Jesus guaranteed accuracy of his ministry by sending the Holy Spirit from heaven to guide the authors in writing.
In this article, we will focus on the prologue to the Gospel of John. The following six evidences prove the authentic history of this Johannine text.
His View of John the Baptist (1:6-8)
John the Baptist offered the original witness of Jesus. He came as a man sent from God, while Jesus came as God sent to man. While John’s witness burned (John 5:35), only Jesus shone. While John exercised leadership over everyone else in Israel, he humbly obeyed Jesus.
When John had fulfilled his purpose, God removed him in deference to his Son. Six months after John and Jesus held parallel ministries, and Christ’s popularity boomed, John suffered permanent incarceration.
In an unexpected verification of integrity, John’s personal influence continued with his disciples. They remained devoted to John during his stay in Machaerus (Luke 7:18). They spread John’s teachings about baptism into the Roman world (Acts 19:3).
If Christ’s disciples later invented his story, with John dead and Jesus ascendant, would they offer dramatic proof of John’s continuing reputation in the Roman world?
“If Christ’s disciples later invented his story, with John dead and Jesus ascendant, would they offer dramatic proof of John’s continuing reputation in the Roman world?”
Christ’s Pre-existence in John’s Prologue (1:1-4)
Mark started with Jesus’ great Galilean ministry. Matthew recorded his genealogy through Abraham. Luke offered his investigative methodology. John composed a brilliant prologue. Their individuality is necessary to integrity.
John’s refusal to repeat or correct the Synoptic Gospels suggests his approval. Where the other writers told what Jesus said and did, John explained why he could.
The Old Testament didn’t anticipate Messiah being God, let alone being eternally God’s One and Only Son. The idea of a prophet being called to serve God is there. A king being called from among many to serve God is there. A priest being dedicated to serve God is there. But nothing demanded that the Anointed One had to be the Only Begotten Son of God.
How could John the Baptist or John the apostle speculate such a radical idea with backgrounds bereft of it?
Christ’s Victory Over the Darkness Opposing Him (1:5)
Despite spiritual darkness opposing him, an all-conquering light glowed from Jesus.
That underscores three scriptural principles. First, God is inescapably present in the world. Second, God continues to rule. Third, God inevitably triumphs.
The early church established churches in major cities, though wickedness existed there for generations and threatened with uncompromising violence. Yielding nothing to Satan, Primitive Christians, nevertheless considered Satan’s very existence an insult to God. They claimed everything for Jesus, went everywhere staking his claims, and dared Satan to respond. When he did, their preaching ravaged his strongholds.
Evil continues to exist. The absence of evangelism of the lost flourishes. Until God puts an end to history, conflicts rage between Christ and Satan in many understood forms and in some especially repulsive forms, including military conflicts. Nevertheless, Satan’s end is sure. Wherever the two clash in history, Jesus wins. When the two clash in the end, Jesus overcomes. And, in the world where Jesus said that Satan is prince (John 14:30–31), Jesus still rules from his throne, establishing righteousness and determining events.
“In the world where Jesus said that Satan is prince, Jesus still rules from his throne, establishing righteousness and determining events.”
Israel’s Rejection Brought a New Chosen People (1:9-13)
Though Israel as a nation rejected Jesus, individuals accepted him. Many Jews believed during Christ’s ministry, even among the leaders (John 12:42–43).
Later, the inclusion of a group of priests had a positive effect of bringing individuals into Christ’s body (Acts 6:7). It had a negative impact when those men carried Judaism into their new faith and sought to retain Judaism’s autocracy inside Christianity. The writer of Hebrews likely had such Jewish believers in mind when he berated their readiness to abandon Christ for Moses.
Christ’s Brief but Glorious Life (1:14)
Jesus lived briefly, only to die dreadfully. Alexander the Great lived thirty-three years and left a definitive impact. How can Christ’s colossal impact be the result of a fictionalized Nazarene?
Christ’s generation refused the very idea that the Messiah could die. Nothing in their history prepared them for his being with them a little while and then, dying on the cross. How could John compose a short-term Messiah when all Jewish history expected a lasting one? 
“What if” questions are often asked. We don’t have to ask “what if” questions about Jesus—if he had done so and so or had lived to do such and such. Others in history could have achieved more had they not died so young—Alexander, Shelley, Marlowe—but Jesus fulfilled his destiny by proclaiming his identity as God’s Only Begotten Son, dying for the sins of the world, rising triumphantly, commissioning his apostles, and then ascending to heaven.
“How could John compose a short-term Messiah when all Jewish history expected a lasting one?”
The Truth and Grace Jesus Expressed (1:16-18)
Francis Bacon wrote that law aimed to make its citizens happy. When a person breaches its regulations, police officers enforce the laws, however much it decreases the violator’s happiness. Mosaic teaching guaranteed benefits if obeyed and disasters if transgressed. Law made no exceptions to its demand for obedience, exacted penalties on violators, and specified sacrifices to allay people’s condemnation.
Jesus came and granted grace that the Law couldn’t. Both Moses and Jesus played necessary roles in that regard. Moses represented the legal necessity of obedience, while Jesus expressed God’s mercy despite disobedience.
In addition, Jesus always told people the truth, however harsh it seemed. The Nazarenes considered it outrageous (Luke 4:23–27); the Israelites considered it egalitarian (Luke 1:29-33, 7:9, 9:41); his family considered it insane (Mark 3:21); and the religious leaders considered it blasphemous (Mark 2:6).
“Jesus came and granted grace that the Law couldn’t.”
Since generations of Jews believed that God’s truth existed only in the Law of Moses, how could John, who previously had known only the Law, suggest that truth instead exists in grace?
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Former California Senator James Mills wrote a fictionalized account of Pilate’s relationship with Jesus. His idea came from his pastor’s comment that more could be known about Jesus if someone other than his friends recorded their impressions. That is untrue. I asked a group of young people if the Master’s resurrection was more or less authentic because he revealed himself to his disciples the first and second resurrection Sundays. Several thought it was less authentic because those disciples wanted to believe (shades of the Jesus Seminar!). I explained that he had appeared to strangers during those two weeks and said, “I was dead and am now alive again,” their lack of acquaintance would have been a bewildered, “So?” His intimate friends had been his closest associates for over three years, listening as he taught, watching as he healed, and sorrowing as he died. His appearances to those believers offered the stupendous something that convinced them he LIVED.
Only disciples intimately acquainted with Jesus understood him best and most truly explained him to others. The apostles certainly considered that true. They decided that in order for a man to be an apostle, he had to have been with Jesus from the beginning of his ministry until his ascension (Acts 1:21–22). Since they demanded such acquaintance, can we rationally say that his enemies could give more objective or complete knowledge of Christ?
