Photograph: A painting, The Baptism of the Christ, by Daniel Bonnell, called The Baptism of the Christ.  Used with permission. It represents the beginning and the end of Christ’s ministry:  The Baptism relates to the Crucifixion because it represents a dying and rising.  The original is in Saint George’s Cathedral in Jerusalem.  This version hangs in a humble and small African-American Church in South Carolina.  Another version hangs in the Mayo Clinic entrance in Minnesota.  Daniel Bonnell teaches art to at-risk inner city high school students.

If you’re getting to know Jesus, exploring why he is real and important, here are some resources below that can help.

The Resurrection of Jesus:  Was It a Legend that Developed Over Time?

Slides to a presentation examining the claim — at one time held by New Testament scholar Bart Herman — that the New Testament literature reveal a “growth of legend” over the course of a few decades. This theory holds that Jesus was “spiritually raised” in his disciples’ hearts, which then became a claim to be bodily raised from the tomb, decorated with legendary embellishments in the four Gospels. This presentation challenges this view on literary, historical, and sociological grounds. The argument incorporates the previous material linked here, that the story about Jesus’ resurrection could not have been invented in a Jewish context, nor a Greco-Roman context.

Human Dignity: Does Every Human Being Matter?

A long essay arguing that science, philosophy, existentialism, and other belief systems do not support the view that every human being matters; only a robustly Trinitarian Christian faith anchored in the patristic formulation of medical-ontological atonement can. A 30 - 40 minute read.

Does the Bible Have Evidence of Supernatural Design?

Links to a page on our website containing a discussion guide. The Bible’s contents are revolutionary, from a sociological and historical perspective. Not only is the internal coherence of the Bible impressive, but the dignity of human beings, the equal value of men and women, the appearance of monogamy and the importance of marriage over family of origin, the condemnation of scapegoating and land-hoarding and debt-slavery, etc.

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