The Most Influential Life in History

AFR, Apologetics, app, cross examined, cross examined official podcast, CrossExamined, crossexamined podcast, Frank Turek, google play, iTunes, Jesus Christ, Podcast, podcasting, Radio, Radio Show, Resurrection, Spotify, stitcher, Weekly Podcast
Podcast: Play in new window Who was the most influential person in history?  It was a person who never led an army, never held office, never wrote a book, never traveled more than 200 miles from where he was born.  Yet today, he’s the center of humanity.  How so?  Because Jesus of Nazareth rose from the dead.  If there was no resurrection, how could that life be the history’s most influential life? Join Frank as he presents evidence that Jesus rose from the dead, and reminds us, with a graphic account of the passion, the kind of suffering Jesus had to endure to buy our freedom. Subscribe on iTunes:  rate and review! Thanks!!! Subscribe on Google Play: Subscribe on Spotify: Subscribe on Stitcher: Free CrossExamined.org Resource Get the first chapter of…
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Is the Historical Jesus Fact or Fiction?

Apologetics, Bible, Christianity, Evidence, Fact, Fiction, Free Thinking Ministries, Gospel, history, Jesus, Jesus Christ, New Testament, Skeptics, theology, Theology and Christian Apologetics, Tim Stratton
By Tim Stratton As a pastor who spends a lot of time on the college campus, I hear the following challenges quite often from young skeptics: “There is no good evidence to think that Jesus ever existed,” or “Christianity has pagan roots!” One might put these common challenges as two questions: (1) Did Jesus of Nazareth really exist? (2) Are the gospel records of this man merely fictional mythology? In this essay, I want to explore several lines of evidence that will show that the answer to the first question is a clear “Yes!” and to the second “No!”       i. Did Jesus of Nazareth really exist? Though there are many “street atheists,” or “internet infidels” who espouse their unqualified views and who in the process influence many…
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Messianic Convergence in the Gospels: A New Way to Frame the Argument from Old Testament Fulfilment

Apologetics, Christianity, fulfilled prophecy, gospels, Is Jesus God?, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Jonathan McLatchie, messianic prophecy, New Testament, Old Testament, Prophecy, prophecy in the New Testament, theology, Theology and Christian Apologetics
Anyone who has spent considerable time studying the gospels can tell that they are literally saturated with Old Testament fulfilment and allusions. Indeed, the early church used two primary lines of argument to establish the Messianic credentials of Jesus of Nazareth — the resurrection of Jesus from the dead and Messianic prophecy. How useful is fulfilment of the Messianic prophecy in the person of Jesus to the purposes of contemporary, twenty-first-century apologists? In this article, I explore a way to frame the argument in a robust and objective way. First, I will summarise my argument, and then I will dig into the details. A Summary of the Basic Argument When it comes to the origins of the gospel narratives, there are three contending hypotheses for explaining their origin. These are:…
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William Lane Craig Lectures on The Evidence for The Resurrection of Jesus

Apologetics, Christian Apologetics, Christianity, Historical Evidence, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Resurrection, Skeptics, theology, Theology and Christian Apologetics, william lane craig, Wintery Knight
By Wintery Knight Here is Dr. William Lane Craig giving a long-form argument for the historical event of the resurrection of Jesus and taking questions from the audience. The speaker’s introduction goes for 6 minutes, then Dr. Craig speaks for 35 minutes, then it’s a period of questions and answers with the audience. The total length is 93 minutes, so quite a long period of Q&A. The questions in the Q&A period are quite good. Introduction: Many people who are willing to accept God’s existence are not willing to accept the God of Christianity Christians need to be ready to show that Jesus rose from the dead as a historical event Private faith is fine for individuals, but when dealing with the public, you have to have evidence When making…
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Jesus: The Greater Moses

Apologetics, Christianity, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Jesus the Only Way, JesusIsNotAFakeNews, Moses, New Testament, Old Testament, Ryan Leasure, theology, Theology and Christian Apologetics
By Ryan Leasure An untrained eye might miss it, but the Old Testament, properly read, points to Jesus. From Genesis forward, we see reference after reference to a coming Messiah who would one day crush the head of the serpent (Gen. 3:15). Certainly the covenants with both Abraham (Gen. 12, 15, 17) and David (2 Sam. 7) point to a coming Messiah, but it’s another covenant mediator I want to draw our attention to — Moses. Outside of Abraham, Moses is probably the most significant figure in the Old Testament, because it was through Moses that God gave his Law to the nation of Israel. As special as Moses was, though, God promised Israel that he would send another prophet who was going to be just as, if not more, significant than…
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Was the Deity of Christ A Legendary Development?

Apologetics, Christianity, Deity of Christ, Deity of Jesus, Evidence, Gospel, history, Jesus Christ, JesusIsNotAFakeNews, Paul, Ryan Leasure, theology, Theology and Christian Apologetics
By Ryan Leasure Skeptics of all stripes vehemently deny the deity of Christ. Besides their a priori commitment to philosophical naturalism, a major argument they put forth is that the earliest Christians didn’t believe Jesus was divine. Rather, this belief in his deity was a legendary development, as evidenced by the four Gospels. It’s the skeptics’ contention that the earliest Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) don’t teach a divine Jesus at all. Instead, they portray a very human Jesus. It’s not until the Gospel of John, written some sixty years after Jesus’ death, that we find a clear reference to Jesus’ divinity. The argument goes; these Gospels reflect what the earliest communities believed about Jesus. Thus, the earlier Gospels, which don’t portray the deity of Christ, suggest that the earliest communities didn’t believe in…
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Bethlehem To Bedlam

Apologetics, Bob Perry, Christians, Christmas, Jesus Christ, Theology and Christian Apologetics, True Horizon
By Bob Perry If Christmas is supposed to be about “Peace on Earth,” why all the chaos and stress at this time of year? It started when we, through an ironic accident of language, warped Bethlehem into bedlam. But the history of that change is incidental to what we’ve done since then. It starts every “Black Friday.” The truth is that God never promised us peace on Earth. But he did send a Savior to Bethlehem to offer peace between God and man. We can begin to reclaim the meaning of Christmas by first learning to turn bedlam back to Bethlehem. Bethlehem Becomes Bedlam (Literally) It all started back in 1247 when the Sheriff of London (a man named Simon FitzMary) founded a small monastery just outside the city. He…
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A Neglected Proof for the Resurrection – The Sign of Jonah

Apologetics, Christianity, Erik Manning, IsJesusAlive, Jesus Christ, Proof for the Resurrection, Resurrection, Theology and Christian Apologetics
By Erik Manning When arguing for the resurrection of Jesus, Christian apologists often make a historical case for the empty tomb and the appearances of Jesus that occurred after his death. I’d certainly never say that isn’t a legitimate way to argue, but there’s an additional reason to believe in the resurrection that flies under the radar: Jesus’ resurrection was a fulfillment of Scripture. The New Testament writers are pretty emphatic on this point. Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead… (Luke 24:45-46) For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the…
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Was Apollonius of Tyana a Jesus Parallel?

4. Is the NT True?, Apollonius of Tyana, Apologetics, Christianity, Evidence, Gospels Report, history, Jesus Christ, Jesus resurrection, New Testament, Skeptics, The Skeptics’ Best Parallel, Theology and Christian Apologetics
By Ryan Leasure Bart Ehrman is the most popular skeptic in America today. Writing at super-sonic rates, his books seem to find their way on the New York Times Bestseller list about every other year. Because of his rapid output and wide popularity, his views are spreading like gangrene across the American landscape (and beyond). Additionally, Ehrman is a professor of religion at UNC-Chapel Hill where he works to cripple the faith of every young Christian who enters his classroom. He shares one of his faith-crippling tactics in his book How Jesus Became God. Ehrman tells the story of beginning his class by sharing this description of a famous man from the ancient world. “Before he was born, his mother had a visitor from heaven who told her that her…
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The Works of Jesus in the Nicene Creed

Apologetics, ApologeticsGuy, Christianity, Cross, Evidence, history, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Mikel del Rosario, New Testament, Resurrection, The Nicene Creed, theology, Theology and Christian Apologetics, Tomb
By Mikel Del Rosario Jesus: The Essential Works What are the essential truths Christians believing about the things Jesus did? As defenders of the faith, we need to know which beliefs about Jesus’ deeds are essential and why we should believe them. I had a conversation with my mentor Darrell Bock about this on an episode of the Table Podcast focusing on the works of Jesus mentioned in the Nicene Creed—a collaborative statement of essential Christian beliefs crafted in 325 AD. This creed was based on the Apostle’s Creed and various Scriptures. Early creeds are a good reminder that the essentials of the Christian faith were not just made up recently but actually go back to the earliest memories of Jesus and the teachings of his official spokespeople. Let me…
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