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John 1:13 – Does this passage support Calvinism?
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Problem: In a 2021 critical article on whether Jesus was actually born in Bethlehem, one of the most telling statements by the author is this:
The Gospels’ different views might be hard to reconcile. But as a scholar of the New Testament, what I argue is that the Gospels offer an important insight into the Greco-Roman views of ethnic identity, including genealogies.
Today, genealogies may bring more awareness of one’s family medical history or help uncover lost family members. In the Greco-Roman era, birth stories and genealogical claims were used to establish rights to rule and link individuals with purported ancestral grandeur.
Problem: The translators of the Jehovah’s Witness Bible (the New World Translation, or NWT) render this verse as follows: “The Word was a god.” These translators argue that there is no article before theos (God). Therefore, they argue, this verse does not support the fact that Jesus is divine. Instead, this passage is describing that Jesus is godlike, but not God. Is this the case?
Problem: Have you ever stopped to consider how flexible people are when using geographical terms to describe somewhere they have been in the past or are going in the future? Perhaps you have heard friends telling about their trip to Dallas, Texas to watch the Dallas Cowboys play football. The truth is, however, the Cowboys technically do not play in Dallas, Texas, but in Arlington, Texas. It may be that one day your family decides to take a trip to Atlanta, Georgia to go to Six Flags. If you do, make sure you first understand that Six Flags is not exactly in Atlanta, but in Austell, Georgia.
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Problem: Skeptics and Bible critics frequently accuse the Bible of containing discrepancies and contradictions that, if true, would militate against its being the inspired Word of God. One such instance centers on two passages in the New Testament that deal with Christ’s resurrection.
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Problem: The Jewish Bible is divided into three sections—the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings. Many believe that Jesus is alluding to this threefold division in the phrase “the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms.” However, the standard NT way of referring to the entire OT by Jesus and the NT writers was by the phrase “the Law and the Prophets” (cf. Matt. 5:17; Luke 24:27). Which is correct?
Problem: I occasionally receive questions about whether Luke 24:37–43 introduces a Bible contradiction. In this passage, Jesus said that a spirit (or as some versions state, “a ghost”) does not have flesh and blood, and then he proved that he had flesh and blood by asking them to look at and touch him. To further demonstrate his physical presence, he ate broiled fish. But is there really an apparent contradiction, or are we just looking at a misunderstanding caused by modern conceptions of the terms? Before we discuss the alleged contradiction, let’s look at the two key verses (verses 37 and 39) in different English translations.
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Problem: Three times in the gospel of Matthew, the writer recorded where certain disciples of Jesus were instructed to meet the Lord in Galilee after His resurrection. During the Passover meal that Jesus ate the night of His betrayal, He informed His disciples, saying, “After I have been raised, I will go before you to Galilee” (Matthew 26:32). Three days later, on the day of Jesus’ resurrection when Mary Magdalene and the other women came to the empty tomb of Jesus, Matthew recorded how an angel told them to notify the disciples of Jesus’ resurrection, and to tell them exactly the same thing they were told three days earlier: “He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him” (28:7). Then, only three verses later, as the women were on their way to inform the disciples of Jesus’ resurrection and the message given to them by the angel, Matthew recorded how Jesus appeared to them and said: “Rejoice!… Do not be afraid. Go and tell My brethren to go to Galilee, and there they will see Me” (28:9-10). Sometime thereafter, “the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them,” and “worshipped Him” (28:16).
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Problem: Did Jesus first appear to the eleven disciples on a mountain in Galilee or in Jerusalem behind closed doors?
The Gospels seem to provide conflicting information concerning the location of the Lord’s first appearance to the eleven disciples following His Resurrection.
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Problem: Some people question whether Jesus had the same body after His resurrection as He did before being raised from the grave. According to them, Jesus “appeared to people he knew but nobody recognized him…. It’s as though He had a different body”—and possibly one that was not physical.
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Problem: The first one who saw was Mary Magdalene just as it says (Mark 16:9). Matt 28:9; Mark 16:9; Luke 24:15-18; John 20:14; 1 Cor 15:3-5
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Problem: Dismissing the miracles documented in the New Testament is a favorite pastime of many skeptics, and even some religious leaders. However, this “dismissal” game gets extremely complicated, because the miracles are so closely blended with historical facts that separating the two soon becomes like trying to separate two different colors of modeling clay. Take, for instance, the plight of Sir William Ramsay. His extensive education had engrained within him the keenest sense of scholarship. Along with that sense of scholarship came a built-in prejudice about the supposed inaccuracy of the Bible (especially the book of Acts). Ramsay noted: “… [A]bout 1880 to 1890 the book of the Acts was regarded as the weakest part of the New Testament. No one that had any regard for his reputation as a scholar cared to say a word in its defence. The most conservative of theological scholars, as a rule, thought the wisest plan of defence for the New Testament as a whole was to say as little as possible about the Acts” (1915, p. 38).
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Problem: Suppose a man is telling a story about the time he and his wife went shopping at the mall. The man mentions all the great places in the mall to buy hunting supplies and cinnamon rolls. The wife tells about the same shopping trip, yet mentions only the places to buy clothes. Is there a contradiction between the stories just because the wife mentions clothing stores but the husband mentions only cinnamon rolls and hunting supplies? No. They are simple adding to (or supplementing) each other’s story to make it more complete. That happens quite often in the resurrection accounts in the Gospels.
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Problem: How many women were at the tomb of Jesus? The four different gospels mention different numbers. John 20:1 says one. Matt. 28:1 says two. Mark 16:1 says three. Luke also says three, but is a different three than Mark 16:1. So, which is it, one, two, three, four, or more? Does it mean there is a contradiction, or is it just different views from different perspectives? Let’s take a look
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Problem: Critics of the New Testament often suggest that the gospels present contradictory narratives regarding Jesus’ resurrection. One such argument (which is honestly rather weak but comes up surprisingly often) involves the details of who discovered Jesus’ empty tomb. The claim is that each gospel lists a different set of women and that the story, therefore, cannot be trusted. This argument, however, breaks down almost immediately on even the slightest examination. The truth is that while each of the four gospels includes unique details on the matter, they all are perfectly consistent with one another on who it was who first found the stone rolled away and the body of Jesus missing. The gospels are definitely in agreement on this.
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