Can I Trust My Bible

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Can I Trust My Bible?
2
It Stands As Its Own Witness

• Its Unique Nature And Character
• Unity in diversity Written over 1500 years by
  over 40 men in different countries
• The perfect fulfillment of prophecy
• It is unified in a perfect standard of morality
• One theme! Gods Plan For Redeeming Mankind
  (Is. 469-10) - His-Story
• Harmonizes with every scientific fact, geology,
  and archaeological discoveries

3
It Stands As Its Own Witness

• Its Claim For Inspiration
• Inspired God-Breathed (2 Tim. 316-17)
• Not from mans mind! (2 Peter 119-21)
• Sets it apart from all over books,
  collections, and mythology!
• Passes The Test Of Time
• Will never fade away! (Mark 1331 I Pet.
  122-25)
• If God has given man His will to be followed,
  surely God will preserve it! (2 Kings 11)

4
The Old Testament Scriptures

• The Meticulous Work Of Scribes
• Specially trained in writing, the law, were
  given task of guarding the text (Ez. 76)
• Scribes took great care to preserve the sanctity
  of the text and be exact
• Rose to a prominent place (Luke 2310)
• From the Jewish standpoint any manuscript
  that had been carefully copied and carefully
  checked with an authentic examplar was as
  accurate as any other copy (Lightfoot)

5
The Old Testament Scriptures

• When putting the books together did they get it
  right?
• A cannon was established (John 738 Mt.
  2142 Rom. 12 2 Tim 315)
• Jesus testimony (Luke 2444 Mt. 2335)
• Josephus shows 22 books - They are the same as
  our 39, just divided differently!
• Scrolls discovered confirm these books and
  their contents (Dead Sea Scrolls)

6
The Old Testament Scriptures

• What about the Apocryphal Books?
• Found in the Catholic Bibles
• Neither Jesus nor any other NT writer quotes
  from these books or acknowledges them
• They dont have same nature as the books we
  know are inspired - Often have errors!
• Written during the intertestamental period
  when God is silent! (Amos 811)
• They hold some historical value but no value to
  one looking for Gods inspired word!

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The New Testament Scriptures

• The Need For Manuscripts
• Initially the gospel was in the form of verbal
  and written letters (Col 417)
• A time when the complete revelation would
  come! (I Cor. 139-12)
• A need for written accounts (John 2030-31)
• Manuscripts Word for word copies of the
  originals in the original tongue
• Koine Greek A dead language! Unchanged! We
  can know exactly what was meant!

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The New Testament Scriptures

• The Need For Manuscripts
• We have a multitude of manuscripts to go by!
• Excess of 5,300!
• As early as 125 AD!
• Three Crucial Manuscripts
• The Vatican Manuscripts (350 AD)
• The Sinaitic Manuscripts (350 AD)
• The Alexandrain Manuscripts (400s AD)
• The discovery of new manuscripts never changes
  what we know, only reaffirms it!

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The New Testament Scriptures

• The Restoration Of The Original Text
• Restored by taking many manuscripts,
  comparing, and putting them together
• There are some variations, but they are only
  minor variations and easily explained
• When differences are found, great care is taken
  to make sure the right reading is used!
• Apocryphal books were written later and do not
  share characteristics of inspiration
• We can be certain that the Greek text we have is
  just like the letters originally written!

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Conclusion

• The Bible is the inspired word of God, His will
  revealed to man
• He has seen to it that His words have been
  preserved for us to follow!
• We can trust our Bibles!