M28 - Reasons for Your Faith – Week Five
Can I Trust My Bible?
“Christian Faith is not an irrational leap. Examined objectively, the claims of the Bible are
rational propositions well supported by reason and evidence.” – Chuck Colson
“Defend the Bible? I would as soon defend a lion! Unchain it and it will defend itself.” Charles Spurgeon
3 Tests for Historical Reliability
1. _________________________________
Two Questions:
a. How many _________________________?
b. How _________________ are the copies?
2. _________________________________
Two Questions:
a. What do _________________________ say who were writing at the same time?
b. What _____________________________________ evidence do we have?
3. ________________________________
Two Questions:
a. What does the document _______________ to be?
b. Is that message _________________________ throughout the document(s)?
“The number of manuscripts of the New Testament, of early translations from it, and of
quotations from it in the oldest writers of the Church, is so large that it is practically certain
that the true reading of every doubtful passage is preserved in some one or the other of these
ancient authorities. This can be said of no other ancient book of the world.”
“The interval, then, between the dates of original composition and the earliest extant evidence
becomes so small as to be in fact, negligible, and the last foundation for any doubt that the
Scriptures have come down to us substantially as they were written has now been removed.
Both the authenticity and the general integrity of the books of the New Testament may be
regarded as finally established.”
- Sir Frederick Kenyon, The Bible and Archaeology
Book
When
Earlest
# of Extant
Iliad by Homer
Annals of Imperial Rome by
Tacitus
Jewish War by Josephus
Greek New Testament
Written
800 BC
116 AD
Copy
100-200 AD
850 AD
Manuscripts
650
1
90 AD
40-100 AD
900-1100 AD
100-200
years
250-700
years
25-900 years
250-900
years
9
99
Greek New Testament
40-100 AD
Greek New Testament
Other Languages
40-100 AD
40-100 AD
306
5,664
18,000
“No archaeological discovery has ever controverted a biblical reference. Scores of
archaeological findings have been made which confirm in clear outline or exact detail
historical statements in the Bible.” - Nelson Glueck (Jewish Archaeologist)
Roadblock to Reliability
• ___________________
• ___________________________________________
• __________________________________________________
• _______________________________________
• ____________________
“It is helpful for us to learn that the Bible is historically accurate, that it is internally
consistent, that it contains prophecies that have been fulfilled hundreds of years later, that it
has influenced the course of human history more than any other book, that it has continued
changing the lives of millions of individuals throughout its history, that through it people come
to find salvation, that it has a majestic beauty and a profound depth of teaching unmatched by
any other book, and that it claims hundreds of times over to be God’s very words. All of these
arguments and others are useful to us and remove obstacles that might otherwise come in the
way of our believing Scripture. But all of these arguments taken individually or together cannot
finally be convincing.” - Wayne Grudem
Notes on the Historical Reliability of the Bible: