California Flag
In 1836, Juan Alvarado and Isaac Graham led a revolution against Mexican rule. During this first revolt, rebels were able to capture Monterey and declared California "a free and sovereign state". The Lone Star Flag of California contained a single red star on a white background. The red star on a white field was the proposed first flag for the 1836 revolt. The star, both in California and in Texas, represents freedom and independence. The "lone" star on the flag symbolized independence, similarly to the Texas "lone star", The shape of a five point star is very old, and appeared as early as in Babylonian and Sumerian cultures. It represented the five senses, the five planets (in ancient astronomy) Jupiter, Mercury, Mars and Saturn, and Venus, the five classical elements (earth, air, water, fire, aether (look it up...it is cool)), and much more.
Although that rebellion failed, it inspired the design of the flag of the Bear Flag Revolt. The original Grizzly Bear Flag was raised for the first time in Sonoma, California, June 1846, by the men who became known as the "Bear Flaggers“. The first Bear Flag was designed by William L. Todd, a nephew of Mary Todd - the wife of Abraham Lincoln. The flag was influenced by the 1836 California Lone Star Flag. The bear was designed to be a symbol of strength and unyielding resistance. Plus there were many grizzly bears in California in those days.
The United States had declared war on Mexico in May 1846. Mexico surrendered California in 1848 and it became a territory. In 1848 just as the Mexican War was coming to an end, gold was discovered in the Sacramento Valley. News of the discovery brought thousands of prospectors from all over the United States. Many of them arrived in 1849, and thus became known as “Forty-niners.” Between 1848 and 1860, California’s population increased from about 26,000 to 380,000. Those who were not lucky finding gold stayed in California and became farmers and ranchers.
California became the 31st state on Sept. 9, 1850.
The Bear Flag was officially adopted in 1911.
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Friday, February 18, 2011
Proof is in the Pudding
BIBLE PROOFS…HOW CAN I KNOW IT IS TRUE?
1)Science
2)Prophecy
3)Textual Evidence
4)Archaeology
5)Historians
1)Science: there is a great deal of scientific evidence that supports the Bible.
Statements Consistent With Paleontology:
The Bible refers to many of the common animals we know today. The list includes lions, wolves, bears, sheep, cattle and dogs along with various kinds of birds, rodents, reptiles, and insects. What is interesting is that this extensive list includes three animals that we no longer recognize: behemouth (brachiosaurus), leviathan (kronosaurus), tanniyn (dinosaur).
Behemoth has the following attributes according to Job 40:15-24. It “eats grass like an ox.”
It “moves his tail like a cedar.” (In Hebrew, this literally reads, “he lets hang his tail like a cedar.”)
Its “bones are like beams of bronze,His ribs like bars of iron.”
“He is the first of the ways of God.”
“He lies under the lotus trees,In a covert of reeds and marsh.”
Leviathan has the following attributes according to Job chapter 41, Psalm 104:25,26 and Isaiah 27:1. This is only a partial listing—just enough to make the point.
“No one is so fierce that he would dare stir him up.”
“Who can open the doors of his face, with his terrible teeth all around?”
“His rows of scales are his pride, shut up tightly as with a seal; one is so near another that no air can come between them; they are joined one to another, they stick together and cannot be parted.”
“His sneezings flash forth light, and his eyes are like the eyelids of the morning. Out of his mouth go burning lights; sparks of fire shoot out. Smoke goes out of his nostrils, as from a boiling pot and burning rushes. His breath kindles coals, and a flame goes out of his mouth.”
“Though the sword reaches him, it cannot avail; nor does spear, dart, or javelin. He regards iron as straw, and bronze as rotten wood. The arrow cannot make him flee; slingstones become like stubble to him. Darts are regarded as straw; he laughs at the threat of javelins.”
“On earth there is nothing like him, which is made without fear.”
Leviathan “played” in the “great and wide sea” (a paraphrase of Psalm 104 verses 25 and 26—get the exact sense by reading them yourself).
Leviathan is a “reptile that is in the sea.” (Isaiah 27:1) {Note: The word translated “reptile” here is the Hebrew word tanniyn. This shows that “Leviathan” was also a “tanniyn” (dragon)}
Statements Consistent With Astronomy
The Bible frequently refers to the great number of stars in the heavens. Here are two examples.
Genesis 22:17Blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies.
Jeremiah 33:22“As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, nor the sand of the sea measured, so will I multiply the descendants of David My servant and the Levites who minister to Me.”
Even today, scientists admit that they do not know how many stars there are. Only about 3,000 can be seen with the naked eye. We have seen estimates of 10^21 stars—which is a lot of stars. (The number of grains of sand on the earth’s seashores is estimated to be 10^25. As scientists discover more stars, wouldn’t it be interesting to discover that these two numbers match?)
The Bible also says that each star is unique.
1 Corinthians 15:41"There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differs from another star in glory."
All stars seem alike to the naked eye. Even when seen through a telescope, they seem to be just points of light. However, analysis of their light spectra reveals that each is unique and different from all others.
The Bible describes the precision of movement in the universe.
Jeremiah 31:35,36'Thus says the LORD,Who gives the sun for a light by day,The ordinances of the moon and the stars for a light by night,Who disturbs the sea,And its waves roar(The LORD of hosts is His name):“If those ordinances departFrom before Me", says the LORD,"Then the seed of Israel shall also cease from being a nation before Me forever.”'
The Bible describes the suspension of the Earth in space.
Job 26:7 "He stretches out the north over empty space;He hangs the earth on nothing."
Statements Consistent With Meteorology
The Bible describes the circulation of the atmosphere.
Ecclesiastes 1:6 "The wind goes toward the south,And turns around to the north;The wind whirls about continually,And comes again on its circuit."
The Bible includes some principles of fluid dynamics.
Job 28:25 "To establish a weight for the wind,And apportion the waters by measure."
The fact that air has weight was proven scientifically only about 300 years ago. The relative weights of air and water are needed for the efficient functioning of the world’s hydrologic cycle, which in turn sustains life on the earth.
Statements Consistent With Biology
The book of Leviticus (written prior to 1400 BC) describes the value of blood.
Leviticus 17:11‘For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.’
The blood carries water and nourishment to every cell, maintains the body’s temperature, and removes the waste material of the body’s cells. The blood also carries oxygen from the lungs throughout the body. In 1616, William Harvey discovered that blood circulation is the key factor in physical life—confirming what the Bible revealed 3,000 years earlier.
The Bible describes biogenesis (the development of living organisms from other living organisms) and the stability of each kind of living organism.
Genesis 1:11,12 'Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth”; and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.'
Genesis 1:21 'So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters abounded, according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.'
Genesis 1:25 'And God made the beast of the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.'
The phrase “according to its kind” occurs repeatedly, stressing the reproductive integrity of each kind of animal and plant. Today we know this occurs because all of these reproductive systems are programmed by their genetic codes.
The Bible describes the chemical nature of flesh.
Genesis 2:7 'And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.'
Genesis 3:19 'In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to the ground,For out of it you were taken;For dust you are,And to dust you shall return.'
Mental and spiritual health is strongly correlated with physical health. The Bible revealed this to us with these statements (and others) written by King Solomon about 950 BC.
Proverbs 12:4 'An excellent wife is the crown of her husband,But she who causes shame is like rottenness in his bones.'
Proverbs 14:30 'A sound heart is life to the body,But envy is rottenness to the bones.'
Proverbs 15:30 'The light of the eyes rejoices the heart,And a good report makes the bones healthy.'
Proverbs 16:24 'Pleasant words are like a honeycomb,Sweetness to the soul and health to the bones.'
Proverbs 17:22 'A merry heart does good, like medicine,But a broken spirit dries the bones.'
Statements Consistent With Anthropology
We have cave paintings and other evidence that people inhabited caves. The Bible also describes cave men.
Job 30:5,6 'They were driven out from among men,They shouted at them as at a thief.They had to live in the clefts of the valleys,In caves of the earth and the rocks.'
Note that these were not ape-men, but descendants of those who scattered from Babel. They were driven from the community by those tribes who competed successfully for the more desirable regions of the earth. Then for some reason they deteriorated mentally, physically, and spiritually. (Go into a bad part of your town and you will see this concept in action today.)
Statements Consistent With Hydrology
The Bible includes reasonably complete descriptions of the hydrologic cycle.
Psalm 135:7 'He causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth;He makes lightning for the rain;He brings the wind out of His treasuries.'
Jeremiah 10:13 'When He utters His voice,There is a multitude of waters in the heavens: And He causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth.He makes lightning for the rain,He brings the wind out of His treasuries.'
In these verses you can see several phases of the hydrologic cycle—the worldwide processes of evaporation, translation aloft by atmospheric circulation, condensation with electrical discharges, and precipitation.
Job 36:27-29 'For He draws up drops of water,Which distill as rain from the mist,Which the clouds drop down And pour abundantly on man.Indeed, can anyone understand the spreading of clouds,The thunder from His canopy?'
This simple verse has remarkable scientific insight. The drops of water which eventually pour down as rain first become vapor and then condense to tiny liquid water droplets in the clouds. These finally coalesce into drops large enough to overcome the updrafts that suspend them in the air.
The Bible describes the recirculation of water.
Ecclesiastes 1:7 'All the rivers run into the sea,Yet the sea is not full;To the place from which the rivers come,There they return again.'
Isaiah 55:10 'For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven,And do not return there,But water the earth,And make it bring forth and bud,That it may give seed to the sower And bread to the eater,'
The Bible refers to the surprising amount of water that can be held as condensation in clouds.
Job 26:8 'He binds up the water in His thick clouds,Yet the clouds are not broken under it.'
Job 37:11 'Also with moisture He saturates the thick clouds;He scatters His bright clouds.'
Hydrothermal vents are described in two books of the Bible written before 1400BC—more than 3,000 years before their discovery by science.
Genesis 7:11 'In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.'
Job 38:16 'Have you entered the springs of the sea?Or have you walked in search of the depths?'
Statements Consistent With Geology
The Bible describes the Earth’s crust (along with a comment on astronomy).
Jeremiah 31:37 'Thus says the LORD:“If heaven above can be measured,And the foundations of the earth searched out beneath,I will also cast off all the seed of Israel For all that they have done, says the LORD.”'
Although some scientists claim that they have now measured the size of the universe, it is interesting to note that every human attempt to drill through the earth’s crust to the plastic mantle beneath has, thus far, ended in failure.
The Bible described the shape of the earth centuries before people thought that the earth was spherical.
Isaiah 40:22 'It is He who sits above the circle of the earth,And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers,Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.'
The word translated “circle” here is the Hebrew word chuwg which is also translated “circuit,” or “compass” (depending on the context). That is, it indicates something spherical, rounded, or arched—not something that is flat or square.
The book of Isaiah was written sometime between 740 and 680 BC. This is at least 300 years before Aristotle suggested that the earth might be a sphere in his book "On the Heavens".
Statements Consistent With Physics
The Bible suggests the presence of nuclear processes like those we associate with nuclear weaponry. This is certainly not something that could have been explained in 67 AD using known scientific principles (when Peter wrote the following verse).
2 Peter 3:10 'But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.'
The television is a practical device that uses electromagnetic waves (which transmit its video signal). The Bible contains passages that describe something like television—something that allows everyone on earth see a single event.
Matthew 24:30 'Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.'
Revelation 11:9-11 'Then those from the peoples, tribes, tongues, and nations will see their dead bodies three-and-a-half days, and not allow their dead bodies to be put into graves. And those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them, make merry, and send gifts to one another, because these two prophets tormented those who dwell on the earth. Now after the three-and-a-half days the breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them.'
2)The Proof of Prophecy
One of the strongest arguments for the accuracy of the Bible is its 100% accuracy in predicting the future. These future predictions are called “prophecies.” The Old Testament was written between approximately 1450 BC and 430 BC. During that time, many predictions of the future were recorded in the Bible by God’s prophets. Of the events that were to have taken place by now, every one happened just the way they predicted it would. No other “sacred writing” has such perfectly accurate predictions of the future.
Messianic Prophecies
The Old Testament books in the Bible (all of them written between 1450 BC and 430 BC) contained hundreds of prophecies about an “anointed one” (“Messiah” in Hebrew) who would arrive in their future. The Messiah would “deliver” or “save” all the Jewish people, bringing them to paradise or heaven. These prophecies also stated that the Messiah would save all the other people (commonly referred to as Gentiles) in the world “through the Jews.” For this reason, people who are not Jewish need to learn about the Messiah, too.
The Old Testament made these prophesies between 1450 BC and 430 BC. They were fulfilled between 45 and 95 AD. The following list is not fully complete and offers both the prophesy and the fulfillment:
The Messiah will be the offspring (descendant) of the woman (Eve)
Genesis 3:15
Galatians 4:4
The Messiah will be a descendant of Abraham, through whom everyone on earth will be blessed
Genesis 12:3; 18:18
Acts 3:25,26
The Messiah will be a descendant of Judah
Genesis 49:10
Matthew 1:2 and Luke 3:33
The Messiah will be a prophet like Moses
Deuteronomy 18:15-19
Acts 3:22,23
The Messiah will be the Son of God
Psalm 2:7
Matthew 3:17; Mark 1:11; Luke 3:22
The Messiah will be raised from the dead (resurrected)
Psalm 16:10,11
Matthew 28:5-9; Mark 16:6; Luke 24:4-7; John 20:11-16; Acts 1:3 and 2:32
The Messiah crucifixion experience
Psalm 22 (contains 11 prophecies—not all listed here)
Matthew 27:34-50 and John 19:17-30
The Messiah will be sneered at and mocked
Psalm 22:7
Luke 23:11,35-39
The Messiah will be pierced through hands and feet
Psalm 22:16
Luke 23:33 and 24:36-39;John 19:18 and 20:19-20,24-27
The Messiah’s bones will not be broken (a person’s legs were usually broken after being crucified to speed up their death)
Psalm 22:17 and 34:20
John 19:31-33,36
Men Will Gamble for the Messiah’s clothing
Psalm 22:18
Matthew 27:35; Mark 15:24; Luke 23:34; John 19:23,24
The Messiah will accused by false witnesses
Psalm 35:11
Matthew 26:59,60 and Mark 14:56,57
The Messiah will be hated without a cause
Psalm 35:19 and 69:4
John 15:23-25
The Messiah will be betrayed by a friend
Psalm 41:9
John 13:18,21
The Messiah will ascend to heaven (at the right hand of God)
Psalm 68:18
Luke 24:51; Acts 1:9; 2:33-35; 3:20-21; 5:31,32; 7:55-56; Romans 8:34; Ephesians 1:20,21; Colossians 3:1; Hebrews 1:3; 8:1; 10:12; 12:2; 1 Pet 3:22
The Messiah will be given vinegar and gall to drink
Psalm 69:21
Matthew 27:34; Mark 15:23; John 19:29,30
Great kings will pay homage and tribute to the Messiah
Psalm 72:10,11
Matthew 2:1-11
The Messiah is a “stone the builders rejected” who will become the “head cornerstone”
Psalm 118:22,23 and Isaiah 28:16
Matthew 21:42,43; Acts 4:11; Ephesians 2:20; 1 Peter 2:6-8
The Messiah will be a descendant of David
Psalm 132:11 and Jeremiah 23:5,6; 33:15,16
Luke 1:32,33
The Messiah will be a born of a virgin
Isaiah 7:14
Matthew 1:18-25 and Luke 1:26-35
The Messiah’s first spiritual work will be in Galilee
Isaiah 9:1-7
Matthew 4:12-16
The Messiah will make the blind see, the deaf hear, etc.
Isaiah 35:5-6
Many places. Also see Matthew 11:3-6 and John 11:47
The Messiah will be beaten, mocked, and spat upon
Isaiah 50:6
Matthew 26:67 and 27:26-31
The “Gospel according to Isaiah”
Isaiah 52:13-53:12
Matthew, Mark, Luke, John
People will hear and not believe the “arm of the LORD” (Messiah)
Isaiah 53:1
John 12:37,38
The Messiah will be rejected
Isaiah 53:3
Matthew 27:20-25; Mark 15:8-14; Luke 23:18-23; John 19:14,15
The Messiah will be killed
Isaiah 53:5-9
Matthew 27:50; Mark 15:37-39; Luke 23:46; John 19:30
The Messiah will be silent in front of his accusers
Isaiah 53:7
Matthew 26:62,63 and 27:12-14
The Messiah will be buried with the rich
Isaiah 53:9
Matthew 27:59,60; Mark 15:46; Luke 23:52,53; John 19:38-42
The Messiah will be crucified with criminals
Isaiah 53:12
Matthew 27:38; Mark 15:27; Luke 23:32,33
The Messiah is part of the new and everlasting covenant
Isaiah 55:3-4 and Jeremiah 31:31-34
Matthew 26:28; Mark 14:24; Luke 22:20; Hebrews 8:6-13
The Messiah will be our intercessor (intervene for us and plead on our behalf)
Isaiah 59:16
Hebrews 9:15
The Messiah has two missions
Isaiah 61:1-3 (first mission ends at “. . . year of the LORD’s favor”)
First mission: Luke 4:16-21; Second mission: to be fulfilled at the end of the world
The Messiah will come at a specific time
Daniel 9:25-26
Galatians 4:4 and Ephesians 1:10
The Messiah will be born in Bethlehem
Micah 5:2
Matthew 2:1 and Luke 2:4-7
The Messiah will enter Jerusalem riding a donkey
Zechariah 9:9
Matthew 21:1-11
The Messiah will be sold for 30 pieces of silver
Zechariah 11:12,13
Matthew 26:15 with Matthew 27:3-10
The Messiah will forsaken by His disciples
Zechariah 13:7
Matthew 26:31,56
The Messiah will enter the Temple with authority
Malachi 3:1
Matthew 21:12 and Luke 19:45
**A Special Note on Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53
Even a casual reader of the Bible will notice something “different” about Psalm 22 and Isaiah 52:13 to 53:12. They tell stories that perfectly parallel events in the life of Christ that took place much later. Psalm 22 is especially amazing since it predicted 11 separate things about Jesus’ crucifixion about a thousand years before they happened. We know that David (the author of Psalm 22) lived about 1043-973 BC and Isaiah lived about 740-680 BC. Both passages, written far ahead of the time of Christ, are strong proof that help you believe that the Bible was literally inspired by God.
Couldn’t Someone Just Write These Down and Pretend They Were Written Earlier?
Many people who do not believe in the Bible say this. However, manuscripts have been found that confirm that these various prophecies were written down 400-1,000 years before they actually occurred. The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls put to rest most of such idle talk.
Other Prophesies
There are hundreds of other prophesies concerning nations, rulers, and events. I leave them for you to seek out. A good place to start would be the (former) nation of Edom and the nation of Israel.
3)The Proof of Textual Evidence
Both the Old and New Testaments are strongly supported by manuscript evidence (the evidence of early hand written copies). The famous Dead Sea Scrolls are one example of the Old Testament evidence. These documents came from the “library” of a settlement founded at Qumran before 150 B.C. and abandoned about 68 A.D. Some of the manuscript copies were made during that period, and some were written earlier (third century BC) and brought to the settlement. Ignoring spelling-oriented (orthographic) changes and similar small differences, the Dead Sea Scrolls match the Hebrew text behind today’s Old Testament, in spite of the passage of over 2,000 years (where one would expect errors to creep in).
Over 20,000 known manuscripts document the New Testament text. There is no literary rival in the ancient world to the number of manuscript copies and the early dating of the New Testament. There are more [New Testament] manuscripts copied with greater accuracy and earlier dating than for any secular classic from antiquity. There are 5,300 Greek, 10,000 Latin, and 9,000 miscellaneous copies of the New Testament that exist today and more continue to be unearthed via archaeology. This makes the New Testament the most reliable document of antiquity (a document written before the printing press). These manuscripts vary in size from a part of a page to an entire Bible (Old and New Testaments). The earliest New Testament manuscripts date from the second century (100-199) AD These manuscript copies were written in different languages by people of different nationalities, cultures, and backgrounds. In spite of all those differences between them, the New Testament texts all agree. (That is, those differences that we do observe between these hand written documents are occasional changes in the spelling of names or isolated cases of missing or changed words. Still, since we have so many copies, it is obvious to anyone but the hardened skeptic that they all represent the same text.)
In addition, the interval between the dates of original composition and the earliest extant evidence becomes so small as to be in fact negligible. The average gap between the original composition and the earliest copy is over 1,000 years for other secular books. The New Testament, however, has a fragment within one generation from its original composition, whole books within about 100 years from the time of the autograph [original manuscript], most of the New Testament in less than 200 years, and the entire New Testament within 250 years from the date of its completion.
4)The Proof of Archaeology
There is a growing mass of evidence from archaeology that the Bible accounts deal with real people living in real places. If the Bible was false, we would expect new archaeological discoveries to do this. In fact, there is no known case where archaeology decisively disproves the Bible. This itself is strong evidence for the truth of the Christian message. We would also expect that in many cases there is no direct archaeological evidence one way or the other, yet; and this is what we find. However, there are some cases where archaeology does provide direct confirmation, and we have listed some of them:
Major Archaeological Finds relating to the New Testament:
Israel
Herod's temple, Jerusalem Lk 1:9
Herod's winter palace, Jericho Mt 2:4
The Herodium(possible site of Herod's tomb), Near Bethlehem Mt 2:19
Masada, Southwest of Dead Sea cf. Lk 21:20
Early synagogue, Capernaum Mk 1:21
Pool of Siloam, Jerusalem Jn 9:7
Pool of Bethesda, Jerusalem Jn 5:2
Pilate inscription, Caesarea Lk 3:1
Inscription: Gentile entrance of temple sanctuary, Jerusalem Ac 21:27-29
Skeletal remains of crucified man, Jerusalem Lk 23:33
Peter's house, Capernaum Mt 8:14
Jacob's well, Nablus Jn 4:5-6
Asia Minor
Derbe inscription, Kerti Huyuk Ac 14:20
Sergius Paulus inscription, Antioch in Pisidia Ac 13:6-7
Zeus altar (Satan's throne?), Pergamum, Rev 2:13
Fourth century BC walls, Assos Ac 20:13-14
Artemis temple and altar, Ephesus Ac 19:27-28
Ephesian theatre, Ephesus Ac 19:29
Silversmith shops, Ephesus Ac 19:24
Artemis statues, Ephesus Ac 19:35
Greece
Erastus inscription, Corinth Ro 16:23
Synagogue inscription, Corinth Ac 18:4
Meat market inscription, Corinth 1 Co 10:25
Cult dining rooms(in Asklepius and Demeter temples), Corinth 1 Co 8:10
Court (bema), Corinth Ac 18:12
Marketplace (bema), Philippi Ac 16:19
Starting gate for races, Isthmia 1 Co 9:24, 26
Gallio inscription, Delphi Ac 18:12
Egnatian Way, Kavalla (Neapolis), Philippi, Apollonia, Thessalonica Cf Ac 16:11-12, 17:1
Politarch inscription, Thessalonica Ac 17:6
Italy
Tomb of Augustus, Rome Lk 2:1
Mamertime Prison, Rome 2 Ti 1:16-17, 2:9, 4:6-8
Appian Way, Puteoli to Rome Ac 28:13-16
Golden House of Nero, Rome Cf Ac 25:10; 1 Pe 2:13
Arch of Titus, Rome Cf Lk 19:43-44, 21:6, 20
5)The Proof of Historians
Secular history supports the Bible. For example, in The Antiquities of the Jews, book 18, chapter 3, paragraph 3 the famous historian Flavius Josephus writes:
“Now, there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man, for he was a doer of wonderful works—a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews, and many of the Gentiles. He was [the] Christ; and when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him, for he appeared to them alive again the third day, as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him; and the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day.”
In 115 AD, P. Cornelius Tacitus (here is a pagan historian, hostile to Christianity, who had access to records about what happened to Jesus Christ) wrote the following passage that refers to Jesus (called “Christus,” which means “The Messiah”) in book 15, chapter 44 of The Annals:.
“Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judaea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre and become popular. Accordingly, an arrest was first made of all who pleaded guilty; then, upon their information, an immense multitude was convicted, not so much of the crime of firing the city, as of hatred against mankind. Mockery of every sort was added to their deaths. Covered with the skins of beasts, they were torn by dogs and perished, or were nailed to crosses, or were doomed to the flames and burnt, to serve."
Mention of Jesus can also be found in Jewish Rabbinical writings from what is known as the Tannaitic period, between 70-200 A.D. In Sanhedrin 43a it says: "Jesus was hanged on Passover Eve. Forty days previously the herald had cried, 'He is being led out for stoning, because he has practiced sorcery and led Israel astray and enticed them into apostasy. Whoever has anything to say in his defence, let him come and declare it.' As nothing was brought forward in his defence, he was hanged on Passover Eve."
My dear reader, I gathered most of this information in a few hours. Thousands of scholars, teachers, and pastors spent over hundreds of thousands of hours gathering, compiling, translating, digging, travelling, and laboring to bring it to us. Lifetimes of knowledge and effort are contained therein. "So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you." (Luke 11:9) God has shown us the truth...Hear Him.
1)Science
2)Prophecy
3)Textual Evidence
4)Archaeology
5)Historians
1)Science: there is a great deal of scientific evidence that supports the Bible.
Statements Consistent With Paleontology:
The Bible refers to many of the common animals we know today. The list includes lions, wolves, bears, sheep, cattle and dogs along with various kinds of birds, rodents, reptiles, and insects. What is interesting is that this extensive list includes three animals that we no longer recognize: behemouth (brachiosaurus), leviathan (kronosaurus), tanniyn (dinosaur).
Behemoth has the following attributes according to Job 40:15-24. It “eats grass like an ox.”
It “moves his tail like a cedar.” (In Hebrew, this literally reads, “he lets hang his tail like a cedar.”)
Its “bones are like beams of bronze,His ribs like bars of iron.”
“He is the first of the ways of God.”
“He lies under the lotus trees,In a covert of reeds and marsh.”
Leviathan has the following attributes according to Job chapter 41, Psalm 104:25,26 and Isaiah 27:1. This is only a partial listing—just enough to make the point.
“No one is so fierce that he would dare stir him up.”
“Who can open the doors of his face, with his terrible teeth all around?”
“His rows of scales are his pride, shut up tightly as with a seal; one is so near another that no air can come between them; they are joined one to another, they stick together and cannot be parted.”
“His sneezings flash forth light, and his eyes are like the eyelids of the morning. Out of his mouth go burning lights; sparks of fire shoot out. Smoke goes out of his nostrils, as from a boiling pot and burning rushes. His breath kindles coals, and a flame goes out of his mouth.”
“Though the sword reaches him, it cannot avail; nor does spear, dart, or javelin. He regards iron as straw, and bronze as rotten wood. The arrow cannot make him flee; slingstones become like stubble to him. Darts are regarded as straw; he laughs at the threat of javelins.”
“On earth there is nothing like him, which is made without fear.”
Leviathan “played” in the “great and wide sea” (a paraphrase of Psalm 104 verses 25 and 26—get the exact sense by reading them yourself).
Leviathan is a “reptile that is in the sea.” (Isaiah 27:1) {Note: The word translated “reptile” here is the Hebrew word tanniyn. This shows that “Leviathan” was also a “tanniyn” (dragon)}
Statements Consistent With Astronomy
The Bible frequently refers to the great number of stars in the heavens. Here are two examples.
Genesis 22:17Blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies.
Jeremiah 33:22“As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, nor the sand of the sea measured, so will I multiply the descendants of David My servant and the Levites who minister to Me.”
Even today, scientists admit that they do not know how many stars there are. Only about 3,000 can be seen with the naked eye. We have seen estimates of 10^21 stars—which is a lot of stars. (The number of grains of sand on the earth’s seashores is estimated to be 10^25. As scientists discover more stars, wouldn’t it be interesting to discover that these two numbers match?)
The Bible also says that each star is unique.
1 Corinthians 15:41"There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differs from another star in glory."
All stars seem alike to the naked eye. Even when seen through a telescope, they seem to be just points of light. However, analysis of their light spectra reveals that each is unique and different from all others.
The Bible describes the precision of movement in the universe.
Jeremiah 31:35,36'Thus says the LORD,Who gives the sun for a light by day,The ordinances of the moon and the stars for a light by night,Who disturbs the sea,And its waves roar(The LORD of hosts is His name):“If those ordinances departFrom before Me", says the LORD,"Then the seed of Israel shall also cease from being a nation before Me forever.”'
The Bible describes the suspension of the Earth in space.
Job 26:7 "He stretches out the north over empty space;He hangs the earth on nothing."
Statements Consistent With Meteorology
The Bible describes the circulation of the atmosphere.
Ecclesiastes 1:6 "The wind goes toward the south,And turns around to the north;The wind whirls about continually,And comes again on its circuit."
The Bible includes some principles of fluid dynamics.
Job 28:25 "To establish a weight for the wind,And apportion the waters by measure."
The fact that air has weight was proven scientifically only about 300 years ago. The relative weights of air and water are needed for the efficient functioning of the world’s hydrologic cycle, which in turn sustains life on the earth.
Statements Consistent With Biology
The book of Leviticus (written prior to 1400 BC) describes the value of blood.
Leviticus 17:11‘For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.’
The blood carries water and nourishment to every cell, maintains the body’s temperature, and removes the waste material of the body’s cells. The blood also carries oxygen from the lungs throughout the body. In 1616, William Harvey discovered that blood circulation is the key factor in physical life—confirming what the Bible revealed 3,000 years earlier.
The Bible describes biogenesis (the development of living organisms from other living organisms) and the stability of each kind of living organism.
Genesis 1:11,12 'Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth”; and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.'
Genesis 1:21 'So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters abounded, according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.'
Genesis 1:25 'And God made the beast of the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.'
The phrase “according to its kind” occurs repeatedly, stressing the reproductive integrity of each kind of animal and plant. Today we know this occurs because all of these reproductive systems are programmed by their genetic codes.
The Bible describes the chemical nature of flesh.
Genesis 2:7 'And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.'
Genesis 3:19 'In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to the ground,For out of it you were taken;For dust you are,And to dust you shall return.'
Mental and spiritual health is strongly correlated with physical health. The Bible revealed this to us with these statements (and others) written by King Solomon about 950 BC.
Proverbs 12:4 'An excellent wife is the crown of her husband,But she who causes shame is like rottenness in his bones.'
Proverbs 14:30 'A sound heart is life to the body,But envy is rottenness to the bones.'
Proverbs 15:30 'The light of the eyes rejoices the heart,And a good report makes the bones healthy.'
Proverbs 16:24 'Pleasant words are like a honeycomb,Sweetness to the soul and health to the bones.'
Proverbs 17:22 'A merry heart does good, like medicine,But a broken spirit dries the bones.'
Statements Consistent With Anthropology
We have cave paintings and other evidence that people inhabited caves. The Bible also describes cave men.
Job 30:5,6 'They were driven out from among men,They shouted at them as at a thief.They had to live in the clefts of the valleys,In caves of the earth and the rocks.'
Note that these were not ape-men, but descendants of those who scattered from Babel. They were driven from the community by those tribes who competed successfully for the more desirable regions of the earth. Then for some reason they deteriorated mentally, physically, and spiritually. (Go into a bad part of your town and you will see this concept in action today.)
Statements Consistent With Hydrology
The Bible includes reasonably complete descriptions of the hydrologic cycle.
Psalm 135:7 'He causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth;He makes lightning for the rain;He brings the wind out of His treasuries.'
Jeremiah 10:13 'When He utters His voice,There is a multitude of waters in the heavens: And He causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth.He makes lightning for the rain,He brings the wind out of His treasuries.'
In these verses you can see several phases of the hydrologic cycle—the worldwide processes of evaporation, translation aloft by atmospheric circulation, condensation with electrical discharges, and precipitation.
Job 36:27-29 'For He draws up drops of water,Which distill as rain from the mist,Which the clouds drop down And pour abundantly on man.Indeed, can anyone understand the spreading of clouds,The thunder from His canopy?'
This simple verse has remarkable scientific insight. The drops of water which eventually pour down as rain first become vapor and then condense to tiny liquid water droplets in the clouds. These finally coalesce into drops large enough to overcome the updrafts that suspend them in the air.
The Bible describes the recirculation of water.
Ecclesiastes 1:7 'All the rivers run into the sea,Yet the sea is not full;To the place from which the rivers come,There they return again.'
Isaiah 55:10 'For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven,And do not return there,But water the earth,And make it bring forth and bud,That it may give seed to the sower And bread to the eater,'
The Bible refers to the surprising amount of water that can be held as condensation in clouds.
Job 26:8 'He binds up the water in His thick clouds,Yet the clouds are not broken under it.'
Job 37:11 'Also with moisture He saturates the thick clouds;He scatters His bright clouds.'
Hydrothermal vents are described in two books of the Bible written before 1400BC—more than 3,000 years before their discovery by science.
Genesis 7:11 'In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.'
Job 38:16 'Have you entered the springs of the sea?Or have you walked in search of the depths?'
Statements Consistent With Geology
The Bible describes the Earth’s crust (along with a comment on astronomy).
Jeremiah 31:37 'Thus says the LORD:“If heaven above can be measured,And the foundations of the earth searched out beneath,I will also cast off all the seed of Israel For all that they have done, says the LORD.”'
Although some scientists claim that they have now measured the size of the universe, it is interesting to note that every human attempt to drill through the earth’s crust to the plastic mantle beneath has, thus far, ended in failure.
The Bible described the shape of the earth centuries before people thought that the earth was spherical.
Isaiah 40:22 'It is He who sits above the circle of the earth,And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers,Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.'
The word translated “circle” here is the Hebrew word chuwg which is also translated “circuit,” or “compass” (depending on the context). That is, it indicates something spherical, rounded, or arched—not something that is flat or square.
The book of Isaiah was written sometime between 740 and 680 BC. This is at least 300 years before Aristotle suggested that the earth might be a sphere in his book "On the Heavens".
Statements Consistent With Physics
The Bible suggests the presence of nuclear processes like those we associate with nuclear weaponry. This is certainly not something that could have been explained in 67 AD using known scientific principles (when Peter wrote the following verse).
2 Peter 3:10 'But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.'
The television is a practical device that uses electromagnetic waves (which transmit its video signal). The Bible contains passages that describe something like television—something that allows everyone on earth see a single event.
Matthew 24:30 'Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.'
Revelation 11:9-11 'Then those from the peoples, tribes, tongues, and nations will see their dead bodies three-and-a-half days, and not allow their dead bodies to be put into graves. And those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them, make merry, and send gifts to one another, because these two prophets tormented those who dwell on the earth. Now after the three-and-a-half days the breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them.'
2)The Proof of Prophecy
One of the strongest arguments for the accuracy of the Bible is its 100% accuracy in predicting the future. These future predictions are called “prophecies.” The Old Testament was written between approximately 1450 BC and 430 BC. During that time, many predictions of the future were recorded in the Bible by God’s prophets. Of the events that were to have taken place by now, every one happened just the way they predicted it would. No other “sacred writing” has such perfectly accurate predictions of the future.
Messianic Prophecies
The Old Testament books in the Bible (all of them written between 1450 BC and 430 BC) contained hundreds of prophecies about an “anointed one” (“Messiah” in Hebrew) who would arrive in their future. The Messiah would “deliver” or “save” all the Jewish people, bringing them to paradise or heaven. These prophecies also stated that the Messiah would save all the other people (commonly referred to as Gentiles) in the world “through the Jews.” For this reason, people who are not Jewish need to learn about the Messiah, too.
The Old Testament made these prophesies between 1450 BC and 430 BC. They were fulfilled between 45 and 95 AD. The following list is not fully complete and offers both the prophesy and the fulfillment:
The Messiah will be the offspring (descendant) of the woman (Eve)
Genesis 3:15
Galatians 4:4
The Messiah will be a descendant of Abraham, through whom everyone on earth will be blessed
Genesis 12:3; 18:18
Acts 3:25,26
The Messiah will be a descendant of Judah
Genesis 49:10
Matthew 1:2 and Luke 3:33
The Messiah will be a prophet like Moses
Deuteronomy 18:15-19
Acts 3:22,23
The Messiah will be the Son of God
Psalm 2:7
Matthew 3:17; Mark 1:11; Luke 3:22
The Messiah will be raised from the dead (resurrected)
Psalm 16:10,11
Matthew 28:5-9; Mark 16:6; Luke 24:4-7; John 20:11-16; Acts 1:3 and 2:32
The Messiah crucifixion experience
Psalm 22 (contains 11 prophecies—not all listed here)
Matthew 27:34-50 and John 19:17-30
The Messiah will be sneered at and mocked
Psalm 22:7
Luke 23:11,35-39
The Messiah will be pierced through hands and feet
Psalm 22:16
Luke 23:33 and 24:36-39;John 19:18 and 20:19-20,24-27
The Messiah’s bones will not be broken (a person’s legs were usually broken after being crucified to speed up their death)
Psalm 22:17 and 34:20
John 19:31-33,36
Men Will Gamble for the Messiah’s clothing
Psalm 22:18
Matthew 27:35; Mark 15:24; Luke 23:34; John 19:23,24
The Messiah will accused by false witnesses
Psalm 35:11
Matthew 26:59,60 and Mark 14:56,57
The Messiah will be hated without a cause
Psalm 35:19 and 69:4
John 15:23-25
The Messiah will be betrayed by a friend
Psalm 41:9
John 13:18,21
The Messiah will ascend to heaven (at the right hand of God)
Psalm 68:18
Luke 24:51; Acts 1:9; 2:33-35; 3:20-21; 5:31,32; 7:55-56; Romans 8:34; Ephesians 1:20,21; Colossians 3:1; Hebrews 1:3; 8:1; 10:12; 12:2; 1 Pet 3:22
The Messiah will be given vinegar and gall to drink
Psalm 69:21
Matthew 27:34; Mark 15:23; John 19:29,30
Great kings will pay homage and tribute to the Messiah
Psalm 72:10,11
Matthew 2:1-11
The Messiah is a “stone the builders rejected” who will become the “head cornerstone”
Psalm 118:22,23 and Isaiah 28:16
Matthew 21:42,43; Acts 4:11; Ephesians 2:20; 1 Peter 2:6-8
The Messiah will be a descendant of David
Psalm 132:11 and Jeremiah 23:5,6; 33:15,16
Luke 1:32,33
The Messiah will be a born of a virgin
Isaiah 7:14
Matthew 1:18-25 and Luke 1:26-35
The Messiah’s first spiritual work will be in Galilee
Isaiah 9:1-7
Matthew 4:12-16
The Messiah will make the blind see, the deaf hear, etc.
Isaiah 35:5-6
Many places. Also see Matthew 11:3-6 and John 11:47
The Messiah will be beaten, mocked, and spat upon
Isaiah 50:6
Matthew 26:67 and 27:26-31
The “Gospel according to Isaiah”
Isaiah 52:13-53:12
Matthew, Mark, Luke, John
People will hear and not believe the “arm of the LORD” (Messiah)
Isaiah 53:1
John 12:37,38
The Messiah will be rejected
Isaiah 53:3
Matthew 27:20-25; Mark 15:8-14; Luke 23:18-23; John 19:14,15
The Messiah will be killed
Isaiah 53:5-9
Matthew 27:50; Mark 15:37-39; Luke 23:46; John 19:30
The Messiah will be silent in front of his accusers
Isaiah 53:7
Matthew 26:62,63 and 27:12-14
The Messiah will be buried with the rich
Isaiah 53:9
Matthew 27:59,60; Mark 15:46; Luke 23:52,53; John 19:38-42
The Messiah will be crucified with criminals
Isaiah 53:12
Matthew 27:38; Mark 15:27; Luke 23:32,33
The Messiah is part of the new and everlasting covenant
Isaiah 55:3-4 and Jeremiah 31:31-34
Matthew 26:28; Mark 14:24; Luke 22:20; Hebrews 8:6-13
The Messiah will be our intercessor (intervene for us and plead on our behalf)
Isaiah 59:16
Hebrews 9:15
The Messiah has two missions
Isaiah 61:1-3 (first mission ends at “. . . year of the LORD’s favor”)
First mission: Luke 4:16-21; Second mission: to be fulfilled at the end of the world
The Messiah will come at a specific time
Daniel 9:25-26
Galatians 4:4 and Ephesians 1:10
The Messiah will be born in Bethlehem
Micah 5:2
Matthew 2:1 and Luke 2:4-7
The Messiah will enter Jerusalem riding a donkey
Zechariah 9:9
Matthew 21:1-11
The Messiah will be sold for 30 pieces of silver
Zechariah 11:12,13
Matthew 26:15 with Matthew 27:3-10
The Messiah will forsaken by His disciples
Zechariah 13:7
Matthew 26:31,56
The Messiah will enter the Temple with authority
Malachi 3:1
Matthew 21:12 and Luke 19:45
**A Special Note on Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53
Even a casual reader of the Bible will notice something “different” about Psalm 22 and Isaiah 52:13 to 53:12. They tell stories that perfectly parallel events in the life of Christ that took place much later. Psalm 22 is especially amazing since it predicted 11 separate things about Jesus’ crucifixion about a thousand years before they happened. We know that David (the author of Psalm 22) lived about 1043-973 BC and Isaiah lived about 740-680 BC. Both passages, written far ahead of the time of Christ, are strong proof that help you believe that the Bible was literally inspired by God.
Couldn’t Someone Just Write These Down and Pretend They Were Written Earlier?
Many people who do not believe in the Bible say this. However, manuscripts have been found that confirm that these various prophecies were written down 400-1,000 years before they actually occurred. The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls put to rest most of such idle talk.
Other Prophesies
There are hundreds of other prophesies concerning nations, rulers, and events. I leave them for you to seek out. A good place to start would be the (former) nation of Edom and the nation of Israel.
3)The Proof of Textual Evidence
Both the Old and New Testaments are strongly supported by manuscript evidence (the evidence of early hand written copies). The famous Dead Sea Scrolls are one example of the Old Testament evidence. These documents came from the “library” of a settlement founded at Qumran before 150 B.C. and abandoned about 68 A.D. Some of the manuscript copies were made during that period, and some were written earlier (third century BC) and brought to the settlement. Ignoring spelling-oriented (orthographic) changes and similar small differences, the Dead Sea Scrolls match the Hebrew text behind today’s Old Testament, in spite of the passage of over 2,000 years (where one would expect errors to creep in).
Over 20,000 known manuscripts document the New Testament text. There is no literary rival in the ancient world to the number of manuscript copies and the early dating of the New Testament. There are more [New Testament] manuscripts copied with greater accuracy and earlier dating than for any secular classic from antiquity. There are 5,300 Greek, 10,000 Latin, and 9,000 miscellaneous copies of the New Testament that exist today and more continue to be unearthed via archaeology. This makes the New Testament the most reliable document of antiquity (a document written before the printing press). These manuscripts vary in size from a part of a page to an entire Bible (Old and New Testaments). The earliest New Testament manuscripts date from the second century (100-199) AD These manuscript copies were written in different languages by people of different nationalities, cultures, and backgrounds. In spite of all those differences between them, the New Testament texts all agree. (That is, those differences that we do observe between these hand written documents are occasional changes in the spelling of names or isolated cases of missing or changed words. Still, since we have so many copies, it is obvious to anyone but the hardened skeptic that they all represent the same text.)
In addition, the interval between the dates of original composition and the earliest extant evidence becomes so small as to be in fact negligible. The average gap between the original composition and the earliest copy is over 1,000 years for other secular books. The New Testament, however, has a fragment within one generation from its original composition, whole books within about 100 years from the time of the autograph [original manuscript], most of the New Testament in less than 200 years, and the entire New Testament within 250 years from the date of its completion.
4)The Proof of Archaeology
There is a growing mass of evidence from archaeology that the Bible accounts deal with real people living in real places. If the Bible was false, we would expect new archaeological discoveries to do this. In fact, there is no known case where archaeology decisively disproves the Bible. This itself is strong evidence for the truth of the Christian message. We would also expect that in many cases there is no direct archaeological evidence one way or the other, yet; and this is what we find. However, there are some cases where archaeology does provide direct confirmation, and we have listed some of them:
Major Archaeological Finds relating to the New Testament:
Israel
Herod's temple, Jerusalem Lk 1:9
Herod's winter palace, Jericho Mt 2:4
The Herodium(possible site of Herod's tomb), Near Bethlehem Mt 2:19
Masada, Southwest of Dead Sea cf. Lk 21:20
Early synagogue, Capernaum Mk 1:21
Pool of Siloam, Jerusalem Jn 9:7
Pool of Bethesda, Jerusalem Jn 5:2
Pilate inscription, Caesarea Lk 3:1
Inscription: Gentile entrance of temple sanctuary, Jerusalem Ac 21:27-29
Skeletal remains of crucified man, Jerusalem Lk 23:33
Peter's house, Capernaum Mt 8:14
Jacob's well, Nablus Jn 4:5-6
Asia Minor
Derbe inscription, Kerti Huyuk Ac 14:20
Sergius Paulus inscription, Antioch in Pisidia Ac 13:6-7
Zeus altar (Satan's throne?), Pergamum, Rev 2:13
Fourth century BC walls, Assos Ac 20:13-14
Artemis temple and altar, Ephesus Ac 19:27-28
Ephesian theatre, Ephesus Ac 19:29
Silversmith shops, Ephesus Ac 19:24
Artemis statues, Ephesus Ac 19:35
Greece
Erastus inscription, Corinth Ro 16:23
Synagogue inscription, Corinth Ac 18:4
Meat market inscription, Corinth 1 Co 10:25
Cult dining rooms(in Asklepius and Demeter temples), Corinth 1 Co 8:10
Court (bema), Corinth Ac 18:12
Marketplace (bema), Philippi Ac 16:19
Starting gate for races, Isthmia 1 Co 9:24, 26
Gallio inscription, Delphi Ac 18:12
Egnatian Way, Kavalla (Neapolis), Philippi, Apollonia, Thessalonica Cf Ac 16:11-12, 17:1
Politarch inscription, Thessalonica Ac 17:6
Italy
Tomb of Augustus, Rome Lk 2:1
Mamertime Prison, Rome 2 Ti 1:16-17, 2:9, 4:6-8
Appian Way, Puteoli to Rome Ac 28:13-16
Golden House of Nero, Rome Cf Ac 25:10; 1 Pe 2:13
Arch of Titus, Rome Cf Lk 19:43-44, 21:6, 20
5)The Proof of Historians
Secular history supports the Bible. For example, in The Antiquities of the Jews, book 18, chapter 3, paragraph 3 the famous historian Flavius Josephus writes:
“Now, there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man, for he was a doer of wonderful works—a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews, and many of the Gentiles. He was [the] Christ; and when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him, for he appeared to them alive again the third day, as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him; and the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day.”
In 115 AD, P. Cornelius Tacitus (here is a pagan historian, hostile to Christianity, who had access to records about what happened to Jesus Christ) wrote the following passage that refers to Jesus (called “Christus,” which means “The Messiah”) in book 15, chapter 44 of The Annals:.
“Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judaea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre and become popular. Accordingly, an arrest was first made of all who pleaded guilty; then, upon their information, an immense multitude was convicted, not so much of the crime of firing the city, as of hatred against mankind. Mockery of every sort was added to their deaths. Covered with the skins of beasts, they were torn by dogs and perished, or were nailed to crosses, or were doomed to the flames and burnt, to serve."
Mention of Jesus can also be found in Jewish Rabbinical writings from what is known as the Tannaitic period, between 70-200 A.D. In Sanhedrin 43a it says: "Jesus was hanged on Passover Eve. Forty days previously the herald had cried, 'He is being led out for stoning, because he has practiced sorcery and led Israel astray and enticed them into apostasy. Whoever has anything to say in his defence, let him come and declare it.' As nothing was brought forward in his defence, he was hanged on Passover Eve."
My dear reader, I gathered most of this information in a few hours. Thousands of scholars, teachers, and pastors spent over hundreds of thousands of hours gathering, compiling, translating, digging, travelling, and laboring to bring it to us. Lifetimes of knowledge and effort are contained therein. "So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you." (Luke 11:9) God has shown us the truth...Hear Him.
Friday, February 4, 2011
I have been doing alot of reading the last 18 months. More than I have in a really long time. When I was younger I could devour books; usually they were of the fiction/thriller/mystery assortment. I tore through the Hardy Boys and Agatha Christie and Sherlock Holmes. Tom Clancy, John Grisham, and Stephen Hunter were some of my favorites in high school and college. The life expectancy of one of their novels in my hands was no more than four days; many times less. But over the last 15 years or so my reading has been hit and mostly miss.
There are many reasons for this. For one, I stopped reading about life and actually started living it! And life has been exciting. (...maybe one day I'll write a book about it!) Also, the time I used to spend reading has been replaced with "other" things. And as I have slowly started seeking the Lord over the last decade, I felt that if I were to spend any time reading it had better be His Word. Now, that sounds extremely spiritual; but in reality I didn't even do that! I just continued not reading at all.
About 6 months ago, however, I joined a book club at church. I figured that they would choose books that would "be good for me". And they have. I have tried to balance my Bible and non-Bible reading; though that is still a work in progress. But the books I have been reading in the club have, without exception, continually been pointing me back to God and to His Word. They have deepened my understanding of Him, His work, His Word, His nature, and His ways...while also magnifying the far greater mysteries surounding Him. This has happened in such a notable way that I am compelled to share them with you.
Many of these books were not part of our Book Club; I was, however, led to them in the course of the selection readings. There are manifold nuggets of wisdon and enlightenment in them. I pray that you get the chance to see them. And I pray that we both are led deeper into YHWH's Word as a result of them.
Through the Bible in One Year--Alan Stringfellow
Eternity in Their Hearts--Don Richardson
The Hiding Place--Corrie TenBoom
Four Souls--Peterson,Kronberg,Medefind,Sklar
The Pursuit of God--AW Tozer
A Tale of Three Kings--Gene Edwards
Prisoner in the Third Cell--Gene Edwards
Father Style--Gayle Erwin
Jesus Style--Gayle Erwin
Matthew--JC Ryle
A Memoir of Grace--Chuck Smith
Faith--Chuck Smith
Living Water--Chuck Smith
The Last Christian Generation--Josh McDowell
Stranger on the Road to Emmaus--John R Cross
What Good is God?--Phillip Yancey
A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23--Phillip Keller
A Popular Survey of the New Testament--Norman Geisler
...and in process are these:
The Life and Times of Jesus Christ the Messiah--Alfred Edersheim
A Simplified Harmony of the Gospels--George Knight
The Bible--God
Please, let me know of any book that has touched your heart. I would love to have it touch me as well.
There are many reasons for this. For one, I stopped reading about life and actually started living it! And life has been exciting. (...maybe one day I'll write a book about it!) Also, the time I used to spend reading has been replaced with "other" things. And as I have slowly started seeking the Lord over the last decade, I felt that if I were to spend any time reading it had better be His Word. Now, that sounds extremely spiritual; but in reality I didn't even do that! I just continued not reading at all.
About 6 months ago, however, I joined a book club at church. I figured that they would choose books that would "be good for me". And they have. I have tried to balance my Bible and non-Bible reading; though that is still a work in progress. But the books I have been reading in the club have, without exception, continually been pointing me back to God and to His Word. They have deepened my understanding of Him, His work, His Word, His nature, and His ways...while also magnifying the far greater mysteries surounding Him. This has happened in such a notable way that I am compelled to share them with you.
Many of these books were not part of our Book Club; I was, however, led to them in the course of the selection readings. There are manifold nuggets of wisdon and enlightenment in them. I pray that you get the chance to see them. And I pray that we both are led deeper into YHWH's Word as a result of them.
Through the Bible in One Year--Alan Stringfellow
Eternity in Their Hearts--Don Richardson
The Hiding Place--Corrie TenBoom
Four Souls--Peterson,Kronberg,Medefind,Sklar
The Pursuit of God--AW Tozer
A Tale of Three Kings--Gene Edwards
Prisoner in the Third Cell--Gene Edwards
Father Style--Gayle Erwin
Jesus Style--Gayle Erwin
Matthew--JC Ryle
A Memoir of Grace--Chuck Smith
Faith--Chuck Smith
Living Water--Chuck Smith
The Last Christian Generation--Josh McDowell
Stranger on the Road to Emmaus--John R Cross
What Good is God?--Phillip Yancey
A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23--Phillip Keller
A Popular Survey of the New Testament--Norman Geisler
...and in process are these:
The Life and Times of Jesus Christ the Messiah--Alfred Edersheim
A Simplified Harmony of the Gospels--George Knight
The Bible--God
Please, let me know of any book that has touched your heart. I would love to have it touch me as well.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Overtaken
What is joy?
The dictionary says: the emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune or by the prospect of possessing what one desires, the expression or exhibition of such emotion, a state of happiness or felicity, a source or cause of delight.
This sounds pretty good. The pursuit of joy sounds like a worthwhile endeavor. While considering this I realized how much we long for joy. We seek it out along so many different avenues. Where do I find joy? Where do you find joy? Where does the world find it?
Winning a sports match. Watching a sports match. Eating an incredible meal. Drinking an ice-cold drink after a long, hard day in the sun. Receiving a gift. Taking your honeymoon in Hawaii with your new bride. Getting a raise. Getting your tax rebate check in the mail. Getting your vacation check. Gambling and winning a bet. Drinking to get a buzz. Taking drugs to get high. Feeling loved. Being cared for. Surfing. Boating. 4-wheeling. Motorbike riding. Fishing. Camping. Blogging. Video games. Movies. Hanging with friends. Money. The list can go on and on.
But each one of these (and I dare say any) joys is fleeting, temporary, and ultimately unfulfilling. I don't think I can think of anything on this earth that brings unending, constant joy. ...or is there?
You probably know where I am going with this. Don't the self-help books tell us how to find it, get it, and keep it? We call it different things (abundant life, a purpose driven life) but a life of joy, peace, happiness, and contentment has long been the desire of mankind. We have searched high and low for true joy. Our search has netted us countless activities, pleasures, and pursuits...all hoping to grant us joy. And we can even ask ourselves: Hasn't God provided all these pleasure and joys for us? Aren't we meant to participate and enjoy whatever joys we find on this earth?
Many arguments, philosophies, and movements have spawned from these very questions. (Epicureanism, Stocism, Health&Wealth, Name-it-and-claim-it, modernism, meditation, free love, et. al.) I choose to ignore them and focus on the aforementioned query: Is there anything on this earth that brings unending, constant, and all-pervasive joy? Because, to be honest, that is the kind I want. I have dabbled in the weak stuff, the stuff that doesn't last. My understanding of God has led me to know that He loves me and wants what is best for me. A joy-filled life definitely fits the bill.
As with all questions of life and living, it is probably best to go to the Lord Creator of this earth for wisdom and understanding...and maybe even an answer! "Joy" (as the great Pollyanna once noted) is mentioned 158 times in the Bible (...by contrast, "misery" is noted merely 9 times). "Blessed", or happy--327 times (..."pain", or suffering--35 times). "Love"--362 times (..."hate" 86 times). "Servant"--514 times (..."Master" 187 times). "Heaven"--532 times (..."hell"--32 times). This simple word search in and of itself reveals quite a bit about God's priorities. A reading of each and every one of the above cases will leave you astounded at how far wrong our views of what our lives are supposed to be like have become.
But I digress...back to joy. Deuteronomy 28 revelas a list of blessings and promises for obeying and observing God's instructions. The blessings listed would not only come upon them but overtake them. Sounds like a pretty joyful existence to me!...overtaken by God's blessings! Wow. Of course, there were consequences for not obeying: Curses would overtake them, "Because you did not serve the LORD your God with joy and gladness of heart, for the abundance of everything" (Deut 28:47). Serving God with joy and gladness of heart. How does one serve God with joy and gladness of heart? How does that joy get there?
The dictionary says: the emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune or by the prospect of possessing what one desires, the expression or exhibition of such emotion, a state of happiness or felicity, a source or cause of delight.
This sounds pretty good. The pursuit of joy sounds like a worthwhile endeavor. While considering this I realized how much we long for joy. We seek it out along so many different avenues. Where do I find joy? Where do you find joy? Where does the world find it?
Winning a sports match. Watching a sports match. Eating an incredible meal. Drinking an ice-cold drink after a long, hard day in the sun. Receiving a gift. Taking your honeymoon in Hawaii with your new bride. Getting a raise. Getting your tax rebate check in the mail. Getting your vacation check. Gambling and winning a bet. Drinking to get a buzz. Taking drugs to get high. Feeling loved. Being cared for. Surfing. Boating. 4-wheeling. Motorbike riding. Fishing. Camping. Blogging. Video games. Movies. Hanging with friends. Money. The list can go on and on.
But each one of these (and I dare say any) joys is fleeting, temporary, and ultimately unfulfilling. I don't think I can think of anything on this earth that brings unending, constant joy. ...or is there?
You probably know where I am going with this. Don't the self-help books tell us how to find it, get it, and keep it? We call it different things (abundant life, a purpose driven life) but a life of joy, peace, happiness, and contentment has long been the desire of mankind. We have searched high and low for true joy. Our search has netted us countless activities, pleasures, and pursuits...all hoping to grant us joy. And we can even ask ourselves: Hasn't God provided all these pleasure and joys for us? Aren't we meant to participate and enjoy whatever joys we find on this earth?
Many arguments, philosophies, and movements have spawned from these very questions. (Epicureanism, Stocism, Health&Wealth, Name-it-and-claim-it, modernism, meditation, free love, et. al.) I choose to ignore them and focus on the aforementioned query: Is there anything on this earth that brings unending, constant, and all-pervasive joy? Because, to be honest, that is the kind I want. I have dabbled in the weak stuff, the stuff that doesn't last. My understanding of God has led me to know that He loves me and wants what is best for me. A joy-filled life definitely fits the bill.
As with all questions of life and living, it is probably best to go to the Lord Creator of this earth for wisdom and understanding...and maybe even an answer! "Joy" (as the great Pollyanna once noted) is mentioned 158 times in the Bible (...by contrast, "misery" is noted merely 9 times). "Blessed", or happy--327 times (..."pain", or suffering--35 times). "Love"--362 times (..."hate" 86 times). "Servant"--514 times (..."Master" 187 times). "Heaven"--532 times (..."hell"--32 times). This simple word search in and of itself reveals quite a bit about God's priorities. A reading of each and every one of the above cases will leave you astounded at how far wrong our views of what our lives are supposed to be like have become.
But I digress...back to joy. Deuteronomy 28 revelas a list of blessings and promises for obeying and observing God's instructions. The blessings listed would not only come upon them but overtake them. Sounds like a pretty joyful existence to me!...overtaken by God's blessings! Wow. Of course, there were consequences for not obeying: Curses would overtake them, "Because you did not serve the LORD your God with joy and gladness of heart, for the abundance of everything" (Deut 28:47). Serving God with joy and gladness of heart. How does one serve God with joy and gladness of heart? How does that joy get there?
- Psalm 16:11 You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore. (Sounds straightforward.)
- Psalm 51:12 Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, And uphold me by Your generous Spirit. (David had gotten a sampling of God's joy by the work of the Holy Spirit in his life...and he was hooked! He wanted more! The man who was King, the hero of Israel, the defeater of Goliath..this great man who seemed to have it all counted it as nothing. He wanted more of what God offered. That was the joy he pursued...salvation.)
- Isaiah 12:3 Therefore with joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. (Isaiah spends considerable time in his entire book trying to draw our attention to the fact that Salvation is coming and when it does our hearts will be filled with joy because of it. We know that the Salvation he spoke of was the Messiah--Jesus the Christ, the Son of God!)
- Isaiah 60:1-5 Arise, shine; For your light has come! And the glory of the LORD is risen upon you. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, And deep darkness the people; But the LORD will arise over you, And His glory will be seen upon you. The Gentiles shall come to your light, And kings to the brightness of your rising. Lift up your eyes all around, and see: They all gather together, they come to you; Your sons shall come from afar, And your daughters shall be nursed at your side. Then you shall see and become radiant, And your heart shall swell with joy; Because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you, The wealth of the Gentiles shall come to you. (The coming of Jesus was to be a monumental, world-encomopassing event. Israel was blessed to be the nation by which God had chosen to save the world.)
- Hab 3:18 Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation. (Further affirmation of true joy...salvation.)
- Luke 2:10 Then the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people!" (The twelve words of Christmas...Louie Giglio is right on...the great joy prophesied of by Isaiah, Jeremiah, Habbakuk, and the other prophets had come to pass there in Bethlehem.)
- John 15:11 These things I (Jesus) have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. (What things you ask? These things..."This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends." John 15;12-13. A basic reiteration of Deut 28...We will be overtaken by Jesus' joy if we follow Him and His example.)
- John 16:22 Therefore you now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you. (This joy of salvation from Jesus supercedes anything that may trouble us in our daily existence. This is the great Hope. We will see Jesus and we can rest joyfully in that promise; even during the hard times we may experience here on earth.)
- Act 13:52 And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. (You see...there can be joy. There should be joy.)
- Rom 14:17 For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. (We who are in the Kingdom do not rate our joy-status on any scale the world has come up with. The work of the Holy Spirit in our lives produces joy naturally. Galatians 5:22. Joy is a fruit of the Holy Spirit.)
- Rom 15:13 Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (This nicely sums up much of what we have already seen.)
- Hebrews 12:2 Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Interesting...we are Jesus' joy. That is almost shocking to me...I am His joy. Wow...He really loves us.)
- James 1:2-4 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. (Further comfort that present sorrows wane when compared to the eternal joy set before us.)
- 1Peter 1:6-9 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith—the salvation of your souls.
My prayer for you and myself is that our lives begin to reflect the inexpressible joy of salvation that should be residing within our hearts. May we draw closer to our Lord and Savior and realize more and more what He has done for us, what He is doing for us, and what He has promised to do for us. I don't expect this to happen overnight. Faith is a journey full of little steps. Abraham didn't become the great father of faith in a single moment. His was a life-long journey of growing faith and trust in God. Read about it in Genesis and Hebrews. See what the Lord wants to teach you. I want to learn at His feet. I want to be filled with His wisdom, His love, His peace, His joy. I want to be overtaken by Him. Don't you?
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Got through most of Deuteronomy and a lot of rabbit trails:
- Hebrews 11:3--It takes faith to believe in Creation; not your arguments. Also, God prepared worlds (plural)? Hmmm.
- Numbers 33:55--What do we fail to drive out of our lives and thus becomes a thorn in our side? These thorns lead to sin--Deut 20:18.
- Deut 3:25--Moses really wanted to see the Promised Land. Even up to the last he was begging God to let him go see it.
- Deut 4:8--The real standard of greatness for nations. Do we measure up?
- Deut 4:9--All grandparents, read this NOW!
- Deut 5:24-29--What great respect and reverence Israel showed towards the Lord. Do we do likewise?
- Deut 7:20 (and Exodus 23:28)--Beware the hornet!!
- Deut 7:22--There are so many levels of providence in God's plans and purposes.
- Deut 8:2-5--God's discipleship training program: Humbling, testing, training, disciplining, and faith-building.
- Deut 9:4-5--More info on God's ways.
- Deut 9:6--Gut check.
- Deut 11:18-20--All dads, read this NOW!! (...and it is reitierated in Deut 6:7-9)
- Galatians 6:9 and Hebrews 6:10-12--What REAL works of faith are being manifested in my life?
- Deut 16:20--Motto for all lawyers everywhere.
- Deut 17:20--Motto for all politicians everywhere.
- Deut 20:3-4--Motto for all warriors everywhere.
- Deut 20:19-20, 22:6-7--God is concerned about the wefare of His creation. Even the environment.
- Deut 21:18-21--All kids , read this NOW!!
Get in the Word. Read it. Write it down. Dwell on it.
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