The Rev Joel Yang (March 2020)
The Rev Joel Yang has been a TRAC pastor since 2003, and is currently serving as Pastor In Charge at Holland Road Methodist Church.
The views expressed in this article are personal and may not reflect the official position of The Methodist Church in Singapore.
Synopsis:
People sometimes wonder, if the age-old Scriptures contain mistakes, or fabricated accounts. I don’t blame them. I did too, before I came to know Jesus as my Savior and Lord. I discovered that the Bible is a miracle in itself. Multiple writers, 66 books, written over centuries, and yet consistent, accurate and carrying 1 consistent story throughout! This article tells my story, and my discoveries as I ploughed through the Scriptures in my quest to find God, may it aid you in your journey as well, as you seek out God’s truth for yourself.
Books I found helpful:
- Evidence that demands a verdict – Josh McDowell
- Questions of Life – Nicky Gumbel
Reconciling Christianity’s Claims With Real-Life Situations
Growing up, I found it hard to reconcile what Christians said about a loving God, with the state that my family was in – broken, poor, abandoned. When I saw the seemingly happy families, that my classmates had, I asked: “Why is my family like this? I didn’t choose this and I shouldn’t deserve this!” So when Christians came to tell me that God loved me – the words and my reality didn’t sync – and it made no sense to me. As a teenager, I worked hard to debunk, what I thought was the fallacy of Christianity. When I went to NS, a corporal told me that Scripture evidenced God’s love, in a way that I had never heard it being said. He said: “Mark 1:41 says that Jesus touched the leper to heal him. Jesus didn’t need to do that – he could’ve just spoken the words and effected the miracle. But He touched the leper to show that – “When no one wants to hold your hand, I will.”” Those words touched my heart – that weekend, upon book-out, I went to a church, opened the Bible for myself and began reading – that December, during Christmas, I was baptized!
The Coherence of the Story Within – 1 Author Masterminding the 66 Books
But this is a real question, many people ask: “How are we to trust a book with words written thousands of years ago, passed down orally and then in copies of writing? Who’s to say it hasn’t been tampered with or improperly copied?” Upon my examining of the Bible – I have found the coherence of the Bible amazing! There are 66 books written by multiple authors, many who have never crossed paths or met – and yet there is 1 consistent, flowing story throughout! I wondered: “How was this humanly possible, unless God inspired these 66 books Himself?”
Christopher Wren – was known to have ‘built’ St. Paul’s Cathedral – and yet he did not lay a single stone! You see, there were many laborers that laid the stones, but there was just 1 mind, 1 vision and 1 plan behind its construction. It came from Christopher Wren. It’s the same with the Bible! When I read it, I felt God speaking to me – the age old words spoke of situations and feelings that I had in the present day! Then I read that in Genesis 16:7, Hagar the maid, having run away from her mistress’s cruelty, felt the same way! She was shown mercy by God and thereafter, referred to God as ‘El Roi’ – or “The God who sees me”.
But What if It Has Been Inaccurately Copied?
But I had other questions – “How can I know that it hasn’t been changed over the years?” To this question, my then-spiritual mentor pointed me to the science of textual criticism. It basically refers to the idea, that ‘the more manuscripts you have of an ancient text, and the closer they are to the original, the more certain you can be, of the veracity of the original!’
For instance, ‘Livy’s Roman History’ was written between 59 BC-AD 17, and the earliest copy we have of it, is from AD 900 (That’s a 900 year time lapse). We have about 20 copies of it in existence. ‘Caesar’s Gallic War’ was written around 58-50 BC, and the earliest copy we have is from AD 900 (That’s about a 950 year time lapse). We have about 10 copies of it. Yet no scholar doubts the accuracy or veracity of these writings – and there are many others such as Herodotus, Thucydides and Tacitus – to name a few!
The New Testament on the other hand, was written around AD40-100. The earliest copy we have of it, can be dated to AD 130. The full manuscripts we have, can be dated to around AD350. That’s a time lapse of 30-310 years! We have 5000 odd copies in Greek, 10000 in Latin and 9300 others! It’s no wonder that F.J. Hort said: “The text of the New Testament stands alone amongst ancient writings, in terms of sheer evidence and accuracy!”
But What if The Early Disciples Made It Up?
Yet someone else may ask: “What if the apostles made it up?” I did ponder that too – but when I read the accounts of Jesus’ death – they were horrific and dismal! I also rea in Mark 14:50 that “Everyone fled.” The apostles all deserted Jesus – there was NO church at the point when Jesus died on the Cross! They were in hiding, behind locked doors even (John 20:19 tells us this!) – afraid of being caught as they did not want the same fate to befall them!
Yet historically we know – from Josephus and from Foxe’s Book of Martyrs – that they ALL died as martyrs. Horrible deaths for them all. John escaped death, and lived out his days in exile – but not before he was dipped in boiling oil, as a result of his following of Jesus! What made fearful men, die preaching that Jesus is the Son of God and had come back from the dead? Surely after all that torture – one of the 12 would have cracked – and said: “Ok ok, I give up, we made it up. I’m not dying for a lie!” But none of them did! 2 Peter 1:16 tells us that they did not follow made-up accounts, but instead they were “eyewitnesses of His glory”!
If Made-Up, the Apostles Chose Poorly
Another point I noted, as I read the Scriptures, that convinced me of the veracity of the accounts, was the “sheer madness of the accounts”.
You see, if you are trying to start a new religion in biblical times – there are 2 things you really shouldn’t do! Firstly, you wouldn’t create a dubious origins story for your Savior! The disciples all wrote that Jesus was conceived by a virgin! Mary was engaged to Joseph and we are told, she is visited by an angel who tells her the Spirit would come upon her and she would conceive One who would be the Son of God! Surely, they knew, that this account would invite gossip from skeptics and criticism that would even cast aspersions to the honor and integrity of Mary! I mean, who makes up such stuff? Unless – they merely recorded the facts, and this is exactly what happened!
Secondly, listing ‘dubious’ witnesses to a crucial event in this new ‘start-up religion’s’ developmental journey, would also be a major error! Yet, all the gospels list women as the 1st witnesses to Jesus’ Resurrection! Why would they do this – if they made it up? You see, men were the dominant gender in such times and crediting women as the 1st witnesses – would not help their newfound religion. This made no sense, unless it was true and was actually what happened!
Why Do the Accounts Seem Conflicting?
A 3rd question I had, as a seeker of the faith, was: “If it’s true, why do the accounts seem conflicting?” For example in Matthew 27:44, it says that both criminals on the crosses mocked Jesus and yet in Luke 23:39-43, it says that 1 of the criminals sought forgiveness!
As a counselor, I have people come to sessions with multiple issues over the years. Sometimes, I have a husband coming with his side of the story and the wife coming with her side of the story. Neither of them are lying and yet the accounts they share have differences – it happens because they are focused on different areas of the same situation! Through counseling, I often hope to help them better understand themselves as well as their spouses’ perspective!
To me, I found it possible that both criminals mocked Jesus and a little while later, 1 of the criminals changed his mind about Jesus. I wonder, if it was because of how he saw Jesus behave on the Cross – how He prayed for His enemies even. After all, and up close and personal examination of a person – can change our minds about them! It happened to Simon of Cyrene, I believe! Mark 15:21 deliberately records that he was the father of Rufus and Alexander and it was as if, the writer felt that the early readers would immediately know who this ‘Rufus and Alexander’ were (as if they were known in the early church, and indeed there is a Rufus referred to Romans 16:13, although I am unsure if the two are same)!
Do Yourself a Favor and Investigate the Bible Yourself
Now, this is where you have to decide. I have found that investigating the truth for myself helps. I recall an incident earlier, whereby in a newspaper report, President Trump was accused of behaving unprofessionally on a visit to Japan and dumping Koi feed into a pond, instead of spooning it out to the Koi fishes. It described his behavior as being equivalent to a child, and that he “eventually lost patience and dumped the entire bowl into the pond.” A few hours after the initial report, secondary reports emerged to show that Trump began by spooning out the Koi feed, but his counterpart, Japanese PM Abe subsequently dumped his own feed by the entire bowl into the pond and Trump followed suit.
Reading the 2nd report, made me realize that he was trying to follow what his host did! It was a stark difference from just reading the 1st report alone!
Too Important to Decide Based on Hearsay
I read that African Impalas can leap a maximum of 10 feet vertically and 30 feet laterally. Yet in zoos around the world, they are kept in enclosures with 3 foot walls encircling them. Apparently their keepers found that the impalas do not leap, when they cannot see where their feet would land.
So despite their inherent potential to leap to freedom, they remain captive, because they would not attempt to transcend those 3 foot walls – because of their limited vision. What about you? Would you investigate the Bible for yourself? Because what if you did, and you found Joel to be wrong in what I said about the Bible? Well, you have lost nothing much. But if what I say about the Bible is true, and you are wrong – and you did not personally read the Bible yourself to find out, then the trade-off would not just be captivity like the Impalas – but one with eternal consequences.