Tuesday 29 July 2014

Islam and Christianity

 
There are quite a few distinct differences between Christianity and Islam even though they both claim to worship the one true God.  I believe that one of the most important distinctions can be found in the Quran in Surah 4.157-159. These verses are, to my way of thinking, foremost in a number of Quranic verses that divide the two religions with an unbridgeable chasm.  The reason for this is that these verses deny the death and therefore the resurrection of Jesus.  The resurrection of Jesus being the very heart and foundation of the Christian faith.


While these verses may seem difficult for the Christian, it also puts up quite a challenge for the Muslim because they are, in some ways, self contradictory and paint God as a liar and deceiver. Let’s look at these verses:


Surah 4.157-159 reads:
"And [for] their saying, "Indeed, we have killed the Messiah, Jesus, the son of Mary, the messenger of Allah." And they did not kill him, nor did they crucify him; but [another] was made to resemble him to them. And indeed, those who differ over it are in doubt about it. They have no knowledge of it except the following of assumption. And they did not kill him, for certain. Rather, Allah raised him to Himself. And ever is Allah Exalted in Might and Wise. And there is none from the People of the Scripture but that he will surely believe in Jesus before his death. And on the Day of Resurrection he will be against them a witness."


While explicitly denying the death of Jesus on the cross, Surah 4.157-159 also confirms that Christians (or at least someone of the time) believed that Jesus died on the cross. This is quite a confronting section of the Quran, and as far as I can conceive, there are only four possible explanations as to why this verse says what it says the way it says it and why these thing contradict the Bible. These possibilities are as follows:

  1. Allah deliberately deceived the Jews and the Romans in order to save Jesus and then made a mistake, accidentally deceiving the disciples of Jesus.  Allah then left it to snowball for nearly 600 years until this mistake was corrected through Muhammad. 
  1. Allah did not care about the disciples or deliberately went out of His way to deceive the disciples of Jesus and then the disciples recorded this deception as the Gospel. 
  1. The Quran has errors or is incomplete. 
  1. The Bible has been somehow radically changed.

For obvious reasons, Muslims reject possibilities 1, 2 & 3. This leaves only possibility number 4. However this is actually the most impossible of all as explained below:


Impossible for the First Reason
For the first possibility to be true, the Bible would have to have been changed totally and dramatically. As stated above, the death and resurrection of Jesus is the very heart and foundation of Christianity and this event has been recorded in just about every book of the New Testament and foretold in some books of the Old Testament. For the Bible to have been changed after Muhammad received the revelations, one would have to gather up every copy of New Testament writings that were spread across Europe, Asia Minor and North Africa at the time and replace them with the new altered versions without anyone noticing. Don’t forget that the Jews have their own copy of the Old Testament scriptures. And this would also have to include the Dead Sea copy of the book of Isaiah – lost in the first century and not discovered until 1947.

Bible could not have been changed before Muhammad received the revelations otherwise the Quran would not have said in Surah 10.94:

"And if thou (Muhammad) art in doubt concerning that which We reveal unto thee, then question those who read the Scripture (that was) before thee. Verily the Truth from thy Lord hath come unto thee. So be not thou of the waverers."

To get a full understanding of just how impossible it would be to change the Bible, I challenge you both to read the Gospel of John and the book of Acts.


Impossible for the Second Reason
If someone did in fact manage to change out all the Bibles across Europe, Asia Minor and North Africa, then please note that it would have to have been changed in such a way as align is with Surah 4.157-159 to make it look like Allah lied to the disciples of Jesus. And on top of this, Allah did not see it coming.

If God is God, then He is not bound by the things that constrain man. God created time; he is therefore not bound by it and can see the past, present and future as if an open book. The explanation provided in Surah 4.157-159 is very incomplete given that Christians everywhere believe that Jesus died on the cross and three days later rose from the grave thus conquering death and the grave.

If the Bible has been changed or corrupted, why doesn’t it clearly state that in the Quran?


Impossible for the Third Reason
"And they did not kill him, nor did they crucify him; but [another] was made to resemble him to them."

According to the verse above someone else was put in the place of Jesus and made to resemble him and Jesus somehow went to his freedom and was raised up to be with God. But God is Almighty and Good and is not like sinful man. Why then would Allah resort to the use of a deception to save Jesus from the cross? Why did Allah need to put someone in Jesus' place? And if this action was not deception, what would you call it?


Impossible for the Fourth Reason
The requirement for there to be two eye-witness testimonies

There are many witnesses that testify that Jesus is what the Christians claim that he is:
  • The writers of the four gospels - Mathew, Mark, Luke and John.
  • The letters written by - Peter, James, Paul and Jude.
  • The prophetic writings of - Moses, David, Nathan, Isaiah, Daniel and Micah and others.
  • The historical writings of hostile witnesses - Josephus, Tacitus and Pliny the Younger.
  • Plus the many writings from the first century church.


I have named just 18 manes of witnesses, but as you can see there are many, many more.  Some of these were eye-witnesses of Christ's death and resurrection like Peter and John.   Others like Isaiah and Nathan were prophets of God and it was revealed to then ahead of time.  Paul on the other hand saw the risen Christ and was blinded for a time.  These people listed above bear witness that Jesus is the Messiah, the Alpha and the Omega, the Risen Christ, the King of kings, the one the Christians claim to worship, the Prince of Peace, the Holy one of God, the one who was killed on the cross and raised to life again.

But Muhammad said all of these things are not so and that Jesus was only a prophet of the God, a messenger of Allah and nothing more.  For certain offences under Islamic law, the testimony two eye-witnesses are required.  How could this not be the case for the accusation that someone had bared false witness about God or that someone changed the scriptures?  And yet the Muhammad is only one witness and not an eye-witness.  His testimony cannot stand? 


Impossible for the Fifth Reason - History. 
The Bible itself is regarded as historically accurate, particularly the New Testament (although there some historians who will discount the miracles).  There are also others historical documents written in the First Century that can be referenced.  These are the works of:

Josephus - a 1st century Romano-Jewish historian (37AD – 100AD)
Tacitus - a senator and historian of the Roman Empire (56AD – 117AD)
Pliny the Younger - lawyer, author and magistrate of Ancient Rome (61AD – 112AD)

The three authors listed above were all hostile to Christians, one was a Jew the other two were part of the Roman hierarchy (Pliny even had Christians torched and executed). The documents written by these men provide quite detailed information on life and the time in which they lived.  All three records record that Jesus Christ died by the order issued by Pontius Pilate. It is also recorded Christian community at the time believed in the death and resurrection of Jesus and that they celebrated communion with one another. All three are regarded as historically accurate.

This being the case would mean that for the Quran to be without error, ether Allah deliberately would have had to go out of His way to deceive the disciples of Jesus and through them all Christians, or made a mistake and the disciples of Jesus were deceived accidently.

See:



Conclusion and a Challenge
Standard Muslim teaching asserts that the Injil, which is the prophetic Gospel delivered through the prophet Isa (Jesus of Nazareth), has been irretrievably corrupted and distorted in the course of Christian transmission; and that consequently, place no reliance on any text in the New Testament.

However there is existence today some 5,735 manuscripts of the whole or part of the Greek text of the New Testament (Injil) all of which pre-date Muhammad. Worldwide, there are 24,800 copies of these original manuscripts. These include the Codex Vaticanus (325-350 AD) located in the Vatican library and the Codex Sinaiticus (350 AD) located in the British Museum. There are also 80,000 quotations in the works of early Christian writers, which are so extensive that the New Testament could virtually be reconstructed from them without the actual New Testament documents. Then there is the obvious fact that the Christian Gospels were so widely distributed both before and after Muhammad, that any attempt to change (add/subtract) something in the Christian Gospels would have resulted in immediate discovery and condemnation.

Surah 10.94:
"And if thou (Muhammad) art in doubt concerning that which We reveal unto thee, then question those who read the Scripture (that was) before thee. Verily the Truth from thy Lord hath come unto thee. So be not thou of the waverers."

According to the Quran the Bible was trustworthy at the time of Muhammad. With the 5,735 manuscripts pre-dating Muhammad, Moslems and anyone looking to Islam for answers have got to do some soul searching. Better still some reading.  I challenge Muslims everywhere to read part of the bible of the Bible: the Gospel of John and the book of Acts. Then you can explain to me how on earth Surah 4.157-159 cannot be in error.

The reason that the Bible is rejected by Islam is not because it’s inaccurate or because there are minor variances in the source documents, it is because they must reject it or else they must admit that the Quran has errors.

So out of the four possibilities the only possibility that makes logical sense, and that is possibility number 3 - “The Quran has errors or is incomplete.”


Please seek the truth in this regard,
it is the truth that is important not pride or saving face.




Monday 28 July 2014

The Battle to Assert Influence


The human mind is one of the most incredible and most powerful things in the physical universe. With our minds we think and reason and with our minds we imagine.  Anything constructed by man in the physical world is first constructed in man’s mind.  The mind is indeed powerful but the human mind can also be influenced.  And just as it has been throughout all of history, there is a battle going on for influence over our minds. Politicians, lobby groups, religious leaders, rebels, storytellers, songwriters, scientists, teachers, advertisers and many others all reach out to touch and influence our minds.


Influence is power, and some like Hitler and Starlin have sought to influence and even to control the minds of others for the purpose of political power and military might.  Others push advertisements down our throats so they can sell us the latest car or shampoo.


I believe that this push for influence has never been more intense than it is today with social media, TV, billboards, news papers, the internet and even our peers all attempting to exert some level of influence over us. These attempts to influence have not always been for our betterment, and truth can often be a casualty in this maddening push for influence.


But it’s the truth that matters, not the ideas, opinions or agendas of those who would want to gain power over us.  It was God who gave us our minds; not so that we would blindly follow someone else, but so we could use our minds, determine what is the true and then to do what is right.



Seek the truth
It is the truth that matters
And it is the truth that sets us free.


The stories and anecdotes that form my blog, are a compilation of some of the imperfect thoughts of a very imperfect man living in a corrupt and fallen world.  However, it is my hope that these snippets will cause you to think, and to think beyond the boundaries to which you have become accustomed.



Friday 25 July 2014

Gay Marriage


What is it about marriage that gets everyone so upset these days? And what is so wrong about gay marriage? Why can’t marriage be between or two guys or two girls. Well if we’re going to get serious about any of this, we’ve got to define what a marriage is.  So what is marriage?

The Oxford Dictionary defines marriage as:

http://christianversustheworld.blogspot.com.au/2014/07/christian-versus-gay-marriage.html“The formal union of a man and a woman, typically as recognized by law, by which they become husband and wife.” And then it goes on to add:  “(In some jurisdictions) a formal union between partners of the same sex.”

But there is more to it than that because marriage is a covenant and a covenant is not the same as a contract or a formalised agreement.  Contracts and agreements can be negotiated between the various parties; whereas the terms of a covenant cannot, they are fixed.  You either accept the terms of the covenant, or you don’t enter into the covenant.

The covenant of marriage
There are many arguments as to who set out the terms of this covenant, some would say God others nature but marriage is a covenant is set in stone by biological and it cannot be changed.  It is a covenant between two who will live together and to build the foundation of a family. It is a promise to be exclusive and stick together through thick and thin.  It is between a man and a woman who will come together and share their DNA in the creation of a brand new human life.  By definition, gay couples cannot have this and by definition, no act of any government can ever change this.

Look at the simple mechanics of it:  To create a baby human it takes an ovum from a woman and sperm from a man, and we put them together and place them in a womb where the fertilized egg will grow into a brand new human life.   Two men cannot make a baby.  Two women cannot make a baby.  It takes one man and one woman to create a baby, no more, no less.  At present there is no other way.  Science may one day come up with an alternative, but if they do, it will certainly not be natural.

It is true that some couples cannot have children and others choose not to, but I am not to discuss this aspect because it is beside the point.  It is this potential of procreation because of the union of man and woman that make it a marriage.  No other type of union has that potential.  So, in truth, anything else is not marriage and can never be marriage.

What is so wrong about gay marriage? To accept gay marriage you have to redefine marriage and call it something it is not.



Wednesday 23 July 2014

God versus the rock



If God is really God, can He make a rock so big that He can’t lift? 


It one of those "throw it out there" sort of questions.  The one they try to stump you with.  A question that Christians are not supposed to be able to answer.

So, can God make a rock so big that He can’t lift?
Even this loaded, nonsensical question with its curricular, no win argument has a rather elegant answer. But first let’s look at the point they are trying to make:  If God can make rock so big that He cannot lift it, then He is not God because He cannot lift the rock.  But if He can lift it, then He is not God because He cannot make a rock big enough.

God can’t win this one, or can He?  Since this is a hypothetical question and God is not into performing circus tricks to entertain a whim, then the answer can only ever be hypothetical.


So, how big is big? 
How about a rock as big as a car or even a house?  Well I don’t reckon that God would have a problem with making or lifting either of them.  How about as big as block of flats, skyscraper?  Not a problem. How about a rock as big as a small town, or even a city, or maybe even a country, how about as big as the earth?  Well God made the earth and put it in to motion around the sun so he's actually done that one.

We've got to go bigger! How about as big as the solar system?  Well God made the galaxies and put them into motion too.  So even a rock the size of a galaxy should not be a problem. However, a rock of that size would collapse in on itself to form a giant black hole so God may have to change a few of the laws of physics.

Well how about making a rock the size of universe: infinity to infinity.   Yes I am quite sure that God could do that if He wanted too.  Imagine that, a single rock of infinite size, stretching to infinity in every direction, the whole universe one giant never ending rock. Only problem is that if this rock was infinite there would be nothing else except for this rock, so there would be no place to lift the rock from.

So the answer to the question:
Yes, God could make a rock infinitely big that would fill all of space. But if He did this, there would be no place to lift the rock from.  So how about that, God is still God.  This is because the question was flawed and did not take into consideration infinity.



About those other questions:
There are a lot of questions like that out there, some of them could be answered much like this one, but there some that can’t because most of these questions are loaded and/or intrinsically impossible.   

By loaded I mean a question like: “Do you still have that problem with Kleptomania?”
The question is loaded because if you answer “no”, then it was a problem you once had, and if you answer “yes” then it is a problem you still have. 

Intrinsically impossible question is one like: “Can you make a square circle?”  The question is intrinsically impossible and self-contradictory.

Make Anonymous
Delete Answer
C.S. Lewis stated:
His (God’s) Omnipotence means power to do all that is intrinsically possible, not to do the intrinsically impossible. You may attribute miracles to Him, but not nonsense. . . It remains true that all things are possible with God: the intrinsic impossibilities are not things but nonentities .
. . nonsense remains nonsense even when we talk it about God (Problem of Pain, 18).

There are other examples of impossibilities for an Omnipotent God:  “it is impossible for God to lie.” (Hebrews 6:18) Lying like sinning is against God’s nature and because God is good, it is intrinsically impossible for God to lie.



So, the next time someone tries to undo you with one of these silly little questions or statements, have fun dismantle it.  Take your time and think your way through it properly, and if you cannot see through it straight away, tell them that you will get back to them. Have fun.




Tuesday 22 July 2014

Who created God?


If God created everything, then who created God? 

How many times have you heard that question or variations of it? I have heard it many times.  But inherent within the question there is an assumption, and this assumption that is wrong. Because when someone asks the question, “Who created God?”, they make the assumption that there was a time when God did not exist.

If God created everything, then He created absolutely everything: space, stars, planets, mountains, rivers, oceans, life etc.  This means that He would also have to create all matter (the atoms that things are made from).  All this God would have made from nothing or else where did it all come from?  He would also have laid out all the rules that hold it all together: the laws of gravity, laws of motion, laws of thermodynamics and the rest; all the laws that hold the very fabric of the universe together. 

This means He also created the dimensions; you know: up - down, left - right and forward - backwards. Without these dimensions there would be no ‘place’ to put the stars and planets etc. 

If God created everything, He also created time.  If He created time then there wasn’t a time when God did not exist.  This would make God outside of the dimensions of time and space that we are bound by.  We are bound by these things; He is not.   For God, all of time would be, sort of like an open book.   God is bigger than any box we can make for Him.

So, the question “Who created God?” is the wrong question because to ask this is to assume that there was a time when God did not exist.  Because of this the question is nonsensical and a bit like asking, “What is the smell of the colour 9”.

So what is the right question?

Well a much better question is: “What is God like?”  And the answer to that can be found in the Bible.



Sunday 20 July 2014

Predestination Versus Choice


An age old enigma - Predestination or Choice.  Is God truly omnipotent?  Does He control everything?  If so why are we responsible for our actions and what about our right to choose?  These questions can be warped up in one:  does God of predestine everything or do we have the ability to choose? 



So, predestination versus choice, 
     what does the Bible say about the issue?

In the very front of the Bible just after it talks about the creation of man, we have these words: ‘God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”’ (Genesis 1:28 NIV) -  In this verse, God gives man authority over the earth and everything in it. Implicit with this is mankind’s authority to choose because you cannot have authority without the capability of making choice.     

And then there is one of my favorite verses from Joshua:
“. . . . . then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, . . . . . But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:15 NIV) 

And in the New Testament:
 “ . . . . . Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10:42 NIV) - clearly, Mary had the capability to choose and she chose well.



But on the other side of the coin we read of predestination:

For Exodus: ‘The Lord said to Moses, “When you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have given you the power to do. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go.’ (Exodus 4:21 NIV)

And in the New Testament:
“For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will - to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.” (Ephesians 1:4-6 NIV)

And then there are the prophecies where God explains what will happen ahead of time.



So which is it, predestination or choice?
   And why do these verses seem so contradictory? 

Do you remember the days of high school mathematics when the teacher stood there and asked the question what is the square root of 4?  I certainly remember it.  Someone quick of the mark, wiped up there hand and answered 2. I remember how surprised I was when the teacher said “that is incorrect”.   The entire class erupting into total turmoil, and no one could hear what the teacher was saying for about five minutes.  When the class did eventually quieten down, the teacher went on to explain that there are actually two answers and then wrote on the board the following:

2 x 2 = 4
- 2 x - 2 = 4

The square root of 4 has two answers:  +2 and - 2
Both are correct at the same time.

This is the way I see it:


Firstly:
In the beginning when God created life the universe and everything, He also created time.  This would mean that God is not bound by time.


Secondly:
In the beginning when God created life the universe and everything, he gave man freedom of choice.  The choice to choose right from wrong, good from bad, generosity from greed, being helpful from hindrance, loving from lust, etc.  If we choose what is right there is a cost and benefit, if we choose what is wrong there may be a benefit, but there is always a consequence.  The consequence of our decision to do what is wrong not only affects us but also those around us. 

Man is bound by time; God is not.  As man journeys along the timeline he sees the decisions he makes as choices. This is the way it is for man because he chooses his direction, but God sees it differently. God who transcends time sees things from a different, much bigger point of view. He sees all the decisions we make past, present and future, like as if an open book. He sees things as predestined and He predestines all things.



Beyond Time 
It can be difficult to comprehend what it might be like beyond the timeline as the timeline is the only live we have ever known.   A wise young lady once shared with me something that may make it easier to understand:

Imagine a world with only two dimensions all the occupants of this world were only two dimensional, they had width and breadth but they did not have any height because in their world there was no height.  Imagine standing with your ankle in this world.  To the occupants of this world, there would be two completely separate almost circular objects - cross-sections of you ankles.  You could explain to them that you are only one person, that these two objects are only part of you and that you are much bigger that these two objects that they perceive.   But would they understand this?  I think we are a bit like this, we cannot truly comprehend what outside of time would be like.


  
To conclude
God is not bound by time and so He knows everything that we had done and everything that we will do, but even with all this, He still chooses to loves us.  God wants what is best for us but this is not necessarily what we think we need.  We like little children cry out, “but I want to do what I want to do!”  But what we need is to do that which is right.

God over sees and coordinates the big picture and the little picture, but we still have a choice and it is we who chose.  Predestination and choice are not mutually exclusive.







Friday 18 July 2014

The Gospel of Barnabas Part 2

Some Muslims use the Gospel of Barnabas to preach the message of Islam on their websites and they make some pretty extraordinary claims about it. 

Within these extraordinary claims they will drop some names of some great Christian leaders from the early church and some names of important places from the early church’s history and say that: “This shows that the Gospel of Barnabas was in circulation in the first and second centuries”. But the one thing you will also see, is they will never provide you with any references as to where these details can be found (at least not until the references are from books written after the 16th century).


Let’s have a look at some of these claims:
1.) The Gospel of Barnabas was accepted in the Churches of Alexandria till 325 A.D.

2.)  Irenaeus of Lyons (130-202) opposed Paul for injecting pagan Roman religion and Platonic philosophy into Christianity. 

3.)  Irenaeus had quoted extensively from the Gospel of Barnabas showing that the Gospel of Barnabas was in circulation in the first and second centuries of Christianity.


My comment on these three points:
1.)  You will notice that in each of the websites that quote this point, the author of the website provides absolutely no evidence for the statement that they have made. Quite frankly, I believe that this claim is totally baseless and will continue to do so until some evidence is provided to the contrary.

2.)  Once again, no references are provided even though the works of Irenaeus are divided into book, chapter and verse and can be referenced very easily.  Irenaeus quotes extensively from the four canonised Gospels, the Book of Acts, Paul’s letters and the letters from the other apostles. I have not found anywhere where he opposes Paul or Paul’s writings; on the contrary, he quotes Paul’s letters to make his case within his series of five books called “Adversus Haereses” (Against Heresies) in which he defends the Christian faith against Gnosticism.

3.)  And again, the writers of the various web pages provide no references.  In the works of Irenaeus, I have found many direct quotes made from the four canonised Gospels but nothing from the so called “Gospel of Barnabas”.  But because the Gospel of Barnabas parallels some parts of the canonised Gospels one could make the assumption that Irenaeus was quoting from the Gospel of Barnabas. However there are some mark differences between the Gospel of Barnabas and what Irenaeus quotes.  For example Irenaeus quite often refers to Jesus as the “Word of God” which found in Gospel of John and not in the Gospel of Barnabas.  He also talks about the death and resurrection of Jesus found in the four canonised Gospels but not in the Gospel of Barnabas.

The works of Irenaeus’ can be found at this web site. http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/irenaeus.html


There are a lot of websites out there that say all sorts of things and make all sorts of claims, but what I say is this:  

Please do not just accept or reject the words of this website or for that matter any other web site without first checking out for yourself the claims that have been made.  

It’s the truth that matters, not the ideas, opinions or agendas of those who would want to gain the power of influence over us.  It was God who gave us our minds; not so that we would blindly follow someone else, but so we could use our minds, determine what is the true and then to do what is right.

Seek out the truth; it is the truth that sets us free. 




Thursday 17 July 2014

The Gospel of Barnabas


There are a lot of people ranting and raving about the Gospel of Barnabas (mostly Muslims) and they say that it portrays the truth about Jesus.  But is document authentic?  Was the Gospel of Barnabas written by someone who walked and talked with the Jesus of Nazareth two thousand years ago?   


      In a word, NO


The so called Gospel of Barnabas is a forgery written sometime between the 14th and 16th centuries and there are some Muslim scholars who agree with this dating.  So how can we know the date and the age that the book was first written?

There are two main things used to determine the date of the composition of document and these are external evidence and internal evidence:


“External Evidence” - this is where other documents make reference to or quote from the document in question. 

As far as the Gospel of Barnabas is concerned, there is absolutely no external evidence to even suggest that this book ever existed prior to the 14th century.

“Internal Evidence” - evidence within the text itself. A proper examination of the document can reveal more that what you would think when it is aligned with what is already known about history, geography, language, manner of writing etc.

For example:
If a document was presented and was said to have been created in the early 1950s and yet this document used the word “Facebook” and the term “social networking” you would know that the document was actually written in 2004 or later.  

If another document was to be found referencing “TCP/IP” and “ARPANET” (as a going concern), you would have to assume that document was written after 1969 and before 1989 when the “ARPANET” was resigned to the history books.  


So what can the text within the Gospel of Barnabas tell us?

The Gospel of Barnabas claims to have been written by a disciple of Jesus called Barnabas, so if this writing was authentic, it would be reasonable to expect that the author would be very familiar with the basic facts of Jewish life in 1st century Israel. However the author of the so called “gospel” did not understand the language, history or geography of 1st century Israel. 

1.) Geography 
In the first half of chapter 20 we find “Jesus went to the Sea of Galilee, and having embarked in a ship sailed to his city of Nazareth” and after Jesus calmed the storm “arrived at the city of Nazareth the seamen spread through the city all that Jesus had wrought”.

By definition, to sail a ship you need water (and a lot of it). However the city of Nazareth is 25 km inland from the Sea of Galilee, more than 500m higher in altitude and situated on a mountainous ridge half way between Sea of Galilee and the Mediterranean Sea.  It is impossible to sail a ship to city of Nazareth as you cannot sail a ship without water.  



2.) Christ / Messiah
The word “Christ” is the Greek translation for the Hebrew word “Messiah”. Both these words when translated into English mean the Anointed One or the Chosen One. This word is not an obscure or rarely used word, on the contrary it is one of the most famous words in the Jewish and Christian religions. There is no doubt that if the author had been a disciple of Jesus, he would have been very familiar with this word.

However in the very opening of the book we find Jesus announced as God’s “prophet Jesus Christ”. And later in chapter 24 “Jesus confessed, and said the truth: 'I am not the Messiah.'”  It is clear that the author did not understand the language spoken by Jesus and the 1st century Jews


3.) History 
In chapter 3 we are told that Herod and Pilate both ruled in Judea at the time of Jesus' birth: “here reigned at that time in Judaea Herod, by decree of Caesar Augustus, and Pilate was governor.”

This is historically wrong for Herod and Pilate never ruled Judea at the same time. Herod ruled Judea alone from 37 to 4 B.C., while Pilate ruled thirty years later from 26 to 36 A.D. The real Barnabas lived during the rule of Pilate, so if he really was the writer of this book, how could he make such a simple mistake?

4.) Anachronisms and other internal evidence
Anachronisms are things that show that this document was written at a much later time in history than claimed in this so called gospel, and there are many anachronisms that show the book was first written many, centuries later.

For example:
In the so called Gospel Barnabas, wooden barrels are mentioned as a method for storing wine. However, in the Near East, leather wineskins were used as wooden barrels were not available till after the third century.

And the other internal evidence of the book suggests it was written sometime in the 14th to 16th centuries. The Gospel of Barnabas contains quotations from Dante Alighieri, references to an edict from Pope Boniface, and descriptions of feudalism and lots of other discrepancies. Therefore, scholars place the date of authorship around the fifteenth century.

5.) Mistakes
There are a lot of mistakes that show that the author just did not know about first century Israel and was therefore not from the first century Israel as claimed, these include the following:

  • According to the description in the Gospel of Barnabas, Nineveh lies near the Mediterranean coast. It, however, is to be found in the interior on the banks of the Tigris more than 600 kilometres from the Mediterranean.
  • The Gospel of Barnabas reports 600,000 Roman soldiers in Palestine. There were, however, perhaps so many soldiers only in the entire Roman Empire, but certainly not in Palestine.
  • The Gospel of Barnabas also reports 17,000 Pharisees at the time of the Old Testament. However the party of the Pharisees, originated only in the second century before Christ. The last book of the Old Testament was written by Malachi around 450 B.C.
  • The Gospel of Barnabas describes a European summer: “everything bears fruit”. In Palestine, however, it rains in winter, and in the summer the land is dry.
  • The Gospel of Barnabas cites Bible verses according to the Latin Vulgate translation, which was completed only at the end of the fourth century and became the official Catholic Bible.
  • The Gospel of Barnabas reports that Jesus and his disciples had “kept the forty days”. The forty-day fast before Easter was introduced only in the fourth century and is supposed to be a reminder of the suffering and death of Jesus, which was impossible before his death.
  • The Barnabas gospel mentions a gold coin: the dinar, comprised of 60 minuti. This coin was used for just a short time in medieval Spain, a point of argument which appears to support the thesis of a Spanish origin for the Gospel of Barnabas.
  • The forbidden fruit in Paradise, which the Old Testament does not specify by name, is said in the Gospel of Barnabas to be an apple, also a development from later church history.
  • There are conspicuous parallels between the Barnabas gospel and the works of the great Italian poet Dante Alighieri (1265-1321),
  • According to the description in the Gospel of Barnabas, the “year of jubilee” is celebrated every one hundred years, while the Old Testament names a period of fifty years. In the year 1300, Pope Boniface VIII fixed the date for the celebration of the year of jubilee as once in every hundred years. But already in 1343, Clement VI shortened the period to fifty years and announced the next jubilee celebration for 1350. Thus, the interval between celebrations of the year of jubilee was fixed at one hundred years, as the Gospel of Barnabas describes it, only in the period between 1300 and 1343.


 And the list goes on

  
The so called “Gospel of Barnabas” is not an authentic Gospel of Jesus. The book is a rewrite of the Biblical Gospel most likely by a Muslim around the 14th, 15th or 16th century who wanted to portray Jesus as a Muslim who taught Islam and predicted the coming of Muhammad.

(Note:  It’s important that we not confuse the Gospel of Barnabas with the Epistle of Barnabas.  These are two separate documents with two very different authors - the Epistle of Barnabas was written A.D. 70–90).






Wednesday 16 July 2014

Christian versus the world

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I am a Christian and this is what I believe:  

I believe in God Almighty the Maker of heaven and earth, Maker of everything that exist, who created life and who by His power sustains the universe. I believe God loves us and would have us call Him Father.

I believe that God came in the very person of Jesus taking upon Himself the likeness of a man.  This man Jesus who is Christ, loved like no other and he was righteous like no other.  In His love he took upon Himself all the sins of the world and died in our place.  It was he who picked up the tab, he who took upon Himself the inadequacies of us all and it is His love that sets us free.

I believe that on the third day he rose from the dead to life and that he appeared to his disciples many times. I believe that he showing them the nail holes in his hand and the hole in his side where he was pierced.

I believe that Jesus ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father.

I believe in the Holy Spirit.

I believe that there is only one church, a church that transcends denominations, a communion of sinners made saints by what Christ has done.

I believe in forgiveness.

I believe in the resurrection of the body, a new body, the perishable clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, life everlasting.

I believe that there shall come a time when all things will be called to account.  Where God shall judge the living and the dead.

I believe the Bible is the word of God.