7/31/25

This week, I've been involved in multiple conversations asking whether or not we can trust the Gospels and New Testament as true and accurate. This is certainly a fair question and is actually one that seems to be overlooked too often by Christians today. Unless you regularly engage in evangelistic efforts with nonbelievers or simply have a passion for the art of apologetics, you will likely not be familiar with the evidence for the historical reliability and accuracy of the New Testament. As I'm sure you can recognize from the above citation of the Apostle Paul, the reality that Jesus died and rose from the dead is absolutely essential to the hope that we have as Christians. If Jesus didn't rise from the dead, then we have a dead messiah, false prophet, and are still dead in our sins - not great. However, the evidence does seem to be far more compelling that Jesus did raise from the dead on the third day.

There are common challenges that are made to this assertion, as it is in fact a supernatural claim, but they essentially boil down to what C.S. Lewis called the trilemma. That is that Jesus was either a liar, a lunatic, or the Lord. With these possible outcomes, we then need to assess the information that we know to determine which is most plausible. To do this, we can use what is called the Minimal Facts Approach which was developed by Dr. Gary R. Habermas and provides us with historical evidence which is highly trusted as true among the scholastic community - Christian and skeptic alike. Here are the core evidences in this approach (others can also be added, but these are the most definitive historically according to the research of Dr. Habermas):

1. Jesus died by crucifixion ~99% Scholastically accepted

2. Jesus’ disciples believed He rose and appeared to them ~98% Scholastically accepted

3. Paul (a former persecutor) converted based on a resurrection experience ~99% Scholastically accepted

4. James (Jesus’ skeptical brother) converted after a post-resurrection appearance ~75% Scholastically accepted

5. The tomb was found empty ~75% Scholastically accepted (more debated, especially among skeptics)

All of this to say, this has been a conversation for me recently with a few different people - some are concerned Christians and some are curious skeptics. 

Nick and I met again this week with *Titus to continue our conversation about whether or not Jesus really is who He said He is or not. In our previous conversations, *Titus decided that Jesus could not have been a lunatic, and so we met this week to investigate whether Jesus was more reasonably a liar or the Lord. We touched on the possible motives for Jesus to lie as well as the disciples to lie, but long-story short, it doesn't seem to be very reasonable to conclude that either of them were lying. The lie is far too complicated for a stupid person to organize, but any smart person would realize that they would not gain anything from tricking people into believing them - and they would almost certainly be killed for it.

*Titus seemed to acknowledge that this was the case, but he was hesitant to affirm that it's more reasonable to believe that Jesus is the Lord. *Titus said that his great tension is that the experience of Christianity that he had previously was very negative and caused him to feel unbearable guilt and shame instead of free him from it. Our next meeting will seek to address this, but his negative experience prior might only be part of the issue as he seemed heavily attached to the way his life currently is and doesn't desire change. "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied." As Jesus said, "Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God." If we don't see the need, we will have no desire for the cure. A doctor must first diagnose the aliment before you undergo surgery for it. A message of hope to a broken world is only received if they think they need it, and that isn't something we can force someone into.

I've also begun this conversation with a Christian young man, *Jimmy, who, after engaging with atheist challenges to the reliability, found himself uncertain about the truth of the matter. We will continue this conversation this next week, and we are planning to consider the potential motives that Jesus and the disciples might have been enticed by that would lead them to deceive others. While the arguments can seem very compelling at first, a deeper consideration of their position and motives makes it far more reasonable to trust them as telling the truth - and there's also other evidence, but this is pretty compelling on its own.

Please join us in prayer for these continued conversations with *Titus and *Jimmy as we seek to bring clarity to the issue through reasonable evaluations. Please pray that they will not only see the reliability of these Scriptures, but that they would also be compelled by the Holy Spirit to obey them - for even the demons believe in God, but they don't obey Him.