”“Lord or Legend” the Introduction

It is not surprising if people question the story of Jesus. The Bible claims he was the creator of the universe who was born to a virgin, healed the sick, raised the dead, killed by the Romans and came back to life and returned to heaven. It is no wonder that those living in a “science explains everything” culture would question such a story. The book "Lord or Legend" does not focus on whether Jesus was God or just a man. Instead it considers whether the accounts given in the Gospels of his life are an accurate record or the result of the imagination of the writers.  The authors hope that the reader will not look at the Gospels with the assumption that they aren’t reliable. They believe that if one will objectively consider the historical evidence they will conclude that they are accurate accounts. Obviously seeing that historical documents are reliable still would not prove that Jesus was God, but it can show that faith in Jesus is a reasonable response to what the Gospels have to say.

In the first part of the book the authors consider the arguments raised by those who believe the accounts of Jesus in the Gospels are not historically accurate. In the second part of the book they apply ten tests that historians use to evaluate the historical reliability of ancient documents.