In this excellent interview, we learn that Alex was at one time a Greek Orthodox Christian and that William Ramsey identifies as a Christian, but one neither Protestant nor Catholic. Good for him. If Christianity is your thing, biblical and non-denominational is where you want to be.
Some constructive criticism...by no means am I saying here that Christianity is gospel truth, but in attempting to discredit the validity of the Christian faith, our beloved host once again takes to the use of employing a polemical propping up of easy targets so as to make Christian belief seem outright ridiculous and dismissible.
As one who is non-Christian myself, I still like to defend Christianity from what I perceive to be lame and invalid criticisms against it.
Alex brings up Constantine, as if this Christian pretender was somehow the founder of the Church of Christ. This, a red herring if there ever was one. With regard to this morally bankrupt emperor and his professed conversion, there's no argument here.
This brings to mind a JW family I knew, whose parents, in wanting to prove to their lapsing children that theirs was the 'true' Christian religion, decided one morning to attend a Catholic service, for the sole purpose of letting their children see for themselves just how blatantly false Catholicism is (at least to them), with its unbiblical idol worship, pomp and ceremony, veneration of Mary, unchristian wealth, and so on. This JW couple couldn't have picked a more easy target to 'prove' their argument, in my opinion.
Rather, as Ramsey alludes to, one must go back to the early Church Fathers -- the first- and second-century Christian writers in particular, in order to see what true Christianity was like prior to the 'Whore of Babylon' appearing on the world stage in the form of ecclesiastical Romanism.
For an excellent historical overview of the history of the church, from its beginning and down through the centuries, I recommend listening to the various in-depth discourses, available online, from the late Christian minister, David Pawson. Here's a link to one of his existing sites...
David Pawson - Church History
How Alex does love his Flavius Josephus. Question: Where to go for early Christian history -- an exceptional online lecture series like those of Pawson's, as presented from a scholarly believer who had devoted practically his entire adult life to the study of the Bible and the origins of his faith, or a Jesuit-schooled businessman who hit it big during the dot-com boom and whose 'higher criticism'-based basic premise has been cogently refuted in the span of just a few minutes by one Chris White?
Consider the writings of Iranaeus, who wrote an entire tome on heresies, in which were exposed and denounced the heretical teachings and writings of the Gnostics, texts of which, some were conveniently discovered at Nag Hammadi, a find which some Bible critics quickly latched onto and have used to somehow try and discredit apostolic Christianity.
I'm not sure if Alex is a proponent of (pseudo-scientific) evolutionary theory, but in the context of discussing ancient history here, in passing he does make the comment, using the phrase "50,000 years" in reference to the past. Yet where's the conclusive scientific evidence for the historical record dating back this far? No doubt Alex's own historical views are ones somewhat based on unprovable faith, as well.
Yet, do not NDEs point to the idea of Christian salvific exclusivity being wrong? Playing Devil's Advocate here: Would it not be in the best interests of the Great Deceiver -- as one whom the Bible speaks of as being able to transform himself into an angel of light -- to teach, via these supposed afterlife accounts, that all are saved, there is no judgment of the wicked, that it's all light and love, cotton candy and unicorns?
Interestingly, prior to modern-day NDE research, even before much of our medical technology, there existed a phenomenon referred to as 'deathbed visions' or 'confessions.' These were the accounts of often bedridden men and women who being at death's door and with one foot in the grave would experience 'sneak peeks' if you will of what lie beyond the threshold. In an 1898 book by Solomon Shaw, titled
Dying Testimonies of Saved and Unsaved, a number of these fascinating accounts were compiled into one highly insightful and compelling read, with not one among these reports pointing to secular medicine's near-death findings of universalism.