Review of the Holy Spirit…

3. Review of the Holy Spirit… • What is the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit is the operational presence of the mind and influence of God as well as His character. The Holy Spirit is the power of God and not a person. • List the various symbols that are used to picture the Holy Spirit in Scripture. Breath, oil, wind, dove, water, seal, sword, lamps

4. Review of the Holy Spirit… • How does one receive the Holy Spirit? Repentance, baptism and laying on of hands • When Paul introduces his epistles what normal greeting does he use? Why is this important? Paul brings greetings from the Father and the Son, but never from the Holy Spirit.

5. Review of the Holy Spirit… • In our statement of belief, how is the Holy Spirit described? The power of God and not a person. • Explain Matthew 28:19. What is the key word in this verse? Key is the word “in” which should be “into.” There are three things that must happen to become a disciple of Christ.

6. Fundamental Belief – The Word of God Scripture, both the Old and the New Testaments of the Holy Bible, is the Word of God and contains God’s complete revelation of His will and plan for humanity. Directly inspired by God in thought and word, it is perfect and infallible as originally written. Scripture is the supreme and final authority for faith and life. It is the source for doctrine and the foundation for all truth.

7. We must treat the Bible with respect. We are warned about adding or subtracting (Revelation 22:18-19).

8. The Bible was preserved from manuscripts. No originals exist for either the Old Testament or the New Testament. We only have copies.

9. Copy of an ancient manuscript… Repair order for construction on Solomon’s Temple.

10. Everything recorded in the Bible is up for debate and possible rejection.

11. Articles from BAR magazine questioning validity of Scripture… The Search for History in the Bible: “Debate now rages over whether the tenth century kings David and Solomon-- never mind Abraham and Moses-- were real or merely glorious mythic figures” (May/June 1997). “What separates a Minimalist from a Maximalist? Not much! On the archaeological side, the people we may now identify as historical Israel are generally agreed to have emerged at the beginning of the Iron Age (about 1200 BCE) and to have been indigenous to Palestine” (Philip Davies).

12. Articles from BAR magazine questioning validity of Scripture… “The fundamental propositions of the revisionist historians may be summarized as follows: • The Hebrew Bible is a product of the cultural and identity crisis of Judaism…not the story of an actual historical Israel. • The Hebrew Bible thus constitutes a literary tradition and not a historical document. • The Biblical-meta narrative, the foundation of much of the Western cultural tradition, should be rejected as subversive.”

13. “The fundamental propositions of the revisionist historians may be summarized as follows (continued): • Biblical and ancient Israel are fictitious– myths invented by the Biblical writers, not historical realities. • There was no early Israel as a distinct ethnic entity in the Iron I period in Palestine, no Israelite state before the 9th century BCE… • Archaeologists and Biblical scholars should now concentrate on writing the history of the Palestinian peoples, not that of some ‘imaginary’ ancient Israel.”

14. Documentary Hypothesis… Revisionists generally accept the "Documentary Hypothesis" which asserts that the Pentateuch was written by a group of four authors, from various locations in Palestine, over a period of centuries. Each wrote with the goal of promoting his/her own religious views: J: a writer who used Yahweh/Jehovah as the divine name. E: a writer who used Elohim as the divine name D: the author of the book of Deuteronomy P: a writer who added material of major interest to the priesthood. Finally, a fifth individual was involved : R: a redactor who shaped the contributions of J, E, D and P together into the present Pentateuch.

15. Answers to the Documentary Hypothesis… • Presuppositions • Critics Claim Too Much • Writing Styles Change Within Writers • One Writer Can Produce Different Results • Christ Attributed the Books to Moses

16. Proverbs 30:5… “Every word of God is pure…”

17. Five Proofs the Bible is Inspired… • Archeology Proves the Bible • Dead Sea Scrolls and Septuagint Prove the Bible • Historical Books Prove the Bible • Fulfilled Prophecy Proves the Bible • Statements by Christ, the Apostles, and Paul Prove the Bible

18. 1. Archaeology Proves the Bible • 1. BAR Magazine, November-December 1999. Story of Hezekiah’s Tunnel and the two walls around Jerusalem. (See Isaiah 22:9-11; 2 Kings 18:17-25). • Gilgamesh Tablet. Confirms the occurrence of the Flood. • Victory Stele from the 19th Egyptian Dynasty of Pharaoh Merneptah, dated 1210 BCE. Israel is listed as one of the enemies of the Egyptians in Canaan.

19. Archaeology Confirms Two Walls…

20. Discovery of the second wall… Evidence of a second wall is confirmed in the Scriptures… (2 Kings 18:17-25; Isaiah 22:9-11)

21. Ancient writing that confirms the Flood as recorded in Genesis. This tablet can be seen in the British Museum

22. Mention of ancient Israel… Victory Stele from the 19th Egyptian Dynasty of Pharaoh Merneptah, dated 1210 BCE. Israel is listed as one of the enemies of the Egyptians in Canaan.

23. 2. Dead Sea Scrolls and the Septuagint Prove the Bible 1. Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in 1947 by a young Bedouin boy who stumbled into a cave in the Qumran area near the Dead Sea. The scrolls are dated from 100 BCE to 100 CE. Contain fragments of all books in OT except Esther. 2. The Septuagint contains all the books of the OT translated into Greek by 72 scholars about 100 BCE.

24. Area of the Dead Sea Scrolls, circa 1947-1948.

25. Caves where the Dead Sea scrolls were discovered by a shepherd boy in 1947.

26. Portion of Septuagint Manuscript

27. History of the Masoretic Scrolls… Beginning in the sixth century and into the tenth century A.D., certain European Jewish scribes called the Masoretes worked carefully to preserve the Old Testament text as they transmitted it from copy to copy. The Hebrew word masora means "that which is transmitted," "that which is handed down"; hence, the name—Masoretes. Several of the manuscripts they produced still exist. Some of the more important Masoretic manuscripts are as follows:

28. History of the Masoretic Scrolls… The Cairo Codex of the Prophets (A.D. 895), containing the Prophets The British Museum Codex Oriental 4445 (Ninth or tenth century), containing a large portion of the Pentateuch The Leningrad Codex of the Prophets (A.D. 916), containing the Major Prophets The Leningrad Codex (A.D. 1008–9), having the complete Old Testament text The Aleppo Codex (A.D. 900–925), originally containing the entire Old Testament text but now with a quarter of its text missing.

29. New Testament Manuscripts… Because not one original writing (autograph) of any New Testament book still exists, we depend on copies for reconstructing the original text. According to most scholars, the closest copy to an autograph is a papyrus manuscript designated P52, dated around 110–125, containing a few verses of John 18 (31-34, 37-38). This fragment, only twenty to thirty years removed from the autograph, was part of one of the earliest copies of John’s Gospel.

30. New Testament Manuscripts… Prior to the fifteenth century when Johannes Gutenberg invented movable type for the printing press, all copies of any work of literature were made by hand (hence, the name manuscript). At present, we have more than 6,000 manuscript copies of the Greek New Testament or portions thereof. No other work of Greek literature can boast of such numbers. Homer’s Iliad, the greatest of all Greek classical works, is extant in about 650 manuscripts; and Euripides’ tragedies exist in about 330 manuscripts.

31. Oldest fragment of NT book. This is from the book of John and is dated about 110-125 AD.

32. 3. Other Historical Works Prove the Bible… 1. Flavius Josephus (CE 37 - 101), Jewish historian mentions John the Baptist, Herod, Jesus, James, and Ananias. 2. Tacitus (CE 55 - 117), Roman historian who mentions Christ. 3. Thallus (circa 52 CE), a history of the mid-Eastern world and mentions the darkness at time of the crucifixion.

33. 3. Other Historical Works Prove the Bible… 4. Pliny the Younger (circa 110 CE), governor of Bithynia mentions Christ and Christians. 5. The Talmud (200 to 600 CE) mentions Christ and other biblical events. 6. Lucian (circa 120 - 180 CE), a Greek writer also mentions Christ, even though he was opposed to Christianity.

34. Tacitus (55-117 AD) mentions Christ… "They got their name from Christ, who was executed by sentence of the procurator Pontius Pilate in the reign of Tiberius. That checked the pernicious superstition for a short time, but it broke out afresh-not only in Judea, where the plague first arose, but in Rome itself, where all the horrible and shameful things in the world collect and find a home." From his Annals, xv. 44.

35. 4. Fulfilled Prophecy About Christ Proves the Bible… 1. Born of the seed of the woman. (Genesis 3:15; Matthew 1:20). 2. Born of a virgin. (Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:18, 25). 3. Son of God. (Psalm 2:7; Matthew 3:17). 4. Seed of Abraham. (Genesis 22:18; Matthew 1:1). 5. Son of Isaac. (Genesis 21:12; Luke 3:23-24).

36. 4. Fulfilled Prophecy About Christ Proves the Bible… 6. House of David. (Jeremiah 23:5; Luke 3:23-31). 7. Born at Bethlehem. (Micah 5:2; Matthew 2:1). 8. He shall be a Prophet. (Deuteronomy 18:18; Matthew 21:11). 9. He shall be a Priest. (Psalm 110:4; Hebrews 3:1). 10. He shall be a King. (Psalm 2:6; Matthew 27:37).

37. 4. Fulfilled Prophecy About Christ Proves the Bible… 11. Preceded by a messenger. (Isaiah 40:3; Matthew 3:1-2). 12. Rejected by His own people. (Isaiah 53:3; John 7:5). 13. His side pierced. (Zechariah 12:10; John 19:34). 14. His crucifixion. (Psalm 22:1, 11-18; Luke 23:33).

38. 4. Fulfilled Prophecy About Christ Proves the Bible… Peter Stoner writes in “Science Speaks” “We find that the chance that any man might have lived down to the present time and fulfilled all eight prophecies is 1 in 1017.” That would be 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000. In order to help us comprehend this staggering probability, Stoner illustrates it by supposing that “we take 1017 silver dollars and lay them on the face of Texas. They will cover all of the state two feet deep.”

39. Peter Stoner continues in “Science Speaks” "Now mark one of these silver dollars and stir the whole mass thoroughly, all over the state. Blindfold a man and tell him that he can travel as far as he wishes, but he must pick up one silver dollar and say that this is the right one. What chance would he have of getting the right one? Stoner considers 48 prophecies and says, "we find the chance that any one man fulfilled all 48 prophecies to be 1 in 10157, or 1 in: 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.

40. 5. The Scriptures Prove the Bible True… 1. Statements from Christ. (Matthew 4:7-10; Luke 4:16-21; John 10:35; John 7:38; Luke 24:32, 44) 2. Statements from the Apostles. (Acts 2; Acts 8:26-35; 2 Peter 1:21) 3. Statements from Paul. (Romans 4:3; Galatians 4:30; Romans 3:1-3; Hebrews 4:12; Ephesians 5:26).

41. 2 Timothy 3:16… “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.”

42. Five Proofs the Bible is Inspired… • Archeology Proves the Bible • Dead Sea Scrolls and Septuagint Prove the Bible • Historical Books Prove the Bible • Fulfilled Prophecy Proves the Bible • Statements by Christ, the Apostles, and Paul Prove the Bible

43. Structure of the Old Testament (Luke 24:44) • The Law • The Writings • The Prophets • Structure of the New Testament • The Gospels and Acts • General Epistles • Paul’s Epistles • Revelation

44. Translation is important.

45. Translations… Strictly Literal: New American Standard Bible Literal: New King James Version Revised Standard Version New American Bible Literal with freedom to be idiomatic: New Revised Standard Version

46. Translations… Thought-for-thought: New International Version New Jerusalem Bible Revised English Bible New Jewish Version Dynamic equivalent (modern speech): Today’s English Version Paraphrase: The Living Bible