MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

By ICA

1 Thessalonians 5:21, “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.”

Reflecting upon the “triumph of the resurrection” of Christ and the “all-important gift of grace”,  it seemed good at first glance to hear President Obama taking an apparent step forward at the annual Easter Prayer Breakfast, hosted by the White House yesterday. Knowing that speeches are planned and reviewed well in advance and that words are chosen carefully, it was therefore disappointing to then hear Obama refer to Christ as “a Son of God” — not as the Son of God, the only begotten [unique] Son of the Father — and that Christ was one who “knew doubt”:

It’s an opportunity for us to reflect on the triumph of the resurrection, and to give thanks for the all-important gift of grace.  And for me, and I’m sure for some of you, it’s also a chance to remember the tremendous sacrifice that led up to that day, and all that Christ endured — not just as a Son of God, but as a human being.

Unlike President Obama, Scripture never refers to Jesus as merely “a” Son of God. Yes, Scripture declares all who believe in Him to be sons and daughters of God, but Christ is the preeminent and only begotten [monogenēs, “unique“] Son of the living God, a Truth to which every single related reference in the whole of Scripture testifies. It may sound trivial, but often something as seemingly insignificant as the word “a” can be what distinguishes sound Christian doctrine from the kingdom of the cults. Much of what is said can be truth or fall within the pale of orthodoxy, but it is then mixed with “tiny” lies, just enough to poison the meaning and the message. John 1:1, in referring to Jesus Christ as the Word [Logos], declares that “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Yet the New World Translation used by Jehovah’s Witnesses, for instance, takes John 1:1 and changes the original text’s intended meaning to say that “the Word was a god” and, as such, teach that Jesus is not Almighty God, but rather a “mighty” yet lesser god only.

For like us, Jesus knew doubt.  Like us, Jesus knew fear.  In the garden of Gethsemane, with attackers closing in around him, Jesus told His disciples, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.”  He fell to his knees, pleading with His Father, saying, “If it is possible, may this cup be taken from me.”

Jesus was fully man, but He was also fully God. Sure, the humanity that Christ took upon Himself would have naturally allowed Jesus to be tempted (Matt 4:1) or to feel apprehension and physical distress in knowing that His preordained purpose — to die an agonizing death for the sins of the world — was about to be fulfilled. It would have been a Read more…

“Christian” archaeology undermines the Qur’an. “Jewish” archaeology undermines the Qur’an. Even “Islamic” archaeology undermines the Qur’an. But when it comes to an ideology whose foundations are grounded in deception, the only facts that need apply are those that can be distorted to undermine the Truth …

By Peter BetBasoo and Ashur Giwargis – “Much has been made of the recent discovery in Turkey of a Bible purported to be written in the Aramaic language, 1,500 years ago. The Muslim media, as well as Western media outlets, quickly pounced on this, claiming this Bible contains verses attributed to Jesus Christ, in which Christ predicts the coming of Muhammad. No media outlet has published a facsimile of these verses.

This ‘Bible’ is written on leather in gold letters. The picture of the front cover show inscriptions in Aramaic and a drawing of a cross.

For any native speaker of Modern Assyrian (also known as neo-Aramaic), and that would be your average Assyrian today, the inscription is easily read. The bottom inscription, which is the most clearly visible from the published photos, says the following:

Transliteration: b-shimmit maran paish kteewa aha ktawa al idateh d-rabbaneh d-dera illaya b-ninweh b’sheeta d-alpa w-khamshamma d-maran

Translation: In the name of our Lord, this book is written on the hands of the monks of the high monastery in Nineveh, in the 1,500th year of our Lord.

Nineveh is the ancient Assyrian capital and is located in present-day north Iraq, near Mosul.

There are spelling errors that are immediately noticeable.

The first word, b’shimmit maran (‘in the name of our Lord’), is erroneously spelled with a ‘t’ instead of a ‘d’. The ‘d’ in Assyrian is the genitive, and it prefixes the word that follows. It should read b-shimma d-maran, not b-shimmit maran (note, the last word of the sentence is correctly spelled d-maran (‘of our Lord’)).

The first word also contains another spelling error. The correct spelling for ‘name’ in Assyrian is ashma, with the initial ‘a’ being silent. Therefore, when correctly spelled, ‘in the name of our Lord’ should be written as b-ashma d-maran.

The word idateh is misspelled, it should end with an ‘a’, idata. Also the phrase al idateh (‘on the hands’) is incorrect, it should read b-idata (‘by the hands’).

The bottom sentence uses the word ktawa (‘book’) to refer to the book, but in Assyrian the Bible is never referred to as a ‘book.’ One says awreta (Old Testament), khdatta (New Testament), or ktawa qaddeesha (holy book). Given this, since no one has seen the inside of this ‘Bible,’ we cannot be sure if it is in fact a Bible.

Most significantly, this writing is Read more…

The more manuscripts we discover, the more the Islamic claim that the Bible we have today was corrupted is silenced. When these texts are analyzed in full they will again confirm what Christians have already known:  All Biblical manuscripts and fragments dated even hundreds of years before Mohammed are virtually identical to the canonized Biblical texts we have today.  As I pointed out in “A few Simple Questions for Muslim Visitors“, when Muhammad recited the Qur’an he clearly stated that he did not believe that the Bible was corrupt at that time and called upon Christians to adhere to the Scriptures that they possessed. But manuscript discoveries such as these beg the question: Since the Scriptures we have today are the same Scriptures that Christians had even well before the time of Mohammed, when do they believe the Bible became corrupted, who corrupted it, and how was it corrupted? The silence is deafening …

By Daniel B. Wallace – “On 1 February 2012, I debated Bart Ehrman at UNC Chapel Hill on whether we have the wording of the original New Testament today. This was our third such debate, and it was before a crowd of more than 1000 people. I mentioned that seven New Testament papyri had recently been discovered—six of them probably from the second century and one of them probably from the first. These fragments will be published in about a year.

These manuscripts now increase our holdings as follows: we have as many as eighteen New Testament manuscripts (all fragmentary, more or less) from the second century and one from the first. Altogether, more than 40% of all New Testament verses are found in these manuscripts. But the most interesting thing is the first-century fragment.

It was dated by one of the world’s leading paleographers. He said he was ‘certain’ that it was from the first century. If this is true, it would be the oldest fragment of the New Testament known to exist. Up until now, no one has discovered any first-century manuscripts of the New Testament. The oldest manuscript of the New Testament has been P52, a small fragment from John’s Gospel, dated to the first half of the second century. It was discovered in 1934.

Not only this, but the first-century fragment is from Mark’s Gospel. Before the discovery of this fragment, the oldest manuscript that had Mark in it was P45, from the early third century (c. 200–250 CE). This new fragment would predate that by 100 to 150 years. Read more…