Do we have proof Jesus was a real historical figure?

FEBRUARY 3, 2019 UPHOLDING THE FAITH

The New Testament has multiple eyewitness accounts of Jesus Christ. In addition, there are additional accounts from sources who knew the eyewitnesses as well. However, especially concerning opponents of Christianity, some are reluctant to consider any biblical sources when the question of Jesus’ existence are raised. While the reliability of the Bible is covered at depth elsewhere in the site, here I’ll be focusing on non-biblical sources concerning Jesus.

I think the matter of Jesus’ existence has been well proven from biblical and non-biblical sources alike. Even National Geographic, in an article titled “What Archaeology is Telling Us About the Real Jesus” had this to say

Might it be possible that Jesus Christ never even existed, that the whole stained glass story is pure invention? It’s an assertion that’s championed by some outspoken skeptics—but not, I discovered, by scholars, particularly archaeologists, whose work tends to bring flights of fancy down to literal earth. “I don’t know any mainstream scholar who doubts the historicity of Jesus,” said Eric Meyers, an archaeologist and emeritus professor in Judaic studies at Duke University. “The details have been debated for centuries, but no one who is serious doubts that he’s a historical figure.” I heard much the same from Byron McCane, an archaeologist and history professor at Florida Atlantic University. “I can think of no other example who fits into their time and place so well but people say doesn’t exist,” he said.

There are multiple, non-biblical sources to look at for corroboration with what’s found in the New Testament concerning Jesus. I believe these should be adequate examples of references which all point to a historically acknowledged, real person of Jesus Christ.

Tacitus

Publius (or Gaius) Cornelius Tacitus (56-120 AD) was a Roman historian and senator. He provides a basis for who the Christians were and some further details.

Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judæa, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre and become popular.

Here, we see acknowledgment of Christians as followers of “Christus” and a direct mention of Pontius Pilatus (while under the reign of Tiberius). These details are consistent with the information found within the New Testament.

Pliny the Younger

Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus (61 – 113 AD), better known as Pliny the Younger, was a lawyer, author, and magistrate of Ancient Rome. Pliny provides a detailed reference of certain habits of early Christians.

They were in the habit of meeting on a certain fixed day before it was light, when they sang in alternate verses a hymn to Christ, as to a god, and bound themselves by a solemn oath, not to any wicked deeds, but never to commit any fraud, theft or adultery, never to falsify their word, nor deny a trust when they should be called upon to deliver it up; after which it was their custom to separate, and then reassemble to partake of food – but food of an ordinary and innocent kind.

We can see multiple things that are consistent with what’s found in the New Testament. A specific day set aside for worship, the acknowledgement of Christ as God, and worship to Hm alone. He also mentions how Christians try to follow and live according to Christ’s teachings.

Josephus

Titus Flavius Josephus (37 – 100 AD) was a Romano-Jewish scholar, historian, and biographer of saints and ecclesiastical leaders. Josephus provides us with two references, the first being

About this time there lived Jesus, a wise man, ‘if indeed one ought to call him a man’. For he was one who performed surprising deeds and was a teacher of such people as accept the truth gladly. He won over many Jews and many of the Greeks. ‘He was the Messiah’. And when, upon the accusation of the principal men among us, Pilate had condemned him to a cross, those who had first come to love him did not cease. ‘He appeared to them spending a third day restored to life, for the prophets of God had foretold these things and a thousand other marvels about him’. And the tribe of the Christians, so called after him, has still to this day not disappeared.

Concerning this passage, scholars have come to the conclusion that Christian scribes likely added some text (which I have put in single quotes). However, even if you pull those sections out, there is a clear reference to Jesus.

The other writing from Josephus says

Being therefore this kind of person [i.e., a heartless Sadducee], Ananus, thinking that he had a favorable opportunity because Festus had died and Albinus was still on his way, called a meeting [literally, “sanhedrin”] of judges and brought into it the brother of Jesus-who-is-called-Messiah … James by name, and some others. He made the accusation that they had transgressed the law, and he handed them over to be stoned.

Some have suggested this passage was also edited in a similar manner to the one above. This is less likely to be true in this case for a few reasons. First, James and Jesus were common names at the time. The addition of “brother of Jesus-who-is-called-Messiah” is a way of specifying which James he was referring to. As he only needed to refer to the specific Jesus we’re seeking to verify, the one who is called Messiah, this supports well known knowledge of a real person. Josephus would have wanted this to be readable and understood by many. If the citing of simply Jesus-who-is-called-Messiah was enough, it’s logical to conclude the widespread knowledge of his existence in the New Testament was not simply an invented story. Additionally, the usage of “who is called Messiah” stands out. A Christian scribe of the time would have instead used “brother of the Lord” to refer to James. They wouldn’t have been shy about this langauge, as you can see from the first quote.

Lucian

Lucian of Samosata (125 – 180 AD) was a Syrian satirist and rhetorician. His reference provides additional details from the others above.

The Christians, you know, worship a man to this day,–the distinguished personage who introduced their novel rites, and was crucified on that account. Well, the end of it was that Proteus was arrested and thrown into prison. This was the very thing to lend an air to his favourite arts of clap-trap and wonder-working; he was now a made man. The Christians took it all very seriously: he was no sooner in prison, than they began trying every means to get him out again,–but without success. Everything else that could be done for him they most devoutly did. They thought of nothing else. … and then it was impressed on them by their original lawgiver that they are all brothers, from the moment that they are converted, and deny the gods of Greece, and worship the crucified sage, and live after his laws.

Here is another clear reference to Christ. While he doesn’t mention Jesus by name, he speaks of “Christians”, the crucifixion, and the devotion of the early church. All this again, mirrored in the New Testament.

In addition to these references, others exist as well. Multiple Jewish sources, who would not acknowledge Christ as Messiah, record events in Christ’s life as real historical fact. In Islam, Christ is also known to be a real historical figure, but again, not as Messiah. There is abundant evidence of Jesus Christ having walked the Earth. From biblical to non-biblical sources. The only difference is the acknowledgment of Jesus as Lord compared to the others which just see him as a very influential, but nevertheless, real historical person.

Sources

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0078%3Abook%3D15%3Achapter%3D44

https://www.bethinking.org/jesus/ancient-evidence-for-jesus-from-non-christian-sources#_edn5

http://www.vroma.org/~hwalker/Pliny/Pliny10-096-E.html

http://www.josephus.org/testimonium.htm

http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/luc/wl4/wl420.htm

Jewish Antiquities, 18.3.3 §63
Jewish Antiquities, XX.9.1 in Whiston’s translation (§200 in scholarly editions), as translated by Meier, Marginal Jew, vol. 1, p. 57. Meier’s original passage includes the phrases in square brackets [ ]. The omitted words indicated by the ellipsis (…) are in Greek, to let scholars know what words are translated into English.

https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/people-cultures-in-the-bible/jesus-historical-jesus/did-jesus-exist/#note13r

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2017/12/jesus-tomb-archaeology/

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tacitus

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pliny_the_Younger

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josephus

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucian

https://www.google.com/amp/s/respondblogs.wordpress.com/2015/03/20/respondblogs-was-jesus-a-real-person/amp

https://upholdingthefaith.wordpress.com/2019/02/03/do-we-have-proof-jesus-was-a-real-historical-figure/

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VIDEO Wisdom and Grace

Blessings today! It is Wisdom Wednesday…so much sorrow. BUT GOD!  Thanking God for His sufficient grace. “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me (2 Corinthians 12:9).”

The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Psalm 34:18Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 2 Corinthians 1:3-4Weeping may endure for a night, But joy comes in the morning. Psalm 30:5aMy flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Psalm 73:26

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. 
Isaiah 53:4-6

“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.” John 14:1
“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us). Matthew 1:23

https://beholdinghimministries.org/2019/08/07/wisdom-wednesday-080719/

Penn’s Holy Experiment – “the seed of a nation”

By Bill Federer

After serving time in prison for his Christian beliefs, William Penn insisted his colony give religious toleration.

William Penn was arrested and imprisoned several times for sharing his politically incorrect views which were not in agreement with the government’s agenda.

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Once he was imprisoned in the Tower of London for eight months.

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While in London’s notorious Newgate Prison, William Penn wrote 1670:

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“By Liberty of Conscience, we understand not only a mere Liberty of the Mind … but the exercise of ourselves in a visible way of worship, upon our believing it to be indispensably required at our hands,

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that if we neglect it for fear or favor of any mortal man, we sin, and incur divine wrath.”

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Penn wrote in England’s Present Interest Considered, 1675:

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“Force makes hypocrites, ’tis persuasion only that makes converts.”

Another dissenter in London’s Newgate Prison was an early Baptist leader Thomas Helwys, who wrote in 1612:

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“The King is a mortal man, and not God, therefore he hath no power over the mortal soul of his subjects to make laws and ordinances for them and to set spiritual Lords over them.”

Thomas Helwys who died in the Newgate Prison in 1616, had written A Short Declaration of the Mystery of Iniquity:

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“If the Kings people be obedient and true subjects, obeying all humane laws made by the King, our Lord the King can require no more:

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for men’s religion to God is betwixt God and themselves; the King shall not answer for it, neither may the King be judge between God and man.”

A later Baptist minister, John Leland, who helped found Baptist churches in America, wrote in Rights of Conscience Inalienable, 1791:

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“Every man must give account of himself to God, and therefore every man ought to be at liberty to serve God in a way that he can best reconcile to his conscience.

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If government can answer for individuals at the day of judgment, let men be controlled by it in religious matters; otherwise, let men be free.”

Penn’s father, Admiral Sir William Penn, Sr., died in 1670.

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In repayment of a debt owed to the Admiral, King Charles II, in 1682, surprisingly gave to his son, William Penn, land in America recently acquired from the Dutch and Swedes — 45,000 square miles.

King Charles named this enormous amount of land, 29 million acres, “Pennsylvania.”

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As a result of Charles II’s generosity, young William Penn had become the largest non-royalty landowner in the world.

While most countries demanded that citizens believe as the government dictated, Penn’s colony was a “holy experiment” where Christians, Jews, and others who believed in God to could live together in religious toleration.

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This was an unprecedented endeavor in the world, taking place at a time in history when

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• most of Europe was ruled by kings,
• China was ruled by emperors of the Qing dynasty, and
• Turkish Sultan Mehmed IV’s 200,000 Ottoman Muslim soldiers were laying siege to Vienna, Austria.

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Penn wrote in his Charter of Privileges for Pennsylvanians 1701:

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“… because no people can be truly happy though under the greatest enjoyments of civil liberties if abridged of the freedom of their consciences as to their religious profession and worship.”

He wrote to a friend, January 1, 1681, that for his colony, he would:

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“… make and establish such laws as shall best preserve true Christian and civil liberty, in all opposition to all unchristian … practices.”

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Soon there arrived in Pennsylvania:

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• Quakers,
• Mennonites,
• Pietists,
• Amish,
• Anabaptists,
• Lutherans,
• Reformed,
• Moravians.

From 1700 to 1750, Britain’s laws against dissenters drove some 200,000 Scots and Scots–Irish Presbyterians from Scotland and Ireland to America. Most settled in Pennsylvania’s Cumberland Valley and in the western counties of Lehigh, Bucks and Lancaster.

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Others came, including:

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• German and Swiss New Baptists, or Dunkers,
• German Baptist Brethren, or Seventh Day Dunkers,
• Schwenckfelders,
• French Huguenots. and
• other Protestant Christians.

William Penn died on JULY 30, 1718.

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He had named his capital city Philadelphia, which means “Brotherly Love.”

Lutheran missionary Johannes Campanius dedicated Philadelphia’s first church, Gloria Dei “Old Swede’s” Church in 1646.

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Penn’s religious tolerance allowed the church to continue, and they erected their present church building in 1698.

Johannes Campanius translated the very first book published in the Algonquin Indian language, Martin Luther’s Small Catechism.

In 1695, the Merion Friends (Quaker) Meeting House was built. It is the oldest church building in Pennsylvania and second oldest Friends meeting house in the United States.

In 1695, Philadelphia’s Christ Church was built.

It is called “the Nation’s Church” as individuals who worshiped there included:

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• George Washington,
• Betsy Ross,
• Benjamin and Deborah Franklin, and
• their daughter, Sarah Franklin Bache, worshiped there.

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Others who worshiped at Christ Church included signers of the Declaration of Independence:

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• John Adams,
• Benjamin Rush,
• Francis Hopkinson,
• Joseph Hewes,
• Robert Morris,
• James Wilson, and
• George Ross.

In 1711, Old Trinity Episcopal Church was built in Philadelphia.

In 1732, the Seventh Day Dunkers (German Baptist Brethern) built Ephrata Cloister near Philadelphia.

They had the second German printing press in America.

They published “Martyrs Mirror,” the largest book printed in America prior to the Revolutionary War, listing Christian martyrs from Christ until 1660.

Rev. Richard Denton brought the Presbyterian faith to American in 1644.

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In 1692, just ten years after the arrival of William Penn, the first Presbyterian Church was organized in Philadelphia, in a building called “Barbadoes Warehouse,” being shared with Baptists and Congregationalists.

In 1704, Philadelphia’s First Presbyterian Church moved to the corner of Bank Street and High Street (Market), where they build their first church building.

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Members of the church included signers of the Declaration of Independence:

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• James Wilson,
• Dr. Benjamin Rush, and
• Thomas McKean.

On May 21, 1789, the first General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America was held at the church in Philadelphia.

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The first sermon at that assembly was preached by John Witherspoon, the president of Princeton University and a Signer of the Declaration of Independence.

In 1807, the first African Presbyterian Church was founded by a former slave, John Gloucester.

At the time of the Revolution:

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• 98 percent of the country was Protestant;
• around 1 percent was Catholic; and
• one-tenth of one percent was Jewish.

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William J. Shepherd, writing for The Catholic University of American, stated in the article “The Archivist’s Nook: Catholic Patriots of the American Revolution” (June 23, 2016):

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“Catholics made up only an estimated one percent of the population of the nascent republic. Colonial America was generally prejudiced against Catholics … with the notable exception of Pennsylvania.”

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There were only seven Jewish congregations in the colonies prior to the Revolution, two of which were in Pennsylvania:

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• Mikveh Israel in Philadelphia begun in 1740; and
• Shaarai Shomayim in Lancaster, begun in 1747.

The first Jews in America were Sephardic, having fled from Spain, to Portugal, to South America and the West Indies.

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From the West Indies, Sephardic Jews came to the colonies of North America, the first of which was New Amsterdam, which became New York.

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When the British captured New York in 1776, many Jews fled to Pennsylvania.

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Mikveh Israel congregation built the first synagogue building in Philadelphia in 1782.

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Contributors to the building fund included:

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• Benjamin Franklin,
• Robert Morris -Signer of the Declaration, and
• Haym Solomon, Polish Jew financier of the American Revolution.

Beginning in 1845, Rabbi Isaac Leeser of Mikveh Israel synagogue produced the first Jewish translation of the Bible in English to be published in the United States.

When Mikveh Israel synagogue burned in 1872, Philadelphia’s Christ Church contributed to rebuild it.

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The two congregations have a long custom of sharing a fellowship-dinner once a year which alternates between their two buildings.

In 1795, the first Ashkenazic Jewish synagogue in the Western Hemisphere was founded in Philadelphia, Congregation Rodeph Shalom.

During the colonial era, Catholics were mostly in just two colonies: Maryland and Pennsylvania.

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Bishop John Carroll, founder of Georgetown University and cousin of Charles Carroll, a signer of the Declaration, wrote to Rome in 1790:

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“The thirteen provinces of North America rejected the yoke of England, they proclaimed, at the same time, freedom of conscience …

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Before this great event, the Catholic faith had penetrated two provinces only, Maryland and Pennsylvania. In all the others the laws against Catholics were in force.”

In 1733, Philadelphia allowed the first English-speaking Catholic Church in the world after the Reformation – St. Joseph Church.

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It was the only place in the entire British Empire where a public Catholic church service took place legally.

During the Revolution, French Generals Marquis de Lafayette and Comte de Rochambeau worshiped there.

Pennsylvania’s Quakers and Mennonites led the state to be the first in the nation to pass legislation to end slavery.

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America’s first abolition society, The Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage, was founded in Philadelphia in 1775.

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After the Revolutionary War, it was reorganized in 1784 with Benjamin Franklin as its first president.

Philadelphia is the birthplace of the Methodist Episcopal churches in America, with St. George’s Church, built in 1769, being the denomination’s oldest church building in continuous service in the world.

John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, sent the church a communion chalice.

The pastor of St. George’s was Francis Asbury, the first Methodist bishop.

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He traveled 270,000 miles on horseback and ordained more than 4,000 ministers, including Richard Allen and Absalom Jones, the first African American Lay Preachers of Methodism in 1785.

In 1792, Absalom Jones started the African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas, being the oldest black Episcopal congregation in the United States.

In 1794, Richard Allen started the African Methodist Episcopal Church, building “Mother Bethel,” the first A.M.E. Church in America.

In 1796, also out of St. George’s, Rev. “Black Harry” Hosier started the African Zoar Church.

St. George’s appointed Mary Thorne as the first woman class leader.

The Charter that King Charles II signed and gave to William Penn on March 4, 1681, stated:

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“Whereas our trusty and well beloved subject, William Penn, esquire, son and heir of Sir William Penn, deceased, out of a commendable desire to enlarge our English Empire …

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and also to reduce the savage natives by gentle and just manners to the love of civil society and Christian religion, hath humbly besought leave of us to transport an ample colony unto … parts of America not yet cultivated and planted.”

After receiving the Charter, William Penn wrote:

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“It is a clear and just thing, and my God who has given it me through many difficulties, will, I believe, bless and make it the seed of a nation.”

William Penn’s “Holy Experiment” of “Brotherly Love” resulted in Philadelphia providentially being the birthplace of the nation, as it was there that

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• the Continental Congress met,
• the Declaration of Independence was signed,
• the U.S. Constitution was written, and
• where the nation’s first Capital was located.

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Psalm 133:1 “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell

Original here

Made in the Image of God

August 12, 2019/ David Baggett

A vital part of Fred Rogers’ compelling and irrepressibly optimistic vision of the world was his understanding of human beings as spiritual creatures—every last one of them. Young and old, saints and sages, bullies and bombasts, all of them are sacred, eternal creatures with a divine stamp on them. And owing to that stamp—the very image of God, the imago dei—each person is imbued with infinite value and worth.

            Fred was an ordained Christian minister, and Christianity has a lot to say about our imperfections and fallings short, which introduces the need for forgiveness. Fred even sang about it. First used on The Children’s Corner and later on the Neighborhood (until it had to be removed because of the explicit reference to God) was the song Goodnight, God. The words and music were by Josie Carey and Fred, and it went like this:

Goodnight, God, and thank you for this very lovely day.
Thank you, too, for helping us at work and at our play.
Thank you for our families. For each and every friend.
Forgive us, please, for anything we’ve done that might offend.

Keep us safe and faithful, God. Tell us what to do.
Goodnight God. And thank you God for letting us love you.
Goodnight God. And thank you God for letting us love you.

Fred wasn’t the sort of practical theologian to start with the bad news of our faults and failures and foibles. He was much more wont to start more positively, and this wasn’t just because of his own preferences; he had an important theological reason for doing so.

Readers may know that in a framed print on his office wall he prominently displayed his favorite quote “L’essentiel est invisible pour les yeux” from the children’s book The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. Its translation is that what’s essential is invisible to the eye. Fred liked to emphasize what’s essential, rather than what’s merely apparent, peripheral, or accidental.

Our sinful condition is not essential to us. Even if everyone has sinned and fallen short of God’s glory, sin is universal, but not essential. It’s not who we are; it doesn’t define us. If there’s hope that by God’s grace our sin can be forgiven and defeated, that shows that sin isn’t central to our identity. It can go away and we can remain. Essential features have no such property. Sin is rather what we might call merely contingent.

In contrast, though, if all of us as human beings, as Fred believed, have been made in God’s image, like the Bible teaches, then that is essential to who we are. In the biblical narrative, sin didn’t enter the picture until the third chapter of Genesis. Fred went farther back to the creation narrative and its rich theology. Our creation in God’s imago dei reveals something that not only all of us hold in common, but something absolutely central to our deepest identity.

Like the Oxford luminary Austin Farrer taught, Fred thought that learning to love our neighbor involves nothing less than learning to see God in our neighbor and our neighbor in God. Farrer was a close friend of C. S. Lewis and advanced a version of the moral argument. For a taste of Farrer’s argument, consider the way we normatively ought to think about other people. It is of great importance, Farrer argued, that we value them rightly, that we think about others in such a way as to regard them properly.

The only limitations that such deep regard for others should encounter are those that cannot be avoided. Such regard should be at once so pure and so entire that it leads to a sort of frustration that derives from the incompleteness of our definition of those we so regard. Thinking of our neighbors in too garden variety a way can’t sustain the esteem we intuitively think they deserve. The conclusion to which Farrer felt compelled is that what deserves our regard is not simply our neighbor, but God in our neighbor and our neighbor in God.

Such a vision deeply resonated with Fred’s own, because for Fred, too, recognition of the sacredness of our neighbors should have profound implications. They’re not mere collections of atoms and molecules; not just cogs in machines or means to ends, but eternal, sacred beings who possess infinite value, worth, and dignity. Created by and in the image of a God of all goodness and perfect love, they’re capable of loving and being loved.

Baylor’s C. Stephen Evans has written Natural Signs and Knowledge of God, where “natural signs” serve as pointers toward God—though nothing like absolute demonstrations. Natural signs, on his view, provide a measure of good evidence for belief in God. He refers to two moral natural signs, one of which is human dignity and worth, this very reality that captured Fred’s imagination.

Catholic novelist Graham Greene, in his The Power and the Glory, has written, “When you visualized a man or a woman carefully, you could always begin to feel pity . . . that was a quality God’s image carried with it . . . when you saw the lines at the corners of the eyes, the shape of the mouth, how the hair grew, it was impossible to hate. Hate was just a failure of imagination.”

As God loves us without conditions, so we too should strive to love our neighbors. Fred would often say that love isn’t a state of perfect caring, but that it’s an active noun like ‘struggle’. “To love someone is to strive to accept that person exactly the way he or she is, here and now.” He always kept these words from a social worker in his pocket: “Frankly, there isn’t anyone you couldn’t learn to love once you’ve heard their story.”

Fred would agree with C. S. Lewis that we’ve never met an ordinary person. And with Marilynne Robinson, who wrote in Gilead, “Any human face is a claim on you, because you can’t help but understand the singularity of it, the courage and loneliness of it. But this is truest of the face of an infant. I consider that to be one kind of vision, as mystical as any.”

 Editor’s note: David Baggett is currently writing a book about Fred Rogers tentatively entitled Why Mister Rogers Bowed.

https://www.moralapologetics.com/wordpress/2019/8/12/made-in-the-image-of-god

‘Owe Nothing to Anyone Except to Love One Another’

For faithful Christians who want to make sure the Lord is part of their important financial decisions, here are three worthy goals to keep in mind

By FaithZette Staff | August 15, 2019

Virtually every financial planner has a list of “rules to live by” in his or her toolkit.

But for Christians in this country who are seeking to honor God, Mark Minnella, president and co-founder of the National Association of Christian Financial Consultants (NACFC), says that keeping three ideals in mind is the key to smart biblical financial management.

“If Christian investors sincerely commit to do three things, they will build a future of honoring God with their investment decisions for decades to come,” Minnella said in a statement shared with LifeZette.

“I have spoken and worked with people regarding personal finance most of my adult life and have, time after time, seen how God blessed those who blessed others,” he also said. “Many of those I have known have outright stated they could not ‘out give’ God. We are His stewards. Our job is to use the money and possessions God puts in our life to His glory.”

Minnella, who is also the author of “The Wall Street Awakening,” shares three goals with the faithful who want to bring the Lord into their financial decisions.

Here are the tips he outlines:

1.) Embrace this concept of biblical financial stewardship: God owns everything. “‘The silver is mine and the gold is mine,’ declares the Lord Almighty” (Haggai 2:8). At the time this verse was written, Minnella said, silver and gold were used as a means of exchange, so a modern-day interpretation of this verse would be that God owns all money.

By the same token, many people retained material wealth in their livestock — and this was frequently a measure of one’s material resources.

2.) Minimize debt. Not a single verse in the Bible instructs, encourages or condones Christians to go into debt, but there are dozens of verses directly warning not to — and one specifically. “Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law” (Romans 13:8).

Deuteronomy 15:6 also says, “For the Lord your God will bless you as He has promised you, and you will lend to many nations, but you will not borrow; and you will rule over many nations, but they will not rule over you” — while Psalm 37:21 reminds us that “the wicked borrows and does not pay back, but the righteous is gracious and gives.”

3.) Start giving generously. Throughout His Word, God tells His people to give generously to care for the poor, the widows and the orphans in need. “He who gives to the poor will never want, but he who shuts his eyes will have many curses” (Proverbs 28:27).

God also promises to care for us as we care for others, Minnella added.

Proverbs 3:9-10 says to “honor the Lord from your wealth and from the first of all your produce … your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will overflow with new wine.”

To learn more about the National Association of Christian Financial Consultants, click here.

https://www.lifezette.com/2019/08/owe-nothing-to-anyone-except-to-love-one-another/

VIDEO Answering the Tough Questions

Our Next Short Course

by: John Stonestreet & David Carlson

A few weeks ago, I came across a video that you might call “YouTube Gold.” That’s the phrase used these days for “an oldie-but-a-goodie” video. It was a classic Chuck Colson speech. He was speaking at a conference that was otherwise overly-academic.

But not Chuck. He spoke with passion and conviction. He pounded the pulpit. And, at the end, several hundred mostly academics erupted in a standing ovation. Seriously, you’ve got to see it.

Chuck made four points: four things that must characterize Christians today. I’m only going to give you the first two, not only because I want you to watch the whole thing, but also because his first two points are especially in need of repeating today.

First, Chuck said, Christians must develop a biblically-formed worldview. At other times and places, the broad cultural consensus may have lined up with Christian truth, but no more. Of course, that goes without saying today. Twenty years ago, when Chuck said this to his Grand Rapids audience, it was every bit as true, but not nearly as obvious.

Today, that you might be confronted in your Christian beliefs by someone with a deeply different perspective on life and the world is not a hypothetical scenario. At the neighborhood cookout, over the water cooler, across the Thanksgiving table, on  social media, it’s going to happen. Even worse, you might even be asked questions directly, in a setting where you hold the minority viewpoint. A viewpoint that’s not only considered to be wrong but considered to be dangerous.

Which brings up Chuck’s second point. Not only do we need to develop a biblically formed worldview, he said, but we need to know that worldview well enough to defend it. This is exactly what Peter meant when he said to be prepared to give an answer for the hope that is within you.

It might be that your challenge comes about a particularly challenging issue in a particularly controversial environment. For example, an announcement that your local public library is hosting Drag Queen Story Hour for kids. Or your kid’s school wants to integrate restrooms by gender identity. Or your neighbor, who you know and love, but who always drops racist comments. Or your radical environmentalist relative who drops an opinion bomb over a family dinner.

Silence, pretending you didn’t hear, and exiting stage-left aren’t good options. So, how should you respond?

Answering these and other tough questions with clarity and conviction is the subject of our next Colson Center Short Course, which begins August 6.

Over the next four weeks, beginning tomorrow night, the Colson Center is hosting a short course on four of these confusing, challenging subject areas. It’s all online, taught by four incredible thinkers and communicators: Andrew Walker will help you navigate the issue of transgenderism; Jay Richards, a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute, will help us understand the science and politics of the climate change debate; Ryan Bomberger, founder of the Radiance Foundation, will walk us through the thorny issue of race in America and in the Church. And finally, Sandra Glahn of Dallas Theological Seminary will help us think through the implications of the #MeToo movement and the sexual abuse crisis in the Church.

Each Short Course session begins at 8 PM Eastern, and the live online interaction includes time for Q&A. If you have to miss a live session, no problem. Each session is recorded, and the link is sent out to all of our participants.

The question isn’t why should you sign up for this course. In light of the conversations we are all facing, the question is why shouldn’t we be better prepared. As Chuck said in that speech two decades ago, every Christian must know the Christian worldview well enough to defend it. When we don’t, we remain silent, and then bad ideas rule the day.

Faithfulness to Christ today means being prepared. This short course can help.

 

Listen here

http://www.breakpoint.org/2019/08/breakpoint-answering-the-tough-questions/

Loving God with a Pure Heart Keeps Us Spiritually Fit

Too many of us have an obsession with physical fitness at the expense of our all-important faith — but we can fix that today, right this minute

By Kimberly Faith | August 12, 2019

I was out running my favorite trail the other day when God challenged me to think about the amount of time I spend on physical fitness in proportion to the time I spend becoming spiritually fit.

There have been times in my life when I’ve been a total gym rat — up to three workouts a day — while I worked a full-time job, maintained a home, and cared for a family.

As you can imagine, this didn’t leave much time for working on my soul.

Sure, my body was fit — but inside I felt I was wasting away.

Was it worth it?

Absolutely not!

My obsession with becoming fit while I was neglecting my soul equated to building seaside sand castles at low tide. What a waste.

God has given us all a much more blessed and eternal purpose.

God’s Word says: “Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; for ‘All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.’ And this word is the good news that was preached to you” (1 Peter‬ ‭1:22-25‬).

The world is starving for God’s love — not more of the same old goals, which fade away as we age.

When we have the love of Christ bursting from within our soul, the first thing others notice is Him — not us.

The world is starving for God’s love — not more of the same old goals, which fade away as we age.

When our life is lived in love, we give others hope of the wonders they can possess, which death and aging cannot defeat.

This hope springs forth within us when we are so into God that He captures our time, energy, resources and imagination.

Does this describe your life?

When we’re in love with God, everything we do — even our jobs — can be part of our testimony of love.

Loving God passionately, and with a pure heart, keeps us spiritually fit.

https://www.lifezette.com/2019/08/loving-god-with-a-pure-heart-keeps-us-spiritually-fit/