Nevertheless, some people, especially those who don't like the moral constraints of the Bible, want to say that the Bible has changed since it was written. If Jesus was proved to be the authentic Son of God through the resurrection from the dead, this cannot be so.
The textual evidence for the integrity of the Bible is better than for any other ancient book or document. Compared to other ancient writings, we have more manuscripts still in existence, and manuscripts whose age we know is much closer to the time of original writing, than it is in the case of other ancient writings. All variations which exist are of a very minor nature which do not affect any major doctrine of the Bible. We believe that it can be deduced which manuscripts in fact are closest to what was originally written, but it is outside the scope of this lesson to discuss this.
There are amazing mathematical patterns in Bible when looked at in the original Hebrew and Greek languages. Hundreds of facts based around the number 7 appear in every passage of the Bible when you look at the numerical values of the words in the original Hebrew and Greek texts of the Bible. Many of these patterns were discovered by Ivan Panin in the 19th century. This discovery turned him from being an agnostic to being a Christian. His subsequent research provides a virtually irrefutable evidence that the Bible is not simply the product of human minds. No computer today could create such a text. The conclusion is once again that the Bible is the Word of God.
There will always be people however who refuse to believe. This is basically
because they are not willing to consider the evidence honestly. Human beings
often believe things for reasons other than logic or persuasive argument.
Many times people believe what they want to believe, because it
is convenient that way or too emotionally painful to recogni
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The bible
Im not sure about the Ivan Panin reference Michael.
It seemed like the occult science of numerology. I had a look at some stuff on Panin and he used Wescott and Horts translations as the basis of his work.
You may not know that these Anglican ministers were responsible for forming the "Cambridge ghost society" which later became the "centre for psychical research", groups spearheading paranormal and occult research.
Practical Kabbalah uses the occult practice of Gematria (The study of the numerical values of words) on biblcal texts to uncover the "names of god" which are then chanted and written on paper and kept about the person to summon demons.
My understanding of the validity of the Bible is this.
The church fathers were faced with the difficult task of deciding which versions of which surviving scriptures to include in the "canon".
Knowing that some scripures were corrupted through mans ulterior motive and hidden agenda, the Holy spirit guided them as to what to include.
An example is the apocraphal book of Enoch. That this book was known by the early church is evident by the apostle Jude's reference. However within a few hundred years, no reliable versions remained.
Through prayer and careful listening to the Holy Spirit the church fathers assembled the true and reliable accounts.
I am no expert on bible history, im just writing my thoughts on the matter.
God bless
Pete
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