More Like Jesus Part 3 A Confident Heart …that you may know the certainty of these things Luke 1:4

A Confident Heart ‘ …. that you may know the certainty ….’ 1. The Word of Christ 2. The Impact of Christ 3. The Person of Christ

The Bible – just a legend ?  Luke ∆ an orderly account drawn from living eye-witnesses ∆ but when was it written ? "As for these things which you are looking at, the days will come in which there will not be left one stone upon another” Luke 21:5 Before the destruction of the temple – AD70 Before ‘Acts’ ( Luke Volume II )

 When was Acts written ? Tacitus – The Annuls – describing 64AD : “Therefore, to stop the rumour [that he had set Rome on fire], he [Nero] falsely charged with guilt, and punished with the most fearful tortures, the persons commonly called Christians, who were [generally] hated for their enormities. Christus, the founder of that name, was put to death as a criminal by Pontius Pilate, procurator of Judea, in the reign of Tiberius, but the pernicious superstition - repressed for a time, broke out yet again, not only through Judea, - where the mischief originated, but through the city of Rome also”

The Bible – just a legend ?  Luke - followed by Acts ∆ an orderly account drawn from living eye-witnesses ∆ written : Before the destruction of the temple – AD70 Before the burning of Rome – AD64 But - after Festus became Procurator (Acts 24:27) – AD55 Acts – AD63 Luke – AD62

The Bible – just a legend ?  Luke ∆ An orderly account drawn from living eye-witnesses written AD62 – within 30 years of the events ∆ Too unhelpful !! ∆ Wrong genre

ANCIENT TEXTS WorkWhen writtenEarliest copyTime span No of copies Herodotus BCAD 9001,300 years8 Thucydides BCc. AD 9001,300 years8 TacitusAD100AD 11001,000 years20 Caesar’s Gallic Wars BCAD years10 Livy’s Roman history 59 BC – AD 17AD years20 New Testament AD 40 – 100AD years 5,000+ Greek (full manuscripts AD350)300 years 10,000 Latin 9,300 others Citings in the writings of early church fathers 36,000 F F Bruce – University of Manchester Rylands Professor of Biblical Criticism and Exegesis

A Confident Heart ‘ …. that you may know the certainty ….’ 1. The Word of Christ 2. The Impact of Christ The risen Christ Christ through history Christ today 3. The Person of Christ

A Confident Heart More reasons to be confident  Romans 8