The literary devices view has serious apologetic consequences: it eliminates resurrection appearances, undermines doubting Thomas, weakens the case for Jesus's deity from John's "I AM" sayings, and gives ammunition to cults and skeptics.

Specific consequences: (1) If Luke "moved" a Galilee appearance to Jerusalem, you lose a separate resurrection appearance. (2) If that appearance is moved, doubting Thomas can't fit in the timeline — losing the argument that "Jesus appeared to skeptics." (3) If Luke relocated it, did Jesus really eat fish with the disciples? That's part of the case for physical resurrection. (4) Craig Evans (evangelical scholar) agreed with Bart Ehrman that Jesus didn't say "I and the Father are one" or "Before Abraham was, I AM" as recorded — that John used allegorical literary devices. This undermines deity-of-Christ arguments against Mormons and JWs. (5) McGrew suspects apologists find the literary devices view appealing because it eliminates the tedious work of harmonizing apparent discrepancies — but the cost is losing the very data used in apologetic arguments. Winger's conclusion: he leans away from the literary devices view, finding it "a formula for reading the gospels wrong."