Life in Christ Lutheran Church, Grand Marais, MN
Cook County News Herald
I have lived in Grand Marais since
September. I love it here, even in the deepest cold of winter. What a beautiful
place to live. It was a joy to sing about the Savior’s birth this last
Christmas with Borealis. Thanks to all of you who helped me feel welcome.
Since I have four
articles to write for the News Herald, I decided to write about Christian
Apologetics. That isn’t apologizing for Christianity (apologetics is the
technical term for mounting a defense), but rather defending what the bible
teaches about who Jesus Christ is, and what he has done for us.
Christianity is a
historical religion. It is based on the claims of ancient people about the
person of Jesus Christ. A man who lived in history. He was active in the world.
He made claims about himself. These are recorded in the Bible in the first four
books of the New Testament. The historicity of Christianity stands firmly on
the historicity of Jesus. We can determine the truth about Jesus by historical
and scientific investigation.
So, let’s start at
the beginning. The question is: How do we determine the truth claims of
historical sources? By historical and scientific investigation. The nature of
the documents is irrelevant. Religious documents are no different than any
other. Historical and scientific investigation is the only valid way to
determine the claims. The historian uses logic, collects facts, and sets out
theorems, and accepts the explanations which best account for the facts
discovered.
Historians use
three basic tests to determine the accuracy of ancient texts; The Bibliographic
test, the Internal Test, and the External Test. The Bibliographic test follows
the trail of how we got a particular text. How close to the original events was
the text written? What are the oldest copies of the text? And how early are
they?
The fact is that
the Gospels (the biblical books, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) pass these tests
far better than any other ancient text. Everything we know about ancient Rome
and Greece, is based on far less textual evidence than we have in the Gospels.
Just a few examples will suffice. Homer’s Iliad, a text from ancient Greece, was
written about 800BC. The oldest manuscripts we have are from 400BC. That’s a
gap of 400 years. We have a total of about 1,800 fragments and copies of the Iliad. The Annals of Tacitus, a history of Ancient
Rome comes from 100AD. For the first half we have documents from 850AD and the
second 1050AD. That’s a gap of 750 to 900 years. We have approximately 31
documents. (note these are 2014 figures and some new discoveries may have
changed these numbers. See https://www.josh.org/wp-content/uploads/Bibliographical-Test-Update-08.13.14.pdf).
And the list goes on. In fact, all we know of ancient Rome and Greece comes
from less than 2,500 copies of the ancient documents. With a time gap between
the writing and the documents from 200 to 1,500 years.
In contrast, the
Greek New Testament documents were written between 50-100AD. The time gap
between that and the copies that exists is a mere 50 years (or less), and there
are 5,800 copies, in Greek. Counting early translations, the number swells to
18,500. But, what about differences in the copies? Is the text we have even
close to the original? The answer is, yes. While there are many variants, most
of them are minor grammatical, or syntactical. Not a single difference can be
found on a theological issue. The textual evidence for the Christian claims is
better than that of any ancient text. One could say that if you discount the
textual grounds of the New Testament texts, you must first discount the entire
body of Greco-Roman historical and literary texts. I encourage you to follow
the trail of this historical evidence yourself.
As for me, I am a
Christian. I believe in Jesus Christ, who was a real person and did real things
in history. As St. Paul said in his trial before Herod Agrippa, “For the king
knows about these things, and to him I speak boldly. For I am persuaded that
none of these things has escaped his notice, for this has not been done in a
corner.” (Acts 26:26, ESV) He pleads his case based on things the king can
verify. He claims, as do I: For I delivered to you as of first importance what
I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the
Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in
accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the
twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most
of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.” (1 Corinthians
15:3–6, ESV)
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