The Bible is a brutally honest book. One of the things that it is most honest and forthright about is the character flaws of its authors and main characters. The Bible focuses on reality and how God works through the weaknesses of those he created to accomplish his plan. It does not concentrate on fantasy.
If the Bible were strictly a human endeavor, one would have expected its authors to exclude their own flaws from the story and the flaws of their patriarchs. Far from excluding such information the Bible is replete with the sins of its writers. It reveals both
Continue reading Why I Believe the Bible #11 (The Honesty of the Bible About Its Authors and Heroes)
We’ve covered the prophecies concerning the coming Messiah healing the blind and deaf in earlier weeks. This week we will look at the prophecies that the Messiah would also heal the mute. If you have been following this series, by now the following prophecy from the book of Isaiah, written hundreds of years before the birth of Jesus, should be familiar:
Say to those who have an anxious heart, “Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.” Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
Continue reading Monday Morning Prophecy #27 – The Messiah Would Heal the Mute
At the time it was written, the Bible was widely circulated and viewed by eyewitnesses to the events it records. As regards the New Testament, fragments of 5 books have been found from within 35 years of Jesus’ death. These eyewitnesses would have been in a position to refute what the authors had written and the lack of any such refutation provides further evidence for the reliability of the Bible.
In his letter to the church in Corinth, Paul explains that Jesus appeared to 500 and disciples and makes a point that many of them are still alive.
Then he appeared to
Continue reading Why I Believe the Bible #10 (Eyewitness Evidence)
Last week we looked at the prophecies which indicated that the Messiah would heal the blind. Those prophecies were recorded in the book of Isaiah hundreds of years before the birth of Christ. In that same book, we find a number of prophecies indicating that the Messiah would also heal the deaf:
In that day the deaf shall hear the words of a book, and out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind shall see. [Isaiah 29:18 ESV]
Say to those who have an anxious heart, “Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense
Continue reading Monday Morning Prophecy #26 – The Messiah Would Heal the Deaf
Last week we looked at the prophecy that the coming Messiah would calm the seas. This week we will look at the prophecy that the Messiah would also heal the blind.
Old Testament Prophecy
Hundreds of years before the birth of Christ, the prophet Isaiah made it clear that the coming Messiah would give sight to the blind:
In that day the deaf shall hear the words of a book, and out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind shall see. [Isaiah 29:18 ESV]
Say to those who have an anxious heart, “Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God will come with
Continue reading Monday Morning Prophecy #25 – The Messiah Would Heal The Blind
Like the Old Testament, the canon of the New Testament was not determined by man. Rather the Canon of the New Testament was determined by God, generally accepted by the church, and finally confirmed by man.
The Test of Apostleship
In order for a book to become part of the New Testament, one of the criteria was that the book had to be authored either directly by an apostle (like Matthew, John and Paul’s Epistles) or by someone close to an apostle (like Luke or Mark or Jude). The authority of the apostles to deliver God’s Word was recognized by many and
Continue reading Why I Believe the Bible #09B (The Process of Canonization – The New Testament)
We just finished up a number of weeks looking at the Old Testament prophecies regarding the genealogy of the coming Messiah and the fulfillment of those prophecies in the family line of Jesus Christ. In addition to predicting which family the Messiah would be born into, the Old Testament also includes a number of prophecies regarding the miracles that would be performed by the coming Messiah to prove that he came from God. In the next few installments of Monday Morning Prophecy, we will look at several of these prophecies beginning with a prophecy from Psalms about the time the
Continue reading Monday Morning Prophecy #24 – The Messiah Would Calm the Seas
Canon means “standardized.” In terms of the Bible, the Canon is the accepted list of books included in the Bible. Many have argued that a group of men got together at some point in history to determine which books should and should not be included in the Bible. To the contrary, God determined which books would be included in his Word and man simply confirmed what was already accepted as the canon of Scripture.
Due to differences between the Old and New Testaments and the authority by which they were canonized, I am splitting this section into two parts:
9A –
Continue reading Why I Believe the Bible #09A (The Process of Canonization – The Old Testament)
Last week we looked in depth at the proof for the authenticity and accuracy of the Old Testament including the excruciating process for transmitting the Bible from one generation to the next. This week we will look at the bibliographic evidence for the New Testament.
Number of Ancient Manuscripts of the New Testament
The number of ancient copies of the New Testament which have been discovered to date is staggering. Compared to all other books of antiquity, the number of existing copies of the New Testament is amazing. The survival of the number of manuscripts alone would lead you to believe that
Continue reading Why I Believe the Bible #08 (Bibliographic Evidence For The New Testament)
Many people who try to discredit the reliability of the Bible like to throw out the argument that goes something like this:
“The Bible we have today isn’t even close to the original version! How can you rely on it?”
The fact of the matter is, there is plenty of evidence to indicate that the Old Testament and New Testament that we have today does not differ significantly from the original manuscripts. This week we will look at the reliability of the transmission of the Old Testament which provides evidence that the version we read today is not significantly different than the
Continue reading Why I Believe the Bible #07 (Reliability of Transmission of Old Testament)
