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What is Christianity? What is Christendom? Is there a difference?

In today's episode I make the argument for why a Christian society--that is a society that is based on the values of Christianity--has a negative effect on the effectiveness of the gospel.

"If everyone grows up as Christian, then they don't see the need to be born again".

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Are the New Testament Documents Reliable?

INTRODUCTIONS/RECAP

The cause of the universe, often called the prime reality or the uncaused first cause or simply, God, must have the following attributes:

1. The cause must be uncaused.

2. The cause must be timeless, spaceless and immaterial.

3. The cause must be powerful.

4. The cause most be intelligent.

5. The cause must be personal.

6. The cause must be the moral—standard for absolute goodness.

Monotheistic religions:

Now, as you know, there are three major Monotheistic religions:

1. Judaism

2. Christianity and

3. Islam

Orthodox Judiasm

Traditional or orthodox Jews do not believe that Jesus was the Messiah or that he was divine or that he was prophet. Some orthodox Jews believe that he was a teacher or charismatic leader, while others believe he was a heretic that was crucified for his heresy.

Islam

As for Islam, Muslims believe that Jesus was a prophet and that he was born of a virgin and that Jesus was nailed to a cross. Muslims, however, do not believe that Jesus died on the cross but rather that he only appeared to die but was saved by Allah.

Christianity

Christians believe that Jesus was the Messiah, God’s great prophet and God himself. They believe that he was crucified, that he died on the cross and that he rose from the dead to prove that he was God.

Now, as you can see, there are undeniable difference between the Jewish, Muslim and Christian understanding of Jesus.

Is Christianity True?

I will try and show that Christianity is true by:

1. Establishing that the New Testament Documents are Historically reliable

2. Examining the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus.

NEW TESTAMENT DOCUMENTS:

Reliability:

To say that something is reliable is to say that it is consistent and accurate.

Inerrancy:

To say that something is inerrant is to say that it is perfect and without error.

In this episode I will not be arguing for the inerrancy of the bible but rather for the historical reliability of the bible.

MANUSCRIPT EVIDENCE:

Manuscripts vs Autographs:

The only real objection that anyone can raise against the New Testament is the fact that, so far, none of the original written documents—called autographs—of the New Testament have been discovered. We only have copies—called manuscripts—of the original writings. But does that mean we cannot know what the originals said? Not at all.

More Manuscripts:

There are 5,800 handwritten Greek manuscripts of the New Testament. In addition to that, there are approximately 20,000 manuscripts in other languages (e.g., Latin, Syriac, Coptic, Arabic).

Earlier manuscripts:

The earlies undisputed manuscript is a segment of John 18:31-33,37-38 known as the John Rylands fragment (because it is housed in the John Rylands Library in Manchester, England). Scholars date this particular fragment between A.D.117-138 but some say it might be even earlier.

More Abundantly Supported Manuscripts

The early church fathers—men of the second and third century like Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Tertullian, and others—quoted the New Testament approximately 36,289 times in their writings. So, we not only have thousands of manuscripts, but we also have thousands of citing by the early church fathers. As such one could read nearly the entire New Testament simply by reading through the writings of the early church fathers.

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In vandag se episode gesels ek saam met Patric Daniels oor die belangrkheid van objektiewe waarheid, die bewystukke vir God se bestaan, sowal as die redes hoekom daar net een opperwese/God kan wees.

Patric is 'n Christen vir 25 jaar en dien as a wyksraadslid in ons plaaslike munisipaliteit. Ek het vir Pat (soos almal hom ken) ontmoet toe ek 19 was en sedert dan het hy 'n geweldige belangrike rol in my en my vrou se lewe gespeel as 'n mentor, 'n broer en 'n vriend.

Ek het nogaltyd baat gevind by sy wyshied en leiding so ek hoop dat sy deelname aan hierdie episode vir jou 'n seën sal wees.

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MONOTHEISM

Why there can only be one God

INTRODUCTION:

In the previous episodes we looked at three arguments for the existence of God. They are:

The Cosmological Argument which goes like this:

1. Everything that begins to exist has a cause.

2. The universe began to exist.

3. Therefore, the universe has a cause.

The Teleological Argument which goes like this:

1. Every design had a designer

2. The universe has highly complex design

3. Therefore, the universe had a designer

The moral Argument which goes like this:

1. Every law has a lawgiver

2. There is a moral law

3. Therefore, there is a moral lawgiver

THE PRIME REALITY

The attributes of God:

1. God must be uncaused

2. God must be timeless, spaceless and Immaterial

3. God must be powerful

4. God must be intelligent:

5. God must be personal.

6. God must be moral.

WORLDVIEWS:

1. Atheism

2. Agnosticism

3. Pantheism

4. Panentheism

5. Deism

6. Polytheism

7. Monotheism

CONCLUSION:

Alright, that’s all from me today. Let’s recap. In today’s episode we learned that for any being to be God they must be timeless, spaceless, immaterial, personal, powerful, moral and infinite. We also consider the different world views and confirmed that monotheism is most compatible with these characteristics of God.

Now, we know that Judaism, Christianity and Islam are the major monotheistic religions, but they contradict each other in terms of their understanding if the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Christians believe that Jesus is God while Muslims and Jews deny this claim. Therefore, if Christianity is true then Judaism and Islam is false.

FORECAST:

In the next episode I will present the evidence for the reliability of the New Testament. Why? If the New Testament is reliable then we can consider Jesus’s claims to be God objectively. And if Jesus’ claims to be God is true then Christianity is true. And if Christianity is true then every other religion that contradicts Christianity is false.

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OUTLINE:

INTRODUCTION:

The Cosmological Argument:

The Teleological Argument

THE MORAL ARGUMENT:

The argument goes like this:

1. Every law has a law giver.

2. There is a Moral Law.

3. Therefore, there is a Moral Law Giver.

An Atheist Perspective on Morality

DISTINCTIONS:

Values and duties:

Objective vs Subjective moral values and duties.

BREAKDOWN OF ARGUMENT

Premise 1:

Every law has a law giver.

Premise 2:

There is a moral law.

Conclusion:

So, since we have established that the first and second premise holds true then the conclusion follows necessarily. Every law does have a law giver. There is a moral law. Therefore, there is a moral law giver.

FORCAST:

In the next episode we will draw up a profile or the kind of Cause that was responsible for the characteristics that we observe in our known universe. We will refer to the cosmological, teleological and moral arguments to compile a definition of a cause or creator that we will use as a reference point as we consider different world views going forward.

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In today's episode we consider womanhood from a biblical perspective.

We live in a day and age where people claim to have the ability to change their "gender" but the bible teaches us that God, when He created us, created us as male and female (Genesis 1:26-27).

In this teaching we look at passages in Genesis 1, 2 and 3, 1 Timothy 2, 1 Peter 3 and Ephesians 5 and Titus 2 to look at:

1) God's original purpose for women
2) How the fall has distorted and corrupted the value and purpose of women
3) How God, in Christ, has restored the value and purpose of women (and men) in the context of Christian communities.

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Does God exist? The Teleological Argument

INTRODUCTION:

In the previous episode we considered the Cosmological argument for the existence of God.

THE TELEOLOGICAL ARGUMENT:

In today’s episode we will consider the Teleological Argument, also known as the argument from design. The argument goes like this:

Premise 1:

Every design had a designer

Premise 2:

The universe has highly complex design

Conclusion:

Therefore, the universe had a designer

THE FINE-TUNING OF THE UNIVERSE:

Anthropic constants:

1. Oxygen level:

2. Atmospheric Transparency:

3. Moon-Earth Gravitational Interaction

4. Carbon Dioxide Level:

5. Gravity:

6. Expansion rate:

7. Jupiter:

8. Rotation of the earth:

THE FOUNDATION OF LIFE:

We not only see this kind of precise fine tuning in terms of the initial conditions at the big bang, but we also see this kind of fine tuning at the foundations of life. Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft says it like this:

“DNA is like a computer program but far, far more advanced than any software ever created”

Initial and new life forms:
Think about what that means. You need the code from DNA for life to have originated. You also need new DNA code in order for new life forms to exist. So, if you need the digital code from DNA for the initial life to exist then the code from DNA could not have resulted from evolutionary processes.

Where does the information come from?
This begs the question: Where does the information come from? Well as Dr Meyer pointed out, in our uniform and repeated experience (Which is the basis for all scientific reasoning), all specified information—that is to say, functional information that produces a specific result—comes from a mind or an intelligence.

Explanation for fine tuning:
What is the best explanation of these precise realities? There are only three options.

Physical necessity:

Chance:

Intelligence:

SUMMARIZE:

To summarize, we have looked at evidence from the anthropic constants as well as the information encoded in the DNA molecule that indicates that the universe is designed. Anytime we see design, like a watch or a car, we know there is a designer. And anytime we see specified information like “Roland loves Jo-Ann” we know that there is an intelligent source—a mind—behind it.

CONCLUSION:

So what have we learned from the first two arguments for the existence of God? From the cosmological argument we have learned that the universe has a cause, and that cause is extremely powerful. Form the Teleologic argument (The argument form design) we have learned that the universe has a cause, and that cause is extremely intelligent. It seems Isaac Newton was right.

FORECAST:

In the next episode we will consider the Moral argument for the existence of God. We will be considering whether morality (right and wrong) is subjective or objective and how that relates to the existence of God.

That’s it for today, and until the next time, remember, the truth matters and so do you!