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!

“WHO AM I?” AND WHY THIS QUESTION MATTERS

Who am I? We want to be authentic and self-accepting, so we ask this question. We also want to know how to navigate this vessel we call “self,” and navigation requires accurate knowledge. However, we have become so intent about trying to be the person who others will love and respect, that we have attempted to become someone different that the person who we really are and have lost track of ourselves.

On top of that, we endlessly try to build our self-esteem, changing the way we see ourselves, see that we can feel okay and prove to others that we are okay. However, this endeavor takes us even further away from ourselves, in an attempt to be something else – something that will earn the esteem of others.

Meanwhile, we desperately want to return to ourselves, no matter what others might think. However, in our vain attempt to find authenticity, we identify ourselves with our desires, especially those that yell the loudest. Food yells loudly to me. However, does my love to stuff myself define who I am? Am I no more than a collection of my desires and needs?

Many erroneously define themselves in terms of their sexual desires. However, CNN reports:

• “More often than not, non-monogamy leads to the demise of relationships,” said Karen Ruskin, a Boston-area psychotherapist with more than two decades of experience in couples counseling. Instead of focusing on the primary relationship, partners are turning to others for fulfillment.

• "Even if non-monogamy is consensual, it's still a distraction from dealing with each other," said Ruskin, author of "Dr. Karen's Marriage Manual."

• "It all goes back to choice. Non-monogamy is choosing to be with someone else instead of being attentive to your spouse when the relationship is troubled."

According to Ruskin, non-monogamy (polyamory), rather than reflecting who we are at our most basic level, represents an escape from ourselves.

Meanwhile, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) doesn’t seem to be much help. Psychologist Miriam Grossman writes:

• “According to the AAP, a teen boy who thinks he’s a girl and wants his genitalia removed is ‘normal,’ just different.” But, Grossman asks, what if an African American teen is convinced she’s really Caucasian? “Should her pediatrician affirm her belief, and support her wish for facial surgery and skin bleaching?” The AAP also supports finding an affirming therapist for a boy who believes he is a girl. Grossman notes. “But if my son is attracted to boys, and his urges feel foreign and distressing, you [AAP] advise me to find a therapist who will tell him ‘This is who you are, accept it.’ However, does that make sense?” (Salvo, Fall 2013, 32)

Are we our desires and our choices? When we embrace our greatest desires as who we really are, are we embracing ourselves or what our society now wants us to affirm about ourselves. Is the real me polyamorous or adulterous? Must I now live in this manner to be fully me or is there a more authentic me lurking beneath the fading sexual desires?

Is there any real answer to the question, “Who am I?” Is there a truth that transcends the changing social fashions and definitions?

How might we answer these questions? Well, how might we know whether we have put our jigsaw puzzle together correctly? If the pieces and the patterns all fit together! After following Jesus for 40 years, I find that the puzzle of my life has been harmonized. With the assurance of His love and forgiveness, I have been enabled to face myself, my failures and inadequacies, and to accept myself, and that hasn’t been easy. For years, I had fled from the ugly things I had seen in myself. Instead, I built my self-esteem, convincing myself that I was a good person, denying the bad.

Consequently, I was never able to resolve conflicts with others. Resolution requires two people to talk about the same conflict, the same two people and their behaviors. However, if we cannot or won’t see these warring elements, it will be hard to reach any satisfying agreement about our roles in the conflict. My puzzle remained fractured. After all, I had convinced myself that I was right and, therefore, could no longer see my own culpability.

How do we know when the puzzle of the real-me fits? When our mind is at rest! When we no longer obsess, trying to fit pieces into slots where they do not belong.

AUTHENTICITY

In a world of mask-wearing, we yearn for authenticity.

I like being authentically me. Why? I don’t like to expend energy to hide who I am. It’s much more fun to be able to be transparent and laugh at myself. It’s part of the liberty that I have in Christ.

Liberty? Yes! I don’t have to prove myself. I don’t have to become the ideal person so that others will love me. Why not? I am really convinced about the Bible’s truth that my life is no longer about me and my trying to be somebody that I am not:

·       I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20; ESV)

This raises an important question – “What does it mean to live authentically?” For the artist, this might mean letting our feelings hang out. After all, aren’t we our feelings? Don’t they define who we are?

Perhaps, but not for someone who has the privilege of serving Christ. Who then am I? I am a servant of the Lord before all else. Does this mean that I am denying my feelings? Certainly not! But it does mean that these do not define who I am. I am His and He is mine. That’s who I am.

Yes, I struggle with powerful feelings of anger and even that horrid and sickening feeling of jealousy, but they are not essentially me. My life in Christ is what is authentically me! Therefore, authenticity does not require that I act-out, but that I live faithfully for the Truth, while I laugh at my pettiness.

But what is the highest truth of someone without the Savior? Themselves! Namely, their feelings! However, he cannot authentically live them out without incurring rejection, even self-contempt.

How then can he live authentically and connect to others authentically? He cannot. Instead, he must find a new face by suppressing the old selfish one. Consequently, he becomes an idealist, a do-gooder to convince himself and the world that he is good.

This is especially needful in the professional world where he is hired to implement programs to help others, where he must wear professional attire and manifest professional concerns, even as he carries a concealed dagger.

While underneath, he is a carnivore, he must live deceptively as an herbivore. Meanwhile, it is becoming increasingly clear to him that he is living a double-life. He is not the herbivore as he presents himself. He finds that the mask cannot be reconciled with who he truly is. He wants to believe that he is a good and caring person, but it is becoming increasingly clear that he is not. He is no longer able to believe in his life and what he is doing. Therefore, in private, he cynically talks about “playing the game.” Cynicism becomes the only glue that can hold these two conflicting identities together.

I am all for doing good, but why? If we wear a mask, a deceptive front, to “prove” that we are a good and worthy person, holding forth our resume of good deeds, we are living inauthentically and the real self will continue emerge, to our chagrin, from behind the mask. It will not remain quiet but will continue to demand stage-center.

How to control it and to live authentically? We have to give the dark-side its own space. However, when it manifests, we can laugh at it and take responsibility. It’s like a pit-bull we have on a leash. We can’t hide it, and when it breaks lose to bite someone, we must take full responsibility. However, we can be transparent about it, denying it the power to operate in the darkness of denial.

“Out of the depths of the heart, the mouth will speak,” but we can humble ourselves and apologize for its words. We can allow ourselves to become accountable.

But how can we laugh at so destructive a force? How can we accept its presence? This is to admit that we are not a good person. It is like admitting that we are a pauper and not a prince. It is to surrender our good feelings about ourselves.

Who can endure such a crash, a fall from such great heights? We have to find our significance elsewhere, from above. Only when we are convinced that we possess something more valuable than our self-esteem – a Savior who has died for us and loves us despite our unloveliness – can we be authentic!

Besides, authenticity and self-acceptance pay great dividends – ability to accept others and even criticism, humility, other-centeredness, and non-defensiveness. By the grace of God, I can be who I truly am.

Being Real when we Feel like Garbage

 When we are hurting, we tend to feel shame, put on a façade, and isolate ourselves. However, if we understand Christ, this shouldn’t be. Instead, we can be bold, even in the face of our repeated failures.

This had not been the case with Heather Kopp. She has described herself as a “Christian drunk.” in her new book, Sober Mercies: How Love Caught Up with a Christian Drunk. Instead of her problem leading her to reach out to others in her church for support and encouragement, she isolated:

• When I lost control of my drinking, I was baffled and ashamed. I prayed and repented until I was blue in the face—all to no avail. Which set up a faith crisis. I mean, wasn’t alcoholism the kind of gross moral sin that I was supposed to have been saved from? 

• I think this is why Christians make such miserable addicts. When prayer and repentance don’t work, in order to protect our “witness” or God’s reputation, or our families—we think we’re doing every one a favor by keeping it secret or suffering in silence. That only makes us more miserable and further away from getting help.

Although Kopp’s response to her addiction is very common, our New Testament encourages us to respond in an entirely different way. For one thing, knock-down hardships are to be expected.

• Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. (1 Peter 4:12)

We need to understand that we will experience such painful disappointments that we will think that there is something so terribly wrong with ourselves – that we are far worse off than others – that we will want to run away. However, the Apostle Paul instructs us to be prepared for such struggles:

• For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. (Galatians 5:17) 

Consequently, we all struggle, and we’ll continue to struggle as long as we remain in this body! If we really imbibe this truth, we can be honest about our failings. Not only are they normal, but everyone has them!

But are they really failings in a negative and shameful sense – things that we need to hide? God had informed Paul that He wouldn’t relieve him of a troublesome problem because Paul was better off with the problem than without it:

• But he [God] said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Cor. 12:9-10)

We tend to regard our weaknesses and failings as ugly, shameful things. However, this isn’t the way that God regards them (Isaiah 57:15; 66:1-2). Consequently, Paul learned to revel in his weaknesses, even to boast in them. He knew that his failings would make him spiritually strong. They would teach Him how to depend on the Lord.

If we know this and also that our God fully accepts us – warts and all – we can also boast in our weaknesses, assured that, however, frustrating they may be, God is working them all for a good purpose (Rom. 8:28). This means that we can stop obsessively ruminating about our weaknesses and insecurities and say to ourselves, “Great, another failure! I can’t wait to see what God will do through this one!”

Meanwhile, we shouldn’t be surprised if our struggles are deeper and more painful than those of others (1 Peter 4:17). Paul explained that if we want to grow spiritually, we must also die:

• We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. (2 Cor. 4:10-11)

This is nothing to be ashamed about. The way of life is death. The way of growth is brokenness! Paul had to learn this lesson repeatedly. He had to endure such discouragement that he felt like dying:

• We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. (2 Cor. 1:8-9)

To grow in the Lord means to die to self. To trust in the Lord means that we have to see ourselves the way we really are, and to understand that there is no way that we can trust in ourselves. This is terribly painful – the despairing of our self–trust and self-esteem. However, if we know that this is God’s blessed cure, we can endure it and even laugh at ourselves in the process. We submit to physical surgery, because we believe that it means health. We should also submit to God’s spiritual surgery, because we know that it means healing and Christ-like-ness.

It’s been such a relief to me to lay down the façade that I am in control and to laugh at my failures and insecurities. Rather than driving me away from others it now draws others to me. If I can accept myself despite my failings, it helps others to feel more comfortable in my presence and helps them to lay down their own façade.

Although Kopp found healing through Christ, she also found some relief through AA. In AA, everyone was able to admit that they were alcoholics, albeit recovering alcoholics.

However, we have better Resources than AA! We can admit that we’re sinners saved by grace, and that’s okay because we have a God who loves us, just the way we are, with a love that transcends all understanding (Eph. 3:16-19), and has promised to never leave us. We no longer have to justify ourselves and rationalize away our wrongs, because Jesus has blotted them away on the cross.

I would not have made it in AA! I would not have been able to confront and accept my ugliness without the assurance that I was loved and forgiven from above - that I was defined by an absolute standard higher than society’s standard and my performance. Without this assurance, I clung to my crumbling façade, even through years of secular counseling. Ironically, secular counseling just served to enable me to hold on to my rationalizations of my own okay-ness.

My classes are a bit like an AA meeting. Although we don’t go around and confess our sins, I try to show the powerful connection between God’s Word and how it enables us to be real. When we understand Him, we can boldly come into His light (John 3:19-20) with our focus, not on ourselves, but on His glory and love.