“Given a choice, we tend to select beliefs that elevate who we are, that diminish personal responsibility, that give us greater freedom to call ‘good’ what the scriptures call ‘sin,’

Many skeptics only appear to be liberals; they’re actually a species of fundamentalist.

Martin Luther said, when Christians are evangelizing, they’re like one beggar simply telling another beggar where to find bread.

True tolerance grants people the right to dissent.”

Indeed, the attitude of many Americans is that they like Jesus but not the church, which they see as exclusivistic, condemning, intolerant, and intent on strapping people into a straitjacket of rigid dogma.

“He’s the Messiah of Israel and the savior of the world. He’s the one to whom I owe my life, and through him I’ve come to know God. He is the one who provided me complete forgiveness of sins, who loved me when I was a miserable, ungrateful, rebellious, proud wretch. He put a new heart and a new spirit within me; he has turned my life around and giv

the divine nature of Jesus should never militate against his full humanity.

‘An ounce of evidence is worth a pound of presumption.’

if Jesus really is God—if he really did sacrifice himself so that we could be forgiven and set free to experience his love forever—then why should we hesitate to give all of ourselves to him? Who could be more trustworthy than someone who lays down his life so that others might live?