A:  It has become culturally fashionable to make the claim that “Jesus never said he was God.”

Lots of folks would like to claim Jesus as their own but his divinity gets in the way. The Muslims claim Jesus was a great prophet to the Jews but far less than even their prophet Muhammad. Some Jewish folks would like to acknowledge him as an ancient Jewish rabbi teacher if they could leave out the God thing and ignore the terrible treatment many Jews have received from some of his misguided followers over the centuries.

Even Hindu and eastern gurus like to make the claim that Jesus traveled to India and learned everything from them. Then there is the strange case of Richard Dawkins who wants to claim that Jesus Would Be An Atheist Today.

The real problem is that the Bible gets in the way and supports the divinity of Jesus. Not only that, but Jesus clearly indicated on a number of different occasions that he was the “I am” God of the Old testament. The response of those who heard him at the time confirms it.      <<Read the rest on my Apologetica page>>               *Top

Q:  Why the long lag between Jesus’ life and the first writings about him?

A:  Long lag? I don’t think so. After all Jimmy Carter recently came out with a book about his White House years and he was President 30-34 years ago. I was married 35 years ago and yet I can recall the events of that day like it was yesterday. Plus what I don’t remember my wife does.

There is a popular myth that the earliest writings about Jesus came a generation or two after his death and therefore can’t be all that accurate. This is simply not true.

The earliest writings that reference Jesus and early Christianity are those of Paul written between 48-60 AD/CE -beginning roughly 15 years after the death of Jesus. In I Corinthians he writes about the Last Supper and the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus. In Chapter 15 he names Peter, James the brother of Jesus, and the Apostles, plus himself and 500 others as those who had seen Jesus after his resurrection. In Galatians he claims that he received the Gospel directly from the resurrected Jesus.

The Synoptic Gospels: Matthew, Mark, and Luke-Acts were written before 70 AD/CE. Probably between 55-66 (22-32 years afterwards). Internal references and evidence pretty much precludes a later date considering the Jewish War (66-70) and the changes following. Most scholars contend that the 3 Gospels contained earlier common and diverse source material that may have circulated orally.

In the first century, memorization and oral recall of large amounts of material was quite common. Most Judean families maintained a lengthy genealogy in memorized oral form. Also, Rabbis were required to accurately memorize the entire Torah and the more respected were also able to substantially recite the Prophets and the Writings –that is the entire Tanakh (Old Testament).

As long as most of the Apostles and early Christian leaders were all together in Jerusalem and neighboring areas there was little perceived need for a written Gospel. After the movement began to spread to Asia Minor (45) and then on to Greece and Rome (48-60) the need became obvious and more permanent written records of the oral traditions were made.

The Gospel of John did come much later and was written around 90 AD/CE by John the Beloved Apostle who lived a long life and ministered into the 2nd and third generation of Christians. Nevertheless he was a first-hand witness to the life and ministry of Jesus.

A: Paula, the only reference in Acts to ‘prophetess daughters’ is in Acts 21:9 and there were only 4. Phillip the Evangelist who was one of the 7 original Deacons or servants had 4 daughters.

However, some church historians later got him mixed up with Phillip the Apostle who had 3 daughters. Nevertheless, there is no reference to anyone in Acts having 7 prophetess daughters. I hope this helps.

Previous question about Phillip’s Daughters:

-The Names of Philip’s Daughters?

Q: When the tribulation starts, before the Antichrist has risen, the believers will be taking up to Heaven. My Question is this when those people who were believers left behind will they get a second chance to be saved in the Tribulation? This is my question. –Solomon

A: Solomon, it is still ‘day’ for those left behind. Since they are still alive it is not really a ‘second chance’ but still the first and all can be saved who have real saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ during the tribulation period regardless of whether they ‘professed’ to believe before or not. In fact many will come to Christ during the Tribulation including millions of Jews.

The only scriptural qualifier is whether they receive the ‘mark of the beast’ or not in which case they would no longer be eligible for salvation according to Rev. 15:9-11.

All of this assumes that the Pre-Tribulation theory is correct in the first place and believers will be ‘Raptured’ before the Antichrist-the Beast of Revelation is revealed. Solomon, there are many solid Bible scholars who do not believe in the pre-millennial, pre-tribulational approach to eschatology.

Some believe that the church will be going through the tribulation, and meet Christ in the air at the end of that period, others see the church being raptured in the middle of the tribulation or just before the ‘wrath of God’ is poured out. Some do not believe in the millennium at all and take a ‘amillennial’ approach to the events in the Book of Revelation seeing them as primarily allegory and part of the church age.            *Top

A: There was a recent claim that ‘bone fragments’ of the Apostle Paul were found and confirmed. However I believe that the story is somewhat questionable and lacking in real proof. <<Here’s a link to an article I’ve written on the subject>>

Q: There was much to do about some sort of burial crypt of James the Brother of Jesus being found. Then Some scholars claimed it was a fake—what ever happened to that deal?

A:  The jury is literally still out on that issue. A trial over the authenticity of the James ‘the brother of Jesus’ Ossuary is still going on in Israel. The evidence against the Ossuary has been found to be suspect. However that does not necessarily mean that the artifact is authentic though for me the evidence is leaning in that direction.

By the way, it was not a crypt in question but an Ossuary with writing on the side designating it as containing the bones of James the Brother of Jesus. An Ossuary is a stone box where bones of the dead were traditionally deposited in ancient Judea. (See the picture above)

N.T. scholar Ben Witherington is one of the experts on this issue, here’s his most recent update: <<The Dead Shall Have Their Say– More on the James Ossuary>>

A:  Paul the Apostle did not write a separate gospel per se. Over the years Bible scholars have come to refer to the teaching and theology found in the Pauline epistles as ‘Paul’s Gospel’.

Also, many scholars over the years have written books exploring the teachings of Paul and have called their books something similar: ‘Paul’s Gospel’, Gospel of Paul’, Gospel According to Paul’ and etc. Go to Amazon.com and do a book search and you will see what I mean.

There are even some who claim that Paul used the Gospel of Luke and quoted from it possibly in I Tim. 5:18 (Luke 10:7) and I Cor.11:23-25 (Luke 22:19-20) –therefore have called the Gospel of Luke, ‘Paul’s Gospel’. However, most scholars believe that the Gospel of Luke-Acts was written after I Corinthians and Paul may have been quoting from oral traditions.

There is even a recent writing available on the Internet called “The Gospel of Paul” written by an anonymous fellow named Paul. It is written in scriptural style and identified as: “a true story, written by a true believer with a passion for Christ”.

Here is what the original Paul the Apostle says about the gospel he taught:

“I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preached is not something that man made up. I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.” (Galatians 1:11-12)

“For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ; for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.”  (Romans 1:16)            *Top

Q:  Who were the three Wisemen who gave the first Christmas presents?

A:  We have written on the Wisemen before. The Story of the Wisemen is found in Matthew 2:1-12. Notice that the Bible really doesn’t tell us how many there really were, only that they brought three different gifts—gold, frankincense, and myrrh. It was a later Christian tradition that settled on three.

Who were they?–we really don’t know. The scriptures identify them simply as ‘magi’.

However, hundreds of years later a number of different traditions rose up about the Wisemen, where they came from and even what their names were. The Eastern churches had different names and traditions than the Western churches.  None of the traditions can be traced back before 300 AD.

They were identified as ‘magi’, so all sorts of traditions have risen up about their possible Babylonian, Persian, or Parthenian origins. By the Middle ages in the West they came to be known by the names of:  Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar–and identified as kings from the three known continents: Europe, Asia, and Africa.  A Cathedral in Germany even claims to be the final resting place for the Wisemen– Shrine of the Three Kings at Cologne Cathedral. However, the origin and disposition of the relics can only be traced back to 344 AD.          *Top

A:  No!  Col. Rose Mary Sheldon of VMI recently claimed that Paul was a spy in her new book: “Operation Messiah: St. Paul, Roman Intelligence and the Birth of Christianity“–and received lots of publicity.

<<Here’s my response to her ridiculous theory>>            *Top

A:  Actually, the Bible does not tell us their names. Also early Christian history is silent in this regard. Several early Christian writers, Eusebius for one, did get Philip the Evangelist mixed up with Philip the Apostle who had 3 daughters. Note, there are accounts of traditional burial sites for two of the daughters of Philip the Apostle.           *Top