The Bible, Inspired or Plagiarized?

Creation Fellowship iconCreation Fellowship

3 views

Brother Joseph Buckland talks about the origin of the Bible

0 comments

00:04
And I'm ready for Facebook Live. Okay, so you're ready for the joke? Yes, I'm ready.
00:11
All right. So this is is that is it time Robin for Mr. Buckland to share his joke?
00:30
Robin, I think you're muted. Since we're recording,
00:39
I'm going to do a little station. I'm ready now. I found it. Okay. All right.
00:47
Go ahead then with your joke. Okay, I have my eyeglasses on,
00:52
I didn't have it on initially. But I put it on in order to enhance the effectiveness of my joke.
01:02
Now, as you can see, I'm getting up in age, unfortunately. It has been creeping on me until one day
01:11
I realized that my head was covered with white hair. And because I'm getting up in age, there are times when
01:20
I do not remember where I have put my eyeglasses. And I might search for it in the living room.
01:28
I may search for it in the car. I may search for it in the laundry room.
01:35
And then I go to the bathroom. And in frustration, I can't find it anywhere.
01:42
And then I look into the mirror. And guess where I found the glasses?
01:48
Right on my face. Oh no! It was with me all the time.
01:55
And I had gotten so used to it that I didn't even feel it on my face. And I think that behind this joke, there is a spiritual lesson that we can learn.
02:10
That the evidences for God are right before our eyes.
02:17
And so often we fail to see it. Because we're looking in the wrong places for it.
02:26
And that is the position with atheists and agnostics, for example, who are looking in the wrong places.
02:35
They're looking for natural explanations for everything. They do not believe in the supernatural.
02:44
And so the evidences that you and I may come up with to prove that there is a creator misses them because they can't see it, even though it's right before their very eyes.
03:01
Good evening, brothers and sisters in Christ, in the United States of America, in Jamaica and around the world.
03:10
It is my pleasure to be a part of your apologetics meeting.
03:16
Well, we're happy to have you. And if you don't mind, I'd like to go ahead and do a little introduction just so that we can make this official.
03:26
So I'm Terri Camarazzo on behalf of Creation Fellowships, Santi, and we're a group of like minded friends who believe that the
03:36
Genesis account of creation is a true and accurate depiction of how God made the universe and all life in just six days, a few thousand years ago.
03:46
And we've been meeting here on Zoom for fellowship most Thursday night since June of 2020.
03:53
We've been blessed with speak with presentations by doctors, scientists, pastors, apologists, cartoonists, and all around smarty pants people who love the
04:06
Lord and have a message to share. You can find most of our past videos by searching for creation fellowship,
04:13
Santi, that's S -A -N -T -E -E on YouTube.
04:18
We also now have a channel on Rumble. It's CFS 2020.
04:24
And you can find some of our videos on BitChute as well. You can like and follow our
04:29
Facebook page, Creation Fellowship Santi, and you can send an email to creationfellowshipsanti at gmail .com
04:37
to get on our mailing list so that you are notified when we have upcoming speakers.
04:43
Tonight, we are happy to have Leslie Joseph Buckland Jr. as our speaker.
04:49
Brother Joseph has been a Christian for 52 years and serves as minister and teacher of the
04:56
Church of Christ in Jamaica. As a youth, he preached his first official sermon at age 14, obeying his call to ministry at the age of 17.
05:05
Mr. Buckland went on to pursue degrees in biblical studies and biblical languages such as Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic from Ohio Valley College and Harding University in the
05:16
USA. In his career, Brother Joseph dedicated himself to the services of both community pastoral ministry and education, focusing much of his efforts in the ministry and communication.
05:29
I'm sorry, in communities of inner city Kingston, Jamaica for nearly a decade. He has also served at the
05:35
Immaculate Conception High School as teacher and head of department, where he also reformed the curricula of these subjects to include a strong component of biblical of Bible evidence.
05:46
Since his retirement, Brother Joseph's ministry has continued as strong as ever, working along with his family.
05:53
In 2018, Mr. Buckland received formal training in creation apologetics at Mike Riddle's five day training college and presently teaches pastors in training at the
06:04
Jamaica School of Preaching and Biblical Studies International part time. Brother Joseph has also authored several tracks and booklets on Bible issues and continues to work along with his wife and daughter in Christian outreach efforts.
06:19
And with that, we're happy to have you go ahead and present for us. Thank you,
06:25
Terry. What a lot of things you are able to tell about me. Yes, that is quite impressive.
06:35
Thanks very much for the introduction. It is a pleasure to be with you. I was here some months ago when
06:44
Dr. Jason Lyle was your guest. I am one of the fans of Jason Lyle.
06:50
I love reading his books. He can make a complicated subject simple. And there is so much to learn.
06:58
I appreciate all of you who are searching to find evidences for the existence of God.
07:05
Not so much that your faith is weak, but you want to be prepared to give an answer to anyone who asks you a reason of the hope that is within you with meekness and fear.
07:18
First Peter, chapter three, verse 15. Recently, I was asked by an atheist on a
07:28
Zoom meeting. Different from this one. If the writers of the
07:35
Bible took information from Asian cultures and incorporated it in the writings.
07:46
And it caused me to do some research on this matter.
07:53
And this is partly the result of my research.
07:58
So we're looking at the question, did the writers of the Holy Scriptures plagiarize information from the
08:07
Asian cultures of Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, Rome, Persian and Essene religions?
08:21
OK, I'm trying to get this to move. Let me see if it would move.
08:27
OK, good. Good. So in my introduction, we're going to be looking at the definition of plagiarism.
08:35
And we will look at the accusation of plagiarism made by atheists against the writers of the
08:42
Holy Scriptures. First of all, plagiarism is taking someone else's work and using it as if it were one's own without acknowledging from whom one got the information.
08:58
Number two, atheists accuse the writers of the Holy Scriptures of taking information from written sources, which are earlier than the dates for the writing of different books in the
09:11
Holy Scriptures, and using this information as if it were a revelation from God without acknowledging the written sources of information.
09:25
So let us examine, first of all, whether the Holy Scriptures came from the inspiration of God or whether it involved plagiarism, which was passed off onto the unsuspecting public as revelations from God.
09:48
First of all, the Scriptures are described as being holy.
09:54
That is, they are set apart from all other writings in that the information in the
10:02
Scriptures did not originate from any human being, but it originated from God alone.
10:10
Second Timothy chapter three, verse 15 says, And that from a child thou hast known the
10:18
Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
10:27
Now, the word scriptures means writings. But we find that these are a special kind of writings.
10:35
They are described as being holy. And the basic meaning of holy is that it comes from God.
10:44
Anything that is connected with God is holy. And we find that the
10:51
Scriptures are described as holy because what is written down came from the mouth of God, which leads me to the second point.
11:02
All Scripture is given by inspiration of God. We are told in second
11:09
Timothy chapter three, verse 16. The phrase inspiration of God is a translation of the
11:17
Greek word for the New Testament writings were first written in Greek and then translated into other languages.
11:25
So the Greek word translated into English as inspiration of God is theanoustos.
11:36
It consists of two words in Greek that are joined together to make one word.
11:43
The first part of theanoustos is the word theo, which comes from the
11:49
Greek word theos, which means God. The second part of the word theanoustos is neustos, which means breathed or breathed out.
12:03
It is related to the verb form peneo, which means to blow or to breathe.
12:10
So when it says all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, it means that all that is written down.
12:20
Is from God breathing out his words, the expression to breathe out is a
12:30
Hebrew way of saying spoke. In Psalm 33, verse six, it says, by the word of the
12:39
Lord, where the heavens made and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.
12:46
And we know that in Genesis chapter one, it repeatedly says that God said, let there be and there was.
12:58
So God spoke. He spoke his creation into existence.
13:04
And the Bible says that it was by the breath of his mouth. So the breath of God.
13:13
Produces the words of God. And these words were heard by writers whom
13:20
God personally chose to communicate his words. And they wrote down his words in different books that make up the
13:29
Holy Scriptures. Now, when the Bible says all Scripture. Is given by inspiration of God.
13:38
It means everything that is written down because the word
13:43
Scripture means writing. So all Scripture means every writing.
13:50
So everything written down. Came from the mouth of God. To illustrate this, if you have your
14:00
Bible with you, I'd like you to turn to the book of Jeremiah. Chapter 30, verses one and two.
14:08
It reads the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord saying.
14:14
Thus speaketh the Lord God of Israel saying. Write thee all the words that I have spoken unto thee in a book.
14:25
So we see that God spoke. Jeremiah listened to what God spoke.
14:32
Jeremiah wrote down what God spoke. And this is why we have the book of Jeremiah in the
14:39
Bible, in the Holy Scriptures. He received the information from God.
14:46
And that is what inspiration of God means. Now, number three,
14:52
God spoke in different ways. The basic meaning of inspiration of God is that God spoke.
15:00
But he did this in different ways. He told the writers what to speak and to write.
15:09
Or he caused their questions to be written down. Along with his answers to their questions.
15:18
As you read the Bible, you will see that some of the writers of the
15:23
Bible expressed doubts. They had questions that they needed answers for.
15:29
Things didn't seem right. And they asked questions. And God allowed these writers to express themselves.
15:41
And he gave answers to their questions. That's another way he spoke.
15:47
Or he caused his enemies words to be written down. It doesn't mean that because these words are in the
15:54
Bible that they are necessarily true. We find that the enemies of God sometimes have their words expressed in the
16:04
Bible because God allowed them. God allowed these words to be written down.
16:12
Then he corrected what they said and showed what the truth is. Or he spoke by guiding the writers in their search for meaning and purpose in life.
16:25
And led them to the conclusion of what life is all about from his point of view. Like Solomon in the book of Ecclesiastes.
16:34
And he used their experiences to teach them truths about himself.
16:41
So the basic meaning is God spoke, but he spoke in different ways. And in these different ways he communicated his messages to them.
16:52
Number four, God had different teaching methods so that the different writers would understand what he means.
17:01
To those who had a poor education, God used words that were simple to understand.
17:08
Such as to the Apostle John, who wrote in the simplest Greek in the New Testament.
17:14
That's why those who are studying Beginner's Greek, when they have mastered the elementary
17:21
Greek, the book that they will go to is usually the
17:26
Gospel of John because the Greek there is simple. God used words that were more advanced to those who were educated, such as to Luke the physician, the medical doctor who wrote in advanced
17:43
Greek. Based on 1 Corinthians 2, verse 13, the writers did not use the words which man's wisdom teaches, but which the
17:55
Holy Ghost teaches. And therefore the writers were not using their own human wisdom to communicate
18:02
God's messages, but they were communicating God's messages by using the words which the
18:10
Holy Ghost was teaching them to use. Now this scripture is so important that I'm going to read it before I go on to point number five.
18:20
1 Corinthians 2, verse 13 reads, Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the
18:32
Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
18:38
So God even selected the words that the writers were to speak and later to write down in their different books.
18:47
Number five, these writers heard God's messages in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek.
18:55
In the Old Testament, it was in Hebrew and Aramaic, and in the
19:00
New Testament, it was in the common Greek language. The translations from the
19:06
Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek still communicate God's word when they bring across God's intended meanings into the various languages which are spoken today.
19:20
This is why we may call our English translations of the Holy Scriptures, the word of God.
19:30
Number six, the authors of the Holy Scriptures did not write to promote what was culturally acceptable in their different countries, but they opposed what was culturally acceptable, and therefore they could not have taken information from human sources, which give unacceptable information in the sight of God in their different countries.
19:58
Leviticus chapter 18, verses one through five, brings out that point. The Lord told
20:04
Moses to say to the people of Israel, I am the Lord your
20:09
God. Do not follow the practices of the land of Egypt, where you once lived, or of the people in the land of Canaan, where I'm now taking you.
20:22
Obey my laws and do what I command. I am the Lord your God. Follow the practices and the laws that I give you.
20:32
You will save your life by doing so. I am the Lord. Romans chapter 12, verse two reads, do not conform yourselves to the standards of this world, but let
20:46
God transform you inwardly by a complete change of your mind. Then you will be able to know the will of God.
20:54
What is good and is pleasing to him and is perfect.
21:00
Both scripture passages were read from the Good News translation. Therefore, the authors of the
21:06
Holy Scriptures could not have taken information from human sources, which give unacceptable information in the sight of God.
21:17
Number seven, similarities between what is written in the Holy Scriptures and what is written in human sources, do not mean that the authors of the
21:29
Holy Scriptures used information from them. For all the information that is written in the
21:36
Holy Scriptures came from God. And God who knows all things revealed the truth of what had happened in the past, which these human sources had distorted with the passing of time.
21:50
For example, when relating similar events of the past, these human sources refer to gods instead of to God.
22:01
It is not that the belief in many gods existed before the belief in one true
22:07
God, as is widely believed. But archaeologists have found in the first cities of Babylonia and of Egypt, evidences of a belief in one true
22:21
God. And that at a later time, this belief was changed into a belief in many different gods and goddesses.
22:32
You may get this information from Haley's Bible Handbook under the heading
22:38
Original Monotheism, page 62. Therefore, the events recorded in the
22:45
Holy Scriptures were not taken from these sources in cultures which believed in many different gods and goddesses, but was revealed by the one true
22:56
God to the authors of the Holy Scriptures. Number eight, similarities do not mean that the biblical writers borrowed information from ancient sources.
23:09
For in cases of common events, which all human beings experienced, each nation would pass down by word of mouth from generation to generation what had happened and later record it as history.
23:27
For example, all nations have traditions of a worldwide flood.
23:33
It does not have to mean that the biblical writer borrowed from any earlier sources of information about the worldwide flood, but was guided by the
23:45
Holy Ghost to use the Hebrew tradition about the worldwide flood.
23:51
So it doesn't necessitate going back to the Babylonian story of the flood or the
23:59
Egyptian story of the flood or anybody else's story of the flood, because we all as a human race in the days of Noah experienced a common event, a worldwide flood, and different nations have traditions about it.
24:22
Number nine, there are cases in the Holy Scriptures in which references are made to non -scriptural sources, such as to Athenian and Cretan poetries, because it had some truth, which the speaker included, to teach his different audiences and readers.
24:44
For example, in Acts 17, verse 28, Paul said, some of your own poets have said, for we are also his offspring.
24:56
And in Titus 1, verse 12, Paul says, one of their own prophets said,
25:04
Cretans are always liars and gluttons. So this is not plagiarism, since the sources are acknowledged.
25:16
Plagiarism is when information is used without acknowledging where the information came from.
25:25
Let us now, number 10, examine fundamental differences between what is written in the
25:32
Holy Scriptures and ancient records of similar events in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, Rome, Persia, and the desert of Judea.
25:45
These fundamental differences prove that there was no plagiarism. We will go first to the creation.
25:54
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, Genesis chapter one, verse one.
26:03
There are creation accounts in ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt, as you see on the left side of the screen, and creation account in the
26:14
Holy Scriptures on the right side of the screen. Let us look at the fundamental differences.
26:21
In the creation accounts in ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt, they speak about gods and goddesses, but in the creation account in the
26:33
Holy Scriptures, it consistently speaks about one true
26:39
God. In the creation accounts in ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt, they speak about gods and goddesses created themselves.
26:50
But in the creation account in the Holy Scriptures, number two, one true
26:56
God has always existed and was not created. In the creation accounts in ancient
27:05
Mesopotamia and Egypt, number three, they say that matter from which the universe was created existed before the gods and the goddesses.
27:19
But in the creation account in the Holy Scriptures, number three, we're told that God created the matter from which the universe was created.
27:31
In the creation accounts in ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt, number four, they say that there was a struggle among the gods for supremacy, and that this struggle resulted in the creation or procreation among the gods and goddesses produced the creation.
27:56
But in the Holy Scriptures, in the creation account, number four, there was no struggle for supremacy since there is one all -powerful and incomparable
28:09
God who rules over all his creation, and he created by speaking all things into existence.
28:20
In the creation accounts in ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt, in number five, they say that several human beings were created at the same time, not one man and one woman from whom all nations came, but several human beings were created at the same time.
28:40
But in the creation account in the Holy Scriptures, number five, there was one original pair of human beings, male and female, from whom all other human beings were reproduced.
28:58
We are now going to be looking at the flood in the days of Noah. You have flood accounts in ancient
29:06
Mesopotamia on the left side of the screen, and the flood account in the
29:11
Holy Scriptures on the right side of the screen. In the flood accounts in ancient
29:17
Mesopotamia, in number one, the reasons for the flood varies.
29:24
Humans disturbing the sleep of the gods or an assembly of the gods decide they want to end the kingship or the rule of men on the earth.
29:37
In contrast, in the flood account in the Holy Scriptures, number one, reason for the flood is that human beings have broken
29:46
God's law and have refused to change to do what is right in God's sight.
29:54
In the flood accounts in ancient Mesopotamia, in number two, the reactions of the gods to the flood were that they were terrified, they were crouching and cowering like dogs, struggling to escape from the earth to the sky.
30:14
They were deprived of the offerings of food and drink, and they mourned the destruction of mankind.
30:22
In other words, they look weak. They don't look like they are in control, and they look like they're dependent on human beings for their own sustenance.
30:35
In contrast, the flood account in the Holy Scriptures, number two, we see that God's reaction is one of control.
30:44
God is in control. He opens the fountains of the great deep. He sends the rain for 40 days and 40 nights.
30:54
When it is time to end the flood, the fountains of the great deep are closed, the rain stops falling, and a wind starts blowing.
31:04
God is not hungry and thirsty, for he does not depend on human beings to eat and to drink.
31:12
Going back to the flood accounts in ancient Mesopotamia, we're now at number three.
31:18
The survivor of the flood becomes immortal. He cannot die. However, in contrast, the flood account in the
31:27
Holy Scriptures, number three, Noah and his family are not immortal.
31:32
They still eventually die of old age. In the flood accounts in ancient
31:39
Mesopotamia, number four, the Babylonian ship is an unstable cube.
31:47
But in contrast, in the flood accounts in the Holy Scriptures, number four, the dimensions or the measurements of Noah's ark are those of modern ships.
32:01
In the flood accounts of ancient Mesopotamia, number five, the gods gather around the sacrifice like flies because they're hungry.
32:12
But in contrast, in the flood account in the Holy Scriptures, Noah's sacrifice pacifies
32:19
God's heart with regard to sin. We now come to the
32:26
New Testament, in which there is an allegation that the accounts of Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection were borrowed from Greek and Roman mystery religions.
32:42
So let us now look at the contrast. On the left side, you have
32:47
Greco -Roman religions, and on the right side, you have Christianity.
32:53
First of all, let us look at the Greco -Roman religions. Number one, central to the mystery religions of Greece and Rome was their use of the annual vegetation cycle, in which life was renewed each spring and died each fall or autumn.
33:15
The non -Christians in the Roman Empire imagined that gods were connected with this cycle of death and resurrection in vegetation and attributed the death and resurrection of vegetation to the death and resurrection of gods.
33:37
Did Christianity borrow this idea? Well, let us look at what
33:42
Christianity says. Number one, none of the resurrected gods of the mystery religions is a genuine historical figure.
33:53
In contrast, Jesus is depicted in the Bible as a real historical person who actually died and was raised from the dead.
34:07
So in the Acts of the Apostles, we see in Acts chapter two, verses 22 through 24 and verse 32, that Peter says that both he and the apostles were witnesses to all that Jesus did, how
34:23
God did signs and wonders through him and how he was put to death on the cross and God raised him from the dead.
34:36
Peter does the same thing in Acts chapter three, verses 13 through 15. After the healing of the lame man at Gate Beautiful of the temple in Jerusalem, there is a crowd that gathers in amazement when they see that Peter has healed this lame man.
34:56
And Peter bears witness and says that it is not his own power or holiness that made this man walk, but that the
35:05
God of our ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, has glorified his servant
35:14
Jesus by raising him from the dead. And through faith in his name, this man has become completely well.
35:26
Now we find that Peter and John were arrested and they were brought before the
35:34
Supreme Court at Jerusalem and Peter bore witness again in Acts chapter four, verses eight through 10, that this man standing before you was healed by the name of Jesus, the same person whom you crucified, but whom
35:55
God raised from the dead. Then in the house of Cornelius in Acts chapter 10, verses 38 to 41,
36:03
Peter bears witness to Cornelius and his family and relatives that God did powerful works through Jesus and that Jesus Christ was crucified and God raised him from the dead on the third day and that he is a witness to this.
36:26
In Acts chapter 13, verses 28 to 31, the apostle Paul in the synagogue in Antioch of Pisidia, in his first missionary journey, bears witness to the
36:41
Jews in the Diaspora and those Gentiles that believed in the God of Israel and attended synagogue services.
36:51
He bore witness that there were witnesses in the land of Israel to the miracles that Jesus did and that Jesus was crucified, but on the third day
37:04
God raised him from the dead in fulfillment of the scriptures. Then in 1
37:10
Corinthians chapter 15, verses 14 to 17, Paul says in his letter to the church in Corinth that the resurrection of Jesus is something historical and that if Christ were not raised, then we are still in our sins and we are all people to be pitted.
37:33
So Jesus is presented in the New Testament as a historical person, not as someone who is a fictitious character in a story.
37:49
Going back to Greco -Roman religions, number two, the mystery religions were secretive.
37:56
Both the rites they participated in and the knowledge that they passed on to their converts were closely guarded.
38:05
In contrast, in Christianity, number two, Christianity was not secretive.
38:12
Its founder commanded that his teachings be taught to everyone everywhere.
38:19
Matthew chapter 28, verses 19 through 20 says, go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the
38:30
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever
38:37
I have commanded you and lo, I'm with you always, even to the end of the world.
38:44
In the Greco -Roman religions, number three, doctrine was minimized. The correct belief was not important.
38:53
Appeal was focused on the emotions of members. In contrast, though, in Christianity, number three, doctrine was important.
39:04
False doctrines were to be guarded against. Let me give you one example.
39:10
Galatians chapter one, verses eight through nine. Paul writes, though we are an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.
39:27
As we said before, so I say again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that which you have received, let him be accursed.
39:38
That scripture, among many others, is enough to show that doctrine is very important in Christianity.
39:50
Here are some more differences between Greco -Roman mystery religions and Christianity. So in Greco -Roman religions, number four, these gods did not die for the sins of others.
40:04
Their death only depicted the death of vegetation in the fall or autumn.
40:11
However, in Christianity, number four, Jesus Christ died for the sins of others.
40:17
As Romans chapter five, verse eight says, but God commended his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners,
40:26
Christ died for us. Greco -Roman religions, number five, these gods are said to have died repeatedly for their deaths represented the cycle of the death and the resurrection of vegetation in the fall and in the spring.
40:47
However, in contrast, in number five, in Christianity, Jesus Christ died only once.
40:54
Hebrews chapter nine and verse 27 says it is appointed unto men once to die and after this, the judgment.
41:02
Verse 28, so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.
41:15
In the Greco -Roman religions, number six, the death of these gods were a mythical drama with no historical ties.
41:24
However, in Christianity, number six, Jesus Christ's death was an historical event.
41:32
We see him in John chapter 19 being tried before Pontius Pilate who was historically the
41:40
Roman governor of Judea and Samaria. His name is found not only in the gospel of John and in other gospels, but he is also found in archeological discoveries to have ruled over that area of Israel during the time that Jesus was here on earth and that it was in his time of being governor that he was sentenced to death.
42:12
So we're dealing with a historical event. Jesus Christ's death was historical.
42:19
Number seven, in the Greco -Roman religions, these gods did not die voluntarily.
42:25
It was something that was tied to the cycle of death and resurrection of the vegetation in fall and in spring.
42:34
In contrast, in Christianity, number seven, Jesus Christ died voluntarily.
42:40
In John chapter 10 and verses 17 and 18, Jesus says, no man takes my life away from me, but I lay it down of myself.
42:51
I have power to lay down my life and I have power to take it up again.
42:57
This command have I received from my father. Then in John chapter 15, verse 13, he said, greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
43:12
In the Greco -Roman religions, number eight, the Egyptians did not believe in bodily resurrection, but in Christianity, there is an emphasis on the fact that Jesus was raised bodily from the dead.
43:28
In John chapter two, verses 18 through 22, Jesus says, destroy this temple and in three days
43:35
I will raise it up. And he was speaking of the temple of his body. So he was raised bodily from the dead.
43:44
When he appeared to his disciples in Jerusalem, in Luke chapter 24, verse 39, he said, a spirit does not have flesh and bones as ye see that I have.
44:00
We're now going to be looking at the virgin birth of Jesus, for here there is a controversy as well.
44:08
The Greco -Roman religions and the Persian religions and then
44:15
Christianity. In number nine, in none of the stories of the divine humans born from the union of a
44:23
God and a mortal is the mortal a virgin. However, in Christianity, Jesus was born of the
44:32
Virgin Mary. Mary did not have any sexual relations with any one.
44:39
But the Holy Spirit produced within her womb, miraculously, the son of God.
44:47
Luke chapter one, verses 26 to 31. Number 10 in Greco -Roman and Persian religions, the gods of the
44:55
Greek and of the Roman mythologies were thought of as being in the form of human beings and of being able to physically come into contact with women.
45:07
Engaging in sexual activity with them. But that's not what we have in Christianity.
45:15
In number 10, it says God, the father, did not take on the form of a human being and have sexual relations with Mary.
45:24
But the spirit of God begot in her, the holy child, Jesus.
45:29
Matthew chapter one, verses 18 and 20. Luke chapter one, verse 35.
45:36
There is only one true God. Zoroastrianism, an ancient
45:44
Persian religion, and Christianity says the same thing.
45:50
Which one borrowed from whom? The atheists say Christianity borrowed this concept from Zoroastrianism.
46:00
Again, the concept of God and how long he has been around is different.
46:09
In Psalm 90, verse two, it says, before the mountains were born, or you brought forth the whole world from everlasting to everlasting, you are
46:18
God, Psalm 90, verse two. Now that is clearly taught in Christianity.
46:25
We will see that Zoroastrianism has a different picture about God.
46:33
We have this picture representing Jesus teaching people by the
46:38
Lake of Galilee. He is a righteous teacher, but is he more than that?
46:46
We find that the religion of some Jews was called
46:52
Essenism, and that was a sect of Judaism. And they lived in a community called
46:59
Qumran by the Dead Sea. And they had writings that predicted that there was going to come a righteous teacher, more on that shortly.
47:12
So let us compare in this last section, Persian and Essene religions and Christianity.
47:22
Over on the left, we have Persian and Essene religions. Over on the right, we have what Christianity says.
47:29
So in Persian and Essene religions, number 13, Zoroastrianism teaches one
47:35
God. In Christianity, number 13, Christianity teaches that the
47:42
God of Israel is the only true God, and that the other nations did not know him, including the followers of Zoroastrianism.
47:52
In John chapter 17, verse three, Jesus prayed to his father.
47:59
He says to his father, I pray that they may know you, the only true
48:05
God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. Paul writing to the
48:11
Ephesians says, in Ephesians two, verses 11 to 12, about the state of the
48:16
Gentile world, that they were without God and without hope in the world.
48:23
What does it mean to be without God? It means that they did not know the true
48:28
God. The gods that they knew were gods that they had made with their own hands.
48:36
And Paul did not make any exception. He was referring to the Gentiles in general, in contrast to the
48:43
Jews. But more specifically, Isaiah prophesied that a
48:51
Persian ruler by the name of Cyrus was going to arise in world history, and he would not know the
48:59
God of Israel but the God of Israel was going to use him to let the
49:05
Jewish people return from their Babylonian exile and rebuild the temple at Jerusalem and the city of Jerusalem.
49:14
And in the scripture Isaiah 45, verses one to six, it is said that the Persian ruler
49:20
Cyrus did not know me, referring to himself, that is to God, who is the one speaking through Isaiah.
49:29
So although he was a Persian ruler and he would have been a follower of Zoroastrianism, the
49:37
Persian religion, even though Zoroastrianism teaches one God, this one
49:43
God was different from the God of the Bible. Number 14 in Persian religion,
49:51
Zoroastrianism teaches that God and Satan have always existed. This is what is called dualism.
49:59
But in Christianity, we see that Christianity teaches that God created angels in heaven and one of them became
50:09
Satan, an enemy. Colossians chapter one, verses 15 through 17,
50:15
Revelation chapter 12, verses seven through nine. Furthermore, we find that number 15,
50:24
Zoroastrianism teaches that if your good works outweigh your bad works, then you will enter into heaven.
50:31
However, Christianity teaches that we will enter into heaven if we receive
50:37
God's forgiveness as a free gift through our faith in Jesus as our
50:43
Lord and Savior. Ephesians chapter two, verses eight and nine says, for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves.
50:53
It is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Number 16, the
51:00
Essenes looked for a righteous teacher called the son of righteousness. Now, although Jesus is a righteous teacher, he is more than this.
51:12
He is the son of God and the Christ that is God's chosen Savior and King of God's kingdom.
51:19
John chapter 10, verse 36, Matthew chapter 16, verses 16 through 17,
51:26
Matthew chapter one, verse 21. In addition to this, the Essenes separated themselves from the rest of Israel.
51:34
But Jesus teaches that his followers should influence the whole society like salt and light.
51:42
You are the light of the world. You are the salt of the earth. Matthew chapter five, verses 13 through 16.
51:50
The Essenes abstained from marriage, but Jesus teaches people to get married and avoid fornication.
51:59
Matthew chapter 19, verses four through six, first Corinthians chapter seven, verse two, Hebrews chapter 13, verse four.
52:07
Of course, he also teaches that those who want to remain single for the kingdom of heaven's sake may do that.
52:15
But that would be voluntary. So to say that the Essenes had a religion that Christianity borrowed from is really not fitting the facts.
52:31
But Jesus is not just a righteous teacher. He's much more than that. So let us look at the conclusion and then we will go in the question and answer section.
52:43
Number one, God inspired the writers of the Holy Scriptures.
52:49
Second Timothy chapter three, verse 16. All scripture is given by inspiration of God.
52:57
Inspired by God means that God breathed or spoke his words to the writers of the
53:03
Holy Scriptures. And each one of them wrote down God's words in the different books which make up the
53:10
Holy Scriptures. Inspiration of God rules out any plagiarism.
53:21
I'm going to jump from number one to number three because I realize that there is a good connection between the two.
53:28
And I will get back to number two shortly. The Holy Scriptures forbid dishonesty.
53:36
For God who is the source of the words in the Holy Scriptures is honest by nature for it is impossible for God to lie.
53:46
Hebrews chapter six, verse 18. And he cannot lie. Titus chapter one, verse two.
53:52
But the devil is the father of lies. John chapter eight, verse 44. And one of his lies is that the writers of the
54:01
Holy Scriptures plagiarized information from earlier records.
54:07
So inspiration of God rules out any plagiarism for two reasons.
54:14
Inspiration of God means that God is the source of the information. God spoke.
54:21
And also inspiration of God means that God's character does not allow for plagiarism.
54:30
God is honest. And he will not be partner with anyone who plagiarizes other people's information.
54:40
Now to number two. The writers of the Holy Scriptures have similar events recorded that are found in earlier writings.
54:50
But the fundamental differences between the events prove that they did not borrow the information from these earlier writings.
55:00
Now I cannot end here without showing you the main source from which
55:06
I got this information. You may know this already. Some of you have been studying this for quite a long time.
55:15
But let me show you the specific place. I got this from Josh and Sean McDowell's book,
55:24
Evidence that Demands a Verdict, Completely Updated and Expanded Classic.
55:31
Specifically in the book, it came from chapter 14, entitled The Old Testament and Ancient Near East Influences, Comparison Studies, Old Testament and Ancient Near East.
55:48
Creation accounts, pages 382 to 389.
55:53
You will find more detailed information than what I have given. Flood accounts, pages 389 to 394.
56:04
Again, more detailed information is there. Origins of the gods, implying that these gods did not always exist in contrast to the
56:15
God of the Hebrews who is eternal. You find this on pages 394 to 397.
56:25
Then chapter 11, which is really an earlier chapter, but I wanted to start with the
56:30
Old Testament and then get into the New Testament. Chapter 11 is entitled
56:36
Is Christianity a Copycat Religion? And the question is,
56:43
Religious Plagiarism, pages 304 to 305. Then you have
56:50
Nature and Features of Mystery Religions, Cyclical View of Time, Secret Ceremonies, Doctrine Minimized, Contrast with Christianity, Historically Based, Public Proclamation, Doctrine Matters, Five Reasons the
57:09
Mystery Religions Did Not Influence Christianity, pages 305 to 315.
57:16
It gives you a lot more differences than I've given you between the Mystery Religions and Christianity.
57:23
Then chapter 12, The Deity of Jesus, An Investigation, The Story of Jesus' Virgin Birth Did Not Derive from Pagan Myths, pages 330 to 333.
57:41
So if you are able to buy this book or to obtain it online or it's in a downloadable free form for you to download,
57:56
I recommend this book. I have a lot of apologetics books.
58:02
This is among the best. I'm not saying it's the best, but I'm certainly saying in my opinion it's among the best.
58:09
It will really help you, especially in dealing with criticisms of the Bible itself.
58:15
It's very good on dealing with the criticisms of the Bible. Okay, now I turn it over to Terry who will moderate the questions that you might have been asking.
58:30
Okay, that was a lot of information. It was really good though. It was very informative and interesting.
58:37
So we do have one question from Jeff. He said, you said the Egyptians didn't believe in resurrection.
58:45
Why then mummification? And Jeff says he thought that they did believe in some sort of resurrection.
58:52
Okay, thank you. Well, the exact words that I really used was that they did not believe in bodily resurrection.
59:06
So I was contrasting that with the bodily resurrection of Jesus.
59:13
They believed in the afterlife, certainly. Otherwise, why would they build these pyramids and have the treasures of the
59:23
Asian pharaohs buried with them? So they did believe in some afterlife, but they believed that the afterlife was in the world of the dead, not in the world of the living.
59:41
So these pharaohs would rule in the world of the dead. They would no longer be ruling in the world of the living.
59:50
In the case of Jesus, he conquered death. His body did not remain in the tomb and he didn't appear to the disciples as a ghost or a spirit.
01:00:03
He appeared in bodily form. And when he went up into heaven, he went up in bodily form.
01:00:10
So he had conquered death. This really was different from the Egyptian concept.
01:00:16
So the Egyptians did believe in an afterlife, but not in a bodily resurrection.
01:00:27
Go ahead. Any further questions? Was that good, Jeff? I've watched a lot on Egypt and they did believe in a land of the dead.
01:00:40
Their resurrection was not like the resurrection of Jesus or the one that he promises us.
01:00:46
Their spirit went on to live in the underworld, which would be scary to me,
01:00:53
I think. I have a question about the
01:00:59
Essenes. Now, I've just recently learned about the Essenes about a year or so ago. And they accurately predicted a lot of Jesus and it's believed that the
01:01:10
Essenes went on to be some of the first Christians and that that's why they're no longer around, the
01:01:19
Essenes. Okay, so bear in mind that the
01:01:24
Essenes was a third sect of Judaism. You had three sects.
01:01:29
The major sect was the Pharisees and then you had another sect which was a priestly class called the
01:01:37
Sadducees. And you wonder why the Essenes are not spelled out in black and white in the
01:01:44
New Testament. I used to wonder about that also. And perhaps the reason is that they were a community to themselves.
01:01:53
They isolated themselves in the desert of Judea by the
01:01:59
Dead Sea. So they were not people that would integrate themselves in the society.
01:02:08
The Pharisees were in the society, the Sadducees were in the society, but the
01:02:13
Essenes lived by themselves. So they would inevitably have some understanding from the
01:02:28
Holy Scriptures, the Hebrew Scriptures, about the Messiah. There are some common beliefs that they would share with the
01:02:36
Pharisees and with the Sadducees about the Messiah. You know, the
01:02:43
Messiah to be the son of David, the Messiah to be a teacher, the
01:02:54
Messiah to be the savior of Israel. So they would have some common beliefs.
01:02:59
And remember that Jesus in his teachings emphasized that he was fulfilling all that Moses and the prophets had written about him.
01:03:13
So after his resurrection and he was leaving
01:03:18
Jerusalem and he joined the company of two of his disciples who were going to a place called
01:03:25
Emmaus. Jesus noticed that they were sad and he asked, why are you sad?
01:03:32
And they looked at him and said, are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know what has happened in these days?
01:03:41
And they told him that there was a prophet by the name of Jesus that they were hoping to save Israel, to redeem
01:03:51
Israel. And he was crucified. And today is the third day since it happened.
01:03:57
And Jesus began from Moses and then went through all the prophets and explained to them everything concerning himself.
01:04:09
Luke chapter 24, verse 27. Then later on, after he appeared to his disciples at Jerusalem, in Luke 24, verse 44,
01:04:19
Jesus said to them, these are the words which I spoke unto you. While I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses and in the prophets and in the
01:04:32
Psalms concerning me. So to get back to the point, the
01:04:37
Essenes believed in the Hebrew scriptures and therefore they would have had some knowledge of what the
01:04:46
Messiah would do when he would come. And as you said,
01:04:53
I do believe that some followers must have come from their group as well, not just from the
01:05:00
Pharisees and the Sadducees, but also from the Essenes. Yeah, it's my belief that they all, the reason they went out to the desert is because the
01:05:12
Sadducees did not believe in a resurrection and the Pharisees did not believe Jesus and they had corrupted the law.
01:05:21
That's just what I heard. But I appreciate that. That was a great explanation. Thank you. Yes, yes. And I don't want to dominate here.
01:05:28
Anybody else have any questions? Hi, any other questions?
01:05:37
I do. Go ahead, James. Okay. I understand that a lot of people feel that Jewish law came from Babylon or Babylonian relationships there and they use the idea of the
01:05:50
Code of Hammurabi. I wonder if you have heard anything about this. Okay.
01:05:56
Thank you for your question. Yes. Yes, there is a school of thought that goes back to about the 19th century, that is the 1800s, that writing was unknown in the time of Moses and that therefore
01:06:16
Moses could not have written the law that bears his name, the law of Moses. And they theorize that when the sons of Judah and Benjamin were taken into Babylonian captivity, that there were different schools in the
01:06:34
Jewish religion, the priestly school, the deuteronomic school, the
01:06:44
Yahweh school, that there were different schools that edited traditions that had been passed down and that they were the ones that put the
01:06:55
Pentateuch, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy in its written form.
01:07:04
But when you read the context of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, you find that especially starting with Exodus, you're dealing with a historical period of time in which the people of Israel were in bondage in Egypt.
01:07:26
They were delivered from bondage. They journeyed to the promised land.
01:07:32
And in the process of wandering from Egypt to the promised land of Canaan, during that time,
01:07:41
God revealed his laws. Much of his laws were revealed for about a year when they were encamped at Mount Sinai or Mount Horeb.
01:07:53
And so, just to give you an example, in Leviticus chapter 18, we see a historical context in which these books were written.
01:08:05
In verses one to three, it says,
01:08:10
And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them,
01:08:17
I am the Lord your God. After the doings of the land of Egypt, wherein ye dwelt, notice the past tense, you're no longer living in Egypt.
01:08:28
You were there, but you're now gone away from there. Shall ye not do?
01:08:34
And after the doings of the land of Canaan, whither I bring you, shall ye not do?
01:08:41
So you're not in Canaan yet, but you're on your way there. And I'm concerned.
01:08:47
I'm concerned that you may continue to follow the customs of the
01:08:52
Egyptians. I'm concerned that when you enter the land of Canaan, you may adopt as your own customs that they do.
01:09:01
So I'm telling you from now at Mount Sinai, do not do what you saw and what you perhaps did or your ancestors did in Egypt.
01:09:15
Don't do what those people do in Canaan. Neither shall you walk in their ordinances.
01:09:21
Verse four, ye shall do my judgments and keep my ordinances to walk therein.
01:09:26
I am the Lord your God. Therefore, based upon the internal context of these books, they could not have been put together in Babylon for the first time.
01:09:42
I'm not saying that there was no putting together of books because there would be a need for them to make sure that their scriptures are preserved.
01:09:53
They would need to know what really is the authoritative scriptures different from extra biblical writings.
01:10:04
But not that the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Old Testament were being put together for the first time.
01:10:12
I believe that Moses wrote these things and also that there is evidence that writing was known even before the days of Abraham.
01:10:23
In Ur of the Chaldees, where Abraham was born, archaeologists have uncovered a library that have several books dealing with mathematics, with medicine, with politics.
01:10:39
And there are different libraries that have been found in the Euphrates -Tigris River area.
01:10:45
And also Egypt was full of writing. They used hieroglyphs or hieroglyphs.
01:10:53
And you see that writing was known. And it is not that we are ignorant now, but we know now that writing was well known in Mesopotamia, where Abraham came from, and in Egypt, where the
01:11:11
Israelites lived for 430 years. So I do not believe that the law of Moses was put together in Babylon.
01:11:23
I believe that Moses wrote it, just like Jesus said in John chapter 5. He said to the
01:11:30
Pharisees, if you do not believe Moses, you will not believe me, because he wrote about me.
01:11:39
That's the clearest scripture, John chapter 5. Towards the end of that chapter, it says,
01:11:44
Moses wrote about me. So Moses himself wrote it by the inspiration of God.
01:11:52
And in the Babylonian captivity, Moses had been dead for many centuries. I am not sure if I strayed from the question you asked.
01:12:03
If I didn't answer your question, could you just bring me back on track? No, that's very good.
01:12:12
That's one thing that I just happened to say something in a Coca -Cola laboratory where I worked, and that was what they came up with very quickly.
01:12:23
So people are interested in spiritual things, and especially maybe some anti -apologetics concerning our
01:12:32
Bible too. So thank you very much. Yes.
01:12:38
Concerning the anti -apologetics, I first came across that word just a few years ago when
01:12:45
I was engaged with an atheist in a written debate, an informal, on -the -spot written debate.
01:12:54
We were going at it back and forth. And he mentioned to me more than once the word anti -apologetics.
01:13:02
Then it dawned on me that the atheists actually have training sessions in which they study the arguments of apologetics, and they try to come up with an argument that they think can overthrow our apologetics.
01:13:21
So we have to keep abreast. We have to keep up to date with the arguments that are being used and be able to have a ready response, not just to win an argument, but the goal of apologetics is to convert the person to Christ, to make them a follower of Jesus.
01:13:44
Back to you, Terry. Okay. Okay, well, if you'd like to share where people can find you, do you have resources available online?
01:13:58
Okay, this much I can say. I am not really much of a writer.
01:14:04
I used to have written things, but my philosophy is this.
01:14:10
Enough has been written. And what people need to focus on is to read the
01:14:17
Holy Scriptures itself and pray to God for understanding.
01:14:24
Everyone has to study for himself or herself and know what the Scripture says.
01:14:30
If you know or understand what the Scriptures say, you can defend the
01:14:38
Bible no matter what angle people come at the Bible from. So I think what
01:14:45
I am focusing on in my life right now is to encourage people to read the
01:14:53
Scriptures regularly, pray to God for understanding. I think that is the foundation.
01:15:00
I am not against books because I regularly read different apologetics books.
01:15:07
And I regularly go to creation .com. That is one of my favorite websites concerning the creation evolution debate.
01:15:18
So I am not against books. But for me personally, I think people have written enough.
01:15:27
We just need to focus on getting what God has said and understanding it.
01:15:33
That was really good. That was profound. I want to say this though.
01:15:39
If you do have any question, I am not saying that I may have the answer because there will be times when
01:15:48
I don't really know the answer. But if you do have a question and you would like to ask and I know the answer,
01:15:58
I will do my best to explain it. If I don't know the answer, I will tell you.
01:16:04
I will do research on it. And I will get back to you as quickly as possible. So let me give you my email.
01:16:13
Okay. My email in common letters is joe, that is
01:16:20
Joe, underscore Buckland, that is
01:16:25
B -U -C -K -L -A -N -D, at yahoo .com.
01:16:31
So that's joe, underscore Buckland, at yahoo .com.
01:16:38
I welcome anyone. That's it. That's it right there. So I welcome anyone.
01:16:44
Okay. If you have a question or if you have a controversial issue that you want to discuss with me, feel free to email me and I will get to you on that.
01:16:59
You may not know what you're inviting yourself into on that one. We're a very controversial group.
01:17:05
Well, we are living in a very controversial world and it is getting more and more controversial.
01:17:12
True. So we're very thankful. Yeah, we're very thankful to have had you tonight.
01:17:19
And just to let everybody know about us, we're Creation Fellowship Santee.
01:17:25
That's S -A -N -T -E -E. And people can find us on Facebook or on YouTube or on Rumble as CFS 2020 or on BitChu and our email address is creationfellowshipsantee.
01:17:43
Okay. Terry's battery was going dead and apparently it did.
01:17:52
So I'm going to cut off the recording and if I can find where to cut off the recording and stop recording.