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Class Notes for 07-221 Last revised: Dec 12, 2006 FINAL
EXAM PREPARATION: Items from the
first two parts of the couse The Bible is justified as trustworthy by the following evidence -- just a brief part of many other evidences which are too complex and numerous to list here or to have discussed in class: The main point is that the Bible is not myth, nor was it written many decades after the fact. Kreeft's book (pages 189-195 and 161-165) gives evidence for this. Other evidence is found in the fact that Paul's letters in the New Testament quote early hymns and creeds from the 30s and 40s AD, the time directly after Jesus death and resurrection: these early hymns and creeds refer to Jesus as Lord, God, and as worshipped; they show belief also in his resurrection from the dead: the point is that these beliefs did not come 100 yeas later from the church when all of the eye-witnesses were gone. They were the beliefs of the eye-witnesses. Another amazing piece of evidence is that the early Church leaders cited over 36,000 references to the New Testament between 95 and 250AD, citing all ut the two minor letters of John. The New Testament texts they cited is exactly the same Bible we have now; the point here again is that the original eye-witness accounts which are in the New Testament were not made up later, as liberal scholars like to think. There is also the testimony about Jesus from non-Christian writers in the first century: they speak of Jesus being worshipped as God, his resurrection, and the quick spread of Christianity. These external references (external to the New Testament) are supported by internal evidences, including Jesus' unique life (virgin birth, miracles, resurrection, the amazing 371 fulfilled prophesies which confirmed He was Messiah, the suffering deity whose sacrifice paid the price for human sin, as well as his teaching and actions which showed He was indeed God in the flesh (details for this were not given in class and readings are not assigned since there are so many points: some can be found at the end of Kreeft, pages 173-174). Another external evidence for the Bible's trustworthiness is the confirmation by Archaeology of the accuracy of the New Testament about cities, public figures, geography and social conditions: Luke, for example, who wrote one of the 4 Gospels and The Acts of the Apostles, mentioned 32 countries, 54 cities, 9 islands and countless geographical and social facts which have been confirmed by archaeology. This is strong evidence that he was seeking to be accurate and truthful, rather than writing myth about Jesus and the early church. Non-Christian texts, Early Church Fathers and other documents confirm the early dating of the New Testament -- that is, the fact that it was ritten by eye-witnesses or those who knew the eye-witnesses within 20-50 years of Jesus life. Check the CARM and Fernandes web documents fir details about this. Luke's Book of Acts was likely written about 60-62 AD, Luke's Gospel just before that, about 60AD (since Acts is part two of Luke's writings his Gospel being part one); since Luke used parts of Mark's Gospel, it was written before Luke, in the 50s or earlier, and Matthew's Gospel which also uses parts of Mark's has traditionally been cited as very early (by Papias) and written first in Aramaic, the language of Jesus and the Christians before 50AD, etc. Paul's letters, of course, are acknowledged by scholars as written between 48 and 64 AD, and he takes for granted Jesus is the Christ (mentioned 270 times) and that he rose from the dead and was God in the flesh, the son of God. This early testimony could have been refuted if eye-witnesses who were still alive if it was not true. Kree ft's book, chapters 7 and 9 are the major resources for this, along with the web documents on the class web page. I hope you will check (after the class is over) Kreeft's justification of belief in an afterlife, and in Heaven and Hell (chapters 10-12). And I hope you will continue during your lives to give time for the ongoing quest to seek information and evidence which helps justify your religious beliefs. This leads to a deeper spirituality, a reasonable faith rather than blind faith. It has been a great joy for me to have had the privilege to teach this class to such a wonderful group of students. Thank you all. Dr BW
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