Seeking Proof Finding Grace

Send us Fan Mail This week we continue looking at Paul’s letters to see some great clues that his letters were many things, but anonymous was not one of them.   2nd Cor 1, “Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, to the church of God which is at Corinth, with all the saints who are in all Achaia:”   2nd Cor 7,”13 Therefore we have been comforted in your comfor...

Send us Fan Mail This week we take a look at some of Paul’s letters to see some great clues that his letters were many things, but anonymous was not one of them.   Romans 1, “Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God 2 which He promised before through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures, 3 concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of...

Send us Fan Mail As we get ready to look at whether the New Testament documents are really anonymous, we need to look at how some statements can be true, but very misleading if not taken in their proper context.  Are they really anonymous?  No, they aren’t in the way we think.    “We don’t have the originals!  We have only error-ridden copies, and the vast majority of these are centuries removed f...

Send us Fan Mail This week we look at how the Gospel message and the truth about Jesus’ life and ministry was protected by the early Church.  Spoiler alert, the early Church wasn’t shy in telling us how carefully they protected the most important thing in the world to them and it isn’t what the form critics led us to believe!  Were there really hundreds of competing versions of Jesus during this t...

Send us Fan Mail This week we look at how the Gospel message and the truth about Jesus’ life and ministry was protected by the early Church.  Spoiler alert, the early Church wasn’t shy in telling us how carefully they protected the most important thing in the world to them and it isn’t what the form critics led us to believe!  Were there really hundreds of competing versions of Jesus during this t...

Send us Fan Mail Who were the disciples of the disciples?  How did they carry on the Gospel message, how do they help us to confirm what the original copies of the Gospels said and why we should show them some serious respect for protecting the message.     “Indeed, so extensive are these citations that if all other sources for our knowledge of the text of the New Testament was destroyed, they wou...

Send us Fan Mail We need to show the early church some respect for several different reasons.  First, the absolute disrespect shown to the early church by our modern “snobbery” is wrong on so many accounts.  Second is the persecution they suffered.  It is amazing to me that we judge them so harshly 2,000 years later when we can’t begin to imagine what they suffered for their beliefs.   C.S. Lewis...

Send us Fan Mail The last group of guarantors of Jesus’ Gospel message and the story of His life are given to us in the Gospels themselves, although many times we don’t recognize these smaller characters.  Who are these characters and how can we tell the role they played to preserving the story for us?   Luke 24, “13 Now behold, two of them were traveling that same day to a village called Emmaus,...

Send us Fan Mail This week we look at how the Gospel message and the truth about Jesus’ life and ministry was protected by the early Church.  Spoiler alert, the early Church wasn’t shy in telling us how carefully they protected the most important thing in the world to them and it isn’t what the form critics led us to believe!    Acts 2, “14 But Peter, standing up with the eleven, raised his voice...

Send us Fan Mail On this weeks podcast we look at who were the guarantors of the Gospel message in the years before it was committed to writing.  What do the writers of the New Testament tell us about this important time period?    “The works of our Savior were always present, for they were true: those who were healed, those who rose from the dead, those who were not only seen in the act of being...

Send us Fan Mail This week we look at how oral traditions are really passed on in the area around Judea.  How wrong did the form critics gets it?  The answer is very, very wrong!  This makes much more sense as we look at how the Gospels themselves took shape when they were committed to writing.   Richard Bauckham, Jesus and the Eyewitnesses, 2006    “The Gospels are unreliable sources for the hist...

Send us Fan Mail In this eight-part series we will be looking at a timeline from Jesus’ death and resurrection in 33AD up to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70AD and how the gospels and nearly all of the New Testament came together during this time.  This week we wrap up our journey through Acts and most of the New Testament.  A growing consensus recognizes that the best answer is that all four Go...

Send us Fan Mail In this eight-part series we will be looking at a timeline from Jesus’ death and resurrection in 33AD up to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70AD and how the gospels and nearly all of the New Testament came together during this time.  This week in Part 7 we start at Paul’s imprisonment around 57AD and discuss how the events mentioned and not mentioned in Acts from 57AD to 62AD help...

Send us Fan Mail In this eight-part series we will be looking at a timeline from Jesus’ death and resurrection in 33AD up to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70AD and how the gospels and nearly all of the New Testament came together during this time.  This week in Part 6 we finally break into the 50’s and what might be the beginning of the Gospels themselves being committed to writing.      Acts 15...

In this eight-part series we will be looking at a timeline from Jesus’ death and resurrection in 33AD up to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70AD and how the gospels and nearly all of the New Testament came together during this time.  This week in Part 5 we look at the very first Church Council in Jerusalem around 50AD and how their decision shaped the future of how the Church operates today.  Spoi...

In this eight-part series we will be looking at a timeline from Jesus’ death and resurrection in 33AD up to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70AD and how the gospels and nearly all of the New Testament came together during this time.  This week in Part 4 we look at how James’ death impacted our timeline and Paul’s first missionary journey.  Along the way we also find the very first part of the New...

In this eight-part series we will be looking at a timeline from Jesus’ death and resurrection in 33AD up to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70AD and how the gospels and nearly all of the New Testament came together during this time.  This week in Part 3 we look at Paul’s conversion a few years after Jesus’ death in 35AD and his trip to meet with Peter 3 years later in 38AD.     Galatians 1, “15 Bu...

Part 2 The Post Resurrection Appearances: Podcast 111   In this eight-part series we will be looking at a timeline from Jesus’ death and resurrection in 33AD up to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70AD and how the gospels and nearly all of the New Testament came together during this time.  This week in Part 2 we look at all of Jesus’ post resurrection appearances in the 40 days after His resurrecti...

In this eight part series we will be looking at a timeline from Jesus’ death and resurrection in 33AD up to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70AD and how the gospels and nearly all of the New Testament came together during this time.  This week in Part 1 we start with an overview of how this 37 year timeframe changed the world!   “The fact that something is written down is persuasive to people not...

The Form Critics from over 100 years ago have had a huge impact on how we look at the Bible today.  The question is, were they right.  My contention is that they were wrong on most points.  This week we finish looking at the mistakes they made and how it impacts their theories.    “Virtually every element in this construction has been questioned and rejected by some or even most scholars.  Many of...

The Form Critics from over 100 years ago have had a huge impact on how we look at the Bible today.  The question is, were they right.  My contention is that they were wrong on most points.  This week and next week we will look at the mistakes they made and how it impacts their theories.    “Virtually every element in this construction has been questioned and rejected by some or even most scholars....

This week we introduce some of the basic ideas and methods of the form critics  who pioneered much of the skepticism we see directed at the Bible over 100 years ago.  Do their ideas still hold up today?    “The works of our Savior were always present, for they were true: those who were healed, those who rose from the dead, those who were not only seen in the act of being healed or raised, but were...

This week we look at the story of Hanna from 1st Samuel and look at how we should approach God when we have a desire on our hearts.  God loves you so much.  Your Heavenly Father is waiting for you!   1 Samuel 1:1-11,20 NKJV “Now there was a certain man of Ramathaim Zophim, of the mountains of Ephraim, and his name was Elkanah the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph,...

This week we look at what life was like 2000 years ago and consider what impact that had when the story of the life of Jesus was committed to writing.  

This week we look at whether or not ancient cultures passing on their oral tradition really is the same thing as a bunch of junior high kids playing the phone game.  Spoiler Alert!!  It isn’t and I can’t believe people keep using this analogy.