Fear and Trembling

Andy Stanley has inspired the rearranging of many electrons across internet pathways in the last few days.   He said some truly troubling things in a sermon designed to encourage young people to remain in or return to the Christian faith , a noble and necessary effort.  He stated that the Christian Faith was not based on what the Bible says, but on the fact that Christ was raised from the dead.  He flatly stated that the Bible does not have to be completely true in all that it says in order for Christianity to be accepted.  According to Stanley, the Christian faith is based primarily on the eyewitness testimony of the Apostles and Disciples and their interaction with Jesus Christ.  In an effort to be charitable, Stanley is trying to reach skeptics on the basis of the historical reliability of the New Testament writings.  He points out that these documents are based on very carefully recorded eyewitness testimony, and they are basically reliable accou...

Thanks to Apologetics 315 for a link to a presentation by Richard Bauckham on the topic: The Gospels as Historical Biography . Click through for the link to the video. Bauckman is one of my heroes, and his excellent book Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony can be purchased at this link .

Michael Scott Horton reviews Rob Bell’s Love Wins at this link . Mike Licona reviews Forged by Bart Ehrman at this link . Thank you Mike and Mike for reading those books and reviewing them for the rest of us.

A wonderful, tongue-in-check piece about revisionist history is at this link .   I cannot help but think about those people who say Jesus Christ never existed as I read this.

The Erhman Project – A huge collection of resources. A summary of Dr. William Lane Craig’s recent lecture on some of Ehrman’s latest work.

Some internet debate opponents accuse me of circular reasoning . The statement I am accused of making goes like this: The Bible claims to be God’s Word so it is God’s Word. That is “begging the question,” where the conclusion is true only if the premise is true. However, the actual argument put forth by Christians is linear and logical. In bullet point form, it goes like this: • The Bible is good history ( The New Evidence that Demands a Verdict by Josh McDowell). • We can trust what the Bible says about Jesus because it is based on eyewitness testimony (Luke 1:1-4, 2 Peter 1:16, Jesus and the Eyewitnesses by Richard Baukham). The lives of these eyewitnesses were radically changed by what they saw ( Jesus and the Victory of God by N, T,. Wright). • Jesus claimed to be God. He said, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30). Thomas said, “My Lord and my God,” and Jesus did not correct him (John 20:26-31). • Jesus worked miracles and proved Himself to be God (John 14: 9-11). •...

Richard Bauckham, the author of the landmark book Jesus and the Eyewitnesses , now has his own website . Bauckham is an expert on Jesus and the Gospels. He argues forcefully that the Four Gospels were written by eyewitnesses to the life of Christ. The website features information about Bauckham and some examples of his work. The best section may be his unpublished lectures . [Thanks to In Light of the Gospel for the link.]

Thanks to In Light of the Gospel for posting a video introduction for Jesus and the Eyewitnesses by Richard Bauckham. This book is an excellent exploration of the historical evidence for the reliability of the New Testament Gospels. It contains up-to-date scholarly references and Bauckham’s own fresh approach. See an additional review of the book by Ben Witherington here . Witherington applies Backham’s research to various current historical issues here . Another review can be found here . Some endorsements and a less critical review can be found here . Background on Bauckham can be found here .

Ben Witherington provides a detailed analysis of and response to Bart Erman’s “Jesus Interrupted” in his four posts here , here , here and here . [4/16: I forgot to mention this will be an ongoing series for Witherington. The next post is h ere .)

An interesting bit of information is highlighted here on Ben Witherington’s blog. I use his words: David Jeselsohn bought an ancient tablet …but he was totally unaware of its significance. Now it may be the earliest Jewish evidence for the idea of a dying and rising messiah figure. The stone has been credibly dated to the first century B. C., before Christ's birth, and this has caused quite a bit of discussion. Isaiah 53 foretold the Messiah’s death a few hundred years before this stone’s composition, so I don’t think this stone should surprise most Christians. (Other prophecies from the Jewish tradition concerning Christ’s suffering are found here and here .) Of course, that will not stop some sensationalists from reaching extreme conclusions like those related here . What’s BW3’s conclusion? …the real implication of this for Jesus' studies should not be missed. Most radical Jesus scholars have argued that the passion and resurrection predictions by Jesus found in the Gospe...

One thing that seems to come up quite a bit in online discussions is the supposed lack of evidence of the Israelites exodus from Egypt. Justin Taylor comments here , with an excerpt from the upcoming ESV Study Bible . It’s another reason to want a copy of the ESV Study Bible on its release. Some more information is found here .

Written accounts, such as The Gospel of Truth, the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Mary, The Gospel of Judas and the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, do not give us accurate information not contained in the Gospels we have in our Bibles. We know this, in part, because unreliable authors wrote these gospels long after Christ’s life, long after the lifetimes of eyewitnesses to that life. It is interesting that several of the alternative gospels put forth as historical show dependence on Matthew, Mark, Luke and / or John. “…the Gnostic Gospel of Truth (A. D. 140-150, doubtlessly known at Rome when Maricon taught there) cites a body of authoritative books that is [nearly identical with the four gospels.]” This means a body of written Scripture had to have existed before any secret Gnostic Gospels appeared since one of the earliest of these “secret gospels” had to recognize the orthodox Canon in its very attempt to redefine the Christian faith. [1] One of the gospels, dated in the early 100s, is ...

The New Testament gospels accurately reflect the original writings. We have several reasons to say this. First, even with the passage of almost 2,000 years, the words were preserved through history by multiple manuscripts. “Manuscripts” refer to hand-written copies of the gospels. That was the only way to do it in a world without the printing press or the computer. Many New Testament manuscripts were written on papyrus, a crude, fragile form of paper made from reeds that grew along lakeshores and riverbanks. [1] Of course, hand copying was difficult work, and the scribes sometimes made mistakes. But this hand copying was a reliable process in the ancient world, and we have many reasons to trust this reliability. The original text can be reconstructed by comparing the individual manuscripts with each other. [2] Thankfully, for the New Testament we have a wealth of manuscripts. In fact, we have over 5,600 manuscript copies of the New Testament available for comparison. We have fragments ...

Dan Brown’s book, The Da Vinci Code has confused many people about the life of Christ and the reliability of the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Many other writings, internet posts, films and documentaries have added to the confusion. Sadly, these things have even confused some Christians. However, much of what is communicated about the Gospels contained in our Bibles is simply not true. Ditto the other ‘gospels’ offered as alternatives. This is the beginning of a series of posts that will give evidence for the Bible’s trustworthiness. We will find that the facts of Christ’s life and teachings can be know and relied upon. The set of books that we have in our Bible is called the “canon.” This word comes “from the Greek, and it originally meant “a measuring rod” or, as we might say, “a ruler.”” It was the standard to see if something was straight. [1] Books were admitted into The New Testament canon based on: Apostolic authority—their association with Christ’s Apostles or those c...

Do we always need complicated historical arguments for the Bible? Do we have to prove that the Bible is God’s Word to everyone? While I do think there are good reasons why we can trust our Bibles (see here ), I do not think all people need this kind of persuasion. The gospels are the Word of God written by men empowered by the Holy Spirit to write directly and forcefully. In John 14:26 and 16:13-14 , Jesus promises the Holy Spirit’s presence to help the Apostles remember His teaching. This power is evident in the writings themselves. One church historian puts it like this: "They carry about them a self-evidencing quality. They carry their uniqueness on their face. They have always exercised, and still exercise, an unparalleled power upon the lives of men." (Bruce L. Shelley. 1995. Church history in plain language, Second edition . Dallas, Texas: Word Publishing. p. 61) This self-evidencing quality lead Charles Spurgeon to say that we do not defend the Bible in the same way ...

Book Discussion - “The New Faces of Christianity: Believing the Bible in the Global South” by Philip Jenkins I’m discussing the book “The New Faces of Christianity: Believing the Bible in the Global South” by Philip Jenkins with the ACFAR blog (see here ). I find that book to be very encouraging so far. Here’s one of my comments from this post . We’d welcome your discussion. Words in quotes are from the excellent chapter summary and commentary here . “If we see the importance of apologetics in America and the West, then how much more important is it in the rapidly growing South?” I don’t think the America church sees the importance of apologetics. We seem to be too busy trying to council everyone on their psychological issues, give them practical advice on how to live, playing the type of music the people in our area like, and promising people prosperity on the basis of their faith. At least it seems the Southern Hemisphere church is arguing about the right issues. I pray we can have ...

William Lane Craig gives a short account of a presentation at “the joint annual conventions of the American Academy of Religion and the Society of Biblical Literature.” He attended: One of the most bizarre and intriguing sessions … a meeting of the American Society for Oriental Research in which the speaker showed what he claims are Egyptian records of the Exodus! These are not new discoveries, but known material which has just never been connected with the Exodus. It has to do with paintings and inscriptions on the walls of the tomb of Thutmose III (ca. 1500 B.C.) which show (in color!) waters parting and Egyptian soldiers and the Pharaoh himself being drowned. There are references to the Nile’s being turned to blood and other aspects of the biblical account. Typically, these Egyptian narratives are taken to refer to some primordial event in Egypt’s mythological past. But the speaker said that at the very least they falsify the conventional wisdom that there is just nothing in Egypti...

I have been re-reading the Gospel of John lately. I like it because of the author’s obvious delight in the Person of Christ. I find an article by Craig Blomberg over at the NAMB Apologetics site to be interesting. Here’s a sample: “… a considerable number of scholars during the last half-century have pioneered what came to be known as the "new look on John," recognizing a far greater level of historical reliability and a Jewish milieu for the deeds and teachings attributed to Jesus than the first half of the twentieth century had acknowledged. Arguably, if the next half-century gave the same kind of sustained study to the remaining questionable details, the amount of general confidence in the fourth Gospel would again grow in corresponding fashion.” – Craig Blomberg John, the author of the gospel attributed to him, was the apostle who was a personal friend of Jesus. He gives many accurate details of first century Palestine, including arrangement of buildings and geography...

There is no other religious leader like Jesus Christ. I do not have a respect for authority in and of itself. In general, I don’t care what a person’s position is, I will respect them only if they are worthy of respect. Just because his title is “boss” doesn’t mean that I will blindly follow his directives or do what he says. I do not care how many titles a person has, I will only listen to their teaching if I am convinced they are intelligent and trustworthy. That’s why Christ’s credentials as a teacher are so important to me. What makes a good teacher? I submit the following: His teachings are true, and he can prove it. He follows his own teaching. He cares for those he teaches. His teachings make a difference in the world. (Please note that I do not think a person must be male to be a good teacher. I use the masculine pronoun out of convention.) We have an accurate set of historical documents that describe the events of Christ’s life . Christ showed up on earth claiming to be God , ...

I started a new discussion on Lee Strobel on Amazon.com with some of the comments below. I had a chance to review his soon to be published book, The Case for the Real Jesus . This is the most useful book he has written yet. He addresses many of the concerns raised by those outside the Christian faith. As usual with Strobel, the book is a collection of interviews he held with noted authorities on various aspects of the historical Jesus. He especially addresses the particular issues I see raised on the internet. The sections on the influence of pagan religions on early Christianity, the early composition and distribution of the gospels, and the selection of the books included in the traditional New Testament are particularly helpful. His straight forward, journalistic style of writing powerfully brings home the knowledge and convictions of those scholars and experts he interviews. I highly recommend this book.