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Exploring Jesus in World Religions When I was deciding whether or not I should be a Christian, I made sure to read about as many other religions as I could. At first it was overwhelming to compare the teachings of faiths like Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism to Christianity, but then I noticed they all had one thing I could compare: a teaching about Jesus Christ. Almost every major world religion has a teaching about the identity of Jesus. Jews say Jesus was a human teacher, Muslims say he was a …

Ironically, though the Gospel of John has subject matter that can be subjected to archaeological examination, many seem to think the book is almost entirely non-historical and confines itself to theology and a sort of vague accompanying or underlying Greek-influenced philosophy. Some have even opined that topographical aspects of the Gospel are only symbolic. It’s a classic example of presuppositions leading folks astray.It’s true that John’s Gospel has many elements that are more or less unique …

The first-century Jewish historian Josephus mentions Jesus twice in his monumental history of the Jewish people called Antiquities of the Jews. The shorter reference is in Book 20, where Josephus describes the stoning of lawbreakers in A.D. 62. One of the criminals is described as “the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James.” What makes this passage authentic is that it lacks Christian terms like “the Lord,” it fits into the context of this section of the Antiquities, and …

Sometimes skeptics have claimed that the infancy narratives found in Matthew 1-2 and Luke 1-2 contradict each other. For example, it is pointed out that Luke has Mary living in Nazareth before going to Bethlehem, whereas in Matthew they don’t go to Nazareth until later. It has also been claimed that they contain historical errors, such as Matthew’s mention of Herod’s slaughter of boys in Bethlehem (Matt. 2:16) or Luke’s mention of the enrollment that took place when Jesus was born (Luke 2:1-5). …