Has The Bible Been Corrupted?

Despite the claims of Mormons, Muslims, Divinci Code lovers, and a multitude of college professors, I believe the Bible stands as the uncorrupted Word of God. As evidence we could talk about the 23,000 or so partial  New Testament manuscripts, which is far more than any ancient text by far. Or we could even talk about how the New Testament could be reconstructed even if every bible on earth was destroyed because the early church fathers quoted the New Testament so extensively (that is very a very strong piece of evidence in my opinion). Instead I would like to take a little simpler approach that cuts right to the core of the Christian message and gives great validity to the core New Testament message.  Please read the following passage, determine in your mind who the passage is speaking about, and then following the passage I will tell you why I think it is a great help to determining the reliability of the Bible.

1 Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?

2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.

3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

4 Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.

5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.

6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

7 He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.

8 By oppression [a] and judgment he was taken away. And who can speak of his descendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living;
for the transgression of my people he was stricken. [b]

9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.

10 Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the LORD makes [c] his life a guilt offering,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand.

11 After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life [d] and be satisfied [e] ; by his knowledge [f] my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.

12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death,
and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

          I once read about a Jewish man that was given the above passage by a Christian friend.  The Christian asked the Jewish man to read the passage and to figure out the identity of the man spoken of in this passage.  The Jewish man replied that this was obviously speaking about Jesus from a Christian perspective.  The Christian Proceeded to inform his Jewish friend that this passage was actually taken from his Jewish scriptures, Isaiah 53 to be exact.  The Jewish man replied by saying that the Christian had a “Trick Bible”. 

         This passage is obviously speaking about the Death of Jesus Christ and his atonement for the sins His people.  This Gem in the book of Isaiah was actually written about 800 years before Jesus even steped foot on earth and several hundred years before crucifixion was even invented.  Obviously this is a great prophecy of the wrath Jesus would drink down on the Cross, but beyond that you might be wondering way this text is significant in proving that the bible is not corrupted today.  In the latter part of the 1940’s a boy threw a rock into a cave in near the Dead Sea.  That rock struck and shattered a clay pot that was holding ancient texts.  This was the begining of the discovery of thousands of ancient texts over the next ten years.  Arguably the most important text that was discovered in the Dead Sea Scrolls was a full copy of the Book of Isaiah.  This manuscript has been determined to have been copied about 200 years before the birth of Jesus.  The Great thing is that this text proved that the book of Isaiah that we have today is the same as the one Jews used before the birth of Christ and obviously the basic message is still the same as seen in Isaiah 53——–Jesus was “pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities;…by his wounds we are healed. 

You can trust the bible———-You can trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins!  Please Repent and trust in Him today.

 

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Is Abortion Murder or “Choice”?

Praise God abortion was illegal when my parents were conceived!  My mother was born to a young teenager who had an affair with a older married man.  Instead of aborting my mother in some “back alley”, my grandmother went away to visit relatives, had the baby, and then gave her up for adoption.  My father was also a whoopsie that was conceived out of wedlock in the days that sex outside marriage was still considered by our culture to be sinful.  So for obvious reasons I am glad abortion was not much of an option back then.

     My birth is even a bit of a miracle.  My mother has a autoimmune disease called Lupus.  The doctors told her that she could die if she chose to have me.  She chose life!  Thank you mom.

     Today abortion is considered by many to be just another means of birth control.  In fact, unknown to most women, most birth control pills have an abortive measure that goes into effect if the primary measure (prevention of conception) doesn’t work.  But for the purposes of this article I will consider weather or not elective abortion is an acceptable practice.

  Should abortion be legal?  Despite all the fog thrown up by the pro abortion folks, there is really only one question that needs to be answered—–What is the unborn?  If an unborn child is a human from the point of conception then abortion is an act of murder.  If the unborn are not a human, then have as many abortions as you would like. If abortion is like killing a tomato then there is no need to make abortion “safe and rare” like President Obama says.  From here I would like to make a short case that abortion is never safe because it always kills someone–the baby (not to mention the greatly increased risks of cancer for women who have an abortion).

     I have learned an extremely effective way to prove the human hood of an unborn child from a man named Scott Klusendorf (www.prolifetraining.com) by using an acronym called SLED.  Here is how Scott presents the philosophical argument that the unborn are really human.  He notes that there are really only four differences between the born and the unborn :

Size: True, embryos are smaller than newborns and adults, but why is that relevant?  Do we really want to say that large people are more human than small ones?  Men are generally larger than women, but that doesn’t mean that they deserve more rights.  Size doesn’t equal value. 

Level of development: True, embryos and fetuses are less developed than you and I.  But again, why is this relevant?  Four year-old girls are less developed than 14 year-old ones.  Should older children have more rights than their younger siblings?  Some people say that self-awareness makes one human.  But if that is true, newborns do not qualify as valuable human beings.  Six-week old infants lack the immediate capacity for performing human mental functions, as do the reversibly comatose, the sleeping, and those with Alzheimer’s Disease.

Environment: Where you are has no bearing on who you are.  Does your value change when you cross the street or roll over in bed?  If not, how can a journey of eight inches down the birth-canal suddenly change the essential nature of the unborn from non-human to human?  If the unborn are not already human, merely changing their location can’t make them valuable.  

Degree of Dependency: If viability makes us human, then all those who depend on insulin or kidney medication are not valuable and we may kill them.  Conjoined twins who share blood type and bodily systems also have no right to life.

     We know that humans only reproduce humans and we know that from the point of conception that the human embryo is alive and growing.  What else could the unborn be besides a human?  If the unborn are really human then we don’t just have a few isolated murders on our hands, this is GENOCIDE—–the systematic destruction of a defenseless people group.

 

    Another way to persuade the public that the unborn are human is to show them that they are human by presenting images.  Images of fetal development are persuasive and amazing, http://prolifetraining.com/Prenatal-Pictures.htm http://www.abortionfacts.com/literature/literature_9438MS.asp  but  images of aborted babies really get the point across.  In my opinion only cold, cruel and heartless people can people can look at these images and not be disgusted with the inhumane act of abortion.  Pictures really do say a thousand words.  These images can make arguments that no words ever could.  I encourage you to click on this link and make your heart weep because of the murder of our unborn children ( http://www.abortionno.org/Resources/pictures.html )

     Most importantly there is a biblical case to be made against abortion.  In the Bible God commands us not to kill innocent humanbeings and the bible clearly portrays unborn and born children human beings.  For example, in Luke 1:41, when Mary, the mother of Jesus came to visit her pregnant relative Elizabeth, we are told that the baby leaped in her mothers womb.  The same Greek word used here for baby (brephos) is used in Luke 2:12 and Luke 2:16 to describe the baby Jesus after he was born (also see Lk 18:15, Acts 7:19, 2 Tim 3:15, 1 Pet 2:2).  The following verses also help solidify the biblical pro life case: 

Psa 71:6

By You I have been sustained from {my} birth; You are He who took me from my mother’s womb; My praise is continually of You.

Isa 49:1

Listen to Me, O islands, And pay attention, you peoples from afar. The LORD called Me from the womb; From the body of My mother He named Me.

Gal 1:15

But when God, who had set me apart {even} from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, was pleased

Jer 1:5

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, And before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

     God has made humans in his image and He reserves the right to determine the life and death of the humans He has created.  Abortion is a tragic result of sinful humans trying to play god.  For a fuller look at the biblical case against abortion see John MacArthur’s sermon on the topic by clicking on this link – http://www.gty.org/Resources/Sermons/80-14 .

What Happens to Babies Who Die?

Dealing with the death of a baby is a painful, difficult situation for anyone to face—even people with strong faith in a loving God. Every parent who has lost a child has faced disturbing, haunting spiritual questions:

Why did my child have to die?  Where is my baby now?  Will I ever see my child again?How can I know my baby is in heaven?

In What Happens to Babies Who Die?, John MacArthur compassionately, but directly, handles the topic of infant death—with detailed attention to the Bible passages that hold the answers for grieving parents wondering about the eternal destination of their precious little one.

Click here to listen or download Free

 

 

Here is a book on the same topic

Click Here To Veiw

 

 

 

 

 

Related Articles:

Q&A:  Do Babies Go To Heaven? http://www.gty.org/Resources/Questions/QA101

What Happens to Infants Who Die?  http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Articles/ByDate/2006/1622_What_happens_to_infants_who_die/

Is My Great Great Grandpa A Monkey?

www.AnswersInGenesis.org

Answers to all your questions on the topic of Creation and Evolution. You will not find a more complete site on this topic.

 

Is Jesus the Only Way?

The Resurrection of Jesus

Why Suffering

 

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Trusting The Bible

 

 

Top Ten Reasons We Know the New Testament Writers Told the Truth

I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist 

                        Peter Kreeft said, “Why would the apostles lie? … If they lied, what was their motive, what did they get out of it?  What they got out of it was misunderstanding, rejection, persecution, torture, and martyrdom.  Hardly a list of perks!”  There is a lot of evidence that shows that the NT is true, but how do we really know that the NT writers didn’t exaggerate or embellish what they say they saw?  Lets look at the top 10 reasons.

1. 1.        The NT Writers Included Embarrassing Details About Themselves

The “principle of embarrassment” (historical test #7) assumes any details embarrassing to the author are probably true, because authors tend to leave out anything that makes them look bad.  If you and your friends were creating a false religion would you make your selves out to look like a dim-witted, uncaring, rebuked, doubting, cowards? No way, but that is what the writers of the NT did.  A made-up story would make the writers look bold, fearless soldiers of Christ.

† Dim-Witted—disciples fail to understand what Jesus is saying (Mark 9:32; Luke 18:34; John 12:16)

† Uncaring—disciples fall asleep on Jesus twice when they were asked to pray on the night Jesus was taken to be crucified.  Disciples fail to give Jesus proper burial out of fear for themselves.  Jesus was buried by a member of the Jewish Sanhedrin—a member of the same court that sentenced Jesus to die.

† Rebuked—Peter is called Satan by Jesus (Mark 8:33).  Paul corrects Peter on a theological issue (Galatians 2:11).  Keep in mind that Peter is      one of the pillars of the early church, and here’s Paul including in Scripture that he was wrong!

† Cowards—all the disciples but one hide when Jesus goes to die on the cross.  Peter denies Jesus three times (Matt. 26:33).  While the brave men are hiding, the women discover the empty tomb of Jesus.

† Doubters—despite being taught that Jesus would rise from the dead (John 2:18; 3:14; Matt. 12:39; 17:9, 22-23), the disciples are doubtful when they hear of his resurrection.  Some even doubt when they see him risen (Matt 28:17).

2.  The NT Writers Abandoned Their Long-Held Sacred Beliefs And Practices, Adopted New Ones, And Did Not Deny Their Testimony Under Persecution Or Threat Of Death— NT writers don’t just say that Jesus performed miracles and rose from the dead, they back it up with actions of their own.  Virtually overnight they abandoned many long held and sacred beliefs of Judaism.  For example, animal sacrifice was replaced with the sacrifice of Christ, the law of Moses no longer had power because of the sinless life of Christ,  they now worshiped Jesus as the God-Man considered by the Jews to be blasphemy and punishable by death, and belief in a sacrificial Messiah versus a conquering one (until 2^nd coming).  Not only were Just the NT writers converted, but thousands of Jerusalem Jews, including Pharisee Priests, followed Christ.  History shows that within five weeks after the death and resurrection of Jesus more than ten thousand Jews converted to Christianity.  How can this be explained if the resurrection did not occur.  These converts also adopted new radical practices such as Sunday worship, Baptism, and Communion as a sign of Christ’s sacrifice.  NT writers had nothing to gain by trying to pull off a hoax.  The only worldly reward they received is persecution and death.  The NT writers could have saved themselves by confessing it was all a lie, but they never did.  If they had made up the resurrection story they certainly would have said so when they were about to be crucified (Peter), stoned (James), or beheaded (Paul).  But no one recanted—eleven out of the twelve apostles were martyred for their faith.  Why would any sane person die for a known lie? Don’t forget that all twelve claimed to be eyewitnesses to the resurrection of Jesus.  They would have known if the resurrection was a reality or not.  The apostles knew for sure that Jesus had resurrected, and they demonstrated that knowledge with their own blood.  (people do die for lies [suicide bombers], but they whole heartedly believe the lie is truth)

3.  Enemies and Critics of Christianity Confirm the Same Basic Storyline as the New Testament Writers Present in the Bible

             †      Josephus, a Jewish historian for the Roman government writes in A.D. 94, “At this time there was a wise man called Jesus, and his conduct was good, and he was known to be virtuous. Many people among the Jews and the other nations became his disciples. Pilate condemned him to be crucified, and to die. But those who had become his disciples did not abandon his discipleship. They reported that he had appeared to them three days after his crucifixion, and that he was alive. Accordingly, he was perhaps the Messiah, concerning whom the prophets have reported wonders. And the tribe of the Christians, so named after him, has not disappeared to this day” (Josephus, Antiquities,  20:200 – Maier translation).

          †      Josephus also writes, “Then James, the brother of Jesus who was called the Christ was stoned to death by the Sanhedrin (Jews) in the absence of the Roman governor.” (Josephus, Antiquities, 20.9.1)  Would you be willing to die for your brother if he claimed to be the sinless Son of God and Savior of the world?  James was willing to die in the name of Christ because he saw that Jesus lived a blameless life and he witnessed his resurrection from the dead!  You can trust a guy that rises from the dead.

          †     Talmud—Is a Jewish history book written by the Jewish authorities between AD 70 and 200 that confirms when, how, and why the Jews killed Jesus.  Sanhedrin 43a states,“On the eve of Passover Yeshu (Jesus) was hanged … because he has practiced sorcery and enticed Israel to apostasy.”   This tells us Jesus was killed on Passover, had supernatural powers, and he called people to follow him.

4.  The NT Writers Left In Demanding Sayings of Jesus

                                         If the NT writers were making up a story, they should have made up a story that made life a little easier on them.  For example, the NT claims Jesus said, “…anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” (Matt 5:28); “…do not resist a evil person.  If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also” (Matt 5:39); “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you…” (Matt 5:44); “Do not store up treasures on earth…for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matt 6:19);  “Do not judge, or you too will be judged…with the measure you use, it will be measured to you” (Matt 7:1).  These are not commands the NT writers would impose on themselves because no mere human can live up to the standard set.  Only a perfect person could live according to the standard set in the NT.  Perhaps that is exactly the point.

 

5.  The NT Writers Carefully Distinguished Jesus’ Words From Their Own

                                         Quotation marks did not exist in first century Greek, but NT writers very clearly distinguished Jesus’ words from their own.  Virtually all red-letter editions of the Bible attribute all of the same words to Jesus.  This is important evidence towards the credibility of the NT writers because it would have been easy for them to solve theological disputes by just adding to the sayings of Jesus.  It would have been easy to make up quotes in relation to circumcision, obeying the Law of Moses, speaking in tongues, and women in the church in order to end all debates.  Why were the NT writers so careful about distinguishing their own words form the words of Jesus unless they were telling the truth?             

6.  The NT Writers Included Events Related To The Resurrection That They Would Not Have Invented

† The Burial of Jesus- Jesus was buried by Joseph of Arimathea, a member of the Sanhedrin, which was the Jewish ruling council that sentenced Jesus to die for blasphemy.  Followers of Jesus were very bitter towards Jewish authorities, so why would they put a member of the Sanhedrin in a favorable light if the story was made up?  Furthermore, if Jesus really wasn’t buried by Joseph of Arimathea, this detail could have easily have been exposed making the Luke out to be a liar and his Gospel a fake.  The Jews never denied this fact.

† The First Witnesses- All four Gospels say women were the first witnesses to the empty tomb and the resurrected Jesus.  In that day women were not seen as credible witnesses and were not even allowed to testify in court.  One of those women was Mary Magdalene, who Luke admits (8:2) was once demon possessed.  These are not the kind of witnesses that would be made up if the NT writers were trying to fool the world. 

† The Conversion of Priests- Why didn’t the risen Jesus appear to the Pharisees?  Maybe they were too proud, and it wasn’t necessary.  It is often overlooked that “…a large number of priests became obedient to the faith” (Acts 6:7).  This was written in Luke’s letter to Theophilus (Book of Acts).  This detail must have been true because this is a detail that could have easily been exposed as false if it were indeed false.  When people lie they usually try to cover their tracks, but obviously the writers of the NT didn’t try to do this.  Maybe they were telling the truth.

† The Explanation of the Jews- The Jews want people to believe that the cowardly disciples stole the body and created a story of the resurrection, all in order to get themselves beaten, tortured, and martyred.   If it were true, how did the disciples get past the elite Roman guards who were trained to guard the tomb with their lives?  The Jews said the guards were sleeping when the disciples silently moved the 2-ton stone from the grave.  If the guards were sleeping how would they know that the disciples stole the body?  Furthermore, no Roman guard would admit to sleeping on the job because he would be killed for the offense.  Maybe the biblical story in Matt. is true; the Pharisees created this bad story, paid off the guards, and promised to keep them out of trouble.

7.   The NT Writers Include More Than Thirty Historically Confirmed People In their Writings-The NT could not have been invented because it contains too many historically confirmed characters.  The NT writers would have blown their credibility with their audiences by implicating real people in a fictional story, especially people of great notoriety and power.  The NT writers would not have gotten away with publicly telling lies about Pilate, Caiaphas,  Festus, Felix, and the entire Herodian Bloodline. 

8.   The NT Writers Include Divergent Details- The four Gospel accounts are not exactly the same.  Critics say this proves it is a lie, but actually it strengthens the case for the biblical story of Christ.  How?  All four Gospels tell the same main story line (virgin birth, miralcle worker, Son of God, raised from the dead, ect.), but each account includes divergent details.  Think of it like this, if a judge hears four stories that are exactly the same word-for-word, he would probably assume that the witnesses got together beforehand to make their stories agree (collusion).  The Gospel accounts differ on small details like how many angels were in the tomb, or one account says an angel spoke and another account did not mention it.  Just because one account mentions one angel does not mean there were not more, maybe one was just more prominent. The NT shows the nature of  eyewitness testimony.  I challenge you to read two news articles about the same event.  It will usually be the same main story-line, with some differing minor details.

9.   New Testament Writers Challenge Their Readers To Check Out Verifiable Facts, Even About Miracles- For example, In Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians he  declares that he previously preformed miracles for them.  Paul was speaking of his own qualifications as an apostle—someone who speaks for God.  Paul told the Corinthians, “The things that mark an apostle—signs, wonders and miracles—were done among you with great perseverance” (2 Cor. 12:12).  Paul would not have written this unless he had really done miracles for them.  Why would he have asked the Corinthians to remember miracles that he did not perform, thus destroying his credibility?  The only explanation is that Paul was an apostle of God, he confirmed it by performing miracles, and he openly displayed this to the Corinthians.

10.  NT Writers Describe Miracles Like Other Historical Events: With Simple, Unembellished Accounts—Embellished and extravagant details are strong signs that a historical account may be fraudulent.  For example, 100 years after the resurrection of Jesus a forgery known as the Gospel of Peter was written in a extravagant manner.  The Gospel of Peter speaks of long heads that reached up to Heaven and a cross that walked and talked at the time of Jesus’ resurrection.  In the four resurrection accounts found in the Bible there are no extravagant or embellished stories, just bland facts about the greatest miracle in history.  If the Gospels were fake, and they were trying to convince the skeptics, don’t you think that they would have claimed to have actually seen Jesus physically rising from the dead, and maybe have thrown a few extra adjectives in to help.  Thirty-five other miracles attributed to Jesus are described as if form reporters, not wild-eyed preachers.

How We Got The Bible