Latest / Generations Church / Apologetics Series 2024 - Part 1: Can We Trust The Bible | Samuel Nesan & Andy Yeoh

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Apologetics Series 2024 - Part 1: Can We Trust The Bible | Samuel Nesan & Andy Yeoh · Generations Church

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Hey there, you're listening to the Generation's Church podcast. We pray that the
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word of God today will challenge, change and channel you into your God given
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destiny. Now let's get started. Let's discuss what is the Bible and so
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for that, I'd like to invite us to slight you in the aid.
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You're going to see the words let my people go in it. And it
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goes back to the story of Moses in the Exodus, where God says to
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Moses, go say to this king called Pharaoh, let my people go.
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Now, Moses, is you know the story, He actually says to God,
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I don't speak very well, as if you know, the effectiveness of
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God's words depends on how well you and I can communicate it. And so
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God says to Pharaoh, you ask your brother to speak for you. His
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brother's name was Aaron. And so Moses is going to speak to Aaron and
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say, this is what God told me to say to face, let my
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people go. Now here's a question we need to ask when we define whether
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or not it is the Bible. Is God's words? Is what God is
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saying? Or rather, let me rephrase that is what Moses is saying to
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Aaron is that God's words, because clearly Moses didn't go in the same voice
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as the narrator in the movies let my people go. You know, he
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didn't. He didn't do that, right. What he did is he probably
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went and say, yo, bro, God has come to me to tell
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me, to tell you, tell Pharaoh, let my people go. And
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so the big question is is that God's words, because now Moses is using
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his own language. Yeah, And that's that's the question we need to ask
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because if it is no, then what we're saying is it is only God's
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words, if it is word for word, whatever God says. But the
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fact is, what Moses says to Pharaoh, or what Moses says to Aaron
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is in fact God's words, even though Moses may use a different vocabulary,
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because God is not just saying those words, He's speaking through his servant.
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And so when Aaron takes these words to Pharaoh, Aaron is now going to
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Pharaoh and he's going to say whatever the Egyptian equivalent is, you know of
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ampuntuanku the royalty, what do you say to the royalty. He's going to
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have to speak in a different language, different phrases, but he's going to
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communicate this thing, let my people go. And the big question is what
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Aaron says to Pharaoh is that God's word And the fact is yes. And
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the way we know that is because right after Aaron had communicated that to Pharaoh
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and Pharaoh rejects that, God sends the plagues, which eventually some few days
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later, of course, Pharaoh changes his mind and says, you know what,
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you can take your people and go. So God's word brought about the
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effect of setting the people of is real free. But you notice it comes
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through different speakers, different language. And I think here's where we get our
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important point when we define scripture. Scripture is not just God's words. Scripture
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is God's word communicated through his authoritative servant. We call those the prophets the
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apostles, and when they speak, they speak. What is you know from
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their vocabulary From the understanding that we've read first and Second Peter, they're very
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different because they were not written by the same person. Fors Peter chapter five,
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verse twelve. First Peter, chapter five, verse twelve tells us that
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Peter got the help of Silas or Sylvanus to write for him. Because Peter
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was a fisherman, he didn't write too. Well, you go to second
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Peter, and the Greek is so strange. It's almost like a kindergartener wrote
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that, because now we know that's Peter doing the writing himself. So and
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so we see that God uses the different vocabulary. Luke rights with it.
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If you look at Luke chapter one, it's it's solid Greek, it's it's
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it's he uses words like prognoxis, diagnosis and oh yeah, he's a doctor.
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That's why he uses that sort of language, right, and so he
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look as a different vocabulary, and so God uses these people, but it
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is ultimately God. So but I think that's the first point we need to
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establish. So we just defined the Bible. So the Bible is not just
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so I think there was a slight before that, right, this is maybe
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you can go back to the slight before that. Like, so there the
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different understandings of how the Bible came about, Like for example, number two,
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dictation theory. We're not saying so that's not what we believe in that.
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We're not saying that God dictated word forward to the person writing it.
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And then how the Bible came about because as as you pointed out, first
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Peter and second, Peter written about different person, so it sounds different.
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He has a different feel because Peis was sufficient man, so he's he's a
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bit rough with his language and he's not so articulate and and and all that.
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Right, So we're not saying the Bible is a dictation like God gave
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the words word for word to the person who's writing it. We're not saying
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that Like number three, Dynamic Inspiration was saying that only the thoughts are inspired.
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All the words are like I choose my words I want, so God
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says, let my people go, and I say, uh yo leper ah.
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So right, it's not It's not like I get to choose as a
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writer to choose whatever I want to say, and only the thoughts are inspired.
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That's not what we're saying. We're also not saying that the Bible is
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only the word of God in matters of moral and faith and practice everything else.
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We Tamba Paul added in his own things, and we're not saying that.
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Uh. And we're also definitely not saying we're not we don't hold to
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intuition theory, which is, there are these people who wrote the work,
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the books. They were very wise people, very good intuition. They can
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sense what God is saying and it is wroted what we believe in Number one,
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verbal culinary inspiration. Verbal means every word in the Bible is inspired.
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Every single word. I think Jesus is even the stroke. It's meant.
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It is every word that is in the Bible is meant to be there.
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Culinary means the full thing, all of it, all of it, the
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sentence, structure, the placement of the words, the placement of the center
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within the context, all of that is God intended. And of course the
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inspiration means God breathed. That's where the inspirament comes from. So far.
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Okay, So when we say the Bible, we mean this book that contains
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God's inspired word. Yes, written by human beings that God used, but
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not just any human being. He's authorative writers that he's chosen and carefully,
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you know he's chosen, he disappointed to write the words of God right absolutely,
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And there were plenty of authenticating factors network surround these people to show that
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they were actually authorized by God. For example, in Moses' case, he's
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got the signs and wonders because Pharaoh doesn't believe it's from God. But how
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does Pharaoh get convinced at the end of it all that it really was God
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speaking in the first place. Well, God tells Moses, when you do
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these signs and wonders and I've inflicted on Egypt all that I'm going to do,
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then Pharaoh will know that I am the Lord. So God expects the
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authenticating factors to come around his servant to convey that. And once Moses is
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able to do signs and wonders, parting the Red Sea, bringing the plagues
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on Egypt, all these count towards authenticating that that is really God's messenger.
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In a New Testament, however, we have a different authenticating factor. These
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apostles were handpicked by Jesus, and Jesus was intentional in keeping the number to
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twelve, not more, which is why when Judas was lost, it was
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imperative that the number got replaced. That's why the first thing in the Book
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of access to get the number back to twelve again. But you notice after
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that when James one cares about the number anymore, because that number is once
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and for all film it's twelve, right, So the apostle Paul is the
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twelve slash. Let's just say he's the twelve Apostle, right, and you
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leave it at then maybe if there are more questions from there, we can
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take it further. But so the point is in the New Testament, the
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authenticating factor is Jesus choosing his twelve and they become his authoritative agents. As
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Jesus himself says in Matthew, behold, I send you prophets. Those are
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the prophets He's sending out. So we have these authenticating factors. And on
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that basis, this is whatever they wrote. All of it was regarded as
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scripture the very moment it was written. Yes, things are so important to
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differentiate where we say that we don't mean like the like the words in the
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Bible. For example, salt. We're not saying because the word salt is
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in the Bible, therefore salt is now a holy word. Right, I
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mean, if I can write the word salt in my essay and doesn't make
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it a holy word. But we're not talking about the We're not saying the
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words in the Bible itself, like individual words, sentence, structure, or
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structure. But the I guess the wordings put together, you are assault like
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salt and light of the earth. When you put together. Those are God's
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words, Those are Gods saying that that's got some message. Yes, so
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that's what we mean when we mean when we talk about the Bible. Right?
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Absolutely, should we move on to trustworthiness? If you let's let's talk
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about trustworthiness before. Before we talk about trustworthiness, I want, I think
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it's best for us to discuss how do we measure trustworthiness? Right? Because
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I think I'm pretty trustworthy? Don't you think? I'm not going to put
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a poll on that one. But the point is that there must be a
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way to evaluate whether we're trustworthy or not. And the question is how,
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oh do you do that? Well, in two ways you can do that,
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and I'll tell you the more common way that happens. The more common
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way that happens is when we decide, by our own human reasoning what is
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or is not trustworthy. So what we do is we say, well,
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let me see what makes sense, and what's the next do words? This
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makes sense to me? To me because I think if you take this approach
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and say, well, let me decide for myself, what we're essentially doing
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is saying we are the determining fact of what is true and what is not
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and for all intents and purposes. I want to reject that today we don't
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get to decide what is true or what is false. The truth is the
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truth, regardless of what anyone says, and what is false is false regardless
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of what everyone says. Right, it is true regardless. But the big
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question is, then, if I am not the king of reason to determine
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what is truth, how can we know that? Well? I think the
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simplest way to begin here is to say that first and foremost we must let
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God define for us for himself what is truth, and we can test what
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God says, but we cannot judge it by an external standard. Let me
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explain what I mean. So if someone says, well, I think the
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Bible is true because historians have proven whatever you want to add behind that,
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right, ABCDE, what we've essentially done is said the historians are the authoritative
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ones. Because the historian said so, and the Bible agrees with what they
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say, the Bible is true. So we've made the historians the king.
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And you can do that to science and say, well, this is what
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sign says, and since the Bible lives up to that, well the Bible
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is true. But I want to say that the Bible stands on its own
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authority. The reason is this, And I do have a slide for this,
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not sure where it is, but let me let me pull this up
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just so you know. We've got eighty eight slides over here. And that's
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that's the reason why we and this is the light version. We've condensed it
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to eighty eight. Okay, this is light number sixty three or sixty four.
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A picture of someone swearing, right, So let's let's put that up
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here. You go, that's right. So if in the in the US
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when a president gets sworn in, he puts his hand on the Bible and
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he swears. If God were to swear, who does he swear by?
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Sorry himself? But then you go, isn't that circular God swearing by himself?
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Well, it is a pick careful attention to what I'm about to say.
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X. Not all circularity is wrong? Why Because if someone tells you
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all circularity is wrong, that you cannot use a circular system, then what
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have they just done? They have said that you cannot use a circular system
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on what basis? I said? So, isn't that circular? The very
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charge that you cannot use circular reasoning is in self a circular reasoning. Let's
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take time to process that a little bit. Okay, digest that a little
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bit. So when we say circularity automatic, now I think circularity is mostly
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wrong, except when it comes to ultimate facts. Ultimate facts, absolute facts
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you can't escape, right, the circularity will be there. For example,
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if you believe I'm a real person, on what basis do you believe that
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your eyes so? But your eyes is telling you what your eyes is telling
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you, right, that's circular. Ultimately, all truth is circular in the
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absolute sense. And once you establish that, we build on it, and
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so you cannot question the found You can only question the foundation by saying is
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it consistent? It consistent? So God is allowed to swear by himself.
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The question is do we have evidence that he is faithful to what he's wears.
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Because if he says I'm going to do this and he does not do
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that, we know he's a fraud. But if he does say he will
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do this, and he's able to bring this in past, bring this to
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past historically, we now have the evidential framework of showing this is really God's
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work, and it's got to some days up. Now I do have a
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slight for this. We're going to pull this up real quick to some days
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up. The way we can test whether a message or a book is God's
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word or not is let me see pull this up. The way we're going
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to do this is by let me see if I can get this up real
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quick. Number one, establishing is it able to predict the future? Is
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it able to predict the future? If it's able to predict the future,
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that's one way we can be certain that it is God's words. Get the
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exact one, I think, and he knows which slide I'm referring to.
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But is it able to predict the future? Thirty seven? Is it all
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right? Slight thirty seven slide thirty seven, let's get that up. Yes,
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that's all so. Yeah. One of the things I'll say is this,
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is it able to make predictions about the future, Because if God cannot
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predict the future, he's not at all. Now. I didn't say that.
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The Bible says that God himself says one of the tests that God says.
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If you go to Isaiah chapter forty one, worse twenty one Isaiah forty
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one, verse twenty one, God puts tests on the false gods. He
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says to them, tell them, tell us the things that are do that
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we may know that you are God's Does he not say that? Isia forty
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one twenty one? Tell us what's going to come? If you really are
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God, tell me the future, because you're control auntie, are you not?
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So if you can tell me, then I know your God. So
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the test of deity, according to God himself, is that he's able to
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predict the future, whereas according to my Bible, the false God predict the
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future. Now we go to test number two, and do you want to
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take us to test number two? What's all right? So fulfilled? If
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God says that act an acts has not happened. God didn't say it.
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That's in Deutronomy eighteen, verse twenty to twenty two. If someone speaks on
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God's behalf and say this will happen, we started a lot didn't. During
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the last election, the US election presidential election. I was in the US
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when that happened. I was studying in the US, and you know,
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everyone was saying God. All these people were saying, I God told me
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Donald Trump is going to win this one. And we waited and waited,
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and he didn't win. Already lost and you know what he say. The
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reason he lost is because you didn't have enough faith, right, you didn't
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have enough faith. Well, if God said it, it'll be true regardless
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of whether you have faith or not. It's God's words. So well.
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Deuteronomy tells us if someone says God says he will do this and it doesn't
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come to pass, you know, it's not God's words, so passy.
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I think on that basis, we can safely say that if we find anything
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false prophecy in the Bible and error a lie, we can throw this book
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out and say it is not God's words. I think that's the challenge that
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we have, that we can say to the world, this Bible is completely
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free from error because God cannot make mistakes, and his own word says he
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can't make mistakes. And when you look through the rest of scripture. The
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challenge is for the skeptic, the one who says I don't believe in God,
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to say, how is it my Bible is able to predict the future?
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And we'll give an example of that later, how is it able to
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bring it to pass? And why is there no errors in this book at
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all? I think that's the evidential Framewook we work in. So I've actually
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covered two and three. Win that one. Go but go ahead fast her.
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Okay, great, So let me look at some questions and see if
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we can address some of them right now. Will there ever be a sequel
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to the Bible? No? Well, no, because if the answer is
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yes, that will suggest that God is not complete, He's not perfect.
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He means something like like our mother's or fathers. Ah, forgot one more
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thing to ask you to why God's not God? Is God's not like that?
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It is complete? There's no addition, no subtractions. Well so in
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a way yes, yes, Actually Revelation, the end of Revelation makes it
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clear, don't add, don't subtract. Yes, which it seems to me
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to me now, I interpret that to me that John writing the Apocalypse in
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Revelation understood it to be the final book of scripture. And mind you,
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he was the last surviving apostle when he did that. Okay, so there's
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quick answer to that. There will be no sequel. We have the full
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Bible. This is all we need. The nineteen books excluded, like the
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Book of Enoch, the Book of Jubilees, the Gospel of Philip, and
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the gospwel of and Mary excluded. Why so right in our YouTube channel explain
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international with extensive long videos. I think we've done about close to twenty hours
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worth of content on just those additional books as well. You look at the
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book of Gospel of Mary, the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Peter.
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These are ridiculous gospels past Andy, right, because well, for one,
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in the Gospel of Thomas we see that only men get to go to
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Heaven. I'm not sure how you women feel about that, right, maybe
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let us know. And yes, it wasn't actually written by Thomas, right,
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it wasn't because it was written in the second century. Thomas was dead
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in India at the early part of the first century. So that's that's quite
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a big reason why we know that there can't be Thomas's book. Yes,
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okay, his claimed to be a book of Thomas, but Thomas didn't right,
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Yes, unlike look it is within my look and Matthew's within my Matthews
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Okay, no, absolutely. Just to add up to that, which is
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one interesting fact is that in the Gospel of Thomas, Jesus promises that Mary
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Magdalene will be saved, which that creates a well, actually, it's not
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a gospel. I think it's Is that a gospel of Thomas? It's a
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related gospel. There's the disciples get upset. Why is it that Mary is
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here and Jesus says nobody, I'll convert her into a man so that she
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gets saved. Yes, when you read those stuff, you realize how ridiculous
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those writings are. Now one more thing I want to point on, and
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this is important. You don't you take for granted our New Testament writings because
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you've not read those those funny gospels. When you read those phony gospels,
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right, you to realize how wonderful our New Testament is. For example,
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what's the biggest, the greatest story of all the gospels? The top of
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it, not the feeling of it is one even bigger than that, The
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great story that all our gospels almost to the crescendo, the resurrection, right,
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the resurrection is the story that all of the gospels lead up to.
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That's the climax of the gospels. Now here's the question. Which gospel tells
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you how the resurrection took place? And I love the silence, None of
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it, none of it, Not one of the gospels tell you how the
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resurrection took place. One moment Jesus is in the tomb, the next moment
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is out. You know why they don't tell you that they didn't see it,
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right, They only report what they saw. That's why they don't tell
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you about jesus childhood. They were not there. The only one guy that
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gets into detail with Jesus' childhood is Luke. But there's a reason why Luke
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gets into it because Luke was writing this around the time he was in Ephesus.
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And we know from church history who else was in Ephesus. John?
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Okay, because we know that even in the Book of Revelations, John writes
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to the church in Ephesus. Guess who was with John that John was taking
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care of in his ministry, Mary, John is writing in that place,
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and so it's likely, in fact, very likely that Luke actually spoke to
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Mary. And that's why he's the only gospel give you access to what happened
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in Jesus's early childhood at the age of twelve. None of the other gospels
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can because they didn't really speak Terry. Now, the false gospels give you
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incredible stories about the resurrection. The Gospel of Peter says that when Jesus rose
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up, the cross came bouncing behind Jesus. Those are the ridiculous stories.
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Did you have? One gospel says he terrified the Roman gods. He was
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spooking them as he came out. And so the gospels give us eyewitness accounts
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and they're reliable for that very reason. Just one more thing, the Book
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of Enoch. I hear this all the time. What about the Book of
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Enoch? Friends? The Book of Enoch is a Greek book. Enoch did
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not know Greek. He was seventh from Adam. This was long before the
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Greek language was invented, so we know it's not from you know, relating
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to what we have covered earlier, someone asked to what extent can we trust
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the disciples recollection of the life and ministry and words of Jesus. So we
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kind of touch on that, so we can address this. I think we
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can also relate this question. How do we know if the Bible we have
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now is the complete version? And then someone else asked the words and the
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story of Moses is still based on words written in the Bible. But I
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think this person means written by human beings? Right, How can we be
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sure that it is God's words? Can I kind of can we address all
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these tree together? Shall we? Yeah, let's do the last one as
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well, because that's I think the last one is fantastic. It's a great
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question. How do we know that what Moses wrote was actually God's words?
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Yeah? Because Moses supposedly wrote Genesis or something. Yes, and the Moses
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obviously wasn't there. Yes, So how can we trust that because you just
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said that Luke was an Irish witnesses. They interviewed the very people that were
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there, like Mary, but Moses, Yeah, I think it's actually the
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same principle, right, Moses did interview the eyewitness? Okay, who was
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there? God? God? Well, and now here's the thing right past
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the end, We've got to say, does it meet the standards that we
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lay down? Can it predict the future? Because if you can predict the
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future, it also can tell you the past. Same system. So is
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there evidence that what Moses wrote was God's word? Let's do that, Okay.
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I want to ask this question. Did Abraham have the Gospel with him?
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Did Abraham have the scriptures with him? Did Abraham have the scriptures with
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him? No? No, did Abraham believe that the Messiah would come and
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die in Jerusalem, they would be raised on the third day, that he
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would die, That that the Messiah would die in Jerusalem on Calvary as a
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sacrifice for his sins. Did Abraham have all that information? What? What
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should we say to that past? How did he know that he knows this?
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The fact is, what if I told you he absolutely did. Well,
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let's let's go with Galaians three eight for this, like maybe someone would
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would kill us up for us. Galatians chapter three was eight. Did Abraham
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have the scriptures? And what you're going to see, friends, is one
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of maybe a hundred examples to give you an authenticating evidence for the Bible from
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the Bible itself. So let's go Galatians three eight. Someone read please,
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Oh there you go. It's it's right here. So let's shall we all
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read this together? You okay with that? Let's do this one two,
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three? And the scripture? Foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith,
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preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying in you all the nations shall
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be blessed. Friends, What preached the gospel to Abraham? It doesn't say
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God, what preached the Gospel to Abraham scripture. Did Abraham have the scriptures
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with him? He did, see. I know you're scared to say that
26:18
because we think Moses wrote it. Well, there are plenty of things that
26:22
I'm going to show you that was handed to Moses. Okay, you guys
26:26
ready for this. This is going to be an adventure. Let's go to
26:30
Genesis twenty two. You're going to see internal evidence that Abraham not only believed
26:36
that the Messiah would come, he believed the Massiah would come. He believed
26:40
the Massiah would die in Jerusalem on Calvary. He believed the Massiah would be
26:44
raised on the dead from the dead on the third day. And he believed
26:47
that he would die as a forgift, as a sacrifice for his sins.
26:52
Let's good. Genesis chapter twenty two was one. Now it came to pass
26:56
after these things that God tested Abraham and he said to him, Abraham,
27:00
and he said, here, I am worse to Then he said, take
27:06
now your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the
27:10
land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the
27:15
mountains of which I shall tell you, friends, why does God need Abraham
27:21
to offer burnt offerings. Burnt offerings are only offered for since right, so
27:26
did Abraham sin? Okay? And Abraham was perfect, wasn't he all right?
27:30
I mean God told him Genesis twelve, leave your family and land that
27:36
I will show you. And Abraham obeyed, right, well kind of.
27:40
He brought a lot with him, and Lot's life became a living nightmare.
27:45
His his dogs committed in says with him, his son in laws got destroyed
27:48
in Sodom and Gomorrah, his wife became Ajinamoto pillow of salt. And so
27:56
if you ask Lot why all this tragedy, he would tell you this.
28:02
I followed Abraham. That's what happened. God told him, leave your family,
28:07
Abraham brought him along, made his life a nightmare. Sorry, I'm
28:11
going to ruin Sunday school for a lot of us today. Now, God
28:14
told him to go to the Promised Land. Abraham was a man of faith.
28:15
Amen. He goes to the Promised Land. But then he's a famine,
28:19
so he makes a U ten and goes back to Egypt. In Egypt,
28:22
there was a contest that year husband of the Year what and Abraham was
28:26
actually the winner because he goes to Egypt and he says to his wife,
28:29
you have very beautiful They're going to ask you who you are. Just say
28:30
you're my sister. If they want to take you, go with them.
28:33
That's that's literally what Abraham did, right, Husband of the year. How
28:37
many people, how many women here? We want to say, I want
28:40
to be the wife of Abraham. Man of faith? Huh, man of
28:45
faith. Gosh, we're destroying all the Sunday School lessons we learned. Now
28:48
you come to the you come to the next stage. Pharaoh nearly, I
28:52
mean, if you look at Abraham, I've been taken away for good.
28:55
She's going to become one of his in his in his prisons or in his
29:00
haroms, Abraham's wife as one of his concubines. You ask Sarah, Sarah,
29:04
what's some lessons you can give for us? Sarah will say, don't
29:07
trust that man. Don't trust that man. Look at what he did to
29:11
me. Now, Pharaoh nearly committed sin that night. God had to appear
29:14
too Pharaoh to tell him, don't do that. That's his wife. And
29:17
if you ask Pharaoh, what lessons do you have for us? Don't trust
29:21
Abraham, man, don't trust Abraham. You guys getting a pattern here?
29:26
Long story todd. Abraham has a son to Hagar called Ishmael, and later
29:32
we know the story. Hagar and Ishmael are about to die in the wilderness.
29:36
Why what is the life lesson we learned from Hagar? Don't trust Abraham?
29:38
Man studying to see a pattern. Abraham's life was not perfect. He
29:45
lived a life of sin. He obeyed God in some parts. And then
29:49
God says to him, Look, if you want to be in a right
29:52
relationship with me, you guys ready for this. Your son must die.
29:57
If your son doesn't die, you don't get to be in a right relationship
30:02
with me. The only way you get in a right relationship with me,
30:04
your son must die. And I don't just want any son. I want
30:10
your only son, whom you love. Friends, Isaac is not his only
30:14
son. Ishmael was the older son. Did God make a mistake? No,
30:18
he was speaking of another son. And I'll show you from the text
30:22
later. Not only that he is to go to the land of Moriah and
30:27
offer him there as a sacrifice. Friends, this is Moses writing. He
30:33
asked, how did Moses know? What? Evidence that Moses was writing God's
30:37
words well, let's go to let's scripture tell Us, second Chronicles, chapter
30:41
three, verse one. Please, It says, now Solomon built the House
30:45
of the Lord, of the House of the Lord on Jerusalem on Mount Moriah,
30:56
the threshing floor. So we know where Mount Moriah is. Moriah is
31:00
in Jerusalem, the very place, yes, Second Chronicles three one. Now
31:03
Solomon began to build a house of the Lord at Jerusalem on Mount Moriah.
31:08
Mount Moriah is where the temple is. And friends, do you know what's
31:11
right outside the temple on Mount Moriah? So little hill it's called Calvary.
31:18
Same place. So God told Abraham, not only if you want to be
31:23
in right relationship with me, your son must die. Your son's got to
31:26
die in this place. You can't say Jerusalem or Calvary, that's a later
31:30
word, Mount Moriah. Abraham has to travel there to offer the sacrifice on
31:34
that spot. Now, let's go back to Genesis twenty two. Where's four
31:41
please Jerusalem. Well he began to go. Abrahams took his sons and his
31:47
servants and went. On the third day, Abraham lifted up his eyes.
31:51
He saw the place from afar. Remember this, God pronounced a death sentence
31:56
on Isaac and on the third day, Abraham reaches the place significant the word
32:01
third day, because nowhere else it gives us a timestep only there. We'll
32:06
come back to that. What does Abraham do Verse five? He says to
32:09
his servants, stay here with the donkey the lad and I will go yonder
32:15
worship, and we will come back to you. We will come back to
32:20
you. Did Abraham believe his son was coming back? Yes? Now,
32:24
if you go to Hebrews now due to time, I'll just tell you this,
32:28
write this down and go back and read this Hebrew's eleven seventeen to nineteen.
32:31
Hebrews eleven seventeen to nineteen says that Abraham knew that Isaac had to die
32:40
because God had said he must die for his sins. But he also realized
32:45
that the promises were going to come to Isaac. So which means, after
32:51
Isaac dies for my sin, what's going to happen? After he died for
32:55
my sins, what's going to happen? He'll be raised from the dead.
33:00
Abraham believed that fact. You know what, let's go to verse nineteen.
33:02
Hebrew Let's get let's let's go start with seventeen Hebrews eleven seventeen. By faith
33:07
Abraham, and he was tested off a up Isaac. And he who had
33:09
received the promises, offered up his only begotten son, was eighteen, of
33:15
whom it was said, this is the promise in Isaac, shall your seed
33:21
be called Verse nineteen, concluding, friends, this is what Abraham concluded,
33:27
that God was able to raise him up even from the dead. And notice
33:34
what it ends there from which he also received him in a figurative sense,
33:39
the ESV says, and figuratively speaking, he did receive him from the dead.
33:46
Question on what day did he receive him back from the dead? Third
33:52
day? Abraham believed the resurrection on the third day, You bet he did.
33:57
Now let's go to verse six Genesis twenty two. Six. Abraham and
34:00
the son are going to go back up that hill. And what does Abraham
34:05
put on his son as they go up that hill? Abraham took the wood,
34:10
laid it on his son, and they're going up together. So as
34:14
Isaac goes up that hill, he's carrying the wood on his back. Familiar
34:17
scene. He's going up together. In fact worse nine. Let's go to
34:22
worse nine Genesis twenty two, Verse nine when he came to the place of
34:29
which God had told him. Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood
34:31
in order, and bound his son and laid him on the altar on top
34:36
of the wood, which means Isaac carries the wood up the hill. When
34:42
he gets there, the wood is laid down and Isaac is put on the
34:45
wood, fastened too the wood. That's exactly what happened to Jesus. He
34:49
got fastened to the cross when he was up. And it's about to kill
34:52
the son. The angel says to him this interesting phrase verse eleven. But
34:58
the Angel of the Lord's called to him from heaven, said Abraham. Abraham.
35:01
He said, here, I am nix Wis. Do not lay the
35:07
hand on the boy or do anything to him. For now I know that
35:13
you fear God in all this. What he didn't know. Now only I
35:15
found out you fear God, seeing that you've not withheld from me your son,
35:22
your only son, from me. And now, friends, I want
35:25
to leave you with this. This is the proof that you have that Abraham
35:30
had the scriptures, and the scriptures were passed down to Moses. Let's go
35:34
to worse fourteen. Let's go wors thirteen first, because Abraham is going to
35:37
get a substitute. Abraham lifted up his eyes and he looked. Behold,
35:42
behind him was a ram. Where was the ram? Caught in the ticket
35:49
by the horns? In other words, the ram? What was around the
35:52
ram's head, thorns, bushes, thorns, branches, is something to see.
35:59
All the pictures come in right there. This is not New Testament,
36:01
friends, this is the first book of the Bible. It's called Genesis.
36:06
Christian is now this is the big question. Did Abraham think, oh,
36:09
great story, man, guys, you didn't know what happened back there.
36:13
You know, this is a fantastic story. I had to sacrifice my son,
36:15
but didn't happen. No, Abraham actually believed this was going to take
36:20
place in the future. Let's go to worse fourteen. So Abraham called the
36:23
name of the place. What did he call it? Let's say it all
36:28
together. The Lord will provide past tense of future tents future. In fact,
36:36
not only was it future tense, because Abraham is expecting it to be
36:38
in the future. Look at what Moses says, as it is said to
36:44
this day. Moses is writing almost five hundred years later, till this day,
36:50
half a millennium later, we keep saying this over and over again,
36:53
on amount of the Lord it shall be provided. Did Moses ever go there?
36:59
No, because Moses was in Egypt. Moses never reached the promised land
37:04
that's in Jerusalem, did well. None of the people of Israel when Moses
37:09
was writing, had haven't been dead. This was a foreign land to them.
37:13
And yet he knew the Messiah would have to die in Jerusalem on the
37:16
third day, rise again for the forgiveness of sins, and that this was
37:21
going to take place. All of the details, the wood, the fastes,
37:23
thing on top, and that is the evidence we have, friends,
37:28
that this is the word of God. Our Muslim friends practiced this. Do
37:30
you know that Hari Raya adil Hadha they kill, They commemorate the same story.
37:37
But this is the evidence we have. They are Muslim friends. With
37:39
all due respect to them, they cannot tell you the deeper meaning of why
37:43
that is. We can tell you that it's a foreshadow of Jesus Christ.
37:46
That's how we know for a fact that the Bible is God's word. It's
37:50
able to predict the future passer and it's able to bring it to pass.
37:53
That's the internal evidence today we're focusing on a Bible, so there's no sequel
37:59
to the Bible. There's no Bible version number two. Uh. Someone asked,
38:04
why did they stop writing a Bible? Because it's complete so we don't
38:06
have to write Yeah, okay, are there actual answer this question? Are
38:12
there actual secular evidence that proves the events that happen in the Bible? So
38:15
I think what it ask is like, did they find the chariot wheal?
38:20
Like, you know, are their archaeological evidence their scientific evidence is there?
38:27
Did they find fossils of Peter? Or I think that's what they're asking.
38:32
Are there external evidence that the events happened, the events mentioned the Bible happened,
38:40
because oh, because if it did, then we can prove that the
38:44
Bible is it's true. Plenty plenty, so many. But here's the thing.
38:47
One of the questions, the ways you know, the Christian gets asked
38:50
all the time is that are there non Christian evidence? They don't want it
38:53
to be even a Christian evidence, you know it must be non Christian saying
38:57
it, well, actually we do. But here's the thing. If the
39:00
non Christians actually produced that, they would not remain non Christian. Right.
39:06
So the reason like For example, Paul wrote about a resurrection that could be
39:08
actually said a non Christian sauce, but well, when he saw the evidence,
39:13
he became a Christian. He didn't stay non Christian. So it's very
39:15
hard to say, well, do you have a non Christian sauce that's like
39:19
uh that that that's like basically kind of saying, well, do you have
39:22
someone that who saw these things and yet was not convinced that happened. Can't
39:28
It doesn't work out that way. But speaking of circular evidence, let me
39:30
give you a few historical sources that affirm the death of Jesus by crucifixion.
39:36
I can give you Josephus, who says that at this time they crucified Jesus.
39:45
Is what Josephus says. That's Josephus is a Roman historian, Jewish hit
39:50
person, and a Roman historian. Sus Seutonius was another Roman historian that wrote
39:55
about it. Jesus suffered the extreme penalty under our procurator Tacitus Cornelius. Tacitus
40:05
Tacitus was the one that wrote that Jesus suffered the extreme penalty under the hands
40:09
of one of our procurators, ponscious Pilot Syrian philosopher around the same time says
40:15
the Jews crucified their wise king. After that their kingdom was destroyed. Can
40:19
list citations after citations, including Jewish citations. One of the famous ones is
40:25
the Babylonian Talmud Sanhedrian fIF forty three A. It says that Yeshue was hung
40:31
on the eve of the Passover, and it describes why the Jews had to
40:37
kill him because they felt he was a threat to them. This is Jewish
40:39
sauce, and so we've got plenty of sauces pas ahead pass Andy four to
40:43
substantiate that. Yeah, someone asks, what if they twisted the story?
40:47
So I have to assume that they mean the apostles, the prophets who wrote
40:52
what if they you know, they were naughty and they twisted the stories and
40:54
they added some things. Is that even possible? Is it possible some of
41:00
the writers of the Bible twisted the stories, added something that's not supposed to
41:02
bear, stuff like that, right, And I think that relates to the
41:07
other question that asked, how was the entire Bible compound? So how do
41:13
we get the Bible? Basically? How do we get the Bible? So
41:15
did they did what was including the Bible? Ever get twisted? Is there
41:21
a word means? What if there was a typo? And then how do
41:24
we get the Bible? You should answer that question, go for it faster.
41:28
You can start first, and let's let's let look at my notes.
41:34
Yeah, okay, let's let's let's do that. So yeah, So the
41:37
question is how do we know that our Bible is not tempered with externally?
41:42
And also how do we know these guys accurately reported all that we see?
41:46
Well, here's the thing, if they genuinely were eyewitnesses of these things,
41:51
they would be crazy to think they can temper it and get away with it.
41:54
Now the other way we know for certain, I think, or at
41:58
least uh, this is good circumstantial evidence that they didn't temper with it.
42:02
He said, all of them were willing to die for their You're willing to
42:05
die for their faith. Right, they lived in a time where this was
42:08
not a profitable business to be in. Right, to be a missionary was
42:13
to sign your death wish, essentially, and not just a nice death.
42:16
You know, in the US you have lethal injection, which is fancy way
42:20
of going out. But back then they became lion food. Very easily.
42:24
Uh. And and that's not a nice way to go. Uh. And
42:27
these guys were willing, they were willing to do that. In fact,
42:30
you have some pretty crazy uh stories about early Christian bishops who learned from the
42:35
disciples. One of them was John's disciples, Ignacious, Ignacious of Antioch.
42:39
He's being taken to roam, to be to be thrown into the arena and
42:44
to be killed, and he's writing to the church saying, don't you dare
42:46
pray for my release? I want to go, you know. And of
42:49
course Ignacious, we think was a bit it was a bit, a bit
42:52
too eager for the punishment that he was coming to him. But he's he
42:54
he goes on to say, because if if for any reason, the lions
42:58
don't attack me, I would poke them and provoke them until they attacked me.
43:01
You know. Of course Ignatius was a little bit hyper on that regard.
43:06
But the point is, you see the attitude. These men were willing
43:07
to die for what they believed in. They were confident about it so much,
43:12
and you can't rationally say that they would have this level of confidence had
43:16
they been fabricating the facts. Now it's possible that they could be lied to.
43:22
Maybe someone lied to them and they were so confident. But here's the
43:24
thing. Who lied to them? They were eyewitnesses, right, No one
43:29
told them this, They saw it for themselves. So when you put that
43:31
together past, I think you've got pretty good evidence that that there was not
43:37
tempering going on. These guys were faithful to the point they were willing to
43:39
die. But the other poet, Christian, is an interesting one. How
43:43
they did come down to us? Yes, And the way it came down
43:45
to us is because the churches, when they received the writings of the apostles,
43:52
they circulated them by writing and copying down. And as a result for
43:55
that, you have approximately today between let's actually, we do have the stats.
44:04
We have between twenty to twenty five thousand manuscripts surviving today. We have
44:08
the stats for you in the slides. So you have you have all of
44:14
these ancient guys and their writings. How many copies do we have of Pliny
44:19
seven? How many copies do you have of Plato's writings seven to this day?
44:22
That's a lot, mind you. The number one, the champion of
44:27
this is homers Iliad at the bottom here. The earliest manuscript we have is
44:30
five hundred years later, and we have a whopping six hundred and forty three
44:37
copies today. That's well in terms of accuracy, this is by liberal skeptics
44:45
ninety five percent accurate. But for the New Testament, and actually the number
44:50
is not actually accurate. Here the New Testament, the earliest copies come around
44:54
a well one hundred and thirty ady, which is less than one hundred years.
45:00
The earliest copy of the Gospel of John is actually called p. Fifty
45:05
two, so very small document that you can find in the Ryland Library in
45:08
Manchester. Here's the thing that Rylan copy p. Fifty two was written thirty
45:15
years after the Gospel of John was written. So we have super early documents
45:19
that come close to the facts. And how many manuscripts do we have,
45:23
Well, it's not five thousand, because five thousand, six hundred is Greek
45:28
manuscripts, got plenty of other manuscripts Latin, et cetera. The numbers come
45:32
closer to thirty thousand. So the evidence, the weights of the copies that
45:37
we have past is just so much that we really even skeptics are saying essential
45:44
evidences were not tempered. But we know that we're just thinkling with the details.
45:47
They have pretty good evidence and backing to come up with trustworthy translations.
45:54
So this is the kind of thing we're working with. That's why the thirty
45:58
thousand manuscripts matter. It's reliable and trustable. That really illustrates this. And
46:07
here one of the philosophies that the manuscript experts use is they go with the
46:13
majority reading for the most part, So where the majority is because you will
46:16
notice where the copies make mistakes. There are reasons why they make mistakes.
46:22
Sometimes it's an ice skip problem where their ice skip over the words. And
46:25
also bear in mind that the way the Old Testament was transmitted and the New
46:30
Testament is very very different. In the Old Testament, it was transmitted by
46:34
professional scribes right the New Testament as well, but later during the Monastic Age,
46:40
Christians had professional monks who were scribes. But for the early parts,
46:45
earliest Christians during the Roman Persecution were just hearing and writing, and they made
46:50
plenty of mistakes as they werore because they was scribbling away for their lives.
46:53
And because of that, you have a lot of variance, but these variants
46:57
never affect essential doctrines. I had the opportunity of sitting with bart Erman,
47:01
who is the world's leading eightiest skeptics of the New Testament. He's like New
47:07
York Times bestseller eightist skeptics. And as a video, if you go to
47:10
the internet and you search bart Hmann says, no to essential doctrines, have
47:15
they been corrupted? It's an interview where I had with Erman, and Irmann
47:19
says no, the essential doctrines are not affected at all. Zero. He
47:22
says, but but they are variances. Now we admit they are variances.
47:27
But as Pastor ended, it really pointed out so well, you can just
47:30
look where the errors are, look at a majority reading in the manuscript.
47:34
You can reconstruct the whole thing, no problem at all. I think that's
47:37
what we have for the authentication and the reliability of the New Testament. Okay,
47:44
do we address how the Bible came about? How how maybe his canon
47:47
city? Like, how did the like, how did who decided the Tenna
47:52
nine books who's going to be in the Old Testament and the seven books going
47:55
to be New Testament? Wasn't it some a bunch of guys, old men
47:58
who old men who just and then you know, they had their meeting and
48:00
then I don't know what happened there, right, And let let's take it
48:04
that real quick. So the way that the Bible was put together, it
48:07
didn't happen instantly. So the first place we had really where the whole thing
48:10
came together was in three ninety two eighty in a city called Hippo, North
48:17
Africa. And the reason it took so long was because the manuscripts needed to
48:23
be compiled. Right, So bear in mind John is writing in Asia Minor,
48:28
which is modern day Turkey. Paul was in Rome when he died,
48:31
Peter was in Rome. You've got others in Alexandria, in Egypt, North
48:36
Africa, you have some in Jerusalem, you have some in Syria, in
48:39
Antioch, and so it takes a while to put all of these manuscripts together
48:44
into a complete Bible like the one we have today. So the reason it
48:47
took long was because the guys in the East they didn't have telegram or WhatsApp
48:52
right, they had to literally go when they had come back, and Asia
48:54
wasn't there too to help. So it takes a long while to travel around
48:59
to compile this documents together. But when these documents arrived, there was zero
49:04
doubt whether these were scripture or not? Why Because if it was written by
49:08
the apostles, it's scripture. We don't get to decide whether a book is
49:13
scripture or not scripture. The only question we need to ask is this,
49:16
did the apostle write it? If the apostle wrote it, it scripture.
49:21
So for example, thought experiment, if we discovered a book today, a
49:25
letter, let's say, a missing letter of Paul to Corinthians. Let's say
49:30
we happen to discovery right on the way out, you stumble on one of
49:34
these this this marbles or the tiles, and then you discover Paul's Missing Letter
49:40
to the Corinthians. Right, happens to be in Generations church for some reason,
49:44
but it's there. You take it up. Now. The only now
49:50
should we added to the Bible? Yes? Or no? Should we add
49:52
it to the Bible? See some of you not sure? You don't need
50:00
right. If it's written by Paul, it's it's scripture. You and I
50:01
don't get to say whether it's scripture or not. The only thing we get
50:06
to say is whether it's written by the apostle. Exactly. Yeah, And
50:09
okay, of course we don't have to. We don't have the length of
50:13
time to go into how do we know, like, for example, how
50:15
do we know wrote Luke and that there's ways to and it's all on your
50:19
YouTube channel. Well it's all, well the simple way you know that Luke
50:22
wrote look and that even the apostles, So that's okay, for example,
50:25
will use it since Pastor Andy brought up look, yes, do we know
50:30
for a fact? Or let's put it this way. Does the Bible say
50:34
that Luke is scripture on the same level as the Old Testament? Does the
50:37
Bible say that? Does the Bible say that the Gospel of Luke is scripture
50:40
on the same level with the Old Testament? Does it say that, Yeah,
50:45
let's try that again. Does the Bible actually say the Gospel of Luke
50:47
is scripture on the same level with let's say, the Loss of Moses.
50:53
Most of you said no, Actually the answer is yes. First timity five
50:58
to eighteen for scriptures is do not muzzle the oxes. It trades out the
51:00
grain, and the laborer is worthy of his wages. The first citation where
51:05
is it taken from the Bible? Will actually include a note? Where's the
51:08
first citation? Taken from Deutronomy chapter twenty five? The second citation is taken
51:15
from Luke chapter ten, verse seven. So Paul quotes the Gospel of Luke
51:20
and says four Scripture says he quotes the Law of Moses, and he quotes
51:24
Luke chapter ten, verse seven. Or there you go first tventy five to
51:28
eighteen, for the scripture says you shall not muscle an ox when it trades
51:31
out the grain. That's deutronomy twenty five and the next one and was eighteen
51:37
the laborer Deutronomy twenty five vers four. Is it the second one? The
51:42
laborer deserves his wages is Luke chapter ten, verse seven in the Greek identical,
51:46
which means the apostle Paul recognized Luke as scripture long before three ninety two.
51:52
I think that that's how we can know. Past Andy. Thank you
51:55
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