Dr. Paul Maier mentioned Phlegon in an interview on IssuesEtc (June 16, 2006 3rd hour).
Phlegon is an extra Biblical historian that chronicled the darkness at the time of Christ's crucifixion.
I found his quotes and others which seem to be based on his text at http://www.textexcavation.com/phlegontestimonium.html
He wrote "In the fourth year, however, of Olympiad 202, an eclipse of the sun happened, greater and more excellent than any that had happened before it; at the sixth hour, day turned into dark night, so that the stars were seen in the sky, and an earthquake in Bithynia toppled many buildings of the city of Nicaea. These things [are according to] the aforementioned man."
Dr. Maier said that Phlegon's dating places this event in the 4th month of the 4th year of the 202nd Olympiad. This places it at April, 33 AD.
This fits well with the dating of Jesus' crucifixion.
another source which I'll investigate later:
http://www.classicapologetics.com/d/DawsHeathen.pdf
a negative response:
http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/richard_carrier/thallus.html
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
"The (restored) Temple" and "all Israel" (will be saved)
I was just listening to Dr. Randall Price on KKMS radio.
He is a Dispensationalist and believes in a future, rebuilt, temple in which there will be a restored sacrificial system. He also believes that Romans 11 states that "all Israel will be saved".
I will briefly refute these or give "food for thought":
There are at least three relevant meanings to the word "temple" in the Bible.
1) the temple in Jerusalem where the sacrificial system was carried out
2) Jesus called himself the temple in John 2:19
Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days."
3) Believers are called the temple in several passages
3a) 1 Cor 3:16 "Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?"
3b) 1 Cor 6:19 "Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?"
3c) Eph 2:21 "in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord."
3d) Rev 3:21 Jesus says "Him who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of my God."
Romans 11 does not say there will be a restored Israel, which is something Price just claimed.
Romans 11:25,26 says "Lest you be wise in your own sight, I want you to understand this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written,
FIRST
Verse 25 says there is a "partial hardening of Israel." Obviously, not all Israel had been hardened since Paul (the author) is of Israel and is saved.
SECOND
This period of history is characterized as a time where both Jews and Gentiles “coming in.”
And
“in this way” all Israel will be saved
"IN THIS WAY"
“in this way” DOES NOT SAY/MEAN “and then”
“and then” would indicate that “at a future time, the partial hardening will be removed and all Israel will be saved”
But the text says “in this way” or (in other translations) “thus”
The only clear message this gives is “by this method God is saving the Israel of faith” - - if there is a possible additional meaning, it is not stated here and must come from another text.
Earlier in Romans (ch 9:6,7) , Paul stated "But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring"
So the Israel that God is saving in Romans 11:26 only needs to be the subset of the full ethnic Israel.
He is a Dispensationalist and believes in a future, rebuilt, temple in which there will be a restored sacrificial system. He also believes that Romans 11 states that "all Israel will be saved".
I will briefly refute these or give "food for thought":
There are at least three relevant meanings to the word "temple" in the Bible.
1) the temple in Jerusalem where the sacrificial system was carried out
2) Jesus called himself the temple in John 2:19
Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days."
3) Believers are called the temple in several passages
3a) 1 Cor 3:16 "Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?"
3b) 1 Cor 6:19 "Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?"
3c) Eph 2:21 "in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord."
3d) Rev 3:21 Jesus says "Him who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of my God."
Romans 11 does not say there will be a restored Israel, which is something Price just claimed.
Romans 11:25,26 says "Lest you be wise in your own sight, I want you to understand this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written,
FIRST
Verse 25 says there is a "partial hardening of Israel." Obviously, not all Israel had been hardened since Paul (the author) is of Israel and is saved.
SECOND
This period of history is characterized as a time where both Jews and Gentiles “coming in.”
And
“in this way” all Israel will be saved
"IN THIS WAY"
“in this way” DOES NOT SAY/MEAN “and then”
“and then” would indicate that “at a future time, the partial hardening will be removed and all Israel will be saved”
But the text says “in this way” or (in other translations) “thus”
The only clear message this gives is “by this method God is saving the Israel of faith” - - if there is a possible additional meaning, it is not stated here and must come from another text.
Earlier in Romans (ch 9:6,7) , Paul stated "But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring"
So the Israel that God is saving in Romans 11:26 only needs to be the subset of the full ethnic Israel.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
How great is our problem?
if the problem is Adam's bad example
the solution is Christ's good example (or Buddha, or ...)
if we are dead in our sins
we solution is savior to revive us and rescue us
the solution is Christ's good example (or Buddha, or ...)
if we are dead in our sins
we solution is savior to revive us and rescue us
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
The creation WAS subjected to futility
Romans 8
17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs--heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.
19 The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed.
20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope
21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.
22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.
23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
I read verse 20 to Hugh Ross (an old Earth creationist) and stressed that the creation WAS subjected to futility and asked him WHEN did this happen?
He said that it was created in futility!
In Genesis 3:17,18 God cursed the ground.
"To Adam he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat of it,' "Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field."
In Genesis 5:29 this curse is referred to as an historical event tied to the fall.
"He named him Noah and said, "He will comfort us in the labor and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground the LORD has cursed."
The curse is tied to the fall. The Earth, as we see it today, is under the curse and is NOT the same as when Adam and Eve first walked upon it.
Hugh Ross performs eisigesis (reading his beliefs into the text) rather than exegesis (reading the text for what it says or means). The thrust of Romans 8 calls for an understanding of the Earth being "perfect" and then being "fallen" after the sin of Adam and Eve.
17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs--heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.
19 The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed.
20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope
21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.
22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.
23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
I read verse 20 to Hugh Ross (an old Earth creationist) and stressed that the creation WAS subjected to futility and asked him WHEN did this happen?
He said that it was created in futility!
In Genesis 3:17,18 God cursed the ground.
"To Adam he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat of it,' "Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field."
In Genesis 5:29 this curse is referred to as an historical event tied to the fall.
"He named him Noah and said, "He will comfort us in the labor and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground the LORD has cursed."
The curse is tied to the fall. The Earth, as we see it today, is under the curse and is NOT the same as when Adam and Eve first walked upon it.
Hugh Ross performs eisigesis (reading his beliefs into the text) rather than exegesis (reading the text for what it says or means). The thrust of Romans 8 calls for an understanding of the Earth being "perfect" and then being "fallen" after the sin of Adam and Eve.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
The age of Saturn's rings
The 1981 Voyager flybys astonished scientists with images of hundreds of individual ringlets and gaps. ... there was far more dynamism and structure than expecte, leading specialists at the time to conclude that the rings were young rather than primordial (i.e., formed along with Saturn). Upper limits were put at ~100 million years, only 2.2 percent of the assumed age of the solar system (4.5 billion years).
There are many "timepieces" in our solar system and on the earth which indicate a young earth.
from the October 2008 Acts & Facts
by ICR - Institue for Creation Research
There are many "timepieces" in our solar system and on the earth which indicate a young earth.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Dinosaur Soft Tissue
Click on the title to this blog to go to an article from ICR's Acts & Facts on the Dinosaur Soft Tissue found about 10 years ago.
If the dinosaur was truly 63 million years old, the tissue and blood cells would not survived.
So, the atheistic naturalistic scientists have to come up with a theory of how blood cells can survive. "'Schweitzer's work is showing us we really don't understand decay', paleontologist Thomas Holtz said in Smithsonian magazine." (May 2006)
Perhaps the evolutionists need to re-examine their paradigm.
If the dinosaur was truly 63 million years old, the tissue and blood cells would not survived.
So, the atheistic naturalistic scientists have to come up with a theory of how blood cells can survive. "'Schweitzer's work is showing us we really don't understand decay', paleontologist Thomas Holtz said in Smithsonian magazine." (May 2006)
Perhaps the evolutionists need to re-examine their paradigm.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Global Warming and the Little Ice Age
Have you ever wondered why there were paintings of the canals of Holland frozen over and people skating on them? These scenes were popularized by Hans Christian Andersen and Danny Kaye.
I've wondered how a warm place like Holland could have frozen canals.
The October 2008 issue of Acts & Facts (by ICR - Institute for Creation Research) has an article "Does Carbon Dioxide Drive Global Warming?" by Larry Vardiman. (click on the heading to this blog to go the the article.)
If you follow my enclosed link to the article, you will see Figure 1 showing that there was a warm period in Europe from 1000 to 14000 AD. During this time, the "crops flourished, the economy boomed, and the Vikings settled parts of Greenland where the ice sheets had melted back.
From about 1400 to 1900 A.D. a 500 year cold period occurred. ... grapes could no longer be grown, the economy declined, and the Viking s were forced out of Greenland by the encroaching snow and ice. Sunspots were found to be fewer during this time period, ...The coldest center portion of this period with the fewest number of sunspots is called the Little Ice Age. The canals in Holland, unlike today, froze over each winter."
This answers my nagging question.
The article also states that global warming precedes the rise in Carbon Dioxide, not the other-way-around that Al Gore claims.
I've wondered how a warm place like Holland could have frozen canals.
The October 2008 issue of Acts & Facts (by ICR - Institute for Creation Research) has an article "Does Carbon Dioxide Drive Global Warming?" by Larry Vardiman. (click on the heading to this blog to go the the article.)
If you follow my enclosed link to the article, you will see Figure 1 showing that there was a warm period in Europe from 1000 to 14000 AD. During this time, the "crops flourished, the economy boomed, and the Vikings settled parts of Greenland where the ice sheets had melted back.
From about 1400 to 1900 A.D. a 500 year cold period occurred. ... grapes could no longer be grown, the economy declined, and the Viking s were forced out of Greenland by the encroaching snow and ice. Sunspots were found to be fewer during this time period, ...The coldest center portion of this period with the fewest number of sunspots is called the Little Ice Age. The canals in Holland, unlike today, froze over each winter."
This answers my nagging question.
The article also states that global warming precedes the rise in Carbon Dioxide, not the other-way-around that Al Gore claims.
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