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From Atheism to Christianity: A Homicide Detective's Journey With J. Warner Wallace—Alisa Childers Podcast #10

10/16/2017

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Ever since I read Cold Case Christianity, by J. Warner Wallace, I've been fascinated by his story. As a committed atheist and Los Angeles cold case homicide detective, Jim realized he had never examined the evidence for Christianity with the same techniques he used to solve his cold cases. So he set out to solve the most important cold case in history—the truth of the claims made by the disciples of Jesus of Nazareth. Do the gospel accounts of Jesus' life qualify as actual eye-witness testimony? Jim tells us all about it on today's podcast.

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9 Comments

Rachel

10/17/2017 08:48:06 am

Can you please post the name of the apologetics training academy you discussed in the podcast? Thank you!

Alisa Childers

10/17/2017 11:50:04 am

Hi Rachel, here's the link! http://crossexamined.org/what-is-cia/

Joe Sarr

10/20/2017 10:38:07 pm

I have listened to a number of interviews and podcast by Jim. This one is in particularly good. Thank you Alisa.

Ben link

10/25/2017 12:42:33 pm

J.W.Wallace seems genuine, and I guess he has a unique approach which some people find engaging. So, that's good.

But I'm fairly unimpressed by the substance of his apologetics. For example, in your interview he went into some detail about how he thinks the Gospels represent eyewitness testimonies, but modern scholarship is doubtful to say the least that they were written by eyewitnesses, or companions of eyewitnesses. Wallace understands that, but glossed over it for some reason.

Still, it was a nice interview. You both are obviously talented speakers and it was a pleasure to listen to you.

Alisa Childers

10/25/2017 01:10:32 pm

Thanks Ben. Just curious what you mean by "modern scholarship." The vast majority of scholars (even the most secular and liberal scholars) will grant that at least parts of the Gospels report historical events (even if they challenge who wrote them and that everything in them is true....)

Ben link

10/25/2017 02:00:05 pm

Sure, that's definitely true. You can probably count on one hand the number of credentialed scholars who reject altogether the Gospel narratives. But as should be equally clear, a large number of scholars reject the notion that the Gospels were written by eyewitnesses, or accurately report eyewitness testimony.

Sadly, the issue is highly controversial, and so a lot of the conclusions will run along "party lines," so to speak. That is to say, wherever there is dispute, Christian scholars tend to reach conclusions that agree with Christian tradition, and secular scholars tend to have opinions that disagree. Wallace, not surprisingly, consistently sides with the former.

cks

5/26/2018 10:15:49 am

Alisa, you never responded to Ben's last comment specifically about eye witness testimony and I'm curious about that. Thanks

Alisa Childers

5/30/2018 02:52:19 pm

Hi there,

See my comment above Ben's. I noted that the vast majority of scholars agree that at least parts of the gospels report historical events, even if they disagree on authorship or 100% accuracy. Ben agreed.

I do believe this podcast speaks for itself in this regard. Here you have an expert in eyewitness testimony recognizing authenticity in the gospels. There are many stories like this. For example, Holly Ordway is an English professor with a PhD in literature. As a committed atheist, she read the gospels and found that she wasn't reading a story....but fact.

Aaron

6/2/2019 09:49:20 am

Holly Ordway teaches apologetics at Houston Baptist University. She identifies as christian.

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From Atheism to Christianity: A Homicide Detective's Journey With J. Warner Wallace—Alisa Childers Podcast #10

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