© 2015, by John Tors. All Rights Reserved. Introduction You begin to read the Gospel According to Mark in your New International Version (NIV) Bible, and you see the following: 1 The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah,[a] the Son of God,[b] 2 as it is written in Isaiah the prophet: “I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way”[c]— 3 “a voice of one calling …
© 2015, by John Tors. All Rights Reserved. NOTE: This is a companion article to our article “THE THREE-HEADED MONSTER AND THE EVANGELICAL BETRAYAL OF THE BIBLE: Exposing the Major Weapons Levied against the Trustworthiness of the Bible” Introduction In our article “The Three-Headed Monster and the Evangelical Betrayal of the Bible: Exposing the Major Weapons Levied against the Trustworthiness of the Bible,”[1] we showed how for the last several …
© 2018, by John Tors. All Rights Reserved. It is safe to assume that the various functionaries of Creation Ministries International (CMI) feel a great deal of frustration over the fact that their well reasoned arguments for young-earth creationism are not accepted by professing Christians who are supposed to view the Bible as the very word of God. Perhaps they are even more frustrated when such Christians do not even …
© 2018, by John Tors. All Rights Reserved. Introduction [N.B. READ THE ENDNOTES, FOLKS. THEY ARE IMPORTANT!] The two most important questions everyone must answer, most important because their eternal destiny depends on them, are both found in the Bible. One is in Matthew 16:15/Mark 8:29/Luke 9:20, where Jesus asks, “Who do you say that I am?” and the other is the one asked by the Philippian jailer in Acts …
© 2018, by John Tors. All Rights Reserved. Introduction And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up—if in fact the dead do not rise. For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not …
© 2018, by John Tors. All Rights Reserved. [N.B. READ THE ENDNOTES, FOLKS. THEY ARE IMPORTANT!] One of the problems associated with atheism is that life in such a worldview is without any sort of objective meaning; the atheist inevitably must choose between some sort of hedonism, based on personal preferences, or he is faced with nihilism. This, in and of itself, does not disprove atheism,[1] but it is nevertheless …
© 2018, by John Tors. All Rights Reserved. Introduction [N.B. READ THE ENDNOTES, FOLKS. THEY ARE IMPORTANT!] We are not ignorant of Satan’s devices, we are told in 2 Corinthians 2:11b. Indeed, Satan has more than one device to tempt and mislead, and prominent (and perhaps preeminent) among these is to undermine people’s trust in the Bible, the word of God. This was his approach from the beginning, when he …
In this day and age when the Bible is coming under increasing attack and the church is crumbling in the western world, it is truly unfortunate that Howe would take this position. His argument is not only wrong; it is risible and it stymies itself.
© 2017, by John Tors. All Rights Reserved. In the King James Version and NKJV (as below), 1 John 5:6-8 reads as follows: This is He who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not only by water, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who bears witness, because the Spirit is truth. For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the …
© 2017, by John Tors. All Rights Reserved. A Response to USA Today The American national newspaper USA Today treated us to an interesting opinion essay on Friday last.[1] It was called “Creationism drops for hopeful reason,” and was authored by Yale Divinity School’s communications director Tom Krattenmaker. Krattenmaker was cheering the results of a recently released Gallup poll that showed “a notable decline in the percentage of Americans – …
© 2017, by John Tors. All Rights Reserved. Part 2 of 2 Introduction On the evening of Saturday, April 22, 2017, I debated Dr. Tony Costa on the topic of “the methodology of the reconstruction of the Greek New Testament.”[1] I was contending for the Majority Reading/Byzantine text Approach, while Dr. Costa argued for Reasoned Eclecticism, the dominant approach that was used to produce the Nestle-Aland (NA) Greek text. This …
© 2017, by John Tors. All Rights Reserved. Part 1 of 2 Introduction On the evening of Saturday, April 22, 2017, I debated Dr. Tony Costa on the topic of “the methodology of the reconstruction of the Greek New Testament.”[1] I was contending for the Majority Reading/Byzantine Text Approach, while Dr. Costa argued for Reasoned Eclecticism, the dominant approach that was used to produce the Nestle-Aland (NA) Greek text. This …
© 2017, by John Tors. All Rights Reserved. And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested Him, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?” So he answered and said, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with …
© 2017, by John Tors. All Rights Reserved. What Is at Stake Your word is very pure; therefore Your servant loves it … The entirety of Your word is truth … (Psalm 119:140,160a) We have previously posted some rather pointed rebuttals of the claims of a certain Nick Peters, along with various scholars he champions, regarding the inerrancy of the Bible,[1] and, predictably, it was not well received by some. …
© 2017, by John Tors. All Rights Reserved. Introduction [N.B. READ THE ENDNOTES, FOLKS. THEY ARE IMPORTANT!] Some time ago, Truth In My Days posted an important article in four parts, “The Three-Headed Monster and the Evangelical Betrayal of the Bible: Exposing the Major Weapons Levied Against the Trustworthiness of the Bible.”[1] In it we discussed in detail how far too many evangelical scholars have been seduced into accepting liberal …
© 2017, by John Tors. All Rights Reserved. Introduction I have elsewhere described the story of a certain contestant on the television game show “Jeopardy!”[1] He was doing very well, answering questions correctly one after the other, but then he missed an easy one about famous comedy teams. The correct answer was, “Who is Laurel and Hardy,” but he mistakenly said, “Who is Oliver and Hardy.” When the host, perhaps …
© 2017, by John Tors. All Rights Reserved. So He said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God.” (Matthew 19:17a) So Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God.” (Mark 10:18) So Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that …
© 2016, by John Tors. All Rights Reserved. NOTE: THIS ARTICLE IS AN EXCERPT (mutatis mutandis) FROM A FORTHCOMING LONGER ARTICLE. Introduction Maclean’s, which boasts of being “Canada’s National Magazine, celebrated Easter this year by publishing a cover article titled, “Did Jesus Really Exist?”[1] with the provocative cover blurb, “The science is in: New memory research is casting doubt on the few things we thought we knew about Jesus. Now …
© 2016, by John Tors. All Rights Reserved. Introduction Fifty years ago today, Time, “the weekly newsmagazine,” published what some consider its most controversial cover story ever.[1] Inside the usual red border of the cover there was nothing but a stark black background with, under the Time banner, a question in three large red letters: “Is God Dead?”[2] The implication, of course, was not that God, a living being, had …
© 2016, by John Tors. All Rights Reserved. Introduction Maclean’s madness is back. Like a bad B-grade horror movie series, Maclean’s, “Canada’s National Magazine,” used to celebrate Christmas and Easter every year by publishing sensationalistic cover articles attacking the historical reliability of Christianity. The claims in these articles were presented as the assured results of neutral scholarship but were invariably one-sided regurgitations of the assertions of liberal scholars with little …
© 2016, by John Tors. All Rights Reserved. Introduction Then the Jews took up stones again to stone Him. Jesus answered them, “Many good works I have shown you from My Father. For which of those works do you stone Me?” The Jews answered Him, saying, “For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy, and because You, being a Man, make Yourself God.” Jesus answered them, …
© 2016, by John Tors. All Rights Reserved. Introduction I must be quite the quixotic fellow. I was actually cheered when I came across an article online that was about creationism and was entitled, “You can trust God, but men are fallible.”[1] It is too rarely acknowledged or accepted that what the word of the infallible God says about how and when He created the universe and the life in …
© 2016, by John Tors. All Rights Reserved. Introduction The first two chapters of the Bible, Genesis 1 and 2, describe the original creation by God of the world and the life in it, including Man. Prima facie, these chapters are not difficult to understand. Genesis 1 gives a description of the entire process, beginning with the creation of the sum total of matter/energy from which God makes the entire …
© 2016, by John Tors. All Rights Reserved. Introduction Then He said, “To what shall we liken the kingdom of God? Or with what parable shall we picture it? It is like a mustard seed which, when it is sown on the ground, is smaller than all the seeds on earth; but when it is sown, it grows up and becomes greater than all herbs, and shoots out large branches, …
© 2015, by John Tors. All Rights Reserved. The Problem Then He said, “To what shall we liken the kingdom of God? Or with what parable shall we picture it? It is like a mustard seed which, when it is sown on the ground, is smaller than all the seeds on earth; but when it is sown, it grows up and becomes greater than all herbs, and shoots out large …
© 2015, by John Tors. All Rights Reserved. PART 3 OF 3 An Analysis of the Issue Peripheral Issues As we have seen before, a number of charges are made against the credibility of Luke’s birth narrative of Jesus, to wit: “No taxation census ever required individuals to register, not where they themselves live but rather where their remote ancestors once lived!”[1] “[T]he census Luke posits (2:1), levied at the …
© 2015, by John Tors. All Rights Reserved. PART 2 OF 3 An Analysis of the Issue When Did Herod the Great Die? We are told repeatedly that Herod the Great died in 4 BC.[1] Almost all reference books cite this date. For example, the New Bible Dictionary tells us of “Herod the Great, king of the Jews 40-4 BC, born c. 73 BC”[2] and The Oxford Bible Commentary states …
