The Case For Christ

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Pliny the Younger became governor of Bithynia in northwestern Turkey. Much of his correspondence with his friend, Emperor Trajan, has been preserved to the present time." Yamauchi pulled out a photocopy of a book page, saying, "In book 10 of these letters he specifically refers to the Christians he has arrested." I have asked them if they are Christians, and if they admit it, I repeat the question a second and third time, with a warning of the punishment awaiting them. If they persist, I order them to be led away for execution; for, whatever the nature of their admission, I am convinced that their stubbornness and unshakable obstinacy ought not to go unpunished.... They also declared that the sum total of their guilt or error amounted to no more than this: they had met regularly before dawn on a fixed day to chant verses alternately amongst themselves in honor of Christ as if to a god, and also to bind themselves by oath, not for any criminal purpose, but to abstain from theft, robbery, and adultery... This made me decide it was all the more necessary to extract the truth by torture from two slave-women, whom they called deaconesses. I found nothing but a degenerate sort of cult carried to extravagant lengths." "How important is this reference?" I asked. "Very important. It was probably written about A.D. 111, and it attests to the rapid spread of Christianity, both in the city and in the rural area, among every class of persons, slave women as well as Roman citizens, since he also says that he sends Christians who are Roman citizens to Rome for trial. "And it talks about the worship of Jesus as God, that Christians maintained high ethical standards, and that they were not easily swayed from their beliefs." THE DAY THE EARTH WENT DARK To me, one of the most problematic references in the New Testament is where the gospel writers claim that the earth went dark during part of the time that Jesus hung on the cross. Wasn't this merely a literary device to stress the significance of the Crucifixion, and not a reference to an actual historical occurrence? After all, if darkness had fallen over the earth, wouldn't there be at least some mention of this extraordinary event outside the Bible?
However, Dr. Gary Habermas, has written about a historian named Thallus who in A.D. 52 wrote a history of the eastern Mediterranean world since the Trojan War. Although Thallus's work has been lost, it was quoted by Julius Africanus in about A.D. 221-and it made reference to the darkness that the gospels had written about! "Could this," I asked, "be independent corroboration of this biblical claim?" Explained Yamauchi, "In this passage Julius Africanus says, 'Thallus, in the third book of his histories, explains away the darkness as an eclipse of the sun-unreasonably, as it seems to me.' "So Thallus apparently was saying yes, there had been darkness at the time of the Crucifixion, and he speculated it had been caused by an eclipse. Africanus then argues that it couldn't have been an eclipse, given when the Crucifixion occurred." Yamauchi reached over to his desk to retrieve a piece of paper. "Let me quote what scholar Paul Maier said about the darkness in a footnote in his 1968 book Pontius Pilate," he said, reading these words: This phenomenon, evidently, was visible in Rome, Athens, and other Mediterranean cities. According to Tertullian ... it was a "cosmic" or "world event." Phlegon, a Greek author from Caria writing a chronology soon after 137 A.D., reported that in the fourth year of the 202nd Olympiad (i.e., 33 A.D.) there was "the greatest eclipse of the sun" and that "it became night in the sixth hour of the day [i.e., noon] so that stars even appeared in the heavens. There was a great earthquake in Bithynia, and many things were overturned in Nicaea." Yamauchi concluded, "So there is, as Paul Maier points out, nonbiblical attestation of the darkness that occurred at the time of Jesus' crucifixion. Apparently, some found the need to try to give it a natural explanation by saying it was an eclipse." A PORTRAIT OF PILATE Yamauchi's mentioning of Pilate reminded me of how some critics have questioned the accuracy of the gospels because of the way they portray this Roman leader. While the New Testament paints him as being vacillating and willing to yield to the pressures of
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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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Page 32 and 33: they couldn't find one. They questi
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Page 38 and 39: 3. THE CHARACTER TEST This test loo
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Page 44 and 45: "In addition, we can learn through
Page 46 and 47: us the full story about Jesus? I lo
Page 48 and 49: But the most eye-popping cache of d
Page 50 and 51: Theological Seminary and both a mas
Page 52 and 53: "Quite so," he replied. "And this i
Page 54 and 55: Papyrus number two contains large p
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Page 58 and 59: author of I John was inspired to wr
Page 60 and 61: sources for the history of Jesus. T
Page 62 and 63: 'hurch had already determined. You
Page 64 and 65: text-what has all this done to your
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Page 68 and 69: the case against Harry Aleman? The
Page 70 and 71: "Now," I said a little pointedly, "
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Page 80 and 81: would know that first, Jesus was a
Page 82 and 83: asked. Yamauchi pondered the questi
Page 84 and 85: and the truth will make you free."
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Page 90 and 91: People thought Josephus was wrong,
Page 92 and 93: to thirty-two countries, fifty-four
Page 94 and 95: Still, there were some matters I ne
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Page 100 and 101: McRay tossed me the article in whic
Page 102 and 103: For Further Evidence More Resources
Page 104 and 105: commentator Paul Harvey likes to sa
Page 106 and 107: to me, 'Well, Greg, it looks like t
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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
Page 116 and 117: it fits well with the Gnostic mind-
Page 118 and 119: But your love goes beyond that. You
Page 120 and 121: elying on the news media in reporti
Page 122 and 123: Theological Seminary, where I found
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elationship between a child and his
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there's still no non-messianic Jesu
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had always done-to intervene and se
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Marshall, I. Howard. The Origins of
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146 THE CASE FOR CHRIST Shock; Can
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Granted, as we look back through hi
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feeling intoxicated, just as if the
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I laughed. "I told you it was an in
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it's quite another to embody the ch
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Now, Jesus claims to be God. But do
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saying, 'Who can forgive sins but G
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type of thing. That's getting Close
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"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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