Can I Trust the Gospels?

Big Idea: The Gospels are rooted in eyewitness testimony, and that testimony was carefully preserved.

The Gospels Are Rooted in Eyewitness Testimony

Luke 1:1–4 NKJV

1 Inasmuch as many have taken in hand to set in order a narrative of those things which have been fulfilled among us, 2 just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word delivered them to us, 3 it seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write to you an orderly account, most excellent Theophilus, 4 that you may know the certainty of those things in which you were instructed.

1 John 1:1–3 NKJV

1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life—2 the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us—3 that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.

2 Peter 1:16 NKJV

16 For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty.

1 Corinthians 15:3–8 NKJV

3 For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. 6 After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. 7 After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. 8 Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time.

The testimony of the Scriptures is unwaveringly clear that these are not the stories of men who thought the idea of Jesus would be cool. Instead, they emphatically affirm that Jesus was a real, historical person, who came, lived, died, and rose again and that they saw Him with their own eyes.

They were so certain of this that they suffered persecution, torture, and death for the cause of Christ. If this message was to benefit themselves by achieving a life of comfort, they chose the worse possible avenue seeing that each of them died by persecution or exile.

Papias, an early church father from the 2nd century, affirmed the accuracy of these accounts as eyewitness by saying:

“The Elder used to say:  Mark became Peter’s interpreter and wrote accurately all that he [Peter] remembered, not, indeed, in order, of the things said or done by the Lord. For he had not heard the Lord, nor had he followed him, but later on, as I said, followed Peter.”[1]

So, the testimony of the Scriptures affirm that these are eyewitness accounts. The lives of these men testify that they saw it for themselves in their dying for this cause, and those who knew the Apostles, such as Papias, affirm that these are eyewitness accounts. But this leads us to our big question which is asked a lot by those who want to discredit our faith, especially by men such as Bart Ehrman:

Even if the Gospels were eyewitness accounts, the earliest Gospel was written 30 years after the death of Jesus, so the testimonies recorded should be highly doubted.

Our Second point is:

The Testimony was Carefully Preserved

One way that Ehrman has tried to discredit the accuracy of the Gospels is by comparing the transmission, or the way they were passed down over 30 years, to the game “telephone.” In the game “telephone,” you have to whisper quietly to one person at a time, people are trying to distort the message for fun, there is no correction allowed, and it’s only shared one time.

Well, there are a few things that Bart is missing. First, the Gospel was declared through public proclamation, which meant the speaker was exposed to scrutiny by people who knew the message. Second, there was an installed system in place to protect the message. Third, the teaching was repeated and ingrained through preaching, teaching and catechesis. I believe that if we take the time to understand that culture, we’ll understand why Bart is dead wrong. Let’s explore this a bit:

A Memory-Trained Culture.

I think we would all agree that we are a pretty forgetful culture. By that, I mean that we are so accustomed to having our phones with us, that we really don’t have to remember much because we can just have the info stored there. Well, while that’s true of us, it was not true of the ancients — at all. As a matter of fact, men such as Cicero, were worried that if people began writing things down and reading things, they’d become stupid because they wouldn’t have to memorize things as well.

In the Jewish culture, as well as Greco-Roman culture, memorization was highly valued and expected.

Mnemonic Devices - Tools for Memory

Mnemonic Devices are something that Jesus loved to use, and they’re still used today. A mnemonic device is a tool used in speaking that helps with memorization. For instance, in the Gospels, we see that Jesus uses parables, illustrations, short saying, rhythm, repetition, and groupings. The reason he did this is so people would remember the truths that He was communicating to them. A few famous examples are:

His beatitudes where He uses the phrase, “Blessed Are, and For.”

His imagery in stating that we are “The Salt of the Earth.”

His catchy saying, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle...”

The reason He did this wasn’t just to be cool, but because He knew how our brains worked and wanted to speak to us in a way that would be easy for us to remember.

Apostolic Guardianship

If the gospels were just like a game of telephone, then that means that it was just floating around with no protection. Which is just not true. In the Greco-Roman world, the theatre was a big deal. There, people would gather to see old plays preformed. And there was also a sort of authority there that would ensure that these actors didn’t manipulate or distort the accuracy of these plays.

In the Jewish world, the Jews had the counsels and rabbis that ensured the stories of Israel’s law and history were protected. Likewise, the Church had 2 kinds of protectors of her message. First, as you might guess, were the Apostles. These men knew Jesus, lived with Jesus, and were not going to allow the message of his life be perverted. We see how carefully they protected it in the book of Acts where they call a church counsel in Jerusalem, and in Acts 8-9 where they call Paul in to make sure that his understanding of the gospel was right before they let him go out and tell it to people.

The second kind of guardians were local pastors set up over the Churches to instruct their people.

The Local Church

The Gospel story was preserved in the communities of believers where they met to hear it preached, taught, catechized, read in worship, confessed, and repeated.

I say that to say this: Telephone is a careless and uncorrected game. The transmission of the Gospels were careful, repeated, and guarded.

This matters because if Jesus is who we see Him to be in the Gospels, we must place the trust of our souls in Him. As CS Lewis once said, “we must decide whether we believe Jesus to be liar, lunatic, or Lord.”