Classes taught by Todd McAdams unless indicated otherwise.
You can download the class lessons in either PDF, WORD, or PAGES format.
Right click on the file you wish to downoad. If you have any problems, contact me by clicking on this link fonsrf@gmail.com.
Introduction to the course by Todd McAdams (click on the Introduction to open or download)
UPDATE Aug 25: Lessons available for download.
Audio of classes — Click on the link (date) to listen to the audio, or, right click on the link to download an mp3 copy to your computer.
Jun 04 - Mountaintops of Faith: Creation, Exodus, Resurrection (An introduction to the class, and a survey of three mountaintops of faith, bedrocks of objective evidence upon which Biblical faith is built: the creation as proof of God, the exodus as proof that Jehovah is God, and the resurrection as proof that Jesus is the Son of God.)
Jun 07 - The Significance of the Resurrection to the Christian and the Unbeliever (The resurrection is presented as that which undergirds every doctrine of Christianity, makes the Christian life possible and joyful, and that which can rescue the world from its unbelief.)
Jun 11 - Concepts and Worldviews (Topics discussed: what the gospel is, what atonement means, the resurrection as the theme of the Bible, what kind of resurrection we’re focusing on, the meaning of faith, and the nature of evidence.)
Jun 14 - Concepts and Worldviews #2 (Topics covered: the definition of miracles, the fallacies of naturalism, and the resurrection as a stumbling block to atheism, agnosticism, deism, and paganism.)
Jun 18 - Gospel Meeting
Jun 21 - Three “Troubling” Texts (An examination of John 20:29, 2 Corinthians 5:7, and Hebrews 11:1 and whether or not they endorse blind faith as de facto evidence of Christianity.)
Jun 25 - The Kernel of the Gospel, Pt. 1 (Topics discussed: five principles of historiography, and an introduction to the medical evidence for Christ's death)
Jun 28 - The Kernel of the Gospel, Pt 2 (A survey of the medical evidence for the suffering and death of Christ, the unique features of His burial, and the peculiar presentation of His resurrection.)
The Issue of Blood and Water (PDF)
On the Physical Death of Jesus (PDF)
Jul 02 - The Kernel Of The Gospel, Pt. 3 (A survey of Jesus' appearances to Mary Magdalene, the other women, Peter, Cleopas and the unnamed disciple, the eleven minus Thomas, and the eleven with Thomas.)
Jul 05 - The Kernel Of The Gospel, Pt. 4 (The appearances of Jesus to the seven disciples by the sea, the eleven on the mountain, the appearance to more than five hundred brethren at once, to James, the apostles at His ascension, and to Paul.)
Jul 09 - Age and Accuracy of the Manuscripts (Synopsis: How the Septuagint and Dead Sea Scrolls confirm the age and textual accuracy of the OT, and how thousands of manuscripts confirm the same for the NT.)
Jul 12 - Age And Textual Accuracy Of the Manuscripts, Pt. 2 (How the internal evidences of the Gospels, Acts, and 1 Corinthians dates these documents to the first century, and why the thousands and thousands of variances within the manuscripts are not a stumbling block to faith.)
Jul 16 - Historical And Archaeological Accuracy Of The Manuscripts. (An overview of how the archaeological and historical accuracy of the New Testament confirms that the manuscripts are trustworthy in their reporting and documentation. Comparison is made to the lack of archaeological confirmation for The Book of Mormon, and the transition of archaeologist Sir William Mitchell Ramsay from skeptic to believer is considered as well.)
Jul 19 - The Authors Of The Manuscripts (Who wrote the gospels? Answering this question helps us assess the credibility of their testimony. The early Christian writings and manuscripts all confirm that the four books were written by the men whose names they bear. We also examine how their backgrounds and professions and experiences confirm them to be dependable witnesses.)
Jul 23 - Agreement of the Manuscripts (Do the documents containing the kernel of the gospel contradict one another? We examine ten alleged discrepancies between Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Acts. The texts are harmonized in the light of two self-evident rules: a contradiction only exists if two things cannot both be true, and specifics do not exclude. I contend that no charge of contradiction can be sustained against the gospel historians as there are no irreconcilable discrepancies, and that no one can charge them with collusion since they differ in the details.)
Jul 26 - The Crucifixion_ The First Stubborn Fact - Jesus Died By Crucifixion (Are there facts about the kernel of the gospel that even unbelievers must accept and acknowledge? Yes. As John Adams said, "Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence." In defense of the gospel, we summon the first stubborn fact before the seething masses of unbelief: Jesus died by crucifixion, and pagans and Jews in the first and second centuries admitted to it.)
Jul 30 - The Resurrection_ The Second Stubborn Fact - The Disciples Believed They Saw The Risen Jesus (The second stubborn fact: the disciples believed they saw the risen Jesus. This is evident from oral and written claims, the early Christian writings, and the concessions of skeptics.)
Aug 02 - The Resurrection_ The Third Stubborn Fact - Paul The Persecutor Became The Preacher (The third stubborn fact: Saul of Tarsus, a Hebrew of Hebrews, zealous for Judaism, became Paul the preacher, the most devoted Christian that ever lived, enduring the very persecutions he fomented.)
Aug 06 - The Resurrection_ The Fourth And Fifth Stubborn Facts - The Conversion Of James And Empty Tomb (The final stubborn facts: James, Jesus' skeptical sibling, became a suffering servant of Christ's, and Jesus' tomb was found empty. The empty tomb is confirmed by the Jerusalem factor, the implicit admission of His enemies, and the testimony of women. When we harmonize these five facts, none of which are supernatural, we are left with but one conclusion to draw: the supernatural is the only way to explain them!)
Aug 09 - The Resurrection_ Eliminating The Impossible, Pt. 1 (Sherlock Holmes said, "Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth." The five stubborn facts confirm the kernel of the gospel: Jesus died, was buried, arose, and appeared. Nonetheless, skeptics offer "alternative facts" to explain away the resurrection as a natural event. In this study we begin to eliminate the impossible: naturalistic explanations. I posit that the highly improbable, a bodily resurrection from the dead, is the best explanation for the gospel story. We begin by surveying the fallacies of naturalism and its objections to miracles: disbelief in God, total belief in science, the claim that resurrections are disproved by science, deistic preconceptions, the improbability of miracles, and the counterfeit "miracles" of today. Naturalism dies on the hill of atheism, while faith lives on the mountaintops.)
Aug 13 - The Resurrection_ Eliminating The Impossible, Pt. 2 (Strangely enough, there are still those who question whether Jesus ever lived. Others say that the gospel just recycled pagan myths of dying and rising gods that preceded it, but gave the myth a new name and face. Still others concede that Jesus lived, but they say He wasn't what the gospels made Him out to be; His followers embellished His life and ministry after He died until it grew to legendary proportions. NONE of these attempts to dodge the evidence for the resurrection succeed at removing Jesus and His chief miracle from the realm of history.)
Aug 16 - The Resurrection_ Eliminating The Impossible, Pt. 3 (Skeptics have some tall mountains to climb: they must either demonstrate a fallacy in the Christian's logic, which the philosophy of naturalism fails to do; or they must discredit the evidence, and the baseless claims of the gospel plagiarizing pagan myths fail to do that; OR they must suggest an alternative explanation for the facts that's just as plausible if not more so than the resurrection. Three alternative explanations fail to do that: the stolen body theory, the swoon theory, and the hallucination theory.)
Aug 20 - The Resurrection_ The Authority Of The Manuscripts (My friend Kenny Chumbley said, "Christians do not believe that Jesus is God because the Bible is inspired; they believe the Bible is inspired because Jesus is God." The resurrection confirms Jesus' divinity, and Jesus' divinity confirms the inspiration of the Scriptures—they have been written by God through the agency of man. Inspired documents are inerrant: there are no errors in the history they record, the laws they give, the morals they encourage, or the hope that they offer. We can furthermore have confidence in the canon of Scripture—the officially accepted list of inspired books. "A book is not the word of God because it is accepted by the people of God. Rather, it is accepted by the people of God because it is the word of God" (Josh McDowell & Dave Sterrett).
Aug 23 - The Resurrection - Stumbling Blocks of Faith pt1 (The Resurrection having been established as historical fact, and the inspiration of the Scriptures having been proven as a result, we now turn our attention to three stumbling blocks to faith. The Resurrection will help us answer these challenges from our critics, and guard us from the deluding influence of the world. The first two are the theory of evolution and modern-day paganism.)
Due to Hurricane Harvey, Todd was not able to finish his classes in August. Following are the last two classes.
Oct 22 - The Resurrection - Stumbling Blocks of Faith pt2 (Why do bad things happen to good people? Why do the righteous suffer? Why do good things happen to bad people? The problem of pain and suffering is the greatest stumbling block to faith in Christianity. The Bible offers some general answers to these vexing questions, but no specific answers for specific cases of suffering shall ever be available to us. So why believe in Jesus? The Resurrection reveals that God is very aware of the problem of pain and suffering, and has already overcome it through the risen Jesus. Moreover, the resurrection dramatically shifts the focus to greater concerns: more pressing than why bad things happen to good people is the question of why the worst thing happened to the best Man!)
Oct 25 - The Resurrection - 1Co 15 (Jesus is raised. Therefore, we shall be raised. This is the "so what" of our entire study, what it's all been about. How should we live out our objective faith in the risen Jesus? How should the guarantee of our future resurrection shape our lives under the sun? We look to 1 Corinthians 15 for the answers.)