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You are here: Home / Archives for Questions from Skeptics

A Reason for Hope Question of the Week, March 1st, 2019

What evidence supports the Gospels as reliable history?

This question is one worth answering because the evidence is not only readily available, but also because the majority of skeptical scholars have to acknowledge it even if it goes against their assumptions. First, we need to clarify what evidence is. Simply put, it is something that makes something else more likely to be true. If that’s what we’re looking for, what counts as historical evidence? People, places, and things that fall in line with the history someone is trying to prove would fall into this category. With the names we are given in the gospels, we can conclude it was written during the time Jesus is claimed to have lived in history. Their names would include; Herod the Great, Caesar Augustus, Quirinius, Herod Agrippa, Pontius Pilate, Caesar Tiberius, Ananias, and Caiphas. All of these people are verifiable historical figures that are all mentioned in the Gospels to help set the date. Likewise, the places mentioned aren’t fictional at all. Judea, the Roman Empire, Samaria, Galilee, Jerusalem, Asia Minor, and geographical details that fall in line with other 1st century writings about these areas also fall in line to make the gospels more believable based on the evidence we have available. But most significantly, we also are told a lot about when it was written in history because of what isn’t mentioned. According to Jewish historians, the destruction of Jerusalem was the most horrific event for a Jew, Christian or otherwise, to ever imagine. This took place in 70 AD. Since the authors of the gospels were all Jews or came from Jewish sources, the fact that they never record the Temple’s destruction says a lot about when it was written. Based on this we can conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that the Gospels were written during the lifetimes of the people who saw Jesus firsthand. That is the next salvo of evidence to prove the Gospels as reliable. They identify themselves all as eyewitnesses of everything they recorded. And these same people all endured lives of torture, persecution, and death showing their sincerity. To dismiss this as deception would only hold water if the writers of the Gospels weren’t the eyewitnesses themselves. Unfortunately for the skeptic, we also have the writings of early church fathers like Polycarp, Clement, and Ignatius who knew one or more of the eyewitnesses and affirm/quote/treat the four Gospels all as history given by the eyewitnesses themselves. This is just the tip of the iceberg, but handled properly would lead anyone to conclude the gospels are historically reliable.


A Reason For Hope is a ministry of Calvary Christian Fellowship of Tucson

Listen: Monday – Friday 5-6pm, on 106.3FM Reach Radio

Email your questions:

[email protected]

Follow Twitter: @ScottR4H

Follow on CCF Facebook: facebook.com/ccftucson

Watch our Frequently Asked Questions on GodTube or YouTube.

Filed Under: Question of the Week, Questions about Scripture, Questions from Skeptics

Do All Religions Basically Teach the Same Thing?

Question: Do All Religions Basically Teach the Same Thing?

1. What do you mean by basically? The essentials of each belief contradict each others, so essentially they are different.
2. Every religion claims to be true. That is either true or it’s false. If one is true and makes claims that exclude the others, then it alone is true and all of the others are false since they conflict with the truth.
3. Every religion teaches about Heaven, Hell, God, The Devil, Morality, Origin, and Purpose. Their teachings on those topics differ. Saying they are all the same because they address the same categories is like saying all school subjects teach the same thing since they all involve a teacher, students, a rubric, and a topic. Those topics, teachers, and rubrics are all very different when examined closely.Facts: Every religion makes claims that fundamentally exclude all others apart from itself.
1. Christianity:
God: One God with a unique nature, Father, Son, and Spirit. The Son became a man in a moment of history and showed that He is a God of perfect justice and mercy by judging all sin, but offering mercy at His own expense so a relationship with man could be possible again.
The Devil: An angel of great power, but an angel nonetheless. His influence isn’t the origin of evil, but he is the original being that separated himself from the source of everything good. He will ultimately face justice, but until then is used as the living example of exactly what the alternative is from a relationship with God.
Heaven: Where God is. Very little details are given in scripture. The emphasis is on knowing Jesus.
Hell: Separation from God. A state of torment, not torture, where you are given what you want if you refuse a relationship with God. This also excludes all of His good and perfect gifts. It is eternal.
Morality: God’s nature. Sin, or to miss, is falling short of that standard and requires the sacrifice of Jesus to redeem you from and restore you, heart and mind, back to God.
Origin: God created us in His image. We are moral, personal, and relational beings and reflect His spiritual attributes. Therefore, we are intrinsically valuable at a higher level than any other creature because of that origin.
Purpose: God created us for a relationship with Him. Restoration to that relationship is the ultimate goal and priority of the God of the Bible and where our ultimate fulfillment is found.

2. Islam:
God: One God with one essence. He can’t enter this world, eat food, or interact with man in any way apart from mediators like angels. You can’t have a relationship with Allah apart from a slave to master relationship.
The Devil: Not an angel, but a djinn/genie. He is not exclusively the enemy of all mankind, but merely one enemy to the Muslims from the truth alongside Christians, Jews, and Non-Muslims.
Heaven: A carnal paradise of wine, prostitutes, and everything else that Muslims are motivated by in the Quran and Hadith.
Hell: A carnal pit of torture that directly punishes you in specific ways for specific actions and given in explicit detail. The majority of the inhabitants of hell are women, and male Christians will be sent there for the sins of Muslims who have done enough good deeds to outweigh them.
Morality: At the beginning of your life, two angels are placed on your shoulders to record your good and bad deeds. At the end of your life, they will place their records of you on a scale and you’ll have the opportunity to climb a thread to a razor thin bridge to paradise. If your bad deeds outwiegh your good, or you fall at any time during this crossing, you will go to Hell. Good deeds aren’t based on Allah’s nature, but Muhammad’s example. This includes the morally reprehensible things he’s done. Child marriages, executing apostates and critics, and other things are justified in the Muslim world because Muhammad is their “excellent example” and the “walking Quran.”
Origin: Everything in Islam is explained by “Allah knows.” His actions and reasons for doing so simply are his own and according to the Quran, people shouldn’t ask questions about them lest they lose their faith and by extension, their lives.
Purpose: Your purpose in life is to submit to God the way Muhammad did. If you don’t, or don’t enough, you’re going to be killed by Muslims and punished by Allah.

3. Buddhism:
God: There is no personal God. The universe is the eternal and ultimate essence of which everything is and will return to once you become enlightened.
The Devil: There is no personal devil. The only thing that separates you from the divine is suffering (dukha) and the lifetimes you must die and reincarnate before you are enlightened and become one with the universe.
Heaven: There is no Heaven. Only the goal of one day not living in a world of suffering or happiness anymore.
Hell: There is no Hell. The worst fate of a Buddhist is to continue to live on this earth and suffer.
Morality: There is no morality. Right and Wrong are concepts absent from Buddhism. Good and Evil in the universe must be balanced. Therefore, if good happens, Karma demands evil must happen elsewhere. And Vice versa. That’s why a Buddhist’s goal isn’t to do good or evil for anyone. The most devout Buddhists lock themselves away from the world and do nothing but meditate to keep everything in balance.
Origin: Buddhism makes no claims about your origin. It only addresses where you are and how you get out of it through practical and moral  indifference.
Purpose: Your purpose is to die and come back again and again until all of the good and evil you have done is undone by Karma and you are enlightened, never to exist again.

4. Hinduism:
God: There are hundreds of thousands of gods, all of which are unique and separate with their own agendas and attributes.
The Devil: There are hundreds of thousands of demons, all of which are unique and separate with their own agendas and attributes.
Heaven: Brahman is the ultimate essence and eternal nature of the universe that you eventually are assimilated into, like Buddhism, and become an impersonal part of everything and nothing.
Hell: Like Buddhism, a Hindu’s curse is to reincarnate. To live is Hell, and to stop coming back after working out all of your Karma is to escape Hell.
Morality: There is no objective morality in Hinduism. Due to the massive number of gods, good and not good are based on whichever god you choose to follow in pursuit of Brahman.  
Origin: There is no origin in Hinduism. Time is a cycle that will continue forever, and never began.
Purpose: The goal of Hinduism is to escape this reality, like Buddhism, and through reincarnation accomplish this through the caste system or the favor of the god of your choice.

5. Paganism:
God: There are many gods, all of which represent a different aspect of nature.
The Devil: There is no specific devil, and at times the greatest enemy to your relationship with God is the god you are worshiping’s whims and moods.
Heaven: The Underworld, or a form of it, is where you leave the physical and become immaterial and enjoy a place where various pleasures can be enjoyed, carnal or otherwise. (depends on the cultural context of paganism. Wicca’s Summerland and the Norse realms of the Dead are carnal. Roman and Egyptian realms of the underworld are simply peaceful.)
Hell: The Underworld, depending on the whims of your god. You can be tortured forever based on the displeasure of your god on personal or legal levels.
Morality: Different gods have different standards. Therefore, since a person following one god could be deliberately violating every standard of another god, but doesn’t answer to them concerning morality, there is no objective moral standard for all people at all times.
Origin: It varies, but the common cultural assumption is that Chaos became conscious and started having kids with his wife. We just sort of happened along the way as the result of either battles between these superpowered kids or accidents that are no less explainable than they are.
Purpose: Since every pagan god is essentially just a bad habit with a name on it, the pursuit of pleasure.

6. Atheism:
God: There is none.
The Devil: The people who believe there is a God are the reason for everything they call wrong.
Heaven: There is none. Good deeds have no reward.
Hell: There is none. Justice for evil is a delusion.
Morality: There is none apart from the individual’s opinion.
Origin: In the beginning there was nothing, and it blew up.
Purpose: None.

7. Cults:
God: Your organization determines what is right or wrong for you on his/her behalf.
The Devil: Anyone who isn’t a part of your organization.
Heaven: Continued membership in your organization and community.
Hell: Separation and disassociation from your community in this life and the next.
Morality: Your organization determines what is right in God’s eyes.
Origin: Your organization affirms or denies the origin claims of other religions.
Purpose: To support and build up the influence of your organization.

Filed Under: Question of the Week, Questions from Skeptics

How Should a Christian View Abortion?

Question of the Week: How should a Christian view the topic of abortion?

The issue of abortion is only called an issue because people who support it continuously try to redefine it. Abortion is viewed from 3 categories, all of which are controversial no matter the topic. A Christian who can clarify all three from a biblical worldview will be able to prevent people from avoiding the real issue.
1. A Political Issue: Abortion being made illegal or not is an issue of politics to some because they claim that doing so will end up legislating morality. The problem with this issue is that they are confusing enforcing religious practice with legislation. All laws are legislating morality. You don’t have to be a Christian to recognize the merit of Christian morality. Clarifying this issue will simply be a result of clarifying that term. If abortion is made illegal, it’s on the same basis every law is based on. A moral code. Not the enforcement of a particular religion.
2. A Moral Issue: Abortion is a moral issue to some because it is by definition deliberately ending the life of a helpless human being. This issue is distorted by either redefining what makes someone human, or redefining what murder is. Making up hypothetical scenarios of rape and incest that compose less than 1% of all abortions as a standard for the other 99.9% are not only inconsistent, but unscientific. Do your research and point out that the only difference between an unborn child and a human adult is the same difference between a thirty year old and thirteen year old. Time and nurture. The “zygote” has all of the same chromosomes and potential to grow that a 15 year old has to grow up to be 20. As long as neither have their skulls crushed by scissors and thrown into a blender that is. Even if the mother’s life is in danger, any mother if asked to choose between the life of their baby or their own won’t have to be given a lot of time to give an answer.
3. A Biblical Issue: Abortion is an issue people claim Christianity has nothing to say about because the term abortion is never used or condemned in the Bible. Unfortunately this is simply false. Not only is the pagan practice of Moloch worship through infant sacrifice a capital offense in scripture, but unborn babies are addressed and treated as fully human both in the Old and New Testament. The prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah are both called by God to ministry within their mother’s wombs, David calls himself a sinner by nature the moment he was conceived, and individuals like Jesus and John the Baptist are described as having emotional reactions and identities as Children while still in their mother’s wombs.

According to the Bible, science, and modern law, Abortion is illegal, immoral, and condemned by scripture. No matter where or how the issue is addressed, every Christian should be informed about and stand against the practice of it.

Filed Under: Question of the Week, Questions from Skeptics

Why Does God Send People to Hell?

Question of the Week: Why does God send people to Hell?

God doesn’t send anyone to Hell. He respects their decision to reject a relationship with Him and gives them an eternal state apart from Him. It’s important to understand that Hell isn’t a state of torture, but eternal torment. This is an internal and self-inflicted suffering caused by separation from the source of everything perfect and good. The reason people choose to go to Hell over Heaven is because they hate what makes Heaven what it is. For a Christian, Heaven is paradise because Jesus is there. We were all created for a relationship with God, but a relationship requires a choice. If God didn’t respect the wrong choice, then we never actually had a choice to begin with. The respect for that decision needs to be understood in light of two realities. First, that if God forced you to go into Heaven, He wouldn’t be loving nor would it be paradise for the person forced into His presence. And second, God didn’t make the road to Hell easy. Anyone who wants to go there must do so by crawling hand and foot over His dead and resurrected body.

A Reason For Hope is a ministry of Calvary Christian Fellowship of Tucson

Listen: Monday – Friday 5-6pm, on 106.3FM Reach Radio

Email your questions:

[email protected]

Follow Twitter: @ScottR4H

Follow on CCF Facebook: facebook.com/ccftucsonWatch our Frequently Asked Questions on GodTube or YouTube.

Filed Under: Question of the Week, Questions from Skeptics

How Should We Respond to the Claim “The Virgin Birth is Scientifically Impossible?”

Question: How Should We Respond When People Claim Jesus’ Virgin Birth is Scientifically Impossible? 

Verses: 2 Peter 1:16, Luke 1:26-38

When someone equates a miracle claim and science, they’ve missed the point of both subjects entirely. Science is the observation of natural phenomena through experimentation and repetition. Miracles are when the natural law is interrupted by outside influences. An example of both would be as follows. Parthenogenesis is an observed and established occurrence in the animal kingdom among certain snakes, lizards, insects, and fish where a female can fertilize her own eggs and produce offspring when no males are available. This natural phenomena is rare, but observable and repeatable in certain conditions. Therefore it falls into the realm of a scientifically verifiable virgin birth. Likewise, when the virgin birth took place in a moment of human history, something unnatural was taking place. Was it through natural phenomena? Not according to the eyewitness reports themselves. Calling back to the prophecies of Isaiah and Micah 700 years before Jesus’ time, Mary was informed by a messenger known as Gabriel that she would give birth to a son. When the natural explanation made no sense, the messenger clarified that the Holy Spirit would overshadow her. This new factor would be the equivalent of a hand catching a rock as it falls. Normally when rocks are dropped, they eventually hit the ground. No one claims the laws of reality are broken when a hand introduces a new rule in catching it and thus preventing it from hitting the ground after it has been dropped. Therefore, if there is a natural law that includes the rule that virgins don’t normally conceive, then that will always be the case unless a new factor is introduced. And if that new factor is the intervention of the being that created the Universe from nothing, then physically entering a voluntary woman’s womb is small potatoes by comparison.

A Reason For Hope is a ministry of Calvary Christian Fellowship of Tucson

Listen: Monday – Friday 5-6pm, on 106.3FM Reach Radio

Email your questions:

[email protected]

Follow Twitter: @ScottR4H

Follow on CCF Facebook: facebook.com/ccftucson

Watch our Frequently Asked Questions on GodTube or YouTube.

Filed Under: Question of the Week, Questions from Skeptics

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