Letter: When facts are stubborn things

Tuesday, March 13, 2007 | 7:16 a.m.

The March 9 letter by Randy Bolton, "History books are written by winners," contains some glaring inaccuracies and sounds more like class analysis than a historical discussion.

Much of the New Testament was written within 25 to 40 years after A.D. 33 when Christ died. That's within the lifetimes of many eyewitnesses who well knew the facts. Making up a hoax like the resurrection would be like someone today writing that JFK rose from the dead. No one would believe it because there are still too many people around who know that he didn't and know where his grave is. Facts are stubborn things.

The process of determining what books went into the New Testament is called Cannonicity and was done not to keep certain bishops at a synod in power, but was a process using certain specific tests of authenticity, namely apostolic authorship or authorization, and secondly, general acceptance throughout the early church around the world. The books we have today in the Bible met these qualifications.

The early Christians could hardly be described as society's winners, being that Christianity was outlawed in the Roman Empire until Constantine's time in 315. They were persecuted beyond comprehension and innumerable people died for their faith in Christ. Mr. Bolton says that people die for hoaxes all the time but he misses the point.

People do die for lies but they think it's the truth. The apostles and many other eyewitnesses to the resurrection of Christ would have had to die for a lie knowing it was a hoax and that doesn't make sense. They knew who and what they had seen and even torture and death couldn't keep them from proclaiming, "He lives!"

Gary Strabala, Las Vegas