How We Got The Bible

Ancient and Modern Views of Scripture

What has to be true in order for Christianity to be true?

The Bible has to be true if Christianity is true.

Ephesians 2:19–21 NASB95

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, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord,

The greatest threat to Christianity is the falsification of Scripture

What is the greatest the greatest threat to the Bible?

The answer: Me

What is the greatest threat to Christianity?

The Answer: Me

Andy Stanley Video: The Bible is not the foundation of Christianity.

Modern Views of the Bible

Roman Catholic Views of the Bible

The purity of the gospel be preserved in the Church, which was before promised through the prophets in the Holy Scriptures which our Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God first published by his own mouth and then commanded to be preached through his Apostles to every creature as a source of all saving truth and of discipline of conduct; and perceiving that this truth and this discipline are contained in written books and in unwritten tradition. Documents of the Christian Church, Henry Bettenson/Chris Maunder

This leaves open the door for more than one possible source of saving truth and Christian praxis.

It denies the sufficiency of Scripture.

It rejects Sola Scriptura. Scripture is not our final authority for faith and practice.

Scripture is not the final authority.

Charismatic/Pentecostal View of the Bible

The Pentecostal view of Scripture accepts that the Bible is in the inerrant, inspired, authoritative Word of God. God speaks to us in the pages of Scripture. However, the Pentecostal/Charismatic Christian also claims that God speaks to us in visions, dreams, impressions and other mystic impressions and that such activities provide more specific and detailed guidance for Christians so that we can experience God fully and live more perfectly within his will.

Roman Catholic View of the Bible

This view of divine revelation is an covert denial of the Bible’s own teaching about itself that it alone is entirely sufficient for both faith and praxis.

Liberal Protestant View of the Bible

Liberal protestants view the Bible as some parts man and some parts God. The Bible should be read like any other book.

The Bible is not a supernatural book with God as it’s author. It is the product of men.

The Bible was written by ancient men who unashamedly wrote with their own unenlightened cultural biases.

The Bible is filled with myth, outright error, falsehoods, and contradictions.

Only an enlightened mind is capable of evaluating the Bible and determining which parts of the Bible are useful for human flourishing and which parts are detrimental.

Human reason is the final authority against which the Bible must be adjudicated.

Enlightenment View of the Bible

The Enlightenment period ran from 1650 to 1800.

There can be no evidence that any traditional revelation is of divine origin, in the words we receive it, and in the sense we understand it, so clear and so certain as that of the principles of reason: and therefore nothing that is contrary to, and inconsistent with, the clear and self-evident dictates of reason, has a right to be urged or assented to as a matter of faith, wherein reason has nothing to do. John Locke, Faith and Reason.

“100 years from my day there will not be a Bible in the earth except one that is looked upon by an antiquarian curiosity-seeker.” Voltaire

“It took 12 men to start Christianity; one will destroy it.” Voltaire

He said this in 1778, the year that he died.

What is the correct view of the Bible and how can you know?

Ancient Views of the Bible

Ancien Jewish View of the Bible

Jesus’ View of the Bible

The Apostolic View of the Bible

The Formal Argument

A is B

C is A

/C is B

The Word of God is Absolute Truth

The Bible is the Word of God

The Bible is Absolute Truth

Revelation, Reason, and the Necessity of Scripture

The Inspiration, Sufficiency, and Authority of Scripture

The Old Testament

Structure

Canon

The New Testament

The Canon

The MSS

Modern Versions

The Reliability of the Old Testament

The Reliability of the New Testament

A Biblical Defense of the Bible