Last week we talked about some basic historical arguments for the authenticity of the Scriptures. You can see much of this material laid out in Tim Keller’s, The Reason For God. There were 2 main arguments that we looked at. First, the NT documents were written too early to be written off as false. Consider the fact that the NT contains so many historical details (names, places, events, etc…) that could have been verified by the original readers of the Scriptures. 1 Corinthians 15 talks about the resurrected Christ appearing to over 500 eyewitness, many of whom were still alive at the time of writing. Because the writings of the NT were written so close to the events of Jesus’ life, eyewitnesses were still available to testify to the accuracy of the writings. If you want to write a historical myth, it will be much easier to do so hundreds of years after the “supposed” events. That way there are no witnesses still available, the cultural details have changed, and there is more room for you to make errors without others knowing. But the NT documents were written within 60 years of Christ’s death, and we have manuscript evidence from within 100 years of those original writings. The fact that the NT was written so early points to their authenticity.
Second, There are many things in the NT that would be counter productive to include if you are writing a myth to support your own position. If you were writing a story to bolster support for the leaders of the early church, would you include all the doubts and shortcomings of the disciples of Christ? The disciples basically tell Jesus that He is wrong about going to Jerusalem to be crucified. They flee away from Christ in the end, Peter even denies knowing Jesus. If you were making up a religion, you probably wouldn’t paint it’s initial leaders in such a negative light… unless that’s the truth.
These are just a couple of historical factors that point to the authenticity of the NT Scriptures. Join us next week when we address the important concerns that arise when we see things in the Scriptures that don’t match up with our cultural perspectives. Can we reject the Scriptures because they support cultural practices that are unacceptable to us? Doesn’t the Bible support things like slavery, polygamy, and harsh views toward women? What do we do with these objections? Join us Sunday as we work through some of these important issues.
