Without Excuse: Apologetics Blog

It is sometimes asserted that Jesus never claimed to be God because he never plainly said, "I am God." However, he did allude to it on several occasions: Jesus claimed to be Lord and had authority over the Sabbath: Matt 12:8 “For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” Jesus was recognized as God by the demons: Mar 1:24 saying, “Let us alone! What have we to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth? Did You come to destroy us? I know who You are—the Holy One of God!” Jesus forgave sins, something only God can do: Luk 5:20 When He saw their faith, He said to him, “Man, your sins are forgiven you.” Luk 5:21 And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, “Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” Jesus claimed that He and God were one and the same: John 10:30 “I and My Father are one.” Jesus was worshiped by His disciples and others, something only reserved for God: John 9:38 Then he said, “Lord, I believe!” And he worshiped Him. Jesus claim...

There is an argument, particularly from the Hebrew Roots Movement and the Sacred Name movement, that the name Jesus is a pagan corruption of the name Zeus because they sound phonically similar, but there are a few problems with that theory: 1. There is an etymological explanation of how the name Jesus came to be that has nothing to do with Zeus. The modern name "Jesus" comes from the Latin Iesus, which comes from the Greek Iesous, which comes from the Aramaic Yeshu'a and the Hebrew Yehoshu'a. Words tend to get lost in translation. Due to the differences between languages, some letters are dropped while others are added. For a full explanation, see: Where did the name "Jesus" come from? 2. The argument could only be made in English. Neither the Greek names for Zeus (Ζέυς) nor Jesus (Iesous) sound phonetically similar. 3. The names "Jesus" and "Zeus" are both English names. "Jesus" entered the English lexicon much earlier than ...

There are those who contend the ghost or spirit of Samuel was either a trick, hallucination, or a demon, but I say, not so fast. There are several reasons to believe it was actually the spirit of Samuel: 1) The spirit of Samuel prophesized that the Philistines would defeat Israel and Saul and his sons would die the next day, and it was fulfilled to the letter. The spirit of Samuel accurately predicted the people involved and the exact day it would happen. Demons do not know the future, nor can they make it happen. 2) The narrator of the book, not the witch, says that it was Samuel multiple times. The Biblical narrator is the authoritative voice. It's his job to expose deception when it occurs, and he never refutes the spirit of Samuel as not being who he says he is. 3) The witch of Endor is startled and surprised to see the ghost of Samuel, indicating it was a genuine experience and not a trick. 4) The spirit of Samuel does not contradict God or say anything that is untrue. He only...

The mind is a curious thing. Some people believe it is purely the product of the brain, but in truth, no one really knows where consciousness resides. There are theories, of course, but that’s all they are. This poses a problem for the materialist, as evolution can’t explain why consciousness exists at all. I recently read a book entitled “The Immortal Mind” by neurosurgeon Michael Egnor, and I think it confirms a lot of what I have speculated about the consciousness/mind/soul (whatever you want to call it) and what we as Christians believe. He makes the case that the mind is not a product of the brain and gives many reasons for doing so. For those who have crippling epileptic seizures, a procedure is done where they actually split the brain in half to stop the seizures. It was initially worried this would result in severe physical disabilities and would split the mind in half. Interestingly enough, it did neither of those things. Patients were able to live completely normal lives afte...

I plan on tidying up this blog, and moving some posts over to my new blog: In Defense: Israel and the Jews (name subject to change). In the meantime, check out my other blog:  The Soapbox: Political Discourse .

Restorationists such as the Jehovah Witnesses, Seventh-Day Adventist and Christadelphians contend that the soul is not conscious after death. They believe in the concept of soul sleep, that the soul is unconscious and "sleeps" in death until the resurrection at Christ's second coming. It's true, the Bible does refer to death as "sleep" on occasion, but it does so as a euphemism, as someone dead has the appearance of someone asleep. I will refute their primary arguments and then provide scriptural support to the contrary. 1.  Both groups argue that the Bible does not teach that humans have a soul, nephesh in Hebrew, but that humans are souls. This belief in interpreted from Genesis 2:7, when man became a living soul (nephesh). Nephesh, they say, is the whole living person and that when the body dies, so does the soul. However, the nephesh does not exclude life after death. Not everything in Scripture is purely physical. When Scriptures speak of the nephesh dy...