Tests for the Reliability of Ancient Literature - Part 1

References: (1) The OT and NT pass the separate historiographical tests like NO OTHER ancient books. Most professional archaeologists and historians acknowledge the historicity of the Bible. The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947 contribute to that confidence. (2) “The Bible and Archaeology” by Sir Fredrick Kenyon who lived from 1863-1952, and was the former director and principal librarian of the British Museum. (3) “The NT Documents: Are They Reliable?” By F. F. Bruce, who served as the Rylands Professor of Religious Criticism and Exegesis at the University of Manchester from 1959 to 1978. (4) The great Princeton scholar B. B. Warfield says, “the great bulk of the NT has been transmitted to us without, or almost without, ANY VARIATIONS. It can be ASSERTED with CONFIDENCE that the sacred text is EXACT and VALID and that NO ARTICLE OF FAITH and NO MORAL PRECEPT in it has been distorted or lost.” (5) Christ cannot be dismissed as a MYTHICAL CREATION of the early church. All the evidence supports the historical reliability of the Gospel accounts about Jesus. I have shown J. Warner Wallace’s 4-fold test for the reliability of witnesses. (6) Jesus said “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30). The word for “are” can indicate that they are one in HARMONY and AGREEMENT in attitude toward the purpose of God. But more than that, we can interpret this passage as saying they are one in NATURE. God the Father is certainly divine in nature, so then Jesus, the Son of God, is divine in nature as well. (7) “God Breathed”by Josh McDowell. (8)The 3 tests are the bibliographical test, the internal test, and the external test. (9) Two books and an article relate that the accuracy of biblical documents can be assessed by combining 3 basic TESTS of HISTORIOGRAPHY that pertain to the reliability of ancient literature. These are McDowell’s book “God Breathed,”the book “A Visual Guide to Biblical Apologetics” by Joseph M. Holden and Sarah R. Enterline, and the article from Ankerberg Theological Institute by Dr. John Ankerberg and Dr. John Weldon entitled “The Historic Reliability of Scripture — Part 2.” This is episode 259.

References: (1) Skeptics bring up their opposition to the Bible and Jesus all the time. They say, “The Bible is UNRELIABLE, and UNTRUSTWORTHY.” In fact, the skeptic may go so far as to say, “It’s DOUBTFUL that Jesus even EXISTED.” (2) Gary Habermas, a NT scholar, theologian, and author, has discovered a total of 39 extra-Biblical sources, which includes 17 non-Christian sources that witness to over 100 details of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. (3) In the books The Verdict of History and On the Resurrection Vol. 1 Gary Habermas summarizes Tacitus’ comments that give 8 fundamental facts about Jesus that align with the NT accounts of Jesus. Other observations by Tacitus disclose additional historical facts. (4) “Christianity: The Witness of History” by J. N. D. Anderson. (5) There are 3 types of considerations. First option: The Bible is not trustworthy. The second option: The claim is that the Bible has real PROBLEMS in one or more TROUBE SPOTS. (6) This can OPEN THE DOOR to a clear presentation of the Gospel, and your conversation can go from there. Review the 4 basic points of the Gospel in 1 Cor. 15:3-8 — namely, Jesus DIED for our sins, was BURIED, ROSE AGAIN from the dead, and APPEARED to 517 people. Rom. 10:9-10 says “If you CONFESS with your mouth the Lord Jesus and BELIEVE in your heart that God has raised Jesus from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness l, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” (7) Remember: TRUTH is own our side. God’s word is true (John 17:17). This is episode 258.

References: (1) The Gospel documents pass J. Warner Wallaces’s 4 part test for the credibility of witnesses. (2) “Basic Christianity” by John Stott. (3) Jesus’ own viewpoint concerning His deity. (4) The rapid pace of Mark’s Gospel is emphasized by the Greek word “eutheos” whose means “immediately” or “straightway.” (5) Mark identifies John the Baptist as the coming messenger. (6) We can identify the works of Jesus’ deity because He did what only God can do. Jesus was Creator, Savior, the Giver of Life. Jesus told Martha, “I am the Resurrection and the Life” (John 11:25). (7) The book, “12 Points That Show Christianity is True” by Norman Geisler and Doug Potter show that Jesus accepted worship on 10 occasions. (8) Jesus’ words, actions, miracles, and resurrection point to His deity. (9) I challenge you to recognize His authority, believe in Him, receive Him as Savior and Lord, worship Him, and follow Him. This is episode 257.

References: (1) The New Compact Topical Bible gives over 70 categories related to the divinity of Jesus Christ with multiple scripture references to each category. I estimate that there are over 350 such NT references. There is another section identified as the divine sonship of Jesus with multiple references to those that testify to that fact. (2) Once we understand what the apostle John meant by the term WORD, it becomes DIFFICULT to read anything else into this passage without first concluding Jesus’ deity. (3) For one thing I have said the Jehovah’s Witnesses think the Bible has been corrupted. The Bible says the word was God; that is clearly and emphatically indicated. (4) In the Jehovah’s Witnesses New World translation they say that the Word is “a” God. I intend to show that the Jehovah’s Witnesses interpretation can be refuted. That suggestion results from an UNSCHOLARLY INTERPRETATION of the fact that the Greek word theos for God appears in John 1:1 without the definite article for “the.” There are 2 problems with the Jehovah’s Witnesses interpretation. First, the NT refers to God 282 times where the definite article is missing. In fact, Jehovah’s Witnesses translates in 94% of the 281 times other than John 1:1 the same phrase as “God.” To be consistent they should translate that as “a god.” Should John 1:18 be translated “No one has seen ‘a god’ at any time”? No, that is too big a stretch for anybody who has an open mind. (5) We need to clearly identify that Jesus of Nazareth is the Word mentioned in John 1:1. I do this by saying Verses 17 and 18 SEALS THE DEAL that Jesus is the Word: “For the law was given through MOSES, but grace and truth came through JESUS CHRIST. No one has seen God at any time. The only BEGOTTEN of the Father He has declared Him, fully explained Him, and exegeted Him.” (6) We all understand that a son has the same nature as the father. If the Heavenly Father is divine, we must conclude that the Son of God, Jesus of Nazareth, too is divine. This is episode 256.

References: (1) For centuries, the Bible has been revered as a collection of documents guiding the beliefs of billions of people worldwide. The field of archaeology is considered as a real-world investigator to the truth of the biblical claims. Critics have asked, “If the Bible is true, then why is there NO EVIDENCE  for David or Solomon, Israel’s two greatest kings? Or the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah? Or the tribe of the Hittites? Or Pontius Pilate, the governor of Judea who turned Jesus over for crucifixion? (2) But several funny things happened on the way to declaring the Bible historically UNRELIABLE. An inscription dating from the 9th century BC was discovered which referred to David as the  king of Israel. An excavation in Megiddo, one of Solomon’s 5 chariot cities, uncovered thousands of chariot stalls. Clay tablets dating back to 2500 BC were discovered in northern Syria that mentioned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. There is a museum in Chicago that has artifacts of the Hittite tribe. An inscription found on a stone slab in Caesarea named Pontius Pilate as a Roman governor. (3) All those archaeological discoveries speak volumes concerning the NT’s reliability. However, an article on the internet by Dr. Joshua Schachterle entitled 10 Times Archaeology Has Disagreed With the Biblical Narrative offers a different point of view. (4) I don’t think I want to waste my time reading speculation. Allow me to point out that Bart Ehrman, the skeptical NT professor of theology at UNC wrote a disclaimer saying, “The views and opinions expressed in this article  belong to the author and do not necessarily match my own.” (5) I intend to separate my responses about His deity into 3 CATEGORIES: first, what the OT refers to the Messiah apply to Jesus in the NT. Secondly, I will refer to what the early Christian church says about Jesus’ deity. And finally I will give some of the references that Jesus proclaimed about Himself. Not all of those EXPLICITLY say the Messiah is divine but it can be INFERRED from other references. (6) Many OT passages stand out as proof that Jesus as the Messiah would be God in human flesh. Some references from the OT tell of a coming Promised One, who would have a QUALITY known to NO OTHER  human being. He would be God in human form. Jesus, after all, fulfilled more than 300 OT prophecies and many are specific regarding His claim to be divine. (7) Dan. 9:24-27 is the only Old Testament passage which refers to the Promised One as “Messiah.” For one thing, it is indicated by the titles ascribed to the Promised One. Elsewhere He is called “Shiloh” (Gen. 49:10), God (Ps. 102:24-27), Emmanuel (Isa. 7:14), the “Root of Jesse” (Isa. 11:10), the “Righteous Branch” (Jer. 23:5), etc. But the name by which He is known best, “Messiah,” appears in ONLY ONE PASSAGE: Dan. 9:24-27. This passage is identified as that of the 70 weeks prophecy. If you compute that prophecy by identifying weeks by 7 years, each year of 360 days, then the prophecy that the Messiah would be “cut off” in 69 weeks equals 483 years or 173,880 days from the decree to restore and build the street and the wall. That decree was given on March 14, 445 BC. That will end on Thursday in the Passover week when Jesus was crucified. This is episode 255.

References: (1) At the end of the last episode we were attempting to date when the 4 Gospels were written. We had discussed J. Warner Wallaces 4 points that he used as a homicide detective in Los Angeles to determine if a witness to a crime was credible.The initial step in his journey from being a hardened atheist toward Christianity was what he thought was an evaluation of the Gospels. (2) The first criterion of eyewitness credibility requires one to know that the witness was present in the first place. Thus, the Gospels would have to be written EARLY enough to have been authored by true eyewitnesses of Jesus’ life and deeds. (3) If someone was going to tell a LIE, they would have to tell it LATE so that the eyewitnesses of Jesus’ life and deeds would not be able to REFUTE the lie. (4) Since Jesus was crucified in 33 AD, before anyone can believe the Gospels to be eyewitness accounts they would have to know that the Gospels were written sometime in the FIRST century. (5) The 4 Gospels and Acts fail to mention the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in 70 AD that Jesus predicted in Matt. 24:1-3. Then that means that they were all written prior to that memorable event. (6) Neither is the siege of Jerusalem mentioned that occurred in 66-70 AD, nor the death of Paul who was martyred in the city of Rome in 64 AD nor the death of Peter in 65 AD. Josephus says James died in 62 AD. These were events that surely would have been reported had they already occurred. So that means Luke and Acts were written BEFORE 62 AD. Now Acts is usually considered to have been written about 57-60 AD. (7) The Gospel narratives were CORROBORATED by archaeology, eyewitnesses, and ancient non-Christian authors like Flavious Josephus, Tacitus, Suetonius, and the Jewish Talmud. (8) We can conclude the gospels recorded ACCURATE DETAILS. The NT documents have NOT CHANGED as we go from the authors of the books of the NT to their disciples and from them to their disciples. This is what J. Warner Wallace calls the “CHAIN OF CUSTODY.” (9) The Gospels were NOT BIASED. We discussed Wallaces observation that there are 3 motives behind any homicide, criminal act, or a lesser moral misbehavior: a. Financial greed. b. Sexual or relational lust. c. Pursuit of power. (10) Wallace applied these motives to the FOREMOST LEADER of the early Christian movement, namely, to the apostle Paul. The facts are that Paul STARTED OFF with the AUTHORITY and RESPECT from his religious community, and the leaders of the synagogues in Jerusalem.As religious Jewish leader, he was TRUSTED with the responsibility of hunting down members of devout religious Jewish leader, he was TRUSTED with the responsibility of hunting down members of the Christian community and pursuing them with a vengeance. (11) Would Paul LEAVE HIS POSITION OF RESPECT and join up with the very group he was charged to destroy, only to SUFFER PERSECUTION for many years so that he might one day RETURN to a position of religious authority and respect? I think not; that is totally IMPLAUSIBLE. (12) Mark was the nephew or cousin of Barnabas. He became so close to Peter that the apostle called him as “my son” (1 Pet. 5:13). Mark also may have been the person whose home was the “upper room” (Mark 14:12; Acts 12:12, 14), and perhaps he was the the unclad lad who fled Gethsemane after Jesus’ arrest (Mark 14:51-52). (13) If Mark was, say age 15 at the time of the crucifixion in 33 AD, then if he lived to 90 years of age, that would be in the year of 108 AD. (14) Note that the book of Acts gives the history of the spread of Christianity from Jerusalem to Samaria, to Antioch, to the province of Asia, to Ephesus, to Corinth, and eventually to the city of Rome. (15) In Gal. 1:15-19 and Acts 9 we learn of Paul’s encounter with the resurrected Jesus on the road to Damascus. Paul went away to Arabia, and returned to Damascus. Then 3 years later Paul went up to Jerusalem and visited Peter but did not see any of the other apostles except James, the brother of Jesus. Then, Gal. 2:1 reveals that after an interval of 14 years Paul went to Jerusalem along with Barnabas and Titus. So if Galatians was written in the mid-50s, say in 55 AD, 17 years prior to that would be 38 AD. Thus, Paul saw Peter and James within 5 years of the crucifixion. So Paul’s conversion would have occurred sometime between 33-38 AD. (16) Luke said in his gospel that he was writing an ORDERLY ACCOUNT. That word “orderly” is interesting because according to Papias, Mark’s Gospel recorded the testimony of Peter. Papias said Mark’s Gospel was accurate but was NOT an orderly account. Peter did not speak in terms of CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER but rather in terms of THEMES. So Mark’s Gospel according to Papias PREDATES Luke’s gospel. (17) Even the most skeptical scholars agree that Paul is the author of the letters to the Romans, the Corinthians, and the Galatians. These letters are dated between 48-60 AD. Romans (typically dated at 50 AD) reveals that Jesus is the resurrected “Son of God.” Just 17 years after the resurrection Jesus was described as DIVINE. He is God Incarnate, just as the eyewitnesses described Him in the Gospels. This is episode 254.

References: (1) In the last episode I had begun discussing 2 of the 4 reasons J. Warner Wallace gave in his book Cold Case Christianity to support why the NT Gospels are reliable.  The 2 reasons given were: (1) The Gospels were written EARLY. (2) The Gospels are COROBORATED by archaeology, eyewitnesses, and ancient non-Christian authors like Flavious Josephus, Tacitus, Suetonius, and the Jewish Talmud. (2) I continue today by referring to J. Warner Wallace’s additional 2 reasons to trust the reliability of the Gospels: Wallace’s third reason: The NT documents have NOT CHANGED as we go from the authors of the books of the NT to their disciples and from them to their disciples.  This is what J. Warner Wallace calls the “CHAIN OF CUSTODY.” (3) We have the DEAD SEA SCROLLS which gives convincing evidence that the Bible we have today is the SAME Bible the early church had. (4) J. Warner Wallace’s 4th reason is: The Gospels are NOT BIASED. There are certainly times when witnesses LIE, particularly if they are properly motivated. But what would motivate someone to tell a lie in the first place? Wallace says, “In my experience as a homicide detective, there are only 3 MOTIVES behind any homicide, criminal act, or lesser moral impropriety:     (1) financial GREED,     (2) sexual or relational LUST, and     (3) the pursuit of POWER. (5) All the authors of the NT books were Jewish, with the possible exception of Luke. The authors of the Gospels included Matthew who was a tax collector from Capernaum (see Matt. 9:9; 10:3). He was one of the 12 disciples chosen by Christ. (6) Mark was not one of the 12 apostles of Jesus, but according to Papias he got his information from the apostle Peter. Irenaeus and the other church fathers say Papias was  a disciple of the apostle John who became the bishop of Hieropolis. (7) Neither was Luke  one of the 12 apostles of Jesus, but was by profession a medical doctor (Col. 4:14). Indeed he became a physician of Paul on at least one missionary journey around the Mediterranean. Luke may have been a Gentile. (8) The authors of the Gospels also included the apostle John, the son of Zebedee, the younger brother of James, and a fisherman from Capernaum. He is the one whom Jesus asked from the cross to take care of His mother Mary. He was the author of his Gospel, the 3 epistles, and the book of Revelation written while he was exiled to the Isle of Patmos. (9) The Roman Catholic Church was established by the Council of Laodicea (350-363 AD). So when were the Gospels written on the timeline from 33-363 AD? J. Warner Wallace’s book Cold-Case Christianity helps us with establishing the time line from 33 AD to 363 AD. (10) The first reason to believe the NT is true is that there is good evidence that the NT documents were written EARLY enough in the first century by eyewitnesses to what Jesus said and did. (11) Acts makes no mention of the DEATHS of Paul (64 AD), or of Peter (65 AD), or James (62 AD) even though Acts mentions the death of the deacon, Stephen. So it is reasonable to conclude that Acts was written BEFORE 61 AD. (12) So the 2 gospels of Mark and Matthew were written earlier in the first century. While in writing to the Corinthians Paul quotes Luke in around 55 AD. So the 3 synoptic gospels all were written sometime between 33-55 AD. (13) All the NT books were written in the first century and were written within the lifetimes of many eyewitnesses of the resurrection. This is episode 253.

References: (1) In regard to fulfilled prophecies 2 scientists Peter Stoner and Robert Newman computed the probability that 8 of these prophecies concerning Jesus being fulfilled by one person is 1 in 10^17.  That is 1 divided by 1 followed by 17 zeroes. (2) Fulfilling 8 prophecies would be like covering the entire state of Texas in silver dollars 2 feet deep with only one silver dollar having a red dot on it. That is placed randomly in the pile of silver dollars.  Blindfold a man and tell him that he can travel across the state as far as he wishes and he must pick up in one try the silver dollar with the red dot on it. (3) What chance would he have in picking the right one? That is exactly the same chance that the prophets would have had at writing 8 prophecies and have all of them come true in one person,  namely, 1 in 10^17. In fact, Jesus didn’t fulfill 8 prophecies; rather He fulfilled 300 of them. That probability is 1 in 10^637. That kind of objective proof should remove any doubts of the Bible’s trustworthiness. (4) The Bible’s unity is amazingly powerful. (5) Two of the 4 Gospels of the NT were written by Matthew and John who were both eyewitness. Luke, the author of the gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles, was not an eyewitness, but he interviewed eyewitnesses (Luke 1:1-4). Mark’s Gospel was written by John Mark and records the eyewitness recollections of the apostle Peter. These eyewitnesses would have known the details and therefore would have been able to authenicate or deny what the documents wrote. Since there was NO SUCH DENIAL, then the details the gospels were describing the TRUE FACTS. (6) Now I wish to turn our attention to J. Warner Wallace’s argument that the 4 Gospels are reliable documents. Thus, it will follow that all the documents of the NT are reliable. (7) Wallace gives 4 reasons to support why the NT Gospels are reliable: They Were Written Early; The Gospels Are Corroborated by archaeology, eyewitnesses, and extra-biblical writings. (8) Baucham made this important comment, “The NT is a RELIABLE COLLECTION of historical documents, written by EYEWITNESSES during the LIFETIME of other eyewitnesses. They report SUPERNATURAL EVENTS that took place in fulfillment of SPECIFIC PROPHESIES, and claim that their writings are DIVINE rather than human in origin.” (9) Baucham’s comment has been opposed, but I know of no counter-argument to his claims that have been offered. Thus, his comment stands. This is episode 252.

References: (1) “Bible Doctrine” (pp. 33-50) by Wayne Grudem. (2) “Understanding the Bible” by John Scott. (3) The OT was written thousands of years ago, and the NT was completed by the year 100 AD. The Bible claims there is a God who created the universe in the first verse of Gen. 1. The Bible also claims that God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, into the world to be the propitiation for our sins (John 3:16; 1 John 2:2; 4:10). (4) Jesus died on the cross and was buried proving that He died, was resurrected from the dead; He appeared to 517 individuals after His resurrection (1 Cor. 15:3-8) proving that He really was resurrected. (5) All the essentials of Buddhism, Hinduism, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormonism, Christian Science, or Scientology would, I think, remain UNIMPAIRED if you subtracted the miraculous, the same is almost true of Islam, but you cannot do that with Christianity. It is precisely the story, from the beginning of the NT to the end of a GREAT MIRACLE. A naturalistic Christianity advocated by Christian Liberalism, leaves out all that is specifically Christian and should be abandoned by any thinking Christian. (6) One out every 25 verses in the NT mentions Christ’s return where He promised the resurrection of all believers in Him and declared He will reign as judge and king (John 14:3; Phil. 3:20-21; Zech. 14:9: Rev. 20:4-6). (7) What happens when Jesus returns? Evil is defeated, the earth is restored, and God wins. That should give us hope. (8) In 1919 Frank Watson Dyson and Arthur Stanley Eddington’s experimental observation CONFIRMED Albert Einstein’s prediction that light is deflected in the presence of mass. The. aim of Dyson and Eddington was to measure the gravitational deflection of starlight passing near the Sun during a total solar eclipse. This EXPERIMENTAL SUPPORT for Einstein’s general theory of relativity garnered Einstein INSTANT WORLDWIDE ACCLAIM.  If that deflection of starlight had NOT happened it would have FALSIFIED his theory and he would never have gotten the Nobel prize. But since it did happen he did get the Nobel prize. This fact of the deflection of light in the presence of mass did not PROVE his theory but merely CONFIRMED or CORROBORATED his theory. (9) In 1919 Frank Watson Dyson and Arthur Stanley Eddington’s experimental observation CONFIRMED Albert Einstein’s prediction that light is deflected in the presence of mass. The aim of Dyson and Eddington was to measure the gravitational deflection of starlight passing near the Sun during a total solar eclipse. This EXPERIMENTAL SUPPORT for Einstein’s general theory of relativity garnered Einstein INSTANT WORLDWIDE ACCLAIM.  If that deflection of starlight had NOT happened it would have FALSIFIED his theory and he would never have gotten the Nobel prize. But since it did happen he did get the Nobel prize. This fact of the deflection of light in the presence of mass did not PROVE his theory but merely CONFIRMED or CORROBORATED his theory. (10) Allow me to apply this idea to the question: Is the Bible  true and trustworthy? It is vitally important to answer that question for our culture today. It’s important because legitimate questions deserve legitimate answers. Peter says in 1 Pet. 3:15 that we should always be prepared to give an apologia — the Greek noun that means a REASONED RESPONSE, a VERBAL DEFENSE against a CHARGE,  to everyone who asks you an answer for the hope within you.   (11) You might expect to observe chaos and confusion in the Bible, yet it miraculously remains absolutely CONSISTENT and INTERNALLY HARMONIOUS that tells one primary STORY OF REDEMPTION. This story is like a “SCARLET THREAD” that runs throughout the entire Bible. But internal consistency and external fitting the facts do not PROVE the Bible is a revelation from God. Other facts will be needed. (12) The Bible, unlike any other religious book, demonstrates its reliability through hundreds of detailed prophecies, written centuries before the events they accurately describe. For example, the OT predicts the basic facts of Jesus’ birth, life, death, and resurrection. The book of Daniel predicts the division of Alexander the Great’s empire and the very timing of the crucifixion of the Messiah and predicts the destruction of city of Jerusalem and of the Temple (Dan 9:24-26). (13) in all the more than 25,000 archaeological discoveries not a single one has ever refuted any biblical claim. No other religious book can be verified in this way, not the Qur’an, not the Vedas, not the writings of Joseph Smith, not the Watch Tower tracts, not the Divine Principle  by Sun Myung Moon, nor the writings of Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science, not the writings of L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology, not the Humanist Manifesto for which all the secularist ascribe. (14) Only the Bible remains unscathed. People can claim it is full of contradictions, but after careful investigation all the contradictions are gone with the wind. This is episode 251.

References: (1) “Bible Doctrine” (pp. 33-50) by Wayne Grudem. (2) At 2 places in the NT,  2 Pet. 3:15-16 and in 1 Tim. 5:18, we see NT writings also being called “Scripture” along with OT writings. (3) Grudem says, “Here Peter shows not only an AWARENESS of the existence of written epistles from Paul, but also a clear WILLINGNESS to classify ‘all of [Paul’s] letters’ with ‘the other scriptures.’” (4) Paul wrote to Timothy saying, “For the Scripture says, ‘You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain,’ and, ‘The laborer is worthy of his wages’” (1 Tim. 5:18). Grudem pointed out, “The first quotation is from Deuteronomy 25:4, but the second occurs NOWHERE in the OT. It is rather a quotation from Luke 10:7. Paul . . . . quotes Jesus’ words as found in Luke’s gospel and calls them ‘scripture’.” (5) 2 Cor. 5:20 reports, “Now then, we are AMBASSADORS for Christ, as though God were pleading THROUGH us: we IMPLORE you on Christ’s behalf, be RECONCILED to God.” (6) An ambassador is an official sent by a home nation on a mission to deal with a foreign government or sovereign. The ambassador speaks with the delegated authority of the home nation. (7) Grudem continues, “Is there further evidence that the NT writers thought of their own writings (not just the OT) as the words of God? In some cases, there is. In 1 Cor. 14:37, Paul says, ‘If anyone thinks himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him ACKNOWLEDGE that what I am writing to you is a COMMAND of the Lord.’ Paul has here instituted a number of rules for church worship at Corinth and has claimed for them the STATUS of ‘commands of the Lord.’” (8)  In 1 Cor. 7:12 and 25 Paul seems to imply that his own judgments were to be considered as AUTHORITATIVE as the commands of Jesus.” (9) Paul said “All Scripture is inspired of God”  (2 Tim. 3:16). The word “scripture” in Greek is graphe. Graphe must refer to the OT Scriptures for that is what the word graphe refers to in every one of the 51 occurrences in the NT. (10) For the word “inspired” Paul used a specific word  in the Greek language theopneutos, which literally means “God breathed”(coming from the Greek word theos for God and pneo, to breathe). But “inspired” has a weakened sense in our everyday usage today. For example, we can say that a baseball player gave an inspired performance. But Paul did not mean that the OT was an inspirational book; he meant that the OT was, in fact, the very words of God.   (11) I must document the RELIABILITY of “the Scriptures,” because the Bible is the BASIS for the Christian belief. (12) The bulk of NT scholarship today dates the writing of the Gospels to be before 70 AD  — the year of the destruction of Jerusalem — with their argument being that such an COLOSSAL EVENT would inevitably have been reported in the Gospels. This is episode 250.