Victory Blog

The bodily resurrection of Jesus is necessary to prove the Deity of Jesus (meaning without the resurrection of Jesus no other evidence is sufficient), and cannot be separated from His historical life and ministry. The importance of the resurrection of Messiah is prophesied in the Old Testament. “Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise … and the earth shall cast out the dead.” Isa 26:19. Jesus prophesied His resurrection. Jesus said, “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.” Jn 12:32. Paul explained the significance of the resurrection to believers. “And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.” 1 Cor 15:17.

Read the rest of this post »

“Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.”¹
Copied:  Differences remain noticeable between fundamentalists and conservative evangelicals.  There is a difference, but is the difference really sufficient to separate conservative evangelicals from fundamentalists?  To answer that question, let me report three episodes.
Episode one occurs in a doctoral classroom of a major evangelical seminary.  The professor has just been asked whether he is willing to restrict his liberty for the sake of those who believe that consuming alcohol is a sin.  He replies, “I won’t choose to drink around people if I know that it makes them uncomfortable, but if they tell me that I can’t, I’ll drink a glass of port in front of them just to show them that I can do it.  And of course, in Europe, all bets are off.”
Episode two occurs in an outdoor restaurant.  Several evangelical theologians are seated at a table.  They order drinks before their meal.  Then they order some more.  After their meal is served, they order still more drinks.  They are growing raucous enough that other diners are beginning to glance over their shoulders.  One of the theologians slurs out, “Say—how do we know when we’ve gone from drinking in moderation to being drunk?”  Another makes reference to the teaching of an obscure catechism and explains that you aren’t drunk if you don’t vomit within twenty-four hours.  The only one who doesn’t drink is chosen as the designated driver.
Read the rest of this post »

1. Gal 5:1 [↩]

The premise of The Da Vinci Code is that Gnosticism was the true original Christianity and that it was suppressed at the Counsel of Nicaea in the 4^th century. As has already been shown, the actual historical record shows this is a complete fantasy with no supporting evidence. Less obvious is that The Da Vinci Code completely misrepresents Gnostic doctrine in order to make its case that Jesus was never believed by early Christians to be The Son of God until powerful political forces invented a new false Christianity at Nicaea to replace the original true one. So, just what is the actual Gnostic teaching about Jesus?

Read the rest of this post »

Fallacy 6: There were over 80 gospels written and considered for inclusion in the New Testament, but politics led to suppressing most of them. The truth is that the manuscripts referred to are the Gnostic gospels written between A.D. 250 and 350, long after the New Testament canon was settled. The Gnostic gospels were rejected as heresy as soon as they were written. See number 9 for more details.

Read the rest of this post »

If The Da Vinci Code is right, then everything we know about Jesus, the Bible and much of history is wrong. A lot of people now think so. Are they correct?

History isn’t speculation in a vacuum; it is the verified record of events. Just because something might have happened doesn’t make it plausible to have happened if there is no evidence that it did happen. In other words, just because 1+1 does not equal 4 doesn’t mean it equals 5. Presented here are some fallacies claimed as fact in the Da Vinci Code for which there is absolutely no supporting evidence and for which there is ample contradicting evidence.

Fallacy 1: the world’s first dominant religions worshipped the goddess. The fact is that there is no evidence of any kind to support this theory, but proto-feminist anthropologists have proposed it for years. No archaeological or historical record places any pagan goddess at the head of any culture’s deity hierarchy.

Read the rest of this post »

“They are of the world, therefore speak they of the world, and the world hears them.”¹

There is great danger in allowing culture to become the authority in Bible interpretation, but it happens every day.  If a person does not view scripture as being the final and sufficient authority, then that perfect standard is certain to be replaced by an imperfect one.  The end result is a culture-driven theology, with man at the center.  Human reason and experience become the new, and very poor, authority base.  None of this negates the need for us to understand the culture we live in or even to consider the best ways to reach various other cultures.  Our ministry in evangelism and missions is enhanced by our understanding of the world in which we live and serve.

Read the rest of this post »

1. 1 John 4:5 [↩]