Spiritual Maturity Training Upper Midwest Family of Churches

1. Spiritual Maturity TrainingUpper Midwest Family of Churches FALL 2013

2. Spiritual Maturity Training • Today’s Schedule • Session 1 - 10:10-10:53 – Can We Trust Our Bibles • Break - 10:53-11:00 • Session 2 - 11:00-11:45 – Important Themes in the NT • Break – 11:45-12:00 • Session 3 - 12:00-12:45 – The Gospels • Lunch - 12:45-2:15 • Session 4 - 2:15-3:00 – Hard Questions from the New Testament • Break - 3:00-3:10 • Session 5 - 3:10-3:55 – Paul and the New Humanity

3. Spiritual Maturity Training • Course Schedule • Biblical Interpretation Spring 2012 Mke/Mnpls Burns • Core Doctrines & Church Life Fall, 2012 Mnpls./MkeSaindon/ Burns • Reading the Old Testament Spring, 2013 Mke/Mnpls Alexander/Stevens • Reading the New Testament Fall, 2013 Mad/EC Burns/ Alexander • Defending the Gospel Spring, 2014 TBATBA • Evidences of the Faith Fall, 2014 TBA TBA • What we Believe About God Spring, 2015 TBA TBA • The Kingdom of God Fall, 2015 TBA TBA

4. Can We Rely on the New Testament?

5. 4 Common Attacks on the New Testament • NT Writers didn’t intend to write Scripture (Power Struggles produced Scripture) • NT Canon wasn’t established until the 4th century (or later) • There were many contenders to be part of the NT • The texts aren’t reliable (copies of copies of copies)

6. Expecting Canon

7. Canon is Covenant • The Old Testament is organized as a Covenant document

8. “Biblical canon is covenantal canon” – Meredith Kline, The Structure of Biblical Authority

9. Jeremiah 31:31 • “The days are coming,” declares the Lord,    “when I will make a new covenantwith the people of Israel    and with the people of Judah”

10. Luke 22:20 • 20 In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.”

11. A Completely New Covenant • 15 For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant. – Hebrews 9

12. Get rid of the Old Covenant • 24 These things are being taken figuratively: The women represent two covenants. . . . 30 But what does Scripture say? “Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman’s son.”[f]31 Therefore, brothers and sisters, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman. - Galatians 4

13. The Fulfillment of the Law • 17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear [a common 1st century figure of speech meaning “it’s not going to happen], not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. 19 Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands [the beatitudes that were coming with the New Covenant as Jesus fulfilled the Law] and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

14. The Apostolic Authority • John 16:13 • Matthew 10:1 • John 20:21 • Acts 1:8; 2:42; 10:41-42 • 1 Corinthians 12:28 • Ephesians 2:19-20; 3:4-6 • 2 Peter 3:2

15. Apostles’ Covenant Authority • 1 Corinthians 14:37-38 • Mark 1:1 • Luke 1:1-4 • John 21:24 • 1 Corinthians 7:12 • 1 Thessalonians 2:4, 13

16. Publicly Read as Scripture • Colossians 4:16 • 1 Thessalonians 5:27 • Revelation 1:3

17. Covenantal Curses for Altering • Revelations 22:18-19 (see Deuteronomy 4:2)

18. The New Testament as Scripture • 2 Peter 3:16 • 1 Timothy 5:18 (Luke 10:7)

19. Attacking New Testament Reliability • NT Writers didn’t intend to write Scripture (Power Struggles produced Scripture) • NT Canon wasn’t established until the 4th century (or later) • There were many contenders to be part of the NT • The texts aren’t reliable (copies of copies of copies)

20. The Standard - Canon Criteria

21. The Standard – Received • 3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance – 1 Cor. 15:3 • you accepted it not as a human word, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is indeed at work in you who believe. – 1 Thess. 2:13 • “Do not abandon the commandments of the Lord, but guard what you have received, neither adding to them nor taking away.” – Didache (c. 100 AD)

22. The Standard - Rejected • “Hermas composed The Shepherd quite recently—in our times, in the city of Rome, while his brother Pius the overseer served as overseer of the city of Rome. So, while it should indeed be read, it cannot be read publicly for the people of the church—it is counted neither among the Prophets (for their number has been completed) nor among the Apostles (for it is after their time)” – Muratorian Fragment (c. 170 AD)

23. Development of Canon

24. Muratorian Canon Categories

25. Eusebius Canon Categories

26. Canon of Athanasius 325 AD - Attended Council of Nicea 328 AD - Bishop of Church in Alexandria 367 AD - 39th Festal letter “In these alone, the teaching if godliness is proclaimed. Let no one add to these; let nothing be taken away from them.” – Athanasius finally had enough of the Gnostic “gospels” and put his foot down, confirming them to be heretical and no longer being patient with the Gnostics and their teachings

27. Athanasius Canon Categories

28. Other Significant Documents

29. Attacking New Testament Reliability • NT Writers didn’t intend to write Scripture (Power Struggles produced Scripture) • NT Canon wasn’t established until the 4th century (or later) • There were many contenders to be part of the NT • The texts aren’t reliable (copies of copies of copies)

30. The Pretenders - Canon • There were disputed books through the first 4 centuries (and beyond) but there is amazing and overwhelming agreement as the NT cannon developed • Only the 4 Gospels were ever accepted • Paul’s letters were overwhelmingly accepted • No book that is not in the 27 was ever widely accepted as a NT book

31. Other Writings

32. The Gnostic “Gospels” • Denied the OT • Believed an evil god named Demiurge created the world • Salvation was not who you know but what you know • Elitist and intellectual-focused (self-help for those in the “know”) • Mixed the religious and philosophic beliefs of the day with a bit of gospel (with the Cross almost entirely removed) • Removed the Jewishness of Jesus and the Gospels • Denied the goodness of creation and the material realm • Modern claims of the Gnostics that they believed Jesus was married—they would have been the last ones to claim that (they believed that you could transfer knowledge through a holy kiss on the cheek) • Gospel of Phillip implies that Mary was enlightened by Jesus not married to him

33. Reasons for Rejecting these Other Writings • Clashed with Old Testament Teaching • Did not have apostolic connections • Were written too late to be approved by the apostles • Contained aberrant doctrines about Christ and the gospel • Were never widely accepted by the Orthodox churches

34. Confirming Canon • The Church went through a careful process of sifting out the canon • There was never any real debate over the four gospels and Paul’s writings • The Gnostic gospels were never on any canon list—Ever!

35. Attacking New Testament Reliability • NT Writers didn’t intend to write Scripture (Power Struggles produced Scripture) • NT Canon wasn’t established until the 4th century (or later) • There were many contenders to be part of the NT • The texts aren’t reliable (copies of copies of copies)

36. Textual Criticism(Lower Criticism) • Concerned with the identification and removal of transcription errors in the texts of ancient biblical manuscripts.

37. Common Claims • We have no surviving original autographs of the New Testament • Of the 5,800+ Greek manuscripts, no two are identical • There are over 400,000 transcriptional variants in the New Testament manuscripts • There are only about 138,000 words in the whole New Testament • The texts have been copied so many times and so riddled with errors that it is impossible to know what the original autographs actually said

38. Papyrus

39. Parchment

40. Scroll vs. Codex

41. Greek Manuscript Text-Types

42. Types of Greek Manuscripts

43. Common Claims • We have no surviving original autographs of the New Testament • Of the 5,800+ Greek manuscripts, no two are identical • There are over 400,000 transcriptional variants in the New Testament manuscripts • There are only about 138,000 words in the whole New Testament • The texts have been copied so many times and so riddled with errors that it is impossible to know what the original autographs actually said

44. No Twin • Although it is true that there are no two manuscripts that are identical: • This is an unrealistic expectation before the printing press • You would not expect two hand-written manuscripts of that size to be identical • There is no precedent for such a thing in the ancient manuscript world

45. Common Claims • We have no surviving original autographs of the New Testament • Of the 5,800+ Greek manuscripts, no two are identical • There are over 400,000 transcriptional variants in the New Testament manuscripts • There are only about 138,000 words in the whole New Testament • The texts have been copied so many times and so riddled with errors that it is impossible to know what the original autographs actually said

46. What About All Those Variations? 400,000 Variants (errors)

47. What About All Those Variations? 400,000 Variants (errors) 138,000 Words in the Entire NT

48. What About All Those Variations? 400,000 Variants (errors) Average of 69 variants per manuscript 5,800 Manuscripts

49. Minor Variations • Minor spelling differences • Confusing similar letters • Skipped words or lines • Repeated words or lines • Changes in word order in a sentence • Dropping an article like “the” before a proper noun

50. What About All Those Variations? Minor Variations 69 Variants per Manuscripts 99% of all Variants