You may be a committed Christian, secure in your faith. Or, you may be a curious person, open to Christianity, but wondering if there’s really anything to it. Regardless, you should read the following eight books.
They contain great insights for the curious, while deepening the knowledge of those who already practice the faith. Continue reading
In an earlier post, we explored some of the prevailing theories for the origin of the universe. There is one other theory that attempts to explain away the need for God as Creator. It’s known as the Multiverse Theory. Let’s take a critical look and see if it holds up. Continue reading
The Exhortation to the Apostles by James Tissot, Brooklyn Museum
The original disciples of Jesus—those to whom he had assigned the task of spreading his message throughout the world—made great claims about His resurrection. The lives of the disciples after Jesus’ crucifixion, as well as their deaths, make a powerful argument for the truth of their claims. Let’s explore how. Continue reading
The Rylands Library Papyrus P52, thought to be the earliest extant fragment of a New Testament text. It contains part of the Gospel of John and dates between 117-138 A.D. It is displayed in a climate-controlled case at the John Rylands Library in Manchester, England.
The New Testament is a diverse collection of 27 books, mostly written during the first century A.D. by a range of authors. Four of these books, called the gospels, relate the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Another book, Acts of the Apostles, traces the early history of the Christian church as it was formed and began to spread. Twenty-one books are letters, written by various authors (one of whom was a very important missionary, Paul). These letters, or epistles, consist of doctrine, counsel, conflict resolution in the early church, and so on. A final book, Revelation, is a work of apocalyptic prophecy. Over the early centuries of Christianity, these 27 books became recognized as the church’s official canon.
Given the awesome span of time between their original writing and today, it’s no surprise that we no longer have the original texts. The books come down to us today thanks to the work of monks and scribes who, over the centuries, copied and recopied the scrolls, attempting to faithfully reproduce the texts and preserve them for future generations.
The Apostle John the Theologian on the Island of Patmos, by A.N. Mironov
The main historical sources we have regarding Jesus’ life and ministry are the gospels (the first four books of the New Testament: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) and the Book of Acts, the fifth book of the New Testament. As we’ll cover in this and other posts, these sources
Christ, by Heinrich Hoffman
Critics of Christianity will often assert that Jesus and his “resurrection” must not have made any significant impact during the first century. After all, they add, outside of a few gospel accounts and letters in the New Testament, nobody really mentions Jesus or Christians. He must have been rather obscure, as was his band of followers. Only after hundreds of years of legendary development did Jesus become considered as the divine Son of God. If he had been a big deal at the time, then more people would have written about him.
To an uninformed listener, that assertion sounds plausible and even reasonable. Continue reading
The Roman Empire in 117 A.D., about 84 years after Jesus’ crucifixion. Note the province of Judea, on the lower right side of the map, in roughly the same location as modern-day Israel.
If you want to understand Jesus and the early days of Christianity, then it helps to know about the world Jesus called home. In particular, it’s important to understand the political backdrop and the relationship between the Jewish people and the Roman Empire. That understanding will make the Jewish people’s ultimate rejection of Jesus and the Romans’ persecution of early Christians much easier to comprehend. So, we’ll try to cram hundreds of years of history into a few short paragraphs. Continue reading
Let me state up front that I am a Christian, comfortable and secure in my beliefs. Even though I was raised as a Christian (as a member of the United Methodist Church), I haven’t always been so sure about what I was taught. Like many people, I had my doubts, first during my high school and college years, and again following the sudden and unexpected death of my father in 2001.
However, after 2001, I embarked on a personal quest to learn as much as I could, pro and con, about my faith. Were the things I had been taught the truth? Were those teachings well-supported by history and grounded in rational thought? Or were they basically “fairy tales” to be mined for tidbits of wisdom, but little else? Continue reading
Many people labor under the misconception that all Christians believe the universe to be a mere 6,000 years old, created by God in the span of 6 days. After all, that’s what the Bible says, right? (Not quite, but we’ll save that for another post). At any rate, those same people often perceive Christians as ignorant and irrational beings with an axe to grind against science, most likely because, in their minds, science has been systematically dismantling Christians’ belief in a “God-myth” for the last several hundred years. Continue reading
