1 00:00:09,600 --> 00:00:11,960 Right. So like I said, we are going to 2 00:00:11,960 --> 00:00:15,480 be over the next what over this term, we are going to be going 3 00:00:15,480 --> 00:00:19,160 through some of the questions that people have sent in. 4 00:00:19,880 --> 00:00:25,080 And today I I'm going to be going through a question which I 5 00:00:25,080 --> 00:00:28,360 loved that came in and at some of these, just just to note some 6 00:00:28,360 --> 00:00:31,480 of these questions, we are we are going to answer everyone's 7 00:00:31,480 --> 00:00:35,240 question who sent a question in. But some of them they may not be 8 00:00:35,240 --> 00:00:38,440 worded exactly how you wrote them because a few people asked 9 00:00:38,520 --> 00:00:41,560 the same kind of question. So they've just been kind of 10 00:00:41,560 --> 00:00:45,400 rephrased into an encompass all question. 11 00:00:46,000 --> 00:00:49,680 And today, to kick off our series, our very first question 12 00:00:49,680 --> 00:00:55,920 is, can we trust the Bible? Which I think is really, really 13 00:00:55,920 --> 00:00:59,760 key because as, as a church, we've just gone through our 14 00:00:59,760 --> 00:01:03,360 foundations, our, our, our values. 15 00:01:03,360 --> 00:01:06,160 And we've looked at that through the, the lens of a lifeboat. 16 00:01:06,160 --> 00:01:10,240 And our very first value is that we are about, we have a church 17 00:01:10,240 --> 00:01:13,920 that is built upon the truth that we find in scripture. 18 00:01:14,120 --> 00:01:17,120 I mean, this is this is our value statement from our 19 00:01:17,120 --> 00:01:19,080 website. It says we are building a church 20 00:01:19,080 --> 00:01:23,000 rooted in the unchanging truth of Jesus Christ and his word. 21 00:01:23,600 --> 00:01:27,000 This truth rescues us from death, frees us from the power 22 00:01:27,000 --> 00:01:31,200 of sin, and transforms us daily. It is the foundation on which we 23 00:01:31,200 --> 00:01:35,200 stand, the message we proclaim, and the hope we offer to our 24 00:01:35,200 --> 00:01:39,200 community and the world's. Now that sounds great. 25 00:01:39,560 --> 00:01:43,800 I think it does anyway. But it means absolutely nothing 26 00:01:44,120 --> 00:01:46,840 if, if This is why I've got a few Bibles with you, by the way, 27 00:01:46,840 --> 00:01:48,600 I just went around last night and grabbed a few. 28 00:01:48,600 --> 00:01:52,960 This is why, This is why this is so key, Because if we can't 29 00:01:52,960 --> 00:01:57,440 trust this, we can't trust what we've got in our hands or on our 30 00:01:57,440 --> 00:02:00,600 phones, then what are we building upon? 31 00:02:00,880 --> 00:02:03,920 We've got nothing to build upon. We have to be able to trust what 32 00:02:03,920 --> 00:02:06,960 we've got, what the Bible. And so there's so many good 33 00:02:06,960 --> 00:02:10,000 questions that come in on, do we, can we trust the Bible? 34 00:02:10,240 --> 00:02:13,800 Questions like how did we actually get the Bible? 35 00:02:14,040 --> 00:02:17,160 I mean, did how did, how did we get this, this leather bound 36 00:02:17,160 --> 00:02:19,200 thing that many of us might have at home? 37 00:02:19,840 --> 00:02:23,720 How, how was, how do we know that it's just not made-up? 38 00:02:24,280 --> 00:02:28,040 How do we, how do we actually know that what we have written 39 00:02:28,040 --> 00:02:33,640 down in here is the same As for example, the Apostle Paul wrote 40 00:02:33,640 --> 00:02:35,440 2000 years ago? How do we know? 41 00:02:35,560 --> 00:02:38,680 Because there's, you know, if those of you, you know who, who 42 00:02:38,680 --> 00:02:42,360 listen to Muslim apologetics, one of their first thing to go 43 00:02:42,360 --> 00:02:45,560 to is the Bible you've got is not the same. 44 00:02:45,840 --> 00:02:48,200 Muhammad knew what the Bible was, but you don't. 45 00:02:48,800 --> 00:02:51,680 But how do we, how do we and we, you know, we instantly might go, 46 00:02:51,680 --> 00:02:53,680 well, that's rubbish. But how do we know that that's 47 00:02:53,680 --> 00:02:57,040 rubbish? Did some of you may have heard 48 00:02:57,040 --> 00:02:57,440 this? No. 49 00:02:57,600 --> 00:03:00,600 Did the there was a council, and we'll talk about in a second if 50 00:03:00,600 --> 00:03:03,240 you've never heard of it, but there was a council of church 51 00:03:03,240 --> 00:03:07,640 leaders and Emperor Constantine in the year 325 at Nicaea. 52 00:03:08,040 --> 00:03:09,800 And some of you have been, some of you have listened to The 53 00:03:09,800 --> 00:03:13,000 History Channel and on History Channel, they've told you they 54 00:03:13,000 --> 00:03:16,080 are at that council. There was a tonne of there was a 55 00:03:16,080 --> 00:03:19,280 tonne of gospels, a load of literature that could have been 56 00:03:19,280 --> 00:03:22,760 in the Bible. But then they chose the ones 57 00:03:22,760 --> 00:03:26,200 that that made it, that made Jesus seem how we we see him. 58 00:03:26,360 --> 00:03:28,520 They kind of dismissed loads and they chose others. 59 00:03:28,720 --> 00:03:31,360 That's not true either. But how do we know that's not 60 00:03:31,360 --> 00:03:32,400 true? Now? 61 00:03:32,720 --> 00:03:34,120 How, how are we meant to read it? 62 00:03:34,120 --> 00:03:35,840 How are we meant to understand it? 63 00:03:36,560 --> 00:03:41,720 Well, let's get into it. So very simply, the Bible, the 64 00:03:41,720 --> 00:03:45,440 Bible, the word we have for Bible, it comes from the Latin 65 00:03:45,440 --> 00:03:48,800 word tabiblia. And for those of you who grew up 66 00:03:48,800 --> 00:03:53,520 in Latin speaking languages, Romance languages and Romania, 67 00:03:53,520 --> 00:03:57,440 Italy, Spain, France, you all know that Bibliotheque or that's 68 00:03:57,440 --> 00:04:00,920 kind of that, that that sort of word, it means library, it means 69 00:04:00,920 --> 00:04:04,320 the books. And that's because this is not 70 00:04:04,360 --> 00:04:10,680 just one book, it is a collection of 66 books that were 71 00:04:10,680 --> 00:04:16,800 written over a period of 1600 years, by over 3 / 3 different 72 00:04:16,800 --> 00:04:21,959 continents, by over 40 different authors, in three different 73 00:04:22,160 --> 00:04:25,560 languages. And the amazing thing is that 74 00:04:25,560 --> 00:04:29,880 even though it it's 66 books, 1600 years, three different 75 00:04:29,880 --> 00:04:34,320 continents, over 40 authors, 3 languages, it wonderfully tells 76 00:04:34,320 --> 00:04:41,240 a cohesive story of God, of Yahweh's pursuit of rebellious 77 00:04:41,240 --> 00:04:48,080 humanity. So how did we get this Bible? 78 00:04:48,760 --> 00:04:51,880 How did we get the Bible? How, how did it, how did it 79 00:04:51,880 --> 00:04:53,640 form? Well, if you open up your 80 00:04:53,640 --> 00:04:58,760 Bibles, you will notice that a massive, the biggest proportion 81 00:04:58,760 --> 00:05:03,800 of it is, is that's about the next one, that one that's Old 82 00:05:03,800 --> 00:05:07,520 Testament and that's New Testament and the biggest. 83 00:05:07,520 --> 00:05:10,080 So let's start with the, with the Old Testament. 84 00:05:10,800 --> 00:05:13,240 So how did we get the Old Testament? 85 00:05:13,640 --> 00:05:17,360 Well, the Old Testament is what we would call the Hebrew Bible. 86 00:05:17,800 --> 00:05:20,160 It's the, the Hebrews, they would call it the the Jewish 87 00:05:20,160 --> 00:05:25,840 people, they'd call it the Tanakh, which is an acronym for 88 00:05:26,360 --> 00:05:29,840 Torah, Neveim and Ketuveim. And here we go. 89 00:05:29,880 --> 00:05:34,440 Here's those 44, sorry, three books that make up the, the 90 00:05:34,440 --> 00:05:39,480 Torah and the books from our Old Testament, how they fit into 91 00:05:40,000 --> 00:05:44,400 those 3 categories. And the beautiful thing of this. 92 00:05:44,400 --> 00:05:47,280 And now you might notice if you know your contents page of your 93 00:05:47,280 --> 00:05:50,640 Old Testament, you'll notice that it's in a slightly 94 00:05:50,640 --> 00:05:53,640 different order. It goes Torah, no Genesis, 95 00:05:53,640 --> 00:05:56,000 Deuteronomy, then it goes prophets, Joshua down to the 96 00:05:56,000 --> 00:05:58,480 minor prophets. And then it goes the ketamine 97 00:05:58,480 --> 00:06:01,960 Psalms down to Chronicles. And that's a slightly different 98 00:06:01,960 --> 00:06:05,120 order that you will have on your contents page in your, in your 99 00:06:05,120 --> 00:06:07,800 Bibles. And the reason for that is 100 00:06:07,800 --> 00:06:10,520 because the Jewish write the Jewish writers, the Jewish 101 00:06:10,520 --> 00:06:13,480 scholars, when they were putting the, the Torah together, when 102 00:06:13,480 --> 00:06:15,800 they were collecting these, these scrolls together, they 103 00:06:15,800 --> 00:06:17,440 were putting them to an, in an order. 104 00:06:17,840 --> 00:06:20,400 They, they thought about the order that they wanted to put 105 00:06:20,400 --> 00:06:22,560 them in. We get this, we get, we get this 106 00:06:22,560 --> 00:06:24,360 with the Psalms. I don't know if anyone's ever 107 00:06:24,360 --> 00:06:27,480 noticed this in the in the Psalms, but the Psalms is 108 00:06:27,480 --> 00:06:31,240 made-up of five books and but they're not in chronological 109 00:06:31,240 --> 00:06:32,720 order. They're not like this Psalm was 110 00:06:32,720 --> 00:06:35,440 written 1st and then Psalm 150 was written last. 111 00:06:35,440 --> 00:06:37,600 That's not how it works. You'll get this. 112 00:06:37,760 --> 00:06:41,360 You get, I can't remember what number it is, but you get part 113 00:06:41,360 --> 00:06:44,320 way through it and at the end of a certain Psalm that goes thus 114 00:06:44,320 --> 00:06:48,000 end the Psalms of David. A few Psalms later it goes a 115 00:06:48,000 --> 00:06:50,800 Psalm of David because it's not in order. 116 00:06:50,800 --> 00:06:53,200 It's not doesn't it's not meant to be chronological order. 117 00:06:53,200 --> 00:06:57,480 The Psalms are written so that Psalm 3, it is meant to help you 118 00:06:57,560 --> 00:07:01,680 read Psalm 4 and Psalm 4 helps you read Psalm 5 and so on. 119 00:07:01,680 --> 00:07:05,680 And this is how they writ, how they ordered the scrolls so that 120 00:07:05,680 --> 00:07:09,480 you, you, you, they build on one another and they tell this 121 00:07:09,480 --> 00:07:14,160 amazing story of how God in the beginning, he chose a people, 122 00:07:14,520 --> 00:07:17,280 how he, he, he decided, he chose Adam and Eve. 123 00:07:17,280 --> 00:07:21,680 And he said that he wanted to through them fill his glory into 124 00:07:21,680 --> 00:07:24,760 the entire world, but they failed. 125 00:07:25,560 --> 00:07:27,920 So we started with Noah and he fails. 126 00:07:27,920 --> 00:07:30,640 And then he grabs Abraham and Sarah. 127 00:07:31,040 --> 00:07:35,400 And it becomes very clear very quickly, as you read on through 128 00:07:35,400 --> 00:07:40,640 the scrolls that people aren't able to fulfil this amazing 129 00:07:40,640 --> 00:07:44,360 mission that God has given them. And it as we get through, as we, 130 00:07:44,560 --> 00:07:47,680 as we get to the end of the prophets, we start to see, oh, 131 00:07:48,240 --> 00:07:51,000 it's not going to be us actually, we need a leader, we 132 00:07:51,000 --> 00:07:55,200 need a king, we need a saviour. We need someone who can come and 133 00:07:55,200 --> 00:07:59,240 make everything right, who can unite the world, who can bring 134 00:07:59,240 --> 00:08:04,720 God's glory to the entire world. So then we read through the 135 00:08:04,720 --> 00:08:07,120 Ketabine and we get to Chronicles. 136 00:08:07,800 --> 00:08:11,640 And you read the, you read Chronicles and you realise the 137 00:08:11,640 --> 00:08:14,720 world needs a king, the world needs a saviour. 138 00:08:16,080 --> 00:08:18,880 But he never came. He didn't come. 139 00:08:19,160 --> 00:08:22,320 It's an unfinished story. We get to the end. 140 00:08:22,360 --> 00:08:26,680 It's an unfinished story. The the, the, the Messiah hasn't 141 00:08:26,680 --> 00:08:29,840 come. And what's worse is this is his 142 00:08:29,840 --> 00:08:32,240 chosen people, the Kingdom of Israel. 143 00:08:32,559 --> 00:08:35,159 They are scattered to the four corners of the world. 144 00:08:35,760 --> 00:08:39,080 There are useless bunch who are nowhere. 145 00:08:39,840 --> 00:08:41,760 And God said, God said it was through them. 146 00:08:41,760 --> 00:08:44,680 He was going to bring his chosen one, but but they're scattered. 147 00:08:44,680 --> 00:08:48,000 They're in exile, but there is a little bit of hope. 148 00:08:48,720 --> 00:08:54,640 The last few lines of Chronicle tell us that King Cyrus of, of 149 00:08:54,640 --> 00:08:59,800 Persia, he, he puts this edict out to say the Jewish people 150 00:08:59,800 --> 00:09:05,880 who've been in captivity in Babylon can go home and that in 151 00:09:05,880 --> 00:09:14,480 it ends. Then 400 years pass and this 152 00:09:14,640 --> 00:09:23,720 Jewish preacher, rabbi from from Nazareth starts going around 153 00:09:24,280 --> 00:09:28,480 saying things like this. In Matthew 5, he says, do not 154 00:09:28,480 --> 00:09:30,720 think that I have come to abolish the law and the 155 00:09:30,720 --> 00:09:32,880 prophets. That's the, the make up of all, 156 00:09:32,920 --> 00:09:34,920 all the Torah. Don't think I've come to abolish 157 00:09:34,920 --> 00:09:36,560 it. I've not come to abolish them. 158 00:09:37,000 --> 00:09:42,280 I have come to fulfil them. The Torah, that's the Torah, the 159 00:09:42,280 --> 00:09:47,320 Tanakh, it, it is unfinished. 400 years later, Jesus comes on 160 00:09:47,320 --> 00:09:50,440 the scene and says I have come to complete it. 161 00:09:50,920 --> 00:09:53,800 I've come to bring an ending to it. 162 00:09:54,600 --> 00:09:57,760 And we, we read, we read, we have the gospels that make up 163 00:09:57,760 --> 00:09:59,600 our New Testament. The gospels are details, 164 00:09:59,640 --> 00:10:03,840 detailed accounts of of eyewitnesses who saw what Jesus 165 00:10:03,840 --> 00:10:08,160 did, how he was bringing about a completion to the Torah. 166 00:10:08,240 --> 00:10:11,840 We read read the book of Acts, which is a historical account of 167 00:10:11,840 --> 00:10:16,960 what the first believers did in response to how Jesus taught 168 00:10:17,080 --> 00:10:22,040 lived, died, was rose again. And then we have the the letters 169 00:10:22,160 --> 00:10:27,920 that we we call them epistles, which tell which explain to us 170 00:10:28,640 --> 00:10:33,360 how we are to live in light of the truth of Jesus Christ. 171 00:10:35,160 --> 00:10:38,800 And now, like I said, some have tried to say that these, these 172 00:10:38,800 --> 00:10:42,280 books that we have in the Bible, these books we have in the New 173 00:10:42,280 --> 00:10:47,360 Testament, especially that they are, they're a hand picked bunch 174 00:10:47,400 --> 00:10:51,200 of, of books that that there were many, many others. 175 00:10:51,480 --> 00:10:56,360 And at Nicaea in 325 people, just the, the goes there, they 176 00:10:56,400 --> 00:10:59,600 picked the ones that made Jesus sound like how we want him to 177 00:10:59,600 --> 00:11:01,920 sound. And they disregarded a load of 178 00:11:01,920 --> 00:11:04,320 others. And like I said, that is 179 00:11:04,320 --> 00:11:08,360 complete rubbish. It's not true. 180 00:11:08,840 --> 00:11:11,920 And the reason why it's not true is because the books that we 181 00:11:11,920 --> 00:11:17,160 have in our New Testament today, as soon as they were written, 182 00:11:17,960 --> 00:11:21,080 the other churches recognise them as Scripture. 183 00:11:22,160 --> 00:11:26,480 We read this in two Peter. So Peter the the guy who was in 184 00:11:26,480 --> 00:11:29,800 the inner circle, the guy who Jesus told to lead his church 185 00:11:30,280 --> 00:11:32,880 that he writes this. He says bear in mind that the 186 00:11:32,880 --> 00:11:37,560 Lord's patience means salvation. Just as other our other brother 187 00:11:37,560 --> 00:11:40,520 dear Paul, he's talking about the apostle Paul who wrote loads 188 00:11:40,520 --> 00:11:44,680 of those letters in our New Testament wrote wrote with you 189 00:11:44,680 --> 00:11:47,760 with wisdom that God gave him. He's saying that he's saying 190 00:11:47,760 --> 00:11:52,000 that the writings that Paul has written the Ephesians, 191 00:11:52,080 --> 00:11:56,880 Colossians, Philippians and so on, they are inspired by God. 192 00:11:57,240 --> 00:12:02,200 He writes in the same way in all his letters, speaking to their 193 00:12:02,320 --> 00:12:05,400 speaking in them. Of these matters. 194 00:12:05,600 --> 00:12:08,880 His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, 195 00:12:09,280 --> 00:12:15,440 which ignorant and unstable people distort as they do other 196 00:12:15,440 --> 00:12:18,920 scriptures. So Peter, living at the same 197 00:12:18,920 --> 00:12:21,840 time, has Paul. What this shows is that Paul's 198 00:12:21,840 --> 00:12:24,800 letter to the Ephesians, for example, it didn't just go to 199 00:12:24,800 --> 00:12:26,960 the Ephesians church, it made its way around. 200 00:12:26,960 --> 00:12:31,280 It was copied and sent to all the churches of the 1st century 201 00:12:31,480 --> 00:12:36,640 and Peter gets hold of these letters and he says these are 202 00:12:36,640 --> 00:12:39,000 just the same. He, Peter puts them on the same 203 00:12:39,000 --> 00:12:42,640 level as Isaiah, as Jeremiah, as Genesis, as Exodus. 204 00:12:42,720 --> 00:12:47,960 He says these are scripture you see, and that was not the case 205 00:12:48,200 --> 00:12:49,760 for others. See there were other books. 206 00:12:49,760 --> 00:12:55,440 By the time you got to Nicaea 325 you got you. 207 00:12:55,440 --> 00:12:57,720 There were other books. There was the the Gospel of 208 00:12:57,720 --> 00:13:01,320 Thomas, the Gospel of of Judas and the Gospel of Mary to name 209 00:13:01,520 --> 00:13:07,640 name some. But unlike the biblical books 210 00:13:07,640 --> 00:13:10,240 that we have in our Bible now, and here's the list of our New 211 00:13:10,240 --> 00:13:15,760 Testament. A The church never recognised 212 00:13:15,760 --> 00:13:17,600 them as Scripture from the beginning. 213 00:13:18,600 --> 00:13:22,160 B All these books, if you can see that where you are, I'm 214 00:13:22,160 --> 00:13:24,560 going to send it my slides out for everyone. 215 00:13:24,960 --> 00:13:28,160 But you see there all of the books that we have in our New 216 00:13:28,160 --> 00:13:33,080 Testament were written within the 1st 1st century. 217 00:13:33,680 --> 00:13:37,040 The the very the very latest that are the the most critical 218 00:13:37,040 --> 00:13:40,760 people believe some of our letters were written in our New 219 00:13:40,760 --> 00:13:47,200 Testament was was 1995 AD. The books that other people from 220 00:13:47,200 --> 00:13:49,320 The History Channel, whatever are trying to say should be in 221 00:13:49,320 --> 00:13:51,960 our Bible as well who were disowned like Thomas or 222 00:13:51,960 --> 00:13:53,920 whatever. They weren't written for another 223 00:13:53,920 --> 00:13:57,760 hundred 200 years. They were not eyewitness 224 00:13:57,760 --> 00:14:01,200 accounts. See for the early church to 225 00:14:01,200 --> 00:14:07,040 include letters scripture in our New Testament, they had to meet 226 00:14:07,040 --> 00:14:10,120 three criteria. First written during the 227 00:14:10,120 --> 00:14:12,280 Apostolic age, that's the 1st century. 228 00:14:12,280 --> 00:14:17,440 So they are either written by an apostle or they were written by 229 00:14:17,440 --> 00:14:21,640 a friend of an apostle like Luke or, or an apostle approved it. 230 00:14:21,640 --> 00:14:25,760 So it was during their lifetime. Obviously, these fake gospels 231 00:14:25,760 --> 00:14:29,680 weren't. They did not contradict #2 they 232 00:14:29,680 --> 00:14:33,160 did not contradict the Hebrew Bible, which many of these fake 233 00:14:33,160 --> 00:14:36,520 gospels do. And thirdly, they were widely 234 00:14:36,520 --> 00:14:42,480 accepted by the entire church, which some of the which many of 235 00:14:42,480 --> 00:14:45,480 these fake ones or all these fake ones weren't so a nice 236 00:14:45,480 --> 00:14:47,320 seer. Unlike what The History Channel 237 00:14:47,320 --> 00:14:49,560 might tell you, they didn't go, we're not having them, we're 238 00:14:49,560 --> 00:14:52,320 having them. What they just did was these are 239 00:14:52,320 --> 00:14:54,960 the ones we've had for for 200 years. 240 00:14:55,760 --> 00:14:58,600 These are our scriptures. They just affirmed what everyone 241 00:14:58,600 --> 00:15:03,720 already knew. So that's how we got our New 242 00:15:03,720 --> 00:15:06,280 Testament. And if you open up any, any 243 00:15:06,280 --> 00:15:10,800 Bible that you many of you've got at home, these are the books 244 00:15:10,800 --> 00:15:13,480 you will have in it, the books of the Tanakh for our Old 245 00:15:13,480 --> 00:15:15,440 Testament. And these are the books of our 246 00:15:15,440 --> 00:15:20,000 New Testament. But some of you who grew up 247 00:15:20,000 --> 00:15:23,520 Catholic, who grew up going to Catholic Church, anyone. 248 00:15:24,160 --> 00:15:26,400 Yeah, I know there's a few others who maybe aren't here 249 00:15:26,400 --> 00:15:31,000 today, but yeah, who grew up Orthodox yet. 250 00:15:32,000 --> 00:15:36,920 Now you may know this and other others in here may not know 251 00:15:36,920 --> 00:15:39,480 this, but if you grew up Catholic or you grew up 252 00:15:39,480 --> 00:15:43,200 Orthodox, there are more books in your Bible. 253 00:15:43,880 --> 00:15:46,040 There are more books than we have there. 254 00:15:46,040 --> 00:15:50,560 See, we have, we have 27 books in our New Testament and 39 255 00:15:50,560 --> 00:15:53,040 books in our Old Testament. But if you grew up Orthodox or 256 00:15:53,040 --> 00:15:55,120 you grew up Catholic, there's a few more. 257 00:15:55,600 --> 00:16:00,600 There's a few more. So why and how and why don't we 258 00:16:00,600 --> 00:16:02,480 in our Protestant Bibles have them as well? 259 00:16:03,480 --> 00:16:08,600 Well, for the last 2000 years, the whole unified Church has 260 00:16:08,600 --> 00:16:13,360 recognised that the 27 books of the New Testament that are in 261 00:16:13,360 --> 00:16:17,040 every one of our Bibles and the 39 books of the Old Testament 262 00:16:17,200 --> 00:16:20,560 that every one of us has in our Bibles, which Jewish people will 263 00:16:20,560 --> 00:16:25,520 have in their Tanakh are inspired by the Holy Spirit. 264 00:16:25,880 --> 00:16:31,720 They are from gods. But like I said, if you're 265 00:16:31,720 --> 00:16:33,480 Catholic, Orthodox, you have a few more. 266 00:16:33,480 --> 00:16:39,880 And to explain why we have to go back to the, to the 1st and 2nd 267 00:16:39,880 --> 00:16:42,080 century BC. This is a, this is a example. 268 00:16:42,080 --> 00:16:45,000 See for in our Protestant Bibles, we have 39 books in our 269 00:16:45,000 --> 00:16:47,960 Old Testament. In a Catholic Bible, there's 270 00:16:47,960 --> 00:16:51,320 this 39, but then a few more, which they call the Dutro Canon. 271 00:16:51,840 --> 00:16:55,000 And then if you're Orthodox, well, they have another section, 272 00:16:55,000 --> 00:16:58,880 which I can't pronounce that word, but I'll let you, you try, 273 00:16:58,880 --> 00:17:01,440 try and read it. It's, it's, it's Greek and it 274 00:17:01,440 --> 00:17:03,600 means the writings, the things we read. 275 00:17:03,600 --> 00:17:06,880 And you see that they have even more books. 276 00:17:07,319 --> 00:17:11,440 And the way that we explain, we explain that is we have to go 277 00:17:11,440 --> 00:17:16,640 back to the the 2nd and 1st century BC before Christ. 278 00:17:17,440 --> 00:17:21,720 You see, our Bibles end, Malachi, or if you're, if you've 279 00:17:21,720 --> 00:17:24,040 got a Jewish Bible, they end with Chronicles. 280 00:17:24,640 --> 00:17:27,960 But after the Jewish people, they return, they're let go by 281 00:17:27,960 --> 00:17:32,560 Persia. The world soon turns Greek. 282 00:17:33,680 --> 00:17:35,160 Anyone heard of Alexander the Great? 283 00:17:36,640 --> 00:17:41,080 He conquered within his lifetime pretty much the whole of Europe 284 00:17:41,080 --> 00:17:47,440 and Asia, and during his time he everyone then therefore spoke 285 00:17:47,440 --> 00:17:51,600 Greek like English today. Greek was the world language. 286 00:17:51,680 --> 00:17:56,840 Everyone spoke Greek. And so because the Jews, because 287 00:17:56,840 --> 00:17:59,840 they so treasured their scriptures and they wanted 288 00:17:59,840 --> 00:18:02,960 people to be able to read their scriptures, they wanted 289 00:18:02,960 --> 00:18:05,920 everyone, they wanted every town to have a synagogue where the 290 00:18:05,920 --> 00:18:09,560 scriptures were read. But they knew that a lot of the 291 00:18:09,560 --> 00:18:11,840 world didn't speak Hebrew anymore. 292 00:18:12,040 --> 00:18:15,880 They only spoke Greek. So a group of 70 scholars, 293 00:18:15,880 --> 00:18:21,720 Jewish scholars got together and they started translating the, 294 00:18:21,960 --> 00:18:28,720 the, the Tanakh and also some other important books to them 295 00:18:29,000 --> 00:18:31,960 into Greek. And they collected these, these 296 00:18:31,960 --> 00:18:35,160 writings together and they called them the Septuagint. 297 00:18:37,040 --> 00:18:40,240 And what they did is they, they not only added the Tanakh, they 298 00:18:40,240 --> 00:18:43,160 also added other books. Like up there we've got Tobit, 299 00:18:43,160 --> 00:18:46,680 Judith, we've got a bit more, it says there's Book of Esther, but 300 00:18:46,680 --> 00:18:49,280 they add a bit to it. There's, there's Wisdom of 301 00:18:49,280 --> 00:18:52,600 Solomon and Syriac in Baruch and Maccabees. 302 00:18:53,000 --> 00:18:56,920 They, they, they bring these in and now these were really 303 00:18:56,920 --> 00:19:02,240 important pieces of writing for them, but they were never 304 00:19:02,240 --> 00:19:06,280 classed as Scripture. What they wanted was they wanted 305 00:19:06,280 --> 00:19:10,320 their fellow Jews who spoke Greek to know their history, to 306 00:19:10,320 --> 00:19:12,160 know about them. They wanted to give them a 307 00:19:12,160 --> 00:19:17,440 greater wealth of writings than just the holy inspired 308 00:19:17,680 --> 00:19:22,920 Scriptures. And actually when Fast forward a 309 00:19:22,920 --> 00:19:29,360 few 100 years to a guy named Jerome, he was commissioned by 310 00:19:29,360 --> 00:19:36,480 the Western Church to translate all the scriptures into Latin 311 00:19:36,560 --> 00:19:41,320 because when he was around the Western world, the European 312 00:19:41,320 --> 00:19:44,200 world, everyone spoke Latin. So he was commissioned by the 313 00:19:44,200 --> 00:19:46,880 church to translate the scriptures into Latin. 314 00:19:47,240 --> 00:19:51,120 And he had he got hold of a Septuagint and he started 315 00:19:51,120 --> 00:19:54,040 translating from Greek into Latin. 316 00:19:54,520 --> 00:19:58,560 But because he was a smart guy, he, he was reading through some 317 00:19:58,560 --> 00:20:00,160 of these things. And as he's translating, I mean, 318 00:20:00,160 --> 00:20:02,160 it took him 20-3 years, by the way. 319 00:20:02,520 --> 00:20:05,560 I mean a long, long time. I mean, he didn't have Google, 320 00:20:05,560 --> 00:20:08,040 he didn't have AI. He had nothing like that. 321 00:20:08,040 --> 00:20:12,080 It was just him and a Greek and Hebrew dictionary just going 322 00:20:12,080 --> 00:20:15,640 through word by word, translating it into, into Latin. 323 00:20:16,280 --> 00:20:20,840 And, and as he was going through it, he reckoned he he realised 324 00:20:21,200 --> 00:20:24,920 that some of the writings that he was translating. 325 00:20:25,880 --> 00:20:30,080 Were only a couple of 100 years old that were from the 1st and 326 00:20:30,080 --> 00:20:33,200 2nd century. He, he realised that when he was 327 00:20:33,200 --> 00:20:37,480 translating Genesis, for example, that that was that was 328 00:20:37,480 --> 00:20:41,920 that he, he could take 1000 years from that and and it was 329 00:20:41,920 --> 00:20:45,320 and he also, he knew that it was trans, it was from Hebrew. 330 00:20:45,680 --> 00:20:49,520 But then he got these other books like Baruch or Syriac and 331 00:20:49,520 --> 00:20:52,600 he was like, oh, the writing style. 332 00:20:52,600 --> 00:20:54,760 I can tell this was never written in Hebrew. 333 00:20:55,560 --> 00:20:58,480 This was actually always written in Greek and it is only a couple 334 00:20:58,480 --> 00:21:03,360 of 100 years old. And So what he did is he, he 335 00:21:03,360 --> 00:21:07,520 took the Tanakh and he translated that into Latin. 336 00:21:08,800 --> 00:21:11,640 But the other books he wasn't comfortable about translating 337 00:21:11,920 --> 00:21:14,760 because he was told to translate the Bible and he didn't really 338 00:21:14,760 --> 00:21:17,800 want to translate the others, but the church had told him, we 339 00:21:17,800 --> 00:21:19,160 want you to translate everything. 340 00:21:19,640 --> 00:21:22,840 So he did. But what he did is he translated 341 00:21:23,000 --> 00:21:26,960 the Tanakh, he translated the old, the New Testament letters, 342 00:21:27,320 --> 00:21:32,080 and then he translated the other books that he had a tobit down 343 00:21:32,080 --> 00:21:35,840 to Two Maccabees. And he put them in a different 344 00:21:35,920 --> 00:21:40,280 section, a different section called the apocrypha, which 345 00:21:40,280 --> 00:21:44,000 means hidden or secret things because he didn't really know 346 00:21:44,000 --> 00:21:47,240 what they were about, but he was told to translate them. 347 00:21:47,280 --> 00:21:50,480 So as a dutiful Christian, a loyal to the Pope, that's what 348 00:21:50,480 --> 00:21:54,680 he did. And actually it wasn't until the 349 00:21:54,680 --> 00:21:59,160 16th century that the word Apocrypha got replaced by 350 00:21:59,160 --> 00:22:04,000 Jutrecannon because the Catholic Church at the after the 351 00:22:04,000 --> 00:22:09,760 Reformation, the Catholic Church saw the Apocrypha and they 352 00:22:09,760 --> 00:22:13,640 decided actually there are some doctrines that you find in the, 353 00:22:13,720 --> 00:22:16,920 in the Apocrypha, in the Juto cannon that aren't anywhere 354 00:22:16,920 --> 00:22:18,640 else. See, the Catholic Church, by 355 00:22:18,640 --> 00:22:22,960 this time, they've made a lot of money off of charging people to 356 00:22:22,960 --> 00:22:27,000 pray for people who are dead to do indulgences and things like 357 00:22:27,000 --> 00:22:28,920 that. And that's not anywhere in 358 00:22:28,920 --> 00:22:32,160 scripture, but you can allude to it in some of the books like 359 00:22:32,160 --> 00:22:33,840 Maccabees that that might be there. 360 00:22:33,840 --> 00:22:37,000 So they decided, OK, these are really important now and people 361 00:22:37,000 --> 00:22:39,040 are starting to question Scripture. 362 00:22:39,080 --> 00:22:42,320 So therefore we're moving these from Apocrypha from Hidden from 363 00:22:42,320 --> 00:22:45,280 Secret Things to Dutra Canon, which just means the second 364 00:22:45,280 --> 00:22:47,680 Canon. The, the we're saying these are 365 00:22:47,680 --> 00:22:53,280 scripture, the Orthodox Church. Now the reason why they have 366 00:22:53,280 --> 00:22:58,120 even more is because the Septuagint, it wasn't a leather 367 00:22:58,120 --> 00:23:02,200 bound book. It was a collection of scrolls 368 00:23:02,200 --> 00:23:04,760 held together and it was written in the East. 369 00:23:05,280 --> 00:23:08,440 And what happened is the, the further W you went, some of the 370 00:23:08,440 --> 00:23:09,960 less important ones just got lost. 371 00:23:10,720 --> 00:23:13,240 And so they, they just, they lost to some along the way. 372 00:23:13,240 --> 00:23:16,360 So by the time Jerome gets hold of a Septuagint, he's just got 373 00:23:16,360 --> 00:23:20,120 less to work with. But the Greeks and the Orthodox, 374 00:23:20,120 --> 00:23:25,840 they have far more and. But what's really important is, 375 00:23:26,120 --> 00:23:30,680 is that in the Orthodox Church, whilst these are in their Bible, 376 00:23:31,280 --> 00:23:33,960 they are not considered scripture. 377 00:23:34,680 --> 00:23:36,800 They are just considered. They're called the books we read 378 00:23:36,800 --> 00:23:39,200 because they're good. They see them as good books for 379 00:23:39,200 --> 00:23:43,240 us to read, for us to know. But the they are not Scripture. 380 00:23:43,240 --> 00:23:45,680 They will look at them and look at it with interest. 381 00:23:45,880 --> 00:23:51,200 But if, if for example, Ezra contradicts something in Baruch, 382 00:23:51,480 --> 00:23:54,120 well, they'll take what Ezra says and they'll, they'll, they 383 00:23:54,120 --> 00:23:57,240 downgrade the others. So they're not Scripture. 384 00:23:59,080 --> 00:24:04,520 And then in the 1500s in the Protestant Revolution, Martin 385 00:24:04,520 --> 00:24:10,200 Luther, John Calvin, Stingley, they built the Reformation upon 386 00:24:10,280 --> 00:24:14,280 Scripture being everything script. 387 00:24:14,280 --> 00:24:16,840 We live by Scripture and scripture alone. 388 00:24:17,040 --> 00:24:21,320 So therefore what they did is they went back to the Hebrew 389 00:24:21,320 --> 00:24:25,600 Bible and they said, well, these other books in red, they're not 390 00:24:25,600 --> 00:24:28,360 in the Hebrew Bible. So, so we don't confuse people, 391 00:24:28,400 --> 00:24:31,080 we're going to get rid of them. We're going to get rid of them. 392 00:24:31,080 --> 00:24:34,960 We're not going to have them because only Scripture we base 393 00:24:34,960 --> 00:24:40,400 our word, our work on. So should we read them these 394 00:24:40,400 --> 00:24:42,800 books in red, these these second ones? 395 00:24:44,000 --> 00:24:46,640 I think so. I think they're great. 396 00:24:47,400 --> 00:24:50,760 They're brilliant. If you if you want an idea of 397 00:24:50,760 --> 00:24:54,000 how the how the Jewish believers in Jesus time, how they, how 398 00:24:54,000 --> 00:24:56,720 they got their, their, their doctrine and how they believed 399 00:24:56,840 --> 00:24:58,600 about angels and demons and stuff. 400 00:24:58,600 --> 00:25:02,000 I mean, the book of Tobit is a brilliant book about, about 401 00:25:02,000 --> 00:25:06,320 demons, about about angels. It's it's a great book. 402 00:25:06,400 --> 00:25:07,840 You know, I was reading the other day. 403 00:25:07,840 --> 00:25:10,840 I was reading the the first book of it's not up there, but the 404 00:25:10,840 --> 00:25:15,400 first book of, of Enoch. And in the first section, it's 405 00:25:15,400 --> 00:25:18,200 called the book of the watchers. And there's just an amazing bit 406 00:25:18,200 --> 00:25:22,880 of writing, just of worship, describing the ancient of days, 407 00:25:23,320 --> 00:25:27,080 the king of glory and how what the Messiah will be like when he 408 00:25:27,080 --> 00:25:28,680 comes. And it was just like, this is 409 00:25:28,680 --> 00:25:31,080 wonderful. This is just like like reading 410 00:25:31,080 --> 00:25:34,360 some of our songs by Phil Wickermore, who whoever you 411 00:25:34,360 --> 00:25:38,280 know, it's brilliant. So yeah, I think we should read 412 00:25:38,280 --> 00:25:41,120 them, but they are not Scripture. 413 00:25:41,160 --> 00:25:44,360 They're useful, but they're not Scripture. 414 00:25:45,640 --> 00:25:47,200 So that's how we've got our Bible. 415 00:25:47,480 --> 00:25:50,800 That's why we've not got some some books in it that if you had 416 00:25:50,800 --> 00:25:52,720 a Catholic Bible or whatever they've got in it. 417 00:25:53,640 --> 00:25:56,560 But how do we know that it's the same? 418 00:25:57,480 --> 00:26:01,680 How do we know if we open up this, and we have just opened up 419 00:26:01,680 --> 00:26:05,480 here to Two Corinthians, how do I know what I read here? 420 00:26:06,280 --> 00:26:10,560 If I was able to transport back in time and give this to Paul, 421 00:26:11,120 --> 00:26:13,160 how do I know if he was able to speak English? 422 00:26:13,160 --> 00:26:14,720 He'd go, yeah, yeah, that's what I wrote. 423 00:26:14,720 --> 00:26:15,760 Yeah. Yeah, I wrote that. 424 00:26:16,600 --> 00:26:22,160 How do I know that? Actually, scholars are 100% 425 00:26:22,160 --> 00:26:25,440 certain that it is correct. Why? 426 00:26:25,680 --> 00:26:28,040 Because they have the original writing that Paul made. 427 00:26:28,680 --> 00:26:31,880 No, they don't. They've been lost, but they are 428 00:26:31,880 --> 00:26:37,200 100% certain that what we have in our Bible is the same as what 429 00:26:37,200 --> 00:26:41,120 Paul and the other writers wrote due to something called textual 430 00:26:41,120 --> 00:26:43,720 criticism. Now I just want to explain that 431 00:26:43,720 --> 00:26:48,000 to you. OK, Say I haven't got my phone 432 00:26:48,000 --> 00:26:53,800 on me, but I want everyone in here to have a piece of a piece 433 00:26:53,800 --> 00:26:55,760 of writing from me. I want a page. 434 00:26:55,760 --> 00:26:58,400 I'm going to write a page. And I want everyone to have 435 00:26:58,400 --> 00:27:00,160 that. Not only do I want everyone here 436 00:27:00,160 --> 00:27:02,200 to have that, but I want everyone who's part of our 437 00:27:02,200 --> 00:27:04,640 church, who's not here today, who's on holiday sunning 438 00:27:04,640 --> 00:27:05,960 themselves or whatever. I want them. 439 00:27:05,960 --> 00:27:08,960 I want them to have it as well. And I can't go. 440 00:27:08,960 --> 00:27:10,880 I can't type it out and push send. 441 00:27:10,880 --> 00:27:15,800 All right, so I'm going to write one out because I don't really 442 00:27:15,800 --> 00:27:17,640 like writing, but I'm going to write one out. 443 00:27:18,040 --> 00:27:20,320 And I'm going to give one to Andrea. 444 00:27:20,920 --> 00:27:24,600 And then Andrea's going to copy two more, and she's going to 445 00:27:24,600 --> 00:27:27,760 give one to Katie, who's going to go and give one to Josiah. 446 00:27:28,720 --> 00:27:31,760 And then they are going to copy what they've just been given. 447 00:27:32,200 --> 00:27:34,440 And they're going to copy so that everyone in their rows got 448 00:27:34,440 --> 00:27:35,480 it. Then they're going to pass it on 449 00:27:35,480 --> 00:27:38,560 behind everyone in their row until we get to the back. 450 00:27:38,560 --> 00:27:41,240 And then those in the back are going to copy out again so that 451 00:27:41,240 --> 00:27:43,040 those who aren't here can have one. 452 00:27:43,960 --> 00:27:50,840 Now we all, we all leave. And unfortunately, the, the, 453 00:27:50,880 --> 00:27:53,200 the, the writing I gave to Andrea gets lost. 454 00:27:54,080 --> 00:28:01,400 We don't know where it's gone. How on earth can we tell what I 455 00:28:01,400 --> 00:28:03,960 wrote? Now, what's even more 456 00:28:03,960 --> 00:28:09,560 complicated is that as as everyone's copying out now 457 00:28:09,960 --> 00:28:13,960 Amanda, she gets her copy and she's asked to make a copy. 458 00:28:14,560 --> 00:28:19,800 And as she's writing out, she misses a comma and passes out 459 00:28:19,800 --> 00:28:21,560 onto someone. So someone has got a copy 460 00:28:21,560 --> 00:28:25,920 without a comma in it. Pete gets completely distracted 461 00:28:26,080 --> 00:28:27,680 and misses out on an entire line. 462 00:28:28,640 --> 00:28:32,280 So if you get one that Pete copied, you're missing a line. 463 00:28:35,000 --> 00:28:38,680 Lizzie gets 1. And Lizzie looks at what I've 464 00:28:38,680 --> 00:28:41,880 written and she thinks he's not explained that very well. 465 00:28:42,480 --> 00:28:46,680 So she she adds a bit in. She adds another line in that 466 00:28:46,680 --> 00:28:48,440 says that it just doesn't change it. 467 00:28:48,440 --> 00:28:50,360 She just writes a bit in to explain. 468 00:28:50,600 --> 00:28:52,920 This is what Ben meant. You weren't here. 469 00:28:53,120 --> 00:28:54,480 Ben meant this. OK. 470 00:28:55,120 --> 00:28:58,480 And that gets passed on. How on earth are we going to 471 00:28:58,480 --> 00:29:02,680 know with the original gone, what was I wrote? 472 00:29:03,600 --> 00:29:07,600 Well, let's pretend that 100 surviving copies are left. 473 00:29:08,880 --> 00:29:11,720 Of those 100 surviving copies you grab, gather them all 474 00:29:11,720 --> 00:29:15,520 together. Two of them are missing some 475 00:29:15,520 --> 00:29:18,520 punctuation, which makes it a bit difficult to read. 476 00:29:20,160 --> 00:29:24,920 Four of them don't seem to have a line in it that others have 477 00:29:24,920 --> 00:29:29,360 in, and four more have a bit extra in it which others don't 478 00:29:29,360 --> 00:29:32,440 have. How on earth are you going to 479 00:29:32,440 --> 00:29:37,040 tell what I actually wrote? You gather them all together and 480 00:29:37,040 --> 00:29:38,760 this is what they do. They gather them all together 481 00:29:39,400 --> 00:29:42,440 and they're able to say, OK, those went that way. 482 00:29:42,600 --> 00:29:44,320 And there's there's a bit missing on some of them. 483 00:29:44,440 --> 00:29:45,920 There's a bit extra on some of them. 484 00:29:46,080 --> 00:29:50,040 But actually the whole bit with the big volume of 100, it 485 00:29:50,040 --> 00:29:54,040 creates a system of cheques and balances where you're able to 486 00:29:54,040 --> 00:29:58,400 see this is what we know was originally written. 487 00:29:59,560 --> 00:30:07,440 Now we don't just have 100 copies of the first range back 488 00:30:07,440 --> 00:30:08,920 to the first couple of centuries. 489 00:30:09,640 --> 00:30:19,640 In fact, we have 5800 Greek copies that date back to 25 to 490 00:30:19,800 --> 00:30:25,600 50 years after they were originally written, counting all 491 00:30:25,760 --> 00:30:29,160 and remember, some of these were translated into Greek, some were 492 00:30:29,160 --> 00:30:32,960 put into to Syriacs, some were into into Coptics, some into 493 00:30:32,960 --> 00:30:36,520 Latin. With all of them for the 1st 250 494 00:30:36,520 --> 00:30:45,680 years, we have 24,000 copies. That is how they know. 495 00:30:46,040 --> 00:30:51,280 That is how they know that it is accurate, that it is correct. 496 00:30:52,440 --> 00:30:56,880 And see, look, the earliest, the earliest copy piece of it's a 497 00:30:56,880 --> 00:31:01,800 piece of John is, is dated carbon dated to the year 125, 498 00:31:02,280 --> 00:31:06,640 just just a few years after the writer of John was was meant to 499 00:31:06,640 --> 00:31:09,360 have written it. I mean, look, look at that. 500 00:31:09,360 --> 00:31:13,880 We've got Homer's Iliad. We are, we are certain that what 501 00:31:13,880 --> 00:31:19,400 Homer wrote we have now, but we only have 2000 copies of that or 502 00:31:19,400 --> 00:31:22,080 just under. And it, the earliest copy we 503 00:31:22,080 --> 00:31:25,960 have was almost was 500 years after he wrote it. 504 00:31:26,680 --> 00:31:29,800 I mean, Julius Caesar's wars we've got, we, we believe that 505 00:31:29,800 --> 00:31:34,280 what we have is right, but the time gap between the earliest 506 00:31:34,280 --> 00:31:40,000 copy is 1000 years and we only have 250 of them in total. 507 00:31:40,720 --> 00:31:44,960 That is how amazing the Bible stacks up compared to other 508 00:31:44,960 --> 00:31:48,240 historical evidence. And you know what? 509 00:31:48,920 --> 00:31:51,640 Even though the evidence is overwhelming that what we have 510 00:31:51,640 --> 00:31:55,000 in our Bibles is exactly what was written down 2000 years ago, 511 00:31:55,520 --> 00:31:59,720 our Bible scholars, those who go to the original text and 512 00:31:59,720 --> 00:32:03,320 translate them into English so that we can read it, are so 513 00:32:03,320 --> 00:32:08,200 concerned that we can trust what we are reading that they do 514 00:32:08,200 --> 00:32:10,120 things like this. I don't know if anyone's ever 515 00:32:10,120 --> 00:32:12,200 seen this. Let's read it. 516 00:32:12,200 --> 00:32:15,000 I never usually put the verse numbers up there, but you'll see 517 00:32:15,000 --> 00:32:17,760 why it's in. In John chapter 5 it says 518 00:32:18,040 --> 00:32:22,040 sometime later Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish 519 00:32:22,040 --> 00:32:24,440 festivals. Now they're in Jerusalem near 520 00:32:24,440 --> 00:32:28,200 the sheep gate there there was a pool which in Aramaic is called 521 00:32:28,200 --> 00:32:32,040 Besada. This is verse 2 and which is 522 00:32:32,040 --> 00:32:36,680 some which is surrounded by 5 covered colonnades. 523 00:32:36,680 --> 00:32:41,240 Verse 3 Here a great number of disabled people used to lie the 524 00:32:41,240 --> 00:32:46,720 blind, the lame, the paralysed verse 4 there is no verse 4. 525 00:32:47,920 --> 00:32:52,800 Now this what they this then it has a footnote in your Bibles 526 00:32:52,920 --> 00:32:56,880 and it will say some manuscripts include the story of the Angel 527 00:32:56,880 --> 00:33:01,200 coming down, dipping its wings in in the water and and the 528 00:33:01,240 --> 00:33:06,880 first one in gets healed. Now when the reason why it's 529 00:33:06,880 --> 00:33:11,680 there is because when when not Tolkien the wrong person. 530 00:33:11,680 --> 00:33:16,080 When when Tyndale of different T Tolkien did not write write 531 00:33:16,160 --> 00:33:21,240 interpreted the Bible. When Tyndale interpreted the the 532 00:33:21,240 --> 00:33:25,880 first Bible into English, the manuscripts that he was copying 533 00:33:25,880 --> 00:33:29,280 from that he was translating from had verse 4. 534 00:33:30,120 --> 00:33:34,400 Then, especially in the 20th century, there was a massive 535 00:33:34,400 --> 00:33:38,960 discovery of loads of different scrolls dating back thousands of 536 00:33:38,960 --> 00:33:42,800 years, and they found in them there wasn't. 537 00:33:42,800 --> 00:33:45,840 Everything else was exactly the same, but verse 4 wasn't there. 538 00:33:46,200 --> 00:33:48,560 So what they believe has happened is they've had a Lizzy, 539 00:33:49,480 --> 00:33:52,400 they've had someone who has read it and gone. 540 00:33:52,560 --> 00:33:55,000 Well, no one knows. I know why people used to gather 541 00:33:55,000 --> 00:33:57,120 round the sheep gate, but no one else does. 542 00:33:57,120 --> 00:33:59,440 So I'm just going to add in this was because this is what they 543 00:33:59,440 --> 00:34:02,240 believed and then they did it. It didn't change the meaning or 544 00:34:02,240 --> 00:34:06,360 anything, but because our Bible scholars want us to be 100% 545 00:34:06,360 --> 00:34:10,360 confident that what we have is true, they put it as a footnote. 546 00:34:10,440 --> 00:34:14,760 So we know, so we can say that should give it not give us less 547 00:34:14,760 --> 00:34:16,040 confidence. That should give us more 548 00:34:16,040 --> 00:34:19,520 confidence that everything that we read is true. 549 00:34:21,280 --> 00:34:25,080 You see, we, we, we, we have to, we have to look. 550 00:34:25,800 --> 00:34:27,679 We've looked at the creation of the Bible. 551 00:34:28,239 --> 00:34:32,560 We've looked at how why we have the Old Testament, how it is, 552 00:34:32,560 --> 00:34:35,280 how we have the New Testament, how it is, why we've not got 553 00:34:35,280 --> 00:34:38,400 other books. We've also looked at the extent 554 00:34:38,960 --> 00:34:42,600 that scholars today go to to make sure that we can have 555 00:34:42,639 --> 00:34:46,480 absolute confidence. So when you're Muslim or your JW 556 00:34:46,480 --> 00:34:50,360 or your Mormon friends says your Bible's not accurate, you can 557 00:34:50,360 --> 00:34:54,920 say no, no, it is, it is, it is 100% accurate. 558 00:34:56,840 --> 00:35:00,040 But what's the takeaway? What's the big point of looking 559 00:35:00,040 --> 00:35:02,720 at this? Well, actually the big point of 560 00:35:02,720 --> 00:35:05,120 looking at this is we need to read it. 561 00:35:06,120 --> 00:35:08,640 If we can trust it, there's no point going, yeah, I can trust 562 00:35:08,640 --> 00:35:11,080 that. But never look at it like Andrew 563 00:35:11,080 --> 00:35:12,760 was saying, Katie was saying, there's no point. 564 00:35:12,760 --> 00:35:15,800 It's point saying God wants to hear our prayers and we don't 565 00:35:15,840 --> 00:35:19,680 pray. We are cooled to read this 566 00:35:19,680 --> 00:35:22,000 Bible. I mean, it's amazing. 567 00:35:22,520 --> 00:35:25,640 It's amazing. Everywhere the church spreads. 568 00:35:26,240 --> 00:35:29,400 When the church spread in the early centuries across the known 569 00:35:29,400 --> 00:35:32,600 world, everywhere it went, schools popped up. 570 00:35:33,240 --> 00:35:37,040 People learn to write. I mean, we take it as a, as a, 571 00:35:37,280 --> 00:35:41,560 as an integral right that, that we all should be able to learn 572 00:35:41,560 --> 00:35:44,320 to, to read and write and have an education. 573 00:35:44,840 --> 00:35:47,320 That's not the case across the entire world. 574 00:35:47,640 --> 00:35:50,720 There are many people across the world who've never learned to 575 00:35:50,720 --> 00:35:52,840 read and write. Actually, there's languages 576 00:35:52,840 --> 00:35:55,160 across the world that don't even have a written language. 577 00:35:55,560 --> 00:36:00,520 And that's because the church as it expanded was so intentional 578 00:36:00,600 --> 00:36:02,760 and making sure we could read, we could write. 579 00:36:02,760 --> 00:36:06,240 It is not an integral right that we could should all have been 580 00:36:06,240 --> 00:36:10,640 educated, but the church made it a right because it wanted every 581 00:36:10,640 --> 00:36:12,840 single person to be able to read a Bible. 582 00:36:13,200 --> 00:36:16,720 It wanted every single person to be able to understand, to have 583 00:36:16,720 --> 00:36:22,040 one in their hand and read it. That's why whereas Satan was so 584 00:36:22,040 --> 00:36:27,760 against as languages moved on the Bible being translated into 585 00:36:27,760 --> 00:36:31,240 English, Tyndale, he fought and he fought and he fought to get 586 00:36:31,240 --> 00:36:33,520 the Bible translated into English. 587 00:36:34,440 --> 00:36:38,400 But but the, the we, we the God desires for us to be able to 588 00:36:38,400 --> 00:36:45,320 read it in our own language. That's why trusts like the, the 589 00:36:45,680 --> 00:36:49,960 charities like the Witcliffe Trust, their mission is to 590 00:36:49,960 --> 00:36:55,680 translate the Bible into every language on planet earth so that 591 00:36:55,680 --> 00:36:58,160 everyone can have a Bible that they can read. 592 00:36:58,160 --> 00:37:01,880 Now that sounds hard enough, but there are, there are amazing 593 00:37:01,880 --> 00:37:06,640 videos on, on YouTube that you can watch where some places they 594 00:37:06,640 --> 00:37:09,880 go, the people can't read and write to start with. 595 00:37:10,600 --> 00:37:13,720 Now, how do you translate a Bible into a, into a nation's 596 00:37:13,720 --> 00:37:16,120 written language when they don't even have a written language to 597 00:37:16,120 --> 00:37:18,680 start with? So they, they do more. 598 00:37:18,720 --> 00:37:21,320 They go to these places, they spend time with them. 599 00:37:21,800 --> 00:37:26,160 They they, they start putting their sounds, their words into, 600 00:37:26,160 --> 00:37:29,920 into letters and teaching them how to read their own language 601 00:37:30,120 --> 00:37:34,280 so that that they can write a Bible in that language. 602 00:37:34,760 --> 00:37:38,080 They are so determined to it because because God desires us 603 00:37:38,080 --> 00:37:44,160 to have it, that we can read it, that we can have it and and 604 00:37:44,160 --> 00:37:47,080 there are there are to come back up. 605 00:37:47,240 --> 00:37:51,080 There are so many Bibles that we can have. 606 00:37:51,200 --> 00:37:54,240 I just went round last night and grabbed a few from from our 607 00:37:54,240 --> 00:37:57,320 house and there are so many. I mean, this is I actually 608 00:37:57,320 --> 00:37:59,120 forgot my preaching Bible after all of that. 609 00:37:59,120 --> 00:38:01,160 I mean, this is so heavy. That's why I keep putting it 610 00:38:01,160 --> 00:38:04,320 down. But you know, there's so many, 611 00:38:04,320 --> 00:38:06,960 you know, this is this is this is one of Jen's devotional 612 00:38:06,960 --> 00:38:09,520 Bibles. This is a I've got a youth Bible 613 00:38:09,520 --> 00:38:13,400 here. I've got a, a, a, a, a study 614 00:38:13,400 --> 00:38:16,280 Bible. That is the what is this one? 615 00:38:16,280 --> 00:38:21,760 This is new American standard. This was my first a study Bible, 616 00:38:21,760 --> 00:38:29,000 a an NIV and and this is a, a chronological Bible in the in a 617 00:38:29,040 --> 00:38:33,240 new King James. And we have so many Bibles. 618 00:38:33,440 --> 00:38:37,240 We have so many Bibles. They all say the same thing, but 619 00:38:37,240 --> 00:38:42,360 wonderfully what they do is we have a plethora of of different 620 00:38:42,360 --> 00:38:44,920 ways that they are interpreted. We have word for word. 621 00:38:45,160 --> 00:38:49,040 So this is, this is, this is my, this is my new American 622 00:38:49,040 --> 00:38:51,080 standard. This is word for word. 623 00:38:51,640 --> 00:38:53,720 It means that this is really accurate. 624 00:38:53,720 --> 00:38:56,320 But for those of you who speak more than one language, you know 625 00:38:56,640 --> 00:39:00,240 that it is grammatically, it is impossible to translate one 626 00:39:00,240 --> 00:39:03,440 language into another because we speak in different orders. 627 00:39:03,440 --> 00:39:05,600 We put things differently in a sentence. 628 00:39:05,920 --> 00:39:09,360 But this one tries to do that. And so you read it out loud, 629 00:39:09,840 --> 00:39:12,120 it's horrible. It's horrible to read out loud, 630 00:39:12,240 --> 00:39:14,680 but it's really actually, if you want to know exactly what was 631 00:39:14,680 --> 00:39:17,640 said, you, you, you, this is my go to. 632 00:39:18,320 --> 00:39:21,200 But there are others like the The Message Bible, which are the 633 00:39:21,200 --> 00:39:24,000 complete opposite to that. They are phrase for phrase. 634 00:39:24,000 --> 00:39:27,040 So most Bibles that you were open, they'll say verse one, 635 00:39:27,040 --> 00:39:30,840 verse 2, verse 3, verse 4, The Message Bible will go, here's 636 00:39:30,840 --> 00:39:33,880 verses 1 to 10. And it's basically what it's 637 00:39:33,880 --> 00:39:35,120 doing. It's not, it's not changing the 638 00:39:35,120 --> 00:39:37,920 Scriptures. It's just going, this is what 639 00:39:37,920 --> 00:39:41,560 verse one to 10 says. And we're going to, rather than 640 00:39:41,560 --> 00:39:44,600 doing it word for word, we're just going to tell you what that 641 00:39:44,600 --> 00:39:48,400 is. And so it's less word for word, 642 00:39:48,600 --> 00:39:51,640 but it is still accurate. And they have different, 643 00:39:51,800 --> 00:39:56,960 different uses the, the NESB or the the King James Bible. 644 00:39:57,040 --> 00:39:59,840 You might use that for Bible study for word studies. 645 00:40:00,480 --> 00:40:03,720 The the message or the new Living translation, they're 646 00:40:03,720 --> 00:40:05,720 brilliant. I know that Andrew's read The 647 00:40:05,720 --> 00:40:08,320 Message sometimes on a Sunday because it gives us a different 648 00:40:08,320 --> 00:40:11,600 perspective. It says the same thing but just 649 00:40:11,600 --> 00:40:14,480 in a different way and it kind of can hit home better. 650 00:40:14,760 --> 00:40:18,120 Personally, on a Sunday, I always tend to read the NIV 651 00:40:18,440 --> 00:40:22,200 because it's kind of that middle of the roads on and at home. 652 00:40:22,200 --> 00:40:25,600 I I will read also the the ESP, the English standard version. 653 00:40:26,520 --> 00:40:30,880 Which one should you read? Which one should you read? 654 00:40:31,960 --> 00:40:35,280 Read the one that you'll read. Jen, give me your Bible. 655 00:40:38,200 --> 00:40:43,000 This is Jen's Bible. OK, Now it says big letters on 656 00:40:43,000 --> 00:40:46,440 the front, ESV. But it doesn't matter what what 657 00:40:47,000 --> 00:40:49,000 interpretation it is what you can see. 658 00:40:49,000 --> 00:40:51,600 Well, the first thing that strikes you is it's a well read 659 00:40:51,600 --> 00:40:54,400 Bible. Yeah, it's got, it's got got 660 00:40:54,400 --> 00:40:58,240 duct tape all the way down the side holding it together. 661 00:40:59,400 --> 00:41:01,680 And that's it's Bible. I mean, I like a beautiful 662 00:41:01,680 --> 00:41:03,640 looking Bible. I like a black leather, you 663 00:41:03,640 --> 00:41:05,440 know, leather and gold leaf and all that stuff. 664 00:41:05,440 --> 00:41:08,200 But that doesn't matter if it's just going on your bookshelf to 665 00:41:08,200 --> 00:41:12,280 look at. God didn't providentially keep 666 00:41:12,400 --> 00:41:15,840 his word and have thousands of people translate it so it could 667 00:41:15,840 --> 00:41:18,520 get to your door so that you just went, oh, that looks 668 00:41:18,520 --> 00:41:20,480 lovely. I just like looking at that. 669 00:41:21,280 --> 00:41:25,160 No, no, no, he got it said you grab hold of it and you read it. 670 00:41:25,400 --> 00:41:28,480 And So what if a page tears? So watch of it. 671 00:41:28,480 --> 00:41:31,440 It doesn't. If the the gold leaf rubs off or 672 00:41:31,440 --> 00:41:33,520 it doesn't look quite as nice anymore. 673 00:41:33,600 --> 00:41:38,320 That's not what it's for. It's for us to read and get into 674 00:41:38,320 --> 00:41:41,520 US. See, every time, every time we 675 00:41:41,560 --> 00:41:46,160 open up the pages of this book, we're we're submitting ourselves 676 00:41:46,160 --> 00:41:49,360 to God and we're saying, God speak to me. 677 00:41:50,360 --> 00:41:52,760 God speak to me through your words. 678 00:41:53,160 --> 00:41:57,880 Every time we read it, we're allowing God to speak to us. 679 00:41:58,960 --> 00:42:02,160 And like Paul said, sometimes you'll read it and you'll be 680 00:42:02,160 --> 00:42:04,160 like, I don't know what that was talking about. 681 00:42:04,160 --> 00:42:06,840 That was hard work. Sometimes you'll read it and 682 00:42:06,840 --> 00:42:08,920 it'll send you to sleep. Let's be honest. 683 00:42:09,440 --> 00:42:13,640 And sometimes you'll read it and God will speak to you. 684 00:42:15,400 --> 00:42:19,840 You know, I, I, I, I don't know if you do, but I do a, I've got 685 00:42:19,840 --> 00:42:23,360 a Bible plan which I go through. I've currently got one at the 686 00:42:23,360 --> 00:42:24,880 moment, which is, which is really slow pace. 687 00:42:24,880 --> 00:42:26,640 It's, it's the Bible in three years. 688 00:42:27,520 --> 00:42:29,160 None of this Bible in a year nonsense. 689 00:42:29,160 --> 00:42:31,920 Because I find that sometimes you end up reading 6 chapters 690 00:42:31,920 --> 00:42:34,080 and you have no idea what you just read because you're just 691 00:42:34,080 --> 00:42:36,120 going to plough through it because you've got 15 minutes 692 00:42:36,120 --> 00:42:38,040 and you need to get through it as quickly as possible to make 693 00:42:38,040 --> 00:42:39,360 sure you've ticked as you've done today. 694 00:42:40,000 --> 00:42:41,880 But I've got this, this Bible in three years. 695 00:42:41,880 --> 00:42:45,200 It's just just one chapter or a bit of a chapter every single 696 00:42:45,200 --> 00:42:46,720 day. And do you know what? 697 00:42:47,200 --> 00:42:52,400 Sometimes, like I said, I don't hear anything, but sometimes God 698 00:42:52,400 --> 00:42:56,280 speaks to me. And let me encourage you, if you 699 00:42:56,280 --> 00:42:58,840 pick up the Bible and you read it and you're like, I didn't get 700 00:42:58,840 --> 00:43:02,920 anything out of that, read it for a year, every single day. 701 00:43:02,920 --> 00:43:06,160 And I promise you God will speak to you. 702 00:43:07,200 --> 00:43:12,960 And you may say, but what if he only speaks to me once once in a 703 00:43:12,960 --> 00:43:15,640 year? Hearing from God because you 704 00:43:15,640 --> 00:43:19,800 read his words is worth it. Isn't that worth it? 705 00:43:20,280 --> 00:43:22,040 Now? I expect it to be a lot more, 706 00:43:22,040 --> 00:43:25,360 but what I'm saying is the weight, the value of God's word 707 00:43:25,360 --> 00:43:30,800 of him speaking to us is worth only hearing for it once. 708 00:43:30,800 --> 00:43:33,320 Think of Abraham, what was it he heard from God? 709 00:43:33,320 --> 00:43:35,640 And then was it Like, I can't remember off the top of my head 710 00:43:35,640 --> 00:43:39,440 now, but it was a long time until God spoke to him again. 711 00:43:39,440 --> 00:43:43,720 It was decades until God spoke to him again, but he lived off 712 00:43:43,720 --> 00:43:49,120 that first encounter church. We have the privilege of not 713 00:43:49,120 --> 00:43:54,200 going years of not going week to week when someone can read us 714 00:43:54,200 --> 00:43:59,520 scripture, but she every single day of reading his words and 715 00:43:59,520 --> 00:44:03,880 letting God speak to us. So let's do that. 716 00:44:04,240 --> 00:44:08,000 Let's be a people of his words. I'm going to pray, I'm going to 717 00:44:08,000 --> 00:44:11,680 pray and then I'll let then we can go home. 718 00:44:11,680 --> 00:44:16,040 But Lord Jesus, I I want to thank you for your Bible. 719 00:44:16,360 --> 00:44:19,960 Lord Jesus, I thank you that providentially over the last 720 00:44:19,960 --> 00:44:25,960 several thousand years, you have kept your word for us. 721 00:44:26,520 --> 00:44:30,720 Lord Jesus, I want to thank you for the thousands of people who 722 00:44:30,720 --> 00:44:35,200 have copied, who have, who have, who have, who have given 723 00:44:35,200 --> 00:44:41,360 themselves to copying your words to, to translating your word so 724 00:44:41,360 --> 00:44:43,640 that we can have it in English, so that we don't need to learn a 725 00:44:43,640 --> 00:44:45,880 foreign language to be able to understand it. 726 00:44:46,160 --> 00:44:49,400 Lord Jesus, I want to thank you for those who lived and those 727 00:44:49,400 --> 00:44:53,880 who died so that we could have access to your word. 728 00:44:54,240 --> 00:44:56,520 Lord Jesus, I want to thank you that it is easy. 729 00:44:56,920 --> 00:45:00,160 We can go to a bookshop, we can go to Amazon right now and we 730 00:45:00,160 --> 00:45:03,760 can order a, a, a whole number of Bibles. 731 00:45:04,320 --> 00:45:08,000 Lord Jesus, I, I thank you for that privilege, Lord Jesus, but 732 00:45:08,000 --> 00:45:12,400 I pray that we obey a people who persevere in your word, Lord 733 00:45:12,400 --> 00:45:17,040 God, who read it, who get it into us, who aren't discouraged 734 00:45:17,040 --> 00:45:19,880 when we, when we find a bit that's boring or we've, we've 735 00:45:19,880 --> 00:45:22,960 read it 4 times already and we fell asleep every single Time, 736 00:45:22,960 --> 00:45:24,360 Lord Jesus. But Lord God, you would, you 737 00:45:24,360 --> 00:45:28,640 would give us the, the ability to, to stick in there, Lord God. 738 00:45:28,640 --> 00:45:34,240 And as we do that, we would hear from you as, as, as Peter, as, 739 00:45:34,240 --> 00:45:37,280 as Paul says to Timothy, that your word is useful. 740 00:45:37,680 --> 00:45:42,480 It's useful for correction, Lord Jesus, it is useful for drawing 741 00:45:42,480 --> 00:45:45,800 us closer to you. It's useful to, for showing us 742 00:45:45,960 --> 00:45:50,320 how you desire us to live. So, Lord God, make us a people 743 00:45:50,320 --> 00:45:52,400 of your Word. Amen. 744 00:45:53,480 --> 00:45:53,960 Amen.