Wednesday Bible Study

The 5 Realities of God-Breathed Scripture: 2 Timothy 3:16-17

• Authoritative
• Inerrant
• Sufficient
• Understandable
• Powerful

Textual Issues

• Biblical Unity – Authoritative Audacity – Inerrancy Reality
• 40 Different Authors writing in drastically different times and circumstances over a period of 1,600 years. 1 story with fully unity in doctrine and worldview.
• Inherency: Scripture in the original manuscripts does not affirm anything that is contrary to fact nor does it contradict itself but is flawless and perfect.
  • 300 Hebrew Manuscripts
  • 5,800 Greek Manuscripts
  • 20,000 Ancient Translations of the Old and New Testaments
  • 30,000 + quotations of the Bible by the Early Church Fathers
• Textual variant: any place among the manuscripts in which there is a variation in the wording, including word order, omission, or addition of words, even spelling difference.
  • Four Types of Variants:
    • Neither Meaningful nor Viable – over 70% of all variants
    • Viable but not Meaningful – over 70% of all variants
    • Meaningful but not Viable – over 29 % of all variants
    • Viable and Meaningful – less than 1% of all variants
  • “Essential Christian beliefs are not affected by Textual variants in the manuscript tradition of the New Testament.” – Bart Ehrman
• Counters to Inerrancy
  • There are errors in the Text
  • We do not have the original manuscripts
  • There are clear contradictions
  • The Bible is only good for faith and spiritual matters
• Issues if the Bible is Error-Filled
  • God is a Liar
  • God is Untrustworthy
  • Human Minds are a Higher Standard of Truth than God and His Word
  • Errors Demand the Rejection of Small Details as well as Doctrine

Historical/Archaeological Issues

• Historicity: this strictly refers to the historical authenticity of something. In this case it refers to the historical authenticity of Scripture and all that the Word of God records within it.
• Modernism is a philosophy that at its core believes on that which can be proved empirically (based on observation and experimentation) actually exists. Modernism refutes all notions of the supernatural for the supernatural denies scientific law. Because God cannot be observed and tested and His works are supernatural, God cannot exist. Modernism is highly tied to Science.
• Old Testament Issues
• New Testament Issues

Scientific Issues

• The great scientists of old saw Science as flowing out of Scripture.
• The Bible uses Phenomenological language.
• Naturalism and Miracles – Miracles by definition cannot be scientifically evaluated
• Proofs of the Resurrection:
  • Five Facts all New Testament Scholars Affirm
    • Crucifixion
    • Death
    • The Empty Tomb
    • Friends
    • Enemies