27May 2024 by Post

Recommended Books on Historical Apologetics for The Gospels & Acts

4. Is the NT True?, Acts, Apologetics, Bible, Erik Manning, Gospel, historical apologetics, history, New Testament, Testify, The Gospels
I am often asked which books I recommend for defending the reliability of the Gospels/Acts and Christianity in general, so here is my list. It is not exhaustive, but it will definitely give you a good start. The categorized as “mandatory” are more basic, while some of those labeled as “recommended” or “supplementary” delve into more profound and scholarly content. Any item marked with a * can be accessed for free online as PDF files. A significant number of these works are downloadable from http://historicalapologetics.org, http://books.google.com, or http://archive.org.   Mandatory Reading: Recommended Reading: Author Book Title Bauckham, Richard Jesus and the Eyewitnesses, 2nd edition Blomberg, Craig The Historical Reliability of John’s Gospel Blomberg, Craig The Historical Reliability of the New Testament Boyd, Greg & Eddy, Paul Rhodes The Jesus Legend:…
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13Mar 2024 by Post

Timothy’s Tale: Unveiling Undesigned Coincidences In Paul’s Journeys

1 Corinthians, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, 4. Is the NT True?, Acts, Apologetics, biblical apologetics, Christianity, Erik Manning, Inerrancy, IsJesusAlive, New Testament, Paul's Missionary Journeys, theology, Timothy, Undesigned Coincidences
Because Paul crisscrossed paths with many folks, some repeatedly, it’s quite enlightening to compare how these people are portrayed in the book of Acts with what Paul hints at in his own letters. Among these characters, Timothy stands out as a particularly intriguing figure. In 1 Corinthians 4:17, Paul mentions sending Timothy, his “beloved and faithful child in the Lord,” to jog the Corinthians’ memory about Paul’s ways in Christ. Now, from this passage alone, it’s a bit tricky to figure out if Timothy was sent before the letter or with it. In 1 Corinthians 16:10-11, though, Paul makes it clear that Timothy was dispatched before the letter was penned. He talks about Timothy’s impending arrival as something distinct from when the Corinthians would receive the letter itself – “When Timothy comes, …” Contradictory Accounts?…
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09Jan 2023 by Post

Appearances Of Mary Vs. Jesus’ Resurrection Appearances

Apologetics, Appearances of Mary, Christianity, Erik Manning, IsJesusAlive, Jesus’ Resurrection Appearances, theology, Theology and Christian Apologetics
By Erik Manning On the evening of April 2, 1968, a Muslim bus mechanic was working across the street from St. Mary’s Coptic Church in Zeitoun, a district of Cairo, Egypt. Suddenly, something on the roof of St. Mary’s got his attention: a figure that looked like a young woman. The mechanic pointed it out to a few people nearby who saw the same thing. Concerned that the young lady was about to commit suicide, they called the police. A crowd gathered around the church to watch. Then, after just a few minutes, the woman suddenly vanished. As you can imagine, this got people talking. At first the police tried to explain things away, saying it was just some light reflecting in a strange way from a street light – but…
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24Oct 2022 by Post

Got Doubts? Stop Doing This!

Apologetics, Atheism, Bible, Christianity, Doubts, Erik Manning, IsJesusAlive, Theology and Christian Apologetics
By Erik Manning From working in public apologetics ministry for a few years now, one common mistake I see from Christians struggling with their faith is that they try and prematurely flex their apologetic muscles by spending tons of time listening to atheist YouTubers, podcasts or reading blogs but they don’t get the bulk of the Christian evidences strong under their belt first. When they come across a few things that stump them, they get troubled, anxious, or even set aside their faith altogether. This is falling prey to what the great English logician Richard Whately called “the fallacy of objections.”   Whately defined the fallacy of objections[i] as “showing that there are objections against some plan, theory, or system, and thence inferring that it should be rejected; when that which ought…
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15Aug 2022 by Post

What You Might’ve Missed About the Mount of Transfiguration

Apologetics, Bart Ehrman, Christianity, Erik Manning, Jesus, Mount of Transfiguration, Theology and Christian Apologetics, Transfiguration
by Erik Manning  Does John’s Gospel give us a much higher view of Jesus than what we find in Matthew, Mark and Luke? Bart Ehrman certainly thinks so. He says: If Jesus went around Galilee proclaiming himself to be a divine being sent from God…could anything else that he might say be so breath-taking and thunderously important? And yet none of these earlier sources says any such thing about him. Did they (all of them!) just decide not to mention the one thing that was most significant about Jesus? Almost certainly the divine self-claims in John are not historical. How Jesus Became God p 125 In other places, Ehrman admits that the Synoptic Gospels don’t depict Jesus as a mere man. But he isn’t pre-existent and he isn’t the same…
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06Jul 2022 by Post

Daniel Prophesied the Timing Of The Messiah

Apologetics, christian, Daniel, Erik Manning, Gospel, Jesus diety, Kingdom of God, Prophecy, Theology and Christian Apologetics, video
By Erik Manning How did Jesus see himself? As we learn about Jesus’ Jewish context in the first century, we find that he made some staggering claims. First of all, Jesus spoke constantly about God’s kingdom. The phrase kingdom of God or kingdom of heaven appears more than 100 times in the Gospels. Jesus begins his ministry in Mark by saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is near.” (Mark 1:15) Okay, so what’s the big deal about that? And what does Jesus mean when he says the kingdom of God is “near”? Jesus was assuming that his audience would pick up on the ideas he was laying down. When a first century Jew heard the phrase “the kingdom of God,” their minds likely turned to a…
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17Jun 2022 by Post

Derribando una de las contradicciones bíblicas favoritas de Bart Ehrman

Apologética, Bart Ehrman, Biblia, Cristianismo, Erik Manning, Español, Evangelio, IsJesusAlive
Por Erik Manning Los escépticos dicen que los evangelios están plagados de contradicciones y que, por tanto, no son fuentes históricas fiables. Y estos mismos escépticos dicen que algunas de estas contradicciones son francamente absurdas. Por ejemplo, el erudito agnóstico del NT Bart Ehrman señala una de sus contradicciones bíblicas favoritas en su exitoso libro, Jesus, Interrupted (Jesús, interrumpido). Una de mis aparentes discrepancias favoritas -he leído a Juan durante años sin darme cuenta de lo extraña que es esta- aparece en el “Discurso de despedida” de Jesús, el último discurso que Jesús dirige a sus discípulos, en su última comida con ellos, que ocupa todos los capítulos 13 a 17 del Evangelio según Juan. En Juan 13:36, Pedro le dice a Jesús: “Señor, ¿a dónde vas?”. Unos versos después,…
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11Apr 2022 by Post

D.O.U.B.T.S.: An Evidential Filter For Miracle Claims

4. Is the NT True?, Bible, Erik Manning, IsJesusAlive, Jesus Christ, miracles, New Testament, reliability, Theology and Christian Apologetics
By Erik Manning When it comes to miracles, Christians are often accused of special pleading. We’re quick to accept Christian miracle claims, but we suddenly turn into Richard Dawkins when it comes to miracle claims made by other religions. Why should skeptics start investigating the resurrection of Jesus when we don’t give other miracles the time of day? The truth is that there are dozens of different religions and thousands of miraculous claims out there. So how can the Christian hope to use miracles as an argument for their faith? But the fact that there are miracle claims in other religions doesn’t require us to dismiss all miracle claims out of hand. Nor is it necessary for us to be haplessly credulous about all historical miracle claims. There’s a middle way.…
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03Jan 2022 by Post

Artless Similarities: More Evidence for Gospel Reliability

4. Is the NT True?, Apologetics, Artless Similarities, Christianity, Erik Manning, Evidence for the Gospels, IsJesusAlive, theology
By Erik Manning While reading the gospels, you’ll notice similarities between the characters portrayed across the different stories. Parallels between the gospels concerning character depictions are unlikely to be the result of mere chance. And these correspondences seem so casual and subtle that it’s unlikely they were designed that way. Philosopher Tim McGrew calls these ‘artless similarities.’ In an earlier video, we saw this kind of unity of character with Jesus between John and the Synoptics. But let me give another example with two somewhat lesser-known characters in the gospels — Mary and Martha. We find their stories in both Luke and John. For this evidence, I’m drawing from Peter J. Williams’ excellent book Can We Trust the Gospels? [embedded content] Mary And Martha in Luke As we read Luke 10 and John…
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22Aug 2020 by Post

Was Jesus a Jerk? A Response to the Friendly Atheist

Apologetics, Christianity, Erik Manning, IsJesusAlive, Jesus, New Testament, theology, Theology and Christian Apologetics
By Erik Manning A few weeks ago, CNN Tonight host Don Lemon said: “But here’s the thing, Jesus Christ, if that’s who you believe in Jesus Christ, admittedly was not perfect when he was here on the Earth. So why are we deifying the Founders?” As you can imagine, this caused quite a stir over social media and on the blogs, since the Bible clearly teaches Christ’s sinless perfection. While a few right-wing Christian leaders went a little overboard in their denouncements of Lemon,  “The Friendly Atheist” took it as an opportunity to take some jabs at Jesus.  Hemant Mehta, the author of the blog, writes:  “Let’s talk about what Jesus did. * Jesus once got so angry he flipped over tables and benches. * Jesus cursed a fig tree…
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