The Apostles: Liars or Truth Tellers? - Evidence of Reliability (Part 6 of 8)

The gospel accounts of Jesus found in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John were written by four different men, describing the life and ministry of Jesus. They are witness testimony, reports of eyewitness accounts of Christ. As Edmund Bennett has rightly pointed out in his book The Four Gospels From A Lawyer's Standpoint, this leaves us with two options regarding their testimony. These men are either liars or truth tellers. Written in the first century by eyewitnesses or close associates of eye witnesses, these writers were in a position to know whether or not their accounts of Jesus were largely accurate. So let's briefly explore this argument.

The famous Christian apologist, C.S. Lewis, developed what has been called the “Lord, Liar, or Lunatic” argument for the divinity of Jesus. It goes something like this. Based on the things Jesus taught and said about himself, he was either a liar, a raving madman, or the Lord he claimed to be. According to Lewis, there was no other option. Given the moral teaching and life of Jesus, it seems nearly impossible that he could be a lunatic or a liar. This only leaves the option of Lord. We will touch on this argument later in the book, but for now you should notice that this argument also applies to the authors of the New Testament.

The authors of the four gospels were all members of the early church and were either apostles themselves or had connections with apostles. These books were written for the 1st century church and quickly viewed as authoritative by them. The men who complied, edited, and wrote these narratives would have been in a position to know whether or not many, if not all, of the stories were true, especially the overarching stories of miracles and the resurrection. They were either liars or truth tellers. The obvious intent of each author is to give some sort of accurate accounting of the life of Jesus. So if the teaching, miracles, and claims of Jesus are false, then each of the authors is a liar. But not only are they liars, they are evil men. If the goal is to get men, women, and children to give up everything and follow Jesus, knowing it may cost many their lives, one would be truly corrupt for fabricating such a false story. But are the gospels authors corrupt men? Could corrupt men create the most lovely figure and sublime teaching in all of human history? Would corrupt men be willing to die for things they knew to be a lie? Could liars write the New Testament in its entirety?

Here we have just one more piece of evidence demonstrating the reliability of our gospel accounts.