Notes and References
Detective Notes
Notes and References
Preface: To Protect and to Serve
For more information about the steady decline of those who identify themselves as Christians, refer to the ongoing research of the Pew Research Center, most recently, their study entitled “America’s Changing Religious Landscape” (May 12, 2015, www.pewforum.org/2015/05/12/americas-changing-religious-landscape/).
C. S. Lewis, “Learning in War-Time,” in The Weight of Glory (New York: HarperCollins, 2001), 58.
Surveys continue to demonstrate the disproportionate rate at which young people are walking away from the church. For more information on this disturbing trend, refer to the following resources:
Related to the Inability of Young Christians to Articulate Their Faith:
Christian Smith and Melinda Lundquist Denton, Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers (Oxford University Press, 2005).
Steve Wright, reThink (InQuest Ministries, 2007).
Josh McDowell and David Bellis, The Last Christian Generation (Green Key Books, 2006).
Related to the Departure of Young People from the Church:
T. C. Pinkney, “Remarks to the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee,” Southern Baptist Convention Data, Nashville, Tennessee, 2001, www.schoolandstate.org/SBC/Pinckney-WeAreLosingOurChildren.htm.
The Gallup Poll Study, “The Religiosity Cycle,” 2002, www.schoolandstate.org/SBC/Pinckney-WeAreLosingOurChildren.htm.
The Southern Baptist Convention’s Family Life Council, “Southern Baptist Council on Family Life Report to Annual Meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention,” 2002, www.sbcannualmeeting.net/sbc02/newsroom/newspage.asp?ID=261.
Dayton A. Kingsriter, “The Assemblies of God Study,” 2007, http://agchurches.org/Sitefiles/Default/RSS/AG%20Colleges/FAQ/Is%20the%20Lower%20Cost%20Worth%20the%20High%20Price_.pdf.
LifeWay Research and Ministry Development, “LifeWay Research Finds Reasons 18- to 22-Year-Olds Drop Out of Church,” 2007, www.lifeway.com/ArticleView?storeId=10054&catalogId=10001&langId=-1&article=LifeWay-Research-finds-reasons-18-to-22-year-olds-drop-out-of-church.
George Barna, Revolution (BarnaBooks, 2005).
Daniel Cox, Robert P. Jones, and Thomas Banchoff, “A Generation in Transition: Religion, Values, and Politics among College-Age Millennials,” Georgetown University’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs, April 19, 2012, http://publicreligion.org/research/2012/04/millennial-values-survey-2012/#.VgCRYrlRHb0.
Related to the Hostility toward Christianity on College Campuses:
Alexander W. Astin, Helen S. Astin, and Jennifer A. Lindholm, “Spirituality in Higher Education,” The Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA, 2010, www.spirituality.ucla.edu/.
Neil Gross and Solon Simmons, “How Religious are America’s College and University Professors?,” February 6, 2007, http://religion.ssrc.org/reforum/Gross_Simmons.pdf.
I excerpted this from Andrew’s longer message to me and obtained his approval and permission before copying it here.
Chapter 1: Distinctive Duty
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Prisoner for God: Letters and Papers from Prison, ed. Eberhard Bethge (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress, 1953).
William Gurnall, The Christian in Complete Armour (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2010).
C. S. Lewis, God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1970), 101.
New American Standard Bible, Matt. 22:37–40 (LaHabra, CA: Lockman, 1995).
New American Standard Bible, Deut. 6:5 (LaHabra, CA: Lockman, 1995).
D. M. Emanuel, “Thinking,” Lexham Theological Wordbook, ed. D. Mangum, et al. (Bellingham, WA: Lexham, 2014).
New American Standard Bible, Luke 7:21–23 (LaHabra, CA: Lockman, 1995).
New American Standard Bible, John 20:24–25 (LaHabra, CA: Lockman, 1995).
New American Standard Bible, John 20:26–28 (LaHabra, CA: Lockman, 1995).
New American Standard Bible, John 20:29 (LaHabra, CA: Lockman, 1995).
New American Standard Bible, John 20:30–31 (LaHabra, CA: Lockman, 1995).
Excerpted from the Great Commission passage in Matthew 28:16–20.
Papias said the following about Mark’s relationship to Peter: “Mark, having become the interpreter of Peter, wrote down accurately, though not indeed in order, whatsoever he remembered of the things said or done by Christ.” Papias, quoted in Eusebius, “Church History,” Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, eds. Philip Schaff and Henry Wallace (New York: Cosimo, 2007), 172.
Chapter 2: Targeted Training
Origen, as cited in The Complete Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Church Fathers Collection, vol. 9, p. 352.
Merriam-Webster online, s.v. “commitment,” www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/commitment.
For more information on this survey, see “Barna Survey Examines Changes in Worldview among Christians over the Past Thirteen Years,” www.barna.org/barna-update/21-transformation/252-barna-survey-examines-changes-in-worldview-among-christians-over-the-past-13-years#.VjqyKL8hGao, accessed November 4, 2015.
For more information on this survey, see “What Do Americans Believe about Jesus? 5 Popular Beliefs,” www.barna.org/barna-update/culture/714-what-do-americans-believe-about-jesus-5-popular-beliefs#.VjrAa_-FNhE, accessed November 4, 2015.
For more information about the inarticulate nature of young Christians, please refer to Christian Smith and Melinda Lundquist Denton, Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers (Oxford: Oxford University Press, April 13, 2009).
Dictionary.com, s.v. “train,” http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/train?s=t.
Visit www.ForensicFaithBook.com to download the assessment test.
For more information about this, refer to Christian Smith and Melinda Lundquist Denton, Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers (Oxford: Oxford University Press, February 24, 2005).
This saying is typically credited to General Abrams, although a precise reference is elusive. See: https://simple.wikiquote.org/wiki/Creighton_Abrams, accessed February 1, 2016.
No one leads these missions trips to Utah and the university better than Brett Kunkle. He’s the creator of this approach to training. If you’d like him to lead a group for you, contact him through www.str.org.
See: https://simple.wikiquote.org/wiki/Creighton_Abrams, accessed February 1, 2016.
Chapter 3: Intense Investigation
R. C. Sproul, Knowing Scripture, ReadHowYouWant, November 11, 2009, p. 7.
An excellent example of chronological Bible-reading plans can be found at: www.christianity.com/bible/year/, accessed February 21, 2017.
Refer to Gregory Koukl, Never Read a Bible Verse (Signal Hill, CA: Stand to Reason, 2000).
Papias, quoted in Eusebius, “Church History,” Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, eds. Philip Schaff and Henry Wallace (New York: Cosimo, 2007), 172–73.
New American Standard Bible, John 21:25 (LaHabra, CA: Lockman, 1995).
Luminol is a chemical that reveals the presence of blood, body fluids, or some forms of detergent. These fluids luminesce when exposed to certain forms of light.
For a more detailed list related to the statements of Jesus or the evidence demonstrating His deity, please refer to www.ColdCaseChristianity.com.
Quoted in Ante-Nicene Christian Library: Translations of the Writings of the Fathers Down to A.D. 325, vol. 9, eds. Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, Irenaeus, Vol. II—Hippolytus, Vol. II—Fragments of Third Century (Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1870), 188.
Works of Cornelius Tacitus, includes Agricola, The Annals, A Dialogue Concerning Oratory, Germania, and The Histories (Boston: MobileReference, 2009), Kindle locations 6393–97.
Excerpted from “Letter from Mara Bar-Serapion to His Son,” quoted in F. F. Bruce, The New Testament Documents (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2011), Kindle locations 1684–88.
Quoted in Ante-Nicene Christian Library, vol. 9, eds. Roberts and Donaldson, p. 188.
See Origen, “Origen against Celsus,” The Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 4, eds. Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, Tertullian, Part Fourth; Minucius Felix; Commodian; Origen, Parts First and Second (Buffalo: Christian Literature, 1885). Passages cited here are from book 2, chapter 14; book 2, chapter 33; book 2, chapter 59. For more information related to Origen’s quotations of Phlegon, refer to www.newadvent.org/fathers/04162.htm or William Hansen, Phlegon of Tralles’ Book of Marvels (Exeter, UK: University of Exeter Press, 1997).
Refer to the text of M. Schuster as reproduced by W. den Boer, Scriptorum Paganorum I–IV Saec. de Christianus Testimonia (Textus Minores 2; rev. ed.; Leiden: Brill, 1965). This version of the text is also cited by Robert E. Van Voorst, Jesus Outside the New Testament: An Introduction to the Ancient Evidence (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2000), 25.
M. Ihm, ed., C. Suetoni Tranquilli Opera (Teubner Series; Stuttgart: Teubner, 1978) 1:209; Henri Ailloud, ed., Suetone, Vies des douze Cesars (Bude Series; Paris: Societe D’Edition “Les Belles Lettres,” 1932) 2:134. For the Teubner text, occasionally altered, with English translation, see J. C. Rolfe, Suetonius (2nd ed; LCL; Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1997), 2:50–51. This passage is cited, along with a brief discussion related to the validity of the “Christ” reference, in Robert E. Van Voorst, Jesus Outside the New Testament: An Introduction to the Ancient Evidence (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2000), 30.
From Against Celsus 1.28. See Henry Chadwick, Origen: Contra Celsum (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980); and Hoffmann, Celsus. Both Borret’s Greek text and Chadwick’s English translation consider the words I’ve italicized to belong to Celsus.
As I describe in Cold-Case Christianity (p. 196), there is controversy about Josephus’s writing because early Christians appear to have altered some copies of his work in an effort to amplify the references to Jesus. For this reason, as we examine Josephus’s passage related to Jesus, we will rely on a text that scholars believe escaped such alteration, cited from the following source: Shlomo Pines, An Arabic Version of the Testimonium Flavianum and Its Implications (Jerusalem: Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, 1971), Kindle locations 9–10, 16.
b. Sanhedrin 43a, as cited by Robert E. Van Voorst, Jesus Outside the New Testament: An Introduction to the Ancient Evidence (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2000), 114.
This summary is excerpted from the “Closing Argument” in God’s Crime Scene. For a much more thorough and detailed examination of the four categories of evidence, including an investigative paradigm to help you make the case to others, please refer to this book.
For more information on Christian case maker Frank Turek, please visit www.CrossExamined.org.
Ernst Haeckel, “History of Creation,” vol. 1, p. 8.
Chapter 4: Convincing Communication
Charles F. Stanley, How to Listen to God (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, September 1, 2002), chap. 4.
William Wilberforce, as quoted by Ron Rhodes in 1001 Unforgettable Quotes about God, Faith, and the Bible (Eugene, OR: Harvest, April 1, 2011), 20.
In the first century, tax collectors like Matthew were typically Jews who worked for the occupying Romans. For this reason, they were seen as traitors. To make matters worse, tax collectors were known to cheat the people they collected from, taking more than they should (as the tax collector Zacchaeus confessed in Luke 19:8).
Richard Dawkins, “Has the World Changed?,” The Guardian, October 11, 2001.
Judicial Council of California, “Judicial Council of California Criminal Jury Instructions,” CalCrim Section 104.
Judicial Council of California, “Judicial Council of California Criminal Jury Instructions,” CalCrim Section 103.
Luke Muehlhauser, as quoted from his blog post “Atheism and the Burden of Proof,” http://commonsenseatheism.com/?p=597, accessed January 12, 2016.
Judicial Council of California, “Judicial Council of California Criminal Jury Instructions,” CalCrim Section 103.
“Clark County Nevada Jury Instructions,” NEV. J.I. 1.05, www.clarkcountynv.gov/lawlibrary/Documents/Jury_Instructions.PDF, accessed January 12, 2016.
Judicial Council of California, “Judicial Council of California Criminal Jury Instructions,” CalCrim Section 105.
For more information on this Gallup poll, refer to www.gallup.com/poll/1891/snakes-top-list-americans-fears.aspx, accessed January 12, 2016.
James Boccardo, Unsilenced: How to Voice the Gospel (CrossBooks, May 20, 2010).
J. P. Moreland and William Lane Craig, Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, April 28, 2003), 30.
Harry Elmer Barnes, An Intellectual and Cultural History of the Western World (Mineola, NY: Dover, 1965), 766, quoted from Albert J. Menendez and Edd Doerr, The Great Quotations on Religious Freedom.
Rebuttal Notes
Dictionary.com, s.v. “tolerance,” http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/tolerance, accessed January 21, 2016.