PROJESUS.COM INFORMATION LETTER  Sept-Oct 2006 No. 5

Contact us on the web at ProJesus.com:  e-mail <answers@Projesus.com

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NOVEMBER ELECTION:  “If America is to survive, we must elect more God-centered men and women to public office—individuals who will seek Divine guidance in the affairs of state.” –Billy Graham, Evangelist    Consider your biblical values when voting, choosing candidates whose positions agree with your beliefs, convictions, and values.  By the people you select and the ballot measures you support, you are making a practical difference--for good and bad.   Prayerfully resolve to: 1) Be registered, 2) Be informed, 3) Vote your values.   IT IS YOUR HONOR,   PRIVILEGE, DUTY

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BOOK SUGESTION:   “The Answers Book”   by Ken Ham et.al.

INTERESTING QUOTE:  “The rights of the colonists as Christians…may be best understood by reading and carefully studying the institutions of The Great Law Giver and Head of the Christian Church, which are to be found clearly written and promulgated in the New Testament of the Bible.”   President Samuel Adams    

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CREATION/EVOLUTION

Question: Does it matter what we believe (continued).

World Wide Flood

The Bible says it rained 40 days and nights without stopping.  What if it rained for 5 days and nights!  The area would be completely under water.  A 30- hour storm in a recent hurricane in Florida brought the water up to the 2^nd floor of the buildings.  Many people say that the Biblical flood was a “local” flood.  The fossil record shows all fossils were covered quickly and at one level.  In a “local” flood, the fossils would lie on the ground and deteriorate.  

Time for the Logic Cap again:  If the “flood” was local in origin and extent, why would God have Noah spend 100 years in building the ark?  Why put two of every animal in the ark when a few hundred miles away the animals were safe?  The big problem:  if the “flood” was local then why would God lie not once but twice.  God said in Gen 9:11 “Thus I establish My covenant with you: Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood; never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth." 

Thus God lied about: “never again shall there be a flood” and to “destroy the earth”.  More importantly, God broke His own Covenant with the people.  We only need to look within the last two years at the floods in Indonesia and New Orleans.  Also, there have been thousands of huge “local floods” in the last 4000 years. 

Jesus verified that there was a world wide flood in Matt 24:38-39:  “For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away; so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.”  

 Is there further evidence for a world flood?  Yes!  Geological evidence.  What is found on all the mountains in the world?  Sea shells!  Guess what?  They had no legs, so they didn’t walk up the mountains.  Also whale fossils have been found-- without legs..  Archeologists have also discovered hundreds of dinosaur bones together with bones from other animals all at one level all at one place! 

More evidence for a world-wide flood have been found in the area surrounding Mt. St. Helens.  This evidence will be presented in the next issue.

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IS THE BIBLE RELIABLE?

To continue with Archeology:  Sargon was a king in ancient Mesopotamia, his palace was discovered recently in Khorsabad, Iraq.  The very event mentioned in Isaiah 20, his capture of Ashdod, was recorded on the palace walls. What  is even more important, fragments of a stela memorializing the victory were found at Ashdod itself.  (A stela is an upright pillar bearing an inscription)

Undoubtedly, the most important mention of Israel outside the Bible is that in the Merneptah, or "Israel," Stela. Discovered in 1896 in Merneptah's mortuary temple in Thebes by Flinders Petrie, the stela is a poetic eulogy to pharaoh Merneptah, who ruled Egypt after Rameses the Great, 1212‑1202 BC.

Of significance to Biblical studies is a short section at the end of the poem describing a campaign to Canaan by Merneptah in the first few years of his reign, 1210 BC. One line mentions Israel: "Israel is laid waste, its seed is not." Here we have the earliest mention of Israel outside the Bible and the only mention of Israel in Egyptian records.  

Cyrus the Great ruled the Persian empire from 559‑530 B.C. He is best known for his capture of Babylon in 539 B.C. Already in the 8th century B.C. Isaiah predicted this defeat (Isaiah 45:1‑3), and went on to say that Cyrus would "set my exiles free' (Isaiah 45:13). That Cyrus released the Jewish exiles from Babylon is not only documented in the Bible  (2Chronicles 36:22‑23; Ezra 1:2‑4), but also implied in the contemporary Cyrus Cylinder.

This ancient record states, "I (Cyrus) gathered all their former inhabitants and returned to them their habitations."   This information and the knowledge gained from the thousands of other archeological discoveries verifies the inerrancy of the Bible.

 In an unprecedented discovery, an ancient text found at Deir Alla, Jordan, in 1967 tells about the activities of a prophet named Balaam.  Could this be the Balaam of the Old Testament? The text makes it clear that it is. Three times in the first four lines he is referred to as "Balaam son of Beor," exactly as in the Bible.

This represents the first Old Testament prophet to be dug up in Bible lands ‑ not his tomb or his skeleton, but a text about him. The text also represents the first prophecy of any scope from the ancient West Semitic world to be found outside the Old Testament, and the first extra‑Biblical example of a prophet proclaiming doom to his own people.

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THE LIFE OF CHRIST:   This is a certificate class on the web site under Bible Institute Studies.  

Previously we discussed Jesus as a historical figure.  Now we will discuss the “Quality of the Witnesses” who were with Jesus every day.  They were the Apostles.

 

A.  The disciples had little motivation to lie.

          1.  Not only was it contrary to their strict morality, it would gain them nothing.

       2.  Being a Christian back then was a ticket to ridicule and persecution. They were

                  promised the same fate as their Master (Matt 10:23-25).

        3.  Every apostle except John (who probably died a natural death) was killed

                  because of  his belief in Jesus. In other words, they signed their testimony in blood.

 

B.  In a court of law these writers would qualify as the very best of witnesses.

        In court, the testimony of a witness can be impeached by one of five lines of attack:

1.     By proving that the witness, on a previous occasion, has made statements

           inconsistent with his present testimony.

2.     By demonstrating bias in the witness.

3.     By attacking the character of the witness.

4.   By questioning the capacity in the witness to observe, remember, or

      recount the matters testified about.

5.       By proving through other witnesses that material facts are otherwise than as testified.

To further study the Gospels as examined by the rules of Evidence Administered in Courts of Justice, please read “The Testimony of the Evangelists” by Simon Greenleaf.  Mr. Greenleaf’s three volume work “A Treatise on the Law of Evidence”, is considered a classic of American jurisprudence.

The next Information Letter will further address the “Quality of the Witnesses”.

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If there is an area of your life that needs prayer, please e-mail us and allow us to pray for you.