Can I Trust the Bible? Defending the Bible’s Reliability, Part 2

"How does one approach defending the Bible when many people around you do not regard it as an inspired book? Defending the Bible’s reliability in part assumes someone is interested in that question. What happens if they have no regard at all for the biblical text? Apologetics today needs to give more thought to where people are coming from as we engage them about faith. This seminar not only explores the question of showing the credibility of much of what the Bible claims but also discusses how to bring someone who does not even have a category for inspiration to a place of considering its contents. There is also a short aside on how to discuss the role of miracles in the Bible.

Here we focus on their oral culture that was the first century and explain how the period between the event and the writing of the gospels worked as the accounts of Jesus were collected and passed on orally. Was it loose as some claim or was their care given to the development of the tradition orally? What kind of oral oversight took place? We also consider an array of differences in how the Gospels themselves present material on the principle of variation yet gist.

We take a close look at the central event of the New Testament, the resurrection. We look at what kind of expectation there was of physical resurrection (it was not a common belief). Then we look at the reasons why resurrection is the best explanation for the record of the event we possess."