ba1958ea-2c8d-0873-ef0c-633eb6347a1a
00:00:00.000 | I am James Hong and welcome to the Surpassing Value Podcast.
00:00:15.620 | The fuel and desire for this podcast was born out of a compulsion to flesh out what's
00:00:19.740 | been going on in the midst of an ocean of megaphones that may not actually withstand
00:00:24.600 | the test of scrutiny.
00:00:26.620 | As a signpost theologian, I will do my best to filter out the impurities and point people
00:00:32.320 | in the right direction.
00:00:37.120 | For this episode, I wanted to talk about the reliability of the New Testament documents.
00:00:46.460 | For some people, when you hear this, you might think that such talk somehow becomes an impediment
00:00:52.780 | to faith that a robust discussion into the empirical evidence surrounding the New Testament
00:00:59.340 | documents shouldn't be a conversation to be had because it will somehow add on to faith
00:01:04.420 | or perhaps take away from the faith we should have.
00:01:07.900 | Although I agree faith shouldn't be subject to the whims of the intellectual priesthood
00:01:12.720 | or external circumstances, that doesn't mean that truth doesn't withstand the test
00:01:19.420 | of scrutiny.
00:01:20.420 | Moreover, I flatly reject the claim that empirical evidence is somehow contrary to Christianity
00:01:27.780 | and/or genuine faith.
00:01:29.860 | I'll comment more on that at the closing of this episode.
00:01:34.020 | With that said, let me begin by telling you that the New Testament documents have unparalleled
00:01:40.740 | textual reliability.
00:01:42.900 | The New Testament documents have unparalleled textual reliability.
00:01:47.860 | The three reasons the New Testament documents have unparalleled textual reliability are
00:01:55.240 | due to the number of existing manuscripts, the span of time between the originals and
00:02:01.580 | the copies, and the internal consistency among the existing copies.
00:02:07.860 | Let me explain.
00:02:08.900 | When you study works of antiquity, for good reason and for reasons which I join in, we
00:02:14.500 | rightly state that Homer wrote the Iliad, Sophocles wrote Oedipus Rex, and the various
00:02:20.740 | works of Aristotle, commonly referred to as the Corpus Aristotelicum, were written by
00:02:26.740 | Aristotle.
00:02:28.060 | The primary reason we do so is because of the reasons I just stated, namely, the number
00:02:33.740 | of existing manuscripts, the span of time between the originals and the copies, and
00:02:39.140 | the internal consistency among the existing copies.
00:02:44.100 | The number of existing manuscripts for the New Testament stands at about 6,000, whereas
00:02:52.100 | for the Iliad it is about 650, and for the various works of Sophocles it is about 200.
00:02:59.660 | The New Testament manuscript stands completely alone in that category, which is a prong that
00:03:06.600 | academicians use in corroborating the validity of the work itself.
00:03:13.100 | The span of time between the originals and the copies is also well within two generations,
00:03:20.320 | and this same fact cannot be said for any other work of antiquity if we are talking
00:03:25.460 | about the magnitude of the same and the magnitude of the time.
00:03:32.180 | Let me elaborate why it is so crucial that the New Testament documents are written within
00:03:37.140 | two generations.
00:03:40.100 | Academies will tell you that in order for a myth to develop, you need at least two generations
00:03:45.860 | from the fabricated event.
00:03:48.180 | The logic behind that is pretty simple.
00:03:50.020 | Let me illustrate.
00:03:51.020 | Suppose you and I and a bunch of unsavory wicked fellows decide to start a cult.
00:03:57.740 | In this cult, we decide to make you the ultimate demigod, and the lie has its roots in that
00:04:04.140 | you are able to lift cars and fly like Superman.
00:04:12.200 | If we decided to perpetrate this myth in the midst of the contemporary generation, what
00:04:17.880 | do you think will be the logical reaction to people who are interested in our newly
00:04:23.340 | invented cult?
00:04:26.000 | People will want verification.
00:04:28.500 | People will want empirical proof of our claims.
00:04:32.740 | They will want that because we are making extraordinary claims about our cult and if
00:04:38.740 | true would lend credibility to an otherwise outlandish statement.
00:04:45.780 | The problem is we are lying and you are not able to lift cars, you are not able to fly
00:04:50.980 | like Superman, so the cult should not gather any esteem.
00:04:54.740 | However, if the cult has its roots in making claims about irrefutable matters, then at
00:05:02.140 | least it has a chance.
00:05:04.500 | Notice I didn't say lies, I said irrefutable matters.
00:05:08.260 | So what's an irrefutable matter?
00:05:10.540 | Instead of stating that a person alive is able to lift cars and fly like Superman, we
00:05:15.420 | state that a person who was no longer alive was able to accomplish such miraculous feats.
00:05:21.980 | If the handful of future adherents want to fact check the claims, they will not be able
00:05:27.240 | to fact check because that person is dead.
00:05:31.820 | The next step would then be to see if there is anyone alive who knew that dead person
00:05:37.280 | who could lift cars and fly like Superman to see if they could corroborate the outlandish
00:05:43.180 | statements, the miraculous claims.
00:05:46.940 | The more people you have who are brought in to propagate the lie and perhaps have other
00:05:53.560 | pieces of evidence to back up those claims, the greater the chance this lie will perpetuate.
00:05:58.820 | Of course, if people alive who are not privy to the lie come in in droves stating that
00:06:05.220 | they knew this person and they could accomplish no such feat, you're going to encounter resistance.
00:06:13.780 | Which is why I stated earlier that historians will typically tell you it takes at least
00:06:18.720 | two generations, but many times more.
00:06:22.540 | How does this relate to the claims made in the New Testament and the New Testament itself?
00:06:28.420 | The New Testament claims that its central figure, Jesus of Nazareth, came on the scene
00:06:33.980 | and began publicly teaching about the kingdom of God and accomplishing miraculous works.
00:06:41.360 | These miraculous works included, but are not limited to, making the mute speak, the deaf
00:06:47.020 | to hear, the lame to walk, the blind to see, cleansing lepers instantaneously, healing
00:06:53.080 | terminally ill people, and even raising the dead.
00:06:57.660 | The relevant detail here is that much of the New Testament documents claim that Jesus of
00:07:03.100 | Nazareth performed these acts and that people who witnessed these events were still alive.
00:07:09.860 | There was a high likelihood that one saw these events themselves or heard from a living eyewitness.
00:07:17.980 | The New Testament documents also claim that Jesus of Nazareth was executed but rose bodily
00:07:24.500 | three days later and appeared not just to a fringe group of people, but to large chunks
00:07:30.740 | of people at the same time.
00:07:34.640 | After 40 days, the New Testament states that he ascended, or to put it in less religious
00:07:39.460 | terms, he vanished and was never seen bodily again.
00:07:44.060 | The New Testament claims that Christians began to multiply while suffering under heavy persecution
00:07:50.180 | from the outside world because they could not deny these claims, while dealing with
00:07:56.180 | those at times within the church taught an aberrant version of Christianity.
00:08:02.500 | The renowned church historian, Philip Schafe, stated it like this, "The persecutions of
00:08:10.820 | Christianity during the first three centuries appear like a long tragedy, first foreboding
00:08:17.860 | signs, then a succession of bloody assaults of heathenism upon the religion of the cross.
00:08:24.820 | Amidst the dark scenes of fiendish hatred and cruelty, the bright exhibitions of suffering
00:08:30.300 | virtue, now and then a short pause, at least a fearful and desperate struggle of the old
00:08:37.060 | pagan empire for life and death, ending in the abiding victory of the Christian religion.
00:08:42.900 | Thus, this bloody baptism of the church resulted in the birth of a Christian world.
00:08:48.980 | It was a repetition and prolongation of the crucifixion, but followed by a resurrection."
00:08:58.180 | Schafe further remarks on the first four centuries of the church, under Roman rule, stating it
00:09:03.300 | like this, "From the fifth century it has been customary to reckon ten great persecutions,
00:09:10.300 | under Nero, Domitian, Trajan, Marcus Aurelius, Septimius Severus, Maximus, Decius Valerian,
00:09:18.780 | Aurelian, and Diocletian.
00:09:21.380 | This number was suggested by the ten plagues of Egypt, taken as types, which however befell
00:09:26.060 | the enemies of Israel, and present a contrast rather than a parallel, and by the ten horns
00:09:31.740 | of the Roman beast making war with the lamb, taken for so many emperors.
00:09:35.900 | But the number is too great for the general persecutions, and too small for the provincial
00:09:39.900 | and local.
00:09:41.260 | Only two imperial persecutions, those of Decius and Diocletian, extended over the empire,
00:09:48.820 | but Christianity was always an illegal religion from Trajan to Constantine, and subject to
00:09:56.740 | annoyance and violence everywhere.
00:09:59.700 | Some persecuting members, Nero, Domitian, Galerius, were monstrous tyrants, but others,
00:10:05.540 | Trajan, Marcus Aurelius, Decius, Diocletian, were among the best and most energetic emperors,
00:10:12.660 | and were prompted not so much by hatred of Christianity, as by zeal for the maintenance
00:10:17.540 | of the laws and the power of the government.
00:10:20.620 | On the other hand, some of the most worthless emperors, Commodus, Caracalla, and Heliogabalus,
00:10:29.260 | were rather favorable to Christians from sheer caprice.
00:10:33.460 | All were equally ignorant of the true character of the new religion.
00:10:37.140 | The long and bloody war of heathen Rome against the Church, which is built upon a rock, utterly
00:10:42.780 | failed.
00:10:44.020 | It began in Rome under Nero.
00:10:46.080 | It ended near Rome at the Milvian Bridge under Constantine.
00:10:51.780 | Aiming to exterminate, it purified.
00:10:54.760 | It called forth the virtues of Christian heroism, and resulted in the consolidation and triumph
00:11:01.940 | of the new religion.
00:11:03.500 | The philosophy of persecution is best expressed by the terse word of Tertullian, who lived
00:11:10.540 | in the midst of them, but did not see the end.
00:11:13.860 | "The blood of the Christians is the seed of the church."
00:11:20.460 | Let's begin to piece what we have together so far.
00:11:25.480 | The claims made in the New Testament are that its central figure, performed and taught publicly
00:11:31.900 | and the verification of who he was, lied in the miracles that he performed and the substance
00:11:39.020 | of what he taught.
00:11:40.900 | Of high importance was that he claimed to be God.
00:11:45.820 | To prove his claims, instead of exacting his power upon what the eye could see, he came
00:11:52.260 | to offer his own life as a substitution for the required life of all who do not live perfectly,
00:11:59.140 | which is everyone that has ever lived.
00:12:01.500 | Upon this, he stated that even death would not be able to hold him, and substantiated
00:12:08.860 | this claim by rising bodily.
00:12:12.200 | His adherents would spread this message, but were met with great hostility.
00:12:18.120 | If all of this is indeed true, it would stand to reason that there would be outside records
00:12:24.660 | of all this taking place in some shape or form, and indeed there was.
00:12:31.420 | Listen to what Josephus, a Jewish historian commissioned by Rome, wrote.
00:12:35.420 | Mind you, Josephus was compelled to be objective and trustworthy since he was commissioned
00:12:40.220 | by Rome.
00:12:41.220 | He wasn't a Christian.
00:12:42.740 | Josephus states this, "Now some of the Jews thought the destruction of Herod's army came
00:12:48.900 | from God, and that very justly, as punishment of what he did against John, that was called
00:12:54.500 | the Baptist.
00:12:55.580 | For Herod slew him, who was a good man, and commanded the Jews to exercise virtue, both
00:13:01.060 | as to righteousness towards one another and piety towards God, and so to come to baptism."
00:13:08.740 | If you are unfamiliar with the New Testament, Josephus here is validating claims made in
00:13:15.580 | the New Testament.
00:13:17.620 | This is an outside record validating what is contained within the New Testament.
00:13:26.340 | Josephus elsewhere states, "Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be
00:13:32.020 | lawful to call him a man, for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men
00:13:37.660 | as received the truth with pleasure.
00:13:39.900 | He drew over to him both many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles.
00:13:43.980 | He was Christ, and when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned
00:13:49.980 | him to the cross, those that loved him at first did not forsake him, for he appeared
00:13:54.920 | to them alive again the third day, and the tribe of Christians so named from him are
00:14:02.100 | not extinct at this day."
00:14:07.380 | Here are some more outside records validating the claims of the New Testament from people
00:14:11.900 | who are no friends of Christians.
00:14:13.780 | Tacitus writes this, again, no friend of Christians.
00:14:17.300 | He writes, "Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted
00:14:24.020 | the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abomination, called Christians by
00:14:29.420 | the populace.
00:14:30.420 | Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign
00:14:35.440 | of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilate."
00:14:40.780 | Lucian, a Greek writer, writes this, "The Christians, you know, worship a man to this
00:14:47.640 | day, the distinguished personage who introduced their novel rites and was crucified on the
00:14:54.000 | account.
00:14:55.220 | You see, these misguided creatures start with the general conviction that they are immortal
00:15:01.880 | for all time, which explains the contempt of death and voluntary self-devotion which
00:15:08.600 | are so common among them, and then it was impressed on them by their original lawgiver
00:15:14.040 | that they are all brothers from the moment that they are converted and deny the gods
00:15:19.020 | of Greece and worship the crucified sage and live after his laws.
00:15:23.920 | All this they take quite on faith, with the result that they despise all worldly goods
00:15:30.300 | alike, regarding them as merely common property."
00:15:37.360 | Earlier I mentioned that the New Testament documents exhibited a remarkable consistency
00:15:43.800 | among the existing copies.
00:15:45.680 | That was the second prong.
00:15:46.680 | I just finished the first prong.
00:15:48.700 | Now on to the second prong.
00:15:50.480 | The New Testament documents exhibited a remarkable consistency among existing copies.
00:15:56.960 | The textual agreement between the existing copies stands at about 99.5% and the 0.5%
00:16:05.120 | is merely Scrivener error that does not change anything of substance.
00:16:09.920 | To put that into perspective, no other work of antiquity exhibits anything close to this.
00:16:17.560 | Yet we still claim, with good reason, that Homer wrote the Iliad, Sophocles wrote Oedipus
00:16:23.400 | Rex and so on, which I join in.
00:16:26.840 | But my point is, if we're going to be logically consistent, then we also have to claim that
00:16:33.120 | the New Testament documents also should be taken for what they are stating not based
00:16:40.800 | upon the documents themselves necessarily, but also based upon the corroborating evidence
00:16:49.800 | that we see from outside.
00:16:54.360 | There is also remarkable touchpoint corroboration of the times and places mentioned in the New
00:17:01.020 | Testament.
00:17:02.020 | That's important because, again, it would stand to reason that if the claims made in
00:17:06.120 | the New Testament of our actual times and places, those times and places should exist
00:17:12.360 | outside the documents in the New Testament and indeed they do.
00:17:19.440 | I'll be quoting from J. Warner Wallace who wrote a book called Cold Case Christianity.
00:17:30.520 | He is a former homicide detective and lifelong atheist.
00:17:34.760 | Before his conversion, he examined the empirical claims of Christianity at the age of 35, applying
00:17:40.600 | his detective skills when undertaking his own personal investigation.
00:17:45.800 | J. Warner Wallace writes, "Luke's narratives include detailed and specific descriptions
00:17:54.200 | related to the locations, people, offices, and titles within the Roman Empire.
00:17:59.480 | In fact, many of Luke's claims were eventually confirmed by archaeological discoveries.
00:18:05.340 | Related to Quirinius, Luke wrote that Joseph and Mary returned to Bethlehem because a Syrian
00:18:12.520 | governor named Quirinius was conducting a census.
00:18:19.120 | Archaeological discoveries in the 19th century revealed Quirinius for someone with the same
00:18:24.440 | name was also a pro-consul of Syria and Cilicia from 11 B.C. to the death of Herod.
00:18:31.200 | Quirinius' name has been discovered on a coin from this period of time and on the base
00:18:35.960 | of a statue erected in Sidon, Antioch.
00:18:40.000 | Related to Erastus, in Romans 16.23, Paul wrote, "Erastus, the city treasurer, greets
00:18:45.480 | you.
00:18:46.480 | A piece of pavement was discovered in Corinth in 1929 confirming his existence."
00:18:52.360 | Related to Lysanias, Luke discovered a tetrarch named Lysanias and wrote that this man reigned
00:18:57.800 | over Abilene when John the Baptist began his ministry (Luke 3.1).
00:19:02.640 | Two inscriptions have been discovered that mention Lysanias by name.
00:19:06.960 | One of these, dated from A.D. 1437, identifies Lysanias as a tetrarch in Abila near Damascus.
00:19:17.040 | There were many other examples, but I thought a sample would suffice if this topic interests
00:19:22.000 | you.
00:19:23.000 | Feel free to get his book, "Cold Case Christianity."
00:19:26.840 | Another book I would recommend on this issue is "Jesus Under Fire" edited by Michael
00:19:31.200 | Wilkins.
00:19:32.800 | That book is a collection of essays from multiple different academicians in response to the
00:19:38.200 | Jesus Seminar, where another group of academicians came together in an attempt to reinvent the
00:19:44.440 | historical Jesus.
00:19:46.440 | The final book I would recommend is Craig Blomberg's "The Historical Reliability
00:19:53.920 | of the New Testament."
00:20:00.080 | In an essay he wrote, responding to questions regarding the reliability of the New Testament,
00:20:05.640 | he makes two important points regarding the historicity of Acts and the questions of miracles.
00:20:14.840 | This is Craig Blomberg regarding the historicity of Acts.
00:20:18.840 | He writes, "The New Testament contains only one book with the genre or contents of Acts
00:20:26.320 | of the Apostles.
00:20:27.640 | This is a theologically rich and artistically refined work of history.
00:20:32.280 | The number of characters and places in this selective account of key events in the first
00:20:36.800 | generation of church history that have been confirmed is staggering.
00:20:41.260 | From non-Christian works alone, we know of Annas, Claudius, Gamaliel, Caiaphas, James,
00:20:47.440 | Galileo, Agrippa I and II, Sergius Paulus, Felix Drusilla, Festus, Bernas, and others.
00:20:56.540 | Every city and location which has been excavated has been shown to be as Acts describes them,
00:21:02.960 | complete with specific synagogues, theaters, ports, roads, rivers, and more, particularly
00:21:10.560 | significant is how Luke gets right the names of the rulers in the various locations especially
00:21:17.480 | since in some instances they varied quite a bit in a given region or from one period
00:21:24.360 | to the next.
00:21:25.780 | These include the Sanhedrin, the Italian Regiment, Tetrarchs, Pro-Councils, Magistrates, Politarchs,
00:21:33.200 | the Areopagus, City Clerk, and the Chief Man on the Island of Malta.
00:21:37.860 | The very fact that one can mesh Acts with more fragmentary and sometimes called incidental
00:21:43.860 | allusions to Paul's life in his letters sets Acts off from historical novels, modern
00:21:49.520 | and ancient.
00:21:51.240 | That one can generate a plausible detailed chronology of the events depicted in Acts,
00:21:57.240 | again especially in comparison with Paul's letters, and chart his missionary journeys
00:22:02.400 | as coherent and sensible travels further suggests Acts is historical."
00:22:13.960 | The book of Acts in the New Testament contains all the hallmarks of reliability and trustworthiness.
00:22:27.280 | Regarding the question of miracles, Blomberg writes "Can we believe in documents as filled
00:22:33.400 | with miracles as the New Testament is?
00:22:36.200 | If one a priori postulates an anti-supernatural worldview then no, but then one is no longer
00:22:43.440 | engaging in historical investigation.
00:22:46.300 | The claim that natural explanations are always more probable even if one does not rule out
00:22:51.760 | supernatural explanations up front is itself a belief that cannot be demonstrated empirically
00:22:58.240 | and that unduly denigrates the role of trustworthy testimony as the bedrock of historiography.
00:23:06.080 | It also flies in the face of thousands of modern day experiences of ordinary people
00:23:11.800 | all around the globe who have witnessed instantaneous healings and similar events after public concerted
00:23:18.660 | Christian prayer.
00:23:20.400 | Claims about miracles should neither be written off a priori nor uncritically accepted.
00:23:25.480 | They should be tested like any other historical affirmations.
00:23:29.560 | What sets the New Testament miracles off from accounts in many other kinds of literature
00:23:34.560 | is their consistent link to the arrival or inauguration of God's reign in the person
00:23:40.680 | of Jesus and the movement he began.
00:23:44.080 | Claims about similarities with other ancient miracle stories break down on careful inspection.
00:23:50.200 | The closest parallels are all post-Christian, too late to have influenced the New Testament
00:23:55.160 | writers.
00:23:56.160 | Partially, similar pre-Christian parallels usually cluster around gods or goddesses or
00:24:02.400 | heroes from some dim, mythical past and are not attached to recent people known to have
00:24:12.320 | lived real human lives.
00:24:14.960 | This is especially the case when one examines the resurrection of Jesus.
00:24:19.840 | The most spectacular and significant of the foundational Christian miracles."
00:24:30.800 | If you reject the New Testament claims prior to the investigation of the New Testament
00:24:39.160 | claims, because the New Testament claims miracles, then what you've done is you've stated before
00:24:53.400 | even looking into the claims that it must be false.
00:24:59.520 | But wouldn't something as incredible, as uncommon, as outlandish as miracles be the
00:25:08.160 | exact source of confirming something that is other-worldly true, that is supernatural?
00:25:19.920 | Doesn't it stand to reason that if there is indeed a supernatural realm, the way to confirm
00:25:28.840 | that would be something akin to miracles?
00:25:34.360 | The question is whether or not miracles are actually the source of the confirmation of
00:25:44.480 | these claims.
00:25:46.400 | The question is, did these miracles actually happen?
00:25:53.600 | Did those miracles actually happen?
00:25:57.120 | Is there evidence for such miracles?
00:25:59.960 | In conclusion, I want to comment on the nature of what I articulated in the beginning of
00:26:07.960 | this episode as it relates to genuine faith, as if somehow they should be held in exclusion.
00:26:13.840 | Remember, I'm not advocating that anything I said in this episode is salvific or necessary
00:26:22.800 | for salvation, that's not what I'm advocating.
00:26:27.320 | I'm advocating for something a lot more narrow.
00:26:31.040 | What I'm advocating is that interest in the substance of what was articulated in this
00:26:36.080 | episode or an investigation into these claims or even a desire to do that further research
00:26:45.040 | somehow is contrary or is detrimental to faith.
00:26:50.960 | Just a few comments on that narrow point.
00:26:53.480 | In the last episode, we talked about John 10, 37-38, but let me read this passage again
00:27:01.000 | and comment on why it's relevant here.
00:27:03.040 | "If I do not do the works of my Father, do not believe me.
00:27:07.880 | But if I do do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, so that you
00:27:13.200 | may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father."
00:27:19.600 | That is Jesus in John 10 verses 37-38.
00:27:24.400 | Christ himself pointed at works as proof of who he was.
00:27:31.200 | He didn't come on the scene, preach, and then state "believe or else."
00:27:35.920 | He absolutely could have in one sentence, but my point is that even Christ used empirical
00:27:41.080 | evidence as validation that he was indeed the promised Messiah and pointed towards that
00:27:47.680 | evidence as proof of who he was, which was reflective of Isaiah 61 and Isaiah 35.
00:27:56.040 | When God sent Moses to free Israel from Pharaoh, God used Moses to perform many miracles as
00:28:02.720 | validation that God was the one true God of the universe and not the gods of Egypt.
00:28:09.120 | You also see this same pattern with Elijah, that miracles accompanied his message as proof
00:28:16.080 | of the substance of what Elijah was testifying to.
00:28:19.740 | By God's grace, God has left a trail of breadcrumbs that corroborates the claims made in the New
00:28:28.880 | Testament and also to the validity of the New Testament itself.
00:28:33.920 | I want to make this point clear because this same point also applies to how you think about
00:28:41.480 | the canon of scripture.
00:28:43.340 | I'm not saying that our reasoning, our minds, and our external evidence should be catapulted
00:28:51.520 | to a level that's higher than scripture.
00:28:53.880 | That's not what I'm saying.
00:28:55.480 | The greater confirms the lesser.
00:28:58.520 | Revelation is greater than reason.
00:29:01.240 | I am in no way advocating for an elevated Rene Descartes line of reasoning here.
00:29:07.000 | I think therefore I am.
00:29:09.060 | To advocate for that would then be advocating that anything we could prove physically is
00:29:14.240 | what is true, or that the greatest form of validation is empirical, which would be essentially
00:29:19.440 | arguing for a form of naturalism.
00:29:22.740 | What I am advocating, though, is that the scriptures themselves speak to a validity
00:29:29.620 | contained within empirical proofs.
00:29:34.300 | This is usually coordinated with future prophecies, and they were also used to even shut the mouths
00:29:40.400 | of people who state that, had there actually been a miracle, they wouldn't be entangled
00:29:47.200 | in unbelief.
00:29:48.200 | God's not going to jump and dance for you every time you ask him to at the same time.
00:29:55.840 | He has left a vast body of evidence that corroborates and eliminates excuses even for the most hardest
00:30:07.440 | of skeptics.
00:30:10.320 | It is absolutely true that God saves those whom he foreknew, however, what is also true
00:30:20.640 | is that the empirical evidence for the claims of the New Testament are at the very least
00:30:26.360 | adequate and, in my humble opinion, compelling.
00:30:32.040 | It's almost as if there is this mountain of evidence that demands a verdict, a la Josh
00:30:41.360 | McDowell, and to look over it, you would have to forcefully ignore that and the evidence
00:30:51.280 | of creation.
00:30:56.480 | Thanks for making it to the end, I'll continue to try to make the journey worth it.
00:31:03.280 | To him be honor, glory, and eternal dominion, James Allnell.
00:31:18.160 | Amen.
00:31:31.080 | Amen.
00:31:38.320 | (upbeat music)