Branson: Why Believe the Bible

This was presented by Voddie Baucham. It was from is book, "The Ever-Loving Truth", and 8-week study course in exposatory apologetics.

1 Peter 3:15, "Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have."

Voddie told a story where he went to speak at a college campus and answered questions from many students. The Christian host group was amazed at his ability to answer so many questions with ease. He told them that there are really only about seven categories of questions that people will ask. If you know those well, you can answer any question, they're all about the same thing, but may be asked in many different ways.

• Theology proper (the nature of God, his existence, the Trinity, etc...)
• Christology (Jesus Christ, his life, death, etc...)
• Revelation (Bible, contradictions, souces, apparent contradictions, etc...)
• Creation (time, content, evolution, intelligent design, etc...)
• Evil and Suffering (what happened to the world, why is there suffering...)
• Exclusivity (relation to other religions, claims that Christianity is the only way...)

John 1 and Colossians 1 can help answer every question about Christology. 2 Timothy and 2 Peter 1 for questions about the Bible. Genesis 1, Colossians 1, John 1 about Creation. There is much overlap.

Why the Bible? Voddie started with bad answers which appeal to external authority.

• It's how I was raised. He compared this to a bad chess move, where an expert can say I will beat you in 4 moves. We need to say what we belive about the Bible, and why we believe it.
• I tried it and it worked for me. Another variation is that it "changed my life". The reason it's bad is that anyone can claim the same thing for a number of other beliefs. It isn't true because it works, it works because it's true.

Voddie summarized his answer by this statement, as an expository message from 2 Peter 1:12-21:

"It is a reliable collection of historical documents, written by eyewitnesses,
during the lifetime of other eyewitnesses, they reported supernatural events, that
took place to fulfill specific prophecies, and claim their writings are of
divine origin."

It is a reliable collection of historical documents

The Bible is made up of 66 books, by 40 authors, in 3 languages, from 3 continents over 1500+ years.

written by eyewitnesses

The authors were ones who saw the events and recorded them accurately, first-hand. (See Luke 1 prolog). 1 John talks about that which was seen, heard, and touched.

during the lifetime of other eyewitnesses

1 Corinthians 15 talks about other eyewitnesses (500, most of who are still alive) at least 251 (<50%)>

Some critics claim conspiricy or mis-copying over time, comparing to the game of telephone (whisper message around the cirle, it comes back to the originator distorted from the original). The problem is that the Bible is not translated from translations, we always go back to the original. These both have three layers of problems.

1. Manuscript problem: 6000 original manuscripts, we can use to confirm we have accuracy in translation, comparisons to discern the originals. Some as early as 120 AD, very close to the actual events (compare to other ancient documents, hundreds+ years)
2. Early translations: The originals were translated early into other languages, Syriac, Coptic, etc... which can be compared to the the originals.
3. Church fathers: In the first few centuries the church fathers quoted the scriptures a lot, they can reproduce all but 11 verses with these early quotes.

Those who claim conspiricy that early, over-zealous monks changed things, have a huge set of hurdles to overcome, making it impossible. They would have had to track down all 6000 originals, snuck in changed the manuscript, and got out without being caught. They would have had to remember all the changes they made. Then they would have had to track down all the other translations into other languages, understood the language, made the same changes in all those copies. Then they would have to track down all the writings of the church fathers and make the same changes there.

they reported supernatural events

They reported God's voice, miracles, healing, waling on water, resurrection...

that took place to fulfill specific prophecies

Over 600 prophecies about Jesus and his life, all were fulfilled. Consider Psalm 22 (My God, my God, why have you forsaken me). This was written 1000 years before Jesus' death.

claim their writings are of divine origin

It is trustworthy, it is confirmed by coroborating evidence. Some want it to be proven scientifically before believing, but it is not a scientific question (it can't be repeated, it can't be tested, it can't be touched, seen, heard, anymore), it is a question of history and should be evaluated by the evidentry method. It must be 1) consistent internally (see above 66 books, 40 authors, 1500 years...) and 2) coroborated by other external sources.

Verse 21, "prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke
from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit."