All people have questions about God and about faith.
For committed Christians, the answers to those questions can prove a bulwark to their faith, while for others, the same answers may incline them toward a closer and more patient study of the claims of Christianity.
It can be helpful to structure one's queries as a series of "investigations," each of which examines one of the essential issues that underpin Christianity. We have assembled here such a series of inquiries, each of which can be examined in isolation, or as part of a progressive series that leads to important summary statements about the claims of the Christian faith.
These eighteen investigations are arranged as a sequence. They begin with questions about historical evidence and testimony, then move through the Gospels, archaeology, manuscripts, and the earliest Christian witnesses.
The final investigations concentrate on the Resurrection of Jesus and ask what explanation best accounts for the evidence that has been considered.
You may begin with Investigation 1 and proceed in order, or enter the series at any question that interests you.
The first Christians proclaimed claims that brought opposition rather than obvious wealth or power. We consider whether deception provides a convincing explanation for their testimony and what their actions reveal about the sincerity of their beliefs.
The resurrection was not a doctrine that first appeared centuries after Jesus. We examine Paul's letters, early Christian tradition, and the first generation of the Church to determine how early the proclamation that Jesus had risen can be traced.
The Gospels report that Jesus was buried and that His tomb was found empty on the first day of the week. We examine the burial accounts, the discovery of the tomb, and the principal explanations proposed for the missing body.
Christian belief in the resurrection did not arise from an empty tomb alone. The earliest sources report appearances to individuals and groups, including Peter, James, the apostles, hundreds of followers, and eventually Paul. We examine this testimony and what it requires us to explain.
Many alternatives to resurrection have been proposed. Rather than dismissing them, we examine whether theft, relocation, survival, visionary experiences, legendary development, or combinations of these explanations adequately account for the evidence as a whole.
The investigation finally brings all the evidence together. Having considered the witnesses, documents, historical setting, empty tomb, appearances, early proclamation, and alternative explanations, we ask whether the first Christians' own explanation remains the most compelling: Jesus Christ truly rose from the dead.
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"For God so loved the world, that he
gave his only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth in him should
not perish, but have everlasting life."
