10 Reasons the New Testament Writers Told the Truth

Top Ten Reasons We Know the New Testament Writers Told the Truth

I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist (Chapter summary of book by Geisler and Turek)

Peter Kreeft said, “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!” There is a lot of evidence that shows that the NT is true, but how do we really know that the NT writers didn’t exaggerate or embellish what they say they saw? Lets look at the top 10 reasons.

1. The NT Writers Included Embarrassing Details About Themselves

The “principle of embarrassment” (historical test #7) assumes any details embarrassing to the author are probably true, because authors tend to leave out anything that makes them look bad. If you and your friends were creating a false religion would you make your selves out to look like a dim-witted, uncaring, rebuked, doubting, cowards? No way, but that is what the writers of the NT did. A made-up story would make the writers look bold, fearless soldiers of Christ.

† Dim-Witted—disciples fail to understand what Jesus is saying (Mark 9:32; Luke 18:34; John 12:16)

† Uncaring—disciples fall asleep on Jesus twice when they were asked to pray on the night Jesus was taken to be crucified. Disciples fail to give Jesus proper burial out of fear for themselves. Jesus was buried by a member of the Jewish Sanhedrin—a member of the same court that sentenced Jesus to die.

† Rebuked—Peter is called Satan by Jesus (Mark 8:33). Paul corrects Peter on a theological issue (Galatians 2:11). Keep in mind that Peter is one of the pillars of the early church, and here’s Paul including in Scripture that he was wrong!

† Cowards—all the disciples but one hide when Jesus goes to die on the cross. Peter denies Jesus three times (Matt. 26:33). While the brave men are hiding, the women discover the empty tomb of Jesus.

† Doubters—despite being taught that Jesus would rise from the dead (John 2:18; 3:14; Matt. 12:39; 17:9, 22-23), the disciples are doubtful when they hear of his resurrection. Some even doubt when they see him risen (Matt 28:17).

2. The NT Writers Abandoned Their Long-Held Sacred Beliefs And Practices, Adopted New Ones, And Did Not Deny Their Testimony Under Persecution Or Threat Of Death—

NT writers don’t just say that Jesus performed miracles and rose from the dead, they back it up with actions of their own. Virtually overnight they abandoned many long held and sacred beliefs of Judaism. For example, animal sacrifice was replaced with the sacrifice of Christ, the law of Moses no longer had power because of the sinless life of Christ, they now worshiped Jesus as the God-Man considered by the Jews to be blasphemy and punishable by death, and belief in a sacrificial Messiah versus a conquering one (until 2nd coming). Not only were Just the NT writers converted, but thousands of Jerusalem Jews, including Pharisee Priests, followed Christ. History shows that within five weeks after the death and resurrection of Jesus more than ten thousand Jews converted to Christianity. How can this be explained if the resurrection did not occur. These converts also adopted new radical practices such as Sunday worship, Baptism, and Communion as a sign of Christ’s sacrifice. NT writers had nothing to gain by trying to pull off a hoax. The only worldly reward they received is persecution and death. The NT writers could have saved themselves by confessing it was all a lie, but they never did. If they had made up the resurrection story they certainly would have said so when they were about to be crucified (Peter), stoned (James), or beheaded (Paul). But no one recanted—eleven out of the twelve apostles were martyred for their faith. Why would any sane person die for a known lie? Don’t forget that all twelve claimed to be eyewitnesses to the resurrection of Jesus. They would have known if the resurrection was a reality or not. The apostles knew for sure that Jesus had resurrected, and they demonstrated that knowledge with their own blood. (people do die for lies [suicide bombers], but they whole heartedly believe the lie is truth)

3. Enemies and Critics of Christianity Confirm the Same Basic Storyline as the New Testament Writers Present in the Bible

† Josephus, a Jewish historian for the Roman government writes in A.D. 94, “At this time there was a wise man called Jesus, and his conduct was good, and he was known to be virtuous. Many people among the Jews and the other nations became his disciples. Pilate condemned him to be crucified, and to die. But those who had become his disciples did not abandon his discipleship. They reported that he had appeared to them three days after his crucifixion, and that he was alive. Accordingly, he was perhaps the Messiah, concerning whom the prophets have reported wonders. And the tribe of the Christians, so named after him, has not disappeared to this day” (Josephus, Antiquities, 20:200 – Maier translation).

† Josephus also writes, “Then James, the brother of Jesus who was called the Christ was stoned to death by the Sanhedrin (Jews) in the absence of the Roman governor.” (Josephus, Antiquities, 20.9.1) Would you be willing to die for your brother if he claimed to be the sinless Son of God and Savior of the world? James was willing to die in the name of Christ because he saw that Jesus lived a blameless life and he witnessed his resurrection from the dead! You can trust a guy that rises from the dead.

† Talmud—Is a Jewish history book written by the Jewish authorities between AD 70 and 200 that confirms when, how, and why the Jews killed Jesus. Sanhedrin 43a states,“On the eve of Passover Yeshu (Jesus) was hanged … because he has practiced sorcery and enticed Israel to apostasy.” This tells us Jesus was killed on Passover, had supernatural powers, and he called people to follow him.

4. The NT Writers Left In Demanding Sayings of Jesus

If the NT writers were making up a story, they should have made up a story that made life a little easier on them. For example, the NT claims Jesus said, “…anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” (Matt 5:28); “…do not resist a evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also” (Matt 5:39); “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you…” (Matt 5:44); “Do not store up treasures on earth…for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matt 6:19); “Do not judge, or you too will be judged…with the measure you use, it will be measured to you” (Matt 7:1). These are not commands the NT writers would impose on themselves because no mere human can live up to the standard set. Only a perfect person could live according to the standard set in the NT. Perhaps that is exactly the point.

5. The NT Writers Carefully Distinguished Jesus’ Words From Their Own

Quotation marks did not exist in first century Greek, but NT writers very clearly distinguished Jesus’ words from their own. Virtually all red-letter editions of the Bible attribute all of the same words to Jesus. This is important evidence towards the credibility of the NT writers because it would have been easy for them to solve theological disputes by just adding to the sayings of Jesus. It would have been easy to make up quotes in relation to circumcision, obeying the Law of Moses, speaking in tongues, and women in the church in order to end all debates. Why were the NT writers so careful about distinguishing their own words form the words of Jesus unless they were telling the truth?

6. The NT Writers Included Events Related To The Resurrection That They Would Not Have Invented

† The Burial of Jesus- Jesus was buried by Joseph of Arimathea, a member of the Sanhedrin, which was the Jewish ruling council that sentenced Jesus to die for blasphemy. Followers of Jesus were very bitter towards Jewish authorities, so why would they put a member of the Sanhedrin in a favorable light if the story was made up? Furthermore, if Jesus really wasn’t buried by Joseph of Arimathea, this detail could have easily have been exposed making the Luke out to be a liar and his Gospel a fake. The Jews never denied this fact.

† The First Witnesses- All four Gospels say women were the first witnesses to the empty tomb and the resurrected Jesus. In that day women were not seen as credible witnesses and were not even allowed to testify in court. One of those women was Mary Magdalene, who Luke admits (8:2) was once demon possessed. These are not the kind of witnesses that would be made up if the NT writers were trying to fool the world.

† The Conversion of Priests- Why didn’t the risen Jesus appear to the Pharisees? Maybe they were too proud, and it wasn’t necessary. It is often overlooked that “…a large number of priests became obedient to the faith” (Acts 6:7). This was written in Luke’s letter to Theophilus (Book of Acts). This detail must have been true because this is a detail that could have easily been exposed as false if it were indeed false. When people lie they usually try to cover their tracks, but obviously the writers of the NT didn’t try to do this. Maybe they were telling the truth.

† The Explanation of the Jews- The Jews want people to believe that the cowardly disciples stole the body and created a story of the resurrection, all in order to get themselves beaten, tortured, and martyred. If it were true, how did the disciples get past the elite Roman guards who were trained to guard the tomb with their lives? The Jews said the guards were sleeping when the disciples silently moved the 2-ton stone from the grave. If the guards were sleeping how would they know that the disciples stole the body? Furthermore, no Roman guard would admit to sleeping on the job because he would be killed for the offense. Maybe the biblical story in Matt. is true; the Pharisees created this bad story, paid off the guards, and promised to keep them out of trouble.

7. The NT Writers Include More Than Thirty Historically Confirmed People In their Writings-

The NT could not have been invented because it contains too many historically confirmed characters. The NT writers would have blown their credibility with their audiences by implicating real people in a fictional story, especially people of great notoriety and power. The NT writers would not have gotten away with publicly telling lies about Pilate, Caiaphas, Festus, Felix, and the entire Herodian Bloodline.

8. The NT Writers Include Divergent Details-

The four Gospel accounts are not exactly the same. Critics say this proves it is a lie, but actually it strengthens the case for the biblical story of Christ. How? All four Gospels tell the same main story line (virgin birth, miralcle worker, Son of God, raised from the dead, ect.), but each account includes divergent details. Think of it like this, if a judge hears four stories that are exactly the same word-for-word, he would probably assume that the witnesses got together beforehand to make their stories agree (collusion). The Gospel accounts differ on small details like how many angels were in the tomb, or one account says an angel spoke and another account did not mention it. Just because one account mentions one angel does not mean there were not more, maybe one was just more prominent. The NT shows the nature of eyewitness testimony. I challenge you to read two news articles about the same event. It will usually be the same main story-line, with some differing minor details.

9. New Testament Writers Challenge Their Readers To Check Out Verifiable Facts, Even About Miracles-

For example, In Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians he declares that he previously preformed miracles for them. Paul was speaking of his own qualifications as an apostle—someone who speaks for God. Paul told the Corinthians, “The things that mark an apostle—signs, wonders and miracles—were done among you with great perseverance” (2 Cor. 12:12). Paul would not have written this unless he had really done miracles for them. Why would he have asked the Corinthians to remember miracles that he did not perform, thus destroying his credibility? The only explanation is that Paul was an apostle of God, he confirmed it by performing miracles, and he openly displayed this to the Corinthians.

10. NT Writers Describe Miracles Like Other Historical Events: With Simple, Unembellished Accounts—

Embellished and extravagant details are strong signs that a historical account may be fraudulent. For example, 100 years after the resurrection of Jesus a forgery known as the Gospel of Peter was written in a extravagant manner. The Gospel of Peter speaks of long heads that reached up to Heaven and a cross that walked and talked at the time of Jesus’ resurrection. In the four resurrection accounts found in the Bible there are no extravagant or embellished stories, just bland facts about the greatest miracle in history. If the Gospels were fake, and they were trying to convince the skeptics, don’t you think that they would have claimed to have actually seen Jesus physically rising from the dead, and maybe have thrown a few extra adjectives in to help. Thirty-five other miracles attributed to Jesus are described as if form reporters, not wild-eyed preachers.

Helpful resources: 99.9fm (Fresno), www.leestorbel.com, www.equip.org, www.answersingenesis.org, www.bibarch.com, www.biblequery.com, www.str.org, www.wayofthemaster.com, www.truthsthattransform.org, www.family.org, www.needgod.com