Erik Manning

Erik is the creative force behind the YouTube channel Testify, which is an educational channel built to help inspire people's confidence in the text of the New Testament and the truth of the Christian faith.

6 clear reasons why Psalm 22 can’t possibly describe anyone else but Jesus of Nazareth.

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“Psalm 22 isn’t about Jesus at all! Mark was familiar with the Psalm and deliberately fabricated stories about the mocking of the crowds and the distribution of his clothes. Not only that, Christians translators came in and changed the wording of one of the passages to make it say that the sufferer’s feet and hands were pierced. Plus, the Psalm was written by David or some other Jewish sufferer about their own suffering. Christians are just projecting Jesus backward into the Psalm to fit their own narrative. And there’s nothing about the resurrection in Psalm 22. Isn’t that the punchline of the whole story?” That’s the skeptical interpretation of Psalm 22 in a nutshell. To … Read more

9 Historical Facts About Jesus’ Brother James That Provide Evidence for Christianity

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Do you think that you could convince one of your siblings into believing that you’re the Son of God? Unless they were three years old, it would probably be a tough sell. After all, they’ve seen how you keep your room. So it’s a pretty amazing historical fact that Jesus’ brother James, who probably wore Jesus’ hand-me-downs, later as an adult converted to Christianity. And we know that he was sincere about his belief because he died for it. James’ martyrdom wasn’t just recorded in Christian sources (Hegesippus) but by the 1st-century Jewish historian Josephus. In his book Antiquities of the Jews 20.200, Josephus wrote: “But this younger Ananus, who, as we told you already, took … Read more

The Gospel of ‘Meh’: Why apatheism is more dangerous to the Christian faith than atheism or other competing worldviews

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Have you ever shared the case for Jesus with someone, only to be met with a resounding ‘meh.’ If so, you’ve met an apatheist. So what’s an apatheist? An apatheist is someone who is indifferent about the existence of God. It’s not a belief, but it’s more of a psychological state of mind. Whether God exists or any religion is true makes no difference to them. One writer in The Atlantic describes someone asking about his spiritual condition. He replied “I used to call myself an atheist,” I said, “and I still don’t believe in God, but the larger truth is that it has been years since I really cared one way or another. I’m”—that … Read more

The argument from religious experience: Don’t discount the apologetic value of sharing your “God-encounter”

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The Bible is full of people who have had experiences of God. Abraham heard a voice that told him his descendants would be as numerous as the stars. (Genesis 12:1-3) Moses heard God’s voice from a burning bush. (Exodus 3:3-14) Isaiah and Ezekiel both had visions of God. (Isaiah 6:1-8, Ezekiel 8:1-3) Jesus had the Spirit of God descend on him like a dove and heard “you are my beloved Son, with whom I’m well pleased.” (Matthew 3:16-17) The 120 early Christians experienced the Holy Spirit at Pentecost (Acts 2:1-4) And Paul had a vision of Jesus on the road to Damascus. (Acts 9:3-6) Not only that, Christians throughout the centuries have testified about these … Read more

Answering a Far Out Objection: 5 Reasons Why Jesus Wasn’t Resurrected by Aliens

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did aliens resurrect jesus

One of the weirder objections I’ve come across against the resurrection of Jesus runs something like this: “Who’s to say that God raised Jesus from the dead? Couldn’t it have been the work of some advanced alien race?” There are a few things that are tacit in this cheeky kind of reply. For starters, maybe they don’t know how to refute the historical evidence because it’s really just that good. This would definitely be a point on the Christian’s side.  Or, they think that theistic belief is a lot like believing an advanced alien race killed all the dinosaurs or are responsible for the ancient pyramids. Well, that’s not a very friendly move to make. … Read more

No, the Question “who Made God?” is Not a Knock-down Refutation to the Cosmological Argument

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One of the most astonishing facts that scientists have discovered over the last 100 years is that all physical reality began to exist in the finite past. Before big bang cosmology, scientists thought that the universe existed eternally. While there are still a few Christians who get a little squeamish about the Big Bang theory, I like to tell them that the Big Bang is your friend, not an enemy. Far from disproving the existence of God, the theory shows that all space, time and matter began to exist. If that’s the case, then the required cause of space, time and matter can’t depend on space, time and matter. Let that sink in a little. … Read more

Peter J Williams Goes Full Thug-Life on Richard Dawkins’ Twitter Account with an Epic Thread

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OK, so this was pretty good. Peter J Williams has a Ph.D. from Cambridge, works for Tyndale House and has debated the likes of Bart Ehrman on public radio. The man knows his stuff. He recently published a book titled Can We Trust the Gospels?. I’m halfway through it now and I’d highly recommend it to anyone just for the gold-mine that is in Chapter 3 alone. It’s really, really good. Anyway, whoever the brain trust is behind the Richard Dawkins Foundation’s Twitter account thought they’d try and tango with Peter. More jollity https://t.co/1NsdnYNd1S — Peter J. Williams (@DrPJWilliams) January 9, 2019 Yeah, they asserted the old “Jesus probably never even existed” canard. You may … Read more

7 things that should be better known about the problem of hell according to Jesus

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The topic of hell usually generates more heat than light, pun intended. The doctrine gets used as a bludgeon against those who claim to follow Jesus, who is said to be meek and lowly of heart, yet spoke so often of this harsh subject. The late outspoken atheist Christopher Hitchens said, “not until the Advent of the Prince of Peace do we hear of the ghastly idea of further punishing the dead.” You hear many thinking believers say they’d prefer to get rid of the doctrine if it didn’t have such scriptural support. CS Lewis said, “There is no doctrine which I would more willingly remove from Christianity than this if it lay in my … Read more

A look at an alleged contradiction in the Gospels: Was Jairus’ daughter alive when Jesus was approached or was she already dead?

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For historical documents to be reliable, they can’t be full of contradictions. That’s just common sense. As Christians, we say that the Gospels give us an accurate portrayal of historical events, but critics are quick to call foul. They say that the gospel accounts are so full of contradictions that it’s hopeless to even try and argue for their reliability. Or so critics like Bart Ehrman would like us to believe. When asked on his blog if there was a “slam-dunk” contradiction that would be impossible to defend, Bart’s reply was: “I don’t have ONE that is [a] slam-dunk. But there are dozens that are pretty good. Here’s one: Jairus came to Jesus to ask him to … Read more

27 Times Paul Proved He Knew About The Historical Jesus

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You can find the craziest conspiracy theories on the internet. The earth is flat. 9/11 was an inside job. Saved by the Bell was a brainwashing tool by the Illuminati. Jay-Z is a time-traveling vampire. Or that Jesus never existed. One tactic of the Jesus-mythers is that they say that Paul knew nothing of the historical Jesus. They claim that the Jesus of the gospels is nothing like the Jesus of Paul’s Epistles. There’s nothing about his birth, baptism, the Sermon on the Mount, his healings and exorcisms, his walking on water, feeding of the 5000, his cleansing of the temple, and so on. Paul only speaks about a ‘heavenly man’, seemingly unconnected to real … Read more

Is Jesus Alive?