“And I’m not merely quoting the opinions of men as to what is right. I’m telling you what God says.” (1 Corinthians 9:8)

There are many atheists today who cite a consensus of scholars as their validation for a particular view of the New Testament. In other words, if several academic scholars believe that Jesus didn’t say eighty-five percent of the things recorded in the Synoptic Gospels, is this sufficient proof that this view is true?[1]

Here’s the problem: the scholars who are cited in this consensus, are atheists who don’t believe that God exists. How exactly can an atheist be an expert on God and the validity of the Bible? Should we rely on someone who doesn’t believe God exists, for accurate information about God?

In simpler terms, would you trust a doctor who tells you that he doesn’t believe in medicine?

The answer is obvious. Atheists don’t believe the Bible is true, that God exists, or that Jesus is who the writers of the New Testament present Him as. When we examine the commentary written by modern atheist and progressive New Testament scholars, we find that their comments and conclusions are largely based upon their opinions, not on any evidence that would prove the texts are unreliable.

Later in this chapter, I will present you with the words and views of these atheist and progressive New Testament scholars.

Jesus also said that in the Christian church, satan has planted false believers who look and sound like true believers. They work from within the church to undermine and hurt the faith of other believers. Jesus taught this principle in the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares:

Matthew 13:24-30 “Here is another story Jesus told: “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a farmer who planted good seed in his field. But that night as the workers slept, his enemy came and planted tares (weeds) among the wheat, then slipped away. When the crop began to grow and produce grain, the tares also grew.

“The farmer’s workers went to him and said, ‘Sir, the field where you planted that good seed is full of tares! Where did they come from?’

“‘An enemy has done this!’ the farmer exclaimed. “‘Should we pull out the tares?’ they asked. “‘No,’ he replied, ‘you’ll uproot the wheat if you do. Let both grow together until the harvest. Then I will tell the harvesters to sort out the weeds, tie them into bundles, and burn them, and to put the wheat in the barn.’”

In this illustration, Jesus made it a point to warn us that there will be many people who claim to be a Christian, that are pretenders. They talk like a believer; they act like believers, but they have never been born again by the Spirit of God, as Jesus required in John chapter 3:

John 3:3-8: Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see (opaw) the Kingdom of God.” “What do you mean?” exclaimed Nicodemus. “How can an old man go back into his mother’s womb and be born again?”

Jesus replied, “I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life. So don’t be surprised when I say, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it wants. Just as you can hear the wind but can’t tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can’t explain how people are born of the Spirit.”

There is a moment in the life of every person when they are confronted with who Jesus is. They can read the testimony about Him in the New Testament. They might hear testimony about Jesus from someone who has already been born again by the Spirit. Whenever a person hears that Jesus came into the world to save sinners, and if we are truly sorry for our sins and turn to Jesus for salvation, He will cause us to be born again, a second time, by the Spirit of God.

Jesus said that if we are not born again, we can never “see the kingdom of God.” The Koine Greek word used here for see, is, opaw. Opaw means that without the Spirit of God living inside us, giving us the ability to understand the deep things of God’s word and the Spirit, we will never be able to understand or enter the Kingdom of God.

• The Mystery Of Salvation: Who Will Be Saved; Who Will Be Lost?
• Repentance Is Not Required For Salvation; A Fundamental Progressive Christian Doctrine

If we don’t have the Holy Spirit living inside us, we are not a part of Jesus. Paul wrote in Romans 8:9-10: “You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to him at all.) And Christ lives within you…”

When we truly repent and are willing to turn from our sins, God sees this moment of sincere sorrow, and He causes us to be born a second time by His Spirit.

This is a sorrow that is different from the sorrow that people feel in the world when they do something wrong. Godly sorrow leads us to change our behavior—end our sins—and begin to live a new life guided by the Holy Spirit who now lives in us.

2 Corinthians 7:9-11: “…The sorrow caused you to repent and change your ways. It was the kind of sorrow God wants his people to have…For the kind of sorrow God wants us to experience leads us away from sin and results in salvation. There’s no regret for that kind of sorrow. But worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance, results in spiritual death.”

Unless and until we feel a deep sense of sorrow for our sins and earnestly desire the forgiveness that Jesus offers us when we trust in Him, we cannot be saved. God is willing to save us—Jesus has already come and died for all sins—but we must feel sincere sorrow over our sins and want to be forgiven by God. When this happens and we come to God through Jesus’ death for our sins, we are born a second time (John 3:3).

A second meaning of the Koine Greek word, opaw, for “see the kingdom of God,” defines an ability that those who are truly born again will have—to understand the Bible. Those who have not been born again, and do not have the Spirit of God living in them, cannot comprehend the depth of scripture—in the same way that people who have the Spirit in them—can understand scripture. Paul defined this reality in his letter to the church at Corinth:

1 Corinthians 2:10-16: “We have received God’s Spirit (not the world’s spirit), so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us. When we tell you these things, we do not use words that come from human wisdom. Instead, we speak words given to us by the Spirit, using the Spirit’s words to explain spiritual truths.”

“But people who aren’t born again by the Spirit can’t receive these truths from God’s Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them and they can’t understand it, for only those who are born of the spirit can understand what the Spirit means.”

This is the reason that an atheist or any person who has not been born again—cannot understand the texts of the Bible. In this regard, a person without an academic degree can understand the Bible, while an atheist who has a Ph.D. in biblical studies but is not born again—cannot understand the Bible. How can this be true? The Bible is the Word of God, it is not human literature as with all other books written by men. God is the true author of the Bible, and He only reveals who He is and the depth of His word, to people who have been born again by the Spirit.

Who Is Qualified To Be A Biblical Scholar?

Today in many churches people are not told that repentance from sin is necessary before Jesus will cause us to be born a second time. People are told that God will accept them as they are, and no mention is made of ending their former sins. This is prevalent in the modern Progressive Christian Movement.

This is a common statement made by Progressive Christians, and it reveals a critical error: Progressive Christian churches do not teach verse by verse throughout the entire Bible. Notice the following texts in the Bible that refute the idea that “repent of your sins is absolutely nowhere in the original texts…not one time did Christ ever say turn from your sins…”

The King James Version (KJV) says that Jesus began His ministry with the imperative to repent from sin before He granted salvation:

• KJV: “From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” ~Matthew 4:17
• KJV: “Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.” ~Mark:1: 14-15
• KJV: Jesus said: “I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.” ~Luke 13:3
• KJV: Jesus said: “I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.” ~Luke 13:5

Peter repeats Jesus’ command to first repent from all sin, then believe the Gospel:

KJV: “Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” ~Acts 2:38

Peter again, “Repent,” repeating Jesus’ command to repent:

KJV: “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.” Act 3:19

There are 22 citations for “Repent in the New Testament, using the KJV. The Koine Greek word repent is, μετανοέω metanoeō. Whenever the word, “repent,” is used in the New Testament, it is always intended as, “repent from sin.”

There is no ambiguity in the Bible that every person who will find salvation in God must first repent for sin. Whatever lifestyle we might have lived before we knew Christ, the moment we come to Him for the forgiveness of our sins, we must end their practice. Jesus died for us so that we would live new lives of purity and holiness for Him.

Philippians 1:27 “Above all, you must live as citizens of heaven, conducting yourselves in a manner worthy of the Good News about Christ.”

1 Peter 1:14-16: “So you must live as God’s obedient children. Don’t slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your desires. You didn’t know any better then. But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy.”

As a result of omitting the need for repentance in the Progressive Christian church, there are a growing number of people who think they are Christians and saved, who are not. I am not passing judgment on whether a person is saved, only telling you what Jesus requires of us if we will be saved. If we have never felt sorrow over our sins; if we do not see them as the reason that Jesus had to suffer and die, then it will be impossible for our hearts to be right with God. Until we see our sins as an impossible barrier between us and God, and if we remain in the practice of our former sins—we will be lost forever and we cannot be saved.

If we are truly sorry and we genuinely want forgiveness, then ending our old life to follow Jesus will not be a burden. When we make mistakes and sin, we can come to Jesus at any time and confess our wrongs to Him. John wrote that when we do this, the Lord will keep on forgiving us over and over until the day He comes again for us.

1 John 1:8-9: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Jesus didn’t leave heaven, come to earth as a baby, live a sinless life, take our sins upon Himself, and die for them on the cross, only to have us continue in our sins.

Paul addressed this issue in Romans chapter 6:

Romans 6:1-4 “Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it? Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.”

Jesus began his ministry with a call for everyone to repent and follow Him, and He repeated this throughout His ministry:

Matthew 4:17 “From then on Jesus began to preach, “Repent of your sins and turn to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.”

Mark 6:12 “So the disciples went out, telling everyone they met to repent of their sins and turn to God.”

Luke 5:31-32 “Jesus answered them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners and need to repent.”

Luke 13:5 Jesus said: “I tell you again that unless you all repent, you will all perish.”

Luke 24:47-48 Jesus said: “It was also written that this message would be proclaimed in the authority of his name to all the nations, beginning in Jerusalem: ‘There is forgiveness of sins for all who repent.’ You are witnesses of all these things.”

Peter continued this message of repentance for salvation in the book of Acts:

Acts 2:38-39 Peter replied, “Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. This promise is to you, to your children, and to those far away—all who have been called by the Lord our God.”

Acts 3:18-19 “But God was fulfilling what all the prophets had foretold about the Messiah—that he must suffer these things. Now repent of your sins and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped away.”

Peter confirmed that Jesus has not come again for His church, because He is giving people time to repent of their sins before judgment comes:

2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent.”

Finally, in the book of Revelation, during the twenty-one judgments Jesus pours out on the people of the earth, He states that even while seeing these judgments take place, people will still not repent and receive the salvation He offers:

Revelation 9:20-21 “But the people who did not die in these plagues still refused to repent of their evil deeds and turn to God. They continued to worship demons and idols made of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood—idols that can neither see nor hear nor walk! And they did not repent of their murders or their witchcraft or their sexual immorality or their thefts.”

At the final judgment, many people will claim that they were Christian and knew Jesus, but He will tell them that He never knew them. He said that they refused to turn from their sins, but continued to break the law of God:

Matthew 7:22-23 “On judgment day many will say to me, ‘Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.’ But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws.’”

Today in many churches some people have not turned from their sins. They are not sorry for the things they have done that offend God. Jesus said that until a person is sorry, turns from their sin, and begins to live a new life worthy of what Jesus has done for us, these persons are not born again, they are either self-deceived or merely pretenders.

Many people become active in the church. They pay a tithe and sometimes become missionaries, pastors, and counselors. The problem is that they were never truly born again and they do not have the Spirit of God living in them.[2]

Jesus said that these pretenders are zizanion, in the Greek language.[3] They are false believers, who satan plants in the church.

Some atheist scholars claim to have once been a Christian. According to Jesus, they were never His. For any person to be truly saved, they must stay faithful to Jesus and continue to believe for all of their life. If we stop believing, and we do not return to Jesus, this is evidence that we never were truly saved.

In John chapter 17:6, Jesus is praying for all believers and He says this to the Father: “I have revealed you to the ones you gave me from this world. They were always yours.”

To always belong to the Father, there can never be a time when we are not His. This is a statement from God out of eternity regarding the things that He has known even before He created us. The Father knew who would truly believe and never leave Jesus, and Jesus confirms this in John 17:6 by saying that we were, “always His.”

So what does this do to the statement made by some atheist New Testament scholars who claim they were once a believer in Jesus, but now no longer do?

According to Jesus people who claim they were once His, but now do not believe, they never were His. Matthew 7:23: “But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws.’”

According to Jesus, every person who is truly saved never leaves Him permanently. There may be a lapse in faith, a temporary falling away, but the truly saved will always return to Jesus and continue to believe for the rest of their life.

Jesus knew who would believe and remain with Him, and who would claim to believe but later deny Jesus. These persons, Jesus said, were never His. The Lord does not give eternal life to anyone who does not continue to trust in Him for all of their life. Matthew 10:22: “But he who endures to the end will be saved.”

The evidence that this is true is seen in the militant efforts of atheists who once claimed to be a Christian, but now seek to refute the reliability of the New Testament testimony about Jesus.

Unprovable Assertions

When we examine the books and essays of atheist scholars, we cannot find any evidence in their works to prove their assertions of unreliability. Contemporary atheist scholars believe that because they have a Ph.D., the reader should trust their judgment and conclusions. The problem for the average reader of these books and essays is that most people don’t know these writers are atheists and don’t believe the Bible is true in the first place. In the conclusions of the conservative scholars who also write about the New Testament, we find that they do believe the New Testament is an accurate narrative of true events.

Who is correct? Those who provide evidence to support their conclusions.

In the case of the atheist scholar, we do not find evidence, we find opinions. It is very easy to prove the reliability and truthfulness of the New Testament, by the actual evidence of the surviving manuscripts. I know this because I have published books with historical evidence to prove the reliability and truthfulness of the New Testament.

The Two Methods Of Textual Criticism Used In Evaluating The New Testament

There are two ways that scholars examine the surviving manuscript copies of the New Testament. Both of these methods are on opposite ends of textual criticism; both are considered extreme in the manner they are used to evaluate documents of antiquity.

• The Conservative Position states that the Bible is already perfect the way that it is, as the word of God. It does not need human textual criticism to understand the texts or have confidence in its narrative. The conservative position examines the surviving manuscript copies of the New Testament and seeks to validate these documents based on the text; and the historical, forensic, and archeological evidence that proves these narratives of antiquity are truthful and come from the men who saw and heard Jesus.
• The Liberal Position states that there is no possibility of finding the original texts and therefore the surviving texts must be proven by certain methods. Many who hold the Liberal Position do not believe the Bible is anything more than ancient literature that must be evaluated and proven. The liberal position uses outside, human methods to validate the texts that often confuse and obscure the simple meaning of the texts themselves. The liberal view is that God does not exist, miracles are not possible, and the man called Jesus was not God but was made God by the writers of the New Testament.

The Historical Reliability Of The New Testament

There is tremendous evidence that everything written about Jesus in the New Testament is merely the fulfillment of all that was promised and predicted by the Old Testament scriptures.

In 2014, I published an extensive treatise that documents these 400 Old Testament prophecies of the Messiah—fulfilled in the narratives of the New Testament.[4] In “The Prophecies of the Messiah,” I document these 400 Old Testament prophecies written for the Messiah and show how Jesus fulfilled these prophecies with extreme precision.

Jesus stated at the beginning of His ministry, during His ministry, and after He completed His ministry on earth, that His entire purpose was to fulfill all that was written about Him.

Luke 24:44-48: “Then Jesus said, “When I was with you before, I told you that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and in the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. And he said, “Yes, it was written long ago that the Messiah would suffer and die and rise from the dead on the third day. It was also written that this message would be proclaimed in the authority of his name to all the nations, beginning in Jerusalem: ‘There is forgiveness of sins for all who repent.’ You are witnesses of all these things.”

These truths are lost on the atheist scholar. These persons do not believe that Jesus fulfilled anything, nor do they believe the entirety of the Old Testament scriptures. The difference between the conservative and liberal positions regarding the texts of the New Testament is as divergent as night and day.

Scholars who subscribe to the idea that the New Testament is nothing more than works of antiquity have created processes of examination they often use to evaluate the texts of the New Testament manuscript copies.

A List Of Conservative And Liberal Bible Scholars

The preceding is from Rob’s book: “New Testament Apologetics.” See it at Amazon in ebook and Paperback

NOTES:

[1] According to atheist scholars, during the “Jesus Seminar,” Eighty-five percent of the words ascribed to Jesus in the gospels were not actually spoken by him.

[2} John 3: Jesus said that we must be “born again,” in order to be a true follower of His. The Spirit of God must come to live in the person who believes, or this person is not truly a Christian.

[3] STRONG’S NUMBER: g2215. Dictionary Definition 2215. ζιζάνιον zizanion,

[4] “The Prophecies of the Messiah: An Expositional Treatise of the Life, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus.” Robert Clifton Robinson, Teach The Word Publishing, Inc, ASIN: ‎B00UA7Q6VA

Robinson, Robert Clifton. New Testament Apologetics (p. 748). Teach The Word Publishing Inc. Kindle Edition.

Categories: Agnostics and Skeptics, Apologetics, Bart Ehrman, Dennis MacDonald, Eyewitnesses, How The NT Writers Remembered, Joel Baden, Josh Bowen, Mitchell G. Reddish, New Testament Apologetics, New Testament Criticism, Old Testament Apologetics, Origin of the four Gospels, Pretend Believers, Richard Baukham, Richard Pervo, Robert Clifton Robinson, The Historical Jesus, True Repentance

Tags: New Testament Apologetics, New Testament Criticism, No salvation without repentance, The New Testament as a Historical Document