Category Archives: Historical Jesus Debate

An Open Debate Challenge from David Wood and James White

David Wood says:

Arabic Christian Perspective has just started a site for future debates. The first article is a challenge directed to Shabir Ally, Jamal Badawi, and Zakir Naik. The challenge just went up, and ACP will be sending the link to our Muslim friends. Here’s the text:

An Open Debate Challenge to Shabir Ally, Jamal Badawi, and Zakir Naik

Arabic Christian Perspective has hosted a number of debates between Christians and Muslims. However, Muslims have often criticized ACP for not arranging debates with Islam’s top debaters: Shabir Ally, Jamal Badawi, and Zakir Naik. Though we at ACP have attempted to set up debates with some of Islam’s strongest proponents, we’ve found that they are extremely reluctant to debate topics that will place Islam under scrutiny. Hence, it is now time to make our challenge public.

Arabic Christian Perspective hereby challenges Shabir Ally, Jamal Badawi, and Zakir Naik to a series of ten debates to take place next September against Christian debaters James White, David Wood, and Sam Shamoun. The topics (subject to modification pending input from our Muslim guests) will include:

(1) “Did Jesus Die by Crucifixion?”

(2) “Was Muhammad a Prophet of God?”

(3) “Has the Qur’an Been Perfectly Preserved?”

(4) “Did Christians Corrupt the Gospel?”

(5) “Can We Trust Paul?”

(6) “Does Science Show that Islam Is True?”

(7) “Does the Bible Teach that Jesus Is God?”

(8) “Does the Bible Tell Us about Muhammad?”

(9) “Is Islam a Religion of Peace?”

(10) “Is Christianity a Religion of Peace?”

We issue this challenge nearly a year in advance, so that there is plenty of time to schedule and coordinate the events. We invite Muslims to encourage Shabir Ally, Jamal Badawi, and Zakir Naik to join us for a series that will shed light on the major issues of both faiths, and help the world to see where the evidence points. Since James White, David Wood, and Sam Shamoun have already agreed to the series, we await the response of Islam’s top debaters.

James White has added some commentary here.

Was Jesus Resurrected or Rescued?

This was the formal Muslim-Christian Debate held at UC Davis on November 30, 2006. Ali Ataie and Michael Licona debate whether Jesus Christ was resurrected or rescued.

NOTE: This youtube player is setup with a playlist for all 14 parts of the debate. The playlist will pop up whenever a video finishes or whenever you move you mouse across the bottom of the video area. You can select what ever part of the debate you want to watch with this playlist feature. Enjoy!

Master Christian Apologist: Stephen Colbert

This is an awesome example of GOOD Christian Apologetics being applied against an agnostic scholar (Bart Ehrman). The best part about it is the fact that it is Stephen Colbert telling Bart Ehrman that an agnostic is just an atheist without balls! 🙂

Here it is… Enjoy! Please comment and share your thoughts and reactions.

What Saint Paul Really Said – Podcast

Well, after several months of waiting, the new podcast is actually complete! 🙂

This third podcast is on the topic of What Saint Paul Really Said , a book by N.T. Wright. In the podcast we cover the first chapter of the book where Wright deals with the 5 most influential Pauline scholars of the 20th century. You will certainly learn something new in this podcast, so I encourage you to listen to all of it. Please let me know what you think and if you have any questions about the information I summarized. Next time I hope to push even further into Wright’s book.

What Saint Paul Really Said

Pauline Christology: An Exegetical-Theological Study

This is Fee’s most recent work on the Apostle Paul and his theology. I do not own it, but from the reviews I’m posting below, I really do look forward to it and I would definitely recommend it to others already.

Here is the information on the book:

Pauline Christology Cover

Description: An exhaustive study of Pauline Christology by noted Pauline scholar, Gordon Fee. The author provides a detailed analysis of the letters of Paul (including those whose authorship is questioned) individually, exploring the Christology of each one, and then attempts a synthesis of the exegetical work into a biblical Christology of Paul. The author’s synthesis covers the following themes: Christ’s roles as divine Savior and as preexistent and incarnate Savior; Jesus as the Second Adam, the Jewish Messiah, and Son of God; and as the Messiah and exalted Lord. Fee also explores the relationship between Christ and the Spirit and considers the Person and role of the Spirit in Paul’s thought. Appendices cover the theme of Christ and Personified Wisdom, and Paul’s use of Kurios (Lord) in citations and echoes of the Septuagint.

Subjects: Bible, New Testament, Pauline Epistles, Literature, Methods, Theological Approaches, Biblical Theology, New Testament Theology

Reviews:

Review by Matthew Montonini

Review by Don Garlington

You can purchase the book here: Continue reading Pauline Christology: An Exegetical-Theological Study

Trevin Wax Interview with N.T. Wright

Here is the full transcript of the interview Trevin conducted with N.T. Wright. This is a really great interview and I hope that every one of you will read through it or listen to the mp3 of it. The mp3 is available for direct download here.

I really appreciated Wright’s response and comments regarding his critics, in particular John Piper. Here is what Wright had to say about Piper and his new book:

Piper is in a different category. He graciously sent me an advance manuscript of his book which is critiquing me and invited my comments on it. I sent him a lengthy set of comments. I’ve only just got on email about two days ago the book in the revised form and I haven’t had a chance to look at it yet. So I cannot say whether he’s being fair or not at this stage.

But I do know that he has done his darndest to be fair and I honor that and I respect that. People have asked me if I’m going to write a response, and the answer is that I don’t know. I’m kind of busy right now. But I maybe should, sooner or later.

I would love to see that response! Pray that Wright will find the time to respond and that this Piper/Wright dialogue will continue to bear fruit for God’s Kingdom.

The breakdown of the interview is also available in individual postings. Here is the breakdown:

  1. Introduction
  2. Wright’s conversion, calling, and personal worship
  3. Wright on “the gospel”
  4. Justification by faith
  5. Justification – present and future
  6. Justification and the Roman Catholic Church
  7. Sola Scriptura
  8. Is Wright arrogant to assume he has just now figured out what Paul meant?
  9. Wright on his critics
  10. Justification in practice
  11. Wright on penal substitution
  12. Wright on the resurrection
  13. Wright on Evangelism
  14. Wright on Church and State
  15. Upcoming Writings and Conclusion

The New Perspective on Paul and the Historical Jesus Quest

Scot McKnight, over at his Jesus Creed blog, has recently posted several entries summarizing and clearly explaining the history and claims of both the New Perspective on Paul and the Historical Jesus Quest.

I encourage everyone interested in getting a better grasp on what these things are all about to read these entries in full. Here they are:

New Perspective 1
New Perspective 2
New Perspective 3
New Perspective 4
New Perspective 5

Here is a PDF version of all five blog entries on the NPP.

Historical Jesus 1: Reimarus to Schweitzer
Historical Jesus 2: Bultmann to the Jesus Seminar
Historical Jesus 3: Jesus Seminar
Historical Jesus 4: Third Quest
Historical Jesus 5: Summing Up

To supplement the above reading I would also recommend the following articles:

What Did Paul Really Mean? by Simon Gathercole
Further Reading on the New Perspective by Simon Gathercole
What Did Simon Gathercole — and Moses — Really Mean? by Andrew Sandlin

Jesus Creed Historical Jesus Series: Bultmann
Jesus Creed Historical Jesus Series: Jesus Seminar
Jesus Creed Historical Jesus Series: Third Quest and Summing Up

An Evening Conversation on Jesus and Paul

For those of you interested in a little bit of informative reading… The conversation on Jesus and Paul that took place between Jimmy Dunn and Tom Wright in October 2004 has been transcribed into a well formated PDF.  There were two sessions, one on the Historical Jesus debate and another regarding the New Perspective on Paul. Both conversations were very informative and this newly published PDF includes a full bibliography of works that Dunn and Wright cited during the conversation.

Here it is.

Also, if you would like to listen to this discussion instead of read it, you can download the two mp3s here and here.

Enjoy!