Devil's Advocate - The Bible is Unreliable as the Word of God.

PDA Introduction (Why are we doing this?)

What is the purpose of this series?

Yes, I want you to know how to defend your faith.

But there’s something even more important.

In Luke 9:51, Jesus is on His way to Jerusalem and He sends some of them ahead to get a room for the night in a samaritan village, but they reject them.

They come back, tell the news, and James and John ask, ‘Do you want us to call fire down from Heaven and consume them?’

Jesus responds, ‘You do not know what spirit you belong to, for the Son of Man did not come to destroy people’s lives, but to save them.’

What was last week’s lesson on? Love; that wasn’t an accident.

The most important thing for you to remember from this series and practice during it is not how to defend your argument, but how to do it with love.

In other words, your goal is not to win the argument. Your goal is always to win the person. Sometimes both are not always possible.

Rules:

I will open by stating my argument with a little bit of fuel.

My argument must come from the Bible.

After I present my argument, you’re allowed to start defending Christianity.

Your argument must come from the Bible; you’re allowed to have notes, but those notes must be from a source that uses the Bible.

I’m allowed to lie to you; but if you ask me if I’m lying I’ll tell you honestly. **The truth is never afraid to be questioned. A lie never likes to be challenged.**

If the majority either wishes to give up, y’all win, or we run out of time, I will open a Q & A for any of you.

If I feel an argument is at a dead end, either by me losing or you going silent, I’ll open a new one and we’ll address the old one during the Q&A.

To make things more efficient, I will only pick those who raise their hand. If you have a thought to add, raise your hand.

Any questions? Let the game begin.

Opening Argument: Attacking the Authors

Who wrote Isaiah? Isaiah. Who wrote Luke? Luke. Can anyone tell me who wrote the Bible? Who physically put their ink to the parchment?

Men or God?

Ok, so what does the Bible say about men?

“The heart is more deceitful than anything else, and incurable—who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9, CSB)

“The Lord said: These people approach me with their speeches to honor me with lip-service, yet their hearts are far from me, and human rules direct their worship of me.” (Isaiah 29:13, CSB)

“For from the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual immoralities, thefts, false testimonies, slander.” (Matthew 15:19, CSB)

So we’re supposed to devote our entire lives to a book written by people when the book says that people are evil, but it also says that the book is good.

I’m here to tell you that it sounds to me like the Bible itself is unreliable as the Word of God. It sounds more like imperfect, evil people wrote it.

Counter to ‘the authors are well known biblical people’:

Please turn with me to Proverbs 31.

“The words of King Lemuel, a pronouncement that his mother taught him:” (Proverbs 31:1, CSB)

Do you know who King Lemuel is? It’s not even hiss own proverbs, it’s something his mom told him.

How about Hebrews, who wrote Hebrews?

If we don’t know who these people are, how do we know it’s written by a well-known biblical figure?

Answer:

Men are wicked when outside of the will of God. All of the Biblical writing was does within the word of God.

Argument: Attacking how the Bible was written/the Bible was changed.

Let’s talk about how the Bible was written. Would you believe me if I told you the Bible has changed?

Who wrote the Gospel according to John? John.

When was John written? ‘A date of AD 80–85 for the publication of the Gospel of John seems reasonable.’ (D. A. Carson, The Gospel according to John, The Pillar New Testament Commentary)

When did Jesus die? April 7th, Year 30 CE. (Am I lying?)

Pontius Pilate, who ruled during the time of Jesus’ ministry, is known to have ruled Judea from AD 26–36. The crucifixion took place during a Passover (Mark 14:12), and that fact, plus astronomical data (the Jewish calendar was lunar-based), narrows the field to two dates—April 7, AD 30, and April 3, AD 33. There are scholarly arguments supporting both dates; the later date (AD 33) would require Jesus to have had a longer ministry and to have begun it later. The earlier date (AD 30) would seem more in keeping with what we deduce about the start of Jesus’ ministry from Luke 3:1.

This means that at best, John was written at least 40 years after the events of Jesus’ ministry.

Have you ever played the telephone game? Can we trust a story that was written 40 years after it actually happened?

Turn with me to John chapter 8.

Raise your hand if you have brackets around John 7:53 through John 8:11.

Does it say why you have brackets there?

It says the earliest manuscripts do not include this. Meaning the earliest copies of John’s Gospel do not have this section of scripture in it. Read with me John 7:50. If you skip that entire section and pick up in John 8:12, it’s a seamless story.

If I told you that other manuscripts have this in another place in John, would you believe me? If I told you some manuscripts have this story in Luke, would you believe me?

Turn with me to Matthew 17 (v.21)

Matthew 18:11

Matthew 23:14

Mark 7:16

Mark 9:44 & 46

Mark 11:26

Mark 15:28

Luke 17:36

John 5:3-4

Acts 8:37

Acts 15:34

Acts 24:6-8

Acts 28:29

Romans 16:24

How am I supposed to trust the Bible if we know it’s being revised, by men, and we have verses missing??

Answer

The fact that it is in many manuscripts shows that it was a historical event of Jesus. The purpose of it being in John 8 is to highlight the context of what was happening.

The changed verses are due to use having access to more accurate and earlier manuscripts than the older translations had.

At the time when the King James Version was translated, there were 5 NT Mss.

Today, we have over 2,300 mss from before when the first Church Council produced the first copy of the Bible together in one volume, plus another 5,300 mss from after that time.

When was the Bible shaped?

The term ‘canon’ is used to describe the books of the Bible that are divinely inspired by God and we know they belong in the Bible. Who determines what is in the Bible?

Have you ever forgotten your password? Have you ever had to answer some personal questions? Like ‘what is your mother’s maiden name’, or ‘what was your childhood pet’ to prove you’re you?

Let’s say for a moment that you are the Devil’s Advocate and you want God to prove that something written down is from Him. What is something God does to prove a message in the Bible?

Prophecies (I would like to do a series at some point on every Prophecy from Scripture that has come true)

Miracles (Jesus performed a miracle with every divine claim He made)

Deuteronomy 18:22 CSB

When a prophet speaks in the Lord’s name, and the message does not come true or is not fulfilled, that is a message the Lord has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously. Do not be afraid of him.

So the OT has almost always been universally agreed on. Moses’ books were accepted immediately, as were Joshua’s. Israel’s historical books were accepted. The Psalms and the Proverbs, due to who wrote them, were accepted. Prophets who were 100% of the time true, their writing was canonically accepted. False prophets were not, end of the story. We have the 39 books of the OT.

But for the NT, who determines what was in the Bible? Ultimately, it was God who decided what books belonged in the biblical canon. A book of Scripture belonged in the canon from the moment God inspired its writing. It was simply a matter of God’s convincing His human followers which books should be included in the Bible.

The Council of Laodicea in AD 363 made our current canon minus one book (Revelation). The Council of Hippo in 393 and the Council of Carthage in 397 gave us the 27 books in our NT.

The Council followed principles to determine whether or not a book was truly inspired by the HS. Basically this was the test:

Was the author an apostle or have a close connection with an apostle?

Is the book being accepted by the body of Christ at large?

Did the book contain consistency of Doctrine and orthodoxy? (Does it contradict the rest of the Bible?)

Did the book bear evidence of high moral and spiritual values that would reflect a work of the Holy Spirit?

What about the Apocrypha?

The Apocrypha and the Deuterocanonical Books were books written in what we call the silent years. There were 400 years where there were no prophets and God simply did not speak to man.

The definition of the word ‘Apocryphal’ is something that has doubtful authenticity. Deuterocanonical is a compound word. Deutero meaning outside of, or apart from, and canon.

Jesus says regularly from the OT ‘it is written’ or ‘have you not read’.

Jesus and the apostles quote the OT around 300 times.

However, the nation of Israel never treated the Apocrypha/Deuterocanonical books as the same level as the OT scripture.

Jesus is rebuking the pharisees at one point and references the OT martyrs, but no martyrs from the time of the silent years.

Matthew 23:35 CSB

So all the righteous blood shed on the earth will be charged to you, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar.

Abel was the first person who died in Genesis, Zechariah was the last to die in the time of the OT.

Even in the Apocrypha admits that prophets were no longer speaking from God.

Apocrypha of the Old Testament 9

And there was great tribulation in Israel, such as was not since the time that a prophet appeared unto themt.

(1 Maccabees 9:27)

What was one of the two ways God proves it’s Him speaking? Prophecy. You can’t have Prophecy if there’s no Prophets.