Dealing with Doubt, Chapter 3

I am again continuing my review of the online book, Dealing with Doubt. Chapter 3 describes in more detail the topic of factual doubt. The author says there are four areas crucial to composing the gospel: the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus, as well as His deity. He gives some evidence to the validity of these facts as follows.


CHRIST'S DEATH

1. There are several portrayals of the details of events in Jesus' life and there is agreement in the different documents. 
2. New Testament includes several creedal statements which are oral testimonies from the time of Jesus' death. This provides early witnesses to these facts.
3. More than 20 non-Christian sources mention Jesus and 12 include information about his death. 
4. Medical science provides strong evidence for death by crucifixion and that someone would not be able to play dead while being on the cross since they have to push up and down to breathe.
5. The spear wound in Jesus' side would have killed him and since water flowed out, it would have gone in his heart.
6. The swoon theory that some believe couldn't be true because if he did appear to the disciples he would have been in very bad shape and in need of much medical help.

THE BURIAL OF JESUS

1. Each of the 4 gospels record his burial and there is much agreement between them on general ideas. 
2. The creed in 1 Cor. records the burial of Jesus and predates the writing of the New Testament which shows early testimony.
3. Burial is the normal result of death. The facts which confirm his death would seem to lead naturally to his burial.

THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS

1. The trustworthiness of the New Testament provides support for Jesus' resurrection.
2. The pre-New Testament creeds also support the resurrection of Jesus.
3. Several extra-biblical sources discuss the resurrection of Jesus.
4. The other attempts to explain away the resurrection of Jesus in natural terms have failed. 
5. Eyewitness testimony, disciples willingness to die for their beliefs in the resurrection, testimonies of Paul and James (former skeptical believers). 

THE DEITY OF CHRIST

1. The New Testament absolutely proclaims the diety of Christ.
2. Jesus proclaimed himself God and His actions reveal he acted as God. 
3. Early church proclaimed Jesus as deity.
4. Numerous extra-biblical sources refer to Jesus as deity. At least 3 non-Christian sources call Jesus divine, four others relate that the early church believed this about him.

Board says that "deep questions require deep study . . . . Christianity has something to do with fact and truth . . . . So doubts of error are met by knowledge and study." This I suppose is the point of my study.


The author suggests three ways to deal with factual doubt: 1.) Learn the factual basis of the Christian faith, 2.) We must constantly review and rehearse these facts through prayer, reading, worship and meditation, and 3.) the factual basis must be held by faith.


C.S. Lewis says "now Faith, in the sense in which I am here using the word, is the art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted, in spite of your changing moods."


This chapter had some good points but the biggest issue I had is that it is assumed that a person already trusts the Bible as complete truth. That is a big hurdle to get over for most people I think.