...The first part of that chain is that the bible says that prophecy is a gift from God. Again, you are saying the events in the NT are true because of something else written in the bible, this time the OT. That is circular reasoning...
Actually Paul in the N.T. was the one who said prophecy was a gift of the Holy Spirit.
And you keep putting words in my mouth, I never said events in the NT are true because of things written in the OT.
And the bible is not the only place that reports some of the facts we talk about. They also appear in Non-Christian sources.
The following facts are from Geisler's book (pg. 223) cited in post # 1 of this thread. All of the following facts were derived collectively from the 10 "Non-Christian" sources. These sources include such people as Josephus, Tacitus, Celsus etc.
1) Jesus lived during time of Tiberius Caesar.
2) He lived a virtuous life.
3) He was a wonder worker.
4) He had a brother {some say cousin} named James.
5) He was acclaimed to be the Messiah.
6) He was crucified under Pontius Pilate.
7) He was crucified on the eve of the Jewish Passover.
8) Darkness and an earthquake occurred when he died.
9) His disciples believe he rose from the dead.
10) His disciples were willing to die for their belief.
11) Christianity spread as far as Rome.
12) His disciples denied the Roman gods and worshiped Jesus as God.
Remember these are all facts that can be found in "Non-Christian" independent sources.
ETA: Actually I haven't been able to verify #8 above yet. Phlegon talked about darkness and there was some talk of an eclipse but Origen disagreed with him that it was a solar eclipse. It's a little confusing. And the timeline of the eclipse is not clear.
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