The book, Can We Trust the Gospels, attempts to answer two basic questions that are posed to many Christians at least once in their lifetime: Do the Gospels provide reliable, historical information about Jesus of Nazareth? And do they offer a trustworthy basis for having faith in Jesus Christ? The author, Mark Roberts, is referring to the first four books found in today’s New Testament Bible, not other texts or “gnostic gospels” that are found elsewhere in literature. The author claims that although he has an Evangelical upbringing, at one point in time he was unsure about the reliability of the Gospels.
His main point is to show how he came to the conclusion that the Gospels are trustworthy, or rather, using his words: “where I’m coming from,” (pg. 14). He begins with his purpose statement, along with some other personal information. One thing to note, throughout the course of this book, the author occasionally refers to certain words or details, claiming that he will explain it later, and then fails to ever …show more content…
One incredibly large mistake, however, is giving someone credit for his belief that the Gospels are trustworthy, and then later in his story, giving reference to another book written by F.F. Bruce, “The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable,” claiming that it is this book which helped him through his doubts about the trustworthiness of the New Testament Gospels. He has learned that without exception, his earlier grad school teachers all had the same thoughts when considering the validity of the Gospels. He now begins to see “how often their interpretations [are] saturated by unquestioned philosophical presuppositions” (pg. 18). What he means by this is that anytime Jesus’ death is mentioned, they assume that it is an added text and therefore cannot be true, without even attempting to question the validity of what the Gospel
His main point is to show how he came to the conclusion that the Gospels are trustworthy, or rather, using his words: “where I’m coming from,” (pg. 14). He begins with his purpose statement, along with some other personal information. One thing to note, throughout the course of this book, the author occasionally refers to certain words or details, claiming that he will explain it later, and then fails to ever …show more content…
One incredibly large mistake, however, is giving someone credit for his belief that the Gospels are trustworthy, and then later in his story, giving reference to another book written by F.F. Bruce, “The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable,” claiming that it is this book which helped him through his doubts about the trustworthiness of the New Testament Gospels. He has learned that without exception, his earlier grad school teachers all had the same thoughts when considering the validity of the Gospels. He now begins to see “how often their interpretations [are] saturated by unquestioned philosophical presuppositions” (pg. 18). What he means by this is that anytime Jesus’ death is mentioned, they assume that it is an added text and therefore cannot be true, without even attempting to question the validity of what the Gospel