Believe: Bible

Interesting

Bible facts:

1. One of the most well known Bible facts is that it’s the best selling book of all time—it is estimated that 25 million copies are sold each year in the United States alone—but did you know the Good Book is also the most frequently shoplifted?

2. Not so long ago, translating the Bible into any language other than Latin could get you in more than hot water. John Wycliffe went ahead and did it anyway, translating it into English in the 14th century; 43 years after his death, the Roman Catholic Church actually dug up his corpse, burned it, and threw the ashes in the river to punish him for his supposed sins. Another early translator, William Tyndale, was burnt at the stake for heresy in 1536.

3. The world’s smallest bible can fit on the tip of a pen. Scientists etched the 1.2 million letters of the Old Testament on a tiny silicone disk, which they call the Nano Bible.” The world’s biggest Bible is the Waynai Bible, and it’s housed at the Abilene Christian University in Texas. This gargantuan King James version weighs over 1,000 pounds, is 43.5 inches tall and measures 98 inches wide when fully open. It took Louis Waynai, a self-ordained minister, two years to print the text on each mammoth page using his own self-made rubber stamp press.

4. In 1631, a publishing company published a Bible with the typo “Thou Shalt Commit Adultery.” Only 9 of these Bibles, known as the “Sinners’ Bible” exist today.

5. As of 2019, the entire Bible has been translated into 698 different languages while the New Testament has been translated into 1,548 languages. No other book even comes close.

1. What is the Bible and how did it come into its current form?

-Inspired

-This is the theology that encompassing the idea that human effort and skill finds its source from God.

-Examples from the Bible include, artistic skill, military prowess, feats of superhuman strength, music, sermons and prophetic utterances.

-Our stance is that the biblical writers were inspired by God to write down the history, poetry, narrative and prophecy that we have today.

-Several theories of mode of inspiration...

I tend to believe that the individual writer wrote from a place that included their personal backgrounds, their cultural settings, their personal literary styles and personal traits. But that the Holy Spirit was present and in some providential way used them as instruments that produced the Scriptures.

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-Infallible

The term “infallible” suggests that the Bible does not mislead, is a sure, reliable guide, and is fully trustworthy in all matters about which it speaks

-Let’s talk about the word inerrant

The term “inerrant” suggests that the Bible is free from all falsehood or mistakes, and it provides a safeguard for the confidence that Scripture is reliable in all of its assertions.

-Cannon

Those books in the Jewish and Christian Bible considered to be Scripture and therefore authoritative in matters of faith and doctrine.

-Term translated from Hebrew & Greek— “a rule” “a measuring rod”

-After the 4th century AD (367 AD) Christian church found itself with 66 books that constituted Scripture (39 OT, 27 NT).

The criteria for selecting the books in the Jewish canon (the OT) are not known, but clearly had to do with their worth in the ongoing life and religion of the worshiping nation. The criteria of the selection of NT books revolved around their “apostolicity,” according to early church writers. Like those of the OT, these books were collected and preserved by local churches in the continuing process of their worship and need for authoritative guidance for Christian living. The formation of the canon was a process, rather than an event, which took several hundred years to reach finality in all parts of the Roman empire.

-We believe, as most churches do, that The Holy Spirit was operative in some providential way in the production and preservation of the Scriptures.

-We do know that Churches were collecting letters written by apostles and viewed them as authoritative.

2 Peter 3:14–16 NIV

So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him. Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.

Colossians 4:16 NIV

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.

-Of course Jesus and the apostles constantly appealed to the the Hebrew Bible (OT) as authoritative.

-Meditation Literature

This is the idea that the Bible is literature that is meant to be read and studied over a life time. In private and public settings.

Psalm 119:9 NIV

How can a young person stay on the path of purity? By living according to your word.

Joshua 1:8 NIV

Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.

What about ancient books that are not part of the cannon

There was no conspiracy against these noncanonical and heretical works, but rather an acknowledgement of their factual inaccuracy and their teachings, which clearly disagree with historical Christianity as taught by Jesus and the apostles.

2. What claims does the Bible make?

“…your word is truth” John17:17

John 17:16-17 (NIV) When praying for his disciples, Jesus says,

John 17:16–17 NIV

They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.

Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.

“For the word of God is alive and active” Hebrews 4:12

Hebrews 4:12 NIV

For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

“Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light for my path” Psalm 119:105

Psalm 119:105 NIV

Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.

“All Scripture is God breathed…” 2 Timothy 3:16

2 Timothy 3:16–17 (NIV)

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

3. How can we know that the Bible is reliable.

Manuscripts

In Greek alone, there are more than 5,600 manuscripts today. Many of these are fragmentary, especially the older ones, but the average Greek NT MS is over 450 pages long. Altogether, there are more than 2.6 million pages of texts, leaving hundreds of witnesses for every book of the NT.

If someone were to destroy all those manuscripts, we would not be left without a witness, because the church fathers wrote commentaries on the NT. To date, more than one million quotations of the NT by the fathers have been recorded.

he oldest manuscript of the New Testament has been P52, a small fragment from John’s Gospel, dated to the first half of the second century. It was discovered in 1934.

Not only this, but the first-century fragment is from Mark’s Gospel. Before the discovery of this fragment, the oldest manuscript that had Mark in it was P45, from the early third century (c. AD 200–250). This new fragment would predate that by 100 to 150 years.

Archaeology

For years critics dismissed the Book of Daniel, partly because there was no evidence that a king named Belshazzar ruled in Babylon during that time period. However, later archaeological research confirmed that the reigning monarch, Nabonidus, appointed Belshazzar as his co-regent whi1e he was away from Babylon.

One of the most well-known New Testament examples concerns the Books of Luke and Acts. A biblical skeptic, Sir William Ramsay (1851-1939), trained as an archaeologist and then set out to disprove the historical reliability of this portion of the New Testament. However, through his painstaking Mediterranean archaeological trips, he became converted as — one after another — of the historical statements of Luke were proved accurate. Archaeological evidence thus confirms the trustworthiness of the Bible.

Prophecy

The Bible records predictions of events that could not be known or predicted by chance or common sense.

Old Testament prophecies concerning the Phoenician city of Tyre were fulfilled in ancient times, including prophecies that the city would be opposed by many nations (Ezek. 26:3); its walls would be destroyed and towers broken down (26:4); and its stones, timbers, and debris would be thrown into the water (26:12). Similar prophecies were fulfilled concerning Sidon (Ezek. 28:23; Isa. 23; Jer. 27:3-6; 47:4) and Babylon (Jer. 50:13, 39; 51:26, 42-43, 58; Isa. 13:20-21).

Many of these prophecies would have been impossible for Jesus to deliberately conspire to fulfill — such as His descent from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Gen. 12:3; 17:19; Num. 24:21-24); His birth in Bethlehem (Mic. 5:2); His crucifixion with criminals (Isa. 53:12); the piercing of His hands and feet at the crucifixion (Ps. 22:16); the soldiers’ gambling for His clothes (Ps. 22:18); the piercing of His side and the fact that His bones were not broken at His death (Zech. 12:10; Ps. 34:20); and His burial among the rich (Isa. 53:9). Jesus also predicted His own death and resurrection (John 2:19-22).

Statistics

it is Statistically preposterous that any or all of the Bible’s very specific, detailed prophecies could have been fulfilled through chance, good guessing, or deliberate deceit. When you look at some of the improbable prophecies of the Old and New Testaments, it seems incredible that skeptics — knowing the authenticity and historicity of the texts — could reject the statistical verdict: the Bible is the Word of God, and Jesus Christ is the Son of God, just as Scripture predicted many times and in many ways.

The Bible was written over a span of 1500 years by forty different human authors in three different languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek), on hundreds of subjects. And yet there is one consistent, noncontradictory theme that runs through it all: God’s redemption of humankind. Clearly, Statistical probability is a powerful indicator of the trustworthiness of Scripture.

CONCLUSION: The Bible is the word of God. It is a consistent and reliable work that tells the account of God’s plan to restore His broken relationship with mankind. Ultimately, we can say the Bible points us to Jesus.