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Hi everyone! I usually post these on Wednesdays but in the holiday rush I haven't had much time so either film a video or write a new blog. So I decided to just make the last Why the New Testament Was Written video as a substitute for my usual Saturday blogs.I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! This week's concluding video is on why Revelation was written. Rather than delve into the divisive theological issues of eschatology, I decided to focus solely on the historical context of John's vision and the book's authorship.Why John...

Christmas 2018: Who Were the Wise Men? By Philip Cottraux The Nativity scene. Amongst the yearly plethora of Christmas trees, gifts, same radio songs playing over and over, and Santa Claus, we constantly look to the Nativity to remind ourselves of the reason for the season. But this year I want to focus solely on one of the strangest aspects of the Christmas story. The wise men are one of the most iconic images of Christmas. Somehow mixed in all the winter imagery is a forlorn desert-scape under a starry night. Three men dressed as Persian royalty ride camels toward...

God’s Name Will Not be Mentioned By Philip Cottraux I personally think there’s no such thing as an atheist. Deep down inside, everyone knows there’s a God. Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness (Romans 2:15). The reality is they don’t believe He doesn’t exist; they hate Him. The war against everything related to God, the intense hatred of all religion, and the burning desire to scrub any mention of His name from society betrays their true feelings. The murky reference to “separation of church and state” is a thinly-veiled false...

Hello everyone! I'm a few days late posting this due to technical difficulties. But the good news is I got it resolved. This week's episode of "Why the New Testament Was Written" focuses on Peter's second epistle. It also takes a further look at how the Nero persecutions ended and the long-term ramifications they had on early Christianity.Video: Why II Peter Was WrittenVideo clocks in at 10:17. Two more to go!

Woe Unto Edom By Philip Cottraux When it comes to Bible prophecy, end-times study is the most popular subject among Christians. However, we miss out by not looking more at prophecy that’s already been fulfilled. If you want to see God’s fingerprints in history, it’s worth examining predictions from the Old Testament that were fulfilled within ancient times, in some cases even before the New Testament age. Daniel is the best example. This prophet lived during the reign of king Nebuchadnezzar all the way through the occupation of Babylon by the Medo-Persians, in the time span of 620-538 BC. But...

Hi everyone! It's Wednesday night Bible study!For this week's Why the New Testament was Written video, we're talking about why Paul wrote the second letter to Timothy. I consider it to be the saddest book of the New Testament, as Paul's farewell letter to the church and to the world in general. This is part 15 of the series (should be three more to go...next week is II Peter, then Jude, then finally Revelation).Why Paul Wrote II TimothyVideo clocks in at 9:29.

Why David was Spared but Uzziah Wasn’t By Philip Cottraux As Jesus and His disciples were traveling, they plucked ears of corn to eat. This happened to occur on the Sabbath, giving the Pharisees yet another reason to criticize Him. Mark 2:24: And the Pharisees said unto him, Behold, why do they on the Sabbath day that which is not lawful? While remembering to keep the Sabbath was important, nothing in the Torah specifically banned hungry people from picking crops; but this shows the state of Jewish leadership at the time; over the years, they had added man-made rules to...

Hi everyone! I can't believe I've already made 14 of these!This week's "Why the New Testament Was Written" vlog focuses on Peter's first epistle (if you couldn't tell by the title). We'll talk about when it was written, why it was written, and to whom it was written (and I say this knowing full well someone's going to comment "Because the Spirit told him to").Why I Peter Was WrittenVideo clocks in at 10:05.

“Name a Natural Explanation Later Replaced by a Supernatural Explanation” By Philip Cottraux I see this one pop up on Twitter from time to time, followed by atheists bragging that they’ve never met a theist who can answer it. Unfortunately, I’ve been unsuccessful tracking down its origin. In some tweets I’ve seen it connected with Sam Harris, but sifting through countless quotes as well as his book The End of Faith (this was a torturous experience) turned up nothing. Like most atheist “gotchas,” this one is riddled with false presumptions. I can already hear skeptics getting to the end of...

Hi everyone! Happy Thanksgiving! Gobble gobble!This week's Wednesday night Bible study is part 13 of our video series on why the New Testament was written. Tonight we're talking about the writings of John. I had a hard time coming up with a title for this one, and "Why John Wrote His Gospel and Epistles" is honestly the least-awkward thing I could come up with.Anyway, here's the video.Why John Wrote His Gospel and EpistlesA bit of a lengthy one this week (clocks in at 17:44). Twitter's been having a field day with me on this, so I can't wait to see...

The Persecution Letters By Philip Cottraux When we think of Christianity in ancient Rome, one of the first images that comes to mind is Christians being fed to lions in the Coliseum. But this wasn’t the norm throughout most of Roman history. Persecutions came in phases and were often short-lived, according to which emperor ordered it. The Romans didn’t always force their subjects to bow to their gods. Judaism was legal and since Christianity was considered a branch of Judaism, it too enjoyed certain rights and protections. At first. But as it grew, some started to view them with distrust....

Fahrenheit 451: A Book Review By Philip Cottraux I’ve written two reviews of dystopian future novels, 1984 and Brave New World (click the links to read). This week I decided to tackle Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. The story behind its authorship is almost as fascinating as the book itself; it took years for Bradbury to complete, working feverishly in garages and library basements during his spare time (he admitted in the book’s epilogue that he never quite completed a final story). Although written during the backdrop of the Cold War, it proved to be one of the most prophetic...

Good evening, everyone! Hope you're all ready for a little break from politics, us being in the aftermath of the midterms. This is part 12 (I can't believe I've done a dozen of these) of our vlog series on Why The New Testament Was Written - this week focusing on Titus.Why Paul Wrote TitusTitus is a short book, so a short video this week (clocks in at 6:44).

Okay, I'm a day late on this (due to an extremely busy week). Nevertheless, here is part 11 of our video series on why the New Testament was Written.Why Hebrews Was WrittenSource is The Untold Story of the New Testament by Frank Viola. Video clocks in at 13:57.

The Origins of Gnosticism By Philip Cottraux At the end of last week’s blog I mentioned the “Christian supernova,” a period roughly between 100-200 AD when Christianity exploded rapidly across the Roman Empire. The movement became more diverse as it grew. Orthodox and Coptic Christians divided into more and more complex subgroups. Unfortunately, some got more radicalized until they became isolated cults with teachings directly contradicting the gospel. Perhaps the most infamous of these were the Gnostics. Gnosis is Greek for “received knowledge” or “secret wisdom.” However, “Gnostic” is a modern term; there was no actual group that called themselves...

This week's "Why the New Testament Was Written" vlog (part 10) is about why Luke wrote Acts (if you couldn't tell by the title). We also delve into the importance of Acts in apologetics...Luke's writings vividly detail his historical environment, which is crucial to verifying the truth of Christianity.Why Luke Wrote ActsVideo clocks in at 12:41. Three critical sources: "The Untold Story of the New Testament" by Frank Viola, "Cold Case Christianity" by J Warner Wallace, and "I Don't Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist" by Frank Turek and Norman Geisler.

The Three Supernovas By Philip Cottraux Atheists used to believe the universe was eternally pre-existing and static. By rejecting the biblical creation account, they couldn’t accept the idea of a universe that had a beginning. Bertrand Russell, Charles Darwin, and at one time even Einstein labored under this philosophy. The idea of the whole universe condensed to a small state whose expansion was triggered by a colossal explosion was first proposed by a Catholic priest, Georges LeMaitres. The idea seemed so preposterous that astronomer Fred Hoyle first coined the phrase “big bang” as a term of ridicule. But two years...

Good evening!I'm a day late on this (been working some ridiculous hours). However I finally got home from work early enough to post this week's "Why the New Testament Was Written" vlog. This week, in part 9, we're talking about why Paul Wrote I Timothy.Why Paul Wrote I TimothyVideo clocks in at 11:31. Normally with first-and-second books of the New Testament we talk about both in one video, but Paul wrote to Timothy twice for very different reasons. This also gave me a chance to talk about gnosticism, which some historians believe originated in Ephesus and was the false doctrine...

How Many Moseses Wrote the Torah? By Philip Cottraux I wrote two previous blogs discussing mid-19th century German theologian J.G. Eichhorn, originator of many modern criticisms of the Bible. In “The Daniel Lynchpin,” (click here to read) I addressed his proposal that the book of Daniel was a product of the Maccabean period. In “How Many Isaiahs Wrote Isaiah?” (click here to read), I addressed his theory that Isaiah has more than one author. This is a follow-up of sorts, as there is a similar claim that the Torah has multiple authors (at least in the Isaiah theory, the prophet...

The Consequences of Child Favoritism By Philip Cottraux The Bible is timeless. Despite being thousands of years old, it still can teach us profound lessons about ourselves. Setting aside just their historical truth, its stories contain universal metatruth on the nature of man. Specifically, the story of Jacob and Esau is perhaps its most cautionary tale on the danger of dysfunctional family dynamics. Like his father Abraham, Isaac and Rebekah had trouble conceiving. And Isaac intreated the Lord for his wife, because she was barren: and the Lord was inteated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived (Genesis 25:21). After...