A beloved pastor and a New York Times bestselling author examine scripture and share inspiring personal stories to help reveal the important role that Jesus’ resurrection plays in our everyday lives. The Son of God was crucified, died and buried, and He lay in the tomb for three days—until He walked out shining like the sun. In a culture in which history is erased or rewritten at will, the existence of an empty tomb matters. Why? Because if the tomb is empty—then anything is possible. In his first book, Joby Martin, Lead Pastor of The Church of Eleven22, dives deep into scripture and traces the story of salvation by highlighting the seven mountains throughout scripture where God manifests himself. As he describes each encounter with God, Martin shows us how the interaction on each mountain laid the groundwork for the sacrifice of Christ on Calvary, and shows what God revealed about Himself in the process. He illuminates seven familiar passages, unveiling how God's plan for Christ's sacrifice is threaded throughout scripture, and shows why Christ's resurrection—impossible, unbelievable—means that nothing is too hard for our God. Ultimately, he asks readers, Do you live every day of your life as if the tomb is empty—or as though Jesus is still hanging on that cross? Written with New York Times bestselling author Charles Martin, If the Tomb is Empty is an insightful and spiritually rich examination of what the miracle of Christ's resurrection means for all of us.

The Message of Easter is kept more in the background of the holiday than that of Christmas. After all, this is not the joyous welcoming of a baby with the giving of gifts, this is the brutal death of a young man, stripped of any gifts and dignity. For the Easter story to work as a joyous occasion you have to accept two stories - the death of Jesus - a negative event - and then the resurrection of Jesus - which requires faith. Without faith, the events speak of failure, with faith, they speak of triumph. Here the drama, purpose and events of Easter interplay around these two stories - and bring out the joy.

"The Gospels disagree on what happened at the empty tomb: on who was there, and on what they saw or heard. The fact that our earliest written witness to the risen Christ, Paul, says nothing of the empty tomb has long provoked the question, what were the earliest believers saying about Easter, and what did they think it meant? Daniel A. Smith seeks to get behind the theological and apologetic concern to "prove" the resurrection and asks, where did the accounts of the early tomb come from, and what purpose did they originally serve? He shows that Paul is a valuable witness to the development of Easter traditions; that Q was already interested in connecting the disappearance of Jesus with his future role; that Mark was interested in the disappearance of Jesus, rather than in his restored presence as risen; and that both sources had interests different from the later Gospels. Chapters provide careful and insightful discussions of the earliest traditions about Jesus' disappearance; at last Smith draws significant implications for a theory of Christian origins." -- BOOK JACKET.

Written by an L. A. County homicide detective and former atheist, Cold-Case Christianity examines the claims of the New Testament using the skills and strategies of a hard-to-convince criminal investigator. Christianity could be defined as a “cold case”: it makes a claim about an event from the distant past for which there is little forensic evidence. In Cold-Case Christianity, J. Warner Wallace uses his nationally recognized skills as a homicide detective to look at the evidence and eyewitnesses behind Christian beliefs. Including gripping stories from his career and the visual techniques he developed in the courtroom, Wallace uses illustration to examine the powerful evidence that validates the claims of Christianity. A unique apologetic that speaks to readers’ intense interest in detective stories, Cold-Case Christianity inspires readers to have confidence in Christ as it prepares them to articulate the case for Christianity.

Back cover: In this work, John Granger Cook argues that there is no fundamental difference between Paul's conception of the resurrection body and that of the Gospels; and, the resurresction and translation stories of antiquity help explain the willingness of Mediterranean people to accept the Gospel of a risen savior.

If the tomb is empty, then anything is possible. Whether you're a new believer, a seasoned servant of the faith, or maybe you don't know what you are, join pastor Joby Martin as he traverses the peaks and valleys of six Biblical mountains--Mount Moriah, Mount Sinai, Mount Carmel, the Mount of Beatitudes, the high mountain on which Jesus was tempted, and the Mount of Transfiguration. In scripture, these mountains are used by God for His purposes because they are where God chooses to manifest Himself. And none more so than on the seventh and final mountain where this story begins and ends: the Cross of Jesus Christ on Mount Calvary, and the empty tomb that means so much for us. That Jesus walked out of the tomb alive, and that right this second the Son of God lives, matters for everyone who would believe it. So if the tomb is empty, what does it mean for you? The answer is clear: everything.

Jesus remains a popular figure in contemporary culture and Allison remains one of our best interpreters. He speaks around the country in a variety of venues on matters related to the study of the Historical Jesus. In his new book, he focuses on the historical Jesus and eschatology, concluding that the Jesus was not a Hellenistic wonder worker or teacher of pious morality but an apocalyptic prophet. In an opening chapter that is worth the price of admission, Allison astutely and engagingly captures the history of the search for the historical Jesus. He observes that many contemporary readings of Jesus shift the focus away from traditional theological, Christological, and eschatological concerns. In provocative fashion, He takes on not only the Jesus Seminar but also other Jesus interpreters such as N.T. Wright and Marcus Borg.

A NATIONAL BESTSELLER A beloved pastor and a New York Times bestselling author examine scripture and share inspiring personal stories to help show the important role that Jesus' resurrection plays in our everyday lives. The Son of God was crucified, died and buried, and He lay in the tomb for three days--until He walked out shining like the sun. In a culture in which history is erased or rewritten at will, the existence of an empty tomb matters. Why? Because if the tomb is empty--then anything is possible. In his first book, Joby Martin, Lead Pastor of The Church of Eleven22, dives deep into scripture and traces the story of salvation by highlighting the seven mountains throughout scripture where God manifests himself. As he describes each encounter with God, Martin shows us how the interaction on each mountain laid the groundwork for the sacrifice of Christ on Calvary, and shows what God revealed about Himself in the process. He illuminates seven familiar passages, unveiling how God's plan for Christ's sacrifice is threaded throughout scripture, and shows why Christ's resurrection--impossible, unbelievable--means that nothing is too hard for our God. Ultimately, he asks readers, Do you live every day of your life as if the tomb is empty--or as though Jesus is still hanging on that cross? Written with New York Times bestselling author Charles Martin, If the Tomb is Empty is an insightful and spiritually rich examination of what the miracle of Christ's resurrection means for all of us.