Could it be said that the Bible is sexist?

Outline:

1. In one sense, yes

2. In another sense, no

a. In what sense equal?

b. Role of women in the New Testament

3. Conclusion

What about those people who have never heard about Jesus?

Outline:

1. The basis of judgment

2. What everyone knows

3. It's what you do with what you know

4. What about those you have heard?

Hasn't science disproved Christianity?

1. The usual argument

a. Science replaces God

b. But which God does science disprove?

2. The God of the Bible

a. His relation to creation

b. His relation to science

Did Jesus really come back from the dead?

1. Intro: a crucial question

2. Three things that need explaining

a. The empty tomb

b. The appearances

c. The birth and incredible growth of the Christian movement

d. The resurrection accounts themselves

3. Which explanation?

Wasn't Jesus just another great religious teacher?

Outline for the argument:

1. What was Jesus’ mission? What did he say about it? A twofold purpose:

a. To seek and save the lost. He came on a rescue mission.
b. To reveal God to us.

2. This mission explains the kinds of things that Jesus did:
Didn’t just teach:
-Miracle worker.
-Great debater.
-Compassion and demonstrated love.
-Died on the cross, to save us from God’s judgment and was raised from the dead, to demonstrate that he was the Son of God, and to show that his sacrifice for us was effective.

Additional resources:

• Jesus' Claims to be God by Sue Bohlin. A readable article. If we can trust that the New Testament is historically reliable, as we've seen in the first article, then we can trust that Jesus said and did the things discussed in this article. These are things that no other great moral teacher has said or done, demonstrating that Jesus was not just another great moral teacher.

Is the New Testament story about Jesus reliable?

1. Intro: Why is this question important?

It’s incredibly important. If the NT isn’t reliable, then we have no way of really knowing who Jesus was.

2. The NT:

a. As history.

Written self-consciously as history. Gospels: people’s names, place names, what time of day, year. Names of Roman officials.

b. Its relation to other historical information we know

Fits into what we know of Roman history. Same broad scope of history being played out.

c. Its literary style

Consistent with literary styles used in the first century.

d. The documents: no reason for skepticism

All of our access to history is through documents or monuments. Study of Julius Caesar is done through documents and monuments, and we are fairly confident about it. But with the NT, a great deal of skepticism. It’s not necessary. Confidence in material in NT because it's consistent with first century history. Written very early, within living memory.

3. Conclusion

We can have confidence that what we read is true as history. It presents the Jesus of history, in history. We can have confidence in his message, and his death on the cross for our sake.

Additional resources:
"The Evidence for Jesus" by William Lane Craig -- Craig provides an overview of some of the evidence in favor of the reliability of the New Testament.

How do I know God exists?

The basic outline for the answer:

1. The argument from creation

2. The argument from human life and personality (morality)

3. The argument from Jesus (history)

Were there any areas of the argument that you would like more elaboration on? Any questions or comments? Anything you'd do differently in answering this question for real? Please, feel free to use this blog as a discussion board!

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Additional resources which may be helpful:

Articles:

• How can we know God exists? by Dave Lee--a pretty readable summary.
• The Existence of God and the Beginning of the Universe by William Lane Craig--a very technical article.
• Cosmological Arguments for the Existence of God by John DePoe--not as technical as Craig.
• A "Just Right" Universe by Hugh Ross
• The Moral Argument for God's Existence by Paul Coplan

Video:

• Dr. Henry Schaefer III on the argument for the existence of God from the fine-tuning of the universe.