The Historical Jesus
Recently, someone said to me that the Warren Center’s upcoming Spring Apologetics Lectures program has great potential to challenge skeptical philosophy in its rejection of the Christian worldview and demoralization of American education and culture. I think this person is right, and I am excited to tell you why!
However, before providing more details about this upcoming event, please look back in time to an event that occurred at Yale University in 1951. It has a significant connection to what we are planning for May 9, and what the work of the Warren Center is about. In February 1951, before a Yale audience that was sympathetic with at least some of the principles of the Christian worldview, a prominent religious leader stated: “Christian faith stands or falls on the proposition that a character named Jesus, in a particular place at a particular time in history, is more than a man in history, but is the revelation of the . . . ultimate mystery of existence” (Buckley, William F., Jr. God and Man at Yale 8).
What do you think the chances are today that a leader associated with Yale University would affirm and defend the proposition that Jesus Christ is “the revelation of the ultimate existence” (God)? I will tell you the chances of this happening today at Yale are “slim to none”! Why? Allow recent Yale graduate, Nathan Harden, to answer from his 2012 book, Sex and God at Yale: “[Yale] Professors who teach about Christianity get hired only if they don’t believe in it” (224). In this jaw-dropping look about the decadent spiritual and moral landscape at a prestigious Ivy League school, the author references an article in the Yale Daily News that profiled a number of students in Yale Divinity School who “described themselves as agnostic, atheistic, or even Hindu”! The “moral aimlessness” that exists at Yale is “a crisis of lost faith,” according to Harden. He says there is no “moral framework” at Yale “to replace the one that was abandoned when God fell out of fashion” (229).
“The Historical Jesus” is the theme of the Warren Center’s Third Annual Spring Apologetics Lectures scheduled for May 9, 2013, at Grand Pointe Conference Center, Vienna, WV. It will be a discussion of the evidence for the very existence of Jesus Christ—the Christ of the New Testament. Speeches on this crucial issue and responses to these speeches will be delivered by the participants. This will be an extremely significant event because of (1) the propositions investigated, (2) the procedure followed, and (3) the participants engaged in this dialogue.
Here is a unique opportunity to listen to four specialists—One is an academically highly trained atheist. Another is a prolific writer who co-authored a 2007 book with the world’s most prominent atheistic philosopher who renounced atheism. The other two participants are great gospel preachers trained by Dr. Thomas B. Warren and expertly trained as Christian philosophers. These four men will discuss the very propositions upon which the case for Christianity stands or falls. This will be no “bells and whistles” discussion. It will be a high-level adversarial dialogue in both substance and spirit. All of the material presented is scheduled for publication in a book July 2013.
Your support is needed. First, please attend this unique event. Seating is limited so call or email to make your reservation today! Secondly, the Warren Center needs your financial gifts to produce this kind of event. All of the great work being done by the Warren Center depends on tax-deductible donations to keep the work continuing on such a high level. This type of work is costly, but the cost will be much, much greater in the destruction of American culture and ultimately in the loss of souls, if skepticism is not met at the highest levels.
The work of Warren Apologetics Center is a unique work that is beginning to make a significant contribution in the duel between Christianity and atheism. Help us keep moving forward in the building of this great work. Please send your tax-deductible gift today. I hope to see you May 9!