Sermon Tone Analysis

We believe the Bible is the inspired, inerrant, and infallible word of God.

Inspired: God Breathed

But humans wrote it?

Human authors were chosen by God, filled with the Holy Spirit, and supernaturally lead to use their own personality, style, and language to write the exact words that God desired in order to perfectly convey His message to mankind.

If you listen to christian scholars who hold the scriptures in high regard you will often hear inspiration described as Verbal, Plenary, Inspiration.

Verbal:

refers to every part of the physical writing is inspired, not just the ideas.

Listen to the words of Jesus.

Not a iota, not a dot

Plenary:

refers to every part of the Bible.

We don’t get to pick and choose what God decided to say to mankind.

The authors were carried along by the Holy Spirit to write everything God knew we needed.

So the christian view of scripture is that it is the very Word of God.

As much as the original authors were carried along by God the Holy Spirit and used their greatest skill to produce it, the church and translators throughout history have relied on God the Holy Spirit to protect and guide their process.

Confusion over quality

Many skeptics have risen against the Bible.

We cannot go into great detail here but I wanted to address a couple of points that might solidify your trust in the Bible you hold today.

How do we get English translations?

False Premise: The early church picked and chose from many viable options so they could control the message.

The Old Testament (39 Books)

Jesus used copies and not the original writings but affirmed their authority.

Our Old Testament matches that used by Jews today.

Both groups affirm the clear delineation between other writings and the books we have today.

The New Testament

Ratified by use in the early church and by the early church father’s.

Through writings of the early church father’s and the record of councils they held we know that the 27 books we have today were adopted and widely used consistently by the church before a Canon of scripture was established.

They used three markers to evaluate which books would be affirmed.

Conformity to the rule of faith.

Connection to an Apostle.

Acceptance by the churches.

Other writings

Apocrypha is the label given to extra books that the catholic church and eastern orthodox church adopted later that the reformers did not accept as scripture.

Gnostic Gospels were written well after the deaths of the apostles and do not conform to the clear teaching of the church.

The book of Mormon was written by one man after the clear command of scripture to not add to it.

It in now way conforms to the teaching of the Bible.

The New World translation of the Bible from the Jehovah’s witnesses specifically misinterprets passages in order to deny the deity of Christ.

False Premise: Our Bible has been translated so many times that the text is corrupted.

This reveals a great deal of confusion over how we get our Bible.

It’s not like the telephone game.

We didn’t go from Hebrew to Greek to Latin, to german, to english, to spanish . . . to you name the language.

Instead, scholars collected and compiled the oldest copies of manuscripts possible.

The importance of the Bible can be seen in how it compares to other ancient texts that are trusted to accurately represent what they espouse.

Until 1946, the dead sea scrolls had not been discovered.

When they were discovered, they not only confirmed the accuracy of our current translations, but added to the wealth of manuscripts.

By it, God reveals who He is, who we are, and what life is meant to be.

God is:

Creator

Loving

Man is:

Created in God’s image

Sinful

The object of God’s grace

Life is:

Worship

His word is complete and supremely authoritative in all matters.

Jesus in the Desert

It is the Holy Spirit that enables a human mind to understand its truths.