"How can the Bible be used as a source while you deny the truth of its claims ? What parts of the Bible are true , and how do you disguingish between the information that is true and not true ? I wonder how a modern court would view the testimony of 500 credible witnesses to a supernatural event ?"
"The documents contained in the bible are historical artifacts . They reflect the beliefs and values of the people who wrote them . When we read Paul we might not believe everything he says but overall we can believe that he preached a gospel that Jesus was born , crucified , died , and risen . We can discern his message from the 7 or so letters we know of his . We can generally believe that he met people named Peter , James , and John who were `` reputed to be pillars `` and `` seemed to be important. `` We know that he claimed his knowledge of Jesus came through revelation and scripture and claimed that other apostles had similar sources of knowledge . I think we can trust Paul 's claims on these things . Do we need to believe he really had revelations ? I do n't know . Maybe in his own way he did . I think we need to lean toward Paul believing in the truth of his claims . I would think the court would think very dimly of the hearsay claim that 500 anonymous people had a revelation of the Risen Christ ."
"How can the Bible be used as a source while you deny the truth of its claims ?"
"The documents contained in the bible are historical artifacts . They reflect the beliefs and values of the people who wrote them . When we read Paul we might not believe everything he says but overall we can believe that he preached a gospel that Jesus was born , crucified , died , and risen"