Help with Field-Based Activity

Overview

Christian apologetics is not just a defense of the existence of God as a concept but of Jesus as God. This second of four apologetics activities, in which you will communicate a simple apologetics argument to a person in a conversation, provides you with an opportunity to construct a short argument for the reliability of the New Testament account of Jesus while anticipating possible objections to that argument and then sharing that argument “in the field.” Afterwards you will reflect on that activity and what you learned during the planning of your argument and from your conversation.

Instructions

A template will be used for this assignment. The
Apologetics Field-Based Activity: Jesus and the Reliability of the New Testament Template is in three sections. A minimum of two pages is required for the completed assignment. No title page is necessary since this is a template.

The template has three sections:

1.
Argument Construction:

a. You will select one of the lines of argumentation provided and indicate that you are using that argument for this assignment.

b. Plan how you hope to use the line of argumentation in a conversation.

c. Anticipate two to three possible objections and how you would address them.

After this, you are now ready to have your conversation.

2.
The Conversation: This is simply a report on the context of the conversation. Simply insert the appropriate information.

3.
The Reflection:

a. You will describe details about how the conversation went.

b. You will describe the reaction of your conversation partner both during and after the presentation of the argument.

c. You will describe what you might have done differently.

d. You will describe what you feel after the presentation about the strength of the argument.

While you should do research in planning your argument, a formal citation system is not required. Do, however, use quotation marks for any direct quotes with a footnote that follows current Turabian format indicating the source of the quote. The following textbook sources are provided to help you as you select and construct the argument for the reliability of the New Testament account of Jesus.

· Jesus and the Eyewitnesses (Gould, p. 71-81; See also for some in this section Sweis, p. 288-294)

· The NT Claims to Be Eyewitness Testimony (Gould, p. 72-73)

· It’s Early, REALLY Early (Gould, p. 73-74)

· Dating the New Testament (Gould, p. 74-76)

· Paul (Gould, p. 76-77)

· Creeds (Gould, p. 77-78)

· Marks of Authenticity (Gould, p. 78-80)

· The Value of Eyewitnesses (Gould, p. 80-81)

· The Preservation of the New Testament (Gould, p. 81-88)

· The New Testament Manuscript Tradition (Gould, p. 82-84)

· How Early? (Gould, p. 84)

· Manuscript Variant (Gould, p. 84-86)

· So What? (Gould, p. 86-88)

· Did Jesus Exist? (Gould, p. 93-101)

· Did Jesus Claim to Be God? (Gould, p. 101-103)

· Was Jesus God? (Gould, 103-106; Sweis 239-270 may be helpful, depending on your approach)

Note: Your assignment will be checked for originality via the Turnitin plagiarism tool.

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Apologetics Field-Based Activity: Jesus and the Reliability of the New Testament Template

Do not change any aspect of this form; and do not delete anything from this form. Instead, just type your content in the spaces provided, below. Before typing your content, you should review the entire document to be sure you understand what is required.

Type your name here:

Instructions for this submission

The purpose of the activity is to provide you with an opportunity to construct a short argument for the reliability of the New Testament account of Jesus while anticipating possible objections to that argument and then sharing that argument “in the field.” In the sections provided below, you will insert your constructed argument and possible objections; you will enter the date, time, setting, and short description of the person with whom you share the argument; and a short reflection on the sharing experience.

1

.
Construct a short argument for the reliability of the New Testament account of Jesus while anticipating possible objections.

a.
Type below the list, the type of argument for the reliability of the New Testament account of Jesus that you will be constructing (limit yourself to one of argument):

The Value of Eyewitnesses (Gould, p. 80-81)

b.
Lay out your argument as you plan to use it in the conversation you will be having.

c.
Anticipate two to three possible objections to your argument and how you would address those objections in a short conversation.

2.
Sharing your argument for the reliability of the New Testament account of Jesus.

a.
Identify the time and place in which you had the conversation.

b.
Identify the setting (coffeeshop, online, text, etc. It must, however, be a conversation and not a monologue):

c.
Identify your conversation partner (no names please): unbeliever, believer; uncertain; knowledge level, attitude of partner (antagonistic, interested, doubtful, devil’s advocate).

3.
Reflection in which you describe how the conversation went, the reaction of your conversation partner both during and after the presentation of the argument, what you might have done differently, and how you feel after presentation about the strength of the argument.

a.
Describe details about how the conversation went.

b.
Describe the reaction of your conversation partner both during and after the presentation of the argument.

c.
Describe what you might have done differently.

d.
Describe what you feel after the presentation about the strength of the argument.

1

The Value of Eyewitnesses Given that the accounts claim to be eyewitness testimony or derived from eyewitness testimony, the fact that many of the accounts clearly date well within the lifetimes of the eyewitnesses, and the fact that the reporting of facts are tied to real people, real locations, at real times provides good evidence to believe that these accounts are indeed genuine eyewitness testimony. Now, it’s possible that the eyewitnesses were lying. Eyewitnesses do in fact lie from time to time. But people do not tend to lie unless they stand to gain something from lying. More important, people almost never lie if they stand to lose something, and especially if they stand to lose their lives. We know from history that the early eyewitnesses gained little in terms of wealth or other material goods. Moreover, most of them went to their deaths precisely for the claims of the gospel. But should we trust these testimonies? Richard Bauckham has argued, “An irreducible feature of testimony as a form of human utterance is that it asks to be trusted.” Bauckham makes the point that testimony is, all by itself, evidence for the claims that it makes. If we can independently confirm the testimony, then this is better, but the point is that independent confirmation is not necessary for testimony to have significant evidential value. Again, there may be further evidence to suggest that the testimony is untrustworthy. But when there isn’t, then testimony is just good evidence. Bauckham says, “Trusting testimony is not an irrational act of faith that leaves critical rationality aside; it is, on the contrary, the rationally appropriate way of responding to authentic testimony.” So though it is possible that they were lying, it is not plausible in light of the evidence. Thus, it seems that we are on good grounds for believing the original accounts of the NT are historically trustworthy.

Paul Gould, Travis Dickinson, and Keith Loftin,

Stand Firm: Apologetics and the Brilliance of the Gospel

(Nashville, TN: B&H Academic, 2018), 80–81.

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