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“I have carefully examined the evidences of the Christian religion (faith), and if I was sitting as a juror upon its authenticity, I would unhesitatingly give my verdict in its favor. I can prove truth as clearly as any proposition ever submitted to the mind of man”.
-Alexander Hamilton
Claim
- Christianity is a relationship. It is the only faith that embraces the concept of God intermingling with His own creation as a human being.
“The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth”. John 1:14 NIV
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From the very beginning the bible states that “It is not good for man to be alone”. Genesis 2:18; then under the New Covenant it says “Where two or three come together in my name there I’ll be”. Matthew 18:20 NIV |
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Again, we read, “Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone?” Ecclesiastes 4:11 NIV https://www.gotquestions.org/Christianity-religion-relationship.html |
Reasoning
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Always be prepared to give an answer (Reason) for the Hope you have in what you believe.
“But in your hearts set Christ apart [as holy—acknowledging Him, giving Him first place in your lives] as Lord.
Always be ready to give a [logical] defense to anyone who asks you to account for the hope and confident
assurance [elicited by faith] that is within you, yet [do it] with gentleness and respect”. 1 Peter 3:15 AMP
- When the ‘Dead Sea Scrolls’ was discovered in a series of twelve caves around the site known as Wadi Qumran near the Dead Sea in the West Bank (of the Jordan River) between 1946 and 1956 by Bedouin shepherds and a team of archeologists it gave ample proof to the validity of the Christian Scriptures.
Manuscript evidence for superior New Testament reliability
by Matt Slick
12/10/08
The New Testament is constantly under attack, and its reliability and accuracy are often contested by critics. If the critics want to disregard the New Testament, then they must also disregard other ancient writings by Plato, Aristotle, and Homer. This is because the New Testament documents are better-preserved and more numerous than any other ancient writings. Because they are so numerous, they can be cross checked for accuracy . . . and they are very consistent.
There are presently 5,686 Greek manuscripts in existence today for the New Testament.1 If we were to compare the number of New Testament manuscripts to other ancient writings, we find that the New Testament manuscripts far outweigh the others in quantity.2
|
Author |
Date |
Earliest Copy |
Approximate Time Span between original & copy |
Number of Copies |
Accuracy of Copies |
|
Lucretius |
died 55 or 53 B.C. |
|
1100 yrs |
2 |
—- |
|
Pliny |
A.D. 61-113 |
A.D. 850 |
750 yrs |
7 |
—- |
|
Plato |
427-347 B.C. |
A.D. 900 |
1200 yrs |
7 |
—- |
|
Demosthenes |
4th Cent. B.C. |
A.D. 1100 |
800 yrs |
8 |
—- |
|
Herodotus |
480-425 B.C. |
A.D. 900 |
1300 yrs |
8 |
—- |
|
Suetonius |
A.D. 75-160 |
A.D. 950 |
800 yrs |
8 |
—- |
|
Thucydides |
460-400 B.C. |
A.D. 900 |
1300 yrs |
8 |
—- |
|
Euripides |
480-406 B.C. |
A.D. 1100 |
1300 yrs |
9 |
—- |
|
Aristophanes |
450-385 B.C. |
A.D. 900 |
1200 |
10 |
—- |
|
Caesar |
100-44 B.C. |
A.D. 900 |
1000 |
10 |
—- |
|
Livy |
59 BC-AD 17 |
—- |
??? |
20 |
—- |
|
Tacitus |
circa A.D. 100 |
A.D. 1100 |
1000 yrs |
20 |
—- |
|
Aristotle |
384-322 B.C. |
A.D. 1100 |
1400 |
49 |
—- |
|
Sophocles |
496-406 B.C. |
A.D. 1000 |
1400 yrs |
193 |
—- |
|
Homer (Iliad) |
900 B.C. |
400 B.C. |
500 yrs |
643 |
95% |
|
New |
1st Cent. A.D. (A.D. 50-100) |
2nd Cent. A.D. |
less than 100 years |
5600 |
99.5% |
As you can see, there are thousands more New Testament Greek manuscripts than any other ancient writing. The internal consistency of the New Testament documents is about 99.5% textually pure. That is an amazing accuracy. In addition, there are over 19,000 copies in the Syriac, Latin, Coptic, and Aramaic languages. The total supporting New Testament manuscript base is over 24,000.
Almost all biblical scholars agree that the New Testament documents were all written before the close of the First Century. If Jesus was crucified in A.D. 30., then that means the entire New Testament was completed within 70 years. This is important because it means there were plenty of people around when the New Testament documents were penned–people who could have contested the writings. In other words, those who wrote the documents knew that if they were inaccurate, plenty of people would have pointed it out. But, we have absolutely no ancient documents contemporary with the First Century that contest the New Testament texts.
Furthermore, another important aspect of this discussion is the fact that we have a fragment of the gospel of John that dates back to around 29 years from the original writing (John Rylands Papyri A.D. 125). This is extremely close to the original writing date. This is simply unheard of in any other ancient writing, and it demonstrates that the Gospel of John is a First Century document.
Below is a chart with some of the oldest extant New Testament manuscripts compared to when they were originally penned. Compare these time spans with the next closest, which is Homer’s Iliad, where the closest copy from the original is 500 years later. Undoubtedly, that period of time allows for more textual corruption in its transmission. How much less so for the New Testament documents?