This is also true of historical records outside the Bible. They confirm key events in the New Testament. Here, for example, is the Roman historian Tacitus writing about Jesus' crucifixion:
"Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus [Christ], from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilate…" – Tacitus, Annals, book 15, paragraph 44.
I could add details here about how accurate Luke's history is in the book of Acts, but you get the idea.
Internal contradictions.
There are some apparent contradictions in the New Testament. For example, the gospel of Mark says that as Jesus was leaving the town of Jericho a blind man called out to him and Jesus restored his sight (Mark 10:46). Luke's gospel, talking about the same event, says it happened as Jesus was approaching Jericho (Luke 18:35). So it sounds like a contradiction.
Is there is a resolution? In the first century, there were actually two Jerichos: the old one, the one mentioned in the Old Testament, was just a small Jewish settlement. The new one, built by Herod the Great, was about two miles to the southeast. So this one event could have happened between both locations. That is a reasonable resolution of the problem.
If you study the gospels carefully, many so-called contradictions can be harmonized. And not just harmonized. If you look at them closely, you'll see evidence of "interlocking." Let me explain how this works with an example.
There is a story in all four gospels where Jesus feeds 5,000 people with five loaves of bread and two fish near the Sea of Galilee. In this story, Mark mentions people sitting on "green grass" (Mark 6:39). Why bother to mention the color of the grass? It turns out, grass in this region was usually brown. It was only green in the spring time.
John says nothing about the color of the grass in his account of the same event, but he does say it happened just before the Passover (Jn. 6:4), in the spring.
So, these two innocuous comments, one in Mark, and one in John, indicate that Mark and John were accurately reporting different, but complementary details about the same event.
In another example from the same story, John's account has Jesus asking Philip, "where can we buy bread to feed all these people?" (Jn. 6:5). Luke mentions that this happened near Bethsaida (Lk. 9:10), a detail that John leaves out. But that fits perfectly because John tells us Philip was from Bethsaida (Jn. 1:43-44; 12:21)! Philip knew the area well, that's why Jesus asked him of all people, "where can we buy food?"
Do you see how these authors are adding complementary details? I could show you many other examples like this. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John's accounts are not identical. If they were, we should be suspicious. Instead, their reports of what happened "interlock"—each supplies complementary details to give us a fuller picture of what actually happened. That gives the gospels a mark of authenticity.
Summary:
Is the NT disqualified by historical inaccuracies? No, the New Testament is very accurate. Are there internal contradictions? No, in fact the accounts interlock in very compelling way.
Positive evidence
The apostles' writing may not be disqualified, but is there any positive evidence that what they wrote was from God? Yes!
First, Jesus says so.
I know, that sounds like circular reasoning, but consider this. While Jesus was with the apostles, he told them their words would carry his authority.
John 16:13 "But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.14 "He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you.
Jesus promised the Holy Spirit would give the apostles special abilities needed to write scripture.
So Jesus authorized the apostles to speak and write for God.
Why should what Jesus says matter to us?
Well, there are very good reasons to believe that Jesus was the Messiah, God in human form (Is. 9:6). So if he said the apostles would speak God's word, we should take that seriously.
Whatever you think about Jesus, you have to admit he is amazing.
Our calendar revolves around his birth.
He is the most written about person that has ever lived.
As we stand here today, more than 2 billion people would get down on their knees and worship him.
Why is he so revered? For many reasons, but one of the biggest is that he fulfilled hundreds of prophecies that were made about the Messiah. These prophesies were written hundreds of years before Jesus lived and he fulfilled them all. This is something you can verify for yourself if you look into it. No other figure in human history can say that.
And there is very good evidence that he rose from the dead.
So, when Jesus says, "the apostles are my authorized spokesmen. They will speak and write the very words of God," that's worth considering.
I realize, though, that may not be enough for you. So consider this…
Second, the writings of the apostles contain amazing predictions that have come true.
This is the topic of "fulfilled prophecy," something we normally associate with the Old Testament. But there are incredible examples of fulfilled prophecy in the New Testament writings of the apostles.
Just before he died, Jesus made this prediction to his disciples:
Matthew 24:14 "And the Good News about the Kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, so that all nations will hear it; and then the end will come."
Incredibly, over the last two millennia, that is exactly what has happened! If you don't think that's amazing, then you try it! Make up some sayings, whatever you want, and then start telling people your sayings will be preached to all the nations. See how that works out. We take statements like this for granted, but when Jesus uttered these words, he was talking to a dozen men, and he was about to be crucified as a criminal in a remote corner of the Roman Empire. And yet, against all odds, what Jesus predicted has come true.
If you don't believe the NT has amazing predictions about the future. Go home and read Luke 21:20-24 for yourself. It predicts the Jews will be displaced from Jerusalem for a long, long time and then, after many years, they will return. That amazing prediction came true in 1967, during the Six Day War, when the Jews regained control of Jerusalem. The nation of Israel was wiped off the map for centuries, but against all odds, the Jews have not just survived as a people; they have reappeared as a nation in their ancestral land!
Ask yourself, how could the apostles writing these words see into the future unless they were hearing from God? Just 50 years ago, futurists predicted there would be flying cars, moonbases, and so on, but they were so far off! And yet in the New Testament we have a document written 2,000 years ago that is correct every time! How do you explain that?
Summary:
The New Testament is historically reliable, internally consistent, endorsed by Christ (who we have good reason to believe is God), and it contains fulfilled prophecy.
For these reasons and for others we don't have time to cover, we believe that the New Testament (along with the Old Testament—a teaching for another day) is the word of God!
Is the New Testament we have what the apostles wrote?
Maybe you're ready to accept that Jesus gave his apostles the authority to speak and write on behalf of God, but you're still not sure if the New Testament we have today is what they apostles originally wrote. Has the New Testament has changed too many times to recover the original?
The Roman historian Livy started working on his History of Rome around 28 B.C. Today, we have 473 manuscripts. It is one of the better preserved documents from near the time of Christ. If you study Livy in a college history class, there won't be a raging debate about whether we actually have what Livy wrote. Why? Think of the copies of an ancient books like twigs fanning out at the top of a tree. By comparing and contrasting copies, we can work our way back to the branches, further back to the larger limbs, and eventually to the trunk of the tree—the original document. The process is called textual criticism, and because we have numerous copies of Livy's work, we are confident our version today is very close to the original.
Fortunately, in the case of the New Testament, there are, at last count, 5,856 Greek New Testament manuscripts in existence. The New Testament is, by a far and away, the best preserved ancient document in all of antiquity. We can have a high degree of confidence that the New Testament we are reading is very, very close to what the original authors wrote.
Summary:
The New Testament is historically reliable, internally consistent, and endorsed by Christ (who we have good reason to believe is God). It contains fulfilled prophecy, and it just happens to be the best preserved document in the ancient world!
If the New Testament is from God, what does that mean for us?
If you accept that Paul's writings and, further, the entire New Testament are from God. So what? What are the implications?
And what about latter-day prophets like Joseph Smith, the guy who wrote The Book of Mormon, or any other church leader who claims to have apostolic authority? What should we say about people today who claim to be an apostle who can speak or write the words of God? They don't have and could not have the right qualifications.
The true apostles who Jesus picked to write the word of God are dead and gone. If you want to read the word of God that Jesus authorized, read the New Testament!
Second, the inspiration of the NT means ALL of it is the word of God—not just what it teaches about Christ and salvation, but also what it teaches in many areas.
Imagine being a co-pilot on a commercial airliner coming in to land and hearing the pilot tell the control tower, "I'm not really resonating with all the direction you're providing. I think I'm going to use the Force today. I just want to feel my way down to the runway." If you were the co-pilot, what would you be thinking? Would you want to be on that airplane? That would be a catastrophe!
We're in a similar spot. Like that airplane, there are so many things happening around us, so many different situations we face, so much potential good and potential danger. We need guidance from the outside to sort it all out and God wants to provide it. God built you, he knows you, he loves you, and he wants to guide you, through his word, for your benefit.
When we get to chapter 4 and Paul brings up sexual ethics and says,
1 Thessalonians 4:3 "…this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality…"
…it is because God cares.
When he says later in chapter 4,
1 Thessalonians 4:15-17 We tell you this directly from the Lord: We who are still living when the Lord returns will… be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.
…it is because God wants you to know he has a plan for your future.
In these areas and many others…
How we conduct our relationships
How we relate to leaders in the church
Our work habits
How we run Christian meetings like this
…we'll have to decide if we will receive these words as wise words of life from a God who loves us, or if we'll just choose what we like and throw out the rest.
When I think about that pilot, feeling his way down to the runway, there are so many things he doesn't know—the flight paths of other planes, what's happening on the tarmac, changing weather conditions. He lacks the big picture, and we do, too. That's why it says in Proverbs
Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. 6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.
He's not saying put your brain on the shelf. We have seen great reasons to believe the New Testament is God's word. But he is calling for the humility to recognize you need words of truth from God. They are life itself.
What will happen (and I'm talking to you here if you are a Christian)… what will happen in this church if we only receive teachings from the New Testament we like and reject what we don't? We will become indistinguishable from the culture around us which is adrift in a sea of moral options. God's word can provide guidance through moral chaos, mayhem, and misery and point us toward a better way to live. But you must receive it for what it really is, not the word of men, but the word of God.
Third, the central message of the Bible, the gospel, is an invitation from God to you.
If you read God's word, Old and New Testaments, cover to cover, you'll be struck by one simple main message. It's a message called the gospel. It's the good news that God will freely forgive anyone who owns their sin and calls out to him for mercy. Jesus made our forgiveness possible when he died on the cross for our sins and rose again. That is the most important message God has for you in the Bible. It is an offer from the God who really is there and who has revealed himself in his word. And I hope you take him up on it.