Hold Fast Apologetics

What Does Scripture Say?

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A former Speech and Language Pathologist for nearly 20 years, I began educating our 3 children full-time in 2015 and have cherished every gifted moment (even the challenges). But what is interwoven into all aspects of daily life (as a wife, via motherhood, teaching, friendship, fitness, etc.) is Christian Apologetics (1 Peter 3:15)… which is why this blog exists.

  • This World is Not an Illusion

    When we gaze upon creation, we are confronted with the reality (ironically) that what is beheld is not an illusion.

    Think about it with me…

    The earth spinning away from the sun at the perfect tilt, as to display a glorious sunset— this is an objective reality. It’s knowable truth.

    What is subjective is our opinion of the sunset.

    The trees are real. Our DNA is real. The stars are real. And the pain one experiences at the loss of a child is very real.

    Mathematics, gravity, DNA, trees, and oceans are realities which came to be from a starting-point.

    And the fact that each had a beginning implies a Designer outside of themselves — One who is personal, rational, and intelligent. Impersonal cannot design personal.

    The love and community enjoyed by God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit is evident in how God made us. Love needed to have existed outside of us, prior to us, in order for it to be a part of our purpose.

    God being Love (love isn’t God, btw) logically points to His goodness. And His goodness coincides with His justice.

    For a good God needs to be a just God (impartial, holy, and perfect). A God who is partial and needy, is not a good God.

    Humanity was gifted free will…but because of our choice to follow our own hearts instead of God’s ways, we are steadfastly prone to want justice handed-out as we want it to be. We arrogantly think everything evolves around us!

    I guess you can say, that instead of wanting what is best for us, we want to “do it [our] way.” 🎶 And when we don’t get what we want— we blame God for our choices.

    But God, because of His faithful and charitable love, didn’t leave us in the mess WE created.

    He promised a Savior/Messiah/Christ to come and save people from their sin (Genesis 3:15)…which He fulfilled around 5BC by putting on humanity—through a Jewish lineage, and living the holy life we are unable to live. He earned the righteousness we all lack (Philippians 2; 2 Corinthians 5:22).

    And because God is perfectly Just, He (the Judge) paid the debt that you and I should have to pay. Sinless and innocent, Jesus took our sins upon Himself. He took our place.

    This is a gift!

    We can’t earn it, and we don’t deserve it (Romans 1-7; Ephesians 2).

    Friends, think upon these things. This world is not an illusion, and neither is God! The Creator of the universe, photosynthesis, the honeybee’s waggle dance, and our DNA, is our very present help in need (Ps 46). The King of Kings is our hope and our salvation (Romans 5-10). By trusting in the historical reality of what He has done for you and I (1 Corinthians 15; 1 John 4), we are freely able to know God and His goodness, freely. Why choose any other way? It’s available to ALL who call upon Him (Romans 10).

    “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.5 Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; 6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

    8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. 9 What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you” (Philippians 4:4-9).

  • Apologetics and Hope

    Apologetics and Hope

    36 minutes

    “But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame.”

    1 Peter 3:15-16

    Friends, are you needing hope?

    In 36m interview shared here, Teasi shares how we all have real, verifiable reasons for hope (1 Peter 3:15).

    Teasi not only endured physical abuse as a child, but also lost her younger brother to drug addiction, walked through a painful divorce, witnessed a parent suffer from Alzheimer’s, and much more. What has carried Teasi through each of these trials has been the objective reasons for hope, which God has provided.

    “When my heart is crushed, my head comes to the rescue with the evidence…Apologetics substantiates my hope.” – Teasi Cannon

    “We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,”

    2 Corinthians 10:5

  • Don’t Believe the Rants about Motherhood

    Sociologist Brad Wilcox

    Article: https://www.deseret.com/opinion/2024/08/13/falling-fertility-rates-childlessness-marriage-money-solutions/

    “More than 80% of mothers aged 18-55 are happy with their lives today, compared to 68% of women without children. And women who are marriedwith children are the happiest group of women, according to the most recent data from the 2022 General Social Survey. Moreover, mothers report markedly higher levels of meaning in their lives and less loneliness, compared to women without children.”

    The article goes on to say…

    “But the benefits of motherhood seem to extend beyond happiness. Recent research suggests that children are associated with an increased lifespan for women. Compared with childless women, mothers who reach the age of 60 have a 1.5-year longer life expectancy than their childless peers. What’s more: The evidence suggests that mothers are also markedly less likely to commit suicide. One study found that women who had children had about 60% lower odds of committing suicide, compared to childless peers. Having kids, it would seem, gives women something extra to live for.”

    Ladies, the complaints that motherhood oppresses our freedom only confirm how utterly self-focused and childish we are (sin-laden lenses).

    Is parenting difficult? Yes!

    Do we often forgo what we want to do for relaxation and enjoyment in order to give our child attention? Yes!

    But how often do we need similar things (help, attention, etc.) and desire others to respond with grace and kindness? Convicting, isn’t?

    Both parenting and marriage force us to witness, in a verbal and real way, how far we fall short (Romans 3:23; 6).

    Impatience — check!

    Unkindness — check!

    Unloving — check!

    All of the things he we would put on t-shirts (“Be kind”) and paint upon corrugated signs in our yards (“Love is Love”) crumble under the weight of our inadequacies. And we don’t like to see our inadequacies…so let’s avoid the situations which make our frailties obvious.

    Because if “love is love” then I don’t think that I want the type of love which comes from selfishness of the human heart. It’s not the same as God’s charitable (agapē) love!

    But as we parent, we get to witness a love which sacrifices and gives! A love which points us upward to our Creator.

    Y’all, we need God’s help to love well.

    1 John 4

    Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. 4 Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. 5 They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

    God Is Love

    7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

    13 By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 17 By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.19 We love because he first loved us. 20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother

  • Religion and Politics

    22 minutes

    “The only hope for the world we live in is the Gospel.” –Nate Sala

    Here former atheist (now Christian Apologist, teacher, and speaker) Nate Sala shares a powerful message from pastor, author, and apologist Voddie Baucham which implores Christians to bring their/our worldviews into the public square.

    Hoping this encourages us all to be prayerfully ready to share the reasons for our hope wherever God places us, as well as to glorify God through how we listen to others — asking thoughtful questions.

    In the comments will be Nate’s testimony as captured by Jane Harmon (formerly “Side B Stories,” now “Ex-Skeptic”).

    75 minutes
  • God Exists!

    God Exists!

    15 minutes

    Friends, Science and Faith (placing one’s trust) in God are not mutually exclusive. Far from it, actually! 🧪🧬🔭

    Mathematician Dr. John Lennox from England has three PhD’s in his area of expertise…and, he is a Christian. To Dr. Lennox, “asking people to choose between God and science is like asking people to choose between Henry Ford and engineering as an explanation of the motor car.”

    Lennox quotes another scientist in saying that “men [and women] became scientific because they expected law in nature. And they expected law in nature because they believed in the Lawgiver.” [1]

    This 15-minute clip of Dr. Lennox speaking in Oxford is a beautiful demonstration of why asking questions is so important. Friends, please investigate claims and make inquiries…Truth is knowable! And for this reason — God is knowable (Jn 1:1-15; Jn 14:6).

    “God is real and worthy to be trusted.”

    • John Lennox

    “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made…And the Word (Jesus) became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:1-3,14

    1. Tim Barnett elaborates upon the Scientific Revolution: https://tinyurl.com/yrwypxth
    7 minutes
  • Look Up, Not In

    Look Up, Not In

    Matthew 6:26-34

    “Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

    34 Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”

  • Jesus Sat with Sinners

    “The narration of the facts is history; the narration of the facts with the meaning of the facts is doctrine. ‘Suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried’ that is history.’ He loved me and gave Himself for me’ that was the Christianity of the primitive Church.”

    • J. Gresham Machen
      Christianity & Liberalism, p. 25📙

    “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

    1 John 4:9-10📕

    Friends, we all need good news.

    When we look at history, examine our treatment of others, as well as peruse our media feeds, we should all agree that we are broken…and need saved from ourselves.

    And while God doesn’t need us (God is perfect, sufficient, and lacks nothing), He demonstrated His love for us by coming down and living the life we are unable to live, and paid the debt we should each have to pay. God did this…on our behalf.

    God came down!

    God sat with us, sinners!

    And, He did not encourage sinners to continue sinning!

    You see, God is not only perfectly loving, and He is also perfectly just. On page 162 of his book The Story of Reality, Christian Apologist Greg Koukl puts it this way:

    “His (God’s) love is demonstrated by his free offer of pardon from hell, which many decline. But they will never be able to decline his justice.”

    Jesus’s mission was to die for our sins (John 3)…not to leave us in them. His sacrifice on our behalf is the goodness we all need!

    We can’t earn it (Eph 2).
    Nor do we deserve it (Ro 3).
    But God paid the price for us (1 Co 15; 1 Jn 4).

    Christianity is the only worldview which offers Salvation by grace alone (Grace is God’s unmerited favor). With this in mind, the doctrine behind Christianity is not legalistic. Be careful not to conflate “Biblical” with “legalistic.” Those terms are not synonymous.

    Jesus’s crucifixion upon a Roman cross in AD 30 or 33, combined with the empty tomb he left behind, is not “wishful thinking.” Nor is it mythology. Instead, these were real, historical events which provide evidence of the best news ever!

    Friends, let’s look to Him…not in (Col 3)!

  • Investigate Jesus

    Investigate Jesus

    Per historian Justo L. Gonzalez, “The early Christians did not believe that they were following a new religion (worldview). They were Jews, and their main difference with the rest of Judaism was that they were convinced that the Messiah (Christ) had come, whereas other Jews continued awaiting his advent.” (p. 41)

    In fact, early believers in Jesus did not refer to themselves as “Christians.” Instead, the title “Christian” was given to them by authorities in Antioch as a way to designate them as a group (Acts 11:26; 1 Pe 4:16).

    For years, the Romans viewed early Christians as a variant sect of Judaism. That is until people from outside of Judaism became followers of Jesus as well.

    Historian Justo Gonzalez continues: “For those early Chrisitans, Judaism was not a rival religion to Christianity, but the same faith, even though those who followed it did not see or believe that the prophecies (of the Hebrew Scriptures/Old Testament) had been fulfilled” by Jesus. Please read Luke 24.

    These early followers were not following a mythological tale. Nor were they staking their lives, literally, on wishing thinking. They saw Jesus back-up his claims to be God incarnate (Mk 2; Jn 5:17-18, 8:28).

    Per Cold Case Detective and Christian Apologist, J. Warner Wallace, even if someone were to ignore the eyewitness accounts compiled within the New Testament, he or she would still have a “robust description of Jesus and his followers from ancient, non-Christian voices” after Jesus’s crucifixion and empty tomb…(ninety-two historical figures).

    Here is a Google Document sharing a few of these historical persons for your research: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1agQkAulkjBgZsLkFsbc_JKl0VWannmoMYFo8-v0Pjqg/edit?usp=sharing

    “Biblical faith isn’t a blind faith that operates
    without any reason to believe- rather, it looks at the evidence. In fact that is one of the reasons the apostles of Jesus recorded many of the miraculous signs performed by Jesus: ‘These [signs] are written down so that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah’ (John 20:31).” Dr. Sean McDowell

    “Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance, the only thing it cannot be is moderately important.”

    • C.S. Lewis

  • We All

    Graphic made by Meridith Black (ESV Study Bible)

    Friends, we all need good news.

    When we look at history, examine our treatment of others, as well as peruse our media feeds, we should all agree that we need saved from ourselves.

    And while God doesn’t need us (God is perfect, sufficient, and lacks nothing), He demonstrated His love for us by coming down and living the life we are unable to live, and paid the debt we should each have to pay. God did this…on our behalf.

    We can’t earn it (Eph 2).
    Nor do we deserve it (Ro 3).
    But God paid the price for us (1 Co 15).

    Jesus’s crucifixion upon a Roman cross in AD 30 or 33, combined with the empty tomb he left behind, is not “wishful thinking.” Nor is it mythology. Instead, these were real, historical events which provide evidence of the best news ever!

    Look to Him…not in (Pr 3; Mt 11:28-29).

    20 minutes with David Wood
    3 minutes with Mary Jo Sharp
  • Early Christian and Non-Christian Attestations about Jesus

    Early Christian and Non-Christian Attestations about Jesus

    “Even if you silenced the voices of the New Testament authors, you would still have a robust description of Jesus and his followers from ancient, hostile non-Christian voices in the fallout…There are more non-Christian voices in this extrabiblical collection (ninety-two historical figures) than Christian ones, and regardless of their social stature, ethnicity, motivation, or region, the common description of Jesus (at their core) remains the same.” (p. 110)

    “Jesus doesn’t matter because He influenced the world. Jesus influenced the world because He matters…Jesus is who He said he was: God incarnate.“ (p. 255)

    J. Warner Wallace: Person of Interest 📙

    The Chart below contains examples of both Christian and non-Christian attestations of Jesus’s existence. These quotes are from the first and second centuries (well before the Council of Nicaea). It’s my hope and prayer that the resources shared below will equip you for conversations with friends, family, and neighbors needing historical evidence that Jesus was a real Jewish man, who was crucified and worshiped.

    Early References to Jesus Outside of the Bible
    Google Document Format (useful for printing): Click here.

    *Reference Point: Jesus’s crucifixion, empty tomb, & bodily resurrection occurred around AD 30 or 33.

    NameQuoteTopics Covered 
    Thallus (AD 52)

    Samarian historian

    Non-Christian    		“Another historian, Sextus Julius Africanus, wrote a text entitled History of the World in AD 221 which quoted Thallus’s chronicled statement pertaining to the darkness that was observed at the time of Jesus’s death.” [1]
    “On the whole world there pressed a most fearful darkness; and the rocks were rent by the earthquake, and many places in the Judea and other districts were thrown down. This darkness Thallus, in the third book of his History, calls, as appears to me without reason, an eclipse of the sun.” [1]
    Julius Africanus’s historical writings    		– Jesus existed.- Jesus died.- Notable weather conditions coincided with Jesus’s death.
    Josephus (AD 37-101)

    Jewish historian 

    Non-Christian    		“Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man. For he was a doer of startling deeds, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. And he gained a following both among many Jews and many of Greek origin. And when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him. And the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day.” [2]
    Josephus’s Antiquities of the Jews  (18:3:3)    		– Jesus existed.- Brother of James.- Referred to Jesus as a wise man.- Referred to Pontius Pilate.- Acknowledged that Jesus performed miracles.
    Clement (AD 70-96)

    First century church leader in Rome

    Christian    		Clement “wrote a letter to the church at Corinth (ca. AD 70-96). In it he speaks of the teachings of Jesus (13:1), his death (21:6), and his resurrection from the dead (24:1).” [5]
    The First Letter of Clement to Rome    		– Jesus existed.- Affirms Jesus’s death and resurrection.
    Ignatius (AD 50-117)

    Disciple of John, Bishop in Antioch

    Christian    		“For our God, Jesus the Christ, was conceived by Mary according to God’s plan, both from the seed of David and of the Holy Spirit.” [3]
    Ignatius, Letter to the Ephesians, 18.2    		– Jesus existed.- Jesus was the promised Messiah.- Jesus is God.
    Tacitus (AD 56-120)

    Ancient Roman historian

    Non-Christian    		“Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre and become popular.” [4]
    Annals 12    		– Jesus (Christus) existed.- Jesus had followers.- Pontius Pilate existed.- Nero persecuted Christians.-Tacitus “hated” Christians because their allegiance was to Jesus not to the worshiped gods of the culture.
    Polycarp (AD  69-155)

    Disciple of John, Bishop at Smyrna

    Christian    		“Now may the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the eternal high priest himself, the Son of God Jesus Christ, build you up in faith and truth…and to us with you, and to all those under heaven who will yet believe in our Lord and God Jesus Christ and in his Father who raised him from the dead.” [3]The Letter of Polycarp to the Philippians 12.2– Polycarp was martyred for being a Christian.- Preached Jesus was a real man. – Preached that Jesus was/is God.
    Mara Bar-Serapion
    (AD 70 – Unknown)

    Stoic (Syrian) philosopher 

    Non-Christian    		“What benefit did the Athenians obtain by putting Socrates to death? Famine and plague came upon them as judgment for their crime. Or, the people of Samos for burning Pythagoras? In one moment their country was covered with sand. Or the Jews by murdering their wise king?…After that their kingdom was abolished. God rightly avenged these men…The wise king…Lived on in the teachings he enacted.” [4]
    A Letter of Mara, Son of Serapion    		– Jesus existed.- Confirmed Jesus’s Jewish heritage.- Claimed Jesus was wise. – Affirmed Jesus’s death.
    Justin Martyr (AD 100-165)

    Christian apologist 

    *”Apologia” is Greek for “Reasoned Defense”    		“And that Christ being Lord, and God the Son of God, and appearing formerly in power as Man, and Angel, and in the glory of fire as at the bush, so also was manifested at the judgment executed on Sodom, has been demonstrated fully by what has been said.” [3]
    Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho, 128. Translation from Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, Ante-Nicene Fathers, I:264.    		– Jesus existed.- Justin was martyred for following Jesus.- Jesus was/is God.- Jesus was the Messiah.
    Pliny the Younger (AD 61-113)

    Governor of Bithynia; Connected with Trajan

    Non-Chrisitan    		“Th never to falsify their wordey (the Christians) were in the habit of meeting on a certain fixed day before it was light, when they sang in alternate verses a hymn to Christ, as to a god, and bound themselves by a solemn oath, not to any wicked deeds, but never to commit any fraud, theft or adultery,, nor deny a trust when they should be called upon to deliver it up; after which it was their custom to separate, and then reassemble to partake of food—but food of an ordinary and innocent kind.” [4]
    Pliny, Letters 10.96-97 (Pliny to the Emperor Trajan)    		– Followers of Jesus worshiped him as God. – Christ was a reference to Jesus.
    Suetonius (AD 121)

    Roman writer& historian

    Non-Christian    		“Because the Jews at Rome caused constant disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus (Christ), he (Claudius) expelled them from the city (Rome).”  [4]
     Suetonius, Claudius 18.2 
    Christianity Under Claudius, F.F. Bruce    		– Jesus was referred to as Chrestus.- Jesus had followers
    Phlegon of Tralles (AD 140)

    Historian

    Non-Christian    		Origen refers to Phlegon’s book of history: “And with regard to the eclipse in the time of Tiberius Caesar, in whose reign Jesus appears to have been crucified, and the great earthquakes which then took place, Phlegon too, I think, has written in the thirteenth or fourteenth book of his Chronicles”  [5]
    Origen, Against Celsus, 2.14. Online    		– Jesus existed.- Jesus was crucified.- Notable weather phenomenon occurred around the time of Jesus’s death. 
    Lucian of Samosata (AD 166)

    Greek Satirist

    Non-Christian    		“The Christians, you know, worship a man to this day,–the distinguished personage who introduced their novel rites, and was crucified on that account…. You see, these misguided creatures start with the general conviction that they are immortal for all time, which explains the contempt of death and voluntary self-devotion which are so common among them; and then it was impressed on them by their original lawgiver that they are all brothers, from the moment that they are converted, and deny the gods of Greece, and worship the crucified sage, and live after his laws.” [5]
    The Lucian of Samosata Project    		– Jesus existed.- Jesus had followers.- Jesus was crucified.- Affirmed that Christians would not worship the gods of Greece.

    “The narration of the facts is history; the narration of the facts with the meaning of the facts is doctrine. ‘Suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried’ that is history. ‘He loved me and gave Himself for me’ that was the Christianity of the primitive Church.”

    – J. Gresham Machen; Christianity & Liberalism, p. 25 

    26 minutes
    45 minutes with Dr. Mikel Del Rosario
    43 Minute with Dr. Craig Hazen from Biola
    13 minutes with Steven Bancarz
    1. J. Warner Wallace; Cold Case Christianity. Page 216.
    2. Bancarz, Steven. 2017. “A List Of Extra-Biblical Sources For The Historical Jesus.” Reasons for Jesus.  https://reasonsforjesus.com/a-list-of-extra-biblical-sources-for-the-historical-jesus/. 
    3. Barnett, Tim. 2016. “Nine Early Church Fathers Who Taught Jesus Is God.” Stand to Reason. https://www.str.org/w/nine-early-church-fathers-who-taught-jesus-is-god. 
    4. Warner, J. n.d. “Is There Any Evidence for Jesus Outside the Bible?” Cold Case Christianity. Accessed July 8, 2024. https://coldcasechristianity.com/writings/is-there-any-evidence-for-jesus-outside-the-bible/. 
    5. Windle, Bryan. 2022. “Top Ten Historical References to Jesus Outside of the Bible.” Bible Archaeology Report. https://biblearchaeologyreport.com/2022/11/18/top-ten-historical-references-to-jesus-outside-of-the-bible/. 

  • Non-Christian Attestations About Jesus’s Existence Outside of the Bible

    “Even if you silenced the voices of the New Testament authors, you would still have a robust description of Jesus and his followers from ancient, hostile non-Christian voices in the fallout…There are more non-Christian voices in this extrabiblical collection (ninety-two historical figures) than Christian ones (figure-one), and regardless of their social stature, ethnicity, motivational, or region, the common description of Jesus (at their core) remain the same.” (p. 110)

    “Jesus doesn’t matter because He influenced the world. Jesus influenced the world because He matters…Jesus is who He said he was: God incarnate.“ (p. 255)

    J. Warner Wallace; Person of Interest 📙

    Here is a Google Doc Version: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1agQkAulkjBgZsLkFsbc_JKl0VWannmoMYFo8-v0Pjqg/edit?usp=sharing

    45 minutes with Dr. Mikel Del Rosario
    20 minutes
    A List Of Extra-Biblical Sources For The Historical Jesus
  • Jesus is God: A Central (and Early) Belief of Christianity

    Jesus is God: A Central (and Early) Belief of Christianity

    “And behold, Jesus met them and said, ‘Greetings!’ And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him.”

    Matthew 28:9

    Any theology which proposes that Jesus’s claim to be God was a later development of the Church (invented by the Disciples) is not only dismissing the veracity of the Scriptures, but also ignores God’s sovereign work in real time and space (history facts).

    History shows us:

    ✔️Jesus was a real Jewish man who claimed to be God,
    ✔️ Who died on a Roman cross,
    ✔️ Who produced an empty tomb, and
    ✔️ Who had followers which were convinced that he had appeared to them bodily after his death.
    ✔️ Many of these followers were martyred for their testimony about Jesus!

    The teaching about Jesus’s divinity was immediate…with days of the resurrection (not a later invention).

    📙New Testament Scolar, Peter J. Williams writes:

    “The rapid spread of Christianity may have relevance for investigating the reliability of the Gospels. Surely, the more widespread Christianity became, the harder it would have been for anyone to change its message and beliefs. This would have been particularly so if the Christians were paying a high price for their faith. Scholars who argue that core Christian beliefs, such as the idea that Jesus rose from the dead after his crucifixion, were innovations arising as Christianity spread by word of mouth need to suggest when this might have happened. The idea that core beliefs arose decades after Christianity began to spread does not explain why Christianity proved popular in the first place or how people who adhered to a version of Christianity without these beliefs later came to adopt them.

    The later agreement of Christians that Jesus Christ was God’s Son, prophesied by the Jewish Scriptures, crucified for sins, and raised from the dead by God is best explained by supposing that these and other central beliefs were established before Christianity began to spread.”

    Peter J. Williams. Can We Trust the Gospels? Pages 23-24.