Chapter 6 Discussion Questions

Well, now that fall semester has started I hope to finish out the Case for Christ on my blog. I finished the series in Sunday School but am repeating the course with a new class starting September 6. Here are questions that go with chapter 6. I will post comments tomorrow.

1. Have you ever heard of the Jesus Seminar?

2. If you heard a council was going to meat to discuss how authentic the four Gospel accounts are, what topics do you think would come up in the discussion?

3. What are the concepts of "double dissimilarity" and "multiple attestation"?

4. What documents do scholars that reject the Bible actually like to refer to as authentic in their minds?

5. Does the Jesus Seminar have a valid point that the Jesus of history probably was quite different than the Jesus of Faith?

Chapter 5 Discussion

I've been busy with meetings this week so am a little behind. Last Sunday I taught the last session from the Case for Christ book. I should be e-mailing out the audio link soon, by tomorrow. Now that I have finished I am going to put the entire course on CD so if you would like a copy, e-mail me and I'll send you one. Here are some responses to some questions from chapter 5 material.


1. Does archaeology generally agree or disagree with the Bible? There has never been an archaeological discovery that directly contradicts the Bible. There are many parts of the Bible where nothing has been found though. Examples would be that there is not much from the time of Joshua and Judges. Many archaeologists have been surprised to find things right where the Bible said it would be.


2. Have there been any archaeological discoveries that definitely disprove the Bible? No, see above response.


3. What are some examples that show that Luke told accurate history? Luke mentions an office called politarch that archaeologists had never found but eventually Roman inscriptions were found to verify Luke's claim.


4. What is an example of John reporting accurate history? John said there were five porticoes at the pool of Bethesda and archaeologists have excavated these five.


5. Skeptics have said that Quirinius was not governor at the right time for Jesus' birth, how would you respond? A coin was found during this time saying that Quirinius was governor so either there were two men with this name or the same man served two terms.


6. Skeptics said that Nazareth did not even exist in the first century so how can Jesus' biography be trusted, how would you respond? More recent excavations show that Nazareth did exist in the first century but that it was a very small insignificant town at this time.


7. If Matthew is the only record we have of Herod killing the babies can we trust this single source? This story fits with Herod's personality because he killed people he thought were trying to take his thrown away from him including his wife and several sons.


8. How does the Book of Mormon fair when tested against archaeological data? Not one shred of evidence exists to support the Book of Mormon. There are no synagogues or temples or coins or cities from Jewish people living in America during the fifth century BC.

Chapter 5

Well, I'm back for fall semester and getting back into the swing of things so maybe I can blog a little more regularly. I will be finishing the book in class this Sunday but will go ahead and post chapter material so you can continue to study at your own pace. Let me know if you need anything. Here are some discussion questions for chapter 5 and I will post responses in a few days.


1. Does archaeology generally agree or disagree with the Bible?


2. Have there been any archaeological discoveries that definitely disprove the Bible?


3. What are some examples that show that Luke told accurate history?


4. What is an example of John reporting accurate history?


5. Skeptics have said that Quirinius was not governor at the right time for Jesus' birth, how would you respond?


6. Skeptics said that Nazareth did not even exist in the first century so how can Jesus' biography be trusted, how would you respond?


7. If Matthew is the only record we have of Herod killing the babies can we trust this single source?


8. How does the Book of Mormon fair when tested against archaeological data?

Chapter 4 Discussion

I'm a little behind on my blog so I'll try to post quite a bit this week. Here are some responses to the chapter four questions.


1. Can you think of references to Jesus Christ in ancient literature that are not in the Bible? References in Josephus, Tacitus and by Pliny the Younger are probably the most famous but 39 such references have been documented.


2. Who was Josephus and why is he so important? There are not many surviving first century writings outside of Josephus and the New Testament. Since many scholars reject the Bible this means they rely very heavily on Josephus as a source.


3. How do many people explain the darkness that occurred during the crucifixion? They explain it as a solar eclipse and there was one in Jerusalem in 33 AD. The problem of this is that it is impossible to have a solar eclipse on Passover because it is close to a full moon not a new moon.


4. Why does the Bible paint a picture of Pilate being compassionate towards Jesus when secular history says he was very inconsiderate to Jews? Passover was a pilgrimage festival with Jew travelling from all over to be in Jerusalem. Tension was high between the Jews and Romans so with large crowds, Roman officials were expected to keep order. If a riot broke out, Pilate new he may be killed and replaced by another official. Any compassion he showed was to save his own skin not because he cared about Jesus being innocent. How compassionate was he when he crucified a man he knew to be innocent?


5. How does Jesus' biographical material compare with that of leaders of other world religions? As we have seen, Jesus' biographies can be dated between 35-50 years of his life on earth. Most other famous leaders such as Muhammad, Buddha and Zarathustra were written down hundreds of years later.

Chapter 4 Discussion Questions

Here are some discussion questions to think about for chapter 4. I will post some responses in a couple of days.


1. Can you think of references to Jesus Christ in ancient literature that are not in the Bible?


2. Who was Josephus and why is he so important?


3. How do many people explain the darkness that occurred during the crucifixion?


4. Why does the Bible paint a picture of Pilate being compassionate towards Jesus when secular history says he was very inconsiderate to Jews?


5. How does Jesus' biographical material compare with that of leaders of other world religions?