I’ve heard scholars & authors (e.g., Tim Mackie & John Mark Comer) justify trust in the hebrew bible with the following logic: ‘Jesus believed the hebrew bible and I believe in Jesus’…but why trust Jesus?
- What makes the miraculous, science-defying Gospel literature any more believable than the OT?
- Why conclude that the miracles performed in the Gospels literally happened (giving authority to Jesus as God), when so many of the miracles performed in the OT (giving authority to Jehovah as God) are viewed as just ancient literary techniques, symbolism and misinterpretation of another culture & time? Running with that thought:
- Couldn’t Jesus’ resurrection be purely symbolic?
- Couldn’t ‘eternal life’ simply be propagation of Jesus’ value system?
- Couldn’t our promised resurrection simply be representative of humanity’s elevation to a greater respect for each other and ‘the greater good’?
And if we each can’t anticipate being literally resurrected into an individual, conscious, eternal existence, then following the teachings of Jesus into suffering & sacrifice is much tougher for me to continue to buy into.