Cold-Case Christianity
J.Warner Wallace
(C) 2013
David C. Cook

Completed Jan, 2020

Summary:
Wallace is a police detective in California specializing in cold-case investigations. A self-described “angry atheist”, Wallace attended a church service with a fellow officer and heard a characterization of Jesus that was different. Wallace began reading the Gospels and noticed they appeared to be ancient eyewitness accounts. He investigated using the skills of a cold-case detective.

Wallace presents 10 important principles that a detective must understand and know how to apply. These include skills for the investigation and skills for courtroom defense of the investigation. The second portion of the book then applies these skills to 4 questions and objections to the claims of the New Testament. These are

• Were the Gospels written early enough to have been authored by true eyewitnesses?
• Is the testimony of the gospel writers confirmed by outside sources and evidence?
• Did the gospel writers falsely report anything that would invalidate their testimony?
• Were the gospel writers motivated to lie about their testimony?

My Reaction:
I’ve been a follower of Jesus and believer of the Bible for many years. When I was in college I went through a process of determining of the things I had been taught were viable and true. Reading this book reminded me of those struggles and conclusions. I learned some things from Wallace. I learned of the importance of eyewitnesses in the investigative process. This is also important when examining the Gospels. Often claims of bias are brought against the Gospels. Wallace helped me to understand that the authors had none of the Big-3 (read chapter 14) reasons why witnesses lie.

Reading this book has helped to strengthen my perspective of the Gospels and their truthfulness. I have a better understanding of the importance of eyewitnesses. It had helped me to understand that true conspiracies are rare (read chapter 7).

Would I recommend this book? Unequivocally yes! But be prepared to have some of your presuppositions of the Bible challenged.

Do you have to believe the Bible is true to read this book? No, but you will be required to think about why you believe what you do.

Go get a copy. Read it. Think about what Wallace presents. Leave a comment if you have some questions or comments.