Dear Friends,

Today, God being my helper, I would like dive into The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus by Gary Habermas and Michael Licona. This book contains 4 Parts, each of which contains an introduction and then a few chapters. Today, I’ll be discussing the introduction to Part 1.

.

The Introduction to The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus

The introduction focuses on a July 2000 ABC news program called The Search for Jesus. The authors mention that the program was dominated by New Testament scholars belonging to the Jesus Seminar, a group whose conclusions are rejected by “most genuine scholars of all viewpoints”. The authors then lament how misleading the program was, as a result of its selection of fringe scholars. 

Your Father has something He wants you to read

I’m going to just speak Christian to Christian here…I would be heartbroken as a father if I wrote a bunch of intimate letters to my children, but they didn’t read them. I’d be very upset and frustrated if they instead got their information about me from an occasional news report based on questionable, or even reputable, sources.

Christian, if you are not getting to know God better through regular Bible reading, I exhort you to start now. It’s actually not that hard! When you wake up in the morning, set a timer for a few minutes, read the Bible, and say a prayer. Then, start your day.

What you might find

You might see something encouraging. You might find something mysterious. You might run across some, ahem, humorous (in retrospect) situations:

And yes, you might find something convicting. But if you’re interested in spiritual growth rather than spiritual stagnation, if you’re willing to admit that you haven’t reached perfection, if you would like to be more of a blessing to your loved ones, and if you would like to dial down God’s loving, fatherly chastening, then this should be a “feature”, not a “bug”!

The shockwave

I’ve often observed that Jesus caused, and causes, explosions wherever He goes. He shocked the openly misogynistic culture of 1st century Judea, and shocks the covertly misogynistic culture of 21st century America. He Himself said “Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to bring peace, but a sword.”

If Jesus was really the Son of God (and I believe He is), then you would expect His incarnation to send a shockwave through the available historical records as well. We might say that Exhibit A is on the lock screen of your phone right now: it’s been ~2022 years since the birth of Christ 🙂

Part of the reason I’m reading all these books is that I want to know more about this shockwave…and I hope you do too!

Thanks for reading, and God bless.