My Christian testimony, Part II: Why we can trust the Holy Bible

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I have argued that science and reason are not only compatible with a theistic worldview, they do much to affirm it. Nonetheless, this leaves open the question of which, if any, of the gods humans have worshipped since the beginning of time actually exist.

Certainly, Christianity is not the world’s only theistic religion. In fact, it is not even the only monotheistic religion.

However, it makes unique, testable truth claims that set it apart from all other religions or spiritual beliefs. The apostle Paul made no bones about that in his first epistle to the church in Corinth when he wrote, “And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.” (1 Cor: 15:14, ESV)

The veracity of the resurrection, then, is the very heart of the Christian faith.

In the following video, Baptist pastor and educator Voddie Baucham powerfully and succinctly argues that the biblical claims of Paul and the other New Testament writers pass rational and forensic muster.

Baucham emphasizes four main points that could serve as an outline for my beliefs, as well:

1. The Bible is a reliable collection of historical documents.

The New Testament describes characters and places that existed in history — indeed, there are dozens of extra-biblical references to the people and events described therein, including Jesus and his crucifixion. Thus, bible scholars, including those who are non-believers, harbor no doubt Jesus was an actual person who lived during the general time and in the general area described in The Holy Bible.

The New Testament describes Jesus's ministry, His voluntary death on the cross, His resurrection and the efforts of His apostles to spread the good news of His sacrifice. Though no original texts of the New Testament are known to exist, we have about 6,000 surviving manuscripts, some dating to about 130 AD, approximately 100 years after the crucifixion. That leaves very little doubt about the original wording. In fact, we can trust it with supreme confidence, particularly in comparison to other ancient works.

As Baucham notes, only 10 extant copies of Julius Ceasar’s Gallic Wars remain, and the oldest dates to 900 years after his assassination. Similarly, we have only one-tenth as many copies of Homer’s Illiad, none dating less than 500 years after the original writing. We have fewer than 50 copies of Aristotle’s work, none less than 1,400 years older than the original. And there are just seven copies of Plato, with a gap of at least 1,200 years from the original.

Nonetheless, scholars and textual critics accept these tomes' fidelity to the original.

Applying that standard uniformly, then, nearly two millennia of transcription and translation into languages other than the original Greek is not a reason to doubt the wording or meaning of any major theological claim made in the New Testament.

2. Biblical accounts of Jesus were written down by eye-witnesses during the lifetime of other eyewitnesses.

Not only can we be virtually certain about the original wording of the New Testament books, those books were written by people who either witnessed the events described or had access to such witnesses.

It is generally accepted that Jesus was crucified sometime between A.D. 30-33. Scholars tend to date the Gospel according to Mark to around A.D. 70-75, Matthew at about 75, Luke at 80-90, and John to 90-100. But some argue there is evidence these books were written in even earlier. For instance, Jonathan Bernier, in his 2022 work “Rethinking the Dates of the New Testament,” asserts Matthew was likely written around the years 45-59, Mark around 42-45, Luke around 59, and John around 60-70. And whatever the case, scholars generally believe the New Testament epistles predate the gospels.

Why are these dates important?

Proximity of the writings to the events they describe lends to the forensic veracity of the accounts and further suggests these stories are not exaggerated legends. This is powerful testimony that the people who saw and knew Jesus understood him to be the Son of God.

After all, the apostles knew Jesus was crucified and witnessed his resurrected body. In fact, Jesus walked among them until the Ascension, when he took His seat at the right hand of the Father. But in addition, hundreds of others who were not initially His followers saw the risen Christ, too. That includes more than 500 people who saw Him at once – and most of those 500 were still alive when Paul wrote his letter to the Corinthians, the apostle claimed. (1 Cor. 15:3-8).

With so many other living eyewitnesses, it would have proven exceedingly difficult for the early Christians to make false claims that went unrefuted. What’s more, the apostles had little incentive to spread a lie because they faced persecution and death for professing such beliefs. Indeed, one by one, the apostles were imprisoned, exiled and/or martyred.

“But wait,” you say. “We see Muslims and those of other faiths die for their religious beliefs all the time. Why doesn’t that make their religious claims true?”

Good question. And there’s a good answer: Those who die for their beliefs in other religions might genuinely believe the claims for which they are dying. However, they were not eyewitnesses to the events to which they ultimately attest. The apostles were — and they would not have merely believed their religious claims to be true; they would have known them to be true … or false.

They might die for truth, but the likelihood they would uniformly choose death to support a lie is simply not believable.

And what, exactly, were their claims? …

3. The New Testament reports supernatural events that took place in fulfillment of specific prophecies.

Jesus restored withered limbs, healed eyes blinded from birth, and walked on water. As Bauchum notes, these are not superhuman events, but supernatural events.

The greatest of these miracles was the resurrection, which, like many of Jesus’s acts, correlates to prophecies given in the Old Testament. For instance, His words on the cross evoke Psalm 22, which was written a thousand years before Christ’s birth and which alludes to crucifixion hundreds of years before this method of execution was devised by the Romans.

That Jesus died on the cross is accepted as both historical and medical fact. Lucian, Tacitus and Josephus are among the ancient historians who not only reference Christ, but note his death by crucifixion. Further, there is no known record of anyone surviving a crucifixion, let alone anyone surviving after being scourged beforehand to the extent Jesus was. Modern medical authorities writing in JAMA and elsewhere conclude Christ was indeed dead when he was removed from the cross.

If that is the case, and if his followers saw his physical, living person afterward, then the resurrection stands as the second-greatest miracle ever, surpassed only by God’s creation of the universe from nothing. What’s more, the resurrection demonstrates God’s power and affirms his promise of eternal life to those who accept his grace.

4. Biblical writings are divine rather than human in origin.

Indeed, the gospel is not preached in vain, as Paul well knew. To the contrary, it has been the most transformative news in the history of human civilization.

Currently, Christianity is the world’s most-practiced religion, and its rise is miraculous in its own right. Consider that it spread rapidly from a small following of oppressed Jews in a Roman outpost and into ancient Greece and Egypt by the end of the first century. Its growth continued into the Parthian and Sasanian Empires, and into Media, Persia, and Bactria – then eventually, to almost every reach of the known world.

The veracity of the Bible has much to do with this global spread, and that’s hardly surprising. It is, after all, God-breathed.

How do we know?

Well, consider that the 66 books of the Old and New testaments were written in three languages, on three continents, over the course of several millennia. Its authors – most of whom never met, let alone had any opportunity to collaborate (or conspire) – came from different epochs and cultures. They wrote in different genres.

Yet, from this potential slumgullion of commentary emerged a single narrative of God’s relationship with His human creation and His plan for their salvation. It is internally consistent and corroborated by external text and archeological discoveries. In that respect, The Holy Bible — like the creation, resurrection and spread of Christianity that it describes — is also something of a miracle.

Taken in sum, the evidence for the divinity of Jesus and the truth of the God of Christianity seems so overwhelming that apologists such as Frank Turek and the late Norman Geisler conclude that it requires more faith (of the blind variety) to be an atheist than a Christian. In fact, they have written a book of a similar name that influenced my thinking.

But if I find the evidence for the truth of Christianity so overwhelming, why did it take me until age 54 to be convinced? It is a fair question.

And I suspect the answer, which I will explain in the next post, will sound familiar to a lot of folks.

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