Saturday, March 18, 2017

Should the gospel of Judas be in the Bible?

What is the Gospel of Judas?
Does this writing provide reliable, additional information about Jesus? Was this document suppressed by the early church and edited from the Bible in the fourth century? These are legitimate questions that need to be seriously considered. It is critical that we determine if the information concerning Jesus Christ as portrayed in the canonical gospels in the Bible is reliable or if other, different or alternative, facts may also be true.

Origin and dating
In the 1970s, a leather-bound 66-page codex, written in Coptic, containing a copy of the Gospel of Judas was discovered near El Minya, Egypt. It is the only known copy. The document had deteriorated and a painstaking restoration process by a National Geographic Society international team has reconstructed and translated approximately 90%. It was dated to approximately A.D. 220 to 340 by several methods: radiocarbon, multispectral analysis, ink analysis, paleography, and contextual evidence.[1] The copy appears to be genuinely written around the third or fourth century and it also appears there was a real Gospel of Judas written prior to 180. That being said, it does not mean the original contained factual information about Jesus Christ and Judas Iscariot.

Content
The Gospel of Judas allegedly contains an account of secret conversations between Jesus and Judas held during the week prior to the celebration of the Passover. Jesus spoke of mysteries that are beyond this world and, apart from the other disciples, provided to Judas mysteries of the kingdom and how to reach it. Much of the content of this writing is indicative of Gnosticism, such as the pervasive use of secret knowledge and terms such as Sophia, twelve aeons, and 72 heavens. The portions that were salvaged can be read in about five minutes or so and the disparity between this and the authentic historical accounts found in the four canonical gospels is striking.

Claims of authenticity
As one might expect, soon after the Gospel of Judas became public, claims arose that the document is on par with the canonical accounts in the Bible. Others asserted that it was likely censored by Emperor Constantine in the fourth century as he chose only those gospel accounts that fit his theological preconceptions.  Bart Ehrman remarked, “We're confident this is genuine ancient Christian literature…”[2] Elaine Pagels, Professor of Religion at Princeton, stated, “"These discoveries are exploding the myth of a monolithic religion, and demonstrating how diverse — and fascinating — the early Christian movement really was."[3] The point being made by Ehrman and Pagels is not that Judas actually wrote this, but that there was much diversity of belief among early Christians and one gospel account was not necessarily better or more correct than another.

Irenaeus
The first known mention of the Gospel of Judas was around 180 AD in Against Heresies, written by church father Irenaeus, who stated:
They declare that Judas the traitor was thoroughly acquainted with these things, and that he alone, knowing the truth as no others did, accomplished the mystery of the betrayal; by him all things, both earthly and heavenly, were thus thrown into confusion. They produce a fictitious history of this kind, which they style the Gospel of Judas.”[4]
It cannot be stated with absolute certainty this copy found near El Minya is the same document Irenaeus mentioned; however, because of the time proximity and the fact that we have no records of another Gospel of Judas, it likely is the same.

Is it authentic?
The evidence indicates the copy restored by the National Geographic Society was actually written around 300 AD. Also, the original from which the copy was made likely predated 180 AD. However, neither of these facts is probative concerning whether Judas actually wrote this document or whether it contains accurate historical information. Irenaeus quickly dismissed this work as a “fictitious history” and we know of no other church father who even mentioned it. Early church fathers extensively quoted Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. First century Christians – who had seen Jesus or the apostles – immediately accepted the four canonical gospels, but there is no known mention of the Gospel of Judas. If it was authentic, one would expect to receive better treatment. Craig A. Evans, PhD, Biblical Studies from Claremont Graduate University, stated there is “Probably not” anything historical about Jesus and Judas in this document, but it “tells us something about second-century Gnosticism and perhaps a group called the Cainites, who are a bit mysterious to us.”[5]

Should the Gospel of Judas be in the Bible?
Other than the title of the document, there is no evidence it was written by Judas Iscariot or that it contains any legitimate historical information. It appears to be a second-century Gnostic pseudepigraphal gospel. The value of the readable portions of this document is in the background historical information they provides concerning off-shoots of Christianity, much like we have today, which are not orthodox in their beliefs. See articles on this website concerning the Bible for information on the acceptance of the four canonical gospels.

For more in depth study related to the acceptance of the canonical gospel accounts, see:
·         The Canon of the New Testament by Bruce Metzger
·         The Canon of Scripture by F. F. Bruce

(Biblical references are from the NASB version.)



[1] National Geographic, The Lost Gospel of Judas, May 2006, accessed 28 Jul 2008, http://www.nationalgeographic.com/lostgospel/authentication.html.
[2]Dan Vergano and Cathy Lynn Grossman, USA Today, 4/06/2006.
[3] John Noble Wilford and Laurie Goldstein, The New York Times, April 6, 2006.
[4] Irenaeus, Against Heresies, Book 1, Chapter XXXI, paragraph 1.
[5] Craig Evans, quoted by Lee Strobel, The Case for the Real Jesus (Grand Rapids, MI:  Zondervan, 2007), 55. 

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Did Jesus fulfill Old Testament prophesies?

Is it possible to prove the Bible is inspired by God, rather than merely a human product? While nothing can be proven beyond all doubt, evidence for the divine inspiration of the Bible is very strong, much more so than most people realize. The Old Testament was written over a period of about 1,000 years, beginning around 1,400 BC with the writings of Moses to completion around 450 BC. The Old Testament was completed about 450 years before the birth of Jesus Christ. Many very specific prophesies concerning the messiah were part of the established written record and were fulfilled by Jesus. Most of these could not have been self-fulfilling prophesies. This is an extremely powerful apologetic for the divine inspiration of the Bible as well as the divinely ordained mission of Jesus of Nazareth. Below is a listing of some of those prophesies made by Old Testament writers, with the accompanying date of the writing, and New Testament fulfillment. This list is not exhaustive.

1.   Born of a virgin
Isaiah 7:14 (740-697 B.C.):  “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.”
Matthew 1:18,25  - “Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit … [Joseph] kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he called His name Jesus.”

2.   Descendent of Abraham
Genesis 22:18 (1,400 B.C.):  God said to Abraham “In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed”.
Matthew 1:1 – “The record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham”.
Galatians 3:16 – “Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed He does not say, ‘And to seeds,’ as referring to many, but rather to one, ‘And to your seed,’ that is, Christ”.

3.   From the Tribe of Judah
Genesis 49:10 (1,400 B.C.):  “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes, and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.”
Hebrews 7:14 – “For it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah”.

4.   Descendent of King David
Jeremiah 23:5-6 (written ~600 B.C.):  “’Behold, the days are coming,’ declares the Lord ‘When I will raise up for David a righteous Branch; and He will reign as king and act wisely and do justice and righteousness in the land. In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely; and this is His name by which He will be called, 'The Lord our righteousness.’”
Luke 3:23,31 – “Jesus … being, as was supposed, the son of Joseph … the son of David”

5.   Born in Bethlehem
Micah 5:2 (written ~700 B.C.):  “But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you one will go forth for me to be ruler in Israel.  His goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity."
Matthew 2:1 – “Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea”

6.   Presented with gifts
Psalm 72:10 (written ~1,000 B.C.):  “Let the kings of Tarshish and of the islands bring presents; the kings of Sheba and Seba offer gifts.”
Matthew 2:11 – “After coming into the house they saw the Child with Mary His mother; and they fell to the ground and worshiped Him. Then, opening their treasures, they presented to Him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.”

7.   King Herod would kill the children
Jeremiah 31:15 (600 B.C.):  “Thus says the LORD, ‘A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more.’"
Matthew 2:16 – “Then when Herod saw that he had been tricked by the magi, he became very enraged, and sent and slew all the male children who were in Bethlehem and all its vicinity, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the magi.”

8.   Preceded by a messenger
Isaiah 40:3 (written 740-697 B.C.):  “A voice is calling, ‘Clear the way for the Lord in the wilderness; make smooth in the desert a highway for our God.’”
Matthew 3:1,2 – “Now in those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’"

9.   Ministry would begin in Galilee     
Isaiah 9:1 (740-697 B.C.):   “He shall make it glorious, by the way of the sea, on the other side of Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles.”
Matthew 4:12,17 – “Now when Jesus heard that John had been taken into custody, He withdrew into Galilee … from that time Jesus began to preach”.

10.       Would perform miracles (healing the blind, deaf, and lame)
Isaiah 35:5-6 (740-697 B.C.):  “Then the eyes of the blind will be opened and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped. Then the lame will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute will shout for joy”.
Matthew 9:35 – “Jesus was going through all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness.”

11.       Speak in parables
Psalm 78:2 (1,000 B.C.):  “I will open my mouth in a parable”
Matthew 13:34 – “All these things Jesus spoke to the crowds in parables and He did not speak to them without a parable.”

12.       Enter Jerusalem on a donkey
Zechariah 9:9 (written 520 B.C.):  “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; He is just and endowed with salvation, humble, and mounted on a donkey, even on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”
Luke 19:30,35 – “Go into the village ahead of you; there, as you enter, you will find a colt tied on which no one yet has ever sat; untie it and bring it here … They brought it to Jesus, and they threw their coats on the colt and put Jesus on it.”

13.       Betrayed by a friend
Psalm 41:9 (1,000 B.C.):  “Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted up his heel against me.”
Matthew 10:4 - “Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed Him”.

14.       Sold for 30 pieces of silver
Zechariah 11:12b (520 B.C.):  “I said to them, ‘If it is good in your sight, give me my wages; but if not, never mind!’ So they weighed out thirty shekels of silver as my wages.”
Matthew 26:14,15 – “Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, ‘What are you willing to give me to betray Him to you?’ And they weighed out thirty pieces of silver to him.”

15.       Money used to purchase Potter’s Field
Zechariah 11:13a (520 B.C.):  “Then the Lord said to me, "Throw it to the potter, that magnificent price at which I was valued by them”
Matthew 27:7 – “and they conferred together and with the money bought the Potter's Field”

16.       Money thrown in the Lord’s house
Zechariah 11:13b (520 B.C.):  “I took the thirty shekels of silver and threw them to the potter in the house of the Lord.”  
Matthew 27:5 – “And he (Judas) threw the pieces of silver into the temple sanctuary and departed”
           
17.       Forsaken by disciples
Zechariah 13:7 (520 B.C.):  “Strike the shepherd that the sheep may be scattered”
Mark 14:50 – “and they all left Him and fled”

18.       Accused by false witnesses
Psalm 35:11 (1,000 B.C.):  “Malicious witnesses rise up; they ask me of things that I do not know.”
Matthew 26:59,60 – “Now the chief priests and the whole Council kept trying to obtain false testimony against Jesus, so that they might put Him to death. They did not find any, even though many false witnesses came forward”

19.       Beaten severely
Isaiah 53:5 (740-697 B.C.):  “ He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed.”
Matthew 27:26 – “after having Jesus scourged, he handed Him over to be crucified”

20.       Struck and spit on
Isaiah 50:6 (740-697 B.C.):  “ I gave my back to those who strike me, and my cheeks to those who pluck out the beard; I did not cover my face from humiliation and spitting.”
Matthew 26:67 – “Then they spat in His face and beat Him with their fists; and others slapped Him”

21.       Hands and feet pierced
Psalm 22:16 (1,000 B.C.):  “they pierced my hands and my feet”   
Luke 23:33 – “When they came to the place called The Skull, there they crucified Him
John 20:25 – “he (Thomas) said to them, ‘Unless I see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.’"

22.       Crucified with thieves
Isaiah 53:12 - (740-697 B.C.):  “He poured out Himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors”
Matthew 27:38 – “two robbers were crucified with Him, one on the right and one on the left.”

23.       Interceded for persecutors
Isaiah 53:12 (740-697 B.C.):  “He Himself bore the sin of many, and interceded for the transgressors.”
Luke 23:34 – “Jesus was saying, ‘Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing’”

24.       Rejected by own people
Isaiah 53:3 (740-697 B.C.):  “He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and like one from whom men hide their face. He was despised, and we did not esteem Him”
Luke 23:21 – “they kept on calling out, saying, ‘Crucify, crucify Him!’"

25.  Friends stood far off                   
Psalm 38:11 (1,000 B.C.):  “My loved ones and my friends stand aloof from my plague; and my kinsmen stand afar off.”
Luke 23:49 – “And all His acquaintances and the women who accompanied Him from Galilee were standing at a distance, seeing these things”

26.   Clothing parted and lots cast                      
Psalm 22:18 (1,000 B.C.): “They divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.”  
John 19:23,24 – “Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took His outer garments and made four parts, a part to every soldier and also the tunic; now the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece. So they said to one another, ‘Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it, to decide whose it shall be’; this was to fulfill the Scripture”

27.       Given gall and vinegar
Psalm 69:21 (1,000 B.C.):  “They also gave me gall for my food and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.”
Matthew 27:34 – “they gave Him wine to drink mixed with gall; and after tasting it, He was unwilling to drink.”

28.   Felt forsaken by God                
Psalm 22:1 (1,000 B.C.):  “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Far from my deliverance are the words of my groaning.”
Matthew 27:46 – “About the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying ‘Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?’ that is, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’”

29.  Bones not broken            
Psalm 34:20 (1,000 B.C.):  “He keeps all his bones, not one of them is broken.”
John 19:33 – “but coming to Jesus, when they saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs.”

30.   Side pierced                       
Zechariah 12:10 (520 B.C.):  “they will look on me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn.”
John 19:34 – “But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out.”

31.  Darkness over the land            
Amos 8:9 (760 B.C.):  “’It will come about in that day,’ declares the Lord God ‘That I will make the sun go down at noon and make the earth dark in broad daylight.’”
Matthew 27:45 – “Now from the sixth hour darkness fell upon all the land until the ninth hour.”

32.   Buried in rich man’s tomb                 
Isaiah 53:9 (740-697 B.C.):  “His grave was assigned with wicked men, yet He was with a rich man in His death”
Matthew 27:57-60 – “When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who himself had also become a disciple of Jesus. This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock; and he rolled a large stone against the entrance of the tomb and went away”.

33.  Resurrection                     
Psalm 16:10 (1,000 B.C.):  “You will not abandon my soul to Sheol; nor will you allow your Holy One to undergo decay.”
Matthew 28:5,6 – “you are looking for Jesus who has been crucified. He is not here, for He has risen”.               

Objection
Someone may reply that the prophesies were written around, or even after, the time Jesus lived, thus rendering the evidentiary value unconvincing. Josh McDowell, PhD. Talbot Theological Seminary, Magna Cum Laude, answers:
“If you are not satisfied with 450 B.C. as the historic date for the completion of the Old Testament, then take into consideration the following:  The Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, was initiated in the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus (285-246 B.C.). It is rather obvious that if you have a Greek translation initiated in 250 B.C., then you had to have the Hebrew text from which it was written. This will suffice to indicate that there was at least a 250-year gap between the prophecies being written down and their fulfillment in the person of Christ.”[1]

It may be possible to object that a few of these prophesies are somewhat general and could be true of a population group. However, added together, the evidence compounds geometrically, leading to infinitesimally small odds of one person fulfilling these by chance.

Conclusion
No human could accurately make all of these predictions with perfect accuracy.  We can’t even predict who will win a presidential election or the Superbowl. Only God could cause all of these to come true. The evidence is overwhelming that the Bible is divinely inspired and Jesus Christ was sent from God.

For further study on this subject, an outstanding resource is Josh McDowell’s book Evidence that Demands a Verdict.  It is written in a scholarly manner and meticulously footnoted. 

[Biblical references are from the NASB version.]




[1] Josh McDowell, Evidence that Demands a Verdict (San Bernadino, CA:  Here’s Life Publishers, 1986), 144.

Monday, March 13, 2017

What is God like? (part 2)

This article is the second of two listing the primary attributes of God. We will list selected scripture references for each attribute with some additional clarification. Those attributes discussed in this part are:  His omnipresence, omniscience, perfection, righteousness, self-existence, self-sufficiency, and unchangeableness.

Omnipresent
·          “Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?" declares the Lord” (Jeremiah 23:24)
·         “Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, you are there.” (Psalm 139:7-8)

But, how can God be everywhere? And, besides, isn’t He in heaven? God is everywhere in the sense that He maintains total sovereignty over the entire universe. This is not pantheism, wherein the universe is God:  He is separate from the creation. He is not constrained by physical limitations as are humans since “God is Spirit” (John 4:24). He created all that exists, so it seems reasonable He would have the ability to be omnipresent. We know He has the ability to exercise control over all the creation, because the Bible states that by Him all things were created and “in Him all things hold together” (Colossians 1:17).

Omniscient
·         “His understanding is infinite” (Psalm 147:5)
·         “God is greater than our heart and knows all things” (1 John 3:20)

God demonstrated his omniscience through the prophesies found in His word that were fulfilled – with incredibly small odds – showing that He knows the future (a talent the Vegas odds makers would love to possess). Furthermore, if God created the universe, His knowledge is at least immeasurably beyond that of humans.

Peter Kreeft, Professor of Philosophy at Boston College, addressed the issue of God’s omniscience in relation to evil in the world. “God, if he is all-wise knows not only the present but the future. And he knows not only the present good and evil but future good and evil”, stated Kreeft. He went on to say God “has demonstrated how the very worst thing that has ever happened in the history of the world ended up resulting in the very best thing that has ever happened in the history of the world.” Referring to the death of God’s son on the cross, “the worst tragedy in history brought about the most glorious event in history.”[1] This event came about because God foresaw all potentialities in the future, then chose that with the greatest eternal benefit for mankind.

Perfect …
·         “In Him there is no sin” (1 John 3:5), speaking of God the Father
·         And, speaking of Jesus, “who committed no sin” (1 Peter 2:22)
·         “He made Him (Jesus) who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf” (2 Corinthians 5:21)

… but, did Jesus become sin?
OK, so God is perfect and His Son, Jesus Christ, is perfect. But, if Jesus committed no sin, how did He become sin? Did Jesus become evil and descend into hell as an unregenerate sinner who needed to be saved and born again? Certainly not. Let’s look at it this way, did the millions of sheep and bulls sacrificed in the Old Testament turn into sinners? No, they remained dumb animals, but they paid the penalty for the sins of the people. Likewise, Jesus remained who He was while making the sacrifice for us. Jesus Christ never committed any sin, but the sins of the world were imputed to Him as the sacrifice. As Norm Geisler has noted:
“Jesus was always without sin actually, but He was made to be sin for us judicially. That is, by His death on the Cross, He paid the penalty for our sins and thereby cancelled the debt of sin against us. So, while Jesus never committed a sin personally, He was made to be sin for us substitutionally.”[2]   

Righteous
·         “The Lord is righteous in all His ways” (Psalm 145:17)
·         “The Lord is righteous” (2 Chronicles 12:6, Lamentations 1:18, Psalm 129:4, and Zephaniah 3:5)
·         “The Lord is righteous; He loves righteousness” (Psalm 11:7)
·         “the Lord our God is righteous with respect to all His deeds which He has done” (Daniel 9:14)

But, if God is righteous, where did the unrighteousness come from? If God created everything, He must have created unrighteousness and evil, right? In fact, He created Satan, previously called Lucifer. Yes, the Lord created Lucifer, who was given the free will to make his own choices. Lucifer chose evil – as some people do – but that does not mean God created the evil. Kreeft and Tacelli note that “Even the devil is good in his being. He is a good thing gone bad … If he had not had the greatest ontological goodness (goodness in his being) of a powerful mind and will, he could never have become as morally corrupt as he is.”[3] Evil is not an entity in itself; rather, it is a perversion or absence of righteousness. If someone makes a knife for the purpose of cutting food in the kitchen, but the knife is used to commit murder, the maker has done nothing wrong. The fact that unrighteousness exists does not diminish God’s righteousness.

Self-Existent and Self-Sufficient
·         “I am who I am” (Exodus 3:14)
·          “In the beginning God ...” (Genesis 1:1)
·         “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? (Job 38:4)
·         “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end” (Revelation 21:6)
·         “The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things” (Acts 17:24-25)

Descartes addressed the attributes of God:
“By the word ‘God’ I mean a substance that is infinite, independent, supremely intelligent, supremely powerful, and the Creator of myself and anything else that may exist.”[4]
After some additional rationalist musings, he went on to address God’s self-existence and self-sufficiency:
“Now if I had existence from myself, I should have no doubts or wants, and in general nothing would be lacking in me; I should have endowed myself with all the perfections of which I have any idea – in fact I should myself be a God.”[5]
God required nothing to exist (unlike humans) and He needs nothing to continue existence.

Unchanging
·         “I, the Lord, do not change” (Malachi 3:6)
·         “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8)
·         “The Lord has sworn and will not change His mind” (Psalm 110:4)
·         “the Glory of Israel will not lie or change His mind; for He is not a man that He should change His mind" (1 Samuel 15:29)

But, don’t some verses in the Bible say that God changes His mind? For example, when the Israelites worshipped the golden calf, God said to Moses, “Now then let me alone, that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them; and I will make of you a great nation” (Exodus 32:10). Then, after Moses pleaded with Him, the “Lord changed His mind about the harm which He said He would do to His people” (v. 14). So, God does change – at least His mind, right?

Norm Geisler makes several points in answering this apparent dilemma:
·         First, change must occur in some chronological order, with the initial condition preceding the later condition. But, since God exists outside of time, this is meaningless. He sees the end from the beginning, so one does not necessarily precede the other from His point of view.
·         Second, something that changes shows some difference between former and latter states, generally for the better or worse. But, God is not different before or after; therefore, He cannot change.
·         Third, if anyone was to change his mind, it would take place after new information is revealed. But, since God knows all, new information would have no effect in His mind. However, circumstances may change – e. g. Moses’ prayer - and God’s relationship to the new situation may be different. God did not change, Moses did.[6]

[Biblical quotations are from the NASB version.]



[1] Lee Strobel, The Case for Faith (Grand Rapids, MI:  Zondervan, 2000), 39.
[2] Norman Geisler and Thomas Howe, When Critics Ask (Wheaton, IL:  Victor Books, 1992), 471.
[3] Peter Kreeft & Ronald Tacelli, Handbook of Christian Apologetics (Downers Grove, IL:  Intervarsity Press, 1994), 132.
[4] Descartes Philosophical Writings, translated by Elizabeth Anscombe and Peter Thomas Geach (Indianapolis, IN:  Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1971), 85.
[5] Ibid., 87.
[6] Geisler and Howe, 85-86.