Let me begin November by asking and briefly answering this question: What would Christian apologists want to find in purported early biographies of Jesus? Well, we’d want the authorship to be early (that is, close to the time of Jesus’ birth, ministry, crucifixion, and Resurrection), for the evidence of authorship to be credible, for the … [Read more…]
Including Trace Lee Simmons’s book Climbing Parnassus on this blogsite is a bit of a stretch, since it’s really not about Christianity or the Bible. It’s a book I saw written up recently as we near the 25th anniversary of its first printing, and its point is to explain how invaluable it is to learn Greek … [Read more…]
If you’re intrigued by Biblical “undesigned coincidences” in, especially, the Gospels and Acts, you might want to check out some videos. You can go to YouTube and search for undesigned/coincidences/mcgrew, and you can also look specifically at the series there, “Beginner’s Guide to Undesigned Coincidences” (23 of them). See if you agree that these coincidences … [Read more…]
In case you missed it, there were news stories last week (e.g., here in the New York Post and here in Newsweek) about new archaeological evidence supporting the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ burial. No surprise, of course, but a good way to start the month!
In August I have read through Luke’s gospel, which includes the Prodigal Son parable, and jotted down a couple of thoughts about it. First, how brilliant, beautiful, reassuring, and unique is the notion that God is especially concerned about the lost! Second, note that both the elder and younger sons in the parable leave a … [Read more…]
This is just a short blogpost sharing a couple of links of interest. First, there’s a compilation of apologetic videos here, and I’ll point readers to the one titled, “Did Jesus Rise from the Dead?”: https://www.str.org/w/resource-a-helpful-list-of-short-apologetic-videos By the way, the link to one of the other videos listed didn’t work for me, but I think … [Read more…]
Some parts of the Bible seem to me to be overtly apologetic and others less intentionally so. That is, some parts are written with the idea of persuading people of the truth of the Hebrew/Christian God and that we should worship Him; others do not have that as an intended aim, but for one reason … [Read more…]
Here’s a good apologetics essay — sent to me by a good friend — to start your month: [link: https://www.hillfaith.org/agnosticism/he-is-risen-why-you-must-decide-who-jesus-is/ ]. The author is Rod Martin, and it’s succinct and well done.
Probably the most famous verse in the New Testament, and for that matter in the whole Bible, is John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Translations vary, but so far as I can tell in … [Read more…]
Who would we expect to write the first detailed accounts of Jesus and His ministry? *** Well, there were no investigative reporters or official church historians in the first century, or newspaper archives available to some enterprising free-lance biographer. It was, rather, the twelve apostles who were apparently there from the beginning of Jesus’ ministry … [Read more…]