On this blog, we spend a lot of time shooting down the criticisms, myths, and outright lies that anti-Christian authors spread about Christianity and the gospels. This upcoming series of short articles (about 10-12) does not focus on the critics.
Instead, it focuses on one type of positive evidence for historical accuracy: Undesigned coincidences within the gospels. Continue reading
The story of Jesus and the demoniac, as told in Mark 5, Matthew 8, and Luke 8 is a familiar one in which Jesus encounters a man possessed by a large number of demons. After a brief conversation, Jesus commands the “legion” to leave the man and enter a herd of nearby pigs. These pigs then rush down a steep incline and drown in the sea below.
To Bible critics, this story is a potential gold mine. Across these parallel accounts, they claim, we have both historical error and contradiction that clearly prove the Bible is neither inerrant nor even reliable. Continue reading
Critics point to alleged errors and contradictions in the Bible to show that it is neither inspired nor the work of eyewitnesses. These critics claim that if the biblical writers can’t agree on even the simplest details, how can we possibly believe what they have to say about important spiritual matters? One such charge is that the gospel writers cannot even agree whether Jesus was crucified on the first day of Passover or the day before Passover. Continue reading
In this article, we tackle an alleged error in the Gospel of Luke that some critics use to paint Luke as an unreliable historian. Let’s take a look at the offending verse, Luke 3:2 (English Standard Version): “…during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness.”
So, what is the alleged mistake? Continue reading
