Cold-Case Christianity Quotes

“Tolerance used to be the attitude that we took toward one another when we disagreed about an important issue; we would agree to treat each other with respect, even though we refused to embrace each other’s view on a particular topic. Tolerance is now the act of recognizing and embracing all views as equally valuable and true, even though they often make opposite truth claims.”
― J. Warner Wallace, Cold-Case Christianity: A Homicide Detective Investigates the Claims of the Gospels

“Biased people are seen as prejudicial and unfair, arrogant and overly confident of their position. Nobody wants to be identified as someone who is biased or opinionated. But make no mistake about it, all of us have a point of view; all of us hold opinions and ideas that color the way we see the world. Anyone who tells you that he (or she) is completely objective and devoid of presuppositions has another more important problem: that person is either astonishingly naive or a liar.”
― J. Warner Wallace, Cold-Case Christianity: A Homicide Detective Investigates the Claims of the Gospels

“Christianity is a statement which, if false, is of no importance, and, if true, is of infinite importance. The one thing it cannot be is moderately important.”
― J. Warner Wallace, Cold-Case Christianity: A Homicide Detective Investigates the Claims of the Gospels

“If skeptics were willing to give the Gospels the same 'benefit of the doubt' they are willing to give other ancient documents, the Gospels would easily pass the test of authorship.”
― J. Warner Wallace, Cold-Case Christianity: A Homicide Detective Investigates the Claims of the Gospels

“In a culture where image is more important than information, style more important than substance it is not enough to possess the truth. [Christian] case makers must also master the media.”
― J. Warner Wallace, Cold-Case Christianity: A Homicide Detective Investigates the Claims of the Gospels

“The question is not whether or not we have ideas, opinions, or preexisting points of view; the question is whether or not we will allow these perspectives to prevent us from examining the evidence objectively.”
― J. Warner Wallace, Cold-Case Christianity: A Homicide Detective Investigates the Claims of the Gospels

“When we devote ourselves to this rational preparation and study, we are worshipping God with our mind, the very thing He has called us to do (Matt. 22:37).”
― J. Warner Wallace, Cold-Case Christianity: A Homicide Detective Investigates the Claims of the Gospels

“While we are often willing to spend time reading the Bible, praying, or participating in church programs and services, few of us recognize the importance of becoming good Christian case makers.”
― J. Warner Wallace, Cold-Case Christianity: A Homicide Detective Investigates the Claims of the Gospels

“First, if we live in a purely natural, physical world governed by the “cause and effect” relationships between chemical processes in our brains, “free will” is an illusion, and the idea of true moral choice is nonsensical. How can I, as a detective, hold a murderer accountable for a series of chemical reactions that occurred in his brain when he didn’t have the freedom to escape the causal chain of biological events?”
― J. Warner Wallace, Cold-Case Christianity: A Homicide Detective Investigates the Claims of the Gospels

“When we smuggle our conclusions into our investigation by beginning with them as an initial premise, we are likely to beg the question and end up with conclusions that match our presuppositions rather than reflect the truth of the matter.”
― J. Warner Wallace, Cold-Case Christianity: A Homicide Detective Investigates the Claims of the Gospels

“My friend J. Warner Wallace is one of the most thoughtful and winsome apologists for the gospel I know. Cold-Case Christianity is literally packed with insights to share with the skeptics in your life, and this book will give you the confidence to share it!” Dr. Rick Warren, author of The Purpose-Driven Life and pastor of Saddleback Church”
― J. Warner Wallace, Cold-Case Christianity: A Homicide Detective Investigates the Claims of the Gospels

“all of us have a point of view; all of us hold opinions and ideas that color the way we see the world. Anyone who tells you that he (or she) is completely objective and devoid of presuppositions has another more important”
― J. Warner Wallace, Cold-Case Christianity: A Homicide Detective Investigates the Claims of the Gospels

“Objectivity is paramount; this is the first principle of detective”
― J. Warner Wallace, Cold-Case Christianity: A Homicide Detective Investigates the Claims of the Gospels

“In fact, while other men within the culture often had more than one wife, the apostles allowed men to rise to leadership only if they limited themselves to one wife (1 Tim. 3:2).”
― J. Warner Wallace, Cold-Case Christianity: A Homicide Detective Investigates the Claims of the Gospels

“Compared to eternity, this mortal existence is but a vapor, created by God to be a wonderful place where love is possible for those who choose it.”
― J. Warner Wallace, Cold-Case Christianity: A Homicide Detective Investigates the Claims of the Gospels

“If there are good reasons why God might permit evil in this life (such as the preservation of free will and the ability to love genuinely), concerns about His failure to act are simply unreasonable. Doubts about God’s existence based on the problem of evil may have emotional appeal, but they lack rational foundation because reasonable explanations do, in fact, exist.”
― J. Warner Wallace, Cold-Case Christianity: A Homicide Detective Investigates the Claims of the Gospels

“The apostles never described themselves as wealthy; instead, they warned those who were rich that their wealth could indeed threaten their perspective on eternal matters. Like”
― J. Warner Wallace, Cold-Case Christianity: A Homicide Detective Investigates the Claims of the Gospels

“determine”
― J. Warner Wallace, Cold-Case Christianity: A Homicide Detective Investigates the Claims of the Gospels

“An inconvenient truth is preferable to a convenient lie.”
― J. Warner Wallace, Cold-Case Christianity (Updated & Expanded Edition): A Homicide Detective Investigates the Claims of the Gospels

“All of us ought to be willing to argue the merits of our case without resorting to tactics unbecoming of our worldviews.”
― J. Warner Wallace, Cold-Case Christianity: A Homicide Detective Investigates the Claims of the Gospels

“While we are often willing to spend time reading the Bible, praying, or participating in church programs and services, few of us recognize the importance of becoming good Christian case makers. Prosecutors are successful when they master the facts of the case and then learn how to navigate and respond to the tactics of the defense team. Christians need to learn from that model as well. We need to master the facts and evidence supporting the claims of Christianity and anticipate the tactics of those who oppose us. This kind of preparation is a form of worship. When we devote ourselves to this rational preparation and study, we are worshipping God with our mind, the very thing He has called us to do (Matt. 22:37). Section 2 Examine the Evidence Applying the principles of investigation to the claims of the New Testament”
― J. Warner Wallace, Cold-Case Christianity (Updated & Expanded Edition): A Homicide Detective Investigates the Claims of the Gospels

“The deaths of Peter, Paul, James, and John are very well attested, and the remaining martyrdom accounts of the apostles (with the possible exception of Matthias”
― J. Warner Wallace, Cold-Case Christianity: A Homicide Detective Investigates the Claims of the Gospels

“supernatural being exist?” after first excluding the possibility of anything supernatural. Like Alan, I came to a particular conclusion because I started with it as my premise. This is the truest definition of bias, isn’t it? Starting”
― J. Warner Wallace, Cold-Case Christianity: A Homicide Detective Investigates the Claims of the Gospels

“particular conclusion because I started with it as my premise. This”
― J. Warner Wallace, Cold-Case Christianity: A Homicide Detective Investigates the Claims of the Gospels

“We have to be careful, however, to distinguish between evidence and artifacts. The testimony of an eyewitness can be properly viewed as evidence, but anything added to the account after the fact should be viewed with caution as a possible artifact (something that exists in the text when it shouldn’t). The Gospels claim to be eyewitness accounts, but you may be surprised to find that there are a few added textual artifacts nestled in with the evidential statements. It appears that scribes, in copying the texts over the years, added lines to the narrative that were not there at the time of the original writing. Let me give you an example. Most of us are familiar with the biblical story in the gospel of John in which Jesus was presented with a woman who had been accused of committing adultery (John 8:1–11). The Jewish men who brought the woman to Jesus wanted her to be stoned, but Jesus refused to condemn her and told the men, “He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” When the men leave, Jesus tells the woman, “I do not condemn you, either. Go. From now on sin no more.” This story is one of my favorite passages in all of Scripture. Too bad that it appears to be an artifact. While the story may, in fact, be absolutely true, the earliest copies of John’s gospel recovered over the centuries fail to contain any part of it. The last verse of chapter 7 and the first eleven verses of chapter 8 are missing in the oldest manuscripts available to us. The story doesn’t appear until it is discovered in later copies of John’s gospel, centuries after the life of Jesus on earth. In fact, some ancient biblical manuscripts place it in a different location in John’s gospel. Some ancient copies of the Bible even place it in the gospel of Luke. While there is much about the story that seems consistent with Jesus’s character and teaching, most scholars do not believe it was part of John’s original account. It is a biblical artifact, and it is identified as such in nearly every modern translation of the Bible (where it is typically noted in the margin or bracketed to separate it from the reliable account).”
― J. Warner Wallace, Cold-Case Christianity: A Homicide Detective Investigates the Claims of the Gospels