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“Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, handling accurately the word of truth.” 2 Timothy 2:15

Happ-O-Getics Newsletter

Was Jesus Literate?

In the last issue of Happ-O-getics, I challenged the view held by some scholars that the illiteracy rate among people at the time of Jesus was at least 98% (they could neither read nor write). Based on the many libraries and volumes of written documents that existed even then, the statistic is quite unlikely. This leads us to ponder another question: was Jesus literate? 

I also quoted Helen Bond, a professor of Christian Origins at the University of Edinburgh who said, “If Jesus was a carpenter/mason, as we generally suppose, then it’s not impossible that he had some rudimentary grasp of letters and/or numbers for the purposes of his trade, but I think it very unlikely that Jesus could read or write.” 

In this issue, I want to challenge the naivety or nonsense of this statement regarding Jesus. 

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If Mount Moriah could Speak

Author’s Note: The following article is written in first person as if Mount Moriah itself were capable of a personal response.

Then Solomon began to build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah.

2 Chronicles 3:1
Jerusalem, atop Mount Moriah, as seen from the Mount of Olives, in a painting by David Roberts, 1839. 

It’s been an incredible ride! I’m humbled by the God-ordained events which I’ve borne on my slopes, but I’m still waiting for the “big” one (more about that later). Yes, I’m Mount Moriah, home of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem – itself the size of twenty football fields, nearly 145 acres. 

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The Best Evidence of a Global Flood 

The Old Testament and the teaching of Jesus leave no question of Divine judgment of humanity by a past global flood upon the earth. But few topics ignite as much debate – or fascination – as the search for its historical evidence. From marine fossils embedded high in mountain ranges to vast, flat plateaus and sedimentary rock layers stretching across continents, the geological record is filled with features that are quite compelling signs of a cataclysmic, worldwide deluge. Proponents point to the rapid burial of plants and animals, the existence of many massive fossil graveyards extending for miles, the presence of marine fossils far from any modern sea, and the lack of erosional time gaps between the sedimentary layers as powerful evidence of a recent global flood that reshaped the face of our planet. As new discoveries continue to emerge, the question remains: do these clues truly point to a single, planet-wide catastrophe occurring thousands of years ago, or are they the result of slow and gradual processes occurring over millions of years. This article explores selected evidence of a global flood and what it means for an understanding of human and Earth history.

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