GOD ON TRIAL : PART 1 ( The Voice of God )

How true is the bible in its current state? Is it still the word of God? How can I base my faith on something that is almost 2,000 years old?

These are some of the many questions that are asked by Christians and non-Christians in this day and age. The good news is that it is easy to prove. The bad news is that by proving ( and accepting the proof ) that the bible is indeed the authoritative word God would force us to challenge our current beliefs. People don’t like this, and so they will come up with opinions not based on facts, but opinions based on experiences on why the bible can’t be true.

So before I continue, let me just put it this way. Just because the bible doesn’t gel with your view of how things should be, doesn’t mean it isn’t true!

I will be looking at the New Testament, since if the New Testament is true, and Jesus accepted and quoted from the Old Testament without hesitation we can accept that the Old Testament is true.
(Because A is true, and B gives A support and A references back to B. ‘A’ can not be true, while B false.. if A is true, then so is B. Let A be NT, and B OT :p)

Note on Science
When approaching a historical book, we must look at the historical evidence. The modern scientific methods does not apply when researching the factuality of the events surrounding the bible. A scientific proof is based on repeating the event, in a controlled environment, where observations are made, data is drawn, and hypotheses empirically verified. When dealing with History, we deal with the historical evidence, and look at the facts given to us.

Some old facts
I’m going to list some facts about documents that were created at around the same time period as the bible.

Book 1 : Thucydides History
Date of Original Document : 460 -400 BC
Oldest surviving Copy : 90 AD (plus a few 1st Century Fragments)
Time between original and copy : 1,300 years
Number of ancient copies in existence today : 8

Book 2 : Caesar’s Gallic War
Date of Original Document : 58-50 BC
Oldest surviving Copy : 850 AD
Time between original and copy : 900 years
Number of ancient copies in existence today : 10

Book 3 : Tacitus History
Date of Original Document : 100 AD
Oldest surviving Copy : 800 AD
Time between original and copy : 700 years
Number of ancient copies in existence today : 2

Book 4 : The Four Gospels
Date of Original Document : 42 – 90 AD
Oldest surviving Copy : 130 AD (Mark) 350 AD (New Testament)
Time between original and copy : 200 years
Number of ancient copies in existence today : 5,000 Greek , 10, 000 Latin & 9,300 others

These figures themselves should start putting things into perspective. The gospels aren’t some book that were just randomly found lying around. If we accept the top 3 books as historically true (which we do)then just on these figures alone, I feel that the gospels, and ultimately the bible can be seen as historically correct, or at least be treated with the same measuring stick .

The NT documents are too early to be fake
We must remember that when these documents were originally written (Paul’s letters 15-25yrs after the event, and the Gospels written 40-60 years after) when the eye witness’s still existed. People could still be called upon when doubters didn’t agree. If heresy was published, it would not have survived, since those around at the time would not have allowed it too. Imagine writing a bibliography on Nelson Mandela or some other famous leader, but you decided to include things like “he brought people back to life”! You would have been shot down in an instance(or in those days probably hanged).

If you were going to write some kind of politically motivated literature, you would at least wait until all the eye-witness had died off and not have your writings circulating among the public where anyone with a bit of will power could easily just question a couple of witness’ and disprove it. (I’m sure amongst the Jewish Elders there were enough of these people trying to suppress these writings, but obviously did not succeed.)

A second point to note is how honest the writers were..

The NT documents are too honest to be fake
Look, I don’t know about you guys. If I was going to come up with some propaganda to push my political view, or too get more followers to come to my new establishment (church) I would definitely not include stories about a leader who
a) Was crucified
b) Was betrayed by one of his own understudies (Judas)
c) Spent time with prostitutes and tax collectors
I would not include stories like Peter who denies Christ 3 times, or how the disciples ran away in fear when Jesus was being crucified, and of course mention that Women were the first to witness Jesus resurrected! Woman weren’t even allowed to take the stand in court!

But if that isn’t enough to convince you on the point of honesty, did you know that when the apostles were struggling with the huge problem of Jews vs Gentiles and circumcision(in the book of Acts), the apostles didn’t put words into Jesus’ mouth and misquote him, or make up some story where Jesus “supposedly” said something on that topic. (Jesus in fact never even mentions circumcision)

But, not only were the NT documents too honest, they are extremely detailed on facts that you would only haven known if you had been there when it happened.

The NT documents are too detailed to be fake
The gospels were actually a type of biographical history that was radically different in style to the commonly found literature of the ancient world (Homer etc.) They include details with no relevance to the story except that they were things that actually happened.
Notable passages are :
John 8:6
“They said this to test him, so that they might have a charge against him. But Jesus bent down and began to write on the ground with his finger.”
No, they don’t mention what he wrote, and NO, you can not speculate, because for all we know Jesus was playing hangman with himself! But you wonder why they included this.

Mark 4:38
“But Jesus was in the back of the boat, asleep on a cushion. So they woke him up and asked him, “Teacher, don’t you care that we’re going to die?”
Here are a bunch of guys who are about to die because of a storm, then when Jesus calms the storm, they become more scared of Jesus, and yet through all of this Mark still remembers the fact that Jesus was sleeping on a cushion!! Makes you wonder why they added it. But they did, and the it is just another demonstration of facts being included that didn’t have too be, but were added because people remembered it.

John 21:11
“So Simon Peter went aboard and dragged the net ashore. It was full of large fish-153 of them. And although there were so many of them, the net was not torn.”
If genius world book of records was around, this would have definitely made it in!

Besides these tiny bits of information being included, the NT is also very transparent.

The NT documents are too transparent to be fake
An incident like the one found at Luke 2:1-3
“Now in those days an order was published by Caesar Augustus that the whole world should be registered.
This was the first registration taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. So all the people went to their hometowns to be registered.” Allows itself open to objective checks. (If you were going to fake something, you aren’t going to add historical information that people can actually check-up upon)

Like the story in Luke 23:26
“As they led Jesus away, they grabbed Simon, a man from Cyrene, as he was coming in from the country, and they put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus.”
If they wanted to keep it vague they could have said “some guy”, or “a passer by”. But no, they give a name and country, which I am sure was enough evidence for people who wished too track him down.

Or how about Acts 2:32 “It was this very Jesus whom God raised, and of that we are all witnesses.” The readers would have been informed that there were definitely witness’s who could be questioned.

In 1 Cor 15:3-8 it mentions who Jesus appeared to after his resurrection. That is quite a list of people, not something you are going to add if you are trying to remain vague about certain events so that people would found it is all a lie!

Another interesting fact I have discovered is that via some Social Economic studies scholars have uncovered that the prices used in the New Testament to describe a days wages, or a sack of barley was correct for the time of Jesus, and not for the times when these books were written. How might be thinking, o wow, like that is going to convince me.
But let me put it this way : Can you tell me what the price of Coke was 25 years ago? 60years ago? What about a daily wages?
Or the price of petrol?

Just another small note showing how historically correct the bible is.

Like I have said before, I’m just putting the evidence out there. If you don’t like it, then I urge you to critically question your motives for not want to accept these truths.

I hope this article is of some help, and that if you didn’t believe that the bible is true, that this might set you on the right path.

I could also suggest Reading the following books :
1) The Bible (always important)
2) The Resurrection Factor (Josh McDowell )
3) Why believe the bible (John Blanchard )
and more..

A useful site that will be of some use to answering further questions  : http://www.challengingdavinci.com/thechurch.html

There are many factors I have not included in this article, and if you wish to discuss them I would be more than happy to try and answer them.

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