Thank you to everyone who is praying for my friend Kathy and her daughter, who I mentioned in last week's post!
When I have the opportunity to give a defense of my faith and the Bible, I will ask the person their beliefs and listen. Then, usually they will allow me to give mine. I stick to the core of Christianity and don't argue minor points. What is the core message of the Bible?--- We are all separated from God and only faith in Christ can reconcile us. What about Christ? Who do they say He is? Do they belive the Bible?
The Bible does hold up in every way and I will gladly hear any argument against it. Even if I don't know how to refute it, I will find out, because it can be refuted. The Bible stands the test of time. My husband talks about how no one is allowed to dispute the Koran. But, many want to dissect the Bible and refute it. The Bible is an open book. It can be disputed and it will prove true each time!!!
I also want to highly recommend the Apologetics Study Bible with Ted Cabal as the General Editor. I take the following information from today's post from an article in the Apologetics Study Bible by Normal L. Geisler (pages 468-469). (All quotes are from Geisler's article.)
"The Bible is the most accurately transmitted book from the ancient world." Geisler states that both the New and the old Testament's reliability is based on "their abundance, dating, and accuracy." (Though I pull from this article, I have read several other people's works and websites that give the same reasons in support of the Bible's authenticity.)
THEIR ABUNDANCE- Put in layman's terms, there have been more manuscripts found of the Old and New Testament than other texts. Supposedly Homers' Iliad has 643, the most. But, the "number of NT (New Testament) manuscripts is overwhelming (almost 5,700 Greek manuscripts)."
THEIR DATING- Both OT and NT manuscripts have been discovered more closely to the time they were written than other manuscripts. "The earliest undisputed NT manuscript is Jon Rylands Papyrus, dating between A.D. 117 and 138." Many more NT manuscripts were found dating to about 250.
THEIR ACCURACY- Both OT and NT manuscripts "were more accurately copied" than other texts. Scholars have looked at the texts that were found of different manuscripts and have found more textual corruption. The Greek Scholar A. T. Robertson estimated the Bible's accruacy of the New Testament at 99.9%, with other manuscripts people hold as authentic (Iliad of Homer and Mabharata of Hinduism) as 90 and 95% authentic respectively.
Of course, we believe the Bible to be 100% accurate as Christians. How else can you base your life on the Bible's teachings?
Laurie,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your great recommendation for the study for the Apologetics. Steve and I have been wanting something we can study whenever someone questions us about anything in relation to our faith.
Love and Hugs ~ Kat
Hi Laurie,
ReplyDeleteThank you for visiting my blog. It's so nice to meet you! Interesting post.
Years ago I learned that the Bible was not originally copied word-for-word, but letter-by-letter, a painstaking process to ensure utter accuracy.
The bottom line is, we believe that God has caused the Bible to contain exactly what He wants. It's up to us to read and obey it!
Thank God for His Word that endures forever.
ReplyDeleteIt is amazing how carefully the Bible has been translated through the ages. There was a biblical arts center in Dallas that unfortunately burned down years ago. They had an old printing press where they gave demonstrations and history of the the Bible being printed. It was very interesting.
ReplyDeleteMuch love!
I think the bible is the most disputed book in history. Way too many people think it's full of contradictions. Maybe that's because they never read it?
ReplyDeleteGreat post!
I too think that the Bible is 100% accurate and the more I read it the more I believe it. I recently heard of the discovery of an ancient city that fell in line with a story in the old testiment. However this historian said that the dating was wrong (a few hundred years)so that "proved" that the Bible story was wrong. He neglected to mention that the dating process used is only so accurate so his dating could be off by a few hundred years. Some people will use any excuse not to believe in God.
ReplyDelete