The People vs Matthew, Mark, Luke and John…..Opening Statement

VERDICT….. “The People vs Matthew, Mark, Luke and John”

Notes from Andy Stanley’s “Verdict” series, Session 1: Opening Statement

(North Point Ministries, Inc)

 

“All religions lead to the same place?   We’re good enough”

“The Bible is just a book.  There are errors and contradictions.  We can’t trust it.”

 

This video looks at the reasons we can place our faith in the reliability of the Gospels- Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

 

OVERVIEW:

The Gospels are a reliable record of actual events ande conversations.

Therefore, what the Gospels have to say about Jesus is true, as well.

Therefore, in light of Christ’s miracles and claims, He is the Son of God.

Therefore, what Jesus said about the Old Testament and GOD is true!

 

Keep in mind….

1. History can not be proved or disproved.  You look at the evidence and make a decision.  The trustworthiness of any historical account is judged on the basis of evidence, not proof.
2. You can only PROOVE what is observable and repeatable (i.e. scientific method)….you can’t observe past, your can’t repeat past.
3. So we ask, “what is the evidence?” and we base our decisions on that.
4. When drawing conclusions about evidence, PROBABLITY takes precedence over POSSIBIITY.

 

Heard of probable cause?  (not “possible” cause)

 

 

 

i.e. Car wreck between a big, old car with steel bumper vs modern lightweight

The lightweight gets totaled, and the owner of old car moves it out of the way of traffic.  The police come, and notice a dead possum in the road near the totaled car.  “This possum did all this?”  Is it possible? (it was a bionic possum?)  

Are there other possibilities?  Perhaps the owner of the bid old car took a sledgehammer and beat the lightweight car.  Or perhaps he put his car in reverse and repeatedly rammed the lightweight? There are multiple POSSIBLE explanations, but in light of the evidence, what is the most PROBABLE?

 

There are 2 ways to look at ancient manuscripts:

1. Date and distribution
2. Character and motivation of author

 

In a high school history textbook, there are accounts of Roman history.  Where did it come from?  How do they KNOW these things?  There was no such thing as video, no pictures, no novels….

They know from ancient manuscripts.  For instance, the Gallic Wars was written in the 1^st century, by an author hired by the emperor to write his history.  There are 10 copies, the earliest is 900 AD, and was written by one person hired by the emperor.

An author named Tacitus (who wrote VOLUMES od Roman history!) has ½ of his copies lost forever.  There are 2 manuscripts containing ½ of his volumes, but these manuscripts are dated 900 AD and 1100 AD (these are 1,000-year-old copies of copies of copies of copies……)  There is more information written about Jesus that the Roman emperor of that day.

What do we have for Gospel manuscripts?  We have hundreds.  The earliest fragment, dated 135 AD!!,  is a passage from John found in Egypt (what?? It was broadly distributed!!)

What about complete copies?  We have 250 complete copies!  We have more information on 3 years of a Jewish carpenter than on the entire lifetime of the Roman emperor!

Unlike secular history, the quality is outstanding.  There are no close seconds.  There are thousands of manuscripts, so we are confident of knowing what the original said.  The differences are very minor.

i.e.  “Spirit” vs “Holy Spirit”…..where are the HARD questions?  There are none.

Just based on manuscripts alone (5000 of New Testament) and their integrity and distribution, the Gospels of MMLJ outweigh all the details of Roman history at that time.

So WHY don’t secular historians take MMLJ as history?  Why trust one person’s view of emperor versus MMLJ?

Prejudice against supernatural:

1. Before I look at text, I say, “I do NOT believe in supernatural.”
2. “Ooops! Supernatural here….I can’t consider this….”  Discount the whole thing.

 

You will here this, “Smart people don’t believe the Bible.  It is just a crutch.”

But it doesn’t make any sense to judge the authenticity of an ancient manuscript according to my personal, 21^st century experience.  It’s an irrational argument to say, “Since I’ve never seen anything supernatural, I’m concluding that those things NEVER happen……but now show me the evidence….” (Ha!) This reveals that they do not have a problem with the book(s) but with the orientation we have imposed on a book.

i.e.  Holocaust:  that degree of hatred could not exist, I’ve never seen it, therefore there must be another explanation for the Holocast.

i.e.  911 Firemen:  I’ve never seen that level of courage and heroism, therefore it must not have happened that way, and there must be some other explanation.

Your experience has nothing to do with what actually happened!  Just because I haven’t seen God do _______, doesn’t mean that He hasn’t.  We must be careful NOT to impose our experience on history.

i.e. Creation- what does the universe point to?  Something came from nothing.  If we don’t believe in a Supernatural, we don’t factor that in, and we come up with some alternative explanation.

A JUROR DECIDES ON THE BASIS OF EVIDENCE, NOT on PERSONAL PREJUDICE.   

Just as the design of the universe screams for a Designer, in the same way, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John send us a message that not only is there a Designer and Creator, but a SAVIOR! Christ the Lord!

 

Matthew, Mark, Luke and John:  did they lie?  Did they have some reason to copy each other?  Or should we take their message at face value?

 

Check back next week for part 2.