The Case For Christ

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it's quite another to embody the characteristics that make God, God. At a stoplight, I pulled a notebook out of my briefcase and scrawled a note to myself. Track down D. A. Carson. I knew that I'd want to talk to one of the country's leading theologians about this next matter. In the meantime my talk with Gary Collins prompted me to spend time that night carefully rereading the discourses of Jesus. I could detect no sign of dementia, delusions, or paranoia. On the contrary, I was moved once more by his profound wisdom, his uncanny insights, his poetic eloquence, and his deep compassion. Historian Philip Schaff said it better than I can. Is such an intellect-clear as the sky, bracing as the mountain air, sharp and penetrating as a sword, thoroughly healthy and vigorous, always ready and always self-possessed-liable to a radical and most serious delusion concerning his own character and mission? Preposterous imagination!' Deliberations Questions for Reflection or Group Study 1. What are some of the differences between a patient in a mental hospital claiming to be God and Jesus making the same assertion about himself? 2. Read Jesus' teaching called the Beatitudes in Matthew 5:1-12. What observations can you make about his intellect, eloquence, compassion, insight into human nature, ability to teach profound truths, and overall psychological health? 3. Having read Collins' response to the theory that hypnosis can account for Jesus' miracles, do you believe this is a viable hypothesis? Why or why not? For Further Evidence More Resources on This Topic Collins, Gary R. Can You Trust Psychology? Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1988. Christian Counseling: A Comprehensive Guide. Waco, Tex.: Word, 1988. The Soul Search. Nashville: Nelson, 1998. Lewis, C. S. The Screwtape Letters. London: Collins-Fontana, 1942.
9: THE PROFILE EVIDENCE Did jesus Fulfill the Attributes of God? Shortly after eight student nurses were murdered in a Chicago apartment, the trembling lone survivor huddled with a police sketch artist and described in detail the killer she had seen from her secret vantage point beneath a bed. Quickly the drawing was flashed around the city-to police officers, to hospitals, to transit stations, to the airport. Soon an emergency room physician called detectives to say he was treating a man who looked suspiciously like the flinty-eyed fugitive depicted in the sketch. That's how police arrested a drifter named Richard Speck, who was promptly convicted of the heinous slayings and ended up dying in prison thirty years later. Ever since Scotland Yard first turned a witness's recollections into a sketch of a murder suspect in 1889, forensic artists have played an important role in law enforcement. Today more than three hundred sketch artists work with U.S. police agencies, and an increasing number of departments are relying on a computerized system called EFIT (Electronic Facial Identification Technique). This recently developed technology was successfully used to solve a 1997 kidnapping that occurred at a shopping mall just a few miles from my suburban Chicago home. The victim provided details about the kidnapper's appearance to a technician, who used a computer to create an electronic likeness of the offender by choosing from different styles of noses, mouths, hairlines, and so forth. Just moments after the drawing was faxed to police agencies throughout the area, an investigator in another suburb recognized the Picture as a dead-ringer for a criminal he had encountered earlier. Fortunately, this led to a quick arrest of the kidnapping suspect. Oddly enough, the concept of an artist's drawing can provide a rough analogy that can help us in our quest for the truth about Jesus. Here's how: The Old Testament provides numerous details about God that sketch out in great specificity what he's like. For instance, God is described as omnipresent, or existing everywhere in the universe; as omniscient, or knowing everything that can be known throughout eternity; as omnipotent, or all-powerful; as eternal, or being both beyond time and the source of all time; and as immutable, or unchanging in his attributes. He's loving, he's holy, he's righteous, he's wise, he's just.
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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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"Quite so," he replied. "And this i
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Papyrus number two contains large p
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the fidelity with which this materi
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author of I John was inspired to wr
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sources for the history of Jesus. T
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'hurch had already determined. You
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text-what has all this done to your
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4: THE CORROBORATING EVIDENCE Is th
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the case against Harry Aleman? The
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"Now," I said a little pointedly, "
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feats and was a teacher of such peo
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the Baptist was more important beca
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Pliny the Younger became governor o
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a Jewish mob by executing Jesus, ot
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would know that first, Jesus was a
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asked. Yamauchi pondered the questi
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and the truth will make you free."
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question of whether the New Testame
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Herodium, all in Israel, over an ei
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People thought Josephus was wrong,
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Page 94 and 95: Still, there were some matters I ne
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Page 102 and 103: For Further Evidence More Resources
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 122 and 123: Theological Seminary, where I found
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Page 130 and 131: had always done-to intervene and se
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Page 134 and 135: 146 THE CASE FOR CHRIST Shock; Can
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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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Page 154 and 155: e done for all to see. And no one w
Page 156 and 157: followed by the 'new man.' Trouble
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Page 170 and 171: would respond. 1. The Coincidence A
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Page 174 and 175: For Further Evidence More Resources
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Page 186 and 187: A QUESTION FOR THE HEART Convincing
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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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