...Jesus: Fact from Fiction Christianity is currently the largest religion in the world with approximately 2.1 billion people identifying themselves as Christians. Jesus is the central focus of attention and worship in Christianity, and is held by most Christians to be the Messiah, foretold in the Hebrew Bible or “Old Testament”. They believe him to be the savior of mankind, and the son of God. However, in modern times, the use of critical scholarship in analysis of the Bible and to the New Testament Gospels in particular, has lead to an accelerating rate of disintegration in the traditional Christian belief system. The term "scholarship" implies the application of the scientific method of the evaluating evidence on the basis of objective standards unhindered from any personal involvement or biases. The main source of information on Jesus is from the Christian Gospels. Some scholars claim that the sources on which the Gospels are based were written within the living memory of Jesus' lifetime. There are four such Gospels the earliest being Mark (68-73 AD), followed by Matthew (70-100 AD), Luke (80-100 AD), and John (90-110 AD). Many conservative Christians accept these writings as evidence for a historical Jesus and as an account of his life and death. According to the Christian Gospels, Jesus was born in Bethlehem between 6 BC and 6 AD. The Gospel Mark, reports that Jesus was "the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon" he also states that Jesus had sisters. Nothing of Jesus...
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...the New Testament would be totally adequate to prove Jesus was a real person in history. The evidence presented in the New Testament was written by contemporaries of Jesus, four were eyewitnesses, three accompanied Jesus, and all the writings are in remarkable agreement. They stand the tests of genuineness and historicity. Consider this: One may present a case for Jesus by presenting just one of the Gospels, let’s say the book written by Luke to Theophilus. Luke states, 1Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, 2just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. 3Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus.” That, in itself, is evidence. Then when adding the other gospels our case becomes stronger because we have ‘corroborating evidence.’ ***Corroborating Evidence is evidence that supports, confirms, strengthens or adds to already existing evidence.*** Then, take the NT letters that were written by Paul, Peter, James, & John and you have even more compelling, corroborating evidence. The NT alone is sufficient proof of Jesus’ historical existence. We all know that Christianity is not the worship of the man Jesus. Our faith is in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. If Jesus never existed then it is safe to say, Christianity would...
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...the autobiographies of Jesus be trust?”. Lee thought the gospels were just religious propaganda, made through imagination. But, Craig Blomberg, a specialist on it, had convincing information with good evidence supporting that they are reliable. The gospel writers wanted to preserve their experience and were honest. Some of the facts in the gospel included accurate historical facts of that time period. Although there are many forms of New Testament manuscripts, they are very similar to the old, original writings. Bruce Metzger, a world-class scholar, stated that the modern new testaments are 99.5 % free of textual discrepancies. Lee also asked himself, “Is there Credible evidence for Jesus outside his biographies?”. We have better evidence of Jesus than any other religion. There are sources outside the Bible that account for Jesus’ miracles, followers, crucifixion, and teachings. Also, there are no archaeological findings that disprove any Biblical reference. In fact, archaeology discoveries show that Luke, a writer of one of the gospels, was a careful historian. If he was so careful with his writings, why would we assume that he would create inaccurate reports of something so important? As historians look at the documents that relate back to the time of Jesus, there is strong evidence that support that Jesus of History is the same as Jesus of faith. Many people have wondered if Jesus was crazy, but psychologist Gary Collins overrules this conspiracy. Jesus showed no signs of craziness...
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...Wright Report There are numerous ways to view Jesus. His life, teachings, and impact on the world have different meanings to people around the world. In Simply Jesus, N.T. Wright takes a look into Jesus’ life as well as the world in which he lived and the people he lived among. By diving deep into history, Wright attempts to portray Jesus as something larger than people often times imagine. Wright begins Simply Jesus with one of the most important visualizations of Jesus: his entry into Jerusalem on a donkey. Through years of academic study and contemporary events, such as Jesus Christ Superstar, Wright has come to believe that “Jesus – the Jesus we might discover if we really looked! – is larger, more disturbing, more urgent than we – than the church! – had ever imagined” (4-5). In part one, Wright compares Jesus’ life to a “perfect storm,” where a set of circumstances combine to create unexpected and unmatched conditions. This “perfect storm” is composed of skepticism and conservatism, the growing and dominating power of Rome, and the divinity of God’s kingdom, with Jesus striding out into the eye of the storm. Part two focuses on how Jesus brought the kingdom of God to the Jews of the first century. Wright shows how Jesus himself had, in a way, become a new Temple for the Jews. Jesus taught the Jews with parables, spoke of a great battle against “a satan” (119), and the cleansing and rebuilding of the Temple. Jesus both fit into and yet did not fit the roles of...
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................................................2 III. Critical Interaction with Author’s Work..................................................................4 IV. Conclusion....................................................................................................................5 Bibliography........................................................................................................................6 Introduction In the Book of Acts author Luke purposes to provide an account of the origin and development of the church under the power and guidance of the Holy Spirit. The Book of Acts lays an original and graphic historical picture of the early church from its beginnings with the accension of Jesus to it’s end with Paul’s detention in Rome. Bo Reike in his article, “The Risen Lord and His Chruch, The Theology of Acts” presupposes the theology of the Book of Acts as simply being a continuation of the work of the risen Lord and His Church, in which he expresses Christology and Eccesiology as the two major themes of Acts. This paper will evaluate the author’s approach in examining the theology of Acts , and weigh the thesis of...
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...00-BBR_18.2.book Page 209 Friday, September 12, 2008 12:00 PM Bulletin for Biblical Research 18.2 (2008) 209–231 “The Disciple Jesus Loved”: Witness, Author, Apostle— A Response to Richard Bauckham’s Jesus and the Eyewitnesses andreas j. köstenberger and stephen o. stout southeastern baptist theological seminary Richard Bauckham’s Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006) makes a persuasive argument that the Gospels display eyewitness testimony and thus renews the quest for the identity of the Beloved Disciple as the author of the Fourth Gospel. While Bauckham attributes this Gospel to “the presbyter John” mentioned by Papias, the authors of this study show that the patristic evidence more likely seems to support the authorship of John the apostle and that the literary device of inclusio in the Fourth Gospel, astutely observed by Bauckham, also favors the authorship of John the son of Zebedee. Key Words: Fourth Gospel, Beloved Disciple, John, authorship, apostle, Zebedee, John the Elder, Papias, Eusebius, Muratorian Fragment, Polycrates, Irenaeus, Bauckham Introduction Recent years have witnessed a significant number of publications on the identity of “the disciple Jesus loved” in John’s Gospel. The ever more daring proposals have included identifications of this figure as diverse as the apostle Thomas, Mary Magdalene, Lazarus, James the son of Zebedee, and even the Samaritan woman, among others. 1...
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...For nbst-615 By Robert E Blocker Fayetteville, north Carolina April 18, 2014 The Gospel of John I.) Thesis statement; This report will outline the Gospel John from a synoptic point of view, but yet it will capture the information about the main focus of the gospel of John. Introduction II.) The introduction will give a brief intro into the most interesting book in the bible “The Gospel according to John”: Theological Features: III.) This paper will summarize here the theological format, while also discussing the eschatological and the christocentric concept of Who Jesus is. Eschatological IV.) I this section I will capture the eschatological tone of the Gospel with a new order perspective. Soteriological V.) In this section I will cover the Soteriology study of salvation. John's Purpose VII.) This section will focus on the purpose of John. And believing in Jesus you will everlasting life. Literary Characteristics VIII.) This section will focus on who wrote the Gospel of John and explain it from a believer point of view. Narrative Style IX.) In this section I will discuss the literary structure from a Narrative position. Biblical Theology X.) This section will give the biblical context of the Gospel and point out the Theological view of the bible according to John. Bibliography Bauckham, Richard. Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans,...
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...Christians and atheists debate whether God exists. With the continuous advancement of science, a lot of young people believe that the world of all things evolved naturally, no longer believe in God's creation, but rather believe that the Big Bang theory. Therefore, there are a lot of young people begin to lose their faith, lost faith in God. And I firmly believe that God is real, and I will show three-point, to help people know God is real existence. First, spirit world really exists. Perhaps when I say this, you will pores erect, I hope you do not be afraid. Have you ever heard Near Death Experience? This has been studied for a long time in the scientific community, they specialize in restore the health of people who are going to die, the report shows that in this case, a lot of people have experienced, OBE, to see their bodies, or their loved ones, also have some special story like somebody see the doctor to remove his body something in surgery ,when he wake up he could know every detail really clearly, some people experienced a near-death state in heaven, saw their loved ones, some people go to hell, they all think that is real experience at that time, and then their life has changed a lot, because they are beginning to believe that the person really has a soul. Others in real life, but also that some people have the experience of familiar spirits (spirit), when they have some difficult problems, or had some strange disease, they can not help them from people. They will find some...
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...World Religions Report Stanley Akesson HUM/130 April 7, 2013 Thomas Thiessen I have decided to compare the Christianity faith of United Church of Christ (UCC) along with Islam. Christianity was started with Jesus and ended with the belief and practice which centers on the resurrection of Christ. I will show how the faiths split and divided into three major branches over the centuries. Protestantism, evolved in the 16th century during the Reformation. United Church of Christ (UCC) was part of the in the 1950’s Congregational Churches of the English Reformation with Puritan New England roots in America, and the Christian. Islam was started by The Prophet Muhammad and according to Muslim belief, the angel Gabriel appeared to Muhammad. His life's work is recorded in the Qur'an, the sacred text of Islam. The Holy Quran is a compilation of the verbal revelations given to the Holy Prophet Muhammad over a period of twenty two years Summary of Interview Reverend Joseph Blotz, became a Minister of Faith Formation in August 2010. He is currently assigned to the United Church of Christ (UCC) in Mansfield, Connecticut. Where did everything come from? Reverend Blotz describes where everything comes from with the many stories from the Bible of how the world and everything came to be. It is God’s action that brought the world into existence and order. What is the ultimate problem with the world? A large problem with the world is ultimately broken relationship between God and people...
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...source of the individual books of the New Testament, but another questions remains unanswered. We can ask ourselves, how did the New Testament itself come into being? Who collected the writings and on what ideology? What conditions led to the creations of a canon, of trustworthy books? Throughout history Christian’s belief is that the Holy Spirit, who controlled the writing of the individual books, also controlled their selection and compilation, thus continuing to fulfill our Lord’s promise that He would guide his disciples into all reality. This however, is something that is to be discerned by spiritual insight, and not by historical research. The object is to find out what historical research reveals about the origin of the New Testament canon. We have people tell us that we receive the twenty seven books of the New Testament on the mandate of the Church; but even if we do, we have to look at how the Church came to recognize these twenty-seven books as worthy of being placed on a level of encouragement and authority with the Old Testament. It took over a century of the proliferation of numerous writings before anyone was even concerned. They started to pick and choose and it was largely a cumulative, individual and accidental event, guided by chance and prejudice more than objective and scholarly research, until priests and academics began declaring what was authoritative and holy, and even they were not unanimous. Churches had their own books, because there was no clearly...
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...Christianity stand two figures: Jesus and Paul. Jesus is regarded by Christians as the founder of their religion, in that the events of his life comprise the foundation story of Christianity; but Paul is regarded as the great interpreter of Jesus' mission, who explained, in a way that Jesus himself never did. The Question of what t would Jesus himself have thought of Paul?. But Jesus never knew Paul, the two men never once met. The disciples who knew Jesus best, such as Peter, James and John, have left no writings behind them explaining how Jesus seemed to them or what they considered his mission to have been. Did they agree with the interpretations disseminated by Paul in his fluent articulate writings. Nor did they perhaps think that this newcomer to the scene, spinning complicated theories about the place of Jesus in the scheme of things, was getting everything wrong. Paul claimed that his interpretations were not just his own invention, but had come to him by personal inspiration; he claimed that he had personal acquaintance with the resurrected Jesus, even though he had never met him during his lifetime. Such acquaintance, he claimed, gained through visions and transports, was actually superior to acquaintance with Jesus during his lifetime. Which is why when it comes to discussing the relation between Jesus and Paul, it is better to begin with Paul. Due to the fact Paul is more easily known than Jesus. Which can be admitted on all sides. Jesus wrote nothing; all the records...
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...revelation and authority of the Bible. In the following pages I have summarized the biblical self-testimony on its revelation and authority. The major focus of the paper is biblical authority, but a short statement concerning revelation-inspiration-illumination introduces the subject, and other biblical testimony on the nature of revelation is subsumed under the discussion of biblical authority. The paper also includes a brief historical treatment of the Enlightenment and post-Enlightenment understandings of biblical revelation/authority and an analysis and critique of their basic presuppositions in light of Scripture. Following the conclusion, a selected bibliography of sources cited and other useful books and articles on the subject is provided. Appendices include: (1) a chart schematizing the two major modern approaches to the Bible's revelation and authority (Appendix I, A-D); (2) some of Ellen White's insights on biblical revelation/authority (Appendix I, E); (3) the Methods of Bible Study Committee statement on the historical-critical method (Appendix I, F); and (4) a...
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...regard the revelation and authority of the Bible. In the following pages I have summarized the biblical self-testimony on its revelation and authority. The major focus of the paper is biblical authority, but a short statement concerning revelation-inspiration-illumination introduces the subject, and other biblical testimony on the nature of revelation is subsumed under the discussion of biblical authority. The paper also includes a brief historical treatment of the Enlightenment and post-Enlightenment understandings of biblical revelation/authority and an analysis and critique of their basic presuppositions in light of Scripture. Following the conclusion, a selected bibliography of sources cited and other useful books and articles on the subject is provided. Appendices include: (1) a chart schematizing the two major modern approaches to the Bible's revelation and authority (Appendix I, A-D); (2) some of Ellen White's insights on biblical revelation/authority (Appendix I, E); (3) the Methods of Bible Study Committee statement on the historical-critical method (Appendix I, F); and (4) a compilation of Ellen White references to "higher criticism" (Appendix II). A. Revelation-Inspiration-Illumination:...
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...Today I will be discussing in this report four key points about these three religions. I will be explaining each religion...
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...IS THE BIBLE REALLY FROM GOD? HOW CAN WE BE CERTAIN? We must first remember in discussing the claims of the Bible with anyone, that the Bible is not a single, autonomous work. Rather, it is a collection of 66 different books written over a vast time span in three languages on three continents with authors from every station in life. These ancient works cover every major topic dealing with the human condition including: love, hate, death, sin, marriage, civil laws, and relationships with each other as well as with God. Although these works were written independently, they show an amazing congruency and they never contradict each other! When Paul writes "All scriptures is inspired by God (II Tim 3:16)", his primary reference is the Old Testament, which was completed 400 years previously. This is not to say that the verse doesn't apply to the New Testament as well, but Paul's subject matter was the Scriptures Timothy was taught as a child. Paul believes the Scriptures are "God-breathed"; that is they hold the same authority as if God were to come down and speak to you directly. Every word recorded in the original documents is considered to be chosen by God. So, our first point is that the testimony of Paul establishes a point of view that holds the Scriptures very highly. We know that the early church believed the Scriptures were inspired, we must now find out how to demonstrate that fact. Before going too far, I would ask your friend what type of evidence...
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