“Jesus returned to the Sea of Galilee and climbed a hill and sat down. A vast crowd brought to him people who were lame, blind, crippled, those who couldn’t speak, and many others. They laid them before Jesus, and he healed them all.” ~Matthew 15:29-30
Never in the history of the world has a person come into the world who had the power to heal everyone who was sick or infirmed.
The testimony of the men who knew Jesus for three and one-half years is that for every person who was brought to Him who was sick or suffering from a debilitating disease, “He healed them all.”
How many people do you suppose were brought to Jesus in the three and one-half years of His public ministry? There were likely thousands of persons whom Jesus healed. John confirms this fact in his Gospel:
John 20:30-31: “The disciples saw Jesus do many other miraculous signs in addition to the ones recorded in this book. But these are written so that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing in him you will have life by the power of his name.”
There is no record in history of any god or religious leader who healed every person of every sickness and disease. This record for Jesus remains in the historical record—setting Him apart as displaying the power that we would expect from God.
There are nearly 100 Messianic Prophecies in the Old Testament that describe the coming Messiah as Yahweh in the body of a man—healing every sickness and disease. One of the most descriptive of these prophecies is found in Isaiah chapter 35:
“Say to those with fearful hearts, “Be strong, and do not fear, for your God is coming to destroy your enemies. He is coming to save you.” And when he comes, he will open the eyes of the blind and unplug the ears of the deaf. The lame will leap like a deer, and those who cannot speak will sing for joy!” ~Isaiah 35:4-6
When we carefully study the New Testament narratives about Jesus, it quickly becomes evident that everything Jesus said and did while on earth was to fulfill what Moses, the prophets, and the Psalms said about Him. [1]Jesus was coming into the world to demonstrate that what God said, what God promised, He was fulfilling.
- 203 Eyewitness Statements About Jesus In The New Testament
- Is The New Testament A Valid Historical Narrative?
- Evidence That Jesus Claimed To Be God
The arrival of the Messiah was the most important event in the history of the Jewish nation. During the time Jesus arrived in Israel, there was great anticipation that Messiah would come at any moment:
“Everyone was expecting the Messiah to come soon, and they were eager to know whether John the Baptist might be the Messiah.” ~Luke 3:15
“The crowd was amazed and asked, “Could it be that Jesus is the Son of David, the Messiah?” ~Matthew 12:23
“Are you the Messiah we’ve been expecting, or should we keep looking for someone else?” ~Matthew 11:3
When John the Baptist was arrested and placed in prison, it is clear that he was uncertain if Jesus was really the Messiah as the scriptures had predicted. John wondered how he could be in prison under threat of death if Jesus really was the Messiah promised by the Old Testament. Often when we are in the midst of a terrible trial, we will also wonder how we can reconcile the Love of God with the suffering we are experiencing.
Acts 14:22: “We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God.”
Hebrews 5:8: “Even though Jesus was God’s Son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered.”
Jesus said that John the Baptist was the greatest of all the Old Testament prophets, but John was still just a man.[2] He had doubts, fears, and questions that needed answers.
John sent two of his disciples to ask Jesus if He was the One promised by the Prophecies of the Messiah, “Should we look for another?”
Jesus’ answer reveals He was seeking to fulfill what the Prophets had written about the Messiah. As Isaiah recorded, when Messiah comes to earth it will be as a man, who has the power of healing—proving that He is also God:
Matthew 11:2-5 And when John had heard in prison about the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples and said to Him, “Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?” Jesus answered and said to them, “Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: 1. The blind see and 2. the lame walk; 3. the lepers are cleansed and 4. the deaf hear; 5. the dead are raised up and 6. the poor have the gospel preached to them.”
Jesus said that His identity is linked to what was prophesied of Him and how He fulfilled these predictions:[3]
1. The Blind See:
Old Testament Prediction:
Isaiah 29:18 In that day the deaf shall hear the words of the book, And the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness.
Isaiah 35:5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, And the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.
New Testament Fulfillment:
Matthew 9:29-30 Then Jesus touched their eyes, saying, “According to your faith let it be to you.” And their eyes were opened.
2. The Lame Walk:
Old Testament Prediction:
Isaiah 35:5-6 … Then the lame shall leap like a deer
New Testament Fulfillment:
Matthew 15:30 Then great multitudes came to Jesus, having with them the lame, blind, mute, maimed, and many others; and they laid them down at Jesus’ feet, and He healed them.
3. The Lepers are Cleansed:
Old Testament Prediction:
Leviticus 14:11 “Then the priest who makes him clean shall present the man who is to be made clean, and those things, before the LORD, at the door of the tabernacle of meeting.”
New Testament Fulfillment:
Luke 5:12-14 And it happened when He was in a certain city, that behold, a man who was full of leprosy saw Jesus; and he fell on his face and implored Him, saying, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” Then Jesus put out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.” Immediately the leprosy left him. And He charged him to tell no one, “But go and show yourself to the priest, and make an offering for your cleansing, as a testimony to them, just as Moses commanded.”
4. The Deaf Hear:
Old Testament Prediction:
Isaiah 29:18 In that day the deaf shall hear the words of the book…
Isaiah 35:5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, And the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.
New Testament Fulfillment:
Mark 7:32-37 Then they brought to Him one who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech, and they begged Him to put His hand on him. And He took him aside from the multitude, and put His fingers in his ears, and He spat and touched his tongue. Then, looking up to heaven, He sighed, and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” Immediately his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was loosed, and he spoke plainly. Then He commanded them that they should tell no one; but the more He commanded them, the more widely they proclaimed it. And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, “He has done all things well. He makes both the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.”
5. The Dead are Raised:
Old Testament Prediction:
Isaiah 26:19 Your dead shall live; Together with my dead body they shall arise.
New Testament Fulfillment:
John 11:43-44 Now when He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth!” And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with graveclothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Lose him, and let him go.”
6. The Good News is Preached:
Old Testament Prediction:
Isaiah 61:1 “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me, Because the LORD has anointed Me To preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, And the opening of the prison to those who are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.”
New Testament Fulfillment:
Luke 4:16-21 So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read. And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written: “The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.” Then He closed the book, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
The Testimony of the Men Who Were With Jesus For Over 3 Years, is that He “Healed Everyone Who Was Brought To Him
“Jesus returned to the Sea of Galilee and climbed a hill and sat down. A vast crowd brought to him people who were lame, blind, crippled, those who couldn’t speak, and many others. They laid them before Jesus, and he healed them all.” ~Matthew 15:29-30
Jesus quickly began the performance of 40 miracles that only God is capable of. In 9 of these miracles, Jesus proved His power as God over the physical laws of the universe.
- Turning water to wine: John 2:1-11
- The first catch of fish: Luke 5:4-10
- Calming a storm: Matthew 8:23-27, Mark 4:35-41, Luke 8:22-25.
- Feeding 5,000: Matthew 14:13-21, Mark 6:30-34, Luke 9:10-17, John 6:1-15.
- Walking on water: Matthew 14:22-23, Mark 6:45-52, John 6:16-24.
- Feeding 4,000: Matthew 15:29-39, Mark 8:1-10.
- Fish pays Temple tax: Matthew 17:24-27.
- Curse of the fig tree: Matthew 21:18-22, Mark 11:12-14, 20-26.
- Second catch of fish: John 2:1-11
These works of healing every sickness and disease, even raising the dead, and having mastery over the physical laws of the earth, prove that Jesus was no ordinary man, He was God living in the body of a human being. This fact of God incarnate in Jesus was predicted in the Old Testament Prophecies of the Messiah. He will be Yahweh living in the body of a man.
Jesus referred to Himself as “The Son of Man” 77 times in the New Testament. This is a specific term in the Aramaic language of Daniel 7:13, only used one time in the Bible, and only to describe the Messiah. This is translated from the Aramaic term, kebar enas, and it identifies the appearance of the Son of Man, according to Daniel, as God in human flesh.
The New Testament Records 40 Miracles For Jesus:
- The Virgin Birth: Matthew 1:18-25; Luke 1:26-38
- Turning water into wine: John 2:1-11
- Healing of the royal official’s son: John 4:46-54
- Healing the man possessed at Capernaum: Mark 1:21-28; Luke 4:33-37
- Healing Peter’s mother-in-law: Matthew 8:14-15; Mark 1:29-31; Luke 4:38-39
- Healing the sick during the evening: Matthew 8:16; Mark 1:32; Luke 4:40-41
- Catching a great number of fish: Luke 5:3-10
- Healing a leper: Matthew 8:1-3; Mark 1:40-42
- Healing the Centurion’s servant: Matthew 8:5-13; Luke 7:1-10
- Healing a paralytic: Matthew 9:1-8; Mark 2:1-12; Luke 5:18-26.
- Healing a withered hand: Matthew 12:9-14; Mark 3:1-6
- Raising the widow’s son: Luke 7:11-17
- Calming a storm: Matthew 8:23-27; Mark 4:35-41; Luke 8:22-25
- Healing a man possessed: Matthew 8:28-32; Mark 5:1-13; Luke 8:26-33
- Healing a woman of bleeding: Matthew 9:20-22; Mark 5:25-34; Luke 8:43-48
- Raising Jairus’ daughter: Matthew 9:18-19, 23-25; Mark 5:22-24, 35-43; Luke 8:41-42, 49-56
- Healing two blind men: Matthew 9:27-31
- Healing a mute demoniac: Matthew 9:32-33
- Healing a man paralyzed 38 years: John 5:5-17
- Feeding 5,000: Matthew 14:16-21; Mark 6:35-44; Luke 9:12-17; John 6:5-14
- Walking on water: Matthew 14:22-33; Mark 6:45-52; John 6:16-21
- Healing many people at Gennesaret: Matthew 14:34-36; Mark 6:53-56
- Healing a demon-possessed girl: Matthew 15:21-28; Mark 7:24-30
- Healing a man born deaf with a speech impediment: Mark 7:31-37
- Feeding 4,000: Matthew 15:29-39; Mark 8:1-10
- Healing a blind man: Mark 8:22-26
- Healing a man born blind: John 9:1-41
- Healing a demon-possessed boy: Matthew 17:14-21; Mark 9:17-29; Luke 9:37-43
- Catching a fish with a coin in its mouth: Matthew 17:24-27
- Healing a blind and mute demoniac: Matthew 12:22; Luke 11:14
- Healing a woman with an infirmity for 18 years: Luke 13:10-13
- Healing a man with edema: Luke 14:1-6
- Healing 10 lepers: Luke 17:11-19
- Raising Lazarus: John 11:1-44
- Healing blind Bartimaeus: Mark 10:46-52
- Cursing the fig tree: Matthew 21:18-22; Mark 11:12-14, 20-25
- Restoring Malchus’ severed ear: Luke 22:45-54)
- The resurrection of Jesus: 1 Corinthians 15, Matthew 28, Mark 16, Luke 24, John 20)
- Catching a great number of fish: John 21:4-11)
- The ascension of Jesus: Acts 1:1-11)
Despite this great number of miracles that only God could perform, the testimony of the men who were with Jesus during His entire earthly ministry is that Jesus performed far more miracles than those they listed:
John 20:30-31 “The disciples saw Jesus do many other miraculous signs in addition to the ones recorded in this book. But these are written so that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing in him you will have life by the power of his name.”
Understanding that when people find out that a man has the power to heal any sickness or disease, there are going to be thousands who come to Jesus, this verse from John 20:30 takes on new meaning.
John adds that although they did not record every miracle Jesus performed, the 40 they did record in the New Testament, are enough evidence for anyone to believe that Jesus is God.
Why Is It So Important For Jesus To Perform Miracles To Validate His Identity?
The first sentence of the first paragraph, of the first book in the Bible, states the greatest miracle in the Bible: Genesis 1:1: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”
If we can believe that God created the universe, then it is very easy to believe that He did all the other miraculous works that are described in the entire Bible. The reality is that the God who spoke the universe into existence in Genesis 1:1 is the same God who calmed a raging storm with a command; walked on the surface of the sea; turned water into wine, and stood at the tomb of Lazarus, commanding him to come, even though he had been dead four days and in an advanced state of decomposition.
Mark 4:39: “Then Jesus arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace, be still!” And the wind ceased and there was a great calm.”
Matthew 14:25-26: “Now in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went to them, walking on the sea. And when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea…”
John 2:6-9: “Now there were set there six waterpots of stone, according to the manner of purification of the Jews, containing twenty or thirty gallons apiece. Jesus said to them, “Fill the waterpots with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. And He said to them, “Draw some out now, and take it to the master of the feast.” And they took it. When the master of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine…”
John 11:38-44: “Then Jesus, again groaning in Himself, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to Him, “Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?” Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying. And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me.” Now when He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth!” And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with graveclothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Lose him, and let him go.”
Examine the records of history for every alleged god and religion and you will never find anyone who could do the things that Jesus did, documented above. Jesus performed these miracles so that we would know and understand that He is the Eternal God. Jesus came into the world for the express purpose of providing us with visible empirical evidence that God does exist.
Every Event in History is Proven by the Same Process
During nearly 50 years I have interviewed thousands of atheists and skeptics regarding the existence of God. It is a consistent declaration by those who assert that “no gods exists,” and that “no evidence exists to prove any god.”
How we prove any event of history is always the same: eyewitness accounts of people who were there when the events took place. In this regard, the body of historical eyewitness testimony found in the New Testament is the largest for any person in all of antiquity.
Is The New Testament A Valid Historical Narrative?
The entire purpose of the New Testament is to document the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, the Messiah. The reason this testimony was necessary in the first place, originates in the 400 Messianic Prophecies of the Old Testament. God predicted a Savior who would come into the world and die for the sins of every person. His life as a man would be sinless, and therefore sufficient to a
I have had conversations with atheists many times where they tell me that if God exists, why doesn’t He just reveal Himself to them
In Matthew 13:10-11, we learn why: ““Because it has not been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven…
Let me ask you a question:
Do you reveal yourself to people who don’t really want to know you? Why would we think that God would be any different? We reveal who we are to people who really want to know us and invest the time to get to know us. God is the same.
The first thing we must admit is that we know God exists:
In Romans 1:19 “because what may be known of God is manifest in them…”
Paul writes that all of us are without excuse because God has revealed Himself to us, He has “manifested” Himself inside us, so that we are without excuse.
The English word, “manifest,” was translated from the koine-greek word, “phaneros,” which means to know from within. It’s Baked in the Cake.
When God created us, He placed the knowledge that He exists, inside us. He knows, that we know—so we are all without excuse.
This is why Paul also said in Romans 1:18, that “we must suppress this knowledge,” to deny He exists.
This is why human beings in every generation seek God to worship Him.
Hebrews 11:6: ““It is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to Him, must (first) believe that God exists and that He rewards those who sincerely seek Him.”
Who does Jesus reveal Himself to? Who Can See The Evidence For God?
Jeremiah 29:13 (The Lord said:) “And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.”
I always ask atheists: Are you seeking the Lord with all of your heart? No? That’s why you are not finding Him.
We learn just how important this Parable of the 4 soils is when we look at Mark’s Gospel, Mark 4:13
Mark records a detail that Jesus said, that Matthew does not mention: Mark 4:13 “Then Jesus said to them, “If you can’t understand the meaning of this parable, how will you understand all the other parables?”
Understanding the Parable of the 4 Soils—which deals with the condition of our heart—is the key to understanding all 28 of the Parables! It’s the key to understanding why some people are saved and others are not.
Jesus continues:
Matthew 13:12: For whoever has, (a desire to know God) to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have (a desire to know God), even what he has will be taken away from him.”
Then Jesus cites Jeremiah 5:21: in Matthew 13:13 “Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.”
(Jeremiah 5:21) For they look, but they don’t really see. They hear, but they don’t really listen or understand.
Then Jesus cites Isaiah 6:9-10 14 And in them the prophecy of Isaiah (6:9-10) is fulfilled, which says: Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, And seeing you will see and not perceive;
The reason people are not saved: They are not really listening or seeing—because they don’t want to see or hear.
This is a dangerous place to be because once we begin to harden our hearts—the first soil of the four—it makes hearing and seeing God very difficult.
If we continue in the hardness of our hearts—Jesus will say in this Parable that the enemy, satan, will take the little knowledge we do have of God’s Word—away from us and we will not be saved.
This hardness of heart is also the reason the unsaved, the critic, and the militant atheist, cannot understand these deep principles of the Bible, because they are hidden from them.
Matthew 13:15 For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing,
And their eyes they have closed, Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, So that I should heal them.’
They have ears—but they are not listening
They have eyes—but they refuse to see
Matthew 13:16 “But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear; 17 for assuredly, I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.”
People who use their ears to hear what Jesus is saying—they receive; People who use their eyes to see what Jesus has done for them—they receive.
Whenever I share this text from Matthew 13 with nonbelievers, atheists, and other critics of God and the bible, they become upset: “What do you mean God hides these things from us who don’t believe? Doesn’t God, if He really exists, want us to find Him?
Just like us—God does not reveal Himself or the depth of His Word, to people who don’t really care to know Him or His Word.
The unsaved can only understand the basics of salvation—the depth is reserved for those who know Him, and love Him.
The Mystery Of Salvation: Who Will Be Saved; Who Will Be Lost?
If you reject the testimony of the men who saw and heard Jesus in the NT, you are rejecting the evidence He gave you that God exists.
Matthew chapter 13 presents us with Jesus teaching the first and most important Parable of the 28 Parables found in the Bible. In the Parable of the Four Soils Jesus describes who is permitted to see and understand the Kingdom of Heaven, and who is not permitted.
NOTES:
[1] Luke 24:44 “Then He said to them, “These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.”
[2] Robinson, Robert Clifton. These Things Were Written: An Expositional Treatise Of The Life, Death, And Resurrection Of Jesus. Teach The Word Publishing, INC. Kindle Edition.
[3] Matthew 11:11 “Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
Categories: Evidence: Eyewitness Testimony For Jesus, Robert Clifton Robinson
Robert Clifton Robinson 
“You seem to fall into a common error that many atheists place themselves, by rejecting anything supernatural.”
I don’t. I evaluate the arguments as they come to me, and so far I’ve found no good evidence for supernatural claims. Show me good evidence, and I’ll accept it.
“The creation of the universe is the most “supernatural” of all events.”
And yet science has a consensus view of much of how the universe came to be.
“Every event that Jesus performed in the 40 documented miracles, 9 that display control over the physical laws of the universe, are defined by human standards as supernatural, while they were quite easy for Jesus, because He is the God who created the universe.”
Right—according to your story. I need history.
“Atheists claim that they would believe evidence for God if He came to earth and showed Himself to us. When Jesus did this, and performed works that no human is capable of, no other god or religion has ever performed, atheists refuse to accept the testimony of the men who recorded these events.”
Not me.
Think of what evidence you’d need to convert you to some non-Christian religion (Islam or Hinduism, for example). That’s the kind of evidence I’d need to accept Christianity.
Are you closed minded for not adopting Islam? Probably not. You’re about as skeptical of Islam’s supernatural claims as I am. But you have special criteria by which you evaluate Christian claims. I don’t–I evaluate supernatural claims with the same criteria.
“Those of us who are educated in the historical eyewitness testimony of the New Testament wonder if people like yourself are really looking for evidence or has your mind already been made up.”
Are you looking for evidence within Islam or Mormonism or Buddhism? You’ve probably heard enough to make a tentative decision that they’re just cultural traits. That describes me, too.
“Even in unbelief, a person must still take a leap of faith.”
No, I follow the preponderance of evidence. Christianity hasn’t upheld its burden of proof.
“I have chosen to take my leap based on the historical eyewitness testimony of the men who saw and heard Jesus.”
Oh? What is this testimony? If you’re thinking of the stories in the New Testament, this isn’t historical; it’s just stories. You could conceivably make it historical, but you’re giving me claims that, if the tables were turned and I were arguing some new religion to you, you’d laugh at.
“I have never heard anything resembling a solid proof from you that the NT is not true.”
Not my job. I accept the default position. You have the burden of proof of showing the New Testament as true; it’s not my job to prove it false.
“The New Testament evidence presented to us is overwhelming evidence that Jesus is the God who created all that exists. The OT predicted everything He did; the NT records the fulfillment of the things He fulfilled.”
This is your dogma. OK, thanks for sharing that. But summarizing your dogma isn’t evidence.
“If not for the evidence of the New Testament, I would still be an atheist. After 49 years of learning, teaching and publishing the evidence, I have no doubt that these men told the truth”
You sound like an imam who’s spent 49 years studying the Quran and Hadith. He’s just as confident of his position as you are of yours. And, as an outsider, you and he look the same to me.
“Concerning The First Six Criteria”
You’ve copied from some other article you wrote and have responded to none of my points. No point in repeating myself. I guess you have no rebuttal.
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I think you have seen good evidence in the testimony of the New Testament, but as a majority of atheists who are not moved by evidence, you have chosen to reject it.
The first principle in any truthful endeavor is that consensus doesn’t prove anything.
I have written extensively after three decades of Cosmology and found that science doesn’t have any idea of when or how the universe came into being. They have mathematical models that prove nothing.
The actual science of the universe proves that it is fine-tuned for life on earth, and no natural process is capable of fine-tuning anything.
Scientific Evidence For God: A Fine-Tuned Universe
Again, eyewitnesses who didn’t believe Jesus was God at first, later understood He was God when they saw Him crucified, dead, buried, then alive three days later, for a period of 40 days.
Whether you accept it or not, these are events recorded in history, by men who saw them happen.
This is sufficient evidence for any reasonable person.
I know. Evidence is not your barrier to believing. It is merely a tool you use to debate those who do believe.
We have known each other for many years. I am not going to change my mind; you will not change yours. It’s just something old men do in their retirement.
At least you are an intelligent atheist and a nice man.
I was an atheist 49 years ago. My first years after I read John’s Gospel and thought that this story could not be true. I began an in depth examination of all the major religions of the world. It ended with the facts that prove all other religions are without the historical, eyewitness evidence of the NT. All other gods and religions are substandard when they compare with the person of Jesus.
I became a believer because of the evidence for the NT. It’s all true.
I examined Islam. It only took a day to learn that the Koran is a forgery, with no basis in fact. Largely a religious document and pointing to a prophet. The texts of the Koran are wrong about the Bible and Jesus, yet they refuse to correct the errors.
It does take faith to have no faith. Your decision to live as you do, was not a haphazard decision. You made it because your reached a point where you had to decide, and you decided you didn’t believe. That takes faith.
This is a continuing difficulty for you, because you don’t know or beleive that what is written is the truth. When measure by modern literary forensics, historical standards, and archeological discoveries, the NT stands up as authentic. No other documents of religion or mythical gods, can come close to the evidentiary basis of the NT
I spent a great deal of time trying to disprove the NT as an atheist. I kept running into more evidence and greater awareness of the historical authenticity of the texts.
No, this is what the men who saw Jesus said about Him. I believe their testimony because the evidence proves they are telling the truth.
I would imagine that for a man who doesn’t believe these things, your conclusions are true. For a man who has spent 49 years making sure what he believes is based on facts, I have no doubts.
These texts are from years of research, teaching, writing, and publishing the historical reliability of the New Testament. What else would I present you with?
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“I think you have seen good evidence in the testimony of the New Testament, but as a majority of atheists who are not moved by evidence, you have chosen to reject it.”
1. “Chosen” isn’t how it works. You show me compelling evidence for something (not proof, just show that it’s more likely to be true than not), and I’ll believe. What alternative is there? That’s how belief works; you don’t will it.
2. You seem to imagine willful resistance to supernatural claims, but I have no more than you do. You know how much evidence you’d need to convince you to reject Christianity and embrace the truth of Islam or Mormonism or Satanism? That’s how much I’d need to accept Christianity.
“The first principle in any truthful endeavor is that consensus doesn’t prove anything.”
Yes, it doesn’t prove anything, but that’s the way to bet. Outsiders like you and me don’t get a vote. When the consensus of the world’s biologist accepts evolution, you don’t have an argument. “Yeah, but it makes me uncomfortable” or “It steps on my theological toes” isn’t an argument.
“I have written extensively after three decades of Cosmology and found that science doesn’t have any idea of when or how the universe came into being. They have mathematical models that prove nothing.”
Stop saying “prove.” Science never proves anything. Proof is for mathematics, not science. Any scientific law or theory could be overturned next year.
“The actual science of the universe proves that it is fine-tuned for life on earth, and no natural process is capable of fine-tuning anything.”
Evolution tunes life forms for a particular niche in the ecosystem … but I don’t suppose you accept evolution as valid science.
“Again, eyewitnesses who didn’t believe Jesus was God at first, later understood He was God when they saw Him crucified, dead, buried, then alive three days later, for a period of 40 days.”
No, you don’t have eyewitnesses. You have stories of eyewitnesses.
Turn this around. Imagine that it’s you who is the disbeliever in some religion that’s not Christianity, and you’re evaluating the claims. They point to their stories, and you’re just going to accept them? I’ll bet not. I’ll bet that you’d sound just like me. Mere words on paper won’t do it.
“We have known each other for many years. I am not going to change my mind; you will not change yours. It’s just something old men do in their retirement.”
Good one!
“It does take faith to have no faith. Your decision to live as you do, was not a haphazard decision. You made it because your reached a point where you had to decide, and you decided you didn’t believe. That takes faith.”
Imagine you’re a programmer, and you’re just about finished with a project that took 6 months. When you report that your software has passed all the tests, is it faith to say that it’s ready to sell to customers? I’d call that “trust.”
“This is a continuing difficulty for you, because you don’t know or beleive that what is written is the truth. When measure by modern literary forensics, historical standards, and archeological discoveries, the NT stands up as authentic. No other documents of religion or mythical gods, can come close to the evidentiary basis of the NT”
Why is the Bible cataloged in the Religion section of the library, with all the other religions that we both agree are just societal traits, not History? Why is Christianity a color on the map of world religions, just like all the others? Why are supernatural events purged from anything that claims to be history?
“I spent a great deal of time trying to disprove the NT as an atheist. I kept running into more evidence and greater awareness of the historical authenticity of the texts.”
If you’d grown up in Pakistan, you’d be a Muslim.
“No, this is what the men who saw Jesus said about Him. I believe their testimony because the evidence proves they are telling the truth.”
Why suppose that the Christian words on paper are history, while those for Mormonism aren’t?
“These texts are from years of research, teaching, writing, and publishing the historical reliability of the New Testament. What else would I present you with?”
They’re the best you’ve got. Sure, you’d present that in a debate. Still, you have one net of truth that you trawl with when you’re looking for evidence to support Christianity, and a very different one (pretty much the same as I use) for when you’re examining other religions or supernatural claims. What you need is to evaluate Christianity with your skeptical net.
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The words, “evidence” and “proof,” are the same thing. Perhaps you have a difficulty with the historical eyewitness testimony of the New Testament, because it does prove:
1. Jesus is a real person of history.
2. He was seen and heard by eyewitnesses.
3. He commanded these men to be His witnesses.
4. He commanded these men to record their testimony
5. He commanded these men to send their testimony to “the world.”
7. These men did send their testimony to the world.
8. We have 24,593 extant manuscript copies of the New Testament in 14 languages, from all over the world.
9. This record has existed since 44 AD, and has never been changed in all the primary events of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.
10. There is no evidence anywhere that these men lied, distorted, embellished, or added to Jesus words and works.
11. There has never, in the last 2K years, been a single written impeachment of the testimony of these men in recording what Jesus said and did.
12. If you have any evidence that proves that these men lied, distorted, embellished, or added anything to what they say Jesus said and did, present it to me.
What these men said and recorded about Jesus, is the evidence, in the historical record.
If you have the ability to impeach their testimony, then present it here.
If you cannot provide evidence to impeach their testimony, then your assertion that the New Testament is not historical eyewitness testimony, is impeached.
I do not have any claims of supernatural events.
I am repeating what the men who saw and heard Jesus, recorded that He did.
I provided you with the 40 miracles Jesus performed, and the fact that John said that Jesus likely performed thousands of miracles, which were not recorded.
No mere man is capable of performing these miracles.
When Jesus performed what the writers record as miracles, they were not supernatural for Jesus. These were merely extensions of who He is, as God, the Creator of all that exists.
When Jesus performs events that are supernatural under human definition, they are not supernatural for God, and therefore not unusual or unexpected.
Jesus said that His miracles and His words, prove that He is God.
No one else in the history of the world has ever performed the miracles Jesus exhibited, and no one else has had the immense body of eyewitness testimony that Jesus ensured would exist, documenting these events.
THESE MIRACLES AND THIS HISTORICAL RECORD IS THE EVIDENCE THAT PROVES GOD EXISTS AS JESUS.
If you say that these miracles are not evidence, then provide the world with evidence that impeaches the miracles and eyewitness testimony that describes these events in the New Testament.
The events recorded in the New Testament are historical in nature. They were not written last year, or 700 years ago, they come to us from early in the first century. We mark all time today by the events that took place when Jesus came to earth. We have marked Jesus’ entrance into our world as God with the designation “B.C.”, and “A.D.” (Anno Domini, the year of our Lord), for two-thousand years.
In validation of any historical event the first place we look for validation of the events reported, is the documents themselves. In this regard, the New Testament is the most thoroughly examined texts in the history of the world.
The people, places, names, and events described in the New Testament, have been validated. The texts have been subjected to forensic examination using the same techniques the FBI uses to determine truthful written testimony. In every examination the New Testament has been found truthful, accurate, reliable, and validating the true events that took place concerning Jesus.
“The first principle in any truthful endeavor is that consensus doesn’t prove anything.”
“The way to bet?”
Your method for proving events of history is to “bet” on the persons who you think give the best argument?
If I took this approach in proving facts, I would still be an atheist.
I demand provable, historical, eyewitness testimony, to convince me that what happened at any point in antiquity, is a genuine event.
Evolution of new Kinds has never been proven. Evolution that produces adaptive changes within a particular species has been proven.
There is no evidence that evolution that is alleged to produce all the different species on earth from one common origin, has not been proven. It is a theory perpetrated by atheists in an attempt to refute the existence of God.
What is ironic about evolution is that if it was true, and had been proven, it still would not eliminate God as the original source of first life. The complexity of life requires a Genius Creator, not random acts of fortuity.
We understand today by our expansion of knowledge in DNA, that life exists because of engineering, not happenstance.
Only a Being is capable of engineering life to exist on earth.
You stated that science has prove that God was not necessary for human life to exist, now you say that science never proves anything!
Mathematics doesn’t prove that anything theoretical is true, only that it is possible.
Math says that other universes are possible, but the actual scientific evidence we do have, proves that there are no other universes. We can’t see beyond our own universe, so observation, a necessity of proven science, is impossible.
Please show me the scientific evidence that proves that “Evolution tunes life forms for a particular niche in the ecosystem.” It doesn’t exist!
What you describe is not fine-tuning that is equal to the 209 physical constants that allow our universe to exist. What you are describing is the adaptability of certain species in harsh environments. This is not the fine-tuning we find in our universe that permits human life on earth.
Please allow me to explain the difference between alleged eyewitness testimony, and genuine eyewitness testimony:
Alleged Eyewitness Testimony: “John told me that he saw Jesus…”
Genuine Eyewitness testimony: “Am I not an Apostle, Haven’t I seen Jesus with my own eyes? (Paul)
There are 203 eyewitness statements in the 260 chapters of the New Testament: All of these statements are made by the men who say they personally saw Jesus, is Genuine, firsthand, not Alleged:
Paul: 1 Corinthians 9:1: “Am I not an apostle? Haven’t I seen Jesus our Lord with my own eyes?
Peter: 1 Peter 1:16: “We saw his majestic splendor with our own eyes.”
John: 1 John 1:1:”We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands.”
James, Paul, all the Apostles: 1 Corinthians 15:7: “Then Jesus was seen alive by James and later by all the apostles. Last of all, as though I had been born at the wrong time, I also saw him.”
Mary Magdalene: John 20:18: “Mary Magdalene found the disciples and told them, “I have seen the Lord!”
Peter: Acts 5:29-32: “But Peter and the apostles replied… We are witnesses of these things…”
John: 1 John 1:2-3: “This one who is life itself was revealed to us, and we have seen him. And now we testify and proclaim to you that he is the one who is eternal life. He was with the Father, and then he was revealed to us. We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us.
These men say they are eyewitnesses. This is the evidence that exists in the historical record.
If you say that these men were not eyewitnesses, then show me the evidence that disproves their claim:
This is not an equal comparison. The claims of other religions do not include a leader who claimed to be the Creator of the universe, and then performed thousands of miracles to prove that He is God.
It is a well known fact of all the religions of the world that not one claims to have created the universe.
Not one has ever displayed mastery over the physical laws of the universe.
In this regard, the eyewitness testimony of the men who saw Jesus do this things, is singular, incomparable.
Yes, we do have some history…
Yes, I agree. Everything in human life requires faith. When you go to sleep at night, you have faith that your heart will keep beating, your lungs will continue taking in air. If you didn’t believe these things, you would never be able to go to sleep.
Faith in the eyewitness testimony of people who see and hear events of history, is the basis of everything we now believe about past events.
In this regard, the New Testament is the best documented body of evidence in all of antiquity. There is no body of eyewitness evidence that is greater than what we find in the New Testament.
This evidence is so great, so authentic, so tested and found accurate, that it is not a great act of faith to trust what these men wrote. We have the evidence, all we must do is stipulate it is genuine.
…unless of course you are a lifelong atheist who refuses to believe anything that proves the existence of God…
Where else would it be placed?
The opinions of people in the world, even a great consensus, have never been the basis for proving something is true, credible, or accurate.
We live in a world where there is tremendous bias towards anyone that claims we are sinners in need of a Savior.
Jesus said this to Nicodemus in John 3, that despite the fact that God had come to earth and showed us He exists, the majority of people in the world will not believe in Him. Jesus said that this is because people love darkness more than light; people love their sins more than they love repentance; people love evil more than they love God.
The testimony in the New Testament is that even at the time Jesus was on earth and performed hundreds, if not thousands of miracles (John 20:30), most of the people who saw Jesus perform these miracles, still did not believe in Him, turn from their sins, and follow Jesus for the rest of their lives.
John 12:37: “Despite all the miracles signs Jesus had done, most of the people still did not believe in him.”
Jesus said in John 6:36: “But you haven’t believed in me even though you have seen me.”
Evidence has never been the barrier that prevents people from believing. It is always a heart (like yours) that refuses to believe even when overwhelming evidence exists to prove Jesus is God and the only Savior of the world.
This argument has been thoroughly impeached by the fact that there are more people who are Christians, living in other countries, than there are in America.
There are 2.1 Billion Christians in the world, just 246 million in the United States. Based on this statistic, a person is far more likely to be a Christian if they are born in a country outside the United States!
I was an atheist in America, brought up in a house that never talked about God, never went to church. I knew nothing about the Bible or God.
I became a believer by an exploration of the evidence that proves the New Testament is true.
Unlike yourself, I have spent a number of years investigating the Mormon, or LDS religion. Joseph Smith claimed that he had intimate knowledge of ancient Hebrew and used plates provided him by the angel Moroni, to create the Mormon Bible.
In a court of law, Joseph Smith was found to have no ability to understand even the most fundamental parts of ancient Hebrew. The Mormon Bible is a conglomeration of previous texts from the Bible and other sources. Not one of the prophecies in the Mormon Bible have never been fulfilled. Not one of the ancient cities in the book of Mormon, have ever been found.
The Jesus of the Mormons, is not the historical Jesus of the Bible. He is a created being who was once a sinful man and became God by his obedience to the Mormon doctrines of Joseph Smith.
Mormonism is a counterfeit religion, borrowing tenets and principles from the Bible and genuine New Testament Christianity.
I see your scoffing at my 49 years of scholarly work, but I have never read an actual impeachment of any of my 37 books or 3,400 essays that I have published.
If your had the ability to impeach the evidence that proves the historical eyewitness testimony about Jesus, you would have done so long ago.
One thing is clear to me in all of your comments, you have no interest in facts. Facts are what you say are facts. What the historical record proves is of no interest to you.
I get that, this is the militant atheist mantra.
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Thanks for the invigorating chat.
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“When John the Baptist was arrested and placed in prison, it is clear that he was uncertain if Jesus was really the Messiah as the scriptures had predicted.”
How is this possible when the synoptic gospels tell us that John saw the Holy Spirit as a dove and heard God say, “You are my Son”?
If John saw that and was still confused about Jesus a few years later, what hope do Christians today have of being certain that Jesus was the One?
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Every true believer in Jesus has doubts at some point. It is the historic, eyewitness testimony of the men who saw and heard Jesus, that give us confidence, that what we believe about Jesus is true.
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You say “historic,” but I think you need to explore the distinction between just a story (which, as far as I can tell, is all the Jesus story is) and historical events. By lowering the bar like you’ve done, you must now consider the hundreds of other religions’ stories. You need a set of criteria that you apply consistently to all stories about religious people and show that only the Jesus story is historical.
You might be tempted to look at other historical figures–Alexander the Great, Caesar Augustus, and so on–and argue, “Well, if we can look back in history and declare them historical, we must do the same for Jesus.”
But see the difference—the histories of the great men of history like Alexander are scrubbed of anything supernatural. And if you treat the Jesus story the same way, scrubbing out the supernatural, you’re left with just the story of an ordinary man.
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A forensic examination of the extant New Testament manuscripts demands a status of “historical.” Not only do the writers state that the reason of their writing was for the purpose of preserving a historical record for Jesus, they were commanded by Jesus to do so. Added to this, the Old Testament Messianic Prophecies predicted that men would write a historical record of the Messiah’s arrival on earth.
When we apply the rules for what constitutes a valid historical record, using both lower and higher literary criticism, the texts of the New Testament meets and exceeds these requirements.
Every event of history is validated by methods that help us have confidence in past events as genuine and reliable. Regardless of whether they are religious or secular, all history is validated by the same processes
(1) When was the source written or produced?
(2) Where was it produced?
(3) By whom was it produced?
(4) From what pre-existing material was it produced?
(5) In what original form was it produced?
(6) What is the evidential value of its contents?
The first four are recognized by historical experts as higher criticism; the fifth, as lower criticism; and, together, they are recognized as external criticism.
See the following essay at my website that documents “Is The New Testament A Valid Historical Narrative?
You are correct that the criteria used to validate Alexander the Great and other historical persons, is the same criteria we have used to validate the eyewitness, historical evidence for Jesus. In fact, the surviving manuscript evidence for Jesus is the largest body of proof for any person of antiquity.
Events of history cannot be invalidated simply because a person may not believe that supernatural events are valid events of history. This might work for the atheists, but it does not work in the actual process of validating historical events.
See my legal Essay on this subject: Legal Analysis Of The Four Gospels As Valid Eyewitness Testimony
Today, atheists and critics of the four Gospels, have established standards for religious-based sources that is higher that those required for secular questions.[2] Co-founder of the Harvard School Of Law, Simon Greenleaf argued then, and this remains true today, “the burden of disproving evidence lies squarely on the shoulders of the objector.“[3] Greenleaf argued that the reader of any texts of a historical source should be approached with “a mind free from all pride of opinion, not hostile to the truth sought for, willing to pursue the inquiry, and impartially to weigh the arguments and evidence, and to acquiesce in the judgment of right reason.”[4]
Contrary to modern critics who state that the methods Greenleaf used in 1864 in determining whether the testimony of the four Gospels can be classified as legal and viable eyewitness testimony, professor of Law, Nancy J. Kippenhan, writes that Greenleaf’s conclusions are a foundational work that is still cited by those who approach Christian apologetics on the basis of evidence.[5,6]
Despite the modern view that miracles are in conflict with naturalism, and the idea that any any text of a religious nature cannot be factual or evidentiary, the testimony presented by the four Gospel writers meets every requirement for valid testimony.[7]
NOTES:
[2] TESTIMONY, supra note 5, §§ 3, 27, 48.
[3] Id. §§ 28, 33, 41.
[4] 9. Id. § 1.
[5] “A rational defense for the existence of God . . . [using b]oth reason and scientific evidence . . .” Louis Hoffman, Postmodernism Dictionary, POSTMODERNISM AND PSYCHOLOGY, http://www.postmodernpsychology.com/Postmodernism_Dictionary.html (last visited Oct. 9, 2010).
[6] See, e.g., PAMELA BINNINGS EWEN, FAITH ON TRIAL 52 (1999); JOSH MCDOWELL, EVIDENCE FOR CHRISTIANITY 263 (2006); LEE STROBEL, THE CASE FOR CHRIST 58 (1998).
[7] Source: Nancy J. Kippenhan: One dramatic consequence of erecting a wall between the natural and the supernatural in academia and culture is the resulting lack of acknowledgement of the existence of morals and sin (at least from any external source), and of sin’s consequences. David Stern explains: We live in an age when many people do not know what sin is. Sin is violation of Torah, transgression of the law God gave his people in order to help them live a life which would be in their own best interests as well as holy and pleasing to God. In the so-called Age of Enlightenment, two or three centuries ago, the notion of moral relativism began to gain hold in Western societies. Under its sway people discarded the concept of sin as irrelevant. In this view there are no sins, only sickness, misfortunes, mistakes, or the outworking on one’s environmental, hereditary and biological input (western terminology) or of one’s fate or karma (eastern). Alternatively, sin is acknowledged to exist, but only as defined in one’s culture—cultural relativism thus negates the biblical concept of sin as absolute wrong. DAVID H. STERN, JEWISH NEW TESTAMENT COMMENTARY 17-18 (1992).[8] CHARLES DARWIN, ON THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES BY MEANS OF NATURAL SELECTION, OR THE PRESERVATION OF FAVOURED RACES IN THE STRUGGLE FOR LIFE (Gryphon Editions 1987) (1859).
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Robert, thanks for the reply.
“Not only do the writers state that the reason of their writing was for the purpose of preserving a historical record for Jesus, they were commanded by Jesus to do so.”
I can’t think of what verse(s) you’re referring to. Please provide.
If you start by assuming Jesus is the Son of God, then I see that writers being commanded by Jesus (and perhaps being inspired by him as well) could be compelling. But we don’t start with this. As historians, we must start by saying that we have old documents that say this or that about Jesus. And others that write about Baal or Zoroaster or Joseph Smith or Sathya Sai Baba and so on. At the start of your evaluation, it’s just a bunch of old documents with no preference for one over the others.
“Added to this, the Old Testament Messianic Prophecies predicted that men would write a historical record of the Messiah’s arrival on earth.”
Give me one. I’ve studied Ps. 22, Ps. 53, and Is. 7. Are these what you’re thinking of?
“When we apply the rules for what constitutes a valid historical record, using both lower and higher literary criticism, the texts of the New Testament meets and exceeds these requirements.”
You say that for your favorite supernatural books, they meet/exceed certain requirements. Great, but that’s not how it works.
Don’t apply your winnowing criteria just on the New Testament. Apply those criteria on the entire body of ancient supernatural literature and show us that the New Testament and only the New Testament passes the requirements.
“Regardless of whether they are religious or secular, all history is validated by the same processes …”
Thank you. Making clear your criteria is rarely done by Christian apologists.
“(1) When was the source written or produced?”
For 22 percent of the New Testament’s chapters, our oldest copy is the Codex Sinaiticus, the oldest complete New Testament (written in about 350CE).
The same is true for 43 percent of Matthew’s chapters. The average chapter time gap (time between original autograph and our oldest manuscript) for Matthew is 200 years.
More on this topic, and sources, here:
“(2) Where was it produced?”
Probably not in Jerusalem.
“(3) By whom was it produced?”
Not someone from the original Aramaic/Jewish culture. Every book of the New Testament was written in Greek and came from Greek culture. In other words, the original copy was already one translation away from the original Jesus story.
“the surviving manuscript evidence for Jesus is the largest body of proof for any person of antiquity.”
I’m not sure what you’re saying. Are you pointing to the 5300 Greek manuscripts (including fragments) of New Testament books? The majority of these were written a millennium or more after the events they claim to document.
“Events of history cannot be invalidated simply because a person may not believe that supernatural events are valid events of history.”
Well … not really. Historians can note that supernatural claims were made in ancient documents (example: Suetonius recorded that when Julius Caesar was poised to cross the Rubicon river, a spirit appeared on the far side and urged him to cross and seize his destiny), but the consensus of historians don’t then take those claims as actual history. In fact, the reverse is true.
“Today, atheists and critics of the four Gospels, have established standards for religious-based sources that is higher that those required for secular questions.[2]”
What is this link? I’d like to see this source.
“Co-founder of the Harvard School Of Law, Simon Greenleaf argued then, and this remains true today, “the burden of disproving evidence lies squarely on the shoulders of the objector.“[3]”
I have a rock in my yard that I think was put there by Martians. You object? The burden of proof is yours.
Can you point me to this quote of Greenleaf online? I’d like to see it in context.
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Robert, thanks for the reply.
Evidence From The Text Of The New Testament
When we examine the internal text of the New Testament, we find that the documents themselves provide us with evidence of a very early date of writing.
Jesus repeatedly stated that He called 12 men to act as His witnesses: “And you are my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).
Jesus told these 12 Apostles that they would tell the whole world what they had seen and heard: “And you must also testify about me because you have been with me from the beginning of my ministry” (John 15:27).
Jesus certainly intended that these men would immediately write and send their written testimony to the world, describing all they had seen and heard because they couldn’t travel the entire world on foot. Jesus made it clear that the time to go was immediate, not decades later: “Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations.” (Matthew 28:19)
Jesus said that after He was raised from the dead, He would send the Holy Spirit to remind these men of all He had said and done: “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.” (John 14:26)
Just before His return to heaven, Jesus instructed the Apostles to wait at Jerusalem for the arrival of the Holy Spirit, who would enable them to remember and write their testimony: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). After the Apostles received this power, they would immediately send out their testimony to the churches in Asia Minor, as Paul was traveling to visit these churches.
Jesus’ final instructions to the Apostles are to tell people about Him everywhere starting in Jerusalem, then the local communities surrounding Israel, and finally to the ends of the earth. Unless Jesus intended that a written testimony would be immediately recorded and sent out, obeying Jesus’ command to tell the whole world would not be possible.
Just 14 years after Jesus was raised from the dead, we see Paul beginning his first missionary journey to Asia Minor, teaching this Gospel to the churches in these areas. If there was no written narrative, it would be impossible to accurately tell others about Jesus on this journey.
Paul said that he received the Gospel directly from Christ: “Dear brothers and sisters, I want you to understand that the gospel message I preach is not based on mere human reasoning. I received my message from no human source, and no one taught me. Instead, I received it by direct revelation from Jesus Christ” (Galatians 1:11-12). It is also clear that Paul received the written testimony of the synoptic Gospel writers because he quotes text from these Gospels in his subsequent letters.
Luke begins his Gospel by telling us: “Many people have set out to write accounts about the events that have been fulfilled among us. They used the eyewitness reports circulating among us from the early disciples. Having carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I also have decided to write an accurate account” (Luke 1:1-3). Luke understood that writing an account of all that Jesus had said and done was of paramount importance. Certainly, Luke wrote his Gospel early, before he wrote his second book—Acts.
In Paul’s letter to the church at Ephesus, he speaks of “spreading this Good News” (Ephesians 3:7). How could Paul spread the Good News—the Gospels of Christ—if he had not received these Gospels from Matthew, Mark, and Luke? What would be the point of spreading the Good News if it did not include distributing the Good News by written letters to all of the churches in Asia Minor?
At the church of Thessalonica, Paul thanks the Christians there for receiving the Gospel of Christ as it is, the word of God—scripture equal to the scriptures of the Old Testament: “You received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God.” (1 Thessalonians 2:13)
In Acts 17:10-11, while at Berea, we see Paul before the Jews as they listened to him present the Gospel to them, and their response was “to search the scripture to find out whether these things about Jesus were true.” What scriptures were they searching for? It is reasonable that these scriptures were the Gospel narratives, and comparing them with the texts of the Hebrew prophets.
If there were no written testimonies about Jesus recorded by the Apostles, stating what they had seen and heard from Jesus and personally documenting the events of His healing miracles, raising the dead, crucifixion, and resurrection, Paul would have nothing to present to the people in Asia Minor except his words. It is doubtful that without a written testimony from the men who saw Jesus crucified and risen on the third day, very few would become a believer in Christ.
When Paul and Silas went to the church in Thessalonica, they remained there for three consecutive Sabbaths: “He explained the prophecies and proved that the Messiah must suffer and rise from the dead. He said, ‘This Jesus I’m telling you about is the Messiah.’ ” (Acts 17:1-4) Unless there were written Gospels from the Apostles to demonstrate that these prophecies about the Messiah had been fulfilled, it is unlikely that the people would have believed in Jesus.
These preceding facts allow us to determine that the Gospels of Christ must have been written very early in the first century, not later as critics assert. This means that these Gospels were written by the men who saw and heard the things they recorded in their Gospels. These men were eyewitnesses who told us the truth about Jesus.
The New Testament and its internal texts become evidence for us to examine, just as we would any other written text from antiquity. When we study the entire New Testament, we find that it is written sincerely, without contrivance, and it describes a uniform, central narrative about just one person—Jesus the Messiah.
The letters written by Paul after the Gospels were penned also confirm the same details as the four Canonical Gospels. Where did Paul get this information to share with all the churches in Asia Minor, if not from the written Gospels of the Apostles of Jesus?
The New Testament Tells Us When The Gospels Were Written If anyone wants to know when the Gospels were written, all they must do is open a New Testament and begin to read the book of Acts and the letters that follow. Jesus was crucified and rose from the dead in 32 AD.
Fourteen years later, in 46 AD, Paul was on his first journey through Asia Minor.
In Acts Chapter 13, Paul is at Antioch with Barnabas when the Holy Spirit tells them to go on this first missionary journey to preach the Gospel of Christ: “Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” (Acts 13:2)
On the Sabbath, the elders of the synagogue at Antioch invite Paul to speak to the people gathered, in Acts 13:22-39. Paul begins with David from the Old Testament and demonstrates how Jesus was his descendant—a fulfillment of God’s promise to David, in 1 Samuel 13:14 and 16:1,13.
Then Paul connects Jesus’ arrival to the promise of God to Abraham, in Genesis 15.
From there, Paul describes the events we find in the four Gospels where Jesus is arrested, condemned by Pilate, placed on the cross, and dies. He is placed in the tomb of Joseph and raised from the dead three days later. Paul finishes with his declaration that Jesus was seen alive for “many days” by many eyewitnesses.
“The people in Jerusalem and their leaders did not recognize Jesus as the one the prophets had spoken about. Instead, they condemned him, and in doing this they fulfilled the prophets’ words that are read every Sabbath. They found no legal reason to execute him, but they asked Pilate to have him killed anyway. “When they had done all that the prophecies said about him, they took him down from the cross and placed him in a tomb. But God raised him from the dead! And over many days he appeared to those who had gone with him from Galilee to Jerusalem. They are now his witnesses to the people of Israel.” (Acts 13:27-31)
Where did Paul get the information for this encounter with the Jews at Antioch? It was already recorded in the Gospels by 46 AD when Paul departed for his first missionary journey in Asia Minor. The evidence that the Gospels were already written at this early date is proven by references in the book of Acts, where Paul uses the testimony of the four Gospels to preach and teach. We also see in the letters after Acts, that Paul refers to the Gospels in all his teaching about Jesus. Paul preached from the synoptic Gospels in all four of his journeys to the churches that are in Asia, beginning just 14 years after Jesus rose from the dead.
In Paul’s third journey through Asia Minor in 53-57 AD, he passed through Ephesus, just 100 miles from the small church at Colosse. Paul wrote to Ephesus and declared that the Gospel of Christ was already in use at that time and Paul was spreading this Good News within the first and second decades after Jesus’ resurrection: “By God’s grace and mighty power, I have been given the privilege of serving him by spreading this Good News.” (Ephesians 3:7)
In Paul’s letter to the Colossians, he describes the Gospel of Christ as “being preached all over the world.” The Gospel was recorded by the four writers who testified all they had seen and heard from Jesus. Here we see that what Jesus had accomplished during His life, death, and resurrection was already recorded and carried by Paul to the churches he visited in Asia Minor, just 14 years later: “But you must continue to believe this truth and stand firmly in it. Don’t drift away from the assurance you received when you heard the Good News. The Good News has been preached all over the world, and I, Paul, have been appointed as God’s servant to proclaim it.” (Colossians 1:23)
Jesus Commanded The 12 Apostles To Write And Send The Gospels Out To The World Jesus called these twelve men to testify as eyewitnesses immediately. All the miracles they saw could never be repeated, yet all these things must be known to the world for all time. Jesus wanted the people of that time in history who were still alive to know what Jesus had done, as well as every other person throughout history. Unless these men wrote what they had seen and heard and sent the texts to the local churches, the people of that time would not have had the opportunity to hear about the salvation Jesus died to give them and respond.
Any person who thinks that these men did not immediately write their testimony and send it to the churches that were established must answer why the Apostles would not want the generation in which they lived to be saved.
There is no possibility that the synoptic Gospels were not written quickly and sent to the world. To believe this is to not understand the purpose for which Jesus came into the world in the first place: “For God so loved the world that He gave his only Son so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish…But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them?” (John 3:16, Romans 10:14)
In John’s Gospel, Jesus promised that He would “remind these men of everything they had seen and heard so they could write a reliable account.” (John 14:26)
Jesus said: “The Holy Spirit would testify of Him to these men. Then they must testify about Him to the world because they had been with Him from the beginning.” (John 15:26)
The evidence that the Gospels were written immediately after Jesus rose from the dead is found in the text itself where Jesus makes this requirement an imperative.
In Acts Chapter 6, a dispute arose between the Greek Christians and the Hebrew Christians. The Greeks felt that the daily needs of their widows for food were not being taken care of, as it was for the Hebrew widows. The twelve Apostles decided to appoint seven men to oversee this daily distribution of food for these widows. What follows in this text is of critical importance:
“And so, brothers, select seven men who are well respected and are full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will give them this responsibility. Then we apostles can spend our time in prayer and teaching the word.” (Acts 6:3-4)
Teaching What Jesus Had Done, To Connect The Messianic Prophecies To Him The reason the twelve Apostles gave for the appointment of these seven men was so that they could spend their time in prayer and teaching the word. What word? It wasn’t the Old Testament scriptures only; it was also the Gospels.
The Old Testament scriptures were not sufficient to prove Jesus was the Messiah without the testimony from the Apostles, who described how they had seen Jesus fulfill all these prophecies. The Gospel accounts were essential in proving that Jesus had fulfilled the Hebrew prophecies of the Messiah.
The Apostles wanted to focus their efforts on teaching the Gospel of Christ, described here as the word of God. Unless the Apostles were able to demonstrate that Jesus had fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies for the Messiah, as documented in the written Gospels, they would never be able to prove Jesus was the true Messiah. When we read the Gospels, there are hundreds of citations by the writers where they note a particular thing Jesus was doing at that time, or was saying, as a fulfillment of an Old Testament prophecy written for the Messiah:
“So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet Isaiah (7:14), saying: “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name ‘Immanuel,’ which is translated, ‘God with us.’ ” (Matthew 1:22-23)
“As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah (40:3) the prophet, saying: “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; Make His paths straight.’ ” (Luke 3:4)
“That the word of Isaiah (53:1) the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spoke: “Lord, who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” (John 12:38)
After Jesus was raised from the dead, He told the Apostles that everything He had said and done was in fulfillment of all that Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms had written about Him as the Messiah.
“Then Jesus said to them, “These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.” (John 12:38)
If the Apostles did not record the Gospels in writing and distribute them to the churches in Asia Minor and Israel, there would be no way for the people to connect the prophecies of Messiah from the Old Testament to the events that had taken place while Jesus was here on earth.
This demands that the Gospels must have been written very early after Jesus rose from the dead. We know that Paul had not written any of his letters this early. He doesn’t meet Jesus until Acts 9. To teach the word of God there must have been a written text in existence, before Paul’s letters, to carry to the churches so it could be demonstrated that He is the true Messiah.
We know that the testimony of the Apostles who had written what Jesus had said and done was carried to the church at Thessalonica. Paul writes that when they began to teach the people there what Jesus had said and done, they received these words as “the word of God.” Paul is not talking about the Old Testament scriptures.
There would be no need to specify that the Old Testament was the word of God; the people already knew this. Paul is describing the words of the Apostles, who had already written their testimony about Jesus in the Gospels. This is what Paul was teaching the people at the church in Thessalonica. These people accepted the Gospels as the word of God, scripture equal to the Old Testament.
“For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe.” (1 Thessalonians 2:13)
This is clear evidence that the Gospels must have already existed by this early date when Luke penned the book of Acts. Of course, this is true because Acts is the second book of Luke, after his own Gospel.
There is no evidence anywhere that the Apostles waited for decades to write their testimony. This idea comes from a few liberal New Testament scholars as their opinions, but not because there is any proof that this is true.
The text of the New Testament is where we find the evidence. It is by what Jesus said regarding His desire, that these twelve men would tell everyone what they had seen and the statements of these men who said they saw Jesus with their own eyes, that we can correctly understand that the New Testament was written by men who saw Jesus and heard Him. These men certainly did not wait; they began to write immediately after Pentecost and started to distribute these texts all over the world within a short period. They did this because Jesus told them to write a remembrance and tell the world immediately.
If you start by assuming Jesus is the Son of God, then I see that writers being commanded by Jesus (and perhaps being inspired by him as well) could be compelling. But we don’t start with this. As historians, we must start by saying that we have old documents that say this or that about Jesus. And others that write about Baal or Zoroaster or Joseph Smith or Sathya Sai Baba and so on. At the start of your evaluation, it’s just a bunch of old documents with no preference for one over the others.
After Jesus had risen from the dead, He told His disciples that everything He had said and done was predicted by the Messianic Prophecies of the Old Testament. Jesus told His disciples that it was also predicted that the me who would see and hear Him, would write a testimony about Him and send it to the known world:
Luke 24:46-48 And Jesus said, “Yes, it was written long ago that the Messiah would suffer and die and rise from the dead on the third day. 47 It was also written that this message would be proclaimed in the authority of his name to all the nations, beginning in Jerusalem.”
A few of these OT references are in Isaiah 42:6-7, 49:6 60:3
In the following list, the first verse from Acts is the location of Peter’s speech before the leaders of Israel; the second verses are the Old Testament scriptures where Peter is quoting from and applying these texts to Jesus. Peter is seeking to prove from the Old Testament that Jesus is the Messiah, the One whom these prophets are describing.
Peter’s Scholarly Dissertation Of Acts, Chapters Two And Three
1. Acts 2:17-21 ~ Joel 2:28-32
2. Acts 2:18 ~ Numbers 11:29
3. Acts 2:25-28 ~ Psalms 16:8-11
4. Acts 2:29 ~ 1 Kings 2:10
5. Acts 2:30 ~ 2 Samuel 7:12-14
6. Acts 2:30 ~ Psalms 89:4
7. Acts 2:30 ~ Psalms 132:11
8. Acts 2:31 ~ Psalms 16:10
9. Acts 2:34-35 ~ Psalms 110:1
10. Acts 2:39 ~ Isaiah 43:3
11. Acts 2:39 ~ Isaiah 57:19
12. Acts 2:40 ~ Deuteronomy 32:5
13. Acts 3:13 ~ Exodus 3:6, 15
14. Acts 3:18 ~ Psalms 22;
15. Acts 3:18 ~ Psalms 41:v9
16. Acts 3:18 ~ Psalms 69:4, 21
17. Acts 3:18 ~ Isaiah 50:6
18. Acts 3:18 ~ Isaiah 53:4-11
19. Acts 3:18 ~ Zechariah 12:10
20. Acts 3:18 ~ Zechariah 13:7
21. Acts 3:22 ~ Deuteronomy 18:15, 18
22. Acts 3:23 ~ Leviticus 23:29
23. Acts 3:23 ~ Deuteronomy 18:19
24. Acts 3:25 ~ Genesis 22:18
25. Acts 3:25 ~ Genesis 26:4
In John Chapter 17:11, Jesus is praying to the Father and asking Him to protect the men who have been with Him and have heard and seen all that He has said and done. Jesus said: “Now I am departing from the world; they are staying in this world.” He continues in verse 20 with the words: “I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me through their message.”
Jesus is specifically stating that the men who have seen Him and all He has done will write their testimony about Jesus and many others will believe in Jesus through their message. Why is this so important? The way that we can prove the existence of Jesus and His claim to be God and the only Savior, is through the eyewitness testimony of the men who saw and heard Him. This is the primary focus of this book, to use the written testimony of these men as our apologetic evidence to prove that everything written about Jesus in the New Testament is absolutely accurate and reliable. 1 John 17:20
The criteria for determining the historicity of an event from antiquity is not a laughing matter (favorite supernatural book)!
You seen to fall into a common error that many atheist place themselves, by rejecting anything supernatural. We live in a world that exists my supernatural events. The creation of the universe is the most “supernatural” of all events. Every event that Jesus performed in the 40 documented miracles, 9 that display control over the physical laws of the universe, are defined by human standards as supernatural, while they were quite easy for Jesus, because He is the God who created the universe.
The term supernatural is a misnomer to explain things that people don’t understand. In reality everything that Jesus did, including the creation of the universe, was as easy as speaking a command.
Atheists claim that they would believe evidence for God if He came to earth and showed Himself to us. When Jesus did this, and performed works that no human is capable of, no other god or religion has ever performed, atheists refuse to accept the testimony of the men who recorded these events.
When is enough evidence, enough evidence?
Those of us who are educated in the historical eyewitness testimony of the New Testament wonder if people like yourself are really looking for evidence or has your mind already been made up.
Even in unbelief, a person must still take a leap of faith. I have chosen to take my leap based on the historical eyewitness testimony of the men who saw and heard Jesus. I believe I am on solid ground. I have never heard anything resembling a solid proof from you that the NT is not true. Assertions, objections, doubts, and sometimes mockery, but no proof that what these men wrote, is not true.
The New Testament evidence presented to us is overwhelming evidence that Jesus is the God who created all that exists. The OT predicted everything He did; the NT records the fulfillment of the things He fulfilled.
If not for the evidence of the New Testament, I would still be an atheist. After 49 years of learning, teaching and publishing the evidence, I have no doubt that these men told the truth
Concerning The First Six Criteria:
1. When was the source written or produced? Scientific examination of the oldest manuscripts for the New Testament dates these earliest surviving copies within 175 years of the original autographs. Some fragments are dated as a first copy, from near 60 AD.1 This meets the requirements for authentic representations of actual events. This date of writing for the manuscript copies of the New Testament is closer to the time of the events than any other event in history. If the surviving New Testament manuscript copies are written too late from the events to be considered valid historical narratives of these events, then every other event of antiquity must also be invalidated, for they are all written much later than those of the New Testament.
2. Where was it produced? From the materials we have in our possession today that were used to produce the oldest surviving manuscripts of the New Testament, we know that these products are consistent with those used in the first and second centuries to produce Codexes. A unique feature of the early New Testament manuscripts is their creation as Codexes rather than the conventionally used scroll method for writing and preserving documents. The early first-century Christian church is the originator of the Codex. This book style for writing documents began in the first century, confirming the period of history they originated from.
3. By whom was it produced? From the surviving manuscript evidence, we know with certainty that these documents are written in Koine Greek, and used by the writers of the first-century Christian church.
4. From what preexisting material was it produced? The surviving manuscript copies of the New Testament were written on papyrus, with ink made from charcoal, gum, and water, or Iron Gall in later writing. These are consistent with valid materials of the period the New Testament is alleged to have been written.
5. In what original form was it produced? As previously mentioned, the Codex form of writing and distributing literary materials was a large leap forward in the development and distribution of important writing. There were no other cultures or writers who used the Codex in the first century other than the Christian church. This method of writing is a significant piece of empirical evidence that the New Testament came to us in the first century.
6. What is the evidential value of its contents? Of course, this is one of the most important reasons for writing so many copies of the original autographs. What the New Testament has preserved for history is an event of such magnitude that it eclipses all other events of history. God was coming to earth in the form of a man, performing supernatural works in demonstration of His assertion to be God, and dying for the sins of the world. On the third day after He was killed, this record states that Jesus of Nazareth rose from the dead and was seen by over 500 eyewitnesses during 40 days. The value of these events is the most important in the history of the world.
The surviving manuscripts of the New Testament meet every criteria of the first six precepts in higher criticism, lower criticism, and external criticism, as valid documents of historical events.
Concerning The Eight Remaining Requirements Necessary For Valid Historical Events:
1. Human sources may be relics or narratives that consist of statements or letters.
The four Gospels are narratives that are either written by eyewitnesses or by those who interviewed eyewitnesses of the events they describe. A majority of the texts from the New Testament are in the form of personal letters, that are written to persons at locations where Christian churches were established in the early first century. The existence of letters, rather than stories, adds a great deal of credibility to the sincerity of what is written in these documents. It was not the intent of these writers to create a story to be believed—but for instruction, encouragement, correction, and, in some cases, rebuke. There are specific references to personal items that are requested to be brought to the author and persons who are receiving intimate and personal information. These attributes cause the reader to understand that what they are reading is genuine and not contrived or disingenuous.
2. Any source may be forged or corrupted. For this reason, there is a preeminent need to verify the originality of the source.
The writers of the four Gospels are alleged to have written these anonymously due to their names not being included in later manuscript copies. The leaders of the first-century Christian church had no doubts about who these authors were, many having firsthand knowledge of these authors. This provides us with satisfactory proof that they were not forged.
As these New Testament documents exist as 24,593 extant copies, this is an indication that there were originals of sufficient value to merit such a great number of copies that were later made. As these New Testament documents have remained in the custody and use of the Christian church for nearly 2,000 years, this is sufficient evidence to meet the requirements for verification of the source.
3. The closer the source is to the event that it alleges to describe, the greater the trust that is given for an accurate historical description of what happened.
Although critics claim that the narratives written about Jesus in the New Testament were written at too great a distance from the events, to be considered credible, this is not the finding of the historical record. There are surviving manuscripts of complete books of the New Testament from 175-225 AD. Manuscript copies of nearly the entire New Testament as early as 175 AD demand that the original autographs were certainly written by 50 or 60 AD. There are fragments of Matthew’s Gospel that have been validated by scientific Paleographic examination that dates these texts to 60 AD. In Paul’s letter to Timothy, chapter 5, verse 18, he quotes from Luke’s gospel:
“The laborer is worthy of his wages.” When we examine Luke’s gospel, we find that Paul was referencing a quote by Luke in the letter he wrote to Timothy.
This means that Luke’s gospel must have already been written by the time Paul wrote 1 Timothy: “for the laborer is worthy of his wages” (Luke 10:7). Eusebius wrote that Paul was beheaded under Caesar Nero, who was assassinated in 68 AD. After Paul’s fifth missionary journey ended in 67 AD, Eusebius states that Paul was beheaded by the Romans under Emperor Nero.
This date was near May or June of 68 AD. Nero forced his private secretary, Epaphroditos, to kill him on June 9th of 68 AD. Since Paul died in 68 AD, and he wrote a text that came from Luke’s Gospel, Luke certainly penned these words before 68 AD. Luke probably wrote his gospel near the same writing of Matthew’s Gospel, in 60 AD.
These facts of history are empirical evidence that Luke’s Gospel was already written while Paul was still alive. By this corroboration from the historical record, we learn that Luke’s Gospel is certified as written before 68 AD when Paul was killed. Confirmation of these facts is made by a letter from Eusebius.
4. An eyewitness is more reliable than secondhand testimony or hearsay.
A majority of the text for the New Testament is written by eyewitnesses. The writers are careful to tell the reader that they did not believe Jesus was God at first, but only believed after they saw Him alive after His brutal crucifixion. Various writers make clear and specific statements that what they are writing is truthful and they are not lying:
2 Peter 1:16-18: “We saw his majestic splendor with our own eyes when he received honor and glory from God the Father (on the high mountain).”
1 John 1:1-3: “We proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning, whom we have heard and seen. We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands. He is the Word of life. This one who is life itself was revealed to us, and we have seen him. And now we testify and proclaim to you that he is the one who is eternal life. He was with the Father, and then he was revealed to us. We proclaim to you what we have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.”
1 John 4:14 “Furthermore, we have seen with our own eyes and now testify that the Father sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.”
1 Corinthians 15:3-8 “For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. After that, He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. After that, He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. Then last of all, He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time.”
The requirements for valid eyewitness testimony are met by these records and the absence of any impeaching evidence to the contrary in the historical record.
5. If there are several independent sources while telling the same story, the credibility of the narrative is increased exponentially.
There are nine separate authors, who all write the same narrative about Jesus Christ in the 27 books of the New Testament: He claimed to be God, proved this by His miracles, was crucified, and rose from the dead three days later.
The Old Testament is a second source that predicted a Messiah who would perform exactly what Jesus accomplished—miracles as proof that He is the true Messiah.
Finally, a third and fourth source in the secular records of both the Romans and the Jews, who record Jesus in Jerusalem at the same time the New Testament places Him there, arrested and tried by Pontius Pilate, causing an uprising in Jerusalem and also Rome, Christians being disbursed from Jerusalem and Rome. The Jews record Jesus in their Talmud as crucified under Pilate, a false messiah, and a source of great trouble in their nation. See Chapter 7.
6. The tendency of a source that has a clear bias is the motivation for the creation of false narratives. Internal evidence within the narrative that would detract from the story and make it less attractive are indications of balance and truthfulness.
When we examine the premise of the narratives about Jesus, we find that the primary character is born into abject poverty. His birth is under scandal, as His mother is believed to be pregnant by a man other than Joseph her husband. Jesus’ mother claims that she is pregnant by the Holy Spirit, and this adds to the public disdain for Jesus in His later years.
His attempts at proclaiming Himself as the Messiah is seen as an utter failure, by His arrest and crucifixion. He is so poor that He must be buried in a borrowed tomb. These are not the attributes a writer would place into a contrived story or novel that would cause the people of that period of history to believe in Him. The reason these unsavory events are in the record of Jesus’ life is because they are true.
Everything written about Jesus in the New Testament, when it is read by an honest and reasonable person, can be understood as genuine accounts so extraordinary that not even those who saw them believed what they heard and saw. All of the writers of the New Testament were killed for spreading news of Jesus’ death and resurrection. The Romans so vigilantly persecuted the early Christians, that nearly five million were brutally executed simply because they would not confess that Jesus had not risen from the dead. There was no benefit for those who wrote, preached, and died for the Gospel of Christ, except to make Him known so that the whole world would know the extraordinary events they had seen.
7. If the witnesses to a story have no personal benefit or direct interest in proving the story, other than to tell the truth, the narrative is more credible.
Those who believed in Jesus in the first year after His death and resurrection were hated, despised, and evicted from homes, villages, and cities. The Jews hated the early Christians so vehemently that men like Saul of Tarsus were dispatched to arrest, condemn, and execute the followers of Jesus. The early and often later followers of Jesus lost everything for following Him.
Despite the loss of all things and, in many cases, their lives and the lives of their families, early Christians would not deny Jesus. This is one of the greatest proofs of authenticity in the historical records of the New Testament: the extraordinary cost of those who chose to believe in Jesus. These facts of the early Christians are well documented by the hundreds of early church writers, who witnessed and recorded these events in the historical record, in corroboration of the New Testament narrative.
8. If the witnesses recall slightly different details of the events, even placing them in a different order, while telling the same story, this is evidence of truthful narratives.
An assertion by critics of the New Testament is that there are differences in the testimony of those who write about the same events. These differences and slight variations in events, or their order, are empirical proof that the narratives are true. In all genuine written testimony about true events, witnesses see and remember these events differently, although they saw the same things.
In every principle and requirement for genuine historical events, the New Testament passes by greater measure than any other literary narrative for any other event of history. We know more about the person of Jesus Christ and those who wrote about Him than any other person of antiquity. All of the vast evidence available to validate the narratives of the New Testament makes it certain that these are truthful and reliable representations of what took place in the history of the early first century.
Objections to the New Testament because of its supernatural assertions attributed to Jesus have no bearing on the historical authenticity of these events. Historians cannot disregard or cast aside a record from history simply because they happen to disagree with the events or do not believe they took place. Once reliable sources are validated, all that anyone can do is accept that what is written is genuine testimony of events the people who wrote them believed at that time.
It is not necessary or a prerequisite of valid historical events to believe they are true, only that they were properly recorded by reliable witnesses and were preserved and in the care of proper custodians during the time from when the events took place to the present day.
The New Testament surpasses every literary and historical requirement as valid and reliable historical events.
The preceding is from my book: “New Testament Apologetics”
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