Pretty compelling testimony; this guy died, and had some incredible events take place.
There are a lot of stories out there of how lives were changed by God, but this story of how a French atheist became a Christian theologian is a classic, and interesting read.
I’m going to put the first paragraph here, and link to the rest. Enjoy!
A number of people lately have been intrigued to meet a French theologian, and have asked me to tell them the story of how I, a French atheist, became a Christian scholar. Even the theologians and apologists I met recently at the ETS Conference in Baltimore (where by God’s grace I was delivering my first scholarly paper) seemed to care (understandably) more about my conversion from atheism than my immediate theology paper! Therefore, it seemed fitting to type it up properly, to have a clean telling of that story of God breaking into my life, ready to be shared with people who ask. So here it is (and please let me know if you spot spelling mistakes or awkward sentences, I’m still French after all!)
http://www.acts17.net/2015/01/guillaume-bignon-how-french-atheist.html
One of the most important biblical events was the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt. Is there any viable evidence for this? The video below is the single best source of evidence I have ever seen; it gives evidence that the Israelites existed in ancient Egypt, it demonstrates a possible path from Egypt across the Gulf of Aqaba off of the North Sea, and gives video footage of coral forms that look very much like the remains of chariot wheels under the water.
A short seven-minute drama that describes how CS Lewis went from being an atheist, to being a deist, to finally believing that Jesus is the Son of God, ending with the thought:
It was like when a man after a long sleep becomes aware that he is now awake.
This Fascinating Testimony from Kim Walker of Jesus Culture includes a vision she had while praying and her vision coordinated with the events around her in a very unusual way. Hard to explain. Check it out.
Changed lives – Attempted Suicide goes to Hell – is the Fascinating story of a drug overdose that sent a woman to hell, what she saw and learned.
God’s name in Hebrew, from right to left.
Whenever you see the words The LORD in the English bible, it is actually a substitute for the actual name of God, YVHV, sometimes pronounced as Yahweh.
The ancient Hebrew alphabet has meanings attached to each of its 22 letters (see a chart of Hebrew letters and their meanings here if you like). The letters used in the name of God, YVHV, are the Yod, Hey, Vav, Hey, corresponding to:
Yod – picture (Arm and closed hand) – meaning (work, throw, worship)
Hey – picture (Man with arms raised) – meaning (look, reveal, breath)
Vav – picture (Tent peg (or nail)) – meaning (add, secure, hook)
So we could say that going from right to left (as Hebrew is read), the meaning of God’s name is The Hand Revealed, The Nail Revealed. Here is a site that goes into more detail on this.
“Junk DNA” is a term used since 1972 by scientists to describe DNA which did not have any apparent function.
Evolutionists believed this was clear proof of evolution. The logic builds from copyright law. When trying to determine if two authors of a work, by chance, wrote the same work independently, or if one copied the other, you look for spelling or grammatical errors which one author could have inadvertently copied from the other author in the process of stealing the work. Many shared errors in both author’s works indicate they came from a common source.
Evolutionists applied this argument to pseudogenes (DNA which is said to be defective, or using our copyright law analogy, the spelling errors). So evolutionists looked for errors in DNA between species, and when they found them, they assumed there was a common ancestor (a common source, using our copyright analogy).
But a recent federal project involving over 400 scientists around the world has found that the “Junk DNA” actually holds at least four million gene switches that control how organs, cells, and other parts of living tissue behave. At least 80 percent of this DNA is active and needed, according to the article.
Second-century writings in the Jewish Talmud (traditional laws and writings) give us talmudic evidence for the existence of Jesus, whose Hebrew name was Yeshua. As would be expected, since the rulers of the time were against Jesus, the citations are all on the negative side, nonetheless they serve as evidence he did exist.
On the eve of Passover Yeshu was hanged. For forty days before the execution took place, a herald went forth and cried, “He is going forth to be stoned because he has practiced sorcery and enticed Israel to apostasy. Any one who can say anything in his favour, let him come forward and plead on his behalf.” But since nothing was brought forward in his favour he was hanged on the eve of the Passover! – Ulla retorted: Do you suppose that he was one for whom a defence could be made? Was he not a _Mesith_ [enticer], concerning him Scripture says, _Neither shalt though spare, neither shalt thou conceal him?_ With Yeshu however it was different, for he was connected with the government for royalty [i.e., influential]. Our Rabbis taught: Yeshu had five disciples, Matthai, Nakai, Nezer, Buni, and Todah.
from Baraitha Bab. Sanhedrin 43a
“May our company not be like that of Elisha, from which issued Gehazi. _In our bread places_: may we produce no son or pupil who disgraces himself in public.” One manuscript (M) adds to the end of this saying, “like the Nazarene.”
from b. Berakot
“Jesus the Nazarene [who] practised magic and led Israel astray.”
from b. Sabbat 116b and b. Sanhedrin 107b
Check out a related post that demonstrates talmudic evidence for the Messiah at 30 AD, here.
Read more about these examples at http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/talmud.html
The traditional Jewish Passover points to Jesus as the Messiah in several distinct ways: