The Christian Story: Finding the Church in Church History   Volume II

Dr. John Oakes has released his second in what will ultimately be a three-part series of books on the History of Christianity.  IP Books (www.ipibooks.com) is releasing the second in the series next week.  This volume covers the history of Christianity from AD 450-1500.  This is just over half of the entire history of the Church.  In the book, Dr. Oakes moves from the late primitive church through the Medieval Church to the pre-Reformation.  Topics include the growth of the Church of the East, the rise of Roman Catholicism, the Great Schism between East and West, the Crusades, Francis of Asissi, Thomas Aquinas and Scholasticism, early attempts at reform–especially Peter Waldo and the Waldensians, Jon Wycliffe and John Hus, and much more.  Pick up a copy at IP’s web site or from John directly at the REACH conference in St. Louis.

2017 ICEC: History, Archaeology and Christianity

We are so grateful to York College in York, Nebraska for agreeing to host our tenth annual International Christian Evidence Conference. We will be focusing on how History and Archaeology serve both to support our confidence in the reliability of the Bible and to illuminate biblical teaching.  You will see both the Old and the New Testaments come alive as you never have before. Teachers include Bob Kurka, John Oakes and Foster Stanback and more.  We will have working archaeologists from the churches of Christ and the Christian Church who can bring the history of our faith alive.  Please save the date.  Much more detail will be available in our next newsletter.

New Materials Available:

ARS board member Dan Conder and John Oakes taught a six hour class Understanding Islam in San Diego May 24, 2016.  The notes and power point are avialable at the web site.  The audio is available to members of EFC or it will be available through www.ipibooks.com within a week.  All Christians should be prepared to explain their faith to Muslims, which happens to be the fastest growing religion in the world. This class will be an invaluable resource to prepare us to reach out to our Muslim friends.

Dr. John Oakes taught a six hour workshop on the Book of John at San Diego State University April 24, 2016.  The notes, power point and audio are all available for free at the web site.

Dr. Oakes also did an eight hour class on the Book of Acts June 3-5 in Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico.  The audio and power point in Spanish are available at the web site.

Travels for John Oakes

This is a busy travel season for me.  After a teaching weekend in for the Chicago Church of Christ in mid-May and one for the Iglesia de Cristo en Mexicali June 2-4, I will be off for three weeks teaching in Ukraine  (Kiev, Odessa and Vinitsa), Moldova (can you find this country on a map?) and Russia (Saint Petersburg and Moscow) June 13-July 4.  This will be a grueling missionary teaching trip, as I will be doing roughly twenty lessons in twenty days.  I would appreciate your prayers.  I will be posting regularly at the web site, as well as providing outlines, power points and audio during the journey.  From there, Jan and I will be traveling to the REACH conference in St. Louis July 7-10, followed by a teaching weekend and teen camp experience in Seattle, Washington July 15-17 and the all-Mexico conference Transformacion on July 29-31.  Again, I would appreciate prayers of support for these important effort to build up our fellow Christians.

In-Depth Class on Baptism

Thanks principally to ARS board member Kedron Jones, we are excited to announce our first foray into in-depth analysis of an important biblical doctrine.  We are really pleased to have Dr. Jack Cottrell (www.jackcottrell.com), perhaps the world’s leading scholar and teacher on the doctrine of baptism today to do a two-day class on this imporant but much-misunderstood biblical teaching.  The class will be Friday and Saturday September 15-16.  The class will be held in Los Angeles.  The exact location and cost (it will be inexpensive) are TBA.  Please be watching evidenceforchristianity.org for more details.

EFC Membership

Please consider becoming a member of Evidence for Christianity.  For just $35 you will be able to support our valuable ministry and also gain access to hundreds of audio, notes and power points, most of which are only available through membership.  This minstry costs money.  Our principle support is from members.  Without you, much of what we do would not be possible.  Again, please consider supporting us in this way.