Mosaic Authorship Tried and True

Mosaic Authorship of the Pentateuch--Tried and True

by	Eric Lyons, M.Min. A.P. Staff

http://apologeticspress.org/apcontent.aspx?category=13&article=36

Dear friends:
Please click the above link for all the issues related to Moses' authorship and its rebuttals. You may think it is okay if Moses isn't the author, but think again?! It is a serious issue.

"Prove that Moses did not write the books of the Pentateuch and you prove that Jesus was totally mistaken and not the infallible Son of God he claimed to be. Upon your faith in Moses as the writer of the five books attributed to him rests also your faith in Jesus as the Son of God. You cannot believe in Jesus Christ without believing what Moses wrote. You see, there is much more involved in denying the books of Moses than most people suppose."--M.R. DeHaan M.D.

...

DOES IT REALLY MATTER
WHO WROTE THE PENTATEUCH( the first 5 books of OT Bible?)

To some, the question of whether or not Moses wrote the Pentateuch is a trivial matter—one of secondary importance. After all, we do not consider it an absolute necessity to know whom God inspired to write the book of Job or the epistle of Hebrews. We do not draw lines of fellowship over who wrote 1 and 2 Kings and 1 and 2 Chronicles. Why, then, should the discussion of who penned the first five books of the Bible be any different? The difference is that the Bible is filled with references attributing these books to Moses! Within the Pentateuch itself, one can read numerous times how Moses wrote the law of God.

“Moses wrote all the words of Jehovah” (Exodus 24:4).
“Jehovah said unto Moses, ‘Write thou these words...’ ” (Exodus 34:27).
“Moses wrote their goings out according to their journeys by the commandment of Jehovah” (Numbers 33:2).
“Moses wrote this law and delivered it unto the priests...” (Deuteronomy 31:9).

Bible writers throughout the Old Testament credited Moses with writing the Pentateuch (also known as the Torah or “the Law”). A plain statement of this commonly held conviction is expressed in Joshua 8:32: “There, in the presence of the Israelites, Joshua copied on stones the law of Moses, which he [Moses—EL] had written” (NIV, emp. added). Notice also that 2 Chronicles 34:14 states: “Hilkiah the priest found the Book of the law of Jehovah given by Moses” (emp. added; cf. Ezra 3:2; 6:18, Nehemiah 13:1, and Malachi 4:4). As Josh McDowell noted in his book, More Evidence that Demands a Verdict, these verses “refer to an actual written ‘law of Moses,’ not simply an oral tradition” (1975, pp. 93-94). [NOTE: The Hebrew Bible was not divided like our modern English Old Testament. It consisted of three divisions: the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings (cf. Luke 24:44). It contained the same “books” we have today; it was just divided differently. Genesis through Deuteronomy was considered one unit, and thus frequently was called “the Law” or “the Book” (2 Chronicles 25:4; cf. Mark 12:26). Even a casual perusal of its individual components will confirm that each book presupposes the one that precedes it. Without Genesis, Exodus reads like a book begun midway; without Exodus, Leviticus is a mystery; and so on. They were not intended to be five separate volumes in a common category, but rather, are five divisions of the same book. Hence, the singular references: “the Law” or “the Book.”]

The New Testament writers also showed no hesitation in affirming that Moses wrote the Pentateuch. John wrote: “The law was given through Moses” (John 1:17). Luke recorded of the resurrected Jesus: “And beginning from Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them [His disciples—EL] in all the scriptures the things concerning himself ‘ (Luke 24:27). Referring to the Jewish practice of publicly reading the Law, James affirmed Mosaic authorship: “For Moses from generations of old hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath” (Acts 15:21). With this Paul concurred, saying, “For Moses writes about the righteousness which is of the law, ‘The man who does those things shall live by them’ ” (Romans 10:5, NKJV, emp. added; cf. Leviticus 18:5). In 2 Corinthians 3:15, Paul also wrote: “Moses is read.” The phrase “Moses is read” is a clear example of the figure of speech known as metonymy (where one thing is put for another) [see Dungan, 1888, pp. 273-275]. Today, we may ask if someone has read Shakespeare, Homer, or Virgil, by which we mean to ask if he or she has read the writings of these men. In the story of the rich man and Lazarus, one reads where Abraham spoke to the rich man concerning his five brothers saying, “They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them” (Luke 16:29). Were Moses and the Old Testament prophets still on Earth in the first century? No. The meaning is that the rich man’s brothers had the writings of Moses and the prophets.

Furthermore, both Jesus’ disciples and His enemies recognized and accepted the books of Moses. After Philip was called to follow Jesus, he found his brother Nathanael and said: “We have found Him of whom Moses in the law, and also the prophets, wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph” (John 1:45, NKJV, emp. added). Notice also that New Testament Sadducees considered Moses as the author, saying, “Teacher, Moses wrote unto us, if a man’s brother die, and leave a wife behind him, and leave no child, that his brother should take his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother” (Mark 12:19, emp. added; cf. Deuteronomy 25:5).

A final reason that one must defend the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch, instead of sitting by idly and claiming that “it doesn’t really matter who wrote it,” is because Jesus Himself acknowledged that “the Law” came from Moses. In Mark 7:10, Jesus quoted from both Exodus 20 and 21, attributing the words to Moses. Mark likewise recorded a conversation Jesus had with the Pharisees regarding what “Moses permitted” and “wrote” in Deuteronomy chapter 24 (Mark 10:3-5; cf. Matthew 19:8). Later, we see where Jesus asked the Sadducees, “Have you not read in the book of Moses, in the place concerning the bush, how God spake unto him, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’?” (Mark 12:26, emp. added). But, perhaps the most convincing passage of all can be found in John 5:46-47, where Jesus stated: “For if ye believed Moses, ye would believe me; for he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?” (John 5:46-47, emp. added; cf. Deuteronomy 18:15-18). The truth is, by claiming that Moses did not write the books of the Pentateuch, one essentially is claiming that Jesus was mistaken. M.R. DeHaan expounded upon this problem in his book, Genesis and Evolution:

Prove that Moses did not write the books of the Pentateuch and you prove that Jesus was totally mistaken and not the infallible Son of God he claimed to be. Upon your faith in Moses as the writer of the five books attributed to him rests also your faith in Jesus as the Son of God. You cannot believe in Jesus Christ without believing what Moses wrote. You see, there is much more involved in denying the books of Moses than most people suppose (1978, p. 41).

Indeed, believing Moses wrote the Pentateuch is very important. It is not a trivial issue we should treat frivolously while suggesting that “it really doesn’t matter.” It matters because the deity of Christ and the integrity of the Bible writers are at stake!

Did Moses really write Genesis?

Did Moses really write Genesis? 

Evidence for Moses authorship of the Pentateuch

Clay tablets like this were ideal for long-term written records. Far from ‘Flintstones’ clumsiness, these could be held in one hand.
Patriarchal records may have been carried on the Ark, later used by Moses in compiling Genesis (under inspiration).

The evidence that Moses wrote the Pentateuch, often referred to in the Bible as ‘the Law’ (Hebrewtorah), is overwhelming:

1. Contrary to the views of Wellhausen and others, archaeological research has established that writing was indeed well known in Moses’ day. The JEDP hypothesis falsely assumes that the Israelites waited until many centuries after the foundation of their nation before committing any of their history or laws to written form, even though their neighbors kept written records of their own history and religion from before the time of Moses.⁴
2. The author is obviously an eyewitness of the Exodus from Egypt, familiar with the geography,⁵flora and fauna of the region;⁶ he uses several Egyptian words,⁷ and refers to customs that go back to the second millennium BC.⁸
3. The Pentateuch claims in many places that Moses was the writer, e.g. Exodus 17:14; 24:4–7;34:27; Numbers 33:2; Deuteronomy 31:9, 22, 24.
4. Many times in the rest of the Old Testament, Moses is said to have been the writer, e.g.Joshua 1:7–8; 8:32–34; Judges 3:4; 1 Kings 2:3; 2 Kings 14:6; 21:8; 2 Chronicles 25:4; Ezra 6:18; Nehemiah 8:1; 13:1; Daniel 9:11–13.
5. In the New Testament, Jesus frequently spoke of Moses’ writings or the Law of Moses, e.g.Matthew 8:4; 19:7–8; Mark 7:10; 12:26; Luke 24:27, 44; John 5:46–47; 7:19. Jesus said that those who ‘hear not [i.e. reject] Moses’ would not be persuaded ‘though one rose from the dead’ (Luke 16:31). Thus we see that those churches and seminaries which reject the historicity of Moses’ writings often also reject the literal bodily resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.
6. Other New Testament speakers/writers said the same thing, e.g. John 1:17; Acts 6:14; 13:39;15:5; 1 Corinthians 9:9; 2 Corinthians 3:15; Hebrews 10:28.

Does this mean that Moses wrote Genesis without reference to any previous information? Not necessarily. Genesis comprises narratives of historical events that occurred before Moses was born. Moses may very well have had access to patriarchal records and/or reliable oral traditions of these events. In that case, such records would certainly have been preserved by being written (probably on clay tablets) and handed down from father to son via the line of
Adam-Seth-Noah-Shem-Abraham-Isaac-Jacob, etc.

There are 11 verses in Genesis which read, ‘These are (or ‘This is the book of’) the generations of …’ The Hebrew word toledoth translated ‘generations’ can also mean ‘origins’, ‘history’, or even ‘family history’, and each verse comes either before or after a description of historical events that involved the person named.⁹ The most likely explanation is that Adam, Noah, Shem, etc. each wrote an account of the events that occurred either right before or during his lifetime, and Moses, under the infallible inspiration of the Holy Spirit, selected, compiled, and edited these to produce Genesis in its present cohesive form.¹⁰

Genesis does not show a progress from idolatry to monotheism, as Wellhausen’s evolutionism requires. Rather, the Bible begins with an original revelation of God, which was later rejected to the point that the Hebrew nation itself descended into idolatry and so was given over to captivity by God.

What about the different words used for God?

Let us consider this in Genesis chapters 1 and 2. The word ’Elohim is used for God 25 times in Genesis 1:1–2:4a.¹¹ It has the idea of an awesome and faithful Being, having creative and governing power, majesty and omnipotence, who is above the material world He created. It is a lofty title (= ‘God’) and is the appropriate word for Moses to have used for the first factual report of God’s creative activities.¹²

In Genesis chapter 2 from verse 4, the Hebrew uses the letters YHWH to refer to God. Sometimes translated ‘Jehovah’, it is more often translated ‘LORD’ (in small capitals), and is the most commonly used term for God in the Old Testament (6,823 times). It means ‘the One who always was, now is, and ever shall be’ and is the deeply personal name of God. It is therefore used in His personal and covenant relationships with people. Genesis 2:4b ff is the detailed account of how God made Adam and Eve, and of the setting He prepared for them.¹³ Here they were meant to live and work in loving covenantal fellowship with Him¹⁴ and with each other. It was entirely appropriate therefore that Moses should have used YHWH in writing this section of Genesis. In Genesis 2, YHWH is joined to‘Elohim to form the compound name YHWH-’Elohim (= the Lord God). This identifies the covenant God YHWH as being one and the same as ’Elohim, the almighty creator. There is no logical reason (particularly any based on the term used for God) to ascribe this account to any other author(s).

Computer agrees: Genesis had only one author The following quote comes from Omni magazine of August 1982: ‘After feeding the 20,000 Hebrew words of Genesis into a computer at Technion University in Israel, researchers found many sentences that ended in verbs and numerous words of six characters or more. Because these idiosyncratic patterns appear again and again, says project director Yehuda Radday, it seems likely that a sole author was responsible. Their exhaustive computer analysis conducted in Israel suggested an 82 percent probability that the book has just one author.’

The same principles apply in the rest of Genesis and throughout the Old Testament.

The JEDP system is self-contradictory, as its proponents need to break verses into sections and even credit parts of sentences (that use more than one term for God) to different writers. Such a hotchpotch would be unique in ancient Middle Eastern literature.

The ‘scholarship’ used to promote the documentary hypothesis would be laughed out of court if applied to any other ancient book!

Conclusion

Ultimately, the author of Genesis was God, working through Moses. This does not mean that God used Moses as a ‘typewriter’. Rather, God prepared Moses for his task from the day he was born. When the time came, Moses had all the necessary data, and was infallibly guided by the Holy Spirit as to what he included and what he left out. This is consistent with known history, and with the claims and principles of Scripture (2 Timothy 3:15–17; 2 Peter 1:20–21).

On the other hand there is no historical evidence, and no spiritual or theological basis whatsoever for the deceptive JEDP hypothesis. Its teaching is completely false; the ‘scholarship’ that promotes it is totally spurious. Propped up by the theory of evolution, it exists solely to undermine the authority of the Word of God.

Is Paul a Hijacker of Early Christianity ?

Dear friends:
I highly recommend you to read the above book" Seeking Allah , Finding Jesus", just a few paragraphs from that book for you to sample.

Click the link below for more details:

Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus: A Devout Muslim Encounters Christianity

Feb 11, 2014

by Nabeel Qureshi and Lee Strobel

... Nabeel Qureshi had been taught to despise Paul as a hijacker of early Christianity (181), but now he started to ask himself why a devout Jew would turn Jesus into God. The core doctrine of Islam was the “oneness” of God. To call Jesus God was an unforgivable sin that led to hell. So this was a major issue.

Interestingly, it was his study of science at Old Dominion that made him realize that a Triune God was not out of the question. As he explains it, “One molecule of nitrate is three resonance structures all at the same time and never just one of them. They are three in one” (191). So why couldn’t one God be three persons at the same time?

He was further shaken by his study of the life of Muhammad. Allegiance to the prophet is allegiance to Islam and vice versa (203). Taught that Muhammad was a flawless man who all Muslims were to emulate, Nabeel discovered that, among other nasty things, Muhammad was a violent, petty leader who murdered without provocation, ordered his soldiers to rape the women they took captive in battle, and consummated marriage with a girl of only nine. What shocked him further was the fact that he got this negative information from Muslim sources, not Christian ones.

Qureshi writes:

It was then that I realized the value of apologetics and what arguments had done for me. All my life, barriers had been erected that kept me from humbly approaching God and asking Him to reveal Himself to me. The arguments and apologetics tore down those barriers, positioning me to make a decision to pursue God or not (241)

Did Something Come From Nothing?

http://www.christianpost.com/news/atheists-did-something-come-from-nothing-145015/

Atheists: Did Something Come From Nothing?

BY DAN DELZELL , SPECIAL TO CP

It seems atheists would much rather believe that something came from nothing, than to believe that Someone has always existed. Of course both beliefs are a matter of faith.

So did the universe come from nothing, or from God? Is there a rational mind behind the mathematical precision of the universe, as well as human DNA, or did it all just happen by chance?

In his book, "The Grand Design," Professor Stephen Hawking writes, "Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist."

But Hawking's premise is illogical. Without the cosmos, there would be no law of gravity. And if the law of gravity truly helped create the universe as Hawking suggests, then the universe was not created from nothing, but from something. In that case, how did the law of gravity originate, and how could it have been in existence prior to the creation of the universe? Impossible and irrational.

You mean to tell me that the man who is perhaps the world's most famous living scientist actually believes the mystical doctrine that something came from nothing? Yes indeed. Hawking's confession of faith is unequivocal. And a multitude of others in our world today have also chosen to place their faith in such imaginative science fiction. True science, on the other hand, recognizes that something cannot be created from nothing.

By the way, Hawking recently revealed his latest theory. He now believes that passing through a "black hole" could lead you to another universe. And his latest theory comes less than two years since Hawking made headlines with this bold statement: "There are no black holes."

But the man who believes the law of gravity helped create the universe has been digging a little deeper on the question of black holes. And he wants you to be prepared in case you ever find yourself inside one. Seriously.

Hawking now says that "if you feel you are in a black hole, don't give up. There's a way out." A way out? And Hawking knows this for a fact? Actually, it's just more science fiction from an intelligent physicist with a creative imagination.

Obviously, man is susceptible to embracing the myth that nothing created something. The Christian mind, on the other hand, has been delivered from such irrationality. Christians believe in a personal God who loved us enough to send His only Son to save us from our sin. Christians have been given "the mind of Christ." (1 Cor. 2:16) That is, we now see a number of things the way Christ sees them.

But how can that be?

Well, wisdom from God gets poured into a believer when he meets Christ through faith. Without this wisdom, how in the world could we possibly believe in a personal God? After all, we are not born into this world possessing "the mind of Christ." We only possess human reason. And those who reject God admittedly don't know where human reason originated.

Karl Popper delivered the first Darwin Lecture at Darwin College, in Cambridge, on Nov. 8, 1977. It was entitled, "Natural Selection and the Emergence of Mind." Popper stated, "I conjecture that life, and later also mind, have evolved or emerged in a universe that was, up to a certain time, lifeless and mindless. Life, or living matter, somehow emerged from nonliving matter; and it does not seem completely impossible that we shall one day know how this happened. Things look far more difficult with the emergence of mind. While we think we know some of the preconditions of life, and some of the substructures of primitive organisms, we do not have the slightest idea on which evolutionary level mind emerges."

That's simple. The rational mind of man was created by an intelligent and rational Creator. He is all-powerful and all-knowing, and so it was easy for God to create both the body as well as the mind of man.

Consider for a moment the mathematical precision of human DNA. Francis Collins is the director of the Human Genome Project. Collins stated, "I have led a consortium of scientists to read out the 3.1 billion letters of the human genome, our own DNA instruction book. As a believer, I see DNA, the information molecule of all living things, as God's language, and the elegance and complexity of our own bodies and the rest of nature as a reflection of God's plan."

Perry Marshall noted, "Dr. Jean-Claude Perez started counting letters in DNA. He discovered that these ratios are highly mathematical and based on 'Phi,' the Golden Ratio 1.618. This is a very special number, sort of like Pi." Perez' discovery was published in the scientific journal Interdisciplinary Sciences / Computational Life Sciences in September 2010.

Since God's mind is obviously a million (million million...infinite times * emphasized by this blogger) times more advanced than the human mind, it was a piece of cake for the Creator to place this mathematical perfection into the DNA of Adam and Eve. "Wait a minute! Who believes in that Adam and Eve stuff?" Well, Jesus for one. Christ said, "Haven't you read that at the beginning the Creator 'made them male and female.'" (Matthew 19:4)

And we have all descended from that first man and woman. It requires faith to believe that God is an eternal Being who created man at a special time and place. On the other end of the spectrum, it requires far greater faith (and a blind faith at that) to believe that something came from nothing.

Scriptures reveals the origin of the cosmos: "By Christ all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together." (Colossians 1:15-17) God is not a thing, but a Person. Actually, three Persons in One God. And when you meet Christ through faith, you enter an eternal relationship with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Francis Collins said, "I had always assumed that faith was based on purely emotional and irrational arguments, and was astounded to discover, initially in the writings of the Oxford scholar C.S. Lewis and subsequently from many other sources, that one could build a very strong case for the plausibility of the existence of God on purely rational grounds. My earlier atheist's assertion that 'I know there is no God' emerged as the least defensible. As the British writer G.K. Chesterton famously remarked, 'Atheism is the most daring of all dogmas, for it is the assertion of a universal negative.'"

So did the universe create itself out of nothing? And did the human mind come into existence without the work of a rational designer? Or has God always existed? You make the call.

But just remember. The Lord is going to reign in heaven forever, whether you want to be part of that eternal celebration or not.

Free Will or Full Wiring: Are Real Choices Even Possible?

Dear friends:
Do we really have free wills or are we simply fully wired?
See the whole article in the following link.
http://coldcasechristianity.com/2015/do-neurological-studies-prove-free-agency-is-an-illusion/

...In the years since Libet’s famous studies, many other scientists have conducted similar experiments. John-Dylan Haynes, professor at the Berlin School of Mind and Brain, conducted experiments using an MRI instead of an EEG. His discoveries seem even more astonishing. He gave his subjects two buttons (one for each hand) and told them to push one of the two buttons the instant they made a decision to do so. Haynes discovered unconscious brain activity preceding and predicting their movements. This activity (recorded by the MRI) began seven to ten seconds prior to the conscious decision and action. Once again, scientific research seemed to confirm the deterministic, physical nature of the universe. According to experiments such as these, our choices are not really our own but are instead the result of a deterministic series of purely physical events in our brains.

But do these studies truly prove we have no free agency? No. Although Libet and Haynes concluded a physical brain sequence preceded any non-physical “free” decision, their work fails to demonstrate our physical brains are really in charge and our conscious decisions are only illusory. In the years since these experiments were first conducted, their resulting conclusions have come into question. How do we know this brain activity isn’t simply a signal reporting the beginning of thought processes prior to a final decision? When choosing between two options, we often ponder the decision (even while we are unaware) prior to making a free choice. There are good reasons to believe this is what Libet and Haynes’ experiments recorded. Haynes’ experiments, for example, identified activity in the prefrontal cortex and the BA10 regions of the brain. Independent studies indicate these regions of the brain are not relevant to free decisions, but are instead involved in the formation and storage of plans and intentions.

This seems consistent with Haynes’ findings of a seven-to-ten-second gap between activity in these regions and the conscious decision to act. Given this delay of several seconds, it’s far more reasonable to believe activity in these two areas of the brain is related to the unconscious time it takes to form a plan prior to making a final decision, than the much shorter period of time we experience when actually making a decision.

Our unrestricted plan formation and our final choices would, therefore, result in the findings recorded by Libet and others. These experiments fail to disprove free will because free agency is, after all, required for us to form plans as well as to make choices. For a more extensive discussion of alternate interpretations of Libet and Haynes, refer to Mark Balaguer’s book, Free Will, (MIT Press), and for a more lengthy explanation of the role free agency plays in the case for God’s existence, please refer to God’s Crime Scene, Chapter Six – Free Will or Full Wiring: Are Real Choices Even Possible?

Can God Save Marriages in Crisis?

Dear friends:
I've just found by chance, this website "Marriage Helper: Home of Marriage Helper 911 workshop"
http://www.marriagehelper.com/
by clicking "Limerence" in the article related to Ashley Madison of How to Get Over Limerence After Ending an Affair in CP website;

it has lots of valuable articles; perhaps you want to help some couples to save their marriage and don't know how or you may even know some couples who may need to use their counseling service and advice? You may sample the article in this link below and judge for yourself.

http://www.marriagehelper.com/my_husband_or_wife_is_in_love_with_someone_else.php

...Admittedly, I become frustrated with leaders or counselors who too quickly encourage the abandoned spouse to accept that it’s over and move on. Yes, that advice is sound when there is no hope. However, my experience is that too often we don’t count on the power of God and, therefore, make premature judgments about how hopeless a situation might be. I’ll make another admission; I’ve gone through marriage intensives with couples that at the end I would have predicted there was no way they would heal their marriage. Yet I saw it work out.


Miracle?

I think that’s a fairly good word to use when God’s involved.

 For example, recently a couple came through our weekend intensive workshop for marriages in crisis that shared a remarkable story. Though highly involved in their church, she had gotten too close to another member and that had gradually led to adultery. Neither meant for it to happen. No one went looking for that kind of relationship. Like so many others they didn’t understand the danger and forged ahead with a friendship that was destined to become a passion. By the time they realized they were on the wrong path, they were so enmeshed with each other that they were convinced that the best thing for everyone – spouses, children, church – was to divorce their spouses and marry each other. The night she told her husband her plans, the emotion was so intense that soon she was in a deep sleep. He interpreted that as her not caring. The real cause of her deep slumber was the depth of her emotional state. Nevertheless, he spent the rest of the night praying over her sleeping body. He prayed that God would convict her heart; that He would somehow reduce or remove the emotions she had for the other man.

   It worked.

The next morning she awakened with the realization that she wanted to save her marriage and wanted very much to get past the feelings she had for her lover. Shortly thereafter they were in our workshop to learn how it happened, how to heal it, and how to grow in love like they never had before.

That’s the only time I’ve heard the story work just that way.

More often the abandoned spouse prays and prays but the abandoning spouse reacts callously. They don’t want to see the error of their actions. They don’t want to face the guilt of their wrongdoing. They seek any counsel, from Christians or otherwise, that empathizes with their position and gives any encouragement whatsoever.

Does that mean prayer has no power?

Not at all.

It means that sometimes God works directly on a person’s heart in ways beyond human understanding, and sometimes He uses other methodologies. Praying is powerful. So is doing the right things.

If your spouse has told you that he or she is in love with someone else, I suggest you do the following things...

Click the link below to finish reading the whole article.

http://www.marriagehelper.com/my_husband_or_wife_is_in_love_with_someone_else.php

Life is Short: Repent and Get Right with God !

'Life Is Short; Repent, Get Right With God,' Greg Laurie Says on Last Night of SoCal Harvest Crusade 2015

*Click the above link for the whole report of above crusade

In his last nightly message at the 26th annual SoCal Harvest Crusade on Sunday, evangelist and Pastor Greg Laurie urged tens of thousands of Californians to realize that life passes too quickly, and that they needed to repent without any delay, rather than "have an affair," as the Ashley Madison website suggests.


"You can't ignore the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead," Laurie said as he began his message titled "Hope for the Afterlife," speaking at the packed Angel Stadium in Anaheim in southern California on Sunday night. Harvest Crusade organizers told The Christian Post that 32,000 people attended the event in Angel Stadium on Sunday night, and 3,488 people made decisions for Christ that evening.


...The Bible says that we live once and then comes the judgment, he said. "Every sin you've ever committed is recorded."


Laurie mentioned the Ashley Madison website, which is designed for people to have extra-marital affairs and whose tagline is: "Life is short. Have an affair." It gives anonymity, so that no one can find out, Laurie said. But now, when the information about who all had their accounts with the site has come out after it was hacked, people are seeing it differently, he added. They now recognize that, "Life is short, so repent and get right with God because everything is recorded."


Laurie added, "A secret sin on Earth is an open scandal in Heaven."

Our sins can either be confessed and forgiven by God, or they can "remain unconfessed and you'll have to face the ramifications," he warned.


The good news is that God can forgive as well as forget all of your sin, if you ask Him to, the pastor went on to say. "No one's good enough to get into Heaven." At the same time, there's no work bad enough that can keep you from Heaven, he added, provided you have been forgiven through Jesus Christ...

Also if interested, you may read 
Life Is Eternal. Don't Have an Affair.

Ashley Madison: Original Sin Plus Modern Technology

Dear fellow Christians: 

Here is a very good article worthy of our deep thinking and reflections.

May we put on all of God's armor to resist all kinds of temptations the new modern technology seems to offer us anonymously. 

(Ephesians 6:11 Put on all of God's armor so that you will be able to stand

 firm against all strategies of the devil. )

See how Jesus has warned His disciples,

"Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees,
 which is hypocrisy. "But there is nothing

covered up that will not be revealed, and hidden that will 

not be known. "Accordingly, whatever you have said in 

the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have 

whispered in the inner rooms will be proclaimed upon the housetops." (Luke 12: 1b-3)

May we all pray like Psalm 139: 23-24 said:

Search me [thoroughly], O God, and know my heart! 

Try me and know my thoughts!

And see if there is any wicked or hurtful way in me, and 

lead me in the way everlasting.

May we all not bring shame to God's name! "We are never anonymous to God" as the author of the following link says.

Click the link below for the whole article.

Original Sin Plus Modern Technology: Ashley Madison Is Just the Beginning

...The brokenness of sexuality all around us demonstrates something far deeper than a crisis of culture. The brokenness of sexuality around us demonstrates a crisis of worship. We will not get out of this with better Internet filters or more accountability groups. We must recognize that technology will continue to offer fallen humanity what it thinks it wants — the illusion that we can transgress God and not surely die. Our only hope starts with the kind of vision which sees that, no matter the technology, we are never anonymous to God.

And we need to listen to what Paul's said in 1 Cor.10:12

Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he 

does not fall. 

also in Romans 12:1-2

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters,
in view of God’s mercy, to offer your 

bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and 

pleasing to God—this is your true and proper

worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the
renewing of your mind. Then you will be 

able to test and approve what God’s will is—

His good, pleasing and perfect will.

Was Jesus Influenced by Pagans?

Dear friends:

You may click the link below for the whole article. 

Archaeology and Nazareth: Was Jesus Influenced by Pagans?

BY ERIC METAXAS

...What's more, it seems Nazareth was even more Jewish than previously believed. To understand how this is possible, you have to realize that a few hours walk from Nazareth was the city of Sepphoris, the administrative center of Roman Galilee. Sepphoris was rich, cosmopolitan and religiously pluralistic.

Many people, most famously some members of the "Jesus Seminar," have speculated on the impact of Sepphoris on Jesus. They go so far as to suggest that the Greco-Roman culture of Sepphoris shaped his thinking.

But the archaeology tells a very different story. The people of Nazareth, based on what they left behind by way of pottery and other material goods, "chose a strictly Jewish material culture." As the Review put it, "nowhere in the Roman Empire is there such a seemingly clear-cut boundary between people accepting and those rejecting Roman culture."

It's highly unlikely — actually, ridiculous is more like it — that Jesus would avoid pagan pottery yet embrace pagan thinking.

No, the more we learn about Nazareth, the more we realize it was "exactly the sort of place we might expect to find a rural craftsman like Joseph," as he is described in the Gospels.

...

What's being discovered in Nazareth paints a portrait of life in Jesus' time and home very familiar to readers of the Gospels. It's a reminder that our best source of knowledge of Jesus of Nazareth is not the Jesus Seminar, or even worse, spurious writings like "The Gospel of Judas" or the "Jesus' Wife" papyrus fragment, but Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

They not only tell us what we need to know about Jesus, but also where to dig.