Episode Details

References: (1) At the end of the last episode we were attempting to date when the 4 Gospels were written. We had discussed J. Warner Wallaces 4 points that he used as a homicide detective in Los Angeles to determine if a witness to a crime was credible.The initial step in his journey from being a hardened atheist toward Christianity was what he thought was an evaluation of the Gospels. (2) The first criterion of eyewitness credibility requires one to know that the witness was present in the first place. Thus, the Gospels would have to be written EARLY enough to have been authored by true eyewitnesses of Jesus’ life and deeds. (3) If someone was going to tell a LIE, they would have to tell it LATE so that the eyewitnesses of Jesus’ life and deeds would not be able to REFUTE the lie. (4) Since Jesus was crucified in 33 AD, before anyone can believe the Gospels to be eyewitness accounts they would have to know that the Gospels were written sometime in the FIRST century. (5) The 4 Gospels and Acts fail to mention the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in 70 AD that Jesus predicted in Matt. 24:1-3. Then that means that they were all written prior to that memorable event. (6) Neither is the siege of Jerusalem mentioned that occurred in 66-70 AD, nor the death of Paul who was martyred in the city of Rome in 64 AD nor the death of Peter in 65 AD. Josephus says James died in 62 AD. These were events that surely would have been reported had they already occurred. So that means Luke and Acts were written BEFORE 62 AD. Now Acts is usually considered to have been written about 57-60 AD. (7) The Gospel narratives were CORROBORATED by archaeology, eyewitnesses, and ancient non-Christian authors like Flavious Josephus, Tacitus, Suetonius, and the Jewish Talmud. (8) We can conclude the gospels recorded ACCURATE DETAILS. The NT documents have NOT CHANGED as we go from the authors of the books of the NT to their disciples and from them to their disciples. This is what J. Warner Wallace calls the “CHAIN OF CUSTODY.” (9) The Gospels were NOT BIASED. We discussed Wallaces observation that there are 3 motives behind any homicide, criminal act, or a lesser moral misbehavior: a. Financial greed. b. Sexual or relational lust. c. Pursuit of power. (10) Wallace applied these motives to the FOREMOST LEADER of the early Christian movement, namely, to the apostle Paul. The facts are that Paul STARTED OFF with the AUTHORITY and RESPECT from his religious community, and the leaders of the synagogues in Jerusalem.As religious Jewish leader, he was TRUSTED with the responsibility of hunting down members of devout religious Jewish leader, he was TRUSTED with the responsibility of hunting down members of the Christian community and pursuing them with a vengeance. (11) Would Paul LEAVE HIS POSITION OF RESPECT and join up with the very group he was charged to destroy, only to SUFFER PERSECUTION for many years so that he might one day RETURN to a position of religious authority and respect? I think not; that is totally IMPLAUSIBLE. (12) Mark was the nephew or cousin of Barnabas. He became so close to Peter that the apostle called him as “my son” (1 Pet. 5:13). Mark also may have been the person whose home was the “upper room” (Mark 14:12; Acts 12:12, 14), and perhaps he was the the unclad lad who fled Gethsemane after Jesus’ arrest (Mark 14:51-52). (13) If Mark was, say age 15 at the time of the crucifixion in 33 AD, then if he lived to 90 years of age, that would be in the year of 108 AD. (14) Note that the book of Acts gives the history of the spread of Christianity from Jerusalem to Samaria, to Antioch, to the province of Asia, to Ephesus, to Corinth, and eventually to the city of Rome. This is episode 254.