Doug Taylor, PhD

It’s gotcha day for our new family member. We haven’t picked a name yet, but he’s ours! Mud River Cockers thank you!!!

Our precious Chewie’s passed last July. We are ready to get a new furry family member. He was born on New Year’s Eve and we’ll bring him home in early March. We have found an amazing breeder - Mud River Cockers. Here is a pic of our beloved Chewie and our new pup. Can’t wait to meet him!

Hanging out with Tim McGrew at the Defend 2024 Conference in New Orleans! I presented two lectures showing how we know orthodoxy and the Christian Gospel were established long before Constantine was ever born.

Christmas.

Today is the day we celebrate the birth of Jesus. Now, in truth we have no idea what day Jesus was born on, but I’d hazard to guess because of the mention of the shepherds being in the field the night He was born, it was sometime in the Spring months. While we may not know the exact date, we do know Jesus was born and is an actual historical figure. How so?

First, we have at least twelve different independent sources within 100 years of His death that attest to His death by crucifixion. You can’t kill a mythological figure by an actual crucifixion. Oh…and four of those twelve sources don’t even come from the Bible. We need not rely solely on documents about Jesus’ death to support the idea of His birth and where. Matthew tells us of the massacre of young boys under the age of two that were killed shortly following the birth of Jesus. We see writings from Macrobius (dicta 56 Malc.) that Herod did indeed order the killing of all boys under the age of two, but this writing doesn’t appear to exist before 400-500 AD. Yet by this time the Church was solidly formed. Judaism, for those not embracing Jesus as the already-come Messiah, had turned to Rabbinic Judaism. Islam had not even been conceived as of yet. The single gospel message of Christianity, along with the single orthodoxy (right belief) were established very early…and can be demonstrated through writings even accepted by most skeptics and critics as being extremely early. How early? We can show Paul’s turning from Pharisee to believer in the risen Jesus by AD 32. We can show where Paul’s teachings matched the teachings of the original disciples regarding Jesus, and the original disciples were there with the historical Jesus.

So, while much more can be said about the historical Jesus, this should suffice as a start for demonstrating Jesus was never a mythological person, rather He lived and died in first century Judea, and there is sufficient evidence to support this belief.

Merry Christmas!

This was a cross-cultural, cross-generational, cross-denominational apologetics seminar that spoke into the lives of many, showing when Jesus said, "that you may know", it wasn't just for then, but for people today as well, both believer and unbelieving. A special thank you to Dr. Daniel Rodriguez and Johanny Lee (apologist, local pastors and host), to Pastor Bill Yomes (presenter and apologist at Faith Makes Sense and pastor of Catalyst Community Church in Wilmington, DE), and to Rise Up Church (Philadelphia, PA) for sponsoring the event and allowing me the opportunity to share. This was an incredible event with incredible people!

Want to know when the single core belief of what it meant to be a Christian was established by the church? Check out my book Jesus before Constantine (paperback, hardcover, or ebook).
https://dougetaylor.com/publications

Thank you for an amazing opportunity to share God’s Word at Rise Up Church. Using apologetics to strengthen our knowledge and faith is imperative for the Church.

I am finally joining the social media world. To learn more about me or to contact me please go to my website https://dougetaylor.com. As events and news worthy items happen I’ll share on this page so stay tuned.

Doug E Taylor Christian Husband Father Apologist Professor Speaker Writer