Khalil’s life is Changed

Khalil of Egypt – True life experience on encounter with Jesus in a vision

Khalil started memorizing the Qur’an at a very early age and developed what he called a love for the word of Allah. Upon reading an article in the Cairo newspaper about Christians arrested in Egypt for proselytizing, Khalil and his group decided that it was “past time” to do something for the sake of Islam. Given their small numbers, however, they decided their battle would be an intellectual one, researching and writing a book proving that Mohammed is the True Prophet of God, and that the Bible of the Christians and Jews is a corrupted text. He was chosen by his Emir, the leader of the Islamic Group, to do the research and write the book. He objected strenuously at first, but eventually took on the job, which he described as the “most distasteful thing” he had ever done.

When he had completed reading the Bible and cross-referencing what he had read with numerous Islamic books, Khalil was astonished to discover the truth. Watch the movie and find out the answer.

Arab Spring

Copt Cross

Oh,  I love the tool someone created here showing a timeline of the Arab Spring that started early 2011.

AND, except for 1 man burning himself alive in Tunisia, it was Egyptian Coptic Christians whose protest against their brothers and sisters being killed by a bombing, that started the whole movement.  So, the Muslim brotherhood cannot take credit, with all respect, it was well, we could say, al Queda, who started it by doing the bombing but the Christians protested the lack of security allowing the bombing inside an Egyptian Copt church.

 

Egypt bomb kills new year churchgoers

At least 21 dead and more than 70 injured after bomb explodes outside Coptic church in Alexandria

Related articles (not sanctioned by this blog)

• Women’s rights advocates gather to ensure they aren’t sidelined in ‘Arab Spring’ (moroccotomorrow.org)
• the Arab Spring (politics.ie)
• Egyptian Christians in Crisis (logoschristiancenter.wordpress.com)

Where do I go?

You want to go here first.

What does Tat have to say about The Qur’an

Tat,

I wanted to know how you think about jihad because that concept is unique to Islam. There is no equivalent among followers of Jesus and I really don’t think there is among Jews though in those days there were conquests and they, the Jews were conquered many times in their history.

You asked me to read the Qur’an. I have already read much of the Qur’an. I have been reading it for the last two years. I have about 4 copies of it in different translations right here. As I said in my Authenticity of the Bible for Muslims series, it reads very differently from the Greek and Hebrew scriptures.

There are many great admonitions in there. The call to holiness is fantastic. Muslims live clean and upright and are to be commended for that. Yet, I am baffled by the seeming contorted concept of sin;in that, it is not a sin if only committed in the heart or if not discovered by an authority as sin.

True Christians have a very explicit understanding of sin. Sins are both acts and thoughts. but that is a subject for another day.

I don’t think you received a good understanding of the person of Jesus. He is wonderful, He is Savior, He is Lord and deserves worship because, unlike the claims of so many today, he is the God-Man. He is not just humanity. He took on flesh but existed eternally with the Father and Spirit. Also He is the bestower of grace with a capital G. One cannot understand the grace of God apart from Him.

The journey with Jesus starts at His cross. He did go there–well documented–biblical and secular. And as John Yoder says, “…at the cross is the man who loves his enemies, the man whose righteousness is greater than that of the Pharisees, who being rich became poor, who gives his robe to those who took his cloak, who prays for those who despitefully use him.” He as a suffering servant was an example for all of humanity whether considered a prophet or not, Ah, but he is so much more.

In addition to the Hebrew and Greek, I love Biblical archaeology. Did you know that no archaeological discovery has ever brought into question any history of civilizations in the Bible?

I took on the study of Biblical archaeology to show to myself that the writing of the Hebrew and Greek scriptures are accurate. They have proved themselves over and over. I’ve also pursued the historical Jesus and researched and evaluated His claims. I would not say that I am through with any of these because archaeological discoveries are being made every day. But, based on what I have studied thus far, I have found the Bible(Hebrew and Greek) to be absolutely reliable. Jesus has proven Himself over and over, in my own life, my wife’s life and in hundreds of people around me.

I have been a follower of Jesus a long time but Jay, a new friend of mine, has not. He came to our church with his fiance. He told me that when he first came he was floored–”these people are all fake, they can’t be as happy as they appear or claim to be.” Today, Jay follows Jesus, has real joy, and he understands what all these people around him understood before.

So, just like Jay, a person must submist to and come to know Jesus as the Lord God and the Savior from sin. It is impossible to know the joy that He gives without knowing him in this way. AND, how to know Him is described in detail in the New Testament.

Following Jesus is liberating and freeing. There is no law to follow, there is only grace from Him which then gives the motivation to willingly obey Him. Law is easy, grace is difficult. Law is binding, while grace is liberating. It is not an easy life but it has been and will continue to be so rewarding. I don’t assume that other people have an unrewarding or unfulfilling life–no. But, since I worship, serve and submit to The God, I feel my life is the best one I could have been given or ever lived. Jesus said that He is the giver of life. He has certainly given richly to me and I am not disappointed.

I hope you can say something similar about your submission to Allah.

Have a great day!

God has a Plan, God’s Provision is a Person

God’s Provision is a Person

Principle 5: The solution is not just the Cross but a divine person, Isa, who was anointed by the Holy Spirit and called the Word of God.

Exactly who was—and is—Jesus, the Christ (Isa)? I understand what Muhammad was trying to counter in his day. But based on the best research available today, the Jewish/Christian concepts of God in Saudi Arabia in Muhammad’s day differed greatly from what is presented in the Towrah and Injeel. Realize that there was not a translation of either Towrah or Injeel in Arabic at the time of Muhammad (MHRIP). (Allah, Allat and Ba’al (Lord) or son—separate vid)

Let’s look at what is revealed in the Bible and the Qur’an about Jesus. Both say Isa is the Word of God, who is anointed and aided by the Holy Spirit.

It’s interesting—and very logical –that God’s provision is not a philosophical or a religious idea, not a list of rules to follow or a way of life. It’s a person.

Towrah

Isaiah 61:1—The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor…to proclaim freedom for the captives.

Here the prophet Isaiah talks about the coming Christ, or Messiah. Isaiah prophesied that the Messiah would come to proclaim freedom to the captives.

Zabur

Psalm107:20—He sent forth his word and healed them; he rescued them from the grave.

God sent Christ—the Word—to the world to heal us from sin and so deliver us from sin’s destruction.

Injeel

John 1:1, 14—In the beginning was the Word, and the Ward was with God, and the Word was God…The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only…full of grace and truth.

God’s Word was with Him for all eternity. After all, He was always able to speak. He sent this Word to us as a flesh-and-blood person to save us from our sins.

Qur’an

House of Imran 3:45—When the angels said, “Mary, God gives thee good tidings of a Word from Him whose name is Messiah, Isa, son of Mary; high honored shall he be in this world and the next, near stationed to God.”

Christ is the Word of God. He was highly honored when He was in this world and that now He is in the closest possible position with God, or, as the Injeel puts it, “at the right hand of God” (Hebrews 10:12).

Gabriel came to the Virgin Mary to tell her she would bear God’s Word, Christ. What other prophet has ever been born of a virgin? Pause. Chits is holy, He was placed on this earth in a holy fashion. It was foretold by God in the Towrah (Genesis 3:15) immediately after Adam and Eve’s disobedience. God said the seed of the woman—not the seed of the man—shall crush Satan’s head.

When a word is uttered by God, it has not been severed from God. In this case we are talking about the Word of God. There is something extremely unique about Christ. As a “word,” He is an embodiment of what God wants to communicate to us. As an eternal person, He is now right next to God, never apart from God, and thus a part of God.

A man once asked his friend, “Which came first: God or His Word?” “God obviously came first,” said his friend. “Oh, was God dumb at the beginning and unable to speak?” “No, He could speak,” the friend insisted.

“Of course, because God is perfect. So at no time was He unable to speak and be without His Word. So Christ, the Word of God, has always been with God.”

(I know it is difficult for you to believe that Christ, who came in the flesh to our world, is the same God as the one God. This is because theologians who were commentators of the Qur’an legitimately hated the idols that were worshiped along with God (Allah) many centuries ago. As a result, they fell in the trap of building their theology on the doctrine that God is a monolith who cannot be explained or defined because nothing is like Him. In this way they present God as unfree, unable to do what He wants or to appear to His creatures in the form He chooses.)

Let’s continue by plowing through some verses that speak to who Christ is.

Towrah Micah 3:8—AS for me (the Messiah), I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the LORD, and with justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression, to Israel his sin.

Zabur Psalm 139:7—Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?

Injeel Revelation 19:13—He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God.

Acts 20:28—“Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God which he bought with his own blood.”

Here we see that God purchased believers with His own blood. Can God bleed? That shows the oneness of God, His Word, and His Spirit.

Qur’an Cow 2:87—We (God) gave Isa son of Mary the clear sings (miracles and God’s words), and confirmed (sustained) him with the Holy Spirit.

In other words, God gave Jesus His words and sustained Him always with His Holy Spirit.

If you have questions or you want to comment you can get me at jpound777@yahoo.com

Video: God Has a Plan for You — Part 5

God has a Plan-Making Him Ours

Making Him Ours

After we realize the wonder and the power of God’s gift of Himself to us, our minds are boggled. We respond by asking ourselves, “what then should we do? How can this salvation from God become truly ours?” The answer is found in Principle 6: We must invite Jesus(Isa) the Christ and our substitute, to live in our hearts and be the master of our lives.

Here are passages which explain this concept.

Towrah Jeremiah 24:7—“I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the LORD. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart.”

Zabur 13:5—I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation.

Injeel Revelation 3:20—“Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.”

Qur’an Thunder 13:27-29—“He (God) guides to Him all who are penitent.” Those who believe, their hearts being at rest in God’s remembrance (that is, when you think of God, trust Him and surrender to Him)—in God’s remembrance are at rest the hearts of those who believe and do righteous deeds, theirs is blessedness and a fair resort (a good end).

What good news!!! God will guide the repentant. Imagine that—repenting and believing will lead our hearts to be at rest. We should obey God and receive by faith the Person—Isa the Christ—whom He has appointed as Savior, Redeemer, and Mediator, both in this world and in the world to come.

Ask those to seek Him. You can pray to Him, repenting of your sin and asking Him to forgive you.

A man wanted to climb to a high mountain peak. He brought all the necessary equipment and hired a seasoned guide to show him the way. As they started, conditions were perfect. They stopped for a light lunch, then stated off again. The small path that they were following soon disappeared. Rugged cliffs loomed everywhere.

Suddenly they came to a deep gorge. The guide approached the edge and examined it. He found a sturdy rock and, after testing it, jumped from it to the other side. The other man wanted to follow him, but every time he got ready, his fear of falling to his death kept him from jumping.

So, the guide tied himself to a rock, planted his feet firmly I the ground, and stretched his arm out toward the man. He told him to hold on to his hand tightly and then jump. The man still hesitated in fear. The guide looked him right in the eye and said, “Sir, this hand has helped many climbers across this very passage, and it hasn’t failed a single one. Trust in it and jump over!”

That climber jumped. All at once, there he was on the other side, safe and full of joy that he was on his way again to the top of the mountain.

We, also, are on the path to a very high summit, leading us to the peace of God and His eternal life. We have to reckon with the question of whether we are refusing or hesitating to trust ourselves to His divine hand to help us. We need to trust in that hand, wounded for us on the Cross, letting Him save us. Ask your friend who the guide represents. The following verses in the Bible and Qur’an speak of our desperate need to risk reaching out for the steady, reliable hand of God, which is already reaching out to us.

Ezekiel 18:31-32—“Rid yourselves of all the offenses you have committed, and get a new heart and a new spirit. Why will you die?…For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign LORD. Repent and live!”

Zabur 119:145, 149—I call with all my heart, answer me, O LORD….Hear my voice in accordance with your love; preserve my life, O LORD, according to your laws.

Zabur 28:7—The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in Him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy.

Injeel Romans 10:10—It is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.

Hebrews 10:22-23—Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience….Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.

Qur’an Disputer 58:22—He (God) has written faith upon their hearts, and He has confirmed them with a Spirit from Himself.

God is the only one who gives faith. If He doesn’t, we will never have it. The Qur’an does not even mention good works here. When a man receives Christ in faith, God puts the Holy Spirit in him. That is the meaning of “He has confirmed them with a Spirit from Himself.”

Mutual Fraud 64:11—Whosoever believes in God, He will guide his heart. And God has knowledge of everything. In other words, God will guide whoever believes in Him.

Women 4:110—Whosoever does evil, or wrongs himself, and then prays God’s forgiveness, he shall find God is All-forgiving, All-compassionate.

It is obvious in this verse that God will not cast anyone outside who comes to Him in repentance.

If you have a question or comment, you may get me at jpound777@yahoo.com.

Is Jesus God?

There are so many ways to approach this and I just simply had to choose one because we only have a few minutes to devote. I spent some of  this summer looking at apologetic topics that I believe will help our faith grow. Some of these do help as we attempt to relate the Gospel to others.

Introduction

Why would God become a man? One reason would be to communicate with us more effectively.

Throughout human history, God has used numerous means of communication to reach humankind with His message.

He lastly sent God, the Son into the world. The opening verses of the book of Hebrews state, “God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers. By the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son” Heb 1:1, 2.

John:

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him” John 1: 14, 18

The prophets gave us God’s words. But Jesus is THE Word of God in human form revealing God to us in person, not just in verbal statements. He is God Himself in a form we could touch, hear, and see. Jesus brought God to our level and lifted us up with Him in the process.

Not only did God want to communicate with us, He wanted to demonstrate to us just how much He loves us. For God so loved the world, Jesus said, that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved John 3:16, 17

Revelation 19:13 He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God.

His made an utterly unique entrance into Human History

Mohammed, Confucius, Buddha, and all other human beings were conceived by natural means:   a male human sperm fertilizing a female human egg. Not so with Jesus Christ. His mother conceived Him while she was yet a virgin.  He had no paternal father.  The virgin conception and birth of Christ is utterly unique in human history.

Biblical Testimony for the Virgin Birth

The OT predicted the Messiah’s unusual conception hundreds of years before Matthew and Luke ever wrote their Gospels.

Isaiah 7:14 and Genesis 3:15

I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.   Genesis 3:15

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.   Isaiah 7:14

1. If God became a man, we would expect Him to be without Sin

a. Jesus’s View of Himself

To a hostile crowd:

“Which of you convicts Me of sin?” John 8:46 He got no answer. Though He invited scrutiny, no one could accuse him of anything. He was innocent. He could encourage this public examination because He was without sin.

John 8:29: “I always do those things that please Him.” He was in unbroken communion with His Father in heaven.

Did God become a Man? Another quality which has often been remarked was the absence of any sense of having committed sin or of a basic corruption of Himself…It is highly significant that in one as sensitive morally as was Jesus and who taught His followers to ask for the forgiveness of their sins there is no hint of any need for forgiveness for Himself, no asking of pardon, either from those about Him or of God.  Kenneth Scott Latourette, Historian, A History or Christianity, 47

The best reason to consider Him sinless: “is the fact that He allowed His dearest friends to think that He was (sinless). There is in all His talk no trace of regret or hint of compunction or suggestion of sorrow for shortcoming, or slightest vestige of remorse. He taught other men to think of themselves as sinners, He asserted plainly that the human heart is evil, He told His disciples that every time they prayed they were to pray to be forgiven, but He never speaks or acts as though He himself has the faintest consciousness of having ever done anything other than what was pleasing to God.   Charles Edward Jefferson, The Character of Jesus, 225

Another quality which has often been remarked was the absence of any sense of having committed sin or of a basic corruption of Himself…It is highly significant that in one as sensitive morally as was Jesus and who taught His followers to ask for the forgiveness of their sins there is no hint of any need for forgiveness for Himself, no asking of pardon, either from those about Him or of God.   Kenneth Scott Latourette, Historian, A History or Christianity, 47

2. The Witness of His Friends

Jesus’ closest associates, Peter and John, attest to His being without sin:

1 Peter 1:19: “but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.”

1 Peter 2:33: “Who committed no sin, nor was guile found in His mouth.”

1 John 3:5: “And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin.”

While saying this, John also declared that anyone who declares himself to be without sin, he is a liar and he is calling God a liar also!!!

Even Judas—the one responsible for Jesus’ death—recognized Jesus’ innocence. “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood” Mt 27:3,4

Hebrews 4:15: “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin”

3. The Witness of His Enemies

One thief rebuked the other: This Man has done nothing wrong.” Luke 23:41

Pilate also found Jesus innocent of wrong-doing “You have brought this Man to me, as one who misleads the people. And indeed, having examined Him in your presence, I have found no fault in this Man concerning those things of which you accuse Him” Luke 23:14

The Roman centurion at the cross of Jesus: “Certainly this man was innocent” Luke 23:47

If God became a man, He would perform miracles

1. The Scriptural Witness

Jesus said, Go and tell John the things you have seen and heard: the blink see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the gospel preached to them Luke 7:22.

Jesus miracles demonstrated a great variety of power:

Power over nature

Power over disease,

Power over demons,

Powers of creation

Power over death

His demonstration of power also fulfilled prophecy and pointed to Him as the Messiah predicted in Hebrew Scriptures.

Miracles of Physical Healing

Leperosy Matthew 8:2-4; Mark 1:40-45; Luke 5:12-15;

Paralytic Matthew 9:2-8; Mark 2:3-12; Luke 5:18-26;

Peter’s mother-in-law Matthew 8:14-17; Mark 1:29-31;

A nobleman’s son John 4:46-53; John 5:1-9;

A withered hand Matthew 12:9-13; Mark 3:1-6; Luke 6:6-11;

Deafness and dumbness Mark 7:31-37;

Blindness Mark 8:22-25; John 9; Mark 10:46-52;

Ten lepers Luke 17:11-19;

Malchus’s severed ear Luke 22: 47-51

Hemorrhage Matthew 9:20-22

Dropsy Luke 14:24

Miracles of the Natural Realm

Water converted to wine at Cana John 2:1-11

Stilling a storm Matthew 8:23-27

Supernatural catch of fish Luke 5:1-11

Multiplying food

5000 fed Matthew 14:15-21

4000 fed Matthew 15:32-39

Walking on water matthew 14:22,23

Money from a fish Matthew 17:24-27

Fig tree dried up Matthew 21:18-22

Miracles of Raising the Dead

Jairus’s daughter Matthew 9:18-26

Widow’s son Luke 7:11-15

Lazarus of Bethany John 11:1-4

Comments on His Maracles

All His miracles are but natural manifestations of His person, and hence they were performed with the same ease with which we perform our ordinary daily works. PC, 76-77 “His miracles were, without exception, prompted by the purest motives and aimed at the glory of God and the benefit of men; they are miracles of love and mercy, full of instruction and significance and in harmony with His character and mission. Philip Schaff, The Person of Christ, 91

Bernard Ramm:

If miracles are capable of sensory perception, they can be made matters of testimony. If they are adequately testified to, then the recorded testimony has the same validity for evidence as the experiences of beholding the events. !!!!

Here is what Bernard Ramm observes on Lazarus’s resurrection:

If the raising of Lazarus was actually witnessed by John and recorded faithfully by him when still in soundness of faculties and memory, for purposes of evidence it is the same as if we (who read John’s account) were there and saw it. Bernard Ramm, PhD, Protestant Christian Evidences, 140-141

If God became a man, then we would expect him to live more perfectly than any human who has ever lived.

Jesus’ Friends:

His life was holy; His word was true; His who character was the embodiment of truth. There never has been a more real or genuine man than Jesus of Nazareth.   W. H.  Griffith Thomas, Christianity Is Christ, 11

Carnegie Simpson wrote:

Instinctively we do not class Him with others. When one reads His name in a list beginning with Confucius and ending with Goethe we feel it is an offense less against orthodozy than against decency. Jesus is not one of the group of the world’s great. Talk about Alexander the Great and Charles the Great and Napoleon the Great if you will…Jesus is apart. He is not the Great; He is the Only. He is simply Jesus. Nothing could add to that…He is beyond our analyses. He confounds our canons of human nature. He compels our criticism to overleap itself. He awes our spirits. There is a saying of Charles Lamb … that “If Shakespeare was to come into this room we should all rise up to meet him, but if that Person (ie, Jesus) was to come into it, we should all fall down and try to kiss the hem of his garment
Quoted by John Stott, Basic Christianity, 36

Jesus was the most Jewish of Jews; even more Jewish than Hillel.     Yosef Klausner, Jewish intellectual & scholar of Jewish religion and history, Yeschu Hanostri, 1249

It is universally admitted…that Christ taught the purest and sublimest system of ethics, one which throws the moral precepts and maxims of the wisest men of antiquity far into the shade.  Philip Schaff, The Person of Christ, 44

Only a Christ could have conceived a Christ
Joseph Parker in Ecce Deus, from Martin, CC, 57

Napoleon Boneparte:

I know men and I tell you that Jesus Christ is no mere man. Between Him and every other person in the world there is no possible term of comparison. Alexander, Ceasar, Charlemagne, and I have founded empires. But on what did we reast the creatsion of our enius? Upon force. Jesus Christ founded His empire upon love; and at this hour millions of men would die for Him.   Frank Mead, Encyclopedia of Religious Quotations, 56

Antagonists to the cause of Christ:

I esteem the Gospels to be thoroughly genuine, for there shines forth from them the reflected splendour of a sublimity, proceeding from the person of Jesus Christ and of as Divine a kind as was ever manifested upon earth.
Frank Ballard, The Miracles of Unbelief, 251

He was too great for his disciples. And in view of what he plainly said, is it any wonder that all who were rich and prosperous felt a horror of strange things, a swimming of their world at his teaching? Perhaps the priests and the rulers and the rich men understood him better than his followers. He was dragging out all the little private reservations they had made from social service into the light of a universal religious life. He was like some terrible moral huntsman digging manking out of the snug burrow in which they had lived hitherto. In the white blaze of this kingdom of his there was to be no property, no privilege, no pride and precendence; no motive indeed and no reward but love. Is it any wonder that men were dazzled and blinded and cried out against him? Even his disciples cried out when he would not spare them the light. Is it any wonder that the priests realized that between this man and themselves there was no choice but that he or priestcraft should perish? Is it any wonder that the Roman soldiers, confronted and amazed by something soaring over their comprehension and threatening all their disciplines, should take refuge in wild laughter, and crown him with thorns and robe him in purple and make a mock Caesar of him? For to take him seriously was to enter upon a strange and alarming life, to abandon habits, to control instincts and impulses, to essay an incredible happiness… Is it any wonder that to this day this Galilean is too much for our small hearts?” — H.G. Wells, The Outline of History, 535-536

It’s an interesting thing to be convicted of Christ by an atheist.

If God became a man, then certainly He would speak the greatest words ever spoken

Jesus said about his own words, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will by no means pass away” Luke 21:33

It was common for the crowds who heard Him to be “astonished at His teaching” Luke 4:32. Even a Roman officer exclaimed, “No one ever spoke like this Man!” John 7:46

Statistically speaking, the Gospels are the greatest literature ever written. They are read by more people, quoted by more authors, translated into more tongues, represented in more art, set to more music, than any other book or books written by any man in any century in any land. But the words of Christ are not great on the grounds that they have such a statistical edge over any body else’s words. They are read more, quoted more, loved more, believed more, and translated more because they are the greatest words ever spoken. And where is their greatness? Their greatness lies in the pure, lucid spirituality in dealing clearly, definitively, and authoritatively with the greatest problems that throb in the human breast; namely, Who is God? Does He love me? What should I do to please Him? How does He look at my sin? How can I be forgiven? Where will I go when I die? How must I treat others? No other man’s words have the appeal of Jesus’ words because no other man can answer these fundamental human questions as Jesus answered them. They are the kind of words and the kind of answers we would expect God to give, and we who believe in Jesus’ deity have no problem as to why these words came from His mouth.
Bernard Ramm, Protestant Christian Evidences, 170-171

Napoleon:

Never did the Speaker seem to stand more utterly alone than when He uttered this majestic utterance. Never did it seem more improbable that it should be fulfilled. But as we look across the centuries we see how it has been realized. His words have passed into law, they have passed into doctrines, they have passed into proverbs, they have passed into consolations, but they have never ‘passed away.’ What human teacher ever dared to claim an eternity for his words?   G. F. Maclean, Cambridge Bible for Schools, 149

Though without formal rabbinical training, He showed no timidity or self-consciousness, no hesitation as to what He felt to be truth. Without any thought of Himself or His audience, He spoke out fearlessly on every occasion, utterly heedless of the consequences to Himself, and only concerned for truth and the delivery of His Father’s message. The power of His teaching was also deeply felt. “His word was with power” Luke 4:32. The spiritual force of His personality expressed itself in His utterances and held His hearers in its enthralling grasp. And so we are not surprised to read of the impression of uniqueness made by Him. “Never man spoke like this man” John 7:46. The simplicity and charm and yet the depth, the directness, the universality, and the truth of His teaching made a deep mark on His hearers, and elicited the conviction that they were in the presence of a Teacher such as man had never known before. And thus the large proportion of teaching in the Gospels, and the impressions evidently created by the Teacher Himself, are such that we are not at all surprised that years afterward the great Apostle of the Gentiles should recall these things and say, “Remember the words of the Lord Jesus” Acts 20:35. The same impression has been made in every age since the days of Christ and His immediate followers, and in any full consideration of His person as the substance of Christianity great attention must necessarily be paid to His teaching. W. H. Griffith Thomas, Christianity Is Christ, 32

If God became a man, then we would expect Him to have a lasting and universal influence

The person of Jesus Christ has made such an impact on humanity that even after two thousand years the impact has not worn off. Each day, there are persons who have revolutionary experiences with Jesus.

I love what Philip Schaff has to say about Jesus’ influence.

Born in a manger, and crucified as a malefactor, He now controls the destinies of the civilized world, and rules a spiritual empire which embraces one-third of the inhabitants of the globe.

There never was in this world a life so unpretending, modest, and lowly in its outward form and condition, and yet producing such extraordinary effects upon all ages, nations, and classes of men. The annals of history produce no other example of such complete and astonishing success in spite of the absence of those material, social, literary, and artistic powers and influences which are indispensable to success for a mere man.”

Philip Schaff, The Person of Christ, 33

This Jesus of Nazareth, without money and arms, conquered more millions than Alexander, Caesar, Mohammed, and Napoleon;without science and learning,he shed more light on things human and divine than all philosophers and scholars combined;without the eloquence of schools,he spoke such words of life as were never spoken before or since, and produced effects which lie beyond the reach of orator or poet;without writing a single line,he set more pens in motion, and furnished themes for more sermons, orations, discussions, learned volumes, works of art, and songs of praise than the whole army of great men of ancient and modern times.  Historian, Philip Schaff, The Person of Christ, 33

Christ alone has succeeded in so raising the mind of man towards the unseen that it becomes insensible to the barriers of time and space. Across the chasm of eighteen hundred years Jesus Christ makes a demand which is beyond all others difficult to satisfy. He asks for that which a philosophy may often seek in vain at the hands of his friends, or a father of his children, or a bride of her spouse, or a man of his brother. He asks for the human heart; He will have it entirely to Himself; He demands it unconditionally, and forthwith His demand is granted. Its powers and faculties becomes an annexation to the empire of Christ. All who sincerely believe in Him experience that supernatural love owards Him. This phenomenon is unaccountable, it is altogether beyond the scope of man’s creative powers. Time, the great destroyer, can neither exhaust its strength nor put a limit to its range. Frank Ballard, The Miracles of Unbelief, 265

One Solitary Life

He was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman.

He grew up in another village, where He worked in a carpenter shop until He was thirty.

Then for three years He was an itinerant preacher.

He never wrote a book.

He never held an office.

He never had a family or a home.

He didn’t go to college.

He never visited a big city.

He never traveled two hundred miles from the place where He was born.

He did none of the things that usually accompany greatness.

He had no credentials but Himself.

He was only thirty-three when the tide of public opinion turned against Him.

His friends ran away.

One of them denied Him.

He was turned over to His enemies and went through the mockery of a trial.

He was nailed to a cross between two thieves.

While He was dying, His executioners gambled for His garments, the only property He had on earth. When He was dead, He was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend.

Nineteen centuries have come and gone, and today He is the central figure of the human race.

All the armies that ever marched, all the navies that ever sailed, all the parliaments that ever sat, all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not effected the life of man on this earth as much as that One Solitary Life.

If God became a man, then we would expect him to satisfy the spiritual hunger in humanity

Christ claimed to do that. There are evidences in the New Testament that he satisfied the deep longings of man’s heart. There is much evidence around me and right in this church that he continues to do that today.

His Words:

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. Matthew 5:6

If any one thirsts, let Him come to Me and drink John 7:37

But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst John 4:14

Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you, not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid John 14:27

I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst John 6:35

Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest Matthew 11:28

I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly John 10:10

Man has changed his world in a remarkable way, but has not been able to alter himself. Since this problem is basically a spiritual one, and since man is naturally bent toward evil (as history attests), the sole way that man can be changed is by God. Only if a man commits himself to Christ Jesus and submits himself to the Holy Spirit for guidance can be be changed. Only in this miraculous transformation rests hope for the atom-awed, radio-activity-ruffled word of our day and its inhabitants. George Schweitzer, Ten Scientists Look at Life, n.p.

Yet thousands and millions today, as in all ages, are testifying to the power and glory of Christianity in dealing with their sin and wickedness. These are facts which stand the test of examination and carry their own conclusion to all who are willing to learn.  W. H. Griffith Thomas, Christianity is Christ, 119

Christian experience alone provides man with an experience commensurate with his nature as free spirit…Anything less than God leaves the spirit of man thirsty, hungry, restless, frustrated, and incomplete.  Bernard Ramm, Protestant Christian Evidences, 215

He [Jesus] rose above the prejudices of party and sect, above the superstitions of His age and nation. He addressed the naked heart of man and touched the quick of the conscience.  Philip Schaf f, History of the Christian Church, 104-5

A Univ. of Pittsburgh student:

Whatever joys and gladness, all put together of my past experience, these can never equal that special joy and peace that the Lord Jesus Christ has given me since that time when He entered into my life to rule and to guide.  Ordonez, I Was Blink but now I See, n.p.

Then I asked Jesus to come into my life and dwell there. For the first time in my life I experienced complete peace. The lifetime of emptiness I had known was removed, and I have never felt alone since. Frank Allnutt, Contact, 22

I have found happiness and the fulfillment of all I have desired in Jesus Christ.   J. C. Martin, Converted Catcher, n.p.

If God became a man, then we would expect him to overcome humanity’s more pervasive and feared enemy–DEATH

A whole series will be devoted to overcoming Death.

See what a former atheist, Lee Strobel, says about Jesus’ claim to be God:

Evidence  Jesus was God?

Jesus Rose from the Dead

Did Jesus Claim To Be God?

Jesus and the Eye Witnesses

Historical and Textual Evidence for the Early, Eyewitness Resurrection Reports, by Gary Habermas:

Eyewitnesses Part 1

Eyewitnesses Part 2

Eyewitnesses Part 3

Eyewitnesses Part 4

Eyewitnesses Part 5

Eyewitnesses Part 6

Eyewitnesses Part 7

Is the Old Testament Historically Reliable?

Today trying to answer the question:  Is the Old Testament Historically reliable?

And why should we?

One, because there are assaults towards our faith:

Rickard Dawkins on his definition of faith and his view of the Bible:

At 3 and 1/2 minutes in to this video Richard Dawkins commits a critical error by saying:   “…faith means believing something without evidence…”   I am not sure what universe Dr. Dawkins lives in because the Christian faith is based on much evidence that has been collected over hundreds of years. I will simply “sample” some of the facts related to the Old Testament veracity and authenticity here.

Other Disonant Voices

Archaeology does not lead us to Christ but confirms our faith in Him when we see how God orchestrated the discoveries of relics/artifacts.

1. Validates the Hebrew and Greek scriptures on which our faith is based.
2. Slowly over centuries these artifacts have been pulled from ruins, tells, and digs for a time when the “West” grew cold to spiritual things and made a god of facts and the scientific method. Be assured, we as Christians have a response to evolution and all other atheistic and agnostic views that may come at us.

Today,  I want you to come away with is a bigger and better appreciation of the authority and basis for your faith. That you believe it more strongly than you were able to in the past and that you could defend it. That result would come from a better understanding of what God has done. I hope that the understanding will lead to a greater ability to trust Him.

Realize that no archeological discovery has EVER been made that contradicts historical statements in scripture.

“It was the rise of the science of archaeology that broke the deadlock between historians and the orthodox Christians. Little by little, one city after another, one civilization after another, one culture after another, whose memories were enshrined only in the Bible were restored to their proper places. No where has archaeological discovery refuted the Bible as history.”

John Elder, Archaeologist and Author

Outline:

Old Testament reliability in three areas:

1. Text transmission (the accuracy of the copying process)
   1. Professor Wilson’s Process
2. The confirmation of the Old Testament by evidence in archaeology
   1. Sennacherib and Hezekiah in II Kings 18, 19
   2. Tirhakah or Taharkah, the Cushite King
   3. Sargon II, Assyria
   4. Genesis Hittites
3. Documentary evidence also uncovered through archaeology
   1. Work of the Masoretes
   2. Dead Sea Scrolls at Qumran

These evidences usually do not “cause” faith but confirm our faith in the Word of God.

Indirectly or directly they are apologetic in nature. That is, these principles and facts can be drawn upon when needed to substantiate and defend belief in the Bible and its eternal truths.

In the market place of ideas Christianity is under assault by atheists, Christians who have problems with the Bible’s infalability (liberal theologians) , Cults, who have substitute scriptures or attack basic beliefs and other religions such as Islam, Hinduism and Sikhs.

Textual Transmission: How Accurate Was the Copying Process?

Professor Wilson (Robert Dick) Process or
don’t misspell the king’s name!

Robert Dick Wilson, Old Testament Scholar, Princeton Seminary, Western Theological Seminary and University of Berlin. Professor of Semitic Philology and Old Testament at Princeton. He wrote Is the Higher Criticism Scholarly? and Scientific Old Testament Criticism.

The Professor did much research on how accurately all the kings, both Israeli and foreign were recorded in the Bible. He looked at accuracy of spelling as well as chronology of the kings and their counterparts or contemporaries in other countries.

1. There are 26 names of foreign kings in the Old Testament
2. Those names are also found on other documents in the time of these kings. These names are also found on monuments to the kings.

Finding:

1. Spellings of king’s names in OT identical to extra-biblical documentation.
2. Changes in spellings of some names are in accordance with the laws of phonetic change as those laws were in operation at the time.
3. Name of Judah and Israel kings are found on the Assyrian contemporary documents.
4. Spellings are the same as we find in the present Hebrew text.
5. 144 cases of transliteration from Egyptian, Assyrian, Babylonian and Moabite into Hebrew and 40 cases of the opposite.
6. 184 cases total.
7. The evidence shows remarkable accuracy in recording and spelling those names accurately over a period of 2300 to 3900 years BC.

Additional Professor Wilson Research:

1. There are about 40 of these kings living from 2000 – 400 BC.
2. Each appears in chronological order with reference to the kings of the same country and with respect to their contemporary kings of other countries.
3. No stronger evidence for the accuracy of the Old Testament records could possibly be imagined than from this collection of kings.

Wilson’s conclusion:

“The proof that the copies of the original documents have been handed down with substantial correctness for more than 2000 years cannot be denied. That the copies in existence 2k years ago had been in like manner handed down from the originals is not merely possible, but , as we have shown, is rendered probable by the analogies of Babylonian documents now existing of which we have both originals and copies, thousands of years apart, and of scores of papyri which show when compared with our modern editions of the classics that only minor changes of the text have taken place in more than 2,000 years and especially by the scientific and demonstrable accuracy with which the proper spelling of the names of kings and of the numerous foreign terms embedded in the Hebrew text has been transmitted to us.”

Robert Dick Wilson,

Scientific Investigation of the Old Testament, p 85.

An Example of the Alignment of Kings in the Old Testament:
Sennacherib and Hezekiah and Tirhakah

Sennacharib 704 - 681 BC

The man depicted on the right of this Stella is Sennacharib, the son of Sargon II. He did what his father could not, attacking and defeating the southern kingdom of Judah. This king is important as there is much written about him in the Bible, particularly in his dealings with the righteous king of Judah, King Hezekiah. It is Sennacharib who is responsible for building the great city of Nineveh.

At the end of the 8^th century, in 701 BC, Sennacharib came from Assyria, through Phoenicia, and attacked all the fortified towns of Judah. Except for Jerusalem, Lachish, located southwest of Jerusalem, was the last of all the fortified cities to be attacked and destroyed.

As archeologists dug down through the different layers they found artifacts from the battle, e.g., balls, slings, arrowheads, bone and metal.

Balls and Sling retrieved from the Lachish Tell:

Hezekiah Murial out of Nineveh

They also found the Taylor Prism which is Sennacharib’s account of all the battles, including those of Lachish, and Jerusalem, where Hezekiah lived.  Hezekiah was a righteous king, whom the Lord loved and honored.

Taylor Prism

The Taylor Prism, an 8-sided prism, parallels the Biblical account (II Kings 19) in 7 areas. Both agree that:

1. Hezekiah rebelled against Senacharib
2. The fortified towns of Judah fell
3. Lachish also fell
4. Hezekiah was shut up in Jerusalem
5. He paid 30 talents of gold in tribute to Sennacharib to gain favor
6. Jerusalem did not fall
7. The Assyrian army left without firing a single arrow at Jerusalem

Here, however, is a mystery; why did they (the Assyrians) leave? The historical record, including the Taylor prism, gives us no reason. We have to go to the Bible to find out the reason.

According to the Bible Sennacharib did not capture Jerusalem though he destroyed all the other cities. This is found in II Kings 19:9 and Isaiah 37:9. What was the reason for his sudden departure according to the Bible? According to II Kings 19:9, and Isaiah 37:9, he had to return because someone was attacking his southern flanks, King Tirhakah of Ethoipia/Egypt. Historians, however, had always puzzled over Tirhdkah, as there is no documentation for such a king. Is he the product of a myth or legend? Most Historians think the bible is full of myths, and Tirhakah is just another example of such a myth. For centuries only the Bible and no other documents, referred to Tirhakah.

Tirhakah has now been authenticated historically.   Sennacherib had to return to defend the city of Ninevah against Tirhakah. Once he had defended his kingdom, he returned a 2^nd time to Jerusalem.

Preservation of the Hebrew Text

Groups of Hebrew involved in preservation and dissemination of the laws and principles: Sopherim, Zugoth, Tannaim, Talmudists

Talmudists copying process: Evidence that Demands a Verdict, p. 74

•Samuel Davison described some of the disciplines of the Talmudists. The Talmudists preceded the Masoretes.

Here are just some of their techniques.

1. A synagogue roll must be written on the skins of clean animals
2. the roll must be prepared for the particular use of the synagogue by a Jew
3. Rolls must be fastened together with strings taken from clean animals
4. Every skin must contain a certain number of columns, equal throughout the entire codex
5. The length of each column must not extend over less than 48 or most than 60 lines; and the breadth must consist of thirty letters
6. The whole copy must be first-lined and if three words be written without a line, it is worthless
7. The ink should be black, neither red, green, nor any other color, and be prepared according to a definite recipe
8. An authentic copy must be the exemplar, from which the transcriber ought not in the least deviate.
9. No word or letter, not even a yod, must be written from memory,the scribe not having looked at the codex before him
10. Between every consonant the space of a hair or thread must intervene
    1. Between every new parashah, or section, the breadth of nine consonants
    2. Between every book, three lines
11. The fifth book of Moses must terminate exactly with a line; but the rest need not do so
12. Besides this, the copyist must sit in full Jewish dress
    1. wash his whole body
    2. not begin to write the name of God with a pen newly dipped in ink
    3. and should a king address him while writing that name he must take no notice of him

All rolls (read scrolls) were duly verified and only then accepted as authentic and regarded as being of equal value with any other copy.

Davidson adds that “the rolls in which these regulations are not observed are condemned to be buried in the ground or burned.”

What is a Gheniza?

A gheniza was a type of cupboard in which defective and tattered manuscripts were laid aside and from these receptacles some of the oldest manuscripts now extant have in modern times been recovered.

But the Jewish mindset was to prefer the newest copy.

The absence of very old copies of the Hebrew Bible is not a surprise and neither is it unsettling. The Jews discarded older and defective copies and because of the dispersion, many of their good copies were no doubt destroyed.

Hebrew reverence of scripture

Who were The Masoretes and what was their contribution to the preservation to the Hebrew scriptures?

The Masoretes were the Jewish scholars who between 500 AD and 950 AD gave the final form to the text of the Old Testament. The destruction of the temple in 70 AD along with the dispersion of the Jews from their land, became a powerful impetus to 1. standardize the consonantal text, and 2. standardize punctuation and the use of vowels to preserve correct vocalization and pronunciation for reading. They were called Masoretics because they preserved in writing the oral tradition (masorah) concerning the correct vowels and accents, and the number of occurrences of rare words of unusual spellings. They received the unpointed (comparable to English without vowels), consonantal text of the Sopherim and inserted the vowel points that gave to each word its exact pronunciation and grammatical form. They even engaged in a moderate amount of textual criticism. Where ever they suspected that the word indicated by the consonantal text was erroneous, they corrected it in a very ingenious way. They left the actual consonants undisturbed, as they had received them from the Sopherim. But they inserted the vowel points that belonged to the new word they were substituting for the old, and then inserted the consonants of the new word itself in very small letters in the margin. (From Archer, A Survey of the Old Testament, 63)

The Masoretes work resulted in several codices which have survived dispersion and persecution. One of the best examples is the Aleppo Codex in Leningrad. We also saw the Codex Sinaticus in the British Library. Discovered at the Temple of the foot of Mt Sinai.

What about the physical documents on which these kings were recorded?

The collections of manuscripts:

1. Cairo Geniza manuscripts (scattered all over the world now)
2. Dead Sea Scrolls
3. Cairo Codex (895 AD, produced by the Masoretic Moses ben Asher family)
4. Codex of the Prophets of Liningrad
5. Codex Babylonicus Petropalitanus
6. Aleppo Codex
7. British Museum Codex
8. Reuchlin Codex of the Prophets

“We have given practical proof of our reverence for our own Scriptures. For, although such long ages have now passed, no one has ventured either to add, or to remove, or to alter a syllable; and it is an instinct with every Jew, from the day of his birth, to regard them as the decrees of God, to abide by them, and, if need be, cheerfully to die for them. Time and again ere now the sight has been witnessed of prisoners enduring tortures and death in every form in the theatres, rather than utter a single word against the laws and the allied documents.” - Flavius Josephus, First-Century Historian

The Masoretes preserved the Hebrew scriptures as the Jews lived in foreign lands and began in many cases to speak other languages.

Example: the original Torah of Temple Mickve, Savannah ( We saw first hand Jewish respect of the scriptures. ) The Temple has the original copy of the Towrah which was sent with the first 40 Savannah Jewish settlers from England.

These are just some of the ways God worked through man to preserve the message God intended.

Hezekiah

According to the Bible, in the middle of the night, the angel of the Lord came down and destroyed 185,000 of Sennacharib’s men. Therefore, he had no choice but to return to Assyria, an embarrassment, unable to explain what had happened. However, these facts are not found on this the Hezekiah mural taken from Nineveh, and for one very good reason: because these murals are bragging accounts. The kings did not record their failures/defeats, so we would not expect to find such a humiliation to be recorded in this mural. Therefore, historians are faced with a dilemma, as they cannot explain why Sennacharib returned empty handed. The Bible provides the solution, filling in the missing details. Both the Biblical and historical accounts inform us that Assyrians never did defeat Jerusalem, nor was Judah ever completely defeated, but it is the Bible which uniquely explains why.

Tirhakah

Now we can solve the mystery concerning the ruler Tirhakah. Remember, that Sennacharib in his first invasion of Judah, had to suddenly return home to Nineveh, because a king referred to in the Bible as Tirhakah was attacking him on his southern flanks (II Kings 19:9; Isaiah 37:9). Yet there is no secular documentation to support this king; that is until the last century, when this statue (see photo) was discovered. The Egyptian hieroglyphics written on this statue refers to the king Tirhakah by name. So this supposedly mythological king is actually historical, proving that when the Bible speaks about him in Isaiah 37, and II Kings 19, it is historically credible and not simply a myth or legend. We now know that Tirhakah was the ruler of the Cushites, which included present day Sudan, North Africa, Egypt and Ethiopia. He was a great power of that day, so when he attacked Sennacharib, it was a very serious threat. That is why Sennacharib had to return to defend against him, according to II Kings 19:9 and Isaiah 37:9.

Three years ago is the South Hampton (UK) museum, there was a statue of a king that was used as a bicycle stand. One of the curators of the British museum went down to Southhampton in Jan 1999, and when he looked at the figure and hieroglyphics underneath he saw again the reference to Tirhakah. There was another statue of Tirhakah. The Southampton museum had no idea what they had, a statue from the 8^th c. BC in their museum, with no idea as to its importance. So these two statues prove that Tirhakah is historical. Much as we are finding more evidence for Tirhakah we possibly could find further evidence for people or events in the Bible.

Legendary Genesis is now the Historical Genesis

1. Sodom and Gomorrah
2. The Hittites and the Horites of Genesis
3. The Flood
4. Ur

Mari and Nuzi Tablets

7 customs detailed in the Mari tablets which parallel customs shown in Genesis

One tablet from Tell Markikh mentions 5 cities: Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim and Zoar found in Genesis 14:8 listed in same order.

I don’t have time to develop the significance but this unique listing of cities help biblical scholars fight the liberal theories that Genesis was written in the 6^th c. BC from a long oral tradition and redacted to the 1900 – 1400s BC.

Dead Sea Scrolls

The Dead Sea Scrolls

Importance of the Dead Sea Scrolls

Many thousands of archeological points could be made about the findings of the Dead Sea Scrolls and their comparison to other scrolls of Hebrew text.  I will simply highlight here an analysis of a chapter in Isaiah, Isaiah 53, a key Old Testament chapter to Christians.

Isaiah 53

1. 166 words in the chapter.
2. Only 17 letters in question.
3. 10 letters are simply a matter of spelling.
4. Four letters are minor stylistic changes, such as conjunctions.
5. Three letters comprise the word “light.” This was added in verse 11 and does not affect the meaning greatly. The word “light” is supported by the Septuigant and IQ Is (one of the Isaiah scrolls found in the Dead Sea caves).
6. Thus, of the 166 words in the chapter, only three letters in question after a thousand years of transmission. This word does not significantly change the meaning of the passage.

Isaiah in the Qumran scrolls: “proved to be word for word identical with our standard Hebrew Bible in more than 95% OF THE TEXT. The 5 % of variation consisted chiefly of obvious slips of the pen and variations in spelling.” Dr. Gleason Archer

Millar Burrows says: “It is a matter of wonder that through something like a 1000 years the text underwent so little alteration. As I said in my first article on the scroll, ‘Herein lies its chief importance, supporting the fidelity of the Masoretic tradition.’”

The Significance of the Qumran documents:

1. These scrolls take the textual scholar back 1000 years earlier than previously known in Hebrew manuscript evidence. Tenth century manuscipts were the earliest prior to these copies.

2. The earliest complete copy dated from the 11^th century.

3. The Dead Sea manuscripts date back to as early as 125 BC.

4. The conclusion is that there was no significant difference between the Isaiah scroll at Qumran and the Masoretic Hebrew text dated 1000 years earlier.

5. This confirmed the reliability of our present Hebrew text.

6. We should accord to the Masoretes the highest praise.

Conclusions

• • All archaeological finding to date have confirmed the text and improved our understanding of the Biblical record
• •We saw that the transmission of Kings names stood up to rigor
• •The Dead Sea Scrolls discovery was probably the biggest archaeological find in history for Christianity and Judaism and confirmed accurate text transmission
• •The work of the Talmudists, the Masoretes, archaeological discoveries, the work of Professor Richard Wilson and hundreds like him confirm for us that the Hebrew scriptures have been passed to us with amazing care by God Himself and those He charged down through the centuries to care for those scriptures and thus with stunning accuracy

“To deny the historical bedrock of the Bible seems nothing less than perverse.” Hugh Williamson, Professor, Oxford University, England

Has the New Testament Changed?

Has the Towrah and Injeel or the Old Testament and New Testament been changed by man?

Jesus said Himself, “My Words shall last forever.”

It is my intent here to show you that the His word has not passed away and that it has the most amazing integrity based on the documentation that accompanies it.

If God, the Almighty, the Creator, took all the trouble to send us the truth in the New Testament, Is it reasonable that He would allow created man to change His book into a lie? I believe the answer is “No.” If God sent the New Testament to guide man, what should He do with His Word? He should protect it. If man changed the written Word of God, who would be stronger–man or God? Man. But this is impossible! God is almighty! If God did not protect His book, the New Testament, how can we be sure that He protected the other books, and that man did not change them, too?

The Qur’an tells us to believe and to study the New Testament, and contrary to popular opinion, nowhere does the Qur’an say that the New Testament was changed. This means that up to the year 600 A. D. the New Testament was not changed. The original manuscripts from which our present translation of the New Testament is taken date back at least 300 years before the Qur’an.

Let me share with you a simple diagram that shows why I believe that the New Testament was not changed.

The original writings of the New Testament were written in the first century. See A.

The oldest manuscripts of a complete New Testament is dated 350 A. D. So more than 250 years before the Qur’an, thisNew Testament was in circulation. This copy was found in the monastery of St. Catherine of Sinai. For that reason it is called Codex Sinaticus. It is displayed in the British Museum in London, where you can see it for yourself, if you go there.

A sister copy exists in the Vatican Library in Rome. It is called Codex Vaticanus. It came to us from the same time, 350 A. D. We have used mainly these copies to translate our Bible that we have today. So we will call this period, between 350 A.D. and the present C in our diagram.

Now, let us call the period between A and C, B. It covers the period of 250 years from 100 A.D. to 350 AD. It is a bridge between A and C. B has thousands of manuscripts of portions of the New Testament from many parts of the Roman world. They all AGREE AMONG THEMSELVES. If that were not enough,We have also the writings of the early church fathers who were scattered throughout the Roman world. They wrote books full of quotations from the New Testament. All of their quotations agree among themselves, even though they wrote in different times and places. If we collect all these quotations we can form the whole Injeel we have today except for some 11 verses. These verses are greetings or salutations and do not affect the basic, important teachings of the New Testament.

Now, if in period B the manuscripts and the quotations from the early church fathers all agree among themselves, it means that they have one source. That source should be A, the original copy of the New Testament books. This means that A = B.

If we compare B with C, we find that they are the same, which means that B = C. Now, if A = B because B has one source, and if B = C by comparison of the two, then A = C by substitution.

Consequently, the New Testament was never changed. It was the same during all periods of history. God protected His book in a marvelous way. If it is the written Word of God, then we have to obey it.

Lee Strobel on the reliability of the Gospel: