“The Bible On Trial” was held at the University of Pennsylvania on Saturday, April 16th, 2016. The audio recordings and presentation slides can be viewed below.
Do We Have A Reliable Copy? (View Presentation Slides)
Is The Bible A Historical Work? (View Presentation Slides)
Is The Bible A “Good Book”? (View Presentation Slides)
Does The Bible Present A Clear Plan? (View Presentation Slides)
Click here for a printable version.
The Bible is one of the most well known books in the world. Publishers have sold more Bibles than any other book. It might be that one has not read it or does not believe it, but nearly every person has at least one copy of the Bible in his home.
Everyone knows something about the Bible. Perhaps he knows the story of Adam and Eve, of Noah and the flood, of Moses and the 10 commandments, or of Jesus and the cross.
However, while the Bible is well known by the world, at the same time, it is not known well by many. In reality, few know the message of the Bible
Many who call themselves “Christians” cannot put many of the major events of the Biblical story in order or may not even be able to remember all the books of the Old or New Testament.
For this reason, it is critical that we take some time to understand the overall story of the Bible.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth and put man in this creation (Genesis 1:1, 27). The earth was “very good” (1:31).
But everything changed with the sin of man (3:6). Man was thrown out of the Garden of Eden, far from the tree of life. Adam and Eve began to die physically and spiritually. With Adam and Eve began the problem of sin.
However, God had a plan. In Genesis 3:15, while cursing the serpent for his part in the rebellion, God predicted a war between the serpent (Satan) and the seed of woman: “He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel.” In this battle, the seed of woman would be wounded, but Satan would be given the fatal blow.
Essentially, in the first three chapters, we have the entire Bible story: man and his problem with sin, and God and his salvation brought about by the seed.
But who was this seed? How was God going to fulfill his promise of hope? This is the rest of the story.
After the first sin, the problem only got worse. Each man chose to sin – even to the point that “every intent of the thoughts [of man]…was only evil continually” (6:5). Only the family of Noah found favor in the eyes of God (6:8). God saved Noah from the wickedness of men by a world-wide flood (6:7).
Through Noah and his sons the earth was repopulated, and through the coming generations (literally, his seed) arrived a man of faith, Abraham. To Abraham, God gave three promises (12:1-3):
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– Canaan – The seed |
These promises were not just given to Abraham (22:17-18), but also repeatedly to his sons, Isaac (26:4) and Jacob (28:3-4, 13-14).
In the course of events, Jacob (Israel) had twelve sons. To each one, Jacob gave promises as well. The promise of Judah is especially interesting (49:10). Using the language of the seed promise, Jacob said, “The scepter shall not depart from Judah…until Shiloh comes.” The kings of the nation of Israel were to come from children of Judah.
The children of Jacob were carried to Egypt and made slaves by Pharaoh. But God blessed them. Four hundred years later, at the beginning of the book of Exodus, the children of Israel had grown to be a great nation. God raised up a man, Moses, to save the people through 10 plagues. In the end, all of Israel crossed the Red Sea, and God guided them to Mount Sinai to receive the law and covenant with God.
Even during this time, God was thinking about his promise to man. Still at the foot of Sinai, in Leviticus 26:40-42, God affirmed he would remember the promise he made with Abraham, conditioned on the obedience of the people.
After Sinai, the Israelites passed forty years through the desert and arrived at the Promised Land, Canaan (Numbers and Deuteronomy). Under the direction of Joshua, they conquered the peoples in the land. The Israelites lived many years in Canaan, governed by God and his judges.
However, the people were not content with the judges. Wanting to be like the other nations, they asked for a king. Saul was the first king, but he was not obedient to God, and so Jehovah replaced him with David, a king after God’s own heart.
During the reign of David, more or less five hundred years after the exit of Egypt, God gave David the seed promise (2 Samuel 7:12-13). He promised a son who would build a temple and would have power forever. David’s son Solomon did build a physical temple in Jerusalem during his reign. But this prophecy had a broader view than just the life of Solomon.
The story of God’s people after Solomon is tumultuous. During the reign of his son Rehoboam, a division occurred between the twelve tribes: ten tribes to the north (Israel) and two tribes to the south (Judah). All of the kings of the northern kingdom were evil, not giving attention to the laws of God and serving the idols of the nations. So, God punished Israel, sending them to captivity in Assyria. The kings of the south were a little better. For a longer period of time, they retained their relationship with Jehovah. They worshipped in his temple in Jerusalem, but in the end, they sought after other gods, and Judah was carried away into Babylonian captivity.
Even in this dark time for Israel, with the physical temple destroyed and God’s nation carried into a foreign land, Jehovah remembered his promise to Abraham. Through the prophet Jeremiah, God told of a “Branch” that would reign justly and would save his people (23:5-6).
After many years of captivity, God permitted a portion of the Jews to return to their land. They rebuilt Jerusalem and the temple, but never attained the former glory of Israel. During this time God gave hope to Israel through the prophet Zechariah. Again, a “Branch” would govern as king and priest and rebuild the temple (6:12-13), this while the Israelites were currently rebuilding the physical temple.
And so the Old Testament ends: the mystery of the seed promise, the promised king, and the new temple still unresolved for the Jews. This mystery is not revealed until four hundred years later…
Matthew 1:1-17 – The first book of New Testament, Matthew, opens with a list of men, the ancestors of Jesus. The purpose of this list is also the purpose of the book of Matthew: to show Jesus as descendant of Abraham and David. Jesus is the promised king and the fulfillment of the promise to Abraham (1:1).
Luke 3:23-38 – Another gospel, Luke, also has a list of genealogy. This list does not merely trace Jesus’ lineage back to David or Abraham. This list goes back to the very beginning and reminds us of the promise first given to Adam and Eve; the seed of woman promised inGenesis 3:15 has come. The message of Luke is that Jesus has come as Savior of all – not just the Jews.
Galatians 3:16-17, 26-29 – The apostle Paul speaks in Galatians about the fact that salvation is not just for Jews only; it is also available to the Gentiles (everybody else). Christ comes as fulfillment of the promise of Abraham; Christ is the promised seed. Although we might not be sons of Abraham physically, we can be heirs of the blessings that God promises to all the families and nations of the earth (Genesis 12:3). See also Romans 4:16-18.
Ephesians 3:3-6 – In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul speaks again about the opportunity for the Gentiles to be citizens of the kingdom of God without being Jews. This fulfills the promises of the Old Testament, a message that was a mystery to the Jews. Now, with new revelation through the apostles, we can understand this mystery.
Hebrews 2:14-16 – The writer of Hebrews says that finally, through the death of Jesus Christ, God cancels out the power of the devil, the power of death. In the cross, the serpent receives his fatal wound (Genesis 3:15) and all men are given opportunity to be freed from the power of sin and death.
Simply put the message of the Bible is Christ.
Obviously God spoke in Bible times. Jehovah used prophets like Moses and Isaiah and apostles like Paul and Peter through which the Holy Spirit spoke to the people of God. But does God speak today somehow? At the beginning of our study, I’ll tell you that the answer to this question is yes. God speaks today. But maybe not in the way you thought.
If man is going to come to know God, God has to reveal himself. In 1 Corinthians 2:11 & 16, Paul says that no one can know thoughts of another man unless he reveals himself. You cannot know what I believe or think unless I tell you or write it down. In the same way, Paul says that no one can know the thoughts of God. However, through revelation, we have the mind of Christ. Through this revelation we can know how to please God and how to be saved.
God has not rejected his people and still wants to be known today by all. So of course God speaks today, but the real question is how does God speak today? People have a lot of differing ideas and answers for this. Some say today God speaks through dreams or even through a person’s feelings. Others will even tell you they themselves are inspired by the Holy Spirit. But what does the Bible say?
Often, we take the Bible for granted. Today, the Bible is easy to find and read. Almost everyone has one. Even people who don’t believe in the inspiration of the Bible usually have a copy. If we don’t have a Bible, it’s easy to find one inexpensively or even free.
It wasn’t so easy for people in Biblical times. In general, books were very expensive. The first printing press was not invented until AD 1455 by Gutenberg, so before that, all books were written by hand, word by word. Imagine how much time it would take to write the whole Bible by hand!
Besides the cost, for several years after the beginning of God’s church, the New Testament did not even exist. While Paul was writing his letters to the Corinthians or the Philippians etc., the books we call the New Testament were being written and collected, and this process was not completed until more or less 70 years after Christ’s death.. During this time, a person wanting to know what Jesus said about a particular subject couldn’t just read Matthew, Mark, Luke or John. When a Christian wanted to know how he should worship God, he couldn’t search all the scriptures we have now.
How did Christians in the first century come to know God if God has to reveal himself (1 Corinthians 2:11, 16)? The Bible speaks of miraculous spiritual gifts given to man as God’s chosen method to reveal himself. For example, in 1 Corinthians 12:8-10, we have a list of some of these gifts. The majority speak about special or supernatural revelation: words of wisdom, of knowledge, of faith, and of prophecy, the discernment of spirits, and tongues (languages). Though the words of the apostles and through these spiritual gifts, the early Christians were able to know God and his will for them.
From what we read in the Bible, God gave miraculous power to man for two purposes: to reveal and to confirm.
Miracles and special revelation were useful and necessary to fill the space when the Bible was not available. When the Bible was finished, the necessity of these spiritual gifts came to an end. The Bible itself speaks of a time when special revelation and miracles would end (1 Corinthians 13:8). When was this time? The context gives us the answer.
In 13:9-10, Paul describes spiritual gifts as only part of something greater and says that when the perfect (the complete) came, the incomplete (that which was in part, miracles) would be done away with. This makes sense. If someone has a tool that only does half the job that is needed and then later buys a tool that does everything that is needed, he is not going to use the old tool any more. Why would he use the old tool, if the new one is better and does everything he needs?
Could he go back and use the old tool? He could, but the question is, why would he? If he has a perfect tool that does everything he needs, why would he go back to use a tool that only does part of the job? Does God have the power to use miracles after the arrival of “the perfect”? Of course. God is all powerful and can do whatever he wants, but again the question is, why would he use miracles among men if he already has his perfect tool and no longer needs the old one?
Paul uses the illustration of a growing child in v. 11. When a man grows, he leaves behind the childish things. When I was a child, I used to sit in a highchair, but now that I have grown up, I have left behind my highchair (childish things). Its purpose has been completed and there is no more necessity for it. As an adult, could I still go sit in my highchair if I wanted to? I guess I could, but again, why? I have no more need of it. Could God use miracles among men even after having the perfect if he wanted to? Surely God has the power, but Paul describes miracles as childish things. With “the perfect” God and man would have no more need of them.
In v. 12, Paul says that in the first century current situation, Christians saw dimly and knew partially, but in the future they would see clearly, face to face, and would know fully. In the first century, mirrors were not like the mirrors we have today. They were more like a piece of polished metal. One could see the face, but the image was not clear. Paul said they saw as if through a mirror, but later, with the perfect, would see face to face. Before marriage, my wife and I spent a lot of time talking on the phone because we lived in different states. Talking on the phone was something we enjoyed, but when we had opportunity to visit in person, I never said, “Wait a minute. I want to talk to you – I’ll get my phone and call you.” The phone was useful, but when were together, face to face, we had something perfect.
God used miracles as a tool to reveal and confirm, but they only did part of the job. When “the perfect” came (complete revelation), the incomplete was done away. God no longer gave men miraculous spiritual gifts or special, supernatural revelation.
The critical question is what is “the perfect”? What is perfect and complete revelation? Today, we have something that the early Christians did not: the complete Bible. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 says that the scriptures are complete and that they give revelation that makes the man of God complete and equipped for every good work. In Ephesians 3:3-4, Paul says that through his letter, we can understand about the mystery of Christ. Jude 3 says that the faith was revealed once for all time. The Bible is complete. According to the word of God, in our hands we have the fullness of revelation, “the perfect”. Now, God has his perfect tool and through this book, we have everything he wants us to know. And now, what did he promise to do with that which was in part (miracles)?
Some today believe that God speaks to us through prophets, through other recent books, through dreams and feelings, etc. But we need ask, if we have the Bible, what else do we need? What is the Bible lacking? We need to be careful when a person says he has more revelation than is given in the Bible: an extra book that we have to read to be saved, or a modern-day prophet we have to hear to know the revelation of God. Let us understand and appreciate the blessing we have in the Bible, God’s full and complete revelation, and let us read the Bible and listen to the voice of God. Does God speak today? Yes! He speaks through his written word. In the Bible, “we have the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16).