https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Arguments-Against-the-Bible.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n\tText: I Peter 1:22-25<\/p>\n
<\/p>\nI. The arguments have not changed much over the years. Same given today as hundreds of\nyears ago.\n
II. All or Nothing<\/p>\n
A. Do we have to insist on total infallibility of the Scriptures?<\/p>\n
B. Some fear that one error would overthrow all of Christianity.<\/p>\n C. However, if the writers of the Bible were wrong on one point, how do you know\nthey did not error on some other point?\n
D. The Bible insists on inerrancy. <\/p>\n
1. It comes from God – II Timothy 3:16<\/p>\n
2. God cannot lie – Numbers 23:19<\/p>\n E. The Bible can only be proven false if God has lied about his word. However, God\nis always true – Romans 3:4\n
F. We should never be fearful of defending the Bible<\/p>\n
III. Non-Essential Details<\/p>\n
A. Does inspiration guarantee that “non-essential” details (trivialities) are accurate?<\/p>\n
B. How can we as fallible men determine what is trivial and non-essential?<\/p>\n 1. What superficially appears to be trivial may, upon deeper reflection, be a\nrich depository of truth.\n 2. For example, Paul’s request to bring his cloak in II Timothy 4:13. Surely,\nthese things cannot be inspired!\n
a. Why did Paul leave his cloak in Troas?<\/p>\n
(1) Was he forced to flee and had no time to pick it up?<\/p>\n (2) Perhaps this indicates that Paul continued to be persecuted\nin his later years.\n
b. Think of Paul’s sacrificial poverty.<\/p>\n (1) Paul was willing to spend and be spent for the cause of\nChrist – II Corinthians 12:15\n (2) Winter is coming and Paul’s one cloak is hundreds of miles\naway.\n (3) Paul was not stranger to cold and nakedness – II Corinthians\n11:27\n
c. What happened to the saints in Rome?<\/p>\n (1) They had originally welcomed Paul enthusiastically,\nrushing out to meet him as he approached Rome – Acts\n28:15\n
(2) Had many of them been scattered in the persecutions?<\/p>\n
(3) Had some of them turned against Paul? – Philippians 1:15-17<\/p>\n (4) During Paul’s first trial, no one stood up for him in defense\n– II Timothy 4:16\n (5) During the second time in Rome, only Luke was with him –\nII Timothy 4:11\n
(6) Perhaps the saints love had grown cold – Matthew 24:12<\/p>\n
d. Notice Paul’s fortitude<\/p>\n (1) No word of complaint. No whimpering. No brow-beating\nof neglectful brethren. No pitiful solicitation of others.\n C. Even small details in the Old Testament were considered factual and doctrinal\nteaching was based on them. \n 1. Example: The “s” on “seeds” in God’s promise to Abraham – Galatians\n3:16\n
2. Example: The “minor” event occurring to Lot’s wife – Luke 17:32<\/p>\n
D. All Scripture is for our learning – Romans. 15:4<\/p>\n
E. The Bible must be accepted as a whole<\/p>\n
IV. The Accuracy of Its Contents<\/p>\n A. The typical argument is that the Bible cannot be true because it got some\nhistorical details wrong\n
B. When the Bible records an event, that event actually happened – John 17:17<\/p>\n C. Most often the arguments are based on what we don’t know. Then some discovery\nis made that shows the common accepted belief is wrong and the Bible is right. \n 1. There is so much we can cover under this point, we will spend an entire\nlesson on the point.\n
V. We don’t have the original documents<\/p>\n A. Another line of argument is that there are mistakes in the Bible, such as\nconflicting information\n B. Even though we do not have the original documents, we believe the original\ndocuments to be accurate.\n 1. Some might point out that since we have never seen the original, we\ncannot prove our point.\n
2. However, they cannot prove that there were errors in the original.<\/p>\n 3. The question is do we believe the Bible came through the working of the\nHoly Spirit? – II Peter 1:20-21\n C. For example, when did Jehoiachin begin reigning and how long did he reign? II\nKings 24:8 and II Chronicles 36:9 give two different numbers.\n 1. When dealing with dates we tend to be precise with small values and begin\nrounding as the value gets larger. \n a. We are likely to say that we moved into our new home three years\nago, instead of noting that we moved into our new home three\nyears, 2 months, 1 day, 5 hours, and 33 minutes ago. \n b. Therefore, for one account to say he ruled three months and other\nto say three months and ten days is simply a difference in what\ndegree of rounding was done in the two records.\n 2. The starting date is most likely due to a copyist error. The difference\nbetween 18 and 8 is one letter. \n a. Two old translations, the Syrian and Arabic have 18 in both\naccounts.\n
3. Another possible explanation is that many kings trained their successors. <\/p>\n a. David did this with Solomon to prevent contentions over who\nwould succeed him to the throne, and it became a common practice\namong his heirs. \n b. It is possible that Jehoiachin began a co-regency with his father,\nstarting at the age of eight, and became the sole king at the age of\n18. But he only reigned three months and 10 days.\n c. However, eight would be an unusally young age to start a\nco-regency, so I don’t think this possibility is quite as likely.\n
d. Besides, he had wives – II Kings 24:15<\/p>\n 4. A final possibility comes from when you start counting years. In I Samuel\n13:1 the literal Hebrew sounds like Saul started reigning when he was one\nyear old, but likely what is being stated is that the event occured in the first\nyear of his reign. It just sounds odd to Americans because we don’t speak\nof time in that manner.\n
a. Jehoiachin’s father Jehoakim reigned for 11 years – II Kings 23:36<\/p>\n b. In the fourth year of his reign the Babylonian captivity began, when\nJehoiachin was 10 years old. – Jeremiah 25:1\n c. Thus, it is possible to say that Jehoiachin was both 18 (from his\nbirth) and 8 (from the captivity) at the same time. \n
D. Which brings up the question: Are the copies and translations unreliable?<\/p>\n
1. There have been mistakes made.<\/p>\n 2. But they have been minor and easily spotted because each copy\/translation\ndoes not make the same mistakes.\n 3. The Dead Sea scrolls showed how accurate our copies of the Old\nTestament were, even though previously our oldest copy was over 1000\nyears newer than the scrolls.\n 4. Scholars place the error rate in our Bibles at less than 0.5% and all the\nproblem areas don’t make much of difference in our understanding of the\nBible.\n
E. God promised that the scriptures would never pass away – I Peter 1:22-25<\/p>\n 1. This means God is watching over our Bibles to see that His Word is\npreserved.\n
VI. The Presence of Miracles means it is a Myth<\/p>\n A. Basically the argument is that miracles do not occur today, therefore they never\noccurred\n 1. The resurrection of Jesus could not have happened because it doesn’t\ncontinue to happen.\n B. The definition of a miracle is that it is an supernatural event, not a natural one. It\ngoes against the laws of nature.\n
1. If people commonly were resurrected, then that would be a natural event<\/p>\n
2. The real question is there evidence that the laws of nature were overridden.<\/p>\n
C. But the argument is circular<\/p>\n 1. The concept of God is a supernatural being, but they are assuming the\nsupernatural cannot exist, therefore, they start out assuming the God\ncannot exist. With that assumption, no wonder they can’t entertain the idea\nthat the Bible may be inspired.\n 2. But if God does exist, and God created the world, then it would not be a\nstretch to assume this same God can bend the rules He made when He\nwants. Thus, the starting assumption changes the resulting conclusion.\n D. Instead of ruling out the possibility before we begin, the challenge is to decide if\nthere is sufficient evidence that miracles did take place.\n 1. One of the things offered by the Bible is testimonies from eye-witnesses to\nthe miracles – you don’t find that in Greek mythologies or any other\nmythologies – I John 1:1-4\n 2. Statements by these witness in from of hostile audiences are not denied as\nto the facts.\n
3. The records are not denied when they were first written<\/p>\n
E. Hence, the presence of miracles does not instantly falsify a document<\/p>\n
VII. We could go on, but we are out of time<\/p>\n
A. What will you do with the Bible? Keep finding excuses to deny what it says?<\/p>\n
B. Or accept the reality of its truths? – John 17:17<\/p>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBiblical Infallibility\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Text: I Peter 1:22-25 I. The arguments have not changed much over the years. Same given today as hundreds of years ago. II. All or Nothing A. Do we have to insist on total infallibility of the Scriptures? B. Some fear that one error would overthrow all of Christianity. C. However, if the writers of the Bible were wrong…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[119,32],"tags":[568,37,219,225,363],"class_list":["post-26385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-audio","category-sermon","tag-accuracy-of-the-bible","tag-apologetics","tag-bible","tag-inspiration","tag-miracles"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":61914,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/biblical-infallibility\/","url_meta":{"origin":26385,"position":0},"title":"Biblical Infallibility","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 15, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Biblical Infallibility: Can We Trust the Bible? Biblical Infallibility: The Bible's Claims for Itself Biblical Infallibility: Arguments Against the Bible","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":32602,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/biblical-infallibility-the-bibles-claims-for-itself\/","url_meta":{"origin":26385,"position":1},"title":"Biblical Infallibility: The Bible’s Claims for Itself","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 4, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Deuteronomy 31:24-29 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When talking about whether we can trust the Bible or not, it may seem strange to turn to the very book we are considering. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0We want to show that it is not a optional belief. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0C.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The Bible claims to be infallible. If\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":81327,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-inspiration-of-the-bible-be-proven\/","url_meta":{"origin":26385,"position":2},"title":"Can inspiration of the Bible be proven?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 8, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I know II Timothy 3:16: \"All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.\" I had a discussion with a person who is not a member of the Church of Christ and, therefore, not a Christian. I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":61910,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/biblical-infallibility-can-we-trust-the-bible\/","url_meta":{"origin":26385,"position":3},"title":"Biblical Infallibility: Can We Trust the Bible?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 15, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Trust in the scriptures is important to every Christian. The Bible is the center of our faith. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0We are Christians because we believe that God exists and that the Bible is God's word - II Tim. 3:16 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Believing in the Bible's message will save our souls\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sermon"","block_context":{"text":"Sermon","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/sermon\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":46389,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-the-bible-fallible-because-it-was-written-in-human-languages\/","url_meta":{"origin":26385,"position":4},"title":"Is the Bible fallible because it was written in human languages?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 18, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Dear Jeffrey, I am sorry that I have to turn to you for help, but this is why I am currently studying to be a preacher because people like you and many others inspire me to be able to teach. Unfortunately, I have wasted away much of my life\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":68731,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-bible-on-roman-catholicism\/","url_meta":{"origin":26385,"position":5},"title":"The Bible on Roman Catholicism","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 4, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Zeke Flores A while back, I read a shared post by a Catholic priest. He was angered by \"a sea of stupid articles, idiotic commentary and boneheaded op-eds about the Catholic Church, by people who have no clue what they're talking about.\" He went on to rant about \"the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26385\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}