Case Files: EXPERT WITNESSES
Case Files
EXPERT WITNESSES
I’ve yet to bring an investigation to trial without the assistance of expert witnesses who testified about specific and detailed aspects of the evidence. The following expert witnesses may be called to the stand as you make a case for the claims of Christianity.
Chapter 1:
DON’T BE A “KNOW-IT-ALL”
Will testify to the philosophical biases and presuppositions that impact issues of faith and reason in their book, Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview (InterVarsity Press, 2003).
Chapter 2:
LEARN HOW TO “INFER”
Will testify to the minimal facts and evidences related to the resurrection in their book, The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus (Kregel, 2004).
Chapter 3:
THINK “CIRCUMSTANTIALLY”
Will testify to the causal evidence related to the cosmological argument in his book The Kalām Cosmological Argument (Wipf & Stock, 2000).
Will testify to the fine-tuning evidence related to the anthropic principle in his book Universes (Taylor & Francis, 2002).
Will testify to the design evidence related to the teleological argument in his book God and Design: The Teleological Argument and Modern Science (Routledge, 2003).
Will testify to the moral evidence related to the axiological argument in their book The Moral Argument (Continuum Publishers, 2013).
Chapter 4:
TEST YOUR WITNESSES
Will testify to the nature of the New Testament Gospels as eyewitness accounts of the life of Jesus in his book Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony (Eerdmans, 2006).
Will testify to the early collection of the eyewitness accounts and their formation into the New Testament in his book The Canon of the New Testament: Its Origin, Development, and Significance (Oxford University Press, 1997).
Chapter 5:
HANG ON EVERY WORD
Will testify to the “forensic” methods of “textual criticism” that can be employed to study the Gospels and discuss some of the conclusions that can be drawn from this effort in his book The Historical Reliability of the Gospels (InterVarsity Press, 2007).
Will testify to what can be learned “forensically” about the early transmission of the New Testament documents in the compilation Revisiting the Corruption of the New Testament: Manuscript, Patristic, and Apocryphal Evidence (Kregel, 2011).
Chapter 6:
SEPARATE ARTIFACTS FROM EVIDENCE
Will testify to the early formation of the biblical text, while exhibiting a number of ancient biblical manuscripts in her book In the Beginning: Bibles before the Year 1000 (Smithsonian, 2006).
Will testify to the nature of the early New Testament papyrus manuscripts and the methodology used to re-create the original accounts in his book Early Manuscripts & Modern Translations of the New Testament (Wipf & Stock, 2001).
Chapter 7:
RESIST CONSPIRACY THEORIES
Will testify to the nature of the lives and deaths of the apostles who claimed to see the resurrection of Jesus in his book The Search for the Twelve Apostles (Tyndale, 2008).
Chapter 8:
RESPECT THE “CHAIN OF CUSTODY”
Will testify to the historical manuscript evidence and early appearance of the biblical record in his book Can We Trust the Gospels? Investigating the Reliability of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John (Crossway, 2007).
Will testify to the writings and teachings of the early church fathers in his book The Fathers of the Church, Expanded Edition (Our Sunday Visitor, November 2006).
Chapter 9:
KNOW WHEN “ENOUGH IS ENOUGH”
Will testify to how we come to “know” something is true in his book, Epistemology: The Justification of Belief (InterVarsity Press, 1983).
Will testify to the classic atheist presentations of the “problem of evil” and the classic defenses (theodicies) that have been offered by theists in his book God and the Problem of Evil (Wiley-Blackwell, 2001).
Chapter 10:
PREPARE FOR AN ATTACK
Will testify to the assumptions and dubious sources that account for some of the theories and tactics that have been employed by skeptics in Fabricating Jesus: How Modern Scholars Distort the Gospels (InterVarsity Press, 2006).
Will testify to successful and reasoned approaches that can be employed by those who seek to defend the Christian worldview in Tactics: A Game Plan for Discussing Your Christian Convictions (Zondervan, 2009).
Chapter 11:
WERE THEY PRESENT?
Will testify to the Semitic origin of the synoptic gospels and how they were formed amid the Jewish culture of the first half of the first century in his book, Birth of the Synoptic Gospels (Franciscan Herald Press, October 1987).
Will testify to an alternate theory about the early dating of the Gospels (that places Matthew ahead of Mark) by comparing the Gospels to one another and to the writings and records of the church fathers in his book Redating Matthew, Mark and Luke: A Fresh Assault on the Synoptic Problem (InterVarsity Press, March 1992).
Chapter 12:
WERE THEY CORROBORATED?
Will testify to the ancient Jewish references to Jesus that are scattered throughout the Talmud in his book Jesus in the Talmud (Princeton University Press, 2009).
Will testify to the nonbiblical ancient sources that corroborate the existence of Jesus in his book The Evidence for Jesus (Regent College, 2006).
Will testify to the archaeological corroboration of the New Testament in his book Archaeology and the New Testament (Baker, 2008).
Will testify (as an archaeologist) to the archaeological evidence that corroborates the final days of Jesus’s life in his book The Final Days of Jesus: The Archaeological Evidence (HarperCollins, 2009).
Chapter 13:
WERE THEY ACCURATE?
Will testify to the writings of the students of the apostles in his book The Apostolic Fathers: Greek Texts and English Translations (Baker, 2007).
Will testify to the early history of Christianity and many of the characters who played a part in the “chain of custody” in his book Story of Christianity: Volume 1, The Early Church to the Dawn of the Reformation (HarperOne, 2010).
Will testify to the transmission (and copying) of the gospel accounts in his book Lost in Transmission? What We Can Know About the Words of Jesus (Thomas Nelson, 2007).
Chapter 14:
WERE THEY BIASED?
Will testify to the lives and martyrdoms of the apostles in his book The Twelve: The Lives of the Apostles after Calvary (Our Sunday Visitor, 1998).
Will testify to the reasonable conclusions that can be drawn about the testimony of the apostles in their book Evidence for the Resurrection (Regal, 2009).