Review: How did your TruthTalk assignment go this week? What was the response?
Before the revolutionary improvements in printing in the 1400s, how were nearly all historical documents and literature passed down?
How could a generation, say in 50 BC, be sure a writing from 100 BC had been accurately recorded? Wasn’t a handwritten system of passing on historical information bound to be flawed? It often depended upon someone eventually writing down what they heard other people say about an event that might have happened 20 or 30 years prior. With such a system, how can we be sure we have an accurate account of, for instance, what Jesus said?
To gain a greater understanding of why we can trust the Bible to be a reliable revelation of God and a deeper sense of gratitude for what the Bible means to us.
Someone read Luke 1:1-4.
What distinguished Luke’s writing of the accounts of Jesus? What source material did he use?
One or more people read John 19:35; 1 John 1:3; and 2 Peter 1:16.
Where did these writers of Scripture get their information?
Someone read the following drawn from chapter 8 of The Unshakable Truth.
God could have spoken through anyone, from anywhere, to write his words about Christ. But to give us additional confidence in the truth, he worked through eyewitnesses of those who walked with Jesus, ate with him, and lived their lives with him. And whom did he choose as his most prolific writer? The apostle Paul, whose dramatic conversion from persecutor of Christians to planter of churches made him perhaps the most credible witness of all!
Those through whom he transmitted his inspired Word were also apostles. These men could rely on their own eyewitness experiences, and they could appeal to the firsthand knowledge of their contemporaries, even their most severe opponents (see Acts 2:32; 3:15; 13:31; 1 Corinthians 15:3-8). They not only said, “Look, we saw this,” or “We heard that,” but they were also so confident in what they wrote as to say, in effect, “Check it out,” “Ask around,” and “You know it as well as I do!” Such challenges demonstrate a supreme confidence that the “God-breathed” Word was recorded exactly as God spoke it (2 Timothy 3:16 NIV).
Such careful inspiration and supervision of the Bible underlines God’s purpose, that not a single piece of this revelation about himself or the human condition be left to chance or recorded incorrectly. Ample evidence exists to suggest that he was very selective in the people he chose to record his words. They were people who for the most part had firsthand knowledge of key events and who were credible channels to record exactly those truths he wanted us to know.
Someone read the following drawn from chapter 8 of The Unshakable Truth.
Hand-copying of the Old Testament was the responsibility of a group of men who were trained as skilled scribes and gave their lives to writing. For many years before and after the time of Jesus it was their responsibility to copy Scripture. These particular scribes, some known as Masoretic scribes, devoted themselves to making sure that the Holy Scriptures were copied letter for letter, word for word. Their rules for copying Scripture were so strict that when a copy was made it was considered to be an exact duplicate, just as if you had made it from a copy machine. When a copy was finished it was called a manuscript.
A scribe would begin his day of transcribing a manuscript by ceremonially washing his entire body. He would then robe himself in full Jewish dress before sitting down at his desk. As he wrote, if he came to the Hebrew name of God, he could not begin writing the name with a pen newly dipped in ink for fear it would smear the page. Once he began writing the name of God, he could not stop or allow himself to be distracted…even if a king were to enter the room. The scribe was obligated to continue without interruption until he finished penning the holy name of the one true God.
The Masoretic guidelines for copying manuscripts also required that…
• the scroll be written on the skin of a clean animal.
• each skin contain a specified number of columns, equal throughout the entire book.
• the length of each column extend no less than 48 lines and no more than 60.
• the column breadth consist of exactly 30 letters.
• the space of a thread appear between every consonant.
• the breadth of nine consonants be inserted between each section.
• a space of three lines appear between each book.
• the fifth book of Moses (Deuteronomy) conclude exactly with a full line.
• nothing—not even the shortest word—be copied from memory, but rather be copied letter by letter.
• the scribe count the number of times each letter of the alphabet occurred in each book and compare it to the original.
• if a manuscript was found to contain over three mistakes, it be discarded.
Why do you suppose God instilled in the Masoretes such a painstaking reverence for the Hebrew Scriptures? Why is God interested in your receiving an accurate Scripture?
The Hebrew scribes did not copy the manuscripts of the New Testament. So God did a new thing to ensure that the words of Jesus and his followers would be preserved accurately for us.
To tell if ancient manuscripts are reliable we 1) measure the time between the original writing and the first manuscript copy; and 2) determine how many manuscript copies are still in existence. The shorter the time between the original writing and the first copy and the more manuscripts there are, the more accurate the manuscripts are considered.
For example, virtually everything we know today about Julius Caesar’s campaigns in Gaul (present-day France) comes from ten manuscript copies of The Gallic Wars, the earliest of which dates to just within 1000 years of the time it was originally written. The most reliable writing in secular history is Homer’s Iliad, with 643 manuscripts, the earliest of which dates to within 400 years of the original writing.
Let’s look at this chart of classical literature.
Using this accepted standard for evaluating the reliability of ancient writings, the New Testament stands alone. It has no equal. No other book of the ancient world can even compare to its reliability. Take a look at this chart:
There are nearly 25,000 manuscripts or fragments of manuscripts, with some dating back to within 50 years of the original writings. And none are more than 400 years more recent than the originals. Incredible!
When you hold a Bible in your hand you can be sure it is the most accurate and reliable writing in all of history! God wanted you to be sure that the Bible you read is an accurate revelation of himself to you. He wants you to know him for who he really is.
So can anyone simply pick up a Bible, read it, and come to know God? Why or why not?
Someone read 1 Corinthians 2:11-16.
Who reveals the truths of God to us, and why can’t non-Christians understand them?
With an accurate Bible and the Holy Spirit to guide you, can you or anyone sit down without the aid of others and unlock all the truths of God? Why or why not?
Someone read 2 Timothy 2:14-15.
Why do we need others in the body of Christ (his church) to help us understand who God is, his truth, and how to live it out?
Someone read the following from The Unshakable Truth.
Having an accurate Bible and the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives does not mean pastors and teachers of the Word are not necessary. Nor does it mean we are not to study God’s Word diligently. We must not simply disregard all study or the wisdom of good teachers and rely solely on the internal leading of the Spirit. Because we are fallen, our perception is often dim and foggy, and we are subject to being fooled by voices that we think may be from God but are actually from darker sources. Paul warned the church at Corinth of false teachers who “have fooled you by disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. But I am not surprised! Even Satan can disguise himself as an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:13-14).
If we rely solely on internal proddings that we think are from the Holy Spirit, we make ourselves vulnerable to this kind of deception. That is why we must continually check our internal impulses by the Bible and by the wisdom of godly teachers. These sources provide a crosscheck to assure us that the internal guidance we receive is indeed from God’s Holy Spirit. God will not contradict himself in his Word. What the Holy Spirit impels us to do will be consistent with what we find in the Bible. God involves the wise and godly teachings of men and women around us to lead us into all truth. The Holy Spirit is there to superintend in our own study and the godly teachings of others to open our hearts and minds to him and his truth.
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Truth Encounter |
At times, some of us may have seen the Bible as a list of beliefs to proclaim or commands to follow. But doesn’t it make more sense that God would carefully preserve his written Word so we would have an accurate reflection of who he is in order that we might come to understand and know and love him, the One who wrote it? When we consider how much God worked to carefully preserve the accuracy of his Word, we see his commitment to relationship.
Someone read 2 Timothy 3:16-17.
This passage says that God’s Word is useful to do what?
Why would God give us his Word for those reasons?
Have you at times viewed God’s Word as a book of to-do lists? What does that tell you about your view of its author?
Share together how you want to view God’s Word as his means to share his heart of love to you. What steps can you take as a group to maintain that perspective?
Share your hearts with God in prayer. Tell him how you want to view his Word. Praise him for giving you his heart of love and loving instructions through his Word.
Take time this week to share with a family member or friend what you have discovered about God’s Word in this session. Consider saying something like:
The careful inspiration and supervision of the Bible underlines God’s purpose, that not a single piece of this revelation about himself or the human condition be left to chance or recorded incorrectly. Ample evidence exists to suggest that God was very selective in the people he chose to record his words—people who for the most part had firsthand knowledge of key events and who were credible channels to record exactly those truths he wanted us to know.
| 1 | “I know there are some people who have a hard time believing that the Bible is true because they are not convinced of its accuracy. I’ve learned the process by which the Bible was preserved, and it’s helped me feel secure about what I believe. Here is some of what I discovered: _______________________ _______________________ _______________________ _______________________ ______________________.” |
| 2 | “I know it may be hard to believe that the Bible is true. There may even be some people who claim that the Bible isn’t true because of its inaccuracies. I’ve recently learned the process by which the Bible was carefully preserved—for example, in such areas as… _______________________ _______________________ _______________________ _______________________ ______________________. “Is there a good time when I can tell you more about what I’ve learned?” |
| 3 | “I now ‘get’ why God worked so hard to protect the Bible and make sure it was written and translated exactly the way he intended: He wanted the Bible protected so that we could be secure it was the real thing. And because we know it’s the real thing, we can rest assured of how important it was to God that we be able to read of his love for us. That’s been especially important to me because… _______________________ _______________________ _______________________ ______________________.” |
Read chapter 10 of The Unshakable Truth book.