So this semseter we have been going over this curriculum: http://bible.org/series/historical-reliability-gospels during our Ratio Christi weekly meetings.
We have covered the first six articles and have concluded thus far that the Gospels talk about real historical places and put at the center of their narratives a real historical person (Jesus). From what we have seen the idea that the Gospels are primarliy mythological in character and portray a mythological person named Jesus who probably never existed does not hold any weight in light of the historical evdience.
We are just getting into the historical reliability of the message concerning who Jesus is according the the Gospels. I invite you to look over these articles (they are not too long) and share your thoughts.
by Glenn Smith, Chapter Director at Texas A&M University
Ratio Christi operates differently from how Christian apologetics have traditionally been done. In the past, apologists were alone, doing work that was breaking new ground. Therefore, the only avenue available to them was through teaching, writing books and articles, and debates. So, when Ratio Christi came along, many Christians and apologists simply did not understand how we went about our work. From the perspective campus directors, we are finding that the Christian community needs an explanation of what we are not . . . and what we are.
“We MUST double the number of students getting an M.A. in Apologetics”
Rick Schenker, President of Ratio Christi
Ratio Christi is deploying apologists to grassroots assignments all over the country. They are putting “boots on the ground” at universities throughout the nation. Their biggest need is more trained apologists. Prior to Ratio Christi’s emergence on the scene of the apologetics movement, there was a “white elephant” standing in the room of almost every Masters level apologetics class. No one wanted to mention it, but it was on everyone's mind. The white elephant was the question, “What am I going to do with all this training once I am finished?”
I recently had an interesting conversation with someone concerning the lack of intellectual honesty amongst scholars who write books on a popular level. The allegation being that in order to persuade the reader to find the authors arguments convincing they may intentionally ignore or push aside evidence that could pose a problem to the view they are advocating. After reading an excerpt from Dr. Bart Ehrman’s Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium I could not help but wonder if this New Testament scholar was perhaps guilty of such a thing. Having said that, I do not want to get into an ad hominem argument but would rather look at what he had to say to determine the strength of his position.
We are all called to carry out the great commission, but who really holds the office of an evangelist?
Many Christians would describe an evangelist as someone that travels from church to church to preach messages. Their messages inspire believers to give to ministries that focus on taking the gospel to the unreached. Perhaps they would mention someone that preaches a message to bring revival to the church and convince people we bring to their meetings to become a follower of Christ. The right answer, however, according to Ephesians chapter 4, is that the evangelist is a person who equips believers to “do the work of the ministry so that they may build up the church.” That means the person who gives us the intellectual ability to answer the questions and objections of family and friends is really acting in the office of the evangelist. By training believers to give a reasonable answer, these people are probably doing more to win people to Christ than many traveling preachers. Apologetics is the branch of Christian theology that seeks to address the intellectual obstacles that keep people from taking faith seriously, and therefore it is the apologist who is the true evangelist.
