Featured Short: The Valley of Dry Bones [Video]

I wasn't sure if I was going to like this video, but it's an amazing visualization of one my favorite scriptures. My only problem with it is that the ending doesn't exactly match the ending of the passage, but that does not mean I would not recommend watching it!


Dry Bones from danDifelice on Vimeo.

Ezekiel 37:1-14

¹ The hand of the LORD was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. ² He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. ³ He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”
I said, “Sovereign LORD, you alone know.”
⁴ Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! ⁵ This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breath^[a] enter you, and you will come to life. ⁶ I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the LORD.’”
⁷ So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. ⁸ I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.
⁹ Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’” ¹⁰ So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.
¹¹ Then he said to me: “Son of man, these bones are the people of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’ ¹² Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: My people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. ¹³ Then you, my people, will know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. ¹⁴ I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the LORD have spoken, and I have done it, declares the LORD.’”

Featured Short: The Valley of Dry Bones [Video]

Islam and Christianity A Common Word: A very simple question for Christians. (In What Sense Is God One?)

thegrandverbalizer refuses to accept Christian understanding of Christian doctrine. Instead, he prefers his straw men.

In what sense is God one? (Scriptural references are appreciated).

Let's take a moment and look at the whole passage:

⁴ Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.^{[a] 5} Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. - Deuteronomy 6:4-5 (NIV)

1. Deuteronomy 6:4 Or The LORD our God is one LORD; or The LORD is our God, the LORD is one; or The LORD is our God, the LORD alone

⁴Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: ⁵And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. - Deuteronomy 6:4-5 (KJV)

kai tauta ta dikaiwmata kai ta krimata osa eneteilato kuriov toiv uioiv Israhl en th erhmw ecelqontwn autwn ek ghv Aiguptou akoue Israhl kuriov o qeov hmwn kuriov eiv estin

For example if I am part of the tribes of Israel and I hear it said to me 'Hear oh Israel the Lord your God the Lord is One'. (Deuteronomy 6:4)

What would I take away from that message? Would I have to have deep knowledge of theological and philosophy to understand this?

What if I was just a simple shepherd tending to my sheep?

So what does it say? Let us just ask what does the just plain person who was sitting in front of Moses, what did they hear? What did they understand? The Lord our God is one what? The Septuagint is of great help here. Recall Exodus 3:14


And God said (8799) unto Moses, I AM (8799) THAT I AM (8799) : and he said (8799) , Thus shalt thou say (8799) unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent (8804) me unto you.

kai eipen o qeov prov Mwushn egw eimi o wn kai eipen outwv ereiv toiv uioiv Israhl o wn apestalken me prov umav

And now compare John 8:58

  
Jesus said (5627) unto them, Verily, verily, I say (5719) unto you, Before Abraham was (5635) , I am (5748) .

eipen (5627) autoiv Ihsouv, Amhn amhn legw (5719) umin, prin Abraam genesqai (5635) egw eimi. (5748)

Egw eimi? In both Old and New Testament. Jesus is claiming to be the same being who spoke to Moses from the Burning Bush. Would someone from Moses time get that? I don't think so because it wasn't revealed until Jesus did it almost 1500 years later. What the Hebrews at the time of Moses understood was that God is one being. Jesus revealed more light as to who and what God is. Did Jesus reveal more info? Yup.

I and my Father are (5748) one.

egw kai o pathr en esmen. (5748) - John 10:30

Hmmmm. Jesus used the same terminology for "oneness" as in Deuteronomy 6:4. Jesus makes a distinction between His person and the Father's person, but He makes not distinction in God's being or essence.

Cf. D. Block, has a book "How Many Is God: An Investigation into the Meaning of Deuteronomy 6:4-5," I thought this was a curious title for a book. A bit presumptuous. For example why not title the book 'How Many Beings is God: An Investigation into the Meaning of Deuteronomy 6:4-5."

After all if the Tri-Theist are going to keep coining new phrases, employing sophistry and clever semantics why presume anything?

Again with the Tri-Theist. We Christians - all of us - whether you accepts the distinction of person in the Godhead or ignore it - we all agree that God is one being. The Muslims are correct on that point. 

Why presume that God's being is 'one'? I really want to know on what basis do Christians say that God's being is one?

Why presume that God's person is :"one" as thegrandverbalizer does? The Bible doesn't. Yet the Qur'an and the Bible agree that God is one in being. 

If words have meaning what do they mean by that? Curious Muslims (and those searching for truth) want to know.

I want to know why thgrandverbalizer thinks that Christians are twisting words. We all instinctively make a distinction between  "being" and "person". No one answers the questions "What are you?" the same as the question "Who are you?" They are different categories and not the same. Here is another important point. I think that the Trinity is important but it's not a litmus test for orthodoxy. I mean there will be countless people in heaven who put their faith in what God revealed to them and not have as much of the big picture as we have today. For example, Neither Abraham, Moses, nor David knew that the Messiah's name would be Jesus, but they knew that God would provide such salvation and they trusted God for that. Neither did they know about God being triune in person. Yet we'd be stupid to think they didn't make it into heaven. 

³⁹ These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, ⁴⁰ since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.- Hebrews 11:39-40

Islam and Christianity A Common Word: A very simple question for Christians. (In What Sense Is God One?)

Septuagint Info


StudyLight.org

Scripture4All - Interlinear Hebrew Old Testament

Related articles

• Humility Like Moses' (delooo.wordpress.com)
• "What Jesus Does" ( Jude 9, HCSB ) by Carley Evans (via Grace Partakers) (thechristiangazette.wordpress.com)
• Assurance, Examination, and Community (apologus.wordpress.com)
• This Weeks Torah Portion - Matot (Tribes) (terri0729.wordpress.com)

The Bible illustration blog: Drawing the Ark of the Covenant.

Image via WikipediaI really enjoy the Bible Illustration Blog! The latest post is about the theories and ideas around how the Ark of the Covenant actually looked! Did the cherubim on the lid use both wing to cover the mercy seat? Did the poles run parallel with the long side? Short side? These questions are asked and discussed. This is a wonderful job!!!!

The Bible illustration blog: Drawing the Ark of the Covenant.

Related articles

• Ark of the Covenant - Separation (legendsarising.com)
• Infra-Red Satellite Imaging Reveals Buried Egyptian City, Final Resting Place Of The Ark Of The Covenant! (Per Indiana Jones) (geekologie.com)
• Why did God kill the man who touched the ark of the covenant (wiki.answers.com)

FacePAlm Quote of the Day #8: Debunking Christianity: Praise God for the Candiru Parasite! Isn't God Good?

Wow...John Loftus never disappoints when it comes to modeling what "Cognitive Dissonance" really is. He provided the following video and commentary on his blog.

When did God create the Candiru parasite? And why didn't he tell us how to avoid it? Seems to me a good God who cared for us would at least tell us, don't you?
To read up on other parasites get the book Parasite Rex. Read it Christian and let it strengthen your faith! Funny thing is that in our ecosystem we need them. But with a God who could perform perpetual miracles we don't need them at all! Which alternative seems most likely?
Oh, and no using the Omniscience Escape Clause.

I'm not really in love with the candiru parasite any more than I like roaches. However notice that John Loftus asks the question why did God create such a creature and then he answers his own question - because we need them in our ecosystem. God did not choose to create a reality where we don't need them. If you don't like it, talk to the one who made everything. The video points out that it is never a good idea to urinate into a river and we know that because of pollution. Loftus further ask why didn't God warn us? God did. In the Bible, when the Children of Israel left Egypt they were given laws about how to deal with such matters as biological waist.

12 Designate a place outside the camp where you can go to relieve yourself. 13 As part of your equipment have something to dig with, and when you relieve yourself, dig a hole and cover up your excrement. 14 For the LORD your God moves about in your camp to protect you and to deliver your enemies to you. Your camp must be holy, so that he will not see among you anything indecent and turn away from you. - Deuteronomy 23:12-14

Now tell me: if we followed this would we have to worry about a parasite swimming into our ureatha? No.


Is God good? YES! God is good and all the time God is good!
Debunking Christianity: Praise God for the Candiru Parasite! Isn't God Good?

Islam and Christianity A Common Word: An Ancient Christian Art: Quoting Out of Context part 2

Here is part 2

Than it gets worse (Matthew 27:9-10) another example of quote mining.

9

Then was fulfilled what had been said through Jeremiah the prophet, ⁵"And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the value of a man with a price on his head, a price set by some of the Israelites,

10

and they paid it out for the potter's field just as the Lord had commanded me."

Even the foot note to the New American Bible had this interesting piece of information to say.

⁵ [9-10] Cf Matthew 26:15. Matthew's attributing this text to Jeremiah is puzzling, for there is no such text in that book, and the thirty pieces of silver thrown by Judas "into the temple" (Matthew 27:5) recall rather Zechariah 11:12-13. It is usually said that the attribution of the text to Jeremiah is due to Matthew's combining the Zechariah text with texts from Jeremiah that speak of a potter (Jeremiah 18:2-3), the buying of a field (Jeremiah 32:6-9), or the breaking of a potter's flask at Topheth in the valley of Ben-Hinnom with the prediction that it will become a burial place (Jeremiah 19:1-13).

"So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver. And the LORD said unto me, Cast it unto the potter: a goodly price that I was prized at of them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them to the potter in the house of the LORD." (Zechariah 11:12-13)

Source taken from (http://www.usccb.org/nab/bible/matthew/matthew27.htm)

But what do the Christians do? Instead of being honest and acknowledging this for what it is:quote mining they come up with all kinds of 'could have' 'should have' and 'perhaps' scenarios.

One of the things they say is that Matthew was 'loosely' quoting Jeremiah. Go to any apologetic web site and see it for yourself! Quoting loosely indeed! The other amazing thing they try and push on the gullible masses and one of my personal favorites is the following response.

Well you see Matthew doesn't say Jeremiah wrote anything it simply says he spoke. If this is the case where is the proof? What is so amazing about a so called 'prophecy' if no one was expecting it to be a prophecy in the first place.

This just opens a can of worms. Maybe I could become inspired by the Holy Spirit too and write my own Gospel account. Maybe I could also quote things from Moses, and Jeremiah and Ezekiel to and simply say 'Hey! The Holy Spirit inspired me that they said this'.

No! This is not the case my dear readers. This is another horrible example of whom ever wrote the Gospel of Matthew quote mining from the TNCH or 'Old Testament'.

Here is a better answer based on Jewish first century customs:

Some claim it is a mistake that Matthew attributes the quotation in Matthew 27:9-10 to Jeremiah instead of Zechariah.
Most questions of this sort usually find answers in the footnotes of the common Study Bibles.
For example the NIV Study Bible has this footnote on Mt. 27:9

Jeremiah. The quotation that follows seems to be a combination of Zec 11:12-13 and Jer 19:1-13 (or perhaps Jer 18:2-12 or Jer 32:6-9). But Matthew attributes it to the major prophet Jeremiah, just as Mark (1:2-3) quotes Mal 3:1 and Isa 40:3 but attributes them to the major prophet Isaiah.

This is actually pretty common in the Bible. The NIV Quest Study Bible adds possible another thought:

... it was customary to allude to an entire section of the Bible by the name of the first book in that section. It may be that in Matthew's day Jeremiah was the first of the prophetic books.

If a more in depth discussion is needed, I would recommend the valuable book Hard Sayings of the Bible, which discusses this passage on pages 399-400. Another contemporary reply, is Gleason Archer's Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties (Zondervan, 1982), p. 345. However, some might prefer the older approach used by E. W. Bullinger in The Companion Bible (ca. 1916; reprinted in the U.S. by Zondervan, 1974), at Appendix 161, which deals with these passages at length. "When Critics Ask" by Norman Geisler and Thomas Howe also has a short discussion on it. (Copmmentary on Matthew 27:9)

I want to point out that in Jesus' time, 30 pieces of silver was the common average wage for a year. Zechariah say that this is the price of a man. Also in the first century they would not have looked at this as a mistake, like one might in our culture of precision copies and communication. His Jewish audience knew that Matthew was referring to zachariah not to Jeremiah. They did that often. Sometimes referring to a "minor" prophet by the name of a "major" prophet. Remember "minor" vs "major" refers to the leng6th of the book not the prophet's value!

Islam and Christianity A Common Word: An Ancient Christian Art: Quoting Out of Context

YouTube - Does Isaiah 53 speak about Jesus?

Here is a short video clip where Hamza Malik tries to explain whether Isaiah 53 refers to Jesus or not. His argument is that because the passage is past tense it can't be referring to Jesus who lived 700 years after this prophecy was spoken. In addition he argues that the passage is about the nation of Israel itself.




There are a lot of problems with his arguments. they are the same as came up in my interaction with thegrandverbalizer in a couple of preceding posts. I will briefly respond for anyone who hasn't read them. Biblical Hebrew does not have verb tenses therefore it makes no sense to think that Isaiah was talking about something that already happened. Malik did not explain if the passage is not about Jesus, then how does Israel as a nation fulfill this passage? When did that happen? There are several parts of the passage that can't be applied to the nation of Israel. He also neglected to say that the idea that the passage is not Messianic is not the historical consensus of Judaism and even those who do think that the passage is about Israel as a nation do not think that it is talking about past but future events. Isaiah 53 says:

1 Who has believed our message
and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?

2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.

3 He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.
Like one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

4 Surely he took up our infirmities
and carried our sorrows,
yet we considered him stricken by God,
smitten by him, and afflicted.

5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed.

6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.

7 He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before her shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.

8 By oppression [a] and judgment he was taken away.
And who can speak of his descendants?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
for the transgression of my people he was stricken. [b]

9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence,
nor was any deceit in his mouth.

10 Yet it was the LORD's will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
and though the LORD makes [c] his life a guilt offering,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand.

11 After the suffering of his soul,
he will see the light of life [d] and be satisfied [e] ;
by his knowledge [f] my righteous servant will justify many,
and he will bear their iniquities.

12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, [g]
and he will divide the spoils with the strong, [h]
because he poured out his life unto death,
and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors.

When has Israel as a nation ever fulfilled any of these verses?

I'm preparing a future post containing the entire debate.

YouTube - Does Isaiah 53 speak about Jesus?

Egyptology News: Evidence for the Ten Plagues of Egypt at time of Ramesses II

I read a great article giving natural explanations for the 10 plagues leading to Israel's Exodus out of Egypt.

The Telegraph (Richard Gray)

Researchers believe they have found evidence of real natural disasters on which the ten plagues of Egypt, which led to Moses freeing the Israelites from slavery in the Book of Exodus in the Bible, were based.

But rather than explaining them as the wrathful act of a vengeful God, the scientists claim the plagues can be attributed to a chain of natural phenomena triggered by changes in the climate and environmental disasters that happened hundreds of miles away.

They have compiled compelling evidence that offers new explanations for the Biblical plagues, which will be outlined in a new series to be broadcast on the National Geographical Channel on Easter Sunday.

Archaeologists now widely believe the plagues occurred at an ancient city of Pi-Rameses on the Nile Delta, which was the capital of Egypt during the reign of Pharaoh Rameses the Second, who ruled between 1279BC and 1213BC.

The city appears to have been abandoned around 3,000 years ago and scientists claim the plagues could offer an explanation.

Climatologists studying the ancient climate at the time have discovered a dramatic shift in the climate in the area occurred towards the end of Rameses the Second's reign.

I don't have a problem with natural explanations for the plagues, but I don't think the explanation fits the evidence given in Exodus for two reasons; It does not explain why Goshen, where the Israelites,  did not experience the same plagues as the rest of Egypt. And two how do they account for the speed and near simultaneity of these events? The bottom line is Israelites did not free themselves, but God did it for them.

Egyptology News: Evidence for the Ten Plagues of Egypt at time of Ramesses II

Reasonable Faith: question_16_Slaughter_of_the_Canaanites

I respect William Lane Craig. He is a gifted scholar and debater. I was recently pointed to an essay he wrote on his website answering the question as to how could God order the Israelites to destroy the Canaanite nations and still be moral. I like his answer and I wanted to call attention to it. I disagree with what he said about biblical inerrancy. It is just as important as the deity of Christ or the existence of God because it is by the Bible we have proof of these things. Craig is an existentialist which is not a bad thing. but it does mean that we see something differently.

Reasonable Faith: question_16_Slaughter_of_the_Canaanites