The truth that God has revealed and recorded is the most important truth the world has ever known or will know. This truth is the life and message of Jesus Christ, recorded in a book, written by God, it’s called the Bible!

Where Did the Bible Come From (MP3) - Pastor Robbie Symons

 

Why I Can Trust the Bible Part 1 (MP3) - Pastor Robbie Symons

 

Why I Can Trust the Bible Part 2 (MP3) - Pastor Robbie Symons

 

The Word is All About the WORD (MP3) - Pastor Robbie Symons

 

Biblical Facts

The Bible is by far the most reliable work of antiquity in existence…

Where did the Bible come from?

It’s been said that the Bible is “just a bunch of stories” or “some men just threw it together” or “how do you know you have all the books?” or “it’s been changed and modified through out history therefore you can’t trust it”

“The Church no more gave us the New Testament, that Sir Isaac Newton gave us the force of gravity. God gave us gravity, by His word of creation, and similarly He gave us the New Testament, by inspiring the individual books that make it up… it is merely discovered by man”

- J.I. Packer

We do not read a book, think it’s great, and therefore decides to place it in scripture. Rather, man reads a book, discovers it’s incredible, because God determined it to be part of the Bible.

Worldwide sales of the Bible number more than a staggering 100 million each year, far outpacing any other book in history.

The Bible is determined by God – not by man.

God has given us truth!

In fact, the truth that God has revealed and recorded is the most important truth the world has even known or will know. This truth is the life and message of Jesus Christ, recorded in a book, written by God….it’s called the Bible!

Evidence for the Bible

1.  Unity of the Bible:

• The Bible was written over a period of fifteen centuries, written in 3 different languages.

• During this period, empires rose and fell, cultures came and went, but unity was not affected.

• It was written by 40 different human authors, all sorts of different people, kings, fishermen, tax collectors, shepherds, prophets and a doctor.

• They wrote over different periods of world history, yet their writings intertwine miraculously.

• The books were penned under different circumstances, different countries & cultures, written in Asia, Africa, and Europe – Paul in a Roman dungeon, James in Jerusalem, Moses from Sinai, and Daniel from Babylon.

• The Bible discusses diverse theological matters on nature of God, nature of man, Gods Law, sin, plan of salvation and much more.

Imagine the difficulty of getting a few people to agree on these, yet 40 different men agree perfectly!

2.  The Reliability of the Bible: compare the validity of Roman history with the New Testament. We do not doubt the validity of Roman history, so why do we doubt the validity of the Bible?

We have 5,750 manuscripts, the oldest copy dates 90 A.D. This isn’t guess work, this is God’s work!

The New Testament has around 24,970 total Manuscripts (MSS) and almost 5,800 Geek MSS with a .5% textual variant rate, none of which have significance on major doctrine (principle) or meaning. We have MSS that date back as early as 50 years after the original was penned, which makes it by far the most reliable work of antiquity in existence.

3.  The Reproduction of the Bible:

The Bible Society of the United Kingdom calculates that as of 2007, approximately 7.5 billion Bibles have been distributed throughout world (this number does not include the countless digital forms, i.e. CD, DVD etc). Worldwide sales of the Bible number more than a staggering 100 million each year, far outpacing any other book in history. Without a doubt, the Bible is the best selling book of all time! Second place is not even close.

Currently, the complete Bible has been published in over 450 languages.

The New Testament alone has been published in nearly 1,400 languages, with the Gospel of Mark in over 2,370 languages. Although these figures represent less than half of the languages and dialects presently in use in the world, they nonetheless "include the primary vehicles of communication of well over 90% of the world’s population.

"All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of grass.  The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever. And this word is the good news that was preached to you.” - 1 Peter 1:24, 25

Canon (n) 1 a collection of books accepted as Holy Scripture especially the books of the Bible recognized by any Christian church as genuine and inspired.

Canon: the list of all the books that belong in the Bible: 66 books, 39 books in the Old Testament and 27 books in the New Testament.

The word “canon” can be traced to ancient Greeks; they used it in a literal sense.

The “canon” therefore is the collection of books that constitute or qualify as the written word of God. So the word “canon” then implies that the Bible consists only of writings that have been divinely inspired by God. If it’s not in the “canon”, it’s not inspired by God; it does not carry God’s authority.

“If the word ‘canon’ implies the status of the Bible by virtue of its inspiration, the word ‘canonicity’ often applies to the recognition of this status by the church. It is the process by which the various books of the Bible were brought together and their value as the Word of God recognized” - Norm Giesler

Often people fail to distinguish between the determination and recognition of canonicity

“where did the Bible come from?” the starting point in answering that question is, the Bible came from God!

The Proper view of the canon

“It was not the church that shaped the canon; rather it was the canon that shaped the church”

J.I. Packer said, “The Church no more gave us the New Testament canon, that Sir Isaac Newton gave us the force of gravity. God gave us gravity, by His word of creation, and similarly He gave us the New Testament canon, by inspiring the individual books that make it up.” We can sum this all up by saying this, “Canonicity is determined or established authoritatively by God; it is merely discovered by man”

Why is understanding this, so important? This is why! If you believe in the 1,400 verses in the Bible that speak of the sovereignty of God, if you believe that God spoke and creation came to be, if you believe that God has infinite strength, power and wisdom, then you believe, the ultimate reason we have the 66 books of the Bible, is because that is exactly what God has decided would be.

The reason the Bible is infallible, the reason the Bible is indestructible, the reason the Bible is inexhaustible, the reason the Bible cannot be made ineffective is because God has “exalted above all things His name and His Word” When you have a proper view of the canon, doubt flees, and faith fills!

The Canon is Recognized by man

How was the canon discovered by man? The real question is this, how did we become aware of the books that God has written…

With all the existing writings, how did Fathers sort out true from false, canon from apocrypha?

What were the signs of God-breathed writings, verses, good historical documents?

Here’s the main question:  What principles were involved for discovery and recognition of the canon?

There were Five Critical Questions for a book to be considered canonical:

1.  Was the book written by a man of God or spokesman of God?  This is the most important and basic question. In the Old Testament (OT), a prophet was a “mouthpiece” for God, he declared what God had disclosed to him. In the New Testament (NT), it was a writing written by an apostle, or writing with apostolic authority.

2.  Was the writer confirmed by acts of God?

This was one of the purposes of miracles, to confirm a true prophet from a false prophet.

Examples are Moses, Elijah, Jesus, Paul, all of these were verified as sent from God by miracles.

3.  Did the message tell the truth about God?

This is straightforward, any teaching contrary to what the people of God knew to be true, was rejected. For example:  this is why the Gospel of Thomas (early 2^nd century) was rejected, Gnostic teaching, completely contrary to the teachings of Christ.

4. Did the book come with the power of God?

A true book of God would come with the power of God. God’s word is “alive and active” therefore; God’s book would be life changing!

5. Was it accepted by the people of God?

A book truly written by God, will gain widespread acceptance by the people of God.

It doesn’t mean there wouldn’t be any hesitation, but it does mean there would eventually be recognition.

The Old Testament Canon

So when God gave the green light for a manuscript to be written, and the people of God recognized it, it was then to be preserved.

In Exodus 24:4 it says, “And Moses wrote down all the words of the LORD”

In Joshua 24:26, it says, “And Joshua wrote these words in the Book of the Law of God.”

In 1 Sam. 10:25, it says of Samuel “and he wrote them in a book and laid it up before the LORD.”

Not all Jewish literature made it in the canon – the Bible itself names books that didn’t make it in

Book of Jashar (Joshua 10:13); Book of the Wars of the Lord (Numbers 21:14)

So as the canon grew in size, it would be described as “Moses and the Prophets” or “Law and the Prophets” And later on it would then be referred to as “The Law, Prophets, and Writings”

It was Jesus Himself who spoke to this threefold division in Luke 24:44, “Law of Moses, the Prophets and Psalms”

The New Testament Canon

Now although the official recognition of the NT canon was not given until the late fourth century,

It is misleading to then suggest that there was no prior recognition as to the books that were inspired. Always remember, the canon was complete when the last book was written!

Overview of New Testament Collection:

1. Letters from apostles were written and received in the churches; copies were made and circulated. The Gospels and Acts were almost certainly completed before A.D. 80

A collection of Paul’s epistles probably existed by A.D. 70

By A.D. 170, all the NT books were recognized in writings of church Fathers, except for 2 Peter.

The reason for hesitation with 2 Peter is, it seemed to be different writing style to 1 Peter

2. A Growing group of books developed and were recognized as inspired Scripture.

Again the greatest question was, did it carry apostolic authority?  -- Luke? – Paul, - Mark? Peter

Amazing to see the early acceptance of having the authority of Scripture, 2 Peter. 3:15-16

3. By the end of first century, all 27 NT books were written and received by churches.

4. By a generation following the apostolic age, existed widespread acceptance of NT books, by church father.

5.  Remaining doubts and questions of certain books continued into fourth century:

The first official list of our 27 NT books appears in a Easter letter by Athanasius, in A.D. 367

But again, most churches recognized inspired canon more that 200 years before this time

6.  The 27 books of NT were ratified by Council of Hippo (A.D. 393) and Council of Carthage (A.D. 397)

It’s important to see and understand that the Council did not add or subtract a single book, but simply approved the list which was already recognized by the early Church.

These council decisions did not make the books authoritative; they simply acknowledged the authority of writings. “It was not the church that shaped the canon, rather it was the canon that shaped the church”

God determined the canon, and man recognized the canon, what about the Apocrypha?

the Apocrypha

The Apocrypha describes a set of books that exists within a Roman Catholic Bible.

In all it contains 15 books, but the Catholic Church eventually only accepted 11 books for their Bible. There has been debate over the centuries of where these books shall stand with scripture, but let’s look at some facts:

There are no clear quotations in NT of Apocryphal books.

The NT never refers to any Apocryphal books as authoritative or canonical.

These books were never accepted by Jews as Scripture, some individuals held them in high esteem, yet no Church council in first 4 centuries favored them, In fact many early Church fathers passionately opposed them.

Here’s the main piece of evidence:

It was until the Council of Trent in (1545-63), that the first official proclamation of the Apocrypha was made by the Roman Catholic Church, and it came after 1500 years after these books were written.

Important fact, the Catholic Church was heavily threatened by Protestantism, Luther was teaching justification by faith just 29 years earlier, the Roman Catholic Church was being exposed by Scripture, and so they had to justify their non-scriptural views.

What’s the answer?  Insert more scripture that support your views, mainly salvation by works, prayers for the dead, and so all of these facts, make this highly suspicious! This becomes an amazing example of the Roman Catholic Church trying to control the canon…bad plan!