Did Jesus exist? According to David Fitzgerald, he didn’t. I believe differently. Here I counter the arguments that Fitzgerald makes in his claim that Jesus didn’t exist. Part 1 of 3.
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The Old Testament, New Testament, and Intertestamental works describe Satan in very different manner. This allows us to see how the idea of Satan evolved over time.
In this video, I tackle that question of how the idea of Satan evolved during these time periods.
For a longer discussion on Job: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrgfW…
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Who was Satan? What does the Bible tell us of this figure? How does the figure of Satan develop over time.
In this video, I jump into that massive question, and discuss the early formation of the figure we know of as Satan.
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So I jump into somewhat of a weird question. Could the descendants of giants, as described in the Bible, still exist?
In this video, I jump into the topic of the Nephilim and the idea of what were giants as described in the Bible. I also answer how tall Goliath really was. Surprise, it wasn’t as gigantic as one may think.
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Did Jesus criticize the Jewish authorities? A bit. One story really stands out, and that’s the incident in the Temple.
In this video, I look at the incident at the Temple, and what it really meant. But I also look at the larger picture, and that’s interfaith debates.
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The Old Testament is filled with warfare. It should be expected since Israel was in a strategic position. So to pick some terrible actions within war should be easy when it comes to the Old Testament. Yet Dan Barker picks the Tribe of Dan conquering a city. No massacre, no gory details, just a simply conquering.
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In the Book of Hosea, we get some disturbing images. Israel was under attack, and would soon become a conquered people. Hosea was one of the prophets that were trying to get the people to understand what was happening.
But the book of Hosea was written long after the events it speaks of, and the intention was to try to understand what had happened. And part of what happened was terrible. Hosea doesn’t leave out those gory details.
The thing though is that the perpetrators of those actions wasn’t God, but the Assyrians.
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Dan Barker of the Freedom From Religion Foundation has compiled a list of his top 10 worse verses of the Old Testament. There’s just one problem, he utterly butchers the job.
In this first video, I look at the number 10 verse, which deals with the story of Job. Job is a complicated book, and one that both atheists and theists often get wrong. Barker isn’t an exception here. Instead of looking at what Job is saying, the argument that he’s making, he takes a verse out of context.
Ironically, what Barker is pointing out as a flaw about how God is portrayed is the same thing that Job was doing.
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We don’t always know how a religion first began. But for Christianity, we have a good sense of how it evolved out of Judaism, and became it’s own religion.
In this episode, I dive into the formation of the Christian religion, and the influences that led to it’s shaping.
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One of my favorite topics is the Historical Jesus. I’ve been on almost every side of the issue, from seeing him as having been a fictional character, when I was a teenager, to seeing him as a real historical figure. So what evidence do we have to suggest that he really existed? That’s what I cover in this video.
To check out more of my work, you can go to http://belzian.com/ or to connect with me go to https://www.facebook.com/amateurscholar/