Godspeed’s Factual Truth

Sir William Ramsay, was knighted and graduated from Oxford University with a doctorate in philosophy, for his work with ‘orthotoluic acid’. He discovered Krypton and Neon (among others) and received distinguished awards from numerous societies (including Pope Leo XII, and the Royal Geographical Society). He also taught at Cambridge and Oxford. Ramsay was raised as a Biblical nonbeliever, by his atheist parents.

Sir Ramsay, was determined to undermine the historical accuracy of the Bible (which he preferred to call a “Book of fables”), he studied archaeology with the aim of disproving the biblical account. Once ready with the necessary scientific tools and learning, he traveled to Palestine and focused on the book of Acts, which he fully expected to refute as nothing more than myth.

After 25 years of work and research, traveling Asia and the Middle East. Ramsay was awestruck by the historical accuracy and evidence of the New Testament. In his quest to refute the Bible, Ramsay discovered many facts which confirmed its precision. He had to concede that Biblical events and settings were exact even in the smallest detail. Far from attacking the biblical account, Ramsay produced a book, St. Paul, the Traveler and Roman Citizen, which supported Biblical events.

Eventually, William Ramsay shocked the intellectual world by writing that he had converted to Christianity. Ironically, this man who set out to refute the Bible, found himself accepting the Bible as God’s Word because of his academic explorations and factual discoveries.

Clive Staples Lewis (1898–1963) British literary critic, scholar and author. Lewis took the chair of medieval and Renaissance English at Cambridge. He was an intellectual giant and arguably the most influential Christian writer of his day. His major contributions in literary criticism, children’s literature, fantasy literature, and popular theology brought him international renown and acclaim. Best known for authoring “The Chronicles of Narnia” and other popular children’s fantasy novels, Lewis also wrote numerous works on apologetics such as “Mere Christianity”.

He wrote more than thirty books, allowing him to reach a vast audience, and his works continue to attract thousands of new readers every year. During his time at Oxford, Lewis went from being an atheist to being one of the most influential Christian writers of the 20th century; 1931 marks the year of Lewis’s conversion to Christianity. He became a member of the Church of England. Lewis cites his friendship with J. R. R. Tolkien, as well as the writings of the converted G. K. Chesterton, as influencing his conversion.

In addition to his career as an English professor and an author of fiction, Lewis is regarded by many as one of the most influential Christian apologist of his time. Mere Christianity was voted best book of the twentieth century by Christianity Today magazine in 2000.

Lewis was very much interested in presenting a reasonable case for the truth of Christianity. Mere Christianity, the Problem of Pain, and Miracles were all concerned, to one degree or another, with refuting popular objections to Christianity. He also became known as a popular lecturer and broadcaster, and some of his writing (including much of Mere Christianity) originated as scripts for radio talks or lectures.

Due to Lewis’s approach to religious belief as a skeptic, and his following conversion, he has become popularly known as “The Apostle to the Skeptics.” Consequently, his books on Christianity examine common difficulties in Christianity, such as “How could a good God allow pain to exist in the world?” which he examined in detail in The Problem of Pain.

Sir Isaac Newton, was an English physicist, theologian mathematician, astronomer and natural philosopher. His brilliant work in physics has influenced all of science; in 1687 he published Philosphiae Naturalis Principia Mathamatica, which historically impacted all of science. He established the foundation for mechanical science, with his work on laws of gravitation and the three laws of motion.

Yet many are not aware of his factual biblical writings, spending more time on Christian Theology than on science. His methodical scientific nature caused him to approach the bible on a more pragmatic factual level. Newton was not one to waste his time on mythical fiction, he was motivated to pursue factual truth writing over 1.2 million words on biblical subjects. One will have to question what logical premise motivates brilliant individuals to pursue the Biblical truth and why many skeptics choose not to understand or pursue the truth.

Newton’s scientific position contributed to the law of conservation of energy stating that “energy can neither be created nor destroyed; energy can only be changed from one form to another or transferred from one body to another.” The human body constitutes significant amounts of energy, if consolidated in one burst it could light a building. When the body dies, that energy does not cease to exist; but changes form or is transferred. We believe that energy is part of your soul.

He received his PhD from Johns Hopkins University, and was best known for his role in the authentication of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1948.

He is considered the leading authority in theorist and practitioner of biblical archaeology. Albright was awarded the “Worthy One of Jerusalem”- the first time it was awarded to a non-Jew. He insisted that the biblical book of Genesis was historical and the details should be considered accurate.

He was President of the British Academy and also director of the British museum. His expertise in archeology showed us how science can corroborate many of the historical events of the bible. Specifically, he pursued the correlation between history and biblical facts.

Gluck’s contention is that very little was lost in the transmission of text from more than 24,000 ancient manuscripts of the New Testament. He states, “There is more evidence for the reliability of the text of the New Testament than there is for any ten pieces of classical literature put together. It is in better textual shape than the 37 plays of William Shakespeare which were written a mere 300 years ago, after the invention of the printing press!”

Besides the massive numbers of early New Testament documents, the Old Testament can also be substantiated by the Jewish community who continue to corroborate the proof for its accuracy, as well as documents such as the Septuagint and the Dead Sea Scrolls which give added weight to the claim that it has never been changed. Even the Qur’an, possibly written during the 7th-8th centuries recognized the authority of our scriptures (see suras 2:136; 3:2-3; 4:136; 5:47-52, 68; 10:95; 21:7; and 29:46).

We also know that, outside of the few scribal errors, the historical events and personages are adequately correct, as they do not confuse names, dates and events, and in fact, surprisingly, continue to coincide with current archaeological findings. This is indeed significant, since with each successive year, ongoing documental and archaeological discoveries fail to divulge any historical contradictions. Instead they continue to corroborate what the Bible has been saying for 2,000-3,000 years (examples such as the Ebla tablets, or the newly discovered tomb of the priest Caiaphus give continuing credibility to the scriptures historical trustworthiness).”