Non-fiction isn't my strong suit, even though I'm hoping that it would be over time. XD The Case for Christ intrigued me from start to finish (it tookNon-fiction isn't my strong suit, even though I'm hoping that it would be over time. XD The Case for Christ intrigued me from start to finish (it took me months to continue, though *facepalms*), and I've learned so much. I already feel like reading some of the stuff all over again just to keep it more solid in my head, haha. It answered so many questions that have been in my mind for some time, and even answered questions I didn't know could be questioned! So, for my own keeps sake, don't mind me here storing a bunch of quotes down below! ;)
#2 - Testing the Eyewitness evidence The Consistency Test "My own conviction is, once you've allowed for the elements I've talked about earlier--of paraphrase, of abridgement, of explanatory additions, of selection, of omission--the gospels are extremely consistent with each other by ancient standards, which are the only standards by which it's fair to judge them."
“Ironically," I pointed out, "if the gospels had been identical to each other, word for word, this would have raised charges that the authors had conspired among themselves to coordinate their stories in advance, and that would have cast doubt on them.”
#5 - The Scientific Evidence Spiritual truths cannot be proved or disproved by archaeological discoveries.
#6 - The Rebuttal Evidence Giving Evidence a Fair Hearing [context of this one quote: the Jesus Seminar] "Everyone would agree that you don't appeal to supernatural causes if you don't have to," Boyd said. "But these scholars go beyond that and say you don't ever have to. They operate under the assumption that everything in history has happened according to their own experiences, and since they've never seen the supernatural, they assume miracles have never occurred in history.
"Here's what they do: they rule out the possibility of the supernatural from the beginning, and then they say, 'Now bring on the evidence about Jesus.' No wonder they get the results they do!"
History versus Faith "But listen: Jesus is not a symbol of anything unless he's rooted in history." "The theological truth is based on historical truth." "I don't want to base my life on a symbol," he said resolutely. "I want reality, and the Christian faith has always been rooted in reality. What's not rooted in reality is the faith of liberal scholars. They're the ones who are following a pipe dream, but Christianity is not a pipe dream."
Combining History and Faith “It's like this: if you love a person, your love goes beyond the facts of that person, but it's rooted in the facts about that person. For example, you love your wife because she's gorgeous, she's nice, she's sweet, she's kind. All these things are facts about your wife, and therefore you love her.
"But your love goes beyond that. You can know all these things about your wife and not be in love with her and put your trust in her, but you do. So the decision goes beyond the evidence, yet it is there also on the basis of the evidence. So it is with falling in love with Jesus. 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.”
LOL, there are so many more but I think I'll stick with highlighting the book for now. ...more
