How do we know we believe that jesus died on the cross

Hey there hope your well:), I just thought I would post the following as I think it will really help like if you were curious and wanted to investigate the evidence for Christianity one day. Now it's not quite discussing evidence its more just pointing people to where they can find it but if you have some free time one day its well worth the investigation, and the following is copied and pasted from something I wrote earlier but if you ever have any book recommendations for me as well I would be more than happy to give them a read, All the best.

“Hey:), I was an atheist but changed because of the evidence tbh and the two make or break claims for Christianity to be true is A, if God exists and B, if Jesus rose from the grave.

An introductory book for the evidence for God that I recommend and I've read way too many is called 'Gods Undertaker: Has Science Buried God?' by John C. Lennox and the two introductory books about the resurrection of Jesus from the dead I recommend are called 'Cold Case Christianity' by J. Warner Wallace and 'The Case For Christ' by Lee Strobel, I know it might seem like a pain reading two books but I can't recommend buying those books together enough they really complement each other and both have something to contribute but the minimal facts argument in those two resurrection books is the main thing I’m trying to show you.

But with that said if you don't like Strobel then I would replace his introductory spot with a book called 'The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus' by Gary R. Habermas and Michael Licona which fleshes out the minimal facts argument even more in preparation for the "deeper" books below to add to it and more importantly to the full resurrection argument. And I would recommend starting with 'Cold Case Christianity' after you have read 'God's Undertaker'. (And if God exists then he can do miracles/multiply or change atoms/bend or break the laws of nature no problem).

And there is a lot of different stuff in the first book man like each chapter has different evidence but to get you curious one of the chapters in Gods Undertaker which was written by a former professor at Oxford University was talking about/showing how the original complex specified information like that In DNA and RNA etc (which information itself is immaterial but material is used to transfer it) in the very beginning of life whether on this planet or another could not have arrived by matter but instead requires information input, specifically from a mind i.e. God and it shows how it is not a God of the gaps argument.

But if you wanted to dive deeper into the evidence for God after then 'Five proofs of the existence of God' by Edward Feser is really great but its extremely technical, and also a book called ‘Two Dozen (or So) Arguments for God: The Plantinga Project’ edited by Jerry L. Walls and Trent Dougherty is also really good. And just lastly not that you need to but if you are just fascinated with the whole subject then getting the following book will help as well: 'New Proofs For The Existence Of God' by Robert J. Spitzer.

And 'Cold Case Christianity' among many other things shows that Jesus lived, Jesus died by crucifixion, and lays out the circumstantial evidence for the resurrection. And in fact the circumstantial evidence was powerful enough to make J. Warner Wallace a former atheist veteran cold case homicide detective who used his training to investigate the resurrection become a strong Christian from the circumstantial evidence (but that's all in the book).

Hope you enjoy those books and if you wanted to really dive deeper into the evidence for the resurrection after you have read the above two books about the resurrection then I would recommend 'The resurrection of Jesus a new historiographical approach' by Michael R. Licona and also 'Investigating the resurrection of Jesus Christ a new transdisciplinary approach' by Andrew Loke. And as another bonus not that you need to as the other books are more than enough but a book called ‘Social Distinctives of the Christians in the First Century: Pivotal Essays by E. A. Judge’ is great but its extremely technical and is best paired with all the other books mentioned not just by itself.

And among other things, Strobel's book helped me realize what God/Jesus i.e. the creator of the universe went through for me/you on the cross out of love for us and I fell deeply in love, and also his book goes into the 'Liar, Lunatic, Lord?' Argument, and the following is just my 2-second version but not the official one. Either 1. Jesus was a liar but Jesus knew that what He was doing could get him stoned to death by the Jews for blasphemy, & also could get him crucified yet He kept going, Either 2. He was crazy but if one studies Jesus's beautiful words/teachings and character in the Gospels of Matthew through to John in the Bible and His relationships and interactions with others in the gospels they are not the words and actions of a crazy person.

Or else 3. He was who He said He was, "God in the flesh & the good shepherd who lays down His life for his sheep, plus who would rise from the grave three days later" etc and 'The Case for Christ' by Lee Strobel gets into the Liar, Lunatic, Lord argument in depth and so does this https://www.josh.org/jesus-liar-lunatic-lord/ but Strobels book goes further.

And on a side note Francis Chan on YouTube is awesome to check out btw like he is a great example of what a Christian should be like and he has great teachings from the Bible that will bring you closer in your relationship with God. Plus this really short video is cool as well it tells you what it's meant to be about i.e., relationship not religion https://youtu.be/1IAhDGYlpqY

This is also nifty https://youtu.be/KGlx11BxF24

And all those books are cheap as on the Amazon Kindle app btw".

/r/Christianity Thread Parent