Too Woke for Church? | Sho Baraka

Here is another video from Jude3Project. Sho Baraka was really great to hear. I had never heard of him before but it was expressing many of my own thoughts and feelings. He was right on. If you think you are so knowledgeable that you are beyond the need to go to church (ie "Woke") then you are still sleep and in a nightmare.

Barack Obama vs Black Hebrew Israelites | Vocab Malone

Jude3Project interviewed Vocab Malone's book Barack Obama vs the Black Hebrew Israelites. It's different than the one he did with James White on James White's podcast.It's a little expanded and you get to see more of Vocab's personality and his convictions and how he sees God and his ministry.

The Deity of Christ and the Council of Nicaea | Vince Bantu, PhD

Here is another interview from the Jude3Project. You can hear this interview with Dr Vince Bantu about what History actually says about the Council of Nicaea in 325 CE. He cover so much great material it would be worth your time to hear what he says if you think that the doctrine of the Deity of Christ began at the Council of Nicaea. SPOILER: IT didn't.

Osiris and Jesus Connection | Brother Berean

Yesterday, I learned about the Jude3Project which is an apologetics group that focuses on the issues and problems people of color face in coming to faith in Christ and objections from cults that target people of color. Groups like the Black Hebrew Israelites, Five Percenters, Rastafarians, Nation of Islam, and Atheism as well as other issues Black churches struggle with are thoughtfully discussed from the Bible in podcasts.

The following is an interview with a Christian discussing how we know Jesus is not a copy of Osiris from the context that cults that target people of color and more about such groups.

Hamza Questions James White (Now with Subtitles)

The following video is an interaction James White had with a Muslim. It is amazing for many different reasons. We get to see James White talking to a Muslim asking him pointed questions about salvation and how the Bible answers the question about God's sovereignty and our responsibility. I loved how Dr White gave the man the same consistent and Bible-based answers and arguments he uses when he does do scholarly debates. There is a number of people standing around listening to the interaction. This is worth listening to and when you do, you may want to turn on the YouTube subtitles so you can understand better because the sound isn't very good!

What are 7 days of creation? John Lennox

Here is a great discussion with John Lennox about how to square what we observe in science with what has been revealed to us by God in Genesis.

The Sovereign God and the Free Will of Man - John Lennox

John Lennox is one of my favorite scholars. He's a mathematician. He's a philosopher. He's a Christian Apologists like no other. He's one of the few Christians who have debated Richard Dawkins and is one of the reason why Dawkins doesn't debate Christians anymore in scholarly debate. Dawkins is scared. There are very few things that I have heard John Lennox say that I disagree with. The video below one of them. In it Lennox answers and audience question about Human Free will and God's sovereignty. The question is an old one: If God is sovereign over everything, then how do humans have free will? How is it that we make choices between doing right and wrong if we are not running our lives? Many philosophers like John Lennox argue that we have free will- that ability to choose to do right and wrong and the freedom to choose to accept or reject Jesus.



John Lennox is far from the only one who looks at this from his point of view. I know I used to see it his way. Many other great Christian thinkers agree with him. For example, William Lane Craig would argue this way as well. Fortunately there is no anathema to be be seen on this issue. It is important but it won't keep you away from God if you agree or disagree with them. One of the powerful reasons why people hold this view is because it is an answer to the the "Problem of Evil". We can say that people do evil things to each other because people choose to do it and God holds us responsible for our deeds. This is why bad things happen to good people. Problem solved. I thought that this was wrapped up in a nice little bow until I realized:

1.This does not explain why natural disasters happen to people.
2. If we are enslaved to sin and nothing good is in the unregenerate sinner, as the Bible says, then how did I get saved? I mean I'm no less evil or better than the next person who hears, understands, and rejects the Gospel.

This is why I don't think the "free-will" defense is viable. If we truly had libertarian free will we ought to be able to choose not to sin and we all know we stand guilty before a holy God is we use God as the standard of how we should act, think, and speak. We all sin - intentionally and unintentionally. This is why we need rescue. That is why Jesus died for us. So this leaves us in an uncomfortable position. This does not mean that we cannot make choices. We do. I just don't think we can say that we have all the options to choose whatever because without God's grace we cannot choose to do the right thing even if we don't recognize that God gave us the opportunity and the experience to do right. Do we have to argue that God holds us accountable for things that is not in our power to change? Given the following what else can we say?

 

¹⁴ What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! ¹⁵ For he says to Moses,

“I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,
    and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”^[f]

¹⁶ It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. ¹⁷ For Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”^{[g] 18} Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.

¹⁹ One of you will say to me: “Then why does God still blame us? For who is able to resist his will?” ²⁰ But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’”^{[h] 21} Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use?
²² What if God, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction? ²³ What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory— ²⁴ even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?

I want to end this with Jesus' words on this:

13 Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. ² Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? ³ I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. ⁴ Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? ⁵ I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.” - Luke 13:1-5

Matthew 28:19 with Vocab Malone in Response to Ron Shields

On December 28, 2017 James White had Vocab Malone on the Dividing Line to talk about 4 hour video put out by a leader in the Black Hebrew Israelites named Ron Shields. Shields made a video attacking both James White and Vocab Malone on the grounds of  Textual Criticism. He tries to argue the Matthew 28:19 is not really in the Bible because it's not the Syriac translations we have despite we have the passage in older Greek manuscripts. Vocab and James White show where Shields is wrong. Vocab also goes over what's happening with Black Hebrew Israelites today and something about their history. It was interesting. Also they talked about Vocab's new book Barack Obama vs Black Hebrew Israelites.




Of course not everyone agrees with Vocab Malone's work. Following is a discussion Vocab had where people in the Black Hebrew Israelites confront him and ask him questions. We got to look at all sides after all.

Voddie Baucham: The Rescuer

Here is awesome sermon by Pastor Voddie Baucham. He draws on the Old Testament to show that Jesus' life and mission and accomplishment in rescuing His people from sin and death were foreshadowed and typed from the beginning in Genesis and then pointing to Jesus. Jesus is the lamb of God. God made flesh. He is all that we need and didn't even know we needed. Thankfully God did know. This this kind of sermon that will want you to find an altar to recommit yourself to Jesus all over again if you haven't already! I sure hope it draws people to Jesus.

James White Educated by Tim Wise "Tremendous Amount of Racism in the Bl...

Yahya Snow posted the following video and I know he constant critic of James White. This is because James White is really good at talking to Muslims and arguing for the truths of Christianity. James White is transparent about knowing that he does not know everything and about the truth that we all have blind spots - ignorance and misunderstandings of reality. I mean if we didn't have them or could eliminate them all we wouldn't need each other and we would not need God. But we do. In James White's case I think he does have blind spot when it comes to racism and white privilege in America. This does not mean that he's racist or evil or completely wrong from his viewpoint. For example when he says all prejudices against another person (especially because of their skin color) is wrong. And some Black people do think that way just like some White people. However he seems to fail to see how slavery and racism affect his black brothers and sisters today differently than it does himself because he is a white man. When he says that he "doesn't see color", it is because he doesn't have to. His skin color does not negatively impact his life or getting along in American society, It doesn't make him racist just mean that he does not see the world the same way I do. And Like him without God's mercy and revelation I can't see any clearer than he does and in something I don't see things as clearly as he does. For example he sees and understands Textual Criticism far better than I do.

As for the video below, although I agree with everything Tim Wise is quoted in saying I think it is untrue to pretend that Wise we speaking to people like James White. I saw the program that is clipped from James White's podcast and he was not bemoaning the idea that Black people get to use the N-word but he can't. That was not the point James White was talking about at all. Instead this is an example of Yahya Snow being less than honest in criticizing James White in one of his weaknesses because he isn't able to destroy James White's arguments regarding Islam.

Jesus vs Osiris

One of the most common objections to Christianity is that we stole our ideas and understanding our theology and beliefs from pagan sources. One of the most popular examples is that of arguing that Jesus is copied from Osiris from Egyptian mysteries religions. The video below does a good job of comparing Jesus with what we know Ancient Egyptians thought of Osiris and showing that "one of these is not like the other".

How Average People Fall For The Flat-Earth Conspiracy

This is an interesting video where people who believe in flat earth are interviewed in why they believe the earth is flat. Turns out that they aren't all stupid...some are just looking for meaning in existence.

The thing that amazed me was that some people seemed to think that the thought that we live in a meaningless universe without purpose is connected to the earth being round. I don't understand that at all. The ideas are not connected. We can be living on a round earth following the science we currently observe without existential crisis - but with only knowing that there is a God. I disagree that a round earth leads to the philosophical conclusions given by many atheists like  Richard Dawkins.