The Case For Christ

1. The Case For Christ Chapter 3 The Documentary Evidence Were Jesus’ Biographies Reliably Preserved for Us?

2. Authenticating the Documents • Strobel introduces this chapter with a story from his career as a reporter. He discovered confidential Ford memos revealing that the automaker knew in advance that the Pinto could explode when struck from behind but chose luggage space over safety. • When examining documents for authenticity, two major questions must be addressed: • 1. How can one be sure a copy of a document has not been tampered with? • 2. Are there other equally accurate documents that would shed a whole different light on the matter if they were revealed?

3. Before Strobel could publish the Ford memos, he had to be certain they were not forgeries or altered copies. Then he had to consider the possibility that other memos might change the conclusion that Ford was negligent. • The same questions surface concerning the gospel accounts of the life of Christ. Can we be sure our copies are reliable and that equally reliable accounts were not suppressed by the early church?

4. The Second Interview: Bruce M. Metzger, PH.D. • Metzger is the author or editor of 50 books on the New Testament and taught New Testament at Princeton Theological Seminary for 46 years. Metzger is internationally known and revered as a cutting edge scholar on the New Testament. He was chairman of the Revised Standard Version Bible Committee. He was 84 years old at the time of the interview but still extremely sharp and up-to-date on New Testament research.

5. Copies of copies of copies • Metzger responds to the question of how we can have confidence in documents that are copies of copies of copies when no originals survive. • First he points out that this is not a problem unique to the Bible. The same questions can be asked about other documents from antiquity. But the Bible enjoys an advantage in that we have more copies of the Biblical manuscripts than we have of any other ancient writing. The more often you have copies from different places and times that agree with each other, the more likely you are to discover what the true original was like. • Secondly, we have copies that begin within a couple of generations from the writing of the originals. Copies of other ancient texts may be 500-1000 years later than the originals. But even if we had no early manuscripts, we could reproduce the contents of the New Testament from other writings of the early church fathers.

6. A Mountain of Manuscripts • Two examples of ancient writing are mentioned. First, Tacitus, a Roman historian, wrote his Annals of Imperial Rome in about A.D. 116. The first copy in existence dates from A.D. 850, 734 years after the original. • Josephus wrote The Jewish War in the first century and the earliest translation is a Latin copy from the 300s, at least 200 years after it was written. The nine Greek and a Russian translation date from 800-1100 years later. • By comparison, more than 5000 Greek New Testament manuscripts exist today. The next greatest number of manuscripts is of Homer’s Iliad with fewer than 650 Greek manuscripts. Some are just fragments. Homer wrote his book about 800 B.C. and the surviving manuscripts date from the second and third centuries, over 1000 years later. This was an important work, the so-called “bible” of the ancient Greeks. • I am already happy with the comparisons between the New Testament and other ancient historical writings, but the Metzger begins to list the actual numbers of very early manuscripts from the 200s. That’s less time between the events and the manuscripts than between the American Civil War and today. But wait. There’s more.

7. The Scrap That Changed History • The earliest portion of the New Testament that exists today is a fragment from the gospel of John from chapter 18. It contains 5 verses, 3 on one side and 2 on the other, and is 2.5 by 3.5 inches on papyrus. From the style of the script, it originated between A.D. 100-150. Note that it was found in Egypt, a long way from the point of origin in Ephesus, Turkey.

8. A Wealth of Evidence • The total of Greek manuscripts is 5,664. There are 8,000-10,000 Latin Vulgate manuscripts, plus 8,000 Ethiopic, Slavic, and Armenian manuscripts for a total of about 24,000 manuscripts in existence. • There is no other ancient manuscript with more copies in existence. Also, there is no other ancient writing with a shorter interval between the composition of the book and the date of the earliest manuscript.

9. Examining the Errors • Critics have pointed out perhaps 200,000 “errors” in the manuscripts of the New Testament. Numerous so-called “variants” are found. These are due to a variety of causes but do not overthrow any doctrine of the church. • There are several factors to consider. First, it doesn’t matter what order Greek words are in a sentence so those kinds of variants do not change the meaning. • Second, a single word misspelled in 2000 documents is counted as 2000 variants, even though it is really only one word. • All of these “errors” are minor in meaning and do not change a single doctrine of the church. The New Testament has not only survived in more manuscripts than any other book from antiquity, but it has survived in a purer form than any other great book—99.5 percent pure.

10. “A High Degree of Unanimity” • The early church followed 3 rules to determine which documents to include in the New Testament: • 1. The book had to be written by an apostle (who was an eyewitness) or the follower of an apostle. • 2. The book had to agree with what the church was already doing and teaching. • 3. The book had to be widely accepted and used. • Most of the New Testament was accepted within 200 years among very diverse congregations over a wide area. The documents that were not accepted in the canon were written from 200-500 years later and given names unrelated to their real authorship. They are also very ordinary when you read them.

11. The “Secret Words” of Jesus • The Jesus Seminar wants to add the Gospel of Thomas to the Bible but even though there are some sayings of Jesus that agree with the gospels, there are a number of sayings that are completely opposed to the gospels. The church councils in the 5th century and later did not conspire to exclude the Gospel of Thomas. It excluded itself by not agreeing with commonly accepted accounts. • The canon is a list of authoritative books more than it is an authoritative list of books. The early church was careful and deliberative and, I believe, guided by the Holy Spirit.

12. The “Unrivaled” New Testament • “The New Testament [is] unrivaled among ancient writing in the purity of its text as actually transmitted and kept in use.” -- Benjamin Warfield, holder of 4 doctorates and professor of systematic theology at Princeton Theological Seminary • The “pseudepigraphia” are like the Apocrypha (Old Testament non-canonical books, mostly historical) except they were written much later by authors claiming falsely to be apostles. They are fanciful and heretical, absurd and impious. They are more myth than history so they don’t have any value at all and have never been considered authoritative by orthodox Christians.

13. Reviewing Key Points • There is no other ancient manuscript with more copies in existence. Also, there is no other ancient writing with a shorter interval between the composition of the book and the date of the earliest manuscript. • “The New Testament [is] unrivaled among ancient writing in the purity of its text as actually transmitted and kept in use.”

14. Question for Discussion • Teresa McBain ministered in the Methodist church for twenty years. She formerly pastored at Lake Jackson United Methodist Church in Tallahassee, Florida, but today she ministers as the public relations director of the American Atheists. She says that she used to believe in the God of the Bible, but she recently changed her mind: "I know it's a lie. I know it's false." Why has she rejected God?

15. Question for Discussion • Finding Atheism • MacBain, 44, was raised a conservative Southern Baptist. Her dad was a pastor and she felt the call of God when she was 6. She had questions, of course, about conflicts in the Bible, for example, or the role of women. She says she sometimes felt she was serving a taskmaster of a God, whose standards she never quite met. • For years, MacBain set her concerns aside. But when she became a United Methodist pastor nine years ago, she started asking sharper questions. She thought they'd make her faith stronger. • "In reality," she says, "as I worked through them, I found that religion had so many holes in it, that I just progressed through stages where I couldn't believe it." • The questions haunted her: Is Jesus the only way to God? Would a loving God torment people for eternity? Is there any evidence of God at all? And one day, she crossed a line. • "I just kind of realized — I mean just a eureka moment, not an epiphany, a eureka moment — I'm an atheist," she says. "I don't believe. And in the moment that I uttered that word, I stumbled and choked on that word — atheist." • But it felt right.

16. Question for Discussion • "It's just theological. I had no problems with the church or the structure or the organization. There are basically four steps that occurred over a long period of time. One was the contradictory nature of the Bible; the lack of scientific or historical foundation or accuracy, which took me a very, very long time to come to terms with. That was the starting point I guess when I realized that that wasn't true, that the Bible wasn't true. From there I moved to thinking about all of the religions in the world and how people basically associate, in most cases, with one religion or another based upon their own culture and how they were raised," she said. • "So I kind of moved into a position where I thought that all religions were equally valid and that it kind of depended on who you were and how you were raised but that we were all on the same journey. From there I moved to the question of the existence of hell and trying to understand how a supreme being could create humans that according to the Christian Bible are very weak and finite, as compared to God. How that creature, being, entity, whatever you want to call it, could punish them eternally in such a horrible and torturous place as hell. So that was kind of a third discovery." • While the former teaching pastor confessed that often during her ministry she had doubts about her faith, now as an atheist she feels more secure about her views in life. • "I feel secure. I feel peaceful. I just kind of clarified the doubts. All the while I was having those doubts and trying to struggle with those issues, I always felt that it would make me a stronger Christian. That it would make me a better pastor. It wasn't until it really hit home for me, where I was at, that I realized that instead of that I had actually grown much further away from my faith to the point of I no longer had faith.”

17. Question for Discussion • On March 26, at the American Atheists' convention in Bethesda, MacBain seems almost giddy. The day before, she decided she would go before the conference's 1,500 or so nonbelievers and announce that she is officially an atheist. • "I am nervous," she says, "but at the same time I am so excited. I slept like a baby last night because I knew I wasn't going to have to live a lie anymore. Such freedom." • Moments later, in the darkened, cavernous conference room, MacBain steps onstage. • "My name is Teresa," she begins. "I'm a pastor currently serving a Methodist church — at least up to this point" — the audience laughs — "and I am an atheist." • Hundreds of people jump to their feet. They hoot and clap for more than a minute. MacBain then apologizes to them for being, as she put it, "a hater." • "I was the one on the right track, and you were the ones that were going to burn in hell," she says. "And I'm happy to say as I stand before you right now, I'm going to burn with you." • A few minutes later, MacBain strides off the stage into a waiting crowd. One man is crying as he tells her that her speech is "one of the most moving things I've seen in years." Another woman says she, too, had been a born-again Christian. "Join the club," she says as she hugs MacBain. • "I have never felt so appreciated and cared for, you know?" MacBain says later, noting that she has left one community — Christianity — for another. "New member, just been born — that's what it feels like."

18. Question for Discussion • Back at home, MacBain doesn't hesitate when she's asked what she misses most about her old life. • "I miss the music," she says. MacBain sang in church choirs and worship bands most of her life, and even though she no longer believes the words, she still catches herself singing praise songs. • She says she also misses the relationships — she'll often pick up the phone to call someone, then realize she can't. And she misses the ritual and regularity of church life. • "It's what I know. It's what I knew. And I still struggle with it. Life is just different," she says. • When it's pointed out that she hasn't said whether or not she misses God, MacBain pauses. • "No, no," she says. "I can't say that I do."

19. Steps to Atheism • The contradictory nature of the Bible; the lack of scientific or historical foundation or accuracy. The Bible is not true. • All religions are equally valid. • How can God create weak, finite people and then punish them in eternally in hell? • Doubts about faith lead to loss of faith.