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How do you know that there is a God? How do you answer someone who says that truth doesn't exist? What do you do when someone asks you how you know that Christianity is the right religion? If you are like many people, the only answer you can offer is, "Well... I just have faith." But to a world that wants to know if God is real, this is not a good enough answer. Christians must be ready to give a reason, a good reason, for their hope in Jesus, and their lives must be a holy reflection of their message. In Relational Apologetics, Michael C. Sherrard seeks to help Christians do just that: become holy people that defend Christianity both in word and deed. Using stories and drawing upon personal experiences, Sherrard teaches the importance of personal holiness, treating skeptics with respect, engaging in authentic conversations instead of shouting matches, and having well thought out answers to the skeptic's questions. In the process, you'll learn that defending Christianity is as much about who you are and what you do as it is what you say. And you will find that your life is intended to be an apologetic for God and a light for men to find Him.

What made Jesus the Messiah? This book will teach you the Jewish roots of your faith and help you gain a fresh new perspective on the resurrection of Jesus. In 1994, after one of the greatest rabbis of the twentieth century died at the age of ninety-two, his followers began to proclaim him as the Messiah. They expected him to rise from the dead and even come again. Is this possible? Could a deceased rabbi be the Messiah? In this fascinating book, biblical scholar Michael L. Brown, PhD, takes you on a captivating journey beginning in Brooklyn, New York, where this famous rabbi died in 1994, then back through Jewish history, looking at little-known Jewish beliefs about the Messiah, potential Messiahs that emerged in each generation, and teachings about the reincarnated soul of the Messiah. Dr. Brown then looks at the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus from his unique perspective as a Messianic Jew, demonstrating why Jesus' resurrection uniquely confirms that He alone is the promised Messiah. This page-turner is for everyone who is interested in the Jewish roots of our faith, everyone fascinated by Jewish tradition, and everyone wanting to gain a fresh new perspective on the resurrection of Jesus the Messiah. It is also a great witnessing tool for Christians who want to share the good news of Yeshua the Messiah with their Jewish friends. FEATURES AND BENEFITS: Provides new understanding from a Messianic Jewish perspective of how Jesus' resurrection validates His claim of being the true Messiah Serves as a tool to help Christians talk about Jesus with Jewish people Presents a fascinating perspective for Christians interested in the Jewish roots of their faith Also Available in Spanish ISBN: 978-1-62999-315-7 OTHER BOOKS BY DR. BROWN: Jezebel's War With America (2019) ISBN: 978-1629996660 The Power of Music (2019) ISBN: 978-1629995953 Playing With Holy Fire (2018) ISBN: 978-1629994987

The differences and discrepancies in the Gospels constitute the foremost objections to their reliability and the credibility of their message. Some have tried to resolve Gospels contradictions with strained harmonization efforts. Many others conclude that the Gospels are hopelessly contradictory and, therefore, historically unreliable accounts of Jesus. In Jesus, Contradicted, New Testament scholar Michael Licona shows how the genre of ancient biography, to which the Gospels belong, actually allows biographers to be flexible in how they report events, construct a narrative, and make an argument. Licona demonstrates that the intentional changes to the Jesus tradition by the Evangelists reveal that the differences in how the Gospels report events are not grounds for their rejection. Instead, they are a result of the Gospel writers employing standard literary conventions common in their time for writing ancient biography. Licona introduces readers to the genre of ancient biography through Plutarch, who wrote 48 of the 90 extent biographies written within 150 years of Jesus, giving numerous examples of compositional devices employed by Plutarch, and comparing them with instances in the Gospels where the Evangelists appear to use similar techniques. Licona also examines Theon's Progymnasmata, a first-century textbook that provides six techniques for paraphrasing one's sources when writing a narrative. In doing so, he helps readers understand why the Gospels report many events differently. Finally, Licona concludes by addressing the thorny question of whether the editorial moves commonplace in ancient biography are compatible with the doctrines of the divine inspiration and the inerrancy of Scripture. Rather than trying to resolve discrepancies by bending the Gospel narrative, which risks making them say things they aren't saying, Jesus, Contradicted situates the Gospels within their proper context and helps readers account for differences in the Gospels in a cohesive and historically cogent way.

¿Qué fue lo que hizo de Jesús el Mesías? Lo llamaban el Rebe del Lubavitch, y no era un rabino común. Durante su vida, estableció centros de atención con ayuda humanitaria para todas las personas. Él mismo saludaba personalmente a todos los visitantes los domingos. Repartía billetes de un dólar para alentar el espíritu caritativo. Previsiblemente, luego de la muerte del rabino en 1994, sus seguidores comenzaron a proclamarlo como el Mesías. ¿Pero es eso posible? El Dr. Michael L. Brown, lo dirigirá en un recorrido que comienza en Brooklyn, Nueva York, y en el que estudiará la historia judía, analizando creencias poco conocidas sobre los posibles Mesías en cada generación, e incluso sobre el alma reencarnada del Mesías. Entre ellas, descubrirá que efectivamente, creían que un rabino fallecido podía ser el Mesías...pero con una salvedad. He was called the Lubavitcher Rebbe, and he was arguably the most influential Jewish leader of the twentieth century. Presidents and prime ministers sought personal audiences with him. He established outreach centers in virtually every Jewish community worldwide. And by the time of his death in 1994, his followers believed he was the Messiah. Many still believe this today, more than twenty-five years after his death. But is that possible? Michael L. Brown, PhD, takes you on a journey beginning in Brooklyn, New York, then back through Jewish history, looking at little-known Jewish beliefs about potential Messiahs in each generation and even the reincarnated soul of the Messiah. Discover how yes, a deceased rabbi could be the Messiah…but with one caveat.

With growing popular interest because of television, movies, and books, unbelieving historians are teaching that the early church was filled with "lost scriptures", "church conspiracies," and even radical changes to the Bible itself. Most Christians have no idea how to respond to the questions they raise. This unique resource gives you a crash course on the most important people, events, and ideas of the earliest Christians following the New Testament period. In its pages, you'll discover what every believer should know about the early church ... and why.

The hypothesis of Undesigned Coincidences was first proposed by William Paley (1743–1805) and later popularized by J. J. Blunt (1794–1855). More recently, Lydia and Timothy McGrew have revived this hypothesis. McGrew defines an undesigned coincidence as “a significant connection between two or more accounts or texts that does not appear to have been planned by the individuals providing the accounts. Despite their apparent independence, the elements fit together like pieces of a puzzle.” Advocates use undesigned coincidences to argue that the Gospels are a compilation of independent and reliable sources. However, these advocates do not engage with biblical criticism and overlook relevant research on coincidences and casualness. The feeding of the five thousand is a prominent example discussed by proponents, who point to details such as the green grass, the location of Bethsaida, and the question posed by Jesus to Philip. These episodes are thoroughly reviewed and analyzed in The Hypothesis of Undesigned Coincidences.

Evangelical Theology is a systematic theology written from the perspective of a biblical scholar. Michael F. Bird contends that the center, unity, and boundary of the evangelical faith is the evangel (= gospel), as opposed to things like justification by faith or inerrancy. The evangel is the unifying thread in evangelical theology and the theological hermeneutic through which the various loci of theology need to be understood. Using the gospel as a theological leitmotif—an approach to Christian doctrine that begins with the gospel and sees each loci through the lens of the gospel—this text presents an authentically evangelical theology, as opposed to an ordinary systematic theology written by an evangelical theologian. According to the author, theology is the drama of gospelizing—performing and living out the gospel in the theatre of Christian life. The text features tables, sidebars, and questions for discussion. The end of every part includes a “What to Take Home” section that gives students a run-down on what they need to know. And since reading theology can often be dry and cerebral, the author applies his unique sense of humor in occasional “Comic Belief” sections so that students may enjoy their learning experience through some theological humor added for good measure.

Anyone who reads the Gospels carefully will notice that there are differences in the manner in which they report the same events. These differences have led many conservative Christians to resort to harmonization efforts that are often quite strained, sometimes to the point of absurdity. Many people have concluded the Gospels are hopelessly contradictory and therefore historically unreliable as accounts of Jesus. The majority of New Testament scholars now hold that most if not all of the Gospels belong to the genre of Greco-Roman biography and that this genre permitted some flexibility in the way in which historical events were narrated. However, few scholars have undertaken a robust discussion of how this plays out in Gospel pericopes (self-contained passages). Why Are There Differences in the Gospels? provides a fresh approach to the question by examining the works of Plutarch, a Greek essayist who lived in the first and second centuries CE. Michael R. Licona discovers three-dozen pericopes narrated two or more times in Plutarch's Lives, identifies differences between the accounts, and analyzes these differences in light of compositional devices identified by classical scholars as commonly employed by ancient authors. The book then applies the same approach to nineteen pericopes that are narrated in two or more Gospels, demonstrating that the major differences found there likely result from the same compositional devices employed by Plutarch. Showing both the strained harmonizations and the hasty dismissals of the Gospels as reliable accounts to be misguided, Licona invites readers to approach them in light of their biographical genre and in that way to gain a clearer understanding of why they differ.

This volume constitutes a dialogue and a debate about the birth of Christianity between two scholars from two distinct viewpoints: a Christian from the evangelical tradition (Michael F. Bird) and a secularist (James G. Crossley).--Pref.

For every human on earth, the clock is ticking towards their inevitable death. Whether one lives to the oldest of ages (expiring quietly) or death comes suddenly with a slip on the ice (or in any other of the myriad of ways people die), the end of biological life is the outcome for everyone. For the Christian, however, there is the expectation of continuation beyond this fleeting life on earth. Naturalists have no such optimism and can only hope that their time on earth is a pleasant one. Because Christians have a divine assurance, they want to share that hope with others. Still, theological questions remain: Can near-death experiences help lead those far from Christ to him? Can they be added to the repertoire of apologetic arguments for Christianity? This book examines the truth surrounding near-death experiences: how they have been seen in human culture, what the scientific community is learning about those who have near-death experiences, and how near-death experiences can be used (or not used) in your evangelistic encounters.