I would have posted this in exploring christianity forum but I don't have privilleges to post there, so this forum seems like the next best place to ask.
I've been reading a book called Christ and the Bible by John Wenham. In it the author tries to show what Christ's view of Scripture was. He says the book is aimed at Christians -
"those who believe that Jesus was God Incarnate, the supreme revelation of God. It is addressed furthermore to Christians who believe that at least in a general sense the Gospels give a substantially true account of the Jesus of history."
He goes on to say:
"Hitherto Christians who have been unsure about the status of the Bible have been caught in a vicious circle: any satisfactory doctrine of the Bible must be based on the teaching of the Bible, but the teaching of the Bible is itself suspect. The way out of this dilemma is to recognise that belief in the Bible comes from faith in Christ, and not vice versa. The argument is as follows: if the Gospels are substantially true, we are justified in regarding as historical those features in them which are often repeated and which are found in a variety of Gospel strata. Three such features are Jesus' attitude to the Old Testament, his attitude to his own teaching and his attitude to the continuing witness of his disciples after his death. He regarded the teaching of the Old Testament, his own teaching and the teaching of his apostles as the teaching of God, and therefore as wholly true and trustworthy. Thus belief in Christ as the supreme revelation of God leads to belief in scriptural inspiration - of the Old testament by the direct testimony of Jesus and of the New Testament by inference from his testimony. The argument here is inductive. At no point is a conclusion based upon a single passage, but on the concurrent witness of a large number of passages." (page 9)
Ok, so thats pretty clear Christians can have confidence in the Bible, from faith in Christ.
My question then is how does one come to have faith in Christ to begin with, and be a christian.
I am struggling with skeptical and 'liberal' views of the Gospels - that say many of the events recorded never happened and the disciples made them up. Any help on those views, or book suggestions on the subject. Seems like the very minimum is to belief that what is recorded in the Gospels is substantially true.
I've been reading a book called Christ and the Bible by John Wenham. In it the author tries to show what Christ's view of Scripture was. He says the book is aimed at Christians -
"those who believe that Jesus was God Incarnate, the supreme revelation of God. It is addressed furthermore to Christians who believe that at least in a general sense the Gospels give a substantially true account of the Jesus of history."
He goes on to say:
"Hitherto Christians who have been unsure about the status of the Bible have been caught in a vicious circle: any satisfactory doctrine of the Bible must be based on the teaching of the Bible, but the teaching of the Bible is itself suspect. The way out of this dilemma is to recognise that belief in the Bible comes from faith in Christ, and not vice versa. The argument is as follows: if the Gospels are substantially true, we are justified in regarding as historical those features in them which are often repeated and which are found in a variety of Gospel strata. Three such features are Jesus' attitude to the Old Testament, his attitude to his own teaching and his attitude to the continuing witness of his disciples after his death. He regarded the teaching of the Old Testament, his own teaching and the teaching of his apostles as the teaching of God, and therefore as wholly true and trustworthy. Thus belief in Christ as the supreme revelation of God leads to belief in scriptural inspiration - of the Old testament by the direct testimony of Jesus and of the New Testament by inference from his testimony. The argument here is inductive. At no point is a conclusion based upon a single passage, but on the concurrent witness of a large number of passages." (page 9)
Ok, so thats pretty clear Christians can have confidence in the Bible, from faith in Christ.
My question then is how does one come to have faith in Christ to begin with, and be a christian.
I am struggling with skeptical and 'liberal' views of the Gospels - that say many of the events recorded never happened and the disciples made them up. Any help on those views, or book suggestions on the subject. Seems like the very minimum is to belief that what is recorded in the Gospels is substantially true.
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