The list of Jewish men who acted as messiah candidates is often overlooked by history as it cranes its neck and strains its eyes to investigate Jesus of Nazareth. However, we can learn a great deal from those messiahs “that might have been” but were not. History records a few standout messianic hopefuls. Luke, for example, records the following statements of the great Rabbinic teacher, Gamaliel: Acts 5:35-39 (ESV) And  [ Read More ]

Baptism, though considered a source of unity in the first century (Ephesians 4:4-6), quickly became mired in controversy and dissension. Some read the New Testament even today in a way that minimalizes the presence of baptism and magnifies any statement that might cast baptism in a lesser light. Paul’s statement from 1 Corinthians 1:17 (ESV), “For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel,” has become  [ Read More ]

The audio below is from the Gospel meeting that I conducted in April of 2012 at the Cleveland church of Christ. The lessons are an apologetic argument on the validity of faith, the shortcomings of science, and the scientific evidences that support the faith of the Bible. Audio CDs of the event can be ordered from the Cleveland congregation. (The static noise at the beginning of the audio is the  [ Read More ]

A previous article discussed the Dark Matter issue at length, but a new development brings this topic to the surface once more. If you will recall, Dark Matter is the mysterious and undetectable material that astronomers need to have floating through the universe to make the current cosmological model work. Rather than accept that the model doesn’t work, Dark Matter (and its cousin Dark Energy) have been postulated as a “fix”  [ Read More ]

The Gospel Coalition website has posted the following: As Craig Blomberg has written, “Dan Wallace has clearly become evangelical Christianity’s premier active textual critic today.” In addition to teaching New Testament at Dallas Theological Seminary, he serves as executive director of the cutting-edge Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts (CSNTM). He recently made quite a stir when he announced that next year an academic publication will reveal the discovery of  [ Read More ]

It is simply impossible that a president should comment on religion without being controversial. So we are not surprised that President Obama engendered some strife with the following comment at the White House Easter Prayer Breakfast. Like us, Jesus knew doubt. Like us, Jesus knew fear. In the garden of Gethsemane, with attackers closing in around him, Jesus told His disciples, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of  [ Read More ]

{{Editor’s Note: I’m being lazy this week! Instead of writing up something new for you, I am giving you an excerpt out of my almost finished term paper for my Apologetics class. Expect the paper in its entirety to end up on the blog eventually, or possibly piecemeal. For those of you unfamiliar with the Talmud: “In addition to the written scriptures we have an ‘Oral Torah,’ a tradition explaining  [ Read More ]

Sometimes it is good to restate the purpose that drives your work. At Dark Canopy, I cover a variety of science related topics. My goal is not actually to assert that Science can “prove” the existence of God. God, by Biblical definition, is a spirit (John 4:24) and consequently not the under the purview of scientific exploration. Instead, my goal is simply to demonstrate that the “science knows best” worldview  [ Read More ]

A fascinating discussion is available in the video below. The “debate” included Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and Prof. Richard Dawkins in a discussion titled “The nature of human beings and the question of their ultimate origin”. The event was held at the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford in February 2012. I’m not satisfied overall with some of what is said, but it is worth a watch if you have an  [ Read More ]

In a recent debate with Bible skeptic Bart Ehrman, Dr. Daniel Wallace of the Dallas Theological Seminary mentioned the possibility of the recent discovery of a first century manuscript of Mark. To clarify, the first century would be the same century in which Mark wrote it. This find would be an incredible evidence of the reliability of the New Testament. To explain the discovery further, I will reproduce Wallace’s recent  [ Read More ]