The Crowd Scene

If you're going to make up false stories that include real dates, real locations, and real public figures that can be checked out, it would make sense to wait until all of the eyewitnesses that can prove you wrong are dead. However, all of the New Testament documents are written within the lifetime of the eyewitnesses. All scholars will now say that the gospels were written around 70A.D. The epistle of Paul dates to about 20 years after Jesus' death. The 1 Corinthians Creed implicating over 500 witnesses was a public letter circulating only 20-25 years after the events and states plainly that many of those witnesses were still around to be verified:

1 Corinthians 15:3
For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.

Tim Keller

If the Bible Never Existed...

There are ten non-Christian writers who mention Jesus within 150 years of his life. {Not even as many sources note Tiberius Caesar, the Roman emperor from the same time.} From only these non-Christian sources, we learn that:

1. Jesus lived during the time of Tiberius Caesar.
2. He lived a virtuous life.
3. He was a wonder-worker.
4. He had a brother named James.
5. He was acclaimed to be the Messiah.
6. He was crucified under Pontius Pilate.
7. He was crucified on the eve of the Jewish Passover.
8. Darkness and an earthquake occurred when he died.
9. His disciples believed he rose from the dead.
10. His disciples were willing to die for their belief.
11. Christianity spread rapidly as far as Rome.
12. His disciples denied the Roman gods and worshiped Jesus as God.

Gary Habermas, Michael Licona, Norman L. Geisler, Frank Turek

A Succinct Synopsis

The Jury is Still Out...in the Desert

Science has yet to explain the origin of the first life. Spontaneous generation of life from nonliving chemicals has, at this point, never been observed (in nature or the laboratory) and is believed in by faith. One biochemist has remarked that the probability of getting even a protein molecule by chance would be the same as a blindfolded man finding one marked grain of sand in the Sahara desert three times in a row.

Michael Behe, Norman L. Geisler, Frank Turek

The Time Before Time

It's important to understand that the universe is not expanding into empty space, but space itself is expanding — there was no space before the big bang. It is also important to understand that the universe did not emerge from existing material, but from nothing — there was no matter before the big bang. In fact, chronologically, there was no "before" the big bang because there are no "befores" without time, and there was no time until the big bang. Time, space, and matter came into existence at the big bang. Although the scientific community has generally agreed that the big bang created the universe, it has yet to empirically address what created the big bang.

Norman L. Geisler, Frank Turek