Webinar: The Authenticity of the Four Gospels – Internal Evidence

 Why we believe in the Bible: Not: 

1.     External Evidences (Archeological, Mss, Extra-Biblical Writings)

2.     Miracles of Jesus

3.     Fulfilled Prophecy

4.     Internal Consistency

5.     Wisdom

6.     Personal Transformations 

The Jesus Seminar (JS), a collection of skeptical Bible critics active in the 1980s and 90s, concluded that only 18% the sayings that the Gospels had attributed to Jesus were His. (Interestingly, the same participants acknowledged that it couldn’t be historically denied that Jesus was a miracle-worker)

 

 THE ASSOCIATES OF JESUS – PORTRAID BADLY (Not Self-promoting)

• "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men." (Matthew 16:23)
  
  

• "You will all fall away," Jesus told them, "for it is written:  'I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.'” (Mark 14:27)

 

Status Conscious:

o   Mark 9:34 But they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest.

o   Matthew 15:23 But he did not answer her a word. And his disciples came and begged him, saying, “Send her away, for she is crying out after us.”

o   Matthew 19:13–14 Then children were brought to him that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples rebuked the people, but Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.”

o   BUT: John 12:20–22 Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks. So these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” Philip went and told Andrew; Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus.

o   Even at the End: John 16:18 So they were saying, “What does he mean by ‘a little while’? We do not know what he is talking about.”

Apostles Never Complemented:

• Matthew 8:10 When Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who followed him, “Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith.”

• Matthew 15:26–28  And he answered, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” Then Jesus answered her, “O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed instantly.

• Writers of Gospels – Motivated by truth!

 

MARTYRDOM: Historian Michael Licona:  “After Jesus’ death, the disciples endured persecution, and a number of them experienced martyrdom. The strength of their conviction indicates that they were not just claiming Jesus had appeared to them after rising from the dead. They really believed it. They willingly endangered themselves by publicly proclaiming the risen Christ.” (Christian Research Journal, Vol.39, No.2, 16)

·       Apostles highly credible!

 

THE EVENTS OF JESUS’ LIFE – Contra-indications of trying to prove something:

• Baptized by John the Baptist: Matthew 3:15 But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented.
  
  
• Jesus confessing ignorance about His return: “Not even the son of man knows” (Mark 13:32).
• Jesus fearful in Garden of Gethsemane.
• “Father, why have you forsaken me?” (Quote from Psalm 22

• Women first to testify of Jesus resurrection.

• HUMBLING CIRCUMSTANCES: Born prematurely of a virgin, in a filthy animal manger, wrapped in burial cloths, rejected by His people, put to death in the most painful and humiliating way.

JESUS’ TEACHINGS – Not Winsome!

• "I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. (John 6:53)
  
  
• “Hate mother and father,” “Let the dead bury the dead,” “Cut off hands,” “Don’t let your left hand know what your right is doing.” “Sell all you have,” “Turn the other cheek,” and “Give to anyone who asks.”

• His parables highly offensive. None would warm the heart, except perhaps for the parable of the Prodigal Son.

• The Rich Young Man teaches that humanity is incapable of salvation (Mat. 19:26).

• The Workers in the Vineyard (Mat. 20:1-16) insultingly teaches that many of those who had worked the longest and the hardest in the Lord’s vineyard will find themselves out in the cold.

• The Parable of the Wedding Feast (Mat. 22:1-14) also showed how the most “deserving” lost out entirely. T

• he Parable of the Ten Virgins (Mat. 25:1-13) seems to praise an unwillingness to share. Likewise,

• The Shrewd Manager (Luke 16:1-8) praises cunning.

 

THE CRYPTIC NATURE OF JESUS’ TEACHINGS

Jesus had been very cryptic about many of the central doctrines of the faith – His messiah-ship, His divinity, the atonement, the new covenant.

• Matthew 26:64 Jesus said to him [the High Priest], “You have said so. But I tell you, from now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power [Psalm 110:1] and coming on the clouds of heaven.” (Daniel 7)

LIBERAL SKEPTICS claim that the Gospels were written by the early church (70-100 AD) to prove that Jesus is God. Most critics will cite the Gospel of John, considered the latest Gospel. It makes more explicit references to Jesus’ deity than the other three Gospels. Consequently, it reflects the church’s growing desire to prove that Jesus is God.

For an extreme example, New Testament critic claims:

• Bart Ehrman “The idea that Jesus was divine was a later Christian invention, one found, among our Gospels, only in John.” (Jesus Interrupted, 249)

• “There is not one word in this Gospel [of Mark] about Jesus actually being God.”(247) 

• Oh? Mark 1:2-3  As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, “Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way, the voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord [“Yahweh” in OT], make his paths straight’”

 

APPARENT CONTRADICTIONS

Had the early church exercised editorial oversight over the Gospels, they would have surely smoothed over the apparent contradictions between Jesus’ teachings and the Epistles. However, we have no evidence that this ever happened in any systematic way. Here are a couple of examples. Jesus seemed to teach unrestrained giving:

• “Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.” (Matthew 5:42)

• However, the Epistles have more qualifications: For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: "If a man will not work, he shall not eat." (2 Thess. 3:10)

• “But I tell you, ‘Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.’” (Matthew 5:39)

• Matthew 24:43 “But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into.”

 

TROUBLING PROPHECIES

“Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door. I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.” (Matthew 24:33-34)

• Bart D. Ehrman Jesus fully expected that the history of the world as we know it (as well as how he knew it) was going to come to a screeching halt, that God was soon going to intervene in the affairs of this world, overthrow the forces of evil in a cosmic act of judgment, destroy huge masses of humanity…Moreover, Jesus expected this cataclysmic end of history would come in his own generation, at least during the lifetime of his disciples. (Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1999) x)

But, it seems that Jesus had taught that His return was a long way off:

• Olivet Discourse: “You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains. Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other… And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” (Matthew 24:6-14)

 

Here are two possible resolutions:

1. “Generation” might also pertain to the Jewish “race” (Isaiah 53:8, “descendants”) meaning that there would still be Jews at the time of Jesus’ return.
   
   
2. The Jesus return to which Jesus referred might not have been His second coming, but rather a “coming” in judgment against Jerusalem (70 AD) during the lifetime of many of His disciples.

NT Scholar Craig Blomberg: “Whether by giving the Gospels the benefit of the doubt which all narratives of purportedly historical events merit or by approaching them with initial suspicion in which every detail must satisfy the criteria of authenticity, the verdict should remain the same. The Gospels may be accepted as trustworthy accounts of what Jesus did and said.” (“The Historical Reliability of the Gospels”)

Even the agnostic professor of religion, Bart Ehrman, reluctantly admits: “The oldest and best sources we have for knowing about the life of Jesus…are the four Gospels of the NT…This is not simply the view of Christian historians who have a high opinion of the NT and in its historical worth; it is the view of all serious historians of antiquity…it is the conclusion that has been reached by every one of the hundreds (thousands, even) of scholars.” (“Truth and Fiction in the DaVinci Code,” p. 102)

If the mind is not fortified, we will suffer doubt – John the Baptist!