Trusting Inconsistent Gospels

The following was a response to a question in one of the forums. The question was essentially how Christians can trust the Gospels with the clear inconsistencies in them. I am not a preacher or anyone special...just a layperson...but I am a Believer, and I felt compelled to chip in. I've had some positive responses to it, so I thought I'd post it here, too.

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Dennis, I can only speak for myself, but I can tell you what I believe. What your are referring to is faith. I know that the Gospels are written by men who witnessed the actions of Christ and wrote after-the-fact, producing, just like any other event with multiple witnesses, different points of view. I actually would be more suspicious if their viewpoints all meshed perfectly, as it would seem to be more coordinated rather than eyewitness testimony. Still, everything covered in the Gospels happened a couple of thousand years ago. I have faith, not in the words of the men who wrote the Gospels, but in the God who motivated the words. By worship, study, and prayer, I develop a relationship with Him, and it is through that relationship that faith grows, just as experience and communication develop trust and faith between husband and wife. I believe that Christ was the Son of God, that He died to pay the price of my sins, that He rose again, and that I will sit with Him one day. Faith backed with concrete evidence is not faith at all. One would not be demonstrating love and faith by taking action based on something that has such a proponderence of evidence that it seems to leave no other choice. Only by faith in Christ can I demonstrate love for Him. I have nothing else to give that he doesn't already have.