Gospel.com Blog

Last Spring, the Discovery Channel aired a widely-viewed, sensational documentary suggesting that the remains of Jesus Christ had been found in a Jerusalem tomb—a find which, if genuine, would spell the end of Christianity as we know it. Living Hope Ministries is seeking to set the record straight, by going back and interviewing some of the same experts interviewed by the original documentary. Do they really believe the bones of Jesus have been found? And more importantly, do we really have a credible, objective reason for the Hope that we have in Christ? You can watch the trailer of The Jesus Tomb Hoax, and sign up to watch the full film online when it’s released.

If the Jesus Tomb controversy interests you, you might also check out material on it from two other members of the Gospel.com community—see “The So-Called Jesus Family Tomb” at Answers in Genesis and a series of blog posts about the controversy at GetReligion.org.

Have you ever looked around, taken stock of the spiritual apathy and confusion in our culture, and wished for a nationwide religious revival? If so, you’re not the first Christian to do so. If you’re despairing that a society-wide revival could ever take place, you might be surprised to learn that just a few hundred years ago, that’s exactly what happened!

I’m talking about the “Great Awakening” that swept through America in the 18th century, sparking great church growth, renewed missions work, and inter-denominational unity. Sound far-fetched? Here are a few resources to introduce you to the Great Awakening and the evangelists who helped spark it:

• First, read a brief overview of the Great Awakening—who started it and what it meant for an America increasingly affected by spiritual malaise and the humanist philosophies of the Enlightenment.
• Jonathan Edwards was a Puritan preacher who, distressed by what we saw happening (or not happening) in America’s churches, began a preaching tour that kickstarted a great spiritual revival. His 1741 sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” (link goes to an audio reading of it) is one of the most famous sermons in all of Christian history. (You can listen to many more of his sermons at Sermon Index.)
• George Whitefield, a British evangelist and friend of Ben Franklin, was another major figure in the Great Awakening. Greatly upset by the “lukewarm Christianity” he saw all around him, he did all he could to shake Christians out of their stagnant spiritual state. Read more about Whitefield’s evangelistic work, or check out some of his many sermons. For a shorter sample of his teaching style, see this brief Whitefield excerpt on the importance of “frequent and devout prayer”.
• Revival didn’t end with the Great Awakening— it wasn’t long after that a Second Great Awakening was sparked, with an even greater impact on American society.

The preaching of Edwards, Whitefield, and other evangelists had a profound effect on their society—and if you take the time to read some of their sermons, you’ll be amazed at how relevant they are. Some of them feel like they could just as easily have been written in 2008! So next time you’re tempted to despair at the all the religious confusion we see in society around us, remember the Great Awakening, and be reminded that what seems impossible to man is quite possible for God.

What’s the worst thing Christians have ever done?

If you said “the Crusades,” it’s hard to argue with you. What could be more disturbing than the followers of Jesus Christ—whose most famous sermon specifically praised peacemakers and encouraged his followers to “love your enemies”—taking up the sword to slaughter their foes? The Crusades’ bloody legacy continues to plague Christian-Muslim relations even today, 900 years after the fact!

Church historians have struggled for centuries to figure out exactly what went wrong—how the church of Jesus Christ came to champion violent “holy war.” As uncomfortable as it is to think about such an ugly period of church history, Christians need to grapple with the Crusades if they’re going to understand the story of the Church.

We’ve tracked down several resources from around the Gospel.com community that should help you better understand what the Crusades were, how they happened, and why they’re still so important to us today. If you know the Crusades were a stain on church history but don’t know exactly how and why, explore these links and see what you learn:

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This week’s focus at Gospel.com is church history—the often inspiring, sometimes discouraging chain of people and events that embodied the Christian church throughout the centuries. It seems fitting to kick off our church history week by commemorating the birthday of one of the church’s greatest and most influential minds, Thomas Aquinas!

Aquinas, who yesterday would have turned 783 years old if he were still alive, is considered one of the greatest theologians in the history of the Christian church. While the popular stereotype of medieval theologians imagines them sitting around debating minutia (”How many angels could dance on the head of a pin?”), Aquinas wrestled with many of the same fundamental questions about God and Christianity that skeptics and believers ask today: Can the existence of God be proven by logic? How can God be three persons in one—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? How can Jesus have been both fully God and fully human?

Here are a few links to explore if you want to get to know this great theologian/philosopher a bit better:

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Call it a savvy marketing, call it media evangelism—evangelical Christians have a history of using every available medium to get the Gospel message across, whether it’s printed tracts, radio broadcasts, or big-screen films. The Billy Graham Center has a fascinating online exhibit of one of the quirkier niches in evangelical history: classic Christian posters!

There’s a great gallery of vintage posters, from “come to the meeting” posters advertising revival meetings to somewhat quirkier posters. It’s interesting to compare posters from different parts of the world, from a stark London poster to lavishly illustrated Chinese posters.

Be sure to check them all out, and don’t miss this page of classic posters that aren’t a part of the exhibit.

A side note: Several of the posters, you’ll note, advertise Billy Graham crusades around the world. The Christian History Institute has an interesting account of Graham’s monumental 1954 evangelism crusade, if this particular corner of evangelical history interests you.

Stephen Lawhead’s novels have explored settings and themes ranging from science fiction to Celtic mythology. With the publication of his new novel Scarlet (second in a trilogy of books exploring the Robin Hood legend), Lawhead spoke at length with Hollywood Jesus about his writing and his Christian faith.

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The Christian History Institute turns 25 in 2007, and to mark the occasion, they’ve completely redesigned their website! If you’ve not visited the CHI site, it’s a great way to brush up on your church history. Here are a few highlights from the new site that you shouldn’t miss:

• A timeline of church history that stretches all the way from 6000 BC to today.
• Online archives of the Glimpses church history bulletin.
• 100 key events from church history that are worth knowing about.
• A “Today in Church History” feature on the homepage.

There’s a lot of content at CHI; take a few minutes to browse through the newly-redesigned site and see what catches your eye!

Sermon Index, whose excellent collection of audio sermons and other resources we’ve mentioned before, has a free monthly magazine!

The Old Paths Magazine–available both for online reading and in downloadable PDF format–is a free monthly periodical that is made available for the entire body of Christ. Its main focus is to propagate and promote the message of genuine Biblical revival to this generation. This chief aim is expressed through many voices from Christian history.

Sermon Index has granted permission for readers to copy and freely distribute The Old Paths without permission. Stop by and read the latest issue (#13), which features over a dozen articles touching on a variety of Christianity-related topics.

Easter is less than a month away! To help you get into the spirit of th holiday, here are two more good Easter resources worth bookmarking:

• The Christian History Institute has a special Easter issue of their Glimpses newsletter. It delves into the origins of Easter, how early Christians celebrated the holiday, and talks about the origins of Easter-related observances like Lent, Holy Week, and sunrise services on Easter morning.

• The Tract League has a number of Easter-themed Gospel tracts available both online and for purchase. Read them online, or order a whole batch of them to hand out as Easter nears! You might start with I Am the Resurrection, a short tract about life, death, and the freedom from fear that Christ brings.

As Easter approaches, we’ll continue to highlight more Easter resources from the Gospelcom Alliance, so check back!

Still following the “Jesus tomb” story? In addition to the ministry responses we mentioned here earlier, take a look at Back to the Bible’s new article on the topic. It explores what the Bible tells us about the details of the lives of Jesus and his family–and how the filmmakers’ claims match up to those details.