Top 30 Apologetics Books (#22): John Warwick Montgomery, History and Christianity
By Rob Bowman
Note: Dr. Rob Bowman continues his series on the 30 most important apologetics books in church history. See his earlier posts in previous weeks of our weekly emails.
#22: John Warwick Montgomery, History and Christianity (1971)
John Warwick Montgomery (1931โ) is a sophisticated Christian scholar who has made significant contributions to law, theology, and apologetics for almost sixty years. He earned at least nine degrees in a variety of fields (philosophy, library science, theology, and canon law) and credentials for practicing law in California, England, and France. Montgomery had opportunities to share the gospel with such world-famous figures as Anwar Sadat, Tony Blair, and Princess Diana, and he famously engaged in debates over the years with several atheists as well as a liberal bishop and a Muslim apologist.
Montgomeryโs 1963 debate with philosopher Avrum Stroll at the University of British Columbia led eventually to the publication of his popular little book History and Christianity. In it he set forth a model of evidentialist apologetics. The first step is to defend the biblical writings, not as infallible Scripture, but as historically credible and reliable documents. Securing belief in God is not considered a prerequisite to taking this first step; only clearing away any methodological or philosophical assumptions that prejudge the question of the truth of the biblical narratives is necessary. Hence, Montgomery detailed โfour common errorsโ in Strollโs anti-Christian polemic before beginning his apologetic proper: relying on rationalist โauthorities,โ ignoring the evidence from Paul, assuming that miracles cannot happen, and substituting speculation for facts (17-22).
Having cleared away these errors, Montgomery began his positive case, in which he proposed to treat the New Testament writings โas we would any other historical materialsโ (26). To this end, he employed tests of reliability drawn from a textbook on English literary history by a military historian. Montgomery and other evidentialists regularly use these โbibliographical,โ โinternal,โ and โexternalโ tests to defend the historical reliability of the New Testament. He argued that the New Testament documents have been more reliably preserved than any other ancient literature, that the Gospelsโ internal claims to historicity are consistent and to be given the benefit of the doubt, and that external information from the early church about the origins of the Gospels confirms their reliability (29-32). Montgomery concluded that โthe New Testament documents must be regarded as reliable sources of informationโ (43).
The next step in Montgomeryโs argument, drawing heavily here on C. S. Lewis, was to show that the various New Testament writers all attest that โJesus regarded himself as no less than God in the fleshโ (49). Proceeding chronologically, Montgomery surveyed Paul, Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John, concluding that these present a โconsistent portrait of Jesusโ as having claimed to be divine (57). From there, he argued that Jesus was neither a charlatan nor a lunatic (61โ66). For the skeptic, this leaves only the supposition that Jesus never made such claims and that his disciples deified him. In response, Montgomery showed that first-century Jewish thought provided no plausible context in which the disciples would ever have considered deifying their dead teacher (66โ72). What convinced them, he concluded, was Jesusโ resurrection (72โ78).
John Warwick Montgomery, still living as of the time of this writing, is one of the most significant Christian apologists of the past fifty years. Almost every evangelical apologist today who engages in the defense of the historical reliability of the New Testament has been influenced directly or indirectly by Montgomeryโs teaching.
Note: This series originally appeared in the Apologetics Book Club group on Facebook and was revised for publication as a book, Faith Thinkers: 30 Christian Apologists You Should Know (Tampa, FL: DeWard, 2019). The book includes an introduction, additional quotes from each of the 30 books, readings for each author, and a list of other recommended readings. For a free excerpt from the published book, please visit https://faiththinkers.org.
โ Rob Bowman Jr. is an evangelical Christian apologist, biblical scholar, author, editor, and lecturer. He is the author of over sixty articles and author or co-author of thirteen books, including Putting Jesus in His Place: The Case for the Deity of Christ, co-authored with J. Ed Komoszewski. He leads the Apologetics Book Club on Facebook.
Image: https://www.jwm.christendom.co.uk/.
Quotable
โJesus of Nazareth, without money and arms, conquered more millions than Alexander, Caesar, Mahomet, and Napoleon; without science and learning, He shed more light on things human and divine than all philosophers and schools combined; without the eloquence of schools, He spoke words of life such as never were spoken before or since, and produced effects which lie beyond the reach of any orator or poet; without writing a single line, He has set more pens in motion, and furnished themes for more sermons, orations, discussions, learned volumes, works of art and sweet songs of praise, than the whole army of great men of ancient and modern times. Born in a manger, and crucified as a malefactor, He now controls the destinies of the civilized world, and rules a spiritual empire, which embraces one-third of the inhabitants of the globe. There never was in this world a life so unpretending, modest, and lowly in its outward form and condition, and yet producing such extraordinary effects upon all ages, nations, and classes of men. The annals of history produce no other example of such complete and astonishing success in spite of the absence of those material, social, literary, and artistic powers and influences which are indispensable to success for a mere man.โ
โ Philip Schaff, The Person of Christ: The Miracle of History. With a Reply to Strauss and Renan, and a Collection of Testimonies of Unbelievers (Charles Scribner & Co., 1866)
Recommended Resource
One primary goal we have as Christians is to understand the Bible in order to grasp what God has communicated to us through it. This is challenging, however, because we are separated from Scriptureโs authors by language, culture, and time. Thus, much in Scripture can appear to us to be confusing, mysterious, or even contradictory. Thatโs why a volume like Murray Harrisโs Navigating Tough Texts: A Guide to Problem Passages in the New Testament is so useful.
Harris, Professor Emeritus of New Testament Exegesis and Theology at Trinity Evangelical Theological School, draws on a lifetime of expertise to clarify and explain dozens of challenging passages throughout the New Testament. A few examples include:
What Jesus meant when he said, โthe kingdom of heaven has been subjected to violence, and violent people have been raiding itโ (Matt. 11:12).
What he meant by โbinding and loosingโ on earth and in heaven (Matt. 16:19).
The meaning of Paulโs reference to those โwho are baptized for the deadโ (1 Cor. 15:29).
How we should understand Paulโs attitude toward slavery as expressed in the book of Philemon, and many more. This segment is excerpted below.
PAUL AND SLAVERY (Phlm 15โ16)
Onesimus was a slave of Philemon in Colossae who had not only run away from his master (Phlm 15โ16) but had also absconded with some of Philemonโs money or possessions (vv. 18โ19). Attracted by the anonymity and excitement of a large metropolis, he traveled furtively to Rome, where somehow he met the imprisoned Paul, who led him to faith in Christ (v. 10). Paul soon discovered him to be an able and willing helper as well as a Christian companion (vv. 11โ13, 16). Other considerations apart, Paul would have liked to keep Onesimus at his side (v. 13), but he felt compelled to send him back to Colossae so that Philemon, the legal owner of Onesimus (v. 16), might himself have the opportunity of receiving him back as a Christian brother (v. 16) and of possibly releasing him for further service to Paul (vv. 14, 20โ21). Accordingly, Onesimus returned to Philemon with this letter.
Although this letter is not an essay on slavery, from it we may deduce Paulโs attitude to slavery. To begin with, Paul apparently accepted slavery as an inevitable part of the social, economic, and legal status quo, without questioning or trying to justify its existence. But acceptance of the status quo should not be equated with endorsement of the status quo. Toleration is not the same as approval. Paul did not object to slave ownership within Christian ranks, but he encouraged masters to reward slaves suitably for honest work, to desist from threatening them (Eph 6:8โ9), and to give them just and equitable treatment (Col 4:1). He elevated the status of slaves by addressing them as persons and as moral agents who were responsible, and ought to be responsive, to their earthly masters as well as to their heavenly Lord (Eph 6:5โ8; Col 3:22).
Further, when Paul emphasizes Onesimusโs true identity as a dearly loved Christian brother (v. 16), he sets the master-slave relation on a new footing. โIt may be that he (Onesimus) was separated from you (Philemon) for a short time precisely so that you may have him back permanently, no longer regarded as merely a slave (hลs doulon) but as more than a slaveโas a dear brotherโ (vv. 15โ16). Paul is undermining the discrimination that is at the heart of slavery and sounding its death knell. In this letter, Paul, a highly educated Roman citizen, is championing the cause of a destitute runaway slave whose life was potentially forfeit because of his flight and his theft (vv. 17โ19).
Did Paul advocate freeing slaves? When he expresses his confidence that Philemon would obey him and accept Onesimus back and forgive him (v. 21a), he adds that he knows Philemon โwill do even more than I askโ (v. 21b). That undefined additional element could well be the setting free of Onesimus for Christian service either at Colossae or at Rome with Paul. When he is discussing possible changes of status for believers (including slaves) in 1 Corinthians 7:17โ24, his general advice is โremain as you were when God called youโ (see 1 Cor 7:17, 20, 24). But in 1 Corinthians 7:21b, he parenthetically states an exception to the general principle: โBut if you are actually able (kai dynasai) to gain your freedom, seize it all the more.โ
It is fair to conclude that by his teaching and his example, Paul was laying one of the explosive charges that would one dayโalthough sadly, belatedlyโdetonate and destroy the institution of slavery.
Find Navigating Tough Texts: A Guide to Problem Passages in the New Testament at Lexham Press or Amazon.
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