Can The Bible Be Trusted?

Last week I was the subject of a post on Alexander The Atheist blog about my comments on the Trinity. It seems that one of the biggest issues that non-believers have is that they feel the Bible can't be trusted, be true, be inerrant, or be accurate. As soon as people discredit the Bible, they can believe whatever they want to, bash Christians for their faith, and hold themselves up to be more enlightened because they don't have "blind faith" in God. My question today is why is it that the Bible is being discredited? Some would say it's full of errors, typos, editing problems, etc. and that statement is somewhat true. There are some grammatical errors and such in the copies we have today! If you are a reader of the Bible you would know this because most Bibles will "warn" you of these issues when you come to them. For example look at Mark 16:9-20. This passage should be in [brackets] since it indicates that some early manuscripts do not contain these verses. Answer this before you start saying that people have added things to the Bible we have today...does this passage contradict anything in scripture? No! Is the subject, events, stories found in other parts of the Bible? Yes! The other Gospels contain accounts of the risen Lord, the Great Commission, and The Ascension. Need more proof?

Doubter's Question: Hasn't the Bible been copied and copied over and over again? How can we trust it to be accurate today?

Answers: Yes the Bible we have today is what it is, copies of copies of copies. I believe that the Word of God is inerrant in its "autographed" original copies. As mentioned above, most scholars will conclude that there are some minor textual problems with the copies we have today. Scholars like Ravi Zacharias, R.C. Sproul, Norman Geisler, and Bruce Metzger point out that no "error" contradicts any, yes ANY theology or doctrine! This shows the infallibilty of the Bible in that what we read today is still truth. Let's get back to the whole copying issue. The Bible has more copies than any other literary work ever. There are over 5,600 early copies and manuscripts of the Greek New Testament. When compared to Homer's Iliad there are only about 650 copies. Homer wrote the Iliad around 800 B.C. and the earliest copies we have date from the 2nd and 3rd century A.D. That's a long time. How come there isn't such a big stink over the copying of the Iliad? What's the earliest manuscript we have of the Bible? We have parts of John's Gospel that date from A.D. 100-150! This is not very long after the life of Christ! In addition to the Greek copies, there are about 8,000 Latin Vulgate translation, copies in Ethiopic, Slavic, and Armenian. The total amount of copies is about 24,000 in existence. This is overwhelming when you compare the Bible to other ancient writings. Since the Bible has more copies of copies than any other writing...what's the problem? If anything else this helps support the Bible's accuracy. For those who have made the claim that the Bible is inaccurate...please tell me which part. I'd be glad to discuss those parts here with you.

An Atheist's View on Mormonism

A.C. from Alexander The Atheist blog has an interesting post about how he compares Mormonism and Christianity. It would be worth your time to check it out. Why give an Atheist any shout-outs from a Christian blog? Well, I might be doing more of it in the future because it only strengthens my desire to learn about my faith and apologetics. I have now also added a new Non-Christian link list I will update in the future. I respect A.C. very much, please do not go to his site (or any others) and bash what they believe in because that is not what we should be about and it only gives them more fuel to the fire. View the site by clicking here.

A Little Rain or Global Destruction?

Was The Genesis Flood Universal?

Absolutely!!! How? Why?

Here are some points to consider why it wasn't a local flood:
1. The Need for an Ark - If the flood was local, there would be no need for an ark at all. Noah could have just walked away from the area to be destroyed.
2. The Size of the Ark - Why was is so big if it would only need to withstand a localized flood?
3. Why bother with animals? - No need to save animals that would be living in another part of the world already! The Bible says that birds were collected also, showing the global flood proof.
4. Mountains - A local flood could not raise waters 20 feet above the mountains...the water would spread out not up! How is it that they have found marine fossils on Mt. Everest?
5. God promised no more floods to destroy earth- If this is so why do we have Katrina like floods, Mississippi River Floods a few years ago...The promise was that of a universal flood, not local flooding.

Just some points to ponder...coming up, some objections to the Global Flood belief.

Morgan Freeman Does A Good God

I watched the movie Evan Almighty the other day and really enjoyed it. Bruce Almighty was very funny too. For some reason I think they (holloywood) did a good job in picking Morgan Freeman as God. Evan Almighty had a few non-biblical additions to the story but that was expected. The reason I am writing about this is not to say that God looks like Freeman or that Christians should watch these movies for deep spiritual insight, but I want to get back into some theology\Apologetics postings about the creation and flood accounts in Genesis.

The Flood...How did Noah get all the animals of the world into an ark?

Doubters' Question Mark:

1. Too many animals for one man and family to gather, take care of, and house on the ark.

An Answer:

1. Unlike Evan Almighty, the Bible did not say two of every animal in the world...it says two of each "kind" of animal, bird, creature that crawls on the earth (Genesis 6:19-20). This word "kind" refers to the classification system we use today to identify animals. It is possible that Noah only had to bring two dogs, two cats, two cows, tow hippos, etc. Noah didn't have to bring two golden retrievers, two labs, two bulldogs, etc. because we know that through breeding these different "types" are made available. So, Noah did have a bunch of animals, but not as many as normally thought.

2. About the gathering of animals...Noah didn't have to go and find them...God said He'd bring them to Noah! (Genesis 6:20). This was one thing the movie got right! It was rather comical to see all the animals follow Evan (Noah) to work!

Coming Up...Was the Flood Universal or Local?

Aren't All AddictionsThe Same?

My Addiction is Coffee...ooohhhh I'm a minister that is an addict! Why am I not being scolded at church for visibly guzzling half a pot of joe each morning? Church has warped their theologies into believing that some addictions are more evil than others. An addiction to caffeine or chocolate is no worse to God than Alcohol or even Sexual addictions! The addiction wagon rolls through my life each day as it does with everyone. I have a hard time hearing people in my church or even abroad that judge alcoholics, drug addicts, smokers, people dealing with pornography, etc. when they battle with addictions too. Sin is sin, anything that devotes our time, health, or money from being Christ-Centered is an addiction. Are there good addictions? Absolutely! We should be more addicted to Scripture, Prayer, and meditation on God than any substance on earth. Can some addictions be good and usefull for God? Yes! drinking coffee and conversing with strangers at a coffee shop like I'm doing right now as I got this idea for this post at Java Moon can be a wonderful tool for God. What are your addictions? How can you use them for good?

Marrying Your Sister?

Who did Cain marry? Did Cain marry his sister? Why are these questions relevant to our daily life?

I like to ask questions that aren't normally raised to get you to think about what and why you believe the Bible and God. This question has been raised by sceptics of the authenticity of the Bible saying that Leviticus 18-20 states that it is unlawful that anyone should marry his sister. If Cain married his sister...this contradicts God's law and so the Bible is not true! Wrong!!!
Many Christians try to explain that there might have been another race of created people but this is contradicting to the truth that we are all descendants of Adam (Gen 2:7, 1 Cor. 15:21-22). The truth is that yes, Cain DID marry a sister! It is not clear which one or exactly when the marriage was but it is true. Adam and Eve had a total of 33 sons and 23 daughters! for the human race to survive they needed to marry their own relatives and reproduce. When you think about it, we are all brothers and sisters, we are all from "one blood"
So what about that law? My answer to people who raise such a stupid question is get your timeline straight! The law of Moses wasn't written yet during the period of creation and the fall. Abraham even married his half-sister Sarah (Gen. 20:12) and God blessed his life and made the covenant that a great nation will rise from his seed! The laws were not given until about 400 years later with Moses.
So when you hear someone discrediting the Bible as truth because of issues like this...don't try to make up some answer to fit, read the Bible, study the history, and find the truth. "always be ready to give an answer to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope in you" 1 Peter 3:15