Thursology 32: The Digs Don't Lie!!!—Modern Archeology Has Demolished “Liberal Scholarship” & “Higher Criticism" (Archeology Pt 3) (Thursology #32: 5/20/21)

--Five Facts About the Authenticity of Scripture: --Fact #1: The ______Testament is stunningly ______--Daniel 11’s predictions are incomparably precise: A. 11: _____: The 4 kings are Cambyses, Pseudosmerdis, Darius I, Xerxes I B. 11: _____: Alexander’s greatness, his death as soon as he reaches the peak of his power, the splitting of his kingdom among his 4 generals C. 11: _____: Ptolemy I, Seleucus I D. 11: _____: Ptolemy II, Antiochus II, Berenice, Laodiceia E. 11: _____: Ptolemy III F. 11: _____: Seleucus III, Antiochus III, others G. 11: _____: Ptolemy V, Cleopatra H. 11: _____: Seleucus IV, Heliodorus I. 11: _____: Seleucus IV, Demetrius, baby Antiochus, Antiochus IV Epiphanes, Andronicus J. 11: _____: Antiochus Epiphanes, Ptolemy V K. 11: _____: The horrendous desecration of the Temple and persecution of the Hebrews by Antiochus Epiphanes…and a clear prophetic foreshadowing of the Antichrist

--Donald Wiseman: “The archeology of the Bible lands have gradually grown until today there are more than 25,000 sites within this region dating back to biblical times. There are 1000’s of archeological confirmations of the Bible and it is noteworthy that no archeological find has ever been made that ______the ______of the Bible.”

--Fact #2: The Old Testament wasn’t _____-written…after-the-fact…to make it ______future events and ______appear to make predictions!!! --Only two possible explanations for the hundreds of perfect Messianic prophecies: --Possibility #1: God ______the future and was able to ______foretell the future through His prophets --Possibility #2: Something’s ______about the Old Testament…or the New Testament…or both…and they were manipulated to ______

Jesus’ life OT re-written OT copies Apparent “match” with NT Ended 32 AD------1st-7th centuries------~700 A.D------19th century

--Key Concept: The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls proved that the entire Old Testament was written no later than ______years ______Jesus lived!!!

--Fact #3: The NEW Testament is stunningly ACCURATE --Sir William Ramsay: “The irony of the situation is that today the professional historians accept the historicity of the New Testament. It is the theologians who reject the historical accuracy of the NT, based solely upon their philosophical presuppositions. They completely ignore the archeology.” --F. F. Bruce: “Repeatedly Luke has been suspected of inaccuracy. And repeatedly the accuracy of the text has been vindicated by inscriptional evidence. It is thus legitimate to say that archaeology has confirmed the New Testament record.”

--Fact #4: The New Testament wasn’t written ______after Christ to fit the religious ______of the Church --Form Criticism’s basic tenet: The stories that formed the New Testament weren’t 1st Century ______reports…but were ______made up more than ______years after Jesus of Nazareth died.

--Problems with the “Scholarship” of Form Criticism 1 --The ______problems with Form Criticism --The ______problems with Form Criticism

--Manuscript Evidence Available in the Mid-20th Century: Christ 40 AD 75 AD 100 AD 150 AD 200 AD LATER NT textual copies: _____/”______” XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Other “ancient gospels” XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

--William F. Albright: “We can say emphatically that there is no longer any solid basis for dating any book of the New Testament after 80 AD. This is more than two full generations before the date given by the radical critics. In fact, the completion date for all the books in the New Testament was probably sometime between AD 50 and 75. There is strong evidence that the formative period was no more than 17 to 20 years in length, possibly as little as seven to ten years for an Aramaic or Hebrew version of the Gospel of Matthew.”

--Today’s archeological evidence: Christ 40 AD 75 AD 100 AD 150 AD 200 AD LATER NT textual copies: ______XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Other “ancient gospels” XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

--Albright: “Only scholars who lack historical understanding can spin such a web of speculation as that with which Form Critics have surrounded the gospel tradition…the formative period is too short to permit any appreciable corruption of the essential content and even of the specific wording of the sayings of Jesus. All radical schools in New Testament criticism which have existed in the past, or which exist today, are pre-archaeological, were built out of thin air, and are antiquated.” --Sir Fredric Kenyon: “The interval then between the dates of original composition and the earliest extant evidence becomes so small as to be, in fact, negligible and the last foundation for any doubt that the Scriptures have come down to us substantially as they were written has now been removed. Both the authenticity and the integrity of the books of the NT may be regarded as finally established.”

--Fact #5: The ______leveled at the New Testament are actually true of the ______documents --Nail #1: The NT was written ______the lifetime of the eyewitnesses to the events while ___ competing descriptions were written more than a century ______the events!! --The Press Release for the “Gospel of Judas”: “The Carbon ______has verified and validated that the Gospel of Judas is, indeed, an authentically ______manuscript.” --The actual DATE of the Gospel of Judas: ______years ______Jesus died.

--Nail #2: As the New Testament manuscripts that have been discovered become more ______…the stories they tell converge into ______story. --Theory #1: Originally there were ______stories about Jesus and the commonly-accepted New Testament texts were only agreed upon more than ______years after Jesus lived. --If this theory is true…here’s what the textual evidence would show: As the manuscripts get ______…their message will be more ______.

--Theory #2: There is a ______, unifying story of the life and teachings of Jesus that was agreed upon by those who were ______at the time that He lived. --IF this theory is true, here’s what the textual evidence would show: As the manuscripts get ______, their message will be more ______.

--Key Concept: The great apologetic is when we can ______the accuracy and truth of God’s Word…and…when it ______us into ______of truth who bring ______to a lost world!!!

2 Thursology 31: The Defense of Daniel: Reversing the Myths of Progressive Theology (Archeology Pt 2) [Thursology Live! (#31; 5/13/21)]

--The Arguments Against the Authenticity of Daniel: 1. The ANTI-Prophetic Argument: Daniel could not have made such ACCURATE predictions because true prophecy is simply not POSSIBLE --Anti-prophetic assumption #1: The REAL author of Daniel must have lived during the time of Antiochus Epiphanes (175-163 BC)…and wrote the book to strengthen the FAITH of the Jews during a time of persecution.

--Anti-prophetic assumption #2: No one…including God…can foretell FUTURE events and, therefore, a book that APPEARS to make accurate predictions…must have been written AFTER-the-fact.

--The attitude of the proponents of the Anti-prophetic Argument:  Dan 1:3-7

2. The LINGUISTIC Argument --So here’s the Linguistic Argument: The supposed writer…who claimed to be a HEBREW…must not have actually written the because large portions of it were written in ARAMAIC

3. The HISTORICAL Argument: Daniel didn’t have FACTS straight --Dan 1:1-2: --Argument A: Historically, it was thought that taking the spoil of conquest into the royal treasures was NOT a Babylonian practice. --Dan 1:3: --Argument B: Historically, there was no EVIDENCE for the existence of a “Chief of the Eunuchs” as a Babylonian official. --Argument C: Daniel had his KINGS wrong: --Dan 5:1  5:30, 31

--The Defense of Daniel: Archeological Discoveries of the 20th Century 1. The Anti-Prophetic Argument:  Dan. 9:25-26b --The enormous problem for the skeptics who believe that Daniel was written around 160 BC: They didn’t account for chapter 9 that specifically PREDICTS the details of events that happened CENTURIES after that date.

Big Problems With the 160 BC Dating of Pseudo-Daniel

-

: The

Triumphal Entry Temple Destroyed Jerusalem Destroyed Rome People of the Prince Antioch Epiphanes Psuedo Daniel

163 BC ~160 BC 146 BC 32 AD 70 AD 135 AD

--The Big Problem for the Pseudo-Daniel “Scholars”: To INVALIDATE all of the specific prophecies of Daniel…a “Pseudo-Daniel” would have had to write the book after 135 AD…and the textual science proves that that’s impossibly LATE!!!

2. Linguistic Argument: Dan 1:3-4 --What was “The literature and language of the Chaldeans”? ARAMAIC…the EXACT language that Daniel chapters 2-7 were written in!!! 1

3. Historical Argument: --Argument A: Taking the spoils? --Archeological finds of in the 20th century found written inscriptions that show that Nebuchadnezzar ALWAYS took the choice spoils of his conquests into the Babylonian house of Worship…EXACTLY as Daniel states.

--Argument B: Ashpenaz who??? --Listed on the Babylonian monument: “Ashpenaz, MASTER of Eunuchs, in the TIME of Nebuchadnezzar.”

--The nail in the coffin of the Historical Argument: Daniel had to be written by a CONTEMPORARY of Ashpenaz…during the time of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign!!!

--Argument C: Daniel had his kings wrong --The cylinder found by Sir Rawlinson gives The name of the co-regent who ruled in ’ absence: “, King of .”

--Another issue is cleared up: Dan 5:29:

--Archaeologist Joseph Free: “Archaeology has confirmed countless passages of Scripture that were previously rejected by theological critics as unhistorical or contradictory to known facts.”

--Archeologist Donald Wiseman: “The archeology of the Bible lands have gradually grown until today there are more than 25,000 sites within this region dating back to biblical times. There are 1000’s of archeological confirmations of the Bible and, it is noteworthy that no archeological find has ever been made that CONTRADICTS the HISTORY of the Bible.”

--A repeated…and growing problem with the historical argument --The Progressive Theologians’ Conundrum: Their first complaint is that Daniel is too INACCURATE…but then…after confirmatory archeological findings are made…their complaint is that Daniel is too ACCURATE!!!

--Two great testimonies to the authenticity of Daniel --Ezek 14:12-14; 28:1-3: --Matt. 24:11-16 --Our Great God: Isaiah 40:25-26; 28; 46:9-10; 40:8

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