Without Excuse: Apologetics Blog

Liberal Christian theologian John Shelby Spong wrote a scathing opinion piece entitled "The 3 biggest biblical misconception" on why he believes the Bible is not the word of God. You can read his article here. The following is my response to that article. His words are in quoted in red. First, people assume the Bible accurately reflects history. That is absolutely not so, and every biblical scholar recognizes it. Archeology has repeatedly confirmed the validity of the bible from an historical perspective. For instance, there was a time when King David was thought to be a legend like King Arthur. Then in 1994 a fragment was excavated by the ancient city of Dan that gave the first reference to the "House of David" outside of biblical text. The higher critical thinkers also doubted the existence of the Hittites mentioned in the Old Testament, however in 1876 the ruins of the Hittite empire was discovered at Boghaz-Koy with more than 10,000 clay tablets chroni...

Both Matthew and Luke record two genealogies of Jesus. However differences become apparent after King David, beginning with his two sons. Matthew follows Solomon's descendants while Luke follows Nathan's descendants . So which one is correct? Well, they both are. Matthew follows the ancestors of Joseph, while Luke follows the ancestors of Mary.  So why are there two different genealogies? Traditionally biblical genealogies are always traced through the male descendants, in this case Joseph. However there was an exception is Jesus case because while Joseph was the his legal father, he wasn't his biological father. Now Jesus Himself began [His ministry at] about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) [the] son of Joseph, [the son] of Heli, (Luk 3:23) Notice that Joseph is the "supposed" father of Jesus. "Son" can also refer to son-in-law or grandfather. In this case Heli was the father of Mary, Father-in-law of Joesph, and grandfather of Jesus. T...

But in the cities of these peoples that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes, but you shall devote them to complete destruction, the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, as the Lord your God has commanded, that they may not teach you to do according to all their abominable practices that they have done for their gods, and so you sin against the Lord your God. -Deuteronomy 20:16-18 Perhaps nothing has caused more controversy than the decimation of whole cities and inhabitants in the land of Canaan by the Israelites.  Men, women, and even children were instructed to be killed, but was it justified? I will address this issue head on and give a little understanding as to why this was done, but first a little background information is needed. It should be noted that God had originally given the land of Canaan to Abraham and his decedents as an everlasting ...

Slavery was a common practice in the ancient world and not the social issue that it is today. In dealing with the subject of slavery in the bible, first a distinction should be made between slavery and servitude. Slavery is the kidnapping and selling of men and women, such as with the African slave trade. That kind of slavery is explicitly condemned in the bible: You shall not steal. (Exd 20:15) He who kidnaps a man and sells him, or if he is found in his hand, shall surely be put to death. (Exd 21:16) If a man is found kidnapping any of his brethren of the children of Israel, and mistreats him or sells him, then that kidnapper shall die; and you shall put away the evil from among you. (Deu 24:7) There are many diverse reasons how and why people became slaves, and it wasn't always a cut and dried issue. In the Old Testament slaves were more akin to indentured servants. People would sometimes sell themselves as slaves if they were unable to provide for themselves or couldn...

If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and [who], when they have chastened him, will not heed them, then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city, to the gate of his city. And they shall say to the elders of his city, 'This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.' Then all the men of his city shall stone him to death with stones; so you shall put away the evil from among you, and all Israel shall hear and fear. Deu 21:18-21  Does Deuteronomy 21:18 advocate the stoning of children as some would claim? Why was such a harsh law needed? In order to answer these question we need to examine what exactly is being said and in what context. First a couple of points should be made: The person in question is a son, daughters seem to be excluded One of the charges is drunkenness so he'...

It wasn't until the so-called Age of Enlightenment (1650-1700) did the existence of Jesus ever come into question. For some 1,600 years prior it was never considered an issue. While there were many accusations against Jesus, none of them claimed he didn't exist. Yet in modern times this rumor continues to be perpetuated. So what evidence do we have? First we have extra biblical sources that mention or allude to Jesus which include: Josephus, Tacitus, Suetonius, Thallus, Phlegon, Pliny the Younger, and the Talmud. The Talmud is the central text of Judaism. The Jews deny that Jesus was the Christ but never that he didn't exist. In the Talmud it says: "On the eve of Passover they hanged Yeshu (of Nazareth) … he hath practiced sorcery and beguiled and led astray Israel. Let everyone knowing aught in his defense come and plead for him. But they found naught in his defense and hanged him on the eve of Passover" Yeshu being the...

Anyone not living under a rock by now has heard of the recent terrorist attacks in Oslo, Norway in which Anders Behring Breivik was responsible for killing 76 people and injuring many more. The media has portrayed him as a Christian extremist, but was he really?  I would like to take a break from apologetics for a moment to address this issue. To quote Breivik in his own words taken from his 1500+ page manifesto he writes: "I'm not going to pretend I'm a very religious person, as that would be a lie, I've always been very pragmatic and influenced by my secular surroundings and environment." ""As for the Church and science, it is essential that science takes an undisputed precedence over biblical teachings. Europe has always been the cradle of science, and it must always continue to be that way. Regarding my personal relationship with God, I guess I'm not an excessively religious man. I am first and foremost a man of logic. However, I am...