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    Gospel Truth: Answering New Atheist Attacks On The Gospels
    Unavailable
    Gospel Truth: Answering New Atheist Attacks On The Gospels
    Unavailable
    Gospel Truth: Answering New Atheist Attacks On The Gospels
    Ebook326 pages3 hours

    Gospel Truth: Answering New Atheist Attacks On The Gospels

    By Paul Barnett

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    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Strident New Atheists who seek to disprove God make historical attacks on the New Testament Gospels as a major part of their strategy. According to the late Christopher Hitchens, in God Is Not Great, 'The case for biblical consistency or authenticity or "inspiration" has been in tatters for some time, and the rents and tears only become more obvious with better research, and thus no "revelation" can be derived from that quarter.'
    In responding to Hitchens and others, Paul Barnett concedes that their instincts are correct: destroy the credibility of the Gospels and you destroy the credibility of Jesus and thus the credibility of God and the structure of Christian belief. The issue of 'gospel truth', that is, of the Gospels' historical truth, is of critical importance.
    Barnett surveys the main issues and questions, offering historical arguments in response to the critics and sceptics: New Testament dating and history, hostile witnesses to Jesus, his immediate impact, wider world history, archaeology, contradictions in the Gospels, the stories of Jesus' birth, miracles, the resurrection of Jesus, and other 'gospel' texts. He concludes with a clear affirmation of true and trustworthy revelation from God in the Gospels and in the person of Jesus Christ.
    This helpful, accessible volume will be of lasting value to all with an interest in the issues and debates.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherIVP
    Release dateDec 17, 2012
    ISBN9781844747238
    Unavailable
    Gospel Truth: Answering New Atheist Attacks On The Gospels
    Author

    Paul Barnett

    Paul Barnett is a teaching fellow at Regent College, Vancouver, and a visiting fellow in ancient history at Macquarie University in Australia. He was the Anglican bishop of North Sydney from 1990 to 2001, and is the author of Jesus the Rise of Early Christianity.

    Read more from Paul Barnett

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    • 3/5
      To rephrase Bishop Tutu "When people say that the Bible and social action don't mix, I ask them which Bible they are reading." Yet it seems that many evangelicals are reading different Bibles. Evangelical attitudes to social action have always been mixed. Some see it as a capitulation to the social gospel others as an integral part of the gospel. Chester in this introductory book helpfully examines this relationship.

      The book begins by outlining four ways in which evangelicals in general have responded to the relationship and poses a number of key questions:
      Is social involvement something we do as well as evangelism? Is there another way of doing evangelism? Is it a distraction or the real job of proclaiming the gospel?
      Is social involvement a legitimate activity of Christians? Does it have biblical support?
      The book attempts to explore these important issues. He provides a good case for evangelical social action but has some pertinent criticism too and he wants to see social action that is truly evangelical. He sees proclamation of the gospel message as being central to Christian social action and the need for social action to be shaped by the gospel. He argues that evangelism and social action are distinct but inseparable activities.

      In the first chapter he looks at three biblical reasons for involvement: the character of God, the reign of God and the grace of God. He maintains that social involvement is rooted in the character of God and that "Our understanding of poverty is fundamentally related to our understanding of God". This focus on the centrality of God is to be welcomed.

      One of the reasons for the lack of involvement is that Christianity is too often considered to be a private with no public ramifications. This misconception is investigated in Chapter 2. Calvin, Kuyper, Elizabeth Fry, Wilberforce, William Booth are all cited of examples of Christians whose faith has made a public difference. The privatising effect of human reason on through the Enlightenment and human experience on faith through Romanticism are briefly - albeit oversimplified - examined.

      Chester focuses on poverty as a key social issue, but he sees it including social marginalization and powerlessness. He advocates a relational approach to poverty. Tackling poverty is much more than feeding the hungry, poverty is more than a lack of income. The root of poverty is alienation from God, poverty is economic and social: it is "about marginalization, vulnerability, isolation and exclusion." This is obviously an area in which Christianity can help.

      Chester makes a good case for social action that precedes, accompanies and follows evangelism. What he doesn't do is to show how social action and social reform relate. Does social reform need to follow social action?

      Chester provides good reasons for the need for evangelicals to be involved in social action. He also provides some useful suggestions and ideas for involvement and includes some pertinent warnings: social action doesn't mean doing something for the poor, it is more than providing solutions. More effective ways include helping people to help themselves: "Good social involvement is helping people o find their own solutions." Participation is key.

      The book includes some thought provoking poems by Stuart Henderson, a number of vignettes that help focus the issues on real situations, a useful list of further reading and a bibliography.