Episode 268 – Luke: God’s Gift to Historians Welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. In John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” The goal of Anchored by Truth is to encourage everyone to grow in the Christian faith by anchoring themselves to the secure truth found in the inspired, inerrant, and infallible word of God. Script Notes: Many people have tried to tell the story of what God has done among us. They wrote what we had been told by the ones who were there in the beginning and saw what happened. So I made a careful study of everything and then decided to write and tell you exactly what took place. Honorable Theophilus, I have done this to let you know the truth about what you have heard. The Gospel of Luke, Chapter 1, verses 1 through 4, Contemporary English Version Theophilus, I first wrote to you about all that Jesus did and taught from the very first until he was taken up to heaven. But before he was taken up, he gave orders to the apostles he had chosen with the help of the Holy Spirit. For 40 days after Jesus had suffered and died, he proved in many ways that he had been raised from death. He appeared to his apostles and spoke to them about God's kingdom. While he was still with them, he said: “Don't leave Jerusalem yet. Wait here for the Father to give you the Holy Spirit, just as I told you he has promised to do. John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” The Book of Acts, Chapter 1, verses 1 through 5, Contemporary English Version ******** VK: Hello! I’m Victoria K. Welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. I’m here today with RD Fierro, author, founder of Crystal Sea Books, and part-time story teller. Today on Anchored by Truth we are going to launch a new series on the historicity of the books written by Luke. These books include the gospel account named after him and the book of Acts. To help us get going in our discussions we are going to use some extracts from Crystal Sea’s upcoming audio book version of one of RD’s books, Doors of Destiny: A Choice Orbs Tale. RD, would you like to offer a few words of introduction on why we want to take a look at the books in the New Testament written by Luke? RD: Most people know that that one of the four gospels was written by a man named Luke, but even people who recognize Luke as a gospel writer don’t focus on the fact that Luke also wrote another book that’s in the New Testament: The Book of Acts. Now most Christians know how important the gospels are to their faith. After all, it’s from the gospels that we get most of our information about Jesus and his earthly ministry. But it’s probably fair to say that many people don’t recognize that Acts is also one of the most important books in the Bible – especially when it comes to demonstrating the historical reliability of the Bible. Acts is, of course, a transitional book perched right at the end of the gospels but before the epistles which give us the details of how Jesus’ earthly life fit into the larger story of redemption including the formation of new, expanded body of believers that today we refer to as the church. If we didn’t have the Book of Acts our understanding of the content of the epistles would be greatly reduced because we’d be missing part, and in some cases, much of the historical setting behind some of the most important of the epistles. Luke turns out to be a pretty important fellow in redemptive history. So, it’s important to know whether we can safely put our trust in Luke and the history that he recorded. The good news is that the books written by Luke have been tested by a great many scholars and skeptics alike through the years and they have held up magnificently. VK: So, what you’re saying is that by taking a look at the historical underpinnings for the books Luke wrote we can increase our confidence in him and thereby the Bible. An