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Join Dr. Brown for an interview with Michael Licona that looks at the historicity of Jesus’ resurrection, and then take a look at what our lives are saying about what we believe.
Hour 1:
Dr. Brown’s Bottom Line: The New Testament teaches about it; the hymn writers sing about it; we have experienced the reality of it; He indeed is risen, He is not among the dead, He is among the living. He has conquered death, and He will reign forever and ever. Let us worship at the feet of the resurrected king, Jesus the Messiah and Lord!
Hour 2:
Dr. Brown’s Bottom Line: Don’t lower the standard of God and of truth to where you are; set the bar where God sets it, and by His grace let Him lift you up to be more than a conqueror, more than an overcomer. With Him, through Him, you can do it.
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Meet Michael Licona:
Born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1961, Mike became a Christian at the age of 10 and grew up in a Christian home. He attended Liberty University where he earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Music Performance (Saxophone). During his undergraduate studies, he had a strong desire to know God, devoting himself to studying the Bible daily. He decided to learn Koine Greek in order to read the New Testament in its original language and later completed a Master’s Degree in Religious Studies.
Toward the end of his graduate work in 1985, Mike began to question the veracity of his faith and wondered if there was any evidence to support it. He decided not to go into Christian ministry at that time. Finding answers to his questions consumed him and he almost jettisoned his faith. He investigated the evidence for Christianity and a number of other major world religions . . .
| Read more… |
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Other Resources:
How Saved Are We? by Dr. Brown: This unsettling book challenges us to ask ourselves what kind of born-again experience we have had if it calls for almost no personal sacrifice, produces virtually no separation from the world, and breeds practically no hatred of sin.
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The Bible: Embarrassing and True (Pt. 2) online article by Frank Turek:
Do the New Testament documents tell the truth about what really happened in the first century? As I wrote in my last column, authors claiming to write history are unlikely to invent embarrassing details about themselves or their heroes. Since the New Testament documents are filled with embarrassing details, we can be reasonably certain that they are telling the truth.
Notice that the disciples frequently depict themselves as dimwits. They fail to understand what Jesus is saying several times, and don’t understand what his mission is about until after the resurrection. Their thick-headedness even earns their leader, Peter, the sternest rebuke from Jesus: “Get behind me Satan!” (What great press the disciples provided for their leader and first Pope! Contrary to popular opinion, it seems the church really didn’t have editorial control of the scriptures after all.) […]
I just want to encourage the caller Robert from hour 2. Having gone through a miscarriage in my family – which was harder for me, more than my wife…I understand your hurt and I pray for you. I pray that you will press on in your walk with the Lord.
God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah. (Ps. 46:1-3)
At about an hour into the program I heard the phraze, “flying on his wings.” As I thought on that I remembered that it’s been said that there is healing in his wings.
I found it in Malachi 4:2 which says, “But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.
I believe Jesus is the Sun of righteousness (see the New Testament) who arose as a light in a dark place, in this world, and there is healing in his beams of light.
I believe every word of his is light and has healing power in it unto those that fear the name of God and the name of Jesus which is in quality and character of the same whatever it is. (manna?)
Spiritual bread of life.
As I eat of it and fear the name of God I will also grow, (Mal 4:2) and become strong.
I will become strong in the Lord and in the power of his might.
What we read affects us. What I say, I will be held accountable for. What I say, I trust the angels of God become aware of. Those things affect my life as clay is affected by the potter’s hand, for our God is the Father of spirits.
What I hear or read of the scripture affects how I pray. How I pray affects my life. At first it affects how I think. Because I prayed God affects my thinking in ways I might or might not be aware of.
These things affect how I act. How I act affects how I live.
It all began with a tiny seed of reality.
Ray,
Just thought you would like to know that the wings spoken of in Malachi are referring to the edge of a garment that was commanded to have fringe/tassels/Tzitziot attached to it. (Num. 15:37-41; Deut. 22:11) The Hebrew word is “Kanaph” it is translated “wings” in Malachi and “quarters” in Deuteronomy and “borders” in Numbers. The word for hem in Greek of Matthew is “kraspedon” and was used in the Septuagint (The Greek translation of the Torah) to denote either kanaph or tzitziot.
The woman with the issue of blood put faith in the promise found in Malachi and was healed by touching Y’shua’s kanaph/tzitziot. There were others also that were healed by touching Y’shua’s tassels.
Matthew 9
20 And, behold, a woman, which was diseased with an issue of blood twelve years, came behind him, and touched the hem of his garment:
21 For she said within herself, If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole.
22 But Jesus turned him about, and when he saw her, he said, Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole. And the woman was made whole from that hour.
Matthew 14
36 And besought him that they might only touch the hem of his garment: and as many as touched were made perfectly whole.
Shalom
Bo, actually, there’s no evidence that the passage in Malachi referred to fringes in any way, nor is there any solid evidence that there was belief in the healing power of the fringes (tsitsit). Rather, the woman just reached out to touch the furthest extremity of Rabbi Yeshua’s clothes — his fringes/tassels. The other arguments are, to my knowledge, mythical.
Dr. Brown,
What kind of wings do you suppose Messiah had? Feathered? Do you think that He wore Kanaph/tzitziot/kraspedon? What about the others that wanted to touch the hem of His garment? Healing in His kraspedon…Healed by touching His kraspedon. What is the difference? Maybe the woman didn’t know of the Messianic prophecy, but she was somehow led by the Spirit to touch Y’shua’s kraspedon because the Spirit knew the prophecy and it was time to have the fulfillment demonstrated.
Maybe I should have said, “Is it possible that those healed by touching Messiah’s tzitziot/kanaph/kraspedon were healed because of the prophecy/promise in Malachi”?
To my knowledge, we can’t invent our own truth by so called faith, but we can experience the truth by placing true faith in it. I do not think that the woman, or the others that were healed by touching Messiah’s wings, made something happen of their own volition, but that they partook of something that was already in place by exercising their faith.
But maybe you are trying to say that the women and the others did nothing in response to the prophecy, instead of saying that the Messiah’s wings are not His kraspedon that had healing in them. Maybe you are saying they were healed by accidentally being a part of the fulfillment of prophecy, instead of putting faith in the prophecy. Maybe you are saying that there is no proof that there was a doctrine taught by the Jewish sages or any knowledge of the people as to the healing residing in Messiah’s tassels. Maybe you are saying that the fact that the sun of righteousness, whoever that is, has healing in his kanaph and the healing that came when people touched Messiah’s kanaph is simply a coincidence and not prophesied about at all.
But maybe:
Deuteronomy 29
29 The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.
Amos 3
7 Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.
If YHWH does nothing without revealing it to the prophets, maybe YHWH revealed a secret and they did not have eyes to see and ears to hear. Maybe there are other word plays and obscure sayings that we do not understand. Maybe YHWH revealed one of His secrets to us and we still don’t see it.
Maybe that woman, that had been unclean so long, had sought YHWH and He answered her with the passage in Malachi. And maybe she believed Him and acted on it. And maybe YHWH used this woman’s “silly idea” to bring about one more Messianic fulfillment. I’ve heard of stranger things.
I wonder if there is a prophecy about the resurrection that went quite unnoticed as just a seemingly meaningless waving of grain. I wonder if we would have put two and two together in this instance:
Acts 1
20 For it is written in the book of Psalms, Let his habitation be desolate, and let no man dwell therein: and his bishoprick let another take.
Or this one:
Galatians 3
16 Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.
Just something to think about. As your topic for this thread says, “How What We Believe Affects How We Live.”
Shalom
Bo, Yeshua certainly wore tassles as a Torah-observant Jew, and kraspedon should be translated as such in the NT. But there is no evidence that there is any connection between the tassels and the healing “wings” of the sun of righteousness in Malachi, hence it is wrong to teach that this as a known tradition in the ancient Jewish world. Your speculation is certainly possible and you’re quite free to it; I’m simply correcting mistatements here that purport to be factual and are not.
The women with the issue of blood knew who Jesus was. She went after Him to receive healing. Jesus was walking as she try to grab hold of Him. The only thing she could of grabbed of Jesus was the hem of His garment. Healing took place because of her faith she had that Jesus can heal. Not because touching His hem (Tzitzis). That is why Jesus said…”Who touched me?” Healing power came out of Jesus into a sick women who had faith. Faith and Healing Power matched. Healing and the Glory of God was revealed.
It is all about faith.
Dr, Brown,
I had no intent to teach that it was a known tradition in the ancient Jewish world. The connection is pretty obvious…more obvious than many of the Apostles interpretations of other passages in the Tanakh. That’s all. Do you think that the sun of righteousness is Messiah? What are the wings that Malachi speaks of? Do you have a better speculation?
Shalom
Bo,
The imagery of Malachi is to the kanaph of the sun, meaning its “rays.” This has nothing to do with the tassels on a garment. Really, pretty simple. No speculation needed.