Introduction:
Good day to you ladies and gentlemen. Tonight is the first of the ten questions that we are studying at Church. I have been taking notes and I am going to try and portray what I heard at Church onto here. The first question of the ten questions is this: Can you really trust The Bible?
Now that is a good question. The frontrunner reason as to why people don't believe in God or The Bible is due to lack of trust. This is evident all the way back to The Fall. I shall start off this series there.
Genesis 3: 1-13
The Fall
3 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”
4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”
10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”
11 And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”
12 The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”
The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
New International Version (NIV)
1. The facts about The Bible
The first thing I must ask you is this: Would you be prepared to trust The Bible if the evidence were there? Carefully ponder this question before you move on.
Don't trust The Bible.
Many people don't trust The Bible due to various reasons. One of them being that it is a very old book. Something written 2000 years ago isn't reliable to today's standards.
Perhaps people back then weren't that smart, they didn't have the internet, wikipedia or any of that kind of stuff. That could be further from the truth.
The time of the New Testament was a time of literacy, everybody wrote stuff down. Everybody wanted to learn. To sum it all up in an age, I'd call it the Age of Education.
Basically, education back then meant a big deal. Being a Rabbi or teacher back then was a big deal. That is what Jesus was, a Rabbi, a teacher. In a nutshell, everything we know today has all come from what they all learned all those years ago.
Conspiracy Theory.
"Most conspiracy theories don't make sense nor withstand any scrutiny. They usually involve operations so immense that it's basically impossible for them to be kept secret, and all the proof given by
conspiracy theorists usually have a very simple explanation (usually much simpler than the explanation given by the theorists)."
Conspiracy Theories generally have very simple explanations. That means the story isn't very detailed. Now when we look at The Bible, the stories are very detailed, look at the smaller detail. I'll list a few examples.
Luke 1:1-4
New International Version (NIV)
Introduction
1 Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled[a]
among us, 2 just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were
eyewitnessesand servants of the word. 3 With this in mind, since I myself have
carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, 4 so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.
How does Luke start off his Gospel? In a Galaxy far away? Once upon a time? No. He states that many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been filled AMONG US. Among us means it happened all around them, not some distant planet. The stories were handed down by those who from the first were EYEWITNESSES. That means that the ones who saw what happened told everybody what they saw. Now Eyewitnesses is a plural; there is more than one eyewitness. There were many eyewitnesses telling their version of the story. Now after Luke heard all of the stories he CAREFULLY INVESTIGATED everything. That means he analysed every story and put in a very detailed story based off eyewitness accounts. If 3 people tell the same story, one person will add an extra part in that story. Some leave things out. However, if you hear the same story from different eyewitnesses, some will add extra detail in that others may have left out. Now that is by no means evidence of a dumb person from over 2000 years ago.
Mark 15:20-21
20 When they had mocked Him, they stripped Him of the purple robe, put His clothes on Him, and led Him out to crucify Him.
21 They forced a man coming in from the country, who was passing by, to carry Jesus’ cross. He was Simon, a Cyrenian,
the father of Alexander and Rufus.I highlighted the last part to highlight the detailed point. Now remember Conspiracy Theories are very simple explanations without detail. So When Jesus was carrying the Cross and he collapsed the third time, the Romans made somebody to help Jesus carry the cross. The Bible gives his name, his nationality and even who he is the father of.
Now if it were a Conspiracy Theory you would surely leave out 'the father of Alexander and Rufus.' That extra detail is based off an eyewitness account who added that little extra detail in. That is how the Gospel is devised.
Matthew 28:16-20
New International Version (NIV)
16 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him;
but some doubted. 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
I don't really like to post single verses but I want you to focus on verse 17 "When they saw him, they worshiped him;
but some doubted." The extra little detail is some doubted. This is after Jesus died, rose again and then he appeared to many people.
Now a Conspiracy Theory would leave out the fact that some people doubted because without it, that verse looks all positive. However, The Bible isn't devised like that as it tells you what happened without leaving some parts out.
1 Corinthians 15:3-6
New International Version (NIV)
3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance[a]: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas,
and then to the Twelve. 6 After that, he appeared to more than[B] five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep.Jesus, the one who died and rose again had appeared to more than 500 people. Back then 500 different people could tell you their eyewitness testimony of seeing Jesus alive again. You cannot surely shun 500 eyewitness testimonies.
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Now lets talk about the time of when the Gospel was written and how many copies there are.
We do have copies of famous people who write literature. I'll just post it up on here.
As you can see, there are no close seconds. We have heard of Aristotle and Juluis Caesar I'm sure. They had less copies of literature and their accounts were written over 1000 years after their time.
You cannot possibly deny all the 24k+ copies of somebody's life and that was written just 90 years after their time had come and gone here on Earth.
Let me put it to you like this. Have you ever watched or heard of a youtube video called Guitar tutor man? I'm sure the answer is no. That video doesn't even have 2000 views. I can easily go and shout to the world that Guitar tutor man doesn't exist on youtube and you can easily believe me.
Now have you ever watched or heard of a youtube video called PSY - Gangnam Style? Ofcourse you have as it has reached over 1.2 billion views, the other has over 11 million views. Now if I go and shout to the world that, Gangnam Style on youtube doesn't exist, no way I could get you all to believe me.
Same principle applies to the picture as detailed above.
2. The facts about this Question.
Does God really have your best interests at heart? The Serpent said to the woman, "Did God really say...?"
The result there we all know what happens.
It is built in humans that the language of the heart is mistrust. Somebody hurts us then we stop trusting everybody, we put up these barriers so we never trust anyone again. Now that in itself is fair enough but do you do that with The Bible?
You don't trust other people because you are scared they might hurt you. However, here comes a guy who gets hurt, mocked, beaten and bashed up. He doesn't dish out pain, he receives pain. Would you trust somebody like that? How can you not?
Romans 1:18-19
New International Version (NIV)
18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people,
who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.
The wicked people suppress the truth by saying that none of it ever happened. They say it is all a lie, a conspiracy theory. Yet The Bible clearly says that the word became flesh.
John 1:14
New International Version (NIV)
14
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
You cannot deny a man's existence who lived The Word. It is living proof. There are many eyewitness accounts and they were all told and written down. Then they were passed onto the whole world and then down from generation to generation.
To sum it all up. The problem isn't the lack of evidence, it is what we do with that evidence that is given to us.