Exploring the Bible

  The Carpenter’s House: Meeting the Family of Jesus When we visualize the life of Jesus, the image is often solitary. We see Him standing alone on a mountaintop preaching, or perhaps walking with His twelve disciples. Our mental picture of His family usually stops at the Nativity scene: Mary, Joseph, and the baby, frozen in a silent, holy moment. But the Gospels paint a much more dynamic, crowded, and human picture of Jesus’ home life. Jesus was not a solitary figure who dropped out of the sky; He was a member of a household, a son, a cousin, and a brother. He grew up in a real family with real dynamics—including skepticism, tension, and ultimately, reconciliation. Here is a look at the blood relatives and family members of Jesus identified in the Bible. Mary (Miriam) Mary is, of course, the central biological link. The New Testament is clear that Jesus was born of a virgin, meaning Mary contributed His humanity while the conception was of the Holy Spirit. She is a constan...

 Is the Crown of Thorns in Notre-Dame Real? On April 15, 2019, the world watched in horror as flames engulfed the roof of the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris. As the spire collapsed and the lead melted, a different drama was playing out inside the burning building. A courageous priest, Father Jean-Marc Fournier, along with a human chain of firefighters, rushed into the inferno. They weren't trying to save gold or paintings. They were trying to save a simple circle of woven rushes, encased in a crystal tube. They were saving the Crown of Thorns. For roughly 1,600 years, believers have venerated this object as the actual instrument of torture pressed onto the head of Jesus Christ. But in an age of skepticism and science, is it possible that this relic is authentic? Or is it just a medieval fabrication? When we look at the history, the answer is surprisingly compelling. If you look at the relic today, it might surprise you. It doesn't look like the prickly wreath we see i...

 Understanding Preterism One of the most common attacks from skeptics against the Bible goes something like this: "Jesus promised he would come back 'soon.' He told his disciples that 'this generation' would not pass away before the end came. Well, it’s been 2,000 years. That generation is long dead. Jesus was wrong." Even some famous Christian thinkers, like C.S. Lewis, admitted that Matthew 24:34 (where Jesus predicts these things) was "the most embarrassing verse in the Bible." But what if Jesus wasn't wrong? What if the problem isn't with Jesus' timeline, but with our interpretation? This brings us to a theological view known as Preterism. The word comes from the Latin praeter , meaning "past." In short, Preterism is the view that many of the prophecies in the New Testament—specifically those about the "end of the age," the "Great Tribulation," and the "coming on the clouds"—were fulfi...

 Why Science Can't Clone the Shroud If I told you there was a photograph of Jesus Christ taken the moment He rose from the dead, you’d probably tell me I was crazy. Cameras didn't exist 2,000 years ago. But what if the "camera" wasn't a machine, but the burial cloth itself? The Shroud of Turin is the most studied artifact in human history. For centuries, skeptics have called it a medieval forgery—a clever painting or a scorch mark created by a crafty artist in the 1300s. But as modern science has advanced, a strange thing has happened. Instead of proving the Shroud is a fake, technology has revealed that we—with all our lasers, computers, and nuclear labs—cannot duplicate it. We can put a man on the moon, but we cannot create a copy of this ancient linen cloth. When you look at a painting, the paint sits on top of the canvas, or it soaks into the threads. The image on the Shroud does neither. It is incredibly superficial. It sits on the very top of the...