Amazing Evidence by Terrence J. Hatch - HTML preview

Chapter 8

Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God? But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows.

[Luke 12:6,7 KJV]

Evidence from Codes in the Bible

Mathematicians have investigated patterns in the Bible for centuries. Isaac Newton was among the first, but little is known of his findings. More recently a mathematician named Ivan Panin drafted more than 40,000 pages of notes on the subject in the early twentieth century.

The reason Panin could find mathematics in the Bible is because ancient Greek and Hebrew alphabets use letters to express numbers. The values of Greek and Hebrew letters appear in the appendix of any Webster's Unabridged Dictionary. The patterns show up when letters in a word are added together, much like in Scrabble.

Ivan Panin cited a vast quantity of mathematical patterns.

One notable example is found in Panin's book, Verbal Inspiration of the Bible Scientifically Demonstrated. The pattern emerged when he added up the Greek letters in the words Jesus Christ (Insous Xristos).

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Amazing Evidence: Grounds for Belief Isaac Newton, as painted by Godfrey Kneller in 1689.

Both Jesus and Christ are divisible by 296 which is 8

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Amazing Evidence: Grounds for Belief times 37. On numerous occasions, Panin demonstrates that the number 37 is a number that symbolizes God.

To try and get a rough idea how unusual it is that both Jesus and Christ would be divisible by an integer as large as 296, I wrote a software program to analyze a matrix of one million possible word pairs. The words were limited to those with values between 1 and 1000. The program revealed that of these one million word pairs, only 1,510 had common factors equal to or larger than 296 - or two tenths of one percent. In other words, the name Jesus Christ is more unique than approximately 99.8

percent of all word pairs. But that is not the end of it. I dug a little deeper and discovered there is also a possessive spelling for Jesus Christ. In the Greek it is Insou Xristou, and incredibly, these two words taken together are also a multiple of 296.

More Mathematical Themes in the New Testament

Thirty years ago, Del Washburn built on Ivan Panin's work and compiled a large volume of numeric data. He showed his work to Jerry Lucas. You may remember Jerry as a basketball star, and later as a proponent of Scripture memory techniques.

Together they wrote the book Theomatics, which contains extensive documentation of patterns similar to Panin's, yet with a new twist. They discovered that adding the word values in a Bible verse tends to result in a number that relates to the verse's topic. The results are convincing, and can be verified by anyone with access to a Greek New Testament and a calculator.

We will now look at some examples from their book.

Most Christians are already aware that the numbers 12 and 144

(12 X 12), are biblically significant. There were 12 gates to the temple, 12 disciples who followed Jesus, and 144,000 saints from the great tribulation who will stand before God's throne. But in Theomatics we see that the comparison goes much further. In the list that follows, the number 144 tends to relate to the topic of

"God's people." For the sake of brevity, we will limit the list to only one topic from the book of Revelation. But I encourage you 111

Amazing Evidence: Grounds for Belief to purchase the book and be energized by the more extensive evidence it presents. The following phrases from the book of Revelation are all multiples of 144.

 My faithful one

Revelation 2:13

 The faith

Revelation 2:13

 New name

Revelation 2:17

 Jerusalem

Revelation 3:12

 New Jerusalem

Revelation 3:12

 Saints

Revelation 8:3

 Witness

Revelation 12:11

 Priests of God

Revelation 20:6

Many other themes are also documented. Imagine a thick book filled with examples like these, and you begin to get a picture of the work Lucas and Washburn created. They also worked closely with a mathematician to conduct a statistical study. The study compared a secular Greek text with the Bible.

As a result, they were able to demonstrate that only the Bible contains numbers that relate to themes. The first book is now out of print and a new book has replaced it, Theomatics II: God's Best Kept Secrets Revealed, authored by Del Washburn alone.

Encrypted Words and Phrases

The Bible Codes are intriguing patterns found in the original Hebrew text of the Old Testament. Their validity is still considered questionable by most. Yet after personally investigating their existence and performing many code searches myself, I came to the conclusion that certain aspects of the codes are worth reporting on.

Wikipedia gives this synopsis of the man who is often credited with discovering the Bible codes: 112

Amazing Evidence: Grounds for Belief Rabbi Chaim Michael Dov Weissmandl (1903–1957) (known as Rabbi Michael Ber Weissmandl) was a rabbi and shtadlan who became known for his efforts to save the Jews of Slovakia from extermination at the hands of the Nazis during the Holocaust.

Actually, it appears that Weissmandl was not the first to discover the codes. Apparently, Weissmandl found "an obscure reference in a book by a fourteenth-century rabbi known as Rabbeynu Bachayah that described a pattern on letters encoded within the Torah." (Desnitsky, 1999). As he began to investigate, Weissmandl "copied large portions of the Torah onto ten characters by ten character grids." (Wikipedia, 2008). His curiosity was piqued when he found the four-letter Hebrew word torah encoded in the opening verses of both Genesis and Exodus, the first two books of the Torah. He found the word beginning with the first occurrence of the Hebrew letter tav, and by reading every fiftieth letter. It is a fact that I have personally verified.

In the 1990's, Dr. Eliyahu Rips, a professor of mathematics from Hebrew University in Israel, first used computers to find these codes. The software he created wraps an imaginary strand of Bible text around a virtual cylinder to create a barber-pole spiral. The diameter of the cylinder is such that one complete revolution contains the same number of letters as the skip factor. Additional words and phrases then emerge in the form of crossword style clusters. Dr. Rips believes that these clusters seem to prophetically describe many events. In fact, they include references to wars, assassinations, earthquakes, and even individuals. A number of similar software packages are now on the market.

A secular reporter named Michael Drosnin became interested in the project in 1992 and wrote a book, The Bible Code. Because of the book many are now aware of the codes. In it, he proposes that virtually all significant historical events make appearances in the codes. He therefore claims the codes can be used to predict the future. The claim has been hotly controversial.

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Amazing Evidence: Grounds for Belief When Dr. Rips addressed the question as to whether the codes could be used for predicting the future, his response in writing was,

"After much thought, my categorical answer is no. All attempts to extract messages from Torah codes, or to make predictions based on them, are futile and are of no value. This is not only my own opinion, but the opinion of every scientist who has been involved in serious Codes research." (Rips, 1997).

However, Dr. Rips still holds firmly to the belief that the codes are more than random chance.

"The only conclusion that can be drawn from the scientific research regarding the Torah codes is that they exist and that they are not a mere coincidence "

Dr. Rips, along with Doron Witztum and Yoav Rosenberg, published a scientific study proving the existence of the codes. The study appeared in the August 1994 edition of Statistical Science, a journal of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics. The journal decided to publish the study only after it passed a six-year, three-level, peer review by mathematicians.

To prove its assertion, the study compared Genesis with a Hebrew version of the book War and Peace. It concluded that only Genesis contained coherent clusters of words that relate to modern historical figures. The journal prefaced the article by stating that reviewers were "baffled: their prior beliefs made them think that the Book of Genesis could not possibly contain references to modern day individuals, yet when the authors carried out additional analyses and checks the effect persisted."

(Statistical Science, 1994).

Coincidence or Design

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Amazing Evidence: Grounds for Belief Can such anomalies be mere coincidence, or are they the fingerprint of God? When talking about symbolism and prophecy, skeptics are quick to allege conspiracy, but mathematical patterns that are too complex for the human brain imply that all such designs are God's handiwork. Patterns in the Bible are yet another realm of evidence that is grounds for belief.

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Amazing Evidence: Grounds for Belief Chapter 9

And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of. [Genesis 22:2 KJV]

Evidence from Mount Moriah

The book of Genesis provides an ancient answer to the question, "Why was Christ's death necessary?" Here we will see amazing similarities between Abraham's sacrifice and the Crucifixion. A number of prophetic images in the story of Abraham and Isaac are mirrored in the account of Christ's Crucifixion. The parallels are evidence that God planned Christ's mission far in advance.

In the book of Genesis, Abraham took his son Isaac to the top of a mountain to offer him to God as a human sacrifice. Some Christians find this story embarrassing. After all, the God of the Bible forbids such practices, and yet it is God who commanded Abraham to offer up Isaac. Skeptics charge that the story proves that Christians believe in a God who contradicts himself.

However, Christians who understand the underlying message see exactly the opposite. Skeptics who don't believe in God, tend to confuse human beliefs with God's commands.

Within the story, Christians find that God provides Abraham with an alternative to his acceptance of human sacrifice. Keep in mind 117

Amazing Evidence: Grounds for Belief that Abraham didn't the luxury of opening a Bible to find out what God stood for. So God gave Abraham an unforgettable lesson. The result is an amazing story of forgiveness and grace, and a beautiful prophetic picture of Christ and the Gospel message.

Evidence of Abraham

Some skeptics naively argue that Abraham was fictional.

But those who do, ignore the fact that his existence is confirmed by independent sources. Both Muslims and Jews consider themselves descendants of Abraham. And both have passed down uniquely different stories of his life that essentially complement each other. Jews consider themselves descendants of Abraham's son Isaac, while Arabs consider themselves descendants of Ishmael, Abraham's earlier son by his maidservant Hagar.

Both Muslims and Jews have holy places that are significant because Abraham visited there. Jews initially built their temple upon Mount Moriah in Jerusalem because they believed it was where Abraham offered Isaac. Arabs hold Mecca in high regard because of a black stone which is said to have fallen there, out of the sky. Abraham reportedly enshrined it.

Both accounts don't always agree on every detail, but they do have substantial agreement concerning major events in Abraham's life. And they do contain remarkable similarities in their descriptions of Abraham's personality, lifestyle, and culture.

Together, they constitute evidence that Abraham's life was not fictional.

The Message of Mount Moriah

The average follower of Christ has never experienced a spiritually primitive culture, and doesn't have a clue why Abraham would offer his son Isaac on top of a mountain as a sacrifice. In today's world, human sacrifices are not the norm. We just don't get it. So it helps to understand what life was like in his 118

Amazing Evidence: Grounds for Belief day.

On a very small scale, Abraham's family operated in many ways as a tiny, self-governing nation. This was typical of other families in the area. Abraham lived not long after the flood of Noah, when the world was still sparsely populated.

Government boundaries that had been destroyed had yet to be re-established.

The few writings that have survived from before the flood paint a much different picture of the pre-flood world. It was a world dominated by well-developed nations who were at war.

Writings that purportedly describe this period include Vedic manuscripts, and portions of the Book of Enoch.

When the flood came, it was like starting over again. The cities, governments, and monetary systems all disappeared, and the process of development began again. It was in this context that God promised Abraham that he would be the father of many nations. It was a promise that would have been meaningless to make in a populated earth with clear national boundaries, but the promise has now been fulfilled as many Jewish, Arabic, and Christian peoples now look to Abraham as their patriarch.

In this emerging world economy, wealth was measured in terms of livestock, and each family maintained their own security force. In fact, we read in Genesis 14:14 that Abraham was able to field an army of 318 men who had been born in his household.

In terms of spirituality, a few centuries had passed since Noah, and many had fallen away from a true faith. Idolatry had become a common practice, and people carved idols of wood or stone, and called them gods. Often, people believed these false gods to be evil and vindictive. In an effort to appease them, history reveals people would take innocent children to the tops of mountains and sacrifice them. Apparently, people equated elevation with spirituality, and they believed children were the ultimate sacrifice.

From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible was written in about a thousand years. Yet even as the last word was penned, much of the world still offered human sacrifices to idols. Ezekiel 119

Amazing Evidence: Grounds for Belief mentioned the practice as late as 500 years BC, when he denounced Jews who sacrificed children. (Ezekiel 23:4,37-39).

But it wasn't until the Gospel of Christ spread throughout the world that the practice would finally cease. The reason for the Gospel's impact on the practice of human sacrifice is found in the message. Because of sin we all deserved to die, but God provided a substitute sacrifice when Christ died on the cross. It is the same message that was revealed to Abraham centuries earlier.

So as Abraham was preparing to obey God, God was preparing to reveal an amazing message of grace that was distinctly out of sync with the world culture. It would become a great blessing to all the generations that would follow.

Prophetic Parallels

There are several amazing parallels between this story and the Crucifixion that imply God had a greater purpose than just teaching Abraham a lesson. The first occurs when we read that he was to go to a place “in the land of Moriah…upon one of the mountains.” (Gen. 22:2, KJV). The Crucifixion of Christ is also a story of a sacrifice on a Mountain in Moriah. Traditionally, Jews believe Abraham took Isaac to the temple site, which is on Mount Moriah, although any hard evidence as to his actual destination has been lost. Christ was also crucified on Mount Moriah, at Golgotha.

A second parallel is seen as Abraham and Isaac begin the final ascent. At this point, Abraham had Isaac carry the wood for the burnt offering Gen. 22:6. It was a task that would be duplicated centuries later as Christ also carried a cross made of wood up Mount Moriah.

A third prophetic parallel appeared when Isaac wondered why they didn't bring an animal to sacrifice. Abraham told him that God would provide. It turned out to be a prophetic statement that would be fulfilled to a far greater extent than Abraham knew at the time, for Christ's death was also seen as a sacrificial death 120

Amazing Evidence: Grounds for Belief and was timed to coincide with the sacrifice of the Passover lamb.

A fourth prophetic image was created whey they arrived at the top. Abraham bound Isaac and placed him on the wood as God instructed. Centuries later, a similar image was created when Christ was also fastened to a wooden implement of death.

About this time, Abraham must have wondered what God was doing. After all, God had promised that from Isaac's descendants would come many nations and a Messiah. If Isaac died, it would seem that God had lied. Abraham must have reasoned that the only way out would be for God to resurrect Isaac. Yet Abraham continued to believe God, and was acting in obedience and faith. However, before Abraham killed Isaac, God intervened. As Abraham raised his arm to slay his son, God called out to him and told him to stop, saying:

"Do not lay a hand on the boy.... Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son."

(Gen. 22:12 NIV)

The writer had already recorded that Abraham had another son through a handmaiden. Yet still, he faithfully recorded God's words, calling Isaac an only son, depicting how Christ would be God's only son. The statement is therefore the fifth prophetic image in the story. God had given both Abraham and Sarah independently a promise that it would be through their descendants that he would bless the nations. And Isaac was indeed the only son of both Isaac and Sarah.

A sixth prophetic image is then seen. Immediately, Abraham saw a ram caught in the brush. A ram is a male sheep, and Abraham offered this ram in his son's place. It became a picture of how Christ was crucified at Passover as a symbolic lamb, in our place.

A seventh, and final, prophetic image then appears. As Abraham accepted the sacrifice God provided, the life of his son 121

Amazing Evidence: Grounds for Belief was spared. So it is, through Christ's sacrifice at Golgotha that the lives of those who accept Christ's gift are spared for eternity.

So any belief of Abraham's that God demanded human sacrifices was proved wrong. And the idolatrous nations were also proved wrong. God didn't demand the lives of children.

Instead, his plan all along was to provide a substitute. Yet, perfectly in tune with a sinful nation's need to satisfy their guilt, God did not say a sacrifice was out of order. And he did not relieve them of the responsibility to be forgiven for unrighteousness.

Instead, God demanded a sacrifice, but he also demanded surrender and obedience, and the sacrifice was not one they would have to provide. In fact the obedience was to a forgiving and just God, who longed to provide a means of reconciliation.

This was much different than obeying a stone god, thought to be evil and vindictive, like the heathen nations worshiped.

And this is the key lesson of Golgotha. God provides the sacrifice, and all he asks is surrender to his law of love. Taken as a whole, the clues listed here constitute evidence that God planned Christ's mission far in advance.

The Big Mistake

Some might raise the accusation that the Crucifixion resembled the story of Abraham and Isaac because the Crucifixion was planned that way. But there is no evidence that anyone was aware of these parallels when Christ was crucified.

And the Crucifixion was actually planned by Christ's enemies, who would never have wanted Christ to be considered a sacrifice for sin.

Many other prophecies were also fulfilled when Christ was crucified, not just ones originating from the story of Abraham and Isaac. The enemies of Christ would probably have dealt with Christ differently if they had known they were fulfilling prophecies.

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Amazing Evidence: Grounds for Belief They would have crucified Christ in a valley, if they had realized that by crucifying him on Mount Moriah they compared him to Isaac. They would have chosen a different week if they had known that Christ's death during Passover would cause him to be compared to a sacrificial lamb, and the ram that Abraham sacrificed. In fact, by crucifying God's first-born at Passover, they paralleled the first Passover and the deaths of first-born sacrificial lambs and Egypt's first-born sons. The sacrificial deaths bought Israel's freedom from Egyptian tyranny, and allowed the birth of a new nation. Likewise, the death of God's only son bought us freedom, and citizenship in God's kingdom.

And they might not have planned a crucifixion on a cross at Passover with a crown of thorns if they had realized that the blood duplicated the cross pattern of blood on door-posts at the original Passover. Likewise, they might have reconsidered lifting him up on a cross if they had remembered Christ's words. Christ had said, "If I be lifted up I will draw all men unto me." They also might have chosen a different method if they had noticed it mirrored the serpent on a pole that Moses raised in the wilderness. God told Moses to raise it so that anyone bitten by a serpent could be healed by looking at it. The serpent on a pole painted a prophetic picture of our sins on the cross. When Christ died on the cross, he was bearing the sins of the world, as prophetically foretold (Isaiah 53). In doing so, he enabled anyone with the bite marks of sin to look to the cross in order to receive healing and forgiveness.

The enemies of Christ might not have pierced his side with a spear if they had remembered Zechariah's words. In a prophetic passage, God announced that on the day of judgment, Israel would:

"look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son."

(Zech. 12:10 NIV).

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Amazing Evidence: Grounds for Belief In this passage, God refers to the one who is pierced as both "me"

and "him." This conflicting "me" and "him" is thought to be prophetically significant. The Bible teaches that not only was Christ the Son of God, but he was also God in the flesh. This Old Testament passage prophetically depicts the nation of Israel grieving over "the one they have pierced" on the day of the Lord, the day when Christ will return.

Christ's enemies also might not have brought him before Pilate if they had known Pilate would post a sign proclaiming Christ to be King of the Jews. No, if they had known all these things they would have planned a different death for Christ.

And then there is the Resurrection. If they had foreseen Christ's resurrection on the third feast day they would have withdrawn their plans in shock. The third day in the Feast of Unleavened Bread is the most significant day of the year for the Jewish nation. On this same day in scripture, Noah's ark came to rest on top of a mountain. On this same day, Israel arrived in Egypt where there was abundant food. And on this same day, Israel crossed the Red Sea from slavery to freedom. Security, freedom, salvation - all are fruits of the resurrection. For even more events that happened on the third feast day which occurs on the 17th day of Nisan/Abib, see the chapter that documents the timing of the Crucifixion week.

And then, if they had known that God would pour out his Spirit at Pentecost, they would have had to rethink everything.

The event fulfilled prophecies that God would write his law on human hearts. It occurred fifty days after the crossing of the Red Sea, on the same day that Jews celebrate the giving of the Law on tablets of stone to Moses. And then, under no circumstances would the leaders have crucified Christ during Passover on a cross on Mount Moriah.

The truth is, it is impossible to believe that anyone but God could have orchestrated the symbolism surrounding the death and resurrection of Christ. It was God who took what was meant for harm and turned it into a source of evidence that provides hope for the entire world. It was God who enabled 124

Amazing Evidence: Grounds for Belief hundreds of Messianic prophecies to be fulfilled. And it was God who arranged the symbolism in Christ's sacrificial death. And all of this occurred in spite of his enemies' attempts to avoid any implication that he was anything more than a man.

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Amazing Evidence: Grounds for Belief Chapter 10

For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools.

[Romans 1:20-23, NIV]

Evidence vs. Silly Theories

When Jesus walked on water, was he really walking on a sheet of ice? After he escaped the tomb, did he marry, move to England and start a secret society? Was his body devoured by wild dogs as some have theorized? Was another sheet of ice the real reason the Children of Israel were able to cross the Red Sea?

All of these theories have scholars who promote them, yet all fail to pass basic tests of common sense. This chapter examines evidence that emerges simply from the failure of these theories to explain away the miracles of the Bible.

Answers dot-com defines silly as "Exhibiting a lack of wisdom or good sense; foolish." Examples of silliness in the name of scholarship abound. You may recognize some of these examples.

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Amazing Evidence: Grounds for Belief Occasionally, one reads a theory that sounds scholarly, but is based on incredible assumptions. This type of whimsical nonsense often ends up in the popular media because people like nonsense for entertainment. The authors of such nonsense consider themselves scholars, but find it hard to believe in miracles because they lack real spiritual experience. These people are rarely challenged publicly, and they often continue to publish ludicrous conclusions that do not emerge from the available evidence. The resulting works are therefore mere speculations that are thrust on readers for the express purpose of creating doubt.

It is amazing how scholarly something can sound, while simultaneously lacking any element of good sense. Since 1985, the Jesus Seminar has grown to more than 200 individuals. The group meets twice a year. In the past, they have voted on which sayings of Jesus are authentic, by casting colored beads into a ballot box. In this way, they decided which parts of the Bible are fictional, and which are not. Events with strong supernatural elements inevitably wound up being deemed fictional.

Meanwhile, events common to life were judged historically accurate. Thus they replaced the science of historical fact-finding and textual criticism with a voting process. In this way, truth was determined based on their own limited understanding and experience, all without the burden of proof.

Then their book, The Five Gospels, communicated their conclusions about what Jesus said. The latest book, The Acts of Jesus: What Did Jesus Really Do, catalogs the things Jesus did in a similarly biased manner.

Another example of bias is a recent article by Doron Nof, an oceanography professor at Florida State University. In it, he speculated that when Jesus appeared to walk on water, he was actually walking on an underwater ice shelf.

The way biblical account unfolds, Jesus sent the disciples out from shore in a boat to cross a lake, while he dismissed a crowd of people. As the disciples rowed out, Jesus spent time in 128

Amazing Evidence: Grounds for Belief prayer. Then the disciples saw Jesus walking on the water from a distance. They were terrified, thinking they were seeing a ghost.

Now please forgive a little sarcasm, but it's amazing the disciples never realized their boat was actually resting on ice as they rowed out from shore, or possibly that ice was forming instantly behind the boat, just in time for Jesus to walk out on it.

Nevertheless, according to Nof, by the time Jesus stepped into the water the ice already spanned the entire distance between the boat and the shore. In fact, even more incredibly, his theory demands that the shallow water on the ice not only allowed Jesus to walk out from shore, but it also allowed Peter to step out of the boat onto it before Jesus arrived. Then, apparently, Peter fell off the edge of the ice or the ice broke under him. So Jesus reached down, pulled him back onto the ice, and led him to the boat, where both climbed in.

During this whole process, the ice remained undetected by the disciples, who actually thought that Jesus and Peter were walking on water. Of course, there is no mention of the extreme cold that would have been necessary for the ice to form. There is also no mention of the frost-bite affecting the 5000 people on shore, who just been there listening to Jesus for so long they became famished.

Finally, there is the fact that ice floats, and the edge of a span of ice always rises to the surface, a trait that we can forgive Doron for not knowing, since he is from Florida, and has probably never seen ice. In fact, approximately one-sixth of the thickness of the edge or any chunks should normally rise above the surface. The remainder would be quite visible due to a lack of wave motion, for the Bible states that it was windy, and the waves were large. Large waves are not sustainable in water running off an ice shelf, and waves washing over a large expanse should have flattened out instantly. But maybe simple fishermen in Bible days wouldn't be qualified to recognize ice and its traits.

After all, nothing in the Bible indicates they were scholars like Professor Nof, and nothing else suggests they had ever been ice fishing!

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Amazing Evidence: Grounds for Belief However, while you and I may find such a scenario to be quite humorous, there are actually people in some rather educated circles who are repeating this story in attempts to lead others to abandon their faith,

More Ice

Professor Nof also once speculated that ice was how the Children of Israel were able to walk across the Red Sea, but again, this suggestion does not stand up to further scrutiny. For example, the biblical account mentions tropical palm trees on the other side at Elim, but again fails to mention the long spell of bitter cold that would have been necessary to produce such a layer of ice. And then, no explanation is given for why the Egyptian army drowned after the ice had successfully supported a million people with their livestock. Of course, we know today that the Red Sea is in close proximity to the equator. It only snows about twice a century, and it never has the type of weather that would be required for ice to form on a large body of water.

In a similar vein, Richard N. Ostling reported on the writings of liberal theologians in an article in Time Magazine.

(Monday, 1/10/1994), The article was titled Jesus Christ, Plain and Simple. In it, he summarizes the content of recent books from liberal theologians like this:

 They claim Jesus was probably illiterate

 They say he belonged to a "low caste of artisans"

 They claim many of the sayings attributed to him in the Bible, he never said.

 He never cured any diseases

 He was not resurrected

 Most likely his body was consumed by wild dogs They ignore scriptures such as Luke 4:16-21 that describe a very literate Jesus reading from a scroll, and even more that reveal he 130

Amazing Evidence: Grounds for Belief had an in-depth firsthand knowledge of the written Word, often using the phrase, “it is written.” (see Matthew 12:3,4; 21:14-16, 21:42). They also ignore the fact that the skill of Carpentry was one of the most cutting-edge technical skills of the day, a step above farming, and on a par with stone-cutting and metal-working.

By simple strokes of the pen, these men have attempted to rewrite history as recorded in the Gospels. An interesting dilemma for them is that their theories tend to contradict each other. For example, one argues Jesus' body was consumed by wild dogs, while another says he escaped and moved to England.

One theory says he was gay, while another says he married and had children. As a result, they never really do make it into the mainstream realm of critical thinking. After all, they are simply groundless speculation, excuses for disbelief, and the evidence isn't there. So people should be careful when reading such theories, so as not to let the author's credentials and foggy high-sounding vocabularies overshadow the weakness of the evidence they present.

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Amazing Evidence: Grounds for Belief Chapter 11

Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.

[John 14:6]

Evidence and Truth

What is Truth? Pilate asked this question of Christ, but it echoes the sentiments of skeptics everywhere. The Bible presents truth as an entity that can be known. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life,” suggesting knowing truth is very important on a spiritual journey. Truth is related to evidence, and this essay on truth will help the reader critically analyze the relationship between evidence and truth.

The search for truth can be confusing and difficult. Most agree that truth is more than an opinion, but that is where agreement ends. Many see truth as something flexible, an option if you will. And when it comes to choosing what to believe, options are everywhere.

Some choose to embrace the latest conspiracy theory or hop on the next political bandwagon. Others side with terrorists or follow some guru intellectual who has mastered the art of foggy speech.

In other words, people often try to form truth into something that will make them feel smart, or will impress their friends, but such motivations are potential biases that make the search for real truth difficult. Truth tends to be rather humiliating actually, because it often extends so far outside the boundaries of our limited intellect that we fail to understand it. Or, it shocks us because we did not foresee it. Mark Twain said it this way: “It's 133

Amazing Evidence: Grounds for Belief no wonder that truth is stranger than fiction. Fiction has to make sense.” To love truth is to embrace humility.

Facts often are used to define truth. Yet even facts can be controversial. Facts often appear contradictory on the surface. It is usually only by examining seemingly contradictory evidence that truth is uncovered.

Of course, the Christian believes that God guides a person into "all truth." Even this process can be painful as we hang onto ideas that seem comfortable, but have little basis in God's truth –

a process we call denial. So truth is not always comfortable, nor always beautiful, and sometimes is difficult to believe.

In fact, truth is very generic. It is neither elegant, nor ugly. In some cases, religion has substituted beauty for truth, and in doing so has smothered the truth they were hoping to propagate. While beauty in itself is a wonderful addition to any part of life, it is not a replacement for truth. Others try to impress with foggy words and complicated prose which makes some readers feel smart. But Albert Einstein once famously said, "If you are out to describe the truth, leave elegance to the tailor."

Therefore, when we read something with many elaborate words, we should not be sucked in to thinking the author must be a genius. Instead, it should make us think that the author is hiding some truth.

Skepticism can also make it difficult to discover truth. A little skepticism is important for discerning error, yet too much becomes a bias. The problem with a bias is that the skeptic with a strong bias is often unable to discern the personal character of those who are telling the truth.

Types of Evidence

Not all evidence is created equal. Scientists claim they insist on evidence other than testimonial evidence. And yet testimonial evidence is the one type of evidence that initially suggests where the truth may be. No matter whether a testimony comes from an experience or an experiment, the testimonial 134

Amazing Evidence: Grounds for Belief position is always one of superior knowledge. A person who lives in California has superior knowledge that California exists, in comparison to say, a skeptic in another country. Imagine the frustration a skeptic who doesn't believe in California would experience, if he chose to argue the fact with someone who lives there.

A reproducible experiment is another type of evidence that helps to unveil the truth. This is the ultimate type of evidence that scientists seek, and in addition to testimonial evidence is also a type of evidence that I have attempted to include in this book.

In fact, science is virtually incapable of establishing any truth that cannot be verified by reproducible experiments. Yet ultimately, all a reproducible experiment does is allow anyone who repeats the experiments to get their own testimony of the truth.

So we see that experiments and experience are closely related. In fact, both words are derived from the same root.

Performing an experiment results in an experience. And experience

is

the

basis

of

testimonial

evidence.

In this aspect, reproducible evidence is often the best kind, for it allows a greater number of witnesses to be established. The Bible places an emphasis on third-party testimonies in order to establish a fact. In Deuteronomy we read,

"A matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses." (Deut. 19:15). Once you have experienced the results of an experiment and found it agrees with the textbook, then you have your own testimony to share with others. You then are a witness of the truth.

In the realm of faith, a great number of witnesses have already been established, yet often because a skeptic has not experienced it, it is written off as nonsense. Many people will never experience the results of the faith experiment because they are unwilling to do what is critically necessary to perform the experiment. In its most basic sense, the Christian experience is an experiment, and anyone who chooses to pay the price of surrender to Christ is allowed to experience it.

In general, scientists are not comfortable admitting that 135

Amazing Evidence: Grounds for Belief almost every type of evidence requires a level of trust in others.

Even reproducible evidence requires a level of trust in others, at least until a person has personally verified the results. The only type of evidence that does not require trust is evidence that is personally experienced. The problem is that few have the time or ability to investigate all the evidence that is available. Therefore, the next best thing is to listen to the testimony of others. When multiple witnesses agree, it is hard to dismiss the evidence.

It may surprise some, but the key ingredient that gives historical records credibility is not believability - but rather it is the level of trust in the author, and the level of agreement with other sources. When records from different sources are in agreement that a certain event occurred in a certain way, and when those records bear other internal evidences that they are independent observations, then we should be hard-pressed to accept such testimony.

Scientific and Legal truth

Much of what we have discussed so far does not fall into the realm of scientific truth, but rather is legal truth. So, while scientific truth depends only on observation, legal truth is a different concept. Determination of legal truth depends as much on the demeanor and character of a witness as it does on hard evidence. A law professor of mine once stated that truth comes in four versions: the defendant's, the plaintiff's, the one the judge and jury believes, and God's absolute truth.

Few scientists will admit it, but scientific truth is not necessarily God's absolute truth, as evidenced by the fact that accepted scientific dogma has often changed through the centuries. In fact, believing in scientific truth requires some of the same skills of discernment as does legal truth. I have never stepped on the moon personally, so it is only if my discernment skills are well-developed enough to qualify the sources of the information, that I am able to believe that someone actually did step on the moon. In fact, I do believe it, but there are some who 136

Amazing Evidence: Grounds for Belief do not, suggesting that any truth may be a target for skepticism.

Conspiracy theories thrive on skepticism, and distrust of official sources. For a scientist who has been taught that all truth should be experimentally validated, it must be very difficult to accept the testimony of others when experiments such as moon landings cannot be easily duplicated.

God's absolute truth, on the other hand, has little regard for what you think about it. It is not a philosophy or opinion, and it exists whether or not it is believed. It doesn't need us to create it, and it is unaffected by anything that we do to defend or challenge it. It is like a continent across the sea, or a far away planet. Although it may not be seen, it is always there, waiting to be discovered, explored, and learned. Ultimately, it deserves to be believed, not because it is popular, or because it makes you feel good, but simp;y because it is true.

However, there is a segment of the entertainment media that delights in mocking absolute truth. They introduce confusion by making you feel good about believing stupid things, and feel stupid about believing good things. If you let them, they twist mental tools of destruction in your mind until your life is in a state of chaos. It is only through embracing humility and surrendering to God's absolute truth, that you can experience release.

The Bible talks about God’s absolute truth. It was Jesus Christ who said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." (John 14:6, KJV). In Hebrews we read, "Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today, and forever." It is this eternal consistency that typifies all truth. Evidence may change, facts may change, and reasoning may change, but truth never changes.

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Amazing Evidence: Grounds for Belief Chapter 12

They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. [Revelation 12:10b-11a]

Evidence of a Personal God

This book of evidence is nearly complete, but in a project like this, it would seem essential to include testimonial evidence that describes the mysterious and often very personal ways in which God works. So with that thought, I have documented some of the ways in which I have sensed God at work as this project came to fruition.

To begin, this book isn't the first one I have written. A long time ago, in the fall of 1988, an evangelist was visiting our church, and the service was packed. As he talked about the importance of finding your calling, I wondered what mine might be. I had once taken a writing class in engineering school, but had never connected with writing as a passion, or something desirable to pursue. So during this message, I asked God if he might want me to become a writer. Immediately after I had silently prayed those words, the evangelist looked directly at me and made the statement, "God is calling some of you to write."

The impact was quite dramatic, and I believed I had just heard from God. Over the next several days, I prayed for 139

Amazing Evidence: Grounds for Belief confirmation, and confirmation seemed to be everywhere. It certainly seemed that God was calling me to write, but I had no idea where to begin. So I purchased a book on writing, and began to study. About a year later, still not really knowing what to do, I began writing a book about the astrologer, Nostradamus. In some ways the choice of topic may have reflected my relationship, or lack thereof with God. Although I was interested in the topic, I had failed to find out what God wanted me to write about. The project took three long years to finish. As it neared completion, I sent out sample manuscripts to seven different publishers.

Over the next few weeks, six letters of rejection showed up in our mailbox. Then, one Saturday, I sensed God telling me to no longer seek to publish the book. Upon mentioning this to Brenda, my wife, she reacted strongly. "You must publish!", she said, "You have spent too many years of your life working on this."

My next action I don't recommend. In hindsight, I think I may have stepped over some imaginary line, and was testing God. I told Brenda, "Pick up that Bible near you and read me a verse. If the verse you read is not about the evils of astrology, then we will go ahead and publish the book. I knew that only a couple of verses in the Bible would meet such a criteria.

She agreed without hesitation, and picked up the Bible, possibly thinking that I was doomed to publish. Flipping it open she started to read, and then stopped mid-sentence. Looking at me with a strange expression she said, "You're not supposed to publish the book." The verse she had started to read addressed the evils of astrology.

A few minutes later, I went to the mailbox, and in it was an acceptance letter from a publisher with an offer to publish the book. It took a lot of determination, but we were faithful to the results of our little test, and never attempted any further to publish.

During the next years I further honed my writing skills with a number of writing classes. And on the computer, I 140

Amazing Evidence: Grounds for Belief accumulated quite a collection of essays on various topics that I thought might be good ideas for a book. But somehow, I never seemed to arrive at a sense of peace concerning any particular topic, and my writing career stagnated.

A break came when, several years ago, I sensed God saying that someday we would switch churches, and go to the church my dad was part of. When I mentioned it to Brenda, she laughed and said, "No way!" You see, we were both quite fond of our church, and my dad's church was small and struggling, and didn't even have its own building. But I wasn't concerned, because I knew that if the word was from God, it would happen naturally, and if it wasn't, it wouldn't.

About a year or so later, in the summer of 2006, I was addressing an adult Bible class. As I wrapped it up, a member of the class who was a retired pastor spoke up and asked, "Terry, have you considered writing a book?" I answered that I would pray about it.

Then, during the church service that followed, it seemed as if God was speaking directly to me. At different points in the sermon, I heard God confirming that I was supposed to write a book. But my response was always the same. I would say, "God, if you want me to write, you're going to have to free up some time in my life." I worked full time, and as a teacher on Sunday mornings, I would spend a lot of time in preparation during the week. The idea of writing, in addition to other responsibilities, seemed overwhelming.

At the end of the service, I told Brenda that I thought I had heard from God, and that I was supposed to begin writing again. She replied that she also had heard from God during the same service. Only God's message to her was that it was time to switch churches in order to attend my dad's church. So we switched, my schedule was cleared, and I was able to focus whole-heartedly on writing. The result was this book.

Even as this book progressed, there have been times when I sensed God's leading in powerful ways. The very title reflects that. One evening, I prayed and asked God what I should write 141

Amazing Evidence: Grounds for Belief about. I listed on paper about a dozen different ideas. But at different times during that evening, I became aware that the word evidence kept popping up in conversations, on television, and in my reading . I began to sense that it was God's answer, but it didn't immediately seem logical. But when I looked at the possible topics on my list, I realized that evidence could be a unifying theme. So most of the topics that were on the original list wound up as chapters.

Recently, I also experienced another answer to prayer. As the book neared completion, I was documenting archaeological discoveries in the Middle East. The date was February 19, 2008.

With everything I had put in the book, it occurred to me that it would greatly benefit the book if it had an original discovery in it, similar to those I was researching. At church, we were in a very beneficial series titled Experiencing God. A number of testimonies in the series talk about how God even answers prayers for things that affect life on a Global scale. So on a whim, I prayed a very specific prayer, and asked God for a discovery.

But then, in the very next sentence my lack of faith emerged. I told God, "I know that would be impossible, because I'm stuck here in Illinois. To make a discovery, you have to go places!" But two days later, my son and I stumbled on the image of a skeleton-like object in Google Earth, proving that God wasn't limited by my understanding of his abilities.

I could relate many other stories about the ways in which God has worked through the years, but let it suffice to say that the types of testimonial evidence I have presented in this chapter occur in abundance in the body of Christ. If you wish to read more of this type of evidence, you could begin by reading the Bible. It is filled with testimonies like this. And if that isn't enough to satisfy, there are many testimonial types of books in print.

I personally have always enjoyed reading a good testimony, but I strongly recommend to everyone that they get 142

Amazing Evidence: Grounds for Belief their own. If you are a Christian, but seem to be lacking a testimony, I would suggest you tell God you are willing to do whatever he asks, and be ready to back it up with action. If you do, I suspect your testimony will arrive shortly.

To Christians, testimonial evidence can be quite encouraging. To skeptics, I think it is perceived as threatening.

The skeptic feels threatened by the possibility that ultimate truth could be determined by something as simple as a testimony from an ordinary believer who might not even have a college degree.

But as Paul noted, “God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise.” (I Cor. 1:27). And to a Christian, a testimony is the essence of faith. It is the gift that only God can give. It is the simple little element that dispels doubt, erases fear, and instills hope.

If you do have a testimony, don't underestimate its power.

To the person who longs to know God, a testimony lights the path. In the book of Revelation we read that the Children of God overcame Satan "by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony." (Revelation 12:11). According to this passage, when it comes to spreading the Gospel, your testimony has power that is second only to Christ's death on the cross.

So although this book is primarily a book of observable evidence, it also seemed good to incorporate some testimonial evidence. With that, I present this very personal chapter for your consideration, and hope you find it of value in your own walk with God.

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Amazing Evidence: Grounds for Belief About the Author

Terrence Hatch enjoys investigating issues of interest to followers of Christ. His education includes a BS degree from

Cardinal Stritch University, with credits from North Central University and

Milwaukee School of Engineering. He

works as an engineer, and as such has designed machines and automation for

industry. Readers may also be interested to know he has taught adult bible classes for many years, is named on two patents, has benefited from a Mensa membership, and is fond of taking aerial photographs from model rockets in flight. He and his wife Brenda enjoy rural living in the Midwestern United States.

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