Cold Case Christianity: Mark's textual variation from the other 3 gospels destroys Christianity

This is my reply to a post by J. Warner Wallace entitled

How Can the Bible Be Inerrant If It Contains Variants? (Cold Case Christianity Broadcast #106)

Posted: 15 Mar 2018 01:45 AM PDT

In this episode of the Cold-Case Christianity Broadcast, J. Warner answers listener email about the existence of variants in the earliest manuscripts we have for the New Testament. Does the fact that ancient copies of the Gospels don’t agree entirely mean that we can’t trust them?

 Yes.  The consensus of Christian scholars is that Mark intended to end his gospel at 16:8.

The consensus of Christian scholars is that Mark is the earliest published of the 4 canonical gospels.

If we  put these two facts together (i.e., the earliest gospel said nothing about a resurrected Jesus being seen by anybody) then we are reasonable to conclude that the correct form of the gospel (the earlier version of the story is usually closer to the truth, its the retellings years later that usually contain all the add-ons and embellishments) does not assert the existence of any person actually physically witnessing a resurrected Jesus. 

Wallace might be talking about textual variants in the existing ancient manuscripts of the NT, but Mark's resurrection story, being textually shorter and less embellished than those of Matthew, Luke and John, provides the unbeliever with rational warrant for saying the eyewitness testimony to Jesus rising from the dead, is limited to later embellished gospels, not the original, and that of course makes legitimate the question of whether the whole "resurrection eyewitness testimony" stuff is pure fiction.  If it was original, why does it only appear in the later versions of the gospel?

If Mark believed the resurrected Jesus made all the appearances to the disciples that we know from the endings of Matthew and Luke and John, would Mark have "chosen to exclude" such stories?  Obviously not, especially if we assume he agreed with apostle Paul and all other Christian "apologists" that Jesus' resurrection from the dead is the main pillar upon which Christianity rests.

How does this impact our notion of Biblical inerrancy?

Jesus and Paul told you everything you need to know to be true and spiritually growing Christian.

Not once did they ever express or imply, by word or their own actions, that Christians should go around trying to convince the world that there are no errors in the scriptures.  In the days of Jesus and Paul, the Old Testament was the authoritative 'scripture', yet despite the obvious fact that there would have been professional philosophers who put no stock in such holy books (Acts 17), never once does the NT indicate that Jesus or any of his followers ever tried to convince unbelievers or other "liberal" Christians that the Old Testament was free from all mistakes/errors.  And in Acts 17, when the Gentile philosophers laugh at Paul's bullshit, he leaves immediately:

 30 "Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent,
 31 because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead."
 32 Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some began to sneer, but others said, "We shall hear you again concerning this."
 33 So Paul went out of their midst.
 34 But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them. (Acts 17:30-34 NAU)

But if that passage were modified to reflect modern Christian apologists and their ways, it would read like this:

 30 "God cannot overlook times of ignorance because he is all-holy and must punish sin according to his infinite nature.  God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent,
 31 because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.  However, a day with the Lord is as a thousand years, so while you need to live as if each step was the end, the end probably won't come for thousands of years.   Therefore it can be correct to for Jesus to say in the first century that the end is near, and yet for the end to still be thousands of years into the future."
 32 Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some began to sneer, but others said, "We shall hear you again concerning this."
 33 So Paul stayed there and issued to them the chicken-challenge, taunting them to prove an error in the bible.  Some said this, others said that, and Paul wrangled words with them for many months.

So any Christian of today who chooses to make "bible inerrancy" an issue, is a hypocrite and fool.   And Lord knows, the way the inerrancy debate has played out in the last 2,000 years of Christianity, Jesus probably thinks all "apologists" for inerrancy are just as guilty as the Pharisees of straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel, and neglecting the more important matters in the process.