Saturday, November 28, 2015

10 MORE GREAT APOLOGETIC BOOKS THAT ARE *FREE!*

Here is a list of 10 more FREE! apologetics books that I highly recommend....

My good friend and expert apologist Dr. Timothy McGrew includes the first three among his "Mandatory Reading" and the fourth comes from his annotated bibliography at the Library of Historical Apologetics.
  1. A Lecture on the Historic Evidence of The Authorship and Transmission of the Books of the New Testament (1852) by Samuel Prideaux Tregelles. Lucidly and cogently written by an eminent 19th Century scholar. A brief biography and overview of his greatest scholarly accomplishment are found at The Center for The Study of New Testament Manuscripts (and a slightly longer biography here). An extensive list of his works available online is hosted by the University of Pennsylvania.
  2. A View of The Evidences of Christianity (1794) by William Paley. A powerful cumulative case by one of the foremost scholars and apologists of the 18th Century. Also available for FREE on Kindle. A brief summary of the book at the Library of Historical Apologetics. A brief biography of Paley at the Christian Classics Ethereal Library.
  3. The Four Gospels from a Lawyer's Standpoint (1893) by Edmund Bennett. A concise biography and overview of the book is found at the Library of Historical Apologetics. It is a brief 88 pages.
  4. The Trial of the Witnesses of the Resurrection (1729) by Thomas Sherlock. A short introduction to the book is available at the Library of Historical Apologetics. (Only 114 pages). Also available for FREE on Kindle.
  5. Heretics (1905) by G.K. Chesterton. Also available on Kindle at Amazon or Audiobook from Librivox. Chesterton was one of the great writers of the early 20th Century and had a huge influence on C.S. Lewis. He is well known for his works of apologetics, especially Orthodoxy, The Everlasting Man, and Heretics. But he is also well known for his poetry and fiction, especially his "Father Brown" mysteries, which have been adapted for television. You can find 49 of his works in audiobook at Librivox. A brief biography, list of quotes and collection of his works is found at the Christian Classics Ethereal Library. There is a wealth of information about Chesterton and his writings at The American Chesterton Society (including some notable theological essays).
  6. Dialogue with Trypho (c. 150 AD) by Justin Martyr. We can learn a lot from this relatively short but important writing from one of the early church fathers. Not only does it give us some important historical information that confirms the historicity of the Gospels, but it also gives us some insight into Messianic Prophecy and how apologetics was done among the Jews in the 2nd Century. The first 8 chapters of this work describes Justin's pursuit of philosophy and his conversion. Then he begins answering Jewish objections about Christians not keeping the Old Testament laws. In chapter 31, he begins giving detailed responses related to messianic prophecy. (Chapters 55-63 deal with Jewish objections to the Incarnation--and Justin's view seems to be quite Arian! A brief biography of Justin, his collected works, and other resources can be found at Early Christian Writings (my favorite web site for researching the writings of the early church).
  7. St. Paul the Traveler and the Roman Citizen  (1895, 1907) by William Ramsay. FREE at Christian Classics Ethereal Library, where you will also find a nice summary of the book and a short biography of Ramsay. And here is a short article by Don Stewart quoting from this book and showing how Sir William Ramsay is related to settling the question of the historicity of Acts.
  8. The Gospel of Thomas (mid-2nd Century) is available at Early Christian Writings, along with a "collected commentary" and a significant bibliography. The so-called "gnostic gospels" have been making quite a stir in the world for the last few decades--and especially in the past decade. The Gospel of Thomas is raised up by critics of the Bible as representing a picture of Jesus that is just as worthy of our attention as the New Testament. Reading this short document for yourself will help you to understand the issues more clearly and to see firsthand that it is really no gospel at all.
  9. The Abolition of Man by C.S. Lewis. Lewis explores ideas important to the moral argument, which he establishes quite solidly in the first section of Mere Christianity. You can find a brief biography of Lewis (and much more) here.
  10. The Apostolic Fathers by Joseph Barber Lightfoot. A standard collection of the writings of the apostolic fathers with introductions and commentary. Reading and understanding the writings of the apostolic fathers is important in assessing the evidence for the New Testament canon and the historicity of Jesus. See my article "Who Are the Apostolic Fathers? for a brief explanation of who they are and why they are important and also a concise bibliography of resources.

Looking for more great resources for apologetics and Bible study?....
....then check out my growing MASTER LIST OF APOLOGETIC RESOURCES....


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“You cannot evade the issue of God, whether you talk about pigs or the binomial theory, you are still talking about Him. Now if Christianity be. . . a fragment of metaphysical nonsense invented by a few people, then, of course, defending it will simply mean talking that metaphysical nonsense over and over. But if Christianity should happen to be true – then defending it may mean talking about anything or everything. Things can be irrelevant to the proposition that Christianity is false, but nothing can be irrelevant to the proposition that Christianity is true.”

– G.K. Chesterton
Daily News, December 12, 1903

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