Thoughts on ethics, society, politics, religion, philosophy, theology, and everything in between
Jed 
New Testament Christianity was not the only form of early Christianity. In the second and third centuries, there were other Christian groups–the Gnostics, the Ebionites, the Marcionites–which were regarded as heretics by orthodox Christians. Antichristian skeptics often argue that the existence of these various early forms of Christianity means that we cannot know what the … Read more
According to historic Christian orthodoxy, Jesus is God Incarnate, fully God and fully human. But is this what the earliest Christians believed? Skeptics often argue that it was not. The skeptical narrative runs something like this: the earliest Christians had a low Christology, believing Jesus to be just a man. Then, Christians started making grander … Read more
Jesus told His disciples, “Some who are standing here will not taste death before they see that the kingdom of God has come with power” (Matt 16:28; Mark 9:1; Luke 9:27). He declared that people would “see the Son of Man [a reference to Himself] coming in clouds with great power and glory” (Mark 13:26, … Read more
Historical Jesus scholarship is a massive and complex field, which means that answering the question, “Are the Gospels historically reliable?” is not a simple task. Fully answering this question would require analyzing each part of each Gospel, and assessing whether it is an authentic saying or deed of Jesus. Engaging in this monumental task would … Read more
In one of the very first posts on this blog, I presented a summary of the historical case for the resurrection of Jesus. In this post, I revisit this topic, addressing a few additional issues I did not address in my original post. Historical Skepticism One approach sometimes used by skeptics to reject the reality … Read more
The idea that Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s promises to His covenant people Israel is central and foundational to the message of the New Testament. The New Testament is filled with citations and allusions to Old Testament Scriptures, seeking to show that Jesus is the Messiah, the hope of Israel who brings Old Testament … Read more
Skeptics have often argued that the resurrection narratives of the four Gospels are hopelessly contradictory, and that this sheds doubt on the reality of Jesus’s resurrection. Now, it is certainly true that we have four very different resurrection narratives in the Gospels (this provides good evidence that these are independent eyewitness accounts, rather than a … Read more
In the book of Ephesians, Paul quotes Psalm 68:18 as saying, “When He ascended on high, He took captives, and gave gifts to His people” (Eph 4:8). However, the original Hebrew of Psalm 68:18 reads, “You ascended on high, leading a host of captives in your train and receiving gifts among men.” This seems to … Read more
The Bible is a large and complex book. It is a collection of sixty six different books written by dozens of different authors over the course of centuries. Yet Christians believe that, as the word of God, the Bible is ultimately one coherent whole, the foundational guide for the Church’s faith and practice. Antichristian skeptics, … Read more
Israelite History and Idolatry The plausibility of the prophetic history recorded in the Old Testament, in which Israel repeatedly turned to worship foreign gods in spite of the many miracles God performed for them, has often been called into question by skeptics. Let’s begin with the golden calf incident recorded in Exodus 32. God has … Read more