How reliable is the Gospel message?
The minimal facts approach of Gary Habermas
The major benefit of this approach is that you don’t need to show the Bible is reliable or even inspired. You are using conterporary scholarship, this includes atheist and agnostic scholars, to show the gospel that Paul preached and which we accept today is the same message the early church held and was laid down within a few months of Jesus crucifixion.
You can see this explained by Dr. Habermas himself here:
How do we date the crucifixion of Jesus?
Most New Testament scholars, including Christian, agnostic, and atheist scholars date the crucifixion of Jesus about 30 a.d. By the way, there are agnostic and atheist New Testament scholars not because they believe the New Testament is inspired, but because it is an interesting ancient Greek document to them like the Iliad or the Odessy.
The Gospels are dated as so:
Mark at about 70 a.d., 40 years after the crucifixion
Matthew, about 80 a.d., 50 years after the crucifixion
Luke at about 85 a.d., 55 years after the crucifixion
John at about 95 a.d. or 65 years after the crucifixion.
These are good sources, but what if we could get closer to that?
There are seven New Testament books considered by the consensus of scholars to be genuine, not inspired, but genuine: Romans, 1 & 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians, and Philemon.
Dr. Habermas uses the information found in some of these books to show the gospel Paul taught in 1 Corinthians 15 was exactly the same gospel taught by the church just after the resurrection of Jesus.
1 Corinthians 15:1-7 (NKJV)
1 Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand,
2 by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you–unless you believed in vain.
3 For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
4 and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures,
5 and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve.
6 After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep.
7 After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles.
1 Corinthians is dated around 55 a.d., just 25 years after the crucifixion of Jesus. In verse 1, Paul says the gospel he preached to the Corinthian church was the same gospel he received. The question is, “When did Paul receive this gospel?”
Most scholars believe it was when Paul met with Peter and James:
Galatians 1:15-19 (NKJV)
15 But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace,
16 to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood,
17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went to Arabia, and returned again to Damascus.
18 Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and remained with him fifteen days.
19 But I saw none of the other apostles except James, the Lord’s brother.
The consensus of New Testament also scholars believe Paul’s conversion was about two or three years after the crucifixion of Jesus. Three years of study takes us to around 35 or 36 a.d., within five or six years of the crucifixion. Paul met with Peter and James in Jerusalem and heard of the events these eye witnesses. They spent fifteen days sharing with Paul what they had seen, and Paul shared what he had learned in his three-year preparation in study.
Paul left that meeting solid in what the gospel was. In fact, he came back to Jerusalem fourteen years later to make sure he hadn’t varied in his teaching:
Galatians 2:1-9 (NKJV)
1 Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, and also took Titus with me.
2 And I went up by revelation, and communicated to them that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately to those who were of reputation, lest by any means I might run, or had run, in vain.
3 Yet not even Titus who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised.
4 And this occurred because of false brethren secretly brought in (who came in by stealth to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage),
5 to whom we did not yield submission even for an hour, that the truth of the gospel might continue with you.
6 But from those who seemed to be something–whatever they were, it makes no difference to me; God shows personal favoritism to no man–for those who seemed to be something added nothing to me.
7 But on the contrary, when they saw that the gospel for the uncircumcised had been committed to me, as the gospel for the circumcised was to Peter
8 (for He who worked effectively in Peter for the apostleship to the circumcised also worked effectively in me toward the Gentiles),
9 and when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that had been given to me, they gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised.
So, Paul checked to make sure his teaching was still in line with what he had been taught fourteen years earlier, and it matched perfectly to the point he was sent out by Peter, James, and John with the right hand of fellowship.
Therefore, the gospel Paul was teaching the Corinthians twenty five years after Jesus was crucified was the same gospel as he had learned from Peter and James twenty years earlier.
Now, one more point given by Dr. Habermas is that the statement of the gospel in 1 Corinthians 1 is in a creedal form. In other words, it is laid out in order to make it easy to memorize. This creed is seen by these same scholars to have been formed somewhere between just a few days after Jesus was raised to two years after.
So, we have the gospel as it is presented in 1 Corinthians 15, the very gospel we believe today, is the same gospel creed taught by the eye witnesses to the events it describes.
“But how reliable can Paul’s letter be,” you may ask yourself. Well, in 1 Corinthians 15 Paul is making reference to events which took place just 25 years earlier. 25 years ago, Rodney King was beaten and Bill Clinton was elected president of the United States. There are still millions of people who witnessed those events on TV. In fact, there are still people who could tell you about the assassination of John Kennedy. So, what Paul is writing could be easily discounted by the members of the church he championed especially by the leaders. But the church has supported that teaching for over 2000 years.
Believers Armed and Dangerous 