Bill Pratt | February 29, 2012
Post Author: Bill Pratt In part 1 of this post, we learned what exactly the unpardonable sin is – attributing to Satan what is accomplished by the Spirit of God. But what caused Jesus to give this stern warning to this particular group of people? It is important to understand so that we can know how [...]
Bill Pratt | February 27, 2012
Post Author: Bill Pratt If you are worried, then it’s likely that you have not committed the unpardonable sin. This sin is first mentioned in the Gospel of Matthew in chapter 12, verses 31-32, in the context of Jesus’s healing of a demon-possessed man. As always, when reading the Bible, we need to look at [...]
Bill Pratt | December 23, 2011
Post Author: Bill Pratt The biblical injunction to take a life for a life, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth – called lex talionis - is repeated several times (e.g., Ex. 21:23-25; Lev. 24:17-22; Deut. 19:16-21). Some people have read this punishment to literally mean that bodily mutilation is prescribed. Is [...]
Bill Pratt | November 30, 2011
Post Author: Bill Pratt I’ve mentioned Paul Copan’s book Is God a Moral Monster? before, but I ran across this video clip where historical Jesus scholar Mike Licona interviews Copan about alleged genocide in the Old Testament. Copan summarizes some very key arguments from his book during this informative clip.
Bill Pratt | November 18, 2011
Post Author: Bill Pratt Patti, a reader of Tough Questions Answered, asked the other day if Jesus lied to his brothers in John 7:8-10. She claims that an atheist pointed these verses out to her. So, what’s going on here? Must we read these verses in John 7 as Jesus purposely deceiving his brothers? First, [...]
Bill Pratt | August 8, 2011
Post Author: Bill Pratt As I’ve corresponded with skeptics of Christianity over the years, I have been amazed at what I call hyper-skeptics. These are people who throw the word “contradiction” around when they should really use the word “difference.” A contradiction occurs between two statements when one statement is “A is B” and the [...]
Bill Pratt | March 31, 2011
Post Author: Bill Pratt Many Christians, as they read the book of Joshua, are uncomfortable with the accounts of conquest that are recorded there. The conquest of Jericho is the first in Canaan for the Israelites. The biblical writer describes the battle of Jericho this way in Josh. 6:20-21: When the trumpets sounded, the army [...]
Bill Pratt | February 2, 2011
Post Author: Bill Pratt No, it wasn’t. Not only does the New Testament book of Hebrews make clear that it was temporary, but the Old Testament itself promises a new covenant in Jer. 31 and Ezek. 36. Should we completely ignore the Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament where the Law is [...]
Bill Pratt | December 31, 2010
Post Author: Bill Pratt Does it bother you that the Bible is composed of 66 different books instead of one single tome? What about the fact that there were errors made in copying some of the Bible manuscripts over the last few thousand years? Does it cause you to doubt Christianity because there are some [...]
Bill Pratt | December 29, 2010
Post Author: Bill Pratt The Bible clearly teaches that God is morally perfect and holy, that he hates sin. Habakkuk 1:13 says that God is too pure to look on evil. Christians often say that God cannot allow any sin in his presence. But, this is not the whole story. There are also several instances [...]
