We live in a pluralistic society with dozens of competing claims to truth.  A bewildering variety of religions, philosophies, political ideologies and personal codes of conduct all attempt to convince us that they have special insights into reality and the proper way to live.  To many people, the historic Christian gospel appears as just one more voice in the marketplace of ideas.  All of this raises the question of why anyone should believe that what we have to say is any different.  In other words, who is to say that Christians are right when we claim that the gospel is uniquely the truth?

Providing compelling reasons to people who question the Christian Faith is called Apologetics.  We don’t have space in this article for more than a brief explanation of some of the more compelling pieces of evidence, so I will simply deal with some of the good reasons we have for believing the gospel under the following headings:

• The reliability of the Bible
• The amazing evidence for the Bible’s inspiration
• The compelling body of facts affirming Jesus’ claims to be the Son of God, the Messiah of Israel and the risen Savior of the world.
• The Evidence of History and Archeology
• The startling transformation of the disciples of Jesus
• The unstoppable spread of the gospel across time and cultures
• The millions of supernaturally changed lives over the past couple of thousand years.

The first thing we must tackle is the issue of the Bible, and specifically:

• Is the Bible trustworthy as a document? That is, can we understand our current Bible versions as accurately representing the original manuscripts of the Old and New Testaments?  To answer this question we must rely on the evidence of the manuscript tradition.  And, along with that is another question–

• Is the Bible inspired by God? In other words, is the Bible more than just a collection of merely human writings?  Put simply, can we discern the hand of God in the books of the Bible?

OK, back to the first part of this question: You may already be familiar with the fact that the Bible comes from the ancient scriptural writings of the Jews, mainly in Hebrew, and from the Greek writings of the early Church.  As far as anyone knows, no actual documents from the original writers still exist.  That means we must rely on ancient manuscripts copies of these original documents.  But how do we know that when we pick up the Bible to read Genesis or Romans that what we are reading is a faithful and accurate representation of what was originally written by say, Moses or the Apostle Paul?

Old Testament Evidence. Let’s begin with a quick look at the manuscript evidence for the Old Testament.  What Christians accept as the Old Testament, Jews have been using for centuries as their sacred scriptures.  By the way, they don’t call it the Old Testament: they use terms like Torah, Tanach or simply the Hebrew Scriptures.

Until 1947, the standard Hebrew manuscripts available for making copies of the Old Testament were the Massoretic Texts.  These documents, dating from around 900 AD, were used as the basis for making more current copies of the Old Testament.  Since the conventional date for the writing of the books of the Old Testament is between 1400 and 400 BC, and the Massoretic Texts date from around 900 AD, that leaves an average of more than 1,500 years between the originals and the copies being used for Old Testament study and translation.  In other words, there appeared to be lots of time for copyists to make copying mistakes, or even deliberate changes.

But the situation changed in 1947 with the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls.  Some of the documents of the Dead Sea Scrolls are dated from before 100 BC and the collection includes every book of the Old Testament except Esther.  So, suddenly we have manuscript copies a thousand years closer to the source.

These fragile manuscripts from well before the time of Christ have been compared with the Massoretic Texts in order to discover how much the material of Old Testament might have changed over centuries of copying.  The result was the amazing discovery that little or no significant variation occurred in more than 1,000 years between the Dead Sea Scrolls (around 100 BC) and the Massoretic Texts (around 900 AD).  It proved what Jewish and Christian tradition had always claimed: that Jewish scribes followed rigorous copying procedures to ensure accurate transmission of the text of the Hebrew scriptures.

New Testament Evidence.  If we are encouraged by the evidence for the Old Testament, the evidence for the integrity of the New Testament is even better.  The text used for study and translation of the New Testament is derived from literally thousands of early manuscripts.  Just for starters, there are the more than 5,000 manuscripts in the original Greek in which the books of the New Testament were written.

To be fair, not all of these manuscripts are complete copies of the New Testament.  Some are just fragments of books.  But even so, this is an impressive amount of evidence.  Add to this, the very early copies of the New Testament in other languages, which can be used for comparison with the Greek copies, This adds up to a total of more than 20,000 early manuscripts on which our current New Testament is based.

__________________________________________

Greek:                                                5,686

Latin Vulgate:                            10,000+

Ethiopic:                                           2,000+

Slavic:                                                4,101

Armenian:                                       2,587

Others:                                                 596

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If that were not enough, virtually the entire New Testament can be reconstructed from quotes found in the writings of early Christian leaders (called the Patristic Writings).  These date from the Second to around the Seventh Centuries AD.

What does all of this tell us?  Just that we can be highly confident that what we are reading in our mainstream English translations (or Spanish, French—or any other language) is a highly accurate rendering of what was contained in the original documents of the Old and New Testaments.

The issue of inspiration.  The Bible is littered with claims that it is much more than just the words of its human authors.  In the Old Testament, some writers passed on messages directly from God. For example Isaiah 44:6, “This is what the LORD says— Israel’s King and Redeemer, the LORD Almighty:  I am the first and I am the last; apart from me there is no God.” In fact, the phrase “Thus saith the Lord” (or its equivalent) appears more than two thousand times in the books of the Old Testament.  Others received messages from God in dreams and visions, while still other writers like Samuel and Ezra saw themselves as guided by God to record events in Israel’s history.

In the gospels, Jesus affirmed the infallibility of the Old Testament in Matthew 5:18 and he cited other passages as predicting aspects of his life and ministry.  Verses like             2 Timothy 3:16-17 and 2 Peter 1:20-21 affirm the Old Testament to be from God.  Then in 2 Peter 3:15, the Apostle Peter refers to Paul’s New Testament writings like Romans and Galatians as being inspired in the same way as the Old Testament scriptures.

However, the Bible is by no means the only book claiming divine inspiration.  The Qur’an of Islam, the Book of Mormon and a variety of other religious books make similar claims.  So, what evidence is there that the claims made in the Bible have any basis in fact?  To answer this, we will look at the evidences of:

• Fulfilled prophecy, and of—
• The Bible’s uncanny insight into human nature.

Let’s take just the prophecies specifically fulfilled by Jesus:

• Jeremiah 23:5 says that the Messiah will come from of the family line of David.    This is fulfilled in the life of Jesus in passages like Matthew 1:6 and Luke 3:31.

• Micah 5:2 gives Bethlehem as the place where Messiah will be born.  Again, this is shown to be Jesus’ birthplace in Matthew 2:1.  Some might bring up the fact that other of Jewish men in the First Century could make those claims.  That is certainly true.  Nonetheless, only those who could make these claims would have been candidates for Messiah.  So, this shows that Jesus’ claims were at least valid.

• Messiah will be born of a virgin in Isaiah 7:14?  Luke 1:26-35 claims this is fulfilled in the angelic announcement to Jesus’ mother, Mary.  Again, some would point out that a virgin birth would be hard to prove.  Granted, but on this point there is independent evidence that there was indeed some irregularity about Jesus’ birth.  Oddly enough it comes from a source not exactly positive toward Jesus or Christianity–the Talmud of ancient Judaism.  It says, in reference to Jesus’ birth: “His mother was Miriam (note—we call her Mary), a women’s hairdresser.  As they say, ‘This one strayed from her husband’.”

The Talmud says in another place, also speaking of Mary, that she was, “… the descendant of princes and governors, who played the harlot with carpenters.” In other words, it was a well-known fact that Jesus birth was unusual.

Let’s move on to some things which would clearly be far-fetched for Jesus to fulfill through his own efforts:

• According to Isaiah 50:6, the Messiah will be beaten and spit upon. This was fulfilled in Jesus’ experience according to Matthew 26:67.

• His hands and feet will be pierced: predicted in Psalm 22:16 and fulfilled in Luke 23:33.

• His clothing will be divided by casting lots; predicted in Psalm 22:18 and fulfilled in John 19:23-24.

• His bones will not be broken: this is predicted in Psalm 34:20 and fulfilled in John 19:33.

• His side will be pierced, according to Zechariah 12:10.  This is fulfilled in John 19:34.

One statistician calculated that the odds of Jesus accidentally fulfilling just eight of the more than sixty prophecies attributed to him would be on the order of 1 in 10 to the 17^th power (that’s 1 in 10 with 17 zeros behind it).  Plainly stated, the chances are simply astronomical [Peter Stoner in Science Speaks].

The Evidence of History and Archeology. How about the many historical and archeological confirmations of the Bible?  Those who question the Bible sometimes ask questions like: “Don’t history and archeology show that the Bible contains significant errors, which bring the entire Christian Faith into question?”

Fortunately, many claims made by the Bible can be tested historically.  People, places and events mentioned can be directly confirmed through various types of inquiry.  For instance:

• The strange three-hour period of darkness which Matthew 27:45 describes as covering the land at Jesus’ death, and which is referenced to Amos 8:9-10.  But can this be believed?  The claim that darkness covered a significant portion of the Mediterranean world between noon and 3:00 pm on the day Jesus was crucified might seem a bit hard to believe.  And yet there are those very intriguing references to such an event in non-biblical Roman sources.

For instance, the Second Century Greek author Phlegon, is quoted in the writings of Origen [Against Celsus, Book 2] as saying, “During the time of Tiberius Caesar an eclipse of the sun occurred during the full moon.” Another mention of this event comes through the Third Century author, Julius Africanus who says concerning this mysterious darkness,  “Thallus, in the third book of his histories, explains away this darkness as an eclipse of the sun—unreasonably as it seems to me…”.

So why would the writer Africanus consider a solar eclipse to be unreasonable as an explanation for the darkness during the crucifixion?  The answer is because a solar eclipse can only occur when the moon is directly between the earth and the sun.  But Passover season, when Jesus was crucified, only happens when the moon is full—that is with the earth directly between the moon and the sun.  In other words, a solar eclipse was impossible at that particular time.

Over the past century or so, a growing body of archeological evidence has also given its support to the overall picture of Bible events and conditions.  During this time, several prominent archeologists have become convinced that the evidence overwhelmingly tends to confirm the Biblical record.   For example:

• William Foxwell Albright (dates), of John’s Hopkins University and Director of the American School of Oriental Research in Jerusalem, said this in his book, The Archaeology of Palestine: ”The excessive skepticism shown toward the Bible…. has been progressively discredited.  Discovery after discovery has established the accuracy of innumerable details, and has brought increased recognition to the value of the Bible as a source of history.”

• Dr. Nelson Glueck (dates), world-renowned expert of the archeology of Palestine and President of Hebrew Union College put it this way, “..it may be stated categorically that no archaeological discovery has ever controverted (disproved) a biblical reference.  Scores of archaeological findings have been made, which confirm in clear outline or in exact detail historical statements in the Bible.”  Rivers in the Desert, pp. 31.

Here are some examples of archeological and anthropological confirmations of the biblical record:

• Legends of a catastrophic flood found among widely scattered ethnic groups worldwide cast an intriguing light upon the story of Noah in Genesis 6-9.
• The fact that Mesopotamia (parts of Iraq Iran and Syria) was the cradle of world civilization confirms the biblical account of early human culture from the early chapters of Genesis.
• Various ancient documents, such as the Ebla, Amarna and Nuzi Tablets both confirm and shed new light on various cultural practices of people mentioned in the Bible. (Thompson, pp.1654-55, 1633, 1883)
• In 1975 a clay seal surfaced, inscribed with the name of Jeremiah’s scribe, Baruch, authenticating the existence of that biblical character.
• During archeological excavations in 1994 in northern Israel, workers found an inscription mentioning for the first time independently of the Bible, the Israelite royal House of David.
• Archeological findings at Delphi in Greece authenticate the words of Acts 18:12-17 that Gallio was governor of the city of Corinth in 51 AD.  No mention of this fact had been available until this discovery at the turn of the Twentieth Century.

Psychological Arguments. Moving on to evidence that might be described as more psychological, the Bible has what I would call a supernatural knack for accurately describing human nature.  In example after example, it accounts in realistic detail, as no other religion or philosophy does, for the heights of our nobility as well as the depths and extent of our degradation.

Take for instance the case of King David who, in the book of Psalms, wrote some of the most moving devotional poetry ever composed, and yet who also deliberately committed sins of adultery and murder.  I could cite numerous other examples from the lives of Abraham, Moses, Peter and others whose lives are praised for their faith and heroism but who also had very typical human failings.

What does this tell us?  It seems to me pretty clear that the Bible realistically portrays human behavior.  It also tells us that God is truly gracious in using real people to accomplish his will and in his urgency in redeeming us.  In other words, the biblical accounts ring true as they show real people relating to God.

Given the Bible’s inspiration and reliability, we can go on to make a case for other aspects of the Historic Christian message.  For example:

• The miracles of Jesus are a powerful indication that his claims of being the Son of God were valid.  The Gospel accounts show Jesus doing things no one has done before or since.  With a simple word, he healed the sick and raised the dead.  He walked on water and turned water into wine.

Certainly other religions make claims that their founders worked miracles.  But the way in which the Gospels depict Jesus as doing the miracles and then downplaying the sensational effects they generated, certainly says that these events were performed by someone extra special and that they were performed for purposes which have nothing to do with common publicity value.

Then of course there is the resurrection.  Here is a topic worthy of discussion all by itself.  The resurrection is the supreme evidence that Jesus is indeed the Son of God.  From a historical point of view, it is clear that Jesus’ tomb was empty.  Even his enemies agreed about that.  But their explanation that Jesus’ disciples overpowered the guard and stole the body doesn’t fit with the demoralized spirit of the disciples at the crucifixion.  It doesn’t fit with their initial unbelief when the women announced that his body was missing.  Neither does it account for the dramatic change in the behavior of these disciples or the astounding growth of the early Christian movement.

The incredible impact of the Jesus’ resurrection shows that his crucifixion did achieve reconciliation with God and the making of a new humanity.

• Let’s move on to consider the absolute conviction of the Apostolic generation.  Nearly all of them were willing to die horrible deaths for the message they proclaimed.  The argument has been made in numerous other settings that it makes no sense whatever that men would willingly die such deaths if they knew (or suspected) that their message was false.  Yet they remained unshakeable to the end.  That fact communicates huge confidence that the gospel message is truthful.

• How about the impressive basic consensus of the Christian community which transcends generations and ethnicities.  Whether it was the unprecedented coming together of First Century Jews and Gentiles through the redemption of Jesus, or the gospel’s appeal in the Early Middle Ages to the barbarian tribes of Europe, or its spread in more modern times to the diverse peoples of every continent, the message of Jesus resonates in every time and culture.

So the Christian message is not tied to a certain group of people or a particular era in history.  It is truly trans-cultural and adaptable to a variety of peoples and situations.

• That brings us to a final piece of evidence: the changed lives of millions upon millions of individuals over the centuries.  I could relate the stories of people like Augustine who changed from a philosopher critical of Christianity to the greatest defender of the Faith during those dark years when Rome was collapsing.  Then there is John Newton, who was actively involved in Britain’s slave trade during the late 1700s, but who was transformed into an opponent of slavery and an advocate of God’s amazing grace.

These examples represent thousands more.  In fact, the kind of proof for Christianity which is compelling to average people, isn’t the somewhat technical material we discussed earlier, but the truly changed lives of real believers living among us.

This is just a fraction of the evidence Christians can point to supporting the claims of Christianity.  A complete course in apologetics includes much more extensive evidence and arguments for the Christian Faith.  But let’s be realistic: none of the evidence is absolutely irrefutable.  There will always be arguments against any of the points we could make.

But then, for nearly everything in life, fool-proof evidence is hard to come by.  Even in our courts of law, jurors are asked to decide difficult cases based upon evidence that is merely “beyond a reasonable doubt”.  So what I have presented may simply be dismissed by those heavily committed to other points of view.  It boils down to this: I believe that, taken together, the evidence for the Christian faith is compelling in a way, which no other religion or “rival gospel” can match.  In other words, the evidence for Jesus Christ as the Son of God and Savior of the world authenticates itself in every area of human inquiry and experience.  That means we can share the good news about his with great confidence.

Michael Bogart                          (I owe much of the data for this article to Evidence that Demands a Verdict, by Josh McDowell.)

I was in Tehuacan as part of our bi-annual term teaching more than 100 Christian leaders the subject of Apologetics. Jose Angel, one of the station owners, was part of the class and invited me for the interview.

Question: What is Evil?

• Evil is the absence of the good, which comes from God; the exception to the normal that God created. Evil entered the Cosmos through the fall of Lucifer (Ezekiel 28:15)

• Sin is a choice to step away from truth righteousness and goodness; it is choosing something partial, twisted, negative or improper. Sin entered the human race through Adam (Romans 5:12)

• Suffering is a direct or indirect result of evil entering the Cosmos and gaining a foothold. In Genesis 3, the curses followed the disobedience.

If God is good, why does he allow evil and suffering in the world?

God’s reasons are above and beyond our understanding (Isaiah 40:13). We do know certain things about God:

• He is good (Deuteronomy 13:4)
• He is wise (Job 12:13)
• He is all-powerful (Isaiah 44:6)

Maybe the best way to capture the essence of at least part of God’s reasons for allowing evil and suffering into the Cosmos is because he desired that people have real choice. Only with real choice can we truly choose him. Maybe we can over-simplify this and juts say that God, who loves us, wants us to really love him in return.

That choice to love God cannot happen if he pre-programmed us to love him. Only when we may choose to love or not love; obey or not obey, is there the possibility of love and obedience freely given. Sadly, some of his angels chose not to love him and evil entered the Cosmos. Then the human race chose its own way in the Garden, bringing the infection of sin into the human race.

The good news is that we may still freely choose him by faith. Hebrews 2:10 refers to Jesus Christ bringing many sons into God’s presence. We become God’s children through this choice we call faith.

How can the problem of evil and suffering be dealt with?

• God has decisively dealt with sin and evil. He did this through his son Jesus on the cross (2 Corinthians 5:21). This means:

• He personally knows the horrors of evil as well as the mental stress and agony of suffering (Philippians 2:8).
• He has dealt a decisive blow to evil, sin and suffering (Colossians 1:20).

• Someday God will put an end to suffering (Revelation 21:3-4).

• In the meantime God is so wise and powerful that he can use all things (including the evil and suffering he didn’t cause) to work for the ultimate good of those who love him (Romans 8:28).

Michael Bogart

During the next five days, I met the 2010 students at the Dayspring Center where I was a guest teacher.  This session I taught a quick overview of Church History.  There was plenty of time to interact with the students and staff.  The visit included a trip for Roger and Carolyn and I into Cadereyta for what are affectionately referred to as “sliders”—probably the best street tacos I have ever eaten.

We drove out of Mexico at week’s end and connected for the weekend with my brother Marty, his wife Circe and girls Circe and Audrey.  One of the main events in this segment of the trip was Marty’s ceremony of dedication of his new office building owned by himself and his partner Bill Hudson.  I enjoyed talking with Circe’s father Jorge Zarinana, who was visiting from Queretaro.  Then it was back home to Fresno to resume ministry and family life there.

Upon arrival, we found the Toussaint L’Ouverture International Airport main building to be severely damaged (Melinda and I had traveled through this building back in 2003 and 2005).  In its place was a shuttle-bus system which took us to a hastily-built customs and luggage retrieval center, where we were processed.

Haiti in June is hot and humid.  This year it was caught up in the soccer World Cup competition.  Brazil and Argentina seemed to be the heavy favorites.   As we made the eight or ten-mile trip (35 minutes) from the airport to the suburb of Delmas, the streets were full of people, cars and trucks of every shape and condition as well as the colorful tap-taps (taxi-trucks).  Our Haitian hosts Jonathan and Alexandra Joseph, were warm and hospitable.  We communicated through a combination of English, French, Kreyol and gestures.

Let me see if I can give you a taste of what life is like in Haiti.  For instance, in the mornings you hear the sounds of people walking down the mostly unpaved streets either chanting something for sale or ringing a little bell to shine shoes, or deliver water.  Then there is the constant motion of people in the streets and the “creative driving style” (we remarked that they seemed to be “playing chicken” all the time).  It is amazing there are so few serious accidents.  Electric power was sporadic and bathing and toilet duties were mostly by by scoop and bucket.

How can I describe the food?   In my opinion, with one exception, we never ate anything that wasn’t very good, although they have combinations of tastes that are unusual to most North Americans.  For dinner we had the typical Haitian rice and black beans along with either spicy chicken or shredded beef.  Every meal was served with fruit and fresh juice to drink.  Delicious.

On this trip, we worked with an association of churches connected with the Brazilian Baptists.  I taught Christian Apologetics (defending the Christian faith amid many questions and criticisms), Pastor Ed Lee taught Outreach in Difficult Times and the ladies led seminars for women and kids.  On Tuesday the first session was plagued with translation problems which were worked out by the following day.  In the Bible Institute classes there were just short of 50 students, 10 of which were pastors. The sessions went extremely well (after the rocky start) with an enthusiastic response from students and administration alike.  In my Apologetics course, the questions ranged from archeology to mathematics in terms of their support of the Bible.

Wednesday morning we toured downtown Port au Prince.  The destruction was nearly indescribable.  The government palace was still in ruins, as were many buildings and even entire neighborhoods.  Many buildings still had unrecovered bodies under the ruins so there was a faint smell of death in many places. The public park across from the government palace had been transformed into a tent city. The public hospital, which we also toured, had patients in tents outside with little children crying in the sweltering conditions.  It was heart-wrenching.

We saw UN and various foreign government personnel in several places, but no work of reconstruction except by the Haitians themselves.  We were later told that this was partly because so many of the property owners were buried in the collapse of those buildings, so there were legal issues as to clearing the rubble and rebuilding.  For now, though, the people need to get out of the tents and tarp shelters before hurricane season, which is just around the corner.  The Haitians we spoke with asked some hard questions of us.  What could we tell them?  I am so glad we came to encourage these folks and at least show that they are not forgotten in the long task of rebuilding ahead of them.

On Thursday, the team visited the Good Samaritan Orphanage in a city called La Croix de Boquets. There are 95 kids there under the care of a matron who felt the need to start this work sixteen years ago.  Her kids range in age from tiny babies to twenty years of age.  They seemed to be well-fell and loved.  Melinda and Amber had the chance to give a fun Bible lesson and we all got to know the kids.  We left a small gift as a token that we care about them.  Melinda and I wanted to bring some of them back home with us.  They were so cute and friendly.

On Friday we were invited to preach at a refugee camp of 50,000 people located where Delmas and Petion-ville meet.  Sean Penn’s JP organization and others are working there helping with health, education, etc.  We worked with the pastor of the site, Pastor Saint Cyr, in praying for three very sick infants and ministering to the moms.  We also preached and sang in the church service that night, which was packed with maybe 350 people.  We were invited on the spot to return Saturday and Sunday evening, which we were unable to do because of the heavy rain which came Saturday afternoon.

On Saturday and Sunday the team worked in an eastern suburb of Port au Prince called Cottard. In the mornings, Melinda and Amber worked with kids at a brand new church started in this new community of refugees.  The Sunday service was very touching as the children of the church—dressed in their very best, greeted us with songs and readings and then presented us with Haitian flags.  We hope to form an on-going relationship to help that church.  Then in the afternoons, the ladies worked with women in an established church in the northern suburb of Santo.  This church of maybe 400 members was completely demolished in the earthquake or January 12.

The trip continued on Monday and Tuesday with the Bible Institute classes and a two-hour certificate ceremony on Tuesday evening.  Tuesday morning Ed and I were invited to be interviewed on Radio Shalom, which is a new Christian radio station broadcasting all over the nation.  Our short interview allowed us to tell the Haitian people they are not forgotten and that there are people in many countries praying for them and willing to help.

The night before we returned home, our hosts requested a continuing relationship with JARON and the West Fresno Ministerial Alliance.  Our plan is to send teams from various churches in the future to work with this very well-founded and reliable group of churches.   Thanks for praying and for sending us on your behalf.

Mike and Melinda Bogart, JARON Ministries

Here are a few words which can be said before serving the elements of the Lord’s Supper.

On the face of it, Pilate was simply doing what custom often dictated: posting the crime of the criminal for all to see. Jesus had been reputed to the the king of the Jews. Pilate had even questioned Jesus about this claim and Jesus had admitted it. The Jewish leaders themselves had requested that Jesus be executed with the words, “We have no king but Caesar!”, implying that they knew of Jesus’ claim and rejected it. So, it does seem logical to post this inscription. Pilate is simply saying, This man is being executed because he is “the King of the Jews”. So, why the uproar?

Clearly, Pilate is getting some of his own back in doing this. He felt blackmailed by the Jewish leadership into executing Jesus, whom he considered to be innocent of any Roman capital offense. His conscience was bothering him, so he got a bit of revenge on them by wording the inscription in a way that would anger them. Notice he didn’t say, “This man claimed to be king of the Jews”, but that “He is the king of the Jews”.  Not only this, but Pilate was also insulting the Jewish people as a whole by saying in effect, “Look at what Rome can do to your king.” But despite the urgent demands, Pilate refused to be manipulated, sticking to his guns and saying, “I have written what I have written. Period.”

But there may be something else here. The inscription was in three languages: Latin, Greek and Aramaic. Aramaic was the language of the people of Judea at the time and can be similar in some ways to biblical Hebrew. If the inscription were to have been written in Hebrew, it probably would have read: Yeshua haNazarei, v’melech, haYehudim (Jesus the Nazarene, the king of the Jews).

There was a school of thought within Judaism in those days (just as there is today) that there is a pattern of finding the divine name and other interesting sacred words scattered as the first letters of various portions of biblical text. This is one avenue of study within what is known today as kabbalah, or Jewish mysticism. Here is the point: the initial letters in a Hebrew version of this inscription would spell YHVH: the tetragrammaton, or sacred name of God.

It could be that the leaders were aware of how such an inscription would read in Hebrew, and that its initial letters would spell the name of God and further confirm Jesus claims, not only to being the king of the Jews, but the Son of God as well. That would certainly lead to the kind of indignation they expressed to Pilate. In Pilate’s refusal, we may very well see the ironic justice of God in testimony to Jesus’ real identity as he died for the sins of the world. Shalom!

Michael Bogart

Good morning. Bon Maten. Bonjour

Good evening. Bon aswe. Bon Soir

Goodbye. Orevwa. Au revoir

Thank you. Mèsi. Merci

No, thank you. Pa gen mèsi. Non, merci

Please. Tanpri. S’il vous plait

My name is– Non mwen se— Mon nom est—-

I am from the US. Mwen sòti nan Etazini. Je suis des États-Unis

I live in California. Mwen ap viv nan Kalifòni. Je vis en Californie

Nice to meet you. Bel rankontre. Enchanté

I don’t understand. Mwen pa konprann. Je ne comprends pas

Please speak slowly. Tanpri, pale tou Dousman. S’il vous plait parler lentement

Yes / No. Wi / Pa gen. Oui / Non

That’s good / OK. Sa a bon. C’est bien

I agree. Mwen dakò. Je suis d’accord

That’s right. Ki bon. C’est ça

I am sorry. Mwen dezole. Je suis désolé

Pardon me. Padonnen m ‘. Excusez-moi

I am hungry. Mwen grangou. J’ai faim

I am thirsty. Mwen swaf. J’ai soif

That is delicious. Sa se bon gou. C’est délicieux

I am tired. Mwen fatige. Je suis fatigué

What is that? Ki sa? Qu’est-ce que c’est?

How much is it? Konbyen li ye? Combien ça coute?

What time is it? Ki lè li ye? Quelle heure est-il?

When should we be ready? Lè pou nou ka pare? Quand devrions-nous prêts?

Where is the bathroom? Kote twalet la? Où sont les toilettes?

I am a Christian. Mwen se yon kretyen. Je suis un chretien

We must be at the airport at seven. Nou dwe nan èpòt la nan sèt. Nous devons être à l’aéroport à sept.

And don’t forget these words: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. Kreyol: youn, de, twa, kat, senk, sis, set, ywit, nef, dis. French: une, deux, trois, quatre, cinq, six, sept, huit, neuf, dix. Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Kreyol: Dimanch, Lendi, Madi, Mekredi, Jedi, Vandredi, Samdi. French: Dimanche, Lundi, Mardi, Mercredi, Jeudi, Vendredi, Samedi.

These are some phrases I have found to be helpful in doing ministry in Haiti. I hope they will come in handy for anyone traveling there or working with Haitians in other places.

Michael Bogart.

Besides the Massoretic texts, the Christian Church had always used the Septuagint, which is a Greek translation of the Hebrew and Aramaic Old Testament made around 200 BC.  The Septuagint was used to compare with Hebrew Massoretic Texts to check meaning and accuracy.  In the 1800 and 1900s other early Old Testament documents were discovered, adding more textual information.

Add to all of this, the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls (Qumran) in 1947, and the huge impact made on biblical scholarship by these very ancient documents.  The Hebrew and Aramaic scrolls of Qumran date from the 200s BC to the 100s AD and include every book of the Old Testament except Esther, as well as other kinds of writings.  These have been compared with the Massoretic Texts, the Septuagint and other manuscripts to discover how much the text of the Hebrew scriptures may have changed over time as manuscripts were copied.

The result was the amazing fact that little or no significant variation occurred in more than 1,000 years of copying from 200 BC to 900 AD.  The only major differences in the texts were the Massoretic invention of Hebrew vowel points as a refinement over the mainly consonantal biblical Hebrew.

So, the tradition that Jewish scribes used extreme care in copying the scriptures proved to be correct and those who study and live by the Old Testament can do so with confidence.

Michael Bogart

One person may say, “I live by the Golden Rule: Do to others what you want done for you.”  Another says, “Anything goes so long as it doesn’t hurt anyone else.”  Still another puts it like this, “The only one I have to please is myself.”  All of these are definite standards for making ethical decisions and all of them affect other people.  But where does true morality come from?

In North American society, the current approach is that morality is defined and decided by majority rule.  This idea sounds eminently reasonable to our democratic way of thinking.  Yet, thinking a bit deeper brings up some troubling problems with the idea of morality by majority consensus.  Where did the majority get their views?  Who are the shapers behind that public opinion?  Why should the views of the morality-shapers be allowed to dominate the minds of so many?  In other words, what guarantee is there that the moral  opinions of the masses are right or good?

Consider Germany in the 1930s.  The Nazi Party was steadily gaining power.  It controlled the press, the educational establishment and even many of the churches.  Nazi propaganda took advantage of certain ideas and feelings already shared by many Germans, and cleverly shaped those notions into the kind of public opinion it desired.  As a result, the world was torn apart and millions died, including six million Jews.   Yet, if we agree that morality should be decided by public opinion, we have little room to criticize the morals of Nazi Germany.  Their consensus was just different than ours, that’s all.

Some will point out that we aren’t like those terrible Nazis or the German people they duped.  Really?  The moral standards of North Americans as just as subject to shaping by the media, government and education as any other culture in history.  Others will point out that we are different because we value tolerance.  The truth is that it really depends upon which side of the current notions of tolerance you fall on.  There are a sizable group of people in our culture right now who would claim that intolerance, not tolerance, rules the day.  North American society may be tolerant of some people and beliefs, but certainly not all.  It just depends on who is in and who is out of power at the time.

Another problem with morality by consensus is that it is subject to constant change.  Like a ship with no compass and no chart, a society which has no external moral standards is directionless.  External principles are essential both to individuals and to cultures simply because they provide a necessary corrective when standards become out of sync with reality.

So what is the alternative?  Let me put it plainly: there is a God.  He created the Cosmos.  He built into his creation certain moral laws based upon his own nature, by which people should live.  The truth is that right and wrong, good and evil, exist independently of what people may think about them.  Thomas Jefferson referred to this in the Declaration of Independence when he wrote about, “..certain inalienable rights endowed by our Creator.”

In the final analysis, workable moral standards are only possible when they are based on a source external to the changing whims of the masses or of those who generate public opinion.  That external source is God.  He is both truly good and truly wise.  He alone is impartial, favoring no one.  To follow his standards, which Jews and Christians believe are given in the Bible, is to have both a compass and an anchor.  In contrast, morality based on the ever-changing opinions of some manufactured majority consensus is biased, arbitrary and chaotic.  It seems that we are not far from this in our own times.

We must think clearly about this issue: If there is such a God as is revealed in the Bible, then it follows that there are external standards of right and wrong.  In that case, what the majority happens to believe is irrelevant.  On the other hand, if there is no such God, then morality is indeed invented by people and agreed upon by each generation.  But in that case, true moral principle ceases to exist, and in its place is a mere scramble to shape and dominate the masses.  That is why, if God does not exist, both Nazism and Communism make perfect sense.  Power is all there is.

No matter what notions are currently popular, our consciences still tell us there there is a God and that his standards are good and fair and right.  So the question is, who will we listen to?  Those who say, in effect, there is no right or wrong, just power?  Or the God who created us and loves us?

Michael Bogart

Whenever Richard Cory went down town,
We people on the pavement looked at him:
He was a gentleman from sole to crown,
Clean favored, and imperially slim.

And he was always quietly arrayed,
And he was always human when he talked;
But still he fluttered pulses when he said,
“Good-morning,” and he glittered when he walked.

And he was rich—yes, richer than a king,
And admirably schooled in every grace:
In fine, we thought that he was everything
To make us wish that we were in his place.

So on we worked, and waited for the light,
And went without the meat, and cursed the bread;
And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,
Went home and put a bullet through his head.

I guess what makes this bit of verse so vivid to me is that it points out a significant contradiction in the way we live:  We know the futility of status, wealth and charm in themselves, and yet we crave them relentlessly.

All of us know a Richard Cory or two: those who seem to have made it and have everything.  They are rich, beautiful, successful and admired.  They drive their sports cars around in perpetual sunshine with the convertible tops down, while we blunder through the fog in our clunkers.  The Richard Corys of the world represent the ultimate goal of so many people: to make it, whatever the cost.

Yet, from time to time, we hear the unsettling news that some celebrity or jet-setter has ended his or her life, either deliberately or through some kind of substance overdose.  We hardly know what to think at such times.  This person seemingly had it all, but threw it away.  What could have caused such despair?

Thinking a little deeper might alert us to the warning this is for all who wish to trade places with Richard Cory.  The person who makes it to the top so often goes to bed with the sinking realization that everything they have is– in itself– empty.  Beauty, wealth and popularity give only temporary satisfaction and leave a long-term hunger for something more.  Hence the never-ending search for deeper pleasures, a more impressive record, an enhanced body, more extravagant vacation or just more stuff. When these things fail to satisfy as well, leaving that gnawing hunger for fulfillment, people sometimes decide that the pain is unbearable.

Fortunately, there is an antidote to such futile living.  It can be found in the words of Jesus recorded in Matthew 6:19-21, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”.

In these words, Jesus gives us a piercing insight into the workings of our own souls.  He tells us frankly that earthly treasure does not last: it can be eaten up, rusted through and stolen.  He teaches us that we can diagnose the state of our soul by examining the type of treasure it craves.  When we examine ourselves according to Jesus’ words, we may conclude that we have been seeking the wrong things most of our lives. Jesus’ answer?  Acquire incorruptable treasure.  In other words, exchange the desire for temporary, shallow things for that which is ultimately fulfilling.  But how?

It starts by getting real with ourselves.  The truth is that we desire unfulfilling things simply because they make us look and feel good without inner change.  They promise that we can bypass the struggle required to actually deserve the admiration of people and the fulfillment, which comes from an approving conscience.  In other words, a focused desire for wealth and status points out our insignificance and smallness of character.  When it becomes clear that this is what we really are, then we must repent.  Repent: such a harsh and unpleasant word.  But there is no real shame in this.  It is a universal human condition.  The sooner we get there, the more quickly we may actually become something and acquire that which will really satisfy our souls.

Then we must seek from God those things, which can give us real significance and make us truly admirable.  Things like: the ability to love people; an inner contentment regardless of circumstances; joy which cannot be suppressed by the fickleness of life; and the knack of living in and by the grace of God.  The great thing about asking God for things like this is that he is very good about giving them.

Despite his wealth and position, Richard Cory never really lived because he was just a shell.  But then, often so are we.  Jesus invites us to become truly alive and truly fulfilled by drawing our life from him: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”  John 14:6

Michael Bogart