continued @ c659smith
That just because a person doesn’t believe in something, they don’t have to believe in it’s opposite.
This makes no sense if you don’t believ in something than you have an oposing view
and A
If we reject the claims of the Bible for itself, then we are beset with an imposing set of difficulties arising from the interpenetration of Biblical history with secular history, both in the past and in the present. History does not take place in a vacuum.
The problem you have then is that all or most of history is erased as the bible as an historical document being
In a court of law, the purpose of the cross-examination of a witness is to determine, among other things, whether his testimony is consistent with itself, and whether it is consistent with the circumstances concurrent with the events about which he or she is testifying. A false witness will not knowingly provide any information that might be open to contradiction. When he testifies, he will attempt to express himself in very general terms, with as few specifics as possible. Cross-examination forces a witness to be specific, and if the witness is not telling the truth, the necessity of supplying specific details often results in contradictions which expose his testimony as false. The Bible freely supplies details of every kind, whether or not they are central to the topic under discussion. Such details are supplied in abundance, a strong indication of the trustworthiness of the testimony of the Biblical writers.
There are many passing references to names, places and events in the New Testament made by various classical writers, many of whom were pagans, Jews, infidels, or Greeks who had no interest in maintaining the credibility of the Christian faith. Among them were Josephus, Philo, Cicero, Tacitus, Ulpian, Hermogenian, Marcian, Celsus, Petronius, Dio, and Suetonius. These writers referred to many of the same people to whom the New Testament refers, and many of the same facts about them are mentioned in both places. If the Bible had been legendary, all statements made, even with casual references to accidents of circumstance, would nevertheless have had to agree with an entire spectrum of first-century sources bearing upon Palestine, with all of its intricacies of geography, politics, government, culture, and religion, a monumental task at best.
The Gibeonites had surrendered to Joshua knowing that they lived in the territory that he would have to conquer next in order to gain control over Palestine. Its strategic importance lay in its position as the major approach to Jerusalem, and is underscored by the fact that in the six-day war of 1966, when the Central Benjamin Plateau was taken, it was announced that Israel had taken the West Bank, although most of the West Bank had not yet actually been taken. It was recognized on all hands, however, that what remained was a mere matter of mop-up operations once the Central Benjamin Plateau was in Israeli hands. In just the same way, when the Gibeonites formed an alliance with Joshua, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish, and Eglon would have known immediately that they were very seriously threatened. The sneak attack of the kings of these cities with their armies against the Gibeonites would have been the logical consequence of such an alliance. After the defeat of these kings, their retreat along the road from Beth-Horon to Azekah would have been their only live option. It is at this point that the sun stood still upon Gibeon and the moon in the Aijalon valley, enabling Joshua and his men to pursue them. On March 19, 1985, a leading present-day historical geographer of Palestine, James M. Monson, said with respect to the geographical factors of this narrative in Joshua that, “this is a very, very precise description, and it’s not something sort of manufactured. And today people are saying, ‘but Joshua really didn’t exist.’ . . .But the geographic factors are correct, you know, because they are so exact. We cannot deny those. So I think it’s rather hard to have some guy making up a story . . . . It takes more faith for me to believe some guy fabricated this and it all fits nicely than to say that this really happened.” The Biblical stories are precise in all of their details, and it is very exciting to see how well they fit into their geographical context.
This is why the questions of Grant.s tomb and Lincoln,s assaination for one must discount these have occurred for A’s response for evidence or fact is that he was not therre,did not feel it or touch it so it cannot be true. Well same with Lincoln and Grant or any history prior the 19th century.
