The Case for Christ--Corroborating Evidence

This morning, we looked at Strobel's collection of corroborating evidence from Chapter 3 of his book and briefly at the rebuttal evidence from Chapter 6 of the book. We talked about the meaning of corroborative evidence. Webster defines corroborate: "To make more certain; confirm: He corroborated my account of the accident." Corroborative evidence supports other testimony; it affirms or backs up the essential elements of an eyewitness account. It can be a public record, a photograph, or additional testimony from a second or third person. It can verify a person's entire testimony or just key parts of it. In effect, corroborative evidence acts like the support wires that keep a tall antenna straight and unwavering. The more corroborative evidence, the stronger and more secure the case.

Chapter 3 from The Case for Christ makes reference to corroborative evidence found outside the Bible. For example, one of the "support wires" from the image described above could be the historical writings from various historians such as Josephus, Tacitus, Pliny the Younger, Tertullian, and Phlegon. These writings verified and validated many of the events, actions, words, and characteristics that we find in the eyewitness accounts of Jesus in the Gospels of the New Testament. For example, the historical description of the darkened sky and the earthquake that occurred when Jesus died on the cross is referenced in the historical documents of the day. Jesus was described as a wise man who performed acts of amazement and who was a teacher to those who followed Him. An important fact to keep in mind is that these historians were not Christians. They had nothing to gain by embellishing the facts. In fact, they likely faced some criticism and persecution from those who were attempting to quell the Christian movement. Yet, they were compelled to record the facts for history and these historical facts clearly corroborated the Biblical version of the life of Jesus.

We took a brief look at Chapter 6, the rebuttal evidence. Most of the rebuttal evidence comes from the gnostic gospels. I did not realize that there were more than 80 gospels, 4 of which were eyewitness accounts that are included in the Bible. The gospels of the New Testament were all written relatively soon after Jesus' death and they are all attributed to the author whose name they bear. Not so with the other "agnostic" gospels. The agnostic gospels were written long after Jesus lived on earth and authorship cannot be attributed to the name listed as the title of these documents. In addition, these documents have many contradictory accounts that do not reflect the events as they were described in the eyewitness testimonies of the Gospels of the New Testament and they do not comply with the other evidence found in historical documents and other outside evidence.

The Holy Bible placed great emphasis on "truth." The emphasis on truth is verified by the following scriptures: Psalm 15: 1-2, Psalm 25:5, Psalm 40:11, Psalm 51:6, and Psalm 145:18. Our lesson today deals with the "Truth" of the Bible, the truth of Jesus, and the truth of Christianity. In John 8:32, Jesus is quoted as saying, "Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." AMEN.