Table of Contents - First Reason
100 Reasons to Believe New Testament History
Preface
These articles contain some of the results of my research efforts over the years. It is not a detailed dissertation written for scientists, but a condensation of my findings for the common person who's interested in learning more about Jesus and the New Testament. It contains some of my reasons, 100 of them, for accepting the New Testament record as factual history. I know not everyone will agree with all of my reasons; there's still plenty of room for healthy disagreement over how to best interpret the historical data out there. But while there may be an infinite number of possible interpretations of the historical data concerning Jesus Christ and the New Testament, there really are only a few probable ones. The most probable interpretations, in my mind, strongly support the belief that the New Testament is a factual account of Jesus' life and the church He began.
Please give these articles an honest read. My prayer is that it will offer those of you who are unsure of what to believe about Christianity some guidance in the right direction. For those committed to the Christian faith, I pray this book will help nurture that faith, and help provide an appropriate defence for it.
Introduction - The Message of the Old and New Testaments
The Old Testament is a collection of writings, 39 books in all, which many believe to be the word of God. The earliest books of the Old Testament were written about 3,400 years ago, and the last books around 2400 years ago. They are arranged topically, with the first section of books focusing on history, the second on poetry, and the last donated to prophecy. The central theme running through all of them is that humanity is guilty of sin (rebellion against God) and will one day face the consequences, which is spiritual and physical death. That's the bad news.
But there's a good news message that also threads its way through the pages of the Old Testament. This is promise that a Saviour would come and cleanse the world from sin. This Saviour, says the Old Testament, would be both God and man, the perfect human being, who would take all of humanity's sin upon Himself. In exchange, the Bible promises that God will grant those that believe on Him with the Saviour's own righteousness.
The New Testament was written during the first century A.D. and consists of 27 books. These books focus on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, which the New Testament claims was the predicted Saviour of the Old Testament.
The first four books, called the Gospels (good news) each describe the life of Jesus on earth, especially focusing on His three and a half years of public ministry, death and resurrection. These books, apparently, were written by those who walked with Jesus personally, or had opportunity to interview those that did.
The book of Acts follows the gospels and recounts for us the activities of the first believers in Jesus and the rapid expansion of Christianity in the first century. The book of Acts begins with Christ's ascension into heaven following His resurrection from the dead (c 30 A.D.) and follows the history of the church until the early 60's of the first century. The remaining books of the New Testament are epistles directed to early Christian congregations and individuals, which cover a multiplicity of issues ranging from deep theological insights to personal conduct and discipline. The last of these, the book of Revelation, focuses almost entirely on prophecy concerning the last days of our present world system, and the return of Jesus Christ.
Facts or Fables?
For many people the Bible is nothing more than a collection of beautiful thoughts meant to impart various spiritual and moral lessons, but cannot be looked to for reliable historical information. This conclusion is not due to a lack of historical support for the Biblical record, most notably the New Testament, but because it records the occurrence of miracles. In the minds of many, this fact alone disqualifies the New Testament as reliable history.
Assumptions - Data - Interpretations
It's very important to understand that the same data, whether it is scientific or historic, can be interpreted differently depending on what our initial assumptions are. For example, if we assume that God does not exist, then the New Testament must necessarily be regarded as inaccurate because it speaks of God and miracles wrought by Him. If we assume this atheistic stance at the onset of our investigation, then no matter how compelling and abundant the historic evidence for the New Testament may be, its documentation of miracles from God must disqualify it outright.
However, if we assume that a God that can act does exist, then we can accept that there may have been acts of God. An historic document recounting acts of God could not in this case been written off as fable without first examining all of the relevant historic data. I begin, therefore, with evidences for the existence of God.
It is reasonable to believe that God exists in light of:
1. The First Law of Thermodynamics
2. Causation
3. The Second Law of Thermodynamics
4. Moral Absolutes