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Is the Book of Acts Historically Reliable? With Dr. Craig Keener — The Alisa Childers Podcast #38

11/15/2018

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On today's podcast, I talk with New Testament scholar Craig Keener about how he came to faith in Christ, and what led him into the world of scholarship. We talk about skeptical claims brought against the reliability of the book of Acts, and whether or not we can trust a Josephus quote apologists like to use to make the case for the historical Jesus.

3 Comments

Steve Walker

12/13/2018 09:46:46 am

Hi Alisa, I'm currently going through the book of Acts with the young adults at my church right now, so I appreciate this podcast. More than that, I am grateful for your voice of truth in this deceived and deceiving generation. Please keep up the great work of speaking the truth in love. So many times when I read the comments by progressive Christians, I think of the line from the old song by Truth "Living Life Upside Down"... "What if we've fallen to the bottom of a well, thinking we've risen to the top of a mountain?" The greatest way to love the body of Christ is to keep sharing the truth of the REAL gospel, in spite of the resistance from those who consider themselves having evolved beyond it.

Ben link

1/15/2019 06:25:56 pm

This was an engaging podcast, so thanks to you both.

Obviously, what one person finds interesting may not be what someone else does. But for my own part, I find Acts to be one of the most interesting books of the New Testament, second only to the Gospel of Mark.

Dr. Keener is clearly more knowledgeable about the subject than I am, so I'm hesitant to try to "correct" him. Besides, most of what he said was uncontroversial. Perhaps more importantly, he seems honest and genuine, and that is a regrettably uncommon virtue among Christian apologists.

That said, I do have one complaint. You folks repeated uncritically the old canard that people couldn't get away with lying or otherwise making up stories when eyewitnesses were still alive to refute it. I mean, people can get away with that sort of thing nowadays for heaven's sake, when the internet and other information technologies makes physical distance a nonissue! Why on earth would it have been impossible (or even just unlikely) when there were *additional* impediments to correcting false claims? So, I must admit, it was very disappointing indeed to hear you both swallow this canard whole.

Otherwise, though, I was impressed. His comments on Otho's biographies were new to me, and extremely interesting. I'm definitely going to check out some more of Dr. Keener's stuff to see what further insights he has to offer.

Thank you again for your presentations.

2/2/2021 10:17:58 pm

Good to see Dr. Keener. Was recently introduced to Alisa Childers, and mostly found her around reformed circles. Keener is a well-respected scholar, not of the Calvinist type.

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Is the Book of Acts Historically Reliable? With Dr. Craig Keener — The Alisa Childers Podcast #38

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