False Impressions Consider the following statements: • The Bible says that God helps those who help themselves. • The books of the New Testament were written centuries after the events they describe. • “Cleanliness is next to godliness” is in the Bible. • According to the Bible, the earth is flat. • The earliest New Testament manuscripts go back only to the fourth or fifth centuries AD. • The Bible teaches that the earth is the center of the universe. • The English Bible is a translation of a translation of a translation (etc.) of the original, and fresh errors were introduced in each stage of the process. How many of the above statements do you think are true? The answer is none; all of them are false. Yet these false impressions persist in the minds of many, and misinformation like this produces a skeptical attitude toward the Bible. “Scripture alone is the true lord and master of all writings and doctrine on earth. If that is not granted, what is Scripture good for? The more we reject it, the more we become satisfied with men’s books and human teachers.” -Martin Luther “Sola Scriptura Is the corner-stone of universal Protestantism; and on it Protestantism stands, or else it falls.” -B.B. Warfield “The church throughout history has faced repeated attacks on the Bible from skeptics, but only in the 19th and 20th centuries have the truthfulness and trustworthiness of God’s Word been questioned, criticized, and abandoned by those within the body of Christ.” Carl Henry in his book God, Revelation, and Authority “What is clear beyond doubt is that whereas in the nineteenth century the tendency of history was to cast doubt of the veracity of Judeo-Christian records and to undermine popular faith in God and His Son as presented in the Bible, in the twentieth century it has moved in quite the opposite direction, and there is no sign of the process coming to an end. It is not now the men of faith, it is the skeptics, who have reason to fear the course of discovery.11” Paul Johnson https://y-jesus.com/is-the-bible-historically-reliable/ Sola Scriptura means the bible alone is our FINAL authority. But not that it is our only authority. The creeds we believe they have authority in our lives as well right? Tradition does too. But only the Bible is a FINAL authority. It also means it is our sufficient authority It provides all the truth we need for faith and practice. Belgic Confession 1561: “We believe that those Holy Scriptures fully contain the will of God, and that whatsoever man ought to believe unto salvation is sufficiently taught therein.” Westminster Confession of Faith 1646: “The whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for His own glory, man’s salvation, faith and life, is either expressly set down in Scripture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture: unto which nothing at any time is to be added, whether by new revelations of the Spirit, or traditions of men (Gal. 1:8-9; 2Thess 2:2; 2 Tim 3:15-17) Sola Scriptura means that only Scripture, because it is God’s inspired Word, is our inerrant authority. The reason it is authoritative is that God is the divine Author. “Because God is speaking- and he is a God of truth, not error- His Word must be true and trustworthy in all that it addresses.” Matthew Barrett in God’s Word Alone “Should Scripture contain errors, it is unclear why we should trust Scripture as our supreme and final authority.” Matthew Barrett in God’s Word Alone What we believe: Inerrancy: The Bible is inerrant in its original manuscripts Inspiration: It is inspired, that is to say it is God breathed or spoken out by God. Clarity: It is clear and understandable for the common man. 11 “For this commandment that I command you today is not too hard for you, neither is it far off. 12 It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend to heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ 13 Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ 14 But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it. Deut. 30:11-14 Sufficiency: It is sufficient. We don’t need more than God’s word Alone to be able to faithfully follow and know Jesus. (I would add that Scripture itself says that the Holy Spirit is our teacher and it’s the Holy Spirit that guides us into truth(John 14:26, 16:13). However the Holy Spirit will never guide us to do something that goes against God’s word) Authority: It is the Final authority in our lives. This is what we believe. Why do we believe that? Is the Bible worthy of that kind of honor? My goal today is to prove to you that it is. Next week then I want to further define these terms and talk about some of the areas where the battle is taking place regarding how we view scripture. The Internal Test: What does the Bible say about itself? 2. Early Christians believed that canonical books were self-authenticating Another authenticating factor was the internal qualities of each book. These books established themselves within the church through their internal qualities and uniqueness as depicting Christ and his saving work. The New Testament canon we possess is not due to the collusions of church leaders or the political authority of Constantine, but to the unique voice and tone possessed by these writings. https://corechristianity.com/resource-library/articles/7-things-you- need-to-know-about-the-formation-of-the-new- testament#.W2S_1UaEXeU.twitter This may appear to be circular reasoning. It sounds like we are using the testimony of the Bible to prove that the Bible is true. But we are really examining the truth claims of the various authors of the Bible and allowing them to speak for themselves. (Remember that the Bible is not one book but many books woven together.) This provides significant evidence that must not be ignored. A number of biblical authors claim that their accounts are primary, not secondary. That is, the bulk of the Bible was written by people who were eyewitnesses of the events they recorded. John wrote in his Gospel, “And he who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true; and he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you also may believe” (John 19:35; see also 21:24). In his first epistle, John wrote, “What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and held with our hands, concerning the Word of life … what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also …” (1 John 1:1, 3). Peter makes the same point abundantly clear: “For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty” (2 Peter 1:16; also see Acts 2:22; 1 Peter 5:1). (Also: 2 Peter 3:15-16 Peter says that what Paul wrote is SCRIPTURE. 1Corinthians 15:16 These books were written while eyewitnesses were still alive. ) The independent eyewitness accounts in the New Testament of the life, death, and resurrection of Christ were written by people who were intimately acquainted with Jesus Christ. Their Gospels and epistles reveal their integrity and complete commitment to the truth, and they maintained their testimony even through persecution and martyrdom. (History would say that 10 of the 12 disciples died martyrs deaths. This is one of the most powerful witnesses to the truthworthiness of scripture. Who dies for a lie?) All the evidence inside and outside the New Testament runs contrary to the claim made by form criticism that the early church distorted the life and teachings of Christ. Most of the New Testament was written between AD 47 and 70, and all of it was complete before the end of the first century. There simply was not enough time for myths about Christ to be created and propagated. And the multitudes of eyewitnesses who were alive when the New Testament books began to be circulated would have challenged blatant historical fabrications about the life of Christ. The Bible places great stress on accurate historical details, and this is especially obvious in the Gospel of Luke(LUKE HAS INCREDIBLE DETAIL IN HIS BOOKS. If he was lying that would have gotten him in trouble.) and the Book of Acts, Luke’s two-part masterpiece. Here is the prologue to the first of these: Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile an account of the things accomplished among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word, it seemed fitting for me as well, having investigated everything carefully from the beginning, to write it out for you in consecutive order, most excellent Theophilus; so that you may know the exact truth about the things you have been taught. (Luke 1:1–4) http://kenboa.org/apologetics/how-accurate-is-the-bible/ Also, on several occasions Jesus and the apostles referred to the Scriptures as the authentic Word of God.