(July 5, 2016 at 2:17 pm)pocaracas Wrote:(July 5, 2016 at 1:59 pm)SteveII Wrote: I choose to believe that the authors of the NT were truthful in what they wrote and that the core content was not changed at a later date--both evidenced by the existence of a growing church as little as 15-20 years after Jesus' death. I would expect to see minor contradictions and minor transcribing errors. I believe the life and death of Jesus is one of the most attested to events in ancient history.
I also believe the denial of the above consists mainly of a belief that miracles do not happen. This is a circular argument because you are asking for evidence that God exists and then say, well, you can't use miracles because...God does not exist.
How about if that "growing church" was just an evolution of the Essene cult?
How would you explain the content of Paul's letters to them?