Transcription
this show tonight is going to give you
five reasons why the Bible is true and
I'm doing this hopefully so that when
someone asks you why are you a Christian
you can say well because I believe what
the Bible teaches me and here's five
reasons why I trust it here's five
reasons why I believe it to be true I
think that's a good place to start when
you're talking about why you would
believe a system that's grounded in the
authority of an ancient document well
why do you believe the ancient document
let's talk about that today and we're
going to jump right in because we got
five reasons I want to cover here's the
first reason why I think all of us could
say we believe the Bible is reliable
it's written early now here I'm talking
about the New Testament because as
Christians we are Christ followers we
believe what the Bible teaches us about
Jesus this is found in the New Testament
and it turns out that the New Testament
was written very early now why is that
important well when you're testing the
reliability of any witness the first
thing you want to make sure is that the
person was actually there when they said
they were there uh if the Bible was
actually written in the New Testament
say in the 2 or third or fourth Century
if that's when those documents were
first penned well then you could not
really trust them as an eyewitness
account they might contain some reliable
history they might not but you couldn't
say that they were written by people who
actually lived at the time that Jesus
was doing his ministry therefore they
would have seen it and proclaimed it at
a time when other people who also know
knew Jesus could either authenticate it
or falsify it say I was there I knew
Jesus and he was none of those things so
the the early dating of scripture is
important and I think there are good
evidential reasons to believe that the
documents are early enough to have been
written by people who could actually
have seen what Jesus did and said and
are written early enough that they could
have been vetted by those who saw the
same thing and could say hey this guy
never lived he wasn't who you said he
was he didn't do any of those things
there was no Resurrection these are
things that if you're going to tell a
lie you want to tell it late so that
nobody is still alive to tell you you're
liar or out of the region so Nobody's
around to know what really happened over
there so the question is are these early
and in the region well I think there's
good reason to believe that's the case
now I'm putting on the screen right now
a Bible insert that's available to you
at coldasec christianity.com and this
Bible insert is a uh free download you
don't even have to pay for anything sign
up for anything none of that because
most of our stuff well actually all of
our stuff at Cold Case Christianity is
free but uh some of the stuff you have
to sign up for our daily blog for
example but this is free it's in the
right toolbar on the homepage you'll see
free download and download the Bible
inserts this is what I'm going to send
to you if you ask for it if you just
download it rather and um you'll see in
this early dating. timeline that we've
got good reason to believe that there
are missing elements in the book of Acts
that would have been recorded by Luke
had they occurred yet so for example the
destruction of the temple the siege of
the temple the death of Paul the death
of Peter the death of James these are
all things that are missing from the
book of Acts and they're missing for a
reason because I don't think they
occurred yet and that means you can date
book of Acts about 60 or before 60 AD or
before if we stopped right there you're
still too early in history because that
puts you at a time when people would
still have been alive my dad for example
would have been able to tell you stories
about his childhood and early adulthood
and that's the time Gap we're talking
about here from 33 to 60 AD there's just
not enough time to go by to be able to
tell a lie if you're going to write it
in the region in which these events
occur but it's better than that there's
internal evidence go back to our Bible
timeline here there's internal evidence
to suggest that that that this is
actually being circulated Luke's
documents are being circulated very
early you got two quotes um that place
Paul uses from the book of of Gospel of
Luke and he cites these in both first 1
Corinthians in 1 Timothy these are early
documents Timothy letters about 63 But
First Corinthians about 53 and not only
that if you look at the first verse in
Luke's gospel where he says that he is
an investigator who's interviewing all
the eyewitnesses who knew Jesus and
we've got this being circulated and
described by Paul to the Corinthian
Church as early as 53 ad and Luke says
in his first sentence or so that he's
writing a careful orderly account
interestingly he uses that word because
there's another account that I think
predates even Luke's account it's called
The Gospel of Mark that papius the first
century Bishop says is not orderly it's
accurate he said but the elements in
Mark's gospel are not being listed in
the correct chronological order
necessarily because Mark is writing down
Peter's teaching in Rome and Peter
doesn't always teach in chronological
order Peter taught in themes so isn't
that interesting that means that most
Scholars and I would agree Place Mark
Prior to Luke because so much of Mark's
gospel is quoted in Luke's document he
says he's talking to the eyewitnesses so
the point is you've got an even earlier
dating for Mark I think that the
documents are really early they're early
enough to have been uh vetted and read
by people who would have known if they
were lies so the first reason why I
trust the gospels is because they're too
early to contain the kinds of lot and
even the skeptic Bart man would say that
the earliest accounts we have of life of
Jesus are the four canonical gospels and
these gospels emerge from the region in
which these events occurred so if you're
going to tell a lie tell it late or tell
it out of the region here we have a
document that's written early in the
region that makes it very difficult to
lie Okay the third reason you can trust
your Bible is telling you the truth is
simply that uh it hasn't changed uh it
hasn't uh it's honest and accurate when
compared to each iteration over time
well here's why that's important I've
actually convicted people in Trials uh
merely on the basis of their changing
story they offered a story back in 1981
it changed by 1987 it changed Again by
1996 and their changing story over time
tells me that they're lying isn't it
possible that even if it was written
early and even if it's corroborated in
some way some additional elements to the
gospels could have been added over time
so that the initial story of Jesus as
simple as it may have been a simple
preaching Rabbi who never walked on
water made claims of deity was never
worshiped does never born of a ver all
those miraculous elements of the Jesus
story are added over time until finally
we have this version in our Bibles which
you really can't trust because it's been
modified well it turns out we can
actually test that and I talk about this
in another Bible insert which I'll show
you here which is called the chain of
custody in criminal trials we simply ask
do we have an early photograph of a
particular piece of evidence or an early
document and then the chain of custody
begins when one officer writes about
what he saw collects the evidence gives
it to the next officer the next officer
writes about what he received and puts
it to the next maybe to the crime lab
the crime lab then receives it writes
another report takes pictures gives it
to someone like me years later I take
pictures I write about what I receive
from the crime lab and I bring it in
trial it's picture after picture after
picture link after link after Link in
the chain of custody so we can see if
the evidence has been tampered with at
any point along the chain well well it
turns out there's a similar chain of
custody with the New Testament so for
example if we started with John if you
wondered what John said is John's
initial gospel a lot simpler than the
one we have today well we could simply
look at the work and the statements of
the next officers in the chain of
custody who did John give this
information to he had three personal
students ignacius papius and polycarp
these three students received from John
the information that they then
documented for themselves and if you
were wondering what John was teaching
what was in that First Gospel of John
you can simply ask the students the next
officers is in the chain of custody
those next officers happen to say well
you know what and they write letters to
other local churches describing what
they were taught by John we can look at
their letters which have still survived
seven from Ignatius one from polycarp
and we can see what does Jesus look like
in these letters what were they learning
from John they had a student named
araneus Ignatius and polycarp taught
araneus everything he knew we can look
at his documents and we can look at
aras's student hippus we can follow the
chain of custody link by link person by
person see what they said they received
and and look to see if the story of of
Jesus is changing here's what you're
going to discover if you lost the entire
New Testament and all you had were the
early links in the chain of custody
you'd be stuck with the exact same
version of Jesus that you have in your
Bible today the one who was born of a
virgin the one who worked miracle Les
the one who claimed to be God who who
actually was worshiped as God the one
who died on a cross and rose from the
dead and ascended into heaven as a seat
at the right hand of the father you are
stuck with the Jesus and his
characteristics have not changed they
are written early by people who would
have known if it was a lie and they have
not morphed over the years and become
more and more um uh Supernatural they
are exactly the same today as they were
originally that's the third reason you
can trust your Bible here's the fourth
reason you can trust that your Bible is
telling you the truth it turns out that
we're one of the ways we assess in our
jury instructions to jurors who are
assessing eyewitnesses on the stand in
Trials as we ask do you think there's
any bias any reason why these people
would be lying to you on the stand it
turns out bias comes down to one of
three motives and only three motives
I've talked about it on this show in the
past there are only three reasons why
anyone commits a murder and I've learned
these over the years only three reasons
why anyone steals something lies about
something commits any crime it is simply
this financial greed sexual relational
lust or the pursuit of power now that
makes it easy for me when I get to a
crime scene to assess why would somebody
kill this young lady only one of those
three reasons well the same thing makes
it easier to assess when we look at well
why are the are the original writers of
scripture are they lying to us are they
biased are they trying to to get
something out of this well there's only
three areas in which we could be driven
in such a way and that is financial
greed sexual relational lust or the
pursuit of power so what is it we think
that the original authors were trying to
get out of this were they getting you
know uh you know Rich no this is not a
get rich SC kind of a scheme these folks
all died broke having to beg these folks
didn't even most of them didn't even
hold a job they were missionaries
supported by others and they were
working in the do they get a lot of
girlfriends no no girlfriends were
gotten out of this deal and third what
kind of power do these guys even have
the power to to to um kind of control
the way they died did they have the
power to to live comfortably in a
particular area if you read the New
Testament you know what these
missionaries the apostles went through
in order to preach the gospel in a very
hostile environment and the one who
wrote most in the New Testament is Paul
are we suggesting that Paul decided as a
Jew who was in a position of respect and
authority and power who had been given
the power to chase down the Christians
that he decides one day that I'll jump
out of this position of power and
authority to jump in with the Christians
who are being persecuted and chased for
the rest of my life hoping to someday to
return to a position of power and
authority I guess it's possible but it
it's not reasonable he already had the
very thing we would be arguing he's
trying to get and that's the problem
with this theory if you look at how the
apostles died there are no stories of
surviving and drinking margaritas in in
in in Spain there are no stories of that
what we have us one story after another
of the martyrdom and pain and suffering
of the Apostles all because they refused
to change their story about what they
saw with the Risen Christ so to this
last area of bias in terms of the four
areas I typically evaluate Witnesses I
think is very strong one more good
reason though you can trust your Bible
okay here we go the fifth and last
reason why you can trust your Bible and
in some ways you might even I this might
even be the best reason and the first
four reason I just gave you today I've
written about in Cold Case Christianity
so if you wanted to get more information
about what those four reasons the
reliability of the New Testament you can
go to Cold Case Christianity but this
last reason is really from the pages of
God's crime scene my next book and that
is this the New Testament the Bible
explains the universe and the world and
our life experience in this world
exactly as we experience it it makes the
best sense of the world that we
experience it explains everything let me
give you some examples of this if the is
true it makes sense that we have the
kind of free agency and conscious
ability to assess ideas to observe
things to make decisions we're
constantly being called by Jesus to make
a decision but if atheism is true we
really don't have that kind of free
conscious freedom to make decisions like
this because the universe under atheism
is simply a material environment space
time and matter governed by the laws of
such things space time and matter
physics and chemistry and that means
that everything that occurs including
what you think are your free thoughts
are simply a series of physical events
in your brain determined by prior
physical events as Sam Harris notes that
are outside your control so Sam Harris
The Atheist would agree that under his
view of the world in the universe we
don't really have the freedom we think
we do because our decisions and thoughts
are really not our own they're caused by
prior physical events we can't control
well really so when I read Sam Harris's
work am I able to freely assess that
this is true or false does he want us to
think it over what we're what we're
hearing from him to make a decision
about whether it's true you can't do
such a thing under this view of the
universe but here we have a document
that continually asks us to make a
decision not only that it explains our
human nature so brilliantly I all the
time I'll have uh discussions with the
defense attorneys who cannot believe
that their suspect 30 years ago did
something horrific a murder when for the
last 30 years he hasn't done anything
wrong really well it's because you don't
have a Biblical anthropology the Bible
tells us that each of us is designed in
the image of God capable of greatness
and beauty and and wonder at the same
time are deeply rebellious and fallen
and so we see this tug ofar in the
Enigma of man between our Divine Design
and our human rebellion and that
actually I have no problem understanding
I have expectations of humans based on
my biblical understanding of
anthropology and it turns out that my
expectations based on a Biblical
understanding of humans are always
consistently met when I'm dealing with
folks because the Bible's actually true
and it reflects the universe and the
world precisely the way we think it is
because we've experienced it ourselves
and so those eight things I talk about
which just spent the last six weeks you
know a few weeks ago here at Cold Case
Christianity talking about the evidence
the origin of the universe the fine
tuning of the universe the origin of
Life the f tuning of life our
Consciousness our free agency objective
Transcendent moral truths and evil these
are things that comport completely with
what we read on the pages of the New
Testament it turns out if there is a God
Like Yahweh well then we can account for
those eight pieces of evidence in the
universe now it makes sense because the
report we have in the New Testament
about the nature of Yahweh happens to
explain those eight pieces perfectly so
you've got five good reasons to believe
that your Bible is telling you the truth
and is reliable from number one it's
written early number two it's
corroborated number three it hasn't
changed over time number four it it
lacks any bias that would cause them to
actually lie and finally number five it
happens to describe the universe that we
see evidentially so when somebody asks
you why are you a Christian it's time
for us to man up to belly up to the bar
and be able to say I'm a Christian for
I'm going give you five reasons I why I
trust the Bible is telling me the truth
truth and how long did it take me really
to knock those out so we actually could
make a defense quickly for the scripture
if we took the time to think and kind of
assemble the case in our own mind so we
can repeat it for others