The Christian Bible is divided into two major sections: the Old Testament (OT) which are the writings before Jesus and the New Testament (NT) which are the writing after Jesus came. Testament means covenant, an agreement between two parties or, in the Bible s case, covenant with God.

The OT has 39 books and the NT has 27 books for a total of 66 books. Each of these 66 are called books because each one was written distinctly from all of the others with all of them together forming the Bible. There are a total of 1189 chapters.

The OT is divided into four sections:

Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy

Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 2 Kings, 1 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther

Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon

Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel

Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi

The NT is divided into four sections:

Matthew, Mark, Luke, John

Acts

Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Hebrews, James, 1 Peter, 2 Peter, 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, Jude

Revelation

• How to live righteously and good
• How to treat other people
• It gives us the hope of eternal life in Heaven
• It warns us about the possibility of an eternity of suffering in Hell
• It shows us the results of doing good versus doing bad
• It tells us how to comfort and counsel other people
• It encourages us and teaches us to pray
• It gives us great reasons to rejoice
• It tells us that we have great value
• It gives us meaning and purpose

• Passover Nisan 14 - 15
• Unleavened Bread Nisan 15 - 22
• First Fruits Nisan 16 - 17
• Pentecost Sivan 6 - 7

• Trumpets Tishri 1
• Atonement Tishri 10
• Tabernacles Tishri 15 - 22

1. It is a comparison between two different things.
2. It is a short story usually between one sentence and several paragraphs.
3. It has a front side which is the story and a back side which is what is being illustrated.
4. The front side is not necessarily historical but will be true to life.
5. The front side is familiar, recognizable, and easily understood and will draw from nature, common activities or situations, family life, business, personnel interactions, and politics.
6. The back side is a spiritual principle or moral lesson that is harder to understand.
7. The back side is not stated or revealed in the story; it is hidden. It must be derived by reasoning and deduction.
8. It has one central point.
9. The details of the front side are there only to illustrate the main point and are not meant to call attention to themselves.

• The Holy One (Acts 2:27)
• The Holy One of Israel (Isaiah 49:7)
• Blessed and Holy Ruler (1 Timothy 6:15)
• Holy Spirit

1. To recognize sin
2. To not sin
3. To hate sin
4. When possible, to act against sin

• God is the most important
• God has all authority
• God sustains all things
• God has the right to command, establish laws and standards, exact obedience, and be final judge
• God can freely delegate authority as He so pleases

• Adonai (Master or Lord)
• The Lord of Hosts
• King
• King Eternal
• King of Kings
• King of the Ages
• Lord
• Lord God Almighty
• Lord Jesus Christ
• Lord of All
• Lord of Glory
• Lord of Lords
• Lord of our Righteousness
• Highest
• The Most High God
• Shepherd
• Chief Shepherd
• Great Shepherd
• Shepherd of our Souls
• Commander
• God over All
• Head of the Body
• Head of the Church
• Leader
• Lion of the Tribe of Judah
• Ruler of God s Creation
• Ruler over Kings of the Earth
• Ruler over Israel

• the ruler of this world (John 16:11)
• the god of this world (2 Corinthians 4:4)
• the prince of the power of the air (Ephesians 2:2)

Scriptures that explicitly refer to the deity of Jesus

Jesus claimed to be God

Jesus has the attributes of God

Jesus is omnipresent

Jesus is omnipotent

Jesus is omniscient

Jesus is sovereign

Jesus is eternal

Jesus is immutable

For one, the Savior needed to have Infinite Value

Secondly, the Savior needed to have Infinite Ability

Third, the Savior needed to have Perfect Holiness

1. Descended from Jacob (Numbers 24:17)
2. Descended from David (Jeremiah 23:5)
3. Place of birth-Bethlehem (Micah 5:2)
4. Herod would kill many children (Jeremiah 31:15)
5. He would be preceded by a messenger-John the Baptist (Isaiah 40:3)
6. He would be sold for 30 pieces of silver (Zechariah 11:12)
7. Crucified with thieves (Isaiah 53:12)
8. His bones would not be broken (Psalm 34:20)
9. Buried in a rich man s tomb (Isaiah 53:9)
10. The time of birth (Daniel 9:25)
11. How He was betrayed (Zechariah 11:11-13)
12. The manner of His Death-crucifixion (Psalm 22:16)
13. The piercing of His hands, feet and side (Psalm 22, Zechariah 12:10)
14. The fact that people mocked Him (Isaiah 53, Psalm 22)

1) They pointed to Him as Messiah

2) They attest to His deity

3) They manifested God s glory

4) They emphasized faith

5) They emphasized God s care and compassion for each one of us as individuals

6) The foreshadow the power given to believers in the Church Age

• Jesus prayed often and that oftentimes He prayed for a long time. Matthew 14:23, Mark 1:34-35, Luke 5:15-16
• Jesus prayed a lot alone and a lot with others. John 6:11
• He prayed before big events and stages in His life and also before making big decisions. Luke 3:21-22, Luke 6:12-13, Mark 1:35-39
• The praise and glory of the Father was preeminent. John 12:27-28
• Jesus often prayed for others but He also prayed for Himself. Luke 22:31-34
• Jesus was strongly emotional but controlled. Hebrews 5:7
• Jesus entrusted Himself to His Heavenly Father. Luke 23:46
• His prayers were communion and relationship. John 17:1-5
• His prayers were hopeful. John 17:22-24

1. They are not necessarily experienced
We may not feel these or be able to point to something concrete but they are indeed real.
2. They are not progressive
Once we receive these we have them completely and perfectly. We do grow into them. They do not develop over time. We have all of them fully at the instant of our salvation.
3. They are not related to human merit
We do not and cannot earn any of them. They are all given to us by God s free and undeserved grace.
4. They are eternal in their character
They can never be taken away either by us, by God, or by the Devil. Every one of them are ours forever.
5. They are known only by God s revelation
We could never figure out or imagine these transformations on our own. Only by God telling us of them in the Bible can we know what God has done in our lives.
6. They are wrought by God alone
100% of every one of these transformation is initiated and completed by God alone.
7. They are not wrought by us
Not one of us can offer even the slightest assistance in accomplishing any one of these transformations.

1. It is a complex organism that could only be created by someone far greater than us
2. It consists of many different parts, all of which work together
3. No part of our body can decide to take off for a while on its own without suffering dire consequences (those consequences usually being a rapid withering and death)
4. Each part has a special task or function that adds to the maximum efficiency of the body
5. Some parts of the body are visible and some are unseen, but all are very necessary
6. The whole body is controlled by the head

1. In the same way the church is a complex, living organism created by Jesus Christ. Understand that the church is not merely an organization. It is not simply a bunch of people who all share the same religious tenets getting together and having meetings like the Elks Lodge or the Chess Club. The church is a living organism. That is why it is referred to as the body of Christ and is called a mystery.
2. The body of Christ consists of many different people
3. No Christian will survive spiritually on his own
4. Each person in the body of Christ has a special task or function that adds to the maximum efficiency of the church
5. Some people in the church are more visible than others but all are very necessary
6. The entire worldwide church is controlled by the head who is Jesus Christ

• Listening to good Bible teaching by godly men and women.
• Fellowshipping with each other which includes encouragement, support, comfort, rebuke, and developing close friendships and relationships.
• Worship and intimacy with God and with each other through communion ( breaking of bread ).
• Prayer as a group and encouragement to do so individually.
• Praise to God for His blessings and grace.
• Evangelism ( the Lord was adding to their number ) by going out and preaching the Gospel of the Salvation of Jesus Christ so that others may become believers in Christ.

1. Prophesying - The ability to receive and communicate an immediate message of God to His people through a divinely anointed utterance.
2. Serving - The ability to identify the unmet needs involved in a task related to God s work, and to make use of available resources to meet those needs and help accomplish the desired goals.
3. Teaching - The special ability that God gives to communicate information, relevant to the health and ministry of the Body of Christ and its members in such a way that others will learn and be edified.
4. Exhortation - A gift that enables someone to minister words of comfort, consolation, encouragement, counsel, and reproof to other people in such a way that they are helped, healed, or convicted to turn from sin.
5. Giving - The ability of someone to be willing to cheerfully contribute their material resources to the work of God with liberality and without any desire for self-benefit.
6. Leadership - The ability to set goals in accordance with God s purpose for the future and to communicate those goals to others in such a way that they voluntarily and harmoniously work together to accomplish those goals.
7. Mercy - The ability to feel genuine empathy and compassion for individuals, both Christian and non-Christian, who suffer distressing physical, mental or emotional problems and then to apply that compassion into deeds that will alleviate and comfort their suffering.

1. Word of wisdom - The ability to apply Biblical knowledge in such a way as to make spiritual truths quite relevant and practical in proper decision making and daily life situations.
2. Word of knowledge - The ability to discover, accumulate, analyze, and clarify information and ideas that are pertinent to the growth and well-being of the Body of Christ.
3. Faith - The ability of being firmly persuaded of God s power and promises to accomplish His will and purpose and to display such a confidence in God and His word that circumstances and obstacles do not shake that conviction. This person has a deeper insight into God s will and plans.
4. Healing - The ability to heal people of their sicknesses and deformities and to restore health apart from natural means.
5. Effecting of miracles - The ability to demonstrate supernatural powers, acts, and deeds that are unexplainable except by the divine intervention of God. These acts are observable, immediate, and beyond the realm of human experimentation or explanation.
6. (Prophecy)
7. Distinguishing of spirits - The ability that enables one to accurately assess and judge inner motives, hidden errors, or corrupting doctrines. This person can distinguish between teaching and behavior that is from God, from the flesh or from the devil.
8. Tongues - It is the ability to speak in a language not previously learned so 1) unbelievers can hear God s message in their own language, 2) believers can be edified and encouraged and 3) God can be praised beyond our understanding.
9. Interpretation of tongues - The ability to make known in the common language the message of one who speaks in tongues. Realize that it is an interpretation and not a translation.
10. Apostles - The special ability that God gives to certain members of the body of Christ that enables them to assume and exercise helpful leadership over a number of churches in spiritual matters.
11. (Teaching)
12. Helps - The Greek word for helps means, to take a burden upon oneself. It is to invest the talents that a person has into the life and ministry of other members of the Body of Christ, thus enabling that person helped to increase the effectiveness of his own ministry.
13. Administration - It is the ability to clearly understand the immediate and long-range goals of a particular project and to plan, organize, and supervise others to reach that goal.

1. (Apostles)
2. (Prophecy)
3. Evangelism - This enables someone to present the Gospel with simplicity, clarity, and effectiveness. This person has a deep concern about those who are lost and is comfortable and able to share the Gospel in any situation and at any time.
4. Pastor - It is the ability to spiritually care for, protect, guide, and feed a group of believers entrusted to one s care.
5. (Teaching)

1. Hospitality - The Greek word means love of strangers. It is a great desire to warmly welcome people, even strangers, into one s home or church as a means of serving those in need of food or lodging.
2. (Speaking or Prophecy)
3. (Serving)

1. Celibacy (1 Corinthians 7:7-8)
2. Martyrdom (1 Corinthians 13:1-3)
3. Missionary (Ephesians 3:6-8)
4. Voluntary poverty (1 Corinthians 12:1-3)
5. Exorcism (Mark 3:14-15)
6. Intercession (1 Thessalonians 3:10-13)
7. Craftsmanship (Exodus 28:3-4)

• Use them
• Focus on them
• Expand them
• Challenge yourself with them
• Find your place in the body of Christ with them
• Serve others with them
• Glorify God with them

1. The Old Testament sacrifices could never remove the penalty of our sin.
2. Jesus one sacrifice was sufficient for all sins for all time.
3. Once we are forgiven God will no longer remember our sins. This does not mean that God completely forgets our sins but that He will never bring them up or recall them again.
4. When we are forgiven we no longer have to do anything to add to Jesus sacrifice. We do not have to do any penance.

Peter Stoner was chairman of the mathematics and astronomy departments at Pasadena City College and chairman of the science division of Westmont College. In 1958 he wrote a book called Science Speaks. In it he picked eight Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah and determined the odds of one person fulfilling all eight.

In the following table the Logic verbiage is taken directly from Science Speaks.

To get the total probability: 1 in 2.8 x 10⁵ x 10³ x 10² x 10³ x 10⁵ x 10³ x 10⁴. This gives 1 in 2.8 x 10²⁸ or rounded to 1 in 10²⁸.

From Science Speaks.

What is the chance that any man might have lived from the day of these prophecies down to the present time and have fulfilled all of the eight prophecies? We can answer this question by dividing our 10²⁸ by the total number of people who have lived since the time of these prophecies. The best information available indicates the number to be about 88 billion or 8.8 x 10¹⁰.

To simplify the computation let us call the number 10¹¹. By dividing these two numbers we find that the chance that any man might have lived down to the present time and fulfilled all eight prophecies is 1 in 10¹⁷.

Suppose that we take 10¹⁷ silver dollars and lay them on the face of Texas. They will cover all of the state two feet deep. Now mark one of these silver dollars and stir the whole mass thoroughly, all over the state. Blindfold a man and tell him that he can travel as far as he wishes, but he must pick up one silver dollar and say that this is the right one. What chance would he have of getting the right one? Just the same chance that the prophets would have had of writing these eight prophecies and having them all come true in any one man, from their day to the present time, providing they wrote using their own wisdom.

Using the same methodology for 48 prophecies as he did for those eight, Stoner gives the probability as 1 in 10¹⁵⁷. To put this in perspective, it is estimated that the number of electrons in the entire universe is around 10⁷⁹.

Though the exact number is debated, the number of Old Testament prophecies that Jesus fulfilled is generally thought to be around 315.

There are around 1,817 prophecies in the Bible. The Bible tells us to use prophecy to determine the validity of the Bible itself: Deuteronomy 18:22, When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not come about or come true, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.

This is mostly taken from this article:

https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/people-cultures-in-the-bible/jesus-historical-jesus/did-jesus-exist/#note39

(1) Tacitus

Tacitus or more formally, Caius/Gaius (or Publius) Cornelius Tacitus (55/56 c. 118 C.E.) was a Roman senator, orator and ethnographer, and arguably the best of Roman historians. Tacitus s last major work, titled Annals, written c. 116 117 C.E., includes a biography of Nero. In 64 C.E., during a fire in Rome, Nero was suspected of secretly ordering the burning of a part of town where he wanted to carry out a building project, so he tried to shift the blame to Christians. This was the occasion for Tacitus to mention Christians, whom he despised.

[N]either human effort nor the emperor s generosity nor the placating of the gods ended the scandalous belief that the fire had been ordered [by Nero]. Therefore, to put down the rumor, Nero substituted as culprits and punished in the most unusual ways those hated for their shameful acts whom the crowd called Chrestians. The founder of this name, Christ [Christus in Latin], had been executed in the reign of Tiberius by the procurator Pontius Pilate Suppressed for a time, the deadly superstition erupted again not only in Judea, the origin of this evil, but also in the city [Rome], where all things horrible and shameful from everywhere come together and become popular.

Tacitus s terse statement about Christus clearly corroborates the New Testament on certain historical details of Jesus death. Tacitus presents four pieces of accurate knowledge about Jesus: (1) Christus, used by Tacitus to refer to Jesus, was one distinctive way by which some referred to him, even though Tacitus mistakenly took it for a personal name rather than an epithet or title; (2) this Christus was associated with the beginning of the movement of Christians, whose name originated from his; (3) he was executed by the Roman governor of Judea; and (4) the time of his death was during Pontius Pilate s governorship of Judea, during the reign of Tiberius. (Many New Testament scholars date Jesus death to c. 29 C.E.; Pilate governed Judea in 26 36 C.E., while Tiberius was emperor 14 37 C.E.)

(2) Josephus (first reference)

Josephus was a Jewish priest who grew up as an aristocrat in first-century Palestine and ended up living in Rome, supported by the patronage of three successive emperors. In his two great works, The Jewish War and Jewish Antiquities, both written in Greek for educated people, Josephus tried to appeal to aristocrats in the Roman world, presenting Judaism as a religion to be admired for its moral and philosophical depth. Jewish Antiquities mentions Jesus twice. The shorter of these two references to Jesus (in Book 20) is incidental to identifying Jesus brother James, the leader of the church in Jerusalem. In the temporary absence of a Roman governor between Festus s death and governor Albinus s arrival in 62 C.E., the high priest Ananus instigated James s execution. Josephus described it:

Being therefore this kind of person [i.e., a heartless Sadducee], Ananus, thinking that he had a favorable opportunity because Festus had died and Albinus was still on his way, called a meeting [literally, sanhedrin ] of judges and brought into it the brother of Jesus-who-is-called-Messiah James by name, and some others. He made the accusation that they had transgressed the law, and he handed them over to be stoned.

The sole reason for referring to James at all was that his death resulted in Ananus losing his position as high priest. James (Jacob) was a common Jewish name at this time. Many men named James are mentioned in Josephus s works, so Josephus needed to specify which one he meant. The common custom of simply giving the father s name (James, son of Joseph) would not work here, because James s father s name was also very common. Therefore Josephus identified this James by reference to his famous brother Jesus. But James s brother Jesus (Yehoshua) also had a very common name. Therefore Josephus specified which Jesus he was referring to by adding the phrase who is called Messiah, or, since he was writing in Greek, Christos. This phrase was necessary to identify clearly first Jesus and, via Jesus, James, the subject of the discussion. This extraneous reference to Jesus would have made no sense if Jesus had not been a real person.

(3) Josephus (second reference)

The Testimonium Flavianum reads as follows; the parts that are especially suspicious because they sound like added Christian phrases are in italics:

Around this time there lived Jesus, a wise man, if indeed one ought to call him a man.21 For he was one who did surprising deeds, and a teacher of such people as accept the truth gladly. He won over many Jews and many of the Greeks. He was the Messiah. When Pilate, upon hearing him accused by men of the highest standing among us, had condemned him to be crucified, those who in the first place came to love him did not give up their affection for him, for on the third day, he appeared to them restored to life. The prophets of God had prophesied this and countless other marvelous things about him. And the tribe of Christians, so called after him, have still to this day not died out.

All surviving manuscripts of the Testimonium Flavianum that are in Greek, like the original, contain the same version of this passage, with no significant differences. The main question is: Did Flavius Josephus write this entire report about Jesus and his followers, or did a forger or forgers alter it or possibly insert the whole report? There are three ways to answer this question: 1) The whole passage is authentic, written by Josephus, 2) The whole passage is a forgery, inserted into Jewish Antiquities, 3) It is only partly authentic, containing some material from Josephus, but also some later additions by another hand(s). Today almost no scholar accepts the authenticity of the entire standard Greek Testimonium Flavianum (choice 1) because of phrases such as He was the Messiah which Josephus as a passionate advocate of Judaism would not write. Choice 2 is very unlikely since, despite the italicized phrases that don t seem characteristic of Josephus, the rest generally fit with Josephus s writings style.

That the Testimonium Flavianum is based on an original report by Josephus that has been modified by others (choice 3), probably Christian scribes, seems most likely. After extracting what appear to be Christian additions, the remaining text appears to be pure Josephus. As a Romanized Jew, Josephus would not have presented these beliefs as his own. This choice has the support of the overwhelming majority of scholars.

(4) Pliny the Younger

Pliny the Younger was a friend of Tacitus, and like him the governor of a Roman province (in 110 C.E.). Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus (c. 61 113 C.E.), known as Pliny, seems to have been excessively dependent on the Emperor Trajan for directions on how to govern. In his lengthy correspondence with Trajan, titled Epistles, X.96, along with his inquiries about how to treat people accused of being Christians, Pliny wrote:

They [the Christians] assured me that the sum total of their error consisted in the fact that that they regularly assembled on a certain day before daybreak. They recited a hymn antiphonally to Christus as to a god and bound themselves with an oath not to commit any crime, but to abstain from theft, robbery, adultery, breach of faith, and embezzlement of property entrusted to them. After this, it was their custom to separate, and then to come together again to partake of a meal, but an ordinary and innocent one (Evans, Jesus in Non-Christian Sources, p. 459)

The things that Pliny wrote about Christians can be found in or deduced from the New Testament. He reveals nothing new about Jesus himself, nor can his letters be considered evidence for Jesus existence, only for Christian belief in his existence. One may note what seems to have been early second century Christian belief in Jesus as deity, as well as the sizable population of Christians worshiping him in Pliny s province, Bithynia, in Asia Minor, despite Roman prohibition and punishments.

This passage provides us with a number of interesting insights into the beliefs and practices of early Christians. First, we see that Christians regularly met on a certain fixed day for worship. Second, their worship was directed to Christ, demonstrating that they firmly believed in His divinity. Furthermore, one scholar interprets Pliny's statement that hymns were sung to Christ, "as to a god", as a reference to the rather distinctive fact that, "unlike other gods who were worshipped, Christ was a person who had lived on earth." If this interpretation is correct, Pliny understood that Christians were worshipping an actual historical person as God! Of course, this agrees perfectly with the New Testament doctrine that Jesus was both God and man.

Not only does Pliny's letter help us understand what early Christians believed about Jesus' person, it also reveals the high esteem to which they held His teachings. For instance, Pliny notes that Christians "bound themselves by a solemn oath" not to violate various moral standards, which find their source in the ethical teachings of Jesus. In addition, Pliny's reference to the Christian custom of sharing a common meal likely alludes to their observance of communion and the "love feast." This interpretation helps explain the Christian claim that the meal was merely "food of an ordinary and innocent kind". They were attempting to counter the charge, sometimes made by non-Christians, of practicing "ritual cannibalism." The Christians of that day humbly repudiated such slanderous attacks on Jesus' teachings. We must sometimes do the same today.

(5) Babylonian Talmud

From among the numerous rabbinic traditions, many of which seem puzzling in their potential references to Jesus, a fairly clear example from the Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 43a is as follows:

And it is tradition: On the eve of the Passover they hanged Yeshu ha-Noṣri. And the herald went forth before him for forty days, Yeshu ha-Noṣri is to be stoned, because he has practiced magic and enticed and led Israel astray. Anyone who knows anything in his favor, let him come and speak concerning him. And they found nothing in his favor. And they hanged him on the eve of the Passover. Ulla says, Would it be supposed that Yeshu ha-Noṣri was one for whom anything in his favor might be said? Was he not a deceiver? And the Merciful has said, Thou shalt not spare, neither shalt thou conceal him [Deuteronomy 13:8]. But it was different with Yeshu ha-Noṣri, for he was near to the kingdom (Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 43a; compare Sanhedrin 67a).

According to John 18:28 and 19:14, Jesus execution occurred during Passover. The phrase near to the kingdom might refer to the Christian tradition that Jesus was a descendant of King David (Matthew 1:1; Mark 10:47, 48), or it could refer to Jesus proclamation that the kingdom of God was at hand (Mark 1:15). Deuteronomy 13:1 11 prescribes death by stoning for leading other Israelites astray to serve other gods, giving a sign or wonder, and Deuteronomy 21:21 22 requires that when a man has committed a sin worthy of death, and he is put to death, you shall hang him on a tree (compare the Mishnah, Sanhedrin 6:4, All who have been stoned must be hanged ). When Judea came under Roman rule, which instituted crucifixion as a legal punishment, apart from the question of whether it was just or unjust, Jews roughly equated it with hanging on a tree. (Evans, Jesus in Non-Christian Sources, p. 448). The passage above simultaneously implies the rabbis view that Jesus really existed and encapsulates the rabbis uniformly negative view of his miracles as magic and his teachings as deceit (Van Voorst, Jesus Outside, p. 120).

(6) Lucian

Lucian of Samosata (c. 115 200 C.E.) was a Greek satirist who wrote The Passing of Peregrinus, about a former Christian who later became a famous Cynic and revolutionary and died in 165 C.E. In two sections of Peregrinus here translated by Craig A. Evans Lucian, while discussing Peregrinus s career, without naming Jesus, clearly refers to him, albeit with contempt in the midst of satire:

It was then that he learned the marvelous wisdom of the Christians, by associating with their priests and scribes in Palestine. And what else? in short order he made them look like children, for he was a prophet, cult leader, head of the congregation and everything, all by himself. He interpreted and explained some of their books, and wrote many himself. They revered him as a god, used him as a lawgiver, and set him down as a protector to be sure, after that other whom they still worship, the man who was crucified in Palestine because he introduced this new cult into the world.

For having convinced themselves that they are going to be immortal and live forever, the poor wretches despise death and most even willingly give themselves up. Furthermore, their first lawgiver persuaded them that they are all brothers of one another after they have transgressed once for all by denying the Greek gods and by worshiping that crucified sophist himself and living according to his laws.

Although Lucian was aware of the Christians books, his many bits of misinformation make it seem very likely that he did not read them. The compound term priests and scribes, for example, seems to have been borrowed from Judaism, and indeed, Christianity and Judaism were sometimes confused among classical authors. Lucian seems to have gathered all of his information from sources independent of the New Testament and other Christian writings. For this reason, this writing of his is usually valued as independent evidence for the existence of Jesus. This is true despite his ridicule and contempt for Christians and their crucified sophist. Sophist was a derisive term used for cheats or for teachers who only taught for money. Lucian despised Christians for worshiping someone thought to be a criminal worthy of death and especially despised the man who was crucified.

 Summary

We can learn quite a bit about Jesus from Tacitus and Josephus, two famous historians who were not Christian. Almost all the following statements about Jesus, which are asserted in the New Testament, are corroborated or confirmed by the relevant passages in Tacitus and Josephus. These independent historical sources one a non-Christian Roman and the other Jewish confirm what we are told in the Gospels.

1. He existed as a man. The historian Josephus grew up in a priestly family in first-century Palestine and wrote only decades after Jesus death. Jesus known associates, such as Jesus brother James, were his contemporaries. The historical and cultural context was second nature to Josephus. If any Jewish writer were ever in a position to know about the non-existence of Jesus, it would have been Josephus. His implicit affirmation of the existence of Jesus has been, and still is, the most significant obstacle for those who argue that the extra-Biblical evidence is not probative on this point, Robert Van Voorst observes. And Tacitus was careful enough not to report real executions of nonexistent people.

2. His personal name was Jesus, as Josephus informs us.

3. He was called Christos in Greek, which is a translation of the Hebrew word Messiah, both of which mean anointed or (the) anointed one, as Josephus states and Tacitus implies, unaware, by reporting, as Romans thought, that his name was Christus.

4. He had a brother named James (Jacob), as Josephus reports.

5. He won over both Jews and Greeks (i.e., Gentiles of Hellenistic culture), according to Josephus, although it is anachronistic to say that they were many at the end of his life. Large growth in the number of Jesus actual followers came only after his death.

6. Jewish leaders of the day expressed unfavorable opinions about him, at least according to some versions of the Testimonium Flavianum.

7. Pilate rendered the decision that he should be executed, as both Tacitus and Josephus state.

8. His execution was specifically by crucifixion, according to Josephus.

9. He was executed during Pontius Pilate s governorship over Judea (26 36 C.E.), as Josephus implies and Tacitus states, adding that it was during Tiberius s reign.

(1) Atoms

Hebrews 11:3 By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.

Everything that we see is made up of particles that cannot be seen, i.e. atoms

(2) The Earth is spherical

Isaiah 40:22a It is He who sits above the circle of the earth

The Earth is not flat.

(3) The Earth floats in space

Job 26:7 He stretches out the north over empty space and hangs the earth on nothing.

The Earth is not on the back of turtles or held up by Atlas or some other giant.

(4) The Oceans have mountains at the bottom

Jonah 2:5-6 Water encompassed me to the point of death. The great deep [b]engulfed me, weeds were wrapped around my head. I descended to the roots of the mountains. The earth with its bars was around me forever, but You have brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God.

(5) The ocean currents

Psalm 8:8 The birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea, whatever passes through the paths of the seas.

Matthew Fontaine Maury was nicknamed Pathfinder of the Seas and Father of Modern Oceanography and Naval Meteorology and Scientist of the Seas for his efforts in charting the ocean currents. He lived from January 14, 1806 to February 1, 1873). He knew that the oceans had currents because of Psalm 8:8. His daughter wrote in her book A Life of Matthew Fontaine Maury:

"Matthew's father was very exact in the religious training of his family, now numbering five sons and four daughters, viz., John Minor, Mary, Walker, Matilda, Betsy, Richard Launcelot, Matthew Fontaine, Catherine, and Charles. He would assemble them night and morning to read the Psalter for the day, verse and verse about; and in this way, so familiar did this barefooted boy [M. F. Maury] become with the Psalms of David, that in after life he could cite a quotation, and give chapter and verse, as if he had the Bible open before him.

(6) Jet Stream described

Ecclesiastes 1:6 Blowing toward the south, then turning toward the north, the wind continues [b]swirling along; and on its circular courses the wind returns.

Jet streams were first discovered in the 1920s by a Japanese meteorologist named Wasaburo Ooishi. He used weather balloons to track upper level winds high above Mount Fuji.

(7) Genesis lists all aspects of creation

The universe consists of four units: time, space, matter, energy, and motion.

Genesis 1:1-3 In the beginning [time] God created the heavens [space] and the earth [matter]. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving [motion] over the surface of the waters. Then God said, Let there be light ; and there was light [energy].

(8) Stars are innumerable

Jeremiah 33:22 As the host of heaven cannot be counted and the sand of the sea cannot be measured, so I will multiply the descendants of David My servant and the Levites who minister to Me.

Only around 5,000 stars are visible to the human eye. It was not until Galileo Galilei (February 15, 1564 to January 8, 1642) invented the telescope in 1609 could we see the innumerable stars beyond that number.

(9) Something holds all of matter together

Colossians 1:16-17 For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.

Opposites attract, like repeals. Two positively charged objects will repeal each other. The nucleus of an atom is composed of positive protons and neutral neutrons. So why doesn t the atomic nucleus explode apart? Some claim that the neutrally charged neutrons significantly reduce the repulsion. Others that the strong nuclear force (residual of the forces between quarks in neutrons and protons) hold them together. But we know that it is God who holds all things together.

(10) First Law of Thermodynamics

Genesis 2:1-2 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts. By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.

The First Law of Thermodynamics states that energy can be neither created nor destroyed but can be transformed from one form to another. At the end of the seventh day of Creation it says that God completed His work. There is no more of creation for God to add to or to destroy.

(11) The hydrologic cycle

Job 36:27-28 For He draws up the drops of water, they distill rain from the mist, which the clouds pour down, they drip upon man abundantly.

The hydrologic cycle is the continuous circulation of water in the Earth-atmosphere system. Of the many processes involved in the water cycle, the most important are evaporation, transpiration, condensation, precipitation, and runoff.

The Greeks therefore described the water cycle backwards, arguing that since the level of the seas remained constant despite all the rivers flowing into it, the water must penetrate the earth s depths and feed the underground springs. Evaporation and Precipitation were ignored. - UNESCO

But in the earliest book in the Bible God tells us about the correct hydrologic cycle.

(12) Springs in the ocean

Job 38:16 Have you entered into the springs of the sea or walked in the recesses of the deep?

The first hydrothermal vent was discovered in 1977 near the Galapagos Islands. But God tells Job about springs of the sea in the 6^th century B.C.

 Quotes

Archaeological and inscriptional data have established the historicity of innumerable passages and statements of the Old Testament - William F. Albright, esteemed as the world s leading archaeologist of his generation.

Luke is a historian of the first rank; not merely are his statements of fact trustworthy this author should be placed along with the greatest of historians. -- Sir William Mitchell Ramsey, Scottish archaeologist and New Testament scholar who was considered to be the foremost authority of his day on the history of Asia Minor.

Finally, it is perfectly true to say that biblical archaeology has done a great deal to correct the impression that was abroad at the close of the last century and in the early part of this century, that Biblical history was of doubtful trustworthiness in many places. If one impression stands out more clearly than another today, it is that on all hands the over-all historicity of the Old Testament tradition is admitted. J.A. Thompson, first director of the Australian Institute of Archaeology and an honorary Fellow of the American Schools of Oriental Research.

(1) Hittites

Near the end the 19^th century Hittite monuments were discovered at Carchemish on the Euphrates River in Syria. Then in 1906 thousands of Hittite documents were found at Boghazkoy in Turkey (ancient Hattusas which was the capital of the Hittite Empire). These showed that the Hittites once flourished in Asia Minor and Syria from 1700 to 1200 B.C.

(2) Babylonian Captivity

2 Kings 24-25 describes the captivity of Judah by Babylon early in the 6^th century B.C. Jeremiah 34:7 mentions the city of Lachish during the war, when the army of the king of Babylon was fighting against Jerusalem and against all the remaining cities of Judah, that is, Lachish and Azekah, for they alone remained as fortified cities among the cities of Judah. Between 1935 and 1938, 21 pottery fragments called Lachish Ostraca were found written in the ancient Hebrew script at a site thought to be Lachish. Some of them are messages between Lachish s military commander and an outlying observation post describing the final days of Judah s resistance against Babylon. Later, other texts record the conquest of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar.

(3) Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III

This is a black limestone Assyrian sculpture that was discovered in Nimrud (ancient Kalhu) in northern Iraq. It commemorates the deeds of King Shalmaneser III who reigned from 858 to 824 B.C. and was erected in 825 B.C. One of its depictions is of Jehu, King of Israel.

(4) Pool of Siloam

In June 2004 workers repairing a water pipe at the southern end of the ridge known as the City of David discovered the Pool of Siloam in Old Jerusalem. This structure as described by archaeologists Ronny Reich and Eli Shukron was 225 feet long and probably used for ritual bathing. It is referenced in John 9:1-7 where Jesus healed the man blind from birth. An article in the August 09, 2005 Los Angeles Times stated, Scholars have said that there wasn't a Pool of Siloam and that John was using a religious conceit to illustrate a point, said New Testament scholar James H. Charlesworth of the Princeton Theological Seminary. Now we have found the Pool of Siloam ... exactly where John said it was. A gospel that was thought to be pure theology is now shown to be grounded in history said Hershel Shanks, editor of the Biblical Archaeology Review.

(5) Hezekiah s Siloam Tunnel

2 Kings 20 and 2 Chronicles 32 record a siege by the Assyrian king, Sennacherib. King Hezekiah of Judah who ruled from 721 to 686 B.C. preserved Jerusalem s water supply by cutting a tunnel through 1,750 feet of sold rock from the Gihon Spring to the Pool of Siloam which was inside of Jerusalem s walls. This tunnel still exists today.

(6) The Cylinder of Cyrus the Great

Cyrus the Great of Persia had conquered Babylon as recorded in 2 Chronicles 36:23 and Ezra 1. He then allowed the Jews from the Babylonian Captivity to return to their homeland as prophesied in Isaiah 44:28. A nine-inch clay cylinder discovered at Babylon depicts Cyrus victory and his permitting the Jews to return home and even rebuild their temples.

(7) Tel Dan Stele

This is a broken inscribed stone (stele) that was discovered in 1993-1994 during excavations at Tel Dan in northern Israel. It was written in Old Aramaic at about 870 B.C. and describes a triumphal victory. It contains the phrase House of David which is considered the first reference outside of the Bible to King David.

(8) Caiaphas Bones

In November 1990 an ossuary discovered in the Peace Forest of Jerusalem south of Temple area contained the remains of Joseph Caiaphas who was the high priest who indicted Jesus before Pontius Pilate on the first Good Friday.

(9) Nebuchadnezzar was responsible for the splendor of Babylon

Daniel 4:30 reads, The king [Nebuchadnezzar] reflected and said, Is this not Babylon the great, which I myself have built as a royal residence by the might of my power and for the glory of my majesty? Following the defeat of Assyria by the Babylonians in 612 B.C. Nebuchadnezzar II rebuilt the city of Babylon. It is estimated that 15 million baked bricks were used to construct the official buildings. Each brick was usually stamped with a text many of which refer to Nebuchadnezzar thus proving that Daniel s description of Nebuchadnezzar s influence was historically correct.

(10) Pilate Stone

This block of carved limestone was discovered at Caesarea Maritima in June 1961. It has an inscription mentioning Pontius Pilate who was a prefect of the Roman province of Judaea from 26-36 A.D.

(11) Sodom

The Tall el-Hammam archeological site in Jordan s southern Jordan Valley is considered by some archeologists to be the best candidate for the city of Sodom. Archeologist Steven Collins as reported in Popular Archaeology (September 28, 2015) said, Theorizing, on the basis of the Sodom texts, that Sodom was the largest of the Kikkar (the Jordan Disk , or well-watered plain in the biblical text) cities east of the Jordan, I concluded that if one wanted to find Sodom, then one should look for the largest city on the eastern Kikkar that existed during the Middle Bronze Age, the time of Abraham and Lot. When we explored the area, the choice of Tall el-Hammam as the site of Sodom was virtually a no-brainer since it was at least five to ten times larger than all the other Bronze Age sites in the entire region, even beyond the Kikkar of the Jordan. The article also said, But based on the excavated evidence, the city s Bronze Age heyday seems to have nevertheless come to a sudden, inexplicable end toward the end of the Middle Bronze Age and the ancient city became a relative wasteland for 700 years, for the most part void of human habitation.

(12) Hezekiah (727 698 B.C.)

The Ophel excavations at the foot of the southern wall of the Temple Mount discovered a bulla (piece of inscribed clay) with the inscription Belonging to Hezekiah [son of] Ahaz king of Judah.

(13) Dual Rudders

Acts 27:40 reads, And casting off the anchors, they left them in the sea while at the same time they were loosening the ropes of the rudders; and hoisting the foresail to the wind, they were heading for the beach. In 1969 submerged ancient ship was discovered in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Cyprus. This ship had dual paddle-rudders and not a single rudder as with modern ships. Luke was correct in his pluralizing rudders.

(1) Why do all four Gospels have different inscriptions on the Cross?

1)      Matthew 27:37, And above His head they put up the charge against Him which read, THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS.

2)      Mark 15:26, The inscription of the charge against Him [a]read, THE KING OF THE JEWS.

3)      Luke 23:38, Now there was also an inscription above Him, THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.

4)      John 19:19, Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It was written, JESUS THE NAZARENE, THE KING OF THE JEWS.

John 19:20 says, Therefore many of the Jews read this inscription, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, Latin and in Greek. So the inscription was written in three different languages.

Latin was the official language of the Roman Empire. John, who states that Pilate (A Roman official) wrote the inscription, likely was quoting the Latin version which would have read IESUS NAZARENVS REX IVDAEORVM. This is where we get INRI from.

Luke who wrote his Gospel to Theophilus who was a Greek nobleman probably quoted the Greek version: OUTOS ESTIN O BASILEUS TWN IOUDAIWN.

Matthew, who wrote to the Jews, probably quoted the Hebrew version.

Notice that The King of the Jews is in all of the inscriptions. Mark, most likely, just quoted the common part from all three.

(2) Did the centurion go to Jesus personally or did he send a delegation of elders?

Luke 7:2-7, And a centurion s slave, who was highly regarded by him, was sick and about to die. 3 When he heard about Jesus, he sent some Jewish elders asking Him to come and save the life of his slave. 4 When they came to Jesus, they earnestly implored Him, saying, He is worthy for You to grant this to him; 5 for he loves our nation and it was he who built us our synagogue. 6 Now Jesus started on His way with them; and when He was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends, saying to Him, Lord, do not trouble Yourself further, for I am not worthy for You to come under my roof; 7 for this reason I did not even consider myself worthy to come to You, but just say the word, and my servant will be healed.

Matthew 8:5, And when Jesus entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, imploring Him

There are two ways to explain this.

1)      The centurion did not consider himself worthy to come to Jesus (Luke 7:7) and so sent some Jewish elders. As his representation these spoke for him as though he was the one speaking. This is much like how a spokesman or ambassador speaks for their country or president.

2)      There were three meetings. The first was the initial one with the Jewish elders. Then as Jesus was getting closer He was met by the centurion s friends. The third meeting would have been the centurion himself who might have seen Jesus approaching his house and so intercepted Him before He could come in. That would explain Matthew 8:8, Lord, I am not worthy for You to come under my roof It would also explain how in verse 13 they knew that the healing was at that very moment because Jesus was right outside the house when the servant was healed and there was probably a loud cry of joy and astonishment.

(3) The time of the crucifixion

Mark 15:25, It was the third hour when they crucified Him.

John 19:14-15, Now it was the day of preparation for the Passover; it was about the sixth hour. And he said to the Jews, Behold, your King! 15 So they cried out, Away with Him, away with Him, crucify Him! Pilate said to them, Shall I crucify your King? The chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar.

John wrote his Gospel while he was living in Ephesus which was the capital of the Roman province of Asia. As we saw above regarding the inscription on the cross, John tended to use Roman culture and so here he was using Roman time which started at midnight. Thus the sixth hour was 6:00 A.M. But this was the time when the trial ended. Jesus still had to be flogged and mocked and beaten. This, plus carrying His cross, took three hours. That would bring us to 9:00 A.M. which was the third hour according to the Hebrew system which started at sunrise. This is when Jesus was crucified.

(4) Where did Cain get his wife? And why was not this marriage incest and so against God s law?

Adam and Eve had many other children besides Cain (their first), Abel, and Seth. Genesis 5:4 states, Then the days of Adam after he became the father of Seth were eight hundred years, and he had other sons and daughters. Since Adam lived 930 years and was told directly by God to Be fruitful and multiply (Genesis 1:28) it is reasonable that they had many, many children. So it would not have been difficult for Cain to find a wife among these many siblings. Some claim that Genesis 4:16-17 says that Cain went to Nod and found a wife there: Cain had relations with his wife and she conceived, and gave birth to Enoch; and he built a city, and called the name of the city Enoch, after the name of his son. But this does not say that Cain found his wife in Nod but, rather, that his wife had a child there. It is very possible that Cain was married even before he killed Abel.

What about God s prohibition against incest since Cain would have married either his sister, a niece, or someone closely related? First, the law forbidding marriage between close relatives was given to Moses in Leviticus 18-19 which was thousands of years later. Second, the prohibition was genetically based in that marrying a close relative increases the possibility of birth defects because of recessive bad genes. However, it is safe to say that Adam and Eve, being created directly by God had no bad genes to pass onto their children. Therefore, marriage among the first generation of the human race was not prone to producing genetic defects and so was safe.

(5) Apostles seeing Jesus coming in His kingdom before they died

Matthew 16:28, Truly I say to you, there are some of those who are standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.

Jesus told His disciples that some of them would not taste death until they saw the Son of Man coming in His kingdom yet they all died before the Second Coming. The very next verse (Matthew 17:1) starts the account of The Transfiguration. At that event Jesus became as bright as the sun and the Father spoke to them from Heaven. This was not the Second Coming but was a foretaste of Jesus true glory. They saw a bit of what Jesus would be like in His kingdom.

(6) Different numbers of angels at the Resurrection Tomb

Luke 24:4, While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men suddenly stood near them in dazzling clothing

Matthew 28:2, And behold, a severe earthquake had occurred, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled away the stone and sat upon it.

There were at least two groups of women. Mary Magdalene s group probably left from John Mark s house. Joanna and her group left from Herod s house since Joanna was the wife of Cuza who was the manager of Herod s household (Luke 8:3). They arrived at different times. Mary s group probably arrived first and saw the one angel who had rolled away the stone. Then that angel left and when Joanna s group arrived the other two angels appeared. The Resurrection was a dramatic event. It is safe to say that different things were going on at different times.

Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried. G. K. Chesterton

(1) Lee Strobel

Lee Strobel has a Master of Studies in Law degree from Yale Law School and was an investigative reporter for the Chicago Tribune for 14 years. He was an atheist when his wife converted to Christianity. He went on a two-year investigation to discredit the evidence for Jesus. The result was his conversion to Christianity. He has written The Case for Christ, The Case for Faith, The Case for a Creator, The Case for Christianity Answer Book and many others.

(2) C.S. Lewis

Clive Staples Lewis became an atheist at the age of 15. He left Christianity when he viewed religion as a chore and duty. Lewis became interested in the works of George MacDonald which he credited to being part of what turned him from atheism to Christianity. Other influences were his arguments with J.R.R. Tolkien (The Lord of the Rings) and G.K. Chesterton s book The Everlasting Man. Lewis vigorously resisted conversion stating that he was, kicking, struggling, resentful, and darting his eyes in every direction for a chance to escape." He says in his book Surprised by Joy, You must picture me alone in that room in Magdalen [College, Oxford], night after night, feeling, whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work, the steady, unrelenting approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet. That which I greatly feared had at last come upon me. In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England. He converted to Christianity in 1931. His books include: Mere Christianity, The Problem of Pain, The Case for Christianity, Surprised by Joy, The Chronicles of Narnia and many others.

(3) Francis Collins

Francis Collins is a physician-geneticist who led the Human Genome Project. He is the director of the National Institutes of Health. While in graduate school he considered himself an atheist, but a conversation with a hospital patient led him to question his lack of religious beliefs. C.S. Lewis book Mere Christianity was influential in his conversion to Christianity. He wrote The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief, Belief: Readings on the Reason for Faith, The Language of Science and Faith: Straight Answers to Genuine Questions. He stated that "one can be intellectually in a rigorous position and argue that science and faith can be compatible", and that he was prompted to write The Language of God because "most people are seeking a possible harmony between these worldviews [science and faith], and it seems rather sad that we hear so little about this possibility.

(4) Frank Morison

His real name is Albert Ross. Some thought that Ross was a lawyer, but was unlikely to be true. Ross was skeptical regarding the resurrection of Jesus, and set out to analyze the sources and to write a short paper entitled Jesus the Last Phase to demonstrate the apparent myth. In compiling his notes, he became convinced of the truth of the resurrection, and set out his reasoning in the book Who moved the stone?

(5) Josh McDowell

Joslin Josh McDowell was an agnostic at college when he decided to prepare a paper that would examine the historical evidence of the Christian faith in order to disprove it. However, he converted to Christianity, after, as he says, he found evidence for it, not against it. He has written over 150 books including More Than a Carpenter, Evidence That Demands a Verdict, and A Ready Defense.

(6) Alister McGrath

Alister McGrath said, As a child I never had any interest in Christianity. I went through the motions of going to church with my parents but neither my heart nor my head was in it. It was while I was at the Methodist College, probably aged around 15 or 16, that I became an atheist somebody who deliberately and intentionally does not believe in God and thinks that anyone who does believe in God is mentally deficient or seriously screwed up. While an undergraduate at Wadham he wrote, I was discovering that Christianity was far more intellectually robust than I had ever imagined. I had some major rethinking to do, and by the end of November [1971], my decision was made: I turned my back on one faith and embraced another. His many books include The Twilight of Atheism, Understanding the Trinity, Glimpsing the Face of God: The Search for Meaning in the Universe, and Knowing God. He currently holds the Andreas Idreos Professorship in Science and Religion in the Faculty of Theology and Religion at the University of Oxford.

(7) Hugh Ross

Hugh Ross has a Ph.D. in astrophysics and at age 17 was the youngest person to serve as director of observations for Vancouver s Royal Astronomical Society. He was an atheist who grew up in a non-religious home. As Ross matured, he would discover that Big Bang cosmology proposed a dilemma for his atheism, and over the next several years my study of the big bang convinced me that the universe had a beginning, and thus a Beginner because the big bang implies a cosmic beginning, it also implies a Beginner, a Causal Agent outside or beyond the universe. He began a study of the world s sacred texts, testing them for accuracy. He concluded, One by one each book failed the factuality test, and I gained confidence that my initial skepticism would be affirmed until I picked up a Bible. From page one, this book proved an exception. Not only did it provide hundreds of statements that could be tested for accuracy, it also anticipated thousands of years in advance many facts of socio-political history and of nature that research would one day confirm. He further wrote, Through nearly two years of study this book s predictive power persuaded me that it must have been inspired by One who knows and guides the past, present, and future. I had essentially proven to myself that the Bible is more reliable than the laws of physics I focused on in my university courses. The only reasonable conclusion I could see was that the Bible must be the inspired Word of God. His books include The Fingerprint of God, The Genesis Question, and Creation as Science.

(8) Norma McCorvey

Norma McCorvey is better know as Jane Roe in the Supreme Court Case Roe v. Wade which legalized abortion. She was brought up as a Jehovah Witness but from the age of 11 until she was 47 she was an atheist and also a lesbian. In 1994 she made friends with an anti-abortion leader and converted to Christianity. She has denounced abortion and says that she is no longer a lesbian.

(9) Ravi Zacharias

Ravi Zacharias was an atheist until the age of 17 when he tried to commit suicide by swallowing poison. While he was in the hospital a local Christian worker brought him a Bible and told his mother to read John 14 to him. Zacharias said that John 14:19 touched him, Because I live, you also will live." He said that he thought, "This may be my only hope: A new way of living. Life as defined by the Author of Life." and that he committed his life to Christ praying, "Jesus if You are the one who gives life as it is meant to be, I want it. Please get me out of this hospital bed well, and I promise I will leave no stone unturned in my pursuit of truth. He has written many books including A Shattered Visage: The Real Face of Atheism, Can Man Live Without God?, and Who Made God? And Answers to Over 100 Other Tough Questions of Faith.

(10) Rosalind Picard

Rosalind Picard is Professor of Media Arts and Sciences at MIT and founder and director of the Affective Computing Research Group at the MIT Media Lab. She was raised an atheist but converted to Christianity as a young adult. She sees DNA as too complex to have originated through "purely random processes and shows that DNA shows "the mark of intervention", and "a much greater mind, a much greater scientist, a much greater engineer behind who we are."

The Bible is scientifically accurate

The Bible is historically accurate

The Bible is prophetically accurate

The Bible is logically and reasonably accurate

The Bible is internally accurate

Divisions of theology

Perspectives on God

Attributes of God

Bible Themes

The universality of people being religious

A necessary first cause (The Cosmological Argument)

There is a clear design in the universe (The Teleological Argument)

The Moral Argument

Theism in light of survival of the fittest

The Esthetic Argument

The Consciousness Argument

Including some important non-Christian events.

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History of Christianity

A.D. – 70 The Age of Jesus and the Apostles

70 – 312 The Age of Early Christianity

312 – 590 The Age of the Christian Empire

590 – 1517 Christian Middle Ages

1517 – 1648 Age of the Reformation

1648 – 1789 Age of Reason and Revival

1789 – 1914 Age of Progress

1914 – Present Age of Ideologies

Jesus' Last Week (The Jewish calendar dates are not firmly established)

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Jesus time-line of more prominent events in the Gospels (Dates are approximate, the order may differ among scholars)