\u00a0by Terry Wane Benton<\/p>\n
No! It might be circular if it was all written at one time. But we can demonstrate that the Old Testament was completed long before Jesus came. Therefore we get to consider the prophecies and how Jesus fulfilled them.<\/p>\n
The New Testament is eyewitness testimony of Jesus written when unbelievers should have been able to expose the whole following by merely preserving and producing the dead man’s body. The empty tomb, missing body, and strength of the eyewitness testimony to His resurrection along with hundreds of prophecies combine to make a powerful case for the Bible being what it claims, the inspired word of God.<\/p>\n
As Peter said, “We have the prophetic word made more sure<\/strong><\/em>” (II Peter 1:16-19).<\/p>\n Circular reasoning is like what atheists do in using fossils to date the rocks and the rocks to date the fossils. Listening to 40 different witnesses over 1500 years and finding unity of testimony in the record is simply evaluating the strength of testimony. That is not circular reasoning at all!<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0by Terry Wane Benton No! It might be circular if it was all written at one time. But we can demonstrate that the Old Testament was completed long before Jesus came. Therefore we get to consider the prophecies and how Jesus fulfilled them. The New Testament is eyewitness testimony of Jesus written when unbelievers should…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[37,219,1405,36],"class_list":["post-62827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-apologetics","tag-bible","tag-logic","tag-reasoning"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":49302,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-bible-is-right\/","url_meta":{"origin":62827,"position":0},"title":"The Bible Is Right","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 6, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton It is right because it not only claims to be the word of God (II Timothy 3:16-17) but because it proves to be the word of God. How? It is the only book that was written over a 1500-year period by 40 different writers of various\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Bible-with-notes-300x200.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":91715,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-prophetic-word-made-more-sure\/","url_meta":{"origin":62827,"position":1},"title":"The Prophetic Word Made More Sure","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 1, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton Peter said that he and the other apostles (James and John) were \"eyewitnesses\" to Jesus' transfiguration (II Peter 1:16-18). But, in addition, \"we have the prophetic word made more sure\" (II Peter 1:19). The case is very strong, bolstered by eyewitness testimony; however, the fact that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":66848,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-bible-presents-testimonial-evidence\/","url_meta":{"origin":62827,"position":2},"title":"The Bible Presents Testimonial Evidence","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 2, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton The Bible is actually a divinely legal set of 66 pieces of testimony, making the case for Jesus of Nazareth in a most remarkable and amazing way. The first 39 pieces of written testimony lay out the plan for the first arrival of Jesus and what\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":88481,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-resurrection-of-jesus-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":62827,"position":3},"title":"The Resurrection of Jesus (Benton)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 8, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton It was evidence-based faith that drove the apostles to testify of Jesus' resurrection openly. If Jesus were only a man, then the body should have remained in the tomb guarded by Roman soldiers. If it were still there after three days, the religion of Christ would\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":91831,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-last-words-of-peter-eyewitness-of-jesus\/","url_meta":{"origin":62827,"position":4},"title":"The Last Words of Peter, Eyewitness of Jesus","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 5, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton Just before Peter died, he wrote his final letter (II Peter). He had been sharing \"the knowledge of God\" (II Peter 1:2). It was not a myth or a fairytale. He was privileged to share real \"knowledge of God.\" Others had shared mythology, but Peter knew\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":66279,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/reasoning\/","url_meta":{"origin":62827,"position":5},"title":"Reasoning","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 1, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton The exercise of thought upon ideas to sort the true from the false, the stronger idea from the weaker idea. It is thinking through the available evidence to reach a conclusion. 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