Friday, February 02, 2018

Shabir Ally / Thomas Ross Debate: "The New Testament Picture of Jesus: Is it Accurate?"



Lord willing, on Tuesday, March 13, 2018, I will be debating Dr. Shabir Ally, the acclaimed defender of Islam, at the University of Wisconsin, Whitewater.  Shabir Ally does about as good a job defending Islam intellectually as just about anyone can do.  Furthermore, his debates are watched by very large numbers of people, including multitudes in countries closed to the gospel because of the influence of Islam in those nations.  I would appreciate your fervent prayer, and even fasting, for the glorification of the gospel and of God's truth in this debate, for God's blessing and strengthening me in my presentation and in my preparation, for deep conviction on the unconverted both who will attend the debate physically and those who will watch it afterwards, for the details to work out, and for the foolishness of all teaching and teachers of wickedness and lies to be apparent to all.

If you are a Muslim and are reading this blog post, please study carefully The Testimony of the Quran to the Bible (available here as well in Arabic) and consider whether or not your belief system is really the truth.

If you are a member of a like-minded separatist Baptist congregation, and would be interested in sponsoring debates in your area, I would be interested in debating the topics below with prominent advocates of openly non-Christian belief systems.  Depending on the nature of the proposition, I would (obviously) be either in the affirmative or the negative.

1.) The Gospels are historically reliable (affirmative).
2.) Through centuries of corruption, the original message of the Bible has been lost (negative).  For many Muslims this idea is their central reason for rejecting the Bible, and it is also very important for many secular humanists.
3.) The New Testament Picture of Jesus: Is it Accurate? (affirming accuracy).  I would be happy to do this one again with an atheist like Sam Harris as well as debating this topic with a Muslim like Shabir Ally.
4.) Archaeology and prophecy validate the Bible as the Word of God (affirmative).  While I have already debated this topic with the Dan Barker, the President of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, I would like to have a discussion with someone who takes the negative in a manner different from Dan Barker's affirmation of mythicism, since mythicism is horribly unscholarly and intellectually indefensible.

5.) The Old Testament (or the New Testament) is mainly fiction, not fact (negative).  Again, I have already debated this topic for the Old Testament with Dan Barker, but his mythicism is a very weak method of attempting to disprove the Bible, and I would like to do it with an atheist that makes stronger objections.

There are also some others topics that I think would be well worth debating with atheists or Muslims.

I would also be interested in debating leading advocates of non-Christian belief systems in Christendom on topics such as:

1.) Speaking in tongues is essential for salvation (negative; with a Oneness Pentecostal such as David Bernard).

2.) The Bible teaches forensic justification by faith alone (affirmative; with a leading Roman Catholic apologist such as those from Catholic Answers or a leading official of the Roman Catholic religion).

3.)  Jesus Christ is God (affirmative; with a leading advocate of Arian views, such as those in the Watchtower Society and other cults).

4.) The lost must repent of their sins or they will eternally perish, and repentance always results in a changed life (affirmative; with a false "Baptist" of the Hyles-type).

5.) The Hebrew Scriptures predict the suffering of the Divine Messiah, Jesus (affirmative; with a leading advocate of Judaism, Islam, or another religion that denies this fact).

6.) Unless one is baptized, he will be eternally lost (negative; with an important advocate of this position).

7.) The Greek critical New Testament text is consistent with the Biblical promises of preservation (negative; with an advocate of the critical Greek New Testament text such as James White; while denying Scripture's teaching on preservation is very evil, all who hold this position are not unbelievers in the way that all who deny the Deity of Christ are unbelievers).

There also could be some other debates that are worth doing with advocates of non-Biblical "Christian" theology.

While I am interested in debating leading advocates of the positions above, that does not mean that I will necessarily desire to debate every single person who would be willing to debate me, nor that I will necessarily have the time or be able to coordinate such debates with all challengers.  However, I would be willing to debate all the topics above, and others, with the appropriate persons.

Again, if you would be interested in sponsoring such a debate, please contact me and let me know through my church.

21 comments:

Ben L. said...

Will the debate be recorded or streamed, or anything like that?

KJB1611 said...

Yes, we are planning to record the debate, and then post it online at faithsaves.net and on YouTube.

Nazam said...

Hi, any update as to when we can view the debate, thank you?

KJB1611 said...

Dear Nazam,

Thank you for asking. The person doing it had an issue with his computer and had to fix it, but that has now taken place. I can't say for sure when it will go live, but we certainly want it to as soon as possible.

Nazam said...

As long as the recordings are not lost or deleted for ever :)

KJB1611 said...

No, they certainly are not gone, and losing them forever instead of making them public would be a tragedy which we wish to by any means avoid.

Anonymous said...

Hello,
Where can I find this debate? Have you uploaded it on any platform such as YouTube yet? I think it's been long time. Why don't you release it?

KJB1611 said...

Dear Anonymous,

There have been various technical issues getting it done. I am hoping the person working on it will get it done this month, but I cannot predict the future. Thanks for asking.

Anonymous said...

Hello,
I hope this time you can upload the debate? Could you please release it?

KJB1611 said...

It isn’t done yet, but I am as desirous as you are to release it when it is. I can’t make the person working on it get it done any faster, unfortunately. Thanks.

Anonymous said...

Is this debate available online?

KJB1611 said...

I think it is likely that it will available online in June or early July. Then again, I didn't think the person working on it would take this long to get it done, either.

Thanks.

Anonymous said...

Hello, Is it available now? Thanks.

KJB1611 said...

I got a recent update on it and it is almost done, I believe, but it isn't done yet. If you can't wait, I can't wait even more, very possibly, for it to go live, and wish it already was.

Anonymous said...

Hello, has it been done? Thank you!

KJB1611 said...

From what I heard back I think it is between 75-95% done and hopefully will actually go live soon.

Anonymous said...

Hello, could you upload it before Aug? Thanks

KJB1611 said...

I would love to upload it right now, but while it is almost done I can't make the person working on it finish it, and I don't know how to use the software program he is using to do it, so I can't guarantee that.

Anonymous said...

Hello, any update about the debate? Can we watch it now? It is August

KJB1611 said...

Lord willing, the debate will go live by the end of the month--I think it is very likely, and if not by early November--finally, hallelujah!

KJB1611 said...

The debate is now live here:

https://faithsaves.net/shabir-ally-debate/

and here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCGbdi7H-ao

Praise the Lord!