A few weeks ago I had the privilege of speaking at Nottingham Trent University CU Mission week where I did three events for them. Two of the events were “Open forums” and the subjects they wanted me to look at were around Jesus and the Gospels. Firstly we tackled, “Man, myth or God?”. and examined the way in which if you actually take the time to examine the things Jesus said and did, it is impossible to slot him into the “good man” category. You really do have to either accept that he was who he said he was –God on the flesh – or reject him entirely. Secondly we looked at the reliability of the gospels in which I focused on the evidence that the gospels contains eye-witness testimony of the events of Jesus’ life.
As ever, at Solas events we followed the talk with Q&A – and it was great to see that some sceptics had joined the meeting, a collection of atheists and a Muslim too. We extended the Q&A on the other session I did for them – and did a meeting which was set aside exclusively for engaging with people’s questions. And we got all manner of questions about all kinds of subjects!
One of the most encouraging things has been to hear that a couple of the students who attended the mission have gone onto do some follow-up meetings with the CU. So I was invited back to their small-group to have some more intensive discussions, responding for example to the concerns of a young Muslim who is interested in Christianity. An atheist student is coming to those sessions, with entirely different set of ideas, assumptions and questions too. It was really great to be able to chat to them about the resurrection of Jesus – and why that makes sense and is important. It really was such a joy and privilege to be able to work with the Nottingham Trent CU and their friends.
