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The A, B, Cs of defending the Gospels against skepticism!

Skepticism & atheism is on the rise in our culture and there is no doubt about this, no punt intended.

I remember in one of our Alpha Courses, one of our guests openly came up with skepticism and some questions about the Gospels’ authorship, dating, etc. “It is alleged that we don’t know who wrote the canonical gospels.” “How do we know or can we know who wrote them”, with the implication that if we don’t know, then how can we trust them? “It is also alleged that the Gospels are late, therefore, have been changed with time”.

Questions like these, along with skepticism and “higher criticism” about the bible in general or the Gospels in particular used to be of the exercise and domain of liberal branch of scholarship and academia. Since a few decades and more exponentially in the last few years, these are the questions now asked at the street level. These questions and many others are now common objections to Christianity. The four spiritual laws won’t do much in such circumstances. How can we defend the Gospels against skepticism when we share our faith?

Do we know who wrote the Gospels? Were their authors, propagandists, biased and manipulative of the facts? Are the different accounts about the resurrection in contradiction with each other concerning many details? Were the Gospels written late or changed and embellished overtime? Are the Gospels’ accounts unreliable third hand information?

If you have doubts about these questions or would like to be able to defend the Scriptures when it comes to this subject, I invite to pick a copy of our new Easter Outreach CD called “the A, B, C of Defending the Gospels Against Skepticism” by Mike Licona (Scholar on the Resurrection) in the foyer at our literature table.

Although essential, sharing our faith will require a little more than just sharing our personal experience of conversion and personal relationship with Jesus. Sometimes, we need to provide good reasons that the Scriptures are trustworthy and that our faith make sense. (1Pe 3:15)

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