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by Ami Samuels

I would like to share an excerpt from my book The Christmas Basket.

At this juncture in the story we find that the main character, Maralee Jones, is out on a wintery evening, delivering a Christmas basket to the Wagner family.

The making and delivering of the Christmas Baskets has been a long-standing tradition in the Jones family, but this year everyone is too busy to participate. Maralee finds herself all alone, not wanting to let the tradition die.

As we pick up in the story, she has had a mishap that snowy night.

“As Maralee runs her finger over the ribbon on the basket that she had hurriedly tied into a bow, she thinks about the person she used to be.
She was patient and kind to strangers.
She was a woman who would give money to the bell ringers, and not question where the money would go;
someone who saw needs in others and tried to meet them if she could.
Where did that woman go?
As she sits in the car looking at the basket she didn’t want to get,
didn’t want to assemble,
and didn’t want to deliver,
she begins to remember what she calls her first Christmas, the Christmas after her baptism.
That Christmas, she was so full of the Holy Spirit and so grateful for Jesus’ birth and what he had done for her on the cross that her heart was so full of joy, peace, and love that no present under the tree could compare!”

She got it! Maralee understood the true meaning of Christmas for the first time in her life. It isn’t about presents at all, but the love they represent. She felt whole, complete, and content. She didn’t need material things to fill that empty space anymore because it was filled with Jesus’ love.

Can you relate to Maralee? Have you ever caught yourself rushing through the holiday season lacking peace and contentment?

This year, spend time with Jesus, and slow down enough to enjoy Christmas with your family and friends. Take a few moments each day to appreciate the lights, the music and scents of the season.

Merry Christmas!

This forum is meant to foster discussion and allow for differing viewpoints to be explored with equal and respectful consideration.  All comments are moderated and any foul language or threatening/abusive comments will not be approved.  Users who engage in threatening or abusive comments which are physically harmful in nature will be reported to the authorities.

by Charlie Wolcott

[This blog post is part of a series. The previous post is here, and the next post is here.]

“Tell me how much time you spend alone with God, and I’ll tell you how spiritual you are.” ~Leonard Ravenhill

That quote is a doozy. One of the posts I opened up this series with was how prayer is not a process but rather a relationship with God. In that post I said that when you pray, how you pray, what position you pray in, and the like does not matter as long as you pray. That is still true, however, God is making me learn the importance of having that personal, quiet time with God.

For most of my Christian life, I did not have a set time when I put everything away and spent time in prayer. My prayer time was more as I went along in my day or when I would pace with little to do while waiting for things to take place. I was fond of this quote, though I do not know whom it is attributed: “I am not concerned about spending 30 minutes a day in prayer. I am concerned about going 30 minutes without prayer.” I loved that quote, but I still did not apply it correctly. I was more using that to pray throughout the day in short prayer quips, not having a true lifestyle of prayer, and as an excuse to not have a regular, personal time alone with God.

As I have studied about prayer since July, one thing that preachers keep referencing is the quiet, alone, prayer life of the saints of the Bible, particularly Jesus. Paul Washer makes several keys points in his sermon “Pray and Be Alone with God.” The first thing Washer addresses is that the disciples asked Jesus how to pray. They did not ask how to preach, how to drive out demons, how to perform miracles. They asked how to pray. So according to Washer, something stood out to the disciples about Jesus’ prayer life.

The other thing Washer states that stands out for the scope of this post is that Jesus’ escape was to get with God and pray. Jesus did not turn to his friends, he did not turn to books, he did not turn to video games, he turned to his Father when he needed a moment to get away and escape. Many of us will go read a book, or play a game, or take a vacation, but how many of us pray as our means of letting go of our daily stresses and recharging? Do not hear what I am not saying. I still read, I still play games (though the drive and interest in playing them is greatly waning). No condemnation here. But my question must remain: do we seek God to be our sustenance, our source of energy and strength? Or do we seek it in other sources?

How should we do our prayer time? Here are some tips you can use to consider, however do NOT, and I mean do NOT, keep these as some ritualistic or legalistic rules, however discipline is always a good thing to practice. So if you are having a difficult time getting prayer time going, use these tips to help you get something established.

Pick a specific time for prayer and keep it. Some do first thing in the morning before the day begins. Some do evening before going to bed. Some do noon. Part of it may depend on your work schedule or your family schedule. Simply pick a time and schedule your day around that. The key is to make your prayer time your priority.

Plan a time frame to pray. I read the stories of John Hyde, Rees Howells, and John Wesley who would pray for numerous hours a day. One thing about these men is that they learned how to pray through, how to keep praying until the battle was won, and often they did not learn that secret until they had endured praying through the whole night. Now, many of us are not in a state where we can do that. I have yet to make that goal. However, start training. Start with five minutes. Start with ten minutes. Go to 30 minutes or one hour. But keep the same time and same time frame, then add to that time frame as your bond with the Lord grows.

This is an unusual concept not often mentioned, but sometimes your very posture can affect how you pray. Many will say be on your knees. Many of the main prayer warriors and missionaries are known to have ground ruts into the floor boards at their beds because of how many hours and how vigorously they prayed. Do not put yourself in a position where you are most likely to fall asleep or likely to be distracted by other things. Rather put yourself in a position that helps you focus. The location of your prayer time is also an important factor. Jesus often went to a high mountain, away from people and away from crowds. If you can reserve a room or a closet to make your “prayer room,” do so. Make a place where you can shut out the world, shut out the internet, shut out the music, shut out everyone else, just you and God. If you do not have a place where you can do that, make sure you turn everything off. Turn off the computer, turn off the TV, close the door to your bedroom, and look only at your Bible and pray.

There are also times where you need to get away completely. Get away from anything familiar. Many pastors will take a trip into the mountains and rent a cabin or get a hotel room to get away from the home, away from where anything can distract them so they can concentrate on prayer. I have done this a couple times this year. I have done a hike and picked a spot where I could sit and pray, and another time I went into the prayer chapel at my church. The thing when doing this is to not take extra books or anything that will distract you from the Bible or from prayer.

Everyone needs a time of prayer with God, a time to read the Bible and to communicate with God. You cannot survive in this world spiritually without a constant connection to the source of life and wisdom. Another comment I have been seeing about prayer is that when you spend your time and do your work in private prayer, then your public prayer and public work becomes almost automatic. If you spend the time and effort in your private prayer, you will see the results in your public life.

Next week, I wrap up this series with an examination of how we end most of our prayers: “In Jesus’ name, Amen.” What does it mean to ask in Jesus’ name? What does Amen actually mean? Next week will be the end of this series.

This forum is meant to foster discussion and allow for differing viewpoints to be explored with equal and respectful consideration.  All comments are moderated and any foul language or threatening/abusive comments will not be approved.  Users who engage in threatening or abusive comments which are physically harmful in nature will be reported to the authorities.

by David Odegard

Undeniably, humans are spiritual beings. We have a body, we have a soul (mind, will, emotions), and we have a spirit. These three parts are interwoven in a way we still do not understand. Psychology is the study of the “psuche” or soul; it is the study of our minds, our wills, and our emotions. Medical doctors study the body, and the Bible teaches us about the spirit. Most of the people on this planet realize that there is a spiritual dimension to reality. The question of how the spirit, mind, and body all work together will be a topic we explore in the future.

If you read the writings of eastern philosophy, you will find that Eastern mysticism seeks to explore the spiritual plane of existence. They acknowledge that we are spiritual beings and try to follow their great teachers (Buddha and Confucius) to understanding how it all works. Certain Buddhist traditions believe in the spirit of a person is not truly individual, but rather it is part of the Everything (or the Nothing, in some cases). The spirit of the person is compared to a drop of water that loses all of its identity when it drops into the bucket of water. It becomes the water filling the bucket, and it is a drop no more.

Think of the Force from Star Wars. This impersonal force is the Brahman, the Everything/Nothing. It is unfeeling. It is cold spirituality as cosmic energy with no compassion, warmth, or love. This is a separate universe, one that the spiritual explorer seeks to map. We Christians, however, believe that God is personal, not like the faceless Force. Rather, He is a loving and good being.

Furthermore, we believe that he did not leave us on our own to discern the spiritual world through inferences drawn only from Creation itself. We believe that He also reached out to us. This outreach is compiled in the Bible. It is a record of how God Himself has spoken to humanity to guide it to Himself. He breaks into our universe originally through prophets and then through His Son, who in turn sent the Holy Spirit to be a constant voice to anyone with “ears to hear.” “In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe” (Hebrews 1:1-2).

The transition from Eastern mysticism to Western rationalism is too jarring to make Buddhism all that popular in our hemisphere. Also, people in the West despise the idea that our spirit loses all its own individual identity as a “drop in the bucket.” The New Age movement was the West’s idea of spirituality unguided by the Bible. It takes most of the themes found in Buddhism but rebrands them with Western individuality.

Instead of thinking of themselves as a drop lost in the bucket, they think of themselves as the entire bucket in droplet form. Obviously, the entire bucket of water cannot exist in the droplet so there must be another dimension where it all works itself out somehow, if only it could be discovered. And then, eureka, LSD and several other very potent hallucinogens became popular to assist with different ways of perceiving the universe. We can all see how deeply this has influenced modern America. Drugs are often viewed as an expansion of perception rather than a hindrance to real life.

The self is the kingpin of reality. Postmodern, huh? The New Agers are a very diverse group, but one thing they almost all agree on is that the Self is the center of the universe. Shirley MacLaine discusses the idea that perhaps she is the creator of everything. She writes in Its All in the Playing, “If I created my own reality… I created everything I saw, heard, touched, smelled, tasted… I created everything I knew.” She goes on to speculate that if she created everything she perceives, is it for the chance to get to know herself better since she herself is God? Then she goes as far to ask if her self-revelation was what was behind the phrase, “I AM that I AM.” For further information, please read James Sire’s book The Universe Next Door also Douglas Groothius’s Confronting the New Age.

New Age spirituality is also becoming more and more imbedded in Christian churches in America, but that is to discuss another time.

The New Age is an incarnation of the oldest lie of all time: “You yourselves shall be as gods.” Mankind wants to escape the despair of atheism because we all still have an indomitable spirit which cries out, “I shall live and not die.” But if we are left only to our own imaginations, we can easily be side-swept into spiritual bondage rather than the joy and peace and light that Jesus brings into our lives through the Holy Spirit.

Friend, do not wander the astral plains seeking guidance from strange beings you may meet along the way. As the Bible says, “Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows” (James 1:16-17). Also, “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:11-13).

Jesus Christ is the only way to God all other routes lead to darkness and death. I invite your questions and comments.

This forum is meant to foster discussion and allow for differing viewpoints to be explored with equal and respectful consideration.  All comments are moderated and any foul language or threatening/abusive comments will not be approved.  Users who engage in threatening or abusive comments which are physically harmful in nature will be reported to the authorities.

by Katie Erickson

“Then Jephthah sent messengers to the Ammonite king with the question: 'What do you have against me that you have attacked my country?'
The king of the Ammonites answered Jephthah’s messengers, 'When Israel came up out of Egypt, they took away my land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, all the way to the Jordan. Now give it back peaceably.' Jephthah sent back messengers to the Ammonite king, saying:
'This is what Jephthah says: Israel did not take the land of Moab or the land of the Ammonites. But when they came up out of Egypt, Israel went through the wilderness to the Red Sea and on to Kadesh. Then Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, ‘Give us permission to go through your country,’ but the king of Edom would not listen. They sent also to the king of Moab, and he refused. So Israel stayed at Kadesh.” (Judges 11:12-17)

Who’s this Jephthah guy I’m writing about today? Check out last week’s post to see where he came from and who he is.

At this point in the story, Jephthah had been made ruler of Israel’s army. The Ammonites were threatening Israel, so they needed a good commander to make them successful in the impending war. Jephthah is taking charge and first trying to get to the bottom of what the problem is with the Ammonites.

In the start of today’s passage, we see Jephthah trying to get to the bottom of the situation. He asks the Ammonite king why they’re attacking Israel. Instead of just jumping right into battle, Jephthah goes for diplomacy and trying to reason out the conflict first.

The king’s reply indicates that the Ammonites don’t want war either. They believed that Israel took their land away, so they simply want it back. There’s no need for a war, just give their land back and everybody is happy, right?

Well, it’s not quite that easy. Jephthah begins to give a history of how Israel came to occupy this land in the first place. They captured it honestly and did not violate anyone’s rights. This discussion will continue in next week’s post, and we’ll see even more reasons that Jephthah gives that Israel should keep this land.

So how does this apply to us today? Odds are you’re not in any territorial dispute like that, and if so we have much better record keeping and processes today to avoid such matters. But look at how Jephthah address this potential conflict. Remember, he was a very skilled warrior. He could have just said, “Ok Israel, let’s all gear up for battle and wipe the Ammonites off the face of the earth!” But he didn’t. Instead, he tries to spare both parties the agony and loss of war by being reasonable and discussing the matter first, to see if they can come to some kind agreement without the bloodshed.

While most disagreements in our lives don’t get to the point of bloodshed (hopefully!), this is a good principle to remember. Before you let your anger and emotions get the best of you, try to discuss the matter calmly. Listen to the other person’s perspective and try to understand where they’re coming from, and calmly share your side of the story too. Don’t just jump into an argument in anger, but first try to work with the other party. It’s always better to try and work things out through good, honest communication rather than hostile fighting.

This forum is meant to foster discussion and allow for differing viewpoints to be explored with equal and respectful consideration.  All comments are moderated and any foul language or threatening/abusive comments will not be approved.  Users who engage in threatening or abusive comments which are physically harmful in nature will be reported to the authorities.

by Nathan Buck

If we live long enough, we all face rejection. The more personal the rejection, the harder it is to forgive. It's even harder to imagine helping or serving the ones who hurt you.  I have been on both sides - the one hurt, and the one who hurt. I have been the one being served, humbled by grace and in forgiveness. And I have had to make the choice to serve those who wounded me. In both cases, there is only ONE reason why it happened: God. He had grace enough to cover the offenses, and a purpose for everyone involved.

The decision we all have to make is whether or not we will live our life, even our wounded experiences, for His purposes. Look at what happened to Jephthah in Judges 11:1-11.

After being rejected by his family and the leaders of his people, because he was born to a prostitute, Jephthah is faced with the decision to serve them as their leader. Initially, it didn't matter to them that Jephthah's father was Gilead, they just saw him as the worthless child of a harlot. But when the struggle with the Ammonites was too much for them, they seek out Jephthah to lead.

Jephthah has a choice: let them suffer and get even with them for rejecting him, or step forward to serve. It is in this moment Jephthah had to check his motives and decide. We get a hint into his thinking by the question he asks.

Instead of throwing their offenses back in their face, he asks a simple question (paraphrased): “If I do this, will you make me your leader as you promise?” This question in itself shows the heart of Jephthah. He asks about their commitment and resolve. For some reason, Jephthah seems to have it as an assumption that he can, and perhaps SHOULD, take on this role.

In Jephthah's situation, we are challenged with a difficult question. Are we willing to serve God, even when He prepares for us to serve those who hate us, hurt us, or are our enemies?

We can find the strength and courage to serve our enemies by remembering that EVERY situation in life is about God's purposes and plans. Getting our eyes off of our benefit, and letting go of the desire to control our offenders, is a start. If we truly want God's will in every situation, we will find a freedom to live and to serve in whatever situation He prepares. And the outcome He brings will be good.

The way we face our pain and serve God through it may position us to accomplish some greater purpose. It may be the example that changes someone else's life who has been watching us, or it may be the very process God uses to unburden us from the wound we were carrying. Or, like Jephthah, it could be the situation that rescues or changes the course of our nation.

Whether you are struggling with personal offenses, the results of the latest election, or some other experience you feel has been inflicted upon you, take a hint from Jephthah. It is a waste of our life to harbor resentment and seek revenge, even for very painful experiences. It is best to seek God's will and to take on each opportunity we have with our eyes focused on Him.

Are you constantly looking for God's purpose in every situation? Here is a tool you can use daily as a prayer and to help you reflect on your motives: Matthew 6:5-15. Read these verses and memorize them, particularly the Lord's Prayer. Praying this prayer that Jesus taught His disciples can help you get perspective and stay focused on God's plans. May God bless you with clarity as you pray.

(Note: For those in actively harmful or abusive situations, let me be clear - I am not saying to extend trust to an offender who has abused you, or to put yourself in an unwisely vulnerable situation. If you are actively being abused, you MUST seek help and get to safety. Jephthah's example is not about allowing abuse or being someone's doormat. From a place of equal power and freedom as a person, Jephthah chose to serve those who had rejected him. Again, if you are actively being harmed by others, you MUST seek out help from a trustworthy adult who has the authority and ability to get you to safety.)

This forum is meant to foster discussion and allow for differing viewpoints to be explored with equal and respectful consideration.  All comments are moderated and any foul language or threatening/abusive comments will not be approved.  Users who engage in threatening or abusive comments which are physically harmful in nature will be reported to the authorities.

by Charlie Wolcott

[This blog post is part of a series. The previous post is here, and the next post is here.]

There is no such thing as a lone wolf Christian. We are never meant to walk out our faith alone. There is a time and place to get alone with God. There are times where God needs to move you forward without taking anyone else with you. I will talk about that next week. This is about the need for working together and for the Body of Christ to work together.

One thing I must confess here: I have never had someone teach me how to pray. I have also never had a real spiritual mentor. I grew up on the mission field, and my parents are Godly people. They did not know even a fraction of the doctrine I know now. They did not know how to teach me how to walk with Christ. But their faith was genuine. I knew they knew to depend upon God for their daily needs. They taught me that I could trust God and his promises in the Bible. It was not easy, but in the end one of my sisters and I are actively in ministry today.

Why do I bring this up? Every person needs someone to teach them in the faith and every person needs someone to teach. I have had many influence me, but I cannot think of anyone who has really taught me one-on-one how to live out true Christianity. You need a father in the faith and you need to be a father. I have not had a real “father” in the faith. My dad was the one that lead me to Christ when I was seven years old, but he did not know how to teach me to pray even remotely in the sense I have been learning. I do know, however, that he did pray and still does. He just did not know how to teach me to pray other than to “just pray.” He is not a theologian, nor a scholar. His faith is overall very simple and very trusting, and I could not ask for a better father. Unfortunately, this left me not truly understanding how prayer really is supposed to work beyond the basic, elementary levels. E.M Bounds had a lot to say about this:

"Where are the Christian leaders who can teach the modern saints how to pray and put them at it? Do we know we are raising up a prayerless set of saints? Where are the apostolic leaders who can put God's people to praying. Let them come to the front and do the work, and it will be the greatest work that can be done. … We put it as our most sober judgment that the great need of the church is this and all ages is men of such commanding faith, of such unsullied holiness, of such marked spiritual vigor and consuming zeal, that their prayers, faith, lives, and ministry will be of such a radical and aggressive form as to work spiritual revolutions with will form eras in individual and Church life." ~Bounds: The Complete Works of E.M. Bounds page 50

I do not want to complain about what I was not given, however I see a significant need for spiritual mentors and prayer partners to build us in our faith. Who is teaching us how to pray? Who is helping us in our walk? What kind of people do we turn to when we need a mentor or a partner? Do we have mentors that seek to strengthen our walk with Christ or do we surround ourselves with people who will just tell us what we want to hear?

Rehoboam was the son of the wisest person who ever lived besides Christ in Solomon. He had the chance to listen to his father’s advisors, but he preferred to listen to his own friends and as a result the people rebelled against him. Asa started out as a good king but at the end of his life, he lost his faith. When a disease affected his feet, he refused to consult the Lord and instead consulted the physicians. He did not seek God’s advice on the matter. Saul went a step even further than these two. When he disobeyed God over and over again, God refused to speak to him. So Saul sought to get a word from Samuel, who was dead, through a medium at Endor. Necromancy is explicitly forbidden in the Law. All three of these needed a wise mentor and did not seek nor heed them. David, however, did when he sinned with Bathsheba and with the census. He listened to the prophets Nathan and Gad. David had wise mentors and listened to them. Rehoboam, Asa, and Saul had access to wise counselors and did not utilize them.

Eric Ludy in his sermon Five Smooth Stones talks about the development of new Christian leaders in his Bible college, Ellerslie. One thing Ludy said was when a student would come to the staff to ask for prayer, they would turn them around and ask: “Have you prayed about this yourself first?” This was not to turn them down, but to establish a pattern of turning to God and to prayer first. Too often, however, we turn to the philosophies and practices of the world first and to God last. This is what good mentors will do: teach their pupils how to lean upon God.

Aside from just mentors, do we have prayer partners? Do we have someone we can turn to when we are going through struggles who will pray with us, cover our sins, and lift us up? This is another area I lack. There are very few men I know that I could trust to take me where I need to go, and most of them live somewhere other than El Paso. My own pastor is a Godly man and I have gone to him for counsel, but he is not meant to be the mentor type, at least for now (and I have been praying about that). There is one friend who went with me to the Cadre that would love to be a prayer partner with me, but we have not worked out how to do that due to our schedules.

Something my pastor told me about was a practice another pastor did. This pastor had a yearly physical, and after one of them God asked him about getting a spiritual. Without a clue about what that meant, God said to choose five of his closest friends, pay their way for a three-day retreat, and allow them to perform a spiritual examination of him. This pastor said it was one of the greatest experiences he ever had.

Back in March, I got to taste what this would look like over a short 3-hour session. The friend I mentioned above, my parents, and another dear friend (who is not local) formed a “prayer posse” and we took care of some business. It is something I would love to do again for a longer time. It is also something I would love to do for someone else.

Everyone needs someone feeding them and everyone needs someone to feed. We cannot do this alone. We need to work together as a body, unified in Christ, even if our doctrines vary. However, we must not choose partners and mentors who will not bring us closer to Christ. Bad things happen if we are unwise in this regard. How do we choose our prayer partners, our mentors, and our pupils? Jesus spent all night in prayer before choosing his 12 disciples. The secret to a good prayer partner is to first be in prayer yourself. Next week, I will address the need for a quiet time, a personal time with God.

This forum is meant to foster discussion and allow for differing viewpoints to be explored with equal and respectful consideration.  All comments are moderated and any foul language or threatening/abusive comments will not be approved.  Users who engage in threatening or abusive comments which are physically harmful in nature will be reported to the authorities.

by Steve Risner

In my last post, we touched on some comments made by an atheist friend of mine concerning Christianity. He gave me a 5 point statement on what he believes Christianity is. The first point he made was this: “Some philosopher 2000 years ago softened the image of the vengeful Old Testament God and became a legend when he was martyred by the Romans.” I feel we examined this point fairly well in that post. This week's statement is this:

“A couple of centuries later, the oral legend of said philosopher was finally transcribed.”

This is a rather interesting statement. Atheists have a tendency to boast about being rational and fact-based. I believe I can accurately say that not a single time in my discussions with this atheist has he used a single source or reference for any statement he makes. He's merely shoving his opinion at me and likely believing he's the intellectually superior participant in our conversation. Most atheists do, I have found. Facts are those little things that atheists just can't get away from, so while they'll act like they're “science minded” or they “prefer logic and reason,” they will rarely use facts when they discuss atheism or Christianity. If they do use facts, they're frequently half the story.

In this case, there are “facts” given that are absolutely false. We discussed last time why the term “philosopher” is completely inappropriate in describing Jesus. The term “legend” can be very appropriate, but I don't think he means it that way. A legend can mean a traditional story sometimes popularly regarded as historical but unauthenticated. This, of course, is not correct since the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus are quite thoroughly authenticated. I've gone to great lengths to note the evidence for Jesus and His life, death, and resurrection. One of those blog posts is called “The Real Jesus.” It may be helpful to read “The Birth of the Way” as well. There are Christian, Jewish, and secular writers that all authenticate His existence. The fact that Christianity, birthed out of something amazing, is here today and the largest faith on the planet as a result of the message of love and grace rather than force, further supports this. A legend can also mean an extremely famous person or someone who is well known. That is certainly the case. Jesus Christ has impacted the world far more than anyone in the history of the planet. So, by this definition, I completely agree that Jesus Christ is a legend.

But this atheist makes the claim that the “oral legend” of Jesus was only written down a couple of centuries later. Let's be clear here: a “couple of centuries” is no less than 200 years. Let's take a look and see if this is true.

Most scholars agree that the first Gospel written was Mark. It's believed it was written about 70 AD. Mark was a close associate of Jesus. He wasn't one of the Twelve, but was undoubtedly present for a great deal of Christ's ministry. If Mark, most likely a first-hand observer, wrote down his experiences with Christ within 40 years of Jesus death, doesn't it seem that what this atheist is saying about the writing of the Gospels is in error? Of course it does! Even if he's exaggerating to make his point, he's a far cry from the actual numbers.

Most scholars also hold that Matthew and Luke were written about 10-20 years after Mark. Matthew was one of the twelve disciples. Luke was a physician and is very well known for his attention to detail. He interviewed many people who were eye witnesses before writing his Gospel.

There is a line of reasoning that suggests all 3 of the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) were written before 70 AD, because no mention of the fulfillment of Christ's prophecy concerning the destruction of the temple is mentioned in them. This was a major event in Jewish history and, again, was a fulfillment of prophecy spoken by Jesus Himself. It certainly would have added credibility to His authority if they would have included that information. They note several other fulfilled prophecies in their writings. It also seems likely that the Book of Acts was penned before the destruction of the Temple or it most likely would have been included in the book. Also of importance concerning the Book of Acts is how it, being a history book of Christians and Jews immediately after Christ's ascension, does not mention the intense persecution brought on by Nero nor does it mention the martyrdom of James, Paul, or Peter—all of which occurred in the early to mid 60s AD. This would place its writing even closer to the days that Jesus walked the earth.

It's important to note as well that these writings were done while those who witnessed the events contained in them were still around. If they contained false information, certainly someone—especially those who hated the Christians and were responsible for His death—would have spoken up had there been false testimony given. We find no record of this at all. In fact, Paul even tells his readers to test his account of things by asking those who were there. If Acts was written in the early 60s AD, then most certainly the Gospel of Luke was written prior to that since it was written first. There is debate as to when exactly these books were written, but it seems very clear they were penned before the close of the first century and were done so by eye witnesses of Jesus Christ's life and ministry, or under the direction of those who witnessed the events recorded. This is a far cry from the “couple of centuries later” that we see being proposed by this atheist. In fact, the Book of Matthew was quoted by early Christian writers within 80 years of Christ's death and resurrection. So it had to have been written much earlier than “a couple of centuries later.”

These things are very important, in my opinion. If the Gospels were written by people who walked and talked with Jesus or by someone who interviewed many witnesses of His life, this adds to their credibility. If they were written very close to the time in which the events reported occurred, this also lends to their credibility. Since there are no contradictory books available that I am aware of, we have no reason to doubt their authenticity.

I had wondered if this unbeliever was referencing the Council of Nicea in 325 AD when he made his “couple of centuries later” statement. If this is so, he'll be glad to find that this is not when the Biblical canon (the books accepted as part of the Bible) was decided on. In fact, the test for including a book in the Bible was never done at a single time but was done over a very long period—each book being added as it was found to meet the criteria for being included. The Council of Nicea did make a statement on the canon of Scripture and essentially declared that the accepted canon was accepted. The canon was actually accepted long before. Worldview Warriors blogger Charlie Wolcott did a nice series on this subject, and you can find the first post in this series here.

This further shows us that, like most atheists I've encountered who want to engage in these discussions, this atheist is not interested in the truth. He's not interested in facts. He's not interested in understanding Christianity. He has a very skewed concept of Christianity that is far from what following Jesus Christ is about. But that's the key: he has no interest in understanding. He wants to deny his Creator. He can't accept the truth of Jesus Christ or the Gospel because that would destroy his worldview. I don't believe there are many true atheists, meaning a person who actually does not believe in the God Who made the universe. There are God deniers, for sure. This is very different from not believing He exists. One key piece of evidence for this is that most God-deniers (aka atheists) don't care about the facts at all—not hardly. They act like they do, but they reject facts and believe fairly tales that defy logic and reason. This atheist is no different.

Be encouraged, believers. Atheists don't have a logic, scientific, or factual position to stand on at all. They adhere to a religion that has no rational basis at all. Praise God! Our faith is a faith based on facts and based on Truth found in God's Word. Our faith is defensible. The faith of the atheist is nonsensical and irrational. We'll get into this more next time.

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