Transcript PowerPoint

Why Do I Believe What the Bible
Says?
Is it Reliable?
The Bible is the most read book ever!!
The Bible is the one book that has been translated in more languages ever!!
The Bible is the foundation for the Constitution and Declaration of
Independence for the United States of America!!
The Bible’s main focus is the greatest philosophical concept ever: love!!
The Bible is the most accurate historical document ever!!
The Bible is the most archeological attested document of antiquity ever!!
The Bible changed my life!!
Outline
• Arguments for Not Believing in the Bible
• Why is the Bible a historically reliable
document?
• New Testament
• Old Testament
• What are the ramifications of the Bible
reliability
Good Books
• “I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist”
by Norman Geisler and Frank Turek
• “The New Evidence that Demands a Verdict”
by Josh McDowell
Critiques of the Bible
• Two main themes:
– It is not authentic
– It is not authoritative
• Arguments:
– the bible is not reliable because it has been translated so
many times
– We don’t have original manuscripts and overzealous
monks rewrote the bible
– We cannot know the history
– The New Testament contains miracles and hence cannot
be trusted
– The New Testament writers were biased
– The bible was written by humans and as such contains
errors and contradictions
– The bible is not scientifically proven
Argument: We cannot know the
History
• Rebuttal: these are often the people that say we
“know” that the first life spontaneously
generated from nonliving matter
• This objection is against common sense
– We know who were the leaders of our country
without ever seeing them
– We know that various occurred without our
experiencing them
– We know who won past sporting events without our
presence there
– If we can’t know the history, then the skeptic cannot
criticize that Christianity is untrue
Argument: The New Testament
Contains Miracles So Cannot Be True
• Rebuttal: Since the internal consistent
argument is that a supernatural creator made
everything, he then is above nature and can
induce “miracles” or supernatural events into
the natural order.
Argument: The New Testament Writers
Were Biased
• Rebuttal:
• True, the NT writers were converted and
hence biased, but every writer is biased and
that does not mean that they lied or
embellished their eyewitness
• The NT writers could be most accurate taking
in the local historical accounts than others
because of their honesty toward gross errors
by those in the church
Argument: The Bible is Full of Errors
and Contradictions
• Rebuttal:
• True that humans err, but they don’t always err
• Inerrancy would be invalidated if any error were
to be found in the original scrolls
• Christianity would be invalidated if someone
could find the body of Jesus
• If after 2000 years nobody can find an error in the
bible nor the body of Jesus, isn’t it possible that
neither exists?
• One scripture can help translate another one
(story of elephant with blind Indian leaders; each
sees in part)
Argument: the Bible is not scientifically
proven
• Rebuttal: of course, it is not scientifically proven,
because it is a historical document and should be
judged by the metrics of judging historicity not science.
• Science requires observable, measurable, and
repeatable events; the events in the bible cannot be
observed today, measured today, nor can they be
repeated today. Science is limited.
• History is judged by a reliable source, internally
consistent, and corroborated externally. The Bible was
written by 40 authors (eyewitnesses) in 3 different
continents in 3 languages and 66 volumes over 1600
years with only one redemptive story.
Why should I believe the Bible?
• Wrong Answer: God said it, I believe it, that
settles it
• Wrong Answer: My parents taught me to believe
in the Bible or that is how I grew up
• Right Answer: I believe the bible because it
comes from a reliable collection of historical
documents written by eyewitnesses during the
lifetime of other eyewitnesses who reported
supernatural events that took place in
fulfillment of specific prophecies and claim that
their writings were divine rather than of human
origin
Reliability of New Testament
• “Unlike most other religious worldviews,
Christianity is built on historical events and
can therefore be either proven or falsified by
historical investigation. The problem for
skeptics and critics is that all the historical
evidence points to the resurrection” Geisler
and Turek, “I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be
an Atheist,” p. 374.
2 Peter 1:16-21
• We have not followed cunningly devised fables when
we made known unto you the power and coming of our
Lord Jesus Christ but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
For he received from God the Father honor and glory,
when there came such a voice to him from the
excellent glory “this is my beloved son, in whom I am
well pleased.” And this voice which came from heaven
we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount.
We have also a more more sure word of prophecy;
whereunto you do well that you take heed…knowing
this first,that no prophecy of the scripture is of any
private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in
old time by the will of men of God spoke as they were
moved by the Holy Spirit.
We did not follow cunningly devised
fables – “a reliable collection of historical
documents”
• Luke 1:1 eyewitnesses of the events and an orderly
account of the events
• Written by 40 authors (eyewitnesses) in 3 different
continents in 3 languages, and 66 volumes over 1600
years and only one redemptive story.
• Ask anyone who is in a state prison and ask them if
they had 40 witnesses would they be in prison? No
obviously.
• 1 John 1:1-3 the point is the eyewitnesses (seen and
heard) is the base fundamental point for faith in Christ
“written during the lifetime of other
eyewitnesses”
• 1 Cor 15:1-9 at the time of the writing of 1
Cor, there were 300 eyewitnesses still alive at
that time.
• Verse 6 he was seen of 500 brethren at once;
of whom the greater part remain unto the
present…
Other eyewitnesses
• Critique: The bible is not reliable because it was
translated so many times. What was said at the
beginning is not what is reported at the end.
• Rebuttal: This critique assumes that the second
translation came after the first one in a series.
However, the truth is that the bible is not
translations after other translations. Each of
these are translations from the original Greek,
Hebrew, and Aramaic, not of each other. Each of
the translations talked about the original events,
persons, etc.
Other eyewitnesses (2)
• Critique: we don’t have the original manuscripts and the overzealous
monks rewrote things
• Rebuttal:. The early church fathers quoted the New Testament so often,
that if we just wrote what they quoted, we would have all of the New
Testament except for just 11 verses.
• The overzealous monks had to collect 6000 manuscripts, get all of the
second tier documents (18,000) in the four languages, 300 years later and
altar all of the changes…..not likely
6000 manuscripts
20-70 AD
24000 manuscripts
70-100 AD
400-500 AD
Greek
Syriac
Latin
Coptic
monks
Other Eyewitnesses (3)
Nelson Glueck, Palestinian Archeologist, wrote in Rivers in the Desert, 1959.
“It may be stated categorically that no archeological discovery has ever
contradicted a biblical reference. Scores of Archeological findings have been made
which confirm in exact detail, historical statements in the bible.”
F.F. Bruce, Historian
“There is no body of ancient literature in the world which enjoys such a wealth of
good textual attestation as the New Testament.”
Author Date Written
Caeser 100-44 BC
Plato 427-347 BC
Aristotle 384-322 BC
Homer 900 BC
(Illiad)
New 20-100 AD
Testament
Earliest Copy
900AD
900 AD
1100 AD
400 BC
Span
#copies
1000yrs
10
1200yrs
7
1400yrs
49
500yrs
643
125 AD
25yrs
24,000
“Report Supernatural Events from
Prophecies”
•More than 300 prophecies regarding the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus
•To mention just a few examples:
Isaiah 53 occurred 750 years before birth of Jesus
Gen 3:15 occurred over 4000 years before the birth of Jesus
Micah 5:2 born in Bethlehem occurred over 700 years before Jesus
……..
Wilbur Smith, DD: “Not in the entire gamut of Greek and Latin literature…can we find any
real specific prophecy of a great historic event to come in the distant future….neither can
the founders of any cult in this country rightly identify any ancient text specifically
foretelling their future…the Bible is the only volume ever produced by man, or a group of
men, in which is to be found a large body of prophecies relating to individual nations, to
Israel, to all the peoples of the earth, to certain cities, and to the coming of the One who
was to be the Messiah.”
“writings are divine and are not of human origin”
Critique: men wrote the bible and it can’t be perfect because
imperfect people wrote it.
Rebuttal: If you believed this logic, then don’t read or believe any
other book because humans wrote them too.
The Endurance of the Bible (Word of God) Over Time
Skeptics
Kant, “In the next 100 years, the Bible will be a forgotten manuscript”
Nietsche, “God is dead.”
Bible
Is 40:8 the grass withers and the flower fades but the word of our Lord shall stand for ever.
Matt 24:35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my (Jesus) words will not pass away
Heb 11:3 the world was framed by the word of God
2 Peter 3:5-7 the world will end by the word of God
The Bible: Logos and Rhema
•Logos: the written word
•2 Timothy 3:16 all scripture is given by inspiration of God
and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction,
and for instruction in righteousness
•It has to do with physically hearing
•Rhema: the revealed word
•Hebrews 4:12 the word of God is quick, and powerful,
and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to
the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints
and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents
of the heart
•It has to do with spiriturally hearing
Why should I believe the Bible?
• Right Answer: I believe the bible because it
comes from a reliable collection of historical
documents written by eyewitnesses during the
lifetime of other eyewitnesses who reported
supernatural events that took place in
fulfillment of specific prophecies and claim
that their writings were divine rather than of
human origin