They Haven’t Changed Over Time
"But even if the New Testament Gospels were written early, how can we be sure they weren’t altered significantly over the years?
How do we know the Gospels we have today are the same as the Gospels originally written by the eyewitnesses? 
When an original witness is caught changing his story, jurors are allowed to consider this change as a sign of deception.
In my criminal cases, I typically evaluate the potential alteration of evidence over time by tracing the “chain of custody”.
From the first officer who reported a particular piece of evidence, to the detectives who next handled it, to the criminalists who then examined it in the lab, to the detectives who eventually delivered it into the courtroom, I want to know what each and every one of them had to say about the evidence under question.
The “chain of custody” will help me determine if the evidence was altered over time.
In a similar way, there is a New Testament “chain of custody” related to the transmission of the Gospels and letters of Paul.
The Gospel of John, for example, can be traced from John to his three personal students (Ignatius, Polycarp and Papias) to their personal student (Irenaeus) to his personal student (Hippolytus). These men in the chain of custody wrote their own letters and documents describing what they had been taught by their predecessors.
---These letters survive to this day and allow us to evaluate whether or not the New Testament narratives have been changed over the years. The evidence is clear, the foundational claims related to Jesus have not changed at all from the first record to the last."
This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare; 1 Timothy 1:18
J.W. Wallace
