The Authority of Scripture

1. The Authority of Scripture Can we trust what we have is true?

2. Introduction • What we believe about the Bible will determine everything we believe about Jesus. • If we believe that the Bible is just a book, then Jesus will be just a man. • If we believe that the Bible is God’s Word, then Jesus will be who he says he is: God in the flesh • Is Jesus a Historical Person?

3. What the Bible is All About? • Some statistics: • 27% of adults believe that Satan exists • 47% of American Christians believe that the book of Mormon, Quran and the Bible all express the same spiritual truth. • 69% say that they are knowledgeable about the Bible, but only 58% can name the first five books of the Bible

4. What the Bible is All About? • Statistics Continued: • 45% believe that the Bible says erroneously, “God helps those who help themselves.” • 60% of Americans can’t name the Ten Commandments • 50% can’t name any of the 4 gospels

5. What the Bible is All About? • The Bible is all about ________. • The Bible is all about God and his work.

6. Why should you take the Bible seriously? • The Bible is a part of World Literature • The Bible Changed Western Civilization • Knowledge of the Bible is the mark of an educated person • Knowledge of the Bible is the mark of a moral person.

7. What the Bible Is? • Not an instruction manual, but a compass. But why trust the Bible and not other sources? • The Bible is revelation.

8. What do we mean by revelation? • Revelation – make something _________ that was previously __________. • Hebrew “galah” Greek “apokalypto”, these words both express, “the idea of uncovering what was concealed."

9. What do we mean by revelation? •  Professor Gordon R. Lewis writes, "Revelation is an activity of the invisible, living God making known to finite and sinful people His creative power, moral standards, and gracious redemptive plan."

10. Two options • Revelation or evolution. • Either God exists and has spoken and is __________ by humanity. • OR • Religion or religious texts are __________ (not revealed) and concepts of the divine evolve over time

11. The Bible • So, we come to a crossroads: What do I believe about the Bible? Do I believe that the Bible is just one of many divine books that communicate spiritual truth? Or Do I believe that the Bible is the revealed Word of God?

12. The Bible • Can I trust what we have? • We can trust that the Bible is God’s Word because it is rooted in ________ and has been _________ transmitted.

13. Evidence for the the Reliability of the New Testament • External • Internal • Resurrection

14. External Evidence • Josephus • Jewish Historian, non-believer. • Antiquities of the Jews 18.3.3, “At this time [the time of Pilate] there was a wise man who was called Jesus. His conduct was good and he was known to be virtuous. And many people from among the Jews and the other nations became his disciples. Pilate condemned him to be crucified and to die. But those who had become his disciples did not abandon his discipleship. They reported that he had appeared to them three days after his crucifixion, and that he was alive; accordingly he was perhaps the Messiah, concerning whom the prophets have recounted wonders.”

15. External Evidence • Tacitus, Roman historian around 115 A.D. • Non-believer, Gentile, writes “Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome...”

16. External Evidence • Pliny the Younger, Roman governor of a province, writes back to the Emperor Trajan as to how to properly deal with Christians. • He writes, "I asked them directly if they were Christians...those who persisted, I ordered away... Those who denied they were or ever had been Christians...worshiped both your image and the images of the gods and cursed Christ. They used to gather on a stated day before dawn and sing to Christ as if he were a god... All the more I believed it necessary to find out what was the truth from two servant maids, which were called deaconesses, by means of torture. Nothing more did I find than a disgusting, fanatical superstition. Therefore I stopped the examination, and hastened to consult you...on account of the number of people endangered. For many of all ages, all classes, and both sexes already are brought into danger..."

17. External Evidence • There are countless other writers, who are not Christians, that write about Christ being a historical person.

18. Internal Evidence • Writings of the Gospel • Most of the Gospels were written within 30 years from the death of Jesus. Some estimates are might even put them close to 25 years after the death of Jesus. • Matthew, Mark, Luke and John • Mark - mid-to-late 50s • Matthew - late 50s to early 60s • Luke - around 62 A.D. • John - 70 to 100 A.D.

19. Internal Evidence • Embarrassing details: • Peter. • Mark 14:51-52 • If you were going to make a story up, why put embarrassing details in there about yourself!

20. Resurrection of Jesus • Resurrection of Jesus • All four gospel writers and Paul all mention the resurrection of Jesus. • This is key because if the resurrection of Jesus did not happen we CANNOT trust the Bible

21. Resurrection of Jesus • Why would the Gospel writers write about something they knew to be a lie? • Women testimony.

22. Historical Tests • Historians normally use seven criteria to determine whether or not to believe a given document is historical • Do we have early testimony? • Do we have eyewitness testimony? • Do we have testimony from multiple, independent, eyewitness sources? • Are the eyewitnesses trustworthy? Character matters • Do we have corroborating evidence from archaeology or other writers? • Do we have enemy attestation? • Does the testimony contain events or details that are embarrassing to the authors? • Since most people do not like to record embarrassing negative information, any testimony that makes the author look bad is probably true

23. Manuscripts • Do we have the original manuscripts? • Only copies • Does this take away from the reliability of the Bible?

24. Reliability of the Old Testament • Discipline of the Masoretes • When writing the name of God, they would continue writing, even if a King came in the room, until they finished writing the name of God. • The act of transcription was a separate profession • NOTHING-not even the shortest word-could be copied from memory; it had to be copied letter by letter • The scribe must count the number of times each letter of the alphabet occurred in each book and compare it to the original. • They numbered the manuscripts • If a mistake was found, that manuscript was discarded.

25. Reliability of the Old Testament • DEAD SEA SCROLLS • The oldest manuscript that we had of the Old Testament was AD 900. In 1947, 223 manuscripts were found that predated the oldest manuscripts that we had at the time to 125 BC. • When they translated the Dead Sea Scrolls. It was 95 percent accurate. The other 5 percent, merely spelling errors, but it did not alter the clear meaning of the text nor did it bring the manuscripts integrity into question.

27. Reliability of the New Testament • Since we only have copies of the New Testament does that make the New Testament unreliable? • Can we have confidence in knowing what the originals said? Absolutely! • Historians evaluate ancient literature on two criteria: 1)time interval between the original and the earliest copy, 2)how many manuscript copies are available

28. Reliability of the New Testament • Key to remember in this argument: the more and earlier manuscripts you have, it provides a more trustworthy testimony and enables a more accurate reconstruction • Geisler says,“the New Testament documents have more manuscripts, earlier manuscripts, and more abundantly supported manuscripts than the best ten pieces of classical literature combined.”

29. Reliability of the New Testament • More Manuscripts • 5686 Manuscript copies • 9000 copies in other languages • 15,000 manuscripts make up complete bibles, others are books or just a page

30. Reliability of the New Testament • Earlier Manuscripts • Written soon after the originals • Earliest- John Ryland's fragment of John 18:31-33; 37-38. Dated anywhere between 117-138 A.D. But it could be earlier! • Other writers referenced the New Testament manuscripts by about 100 A.D. • The presence of the temple lends to the conclusion that they were written before 70 A.D. after which the temple was destroyed by Rome. • Ancient literature • Homer’s Iliad a gap of 500 years between the original and the copy • Other ancient works - 1000 years • We often do not question the authenticity of these works. • The New Testament writers probably wrote down the original about 25 to 30 years after the death and resurrection of Jesus. This should only affirm the authenticity of the New Testament.

31. Reliability of the New Testament • More Abundantly Supported Manuscripts • Church Fathers (Origen, Justin Martyr, Tertullian, etc.) all quoted the Bible, specifically the New Testament, about 36,289 times that all but 11 VERSES of the New Testament could be reconstructed.

32. So Why the Bible? • 1.) Portrayals of Jesus, The Bible portrays a picture of Jesus that if wrong then has huge implications for us. But if the Bible does portray Jesus correctly, and there is evidence that confirms this, then that means it is huge for us. • 2.) We have several writers that have written the Bible over a period of 2000 years, instead of one human writer. And there is also continuity of material. • 3.) The bible prophesies future events, and 75% of those prophecies have come true. • Prediction of Jesus’ coming • the Rise of Cyrus and the Persian Empire • Fall of the Jerusalem in A.D. 70 • Daniel 11

33. Conclusion • Ultimately the Authenticity of the Bible comes down to a faith claim. We accept the authority of the Bible by faith, however, it is not a blind faith. In fact, it is a reasonable faith, that what we have is accurate. And since it is accurate, then the claims the biblical authors make about Jesus and Jesus himself, are true and thus demand authority in our lives.