The Value of the Bible

source: http://www.reachouttrust.org/articleView.php?id=47

All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. – 2 Timothy 3:16. (NASB)


But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them… – 1 Cor.2:14 (NASB)


This means that if we show the Bible to be true in its various parts then the whole must be true and will do what Paul told Timothy it will do. The second quote above, however, shows that the man that does not know the work of God’s Holy Spirit will never understand the full meaning of the Bible. But he will be able to understand a clear presentation as to how external factors show the book to be true.

It is doubtful whether any publisher has the resources to produce such a book today. Written over a period of about 1600 years (about 1,500 BC to about AD 100) with over forty authors from diverse backgrounds, most of whom did not meet, living 100’s of miles apart, in different time periods, with different lifestyles and upbringings, the fact that such a book fits together, develops themes and shows an integrated oneness is evidence itself that the ‘editor’ was not human.

Many people have dismissed the Bible and the first question they need to ask is whether they are willing to leave behind preconceived ideas and check out the facts. If a person is willing to do that, we need to be assured that we can present a ‘reasoned defence’ showing beyond reasonable doubt that the Bible is both reliable and truthful in what it says.

What follows are some of the many ways that this can be done. Although only a sample of what can be said it is a flavour of the material available.

Reliability of NT Manuscripts

Scholar Bruce Metzger, who has written many books on this subject, informs us in The Text of the New Testament, that there are nearly 5,000 copies of early Greek manuscripts containing various parts of the NT. No other ancient book or writing comes anywhere near this figure. Most of the people who want to reject the Bible will gladly accept these other writings but will not face the fact of what that means.

Metzger and others tell us for instance that the work of Caesar written in the 1st century BC has only 10 surviving copies, the earliest dated 900 AD. Homer’s writings from the 9th century BC boast 643 copies. Compare this with the New Testament written during the second part of the 1st century AD that has 5,000 copies, the earliest dated around 130 AD.

Norman L Geisler in his book Christian Apologetics makes some interesting observations on these types of comparison:

Several observations are pertinent… (1) No other book is even a close second to the Bible on either the number or early dating of the copies… (2) The average gap between the original composition and the earliest copy is over 1,000 years for other books. The New Testament, however, has a fragment within one generation from its original composition, whole books within about 100 years…(3) The degree of accuracy of the copies is greater for the New Testament than for other books… Bruce Metzger does provide an interesting comparison of the New Testament with … Homer’s Iliad. The New Testament has about 20,000 lines.0f these only 40 are in doubt (i.e., about 400 words). The Iliad possesses about 15,600 lines with 764 of them in question. This would mean that Homer’s text is only 95 percent pure or accurate compared to over 99.5 percent accuracy for the New Testament manuscript copies.

Secular Historians & Jesus

Probably the most well known of all secular historians at the time of Christ is Josephus who lived AD 37-100. He was therefore a contemporary of Christ and lived through the period recorded by the letters and book of Acts of the New Testament. We would therefore expect and indeed, we would need to find correlation between the history of the two if we want to use this as evidence. Do we? F F Bruce who has studied the history of the New Testament for many years definitely thinks we do,

Here, in the pages of Josephus, we meet many figures who are well-known to us from the New Testament; the colourful family of the Herods; the Roman emperors Augustus, Tiberius, Claudius, and the procurators of Judea; the high priestly families-Annas, Caiaphas, Ananias, and the rest; the Pharisees and the Sadducees; and so on. – The New Testament Documents – Are They Reliable?, F F Bruce, p.104.

We will also add two direct quotations from Josephus’ The Antiquities of the Jews,

“the brother of Jesus, the so-called Christ, whose name was James” – XX, 9:1.

At this time there was a wise man who was called Jesus… Pilate condemned Him to be condemned and to die. And those who had become His disciples did not abandon His discipleship. They reported that He had appeared to them three days after His crucifixion and that He was alive; accordingly, He was perhaps the Messiah concerning whom the prophets have recounted wonders. XVIII, 33.


One other interesting person to quote is Cornelius Tacitus a Roman historian, who wrote of Nero’s attempt to relieve himself of the guilt of burning Rome,

Hence to suppress the rumour, he falsely charged with the guilt, and punished with the most exquisite tortures, the persons commonly called Christians, who were hated for their enormities. Christus, the founder of the name, was put to death by Pontius Pilate, procurator of Judea in the reign of Tiberius: but the pernicious superstition, repressed for a time broke out again, not only through Judea, where the mischief originated, but through the city of Rome also. – Annals XV, 44.

Geisler lists many others that could be called upon including; Greek satirist, Lucian (second century), Roman historian, Suetonius (c. A.D.120), Pliny the Younger (c. A.D.112), Samaritan-born historian, Thallus (c. A.D.52) and the Jewish Talmud completed by A.D.500. (Ibid, p.324.)

Archaeological Finds

Archaeology is the science of antiquities and although of course has meaning far beyond the Biblical realm it is one of the clear ‘proofs’ of the truth and reliability of Scripture.

It is in the last 100 years that Biblical sites have been excavated properly. Before that, critics of the Bible scoffed at many of the stories and place names. However today cities such as Jericho, Samaria, Bethel, Shiloh, Bethshan, Gezer, Nineveh, Babylon and Ur are no longer just bumps on the landscape but well excavated sites confirming the Biblical record. Here we just want to give you a flavour of the sort of evidence that is available. Further study into this subject can of course be very rewarding.

Ekron is mentioned more than 20 times in the Old Testament as one of five Philistine cities: Ashdod, Gath, Ashkelon, Ekron, Gaza (1 Sam. 6:17). A five-line inscription in Phoenician script was uncovered in early July 1996, at Tel-Mikne (already thought to be Ekron). The stone block containing the name of city is the first conclusive evidence of the city from archaeological sources.

The Hittites were once thought to be a Biblical legend, until their capital and records were discovered at Bogazkoy, Turkey. Many thought the Biblical references to Solomon’s wealth were greatly exaggerated. Recovered records from the past show that wealth in antiquity was concentrated with the king and Solomon’s prosperity was entirely feasible. It was once claimed there was no Assyrian king named Sargon as recorded in Isaiah 20:1, because this name was not known in any other record. Then, Sargon’s palace was discovered in Khorsabad, Iraq. The very event mentioned in Isaiah 20, his capture of Ashdod, was recorded on the palace walls. What is more, fragments of a stela memorialising the victory were found at Ashdod itself.

Another king who was in doubt was Belshazzar, king of Babylon, named in Daniel 5. The last king of Babylon was Nabonidus according to recorded history. Tablets were found showing that Belshazzar was Nabonidus’ son who served as coregent in Babylon. Thus, Belshazzar could offer to make Daniel “third highest ruler in the kingdom” (Dan. 5:16) for reading the handwriting on the wall, the highest available position. Here we see the “eye-witness” nature of the Biblical record, as is so often brought out by the discoveries of archaeology. Author: Bryant Wood of Associates for Biblical Research, 1995.

Just as with cities there have been sceptics who have doubted the existence of some Biblical figures. Some of those who have since been proven to exist through archaeological finds include,

Shishak, the Egyptian king.

Tiglath-Pileser III and Sennacherib, kings of Assyria.

Merodach-Baladan, king of Babylon.

Darius I, king of Persia.

Augustus and Tiberius, Roman emperors.

One event that has often been looked at as a fairy story is the walls of Jericho falling down flat. Between 1907 and 1909, the first major excavation of the site took place. However, it was not until the 1950s that Kathleen Kenyon showed that the city wall had collapsed when the city was destroyed!

There is evidence for a massive fire just as the Bible says and Kenyon wrote,

The destruction was complete. Walls and floors were blackened or reddened by fire, and every room was filled with fallen bricks, timbers and household utensils; in most rooms, the fallen debris was heavily burnt.

What is even more interesting is that one part of the wall remained standing. According to the Bible, Rahab’s house would not be destroyed when the rest of the city wall fell. This is exactly what archaeologists found.

OT prophesy fulfilled in NT

This to me is one of the clearest indications of the truth and reliability of the Bible. Prophecies made up to 700 years or more before Christ was born were fulfilled with tremendous accuracy. There would be no way that any man could have organised the fulfilment of these prophecies and the way they were minutely fulfilled would mean that they could only have been brought to fruition in such detail by the overview of God.

Some of the main prophecies with their fulfilments are:

The Messiah would be born of a virgin – Isa. 7:14 and Matt. 1:2.

He would be of the seed of Abraham – Gen. 12:1-3 and Matt. 1:1.

He would be of the tribe of Judah – Gen. 49:10 and Luke 3:23.

He would be of the House of David – II Sam. 7:12ff and Matt l:l.

He would be born in Bethlehem – Mic. 5:2 and Matt. 2:1.

He would be the messenger of the Lord – Isa. 40:3 and Matt. 3:1, 2.

He would cleanse the temple – Mal. 3:1 and Matt. 21:12.

He would have a horrendous death – Isa. 53 and Matt. 27

He would rise from the dead – Ps. 2:7 and Acts 2:31.

He would ascend into heaven – Ps. 68:18 and Acts 1:9ff.

He would sit at the right hand of God – Ps. 110:1 and Heb. 1: 3.

OT quoted in NT

“0f the twenty-two (twenty-four) books numbered in the Jewish Old Testament some eighteen are cited by the New Testament. There is no explicit citation of Judges, Chronicles, Esther, or the Song of Solomon, although Hebrews 11:32 refers to events in Judges, II Chronicles 24:20 may be alluded to in Matthew 23:35, Song of Solomon 4:15 may be reflected in John 4:15, and the feast of Purim established in Esther was accepted by the New Testament Jews. Virtually all of the remaining books of the Old Testament are cited with divine authority by the New Testament. Jesus himself cited Genesis ·(Matt. 19:4-5), Exodus (John 6:31), Leviticus (Matt. 8:4), Numbers (John 3:14), Deuteronomy (Matt. 4:4), and I Samuel (Matt. 12:3-4). He also referred to Kings (Luke 4:25) and II Chronicles (Matt. 23:35), as well as Ezra-Nehemiah (John 6:31). Psalms is frequently quoted by Jesus (see Matt. 21:42; 22:44), Proverbs is quoted by Jesus in Luke 14:8-10 (see Prov. 25:6-7), and Song of Solomon may be alluded to in John 4:10. Isaiah is often quoted by Christ (see Luke 4:18-19). Likewise, Jesus alludes to Jeremiah’s Book of Lamentations (Matt. 27:30) and perhaps to Ezekiel (John 3:10). Jesus specifically quoted Daniel by name (Matt. 24:21). He also quoted passages from the twelve (minor) prophets (Matt. 26:31). Other books, such as Joshua (Heb. 13:5), Ruth (Heb. 11:32), and Jeremiah (Heb. 8:8-12), are quoted by New Testament writers. The teachings of Ecclesiastes are clearly reflected in the New Testament (cf. Gal. 6:7 and Eccles. 11:1 or Heb. 9:27 and Eccles. 3: 2).” – Geisler, pp.355/356.

I believe that quote alone sums up the evidence for this point and ones again we see beyond reasonable doubt that the Bible is a unique book full of truth that is reliable.

Personal Experience

Never forget to use this aspect as a final proof whatever else you have said. In other words, you have proved the truth of the Bible for yourself. What has God said to you that has been worked out in your life. What have you learnt from the Scripture that is a foundation for your life today. By itself this may be subjective but along with the other aspects that you have been sharing it will be seen that it is not just theory or mental ideas but reality too.

Of course, you may get accused that such evidence is only subjective and some of it will be. When God speaks through His Word to an individual then it is known to that person and may thus just be the testimony that comes from within. However, when God’s Word is worked out in your life and changes take place then the power of the Word of God can be seen and evidenced by others. No longer is it just subjective but now it can be objective and can be tested and seen to be true.

Glasgow taxpayers fund ‘transsexual Jesus’ play

source: http://www.christian.org.uk/news/20090806/glasgow-taxpayers-fund-transsexual-jesus-play/

A play portraying Jesus as a transsexual is set to run in a Glasgow Theatre – funded by the same public body behind an exhibition inviting the public to deface the Bible.

Critics say the play, entitled ‘Jesus, Queen of Heaven’, is further proof of an agenda to use taxpayers’ money to fund assaults on Christian values.

The production is due to run in November at Glasgow’s Tron Theatre as part of Glasgay, an annual publicly-funded gay arts festival.

Supported by Culture and Sport Glasgow (CSG), a quango set up by the City Council, the festival has already provoked worldwide outrage at an exhibition which encouraged the public to graffiti a Bible.

Many obscene and offensive messages were scrawled before public outcry resulted in the Bible’s enclosure in a secure transparent case.

Publicity material for the Jesus, Queen of Heaven play shows the writer and lead performer – transsexual actor Jo (formerly John) Clifford – posing as Christ with crucifixion wounds and a halo.

The theatre advert reads: “Jesus is a transsexual woman. And it is now she walks the earth.

“This is a play with music that presents her sayings, her miracles, and her testimony.”

CSG has confirmed it is part-funding the production but the sums involved have not been revealed.

The Christian Institute’s Simon Calvert said: “If Glasgow’s council taxpayers were consulted, I doubt they would consider this was a good use of their money.

“What with this and the Bible defacing exhibit, you have to wonder what is the next outrage Glasgow City Council has planned.”

Gordon Macdonald of Christian group CARE for Scotland said: “Organisers of these events are trying to placate the gay rights lobby while riding roughshod over everyone else – at public expense.”

A spokesman for the Roman Catholic Church said: “Coming in the wake of the outrageous Bible exhibition, which encouraged the defacing of the Bible in the name of gay rights, the funding of another production with the provocative title Jesus, Queen of Heaven will leave most citizens of Glasgow aghast.

“Serious questions must now be raised about the agenda being pursued by CSG.”

10 Reasons God Wants YOU Well…

10.  The Bible says that His Name is Healer (Exodus 15.26) – it is important to God that He is always faithful to His name.

9. Jesus wants us to enjoy life in abundance, and if you are sick you cannot be living life to the full. (John 10.10)

8. God created Adam sickness free and declared that it was good that man was healthy (Genesis 1.26ff)

7. In heaven there is no sickness (Revelation 21.4), and we are told to pray for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven (Matt. 7)

6. In Deuteronomy 28, sickness is a curse and health is a blessing and Galatians 3.13-14 says we are totally set free from the curse and we have the blessing.  Sickness has not suddenly moved to the blessing side!

5. Jesus said healing is the children’s bread (Matt. 15.22-28), and we are the children of God (John 1.12)

4. Jesus went around healing the sick and doing good (Acts 10.38) and Jesus has not changed (Hebrews 13.8)

3. Jesus Christ carried our sicknesses and our diseases on the cross (Matt. 8.16-17) and we should not carry something that He carried for us.

2. Six one syllable words that it would take someone to help you misunderstand and misinterpret their plain and simple meaning: By His Stripes, We Were Healed (1 Peter 2.24)

1. The number one reason I know God wants you well is that you are beloved of the Father, and if you ask your Father for bread He will not give you a stone (Luke 11.11).  It is that simple: God loves you as a Father and every Father would want their child to be well.  That is just a fraction of how much God wants you to be well.

All you have to do is believe and receive (Mark 11.23-24) and you can enjoy divine health for the rest of your life.

Glory and freedom,

Benjamin

The Death of Conscience

The Death of Conscience By Rebecca Hagelin

(from: http://www.worldviewtimes.com/article.php/articleid-5224/Brannon-Howse/Rebecca-Hagelin)

Our teenagers are more sexually active than any generation of youth before them. They also are consuming more pornography and compromising basic moral standards more often. It seems that many of them have lost not only their innocence, but their conscience, too.

The plethora of negative and immoral behaviors glorified by a media world that’s gone stark raving mad — combined with graphic, non-judgmental sex education and a highly sexualized culture in general — causes many of them to lose understanding of what is wrong and what is right.

When a young child’s sensibilities are constantly violated, and he begins to ignore the natural pangs of guilt after yielding to cultural pressures, he can end up being miserable, and begins to develop a hard heart and weak spirit.

If we as parents blindly turn our own hearts away from them because we’re scared of confrontation, or because we’re too lazy to do “the hard stuff” like fight for their integrity, we have a hand in dooming their young spirits to inner torment. And, ultimately, if the pattern continues, to the loss of basic decency and sensitivity to evil.

In chapter 32, the Psalmist reflects on the misery that comes with ignoring a guilty conscience:
“When I kept things to myself, I felt weak deep inside me. I moaned all day long. Day and night you punished me, my strength was gone as in the summer heat.”

Do you really want your child to live that way?

It’s critical as a parent to take control and do everything in your power to make certain that the culture does not molest your child’s young mind. Setting standards for media consumption can help avoid a lot of regrets, especially when it comes to the evil of pornography. But since we are all sinners, we also need to learn to recognize when our children might be feeling uncomfortable and guilty — and offer them hope and a way out of their despair.

Talk often about God’s miracles of forgiveness, redemption and restoration. These concepts are foreign to our modern world, yet they are as tranformational today as they were for the Pslamist and when God offered his forgiveness to a sinful world as he sent his son to atone for the sins of all who would accept him.

I John 1:9 promises: “When we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Our children experience the beautiful gifts of wisdom and grace when we help them develop their conscience and teach them how to respond to feelings of guilt. We need to be bold about sharing with them the life-giving power and joy that comes with confession. Tears of repentance over wrongs done makes our hearts strong, yet maleable in the hands of a a loving God. Ignoring our sins turns us into desperate, weak souls with hearts of stone.

In Psalm 32, the author actually begins the passage with what we can look forward to when we confess our sins to the loving and merciful God:
“Happy is the person whose sins are forgiven, whose wrongs have been pardoned. Happy is the person whom the Lord does not consider guilty, and in whom there is nothing false.”

The forgiveness and joy that comes with sincere repentance is the  best news mankind has ever heard! Have your own children heard it?‬

Rod of Power (Benson Idahosa)

http://www.youtube.com/results?feature=moby&search_query=benson+idahosa+rod+of+power&search_type=&aq=f

For the rest of the Rod of Power sermon by Benson Idahosa.

Rod of power (Benson Idahosa) Part 1

This is a wonderful sermon by a phenomenal preacher who is now with the Lord. Some people consider he saw over 7 million salvations in his life. This sermon will bless and inspire you!

Vodpod videos no longer available.

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Crawl Through Romans

http://faith-forums.com/showthread.php/romans_1-4.html

Faith-forums.com is a great place to go if you want to talk to faith-filled Christians who love the Word and love each other.  Easily the friendliest forum I know on the web and there is some great Bible teaching and a real welcoming atmosphere.

Recently, they had a server crash and lost all their posts and information.  Since then I have been posting every day a commentary on the book of Romans verse by verse.  I know a number of you love Bible study and love the book of Romans, so I thought I should invite you to have a read.  Please have a read through the forums and make a contribution, you will be warmly welcomed.

Blessings,

Benjamin

Faith Camp ’09

This week has been the annual camp of Colin Urquhart’s Kingdom Faith Church.  We have been for several years, but haven’t been for the last couple of years due to moving to London and having other conferences a lot closer.

However, this year we took the chance to watch the meetings through live streaming (at a cost of £20 for the week).  Every morning we have spent 3 hours listening to the morning meeting and every evening a couple of horus watching the evening meeting.  Colin Urquhart has preached some very clear and powerful messages about what we should let define us as Christians, his son Clive preached a very challenging message on being prepared to move with the cloud and Bengt Wedemalm preached such a powerful and personal message of faith and victory.

Amanda and Lydia are going up there today until Saturday so please pray for them to be blessed in all that they do there.  Also pray for me and the boys – we are still going to watch the streamed meeting, do some evangelism, have some father-son time and get the house all nice for mum!

If you want to listen to the meetings, http://www.kingdomfaith.com.  You can watch the last couple of days for just £3 a meeting – some of the most inspirational and impacting teachings I think you will find in the UK, if not the world.

Blessings,

Benjamin

Christian teacher tells of race slurs by pupils aged 8

A teacher claims he has been sacked for reprimanding pupils who made racist remarks about his being a Christian.

Nicholas Kafouris said he lost his £30,000-a-year post because he would not tolerate the ‘openly racist’ behaviour of pupils as young as eight.

He said the predominantly Muslim youngsters openly praised Islamic extremists in class, and hailed the September 11 terrorists as ‘heroes and martyrs’.

Greek-born Mr Kafouris, 40, taught for more than ten years at Bigland Green Primary in Tower Hamlets, East , where according to the most recent Ofsted report ‘almost all’ the 465 pupils are from ethnic minorities and a vast proportion do not speak English as a first language.

He is taking the school, its headmistress and assistant head to an employment tribunal where he will claim he was forced out after highlighting the rise in racism among pupils.

In 2006, said Mr Kafouris, he brushed against a boy while giving him a book.

‘He said rather brusquely to me, “Don’t touch me, you’re a Christian”. I found this very offensive.’

Later that year, he said children aged eight and nine in his class praised the suicide bombers in the 9/11 attacks.

‘In late November and December 2006, many various unacceptable and openly racist, anti-Semitic and anti-Christian remarks were being made by many and various children in Year 4,’ he said.

‘These included, “We want to be Islamic bombers when we grow up”, “the Twin Towers bombers are heroes and martyrs”, “we hate the Jews” and “we hate the Christians”.’

And in January 2007, he claims some pupils ‘expressed delight’ that a child had died when a wall collapsed on him in London.

When asked why, he said one of the children replied: ‘Because he’s English.’ The following month, during a religious education lesson about Jonah and the whale, he claims one of the pupils asked if Jonah was a Jew, before shouting: ‘I hate the Jews, they’re our enemies.’

Mr Kafouris says he completed ‘Racist Incident Reporting Sheets’ and notified headmistress Jill Hankey in writing about each incident.

But he claims his concerns were ignored because she wanted to maintain the school’s ‘good’ Ofsted rating.

Mr Kafouris, who is unmarried and has no children, was also reprimanded for handling a discussion about religion with a child ‘inappropriately’, which he denies.

He says assistant head Margaret Coleman accused him of shouting at pupils and telling them Muslims had produced suicide bombers – claims he rejects.

‘I believe after I complained to the head about the racist and religious discrimination incidents, I suffered victimisation,’ he says.

‘I also suffered less favourable treatment and incurred harassment by the head and assistant head.

‘The two people above created an intimidating, hostile, degrading, threatening, humiliating and offensive environment for me at my work.’

Mr Kafouris says the way he was treated brought on stress and depression, and that he was forced to take time off work. He was finally dismissed because of his absence, on April 30 this year.

A spokesman for , on behalf of the school, said: ‘The governing body stands by its decision and we believe all the correct procedures were followed.’