For those that ask: "How does anyone know that the new testament is reliable?"?

Question

http://www.geocities.com/worldview_3/reliabletext.html

Answer 1

Thanks for the link. I've also found http://equip.org to be helpful.

Answer 2

It begs the question of what you mean by reliable and also reliable for what purpose.

I am a Christian, however even the ancient Christians were very conscious of the inconsistencies in scripture. The most classic example is taking the the resurrection narratives and putting them side by side. You will find 46 irreconcilable difference. 46 points where if one story is true, the others must be false. If you are looking for a play by play historical account, then it clearly is not accurate. The New Testament is not a set of biographies or doctrinal statements.

If it is used as a prayerful witness of the ancient faith as proclaimed in early Christianity then it is very reliable. If you need to be a fundamentalist, then you simply have to not read the scriptures carefully. You need to lack a critical eye and not use causal logic with consistency.

So it begs the question of what are you using for your definitions.

Answer 3

A few years ago we had a catastrophe that we call 911. Every major newspaper reported the events from their reporter's perspective. Some accounts vary slightly.
Over 2000 years ago, the most powerful army on earth began rounding up all Jews and Christians. They burned some; fed many to the lions and confiscated all their property. Many hid in caves. About 20 years after the initial carnage--one witness wrote down his recollection of events. About 30 years after another one did the same thing. In all, about 5 different witnesses wrote down events at different times for posterity.
Hundreds of years later, the same nation made a spiritual about turn. They tried to collect all ancient writings. From various translations, 66 different books (Old and New Testament) were compiled. Those books consist of over 4000 years of writings--covering ancient time periods and predating major global catastrophes. Amazingly, not only do the sequential lettering in the Hebrew Tanakh prophetically predict the events that unfolded in the New Testament, except for a few mistranslations, the books are invaluable. Recent history has vetted many of the prophecies of the New Testament- the Russian nuclear reactor disaster and the birth of the Gentile seed nations out of Rome- among others. Now that we have found the Dead Sea Scrolls we are able to vet much more stuff.
Boaz.

Answer 4

Point of fact, Mark was the first gospel written, but it references the destruction of the Temple which didn't occur until 70 CE, which means your website is fudging things by a couple of decades or more. Next, there is very strong evidence that ALL of Paul's letters were apocryphal and at the least were modified heavily after his death. The prophetic chapters were not completed until 300 CE, and were modified further. What, was God just slow in getting the re-writes back from his editor? This site just builds lie, on lie, on lie. If you wish to proselytize, rather than ask questions, can you at least do it intelligently?

Answer 5

chained6002,
The New Testament is so rich and exceedingly full of the inspired word of God. I read only a bit of that article you linked us to. I have seen the like before. They think that they pose a threat to Christianity, but what they are actually doing is showing that they don't have the eyes to see. Not my problem. God probably doesn't want that guy anway.

Since the creation of the King James Version, there have been 5000 manuscripts that were found that were older than what the King James translators had to work with. The error between those older manuscripts and the Textus Receptus was 2%. Hardly enough to declare a fallacy and a fatal loss of accuracy.

Answer 6

From the link, "To begin with, it is generally agreed that the crucifixion of Jesus Christ took place in about 30 AD. We know this because Luke 3:1 says that the ministry of John the Baptist (who was the "fore-runner" at the start of Jesus' ministry) took place in the 15th year of Tiberias Caesar."

Using the book in question to derive an argument in support of the very claims that are contended. Obvioulsy, if we do not start by assuming that the Bible is accurate, the passage in question merely proves that Luke was written sometime after 30 CE. It doesn't prove that Jesus had a ministry, or that it was in 30 CE, or that he was crucified, or that he even actually ever existed.

No-one need read any further.

Answer 7

First,Mattew, Mark, Luke, and John did no witness the cruxification. Therefore did not have any authority to write about it. Independent historians conclude that the John who wrote Revelations Was Not the John the Apostole. Paul never saw Jesus alive so his writings are suspect. There is no independent history that confirms that Jesus ever existed.

Answer 8

The new testament is full of contradictions and can be interpreted in any way. I would definitely say it's unreliable.

Answer 9

Authors all died defending it? So did the characters in Pulp Fiction.

Answer 10

Hmmmm... so you belive in power of Internet

Answer 11

The authors almost all died defending it.