Sunday, March 27, 2016

New vs. Old, History vs. Now: Are we making progress or Just moving forward?

How a Generation Lost Its Common Culture | Minding The Campus
http://www.mindingthecampus.org/2016/02/how-a-generation-lost-its-common-culture/


"Our students’ ignorance is not a failing of the educational system – it is its crowning achievement. Efforts by several generations of philosophers and reformers and public policy experts — whom our students (and most of us) know nothing about — have combined to produce a generation of know-nothings. The pervasive ignorance of our students is not a mere accident or unfortunate but correctable outcome, if only we hire better teachers or tweak the reading lists in high school. It is the consequence of a civilizational commitment to civilizational suicide. The end of history for our students signals the End of History for the West."

Bible vs. Koran on Violence: Flying Hijacked Planes into Glass Houses

Islam: The Politically Incorrect Truth
http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/pages/articles/bible-quran-violence.aspx

The difference, as we point out in this article is not just quantitative, but one of quality as well.  As Warner puts it:  "The political violence of the Koran is eternal and universal. The political violence of the Bible was for that particular historical time and place. This is the vast difference between Islam and other ideologies. The violence remains a constant threat to all non-Islamic cultures, now and into the future."

Monday, March 21, 2016

The Bible: a book like no other



       The Bible is an amazing book.  Not everyone accepts the Bible as the word of God, but nobody can make a strong argument that the Bible is ordinary, boring, not valuable, or worthless. As I will discuss below, the Bible proves itself time and time again. It is mostly those who don't look very close or don't pay good attention that find the Bible worthless.

By © 2004 by Tomasz Sienicki [user: tsca, mail: tomasz.sienicki at gmail.com] - Photograph by Tomasz Sienicki / Own work, CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10711

Attacks on the Bible
Let us start by listing some of the arguments against the Bible so that when I list the arguments for the value of the Bible you can see that the arguments against the Bible fall flat when put to the test.  We will also see that people hold the Bible to unrealistic standards. Some people are happy to accept certain things as undeniable fact even though these items have less supporting evidence than the Bible.

- The Bible we have now resembles the original very little.  It has been distorted and corrupted beyond any value for today's word.
- The history in the Bible is unreliable and fantasy, so why should we believe any of it?
- The bible is full of unfulfilled prophesies like every other holy book. what makes it special?
- The bible is full of supernatural events that we know in today's scientific world, could not have happened. Therefore, it cannot be trusted and we should not waste our time with it.
 

The integrity of Bible manuscripts:


Bible manuscripts are more numerous and more accurate than other widely accepted Greek manuscripts.

Manuscript Evidence for Superior New Testament Reliability - https://carm.org/manuscript-evidence
The Manuscripts - http://www.icr.org/bible-manuscripts/

Do you ever wish you could travel back in time 1000 years prior to the oldest known copy of the Old Testament to see if maybe the text had been corrupted over 1000 years? You can! Enter dead sea scrolls:

Dead Sea Scrolls Foundation - http://www.deadseascrollsfoundation.com/#why

History of the Bible confirmed:

50 People in the Bible Confirmed Archaeologically - http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/people-cultures-in-the-bible/people-in-the-bible/50-people-in-the-bible-confirmed-archaeologically/

Biblical Archaeology: Factual Evidence to Support the Historicity of the Bible - http://www.equip.org/article/biblical-archaeology-factual-evidence-to-support-the-historicity-of-the-bible/

a lot more good Bible articles here:
Bible Questions and Answers - http://creation.com/bible-questions-and-answers

Bible Prophecy:

Fulfilled Prophecy: Evidence for the Reliability of the Bible - http://www.reasons.org/articles/articles/fulfilled-prophecy-evidence-for-the-reliability-of-the-bible  [this page shows some probability statistics too!]

The Old Testament is Filled with Fulfilled Prophecy - http://www.biblestudytools.com/bible-study/topical-studies/the-old-testament-is-filled-with-fulfilled-prophecy-11652232.html

Could Jesus have fulfilled Bible prophecy by chance? checkout this short youtube cartoon:

"Jesus Historically fulfilled over 300 Prophecies...Accidentally?" (by Intelligent Faith 315) - YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mG37ysdWLWc

Miracles in the Bible:

some people see the old testament as mostly fairy tales while accepting the new testament, and Jesus, as much more factual. The main problem with this view is that Jesus himself mentioned portions and people from the old testament and he does not discuss them as you would a "fairy tale". see below:

Jesus Christ on the infallibility of Scripture  - http://creation.com/jesus-christ-on-the-infallibility-of-scripture

Miracles and science - http://creation.com/miracles-and-science [look at the related articles section at this link for additional articles]

Are miracles scientific? DVD - http://usstore.creation.com/catalog/miracles-scientific-p-1683.html?osCsid=gqtl2kq0beokgsb67cufgcdj95

More info:
This is a lot more information on this subject that help show the value of the Bible, not just as good history, but as the best source to build a coherent worldview. checkout http://creation.com [I like their site a lot, if you have not figured that out yet.]

In Closing
I don't expect a short blog post like this one to convert a skeptic into a believer over night. However, if you have read the suggested material, given it some serious thought, and provided an open mind, then you will find it much more difficult to discount the Bible so easy. Perhaps maybe it is worth your time and energy to consider the natural and the supernatural claims of the Bible?  You got very little to lose and a lot to gain.



My Views on Abortion

This article will serve as a detailed explanation of my views on abortion.

My pastor recently used this phrase and it suits so many controversial topics:
 "Compassion and Conviction!"

That is how I feel all Christians should relate to the world when a common cultural view point conflicts with a biblical worldview. Christians often choose compassion or conviction without finding the appropriate balance.

Too much compassion: you accept un-biblical views in order to appease or not hurt the other party.

Too much conviction: you stand your ground, but you make sure the other party knows they are completely wrong and they are going to pay for their bad choice!  You shame them. You reject them. Often you hurt them.

Abortion is wrong. It is murder. As technology improves we can find more and more signs of human life earlier and earlier in the development process of humans in utero.  We also have learned that babies in utero do feel pain [1]. Rejecting that there is a human growing inside of a pregnant woman is harder and harder to do.

However, people who are pro-abortion can still be my friends. They are humans too!  They will never reconsider their stance if they are attacked and insulted.  Many of them are lying to themselves and they know the error of their ways. They don't need someone to attack them to realize what is going on.

Woman who have had an abortion do not need us to judge or condemn them! They need our compassion most of all. Just like the child they abort, they are victims of the terrible lies that our culture is believing. They need help to deal with their emotional wounds, not insults.

There is also data to suggest that abortions can be very dangerous and send women to the hospital! [2]

The pro-abortion movement in the past has used the phrase, "safe, legal, and rare".  However, current and past data would seem to indicate that "safe" and "rare" both seem to not apply. Regarding "legal", I personally have yet to hear a strong argument for why it should be legal to kill a child living in utero.

Sound random quotes, thoughts and phrases:

Everyone who is pro-abortion has already been born!

"Those who summarily advocate a blanket population control [Reagan’s emphasis] should think carefully. Who might they be doing away? Another Lincoln or Bethoven, an Einstein or Edison? Who shall play God?" Reagan wrote.


Some articles and sources you might want to read:

When Human Life Begins | American College of Pediatricians
https://www.acpeds.org/the-college-speaks/position-statements/life-issues/when-human-life-begins

Life Begins at Fertilization with the Embryo's Conception
http://www.princeton.edu/~prolife/articles/embryoquotes2.html

41 Quotes From Medical Textbooks Prove Human Life Begins at Conception | LifeNews.com
http://www.lifenews.com/2015/01/08/41-quotes-from-medical-textbooks-prove-human-life-begins-at-conception/

Margaret Sanger Darwinian eugenicist - creation.com
http://creation.com/margaret-sanger-darwinian-eugenicist


sources:
1. http://www.lifenews.com/2016/03/17/leading-physician-confirms-unborn-children-feel-excruciating-pain-during-late-term-abortions/

2. http://www.lifenews.com/2016/02/02/planned-parenthood-clinic-injures-30th-woman-in-botched-abortion-hides-victim-with-sheet/