Historical Argument for the Reliability of the NT

If A, then B

B, therefore A

If the Bible is the word of God (A), then the NT is a reliable witness of Jesus(B);

It is the case that NT is a reliable witness of Jesus (B), therefore the Bible is the Word of God (→A).

This is how the debate begins when one argues on the basis of reliability. Sometimes this argument, too, like other deductive arguments can lead to circular reasoning, and some have even adopted a circular kind of reasoning when they argue for God's existence on the basis of empirical data hoping to find God at the end of a syllogism. In this case, the argument is said to be argued from a historical point of view. I don't disagree with this method, since by the strictest sense all data, if interpreted properly—as Cornelius Van Til put it—is God's truth. However, in most cases the data is always misinterpreted or is not recognized by the atheist as reliable. This is the case with atheist philosophers George Smith (author of The Case Against God), Michael Martin (author of The Case Against Christianity), and Dan Barker (author of Godless : How an Evangelical Preacher Became One of America's Leading Atheists). George Smith argues that the case for an omnipotent God is incompatible with reason and the problem of evil. In other cases, such as Dan Barker, he argues for the non-existence of Jesus as a historical figure. The argument I posted above has more to do with Barker's argument in his book than any other atheist writers that I have read. Michael Martin I would have to say is a little more honest than the previous two. He's also written on an academic level, so his level of philosophical profundity is a little more polished than the others.

The basic argument that I postulated above has a lot to do with the New Testament (=NT) as a reliable witness for historical data. Because of the overwhelming concessions in academia, I won't try to prove that the NT is a reliable source. It is common knowledge that the NT has a lot of bearing on the early Roman historiography. Making a holistic approach for the general acceptability for the NT is not an easy task but it is doable. The argument's main concern is with the apparent enthymeme, namely that the truthfulness of the reliable sources, the NT, are both sound and true; and those truth claims are that Jesus is the Son of God, resurrected from the dead, who claims to have come to save his people from their sins. So my paper will deal mostly with historical arguments that would lead anyone to accept the NT not only as a reliable source, but also as a reliable source for truth claims about a man named Jesus Christ and that everything he claims is true. If everything Jesus claims is true, then he is the King of Heaven and demands total obedience to his message, the gospel, and His will, law—the classical Reformed doctrine of Law and Gospel.