Skepticism

This is a definition of Skeptic as given by the Oxford English Dictionary:

An ancient or modern philosopher who denies the possibility of knowledge, or even rational belief, in some sphere.

I wonder... is the philosopher's knowledge concerning their belief that knowledge is not possible, possible?

Canon of Scripture

DEFINITION OF CANON:
‘The word canon derives, quite literally, from the Hebrew term qaneh (“reed” or “stalk”), which indicated a type of rod or stick used as a means of measurement’ (1).

For example, we see this term being used in...

-1 Kings 14:15 ‘For the LORD will strike Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water; and He will uproot Israel from this good land which He gave to their fathers, and will scatter them beyond the Euphrates River, because they have made their Asherim, provoking the LORD to anger.’

-Job 40:21 'Under the lotus plants he lies down, in the covert of the reeds and the marsh.'

-Ezekiel 40:3 '...with a line of flax and a measuring rod in his hand; and he was standing in the gateway.'

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'Canon,' a plant, would later become to be known as a measurement tool in a carpenter's belt, and later, as a standard of measurement for Holy Scripture. Today, when we speak of canon, we are referring to a 'list of books accepted as Holy Scripture' (2)

WHEN was the OT canonized?
•‘The 39 books in our Old Testament were already accepted as Scripture by the time of the writing of the New Testament, since no other texts but these are cited as Scripture.’

• ‘Some scholars suggest that the final ordering of the books too place around 70 AD’

• Then it was finalized at the council of Yavneh (Jamnia) in AD 90. (3)


WHEN was the NT canonized?
The oldest known list (canon) of the New Testament books is called the Muratorian Fragment
-170 AD.

But the need for some kind of canon was already recognized by early Church Father’s in their writings:
• Clement of Rome (AD 95)
• Ignatius of Antioch (AD 115)
• Polycarp (AD 108)
• Irenaeus (AD 185)
• Hippolytus (AD 170-235) (4)

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Then Emperor Constantine came along.
Constantine becomes emperor of Rome in AD 311
• Converts to Christianity
• Issues the edict of Milan (AD 313) giving freedom of religion.
• Christianity becomes the state religion
• Constantine orders the burning of heretical books (AD 325)
By the time the Council of Nicaea had been and Constantine had issued his Edict Against Heretics (AD 325), the books condemned as heretical were already clearly differentiated from the books recognized by the church as Scripture.

The first official indication of a definitive list (including the Apocrypha) occurred at the
1. Council of Laodicea (AD 363), later affirmed by
2. The Council of Hippo (AD 393), followed by an undisputed decision at
3. The Council of Cartharage (AD 397), and again in AD 419 (5)

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THE DA VINCI CODE (NYT Best Seller) mentions Constantine at the Council of Nicaea.
In a dialog between two fictional characters, Teabing describes to Sophie what went down at Nicaea...

Teabing:
"During this fusion of religions, Constantine needed to strengthen the new Christian tradition, and held a famous ecumenical gathering known as the Council of Nicaea. At this gathering," Teabing said, "many aspects of Christianity were debated and voted upon - the date of Easter, the role of bishops, the administration of sacraments, and, of course, the divinity of Jesus.”

Sophie:
"I don't follow. His divinity?"

Teabing:
"My dear," Teabing declared, "until that moment in history, Jesus was viewed by His followers as a mortal prophet; a great and powerful man, but a man nonetheless. A mortal."

Sophie:
"Not the Son of God?"

Teabing:
"Right," Teabing said. "Jesus' establishment as 'the Son of God' was officially proposed and voted on by the Council of Nicaea.”

DAN BROWN CLAIMS THAT THIS BOOK HE AUTHORED IS BACKED UP BY HISTORICALLY ACCURATE FACTS!!
No, Dan Brown. They are not. Just ask world renowned biblical scholar (and agnostic) Bart Ehrman:

'Once again, there are elements of both fact and fiction in Teabing's view. Constantine did call the Council of Nicea, and one of the issues involved Jesus' divinity. But this was not a council that met to decide whether or not Jesus was divine, as Teabing indicates. Quote the contrary: everyone at the Council-and in fact, just about every Christian everywhere-already agreed that Jesus was divine, the Son of God. The question being debated was how to understand Jesus' divinity in light of the circumstance that he was also human’ (6)

A rather knowledgeable scholar (who as an agnostic, has no bias rooting in favor of the Christian cause) declares that the council did not exist to decide on the divinity of Christ or His Scripture, but rather, they already believed these things. They were assembling in order to better understand how He could be both divine, and fully human.

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The confusion surrounding Christ's hypostatic union was started by a man named Arius, the father of Arianism.
• Arianism is the heresy that denies the full divinity of Jesus.
• Named after Arius, who was born about 270 and died in 336. He was a priest in charge of one of the principle churches in Alexandria and he appears to have believed that the Son of God was not eternal but was created before the ages by the Father as an instrument for making the world
• Arius’s teaching was opposed chiefly by Athanasius, a deacon at Alexandria, and was eventually condemned by the First Ecumenical Council, held at Nicaea in 325.
• It became an article of ‘Nicene’ orthodoxy that the Father and the Son were equally eternal, and the famous term homoousios (‘of the same substance’) was used to express this belief. (7)

THE COUNCIL OF NICAEA REJECTED ARIANISM IN THE YEAR 325 AD, PUTTING THE WORDS INTO THE CREED WE SAY TODAY:
“very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father’ (8)

It was a debate between two pastors, and the church agreed that Arius was ill in his doctrine. Constantine had no part in this other than to preside over the meeting. Whatever motives Constantine had, the purpose of the Council of Nicaea was not to ‘invent’ the deity of Christ, or to decide on the canon of Scripture.

THESE BELIEFS WERE ALREADY LONG IN PLACE!

NEED FOR CANON:
1. Heretics
2. False writings appear under names of Apostles
3. Missionaries needed to know what books to translate
4. Edict of Diocletian in AD 303 (which forced persecuted Christians to want to know which books were worth dying for)

CRITERIA OF CANON:
• Was it written by a prophet, Apostle, or someone associated with one?
• Was author confirmed by miracles?
• Did the book’s message tell the truth about God?
• Did the book contain God’s power?
• Was it excepted by God’s people (and/or Apostles)?

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Apocrypha = 12-15 Jewish writings
‘Believers in the eastern portion of the Roman Empire, nearest [Israel], tended to agree with the Jews in that area. In the West, however, Christians under the influence of Augustine, the well known bishop of Hippo, usually received the Apocrypha as part of the canon of Scripture…
During the sixteenth-century Reformation most protestants accepted the view of early eastern Christians and rejected the Apocrypha as canonical. The Roman Catholic church, following Augustine, accepted the books. And that is how the churches differ to this day.’ (9)

How does the Apocrypha hold up against these criteria?

~Was it written or supported by a prophet, Apostle, or someone associated with one? No.
1) The Jews (who wrote much of the Apocryphal writings) did not accept their own writings as divinely inspired.
2) Neither Jesus nor the Apostles ever quoted a single verse from an apocryphal writing (though they quoted the Old Testament nearly three hundred times)
3) The apocryphal writings were never declared authoritative or inspired until A.D. 1546, and only by the Roman Catholic church, at the Council of Trent. (Even then, it was only part of an effort by the Catholic church to counter the Reformation by Martin Luther. (10)

Was it accepted by God’s people? No.
Many of our renown church fathers rejected the Apocrypha as inspired:
-Josephus, the Jewish historian (born AD 37/38), did not deem the Apocrypha ‘worthy of equal credit’ to the Scriptures.
-Philo, Alexandrian Jewish philosopher (20 BC - AD 40)
-Melito of Sardis (AD 170) gave the oldest list of the OT, but names none of the apocryphal writings. He includes all we have today, except the book of Esther.
-Eusebius affirms most of the books of our present OT canon, but no Apocrypha.
-….Origen does the same.
-…so does Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria.
-…and Cyril of Jerusalem.
-Jerome, the great scholar and translator of the Latin Vulgate, rejected the Apocrypha. (The Roman Catholic church then snuck it into the Latin Vulgate after Jerome died) (11)

~Does the message in the Apocrypha tell the truth about God? NO! There are theological errors in the apocryphal writings.
• The book of Wisdom teaches the creation of the world out of pre-existent matter (11:17)
• Ecclesiasticus teaches that the giving of alms makes atonement for sin (3:30)
• In Baruch, it is said that God hears the prayers of the dead (3:4)
• Ecclesiasticus and Wisdom teach a morality based upon expediency
• In 1 Maccabees, there are historical and geographical errors.
• Judith and Tobit contain historical, chronological, and geographical errors.

Gnostic gospels?

They too, like the Old Testament apocryphal writings fail to pass the tests...
• They are not written by apostles
• They are not confirmed by any miracles
• They are unorthodox
• They are powerless
• And have been rejected by God’s people early on

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Why can’t we add more books to the Canon?
BECAUSE JESUS CLOSED IT.

Jesus was the full and complete revelation of the Old Testament (Matt 5:17) - ‘Do not think I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.’ (Heb 1:1-2) - God now speaks to us through His Son. (John 14:9) - ‘He who has seen Me has seen the Father. (Col 2:9) - ‘in Christ all the fullness of Deity lives in bodily form’
Jesus chose, commissioned, and credentialed twelve apostles (cf. Heb. 2:3-4) to teach this full and final revelation that He gave them (Matt. 10:1f), and before He left this world He promised these apostles to guide them into all truth, saying, ‘the Holy Spirit…will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you’ (14:26), and whe n he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth’ (John 16:13), and that it is the ‘Spirit of [their] Father who speaks in [them] (Matthew 10:20). That’s why the church is said to be built on the ‘foundation of the apostles and the prophets’ (Eph 2:20). Because the Apostles lived and died in the first century, and an apostle had to be an eyewitness of Christ (Acts 1:22). (12)

Works Cited:
1~Price, Randall. Searching for the Original Bible, 139.
2~Bruce, F.F. The Canon of Scripture.
3~Price, Randall. Searching for the Original Bible, 148.
4~Price, Randall. Searching for the Original Bible, 152-154.
5~Price, Randall. Searching for the Original Bible, 154.
6~http://www.beliefnet.com/story/168/story_16806_1.html
7~Thompson, Michael B. Heresies and How to Avoid Them, 15.
8~Thompson, Michael B. Heresies and How to Avoid Them, 19.
9~Shelly, Bruce, L. Church History in Plain Language, 60.
10~Charlie Campbell (alwaysbeready.com)
11~Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, 56-59.
12~Geisler, Norman. Systematic Theology Vol.1, 533-534.

The Uniqueness of the Bible: What separates it from all other books?

Other books claim to be inspired by God…
o Qur’an
o Book of Mormon
o New World Translation
o Science and Health and the Key to the Scriptures
o Hindu Vedas

QUR’AN
o ‘We have, without doubt, sent down the Message; and We will assuredly Guard it (from corruption).’ -Sura 15:9
o ‘Nay, this is a Glorious Quran, (inscribed) in a Tablet Preserved!’ -Surah 85:21-22
o ‘And if ye be in doubt as to that which We have sent down to Our servant, then produce a Sura like it, and summon your witnesses, beside God, if ye are men of truth: but if ye do it not, and never shall ye do it, then fear the Fire prepared for the infidels…’ 2:23-24
o ‘This Book have we sent down to thee that by their Lord’s permission thou mayest bring men out of darkness into light, into the path of the Mighty, the Glorious’ -14:1
o The Qur'an is one leg of two which form the basis of Islam. The second leg is the Sunnah of the Prophet (saas). What makes the Qur'an different from the Sunnah is primarily its form. Unlike the Sunnah, the Qur'an is quite literally the Word of Allah, whereas the Sunnah was inspired by Allah but the wording and actions are the Prophet's. The Qur'an has not been expressed using any human's words. Its wording is letter for letter fixed by no one but Allah.
-USC-MSA Compendium of Muslim Texts
http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/


BOOK OF MORMON
o “…we heard a voice from out of the bright light above us, saying, 'These plates have been revealed by the power of God, and they have been translated by the power of God. The translation of them which you have seen is correct, and I command you to bear record of what you now see and hear.”
(History of the Church, by Joseph Smith, Vol. 1, pp. 54-55)

NEW WORLD TRANSLATION
o ‘Society president F.W. Franz (who headed the secret committee of seven translators of the NWT) testified in a court case on November 23, 1954 in Scotland that the ‘translations and interpretations came from God, invisibly communicated to the publicity department by angels of various ranks who controll[ed] the translators’
-Cited by Gruss, Apostles of Denial. Op. cit., pp. 32-33, 219; (Gruss saw and read the transcript himself.)

SCIENCE AND HEALTH
"Another essential is a love for Science and Health with a Key to the Scriptures and for it's author, Mary Baker Eddy....She [Eddy] wrote: 'I should blush to write of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" as I have, were it of human origin, and were I, apart from God, its author.'"
Christian Science Sentinel | Oct 23, 2006, pg 21. (Emphasis mine)

ALL THESE BOOKS CLAIM TO BE INSPIRED BY GOD.

WHAT MAKES THE BIBLE DIFFERENT?
1) Circulation
2) Continuity
3) Prophesy
4) Changed lives

CIRCULATION
According to the United Bible Societies’ 1998 Scripture Distribution Report, in that year alone member organizations were responsible for distributing 20.8 million complete Bibles and another 20.1 million testaments. When portions of Scripture (i.e., complete books of the Bible) and selections (short extracts on particular themes) are also included, the total distribution of copies of the Bible or portions thereof in 1998 reaches a staggering 585 million- and these numbers only include Bibles distributed by the United Bible Societies!
-Translation
[Few] books see translation figures rise into the teens. According to the United Bible Societies, the Bible (or portions of it) has been translated into more than 2,200 languages!’ representing communication for ‘over 90 percent of the world’s population.

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-Uniqueness through Persecution
Diocletian’s edict:
‘In March of the nineteenth year of Diocletian’s reign, when the festival of the Savior’s passion [Easter] was approaching, an imperial edict was announced everywhere ordering that the churches be demolished and the Scripture destroyed by fire. Any [Christians] who held high places would lose them, while those in households would be imprisoned if they continue to profess Christianity. Such was the first decree against us.’ -Eusebius


(Chp. The First Martyrs in Asia Minor)…
‘…A certain man was brought into a public place and ordered to sacrifice. When he refused, he was hoisted up naked and lashed with whips until he should give in. Since even this failed to bend him, they mixed salt with vinegar and poured it over the lacerations of his body where the bones were already protruding. When he scorned these agonies too, a lit brazier was applied, and the rest of his body was roasted by the fire as if meat for eating- not all at once, lest he find to quick a release, but little by little. Still he clung immovably to his purpose and expired triumphantly in the middle of his tortures.’ –Eusebius 8.6.303


“The noted French infidel Voltaire, who died in 1778, declared that in one hundred years from his time Christianity would be swept from existence and passed into history.
Only fifty years after his death, the Geneva Bible Society used Voltaire’s press and house to produce stacks of Bible.” -Geisler and Nix

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CONTINUITY (Unity despite its diversity)
1. Written over a period of around 1500 years (1400 B.C. – A.D. 100)
2. On 3 different continents (Asia, Africa, Europe)
3. Composed of 66 different books
4. By some 40 different authors from every walk of life
• Kings, military leaders, peasants, philosophers, fishermen, tax collectors, poets, musicians, statesmen, scholars, and shepherds. For example:
o Moses, a political leader and judge, trained in universities of Egypt
o David, a king, poet, musician, shepherd, and warrior
o Amos, a herdsman
o Joshua, a military general
o Nehemiah, a cupbearer to a pagan king
o Daniel, a prime minister
o Solomon, a king and philosopher
o Luke, a physician and historian
o Peter, a fisherman
o Matthew, a tax collector
o Paul, a rabbi
o Mark, Peter’s secretary

5. In 3 languages (Hebrew, Greek, and some Aramaic)
6. Hundreds of different topics
7. In a variety of different literary styles (history, poetry, didactic, parable, allegory, apocalyptic, epic, romance, personal correspondence, memoirs, satire, biography, autobiography, law, and prophesy)
8. …and different perspectives
• A Shepard’s (David in Psalm 23)
• Prophetic (book of Kings)
• Priestly (book of Chronicles)
• Historical ((Luke-Acts)
• Pastoral (Pauline epistles)
9. …Different emotions (By Paul, for example…)
• Great sorrow over Israel (Romans 9:2)
• Great anger over error of Galatians (Galatians 3:1)
• Loneliness (2 Timothy 4:9-16)
• Depression (2 Corinthians 1:8)
• Joy (Philippians 1:4)

10. Some authors in isolation from one another (first 4 points) (last 5 points)
• Ezekiel and John wrote in exile
• Esther wrote from foreign lands
• Hebrews was written in the East
• 2 Timothy was written in Rome
• Moses wrote in the wilderness
• Jeremiah wrote in a dungeon
• Daniel wrote on a hillside and in a palace
• Paul wrote in prison
• Luke wrote while traveling

There is continuity in a central theme: the person of Jesus Christ…with a single unfolding drama: the story of redemption.


THE STORY OF JESUS CHRIST IN THE OLD TESTAMENT:
‘The Law provides the foundation for Christ, the historical books show “the preparation for Christ, the poetical works aspire to Christ, and the prophesies display an expectation of Christ.
THE CONTINUATION OF JESUS CHRIST IN THE NEW TESTAMENT:
The Gospels record the historical manifestation of Christ, the Acts relate the propagation of Christ, the Epistles give the interpretation of Christ, and in Revelation is found the consummation of Christ.’

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PROPHESY
There are over 1817 predictive prophesies in the Bible (1239 in the OT, 578 in the NT).
o Messianic Predictions (191 of these, all literally fulfilled in His lifetime)
Below are only 19 of the 191 Messianic prophesies.
1. Birth (Gen 3:15 → Matt 1, Luke 2, Gal 4:4)
2. Virgin Birth -700 years in advance- (Is 7:14)
3. Place of Birth (Micah 5:2 → Matt 2:1-6)
4. Ancestry through Abraham (Gen 12:1-3 → Matt 1:1)
5. Of the House of David (2 Sam 7:14 → Matt 1:1)
6. Of the tribe of Judah (Gen 49:10 → Luke 3:23, 34)
7. Cleanser of the Temple (Mal 3:1-3 → Matt 21:12)
8. Heralding His Coming (Is 40:3 → Matt 3:1-3)
9. Anointed by the Holy Spirit (Is 11:2 → Matt 3:16-17)
10. He will Preach to the Poor and Brokenhearted (Is 61 → Luke 4:17-20)
11. He would perform miracles (Is 35:5-6 → Matt 9:35)
12. Rejection by His people (Ps 118:22)
13. Suffering and Death (Isaiah 53:2-12 → Matt 26-27; Mark 15-16; Luke 22-23; John 18-19)
14. The piercing of His hands and feet (Ps 22:16 → Luke 23:33)
15. The piercing of His side (Zech 12:10 → John 19:34)
16. The casting of lots for His garments (Ps 22:18 → John 19:23-24)
17. That Christ would die in 33 A.D. (Daniel 9:4-26)
18. Christ’s Resurrection (Ps 2:7/Ps 16:10) Paul used these in Acts 17, Peter used Psalm 2 in Acts 2:30-31.
19. The Ascension of Christ (Ps 110:1 → Matt 22:43-44; Acts 2:34-45)

Mathematicians have calculated the probability of sixteen predictions being fulfilled in one man (e.g. Jesus) at 1 in 1045 (1 followed by 45 zeros – 1 to the quattuordecillionth power
1 in 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

o Non-messianic Predictions
1. Daniel 2:37-42 (The succession of 4 world empires: Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome); a prophesy so concise and accurate that negative critics claimed it was written after the fact)
2. Isaiah 44:28-45:1 (The king of Persia, Cyrus, is identified 150 years before he was born)
3. Isaiah? (The return of Israel to the land, which happened in 1948)
4. Ezekiel 44:2; Matthew 21 (Ezekiel predicted the Golden Gate would be closed one day and not reopened until the Messiah returned). This happened in 1543 when Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent closed the gate and walled it up because the road was no longer being used for traffic. It remains sealed to this day)
5. Ezekiel 26:3-14 (Predicts the destruction of Tyre, hundreds of years in advance). An important sea port in the Eastern Mediterranean, it was one of the greatest cities in the ancient world (Geisler, BECA. 614). Partially fulfilled by Nebuchadnezzar, but literally and fully fulfilled by Alexander the Great when he took ‘the stones, dust, and timber from the ruined mainland city’ and built a causeway to the Island, where not only was the city never rebuilt, but the island is literally used today as a ‘place to spread fishing nets’ (Geisler, BECA. 614)
6. Jeremiah 49:16-17 (Predicts the desolation of Edom, an impregnable fortress inside of a rock). This was fulfilled in A.D. 636 by muslims, and is deserted to this day.
7. Ezekiel 36:33-35 (Flourishing in the deserts of Israel). I’ve seen this myself!

Prophesy sets the Bible apart from all literature…

o The Bible is absolutely unique in presenting these prophesies, which it records in specific detail, beginning more than 3000 years ago.

o About 30 percent of the Bible is devoted to prophesy.

o Compare that to the absence of prophesy in the Qur’an, the Hindu Vedas, the Baghavad Gita, the Ramayana, the sayings of Buddha or Confucius, the Book of Mormon, Science and Health, etc…
-Dave Hunt, A Woman Rides the Beast; pg19-20.


And don’t forget this evidence…

CHANGED LIVES



Works Cited:
1- McDowell, Josh. Evidence for Christianity. 25-26
2- McDowell, Josh. Evidence for Christianity. 27
3- Geisler, Norman. Systematic Theology, V1. 555.
4- (same as above)
5- McDowell, Josh. Evidence for Christianity. 21
6- (same as above)
7- (same as above)
8- McDowell, Josh. Evidence for Christianity. 20
9- (same as above)
10- (same as above)
11- (same as above)
12- McDowell, Josh. Evidence for Christianity. 23
13- Zacharias, Ravi, and Norman Geisler. Who Made God? 119
14- Zacharias, Ravi, and Norman Geisler. Who Made God? 119
15- Geisler, Norman. Systematic Theology, V1. 555.
16- McDowell, Josh. Evidence for Christianity. 21
17- McDowell, Josh. Evidence for Christianity. 23-24
18- Geisler, Norman. Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics. 609-610.
19- Eusebius, HC, 8.2.4 (Persecution)