Christianity As A Cold-Case

Evaluate and employ!

^{by Rob Kerby, Senior Editor}

When detectives investigate cold-cases, they’re investigating events such as murders from the distant past for which there are often no living eyewitnesses and little, if any, direct or forensic evidence to make the case. Detectives learn how to evaluate and employ circumstantial evidence to demonstrate what happened at the scene of the crime. In a similar way, Christianity makes a claim about an event in the distant past for which there are no living eyewitnesses and little, if any, direct or forensic evidence. Those who want to investigate the claims of Christianity can employ cold-case detective skills. J. Warner Wallace’s book, Cold-Case Christianity provides readers with ten important investigative principles.

Listen! Look!

Hang on Every Word. Suspects and witnesses provide investigators with their statements and detectives are then required to examine these accounts carefully. “Word selection” is extremely important and principles of “Forensic Statement Analysis” (FSA) can be employed to examine the claims of the New Testament gospel writers.

Separate Artifacts from Evidence. Every crime scene contains evidence related to the crime and unrelated, incidental “artifacts” that just happen to have been caught in the scene. This is important to remember as we examine all the New Testament evidence to determine what ought to be applied to our investigation and what should not. Christians, seekers and skeptics must always interpret the artifacts in light of the overwhelming evidence (and not vice-versa).

Just the facts!

Examine the Evidence. Once we understand the ten principles of cold-case investigations, our important work begins. The criteria used by juries across America to evaluate courtroom witnesses can be applied to the gospel writers. Were they really present at the scene as they claimed to be? Can their claims be verified adequately through some external line of evidence? Are the claims of the gospels accurate or have they been corrupted over the years? And finally, were the gospel writer simply too biased as “Christians” to be able to accurately tell us what happened? J. Warner Wallace’s Cold-Case Christianity examines the gospel eyewitness accounts to determine if we can have confidence in their reliability.