TRUSTING a God Inspired Future

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband; and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling of God is with men. He will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away." And he who sat upon the throne said, "Behold I make all things new." Also he said, "Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true." And he said to me, "It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the fountain of the water of life without payment. He who conquers shall have this heritage, and I will be his God and he shall be my son. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the polluted, as for murderers, fornicators, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their lot shall be in the lake that burns with fire and sulphur, which is the second death.”  Revelation 21:1-8

What a glorious vision of the future.  I frequently read this passage of Scripture when the world seems to be closing in around me, things are out of my control, which they usually are most of the time.  Christ’s vision to the apostle John, helps realign my thinking, sharpen my focus and brings me front and center with who is in control of my destiny.  I trust this promise… I trust Him… I hope you do as well.

If you are a passionate Christian now, today, then you are a citizen of a future Age.  Coming to terms with that concept now is good advice.  This is especially so, as we see things happening all around us, everywhere in the world there are troubles that look like the Biblical signs of the end times.  Sometime we find ourselves overly concerned about this world – we fret over social issues,  unisex bathrooms, governments, political leaders and even religious oppression.  We so easily forget what’s really happening… God is in control and working His plan for a New Future! 

Paul encourages us to adopt a new way of thinking in Colossians 3:1-4…  If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.  Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.  For you have died, and your life is hid with Christ in God.  When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

In other words, if our resurrection with Christ is so sure as virtually to have already happened, then we are to live in the constant consciousness that we are citizens of a future Age. We are to set our minds on that Age. We are not to be conformed to this age, but are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds.  And that renewing means conformed and focused on the things important for living in the Age to come, because God says… ”Behold I make all things new” (Revelation 21:5)  

Pondering the greatness of the future Age enables us to shed the things that drag us down in this life.  Being a faithful Christian is about many things… but maybe at the forefront, is mastering God’s vision of our future, accepting that this life in this wicked world is temporary, thereby allowing us to acknowledge that it is passing away.  We can then confidently anchor our hope in God promise… that He is ushering in a new and better future.  Coming Soon!  Previews in the Bible!  

  

Romans 6:5 says… "If we have been united with Christ in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his." What does that involve for us and for the creation?

Christ died for all humanity.  His sacrificial love is at the core of what God is planning for our journey to the future Age. 

Imagine if you will… somebody falls out of an airplane with no parachute and you want to help! But you don’t have one either.  You aren't going to jump out in an attempt to save them without some means of security. It won't do any good.  You both will fall to your deaths. But if you have a parachute on, you just might try one of those awesome rescue attempts like you see in the movies, and free fall like a bullet through the sky, catch the helpless person and pull your cord and drift to earth safely. It's the hope of safety and security in the end that releases radical, sacrificial love.

Paul said in Colossians 1:4-5… "We have heard of the love you have for all the saints because of the hope laid up for you in heaven."  It's the assurance of the “hope of heaven” that releases radical, risk-taking love that makes people look at life (like Peter says) and "ask a reason for the hope that is in you" (1 Peter 3:15). 

What do people see when they ask that question about you? Do they see you jumping out of an airplane to save another person?  Maybe not that extreme, but what about helping the poor in your community?  Traveling to places on earth that are not safe to help spread the gospel?  Non-believers will see our actions and think to themselves… “Hey, how can that person step out of their security, comfort and safety, sacrificing money and personal possessions to help people they don’t even know?" “In the end, they’ll have no savings, nothing for retirement… they will have wasted their lives on people who just take advantage of their kindness.”

What will your answer be?  Simply… "I have a parachute called the hope of glory.”

Signs of Life... a Better One?

The Lord Jesus Christ said in Matthew 25:3-12... “Because of the increasing of lawlessness the love of the greater number will cool off.” Who does this apply to and does it have anything to do with the closing of many churches in recent years? 

IF YOU could analyze empathy... the ability to understand and share the feelings of another, to care about another person’s problems and the moral standards of today, what would you discover?

You would see a steady downward trend. A growing permissiveness in societies. Without a doubt, moral standards are being increasingly undermined by cultural and attitude changes.  What bothered people 25 or 50 years ago, has little impact today.  As for empathy – caring about another person, well that seems to have gone as well.  You may from time to time briefly see examples of caring for others, maybe in response to a natural disaster, but generally, humanity shows little concern for the well being of one another.  Why is this happening? What is the real significance of this?

Does it mean, as some individuals claim, that our entire civilization and all mankind are doomed, nearing self-annihilation? Or are such changes just part of the normal ebb and flow of human relations throughout history?

The latter is what many people think. They view the moral breakdown of our time as just a trend, one of many that have come and gone throughout history. They fully expect that the pendulum will eventually swing back and that higher moral standards will return. Are they correct?

Consider the reality of today’s world and human relations in the light of a book that for centuries was a widely accepted authority on moral issues—God’s Word, the Bible. It is very enlightening to compare today’s world with the prophetic description that the Bible gives of the most decisive era in human history. This is the time period it calls “the last days” or ‘“the end times.” (2 Timothy 3:1; Matthew 24:3) As these passages suggest, this time in human history may well be the end of one world and the birth of another new one.

God’s Word provides insight into what we can expect in the last days.  The time period before the return of Christ would be difficult for people deal with. To help watchful observers to identify these times, the Bible gives a number of details that together provide a clear description, or composite sign, of this unique time in human history.

One of the clear signs that this age is marching to confrontation with God is recorded in 2 Timothy 3: 2-5 where Paul says this… “People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.” No other period in history has been characterized by such powerful and complete secularization. God has been widely rejected as the legitimate authority on matters of living and morality, and even worse, most people reject the Bible as the only authoritative and absolute source of truth. Of course, many religions still exist, but most have little influence on human behavior and attitudes. They only serve to sooth and tickle the ears of so-called Christians who have no real commitment to God and certainly do not wish to be governed by Him. (2 Timothy 4:3-4)

The Bible mentions another aspect of humanities decline… “Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved” (Matthew 24:12)  The Greek translation here means, among other things, “lacking human sympathy and feeling.”  Is that not the case in almost every sector of humanity?  People do not care for one another and when faced with adversity, lashing out is the common response.

People today are self-centered; self-willed; self-absorbed; just plain selfish.  Greed is no longer an unsavory human quality, its held in high esteem. Without regard for others, people with means and opportunity, even dishonest ones, grab as much personal gain as can be had to satisfy their selfish desires. The pursuit of money is the most important thing in many people’s lives. In this selfish pursuit, other values are ignored.

Besides describing the breakdown in human values, the Bible also speaks of the last days being marked by extraordinary upheavals that would affect the human family. It says, for example… “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places, and fearful events and great signs from heaven” (Luke 21:10-11).

With the exception of for the 20th century, there has never been a period in history when so many people have been involved in so many world-shaking catastrophes during such a limited span of time. The 20th century gave us two wars so different from any others that they are known as world wars.  Wars in which well over 100 million people were killed, a figure many times greater than the casualties in several previous centuries combined. Global conflicts like these had never occurred before

Humanity has been and continues to be under the influence of God’s adversary… Satan. The Devil is described in the Bible as ….the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. (Ephesians 2:2) This implies that the Devil exercises a powerful influence on many humans, usually without their noticing it, just as we sometimes may not notice an unhealthy pollutant in the air.

For example, Satan’s influence is seen in many modern means of communication: videos, gaming, movies, television, the Internet, advertising, books, magazines, and newspapers. It’s not the devices or the methods of communication, but the lurid content and suggestive influences of various themes that are threatening.  Much material, especially that focused on unsuspecting youth, is filled with extreme and repugnant trends, such as racism, occultism, immorality, and sadistic violence.

Things have to change or humanity will continue to spiral downward.  One cannot ignore the similarities between the description the Bible gives of the last days and the actual circumstances we see in the world today. There is no arguing that there have been events in history before the 20th century that in lesser ways seemed to fit the Bible’s description of the last days. But it is only during the 20th century, and now the 21st century, that all the elements of the Biblical signs can be observed happening at the same time.

What is to come?  Neither those who believe that mankind will be destroyed nor those who claim that things will continue the way they always have are correct. Instead, the Bible clearly shows that the present world, societies and governments, dominating the earth will be swept away and “all things will be made new.”  (Revelation 21:5; 21:1-8)

Christ returns… cleanses the earth of wickedness, eliminates the negative powers of Satan and restores man to God’s original purpose… eternal life in a paradise!

That day will not be the end of the story… just the beginning.

FOOD for the Mind... Feeble as it seems to be!

Where did the Bible go? Prominent author finds ‘alternative version of Christianity’ in mega-type churches

Veteran religion reporter Kenneth A. Briggs is author of "The Invisible Bestseller: Searching for the Bible in America.” RNS photo by Emily McFarlan Miller

INTERVIEW BY EMILY MCFARLAN MILLER - Religion News Service

Kenneth A. Briggs has been on the “Godbeat” for years, as a religion reporter for Newsday, as religion editor at The New York Times and now as a contributor to the National Catholic Reporter.

In that time, the lifelong Methodist has seen the Bible “become a museum exhibit, hallowed as a treasure but enigmatic and untouched,” he writes in his book “The Invisible Bestseller: Searching for the Bible in America.”

And so Briggs set out on a two-year, cross-country journey to investigate the Bible’s disappearance from public life and see where he could find it still. He’s documented that journey in “The Invisible Bestseller,” released this month by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

Along the way, he met a homiletics professor who encouraged her students to explore the text by exchanging roles with the characters in biblical accounts, and he came across professors at evangelical colleges surprised by how little their incoming students knew about the Bible. He attended a meeting of Bible promoters in Orlando, Fla., worried nobody was reading their tomes; the academic Society of Biblical Literature convention in Chicago; and a traditional Presbyterian church in Pennsylvania. He was deeply moved by his visit to a federal prison in upstate New York, where, he said, the inmates knew the Bible better than he did.

Briggs spoke with RNS about what he has learned. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Q: When you say the Bible is disappearing from public life, what do you mean?

A: Well, people aren’t reading it very much, and it just doesn’t show up in – as they love to say – public discourse. It doesn’t really make many appearances, and it is not in the public consciousness. The Bible is kind of off the public grid in a way I’ve never experienced before.

Q: In all your travels and all the the different places you went looking for the Bible, was there any place where you were expecting to see the Bible where it wasn’t?

A: In the mega-type churches – the churches that were really heavily loaded with the visual and the audio and the rest of the electronic stuff, the music – I was really stunned by what I saw as that alternative version of Christianity being delivered through those means. I didn’t consider it biblical in the fullest sense. I thought it was highly stylized – the versions of Jesus, who Jesus was, being filtered through these videos – and, in some way, I found almost shocking in how they seemed to vary from the much fuller picture that exists in the New Testament. So I was surprised by that.

Q: Where were you most surprised to find the Bible?

A: I don’t know if there were any major surprises, but I would find within the groups of people that I would be with that there were some people who took an approach to it that was quite – I hate to use the word “serious,” but they were quite engaged with it. They really wanted to know what it was. That was the more surprising thing. A lot of Bible study is just kind of either rote learning or what they used to call the “banking system of education,” where the banker hands out stuff and everybody takes it and leaves.

One of the people I spent a little bit of time with was Anna Carter Florence, who teaches homiletics at Columbia Theological Seminary in Georgia. She’s a rather interesting person who got her inspiration by being in repertory theater at Yale, and she has brought that to the preaching thing. That’s what Bible study can be: where people actually exchange roles and say, “You be Sarah,” to loosen up the process enough to really allow the questioning if it’s going to become personal.

Q: What does it say about us, that despite the diminished role of the Bible, it’s still listed in Guinness World Records as the world’s best-selling book?

A: We still love it to some extent as an artifact, as a keepsake, as a gift to people we think do read the Bible even though we may not, so it remains very popular that way and something almost like – I don’t want to say quite “rabbit’s foot,” but it’s sort of like that. Every home should have at least one, and the average is between four and five.

Q: What would you say is the Bible’s current position in American public life, and how have you seen that change? What was it before?

A: It’s largely unknown. By that same token, it’s discoverable, and it’s not assumed anymore that people know about it.  It used to be something people thought they ought to know something about, and they did largely know the do’s and don’ts when the Bible was regarded, at the very least, as a rule book that gave you the moral guidelines to get into heaven or to lead a decent life, not to be cynical about it.

Q: How do you think this has impacted us as a culture and the way we engage in religion and politics and public life?

A: One thing we miss in this is the potential to enlarge our minds and hearts and spirits. I think the Bible is the springboard to opening all kinds of ideas, thoughts, beliefs about what our life is about. And I think without it, it narrows our perspective and gives us a much more truncated view of what the possibilities are. I don’t think we’re getting as much of the larger picture by avoiding the source that has been that pathway to all kinds of discovery. (It’s been the pathway to) entertaining most profound thoughts about what possibly we might belong to beyond ourselves or our immediate communities.

Q: You write in the book about the emergence of “Bible-less Christianity.” Can you talk about how you see that play out in American culture?

A: The background, of course, is that the Reformation gave at least a segment of Christians access to the Bible in a way that hadn’t happened before. Most of our history has been a rather Bible-less Christianity that was dictated or defined mostly by the hierarchical church, not by people who read the Bible. … We gained the freedom to approach it, and then in the current age, we have ceded that exploration to media, to entertainment forms, to prepackaged interpretations that are delivered in video, audio and pulpit forms so that there’s a substitute Bible that isn’t the Bible, per se, at the same time that people aren’t reading.  

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Not Your Father’s Church?

On April 3, 2009 a Newsweek article entitled “The End of Christian America” floated some pretty startling facts about the traditional makeup of our nation. “The number of Americans who claim no religious affiliation has nearly doubled since 1990.” The question then arose, if the national average of nonreligious people doubled in 10 years, will we still be able to call ourselves a Christian nation in a decade? As Newsweek put it, “America’s religious culture was cracking.”

People who study church growth... say that 80 to 85 percent of the churches in America are in decline. As many as 100,000 churches could close in the next 5-10 years.  That is a startling prediction, since there are about 314,000 traditional, conservative and evangelical churches in America, that would mean nearly one-in-three will close their doors in the next decade.  

Well it’s 2016 and sure enough, many many churches are nearing empty. Millennials are the largest generation of Americans to date and according to a fairly recent Pew Research polling... “millennials are less religious,” and the least likely to be found warming a pew.

At one point, the church experience offered young adults everything they needed: community, networks, a common lingo, automatic friendships, structure, discipline and a place to be social. Think of it. Once upon a time Robert, the bible toting, blue collar worker married Lisa, the budding pianist because they both went to and met at the same church. Today there are dating and match-making apps like Tinder and OKCupid. As for community and social events, we read our news on our phones and keep track of the world around us on Facebook and Twitter.

We find everything we possibly need in venues that aren’t the church. We take classes online and work from home offices.  This is all to illustrate that those structures that used to be necessary to bring us together are all as invisible as the internet waves and as ephemeral as pop up beer gardens.

Pew Research identifies that while Millennials are much less religious than their parents and grandparent’s generations, they are no less spiritual. In fact spirituality is on the rise.

“Millennials are more likely to have a “do-it-yourself” attitude toward religion.”

What does “do it yourself” spirituality look like? Well maybe it looks like an app. To date, Bible apps have been downloaded around the world more than 1.2 billion times. These apps are unique in that they offer many versions and translations of the Bible. They’ve partnered with publishers and conservative media outlets to offer devotionals. 

Millennials are critical of the Bible apps, saying the media is pointed at Christians only who identify as the alt-right or conservative. The apps project an idea of spirituality surrounded by too much religious packaging like dogma, church denominations, rigid moral consequences and theological interpretations. That is so not millennial thinking. Millennials don’t want to be told by an institution what to believe about abortion, gay rights, and the death penalty. They don’t want to be hit over the head by yet another person’s personal beliefs.  Try telling a millennial that the institutions... the Church... is only passing on what God says about living in harmony with Him, and they will turn a deaf ear to what they see as out-dated, old fashioned, irrelevant dogma. 

This generation, walking away from the church, are counter culturists, independent thinkers, self-starters, off-the-grid entrepreneurs and anything but conventional. 

Millennials are trying to understand their identity, their worth and where they fit into this world. They of course want to do it morally [self-defined of course] and with the sense that they are not alone in their quest. They want to know less about religious structure and more about spiritual application.  That sentiment is more about self and feeling good about who they are, what they do, what they believe, i.e. mutual validation... akin to another generations deception... “You’re okay... I’m okay.”

Church becoming accessible by an app on a phone maybe a radical idea, but it’s NOT a replacement for a relationship with God.  Nor does technology offer any semblance of grounding in the blueprint for His Church... how it is to be and how it is to act. (Acts 2:41-47)

The mobile Bible is just that, only words in digital form accessible anywhere.  Convenient, yes, but it is NOT an assembly of like-minded believers in God who seek to conform their lives to Biblical ways and means of living.  If one does not apply what those “words mean” to their lives, then one’s efforts to be spiritual will be a big waste of time.

Technology does not replace the fellowship and community of a church assembly.  

YOU... no matter your age or generation –– are the Church!  You don’t get there, by self-declaration that you are “spiritual” and interested in spiritual things.  YOU get there, by giving your life over to Christ... in total and complete unwavering commitment.  (Acts 2:38) YOU accept God on His terms, not yours! Then you live for Him, guided by Him!  YOU do Church, YOU be the Church... HIS way, period!

New Book: History Is 'Entirely Incompatible' With Islam

A NEW BOOK REVIEW...

An American Muslim who investigated the historical evidence for Islam and Christianity discovered an astounding truth: the evidence is "entirely incompatible" with Islam, while it supports the three greatest arguments for Christianity.

"It was not just that history did not support the traditional narratives of Islam, but rather that history proved to be entirely incompatible with Islamic origins," writes Nabeel Qureshi (emphasis his), author of the book No God But One: Allah or Jesus? A Former Muslim Investigates the Evidence for Islam & Christianity. The book, released Tuesday, provides a deep investigation of the key differences between the two faiths and delves into the historical evidence (or lack thereof) for each.

Qureshi investigates five basic claims, each disputed by either side. He asks the question of whether there is enough evidence that "an objective observer" would conclude in favor of Christianity or Islam. The arguments for Christianity: that Jesus died on the cross, that his disciples believed he rose from the dead, and that he claimed to be God. The arguments for Islam: that Muhammad is a prophet of Allah, and that the Quran is inspired by Allah.

As the Quran is the "why" of the Islamic faith, I will begin there, and move to Muhammad. Then, I will dive into Qureshi's arguments for Christianity.

1. Is the Quran the word of God?

The Quran is more important to Muslims than the Bible is to Christians — so much so that burning the Quran invites anger and even violence, while no one riots when the Bible is burnt. Qureshi lays out five common arguments for the inspiration of the Quran: its literary excellence, its fulfilled prophecies, the miraculous scientific knowledge in the text, mathematical marvels, and the perfect preservation of the book across the centuries.

Most of these arguments come down to a subjective twisting of the Quranic text. Many so-called prophecies are quoted out of context, and the one clear prophecy was predictable and took too long to occur. The miraculous scientific knowledge is also used out of context, and relies on rejecting specific scientific statements which have been proven false. Finally, in order to argue for mathematical wonders in the text, Muslims have to reject the rules of Arabic grammar and discard entire verses from the Quran.

This draws the literary excellence of the Quran into doubt. Qureshi quotes the scholar Gerd Puin, an expert on the Arabic of the Quran: "Every fifth sentence or so simply doesn't make sense." At every turn, when a challenger would attack the literary excellence of the text, Muslims would redefine the test to protect it from scrutiny. In the end, this claim to literary excellence is subjective — it will not convince someone who does not already believe it.

Finally, the history of the Quran is fraught with mistakes. Qureshi tells the story of the Caliph Uthman (ruled 644-655 A.D.), who recalled all Quranic manuscripts, burned them all, and issued official, standardized copies. Records of dissenting Muslims persist to this day.

Also, when the Quran — which was originally oral — was first being written down, some chapters were nearly lost, and great reciters of the Quran such as Ubay and Abdullah ibn Masud (who was named by Muhammad as one of the four best teachers of the Quran) disagreed with the final written text. Some of the Muslim world still has Qurans with readings different from the best known version, which was promulgated in 1924 – the Royal Cairo Edition.

2. Is Muhammad the prophet of God?

The Shahada, or Islamic statement of faith, is one of the five pillars of Islam, and it declares, "There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his messenger." Qureshi listed three main arguments for Muhammad's prophethood: his excellent life and character, Bible prophecies about him, and miraculous scientific knowledge.

As stated above, the claims to scientific knowledge are very problematic. One particular section in the Quran which Muslims argue to be uniquely ahead of its time deals with embryology — how a baby develops in the womb. Yet the terms in the verses are far from scientific, and the requisite knowledge long predates Muhammad: Aristotle's On the Generation of Animals is more scientific and detailed, and came 1,000 years before Islam. Also, the Greek scientist Galen shows a similarly nuanced scientific description clearer than Muhammad's.

The Bible prophecies that Muslims claim to be about Muhammad are clearly about Jesus and the Holy Spirit, when studied in context. In Deuteronomy 18, God promises to lift up "a prophet from among their brethren," which Muslims interpret as meaning "from the tribe of the brother of Isaac, i.e. Ishmael." But the text in question clearly refers to the Israelites, and the word translated "brethren" means "countrymen." Indeed, a section right before this promise explicitly differentiates between foreigners and Israelites. This verse promises a Jewish prophet, not an Ismaelite one.

Similarly, Muslims point to John 16:12-14, where Jesus says that he has many things to say to the disciples, but they cannot bear them. He will therefore send "the Spirit of truth" to them. The word for spirit of truth is parakletos, which Muslims claim is similar to periklutos, which means "the praised one," which is what Muhammad means in Arabic. The problem with this should be evident to any Christian — The Holy Spirit is not Muhammad, but the third person of the Trinity. The context makes this very clear.

Finally — and most importantly — the records for Muhammad's life are late and historically unreliable, but the image they show is not that of a virtuous founder. Qureshi takes only stories from one of the most reliable texts, the Sahih Muslim, to demonstrate this. When Muhammad learns of his prophethood, he becomes suicidal, something no prophet in the Old or New Testaments did upon seeing an angel.

Most strikingly, however, Muhammad embraced warfare, saying that "fighting is literally the best thing in the world." He led battles against unarmed cities, he allowed women and children to be killed in raids, and he even consummated his marriage with his nine-year-old bride Aisha at the ripe old age of 52. He allowed his men to have sex with female slaves, he declared women mentally deficient compared to men, and he said women are the majority of hell's inhabitants because they are ungrateful to their husbands. Those don't sound like the acts of a moral exemplar to Qureshi.

3. Did Jesus die on the cross?

Muslims claim that Jesus was a prophet, and that he did not die on the cross. Qureshi presented two arguments for this position: the theistic swoon theory and the substitution theory. The Quran states, "They did not kill him, nor did they crucify him, but it was made to appear so to them." (Surah 4.157) Some Muslims argue that Jesus was put on the cross, did not die there — he was miraculously sustained by Allah. Others claim that another person, most likely Simon of Cyrene, was made to appear like Jesus and died in his place.

The problems with these theories prove to be manifold. Atheist and agnostic scholars conclude that Jesus did die on the cross, and Qureshi quotes three of them on the subject. John Dominic Crossan, in particular, wrote, "That he was crucified is as sure as anything historical can ever be." Jesus' death by crucifixion is reported by Christians (in the Gospels and the Epistles), a Roman historian (Tacitus), and a Jewish historian (Josephus).

Furthermore, the stigma of crucifixion was not something Christians would have chosen in order to convert skeptical Romans. Not only is the method of death literally excruciating (it would take hours to die), no one had ever survived it, and it was also fundamentally degrading. Qureshi notes the ancient Roman graffiti which mocks a Christian known as Alexamenos by showing him worshipping a crucified man with the head of a donkey.

"No one has ever survived a full Roman crucifixion, and had Jesus done so, that would have been a much more appealing message for the early church to proclaim than was the stumbling block of a crucified Savior," Qureshi concludes.

4. Did Jesus rise from the dead?

Similarly, Qureshi argues that Jesus' resurrection is the best explanation of three important historical facts: Jesus died by crucifixion, Jesus' followers truly believed the risen Jesus had appeared to them, and that people who were not followers of Jesus at the time truly believed the risen Jesus had appeared to them.

These facts are fairly straightforward. The crucifixion is well-documented, and the New Testament includes the stories of disciples believing that Jesus appeared to them, and encouraging an investigator to ask the surviving witnesses. The story of Jesus' brother James corroborates that people who did not follow Christ at the time of his crucifixion later believed his resurrection, sincerely enough to die for their beliefs.

The story of the Apostle Paul, who went from killing Christians to leading them, and who gave up a position of great authority as student of Gamaliel — and ultimately, even his life — to lead a fledgling persecuted movement also provides strong evidence for Paul's sincere belief in the resurrection. Muslims claim that Paul invented the doctrine of Jesus' resurrection and his godhood, but the book of Acts shows him submitting himself to the teaching of the other disciples.

While some arguments aim to deny the resurrection, each fail. Bereavement hallucinations do indeed occur, but never for five hundred people at one time. If the disciples had stolen Jesus' body from the tomb, they would not have submitted to death for their belief in him. The only theory that best fits the facts is the resurrection.

5. Did Jesus really claim to be God?

Jesus' divinity is a central point of tension between Islam and Christianity. Muslims accuse Christians of being polytheists, of worshipping more than one God. They claim that the real Jesus did not identify himself with God, but that was a later Christian corruption. One of Islam's fundamental beliefs is tawhid, the idea that there is only one God, and He does not have distinct persons. Therefore, if Jesus was a real prophet (as Muslims admit), he cannot have claimed to be God incarnate.

This argument does not stand up to scrutiny at all. Not only do all four Gospels clearly argue that Jesus Christ is God incarnate, but the oldest part of the New Testament — a hymn in Philippians 2:5-11, known as the Carmen Christi — declares, "Christ Jesus, who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage."

These verses not only clearly reference Old Testament passages about Yahweh Himself (Isaiah 45:22-23), but they also use un-Pauline vocabulary and grammatical structure, which is not even found elsewhere in the Greek language. Scholars concluded that the hymn was composed at the end of the 30s A.D., just a few years after Jesus' resurrection and ascension. Qureshi concludes that "it is impossible to argue that Jesus' deity was a late invention."

Muslims argue that Jesus never declared outright that he was God, and very clearly emphasized that the Father is greater than him. But this argument overlooks the clear context of Jesus' words in the New Testament. In the climax of Mark's Gospel, Jesus is questioned by the Sanhedrin, and he openly declares, "I am, and you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the power and coming with the clouds of heaven." (Mark 14:62)

This declaration is a clear reference to Daniel 7:13-14 and Psalm 110:1, and each of those sections make it clear that the "Son of Man" in question will be given authority, glory, and sovereign power that are due to God alone. The Sanhedrin decided to put Jesus to death for these words, precisely because he was claiming to be God.

Qureshi's book fleshes out each of these arguments, along with many, many more, and I cannot recommend it heartily enough. His understanding of Islam is deep and enlightening, and it informs and deepens his appreciation of Christianity all that much more. There are some deep Christian truths revealed to him because he was once a Muslim, and Christians who read this book will not just learn solid arguments for the faith, they will also understand both religious better.

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