The Bottom-Line Guide to Jesus, Parts 1 through 3

Posted on August 25, 2017 by robbowman

I recently completed the third installment in a series of articles entitled The Bottom-Line Guide to Jesus. This series of articles addresses common questions regarding what can be known about Jesus historically. The purpose of the articles is to equip readers to see through common skeptical objections to the Gospels’ accounts of Jesus’ life, teachings, miracles, death, and resurrection as well as to be discerning with regard to various religions’ claims about Jesus that are contrary to the New Testament. Here is a brief overview of the three articles done so far:

Part 1: Did Jesus Exist?

One in eight Millennials in the United States think Jesus never existed. This article summarizes the historical evidence that proves beyond reasonable doubt that Jesus existed.

Part 2: What Are Good Sources about Jesus?

This article explains why the four Gospels in the New Testament are reliable historical sources about Jesus while other books, such as the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Barnabas, or the Book of Mormon, are not. The article is fairly long; for a brief summary see “What Are the Most Reliable Sources about Jesus?”

Part 3:  Did Jesus Visit Other Parts of the World?

This article discusses such theories as that Jesus studied Buddhism in India (e.g., Nicholas Notovitch’s Life of Saint Issa), spent years living in Britain with Joseph of Arimathea, escaped crucifixion and died years later in France or Kashmir, or started a separate church in the Americas after his resurrection (as in the Book of Mormon).

I anticipate that future installments in this series will address such questions as whether Jesus actually performed miracles, whether he was actually killed on the cross, and whether he rose from the dead.

 

Posted in Jesus and Christology | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Evangelicals, Conservatives, White Supremacists, and Racial Politics in America

Posted on August 15, 2017 by robbowman

As an evangelical and a political conservative, in the wake of the recent events in Charlottesville, I want to contribute to the effort to draw a clear, unmistakable line between the beliefs I and millions of other American evangelicals espouse and the evil doctrines of racist ideologies such as white supremacism and white nationalism. To that end, I have collected various articles and essays, most but not all from just the past few days, that address this and related subjects from the perspective of evangelicalism, conservatism, or both.

If you know of a useful article that is worthy of being added to this list, please tell me about it in the comments. Given the fact that discussions on these matters often become inflammatory, please read the guidelines for commenting on this blog (linked toward the top of the page) before you comment. I will delete without explanation any comment that is inappropriate. Recommended links that I find particularly helpful will be added to the blog so that others may benefit from it.

Note: This article has been updated twice as of August 29, 2017. My thanks to E. Calvin Beisner for drawing my attention to some excellent additional items.

 

Benson, Guy. “The Charlottesville Dystopia: Dark Souls, Tested Principles, and Presidential Weakness.” Townhall, Aug. 14, 2017. Fair-minded analysis.

Burton, Tara Isabella. “What a unanimous Southern Baptist condemnation of the alt-right says about evangelicals in America.” Vox, June 14, 2017. Liberal media outlet’s report acknowledges (somewhat grudgingly) that Southern Baptists have made great strides in race relations.

Continue reading →

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Apologetics ABCs: First Understand, Then Answer

Posted on August 12, 2017 by robbowman

What’s your favorite verse in the Bible? I may be the only person in the history of Christianity who gives this answer, but my favorite is Proverbs 18:13. I’ll quote it in a few different versions:

“He that answereth a matter before he heareth it,
it is folly and shame unto him” (Prov. 18:13 KJV).

“Spouting off before listening to the facts
is both shameful and foolish” (Prov. 18:13 NLT).

“If you criticize something before you understand it
You’ll just look stupid” (Prov. 18:13 BAT).

In case you’re not familiar with that last version, it’s the Bowman Apologetics Translation©.

Proverbs 18:13 has long functioned as the “theme verse” of my ministry as a Christian apologist. I work hard to understand the issues before “spouting off” because I really don’t want to look foolish!

Let me offer some very brief suggestions as to how we can and should apply Proverbs 18:13 in Christian apologetics. Continue reading →

Posted in Apologetics ABCs | Tagged , , | 6 Comments

An Evangelical Goes to Provo

Posted on August 11, 2017 by robbowman

LDS scholar Brant Gardner speaks at FairMormon 2017

Every year FairMormon, the most popular pro-LDS apologetics organization, holds a conference at which Mormons, including some scholars from Brigham Young University, defend their beliefs. I attended it in 2012 and this year attended its 2017 conference on August 2nd and 3rd, held at the Utah Valley Convention Center in Provo, Utah. I would guess that roughly three hundred people attended each day.

A great deal of attention was given at the conference to defending the Book of Mormon. Four issues stood out from these defenses. First, Mormons don’t know where the Book of Mormon civilization was located. Second, Mormons admit there is no direct evidence for the existence of that civilization. Third, there is evidence against many of the things the Book of Mormon says, which forces Mormons to argue that many statements in the Book of Mormon don’t mean what they seem to mean, even though it was supposedly inspired and translated by divine inspiration. For example, one speaker suggested that references in the Book of Mormon to horses and chariots, which are problems because people in ancient North and Central America did not use wheeled or horse-drawn vehicles, might refer to dogs walking alongside litters carrying royal figures. Fourth, Mormon apologists recognize that it is rather embarrassing that Joseph Smith dictated the Book of Mormon with his face buried in his hat in which he put his treasure-hunting “seer stone,” but claim it doesn’t matter how he did it as long as it was a miracle. I discuss each of these issues and explain briefly why the Mormon arguments don’t work in a new article on IRR’s website, “FairMormon 2017: Recent Book of Mormon Defense Strategies.”

Posted in Mormonism | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Welcome to RobertBowman.net

Posted on August 11, 2017 by robbowman

The other Rob Bowman

Rob Bowman

You’ve found the blog of Robert M. Bowman Jr., better known as Rob Bowman. No, not the guy that directed episodes of The X-Files, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and other classy shows. What I do is much more interesting: I explore the strange old worlds of the Bible, seek out new answers to new questions that skeptics and people of other religions ask, and in general boldly go where few Christian apologists have gone before. I am the executive director at the Institute for Religious Research and the author of a dozen books including Putting Jesus in His Place: The Case for the Deity of Christ, which I co-authored with my good friend Ed Komoszewski.

If you were searching for Robert M. Bowman the aerospace scientist, Air Force combat veteran, and peace activist, that was my father. He passed away on August 22, 2013.

Yesterday was my 60th birthday, so this seemed a good time to launch this personal blog site. I have needed a personal blog for some time for three reasons. First, my work is scattered on the web in various places and this is a way to bring all of it together. Second, sometimes I want to comment on matters outside the usual subject areas of the ministry and academic websites where I do most of my writing. I might even want to talk about something personal. So this is where I will do these things. I’ll also announce new resources of interest here as they become available. Third, although I will continue to use Facebook, I want a place to post my thoughts on various topics where the material is easier to organize, control, and find.

I am under no illusions that there will be heavy traffic coming to this site, but I will allow comments as long as they are constructive, civil, and appropriate. See the page “Commenting on This Site” (in the black bar near the top of the page) if you are interested in posting a comment here.

The title of this blog was chosen to express my objective in everything I write. To what extent I consistently hit the target will no doubt be a matter of debate.

Posted in Uncategorized | 8 Comments