The Bible reading it for all it is worth

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The Biblereading it for all it is worth
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While You Were Talking

• Even though the Scripture may not be the exact
  copy of the original text, are you saying that it
  is not the words but the ideas or concepts which
  are stirred within us and fed by the Spirit?
• A GREAT QUESTION!

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While You Were Talking

• You've suggested that parts of early Genesis may
  have been compiled by Moses. How much of that is
  merely theoretical, and what evidence do we have
  for it? The picture of the tablet may have led
  people to think we have more evidence that
  exists.
• ANOTHER GREAT QUESTION!

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From Our Statement of Faith

• The Verbal Inspiration of the Bible
• We believe the Holy Scriptures, both the Old and
  New Testaments, to be verbally inspired of God in
  the original documents, infallible and
  God-breathed, a perfect standard of faith and
  practice.
• II Timothy 316-17, I Corinthians 213, II Peter
  116-21

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Why do we believe the Old Testament is the Word
of God?

• First and foremost, Jesus considered it as his
  authority.
• His first followers echoed Jesus in accepting it
  as their authority as well.
• So we view it as inspired, breathed by God.
• IS the NEW TESTAMENT THE SAME?

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Facts about the New Testament

• Written by no fewer than nine different
  individuals during the first century AD.
• SOME of the books received almost immediate
  acceptance among all the churches
• Others, like the gospel of John, were contested
  until the 3rd and 4th centuries.

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2 Timothy 314-17

• you must continue in the thingsfrom childhood
  you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are
  able to make you wise for salvation through faith
  which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given
  by inspiration of God, and is profitable for
  doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for
  instruction in righteousness, that the man of God
  may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every
  good work. NKJV

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2 Peter 315-16

• Count the patience of our Lord as salvation,
  just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to
  you according to the wisdom given him, as he does
  in all his letters when he speaks in them of
  these matters. There are some things in them that
  are hard to understand, which the ignorant and
  unstable twist to their own destruction, as they
  do the other Scriptures. ESV

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New Authority?

• Remember the words which were spoken before by
  the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ how they
  told you that there would be mockers in the last
  time who would walk according to their own
  ungodly lusts. Jude 17-18, NKJV
• That you may be mindful of the words which were
  spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the
  commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and
  Savior, knowing this first that scoffers will
  come in the last days, walking according to their
  own lusts, 2 Peter 32-3, NKJV

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Early Christians Quoted Jesus

• Polycarp (AD 69-155)
• The gnostic leader Basilides (early 2nd century)
• Dionysius of Corinth (c. AD 170)
• Hegesippus (AD 110-180)
• Ignatius (AD 35-107)

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The Synoptic Gospels
LUKE
MARK
MATTHEW
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Why Were the Three Accepted?

• They tell the Jesus story, and agree on what the
  story is
• They appear to have been written or originated by
  an apostle
• They had universal acceptance very early on
• Johns gospel was took a long time to be accepted
  because Gnostics used it.

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The Apostles Letters

• Acts was a companion to Luke and circulated with
  it. It validated the apostles words.
• Pauls letters (except 1 Timothy Titus and
  Hebrews) circulated as a single book and were
  universally accepted.
• 1 Timothy-Titus were considered personal
• Hebrews was to the Jews

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The Apostles

• In the lifetime of the apostles and their
  colleagues their spoken words and their written
  words were equally authoritative. For later
  generations the spoken words are lost the
  written words alone remains, so we have to be
  content with fragments of their teachings. (F.
  F. Bruce, The Canon of Scripture, p 118)
• WHY ONLY FRAGMENTS?

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The Remaining Books
By the time of Origen (AD 185-254), virtually all
of the current New Testament was universally
accepted, but there were some differences as to a
few books.
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Why Accept This List?

• The churches had access to older copies and
  personal witnesses that proved these were in fact
  the works of the apostles.
• The letters had to line up with the teachings of
  the already accepted GOSPEL of Jesus.
• They demonstrate tremendous unity in diversity
  community decision-making.