Do the simplest explanations, explain it away?

The seas are being parted
I recently saw a television show that talked about a rainstorm in Kansas City, Mo. That took place in the late 1800’s. This rainstorm for a brief time also included frogs falling from the sky. Way too many of them for them to have been nesting in the trees. It was such an unusual event that for years they thought the observers must have been mistaken. Later someone figured out that a waterspout could have been the explanation. A sort of water tornado picked up the frogs from a semi-local body of water and dropped them off as the waterspout was running out of energy. This explanation would have been fine for that event. They went one step further and said that the waterspout explained the plague of frogs, but would it?
The Biblical rain of frogs was not a surprise to Moses, God told Moses, and Moses told the Pharoh, and then Aaron was told to stretch out his staff over the local bodies of water before the plague of frogs came into being.  Then when the Pharoh told Moses to stop the frogs, Moses told him to wait till the next day. On the next day, all the frogs died, and everything stank.  The frogs in Kanas City left of their own free will. So the plague of frogs looked completely different than the surprise storm in Kansas City.
You have the other 9 plagues to consider, and how many of the plagues did not affect the Jews who wanted freedom from slavery.  If you want a natural explanation for the frogs in the Bible you have to explain away all ten plagues, and the reason why the Pharoh let the Jews go free.

When I was reading up on the ten plagues of the Bible, I remembered a story that I heard years ago.

A boy was sitting on a park bench with one hand resting on an open Bible. He was loudly exclaiming his praise to God. “Hallelujah! Hallelujah! God is great!” he yelled without worrying whether anyone heard him or not.

Shortly after, along came a man who had recently completed some studies at a local university. Feeling very enlightened in the ways of truth and very eager to show this enlightenment, he asked the boy about the source of his joy.

“Hey” asked the boy in return with a bright laugh, “Don’t you have any idea what God is able to do? I just read that God opened up the waves of the Red Sea and led the whole nation of Israel right through the middle.”

The enlightened man laughed lightly, sat down next to the boy and began to try to open his eyes to the “realities” of the miracles of the Bible. “That can all be very easily explained. Modern scholarship has shown that the Red Sea in that area was only 10-inches deep at that time. It was no problem for the Israelites to wade across.”

The boy was stumped. His eyes wandered from the man back to the Bible laying open in his lap. The man, content that he had enlightened a poor, naive young person to the finer points of scientific insight, turned to go. Scarcely had he taken two steps when the boy began to rejoice and praise louder than before. The man turned to ask the reason for this resumed jubilation.

“Wow!” exclaimed the boy happily, “God is greater than I thought! Not only did He lead the whole nation of Israel through the Red Sea, He topped it off by drowning the whole Egyptian army in 10 inches of water!”

You see context is important! You can explain away almost everything if you break it down into bits, but explaining away the whole narrative is extremely difficult, especially if the narrative is based on truth!

You may also be interested in reading Miracles, by C.S. Lewis

How Do We Know the Apostles Died As Martyrs?

Many people are willing to die for their beliefs, but finding people who are willing to die for something they know is a lie, is another matter entirely.

Read more by the presenter of this video
Cold-Case Christianity: A Homicide Detective Investigates the Claims of the Gospels

Forensic Faith: A Homicide Detective Makes the Case for a More Reasonable, Evidential Christian Faith

God’s Crime Scene: A Cold-Case Detective Examines the Evidence for a Divinely Created Universe

 

Five atheists who lost faith in atheism | Christian News on Christian Today

Not only are there countless people who have found themselves in church, or on an Alpha course, precisely because the arguments of Dawkins and others left them dissatisfied, but there are also many stories of formerly high-profile atheists who ended up losing their surety, and in many cases converting to the Christian faith.

via Five atheists who lost faith in atheism | Christian News on Christian Today.

Advice from Chesterton: Don’t Take Down the Fence until You Know Why It’s There – Stand to Reason Blog

Some sound advice from G.K. Chesterton:

In the matter of reforming things, as distinct from deforming them, there is one plain and simple principle; a principle which will probably be called a paradox. There exists in such a case a certain institution or law; let us say, for the sake of simplicity, a fence or gate erected across a road. The more modern type of reformer goes gaily up to it and says, “I don’t see the use of this; let us clear it away.” To which the more intelligent type of reformer will do well to answer: “If you don’t see the use of it, I certainly won’t let you clear it away. Go away and think. Then, when you can come back and tell me that you do see the use of it, I may allow you to destroy it.”

via Advice from Chesterton: Don’t Take Down the Fence until You Know Why It’s There – Stand to Reason Blog.

BEHEADING OF THE APOSTLE PAUL | Christian History Institute

BEHEADING OF THE APOSTLE PAUL

29 June 67, a Roman soldier beheaded the apostle Paul in Rome.* Preaching the Gospel of Christ Jesus, Paul did as much as any man to found the churches of the western Roman Empire. He was aware of his own influence. Writing to the Corinthian church, he summed up his own contribution to Christianity by saying, “For I am the least of the apostles, who am not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me.”

via It Happened Today | Christian History Institute.