How did Jesus become God?
11 May 2012 10 Comments
in Jesus Tags: Bible interpretation, christianity, doctrine, history, Jesus, New Testament
Bart Ehrman, a respected New Testament scholar who is not a christian, has recently written:
“Jesus is best understood as a Jewish apocalypticist from the backwaters of a rural part of the Roman empire, a Jewish preacher who got on the wrong side of the law and was executed for crimes against the state, how is it that within sixty years of his death his followers were saying that he was a divine being? And that within 150 years they were saying that he was the second member of the Trinity?”
What are christians to make of this?
Arguments against Jesus
22 Apr 2012 12 Comments
in Apologetics, Jesus Tags: apologetics, Atheism, Belief, christianity, history, Jesus, New Testament, religion
Continuing my discussion of common arguments used against christians.
This post: arguments that seek to undermine faith in Jesus by arguing that the gospels aren’t reliable as history, or that we can know little factual about Jesus, or that Jesus could not have been divine.
Reasons to believe 1 – Jesus
21 Feb 2012 3 Comments
in Apologetics Tags: apologetics, Belief, Bible, christianity, history, making disciples, New Testament
1 Peter 3:15: “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.” Jesus is the centre of our faith, so we need to understand, and be able to explain clearly, why we believe in him.
This isn’t as easy as it used to be. (This post follows on from my discussion of Training disciples to stand and Apologetics for disciples.)
Jesus in history
25 Jun 2011 Leave a Comment
in Jesus Tags: apologetics, history, Jesus
Jesus is no longer a sacred subject in our culture. Scholars feel free to cast doubts on almost any aspect of his life and construct counter-hypotheses to explain his life. Internet ‘instant experts’ confidently state that he didn’t exist. Some christians are deeply disturbed by these claims and doubts. And we may all find it difficult to share our faith in Jesus when our friends may doubt the gospels contain any historical truth.
What can we say to all this?
Jesus was just a myth?
11 Jun 2011 1 Comment
in Apologetics Tags: history, Jesus
If you’ve trawled the internet for very long, you’ve probably come across unbelievers who say Jesus never existed, the stories are simply myths. How to answer them (if we choose to)?
Jesus and history
05 Jun 2011 2 Comments
This is the second in a series of posts on Jesus and history.
Not so many years ago, christians could talk about Jesus and quote the Bible as their authority, and it wasn’t much questioned. People may not have believed in Jesus or followed his teaching, but few doubted he lived and taught and died. But things have changed in a few decades.
Archaeology supports accuracy of John’s Gospel
03 Jun 2011 Leave a Comment
in Jesus Tags: archaeology, history, Jesus
Archaeology can tell us a lot about the world of first century Palestine, where Jesus lived, and this is a great help in understanding the New Testament. But can it tell us much about one of the most basic questions of all: are the New Testament gospels accurate accounts of Jesus’ life, based on eyewitnesses?
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