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Spiritual fitness

Recently, I’ve been so blessed to be working out with a wonderful fitness trainer. (Thanks, Roy!) He instills confidence in my fitness program because he is a knowledgeable guide to keep me on track. So when I wanted to exercise my Christian understanding for this column, I had to find some real experts in the field of apologetics who make it their business to defend faith. Lee Strobel, a savvy Chicago Tribune reporter, is one such expert.

Lee traveled the US for 21 months interviewing thirteen leading scholars and authorities who have impeccable academic credentials. In a concise and entertaining style, Lee forged a book named “A Case for Christ.” In this book, he systematically asks who Jesus was. Who did He claim to be? And was there any credible evidence to back up His assertions?

Here are some of his conclusions:

• The gospels reflect eyewitness testimony and bear the unmistakable earmarks of accuracy. The fundamental beliefs in Jesus’ miracles, resurrection and deity go way back to the very dawning of the Christian movement.

• The gospel writers intended to preserve reliable history, were willing to include difficult-to-explain material and didn’t allow bias to unduly color their reporting, lending historical credibility to the accounts which caused Christianity to flourish.

• Copies of the gospels were reliably preserved and can be dated extremely close to the original writings. The modern New Testament is 99.5 percent free of textual discrepancies.

• We have better historical documentation for Jesus than for the founder of any other ancient religion. Sources from outside the bible corroborate that many people witnessed healings and that He was crucified and worshiped as God. One expert documented thirty-nine ancient sources that corroborate more than one hundred facts concerning Jesus’ life, teachings, crucifixion, and resurrection.

• No archaeological find has ever disproved a biblical reference.

• The New Testament specifically confirms that Jesus ultimately possessed every qualification of deity, including omniscience, omnipresence, omnipotence, eternality and immutability.

• Prophets foretold the coming of the Messiah. Against astronomical odds, Jesus matched these prophetic fingerprints confirming His identity to an incredible degree of certainty.

Lee concluded his work by examining beyond the evidence a formula of faith in John 1:12: “Yet to all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God.”

Lee goes on to say: “As someone educated in journalism and law, I was trained to respond to the facts, wherever they lead. For me, the data demonstrated convincingly that Jesus is the Son of God who died as my substitute to pay the penalty I deserved for the wrongdoing I had committed.”

 

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