in date and authorship. Thus, we are in position to decide objectively whether or not Jesus Christ truly is the only Son of God and the only way of salvation, as Christians believe.
On the other hand, it is never really possible to free one's mind from subjective factors on an issue such as this. Even if we can show that all these witnesses agree completely in their testimony to the deity of Christ, a person may still decide on his own initiative not to believe it.
To any argument, an objection or further question can always be devised if the objector is clever enough. Even if he is backed into a corner from which there seems no logical escape, he can always get angry and avoid the issue, insist on delaying a decision until he can think more about it, take refuge in the fact that many others are unbelievers, insist that all such reasoning and logic are unrelated to the central issue of relevance, or else just change the subject. Anyone who is predisposed to accept and believe solid Christian evidence will find it in satisfying abundance along this line of study.
Sincerity of the New Testament Writers
The general authenticity of the New Testament documents as to date and authorship can, in view of the foregoing, be considered as established. Furthermore, the general accuracy of their records has been adequately confirmed by linguistic and archaeological studies, as well as by their own internal consistency.
Certain skeptics, however, have sought to escape the impact of their portrait of Christ and the gospel by charging the writers with fraud. That is, for purposes of their own, perhaps to establish themselves at the head of a new religious or political movement, they conspired to produce the marvelous tale of a supernatural Savior and King, whose representatives they were and whose authority they were to exercise in the world's affairs.
Such an incredible supposition, however, can commend itself only to those who will grasp at straws. Several considerations mentioned below are sufficient to discredit this notion:
1 The "conspiracy" involved a large number of people, of such diversity as to render such collaboration almost completely impossible. There were at least eight different writers involved, not to mention a great number of associated colleagues, and these lived and wrote at widely scattered times and places.
2 Evidences of collusion are notably absent in the writings themselves. Each writer gives his own independent witness, writing from his own perspective. Often, in fact, they appear on the surface to contradict each other, and such contradictions are resolved only by very close and careful examination and cross-examination of their testimonies.
3 Rather than confining their writings to generalities and to private events in their own lives, which would make it, of course, more difficult to detect error or fraud, the records teem with references to public events, places, dates, and other matters of accessible knowledge.
4 A candid reading of the New Testament books surely does not suggest fraud or hypocrisy in even the slightest degree. Not only are such sins scathingly rebuked, but the very atmosphere of the writings is pervaded with the feeling of sincere conviction on the part of the authors. If the writings are actually wicked deceptions, these men were undoubtedly the greatest masters at deception who ever lived.
5 The crowning proof of sincerity is, of course, the fact that the New Testament authors were willing to suffer and die for their convictions. They did indeed "suffer the loss of all things," and all except John died as a martyr because of their testimony. Men may occasionally be willing to die for an unworthy cause which is false, but never if they know it to be so. It is impossible that all these would gladly sacrifice their lives for what they knew to be a gross deception.
The Sanity of the Writers
Granted, then, that the writers of the new Testament were sincere men, firmly convinced of the truth of what they wrote, could they have been simply mistaken? Were they subject to some form of mass delusion or hysteria? Were they either highly unstable, easily convinced by their own emotions that they were seeing supernatural manifestations, or else were they gullible, deluded by sleight-of-hand artistry and clever persuasion?
The events reported by the writers, however, especially the miraculous events supposedly hardest to believe, were not at all such as to be amenable to mass hallucination or mass deception, as they would have to be if such suggestions have any validity. The events were:
1 In the open, among crowds of people, not in isolation or in dark corners. (For example, note the amazing feeding of the 5,000, one of the few events in the life of Christ reported in all four Gospels.)
2 Reported in a great variety of times and places, by many different people of varied backgrounds and characteristics, unlike any other cases of mass delusion ever reported.
3 Written up by men who were clearly not the type of men subject to credulity or hallucinations — e.g., Paul, one of the best-educated men of his day, with a highly logical and careful mind; Luke, an exceptionally competent physician and historian; Peter and John, trained as hard and pragmatic fishermen; Matthew, a politician and tax-assessor; James, a stolid and practical individual, acknowledged as leader of the early church in Jerusalem; and Jude, brother of James.
4 Accepted by great numbers of people who, because of the intense persecution they endured for their faith, would have certainly had every reason to analyze and test very critically the claims made concerning Christ by the early Apostles. It is inconceivable they could have persisted in their faith if there were any grounds for believing the Apostles to be nothing but deluded fanatics.
The Character of Christ
The only remaining source of deception that could be a possible explanation must be in Jesus Christ himself. That is, we have seen that the New Testament documents are authentic, written around the middle of the first century by men who were intelligent and stable men, sincere in what they wrote; men who had full access to the facts they were reporting, and who were firmly convinced that the one about whom they wrote was God himself, perfectly in union with human flesh, as Son of God and Son of Man, the one whose words and deeds were uniquely perfect, who performed many mighty miracles, and who had triumphed over death itself by His bodily resurrection.
Now, if all this were not really true, the only remaining possible way of accounting for such beliefs is to say that Jesus Christ himself somehow deceived His disciples into believing them. He so dazzled them with His speech that they thought He was absolutely perfect in word and deed. Likewise, He somehow tricked them into imagining they had seen Him walking on water, giving sight to the blind, and restoring Lazarus to life after four days in the tomb. And then, most marvelous of all, by some sort of incredible "passover plot," He persuaded them He had been crucified, buried and then raised again. Furthermore, He deceived them into thinking that after His resurrection, they saw Him ascending up through the clouds into heaven!
The mere recital of such absurdities is proof enough that they are impossibilities! If Jesus were of such absolutely unique skills in trickery and deception as such an explanation would require, He becomes a more marvelous enigma than if He actually did all the disciples claim for Him. Furthermore, He is surely the greatest charlatan and hypocrite in all history, if such an explanation is really true.
Yet even His enemies have continually acknowledged Him to be the greatest teacher, by precept and example, the world has ever known. The influence of His teachings and those He inspired in His followers have been the greatest force for good that man has ever encountered. Unless His character is truly as portrayed in the New Testament, there is no way ever to find that which is good and true in this world. Life is certainly devoid of any meaning, and God is dead, if Christ is not what the Scriptures declare.
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