Chapter 5 Discussion

I've been busy with meetings this week so am a little behind. Last Sunday I taught the last session from the Case for Christ book. I should be e-mailing out the audio link soon, by tomorrow. Now that I have finished I am going to put the entire course on CD so if you would like a copy, e-mail me and I'll send you one. Here are some responses to some questions from chapter 5 material.


1. Does archaeology generally agree or disagree with the Bible? There has never been an archaeological discovery that directly contradicts the Bible. There are many parts of the Bible where nothing has been found though. Examples would be that there is not much from the time of Joshua and Judges. Many archaeologists have been surprised to find things right where the Bible said it would be.


2. Have there been any archaeological discoveries that definitely disprove the Bible? No, see above response.


3. What are some examples that show that Luke told accurate history? Luke mentions an office called politarch that archaeologists had never found but eventually Roman inscriptions were found to verify Luke's claim.


4. What is an example of John reporting accurate history? John said there were five porticoes at the pool of Bethesda and archaeologists have excavated these five.


5. Skeptics have said that Quirinius was not governor at the right time for Jesus' birth, how would you respond? A coin was found during this time saying that Quirinius was governor so either there were two men with this name or the same man served two terms.


6. Skeptics said that Nazareth did not even exist in the first century so how can Jesus' biography be trusted, how would you respond? More recent excavations show that Nazareth did exist in the first century but that it was a very small insignificant town at this time.


7. If Matthew is the only record we have of Herod killing the babies can we trust this single source? This story fits with Herod's personality because he killed people he thought were trying to take his thrown away from him including his wife and several sons.


8. How does the Book of Mormon fair when tested against archaeological data? Not one shred of evidence exists to support the Book of Mormon. There are no synagogues or temples or coins or cities from Jewish people living in America during the fifth century BC.