History and Christianity

With Abraham, we come to a watershed in Genesis. From the creation of the universe through Noah and Babel, to Abraham, the author of the book is reporting history. However, the stories prior to Abraham fit squarely into “prehistory”: they report the details of a culture too far removed from the present to be reached by the tool bag of the historical sciences. But the story of Abraham brings the Bible into a time frame verifiable by the historian. From this point on, the revelation of God to humans takes place within the sphere of verification, and this leaves the Bible liable to falsification by the historian.

This is important because no other major religion makes these kinds of claims. Hinduism, Buddhism, etc. use stories outside the realm of real space and time to communicate religious teaching. For example, it does not matter to Hinduism wether Arjuna ever really existed. The Gita is trying to teach a moral not history. However, Judaism and Christianity stand or fall on the history that the Bible relates. If we discover that there was no such person as Abraham, then we have no hope because there was never any covenant between God and Abraham. If we find the real bones of Jesus of Nazareth, then he did not resurrect; we have no hope because there was no price paid for our sin.

Since there are real ways that the Bible could be proven to be a false account of history, we say that the Bible is “falsifiable.” This is not a bad thing. Our Bible makes claims about the way that the world is and expects that seekers will discover evidence that the world really is that way. Being falsifiable means that the Bible lays it all on the line and invites critical scrutiny. The Bible is not scared of being proven false, but this is not because it runs from the attacks of its enemies. Rather, the Bible erases the line between some irrational non-cognitive “faith” and fact. The Bible purports to relate fact and runs headlong into the battle to defend its fact-claims.

So, history is important for the Christian because our faith rises and falls on our account of world history.

Questions for thought:

1. Why should we think that the Bible, specifically the New Testament, is true?
2. How much would solid evidence that disproved the resurrection affect your faith in Jesus?
3. Should we, or, minimally, can we, take the Bible to be true on the basis that it claims to be God’s word?
4. If you answered “Yes” to 3 above, how do you get around also trusting in the Koran? It too claims to be the Word of God, but is it? How do you know?

Jeremy Green