The Christ Files DVD

Archive material

THE CHRIST FILES DVD
A search for the real Jesus
Presented by John Dickson
Anglican Media Sydney. £8.00 from The Good Book Company (http://www.thegoodbook.co.uk)

This is a very professional and engaging series of DVD documentary programmes which investigate the historical evidence concerning the Lord Jesus Christ.

The main footage consists of four half-hour shows examining the evidence from ancient Greco-Roman sources, Jewish sources, NT and archaeology. In pursuing his quest, the affable Aussie John Dickson travels the world to interview well-known academics who are recognised experts in the areas under consideration.

In one way I found myself very enthusiastic about the DVD. The Christianity Explored (CE) course proceeds on the assumption that Mark’s Gospel, for example, is a reliable document. However, thinking participants in CE would want to see some evidence that this is so. John Dickson’s four programmes are perfect to show to such people. He is as watchable as Rico Tice and asks all the questions (Dan Brown and the Gnostic Gospels, etc.) and faces all the difficulties which people would want to know about. Viewers can see for themselves the solid historical basis on which our faith rests.

But in another way the programmes worried me. It is all very well interviewing people like Professor James Dunn and Bishop Tom Wright (not to mention others) about the veracity of the Gospels, but, if you ask those same men what the gospel is, the answer you will get will not be the biblical gospel we understand as conservative evangelicals. This could leave our CE attenders confused. We might have to say to them ‘Don’t ask what they believe’.

John Benton

© Evangelicals Now - August 2009
Please consider supporting this ministry by subscribing.

• Request Free Sample

Main Articles

• Cape's crucial congress
• The Commentary
  Making friends for the church
• Mission field on the doorstep
• Jesus in Japan
  Celebrating 150 years of Protestant missions and missionaries
• A living hope
  1 Peter 1.3-9 explained and applied
• The case for Applied Theology
• Monthly media and arts column
  The gospel according to Michael Jackson
• The Music Exchange
  Making a joyful noise
• Watching the web
  Are you all of a Twitter?
• Misidentifying the Holy Spirit
• The Third Degree
  Unquenchable flame
• What Darwin should have learned from pigeons

Other articles

• Teenagers - Biblical wisdom for parents
• The Christ Files DVD
• The memoirs of an ordinary pastor - An extract from Don Carson's book on his father
• Fountains in the dust - Snapshots from the streets of South America
• In Jesus (CD)
• Against Physician Assisted Suicide - A palliative care perspective
• Harry Potter and the half-blood prince
• The ghosts of Eden - Shelf life: Looking at secular books
• Understanding the times
• Leading character
• Overcoming your shadow mission
• The New Creationism - Building scientific theories on a biblical foundation
• Personality and prayer
• John Nelson Darby
• The challenge of Islam - To the church and its mission
• Body, soul, and human life - The nature of humanity in the Bible
• Colossians - Confident Christianity
• Contentment - Healing the unger of our hearts
• An Anglican evangelical identity crisis - The Churchman-Anvil affair of 1981-1984
• Listen up! - Practical guide to listening to sermons
• Dysciples - Why I fall asleep when I pray, and 12 other discipleship dysfunctions
• God's pattern for the Christian life
• God's light on dark clouds
• 70 ways to beat 70
• The gods aren't angry (DVD)
• Looking for Eric