Bible Matters -- Leftovers

In our Bible Matters discussion last evening, we were considering the Canon of Scripture: How can we be sure these books are the right books?

In our discussion, we brought up the point that there are two main ways to destroy the Christian faith and to leave it all in ruins.  One is to prove that the resurrection of Jesus is a fraud.  If that can be proven, then Christians are to be pitied more than all mankind since our entire faith and hope rest on Jesus Christ being risen from the dead.  St. Paul treats this in 1 Corinthians 15.

Speaking of St. Paul, the second method of destroying Christianity is to prove that the conversion of St. Paul to Christianity is a fraud.  If Paul's conversion is a sham, that means he infiltrated Christian leadership and, by his many epistles and founding of many Christian churches, commandeered and perverted the Gospel of Jesus to whatever Paul wanted it to be.

Is the resurrection of Jesus a sham?  Is the conversion of St. Paul a fake?  Do these theories make sense?

Lutheran Satire to the rescue!  In a short, humorous video, Rev. Hans Fiene does a nice job of explaining that St. Paul, St. Peter, and all the apostles stood nothing to gain by preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ crucified and risen from the dead.  Either Jesus is truly risen and St. Paul was truly converted, or the apostles concocted the "Best Conspiracy Ever."  

Certainly there are more thoughts to ponder regarding these matters, but this is a good place to start. 

Bible Matters will be suspended throughout Advent and will return in January.  Scheduled topics will be announced later.