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5 Questions Every Christian Should Learn How to Answer
1. Have the New Testament documents not been corrupted?
True enough, we hadn’t had the possibility to copy and paste the documents back then. So, all the documents had to be copied by hand, which was a tedious job. On top of that, we do not have the original documents, as written by the apostles themselves, to check for errors.
No need to worry! Many smart people are practising a science called textual criticism. In this science they are able to reconstruct the text of ancient documents by comparing them to other copies. The fact that there are many copies of the manuscripts and early manuscripts makes their job not easier, but it does make the results very accurate. To be short, the more copies of manuscripts and the more early manuscripts a scholar has, the better the results.
Also, you need to know that the New Testament documents have more manuscripts and earlier manuscripts to support their accuracy than any other work of ancient classical literature.
Most scholars are in agreement that the New Testament has been copied with an astonishing high level of precision. The deviations are actually so small between these copies that the possible negative effect on the primary Christian doctrines are just not there. We’re talking about something like writing the name Luke with a ‘c’ for example. It is really not that big of a deal for our faith.
Hixon and Gurry have the following to say about this:i
Nevertheless, we do think that even the most textually corrupted of our manuscripts and editions still convey the central truths of the Christian faith with clarity and power. In every age, God has given his people a text that is more than reliable enough to know the saving work he has accomplished through Jesus Christ.
You might also want to see my video on this topic:
https://odysee.com/@apologeet:3/silly-christian-doesn-t-the-bible:2
https://odysee.com/@apologeet:3/silly-christian-de-bijbel-is-geschreven:7
2. Does the Bible condone slavery?
Here is a good idea! Go to a birthday party and to get the conversation going, you can drop the word ‘slavery.’ Success guaranteed! Why is that? Well, most people will right away think about the abuse and forced labour of black Africans. In the Netherlands our political leaders are actually using this episode in our history to show how wonderfully enlightened they are. They just keep on apologising for our history. They do so without recognising the past slave trade in Muslim countries were many thousands of white Europeans were badly used as well. Actually, that slave trade is still going on as we speak, but that is a whole different topic.
Anyway, the Old Testament system as set up by the Lord is using the Hebrew word abed which is often translated in the English language as ‘slave’. However, this Hebrew word did not have the same negative meaning as it does in our time. In Old Testament times this type of servanthood was a way for an impoverished person to pay off a debt through the means of voluntarily work.
Sure enough, it wasn’t perfect, but the servants were given food, housing, legal rights and protection from abuse. Then, after seven years, the servant was released from his debt. He was free to go and received a good gift of flocks, wine, and grain.
Sometimes the Israelites were to keep servants from other nations. This was only possible if they conquered that nation in war. Still, these ‘strangers’ were also protected from mistreatment under biblical law.
The Israelites could not just go to a neighbouring country and kidnap people in order to use them as slaves. Human trafficking was punishable by death in the Old Testament. So, you would think twice before doing such a thing.
The New Testament is a little more complicated. This was the time of the Roman Empire, and the Romans didn’t exactly obey God’s rules on slavery. However, you will not find any passage in the New Testament that agrees with this kind of slavery. It were difficult times to speak out against it since about 85% of the Roman population were slaves. The Romans were very alert when it came to a possible rebellion. If the New Testament writers had encouraged the slaves to rebel, it would not have gone down well. Mostly people who did that would have faced persecution and even execution.
So, instead the apostle Paul taught that, in Christ, slaves were on equal terms with free people. It was revolutionary to state that a slave could be the brother or sister of his or her owner. Paul was actually encouraged people to change their hearts . Later we see people like john Wesley and William Wilberforce, working tirelessly to get modern slavery abolished.
You can find an essay about this topic on my website:
https://www.apologeet.nl/en/studies/essay_13/
3. Is there any evidence for the resurrection of Jesus?
Okay, let’s see what most ultra liberal to the far-right conservative scholars agree upon. Mister Gary Habermas collected over 1400 works of these people written between 1975 and 2003 about the resurrection of Jesus.ii
- Jesus died by Roman crucifixion;
- Jesus’ disciples believed He rose from the dead and that He appeared to them, and they were willing to suffer and die for these beliefs;
- Paul, the radical persecutor of the early church, all of a sudden became a Christian himself after having an experience that he believed was the risen Jesus;
- James, the brother of Jesus, was at first extremely sceptical about his brother’s claims. But, he too, suddenly converted after he believed he had seen the risen Jesus.
Besides these four agreements, 75% of these scholars also agree with the story that Jesus’ tomb was found empty.
Let’s be honest here. These scholars are no nitwits. Especially note that even the liberal scholars mostly agree on the aforementioned four point. They, above all, would rather see the resurrection debunked once and forever.
Now, let’s look at these points. What would be the most reasonable conclusion? When a sceptic would like to dismiss these agreements, I can assure you that he or she isn’t really interested in you answers anyway.
4. Is there evidence outside the Bible that Jesus existed?
Okay, besides the fact that the Bible is a unique collection of ancient documents which are acknowledged by many as historical and authentic, there are several sources to be found outside the Bible as well.
We know of 10 non-Christian sources that bring up Jesus as a real person. Within 150 years of his life he’s mentioned by Josephus, Tacitus, Pliny the younger, Plegan, Phallus, Suetonius, Lucian, Celsus, Marabar, Serapion and the Jewish Talmud.
In this list we didn’t even include the multitude of Christian historical witnesses who wrote about him including the eyewitnesses.
So, when someone doesn’t accept the Bible as prove, which is not really testifying of an informed mind, you can always point at these other sources.
5. Does science disprove God?
Modern-day science is foremost materialistic and naturalistic. That makes it easy to answer this question. God is Spirit and by definition not material, as such He can’t be tested the way scientists would like to do.
By saying that God doesn’t exist, one is leaving the realm of science. It is a philosophical assertion which can’t be proven in a test-tube. When scientists say that god doesn’t exist they have to filter their evidence through their materialistic and naturalistic lenses. But these lenses per definition dismiss the possibility of anything outside the material world.
Finally
Obviously there are way more questions that can be asked, but I think that these five are among the most common. We are called to be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear (1 Peter 3:15). So, besides the primary teachings of our faith we should try to actually be ready!
Anyway, let me know what you think in the comments. Maybe you disagree on certain things? Just leave a comment. Remember! I am mostly active on my Odysee channel. You’ll find a link to that channel in the description of this video or on my website.
I very much appreciate your prayers and support! Please take a look in the description of this video to find out how you can help me. Also, I’ll place a link there to both the Dutch and English transcripts of this video.
God bless you, thank you for watching, and, Lord willing, we’ll see each other in the next video!
i Myths and Mistakes in New Testament Textual Criticism, ed. E. Hixson and P. J. Gurry, InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, 2019 p.20.
ii Evidence for the Resurrection, Dr. Habermas Answers Important Questions, G.R. Habermas [internet] <https://garyhabermas.com/qa/qa_index.htm#evi> accessed 05-08-2023.
cf. Habermas, Gary R., "Resurrection Research from 1975 to the Present: What Are Critical Scholars Saying?" (2005). Faculty Publications and Presentations. Paper 9. <http://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/sor_fac_pubs/9>
