Gospels
Do the Gospels Promote Anti-Semitism?
Category: General
Tags: Anti-Semitism, Gospels, Jesus, Religious Violence
Topics: Enemy-Loving Non-Violence
Over the last couple of weeks we have been looking at various passages from the Gospels that have been used by some to argue that Jesus condones violence. Here is a link to each of…
Why Did Jesus Curse the Fig Tree?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Gospels, Jesus, Miracles, Satan
Topics: Spiritual Warfare, Cosmic Conflict
One of the strangest episodes recorded in the Gospels is Jesus cursing a fig tree because he was hungry and it didn’t have any figs (Mk 11:12-14; Mt 21:18-19). It’s the only destructive miracle found…
The Jesus Story is a Myth!…And History
Category: General
Tags: C.S. Lewis, Gospels, History, J. R. R. Tolkien, Jesus, Legend, Lord or Legend?, Myth, Resurrection, Truth
Topics: Christology
Image by Len dela Cruz The Jesus story has a curious, and fascinating, relationship with myth and legend. The story of God coming to earth, being born of a virgin, manifesting a heroic, counter-cultural love toward…
Are the Gospels Historical Fiction?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Bible, Biblical Criticism, Gospels, Jesus, Lord or Legend?
Topics: Biblical Reliability, Jesus: Lord or Legend
Some scholars today argue that the stories recorded in the Gospels are actually intentional fabrication. In essence, they argue that Mark took Paul’s theology and robed the story of Jesus in a fictitious historical narrative….
You’re Not a Pacifist Are You?
Category: General
Tags: America, Brian Zahnd, Counter-Culture, Gentleness, Gospels, Jesus, Kingdom Living, Non-Violence, Pacifism, Peace
Jayel Aheram via Compfight Brian Zahnd wrote a great piece the other day on this topic. He contends that when he is asked this question, it often has the same flavor of the question, “You’re…
A Word About Sharing the Gospel From an Atheist
Category: General
Tags: Atheism, Christianity, Evangelism, Gospels, Love
Jen J over at A Deeper Family wrote a little piece about how she felt convicted after this video was played during a sermon at her church. She makes some good points. Penn Jillette is a…
Gospel “Contradictions” and Orality Studies
Category: Essays
Tags: Apologetics, Bible, Essay, Gospels, Jesus, New Testament
Topics: Biblical Reliability
* This essay has been adopted from G. Boyd and Paul Eddy, Lord or Legend? (Baker, 2007). One of the standard tests historians put to ancient documents to assess their veracity is self-consistency. Generally speaking,…
Naturalism and the Historical Jesus
Category: Essays
Tags: Apologetics, Essay, Gospels, Jesus, New Testament
Topics: Jesus: Lord or Legend
The quest for a “merely human” Jesus The various radical views of Jesus now being advocated by certain scholars and propagated through the press are buttressed by a number of different historical arguments. Some argue,…
Twenty Arguments Against Cameron’s “The Lost Tomb of Jesus”
Category: Essays
Tags: Apologetics, Essay, Gospels, Jesus, New Testament
Topics: Jesus: Lord or Legend
On March 4th, 2007, the Discovery Channel aired James Cameron’s much celebrated documentary, “The Lost Tomb of Jesus.” The documentary basically gives a new spin on an old discovery. In 1980, a first century tomb…
How Details in the Gospels Support Their Historicity
Category: Essays
Tags: Apologetics, Essay, Gospels, Jesus, New Testament
Topics: Biblical Reliability
*This essay is adapted from G. Boyd & P. Eddy, Lord or Legend? (Baker, 2007). For a fuller discussion, see P. Eddy & G. Boyd, The Jesus Legend (Baker, 2007). There are a number of…
Is there Archeological Support for the Reliability of the Gospels?
Category: Essays
Tags: Apologetics, Essay, Gospels, Jesus, New Testament
Topics: Biblical Reliability
One of the many tests historians typically submit documents to in accessing their historical reliability concerns the extent to which archeology supports or undermines the historic claims the document makes. So we need to investigate…
The Jesus Seminar and the Reliability of the Gospels
Category: Essays
Tags: Apologetics, Essay, Gospels, Jesus, New Testament
Topics: Jesus: Lord or Legend
The Jesus Seminar The primary driving force behind the popular media’s present preoccupation with liberal views of Jesus has been the Jesus Seminar. This Seminar, first convened in 1985 by Robert Funk, is a gathering…