Category Archives: Current Events

According to Woody Allen Life is meaningless (Woody Wednesday)

December 21, 2011 – 12:40 am

Woody Allen, the film writer, director, and actor, has consistently populated his scripts with characters who exchange dialogue concerning meaning and purpose. In Hannah and Her Sisters a character named Mickey says, “Do you realize what a thread were all hanging by? Can you understand how meaningless everything is? Everything. I gotta get some answers.”{7}

Is there an answer to the question “Is there meaning in life?” Woody Allen does not believe so, but I would like to offer one below.

Good review of “Midnight in Paris” below and the writer also refers to Woody Allen’s view that life is meaningless:

Roger Arpajou /Sony Picture ClassicsOwen Wilson plays Gil, a Hollywood screenwriter on vacation in Paris who wishes he could escape back to the 1920s. David Edelstein says his performance is one of the finest by a lead in a Woody Allen film — and rivals many of Allen’s performances, too.

Owen Wilson plays Gil, a Hollywood screenwriter on vacation in Paris who wishes he could escape back to the 1920s. David Edelstein says his performance is one of the finest by a lead in a Woody Allen film — and rivals many of Allen's performances, too.
Roger Arpajou /Sony Picture ClassicsOwen Wilson plays Gil, a Hollywood screenwriter on vacation in Paris who wishes he could escape back to the 1920s. David Edelstein says his performance is one of the finest by a lead in a Woody Allen film — and rivals many of Allen’s performances, too.

Midnight in Paris

  • Director: Woody Allen
  • Genre: Comedy, Romance
  • Running Time: 88 minutes

Rated PG-13 for some sexual references and smoking

With: Rachel McAdams, Marion Cotillard, Michael Sheen, Owen Wilson, Kathy Bates, Adrien Brody

 
text size A A A

May 20, 2011

Woody Allen isn’t religious, but he has a rabbinical side, and over the past decade his films have become more and more like Talmudic parables for atheists. On the surface, these movies are streamlined, even breezy, and they often have voice-over narration to get the pesky exposition out of the way fast. Philosophically, Allen has settled on resignation, a cosmic shrug: There’s no God, no justice, people are inconstant, life is meaningless — so where do you wanna eat?

I have a problem, though, buying into the worldview of someone whose world is a closed ecosystem. There’s no evidence that Allen lets any contemporary culture penetrate his hard, defensive shell. Music stopped in the ’40s, if not earlier, ditto literature, ditto film — with a pass for select European directors. He seems locked in a daydream of the past.

The good news is that Allen has made the lure of nostalgia the theme of his supernatural comedy Midnight in Paris, which might be why this is his best, most emotionally pure film in over a decade. It’s a romantic fantasy that’s also a sly act of self-criticism.

The time-traveling hero, Gil, played by Owen Wilson, is a successful Hollywood screenwriter on holiday in Paris with his brisk, upwardly mobile fiancee, Inez, played by Rachel McAdams. Gil considers himself a hack and, to Inez’s horror, wants to write novels instead of movies. How he wishes he could be a writer in Paris — better yet, Paris in the ’20s, alongside Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, and all those other giants living high yet creating enduring works of art.

You can almost hear the familiar Woody Allen cadences in the film, yet Owen Wilson isn’t the usual East Coast intellectual Allen hero, and he makes the lines his own. Apart from Mia Farrow in The Purple Rose of Cairo, this is the finest lead performance in an Allen film that wasn’t by Allen — and finer than many of Allen’s, too. You sense the vein of wistfulness under his stoner cool, the longing for definition behind his spaciness. It’s a thrilling moment when he sits forlornly on some steps in the rain at midnight, a vintage automobile rumbles by, the champagne-swilling occupants invite him in, and he’s suddenly back in the ’20s.

EnlargeRoger Arpajou/Sony Picture ClassicsOwen Wilson, playing the time-traveling hero Gil, wants to write novels instead of movies, much to the horror of his fiancee Inez, played by Rachel McAdams.
Owen Wilson, playing the time-traveling hero Gil, wants to write novels instead of movies, much to the horror of his fiancee Inez, played by Rachel McAdams.
Roger Arpajou/Sony Picture ClassicsOwen Wilson, playing the time-traveling hero Gil, wants to write novels instead of movies, much to the horror of his fiancee Inez, played by Rachel McAdams.

How? No explanation. Allen just breezes past all that, the way he did in Purple Rose and, before that, in his great 1970s short story, “The Kugelmass Episode,” happily eliminating the sci-fi wheels and pulleys that tend to suck up so much screen time. Gil is just there — counseling Scott about Zelda, drinking with Hemingway, showing parts of his novel to Gertrude Stein, and falling in love with a woman named Adriana, played by a stunningly beautiful Marion Cotillard. Adriana bonds with Gil over his love of the past — except the past she loves is the 1890s and not her vulgar present. His ’20s ideal woman hates the ’20s — a bitter irony.

Allen doesn’t do anything interesting with Scott and Zelda — my guess is he’s too in awe of them. But his Hemingway, played with forthright manly-manliness by Corey Stoll, is a riot; and as Gertrude Stein, Kathy Bates proves that in an absurd context, playing it straight can make you funnier than a thousand clowns.

Midnight in Paris is a doodle, but it’s easy and graceful, and its ambivalent view of nostalgia has all kinds of resonance. As I watched, I felt a different sort of nostalgia: not for the Parisian ’20s but for the days in which Allen regularly turned out freewheeling, pitch-perfect tall tales in print and onscreen. The movie is so good it takes you back to those days, which were the days, my friend.

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Below is an excellent article on the meaning of life and it includes a reference to Woody Allen:

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What’s the Meaning of Life? Print E-mail

Written by Jerry Solomon

Meaning in Everyday Life

Cathy has been married to her husband Dan for twenty years and is the mother of two teenagers. She is very involved in family, church, and community activities. Many consider her to be the model of one that “has it together,” so to speak. Unknown to her family and her many friends, lately she has been thinking a lot about her lifestyle. As a result, she has even questioned whether there is any ultimate meaning or purpose underlying her busyness. At lunch one day she finds herself in an intimate conversation with a good friend named Sarah. Even though they have never talked about such things, Cathy decides to see how Sarah will respond to her questioning. Lets eavesdrop on their conversation.

Cathy: Sarah, Ive been doing some serious thinking lately.

Sarah: Is something wrong?

Cathy: I dont know that I would say something is wrong. I just dont know what to make of these thoughts Ive been having.

Sarah: What thoughts?

Cathy: This may sound like Im going off the deep end or something, but I promise you Im not. Ive just started asking some really heavy questions. And I havent told another soul about it.

Sarah: Well, tell me! You know you can trust me.

Cathy: Okay. But you promise not to laugh or blow it off?

Sarah: Stop being so defensive. Just say it!

Cathy: Sarah, why are you here? I mean, what is your purpose in life?

Sarah: (She pauses before responding flippantly.) Youre right, you have gone off the deep end.

Cathy: Sarah, I need you to be serious with me here!

Sarah: Okay! Im sorry! Im just drawing a blank. Actually, I try not to think about that question.

Cathy: Yeah, well, denying it doesnt work anymore. It just keeps rolling around in my head.

Sarah: Cant you talk to Dan about it?

Cathy: Ive thought about it, but I dont want him to think theres something wrong between us.

Sarah: Well, what about talking to your pastor? I bet hed have some answers.

Cathy: Yeah, Ive thought about that too. Maybe I will.

Is Cathy really “weird,” or is she an example of people that rub shoulders with us each day? And what about Sarah? Was her nervous response typical of how most of us would respond if we were asked questions about meaning and purpose?

James Dobson relates an intriguing story about a remarkable seventeen year old girl who achieved a perfect score on both sections of the “…Scholastic Achievement Test, and a perfect on the tough University of California acceptance index. Never in history has anyone accomplished this intellectual feat, which is almost staggering to contemplate.”{1} Interestingly, though, when a reporter “…asked her, What is the meaning of life? she replied, I have no idea. I would like to know myself.”{2}

This intellectually brilliant young lady has something in common with Cathy and Sarah, doesnt she? She is able to understand complicated subject matter, but she has no idea if life has any meaning.

Our goal in this essay is to see if there is an answer for them, as well as all of us.

The Questions Around Us

As I was driving to my office one day I heard a dramatic radio advertisement for a book. It began something like this: “Would you like to find meaning in life?” As I listened to the remainder of the ad I realized that the books author was focusing on New Age concepts of purpose and meaning. But the striking thing about what was said was that the advertisers obviously believed that they could get the attention of the radio audience by asking about meaning in life. Some may think it is advertising suicide to open an ad with such a question. Or perhaps the author and her publicists are on to something that “strikes a chord” with many people in our culture.

Questions of meaning and purpose are a part of the mental landscape as we enter a new millenium. Some contend this has not always been the case, but that such questions are an unprecedented legacy of the upheavals of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.{3} Others assert that such questions are a result of mans rejection of God.{4}

Even though most of us dont make such issues a part of our normal conversations, the questions tend to lurk around us. They can be heard in songs, movies, books, magazines, and many other media that permeate our lives. For example, Jackson Browne, an exceptionally reflective songwriter of the 60s and 70s, wrote these haunting lyrics in a song entitled For a Dancer:

Into a dancer you have grown
From a seed somebody else has thrown
Go ahead and throw
Some seeds of your own
And somewhere between the time you arrive
And the time you go
May lie a reason you were alive….{5}

Russell Banks, the author of Affliction and The Sweet Hereafter, both of which became Oscar-nominated films, has this to say about his work: “Im not a morbid man. In my writing, Im just trying to describe the world as straightforwardly as I can. I think most lives are desperate and painful, despite surface appearances. If you consider anyones life for long, you find its without meaning.”{6}

Woody Allen, the film writer, director, and actor, has consistently populated his scripts with characters who exchange dialogue concerning meaning and purpose. In Hannah and Her Sisters a character named Mickey says, “Do you realize what a thread were all hanging by? Can you understand how meaningless everything is? Everything. I gotta get some answers.”{7}

Even television ads have focused on meaning, although in a flippant manner. A few years ago you could watch Michael Jordan running across hills and valleys in order to find a guru. When Jordan finds him he asks, “What is the meaning of life?” The guru answers with a maxim that leads to the product that is the real focus of Jordans quest.

Even though such illustrations can be ridiculous, maybe they serve to lead us beyond the surface of our subject. We often get nervous when we are encouraged to delve into subject matter that might stretch us. When we get involved in conversations that go beyond the more mundane things of everyday life we may tend to get tense and defensive. Actually, this can be a good thing. The Christian shouldnt fear such conversations. Indeed, Im confident that if we go beyond the surface, we can find peace and hope.

Beyond the Surface

Listen to the sober words of a famous writer of the twentieth century:

There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide. Judging whether life is worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy…. I see many people die because they judge that life is not worth living. I see others paradoxically getting killed for the ideas or illusions that give them a reason for living (what is called a reason for living is an excellent reason for dying). I therefore conclude that the meaning of life is the most urgent of questions.{8}

These phrases indicate that Albert Camus, author of The Plague, The Stranger, and The Myth of Sisyphus, was not afraid to go beyond the surface. Camus was bold in exposing the thoughts many were having during his lifetime. In fact, his world view made it obligatory. He was struggling with questions of meaning in light of what some called the “death of God.” That is, if there is no God, can we find meaning? Many have concluded that the answer is a resounding “No!” If true, this means that one who believes there is no God is not living consistently with that belief.

William Lane Craig, one of the great Christian thinkers of our time, states that:

Man cannot live consistently and happily as though life were ultimately without meaning, value or purpose. If we try to live consistently within the atheistic worldview, we shall find ourselves profoundly unhappy. If instead we manage to live happily, it is only by giving the lie to our worldview.{9}

Francis Schaeffer agrees with Craigs analysis, but makes even bolder assertions. He also maintains that the Christian can close the hopeless gap that is created in a persons godless worldview. Listen to what he wrote:

It is impossible for any non-Christian individual or group to be consistent to their system in logic or in practice. Thus, when you face twentieth-century man, whether he is brilliant or an ordinary man of the street, a man of the university or the docks, you are facing a man in tension; and it is this tension which works on your behalf as you speak to him.{10}

What happens when we go “beyond the surface” in order to find meaning? Can a Christian worldview stand up to the challenge? I believe it can, but we must stop and think of whether we are willing to accept the challenge. David Henderson, a pastor and writer, gives us reason to pause and consider our response. He writes:

Our lives, like our Daytimers, are busy, busy, busy, full of things to do and places to go and people to see. Many of us, convinced that the opposite of an empty life is a full schedule, remain content to press on and ignore the deeper questions. Perhaps it is out of fear that we stuff our lives to the wallsfear that, were we to stop and ask the big questions, we would discover there are no satisfying answers after all.{11}

Lets jettison any fear and continue our investigation. There are satisfying answers. It is not necessary to “stuff our lives to the walls” in order to escape questions of meaning and purpose. God has spoken to us. Let us begin to pursue His answers.

Eternity in Our Hearts

The book of Ecclesiastes contains numerous phrases that have entered our discourse. One of those phrases states that God “has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart. . .” (3:11). What a fascinating statement! Actually, the first part of the verse can be just as accurately translated “beautiful in its time.” Thus “a harmony of purpose and a beneficial supremacy of control pervade all issues of life to such an extent that they rightly challenge our admiration.”{12} The second part of the verse indicates that “man has a deep-seated sense of eternity, of purposes and destinies.”{13}But man cant fathom the vastness of eternal things, even when he believes in the God of eternity. As a result, all people live with what some call a “God-shaped hole.” Stephen Evans believes this hole can be understood through “the desire for eternal life, the desire for eternal meaning, and the desire for eternal love:”{14}

The desire for eternal life is the most evident manifestation of the need for God. Deep in our hearts we feel death should not be, was not meant to be. The second dimension of our craving for eternity is the desire for eternal meaning. We want lives that are eternally meaningful. We crave eternity, and earthly loves resemble eternity enough to kindle our deepest love. Yet earthly loves are not eternal. Our sense that love is the clue to what its all about is right on target, but earthly love itself merely points us in the right direction. What we want is an eternal love, a love that loves us unconditionally, accepts us as we are, while helping us to become all we can become. In short, we want God, the God of Christian faith.{15}

We must trust God for what we cannot see and understand. Or, to put it another way, we continue to live knowing there is meaning, but we struggle to know exactly what it is at all times. We are striving for what the Bible refers to as our future glorification (Rom. 8:30). “There is something self-defeating about human desire, in that what is desired, when achieved, seems to leave the desire unsatisfied.”{16} For example, we attempt to find meaning while searching for what is beautiful. C.S. Lewis referred to this in a sermon entitled The Weight of Glory:

The books or the music in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us if we trust to them; it was not in them, it only came through them, and what came through them was longing. These things–the beauty, the memory of our own past–are good images of what we really desire; but if they are mistaken for the thing itself they turn into dumb idols, breaking the hearts of their worshippers. For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have not visited.{17}

Lewis remarkable prose reminds us that meaning must be given to us. “Meaning is never intrinsic; it is always derivative. If my life itself is to have meaning (or a meaning), it thus must derive its meaning from some sort of purposive, intentional activity. It must be endowed with meaning.”{18} Thus we return to God, the giver of meaning.

Meaning: Gods Gift

Think of all the wonderful gifts that God has given you. No doubt you can come up with a lengthy record of Gods goodness. Does your list include meaning or purpose in life? Most people wouldnt think of meaning as part of Gods goodness to us. But perhaps we should. This is because “only a being like God–a creator of all who could eventually, in the words of the New Testament, work all things together for good–only this sort of being could guarantee a completeness and permanency of meaning for human lives.”{19}So how did God accomplish this? The answer rests in His amazing love for us through His Son, Jesus Christ.

Consider the profound words of Carl F.H. Henry: “the eternal and self-revealed Logos, incarnate in Jesus Christ, is the foundation of all meaning.”{20} Bruce Lockerbie puts it like this: “The divine nature manifesting itself in the physical form of Jesus of Nazareth is, in fact, the integrating principle to which all life adheres, the focal point from which all being takes its meaning, the source of all coherence in the universe. Around him and him alone all else may be said to radiate. He is the Cosmic Center.”{21}

Picture a bicycle. When you ride one you are putting your weight on a multitude of spokes that radiate from a hub. All the spokes meet at the center and rotate around it. The bicycle moves based upon the center. Thus it is with Christ. He is the center around whom we move and find meaning. Our focus is on Him.

When the apostle Paul reflected on meaning and purpose in his life in Phillipians 3, he came to this conclusion (emphases added):

7…whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ, 9 and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, 10 that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; 11 in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Did you notice how Christ was central to what Paul had to say about both his past and present? And did you notice that he used phrases such as “knowing Christ,” or “that I may gain Christ?” Such statements appear to be crucial to Pauls sense of meaning and purpose. Paul wants “to know” Christ intimately, which means he wants to know by experience. “Paul wants to come to know the Lord Jesus in that fulness of experimental knowledge which is only wrought by being like Him.”{22}

Personally, Pauls thoughts are important words of encouragement in my life. God through Christ gives meaning and purpose to me. And until I am glorified, I will strive to know Him and be like Him. Praise God for Jesus Christ, His gift of meaning!

Notes

1. James Dobson, Focus on the Family Newsletter (May 1996).
2. Ibid.
3. Gerhard Sauter, The Question of Meaning, trans. and ed. Geoffrey W. Bromiley (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1982).
4. Charles R. Swindoll, Living on the Ragged Edge (Waco, TX: Word, 1985).
5. Jackson Browne, “For a Dancer,” in James F. Harris, Philosophy at 33 1/3 rpm: Themes of Classic Rock Music (Chicago: Open Court, 1993), 68.
6. Russell Banks, in Jerome Weeks, “Continental Divide,” The Dallas Morning News (2 March 1999), 2C.
7. Woody Allen, Hannah and Her Sisters, in Thomas V. Morris, Making Sense of It All: Pascal and the Meaning of Life (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1992), 54.
8. Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus, trans. Justin OBrien (New York: Vintage, 1960), 3-4.
9. William Lane Craig, Reasonable Faith: Christian Truth and Apologetics (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1994), 71.
10. Francis A. Schaeffer, The God Who Is There (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1968), 122.
11. David W. Henderson, Culture Shift: Communicating Gods Truth to Our Changing World (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1998), 186.
12. H.C. Leupold, Exposition of Ecclesiastes (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1952), 90.
13. Ibid., 91.
14. C. Stephen Evans, Why Believe? Reason and Mystery as Pointers to God, revised ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1996), 58-60.
15. Ibid.
16. Alistair McGrath, A Cloud of Witnesses (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1990), 127.
17. C.S. Lewis, in “The Weight of Glory,” quoted in Alistair McGrath, A Cloud of Witnesses, 127.
18. Morris, 57.
19. Ibid., 62.
20. Carl F.H. Henry, God Revelation and Authority, Vol. III (Waco, TX: Word, 1979), 195.
21. D. Bruce Lockerbie, The Cosmic Center: The Supremacy of Christ in a Secular Wasteland (Portland, OR: Multnomah, 1986),127-128.
22. Kenneth S. Wuest, Wuests Word Studies From the Greek New Testament, Volume Two (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1973), 93.

©1999 Probe Ministries.

About the AuthorJerry Solomon, former Director of Field Ministries and Mind Games Coordinator for Probe Ministries, served as Associate Pastor at Dallas Bible Church after leaving Probe. He received the B.A. (summa cum laude) in Bible and the M.A. (cum laude) in history and theology from Criswell College. He also attended the University of North Texas, Canal Zone College, and Lebanon Valley College. Just before Christmas 2000, Jerry went home to be with the Lord he loved and served.

What is Probe?

Probe Ministries is a non-profit ministry whose mission is to assist the church in renewing the minds of believers with a Christian worldview and to equip the church to engage the world for Christ. Probe fulfills this mission through our Mind Games conferences for youth and adults, our 3-minute daily radio program, and our extensive Web site at www.probe.org.

Further information about Probe’s materials and ministry may be obtained by contacting us at:

Probe Ministries
2001 W. Plano Parkway, Suite 2000
Plano TX 75075
(972) 941-4565
info@probe.org
www.probe.org
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“True Satisfaction,” Tebow has it, Brady would like to have it

December 20, 2011 – 2:14 pm

Tom Brady “More than this…”

Uploaded by on Jan 22, 2008

EWC sermon illustration showing a clip from the 2005 Tom Brady 60 minutes interview.

To Download this video copy the URL to www.vixy.net

Below you will see several video clips of both Tom Brady and Tim Tebow. Evidently despite all the super bowl rings Brady is still looking for true satisfaction, and Tim Tebow has already found it in a relationship with Jesus Christ (the article below indicates this.)

Tom Brady, the answer is Jesus Christ!

Uploaded by on Jan 28, 2008

Everyone needs Jesus, even Super Bowl champions. See the rest of Pastor Greg Laurie’s message “What Do You Live For?” at www.harvest.org.

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Tim Tebow at Lipscomb University (04.17.2010) 4 of 4.wmv

Uploaded by on Apr 28, 2010

Tim Tebow’s Inspirational Speech at Lipscomb University on Saturday, April 17, 2010 (Nashville, TN) video 4 of 4

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Tim Tebow

Quarterback :: Denver Broncos 

Many Gator fans may think that Tim Tebow is a “miracle” quarterback, but his parents say he was actually a miracle baby.

Bob and Pam Tebow were Christian missionaries in the Philippines in 1987 when Pam, Tim’s mother contracted amoebic dysentery, the leading cause of death in the country. She was pregnant with Tim—her fifth child—at the time, very dehydrated and very sick when she went to her doctor who advised her to abort the baby because of the powerful medicines she would have to take to survive. But they decided against abortion and instead prayed. Both mom and baby survived.

“We thought we lost the baby about four times,” Tim’s dad, Bob, says. “He’s a miracle baby, so we’ve reminded him of that hundreds of times.”

Tim, now a strapping 6-3, 240 lb. 2007 Heisman Trophy winner at the University of Florida, keeps his humble beginnings in mind to stay grounded. “I am fortunate to have family members, coaches and teammates around who can help me stay focused on the right things,” Tim says. “For me, every day includes four things: God, family, academics and football, in that order. If those get jumbled around and you get the wrong one first, you can have a lot of problems.

“I am no different than anyone else—despite what people may think—because I am a Gator football player,” Tim adds. “Through everything I do…and just by living…I want people, when they see me, to say, ‘There’s something different about this guy, and that’s because he has a relationship with Jesus Christ.’”

Tim, who began his walk with Christ as a six-year-old, according to BPSports, says, “I want to take this platform that I have—being a quarterback and being at the University of Florida—and use that to help people…and to be that role model, that example for kids. That’s the reason I think I’ve been blessed to have the success that I’ve had.”

Tim, who will lead Florida against the Oklahoma Sooners in the January 8 BCS National Championship Game in Miami, uses his influence as a Gator football player in every game. In the blacks under his eyes, he has the words “Phil. 4:13” written in white lettering, referencing the verse in Philippians, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

During his 2008 spring break, instead of hanging out at the beach, he spent his week as a missionary in the Philippines with his dad’s ministry, The Bob Tebow Evangelistic Association. He has traveled to the Philippines several summers to minister to orphans and the poor there.

“Meeting all of those different people who have nothing and are poor gave me an appreciation for what I and my family have, and provided me with the perspective of taking nothing for granted,” Tim says. “It also allowed me to see the effect that I could have on those people. For some, the belief in Christ is all that they have and is much more important than money or material possessions.”

He also has spoken at several prisons across the state of Florida, talking to them about his Christian faith and offering the opportunity for the prisoners and guards to ask Jesus into their hearts as Savior and Lord.

Tim tells the crowds, “I found true satisfaction, true happiness, and it is not by having your name in a newspaper, it is not by winning trophies, it is not by winning championships, it is by having a relationship with Jesus Christ.”

Tim Tebow Prison Sermon

Uploaded by on May 2, 2011

Florida quarterback Tim Tebow preaches a sermon with inmates at the Lake City Correctional Facility.–(Aaron Daye/The Gainesville Sun)

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Tom Brady ESPN Interview

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Sound off on Tebow

December 20, 2011 – 12:33 pm

TIM-TEBOW.JPGDenver quarterback Tim Tebow reacts after Broncos running back Lance Ball scored a touchdown against the New England Patriots on Sunday, Dec. 18, 2011. (Associated Press/Jack Dempsey)

I think Tebow is fine Christian man who believes in telling others about Christ and he lives a morally pure life unlike many others in our society. Therefore, he will get attacked by those in the society who feel threatened. There are some examples of that everywhere you look in the last couple of months during the time Denver has been doing so good under his leardership.

Below is various opinions about Tebow and other SEC players from people in Alabama:

I think Tim Tebow would find Matthew Chapter 6, Verse 6 interesting.

6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Tebow should thank his place-kicker

Finally, it took “Saturday Night Live” to do a skit about Tim Tebow doing a prayer to Jesus and all that. They had Jesus telling Tim he should have thanked the field-goal kicker. It is about time. Thank the field-goal kicker: He’s responsible.

Biggest game of the year

I feel sorry for whoever will be in the Super Bowl. It will be less hyped than this Broncos-Pats game.

Judge not

Who are we to judge who is the better person? For a person to write in and say that, that is strictly ill will.

Tebow, Newton are both great

This argument over who is the best quarterback, Tebow or Cam: Who really cares? They are both great quarterbacks. Give them both some credit.

Smith should stick to WR

Steve Smith talking about Cam Newton being better than Tim Tebow: He ought to know that little boy from New England Welker is a better receiver than you will ever be. You need to quit worrying about another position. You aren’t all you’re cracked up to be.

Time will tell on QBs

About Newton versus Tebow: I think they are both outstanding. One is a better ball player — I think Tebow is a better ballplayer — but I think Newton has just been surrounded by a lot of confrontation in his life. In the long run, we’ll see who the better ballplayer is.

Just win, baby

Relative to your article you have comparing Tim Tebow to Cam Newton: There is no comparison. In professional football, the only statistic that matters is wins. Running, passing — all that means nothing. It is whether you win or lose. Newton 4-9; Tebow 7-1. That is all that counts.

Wrong about Newton

I would like to congratulate Big Scam Cam on setting the rookie touchdown record with 30. I thought you weren’t going to be able to make it, but it turns out I was dead wrong.

Arenas still getting it done

Green Bay is struggling out there in Kansas City. It looks like a young man from Alabama is giving them fits out there. Javier Arenas, you were great at Alabama and you are great at Kansas City. You hung that first loss on Green Bay, and you were definitely a contributing factor.

Warning for Jones family

I just got through reading the story about Barrett Jones and his family. What a great Christian people they are to raise those children. I just want to warn them though, be prepared, the world will come after you, as they are Tim Tebow. Be strong in the Lord and you will survive.

Denomination missing

I read the nice article about Barrett Jones from the Tuscaloosa Bureau, almost two pages of an article about this man, how he is a good Christian and all that. Not one mention about what denomination and what church he attended after you labored so hard to put down he is a great Christian man. That is poor journalism.

Bring back Rocker

I wish Chizik would take a good look at Tracy Rocker for defensive coordinator. He might be willing to leave the pros if he pays him good enough. He knows the system. He coached under it. I think he would make a good defensive coordinator. Keep it in the family.

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The daily Sound Off column comes from calls to the Press-Register’s 1-800-568-4123 Sports Sound Off line, where readers can speak theirs minds on anything they wish. Because of the large number of calls received, not all are published.

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SNL mocks Tebow and endorses Romney: Is Mormonism true?

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Tebow’s team goes down to defeat, what next?

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Tim Tebow verses and interviews

Another good article I read on Tebow: By PATTON DODD On a brisk Thursday evening in mid-November, I sat high in the stands at a Denver Broncos home game, covering the ears of my 4-year-old son as the fans around us launched f-bombs at Tim Tebow, the Broncos’ struggling second-year quarterback. Mr. Tebow was ineffective […]

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By Everette Hatcher III | Comments (0)

Joy Behar and her liberal friends on “The View” gang up on pro-life Elisabeth Hasselback

December 20, 2011 – 11:23 am

“The View” Fights over Abortion

Uploaded by on Jun 14, 2009

Hot-Topics

The ladies on “The View”sit down and talk about President Obama’s commencement speech at the University of Notre Dame and talk about how the crowd got a little riled over Abortion protesters. They then continue on the abortion subject which leads to a heated discussion between Joy Behar and Elisabeth Hasselbeck.
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Answering the logic of the liberal ladies on “The View” is this video below:

Answering Those Who Are Only “Personally Pro-Life” – Quick Thought

Uploaded by on Apr 28, 2010

Ana Benderas of Live Action addresses those who are personally against abortion but believe that others should be able to take the life on unborn children. Learn more about Live Action at: http://LiveAction.org

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Ark Times blogger asks “…you do know there is a slight difference between fetal tissue and babies, don’t you? Don’t you?”

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Ronald Wilson Reagan Part 69

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Abortionist Bernard Nathanson turned pro-life activist (part 3)

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Abortionist Bernard Nathanson turned pro-life activist (part 1)

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By Everette Hatcher III | Also posted in President Obama, Prolife | Tagged , , , , | Comments (0)

Evangelicals react to Christopher Hitchens’ death plus video clips of Hitchens debate (part 4)

December 20, 2011 – 8:07 am

DEBATE William Lane Craig vs Christopher Hitchens Does God Exist 11

Below are some reactions of evangelical leaders to the news of Christopher Hitchens’ death:

DEBATE William Lane Craig vs Christopher Hitchens Does God Exist 12

 
 
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The Christian Post > World|Fri, Dec. 16 2011 12:45 PM EDT

Christians Grieve Death of Christopher Hitchens; Share Hopes for Deathbed Conversion

By Eryn Sun | Christian Post Reporter

Christians everywhere have been responding in grief and sadness over the death of famed atheist Christopher Hitchens, who passed away late Thursday evening after a yearlong battle with esophageal cancer.

From pastors to theologians alike, all expressed pain and sorrow over the recent news, which Vanity Fair was the first to announce. The magazine reported that Hitchens had died from pneumonia, a complication from his stage IV cancer. He was 62 years old.

Pastor Rick Warren, founder of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., tweeted, “My friend Christopher Hitchens has died. I loved & prayed for him constantly & grieve his loss. He knows the Truth now.”

DEBATE William Lane Craig vs Christopher Hitchens Does God Exist 14

Warren also relayed messages of hope, sharing the Gospel through repeated posts. “’God so loved you that he gave his only Son, that if you believe in him you will not perish but have eternal life’Jn3:16.”

“’Anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved’ Joel 2:32. No one has ever seen or heard or even imagined the wonderful things God has prepared for those who love him!’ 1 Cor.2:9.”

President of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary Albert Mohler, an influential leader among evangelicals, also tweeted multiple posts in response to Hitchens’ passing.

He said Hitchens’ death “is an excruciating reminder of the consequences of unbelief. We can only pray others will believe.”

Immediately after his first post, Mohler added, “Few things are so valued in this life as brilliance & eloquence. Neither will matter in the world to come.”

“The point about Christopher Hitchens is not that he died of unbelief,” he concluded, “but that his unbelief is all that matters now. Unspeakably sad.”

DEBATE William Lane Craig vs Christopher Hitchens Does God Exist 15

Author of the New York Times bestseller God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, Hitchens is considered one of the most prominent figures in the “new atheism” movement, though the English-born author has described himself as an anti-theist.

The heavy smoker and drinker was diagnosed with esophageal cancer last year and underwent several treatments from radiation therapy to a specially designed treatment created in part by outspoken evangelical scientist Francis Collins, which mapped out Hitchens’ entire genetic make-up to target damaged DNA.

During his treatment, Christians offered their prayers for the atheist and also established the “Everybody Pray for Hitchens Day” last year. But Hitchens advised believers not to “trouble deaf heaven with your bootless cries” “unless, of course, it makes you feel better.” He also told CNN last year that he would not turn to Christ on his deathbed, at least not while he’s lucid.

It was just two months ago in October when Hitchens again affirmed his atheist beliefs, declaring that “there is no absolute truth” and “no supreme leader.”

Along with other Christian leaders, atheist-turned-Christian Lee Strobel, author of The Case for Christ, expressed his grief over Hitchens’ death on Twitter.

“I was among many who shared Christ with him; so sad he rejected Gospel,” Strobel added.

Denny Burk, associate professor of biblical studies at Boyce College, also mourned the death of the “unique public intellectual with a rapier wit and an even sharper pen.”

DEBATE William Lane Craig vs Christopher Hitchens Does God Exist 16

“Hitchens always fascinated me not merely because of his intellect and prose, but also because of his independence,” Burk penned on his website.

“He was a darling of the left, yet he remained a firm supporter of the Iraq War. He was an avowed atheist, yet he insisted on the superior quality of the King James Bible and chaffed against gender neutral translations. He wanted to ban religious arguments from rational discourse, yet he wrote a book with Calvinist intellectual and pastor Doug Wilson.”

“In the last year of his life, Hitchens wrote some searching essays about his cancer and impending death,” he continued. “He seemed to stand ever resolute in his atheism and to insist that the hour of his demise must be the proving ground of his unbelief.”

“I would like to think that perhaps his skepticism didn’t win out in the end,” Burk hoped. “I would like to think that the gospel he heard from Wilson and others might have broken through just in time as it did for the thief on the cross. Stranger things have happened, and the Lord’s arm indeed is not too short to save even in such a moment. Nevertheless, we may never have any evidence this side of glory that the light finally broke through to Hitchens.”

Pastor Douglas Wilson, a conservative reformed evangelical theologian who was featured alongside Hitchens in the documentary “Collision,” wrote in detail about his relationship with the British-American journalist and his thoughts on his death on Christianity Today.

The two had together created the book Is Christianity Good for the World? – a small compilation of their debates together and had since gotten to know each other better.

“Christopher knew that faithful Christians believe that it is appointed to man once to die, and after that the Judgment,” Wilson penned. “He knew that we believe what Jesus taught about the reality of damnation. He also knew that we believe – for I told him – that in this life, the door of repentance is always open.”

“We have no indication that Christopher ever called on the Lord before he died, and if he did not, then Scriptures plainly teach that he is lost forever. But we do have every indication that Christ died for sinners, men and women just like Christopher. We know that the Lord has more than once hired workers for his vineyard when the sun was almost down.”

Wilson knew that Hitchens was concerned with that aspect of faith, discussing several times with interviewees the idea of a “deathbed conversion.”

Though he assured everyone that if anything like that would happen, it would be certain that the cancer or the chemo had gotten into his brain, it appeared as though Hitchens entertained the notion, Wilson observed.

“When Christopher gave [those] interviews, he was manifestly in his right mind, and the thought had clearly occurred to him that he might not feel in just a few months the way he did at present.”

Like Burk, the Christ Church pastor and prolific speaker hoped that Hitchens had accepted Christ during his final moments and had a “gracious twist at the end.” “We … commend Christopher to the Judge of the whole earth, who will certainly do right,” Wilson declared.

Justin Taylor, vice president of editorial at Crossway, also captured a hint of what Wilson saw in Hitchens.

On The Gospel Coalition website, he uploaded the debate-documentary “Collision,” finding the final scene with Wilson and Hitchens especially telling of what Hitchens thought of God and religion.

The scene portrayed both men in the back seat of a car, discussing debating itself as well as Hitchens’ difference between fellow atheist Richard Dawkins.

“If I could convert everyone in the world, not convert, if I could convince to be a nonbeliever, and I’d really done brilliantly, and there’s only one left, one more and then it’d be done, there’d be no more religion in the world, no more deism, theism,” Hitchens stated, “I wouldn’t do it.”

“And Dawkins said, ‘What do you mean you wouldn’t do it?’” he recalled. “I said I don’t quite know why I wouldn’t do it. And it’s not just because there’d be nothing left to argue with and no one left to argue with. It’s not just that. Though it would be that.”

“Somehow if I could drive it out of the world, I wouldn’t,” Hitchens revealed to Wilson. “And the incredulity with which he (Dawkins) looked at me, stays with me still, I’ve got to say.”

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Arkansas Times Blogger says Communists were not atheistic, but they were and they believed “might made right” jh48

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Atheists confronted: How I confronted Carl Sagan the year before he died jh47

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Is the Bible historically accurate? (Part 9A) jh46

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By Everette Hatcher III | Comments (0)

“Tip Tuesday” Advice to Gene Simmons

December 20, 2011 – 7:38 am

Gene Simmons and Shannon Tweed

John McArthur

The Truth About Divorce, #2 (Mark 10:1-12)

On the show Gene Simmons has been arguing the point that he admits that he is selfish, but he still feels he has the right to be selfish. In the conclusion of the final episode of the year on July 24th he drops to his knees and proposes marriage to Shannon. However, before doing that he apologizes for the selfishness that he so long thought he deserved to have. As we have learned through the episodes this means that he has had numerous affairs through the years while on tour with his band KISS.

He may have thought these other ladies had positive things to offer him but the Bible makes it clear that we are to be committed to our one spouse.

Brandon Barnard in his message on sexual purity at Fellowship Bible Church on July 24, 2011 makes much of this issue. He points out THE PATHWAY OF IMPURITY IS PROMISING BUT DECEIVING. Then he read these scriptures below:

Proverbs 5:4

English Standard Version (ESV)

4but in the end she is bitter as wormwood,
    sharp as a two-edged sword.

Proverbs 7:18-20

English Standard Version (ESV)

18Come, let us take our fill of love till morning;
   let us delight ourselves with love.
19For my husband is not at home;
   he has gone on a long journey;
20he took a bag of money with him;
   at full moon he will come home.”

By Everette Hatcher III | Tagged , , , , | Comments (0)

Christopher Hitchens’ view on abortion may surprise you

December 19, 2011 – 2:18 pm

Christopher Hitchens – Against Abortion

Uploaded by on Dec 2, 2010

An issue Christopher doesn’t seem to have addressed much in his life. He doesn’t explicitly say that he is against abortion in this segment, but that he does believe that the ‘unborn child’ is a real concept.

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I was suprised when I watched the video clip above. I have included a fine article below on the same subject.

Christopher Hitchens: Abortion Survivor, Post-Abortive Father

by Jill Stanek | LifeNews.com | 12/19/11 11:20 AM

I say, “RIP,” sadly thinking Christopher Hitchens is not. The renowned liberal author and journalist died at the age of 62 following a short battle against esophageal cancer, since summer 2010.

Hitchens spent his latter years evangelizing atheism. So he wanted it known he would not convert to Christianity at the end, and if he did, he really didn’t. From Causa Celsum:

Hitchens suspected there would be rumors of a deathbed conversion – but even more he feared that he might actually call out to God. Speaking perhaps truer than he knew, he sought to give a preemptive strike against such a possibility, explaining that would not be the real Christopher Hitchens doing such a thing:

Even if my voice goes before I do, I shall continue to write polemics against religious delusions, at least until it’s hello darkness my old friend. In which case, why not cancer of the brain? As a terrified, half-aware imbecile, I might even scream for a priest at the close of business, though I hereby state while I am still lucid that the entity thus humiliating itself would not in fact be “me.” (Bear this in mind, in case of any later rumors or fabrications.)

But hope springs eternal. Wrote Denny Burk, associate professor of biblical studies at Boyce College:

I would like to think that perhaps his skepticism didn’t win out in the end. I would like to think that the gospel he heard from Wilson and others might have broken through just in time as it did for the thief on the cross. Stranger things have happened, and the Lord’s arm indeed is not too short to save even in such a moment.

With such a bio, one might assume Hitchens was pro-abortion. While it is difficult to exactly explain his position, he was not that, in small or large part due to his history, as he explained in his Vanity Fair column in 2003:

I was in my early teens when my mother told me that a predecessor fetus and a successor fetus had been surgically removed, thus making me an older brother rather than a forgotten whoosh….

And I’ve since become the father of several fetuses, three of which, or perhaps I had better say three of whom, became reasonably delightful children. There was a time, it seemed, when I couldn’t sneeze on a woman without becoming a potential father….

[A]t least once I found myself in a clinic while “products of conception” were efficiently vacuumed away. I can distinctly remember thinking, on the last such occasion, that under no persuasion of any kind would I ever allow myself to be present at such a moment again.

The lucky abortion survivor must at times have asked, “Why me?” and other times, “Why not me?” And Hitchens clearly felt bad about killing two of his own children.

These experiences gave him pause to reconsider the gravity of abortion, writing:

In the brisk paragraphs above, you will note that I have semiconsciously employed the terms “birthplace,” “grave,” and “conceivable.” This idiom of this argument is basic and elemental. It’s about the essentials. Thus, the justification proposed by the “right” for its intrusiveness is that the fetus is also an autonomous individual, and that society cannot decently permit one body (or soul) to be owned or disposed of by another….

There was a time when the feminist movement replied to this with militant indignation. What “individual”? What “person”? The most famous title of the period – Our Bodies, Ourselves – captures the tone to perfection. If we need to remove an appendix or a tumor from our own personal spaces, then it’s nobody else’s g**d*** business. I used to cringe when I heard this, not so much because in the moral sense fetuses aren’t to be compared to appendixes, let alone tumors, but because it is obvious nonsense from the biological and embryological points of view. Babies come from where they come from.

The diagram of a vacuum-suction abortion in Our Bodies, Ourselves gave the female anatomy in some detail but showed only a void inside the uterus. This perhaps unintended concession to queasiness has since become more noticeable as a consequence of advances in embryology, and by the simple experience of the enhanced sonogram. Women who have gazed at the early heartbeat inside themselves now have some difficulty, shall we say, in ranking the experience with the planned excision of a polyp….

That the most partially formed human embryo is both human and alive has now been confirmed, in an especially vivid sense, by the new debate over stem-cell research and the bioethics of cloning. If an ailing or elderly person can be granted a new lease on life by a transfusion of this cellular material, then it is obviously not random organic matter. The original embryonic “blastocyst” may be a clump of 64 to 200 cells that is only five days old. But all of us began our important careers in that form, and every needful encoding for life is already present in the apparently inchoate. We are the first generation to have to confront this as a certain knowledge.

As an atheist who put his entire stock in science, and who tried to be honest about it, Hitchens acknowledged the “biological and embryological points of view” that the product of sperm-meets-egg is human. But his countering belief that there is no truth caused Hitchens to lapse into moral relativism. From Newsweek, 2008:

At the same time, [Hitchens] adds, “I don’t think a woman should be forced to choose, or even can be.” Hitchens does not recommend the overturning of Roe v. Wade. What he wants is for both moral callousness and religion to be excised from the abortion debate and for science to come up with solutions to unwanted pregnancies, like the abortifacient mifepristone (RU-486), “that will make abortion more like a contraceptive procedure than a surgical one. That’s the Hitchens plank, and I think it’s a defensible one.”

No, it’s not. It’s illogical, which Hitchens would not want to hear.

I wonder if Hitchens got to meet his siblings or his children.

LifeNews.com Note: Jill Stanek fought to stop “live birth abortions” after witnessing one as an RN at Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn, Illinois. That led to the Born Alive Infants Protection Act legislation, signed by President Bush, that would ensure that proper medical care be given to unborn children who survive botched abortion attempts. She operates the blog Pro-Life Pulse.

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SNL mocks Tebow and endorses Romney: Is Mormonism true?

December 19, 2011 – 1:51 pm

Saturday Night Live Tim Tebow Jesus - HI was saddened that SNL proclaimed Mormonism true in a skit Saturday. The archaeological record is obvious that Joseph Smith was wrong in many of the details he put in the  Book of Mormon and he assumed that the Indians in the North America had the same surroundings that the Jews did in the middle east 2000 years ago. Below I have proven beyond any doubt that the Book of Mormon is filled with errors.

I have written about Tim Tebow many times before. (Fans have been both supportive and critical of Tebow.) I was curious when SNL would get around to Tebow and they did on 12-18-11 with this skit below:

Foxnews reported:

December 19, 2011

‘SNL’ Mocks Tebow’s Faith

NBC’s Saturday Night Live this weekend predictably did a sketch mocking Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow for his faith.

What might have been lost on viewers was a not-so subtle endorsement of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney when Jesus Christ – played by Jason Sudeikis – said at the skit’s close, “Mormonism – all true, every single word”

________

_____________

From time to time you will read articles in the Arkansas press by  such writers as  John Brummett, Max Brantley and Gene Lyons  that poke fun at those that actually believe the Bible is historically accurate when in fact the Bible is backed up by many archaeological facts. The Book of Mormon is blindly accepted even though archaeology has disproven many of the facts that are claimed by it. For instance, take the issues of horses and weapons.

Horses are mentioned eleven times in the Book of Mormon in the context of its New World setting.[33] There is no evidence that horses existed on the American continent during the 2500-3000 year history of the Book of Mormon (2500 BC – 400 AD) The only evidence of horses on the American continent dates to pre-historic times,[34](between 12,500 and 10,000 BC.[35]). It is widely accepted that horses were extinct in the Western Hemisphere over 10,000 years ago and did not reappear there until the Spaniards brought them from Europe.[36] Horses were re-introduced to the Americas (Caribbean) by Christopher Columbus in 1493[37] and to the American continent by Cortés in 1519.[38]

Rick Deem wrote the article, “Archaeology/Anthropolocical Problems in the Book of Mormon,” and in it he asserted:

The Book of Mormon claims to be a record of the inhabitants of the Americas during the period from 2000 B.C. to 400 A.D. It makes many claims about the history and anthropology of pre-Columbian American cultures. Unfortunately, the author of the book, Joseph Smith, had little or no knowledge of pre-Columbian American civilizations. Borrowing and adapting many stories from the Old and New Testaments, Joseph Smith was unaware that the earlier Native American people were part of stone-age civilizations that were significantly less advanced than Hebrew and other Middle Eastern cultures of biblical times.

Weapons of war

The Book of Mormon describes the presence of chariots in the New World.However, archeologists have found neither evidence of chariots or even evidence of wheeled vehicle usage during the period described in the Book of Mormon. Scimitar (“cimiter”) – not found in the New World Scimitars (spelled “cimeters” by Joseph Smith), were Old-World weapons of war that were mentioned throughout the Book of Mormon.However, they have not been found to have existed in the New World. LDS apologists cite the Mesoamerican maccuahuitl as a possible “cimiter”.However, the maccuahuitl was a hardwood club with obsidian blades, which is quite different from the heavy, two-handed curved steel blade of the “cimeter.” The Book of Mormon expressly states that the American peoples of the period used weapons of war made of metals,although none of these weapons have ever been found. The Hill Cumorah in New York is described as the location of two major wars that involved the deaths of millions of people. However, no remains or even weapons of war have been found there.

In contrast look at some of the archaeological evidence concerning the Bible. The Old and New Testaments present a rich description of biblical peoples, places and cultures. Archeology of the Middle East has revealed the cities, weapons, crops, animals, coins, writings, and references to biblical characters found in the Bible. However, none of the cities mentioned in the Book of Mormon have ever been identified by qualified archeologists. In addition, many Book of Mormon references to metals, weapons, crops, animals, articles of clothing are known to have not been present in the Americas during the time period claimed in the Book of Mormon.

___________________________________________

Archaeological Evidence verifying biblical cities

by Matt Slick

There is very little doubt in anyone’s mind about the reality of so many of the Old and New Testament cities mentioned in the Bible. Therefore, it is hardly necessary to document their existence. Nevertheless, following is a partial list of some of the cities mentioned in the Bible that have been found and excavated by archaeologists. This is simply more evidence that the Bible describes actual locations that can be verified. This means that at the very least, the Bible accurately reflects the locations and cities of ancient times.

Remember, this is only a partial list. There are hundreds of biblical cities that have been verified in archaeological digs.

  • Chorazin
    1. Matt. 11:21, “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles had occurred in Tyre and Sidon which occurred in you, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.”
      1. “Excavations of the now deserted town indicate that it once covered an area of twelve acres and was built on a series of terraces with the basalt stone local to this mountainous region.”6
  • Dan
    1. Judges 18:29, “And they called the name of the city Dan, after the name of Dan their father who was born in Israel; however, the name of the city formerly was Laish.”
      1. “The excavation of Dan began in 1966 under the direction fo Avraham Biran.”7
      2. “Formerly called Laish, it is mentioned in the execration texts, the eighteenth-century b.c. Mari tablets, and the records of the Egyptian pharaoh Thutmose III. It is identified with Tel Dan (modern Tell el-Qadi) covering about 50 acres in the center of a fertile valley near one of the principal springs feeding the Jordan River…Tel Dan has been excavated by A. Biran since 1966. The earliest occupation, probably the full extent of the tell, goes back to about the middle of the third millennium B.C.”8
  • Ephesus
    1. Eph. 1:1, “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints who are at Ephesus, and who are faithful in Christ Jesus.”
      1. “Austrian archaeologists in this century [2oth] have excavated the 24,000-seat theater and the commercial agora, as well as many other public buildings and streets of the first and second centuries a.d., so that the modern visitor can gain some impression of the city as known by Paul.9

Over the years there have been many criticisms leveled against the Bible concerning its historical reliability. These criticisms are usually based on a lack of evidence from outside sources to confirm the Biblical record. Since the Bible is a religious book, many scholars take the position that it is biased and cannot be trusted unless we have corroborating evidence from extra-Biblical sources. In other words, the Bible is guilty until proven innocent, and a lack of outside evidence places the Biblical account in doubt.

This standard is far different from that applied to other ancient documents, even though many, if not most, have a religious element. They are considered to be accurate, unless there is evidence to show that they are not. Although it is not possible to verify every incident in the Bible, the discoveries of archaeology since the mid-1800s have demonstrated the reliability and plausibility of the Bible narrative.

Here are some examples:

  • Many thought the Biblical references to Solomon’s wealth were greatly exaggerated. Recovered records from the past show that wealth in antiquity was concentrated with the king and Solomon’s prosperity was entirely feasible.
  • It was once claimed there was no Assyrian king named Sargon as recorded in Isaiah 20:1, because this name was not known in any other record. Then, Sargon’s palace was discovered in Khorsabad, Iraq. The very event mentioned in Isaiah 20, his capture of Ashdod, was recorded on the palace walls. What is more, fragments of a stela memorializing the victory were found at Ashdod itself.
  • Another king who was in doubt was Belshazzar, king of Babylon, named in Daniel 5. The last king of Babylon was Nabonidus according to recorded history. Tablets were found showing that Belshazzar was Nabonidus’ son who served as coregent in Babylon. Thus, Belshazzar could offer to make Daniel “third highest ruler in the kingdom” (Dan. 5:16) for reading the handwriting on the wall, the highest available position. Here we see the “eye-witness” nature of the Biblical record, as is so often brought out by the discoveries of archaeology.

How does archaeology conclusively demonstrate the Bible to be reliable and unique among all the holy books of world religions? Answers

For many more archaeological evidences in support of the Bible, see Archaeology and the Bible

[ If this information has been helpful, please prayerfully consider a donation to help pay the expenses for making this faith-building service available to you and your family! Donations are tax-deductible. ]

Author: Bryant Wood of Associates for Biblical ResearchThe Bible maintains several characteristics that prove it is from God. One of those is the fact that the Bible is accurate in every one of its details. The field of archaeology brings to light this amazing accuracy.

(Part 5 of 5 film series on archaeology)

Is the Bible historically accurate? Here are some of the posts I have done in the past on the subject:


1. The Babylonian Chronicle
of Nebuchadnezzars Siege of Jerusalem

This clay tablet is a Babylonian chronicle recording events from 605-594BC. It was first translated in 1956 and is now in the British Museum. The cuneiform text on this clay tablet tells, among other things, 3 main events: 1. The Battle of Carchemish (famous battle for world supremacy where Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon defeated Pharoah Necho of Egypt, 605 BC.), 2. The accession to the throne of Nebuchadnezzar II, the Chaldean, and 3. The capture of Jerusalem on the 16th of March, 598 BC.

2. Hezekiah’s Siloam Tunnel Inscription.

King Hezekiah of Judah ruled from 721 to 686 BC. Fearing a siege by the Assyrian king, Sennacherib, Hezekiah preserved Jerusalem’s water supply by cutting a tunnel through 1,750 feet of solid rock from the Gihon Spring to the Pool of Siloam inside the city walls (2 Kings 20; 2 Chron. 32). At the Siloam end of the tunnel, an inscription, presently in the archaeological museum at Istanbul, Turkey, celebrates this remarkable accomplishment.

3. Taylor Prism (Sennacherib Hexagonal Prism)

It contains the victories of Sennacherib himself, the Assyrian king who had besieged Jerusalem in 701 BC during the reign of king Hezekiah, it never mentions any defeats. On the prism Sennacherib boasts that he shut up “Hezekiah the Judahite” within Jerusalem his own royal city “like a caged bird.” This prism is among the three accounts discovered so far which have been left by the Assyrian king Sennacherib of his campaign against Israel and Judah.

4. Biblical Cities Attested Archaeologically.

In addition to Jericho, places such as Haran, Hazor, Dan, Megiddo, Shechem, Samaria, Shiloh, Gezer, Gibeah, Beth Shemesh, Beth Shean, Beersheba, Lachish, and many other urban sites have been excavated, quite apart from such larger and obvious locations as Jerusalem or Babylon. Such geographical markers are extremely significant in demonstrating that fact, not fantasy, is intended in the Old Testament historical narratives;

5. The Discovery of the Hittites

Most doubting scholars back then said that the Hittites were just a “mythical people that are only mentioned in the Bible.” Some skeptics pointed to the fact that the Bible pictures the Hittites as a very big nation that was worthy of being coalition partners with Egypt (II Kings 7:6), and these bible critics would assert that surely we would have found records of this great nation of Hittites.  The ironic thing is that when the Hittite nation was discovered, a vast amount of Hittite documents were found. Among those documents was the treaty between Ramesses II and the Hittite King.

6.Shishak Smiting His Captives

The Bible mentions that Shishak marched his troops into the land of Judah and plundered a host of cities including Jerusalem,  this has been confirmed by archaeologists. Shishak’s own record of his campaign is inscribed on the south wall of the Great Temple of Amon at Karnak in Egypt. In his campaign he presents 156 cities of Judea to his god Amon.

7. Moabite Stone

The Moabite Stone also known as the Mesha Stele is an interesting story. The Bible says in 2 Kings 3:5 that Mesha the king of Moab stopped paying tribute to Israel and rebelled and fought against Israel and later he recorded this event. This record from Mesha has been discovered.

8. Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III

The tribute of Jehu, son of Omri, silver, gold, bowls of gold, chalices of gold, cups of gold, vases of gold, lead, a sceptre for the king, and spear-shafts, I have received.”

9A Verification of places in Gospel of John and Book of Acts.

Sir William Ramsay, famed archaeologist, began a study of Asia Minor with little regard for the book of Acts. He later wrote:

I found myself brought into contact with the Book of Acts as an authority for the topography, antiquities and society of Asia Minor. It was gradually borne upon me that in various details the narrative showed marvelous truth.

9B Discovery of Ebla Tablets. When I think of discoveries like the Ebla Tablets that verify  names like Adam, Eve, Ishmael, David and Saul were in common usage when the Bible said they were, it makes me think of what amazing confirmation that is of the historical accuracy of the Bible.

10. Cyrus Cylinder

There is a well preserved cylinder seal in the Yale University Library from Cyrus which contains his commands to resettle the captive nations.

11. Puru “The lot of Yahali” 9th Century B.C.E.

This cube is inscribed with the name and titles of Yahali and a prayer: “In his year assigned to him by lot (puru) may the harvest of the land of Assyria prosper and thrive, in front of the gods Assur and Adad may his lot (puru) fall.”  It provides a prototype (the only one ever recovered) for the lots (purim) cast by Haman to fix a date for the destruction of the Jews of the Persian Empire, ostensibly in the fifth century B.C.E. (Esther 3:7; cf. 9:26).

12. The Uzziah Tablet Inscription

The Bible mentions Uzziah or Azariah as the king of the southern kingdom of Judah in 2 Kings 15. The Uzziah Tablet Inscription is a stone tablet (35 cm high x 34 cm wide x 6 cm deep) with letters inscribed in ancient Hebrew text with an Aramaic style of writing, which dates to around 30-70 AD. The text reveals the burial site of Uzziah of Judah, who died in 747 BC.

13. The Pilate Inscription

The Pilate Inscription is the only known occurrence of the name Pontius Pilate in any ancient inscription. Visitors to the Caesarea theater today see a replica, the original is in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. There have been a few bronze coins found that were struck form 29-32 AD by Pontius Pilate

14. Caiaphas Ossuary

This beautifully decorated ossuary found in the ruins of Jerusalem, contained the bones of Caiaphas, the first century AD. high priest during the time of Jesus.

14 B Pontius Pilate Part 2      

In June 1961 Italian archaeologists led by Dr. Frova were excavating an ancient Roman amphitheatre near Caesarea-on-the-Sea (Maritima) and uncovered this interesting limestone block. On the face is a monumental inscription which is part of a larger dedication to Tiberius Caesar which clearly says that it was from “Pontius Pilate, Prefect of Judea.”

14c. Three greatest American Archaeologists moved to accept Bible’s accuracy through archaeology.

Despite their liberal training, it was archaeological research that bolstered their confidence in the biblical text:Albright said of himself, “I must admit that I tried to be rational and empirical in my approach [but] we all have presuppositions of a philosophical order.” The same statement could be applied as easily to Gleuck and Wright, for all three were deeply imbued with the theological perceptions which infused their work.

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By Everette Hatcher III | Also posted in Biblical Archaeology | Comments (8)

Evangelicals react to Christopher Hitchens’ death plus video clips of Hitchens debate (part 3)

December 19, 2011 – 7:52 am
DEBATE William Lane Craig vs Christopher Hitchens Does God Exist 07

Below are some reactions of evangelical leaders to the news of Christopher Hitchens’ death:

 
Posted on Dec 16, 2011 | by Michael Foust
 

DEBATE William Lane Craig vs Christopher Hitchens Does God Exist 08

Author and speaker Christopher Hitchens, a leader of an aggressive form of atheism that eventually was dubbed “New Atheism,” died Thursday from pneumonia, a complication of his oesophageal cancer. He was 62.

Hitchens’ interests were varied and he wrote extensively about politics, but it was his outspoken, confrontational words on God’s existence that caught the attention of the Christian community. Hitchens and other members of the New Atheism movement — such as Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris — went beyond the centuries-old arguments against God and religion. Hitchens wasn’t simply arguing against God’s existence; he said that the world’s greatest problems were caused by religion. Society, he argued, should cleanse itself of all religious beliefs. Hitchens’ most famous book on the subject summed up his thoughts in the title: “God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything.”

He once said of families who raise their children to believe in God: “How can we ever know how many children had their psychological and physical lives irreparably maimed by the compulsory inculcation of faith?”

He wrote that religion was “violent, irrational, intolerant, allied to racism and tribalism and bigotry, invested in ignorance and hostile to free inquiry, contemptuous of women and coercive toward children.”

Hitchens, who had dual British and U.S. citizenship, regularly took part in debates over God’s existence. For example, in November 2010 he debated Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary professor William Dembski and in April 2009 he sparred with Christian apologist William Lane Craig.

After Hitchens’ death, Christian leaders were mostly gracious in their response….

DEBATE William Lane Craig vs Christopher Hitchens Does God Exist 09

Ed Stetzer, vice president of research and ministry development at LifeWay Christian Resources, wrote in a blog post that for many people, “Hitchen’s passing will lead to stirring up old debates and old bruises.” Yet Christians should react with compassion, Stetzer said.

“I would like to see the dialogue of Christian apologetics move from Hitchens, Dawkins, and Harris into our houses, diners, and local community centers,” Stetzer wrote. “The AP news wire will not be abuzz with the passing of the atheist in your neighborhood, but your heart ought hurt for them. I am grateful for evangelical scholars who have engaged New Atheism with the level of intellectual commitment the movement deserves. But for most of us, we ought to concern ourselves with and grieve over the debates that war in the minds of our families, friends, and coworkers.”
–30–
Michael Foust is associate editor of Baptist Press.

Get Baptist Press headlines and breaking news on Twitter (@BaptistPress), Facebook (Facebook.com/BaptistPress) and in your email (baptistpress.com/SubscribeBP.asp).

DEBATE William Lane Craig vs Christopher Hitchens Does God Exist 10

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“Music Monday”:Coldplay’s best songs of all time (Part 15)

December 19, 2011 – 12:35 am
Coldplay

“Music Monday”:Coldplay’s best songs of all time (Part 15)

This is “Music Monday” and I always look at a band with some of their best music. I am currently looking at Coldplay’s best songs. Here are a few followed by another person’s preference:

My son Hunter Hatcher’s 6th favorite song is   “Message.”  Hunter noted, “I think about my friends and family back home when i hear this.”

The Best Coldplay Songs

 

By Andrea Malji
Coldplay is a British alternative band that has been around since 1998. The band has produced five albums and sold around 50 million albums. The socially active band whose lead singer Chris Martin is married to actress Gwyenth Paltrow has produced some extremely popular songs, but many of the less popular songs deserve high praise as well. This below compilation is my view of the top 10 songs by Coldplay. 

 

1. Yellow-This 2000 song released as a single from the album Parachutes was inspired by the beautiful stars in the sky that the band saw one night during a break from recording. The song begins saying “Look at the stars, look how they shine for you, and everything you do”. Stars have always seemed to inspire poetic beauty and this would especially be a perfect song to serenade your love. After writing the song Martin felt that there was some word missing. While searching for inspiration within the recording studio Martin saw a Yellow Pages book, and the word ‘Yellow’ filled the missing void. ‘Yellow’ helped surge Coldplay into mainstream popularity and set the stage for future hits.

 

2. In my place- This 2002 song from Coldplay’s second album “A Rush of Blood To the Head” won best rock performance by a duo or group with vocal at the 45thGrammys. The song features a beautiful soothing melody while Martin sings about a man’s unreciprocated love for a woman. ‘In my place’ that is where he will be waiting for his love to come to him if she changes her mind. If ‘Yellow’ is the song you want to serenade your love with, then ‘In my place’ is the song you listen to after a breakup

 

3. The Scientist- “The Scientist” was another single the band released in 2002 (in the UK) and 2003 in the US from the album “A Rush of Blood to the Head”. The scientist referred to in the rather odd title is not really mentioned in the song but instead it alludes to science “Questions of science, Science and progress, Do not speak as loud as my heart.” This piano ballad shows off Martin’s beautiful voice and nice falsetto. This emotional song also has a very interesting music video implementing reverse narrative and Martin actually had to learn to sing the song backwards. The Scientist won a few MTV VMA awards and received a 2004 Grammy nomination.

 

4. Clocks- This 2003 song also off the album “A Rush of Blood To The Head” won the 2004 Grammy for Record of the year. However, originally the song was not intended for this album since 10 songs were already on “A Rush of Blood To the Head” and Clocks was left to be included on Album #3. This song, like others from the band, sings about a dysfunctional relationship asking about “Am I a part of the cure/Or am I part of the disease?” But where exactly does the title Clocks come from? In poetry and song clocks have always been associated with time, change, and even death. The lyrics seem to suggest that time is running out with few options “Confusion never stops, Closing walls and ticking clocks”. While the lyrics are great, my favorite part of the song is the piano melody especially at the beginning and when Martin again hits a falsetto for the long “yooooooooooooo ohhhhhh Yoooooooooooo ohhhhhh” that nearly sends chills down your spine

 

5. Speed of sound-This song released in 2005 is off the album X&Y and won an award for Best British single in 2006. The piano based melody and the beauty of Chris Martin’s voice make this song very soothing and almost hypnotic. Martin stated the lyrics of this song were inspired by a feeling of awe and wonder after the birth of his daughter Apple. The lyrics also allude to faith in what cannot be seen “If you could see it then you’d understand/ah when you see it then you’ll understand.”

 

6. Viva la Vida- This is one of the more recent song on the list was released in 2008 and reached number 1 on Billboard Hot 100. Viva la Vida which means ‘live the life’ in Spanish also won the Grammy for Song of the Year in 2009. The musical composition of the song is somewhat different because it is more upbeat and implements strings and percussion as opposed to the typical Coldplay songs that use piano or guitar. The rhythm is very catchy and the lyrics are some of the most interesting I have recently heard. I never could actually figure out half of the things that were being said in the song until I researched the lyrics. Basically the song is about a King who once was on top of everything but now ‘sweeps the streets he used to own’. It also includes religious undertones saying “I know St. Peter won’t call my name”. In an interview with Q magazine Martin said the idea of your life being judged once you’re dead was always fascinating to him and it’s a common theme in all religions. Since St. Peter won’t call his name, apparently the King was not so good possibly because he never had as he says ‘an honest word’.

 

7. Fix you-This song from the X&Y album wasn’t as popular as other Coldplay songs but has some of the most beautiful lyrics. The song was supposedly written for Martin’s wife Paltrow after her father died, but the song is can be very comforting in times of tragedy, hardship or a broken heart. The song uses an organ at the beginning that had been given to Martin by Paltrow’s father, but he didn’t discover how beautiful a sound it made until he played it after his death. However, despite whatever hardship whoever listening may have, there are words of encouragement “Lights will guide you home, and ignite your bones, and I will try to fix you.”

 

8. Violet Hill- This song also from the 2008 album X&Y and can be viewed as an anti-war song. The song is from a soldier’s point of view essentially about politics, war, and religious hypocrisy. The soldiers don’t want to be used for a cause that they don’t believe in “I don’t want to be a soldier/ with the captain of some sinking ship.” Violet Hill not only borrows rhythms from The Beatles but the road Violet Hill is actually near Abbey Road. I especially like the decrescendo at the end with only the piano and Martin softly singing. I also suggest everyone see the dancing politician’s version to this song on youtube. Overall though, Beautiful melody, beautiful lyrics…What’s not to love?

 

9. Gravity- This song was written by Martin and performed live by Coldplay in 2002 but ultimately the song was given to the band Embrace. Coldplay re-recorded this song in 2005 and it makes one wonder why the song was not always kept with them. This song is simple, with mainly the piano and Martin singing for the first five minutes and some drums and background singers added in after that, but the simplicity remains. This song is peaceful and soothing and could definitely put you to sleep, but not out of boredom.

 

10. Trouble- This 2000 song from the “Parachutes” album was written as a result of Martin’s reflection about his own bad behavior. Once again, the song begins with Martin singing and playing the piano. There is something very magical about his voice in this song, almost haunting. If someone asked for an apology through writing and performing this song, how could you not forgive them?

 

Most Coldplay fans will be familiar with all of these songs. However, for those of you who are just casual listeners of the band, you should definitely add these songs to your Ipod and you may change from a casual to avid fan.

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