Reliability of The Scriptures

Posted February 7, 2010 by Jarrett
Categories: Apologetics, The Christian Life
Tags: , , , ,

Throughout the centuries, men have sought to undermine the Bible and disprove it as what it claims to be: the inspired Word of God (2 Timothy 3:16-17, 2 Peter 1:20-21).  Countless objections have been raised toward its accuracy and authenticity.  How can we be sure that we hold the actual Scriptures in our hands today?  Haven’t they been distorted and chopped up throughout the years?  Doesn’t the Bible contradict itself? Wasn’t the Bible written down years after the events described in it took place?
 
 For every question, there is an answer.  Hopefully, in this post, many of those questions will indeed be answered.  In exploring the reliability and authenticity of the Scriptures, four main points are going to be covered: 1) the textual validity the Bible, 2) the archaeological evidence that supports it, 3) the internal consistency of the Bible, and 4) the veracity and magnitude of the prophecies fulfilled in the Scriptures.  We will cover the first two topics in this post and the remaining two in a post just a few days out.  Let’s get started.

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Textual Validity

 Before any evidence is given for the Bible’s authenticity, one very important point needs to be thoroughly clarified.  The Bible is a product of Divine inspiration.  The authors of the various books of the Bible were inspired by God, Who guided the writers in their work. (2 Peter 1:21, 2 Timothy 3:16)  It is only after this fundamental truth is grasped that the Bible’s content is fully understood for what it is: the Word of God.

 Understanding the textual validity of the Bible is of paramount importance.  Many Biblical critics deny that the Bible was written over several hundred years by numerous authors, claiming instead that it was written up as some sort of a highly imaginative book sometime after the events described in it would have taken place.  Furthermore, even if the Bible was written over a long span of time by numerous authors, surely translation mistakes riddle it and totally destroy its original authenticity.  Such misunderstandings may be attributed to a lack of study on the dating of Biblical manuscripts, as well as the precision of Biblical scribes in copying Scripture.

 One of the most excellent examples of the Bible’s textual authenticity can be found in the discovery of the “Dead Sea Scrolls” in 1947.  These scrolls — discovered by a young shepherd boy in caves near the valley of the Dead Sea — included numerous pieces of Biblical literature.  Among the books represented were a complete copy of the book of Isaiah and fragments of almost every book in the Old Testament.1  The materials in this phenomenal find are dated around 100 B.C.2  However, what makes this discovery so fascinating is the history behind the writing of the scrolls.

 The Dead Sea Scrolls were copied down in the Massoretic tradition, a method of copying that was exceedingly precise.  Massorete scribes would copy manuscripts in all capital letters, with no punctuation or paragraphs.  When they were finished copying a particular book, they would total up the letters and find the middle letter of the book.  If it wasn’t the same, they made a new copy.  This meticulous attention to accuracy was highly evident in the Dead Sea Scrolls.  When the copy of the book of Isaiah was compared with a more recent Massoretic Hebrew text dating from the tenth century A.D., the manuscripts were found to be in remarkable harmony with only a few minor differences.3

 The evidence for the validity of the New Testament is extremely compelling.  At this time, there are over 4,000 different ancient Greek manuscripts that contain all or portions of the New Testament.  In addition, there are more than 1,000 copies and fragments of the New Testament in Syriac, Coptic, Armenian, Gothic, and Ethiopic.  There are also 8,000 copies of the Latin Vulgate.4,5  Numerous quotations from the New Testament Scriptures can be found in the writings of the early Church fathers.  These quotations are so numerous that it would be possible to gather them and reconstruct the entire New Testament, minus only fifteen to twenty verses!6  Considering just how many manuscripts Bible translators have at their fingertips, it is stunning just how much evidence there is for the validity of the New Testament.  To further support this claim, there is astounding evidence for the specific timing of the New Testament writings.  Check out this chart (near the end of the article) from Probe Ministries for further information.
 
Archaeological Evidence

 When it comes to providing solid historical evidence for the Bible, archaeology has proved the Bible’s reliability time and again.  In fact, the current number of archaeological finds that relate to the Bible reach into the hundreds of thousands!7  Archaeology has uncovered several civilizations, cities, ancient sites, etc. that are mentioned in the Scriptures.  One excellent such example is the Hittite civilization.

 For many years, critics had attacked the Bible’s references to the Hittites, whom It stated were a powerful people in the Middle East from 1750 to 1200 B.C. (Genesis 15:20, 1 Kings 10:29).  During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, archaeologists discovered evidence that permanently silenced critics of the Hittites’ existence.  A Hittite city — which was soon understood to be the empire’s capital — was discovered in Turkey.  This city also housed a library of thousands of tablets, providing additional insight to the Hittite language and culture.8

Check back soon for part II!

1. – Williams, James F., “Are the Biblical Documents Reliable?,” Probe Ministries, (1995), http://www.probe.org/site/c.fdKEIMNsEoG/b.4227393/k.3AE2/Are_the_Biblical_Documents_Reliable.htm (accessed February 4, 2010).
2. – Ibid.
3. – Ibid.
4. – Ibid.
5. – The Latin Vulgate is a Latin Translation of the Bible completed in A.D. 405 by Saint Jerome.
6. – Williams, op. cit.
7. – Zukeran, Patrick, “Authority of the Bible,” Probe Ministries, (2005), http://www.probe.org/site/c.fdKEIMNsEoG/b.4227389/k.6202/Authority_of_the_Bible.htm (accessed February 4, 2010).
8. – Ibid.

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Getting Informed

Posted January 17, 2010 by Jarrett
Categories: Apologetics, Worldview
Tags: , , , , ,

The other day while I was in a store, I happened to hear some of an interesting yet sobering conversation between a cashier and a customer.  Because I was walking by the checkout counters and not in line, I was only able to catch a piece of the dialogue.  As the cashier was totaling up the customer’s order, the customer ventured to ask him where he went to church.  The young man named a local place of worship that happened to be a Pseudo-Christian cult (for more on Pseudo-Christian cults, click here.)  A somewhat puzzled expression momentarily passed over the customer’s face, but it didn’t stop him from asking a follow-up question: “Uh, are you saved?”

Before I write anything else, I want to commend the customer for taking the initiative to try and share his faith.  It takes guts to do that, and it’s especially challenging to do it with a stranger.  Although I was unable to understand all the aspects and circumstances surrounding the customer’s witness, he did not appear to be very knowledgeable of the beliefs the cashier’s religion holds to.  Although he very likely knew what he believed about being “saved”, I don’t know if he had an understanding of what members of the particular cult believe.  He didn’t need to know every tenet of the cult’s doctrine; he just needed to know a few of their basic beliefs, including their view of salvation, which is very different from that of Christianity. 

Although it can be very helpful to know and understand the positions of other religions and belief systems, please understand that I am not suggesting one go out and conduct a highly intensive search on every philosophy that crosses their path.  Before any research on another belief system is made, Christians need to be sure that they know what they believe and that their beliefs line up with Scripture.  After this crucial foundation has been laid, research can be conducted on other beliefs.  This extra- curricular research is entirely optional and definitely not mandatory.  However, it can be extremely valuable when entering a witnessing opportunity or in understanding a particular cultural viewpoint. 

Here’s an illustration.  Suppose an army needs to know what obstacles they may face in a particular tract of land before they launch an assault.  Because they may not get another shot at taking this extremely valuable territory, they need to know what they are going up against before they go all in.  Obviously, the wisest move would be to scout out the land.  Once the scouts return with the necessary information — what the layout appears to be, where the opposition is weakest, etc. — the advance can proceed with a much greater amount of confidence and likelihood of success. 

The Christian approach to witnessing and understanding other worldviews is somewhat similar to that army’s scouting procedure.  We don’t need to go into a witnessing opportunity with a militant attitude, but we do need to obtain any information necessary to conducting a successful mission.  Understandably, a Christian can’t know every belief about every worldview he encounters, but a basic knowledge of the fundamental beliefs of several major belief systems will give him a distinct advantage not only in witnessing, but also in understanding events and opinions throughout our culture.  If Christians are to be ready to “give a reason for the hope that we have” (1Peter 3:15) as well as being on guard to “take every thought captive” (2 Corinthians 10:5) that the culture throws our way, we need to take time and understand the different worldviews that challenge the Christian worldview.  If we can learn to do this minimal amount of foundational work consistently, we will be able to enter witnessing opportunities and interaction with the culture with greater confidence, focus, and effectiveness.

If you would like to learn more about the beliefs of several prominent religions and belief systems, check out these links:

Chart depicting six major worldviews and their beliefs on a variety of topics

Essays on several religions and belief systems

Essays covering topics that different worldviews address

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Distortion and Denial: Pseudo-Christian Cults

Posted January 10, 2010 by Jarrett
Categories: Apologetics, Worldview
Tags: , , , , ,

If you read the title of this post you’re more than likely wondering, what in the world is a Pseudo-Christian cult?  Glad you asked.  A Pseudo-Christian cult is, in brief, a religion that has taken a piece or pieces of Biblical Christian doctrine and distorted or perverted them.  This may be done through adding to or denying the particular piece of doctrine.  For example, Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormonism are two common Pseudo-Christian cults.  Mormonism teaches that God spoke through a man named Joseph Smith during the 1830’s, informing him that the modern Christian church had corrupted the truth.  Smith then started a new religion and claimed that he had received a new revelation from God — one that required him to add to the Bible as a sort of “update”.   Jehovah’s Witnesses also distort Biblical Christian doctrine by denying the deity of Christ.  As a result, Jehovah’s Witnesses have made numerous revisions to the Scriptures, producing their own version — the New World Translation — which proposes contradictions to several fundamental tenets of Biblical Christian doctrine.

 Why should Christian be concerned about these cults in the first place?  Consider it this way: Christians need not be concerned about Mormonism and the Jehovah’s Witnesses because they are so different from Biblical Christianity.  Rather, Christians should be wary of these cults because they appear on the surface to be extremely similar to Christianity.  If you entered into a conversation with a Jehovah’s Witness or a Mormon about matters of religion, you may not quickly detect an obvious difference in your positions.  That is exactly what makes these cults so dangerous.  Christians who are not firmly grounded in the Bible — the true Bible, that is — may be easily swayed by a teaching on a few points of doctrine they are not familiar with.  As a result, they may be persuaded to accept the cult’s entire belief system, not realizing the conspicuous contradictions they hold toward Biblical Christianity.

 Because of the great extent of material a blog post would have to cover in order to take an in-depth look at particular Pseudo-Christian cults, I’ll have to wrap this one up by adding a few links to some resources.  As stated before, the great danger of these cults lies not in how different they are from Christianity, but how similar to it they appear on the surface.  Christians therefore need to understand these differences so they are not swayed by non-Biblical teachings.  Knowing what other religions and belief systems accept as truth is an invaluable step toward becoming an informed Christian.  More on that topic coming up in the next post.

List of articles concerning cults

Article about discerning cults

Fact sheet on Pseudo-Christian cults

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The Savior of The World

Posted December 24, 2009 by Jarrett
Categories: The Christian Life
Tags: , , ,

He is Lord of Lords, but He came to earth as a peasant.  He is King of Kings, but He arrived in a stable, not a palace.  The same God who spoke the world into existence was visited on the night of His birth not by kings and princes, but by some humble shepherds from a nearby field.  He was given gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh by wise men, having left the eternal riches and majesty of heaven to dwell upon this temporal earth with its material wealth.  He who is eternally adored by angels was mocked, beaten, spat upon, and crucified by the people He came to save.  Although He has legions of angels at His disposal, He surrendered His life with perfect meekness.

 His life-giving message was so radical and contrary to popular opinion that He was disdained by the religious leaders of His day.  Those same leaders, who had so fervently awaited the coming of a Messiah, would not accept Him when He arrived.  He who is so worthy of our highest praise taught and modeled humility, even to the point of washing His disciples’ feet.  He loved unconditionally those who denied and refused Him.  He lived not for His own pleasure, but instead ever sought to serve and love others.  His coming to this earth did not signal the beginning of His life, but rather initiated the beginning of His walk toward Calvary.  He came not to live, but to die as the perfect sacrifice for a world utterly lost in darkness.

In our present time, this same Savior is all too often treated with shameful indifference.  Christmas Day, the date on which His birth is celebrated, has been gradually watered down to the point of a mere reflection of the honor and reverence it should receive.  Even the name has been replaced by more “tolerant” greetings: Happy Holidays, Season’s Greetings, etc.  Nevertheless, no matter how much Christmas is diluted with distractions, no matter how much this Savior’s name is defiled and misused, His impact on our fallen world will be forever present, forever known, and forever honored by those who accept His gift of life.

Much is made among Christians about focusing on the “real meaning of Christmas”.  Obviously, this would be understood as a call to realize that this day honors Christ’s birth.  However, this Christmas, I want to ask you to remember and seek to realize the sheer awesomeness of this event.  This isn’t simply about a baby being born; this is about God Himself coming down to this world in order to die for mankind.  Consider the weight of this love and mercy.  Consider the humility, meekness, abounding grace and unconditional love Christ had to show at His coming.  Jesus’ physical arrival on our planet wasn’t simply a momentous occasion.  It initiated the most important sequence of events in the history of the world: His ministry, death, and victorious resurrection.

Merry Christmas

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Thinking Critically

Posted November 28, 2009 by Jarrett
Categories: Christian Thought, Worldview
Tags: , ,

Let’s say you go see a movie.  You get to the theater, buy your ticket, and grab a seat, maybe after a quick stop by the concession stand for an $8 bag of popcorn.  The previews drag on for about ten minutes, and then the movie finally starts.  You sit on the edge of your seat throughout the whole showing, totally engrossed in the story that flashes in front of you on the silver screen.  After about an hour and a half the film comes to an end, the credits start rolling, and you make a beeline for the nearest restroom.  Then you head home.  However, what you may not have realized is that for the entire hour and a half that you sat in a sedentary daze, a philosophy about life was being drilled into your mind.  What’s more, it may have been absorbed without even being challenged.  That is, unless you were thinking critically.

When a person thinks critically about something, he doesn’t just take it at face value.  The goal isn’t to swallow it in one bite, but to break it down and analyze it, making careful judgments about everything that is said and done.  For Christians, critical thinking is, well, quite critical to their faith.  No matter who says something, no matter where it was seen, every message that is heard must be dissected and carefully examined in order to distinguish truth from lies.  According to Scripture, Christians are called to “take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5), as well as being “transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2).  How can this be accomplished if we turn our minds off to what we read, watch, and listen to?  To be honest, we’re never really immune to the messages.  Whether we realize it or not, we absorb them without a challenge when we fail to think critically and take them captive for Christ.  When this happens, our worldview is gradually overtaken not by the truth of God’s word, but by the lies we fail to detect and destroy.

Let’s take a second to address the issue of worldview and how it relates to critical thinking.  (If you don’t know what a worldview is, check out a previous post on this topic by clicking here.)  In essence, your worldview is the lens through which you view all of reality.  If your worldview “lens” is blurry, you will likewise view reality in a blurry and misinformed way.  The Christian’s job is to always be examining and “touching up” his worldview, feeding himself with the truth of Scripture. As he does so, he will be able to see reality in an increasingly clearer light.  This clearer vision will enable him to become more effective at locating messages that are contrary to or in correspondence with reality.  As he learns to apply this vision in all areas of his life and carefully examines them, he becomes a better critical thinker.

 That’s a quick look at the importance of critical thinking.  Critical thinking, like many other worthy pursuits, is not an easy thing to do.  However, when it is faithfully and methodically employed in our thoughts and reasoning, our minds — and judgments — will become increasingly stronger and prudent.  This post is just a brief overview of the value of critical thinking.  If you would like to learn more about critical thinking in general and how to develop and apply it to your life, you can check out this link from Summit Ministries here.

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