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The Gospels Vetted by Three Tests

Welcome back! In this blog series, based on Josh’s best-selling apologetics classic More Than a Carpenter, we’re asking, “Who is Jesus? Did He really live, die, and resurrect? Is He really the Son of God?”

As the New Testament provides the primary historical source for information about Jesus, critics have spent the last two centuries attacking its reliability. Most of their charges lack historical foundation. Too, archeological discoveries continue to prove the trustworthiness of the events, people, and places recorded in the Bible. In this post, let’s look at three tests that can, without bias, determine the validity of the Gospels and other biblical manuscripts.

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The Gospels Vetted by Three Tests

Three tests can be employed to verify the historical accuracy of a text: the Bibliographical Test, the Internal Evidence Test, and the External Evidence Test. We’ve covered them in earlier posts, so we’ll highlight them here.

The Bibliographical Test

The Bibliographical Test asks, Are existing copies of biblical manuscripts faithful to the originals? What is the time interval between the original and copy? How consistent are the copies with one another?

Scholar Bart Ehrman asserts that because biblical manuscripts contain numerous human errors, the New Testament can’t be trusted. From his own in-depth research, Josh McDowell points out that the majority of these errors don’t affect the validity of the text. “A key point Ehrman raises,” explains Josh, “is the 300,000 to 400,000 variants among New Testament manuscripts. A textual variant is any time the New Testament manuscripts have alternative wordings.” But, he adds, “this is not the whole picture. When the variants are looked at more closely, a very different story emerges. By far, the most significant category of variants is spelling differences.”

Spelling differences actually account for about 75 percent of these variants — between 225,000 and 300,000. A second large category of variants is the use of synonyms. Some manuscripts refer to Jesus by His proper name, while others call Jesus “Lord” or “He.” When all variants are considered, only about ONE PERCENT involve the meaning of the text. So we CAN have full confidence in the Gospels and other New Testament writings.

The Internal Evidence Test

The Internal Evidence Test asks, Is the original text credible? To what extent is it credible?

It’s important to look at the Gospel writers’ proximity to recorded geographical and chronological events. The New Testament accounts of Jesus were written down by men who were personal eyewitnesses, or who had access to eyewitnesses. As they shared the Good News, the Gospel writers often reminded their listeners that they weren’t making stuff up. Just three examples:

John 19:35: This report is from an eyewitness giving an accurate account. He speaks the truth so that you also can believe.

1 John 1:3: We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us.

2 Peter 1:16: We were not making up clever stories when we told you about the powerful coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. We saw His majestic splendor with our own eyes.

Did the Gospel writers faithfully record Jesus’ life and words? Scholars who have analyzed the ancient literary forms and oral traditions behind the biblical writings remind us that a rabbi’s words were carefully preserved and passed down via memorization. As Ministry speaker Matthew Tingblad teaches us in his video series on the reliability of the Gospels, much of Jesus’ teachings were in Aramaic poetical form, which aided in their easy memorization. Too, we must remember that God inspired the Gospel authors, aiding them in their recollection and writing.

Eyewitness testimony is the best relevant evidence. Can a modern skeptic assert that he or she is better qualified to judge the validity of the Gospels than the writers themselves? No.

The External Evidence Test

The External Evidence Test focuses on studying other historical materials to see where they confirm or deny this eyewitness testimony. What sources, apart from the Gospel writers, substantiate the Gospels’ accuracy, reliability, and authenticity? Ancient extrabiblical sources present a large amount of detail about Jesus’ life and ministry, as well as the nature of early Christianity. Twentieth-century archeological discoveries continue to confirm the accuracy of Gospels and other New Testament manuscripts.

As New Testament scholar Craig Bloomberg notes, “97-99 percent of the New Testament can be reconstructed beyond any reasonable doubt.” Adds apologist Douglas Groothuis, the New Testament is “better attested by ancient manuscripts than any other piece of ancient literature.” Just one example of how biblical manuscripts stack up against other historical documents: More than 20,000 copies of New Testament manuscripts exist. The Iliad, by comparison, has only 643 manuscripts in existence. Think about that!

The next time a critic tries to tell you that the Bible lacks relevance or authority, share this assertion by the late theologian Clark H. Pinnock: “There exists no document from the ancient world witnessed by so excellent a set of textual and historical testimonies, and offering so superb an array of historical data on which an intelligent decision may be made. An honest [person] cannot dismiss a source of this kind. Skepticism regarding the historical credentials of Christianity is based on an irrational [i.e., antisupernatural] bias.”

> > > BELIEVER, if you don’t know the historical facts validating the Bible and Christian faith, GET UP TO SPEED! Numerous posts in our Evidence and Resurrection series will grow your knowledge, to give you confidence that what the Gospels teach you about Jesus is true. He came. He died. He rose. For YOU.

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Pagan Influences? | Gospels Reliable? Video 6

My name is Matthew. I’m a speaker and author with Josh McDowell Ministry. After you watch this video, feel free to leave a comment here or via my social channels, listed below. I’d love to hear from you and be a small part of your wrestling with these important questions about Jesus. I also invite you to subscribe to my channel! 

Pagan Influences? | Are the Gospels Reliable?

As we continue in our series about the historical reliability of the Gospels, we have to ask whether the writers were influenced by pagan myths of dying and rising gods. The argument goes that the “myth” of Jesus is just a continuation of other myths.

Is Jesus really just a copy of other pagan gods? Since the mid-1990s, this argument has been almost completely rejected by Christian and non-Christian scholars of the New Testament, yet it’s still popular on the internet and secular media.

Just as one example, the movie Religulous puts it this way:

Written in 1280 B.C., the Egyptian Book of the Dead describes a god, Horus. Horus is the son of the god Osiris, born to a virgin mother. He was baptized in a river by Anup the Baptizer who was later beheaded. Like Jesus, Horus was tempted while alone in the desert, he healed the sick, the blind, cast out demons, and walked on water. He raised Asar from the dead. “Asar” translates to “Lazarus.” Oh, and like Jesus, he had 12 disciples. Horus also was crucified. Three days later two women announced that Horus, “the savior of humanity,” had been resurrected.

Despite the apparent similarities between Jesus and previous gods of pagan mythology, the theory that Jesus was copied from pagan mythology is problematic for many reasons. Let me show you eight solid reasons:

Pagan Copy or Original?

First: If you stop and fact-check the details of these pagan gods, you’ll find that most of them are completely made up, or so violently distorted to look like Jesus that they don’t offer compelling evidence. 

Second: A man claiming to be a savior, performing miracles, healing people, and amassing followers is not an unusual story. Even dying and rising gods are not surprising in history. People of the ancient past were deeply interested in cycles of life and death, likely because of their annual crop cycle, where plants would grow, die, and grow back again.

Likewise, their gods would die and resurrect in a similar fashion, repeating the process every year.

Third: The fact that we see parallels to Jesus in other gods might be because the real God of this universe placed in every human heart the subconscious longing for Jesus. This longing inevitably inspired imaginative stories of ancient gods, but it happened for real in the life of Jesus.  

Fourth: Comparisons to other gods/religions often ignore what is profoundly unique to the Christian message.

There’s no emphasis on doctrine. No emphasis on grace or forgiveness. The deaths of these gods was neither sacrificial nor voluntary. And there was no public declaration of a real bodily resurrection. Osiris, though “raised” by Isis, did not return in a resurrected body, but became king of the underworld. Though other ancient religions talk about salvation, they offer nothing like the Christian view of salvation.

Fifth: The argument that Jesus is a copy from previous gods also suffers from the “Genetic Fallacy” — that one event has been influenced by an earlier event. For example, can one say that the moon landing in 1969 was fake, simply because Star Trek came out first, in 1966? 

Sixth: The religious Jews were not syncretistic. In other words, they did not blend other religions with their own. They were a set-apart people.

Seventh: Many of the details about pagan gods come from writings after the time of Jesus, even if the gods originated before Jesus.

What this means is that the life of Jesus may have influenced the teachings of Horus, Osiris, or other pagan gods, not the other way around.

Eighth: As I shared in a previous video in this series, the Gospels are grounded in historical teachings. The life of Jesus has been historically documented by Christians and non-Christians, who saw Jesus as a real person who lived, taught, and died on a cross. 

In the next video, let’s look at a very important question: Were the authors of the four gospels telling the truth, or were they self-serving liars? I’ll see you then!

ENGAGE WITH MATTHEW

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Matthew is a Christian writer and speaker with a passion for the church to be united, strengthened, and unleashed to spread the good news of Jesus to every corner of the world. With a focus on apologetics and spiritual growth, Matthew offers a fresh voice. Matthew holds an M.Div from Talbot School of Theology.

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Responding With Love Online

Anger and offense are big problems in the world today — sadly, even among Christians. I can find myself getting easily irritated by this world, even though I know Christ asks me to live with patience and kindness. Do you often find yourself easily irritated, too?

When we’re angry, how quickly do we go on the attack? Is this how God wants us to respond to one another? No. There’s a better way. His way.

Responding like Jesus should be our daily intention.

Responding in Attack Mode

Rheumatoid arthritis, Lupus, Inflammatory bowel disease, Multiple sclerosis. While these diseases are all different, they share a common thread, a similar root cause. They’re triggered when our bodies attack themselves. Our immune system goes haywire. Instead of protecting us like it’s designed to, it attacks us. It intentionally destroys healthy cells.

I think the same thing can happen in our relationships. We declare war on our relationships when we allow jealousy, conceit, pride, anger, and selfishness to take over. As we nurse our hurts and wounds, we find ourselves tearing each other down, rather than building each other up. In His Word, God repeatedly cautions us against this. He knows these actions only bring pain and suffering into our lives.

Some of us are our worst on social media. We can find ourselves saying things we’d never say to someone’s face. Words we can’t take back. Even if the post gets deleted, we leave hurt and brokenness behind.

Deep down we know that these thoughts and behaviors hurt God’s heart. And we know that our unChristlike behavior limits our influence to point others to Him. We need to do better. 

Responding Like Christ

So what can we do about this? We can set Christ-honoring habits that help us to respond like Him, even when we’re hurt, angry, or cranky. God wants us to respond rightly even when we’ve not gotten enough sleep, or not nurtured our hearts and minds with His Word. We need to look to Him to have the mental, physical, and spiritual strength to better reflect Jesus.

Here are four steps we can take before we post to ensure we respond with grace online:

Identification . We are to purposefully see others as created in the image of God, whether we agree with them or not. God created us all in His image. This means everyone deserves our respect. As John Calvin , French theologian, pastor, and leader of the Protestant Reformation remind us: “We are not to reflect on the wickedness of men but to look to the image of God in them, an image which, covering and obliterating their faults, an image which, by its beauty and dignity, should allure us to love and embrace them.”

Tip: Remember, when we hurt another person, we also hurt ourselves.

Motivations . Is our motive to be like Jesus when we add our post or comment? Will our words lift others up, or tear them down? Philippians 2:3-4 tells us to do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. We are to humbly value others.

Tip: Remember, since Jesus humbled Himself, we need to follow His lead.

Assumptions . What thoughts do we have about others? Do we presume to know their motives? Do we give them the benefit of the doubt, or do we immediately assume the negative? As Ecclesiastes 10:13 teaches us, we are foolish when we make assumptions and jump to conclusions. It’s too easy to judge others when we do.

Tip: Remember, be quick to give people the benefit of the doubt and not  jump to conclusions.

Restoration . What do we do when we recognize that we’ve hurt someone with our words or actions? When we sin, God asks us to choose forgiveness and restoration. I focused on this point in detail in this earlier post .

Tip: Remember, if Jesus was willing to give His life to restore us, we need to be willing to offer restoration, too.

Loving Like Christ

How do we go about restoring a damaged relationship with someone? We start by softening our heart and responses. God has provided a three-step approach, which we find in 2 John 1:3. These action steps help us to get back on track and we’ve derailed:

Grace . Just as God has given us grace; we need to show grace. God’s grace is His total forgiveness in and through Jesus. God receives and embraces us, despite our worst sin against Him. We need to model this same grace to others . God has given us what we don’t deserve; we should do likewise with others.

This prayer might help: “Dear God, empower me to overlook insults. And give me a tender heart to see life from another’s perspective.”Imagine living that life! 

Mercy . Just as God has given us mercy, we need to show mercy. Because of Christ, we are reprieved from what we truly deserve: separation from God. As Jesus has held back punishment and condemnation, we need to be willing to show grace to others.Instead of lashing out, let’s hold back. Is this hard? Absolutely. But as we live with the intention to be like Christ, we can develop this habit. Peace . Just as God has given us peace, we need to show peace. We were separated, out of joint with God. But He took action to repair the rift; He sent Christ to restore our relationship with Himself. Peace often starts with forgiveness.

There is so much power in forgiveness. Peter received unmerited forgiveness from Christ after he denied knowing Jesus not once, but THREE times on the night Jesus was arrested. This powerful lesson taught Peter that loving like Christ covers a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:8). The bottom line: There is nothing we can’t forgive, if we remember how deeply we’ve been forgiven.

Looking Like Christ

Reconciliation and restoration are NOT always easy. Especially for a hard-headed, self-righteous Believer like myself! I’ve just gone through an agonizing 17-month process, during which I held a grudge against someone who hurt my family. This person was clearly in the wrong, but in my moral superiority I held them in contempt. I focused all my energy on punishing them.

As I prepared for Easter, however, I saw afresh the grace, mercy, and peace that God paid for ME, a sinner. A radical thought came to me: Christ’s resurrection isn’t supposed to make me feel comfortable. It’s supposed to get my attention, even punch me in the gut! My resurrected Savior is more powerful than death. Therefore, His power in me should override my desire for righteous indignation toward others.

I immediately acknowledged my hard-heartedness to Christ, and humbly sought His forgiveness. My next step was to seek restoration with the person I was punishing.

Seeking restoration doesn’t always lead to restoration. But Romans 12:18 teaches us to do our best to live in peace with everyone. It’s not our job to force an outcome, only to be obedient. As I offered forgiveness, freely giving up my right to judge and hold a grudge, my inner peace returned.

Let me ask you to ponder this question: In a world looking for evidence about the truth of Jesus, what can be more convincing than our looking like Jesus in how we treat others? In how quickly we drop our anger. In how quickly we drop our self-righteousness. In how quickly we offer forgiveness.

There’s nothing worse than an unkind, unloving, unforgiving Christian. So let’s not be one! Especially online, where offenses can so quickly escalate. Let us live with the daily intention that our words and actions help people to see the beauty of Jesus. Amen!

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Gospels Accurate? | Gospels Reliable? Video 5

My name is Matthew. I’m a speaker and author with Josh McDowell Ministry. After you watch this video, feel free to leave a comment here or via my social channels, listed below. I’d love to hear from you and be a small part of your wrestling with these important questions about Jesus. I also invite you to subscribe to my channel! 

Accurate Accounts? | Are the Gospels Reliable?

Today we will ask if the Gospel authors capably recorded history. Were they good candidates to tell us about the life of Jesus? Should we trust their accounts? Let’s get into it!

All four of the Gospel writers were in a good position to give us an accurate account of the life of Jesus. So far in this series I’ve shown you that Matthew and John were disciples (students) of Jesus, making them excellent sources to talk about Him. They spent more time with Jesus than almost anyone else. Mark worked closely with Peter to compose his Gospel, and Peter was a disciple of Jesus. Luke’s closest connection to Jesus was Paul. Although not one of Jesus’s twelve disciples, Paul had an experience seeing the resurrected Jesus that TRANSFORMED his life. Paul was then entrusted by the early Church to share the story of Jesus around the world. In Luke’s Gospel, and his subsequent book of Acts, his higher vocabulary and orderly style appear to be the work of a careful historian. 

We might wonder if the authors were influenced by bias. Some atheists and skeptics completely dismiss the historical value of the Gospels because the authors followed Christ. But just as bias can distort a report, it also can strengthen the report. Christian belief places emphasis on truth and honesty. As disciples of Jesus, these men strove to meet that standard. And consider this: these early followers of Jesus were persecuted for their faith. They courageously faced death, asserting that their words were true.  

A much more credible objection is that these authors wrote their books long after the events took place. It’s true that decades passed between the life of Jesus and when the Gospels were produced. How did these authors remember what happened decades ago? Let me show you four reasons for why the Gospels can be considered accurate records.

4 Reasons to Accept the Gospel Records as Accurate

First: We must acknowledge the oral culture the Gospel authors lived in. In their time and place, people transferred information primarily through spoken words. It was common practice for people to retain large amounts of information by rote memorization. Their brains adapted to this practice — and they were very good at it. Reality check: We find it difficult to memorize a single Scripture verse, much less chapters of the Bible. But back then, learned individuals memorized entire texts!

Second: Jesus spoke and taught in a way to enable easy memorization. New Testament scholar Craig Blomberg points out that up to 90 percent of Jesus’s words were written in poetic fashion. This doesn’t mean that His words rhymed. Rather, they had a distinct rhythm … meter … parallels. This significantly aided in people memorizing and retaining His teachings.

Third: It’s easy to remember information if you teach it regularly. As the disciples of Jesus were founders and leaders of the early Church, they would have been talking about Jesus frequently, which would have kept their memories fresh and accessible as they composed their Gospels. As they worked on their texts, then, they could test their certainty of important details with others who had been with Jesus or learned from others who had been. Likewise, having this built-in community ensured that if they started to exaggerate or give false information, others in-the-know would have corrected them.

Fourth: Although the four Gospels were written decades after Jesus’ ministry, there’s no reason to think that the disciples weren’t taking notes during their three years with Jesus. As they traveled with Jesus, the disciples would have recognized that Jesus was making history. That His words and actions were EXTRAORDINARY. These supernatural events would have seared into their brain. But it’s also reasonable to believe that written records were recorded to capture the highlights. And those records would have been accurate resources for the Gospel writers as they wrote their books.

All things considered, I believe we can trust that the authors of the Gospels responsibly and accurately recorded history. What’s your response to this? Are you willing to trust that the Gospel writers faithfully recorded Jesus’ life and teachings? Can you get behind the idea that God helped these men as they wrote their Gospel texts? Are you willing to let this objection go to see the truth of Jesus?

In video 6 we’ll discuss another object: Whether Jesus (and Christianity) is a copycat of older mythologies of resurrecting gods. I’ll see you then!

ENGAGE WITH MATTHEW

Josh McDowell Ministry:
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Matthew is a Christian writer and speaker with a passion for the church to be united, strengthened, and unleashed to spread the good news of Jesus to every corner of the world. With a focus on apologetics and spiritual growth, Matthew offers a fresh voice. Matthew holds an M.Div from Talbot School of Theology.

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Gospels History? | Gospels Reliable? Video 4

My name is Matthew. I’m a speaker and author with Josh McDowell Ministry. After you watch this video, feel free to leave a comment here or via my social channels, listed below. I’d love to hear from you and be a small part of your wrestling with these important questions about Jesus. I also invite you to subscribe to my channel! 

History or Allegory? | Are the Gospels Reliable?

In this video I’m asking: Did the authors intend to record history? To be clear, I’m not asking whether or not they are lying. I’m asking if they want their readers to believe that the details they share about Jesus are real and accurate. Did they actually take place?

Nearly every scholar of the New Testament, Christian or not, would say yes. The Gospels authors expect their books to be taken as historical fact, not allegories or fiction. Luke is very explicit about this from the start:

“Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.”

John’s Gospel makes a similar statement near the end of his book. After writing about the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus, John writes: “But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”

Why did both assert that Jesus was the Messiah? Because they are convinced that Jesus really did all the marvelous things they recorded.

Real History, Purposeful Format

According to New Testament scholar Craig Blomberg, there’s an important piece of implicit evidence that can’t be overlooked. “Consider,”  he suggests, “the way the Gospels are written — in a sober and responsible fashion, with accurate incidental details, with obvious care and exactitude. You don’t find the outlandish flourishes and blatant mythologizing that you see in a lot of other ancient writing.” 

Open the Gospels to any page, and you’ll see what he’s talking about.

As an example, Matthew traces the lineage of Jesus back to Abraham:

This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus because he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).

Matthew attaches Jesus to a real family tree, and then says that Jesus fulfilled the prophecy of a virgin birth. He doesn’t linger on the interesting details, like the angel. Rather, he lays out things in a plain, matter-of-fact fashion. Matthew’s style is what we can expect of someone speaking from a historical perspective. 

We find another example in Mark 7. The text reads like a factual report of Jesus’ travel:

Then Jesus left the vicinity of Tyre and went through Sidon, down to the Sea of Galilee and into the region of the Decapolis. There some people brought to him a man who was deaf and could hardly talk, and they begged Jesus to place his hand on him. After he took him aside, away from the crowd, Jesus put his fingers into the man’s ears. Then he spit and touched the man’s tongue. He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said to him, “Ephphatha!” (which means “Be opened!”). At this, the man’s ears were opened, his tongue was loosened and he began to speak plainly.

In the third chapter of his book, Luke also carefully details the life of Jesus in real time:

In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar — when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and Traconitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene — during the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. He went into all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

Trusting the Details

I think one reason people get tripped up on this questions about historical accuracy is because the Gospels have spiritual undertones, life lessons, and the occasional literary touch.

C.S. Lewis, a world-famous Christian writer and academic of literature, did a lot of work with allegory. In talking about the Gospel of John, Lewis notes: “I have been reading poems, romances, vision-literature, legends, myths all my life. I know what they are like. I know that not one of them is like this. Of this text, there are only two possible views. Either this is reportage. Or else, some unknown writer in the second century, without known predecessors or successors, suddenly anticipated the whole technique of modern, novelistic, realistic narrative.”

Yes, the Gospels have an obvious theological agenda, and were written to strengthen and encourage the early church. But they’re still historical. Even literary parallels like Jesus reliving the ministry of Old Testament characters can be affirmed without denying the historical background. Especially if we are open to the idea that God chose to orchestrate history in this remarkable way.

In video 5 we’ll discuss whether we can trust the Gospel writers’ ability to accurately recall details. See you then!

ENGAGE WITH MATTHEW

Josh McDowell Ministry:
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Matthew is a Christian writer and speaker with a passion for the church to be united, strengthened, and unleashed to spread the good news of Jesus to every corner of the world. With a focus on apologetics and spiritual growth, Matthew offers a fresh voice. Matthew holds an M.Div from Talbot School of Theology.

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Freedom: Confession and Repentance

Having racked up more than a million miles on three airlines, I have met a lot of people on planes. Every single time, our conversations came around to how they weren’t happy in their lives. As I shared that I grew up in a religious tradition that put a lot of focus on guilt, without fail each person leaned in to hear more.

It became clear to me that we all tend to hold onto guilt. And we so desperately want to be free of it. Read on to learn the two simple steps I shared with them for doing just that!Self-Imprisoned By Our Guilt

In my chats with my fellow travelers, I was amazed to hear that they, too, had been raised under the dark, stormy clouds of guilt and shame. They would ask me the denomination I was raised in, but I kept it hidden, for one reason: I don’t think it’s fair to blame a denomination or specific church, when it’s individuals — myself included — who chose to sin.

Instead, I told them that what mattered is that I knew how they could get rid of their guilt. For good. Of course this piqued their interest, as they were suffering from not knowing how to resolve their guilt.

Some had tried self-medication with drugs, alcohol, work, or sex. Others had tried to find an emotional salve. But no matter what they tried, their results were temporary. Some told me they heard a nagging voice continually whisper that they’d done wrong. Others heard a shouting voice that got right in their face.

So how do we get rid of this condemnation? We turn to God. He did not create us to be weighed down by guilt. Which is why He has given us two simple steps to remove it: confession and repentance. Let’s look at what these words mean, and how our two actions differ.

HUMBLING CONFESSION

The first step is our confession that we have sinned. We have to name it, own it, and confess it.

For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight. (Psalm 51:3-4)

At its core, sin is our thoughts and actions that are against God. God is light, love, and purity. As God is holy, our sin revolts Him. Let me use the analogy of a dirty sock. Imagine a surgeon, all sanitized, gowned, gloved, and prepped for surgery, stooping to pick a dirty sock off the ground as he heads into the operating room. It would revolt us if the surgeon then approached the patient and began the surgery without again sanitizing his hands.

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)

Our confession shows God that we recognize the dirtiness of our sin, and that we’re ready to repent of it so that it doesn’t stand between us and Him. We need to remember that our sin hurts God, because He is holy and incapable of sin. We feel guilt because we intuitively know that we’ve wounded Him by our sin. But, amazingly, God never turns away from us! At any point, because of Jesus’ great sacrifice, we can confess and walk free of our guilt and shame.

REDEEMING REPENTANCE

Our confession is our agreeing with God that we have sinned. Our repentance goes a step further: We turn from ourselves to respond to God. You and I can know that we have experienced repentance when we gain new understanding that leads to our living differently, on purpose, for Him.

Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. (Luke 3:8)

Our repentance is more than our saying we’re going to change. It’s our being intentional to actually change. Despite the pull of our sinful nature, we can commit to aligning our thoughts, words, and actions with God’s nature and His expressed will revealed in His Word. God knows this is hard for us, which is why He offers us continual grace. There are no loopholes. Jesus has provided our guarantee!

I can tell you that even when I’ve got confession and repentance down pat, I recognize there’s no guarantee that I won’t sin again. But there is great power and strength in seeing my sin in the light of the cross. This motivates me, more than anything else, to live my life in loving response to Him. Because I know how much He loves me — and how much I truly desire to please and honor Him — I stay willing to do the humbling work of confession and repentance. I encourage you to do the same!

Our ongoing process of sanctification is not enjoyable. But we can experience the JOY of being freed of our guilt as we take these two simple steps. Walk free of your guilt today!

NEXT STEPS

> Interested in knowing God personally? Get started with this really good info.
> Need prayer for more power in your faith? Contact us. We would love to pray for you!
> Connect with our Resolution Movement. Find freedom from your sin!
> We invite you to read Josh’s book, More Than a Carpenter. This short apologetics classic examines the historical evidence of Jesus. He died. He rose. He lives. He is our hope and example!

GUEST BLOGGER CHET GLADKOWSKI RECENTLY CELEBRATED HIS 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF TEACHING THE BIBLE. HE APPROACHES THE PAIN, ISSUES, AND HEARTACHE PEOPLE FACE WITH THE SOLUTION OF A RELATIONSHIP WITH JESUS CHRIST.

The post Freedom: Confession and Repentance appeared first on Josh.org.

When Gospels Written? | Gospels Reliable? Video 3

My name is Matthew. I’m a speaker and author with Josh McDowell Ministry. After you watch this video, feel free to leave a comment here or via my social channels, listed below. I’d love to hear from you and be a small part of your wrestling with these important questions about Jesus. I also invite you to subscribe to my channel! 

Are the Gospels Reliable? | When Were They Written?

Many date the Gospels after the destruction of the Jewish temple in Jerusalem in 70 A.D. One reason is because Jesus predicted the temple’s destruction, as recorded in the Gospel of Mark, which occurred 40 years after His death. As these skeptics consider predictive prophecy impossible (conveniently overlooking Jesus predicting His own death and resurrection, which He literally fulfilled), they assert that Mark must have been written after the event happened.

If the Gospels are reliable sources of Jesus, then we can trust that Jesus really was sent from God, performed miracles, and made predictions that have so far proven 100 percent accurate. We must be careful to not insert anti-supernatural bias into the Gospels in our attempt to determine whether or not they are true. If we do this, we will inevitably determine that they aren’t true before we even begin the investigation.

I would agree with those who advocate for an earlier dating of the Gospels. One important reason is that the Gospel of Luke was composed by the same author who wrote the book of Acts. Acts tells about the life of Paul, Peter, and the events happening in Jerusalem and the early Church. But Acts has an abrupt ending that doesn’t sound like a proper way to close. It ends as if the author caught up to real time. This is where it gets interesting. Curiously, Acts tells us nothing about the deaths of Peter or Paul. It doesn’t mention the destruction of the temple in 70 A.D., or the siege that took place before then. Those were cataclysmic events!

Now imagine that you read a book on Abraham Lincoln, but the book said nothing about Lincoln’s assassination. It would be reasonable to assume that the book was written before 1865 when he died. If you read a book about the history of New York City, but the book didn’t mention the attack on the World Trade Center, you would reasonably assume that the book was written before September 2001, when the Twin Towers were destroyed. The deaths of Peter, Paul, and the destruction of Jerusalem were just as significant for the early Church. It’s hard to imagine they would be left out of Acts, unless Acts was written earlier, probably in the mid-60s. We know the book of Luke was written before Acts, so that places Luke even earlier. Luke appears to have drawn from Mark, placing Mark even earlier than Luke, long before the temple’s destruction, well within the time frame of Jesus’s generation.

As for Matthew, the early church writer Irenaeus says that he wrote while Peter and Paul were preaching and founding the church in Rome. That puts him in the 60s, close to Luke. This fits. Matthew includes teachings of Jesus that would have felt more relevant to his contemporary audience while the temple was still standing. His writing includes features common at the time. And, there’s evidence that Luke quoted from Matthew, placing his writing earlier than Luke’s.

John’s dating is probably the hardest to nail down. For a while, it was thought to have been very late, near the end of the 2nd century, because the Gospel makes some of the strongest statements of Jesus’s divinity. Scholars suggested that such high views of Jesus did not develop until later, although after a manuscript of John dating to 130 A.D. was discovered, scholars realized that John must have been written earlier. After looking at tradition, linguistic evidence, and historical context, New Testament Scholars D.A. Carson and Douglas Moo suggest that John’s most likely dating is between 80 and 85 A.D., which would have been closer to the end of John’s life. With this earlier dating, the authorship of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John is entirely possible. But this doesn’t really matter if they hadn’t intended to record real events in history.

Obviously, if the Gospels were intended as allegories or inspirational bedtime stories, we wouldn’t want to treat them like actual history. We’ll discuss that next week. See you then!

ENGAGE WITH MATTHEW

Josh McDowell Ministry:
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Matthew is a Christian writer and speaker with a passion for the church to be united, strengthened, and unleashed to spread the good news of Jesus to every corner of the world. With a focus on apologetics and spiritual growth, Matthew offers a fresh voice. Matthew holds an M.Div from Talbot School of Theology.

The post When Gospels Written? | Gospels Reliable? Video 3 appeared first on Josh.org.

Freedom from Guilt: Confession and Repentance

Having racked up more than a million miles on three airlines, I have met a lot of people on planes. Every single time, our conversations came around to how they weren’t happy in their lives. As I shared that I grew up in a religious tradition that put a lot of focus on guilt, without fail each person leaned in to hear more.

It became clear to me that we all tend to hold onto guilt. And we so desperately want to be free of it. Read on to learn the two simple steps I shared with them for doing just that![image error]Self-Imprisoned By Our Guilt

In my chats with my fellow travelers, I was amazed to hear that they, too, had been raised under the dark, stormy clouds of guilt. They would ask me the denomination I was raised in, but I kept it hidden, for one reason: I don’t think it’s fair to blame a denomination or specific church, when it’s individuals — myself included — who chose to sin.

Instead, I told them that what mattered is that I knew how they could get rid of their guilt. For good. Of course this piqued their interest, as they were suffering from not knowing how to resolve their guilt.

Some had tried self-medication with drugs, alcohol, work, or sex. Others had tried to find an emotional salve. But no matter what they tried, their results were temporary. Some told me they heard a nagging voice continually whisper that they’d done wrong. Others heard a shouting voice that got right in their face.

So how do we get rid of this condemnation? We turn to God. He did not create us to be weighed down by guilt. Which is why He has given us two simple steps to remove it: confession and repentance. Let’s look at what these words mean, and how our two actions differ.

HUMBLING CONFESSION

The first step is our confession that we have sinned. We have to name it, own it, and confess it.

For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight. (Psalm 51:3-4)

At its core, sin is our thoughts and actions that are against God. God is light, love, and purity. As God is holy, our sin revolts Him. Let me use the analogy of a dirty sock. Imagine a surgeon, all sanitized, gowned, gloved, and prepped for surgery, stooping to pick a dirty sock off the ground as he heads into the operating room. It would revolt us if the surgeon then approached the patient and began the surgery without again sanitizing his hands.

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)

Our confession shows God that we recognize the dirtiness of our sin, and that we’re ready to repent of it so that it doesn’t stand between us and Him. We need to remember that our sin hurts God, because He is holy and incapable of sin. We feel guilt because we intuitively know that we’ve wounded Him by our sin. But, amazingly, God never turns away from us! At any point, because of Jesus’ great sacrifice, we can confess and walk free of our guilt and shame.

REDEEMING REPENTANCE

Our confession is our agreeing with God that we have sinned. Our repentance goes a step further: We turn from ourselves to respond to God. You and I can know that we have experienced repentance when we gain new understanding that leads to our living differently, on purpose, for Him.

Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. (Luke 3:8)

Our repentance is more than our saying we’re going to change. It’s our being intentional to actually change. Despite the pull of our sinful nature, we can commit to aligning our thoughts, words, and actions with God’s nature and His expressed will revealed in His Word. God knows this is hard for us, which is why He offers us continual grace. There are no loopholes. Jesus has provided our guarantee!

I can tell you that even when I’ve got confession and repentance down pat, I recognize there’s no guarantee that I won’t sin again. But there is great power and strength in seeing my sin in the light of the cross. This motivates me, more than anything else, to live my life in loving response to Him. Because I know how much He loves me — and how much I truly desire to please and honor Him — I stay willing to do the humbling work of confession and repentance. I encourage you to do the same!

Our ongoing process of sanctification is not enjoyable. But we can experience the JOY of being freed of our guilt as we take these two simple steps. Walk free of your guilt today!

NEXT STEPS

> Interested in knowing God personally? Get started with this really good info.
> Need prayer for more power in your faith? Contact us. We would love to pray for you!
> We invite you to read Josh’s book, More Than a Carpenter. This short apologetics classic examines the historical evidence of Jesus. He died. He rose. He lives. He is our hope and example!

GUEST BLOGGER CHET GLADKOWSKI RECENTLY CELEBRATED HIS 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF TEACHING THE BIBLE. HE APPROACHES THE PAIN, ISSUES, AND HEARTACHE PEOPLE FACE WITH THE SOLUTION OF A RELATIONSHIP WITH JESUS CHRIST.

The post Freedom from Guilt: Confession and Repentance appeared first on Josh.org.

Listening for God to Speak

We can learn a lot about how God interacts with people by reading the Bible. Perhaps you’re familiar with the story of God calling out to a young Samuel in the middle of the night (1 Samuel 3:1-21), or how Jesus appeared to Paul in a blinding vision, as Paul was attempting to destroy the early Church (Acts 9:1-9). In both cases, God spoke audibly, His message direct and clear.

How many of us have prayed that God would likewise speak so clearly to us? That leads me to ask: Does God still speak to us in our modern world?

Yes, though perhaps not in the way that we typically define the word “speak.”Hearing God

Odds are, if God has a message for you, He won’t open the sky and beam Himself into your front yard. Or use a megaphone. Most of us can’t claim to have heard God speak to us in an audible voice — though some people do assert they have heard God say a word or phrase to them. It’s definitely possible, as the Bible proves. But God typically communicates to us today more subtly.

Have you ever been struck by the words of your pastor, or had a particular verse stand out to you as you read the Bible? That’s God speaking. Have you ever felt a persistent nudge to do something? That’s God speaking.

As we pay attention, we’ll find that God often uses His Word, as well as the words of others, to convict us of sin, give us answers, and guide us through tough situations. God also speaks to us through circumstance; the life issues personally affecting us.

Doubting God

If the Bible tells us that God regularly spoke to prophets and others, why doesn’t He talk to us so directly? Wouldn’t it make believing in Him and being a Christian so much easier?

Perhaps God wants us to get quiet, putting in real effort to hear Him. Perhaps He talked with the prophets directly because they spent so much time in prayer trying to discern His voice. Are you taking time to pray? Are you then patiently waiting for a response?

When I feel anxious or restless, I open my Bible app to find verses about trusting God. As I read the Scriptures, I feel God tell me not to worry; to simply trust His power and His goodness. I also hear God speak when He answers my prayers. In both cases, I am reminded that although I can’t see God, He is real and clearly at work in my life. My doubts diminish as my faith grows.

Trusting God

Perhaps God doesn’t speak to us audibly because He wants us to deepen our faith. In this era of science and technology, we’re told that it’s naive to believe in God because His existence hasn’t been proven by the scientific method.

Some argue that if God were real, He’d make it obvious not just by directly speaking to us, but by physically showing up. Then they’d believe He was real. God has already done so — in a big way. For three years, Jesus personally demonstrated God’s existence and supernatural power. Then He sacrificed Himself to prove God’s great love for us.

As much as we’d like to credit our human intelligence, we simply can’t comprehend God’s complex majesty. But through Jesus, we can know for sure that we haven’t been left here to muddle through life on our own.

God speaks to us all the time — because He longs to be in relationship with us. Are you making the time and space for Him to speak? Begin to do both, and you’ll discover how God, the Creator of the universe, chooses to speak to YOU.

NEXT STEPS

> Interested in knowing God personally? Get started with this really good info.
> Need prayer for more power in your faith? Contact us. We would love to pray for you!
> We invite you to read Josh’s book, More Than a Carpenter. This short apologetics classic examines the historical evidence of Jesus. He died. He rose. He lives. He is our hope and example!

GUEST BLOGGER CLAYTON THOMAS CARTER, A STUDENT IN PLANO, TEXAS, IS PASSIONATE ABOUT ENCOURAGING THE KNOWLEDGE OF A BIBLICAL WORLDVIEW. HE ENJOYS PLAYING TRUMPET AND SERVING AT HIS CHURCH.

The post Listening for God to Speak appeared first on Josh.org.

Who Wrote Them? Reliability of the Gospels | Video 2

Hey, everyone! My name is Matthew. I’m a speaker and author with Josh McDowell Ministry. This is the second of a series on the historical reliability of the Gospels — Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Last week we asked whether the original text of the Gospels is the same text we have today. This week we will start to examine if we can trust the text to be true. In this video, I’m asking: “Who wrote the Gospels?”

Are the Gospels Reliable? | Who Wrote the Gospels?

From a historical perspective, it doesn’t quite matter who wrote the Gospels. What matters is whether the Gospels are true. However, if we know the authors, when they lived, and how closely they associated with Jesus, we will be in a better position to determine whether their writings can be trusted.

The four Gospels are named after their traditional authors: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Matthew was a tax collector and disciple of Jesus. Mark was an associate of Peter, a disciple of Jesus. Luke was a traveling companion with Paul, one of the first missionaries who claimed to have encountered Jesus. John was also a disciple of Jesus, and one of the closest to Him among the twelve. This puts all of these men in a good position to write about Jesus.

GOOD REASONS FOR AUTHORSHIP

You may have heard people say that the four Gospels are anonymous. This, I believe, is an oversimplification of the issue.

Our earliest copies of these manuscripts include descriptions at the start which say “The Gospel according to Matthew” or “Mark” or “Luke” or “John.” From a literary perspective, scholars consider this to be unusual, and so they suggest that these words were added when the gospels started to circulate together, maybe sooner. Whatever the case, we don’t need to have names explicitly written down. There are other reasons for believing the Gospels were written by these four men.

For instance, there is no competing tradition for the authors. The only exception I’m aware of would be a small group who denied the authorship of John near the end of the 2nd century, but that didn’t last. The ancient writer Irenaeus is one important author who gave us the authors of the four Gospels. He personally knew Polycarp, who knew John. This puts him in a great position to know who wrote the four gospels, especially John. They write about the authors as if there is no doubt, probably because there was no doubt. As far as we can tell, the whole Church knew the authorship of the Gospels. It appears these writings always had a name associated with them, even if the name wasn’t written down. In that sense, they weren’t anonymous.

SKEPTIC ARGUMENTS AGAINST AUTHORSHIP

Some modern scholars have denied one or more of the authors, although it’s usually after ignoring the early Church writings or dismissing them quickly. For instance, some would say that Matthew is not the author of the first Gospel, because Matthew was an eye-witnesses disciple of Jesus and yet he appears to have drawn from Mark. So they ask: “Why would an eyewitness need to use a source?” Well, perhaps the Gospel of Mark had so much acceptance by the early Church that Matthew knew it would be good to use it in his material, and he didn’t want to reinvent the wheel.

Others point out that the first Gospel comes from a perspective that shows a deeper relationship with the Jews than one would expect to find in Matthew. But who’s to say Matthew didn’t know how to speak to his audience? It seems to me that the modern scholars who write against the traditional authors of the Gospels are speculating a lot. I think we would be justified to push against them because of the unanimous understanding from all the writers who lived within the first few hundred years of Jesus.

These early authors would have had many more resources than we have today. They would have had more connections with other people who knew about the Gospels. They would have been in a much better position to know who wrote the Gospels than those of us living nearly two thousand years later.

Another reason skeptics reject the traditional authors is that writings exist from early Christians who falsely attributed their writings to well-known people. For example, the Gospel of Peter was not written by Peter. And the Gospel of Thomas was not written by Thomas. The early church rejected the authorship of these books. We should trust that they had good reasons.

Some deny the traditional authorship of the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John because they think the books were written after the supposed authors lived. This depends on how you date the Gospels. This will be the subject of our next video. I’ll see you then!

ENGAGE WITH MATTHEW

Josh McDowell Ministry:
Matthew’s Josh McDowell Ministry Speaker Page

Social Links:
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Matthew is a Christian writer and speaker with a passion for the church to be united, strengthened, and unleashed to spread the good news of Jesus to every corner of the world. With a focus on apologetics and spiritual growth, Matthew offers a fresh voice. Matthew holds an M.Div from Talbot School of Theology.

The post Who Wrote Them? Reliability of the Gospels | Video 2 appeared first on Josh.org.