Belief in God and belief in the Christian faith are both vulnerable to skepticism in view of the fact that both beliefs consist in conjuctions.Some of the key divine attributes are:eternally bodiless eternally omnipotent eternally omniscient eternally perfectly morally good the creator of the universeIn order for God to exist, there must be one and only one person who has all five of these divine attributes.If there is an omnipotent person who is evil or morally flawed, … [Read more...]
Debate: External Evidence for Jesus – Wrapping up the Debate
September 13, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Josh McDowell and various life events have distracted me from the debate with Joe Hinman about the external evidence for the existence of Jesus. (Sorry for the delay, Joe.)I wrote an introductory post about the debate:Introduction to the DebateHinman presented five arguments for the existence of Jesus based on external (non-biblical) evidence:Arguments 1 Through 4 (Talmud, Papias, Polycarp, Josephus)Argument 5 (Web of Historicity)I criticized the five arguments, typically … [Read more...]
McDowell’s Trilemma – Part 5: The Creator of the Universe
September 9, 2016 by Leave a Comment
McDowell's Trilemma Argument (hereafter: MTA), can be found in The New Evidence that Demands a Verdict (hereafter: NETDV) by Josh McDowell (see pages 158-163).The first key premise of MTA is this:Jesus claimed to be God.None of the canonical Gospels report Jesus as having asserted the claim "I am God" nor the claim "Jesus of Nazareth is God" nor the claim "The Messiah is God, and I am the Messiah". Based on the canonical Gospels, Jesus never directly CLAIMED to be God. However, it i … [Read more...]
McDowell’s Trilemma – Part 4: An Eternally Perfectly Morally Good Person
September 4, 2016 by Leave a Comment
McDowell's Trilemma Argument (hereafter: MTA), can be found in The New Evidence that Demands a Verdict (hereafter: NETDV) by Josh McDowell (see pages 158-163).The first key premise of MTA is this:Jesus claimed to be God.None of the canonical Gospels report Jesus as having asserted the claim "I am God" nor the claim "Jesus of Nazareth is God" nor the claim "The Messiah is God, and I am the Messiah". Based on the canonical Gospels, Jesus never directly CLAIMED to be God. However, it i … [Read more...]
McDowell’s Trilemma – Part 3: An Eternally Omniscient Person
August 28, 2016 by Leave a Comment
McDowell's Trilemma Argument (hereafter: MTA), can be found in The New Evidence that Demands a Verdict (hereafter: NETDV) by Josh McDowell (see pages 158-163). The first key premise of MTA is this:Jesus claimed to be God.There is no good reason to believe that Jesus claimed to be God. None of the canonical Gospels report Jesus as having asserted the claim "I am God" nor the claim "Jesus of Nazareth is God" nor the claim "The Messiah is God, and I am the Messiah". However, it is possib … [Read more...]
McDowell’s Trilemma – Part 1: An Eternally Bodiless Person
August 21, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Here are the basic premises of McDowell's Trilemma Argument (hereafter: MTA), from The New Evidence that Demands a Verdict (hereafter: NETDV by Josh McDowell:=================...Jesus definitely claimed to be God (see below and in Chapter 6). So every person must answer the question: Is His claim to deity true or false? This question deserves a most serious consideration.[...]Jesus' claim to be God must be either true or false. If Jesus' claims are true, then He is the Lord, an … [Read more...]
Debate: External Evidence for Jesus – Parts 5B and 5C
August 15, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Joe Hinman's fifth argument for the existence of Jesus based on external evidence is presented in two sections of his post on the Web of Historicity:5B. Big Web of Historicity5C. Jesus Myth Theory Cannot Account for the WebThe fifth argument for the existence of Jesus can be summarized in terms of a single premise:1.There is a web of historicity.Therefore:2. It is probable that Jesus of Nazareth was a flesh-and-blood historical person.Given this very simple summary, … [Read more...]
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