Answers Bible Curriculum 2nd Edition Unit 1 Lesson 6
This week in Sunday school, we’re talking about how God has preserved His Word, the Bible, so that we can have it, trust it, and use it today.
What guarantees do we have that God’s Word will never be hopelessly corrupted or lost? Is it reasonable for us to assert that the Bible we use today is an accurate copy and translation of the original? Will those who have sought to destroy, change, or limit the Bible ever succeed? We’ll consider these questions and more.
Our main texts for this lesson are Luke 24:14-27 and Jeremiah 36:1-32.
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mentioned briefly last week that the doctrines of inspiration and inerrancy applied to the original autographs of the Bible that is the original text of each Bible book but we only have copies of the originals today so what about those copies how do we know that those copies are accurate and trustworthy how do we know that the Bible or part of the Bible has not become lost or corrupted over time after all such is the claim of various religious and cult groups including the Jehovah Witnesses the Mormons and Muslims in a variety of ways they say the general translation or interpretation of the Bible is corrupted but think about it with me does the Bible does the Bible say anything regarding its own accurate and lasting preservation I ask you give you some feedback does the Bible say anything regarding its own preservation yes okay yeah that’s a relevant scripture the Word of God is settled in heaven though that seems in that that sounds like it’s in heaven so what about earth let’s think of some other scriptures yes I see the hand I’m sorry I can’t make out the face from here okay yeah so that’s another really that’s another interesting verse Jesus as an aside and one of his dialogues with the Jews he says and scriptures cannot be broken which there’s a lot of assumptions in that statement and one is that you have the Word of God and it it is accurate you can’t just say oh well it was a mistranslation or oh it was you know a corruption he says no scripture can’t be broken very good yeah Danny thinks what else okay the the verse we talked about last – from second Timothy 3:16 all Scripture is inspired of God God breathed and it talks about what it’s able to do it makes the man of God adequate or complete mature and how can it do that if it’s a corrupted word so there’s again there’s some assumptions even in that statement oh I think I saw your hand yeah so yeah we see that that phrase yeah you might be right it’s in psalm 119 the Word of God endures forever and there are a number statements like that that talk about the Word of God lasting and I’ll give you a few others for your consideration your edification Isaiah 40 verse 8 which says the grass withers the flower fades but the word of our God stands forever and in commenting on this verse the New Testament also says first Peter 1:23 2:25 for you have been born again not a seed which is perishable but imperishable that is through the living and enduring Word of God for all flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass the grass withers and the flower falls off but the word of the Lord endures forever and this is the word which we preach to you and you know Jesus’s own statement Matthew 24:35 it’s also in two of the other Gospels Matthew 24:35 heaven and earth will pass away but my words will not pass away these are all pretty significant along with the verses that you yourselves mentioned we have various statements in the Bible about the Bible itself God’s Word not passing away but continuing to endure we should also note though there are statements regarding man’s own responsibility to preserve and pass on God’s Word for example in Deuteronomy 6 verses 6 to 9 we hear this from Moses these words which I am commanding you today shall be on your heart you shall teach them diligently to your sons and you shall talk of them when you sit in your house when you walk by the way when you lie down and when you rise up you shall bind them as a sign on your handed they shall be as frontlets of your house and on your gates later on in Deuteronomy we hear also from Moses Deuteronomy 29:29 the secret things belong to Yahweh our God but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever that we may observe all the words of this law and then in the New Testament we have 2nd Timothy 2:2 2nd Timothy 2:2 the things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust these to faithful men will be able to teach others also so just from this brief sampling of various scriptures we do see two foundational principles when it comes to the preservation of God’s Word God’s people are responsible for preserving and passing on God’s Word faithfully at the same time however God promises in his sovereignty to preserve his word he says my word won’t pass away and not simply in heaven but not even on earth it’s going to continue to accomplish the purposes that God has meant for it now this preserved nature of God’s Word the Bible is a claim that is challenged by many people in our world from the scholarly higher critics to the guy in the street how can you trust the Bible it’s surely full of errors you don’t think that such an old book hasn’t been changed or corrupted over time do you how should we respond to this objection we know and I’ve been trying to emphasize this over the last number or last classes we’ve done together we know fundamentally that the Bible is true and is God’s Word because God has opened our eyes to see it’s truth he’s testified of its truth via his spirit and he’s shown us the divine glory of Christ through the word we can’t help but recognize these things thus we believed the statements in the Bible about what we just talked about about our need to faithfully pass on the Word of God and God’s promise to preserve it and with this as an understanding and as a foundation we can say something further we can actually see how the word or I’ll say it this way we can put the word to the test in a way that’s what I actually want to do with you in Sunday school today focusing on the Old Testament we’re going to look at two passages that are relevant for questions concerning the Bible’s integrity the first passage involves whether the Bible holds up in the process of copying and even translation over many many years what happens to the Bible over time what does the Bible itself show regarding that and in the second passage it involves whether the Bible can survive purposeful attempts to change or destroy it looking at look at how the Bible describes these situations along the way we’re gonna see how God Himself affirms the canonicity of the Old Testament of the 39 books of the Old Testament and after all this we’re gonna consider what these things mean for us today how they should affect us today well I’m excited to go through this with you let’s pray and ask God’s blessing before we continue a great God we thank you for your word we thank you that you have given us your word and we thank you that you didn’t just give it originally but you have caused it to be preserved you’ve caused us Lord to have access to it that is a very gracious thing lord I pray that you help me to be able to explain even what your word says about itself and it’s preservation even what you demonstrate in the word about its preservation I prayed you help me to be able to explain that and I pray that you would impress the momentous nosov this truth on those who listen today I pray God that we’d be changed that we would give you more glory that we would be sanctified by your great truth make us to know you more God to love you more in Jesus name Amen well to examine God’s ability to preserve his word over time let’s look at The Book of Luke Luke chapter 24 verses 13 to 27 Luke 24 now we’re gonna see in this passage some of the things that we’ve already noted in some of the verses you mentioned there are some assumptions there are some ideas implicit in the New Testament either from what Jesus says or from what the Apostles say that concern the preservation of the word and one of those places is here in Luke 24 so follow along with me as I read verse 13 down to 27 and behold two of them were going that very day to a village named Emmaus which is about seven miles from Jerusalem they were talking with each other about all these things which had taken place oh they were talking and discussing Jesus himself approached and began traveling with them but their eyes were prevented from recognizing and he said to them what are these words that you were exchanging with one another as you are walking and they stood still looking sad one of them named Cleopas answered and said to him are you the only one visiting Jerusalem and unaware of the things which have happened here in these days and he said to them what thinks and they said to him the things about Jesus the Nazarene was a prophet mighty in deed and word in the sight of God and all the people now the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to the sentence of death and crucified him but we were hoping and it was he who was going to redeem Israel indeed besides all this it is the third day since these things happened also some women among us amazed us when they were at the tomb early in the morning and did not find his body they came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive some of those who are with us what’s the tomb and found it just exactly as the women also had said but him they did not see and he said to them o foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into his glory then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets he explained to them the things concerning himself in all the scriptures and the accounts of this exchange would with Jesus and the disciples on the road to Emmaus continues but the section that we’re most concerned with finishes in verse 27 let’s follow our inductive Bible study method as we take a look at this text and we start with just simple observations of the text notice the situation we have a post-resurrection appearance to G birth of Jesus to two disciples and this is on Resurrection Day on the road to Emmaus a town not too far from Jerusalem notice that these two disciples at first are sad and they are supernaturally prevented from recognizing Jesus they tell Jesus the reason for their sadness they were hoping not knowing that they’re speaking to Jesus they’re hoping that Jesus was the promised one who was going to redeem Israel and bring in the kingdom of righteousness and justice foretold in the Old Testament but Jesus death did not seem to fit with that restored kingdom expectation so they were sad but notice Christ’s response to their despair he rebukes them notice he rebukes them for not understanding what was taking place in light of what scripture always declared Jesus then goes on to explain the things concerning himself and notice where he goes for this explanation he goes to the scripture he begins with Moses and all the prophets and then it says he goes to all the scriptures and note that the scripture the reference to scripture here does not include the New Testament since none of it was written at this point on this day the New Testament letters and books had not been written therefore when we see the term scriptures here we are technically referring to only the Old Testament of course the New Testament within being the thing is concerning Jesus all right so these are some important observations but what do they mean let’s go to our second step now and talk about some interpretation questions what relevant conclusions can we reach based on our observations of the passage first by rebuking these disciples for not believing Scripture what does Jesus assume regarding them and scripture what do you think there the scripture is true that’s an assumption that the Scriptures are true what else say that again the Scriptures the Old Testament Scriptures are to be believed and trusted good yes but a more basic assumption is the people these disciples even they have the scriptures and rebuking them he assumes that they have the scriptures and they’re able to understand the Scriptures and more than that they are responsible to understand the scriptures and believe them just as you were saying and these are these are assumptions these are implications relevant for our questions regarding the Bible’s preservation you see in Jesus’s rebuked Jesus confirms that during his time the Old Testament Scriptures were still existent they were not lost they were not corrupted despite some of the original writings in the Old Testament being more than a thousand years before Jesus’s own day yet Jesus says you still have the word it’s still accessible to you they’re readily understandable they are worthy to be believed we can think about what Jesus does not say do you just does not say well I understand you missed what the scripture said because it’s been a while since they’ve been written most of you aren’t speaking or reading the original Hebrew anymore probably relying on the Septuagint translation of the Bible that is the Bible in Greek and yes some of those important phrases probably got lost or miss translated that’s not what Jesus says he says you have the scriptures you have God’s very word why are you not believing what it says this is in line with the rebuke that we constantly hear from Jesus in the New Testament especially towards the Pharisees he says have you not read it peels the Old Testament Scriptures he says haven’t you been what’s your problem in understanding so Jesus’s rebuke it’s significant but as further explanation is also significant what was it that Jesus explained to these disciples from the Old Testament why do you think say that again right right so he’s appealing to all those I will talk about those divisions in just a second you referred to the law and the prophets with the law of the writings in their prophets he’s appealing to those things he’s explaining from those things but what is he explaining that’s right it says in the text of the things concerning himself so what does that mean what is he explaining about himself yes Steve hmm hmm very good mm-hmm right yeah mm-hmm yeah so you said a number of valuable things Steve you referred to that other scripture in the New Testament Jesus is rebuked the Pharisees you think you have life in those scriptures but these things talk about me and indeed I think you see erta didn’t zeroed on and in a little bit more closely about the gospel what even in the context here he says didn’t the Christ have to suffer and then enter his glory didn’t you see that from the scriptures and that’s what he’s explaining he’s explaining that the gospel of salvation the things concerning Jesus that are involved with the gospel and really all the things related to that by going to the different sections of Scripture and then you’ve already pointed to some of those things which would have been sacrificial system the various prophecies regarding the Messiah all those things are involved and it says Jesus is going to the scriptures to explain those things now it says that Jesus goes to the goes to Moses and all the prophets now I think Roy was alluding to this this was a common way to divide the Old Testament Scriptures conceptually in Jesus’s day you had the law Moses the books of Moses that would be the first five books the Torah and then you had everything else which would be labeled under the prophets yes even the history books many of them were considered to be written by prophets they were they were put in that category there was also a three-way division that was also used to conceptualize the Old Testament the law the prophets and the writings and the writings were headed by and most mostly consisting of the Psalms and so that’s why you see in verse 44 if he just glanced down in the same chapter Jesus refers to the Old Testament this way as well he said these are my words which I spoke to you while I was still with you that all things which are written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled so here first two the two way division here first the three way division but he’s really referring to all of the Old Testament this is significant as well by peeling to the Old Testament in this way Jesus is saying something about the authority and canonicity of the Old Testament writings but more than that in just a second now here’s kind of like a broader question about this passage by relating this exchange between Jesus and these disciples what truth does Luke the author of his book the author of this book want his audience of newly converted Gentiles to understand and so this question we might need to know a little bit more about the Book of Luke as a whole but remember that both Luke and acts Luke is concerned about confirming the gospel to the Gentiles as authentic not some aberration that just Paul came up with or some other people came up with no this is the way it’s always been in God’s plan and by showing Juice’s own death and resurrection and glorification as being foretold in the scriptures it shows that indeed the gospel salvation that you Gentiles have believed it’s it’s always been there it’s always been foretold the Gospel message is consistent this is not some new idea this is what the Scriptures have always said therefore your faith rests on something short you can say it this way the Old Testament has always declared the message about a messiah who would suffer on behalf of his people to save them from their sins now Steve already alluded the fact that this is all of Scripture even the things that we might not think of as being particularly prophetic about Jesus how can all of us Chris should be talking about Jesus well we’re gonna actually that’s one of things we’re gonna do in our Sunday school curriculum is that we’re gonna go through the different sections of the Old Testament and see how these things speak about Christ how they point to Christ so that’s one thing will be explained further but even in genesis 3:15 we’re seeing a prophecy about christ in the curse on the serpent or the Word of God to Abraham about all the families of the earth being blessed through his seed these things are all pointing to the gospel pointing to Jesus Christ we’ll talk about that more as we go along now to come back to something I said implicit as explanation is a recognition of various writings as authoritative even divine lien Thor tative the books of Moses the law the Psalms aka the writings and the prophets they constitute what Jesus referred to as the Scriptures so then here as in many other places in the New Testament Jesus himself affirms the canonicity of the Old Testament as recognized by the Jews let me underscore this point a little bit why is it that we believe that the Old Testament Canon that is the set of 39 books is god-breathed Scripture among other reasons the chief reason is because in Jesus God Himself confirms those writings to be his Divine Word there are other reasons as I say but the fundamentally we believe the Old Testament is God’s Word because Jesus himself affirms it as such our Lord affirms the Old Testament all of the Old Testament to be his word and this was the word as we’ve already seen that lasted this is the word that God preserves let me give you some stats about the Old Testament they just show you the significance of this the Old Testament covers about 3,600 years of history starting from creation till the time of Israel’s return from exile and Babylon now in terms of when the books were written of the Old Testament Moses writes the Torah the Pentateuch first five books of the Bible around 1410 or so BC Malachi the last prophet to speak from God before a period of silence before the coming of Jesus he writes his book around 400 BC so it’s about a thousand years between the first and last writers of the Old Testament that’s a lot of time a thousand years ago we were uh still in the Middle Ages I mean America hasn’t even been around for 300 years a thousand years goes by between the two different bookends of the Old Testament by Jesus’s day the 39 books that we know the Old Testament had recognized by the Jewish rabbis as from God talk a little bit more later about the criteria that people in in the ancient times used to affirm what scriptures were from God and which ones were not to recognize which ones are I’m sorry which were actually Scripture and which were lesser writings but these had been affirmed by Jesus’s Jay day and then Jesus affirmed that some rabbinical scholars had even worked to translate the Old Testament in to a Greek translation called the Septuagint and why do they do this well this is because many Jews especially by Jesus’s day had become Hellenized that is they become Greek a file the Greek kingdoms had been established over the Middle East after the conquests of Alexander the Great and therefore many Jews took on Greek culture and Greek language they needed the Bible translated into Greek so then despite the expansive subject matter long periods of time separating the different biblical writers language obstacles that existed for the Jews of Jesus’s day Jesus nonetheless confirms that they have the accurate and canonical Word of God and that the whole word is really about him this shows us something this shows us that just as the Jews of Jesus’s day could rely on the Old Testament as the god-breathed word so can we if God was able to preserve his word for a thousand plus years from the original writings to Jesus’s day he’s certainly able to do that for the next thousand plus years to our own day this is the work the word of the Lord proving true God preserves his word and that is a great thing no one might say all right so maybe God is able to preserve his truth in the face of time and language changes but what about those who might purposefully try to corrupt or eliminate God’s Word how can we be sure that some ne’er-do-wells didn’t tamper what the Word of God we use today well let’s look at another situation the Bible that specifically speaks to that issue and for this let’s turn to Jeremiah Jeremiah thirty going back into the Old Testament Jeremiah 36 we’ll be focusing on verses 1 to 26 but we won’t read the entire section we’ll skip a few verses just paraphrase quick word of context here we’re in the reign of King Jehoiakim he’s one of the last kings of Judah before Judah is taken in exile remember after the reign of Solomon we have the two kingdoms Northern Kingdom of Israel southern kingdom of Judah northern kingdom eventually goes into exile under Assyria southern kingdom will go into exile under Babylon because both kingdoms and their kings turn away from God they’re sinful Joe Hakim is one of those wicked kings and he’s one of the last kings in Judah but well along with means we start in verse 1 and read this account Jeremiah 36 starting in verse 1 in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah this word came to Jeremiah from Yahweh saying take a scroll and write on in all the words which I have spoken to you concerning Israel concerning Judah and concerning all the nations from the day I first spoke to you from the days of Josiah even to this day perhaps the house of Judah will hear all the calamity which I plan to bring on them in order that every man will turn from his evil way then I won’t forgive their iniquity and their sin then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of neriah and Baruch wrote on a scroll at the dictation of Jeremiah all the words of Yahweh which he had spoken to him right we’ve read the first four verses we’re actually gonna skip down to verse 17 now I’ll paraphrase the intervening verses Jeremiah has written this scroll the abrooke but Jeremiah’s not allowed to go into the temple but ruk takes the scroll in jeremiah stead goes into the temple and reads the words of Jeremiah to the people some of the king’s officials King James officials hear this reading from Baruch and they asked Baruch to come with the scroll and read the whole scroll to them Baruch does so now look at verse 17 and they asked to Berwick saying tell us please how did you write all these words was it at his dictation number ook said to him he dictated all these words to me and I wrote them with ink on the book then the official said to brouk go hide yourself you and Jeremiah and do not let anyone know where you are I’ll pause there again for a second just make a few observations here notice that we’re in historical narrative a Jeremiah is instructed by God to write God’s Word really The Book of Jeremiah when he says write everything that I’ve declared to you up till now he’s basically saying write the Book of Jeremiah he does so well sort of Baruch is the one who actually writes the scroll at Jeremiah’s dictation but this is okay this functions with the doctrine of inspiration actually we had the same thing happening in the New Testament some of the books written by Paul were actually literally written by a secretary or an amanuensis yeah we actually hear some of them even named the New Testament I like that line I think it’s in Romans he says I tercius reach you who write this letter but that’s okay God is superintending even the functions of secretaries describes we have that happening here with Baruch notice the king’s officials tell Baruch to take Jeremiah and hide now why would they do that well certainly the nobles sense that there will be some sort of danger from the king as a result of what Jeremiah has written and what Luke has read aloud there are in fact some sections of the prophecy of Jeremiah that specifically speak about the king joachim and they don’t have very nice things to say about so he came in fact they prophesied judgment against Jehovah Kim and his utter humiliation the King might not like that so they tell Jeremiah and Berube to go hide let’s see if they’re correct in their premonition of what the king will do let’s continue reading down in verses 20 to 26 verse 20 so they the officials they went to the king in the court but they had deposited the scroll in the chamber of Elijah the scribe they reported all the words to the king and the king sent djibouti they get the scroll and he took it out of the chamber of Elijah the scribe and to who do you read it to the king as well as to all the officials who stood beside the king now the King was sitting in the winter house in the ninth month with a fire burning in the brazier before him when Judy had read three or four columns the King cut it with a scribes knife and threw it into the fire that was in the brazier until all the scroll was consumed in the fire that was in the brazier yet they King and all his servants who heard all these words were not afraid nor did they ran their garments even though Nathan in July and gamma Raya pleaded with the King not to burn the scroll he would not listen to them and the king commanded Jeremy oh the king’s son Sariah the son of Azrael and show Amaya the son of AB deal to cease Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the Prophet but Yahweh hid them alright let’s make sure we followed what happened here by doing some more simple observations the officials initially hide the scroll in a scribes chamber and simply relay the scrolls message to the king but when the King hears the report about the scroll he commands that the scroll be brought to him and read in his presence as the King hears the scroll read he pauses the reading every so often and he has part of the scroll cut off and then put into the fire notice that certain officials plead with the King not to burn Jeremiah’s scroll but notice the king and those attending him not only do not stop burning the scroll but the author is keen to point out to us Jeremiah’s keen to point out to us they also do not become afraid and they do not tear their garments you know tearing garments that would have been a sign of sorrow and repentance now behold when the whole scroll is consumed the King commands that Jeremiah and Baruch be seized but notice that this command from Joey Hakeem is thwarted because God himself hides Jeremiah and Baruch let’s move to the interpretation step again and ask some more questions the king did not need to have the scroll burned piece by piece just throwing the whole thing in all at once so why did he do that why did he have a long drawn-out reading cutting and burning ritual what do you think yes Magda okay may partly be due to simple curiosity yeah I want to know what everything in it said yes rod what else right I think there’s definitely an expression of pride and disdain here and part of the reason is because of what Jeremiah notes for us that in response they do not fear and they do not tear their garments this appears to be that the king is making a statement he’s saying I have nothing but contempt for these words he’s showing that he’s not afraid of them and there indeed may have been curiosity I’m sure I’m sure that there was but he wasn’t satisfied really what the report about this goal he wanted to hear every single word of it and then have it destroyed and this is an expression of his pride another question why does God protect Jeremiah and Beru now truly God often protects the righteous from the designs of evildoers though sometimes he allows the righteous to suffer persecution even marketing but it may be that partly God is just doing what he does protecting his own he did actually promise in jeremiah 1:8 when Jeremiah was beginning his ministry when he was commissioned by God as a prophet God promised Jeremiah that he would protect him that he would deliver Jeremiah from his enemies so there is some of that but there’s also something else there’s another specific reason that Jeremiah and Baruch are protected by God and that’s because of what verse 28 and verse 32 say in the following next what is it that God’s gonna have Jeremiah do he’s gonna write the scroll again Baruch Jeremiah together they’re gonna write their school again and in fact they’re gonna add more to the scroll he’s gonna add more Revelation to it you know this is very interesting in essence God is saying in response to the Joya Kim you’re gonna burn my scripture well not only will you be judged for your evil but I’ll just have my prophet write it again so did Joey Hakeem succeed in escaping from or contradicting or destroying God’s Word not at all in fact Joey king himself is soon destroyed by God just as God prophesied in the Book of Jeremiah so in summary of this historical account we see how an arrogant King not only ignores the gracious warnings of judgment that he and Judah might repent and be spared but he also in vain tries to destroy God’s Word and the people God used to write and declare it so what is the main idea that Jeremiah is communicating to his original audience and even to us I would say it’s this the folly of opposing God’s Word and God’s messengers God has determined that his word will stand preserved God has determined that his word will go forth those who hate God and hate God’s Word may prevail for a short time by destroying copies of the word or even by getting at the messengers of God’s Word but God always ultimately prevails those who oppose God those who oppose God’s Word only destroyed themselves both temporarily and eternally in these 2 accounts today we see vividly Illustrated how God preserves his word we see his promises in the scriptures to do so and then we see illustrate in the scriptures how he actually does so God keeps his promises and if God is able to preserve his word despite the passing of centuries despite changes in languages and cultures and despite the attempts of evildoers to pollute or destroy God’s Word we can be confident that the copies of the Hebrew Old Testament the Greek New Testament and even our English translations of those copies that we have today are accurate and thus authoritative and life-giving has the Word of God it is in this word and it’s in the word that we have that we are to believe in order to be saved and in order to grow in Christ’s likeness now if this is all true and it is main question that you need to ask is how do you treat God’s Word how do you regard God’s Word you should be seeing more and more that this is no mere word of man subject to great errors changes and loss this is the word of God preserved graciously for you so that you might hear it read it believe it and abide by it so are you doing that do you treasure God’s Word for what it really is the Word of God now I should note that though God promises to ultimately preserve his word he does not promise that every people for every place will have access to his preserved word in fact one of the most terrifying judgments that God pronounces in the Bible appears in Amos chapter 8 verses 11 to 12 you don’t have to turn there I’ll read it for you Amos 8:11 to 12 this is what God says behold days are coming declares the Lord Yahweh when I will send a famine on the land not a famine for bread where a thirst for water but rather for hearing the words of Yahweh people will stagger from sea to sea and from the north even to the east they will go to and fro to seek the word of Yahweh but they will not find it isn’t that a scary thought that you might seek to know God’s word and not be able because God has taken it away from you now make no mistake you and I do not deserve God’s word to be given to us in fact God has chosen in his holy wisdom to allow his word at certain times and certain paced places to pass away or to become corrupted for example 2nd Kings 22 and second Chronicles 34 they both describe how the Book of Moses the law the Torah it has it was found in the temple after being lost for who knows how long the people of Judah temporarily lost part of God’s precious word even the foundation of it the books of Moses how could that happen how could there be such an extreme lack of reverence for God and for his word that this would happen in Israel but it did God allowed it to happen even in the days after the Bible we do see this kind of tragedy unfold at different times in the Middle Ages certain key phrases in the Bible were not translated into Latin in the best way and this helped the Catholic Church the medieval Catholic Church to go more and more off-course over time the Bible was no longer even in the common languages of the people the different peoples of Europe stopped speaking Latin many of them and they couldn’t read the Bible they couldn’t understand the Bible and it was read during the Reformation when there were many efforts to bring the Bible back into the languages of the people even in England the king in England tried to stop it tried to stop the Bible from being translated into English and distributed among the people and he killed he had executed those who were trying to do so that’s why Wayne Tyndale was killed this in an effort to get the Bible to the English people in a language they could understand these things are not too different from what has even happened in modern times and in communist countries where the Bibles are seized and destroyed there’s a block on Bibles getting into the country and being distributed or I’ve heard this recently about China there’s only a state-sponsored version of the Bible I’ve heard China’s working on that but the result of having no Bible in a society are devastating losing access to God’s Word it’s terrible and many communist countries can attest to this if you read history of Communist China the history of communist Russia and many other places you will see that they’ve suffered so much as a result of turning against God eliminating his word or at least trying to eliminate his word but this happened God allowed us to have a God ordained it does it happened God is not obligated to give his word to any particular people but what a horror it is to be without access to God’s Word you can’t know the words of life can’t be saved this is why Calvin this is why brothers and sisters you ought to be so grateful that despite these families of the word God has proven ultimately faithful over Manson and even given his word to you again we see this throughout history yes the books of Moses were lost in Judah for a time but God also made sure that they were found again yes certain parts of the Bible were mistranslated in the Middle Ages but God and Providence sparked a movement to recover the original languages of the Bible and correct the errors that had beset the church in its Bible translation and in its doctrine for centuries even during those tran even during those centuries where only the latin translation was available miss translations were not so bad that no one could be saved that was the grace of God nevertheless the recovery the dissemination of Scripture was critical to Europe’s recovery of the gospel people turning back to God and being saved and speaking of communism the fall of communism in Russia demonstrated another grace of God I was just hearing actually somebody speak at master seminary who was a missionary to Russia in the days before its communist governments fall and afterwards and he talked about how after the Soviet government fell yeah after the Iron Curtain was after it fell down it seemed that everyone in Russia and in these communist countries wanted a Bible anything that talked about the Bible they just they wanted to get their hands on it he says if you had a Christian tract and you offered it to someone everyone else around that person wanted one too they were hungry for the word that had been denied them for so long that was gracious even though God was not obligated to give his word he did so even in those places that had forsaken it for so long so again I ask you I want you to see the significance of this truth do you realize how great it is that God never allows his word to pass away ultimately he may allow for certain times but ultimately he never allows it to pass away and he’s given you access to that word do you cherish the Bible accordingly do you thank God do you praise God do you love God accordingly or do you see the Bible is just another book just another book that you therefore never really pick up never steady never talk about it if I apply it don’t you realize what you have let me share with you another story related to God’s gracious preservation of His Word and we see this little note there on the slide for the longest time the earliest copies we had of Old Testament Scriptures were from the nine hundreds ad now that’s a long time after the Old Testament Canon was finished last look at 400 BC the earliest copies we had were only in the 900 AD so Middle Ages for a long time people just have to accept by faith it this is this is the corrupted Word all right I’m sorry this is the uncorrupted word trust what the Bible says trust the Holy Spirit’s testimony of the scriptures and that’s why I say indeed that is the foundation for why we believe why we believe the Bible but gada further affirmed God further confirmed that trust by the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls 1947 archaeologists discovered in in Qumran Israel writings that had been preserved and hidden from around 150 BC so way earlier than any of the other texts that we had found at the Old Testament and among these this collection there were of the 900 texts 900 plus text in Quran there was nearly a complete set of the Jewish Bible the Old Testament Canon and the most amazing thing was when comparing these ancient manuscripts the Dead Sea Scrolls to the medieval copy medieval copies that were a thousand years removed guess what they found they found that these texts are virtually identical but over a thousand years the careful copying of the mazarites and the Jewish scribes and even the Christians there was not corruption the few changes that did exist the differences like did exist were mostly just spelling different spelling but the word was preserved God keeps his promises you see God in His Providence and his gracious Providence has so moved men in history to care about preserving the Word of God it is our responsibility but God is the one working through us to fulfill that responsibility this is why the Jews in the time before Jesus and even since then and this is why the Christians since the time of Jesus have carefully and repeatedly copied and translated the Word of God these are not people just conducting a fly-by-night operation if you knew how my tickets leave the Maz reads copied the Jewish Scriptures I think it would really impress you even to some of my classes I’ve been I’ve been hearing about this but they actually as part of copying a certain book a certain scroll they would count the number of words and make sure it was the same number of words as in the original document and it also marked the midway point of the of each book and they do other things besides these just to make sure that they had a correctly copied or most accurately copied what they had been given and that’s that’s the same kind of respect that the Christians and the Middle Ages also practice in terms of preserving the copies of Scripture not just the original Greek the Hebrew the Aramaic but also even the translations and we have we have so many copies of those scriptures today that we can be more confident than ever in God’s preservation of the word I mentioned this statistic last week but by comparing the many texts which is but the science of textual criticism just comparing the copies that you can discern what the original said we can be sure that 99.99% of the original text is reflected in the copies we have today the remaining point zero one percent is in places of the Bible that have no significant effect on doctrine or practice in fact modern study Bibles usually point out where those places are so of all people in history the most reason to be confident that God preserves his word even if we didn’t have all these stats we do have God’s problem and we do have the Holy Spirit’s testimony as we read the word but beyond that God has provided abundant evidence that he preserves this word we have a calling to help to faithfully pass along pass on God’s Word but God and grace is secret ending it all so a third question I’m just gonna feature by way about equation application the next time someone tells you that the Bible is full of errors it’s corrupted it’s surely not worth your belief you can respond in a couple of ways one is ask them to point out the errors oh it’s full of errors what errors a lot of people will go to that excuse without having any evidence that there really are any errors in the Bible or if they do have a specific objection oh this thing doesn’t agree with this thing you can answer it we we deal with in this class how to respond to certain objections but and you become more familiar with the Scriptures you can answer those questions there is an answer to every objection to the Scriptures because God’s Word is preserved God’s Word is inspired and it is without error so ask the person to point out the errors if he makes that assertion also tell him about God’s promise that we discussed today how God kept his promise in the scriptures and in history and tell him if you’re able tell him but the real issue is not the trustworthiness of the Bible but the untrustworthiness of man man loves this sin and loves his idols therefore he will cease on any supposed corruption in the Bible as an excuse not to repent and believe but this is why we declare the gospel this is why we want to tell people there’s someone or God has accomplished salvation for people like you the people who need new hearts for people like me God has done this in grace let me tell you you must repent and believe because of this great thing that God has done those are some applications that I’ve come up with but before we close there any questions or comments on what we’ve discussed today yes d hmm yeah that’s worth 3 emphasizing thanks to you even if we didn’t have the Dead Sea Scrolls even if we didn’t have some of these different examples from history of how God preserves his word that would be fine because we have a supernatural Word of God this word shows reality this is what the Spirit uses to save people that’s why we are chiefly concerned with declaring the Scriptures declaring what the Bible says we want to show people that is true we want it we want people to read it for themselves because that’s what’s gonna be the most impactful thing that doesn’t mean we can’t use evidence that’s why I stressed even in our beginning lessons use evidence but always from the perspective of the foundation of God’s Word you you’re not gonna pretend that the Bible is not true or might not be true now start with scripture use scriptures as your foundation and that’s the only way that you can rightly discern the evidence but even those evidences outside the scriptures just as you were saying Steve they’re ultimately not what’s gonna save a person what’s gonna save a person is the spirits conviction as they hear the truth of God as they hear the word of God the living and active Word of God so if you can deal with the superficial objection like oh of course it’s been corrupted you can point out to people while the Bible shook her Bible declares that it’s that God preserves his word we even have evidence of that the real issue my friend is your heart you don’t want to submit to God even though you know that he exists even as you hear these scriptures you know these things to be true but God in patience has offered you has offered you a chance to repent and be saved that’s that’s valuable Steve thanks for mentioning that other questions or comments really yeah thanks thanks for mentioning that Roy I’ll just summarize what you said briefly the same sort of process where we discovered earlier text in the Dead Sea Scrolls that confirmed the middle-aged copies of the Hebrew we we’ve experienced a similar result when it comes to the New Testament text where we only had later copies of that but then we found earlier copies that showed consistency that showed the accuracy even of the the copies that we had and yeah the copies have just multiplied you’ve heard this before but the Bible is the most well attested ancient document in the world other works like things written by Cicero might have a handful of copies but the Bible has thousands of copies different sections of the Bible or multiple books or even even a whole set of the New Testament Old Testament we have all these copies which again just testifies as you were saying Roy that God preserves this word and we could be confident that we have the Word of God even though we don’t have the original text we have the original text reflected accurately in the copies and thus we have the life-giving word cuz mam the life-giving word is not inc on the page it’s the words it’s the words themselves and God has preserved those those words for us grace that’s all we have time for this week next week we are coming back to the New Testament side of this equation where I talk about how God’s Word is complete and how we know that that’s praise be closed oh my god we thank you for your word what a great grace Cottage you would give us your word Lord we can imagine what it’d be like to be in a famine of your word to not have access to it to not understand it to not be able to even read it or hear it but you and grace God have have allowed us to hear your word to know your word and not just us but many other people in the world God we know there are some who still don’t have access to your word and you have called us to bring it to them so they too can be saved and yet God we’re also aware that we are we had to be sober about this we cannot respond to such a great revealed salvation with apathy we cannot neglect such a great salvation oh god I pray in your spirit that you would be so gracious as for us to regard you and your word with proper reverence that we would treasure it and we would believe it that we were put into practice oh lord please protect us from doing anything less than this in Jesus name