Give five reasons to support your view of the divine inspiration of Scripture.

Question:

Give five reasons to support your view of the divine inspiration of Scripture.

Answer:

I am uncompromising in my stance of the Bible, as originally inspired, being the inerrant Word of God. I can base this statement on many facts (for a much more detailed study on this topic please see my post entitled “Validity of the Bible”) but in summary we can rest assured it is divinely inspired because of the following:

1.    Jesus Himself spoke of the Scriptures’: Authority  –  Matthew 22:43, Reliability  –  Matthew 26:54, Finality  –  Matthew 4:4, 7, 10, Sufficiency  –  Luke 16:31, Indestructibility  –  Matthew 5:17-18, Unity  –  Luke 24:27, 44, Clarity  –  Luke 24:27, Historicity  –  Matthew 12:40, Facticity (scientifically)  –  Matthew 19:2-5, Inerrancy  –  Matthew 22:29; John 3:12, 17:17, Infallibility  –  John 10:35
2.    Third-party verification  –  a plethora of external sources and facts outside the Bible corroborate what is found in the Bible.
3.    Historical reliability  –  The Bible’s message is a sharp contrast to the pagan fertility religions and philosophies of the ancient world as revealed through history. It isn’t shy about mentioning dates and places that have never been proven false (or if they seemingly had later evidence has uncovered these claims to be false themselves thus proving the Bible true). Additionally, the multitude of manuscripts and breadth of textual criticism has brought us much closer over time to understanding the truly amazing accuracy of the Scriptures.
4.    Fulfilled prophecy – Events demonstrate that the Biblical prophets accurately predicted events hundreds of years before they occurred.
5.    Archaeological evidence  –  Physical evidence demonstrates the historical and cultural accuracy of the Bible.
6.   Life …

How did the Bible come together and how much trust can we put in it?

Question:

How did the Bible come together and how much trust can we put in it?

Answer:

1. Please click here to view a post on the topic of how we can trust the Bible to be the Word of God (“Validity of the Bible”). It contains slides, a hand out, and a audio/video recording of a workshop I conducted on this topic.

2. Please see video below for a brief TV interview of Rev. Tony Costa conducted on 100 Huntley St. that addresses this question.

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Dead Sea Scrolls

Today, I had the pleasure of being able to go down, with a group of people from a house fellowship I attend, to the ROM to witness the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit. Rev. Tony Costa was our guide and was great in providing us context to understand what we saw. I am not a huge fan of museums as I tend to need to engage in what I learn but the effect of the texts and the finds was a truly great experience. Looking at the parchment and papyri and realizing the meaning behind the dating of these documents (however inexact) and the message that they communicate about the accuracy of the Bible as we have it today is astounding. To see texts written from the collection of Dead Sea Scrolls covering 100 BC to 100 AD serves as a reminder of the weight of the evidence we have in favour of biblical writings.

I encourage you all to take the time to go down and visit the ROM between now and when the exhibit closes. The exhibit runs from June 27 2009 to January 3 2010.

In order to really get the most out of the exhibit, I would suggest that you read about the various scrolls beforehand to understand the context of it all. Although this is not a requirement as the ROM has done a nice job of organizing the information and communicating key facts and translations. To share a bit of background to either entice you to go or to hopefully make it more enjoyable when you do go …

Bible Contradictions

Key verse(s)/quote(s):

• even prophets show interest in correct biblical understanding

“They read from the Book of the Law of God, making it clear and giving the meaning so that the people could understand what was being read.” - Nehemiah 8:8

• Jesus corrects wrong scriptural understanding

“So they asked him, “What miraculous sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? Our forefathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”

Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” - John 6:30-33

Key takeaway(s):

1. It is important to understand the difference between: Exegesis (Good): Draw meaning out of text, Eisegesis (Bad): Read one’s ideas into the text.
2. Context is necessary and without it something can easily become a pretext.
3. A proper/complete view of biblical study is key to an accurate understanding of what the text says
4. Developing a reflex to research and not to doubt is mandatory for any sound pursuit of Truth.

Overview:

This post serves as a practical extension to the topical discussion on the “Validity of the Bible”. Beyond understanding the tools, approaches, and broader questioning of the Bible the attached documents address more specific examples of “apparent contradictions”. …