Servant Team Training

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Servant Team Training

• Reliability of the Bible

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3 Main topics of the Bible

• I. The Historical Evidence
• II. Inerrancy
• III. Archaeology

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I. Historical Evidence

• The Bible is tested like any historical document.
• Internal Evidence Test
• External Evidence Test

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A). Internal Evidence

• Asks, Does the text agree with itself? Are its
  claims consistent?

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The Bible claims to

• Be The inspired Word of God.
• Have a credible account of the life of Jesus.
• Have fulfilled Prophecy

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1. The Bible claims to be the Inspired Word of
God.

• Inspired- means God - breathed
• It refers not to the writers, but to what
  is written.

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• II Timothy 316- All scripture is inspired by
  God and profitable for teaching for reproof, for
  correction, for training in righteousness.
• II Peter 120-21- But know this first of all ,
  that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of
  ones interpretation, for no prophecy was ever
  made by an act of human will, but men moved by
  the Holy Spirit spoke from God.

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• God used each writer, in his own style, to write
  according to His will.

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2).The Bible claims to be the credible account
of the life of Jesus.

• II Peter 116- We did not follow cleverly
  invented stories when we told you about the power
  and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were
  eyewitnesses to His majesty.

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Historical Evidence

• Acts 222- Men of Israel, listen to this Jesus
  of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by
  miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among
  you through Him, as you yourselves know.
• John 2031 but these are written so that you
  may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of
  God, and that by believing you may have life in
  His name.

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3). Fulfilled Prophecy

• One of the greatest proofs that the Bible is the
  Inspired Word of God.
• The Bible demonstrates knowledge of the future by
  the foretelling of persons, places and events.
  The prophesies in the Bible are not vague
  generalities but rather specific in their detail.

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• Messianic Prophecy
• Born of a Virgin (Is. 714/Mt 118-25)
• Born in Bethlehem (Micah 52/ Mt. 21)
• Life, Death, ministry of the Messiah
• Current
• Rebirth of Israel
• (McDowell, New Evidence p.193)

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Peter Stoner (statistician) from Science Speaks

• We find that the chance that any man might have
  lived down to the present time and fulfilled all
  eight prophecies is 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000.
  (pp.100-107).

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Historical Evidence

• A). Internal Evidence-
• 1. Inspired Word of God
• 2. Credible life of Jesus
• 3. Fulfilled Prophecy
• B). External Evidence-

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B). The External Evidence

• Checks to see if there are other reliable
  sources that confirm the internal testimony of
  the documents.

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• List of authors who writings confirm the
  reliability of the Bible or mention Jesus or the
  formation of the early church.

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• Eusebuis, Ecclesiastical History III.39,(130 AD)
• Iranaeus, Bishop of Lyons, Against heresies
  (180AD)
• Clement of Rome (95AD)
• Ignatius (70-110AD)
• Polycarp (70-156 AD)
• Flavius Josephus (30-100AD)
• Tatian (170 AD)
• Cornelius Tactius (Annals of Imperial Rome)
• and the list goes on.
• (Case for Christ p.104-108)

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Craig Bloomberg DCC 2002

• Says A dozen non-Christian sources that
  mention that Jesus of Nazareth did exist. They
  claim and say- Jesus of Nazareth worked miracles
  and cast out demons.
• -Believed to be the Messiah
• -Crucified
• -Raised from the dead
• Founder of a religious movement that kept
  growing.
• Read book Robert E. VanVoorst Jesus outside the
  New Testament.

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1st Generation Christian History

• The local leaders, places,practices that are
  mentioned in the book of Acts and in Pauls
  letters are all confirmed and documented by
  non-Christian sources.

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3 Main topics of the Bible

• I. The Historical Evidence
• II. Inerrancy
• III. Archaeology

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II. The Bible is Inerrant

• Inerrancy- refers to the reliability of
  scripture.

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• The Bible is unique
• Written over 1,600 years ago
• More than 40 authors
• 31 languages
• Amazingly unique, One story,One problem, One
  solution.

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Josh McDowell said

• The Bible has 40 authors written over a period
  of 1,500 years. Not by authors with the same
  education, culture, and language, but vastly
  different education, many different cultures and
  from 3 continents with 3 different languages and
  about 100 subjectsAnd yet the Bible is a Unity.

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The Bible is Inerrant

• Over 25,000 manuscript copies of portions of the
  New Testament.
• Few remaining manuscripts of Hebrew Old
  Testament.
• Quality of manuscripts- 99.5 accuracy
• Time span within 25 yrs.
• (McDowell- Demands a Verdict, p.34)

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Dead Sea Scrolls-

• -Found in 1948 in caves along Dead Sea.
• -These scrolls were manuscripts 1,000 years older
  than any in previous existence.
• Scrolls written by- Jews who lived at a place
  called Qumran from 150 B.C to
• A. D. 70.
• -Scrolls were fragments of almost every
• Old Testament book.

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• Between 30 to 60 years after the life of Christ
  the Gospels were written.
• Meaning that there were still eyewitnesses
  alive that could have challenged the claims about
  the life of Christ.but they didnt.

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Faithful Historian who wrote

• Luke 11-4 Inasmuch as many have undertaken to
  compile a narrative of things that have been
  accomplished among us, just as those who from the
  beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the
  word have delivered them to us, it seemed good to
  me also, having followed all things closely for
  some time past, to write an orderly account for
  you, most excellent Theophilus, that you may have
  certainty concerning the things you have been
  taught.

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The Bible is Inerrant

• In comparison
• Homer Iliad is 2nd with only 643 manuscripts that
  still survive.
• (McDowell, Demands a Verdict, p.34)

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John Warwick Montgomery says

• to be skeptical of the resultant text of the
  New Testament books is to allow all classical
  antiquity to slip into obscurity, for no
  documents of the ancient period are as well
  attested bibliographically as the New Testament.
• (McDowell, Demands a Verdict, p. 35)

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The Encyclopedia Britannica says

• When the textual scholar has examined the
  manuscripts and the versions, he still has not
  exhausted the evidence for the New Testament
  text.
• (EB, VOL 3, 579-McDowell- Demands a Verdict, p.
  43)

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3 Main topics of the Bible

• I. The Historical Evidence
• II. Inerrancy
• III. Archaeology

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III. Archaeological Evidence

• 2 Pools in Jerusalem
• Pilate inscription
• Man crucified with ankle nails (1968)
• Jesus Boat (1980)
• Temple site in Jerusalem
• Caiaphas tomb (1990s)

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• William Albright, a world renowned archaeologist
  and professor at John Hopkins states, There
  can be no doubt that archaeology has confirmed
  the substantial historicity of the Old Testament
  tradition. (Archeology and the Religions of
  Israel, p. 176)

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• In another place, he adds, Discovery after
  discovery has established the accuracy of
  innumerable details and has brought increased
  recognition to the value of the Bible as a source
  of history. (The archaeology of Palestine, p.
  127-128).

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• Right now there is the most evidence that the
  Bible is reliable -more than there has ever been
  in time.

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3 Main topics of the Bible

• I. The Historical Evidence
• II. Inerrancy
• III. Archaeology

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• Order books of scholarship online
• -More Than A Carpenter
• -available for free

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Reliability of the Bible

• Denying that God is real takes more faith than
  believing in Him. For everyday man is confronted
  with the reality of God and his own need for Him.

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Servant Team Training

• Reliability of the Bible

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Further Study

• Introductory
• Lee Strobel, The Case for Christ (Grand Rapids
  Zondervan, 1998).
• Josh McDowell, The New Evidence- That Demands a
  Verdict
• (Heres Life Publishers 1981- Campus Crusade
  for Christ).
• Jeffrey L. Sheler, Is the Bible True? (Grand
  Rapids Zondervan,
• 1999).
• Walter C. Kaiser, Jr., The O.T. Documents Are
  They Reliable and Relevant? Downers Grove
  InterVarsity Press, 2001).
• Craig L. Blomberg, the Historical Reliability of
  the Gospels
• (Downers Grove InterVarsity Press, 1987).
• Michael J. Wilkins and J.P. Moreland, eds., Jesus
  Under Fire
• (Grand RapidsZondervan, 1995).

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Further Study

• More Advanced
• - William G. Dever, What Did the Biblical Writers
  Know and When
• Did They Know it? (Grand Rapids Eerdmans,
  2001).
• Craig L. Bloomberg, The Historical Reliability of
  Johns Gospel
• (Downers Grove InterVarsity Press, 2002).
• Colin Hemer, The Book of Acts in The Setting of
  Hellinistic History (Tubingen J.C.B. Mohr,
  1989).
• Robert E. VanVoorst, Jesus Outside the New
  Testament Grand
• Rapids Eerdmans, 2001).