Course

“Jesus: The Evidence" is also a one-evening or three-evening course. We have successfully run the course to groups of atheists, agnostics and Christians a many venues across Scotland in the last three years.

The course largely follows the information on this website – with the additional advantage of audience interaction and an opportunity to discuss and challenge the information presented.

Course Content

The course broadly covers the following:

The Historical Evidence

What historical evidence do we have for Jesus?
How trustworthy is this historical evidence?
How accurate is the historical evidence?
Is there contemporary written evidence for Jesus outside the Bible?
Does archaeology support the written historical evidence?
Does the historical evidence stand up to rational scrutiny?

Who was Jesus?

Was Jesus convinced that He was the Son of God?
Was Jesus massively deluded to think of Himself in this way?
Did Jesus’ original followers think that He was the Son of God?
Did Jesus unintentionally or deliberately mislead His followers so that they believed He was the Son of God.
What about other “messianic” leaders? In what ways was Jesus similar or different?

Resurrection – the Evidence

What evidence do we have for the Resurrection?
Was Jesus really executed?
What happened to Jesus’ body if He was executed?
What is the evidence for Jesus being seen alive by His followers after His death?
Is there any evidence from outside the Bible that supports or undermines the Resurrection?
Does this evidence stand up to rational scrutiny?

Course Aims

To explore the questions above - drawing upon up-to-date research from historians, archaeologists and linguists.
To provide “food for thought” for atheists and agnostics.
To provide Christians with a rational and historical dimension to their faith.

Why this course?

There are many other excellent courses that explore Jesus and Christianity. For example, you may have heard of the Alpha Courses running across the UK. We strongly believe that Alpha is an ideal way to explore Christianity further.

However, none of the courses we’ve seen focuses on the historical and rational evidence for Jesus being the Son of God.

To us, focusing on the rational and historical evidence for Jesus seems like a logical starting point for any exploration of Christianity. Why would you want to explore Christianity further if you didn’t think there was a good chance that Jesus is the Son of God? (see “Why Bother?” section of this site).

Next Courses

Dates	Start Time	Course Type	Venue	Address
2nd September 2010	7.30pm	One-Evening	Cathcart Trinity Church	90 Clarkston Road, Glasgow, G44 3DA.

Do you want to come along? Courses are free. Just come along on the night. We’d be delighted to see you. If you want to find out more about the courses, please e-mail us at support@jesustheevidence.com.

Course Comments

Here are a few comments from the people who attended our earlier courses.

“Informal. Clear and uncomplicated information”
“Easy to follow and handouts summarised [the course] well”
“[I liked] the amount of detailed information and the pragmatic views”
“…rapid, matter-of-fact delivery”
“Factual information, well presented in an unbiased manner”

Would You Like to Run a Course?

Our view is that this course can be run anywhere – from a small room in a bar to a large hall or church. For those of you involved in running courses such as Christianity Explored or Alpha, we've found that the one-evening course can act as a "first step" to a deeper exploration of Christianity that these courses provide.

If you are interested in us running a course for you, please contact us at support@jesustheevidence.com.