God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.

-John 4:24

  

• 68% of Americans consider themselves Christians.
• Only 6 percent of Americans have a Christian worldview.
• 2 out of 3 Christians do not read the Bible with any regularity.
• Most Americans, including a high percentage of Christians, believe the Bible is flawed.

  

  

1 - You can’t trust the translations.

Yo: A customary but informal greeting in teen-speak. The equivalent to grandpa-speak: “Hi.” Or “Hey.”

Chill: In teen-speak does not mean cold. It communicates that a person or a situation is copacetic, happy, ok. It’s a modern derivative of the common boomer-speak word, Cool, as in “it’s cool.” “I’m cool.” “Everything is cool.”

Bro: A term of friendship and endearment.  A shortened form of the word brother. A person does not have to be a blood relative to be your bro. It is best translated into boomer-speak as friend, or more colloquially, man.

So, putting it all together we can translate teen-speak:

“Yo, it’s chill bro.” into boomer-speak “Hey, it’s all okay man.”

Mark 10:50:

"Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus." -NIV

"And throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus." -ESV

"And throwing off his cloak, he jumped up and came to Jesus." -NASB

"So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus." -NRSV

"And he, casting away his garment, rose, and came to Jesus." - KJV

  

Bottom line:

You can trust the translations to accurately reflect the meaning and intentions of the original texts.

  

There is no question that archaeological findings have enhanced the New Testament’s credibility. No discovery has ever disproved a biblical reference.

-John McRay

Of the Divine character of the Bible, I think, no man who deals honestly with his own mind and heart can entertain a reasonable doubt. For myself, I must say; that having for many years made the evidences of Christianity the subject of close study, the result has been a firm and increasing conviction of the authenticity and plenary inspiration of the Bible. It is indeed the Word of God.

-Simon Greenleaf

  

Can we trust the different translations of the Bible to accurate communicate the original documents?

The charge that we cannot know what the original documents of the New Testament said is patently and utterly false. The gap between the original documents and our earliest copies is so brief that it becomes a non-issue. Far from diminishing our ability to identify what the originals said, the vast number of existing copies allows us to confidently assert, with historical confidence, that what Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and Paul originally recorded or wrote down are the same words and thoughts we are reading today.

There is no body of ancient literature in the world which enjoys such a wealth of good textual attestation as the New Testament.

-F.F. Bruce

The last foundation of any doubt that the Scriptures have come down to us substantially as they were written has now been removed.

-Sir Fredrick Kenyon

  

First: Can we trust the different translations of the Bible to accurately communicate the original documents? Yes!

  

Second: Can we trust what we are reading today is an accurate reflection of what was originally written? Absolutely.

  

Third: Are we reading the correct books?

All the characters and events in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

-The Da Vinci Code

Dan Brown says that the Emperor Constantine imposed a whole new interpretation of Christianity at the Council of Nicea in 325. That is, he decreed the belief in Jesus’ divinity and suppressed all evidence of His humanity. This would mean Christianity won the religious competition in the Roman Empire by an exercise of power rather than by any attraction it exerted. In actual historical fact, the church had won that competition long before that time, before it had any power, when it was still under sporadic persecution. If a historian were cynical, you would say Constantine chose Christianity because it had already won, and he wanted to back a winner.

-C. John Sommerville

  

What was the criterion for the categorization of an inspired book of the Bible?

Reason One: Apostolicity

This refers to a document being written by an apostle of Jesus or by a close companion of an apostle of Jesus.

Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.

-Luke 1:1-4

Reason Two: Antiquity

For a book to have Apostolic Authority, it would have to be old, written and dated in the first century.

Reason Three: Orthodoxy

There must be conformity to the teachings of Jesus through Oral Tradition and through the written word as recorded in the Gospels.

  

Though various ideas are taught in the several books of the Gospels, it makes no difference to the faith of believers, since by one sovereign Spirit all things are declared in all of them concerning the Nativity, the Passion, the Resurrection, the conversation with his disciples, and his two comings.

-Samuel Prideaux Fregelles, ‘Canon Muratorian’

The New Testament did not result from some nefarious, late in the day conspiracy to privilege one set of books and suppress others that would have given us a different perspective on Jesus.

  

Do we have the right documents?

• Not one of the documents that make up our New Testament ultimately failed any of the reasonable tests.
• They are written by reliable witnesses to the life and teachings of Jesus.

Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?’ ‘Who are you, Lord?’ Saul asked. ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,’ he replied. ‘Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.’

-Acts 9:1-6

Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not the result of my work in the Lord? Even though I may not be an apostle to others, surely I am to you! For you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.

-1 Corinthians 9:1-2

I am the way, the truth, and the Life and no one comes to the Father except through me.

-John 14:6

  

How do you know? I feel it in my spirit.

  

The Dead Sea Scrolls do a lot to validate the Old Testament due to the fact that they are nearly identical to the versions of the Old Testament we read today, and because they are dated to 300-400 years BC. Before the Dead Sea Scrolls were found, Old Testament critics often asserted that many Old Testament books were written well after their events allegedly occurred -- sometimes even as late as 1000 AD. The Dead Sea Scrolls confirm that these books were written around 300 BC at the very latest. This is particularly important for prophetic books, like Daniel. Old Testament critics asserted for a long time that Daniel must have been written well after 0 AD, because its prophecies about the Roman empire are so unambiguous and vivid. The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls lends credence to the Book of Daniel being actual prophecy.

  

What does all of this tell you?

• We have good translations of the biblical manuscripts.
• Those manuscripts are accurate copies of what was originally written.The books we are looking at are indeed the right books to look at.
• The authors of those documents really did intend to tell us what happened.
• There is no good reason to think they were mistaken in what they saw or recorded.

Do you know how many people around you are dying?

The Story of the Bible is the story of Hope and Certainty.

I marvel that whereas the ambitious dreams of myself, Caesar, and Alexander should have vanished into thin air, a Judean peasant-Jesus should be able to stretch His hands across the centuries and control the destinies of men and nations.

-Napoleon Bonaparte

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, 'He is my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I will trust. He will cover you with his feathers, and under His wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.'

-Psalm 91:1-2,4

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

-Philippians 4:6-7

  

  

  

  

  

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