Many ‘theologians,’ ‘scholars’ and ‘teachers of the law’ try their best to convince followers of Jesus that the human writers of the New Testament are suspect. The Bible tells us that the Holy Spirit inspired the writers. So how do we answer these educated people (it is very import that we don’t lose our precious faith because we believe the scholars’ criticism)?
# Let us look at one of the ‘Golden Standards’ of Scripture.
Jesus went with His disciples to the region of Caesarea Philippi, and asked them, ‘Who do people say the Son of Man is?’ 1 Peter’s answer was, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ 2 Jesus clarified a very important principle when He said, ‘Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by My Father in heaven.’ 3
# What does Jesus’ answer tell us?
The Holy Spirit helped Peter to understand Jesus’ identity. Paul confirms this in 1 Corinthians 12:3, “Therefore I tell you that no one who is speaking by the Holy Spirit says, ‘Jesus be cursed,’ and no one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except by the Holy Spirit.”
# The Bible tells us how to judge its human writers.
All we need to do if we want to know if the New Testament is from God, is to ask ourselves whether the human writers were inspired by the Holy Spirit or not? If they were inspired, they will affirm that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus will be addressed or referred to as ‘Christ, Messiah, Anointed.’ The only letter that does not mention Christ specifically, is 3 John. Yet the letter mentions truth 7 times in 14 sentences and Christ represents truth. So we don’t need to reject 3 John.
# 26 books identify Jesus Christ as the Son of God.
What does that tell us? It is not the human writers who are important. The one who is important is Jesus and everything the Holy Spirit reveals about Him. We judge Scripture not by the human authors, but by its internal testimony.
# The test: does the letter affirm that Jesus is the Christ?
Only if the writers were filled with the Holy Spirit were they able to affirm that Jesus is the Christ (1 Corinthians 12:3). There is no command in the New Testament to judge a book by its human author. For example, the author of Hebrews, a thoroughly Christ centred book, is never identified.
Conclusion
Do not let the Ehrman Inquisition group or anybody else deceive you by fine sounding arguments. With the Holy Spirit we can study Scripture and have confidence in God’s words.
References
- Matthew 16:13
- Matthew 16:16
- Matthew 16:18
