Luke 23:44f says:

It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness fell over the whole land until the ninth hour, because the sun was obscured; and the veil of the temple was torn in two. (NASB)

The popular naturalistic explanation for that is an eclipse. The sun was obscured by the moon, obviously. Dr Ehrman also hints at that in his “The New Testament” text in chapter 9 on the Gospel of Luke.

That explanation is, of course, totally wrong and somewhat hilarious. The Jews use a lunar calendar to determine their festivals, and Passover is no different.

From Wikipedia:

Passover begins on the 15th day of the month of Nisan, which corresponds to the full moon of Nisan, the first month of the Hebrew calendar, in accordance with the Hebrew Bible.

Now, an eclipse during a full moon is truly a miracle, even for the anti-supernatural standard applied to the Bible by mainline scholars.

Examining the historical Jesus in the synoptic gospels was an assignment in a religious studies class I am currently taking. It may be useful for your own studies and point to you more resources based on my bibliography.

From the introduction:

As any careful reader of the NT gospels will notice, Mark, Matthew, and Luke have striking similarities as well as significant differences. Each gospel has a different emphasis, a slightly different order of events, and a different target audiences. Each portrays Jesus in a different role. Therefore the first question is how are the accounts of the synoptics different? What are the differences, and what picture of Jesus can be gathered from each? Next, what does the result mean for the study of the historical Jesus? Is it important, and if so, why?

The Historical Jesus

Got this in today’s Grace Gem. The quote is by C.H. Spurgeon.

May you so live, that when you stand over your child’s dead body, you may never hear a voice coming up from that clay, ”Father, your negligence was my destruction! Mother, your prayerlessness was the instrument of my damnation!“

“Impress these words of Mine on your hearts and minds . . . Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.” Deuteronomy 11:18-19

Ouch. Christian parent, are you praying for your children and training them in the way they should go? (Proverbs 22:6)

Ever wonder what it means to be filled with the Spirit? In Ephesians 5, Paul explains the symptoms of a Spirit-filled Christian and even commands it. So what does that look like? I am indebted to John MacArthur for pointing the following out.

Let’s read the text first, starting in verse 18:

And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father; and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ. Wives [...]. Husbands [...]. Children [...]. Fathers [...]. (NASB)

Alright, here’s the command and the symptom of what it means to be Spirit filled. Now compare the parallel passage in Colossians 3, starting in verse 16:

Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father. Wives [...]. Husbands [...]. Children [...]. Fathers [...]. (NASB)

Now compare the two. Look pretty similar, don’t they. Notice the first part of the first verse. In Ephesians, Paul says “be filled with the Spirit”, but in Colossians, he commands us to “[l]et the word of Christ richly dwell within you.” Both commands yield the same result, so being filled with the Spirit means to let the word of Christ richly dwell within us.

What’s the word of Christ? Follow your cross references to get an example of what that means. At the very least it means the Gospel message, but we can understand it to mean the whole revelation of God to us, i.e. the Bible. So if you never thought that reading the Bible was necessary, consider these passages. I’d also make sure to read 1 John and supplement it with my Good Person Test to test whether you are even truly saved because there is no Christian who does not desire to read God’s complete, inerrant, infallible, sufficient revelation to man. What do you think?

I am reading in 1 Chronicles right now and just finished the last chapter. David’s prayer in 1 Chronicles 29:10ff reminded me of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, where he raised the bar from simply doing to the intentions of the heart. Don’t just not commit adultery, don’t lust in your heart, either. Don’t just not murder, but don’t be angry with your brother, either.

Of course this wasn’t a new concept in the NT, it was supposed to have been like that all along, even under the Law, and the passage in Chronicles makes that clear. Starting in v.17 (emphasize mine):

17 Since I know, O my God, that You try the heart and delight in uprightness, I, in the integrity of my heart, have willingly offered all these things; so now with joy I have seen Your people, who are present here, make their offerings willingly to You. 18 O Lord , the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, our fathers, preserve this forever in the intentions of the heart of Your people, and direct their heart to You;19 and give to my son Solomon a perfect heart to keep Your commandments, Your testimonies and Your statutes, and to do them all, and to build the temple, for which I have made provision.

Notice the focus on the heart, and deeds coming from it. Especially in v19, David asks God to give his son a perfect heart to keep God’s commandments, or in other words, in order that he would keep God’s commandments. Of course God judges our actions, but He also judges our intentions and thoughts.

If you’re not a Christian, how would you stand up to a test like that?

My friend Alan put these arguments against same sex marriage together and I believe they sum up the issue very nicely and pretty comprehensively. Let me state that I am not a homophobe (doesn’t that mean someone who is afraid of homosexuals? Why would anyone be afraid of homosexuals??) and am personally affected by it. I pray that homosexuals, just as lusters, thieves, murderers, together with any other unrepentant sinner, will repent of their sins and put their trust in Christ to be saved. See my Good Person Test for more info.

Sad post by Doug Groothuis about much of today’s superficial Christianity. Sounds to me like Willow Creek and other mega churches out there. Christianity without power, measured in numbers. No surprise that our country is in the condition it’s in.

Russell Moore, Dean of Theology at Southern Seminary, has a really good blog post about conspiracies these days, specifically about recent political events. While I am not totally caught up in any of those, I have to admit that some of it has my attention, together with that degree of fears and worries about what’s going to happen in this country over the next several years. Here are the last few paragraphs:

Our God tells us through the prophet Isaiah: “Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread. But the Lord of hosts, him you shall regard as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread” (Isa 8:12-13).

We shouldn’t fear the Bushes or the Clintons or the Rockefellers or the Hiltons, whatever they are or aren’t up to. We should fear the One who’ll one day uncover all our whispered conversations, all our forwarded emails, all our hateful thoughts. There’s nothing conspiratorial about that.

I especially appreciate the verse from Isaiah brought back to my mind. God is in charge and will look out for His people in the long run.

I was browsing through some upcoming movies and DVD releases and stumbled across a movie called The Unborn. Thinking it may have to do with abortion, I looked a little closer, only to be greeted by this great description:

“Sometimes the soul of a dead person has been so tainted with evil that it is denied entrance to heaven.”

I couldn’t help but laugh out loud a little bit. I wonder how evil “so evil” is in this movie. Nonetheless, if only everyone knew that, in God’s eyes, “so evil” encompasses every single human being on the planet, and that by His standard we should all be denied entrance to heaven. I thank God for providing the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (Jn 1:29)

Repent and put your trust in Jesus!

Yes, we can. For more info, here’s the paper entitled “Can we know Truth?” that I presented at the Roundtable of Ideology this year. Its intended audience is Christians, so I presuppose a certain degree of agreement with some of the points I make. Keep that in mind if you’re not a Christian and would like to read it.