Is the New Testament Reliable?

How can we trust the Bible when we don’t have the originals??

What do we have? Manuscript copies
WE MUST EXAMINE 2 THINGS:
1. Reliability of the copies
2. Time interval between the originals and the extant (existing copies)

Let's first examine the RELIABILITY.

There are 4 things that need to be analyzed before coming to a conclusion on the reliability of the New Testament:
1) Antiquity (how old are the manuscripts we are dealing with?)
2) Multiplicity (how many manuscripts do we have to deal with?)
3) Trustworthy scholarly methods (What do we do with the manuscripts?)
4) Quality and Quantity of the variants (judging the differences between the manuscripts)

Antiquity
The New Testament has manuscripts that are very old. For example..
• The oldest extant manuscript that we have is P52 (John Rylands Manuscript, which is a papyrus fragment measuring only 2.5 by 3.5 inches and containing only a few verses from the Gospel of John (18.31-3, 37-8). [1]
• The oldest extant manuscript we have of the entire New Testament is Codex Sinaiticus which also contains portions of the Old Testament. This MSS is from the fourth century. [2]

BUT THESE ARE STILL SO FAR REMOVED FROM THE ORIGINALS?? HOW CAN THIS BE GOOD ANTIQUITY?

Well, let's compare the antiquity of the New Testament to the antiquity of some other ancient classical literature:

([3]Click for bigger image)

‘If someone were to claim that we can’t have confidence in the original content of the Gospels because the existing manuscripts are far too removed from the autographs, then that person would also have to cast doubt upon our knowledge of almost all ancient history and literature.’ [4]

Multiplicity
There are 5,700 manuscripts of the Greek New Testament alone! If you count all the translations, there roughly 25,000 total!!
Compare this to some other Greek writings:
([5]Click for larger image)

Trustworthy scholarly methodology
The methodology being incorporated is the science of textual criticism. The scholars involved in this science seek to recover what the original document actually said, with the greatest accuracy possible.
‘Though there is certainly a measure of subjectivity in text criticism, it is by far the most objective discipline in New Testament studies. If you were to take two different teams of text critics and ask them to work independently on a critical edition of the Greek New Testament, they would agree more than 99 percent of the time' [6]

Quantity & Quality of variants- There are a lot of variants…

Bart Ehrman said this:

‘What can we say about the total number of variants known today? Scholars differ significantly in their estimates- some say there 200,000 variants known, some say 300,000, some say 400,000 or more! We do not know for sure because, despite impressive developments in computer technology, no one has yet been able to count them all. Perhaps, as I indicated earlier, it is best simply to leave the matter in comparative terms. There are more variations among manuscripts than there are words in the New Testament.’ [7]

Do not be shaken by this.
• THERE A LOT OF VARIANTS BECAUSE THERE ARE A LOT OF MSS!
Listen to F.F. Bruce on this subject: 'if the great number of MSS increases the number of scribal errors, it increases proportionately the means of correcting such errors, so that the margin of doubt left in the process of recovering the exact original wording is not so large as might be feared; it is in truth remarkably small.’

For example, I found a few manuscript copies of this sentence in my backyard:
o Jesus Christ Loves Joseph Smith
o Jesus Christ Loves Joseph Smiht
o Jesus Christ Love Joseph Smith
o Jesus Christ Loves Joe Smith
o Chris Jesus Joseph Smith

They seem to differ in several areas. In fact, if you only found the last manuscript (#5), you would think it was referring to five different people. But with five copies, we are then able to compare them to each other and accurately conclude that the original did indeed say: Jesus Christ Loves Joseph Smith.

No imagine the accuracy you would have with 5,700 Greek copies! (and many more translations).

• MOST OF THEM ARE INSIGNIFICANT.
Bart Ehrman will tell us this himself in the same book in which he remarked about the quantity of variants:
‘Most of these differences are completely immaterial and insignificant. A good portion of them simply show us that scribes in antiquity could spell no better than most people can do today' [8]

• THESE THAT ARE SIGNIFICANT DO NOT CHANGE DOCTRINE:
o Mark 16:8 – John 7:53-8:11 – John 5:3b-4 (Most of these passages were not found in the earliest and best manuscripts)

• WE KNOW WHERE THEY ARE!
It's not like there are a bunch of unidentified variants floating around the Bible. They are carefully noted and documented even in your own study Bible.

• THE BIBLE IS INCREDIBLY ACCURATE IN ITS MSS!
Remember, those significant variants only make up less than 1% of the Bible. That means that the Bible you know have in your hands is 99.5% accurate in what it says! And the other half of a percentage does not change any doctrine that Christianity adheres to at all.


Works Cited
1~ Metzger, Bruce M., and Bart D Ehrman. The Text of the New Testament. 55.
2~ Metzger, Bruce M., and Bart D Ehrman. The Text of the New Testament. 62.
3~ Price, Randall. Searching for the Original Bible.
4~ Roberts, Mark D. Can We Trust the New Testament Gospels? 30-31.
5~ Roberts, Mark D. Can We Trust the New Testament Gospels? 31.
6~ Metzger, Bruce M., and Bart D. Ehrman. The Text of the New Testament. 51.
7~ Ehrman, Bart D. Misquoting Jesus. 89-90.
8~ Ehrman, Bart D. Misquoting Jesus. 10-11.

Inerrancy of Scripture

When all the facts are known, the Scriptures in their original autographs and properly interpreted will be shown to be wholly true in everything that they affirm, whether that has to do with doctrine or morality or with social, physical, or life sciences. (1)

This is the common definition among evangelical scholars on inerrancy.
Now here is the biblical grounds for it:
1) God cannot err or lie
• ‘God is not a man, that He should lie.’ –Numbers 23:19
• ‘…God, who cannot lie…’ –Titus 1:2
• ‘…it is impossible for God to lie…’ –Hebrews 6:18
2) The Bible is the Word of God.
• ‘…no prophesy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.’ -2 Peter 1:21
• ‘I received it (the gospel) through a revelation of Jesus Christ.’ –Gal 1:12
• '...you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God...' -1 Thess 2:13
• ‘All scripture is inspired by God and profitable…’ 2 Tim 3:16
(The evidence of its inspiration is through its uniqueness)

Therefore it follows that if 1) God cannot err or lie, and 2) the Bible is God's Word, then 3) the Bible cannot err.

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STUMBLING BLOCKS TO INERRANCY:
1) Supposed 'myths' in the Old Testament
2) Wasn't it invented recently?
3) Doesn't the Bible contradict science?
Answer...
Jesus (who as God, cannot be mistaken) ‘fully accepted as factual even the most controversial statements in the Hebrew Bible pertaining to history and science.’(2) Here are some examples:
1. Jonah in the belly of a whale; Jonah being a type of Christ. Types/antitypes must both be historically factual (Matt 12:40).
2. The flood. ‘For in the days before the flood…’ Again, Jesus affirms Himself to be the antitype of Noah, giving certainty to the historicity of the event (Matt 24:37-39).
3. The exodus and the manna. Jesus accepted this as a historical fact when He said, ‘Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died’ (John 6:49)
4. The accounts of Adam and Eve. Jesus affirms what it says in Genesis 2:24, when He reiterates, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’ (Matt 19:5) Additionally, Adam is said to be a type of Christ, by Paul (Romans 5:14).

The doctrine of inerrancy was not invented recently. It has been a core belief of many influential church fathers. Hear what some of them have to say
• Augustine (A.D 354 - 430)
‘I have teamed to yield this respect and honor only to the canonical books of Scripture. Of these alone do I most firmly believe that the authors were completely free from error. (3)
• Aquinas (C. 1225 – 1274)
‘Nothing false can underlie the literal sense of Scripture.’ (4)
• Luther (1483 - 1546)
‘The Scriptures have never erred,’ and ‘the Scriptures cannot err.’ (5)
• Calvin (1509 – 1564)
‘Error can never be eradicated from the heart of man until the true knowledge of God [through Scripture] has been implanted in it.’ (6)
• Wesley (1703 - 1791)
‘Nay, if there be any mistakes in the Bible there may as well be a thousand. If there is one falsehood in that book it did not come from the God of truth.’ (7)

The Bible does not contradict science, but rather, it has been shown to affirm it.
For example, the Bible teaches facts thousands of years in advance before science affirmed them...
• Exact order of events in creation (Universe, earth, land & sea, life in sea, land animals, humans) -Gen 1
• Stars are countless – Jeremiah 33:22; Heb 11:12
• Human bodies made from the earth –Gen 2:7; Eccl 12:7
• Rain water returns to its source (Eccl 1:7; Gen 2:6-7)
• Earth is round and hangs in space (Isaiah 40:22; Job 26:7)
• Life is in the blood (Leviticus 17:11)
• Sea with paths/boundaries (Ps 8:8; Proverbs 8:29)
• Laws of sanitation (Lev 12-15)

If the doctrine of inerrancy is so simple, why is the definition so complicated? Because humans are complicated. We tend to misunderstand these definitions, for example, when we apply inerrancy to
1) The copies (inerrancy only applies to the originals; the autographs (2 Tim 3:16 - All 'graphe' is God-breathed...)
2) Hermeneutics (When our interpretation errs)
3) What the text affirms, or what it simply states and records. (8)

Some additional misunderstandings about inerrancy include (9)
• Rules of grammar
• Figures of speech
• Techy scientific language (sunrise, sunset, sun stood still)
• Verbal exactness in citations or quotes (There are no quotation marks in Greek)
• Exhaustiveness in comprehensiveness (Partial accounts are permitable)

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INERRANCY PART 2
'Errors and Contradictions'

‘If we are perplexed by any apparent contradiction in Scripture, it is not allowable to say, “The author of this book is mistaken;” but either the manuscript is faulty, or the translation is wrong, or you have not understood.’ (10)
-Augustine

HERE ARE A FEW SUPPOSED CONTRADICTIONS IN THE BIBLE. ALL OF THEM HAVE REASONABLE, LOGICAL SOLUTIONS. MOST OF THEM ARE ERRORS ON THE PART OF THE INTERPRETER OF THE PASSAGE...
• Two angels or one? (Matt 28:5; John 20:12)
Answer: 2 angels. Matthew only mentions one.

• Age of Ahaziah?; 2 Kings 8:26; 2 Chr 22:2
Answer: Copyist error. It happens.

• Was Jesus walking TO Jericho or AWAY from Jericho? Luke 18:35; Matt 20:29-34
Answer: A German archeologist, Ernst Sellin between 1907-1909 discovered that in Jesus’ day there were called the ‘twin cities of Jericho.’ The one destroyed by Joshua, and the newer version was the Roman one. Jesus was walking away from one Jericho, and towards another Jericho.

• What was Peter’s confession? The gospels record three different sayings...
1. You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. (Matt 16:16)
2. You are the Christ (Mark 8:29)
3. The Christ of God (Luke 9:20)
Answer: The gospel writers paraphrased Peter's sentence (as was common and accepted in the first century), but maintained the truth of his message, that Jesus is the Christ. There is no error or contradiction.
Also...
-Peter spoke Aramaic, while the gospels were written in Greek. When languages get translated, they sometimes get jumbled in their grammar.
-Sometimes writers selected and abbreviated according to the theme of their book, or emphasis, BUT- they never created, only reported
-They were in accordance with journalistic standards of the day, and even today, for that matter
-Whenever there were multiple reports, they always gave the essence of what was told

• Jesus tells us not to call someone a 'fool,' yet does it later on (Matt 5:22; 23:17)
1. Words can have different meanings depending on the context (ex: dog)
2. Matthew 5 is in the context of someone who uses ‘fool’ in anger. Neither Jesus nor Paul said ‘fool’ or ‘foolish’ in anger.
3. In Matthew 5, Jesus only condemned calling a brother a fool, not an unbeliever. (A fool has said in his heart…-14:1)
Answer: Jesus did not sin, nor contradict His own specific command.

• How did Judas die? By hanging, or by his innards spilling out? (Matt 27:5; Acts 1:18)
These are partial accounts of the same event.
Answer: both.

• What was the time of the Passover meal? Matthew says the night before the crucifixion, John says the following night, the day of the crucifixion (Matt 26:18; John 18:28)
1. The Passover meal, historically, was eaten on two different days…because they disagreed on when a day began!
-Flavius Josephus tells us this.
-Mishna- compilation of writings of first/second century Jewish scholars tells us this also.
2. Northern Israelites believed that the day began with the rising of the sun (6am). Southern Israelites believed the day began at the setting of the sun (6pm). Romans had an even different calendar; they believed the day began at 12am!!

• When was the timing of Christ’s crucifixion? Mark leads us that Jesus was crucified at the third hour, when John tells us He was still before Pilate in the 6th hour!! (Mark 15:24; John 19:14-16)
1. Mark being from Northern Israel, started his day at 6am. So the 3rd hour would be 9am. Referring to Jewish time system.
2. Early church fathers (Eusebius) tell us that John wrote his gospel while he was in the city of Ephesus, the Roman capital of the province of Asia. So he would be referring to the Roman time system, which began at 12am.
Answer: John was using a different time system than Mark. No contradiction, only perfect harmony.

Works Cited
1- Feinberg, Paul D. Meaning of Inerrancy, in Norman L. Geisler’s Inerrancy. 294.
2- Archer Jr., Gleason L. Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties. pg 21.
3- Letters, LXXXII.
4- Summa Theologica, 1, 1, 10, ad 3.
5- Works of Luther, XV:1481; XIX:1073.
6- Institutes, Book 1, Chapter 6.
7- Journal VI, 117.
8- Feinberg, Paul D. Meaning of Inerrancy, in Norman L. Geisler’s Inerrancy. 296.
9- Feinberg, Paul D. Meaning of Inerrancy, in Norman L. Geisler’s Inerrancy. 298.
10- Augustine, Reply to Faustus the Manichaean 11.5 in Geisler, Norman. Systematic Theology, vol. 1. pg 512.

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)

Jesus: God or prophet?

Below is footage of a debate I put together from yesterday between apologist Jon Rittenhouse and Dr. Jamal Badawi, concerning the diety of Christ. Rittenhouse makes some great points about the claims Jesus made, the worship He received, and what others around Him understood of His claims. A lot of Rittenhouse's arguments are steeped in his firm knowledge and study of the Greek language (which is the language of the New Testament). Badawi's expertise is in the Quran, not the New Testament. However, when Badawi opposes the validity of Rittenhouse's claims and Greek scholarship (which are so thouroughly supported, it's embarrassing), he uses "Christian sources" in order to rebut them. These Christian sources include literature by the Watchtower Society.

Word of Faith pt. 1

"The life you want... your best life now... look great feel great..."

Not exactly the headliner you would expect from three very influential pastors (including pastors of the two largest congregations in America).
I've always wanted to ask Creflo, Joel, or Joyce what they think about Paul's exhortation to be heirs with Christ, on the condition that we suffer with Him (Romans 8:16-18). I've heard countless statements by faith-teachers that monetary blessings are ours in abundance. But I rarely hear any of them teach a sermon on Jesus' sufferings that are ALSO "ours in abundance" (2 Pet 1:5)?

Christianity is not a gumball machine. In my recollection, we have been purchased by Jesus' blood (Acts 20:28), making us bond-slaves of God (1 Pet 2:16). We are not our own, we have been bought with a price in order to glorify God (1 Cor 6:19, 20). Although we have access to every spiritual blessing in Christ (Eph 1:3), our purpose in life is to glorify God (Rom 15:5-9). The height of humanistic tendencies is our pursuing of the best possible life for ourselves, or to feel good.

Here is our instruction for these, Christian:

Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

Amen.