Restitutio

Apologetics 9: Old Testament Transmission What reasons do we have for believing the Old Testament (Hebrew Bible) was reliable transmitted from antiquity to today? This lecture provides four arguments: (1) Jewish scribes were competent, (2) people memorized large portions of the text, (3) the consequences for false prophecy, and (4) the Dead Sea Scrolls function as a time capsule. The Old Testament is excellently preserved, especially in comparison to other ancient texts. If you would like to take this class for credit, please contact the Atlanta Bible College so you can register and do the necessary work for a grade. Notes: Introduction Circular reasoning: Why do you believe that there is a God->the Bible says so->How do you know that the Bible is true?->God wrote it This is the fundamental question of Christianity: “Anyone who knows the content of the Bible knows that its reliability is the single most important question in the history of humanity.” (Can You Trust the Bible by Ralph Muncaster, p. 4) Remember 1Peter 3.15 Question:=>Too many translations, how do you know which is right? The Bible was written in Greek, translated to Aramaic then to Latin then to German and then to English. Answer:=>We have more than 5,000 manuscripts extant today and there are several million people who speak the original language. We do not depend on a translation. (Pass around the Hebrew and Greek Bibles) a. OT written in Hebrew b. NT written in Greek OT Manuscript Tradition manuscripts (hand written) Hebrew Aleppo Codex (a.d. 920) Leningrad Codex (a.d. 1009) Dead Sea Scrolls (250 b.c. to a.d. 70) early translations Aramaic Targum (5th c. a.d.) Samaritan Samaritan Pentateuch (11th c. a.d.) Syriac Peshitta (5th c. a.d.) Greek Septuagint (fragments from 2nd c. bc, complete from 4th c. a.d.) Theodotion, Aquilla, Symachus (before 3rd c.) (extant?) Coptic Crosby-Schoyen Codex (3/4th c. a.d.) Latin Codex Amiatinus (5th c. a.d.) critical editions Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia based mostly on Leningrad Codex but with variants from other sources as well last updated1997 Biblia Hebraica Quinta incorporates Dead Sea Scrolls 20 volumes partially published since 2004, to be completed in 2015 Oxford Hebrew Bible Project extensive critical edition underway at Berkeley, California Scribal Argument Only master scrolls were used for duplication Scribes were highly trained (noble profession) Held in training until age 30 Ceremonial washing before copying Scripture Any time the name of God was written a sanctification prayer was said. (6,824 times in the NASB) Memorization was a problem so they visually confirmed the letters one by one Each letter was counted and compared to master Each word was counted and compared to master The middle letter in each scroll was located and compared to the master If there is one mistake, the scroll was discarded Scrolls are buried ceremonial when they wear out Memorization argument Object Lesson: driving laws What do you do when school bus stops and you are driving towards it? What do you do at a stop sign? Yield sign? Green, yellow, & red lights? What do you do at a four way stop? What is the cell phone law? Why do you have all of t

Kegan Chandler grew up as a bible-believing Christian in Texas.  His grandfather, Pat E. Harrell, was a leader within Church of Christ who founded their Restoration Quarterly publication.  As a result of his grandparents’ and parents’ passion for God, Chandler grew up in a family steeped in bible study and theological reflection.  One day the Mormon’s came knocking and Chandler, the consummate apologist and champion of orthodoxy, licked his lips at the chance to set them straight.  However, in the course of that conversation, one of the missionaries asked Chandler, “Well, who do you say that Jesus is?”  Strangely enough, this one question caught him off guard.  The young man wasn’t asking, “Who do your parents, your pastor, or your seminary say that Jesus is?” but “Who do you say that Jesus is?”  The intensely personal nature of this question started Chandler on a quest to firm up his orthodox answer, which eventually led to a complete reconsideration of his beliefs about God, Jesus, and the spirit.  Over the course of several years, he came to see the bible from a more Hebrew perspective.  After intense bible study and a thorough investigation into church history, he discovered the God of Jesus.  Here is his story. Notes and Links: The conference we met at was Restoration Fellowship’s Theological Conference.  Next year the date for this weekend is May 18-21, 2017. For “the Protestant burden” see Jason David BeDuhn’s book, Truth in Translation. Chandler referenced my presentation, “Five Major Problems with the Trinity.” (This video now has over 33,000 views.) Chandler’s book, The God of Jesus, is now available on amazon. Chandler’s websites include The God of Jesus and Buried Deep For J. Dan Gill, visit the 21st Century Reformation website as well as his voluminous youtube channel. For Anthony Buzzard, visit the Restoration Fellowship site or watch his videos on youtube. Intro music: “District Four” by Kevin MacLeod.  Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.

Apologetics 8: More Evidence for the Resurrection Because secular historians don’t accept the inspiration of the bible, they don’t trust the Gospels as reliable witnesses about Jesus. Consequently, they’ve come up with various “criteria of authenticity” to sift the sayings and deeds recorded in the Gospels into historical and mythical categories. Last time we saw how Jesus’ resurrection still passes with flying colors when employing such a skeptical approach. This time we’ll discuss another historical consideration under the able guidance of N. T. Wright. He enumerates seven mutations within Judaism that cry out for an explanation. In the end, history seems to have a hole in it about the size and shape of an actual resurrection. The most plausible explanation is that God really did intervene in the middle of history and perform a miracle. If you would like to take this class for credit, please contact the Atlanta Bible College so you can register and do the necessary work for a grade. Notes: Criteria secular historians use to determine authenticity: multiple attestation: the more independent witnesses the better dissimilarity: if something is dissimilar from Jewish historical context and later Christian tradition it is more likely to be historical embarrassment: if something would have been embarrassing it is more likely to be historical (i.e. disciples not getting what Jesus is saying, Peter cutting ear off, aramaisms: sayings that align with Aramaic: “straining out the gnat (galma) and swallowing a camel (gamla)” coherence to Jewish context coherence to early Christian tradition coherence with other authentic material anachronism Two indisputable facts about Jesus (according to Paula Fredriksen) Jesus died by crucifixion attested by Paul, Gospels, Tacitus, Josephus Romans were involved w/ his death None of Jesus’ followers were crucified with Jesus pulls in the opposite direction Jesus as apocalypticist (Ehrman, Fredriksen, Sanders, etc.) Fredriksen, “w/o apocalyptic framework a conviction of resurrection is incoherent” N.T. Wright has articulated seven mutations from the Jewish understanding of resurrection in the early Christian communities which cry out for an explanation. It turns out that the explanation of the missing event which would make sense of these mutations takes the exact shape of a grave-emptying bodily resurrection. His seven mutations are as follows: Though the early Christians came from a variety of backgrounds there was virtually no spectrum of belief about what resurrection meant to the early Christians. In Judaism there were quite a few different views, that of the Pharisees, that of the Sadducees, that of Philo, and so on. However, the Christians leave no room for speculation as to what resurrection means and what it looks like. Resurrection has moved from a peripheral idea to the central focus of the early Christian community. The word “resurrection” appears 43x in NT as opposed to none in the OT. In Judaism it is often rather vague regarding what sort of body the resurrected will possess but in Christianity there is unanimous agreement that the body will be a transformed physical body which will use up the matter of the old body though it will itself also possess new properties. The Christians saw The Resurrection as having been split into (at least) two stages—first Messiah is raised and then the rest at his return. The resurrection means that God’s future (the resurrection is always seen in the OT as an end times event) has arrived early in the person of Jesus. This means that now his followers are i

This election cycle American political discourse has sunk to a new low.  Rather than presenting facts and offering persuasive arguments based on policies, we’ve seen a whole slew of false claims and personal attacks.  The exchanges between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have been so caustic and shameful that when I discovered my ten year-old was watching one of the presidential debates with his mom, I immediately ushered him out of the room, muttering that such language and behavior was inappropriate for him to see.  (He had weaseled his way in to watch it on the excuse that he couldn’t sleep.)  What does it say about the way politics works itself out on national TV that I felt horrified that my son was exposed to such bickering and animosity among those who are vying for the highest and noblest governmental office in the land? I could deal with all of this, but what I can’t handle is the fact that Christians don’t seem to carry themselves any differently than their worldly counterparts.  Social media channels and email boxes overflow with vitriol and exaggeration as each side shouts ever louder, trying to drown out the sound of the other.  In this episode of off script, we offer some suggestions on how to think and behave when engaging in political discourse as Christians.  We begin by discussing an episode of Ira Glass’ This American Life podcast episode “Seriously?” in which he addressed how misinformation and lies dominate political conversations.  Listen to the first 20 minutes to hear the part we discuss.  Also, we engaged with Justin Brierly’s Unbelievable? podcast episode “Should Christians vote for Trump?” where Republican John Zmirak and Democrat Christina Rees discuss what Christians should do.  For Zmirak’s “dead moose” comment, skip to 18 minutes. Intro music: “Protofunk” by Kevin MacLeod.  Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.

Apologetics 7: Evidence for the Resurrection During this lecture, I played a video of William Lane Craig making a case for the historicity of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead.  What’s so brilliant about Craig’s approach is that he doesn’t assume the bible is true to make his case.  He treats the Gospels and Paul’s letters as normal historical sources and uses the standard historiography of skeptics and atheists to establish this ancient miracle.  He employs the minimal facts strategy, arguing that (1) the honorable burial, (2) the empty tomb, (3) the appearances, and (4) the resurrection belief are agreed to by critical scholars.  Thus, the hypothesis, “God raised Jesus of Nazareth from the dead,” is the best historical explanation of facts. If you would like to take this class for credit, please contact the Atlanta Bible College so you can register and do the necessary work for a grade. Notes: Four Historical Facts Agreed upon by Most Historical Jesus Scholars 1. Honorable Burial: Jesus was buried by Joseph Arimethea in a known grave attested by very old tradition in 1 Cor 15 uses technical rabbinic terminology for tradition formulaic Paul received this within 5 years of his crucifixion burial story is part of an old source used by Mark when he wrote most of Mark is like pearls on a string, but once we get to the passion narrative it is smooth and chronological….which suggests that the passion narrative was from an actual written source gospels don’t diverge until after the burial account as a member of the Sanhedrin, Joseph of Arimathea is unlikely to be a Christian invention strong resentment toward Jewish leadership responsible for the execution of Jesus so it is highly improbable that Christians would invent that a member of the very court that condemned Christ would be the one to give him an honorable burial no competing burial story exists no controversy over the issue if it were false, we should expect to find some historical trace of what really happened 2. Empty Tomb: On Sunday after the crucifixion women found the empty tomb empty tomb is in pre-Markan passion source Mark’s source did not end with burial but with empty tomb old tradition in 1 Cor 15 implies an empty tomb “that he was buried and that he was raised” clearly implies an empty grave was left behind apostolic preaching in the book of Acts Mark’s story is simple and lacks signs of legendary embellishment compare to Gospel of Peter (from 2nd half of 2nd century)…tomb is surrounded by Roman guard and by chief priests, Pharisees, and a huge crowd….suddenly during the night a voice rings out….three gigantic figures come out of the tomb with heads reaching to the sun….the cross comes out of the tomb and speaks women’s testimony was less trustworthy than men counts in favor of the women’s role in the discovery of the empty tomb Josephus says, “due to the levity and temerity of their sex, women should not be allowed to serve as legal witnesses in a court of law” any later legendary account would have made male disciples like Peter and John to be the first to discover the empty tomb earliest Jewish allegation that the disciples had stolen Jesus’ body presupposes that the body was in fact missing from the tomb 3. Appearances: on multiple occasions and under a variety of circumstances, individuals and groups of people experienced appearances of Jesus after his death list of eyewitnesses quoted by Paul in 1 Cor 15 Paul actually knew these people

Halloween comes from the ancient Gaelic festival of Samhain when the Celts believed the boundary between our world and the spirit world grew thin, allowing spirits, fairies, and disembodied souls to enter our realm. Consequently, they employed several strategies to appease and misdirect these nefarious ghosts from messing with them. However, in our secular age, most Americans who participate in Halloween neither believe in this ancient mythology nor are they even aware of it when they dress their children in costumes and ring doorbells for free candy. What’s a Christian to do? On one end, the purists refuse to participate and put signs on their doors alerting trick-or-treaters not to disturb them, and on the other, Christians decorate their lawns with grizzly scenes from horror movies and encourage their children to dress up as ghosts and monsters. Listen to this episode of Off-Script as we discuss this seasonal issue.

Apologetics 6: Historical Jesus Have you ever heard of the Jesus mythicists? They teach that Jesus never existed, that he’s a myth. How would you go about debunking this claim? Are you aware of what historical sources mention Jesus and early Christianity? In this lecture you’ll learn what’s out there from biblical authors, historians, and hostile witnesses. The cumulative case for the historicity of Jesus of Nazareth is nothing short of staggering. If you would like to take this class for credit, please contact the Atlanta Bible College so you can register and do the necessary work for a grade. Notes: New Testament is not one witness. It was not originally published as a single volume. Pre-Pauline Quotations 1 Corinthians 15.3-4 Philippians 2.6-10 Paul (wrote between a.d. 51 and 62) earliest written documents that mention Jesus written 20 – 30 years after death of Jesus born of a woman (Gal 4.4; Rom 1.3) had disciples (1 Cor 15.5) had brothers (1 Cor 9.5; Gal 1.19) Lord’s Supper (1 Cor 11.23-25) crucified (1 Cor 2.2; 11.23; Gal 3.1) put to death by Jews (1 Thes 2.15) buried (1 Cor 15.4; Rom 6.4) raised from the dead (1 Cor 15.21) ascended into heaven (Eph 1.20-23) James (a.d. <62) slave of Jesus (1.1) Jesus is Lord Messiah (1.1) he is coming back (5.7) coming is near (5.8) Peter (a.d. <62) Christ suffered, sinless, bore our sins, did not revile (1 Peter 2.21-24) eyewitness of his majesty (transfiguration) (2 Peter 1.16-17) he is coming back (2 Peter 3.2-4) Jude (?) slave of Jesus several mentions of him, but not historical, mostly future Mark (a.d < 62) got his gospel from Peter miracles some sayings passion narrative resurrection stated Simon of Cyrene (Mark 15.21)…as if his audience knew Alexander and Rufus Matthew (after Mark) eye-witness birth narrative extensive teachings miracles passion narrative resurrection appearances Luke (after Mark) investigator, second hand birth narrative extensive teachings miracles lots of dinners passion narrative resurrection appearances ascension continuity with the church (Acts) Hebrews (after 62 before 70) mostly theological concerned with making the point that Jesus is superior to angels, Moses, Aaron, etc. because he is priest after Melchizedek, better covenant, better promises, etc. Christ died (9.26; 10.12; 12.2) tempted yet sinless (4.15) made like his brethren in all things (2.17) John (<a.d. 100) eye-witness pre-ministry miracle (wedding at Cana) miracles as signs attending festivals self-revelatory (“I am… statements) resurrection appreances Flavius Josephus (a.d. 93) first non-Christian to write about Jesus Passage 1 (about James) “but this younger Ananus, who, as we have told you already, took the high priesthood, was a bold man in his temper, and very insolent; he was also of the sect of the Sadducees, {a} who are very rigid in judging offenders, above all the rest of the Jews, as we have already observed; when, therefore, Ananus was of this disposition, he thought he had now a proper o

Horror movies inspire fear, causing our hearts to beat faster and our adrenaline to flow.  Their monsters, murder, and jump scares have won them a dedicated following.  In this episode, we discuss whether Christians have any business watching horror movies.  We talk about where to draw the line and what exactly is problematic about this genre.  Furthermore, we talk about haunted houses and the idea of using such fear tactics to win people to the Lord.  Whether you love horror or hate it, this episode should help you to think through this issue from a biblical perspective.

Apologetics 5: Arguments for God (Part Two) In this lecture, you’ll learn four more reasons for God’s existence, including the cosmological argument, moral argument, miracles argument, and the ontological argument. These are each quite different from each other, which is great because it increases their cumulative effect. Last of all, you’ll learn about “Pascal’s Wager,” which is really just an appeal to self-interest, so you can share your faith effectively with skeptics. If you would like to take this class for credit, please contact the Atlanta Bible College so you can register and do the necessary work for a grade. Notes: First Cause (Cosmological Argument) Here are all the possibilities for thinking about the beginning of the universe: Three step argument Everything that has a beginning has a cause of its beginning The universe has a beginning 2nd law of thermo (Meister, p. 93-94) big bang theory(Meister, p. 96) cannot cross an actual infinite series of events (Mesiter, p. 99) The universe has a cause of its beginning The universe did not cause itself because it did not exist before its beginning The cause of the universe must be external to it (i.e. super-natural) This cause must be sufficiently powerful to bring the universe into existence There are only two kinds of causes: personal or impersonal processes If a process caused the universe to come into existence then how does one explain the fact that the universe did not always exist? Can an impersonal process one day begin to do something? Thus the cause must have been personal (i.e. a being or beings with a will(s)) Two drawbacks to this argument it does not rule out multiple gods it does not rule out the possibility of an infinite succession of gods Who made God? God was always there. Since he does not have a beginning he does not need a cause. then the universe could have always been here and we don’t need to posit the existence of a god to explain it theoretically this is correct except for one thing: all scientists now agree that the universe did not always exist (2nd law of thermodynamics)   Argument from Morality Some actions are morally wrong (like torturing children for the fun of it) These actions are moral absolutes If there are moral absolutes there must be some moral law by which they can be determined If there is a moral law then there must be a moral law giver or else it must be produced by natural processes Assuming naturalism one social “law” becomes apparent: might makes right (also called survival of the fittest) If this is the true law by which morals are to be determined then it is moral to do anything one wants so long as he or she is strong enough to accomplish it This legalizes rape, murder, genocide, and torturing children for the fun of it But we have already said that torturing children for the fun of it is absolutely morally wrong Thus, morals are not determined by nature and there exists (or existed) a moral law giver who is itself the locus of true morality this doesn’t mean athiests are not moral people, they may be, they just don’t have a grounding or foundation for being moral   God Experiences miracles defined as an event that could not happen based on the laws of nature there are many claims to miracles throughout time and also in our own day

In my previous interview with Professor Dale Tuggy, we discussed his journey of faith.  In this conversation I ask him to discuss logical and biblical problems with the Trinity.  This is a higher level conversation, but well worth the listen if you are at all curious about the Trinity or are interesting in hearing how analytic philosophers approach complex doctrines. For more about Professor Tuggy and his work, including his amazing podcast, visit trinities.org.