Gerry Charlotte Phelps

Are the Biblical Gospels Accurate and True?

CAN WE TRUST THE GOSPELS?  Bible Scholar Mark D. Robert's new book says "Yes!"

"Investigating the Reliability of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John"

is now available.

Order it from Amazon by clicking here

This book is a clear, straightforward explanation of why we can trust the New Testament Gospels to give us solid historical information about Jesus. I deal with such questions as:

• Can we know what the original Gospel manuscripts really
said?

• Did the evangelists know Jesus personally?

• When were the Gospels written?

• What sources did the Gospel writers use?

• Did early Christian oral tradition reliably pass down the
truth about Jesus?

• What are the New Testament Gospels?

• What difference does it make that there are four Gospels?

• Are there contradictions in the Gospels?

• If the Gospels are theology, can they be history?

• Do miracles undermine the reliability of the Gospels?

• Do historical sources from the era of the Gospels support their reliability?

• Does archeology support the reliability of the Gospels?

• Did the political agenda of the early church influence the content of the Gospels?

• Why do we have only four Gospels in the Bible?

• Can we trust the Gospels after all?

I have written this book not for experts in biblical studies, but for all people who seek to understand the Gospels as trustworthy historical documents.

Endorsements for Can We Trust the Gospels?

“What F. F. Bruce did for my generation of students, Mark Roberts has done for the current generation. Any student who asks me if our Gospels are reliable will be given this book, and then I’ll buy another copy for the next student!”

—Scot McKnight, Karl A. Olsson Professor in Religious Studies, North Park University

“Mark Roberts has produced what has long been needed: a highly read- able and compelling account of why Christians can indeed trust the Gospels. Dr. Roberts is a formidable scholar whose reputation is very high among academics. He is a skilled writer and teacher. He is also an innovative force in the world of Christian apologetics, among the very first to see the potential for blogging as a formidable means of pursuing the Great Commission.

“I have had Dr. Roberts on my radio show more than any other theolo- gian or pastor, for several reasons. First, he has been a very good friend for a long time. But much more important is his ability to communicate and the knowledge he has accumulated through his three decades of serious and thorough study of the Gospels and the scholarship around them. Whenever a major controversy erupts that touches on the Christian faith, I call on Dr. Roberts.

“Can We Trust the Gospels? is quite simply the best effort I have ever read by a serious scholar to communicate what scholars know about the Gospels and why that should indeed encourage us to trust them and thus to trust Jesus Christ.”

—Hugh Hewitt, radio talk show host, author, blogger, and Professor of Law at Chapman University School of Law 

“There is a crisis of confidence about the Gospels, fueled by sensational claims about supposedly new Gnostic Gospels with a ‘revised standard’ view of Jesus. With a pastor’s insight but a scholar’s critical acumen, Mark Roberts provides a readable guide to answering the question, Can we trust the Gospels? As Mark makes clear, the earliest and best evidence we have for the real Jesus is the canonical Gospels, not the much later Gnostic ones.”

—Ben Witherington III, Professor of New Testament, Asbury Theological Seminary, author of What Have They Done with Jesus?

“Can We Trust The Gospels? caught me completely by surprise. While I knew a scholar of Mark Roberts’s caliber could convince skeptics the Gospels are reliable, I never expected to have my own preconceptions uprooted and replaced with a more solid trust in these biblical texts. This book not only makes a compelling case for trusting the Gospels, it illuminates the creative ways in which God worked to bring us His Word. Roberts’s brilliant little book deserves to be widely read by both skeptics and believers.”

—Joe Carter, blogger (evangelicaloutpost.com) and Director of Communications for the Family Research Council

Order Can We Trust the Gospels? from Amazon by clicking here

DR. HENRY MORRIS: LOSS OF A GIANT

Dr. Henry Morris died without my knowing about it, on February 25, 2006.  He had an enormous effect on me.  When I was in prison, the chaplain lent me his copy of "The Genesis Flood,"  It made a provocative

case that the fossils and the strata containing them were better explained by a massive, world-wide flood than any other cause.  It also offered compelling evidence that the "gradualist" theory of evolution could not explain the fossils.  That in fact, the fossils would not have been preserved intact, but would have been eaten or rotted away before they could have been slowly, slowly covered by dust and mud over centuries.  That such things as the wooly mamouths found quick-frozen, in a standing position with food in their mouths and completely buried by sediments, could not have been covered gradually.  Nor intact trunks of petrified trees found still upright where they grew, piercing through what are supposed to be billions of years of layers of gradually-deposited sediments.

Understandably, the book became a best seller.  It also re-ignited creationism by giving it new scientific grounding.

Dr. Henry was a hydraulics engineer and mathematician, head of the Department of Civil Engineering at Virginia Polytechnic and author of a widely-used text on hydraulics as well as articles in various encyclopedias.  His credentials as acientist were well established.  Even more important, few understood better what truly massive, violent movements of water could do to rock, earth, sediment and living plant and animal life forms.  When he illustrated that a world-wide flood, such as Noah's flood, could account better than anything else for the record of the strata and the fossils, he had credibility.

"Intelligent Design" theories of "life-origins" appeared in the 1980's.  They were based on the growing conviction that every life form was so impenatrably complex - even in what once were thought to be simple single-cell life forms - that only an "Intelligent Designer" could explain the origins of life.  It borrowed from many aspects of Morris' work, and that of the scientists who worked with him at his Institute of Creation Research (www.icr.org)

Arguments such as his that long, slow natural forces could not explain the fossils made a difference.  Eventually the late Harvard scientist and evolutionist, Jay Gould, proffered a new theory of "Punctuated Equilibrium".  That allowed for periods of huge, catastrophic change in the geologic record of the earth, between supposed long periods of gradual change.  This in effect admitted that only huge, sudden events could account for such things as the preservation of the fossils.

So Henry Morris must be considered one of the great apologists, a powerful defender of the faith.  In our time, after all, most people think science has disproved the truthfulness of the Bible.  This keeps many people from responding to the message of the Bible.  It also leaves them free to disregard it or change its meaning.  But if it can be defended, scientifically, as being true, then full belief becomes possible for more people.

MORRIS THE BIBLE TEACHER AND SCHOLAR

What is less known about Morris is his rank as one of the finest Bible teachers and scholars of our time.  Bringing the formidible training of a physical scientist to bear on the study of scripture, he has few equals in teaching and explaining the Bible.

The footnotes and appendices of his "Defender's Bible" are one of the finest Bible courses available.

He also has one of the best apologetics courses available for Sunday School classes, "The Beginning of the World."  This slender paperback has a tremendous impact on class members.

Those who have taught Sunday School classes know that what works best is short courses.  This one is just 13 weeks, or one quarter.  It is extremely good.  Henry Morris taught it for over 25 years in his Sunday School class, so he had plenty of time to polish it.  I have taught it, and the response was outstanding.

At his memorial service, his son, Dr. Henry Morris III, told of how he often remembered his father; seated in his study with a Bible on one knee, a concordance on the other and a yellow writing pad in between.  Dr. Morris wrote over 60 books and was still writing up to the time of his death at age 87.  The Institute for Creation Research that he founded has awarded over 100 Master's degrees.

As a scientist and scholar, he was one of the great apologists of our time.  As a Bible scholar and teacher, he ranks among the finest.  We will be standing on the shoulders of this giant in the faith for a long time to come.

(Dr. Morris' books can be found at www.icr.org or at www.amazon.com. "The New Defender's Bible" can also be purchased from Amazon by clicking on its image in the column on the right.)

"The Scripture Cannot Be Broken"

This morning I read from John 10:35, where Jesus said "the scripture cannot be broken."

Henry Morris' footnote on this verse says:

"Jesus is basing his entire defense against the charge of blasphemy on one word, 'gods,' in a relatively obscure psalm, commenting that the 'scripture' - that is the word actually written down - cannot be broken.

"This constitutes a very important testimony by Christ to the plenary verbal inspiration and authority of the Bible.  The reasoning by Christ is subtle yet powerful, relying on the use of this precise word in its context." (Emphasis mine.)

Morris is so good.  His "Defender's Bible" is superb.  (See it in column on the right.)