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Why I Believe the Bible #09A (The Process of Canonization – The Old Testament)

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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 – Deals with the Canonization of the Old Testament
  • 9B – Deals with the Canonization of the New Testament

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Why I Believe the Bible #08 (Bibliographic Evidence For The New Testament)

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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 there is some supernatural element.

The following chart shows the number of Greek Copies of the New Testament compared to other ancient texts: Continue Reading…

Why I Believe the Bible #07 (Reliability of Transmission of Old Testament)

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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 original.  Next week we will look at the bibliographic evidence for the reliability of the New Testament.

The Problem

As we discussed in the last entry in this series on the supernatural survival of the text, the Bible was recorded on a number of materials which do not have a long life span.  Those included: Continue Reading…

Evidence

In the tradition of Schoolhouse Rock comes this short on the evidence for God!  Move over Conjunction Junction, it’s time for Evidence!  This video is the best apologetic video for kids that I have ever come across.

Why I Believe the Bible #06 (The Supernatural Survival of the Text)

BIbleIn addition to all of the other evidence the survival of the Bible itself through persecution, time and criticism is in indication of some sort of supernatural protection of the text.

The Bible is the most persecuted literary work in human history.  Multitudes of its human authors were killed.  In many cases, God worked through the death of those human writers to provide strength to the argument for the validity of scripture.  Later in this study we will look at the 12 apostles chosen by Jesus.  All but one died a violent death because of their insistence of the truth of the story told by scripture – namely the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  While some may be willing to suffer for a lie, it is impossible to believe that all would go to their deaths in order to perpetuate a lie.

Shortly following the death and resurrection of Jesus, the Roman Empire began to persecute Christians, and vast numbers of Bibles were destroyed prior to Constantine declaring Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire in 313 A.D.  Indeed, in 303 A/D the Roman Emperor Diocletian declared that anyone found possessing a Bible would be executed.  Those who possess the Bible are routinely killed even today in countries around the world.  Communist regimes in the former Soviet Union and China outlawed possession of Bibles and destroyed copies which they found. Albert Baird Cummins offers the following summary:

“The empire of Caesar is gone;  the legions of Rome are smouldering in the dust;  the avalanches of Napoleon hurled upon Europe have melted away, the prince of the pharoahs is fallen;  the pyramids they raised to be their tombs are sinking every day in the desert sands;  Tyre is a rock for bleaching fisherman’s nets;  Sidon has scarcely left a wreck behind;  but the WORD OF God still survives:   All things that threatened to extinguish it have only aided it;  and it proves every day how transient is the noblest monument that men can build, how enduring is the least Word that God has spoken.”

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Why I Believe the Bible #05 (The Bible is Unique Amongst Books)

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Many people are prone to making assertions like, “the Bible is just a book.”  So, let’s take a week in this series and look at that assertion.  Is the Bible just like any other book?  The answer, of course, is no.  As a work of literature, the Bible stands so far above other books that there is no comparison.  Let’s look at some of the unique aspects of the Bible as literature:

1. Circulation

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    Why I Believe the Bible #04 (The Bible is Internally Consistent)

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    The Bible was written over a span of nearly 1,500 to 2,000 years (depending on the dating of some books).  It had over 40 different human authors from numerous walks of life including kings, military personnel, peasants, prophets, priests, philosophers, doctors, rabbis, fishermen, tax collectors, poets, musicians, statesmen and shepherds.  It includes book by both Jews and Gentiles.  It was written in Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic on the continents of Asia, Africa and Europe.  It was written in times of war and peace, in times of sovereignty and captivity, and in times of great joy and great grief.  It includes poetry, historical narrative, songs, romance, letters, memoirs, biography, autobiography, law, prophecy, parable and allegory.  There is a gap a roughly 400 years between the New Testament and the Old Testament.

    Despite all of these factors, the Bible is amazingly (infallibly) consistent.  It presents one cohesive story throughout, and that it the story of God and the redemption of mankind.  The lead character throughout all 66 books is God.

    Despite the vast numbers and backgrounds of the human authors, they are amazingly (i.e., 100%) consistent on a litany of controversial topics such as: Continue Reading…

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