Word when we don’t even know what the original Bible said?
Answer: I actually … read more
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*This essay is based on sections of G. Boyd & P. Eddy, Lord or Legend? (Baker, 2007). For a fuller discussion with full bibliographic citations, see P. Eddy & G. Boyd, The Jesus Legend (Baker, 2007).
How reliable were the … read more
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* This essay is based on G. Boyd & P. Eddy, Lord or Legend? (Baker, 2007). For a fuller discussion , see P. Eddy & G. Boyd, The Jesus Legend (Baker, 2007).
One often finds skeptics arguing that if the … read more
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(Note: We apologize that certain German vowels didn’t translate onto this site).
Introduction
The book of Acts is of critical importance in the contemporary debate about the historical Jesus. The reason for this is straightforward. Those who deny that … read more -
The Jesus Seminar
The primary driving force behind the popular media’s present preoccupation with liberal views of Jesus has been the Jesus Seminar. This Seminar, first convened in 1985 by Robert Funk, is a gathering of 100 or so mostly … read more