Is the Resurrection of Jesus Likely or Unlikely?
Well, we are coming up on Easter. And while Christians will be celebrating the resurrection, others will doubt it. Our world’s skepticism over miracles is nothing new. Ever since David Hume, philosophers and scholars have been making the case against the possibility of miracles.
But, now things have shifted. Hume has been roundly (and decisively) rebutted and philosophers now realize that one cannot prove miracles are impossible. But, not to worry, now there’s a new argument. Now the argument is that miracles are simply improbable.
So improbable, in fact, that we should never prefer a miraculous explanation over a naturalistic one. Given how unlikely miracles are, it is always
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Why Hospitality in the New Testament Doesn’t Mean What You Think It Does
The lovable Disney film Moana, tells the story of a young girl who lives on a Polynesian island and is the daughter of the chief. Like many fathers, the chief is overly protective of his daughter, and also of the people he rules.
As a result, the people of Moana’s village are in a bit of a rut. They are rather uninspired and somewhat in-grown, not sure of their purpose or destiny. And Moana feels the same unrest. The core of the movie catalogs her struggle to discover her identity and calling.
But here’s the key. While she is curious about what her future should be, her breakthrough comes … Continue reading...
Is All High Christology Necessarily Orthodox?
One of the classic, and seemingly never-ending, debates among New Testament scholars is whether Jesus’s earliest followers viewed him as fully divine, and (perhaps more importantly), whether Jesus viewed himself as fully divine. Some scholars say yes to both, some say no to both, and some are mixed.
In fact, I will be speaking on the subject of early Christology at The Gospel Coalition’s National Conference on April 23. My friend Scott Swain and I are tag-teaming the breakout session for Reformed Theological Seminary. He is speaking on the Names of God in the OT, and I am speaking on “Is Jesus the God of the Bible? High Christology … Continue reading...
Is the New Testament Historically Reliable? My Conversation with Rebecca McLaughlin
I recently was a guest on Rebecca McLaughlin’s podcast, Confronting Christianity. We had a fun time discussing a wide range of issues related to the historical reliability of the New Testament, even delving a bit into my forthcoming Oxford volume, Miniature Codices in Early Christianity. Enjoy!
Sleeping with the Gospels
Not many Christians carry around Bibles anymore these days.
In my younger years, I can remember that it was standard fare to carry your Bible to church. Even in college, we would take our Bibles to the evening gathering of our campus fellowship. To have a worn, tattered Bible—due to regularly carrying it around in one’s backpack—was sort of a sign that one took their faith seriously.
Of course, those days are long gone. With the rise of modern technology, and the Bible’s ready availability on phones or tablets, the physical presence of a Bible book is becoming more and more rare. Yes, Christians still care about the content of … Continue reading...