*Updated 11/5

"The historical Jesus only said 18% of the words the gospels claim he did."
-Dr. Scott DeGregorio, Professor of History, University of Michigan-Dearborn

“Why would the apostles lie?...If they lied, what was their motive, what did they get out of it?  What they got out of it was misunderstanding, rejection, persecution, torture, and martyrdom. Hardly a list of perks!”                                                                          -Dr. Peter Kreeft, Professor of Philosophy, Boston College

If the writers of the gospels gave us true history, Jesus was a not only a good man but the ideal man. He claimed to have eternal origins and the very authority of God himself. But that is precisely the all-important question: Did they tell the truth? In other words, are the gospels true? Do they really give us an historical account of this Jesus upon whom Christianity is founded? Are the gospels good history, or are they so embellished as to consign them to mythology or historical-fiction? Skeptics like Dr. Scott DeGregorio ascribe to the latter view, as do many other scholars such as the well-known Bart Ehrman of UNC Chapel Hill. But in the opposing corner, a host of Ph.D. historians and other kinds of scholars confidently assert that the gospels are true history and present an accurate account of the risen Jesus who claimed to be the prophesied Messiah, Savior and Lord, etc. 

This article was segment three in a four-part presentation at the first-ever "Confidence" seminar on July 21. My task was to explore the credibility of the Old Testament, or Tanakh, especially as it provides the foundation for the New Testament. In segment four my co-presenter Steve Schlichter covered the impeccable manuscript history of the New Testament. 

Thesis 1

We can have great confidence in the Bible as divine revelation because it is self-authenticating. As a veritable library of scripture, it is self-authenticated by the coherence and continuity between its parts and divisions—especially in view of its substantial diversity. As a body of literature, the Bible displays a remarkable historio-theological continuity between its books, its segments and its two testaments that points demonstrably to long-range divine planning and engineering.  Such continuity within diversity is best explained as the product of a prolonged, overarching, progressive and divine plan consisting of complex historio-theological components that develop and reach their culmination. When we grasp the magnitude of such a plan we should be moved with awe to appreciate its divine genius and acknowledge its internal authentication. The Bible’s continuity and coherence can be seen in terms of its various themes and motifs which I list further down in the article. I will focus on one only—the Messiah Motif.                                                                                                                                                   

*The entire article can be downloaded here at the end of Read More . Also see Scribal Changes in the Qur'an. 

by Sam Alvarado and Adam Simnowitz

As Ramadan comes to an end, I can’t help but ponder on what I observed in my neighborhood. ...I can’t help but to be reminded of how Jesus answered a question posed to him by people seeking to be justified before God. They asked him, “What shall we do that we may work the works of God?”  Click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrMXlQ2ZWJ0

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I have a Syrian Muslim friend with whom I have shared the message of Jesus many times.  Once he objected to the idea that people can be forgiven simply by believing that Jesus died on the cross for our sins.  It seemed to him that if a person could be guaranteed forgiveness, he would use this as an excuse to commit whatever sin he so pleased.