The reason for reason apologetics: foundational to humanity 1 Pet 3:15 “give an apologia for your hope” a verbal defense to challenges to faith requires logic: a reasoned, relevant response foundational to humanity purpose of apologetics keep ourselves honest remove intellectual barriers

The Bible according to naturalism a purely human product evolved according to human actions (causes) resulted in human consequences (effects) specific causes: power struggles, politics, self-will deception, legend/myth-making superstition, fear of unknown

The Bible according to naturalism specific effects: contradictory and competing texts numerous historical, scientific errors absolutely nothing unique in its claims equivalent to Quran, Confucious, NYTimes inferior morality and theology mere kernels of historical reality faulty copies and translations

Some fundamental questions how do we know God exists? how do we know God is a personal deity? how do we know God has communicated with us? how do we know the Bible is God’s message? how do we know the Bible is God’s sole revelation to us?

Biblical claim of inspiration 2 Timothy 3.15-17 all scripture is “God-breathed” authoritative, reliable to equip completely 2 Peter 1.19-21 involved human participation all scripture of divine origin and character 1 Corinthians 2.10-13 the very words themselves are of divine origin

Consequences of inspiration the only communication from God that forms the basis of a relationship with Him absolute and authoritative understandable, relevant, and practical reliable and trustworthy demands utmost care in transmission, translation, and interpretation

Evidence for inspiration self-made claims of scripture necessary, but not sufficient self-validation of consistency and unity prophetic validation of fulfillment historical validation and lack of contradiction divine validation of Jesus Christ

Principle of inspiration a divine-human process of revelation by which scripture retains divine authority, accuracy, and applicability human personality, creativity, and will the mechanics of inspiration are unrevealed not a matter of faith!

What does inspiration look like? Witherington: it looks like what we have let the text speak for itself allows for human initiative allows for human sources allows for human methods allows for variation and diversity