The Case For Christ

itself there is evidence that disproves this hypothesis.
"There are occasions when early Christian prophecy is referred
to, but it's always distinguished from what the Lord has said.
For example, in I Corinthians 7 Paul clearly distinguishes when
he has a word from the Lord and when he is quoting the historical
Jesus. In the book of Revelation one can clearly distinguish the
handful of times in which Jesus directly speaks to this prophettraditionally
assumed to be John the apostle-and when John is
recounting his own inspired visions."
"And in 1 Corinthians 14, when Paul is discussing the criteria
for true prophecy, he talks about the responsibility of the local
church to test the prophets. Drawing on his Jewish background, we
know that the criteria for true prophecy would have included
whether the prediction comes true and whether these new
statements cohere with
previously revealed words of the Lord.
But the strongest argument is what we never find in the gospels.
After Jesus' ascension there were a number of controversies that
threatened the early church-should believers be circumcised, how
should speaking in tongues be regulated, how to keep Jew and
Gentile united, what are the appropriate roles for women in
ministry, whether believers could divorce non-Christian spouses.
These issues could have been conveniently resolved if the early
Christians had simply read back into the gospels what Jesus had
told them from the world beyond. But this never happened. The
continuance of these controversies demonstrates that Christians
were interested in distinguishing between what happened during
Jesus' lifetime and what was debated later in the churches."
2. THE ABILITY TEST
Even if the writers intended to reliably record history, were
they able to do so? How can we be sure that the material about
Jesus' life and teachings was well preserved for thirty years
before it was finally written down in the gospels?
I asked Blomberg, "Won't you concede that faulty memories,
wishful thinking, and the development of legend would have
irreparably contaminated the Jesus tradition prior to the writing
of the gospels?" He started his answer by establishing the
context. "We have to remember that we're in a foreign land in a
distant time and place and in a culture that has not yet invented
computers or even the printing press," he replied. "Books-or