And what was your counter argument that I supposedly ignored. Willliam Lane Craig used these four facts against Bart Erhman in a debate, not even Erhman could bring a argument against them. Erhman danced around them and was unable to recover after Craig displayed a mathematical equation to calculate the probability of the existence of Christ rising from the dead. Erhman then used humor to recover. It is not one source we are talking about here but the majority consensus of two thousand years of scholarship.

I agree with you TB Rich, but this does seem to be legitimate.

First of all, going by your logic, who are you to say I am wrong.

The evidence is not the same for all religions. For instance there are major philosophical problems with Islamic concept of God as being purely one. If this is true, then who was God loving before he created man. Allah then needed man to love.

Even if evolution is true, it could not have taken place with out God, according to Anthony Flew.

I have not heard one counter arguement to the four facts I stated earlier concerning the resurrection of Christ. If these four facts are true, then the Christian is amply justified in believing Christ rose from the dead.

Erhman doesnt tell you though that many of these changes are actually things like sentence structure, a missed peried, a misspelled word. That is what most of these changes are. Erhman is one of the best textual critics today, but he makes these errors to sound worse than need be..

In context the verse you are talking about is about judging another believer.

I am sorry if what I wrote came off the wrong way.

All religions do have there point of exclusivity.

I was defending why there is no room for other religions in Christianity. If you want to examine the evidence, I have spent many days now defending the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, it would do you well to read over it.

Your sin has separated you from God. You have violated Gods law, and stand guilty before him. You will not see the face of God in your condition.


“The Bible says that God is holy, holy, holy. Not that He is merely holy, or even holy, holy. He is holy, holy, holy. The Bible never says that God is love, love, love, or mercy, mercy, mercy, or wrath, wrath, wrath, or justice, justice, justice. It does say that He is holy, holy, holy, the whole earth is full of His glory.”


It means to be set apart and pure.

"When things are made holy, when they are consecrated, they are set apart unto purity. They are to be used in a pure way. They are to reflect purity as well as simple apartness. Purity is not excluded from the idea of the holy; it is contained within it. But the point we must remember is that the idea of the holy is never exhausted by the idea of purity. It includes purity but is much more than that. It is purity and transcendence. It is a transcendent purity."


"Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD? and who may stand in His holy place? "


"But when the word holy is applied to God, it does not signify one single attribute. On the contrary, God is called holy in a general sense. The word is used as a synonym for his deity. That is, the word holy calls attention to all that God is. It reminds us that His love is holy love, his justice is holy justice, his mercy is holy mercy, his knowledge is holy knowledge, his spirit is holy spirit."

Oldest Hebrew Writing Possibly Found
Matti Friedman, Associated Press
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Still Legible | Discovery News Video: Archaeology

Oct. 31, 2008 -- An Israeli archaeologist has discovered what he believes is the oldest known Hebrew inscription on a 3,000-year-old pottery shard -- a find that suggests Biblical accounts of the ancient Israelite kingdom of David could have been based on written texts.
A teenage volunteer discovered the curved shard bearing five lines of faded characters in July in the ruins of an ancient town on a hilltop south of Jerusalem. Yossi Garfinkel, the Israeli archaeologist leading the excavations at Hirbet Qeiyafa, released his conclusions about the writing Thursday after months of study.
He said the relic is strong evidence that the ancient Israelites were literate and could chronicle events centuries before the Bible was written. This could suggest that some of the Bible's accounts were based on written records as well as oral traditions -- adding credence to arguments that the Biblical account of history is more than myth.
The shard was found near the stairs and stone washtub of an excavated home. It was later discovered to bear characters known as proto-Canaanite, a precursor of the Hebrew alphabet.
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THere is alot of inconclusive data from that time. We cannot say it didnt happen.

The sentences about Jesus are consistent with his writing style.

Yes they are, if truth by definition is non contradictory, then Jesus made a very fair claim when he said "I am the way, the truth, and the life." He made an exclusive claim about himself, "there is no other name by which men must be saved." Thats a very bold claim, and with authority. He claimed exclusivity.

Its 2 far fetched. Historians take his writings seriously and so do I.

Lack of evidence does not mean it never happened.

I made a mistake, The name might have been used by others claiming to be the Messiah.

Yeah

I find this interesting, this is exactly what the early rabbinical writings refer to him as, a magician. You see, there is a sense that when Christ came he did miracles.

Oct. 1, 2008 -- A team of scientists led by renowned French marine archaeologist Franck Goddio recently announced that they have found a bowl, dating to between the late 2nd century B.C. and the early 1st century A.D., that, according to an expert epigrapher, could be engraved with the world's first known reference to Christ.
If the word "Christ" refers to the Biblical Jesus Christ, as is speculated, then the discovery may provide evidence that Christianity and paganism at times intertwined in the ancient world.
The full engraving on the bowl reads, "DIA CHRSTOU O GOISTAIS," which has been interpreted by French epigrapher and professor emeritus Andre Bernand as meaning either, "by Christ the magician" or "the magician by Christ."
"It could very well be a reference to Jesus Christ, in that he was once the primary exponent of white magic," Goddio, co-founder of the Oxford Center of Maritime Archaeology, said.
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He and his colleagues found the object during an excavation of the underwater ruins of Alexandria's ancient great harbor. The Egyptian site also includes the now submerged island of Antirhodos, where Cleopatra's palace may have been located.
Egyptologist David Fabre, a member of the European Institute of Submarine Archaeology, thinks a "magus" could have practiced fortune-telling rituals using the bowl. The Book of Mathew in the Bible refers to "wisemen," or Magi, believed to have been prevalent in the ancient world.
According to Fabre, the bowl is also very similar to one depicted in two early Egyptian earthenware statuettes that are thought to show a soothsaying ritual.
"It has been known in Mesopotamia probably since the 3rd millennium B.C.," Fabre said. "The soothsayer interprets the forms taken by the oil poured into a cup of water in an interpretation guided by manuals."

He added that the individual, or "medium," then goes into a hallucinatory trance when studying the oil in the cup.
"They therefore see the divinities, or supernatural beings appear that they call to answer their questions with regard to the future," he said.
The magus might then have used the engraving on the bowl to legitimize his supernatural powers by invoking the name of Christ, the scientists theorize.
Goddio explained, "It is very probable that in Alexandria they were aware of the existence of Jesus" and of his associated legendary miracles. Based on Biblical texts, these included transforming water into wine, multiplying loaves of bread, conducting miraculous health cures, and the story of the resurrection.
While not discounting the Jesus Christ interpretation, other researchers have offered different possible interpretations for the engraving, which was made on the thin-walled ceramic bowl after it was fired, since slip was removed during the process.
Bert Smith, a professor of classical archaeology and art at Oxford University, suggests the engraving might be a dedication, or present, made by a certain "Chrestos" belonging to a possible religious association called Ogoistais.
Klaus Hallof, director of the Institute of Greek inscriptions at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy, added that if Smith's interpretation proves valid, the word "Ogoistais" could then be connected to known religious groups that worshipped early Greek and Egyptian gods and goddesses, such as Hermes, Athena and Isis.
Hallof additionally pointed out that historians working at around, or just after, the time of the bowl, such as Strabon and Pausanias, refer to the god "Osogo" or "Ogoa," so a variation of this might be what's on the bowl. It is even possible that the bowl refers to both Jesus Christ and Osogo.
Fabre concluded, "It should be remembered that in Alexandria, paganism, Judaism and Christianity never evolved in isolation. All of these forms of religion (evolved) magical practices that seduced both the humble members of the population and the most well-off classes."
"It was in Alexandria where new religious constructions were made to propose solutions to the problem of man, of God's world," he added. "Cults of Isis, mysteries of Mithra, and early Christianity bear witness to this."
The bowl is currently on public display in the exhibit "Egypt's Sunken Treasures" at the Matadero Cultural Center in Madrid, Spain, until November 15.

I think the least possible solution is to diagnose the man as schizophrenic. The writer is writing about the event many years later. He would have time to reflect over his experience.
Of course Christianity today has a bias. All writers do. My point is that it is a reputable magazine that prints reliable articles.

The man is not schizophrenic. He is a professor at a reputable university who writes for Christianity today. Christianity today is a very good magazine. Its reputation is very good.

There is no historical evidence that Josephus was just a pen name. What is questionable is his patriotism. Historians know quite a bit about him.


Eusebius was the bishop of Caesarea Palaestina at about 314 AD.