Jesus and Miracles As we learned in our previous lesson, Jesus made some remarkable claims about himself. It is easy to make such claims, it’s something else to prove them. This is where the miracles of Jesus come into consideration. What are the two primary issues regarding the miracle accounts of Jesus in the Gospels? What is a miracle? What are some of the objections that are sometimes raised to the possibility of miracles? How does one’s worldview influence how someone views miracles? What is the prevalent attitude in the Majority World regarding the possibility of supernatural occurrences? What are the two difference kinds of explanation we consider when seeking the cause of and event or phenomenon? What is wrong with the oft repeated claim that extraordinary events require extraordinary evidence? What is necessary in order to establish that a miracle has occurred? What is the growing consensus among modern historians regarding the Gospel reports of Jesus' miracles?
Lesson 42: Review Questions
Lesson 42: Lesson Notes

Tags: Jesus, Miracles, Gospels, History

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

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

The Bible as HistoryIn this lesson we examine two major challenges to biblical authority, the Documentary Hypothesis and the Quests for the Historical Jesus. Why is confidence in the Pentateuch so crucial to the Christian faith? What is the Documentary Hypothesis and where did it originate? What are the underlying presuppositions of the HP? Why do documentarians see multiple documents behind the Pentateuch? What are the inherent flaws in the hypothesis? What evidence do we have that Moses authored the Pentateuch? What did the first Quest for the Historical Jesus seek to accomplish? Why did it fail? Who are some of the well known proponents of the second Quest? What does it seek to discover? What is the so-called third Quest seeking to accomplish? What is significant about some of the chief voices of the third Quest? What are some key differences between ancient myth and the bible? What have many of current New Testament scholars concluded about the bible and myth? (66 min)
Lesson 34: Review Questions
Lesson 34: Lesson Notes
Handout: The Documentary Hypothesis

Tags: Bible, History, Documentary Hypothesis, Quest for the Historical Jesus, Pentateuch, Gospels