Trusting Your Bible

Here is a recap of Monday's lesson:

What is the Bible?
The Word of God. God's special revelation to humanity recorded in words (in contrast to general revelation, ie. nature, providential acts in history, moral consciences)

What is so unique about the Bible?
Compared to the holy books of other religions usually written by one person in the span of one lifetime, the Bible stands in a class of its own. It was written over a span of 1600 years by over 40 authors spanning over 60 generations. The authors came from different social backgrounds and wrote in different settings under different circumstances and in three different languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek). One would expect to find chaos and contradictions when you compile all the 66 books together, but instead we find continuity and an overarching narrative weaved throughout all the books.

Where did the Bible come from?
The Bible is a divinely inspired book given to us through human authors (1 Tim 3:16, 2 Pet 1:20-21). We believe that all (plenary/full) the words (verbal) of Scripture and not just the ideas are from God, and that what is written is without error (inerrant). Hence the label: verbal, plenary, inerrant inspiration. According to 2 Tim 3:16, God breathed out his words through the human authors using their perspectives and personalities. The divine-human nature of the Bible is often compared to the divine-human nature of Christ. Jesus is both God and man united in a single person. In the same way, Scripture is one book with both a divine and human element.

Does the Bible really have no errors?
If God is true (1 Jn 5:20) then anything he breathes must also be true. When we say the Bible is inerrant we mean that the Bible does not communicate falsehood/lies but truthful statements without error. Every word down to the last letter in the Bible (in the original writings) can be trusted as coming from God. This was Jesus' view of the OT (Jn 10:34 - every word; Mt 5:18 - every letter; Mt 22:32 - every tense).

Now when we say "without error" that cannot be interpreted in a purely scientific or strictly literal way. Inerrancy simply means that - b/c the Holy Spirit carried them along - the human authors made no mistakes in communicating what it was they meant to say. Remember that our claim of the Bible inerrancy must be qualified. We can allow for...
1) Different literary genres (ie. dont read poetry as literally as you would history),
2) Ordinary language of everyday speech (ie. figures of speech, approximations, imprecision)
3) Loose or free quotations from the OT (authors usually quoted ideas and not exact words)
4) Grammatical mistakes ("Jason be an man from America" is still a true statement)
5) Limited or general accounts of a story (explains why one Gospel mentions 2 blind men while another only mentions one man in the same story)
6) Transmissions error as the books were copied down

If inerrancy is limited to the original writings, then how can I trust my Bible?
We can trust our Bibles because we have very reliable copies to compare against. For example, before 1947 the earliest OT manuscript we possessed was dated back to 895 AD called the Masoretic text. Unfortunately that is a long time since the last book of the OT was written (Malachi ~ 5th century BC). But when we found the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947 we now possess copies of all the OT books (expect Esther) that date back to the 2nd to 1st century BC. And after comparing, we discovered that the Masoretic text (that all our OTs are based off of) is high accurate and reliable.

As for the NT, there is more evidence supporting its reliably than all the other ancient literature in its day (books that most people just take for granted as reliable!). There are over 24,000 manuscript copies of portions of the NT in existence today, ranking first in manuscript evidence among books of antiquity. The Iliad by Homer comes in second with a measly 643 surviving manuscripts.

WORK	WHEN WRITTEN	EARLIEST COPY	TIME SPAN	# COPIES
Homer (Iliad)	900 B.C.	400 B.C.	500 years	643
New Testament	40-100 A.D.	125 A.D.*	25 years	24,000+

Note that the time span from "when written" to "earliest copy" is only 25 years for the earliest surviving copy of the NT compared to 500 years for the earliest surviving copy of Iliad. What that chart is saying is that if you buy a copy of The Iliad from Chapters and read it trusting that what is written in your book accurately reflects what Homer wrote and communicated, then how much more should we trust that the Bible is God's word communicated to you as you read it?

Favorite Heroes and Books

I enjoyed hearing about your heroes and favorite books. Jessica's mention of Eric Liddell was pretty cool since I can really see her following his footsteps. In case you dont know much about Eric Liddell here is a simple bio.

Here is a link to the book I mentioned that shaped my understanding of worship.
Let the Nations Be Glad
If you scroll down the page you will see a link to download the first chapter of the book. It was that first chapter on worship that blew me away.

I dont remember everyone's book so please leave a comment and remind us of the book (and provide a link to it if possible)

Miracles, Science, and the Nature of Doubt

Here is a recap of Monday's small group discussion:

First, we argued that the miracles in the Bible cannot be refuted by science because the very goal of science is to seek explanations to the causes of certain events within the natural realm, but miracles by definition lie outside that realm. They are supernatural events that transcend the limits of scientific explanation. But though miracles transcend the natural, they do not defy the natural - they neither violate natural law nor logic.

One helpful source for clarification is C.S. Lewis in the chapter on Miracles in God in the Dock. In the section he explains that miracles are not a violation of natural law but either a "reversal or suspension" or simply "a localized occurrence of a universal phenomenon." The latter is a bit confusing. He illustrates by saying,

"Some of the miracles [in the NT] do locally what God has already done universally...God created the vine and teaches it to draw up water by its roots and, with the aid of the sun, to turn that water into a juice which will ferment and take on certain qualities. Thus every year, from Noah's time till ours, God turns water into wine. That men fail to see...they attribute real and ultimate causality to the chemical or other material phenomena which are all that our senses can discover in it. But when Christ at Cana makes water into wine, the mask if off." (John 2:1-11)

Second, some of us shared that we do not normally have doubts about the existence or historic reality of miracles but rather our doubts are usually over bigger things. If we think and ponder long enough, some creeping doubts begin to arise in our minds that have to do with God and the Bible.

A word of encouragement for you: doubt is not the direct opposite (the antithesis) of faith. Doubt and faith are not mutually exclusive things. It is possible to have a mature faith and still experience doubt (all Christians experience it to some degree). In actuality, doubt is the direct opposite of full knowledge If you have any trace of doubt about something, it is because you lack complete knowledge about it. But remember that our faith is ultimately not in a complete comprehension of facts but in a personal trust in an actual person, namely Jesus Christ.

For example, I have faith in my wife. That faith is not rooted in a complete 100% comprehension of everything about her (because I don't have that...or ever will) but simply in my trust of her as a person. So let's say I surprise her at work and discover her hugging another man that I do not know. Should I suddenly lose my faith in her because I don't know all the facts, specifically the identity of this man and the reason for their embrace? Such uncertainty could encourage doubt, but my personal trust in her overcomes all doubt. My faith in her is not based on knowing all the facts but based on her and everything I know about her backed by all the experience I’ve had with her, and all that evidence leads me to believe there must be another reason why she is hugging this guy. For all I know he could be a coworker whose wife just passed away from cancer and she was consoling him (this is all hypothetical by the way :)). The point is that a personal relationship with an individual always prevails over doubts concerning the details and facts we have yet to understand about the person. Faith is neither a blind leap in the dark (since it still involves evidence and experience) but nor is it a complete 100% knowledge in facts, void of doubt. Faith is an engagement of both heart and mind rooted in a real, growing relationship with another person.

But you might ask, "What if I doubt the existence of God altogether?" What if I sometimes think God is not even real or if all we've come to believe is just a delusion - nothing more than a fairy tale? How can you rely on a relationship with a person if you doubt their very existence?

First, I suggest you reread and meditate over that list of arguments for the existence of God in our book. Consider the weight of the evidence. Second, exercise whatever measure of faith you have (though it be small as a mustard seed) by asking God to reveal or confirm Himself to your heart and mind. Third, don't despair but also don't delay. Fall on your knees, open the Bible, encounter your Christ, consider the evidence, experience His presence, and lastly cry out to God with all the faith you have (along with the father of the boy with an unclean spirit who had his share of doubts), "I believe; help my unbelief!" (Mark 9:24).

Responding to the Virginia Tech Tragedy

Here is an article from John Piper on how to respond as Christians to the VTech shooting incident. It was written after Columbine but still very relevant.
21 ways to minister to those who are suffering

Here is another short article by Dr. Al Mohler, the President of Southern Baptist Seminary.
Facing the Reality of Evil

Was the Fear Factor too much?

Since nobody actually made it to Fear Factor (except me), I thought I'd share a bit about it... so everybody knows exactly what fun they missed!!

The first challenge was Roll-and-Eat! You had to roll a big fuzzy dice and your role determined what you had to eat. On the menu were things like chicken hearts, 1000 year old eggs, fish egg sauce (or something like that), a clove of garlic, globs of horseradish, and, last but not least, random insect skin molts! Yuck...

The next part of the evening had 3 stations:
1) Shock Factor: Hold on as long as you can as they zap electric current through your hand!
2) Fall Factor: Fall to the ground without flinching as long as you can!
3) Ice Water Challenge: Hold your breath as long as you can. The catch? Your head is upside down in a bucket of ice water!

Eight semi-finalists were then chosen. The semi-final challenge? RATS!!! They put your head in a plexiglass container and threw in 4 or 5 rats to brush across your neck, nibble in your ear, try to get in your mouth, and pick your nose for you! Whoever could stand the nibbling and fear the longest made it the finals.....

The finals: (reader discretion advised...)
The finalists had to move LIVE MAGGOTS from a platter to their plate... using their MOUTH! Yuck!! Oh, and that's not even the worst of it! The first person to eat 4 whole live maggots was awarded the victory!! If you don't know what a maggot is, ask your parents. Then ask if you can eat one to see what they say...

Oh, and there was this guy that brought in his pet tarantulas, scorpions, and frogs and stuff! Some people had the scorpions crawl over their hand...(note: they are venemous if they sting you).

It was definately fun. Click here to see some videos I took!

DO NOT MISS THIS EVENT NEXT YEAR!!!
(unless, of course, you're a chicken...)

DON'T FORGET!

We meet tomorrow (Monday, April 16) at Jessica's place. We'll be discussing chapter 2 of the Case for Faith. See you at 6:30!

Hello Yoofies! Welcome to the new Yoof blog. This is Cheryl, Yoof leader and blogger extraordinaire! I've been working hard to set up this site, which I hope you find to be truly amazing and useful so that we can continue to grow together as a group. Allow me to share some hopes I have for this blog...

First, after going through the first chapter of The Case for Faith, I realized that the questions we'd be covering would need more than our allotted hour and a half to cover. So, I hope that we can post the summaries of each meeting on here (as we have with the first one) and then we can leave comments and continue our discussions. That way we can all participate and the discussions can go on as long as they need to. This will also hopefully become something you can tell your friends about if you ever end up discussing these questions with them.

You might have also noticed some cool links on the side. I would like to draw your attention to the events calendar and the email yoof links. If you click on the events link, it will take you to an online calendar that we have posted upcoming meetings, events and other random goings on. We have set up a yoof email account as well (mostly cause we needed to for this blog) but also because if any of you want to write a blog entry as opposed to a comment, you can email it to this address, and we'll post it for you!

So visit often and let me know what you think and what you'd like to see on here! Peace out!

Cheryl

Suffering, Evil and a Good God

This week we went through chapter one of Lee Strobel's The Case For Faith, called Since Evil and Suffering Exist, A Good God Cannot. Here's a recap of our discussion:

- God is sovereignly in control over evil, both moral and natural evil
- God controls evil by withholding grace (goodness) and permitting sin to manifest itself in evil acts
- But humans are still responsible for their sin (James 1:13-15)
- The Cross of Christ is the best example of God willing evil to take place but still holding humans accountable for their sin (Acts 2:23, 4:27-28)
- The Cross is also an example of God's two-fold will --> He wills for us not to murder but also wills the murder of His Son
- God can see things from a wide-angle lens --> He sees the bigger picture of how evil is used for good, which one day He will share with His children
- Application: Luke 13:1-5 --> Jesus reminds us that the main point of every story of oppression or calamity or evil or suffering is to lead us to repentance. Those who suffer aren't suffering b/c they're worst sinners. We are all sinners just the same. So when we realize how Christ has spared us with his mercy, then we have to repent for having such a small view of God's mercy and repent for our tendency to blame God one day when we see suffering but fail to praise him for a thousand days free of suffering, disease, or calamity.

We closed with worship, listening to a wicked song by Andrew Peterson called After the Last Tear Falls. Click here for the lyrics.

John Piper's article on 9/11 and the topic of God and Suffering is also a good resource. Click here to read it!

Show me the Money! - Amplify #2

DREAM COME TRUE!

This is so absolutely cool.....thanks cheryl for setting this up! How do I add photos?

FEAR FACTOR!!!!!

Friday, April 13 at Collingwood Baptist Church.

More information to follow...

under construction

This blog is still in progress...I'm still playing around, but feel free to read about what we've been talking about...