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Atheists are the Greatest Proof That God Exists

Just imagine.  Someone is walking around claiming the earth is flat.  He's got a Ph.D. from Harvard and a Ph.D. from University of Chicago.  Are you going to take this man seriously?  No.  You would call him crazy, delusional and ignore the poor bastard.

Now consider the following:

Would Richard Dawkins, world-renowned evolutionary biologist, ever write a book arguing that fossils don't exist? 

Would Stephen Hawking, world-renowned physicist, ever question the existence of Mars?

Would people pack the Oxford Union halls to hear a debate on whether or not the earth is flat?

No. No. No.

The fact that secular scholars take the time to write against and debate God's existence is proof that, at the least, atheists are not sure God exists.

If your 16 year-old daughter came home at 1AM when she was supposed to be home at 10 PM, would you debate her on whether or not it is 1AM?  Of course, not.

People don't debate what is known with certainty. 

Related: I don't have enough faith to be an Atheist

Matthew & Mohammed

I aim to, in an ongoing fashion, complete a plain reading of the text of Matthew (NIV) and note each instance where the text contradicts standard Islamic teaching. I pray that any person reading this will do so with an open mind. Each of us must decide to believe the Injil, Quran, or neither. There is no middle ground and no compromise with mutually exclusive truth claims.

We know that Mohammed accepted the Injil:

Sura 5:46 Subsequent to them, we sent Jesus, the son of Mary, confirming the previous scripture, the Torah. We gave him the Gospel, containing guidance and light, and confirming the previous scriptures, the Torah, and augmenting its guidance and light, and to enlighten the righteous.

Any corruption claims must be presented with evidence. I don't plan to waste much time with unfounded "the Bible has been corrupted wherever it doesn't agree with me" question-begging.

We also have complete manuscripts of the Gospel according to Matthew (in fact of the entire Christian New Testament) from circa 350 AD.

Mohammed was born in 571,  so we have manuscripts from 220 years before Mohammed was born.

Therefore, we know exactly what the Gospel of Matthew stated during Mohammed's time. Whether Mohammed knew that the Gospel of Matthew stated is questionable.

If you see anything I've missed, let me know in the comments section.

1. 1:21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.

Note here that Jesus is the Greek form of Joshua, which means "The Lord saves". Saves? How can the Lord save through Jesus, when He is a mere prophet?

2. 1:23 The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel—which means, "God with us".

This refers to Isaiah 7:14. "Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel."

Seems to me the author of Matthew is telling us God is with us, but how can that be since the Quran, written hundreds of years after the fact, says God wasn't with us? Since we're on the subject, how does Islam explain Isaiah 7:14? Exactly how was this prophecy fulfilled?

3. 2:2b We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.

The wise men come specifically to worship the freshly minted King of the Jews. How can that be, since only God deserves worship?

4. 2:8b ...so that I too may go and worship him.

Here Herod is trying to deceive the wise men, and implicitly acknowledges that there was going to be some worshippin' going on.

5. 2:11b ...they bowed down and worshiped him.

The wise men have arrived to see Jesus.

6. 2:15b And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: "Out of Egypt I called my son." (Hosea 11:1)

Hosea 11:1 Hosea records the words of God in prophetic format. How can God call His son when He can't have a son? Perhaps Mohammed didn't read that part of the Old Testament. Oops! He couldn't read at all!

To be continued...

Matthew & Mohammed

We know that Mohammed accepted the Injil:

Sura 5:46 Subsequent to them, we sent Jesus, the son of Mary, confirming the previous scripture, the Torah. We gave him the Gospel, containing guidance and light, and confirming the previous scriptures, the Torah, and augmenting its guidance and light, and to enlighten the righteous.

Any corruption claims must be presented with evidence. I don't plan to waste much time with unfounded "the Bible has been corrupted whenever it doesn't agree with me" question-begging.

We also have complete manuscripts of the Gospel according to Matthew (in fact of the entire Christian New Testament) from circa 350 AD.

Mohammed was born in 571,  so we have manuscripts from 220 years before Mohammed was born.

Therefore, we know exactly what the Gospel of Matthew stated during Mohammed's time. Whether Mohammed knew that the Gospel of Matthew stated is questionable.

My aim is, in an ongoing fashion, to complete a plain reading of the text of Matthew and note each instance where the text contradicts standard Islamic teaching. I pray that any person reading this will do so with an open mind. Each of us must decide to believe the Injil, Quran, or neither. There is no middle ground and no compromise with mutually exclusive truth claims.

If you see anything I've missed, let me know in the comments section.

1. Matthew 1:21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.

Note here that Jesus is the Greek form of Joshua, which means "The Lord saves". Saves? How can the Lord save through Jesus, when He is a mere prophet?

2. Matthew 1:23 The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel—which means, "God with us".

This refers to Isaiah 7:14. "Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel."

Seems to me the author of Matthew is telling us God is with us, but how can that be since the Quran, written hundreds of years after the fact, says God wasn't with us? Since we're on the subject, how does Islam explain Isaiah 7:14. Exactly how was this prophecy fulfilled?

To be continued as soon as I can figure out this Live Writer software...

Netflix: Top 10 Christian Movies

If you have other movies to recommend, leave a comment.

The Case For The Creator Lee Strobel doing what he does best: apologetics. Add to Netflix

The Case For Christ If you liked the book, you'll love the movie! Add to Netflix

The Privileged Planet Don't waste your time looking for aliens! Add to Netflix

Icons of Evolution Hasta La Vista -- Darwin!!! Add to Netflix

Unlocking the Mystery of Life One Word: Irreducible Complexity! Add to Netflix

Journey Toward Creation Available via Instant Download Add to Netflix

Peter & Paul  Anthony Hopkins does a great job as Paul.  My Fave Line was: Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ! Have Kleenex ready. Add to Netflix

St. John in Exile This is a one man play.  Well done.  Add to Netflix

The Gospel of John Excellent film version of the Biblical text.  Watch the film. Then read the book. Available via Instant Download Add to Netflix

The Dead Sea Scrolls Some of the scholars are Mormon so just remember they are not Christian. Other than that, this is a good overview of the the dead sea scrolls.  Lots of info. Add to Netflix

Related: Movies You've Gotta See | 10 Books To Read

Happy Labor Day 2008

  If you haven't already, register to vote for the 2008 Election

Update: just registered. 

Christian History is rich: The Time Travel Budweiser Commercial

About a week ago, I caught a bit of a Chicago Bears pre-season game and, during one of the breaks, I saw a wonderful TV commercial.

Wonderful because it is a great conversation piece - especially with the guys.

Anyway - watch the video, and remember: The Salem witch trials produced fewer than 25 executions. Most people would be quick to put the number in the hundreds or thousands. If you have links to other witch burning stats, please leave a comment/link.

Related: The Crusades | The Inquisition

Another Stab at the Traditional Family: Michael Phelps and Barack Obama

Conventional wisdom is that boys who grow up without fathers are at greater risk of problems, from doing poorly in school to substance abuse. So how does that account for the high-profile successes of standouts such as presidential candidate Barack Obama, Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps and others who were reared by single mothers? USAToday.com

To answer Sharon Jayson from USAToday, conventional wisdom still holds true.  And as we shall see, Obama and Phelps did well, not only because of their moms, but also because of fatherly role models in their lives.

In Phelps' case, yes - Debbie Phelps did a great job. But - she didn't do it alone.  For example, she relied heavily on the input from Bob Bowman.  Bowman has been Michael's Swimming Coach since little Mikey was 11.  Bowman served as the fatherly figure for Michael (video).

"In the case of Obama, his mother was not particularly well off [but] she was well-resourced intellectually and had been to college and had supportive parents (ibid)."  

Aha! So Obama's mom didn't do it alone either.  Her parents gave her support. Perhaps an uncle or cousin helped out as well.

Bottom line: 

We at the Alert believe in the traditional family.  One Man - the Husband.  One Woman - the Wife. 

Stay alert.  Don't believe the hype.

Related: 5 Parenting Tips For Bringing Up Boys

Photos Credit: Phelps/reuters.com.  Obama:huffingtonpost.com

October 2008: Pastor Appreciation Month

October 2008 is Pastor's Appreciation Month.

Gift Ideas:
If you want to give a simple but meaningful gift, pray for your pastor and tell him you did.

If you want to give an awesome gift, volunteer to help out.

For more resources: visit parsonage.org

freshchurchsites.com: great design ideas for your church web site

If your church is looking for design ideas, check out freshchurchsites.com. 

They have some great ideas:

• Design Trends & Inspiration
• Content Management Systems
• Homepage features and functions

Definitely bookmark worth it.  Thanks to Batsirai for putting it together

h/t: vandelaydesign.com/

Introducing: The Cell’s Design WebSite

Reasons To Believe is proud to present The Cell's Design website. The site is based on Fazale (Fuz) Rana's latest book, The Cell's Design: How Chemistry Reveals the Creator's Artistry. 

Visit the downloads section which includes a free mp3 song, a sample chapter and a lots of printable PDF posters.  [Unfortunately, there are no free wallpapers for your pc or mac :-( ]

Each week there will be a new podcast as Fuz Rana and host Joe Aguirre discuss topics related to each chapter.

If you've read the book, let us know what you thought of it.

Rick Warren Should Be Ashamed

Rick Warren's Saddleback Church hosted a political forum recently, inviting only two Presidential candidates. While I have no problem granting a forum to political candidates (Democrats routinely turn black churches into campaign stops), I do have a problem with Warren granting any legitimacy to Borat Obama and his evil politics. What's wrong with this picture? Obama is "amazing"?

Warren's watered-down gospel is suspicious to begin with, but creating the impression that Christians should actually consider voting for Obama is inexplicable. I don't want to speculate on Warren's motives, but followers of Jesus Christ should think very carefully before supporting him, buying his materials or attending his church.

It's a shame that a man of God with so much potential for good would mislead his flock in this way. Warren should vigorously denounce Obama at every opportunity. Simply being the nominee of the Democrat Party does not grant one automatic respect. Obama has to earn our respect, and he hasn't come anywhere close to getting mine.

Obama the Monster

Pat B. details why Roman Catholics and other Christians should not vote for Obama.

Thrice in the Illinois legislature, Obama helped block a bill that was designed solely to protect the life of infants already born, and outside the womb, who had miraculously survived the attempt to kill them during an abortion. Thrice, Obama voted to let doctors and nurses allow these tiny human beings die of neglect and be tossed out with the medical waste.

How can a man who purports to be a Christian justify this?

Buchanan

Are Christians polytheists?

Contrary to various Islamic, Mormon and New Age sale pitches, Christians believe in One God, and there is only ONE God. From everlasting to everlasting. One.

You cannot become God. Nor were you a god in a previous world.

Anybody that tells you otherwise is of the Devil.

Note to Pluralists–You’re Not Helping

To "Christians" who like to spout the "all paths lead to God" nonsense:

You're not helping!

Millions of us are trying to convince people that they must place their faith in Christ in order to be saved. Not everyone gets to be in heaven. Why did Jesus of Nazareth bother to mention hell if He believed hell would have no inhabitants? It is becoming increasingly fashionable to believe that anything anyone believes is "true for them". All religions are not true. The law of noncontradiction is so basic that children know it. I have more respect for the atheist who at least has the courage to say he is right, and I am wrong.

If you must be a pluralist, please don't call yourself a follower of Jesus Christ. Those of us who take history and logic seriously have a lot of work to do, and you're not helping.

Slavery, Racism, Eugenics, Communism and Abortion

Our culture once accepted slavery. Some even thought slavery was necessary to the survival of our union. Our country was formed with a compromise position on slavery built in to the Constitution. Now only backwards cultures practice slavery. Now we know better.

Our culture once accepted racism. Organizations like the Ku Klux Klan were not so taboo many years ago. To wit, we even have a Democrat Senator who was a high-ranking member of that illustrious organization. Our culture is so hyper-sensitive to racism that it is now only acceptable to acknowledge racial distinctions when the result is to lampoon a white male, and occasionally Asians. Now we know better.

Our culture once accepted eugenics. Prominent members of society, including US Presidents, supported the idea of selective breeding to weed out genetic imperfections in the human race. It was only after the world witnessed the horrors of the Nazis taking the movement to its logical conclusion that those same people balked. Now history covers up that part of our past. Now we know better.

Our culture once accepted communism. While relegated to a minority of people, those espousing communist views felt free to voice them and even use the “c” word to describe themselves. Once the world saw the results of the failed experiment known as the USSR, communists went into hiding. They now refer to themselves as environmentalists. We haven’t quite learned our lesson.

Now we have abortion. This practice has gone from being considered scandalous to being considered a sacrament, or at least a rite of passage. What horrors will the world have to witness before we learn our lesson? 50 years from now, will you look back and see how foolish our culture was? Will you not see how abortion is worse than all of the previous errors?

We are not nearly as enlightened as we like to think we are. In fact, humanity gets more and more barbarous as technology provides us more efficient ways to kill each other. Christ’s kingdom will eventually triumph. The least we could do is to help bring that about. Humanism is perverse. Christ is the only way to human progress.

To my Christian brothers and sisters: If you had lived in any of these prior time periods, would you have adapted your convictions to the culture? Are Biblical truths and values eternal, or do they apply only insofar as match the contemporary culture? Societal approval did not make slavery, racism, eugenics and communism moral. Nor does societal approval make abortion moral. Do not adapt to the culture, but transform it.

I Clement

First Clement is one of the earliest Christians writings outside of the New Testament.  It is dated to around 90-95 A.D. Its author is said to be Clement, Bishop of Rome, but the letter itself does not claim an author except for its title:  "The Letter from the Romans to the Corinthians".

The topic of the letter is admonition against jealousy and respect for the elders at the church in Corinth.  It also asks: "why do we tear and rip apart the members of Christ, and rebel against our own body ... and forget we are members of one another? (p. 81)". 

The letter quotes from various sources such as the Old Testament, New Testament, Greek philosophers and early and anonymous Christian traditions.  It also mentions Peter & Paul and refers to them as Pillars (p. 35). 

Some Notables:

• It quotes the Beatitudes (p.43)
• It gives Jesus Christ, "the Glory and Majesty for ever and ever" (p. 53)
• It refers to Jesus Christ as, the first fruit of the Resurrection (p. 57)
• It quotes Hebrews 1:3-5; 1:7, 1:13 (Jesus: Son & King)
• It asks: Do we not have one God and One Christ, and One Spirit of Grace which was poured out upon us? (p. 81).
• It quotes Jesus as saying "Woe to that man! It would have been good for him if he had not been born ... than for him to cause one of my elect to sin" (ibid) [(Matthew & Luke)].
• It talks about the great sacrifices Christian men and women had done for Christ such as selling one self into slavery and, with the price received, had fed others (p. 89).

"For as God lives, and as the Lord Jesus Christ lives, and the Holy Spirit (who are the faith and the hope of the elect), so surely will the one who with humility and constant gentleness has kept without regret the ordinances and commandments given by God be enrolled and included among the number of those who are saved through Jesus Christ, through whom is the glory to him for ever and ever. Amen."

Meet Baby Sofia: not a choice but a baby.

This is a story from a mexican newspaper, La Cronica De Hoy.  The story is in Spanish so I'll summarize it for you.

Baby Sofía was born premature at 16 weeks and weighed 16 ounces (about 2 cups of sugar).  Her family and the Doctors at IMSS did a wonderful job in nurturing and loving her. Sofia is doing very well and is now at home with her family. She will celebrate her first birthday in a couple of months.
Look at her.  16 weeks. How can someone say: it's my body. It's my choice.

God bless her, her family, and the good Doctors at IMSS.

Pass the word. Abortion kills babies.

Related:

• Baby Amillia was born at 22 weeks. Read her story, here
• A Romanian Girl to abort 22 week old baby. Read her story,
  here
• Is Obama pro-abortion?
• First Trimester Week by Week
• Mexico City OKs Abortion

Christian Orthodoxy

I have been working on the following 3 minute video commentary on Christian Orthodoxy for a few nights now.

The video gives a quick overview of what we believe. It is based on our "How to find a Good Church" guide.

Watch the english version below. Para español, az click aqui. If you are studying Spanish or Latin, watch the two videos and learn!

Yours truly on guitar.

Baby Smash! A Free Computer Game for babies, toddlers and preschoolers

I read Scott's blog as part of my 8-to-5 job. Scott is a Microsoft programming guru and he wrote a kids' computer game called: Baby Smash!

As babies smash on the keyboard, colored shapes, letters and numbers appear on the screen as your PC speakers name the shape, letter or number. Since the game uses a computer synthesized voice, it makes it sound like Stephen Hawking is sort of playing too.

It's free and, sorry Macs, it's for Windows. You can download it here. My 3 year old son loved it and my 5 five year old waited her turn impatiently...Kids!

Here's a 24 second video of the game.

Does the Bible prohibit the use of condoms by a married couple?

Does the Bible prohibit the use of condoms by a married couple (husbands and wives within a monogamous marriage)?

Photo Source: bbc.co.uk