Shifting Perspectives - Biblical Conversations about Topics that Matter - Episode 13

welcome to shifting perspectives

biblical conversations about topics that

matter let's get to

it hey everybody welcome back and we

have been in this exciting conversation

I mean at least it's exciting for me

because I love talking about the Bible

um I love proving why

it's so important to me why why I've

based my life on you know and that's

that's the thing is if you're going to

believe the book you have to either

believe it or not to believe it that's

the core litmus test because you either

do or you don't and over the last few

sessions we've really went into some of

the reasons as to why we do believe it

and we got a couple theories for you

tonight um and some fact way a lot of

facts are throw behind them uh to to

further deepen and and build on what we

talked about the last couple of weeks so

uh you've got one that you're going to

lead with that I I think is a very

interesting interesting uh uh set of

facts to to put in your hat as you

consider will not you truly believe the

holy scriptures so so one of the things

when we talk about tests I like that you

use litus tests you know because there

there is a level of what are we going to

put out there as a test to validate this

and you've you've heard us talk about um

you know the consist Y and the

congruency across you know uh 66 books

40 authors 1500 years um we've got

manuscript evidence we have

archaeological evidence but we have

these these other litmus tests if you

will one of them we call the honesty

test um and here's essentially how the

honesty test works the honesty test says

that if you're going to make something

up you're generally not going to make

something up that puts you in a bad

light um so if I'm going to lie I'm

going to lie to make myself look good

right most people do I mean you know why

not if I'm telling the story I want to

tell the story that makes me look good

and we have we have references in the

Bible throughout that don't paint the

authors or the people that are in the

narrative in very good light yeah so as

an example of that I mean Jesus called

Peter Satan he said get thee behind me

Satan because Peter said something that

was outside of character of the will of

God and what the expectation would be of

a disciple and

that's if I was going to write about

myself I wouldn't call myself safe You'

forget about that you'd forget about

that part that's right we'll leave that

one out and and go on you know or or you

know James and John their nickname was

the sons of thunder I mean you know they

were kind of like Bulls in a China

closet and I can't imagine running up

against them in dark alley that's

probably where they got that reputation

from before Jesus yes and isn't that

what's incredible as you start talking

about guys' lives is the transformation

of some of these different characters I

mean you got a tax collector who

basically was a thief you got fishermen

who were basically Brawlers I mean

that's James and John got that sons of

sons of thunder nickname and you've got

all of these varying personality types

but yet none of them are really painted

in a great light I mean Peter denied

Jesus three times and it's all written

about Mark who wrote the Gospel of Mark

in The Narrative of Mark In The Garden

of Gethsemane there's a young man who is

described as running away from the scene

naked I'm not going to write that about

myself and that was Mark I mean Mark was

writing about himself in the gospel

narrative that he fled from The Garden

of Gethsemane when the soldiers came to

take Jesus away yeah so the honesty test

basically says if you're going to lie

and tell a story you're going to do so

in a fashion that isn't going to make

yourself look bad in the process so

scripture is pretty clear on the fact

that um you know God is not a respector

of persons and he takes what is broken

and damaged and turns it into something

new um and that's all part of the story

right I mean you have a journey

absolutely everybody's got a journey

yeah I've got a journey and you who are

watching this video you've got a journey

too and it doesn't have to be the Suns

of thunder and you wanting to call down

fire on the guy that made you upset or

the road rage that you had but God

changes us and it's okay for us to have

that story yes right it's not oh you

know I was I grew up in a Christian home

so I never did anything wrong and

everything was perfect I don't think

anybody's got that story well I like to

think that I no you know we we all have

this journey

and the the truthfulness of scripture in

the Raw MH of people lends itself to the

authentic it of the scripture and so

that's one piece of the honesty test

that we look at the second is you know

if you're talking about a lie um

generally speaking I know for myself

included if if I'm going to tell a lie

I'm probably not going to be willing to

die over it the scriptures and from the

time that the scriptures were were uh

what we call canonized basically put

together because it's 66 individual

books right it's a compilation of of

books when those were put together from

that time to now over 2,000 years people

have been willing to say I believe this

so much I believe Jesus so much that I'm

willing to die they've literally been

beaten they've been martyred they've

stood outside and watched their homes be

burned down they've watched their

churches be burned down they've watched

their families be killed um and

generally speaking from the honesty test

standpoint you're not not going to do

that over something that isn't

true and so that's the realities of the

honesty test that we put into play you

know and as you talk about that and you

think about those those patron saints

and all those that lived at the time of

Christ and you know one of the things

that they that they did was they had the

advantage they walk and they talked with

Christ right they got to see the

Miracles you know the the la The Book of

John the very last verse say if we wrote

down all the Miracles that Christ did we

would the the volumes of the books of

the world wouldn't contain them exactly

I mean we get such a small slipper and

that was his that was his love that was

his gift to us was that love the

Everlasting Love for salvation and one

of those things is that love just he he

asked for our heart you know and it's

it's something that that you know it is

it is a lifelong sacrifice as Paul wrote

you know you know I sacri living sacrif

I sacrifice myself daily um to to the

work you know and and that leads one of

the other things that we talk about is

is the gap test the Gap Theory right you

know where it says the farther away you

move from an event the less um the less

credibility the event had and so you you

you know whenever you think about The

Life and Times of Christ at the time of

the crucifixion and you know we're

approaching Easter the crucifixion uh

the resurrection of

Christ one of the things after Christ's

Resurrection he didn't just disappear

right they didn't put him in a grave and

disappeared and you know if that would

have been been the case then it would

been like okay well you know somebody

stoen but but no he walked he talked he

met he was on this Earth for another 40

days and people people literally saw him

Ascend to heaven so the farther away you

move from something says that I can now

create more doubt right I can tell you

anything I want to about what I did

whenever I was 13 years old because you

didn't know me when I was 13 years old

right now the people that knew me when I

was 13 years old I can't lie to them

very much so the farther away that you

move from something the more doubt that

You' been created and that's what people

have tried to do with the Bible say well

it was written so long ago and you know

this book was written after it already

happened and you know they love say

about Daniel by the way it's so so

precise and and but then you realize

that they say well it was written you

know 300 years after Daniel but yet we

have copies of Daniel in the septent

which is the Greek translation of the

Bible that came into that came into to

be written years right after Daniel so

their Theory falls apart which happened

before the events that Daniel was

talking about so you know they proved

themselves wrong in in that so you take

example um the other writings of the

time you know you've got uh uh our New

Testament scripture which we have

roughly 5,800 copies of of the of the

manuscripts and the text those were all

proven

real versus the other writing of the

time which we have no problem with home

R the same you we got roughly 2,000

copies of that and we don't have any

problem saying that that's real Homer

wrote that it's fine exactly but we do

question the Bible when we've got more

than almost when we got almost three

times the volume of just a new testament

not counting the the tens of thousands

of copies of that the Old Testament well

and of just agreed yes just agre let's

let's not forget that there are multiple

languages that that the New Testament

has been written in that are in that

same category yeah so as and we look at

those things and it's like now that

we're we're down the road aways we start

questioning what really happened

remember were the ancient writings those

that happened at the time they are so

real so accurate they were written by

eyewitness accounts and there's no way

that this 66 book is as cohesive as it

is if it's not true and it's not it's

not God's inspired word right you know

you take Plato Plato's writings we got

seven

original copies right Seven original

copies but yet we have no problem

describing them to

Plato and and and and and the and the

distance between them yes from from

Plato's original to when those when

those copies that we those seven copies

that we have um that's that that's that

whole Gap it's like 1,200 years you know

or our new testament is not 1,200 years

it's not a th000 years it's not 500

years exactly um you know these these

books are within so like you take the

Book of Revelation if you if you if you

look at at John and you can date that

somewhere around say 8090 you're within

50 years of Jesus of Jesus's

resurrection and his Ascension that that

book was that book was

written so you know the the the bottom

line is this is the world tries to

dispute and to negate the scripture

because that is the foundational

Cornerstone of what we have that's God's

holy word and we either negate it or we

try to change it we try to change it to

say what we want it to say we go away

from the origin scripts and we try to

make it say what we want to say and the

bottom line is you know going back to

what we started about with the lless

test is it positive or is it NE is it

true or is it not true you know for me I

studied it we talked last session about

you know different people that had

studied it and tried to prove it wrong

and ultimately LED them to on their path

to find Christ and find the Bible is

true yeah um we talk about in Sunday

school and our our messages and

Wednesday night services you know as we

Del into this we Del into them you know

way deep and and you find those those

threads and say there is no way this is

not a cohesive writing that's why I have

no problem with accepting the Bible as

it's written as God's holy inspired word

yeah me too U and so those are some of

the common things and so if we just run

back over the last few weeks um and and

recap kind of what we've talked about

you know you know why we believe this

Bible um and and and really at the end

of the day you're going to have to start

a journey of

faith that takes you down a path of

knowledge that puts your faith on a sure

Foundation to believe in this but you've

got to start at the beginning and the

beginning is get one pick it up open it

let God begin to speak to you through it

and as you do

you'll begin to see those threats too

and you'll begin to uh start

recognizing God's story is amazing and

he put it together in an amazing way for

this very reason so that the answer

could be given to the question is this

really trustworthy is this really believ

yes and I say that it is absolutely the

most scrutinized book in the history of

books by magnitude of a thousand and

nobody's found the FL

because it doesn't exist that's right

and so with that we're going to close

this series um that we've just done on

why the Bible is trustworthy and why we

believe it and we will see you guys next

week as we dive into a new topic on our

next shifting perspectives podcast thank

you for thank you for watching be sure

and share it with your friends you never

know who's out there that needs this

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