They Are Not Biased
"Finally, there are certainly times when witnesses lie, particularly if
they are properly motivated. But what would motivate someone to tell a lie in the first place?
In my experience as a homicide detective, there are only three motives behind any homicide, criminal act, or lesser moral impropriety.
All sins are caused by only one of three motivations:
(1) financial greed,
(2) sexual or relational lust, and
(3) the pursuit of power.
That’s it. That’s all.
If the authors of the Gospels are lying about their claims, their only lying for one of these three reasons.
Q: Did they get rich from their claims?
A: No.
Q: Did they get a bunch of girlfriends as the result of their claims? A: No.
Q: What about power? Couldn’t it be argued that these men became important leaders within their religious community? While this might seem a reasonable motive, apply it to the foremost leader of the early movement: Paul. Paul started off with the authority and respect of his religious community. As a devout religious Jewish leader, he was charged with hunting down members of the Christian community.
Q: Are we really to believe he would leave this position and “jump in” with the very group he was happily charged to destroy, only to suffer persecution for many years in the hope he might one day return to a position of religious authority? This seems highly unreasonable and unlikely.
A: None of the Gospel authors gained anything from their testimony and instead suffered persecution and death for their claims. The authors lacked motive and bias."
J.W. Wallace
And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, .....Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches.Acts 16:23/2 Corinthians 11:24-28
