He Never Did Claim That

 

Certain Bible scholars have resurrected the question again about whether there is any merit in Jesus" claim to be God. The ironic thing here is that after their years of study none of these persons have detected one simple thing in the Gospel and other Bible accounts about Jesus – and that is that he never ever claimed to be God. He said very clearly that his Father was greater than he was. That he came to do the will of his father. This his food was to do the will of his father etc. etc. Not once did he claim to be this same person.

Read the Gospel accounts as well as other parts of the Christian Greek Scriptures or the New Testament with an open mind (no preconceived ideas) and you will see this clearly.

This idea of him and God being the same person was something early apostates, after the death of the Apostles , incorporated into their teachings from the religions of the Middle East and the rest of the world the world in an effort to attract people from other religions to the Christian faith.

Simple, Nourishing Foods of Jesus' Day

The Jews of Jesus' day were early leaders in the production of wholesome organic foods with a selection of nourishing breads, grains vegetables, fruits, fish and meat used to create nourishing meals from breakfast to dinner as well as for special feasts.

Grains such as wheat, barley, oats, spelt and millet were grown by Jewish farmers in Jesus' day and formed a major part of the first century Jewish diet with each person consuming nearly 200 kilograms of cereals each year. This provided them with about half of their caloric intake. A good part of these grains or cereals were in the form of bread.

Like today different types of bread could be bought in the market but in most cases Jewish women made their own bread in stone ovens after spending up to three hours or more grinding wheat or other grains into flour. And bread formed only part of the meal.

The breakfast meals, especially for people living near coast also included fresh fish, bread, nuts, raisins and olives. This is likely the type of breakfast Jesus offered some of his disciples after they had spent an entire night fishing without much luck. Remember how Jesus called out to them on this occasion described in John 21: 9-13: "Come, take your breakfast."

Like many of us the midday meal or lunch was often light. According to the book, Life in Biblical Israel the Jewish often prepared a meal from bread, some type of grain, as well as olives and figs.

The evening meal varied widely depending on the wealth of the individual or family. According to Poverty and Charity in Roman Palestine, First Three Centuries C.E. most persons ate a very simple meal. "Most people ate bread or porridges made of barley, various cereals and legumes or sometimes wheat. They supplemented them usually with salt and oil or olives, occasionally a strong sauce or honey, or sweet fruit juices.

But, depending on the family and part of the country a wide variety of foods could form a part of the menu with milk, cheeses and 30 different types of vegetables such as onions, garlic, radishes, carrots, cabbage to name a few. And many of the Jewish people also a choice of some 30 different types of fruits such as figs, dates, and pomegranates growing in the area. And those living near the sea could also catch and prepare fish as part of their menu while more wealthy persons also included some type of meat and wine (a very popular beverage in ancient Israel) as part of the evening meal made even more flavourful with a dash of herbs such as dill, cumin, and mustard finished off with a desert "of roasted wheat prepared with almonds, honey, and spices."

 

 

 

 

God's Qualities Can Be Clearly Seen

 

The Apostle Paul's words partially quoted here from Romans 1:20: where Paul said, "For his invisible [qualities] are clearly seen from the world's creation onward."

What he meant is evident in the design of creatures around us. Consider the humpback whale for instance. This 30 ton 40 foot long animal is more agile than most human swimmers being able to turn in seemingly impossibly tight circles even when the whale is climbing at steep angles.

The secret is in the leading edge of its flippers. They are not smooth like the leading edge of an airplane wing as you might imagine but faced with protruding bumps or tubercles which cause the water to accelerate over the flipper in an organized, rotating flow. This reduces drag and increases lift – much better than any airplane wing

So much more efficiently, actually, that biomechanics experts such as John Long believe that before too long we could see every jetliner wing designed with similar protruding bumps on the leading edges. Such wings would definitely need fewer flaps and other moving parts, need less maintenance and make the airliner much safer to fly in and is a perfect example of God's design intelligence.

Another example of this is the seagull's wing which aircraft designers have been to mimic in prototype drones which have the seagull's ability to hover, dive and climb rapidly according to an article in New Scientist magazine.

Military aircraft designers are keen on designing and building such small aircraft, which can hover and dive between tall buildings to help search for chemical or biological threats in big cities such as New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles throughout the world.

All of this so far is but a quick look at what Paul was talking about in the introduction to his Bible book of Romans, but it does help to illustrate what he meant – the proof all around us in the world of nature of a super intelligent and creative God.

 

 

 

 

 

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The Words of Three More Bible Writers Vindicated

Many sceptics question the accuracy of the Bible, claiming things like it is nothing but an anthology of mythical events and characters, but archaeologists are proving them wrong.
Take, for instance, the accounts of the destruction of the two Egyptian cities of Memphis and Thebes. Both of these cities were once famous cities of ancient Egypt. Memphis on the West side of the Nile River was about 14 miles to the South of Cairo. From here the ancient Pharaohs rule Egypt until about the Third Century B.C.E. when they moved their capital 300 miles farther South to the city of No or Thebes the site of the largest structure ever built with columns – a temple dedicated to their chief god: Anon.
Both Ezekiel (Ezekiel 30: 14,15) and Jeremiah ( Jeremiah 46: 25, 26) predicted the complete destruction of these cities along with their inhabitants. And that is exactly what happened.
If you were to travel to the old location of Thebes all you would find would be the modern town of Luxor built over part of the ruins of the ancient city. And, according to Bible scholar Louis Golding all that remains of ancient Memphis are stones protruding above the black soil for mile on mile.

Then there is the matter of one Belshazzar who Daniel said was the King of Babylon at the time that Cyrus the Great destroyed it. For centuries Belshazzar was never heard about outside the pages of the Bible so sceptics claimed that he never existed, that he was just the figment of Daniel's imagination.
But sometime in the Nineteenth Century somebody discovered cuneiform cylinders mentioning one Belshazzar, the oldest son of King Nabonidus – the recognized King of Babylon at the time of its fall at the hands of Cyrus and the Medes and Persians. So Belshazzar did exist after all.
And not only did he exist as the Bible says – but archaeologists also found other tablets with cuneiform text that proved that Nabonidus had entrusted the kingdom to this son, Belshazzar, some time before Cyrus attacked and destroyed the city.
He was the number two ruler of Babylon definitely – under his father, Nabonidus – but he was the King of Babylon – at the time of its destruction.

Amazing Accuracy After Thousands of Years

The accuracy of both the Hebrew Scriptures ( the Old Testament to many) as well as the Christian Greek Scriptures ( the New Testament in some Bibles) has been preserved through the efforts of skilled professional and amateur copyists over the centuries since their original inspire writing by Moses and other writers.

It is true that the original papyrus and parchments copies disintegrated centuries ago but accurate copies of the original text have being preserved through the efforts of the ancient copyists who went to extraordinary lengths to ensure the accuracy of their copy work. They checked their copies word for word against first the original text written by Moses and other inspired writers and then carefully reproduced copies over the following centuries.

The Sopherim were the first professional copyists who reproduced high- quality copies of the Hebrew Scriptures for public and private worship. Tthey were especially active during and after the Jewish captivity in Babylon during the Sixth and Fifth centuries (B.C.E.) Before our Common Era.

Between the Seventh and Tenth centuries of our Common Era (C.E.) the Masoretes took over this task. These too were dedicated professional scribes who worked only from properly authenticated copies of the Hebrew Scriptures. They copied nothing from memory and like their predecessors, the Sopherim, checked each letter before copying it.

According to Professor Norman K. Gotwald in his book A Light to the Nations these scribes meticulously proofread each copy and discarded flawed ones.

Yes some mistakes did creep in but the differences in wording between the original writers and the copyists" is really insignificant. The discovery and checking of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947 proved that. And the editors of the Books of The Old Testament confirms this assuring us that, "that we need have no serious doubt...as to the validity of the message that the Old Testament has to give us."

Christian Greek Scriptures Just As Accurate

It is true that the copyists of the Christian Greek Scriptures or New Testament were gifted amateurs rather than professionals like the Sopherim and Masoretic scribes, but they were just as dedicated and when their work is compared with earlier copies of the Christian Greek Scriptures it is vindicated.

In the opinion of researchers like archaeologist Sir Frederic Kenyon our copies of the Christian Greek Scriptures today are authentic copies with no disagreement in meaning between our copies and the originals of Mathew and other inspired Christian writers

So erase any worries you have about the authenticity of what you are reading despite what some critics might claim in their efforts to gain their 15 minutes of fame.

 

 

 

 

Creative Days Dispute Resolved

There is no real dispute between the Bible and scientists when speaking about the age of the earth and the creation account – only between science and so-called creationists and Christian Fundamentalists who claim that the universe and earth were created in literal 24-hour days.

There is nothing in the Bible to support such an idea. It belongs in some cartoon panel along with the idea that Noah's Ark was a cute little double-bowed vessel with a little cabin on top.

To start with , look carefully at the Biblical account in Genesis 1: 1. It is clear that the universe, including the sun, moon, and our earth where created at some indefinite time before the start of the creative days described in the first chapter of Genesis. Scientists claim that the universe, including the earth are not some six-thousand or years old as Creationists claim, but billions of year old and that is very realistic.

It is not just realistic from a scientific point of view but also from the Bible's perspective both because obviously some time lapsed between the original creation of the Universe and the final preparation of the earth for life on it and also because the creative days described by Moses do not have to be a literal 24-hour period of Creationists claim; they could comprise a much longer period as shown by the Bible's use of the term day to refer to period of up to a thousand year and indefinite periods of time. Moses description of all of the creative days together making up one day at Genesis 2:4 is good example of this.

Some persons might object to this reasoning claiming that most of the time the Bible speaks of a day it means one literal 24-hour day. And this is true. But it does not always do this.

Moreover while the Bible speaks of the start of the Seventh Day it says that this day started immediately at the conclusion of the Sixth Day – but nowhere in the Bible does it says that this day ended – so it is still going on –well over 6,000 years since its beginning.

So it becomes clear from the facts that there was obviously two stages (mentioned) to the creation of the universe and our earth, and the final six creative days were not a literal 24 hour period that there is not conflict between science and the Bible about the creation of our Earth.

Ancient City of Nineveh Builds Bible Credibility

 

The ancient peoples of the Middle city of Nineveh would one day become nothing more than a memory. It was an awesome city -- a 200 square mile metropolis surrounded by formidable walls that for 15 centuries made it impregnable.

But during the height of its power Zephaniah made a prophecy that it would become a desolate waste – on which nothing but droves of sheep would find pasturage.

This seemed a ridiculous prediction – even by Nineveh's enemies. None of them ever thought anybody would be able to breach the city's 100 foot stone walls which had 20 story towers in each of its corners so invading armies could be tracked by the city's defenders while they were still miles away.
And even when they did reach the city its defenders could easily drive t hem away by firing down on them from the towering walls and towers. But another prophet, Nahum, predicted that much of these walls would be destroyed by rising
flood waters.

And this is exactly happened 20 years later. A flood washed out large sections of the walls in 632 B.C.E. and Babylonian and Median soldiers raced through the washed out sections and razed the city – in fulfilment of Zephaniah's prophecy as well.

This destruction was so great that even its ruins disappeared over the centuries. Nobody knew exactly where the site of ancient Nineveh was until modern archaeologists discovered it buried under 40 feet of debris and earth – on top of which shepherds were grazing their sheep – in fulfilment of Zephaniah's prophecy.

 

 

 

Did Jesus Die On A Cross?

 

At this time of year when many persons in the Christian world are thinking about Easter and the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ we are going to see numerous portrayals of Jesus hanging on a cross in the print, broadcast, and on-line media.

The cross according to some writers has almost become more important in the minds of some of "the faithful" than Jesus himself according to some researchers. The Catholic archaeologist Adolphe Napolean Didron says that this cross he is portrayed as dying on has, in some cases, received more veneration than Jesus himself. "This sacred wood is adored almost equally with God himself," he claims.

But did Jesus really die on a cross? According to the Bible writers Mathew, Mark, Luke, and John the Romans put Jesus to death on a stau-ros or single upright stake -- not a two-piece cross. Moreover J.D. Parsons, the author of The Non-Christian Cross wrote that there is no support in the Christian Greek Scriptures or New Testament for the idea that Jesus died on a cross, but other Bible writers do support the words of the Gospel writers. At Acts 5:30, for instance, the Apostle Paul wrote that Jesus was put to death on a stake. This was a common Roman practice at the time –executing criminals others the Romans considered to be terrorists or insurgents – on stakes – not crosses.

It wasn't until some 30 years after the death of Jesus that Christians sliding away to Babylonian ideas and apostasy introduced the idea of the two-piece cross into the Christian congregation.

Long before the time of the Jesus Christ and the Romans the ancient Babylonians used this two-piece cross in their worship of the fertility goddess Tammuz. From them this use of the cross spread like a plague in the ancient world.

Many nations in the early Middle-Eastern world were influenced by the culture and religious practices of the Babylonians and gradually the use of this cross was accepted into the rituals of the ancient Egyptians, Indians, Chinese, Syrians – and the Israelites who time and gain forgot God's hatred for image worship or the use of images in supposed worship of him.

Some persons claimed that whether or not Jesus died on a stake or cross is moot or unimportant, but that is not true. Scriptures like Ezekiel 8: 13, 14 make it very clear that such things are not acceptable to God. It is something that he warned the Israelites about on numerous occasions. And using images in their worship cost them dearly when he allowed pagan nations surrounding them to overrun them because of this disobedience. It is a pagan concept used by pagan religions that were disgusting to God.

Legend Makers or Factual Reporters?

 

With Easter on the horizon with its focus on the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ the authenticity of the Gospel accounts will undoubtedly come in for another round of scrutiny – similar to what happened after the release of The Passions of Christ.

Some experts in the past, such as Robert Funk, have gone so far as to claim the accounts about Jesus' life in the Gospels by Mathew, Mark, Luke, and John are nothing more than thinly disguised attempts by early Christians to promote the New Christian religion by making Jesus fit the mould of the promised Messiah.

Funk, the founder of the Jesus Seminar, claimed that the Gospels are really nothing more than a marketing ploy of early Christian propagandists anxious to make the promised Messiah conform to Christian doctrines which evolved after Jesus' death. To him the Gospel writers were nothing more than legend makers.

But are they really nothing more than legend makers? A careful check reveals that such inventiveness alleged by Funk did not appear until well into the Second Century C.E.

At that time fictitious ideas did start to creep into the teachings of some of the Christians communities which had become isolated from the governing body in Jerusalem. Apostasy, featuring unscriptural narratives about Christ did begin to infect the minds of many. But this was long after all of the New Testament was completed and the Gospel writers as well as the original apostles and disciples of Jesus were all dead.

So their ideas did not contaminate the Gospel accounts of Jesus" life, ministry and death on a stake, as shown by the comments of other historians such as C. S. Lewis, H. G. Wells, and E. M. Blaiklock . Lewis, for instance, said, that he found it difficult to believe that the Gospels are legends because of a lack of artistry in the accounts. Moreover he said that "....Most of the life of Jesus is unknown to us and people building up a legend would not allow that to be so."

Wells and Blailock were even more vocal in their defence of the Gospel writers. Wells said: "All four [Gospel writers] agree in giving us a picture of a very definite personality; they carry the conviction of reality." And Blaiklock, a professor of classics at Auckland University in Australia explained: " I claim to be an historian. My approach to the classics is historical. And I tell you that the evidence for the life, the death, and the resurrection of Christ is better authenticated than most of the facts of ancient history."

And yet another historian, Will Durant, the author of Caesar and Christ said: "After two centuries of Higher Criticism the outlines of the life, character, and teaching of Christ, remain reasonably clear, and constitute the most fascinating feature in the history of Western man."

 

 

A Truly Unique Book

 

There is no other book like it – both in its printing and the influence it has had on mankind down through the centuries..

Back in 1975 according to the Guinness Book of World Records some 2,500,000,000 copies of it had been printed and published world-wide just between 1815 and 1975. By now the number of copies must be soaring well over the three billion mark.

 

Since The Apostle John wrote its last book during the latter part of the First Century B.C.E., although it has had many enemies from secular as well as religious leaders who have sought to destroy or discredit it, it has still had a powerful influence on human thinking and laws like no other publication in the Western and many other parts of the world. The Germany poet Heinrich Heine, for instance, said that he owed his enlightenment to it. Anti-slavery activist, William Seward claimed that human progress depended on people following its advice, and the British jurist Sir William Blackstone said that no law of man should ever contradict it. This book of course is the Bible.

And all of this still holds true today. It is still the most widely distributed Book in the world and its advice is just as valid today as it was back in 98 B.C.E. when John wrote its last chapter.

It is a manual for successful daily living – preserved down through the ages since Moses started writing it down to the present day.

Babylonian King Proves Bible Accuracy

 

An ancient Babylonian King that some sceptics claimed never existed has emerged to prove the accuracy of the Biblical account. This is King Belshazzar.



For a long time these sceptics claimed that he was just another example of mythical characters in the Bible – another story made up by early Biblical fictions writers such as Daniel -- but some clay cylinders have proven his historical account to be accurate.



These cylinders discovered in the early nineteenth century referred to one Belshazzar, the son of Nabonidus , the known king of Babylon at the time that Cyrus the Great and his army of Medes and Persians sacked the city as described in the Biblical account. So Belshazzar did exist as Daniel wrote.



Not only did he exist, but other tablets discovered that at the time that Babylon fell to Cyrus the Great Belshazzar's father had entrusted the day to day governing of the kingdom to him as a sub-king. He was the number two ruler under his father at the time – but he was still the king of Babylon as described in the Bible as his father was living in semi-retirement outside of Babylon at the time.



So once again science has illustrated the accuracy of the Biblical record

Where is Noah's Ark?

 

Has anybody ever really found the famous ark which carried Noah and his family as well as a selection of animals and other creatures safely through The Flood which wiped out the rest of land creatures that inhabited our planet until 2370 BCE?

 
Over the centuries since then there have been occasional reports of persons having seen it –usually entombed in icy somewhere high up on the side of Mount Arrarat. Such as the adventurers who related to the historian Josephus how they had come across the vessel locked into the ice high up in the mountain. In addition to that some other searchers have produced aerial photos that seemed to show the outline of an Ark shaped vessel in the ice at a high altitude on the side of the mountain and still others have come back with pieces of wood they insisted came from the Ark. And one Armenian explorer, George Hagopian claimed that he had actually climbed over the Ark in the early 1900's.

 
He died, however back in 1972, however, without ever taking anybody back to the Ark and the search continues periodically down to this day, but such a search might all be in vain. If the Ark had really landed somewhere near the top of the mountain then it is possible that is still lies encased in ice somewhere near the peak waiting to be discovered – but did it really land in that area?

 
The Biblical account of the flood seems to rule this out, putting in doubt claims that explorers had actually seen, photographed, and even climbed on the deck on the Ark centuries later.The Bible says that the Ark touched ground in the Mountains of Ararat – not necessarily at or near the top. And it is not likely that God would have navigated to such an area. If he had how would Noah's family and many of the animals been able to disembark. Mount Arrarat is not a rounded mountain but has a very rock, rugged peak. It is far more likely that the Ark's grounding point was actually well below freezing temperatures and the ice field which could have preserved it and disintegrated thousands of years before the time of Josephus and the explorers he quotes.
So, while you are likely to continue reading of the occasional effort to find the Ark or yet another claim that some explorers photographed or climbed over the remains of the Ark you should be more than a little sceptical. The Ark definitely did exist – not as the cute, double-bowed vessel pictured by many artists, but as a huge rectangular box-like vessel. But it is not likely that we are ever going to find it.

Did Jesus Die On A Cross?

Before too long many persons in the Christian world will be thinking about Easter and the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ and his death on a cross. This cross plays a huge role in the lives of Catholics and others around the world.

Asccording to Catholic archaeologist-writer Adolphe Napoleon Didron this cross has received just as much – and in some cases more veneration than Jesus Christ himself. Didron says, " This sacred wood is adored almost equally with God himself."

But did he really die on a cross? And if not where did this idea come from? It did not come from the Bible. Bible writers Mathew, Mark, Luke, and John say that Jesus was put to death on a stake or stau-ros
Not a two-piece cross. And years later the Apostle Paul wrote at Acts 5:30 that Jesus was put to death on a tree -- not a stake.

Secular writers and artists agree with this. In his book The Non-Christian Cross J.D. Parsons wrote, "There is no place in the Christian Greek Scriptures or New Testament that supports the idea that Jesus died on a cross." And ancient illustrations show the Romans executing people on trees – not stakes.


It was not until some 300 years after the death of Jesus that the idea that he was impaled on a cross was introduced into Christian beliefs by those who were influenced by ancient Babylonian worship of the fertility goddess Tammuz which involved the use of the cross.

Some persons that it is not important whether Jesus is depicting as dying on a cross or a stake but this is definitely not true. The use of this cross was something that God condemned in his commands to the Israelites at Ezekiel 8: 13,14.


 

The Bible's Powerful Influence

One of the things that prompted me to look into the Bible world through the eyes of scientists, secular historians and others is the Bible's influence on people throughout the world as illustrated by a huge ice sculpture exhibition held in Lufbeck, Germany back in 2006 which had a dramatic Biblical theme illustrated by events and characters from both the Old and New Testaments (the Hebrew and Christian Greek Scriptures) of the Bible.

 
These included the various stages of earthly creation, Adam and Eve succumbing to temptation from the Serpent, and Noah watching a hippopotamus trying to push its mate through the narrow entrance to the Ark while a small mouse scampers between their feet into the safety of the Ark.

 
One sculptor or sculptors also created a replica of Moses holding onto the famous stone tablets. However this time the tablets contained not the Ten Commandments Moses brought down from the mountain but the Hebrew renditions of God's personal name: Yahweh or Jehovah as it is pronounced in English.
Other Bible scenes included David first defeating the Philistine giant Goliath with his slingshot and his seduction by Bathsheba as he secretly watches her bathing, as well as other Bible characters such as Jacob, Esau, and Joseph and the Egyptian Pharaoh – and of course the portrayal of Jesus' birth and the Last Supper.
Jana Kurbis and his artistic team created all of this from 350 tons of crystal clear ice blocks measuring 2 metres by 1 metre by 0.6 metres that they imported from Belgium. They transformed these blocks into the Biblical characters with chainsaws, chisels, toothbrushes, and other tools.

 
Whether they did all of this merely as an artistic exercise or whether they were inspired by their belief in the Bible I don't know for sure, but it was likely a combination of both because many persons in the world do still believe in the Bible as you will see if you continue with me through this blog of Bible Science Investigation.

 

 

 

 

Not All Scientists Claim Belief in God and the Bible is Nonsense

Not. many scientists, something like 40 percent believe in God -- men such such mathematician Andrew McIntosh, a Welsh scientist. He says: " As a scientist  I look at the world around me and observe  engineering mechanisms of such remarkable complexity that I am drawn to the  conclusion of intelligent design being behind such complex order."


Another scientist,  Canadian biochemist John G. Kramer have made similar comments. He said: " The complexity of nature clearly points to a Creator. Every biological and physical system, once understood, shows incredible complexity."


The views of these two scientists are supported by many of their peers -- men such as Jean Dorst, a biologist from France;  Bob Hosken, an Australian biochemist; Andrey Dimitriyevitch Sakharov, a Russian nuclear physicist;  All of them see the hand of a Creator in the wonders and complexities of the universe around them.


Who is right?  To find out I am going to take a trip, as it were, through the Bible to  take a close look at the Bible through through the eyes of some of these scientists as well to take a look at the Bible world,  including Bible writers, Bible characters and the world they lived in.  Want to come along?

Science Has Not Destroyed Bible Credibility

Although the Bible has surpassed any other publication in its durability and number of copies printed as well as in the number of languages it is printed in and has probably had a greater influence on the thinking of people throughout history than any other book, 


Many scientists and others also attack it is a quaint collection of myths and allegories and ideas of men. But are their allegations true? What do the facts really prove about the Bible?


To start with, what of the allegation that modern science has destroyed the credibility of the Bible's historical record of creation and the early history of man and its claim of divine inspiration? Is that really so?


Professor of nuclear physics, Gerald Schroeder in the publication The Science of God – the Convergence of Scientific and Biblical Wisdom
said: "The entire development of animal life is summarized in eight biblical sentences....It is modern science that has come to match the biblical account of our genesis."


Because of this and other accounts I have discovered proving that not all scientists follow the "party line" of there being no God and man got here through some mindless evolutionary development I have decided to take a trip through the Bible considering evidence about its history, its writers, and their accuracy as well as other Bible characters and the peoples and lands of the Bible through the eyes of scientists and historians. 


Why not come along with me?