11th & 12th grade DGroup Recap

Last night we covered more evidence for the truth and reliability of the New Testament. As we set out to discover if:

-- we have accurate copies of the original NT documents.  (See last week’s blog for that review.)

--the original NT documents tell the truth.

We can remember the Six E’s of evidence that the NT is true. (These are the same types of evidence we would look for in any historical work from antiquity.)

·        Early Testimony—we know that all or most of the NT was written before 70 A.D.—so within a 1-2 generations of Christ’s death. (no time for myth or legend to develop without being debunked.)

·        Eyewitness Testimony—among other convincing proofs: 84 historically confirmed eyewitness details in Acts, more in Luke’s Gospel, 59 historically confirmed or probable details in John, NT documents have more than 30 people confirmed by secular sources of archaeology.

·        Embarrassing Testimony—someone making up a story would not include embarrassing details about themselves; apostles are portrayed in NT as dimwitted, uncaring, rebuked, cowards and doubters among other uncomplimentary traits.

·        Excruciating Testimony—all but one apostle is thought to have died a martyr’s death. Why would they die for a known lie? They had nothing to gain by making up this new religion.

·        Expected Testimony—through reason and science we know that God exists and created us for a purpose (covered in earlier sessions); the OT teaches the same and it can be considered reliable and the OT predicts the Messiah would come; the prophetic details of that Messiah in the OT are pinpoint accurate in what we see of Jesus in the NT.

·        Extra-Biblical Testimony—we have 10 ancient non-Christian sources confirming the NT storyline and when you compile their work you get a story congruent with the NT.

We are able to show through these evidences that the NT is historically reliable. Therefore:

1)      It is fact, not fiction

2)      If it says Jesus said it, then Jesus really said it.

3)      If it says Jesus did it, then Jesus really did it.

Next we will move into evidence for the resurrection (many of you got a taste for that in the “Case for Easter” simulcast), who Jesus is, what he taught about the Bible and what that means for us.

 

My “bribe” from last week still stands. J