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The Bible Authenticity __ Why We Know It Is True
2/19/2010 12:32:41 PM Link 0 comments | Add comment

Bible, truth


First, we recognize the blessing of our belief by faith. Christ assured that those who believe, even without physically seeing his after his resurrection, would be truly blessed.

John 20:26 A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!”
27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”
28 Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”
29 Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
Our discussion here is simply to make you aware that in addition, we have tremendous documentary evidence about the authenticity of the Bible.
My comments are drawn from the wonderful book by Lee Strobel, The Case for Christ. I highly recommend it to you, or to any of your friends who may wonder about the evidence supporting the validity and accuracy of our Bible.
In his work on The Case for Christ, Strobel worked with many of the most renowned Biblical scholars, such as Bruce Metzger, Ph.D.
Dr. Metzger points to the “mountain” of ancient manuscripts of the Greek New Testament – more than five thousand exist, 5664 to be exact. Some of the oldest date back to between 100 – 200 A.D.
There is no other ancient literature in the world with that volume of ancient copies. The closest comparison of documents of an ancient literary work is Homer’s Iliad, of which there are fewer than 650 Greek manuscripts today.
In addition to these manuscripts in the original Greek, there exist some 24,000 ancient copies in other languages.
According to another famous Princeton theologian, Benjamin Warfield, “If we compare the present state of the New Testament text with that of any other ancient writing…declare it to be marvelously correct…”
In addition, there is rich corroborating evidence by historians of the time, such as the famous Josephus, a famous Jewish historian.  Their historical accounts attest in a marvelous way to the life and message of Christ that we treasure in our Bible.
Strobel, in one of his interview steps put it well – “Your Jesus—the Jesus you relate to—is both a Jesus of history and a Jesus of faith.”
We have only scratched the surface, but I hope you see that history and archaeology’s findings all bear witness to the truth of Jesus our Lord who we accept by faith.

Blessings,

 Larry

 

The Books of the New Testament
2/11/2010 6:43:22 PM Link 0 comments | Add comment

Bible


The earliest Christians had two wonderful and powerful sources as the rule for faith. During Christ’s life on earth, they had the direct teachings of the Master. After his death, resurrection and ascension to heaven, the living leadership of the apostles was the source of the message. This was the direct channel to the will of Jesus.

These important teachings and early traditions began to be documented. The first Gospels were not written until A.D. 60-70. Luke mentioned in his Gospel that many people had undertaken to document the events of Christ’s life.
Lk 1:1 Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, 2 just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. 3 Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, 4 so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.
We know that as time passed in the early church that there was a lot of writing. Much of this was in the form of letters.
Again we have an interesting question – how did we end up with the 27 books we have as our New Testament? We know this must have been complex, but there were actually some simple considerations that determined if a writing (book) became a part of the canon.
The books that are the Word of God have a very self-evidencing quality. They have a uniqueness that has always been recognized as powerful in the lives of people. In other words, they have an authenticity that didn’t draw debate.
Some of the books were known in the very early Christian worship. The authors, such as the apostle Paul, instructed that these Scriptures be read in the churches.
Col 4:16 After this letter has been read to you, see that it is also read in the church of the Laodiceans and that you in turn read the letter from Laodicea.
That doesn’t mean that everything read in the early churches became accepted as part of the New Testament.
The books that became a part of the New Testament had clear ties to the apostles.
Over time, these factors resulted in the canon of Christian writings that we have today in our New Testament. The list started to be formalized around A.D. 140 due to pressure created from individuals that were deviating from the teaching of the Scriptures. In response, the early church leaders were forced to formalize the decisions about the canon. The first complete list of books in the New Testament was published in an Easter letter from Bishop Athanasius of Alexandria in 367. We can see that this process played out over a few hundred years. Some formal councils of the Church later confirmed our New Testament canon.
  • Council of Hippo in A.D. 393
  • Council of Carthage in A.D. 397
We can see this as an important part of our church history. More important, we can see that our New Testament is connected directly to the teachings of the apostles, and they are the ones Christ charged with taking the Message to the world.
Next we will consider the evidence of the Bible’s authenticity – why we know it is true.

Blessings,

Larry

 

Selection of the Books in the Bible
2/2/2010 8:49:46 AM Link 0 comments | Add comment

Bible


Today we will briefly examine some interesting questions—when and by whom were decisions made about which books would be in the Bible?

Sometimes it is hard for us to imagine a time when the Bible didn’t exist in a volume as we now know it, the collection of 66 books organized for efficient reading and study. In fact, as we become more and more used to books in electronic form, including on computers, internet, ebooks, our cell phones, and more, it is even easier to neglect the fact that for much of history since the life of Christ, there were no books as we now know them.
All copies of the Holy Scriptures were handwritten until the invention of the printing press in the 1450s by Johann Gutenberg. The materials for handwritten copies varied a lot, too. They included stone, papyri and parchment. The process of producing copies of the text was very difficult work.
When we talk about the collection of 66 books in the Bible, the theology concept or term that we use is “canon.”  It is a term from the Greek language which means “measuring rod” or “ruler.” In other words, it is the standard for judging something. So, our canon, (our list of books in the Bible), is our standard or “rule” for the church.
The question of how Christians arrived at this exact set of books is complex, as you can imagine, since over history these books were certainly not the only writings about the Christian faith.
Let’s start our discussion with the first Christians. These earliest Christians were all Jews, so they were never without Scripture. We know that as we read the New Testament, Jesus referred to the Jewish scriptures and taught from them. He pointed out how those scriptures talked about him.
Lk 24:44 He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.”
The 39 books of our Protestant Old Testament are the exact books recognized by the Jews of Israel.
Beyond Palestine, Jews sometimes considered additional writings as Scripture. The Greek translation of the Old Testament made known a set of books known as the Apocrypha. These are included in today’s Roman Catholic Old Testament.
Why are they not included in the Protestant Old Testament? It is a complicated question. Early on, the differences of opinion were pretty much geographical. Believers in the eastern reaches of the Roman Empire agreed with the Jews in the area. In the west, they tended to accept the Apocrypha. 
What became the deciding factor for the Protestant Old Testament?  Evidence seems to indicate that neither Jesus nor his apostles ever quoted from the Apocrypha as Scripture. With that important source of validation missing, during the 16th century reformation most Protestants did not accept the Apocrypha as a part of the canon.
This difference still exists today.

Next time we will examine the canon of the New Testament.
Blessings,

Larry

 

The Bible – Some Background
1/25/2010 9:10:24 AM Link 0 comments | Add comment

Bible


Today we examine the book and how it is organized.

The Bible means the book. It is the Christian’s written Word of God, and it actually contains the 66 books found in the Old and New Testaments.
The two major divisions of our Holy Bible are the Old Testament and the New Testament. Let’s explain this first basic order of the book. The word “testament” more commonly referred to a “covenant” in Biblical times. So, these two major sections of the Bible represent two covenants – two special relationships between God and people.
Old Testament – this represents the initial covenant between God and Abraham (and later Abraham’s descendants). The Old Testament tells the story of the Jews and their ancient worship of God.
Throughout the Old Testament, we read of God’s promise to his people that a Messiah would come. The Messiah would establish a new covenant with God’s people.
New Testament – these books tell the story of the coming of the promised Messiah, Jesus Christ, and the birth of his church.
Now let’s break each of these covenants (Testaments) down into their basic parts.
Old Testament – these scriptures are recognized as God’s word and covenant by both Christians and Jewish people. The original text was written in two languages. These were Hebrew and Aramaic. The scriptures were written in the timeframe between 1500 B.C. to 400 B.C. The books fall into three basic sections:
The Torah – the first five books of the Old Testament. They are sometimes referred to as the five books of Moses. The Torah contains the teachings about the law.
The Prophets – these books include the historical and prophetic books, such as Joshua, Isaiah, etc. (19 books in all)
The Writings – this set of books include the Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Ecclesiastes, etc. (12 books in all)
New Testament – the story of Christ and the basis for our Christian faith. This was written originally in Koine (common) Greek. The writing occurred between the years 40 A.D. and 100 A.D. We will consider it in a few separate sections.
The Gospels – the first four books of the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. These describe the life and death of Jesus through the individuals lenses of four authors.
The Acts of the Apostles – our description, written by Luke, of the early church history following the resurrection of Jesus. It is a critical record from wish we can learn much about how the church functioned per Christ’s instructions through the apostles.
Writings of the Apostles – these early church leaders, especially the early missionary Paul, provided us with lots of written instruction about Christian life.
The Revelation of John – this of course is another writing of the apostle John. We separate it because of its distinct content and purpose.
The next time we will look at how the books were selected, and when.

Blessings,

Larry

 

The Holy Bible
1/18/2010 7:48:29 AM Link 0 comments | Add comment

Bible


The Bible – God’s Holy Word

Our precious instruction from the Master – it is here that we now turn our attention for several posts over the next couple of weeks. Here is the game plan, although we might move and/or add posts as your questions and thoughts come in.
Background – we will consider some basics about how the Bible is organized, starting with the distinctions between the Old Testament and the New. Then we will look at the parts that both consist of.
Timeline – over what time was the Bible written?
Selection of the books – when and by who were decisions made about which books would be in the Bible?
Differences in content – what is the controversy over the Apocrypha, those additional books that are included in the Roman Catholic Bible’s Old Testament? 
Substantiation – How do we know that the Bible is true?
Tradition versus Scripture – In early church history, before the official selection (canon) of the Bible as we know it, what was the role of “church tradition,” and does it still have a role?
How do we use it? – How does it help us to sort through and find answers to life’s questions?
Interpretation – we will look at a simple, yet solid, process or model to help us as we strive to interpret scriptures correctly.
It should be an interesting discussion. We will strive to describe key points in plain language. The goal is that we will all understand with more clarity how to use the Scriptures and how to better represent God’s truth to others.
Please join in the conversation.

Blessings,

Larry

 

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