|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Your eternal word, O Lord, stands firm in heaven (Psalm 119:89, NLT).
One of the most irritating aspects of Biblical scholarship is the “cultural agnostic elite” scattered through all forms of modern media, who speak and live as if the Bible contains myths and falsehoods, implying to their readers and listeners that only fools would seriously read it.
I don’t know about you, but I stand with the Apostle Paul when he writes that “We are fools for Christ,” (1 Corinthians 4:10).
Despite this skepticism from fake media, in the sphere of current academics, more scholastic types now express conservative reasons for believing the reliability of the Bible.
The number of fools for Christ and the Bible increases daily.
We should be reading more headlines like Atheists and Agnostics Who Now Believe, Scholars Who Actually Studied the Bible and Now Believe, or The Cultural Agnostic Elite are Dummkopfs. However, we won’t read these headlines, as “doubt” is an irrational stronghold too prevalent in our age.
Fortunately, there are many recent books by scholars that explain why we should trust the Bible. One of these books is written by Ben Shaw and titled Trustworthy: Thirteen Arguments for the Reliability of the New Testament. Shaw’s dedication page has this simple phrase…
To disciples and doubters!
This simple statement emphasizes that he is writing to those who doubt scholastically and to believers who need reasons not to listen to educated dummkopfs. Ben Shaw writes in the Introduction of his book…
Many of us have seen the New Testament criticized or mocked. It might therefore come as a big surprise to find that, in 1994, a noted Princeton professor named James Charlesworth highlighted “twenty areas of consensus among experts involved in Jesus Research.” One of the areas of consensus is that there is “considerable and reliable bedrock historical material in the Gospels.” Charlesworth stressed that the consensus on this point has “far too many international authorities to mention,” with each of them “independently, recognizing that in its broad outline the Gospels’ account of Jesus is substantially reliable and true.”
Then Shaw adds…
These comments may seem quite remarkable to both believers and nonbelievers alike. After all, we often see the New Testament quickly dismissed or ridiculed by various skeptics or media figures.
And finally…
How do they know it is reliable? What are some of the arguments that convinced so many experts worldwide? What about the rest of the New Testament?
In this book, Ben Shaw lists what he calls a “baker’s dozen” or 13 reasons increasingly believed by diverse scholars (even agnostics) from around the world that fortify the reliability of the New Testament.
Not one or two or three — but a baker’s dozen.
Over the next 13 weeks, I will address each of these reasons, drawing on Ben Shaw’s book and adding my own insights and wisdom (98% from Shaw, 2% from me). Let’s examine together legitimate reasons to trust the reliability of the New Testament.
Let’s not be dummkopfs!
Sounds good!