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If God Heals Your Eyes, Don't Cut Off Your Head

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Greetings Mr. Daniels,

Having purchased and read (at) your book, one word comes to mind:

Soph·ist (sfst)
noun

1. One skilled in elaborate and devious argumentation.

2. a person who uses clever or quibbling arguments that are fundamentally unsound

3. one who is given to the specious arguments often used by the sophists.


Mr. Daniels is a sophist. That's the message I get from Mr. Daniel's book. I sense that Mr. Daniels believes every word of the Bible, or rather every word AS HE INTERPRETS IT. I can read Romans 1:20 until I'm numb and still not understand how it PROVES the existence of a 'God', or that a 'God' created this universe. "God's invisible qualities ..... have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse." Science is a different mindset, where the word 'invisible' does not mean 'clearly seen, being understood from what has been made...." No, in science invisible means invisible, "not visible, not able to be seen". The central problem of Christianity is that 'God' will not show up.

Mr. Daniels exhibits so well the qualities of a genuine sophist, and a very inventive one at that. He has created a 'God', a very unique 'God', his own unique 'God' it seems. It is his discussion of God and evil that interests me the most, as it's an excellent example of his over-zealousness and his absolute commitment to what he believes. Somehow, Mr. Daniels knows the mind of God, perhaps because he understands the Greek language and even knows what 'hermeneutics' means. He gives 'Six Main Reasons Why God Allows Evil'. Let's look at them:

The first "involves allowing evil to fulfill whatever purpose He might have in mind". The second is "to use it to produce good that is usually greater than it would have been had the evil not been an obstacle". And the third reason is "to help us develop in character". Amazing! Let's go slowly here and think about what is really being said. The sixth and "perhaps most important reason God allows moral evil is to preserve true love and freedom." Indeed, let's take a real life situation and see how it fits.

And that situation is Priestly Pederasty. Priests, Pastors, Ministers, Prelates and such throughout the world are molesting YOUR children. The children likely are praying desperately to God to stop these religious perverts, but God does nothing. Absolutely nothing. Except watch, that is. God watches as the priests and pastors molest and violate YOUR children, and He allows them to continue. How can this be? The children are praying to God to punish the priests for what they've done. But you're telling us it is to 'help them develop in character'? Or to 'preserve true love and freedom'? You are sacrificing children for your mistaken beliefs Mr. Daniels.

I believe, Mr. Daniels, that you are doing society a gross injustice by glossing over such a montrous evil as Prelate Pederasty. You are justifying evil with your sophisms, such as found on page 227, where you suggest "....allowing evil to fulfill whatever purpose He might have in mind...". You follow this with reason number 2, where God allows evil "....to use it to produce good that is usually greater than it would have been had the evil not been an obstacle." Really? Usually greater?

How bizarre, you're justifying evil with your 'brilliant' abstract reasoning while children are violated daily by clergy all over the world. Why? Your third reason why God allows evil "....is to help us develop in character." Child rape and molestation are going to help these kids "develop character"? That's brilliant, just brilliant.

What about Mr. Daniels comments regarding archaeology as offering support for the Biblical narrative? As at page 31, where he says "...finding out about the historical accuracy of the Gospels is as easy as visiting your local library and a good Christian bookstore". Mr. Daniels is apparently unaware of, or is shielding himself from what archaeologists are learning. For example, Professor Israel Finklestein, director of the Sonia and Marco Nadler Institute of Archeaology at Tel Aviv University, has recently written "The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of It's Sacred Texts", 2001 (english version). "Did it happen or not?" he asks at the end of each chapter, and proceeds to explain why it did not, based upon his research and archaeological findings, including the discoveries at Megiddo, a site that is considered the crown jewel in the crown of biblical archaeology. "He deconstructs this foundation only in order to reconstruct it according to the logic that guided the ancient authors, and arrives at the conclusion that the stories about the conquest of the Land of Israel, the settlement period, the United Kingdom and the attempt to enhance the prestige of the Kingdom of Judah at the expense of the Northern Kingdom {Israel} are part of an ideological-religious and political manifesto, a master stroke by a creative copywriter."

Or you may examine the works of Thomas L.Thompson of the University of Copenhagen: "The Mythic Past: Biblical Archaeology and the Myth of Israel". "In writing about the historical developments of Palestine between 1250 and 586, all of the traditional answers given for the origins and development of 'Israel' have had to be discarded. The patriarchs of Genesis were not historical. The assertion that 'Israel' was already a people before entering Palestine whether in these stories or in those of Joshua has no historical foundation. No massive military campaign of invading nomadic 'Israelites' ever conquered Palestine. There never was an ethnically distinct 'Canaanite' population whom 'Israelites' displaced. There was no 'period of the Judges' in history. No empire ever ruled a 'united monarchy' from Jerusalem. No ethnically coherent 'Israelite' nation ever existed at all. No political, ethnic or historical bond existed between Jerusalem and the state of Judah. In history, neither Jerusalem nor Judah ever shared an identity with Israel before the rule of the Hasmoneans in the Hellenistic period." "In short, the only historical Israel is of the people of the small highland state which, having lost its political autonomy in the last quarter or the eighth century, has been consistently ignored by historians and Bible scholars alike."

And finally one last reference, a book by Dr. Dever:

The Western Cultural Tradition is at Risk - by William G Dever, professor emeritus of Near Eastern archaeology and anthropology at the University of Arizona


"Until about a generation ago, we all spoke confidently about William F. Albright's "archaeological revolution." But today there is a deepening "historiographical crisis" in both archaeology and Biblical studies in Israel, Europe and America - a creeping skepticism and a loss of confidence in our ability to confirm anything. The Hebrew Bible is only a "social construct," a figment of the tortured imagination of later Judaism in an identity crisis of the Hellenistic era (the fiction naively adopted, of course, by Christians). The result, says Baruch Halpern, is to "erase Israel from history."

Where does the failure of the "archaeological revolution" leave us? We cannot turn the clock back to the time when archaeology allegedly "proved the Bible." Some things described there really did happen, but others did not. The Biblical narratives about Abraham, Moses, Joshua and Solomon probably do reflect some historical memories of actual people and places, but the "larger-than-life" portraits of the Bible are unrealistic and are, if fact, contradicted by the archaeological evidence. Some of Israel's ancestors probably did come out of Egyptian slavery, but there was no military conquest of Canaan, and most early Israelites were displaced Canaanites. Monotheism may have ben the ideal of Biblical writers, but many, if not most, Israelites throughout the Monarchy were polytheists."

So, where most people find two sides to a question, Mr. Daniels finds only one, that of the True Believer. His book presents only one side of these questions, and he makes no attempt to present a balanced picture of anything. Yes, there is another side to all these issues. But in his over-zealousness to elicit agreement with Christianity Mr. Daniels presents only his own uniquely imagined history, a religious history that exists only in his mind.

Charles Coryn

"If God Heals Your Eyes, Don't Cut Off Your Head" is an excellent resource that helps equip the body of Christ in the battle for the lost. Arthur Daniels brilliantly builds his case for Christ. He effectively and boldly presents the truth every atheist and agnostic needs to hear. Daniels biblically blows apart scientific errors as he masterfully exposes the skeptics irrational and emotional arguments that pave the road to Hell. Without a doubt, Walter Martin would have been proud to march alongside Arthur Daniels---a strong and courageous soldier of the Cross.

Does God exist? If so, how can we know this with some degree of certainty? Is there any evidence? In the book, If God Heals Your Eyes, Don't Cut Off Your Head (a most unusual yet applicable title), the author points out the many reasons why some people fail to see God.

Specifically, he shows that this 'blindness' is not so much due to a lack of revelation on God's part, but because people tend to see the evidence and then proceed to take unnecessarily drastic steps to deny that evidence. From the complexities of the DNA molecule and genetic theory to the wonderful engineering in bat sonar, all of these and more, the author argues, point clearly enough to the God of biblical revelation so that no one has a legitimate excuse for unbelief. This book is a wonderful and, at times, humourous addition to the wealth of theological/scientific books touching on the existence of God. But perhaps most importantly, this author addresses a problem that most seem to be unaware of---the problem of why and how some 'Christians' today can believe no differently than atheists and yet claim to be faithful to Christianity. Atheists disbelieve the virgin birth. So do some Christians. Atheists reject the resurrection of Jesus, calling it a 'myth.' So do some Christians. The author examines this strange phenomenon and, using logical and biblical principles, dismisses this unholy union as illogical, self-contradictory and ultimately intellectually destructive for all involved.

This book is tediously technical at times (hard to get through all the Greek word definitions in chap. 1 alone), but it is good solid stuff, and it should be read by all who question the existence of God or the veracity of the Bible.

When God Heals Your Eyes, Don't Cut Off your Head. After I got through Mr. Daniels' book, I came to the conclusion that he chose his hard hitting title to serve notice to the reader they would have the brutal truth presented to them. When a person sees the evidence in front of them, they either have the choice to accept the evidence in front of them at face value will lead to God or they are relegated to attempt to make excuses devoid of rational thought. In light of one Daniel's main themes in his book in the passage of Rom 1:20, the skeptic is without no excuse. To add to this point, we will see that unfortunately, there will be those who will follow Satan after the Millennial reign well after Jesus conquered the AntiMessiah and threw him in the Abyss (Rev 20:7-9). They will have seen Jesus, known that he has ruled for a thousand years, and has and will conquer Satan. Unfortunately, like those who will rebel when they seen Jesus in front of them, Daniels points out how there are skeptics and Bible believing Cotton Candy Evanjellyfish who will not accept truth and only have nothing left except their rebelliousness and hardened hearts. When the reader opens up Daniels' book, they will likely see this theme beaten on throughout this excellent thought-provoking apologetic against Bible believing Cotton Candy Evanjellyfish as well as atheists.
Unlike his more cheerful and light hearted expose as the Christian Road Warrior on YouTube, Mr. Daniels takes a more brutal and matter-of-fact approach towards Atheists and Evanjellyfish in his book. Even though he doesn't use this approach in a condemning manner, he nonetheless tears upon the Atheist and Cotton Candy Evanjellyfish believer much like a lion ready to devour his prey or like a pitbull of evangelism.
In the first part of his book, Mr. Daniels does on outstanding job addressing common philosophical objections which were presented by the well-known atheists such as Hume, Bertrand Russel, and Immanuel Kant. He goes after their arguments with reckless abandon and knocks their objections down with the force of a battering ram. His usage of two of my heros Dr. Walter Martin and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to defend his position were very high points for me. I felt his treatment of addressing how we can reconcile the concept of a loving God with Eternal punishment was the most insightful useful being that I often deal with Jehovah Witnesses and other soul-sleep adherents.
In his second part of his book, Mr. Daniels does a great job dealing with the scientific case for God. I felt that his treatment of the steady state theory with regards to the first law of thermodynamics was the most helpful for me in this section. Even though I am a Bible believing Christian that's a Mechanical Engineer by profession, I did not quite understand how to use the first law to defend the gospel. His analysis was especially helpful in this regard.
The only thing I think Mr. Daniels could've done better was discuss the ontological argument a little more in depth such as briefly bringing up the arguments of Planatinga and Hartshorne and going into detail with how their arguments pretty much annhilate atheism. Outside of that, I can see that skeptics and cotton candy evanjellyfish will either have fits or come to the Lord by reading this book. For the rest of us true Bible believers whether or not we are apologists will have our faith strengthened and further reinforced by this book.