QUESTIONS AND STATEMENTS ON THE BIBLE

From the Evidence Bible, Compiled by Ray Comfort

(Comments by Harold M. Lind)

Below are a number of questions, statements, and objections. Some of them are from non-believers that pose questions to prove in their mind that the Bible is not true. They think that by “stumping” a Christian, they somehow have disproved the Bible. What they don’t understand is that the Bible stands by itself. It doesn’t need to be proved true. It is the inspired Word of God. If someone chooses to not believe in it, he will find out later, when it is probably too late, that it is true. And God will have to judge his sins because he hasn’t been washed clean in the blood of Jesus. There are other questions about what the Bible says, and other topics such as how to tell others about Jesus Christ, why we can’t just lead a “good” life to go to heaven, and why God must judge sin.

Why do some say that the Bible is unique?

In 1889 a schoolteacher told a ten-year-old boy. “You will never amount to very much.” That boy was Albert Einstein. In 1954 a music manager told a young singer, “You ought to go back to driving a truck.” That singer was Elvis Presley. In 1962 a record company told a group of singers, “We don’t like your sound. Groups with guitars are definitely on their way out.” They said that to the Beatles. Man is prone to make mistakes. Those who reject the Bible should take the time to look at the evidence before they come to a verdict.

1. It is unique in its continuity. If just 10 people today were picked who were from the same place, born around the same time, spoke the same language, and made about the same amount of money, and were asked to write on just one controversial subject, they would have trouble agreeing with each other. But the Bible stands along. It was written over a period of 1,600 years by more than 40 writers from all walks of life. Some were fishermen; some were politicians. Others were generals or kings, shepherds or historians. They were from three different continents, and wrote in three different languages. They wrote on hundreds of controversial subjects yet they wrote with agreement and harmony. They wrote in dungeons, in temples, on beaches, and on hillsides, during peacetime and during war. Yet their words sound like they came from the same source. So even though 10 people today couldn’t write on one controversial subject and agree, God picked 40 different people to write the Bible – and it stands the test of time.

2. It is unique in its circulation. The invention of the printing press in 1450 made it possible to print books in large quantities. The first book printed was the Bible. Since then, the Bible has been read by more people and printed more times than any other book in history. By 1930, over one billion Bibles had been distributed by Bible societies around the world. By 1977, Bible societies alone were printing over 200 million Bibles each year, and this number doesn’t include the many other Bible publishers. No one who is interested in knowing the truth can ignore such an important book.

3. It is unique in its translation. The Bible has been translated into over 1,400 languages. No other book even comes close.

4. It is unique in its survival. In ancient times, books were copied by hand onto manuscripts, which were made from parchment and would decay over time. Ancient books are available today only because someone made copies of the originals to preserve them. For example, the original writings of Julius Caesar are no longer around. We know what he wrote only by the copies we have. Only 10 copies still exist, and they were made 1,000 years after he died. Only 600 copies of homer’s The Iliad exist, made 1,300 years after the originals were written. No other book has as many copies of ancient manuscripts as the Bible. In fact, there are over 24,000 copies of New Testament manuscripts, some written within 35 years of the writer’s death.

5. It is unique in withstanding attack. No other book has been so attacked throughout history as the Bible. In 300AD the Roman emperor Diocletian ordered every Bible burned because he thought that by destroying the Scriptures he could destroy Christianity. Anyone caught with a Bible would be executed. But just 25 years later, the Roman emperor Constantine ordered that 50 perfect copies of the Bible be made at government expense. The French philosopher Voltaire, a skeptic who destroyed the faith of many people, boasted that within 100 years of his death, the Bible would disappear from the face of the earth. Voltaire died in 1728, but the Bible lives on. The irony of history is that 50 years after his death, the Geneva Bible Society moved into his former house and used his printing presses to print thousands of Bibles (does God have a sense of humor or what?). The bible has also survived criticism. No book has been more attacked for its accuracy. And yet archeologists are proving every year that the Bible’s detailed descriptions of historic events are correct. (Compiled by Justin and Jordan Drake).

The Bible has changed down through the ages.

No, it hasn’t. God has preserved His Word. In the spring of 1947, the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered. These manuscripts were copies of large portions of the Old Testament, a thousand years older than any other existing copies. Study of the scrolls has revealed that the Bible hasn’t changed in content down through the ages as many skeptics had surmised.

Anyone can now obtain access to computer programs that give the original Hebrew and Greek words, and the only “changes” have been made for clarity. For example, the old English translation of 2 Corinthians 12:8 is “For this thing I besought the Lord thrice…,” while a contemporary translation is “Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times…”

What does God’s Word say about Abortion?

God speaks very clearly in the Bible on the value of unborn children.

God’s word says that He personally made each one of us, and has a plan for each life: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart” (Jeremiah 1:5). “Even before I was born, God had chosen me to be His” (Galatians 1:15). “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb…Your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be” (Psalm 139:13,16). “Your hands shaped me and made me… Did you not clothe me with skin and flesh and knit me together with bones and sinews? You gave me life” (Job 10:8-12). “This is what the Lord says – He who made you, who formed you in the womb” (Isaiah 44:2). “Did not He who made me in the womb make them? Did not the same One form us both within our mothers?” (Job 31:15).

Because man is made in God’s own image (Genesis 1:27), each life is of great value to God: “Children are a gift from God” (Psalm 127:3). He even calls our children His own: “You took your sons and daughters whom you bore to Me and sacrificed them… You slaughtered My children” (Ezekiel 16:20-21).

The bible says of our Creator, “In His hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of every human being” (Job 12:10). God, the giver of life, commands us not to take the life of an innocent person: “Do not shed innocent blood” (Jeremiah 7:6); “Cursed is the man who accepts a bribe to kill an innocent person” (Deuteronomy 27:25). “You shall not murder” (Exodus 20:13).

Taking the life of the unborn is clearly murder – “He didn’t kill me in the womb, with my mother as my grave” (Jeremiah 20:17) – and God vowed to punish those who “ripped open the women with child” (Amos 1:13). The unborn child was granted equal protection in the law; if he lost his life, the one who caused his death must lose his own life: “If men who are righting hit a pregnant woman and she gives birth prematurely but there is no serious injury, the offender must be fined… Bit if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life” (Exodus 21:22-23).

Life is a gift created by God, and is not to be taken away by abortion. God is “pro-choice,” but He tells us clearly the only acceptable choice to make: “I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live” (Deuteronomy 30:19). By Lynn Copeland.

How would you respond to the following situations?

1. A preacher and his wife are very, very poor. They already have 14 kids. Now she finds out she’s pregnant with the 15^th. They’re living in tremendous poverty. Considering their poverty and the excessive world population, would you consider recommending she get an abortion?

2. The father is sick with sniffles; the mother has TB. Of their four children, the first is blind, the second has died, the third is deaf, and the fourth has TB. She finds she’s pregnant again. Given this extreme situation, would you consider recommending abortion?

3. A white man raped a 13-year-old black girl and she’s now pregnant. If you were her parents, would you consider recommending abortion?

4. A teenage girl is pregnant. She’s not married. Here fiancé is not the father of the baby, and her fiancé is upset. Would you recommend abortion?

In the first case, you would have killed John Wesley, one of the great evangelists in the 19^th century. In the second case, you would have killed Beethoven. In the third case, you would have killed Ethel Waters, the great black gospel singer. If you said yes to the fourth case, you would have declared the murder of Jesus Christ.

God is the author of life, and He has given every single individual supreme value. Each life, whether inside or outside of the womb, should therefore be valued by us. God knows the plans He has for each individual and has written in His book all the days ordained for us before one of them came to be.

When we presume to know better than God who should be given life, we are putting ourselves in the place of God and are guilty of idolatry.

The Bible calls the hare a cud-chewing animal. But, as any veterinarian could tell you, this statement is false.

This statement is made in Leviticus 11:6, where the Hebrew literally means “daises up what has been swallowed.” The rabbit does re-eat partially digested fecal pellets that come from a special pouch called the caecum. Bacteria in these pellets enrich the diet and provide nutrients to aid digestion. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica: “Some lagomorphs [rabbits and hares] are capable of re-ingesting moist and nutritionally rich fecal pellets, a practice considered comparable to cud-chewing in ruminants… The upper tooth rows are more widely separated than the lower rows, and chewing is done with a transverse movement.”

The fact that there are so many versions proves that the Bible has mistakes. Which one is right?

True, there are many different versions of the Bible. There are versions in Chinese for the Chinese. There are versions in Russian for the Russian people. There are actually thousands of versions of the Bible – some are in modern languages, some in foreign languages, and some are in old English. Few, in the printing age, can claim that they don’t have access to the Scriptures in their own language. However, each translation is based on the original biblical texts.

Christianity oppresses women by making them submit to their husbands.

The Bible does say, “Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands, as to the Lord,” but also instructs, “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself for it” (Ephesians 5:22,25). A man who understands that Jesus Christ sacrificed His life’s blood for the Church will likewise love his wife sacrificially and passionately. He will honor her, respect her, protect, love, and cherish her as much as he does his own body, as he is instructed to do (Ephesians 5:28). He will never say or do anything to harm or demean her. It is in this atmosphere of love and security that a godly wife willingly submits herself to the protective arms of her husband. She does this not because he is better than she is, but simply because this is God’s order for His creation.

A godless world rejects the God-given formula to make marriage work. It thinks it knows best, and suffers the heartbreaking consequences of destroyed marriages and ruined lives. The Christian ideal of marriage is not one of an authoritarian and chauvinistic male holding his cringing wife in submission like an obedient dog. It’s the very opposite. While most of the great religions treat women as inferior to men, the Bible gives them a place of dignity, honor, and unspeakable worth, expressed so evidently in Proverbs 31.

Does Archaeology and History validate what the Bible says on these subjects?

No other ancient book is questioned or maligned like the Bible. Critics looking for the flyspeck in the masterpiece allege that there was a long span between the time the events in the New Testament occurred and when they were recorded. They claim another gap exists archaeologically between the earliest copies made and the autographs of the New Testament. In reality, the alleged spaces and so-called gaps exist only in the minds of the critics.

Manuscript Evidence: Aristotle’s Ode to Poetics was written between 384 and 322 B.C. The earliest copy of this work is dated A.D. 1,100, and there are only forty-nine extant manuscripts. The gap between the original writing and the earliest copy is 1,400 years. There are only seven extant manuscripts of Plato’s Tetralogies, written 427-347 B.C. The earliest copy is A.D. 900 – a gap of over 1,200 years. What about the New Testament? Jesus was crucified in A.D. 30. The New Testament was written between A.D. 48 and 95. The oldest manuscripts date to the last quarter of the first century, and the second oldest A.D. 125. This gives us a narrow gap of thirty-five to forty years from the originals written by the apostles.

From the early centuries, we have some 5,300 Greek manuscripts of the New Testament. Altogether, including Syriac, Latin, Coptic, and Aramaic, we have whopping 24,633 texts of ancient New Testament to confirm the wording of the Scriptures. SO the bottom line is, there was no great period between the events of the New Testament and the New Testament writings. Nor is there a great time lapse between the original writings and the oldest copies. With the great body of manuscript evidence, it can be proved, beyond a doubt, that the New Testament says exactly the same things today as it originally did nearly 2,000 years ago.

Corroborating Writings: Critics also charge that there is no ancient writing about Jesus outside the New Testament. This is another ridiculous claim. Writings confirming His birth, ministry, death, and resurrection include Flavius Josephus (A.D. 93), the Babylonian Talmud (A.D. 70-200), Pliny the Younger’s letter to the Emperor Trajan (approximately A.D 100), the Annals of Tacitus (A.D 115-117), Mara Bar Serapion (sometime after A.D 73), and Suetonius’ Life of Claudius and Life of Nero (A.D. 120). Another point of contention arises when Bible critics have knowingly or unknowingly misled people my implying that Old and New Testament books are either excluded from or added into the canon of Scripture at the great ecumenical councils of A.D 336, 382, 397, and 410. In fact, one result of these gatherings was to confirm the Church’s belief that the books already in the Bible were divinely inspired. Therefore, the Church, at these meetings, neither added to nor took away from the books of the Bible. At that time, the thirty-nine Old Testament books had already been accepted, and the New Testament, as it was written, simply grew up with the ancient Church. Each document, being accepted as it was penned in the first century, was then passed on to Christians of the next century. So, this foolishness about the Roman Emperor Constantine dropping books from the Bible is simply uneducated rumor.

Fulfilled Prophecies: Prophecies from the Old and New Testaments that have been fulfilled (see The Bible Tells The Future for a more complete list of prophecies) also add credibility to the Bible. The Scriptures predicted the rise and fall of great empires Like Greece and Rome (Daniel 2:39,40), and foretold the destruction of cities like Tyre and Sidon (Isaiah 23). Tyre’s demise is recorded by ancient historians, who tell how Alexander the Great laid siege to the city for seven months. King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had railed in a 13-year attempt to capture the seacoast city and completely destroy its inhabitants. During the siege of 573 B.C., much of the population of Tyre moved to its new island home approximately half a mile from the land city. Here it remained surrounded by walls as high as 150 feet until judgment fell in 332 B.C. with the arrival of Alexander the Great. In the seven-month siege, he fulfilled the remainder of the prophecies (Zechariah 9:4; Ezekiel 26:12) concerning the city at sea by completely destroying Tyre, killing 8,000 of its inhabitants and selling 30,000 of its population into slavery. To reach the island, he scraped up the dust and rubble of the old land city of Tyre, just like the Bible predicted, and cast them into the sea, building a 200-foot wide causeway out to the island.

Alexander’s death and the murder of his two sons were also foretold in the Scripture. Another startling prophecy was Jesus’ detailed prediction of Jerusalem’s destruction, and the further spreading of the Jewish Diaspora throughout the world, which is recorded in Luke 21. In A.D 70, not only was Jerusalem destroyed by Titus, the future emperor of Rome, but another prediction of Jesus Christ in Matthew 24:1-2 came to pass – the complete destruction of the temple of God.

Messianic Prophecies: In the Book of Daniel, the Bible prophesied the coming of the one and only Jewish Messiah prior to the temple’s demise. The Old Testament prophets declared He would be born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2) to a virgin (Isaiah 7:14), be betrayed for thirty pieces of silver (Zechariah 11:12-13), die by crucifixion (Psalm 22), and be buried in a rich man’s tomb (Isaiah 53:9). Here was only one person who fits all of the messianic prophecies of the Old Testament (there were over 300 of them) who lived before A.D 70: Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of Mary.

Yes, the Bible is an amazing book (By Richard M. Fales, Ph.D.)

When the Bible says “an eye for an eye,” it encourages us to take the law in our own hands by avenging wrongdoing.

This verse is so often misquoted by the world. Many believe it is giving a license to take matters into our own hands and render evil for evil. In reality, it is referring to civil law concerning restitution. If someone steals you ox, he is to restore the ox. If someone steals and wrecks your car, he is to but you another one… a car for a car, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.

The spirit of what Jesus is saying here is radically different from the “sue the shirt off the back of your neighbor: society in which we live.

There are contradictions in the resurrection accounts. Did Christ appear first to the women or to His disciples?

Both Matthew and Mark list women as the first to see the resurrected Christ. Mark says, “He appeared first to Mary Magdalene” (Mark 16:9). But Paul lists Peter (Cephas) as the first one to see Christ after His resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:5).

Jesus appeared first to Mary Magdalene, then to the other women, and then to Peter. Paul was not giving a complete list, but only the important one for his purpose. Since only men’s testimony was considered legal or official in the first century, it is understandable that the apostle would not list the women as witnesses in his defense of the resurrection here.

The order of appearances of Christ is as follows:

1. Mary John 20:10-18

2. Mary and women Matthew 28:1-10

3. Peter 1 Corinthians 15:5

4. Two disciples Luke 24:13-35

5. Ten apostles Luke 24:36-49; John 20:19-23

6. Eleven apostles John 20:24-31

7. Seven apostles John 21

8. All apostles Matthew 28:16-20; Mark 16:14-18

9. 500 Brethren 1 Corinthians 15:6

10. James 1 Corinthians 15:7

11. All apostles Acts 1:4-8

12. Paul Acts 9:1-9; 1 Corinthians 15:8

Are there contradictions in the Bible? Why are they there?

The Bible has many seeming contradictions within its pages. For example, the four Gospels give four differing accounts as to what was written on the sign that hung on the cross. Matthew said, “This is Jesus the King of the Jews” (Matthew 27:37). However, Mark contradicts that with “The King of the Jews” (Mark 15:26). Luke says something different: “This is the King of the Jews” (Luke 23:38), and John maintains that the sign said “Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews” (John 19:19). Those who are looking for contradictions may therefore say, “See – the Bible is full of mistakes!” and choose to reject it entirely as being untrustworthy.

However, those who trust God have no problem harmonizing the Gospels. There is no contradiction if the sign simply said, “This is Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews.” The godly base their confidence on two truths: 1) “all Scripture is given by inspiration of God” (2 Timothy 3:16); and 2) an elementary rule of Scripture is that God has deliberately included seeming contradictions in His Word to “snare” the proud. He has “hidden” things from the “wise and prudent” and “revealed them to babes” (Luke 10:21), purposely choosing foolish things to confound the wise (1 Corinthians 1:27).

If an ungodly man refuses to humble himself and obey the gospel, and instead desires to build a case against the Bible, God gives him enough material to build his own gallows.

This incredible principle is clearly illustrated in the account of the capture of Zedekiah, king of Judah. Jeremiah the prophet told Zedekiah that God would judge him. He was informed that he would be “delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon” (Jeremiah 32:4). This is confirmed in Jeremiah 39:5-7 where we are told that he was captured and brought to King Nebuchadnezzar, then they “bound him with chains, to carry him to Babylon… yet he shall not see it, though he shall die there.” Here is material to build a case against the Bible! It is an obvious mistake. Three Bible verses say that the king would go to Babylon, and yet the Bible in another place says that he would not see Babylon. How can someone be taken somewhere and not see it? It makes no sense at all – unless Zedekiah was blinded. And that is precisely what happened. Zedekiah saw Nebuchadnezzar face to face, saw his sons killed before his eyes, then “the king of Babylon… put out Zedekiah’s eyes” before taking him to Babylon (Jeremiah 39:6-7). This is the underlying principle behind the many “contradictions” of Holy Scripture (such as how many horses David had, who was the first to arrive at the tomb after the resurrection of Jesus, etc.).

God has turned the tables on proud, arrogant, self-righteous man. When he proudly stands outside of the kingdom of God, and seeks to justify his sinfulness through evidence he thinks discredits the Bible, he doesn’t realize that God has simply lowered the door of life, so that only those who are prepared to exercise faith, and bow in humility may enter.

It is interesting to note that the seeming contradictions in the four Gospels attest to the fact that there was no corroboration between the writers.

How many angels were at the tomb – one or two?

The question has arisen simply because Matthew and Mark mention one angel, whereas Luke and John refer to two. There is no conflict if there were two angels but Matthew and Mark quote the one who was the spokesperson.

Where do all the races come from?

Some have wondered, if we are all descendents of Adam and Eve, why are there so many races? The Bible informed us 2000 years ago that God has made all nations from “one blood.” We are all of the same race – the “human race,” descendents of Adam and Eve, something science is slowly coming to realize.

Reuters news service reported the following article by Maggie Fox:

Science may have caught up with the Bible, which says that Adam and Eve are ancestors of all humans alive today. Peter Underhill of Stanford University in California remarked on findings published in the November 2000 issue of the Journal Nature Genetics… Geneticists have long agreed there is no genetic basis to race – only to ethnic and geographic groups. “People look at a very conspicuous trait like skin color and then say, ‘Well, this person’s so different’… but that’s only skin deep,” Underhill said. “When you look at the level of the Y chromosome you find that, gee, there is very little difference between them. And skin color differences are strictly a consequence of climate.

I’ve tried to read the Bible, but I can’t understand it

The Scriptures tell us that the “natural man” cannot understand the things of the Spirit of God. Most Americans would find it difficult to understand the Chinese Language. However, a child who is born into a Chinese family can understand every word. That’s why you must be born again with God’s Spirit living within you (John 3:3). The moment you become part of God’s family, the Bible will begin to make sense.

Adam was a mythical figure who never really lived

Adam is a key figure in Scripture. He is described as the first Adam, the one who brought sin into the world. He made it necessary for Jesus, the last Adam, to atone for all humans, and then rise from the grave with the promise of complete redemption for fallen man and fallen creation. If Adam was just a myth, we would not be able to fully understand the work of Jesus.

If Adam and Eve were not real, then we ought to doubt whether their children were real too, and their children… and then we ought to doubt the first 11 chapters of Genesis, and so on. All the genealogies accept Adam as being a literal person, so their children Cain and Abel (Genesis 4:9-10; Luke 11:50-51) must be real too. Jesus was descended from Adam, and it is impossible to be descended from a myth.

What is this thing called “spiritual warfare?”

Before you became a Christian, you floated downstream with the other dead fish. But now, God has put His life within you, and you will find yourself swimming against a threefold current: the world, the devil, and the flesh. Let’s look at these three resistant enemies.

Our first enemy is the world, which refers to the sinful, rebellious, world system. The world loves the darkness and hates the light (John 3:20), and is governed by the prince of the power of the air (Ephesians 2:2). The Bible says the Christian has escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. Lust is unlawful desire, and is the life’s blood of the world whether it be the lust for sexual sin, for power, for money, for material things. Lust is a monster that will never be gratified, so don’t feed it. It will grow bigger and bigger until it weighs heavy upon your back, and will be the death of you (James 1:15).

There is nothing wrong with sex, power, money, or material things, but when desire for these becomes predominant, it becomes idolatry. We are told, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the worked, the love of the Father is not in him whoever is a friend of the worked, is the enemy of God” (1 John 2:15; James 4:4).

The second enemy is the devil, who is the god of this world (2 Corinthians 4:4). He was your spiritual father before you joined the family of God (John 8:44; Ephesians 2:2). Jesus called the devil a thief who came to steak, kill, and destroy (John 10:10).

The way to overcome him and his demons is to make sure you are outfitted with the spiritual armor of God (Ephesians 6:10,20). Become intimately familiar with it. Sleep on it. Never take it off. Bind the sword to you hand so you never lose its grip. The reason for this brings us to the third enemy.

The third enemy is what the bible calls the “flesh.” This is your sinful nature. The domain for the battle is your mind.

If you have a mind to, you will be attracted to the world and all its sin. The mind is the control panel for the eyes and ears, the center of your appetites. All sin begins in the heart (Proverbs 4:23; Matthew 15:19). We think of sin before we commit it. James 1:15 warns that lust brings forth sin, and sin when it’s conceived brings forth death. Every day of life, we have a choice. To sin or not to sin that is the question. The answer is the fear of God. If you don’t fear God, you will sin to your sinful heart’s delight.

Did you know that God kills people? He killed a man for what he did sexually (Genesis 38:9-10), killed another man for being greedy (Luke 12:15-21), and killed a husband and wife for lying (Acts 5:1-10). Knowledge of God’s goodness His righteous judgments against evil shoul dput the fear of God in us and help us not to indulge in sin.

If we know that the eye of the Lord is in every place beholding the evil and the good, and that He will bring every work to judgment, we will live accordingly. Such weighty thoughts are valuable, for by the fear of the Lord men depart from evil (Proverbs 16:6).

Adam didn’t die the day God said he would!

He certainly did. He died spiritually. The moment he sinned, he became “dead in trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1). Ezekiel 18:4 says, “The soul that sins, it shall die.” It is because we are born spiritually dead that Jesus came to give us spiritual life (John 5:40; 10:10; 14:6; etc.). This is why Jesus told us that we must be born again (John 3:3). When we repent of our sins and believe in Jesus Christ, the bible tells us that we “pass from death to life” (John 5:24; Romans 6:13; 1 John 3:14).

“We are born dead in trespasses and sins, alienated, cut off, detached from the life of God. The day that man believed the devil’s lie (which is sin), he forfeited the life that distinguished him from the animal kingdom – the life of God. When sin came in, the life went out.” - Ian Thomas

Do Christians have to “keep the Sabbath?”

Some today insist that Christians must keep the Sabbath day; that those who worship on the first day of the week (Sunday) are in great error. They reason that “Sun-day” comes from the pagan worship of the Sun god, that Jesus and Paul kept the Sabbath day as an example for us to follow, and that the Roman Catholic church is responsible for the change in the day of worship. Those who continue to worship on Sunday will receive the mark of the beast.

Let’s briefly look at these arguments. First, nowhere does the Fourth Commandment say that Christians are to worship on the Sabbath. It commands that we rest on that day: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shall you labor, and do all your work: But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God: in it you shall not do any work… For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the seam and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it” (Exodus 20:8-11).

Sabbath-keepers worship on Saturday. However, the word “Satur-day” comes from the Latin for “Saturn’s day,” a pagan day of worship of the planet Saturn (astrology).

If a Christian’s salvation depends upon his keeping a certain day, surely God would have told us. At one point, the apostles gathered specifically to discuss the relationship of believers to the Law of Moses. Acts 15:5-11, 24-29 was God’s opportunity to make His will clear to His children. All He had to do to save millions from damnation was say, “Remember to keep the Sabbath holy,” and millions of Christ-centered, God-loving, Bible-believing Christians would have gladly kept it. Instead, the only commands the apostles gave were to “abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication.”

There isn’t even one command in the New Testament for Christians to keep the Sabbath holy. In fact, we are told not to let others judge us regarding Sabbaths (Colossian 2:16), and that man was not made for the Sabbath, but the Sabbath for man (Mark 2:27). The Sabbath was given as a sign to Israel (Exodus 31:13-17); nowhere is it given as a sign to the Church. Thousands of years after the Commandment was given we can still see the sign that separates Israel from the world – they continue to keep the Sabbath holy.

The apostles came together on the first day of the week to break bread (Acts 20:7). The collection was taken on the first day of the week (1 Corinthians 16:2). When do Sabbath-keepers gather together to break bread or take up the collection? It’s not on the same day as the early Church. They tell us that the Roman Catholic church changed their day of worship from Saturday to Sunday, but what has that got to do with the disciples keeping the first day of the week? That was the Roman Catholic church in the early centuries, not the Church of the Book of Acts.

Romans 14:5-10 tells us that one man esteems one day of the week above another; another esteems every day alike. Then Scripture tells us that everyone should be fully persuaded in his own mind. We are not to judge each other regarding the day on which we worship.

Jesus did keep the Sabbath. He had to keep the whole Law to be the perfect sacrifice. The bible makes it clear that the Law has been satisfied in Christ. The reason Paul went to the synagogue each Sabbath wasn’t to keep the Law; that would have been contrary to everything he taught about being saved by grace alone (Ephesians 2:8-9). It was so he could preach the gospel to the Jews, as evident in the Book of Acts. Paul has an incredible evangelistic zeal for Israel to be saved (Romans 10:1). To the Jew he became as a Jew, that he might win the Jews (1 Corinthians 9:19-20). That meant he went to where they gathered on the day they gathered.

D.L. Moody said, “The Law can only chase a man to Calvary, no further.” Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law so we are no longer in bondage to it. If we try to keep one part of the Law (even out of love for God), we are obligated to keep the whole Law (Galatians 3:10) – all 613 precepts.

If those who insist on keeping the Sabbath were a zealous about the salvation of the lost as they are about other Christians keeping the Sabbath, we would see revival.

Isn’t it blasphemous to call the Bible “God’s Word” when it makes Him look so bad?

I am going to tell you some things about my father that will make him look bad. He regularly left my mother to fend for herself. I was once horrified to hear that he deliberately killed a helpless animal. Not only that, but he hit me (often).

Here’s the information that’s missing: The reason he left my mom during the day was to work to earn money to take care of her and their children. He killed the animal because it had been run over by a car and was suffering. He regularly chastened me because he loved me enough to teach me right from wrong (I was a brat).

Portions of the Bible that “make God look bad” merely reveal that we lack understanding. I never once questioned my dad’s integrity, because I trusted him.

What are the Dead Sea Scrolls?

The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS) at Qumran in 1949 had significant effects in corroborating evidence for the Scriptures. The ancient texts, found hidden in pots in cliff-top caves by a monastic religious community, confirm the reliability of the Old Testament text. These texts, which were copied and studied by the Essenes, include one complete Old Testament book (Isaiah) and thousands of fragments, representing every Old Testament book except Esther.

The manuscripts date from the third century B.C. to the first century A.D. and give the earliest window found so far into the texts of the Old Testament books and their predictive prophecies. The Qumran texts have become an important witness for the divine origin of the Bible, providing further evidence against the criticism of such crucial books as Daniel and Isaiah.

Dating the Manuscripts: Carbon-14 dating is a reliable form of scientific dating when applied to uncontaminated material several thousand years old. Results indicated an age of 1917 years with a 200-year (10 percent) variant.

Paleography (ancient writing forms) and orthography (spelling) indicated that some manuscripts were inscribed before 100 B.C. Albright set the date of the complete Isaiah scroll to around 100 B.C. there can happily not be the slightest doubt in the world about the genuineness of the manuscript.

Archeological Dating: Collaborative evidence for an early date came from archeology. Pottery accompanying the manuscripts was late Hellenistic (c. 150-63 B.C.) and Early Roman (c. 63 B.C. to A.D. 100). Coins found in the monastery ruins proved by their inscriptions to have been minted between 135 B.C and A.D 135. The weave and pattern of the cloth supported an early date. There is no reasonable doubt that the Qumran manuscripts came from the century before Christ and the first century A.D.

Significance of the Dating: Previous to the DSS, the earliest known manuscript of the Old Testament was the Masoretic Text (A.D. 900) and two others (dating about A.D. 1000) from which, for example, the King James Version of the Old Testament derived its translation. Perhaps most would have considered the Masoretic text as a very late text and therefore questioned the reliability of the Old Testament wholesale. The Dead Sea Scrolls eclipse these texts by 1,000 years and provide little reason to question their reliability, and further, present only confidence for the text. The beauty of the Dead Sea Scrolls lies in the close match that have with the Masoretic text demonstrable evidence of reliability and preservation of the authentic text through the centuries. So the discovery of the DSS provides the evidence for the following: 1) Confirmation of the Hebrew Text. 2) Support for the Masoretic Text. 3) Support for the Greek translation of the Hebrew Text (the Septuagint). Since the New Testament often quotes from the Greek Old Testament, the DSS furnish the reader with further confidence for the Masoretic texts in this area where it can be tested. (William F. Albright – Generated from Norman Geisler, Dead Sea Scrolls, Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics)

Why should I read the Bible daily?

A healthy baby has a healthy appetite. If you have truly been “born” of the Spirit of God, you will have a healthy appetite. The Bible says, “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the Word, that you may grow thereby (1 Peter 2:2). Feed yourself daily without fail. Job said, “I have esteemed the words of His mouth more than my necessary food” (Job 23:12). The more you eat, the quicker you will grow, and the less bruising you will have. Speed up the process and save yourself some pain; vow to read God’s Word every day, without fail. Say to yourself, “No Bible no breakfast, no read no feed.” Be like Job, and put your Bible before your belly. If you do that, God promises that you will be like a fruitful, strong, and healthy tree (Psalm 1). Each day, find somewhere quiet and thoroughly soak your soul in the Word of God.

There may be times when you read through its pages with great enthusiasm, and other times when it seems dry and even boring. But food profits your body whether you enjoy it or not. As a child, you no doubt ate desserts with great enthusiasm. Perhaps vegetables weren’t so exciting. If you were a normal child, you probably had to be encouraged to eat them at first. Then, as you matured in life you were taught to discipline yourself to eat vegetables, because they benefit you physically even though they may not bring pleasure to your taste buds.

Didn’t men write the Bible?

Absolutely. When you write a letter, do you write the letter, or does the pen? Obviously you do; the pen is merely the instrument you use. God used men as instruments to write His letter to humanity. They ranged from kings to common fishermen, but the 66 books of the Bible were all given by inspiration of God. Proof that this Book is supernatural can be seen with a quick study of its prophecies.

Where did Cain get his wife?

Many ask the question thinking they’ve found a mistake in the Bible that there must have been other people besides Adam and Eve. Scripture tells us that Adam is the first man (1 Corinthians 15:45); that there were no other humans when he was created, because God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone” (Genesis 2:18); and that Eve is “the mother of all living” (Genesis 3:20). Cain and Abel, then, must have married distant sisters. All of the first-generation siblings married each other in order to populate the earth. At that time there was no law against incest. But as the population grew large enough, and as the risk of genetic problems increased because of sin’s curse, God outlawed marriage between siblings.

The Bible teaches that the earth is flat

This is often claimed because the Bible says that every eye will see Jesus at His Second Coming. However, it would seem that His coming will envelop the entire earth.