I hope the subtitle to this extremely valuable defense of biblical truth is changed soon -- otherwise its own popularity might wane with that of Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code. While Brown's popularity is huge, it is not likely to last long in terms of classical publishing, not least because it's poorly crafted fiction with sloppy, inaccurate background research. This book, on the other hand, can stand the test of time for its careful argumentation, precise focus, extremely up-to-date research, & comprehensive scope regarding biblical integrity. If I could recommend only one book on biblical reliability, it would be this book from 3 of Dallas Theological Seminary's finest. As a matter of fact, it wouldn't be bad to change the title while generalizing the subtitle. Although one would think the book was primarily about the person & work of Christ, instead it is a treasure trove of information about the origin, authenticity, accuracy, transmission, & preservation of the biblical text, specifically the New Testament. Divided into 5 main parts, the book deals with (1) Oral History, (2) Textual Criticism, (3) Canonicity, (4) the Authenticity of the Text's Assertion of the Deity of Christ, & (5) the Uniqueness of the New Testament Message.
The first section contains 3 chapters dealing with ancient classical oral history. I prefer the term "oral history" to "oral tradition," because, as the authors point out, with a post-Reformation dislike of "tradition," & a 21st century dependence on the written word, when we hear "oral tradition," we are more apt to think of garbled gossip than of precise, carefully preserved history. The authors carefully define the "gospel" -- it is "good news," not merely "warm & fuzzy ideas," or "weird beliefs." They then explain & document the methods of ancient classical teaching, memorization, & oral history & show how its evidence is everywhere behind the written text we now call our New Testaments. Finally, they examine the message & person of Christ as displayed in the New Testament & how unlikely it would be to have such an extraordinary, unpredicted character composed after the fact by public relations conscious religion builders. I especially appreciate the authors' acknowledgement that there is good evidence to suppose that the entire New Testament was completed before AD 70, a view that is gaining ever greater respectability among those who work the most closely with the text either scientifically (such as the papyrologists) or critically (those who analyze the text).
The second section contains 5 chapters explaining how & when the New Tesatment books were written & then copied & preserved through the centuries. As with each chapter in the book, the chapters in this section begin by repeating the myriad of skeptical questions lay people have been told undermine the Bible's authority. In Chapter 4, those questions include, "what if the copies were corrupted?," "what if they were copied so poorly we can't ascertain the original?," & "hasn't the text been copied & recopied, translated & retranslated so many times that we can't know what was original?" By carefully explaining & demonstrating by example, the authors make an overwhelmingly convincing case that the text of the New Testament that we have today, represented in any standard reputable translation, is virtually exactly what was originally written. An important feature of this section is the authors' careful attention to the few places in the text where we do have some doubt. Those places are well known, carefully examined, all reasonable alternatives are considered, & none of them overturn any central biblical teaching or fact. This book is also a handy source for a current listing of the numbers of manuscripts, portions of manuscripts, & versions (translations) of the New Testament documents. We have more than 5,700 Greek texts, 10,000 Latin, & more than a million citations from others writers of passages from the New Testament. Chapter 6 is appropriately titled "An Embarrassment of Riches."
The third section contains 3 chapters focusing on how the contents of the New Testament were determined. In other words, why do we have the 27 books we do, & not any others? How did these 27 get included, & any or all others excluded? One of the most helpful points in this section is the authors' call to abandon "generational snobbery," or the idea that anyone before my time was stupid, gullible, dishonest, & unscientific. The authors cite from a wide range of ancient Christian writers & even some non-Christian observers to show that ancient people were at least as intelligent, skeptical, honest, & critical in their approaches to the important issues of life as are we today. (In my opinion, they were much more so then than now. Dan Brown would never have gained an audience in any of the early centuries of Christianity -- not because they were narrow-minded, but because they were far better at & dedicated to finding & exposing charlatans than are we.) In this section as well as the others, I especially appreciate that they cite the most popularly known & vocal critics. If you have watched any pseudo-documentary on "lost" gospels or read any popular recreation of the Jesus story, you will find the arguments & names familiar.
The fourth section consists of 4 chapters focusing on the authentic person & work of Christ. The favorite re-identifications of the Jesus Seminary, skeptics such as Earl Doherty or Robert Price are truly laughable once one reads the careful investigation, documentation, & analysis of the evidence provided in this book. Chapter 14 on the evidence for Jesus outside the New Testament is worth the price of the book.
The fifth & final section of the book is comprised of 3 chapters dismantling claims that the stories of the New Testament, specifically of the life of Christ in the gospels, are derivative of contemporary mystery religion beliefs & stories & are no more unique than any other silly fables & myths of the ancient world. One chapter is on pagan religions in general, & one chapter each is devoted to the supposed parallels between Jesus & Alexander the Great & Jesus & Osiris (with Frankenstein thrown in for good measure). This is the most comprehensive treatment of this subject I have seen in print, & is a great expansion of the basic evidence presented by scholar Edwin Yamauchi in his Jesus, Zoraster, Buddha, Socrates & Muhammad and Easter: Myth, Hallucination, or History?.
The authors are fully capable of delivering the quality of scholarship & ease of understanding that pervades this book. Ed Komoszewski is founder & director of Christian Nexus & served as director of research for Josh McDowell Ministries. He is also the director at large for Reclaiming the Mind Ministries. James Sawyer is professor of theology & church history at Western Seminary (Northern California Campus) & serves as an instructor & advisor for Reclaiming the Mind. Dan Wallace is one of the world's leading Greek scholars, the mind behind the NET Bible. He is professor of New Testament studies at Dallas Seminary, director of the Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts, & advisor & instructor for Reclaiming the Mind.
If you care at all about the authenticity of the New Testament, this book must be part of your library. If you dialog with anyone who doubts the authenticity, integrity, & truthfulness of the New Testament, you need multiple copies to give to them. If a skeptic considers the evidence & arguments of this book seriously, he will be compelled to abandon his doubts about the New Testament.
Strobel, Lee & Garry Poole. Exploring the Da Vinci Code. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 2006.
Witherington, Ben III. The Gospel Code. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2004.
Inclusion of books in this list does not mean that they represent the views of Answers In Action or its director, Gretchen Passantino. They are provided for further informaiton only.
Note: listing of these sites does not mean that Answers In Action and/or Director Gretchen Passantino endorse or agree with any or all of the sites or the postings on those sites. This list is meant for further research only.
One of the silliest and most egregious claims in Dan Brown's book The Da Vinci Code is his contention that "virtually all the elements" of Christianity were "taken directly from earlier pagan religions."
Nothing could be further from the truth, and yet this run-away best-seller & its companion movie, predicted to be a block-buster from Director Ron Howard and star Tom Hanks, is having an enormous impact on how people view Jesus Christ, the Bible, and Christianity. If the assertion were true, all of Christianity, its gospel, and its God would be overturned. That it is not true means that thousands of people are dismissing the gospel because of fabrication.
The overwhelming conclusion of the major scholars in the original texts and artifacts of the ancient pagan mystery cults is that early Christianity, including the primary message of the gospels and other New Testament books, is remarkably different than the mystery cults, and that the seeming similarities often cited by those who have not actually investigated the primary sources derive from misunderstandings of the texts, not true similarities or common sources at all.
A summary review of the work in this area of five of the most respected religious historians quickly dispels the careless remarks of Brown and other religious dilettantes who wrongly associate Christianity with ancient pagan mystery religions.
In 1958 religious historian and commentator Mircea Eliade published in Patterns of Initiation a series of lectures he had given at the University of Chicago in the fall of 1956. In one of those lectures Eliade said recent research did not support the theories that the origin of Christianity was influenced by pagan mystery cults. "There is no reason to suppose that primitive Christianity was influenced by the Hellenistic mysteries," says Eliade (Rites and Symbols of Initiation, 118-119). In fact, the reverse may actually be true, he adds. Eliade says that the pagan mystery cults "reinterpreted their religious rites in the light of. . . Christianity” (115, n34). Eliade then says, as the pagan mystery cults borrowed from Christianity, then Christians began using the new formulations of the pagan mystery cults in order to explain their religion to pagans and other people.
Decades before Eliade wrote, the great Christian scholar J. Gresham Machen also refuted the theory that the origin of Christian was influenced by the pagan mystery cults.
In 1925 Machen published a seminal work, The Origin of Paul's Religion. Like Eliade, he shows that, except for the cult of Dionysus, the pagan mystery cults developed after Christianity, not before. Also, the cult of Dionysus died out long before Jesus Christ and the Christian apostles, who came from a Jewish background, were born.
Machen also notes that, unlike the pagan mystery rituals, a Christian's redemption and salvation is not contingent upon the Lord's Supper, or any other Christian ritual. Thus, a Christian is saved by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ and His Gospel, including Christ's death and resurrection. First, however, the Christian has to turn away from his inherent disobedience, or sin, against God's moral laws. Unlike Christianity, the pagan mystery cults had no consciousness of sin. A consciousness of angering the gods or needing to placate the gods is not the same as the Christian concept of sin against God's holy standard with the necessity for justice & judgment.
Historian of ancient religions Walter Burkert confirms these points made by Eliade and Machen in Burkert's book Ancient Mystery Cults, as does scholar Ronald H. Nash in Christianity and the Hellenistic World. Like Machen, Burkert says there is "hardly any evidence for baptism in pagan mysteries” (101). Burkert adds that the ancient pagan mystery cults never created strong religious communities as did Judaism or Christian. The Early Christians also denounced such immoral acts as homosexuality and the exposure of children and had a strong sense of family, all features notably absent or even reversed in the mystery cults.
Furthermore, Burkert, Nash, Machen, and anthropologist Sir Edward Evans-Pritchard debunk the theory that the pagans before Christianity believed in a dying God who rose from the dead. Many primitive and pagan cultures don't even have bloody sacrifices, Evans-Pritchard adds, and among those that do, the sacrifice is not considered a communion. None of the alleged pagan savior-gods died for someone else, much less the whole human race, says Nash. Also, Jesus Christ only needed to die once for our sins, not many times. Furthermore, unlike any pagan god, Jesus died voluntarily. Furthermore, Jesus Christ's death on the cross was also a triumph, as was His resurrection. As Dr. Nash writes, “The New Testament’s mood of exaltation contrasts sharply with that of the [pagan] religions, whose followers wept and mourned for the terrible fate that overtook their gods” (171-172).
Finally, Dan Brown falsely claims that there are missing “gospels” of Jesus Christ that pre-date the New Testament documents, or were written near the same time. First, the preponderance of the evidence indicates that virtually all, if not all, the New Testament documents were completed before A.D. 70. Second, the factual evidence strongly indicates that all of the alleged “other gospels” were not written until after A.D. 125, well after the completion of the New Testament and well after the first Christians established the basic “rule of faith” taught to them by Jesus Christ and His apostles in person and in the New Testament documents.
Thus, like many other anti-Christian bigots before him, Dan Brown has had to completely distort the historical record with lies and false innuendoes. His claims are not just a matter of interpretation – they are a matter of Truth and Falsehood, Good and Evil.
Dr. Ronald Nash is a competent scholar, professor of philosophy and
theology at Reformed Theological Seminary (Orlando, FL), and author of many
excellent books in apologetics, history, theology, and philosophy. Although he
comes from a reformed, Calvinistic, non-dispensational theological perspective,
those distinctives are hardly noticeable in this book, which should appeal to any
evangelical who wants to understand how to show Christianity as the only rationally
and historically defensible world view.
The book is short (176 pages including indexes), but the concepts it discusses
are not simple. It is written to an educated adult lay audience with some familiarity
with apologetics and theology. Although Nash defines all technical terms and builds
his arguments very carefully, unless a reader has spent at least some time thinking
about apologetics and world views, he will have to concentrate carefully to keep up.
Although the book is written to a Christian audience, it would have
intellectual appeal to an open non-Christian as well. Nash shows respect for non-believers and fairness in his evaluations of other world views. A non-Christian
would not be angry at Nash for his dismissal of other world views, although he
might be angry that his own world view comes up short compared to the Christian
world view. Unfortunately for the non-Christian, Nash does a good job of showing
that Christianity is the very best world view.
One of the best auxiliary parts of the book is the "Suggestions for Further
Reading." Anyone who is intrigued by the issues raised in this book can find more
information and more comprehensive discussions in the recommended books, which
are categorized and annotated in this list.
The book is broken into two main parts: (1) a survey argument on how to
choose a satisfying world view (Christianity); and (2) a closer look at traditional
"problems" in the Christian world view, e.g., the problem of evil, naturalism, and
pantheistic (New Age) ideas.
The ten chapters cover (1) What Is a Worldview?; (2) The Christian
Worldview; (3) How to Choose a Worldview; (4) A Further Look at the Test of
Reason; (5) Christianity and the Test of Reason; (6) A Further Look at the Problem
of Evil; (7) Naturalism; (8) The New Age Movement; (9) The Incarnation and the
Resurrection; and (10) Winning the Battle in the World of Ideas.
Nash affirms a biblical world view consistent in expression with the academic
side of contemporary American evangelicalism. He affirms that God is revealed to
us in a variety of ways (thinking, experiencing, observing, being educated, and
certainly by the standard of God's revelation kept perfect and full in scripture, the
standard by which we test all other purported "revelations" of God).
He affirms that non-Christians can understand the strength of the Christian
worldview, although that understanding will not compel anyone to believe and be
saved. That comes from the intervening power of the Holy Spirit, who works even
when people rebel against what they intellectually know to be true. He affirms that
a necessary preparation for preaching the gospel is apologetics, or giving reasons for
our faith.
Nash points out that there are two ways to approach worldviews
apologetically: (1) a positive presentation of the consistency, comprehensiveness,
and coherence of the Christian worldview; and (2) a critique exposing the fatal
inadequacies of all other worldviews.
This book provides a powerful, short, relatively uncomplicated defense of
Christianity from a worldview perspective. Nash's further examination of evil,
naturalism, New Ageism, and the incarnation and resurrection are additional pluses
to an excellent book.
This is an ambitious project that does a good job of summarizing many current intellectual challenges to Christian faith that people encounter in secular college and university environments. The book is a compilation of material developed for the collegiate apologetic series taught by Xenos Christian Fellowship called "the Postmodern Challenge Conference."
The contributors demonstrate competence in their areas, not only in understanding and articulating arguments against Christianity, but also in answering those arguments and then giving persuasive Christian responses. This is a good articulation of the paradigm shift our American society has experienced. We have jettisoned Christian belief and embrace secular spirituality and pseudo-relativism. It also contains a practical applications section for Christian who would like to practice Christian apologetics. This is a rational approach to apologetics.
This book is valuable for understanding basic paradigm shifts from modernism to post-modernism. It will help Christians to understand post-modernism and its incompatibility with truth and scripture. It equips Christians to engage in successful apologetics to post-modernists.
With its voluminous evidence, careful historiography, critical analysis, and biblical focus,
The Historical Jesus is one of the most powerful verbal weapons newly available for Christians
who are confronted with skeptics' attacks on the biblical Jesus. This book is especially relevant as
an answer to the liberal metaphorical gospel theories, the Jesus Seminar, and the Jesus 2000
discussions. Although there is some overlapping material, this book's wider scope makes it a
good companion to Michael Wilkins and J. P. Moreland's Jesus Under Fire (Zondervan, 1995),
which responds specifically to the Jesus Seminar. Habermas's great defense of the historical
truthfulness of the orthodox view of Jesus will challenge any skeptic who is open minded enough
to examine the evidence and test the arguments. It will also strengthen the confidence of
Christians confronted with secular arguments, especially in academic settings such as college
"Bible as Literature" classes.
Christian Ethics is one of my favorite books by one of my favorite authors,
Dr. Norman L. Geisler, one of the premier Christian philosophers and
apologists today. It combines a classic, biblical development of ethics
with a focus on contemporary ethical issues. Christian students in secular
colleges will find this book invaluable in protecting them from the
spurious (but sometimes appealing) arguments from secular ethics.
The Soul of Science deals with the philosophical foundations of science and the history of
scientific ideas. It makes a good companion to J. P. Moreland's Christianity and the Nature of
Science (Baker, 1989), but it is written on an easier level as far as vocabulary and complexity of
ideas is concerned. It does not presume previous formal philosophical or scientific education
beyond a lay level. It is well-documented and well-footnoted. One of the greatest strengths of
this book comes from Thaxton's long experience interacting directly with skeptical scientists
through his work as a full-time missionary to the science community in the Czech Republic. Any
agnostic scientist who reads The Soul of Science will be challenged with the strength of the
biblical world view.
I often encounter two objections when I attempt to explain the value of apologetics to Christians who are unfamiliar with the concept. First, people respond by saying, “I guess it’s all right to think about philosophy, history, and evidence after you’ve been a Christian for a long time and you run out of things to do. But I’m too busy becoming a mature Christian to devote any time to that intellectual stuff.” Others add another objection, “Besides, it sounds to me like you’re making reason your ‘God.’ Faith and reason don’t mix. Too much dependence on evidence and reason undermines your devotion to God, and people who aren’t Christians cannot understand the gospel anyway, no matter how much evidence and argumentation you give them. Get back to your ‘first love’ — God as the beginning and ending of your faith. Don’t get sucked into the idolatry of reason and evidence.”
Over the years, I have learned how to answer such objections. I have also learned how to present a positive case for apologetics from Scripture (special revelation), common knowledge (general revelation), and reason (the ability to make sense of God’s revelation). Contrary to objection one, the new Christian must build his faith on the reality of the gospel — the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ in our behalf as prophesied in Scripture (1 Cor. 15:1-4). Good thinking and good evidence are integral to the foundation of a maturing faith; they are not trivial pursuits for Christians with too much time on their hands. Contrary to objection two, divorcing faith from reason is unbiblical and non-Christian. No wonder the loudest proponents of this view are secularists who would love to see Christianity disappear altogether. The ability to learn about the One in whom we have placed our faith leads us to never-ending discoveries of the wonders of God’s creation and His desire for us to grow in faith, understanding, and Christlike love.
Now I have a new answer for these two objections: J. P. Moreland’s Love Your God with All Your Mind: The Role of Reason in the Life of the Soul. Moreland is recognized among philosophers (including quite a few secular ones) as a talented, intelligent, and formidable defender of the Christian faith in the intellectual arena. Christians not well versed in apologetics or philosophy may find his other books too intellectually challenging to read. This book, however, is an immanently readable, clearly explained defense of thinking “Christianly” that should inspire all Christian readers to pursue reason, evidence, and apologetics as an integral part of sanctification.
This book gives Christians the reasons and courage to act against the faulty assumptions discussed above. Chapter Four, “Harassing the Hobgoblins of the Christian Mind,” explains how unsuspecting Christians might sincerely believe they are doing God’s will by abandoning evidence, reason, and apologetics-oriented evangelism. By showing the negative consequences of such “empty mind” Christianity, Moreland reinforces his argument. Finally, Moreland teaches Christians how to “put on Christ” in our thinking, learning, teaching, evangelism, and defense of Christianity.
Moreland’s goal is to wake up the church to the triumphant faith Christians could have. He has successfully “translated” philosophy into a form that Christians with little or no experience in this area can understand and use. Its 10 short but compelling chapters and useful appendices make this a book Christians will consult over and over again as they look for the principles and resources that provide the best in Christian apologetics.
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The Lord's Servant must not quarrel; instead, he must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. Those who oppose him he must gently instruct, in the hope that God will give them a change of heart leading to a knowledge of the truth
II Timothy 2:24-26
