We can support our faith with reason and evidence Why do you believe? We can support our faith with reason and evidence Well congratulations, you made it through the tough issues about truth and science. – whew! Now we come to what many of you are most interested in – the Bible. And then next week Jesus. Sometimes if I ask a Christian how we know God exists they may say “because the Bible tells me so”. And if I ask how they know the Bible is true, they will say it is because it is the word of God. Although I believe that is true, it is a logical fallacy called circular reasoning and is not a valid argument. You cannot use the Bible to prove God and then turn around and use God to prove the Bible. For nonbelievers, even if they have some level of support for the idea of God, many object to the Bible or Christianity as anything exclusive because there are other religions, other holy scriptures, and other so-called gods. So explaining how we know we can trust the bible and address all the challenges and criticisms is very important to helping a nonbeliever clear up misunderstandings they may have about the Bible. Let’s get started.

Agenda Session 1 – Intro, strategy, questions, challenges Session 2 – Truth, God exists - arguments Session 3 – Science key terms & issues Session 4 – Bible reliability Session 5 – Jesus, Trinity, Atheism/Agnosticism, POE Session 6 – Islam, cults, other religions Session 7 – Predestination/free will, those who never hear, NDE Session 8 – Review & Final Q&A I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist – Geisler/Turek Tactics – Greg Koukl Who Moved the Stone – Frank Morison

Session 4 – Bible reliability Challenges No original Bible or any of the 66 books Myth and legend Written 300 yrs post Christ 200,000 so-called errors (variants) Scribal variants – John 7-8, end of Mark Higher criticism (sources/dates/authors) Anti-supernatural bias Canon Apocrypha Deuterocanonical - (second Canon/Catholic) Maccabees, Baruch, etc (11 works) Pseudographa (false) – Gnostic gospels Gospel of Barnabus, Philip, Thomas, Judas, etc At best they are 2nd cent. Originals - contradictions

Session 4 – Bible reliability - OT Early Dead Sea scrolls - <1st century AD/some 3rd century BC All books except Esther Nash Papyrus – 2nd century BC Earliest likely written by 1400 BC Masoretes added vowels, punctuation, verses in 3rd century Abundance 10,000 found in Cairo Geniza (200k fragments) 600 more found at Qumran/Dead Sea scrolls Accuracy Professional scribes learned 4,000 rules/avg 9 months ½ pg/full pg character count – pins, thread, wrote between Isaiah Dead Sea copy - 2nd century - almost word for word compared to next recent copy 900 years later Textual criticism - 95% accuracy among copies Minor variants – copying, grammar errors William Albright – “no doubt…substantially as written.” 5 min

Session 4 – Bible reliability - NT Early 1 Cor. - AD 55 confirmed by even critical scholars 15:3-8 1st creed w/in 1 yr of resurrection Acts in AD 60-62 so Luke earlier Other gospels same narrative so all valid No mention Fall of Jerusalem/temple, Jewish rebellion Death of Paul, James Why? Had not yet occurred Too fast for myth/legend (need 300 yrs) 5 min We need to understand that the bible is not like other scriptures from other religions. The Bible is a historical record of what took place. First, historians say it takes at least 300 years for myth and legend to develop. Although the actual collection of books we now call the Bible was put together about 300 years after Jesus, the individual scriptures were written much sooner than that. Some were written as soon as 25 years after the resurrection. 1 Cor is a key book and accepted by the most critical non-Christian Nt scholar, Bart Ehrman, as written in AD 55 by the apostle Paul. In 1 Cor Paul refers to other scripture so those must have been written sooner. 1 Cor. 15: 3-8 is a very important scripture. It is an early creed that dates back to within months of the resurrection and contains the basic story of Christ. Bible scholars accept that the book of Luke was written in AD 60 and it mentions the other books (Acts) so that must have been written even earlier. Because the basic facts and stories of the other gospels are similar to Luke, it means that those gospels are also reliable and written in the same time period. This evidence shows that the first scriptures were written far too soon to be considered myth or legend.

Session 4 – Bible reliability - NT Earliest dates to AD 117-138 John Ryland Papyri – 4 verses from John Entire book – AD 200 Bodmer papyri Most of NT – AD 250 Chester Beatty papyri Qc7 – conservative dated 4 Mark fragments – AD 50 Acts, Rom., 1 Tim., 2 Pet., James – AD 60-70 12 from 2nd century 64 from the 3rd century 48 from the 4th century Codex Vaticanus – AD 325-350 Most of OT Septuagint and NT in Greek (inc. apocrypha) Codex Sinaiticus – 4th century >half of Septuagint and almost all of NT - Greek

Session 4 – Bible reliability - NT Abundance 5700-6000 Greek copies, partial or full 9,000 other translation copies Only 7 copies of Plato, 49 Aristotle, 150 Homer’s Iliad Most ancient docs have 7-10 copies Accuracy Manuscript scholar Sir Fredrick Kenyon “…no doubt…substantially as written.” American scholar Bruce Metzger - 99.5% accurate Greek scholar A.T. Robertson - 99.9% accurate Most of NT quoted outside of the Bible (36k quotes) Simon Greenleaf – Harvard Law Law enforcement rules for eyewitness testimony Gospels would stand up in court as reliable 5 min

Session 4 – Bible reliability Other ancient works comparison Homer’s Illiad – 643/500 yrs after original Plato – 49/1300 yrs after original Aristotle – 7/1400 yrs after original Alexander the Great Earliest written copy – 2nd cent. AD Lived 4th cent. BC 500 yrs later

Session 4 – Bible reliability Errors and Changes Errors almost exclusively grammar, typos No important meaning or doctrine changed No known copying process for NT Scribes made some changes (brackets) Noted at bottom of page in Bible Canon - books considered divinely inspired By apostles, prophets and accepted/used scripture No quotes from apocrypha Apocrypha added in 1500’s No inspiration claims Therefore the Bible is historically reliable Reliability of the NT – Ehrman/Wallace debate 5 min As far as the critics who say there are hundreds of thousands of errors, it is misleading. Almost all errors are copying errors or grammar errors. They calculate the errors by adding up an individual errors that might appear in thousands of copies after and including that in the total. So if there is one copying error that appears in three thousand of the copies, it is considered three thousand errors. There are no errors among all the manuscripts that involve any important meaning or doctrine. Canon is what we call the books of the Bible that were accepted as divinely inspired. If they were not considered divinely inspired they were not included in the bible. There are other books such as the gospel of thomas, judas and Barnabas that are not considered divinely inspired and were not included. The decision on what was divinely inspired was either that it was written by a prophet, or apostle or widely accepted at the time and used as teaching. Some people say that the scribes (the ones who recorded the copies) added or deleted scripture. In some minor areas this is true but there is no deception. They may have had reasons for minor changes but all are noted at the footnote of your pages in the Bible if a change was made.

Session 4 – Bible reliability Why all the Bible versions? Update in modern language Subtle changes in scholar translation Word for word – Formal equivalence Thought – Dynamic equivalence Combination - Optimal equivalence Earliest/fewest vs. later/more Majority text vs. Critical text Cannot determine “best” - subjective 5 min

Session 4 – Bible reliability Inerrancy Be careful to understand this Inerrancy (no errors) Can only be attributed to the originals Inerrancy correct definition What the Bible teaches/affirms Bibles are translated Do not have the exact words of Jesus in every case Gospel accounts have word variants ipsissima approxima not vox Paraphrased not exact words Do not think if one word of the Bible is found to be in error we lose inerrancy 5 min

Session 4 – Bible reliability Was it true? Embarrassing details Disciples often dull, did not understand Disciples didn’t understand Jesus was God ‘til near crucifixion All ran when Jesus was arrested Only John and the women were at the crucifixion Peter denied Jesus 3 times Jesus was said to be crazy by His family at one time (Mark 3:21) James did not believe in Him until the resurrection Many disciples deserted him after the last supper Jesus accused of being demon-possessed by religious leaders Jesus (God) described in terrible pain and suffering Jesus spent most of his time with sinners Jesus said love your enemies Jesus called the religious leaders hypocrites and snakes Jesus asked God why forsaken Jesus died on a cross (considered a curse) Women first witnesses to empty tomb/resurrected Jesus Simple unexaggerated descriptions of miracles/resurrection

Session 4 – Bible reliability Authority of Bible confirmed by Jesus Divine authority – Matt. 4:4, 7, 10 Indestructability – Matt. 5:17-18 Infallibility /unbreakability – John 10:35 Ultimate supremacy – Matt. 15:3, 6 Factual inerrancy – Matt. 22:29; John 17:17 Historical reliability – Matt. 12:40:24;37-38 Scientific accuracy – Matt. 19:4-5; John 3:12

Session 4 – Scripture comparisons Islam Human vision – attacked by demons? Corrupt – Bukhari 6:509-510 Hinduism Myth and legend – no historical figures Judaism Deny NT but why? Isaiah 53 – Messiah/Jesus Jehovah’s Witnesses Reinterpret passages showing Jesus is God (John 1:1-3) Mormonism Human vision from 1800’s then created their own scripture Gal. 1:8; 2 Cor. 11:4; Rev. 22:18-19 Any other gospel…even if from angel…let them be cursed Bible unity 40 authors wrote 66 books over 1,500 years Different languages, backgrounds, occupations One common theme – Messiah/Jesus Only intelligent design explains organization and consistency among all books 5 min

Resources www.resurgensconsulting .com - My site/blog General I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist – Geisler/Turek www.ratiochristi.org More than a Carpenter - Josh McDowell Science Dr. Hugh Ross The Case for Christ - Lee Strobel Genesis Question Why the Universe is the way it is Mere Christianity - C.S. Lewis Tactics – Greg Koukl Jonathan Wells Islam Icons of Evolution Nabeel Qureshi – Seeking Allah Finding Jesus, No God but One Michael Behe Darwin’s Black Box Dr. Stephen Meyer Darwin’s Doubt Signature in the Cell Dr. Craig Keener - Miracles

Contact Info Tom Griffin, tjgconsult@aol.com 770-597-2654 www.resurgensconsulting.com Apologetics for Tweens Books by Thomas J. Griffin Apologetics for Tweens – 5th-8th grade curriculum $170-$245 complete set $40-$86 per year w/Leader’s Guide The Last Premise - $4.99 on Amazon Kindle Geopolitical fictional novel nearing apocalypse – apologetics, romance, black ops Letters from Art – Private/Unpublished Historical romance novel from the depression era Legacy of a Christian Father – Private/Unpublished Guidance from a father to his son Contact me for any questions you may have or if I can help you somehow or maybe you wish to be on my monthly email list for updates about our progress in my ministry activities. Review slide.