Skip to main content

Posts

Trusting Bible Manuscripts

When pondering ancient texts, people wonder why we should trust biblical manuscripts. After all, we do not have the originals. We do have copies that have been passed down through time. Lots of them. In fact, there are far fewer copies of works by Plato, Caesar, and other ancient writers, and there is a tremendous gap between when they were written and the oldest manuscripts — and people trust their authenticity for some reason. What makes the Bible more reliable? Section of P-45 Greek papyrus manuscript of the Gospel of Luke, via Wikimedia Commons It has been suggested that since people tend to worship and idolize things, God has not made the originals available. That may also be the reason the body of Moses was buried by God (Deuteronomy 34:5–6). For that matter, I heard someone say that if a miracle happened on a particular spot, people would adore the spot instead of the one who performed the miracle. I'll allow that this is all speculation, but it makes sense. Biblical

Malevolence and Meditation

The word meditation has many connotations, and if you study on it, you will see that it has a variety of meanings. Some folks might think of formal meditation practices used in Eastern religions, but others may be pondering something and call that "meditating". Meditation is popular nowadays, but what do people really mean by it? Credit: Unsplash / Yogi Madhav If you spend a great deal of time thinking and focusing on something (or someone), you're meditating on it. Take a gander at what people are doing and see if you agree with me. They meditate on church activities, politics, global climate change hysteria, sports, a favorite musician, sex, and so on. (I remember hearing a caller to a political talk radio show and the host exclaimed, "Your religion is liberalism!" The caller replied, "Yes!") This can also have a negative thrust. I can name a few atheists and anti-creationists who essentially meditate on their hatred for God's Word. See P

The Problem of Evil and the Biblical Worldview

One of the biggest problems for unbelievers and Christians alike is what is often called the problem of evil. People have different concepts of what they consider evil, but those are essentially based on trends in cultures or even personal preferences. Credit: Freeimages /  createsima The candies I'm chawing right now are evil because I'm not supposed to have them, but it's my fault for eating the things. The bird that flew away with Captain America's hot dog was evil. There are some Christians who consider rock music to be evil because, well, because. Others consider country music evil. Those examples are personal preferences (and a bit of sarcasm), not there is no actual evil involved. Natural disasters are evil because of the destruction of property and loss of life, but that is really nature doing what nature does. Terrorists are evil, but from their perspective, they are seeking some kind of greater good. Brian Sims acts like pro-life activists are evil, b

Make a Bible Casserole with Current Trends

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen Christians who believe in the inerrancy and authority of the Bible have been scorned for centuries. Many of us have been persecuted in varying forms, even to the point of death. People do not want to be reminded that there is a Creator who is also their Judge, and they are accountable to him. We could make it easier by giving in on certain areas. Credit: RGBStock / John Byer Get with the times, don't be on the wrong side of history! Society changes, so should religious people, right? Not hardly! Cultures can change quickly. What was scandalous a few years ago is acceptable today. And back again. It was acceptable to be ant-Semitic in Germany, but that fell out of fashion, except that it is becoming acceptable for American leftists and Louis Farrakhan . Should we join in or is there an ultimate standard? Women can be pastors despite what Scripture says. Atheist women  can be pastors despite the Bible (and rational thought). Marriage can be redefi

Thought Experiment: Rebuilding Science

The thought experiment concept has been around for a very long time, even before mathematics became a formal discipline. Scientists use it for a "what if" approach to imagine the results of an event or procedure. Here, we start with an apocalyptic event. Credit: Pixabay / Pete Linforth In a sudden global catastrophe, our nice planet gets wrecked. (In my version, atheists tried to destroy all creation science materials through special bombs, but they backfired and destroyed all science and many other things.) Yep, something terrible happened. We have to commence rebuilding, but we don't have science to work with. So we have to rebuild science as well. The Shivas were not able to destroy our Bibles, much to their chagrin. But the Bible contains what we need to make a new beginning. We can learn theology, logic, that the nature of the universe is predictable, and more. Atheists and other anti-creationists can help, but we cannot use their views for ou

Triassic Tumors or a Very Good Creation

Biblical creationists have some challenges to meet in order to remain faithful to Scripture. One of those is with fundamentally flawed dating methods used by secularists as well as religious compromisers. In this case, a Triassic tumor dated to be 240 million years old. Pappochelys rosinae reconstruction image credit: Wikimedia Commons / Rainer Schoch We maintain that the Bible says what it means, and to change the plain reading to accommodate long-age owlhoots is unfaithful to the text (Prov. 30:6, 1 Cor. 4:6, Isaiah 40:8). But what of radiometric dating that puts critters back millions of years, and some of them had cancer? Despite the claims of secularists, radiometric dating has serious flaws . This includes wildly disparate results — including for rocks of known ages . Fact is, the Genesis Flood is a more rational description for what is found in geology. Compare faulty claims of deep time to Scripture, where God said his creation was very good (Gen. 1:31). It beggars r

Appearances of the Creator in the Old Testament

On Resurrection Sunday, most Christians celebrate the bodily Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the Dead. While the man Jesus began his earthly life in Bethlehem, God the Son has always existed. He made himself known in several places in the Old Testament. These are called theophanies . Abraham Receiving the Three Angels by Bartolome Esteban Murillo, 1667 There is disagreement among scholars about the nature of theophanies. In the broadest sense, they were encounters with God. There is some debate about the identity of the angel of the Lord (although the text indicates that this was the preincarnate Christ ). God was active in human history before he (our Creator) took the form of a man, lived a sinless life, died on the cross, was buried, and rose again the third day. This is one of many reasons to humble ourselves and rejoice. As Easter approaches, we tend to focus our reflections on the life, death, and glorious resurrection of Christ. We even mark the timeline of history

Christians, Censorship, and Book Burning

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen Christians were warned from the get-go that we would have persecution (1 John 3:13, Mark 4:17, 2 Tim. 3:12, 1 Peter 4:19). They were tortured in various ways , including being thrown to the lions (some atheopaths seem to want that practice reinstated, I have seen this image  posted more than once). Today, atheist-run countries actively persecute Bible-believing Christians ( such as China ), and Mohammedans are rampant; they wiped out entire villages in Nigeria . This is only one example. However, many persecutions of Christians and biblical creationists in Western countries are subtle and insidious. Credit: Unsplash / Fred Kearney Poisoning the Well Atheists and anti-creationists try to silence Christians and biblical creationists by demonizing us. After all, if you poison the well against individuals and organizations enough, who will want to listen to what we have to say — I mean, aside from bigots who seek confirmation for their biases? You will hea

Jesus and the Mustard Seed

Among the many parables that Jesus told, one was about the mustard seed. He said that it was the "smallest" seed in Matthew 13:32, which atheists and anti-creationists attack by saying that there are other seeds which are smaller, which means to them that Jesus did not know what he was talking about. Credit: FreeDigitalPhotos.net / jk1991 We expect atheists to find excuses to claim that Jesus is not God, but it is disheartening when owlhoots who claim to be Christian will also claim that he was mistaken in an effort to justify theistic evolution . No, he is the Creator, and knows what he is doing (Col. 1:16, John 1-1-3). As is the case in many instances of confusion and alleged Bible contradictions, context is vitally important. Here, we can look at not only the immediate context, but the greater context. Jesus was not giving a botany lesson, pilgrim. The parable was an illustration about the kingdom of Heaven. He would have used figures of speech. In fact, I referre

The Big Bang and the Bible

There are Christians who believe the Bible, but they are not too keen on digging deeper. This is very unfortunate because it contains words of life and doctrine so we can avoid being led astray. Certain areas of discussion do not interest everyone, which is to be expected. However, questions of origins and the age of the universe are far more important than they think. Background image from Freeimages / Flavio Takemoto with a cross from Clker clipart We have examined how theistic evolution is in opposition to biblical creation and sound doctrine, but some folks are willing to accept what "science says" about the age of the earth and the origin of the universe. I saw one post from a Christian who said that "science caught up with the Bible" with cosmic evolution from the Big Bang. That'll be the day! For one thing, the Big Bang is constantly changing when rescuing devices are added when its flaws are found.  Further, the Bible has always been right

No Gospel in the Stars

There are people who believe that the constellations contain the gospel message, and it was there before the Bible was completed. Then, it became unnecessary. This is according to a woman named Frances Rolleston, whose work was published in 1865 and influenced many people. Unfortunately, he work was full of serious errors. Map of the Northern Sky with representations of the constellations / Albrecht Durer, 1515 Her books was published posthumously as a collection of notes. (I wonder if some of those were notes to herself to conduct further research, but when I do that I usually have a "look up" or "check on" phrase.) The concept of the gospel in the stars relies on spurious research and taking verses out of context. Like atheists and evolutionists, Rolleston seemed to use the scientific principle of Making Things Up™. She also took verses out of context to make this presentation. Sincere people and even good pastors have believed this false story. While it

Recent Creation and the Gospel Message

It is a sad fact that many professing Christians do not have a solid understanding of what the Bible teaches. This tempts them to abandon good teaching so they can ride the Owlhoot Trail of false doctrines. Related to this is the opinion that origins and recent creation are irrelevant. While they are not essentials for salvation, recent creation and origins are extremely important to the gospel message. Image source: RGBStock/ rizeli53 Atheists, old earth proponents, theistic evolutionists, compromisers, and other enemies of the Word of God exploit this ignorance. They come along with sciencey pronouncements and Scripture twisting, plus a heapin' helpin' of hostility and ridicule toward those of us who believe that God means what he says (including name-calling and labels such as " YECism "). People are timorous when it comes to standing for biblical truth, and when you mix in ignorance with intimidation, folks put the blinders on and join the crowd. Incident

When Professing Christians Attack Other Christians

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen Edited 3-09-2019 As Christians, we have to stand up for the faith against Satan's schemes and false arguments against God's Word (Jude 1:3). We have a great deal to do in accurately presenting the truth to unbelievers, pulling down fortresses raised up against the knowledge of God (2 Cor. 10:3-5), refuting old earth and evolutionary falsehoods, and more. We don't need to be commencing cat fights with each other. Credit: Pixabay/ maturika This has gone back practically to the beginning, where believers seemed to want to be better than others (1 Cor. 1:12-23, Luke 9:46). The Bible has a passel of things to say about pride, old son. I think that pride is one reason folks are swapping lead in the internet style, shooting at people who do not do things or believe the way other people think they should. Don't be disunderstanding me. When people are publicly teaching false doctrine, they need to be called out. What bothers me is when these hiss