1 00:00:00,800 --> 00:00:03,400 Good evening, my friends. It's so wonderful to be here 2 00:00:03,400 --> 00:00:06,900 with you and to worship god with you this evening. 3 00:00:07,500 --> 00:00:10,400 I met many of you before services, but if we haven't met 4 00:00:10,400 --> 00:00:15,600 before, let me introduce myself. My name is Noah Howard, and I 5 00:00:15,600 --> 00:00:20,200 hail from Oklahoma, but right now, I'm living in Florida in 6 00:00:20,200 --> 00:00:23,300 the city of Tallahassee and working with the church there. 7 00:00:23,400 --> 00:00:27,200 And I want to thank you so much for holding this meeting and for 8 00:00:27,900 --> 00:00:32,400 inviting me to speak for you. From the word of God tonight I 9 00:00:32,408 --> 00:00:35,500 want to talk to you some about the Bible. 10 00:00:36,300 --> 00:00:40,900 You know, the Bible is really the most influential book in 11 00:00:40,900 --> 00:00:43,000 history. There's never been a book quite 12 00:00:43,000 --> 00:00:46,200 like the Bible. If you think about it since 13 00:00:46,200 --> 00:00:52,300 1947, the United Bible Society has handed out over nine billion 14 00:00:52,600 --> 00:00:54,800 Bibles. Now to put that into 15 00:00:54,800 --> 00:00:59,300 perspective, Harry Potter book, Seven, which is one of the most 16 00:00:59,300 --> 00:01:04,300 printed books of all time. It's sold 12 million copies 17 00:01:04,300 --> 00:01:08,700 worldwide. When it came out, 25 million 18 00:01:08,700 --> 00:01:15,000 copies of the Bible are sold every year in the us alone, the 19 00:01:15,000 --> 00:01:19,200 Bible is the most shoplifted book of all time, friends people 20 00:01:19,200 --> 00:01:23,900 are interested in the Bible. They want to know what the Bible 21 00:01:24,000 --> 00:01:26,100 has to say, they can't get enough of it. 22 00:01:26,800 --> 00:01:29,600 We do at the same time. There's never been a book that 23 00:01:29,600 --> 00:01:33,200 was. So viciously attacked either. 24 00:01:33,700 --> 00:01:35,900 And that's because it's no ordinary book. 25 00:01:36,300 --> 00:01:40,200 It's like the psalmist said, the psalmist said about God's word. 26 00:01:40,200 --> 00:01:44,900 It's laws are perfect converting the soul its judgments are 27 00:01:44,900 --> 00:01:47,700 righteous. It's words sweeter than honey. 28 00:01:48,400 --> 00:01:54,100 And as people find the demands of the Bible are uncompromising 29 00:01:54,500 --> 00:01:59,100 in, this makes the Bible. Jeurys, there is a war on, in 30 00:01:59,100 --> 00:02:05,100 the hearts and minds of men over the Bible either. 31 00:02:05,100 --> 00:02:09,000 The Bible is everything that it claims to be as far as being the 32 00:02:09,000 --> 00:02:13,700 word of God, or it's the greatest scam in human history 33 00:02:13,700 --> 00:02:17,900 and there's no in-between. So, friends, we need to be ready 34 00:02:18,200 --> 00:02:23,600 to give a defense about what we believe about the Bible and 35 00:02:23,600 --> 00:02:26,000 that's what I want to do through this sermon. 36 00:02:26,200 --> 00:02:28,500 This Evening. I would like to test and to 37 00:02:28,500 --> 00:02:34,900 examine and to prove the Bible as no ordinary book but the 38 00:02:34,900 --> 00:02:40,000 inspired word of God and to that end I want to answer this 39 00:02:40,000 --> 00:02:44,600 question is the Bible text reliable. 40 00:02:44,600 --> 00:02:48,000 How often have you heard people say something like we can't 41 00:02:48,008 --> 00:02:51,000 really be sure that we have the Bible. 42 00:02:51,000 --> 00:02:54,000 I mean just look at all the different copies. 43 00:02:54,000 --> 00:02:56,800 Look at all the different translations and they All seem 44 00:02:56,800 --> 00:02:58,600 to differ with each other, don't they? 45 00:02:59,100 --> 00:03:03,600 In fact, Muslims say that the Bible has been corrupted, and 46 00:03:04,000 --> 00:03:08,200 only the Quran is fully God's word. 47 00:03:08,500 --> 00:03:13,600 The Mormons will say that the Bible is corrupted, except where 48 00:03:14,100 --> 00:03:17,100 the Bible is corrupted, in places where it differs from The 49 00:03:17,100 --> 00:03:21,100 Book of Mormon and then you know, there's liberal 50 00:03:21,100 --> 00:03:24,800 theologians and Skeptics who Attack. 51 00:03:24,800 --> 00:03:29,100 The Bible and insist that it has been altered as it has been 52 00:03:29,100 --> 00:03:33,300 passed down through history. Now, we believe that the Bible 53 00:03:33,300 --> 00:03:39,500 is the supernaturally inspired word of God as it says, all 54 00:03:39,500 --> 00:03:42,500 scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is 55 00:03:42,500 --> 00:03:46,300 profitable for Doctrine for reproof for correction for 56 00:03:46,300 --> 00:03:49,600 instruction, in righteousness. That the man of God may be 57 00:03:49,600 --> 00:03:52,900 complete thoroughly equipped for every good work. 58 00:03:53,000 --> 00:03:57,700 Second Timothy, 3:16 and 17. But the question is, can we 59 00:03:57,700 --> 00:04:02,000 prove that and can we prove it with more than just saying? 60 00:04:02,000 --> 00:04:05,700 Well, the Bible says it's inspired and so therefore it is 61 00:04:05,700 --> 00:04:08,400 inspired. This is going to be a little bit 62 00:04:08,400 --> 00:04:12,600 of a different study than I normally give. 63 00:04:13,100 --> 00:04:16,600 There's not as many scriptures in here as I usually use and 64 00:04:16,600 --> 00:04:20,200 that's because I want to share with you some of the history and 65 00:04:20,200 --> 00:04:25,800 some of the archaeology behind The Bible and I think you're 66 00:04:25,808 --> 00:04:31,000 going to see that even before we open the pages of the Bible, 67 00:04:31,500 --> 00:04:36,900 it's not just another book, it really is the word of God. 68 00:04:36,900 --> 00:04:40,700 So I want to answer this question, is the Bible text 69 00:04:41,300 --> 00:04:44,000 reliable? Maybe you've never considered 70 00:04:44,000 --> 00:04:48,000 that question before, but I'm sure it's going to come up in 71 00:04:48,000 --> 00:04:51,500 your conversations with your friends and with your neighbors. 72 00:04:51,500 --> 00:04:53,600 So let's be ready to give an answer. 73 00:04:54,000 --> 00:04:58,000 To that question. When you take and you hold an 74 00:04:58,000 --> 00:05:03,300 English Bible in your hands. What is this that you are 75 00:05:03,300 --> 00:05:05,900 holding? I think most of us here would 76 00:05:05,900 --> 00:05:12,400 answer that this is the word of God and you would be right about 77 00:05:12,400 --> 00:05:14,600 that. When we say that the Bible is 78 00:05:14,600 --> 00:05:19,600 the word of God. We mean that its production was 79 00:05:19,600 --> 00:05:23,300 inspired and overseen by the Holy Spirit. 80 00:05:23,700 --> 00:05:27,700 And that means, therefore that the Bible is free from errors 81 00:05:28,100 --> 00:05:32,700 and its contents are authoritative to our lives 82 00:05:32,700 --> 00:05:35,600 today. See, but there's a problem. 83 00:05:36,100 --> 00:05:41,000 God did not drop this Bible that I'm holding right here out of 84 00:05:41,000 --> 00:05:46,500 the sky and into my hands. It's the product of human 85 00:05:46,500 --> 00:05:49,200 Publishers. And so we have some questions, 86 00:05:49,200 --> 00:05:53,500 for example, was the typesetting in the printing. 87 00:05:53,600 --> 00:05:59,400 Process inspired by the Holy Spirit and therefore free from 88 00:05:59,400 --> 00:06:01,700 error. Well I think a lot of us would 89 00:06:02,000 --> 00:06:05,300 answer. No, the things like the page 90 00:06:05,300 --> 00:06:11,100 numbers and the margin notes and the verse the verse numbers, 91 00:06:11,100 --> 00:06:14,500 they weren't inspired by the Holy Spirit and they might 92 00:06:14,500 --> 00:06:17,300 contain typos that might have mistakes. 93 00:06:18,100 --> 00:06:20,700 What about the translators of say? 94 00:06:20,700 --> 00:06:24,300 The new King James version were they inspired By the Holy 95 00:06:24,300 --> 00:06:27,300 Spirit. Well, for being honest again, we 96 00:06:27,300 --> 00:06:30,800 have to answer. No, the new King James 97 00:06:30,800 --> 00:06:35,900 translators were uninspired and capable of making mistakes and 98 00:06:35,900 --> 00:06:38,800 if we're being honest, sometimes they did make mistakes and how 99 00:06:38,800 --> 00:06:43,300 they translated things. What about the scribes who made 100 00:06:43,300 --> 00:06:48,100 copies of the original Greek and Hebrew writings that make up the 101 00:06:48,100 --> 00:06:52,600 Bible where they overseen by the Holy Spirit, Again, we have to 102 00:06:52,600 --> 00:06:57,500 answer, no, because of the more than 5,000 New Testament, 103 00:06:57,500 --> 00:06:59,800 manuscripts that have been Unearthed. 104 00:07:00,300 --> 00:07:06,000 None of them are exactly alike. They contain differences and 105 00:07:06,000 --> 00:07:11,400 sometimes these men who copied the Bible made mistakes. 106 00:07:12,200 --> 00:07:15,200 Now, what about those original documents that were written by 107 00:07:15,200 --> 00:07:20,100 the apostles and the prophets? Were they overseen by the holy 108 00:07:20,100 --> 00:07:23,300 spirit? So as Has to be free from error 109 00:07:23,600 --> 00:07:27,400 and authoritative for us. The answer is. 110 00:07:27,600 --> 00:07:31,700 Yes, absolutely. There were no errors or 111 00:07:31,700 --> 00:07:35,700 contradictions or problems with the originals. 112 00:07:36,200 --> 00:07:40,500 So yes, the Bible is the word of God. 113 00:07:41,500 --> 00:07:44,900 And its contents are inherent are instructive and 114 00:07:44,900 --> 00:07:50,600 authoritative and inerrant. But you see this English Bible 115 00:07:50,900 --> 00:07:55,100 that we have. It was the product of men who 116 00:07:55,500 --> 00:07:59,500 were uninspired and who could make mistakes. 117 00:08:00,600 --> 00:08:04,600 They worked very valiantly to make the inspired word of God 118 00:08:04,600 --> 00:08:08,600 available to us in a language. We can understand but at the end 119 00:08:08,600 --> 00:08:12,200 of the day sometimes they made mistakes. 120 00:08:12,200 --> 00:08:18,100 So the question is how do we know that no significant changes 121 00:08:18,100 --> 00:08:24,300 or errors were made in this process of copying the 122 00:08:24,300 --> 00:08:28,800 scriptures and preserving these documents over the centuries. 123 00:08:28,900 --> 00:08:31,700 You know, this problem would be Be easy to solve. 124 00:08:31,900 --> 00:08:36,600 If we had the originals those original manuscripts written by 125 00:08:36,600 --> 00:08:40,900 the apostles and the prophets, but as far as we know, we don't 126 00:08:40,900 --> 00:08:44,200 have those today. They're not available for us to 127 00:08:44,200 --> 00:08:48,300 compare to see if errors have entered in. 128 00:08:49,100 --> 00:08:52,800 But I want you to know the issues that face. 129 00:08:52,800 --> 00:08:56,700 The Bible are not unique to the Bible. 130 00:08:56,700 --> 00:09:00,000 In fact, many other ancient historical. 131 00:09:00,300 --> 00:09:06,800 Documents have been copied and The Originals have been lost 132 00:09:06,900 --> 00:09:09,800 over time. Let's look at a few examples. 133 00:09:10,700 --> 00:09:13,100 Homer's famous work. The Iliad. 134 00:09:13,100 --> 00:09:17,200 Maybe you read that in school, we don't have the original copy 135 00:09:17,800 --> 00:09:21,200 of that. All we have are copies of copies 136 00:09:21,200 --> 00:09:24,700 of copies Herodotus is histories. 137 00:09:24,700 --> 00:09:29,100 One of the only sources we have about the Persian and the early 138 00:09:29,100 --> 00:09:33,000 Greek. Empires Julius Caesar's history 139 00:09:33,000 --> 00:09:37,400 about his Conquest, in Gaul, Livy's History of Rome which 140 00:09:37,400 --> 00:09:42,200 covers nearly seven hundred seventy years of Roman history 141 00:09:42,600 --> 00:09:47,200 and tacitus is history which picks up where Livy left off. 142 00:09:47,500 --> 00:09:51,900 We don't have the originals for any of these ancient works and 143 00:09:51,900 --> 00:09:56,600 yet, modern Scholars have successfully reconstructed their 144 00:09:56,600 --> 00:09:59,500 contents from the surviving copies. 145 00:09:59,500 --> 00:10:04,400 And you know, they might Debate over the opinions of the riders 146 00:10:04,400 --> 00:10:09,000 or the intentions of the Riders. But as for the contents, there's 147 00:10:09,000 --> 00:10:14,600 no question. They accept these texts and 148 00:10:14,600 --> 00:10:19,600 that's because they use What's called the bibliographic test 149 00:10:19,600 --> 00:10:23,200 and the questions on this test. Look at how a text is 150 00:10:23,200 --> 00:10:27,900 transmitted over time and it helps us establish whether it's 151 00:10:27,900 --> 00:10:31,200 reliable or not. It can Help us figure out if the 152 00:10:31,200 --> 00:10:35,600 copies are faithful representatives of the original. 153 00:10:35,600 --> 00:10:39,100 And there are four questions raised by this test. 154 00:10:39,100 --> 00:10:44,000 First of all, how many copies of the document are available? 155 00:10:44,000 --> 00:10:47,000 Of course, we want as many copies as we can get our hands 156 00:10:47,000 --> 00:10:52,000 on so that we can compare them to see where they differ in 157 00:10:52,000 --> 00:10:54,700 which version of the text is most accurate. 158 00:10:54,700 --> 00:10:58,700 Second of all where were these copies found? 159 00:10:58,700 --> 00:11:03,200 If they all came from One place, perhaps they were purposefully 160 00:11:03,200 --> 00:11:08,500 altered, but if they came from places far removed in time, and 161 00:11:08,500 --> 00:11:13,000 in location, then it's unlikely that their contents may have 162 00:11:13,000 --> 00:11:16,000 been changed. The third question is what 163 00:11:16,000 --> 00:11:20,600 length of time passed between the original document and the 164 00:11:20,600 --> 00:11:25,000 earliest copies, if the earliest copy we have was written a 165 00:11:25,000 --> 00:11:29,500 thousand years after the original, a lot of changes could 166 00:11:29,500 --> 00:11:33,700 have entered in That we're not aware of but if there's a short 167 00:11:33,700 --> 00:11:37,700 interval of time there, it increases our assurance that the 168 00:11:37,700 --> 00:11:41,900 text is accurate. And then fourth, what kind of 169 00:11:41,900 --> 00:11:45,000 variances exists between the copies? 170 00:11:45,100 --> 00:11:48,400 If all the copies that you have are filled with significant 171 00:11:48,400 --> 00:11:52,500 differences than it, might not be possible to know what the 172 00:11:52,500 --> 00:11:57,800 original said, but if the variances are few in minor, then 173 00:11:58,100 --> 00:12:01,500 you can be assured that the Sense of copying over. 174 00:12:01,500 --> 00:12:04,900 The years, was faithful to the original. 175 00:12:05,600 --> 00:12:08,700 Now, how do you think the New Testament Stacks up? 176 00:12:09,100 --> 00:12:12,500 If we apply these questions to it? 177 00:12:12,500 --> 00:12:15,600 How do you think the New Testament compares to some of 178 00:12:15,600 --> 00:12:19,500 these other historical documents while I want to show you today, 179 00:12:19,500 --> 00:12:24,800 that not only does the New Testament passed the test, but 180 00:12:24,800 --> 00:12:29,700 it passes with flying colors, in fact, it puts the competition to 181 00:12:29,700 --> 00:12:30,500 shame. Shame. 182 00:12:31,400 --> 00:12:32,800 Let's look at this first question. 183 00:12:32,800 --> 00:12:37,100 How many copies of the documents are available? 184 00:12:37,900 --> 00:12:42,600 As far as the competition? Goes, The Iliad, we have 1800 185 00:12:42,700 --> 00:12:47,800 existing copies there, about four Herodotus histories, 109, 186 00:12:48,500 --> 00:12:54,600 Caesar's gallic Wars, 251 Livy's History of Rome about 60 copies 187 00:12:54,800 --> 00:12:59,100 and tacitus has history about 31 copies. 188 00:12:59,200 --> 00:13:04,800 Now, what about the new It. Well, the current number of New 189 00:13:04,800 --> 00:13:08,500 Testament. Greek manuscripts stands at 190 00:13:08,500 --> 00:13:15,700 almost 6000 and let's break this number down so you can see what 191 00:13:15,700 --> 00:13:18,900 these different sources are. There's a few different sources 192 00:13:18,900 --> 00:13:24,500 for New Testament copies. First of all, there is papyri 193 00:13:24,500 --> 00:13:30,000 now, papyri are fragments of the New Testament written on an 194 00:13:30,000 --> 00:13:33,000 early form of of paper. What they would do is they would 195 00:13:33,000 --> 00:13:37,100 take this plant, call the Papyrus plant, it's a read. 196 00:13:37,600 --> 00:13:41,400 They would cut it into thin strips and weave the strip's 197 00:13:41,400 --> 00:13:45,100 together to form a lattice work, and then they would dry it out 198 00:13:45,200 --> 00:13:51,200 and it forms a sort of paper. And you can glue several sheets 199 00:13:51,200 --> 00:13:55,100 of this paper together and turn it into a scroll. 200 00:13:55,800 --> 00:14:00,600 Now, the problem is that Papyrus gets brittle as it gets older 201 00:14:00,700 --> 00:14:03,300 and it can Centigrate very easily. 202 00:14:03,500 --> 00:14:10,900 That's why we don't have very many papyri just 128 or so, but 203 00:14:10,900 --> 00:14:15,500 the ones that we do have are some of the oldest copies of the 204 00:14:15,500 --> 00:14:18,300 New Testament. Dating back to the early 2nd 205 00:14:18,300 --> 00:14:21,300 Century and to the third Century. 206 00:14:21,400 --> 00:14:22,900 So that's the first kind we have. 207 00:14:22,900 --> 00:14:28,400 We also have unseals, these come a little bit later in history 208 00:14:28,500 --> 00:14:31,600 and this is a type of parchment. Moment. 209 00:14:31,600 --> 00:14:35,200 Parchment is leather made from dried animal skin. 210 00:14:35,200 --> 00:14:39,400 As you can imagine that makes it a little sturdier than Papyrus 211 00:14:39,400 --> 00:14:44,900 and so it survives the passage of time a little better but also 212 00:14:45,100 --> 00:14:50,900 this form of writing came later than the earlier papyri. 213 00:14:51,800 --> 00:14:53,800 Now, we also have miniscule xand. 214 00:14:53,800 --> 00:14:58,600 These came right after unseals in the Middle Ages and that 215 00:14:58,600 --> 00:15:01,000 explains why we have so many of them. 216 00:15:01,200 --> 00:15:03,800 Because they were produced in the Middle Ages. 217 00:15:04,000 --> 00:15:07,900 Their younger copies and therefore in better shape. 218 00:15:08,200 --> 00:15:12,600 We also have lectionaries from the Middle Ages and election. 219 00:15:12,600 --> 00:15:16,800 Airy is a compilation of scripture reading, that would be 220 00:15:16,800 --> 00:15:22,300 used in a Catholic or Orthodox church, and when you find a 221 00:15:22,300 --> 00:15:25,600 lectionary, you know, it's coming from the Middle Ages, the 222 00:15:25,600 --> 00:15:30,400 10th to the 15th centuries. So, when we combine these four 223 00:15:30,400 --> 00:15:35,600 kinds of Documents. We end up with about 5,000, 838 224 00:15:37,100 --> 00:15:41,100 different copies of the New Testament, either in part or in 225 00:15:41,100 --> 00:15:44,600 whole. Now, that already is a huge 226 00:15:44,600 --> 00:15:48,800 number by which you can reconstruct the New Testament. 227 00:15:48,800 --> 00:15:51,400 But there's two other kinds of documents. 228 00:15:51,600 --> 00:15:55,900 We haven't even mentioned yet. You know, Greek was the common 229 00:15:55,900 --> 00:15:59,700 language of the Mediterranean World during the first century, 230 00:15:59,800 --> 00:16:03,800 but as you can imagine, Not everybody spoke Greek or we're 231 00:16:03,800 --> 00:16:07,300 not native speakers and they wanted the Bible in their own 232 00:16:07,300 --> 00:16:10,500 native tongue. And so very early on 233 00:16:10,800 --> 00:16:14,700 translations of the New Testament were made into other 234 00:16:14,700 --> 00:16:21,000 languages like Latin and Coptic which is one of the languages of 235 00:16:21,000 --> 00:16:24,800 Egypt. Arminian Arabic people were 236 00:16:24,800 --> 00:16:28,400 making ancient translations of the Bible. 237 00:16:28,900 --> 00:16:33,300 And so, when you account for these ancient versions and you 238 00:16:33,300 --> 00:16:37,600 compare them to the Greek manuscripts of the New 239 00:16:37,608 --> 00:16:40,100 Testament. Now, the number comes up to 240 00:16:40,100 --> 00:16:47,200 24,000 362 thereabouts, but there's a third and a very 241 00:16:47,200 --> 00:16:51,100 important Source from which we construct reconstruct. 242 00:16:51,100 --> 00:16:55,900 The New Testament called the patristic citations. 243 00:16:55,900 --> 00:17:00,000 Now what that means is you see there were Jewell's, who were 244 00:17:00,000 --> 00:17:04,900 Christians living in the third Century or the second century? 245 00:17:05,400 --> 00:17:12,200 And they produced commentaries and sermons and books and other 246 00:17:12,200 --> 00:17:15,400 such writings on the New Testament. 247 00:17:15,400 --> 00:17:20,000 Maybe you've heard of men like Augustine and tertullian and 248 00:17:20,300 --> 00:17:23,700 eusebius. Now these men were uninspired 249 00:17:23,900 --> 00:17:29,600 but we can look at their sermons and where they quote the new And 250 00:17:29,600 --> 00:17:33,200 we can compare that to those Greek manuscripts and the 251 00:17:33,200 --> 00:17:37,500 ancient translations, and we have yet another way to 252 00:17:37,500 --> 00:17:43,400 reconstruct the New Testament. Now we have nearly 36,000 253 00:17:44,800 --> 00:17:47,500 quotations from these men of the New Testament. 254 00:17:47,500 --> 00:17:50,100 In fact, Scholars say that if you didn't have the Greek 255 00:17:50,100 --> 00:17:53,700 manuscripts and the ancient versions, you could still 256 00:17:53,700 --> 00:17:58,300 reconstruct the New Testament. Just from quotations from these 257 00:17:58,300 --> 00:18:02,300 men, sir. Sermons and commentaries when we 258 00:18:02,500 --> 00:18:10,300 add the numbers up, now we're at nearly 60,000 651 New Testament. 259 00:18:10,500 --> 00:18:15,400 Manuscripts, we have a huge number of sources from which to 260 00:18:15,400 --> 00:18:18,300 reconstruct the New Testament. Now, what about where these 261 00:18:18,300 --> 00:18:23,000 copies were found? We found manuscripts all over 262 00:18:23,100 --> 00:18:28,500 the Mediterranean region from Greece to Egypt, Palestine 263 00:18:28,500 --> 00:18:31,500 Syria. A turkey Italy they've been 264 00:18:31,500 --> 00:18:36,700 found in Egyptian burial tombs and monastic libraries in caves 265 00:18:36,700 --> 00:18:40,700 and all sorts of hiding places. Now Skeptics have tried to 266 00:18:40,708 --> 00:18:46,100 suggest that such a large number of copies must mean that the 267 00:18:46,100 --> 00:18:50,000 Bible's been subsist septuple to editing by all sorts of, you 268 00:18:50,000 --> 00:18:52,800 know, groups with malicious purposes. 269 00:18:52,800 --> 00:18:57,600 But really, there's so many copies coming from so many 270 00:18:57,600 --> 00:19:01,000 varied locations. Ins in the world, it would have 271 00:19:01,000 --> 00:19:06,400 been essentially impossible for anyone to try to collaborate and 272 00:19:06,400 --> 00:19:12,200 to change these copies of the scriptures to promote a certain 273 00:19:12,200 --> 00:19:16,600 reading of the text. Now about the length of time, 274 00:19:17,100 --> 00:19:18,900 that's passed between these copies again. 275 00:19:18,900 --> 00:19:22,400 Let's compare some other ancient historical Works. 276 00:19:22,600 --> 00:19:27,500 We've got the Iliad and there is 400 years between when the 277 00:19:27,500 --> 00:19:31,500 original was written. And the earliest surviving copy, 278 00:19:31,700 --> 00:19:37,900 that we have Herodotus histories, 1350 years, gallic 279 00:19:37,900 --> 00:19:44,300 wars 950 years, Livy's History of Rome, 400 years, and tacitus 280 00:19:44,300 --> 00:19:49,400 is history of Rome 950 years. Now, when we look at the New 281 00:19:49,400 --> 00:19:56,800 Testament, we have copies of the New Testament in part that date 282 00:19:56,800 --> 00:20:02,000 back to within 50. To 100 Years of when the 283 00:20:02,000 --> 00:20:04,300 originals were written, that's amazing. 284 00:20:04,300 --> 00:20:09,100 In fact, here's some pictures. This is the Chester BT, papyri 285 00:20:09,300 --> 00:20:14,800 papyri a portion of this dates, back to the 3rd Century, very 286 00:20:14,800 --> 00:20:20,100 close to the beginning. The John rylands papyri contains 287 00:20:20,100 --> 00:20:26,000 verses from John chapter 18, which date back to about ad 130. 288 00:20:26,400 --> 00:20:28,900 Now think about that, John's gospel. 289 00:20:29,100 --> 00:20:31,800 Written. Very likely near the end of the 290 00:20:31,800 --> 00:20:36,300 first century we have this papyri from the beginning of the 291 00:20:36,300 --> 00:20:39,600 second century. This manuscript is old enough to 292 00:20:39,600 --> 00:20:44,000 be one of the first copies of the Book of John. 293 00:20:44,400 --> 00:20:47,000 That's amazing. Now admittedly, you can see 294 00:20:47,000 --> 00:20:52,900 these fragments are incomplete but we have several very nearly 295 00:20:52,900 --> 00:20:59,000 complete New Testament manuscripts within 300, to 400. 296 00:20:59,100 --> 00:21:02,200 Years of The Originals. For example, this is the Codex 297 00:21:02,200 --> 00:21:08,100 signee Atticus, dates back to ad 350 and it has the entire New 298 00:21:08,100 --> 00:21:11,900 Testament and most of the Septuagint, that's the Old 299 00:21:11,900 --> 00:21:16,000 Testament from which Jesus quoted when he preached. 300 00:21:16,000 --> 00:21:19,800 And so, again, the New Testament is beating these works of 301 00:21:19,808 --> 00:21:22,300 antiquity by a very large margin. 302 00:21:22,900 --> 00:21:26,900 What about that? Fourth question, let's talk 303 00:21:26,900 --> 00:21:32,500 about those variances in the Differences that exist between 304 00:21:32,500 --> 00:21:35,500 the New Testament manuscripts. You know you often hear Skeptics 305 00:21:35,900 --> 00:21:39,600 raise objections on this point. They like to bring up. 306 00:21:39,600 --> 00:21:43,700 You know there's hundreds of thousands of differences between 307 00:21:43,700 --> 00:21:49,100 all these copies and that must therefore enshroud the true 308 00:21:49,100 --> 00:21:53,100 authentic text of the Bible. Maybe you've heard somebody 309 00:21:53,100 --> 00:21:55,500 protest. How would you even know if you 310 00:21:55,500 --> 00:22:00,100 were reading an altered version of the Bible, You know, it's 311 00:22:00,100 --> 00:22:06,000 true that errors and problems can happen in any stage of a 312 00:22:06,000 --> 00:22:09,400 human work. Even the production and printing 313 00:22:09,900 --> 00:22:15,500 of the Bible, but I want you to know that these are not the 314 00:22:15,500 --> 00:22:19,300 crippling errors, that Skeptics make them out to be. 315 00:22:19,700 --> 00:22:25,000 I want to give you an example here, back in 1631, there was 316 00:22:25,000 --> 00:22:28,700 one edition of the King James version, which included a 317 00:22:29,100 --> 00:22:34,000 Dramatic and unfortunate typo that led to it being called The 318 00:22:34,000 --> 00:22:37,800 Wicked Bible. You see the printer accidentally 319 00:22:37,800 --> 00:22:42,700 omitted, the word not from Exodus 20 verse 14, which caused 320 00:22:42,700 --> 00:22:47,000 the passage to read Thou shalt commit adultery. 321 00:22:47,600 --> 00:22:50,300 Now obviously there's a major problem here, there's a 322 00:22:50,300 --> 00:22:55,000 significant difference between Thou shalt not commit adultery 323 00:22:55,000 --> 00:22:59,800 and thou shalt commit adultery But you know, this misprint 324 00:23:00,000 --> 00:23:03,600 didn't cause any major disruption to Christian 325 00:23:03,600 --> 00:23:07,100 theology. It didn't cause a split in the 326 00:23:07,100 --> 00:23:12,600 church because people very easily identified, this as a 327 00:23:12,608 --> 00:23:19,500 mistake and they dismissed it The pure original text was still 328 00:23:19,500 --> 00:23:24,600 discernible here and that's because although about 1,000 329 00:23:24,600 --> 00:23:27,300 copies of the wicked Bible were distributed. 330 00:23:27,400 --> 00:23:31,100 There were millions of Bibles that didn't have the misprint 331 00:23:31,300 --> 00:23:36,700 and furthermore no Bible printed before 1631 included it. 332 00:23:37,000 --> 00:23:41,300 And furthermore, no Bible outside of the English language, 333 00:23:41,500 --> 00:23:45,900 included it and then the reading was inconsistent. 334 00:23:46,100 --> 00:23:48,500 With the text. It's very strange to go from 335 00:23:48,600 --> 00:23:52,600 Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not commit adultery, 336 00:23:52,700 --> 00:23:58,100 Thou shalt not steal and so on people saw that it didn't fit. 337 00:23:58,400 --> 00:24:03,100 And people also saw that it was contrary to the clear teaching 338 00:24:03,100 --> 00:24:06,700 of other scriptures. If this scripture was right, 339 00:24:07,000 --> 00:24:09,900 then other parts of the scripture were wrong and 340 00:24:09,900 --> 00:24:12,600 contradictory. So all of these points helped 341 00:24:12,600 --> 00:24:17,800 people identify the error. Our and to disregard it. 342 00:24:17,800 --> 00:24:22,000 And so, friends were not troubled by the wicked Bible. 343 00:24:22,200 --> 00:24:26,800 We're not troubled by version such as the slave Bible, which 344 00:24:26,800 --> 00:24:30,900 slave owners produced in order to remove scriptures. 345 00:24:30,900 --> 00:24:35,900 That condemned the practice of New World slavery, these sorts 346 00:24:35,900 --> 00:24:39,200 of versions. Don't undermine the inerrancy 347 00:24:39,200 --> 00:24:40,900 and the authority of the scriptures. 348 00:24:40,900 --> 00:24:45,200 Because the problems with the translation, it's not with the 349 00:24:45,200 --> 00:24:49,500 original Scriptures written by the apostles and the prophets. 350 00:24:50,500 --> 00:24:54,300 In fact, when it comes to the transmission of the Bible 351 00:24:54,900 --> 00:24:58,900 Integrity has been the rule rather than the exception I want 352 00:24:58,900 --> 00:25:06,800 to read you a quote. From a Jewish scribe, describing 353 00:25:07,100 --> 00:25:10,300 the process of copying the Bible. 354 00:25:10,300 --> 00:25:15,200 You know a lot of people get worried about this idea that for 355 00:25:15,900 --> 00:25:21,100 1400 years before the birth of Jesus to 1,400 years, after the 356 00:25:21,100 --> 00:25:25,900 birth of Jesus, when the printing press was invented, the 357 00:25:25,900 --> 00:25:31,600 only method of making copies of a book was by handwriting it and 358 00:25:31,600 --> 00:25:35,600 people get Worried about that. But I want to remind you that 359 00:25:35,600 --> 00:25:40,900 extreme efforts were made by these folks who were doing this 360 00:25:41,200 --> 00:25:44,600 to preserve the Integrity of the text. 361 00:25:44,900 --> 00:25:49,000 These were professional scribes or they were believers who were 362 00:25:49,000 --> 00:25:53,400 convinced that the accuracy of their work was a matter of 363 00:25:53,400 --> 00:25:59,000 eternal life and death. Listen, to this quote, about the 364 00:25:59,000 --> 00:26:03,400 scribal process, it says in making copies of he Manuscripts, 365 00:26:03,600 --> 00:26:05,600 which are the precious Heritage of the church. 366 00:26:05,600 --> 00:26:10,100 Today the Jewish scribes exercise, the greatest possible 367 00:26:10,100 --> 00:26:14,800 care even to the point of superstition counting, not only 368 00:26:14,800 --> 00:26:19,100 the words, but every letter noting how many times each 369 00:26:19,100 --> 00:26:23,100 particular letter occurred and destroying at once the sheet on 370 00:26:23,100 --> 00:26:27,000 which a mistake was detected in their anxiety, to avoid the 371 00:26:27,000 --> 00:26:31,500 introduction of the least error into the sacred scripture, which 372 00:26:31,500 --> 00:26:36,800 they prize, Is so highly and held in such reverent awe, each 373 00:26:36,800 --> 00:26:41,100 new copy had to be made from an approved manuscript written with 374 00:26:41,100 --> 00:26:43,900 a special. Kind of ink upon sheets made 375 00:26:43,900 --> 00:26:47,700 from the skin of a clean animal. The Riders also had to pronounce 376 00:26:47,700 --> 00:26:52,200 allowed each word before riding it and on no account was a 377 00:26:52,208 --> 00:26:54,600 single word to be written from memory. 378 00:26:54,800 --> 00:26:58,800 They were to reverently wipe their pain before writing the 379 00:26:58,800 --> 00:27:03,300 name of God in any form and to wash their whole Bodies before 380 00:27:03,300 --> 00:27:06,400 riding Yahweh, bless the Holy Name, be tainted. 381 00:27:06,400 --> 00:27:10,300 Even in the writing, the new copy was then carefully examined 382 00:27:10,300 --> 00:27:12,600 with the original almost immediately. 383 00:27:12,900 --> 00:27:17,000 And it is said that, if only one incorrect letter was discovered, 384 00:27:17,300 --> 00:27:22,100 the whole copy was destroyed. It's recorded how one reverent 385 00:27:22,100 --> 00:27:25,200 Rabbi, solemnly, warm Warren described. 386 00:27:25,200 --> 00:27:29,700 Thus take heed. How thou doest thy Work for thy. 387 00:27:29,700 --> 00:27:34,400 Work, is the work of Heaven. Lest thou drop or add a letter 388 00:27:34,400 --> 00:27:39,600 of the manuscript and so, become a destroyer of the world 389 00:27:39,600 --> 00:27:42,200 friends. The people who were doing this 390 00:27:42,200 --> 00:27:47,900 copy were concerned with the Integrity of their work. 391 00:27:48,600 --> 00:27:52,800 They took great pains to make sure mistakes and errors didn't 392 00:27:52,800 --> 00:27:57,200 enter in to the text. But you know, like we said, 393 00:27:57,500 --> 00:28:02,000 mistakes happen, even in human endeavors. 394 00:28:02,200 --> 00:28:06,500 And they did happen from time to time in this process of copying 395 00:28:06,900 --> 00:28:09,500 the Bible. In fact, there's a whole field 396 00:28:09,500 --> 00:28:13,900 of study on this topic called textual criticism and there are 397 00:28:13,900 --> 00:28:19,400 Scholars who spend their whole lives identifying and sorting 398 00:28:19,400 --> 00:28:22,500 through these variants and accounting for them, I want you 399 00:28:22,508 --> 00:28:27,600 to know that responsible Scholars of this field do not 400 00:28:27,600 --> 00:28:32,500 consider these. Variants problematic. 401 00:28:32,500 --> 00:28:36,900 In fact, most of them are accounted for as simply typos. 402 00:28:37,700 --> 00:28:41,200 You know, earlier, we mentioned how sometimes people number. 403 00:28:41,600 --> 00:28:47,100 The amount of variances between the manuscripts is over 400,000, 404 00:28:47,100 --> 00:28:51,000 hundreds of thousands of errors. And it's important to note that 405 00:28:51,000 --> 00:28:54,700 a lot of people dispute, the accuracy of that number. 406 00:28:55,100 --> 00:28:59,000 It's a bit disingenuous. In fact, the majority of these 407 00:28:59,000 --> 00:29:01,600 variants are of no concern Concerned, there are things like 408 00:29:01,700 --> 00:29:06,600 punctuation and word order in significant phrasing, 409 00:29:06,600 --> 00:29:12,200 differences repetition of words and obvious misspellings phrases 410 00:29:12,200 --> 00:29:17,100 from one part of the Bible, accidentally being inserted into 411 00:29:17,100 --> 00:29:21,500 another party words or phrases that were accidentally skipped 412 00:29:21,700 --> 00:29:26,200 and differences over what to call a person or a place. 413 00:29:26,400 --> 00:29:30,000 These are very minor differences and there's virtually no. 414 00:29:30,200 --> 00:29:36,800 No impact from these differences on matters of morality or ethics 415 00:29:37,200 --> 00:29:40,600 or Christian theology. In fact, you know when we set 416 00:29:40,600 --> 00:29:47,500 these aside The agreement between these more than 5,000 417 00:29:47,500 --> 00:29:52,400 New Testament, manuscripts and 9,000 manuscripts, and other 418 00:29:52,400 --> 00:29:57,600 languages, and 36,000 quotations, from the early 419 00:29:57,600 --> 00:30:04,000 church fathers. Comes to more than 99% in other 420 00:30:04,000 --> 00:30:06,900 words. The questionable passages 421 00:30:07,300 --> 00:30:13,100 represent less than half of one percent of the New Testament 422 00:30:13,400 --> 00:30:16,000 text. Now, considering that these 423 00:30:16,000 --> 00:30:19,500 manuscripts are coming from thousands of different copyists 424 00:30:19,900 --> 00:30:24,300 over dozens of different regions, spanning 1300 years of 425 00:30:24,300 --> 00:30:26,700 History. Friends. 426 00:30:26,700 --> 00:30:31,100 This degree of accuracy is unprecedented. 427 00:30:31,900 --> 00:30:39,000 In fact, an honest, scholar will admit that this is uncanny. 428 00:30:39,400 --> 00:30:43,500 Josh McDowell who was a former agnostic wrote this, he said 429 00:30:43,500 --> 00:30:47,600 after trying to shatter the history, the historicity and 430 00:30:47,600 --> 00:30:50,600 validity of the scripture. I came to the conclusion that 431 00:30:50,600 --> 00:30:52,700 they are historically trustworthy. 432 00:30:53,100 --> 00:30:57,000 If one discards the Bible as being Reliable. 433 00:30:57,200 --> 00:31:01,400 Then he must discard almost all literature of antiquity. 434 00:31:02,000 --> 00:31:06,500 One problem I constantly face is the desire on the part of many 435 00:31:06,700 --> 00:31:12,500 to apply one standard or test to secular literature and others to 436 00:31:12,500 --> 00:31:15,900 the Bible, one needs to apply the same test. 437 00:31:15,900 --> 00:31:19,400 Whether the literature under investigation is secular or 438 00:31:19,400 --> 00:31:24,200 religious having done this, I believe one can hold the 439 00:31:24,200 --> 00:31:28,500 scriptures in his hand. And say the Bible is trustworthy 440 00:31:29,100 --> 00:31:32,700 and historically reliable. You see, friends the New 441 00:31:32,700 --> 00:31:37,400 Testament, not only Stacks up with other accepted historical 442 00:31:37,400 --> 00:31:41,600 documents from the same time period but it puts the 443 00:31:41,600 --> 00:31:47,600 competition to shame and that's because it's no ordinary book. 444 00:31:47,900 --> 00:31:53,000 We're talking about the inspired inerrant infallible, 445 00:31:53,000 --> 00:32:00,400 authoritative word of God, Now, between us and those Originals 446 00:32:00,400 --> 00:32:03,200 written by the apostles. And the prophets that contained 447 00:32:03,200 --> 00:32:09,700 no error, there's hundreds of years of human effort to inspire 448 00:32:09,700 --> 00:32:14,600 and to, to preserve the word of God. 449 00:32:16,200 --> 00:32:20,000 And to make it available to Ordinary People in a language 450 00:32:20,000 --> 00:32:22,900 that they can read and can understand. 451 00:32:22,900 --> 00:32:27,200 And in those human efforts, mistakes have been made and must 452 00:32:27,200 --> 00:32:31,000 be overcome in our efforts to understand the scriptures. 453 00:32:31,000 --> 00:32:34,800 But the truth is, you can identify these mistakes and you 454 00:32:34,800 --> 00:32:40,200 can overcome them and no mistake has been so serious as to cast 455 00:32:40,200 --> 00:32:44,100 doubt. On the Christian faith, friends. 456 00:32:44,100 --> 00:32:48,100 This is a complicated subject. It's a whole field of study for 457 00:32:48,100 --> 00:32:51,900 Scholars and I rely upon their expertise. 458 00:32:53,200 --> 00:32:57,300 But the important thing to understand is that by God's 459 00:32:57,300 --> 00:33:03,100 Providence, his word has remained accessible to people. 460 00:33:03,100 --> 00:33:09,200 These problems can be overcome. The truth can be known and 461 00:33:09,200 --> 00:33:14,800 believed and obeyed and friends. That's the point of this study. 462 00:33:14,900 --> 00:33:19,300 Don't miss the conclusion of this study. 463 00:33:19,500 --> 00:33:23,700 Everything we've just talked about the point is You can have 464 00:33:23,700 --> 00:33:29,000 confidence that the Bible. You are holding in your hands 465 00:33:29,500 --> 00:33:35,000 has not been corrupted. The Integrity of the text is not 466 00:33:35,000 --> 00:33:38,200 in doubt. This really is the testimony of 467 00:33:38,200 --> 00:33:43,500 men like Peter and Paul and James and John. 468 00:33:43,500 --> 00:33:48,300 And countless others who encountered Jesus Christ and 469 00:33:48,300 --> 00:33:51,500 whose lives were changed forever. 470 00:33:51,700 --> 00:33:56,600 And they invite you To read and to examine their testimony and 471 00:33:56,600 --> 00:34:03,000 to weigh the evidence. And to prove the Bible is the 472 00:34:03,000 --> 00:34:08,199 word of God for yourself. You know, the sermon was really 473 00:34:08,199 --> 00:34:14,000 inspired by an old poem. Called Old hammers. 474 00:34:14,300 --> 00:34:18,600 I'd like to read it to you. I think it sums up the issues. 475 00:34:18,600 --> 00:34:20,400 We've talked about here very well. 476 00:34:21,699 --> 00:34:26,199 It says, last Eve I paused beside the blacksmith's door and 477 00:34:26,199 --> 00:34:29,100 heard the Anvil ring. The Vsepr chime. 478 00:34:29,699 --> 00:34:36,100 Then looking in upon the floor, I saw old hammers worn with 479 00:34:36,100 --> 00:34:42,000 beating years of Time. How many anvils have you had 480 00:34:42,000 --> 00:34:45,300 said I to wear and batter all these hammers. 481 00:34:45,300 --> 00:34:51,699 So Just one said he and then with twinkling, I the Anvil. 482 00:34:51,699 --> 00:34:53,500 Where's the Hammers out? You know. 483 00:34:54,900 --> 00:35:01,300 And so I thought the Anvil of God's word for ages skeptic 484 00:35:01,300 --> 00:35:07,100 blows have beat upon yet though the noise of falling blows was 485 00:35:07,100 --> 00:35:14,300 heard the Anvil is unharmed the Hammers gone and friends. 486 00:35:14,300 --> 00:35:17,800 That's right. Countless attacks have been 487 00:35:17,800 --> 00:35:20,400 mounted. Countless efforts have been made 488 00:35:20,600 --> 00:35:27,600 to destroy or to discredit the Pictures opponents have come and 489 00:35:27,600 --> 00:35:30,700 gone but friends, it's still here. 490 00:35:31,400 --> 00:35:35,200 The Bible Still Remains and friends. 491 00:35:35,200 --> 00:35:40,800 That's no coincidence because it really is the inspired word of 492 00:35:40,800 --> 00:35:44,100 God. It's no ordinary book. 493 00:35:44,200 --> 00:35:46,700 And so the question to you this evening is, what are you going 494 00:35:46,700 --> 00:35:51,100 to do about it? You see everything that the 495 00:35:51,100 --> 00:35:56,900 Bible has to say about the danger of Of sin and the urgency 496 00:35:56,900 --> 00:36:02,800 of Eternal judgment and salvation in Jesus Christ, it's 497 00:36:02,800 --> 00:36:06,400 all true. So what's holding you back from 498 00:36:06,400 --> 00:36:13,300 becoming a Christian? The testimony is real As Jesus 499 00:36:13,300 --> 00:36:17,900 said in John 3 verse 5, unless you are born of water and the 500 00:36:17,900 --> 00:36:24,100 spirit, you cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven friends. 501 00:36:24,100 --> 00:36:27,400 That's the call to you this evening, as we close our study, 502 00:36:27,400 --> 00:36:30,300 we want to invite you to become a Christian. 503 00:36:30,500 --> 00:36:34,600 If you're not, it's time to take this seriously, because the 504 00:36:34,600 --> 00:36:39,200 Bible is no ordinary book. It's time for you to open it up 505 00:36:39,800 --> 00:36:45,400 and to weigh the testimony, To believe that Jesus Christ is the 506 00:36:45,408 --> 00:36:50,500 Son of God and to obey him in baptism as he described in. 507 00:36:50,508 --> 00:36:55,800 Mark 16 verse 16, he who believes and is baptized will be 508 00:36:55,800 --> 00:36:59,000 saved. Only then, can you have the 509 00:36:59,000 --> 00:37:01,900 Assurance of eternal life in heaven? 510 00:37:03,300 --> 00:37:06,000 We thank you for listening to our podcast, put on by the 511 00:37:06,000 --> 00:37:11,700 Church of Christ at 22:15 plans. Road in Bakersfield, if you 512 00:37:11,707 --> 00:37:14,800 would like any additional information, or you would like 513 00:37:14,800 --> 00:37:18,000 to receive a free Bible correspondence, course by mail. 514 00:37:18,600 --> 00:37:22,500 Please email us at info at her Church of Christ 515 00:37:22,500 --> 00:37:26,400 Bakersfield.com. Our service times are on Sundays 516 00:37:26,400 --> 00:37:32,100 at 10:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. and Wednesdays at 7:30 p.m. 517 00:37:32,700 --> 00:37:36,200 Please make plans to join us. We would love for you to be our 518 00:37:36,200 --> 00:37:37,100 honored guest.