Here are free Christian Resources – books and tracts at the Chapel. What’s on the table occasionally changes. In different seasons, we have different things featured. If you come and don’t see what you’re looking for, ask for Paul. We may have it somewhere else.
Free Christian Resources at the Chapel
Here’s a brief description of each of the items available.
Friendship with God Hymnal – This is the hymnal we use. We have more details about it in this Post Here.
Changed by Tom Cantor – This short book is Tom Cantor’s testimony. Tom teachers at the Chapel. For more details and a link to a copy online read This Post.
Cambiado by Tom Cantor – This is Tom’s book Changed in Spanish.
Whosoever Will vs. Fatalism by Tom Cantor – This book presents a Provisionist understanding of salvation (soteriology) that is neither Calvinist nor Arminian. It is commonly called Provisionism. While this is the statement of faith of the Chapel, people with different beliefs attend and participate in ministry. This short book presents God‘s love for all, our need to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved, and everyone’s ability to respond to God for salvation. It has a number of Bible verses and offers very practical application. You can also read it online at Friendship With God.
More Than a Carpenter by Josh McDowell – This is a popular apologetics book. Christian apologetics is giving reasons to believe. This book center is on the Lord Jesus Christ. You can read more about it On This Post.
Our Daily Bread is a popular daily devotional. It has a daily Bible verse, short devotional, application, prayer, and references for reading though the Bible in a year.
How to Recognize the Messiah: a gospel tract. This presents six prophetic requirements by which the Messiah (Christ) can be identified from the old testament (Hebrew scriptures). It talks about Jesus and presents the gospel.
Why should you believe the Bible? Reasons From Romans: a gospel tract using the epistle to the Romans. It gives seven reasons why to believe, and a seven point “bridge of salvation.”
¿Pro qué debes creer la Biblical. Razones en Romanos: the same gospel track as above but in Spanish.
Have you Heard The Good News? A clear gospel tract
¿Has Oído Las Buenas Nuevas?” The same track as above but in Spanish.
Simon Greenleaf (1783-1853) was a Jewish believer in Jesus and law professor at Harvard university. He wrote a book on apologetics using legal methods. This book is titled, “An Examination of the Testimony of the Four Evangelists.” It is available free to read online, download as a Kindle, PDF, or other formats at Project Gutenberg.
Review
This book is broken into several sections. Here are three important ones.
First, at the beginning there is a section where he uses legal rules of evidence. He applies these principles to examining the gospels. He uses the ancient document rules. Also, he applies five rules of evidence to examining the gospels. These are first, Honesty, the general and specific honesty of the witnesses)p. Second, Ability is the ability for the witnesses to see, understand, and remember what happened. Third is the Number, Independence, and Consistency of the witnesses. Four is Experience, agreement of the testimony with general experience. Fifth, finally is Circumstances, the agreement of the testimony with specific evidence. You can read the short and very insightful use of legal apologetics Here.
Second, he has a large harmony of the Gospels. Here he uses his expertise to harmonize the different Gospel accounts. You can read it starting Here.
Third, he has a section focus just on the resurrection accounts. This is always important and especially timely for Easter. Read this short section Here.
Other Free Resources
Simon Greenleaf has influenced many Christian apologists including Wilbur M. Smith, John Warwick Montgomery, Josh McDowell, and Ross Clifford. His book is a significant work in a long history of Christian lawyers using the rules of evidence to defend the Bible and the resurrection of Jesus.
It’s part of her apologetics for kids series. and tells a story. She tells the exciting story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal. It answers a “Bible puzzle.” Where did Elijah get the 12 barrels of water to soak the offering to the Lord when there had been a 3 1/2 year drought?
It connects to the gospel, too. This ais for children ages 4 to 10, though adults have enjoyed these also.
Undesigned Coincidences – The Water-Soaked Offering
This argument is taken from the book “Undesigned Coincidences in the Writings of the Old & New Testament, An Argument for Their Veracity” by J.J. Blunt. He published it in 1869. This is a type of apologetics that argues for the truthfulness of Christianity. It shows how an apparent problem in one part of the Bible is answered by an incidental fact elsewhere in the Bible or in history. You can read the book online HERE.
William Paley seems to be the first who came up with this idea. He wrote a whole book fitting together the Book of Acts and the Epistles of the Apostle Paul. You can read “Horae Paulinae” online on Archive Here. Paley also covers this topic to a lesser degree in his better known book Evidences of Christianity.
For a brief introduction, here is an article with internal and external coincidences on Frank Turek‘s site CrossExamined.
Get a free copy of Josh McDowell’s book “More Than a Carpenter” at Mission Valley Community Chapel. This is a good introductory or giveaway book on apologetics (reasons to believe). There are over 10 million in print, and it has been used to lead many to the Lord Jesus Christ.
This updated version Josh cowrote with his son Sean McDowell, who is also a Christian apologist.
This book includes evidences from history, prophecy, science, creation, and covers topics like the existence of God, the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, the reliability of the Bible, is Jesus the only way, and the gospel.
Josh also gives personal details and stories, including his struggles growing up with an alcoholic father and being sexually molested as a child by a man who worked his parents farm. He describes how God helped him through these terrible problems when he became a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ.
I’ve given this “More Than a Carpenter” away to Uber drivers, a box to a homeschooling group, at booths in Balboa Park, to work man who come to the house, and friends. It is also a popular giveaway on our free resource table.
Come to the Chapel and get a free copy for yourself and one to give to a friend. “His story might change yours…”
More Than a Carpenter by Josh McDowell
This is a book of evidentialist apologetics. This is an approach that focuses on the Lord Jesus Christ in both history and prophecy. This is a good approach, as many people already believe that God exists. Classical apologetics is good for those who do not believe that God exists. This is a two-step approach that first argues for the existence of God and then for the Lord Jesus Christ. As noted above, this book also has arguments for the existence of God.
You can watch Josh’s testimony on YouTube Part 1 and Part 2
I’ve read a number of books on this topic, and this article from Jews for Jesus had some good arguments I hadn’t heard. It’s a good apologetic for the Trinity being in the Old Testament.
It quotes numerous scriptures and discusses the names for God, pronouns, plural nouns with singular verbs for God, plural nouns with plural nouns for God, different Hebrew words for one, and many other interesting points. It is done in a way that is easy to read.
One thing I found interesting was the examples of God having both a plural noun and plural verb. Usually in the Old Testament (Hebrew Scriptures)God is in the plural with a singular verb. This article gave some exceptions along with noting the more standard usage.
This article should be good as a resource for Jewish evangelism. It should also be useful in talking with other people who deny the Trinity like Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Muslims.
Above are links to an apologetic/evangelistic booklet in both English and Thai written by missionary Ron Myers.
This booklet with pictures was written particularly for a Buddhist audience.
Without using religious language, he introduces God as “a Creator, an Owner, a Master Designer or Great Architect.” He does this by pointing to the evidence in ourselves and the world around us (intelligent design). Towards the close of this section, he uses a parable that turns the atheist “gardener” parable on its head.
He then moves from “Creation to Redemption.“ He refers to “the ancient scrolls” (The Bible) that discuss Satan, our first parents (Adam and Eve), and Jesus “Our Creator-God, Savior and Advocate.” He presents the work of Jesus, becoming judgment, and gives a clear gospel presentation.
The above summary does not give this great evangelistic/apologetic book justice, but hopefully whets your appetite to read it… And share it!
You can listen to an about five minute description by the author Ron Myers, and how he uses it here on YouTube
And here’s the author’s better overview, a sort of “virtual” back of the book description, “Consider Creation [is] a highly successful Creation Evangelism dialogue in booklet form and audio format that addresses origins and proposes examples of Intelligent Design which beg the existence of an Intelligent Designer. It has proven very successful among Asian cultures that do not share a our Judeo-Christian worldview or knowledge of God as their Creator. It helps them to come to the conclusion that there must be an Intelligent Designer. It concludes by introducing God and His Word, Creation, Satan and the fallen angels, Garden of Eden, Temptation, Fall, Curse and Banishment from God’s presence, and finally the Promise of a Messiah, His Name and invitation to receive Christ and eternal judgement awaiting those who do not, but God’s loving mercy for all who do.”
Here is a link to David Hall‘s Facebook page where he gives an update on his evangelistic outreach in Balboa Park, has some pictures, and two videos of Christmas carols. One of the Christmas carols is “Silent Night“ and the other is a Ukrainian Christmas Carol. Read about his witnessing and using apologetics to spread the Gospel HERE on Facebook.
You do not need to sign into Facebook to watch this. You can go to Balboa Park on Saturdays to check out this great local ministry. His outreach is set up by the fountain.
Also, David has an updated version of his website. Check it out here for a lot of great apologetic and evangelistic resources Science Scripture Salvation Outreach
And here he has a website with Christian poetry Quiet Time Poems
Personally, I think these offer a good balance of “Christianity for the tough minded“ and “Christianity for the tender hearted.“ But after all, God loves everyone, Christ died and rose from the dead for everyone, and the Holy Spirit calls everyone to salvation, so it makes sense that Christianity was made for everyone. The Lord Jesus Christ is returning, and today is the day of salvation – trust in Him today and be saved!
Visit David’s Science Scripture Salvation in the park on Saturdays at the Bea Evenson Fountain area get directions here. Look for the display of posters about science and prophecy like the ones in the below video –
It was from David and the free material at his outreach that I found out about these motion tracts the size of a business card that we will be giving out this Halloween from our homes.
In the previous section, Tom discussed the Trinity and the Old Testament. Here he discusses the Lord Jesus Christ as both God and man. He appeals to the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Micah and the apostle John.
Again, understanding this is not only important in Jewish evangelism, but also in reaching Muslims, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormon, or anyone else who would have this type of question.
Also, this is a good way for us to better understanding the Bible and our own beliefs. Christian apologetics (reasons to believe) is a way of thinking carefully of the truths about God at a basic level to reach unbelievers with the good news of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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2. Is the Jewish Messiah God as a man?
The common Jewish mind set is that the Messiah could never be God, because no man could ever become God. However, the Bible does not teach that man became God; on the contrary, it teaches that God became a man.
“But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.” (Micah 5:2). The Jewish prophet, Micah prophesied that the Jewish Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. However, Messiah’s existence would not start at birth because He has no beginning; He is “from everlasting.” Eternality is an attribute that belongs only to God, and for Messiah to possess eternality would unquestionably show His deity. This prophecy was fulfilled when the eternal, divine Lord Jesus was born in Bethlehem.
“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9:6) The Jewish prophet, Isaiah also told of the Messiah. In this passage, a promise was given to Israel of a amazing child whose description was unparalleled by any other child ever born. He would be called Wonderful Counselor, The Prince of Peace, The Mighty God, and the Everlasting Father.
God the Son could be referred to as Mighty or Almighty or Everlasting, but why was He called the Father? Each person in the Godhead is so one (echad) with the others the Messiah said concerning Himself, “he that hath seen me hath seen the Father.” (John 14:9). Though Elohim is three, He is still one. For example, every person is made up of three parts: body, soul and spirit. No one ever asks a person if it is his body, spirit, or soul speaking; they are all one!
“Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.” (Jeremiah 23:5-6) A third Jewish prophet who foretold of the Messiah was Jeremiah. This future descendant of David was described as the “Righteous Branch.” His name would be called “THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.” Psalms 53:3 says that “there is none that doeth good, no, not one.” Who, then, is this righteous Israelite, descendant of David, and One called Lord and God? Who is this One who is a King, a Judge, and the Savior of the Jews? It can be none other than the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ.
All of these Scriptures teach us clearly that the Messiah is the Son of God or God the Son. As the second person in the Godhead, the Messiah is worthy of our worship.
