This was a video debate I did last summer in London with British Biblical scholar Peter Williams.  Peter has been a friend for a long time, and is a real expert on the manuscript tradition of the New Testament.   He is also a committed evangelical Christian who does not believe there are mistakes in the Gospels.  I so disagree with that.  We had a debate about it on the Christian Radio program “Unbelievable” under their new series “The Big Conversation” Season 2-Episode 3, hosted by Justin Brierley.

It was a long and interesting debate.  Peter has written Can We Trust the Gospels? and C S Lewis vs the New Atheists.  My contention throughout the debate is that he has not answered the question adequately, that in fact virtually everything he says in the book is irrelevant to the question.  It’s a very interesting and unusual attempt that he makes.  But most of the book completely misses the point.

It’s the kind of book that anyone who wants very much to trust the Gospels will come away from saying “See, we CAN trust them.”  But anyone who actually looks at what he’s saying, and who knows about the actual reasons people have for NOT thinking the Gospels are historically reliable, will say, “Wait a second!  He’s simply countering arguments that no one makes, and is not addressing the arguments they do!  That’s just building a straw man an knocking it down.  That ain’t gonna work!”

Watch it and see what you yourself think.   You can find it here: