John the Baptist Bones Found?

Science always eventually catches up to the Bible.

Hey folks,

I have friends from every walk of life. Some are very predominate in their chosen fields of endeavor. Some you would know in a second, if I told you their names. From the organized religion field, politics, to science. Well, from all walks of life, but I want to discuss these three.

Science is rarely pure science anymore. True Scientist will tell you that. It has been bought and paid for by Politicians that like to use science to further their agendas, obtain power and control, and yes, there is always a money aspect to it. Man-made global warming is a perfect example. There is no real science in it. It is a total scam.

But one of my friends, in the scientific community always asked me the same question whenever a topic comes out in the news or in science itself, "How do you believe in the Bible, and science, at the same time?" He feels, he is wrong, but he feels that science and faith are polar opposites. He feels that they are completely opposed to each other. That either you believe in one or the other. Not true. As a matter of fact, real science proves the Bible right. It's just a matter of time for it to catch up.

People use science, to attempt to disprove God. Never works. Look at the Big Bang? REAL Science tells us the it is completely impossible. Nothing from nothing equals nothing. Nothing to nothing, equals nothing. There must be something to create something else. Then you have all the advances in DNA that PROVE that we are NOT all related. A tree is not related to a person. We are not related to a cold blooded creature. Etc. You want to talk about "faith?" You have to believe that something came from nothing. You then have to believe that from this one single cell, all things evolved to hot, cold blooded, trees, mosquitoes, etc. Everything? Just not scientifically possible. That we know NOW.

In time, science has proven the things in the Bible that talk about health, is correct. Science proves the people in the Bible were real. There is no argument whatsoever that Jesus was a real person. Now of course many argue that he was nothing more than a great teacher, equal to Buddha, or Mohammed. Some say he was nothing more than community activist. Some see him as who he was, God in the flesh. The Christ. The Messiah. But he was real.

Science proves that the flood happened. Science proves that the Kings and Cities talked about in the Bible were real. Science catches up to the Bible all the time. I always use one very crystal clear example when discussing this. Isaiah 40:22 

It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in:

This was written long before the general scientific consensus said the Earth was flat. Christopher Columbus sited this passage prior to his journey. He took a scientific consensus, did an experiment, and proved it wrong. The Earth really is a circle. Just because there is a consensus among Scientists, doesn't make it a proven fact. It is merely a theory, no matter how many agree, until science proves it correct or false. You never start with a theory and attempt to prove it correct in real science. By doing so, you corrupt the study.

So whenever I hear a story like this, it get's my attention. According to Live Science. com - Mysterious Bones May Belong to John the Baptist

A small handful of bones found in an ancient church in Bulgaria may belong to John the Baptist, the biblical figure said to have baptized Jesus.

There's no way to be sure, of course, as there are no confirmed pieces of John the Baptist to compare to the fragments of bone. But the sarcophagus holding the bones was found near a second box bearing the name of St. John and his feast date (also called a holy day) of June 24. Now, new radiocarbon dating of the collagen in one of the bones pegs its age to the early first century, consistent with the New Testament and Jewish histories of John the Baptist's life.

"We got some dates that are very interesting indeed," study researcher Thomas Higham of the University of Oxford told LiveScience. "They suggest that the human bone is all from the same person, it's from a male, and it has a very high likelihood of an origin in the Near East," or Middle East where John the Baptist would have lived.
Mysterious bone box

The bones were found in 2010 by Romanian archaeologists Kazimir Popkonstantinov and Rossina Kostova while excavating an old church site on the island of Sveti Ivan, which translates to St. John. The church was constructed in two periods in the fifth and sixth centuries.

Beneath the altar, the archaeologists found a small marble sarcophagus, about 6 inches (15 centimeters) long. Inside were six human bones and three animal bones. The next day, the researchers found a second box just 20 inches (50 cm) away. This one was made of volcanic rock called tuff. On it, an inscription read, "Dear Lord, please help your servant Thomas" along with St. John the Baptist's name and official church feast day.

A grotesque gift

The findings paint a story of a man named Thomas charged with bringing relics, or body parts, of St. John to the island to consecrate a new church there. It was common in the fourth and fifth centuries for wealthy patrons to pay for new churches and to gift saintly relics to the monks who staffed them, Higham told LiveScience. [8 Alleged Relics of Jesus]

"We can imagine that the construction of this church was predicated on the basis of this very important gift, perhaps from the patron to the monastery," Higham said.

The human bones in the box included a knucklebone, a tooth, part of a cranium, a rib and an ulna, or arm bone. The researchers could only date the knucklebone, because radiocarbon dating relies on organic material, and only that bone had enough collagen for a good analysis. The researchers were able to reconstruct DNA sequences from three of the bones, however, showing them to be from the same person, likely a Middle Eastern man.

It goes on to talk about the dating and DNA process, and it even admits the there is no way to confirm nor deny that this really is proof of the existence of John the Baptist..

None of this proves that the bones belonged to a historical figure named John the Baptist, but researchers haven't been able to rule out the possibility, Higham said. Their study has not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal, but a program detailing the research will be aired on the United Kingdom National Geographic Channel on Sunday (June 17). National Geographic funded the research.

So basically, this find changes nothing for me. I still believe in The Word of God, called the Bible, as absolute Truth, and the Atheists and Agnostics will still believe it's not. But it is an interesting discovery.
Peter

Sources:
Live Science. com - Mysterious Bones May Belong to John the Baptist