A coherent, forceful, and compelling case for God and the church founded by Jesus of Nazareth. This is a remarkable achievement of solid, factual information that is loaded with ammunition for the new evangelization and contains colorful vignettes of historic moments alternating with sustained argument. Frederick Marks challenges the reader to set aside long-held assumptions and prejudices. Jesus is the only one who proclaimed himself sinless and the only one who ever claimed to be God. His followers converted an entire empire without resort to violence, and after winning Rome they not only gave the world its calendar but transformed pagan culture beyond recognition. These hard, cold facts are presented here with copious notes for easy identification of persons, events, or doctrines that may be unfamiliar. The reader will also find a detailed index and useful appendices.
In the Logos edition, this valuable volume is enhanced by amazing functionality. Scripture citations link directly to English translations, and important terms link to dictionaries, encyclopedias, and a wealth of other resources in your digital library. Perform powerful searches to find exactly what you’re looking for. Take the discussion with you using tablet and mobile apps. With Logos Bible Software, the most efficient and comprehensive research tools are in one place, so you get the most out of your study.
“Ultimately, it is intangibles that shape one’s outlook on life. How we react to illness and adversity, how we handle success, whether we are cheerful or morose, kind or cruel—it all depends on an immaterial ‘larger picture.’” (Page 1)
“Where, one wonders, are the Damiens and Kolbes in the annals of non-belief? Skeptics such as Jean Jacques Rousseau, Karl Marx, Bertrand Russell, Jean-Paul Sartre, Margaret Mead, Sigmund Freud, Pablo Picasso, and Alfred Charles Kinsey were notably cold. Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, was a racist. Historians Paul Johnson and E. Michael Jones, in chronicling the private lives of leftist paragons, have shown how cruel they were in relation to kith and kin, and how unhappy.20 Nietzsche, who pronounced God dead, died in an insane asylum. Virginia Woolf, who saw ‘something obscene’ in a ‘person sitting by the fire believing in God,’ committed suicide, as did Hitler and a great many others who turned their back on religion.” (Page 10)
“So, too, with man. If he has a maker—and we will argue that he does—then he stands to benefit from reading the owners’ manual, commonly known as the Bible.” (Page 4)
“We know from the physical world that the value of an object depends on knowing the intent of its maker” (Page 4)
“If God does not exist, one has little to lose by living the life of a believer. But if he does exist and one refuses to acknowledge him as Lord, life in the next world could be gravely disappointing.” (Page 14)