John Dickson states in the introduction to The Christ Files that questions from skeptics about the historicity of Jesus and the validity of the New Testament drove him to write his book. Subtitled How Historians Know What They Know about Jesus, the work assesses the various sources of information available and the methodology used to arrive at reliable conclusions about Christ.

Dickson, who is a senior research fellow of the Department of Ancient History, Macquarie University, Australia, emphasizes the fact that “professional historians, regardless of their religious persuasions, treat the New Testament and its portrait of Christ far more seriously than the general public realizes.” (19) Unfortunately, he says, the media’s penchant for publicizing sensational, controversial topics that do not necessarily reflect serious and valid scholarship gives people the wrong impression. They end up thinking Scripture is just mythology and nonsense based on its negative portrayal in the news.

Here are this week's recommended apologetics links. Enjoy.
• Who Made God?
• "Like" Ratio Christi
• Faith and Evolution Events
• On Guard DVD promo video
• What Genre are the Gospels?
• The Finely Tuned Genetic Code
• The Case for the Empty Tomb
• Ours is a historical religion
• 8 Profitable Ways to Read the Bible
• Christianity As Science-Starter: Kepler
• Come Reason's Apologetics Missions Trip
• Ask Them What They Mean by “Choice” Day
• Word of the Week: Existential Instantiation
• The Principle of Sufficient Reason Revisited
• Ten Crucial Turning Points: Created In His Image
• New Books in Philosophy, Theology, and Apologetics
• Just downloaded: 'Mere Apologetics' by Alister E. McGrath
• Lee Strobel: We're on Cusp of Golden Era of Apologetics
• Ancient and Modern Historiography: What Are The Gospels?
• The Great Debate: Is the Resurrection of Jesus Fact or Fiction?

• Shopping via Amazon? If you use this link, a bit of your purchase goes to fund Apologetics 315. Thanks for those of you using the link, as it helps Ap315 while we wait for our 501c3 approval.

Get these sorts of links and more by following on Twitter.
Or just add this feed to your RSS reader.
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Today we continue with chapter twenty of Read Along with Apologetics315, a weekly chapter-by-chapter study through Christian Apologetics: A Comprehensive Case for Biblical Christianity by Douglas Groothuis. Please leave a comment on your reading below. This is where you can interact with others reading the book, ask questions, or add your own thoughts. Series index here. Click below for the audio intro, chapter 20 study questions PDF, and summary:

In his book, God’s Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question—Why We Suffer, Bart Ehrman makes the case that neither Christians nor the Bible can answer why God, if He were to exist, would allow “the cesspool of misery and suffering” that many people endure. Ehrman says he couldn’t reconcile his faith with horrendous evils, and his book presents the reasons why.

Clay Jones, Associate Professor of Christian Apologetics at Biola University, offers a multi-part critique of Ehrman's book. Find links to the "Ehrman's Problem" posts here:

• Problem 1: He Misreads the Bible and Impugns God’s Fairness
• Problem 2: Free Will and Natural Evil
• Problem 3: God Could Have Made Us So We'd Always Do Right
• Problem 4: Why Won't We Abuse Free Will In Heaven?
• Problem 5: God Should Intervene More To Prevent Free Will's Evil Use
• Problem 6: He’s Confused About the Free Will Defense

Enjoy.

On January 11, 2012, Mike Licona debated agnostic Shane Puckett on the topic "Did Jesus Rise from the Dead?" Shane was ranked #32 in the world as a collegiate debater in 2000 and has trained 3 national debate champions. The debate was held at the First Baptist Church of West Monroe. Original video can be found here on vimeo. Includes Q&A.

Full Debate MP3 Audio here (1hr 45min)
Enjoy.

Foundationalism: A term referring to any theory of knowledge that looks for a starting point or "foundation" on which to build knowledge. This foundation may take the form of an indisputable proposition or set of propositions on which knowledge can be constructed through the use of logical reasoning from the first propositions. Historically, René Descartes is credited with being one of the greatest foundationalist philosophers. Descartes begins his whole system of knowledge by affirming the now-famous dictum cogito ergo sum (I think, therefore I am). Alternatively, some foundationalists (e.g., Friedrich Schleiermacher) have sought to construct knowledge on the basis of some supposedly universal human experience.1

1. Stanley J. Grenz, David Guretzki & Cherith Fee Nordling, Pocket Dictionary of Theological Terms (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1999), p. 53.

Today's interview is with Daniel Rodger and Calum Miller, founders of the Apologetics UK Blog and UK Apologetics Facebook group. They talk about the state of apologetics in the United Kingdom, unique cultural challenges, the goal of the Apologetics UK blog, blogging as an apologetic/evangelistic tool, the growing UK Apologetics Facebook group, and the future of apologetics in the UK.

Full MP3 Audio here (25 min)

Enjoy.
Subscribe to the Apologetics 315 Interviews podcast here or in iTunes.

"The disciples had nothing to gain by lying and starting a new religion. They faced hardship, ridicule, hostility, and martyr's deaths. In light of this, they could never have sustained such unwavering motivation if they knew what they were preaching was a lie. The disciples were not fools and Paul was a cool-headed intellectual of the first rank. There would have been several opportunities over three to four decades of ministry to reconsider and renounce a lie."

- J.P. Moreland
Scaling the Secular City, pp. 171-172.

For the average layperson, modern New Testament scholarship can seem a bit like alchemy. With strange nomenclature like P.Oxy. 840, and tales of lost Gospels written in Coptic, most just don’t know what to say when asked about it. Throw in a good conspiracy theory about secret agents from the Vatican stealing a manuscript which tells of a letter written by Jesus Christ to the Pharisees in 45 AD, years after he’d been crucified1, and any reasonable person just gives up and goes home. This is a problem because New Testament scholarship has been one of the most vocal challenges against the existing canon in present day. From the popularized Holy Blood, Holy Grail, to the prolific Bart Ehrman, everybody seems to be taking a shot at re-creating Jesus as someone different than man portrayed in the four Gospels. For the Christian who wants to respond intelligently, wrapping one’s hands around this esoteric and specialized field can seem impossible. Craig Evans wrote Fabricating Jesus: How Modern Scholars Distort the Gospel to provide readers with a place to start understanding these claims and a means to respond.

Here are this week's recommended apologetics links. Enjoy.
• Did Jesus Say He Was God?
• William Dembski Interview
• The Bahnsen Stein debate
• 30 Units, 30 Lessons
• Bertrand Russell’s Search for God
• Resurrection and Historical Inquiry
• Was Jesus Seen Alive After His Death?
• Ten Crucial Turning Points—1: The Creation
• Did Jesus Never Say Anything about Homosexuality?
• London Apologetics Training: Has Science buried God?
• Mormonism and God: A Philosophical Challenge to Mormonism
• The Authentic Gospels - day conference this Saturday
• Are the New Testament Gospels Reliable? by Mark D. Roberts
• “The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Bible” by James C. VanderKam
• 84 Confirmed Facts in the Last 16 Chapters of the Book of Acts
• Mark Nowacki’s “Assessing the Kalam Cosmological Argument”–A Review
• Bart Ehrman to Debate Craig Evans at Acadia University today
• 5 Book Recommendations for Better Speaking, Listening, and Communication
• Four reasons why positing the resurrection best explains the historical data
• Cherry Picking the Bible? Are Christians Expected to Follow the Levitical Laws?
• The Questions Christians Hope No One Will Ask (with Strobel and Mittelberg) March 10
• Modern Myth: All but 11 verses of the NT could be constructed from the writings of the early church fathers

• Shopping via Amazon? If you use this link, a bit of your purchase goes to fund Apologetics 315. Thanks for those of you using the link, as it helps Ap315 while we wait for our 501c3 approval.

Get these sorts of links and more by following on Twitter.
Or just add this feed to your RSS reader.
For daily post links, please follow on Facebook.

Today we continue with chapter nineteen of Read Along with Apologetics315, a weekly chapter-by-chapter study through Christian Apologetics: A Comprehensive Case for Biblical Christianity by Douglas Groothuis. Please leave a comment on your reading below. This is where you can interact with others reading the book, ask questions, or add your own thoughts. Series index here. Click below for the audio intro, chapter 19 study questions PDF, and summary:

Christian philosophers William Lane Craig and Peter S. Williams debate atheists Arif Ahmed and Andrew Copson on the topic: This House Believes That God is Not a Delusion. It took place before a packed house at the Cambridge Union Society on 20th October 2011, as a part of William Lane Craig's Reasonable Faith Tour 2011. Want to hear every audio debate by William Lane Craig? Check out the audio debate feed here.

Full Debate MP3 Audio here. (1hr 30min)
Enjoy.

Does the Bible we have today reflect what was originally written, or has it been substantially changed since it was first written? If you had subscribed to Biola University's Chapel video channel on Youtube, you would already know the answer. Dr. Daniel B. Wallace, professor of New Testament Studies at Dallas Theological Seminary, answers this question in (part 1 and part 2) a lecture entitled: Is What We Have Now What They Wrote Then? Check out the originals on Biola's Youtube channel. Audio below.

Full MP3 Audio here (1hr)

Enjoy.

Today's interview is with Casey Luskin, Research Coordinator for the Discovery Center's Center for Science and Culture. In this interview Casey talks about his background and interest in Intelligent Design, defining terms (ID, evolution, creationism, Darwinism), common objections to ID as a scientific endeavor, some milestones in the history of the ID movement, the Dover trial, responding to critics who say "ID is dead," "not science," and more. This is a good overall introduction to Intelligent Design.

Full Interview MP3 Audio here (1hr)

• Check out Evolution News here.
• Subscribe to the ID the Future Podcast here.
• Check out the IDEA Center here.
• Discovery Institute's Summer Seminars here.

Enjoy.
Subscribe to the Apologetics 315 Interviews podcast here or in iTunes.

"Success in witnessing is simply communicating Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit and leaving the results to God. Similarly, effectiveness in apologetics is presenting cogent and persuasive arguments for the Gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit, and leaving the results to God."

- William Lane Craig
Reasonable Faith: Christian Truth and Apologetics, p. 50.

Christian Ethics: Options and Issues by Norman Geisler is quite a read. Like Giesler's other books, this one is divided and outlined very clearly. It is easy to follow, but has lots of stimulating content. It is broken into two different parts with 310 pages.

Part 1
Chapter 1: All the Options
In Chapter 1 Geisler introduces the philosophical topic of ethics. He quickly summarizes ten different proposed foundations for ethics (including power, pleasure, human survival, and God's will). He then examines five unique attributes of Christian ethics and concludes by providing examples (using lying) of the different views of ethics.

Here are this week's recommended apologetics links. Enjoy.
• Biomimicry
• Q&A with Lee Strobel
• Think Christianly Videos
• Word of the Week Quantum-Logic
• When Were The Gospels Written?
• Book Review: God Behaving Badly
• Interview with Daniel B. Wallace on Vimeo
• Crucifixion - Could Jesus have survived?
• How To Disagree Online Without Being A Total Jerk
• An Outline of Tegmark’s Four Levels of the Multiverse
• What is Apologetics? MP3 Series by Francis Schaeffer
• Coffee with Scholars – Mike Licona Interview, Part 2
• The Moral Argument: Mistakes to Avoid and Practical Advice
• Did Jesus Even Exist?-The Problematic Argument from Silence
• Does the Bible teach that faith is opposed to logic and evidence?
• A Defense of the Historicity of Jesus' Divine Self-Understanding
• Has The New Testament Been Substantially Edited Since It Was First Penned?
• Renaissance Christians: 12 Tips for Pursuing Knowledge and Wisdom in Daily Life

• Shopping via Amazon this year? If you use this link, a bit of your purchase goes to fund Apologetics 315. Thanks for those of you using the link, as it helps Ap315 while we wait for our 501c3 approval.

Get these sorts of links and more by following on Twitter.
Or just add this feed to your RSS reader.
For daily post links, please follow on Facebook.

Today we continue with chapter eighteen of Read Along with Apologetics315, a weekly chapter-by-chapter study through Christian Apologetics: A Comprehensive Case for Biblical Christianity by Douglas Groothuis. Please leave a comment on your reading below. This is where you can interact with others reading the book, ask questions, or add your own thoughts. Series index here. Click below for the audio intro, chapter 18 study questions PDF, and summary:

Here is a series of lectures given at the Science and Faith Conference on December 2, 2011, entitled Can Science Inform Our Understanding of God? There is a pretty good lineup of speakers, each covering a topic pertinent to the science/faith issue. Each talk is followed by a response from another speaker. Original audio can be found here at the Conference Website (but the audio files are huge there). See website for videos of each lecture as well. Click to download smaller MP3 files here, or use this RSS feed to get the whole batch in your iTunes or RSS reader.

Dr. Michael Behe - MP3
"The Modern Scientific Theory of Intelligent Design: Strengths and Limitations”
Dr. Stephen Barr - MP3
"Physics, the Nature of Time and Theology”
Dr. Jay W. Richards - MP3
"Signs of Design from Physics and Astronomy”
Dr. Edward Feser - MP3
“Natural Theology Must Be Grounded in the Philosophy of Nature, Not Natural Science”
Dr. Benjamin Wiker - MP3
“Can Science Demonstrate the Existence of God?”
Dr. Alvin Plantinga - MP3
"Science and Religion: Where the Conflict Really Lies”

Enjoy.

In reviewing some statistics from last year's Amazon affiliate links, a top-10 post came  together. The best-selling book of 2011 by far was Doug Groothuis' excellent book Christian Apologetics: A Comprehensive Case for Biblical Faith. It is also the focus of Ap315's first Read Along project, so that could play a part in its popularity (at least through this site). Others on the list are perennial best-sellers (see #2), and others are especially suitable for group study (see #3). Koukl's Tactics, of course, is essential reading (#4). So here's the list of the top-selling books through Apologetics 315 in 2011, based upon those purchased through Ap315's affiliate links:

1. Christian Apologetics: A Comprehensive Case for Biblical Faith by Douglas Groothuis
2. Know Why You Believe by Paul Little
3. On Guard: Defending Your Faith with Reason and Precision by William Lane Craig
4. Tactics: A Game Plan for Discussing Your Christian Convictions by Greg Koukl
5. The Universe Next Door: A Basic Worldview Catalog by James Sire
6. When Skeptics Ask: A Handbook on Christian Evidences by Norman Geisler
7. Seven Days That Divide the World: The Beginning According to Genesis and Science by John Lennox
8. Reasonable Faith: Christian Truth and Apologetics by William Lane Craig
9. Is God a Moral Monster?: Making Sense of the Old Testament God by Paul Copan
10. Miracles: The Credibility of the New Testament Accounts by Craig S. Keener