10 Myths About Christianity
Myth # 7: The Bible is an unreliable set of documents and cannot be trusted.
This allegation has long been the subject of hundreds of books and articles and we certainly cannot expect to respond to it fully here. However, here are a few points that need consideration:
First of all, recent scholarship has dated the writing of the entire New Testament at between 50 and 100 A.D., or only 20 to 70 years after the events it records. This means it is quite probable that the New Testament was written either by eyewitnesses or by their close acquaintances – thus preserving an acceptable degree of accuracy.
Secondly, we have better and more ancient manuscripts of the New Testament than of any other piece of ancient literature. The oldest complete New Testament we possess (the Codex Sinaiticus) was copied in about 350 A.D., or about 250 years after the original was written. By contrast, the earliest available copies of Aristotle’s writings were made in 1100 A.D., or about 1400 years after they were originally composed. It doesn’t make sense to think we have an accurate copy of Aristotle’s Metaphysics but an inaccurate copy of the New Testament.
Thirdly, there are more than 13,000 surviving copies of various portions of the New Testament (including several thousand complete New Testaments) dating from ancient and medieval times. Close to 5,000 of these are in the original Greek language. There is thus a high probability of approximating the original documents. The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in 1947. Dated 150 B.C.-150 A.D., these Scrolls contained large portions of the Old Testament. Except for minor variations, the text of the Scrolls is nearly identical with the text of more recent manuscripts. This is a strong evidence of accurate textual transmission. We possess reliable manuscripts of the Old Testament.
Finally, archaeological evidence tends to confirm rather than disprove the biblical narratives. William F. Albright, one of the world’s outstanding archaeologists of the previous century, writes, “There can be no doubt that archaeology has confirmed the substantial historicity of Old Testament tradition . . . Archaeology makes it increasingly possible to interpret each religious phenomenon and movement in the Old Testament in light of its true background and real sources.”
To say, then, that the Bible is unreliable or untrustworthy is a dogma not based on the evidence. The Bible is among the most trustworthy of ancient documents.
Myth # 8: There is no evidence that Jesus Christ rose from the dead.
If this statement is true, there is no evidence for the most central Christian belief next to the existence of God. As the Apostle Paul wrote to one of the first Christian churches, “If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless, and so is your faith” (1 Corinthians 15:14).
But a thinking person needs evidence. It is common historical knowledge that Jesus died on a Roman cross and was buried. And the biblical record indicate both that his tomb was found empty shortly afterwards and that a large number of people claimed to have spoken, walked and eaten with him after his death. These claims are startling. They need to be explained. We must decide whether there is a better explanation than an actual resurrection.
Here we will deal with each of the four alternate explanations.
1) We are told (Matthew 27:62-28:4) that the authorities placed a guard at the tomb to prevent the body from being stolen. And when the body was discovered to be missing, it was noted that the grave clothes were still present. They would be strange grave robbers who would fight Roman soldiers to steal a naked corpse, when the only thing of value in the tomb would have been the spice-laden grave clothes.
2) The authorities posted the guard to keep the body buried. We must ask why they would subsequently remove it. When Christianity was first proclaimed, it was seen as a threat to the powers of the day. Because the new teaching was explicitly based upon belief in the resurrection, it would have been a simple matter for the authorities to quash it by producing the body of Jesus. The fact that they did not do so indicates that they did not have the body.
3) Because Roman discipline provided punishments ranging from beatings to death for sleeping on duty, we may assume that the soldiers were alert. That means that the disciples (a discouraged, frightened group of fisherman, tax collectors, and one political activist) would have had to fight the soldiers to get the body – a fight they stood a poor chance of winning. But it was not just the disciples who claimed to have seen Jesus alive again. They would, in other words, have had to convince others to join them in their deception – a deception these others would have no motive for maintaining. Furthermore, 11 out of the original 12 disciples were martyred for their belief that Jesus rose from the dead. Now people might die for what they believe to be true, even if they are wrong. But few will die for a known lie. The fact that the disciples died saying that Jesus was alive, and therefore Lord and God, means that they certainly did not have his body.
4) If no one stole the body, then perhaps Jesus did not quite die on the cross, but was buried alive and revived in the tomb. This may be. However, this position reduces to absurdity when we are asked to believe that, half dead due to blood loss, a beating and no medical attention after his crucifixion, Jesus struggled free from his shroud, pushed aside a stone that three healthy women were not sure they could move (see Mark 16:3), and walked several miles on wounded feet. Then he met his disciples, claimed to be risen, victorious over the power of death, and was so convincing that Thomas called him “My Lord and My God” (John 20:28). After about a month he wandered off and died in solitude. No one ever found his body.
This is a theory of last resort. A supernatural resurrection is certainly not less probable than this, unless we reject it from the outset.
In conclusion, there is considerable weight behind the claim that Jesus rose from the dead. If this is true, it is tremendously significant. We must then ask why it happened. And we must deal with the Christian claim that this is the supreme act of God intervening in history to restore the world to himself.
Myth # 9: The presence of evil and suffering in the world proves there is no God.
Some people think that the problem of evil, with the suffering it brings, is a barrier to belief in God. The argument goes like this:
1. A God who is good and loving would not want evil to exist.
2. A God who is all-powerful could remove all evil if he so desired.
3. Thus, if God is both good and all-powerful, there would be no evil.
4. But evil continues in the world.
5. Therefore, God (at least a good and all-powerful God) does not exist.
This argument is superficially convincing. But it has one basic flaw. The third point does not follow from the first two. All that is required, if God were both good and all-powerful, is that evil would not exist forever. God would at some point deal with evil and remove it from his creation.
The argument does not reckon with the grace of God. It fails to take into account the love and compassion God has extended to us, his creatures, in delaying the removal of evil from the world. Suppose God were to immediately wipe out all evil. Where would we stand? Which one of us is free from evil? Far from remaining an intellectual problem “out there,” evil is a moral existential problem within each of us. We ourselves are the problem of evil. And if simple eradication were the answer, we would have no hope.
But the choice is not so stark. There is a third alternative, and this is the heart of the Christian message. God became man in Jesus Christ and took upon himself the total, cumulative weight of all of the world’s evil and suffering. Jesus died to solve the problem of evil. With the cross, something happened that is beyond human understanding.
God was not interested in simply eliminating evil if that meant getting rid of his creation in the process. Instead he offers us a way out – the way of forgiveness of our guilt, and the renewal and transformation of our broken lives and suffering world. How evil will finally end is just as mysterious in its origin. Perhaps no adequate human account can ever be given. Nevertheless, the Bible envisions the ultimate triumph of good in the universe because God has acted on our behalf. He both desires and is able to solve the problem of evil.
Now the onus is on us. We must start with ourselves if we are not to further contribute to the problem. We each need radical change, and this is what Christianity offers. The ball is in our court. God has already acted. Now it’s our turn.
Myth # 10: It doesn’t matter what you believe, because all religions are basically the same.
This is a common sentiment. The trouble is, it’s false. What a person believes about the ultimate meaning of life matters infinitely to them. Believers, at least, recognize differences in belief. They risk torture and death for their beliefs. They quite literally stake their lives on them.
But are they mistaken? Does it really not matter what you believe? Are all religions at the bottom the same?
Undoubtedly, there is much common ground between religions. Many, for example, accept a Creator and have some idea of origins. All have a sense of good and evil. Most foster worship and teach an ethic for living. There are indeed many similarities.
But the similarities are by no means complete. In fact, the differences are staggering. Take conceptions of the divine, for example. While Buddhism prefers the emptiness of Nirvana to any positive or definite idea of God, tribal religions are polytheistic. And in between, we have everything from the impersonal Brahman of Hinduism to the intimate personal Lord of Christianity.
A further idea is the Christian idea of the incarnation. That God entered history as a human being is a claim unique to the Christian faith. Other religions might claim temporary manifestations of deity from time to time. Christianity alone rests on the assumption that God literally became man for our salvation.
Are these beliefs all the same? Hardly. They are at variance with each other; they are even contradictory. They might conceivably all be wrong, but they certainly cannot all be right.
That means it does matter what you believe. All religions make exclusive claims. We need to examine these claims to determine which are true. And the truth demands a final choice.
Hi David, thank you for letting us know, the issue has been resolved so you can view #4-6 here: http://powertochange.com/students/faith/tenmyths2/
Some of the 10 myths are missing.