you know let me Begin by saying that
religious discussion is always a little
bit sensitive and uh it's not our
intention to hurt anybody's
feelings uh rather Our intention is just
to get to the root of the
matter uh we were talking earlier about
on one of our earlier episodes about uh
how I became
Muslim uh basically was my path through
Christianity or exactly what my path was
and I voiced uh some of my concerns
about Christianity in that episode the
reason why I I myself was not able to uh
accept the tenants of Christian
faith one of the reasons was that uh
Christian faith hinges off of the
concept of um the atonement the concept
that Jesus Christ died for our sins uh I
always had trouble with that concept uh
I never understood how Jesus Christ or
anybody could die for anybody else's
sins
and uh so that's basically what we
decided together to talk about on this
show
MH uh I think the the beginning point
that I would make is that the concept of
the
atonement is one of the most simplistic
but beautiful formulas uh that exists
for religious salvation um the concept
that if you believe in Jesus Christ and
you believe that he died for your sins
then that that is sufficient for
Redemption that is sufficient for
salvation you will have your place in
paradise and uh I mean I have to say
sounds good to me what do you think be
be a fool not to accept it U and that's
kind of my point I mean my point is if
it were true and that's the big if if it
were true um we would all be fools not
for accepting it it would be the easiest
thing just to say where do I sign on the
bottom line and give me my key to
Paradise um
so first of all we have to validate the
concept we have to ask ourselves is it
true did Jesus Christ die for our sins
um and IID say if we're going to if
we're going to analyze that concept the
first thing we have to do is ask the
witnesses I mean let's ask the people
who were there and who saw it okay let's
ask the Bible let's ask the
gospels but there's a problem there
if we're going to look at Matthew Mark
Luke and John those are what what is
regard what are regarded as the biblical
Witnesses however the big problem there
is Matthew Mark and Luke Luke and John
were not written by Matthew Mark L Luke
and John um this is a very little known
fact but the fact of the matter is that
all four gospels were Anonymous um none
of them are signed none of them bear the
name of the author they were given those
names out of convenience now I'm going
to go some to some notes here because I
want to get this letter perfect and I'm
going to read you something uh a
statement by Graham Stanton one of one
of the greatest Scholars of our time uh
on the New Testament and he wrote the
gospels unlike most Greco Roman writings
are
Anonymous The Familiar headings which
give the name of an author The Gospel
According to were not part of the
original manuscripts for they were added
only early in the 2
Century added in the 2nd
Century who added them who added those
names to the gospels who we don't know
who wrote them well believe it or not
who added them we don't know that either
now I don't mean to get real picky here
but if I were to give anybody out there
a book of guidance on anything a book of
guidance on car repair a book of
guidance on
astrophysics something that's going to
impact your life um something that you
want to know the authority of first
question in your mind is going to be
what I mean it's going to be who wrote
this right and yet here we're being told
that the gospels the four gospels all
four gospels of the Bible are
Anonymous I had a problem with that and
I think a lot of other people do but I
tell you what let's just forget all that
and why not because most people forget
all that anyway for the last 2,000 years
we've had sort of this syndrome of of
trying to push that aside so let's just
for the sake of discussion put that
aside and
instead uh let's just look at the
scriptural Authority again I'm going to
read to you the interpreters dictionary
of the Bible the interpreter's
dictionary of the Bible now this is
obviously a Christian work states it is
safe to say that there is not one
sentence in the New Testament in which
the manuscript tradition is wholly
uniform not one sentence Bart de irman
uh stated it in terms that I think are
perhaps a little bit easier for us to
get our our grasp upon he said quote
possibly it is easiest to put the matter
in comparative terms there are more
differences in manuscripts than there
are words in the in the New Testament
there are more differences in our
manuscripts than there are words in the
new testament which really gives me a a
very good you know sound feeling about
the Bible no and I would just say it
shouldn't it shouldn't give anybody a a
feeling of comfort about the work we've
talked about the fact that you know the
gospels were Anonymous many of the other
books were Anonymous and and now we're
hearing that there are more differences
in the manuscripts than there are words
in the New
Testament so I don't mean to cut you off
tell me so just to uh get this straight
you're telling us that we don't know who
actually wrote these books that Jesus
obviously didn't write it we don't have
the Gospel According To Jesus and uh
many people are under the assumption
that these were his companions these
were people that live with him is this
correct exactly exactly it's not true
and these are the references that people
can go check you're not making this up
according to your exactly and by by the
way everything that I read you
everything that I tell you you can find
in my articles and and in my books which
we'll come back to but the point is that
if we look to the gospels Matthew Mark
Luke and John we first have to
understand we're not reading Matthew
Mark Luke and John we're reading
anonymous anonymous anonymous anonymous
okay we don't know who wrote them and
there are tremendous differences between
them let me give you an example
okay um I mean let's say that you pick
up a book of mathematics and on page one
it says 1+ 1 is two and on page 10 it
says 1 plus 1 is three you know there's
a problem right big problem you're
you're probably going to ditch that book
pretty fast