Christian Apologetics

Christian apologists are Defenders of the Faith.

They are also notorious liars!

I'll give you an example:

In his Encyclopedia Of Bible Difficulties the apologist, Gleason Archer, refers to the 'Parable of the Mustard Seed' as it appears in the gospel of Matthew.

The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches (Matthew 13:31-32)

But the mustard seed is not the "smallest of all the seeds" so the bible has got it wrong - and that's a problem Gleason Archer has to fix. This is how he does it:

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In Matthew 13:31-32 Jesus describes the mustard seed (kokkos sinapeos) as being "smaller than all the seeds." The question arises as to whether this statement could be supported by a knowledgeable botanist, or did Christ make a mistake in His rating of the comparative size of the mustard seed? In all probability, He was referring to the black mustard (Brassica nigra; cf. W.E. Shewell-Cooper, "Mustard," in Tenney, Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia, 4:324-25). J.C. Trever (Buttrick, Interpreter's Dictionary, 3:477) suggests that the orchid seed is even smaller than the seed of the black mustard. But it is highly questionable whether Jesus was discussing all plant life on planet Earth when He made this statement. No one yet has proved that ancient Palestinians planted anything that bore a smaller seed than that of the black mustard, and that was the framework within which Jesus was speaking. There is no record of the orchid ever being cultivated in Palestine.

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Before I tear that apology apart let me point out that I couldn't care less about Jesus, or the bible, or the parable of the mustard seed. The message behind the parable doesn't interest me in the slightest. All I want to do is point out the lying, cheating, conniving methods used by apologists like Gleason Archer when they attempt to flim-flam their readers with nonsensical codswallop.

In his apologetic, Archer says,

In all probability, He was referring to the black mustard...

Archer makes this claim with not a skerrick of evidence. He simply states that "in all probablity" Jesus was referring to the black mustard seed and thereafter expects his readers to accept it as the truth. Where did he get the information from? He doesn't say. But one thing we know for sure - the bible most certainly does not identify the type of mustard seed Jesus was talking about.


Then Archer points out that J.C. Trevor,

suggests that the orchid seed is even smaller than the seed of the black mustard.

Botanists, however, don't just "suggest" that orchid seeds are smaller than mustard seeds, they know it for a fact. Take a look at this picture and see for yourself:

http://waynesword.palomar.edu/ww0601.htm#seed

Archer follows-up with this statement:

But it is highly questionable whether Jesus was discussing all plant life on planet Earth when He made this statement.

Now this is the big one. This is the lie that Gleason Archers knows to be a lie. He knows for certain that Jesus said the mustard seed was the smallest of all the seeds on the Earth and then casually declares that it is "highly questionable" that Jesus said any such thing!

Remember that Gleason Archer (BA, LL.B, PhD, BD) was a biblical scholar, theologian, educator and author. He was Professor of Biblical Languages at Fuller Theological Seminary from 1948 to 1965 and Professor of Old Testament and Semitics at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School from 1965 to 1986.

Archer was also involved in translating the NASB and NIV versions of the bible from the original Hebrew and Greek into English. That is to say, Gleason Archer knew the bible probably better than anyone else on the planet. He knew that Matthew copied the parable of the mustard seed from the original version that had appeared ten years earlier in the gospel of Mark. Furthermore, in that original version, Mark has Jesus saying that a mustard seed is the smallest of all the seeds on earth. (Mark 4:30-31)

Archer knew all of those details - he actually translated those very words from the original Greek into the New American Standard Bible (NASB) and the New International Version (NIV). He knew exactly what the bible was saying and he lied about it anyway. But that's what apologists do - they tell lies for a living!


Also, according to Archer,

No one yet has proved that ancient Palestinians planted anything that bore a smaller seed than that of the black mustard

Another lie! It is well known that Palestinians cultivated another plant which has seeds much smaller than the mustard seed. It is the poppy plant and it has been cultivated in Palestine for the last 5,000 years. Not only cultivated in Palestine, but also native to the area. The clue is in the name. It is called the Semitic Poppy and you can find all the details here.


Then Archer goes on to say that the Palestinian area was,

the framework within which Jesus was speaking.

So we are back with Archers "big lie" mentioned earlier. Archer is once again telling his readers that Jesus was referring only to seeds that were cultivated in Palestine, whereas, in fact, the gospel of Mark has Jesus referring to all the seeds on the earth.


And Archer is guilty of Lying by Omission in the next sentence when he writes:

There is no record of the orchid ever being cultivated in Palestine.

That is true - but Archer deliberately omits to mention the poppy seed. Why? Because the presence of the poppy seed totally destroys his claim that that mustard seed was the smallest seed in Palestine at the time when Jesus told the parable.