Is the New Testament the Word of God?

Is the New Testament the Word of
God?
By Jose Luis Dizon

What this Debate is not About
 A display of oratory skills
 A clash of Egos

What the Debate is About
 What the New Testament claims about itself
 How it goes about making those claims
 Whether those claims are justified

Our Guiding principle
Πάντα δὲ δοκιμάζετε,
τὸ καλὸν κατέχετε
“But test everything; hold fast what is good.” (1 Thess. 5:21)

Biblical Inspiration
 2 Timothy 3:16: “All Scripture is God-breathed
[θεόπνευστος] and profitable for teaching, for
reproof, for correction, and for training in
righteousness.”
 2 Peter 1:20-21: “No prophecy of Scripture
comes from someone's own interpretation. For
no prophecy was ever produced by the will of
man, but men spoke from God as they were
carried along by the Holy Spirit.”

NT References to Other NT Writings
 2 peter 3:15-16 – Refers to Paul’s writings as
“scripture”
 1 Timothy 5:18 – Cites Luke 10:7 alongside
Deuteronomy, giving both equal authority

 1 Thessalonians 2:13: “And we also thank God
constantly for this, that when you received the
word of God, which you heard from us, you
accepted it not as the word of men but as what it
really is, the word of God.”
 1 Thessalonians 5:27: “I put you under oath
before the Lord to have this letter read to all the
brothers.”

 Revelation 1:10-11: “I was in the Spirit on the Lord's
day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet
saying, ‘Write what you see in a book [βιβλίον] and
send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to
Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to
Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.’”
 Revelation 22:18-19: “I warn everyone who hears the
words of the prophecy of this book [τοῦ βιβλίου τούτου]:
if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the
plagues described in this book, and if anyone takes
away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God
will take away his share in the tree of life and in the
holy city, which are described in this book.”

The Apostolic Message
 Acts 10:39-43: “And we are witnesses of all that
he did both in the country of the Jews and in
Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging
him on a tree, but God raised him on the third
day and made him to appear, not to all the
people but to us who had been chosen by God
as witnesses, who ate and drank with him after
he rose from the dead. And he commanded us to
preach to the people and to testify that he is the
one appointed by God to be judge of the living
and the dead. To him all the prophets bear
witness that everyone who believes in him
receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”

The Apostolic Message
 1 Corinthians 15:3-8: “For I delivered to you as
of first importance what I also received: that
Christ died for our sins in accordance with the
Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was
raised on the third day in accordance with the
Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas,
then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more
than five hundred brothers at one time, most of
whom are still alive, though some have fallen
asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all
the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born,
he appeared also to me.”

The Apostles’ Two Arguments
 Fulfillment of Messianic prophecy
 Eyewitness Testimony

The Concept of the Messiah
Judaism and Christianity affirm that the Messiah…
 must fulfill the prophecies of the Hebrew scriptures
 will be a kingly figure
 has rule over the whole world
 will suffer for his people
Islam and Christianity affirm that the Messiah…
 is Jesus
 was wrongly rejected by the Jews
 will come again

Old Testament Messianic Prophecies
 Genesis 49:10: “The scepter shall not depart from
Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet,
until tribute comes to him; and to him shall be the
obedience of the peoples.”

 Micah 5:2: But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who
are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from
you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler
in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from
ancient days.

 Isaiah 9:6: For to us a child is born, to us a son is
given; and the government shall be upon his
shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful
Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince
of Peace.
 Hebrew text: ‫ֶד‬‫ל‬ֶֶ֣‫י־י‬ ִּ‫כ‬‫נּו‬ ָ֗‫ַּד־ל‬‫ל‬ֻ‫י‬‫ן‬ ֵּ֚‫ב‬‫נּו‬ ָ֔‫ן־ל‬ ַּ‫ת‬ִּ‫נ‬‫י‬ ִִּ֥‫ה‬ ְּ‫ַּת‬‫ו‬
‫ה‬ ָ֖‫ר‬ ְּ‫ש‬ ִּ‫מ‬ַּ‫ה‬‫ֹו‬ ֑‫מ‬ ְּ‫כ‬ ִּ‫ַּל־ש‬‫ע‬‫א‬ ָ֨‫ר‬ְּ‫ק‬ִּ‫ַּי‬‫ו‬‫ֹו‬ ֜‫מ‬ ְּ‫ש‬‫ֶא‬‫ל‬ ֶֶּ֠‫פ‬֙‫ץ‬‫יֹוע‬‫ל‬ֶ֣‫א‬‫ֹור‬ ָ֔‫ב‬ִּ‫ג‬
‫ָ֖ד‬ַּ‫יע‬ ִּ‫ֲב‬‫א‬‫ֹום‬ ֽ‫ל‬‫ר־ש‬ ַּ‫ש‬

 Isaiah 10:20-21: In that day the remnant of Israel
and the survivors of the house of Jacob will no
more lean on him who struck them, but will lean on
the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. A remnant
will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God
[‫ֹור‬ ֽ‫ב‬ִּ‫ל֙ג‬ָ֖‫א‬].

 Isaiah 52:13-53:12 (quoting only 53:4-6): “Surely
he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and
afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the
chastisement that brought us peace, and with his
wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have
gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his
own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity
of us all.”

 “Aside from one very important—but absolutely
unique—notice in Origen’s Contra Celsum, there is
no evidence at all that any late ancient Jews read
Isaiah 52-53 as referring to anyone but the
Messiah. There are, on the other hand, several
attestations of ancient rabbinic readings of the
song as concerning the Messiah and his
tribulations.”
 Daniel Boyarin, The Jewish Gospels: The Story of the Jewish Christ
(New York: The New Press, 2012), 152.

The Significance of Prophecy
 Judaism’s problem is that it doesn’t accept Jesus’
Messiahship
 Islam’s problem is that it does accept Jesus’
Messiahship, but doesn’t grasp the implications of
that Messiahship
 Only the Christian worldview can account for the
prophetic continuity between the Old and New
Testaments

Eyewitness Testimony in the NT
 John 21:24: “This is the disciple who is bearing
witness about these things, and who has written
these things, and we know that his testimony is
true.”

 1 John 1:1-2: “That which was from the beginning,
which we have heard, which we have seen with our
eyes, which we looked upon and have touched
with our hands, concerning the word of life— the
life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and
testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life,
which was with the Father and was made manifest
to us.”

 2 Peter 1:16: “For we did not follow cleverly
devised myths when we made known to you the
power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we
were eyewitnesses of his majesty.”

Criteria of Authentication
 Criterion of Embarrassment — Authors of
religious documents tend to present their leaders in
a positive light, and don’t generally invent stories
that would cast them in a negative light
 Criterion of Dissimilarity — Sayings and events
that are dissimilar to either Jesus’ first century
Jewish background or the practice of the early
church are unlikely to have been invented
 Criterion of Multiple Attestation — Sayings and
events recorded in multiple traditions indicate that
they are likely to be historical (analogous to
tawatur)

Problems for Islam
 Islam regards Jesus and his disciples to be
Muslims (cf. Qur’an 3:52-55, 61:14)
 Yet there is no evidence of any “Proto-Islam” in the
Apostolic period
 No matter how far you go into the early history of
the church, the theology found therein is
unacceptable to Muslims
 The Islamic worldview cannot account for the
development of Christianity

Conclusion: What’s Your Worldview?
Only one worldview can account for all facts…

Is the New Testament the Word of God?

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