Hello, I am Dr. Monte Shanks. For those of you who wish to know a little bit about me I will try to be brief. I graduated with a Th.M. from Dallas Theological Seminary with a double major in Bible Exposition and Christian Education. Afterwards, I was a campus minister at universities in the Midwest for over a decade. Desiring to continue teaching and training others about how to study the Bible, biblical theology, and effective and relevant ministry strageties, I returned to seminary and earned a PhD from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary with a double major in New Testament Studies and Early Church History. I currently teach masters level courses in New Testament at Liberty University’s Rawlings School of Divinity, as well as PhD seminars for Calvary University’s Bible and Theology department. I have written several articles and I wrote the book Papias and the New Testament.
This website serves students of the Bible by providing them with explanations about what they are learning in their courses, as well as providing simple answers to questions that are commonly asked about the Bible and Christianity. Its vision is now to provide brief well-articulated rational explanations for common questions regarding the Bible and Christianity from highly qualified biblical scholars. This is done in 2 ways: first is through blogs that range anywhere from approximately 1000 to 3000 words. Second, it provides brief videos, which last anywhere between 5 to 15 minutes (15 minutes is the maximum video length allowed by YouTube). Generally speaking, these videos are educational from an Evangelical perspective. The philosophy guiding all the resources on this site is that in general people only desire straightforward and well-reasoned answers to their questions. Sometimes this goal will be achieved, and sometimes it will not. Sometimes the answers you receive may lead to other questions, but this is an unavoidable side effect as one is learning about the Bible and Christianity. Sometimes you will receive answers that you have heard from others, such as pastors or your friends, and that is understandable since scholars are not the only ones with good answers. However, relying upon qualified Evangelical scholars means that you will receive greater clarity about some things that you already know; and this can provide you with greater confidence in your faith.
The perspective of this website can be described as “conservative Evangelical.” If that means little to you then that is fine. It basically means that the topics addressed on this website are from the perspective that the Bible is accurate, truthful, and inspired by God, and that Christianity is the only religion that provides answers to the world’s most essential questions and needs. Consequently, the main purpose for this website is to promote the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and convince those who visit it that the Bible is completely trustworthy for learning about Jesus and living out authentic Christianity.
It would be great to hear from you and receive some of your questions. This can be done several ways, which are as follows: (1) you can leave comments on the individual blogs; (2) you can email questions to “askabibleprof@gmail.com”; (3) or you can post them on Facebook at “@askabibleprof”; or (4) post them on the YouTube channel. Please don’t expect prompt responses since I teach full time. Additionally, I am the only one currently working on this site. There are, however, a few rules. First, we don’t address questions that are very complex. Examples of these types of questions would be “why is there evil and human suffering in the world”; or “why are there so many denominations”; or “prove to me that Satan really exists.” Remember, the purpose of this website is to provide straightforward answers to real questions about the Bible and Christianity as concisely and briefly as possible. No one wants to read book length answers, and we don’t have time to write books or create feature length movies. Answers to these types of questions are already available through other sources. Secondly, questions involving logical absurdities or unrelated questions will be ignored. These are questions such as “if God can to anything, then can he turn a circle into a square”; or “if a tree falls in the woods and there was no one around, then would it make a sound”; or “do aliens exist and are they angels and demons” The questions that are addressed here are questions such as “when was the book of Acts written”; or “what did Jesus mean when he said ‘I am the true vine’”; or “what is the most likely solution to the Synoptic Problem.” There is one caveat with respect to this endeavor, which is you may not agree with what you read or view here, and that’s okay. We don’t claim to have all the answers, but we do think we have some very good answers to some real questions concerning the Bible. And if you don’t agree with what you learn here, and it causes you to do you own investigation that results in better answers, then that is a good thing as well. We are only here to help you gain a greater comprehension about the message of Christianity and issues concerning the Bible, and we understand if you disagree with what we assert. We only want to help you on your journey as you learn more about Jesus, the Bible, and Christianity.
Lastly, if you find a grammatical error on any of these pages, then feel free to contact me. Additionally, if you want to support the site, then find us on Patreon at Patreon.com/askabibleprof. And most importantly, if some questionable advertising somehow shows up while you are on the site, then it’s not because I am promoting it. I don’t yet understand how or if there are any advertisements showing up with this site. Advertising and revenue sharing are somethings that we are still learning about. This site, however, it primarily a ministry, it’s not about cash flow. Blessings upon all who learn and benefit from this endeavor (Gen 1.1-3; Ps 1; Ps 119.105; John 1.1; John 8.31-32; 2 Tim 4.1-2).