by Lee Strobel
28. FIRE is an acronym for Fellowship for International Revival and Evangelism.
29. See Isaiah 42:4.
30. See 2 Chronicles 7:19–22.
31. See Daniel 9:24.
32. See Haggai 2:6–9.
33. See Malachi 3:1–5.
34. For a description of the time reckoning, see Michael L. Brown, Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus, vol. 1, General and Historical Objections (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker, 2000), 70–71.
35. See Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 98a.
36. Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34 report Jesus saying on the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” This is the first line of Psalm 22. In Jesus’ day, the Psalms were not numbered; people referred to them by their opening line.
37. See Psalm 22:27–31.
38. See Dueteronomy 18:15–22.
39. Torah, which means “teaching, instruction, law,” can refer to the first division of the Tanakh (the Old Testament) or the Oral Torah, which is composed of all rabbinic traditions related to the Written Torah and various legal aspects of the Jewish life. The traditions were first passed on orally before they were written down. See Browns, Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus, 1:255–56.
40. See Isaiah 53:10.
41. See Babylonian Talmud, Yoma 39a.
42. Ibid.
43. 1 Peter 2:24: “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.”
44. Midrash Ha-Chafetz to Leviticus 1:12, cited in Torah Shelemah 25:17 and by Joshua Berman, The Temple: Its Symbolism and Meaning Then and Now (Northvale, N.J.: Jason Aronson, 1995), 126.
45. Kaplan, Real Messiah? 4, 14.
46. See Mark 14:62.
47. See Deuteronomy 4:12, 15, 35; 6:4; Isaiah 43:10–11, 45:5–6, 46:9.
48. See Exodus 33:20.
49. See Genesis 32:30.
50. See Isaiah 6:1.
51. John 1:18, RSV.
52. John 10:30.
53. See John 10:36.
54. See Colossians 2:9.
55. See Isaiah 1:11–20; Amos 5:22–24; Psalm 51:17–19; Jeremiah 7:1–10; Micah 6:6–8.
56. Missionary Impossible, 4–5. Following the practice of some Jews, this document uses G-d rather than spell out God’s name. For references to repentance, see 2 Chronicles 7:14; Ezekiel 18 and 33; Jeremiah 36:3; Isaiah 55:6–7; and Jonah 3:10.
57. Matthew 3:2.
58. Luke 5:32.
59. See Mark 6:7–13.
60. Emphasis added.
61. See 1 Samuel 15:22.
62. Kaiser, Messiah in the Old Testament, 155.
63. For an early example, see Acts 8:26–39.
64. See Psalm 44.
65. See John 1:46.
66. See Matthew 21:13. The term “den of robbers” was a reference to Jeremiah 7:11: “Has this house, which bears my Name, become a den of robbers to you?”
67. See Acts 8:26–39.
68. See Matthew 5:39.
69. Isaiah 1:4. Isaiah also called Israel “a seed of an adulterer” in Isaiah 14:20 and “a seed of falsehood” in Isaiah 57:4.
70. “Seed” can mean: “As marked by moral quality = persons (or community) of such a quality.” See Francis Brown, S. Driver, and C. Briggs, The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon (New York: Oxford University Press, 1959), 283.
71. For the story of Louis S. Lapides, who was raised in a Jewish home but became a follower of Jesus largely based on Isaiah 53, see Strobel, Case for Christ, 171–87. Lapides is now the pastor of a California church and is the former president of a national network of messianic congregations.
72. See Matthew 1:22–23.
73. Rashi is an acronym for Rabbi Shlomo Yitschaki (1040–1105), considered the foremost Jewish commentator on the Tanakh (Old Testament) and Babylonian Talmud. Rashi did not personally believe that Isaiah prophesied a virgin birth. See Rabbi A. J. Rosenberg, Judaica Press Complete Tanach with Rashi, CD ROM ed. (New York: Davka Corporation and Judaica Press, 1999).
74. See 2 Samuel 12:24–25.
75. See Charles A. Briggs, Messianic Prophecy (New York: Scribner’s, 1889), 326, quoted in Kaiser, Messiah in the Old Testament, 112–13.
76. See Tovia Singer, “Judaism’s Response to Christian Missionaries,” www.out reachjudaism.org/like-a-lion.html (Dec. 27, 2006).
77. See William G. Braude, Pesikta Rabbati: Homiletical Discourses for Festal Days and Special Sabbaths, 2 vols. (New Haven: Yale, 1968), 680–87.
78. James E. Smith, What the Bible Teaches about the Promised Messiah (Nashville: Nelson, 1993), 146, quoted in Kaiser, Messiah in the Old Testament,113), cited in Michael L. Brown, Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus, vol. 3, Messianic Prophecy Objections (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker, 2003), 121.
79. “Did Jesus Fulfill Prophecies in Ways in Which the Jews at the Time Were Expecting?” Available at: www.whoisthisjesus.tv/qa.htmchallenge.xhtml#n_1" id="n1scholars (Dec. 27, 2006).
80. Kaiser, Messiah in the Old Testament, 232.
81. Norman L. Geisler, Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker, 1999), 613.
82. See Robert Kittel, Theologians under Hitler (New Haven: Yale, 1985).
83. See Edward H. Flannery, The Anguish of the Jews: Twenty-three Centuries of Anti-Semitism (New York: Paulist, 1985).
CHALLENGE #6: “PEOPLE SHOULD BE FREE TO PICK AND CHOOSE WHAT TO BELIEVE ABOUT JESUS”
1. Utne Reader (Aug. 1998).
2. Hanna Rosin, “Believers in God, If Not Church,” Washington Post (Jan. 18, 2000).
3. David Ian Miller, “Finding My Religion,” www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/g/a/2006/07/24/findrelig.DTL (Jan. 12, 2007).
4. Rosin, “Believers in God, If Not Church.”
5. James R. Edwards, Is Jesus the Only Savior? (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2005), 3.
6. “Mixing Religious Teachings,” CBS Poll (June 29, 2005), www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/06/29/opinion/polls/main705181.shtml (Jan. 4, 2007).
7. Cimino and Lattin, Shopping for Faith, 26.
8. “Mixing Religious Teachings,” CBS Poll.
9. Edwards, Is Jesus the Only Savior? 5.
10. Rosin, “Believers in God, If Not Church.”
11. Edwards, Is Jesus the Only Savior? 5.
12. Terry Mattingly, “Oprah and Her American Faith,” www.kitsapsun.com/bsun/fe_religion/article/0,2403,BSUN_19075_5269707,00.html (Jan. 11, 2007).
13. Ibid. Also see Marcia Nelson, The Gospel According to Oprah (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2005).
14. Miller, “Finding My Religion.”
15. “The Gospel According to Oprah,” www.wfial.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=artNewAge.article_1 (Jan. 5, 2007).
16. See John 18:38.
17. Andreas Köstenberger, gen. ed., Whatever Happened to Truth? (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway, 2005), 9.
18. See Romans 2:14–15.
19. See Romans 1:18–19.
20. See Luke 10:27, as well as Matthew 22:37 and Mark 12:30.
21. Cited in C. S. Lewis, ed., George MacDonald: An Anthology (New York: Macmillan, 1978), 7.
22. For a discussion of the topic, “A Loving God Would Never Torture People in Hell,” see Strobel, Case for Faith, 169–94.
23. Shirley MacLaine, Out on a Limb (New York: Bantam, 1983), 347.
24. See Psalm 31:15.
25. See Keith Windschuttle, The Killing of History (San Francisco: Encounter, 2000).
26. Luke 1:3–4: “Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.”
27. See Larry W. Hurtado, Lord Jesus Christ: Devotion to Jesus in Earliest Christianity (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2003).
28. Revised Standard Version.
29. See Matthew 7:1–5.
30. “Straightening the Reco
rd: Some Response to Critics,” Modern Theology 6 (Jan. 1990), 187.
31. See Romans 12:19–21 and Matthew 5:43–48.
32. Bryan Appleyard, “Is Sin Good?” The Sunday Times Magazine (April 11, 2004).
33. J. Fletcher, “Sin in Contemporary Literature,” Theology Today 50.2 (1993), 254.
34. Alan Mann, Atonement for a “Sinless” Society (Waynesboro, Ga.: Paternoster, 2005), 26.
35. See Karl Menninger, Whatever Became of Sin? (New York: Hawthorn, 1973).
36. John Shelby Spong, Why Christianity Must Change or Die (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1999), 95.
37. Edwards, Is Jesus the Only Savior? 151.
38. See Matthew 18:21–35.
39. Romans 6:23: “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
40. John 3:14–15: “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”
41. See John 10:11–18.
42. See 2 Corinthians 5:18–19.
43. John Stott, The Cross of Christ (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity, 1986), 160.
44. See Romans 8:3–4.
45. Dan Kimball, They Like Jesus, but Not the Church (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 2007), 30.
46. Cathleen Falsani, The God Factor (New York: Sarah Crichton, 2006), 9.
47. See Hebrews 10:24–25.
48. See Galatians 5:22–23.
49. Köstenberger, Whatever Happened to Truth? 76.
50. 1 John 5:13 (emphasis added).
CONCLUSION: “DISCOVERING THE REAL JESUS”
1. Michka Assayas, Bono: In Conversation with Michka Assayas (New York: Riverhead, 2005), 206.
2. Anne Rice, “Author’s Note” in: Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt (New York: Knopf, 2005), 305–22.
3. Ibid., 312.
4. This idea of skepticism not equaling scholarship comes from Evans, Fabricating Jesus, 17.
5. Ibid., 15.
6. Ibid., 15–16.
7. Ibid., 16.
8. Ibid.
9. Quotes by Charlesworth, Dunn, Meier, O’Collins, and Theissen are found in the opening, unnumbered pages of Evans, Fabricating Jesus.
10. Ben Witherington III, What Have They Done with Jesus? (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2006), 1.
11. Ibid., 2.
12. Larry Hurtado, Lord Jesus Christ: Devotion to Jesus in Earliest Christianity (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2003), 2.
13. Ibid., 3.
14. Ibid., 2.
15. See Richard Bauckham, Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2006). The quote from Wright appears on the back cover.
16. Evans, Fabricating Jesus, 17.
17. Ibid., from opening, unnumbered pages.
18. C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (New York: HarperCollins, revised and amplified edition, 2001), 196–97.
19. Three verses from the New Testament book of Romans are often used to sum up the Gospel. Romans 3:23: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Romans 6:23: “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 10:13: “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
20. Don Everts, Jesus With Dirty Feet (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity, 1999), 26–27.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thanks for pausing at this page so I can let you know how indebted I am to the many people who helped me create this book. I am thankful that the scholars I interviewed—Craig A. Evans, Daniel B. Wallace, Michael Licona, Edwin Yamauchi, Michael L. Brown, and Paul Copan—were willing to share their time and expertise with me. Also, Mark Mittelberg, my ministry partner for twenty years, was invaluable as always, contributing advice, feedback, and encouragement along the way. Garry Poole and my daughter, Alison Morrow, helped hone the final manuscript. My precocious granddaughter, Abigail Morrow, provided much-needed diversions from time to time. Everyone at Zondervan—especially Doug Lockhart, Scott Bolinder, John Sloan, Bob Hudson, Leslie Speyers, Mark Rice, Scott Heagle, and the editorial, design, marketing, publicity, and sales teams—offered incredible support. I’m blessed to be associated with such a great publisher. Finally, my wife Leslie; our son Kyle and his wife Kelli; and our daughter Alison and her husband Dan Morrow were constant sources of love and encouraging words. God’s best to all of you!
MEET LEE STROBEL
Atheist-turned-Christian Lee Strobel, the former award-winning legal editor of the Chicago Tribune, is a New York Times bestselling author of nearly twenty books and has been interviewed on numerous national television networks, including ABC, PBS, CNN, and Fox.
Described by the Washington Post as “one of the evangelical community’s most popular apologists,” Lee shared the prestigious Charles “Kip” Jordon Christian Book of the Year award in 2005 for a curriculum he coauthored about the movie The Passion of the Christ. He also has won Gold Medallions for his books The Case for Christ, The Case for Faith, The Case for a Creator, and Inside the Mind of Unchurched Harry and Mary.
Lee was educated at the University of Missouri (Bachelor of Journalism degree, 1974) and Yale Law School (Master of Studies in Law degree, 1979). He was a professional journalist for fourteen years at the Chicago Tribune and other newspapers, winning Illinois’ top honors for investigative reporting (which he shared with a team he led) and public service journalism from United Press International.
A former teaching pastor at two of America’s largest churches, Lee also was executive producer and host of the weekly national television program Faith under Fire. In addition, he taught First Amendment law at Roosevelt University. In 2007 he was honored by the conferring of a Doctor of Divinity degree from Southern Evangelical Seminary.
Lee and Leslie have been married for thirty-five years and live in Southern California. Their daughter, Alison, is a novelist whose second book, Violette Between, was published in 2006. Their son, Kyle, holds two master’s degrees (philosophy of religion and New Testament) and is pursuing a doctorate in theology at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. His first book, Metamorpha: Jesus as a Way of Life, was published in 2007.
Lee’s free e-newsletter, “Investigating Faith,” is available at LeeStrobel.com.
About the Publisher
Founded in 1931, Grand Rapids, Michigan–based Zondervan, a division of HarperCollins Publishers, is the leading international Christian communications company, producing bestselling Bibles, books, new media products, and award-winning children’s products. The world’s largest Bible publisher, Zondervan (www.zondervan.com) holds exclusive publishing rights to the New International Version of the Bible and has distributed more than 215 million copies worldwide. It is also one of the top Christian publishers in the world, selling its award-winning books through Christian retailers, general market bookstores, mass merchandisers, specialty retailers, and the Internet. Zondervan has received a total of 73 ECPA Medallion of Excellence (formerly Gold Medallion) awards for its books, more than any other publisher.
We want to hear from you. Please sendyour comments about this ebook to us in care of [email protected]. Thank you.