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The truth of the Resurrection stands or falls on the truth of the witnesses. Are they reliable? Of the New Testament writers, there are six witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus Christ, if we include the apostles Peter and Paul. These people have left us writings in the form of historical documents which give us their testimony concerning the resurrection.The question is—are these historical documents reliable? Can we trust them? One way of determining whether the documents are reliable is to put the people who wrote them through the test a good magistrate or judge would put them through. The...

Why is defending the Gospels important? Christianity hinges on the resurrection of Jesus. If Jesus didn’t resurrect, then Christianity is false. So any claim that the Gospel writers lied, is a claim that they lied about Jesus’ resurrection, and therefore Christianity is false. Most importantly, if things didn’t happen the way the Gospel writers said they did, then Jesus did not fulfill Old Testament prophecies. If He didn’t fulfill the prophecies, He’s not the Messiah.Here are six ways we can know the Gospel writers didn't lie. 1. The Gospels contain details that embarrass the writersIf you were going to make...

"When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets. He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is...

"And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows." "He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it." "He that receiveth you receiveth me,...

I explore Surah 80 (He Frowned), and contrast the empathy and compassion demonstrated by Christ with the contempt felt towards his fellow man by Muhammad.

I explore one of the most baffling surahs in the Koran, and explain why Islam's purported monotheism is a blatant lie.

I explore Surah 59 of the Koran, and describe how Muhammad's approach to treaties set the template for future Islamic jihadists. I also contrast the example of Jesus-the Lord who came to earth to serve-with that of Mohammad, a wicked human exalted as Lord by his followers.

I compare Muhammed's view of prayer and oaths with that of scripture, and point out how the self-contradictions of the Koran make it impossible to follow consistently.

Question One: How do we know the Bible is true? (Hebrews 4:12) According to the Bible, all Scripture is God-breathed (2 Timothy 3:16). Peter confirmed this when he said that those who wrote the Bible were not speaking on their own but spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:21). Many parts of Scripture are directly attributed to God through use of phrases like This is what the Lord says (e.g., Exodus 4:22). Finally, Jesus often quoted from the Old Testament and affirmed it as being God’s Word. Prophecies that were later fulfilled...

Anyone watching the History Channel series?

In this video we will first make a case for the early unity of the fourfold Gospel before exploring authorship and dating of each one individually in upcoming videos.

Happy Wednesday, everyone! Who's ready for another "Why the New Testament Was Written" vlog?In part 6, we're studying the synoptic gospels...that is, Matthew, Mark and Luke. We'll talk about the historical reason the early church decided to record the life of Christ 20+ years after the fact, and we'll compare and contrast the original three.Why the Synoptic Gospels Were WrittenVideo runs at 16:19.

Just a short walk east of Jerusalem's Old City and the Temple Mount lies the Mount of Olives, a large hill that rises to about 2,700 feet above sea level.  It's the middle of the three peaks directly across the Kidron Valley, with Mount Scopus to the north and the Mount of Corruption to the south.  The mountain's slopes were once covered in olive groves, which is where it gets its namesake, but few olive trees remain.  In their place are roughly 150,000 Jewish graves.  The graves are so tightly placed together it may be one of the most densely...

The earliest Latin commentary on the Gospels, lost for more than 1,500 years, has been rediscovered and made available in English for the first time. The extraordinary find, a work written by a bishop in northern Italy, Fortunatianus of Aquileia, dates back to the middle of the fourth century. The biblical text of the manuscript is of particular significance, as it predates the standard Latin version known as the Vulgate. and provides new evidence about the earliest form of the Gospels in Latin. Despite references to this commentary in other ancient works, no copy was known to survive until Dr...

We do not generally celebrate the birthdays of saints. We celebrate the date of their deaths, because how we end our lives is more important than how we begin them. However, St. John the Baptist is one of the two exceptions to this rule. We celebrate both the conception and the birth of St. John as well as the Theotokos, because these two people are the holiest of the saints. St. John was, we are told in the Gospels, filled with the Holy Spirit while still in his mother's womb (Luke 1:15), and so he was a great saint,...

And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle. And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, LORD God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come. (Revelation 4:7-8)John saw four “Living Beings”, called “beasts” in the King James Version, worshipping the Holy and Sovereign God in antiphon. The description of the...

Whence Comes the Special Resistance to Christ? A Meditation on a Teaching from Joseph Sobran Msgr. Charles Pope • November 23, 2015 • I have started reading through a recently published book called Subtracting Christianity: Essays on American Culture and Society. It is an anthology of the writings of Joseph Sobran (1946-2010), long-time editor at National Review and a keen observer of culture and its intersection with faith. I recommend it highly, for its penetrating observations and its sober portrait of what happens when we remove Christianity from our culture, the same Christianity that was fundamental in our making.I'd like...

A few weeks ago alarm bells went off in my head when someone forwarded me an excerpt from an English-language translation of a sermon he preached in the Pope's recent trip to South America, relating the loaves-and-fishes event to the Eucharist. Let me explain. Around two centuries ago the liberal Protestant scholar Gottlob Paulus (1761-1851) started what was to become quite a popular trend in the heretical German circles of “higher critical” biblical scholarship. Paulus wanted to recognize some historical foundation in the Gospel accounts of our Lord’s life and ministry; but his Enlightenment rationalism meant excluding all supernatural, miraculous...

The words of Jesus in Matthew 7:21-23 are often quoted, but commonly misapplied. In this familiar passage our Lord declared, "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'" Unfortunately, this passage is often presented to genuine believers...

"New technology that allows scientists to remove the glue from the masks of mummies without damaging the ink on the paper used to make the mask has yielded an exciting discovery: a piece of papyrus that may contain the oldest known copy of one of the gospels. The finding, a fragment of the Gospel of Mark, which dates back to the year 90, is one of several fascinating texts that archaeologists are discovering in the masks of mummies. This first-century gospel fragment was written on a sheet of papyrus that was later reused to create a mask that was worn...