What is the gospel? And how was it first preached—and defended?

In their eagerness to tell the world about Jesus Christ, early Christians met religious opposition (from the Jews), cultural opposition (from paganism), political opposition (from the Roman empire), and philosophical opposition (from “Christian deviations” such as legalism, Gnosticism, and Docetism). F.F. Bruce shows how early Christians responded to each such opposition.

They did not accommodate themselves to the worldviews they encountered. For instance, the believers regarded prophecy and miracles as “the strongest evidences for the truth of the gospel,” says the author. “Today they are more often felt to be an embarrassment,” and Bruce challenges contemporary believers “to inculcate a new awareness of the authority of the Scriptures as God’s Word written, and a new awareness of the power of God at work in the world which he created.”

Defending First-Century Faith is clear, concise, and deeply perceptive. It is factual, fresh and inspiring and written by the most outstanding evangelical scholar in Britain in the second half of the twentieth century.