Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Go dog go

She's 18 inches tall. She eats flies. But as far as North America Mission Board missionary Andrew Mann is concerned, his Labrador Retriever is a full-fledged – albeit four-legged –"missionary." See how God is using a trained therapy dog, and her owner, to bring people to Jesus in one of New York City's toughest neighborhoods.



Thursday, April 15, 2010

Video: Find it Here

The journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step. In this video, see how believers all across North America spent one amazing weekend beginning an advance toward the goal of "every person hearing, every believer sharing."





Thursday, April 1, 2010

Can we be certain Jesus died on the cross?

By Mike Licona

All four New Testament Gospels report that Jesus was crucified and died as a result. Is the evidence sufficient to warrant the conclusion that these reports are accurate? Before investigating for an answer, I would like to note the importance of this question. The atoning death and resurrection of Jesus are the cornerstone doctrines of Christianity. If either failed to occur, the Christianity preached by the apostles is false. For if Jesus did not die on the cross, there is no sacrificial death on behalf of our sins as the New Testament teaches. Moreover, since the term "resurrection" refers to the transformation of a corpse into an immortal body, if Jesus did not die, there was no corpse to be transformed by a resurrection.
Without a resurrection, Christianity is falsified. The apostle Paul taught: "If Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless" (1 Cor. 15:17 HCSB). The Gospels report that Jesus likewise said that his resurrection would serve as proof that His claims about Himself were true (see Matt. 12:39-40; John 2:18-22). Thus, according to Jesus and Paul, if the resurrection of Jesus did not occur, it is time to find another worldview. Accordingly, since a resurrection requires death, Jesus' death by crucifixion is a link that cannot be broken if Christianity is to be regarded as true.
In this article, I would like to provide four reasons that support the credibility of the claim that Jesus died as a result of being crucified.
Read the rest of this article at 4truth.net.
Mike Licona is a New Testament historian, author and Christian apologist. He is the apologetics coordinator for the North American Mission Board. Follow him at www.twitter.com/didjesusrise.