Do you trust the validity of the New Testament?

[LadyCrosstalk]

Hello, do you trust the validity of the New Testament, in parts or as a whole? It was written quite some time after Jesus. How do we know it's true?

The Bible, both the Old and the New Testaments are completely reliable--you can have full confidence in them. In the case of the New Testament, copies of the gospel witness accounts were in wide circulation from shortly after the Resurrection (probably from the foundation of the Church at Pentecost). The Epistles were copied over and over and circulated through the churches as well. You must remember that the Jewish believers who were responsible for writing them down (and it is possible that Luke was a Jew as well) all understood that it was their sacred duty and privilege to be the conduit of the Holy Spirit's inspiration of their words. They understood the eternal consequences of lying about even the smallest detail.

 

[Waggles]

Why wouldn't we trust the validity of the New Testament? No one, and I mean no one has ever proved that it is not true and that Jesus is not who he said he was and that the miracles did not happen and Jesus did not die on a cross and Jesus did not rise from the dead and Jesus did not ascend into heaven and that the New Testament church did not exist and the 12 disciples did not do what they claimed they did and the teaching of Jesus is not the foundation of all civilised society so what is there not to beleive?

The problem is certain large mainstream denominations full of university trained unbelievers (a.k.a. theologians) do not believe in the truth,
and make a handsome living writing books and teaching others how not to believe.

Sure, Jesus will burn them up in flaming fire, but in the meantime they are doing a lot of damage.
And causing grievous harm to many who give these unbelievers credence.

 

[Episaw]

The problem is certain large mainstream denominations full of university trained unbelievers (a.k.a. theologians) do not believe in the truth,
and make a handsome living writing books and teaching others how not to believe.

Sure, Jesus will burn them up in flaming fire, but in the meantime they are doing a lot of damage.
And causing grievous harm to many who give these unbelievers credence.

Yeah, but I had to laugh when one of those, Barbara Thering said in a TV program that Jesus didn't really walk on water. He was walking on an underwater pier.

The true believer has nothing to fear from these dingos as soaking oneself in the word of God will show who the idiots are.

 

[RabbiMike]

In the back of my mind I have doubts about the NT being tampered with by mankind along the way that would weaken the message.

It would have to have been extraordinarily early tampering. The various books of the NT were all written within a living generation of the events they describe, and then were re-copied literally thousands upon thousands of times and distributed all over the Roman world. We actually can detect some minor tampering by comparing manuscripts. It's rarely anything that impacts even a minor teaching. Most of the time, it's a scribe trying to clarify something in the text, or fix what he believes to be an error. You have the benefit of being the recipient of a six-century ongoing quest to restore the NT texts to as close to the original autographs as possible, and you can be assured that 99.9% of the NT has been perfectly reconstructed at this point.

If you're really concerned, let me recommend Robert J. Hutchinson's book, Searching for Jesus: New Discoveries in the Quest for Jesus of Nazareth. It came out just two years ago, so it's very up-to-date, and it shows that the direction of mainline scholarship has been increasingly moving towards accepting the NT's historicity. In fact, there's a broad consensus that Yeshua's (Jesus') followers certainly experienced something after his execution by crucifixion that prompted them to go forward with the proclamation of the Gospel, even if skeptical scholars aren't willing to accept a bodily resurrection.

In short, go find out what's going on in real scholarship--even skeptical scholarship--instead of relying on the internet for your information, and I think you'll find your faith strengthened.

Shalom

 

[Episaw]

It would have to have been extraordinarily early tampering. The various books of the NT were all written within a living generation of the events they describe, and then were re-copied literally thousands upon thousands of times and distributed all over the Roman world. We actually can detect some minor tampering by comparing manuscripts. It's rarely anything that impacts even a minor teaching. Most of the time, it's a scribe trying to clarify something in the text, or fix what he believes to be an error. You have the benefit of being the recipient of a six-century ongoing quest to restore the NT texts to as close to the original autographs as possible, and you can be assured that 99.9% of the NT has been perfectly reconstructed at this point.

If you're really concerned, let me recommend Robert J. Hutchinson's book, Searching for Jesus: New Discoveries in the Quest for Jesus of Nazareth. It came out just two years ago, so it's very up-to-date, and it shows that the direction of mainline scholarship has been increasingly moving towards accepting the NT's historicity. In fact, there's a broad consensus that Yeshua's (Jesus') followers certainly experienced something after his execution by crucifixion that prompted them to go forward with the proclamation of the Gospel, even if skeptical scholars aren't willing to accept a bodily resurrection.

In short, go find out what's going on in real scholarship--even skeptical scholarship--instead of relying on the internet for your information, and I think you'll find your faith strengthened.

Shalom

Well said, Rabbi Mike. It is nothing new to cast aspersions on the authenticity of the The New Testament as atheists, in particular, have been trying for years to junk it. They use supercilious terms like it was written by goat herders which show they have not read a word of it as the writers were Prime Ministers, Kings, Prophets, and Judges to name a few. In fact, there is not one goat herder amongst them.

Sadly there are a lot of commentators here who are quite devoid of any depth of knowledge about what they write. They either parrot the party line or just give a wild and inaccurate opinion.

I have a theological degree and three university degrees and when I point this out, they get all haughty and say "so what." In other words, your education and knowledge are irrelevant.

And yet all the academic books I have (several) that cover various aspects of scripture are all written by those who have gone through the rigor of academia and earned degrees of varying nature.

ATM, I am reading books that give the background to the New Testament and the history of the Jews so that I can gain an understanding of the why of New Testament life. I wonder how many of these so-called experts have done the same?

 

[marineimaging]

Hello, do you trust the validity of the New Testament, in parts or as a whole? It was written quite some time after Jesus. How do we know it's true?

Absolutely. How do we know? To start with it has withstood the test of time and many who sought to fix it. Many have tried only to return the truth. Many, MANY of the Jewish faith who set out to sincerely disprove the New Testament Jesus as the Messiah became Messianic Jews themselves. As for my KJV New Testament, I know it is true when I study it. I don't need a truth meter when the Holy Spirit is witnessed in the New Testament. Lastly, I trust God.

 

[Bible Highlighter]

Hello, do you trust the validity of the New Testament, in parts or as a whole? It was written quite some time after Jesus. How do we know it's true?

This is the only blogger article I had written that may be helpful for you to know that God's Word has tons of amazing evidences that back it up as a truly divine book.

Love Branch: Evidences for the Word of God

I hope you enjoy going through it, my friend.
And may God bless you greatly this fine day.


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[Andrew4jesus]

This is the only blogger article I had written that may be helpful for you to know that God's Word has tons of amazing evidences that back it up as a truly divine book.

Love Branch: Evidences for the Word of God

I hope you enjoy going through it, my friend.
And may God bless you greatly this fine day.


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Thanks will have a read through

 

[Andrew4jesus]

Why? Are you saying that God cannot seal his Word against counterfeit efforts and the mischief that Satan gets up to?
Study Bible Numerics dicovered by Ivan Panin and expounded by John Bullinger (Numbers In Scripture).
Every word and every verse sealed by arithmetic patterns of numbers, such as 7 and multiples of 7, to determine the validity
of both the original Hebrew [OT] and Greek [NT] scriptures.

Ivan Panin published a New Testament which by Bible Numerics omits a few verses that most scholars do agree where added in
by zealous translators writing in the Latin.
There are thousands of copies of New Testament scrolls and parchments in libraries across Europe and America to facilitate
excellent scholarship of the original Greek.

Is it possible that some of gods word has been sealed up so we don't understand it until the end?

 

[Adstar]

Hello, do you trust the validity of the New Testament, in parts or as a whole? It was written quite some time after Jesus. How do we know it's true?

I trust the validity of the New Testament.. The day that i don't will be the day i become an agnostic..

People can read it and decide for themselves

 

[Tolworth John]

Why don't you trust the validity of the bible?
Why should the aposles lie about what happened?

Ever worked with children and seen how retentive their minds are?
In those days paper was scarse, they would use bits of broken pots as notepads so they had to rely on their memory.
In an oral society stories are repeatly told and any attempt to alter/amend/improve a historical story would be recognised by the audience and publicly corrected. To the great shame of the narrator.

Educate yourself by reading blogs like coldcasechristianity, bethinking, toughquestionsanswered.

 

[buzuxi02]

Is it possible that some of gods word has been sealed up so we don't understand it until the end?

It depends. According to Ignatius writing in 108AD the Virgin birth was kept hidden from the prince of this age to only be revealed quite recently. To this day many 'historians' believe the Virgin birth was a later development because Paul never mentions it in his epistles and the Ebionites rejected a Virgin birth.
In Luke 2.3 there is a difficult statement where Luke places the birth of Christ in 6AD during the census of Cyrenius (or so it seems Luke is speaking of the 6ad census). Hint: a census that took place for all Jews just prior to Herod''s death is mentioned in bk 17 of Josephus history yet it has flown over every historians head for 1900 years.

 

[Rakis]

Hello, do you trust the validity of the New Testament, in parts or as a whole? It was written quite some time after Jesus. How do we know it's true?[/QUOTE

Yes but I'm reading a book and staking my life on it. I don't see anything wrong in questioning stuff. What if Jesus had not said certain things and it was written as his words? It's a big ask of anyone to believe in a book that was written by men.

Just be mindful that your not coming across as being doubtful as your staking your life on it, because it can effect others who are not so strong in faith.
Again all scripture in the bible is inspired by who? Yes that's correct God and how did God write His Holy book? through men inspired by Gods Holy Spirit.
Is that so hard to believe? No not for me Jesus said to Thomas you believe because you seen me BUT

 

[Colter]

Hello, do you trust the validity of the New Testament, in parts or as a whole? It was written quite some time after Jesus. How do we know it's true?

I trust what seems true. The inconsistency and errors of the Bible are authenticating, it's as imperfect as we should expect it to be.

 

[Victor E.]

Historical timelines, appeal to authority, the latest manuscripts, and scientific discoveries are an endless rabbit hole based off of worldly knowledge. Faith gives all the answers through obedience and study of the Word.

 

[Norbert L]

I'm not sure quoting words from the actual book will help me see its validity?

There are some words from the actual book that directly speak to the idea you used to support your question about the validity of the New Testament.

Hello, do you trust the validity of the New Testament, in parts or as a whole? It was written quite some time after Jesus. How do we know it's true?

When you state, "It was written quite some time after Jesus", the writer of Luke gives us this information: "like the accounts passed on to us by those who were eyewitnesses and servants of the word from the beginning." Luke 1:2 NET.

After Jesus life, death and bodily resurrection, those eyewitnesses also lived quite some time after Jesus. The length of time between the events and their writing happened within one lifetime, that is not long enough to discredit what has been written. Basically in the game of Chinese Whispers, when you're second in line to receive the message, the criticism your going to have to deal with is: Can you trust Luke to relay the message truthfully?

 

[AlexDTX]

Hello, do you trust the validity of the New Testament, in parts or as a whole? It was written quite some time after Jesus. How do we know it's true?

Do you trust Jesus? If you know Him through His Holy Spirit, then you trust the inspiration of the Spirit. Try reading the Apocrypha and the Pseudopigrapha and notice the lack of the sense of the Spirit in your readings.

 

[jamespyles]

Hello, do you trust the validity of the New Testament, in parts or as a whole? It was written quite some time after Jesus. How do we know it's true?

You could ask the same question of the Old Testament since many scholars believe portions of it were written much, much later than the actual events the various books describe. Personally, I consider the Apostolic Scriptures to be a commentary on the Torah, Prophets and the Writings (what you call the Old Testament), but then, I tend to view the Bible from a more Judaic perspective.

 

[Bible Highlighter]

The Bible and the Bible alone is divine and perfect because there are tons of evidences that show us this to be so. Also, God's Word claims that it is perfect and that it would be preserved for all generations. The world language of today is English. Just as at one the world language was Greek.

Anyways, If one word in God's Word could not be trusted, then there is no reason for me to trust the rest of the Bible. For who would get to decide what was true or not? Our hearts and our feelings? God's Word says the heart it deceitful above all else. So it is not a matter of my opinion. God's Word changes me and it is not me who should change God's Word.


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[Bible Highlighter]

Thanks will have a read through

You are most welcome.
I hope you enjoy checking out all the resources there.
In fact, all the videos are great (and life changing) in my opinion;
And even the links I provided to certain articles, too.
One evidence I am thinking of adding to this article is the Orion and Pleiades star clusters as mentioned from the book of Job. One of these star clusters was said to be gravitationally loosed (expanding further away from each other) while the other was not. The mention of this can be found in the article link called 101 Scientific Evidences posted on my blogger article page.

Oh, and check out the website link on my Blogger article for how the Bible can be found in the Chinese language, too. Totally awesome.

May God bless you.
And may you always stay strong in the power of His might and good ways.

Side Note:

As for the New Testament:
Hundreds of Messianic Prophecies and Biblical numerics both confirm the veracity of the New Testament in a very powerful way. There are other evidences in different categories (of course), too.


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