Eastern religions like Hinduism and Buddhism do not put the same emphasis on textual studies that we do in the West. Truth, for them, is not measured so much by a historically reliable record (or person) as it is in religious authority or experience. They feel that if it “works” to create a spiritual experience or if it has a long-standing tradition, then it is valid. The history of their sacred books as measured by early, numerous and accurate texts is not important to them. As a result, they are not concerned by having very few texts to work with if asked to document authorship, integrity or historical reliability.

On the other hand, Muslims claim that their Qur’an has more integrity and is more reliable than the New Testament. They point out that they have only one version of their holy book and everyone’s copy is identical to what God dictated to Muhammad in the seventh century A.D. [Read more…]

The New Testament, including Jesus Himself, clearly teaches the existence of a spiritual realm of demonic and angelic personal beings. The former are evil (sinning and rebelling from their created state as angels) and the latter are obedient servants of God.

Some people today dismiss such beings as a pre-scientific way of describing psychological dysfunctions such as hysteria or epilepsy. While it is true that at certain times in history some sects of Christianity have abused people with this doctrine of demons, it is primarily because of the actions and teachings of Jesus about nonphysical beings that we are capable of avoiding such abuse and having a more complete understanding of the universe. [Read more…]

Some people wonder, “If miracles are real, why don’t we see them today?” To many people, the world they live in seems to have no divine intervention, no interruptions to the natural order, and the dead stay dead. As far as they are concerned the many miracles of the Bible seem more like fairy tales than truth.

What is a miracle? One source defines a miracle as a “divine intervention into, or interruption of, the regular course of the world that produces a purposeful but unusual event that would not have occurred otherwise” (Norman Geisler and Ron Brooks, When Skeptics Ask, [Wheaton: Victor Books, 1990], p. 76). This does not mean that miracles are a violation of natural law. Rather, they have a cause which transcends nature. [Read more…]

There is a sense in which the question ought to be, “Why are there only four Gospels?” The life, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ have had the greatest impact on humanity of any event in history! How can these short accounts do justice to something so important? As John the apostle said at the close of his Gospel, “And there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books that would be written” (John 21:25).

Therefore, even four accounts are not enough, but these do give us a four-dimensional portrait of Jesus. The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were written by eyewitness apostles or their associates. They were evangelists and desired to present whatever part of Jesus’ ministry and teaching which would appeal to the particular audience they were trying to reach. They are not repetitious chronological biographies of Jesus’ life. Each Gospel has a distinct purpose, an identifiable audience, and individual characteristics which are evident in their contents. Each contributes a significant, supplemental, true dimension to our understanding of Jesus. [Read more…]

There have been many theories attempting to explain away the facts of Jesus’ empty tomb, including the following:

• The Swoon theory—Jesus didn’t actually die on the cross and He resuscitated in the cool tomb. His disciples then deceptively proclaimed His resurrection;
• The Conspiracy theory—the disciples stole the body and deceptively proclaimed his resurrection;
• The Jewish authorities removed the body unbeknownst to the disciples, who mistakenly thought He had resurrected;
• The Wrong Tomb theory—the women and the disciples went to the wrong tomb and mistakenly thought He was resurrected;
• The Legend Theory—the disciples left Jerusalem for a long time and much later returned to propagate an imaginary myth of resurrection;
• The Hallucination Theory—the disciples had hallucinations in which they imagined seeing the resurrected Jesus. They then proclaimed His resurrection.

[Read more…]

Invariably when Jesus is discussed, someone will boldly proclaim that He wasn’t actually God, but the Son of God. The contrast is unwarranted—it’s not either/or but both/and. Jesus’ identity as the Son of God includes having the same attributes as the Father, that is, He is from eternity, has all authority, etc. (see John 5:18). They are in essence, equal, as demonstrated in John 10:30 and claimed by Jesus in John 14:7-11. Jesus is also recorded as saying He has complete authority over heaven and earth (Matthew 28:18) and that He alone is the means for people to know the Father (John 14:6). [Read more…]

One of the most persuasive lines of evidence that Jesus was the Messiah is that His life fulfilled numerous Old Testament prophecies. There are at least 456 Old Testament prophetic references that pertain to a future person which all were fulfilled in Jesus’ life. Many of these He could not have any control over, such as His place of birth. The following is a brief outline of some of these Old Testament prophecies and their New Testament fulfillment. [Read more…]

It is important to recognize that having a longing for life after death is a good thing. C.S. Lewis once wrote:

…a continual looking forward to the eternal world is not (as some modern people think) a form of escapism or wishful thinking, but one of the things a Christian is meant to do. It does not mean that we are to leave the present world as it is. If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next (Mere Christianity, [New York: Macmillan, 1952], p. 118).

[Read more…]