Josh McDowell's Blog, page 33

Did Moses Author the Pentateuch?

The Pentateuch, the first five books of the Old Testament, is a core text for three world religions and the foundation  of the Christian Bible and the Jewish Scriptures.

So it matters that the texts be viewed with authority. It is through these books, long believed to have been revealed by God and recorded by Moses, that we learn the origins of humanity, as well as man’s purpose and destiny. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy give us an overview of God’s plan of redemption. And these five historical books provide thr foundation for everything else that follows in Scripture.

Though modern skeptics challenge that Moses wrote the books (some even doubt he existed), there is plenty of evidence throughout the Bible, as well as external texts, to give us confidence that he did. Old Testament and New Testament references clearly and consistently testify to Mosaic authorship, authority, and influence.

~ Moses a Reliable Source? ~

The books certainly do not herald Moses‘ future as prophet, priest, and leader. Rather, the picture we are given is Moses as an anti-hero — a murderer and outlaw who, as he spoke with God at the burning bush, requested THIRTEEN times that God find someone else to lead the Israelites to freedom!

Who would invent such a hero as the founder of a nation? God — who always knows what He’s doing when he picks a person to achieve His plans.

Moses quickly grew into a strong, yet humble leader who kept the spotlight on God. As both an Israelite and former member of Pharaoh’s household, Moses had an insider’s knowledge and understanding of the Egyptian court. This was but one tool God gave Moses for his interactions with Pharaoh. Imagine that ultimate showdown: one man who believed he was a god (Pharaoh) being shown by God that He, alone, holds the title.

~ Biblical Evidence for Moses’ Authorship ~

Technically, the Pentateuch, also known in Hebrew as the Torah, is anonymous. But it specifically records God commanding Moses to preserve received revelation. There are both Old and New Testament references to Moses that validate that Moses did write them. Even Jesus and His disciples acknowledged a significant connection between Moses and the Torah, and Jesus frequently referred to these books as being Moses’ teachings.

Examples of the Old Testament references to Moses:

Exodus 17:14: Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write this as a memorial in a book and recite it in the ears of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.”

Exodus 24:4: And Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord.

Exodus 34:27: And the Lord said to Moses, “Write these words, for in accordance wit these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.”

Numbers 33:2: Moses wrote down their starting places, stage by stage, by command of the Lord, and these are their stages according to their starting places.

Deuteronomy 31:24-26: When Moses had finished writing the words of this law in a book to the very end, Moses commanded the Levites who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, “Take this Book of the Law and put it by the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, that it may be there for a witness against you.”

Examples of testimony to Moses’ role in lawgiving woven throughout the Old Testament:

Joshua 1:7,8 and 23:6: “Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do all that is written in it.”

1 Kings 2:3: (King David, on his deathbed, giving final instructions to his son, Solomon): “Keep the charge of the Lord your God, walking in His ways and keeping His statutes, His commandments, His rules, and His testimonies, as it is written in the Law of Moses, that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn.”

2 Chronicles 17:9: “And they taught in Judah, having the Book of the Law of the Lord with them. They went about through all the cities of Judah and taught among the people.”

2 Chronicles 23:18: “And Jehoiada posted watchmen for the house of the Lord under the direction of the Levitical priests and the Levites whom David has organized to be in charge of the house of the Lord, to offer burnt offerings to the Lord, as it is written in the Law of Moses, with rejoicing and with singing, according to the order of David.”

Daniel 9:11,13: “All Israel has transgressed your law and turned aside…And the curse and oath that are written in the Law of Moses the servant of God have been poured out upon us, because we have sinned against Him. … As it is written in the Law of Moses, all this calamity has come upon us.”

Malachi 4:4: “Remember the law of my servant Moses, the statutes and rules that I commanded Him at Horeb for all Israel.”

Examples of New Testament References to the Law of Moses:

The New Testament also speaks of Moses’ significant involvement in the Pentateuch’s composition. Jesus often quoted Scripture traditionally attributed to Moses. In John 5:46, Jesus states, “For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote of Me.” And in Mark 12:26, Jesus says, “And as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passages about the bush, how God spoke to him, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’?” After His resurrection, Jesus gave additional authority to these books when He taught the two who walked with Him to Emmaus how the writings pointed to and were fulfilled in Him.

The disciple Peter spoke of Moses’ Authority in Acts 3:22: Moses said, “The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. You shall listen to him in whatever he tells you.”

James spoke of Moses’ influence in Acts 15:21: “For from ancient generations Moses has had in every city those who proclaim him, for he is read every Sabbath in the synagogues.”

The Sadducees also spoke of Moses’ Authorship in Mark 12:19: “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife, but leaves no child, the man must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother.”

Granted, none of this proves Moses was involved in writing the Pentateuch. But simply put, creation, human history, and the patriarchal period cannot be properly understood if not viewed in the life and work of Moses. Much of the Pentateuch, in fact, reads as Moses’ biography or perhaps autobiography.

~ Trusting the Reliability of the Bible ~

Until the 18th century AD, Moses’ authorship of the Pentateuch was largely unchallenged. But that’s not to say that anomalies did not go unnoticed. For example, could Moses have described his own death in Deuteronomy 34? While it’s possible that Moses received and recorded this by prophesy prior to his death, most scholars view this information to be an addendum by a later editor.

Moses may or may not be the single author of the Pentateuch. But he is decidedly the authority from which the Pentateuch emanated. The meaning, theology, and even history portrayed adequately reflect what Moses did say, pray, or sing. There is no reason to doubt Moses’ authorship of the oral tradition or some of the written records. But it is both possible and expected that revisions and updating occurred throughout its history right up until completion of the final version.

Still, some modern skeptics simply refuse to accept Moses’ role in the Pentateuch, due to lack of definitive evidence. Many have put forth numerous alternate theories about authorship that are quite convoluted. We have to remember that skeptics come with biases. Some deny the validity of the Old Testament. Others discount the supernatural accounts of God’s interventions reported in the Bible. Others bring personal beliefs to their interpretations. It is understandable that these factors shape how each scholar views and interprets the text.

But as the Skeptics Dictionary notes: “We know from experience that more often than not the theory that requires more complicated machinations is wrong.” In other words, the simpler the theory is, the more likely it is to be correct.

The model that remains the simplest explanation for the Pentateuch’s composition is the traditional Jewish and Christian model: Moses as the original author used some sources, and later editor(s) updated the text to ensure it was understandable to contemporary readers. Given the Bible’s track record of accuracy and reliability, should it not get the benefit of the doubt?

 

 

This blog post highlights Josh and Sean McDowell’s recently revised apologetics classic, Evidence That Demands a Verdict. We are certain this fully updated and expanded resource will be an effective evangelism tool for you, and strengthen your faith by answering the toughest questions tossed to you by skeptics. Know what you know, because it’s true. But share this truth with LOVE!

If you’d like to start from the first blog post in this series, click here: Apologetics: Apologizing for Believing in God?.

 

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There’s no God? How boring!

 

Original post by Sean McDowell here. Used with permission.

 

There’s No God? How Boring!

SeanMcDowell.org

Recently I showed my high school students the movie Expelled by Ben Stein, where he claims that intelligent design proponents have lost jobs, lost tenure and had their reputations smeared.

One of the memorable scenes of the movie featured William Provine, Cornell University Professor and outspoken atheist, articulating the implications of Darwinism. If Darwinism is true, says Provine, then there is no God, life after death, purpose, objective morality, or free will. According to Provine, they are all illusions fostered on us by our genes and environment.

Provine also criticizes intelligent design for being boring: “Can you imagine anything more boring? The boredom attached to ID is supreme. It is so boring that I can’t even be bothered to think about it for a second. It’s just utterly boring.”

He said this with utter contempt for the claims of intelligent design and for the implications that there may be a God.

The more I think about this quote the more I am convinced that Provine has it exactly backwards.

Intelligent design is not boring, atheism is!

I’m not saying that atheists are boring, for that would be an ad hominem fallacy. I have many atheist friends who are incredibly interesting people. In fact, some are far more thoughtful and engaging than many of my Christian friends. I am not criticizing atheists, but atheism. Atheists are often interesting people, not because of their philosophy, but in spite of it.

So why is atheism boring?

One problem with atheism is that humans are purely physical machines lacking free will (as Provine so clearly articulated). Thus, people are simply cogs in the materialistic universe dragged along by physical, social, and biological forces. Humans are simply puppets of nature acted upon by external forces in the environment rather than free beings that make meaningful decisions.

If naturalism is true and there is no free will, then there can be no real character development in life or in drama since people are helpless victims of their environment.

This is why film professor John Caughie says that naturalism is boring when applied to movies (Television Drama: Realism, Modernism, and British Culture, p. 96-97).

Why do we enjoy movies?

The simple answer is that we are drawn to characters that choose good over evil, hope over despair, and forgiveness over revenge. Yet if atheism is true, characters are driven entirely by the inexorable physical laws of nature—they don’t make any choices at all.

Thus, Luke didn’t really choose to battle Darth Vader and the Dark Side—his genes did it for him. Rocky didn’t really go against the odds to be the Heavyweight Champion of the World—the laws of physics did it for him. How boring!

An example of naturalism in drama is Anton Chekhov’s The Three Sisters. The primary desire of the three sisters is to escape small-town life and move to Moscow. The entirety of the play involves them talking about moving but never actually doing it. They simply cannot escape from social expectations and family customs. What a great depiction of naturalism. Naturalistic films provide no dramatic escape from the environment because people are trapped behind their environment.

These kinds of plays or films are frustrating, depressing, and anti-climactic. And yet they portray naturalism accurately. Again, how boring!

Ultimately, the deterministic worldview of atheism fails to capture life as we truly experience it. In her excellent book Saving Leonardo, Nancy Pearcey sums up the problem determinism poses for film:

“A deterministic worldview produces characters that are not true to life. In reality, people do make genuine decisions. Much of the drama of human life stems from wrestling with wrenching moral dilemmas. Though naturalism was an offshoot of realism, we could say its greatest flaw was that is was not realistic enough. We all experience the moment-by-moment reality of making choices. The experience of freedom is attested to in every human culture, in every era of history, and in every part of the globe” (p. 152).

A test for every worldview is if it can describe the world as we actually experience it. If a worldview fails to explain a universal human experience (such as free will) then it is inadequate.

Professor Provine may choose to deny the existence of free will, but since he is made in the image of God, his life will betray that conviction.

In Expelled he tells his story of rejecting Christianity because of the compelling evidence for Darwinism. Ironically, one of the reasons he tells this is because he’s trying to persuade people to follow the same course. Yet if people are determined then they can’t choose otherwise. In fact, people can’t choose anything! Provine didn’t really even choose to reject Christianity—his genes did it for him. As sincere as Provine may be, I doubt he really believes this.

Again, my critique is aimed not at atheists but at atheism. Provine strikes me as an eminently interesting person that I would enjoy getting to know.

Nevertheless, I just can’t think about it any longer. It’s simply too boring.

 

 

Sean McDowell, Ph.D. is a professor of Christian Apologetics at Biola University, best-selling author, popular speaker, part-time high school teacher, and the Resident Scholar for Summit Ministries, California. Follow him on Twitter: @sean_mcdowell and his blog: seanmcdowell.org.

 

 

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Student Blogs on “Blind Man’s Bluff”

Mrs. Clark’s 7th Grade Bible Class Discusses:

 

Blind Man’s Bluff: The Wrong Tomb Myth

The Resurrection of Jesus is the central point of the Christian faith. Those who do not believe in Christ often argue that the resurrection never happened. What if the women on Easter Sunday found the tomb empty, only because they stumbled on the wrong tomb?

Even if Jesus’ tomb hadn’t been surrounded by a Roman guard, would they really have forgotten the location so soon after they saw Him buried?

 

 

Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock.

He rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb and went away. 

Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting there opposite the tomb.

…

After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.

Matthew 27:59-61, 28:1

 

Study Sessions

Read Matthew 27:57-28:15.

What individuals or groups of people would have know the correct location of the tomb?

 

 

 

Many people will tell you that Jesus never really rose from the dead, the women simply went to the wrong tomb. However, this cannot be true.

When the women left to see the tomb on Sunday morning, it was not their first time. They were there two nights before. Don’t you think one of them would have noticed?

If they went to the wrong tomb, then do you think just any tomb would have angels around it?

Let’s suppose that the women did go to the wrong tomb. After they were there, they rushed to the disciples and they took Peter and John to the tomb. If they saw Jesus buried like described Matthew, don’t you think they could tell if it was the wrong tomb?

The tomb was also sealed by a Roman seal. Not every tomb has one of those. Even if they all went to some other tomb, then couldn’t the chief priests and the Romans go to the tomb, and show them they were wrong?

You see, Jesus’s tomb was well distinguished so nobody could be so careless as to mistake His for another.
Mitchell, age 12

 

 

Many people believed and some still believe today that the women who had reported the missing body in the tomb actually went to the wrong tomb, but that’s a myth.

They absolutely went to the right tomb and to think they went to the wrong one is just crazy.

Matthew 27:57-28:15 is filled with verses that list the many people who had known for a fact that they knew the exact and correct location of the tomb.

Also, in Matthew, Mark and Luke they all have recorded information about specifically the women who saw Jesus’ burial and who clearly would have known where the location of his tomb was.

In this chapter of Don’t Check Your Brains at the Door, it says that a girl, Elizabeth, questions Mary, her friend, about actually seeing the empty tomb. She questions her about the fact that it was empty and says maybe you just went to the wrong tomb, but Mary makes it very clear to her that she knows what tomb she went to and that it wasn’t the wrong one.

Izzy, age 13

 

 

 

In the Wrong Tomb Myth, people believe the women went to the wrong tomb because there was no body in that location.

They are correct about the fact that there was no physical body still in the tomb but incorrect about it being the wrong place.

The women were in the right place, but they couldn’t comprehend that Jesus died and rose again. That is exactly why He “wasn’t there.”

There were actually many people who knew the correct location of the tomb including Joseph of Arimathea, Mary Magdalene, the other Mary, the Roman guard, the angels, etc.

While at the empty tomb, the angels told those there not to be afraid because Jesus had risen from the dead just as He had said.

All of these people and more knew the place of the tomb Jesus had been in, so how could have they gone to the wrong tomb if many had known the very place he had been set to rest?
Camden, age 13

 

 

In chapter 16 we learn about The Wrong Tomb Myth. The wrong Tomb myth is pretty self explanatory in its title but this myth is about all the myths people have brought up saying that Jesus never really resurrected he just was put in the wrong tomb.

Obviously as Followers of Christ we know for a fact the he died AND resurrected for our sins, but some people think otherwise.

If Jesus was put into the wrong tomb then our sins would have not been paid for which would be a problem.

On Jesus burial day they put him in a tomb and sealed it shut with a big rock.

They also put guards out there to watch the tomb so no one would steal his body and say he resurrected, so the guards would have known where his tomb was and knew that he didn’t get put in the wrong tomb.

Another example would be that Jesus was wrapped in fine white linens and when they opened up his tomb they saw that the linens were neatly folded and that he in fact had resurrected.

Even though not everybody  believes this, we do and what matters is that we help the people who don’t believe and continue to thank God for all he has done.

Madyson, age 12

 

 

The wrong tomb myth states that maybe when they saw the empty tomb Jesus once laid dead was actually not his. This is wrong.

There was a number of over 9 people who knew where Jesus’s tomb was. And the priests were gonna make sure that they ordered guards to stand in front of the right tomb.

Jesus was the man who claimed to be the Messiah. It is so slim a chance that they would lose the Son of God.

But even if they had the angel that God sent down to the tomb would not have gotten lost!

So no matter how hard you try, you can only come to one conclusion.. Jesus’s tomb was really empty on that Easter Sunday.

Birdie, age 12

 

 

“Today the sincere seeker of truth can have complete confidence, as did the first Christians, that the Christian faith is based not on myth or legend but on the solid historical fact of the empty tomb and the risen Christ.”

(Don’t Check Your Brains at the Door, p. 78)

Know what you believe…and why you believe it.
Don’t Check Your Brains at the Door gives teens answers that make sense, even for the toughest of questions: 

Does it really matter what you believe, as long as you have faith?
Are there errors in the Bible?
Was Jesus just a good teacher?
Can anyone prove His resurrection?
What does that have to do with me?

Using clarity and humor Josh McDowell and co-author Bob Hostetler expose common myths about God, the Bible, religion, and life to show how Christianity stands up to the test of fact and reason.
With these solid evidences teens will be better understand the faith they live and know what they believe and why.
 VIEW DON’T CHECK YOUR BRAINS AT THE DOOR IN OUR ONLINE STORE.

 

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Was the Bible Exodus a Real Event?

Did the Israelites Flee Egypt for the Promised Land?

In our last blog post we looked at whether there is definitive proof that Adam and Eve existed as real people. In this blog post we’ll look at what proof exists for the mass Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt.

No doubt about it, the Exodus of the Israelites, an event the Bible describes in great detail, is one of the most important historical events for both the Jewish and Christian faiths. Why? Because this central experience of rescue for the helpless out of a desperate condition has been recognized as a key example of God’s love.

Too, it is an example of God asserting His supremacy. In each plague He sends, God repeats this message: “I alone am God.” And in each miracle He provides for the Israelites as they flee Pharaoh’s pursuit, God reminds them that “I am who I am!“

The Bible tells us that Pharaoh — considered a god — was just a man that God specifically placed on the throne for the big showdown with Moses. God, alone, can claim the title. Before He orchestrated the Israelite’s exit from Egypt, God brought 10 plagues that crushed the legitimacy of the numerous deities of the Egyptian people.

Let’s look at the Exodus details, and then at existing evidence for the event. Its symbolism alone makes the Exodus story invaluable.

~ The Exodus Story ~

It is in Exodus 3:7-8 that we see God speak after He decides to take action:

“I have surely seen the affliction of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey.” 

So God sends the 10 plagues, which the Egyptians dismiss until the pain finally cuts too close to the bone. Gnats didn’t move them. Flies didn’t move them. Neither did thick darkness. Not even the decimation of Egyptian crops and cattle motivated Pharaoh to agree to God’s demand to “Let my people go!” (Charlton Heston, time for your cameo!) #Moses 

Only at the last plague — in which every Egyptian firstborn dies — do the now shellshocked Egyptians finally beg the Israelites to get the heck out of Dodge. They even dump parting gifts of silver, gold, and clothing on the Israelites! (And we know what the Israelites did with that gold, right?) #calfidol

An interesting GotQuestions.org article sheds light on why God may have cherry-picked each plague. Examples: The second plague, of frogs from the Nile, was a judgment against Heqet, the frog-headed goddess of birth. Egyptians viewed frogs as sacred, and not to be killed. Yet God used the frogs to make a stench in the nostrils of the Egyptians, as they piled the dead, rotting frogs into heaps across the land (Exodus 8:13–14). The ninth plague, of thick darkness, was aimed at blasting the sun god, Ra, symbolized by Pharaoh himself. For three days, the land of Egypt was “smothered with an unearthly darkness, but the homes of the Israelites had light.” The tenth plague, the death of all firstborn males, was a smackdown on Isis, the supposed protector of children.

Finally, Pharaoh changed his tune from, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and moreover, I will not let Israel go!” to something like, “Crap! Leave! Now!”

It seems incredulous that almost immediately, however, he decides that freeing the Israelites was a really dumb move. Mighty Egypt depended on their manpower. So Pharaoh orders his army to open the throttles on their chariots and make haste to reclaim their slave labor. (Okay, I will cut him some slack; Pharaohs were quite used to getting their way and calling the shots.)

But I wonder if God yawned at the little effort it took Him to stall their progress as He used high winds to separate the Red Sea so the Israelites could walk (bug-eyed, no doubt!) between the watery walls. Only when the huge crowd had reached the waiting shore did God allow the Egyptian army to proceed — and then drowned them as He snapped the divided walls closed. (Even with really bad overacting by Heston and the rest of the Ten Commandments movie cast, the scene is impressive.)

The obvious symbolism: in the Old Testament we see God use Moses to lead the Israelites out of physical slavery. In the New Testament, we see God use His son to free the entire human race from spiritual slavery.

~ Archaeological Limits ~
Jews and Christians have, for centuries, embraced the Exodus story. Because the Bible has proven itself trustworthy as a book of truth and fact.

Only in the last 20 years or so have scholars decided the event isn’t historical, due to lack of evidence. But, says scholar Anthony Frendo:

“Israel must have somehow (at least partially) come from outside Canaan in view of the multiple texts in the Old Testament which point in this direction. Why should the Old Testament authors have made this up? Should we not try harder to understand our texts in connection with the results of good archaeology, rather than superficially to dismiss the former?”

It is true that outside of the Bible, there isn’t much evidence for the event. But that shouldn’t surprise us, asserts Alan Millard of the University of Liverpool, for several important reasons:

“Lacking any trace of Joseph, Moses, or Israelites in Egypt, many have concluded they were never there. Yet no pharaoh would boast of the loss of his labor force on a monument, and administrative records on papyrus, leather, or wooden tablets which might have registered such events would perish rapidly in the Delta’s damp soil. It is equally unlikely that a camping crowd would leave recognizable remains from a semi-nomadic life in the Sinai Wilderness and in Transjordan. The absence of evidence is not, therefore, evidence of absence!”

Old Testament scholar and Egyptologist James Hoffmeier confirms that Goshen, in the Nile Delta, is quite moist due to rain and annual flooding. If the Israelites had been in the dry Southern region, where the Dead Sea scrolls have been uncovered, he is certain papyrus documents would have survived. “We have to be realistic,” he adds, “about what we think archaeology can and can’t do.”

“Archaeological discoveries have verified that parts of the Biblical Exodus are historically accurate, but archaeology can’t tell us everything, agrees the Biblical Archaeological Society. “Although archaeology can illuminate aspects of the past and bring parts of history to life, it has its limits.”

Our key takeaway: limited evidence does not mean the event didn’t happen as the Bible tells it.

~ Proof for the Plagues, Then? ~

Again, hard to prove. But some scholars give credence to naturalistic phenomenon, which God certainly could have used to achieve His goal. Hoffmeier explains:

“Some have theorized that the first plague — in which the Nile turns blood red — is associated with the presence of microscopic flagellates in the water that account for the color. This phenomenon is associated with the annual inundation of the Nile that begins in August, crests in September, and ends in October. These microbes consume large amounts of oxygen from the water which results in fish dying and causes a rank smell, rendering the water undrinkable as described in the Bible (Exodus 7:21). If indeed a contaminated annual flood marked the beginning of the plagues, which would have begun in the period of August to October, and since Passover is observed in the period March-April (that is, seven to nine months later), the ninth plague — three days of darkness — might have been caused by a severe dust storm or khamsin. Such dust storms can still blanket Egypt for days at a time during the months of March and April. They even darken the sun and fine dust covers everything. This scenario for the ninth plague certainly fits the description that it was a darkness to be felt (Exodus 10:21). By using the forces of nature against Egypt, the God of Israel demonstrated His superiority over the gods of Egypt and over Pharaoh, who was responsible for maintaining cosmic order in the land.”

How often, I wonder, does God use “the forces of nature” to make His point? But like the Egyptians, we often refuse to acknowledge the Hand of God until the pain becomes excruciatingly personal. Only then do we move.

 ~ Taking the Bible as Truth ~

We find the Exodus mentioned as a historical event throughout the Old Testament, including the books of Psalms, Joshua, Judges, 1-2 Samuel, 1-2 Kings, and in the Prophets. We should note that the Bible is not a single source document. It is multiple sources, all of which maintain the authenticity of the Exodus tradition. Historians recognize that the likelihood of the authenticity of an event increases as independent sources that verify it are discovered.

To date, scholars cannot concretely prove that Moses existed, that Israel lived in Egypt, or that this group of Hebrews fled from Pharaoh. But neither can they disprove the historicity of the biblical narrative.

As Hoffmeier notes:

“With this overwhelming evidence within the Bible regarding the Egyptian sojourn, exodus, and wilderness episodes, evidence coming from a variety of types of literature and used in a host of different ways, it is methodologically inadvisable, at best, to treat the Bible as a single witness to history, requiring corroboration before the Egypt-Sinai reports can be taken as authentic.”

Simply put, there is enough evidence contained in the Bible to make the story believable. It is likely such a man as Moses existed, a people such as Israel lived in Egypt, and these people left Egypt via the route detailed in the Bible.

“Many people today treat the Bible as being guilty until proven innocent,” adds Hoffmeier. “Which doesn’t seem fair, as who’s around to prove it that lived back then?”

I stand firmly in the camp that God can do what He says He’s going to do, whether large or small. When I read of the Bible’s miracles — from the miraculous parting of the Red Sea to the miraculous resurrection of Jesus — it’s not my default to think, “I’m not believing it until I see definitive proof!” Rather, my default is, “Wow! Mind blown!”

I want my God, as we say here in Texas, “to go big, or go home!” 

 

This blog post highlights Josh and Sean McDowell’s recently revised apologetics classic, Evidence That Demands a Verdict. We are certain this fully updated and expanded resource will be an effective evangelism tool for you, and strengthen your faith by answering the toughest questions tossed to you by skeptics. Know what you know, because it’s true. But share this truth with LOVE!

If you’d like to start from the first blog post in this series, click here: Apologetics: Apologizing for Believing in God?.

 

The post Was the Bible Exodus a Real Event? appeared first on Josh.org.

Did the Bible’s Adam Really Exist?

Does Adam’s historicity matter?

The overarching theme running through all 66 books of the Bible is the story of God’s creative work, of humanity’s rebellion against God, and of God’s work to redeem fallen humanity.

The straightforward way of reading the Bible is that Adam was a historical person. It also seems clear that Scripture teaches that all humanity descended from Adam and Eve. This view has come under criticism in recent years — but not just from skeptics.

Doubts about Adam’s historicity are hardly surprising in a secular society that largely rejects the authority of the Bible. But there also is debate among Bible-believing Christians. In this blog post we’ll look at just four evangelical views of Adam, each defended by a noted professor of religion. Then we’ll look at what science has to say about Adam and Eve existing as real people.

~ Four Views of Adam ~

The four views of Adam, featured in the book Four Views on the Historical Adam by pastor Matthew Barrett, are as follows. Perhaps you hold one of these views yourself:

>>>No Historical Adam: Theistic Evolution/Evolutionary Creation View

Denis Lamoureux, professor of science and religion, argues that Adam did not exist as a person, but that his story remains “a vital, but incidental, ancient vessel that transports inerrant spiritual truths: only humans are created in the Image of God, only humans have fallen into sin, and our Creator judges us for our sinfulness.”

>>>Historical Adam: Archetypal Creation View

John Walton, professor of Old Testament, asserts that “Adam and Eve are real people in a real past. Nevertheless, I am persuaded that the biblical text is more interested in them as archetypal figures who represent all of humanity. … If this is true, Adam and Eve also may or may not be the first humans or the parents of the entire human race. Such an archetypal focus is theologically viable and is well-represented in the ancient Near East.”

>>>Historical Adam: Old-Earth View

C. John Collins, professor of Old Testament, argues “that the best way to account for the biblical presentation of human life is to understand that Adam and Eve were both real persons at the headwaters of humankind.” In other words, Collins believes that the Fall was both moral and historical.

>>>Historical Adam: Young-Earth View

William Barrick, professor of Old Testament, states, “Adam’s historicity is foundational to a number of biblical doctrines and is related to the inspiration and inerrancy of Scripture.  … The biblical account represents Adam as a single individual rather than an archetype or the product of biological evolution, and a number of New Testament texts rely on Adam’s historicity.”

As you can see, it’s possible for Christians to vary widely in their views on whether Adam and Eve were real people. Let’s allow science to weigh in as well.

~ Scientific Proof for Adam? ~
Has science proved or disproved the existence of Adam and Eve? No. At least not yet. But what researchers have discovered might still blow your mind.

While DNA profiling helps to resolve criminal cases and paternity suits, the sequencing of the full human genome by the Human Genome Project provides so much more: a genetic “fingerprint” of 3.2 billion base pairs (“letters” making up the genetic code) in human DNA. This has opened the door for molecular anthropology, which searches for links between ancient and modern human populations around the world.

Genetic information that has been uncovered in the past few decades has shed considerable light on human origins. Evolutionary biologists compare the human genome with those of primates to build evolutionary relationships. Skeptics of Darwinism maintain that genetic similarities between humans and other species are better understood as the result of common design rather than common ancestry. One technique for studying human ancestry is to compare the base-pair sequences of a specified segment of DNA between individuals from different people groups.

Interestingly, such comparisons show that human beings display much less genetic diversity than any other species. Several studies, for example, report a much more extensive genetic diversity for chimps, bonobos, gorillas, and orangutans than for people. And the human similarity is observed worldwide, regardless of race or ethnicity!

Molecular anthropologists pose what they sometimes call the “Garden of Eden hypothesis” to explain the limited genetic diversity. This model maintains that humanity had a recent origin in a single location and the original population size must have been quite small. Comparisons using much longer data sequences from the Human Genome Project confirm the “very limited genetic diversity among human populations,” as well as the conclusion “that the African population groups are the oldest.”

One of the most widely used techniques in molecular anthropology is the study of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), which is inherited only from our mothers.

Molecular anthropologists have used it to trace humanity’s maternal line. A landmark study carried out on mtDNA samples from 147 people from five geographic populations was reported in 1987. The study’s authors concluded that all of the mtDNA stemmed from one woman who lived in Africa roughly 200,000 years ago.

Additional studies confirmed the conclusion that humanity can trace its maternal lineage back to one woman in a single location (probably east Africa). The science community named her “mitochondrial Eve.” Does this mean this woman was Eve? Not necessarily. From an evolutionary view, this means only that this female’s mitochondrial DNA is the only lineage not to become extinct and is now ubiquitous throughout the entire human race. However, this viewpoint is compatible with the view that there was an original mother and father who were the first parents of the entire human race.

Since Y-chromosomal DNA passes from father to son, molecular anthropologists study it to trace humanity’s paternal line. The consensus of a number of studies carried out no Y-chromosomal DNA from men representing different races and regions of the world is that humanity can trace its paternal lineage to a single man in a single location in Africa.

Again, this does not prove that this man was Adam, but that this man’s Y-chromosomal lineage is the only one that now runs ubiquitous throughout the entire human race.

Many of us have seen the standard March of Progress diagram depicting the evolution of man, right? The sequence of images starts with a hunchbacked ape and ends with an upright-walking modern human. This iconic diagram summarizes the message that humans evolved. Yet many paleoanthropologists doubt the validity of Darwinism, including the authors of the book, Science & Human Origins.

A 2015 review of human evolution by two leading paleoanthropologists admitted “[t]he dearth of unambiguous evidence for ancestor-descendant lineages,” and states “the evolutionary sequence for the majority of hominin lineages is unknown. Most hominin taxa, particularly early hominins, have no obvious ancestors, and in most cases ancestor-descendent sequences (fossil time series) cannot be reliably constructed.”

And a number of paleoanthropologists have admitted a distinct gap in the fossil record between humanlike members of the genus Homo and apelike species such as the Australopithecines. As the great evolutionary biologist Ernst Mayr stated, “The earliest fossils of Homo … are separated from Australopithecus by a large, unbridged gap.”

Science, in many ways, actually points to a Creator!

~ Trusting God as Creator ~

Within the last 30 years, scientific evidence for Adam has emerged from the study of human genetics. The once-dominant multiregional model of human origins has been replaced with a model of humans spreading around the world from a small founding population in one location, possibly east Africa. The identification of single ancestral maternal and paternal DNA sequences, while not proof of an ancestral pair, is evidence one would expect from the biblical account of origins.

Paleontology and archaeology reveal at least three discontinuities in human history: the abrupt appearance of the genus Homo about two million years ago, the appearance of anatomically modern humans at around 130,000 BC, and the appearance of physical capability underwriting modern human behavior at around 40,000 BC. Physicist John Bloom argues that the two recent, abrupt discontinuities are evidence against a smooth, naturalistic transition and for the special creation of humanity.

I like how Bloom notes that the Bible reveals some things to us that are “hard to understand.” Science, of course, would have us believe that it, alone, is our key to understanding the universe and our place in it. “Interestingly enough, though,” adds Bloom, “the deeper scientists have delved into the nature of nature — in an effort to comprehend how physical reality works at its fundamental levels — they too have found themselves utterly perplexed.”

Bloom also notes that we tend to forget that God’s intelligence, power, and complexity “so far exceeds our comprehension that we have no metaphor or superlative that can even remotely do Him justice.” We should expect perplexing conundrums, even as new scientific discoveries develop, because God will always be mega strides ahead of us.

Was Adam the first human? Only God knows. Let’s take God at His Word: that He, alone, created humanity, and did so as part of His overall plan for creation. 

 

This blog post highlights Josh and Sean McDowell’s recently revised apologetics classic, Evidence That Demands a Verdict. We are certain this fully updated and expanded resource will be an effective evangelism tool for you, and strengthen your faith by answering the toughest questions tossed to you by skeptics. Know what you know, because it’s true. But share this truth with LOVE!

If you’d like to start from the first blog post in this series, click here: Apologetics: Apologizing for Believing in God?.

 

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Interview: How Does Christianity Fulfill our Deepest Aspirations?

 

Original post by Sean McDowell here. Used with permission.

 

How Does Christianity Fulfill our Deepest Aspiration? Author Interview.

 

My friend and Biola colleague Greg Ganssle has written a fascinating new book called Our Deepest Desires: How the Christian Story Fulfills Human Aspirations. Professor Ganssle takes a unique approach to the apologetic task. Essentially, his goal is not to show that Christianity is true, but to argue that when it is properly understood, people should wish it were true. He talks about how tragedy, beauty, and freedom make the most sense in a Christian worldview and that only Christianity fulfills our deepest desires.

Our Deepest Desires is one of the most interesting books I have read in awhile. I hope you will check out this interview and think about getting a copy of his excellent book:

 

 

SEAN MCDOWELL: Can you tell us briefly what your book is about?

GREG GANSSLE: As the subtitle indicates, the book is about how the Christian story explains and grounds our basic aspirations. Every person has the same task—that is we all aim to navigate life in the best way we can. We navigate life with some notions of what it is good to be and to do. These notions are widely shared among people, regardless of their religious beliefs or lack of them.

I structure the book around four fundamental commitments that are widely shared.

First, there is the commitment to persons. Nearly everything we care about is connected to human beings. Second, is the commitment to goodness. We want to be good and we enjoy what is good. Third, we are drawn towards beauty. Beauty calls us home in two ways. First, it calls us to see that this world is a wonderful place. Second, it points beyond this world to the next. Lastly, we long for personal freedom. That is the freedom to become the kind of people we want to be.

Each of these areas makes sense in the Christian story. God, the most fundamental reality, is personal. He is good and made a good world for his own good reasons. We are not surprised to find the world to be beautiful because he is a master artist. God created us to embody certain virtues, and we find our own freedom as we experience these.

 

MCDOWELL:  The goal of your book is to convince people they should hope Christianity is true. What do you mean, and why start there?

GANSSLE: I start there because I think that most people do not care whether or not Christianity is true. They are already convinced that it is a story that hinders human flourishing, rather than a story that secures and promotes flourishing. What is startling is the fact that the things most human beings care most about fit better within the Christian story than they do in the various atheistic stories. Once we see this connection, we see that we want the Christian story to be true. Of course, the fact that we want it to be true does not show that it is true. But once a person wants it to be true, the objections to the truth of the Gospel seem much smaller.

 

MCDOWELL: Who is the primary audience?

GANSSLE: As I wrote this book, I was thinking of the many professors I know who are not yet followers of Christ. I was trying to overcome what I see as the biggest obstacle to belief in Christ–that the Christian story is unattractive. Nietzsche quipped, “What is decisive against Christianity now is our taste, not our reason.” I am trying to overcome the sense that the Christian story is not to be desired.

 

MCDOWELL: How might those who are already believers use and benefit from this book?

GANSSLE: There are two ways this book can benefit those who are already followers of Jesus. First, it can help us grasp the Gospel more deeply. We often have a superficial understanding of the Christian story. As a result, we fail to see its intrinsic relevance to the deep aspirations of every person. Our own appreciation of the Christian story will be enriched as we reflect on how it provides the resources to capture the most common human aspirations.

Second, this book will be a good tool to start conversations. You can hand it to a thoughtful person and discuss it later. Because it is not a work of scholarship, it is accessible to all kinds of people. I even made sure the chapters were short! I would recommend giving it to neighbors and following up with some questions.

 

MCDOWELL: What message is there for the church?

GANSSLE: I am convinced that the next horizon for apologetics is the desirability of the Gospel. As one of my colleagues has written (Dave Horner), the Christian story is “too good not to be true.” We have been so keen to defend theological notions such as the sinfulness of every person that we have neglected the deeper theological truths of the value, goodness and beauty of all God has created. We do not believe in the omnipotence of sin. Sin twists everything, to be sure, but it cannot erase that goodness that God has put into the world and into human beings.

 

MCDOWELL: I have heard you mention how tragedies reveal the deepest human desires. What do you mean, and how does this support the Christian worldview?

GANSSLE: When we encounter suffering, we long for meaning. We want our suffering to be meaningful or to contribute to a meaningful life. Horrendous suffering has the potential to crush a person’s soul. Unless our meaning is securely grounded in the God who brings good out of evil, who experienced evil, and who gives us his presence in the midst of suffering, we may find it impossible to experience a meaningful life in the midst of suffering. It is Jesus weeping at the grave of Lazarus that gives us hope because he is the God who bears our suffering and offers his presence.

 

 

Sean McDowell, Ph.D. is a professor of Christian Apologetics at Biola University, best-selling author, popular speaker, part-time high school teacher, and the Resident Scholar for Summit Ministries, California. Follow him on Twitter: @sean_mcdowell and his blog: seanmcdowell.org.

 

 

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Student Blogs on “Playing Dead”

Mrs. Clark’s 7th Grade Bible Class Discusses:

 

Playing Dead: The Swoon Myth

 

Popularized centuries ago, the swoon myth insists that after being brutally beaten, brutalized and crucified, Jesus… fainted, rather than died. If this myth were true, the central event of Christianity, the Resurrection of Christ, would be lost.

But it takes a lot more faith to believe Jesus only fainted after what was done to him.

 

For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance:

that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 

that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures

1 Corinthians 15:3-4

 

Study Sessions

Read John 19:30-35. Why did the soldiers not break Jesus’ legs?

How many Roman soldiers (at least) knew Jesus to be dead?

Who is “the man” mentioned in verse 35? What does he know to be true?

Read Mark 15:42-47. How many eyewitnesses of Jesus’ death are mentioned in these verses?

 

 

 

Some people don’t believe in Jesus’ resurrection. They don’t believe that it is possible to come back from the dead.

They believe that he swooned (fainted) and the Romans thought he was dead and he woke up 3 days later and left–but they are wrong. Jesus did not faint or survive somehow in any way.

We know this because it is scientifically proven that it is physically impossible to survive the crucifixion that Jesus suffered.

In the book “Don’t Check Your Brains at the Door,”  it explains that Jesus went through excruciating pain, including things that could not humanly be survivable.

It also explains in the book that a Roman centurion had checked the bodies to make sure that they were dead before burying one and if he had missed a live body and they buried it, they would have faced major consequences.

This is why the Jesus’ crucifixion is real.

Katy, age 13

 

 

 

In this week’s chapter the theory and myth was about the crucifixion of Jesus and how many claim the death was false and set up–but from scientific research we can detect that it was completely real.

We can come up with many reasons that the crucifixion was real and that Jesus’s death was real because the Roman soldiers were masters at that. They did this (put people to death) so often and if they had got it wrong they probably would have been executed or even worse punishment.

Also, thanks to scientific research and knowledge in the health department we can detect since when they stabbed Jesus in the side and not just blood but water also came out–that’s scientific proof that Jesus was completely dead.

When you die a little sack around the heart separates the water from the blood.

So in conclusion, this week’s myth was about Jesus’ crucifixion and how he wasn’t completely dead…we can know that is false.

Matthew, age 12

 

 

“Today the sincere seeker of truth can have complete confidence, as did the first Christians, that the Christian faith is based not on myth or legend but on the solid historical fact of the empty tomb and the risen Christ.”

(Don’t Check Your Brains at the Door, p. 78)

Know what you believe…and why you believe it.
Don’t Check Your Brains at the Door gives teens answers that make sense, even for the toughest of questions: 

Does it really matter what you believe, as long as you have faith?
Are there errors in the Bible?
Was Jesus just a good teacher?
Can anyone prove His resurrection?
What does that have to do with me?

Using clarity and humor Josh McDowell and co-author Bob Hostetler expose common myths about God, the Bible, religion, and life to show how Christianity stands up to the test of fact and reason.
With these solid evidences teens will be better understand the faith they live and know what they believe and why.
 VIEW DON’T CHECK YOUR BRAINS AT THE DOOR IN OUR ONLINE STORE.

 

 

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