Dr. Shawn Nelson

Jesus Follower Curious Thinker Apologist geekychristian.com

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How soon after Jesus were the Gospels written?

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jesus rose again, no cap

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New Christian search engine!

Check out my Christian Search Engine for trusted Bible answers, articles, classes and just about anything. Let me know what you think!

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psychological apologetics spoke to my heart #jesus #christianity

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jesus rose again, no cap #jesus #christ #resurrection #christianity

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Classical Apologetics in 3 Minutes - Geeky Christian

I'll explain Classical Apologetics in 3 minutes using an illustration that anyone can understand.

I'll explain Classical Apologetics in 3 minutes using an illustration that anyone can understand.

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Apologetics Assessment Survey - Nelson.ink

This apologetics survey will help you discover which apologetic methods were effective in convincing you Christianity is true.

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PART 3: JESUS' DISCIPLES SAID JESUS WAS GOD. Many are familiar with the famous passage in John 1:1: "In the beginning was the Word; the Word was with God, and the Word was God." But there are many other clear passages in the New Testament that teach Jesus is God. Paul says, "In Christ all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form" (Col. 2:9), that "He is the image of the invisible God" (Col. 1:15), that Jesus "did not consider equality with God something to be grasped" (Phil. 2:6) and that Christ is the "eternally blessed God" (Romans 9:5). The writer of Hebrews says that Jesus is the "brightness of His [God's] glory, and the express image of His [God's] person" and that Jesus "upholds all things by the word of His power" (Heb. 1:3) and then applies passages concerning the LORD Yahweh (God) to Jesus himself, proving that Jesus is Yahweh of the Old Testament (compare Heb. 1:8-9 with Psa. 45:6-7 and Heb. 1:10-12 with Psalm 102:25–27). To summarize my last three posts: (1) Jesus claimed to be Messiah who was to be God; (2) Jesus claimed to be God; (3) Jesus' disciples claimed Jesus was God. Conclusion: Therefore Jesus is God the Son, the second person of the one triune God!

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IS JESUS GOD? (Part 2 of 3). The Old Testament promised a future Messiah who was to be God. The promise was that Yahweh, the LORD, was coming to dwell among people (Zech. 2:10; 9:9; Eze. 37:27; Lev. 26:12; Psa. 68:18). It would also be Yahweh Himself who would be crucified (Zech. 12:10). Jesus claimed to be this Messiah and in so doing claimed to be God (Jn. 4:25-26; Mt. 14:61-62). For all parts: http://geekychristian.com/proof-christianity-is-true/#jesusgod

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JESUS CLAIMED TO BE GOD (Part 1 of 3). (1) Jesus claimed to be Yahweh, or the “I AM” LORD of the Old Testament (Jn. 8:58). The Jews clearly understood what he was saying because they picked up stones to stone him (v. 59). (2) He forgave sins. The Jews understood this as a claim to deity (Mk. 2:5-7). (3) He claimed he should be honored in the same way the Father is honored (Jn. 5:23). (4) Only God is to be worshiped (Mt. 4:10; Ex. 20:1-4; Deut. 5:6-9) and Jesus accepted worship from the disciples (Mt. 14:33; 28:17), the rich young ruler (Mt. 9:18), a leper (Mt. 8:2), a Canaanite woman (Mt. 15:25), the women at the tomb (Mt. 28:9), Thomas (Jn. 20:28), a blind man (Jn. 9:38), a Gerasene man (Mk. 5:6) and James and John’s mother (Mt. 20:20). (5) He put his words on the same level as God’s words. He said his words would not pass away (Mt. 24:35) and will judge all (Jn. 12:48). (6) Jesus accepted the titles of deity (Jn. 20:28; Mt. 16:17-18).  For parts 2 & 3 go to: http://callup.org/jesusgod

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Are there myths in the New Testament? Most critics now admit that the entire New Testament was composed between 70 to 100 AD while most of these eyewitnesses were still alive. There is not enough time between the events and writing for myths to have developed. NO SIGNS OF MYTHOLOGICAL EMBELLISHMENT. There is good evidence for the authentic nature of the New Testament documents. (1) There are differences between narratives, yet the writers did not attempt to harmonize their stories. (2) The writers included material that made Jesus look bad (e.g., his own family thought he was insane). (3) They did not try to remove difficult passages. (4) They included self-incriminating information (they were slow to understand, fell asleep when they should have been praying, denied the Lord). (5) They included difficult sayings of Jesus (deny yourself, suffer, eat His flesh and blood). (6) They clearly reported the words of Jesus by distinguishing their own words from those of Jesus. (7) They didn’t deny their testimony even when threatened with death. (8) They claimed repeatedly that they were eyewitnesses (or in Luke’s case had talked to eyewitnesses). (9) The reporting that women had witnessed the resurrection before men. (10) They challenged their listeners to check the facts for themselves from other eyewitnesses. (11) Something significant must have happened for them to seemingly overnight discard long-held Jewish traditions (e.g., worshipping on the Sabbath and eating pork). (12) They mention too much detail (over thirty historical people) for it to be myth. TOO MUCH ACCURATE DETAIL TO BE A FABRICATION. Historians have noted the high degree of accuracy in the book of Acts. Even a casual reader of Luke 3:1-2 can see the high level of detail as Luke ties the beginning of John the Baptist’s ministry to no less than seven people’s public office. Furthermore, Luke is accurate in his frequent description of routes, places, officials, customs, idioms and practices of his day, many details of which would only be known to first-hand eyewitnesses. This is significant because Luke also wrote the Gospel of Luke and claimed that it was as accurate of account as he could possibly make it (Luke 1:1-4), basing it on eyewitness testimony.

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Some doubt the Jesus of the New Testament. Others go so far as to say that Jesus never even existed and that everything written about him is a forgery. How does this stack up to the evidence? THE GOSPELS ARE BASED ON EYEWITNESS TESTIMONY. The apostle John repeatedly pointed to the fact that he was an eyewitness of the life, crucifixion, burial and resurrection of Jesus from the dead (John 19:35; 21:24; 1 John 1:1). Likewise, Peter claimed to be an eyewitness and that they were merely teaching what they had seen (Acts 2:32; 4:19-20; 10:39-40; 2 Peter 1:16). Paul challenged those who doubted the resurrection to talk to the 500 witnesses who had seen Jesus alive after the resurrection, the majority of whom were still alive (1 Cor. 15:3-8). Luke was diligent to base his accounts (the books of Luke and Acts) on eyewitness testimony (Luke 1:1-4). THERE WERE NINE AUTHORS DOCUMENTING TESTIMONY. There were nine different authors (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, Peter, James, Jude, and the writer of Hebrews) of twenty seven books. All of these authors were either direct eyewitnesses of the events or were contemporaries of eyewitnesses. LEGAL EXPERTS CONFIRM THE TESTIMONY AS CREDIBLE. Modern legal experts have confirmed that the eyewitness testimony in the New Testament is authentic, and that any impartial person in a court of law would have no reason to doubt the credibility of the testimony. ARCHEOLOGY CONFIRMS THE TESTIMONY. Not one archaeological discovery has ever conflicted with the Bible. On the contrary, there have been many archaeological discoveries that support it. We know the locations of places like Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nazareth, Bethany, the Jordan River and the Sea of Galilee. We have also found artifacts like a coin of Caesar Augustus, inscriptions regarding people like King Herod, Pilate, and Caiaphas, and places like the synagogue in Capernaum, the pool of Siloam and the steps of the temple. We’ve even discovered examples of crucifixion and tombs (including one that is empty!).

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There are many competing ideas about who God is and how to get to heaven--anybody can come along and claim anything! But how do we know what they’re saying is true? Christians believe the evidence for Christianity rests in a large part on miracles. Here’s why: miracles performed alongside spiritual truth claims are confirmation that the messenger bringing the truth claims has actually been sent by God and that the truth claims are actually true. When John the Baptist began to doubt whether Jesus was really the Promised One, Jesus told John's messengers to report back all the miracles they saw Jesus do: the healing of the blind, lame, diseased, deaf and even the dead were raised (Luke 7:20-22). All of these miracles were intended to confirm Jesus’ teaching as being true teaching from God. Jesus' miracles confirmed his claims about the Father, his teaching on heaven, hell, and every other truth he taught. In short, Christians believe we can trust Jesus' teaching because of his many #miracles—the greatest being his resurrection from the dead.

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Are miracles real? A miracle is an act of God that breaks the laws of nature. The biggest proof that #miracles can and do occur is the universe itself. The cause of the universe must have been outside nature (supernatural)—the universe could not have caused itself because it wouldn't have existed to do anything to itself! Therefore creation is an undeniable first miracle. Christians also believe that God has done many other supernatural acts throughout history--and that these interventions have been recorded in the Bible. The greatest of these miracles is the raising of Jesus Christ from the dead. Christians believe the Bible to be a trustworthy record of these miracles and can point to good evidence for its reliability.

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DOES GOD EXIST?

Yes! What’s a good logical argument to prove this?

(1) Something exists. (2) But nothing cannot cause something. (3) Therefore an eternal uncaused first something must exist.

In other words something uncaused had to exist before the first caused thing in order to cause it. That eternal uncaused something is God.

Christians also point to God’s intervention in history, especially in the person of Jesus Christ, as proof God exists. The many powerful miracles by Jesus, especially his resurrection from the dead, is considered by many Christians to be the strongest evidence that God exists and that Christianity is true.

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IS TRUTH ABSOLUTE? Yes, truth is absolute (not relative to each person). And it's very easy to prove. The person who says “there is no absolute truth” is really just saying “there is an absolute truth that there is no absolute truth.” This type of statement is self-defeating and whatever is self-defeating is necessarily false. Therefore truth must be absolute. Since truth is absolute, it doesn't change. Truth is absolutely true for all people at all times, everywhere. This means that something is either true or false whether a person agrees with it or not. This also means that not all statements about God and reality can be correct. There must be some statements which are correct and others that are incorrect. This is why it’s very important for people to spend time trying to figure out which belief system is correct—because competing belief systems cannot all be true. Or course, we Christians believe our belief system to be true. And it’s important we know how to prove it to others (1 Pet. 3:15).

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WHAT IS TRUTH? It's actually pretty easy to understand what truth is. If a statement correctly describes the way a thing really is in reality, then it's true. Otherwise, it’s false. We spend our entire lives learning about reality. Whether we know it or not, our minds are constantly trying to understand what is true (what is real)—we can't stop it. There’s a lot of truth we can learn about reality through study of science and logic (general revelation). However, there’s a limit to what we can know about God through logic, our senses and reason. This is why special revelation (the Bible) is important. While we’re limited with general revelation, we can know everything God has chosen to reveal to us about himself through special revelation (the Bible). Through special revelation, we learn of the truths of (1) the tri-unity of God, (2) the virgin birth of Christ, (3) the deity of Christ, (4) the all-sufficiency of Christ’s atoning sacrifice for sin, (5) the physical and miraculous resurrection of Christ, (6) the necessity of salvation by faith in the finished work of Christ alone.