TOPIC 3: IS THE BIBLE RELIABLE? Team Background & Preparation KEY THOUGHT Twenty-eight percent of Americans believe the Bible is the actual word of God and that it should be taken literally. This is somewhat below the 38% to 40% seen in the late 1970s, and near the all-time low of 27% reached in 2001 and 2009. But about half of Americans continue to say the Bible is the inspired word of God, not to be taken literally meaning a combined 75% believe the Bible is in some way connected to God. About one in five Americans view the Bible in purely secular terms as ancient fables, legends, history, and precepts written by man which is up from 13% in 1976. Source: http://www.gallup.com/poll/170834/ three-four-bible-word-god.aspx People have been questioning the reliability of the scriptures for a long time since the early centuries of the Church where Justin Martyr and Augustine wrote works in defense of its validity. In this session we want to establish what the Bible is, what some common claims against the Bible involve, and how the Church answers those claims. SCRIPTURAL BACKGROUND Luke 24:13-35 Jesus reveals himself through the scriptures. John 1:1-4 Jesus is the Word. The Word takes on human nature. John 21:25 Jesus said and did many things not in the Bible. 1 Tim 2:3-4 God desires for everyone to be saved and come to know truth. 2 Tim 3:16 The scriptures are inspired and useful for teaching and holiness. Heb 4:11-12 The scriptures can open up our hearts to God. 2 Peter 1:19-21 We need the Church to help us interpret scripture. CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH #101 God condescends to speak to mankind. #102-108 God ultimately speaks one word: Jesus Christ #105-108 Authorship of scripture. #120 The canon of scripture is determined by infallible Tradition. #128-130 The OT & NT work together to reveal God s plan. #131 Scripture is to be read by the faithful. GROUP LEADER HANDBOOK PRE-EVANGELIZATION INQUIRY TOPICS 71
TOPIC 3: IS THE BIBLE RELIABLE? Talk Outline PREPARATION 5 minutes Pleasantries and welcome. Opening considerations: Have you ever noticed when you turn on the news how everyone is always in a panic? The world is always falling down around us, politicians are always telling us how they are going to save us if we only elect them. And politicians always keep their promises, they never lie, right? Joseph R Sizoo, a Dutch reformed minister from New York City in the early 1900 s once said that, In a day of uncertainty and disillusionment, when my whole life seemed to be overwhelmed by forces beyond my control, one morning quite casually I opened my New Testament and my eyes fell upon this sentence: He that sent me is with me the Father hath not left me alone. My life has never been the same since that hour. Ever since that hour when my eyes fell upon it, I have lived by this sentence. I have walked with it and I have found in it my peace and strength. To me it is the very essence of religion. It lies at the rock bottom of everything that makes life worth living. (reference?) Two weeks ago we explored five primary reasons why there must be a supernatural being that we call God and how we can use our experience and our intellect to reach that conclusion. So premise number one is: God is real. Notice that we haven t said anything yet of faith. Last week we explored the five primary reasons that it is possible for this God to be so benevolent and care for us so deeply that it is right to say that God is love despite the pain of evil and suffering in the world. Premise number two is: God loves us. This week we are going to ask a question about the reliability of the Bible. Before we do that - the topic itself begs the question, What does it matter if the Bible is reliable? No one doubts that scripture is useful as literature. Many of us are spiritual people because we believe the Bible and other spiritual writings help us live fuller lives. 72 SEEKER SMALL GROUPS ST. PAUL EVANGELIZATION MINISTRIES
The Christian position is that the Bible is the living Word of God in written form. Some people find that offensive and audacious because the Christians are not unique in making the claim that their scriptures are the only true scriptures. Yet what is the truth? Is it true that the Bible is unique in that it actually is the Word of God? Can that claim be supported? Tonight you will have to weigh the merits of the five reasons for the reliability of the Bible. Before we begin, one final, but important note. Skeptics, rest easy. I will specifically avoid making an argument from authority, which is the weakest of all arguments. I will not suggest that the Bible is reliable because the Christian church or the Bible says that it is true. Instead, we will reach the conclusion that the Bible is reliable by examining the evidence. This is not unlike an examination that we could undertake to prove that J.K. Rowling is the author of Harry Potter and that Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling are reliable sources for what belongs in the canon of Harry Potter. How do we know that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is a reliable source on the Harry Potter universe? We can examine the evidence for that claim and draw a conclusion. That s what we want to do for the Bible. Fair enough? PROCLAMATION Let s begin. The Bible is a reliable document that contains the truth of what God wants us to know about Himself and His plan for mankind. EXPLANATION 30 Minutes First Proposal: The Bible is a diverse collection of writings spanning more than 1,000 years whose unifying theme points to Jesus Christ as the central figure in the salvation of mankind. Harry Potter is a collection of 7 books with various shorter writings that are considered part of its official canon. The central figure of the book is Harry Potter about which prophecies have been written and who must die himself to defeat death. Does anyone disagree? The Bible is a collection of different genres of writings. It includes mythopoeic narratives, historical books, law, poetry, song, prophecy, letters, and more. The Bible contains 67 books in the Protestant canon and 73 books in the Catholic canon. Catholics accept as reliable and inspired all of the books in the Protestant canon. The Church is the author-ity regarding what in scripture is canon (ex: J.K. Rowling is the author-ity on what in the Harry Potter universe GROUP LEADER HANDBOOK PRE-EVANGELIZATION INQUIRY TOPICS 73
is canon). The Bible is the work of scripture for Christians. The Bible was written by Christians and compiled by Christians. Scripture, like any literature, needs to be interpreted. As a collection of literary works, good sense suggests that it should be interpreted as a whole in order to understand the Bible as a united whole. The Church is the author-ity regarding what the Bible means, just as J.K. Rowling gets to decide what her writings mean. Through sound means of interpretation we know that Jesus Christ is the central figure of the Bible, alluded to in the book of Genesis and present all the way through the book of Revelation. The central event of the Bible is the death and resurrection of Jesus. Second Proposal: The Bible has come under rigorous academic scrutiny concerning its historical reliability. External evidence suggests historical reliability. Harry Potter is a new text and no one doubts who wrote it, who published it, and who has the rights over it. It is unreasonable and stupid to have any such doubts. The Bible is older, but by examining the record, scholars have concluded the Bible is historically accurate wherever that accuracy has been called into question. Where the authors of scripture intended to write history, those records are accurate. Scholars questioned the probability of a number of strange sounding patriarchal names in the Old Testament until a Sumerian tablet was found inscribed with the very names in question. Scholars doubted the Bible for tracing the Nile and Euphrates Rivers to the same source until an Arabian river was discovered with the same name as the one in Egypt. Scholars doubted the annihilation of 185,000 Assyrians in 2 Chronicles 32:21 until it was confirmed by works discovered by ancient historians, specifically the Sennacherib s Prism stored by the Oriental Institute in Chicago, IL. Sodom and Gomorrah were considered legendary cities until Sodom was recently uncovered by archeologists at Tall El-Hamaan, Jordon where archeological evidence points that it was destroyed by fire. Time and again independent studies show that the Bible is historically reliable. For the sake of intellectual honesty, we must be willing to take the time to dig deeper and examine the record when a claim of error is made against scripture or any work for that matter. The Internet, shockingly, is not always accurate. Neither is TV. We need to look to the work of scholars even when they contradict each other, and see what the record itself points to. 74 SEEKER SMALL GROUPS ST. PAUL EVANGELIZATION MINISTRIES
Third Proposal: The events of the Bible are recorded accurately, including the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Readers of Harry Potter sometimes come up with different theories and conclusions about what events in Harry Potter mean. What the author concludes is ultimately considered the true or canonical meaning of the text. The same is true for scripture, which has God as its author and the Church as the stable author-ity of scripture. There are supposed contradictions between different Gospel accounts concerning the words of Jesus. If the Bible is reliable, then there should be no contradictions between different Gospels. One popular example is that the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7 is much longer than the Sermon on the Mount in Luke 6. Who is to say that Jesus did not give the same sermon hundreds of times to different audiences. Speakers today do this all the time and we live in the age of instant communication and the ability to record talks. Different speeches were recorded by different authors of the Gospels where Jesus may have given talks of varying talks and lengths. That does not mean they are contradictory. If scripture was written for self-serving purposes by a group of men who wanted to found a fake religion, they have done themselves a great disservice by ruining their own reputations. The authors regularly reveal embarrassing personal stories that they are unlikely to make up, such as Peter denying Jesus. (Matthew 26:33-36) Fourth Proposal: Early skeptics were unable to provide compelling evidence that the claims of scripture were untrue. Conspiracy theories are fun. Like Nicolas Cage in National Treasure, or the stories of Sherlock Holmes they make great entertainment. Wild conspiracy theories about the Bible and Jesus though, prove to be just as fantastical and lack credibility as the verifiable accounts given to us by scholars and the Bible itself. Some of the most powerful historical proofs for the reliability of scripture are how Jesus himself fulfilled early prophecy written about the Messiah. Things he could not do voluntarily because he had no control of over it. Jesus fulfills all of the prophecies written about Himself in the Old Testament: The Messiah would be from the tribe of Judah (Genesis 49:10). Jesus is from the tribe of Judah (Matthew 1:2). The Messiah would be born of a virgin (Isaiah 7:14, Isaiah 9:6-7). Jesus is born of a virgin (Luke 1:26-27) The Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2). Jesus was born in Bethlehem (Luke 2:1-7). GROUP LEADER HANDBOOK PRE-EVANGELIZATION INQUIRY TOPICS 75
The Messiah would enter Jerusalem triumphantly riding on a donkey (Zechariah 9:9). Jesus enters Jerusalem riding on a donkey to acclamations of Hosanna. (John 12:12-19). The Messiah would be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver (Zechariah 11:12-13). Jesus is betrayed for 30 pieces of silver (Matthew 26:14-16). The Messiah would arrive before the destruction of the Second Temple (Daniel 9:24-27). Jesus died in 33 AD. The 2nd temple was destroyed in 70 AD. We can examine the record on any of these events and they hold up to scrutiny. More questions come to light as historians continue to examine ancient records, and always on the side of the Church. Whether biblical, or miracles like the Shroud of Turin or image of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Fifth Proposal: The Bible is historical and reliable. Scholars have established tools for discerning the historical reliability of Scripture or other writings. Using these tools they can date, with incredible accuracy when events happened and if the record is accurate. Congruency: Does the event coincide with known facts at the time. Independent Attestation: Do multiple sources close to the event corroborate it? Embarrassment: Is the event embarrassing to the author? Dissimilarity: If an event challenges popular belief or practice, it is unlikely to be fictional. Semitisms: Does the event coincide with popular ways of speaking? Coherence: Is the event consistent with already established facts? The account of the Resurrection of Jesus meets the litmus test of reliability: The Gospels are all soundly dated to 70-95 AD which is in line with the gap of other ancient biographies. The Resurrection coincides with known facts of history at that time, such as government leaders, popular sayings, and non-religious historical events. Multiple ancient sources attest to Jesus ministry, such as Josephus Flavius, Cornelius Tacitus, Pliny the Younger, Lucian, Serapion, Gnostic sources, and the Jewish Talmud. There is no known tomb of Jesus or Mary as there are for all 12 apostles and other early Christian leaders. 76 SEEKER SMALL GROUPS ST. PAUL EVANGELIZATION MINISTRIES
Jesus disciples had experiences with him that they believed were real. The belief in the Resurrection led those who experienced it to willingly die for their cause. No one is willing to die for something they know is a lie. The evidence allows a person to reasonably and rationally conclude that the Bible has a record of historical accuracy, including that Jesus lived, ministered in Judea, died at the hands of the Roman government, and rose from the dead. APPLICATION Small Group Discussion: 30 Minutes 1. What purpose did ancient skeptics have to prove that biblical accounts were not historical? 2. What do modern skeptics gain if they can prove that the Bible is not reliable? How does that change things? 3. Many of us desire to be good and look to different religious traditions for inspiration. If the Bible is the literal Word of God, how would that change how we would choose to live? 4. Do you think the Bible is reliable? = Why or why not? CALL TO ACTION 5 Minutes Sixth Proposal: The Bible is reliable; therefore it is the inspired Word of God. Since it is a sound rational claim that the Bible is historical and reliable, it is worth exploring the claim that the Bible is the inspired Word of God. The historical reliability of the Bible is important because the record itself is a claim that God is real, has spoken to us, those events have been recorded, and they reveal a plan for each of our lives and instructions on how to carry out that plan. The Catholic Church claims that Through divine revelation, God chose to show forth and communicate Himself and the eternal decisions of His will regarding the salvation of men. That is to say, He chose to share with them those divine treasures which totally transcend the understanding of the human mind. (Dei Verbum, 6) We have established that God is real. We have established that God is good and loving. We have established that the Bible is historically reliable and teaches us about this God who is real. GROUP LEADER HANDBOOK PRE-EVANGELIZATION INQUIRY TOPICS 77
We have now firmly established those areas about Christianity that can be grasped by human reason and human intellect. That leaves us with one final question: Is it reasonable - on those matters that God teaches us which transcend our ability to understand by science or our intellect to have faith in the promises of God? Next week we will conclude these studies with that singularly important question that even in an age of science and progress Faith and reason are not opposed to each other. If you are still with me, after next week, I will then invite you to examine the specific claims of Christianity as it concerns faith and God s plan for your life. HANDOUT Further reading on the reliability of the Bible. 78 SEEKER SMALL GROUPS ST. PAUL EVANGELIZATION MINISTRIES