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Book Review: “The Jesus Inquest” by Charles Foster

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If you have no answers for skeptics, or worse, you haven’t developed the skill to formulate arguments, this book is for you.

Charles Foster, drawing on experience as a barrister, does more than just “assert” the resurrection of Jesus.

Instead, in his recent book, The Jesus Inquest, he grapples hand to hand or maybe I should say head to head with skeptics, not dismissing their contentions – assuming they are ridiculous – but engaging each one at close range, giving rational arguments to counter their ideas.

And he deals with several ideas that aggravate Christians, enraging some:

  • Jesus was crucified but survived and lived out His life in India.
  • Jesus died but was only temporarily laid in Joseph’s tomb, being moved to a municipal graveyard for the condemned soon thereafter, hence He couldn’t be found in the tomb.
  • Jesus body was consumed by jackals at the municipal body dump and therefore could not be found.
  • The first Sunday morning visitor, Mary Magdalene, didn’t find Jesus because she and those with her went to the wrong tomb.
  • Jesus survived the cross and was eventually buried in his family tomb in the Jerusalem area along with His wife Mary Magdalene, heirs and other family members, e.g., His brother James.
  • The appearances of Jesus were nothing more than hallucinations.

The question, of course, is not do Christians seriously believe these ideas but can they answer them. Many apologists, even those of a high profile, do little in response other than dismissively bluster their way through, producing very little in the way of argument. That is fine for the average Christian but for distant onlookers and serious skeptics more is required. [Read more…] about Book Review: “The Jesus Inquest” by Charles Foster

Abraham Sacrifices Isaac – Not!!

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What Abraham did symbolically God did actually.

This Represents The Last
Recorded Interaction
Between God And Abraham

Skeptics get a lot of mileage from Abraham going through the motions of sacrificing Isaac, especially since God was the one who requested it.

The whole thing flies in the face of morality as we understand it. Not only did Abraham prepare to execute his son but God is complicit, ordering what can only be viewed as ritualized homicide.

Atheists, who claim no need of guidance from a higher power and would eradicate the Bible’s influence if possible, find the whole thing appalling, at least for the present. But can any atheist really claim neutrality? Are any of their ideas completely free from God’s influence?

Since the Bible says a lot about protecting the rights of children even their indignation at Abraham is a by product of outside influence, namely the Bible.

There’s no telling what injustice they might rationalize should they succeed in erasing Christian influence from humanity, if such a thing could be done.

They, of course, are capable of logical thought but their rational abilities are not well exercised when it comes to events in the Bible. Because they don’t believe in God and aren’t dispassionate there is no reason to expect them to investigate biblical matters with a serious mind.

That is an important observation because these events didn’t happen yesterday and the further removed they are from the present the less likely atheists are to consider relevant cultural details. Social trends in Abraham’s day, for example, were very different to ours. In his day:

  • Sacrificing children was neither against the law nor uncommon especially in the land of Canaan.
  • It got worse. Archeological digs in Canaan have shown that children were sacrificed in greater numbers just before Israel took control of the land.
  • And there were no local or international agencies to enforce child protection laws if they had existed.

None of that means Abraham thought human sacrifice was acceptable. It wouldn’t have been a test if he did. There is no reason to think he would have considered such a thing if God hadn’t suggested it.

When informed that Sodom and Gomorrah would be destroyed he prayed fervently that God would spare them even if only 10 righteous souls were found there.

Obviously, he was thinking of Lot and counting on his influence being strong enough to protect his family from Sodom’s corruption but the count was off. Only four righteous souls were found but his prayer does reveal what he thought of Sodom.

The depravity of Sodom and Gomorrah is well known so I won’t elaborate but Abraham’s prayer at least illustrates his very poor opinion of local morality. He nor his immediate family would have seriously considered adopting the life style of Sodom which no doubt endorsed human sacrifice.

When God instructed Abraham to sacrifice Isaac he knew this was extreme and sadly, when Abraham acted on the instructions he wasn’t looking over his shoulder. Any neighbors watching would have considered it a normal, natural thing to do.

He didn’t have to do this on the sly. At the very best, locals would have considered it none of their business and wouldn’t have interfered.

In this case, however, atheists’ treatment of scripture is motivated more by disdain for God than cultural accuracy. Reading the text superficially, they accuse God of being a Tyrant and Abraham of psychosis, cowardice and insensitivity, actions that provoke indignation.

But are they really being indignant or confusing critical thought with emotional manipulation? [Read more…] about Abraham Sacrifices Isaac – Not!!

Evangelism – Nation to Nation

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Answering An Atheist

Original arguments are found in the post “Top Ten Worst Bible Stories”
On the web site “Not A Potted Plant” (NAPP)
Author – Transplanted Lawyer (TL)

This post is number four in a continuing discussion on the conflict between Israel and Moab/Midian as recorded in the Book of Numbers, chapters 22-25 and 31. The original observations – complaints – regarding this event are made by TL which can be read here (number one on his list of ten). My first response is here and his first counter is here.

Because TL is widely read and has an exceptionally quick mind I consider it a privilege to have him as a sparring partner. No doubt his abilities will suit him well for the bench should his aspirations in that regard be realized. His quick thinking has made me sharpen my game.

The discussion with him is incisive without insult and firm but in a respectful way. I know you will enjoy the read also.

Suffice it to say that the event under discussion seems particularly gruesome. It was war and war is never nice even under the best of circumstances. As TL and countless others have pointed out, a certain number of deaths are expected but in the case of Midian it seems a bit extreme. The entire community was destroyed, even young boys, with the exception of virgin girls. I can’t imagine anyone not being disturbed by it.

Obviously, because God was involved in this situation – He ordered the counter attack in the first place – it is easy to assume that everything Moses ordered was exactly God’s plan. I don’t presume to understand everything God does but I do believe there are reasons He should not be implicated every time difficulties arise. He is a third party, sometimes silently so, and we must at least try to see where the fault lines lay before assuming His guilt. Previously I have suggested that Moses acted in the extreme and went beyond God’s original intent.

My primary arguments are:

  • Israel was not the aggressor.
  • The intentions of Moab/Midian were clearly violent but their strategy was cleverly deceptive. They tried to divine a curse on Israel and when that failed they used wile, enticing them with their sexually oriented religion, to demoralize them. The second plan worked but not sufficiently enough to destroy Israel’s or God’s resolve.
  • God ordered the attack on Midian but did not specify the extent to which it should be executed.
  • The women who were destroyed were frontline soldiers or spies, not collateral damage or the subjects of a genocidal frenzy. Without them the ruse would not have been effective. His order to execute them, therefore, is not completely without justification.
  • I have argued that the order to destroy every male came from Moses not God. This is the real issue.

Everyone is very quick to take the Midianite side and speak of their anguish but not fair minded enough to spread that love around, ascribing to Israel (and God) a venomous nature. The truth is, Israelites were just as human as any and “rising above” was sometimes out of reach for them as well. Israel had very good reason to be hurting from this event and it doesn’t take a degree in psychology to figure it out.

It was only because Midianites were distant relatives of Moses and because Israel’s first encounter with a Midianite (Jethro – Moses’ father-in-law) was positive that the ruse was as effective as it was.

It is not unreasonable to see this was personal for Moses and it isn’t strange that his response would be so vengeful.

As mentioned previously, his worst characteristic was his anger and it had gotten him into trouble on more than one occasion. He also had a tendency to take action impulsively and God pronounced a final judgment on Moses as recent as Numbers 20. He was to die before entering the promised land and Joshua would take his place.

Even as God gave the order to counter Midian aggression He reminded Moses that he would be removed from the scene following the battle. I’m sure that reminder laid heavily on his mind. It doesn’t justify his actions but it does explain it.

In his rebuttal TL makes additional suggestions which I would like to answer here: [Read more…] about Evangelism – Nation to Nation

Moses Massacres Midian

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Answering An Atheist

Original arguments are found in the post “Top Ten Worst Bible Stories”
On the web site “Not A Potted Plant” (NAPP)
Author – Transplanted Lawyer (TL)

There are two absolute No-No’s when reading the Bible. One is never wear rose-tinted glasses (Christians do this) and the other is don’t precondition the text with modern perspectives (critics do this). Christians tend to extract from the text sentiments that aren’t there. Critics do just the opposite, imposing on the text preconceived ideas. Both start with an assumption and then proceed to draw it out or weave it into the text. Both approaches narrow the mind and have the same affect, distortion. Neither is really honest.

Take Abraham for example. He fathered his first child by Hagar, his wife’s handmaid – polygamous. According to cultural practices of the day this was acceptable but according to biblical teachings it was not.

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It is fair to be forgiving. Abraham and Sara were faced with difficult and unusual circumstances. But justifying polygamy as anything other than adultery is going a little too far and that is what believers tend to do.

Non-believers, particularly atheists, are quick to pounce on that.  Polygamy, or any other form of sexual divergence, may or may not be a problem for them but they are clever enough to see the contradiction between what the Bible teaches in one place and what believers say it teaches in another. [Read more…] about Moses Massacres Midian

Egypt Destroyed In Exodus

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The following is a report on recent findings in Egypt by Breaking News correspondent Al Quiet.

Egyptologists recently uncovered a news story which broke shortly after the Exodus. The translation reads…

“On a certain day, God showed up unexpectedly in the court of Pharaoh and through His minister, Moses, made demands on Pharaoh to let His people go. After many rounds of negotiations and following several minor irritant plagues, in which God showed He was more than capable of pulling this thing off, our great leader, Pharaoh, put his back up and God had no choice but to eventually destroy the entire Egyptian army.

The outcome? After many years of enslavement, Moses led Israel to freedom and they took most of the Egyptian Gross National Savings with them as they went. Watching their exit toward the horizon we had to admit that we sort of had it coming.  They were basically a peace loving people, non-militaristic, who took care of our undesirable tasks, herding animals, and we unilaterally relegated them to slavery making their lives very hard, at one point even trying to kill their male born children. And the moral of the story? What goes around, comes around.

There are many in Egypt who believe Pharaoh should have backed off from the start and with his demise a more reasonable successor will be sought. His cabinet will be replaced also but this time with counselors who hopefully can be more persuasive than the last group.

It was a bad phase in Egyptian history but we are glad to put it behind us. Admittedly, rebuilding the economy will be a challenge without all the slaves.” [Read more…] about Egypt Destroyed In Exodus