The Case For Christ

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For Further Evidence More Resources on this Topic Finegan, Jack. The Archaeology of the New Testament. Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1992. McRay, John. Archaeology and the New Testament. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1991. Thompson, J. A. The Bible and Archaeology. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1975. Yamauchi, Edwin. The Stones and the Scriptures. New York: J. B. Lippencott. 1972. 6: THE REBUTTAL EVIDENCE is the Jesus of History the Same As the Jesus of Faith ? It happens all the time on Perry Mason reruns and in paperback novels, but it's extremely rare in real-life legal dramas. So when an eyewitness in a murder trial refused to point out the defendant as the slayer and instead confessed that he was the killer, the entire courtroom was stunned-and I had an amazing story for the Chicago Tribune. Richard Moss was accused of shooting a nineteen-year-old Chicagoan to death outside a northwest-side tavern. Moss's lifelong friend, Ed Passeri, was called to the witness stand to describe the altercation that led to the slaying. Passeri painted the scene that occurred outside the Rusty Nail Pub, and then the defense attorney asked him what happened to the victim. Without blinking, Passeri replied that after the victim stabbed him with a pair of scissors, "I shot him." The court transcriber's jaw dropped open. Prosecutors threw up their hands. The judge immediately halted the proceedings to advise Passeri of his constitutional right against selfincrimination. And then the defendant got on the stand to say yes, that's right-it was Passeri who committed the crime. "What Passeri did [by confessing] was an act of raw courage, crowed the defense attorney. But prosecutors were unconvinced. "What courage?" asked one of them. "Passeri knows he's not running the risk of prosecution, because the only evidence the state has points to Richard Moss!" Still overwhelmingly persuaded of Moss's guilt, prosecutors knew they had to present strong testimony to controvert Passeri's claim. In legal terminology, what they needed was "rebuttal evidence," defined as any proof that's offered to "explain,
counteract, or disprove" a witness's account! The next day, prosecutors questioned three other eyewitnesses who said there was no doubt that it was Moss who had committed the slaying. Sure enough, based on this and other evidence, the jurors found Moss guilty. Prosecutors did the right thing. When the overpowering strength of the evidence clearly pointed toward the guilt of the defendant, they were wise to be skeptical of an essentially unsupported assertion made by someone with a vested interest in helping his friend. CAN THE JESUS SEMINAR BE REFUTED? How does this legal concept of rebuttal evidence fit into my investigation of Jesus? Now that I had heard powerfully convincing and well-reasoned evidence from the scholars I questioned for this book, I needed to turn my attention to the decidedly contrary opinions of a small group of academics who have been the subject of a whirlwind of news coverage. I'm sure you've seen the articles. In recent years the news media have been saturated with uncritical reports about the Jesus Seminar, a self-selected group that represents a minuscule percentage of New Testament scholars but that generates coverage vastly out of proportion to the group's influence. The Seminar's publicity-savvy participants attracted the press by voting with colored beads on whether they thought Jesus said what the gospels quote him as saying. A red bead meant Jesus undoubtedly said this or something like it; a pink bead meant he probably said it; a gray bead meant he didn't say it but the ideas are similar to his own; and a black bead meant he didn't utter these words at all. In the end they concluded Jesus did not say 82 percent of what the gospels attribute to him. Most of the remaining 18 percent was considered somewhat doubtful, with only 2 percent of Jesus' sayings confidently determined to be authentic. Craving controversy and lacking the expertise to scrutinize the Seminar's methodology, journalists devoted fountains of ink to the story. Then the Seminar published The Five Gospels, containing the four traditional gospels plus the questionable Gospel of Thomas, with Jesus' words color-coded to match the group's findings. Flip through it and You find expanses of black type but precious little in red. For example, the only words in the Lord's Prayer that the Seminar is convinced Jesus said are "Our Father." But I wanted to go beyond the headlines and to unearth, as
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The Case For Christ By: Lee Strobel
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CONTENTS Introduction: Reopening th
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assistance; Chad Meister and Bob an
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"Check out the evidence yourself,"
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make mistakes. Looking through thos
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ooks, college professors, family me
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and yanked the trigger. The gun roa
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Blomberg's books include Jesus and
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granted that exception, the rest of
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that gave meaning to a period of hi
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crowd of journalists that once corn
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merely emphasizing that 'he was a f
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Holocaust. But it has been the Jewi
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was written before Paul was put to
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which is cited by Christians as the
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they couldn't find one. They questi
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going to be returning during their
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actually, scrolls of papyrus-were r
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3. THE CHARACTER TEST This test loo
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about Mark and Luke saying that Jes
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ever met him yet because of their i
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"In addition, we can learn through
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us the full story about Jesus? I lo
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But the most eye-popping cache of d
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Theological Seminary and both a mas
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Page 62 and 63: 'hurch had already determined. You
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Page 94 and 95: Still, there were some matters I ne
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Page 104 and 105: commentator Paul Harvey likes to sa
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Page 112 and 113: proximity to the event, the less ch
Page 114 and 115: athed in its blood and guts. Then t
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Page 118 and 119: But your love goes beyond that. You
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Page 140 and 141: I laughed. "I told you it was an in
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Page 144 and 145: Now, Jesus claims to be God. But do
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Page 148 and 149: type of thing. That's getting Close
Page 150 and 151: "If you're going to quote Colossian
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eternal suffering for those who rej
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e done for all to see. And no one w
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followed by the 'new man.' Trouble
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himself and being born into humble
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validate the credentials of the aut
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I shook my head, saddened at the th
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throwing Eastern philosophy at them
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though he had done no violence, nor
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that God objectively spoke to my he
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would respond. 1. The Coincidence A
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issued a decree for the Jewish peop
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For Further Evidence More Resources
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stabbing of Jesus by the Roman sold
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specifically, to the Garden of Geth
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that day and went on to the cross-w
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tension on the muscles would be eas
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to the cross by ropes.' Won't you c
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A QUESTION FOR THE HEART Convincing
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McDowell, Josh. The Resurrection Fa
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gaze, Craig still looks the role of
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Bible in my lap and quickly reviewe
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the Jews would gather the bones of
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the disciples faking one, this woul
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contradiction says, 'This cannot be
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"Jesus said in Matthew 12:40, 'For
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Essentially, he said a major argume
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the empty tomb. In other words, the
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But I had heard the tapes of the de
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a car, drive to Lynchburg, and make
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"When I was young, I was reading a
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convinced," he insisted indignantly
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willing to be interviewed. Now, sto
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people in the gospels and Acts-some
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MARKS MISSING CONCLUSION When I fir
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central proclamation of the earlies
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Christians-how did they get talked
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death in 1995. And do you know what
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Ask Timothy McVeigh. He may have th
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eaten, imprisoned. And finally, mos
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Muhammad's conversion to Islam as b
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they could be in right standing wit
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together to celebrate his teachings
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and the amazing emergence and growt
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willing to lay down your life for a
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IS THERE CREDIBLE EVIDENCE FOR JESU
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DID JESUS-AND JESUS ALONE-MATCH THE
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evidence that Jesus is the unique S
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Evidence? By November 8, 1981, my l
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cross of Jesus to bridge that gulf.
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case for Christ is conclusive. The
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Boyd, Gregory A. Cynic Sage or Son
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Gruenler-Royce Gordon Cruenler, New
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O'Collins-Gerald O'Collins, The Eas
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NOTES INTRODUCTION: REOPENING THE I
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Press, 1996), 196-97. 10. Paul L. M
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1. Leland H. Gregory 111, "Fop Ten
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The Case For Christ

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