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Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Lee Strobel
Read between
January 30 - February 3, 2021
Think of the story of Jesus walking on the water, found in Matthew 14:22–33 and Mark 6:45–52. Most English translations hide the Greek by quoting Jesus as saying, ‘Fear not, it is I.’ Actually, the Greek literally says, ‘Fear not, I am.’ Those last two words are identical to what Jesus said in John 8:58, when he took upon himself the divine name ‘I AM,’ which is the way God revealed himself to Moses in the burning bush in Exodus 3:14.
“The gospels were written after almost all the letters of Paul, whose writing ministry probably began in the late 40s. Most of his major letters appeared during the 50s.
“But if you’re going to be convinced enough to believe, the theology has to flow from accurate history.
The truth is that the majority of Jesus’ teachings presuppose a significant span of time before the end of the world,”
After studying the consistency among the four gospel writers, he offered this evaluation: “There is enough of a discrepancy to show that there could have been no previous concert among them; and at the same time such substantial agreement as to show that they all were independent narrators of the same great transaction.”
In later Jewish writings Jesus is called a sorcerer who led Israel astray—which acknowledges that he really did work marvelous wonders, although the writers dispute the source of his power. “This would have been a perfect opportunity to say something like, ‘The Christians will tell you he worked miracles, but we’re here to tell you he didn’t.’ Yet that’s the one thing we never see his opponents saying. Instead they implicitly acknowledge that what the gospels wrote—that Jesus performed miracles—is true.”
“You have to understand that the canon was not the result of a series of contests involving church politics. The canon is rather the separation that came about because of the intuitive insight of Christian believers.
You see, the canon is a list of authoritative books more than it is an authoritative list of books.
“Archaeology has not produced anything that is unequivocally a contradiction to the Bible,”
Archaeology’s repeated affirmation of the New Testament’s accuracy provides important corroboration for its reliability. This is in stark contrast with how archaeology has proved to be devastating for Mormonism.
nothing which demonstrates the Book of Mormon is anything other than myth or invention has ever been found.”
To have a relationship with Jesus Christ goes beyond just knowing the historical facts about him, yet it’s rooted in the historical facts about him.
Jesus has twelve disciples, yet notice that he’s not one of the Twelve.”
“We have to ask, Why is there no other first-century Jew who has millions of followers today? Why isn’t there a John the Baptist movement? Why, of all first-century figures, including the Roman emperors, is Jesus still worshiped today, while the others have crumbled into the dust of history? “It’s because this Jesus—the historical Jesus—is also the living Lord. That’s why. It’s because he’s still around, while the others are long gone.”
“On top of that, he brought people back from the dead—and death is not a psychologically induced state!
“It’s just amazing to me,” Collins replied, “how people will grasp at anything to try to disprove Jesus’ miracles.”
“When David sinned by committing adultery and arranging the death of the woman’s husband, he ultimately says to God in Psalm 51, ‘Against you only have I sinned and done this evil in your sight.’ He recognized that although he had wronged people, in the end he had sinned against the God who made him in his image, and God needed to forgive him.
“The overthrowing of slavery, then, is through the transformation of men and women by the gospel rather than through merely changing an economic system.
God has to be an objective reality if he’s going to have any meaning beyond my own imagination.
“I’d have to deal with the drugs, the sex, and so forth. I didn’t understand that God would help me make those changes; I thought I had to clean up my life on my own.”
the issue with Jesus isn’t that he was nowhere to be seen. It’s that he was seen, alive; he was seen, dead; and he was seen, alive once more.
If Jesus conquered death, he can open the door of eternal life for me, too.
After a personal investigation that spanned more than six hundred days and countless hours, my own verdict in the case for Christ was clear. However, as I sat at my desk, I realized that I needed more than an intellectual decision.
