Saturday, March 24, 2007
There are more predictions about Christ's life than just His execution. That date was pinned down by Daniel, but the other part of the Magi story is that when they arrived in Israel they went to King Herod to find the new born Messiah. A logical course for pagans to assume Christ would be born of the current royal line and for the reigning monarch to be up on current events. So, when they arrive and ask about the new born King, Herod doesn't check to see if one of his kids or his wife recently gave birth. He knows who they are asking about because He (and all of Israel) knew it was the time, so he called the priests. They tell him to look in Bethlehem of Judea. Why, because another Israeli prophet had predicted that is where Messiah would be born. Micah 5:2 is the reference.
Micah lived about 100 years before Daniel was born and maybe wrote close to 170 years before Daniel penned his prediction. These are just two of the predictions made about Jesus in the Old Testament that we not only see come true, but that were understood before the fact as to what their meaning was.
Micah lived about 100 years before Daniel was born and maybe wrote close to 170 years before Daniel penned his prediction. These are just two of the predictions made about Jesus in the Old Testament that we not only see come true, but that were understood before the fact as to what their meaning was.
Sunday, March 18, 2007
Dealing with the annual search for the "real" Jesus that springs up each Easter is getting to be fun. Every year another special is rolled out that attempts to explain away the miraculous and turn Jesus into a 1st century guru or something. One positive I take from that is at least they finally recognize He was a real person and not a myth. Stripping away the miraculous though, is very hard to do.
First there is the fact of His execution be predicted 570 years before it happened. Sometime around 535 BC a Jewish captive in Babylon penned a prophecy that dated the year Jesus would be nailed to the cross. It was actually two predictions in one. The first prediction was that a degree would be made by the King to rebuild Jerusalem restoring it to the Jews. The second is from the date of that degree to Messiah's execution would be 483 years. It was that prophecy was what brought the Magi to King Herod (Matthew 2) looking for the "One born king of the Jews."
The prediction is clear and it's meaning was understood before the fact. That is hard to ignore and maintain objectivity. It also supports the believable nature of scripture. Step one in determining the truth of scripture is the accuracy with which it predicts and relates history.
If scripture is accurate, then the claims of Christianity based on scripture are reliable as well.
First there is the fact of His execution be predicted 570 years before it happened. Sometime around 535 BC a Jewish captive in Babylon penned a prophecy that dated the year Jesus would be nailed to the cross. It was actually two predictions in one. The first prediction was that a degree would be made by the King to rebuild Jerusalem restoring it to the Jews. The second is from the date of that degree to Messiah's execution would be 483 years. It was that prophecy was what brought the Magi to King Herod (Matthew 2) looking for the "One born king of the Jews."
The prediction is clear and it's meaning was understood before the fact. That is hard to ignore and maintain objectivity. It also supports the believable nature of scripture. Step one in determining the truth of scripture is the accuracy with which it predicts and relates history.
If scripture is accurate, then the claims of Christianity based on scripture are reliable as well.
Saturday, March 17, 2007
Sabbatical is over, time to blog some more. With Easter right around the corner the annual "search for the Real Jesus" stuff is coming out. I love it, 2000 years later we have people who know more than the eye witnesses. Anyway, it is a good time to go back to the discussion on knowing truth and picking it up with the empirical adequacy of the Christian belief system.
It seems to make sense to reference an earlier post when I introduced one of the things about Christianity that first caught my attention. That it was predicted and the predictions were understood before the fact. I'll put that up next, just got called to lunch. Life just happens so fast sometimes.
It seems to make sense to reference an earlier post when I introduced one of the things about Christianity that first caught my attention. That it was predicted and the predictions were understood before the fact. I'll put that up next, just got called to lunch. Life just happens so fast sometimes.
