Posted on 06/17/2017 3:19:52 PM PDT by NYer
FYI ping!
This gobbeldygook rears its head every few years. “History and Christianity” John Warwick Montgomery, and “The New Testament Documents, Are They Reliable?,” F.F. Bruce. Two excellent books that everyone should read, including this nutty guy.
I fail to understand why people look to verify their faith. Either you have faith or you don’t.
I have three college degrees in Science and I am in awe of God’s creation. However I have never looked to it to verify my fundamental beliefs.
The Bible definition of faith is evidence of things unseen. The evidence that the Bible is accurate is overwhelming.
What’s this got to do with chicken? :)
The Bible has proven to be right about many places and people.
I can’t believe this argument still exists.
Now if only someone would do that sort of research on Egypt’s Old Kingdom Pharaohs, instead of relying on forgeries (the Kings List) and 19th century translations ...
“I fail to understand why people look to verify their faith. Either you have faith or you don’t.”
This is about verifying the Bible as a historical record. That bolsters people’s faith.
Archeology is an interesting field and why not apply it to the Middle East which enviably leads back to the Bible. As others stated, I do not need verification to re-enforce my belief, but I still find archeological studies as well as scientific findings and studies interesting.
Neither will invalidate the Bible. When they appear in conflict, it is a result from either an inadequate understanding of the Bible or Science.
One of the things it does show is that the people who "late date" the books of the Bible are incorrect.
Some of the things they have verified are bits that are far too boring or small to have been part of oral tradition. When you are a story teller you go for excitement. Obscure little wars by obscure little kings that you lost are generally not included. But they are included in official court records.
So if you find outside evidence of one of those things then you don't have oral tradition that was written down a couple of hundreds of years after the fact but official court records that were written down as the events took place.
Two very different things from an historical point of view.
Bruce is great
I agree completely. It is interesting to know that specific individuals are mentioned outside the Bible. I like knowing the time period in which a key event occurred, and I enjoy reading the other side's description of the events God chose to preserve for us in scripture.
Wasn’t he the guy that used to harass Superman?
For me, it's less about faith than about adding cross-checked information to the historical record. I want to know more about these people and what they did, because it's COOL. Every additional fact is a bonus.
LOL!
Exactly
Don’t you wish you could go back in time and interview “Abner, son of Ner,” King Saul’s cousin, or “Joab, son of Zeruiah,” King David’s nephew ... those epic warlords? I firmly believe they were real people, which means they were even more interesting than they appear in the rather limited Biblical texts.
It’s all very well to confirm, with an ancient inscription, that “Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard” really existed, but I want to know *all about him*!
It's gratifying to see so many people, places, and events from Biblical times ultimately be confirmed by science, thus rebuking to a degree the knee-jerk skeptics who have a tendency to scoff at the Bible's value as an historical record...
We used to be subscribers, too. Maybe ten or fifteen years ago ... when our daughters were Girl Scouts, they sold discount magazine subscriptions, and BAR was one we got. It was very interesting.
I recently watched a video series about Holy Land archaeology. Many ancient sites, especially early ones like Canaanite cities, are entirely unexcavated. There is so much to find!
Dig them up! Let’s have a close look at their teeth!
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