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Acts 10:39-43-And we are witnesses of all things which He did both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, whom they killed by hanging on a tree. 40 Him God raised up on the third day, and showed Him openly, 41 not to all the people, but to witnesses chosen before by God, even to us who ate and drank with Him after He arose from the dead. 42 And He commanded us to preach to the people, and to testify that it is He who was ordained by God to be Judge of the living and the dead. 43 To Him all the prophets witness that, through His name, whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins.”
“It doesn’t matter if the Gospels were written by the Apostles. I don’t believe that they recorded the truth of the life of Jesus!”
These words were spoken by a gentleman I was studying the Bible with at Huddle House in Hazard, Kentucky, several years ago. We had been discussing the controversy regarding Dan Brown’s book, The Da Vinci Code, and the subject of whether or not the Gospels accurately recorded the truth of Jesus’ life. Ben (not his real name) had been raised in the church of Christ all of his life, but had turned away from the faith while in high school. Part of his departure from Christ had been struggles with drugs, and part of it had been indoctrination into the subjects raised by the Da Vinci Code.
After having studied with me about the genuineness of Gospels, and seeing that they were indeed written by the Apostles of Jesus and their companions, Ben now argued that we just cannot trust what the Apostles reported. This issue-whether or not a document is accurately recording historical events-deals with the subject known as “credibility.”
How do we know that the Apostles of Christ did not “fudge the facts” in what they recorded regarding Jesus?
Let’s study.
Some years ago, former atheist turned Christian, Lee Strobel, interviewed a scholar named Craig Blomberg in his book, The Case For Christ: A Journalist’s Personal Investigation Of The Evidence For Jesus. (Part of the following information is from the Kindle Edition of that book, pages 20-46). When asked if the Gospels are credible, Blomberg detailed eight tests which historians use in ascertaining the reliability of testimonies. When applied to the Gospels, they pass with flying colors!
The Intention Test. Did the writers state their desire to accurately preserve historical fact? See Matthew 1:1-18; Luke 1:1-4; John 20:30-31.
The Ability Test. Were the writers able to accurately record the historical details of Jesus Christ? Were they in a position to be credible eyewitnesses? See Matthew 16:13-19; John 19:35; 21:24; Acts 1:1-3; 2:32; 10:39-43; 1 Corinthians 15:1-8; 2 Peter 1:16; 1 John 1:1-4.
The Character Test. Is there any evidence of character defects which would infringe on the ability of the Apostles to be credible witnesses? Do they show evidence of immorality, greed, or ulterior motives in what they report and record? Did they have anything to gain from falsifying their reports? See Acts 5:18; 12:1-7; 16:23-24; 2 Corinthians 11:22-33.
The Consistency Test. Do multiple accounts line up with each other? Do the eyewitnesses display consistency among the various reports? Some skeptics say the Gospels fail this test, alleging contradictions between each other. However, there is a difference between a discrepancy and a contradiction. One former atheist turned Christian who is a a recognized expert in the field of forensic eyewitness testimony believed that the Gospels would be riddled with contradictions. He decided to use his particular skill-set to examine the Gospels. To his amazement, they actually showed overwhelming evidences of consistency and credibility! So strong was the evidence that he eventually became a committed follower of Jesus Christ. He writes:
“As we discussed in chapter 4, one of the most important tasks for a detective is to listen carefully when multiple eyewitnesses provide a statement about what they observed at the scene of a crime. It’s my job to assemble the complete picture of what happened at the scene. No single witness is likely to have seen every detail, so I must piece together the accounts, allowing the observations of one eyewitness to fill in the gaps that may exist in the observations of another eyewitness. That’s why it’s so important for eyewitnesses to be separated before they are interviewed. True, reliable eyewitness accounts are never completely parallel and identical. Instead, they are different pieces of the same puzzle, unintentionally supporting and complementing each other to provide all the details related to what really happened….When I first read through the Gospels forensically, comparing those places where two or more gospel writers were describing the same event, I was immediately struck by the inadvertent support that each writer provided for the other. The accounts puzzled together just the way one would expect from independent eyewitnesses. When one gospel eyewitness described an event and left out a detail that raised a question, this question was unintentionally answered by another gospel writer (who, by the way, often left out a detail that was provided by the first gospel writer)….As a cold-case detective, I’ve experienced something similar to this a number of times. Often, questions an eyewitness raises at the time of the crime are left unanswered until we locate an additional witness years later. This is a common characteristic of true, reliable eyewitness accounts…I decided to investigate the claims of Christianity (to see if they could be defended) before I ever decided to call myself a Christian. My investigation (some of which I described in section 2) led me to conclude that the Gospels were reliable.” (Jay Warner Wallace, Cold-Case Christianity: A Homicide Detective Investigates The Claims Of The Gospels, 183-187; 255 (Kindle Edition, emphasis added, M.T.); Colorado Springs, CO; DavidCook).
The Bias Test. Did the Apostles have any personal bias in what they reported? Could any personal bias have caused them to incorrectly record what they did in the Gospels? Actually, the Bible shows that what the Apostles recorded about Jesus directly challenged their biases, and so they clearly pass this test. See Mark 9:31-32; Acts 1:6.
The Coverup Test. Are there any indications that inconvenient facts of events were kept hidden? Did the Apostles work to hide embarrassing or inconvenient facts that would challenge their credibility in what they record or paint them in a negative light? See Matthew 26:31-35, 40-47, 56; Mark 14:50-52; 16:9, 11-14; Luke 24:13-15; John 20:1-28; 21:1-3, 15-17. Actually, the Gospels record many events in the lives of the Apostles which would be embarrassing to them and would serve to put them in a less then favorable light. They also reported that women were the first eyewitnesses of the Resurrection, which was something they never would have done in the first century context if they were fabricating those events. Women were not allowed to testify in courts of law in that time and land! These facts argue for the credibility of their accounts.
The Corroboration Test. Are there other eyewitnesses or historical accounts which verify the testimonies under investigation? In the case of the Gospels, we have numerous evidences from Jewish sources, pagan sources, and archaeological findings which corroborate the Gospels.
The Adverse Witness Test. Are there other testimonies which are hostile to the accounts provided and who would have a vested interest in seeing them overthrown, yet who bear witness to their accuracy? See Matthew 12:24; John 7:1-5 with 1 Corinthians 15:7; Acts 2:22; 6:7; 26:26. We could list several of these hostile witnesses which bear evidence of the truthfulness of the Gospels, both from within the Bible and from without.
Adding these things together, we may safely conclude that the Gospels are indeed credible. They report the truth of Jesus Christ.
Let me share with you the words of a former skeptic who investigated the Bible (and especially the Gospels) with all the determination, learning, and tools of his vocation (a modern day attorney).
He writes:
“At the beginning of this book I told you that I began my adult spiritual journey as a nonbeliever. I was constantly seeking God, searching for answers, and trying to understand why I couldn’t bring myself to believe in Christianity. Different people planted various seeds in the garden of my life, but my faith didn’t finally blossom until that last seed was planted, which was the discovery of the messianic prophecies. Many other seeds helped lead me to that final moment of belief—I’m sure I was and remain unaware of half of them. But what I do know is that in my case, in my life, Christian apologetics had a profound impact. Studying theology and Bible doctrine was also crucial. It is because of my experiences that I decided to write this book…. As I believe I’ve shown in this book, there is an enormous amount of evidence that the Bible is historically reliable and that it was written by real men who were united in their commitment to truth. I believe the evidence shows, well beyond a reasonable doubt, that the Bible is the inspired Word of God, and that it teaches that God entered this world in human form when Jesus Christ was born, that Christ lived a sinless life, that He was crucified, that He died, and that He was resurrected. I believe all these things, and I encourage you to believe them as well, because if they are true, your acceptance or rejection of them—your decision whether to place your saving faith in Jesus Christ—will, the Bible tells us, affect your eternal destiny. I also agreed to undertake this project because I believe I can relate to skeptics, having been one for many years. I don’t look down on skeptics; in fact I believe I understand their perspective. But I also know that nonbelievers don’t have to remain that way. The Holy Spirit beckons all to come to Jesus Christ in faith.” (David Limbaugh, Jesus On Trial: A Lawyer Affirms The Truth Of The Gospel, 333-334 (Kindle Edition): Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing)
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, be with you all. Amen.