Kenton J. Kutney

What can we actually know about the real Jesus, the guy who walked this earth some 2000 years ago? Have layers of tradition inevitably changed and shaped the picture we now have of him? How reliable are the recorded accounts of the life of Jesus that are presented in the New Testament Gospels of the Bible today? Take a minute to watch this video consider things from the view of a forensic detective... When reading a modern English translation, we might get the nagging thought that we are so far removed from the original — realty, 2000 years is a long time since Jesus walked he earth! The printing press is a relatively modern invention, so it is natural to ask if perhaps errors and omissions and editing crept into the hand-written copying process. This is important to dig into. How can there be any claim of truth to the Bible if it has kept changing over time? Remarkably, we have an astounding amount of carefully preserved ancient manuscript evidence to compare; far more tha...

The Gospels according to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John in the Bible are biographical narratives about the life of Jesus - so why are they different? Does that mean the eyewitnesses are contradicting each other? ...Ever been in a car accident? There are always differing accounts - and not necessarily because people are lying. The insurance claim may report that a pedestrian saw something from a perspective that differs from a passenger in one of the cars involved, or yet again from another driver coming the other direction. That makes sense - the eyewitnesses each have their own vantage points.  In the same way, the authors of the gospels also have their unique perspectives. They should sound authentically different. In addition, the Gospels were originally composed with various audiences in mind, which makes a world of difference in tailoring the narrative message.  Watch this short clip of how a forensic detective thinks about all of this: As you (hopefull...

I have been pondering how it is even possible for a modern mortal to ‘share in the sufferings of Christ’.  It is one thing to recall the history of early church persecution, 'the blood of the saints that was the seed of the church'.  And it seems that many of the exhortations to endure suffering in Scripture are directly related to the hardship of the church and the cause of the Gospel of Christ.  These are the hero-saints of which the world was unworthy (Heb. 11:38). Especially when I compare that to my sufferings with a chronic illness: years living with a silly vortex of trials which constantly surprises in some fresh way with the same old symptoms (deep pain and sheer fatigue, troubled sleep, stomach troubles, financial strains, concerns about the future, etc.), so that once again one is caught muttering “Why me?” and feeling immature.  How do my aches and anxieties possibly compare to His sacred stripes?  How can they in some way be spiritual? ...