The Case for Christ--Eyewitness Evidence

Memorial Day Weekend--what an impressive tribute to our armed forces during the worship service today! Please remember our armed forces who are serving around the world and their families and loved ones in your prayers this week. Also, please keep Kathleen's mom in your prayers as she seeks a new job and is being considered for a position that appears to fit her skills and experience well. Also, would you please pray for Rebecca Edwards, a friend of the Lovingshimers who sustained a serious knee injury while playing soccer this week. She is dealing with pain and a surgical repair and recovery.

During class today, we considered evidence of Jesus and the New Testament based on the direct and indirect eyewitness reports of those who were contemporaries of Jesus. The Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are either statements of one who actually witnessed and heard Jesus or they are statements of one who talked to those who saw and heard Jesus. Matthew was one of the original twelve disciples and recorded the words and deeds of Jesus based on his own first-hand account. Likewise, John was in the inner circle of Jesus and wrote about his first-hand observations of Jesus and repeated the actual words of Jesus. Mark was a close confidant of Peter and appears to have recorded the personal experiences of Peter in his relationship with Jesus. While not mentioned in the DVD today, the book does mention an early church historian by the name of Papias who specifically affirmed that Mark had carefully and accurately recorded Peter's eyewitness observations. In fact, he said Mark "made no mistake" and did not include "any false statement." Irenaeus, another early church historian, verified that Luke, who has been called "the historian", was a companion of Paul and "set down in a book the gospel preached by his teacher."

Strobel's research and interviews with the top Bible scholars of our time clearly indicated that the first written records of Jesus acts and words came within a realtively short period of time after His death and resurrection and certainly within a generation of Jesus' life on earth. Until that time, the facts about Jesus were maintained through oral tradition. In the lesson today, we learned that the oral tradition of an ancient culture required those who would share this sacred information to actually memorize the information perfectly in order to ensure that the information was accurately transmitted to the next generation. As a result of the realtively short period of time between the life of Jesus and the recording of these eyewitness accounts, Biblical scholars have suggested that the accuracy of the data was actually enhanced since there would have still been eyewitnesses around who would most assuredly have challenged any false or blatantly inaccurate information that was written in the first manuscripts describing the life and words of Jesus.

We had a brief discussion this morning about the allegations raised by some non-believers that because the details of the Gospels are not perfectly aligned, its credibility is called into question. On the contrary, as we discussed, the fact that there are differences in the eyewitness accounts helps to assure readers that the writers were not acting in collusion. Also, as we mentioned in class, there are no discrepancies about the main themes and critical points of any of these stories.

We looked at a few perceived discrepancies of the Bible and discussed possible resolutions that could be simple explanations.
We looked at 1 Chronicles 21:25 and 2 Samuel 24:24 and the apparent contradiction between the amount of money that King David paid for the property and equipment where he was led to build an altar to make sacrifices to the Lord. We also made reference to Matthew 8:5-13 and Luke 7:1-10 in which there appears to be some contradiction about who asked Jesus to heal the child. Also, in Matthew 1: 1-16 and Luke 3: 23-38, different names are listed in the geneologies of Jesus. These contradictions and about 800 others are addressed in a book called "When Critics Ask" by Norman Geisler. Dr. Geisler says, "...in my experience when critics raise these objections, they invaariably violate one of seventeen principles for interpreting scripture." Now, I am on a quest to find out what those seventeen principles are. Have a great week. Jimmy

THE CASE FOR CHRIST--The Investigation of a Lifetime

Today, we began what best-selling author Lee Strobel calls "the investigation of a lifetime." While Mr. Strobel approached this investigation from the perspective of an aethiest which he was at the time he began to investigate the evidence that he thought would repudiate the claims of Jesus Christ as the Son of God, most of us will be approaching this study from the perspective of believers who sometimes have doubts or who often hear arguments from society which question the evidence for Jesus being who He says that He is. As Brian Gray pointed out in class this morning, it is not a bad thing for those of us who believe to confront these questions which often present themselves either in the form of our own personal doubts or in challenges from those around us. Indeed, it is a good thing for us to confront and embrace these questions and arrive at the conclusion which, for us as believers, will simply reinforce our commitment and our understanding of who He is.

We heard from several people on the street as they responded to the question, "Who is Jesus?" Here is the response from the last woman who responded: "I don't believe we will ever know if Jesus was really what everyone says he was. I think it's a lot of folklore. I think it's a lot of historical misrepresentation. It's a lot of wishful thinking. But I don't think we know. I don't think we'll ever know. And I don't think there's any way to prove what has been claimed about Jesus for all these years."

Wow! This woman described Jesus as folklore, historical misrepresentation, and wishful thinking. Unfortunately, her views are not uncommon in today's society. Marshall J. Gauvin in his book, DID JESUS CHRIST REALLY LIVE, suggested that Christ is nothing more than a corporate logo, not unlike Ronald McDonald, Mickey Mouse, or Joe Camel, "the purpose of which is to get you to swallow a whole raft of beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors by an act of simple faith, short-circuiting the dangerous process of thinking the issues out to your own conclusions."

The objective of our study during the next six weeks will be to help us to address our own questions of doubt, our own insecurities, and our own biases or prejudices regarding the true identity of Jesus Christ. In addition, we hope to learn, like a skillful attorney, to point to the irrefutable evidence in order to build a case for the truth.

Mr. Strobel pointed out in today's introduction the significance of this particular investigation. The implications are eternal in nature. I hope you will join us as we consider "the case for Christ."

VISITORS: We were pleased to have Greg and Wendy Gunter join us in Sunday School this morning. The Gunters are long-time members of Central Baptist.

Financial Support--Missionary to Russia

Our class was privileged to have Jessica Van Slyke join us last Sunday. Jessica will be traveling soon to Moscow, Russia where she will be serving as a missionary. If you have a desire to support Jessica's work, here is the address she sent. Just send a check to the following address:

And here's the address to the gatekeeping account(tax-deductable):
Agape Unlimited, Inc.
P.O. Box 50994
Midland, TX 79710
They just have to put "Sarah and Jessica" in the memo line!

Jimmy

May 16--Missionary Headed to Russia

Prayer List for this Week:
Holmes- Please pray for Marty and family in the sudden loss of Marty's step-dad.

Endreola- Please pray for Sarah and Joe as they will be moving to Okinawa on May 27th with a toddler and 2 dogs. Also they don't have confirmed housing once they get there either.

Scasta- Please pray for Craig's assistant, Misty, who is on bedrest that she will have a healthy baby and not go crazy in the meantime. Also Tracey's friend who is trying to heal emotionally from a sexual assault.

Walsh- Praise! Jessica's tests all turned out normal!

Please pray for missionary, Jessica Van Slyke, who will be traveling to Russia in June. If you feel led to support her financially or otherwise contact her at javanslyke@gmail.com.

Social:
Ladies Night Out Tues, May 18th at Cafe Eccell at 6:30 ish and then Mugwalls for coffee on Harvey Rd around 8PM. If you have questions call Tracey cell 777-6244. See you there!


MISSIONARY TO RUSSIA

We were blessed to have Jessica Van Slyke come to speak to our Sunday School class this morning. Jessica is an Aggie graduate whom the Lord has called into mission work. What a blessing it was to hear her testimony and to learn of her submission to the Lord's call on her life. Jessica just graduated from A & M with a degree in International Studies and she will be leaving in June to work in a medical clinic in Moscow, Russia through the Agape Ministries. I hope you will join me in praying for Jessica and for her colleague Sarah who will also be headed to Russia this summer to minister to people who are in need of God's saving knowledge.

If you would like to contact Jessica personally, her e-mail is:

javanslyke@gmail.com

I have sent her e-mail asking that she send directions for making financial contributions to her ministry. When I receive her response, I will share it through this forum.

Best wishes for a great week. Please remember to pray for these missionaries and others as well as our own class members who are facing challenges this week.

Jimmy

Love Your Neighbor

Today's lesson is based on Jesus' words in Matthew 22: 37-39: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Dr. Tackett shared many other scriptures that help us to understand the heart of God. Using the story of the good Samaritan, Jesus describes the behavior of a good neighbor--one who has a sincere concern for those around him. Dr. Tackett recalled a child in his elementary school who was an outcast. He also recalled his first dance in which his dad asked him if there were any girls who were not asked to dance. Dr. Tackett shared that his dad encouraged him to ask those girls to dance because he had a real desire to love those who were needy--those who were outcasts, unpopular, or even homely.

We followed the DVD lesson with a discussion about our own school days and most of us recalled at least one student who was treated as an outcast. Some of us even contributed to the painful actions directed toward these students. We discussed the fine line between teaching our kids to treat all people with RESPECT versus a display of disdain for those who are different. We talked about our experiences in schools in which we have seen a student sitting alone at the lunch table, ostracized from the other students. Kids can be cruel and such a scenario is not unusual in our schools today.

Dr. Tackett asked us to consider the heart of God and to have the same compassion for the needy as God has. If we felt this same compassion, we would be looking for opportunities to include the disenfranchised. I hope you will consider this issue this week and perhaps, even discuss it with your kids. We must not only talk to our kids about the heart of God, but we must be a role model. They tend to imitate what they see. Thanks to all of you who love the Lord and who seek to imitate Him before your kids. Have a great week.

jc