Intellectual Christianity. Is there really such a thing? I didn’t used to think so. I thought Christians willingly turned off their brains when they entered a church. I believed that they deliberately avoided the hard questions about their religion because they didn’t dare question their faith—questions like: Why would God Read more…
I have written in the past about why Jesus’s resurrection mattered, and how we can know that it really happened. Unbelievers seldom bother to wrestle with the New Testament accounts about Jesus’s resurrection, but those who do generally discount them as later inventions, supposedly written to give believers a justification Read more…
I’m sure every Christian has their favorite Bible verse or verses. Mine is 1 Corinthians 15:19: “If we have hoped in Christ only in this life, we are of all people most to be pitied.” For me, that verse says it all. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the very Read more…
A story about C.S. Lewis says that he once walked into a gathering of Christian leaders who were discussing what makes Christianity unique among the world’s religions. Some said the resurrection, but others pointed out that many religions have stories about men or gods dying and coming back to life.[1] Read more…
On the Sunday after Jesus was crucified, John’s Gospel tells us that Peter and another disciple—believed to be the apostle John[1]—ran to the tomb where Jesus’s body had been placed and found it empty.[2] Then John 20:8-10 adds this strange, seemingly contradictory statement: So the other disciple who had first Read more…
Jesus’ appearances after his resurrection are described in at least five different New Testament books—the Gospels of Matthew, Luke, and John,[1] the book of Acts, and Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians. Most of Jesus’ post-resurrection appearances are well known: to Mary Magdalene and the women at the tomb,[2] to Read more…
This Sunday, April 9th is Resurrection Sunday (also known as Easter). A couple of years ago, I wrote about the resurrection, and how we can know it really happened. But why is Jesus’s resurrection important? The Bible tells about other people who came alive after being dead, such as Lazarus Read more…
Before I became a Christian at age 20, many Christians told me salvation was simply a matter of belief. They would quote John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life.” Read more…
In my previous blog entry, I said that the proponents of a Thursday crucifixion make a pretty strong case. But there is one problem. Mark 16:1 says “When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might come and anoint Read more…
In my last blog entry I pointed out that if Jesus was crucified on a Friday, as tradition says, then we run into a problem with Matthew 12:39-40, where Jesus predicts that he will be “in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights.” Friday afternoon to Read more…