Ardent American Patriot and Lover of Israel
Blinded by Intelligence
“Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart” (Ephesians 4:18).
It is a tragedy for a person to have blinded eyes, but infinitely worse to have a blinded heart. No one ever willfully chooses to be sightless, but spiritual blindness is a product of the human will.
After Christ had given sight to the man born blind, the Pharisees still refused to believe, so Jesus said to them:
“For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind. . . . If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth” (John 9:39,41).
Like these ancient intellectuals, it often seems that modern intellectuals are incurably blind. They profess to teach science and philosophy of the highest complexity, but their understanding is darkened and their hearts are blinded when it comes to the saving gospel of Jesus Christ. As Paul says: “If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them” (II Corinthians 4:3,4).
Even very religious people, people who believe in God as Creator, may blind themselves when confronted with the truth that the Creator must also become their Savior. “But their minds were blinded: . . . even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart” (II Corinthians 3:14,15).
Nevertheless, Christ came as “the Light,” and when anyone will simply in faith “turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away” (II Corinthians 3:16), and the gospel will “shine unto them” (II Corinthians 4:4).
February 3, 2010 - 12:03 am
Matthew, Mark, Luke, John…. qualify as impeccably reliable eyewitnesses
Does this apply, do you think, to the gospel writers' direct reporting of the exact words spoken by various people?
I have in mind how often our gospels' writers "quote" other people. Besides Jesus' the gospels also record words of the disciples, Herod, angels, demons, Satan, tax collectors, and crowds of people all saying the same words all together. The gospels even record long speeches spoken in dreams, and verbatim accounts of inner thoughts that were never spoken, but that Jesus knew because He could read minds.
Here's our Bible reliability question : How'd they do that? How are the gospel writers able to quote the incidental ephemeral speech of all those bit players exactly ?
How did the gospel writers know exactly,
word for word what the angel said in Joseph's dream, [Mt 1, MT 2]
word for word what Herod said in his secret meeting, [Mt 2]
word for word what the centurion said [Mt 8]
word for word what the man with leprosy said [Mt 8]
word for word what the demons said [Mt 8]
word for word what the Pharisees thought in their private thoughts but never spoke? [Lk 5]
Word for word the things said by the woman at the well? [Jn 4]
What possible method could our gospel writers have used to come up with all the various verbatim quotations they claim to give?
Or did the gospel writers get all those "quotations" by just making them up? Is it more likely that "Matthew" knew the words Herod spoke in a secret meeting, or did "Matthew" probably, like everyone else back then, just make up quotes because that was the standard way to tell a story?
And if the only reasonable non-magical explanation is that the gospel writers got their "quotations" by making them up, then …. our gospel writers made stuff up. Just made it up. And it is not true the gospels are historical, not in the sense that the sayings and events we read about in them actually happened.
Bino Bolumai
/ In Bino Veritas /