Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Cold-Case Christianity Participant's Guide: A Homicide Detective Investigates the Claims of the Gospels
    Cold-Case Christianity Participant's Guide: A Homicide Detective Investigates the Claims of the Gospels
    Cold-Case Christianity Participant's Guide: A Homicide Detective Investigates the Claims of the Gospels
    Ebook164 pages1 hour

    Cold-Case Christianity Participant's Guide: A Homicide Detective Investigates the Claims of the Gospels

    By J. Warner Wallace

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    This fully-illustrated, eight-session guide takes participants through ten important principles employed by detectives, applying these techniques to the New Testament Gospel accounts.
     
    Designed to work seamlessly with the original book and DVD, this guide is accessible and engaging for participants and leaders alike. It includes questions for reflection, notes for discussion, and examples to help users investigate the claims of Christianity using the skills of a cold-case detective. Participants will grow in certainty and unite in confidence as they learn how to defend the truth through this unique investigative experience.
     
    This interactive study guide includes a free QR code and URL to access all eight videos, plus additional content for engaging study as a group or on your own. To aid you in your planning, following are the session titles and video run times:
     
    1          Session 1         10:20
    2          Session 2         10:10
    3          Session 3         13:36
    4          Session 4         11:06
    5          Session 5         9:21
    6          Session 6         10:19
    7          Session 7         10:08
    8          Session 8         10:01
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDavid C Cook
    Release dateOct 1, 2018
    ISBN9780830775491
    Cold-Case Christianity Participant's Guide: A Homicide Detective Investigates the Claims of the Gospels
    Author

    J. Warner Wallace

    J. Warner Wallace is a Dateline-featured homicide detective, popular national speaker, and best-selling author. Relying on over two decades of investigative experience, Wallace provides the tools needed to investigate the claims of Christianity and make a convincing case for the truth of the Christian worldview.

    Read more from J. Warner Wallace

    Related to Cold-Case Christianity Participant's Guide

    Related ebooks

    Comparative Religion For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Discipling The Next Generation In A Post-Christian, Multi-faith World

      Aug 7, 2020

      Like it or not, this current school-going generation is living in a very different world to what previous generations experienced. Having my daughter at home over lockdown has allowed me to not only spend more time with her, but also look at what she

      1 min read

    • Article

      Letters To The Editor

      Sep 24, 2021

      Dear readers, we love to hear your thoughts on the stories that we publish, what is going on around the world, and what the Lord has placed on your heart! Email your letter through to editor@joymag.co.za for a chance to be featured – please try to ke

      7 min read

    • Article

      Letters To The Editor

      Jul 30, 2021

      Dear readers, we love to hear your thoughts on the stories that we publish, what is going on around the world, and what the Lord has placed on your heart! Email your letter through to editor@joymag.co.za for a chance to be featured – please try to ke

      7 min read

    • Article

      Jamie Wheal Meaning 3.0

      Jul 17, 2022

      Jamie Wheal Meaning 3.0
      18 min read

    • Article

      This Essentially Meaningless Conflict

      Sep 22, 2017

      MARILYNNE ROBINSON’S accomplishments are impressive by any standard: she has won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction, the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and the National Humanities Medal, among other honors. But perhaps a better measure o

      8 min read

    • Article

      Man On Fire

      Nov 19, 2020

      Man On Fire
      4 min read

    • Article

      The Joys of Being a Stoic

      Nov 4, 2020

      In September, a writer for HBO’s Watchmen series, Cord Jefferson, was awarded an Emmy. I enjoyed the show’s first season, a sequel to arguably the best movie (and graphic novel) about superhero vigilantism. The plot involves the protagonists combatti

      9 min read

    • Article

      Steven Pinker Has His Reasons

      Nov 17, 2021

      A few years ago, at the Princeton Club in Manhattan, I chanced on a memorable chat with the Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker. His spouse, the philosopher Rebecca Goldstein, with whom he was tagging along, had been invited onto a panel to discuss th

      19 min read

    • Article

      Spiritual Or Atheist? More Nonbelievers Are Saying ‘Both.’

      Mar 11, 2019

      In a letter up for auction, Albert Einstein talked about admiring “in humility the beautiful harmony of the structure of the world.” More nonbelievers say they are seeking a sense of awe and reverence in their own lives.

      6 min read

    • Article

      Fake News, Fake Gospels!

      Dec 31, 2021

      Fake News, Fake Gospels!
      5 min read

    • Article

      Jen Hatmaker

      Aug 19, 2017

      Jen Hatmaker
      3 min read

    • Article

      Are Suicide Bombings Really Driven by Ideology?

      May 24, 2018

      Harvey Whitehouse doesn’t like how New Atheists like Richard Dawkins make religion out to be a mere “set of propositions” amounting to a “failed science.” In a 2013 YouTube video, Whitehouse—the director of the Institute of Cognitive & Evolutionary A

      8 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Cold-Case Christianity Participant's Guide

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Cold-Case Christianity Participant's Guide - J. Warner Wallace

      COLD-CASE CHRISTIANITY PARTICIPANT’S GUIDE

      Published by David C Cook

      4050 Lee Vance Drive

      Colorado Springs, CO 80918 U.S.A.

      Integrity Music Limited, a Division of David C Cook

      Eastbourne, East Sussex BN23 6NT, England

      The graphic circle C logo is a registered trademark of David C Cook.

      All rights reserved. Except for brief excerpts for review purposes,

      no part of this book may be reproduced or used in any form

      without written permission from the publisher.

      The website addresses recommended throughout this book are offered as a resource to you. These websites are not intended in any way to be or imply an endorsement on the part of David C Cook, nor do we vouch for their content.

      Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are taken from the New American Standard Bible®, copyright © 1960, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org.) Scripture quotations marked

      ESV

      are taken from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The author has added italics to Scripture quotations for emphasis.

      ISBN 978-1-4347-1144-1

      eISBN 978-0-8307-7549-1

      © 2018 James Warner Wallace

      Published in association with the literary agency of Mark Sweeney & Associates, Bonita Springs, FL 34135.

      Illustrations by J. Warner Wallace

      The Team: Stephanie Bennett, Amy Konyndyk, Jack Campbell, Susan Murdock

      Cover Design: Nick Lee

      Cover Photo: Shutterstock

      First Edition 2018

      1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

      071318

      Contents

      Session One

      Don’t Be a Know-It-All and Learn How to Infer

      Session Two

      Think Circumstantially and Test Your Witnesses

      Session Three

      Hang on Every Word and Separate Artifacts from Evidence

      Session Four

      Resist Conspiracy Theories, Know When Enough Is Enough, and Prepare for an Attack

      Session Five

      Were They Present?

      Session Six

      Were They Corroborated?

      Session Seven

      Were They Accurate?

      Session Eight

      Were They Biased?

      Session One

      Don’t Be a Know-It-All and Learn How to Infer

      I was thirty-five years old before I first paid attention to a pastor’s sermon. A fellow officer had been inviting me to church for many months, and while I was able to put him off for some time, I eventually acquiesced and attended a Sunday-morning service with my family. I managed to ignore most of what the pastor talked about until he began to paint a picture of Jesus that caught my attention. He characterized Jesus as a really smart guy who had some remarkably wise things to say about life, family, relationships, and work. I began to believe that this might be true. While I was uninterested in bowing my knee to Jesus as God, I was at least willing to listen to Jesus as a teacher. A week later I purchased my first Bible.

      Something about the Gospels caught my attention, more as an investigator than as someone interested in the ancient philosophy of an imaginary sage. By this time in my life, I had already served as a patrol officer and a member of the Gang Detail, the Metro Team (investigating street narcotics), the SWAT Team, and the Crime Impact Team (investigating career criminals). I had interviewed hundreds (if not thousands) of eyewitnesses and suspects. I had become familiar with the nature of eyewitness statements, and I understood how testimony was evaluated in a court of law. Something about the Gospels struck me as more than mythological storytelling. The Gospels actually appeared to be ancient eyewitness accounts. I began carefully employing my investigative training in Forensic Statement Analysis (FSA) to the gospel of Mark. Within a month, and in spite of my deep skepticism and hesitation, I concluded that Mark’s gospel was the eyewitness account of the apostle Peter.

      In my current assignment, I investigate cold-case murders. Unlike other lesser crimes, an unsolved homicide is never closed; time doesn’t run out on a murder investigation. There are many similarities between investigating cold cases and investigating the claims of Christianity. Cold-case homicides are events from the distant past for which there is often little or no forensic evidence. These kinds of cases are sometimes solved on the basis of eyewitness testimony, even though many years have passed between the point of the crime and the point of the investigation.

      Christianity makes a claim about an event from the distant past for which there is little or no forensic evidence. Like cold cases, the truth about what happened can be discovered by examining the statements of eyewitnesses and comparing them with what additional evidence is accessible to us. If the eyewitnesses can be evaluated (and their statements can be verified by what we have available), an equally strong circumstantial case can be made for the claims of the New Testament. But, are there any reliable eyewitness statements in existence to corroborate in the first place? This became the most important question I had to answer in my personal investigation of Christianity. Were the gospel narratives eyewitness accounts or were they only moralistic mythologies? Were the Gospels reliable or were they filled with untrustworthy, supernatural absurdities? The most important questions I could ask about Christianity just so happened to fall within my area of expertise.

      I hope to share some of that expertise with you in this study. A quote from C. S. Lewis in his book God in the Dock has stuck with me through the years. Lewis correctly noted, Christianity is a statement which, if false, is of no importance, and, if true, is of infinite importance. The one thing it cannot be is moderately important. Christianity, if true, is worthy of our investigation.

      Open the Case File

      (5 minutes – Consider and Answer as many Questions as possible)

      How would you define the word faith?

      Some people define faith as believing in something even when there isn’t any evidence for it. What role do you think evidence ought to play in our Christian faith?

      Think about how you became a Christian. What role, if any, did evidence play in your decision to become a Christian?

      What would you say to someone who said they didn’t think there was any evidence for Christianity?

      View the Video Testimony

      (10 minutes – Take Notes)

      Controlling your presuppositions (trying not to be a know-it-all)

      Letting the evidence speak for itself when it comes to Christianity

      Understanding the difference between possible and reasonable

      Employing "Abductive

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1