OUTLINE
Introduction:
* Personal journey and intrigue with attacks on the trustworthiness of Scripture.
* Recognizing the vulnerability of many Christians regarding this topic (children, older adults, college students).
* Shifting the focus from solely content and faith to the strong historical reasons for trusting Scripture.
* Addressing the lack of preparedness in many to defend their faith (1 Peter 3:15).
Scripture Reading: 1 Peter 3:15-16 (NKJV)
Two Key Aspects for Confidence in the Word of God:
I. Faith
* Scripture Reading: 2 Peter 1:21 (NKJV)
* Inspiration of Scripture:
* Authors inspired by the Holy Spirit.
* Different interpretations of "inspiration."
* Verbal Plenary Inspiration: God superintended every word, ensuring accuracy while authors used their own styles and ideas.
* God directed thoughts and writing without dictation.
* Scripture Reading: 2 Timothy 3:16-17 (NKJV)
* θεοπνευστος (Theopneustos): "God-breathed."
* Significance of all original words being from God's own mouth.
* Relevance to the importance of wording in translation.
* Primarily referring to the Old Testament in its original context.
* Faith as a Starting Point:
* Trusting that His Word is from His mouth and without error because they are His Words.
* Acknowledging faith as an integral part of trusting the Bible.
* Example of Bart Ehrman: Historical data interpreted through a presupposition of disbelief.
* Persuasive arguments alone are insufficient without faith.
* Faith in the text is the assumed starting point for a Christian.
II. Historical Data
* Good historical reasons to trust the accuracy of the Bible we have today.
* Focus on the New Testament due to frequent attacks.
* Four key areas of evidence:
* Dispersion of Text
* Similarity of Manuscripts
* Canonization
* Books Not Canonized
A. Dissemination of Texts
* Timeline of New Testament writing (Revelation: pre-70 A.D. or around 90-100 A.D.).
* Christ's death (approx. 33 A.D.).
* Earliest Greek manuscript fragment (P52, early 2nd century).
* Relatively short time gap compared to other ancient texts (e.g., Plato).
* Abundance of manuscripts: 5,000+ fragments and manuscripts.
* Whole books dating back to the 2nd century.
* William Mounce's statistics on early manuscripts (within 300 years, whole NT text found multiple times).
* Early 4th-century complete codices of the New Testament.
B. Witnesses
* Languages: Early translations into Syriac, Coptic, and Latin, followed by others.
* Significance of early and widespread translation efforts.
* Patristics: Writings of early church leaders quoting extensively from Greek and other translations.
* Their writings as a valuable resource for confirming the early text.
* Estimate of 99% of the NT potentially recoverable from patristic writings.
* How the wealth of early material enhances trustworthiness.
* Addressing the argument of intentional textual changes:
* The herculean task of altering so many diverse sources.
* Ease of identifying changes through comparison.
* Peter Gurry's analogy of a "three-strand cord of evidence" (Greek manuscripts, versions, patristic writings).
* Confidence derived from the consistency across this vast amount of material.
C. Similarity of Manuscripts
* Approximately 90% of manuscripts are identical.
* Addressing the statistic of more variants than words in the NT:
* Majority of variants are minor (spelling errors, missing/added words or sentences).
* Spelling errors account for a significant portion (around 280,000).
* Context of 1300 years of hand copying.
* Textual Criticism categories for evaluating variants:
* Not Meaningful and Not Viable
* Viable and Not Meaningful (approx. 70% of variants)
* Meaningful and Not Viable
* Meaningful and Viable (less than 1% of variants, roughly 4,000).
* Further reduction to about 400 variants with significant difficulty in deciding the original.
* These are often noted in Bible footnotes.
* Crucially, NOT ONE "meaningful and viable" variant changes or calls into question a single biblical doctrine (William Mounce).
* Bart Ehrman's concession that essential Christian beliefs are unaffected by textual variants.
* God's provision of abundant material and tools for discerning the original text despite variations.
* Addressing the "telephone game" analogy:
* The oral culture of the 1st century and its emphasis on memorization.
* Community correction and the presence of living eyewitnesses of Jesus Christ.
D. Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha
* Understanding why certain books are in the canon and others are not.
* The "Forgotten Books of the Bible" were not left out or forgotten.
* Early church criteria for canonization:
* Apostolicity: Authorship by an apostle or a close associate (e.g., Luke).
* Scripture Reading: 2 Peter 3:15-16 (NKJV) highlighting Paul's authoritative writings as "Scripture."
* Connection to apostolic authority was crucial.
* Orthodoxy: Consistency of teachings with already accepted authoritative books.
* Mounce's point about the early availability of Paul's writings and Mark's Gospel for comparison.
* Rapid inclusion of Luke, Acts, and Matthew, providing a significant portion of the NT for evaluating later books.
* Catholicity: Widespread acceptance and use by Christians across different regions.
* "Catholic" meaning universal, not specifically the Roman Catholic Church.
* The role of the Holy Spirit in the discernment of the early church.
* Debunking the myth of Constantine or the Council of Nicea determining the canon.
* The gradual process of canon recognition over time.
* Athanasius's 367 A.D. list as the first complete 27-book NT canon.
* Most NT books were widely accepted and used long before this formalization.
* Categories of non-canonical books:
* Deuterocanonical/Apocrypha (OT): Edifying but not authoritative for doctrine (e.g., Tobit, 1-2 Maccabees).
* Jerome's distinction between useful and authoritative books.
* Historically included between the OT and NT in many Protestant Bibles until the 19th century.
* Pseudepigrapha (False Writings): Books falsely attributed to authoritative figures (e.g., Gospel of Peter, Gospel of Thomas).
* Often the "forgotten books" mentioned in popular culture.
* Early Church Fathers were aware of some of these but lacked copies until recently.
* Examples of recent forgeries (e.g., "Gospel of Jesus's Wife").
* Recommendation to listen to Wesley Huff's research on the authenticity of names in these forgeries.
* Early church term "apocryphal" now generally encompassing these false writings.
Conclusion:
* The role of faith in our trust in the Bible.
* The compelling historical evidence supporting the accuracy of the New Testament as written by the Apostles.
* The 100,000-foot overview providing a sufficient basis for trusting God's Word.
* Encouragement for personal study and deeper learning about the reliability of Scripture.
* The importance of knowing why you believe what you believe.
* Finding comfort and strength in the providential guidance of God in the transmission of His Word.
* Holding the Bible close as reliable and true, and being prepared to defend your belief in it (1 Peter 3:15).
