1. The Case for Historical New Testament Christianity
PROVING THE PAGES
The Case for Historical New Testament Christianity

2. WHIRLWIND REVIEW The Historic Jesus Contemporary Documentation
Historical Context
Acid Test
Apostolic Fathers
Manuscript Attestation
Classical Histories comparison
Paleography
The Resurrection
The Pentecost Phenomenon
Change without time & education
The Apostles’ Testimony
Qualified, Credible, Purposed, Chosen
Jesus, the Man of Destiny

3. The Conversion of Saul of Tarsus
FACTS TO CONSIDER
Jesus existed & was crucified
Saul of Tarsus was a persecutor of the church of Christ
This same Saul of Tarsus was converted to Christianity
He said he saw Jesus on the road to Damascus

4. The Conversion of Saul of Tarsus
Saul, the man
He was PROMINENT, & advanced in the Jew’s religion
Societally- born & succeeded as a Pharisee- Phil. 3:5
As a scholar- sat at the feet of Gamaliel- Acts 22:3
In power- seen in persecution- Acts 9:1-2; 26:12
Financially- able to support necessary police force needed for his persecution- Acts 9:1-2

5. The Conversion of Saul of Tarsus
Saul, the Pharisee
He was PREJUDICED
Exceedingly ZEALOUS for the traditions of his Pharisaical fathers
Blinded by Pharisaical interpretations of the Law
Prejudice does not always preclude honesty, but is often the lack of knowledge- 1st Tim. 1:13

6. The Conversion of Saul of Tarsus
Saul, the persecutor
Persecuted the church BEYOND MEASURE
Acts 7:58-8:1- acknowledged as leader of persecution, men laid their garments at his feet
Acts 8:1-3- everyone suffered, including women & presumably children
Acts 9:1-2- asked & received power for extradition
Acts 22:4- persecuted to death
Acts 26:9- motivated by hatred
Sincere in his intent- Acts 26:9-12
FANATIC!!!!

8. The Conversion of Saul of Tarsus
Paul’s Claims- Galatians 1:11-14
What he was taught was not man-made
He didn’t receive it from a man
He was not taught it by a man
He received it by divine revelation from Jesus Christ
Why should we believe this?
Paul was a PREJUDICED, PROMINENT, FANATIC until he wasn’t!
Who could have done that?!?!?

9. The Conversion of Saul of Tarsus
Ulterior Motives?
Wealth?
Had it & left it for Christian poverty- Acts 20:33-34; 1st Cor. 4:11-12
Reputation?
Had it (Acts 26:24) & left it to become a “fool for Christ” (1st Cor. 4:10,13)
Passion/Immorality?
Integrity was beyond reproach among Jews AND Christians- 2nd Cor. 1:12; 1st Thess. 2:10
Power?
Had it, left it for Christ- Acts 26:1-12

10. The Conversion of Saul of Tarsus
Ulterior Motives?
Deceived?
Who could have?
Friends WOULDN’T have
Enemies COULDN’T have
Mad?
Festus thought so
Paul replies he was clear in thought & mind & conscience before and after- Acts 26:9

11. The Conversion of Saul of Tarsus
That Saul of Tarsus was converted speaks to the resurrection of Christ in that it really could only have been Christ who could have converted him!
No one else could have or would have, & there is no other reason why a prejudiced, prominent, zealous, religious fanatic would suddenly join the group he was persecuting!

12. How the very thing modern day scholars try to discredit proves itself!
The 1st Century Church
How the very thing modern day scholars try to discredit proves itself!

13. The 1st Century Church Modern criticisms of Jesus
He was invented between AD
He wasn’t really deity
There’s no “real”, viable evidence
The church grew into the concept of Jesus as supernatural
Doctrine of Uniformity
Thought process that the very causes that have always caused events to happen are the same causes that have always caused all events to happen
AKA if you don’t see it today it never happened any other time either

14. The 1st Century Church Five Reasons to believe the 1st Century Church
Resurrection of Christ taught BEFORE His Church began
John 19:35, John 20: events happened to produce belief
Acts 2- Peter says they were all witnesses of Jesus’ resurrection
Appearances- Road to Emmaus, disciples, apostles, over 500 (1st Cor. 15:6

15. The 1st Century Church Five Reasons to believe the 1st Century Church
Church BEGAN BECAUSE of the belief Jesus was resurrected
Acts 2
Peter refers to miracles & Old Testament scripture for confirmation
The crowds eyewitness testimony
Church is the group who believe Christ was crucified, buried, & raised again, not the other way around

16. The 1st Century Church Five Reasons to believe the 1st Century Church
Church was persecuted
They taught in the name of Jesus
They believed already in the supernatural Christ
It didn’t take 30 years for them to be persecuted, they believed from the start
Why the persecution if everyone knew it was made up?

17. The 1st Century Church Five Reasons to believe the 1st Century Church
The Church Endured the persecution
Endured BECAUSE of belief
Died rather then deny or give up the NT documents
Why would there be persecution anyway if everyone knew Jesus was made up?

18. The 1st Century Church Five Reasons to believe the 1st Century Church
Paul’s Writings Show Belief, not Creation
Paul began to write AD
Clear the people he was writing to already had a great belief in Jesus & were being baptized into Him
Speaks of the supernatural Christ!

19. Perseverance comes FROM faith, it doesn’t lead TO faith
James 1:2- Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.
Perseverance comes FROM faith, it doesn’t lead TO faith
How hard would it be to invent an idea within 10 years so powerful that people would be willing to endure GREAT persecution & die for it?

20. TO SUM UP…
Saul was a prominent, prejudiced, zealous fanatic who was converted by someone…he says it was Jesus
The claim that the 1st century church made Jesus up & endured still makes no sense due to the timeframe, events, creation, & early documents

21. TO SUM UP…
Both of these points provide more evidence to the already ample evidence that Jesus is the Son of God & the Bible is the Word of God.

22. The Dead Sea Scrolls & Copying Methods
A lil’ bit o’ History
586 BC- Jerusalem destroyed by Babylon
Temple looted & destroyed
536 BC- Jews allowed to return
Ezra had found copy of the Torah & read aloud- Nehemiah 8
Led to a solidifying of copying Scriptural documents

23. The Dead Sea Scrolls & Copying Methods
Jewish Scribes’ Copying Methods
Only could use clean animal skins both to write on and bind manuscripts
No less than 48 lines & no more than 60 lines per column of writing
Must verbalize each word aloud when writing it
Were to wipe the pen and wash entire bodies before writing the word Jehovah every time they wrote it
Mandatory review within 30 days
If 3 or more pages required corrections the entire manuscript was to be redone

24. The Dead Sea Scrolls & Copying Methods
Jewish Scribes’ Copying Methods
Letters, words, & paragraphs were counted
Document became invalid if two letters anywhere touched
Middle paragraph, middle word, & middle letter of the copy had to correspond to the original
Documents only stored in sacred places
No document containing God’s word was to be destroyed, but stored or buried
Why there’s no original copies today

25. The Dead Sea Scrolls & Copying Methods
Jewish Scribes’ Copying Methods
Each page could only have a certain number of letters or words
Specific way to prepare & dedicate the manuscript material
Special & dedicated black ink for copying
Vowels were spoken but not written
“ll scrptr s nsprd by Gd nd prftbl fr tchng…”
Didn’t develop vowel markings until 700 AD

26. The Dead Sea Scrolls & Copying Methods
Old Testament Documents
Silver Amulet Scroll
Dates 600 BC, but only has a couple verses
Nash Papyrus
Dates 200 BC, but only a few verses

27. The Dead Sea Scrolls & Copying Methods
Old Testament Documents
Codex Aleppo
Oldest entire Old Testament
Dated 900 AD

28. The Dead Sea Scrolls & Copying Methods
Old Testament Documents
Until 1947 oldest full copies of the Old Testament were dated 900 AD

29. The Dead Sea Scrolls & Copying Methods
972 Manuscripts from 11 different caves
1/3 are Biblical Writings with multiple copies (i.e. 25 copies of Deut.)
2/3 are Jewish writings
Contains every Old Testament book except Esther

30. The Dead Sea Scrolls & Copying Methods
Significance
Dated between 300 BC – before 70 AD
When compared to Masoretic Text (copies dated 900 AD) they were virtually the same!!!
Over 1000 years the text had barely changed, confirming the modern copies were accurate at least to 300 BC

31. The Dead Sea Scrolls & Copying Methods
Remember
We can confirm the Old Testament already due to Jesus’ references to
Isaiah- Luke 4:17-19, Matt. 13:14
Genesis- Matt. 19, Mark 10
Jeremiah- Matt. 21:13
Psalms- Matt. 22:43
Daniel- Matt. 24:15
Zechariah- Matt. 26:31
Jonah- Matt. 12:40
Noah- Matt. 24:37
Moses- John 5:46

32. Archeology Links to look up
ember-web-only/biblical-archaeologys-top-ten- discoveries-of-2014.html - Top 10 Biblical archaeological discoveries of the year
archaeology-factual-evidence-to-support-the- historicity-of-the-bible/
a005.html
More on your handout!

33. Cyrus Cylinder
Hezekiah’s Tunnel