After reading through a recent thread on Apologetic.com titled – ‘If The Bible is Inerrant, what about the Book of Mormon’, and was challenged to give it a thorough read.

I have two copies and in the front of one was a booklet that read, ‘Why I believe the Book of Mormon to be the Word of God’ by William A. Morton. (quote from page 3)

“For almost thirty years I have been a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. During this time I have read and studied the Book of Mormon a great deal, and I say, in all sincerity, that the more I study the book the more thoroughly I become convinced that it is a divinely inspired record.

I believe implicity in the Book of Mormon; I believe it to be the Word of God to the Nephites and Lamanites who once inhabited the continent, even as I believe the Bible to be the Word of God to the Jews and also to the Gentiles.”

I also placed up a pole thread in the LDS Forum of Theology Web Campus, to see how many Non-LDS Forum members have read the whole Book of Mormon.

(Click on the picture to listen to my playlist of his interview with Coast to Coast AM)

Dr Charles T. Tart talking about Consciousness and Survival

“I won’t be surprised if I don’t regain consciousness”

To watch my playlist : Stacy Horn Investigates

The 1980s and 1990’s found him being interviewed by reporters, researchers and students alike, all asking him questions about the 1949 exorcism that he was involved with. He regarded the 1993 book Possessed by Thomas B. Allen to have the best interviews related to the case. A movie was made based on this book in which Michael McLachlan played Father Halloran as a young man. In the publicity run up to the airing of the film, various television shows covered the topic of demonic possession with both Father Halloran and Thomas B. Allen appearing in segments speaking about the case. In commenting about his experiences, he neither sensationalized the details nor discounted the seriousness of the boy’s condition. During the last decade of his life, Father Halloran developed a friendship with exorcism expert and pastor Kevin Ingalls. Halloran provided Pastor Ingalls with a copy of the secret diary from the original 1949 case and the two discussed the case extensively. Halloran had no doubt that the boy was possessed by evil forces and shared his observations and feelings with Pastor Ingalls in taped conversations. In 2000, Thomas B. Allen and Pastor Ingalls both made statements regarding the 1949 case in the September issue of Brill’s Content magazine. Halloran’s willingness to be open about the exorcism of 1949 has shed much needed light on what really occurred in the upstairs bedroom at a home in St. Louis, the rectory at St. Francis Xavier Church, as well as the Alexian Brothers Hospital where the exorcism finally ended in success.

From: Wikipedia

This is going to be a progressive blog-post, that is developing along with a discussion I am having at the moment. The discussion is titled, ‘When I die…?’ < feel free, to sign up and join in, if you dig.

The first of the non-Christian Sourses, I would like to draw your attention to are found in the Annals of Tacitus:

In conjunction with the non-Christian sources, I will be adding videos etc, that relate to the ‘paranormal’, ‘miraculous’, or what is commonly termed, ‘the supernatural’.
Here is the first one:

What of this movie, ‘The Exhorcist’ ? What really, really happened.

To watch the full playlist : Angels and Demons

There are only so many ways that one can cook an egg.
One can boil it, fry it, poach it, scramble it, but in the end it is still an egg.

The essential doctrines of Christianity can be presented in different ways, but essentially there are a few fundamental ideas that are fairly consistent, no matter what denomination you belong to.

Over the last four years I have noticed that unbelievers and believers alike, seem to discuss, debate and ‘argue’ (though not all the arguments are helpful) about these essential ideas.

Prior to hanging up my theological boots, a few months ago, I decided to present these essential ideas in the form of information and questions on my favourite Theological forum. I trust they will grant you some insight into these matters.

Should you wish to further discuss them, you can follow the links and engage the Campus members for yourself.

1. Repentance From Dead Works
2. Faith towards GOD
3. What is Water Baptism ?
4. Immersed in Knowledge or the Spirit ?

a. 1 Corinthians 2 ESV Online

5. When I Die ?

a. The Dating of the New Testament by Norman L. Geisler
b. Why I Believe The New Testament is Historically Reliable by Gary Habermas
c. 1 Corinthians 15 ESV Online

6. The Best Study Bible is…?

a. The King James Version Debate – A Plea For Realism by Dr. D. A. Carson
b. The King James Only Controversy : Can You Trust Modern Translations ? by Dr J. White
c. The Text of the New Testament : It’s Transmission, Corruption and Restoration by Bruce M. Metzger
d. Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why. by Dr Ehrman
e. Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (And Why We Don’t Know About Them) by Dr. Ehrman
f. Refuting Ehrman’s Jesus Interrupted - Theology Web Campus

Listen to my playlist, where Dr Ehrman is interviewed about his new book : Bart Ehrman – Higher Textual Criticism
Read: Bart Interrupted by Ben Worthington III
Tektonic Block Responds to Bart’s new book – here.

7. Truth, Myth or Fairy Tales ? – How Unbelievers View The New Testament

Refuting Ehrman’s Jesus Interrupted - Theology Web Campus

Professor J.P. Moreland – The Search For The Historical Jesus

Jesus Under Fire : Modern Scholarship Reinvents the Historical Jesus
The Jesus Seminar & Westar Institute Home

Doctor William Lane-Craig – Who Was Jesus Of Nazareth ?

Doctor William Lane-Craig – The Resurrection of Jesus Christ, fact of fiction ?

To watch my complete playlist: Jesus Under Fire < click here

Please refer to the previous entry for the first part.

This is so wierd. I feel like I have climbed into a Time Machine and gone back to 1976.
Back then if you were born again ( John 3 ) and had been baptised with the Holy Spirit ( Acts ) and were really serious about being a disciple, you attended the extra course on a Saturday, which consisted of subjects like this. Of course that was over 30 years ago, and I went on to do Biblical Studies as a final subject in 1982; because I started working two years before I finished school, and this new ZOE (Life in Christ) inspired me to develop my mind. Contrary to the myth that Christians become dull minded, because they have embraced religion, it was quite the contrary. I remember sitting next to folks in the extra couse who were some twice, even three times my age. When you are filled with ZOE, your inside world is renovated and it is like someone turning on the ventilation in a room that has been stuffy, and the more you learn about the things of the Lord, the more open and airy it becomes. It is not at all like a stuffy cathedral, but it is more like a room that was dark, which is suddenly flooded with light.
I never got that sort of experience from all my years in school, for there is a spice to it that goes beyond all the talking. When Christians gather together, the ZOE is celebrated and so one is not just getting filled up with Bible Semary information, along with these studies is the celebration of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

Apologetix.

Did Jesus Speak Hebrew?

It’s amazing how long ago it was, when I first listened to Dr. Fernandez teach.
To think now that courtesty of youtube, I can watch him speaking right here in my study. Hallelujah!

To listen to the full playlist, click here.

The dating of the New Testament by Norman Geisler

Please put on your headphones…

“Thiessenism,” wrote one, “is the only creed of Wheaton’s Bible Department…but a bitterly dogmatic and autocratic one…It’s agree with and memorize what Thiessen and his satellites say – or flunk…Of course, Dr. Clark isn’t the epitome of broad-mindedness – but he is [the epitome] of gentlemanly consideration…I’ve never found him forcing his views on anyone.”

From: Thiessen and Determinism’s cold and chilling effects by Keith Call.

Logical Criticisms of Textual Criticism
Dr. Gordon Haddon Clark

‘The problem of New Testament textual criticism is very difficult, and therefore hard to explain to the general public. For a more definite reason it is also hard to explain to ministers, seminary students, and even to the professors themselves. Yet its importance and ramifications are such that the ordinary worshiper as he sits in church on Sunday mornings, or as he reads his Bible at home, cannot escape its effects.

Most Christians in this country know no Greek, but nearly all recognize that there are competing translations of the Bible. There is the King James Version of noble ancestry; there is the American and now the New American Standard Version; the New International Version; several versions that are more paraphrases than translations (all bad); the Roman Catholic Jerusalem Bible; and translations of all or parts of the Bible by individuals rather than by committees. Surely these different translations confuse the ordinary reader at several places. Can he find a basis for making an intelligent choice? Without guaranteeing infallibility, I think he can, sometimes.’[...read more...]

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The New Testament

Manuscripts of the Bible

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Lectures @ Trinity Foundation < tread lightly tenderfeet.

Lectures @ Philosophy of Religion < advance to go, collect 200

Note from Apologetix:

I’m looking forward to Dr. Michael Sudduth’s first book “The Reformed Objection of Natural Theology”, due out in December 2009.

Have a fabulous Christmas and New Year, and may the Lord richly bless you and your family in all that you do for the Glory of God.

Apologetix.

That’s right folks, the Bible Students who fought to convince Christians that Jesus is not God and who used Ancient History and Textual Criticism to do so, are about to once and for all expose the modern writers of our time.

Would this mean that millions of people who did not really understand all the arguments, to begin with, and who took it for granted that certain persons who had strings of degrees behind their names who were apparently giving them all the information, are going to discover that their unbelief was actually an elaborate deception, brought about by careful propoganda and by applying the oldest sales tricks in the book ? Ain’t it all about the money, after all folks ?

Yes, You Should Believe In The Trinity

INTRODUCTION: WHY SHOULD YOU BELIEVE IN IT ?

CHAPTER 1 : DEFENDING THE TRINITY

CHAPTER 2 : THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

CHAPTER 3 : PAGAN ROOTS OF THE TRINITY

CHAPTER 4 : TRINITY IN THE BIBLE

CHAPTER 5 : IS JESUS INFERIOR TO GOD ?

CHAPTER 6 : THE HOLY SPIRIT A PERSON, OR A FORCE ?

CHAPTER 7 : JESUS IS GOD

CHAPTER 8 : WORSHIP GOD ON HIS TERMS

TO PURCHASE THE BOOK : 4WITNESS.ORG