Windmill Ministries - Newsletter - January 2008

Welcome to the very first Windmill Ministries' newsletter. Starting this month we plan to send you a once-a-month update about our Christian evidences ministry,  recent apologetic discoveries, answers to asked questions, books, an inspirational story or poem and so on.

Recent news

Prepared to Answer

• Traffic has grown from 0 to over 4,000 unique visitors in the month December. For January we expect to have over 5,000 unique visitors.
• The website was initially  in English only. Thanks to hard work almost all pages are now also available in Dutch.
• Prepared to Answer was officially published on 12 December 2007. As you know, our objective is not "to sell books" however we're excited about the many positive reactions we received!
• Many of Coba's poems and devotional stories are now also available on the website.
• Rob was interviewed as featured author on www.FaithWriters.com (read the interview)
  

Our NEW book "Prepared to Answer" is now available.

Prepared to Answer is also available for purchase on Amazon.com and you can use Amazon's search-inside feature to search and look at every page in the book.

A very extensive answer..., December 29, 2007: As a child you easily believe in Santa, God and the tooth fairy. Growing older you need more solid answers. This book reflects Rob's journey to discover the truth: a solid study of current evidences as well as his own excellent logical reasoning. If you look for answers, this book will surprise you, very thorough and at the same time very readable. It changed my life. (one of the reviews of Prepared to Answer on Amazon.com)

Apologetics: Jesus' resurrection:
Did the evangelists have a reason to lie?

For more articles like this see the resource center

Would the authors of the gospels and letters in the New Testament have a motive to fabricate their account? Did they have any personal gain from writing?  Obviously, if a motive can be established for inventing the testimonies, the trustworthiness of the document becomes more questionable. Conversely, if the authors had nothing to gain, or even something to lose, the document’s credibility is increased.

So what happened to John Mark, Matthew, Luke, John, and Paul after writing their gospels and letters?  Although there is only limited historical record about what happened to these men after completing their writings, one can with certainty state that none of them retired wealthy from the proceedings of any of their books. Contrary to that, the historical record shows that the early Christian church and their leaders went through centuries of persecution, and the apostles spent their days traveling in poverty proclaiming their message.

More specifically, after completing his gospel and the death of Peter in Rome (66-67 AD), tradition claims that John Mark went to Alexandria in Egypt where he was martyred in 68 AD. According to the research of  Dr. William Steuart McBirnie : “In the year 68 AD Easter fell on the same day as the Serapis festival. The furious mob had gathered in the Serapion and then descended on the Christians while they were celebrating Easter at Baucalis. St, Mark was seized, dragged with a rope around his neck in the streets and then incarcerated for the night. In the following morning the same ordeal was repeated until he gave up the ghost.” Other sources confirm this account as well as his burial site.

What happened to Matthew, the tax collector, is subject to multiple conflicting traditions. His name is linked to various travels throughout Greece and Asia, but most agree on Asian Ethiopia, Persia , Macedonia , and Syria. All but one of these traditions claim an untimely death as a martyr for Christ. Unfortunately, none of these traditions are supported by convincing objective evidence.

According to Catholic tradition, Luke was martyred or died a natural death and was buried in Greece . In 356-357 AD his relics were taken to Constantinople. Later his head was supposedly taken to Rome where it is kept in St. Peter’s Basilica.

Before writing his gospel at an advanced age, John moved to Ephesus in Asia Minor shortly before the destruction of Jerusalem. At this strategic location he had a special relationship with other churches in the area, as we know through his letters to the seven churches in the book of Revelation as well as through references in writings of the early church. After a period of exile to the island of Patmos, he is believed to have died of old age, around 100 AD, in Ephesus, where he was buried. The ruins at the Basilica of St. John are claimed to mark the site of the tomb.

As for Paul, some claim that after his imprisonment as described at the end of the Book of Acts, he visited Spain for a period of at least two years. Subsequently, he returned to Rome where during Nero ’s persecution in 66/67 AD (about the same time as Peter) he was beheaded.

So no lucrative book deals for these writers, no lofty retirement on the French Riviera. The testimony of these men did not end with the completions of their gospels and letters. Their subsequent lives continued to proclaim the message. They lived in poverty, under the continuous threat of persecution, and at the end, most of them paid the ultimate price of an early death by martyrdom. What earthly motive could any of them have ever had for fabrication or even making the smallest change to the truth in their testimonies? They were writing for their Lord; they were writing to built treasures in heaven. Lying, exaggerating, spinning the truth, becoming famous, or gaining any wealth, was not on their agenda.

Circle of folding hands

Inspiration and worship

“For the sake of his great name the Lord will not reject his people, because the Lord was pleased to make you his own. As for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by failing to pray for you.” 

(1 Samuel 12:22-23)

Thank you Lord

For those friends you send my way

To show and teach me how to pray

Please let me travel on the paths you paved

So in return I can pray for friends unsaved

Thank you Lord

For answering every cry

And for sending new and old friends by

So Lord, now it is my turn to pray

That they hopefully one day will also say:

Thank you Lord

For praying friends

Who faithfully have been folding hands

To say a prayer for me

That saved my entire family

Thank you Lord for friends

Amen.

Last of all, but all important...

We need your support and prayers to:
- Bring more people to the website
- Open doors to share about apologetics
- Get books to more people
- Get God's direction for next steps

We would be encouraged to hear from you at our mailing address or e-mail (see below).

If you need (more) copies of Prepared to Answer - you can also just e-mail us, we'll gladly send you more to share with others!

Windmill Ministries * PO Box 1253 * Port Hadlock, WA 98339, USA
Phone 360-765-0756 * http://www.windmillministries.org
Rob & Jacoba VandeWeghe * e-mail: info@windmillministries.org

Windmill Ministries is a Christian apologetics ministry that equips believers and challenges skeptics through the sharing of evidences for the foundations of the Christian faith.

If you do not want to receive these newsletters - please just reply with "remove"