Differing Views
II PETER 1:16-21
Peter starts out with a powerful point. He is telling us that they did not follow fables or myths. They were not fooled but were eyewitnesses of His majesty. And Peter’s point is that they saw the Lord in His glory on the Mount of Transfiguration there on Mount Hermon. And as sure as they saw this, God’s Word to us is even more sure. Some of you may be thinking, “That’s just what he has to say. How do we know that Peter is right?” We will be dealing with that in a few minutes – the inerrancy and infallibility of the Scriptures.
To deal with the idea that the Bible is nothing more than myths or fables, listen to what C. S. Lewis said, who was one of the most famous modern myth writers. He said:
First then, whatever these men may be as Biblical critics, I distrust them as critics. They seem to me to lack literary judgment, to be imperceptive about the very quality of the texts they are reading. . . . If he tells me that something in a Gospel is legend or romance, I want to know how many legends and romances he has read, how well his palate is trained in detecting them by the flavour; not how many years he has spent on that Gospel. . . . I have been reading poems, romances, vision-literature, legends, myths all my life. I know what they are like. I know that not one of them is like this.
- C. S. Lewis, Christian Reflections, pp.154-155
Now, as I said on Thursday, when Peter speaks of the “prophetic word” he is not only speaking of prophecy or foretelling the future. Yes, the Bible is over 25% prophetic in nature. There are over 300 prophecies of Christ’s first coming that were fulfilled down to the tiniest detail. Now, to have those 300 fulfilled in any one man is beyond any mathematical probability. In fact, Peter Stoner showed that one man fulfilling just 8 of those prophecies was beyond any mathematical probability and yet Jesus fulfilled all of them, over 300! And there are over 500 prophecies of His second coming which tells me, it is a done deal, He is coming back! Also, Peter is speaking of forthtelling the things of God, speaking forth the Words of God, he is speaking of all of the Scriptures.
Let’s spend a few minutes looking at three views of the Scriptures, the Bible because people, for the most part, will fall into one of these three. And I will show you why I believe our view is the correct one, not because I say so, but because that is what the Scriptures are teaching us.
1. THE LIBERAL VIEW
This view teaches that the Bible contains the Word of God, it is sprinkled throughout the Bible. You can clearly see the problem and confusion with this view. You have to pick what God said and what He didn’t say. And we do have groups today, like the Jesus Seminar who deny that Jesus said most of what is in the Gospels, they deny His deity, they deny His resurrection. Then what do they believe are the Words of God in the Bible? Those that deal with mans relationship with his fellow man, living the good life, caring for people and they negate everything to do with Hell and judgment and that Jesus is God! You see, in this view it makes man in judgment of God’s Word instead of the Word of God in judgment of man! Obviously this is not the right view of the Scriptures because the Bible does not support it!
2. THE NEO-ORTHODOX VIEW
This view believes that the Bible becomes the Word of God. Yes, it is full of errors in the original writings but that is not important. You see, God can still use it. How in the world can that be? You see, whatever it speaks to your heart when you read it is the Word of God. Thus, the Bible can be filled with myths and legends, the stories are not historical accounts but if it teaches you something, it is from God. Obviously the problem with this is it is too subjective. What God’s Word, in this view, says to me may be the complete opposite to you and we are both right! And think about this for a minute. When the Bible speaks of historical or scientific things it is inaccurate but when it speaks of spiritual things it is accurate. How do you know? You see, if you can’t trust the Scriptures in one area, how then can you trust it in another? You can’t and thus, this view is wrong!
3. THE CONSERVATIVE VIEW
This view believes that the Bible is the Word of God. Now, within this view are three others that we need to look at so we can truly understand what inspiration is all about, what God’s Word is all about.
A. MECHANICAL-VERBAL DICTATION: This says that God dictated His Words to men to pen or write down. The problem with this view is it would eliminate the writer’s own personal style which we see in the Scriptures. Each book has its own style because of the writer, thus, I don’t believe this is correct.
B. DYNAMIC INSPIRATION: God did not dictate the words to men but He gave them the thoughts and they then expressed His thoughts in their own words. The problem with this view is it not only weakens the Divinity of God’s Word, but how can we be assured they didn’t mess things up? You see, it would have to go from God, to their minds and then to the paper and there is no assurance in that!
C. VERBAL PLENARY INSPIRATION: Very fancy words, but let me break them down to show you what I mean. Verbal (the Word), plenary (extending to all parts equally), andinspiration (God-breathed). Thus, all Scripture is breathed from the mouth of God, not just some of them and man was the instrument from which God’s Word was written. He did not change their styles of writing but the words came from the mouth of God. That is what Paul said in II Timothy 3:16-17, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” Thus, in biblical terminology, inspiration is the process by which Spirit moved writers recorded God-breathed writings! That means the cause of the inspiration is God. The means of the inspiration is the men of God. And the end result of inspiration is the Word of God in the language of men!
Now, in Hebrews 1:1 Paul tells us, “God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets.” In other words, God spoke or a revelation was given, in different ways by the prophets or inspiration. How did God speak? In a audible voice, by the mouth of angels, by dreams or while they were sleeping, by visions or while they were awake, by a theophany or an Old Testament appearance of Jesus Christ, by miracles, by the prophets, by pictures or shadows of what was to come.
Then, in Hebrews 1:2 we are told, “has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds.” In other words, the culmination of everything God has been saying through the prophets has all come together in Jesus. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us!
Now please understand this. The original manuscripts were infallible and inerrant in their writings. What we have are copies of the original manuscripts. Now some would argue then, “How do we know they are true? If you copy something over and over again, there are bound to be errors, to be mistakes and that will just be multiplied the more times you copy documents. So how do we know the Scriptures are true, that is what they originally said?” That is a great question. First of all God has kept these copies very accurate so that the minor changes we find, don’t change the text at all! I know that may be hard for some of you to believe, so let me show you what I mean when I say the Bible is accurate, that we can trust it because the evidence proves it!
When we speak of the Bible, the Word of God, we are talking about a document that was composed over a 1500-year time span, from around 1400 BC to 90 AD. There were over 40 different authors that penned the 66 books we call the Bible and they came from a variety of walks of life. There were kings, peasants, fishermen, poets, statesman, scholars, and-so-on. The Bible was written on three different continents: Asia, Africa and Europe. It was written in three different languages: Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek.
And yet as we read this book we see one unfolding story of God’s love for man and His plan to redeem man back from this dead spiritual condition. It is as Geisler and Nix put it, “The ‘Paradise Lost’ of Genesis becomes the ‘Paradise regained’ of Revelation. Whereas the gate to the tree of life is closed in Genesis, it is opened forevermore in Revelation.”
And, Nelson Gluek puts it this way as he is one of the leading Palestinian archaeologists of our time. He said, “As a matter of fact, however, it my be stated categorically that no archaeological discovery has ever controverted Biblical reference. Scores of archaeological findings have been made which confirm in clear outline or in exact detail historical statements in the Bible.” No other religious book can that be said of. In fact, the Book of Mormon is a joke, there is nothing that can be substantiated historically in it.
Now the oldest Manuscript of the Old Testament we had came from 916 AD. That is some 1400 years after it was written, and many argued that it had to be unreliable since all that time had passed from the original writings to the manuscript of 916 AD. That was until 1947 when the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered.
The Dead Sea Scrolls is the term that is used of the manuscripts that were discovered in 1947 in caves some 500 yards from the Dead Sea, in the area known as Qumran, along the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea.
The story goes that back in 1947 a shepherd boy was herding his goats when one of them got lost in this area. And this Arab shepherd boy named Mohammed was looking for this stray goat in the Judean wilderness when he tossed a rock into the air. When the rock landed it fell into a cave and broke some pottery that was in this cave. In hearing the breaking of the pottery, he became curious and he went into this cave, which is now called cave number 1, and to his surprise he found jars filled with ancient scrolls, which lead to the search for other caves that nearly lasted a decade, once word got out. And during that time they found 11 caves producing over 800 scrolls and fragments written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, covering a time period of almost 1000 years.
As they analyzed these scrolls, by carbon dating, it showed that most of them were written between 100 BC and 68 AD. But who were these people who lived out in the desert, away from civilization, and kept such accurate records of the Words of God, writing commentaries on the various books of the Old Testament and adhered to a strict code of living? It is believed that the people that wrote these scrolls were the Essenes, who were zealots who withdrew from the corruption of the Greco-Roman culture, and the worldliness that crept into the priesthood. Thus, they separated themselves in the wilderness of Judea, in the area of the Dead Sea, known as Qumran, keeping themselves pure and awaiting the coming Messiah.
Some believe that John the Baptist lived out in this area. Now they lived in this area known as Qumran from around 150 BC to 68 AD, two years before the Romans burned down the temple and destroyed the city of Jerusalem, causing many to flee for their lives.
One of the most important finds was discovered in cave number 1, and they were two scrolls of Isaiah, one damaged, but the other one was complete, along with other scrolls. This 24-foot leather scroll of Isaiah could tell us the accuracy of the text transmission over a 1000-year period of time. You see, this scroll of Isaiah dates back to 100 years before Christ and the next closest text we have dates back all they way to 916 AD!
The fascinating thing about this is you can go to Israel today and visit the museum called the Shrine of the Book, and if you can read Hebrew, you would discover your New King James Bible’s reading of Isaiah is almost identical to this text that is over 2000 years old! And we have seen it when we went to Israel! And here is the thing. There is no major difference between the two. Imagine that. The book of Isaiah has 66 chapters, 1292 verses, 37,044 words and the integrity of the text has held up all these years!
According to Norman Geisler and William Nix, in their book A General Introduction To The Bible, they said, “Of the 166 words in Isaiah 53, there are only seventeen letters in question. Ten of those letters are simply a matter of spelling, which does not affect the sense. Four more letters are minor stylistic changes, such as conjunctions. The remaining three letters comprise the word ‘light’ which is added to verse 11, and does not affect the meaning greatly. . . . Thus, in one chapter of 166 words, there is only one word (three letters) in question after a thousand years of transmission – and this word does not significantly change the meaning of the passage.”
After comparing the entire Isaiah manuscript from the Dead Sea Scrolls with the present Hebrew text of Isaiah, Old Testament scholar Gleason L. Archer concluded that the Dead Sea Scrolls “Prove to be word for word identical with our standard Hebrew Bible in more than 95 percent of the text. The 5 percent variation consisted chiefly of obvious slips of the pen and variations in spelling.” Not bad when you consider they did not have computers, spell-checking and-so-on, as we do have today.
If you had any doubt of the accuracy of the Old Testament, then the Dead Sea Scrolls should help clear that matter up right away. Yes, we don’t have any of the original manuscripts of the Old Testament, but looking at the various texts it shows how accurately they were copied and passed on. As the renowned archaeologist William F. Albright has said, “There can be no doubt that Archaeology has confirmed the substantial historicity of the Old Testament tradition.”
John Elder, an archaeologist, has this fitting conclusion to the reliability of the Old Testament. He said, “It is not too much to say that it was the rise of the science of archeology that broke the deadlock between historians and the orthodox Christian. Little by little, one city after another, one civilization after another, one culture after another, whose memories were enshrined only in the Bible, were restored to their proper places in ancient history by the studies of archaeologists. . . . The over-all result is indisputable. Forgotten cities have been found, the handiwork of vanished peoples has reappeared, contemporary records of Biblical events have been unearthed and the uniqueness of Biblical revelation has been emphasized by contrast and comparison to the newly understood religions of ancient peoples. Nowhere has archaeological discovery refuted the Bible history.”
But how reliable is the New Testament since we don’t have any of the original manuscripts? We are going to look at four areas that speak to that question and you will see that we can trust the New Testament writings. You will see that they are accurate.
1. THE NUMBER OF NEW TESTAMENT MANUSCRIPTS
We have over 24,000 manuscripts of the New Testament in existence today. We have 5,300 known Greek manuscripts. We have over 10,000 Latin Vulgate manuscripts. And we have over 9,300 other early versions of manuscripts of the New Testament. No other document of antiquity even comes close. Caesar, who lived 110-44 BC, we have only 10 manuscripts of his writings with the earliest copy from 900 AD. A time span of 1,000 years. The Illiad, by Homer, which is the closest number of manuscripts to the New Testament, was written around 900 BC, and we have 643 manuscripts in which the earliest copy being from 400 BC, a 500 year time difference.
You see, there are plenty of manuscripts that testify of the authenticity of the Scriptures. And, as J. Harold Greenlee said, in speaking on the early church writers, that their quotations of Scripture “Are so extensive that the New Testament could virtually be reconstructed from them without the use of the New Testament manuscripts.” You see, you could destroy every Bible, every manuscript, and you could still reconstruct all but 11 verses of the New Testament. We have over 36,000 quotations from the early church writers. No other writing of antiquity even comes close to the documentation of the New Testament. In fact, there is more evidence for the reliability of the New Testament than any 10 pieces of classical literature put together. If anyone would like to say that the New Testament is not reliable, then we might as well toss out ALL literature of antiquity!
2. VARIATION BETWEEN THE NEW TESTAMENT MANUSCRIPTS
We must take into consideration that up to 500 years ago, all documents were printed by hand. And yet, when you look at the minor variations between all the texts of the New Testament, they do not change the meaning or the substance of our faith. New Testament Scholar F. F. Bruce put it this way. He said, “The variant readings about which any doubt remains . . . affect no material question of historical fact or of Christian faith and practice.”
Sir Frederic Kenyon, one of the great authorities in the field of New Testament textual criticism, had this to say regarding the New Testament manuscripts. He said, “One warning already referred to, must be emphasized in conclusion. No fundamental doctrine of the Christian faith rests on a disputed reading . . . It cannot be to strongly asserted that in substance the text of the Bible is certain: especially in the case with the New Testament. The number of manuscripts of the New Testament, of early translations from it, and of quotations from it in the oldest writing of the church, is so large that it is practically certain that the true reading of every doubtful passage is preserved in some one or other of these ancient authorities. This can be said of no other ancient book.”
3. THE SHORT TIME SPAN FROM THE EVENTS TO THE ORIGINAL WRITINGS AND THE MANUSCRIPT COPIES
We have talked about the Dead Sea Scrolls already but there is one more point I need to bring up and that is a fragment of manuscript that was found in cave number 7, fragment number 5. On this fragment were the Greek letters nu, nu, eta, sigma, and it was thought that this was the common Greek version of the form “egennesen,” which means to “beget” or “be father of.” The root of this word appears in our English word “generate” or “generation.”
A scholar by the name of Jose O’Callaghan tried to match these words with a Biblical passage from the Old Testament, but nothing seemed to fit. As he pondered this over and over in his mind, over a period of time, he thought of a word that may fit, Gennesaret. But the only problem was that this was a New Testament word. How could fragment number 5 be from the New Testament when this was suppose to be a Jewish sect that lived in the area of Qumran, by the Dead Sea?
You see, the word “Gennesaret” is an Aramaic place name brought into the vocabulary of the early Greek-speaking Christians because of its role in the ministry of Christ. So O’Callaghan opened his Bible to Mark 6:53, which reads, “When they had crossed over, they came to the land of Gennesaret and anchored there.” To his shock, fragment 5 fit perfectly into the text! On March 18, 1972, as the news media heard what he discovered, that fragment number 5 was part of the Gospel of Mark, and was part of the Dead Sea Scrolls, newspapers began to print this remarkable story. The New York Times reported, “If O’Calaghan’s theory is accepted, it would prove that at least one of the Gospels, that of St. Mark, was written only a few years after the death of Jesus.”
Well, it didn’t take long for the critics of the Bible to rise up and try to refute O’Callaghan’s claims. The problem with their complaining is that this document was dated before his revelation, and he did not date it. And we do know one thing for certain, that the people living in the Qumran community were destroyed before the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD. That means if the crucifixion of Christ occurred in 32 AD, the Gospel of Mark was not written long after that. Thus, within a 20 to 30 year time frame, we have a document from Mark’s Gospel! It was not written 100’s of years after the events, like some would have you believe!
Not only was that, but the book of Acts written before the death of Paul, for the book of Acts ends with Paul still alive. And good evidence shows that Paul died in the Neronian persecution about 67 AD. Thus, since Acts was the second half of a treatise written by Luke to Theophilus, Luke must have been written around 60 AD.
Also, all of Paul’s letters would have to be written before his death, obviously, and he died in 67 AD. Thus, we see only a 30-year time span from the death and resurrection of Christ, to all of Paul’s letters being completed!
Maybe you don’t trust Biblical history, then listen to this testimony of an unbeliever, for it speaks volumes. Speaking of Ceisus, a man living in the second century who hated Christianity, Bishop Fallows writes: “This unbeliever, although he caused great annoyance to the believers in Christ living in his day, and seemed to be disturbing the foundations of the Christian faith, rendered more real service to Christianity than any father of undisputed orthodoxy in the Church. He admits all the grand facts and doctrines of the gospel, as they were preached by the Apostles, and contained in the acknowledged writings, for the sake of opposing. He makes in his attacks eighty quotations from the New Testament, and appeals to it as containing the sacred writings of Christians, universally received by them as credible and Divine.”
“He is, therefore, the very best witness we can summon to prove that the New Testament was not written hundreds of years after the Apostles were dust; but in less than a century and a half had been received by the Christian church all over the world.”
As I close this section, listen to what Sir Frederic G. Kenyon said in Bible and Archaeology, “The interval then between the dates of original composition an the earliest extant [existing] 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 general integrity of the books of the New Testament may be regarded as finally established.”
4. HISTORICAL ACCURACY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
Back in the nineteenth century, it was widely believed that the New Testament was an invention of the second century church, but as we have seen, they were in error with this kind of thinking. Sir William Ramsay, who began his historical research toward the end of the nineteenth century, was taught that the New Testament was not historically reliable.
As a young historian, Ramsay was determined to develop an independent historical/geographical study of first-century Asia Minor. To his dismay, there was little usable information regarding this area and that period of time. So, reluctantly, he consulted the book of Acts for help. What he discovered was remarkably accurate and true to first-century history and topography.
Don Stewart, in speaking of Ramsay, stated, “Since many historical details, national boundaries, and government structures in Asia Minor were different in the second century from what they had been in the first, it is reasonable to conclude that the actual author of Luke and Acts was a first-century author, not a second-century one.”
“Acts 14:1-6, for example, was in historical dispute for many years. The passage implies that Lystra and Derbe were cities in the district of Lycaonia but Iconium was in a different district. Later Roman writers such as Cicero contradicted the passage, asserting that Iconium was also in Lycaonia. For years this was used to show the historical unreliability of Acts.”
“In 1910, however, Sir William Ramsay discovered an inscription declaring that the first century Iconium was under the authority of Phyrgia from A.D. 37 to A. D. 72. It was only during these years that Iconium was not under the authority of Lycaonia. Not only did this discovery confirm the accuracy of the statement in Acts 14, it showed that whoever wrote this passage knew what district Iconium was in at that time. That places the author as an eyewitness to the events.”
Thus, as we look at the New Testament we find we have the manuscript copies to support the text. There are minor variations in the various New Testament texts, but they do not change any foundational doctrines of the Christian faith and practice. That the time span from the actual events to the original writings were some 10 to 60 years, and the copies of the originals were done shortly after. And lastly, the historical record of the New Testament is so accurate that it shows the writer had to be around during the time frame he was speaking of.
Yes, we don’t have any of the original writings of both the Old and the New Testament, but what we do have is an accurate record of them both. Don’t let these so-called “higher critics” cause you to doubt God’s Word, for it gives us life by pointing us to the giver of life, Jesus Christ. It gives us hope by pointing us to the giver of hope, Jesus Christ. We are strengthened by the Word, encouraged by the Word, we see the character of God through the Word, our heart is revealed to us through the Word, and-so-on. God’s Word is living and it is powerful and it can change our lives if we allow God’s Spirit by the Word of God to do so. It is as the Psalmist said, “How sweet are Your words to my taste, Sweeter than honey to my mouth! . . . Therefore I love Your commandments More than gold, yes, than fine gold!” Psalm 119:103, 127.
As I begin to close this morning, listen to these words, not from a Christian publication or a Christian for that matter, but from Time magazine, dated December 30, 1974. This is what they said back then, “After more than two centuries of facing the heaviest scientific guns that could be brought to bear, the Bible has survived – and is perhaps better for the siege. Even on the critics’ own terms – historical fact – Scriptures seem more acceptable now than they did when the rationalist began the attack.”
You see, not cunningly devised fables or myths, but the Word of God breathed from the lips of God to man! It is like this: The Bible is the Word of God; God cannot lie, thus, the Bible cannot error or be wrong! As Paul said in Colossians 3:16, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.” May we allow God’s Word to sink deep down into our hearts and overflow in our lives, being manifested in the things we do and say! People want to know the truth today, God’s Word is truth and thus, may we give them what they need and point them to Jesus!