Jesus – Seen or Perceived? Which are You?

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Jesus to Thomas: Stop doubting and believe! (John 20.27)

Stop doubting and believe. (John 20.27)

A Resurrection Day Meditation

After Jesus rose from the dead, he didn’t appear to everyone. Who did he appear to? His apostles and some select disciples. I say “select” because I’m confident Jesus had more than the 500 + disciples that are mentioned in 1 Cor 15.6 that the apostle reports Jesus appeared to after his resurrection.

The obvious question, at least in my mind is, why didn’t Jesus appear to more people? If the resurrection is the most convincing proof of the Christian message – that Yeshua – Jesus of Nazareth – is the promised messiah, the Son of God and the promised divine “Son of Man” to whom all authority is given, (Dan 7.13-14) why didn’t he make it plain to everyone by appearing to more people? Continue Reading

April 14 is National Not Ashamed of Jesus Day!

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Jesus Walking on Water - Mark 8:38

April 14th has been declared “National Not Ashamed of Jesus day.” Dr Michael Brown has been promoting the day on a number of sites like The Stream as well as the site for the event: notashamedofjesus.org, so consider this a Public Service Announcement to help spread the word.

And since this is essentially a PSA, with the event info given in detail in the above articles I will simply give the basics about the event followed by scriptures that command or encourage the followers of Jesus to share the faith, not be and ashamed, and recall that we are called to be witnesses.

First the event itself: – April 14 was chosen based on Esther 4.14: 

“For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?”

I don’t think any Christian would doubt that this crumbling society needs the testimony of Jesus. A revival wouldn’t hurt either. But the goal is much more humble than revival: The goal is simply to use every God-honoring way you can think of to lift the name of Jesus before the people in your circle – people who you regularly come into contact with. Make sure they know you’re a believer in Jesus and, if you get the opportunity, share the gospel. Here’s the graphic of a few ideas shared on notashamedofjesus.org. Continue Reading

Yes Dennis, Yeshua is God

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Torah Scroll - Deuteronomy 18:15

This is the first time I’ve written an article like this: with a specific person in mind to address a specific question. But I feel a nudging at my heart that I’m thinking is the prompting of the Holy Spirit to write this. Another first:  Yeshua is the Jewish way to say Jesus, and when I’m not quoting someone, since this is directed to a Jewish audience, I’ll be using Yeshua.

My wife, a loyal listener to Jack Hibbs, wanted me to listen to a particular message: “Ask a Jew, Ask a Gentile with Dennis Prager and Jack Hibbs.”[1] I have great respect for both of these men. And I’m thankful for all the work Dennis has done with PragerU to “influence”, as he says, particularly young people toward a Judeo-Christian worldview.

During the interview Dennis was asked, “Dennis does, to my knowledge, does not believe that Jesus, fits the prophetic word from the Old Testament that Jesus is not who that Old Testament is painting as the messiah. My question to both of you, one is to Dennis – different question, same topic, is: Dennis why do you not believe that Jesus is the fulfillment of those prophecies that were painted?”

Dennis’ response:

“This may come to a surprise to you. The dividing line between Judaism and Christianity theologically is not with regard to whether Jesus was the messiah. It’s whether Jesus was God.”
…

“The issue is the Trinity and Jesus being regarded as God or the son of God. That was the dividing line.”

In this he has nailed it precisely on the head, for this is what the New Testament records as the essence of the issue for the Jews of Yeshua’s day.  Why did the first century Jews have Yeshua killed? Scripture is clear: Continue Reading

Question Evolution Day 2022 – The Cambrian Explosion

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A Trilobite and Anomalocaris featured in the Chicago Field Museums exhibit on the Cambrian Explosion

A Trilobite and Anomalocaris featured in the Chicago Field Museum’s exhibit on the Cambrian Explosion

Question Evolution Day 2022

Christians are called to make “the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.” (Ep 5.16) February 12, Darwin’s Birthday, has become a great opportunity to do that. Like Halloween has become an opportunity to give people gospel tracks when they come to your door asking you for stuff, the day some are celebrating Darwin and evolution is the perfect opportunity to offer them the red pill by suggesting they question evolution on Question Evolution Day. If they’ve never heard about it, point them to Cowboy Bob’s page here to show them it’s a real thing, then go on to present them questions and evidence that will help them to see just how wrong and meritless Darwin’s theory of evolution is. Here at Rational Faith, we’ve been doing that for the past few years since hearing of it.

So for this year’s Question Evolution Day informational giveaway we’ll take a brief look at one of the problems Darwinian evolution has with what’s known as the Cambrian explosion. There are a number, but to keep it somewhat brief, we’ll focus on just one of the numerous issues.

The Problem of the Cambrian Explosion

Paleontologist and celebrated evolutionist  Stephen Jay Gould, co-author of the evolutionary theory of “Punctuated Equilibrium”, is quoted as saying: Continue Reading

Correcting “The Origins of Young Earth Creation” Video

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Old Earth Bias; Young Earth Fact

Michael Jones of InspiringPhilosophy has put out a cleverly deceptive video ostensibly on, as the title puts it “The Origins of Young Earth Creationism.” In actuality, it’s a hit piece designed to undermine both young earth beliefs and Young Earth Creation (YEC) as a movement in general. Continue Reading

The “But You’re Not a Scientist” Fallacy

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Skeptic

“But you’re not a scientist…”

The “… but you’re not a scientist” fallacy is an often-used ploy by evolutionists to try to disqualify any critique or observation about evolution (or actually any scientific discipline) that is not presented from what they consider to be a qualified evolutionist. Typically “qualified” means someone with a PhD in some evolutionary field like evolutionary biology. Without it, the objection goes, you’re not qualified to make any critiques or point out any problems with evolutionary theory. Continue Reading

Rejoicing in the Revelation of the King

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Arthur pulls the sword from the stone - Stained Glass

Arthur pulls the sword from the stone as the people recognize the new King

A Christmas Meditation

There’s a recurring theme – both in scripture and in literature where the king, for various reasons, winds up incognito among the people. But even then the king cannot long be hidden. But being incognito for a time is of course a great setup for a dramatic revelation of the king to the people – (though sometimes the revelation is so subtle it goes over the head of the people as in John 6.29-30). But often the revelation is made when the king does something that only a king can, thus revealing his true identity. This is doubly true for the King of Creation – who did many things only the Creator and thus only the rightful king  could do.

But since the king came incognito and is hard for some to see, many religions claim a false king. And atheists claim there is no king. But Christianity makes a unique claim. It claims the Creator, the King entered his creation, though for a time he was incognito.  Not all religions claim that the God who created every created thing himself entered into that creation and interacted with it. Such a creator, the true King of all creation cannot be mistaken for those seeking him.

So for this Christmas meditation we’re going to meditate on how difficult or easy it would be to identify the king, the creator, were he to enter into his creation. For those really interested, the true king is not hard to identify.  Continue Reading

The Miraculous Monarch Mystery

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Monarch in May

If you’re here for news on the Monarch Adventure Summit, click here. To see how monarchs are a glorious testament to our creator God, keep reading.

For those paying attention, it is clear that God has left pointers to himself in his creation as scripture says:

For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities–his eternal power and divine nature–have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
Rom 1.20

When giving tours of the Milwaukee Public Museum, I point out how that’s true regarding the duck-billed platypus. Today we’re going to look at how the miraculous features of the monarch butterfly point back to its divine creator.

Mysteries of the Monarch

There are some 20,000 species of butterflies. Richard Boender, founder of Butterfly World in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, says this about them:

“Every one of these 20,000 species have different color patterns, and everyone of them has different shaped wings. The diversity is just so magnificent. If I was the greatest artist in the world, there is no way I could come up with all of these patterns. It would be absolutely impossible.”[1]

The diversity alone is astounding, a reminder of how much our God appreciates the subtle differences that make us distinct. And many of the miraculous mysteries concerning the monarch are true with regards to the 20,000 species of butterflies in general, but for the purposes of this article, we’re going to focus in on one species: the monarch butterfly.

So there’s the first evidence of God from the diversity and beauty in butterflies. If you don’t understand how beauty itself points to God, see this article where I outline an argument for the existence of God from the existence of beauty in God’s creation. Continue Reading

A Dinosaur by any other name …

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A Therapod dinosaur, AIG's Creation Museum, KY

The title is of course a play on the line from Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet, where Juliet laments the fact that her new found love Romeo is from the family of Montague. The two families, the Montagues and Juliet’s family, the Capulets, have been feuding for some time, which sometimes erupted into dueling. The animosity between the two families sets the background for the play. Juliet expresses her dismay with the famous discourse that begins with “O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?” and includes the lines:

‘Tis but thy name that is my enemy;
Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.
What’s Montague? It is nor hand, nor foot,
Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part
Belonging to a man. O, be some other name!
What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;

Juliet’s well put and clear meaning being that Romeo would still be Romeo if he were called by any other name. Which is where we pick it up concerning dinosaurs.

Dinosaurs by Any Other Name are Still Dinosaurs

I originally wanted to call this article “Dragons are Dinosaurs.” But dinosaurs are also called by other names and perhaps just as importantly the term “Dinosaur” is limited to land-dwelling creatures, but I want to cover flying and swimming creatures as well. Continue Reading

UFOs and USOs – Mystery Solved

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Gimbal UFO pict from FLIR Capture

Navy photo of UFO captured by a FLIR camera aboard an F-18 SuperHornet

We’re coming up on the second anniversary of  what was supposed to be the “Area 51 Raid” or “Storm Area 51” as it was alternately known. The event, which occurred on September 20, 2019,  turned out to be much smaller than planners had hoped (100 -150 showed). But with  more than 2 million indicating they were going and another 1.5 million  expressing interest on Facebook clearly there remains a great amount of interest in the matter, even if people are reluctant to move beyond their computers or mobile devices to show up in person at a Nevada desert. The goal of the event was to force U.S. Government officials to reveal the information it is assumed they have on extraterrestrial aliens and UFOs.

At this juncture a brief history of how we got to this point would be helpful, but it’s somewhat lengthy, so I won’t insert it here. Instead I’ll leave it as a sidebar below for those interested. It will, however, be helpful to clarify some terms here:

UFO – Unidentified Flying Object(s)
USO – Unidentified Submersible (or submerged) Object(s)
UAP – Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (The military preferred term for UFOs)

Please note: UFOs are just that – unidentified flying objects. Don’t assume that means extraterrestrial aliens are involved. In this interview on Town Square, astrophysicist Michio Kaku states that 95% of them turn out to be ordinary objects or phenomena that are not recognized:  Venus at night, weather balloons, swamp gas, weather anomalies,  and other unnamed items like test aircraft (which are sometimes kept secret), etc. But in the minds of many, “UFO” is synonymous with “extraterrestrial alien” so the military doesn’t like that term and prefers UAP – unidentified aerial phenomena. USOs are just like UFOs – except they also submerge under water for part or all of their sightings.

At this point let me list some key UFO facts: Continue Reading