Who Is Jesus? What was Jesus' self-awareness and what did he say about himself to others? What are the two categories of Jesus’ teachings? Which category is the most controversial? What was C. S. Lewis’ trilemma regarding who Jesus was? What three groups of people in the gospels represent the three positions in the trilemma? How do people often try to avoid being caught in Lewis’ trilemma? In what ways did Jesus make implicit claims to Messiahship and Deity? Did Jesus ever make any explicit claims to be the Messiah or to be God? What are meant by the Gospel references to the Son of God and the Son of Man? Why is it not possible to exclude Jesus’ claims from the historical accounts of his life? How do New Age adherents attempt to redefine Jesus and thereby escape from Lewis’ trilemma? How do attempts to attribute gnostic/pantheistic teachings to Jesus ignore his historical context?
Lesson 41: Review Questions
Lesson 41: Lesson Notes

Tags: Jesus, Divinity, Messiah, Christ, Son of God, Son of Man

Jesus of History Jesus is, of course, the central issue when it comes to the credibility of the Christian faith. Was he a real person? What did he say and do? What did he claim about himself? In these next lessons on the credibility of Christianity we will focus on addressing the questions that are raised about Jesus. In this lesson we explore the historicity of Jesus. How have biblical and historical scholars viewed the New Testament gospel accounts of Jesus in the past? What major shift has occurred in scholarship more recent decades? Why? Why is a skeptical approach to the biblical records of Jesus not warranted? What are some of the markers historians consider when considering the historical authenticity of the accounts about Jesus we encounter in the Gospels? When someone suggests that the Christian view of Jesus is borrowed or copied from earlier pagan myths, what are some things we can point out to them? Why are the supposed parallels of Christianity to Mithraism invalid? What have scholars recently discovered about the names of people in the New Testament that supports the historical credibility of Gospels? How much confidence can we have that the Jesus we see in the bible really lived and did the things that the bible claims?
Lesson 40: Review Questions
Lesson 40: Lesson Notes

Tags: Gospels, Jesus, Mythology, Gospels

This year (2021), due to an abbreviated class year, I have condensed our lessons on history from five to two lessons. Below are the links to the lesson notes for those two lessons, there are no podcasts of those two lessons. The podcasts and handouts for the regular full five lessons from last year are still available. See index.

Lesson 35 (condensed) on Hard Questions in Christian History
Lesson 35 (condensed) Notes

Lesson 36 (condensed) on Orthodoxy and Diversity & Christian Influence on Western Civilization
Lesson 36 (condensed) Notes

Tags: Crusades, Conquest of Canaan, Slavery, Orthodoxy

Christianity in History In this lesson we transition from our study of the bible to dealing with the historical issues the Christian apologist often encounters. We begin our examination of a number of issues from history that are often raised in objection to Christianity. What are three kinds of issues the Christian apologist needs to be prepared to address regarding history? One of the objections often raised has to do with the conquest of Canaan by the Israelites as recorded in the Old Testament. What is the importance of understanding the culture and times of the Ancient Near East (ANE) in properly understanding the Old Testament war narratives? How do people often treat the narratives in the bible about the conquest of Canaan unfairly? How does one’s view of reality influence their view regarding the Old Testament war narratives? What do we mean by Israel’s “epistemic warrant” for engaging in the conquest of Canaan? What were the Canaanites like? How does the biblical understanding of God bear on the question of the conquest of Canaan. Was God justified in judging the Canaanites? Did the Canaanites have ample knowledge of their sin and of what was right, and warning of impending judgment? Why has Christianity not viewed God’s conquest commands as a justification for religious violence or religious wars?
Lesson 35: Review Questions
Lesson 35: Lesson Notes

Tags: History, Canaan