That culture did not value Western individualism, so Lone Ranger Christianity — Christianity was started by the rogue Paul who individualistically stood by himself quite apart from the rest of the early Christian community — is a myth. All this means that the early church had adopted a high Christology sometime before AD 49.

Besides the Gospels, we have thirteen of Paul’s Epistles that were written over a sixteen-year period from AD 49–65. When we examine these letters, two facts become obvious: (1) Paul’s view of Jesus is static; that is, there is no evolutionary development from a low Christology in his earlier letters to a high Christology is his later letters.

Acts is careful to record the martyrdoms of figures in the early church (for example, Stephen). The three key figures in Acts are James, Peter, and Paul. All three were martyred in the early to mid 60s, yet there is no mention of any of this in Acts. This is best explained if Acts was completed before the early 60s.

The author of Luke and Acts focuses on events in and around Jerusalem more than the other gospels. For example, Jesus’ resurrection appearances in Luke occur in Judea, but the ones in Matthew and Mark take place in Galilee. The city of Jerusalem and the church there play a prominent role in Acts. Jerusalem was surrounded by Gentile armies in AD 66

Two facts are virtually beyond dispute: (1) The same person wrote Luke and Acts (based on style, grammar, vocabulary, themes, and so on). (2) Acts was written after Luke, and Luke was written after Matthew and Mark. It follows that if we can date the book of Acts, Luke should be dated earlier and Matthew and Mark earlier still. In my opinion, there

Let us use “high Christology” to refer to a picture of Jesus according to which He was God Incarnate, the miracle-working son of God who rose bodily from the dead; let’s use “low Christology” to refer to a picture of Jesus according to which He was a mere man, though, of course, a charismatic leader and gifted teacher. The duration of time from

How is it that a carpenter from obscure Nazareth commands the allegiance of hundreds of millions of people who have given and would give their lives to Him? The New Testament documents have an answer: Jesus was the very Son of God, that is, He was (and is) God the Son. Jesus was genuinely God and man, He was the incarnation of God, and He is the

3. Is the best explanation of both the origin and continued history of the religion one that employs supernatural activity on God’s part?

Wherever genuine Christianity has thrived, human flourishing has flowered.