Читать книгу Evidence for the Bible - Elgin L Hushbeck Jr. - Страница 5

While God does not change, the defense of Christianity does. Critics are constantly coming up with new arguments. Actually they are normally just dusting off old arguments long since refuted and discarded, but the net effect is the same. What was not an issue yesterday suddenly becomes the latest reason why Christianity is false.

On the other side of the spectrum, new evidence is constantly being found. New manuscripts are discovered and new archaeological discoveries continue to broaden our understanding of the ancient world and support the Biblical account. I have revised this second edition and taken into account some of these developments, such as the recent claims that there are New Testament manuscripts dating back to the first century.

Since the publication of the first edition of Consider Christianity several new books have been published attacking the Christian faith. Most have constructed a straw man which they then proceed to knock down. Because of this, they are hard to take seriously. One notable exception to this is Michael Martin’s The Case Against Christianity. While Martin still fails to make his case, he has at least taken seriously some of the defenders of Christianity. In addition, science has not stood still. In the first addition I addressed some theories and speculations that had been put forth that might avoid the need for God. Some of these have since fallen by the wayside, only to be replaced by new theories and speculations.

One other development has been the publication of the results of the Jesus Seminar, whose work I referred to in the first edition while it was still a work in process. The major impact of the seminar’s work has been a renewed interest in the Gospel of Thomas, which they have included along with the other four Gospels. Because of this, I have added a brief discussion of the Gospel of Thomas in the section on the canon.

Elgin L Hushbeck, Jr

Redlands, Ca

March, 2005