The Faith's Foundations - Part 3: Scripture

Introduction

Misconceptions: The Bible is one big book; the Bible was written by one author; Bible is instruction manual (B.I.B.L.E.); handed down by God directly; the Bible is just a collection of personal religious experience; the collection of books was voted on at the Council of Nicea; the books and letter have been changed over time (like the telephone game)

1. The Bible is Historically Reliable

It is History

Manuscripts - complete copies the NT, a complete copy of NT book, or fragments

John Rylands MS (John Rylands MS Slide Picture)(at the Univ. of Manchester Library): dates to A.D. 117-138. It is John 18:31-33, 37-38

Muratorian Fragment (Canon): (Muratorian Frag Slide Picture) Dating to ca. AD 180, this is a list of the NT books and letters considered to be Scripture at the time. Note: this was before the NT books and letters were collected together as The Bible.

The oldest complete copy of the NT: Codex Sinaiticus (Codex Sinaiticus Slide Picture) (mid 300s; all written in Greek). It also has large passages from many of the OT books.

The most recent count has the number of Greek NT manuscripts at 5686. There are also more than 9000 manuscripts in other languages, e.g., Syriac, Coptic, Latin, and Arabic. These 15,000 manuscripts are either complete NTs, books or pages, and a handful are just fragments.

Nothing from the ancient world even comes close to this number of manuscripts. The next closest work is Homer’s Iliad with 643 manuscripts (NT MSS Comparison Slide Picture) [reproduced from: Geisler and Turek, I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist].

The point here is that no one questions the validity of Homer’s work or any others, and they have a lot less historical support!

More interestingly is the dating of these MSS: the NT has manuscripts that were written very soon after the originals (less time for error)

The time gap between the original NT and the first surviving copy of a part of the NT (either the undisputed or disputed parts) is shorter than anything else from the ancient world. The undisputed are well within 70 years of Jesus death and resurrection, and the disputed are within 20 years. The next shortest gap of any work is Homer’s Iliad at about 500 years! (Time Interval of MSS Slide Picture) [reproduced from Geisler and Turek.)

But there’s more! Early Christian writers, known as the Apostolic Fathers (e.g., Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, and Tertullian), quoted the NT so much (36,289 times) that all but eleven verses can be reconstructed just from their quotations. In effect you could read the entire NT just by reading all the Apostolic Fathers!

What this means:

It is Reliable History

This fact plus the fact that we have over 15,000 other manuscripts makes reconstruction of the original NT documents virtually certain.

In fact, it is estimated 97-99.5% of the NT can be reconstructed with 100% certainty!

It is not like the telephone game.

This does not even take into account the numerous names of rulers, cities, and geographical details that have been confirmed by archaeological and historical research.

Bart Ehrman, agnostic: “[I]f historians want to know that Jesus said and did they are more or less constrained to use the New Testament Gospels as their principal sources. Let me emphasize that this is not for religious or theological reasons. . . . It is for historical reasons, pure and simple.” [The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings, 229]

But as Christians, we also take the Bible to be Divine Rev.

2. The Bible is Divine Revelation

God has revealed himself and the significant events of redemptive history and salvation and how we ought to live.

God has Spoken (Heb.1:1-2; Eph. 2:19-20)

Through His OT Prophets

Hebrews 1:1 “God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways.”

Often stated in the OT as “Thus says the Lord”

In Jesus Christ

Hebrews 1:2 “In these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.”

Through His NT Apostles and Prophets

Ephesians 2:19–20 “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone.”

God has Written (Exod. 31:18, 32:16)

Exodus 31:18 NASB95

When He had finished speaking with him upon Mount Sinai, He gave Moses the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written by the finger of God.

Exodus 32:16 “The tablets were God’s work, and the writing was God’s writing engraved on the tablets.”

God also wrote through the prophets in the OT, but he also wrote through his apostles in the NT. This is seen by the fact that the Bible is inspired.

3. The Bible is Inspired

The OT is Inspired (Jn. 10:35-36; 2 Tim. 3:16; 2 Pet. 1:19-21)

Confirmed by Jesus

John 10:35–36 (NASB95)

“If he called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture cannot be broken), do you say of Him, whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’?

Confirmed by the NT

2 Timothy 3:16 (NASB95)

All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.

“Inspired” = lit. “God-breathed.” θεόπνευστος (theopnuestos), from theos and penuma (breath, spirit)

Apostle Peter confirms OT is written ultimately by God:

2 Peter 1:19–21 (NASB95)

So we have the prophetic word made more sure, to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts. But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.

[Special aside note: “Peter’s argument . . . is that the readers must pay attention to the prophetic word as it is interpreted by the apostles, for the Old Testament prophecies are not a matter of personal interpretation but have been authoritatively interpreted by the apostles.” [Thomas R. Schreiner, 1, 2 Peter, Jude, vol. 37, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2003), 323.]

The New Testament is Inspired (Jn. 14:25-26; 1 Cor. 2:12-13; 2 Pet. 3:14-16)

The NT Promise of Inspiration

John 14:25–26 (NASB95)

“These things I have spoken to you while abiding with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.”

Fulfillment of NT Inspiration

1 Corinthians 2:12–13 (NASB95)

Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.

2 Peter 3:14–16 (NASB95)

Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless, and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.

4. What This Means for Us

The Bible is True and Trustworthy (Inerrancy)

=> This is concluded directly from the fact that Scripture is inspired.

If God cannot lie, then what he speaks has no errors. Since Scripture is “breathed out by God,” then Scripture has no errors.

=> This has always been the teaching of Christian tradition

Augustine: “I have learned to yield this respect and honor only to the canonical books of Scripture; of these alone do I most firmly believe that the authors were completely free from error.”

Luther: “But everyone, indeed, knows that at time they [the fathers] have erred as men will; therefore, I am ready to trust them only whey they prove their opinions from Scripture, which has never erred.”

The Bible is Clear (Perspicuity)

What it means: The overall biblical history and message of God is clear. God is and was able to speak and reveal to us himself, his will, and his plans through the history of his people. Even if we are quite stubborn and dumb, he is not. He is capable of overcoming such obstacles.

God has given us language and designed it to have the utility to communicate accurately.

A word on language: The devil has done a great job in our western culture, esp America. He has led us to believe that language does not really communicate anything. We interpret everything through a corrupted subjective lens of self-experience and bias. No meaning in texts. Texts are fluid. (Reference postmodernism?)

(Illustration of no meaning in biblical text)

What it does not mean: (1) that everything in the Bible is easy to understand, or that we will understand everything in the Bible (2) no work has to be done to understand the meaning of the Bible (3) we get to decide what the Bible means, or interpret the Bible through our own experiences and study and make that authoritative (4) we can ignore what the great theologians, pastors, and teachers taught who have gone before us.

We are to attempt to understand the author’s intent, not our own. Study is key: history, context, culture, practices and customs, language (can’t take everything literally; cannot take everything figuratively).

The Bible is Authoritative

Def. of Authority: “the power and right to determine the standard in matters of truth and conduct, and to demand conformity to this standard.” [modified from Cottrell, Solid, 117]

Milliard Erickson points out: (1) Authority should not be confused with authoritarianism, and (2) We need to keep in mind that Scripture is authoritative whether we recognized it or not [Christian Theology, 268-69].

Authority in beliefs, practices, and living a life that is pleasing to God.

We must emphasize that the entire Bible is authoritative: from Gen. 1:1 to Rev. 22:21. What the Bible says about creation, man and woman, human sexuality, adultery, divorce, stealing, cheating, lying, God, Jesus, life and death issues—everything. Remember 2 Tim. 3:16: All Scripture is breathed out by God.

=> NT AND OT - not too long ago a well-known pastor said that Christians need to “un-hitch” themselves from the OT.

=> Also, we do not get to pick and choose what things we like: we do not get to subjectively reinterpret the Bible so that it conforms to our feelings, psychology, or cultural beliefs. Most recent popular reinterpretation is everything the Bible teaches on marriage and what human beings are, particularly what a man and what a woman are.

(Illustration of cultural reinterpretation)

=> We must be careful to avoid the temptation to believe that only what Jesus taught in the Gospels is authoritative.

Jack Cottrell: “Since Scripture is God’s own Word, the New Testament in particular being the Word of Christ, it speaks to us with God’s own authority. The authority of the New Testament is the very authority of Christ himself.” [Solid: The Authority of God’s Word, 120]

The Bible is Transformative

Jack Cottrell: “Though Bible knowledge is imperative, it is not an end in itself. it is merely the starting point, the basis on which we build our fellowship, our worship, our love (1 Timothy 1:5). Its ultimate goal is full submission to the lordship of Christ.” [Solid: The Authority of God’s Word, 123]

In order to act according to God’s will, we must know God’s will.

Psalm 119:105 “Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path.”

Psalm 119:11 “Your word I have treasured in my heart, That I may not sin against You.”

Note the connection between God’s Word, the Scriptures, and how one lives his life.

God’s Word to transform does not go unaccomplished:

Isaiah 55:11 “So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; It will not return to Me empty, Without accomplishing what I desire, And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.”

A word on the Holy Spirit as it connects with God’s word:

Ephesians 6:17 “And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”

Ephesians 1:15–18 “For this reason I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you and your love for all the saints, do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention of you in my prayers; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints . . .”

Ephesians 4:30 “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.”