Expert: Pastor Don Carpenter - 11/27/2007

Question
Hello there, my name is Joe. I am sort of on a spiritual quest I guess you could say. I am not real sure that I am saved. I know that in the Bible it talks about God sending his Son to die for us. I am quite familiar with things pertaining to salvation and the Bible. My question isn't to pick an online fight. I am truly seeking the truth (and the Truth if you will) about Biblical Christianity, and how I know for certain it can be trusted. I know in the Old Testament, there are tons of Messianic prophecies. I have read many of these, and see their confirmation in the New Testament. Although, I have run into a problem. I know this sounds crazy, but I just can't really seem to truly believe until I get this junk cleared away first. How do we know the writers of the Gospels weren't just deliberately making up it's content? How do we know they (including Jesus) didn't just get together and deliberately fulfill prophecy? Granted there is prophecy that Jesus obviously couldn't have fulfilled deliberately such as where He was born and buried. But hey, as a writer of one of the Gospels, why not just write those things in there as if those things really did happen. And who knows? Maybe Jesus, the Apostles, and the writers of the Gospels just wanted to start a lie. Maybe Jesus was like that guy (the one who had the Davidian followers?) and was a complete liar. How can the Gospels be confirmed in the truth of it's content. How do we know they weren't made up? I have an additional question. If secular Old Testament prophecies were fulfilled in history and can be validated, wouldn't that prove that the God of the Bible is true? That would probably confirm that the entire Bible is true huh? Please talk about this as well. Thank you.

Answer
Hi Joe,

Thanks for these great questions.  Please forgive my very late response.  It is a very busy time of year for pastors!

I am not sure where to begin, so I will just jump in.  The Bible is backed both by incredible unity and also by external evidence.  The entire Bible was written over a period of 1600 years, in three languages, by 40+ authors, yet is it perfectly consistant it its theme and purpose.  There is no other book like it on the planet.

The Gospels were backed not only by its fulfillment of some 600 OT prophecies, but also by the testimonies of secular writers.  Josephus, a Jewish historian, writes many things that back up the accounts of the Gospels.  As far as we know, he never became a Christian, so he did not have a motivation to bend the truth.  His eye witness accounts of life during the early days of the church makes for a compelling testimony of the verasity of the Gospels.

I would like to strongly suggest that you get the following books.  I will give you a link with the title in case you would like to order them.  Both of these books will help you see both the internal and external evidence that the Gospels are true.  The Second book will answer your last question in great detail.  There are OT prophecies that were fulfilled according to secular history.  One of them is the time of the Birth of Christ and the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD which was prophecied by Daniel... right down to the timing of that event. Rather than trying to copy a great deal of information found in these books, I am simply going to recommend them to you.

1.  The Case For Christ.  

http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/product?item_no=26465&netp_id=12023...

2.  New Evidence that demands a verdict.

http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/product?item_no=42199&netp_id=15765...

I hope that these will help you.

In Christ
Pastor Don