Well, good evening and welcome to the first of six weeks that we're going to do in our
evening studies on the topic of questioning Christianity. So welcome to you if you're
a regular with us and we're back after the summer. It's good to be able to share together
again. Welcome if you're friends, if someone's invited you along to come and listen along with
us and to think together. We're really glad to be able to welcome folks to join with us.
I'm on location today. Our next door neighbour is getting some work done so we've moved to the
sitting room which I have, I hope, tidied up having a wee look there.
Our first session tonight is on the question, how can I trust the Bible? So many questions
that people have about Christianity, sometimes objections, sometimes the questions that come up
in investigation. But one of the foundational ones, because the Bible is so foundational to our faith,
is can the Bible be trusted? Is it reliable? So I want us to begin hearing the words of Jesus
and these passages we'll then briefly return to at the end and then we'll explore together some
different avenues for thinking about that question, how can I trust the Bible? So our first passage
comes from Matthew chapter 5. In Matthew chapter 5 we have the Sermon on the Mount, one part of Jesus
teaching that people really appreciate whether they're Christians or not, but there are some
surprising elements in there for those who only know maybe some select parts. Here's what Jesus says,
Matthew chapter 5,
Do not think that I have come to abolish the law of the prophets. I have not come to abolish them,
but to fulfil them. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter,
not the least stroke of a pen will by any means disappear from the law until everything is
accomplished. Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others
accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these
commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness
surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom
of heaven. And then later on as he is discussing with some of the opponents that Jesus encountered in
his day, some of the religious leaders, in Matthew chapter 12 we read this at verse 38,
Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to Jesus, Teacher, we want to see a sign from
you. He answered, A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign, but none will be given it except the
sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish,
so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will
stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of
Jonah. And now something greater than Jonah is here. The Queen of the Scythe will rise at the judgment
with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon's
wisdom. And now something greater than Solomon is here. And then into John's gospel and chapter five,
and again, confrontation that religious leaders have with Jesus. And at this point in verse 39 of chapter five,
he says this to them,
You study the scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life.
These are the very scriptures, speaking about the Old Testament, that testify about me.
Yet you refuse to come to me to have life.
I do not accept glory from human beings, but I know you. I know that you do not have the love of
God in your hearts. I have come in my Father's name and you do not accept me. But if someone else
comes in his own name, you'll accept him. How can you believe that you accept glory from one another,
but do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? But do not think I will accuse you
before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom your hopes are set. Now Moses wrote the first five
books of the Bible. If you believe Moses, you would believe me for he wrote about me. But since you do
not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?
So to our question, how can I trust the Bible? So maybe even at this stage, you're surprised you
you've tuned in to a service, the 21st century in Edinburgh, and you discover, and if you've tuned
in before or if you've come to church physically, you'll discover that we take the Bible seriously.
And we read it, we teach from it. It's the centrepiece of our gatherings together. We trust in
the Bible. Christian faith is built on the conviction that the word of God is revelation.
It is inspired by God so that it's not speculation or simply human invention. But you might very well
have the question, or you might have friends with the question, well how can an ancient book
be reliable for modern people? How can we trust that it's not been so corrupted over time that it's
now irrelevant today? Maybe you're coming from a position of spiritually seeking, and maybe you're
asking, well if I want to know God, if I want to know truth, can I have confidence when I read the
Bible that truth can be found? Well I have four brief ways initially to think about that, to approach
our question, can I trust the Bible? The first is to do with timing or dating, because you'll find
the idea perhaps going around that the Gospels are late inventions created by the church much later
than the time of Jesus. Maybe you read the Da Vinci Code or watched it. Well Dan Brown, the author,
he popularised a view that is still present in the academy and popular writing, that the Bible
was actually a late creation by the fourth century church as a tool for power. It served the interests
of the church to create the myth of Jesus so that the Gospels that we have are untrustworthy.
So the argument goes in various lines. How do we respond to that? Well we respond I think initially
by looking at what scholars say, and scholars agree whether they're Christian or whether they're
sceptical to the Christian faith, that the Gospels date to within 40 to 60 years of the life of Jesus,
and that's a cautious dating. The letters of Paul that take up a good chunk of the New Testament date to
within 15 to 25 years of the life of Jesus, and significantly in those letters you will find
facts that agree with what's then written in the Gospels about the life, the death, the resurrection,
the teaching, the miracles of Jesus. Scholars recognise if you have something within 40 to 60 years of
the life of someone. That's too early for a myth to develop. You can't embellish and add facts at that
stage. You go to a letter that Paul wrote like 1 Corinthians chapter 15, and he can write,
I passed on to you what I received. So there's already teaching within the church that's being
passed on, and this is between maybe 10-15 years after the death of Jesus. And those facts that have
been passed on around different local churches are about the death, the burial, the resurrection,
and the appearances of Jesus to various eyewitnesses. So rather than being late dates,
the scholars agree that the dating is actually early. That teaching about the life, death,
and resurrection of Jesus is being circulated around the church very early. That Jesus is being
worshipped as God from a very early stage in the life of the Christian church. And it's not just
Christian sources that point that way. Also non-Christian and hostile sources point in the
same way. And there was a really interesting discovery, some Roman graffiti on a hillside
outside of Rome. And on this graffiti, there was a crucifixion scene. And at the centre of this
crucifixion scene was Jesus. But Jesus didn't have a human head. He was presented as having a donkey's
head. And below the crucified donkey-headed Jesus, there is somebody bowing in worship. And the
inscription went, Alexa Menos worships his God. Now that graffiti has been dated to within between 85 AD
and the third century AD. So early on. And what it says is, well, first of all, it's clear that there are
people within the Roman Empire who are very sceptical and mock the idea that Jesus is God. But it's clearly
understood that people are worshipping Jesus as God from that early stage. This isn't a late
invention of the church. This isn't some kind of power play. This is historical facts that have led
to the worship of Jesus from the beginning. Gary Habermas, who is a professor and scholar of the early
church period, the early stage. And the early stage of the early stage of the early stage of the early stage.
The point is this. No serious scholar dates the New Testament documents outside of the time of living
eyewitnesses. No serious scholar suggests that there is time for a myth to develop. Rather, at the time,
there was opportunity to cross-examine a variety of different witnesses to get to the truth. So in terms
of timing and dating, absolutely yes, we can trust the Bible. Sort of building on that, it's important,
I think, to briefly think about manuscript evidence. Because another argument runs that will surely,
over time, and through a translation process perhaps, the Bible must have been corrupted,
embellished or added to over time. Is there any defence against that? When we look at the manuscripts
that we have, is there defence against that? Well, for those experts that look at the original
manuscripts that have been discovered, what they find is an incredibly high percentage of accuracy
in manuscript copies. So remember, this is the day before word processing, day before mass publishing.
So scribes had to hand copy. You get your copy of the gospel, you want to make another one,
you have to copy it by hand. Well, the New Testament has 20,000 lines of text.
And as they compare copies of what's available, there are only variations to be found in 40 of those 20,000
lines. And those 40 variations are totally insignificant as to meaning,
and no major doctrine hangs on any of those variations. So an astonishingly high percentage
of accuracy in terms of transmission.
But then maybe the question is, yeah, but do you have a lot of manuscripts to compare with in order
to assess accuracy? And this is where, again, the New Testament does astonishingly well.
Just to think about how many copies of Greek New Testaments have been found to be in existence.
Now, from, you know, the first days of transmission, there are 5,800 Greek copies, Greek manuscripts.
There are 10,000 Latin ones.
Now, you compare that with one of the most important histories of the time, the Gallic Wars by Julius Caesar.
How many copies from the same period are available?
Only 12.
New Testament manuscripts would be a pile a mile high.
Manuscripts of Julius Caesar, a mere four feet.
So, again, it's just to say that we can have strong confidence that the original Greek that we have,
we can have confidence that it hasn't been corrupted, that it is an accurate New Testament that we have.
Moving on from there, we need to think about the importance of eyewitnesses.
Now, when we think about trusting the reliability of the Bible,
it's important for us to think about, well, who was writing it?
Who was transmitting it?
And for this, we owe a lot to a scholar by the name of Richard Boecombe,
who wrote a book called Jesus and the Eyewitnesses,
which has been very influential in sort of academia and scholarship.
And he makes a variety of points, you know, at a basic level,
making plain that the Gospels were written at a time when there were many living eyewitnesses,
making the point that actually names were being dropped into the Gospels
so that you would hear in it, oh, Rufus and Alexander, I know them.
They told me the stories of Jesus.
And the Gospel writers are saying they're reliable guides to the teaching about Jesus.
You find Paul, as he records resurrection appearances,
he'll say Jesus appeared to the disciples and to Peter and to Paul and to James,
and he appeared to 500 at one time.
Here are people that you can find to make sure that what you have heard is true and accurate.
And of course, the enemies of Jesus would be at great pains to point out any falsehood
so that they could be rejected out of hand.
Boecombe is also helpful in thinking about collective memory,
research on collective memory and research on eyewitness memory.
So eyewitnesses typically have selective accounts.
Nobody remembers everything.
Eyewitnesses typically retain details that might be considered irrelevant.
And you can find those in the Gospels.
Jesus provided a miraculous catch of fish
and it was so striking to someone that they remembered there was 103 fish.
Jesus was asleep in the boat in a storm
and it was so striking that someone remembered he was asleep on a pillow.
It's also understood that an eyewitness comes from a limited vantage point.
They're not speaking for a whole community.
They're speaking for themselves.
And so eyewitness testimony has that form.
If we think for a moment about a law court,
eyewitness testimony is usually very valuable in criminal cases,
but you'd be slightly suspicious if a wide range of eyewitnesses
all had exactly the same report
because each one is coming from their own position,
their own point of view,
able to remember selective things,
not recalling absolutely everything.
And Bowencombe says that's what you find in the four Gospels.
Professor Daniel Wallace
tells of the time when a Muslim student came to him.
He's a New Testament scholar.
A Muslim student came to him with six pages
of what she considered to be contradictions within the Gospels.
And she said to him,
until these contradictions are resolved,
I could never trust in the Bible.
I could never have faith in Jesus.
And what Wallace did was interesting
because he simply handed the page back to her,
the pages back,
and said,
look, these supposed contradictions
actually stand as proof
that the church didn't conspire
and they didn't all get together
in a cosy huddle to make sure
that all the details from all the various perspectives
were identical.
Rather, you have true account
from people's unique vantage point.
And that student who received it
continued to explore
and eventually came to faith in the Lord Jesus.
But what we have in the Gospels
is not late creation and myth.
We have eyewitness accounts,
eyewitness history being presented.
And I think one important way
that we know that,
the fourth way to approach the question,
can I trust the Bible,
is to begin to think about the internal evidence
and especially to think about embarrassing details
that you find within the Gospels
which actually serve to point towards
them being authentic.
Throughout the Gospels,
there are facts included
that you would only include
because they were true.
They are too counter-cultural
to be an invention.
They don't serve to strengthen,
initially at least,
they don't serve to strengthen
the case for Christianity.
Rather, they would appear
to weaken it.
So those embarrassing details
must then point towards them being true.
Top three among those
would be the way the disciples
are presented and the way
they present themselves.
Why, if you're trying to establish
a new movement,
why would you write about
your top leaders
failing to understand
teachings so consistently?
Why would you record them
fighting with one another
about greatness?
Why record the great failures,
for example,
abandoning Jesus
at his point of need
and sleeping
while he asks for prayer
and running away
while he is arrested?
There is nothing to gain
from presenting failing
and flawed leaders
except to show
that this is true.
Another embarrassing detail
is the fact that
women are included
as the first eyewitnesses
of the resurrection.
Now, it's been widely recognised
that Jesus
and the early Christian church
actually had a much higher view
of women
than prevailing society.
But when the evidence
of a woman
was not accepted
in a law court,
why would you include
as your first eyewitnesses
a group of women?
Unless, it's true,
surely you would want
a key leader,
someone with prominence
to be the first eyewitness
to give it greater gravitas,
you might think.
And then we think
about the crucifixion.
If the gospels
are an invention,
why have the leader
of that movement
die the most shameful death
imaginable?
Why have him cry out
on the cross,
my God, my God,
why have you forsaken me?
Why present a leader
who appears in weakness,
who is humiliated,
who seems to have failed?
And especially
when we understand
that there was no expectation
within Judaism
or within any other
religious movement
or community
for a dying
and rising Messiah,
why the crucifixion?
Unless,
it's true.
So those embarrassing
details help to point
towards authenticity.
So hopefully,
it's clear
that there is evidence
for trusting
the Bible.
There are various ways
to build up that case,
ways that we
haven't begun
to explore
with the limited time
that we have.
But one thing
it's important to see
about Christian scriptures,
the Bible,
they are unique
in that they are rooted
in history,
people,
places,
times.
The Bible encourages
historical investigation
and it rests on
historical facts,
principally about the birth,
life,
and especially
the sacrificial death
and resurrection
of Jesus.
Paul again
could say
if Jesus
is not raised
from the dead
of all people
in the whole world,
Christians are most
to be pitied
because we built
our faith
on a fiction
when the Gospels
are saying
it's historical truth.
What we have
in the Gospels
is eyewitness
history.
Even a really
sceptical professor
like Bart Ehrman
who really is
no friend
to the Christian church,
he concludes
that the four Gospels
are the best,
oldest,
and most reliable
guide
to the authentic
Jesus.
But you know,
there's still one
crucial argument
to consider,
perhaps in some ways
the key argument
to consider
and it's this.
How did Jesus
read the Bible?
Did Jesus
trust the Bible?
What did Jesus
have to say?
And so we began
with those three
different texts.
So we began
with Matthew chapter 5,
the Sermon on the Mount
and Jesus saying
not one iota,
not one dot
will pass
from the law,
will pass from God's word
until it is accomplished.
So Jesus there
has the written word
of God
in view
and what he says
is all of it
is trustworthy,
all of it
is authoritative.
Jesus had total
confidence
in the Bible
that he had
which was
the Old Testament.
So he would then
go on to say
in the Sermon on the Mount
that the Old Testament
sets the ethics
for the people of God
and that can be trusted.
And then we read
that interesting passage
in Matthew chapter 12
where among other things
Jesus said
just as Jonah
was three days and nights
in the belly
of a great fish
so will the Son of Man
be three days
and three nights
in the heart of the earth.
So here's Jesus
going to one of the
hardest stories
in the Old Testament
to swallow.
Pardon the obvious pun.
The story of Jonah
regarded by many
as myth and fable.
How did Jesus read it?
He read it as history
and we know that
because he says
just as the historical Jonah
was swallowed
for three days
and three nights
so I
in history
will be
buried
for three days
before
rising
again.
Jesus draws
a straight line
connection
with the historical
facts of Jonah
to the historical
facts of his own
death and resurrection.
Jesus read
the history of the Bible
as history
and he trusted it
and so therefore
can we.
And then that
section
in John's gospel
where Jesus
is speaking
to his opponents
and he said
to them
those who
had grown up
studying the scriptures
and teaching the scriptures
you search the scriptures
because you think
that in them
you have eternal life
and it is they
that bear witness
about me.
So Jesus
says something
radical there
he says
the whole Bible
is about me.
That he is the hero
in the story
of salvation
whether we read
the Old Testament
that's pointing forward
to Jesus
or we read
the New Testament
and it's explaining
giving the facts
about the life, death
and resurrection
of Jesus
and explaining
the significance
all of it
points to him
and that's significant
because it's in Jesus
and understanding
the message about him
that we can receive
eternal life
he is the giver
of life.
The problem
in Jesus' day
with his opponents
wasn't the question
of historical reliability
they had Jesus
right there in front of them
the problem was
his exclusive truth claims
his claim
to be Lord
and King
his claim
to be able
to forgive sins
and we're going
to think about
next week
that question
of exclusive
truth claims
in our own day.
Peter Williams
who wrote a book
called
Can We Trust the Gospels
he says
the Gospels
would pass
historical tests
without question
but
it's the claims
of Jesus' teaching
that lead people
to want to reject them.
So the challenge
is always there
we can trust
the Bible
that we open
but will we be open
to what we find?
To trust the Bible
is to share
the same viewpoint
as Jesus
and this is something
that matters
because to read
the Bible then
is to hear
God's revelation
of truth.
Again,
it's not human speculation
it's not myth.
Nothing matters
more for us
than to hear
from our God
and our Creator
and Jesus says
in the Bible
that's what you find.
And to hear
the Bible
to read the Bible
is to hear
God's truth
about salvation
which centres
on Jesus
the Son
coming into
history
bringing good news
and offering
eternal life
because
Jesus
literally
died
and rose
to pay
for sin
to satisfy
God's justice
against his
broken law
and to demonstrate
the love of God
and the desire
to save people
so that you
and I today
we literally
have a life
and death
decision
to make.
Do we trust
the Bible
really
matters?
Now I'm going
to pray
briefly
and then
we will sing
a couple of
songs to close
so let me
pray.
Dear God
thank you
for a chance
to explore
your word
and thank you
that the Bible
says
the word
of God
is powerful
it's living
and active
that it is
true
that it's
a guide
for life
that it's
a treasure
thank you
that the Bible
we're told
centres on
Jesus
your son
who you sent
into the world
to be saviour
thank you
for all the work
that people
have done
to show
that the Bible
can be trusted
that there is
evidence
for its
reliability
that matters
for us
as a church
because we
want our
life together
to be centred
on
what we
read
and hear
in the Bible
we don't
want it
to go in
one ear
and out
the other
we don't
want to
just be
hearers
we want
to be
doers
and so
it's good
for us
to know
that we
can rely
on
its
teaching
and its
truth
we pray
that you'd
make us
people
that love
to read
the Bible
love to
study
the Bible
that we
want to
share it
together
with family
and with
friends
and as
a church
with our
neighbours
but it
also matters
for those
of us
who are
exploring
Christianity
to know
that what
we read
can be
trusted
that when
we read
it's not
words
invented
by people
but it's
inspired
by you
the living
God
and so we
pray for each
one of us
that you'd
help us
to think
through
our own
attitude
to the
Bible
that we
would
open
the Bible
and that
we would
be open
to it
and we
pray this
in Jesus
name
Amen