Free Republic

The theory that the universe was crafted intentionally explains many essential realities that theories based on spontaneous chance do not.The scientific establishment is slowly beginning to allow scientists who believe in intelligent design to have a platform. Why? It may be because the theory that the universe was crafted intentionally explains many essential realities that theories based on spontaneous chance do not. Perhaps the simplest and best argument for intelligent design is to clearly state what you have to believe to not believe in intelligent design, as I did in my book, “In the Beginning and Other Essays on Intelligent...

EVIDENCE for Jesus Christ's crucifixion story was provided by a stunning archaeological discovery of a Jewish tomb from the biblical era. We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you've consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You can unsubscribe at any time. More info The Easter story is at the heart of the ChristIan religion. On Good Friday Jesus was executed by crucifixion for treason after claiming he was “King of the Jews”, and his body was subsequently taken down from the cross,...

There are many religions with different founders, prophets, and teachers going back thousands of years. But only one of them, Christianity, has a founder who professed to be the Messiah—the son of God—who provided irrefutable proof of who he was by conquering death through resurrection. Easter is the celebration of Christ’s resurrection.Christ is also the only person in history who was pre-announced starting a thousand years before he was born, with 18 different prophets from the Old Testament between the tenth and the fourth centuries BC predicting his coming birth, life, and death. Hundreds of years later, the details of...

Of course, during the last century liberal theology had no use for the historical resurrection of Jesus. But a remarkable change has come about during the second half of the 20th century. A new quest of the historical Jesus had begun. By 1968 the old skepticism was a spent force and began dramatically to recede. So complete has been the turnabout during the second half of this century concerning the resurrection of Jesus that it is no exaggeration to speak of a reversal of scholarship on this issue. What are the facts that underlie this remarkable reversal of opinion concerning...

I teach Sunday school at my Church. For our next study we will be doing a class on the Trinity - which I see the world and false Christians attacking more and more in contemporary society. The primary text I will be using is “The Forgotten Trinity” by Dr. James White. It is aimed at the layman and should be an excellent resource. But whenever I teach a subject I like to get immersed in it so I can respond to the inevitable tough questions the class always ends up throwing at me. Accordingly, I am looking for some other...

In a Mormon(LDS) blog interview,1 Jenkins defended not only the Mormon owned Vid-Angel distribution and the filming of “The Chosen” in Utah on an LDS set, but he also defended the idea that Mormons follow the “same Christ” and that there is no significant difference between Mormons and Evangelicals. He further admitted that many LDS people are working on the project and influencing his thinking. Jenkins’ defense against criticism was quite telling. Hear it in his own words: “So even if you are listening to this right now as an evangelical and are horrified to hear me say some of...

“[Christ] existed in the form of God” (Philippians 2:6). Christ possesses the very nature of God. In the second part of John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, Christiana and her children travel toward the Celestial Country. During their pilgrimage, Interpreter introduces them to one of his male servants, whose name is Great-heart. When Christiana asks Great-heart to explain the nature of Christ’s forgiveness, part of his answer is: “He [Christ] has two natures in one Person, easy to distinguish but impossible to divide. There is a righteousness that belongs to both of these natures, and each righteousness is essential to that nature,...

Writing in response to Dr Luke Barnes' article on why he no longer believes in young earth creationism, physicist and engineer, Dr Jim Mason shares his own story, and explains why he believes a “plain reading” of Genesis leads to a young earth viewpoint.

“The historicity of Christ is as axiomatic for an unbiased historian as the historicity of Julius Caesar. It is not historians who propagate the ‘Christ-myth’ theories.”~F.F. Bruce. Historian Durant: “In the enthusiasm of its discoveries the Higher Criticism has applied to the New Testament tests of authenticity so severe that by them a hundred ancient worthies—e.g., Hammurabi, David, Socrates—would fade into legend.” Greco-Roman historian Michael Grant, who certainly has no theological axe to grind, indicates that there is more evidence for the existence of Jesus than there is for a large number of famous pagan personages - yet no one...

PREFACE TO THE FIFTH EDITION Reliable as what?' asked a discerning reviewer of the first edition of this little work, by way of a comment on the title. His point, I think, was that we should be concerned with the reliability of the New Testament as a witness to God's selfrevelation in Christ rather than with its reliability as a record of historical fact. True; but the two questions are closely related. For, since Christianity claims to be a historical revelation, it is not irrelevant to look at its foundation documents from the standpoint of historical criticism. When the first...

I would like some clarification as to the truth of the rules and situation here on the FR. Several times over the last few years it has been mandated by certain users that a prerequisite for participating here, conversing here, or donating here is mandated that you must first be a White Puritan Christian. No exceptions or you are considered a Troll. You must believe what they believe exactly or you should hit the highway. Anyone else conservative or not, are to be considered as just trolls and should excommunicate themselves and leave. This is an important clarification. Because if...

Among Catholics and atheists, is easy to exchange convinced assertions: “The gospels are 100% God’s holy Word and every bit is historically accurate!” or “The gospels are fairy tales!” However there is a discipline called “Biblical scholarship” in which scholars do some very interesting work determining just which parts of the gospels they think are reliable and which they think are not. Their conclusions are, of course, debated. That’s what scholars do. Their work is fascinating and it is worth taking some time to look at just a smidgen of their methodology and conclusions. Bible scholars are most interested in...

The NFL will pay very close attention to whether unvaccinated players follow Covid protocols this season, and if they don’t, the players will end up paying the league.According to another in a series of recent and aggressive new restrictions targeting unvaccinated players, the NFL announced on Saturday that if a player violates one of the league-mandated Covid protocols that applies to unvaccinated players, they will receive a $14,650 fine.The new penalty comes on the heels of another restriction announced this week in which the league said that if a Covid outbreak among unvaccinated players caused a game to be canceled,...

Unlike all other religions that emphasize mysticism, myth, fables, legends, or even allegories, Christianity is a historical religion that upholds the facticity of its revelatory events that becomes the very object of faith. Not only is the crucifixion of Christ the most historically attested fact of the ancient world, but believe it or not, the resurrection of Jesus is not far behind. The test of faith in Christianity that so many have a hard time with is not that believing is a leap out into an irrational world of myth, but that believing is based on historical facts, the exact...

“Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son” (1 John 2:22). “And the fifth angel sounded the trumpet, and I saw a star fall from heaven upon the earth, and there was given to him the key of the bottomless pit." (Rev. 9:1) In his Concise Commentary Matthew Henry identifies falling stars as tepid, indecisive, weak or apostate clergy who, "Having ceased to be a minister of Christ, he who is represented by this star becomes the minister of the devil; and lets loose the...

Did Jesus Claim to be God? Summary Evidence in addition to his claims in the New Testament The concept of Jesus as divine existed within at least 10 to 20 years of his crucifixion, and therefore likely to have been asserted by Jesus himself. The claims of Jesus to be God make sense of his trial and crucifixion i.e. blasphemy The early enemies of Christ would have declared that Jesus never made such claim A parallel movement, that claimed Jesus as merely a good teacher, would have emerged alongside Christianity Jesus' use of Divine Titles Yahweh - claiming the sacred...

“The Christian faith has not been tried and found wanting. It has rather been found difficult and left untried.” —Chesterton I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending.The story of Jesus is either the greatest event in history or the cruelest hoax. If it is a hoax, then the whole of the Christian message crumbles together with the hopes of those multitudes of lives built on his name. The apostle Paul said: “And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. Yes, and we are found false witnesses of...

The moment I uttered these words, my burden rolled off my back and I knew that I was free. Joy now flooded into my heart and I began to praise the Lord. He had taught me a new song. by Moshe Radcliff [On September 25th H.R. Moshe Radcliff died. His testimony appeared in the Presbyterian Standard (July-September 1998) and is published by kind permission.] I was born into a Jewish family in prosperous Vienna, Austria on the 5th April 1930. Although my parents did not strictly observe the Jewish religion, father took my brother and me to synagogue occasionally. Mother...

I’ve read with interest Francis (Frank) Beckwith’s book, Return to Rome, because like him, I was baptized and raised Roman Catholic, attending parochial schools through my primary grades and a preparatory school run by a Benedictine monastery throughout my high school years. And, like Dr. Beckwith, in my teens I turned away from the Roman Catholic Church and Christianity altogether but was converted in my early twenties and began attending a Protestant Evangelical church. And for the past thirty seven years I have been a committed Evangelical Protestant. I was also quite interested in reading Dr. Beckwith’s book because he...

Dallas Theological Seminary professor Daniel B. Wallace has said that newly discovered fragments from the Gospel of Mark could be the oldest New Testament artifacts ever found and date from the first century A.D., or during the time of eyewitnesses of Jesus' resurrection. Wallace announced his findings at UNC Chapel Hill on Feb. 1, 2012, during a debate in front of 1,000 people, where he unveiled that seven New Testament papyri had recently been discovered – six of them he said were probably from the second century, and one of them, the Gospel of Mark, probably from the first. The...