WEBVTT 00:00:05.259 --> 00:00:07.099 Hey friend, welcome back here to the Seminar 00:00:07.099 --> 00:00:09.339 Seminary and another week, another episode of 00:00:09.339 --> 00:00:12.460 the Bible Study Series called The Bible for Grownups. 00:00:12.460 --> 00:00:16.100 And in this series, what we're trying to accomplish 00:00:16.100 --> 00:00:22.260 is looking at the Bible from an adult perspective. 00:00:23.399 --> 00:00:29.879 And when we say that, we take the idea that many 00:00:29.879 --> 00:00:34.619 of us, our first encounters may be Maybe many 00:00:34.619 --> 00:00:39.640 of us are most frequent encounters with the Bible 00:00:39.640 --> 00:00:44.060 came when we were kids through the stories of 00:00:44.060 --> 00:00:50.179 the Bible that were taught. And then if we weren't 00:00:50.179 --> 00:00:54.299 taught those stories as children, often many 00:00:54.299 --> 00:00:58.719 of us come to the Bible as adults, but we're 00:00:58.719 --> 00:01:04.140 taught the Bible by people. probably were taught 00:01:04.140 --> 00:01:07.739 the Bible as children. And so often, so many 00:01:07.739 --> 00:01:12.099 of us are left with this childlike understanding 00:01:12.099 --> 00:01:21.840 of the Bible in an adult world. That causes many 00:01:21.840 --> 00:01:27.060 of us to simply walk away from the idea that 00:01:27.060 --> 00:01:31.099 the Bible has some sort of power in our lives. 00:01:32.969 --> 00:01:36.310 So we're trying to challenge that notion. And 00:01:36.310 --> 00:01:39.989 in that idea, I'd like to, just for tonight, 00:01:40.329 --> 00:01:44.870 not necessarily talk about in the Bible, but 00:01:44.870 --> 00:01:50.109 about the Bible. And let me present a case in 00:01:50.109 --> 00:01:55.989 which I believe proves that the Bible is reliable. 00:01:57.430 --> 00:02:06.659 I'll see you on the other side. I'm excited. 00:02:06.980 --> 00:02:09.020 Hey guys, can I go ahead and get started? I'm 00:02:09.020 --> 00:02:11.460 sorry to interrupt you. It was fun having conversation. 00:02:11.740 --> 00:02:14.139 It really was. It was fun listening and watching. 00:02:14.319 --> 00:02:19.120 Is that well? Fair enough. Fair enough. So tonight 00:02:19.120 --> 00:02:22.159 I want to talk, as you might expect in Bible 00:02:22.159 --> 00:02:25.379 study, about the Bible. And I actually mean that 00:02:25.379 --> 00:02:27.439 in general terms. Like tonight, I'd actually, 00:02:27.560 --> 00:02:29.780 if you have the Bible and you want to open it 00:02:29.780 --> 00:02:32.340 up, we'll be looking at 2 Timothy 3. That'll 00:02:32.340 --> 00:02:34.610 be the first text. That's in the New Testament. 00:02:34.650 --> 00:02:37.150 It's one of the letters of Paul. And we'll be 00:02:37.150 --> 00:02:40.449 looking there kind of as a kicking off point. 00:02:40.509 --> 00:02:42.969 We'll have a couple of other scriptures in there. 00:02:43.050 --> 00:02:45.110 But tonight I'd actually just talk about, I'd 00:02:45.110 --> 00:02:48.330 like to talk about the Bible. And what I'd like 00:02:48.330 --> 00:02:52.289 to actually talk about is, can we consider the 00:02:52.289 --> 00:02:55.530 Bible to be reliable? Does that kind of rhyme? 00:02:56.610 --> 00:03:00.189 Is the Bible reliable? That's the title. Is the 00:03:00.189 --> 00:03:02.560 Bible reliable? There we go. Okay, that's the 00:03:02.560 --> 00:03:08.120 title of the podcast tonight. Can we trust it? 00:03:08.599 --> 00:03:13.939 Okay. In other words, can we believe? Is there 00:03:13.939 --> 00:03:17.020 a reason for us to believe that on the actual 00:03:17.020 --> 00:03:20.319 pages of the Bible are the actual words of God? 00:03:20.419 --> 00:03:23.900 Or are they just simply the opinions and the 00:03:23.900 --> 00:03:28.560 imagination of humankind? I believe, and I'd 00:03:28.560 --> 00:03:30.680 like to present the evidence tonight to argue, 00:03:30.840 --> 00:03:35.659 that inside the Bible contain books that contain 00:03:35.659 --> 00:03:40.719 the truth of our living God in cooperation with 00:03:40.719 --> 00:03:44.460 human inspiration. And today I'd like to tell 00:03:44.460 --> 00:03:47.919 you why. I mentioned 2 Timothy 3. I'd like to 00:03:47.919 --> 00:03:50.400 look at 16 and 17, verses 16 and 17. Scripture 00:03:50.400 --> 00:03:57.759 says all Scripture is God -breathed. And it is 00:03:57.759 --> 00:04:02.580 useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and 00:04:02.580 --> 00:04:07.680 training in righteousness so that the man or 00:04:07.680 --> 00:04:12.539 woman of God may be thoroughly equipped for every 00:04:12.539 --> 00:04:20.220 good work. Okay? This is... A part of the original 00:04:20.220 --> 00:04:23.680 writings of the Bible. This is when the idea 00:04:23.680 --> 00:04:28.839 that these manuscripts, these texts, that are 00:04:28.839 --> 00:04:31.720 being shared amongst these early churches, that 00:04:31.720 --> 00:04:36.220 in many ways, except for a D like imagine in 00:04:36.220 --> 00:04:39.120 an old Egypt movie, papyrus kind of, that kind 00:04:39.120 --> 00:04:42.100 of thing, it wouldn't look much different probably 00:04:42.100 --> 00:04:45.459 than maybe this. Just a collection, a sheath 00:04:45.459 --> 00:04:48.389 of... Papers with words written down on them. 00:04:48.810 --> 00:04:52.889 Those words inspired by God, written by humankind, 00:04:52.889 --> 00:04:59.329 and right off the bat, recognized by those who 00:04:59.329 --> 00:05:02.670 shared those texts and read them and heard them, 00:05:02.750 --> 00:05:06.810 they knew right away there was something different 00:05:06.810 --> 00:05:11.879 about these manuscripts. That eventually get 00:05:11.879 --> 00:05:14.819 put together into one book. And we count up all 00:05:14.819 --> 00:05:17.439 the pages and put page numbers. And do paragraph 00:05:17.439 --> 00:05:20.139 breaks and chapter and verse and all that. Which 00:05:20.139 --> 00:05:22.540 won't come for hundreds and hundreds of years 00:05:22.540 --> 00:05:28.459 later. But we see right here Paul talking to 00:05:28.459 --> 00:05:34.420 Timothy. That's how we get that name. And instructing 00:05:34.420 --> 00:05:40.870 his early pastor, church planter friend. are 00:05:40.870 --> 00:05:43.389 more than just remembrances of something that 00:05:43.389 --> 00:05:46.709 may or may not have happened, but there's actually 00:05:46.709 --> 00:05:50.769 some power contained within them. And that the 00:05:50.769 --> 00:05:54.569 words contained in these manuscripts is good 00:05:54.569 --> 00:05:59.250 for teaching and correcting and training in what? 00:05:59.370 --> 00:06:03.629 In righteousness. Now, the way that they describe 00:06:03.629 --> 00:06:08.569 this, okay, is this term God -breathed, okay? 00:06:10.269 --> 00:06:15.389 Is God breathed? Now, I don't want to get into 00:06:15.389 --> 00:06:21.310 tonight a discussion of whether it is necessary 00:06:21.310 --> 00:06:26.930 and you do hold a belief in an inerrant Bible. 00:06:27.449 --> 00:06:32.329 No contradiction. No changes from the original 00:06:32.329 --> 00:06:39.100 manuscript. Just like a... like some magic Harry 00:06:39.100 --> 00:06:44.019 Potter flaming pen starts writing words down 00:06:44.019 --> 00:06:48.019 on a page, and Matthew's just there to change 00:06:48.019 --> 00:06:51.639 to a blank new piece of paper. The words contained 00:06:51.639 --> 00:06:56.500 in the Bible are in relationship with humankind. 00:06:57.240 --> 00:07:01.019 It was humankind that put the pen in the hand 00:07:01.019 --> 00:07:05.730 and put the words down. recognized immediately 00:07:05.730 --> 00:07:08.689 as something different than just imagination, 00:07:08.829 --> 00:07:13.389 but rather the words were God -breathed. Now, 00:07:13.410 --> 00:07:15.730 let me use a Greek word here so it sounds a little 00:07:15.730 --> 00:07:19.889 cool and I sound smart. I hope, because I can 00:07:19.889 --> 00:07:24.269 never pronounce these words correctly. It's theonotos. 00:07:24.529 --> 00:07:33.459 See? Theonostos. Theonostos. That means divine 00:07:33.459 --> 00:07:39.300 or God breathed. We get Theo for God. Pneuma, 00:07:39.439 --> 00:07:42.660 we've been talking about here on Sunday, here 00:07:42.660 --> 00:07:45.079 recently, that that Greek word pneuma means the 00:07:45.079 --> 00:07:51.980 spirit. So spirit, God's spirit in these words. 00:07:52.839 --> 00:07:58.360 Now, this is saying that God can give us everything 00:07:58.360 --> 00:08:02.829 that we need. To fulfill everything God wants 00:08:02.829 --> 00:08:12.129 us to do in our life. But is it God's word? I, 00:08:12.310 --> 00:08:15.310 again, believe that it is. And actually, I'd 00:08:15.310 --> 00:08:18.689 like to just throw out some different facts about 00:08:18.689 --> 00:08:20.889 the Bible. Maybe you didn't know. That might 00:08:20.889 --> 00:08:23.129 make you see this book in perhaps a different 00:08:23.129 --> 00:08:27.189 way. Okay? Now, some of these things you may 00:08:27.189 --> 00:08:28.930 know. Some of these things you may not know. 00:08:29.279 --> 00:08:34.220 First one is the Bible is the best -selling book 00:08:34.220 --> 00:08:37.600 of all time in human history. And we probably, 00:08:37.860 --> 00:08:40.820 you may have heard this anecdote. By the way, 00:08:40.879 --> 00:08:43.080 it's as a result of the fact that it is the most 00:08:43.080 --> 00:08:45.940 published and best -selling of all time. It also 00:08:45.940 --> 00:08:48.240 coincidentally happens to be the most shoplifted 00:08:48.240 --> 00:08:52.879 book in the world. Now, the Bible isn't just 00:08:52.879 --> 00:08:57.460 one book, but rather it's a collection of 66... 00:08:57.950 --> 00:09:06.330 Different books. And the Bible has 773 ,692 words. 00:09:06.529 --> 00:09:09.750 It would take an average person about 70 hours 00:09:09.750 --> 00:09:15.330 to read the book aloud. But what's amazing, I'm 00:09:15.330 --> 00:09:19.429 pointing all of this diversity out here, is because 00:09:19.429 --> 00:09:21.549 the Bible is actually not written by one author. 00:09:22.090 --> 00:09:24.809 The Bible is written... by all different kinds 00:09:24.809 --> 00:09:28.649 of people, by politicians, by statesmen, by farmers, 00:09:28.909 --> 00:09:32.409 by shepherds, by peasants, by musicians, by poets, 00:09:32.570 --> 00:09:38.409 even by tax collectors. The Bible is also written 00:09:38.409 --> 00:09:42.509 from all different sorts of places. The Bible 00:09:42.509 --> 00:09:46.509 was written by Moses in the wilderness during 00:09:46.509 --> 00:09:50.830 the Exodus when they escaped Egypt, by Jeremiah, 00:09:51.149 --> 00:09:56.200 the end, of the fall of Jerusalem. He's trapped 00:09:56.200 --> 00:10:01.639 in a dungeon writing his prophecies. The gospel 00:10:01.639 --> 00:10:05.039 account of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles 00:10:05.039 --> 00:10:10.360 written by Luke as he traveled with Paul. Paul, 00:10:10.399 --> 00:10:13.779 speaking of, writer of about two -thirds of the 00:10:13.779 --> 00:10:17.220 contents of the New Testament, Paul writes some 00:10:17.220 --> 00:10:24.659 of his stuff from prison. The Apostle John, The 00:10:24.659 --> 00:10:28.740 disciple, the attributed author of the Gospel 00:10:28.740 --> 00:10:34.820 account of John, is also known to have written 00:10:34.820 --> 00:10:38.539 the Revelation at the end of the Bible. And you 00:10:38.539 --> 00:10:41.580 may or may not know that he wrote the Gospel 00:10:41.580 --> 00:10:44.000 account according to John first, at the end of 00:10:44.000 --> 00:10:48.179 his life, and then got in trouble with the Roman 00:10:48.179 --> 00:10:51.100 emperor. but was really too popular to kill. 00:10:51.240 --> 00:10:53.340 They tried a couple of times. They actually tried 00:10:53.340 --> 00:10:57.039 to boil him in oil. And rather than kill him, 00:10:57.100 --> 00:10:59.980 they decided to exile him to this little tiny 00:10:59.980 --> 00:11:04.279 island called Patmos. And it was there that he 00:11:04.279 --> 00:11:08.919 wrote the Revelation. It was written on three 00:11:08.919 --> 00:11:11.759 different continents, Asia, Africa, and Europe. 00:11:12.480 --> 00:11:15.559 And it was written over time in three different 00:11:15.559 --> 00:11:19.799 languages, Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic. And what, 00:11:19.860 --> 00:11:22.879 again, is amazing is even though the Bible was 00:11:22.879 --> 00:11:25.700 written for people from all different walks of 00:11:25.700 --> 00:11:33.100 life over the span of 1 ,500 years, it has this 00:11:33.100 --> 00:11:38.440 incredible, amazing accuracy and consistency 00:11:38.440 --> 00:11:44.580 when it comments on the character and the nature 00:11:44.580 --> 00:11:50.759 of God. and God's redemptive plan for us. To 00:11:50.759 --> 00:11:55.639 me, that is the part. I mean, just think about 00:11:55.639 --> 00:12:00.000 it. I mean, you guys in kindergarten, not kindergarten, 00:12:00.179 --> 00:12:04.320 sorry, elementary school, right? We play the 00:12:04.320 --> 00:12:07.600 telephone game. That thing where you start out 00:12:07.600 --> 00:12:09.039 with something, by the time it gets around to 00:12:09.039 --> 00:12:11.059 the end, it's completely different. The point 00:12:11.059 --> 00:12:13.820 is to kind of show how with each transmission 00:12:13.820 --> 00:12:17.419 of an idea, It gets a little bit further from 00:12:17.419 --> 00:12:22.519 the truth, right? 1 ,500 years, people from all 00:12:22.519 --> 00:12:26.600 different walks of life, all over three different 00:12:26.600 --> 00:12:30.240 continents, writing for different reasons, and 00:12:30.240 --> 00:12:34.120 yet this story of God and this redemptive plan 00:12:34.120 --> 00:12:39.320 for humankind from beginning to end is incredibly 00:12:39.320 --> 00:12:45.320 accurate and consistent. So I'm going to argue 00:12:45.320 --> 00:12:48.220 tonight that not only is it consistent, true, 00:12:48.480 --> 00:12:52.340 and inspired, but it also speaks on a multitude 00:12:52.340 --> 00:12:55.820 of human topics, marriage, divorce, remarriage, 00:12:55.940 --> 00:12:59.159 adultery, sex, lust, pride, obedience, heaven, 00:12:59.279 --> 00:13:02.399 hell, lying, murder, suicide, peace, rebellion, 00:13:02.679 --> 00:13:06.279 leadership, patience, faithfulness, all of that, 00:13:06.360 --> 00:13:10.399 even cats. Not cats, actually, but the Bible 00:13:10.399 --> 00:13:12.200 talks about the devil. To me, that's about the 00:13:12.200 --> 00:13:17.039 same thing. Sorry. So let's talk for a few minutes 00:13:17.039 --> 00:13:20.799 about the reliability of the Bible. Again, we're 00:13:20.799 --> 00:13:24.899 asking, is the Bible reliable? I love that. Is 00:13:24.899 --> 00:13:28.940 the Bible trustworthy, true, and accurate? Or 00:13:28.940 --> 00:13:31.799 again, is this just the imagination and the opinions 00:13:31.799 --> 00:13:34.740 of people? Okay, so this is a really cool story. 00:13:34.840 --> 00:13:38.240 In 1952, there was a historian by the name of 00:13:38.240 --> 00:13:41.490 Steve Sanders. And he came up with three, oh, 00:13:41.570 --> 00:13:43.029 wait, I'm sorry, this isn't the really cool, 00:13:43.049 --> 00:13:45.389 the really cool one's next. Came up with three 00:13:45.389 --> 00:13:48.970 specific tests to evaluate the authenticity of 00:13:48.970 --> 00:13:53.309 historical writings, not just the Bible, okay? 00:13:53.409 --> 00:13:57.909 But looking at ancient texts like texts from 00:13:57.909 --> 00:14:01.250 the Bible and trying to establish everything 00:14:01.250 --> 00:14:05.029 we could possibly know about them. Are they real? 00:14:05.190 --> 00:14:09.000 Are they true? Are they to be relied upon? Are 00:14:09.000 --> 00:14:12.120 they not? And why not? I don't know if you guys 00:14:12.120 --> 00:14:16.159 have ever heard of a type of, you probably haven't. 00:14:16.639 --> 00:14:20.100 It's called hagiography. Has anybody ever heard 00:14:20.100 --> 00:14:24.419 of hagiography? No, look, I'm going to say one 00:14:24.419 --> 00:14:28.580 political thing. And even if you are a supporter, 00:14:28.940 --> 00:14:30.899 you're going to probably agree with what I'm 00:14:30.899 --> 00:14:33.879 about to say. So I mean no malice by it. But 00:14:33.879 --> 00:14:36.399 if there was a modern person who probably would 00:14:36.399 --> 00:14:39.279 have a hagiography written about them, it would 00:14:39.279 --> 00:14:42.720 be somebody like Donald Trump. And what that 00:14:42.720 --> 00:14:47.240 was is really rich people in ancient times would 00:14:47.240 --> 00:14:50.279 go and they would find an author or a poet and 00:14:50.279 --> 00:14:53.419 they would say, write a story about me so people 00:14:53.419 --> 00:14:58.940 could read about how awesome I am and sprinkle 00:14:58.940 --> 00:15:03.470 around plenty of awesome. Even if it's not true, 00:15:03.610 --> 00:15:08.429 right? And so we don't, when we first discover 00:15:08.429 --> 00:15:12.950 these ancient texts, that's not written anywhere. 00:15:13.090 --> 00:15:17.750 It doesn't say, this is satire or comes to you 00:15:17.750 --> 00:15:21.610 from the onion .com, right? There's no, it doesn't 00:15:21.610 --> 00:15:25.929 immediately identify itself as fake. But then 00:15:25.929 --> 00:15:29.090 we start to examine the text inside and around. 00:15:29.740 --> 00:15:33.240 and outside this text, and we find inconsistencies 00:15:33.240 --> 00:15:36.960 that lead us to believe this isn't a biography. 00:15:38.080 --> 00:15:43.700 It's a hagiography. It's like a biography. It's 00:15:43.700 --> 00:15:46.840 supposed to be a biography, but it's fake. It's 00:15:46.840 --> 00:15:49.480 fake to make this person look important, okay? 00:15:50.039 --> 00:15:53.580 This is how we determine, by looking, using these 00:15:53.580 --> 00:16:00.360 tools, okay? So... This guy, Sanders, put the 00:16:00.360 --> 00:16:03.879 Bible to the same test. And the first test I 00:16:03.879 --> 00:16:05.740 want to talk about, it was kind of a three -fold 00:16:05.740 --> 00:16:09.440 thing, is the internal test. Here's the internal 00:16:09.440 --> 00:16:12.799 test. Regarding the Bible, the internal test 00:16:12.799 --> 00:16:16.419 wants to answer the question, do the writers 00:16:16.419 --> 00:16:21.759 of the Bible claim that the words are true? In 00:16:21.759 --> 00:16:25.399 other words, are they writing something with 00:16:25.399 --> 00:16:29.399 the intent? Of illustrating or demonstrating 00:16:29.399 --> 00:16:31.960 to the reader that this is something that did 00:16:31.960 --> 00:16:36.220 in fact happen. Because not all literature is 00:16:36.220 --> 00:16:40.779 nonfiction, right? There's more fiction than 00:16:40.779 --> 00:16:44.820 there is nonfiction. And that fiction is where 00:16:44.820 --> 00:16:47.600 the writer says, no, you should know right away 00:16:47.600 --> 00:16:50.419 or I'm going to tell you right up front. This 00:16:50.419 --> 00:16:54.580 is made up and it is not to be taken as something 00:16:54.580 --> 00:16:59.700 that exactly happened. No, no, no, no. Do the 00:16:59.700 --> 00:17:03.580 writers say, no, I was there, I saw it, and this 00:17:03.580 --> 00:17:06.720 is accurate? Well, let's look at one of the letters 00:17:06.720 --> 00:17:09.599 in the New Testament, and this is written by, 00:17:09.799 --> 00:17:15.819 I mean, Peter, the Peter, rooster crowing Peter. 00:17:16.579 --> 00:17:20.759 He writes a couple letters. In the second letter 00:17:20.759 --> 00:17:23.920 that he writes, in the first chapter, in the 00:17:23.920 --> 00:17:29.220 16th verse, Remember, these are the letters that 00:17:29.220 --> 00:17:31.720 are being circulated that were treated as the 00:17:31.720 --> 00:17:37.900 early Bible. And Peter instructs the early Christians 00:17:37.900 --> 00:17:41.019 reading this letter. He says to them something 00:17:41.019 --> 00:17:43.920 because these questions come up. He says, we 00:17:43.920 --> 00:17:50.299 did not follow cleverly invented stories when 00:17:50.299 --> 00:17:52.740 we told you about the power and the coming of 00:17:52.740 --> 00:17:57.410 our Lord Jesus Christ. We weren't just telling 00:17:57.410 --> 00:17:59.809 you a really cool story when we were telling 00:17:59.809 --> 00:18:04.369 you about Jesus. But Peter can, with authenticity, 00:18:04.609 --> 00:18:12.410 write, we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. In 00:18:12.410 --> 00:18:14.670 other words, Peter is saying here, no, no, no. 00:18:15.069 --> 00:18:23.069 I was there, I saw it, and I experienced it firsthand. 00:18:24.269 --> 00:18:29.549 I am a primary source. I was an eyewitness to 00:18:29.549 --> 00:18:33.509 these events. This is not just some story I either 00:18:33.509 --> 00:18:37.589 made up or heard from somebody else. And I keep 00:18:37.589 --> 00:18:40.369 talking about this early Bible business. When 00:18:40.369 --> 00:18:45.289 was the Bible, when I'm talking about the Bible, 00:18:45.490 --> 00:18:48.390 I'm first of all talking about the Christian 00:18:48.390 --> 00:18:51.750 Bible, the Christian Testament or the New Testament. 00:18:53.579 --> 00:18:56.359 And it was at the same time that these books 00:18:56.359 --> 00:18:59.720 were being put together that the early Christians 00:18:59.720 --> 00:19:03.660 also latched on to Jewish scripture. And so these 00:19:03.660 --> 00:19:07.619 books begin to come together as we know them 00:19:07.619 --> 00:19:11.619 as the Bible, kind of between the years 47 and 00:19:11.619 --> 00:19:20.740 95. And so 85 to 90 is about when we get the 00:19:20.740 --> 00:19:24.240 gospel account according to John. And then 95 00:19:24.240 --> 00:19:29.519 is believed to be the writing of the apocalypse 00:19:29.519 --> 00:19:33.940 because we can date the emperor. We know when 00:19:33.940 --> 00:19:35.759 it happened based on who was emperor at the time. 00:19:38.680 --> 00:19:45.099 So what are you saying? What I'm saying is Jesus 00:19:45.099 --> 00:19:54.430 died in either 30 or 33. There is so much. discussion 00:19:54.430 --> 00:19:57.230 right now that, that his birth was probably three 00:19:57.230 --> 00:20:01.410 BC instead of actually when we changed the calendar 00:20:01.410 --> 00:20:04.549 to zero, that's actually not zero. We got it 00:20:04.549 --> 00:20:08.410 wrong, right? He was 33 when he died, but it 00:20:08.410 --> 00:20:12.910 wasn't 33 AD. It was probably 30 AD. You're like, 00:20:12.990 --> 00:20:15.329 what does this matter? It doesn't, right? It 00:20:15.329 --> 00:20:19.970 doesn't matter. But 30 to 33, the Bible is starting 00:20:19.970 --> 00:20:24.660 to come together as holy books, between 47 and 00:20:24.660 --> 00:20:30.700 95, within just a few decades. What that means 00:20:30.700 --> 00:20:34.299 is that there were plenty of first -generation 00:20:34.299 --> 00:20:37.839 believers to these events when these books began 00:20:37.839 --> 00:20:42.140 widely being circulated. They would have read 00:20:42.140 --> 00:20:44.779 these or heard about these books, and they could 00:20:44.779 --> 00:20:47.440 have very easily been there and had first -hand... 00:20:47.769 --> 00:20:50.089 first -hand knowledge about the events of the 00:20:50.089 --> 00:20:55.049 Bible, and they could have at any time refuted 00:20:55.049 --> 00:20:58.569 what was being written as Scripture and say, 00:20:58.650 --> 00:21:03.829 I was there and that wasn't true. But they didn't 00:21:03.829 --> 00:21:10.730 and haven't. Across the board, it seems, the 00:21:10.730 --> 00:21:14.630 Bible passes that internal test. Now, the second 00:21:14.630 --> 00:21:17.150 one's called the external. And what that is, 00:21:17.170 --> 00:21:21.910 is what do we, information we have outside the 00:21:21.910 --> 00:21:26.509 Bible about the Bible? In other words, what do 00:21:26.509 --> 00:21:30.809 non -biblical sources say about the Bible? Do 00:21:30.809 --> 00:21:33.349 they confirm the stories we have in the Bible? 00:21:33.509 --> 00:21:38.069 Or does other ancient literature say, no, these 00:21:38.069 --> 00:21:42.509 events aren't true and we can explain why? Well, 00:21:42.549 --> 00:21:45.200 first I want to say. From a Christian perspective, 00:21:45.440 --> 00:21:48.359 beyond the shadow of a doubt, the historiosity, 00:21:48.559 --> 00:21:51.880 what does that mean? It means based on the historical 00:21:51.880 --> 00:21:54.619 evidence we have, based on the accounts we have, 00:21:54.779 --> 00:21:58.940 there is really no debate anymore if there was 00:21:58.940 --> 00:22:03.019 a guy named Jesus from Nazareth who actually 00:22:03.019 --> 00:22:08.440 lived at this time. They don't even try to dispute 00:22:08.440 --> 00:22:10.200 that anymore. It's been a long time. It wasn't 00:22:10.200 --> 00:22:14.059 that long ago, actually. The 1980s. where it 00:22:14.059 --> 00:22:18.859 was really still hotly disputed by some people 00:22:18.859 --> 00:22:21.900 whether Jesus of Nazareth even existed at all. 00:22:22.980 --> 00:22:27.339 And we actually have non -biblical writings that 00:22:27.339 --> 00:22:31.440 talk about Jesus. We have Roman writers, Greek 00:22:31.440 --> 00:22:36.279 writers, and we have Jewish sources, people who 00:22:36.279 --> 00:22:39.519 affirm the life of this cat, Jesus of Nazareth. 00:22:40.839 --> 00:22:43.200 And not only that, but there's another famous 00:22:43.200 --> 00:22:46.579 guy, and I mean, guys, I had to buy this for 00:22:46.579 --> 00:22:52.680 a class, and I used this book for like one page, 00:22:52.900 --> 00:22:56.339 and it is this thick, and it's called The Writings 00:22:56.339 --> 00:23:00.339 of Josephus, right? A Jewish historian from the 00:23:00.339 --> 00:23:05.579 first century who writes about Jesus and about 00:23:05.579 --> 00:23:10.250 John the Baptist, and he wrote about... James, 00:23:10.250 --> 00:23:14.349 Jesus' brother, later. Because James wasn't an 00:23:14.349 --> 00:23:16.269 original follower of Jesus. He was his brother. 00:23:16.549 --> 00:23:18.150 There's no way his brother's going to believe 00:23:18.150 --> 00:23:19.670 him when he says, hey, I'm the savior of the 00:23:19.670 --> 00:23:22.190 world. Yeah, you are. And then, like, give him 00:23:22.190 --> 00:23:25.289 a noogie or whatever. Right? You know how hard 00:23:25.289 --> 00:23:28.130 it'd be to convince your brother or sister that 00:23:28.130 --> 00:23:31.029 you're the Christ? I don't blame him. Anyway. 00:23:32.910 --> 00:23:38.210 Now, another thing. that was challenged was archaeological 00:23:38.210 --> 00:23:42.529 evidence. Because for a long time, we just didn't 00:23:42.529 --> 00:23:47.029 have much agreed upon archaeological discovery 00:23:47.029 --> 00:23:50.670 that seemed to indicate truth from major things 00:23:50.670 --> 00:23:55.009 happening in the Bible. But that's changed over 00:23:55.009 --> 00:24:00.849 time. In fact, we have portions of archaeology, 00:24:00.849 --> 00:24:03.670 I'm sorry, we have archaeology now that completely 00:24:03.670 --> 00:24:07.259 prove portions of these stories of the bible 00:24:07.259 --> 00:24:12.579 are true so we have we've over time have received 00:24:12.579 --> 00:24:16.759 tons more uh confirmation based on archaeological 00:24:16.759 --> 00:24:19.220 evidence that the things and the people we talked 00:24:19.220 --> 00:24:22.259 about in the bible aren't just made up but actually 00:24:22.259 --> 00:24:26.740 really did live where and when they that these 00:24:26.740 --> 00:24:30.480 books say they did there was a guy named nelson 00:24:30.480 --> 00:24:33.880 gluick and he is a former president of the jewish 00:24:33.880 --> 00:24:39.039 theological and one of the great all -time archaeologists 00:24:39.039 --> 00:24:44.160 of the Holy Land. And he says this, and I think 00:24:44.160 --> 00:24:46.920 this is fair enough. He says it may be stated 00:24:46.920 --> 00:24:50.480 categorically that no archaeological discovery 00:24:50.480 --> 00:24:55.599 has ever contravented a biblical reference. So 00:24:55.599 --> 00:25:00.259 while we're beginning to see confirmation in 00:25:00.259 --> 00:25:03.589 some areas, we still have nothing. from an archaeological 00:25:03.589 --> 00:25:06.609 discovery that says this proves the Bible isn't 00:25:06.609 --> 00:25:10.609 true. That's something to talk about. Now this 00:25:10.609 --> 00:25:14.089 third one is where I, this is my, I love this 00:25:14.089 --> 00:25:16.890 stuff. Okay, because it's the extra nerdy part. 00:25:17.509 --> 00:25:20.710 Okay, and this is called the bibliographic test. 00:25:21.910 --> 00:25:24.430 And so what does the bibliographic test try to 00:25:24.430 --> 00:25:27.529 accomplish? It wants to find out how well were 00:25:27.529 --> 00:25:30.289 the original documents translated into what we 00:25:30.289 --> 00:25:35.440 find today. have the stories drastically changed 00:25:35.440 --> 00:25:39.579 over time? Was the story that they wrote then 00:25:39.579 --> 00:25:43.700 maybe true, but over time we added and we embellished 00:25:43.700 --> 00:25:46.859 and it turned into something that it's not and 00:25:46.859 --> 00:25:51.299 never was intended to be? How well do the original 00:25:51.299 --> 00:25:58.339 manuscripts translate into today? Now, there 00:25:58.339 --> 00:26:01.470 are some issues with trying to determine the 00:26:01.470 --> 00:26:06.269 accuracy of these manuscripts. Because sometimes, 00:26:06.430 --> 00:26:09.430 specifically, in a minute I'll talk about Christian 00:26:09.430 --> 00:26:12.650 texts, they would make tons of copies of the 00:26:12.650 --> 00:26:15.789 manuscripts. They would write out. They didn't 00:26:15.789 --> 00:26:17.869 have Xerox machines and stuff back then, right? 00:26:18.009 --> 00:26:21.170 They had to write them out letter by letter. 00:26:21.630 --> 00:26:25.710 I mean, you know, alphabetic character by character 00:26:25.710 --> 00:26:29.240 in each letter. by letter. And sometimes they'd 00:26:29.240 --> 00:26:31.720 make tons of copies, even though it was expensive, 00:26:31.880 --> 00:26:34.200 it was difficult, and people who were literate 00:26:34.200 --> 00:26:38.099 were rare. Okay? But with Christian texts, right 00:26:38.099 --> 00:26:42.079 off the bat, big deal. Now, first I want to talk 00:26:42.079 --> 00:26:44.160 about how many copies we have of the Old Testament. 00:26:44.740 --> 00:26:46.880 What's amazing is that they would actually count 00:26:46.880 --> 00:26:48.920 up in the Old Testament, and they would actually 00:26:48.920 --> 00:26:53.299 central letter these copies, and when a manuscript 00:26:53.299 --> 00:26:57.039 was complete, And they would go through these 00:26:57.039 --> 00:26:59.619 copies of these manuscripts, and if they found 00:26:59.619 --> 00:27:06.640 one error at all, one, they would destroy the 00:27:06.640 --> 00:27:10.700 whole copy. I mean, some of these are the whole, 00:27:10.819 --> 00:27:14.019 like it would take the skin of a whole animal 00:27:14.019 --> 00:27:19.700 for a scroll. Lots, my point is a lot of writing. 00:27:20.200 --> 00:27:23.740 One. no matter how big or small mistake, and 00:27:23.740 --> 00:27:27.380 they would destroy it completely. So there are 00:27:27.380 --> 00:27:32.380 very few copies. Some would wear out. Some would 00:27:32.380 --> 00:27:36.619 be ceremonial and buried. And then again, they 00:27:36.619 --> 00:27:39.619 would destroy ones that had any imperfections. 00:27:40.059 --> 00:27:43.740 So because of this, for centuries, the most reliable 00:27:43.740 --> 00:27:46.319 and well -respected Hebrew manuscript, one that 00:27:46.319 --> 00:27:49.380 everybody said, okay, this is the copy that we 00:27:49.380 --> 00:27:53.089 feel like is the master. Key, so to speak. It 00:27:53.089 --> 00:27:56.750 was called the Masoretic Text. The Masoretic 00:27:56.750 --> 00:28:00.069 Text. Now, what's interesting is, this is the 00:28:00.069 --> 00:28:05.769 old ancient Bible, okay? Old Testament. But in 00:28:05.769 --> 00:28:11.349 the year 70 AD, the Romans attacked the Jewish 00:28:11.349 --> 00:28:15.849 people in Jerusalem again. And they were trying 00:28:15.849 --> 00:28:18.890 to destroy their culture, and especially their 00:28:18.890 --> 00:28:23.579 religious heritage. And so what the Jewish people 00:28:23.579 --> 00:28:27.099 did were they took their scrolls and they put 00:28:27.099 --> 00:28:31.359 them in these clay bottles or pots, and they 00:28:31.359 --> 00:28:36.460 hid them in caves. And for 1 ,800 years, these 00:28:36.460 --> 00:28:42.279 biblical scrolls just sit there, completely hidden. 00:28:45.529 --> 00:28:49.650 Kid comes along in 1947, a little Bedouin shepherd 00:28:49.650 --> 00:28:51.849 boy. And I believe the story goes, he was looking 00:28:51.849 --> 00:28:54.269 for one of his sheep and he thought it had ran 00:28:54.269 --> 00:28:57.630 into a cave. And so he took a rock and threw 00:28:57.630 --> 00:28:59.549 the rock into the entrance of the cave, trying 00:28:59.549 --> 00:29:02.509 to scare the sheep out. But whenever he threw 00:29:02.509 --> 00:29:05.109 the rock in the cave, he heard it breaking apart 00:29:05.109 --> 00:29:10.710 a clay pot. So he went and he examined what he 00:29:10.710 --> 00:29:14.049 had done or what was in there. And it were all 00:29:14.049 --> 00:29:18.089 of these. clay vessels from these, and they all 00:29:18.089 --> 00:29:22.630 contain these biblical scrolls from 70, because 00:29:22.630 --> 00:29:25.289 they were hidden from them because they feared, 00:29:25.450 --> 00:29:28.109 again, the complete destruction of Jerusalem 00:29:28.109 --> 00:29:33.569 by an emperor. And when we compare the Dead Sea 00:29:33.569 --> 00:29:37.130 Scrolls to the Masoretic text, the accuracy is 00:29:37.130 --> 00:29:43.650 stunning. I mean, there has been very, very little 00:29:43.650 --> 00:29:50.640 transmission. dissonance. So, let's talk about 00:29:50.640 --> 00:29:54.019 other copies of other books. The bibliographic 00:29:54.019 --> 00:29:58.000 test. Now, in high school, often, at least, I 00:29:58.000 --> 00:30:00.339 don't know if they still call, I don't even know 00:30:00.339 --> 00:30:02.019 if you have to read in high school anymore, but 00:30:02.019 --> 00:30:06.160 we would actually have to read books. And you'd 00:30:06.160 --> 00:30:07.920 always have that one teacher that would make 00:30:07.920 --> 00:30:10.640 you read something like the Odyssey or the Iliad? 00:30:10.700 --> 00:30:15.640 Yeah, okay. Okay. Why? Very, very famous texts. 00:30:16.359 --> 00:30:23.059 Texts. We have 643 copies of the Iliad from original 00:30:23.059 --> 00:30:26.619 manuscript time. And that, for ancient manuscripts, 00:30:26.799 --> 00:30:30.380 is considered a ton. Let me give you an example 00:30:30.380 --> 00:30:33.579 of how big a deal that is. Plato's Republic, 00:30:33.980 --> 00:30:38.039 another famous literary work, we only have seven 00:30:38.039 --> 00:30:42.539 copies. The writings of Aristotle, we only have 00:30:42.539 --> 00:30:47.119 five. Caesar, only 10. Caesar has 10 copies. 00:30:48.019 --> 00:30:51.859 So the most accepted non -biblical historical 00:30:51.859 --> 00:30:55.339 writing would unquestionably be the writings 00:30:55.339 --> 00:30:59.480 of Homer with 643 early manuscripts. How many 00:30:59.480 --> 00:31:03.279 copies do you think we have of original New Testament 00:31:03.279 --> 00:31:11.579 documents? Not 643, not 1 ,000, but over... 24 00:31:11.579 --> 00:31:15.839 ,000 copies of original manuscripts of the letters 00:31:15.839 --> 00:31:18.920 and books we find in the New Testament. When 00:31:18.920 --> 00:31:21.440 you compare that against any other historical 00:31:21.440 --> 00:31:23.579 writing beyond a shadow of a doubt, the Bible 00:31:23.579 --> 00:31:26.920 stands alone and unquestionably, in my opinion, 00:31:26.920 --> 00:31:30.220 passes the bibliographic test with flying colors. 00:31:32.359 --> 00:31:42.450 24 ,000 early copies. Complete. Not original. 00:31:42.589 --> 00:31:45.690 There's only one original, right? But it's complete. 00:31:46.609 --> 00:31:52.589 Okay. So, we like to go to movies, and if you're 00:31:52.589 --> 00:31:54.849 like me, you probably, or TV shows, you like 00:31:54.849 --> 00:31:56.549 to kind of predict what's going to happen in 00:31:56.549 --> 00:31:58.710 the end. Like, you can just, about two -thirds 00:31:58.710 --> 00:32:01.210 of the way, you can just tell, oh, he did it, 00:32:01.250 --> 00:32:04.329 or she did it. Right? We have that same kind 00:32:04.329 --> 00:32:06.230 of thing in Scripture, right? With prophecy. 00:32:07.289 --> 00:32:10.160 And people would say, Things in the Bible, this 00:32:10.160 --> 00:32:12.779 is another thing that makes the Bible unique, 00:32:12.880 --> 00:32:15.740 is people thousands of years ago would say these 00:32:15.740 --> 00:32:17.920 things are going to happen, and then as time 00:32:17.920 --> 00:32:21.940 goes on, those things would actually happen. 00:32:23.059 --> 00:32:26.539 And of the dozens and dozens of prophecies that 00:32:26.539 --> 00:32:29.400 we find in the Old Testament about promises of 00:32:29.400 --> 00:32:31.920 things that are going to come true, there was 00:32:31.920 --> 00:32:36.619 a group of prophecies that specifically talked... 00:32:36.940 --> 00:32:39.359 About the coming of this messianic character 00:32:39.359 --> 00:32:41.819 in the future that we Christians believe is Jesus 00:32:41.819 --> 00:32:46.339 Christ. Now, there was a professor and his name 00:32:46.339 --> 00:32:50.859 was Peter Stoner. Can you imagine? Peter Stoner, 00:32:50.980 --> 00:32:56.039 all your life. He took 12 of his classes with 00:32:56.039 --> 00:33:00.480 over 600 students. And they wanted to see what 00:33:00.480 --> 00:33:05.099 the likelihood would be. What are the odds? that 00:33:05.099 --> 00:33:08.539 these prophecies about Jesus would be fulfilled. 00:33:09.140 --> 00:33:12.819 For example, one of those promises or prophecies 00:33:12.819 --> 00:33:15.940 was that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem. And 00:33:15.940 --> 00:33:19.200 so at that time, they took the population of 00:33:19.200 --> 00:33:23.839 the world at the time of Jesus' birth, and they, 00:33:23.920 --> 00:33:26.920 what are the odds? And they put a number on it. 00:33:27.779 --> 00:33:30.380 And they did this. What are the odds that this 00:33:30.380 --> 00:33:33.569 would happen at this time in this place? And 00:33:33.569 --> 00:33:37.809 each time they put odds on the eight specific 00:33:37.809 --> 00:33:41.309 prophecies about Jesus. And then they turned 00:33:41.309 --> 00:33:45.400 those numbers over to... a governing board in 00:33:45.400 --> 00:33:48.579 statistics who then approved their statistics 00:33:48.579 --> 00:33:52.480 as reliable. Yeah, you're basing the odds on 00:33:52.480 --> 00:33:55.700 this situation. Yeah, we agree that that's about 00:33:55.700 --> 00:33:57.500 right for what the odds would be that this would 00:33:57.500 --> 00:33:59.700 happen. And they took eight of them and put them 00:33:59.700 --> 00:34:02.160 together, and they said, what is the possibility 00:34:02.160 --> 00:34:09.500 of these eight specific things happening to one 00:34:09.500 --> 00:34:16.820 specific person? And the odds were 1 and 10 with 00:34:16.820 --> 00:34:23.340 17 zeros behind it. That number. That would be 00:34:23.340 --> 00:34:27.739 the chances of eight prophecies of dozens about 00:34:27.739 --> 00:34:33.619 Jesus being fulfilled. 1 and 10 with 17 zeros. 00:34:34.320 --> 00:34:39.559 Now, you think, that's humongous. And it's so 00:34:39.559 --> 00:34:42.289 humongous. that you're not even going to be able 00:34:42.289 --> 00:34:47.349 to figure this out. This probably won't even 00:34:47.349 --> 00:34:50.050 make sense. But let me give you an example of 00:34:50.050 --> 00:34:55.670 what one and this number is. You guys ever been 00:34:55.670 --> 00:35:00.050 to Texas? Let's think about how wide Texas is, 00:35:00.090 --> 00:35:02.409 first and foremost. Did you guys know that it's 00:35:02.409 --> 00:35:07.110 closer from El Paso to Los Angeles than it is 00:35:07.110 --> 00:35:13.639 from Houston to El Paso? shorter, sorry, it's 00:35:13.639 --> 00:35:18.599 less distance to drive to L .A. from El Paso 00:35:18.599 --> 00:35:22.840 than just cross the state from Houston to El 00:35:22.840 --> 00:35:27.300 Paso. That's how big Texas is. Now, let's see. 00:35:27.400 --> 00:35:31.639 Take a silver dollar and put a red X on one silver 00:35:31.639 --> 00:35:37.760 dollar and then drop it somewhere within the 00:35:37.760 --> 00:35:41.590 boundary of the state of Texas. anywhere in the 00:35:41.590 --> 00:35:44.010 state of Texas you want. It could be Austin, 00:35:44.210 --> 00:35:48.130 Lubbock, Dallas, Beaumont, anywhere in a field, 00:35:48.269 --> 00:35:53.650 on a highway, in the bottom of a creek, the bottom 00:35:53.650 --> 00:36:00.190 of a lake, right? Okay. But wait, before I ask 00:36:00.190 --> 00:36:03.150 you to go find it, what I want you to do is I 00:36:03.150 --> 00:36:06.050 want you to have enough silver dollars that you 00:36:06.050 --> 00:36:10.360 could dump silver dollars over the entire surface 00:36:10.360 --> 00:36:12.639 of the state of texas to a depth of two feet 00:36:12.639 --> 00:36:20.079 two feet is that about right the entire state 00:36:20.079 --> 00:36:23.239 of texas is this deep in silver dollars and yours 00:36:23.239 --> 00:36:27.000 is somewhere in there in the state of texas and 00:36:27.000 --> 00:36:30.559 a miracle of all miracles you stop one day after 00:36:30.559 --> 00:36:34.659 days and weeks and months and years of deciding 00:36:34.659 --> 00:36:37.280 where you want to go to try to look for the one 00:36:37.280 --> 00:36:40.260 with the X. And finally, you realize just where 00:36:40.260 --> 00:36:42.980 you think it might be, and you reach down and 00:36:42.980 --> 00:36:50.400 you pick up the one. That is the same odds as 00:36:50.400 --> 00:36:53.380 these things being true about this one person. 00:36:54.679 --> 00:36:58.599 I want to wrap up with a few prophecies. Isaiah 00:36:58.599 --> 00:37:01.300 7 says, The virgin with child shall give birth. 00:37:01.880 --> 00:37:04.920 And that was fulfilled. See, your king comes 00:37:04.920 --> 00:37:07.400 to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle 00:37:07.400 --> 00:37:11.159 riding on a donkey. That's fulfilled. Even my 00:37:11.159 --> 00:37:13.159 close friends whom I trust have lifted his heel 00:37:13.159 --> 00:37:16.039 against me. That will come true. The betrayer 00:37:16.039 --> 00:37:19.820 has arranged a signal. The one I kiss is the 00:37:19.820 --> 00:37:22.860 man. Arrest him. Going at once to Jesus, Judas 00:37:22.860 --> 00:37:28.800 said, Greetings, Rabbi, and kissed him. Psalm 00:37:28.800 --> 00:37:33.099 118 shows that the Messiah, will not completely 00:37:33.099 --> 00:37:35.539 die but rise again. I will not die but live and 00:37:35.539 --> 00:37:37.760 will proclaim what the Lord has done. The Lord 00:37:37.760 --> 00:37:40.920 has chastened me severely and will not give me 00:37:40.920 --> 00:37:47.559 over to death. Revelation 19 says, I saw heaven 00:37:47.559 --> 00:37:50.460 standing open and there before me was a white 00:37:50.460 --> 00:37:52.380 horse whose rider is called Faithful and True. 00:37:53.340 --> 00:37:56.400 Justice he judges and makes war. His eyes are 00:37:56.400 --> 00:37:58.059 like a blazing fire and on his head are many 00:37:58.059 --> 00:38:01.300 crowns. He has a name written on him that no 00:38:01.300 --> 00:38:05.260 one knows but he himself. He's dressed in a robe 00:38:05.260 --> 00:38:07.539 dipped in blood, and his name is the word of 00:38:07.539 --> 00:38:10.420 God. The armies of heaven are following him, 00:38:10.519 --> 00:38:13.039 riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, 00:38:13.059 --> 00:38:16.079 white and clean. Out of his mouth comes a sharp 00:38:16.079 --> 00:38:18.360 sword with which to strike down the nations. 00:38:18.840 --> 00:38:22.460 He will rule them with an iron scepter. He treads 00:38:22.460 --> 00:38:25.619 them, the wine press with the fury and the wrath 00:38:25.619 --> 00:38:28.829 of the God Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh, 00:38:28.989 --> 00:38:32.030 he has the name written, King of Kings and Lord 00:38:32.030 --> 00:38:37.570 of Lords. So friends, I hope that in looking 00:38:37.570 --> 00:38:39.650 at these various ways in which we might examine 00:38:39.650 --> 00:38:42.789 the reliability of the God, I hope that I've 00:38:42.789 --> 00:38:45.070 been able to show you tonight that there seems 00:38:45.070 --> 00:38:48.610 to be, to me, be more evidence and to trust in 00:38:48.610 --> 00:38:51.510 what the Bible says than clearly anything that 00:38:51.510 --> 00:38:55.449 might contradict it. But more important than 00:38:55.449 --> 00:38:59.849 that. I think what the scriptures more than anything 00:38:59.849 --> 00:39:04.949 shows us is God's desire to have a relationship 00:39:04.949 --> 00:39:09.329 with us by sharing in the creative process, the 00:39:09.329 --> 00:39:13.110 creating process of making this book by which 00:39:13.110 --> 00:39:17.190 we might know God and ourselves that much better. 00:39:17.329 --> 00:39:32.480 Amen? Amen. Amen. Thank you, guys. You know, 00:39:32.500 --> 00:39:36.820 when I look at the media -filled world in which 00:39:36.820 --> 00:39:41.119 we all exist now with the Internet and social 00:39:41.119 --> 00:39:47.179 media and the information that just flows through 00:39:47.179 --> 00:39:50.500 us on a constant basis, one of the things that 00:39:50.500 --> 00:39:54.900 I seem to notice is that over time, there has 00:39:54.900 --> 00:40:01.489 definitely been this... This idea that it's okay 00:40:01.489 --> 00:40:07.389 to challenge everything. And don't get me wrong, 00:40:07.530 --> 00:40:11.590 I think we should challenge everything. But based 00:40:11.590 --> 00:40:16.349 on a certain set of ideas, despite their evidence, 00:40:16.929 --> 00:40:24.230 people are at times reasonably people. Reasonable, 00:40:24.389 --> 00:40:29.610 rather, people. are completely prepared to believe 00:40:29.610 --> 00:40:35.429 in the unreasonable. We see this through conspiracy 00:40:35.429 --> 00:40:42.909 theories all the time. And yet, we're not even 00:40:42.909 --> 00:40:46.469 often, because of our skeptical nature, close 00:40:46.469 --> 00:40:50.150 to giving Holy Scripture that same treatment. 00:40:50.269 --> 00:40:56.869 The idea is quite simply, There is more evidence 00:40:56.869 --> 00:41:00.429 to seem to indicate that the stories we find 00:41:00.429 --> 00:41:03.429 contained in this book we call the Bible is true 00:41:03.429 --> 00:41:10.610 than not true. I'm not even trying to argue that 00:41:10.610 --> 00:41:14.690 it's overwhelming. I'm certainly not trying to 00:41:14.690 --> 00:41:18.889 argue that it's absolute, because if it was absolute, 00:41:19.250 --> 00:41:24.480 well, we wouldn't even need faith. There has 00:41:24.480 --> 00:41:27.780 to be a mystery to it. But at the same time, 00:41:27.820 --> 00:41:34.280 as reasonable people, is it completely unreasonable 00:41:34.280 --> 00:41:42.340 to believe in the evidence we find that the words 00:41:42.340 --> 00:41:46.820 contained in Scripture are in fact true? We're 00:41:46.820 --> 00:41:52.099 willing to accept that the moon is made of cheese. 00:41:52.699 --> 00:41:56.219 We certainly never landed on it. And the world 00:41:56.219 --> 00:41:59.960 is flat. And yet, despite the evidence we find 00:41:59.960 --> 00:42:05.599 that Scripture is in fact what it appears to 00:42:05.599 --> 00:42:14.820 be, we remain skeptical. What is it that gets 00:42:14.820 --> 00:42:20.820 in our way when it comes to this? Something to 00:42:20.820 --> 00:42:23.679 think about. Anyway, until next week, friend, 00:42:23.880 --> 00:42:25.000 be well.