The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus

Written by Michael R. Licona and Gary R. Habermas

Narrated by David Cochran Heath

This is an accessible, comprehensive, and persuasive resource providing detailed evidence for the resurrection of Jesus. It also demonstrates how to share the material clearly, honestly, and definitively.



Disclaimer: This audiobook refers to charts, quizzes, and pictures included in the print and eBook editions of the book.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc
• Release date: Mar 30, 2021
• ISBN: 9781666105063

Michael R. Licona

Michael R. Licona (Ph.D., University of Pretoria) is Research Professor of New Testament at Southern Evangelical Seminary and on staff at the North American Mission Board.

Reviews for The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus

[Fit For Faith 〣 Your Christian Ministry. · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

It is a good book, but I am sadly not able to recommend it based on its endorsement of Theistic Evolution, Hugh Ross, the Big Bang and 4.5 billion years.

PROS

+ A very good point appears right at the beginning of the book, a point which many of the apologetic books out there miss entirely: No matter how convincing your arguments and the time invested in someone, we are only tools and servants, but THEOS alone draws the people (and takes away the veil!).

+ Focus on a proper attitude at the end of the book. We ought not to be sparring partners, but to transfer the truth with humility, wisdom and precision. We ought to avoid smoke screens coming from atheists and instead focus on the relevant questions and topics.

+ Some good examples for conversations, which are sadly rare in apologetic books.

+ Probably the first apologetics book which does not provide a platform for Bart Ehrman ...

NEUTRAL

o They offer some good discernment on a few religions, but the 2 or 3 findings on each one are the bare minimum what one would expect. A good discernment must include some basic facts on the respective religion and then point out the flaws when compared to Christianity. Not with many words, but a list with at least 10 points of each should be included in a book, which over and over repeats other topics without hesitation and takes a lot of time to elaborate on its principal ideas.

o The book quotes the Talmud without speaking out a clear warning. But it later used 1 or 2 negative examples in regards to content, which hopefully creates a sufficient warning for readers.

CONS

- Total focus on the NT. They entirely miss the OT prophecies and how intertwined the NT and OT are. Instead they focus with a supposing minimal approach on the creeds, but the only 'proof' for Paul supposedly having quoted a creed in 1 Corinthians, is that someone in the ancient past thought that it could be a creed. A skeptic is not interested in foundations of denominations, he is interested in CHRISTOS and how He had been announced in the OT and realized in the NT.

- They used the Big Bang even as an argument against Atheists. It is indeed biblical that the ~naked~ planet earth (biblically described as the foundation) predated the young creation account by an unknown time, but it is highly problematic to transfer THEOS on the seat of a spectator when it comes the precise creation of the world, and to essentially say that He watched a big explosion happening from the sideline.

At least this book brings some light why the Big Bang even came up, but it is a rather spurious story, one of a scientist in the 1960s extrapolating some very particular conclusions after finding a simple magnetic field, which could have been caused by, or be the result, or the byproduct of a number of factors. It is a sad reality that university students nowadays feel obliged to have a naturalistic explanation instead of simply believing that IESOUS CHRISTOS masterfully created the world in a way we will never be able to fully grasp in this age.

- The book offers absolutely nothing new when compared with all the other apologetics books and was very dry for the first 3/4.

- The book endorses the highly problematic teacher Origen, without any word of discernment (Universalist; taught Purgatory; taught pre-existence of souls, decisive in bringing the OT Apocrypha into our Bibles; excluded James, 2 Peter, and 2&3 John from his canon; pioneer of the monastic practice of Lectio Divina; speculated that heavenly bodies are living creatures; Ransom-Theorist; first hints of Catholic Mariology occurred precisely his writings; Pope Dionysius of Alexandria became one of the foremost proponents of Origen's theology) . Furthermore, Josephus is endorsed, again without any discernment.

- Another problematic endorsement involves Hugh Ross (claims that the creation days of Gen 1 do not represent literal 24-hour periods; there are about 12 species of bipedal primates that predated Adam and Eve but they're in the same category the chimpanzees orangutangs and the gorillas; science and the Bible should be equated in authority; close collaboration with Francis Collins from BioLogos; Guest at the infamous 700 Club).

- They almost treat the OT Apocrypha as Scripture and went as far as to mention how often a word was found in the NT, and in the same breath in the OT Apocrypha, or another term used in the book, Intertestamental books (which is highly misleading because the 15 books had not even been finished when the NT was written).

- Endorsement of the dean John Rodgers of Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry.

[layman_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I am not a fan of much popular apologetics -- especially on the resurrection. But when I saw that this book was 384 pages long, I thought it was perhaps an exception and would cover the issue in more detail than others. I was wrong. So why do I still rank this book so high? Because it effectively does what it sets out to do.

This book effectively equips Christians to witness to their friends, neighbors, and families using the historical evidence for the resurrection of Jesus. Habermas and Licona begin with a discussion about the importance of the resurrection of Jesus to Christianity. Though this seems obvious, the discussion is helpful because it wisely recommends focusing on the resurrection without getting bogged down in, presumably, issues such as inerrancy and a complete harmonization of the resurrection narratives. This is a common failing of Christians trying to share their faith. The authors' emphasis on keeping the eye on the ball extends throughout the book.

After the opening chapter, the book turns to the core of the issue, the historical evidence for the resurrection of Jesus. The strength of this section is that it distills down, accurately, a high level of scholarship on the issue. Habermas and Licona present five "minimal facts." That is, they focus on five historical facts that are accepted by most scholars:

1) Jesus' death by crucifixion;
2) Jesus' disciples believed that he rose and appeared to them;
3) Paul, a persecutor of the church, has suddenly changed to faith in Jesus;
4) James, skeptical of Jesus during his ministry, was suddenly changed to faith in Jesus; and,
5) The tomb of Jesus was empty.

No. 4 is perhaps more disputed than Habermas and Licona discuss (and by far the least important of the five), but the rest of the discussion accurately represents the state of historical scholarship. Although their discussion will not supplant the more probing discussions of N.T. Wright or William L. Craig, it will equip the reader to accurately present to their friends, neighbors, and family the persuasive historical evidence for the resurrection of Jesus. They fit their "minimal facts" together effectively to present a strong case for the resurrection of Jesus.

Most of the rest of the book deals with various objections to the resurrection. This includes the usual suspects, such as the hallucination theory or the forgotten grave site. But it also includes others that scholars tend to ignore but which actually pop up in real conversation, such as whether Jesus could have been an alien (don't laugh, I've heard that one) and how do we know that even if there was a resurrection that God had anything to do with it. Their response effectively focuses on the context of Jesus' ministry and claims that he made about himself.

There are a few sections that appear out of place, such as the discussion of near death experiences and even the section about the existence of God. But the book closes with its strength; which is a helpful discussion about how to take the knowledge conveyed and use it to convince others that Jesus is resurrected from the dead.

Christians wishing to share effectively the core of their faith with those they care about will find this book very helpful. And for that reason, I recommend it.