In Defense of the Christian Faith

Welcome to part 10 of the Resurrection series -- our final post based on the book The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus . You can find all proceding parts here . In this post, we will continue with a few more objections to the Resurrection before reaching the conclusion. I hope you have enjoyed this series! Christ is Risen: He is risen indeed! Though the Resurrection is not in dispute, many will try to downplay the witness of the disciples by comparing it to other religions. For example, Joseph Smith and eleven witnesses all claimed that they experienced supernatural appearances, so what is the difference between the supernatural experiences of Jesus and the twelve disciples? A close examination of this point will reveal that while Jesus’ disciples suffered for and died for their beliefs, six of the eleven witnesses to Moroni’s gold plates left the Mormon Church! But even if these witnesses had seen the golden plates, this does not mean that there is anything valid contained w...

Welcome to part nine of the Resurrection series. Please see all preceding parts before continuing. Today, we will be talking about the importance of the Resurrection in conjunction with God's existence. Another issue that must be answered by the skeptics is Jesus’ claims about Himself. Jesus claimed to be “Son of Man” first. Was this really true of Jesus or was the title invented, as many skeptics would have us believe? In order to answer this question, we must first consider that the term is referred to in the New Testament only three times outside of the Gospels, and Christians writings within 120 years after Jesus only mention it three times. This debunks the claim that the church made up the title as “Jesus’ favorite self-description” (page 241) – the church did not refer to Jesus in this way! Secondly, all of the four Gospels use this title in reference to Jesus. Thirdly, this title actually places more emphasis on Jesus’ humanity; this in itself seems to disprove the ...

Welcome to part six of the resurrection series based on the book The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus. Please see all preceding parts before reading this post. Today, we will continue to talk about a few more objections to the Resurrection that are often brought up by the skeptics. The next method of the critic, then, is to claim that there are discrepancies in the Resurrection accounts, thereby calling into question the Bible’s inerrancy. But this approach does not call into question the Gospel writers’ “general trustworthiness when recording historical events” (page 122). Additionally, when a historian looks at an event, he does not immediately conclude that because there are discrepancies in the testimonies that the event did not occur. No one rejects other works of antiquity where discrepancies are present; instead, the data is examined more closely. In fact, the differences in the Gospels only points to more than one witness, giving the historian further proof of it...

The following post is based on The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus by Michael Licona and Gary Habermas. All quotes are taken from this book unless otherwise noted. This is part two of a series on the topic of Jesus' Resurrection; see part one here . I am posting this in honor of Easter weekend (which I believe is not about the Easter Bunny, chocolate, or eggs at all, but is about Christ's Resurrection). I am not sure how far I will get through this series before Easter's end, since it is rather long, but I do hope you enjoy the series! Be looking forward to the other parts in the series coming soon! A recap from the introduction : Throughout the centuries, skeptics have maligned the Resurrection of Christ, placing so much weight on theories and arguments that do nothing to support the real evidence. But what these critics fail to understand is that Jesus’ Resurrection is not just a myth that can be easily dismissed; it is a fact of history, and, as such, it is the ...

The American Humanist Association has once again embarked on a campaign to place ads in strategic locations for the holidays. This time around, they have two themes, one of which shows Santa Claus checking his list for naughty and nice with a message that reads "Bias Against Atheists Is Naughty, Not Nice." Here is the reasoning behind the billboards , according to the AHA: "Humanists get their knowledge from science rather than ancient texts and divine revelations," Speckhardt said. "This is the first time we've called out those prejudiced against us to rethink that prejudice. I hope people take them to heart and treat everyone as equally as they can this holiday season."   Now, while the AHA claims they are not undertaking this campaign to offend anyone or spoil "holiday" cheer, I do have my suspicions... especially if they are going to accuse Christians of simply believing "ancient texts and divine revelations" which supposed...

Harold Camping is best known for his statement that the world would end May 21, 2011 . When that didn't happen, Camping maintained that it would happen October 21, instead... which, if you haven't noticed, is tomorrow! Camping is still maintaining this position; according to a  recent message he gave  to his followers, he stated in part: If he had not kept us from knowing everything that we didn't know, we would not have been able to be used of Him to bring about the tremendous event that occurred on May 21 of this year [ DCFblog note : Camping believes that on May 21st a "spiritual" rapture did indeed take place], and which probably will be finished out on October 21, that's coming very shortly. That looks like it will be at this point, it looks like it will be the final end of everything. Whereas the true believers will quietly receive the new heaven and the new earth. I really am beginning to think as I restudied these matters that there's going to be...

The following post is based on The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus  by Michael Licona and Gary Habermas. All quotes are taken from this book unless otherwise noted. This is part one of a series I will be doing on the topic of Jesus' Resurrection. (I realize that I have previously touched on this topic in a would-be series, but this should touch on everything I was not able to get to...) Enjoy! ----------- The Case For the Resurrection of Jesus: Part One - Introductory Thoughts Throughout the centuries, skeptics have maligned the Resurrection of Christ, placing so much weight on theories and arguments that do nothing to support the real evidence. But what these critics fail to understand is that Jesus’ Resurrection is not just a myth that can be easily dismissed; it is a fact of history, and, as such, it is the central point of Christianity. Why, then, is the Resurrection so important? A synopsis of the facts is quite revealing. The Resurrection was the central theme upon w...

Dear Mr. Camping, I am disheartened to hear that you have again predicted the end of the world – this time on October 21, 2011. I have read numerous articles on your predictions that May 21 st was initially the end of the world; and more importantly, I have read the Bible on the topic, Mr. Camping. I would like to bring to your attention several things which it appears that you missed when researching this in your Bible. First and foremost, in an interview that you did just ten days before May 21st , you stated that the Bible is “very factual.” You also stated elsewhere that you had developed some mathematical equations using the Bible – the book of Genesis particularly –from which you arrived at your conclusions. But stating that the Bible is simply “very factual” would seem to downplay that it is inerrant, being “God-breathed” – “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the m...

With only a few minutes until the 6 PM deadline when Christ returns, according to Harold Camping, I wanted to share a few thoughts on this topic. Firstly, I wonder if Camping may be of Jehovah's Witness background. The Watchtower has been predicting the end of the world for years now and each time they are wrong. Camping even made an identical prediction in 1994 . This would seem to indicate that he is a false prophet according to Deuteronomy 18:22 which states: when a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him. ~ Deuteronomy 18:22 What gets me is how Camping could think he can accurately predict the end of the world to the exact time when Jesus clearly said, "“But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father" (Mark 13:32). I find it sad that so many ...

I just saw this short video, and since Good Friday is fast approaching, I wanted to share it with you all. The description is as follows: Dr Peter Williams and Dr David Instone-Brewer look at the Munich Talmud, which contains traditional Jewish teaching, and discover how even the deleted text provides evidence for Jesus' crucifixion! "Ye know that after two days is [the feast of] the passover, and the Son of man is betrayed to be crucified." ~ Jesus (Matthew 26:2)

Below is an article on Jehovah's Witnesses based on Ron Rhodes' book , Reasoning from the Scriptures with the Jehovah's Witnesses . All quotations are from that book unless otherwise noted. This article is in conjunction with the DCF blog's comparative religions series . If you have any questions, please feel free to comment or email me . Jehovah God – it’s a name that any Jehovah’s Witness takes quite seriously. This name is so holy that it is the only name by which we are to refer to God, according to the Witnesses. Since Jehovah is the only name of God, then God cannot be synonymous with Christ (also known as Michael the Archangel, a lesser “god”), the Witnesses believe. This leads to all sorts of assumptions about Jesus. According to Jehovah’s Witnesses (or JWs for short), Jesus is not to be worshipped because He is just an angel; however many Scriptures indicate the contrary. They believe that He experienced a spiritual resurrection, as opposed to the Christia...