The New Testament writers assert on a number of occasions that the accounts of Jesus’ life and work were based on eyewitness testimony.
Perhaps the most famous of these assertions is the statement by Luke at the beginning of his gospel. Peter also insists that ‘we did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eye-witnesses of his majesty’ (2 Pet 1:16). …
It should be the daily goal of Christians to become more like Christ. It is a remarkable reflection of God’s common grace that even those without faith in Jesus Christ can demonstrate remarkably Christlike qualities.
But the popular mind in general, and the media in particular, have a regrettable tendency to single out a few remarkable lives and virtually deify them. Cases in point would be Ghandi, Mother Theresa, and Nelson Mandela. The tendency to place Mandela in the pantheon of virtue along with Jesus Christ was reflected in a question put by BBC presenter Justin Webb to Jimmy Carter. …
Contributors to Trevin Wax’s blog have recently been writing about some of the aspects of Christ’s atoning work:-
On the cross, Christ
No one image (let’s not call them theories, please!)…
Scholars such as Bart Ehrman (in his recent book How Jesus Became God) stress the differences between the ‘higher Christology’ of John’s Gospel (in which Jesus is represented as God incarnate) and the ‘lower Christology’ of the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke, in which he is represented as exalted, but not pre-existent). For Ehrman, even the Synoptic view of Jesus did not arise until after his followers came to believe that he had been resurrected; and the Johanine view developed later still.…
Craig L. Blomberg, Can we still believe the Bible?. Reviewed (or, rather, noted, by Kevin James Bywater).
Blomberg is a thorough scholar and a clear writer. He has authored books on a range of topics, including the historical reliability of the Gospels. In this present volume, he deals with a range of possible objections to the trustworthiness of the Bible, including issues to do with the integrity of the text of the New Testament, the choice of books to include in the canon, the historical nature of biblical narratives, and the question of miracles.…
I trust that all decent people – straight or gay, religious or non-religious – will be appalled by the treatment meted out to street preacher John Craven. In fact, it was gratifying to read the comments of Terry Sanderson, president of the National Secular Society, who said that street preachers should be able to “make whatever point they want”, so long as they are not provoking “violence or mayhem”.
As reported by the BBC, Mr Craven was preaching about salvation when he approached by two teenage boys, who asked him about his views on homosexuality. …
This is a summary of a summary. Based on Stephen Kuhrt’s helpful outline, here are the main themes and emphases in Wright’s thinking.
History
Wright is a historian, and he is very keen to place the story of the Bible in general, and the story of Jesus in particular, in historical context. He has a high level of confidence that the events recorded in the Gospels ‘really happened’. He emphasises the importance of understanding Jesus (and Paul and others) in the light of their Jewish backgrounds. …
We regard jealousy as one of the ugliest and most destructive human attitudes. How then can it be right to worship a Being who describes himself as a ‘jealous’ God?
To many non-believers, it’s a no-brainer. The very idea of divine jealousy shows just how bankrupt the Christian concept of God is. James Kirk Wall, for instance, while describing himself as someone who ‘aspires to be patient and respectful’, cannot restrain himself from labelling the idea of a jealous God ‘insane’:-
…The Second Commandment declares that god is a jealous god.
1. Who is asking the questions?
Not the nations! – It’s God who is quizzing them, v1f.
God does allow his friends to question him (Abraham, v8, cf Gen 18; ‘Why?’, ‘How long’).
But he will not co-operate with questioning that is motivated by scepticism or idle curiosity. ‘Be silent’, v1. Cf Rom 3:19.
Apply this to apologetics (1 Pet 2:15), much of which is evidential:-
The gospel is not just a proposition to be debated
it is a summons to be believed
a command to be obeyed
The questions God asks of us are more important than the questions we might ask of God.…
According to this article in The Telegraph, 212 million copies of the Ikea catalogue are printed each year, in 29 different languages. This makes it twice as widely distributed as the Bible (of which there are an estimated 100 million copies either sold or given out each year).
I recently heard Simon Ponsonby remark that one difference is that although the Ikea catalogue is free, you have to pay for everything in it, whereas a Bible usually has to be paid for, but everything in it is free!…
