[Note: This is one post in a series on Greg Boyd’s book Letters from a Skeptic: A Son Wrestles with his Father’s Questions About Christianity. The aim of these posts is to help you start conversations with people in your community. Invite someone to read this book with you and discuss it together. You don’t need to agree with each other or the author to benefit from doing this type of activity.]
For this session, we’ll cover Correspondences 13-15
SUMMARY
In correspondences 13-15, Greg and his dad turn their attention to the topic of Jesus. Greg’s dad asks many important questions. Two of the most significant are the reliability of the Gospels and Christians’ dependence on these documents for their faith.
Specifically, Edward wonders how one could base their faith on ancient documents that seem to have been pieced together from earlier sources and arrange the material in significantly different ways.
If you’ve never looked into issues of the Gospels’ reliability or how Christians can approach the Bible as a historical resource before adopting it as the basis for their faith, you should read this section. Greg provides numerous, succinct points that provide a helpful introduction to the issues.
INTRIGUING QUOTES
Christians, especially the “born- again” types, are always quoting the Bible to back up their beliefs. They justify their beliefs as absolute truths because “the Bible tells me so.” All I can say is, by whose authority is the Bible granted this lofty position? (Edward, February 24, 1990)
Most of the Christians I’ve ever run into are so certain that they’re right—on every point—that there’s little sense in discussing anything with them. (Edward, April 14, 1990)
I agree with you, Dad, that most evangelicals treat the Bible as though it fell from heaven, but I think this is a mistaken conception and has nothing to do with inspiration. (Greg, May 23, 1990)
CONVERSATION STARTERS
Have you ever thought about the Gospels as historical documents? How does that affect the way we approach them?
What do you think of Greg’s arguments about the general reliability of the Gospels?
How have you thought about the Bible’s inspiration? What’s good and bad about your approach?
If you’d like more questions, make sure you pick up a copy of the book. It has several questions for each correspondence.
Next week we’ll cover correspondences 13-15.