Christian Evidences I
THE BIBLE; HOW
RELIABLE?
Rev. Harvey G. Lainson, B.B.H.
AA01- FA01 (1 Credit ) Lesson 1
All Documents Copyright
AA01 - Lesson One THE UNIQUENESS OF THE BIBLE
INTRODUCTION A. To the credit system
B. To the course: 1. Uniqueness 2. Transmission (OT) 3. Transmission (NT) (translations) 4. Prophecy fulfilled (1) odds 5. Archaeology 6. Prophecy !
C. To the Bible--structure OT: Law, History, Poetry, Prophets (major, minor) NT: Gospels, History, Epistles, Apocalypse
l. THE CLAIMS OF THE BIBLE 2 Tim 3:16,17; Heb. 1:1,2; 2 Pet. 1:21 Inspired, infallible, inerrant, revelation
II. THE UNIQUE CREDENTIALS OF THE BIBLE A. FIRST book ever translated, printed B. World's best seller every century since invention of printing (25,000 considered a "best seller"); the Bible averages over 75 million copies per year from Bible Society alone, plus other presses, plus New Testaments, etc. Omit Bible from best seller lists. There are more books written about the Bible than about any other book. The world's second best seller is a book about the Bible (Pilgrim's Progress). Best seller of 70's: "Late Great Planet Earth...10 million copies. C. U.N. says world's most translated book -- entire Bible -> 277 languages; N.T. -> 795 languages; at least one book -> 1,829 languages. D. Most quoted, most memorized, most read; survey 79.80% say Bible has influenced world the most— that leaves rest of books to fight over 20.2 % (second place--4.5%)
III. TESTIMONIALS AND RECOMMENDATIONS See separate pages of quotes: George Washington, Queen Victoria, Abraham Lincoln, John O Adams, Woodrow Wilson, Napoleon, Joseph Addison, Benjamin Franklin, Earl of Rochester, Daniel Webster, W. E. Gladstone, Henry Ward Beecher, Charles Dickens, Lord Tennyson, Coleridge, T. B. Macaulay, Sir Walter Scott, John Locke, John Milton, Sr. Wm. Jones, Thomas Carlyle, Johann Goethe, Alexander Pope, Horace Greeley, Sir Isaac Newton, Robert E. Lee, U.S.
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Grant, Patrick Henry, John Foster Dulles, Sir Francis Bacon, Herschel, Thomas Huxley, Sir Winston Churchill, etc.
CONCLUSION A. Not ashamed to be a follower of 'the world's greatest book! B. Let those who follow a LESSER book apologize!
FAMOUS MEN AND WOMEN OF HISTORY COMMENT ON THE BIBLE!
GEORGE WASHINGTON: “It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible.”
QUEEN VICTORIA: “That book (the Bible) accounts for the supremacy of England.”
ABRAHAM LINCOLN: “I believe the Bible is the best gift God has ever given to man; but for it, we could not know right from wrong.”
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: “So great is my veneration for the Bible, that the earlier my children read it, the more confident will be. my hope that they will prove useful citizens of their country and respectable members of society...l have for many years made it a practice to read through the Bible once every year...usually the first hour after I rise every morning.”
WOODROW WILSON: He wrote a message about the power of the Bible to purify and guide in the front cover of the New Testament, which he presented to all the American troops in the First World War.
NAPOLEON: “The Bible is no mere book, but a Living Creature, with a power that conquers all that oppose. it. The Gospel alone has exhibited a complete assemblage of the principles of morality divested of all absurdity...do you wish to see that which is sublime? Repeat the Lord's Prayer.”
JOSEPH ADDISON: “What can be nobler than the idea it gives us of the Supreme Being?”
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN: “A Bible and a newspaper in every house, a good school in every district—all studied and appreciated as they merit--are the principal support of virtue, morality and civil liberty.”
EARL OF ROCHESTER: “The only objection against the Bible is a bad life.” (These were his last words).
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DANIEL WEBSTER: “The Bible is a book of faith, and a book of doctrine, and a book of morals, and a book of religion, of especial revelation from God. If there is anything in my thoughts or style to commend, the credit is due to my parents for instilling in me an early love of the Scriptures.”
W. E. GLADSTONE: I have known ninety five of the world's great men in my time, and of these, eighty seven were followers of the Bible.
HENRY WARD BEECHER: The Bible stands alone in human literature in its elevated conception of manhood, in character and conduct. The word of God tends to make large-minded, noble-minded men...God's chart to steer by, to keep you from the bottom of the sea, to show you where the harbour is, and how to reach it without running on the rocks.
CHARLES DICKENS: The New Testament is the very best book that ever was or ever will be known in the world.
LORD TENNYSON: Bible reading is an education in itself.
COLERIDGE: Intense study of the Bible will keep any man from being vulgar in point of style.
T. B. MACAULAY: The English Bible--a book which, if everything else in our language should perish, Would alone suffice to show the whole extent of its beauty and power.
SIR WALTER SCOTT The most learned, acute and diligent student cannot, in the longest life, obtain an entire knowledge of this one volume.
JOHN LOCKE: It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth without any mixture of error, for its matter: it is all pure, all sincere, nothing too much, nothing wanting.
JOHN MILTON: There are no songs comparable to the songs of Zion, no orations equal to those of the prophets, and no politics like those which the Scriptures teach.
SIR WILLIAM JONES: I have carefully and regularly perused the Holy Scriptures, and am of the opinion that the volume contains more sublimity, purer morality, more important history, and liner strains of eloquence, than can be collected from all other books, in whatever language they may have been written.
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THOMAS CARLYLE: The Bible is the truest utterance that ever came by alphabetical letters from the soul of man, through which, as through a window divinely opened, all men can look into the stillness of eternity, and discern in glimpses their far-distant, long-forgotten home.
JOHANNE GOETHE: It is belief in the Bible, the fruits of deep meditation, which has served me as the guide of my moral and literary life. I have found capital safely invested and richly productive of interest, although I have sometimes made but a bad use of it.
COLERIDGE: For more than a thousand years, the Bible, collectively taken, has gone hand in hand with civilization, science, and law; in short, with the moral and intellectual cultivation of the species, always supporting and often leading the way.
JOHN LOCKE: In morality there are books enough written both by ancient and modern philosophers, but the morality of the Gospel doth so exceed them all that to give a man a full knowledge of true morality I shall send him to no other book than the New Testament.
ALEXANDER POPE: The pure and noble, the graceful and dignified, simplicity of language is nowhere in such perfection as in the Scriptures and Homer. The whole book of Job, with regard both to sublimity of thought and morality, exceeds, beyond all comparison, the most noble parts of Homer.
HORACE GREELEY: It is impossible to enslave mentally or socially a Bible-reading people. The principles of the Bible are the ground-work of human freedom.
SIR ISAAC NEWTON: There are more sure marks of authenticity in the Bible than in any profane history.
ROBEHT E. LEE: In all my perplexities and distresses, the Bible has never failed to give me light and strength.
U. S. GRANT: The Bible is the sheet-anchor of our liberties.
PATRICK HENRY: The Bible is worth all other books which have ever been printed.
JOHN FOSTER DULLES: ...acknowledged his need for the Scriptures, and never left on a peace-making mission without seeking strength and guidance from the Bible. His favourite verse] “l can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (Phil. 4:13)
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SIR FRANCIS BACON: There never was found, in any age of the world, either religion or law that did so highly exalt the public good as the Bible. There are two books laid before us to study, to prevent our falling into error: first, the volume of the Scriptures, which reveal the will of God; then the volume of the Creatures, which express His power.
HERSCHEL: All human discoveries seem to be made only for the purpose of confirming more strongly the truths that have come from on high, and are contained in the sacred writings.
THOMAS HUXLEY: The Bible has been the Magna Carla of the poor and oppressed. The human race is not in a position to dispense with it.
SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL: “We believe that the most scientific view, the most up-to-date and rational conception, will find its fullest satisfaction in taking the Bible story literally. We may be sure that all these things happened just as they are set out according to Holy Writ...and have been transmitted across the centuries with far more accuracy than many of the telegraphed accounts we read of goings on today. I remain unmoved by the tomes of ‘professor Gradgrind’ or ‘Dry-as-dust’. “
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Lesson One
ASSIGNMENT
By every measurement known to the world of books, the Bible stands head and shoulders above every other book ever written. Suppose that you are sending a Bible as a gift to a person raised in Albania under atheistic communism, who is now free to read the Bible, but who knows nothing about the book at all--in fact, has never even heard of the Bible.
You are going to tuck a note in the front cover to impress him/her with the importance of this book you are sending as a gift. Use this page to write that note (both sides if needed).
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Lesson One
QUIZ
1/ Name the four groupings of the books of the Old Testament: 1. ______2. ______277 3. ______PROPHETS 4. ______HANDWRITTEN COMICS 2/ Name the four groupings of the books of the New Testament: FINGERPRINTS 1. ______CHARIOTS 2. ______1 289 3. ______INSPIRED 4. ______79 3/ The Bible claims to be ______by God, and to be free PRINTING from all ______. 87 LAW 4/ The Bible is the world's best seller in every century since the invention of APOCALYPSE ______. 1,829 HIMSELF 5/ The Bible is omitted from best seller lists so other books have a chance to HISTORY be the ______. #1 BEST SELLER
ISTORY 6/ The Bible is the most translated book in the world. The entire Bible is H in ______languages, and at least one book of the Bible is ERROR in ______languages. SLICED BREAD EIGHTY SEVEN 7/ Prime Minister Gladstone said he knew 95 of the world's great men in his POETRY lifetime; of these ______were followers of the Bible. ACADEMY AWARD WINNER GOSPELS 8/ A person who lightly dismisses opinions about the Bible expressed by APOSTLES royalty, presidents, prime ministers, world-renowned authors, WANT ADS scientists, etc., says a lot more about ______than about EPISTLES the Bible.
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