I have no idea if this is factual, but it was a very touching email that was sent to me some time ago. I apologize if it is not accurate, but it is inspiring nonetheless:
Do you know the legend of the Cherokee Indian youth's rite of passage?
His father takes him into the forest, blindfolds him and leaves him alone. He is required to sit on a stump the whole night and not remove the blindfold until the rays of the morning sun shine through it. He cannot cry out for help to anyone. Once he survives the night, he is a MAN. He cannot tell the other boys of this experience because each lad must come into manhood on his own.
The boy is naturally terrified. He can hear all kinds of noises. Wild beasts must surely be all around him. Maybe even some human might do him harm. The wind blew the grass and earth, and shook his stump, but he sat stoically, never removing the blindfold. It would be the only way he could become a man!
Finally, after a horrific night, the sun appeared and he removed his blindfold. It was then that he discovered his father sitting on the stump next to him. He had been at watch the entire night, protecting his son from harm.
We, too, are never alone. Even when we don't know it, our Heavenly Father is watching over us, sitting on the stump beside us. When trouble comes, all we have to do is reach out to Him.
Moral of the Story: Just because you can't see God, doesn't mean He is not there. "For we walk by faith, not by sight." ~ 2 Corinthians 5:7 ~
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
What Was Jesus Actually Saying?
So, I have to make a comment about the video I posted yesterday. Yes, I like Stephen Colbert. Yes, I (sometimes) watch his show. He truly cracks me up. I have no idea what his personal relationship with Christ is, but he frequently makes Christian-centered comments and does not apologize for them. Since that really isn't a good way to be popular in mainstream media in America, I have to believe that he believes himself to be a Christian. It's really between him and God though.
Now, one thing that stood out to me during the interview was Bert Ehrman's use of the crucifixion stories as defense of his argument. I agree that none of the gospels tell the exact same story, but I've never really had a problem with that. If four people witness a lecture of any topic, they will all remember different points that stood out in their minds as informative, important, or just mind-provoking. I feel this is the same thing with this particular historical and spiritually monstrous event. One of the scriptures he used in his defense stood out to me.
A few Easters ago, the pastor at the church we were attending did a series of the "Seven Sayings of Jesus from the Cross" leading up to Easter Sunday. It was quite informative, I remember, and I was caught up in every detail he was teaching. However, only one of those sermons stuck with me for the next 3 (I think?) years...the one concerning "My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46)
I had always read it for what it said and taken it for Jesus being in pain and bearing the weight of our sin and enduring the hardship of taking on a physical body to save our miserable selves. There was suddenly a new perspective after this particular sermon though.
Let me preface this by saying that yes...Jesus must have been in terribly excruciating pain. He was not happy about his current situation although He was there willingly. Maybe God did have to turn His back on His Son for a short time because Jesus became sin. Maybe Jesus did feel abandoned. If God had turned His head for those moments, it must have been terribly lonely for Jesus who was enduring not only the physical anguish, but spiritual and emotional anguish for being apart from His Father for the first time. That all makes sense. I won't deny that was happening.
However, maybe either separately or in addition to those things, something else more profound was happening.
Maybe Jesus was telling His followers (and those who were just onlookers) something along the lines of, "Remember who I am."
How so?
Well, He was quoting scripture.
You must remember that the Bible had not been compiled in its current form so there were no chapters and verses to quote scripture by. The psalms were a well-known, often-recited collection of poems that were not organized in any real order. The Jewish people knew them, typically, by the first line of the Psalm itself. For instance, the 23rd Psalm was known as "The Lord is My Shepherd" psalm and so forth.
Did you know that Psalm 22 starts with the very words "My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?" Everyone of the Jewish faith looking on would know this. Maybe His words were meant to bring their attention back to these words. Why would He do that? Lets look at the prophecy contained within those verses (the highlighted items are evidence that things are occurring to Jesus just as David's psalm declared):
Now, one thing that stood out to me during the interview was Bert Ehrman's use of the crucifixion stories as defense of his argument. I agree that none of the gospels tell the exact same story, but I've never really had a problem with that. If four people witness a lecture of any topic, they will all remember different points that stood out in their minds as informative, important, or just mind-provoking. I feel this is the same thing with this particular historical and spiritually monstrous event. One of the scriptures he used in his defense stood out to me.
A few Easters ago, the pastor at the church we were attending did a series of the "Seven Sayings of Jesus from the Cross" leading up to Easter Sunday. It was quite informative, I remember, and I was caught up in every detail he was teaching. However, only one of those sermons stuck with me for the next 3 (I think?) years...the one concerning "My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46)
I had always read it for what it said and taken it for Jesus being in pain and bearing the weight of our sin and enduring the hardship of taking on a physical body to save our miserable selves. There was suddenly a new perspective after this particular sermon though.
Let me preface this by saying that yes...Jesus must have been in terribly excruciating pain. He was not happy about his current situation although He was there willingly. Maybe God did have to turn His back on His Son for a short time because Jesus became sin. Maybe Jesus did feel abandoned. If God had turned His head for those moments, it must have been terribly lonely for Jesus who was enduring not only the physical anguish, but spiritual and emotional anguish for being apart from His Father for the first time. That all makes sense. I won't deny that was happening.
However, maybe either separately or in addition to those things, something else more profound was happening.
Maybe Jesus was telling His followers (and those who were just onlookers) something along the lines of, "Remember who I am."
How so?
Well, He was quoting scripture.
You must remember that the Bible had not been compiled in its current form so there were no chapters and verses to quote scripture by. The psalms were a well-known, often-recited collection of poems that were not organized in any real order. The Jewish people knew them, typically, by the first line of the Psalm itself. For instance, the 23rd Psalm was known as "The Lord is My Shepherd" psalm and so forth.
Did you know that Psalm 22 starts with the very words "My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?" Everyone of the Jewish faith looking on would know this. Maybe His words were meant to bring their attention back to these words. Why would He do that? Lets look at the prophecy contained within those verses (the highlighted items are evidence that things are occurring to Jesus just as David's psalm declared):
Psalm 22
To the Chief Musician. Set to “The Deer of the Dawn." A Psalm of David.
1 My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?
Why are You so far from helping Me, And from the words of My groaning?
2 O My God, I cry in the daytime, but You do not hear;
And in the night season, and am not silent.
3 But You are holy,
Enthroned in the praises of Israel.
4 Our fathers trusted in You;
They trusted, and You delivered them.
5 They cried to You, and were delivered;
They trusted in You, and were not ashamed.
6 But I am a worm, and no man;
A reproach of men, and despised by the people.
7 All those who see Me ridicule Me;
They shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying
8 “He trusted in the LORD, let Him rescue Him;
Let Him deliver Him, since He delights in Him!”
9 But You are He who took Me out of the womb;
You made Me trust while on My mother’s breasts.
10 I was cast upon You from birth.
From My mother’s womb
You have been My God.
11 Be not far from Me,
For trouble is near;
For there is none to help.
12 Many bulls have surrounded Me;
Strong bulls of Bashan have encircled Me
13 They gape at Me with their mouths,
Like a raging and roaring lion.
14 I am poured out like water,
And all My bones are out of joint;
My heart is like wax;
It has melted within Me.
15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd,
And My tongue clings to My jaws;
You have brought Me to the dust of death.
16 For dogs have surrounded Me;
The congregation of the wicked has enclosed Me.
They pierced My hands and My feet;
17 I can count all My bones.
They look and stare at Me.
18 They divide My garments among them,
And for My clothing they cast lots.
19 But You, O LORD, do not be far from Me;
O My Strength, hasten to help Me!
20 Deliver Me from the sword,
My precious life from the power of the dog.
21 Save Me from the lion’s mouth
And from the horns of the wild oxen!
You have answered Me.
22 I will declare Your name to My brethren;
In the midst of the assembly I will praise You.
23 You who fear the LORD, praise Him!
All you descendants of Jacob, glorify Him,
And fear Him, all you offspring of Israel!
24 For He has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted;
Nor has He hidden His face from Him;
But when He cried to Him, He heard.
25 My praise shall be of You in the great assembly;
I will pay My vows before those who fear Him.
26 The poor shall eat and be satisfied;
Those who seek Him will praise the LORD.
Let your heart live forever!
27 All the ends of the world
Shall remember and turn to the LORD,
And all the families of the nations
Shall worship before You.
28 For the kingdom is the LORD’s,
And He rules over the nations.
29 All the prosperous of the earth
Shall eat and worship;
All those who go down to the dust
Shall bow before Him,
Even he who cannot keep himself alive.
30 A posterity shall serve Him.
It will be recounted of the Lord to the next generation,
31 They will come and declare His righteousness to a people who will be born,
That He has done this.
To the Chief Musician. Set to “The Deer of the Dawn." A Psalm of David.
1 My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?
Why are You so far from helping Me, And from the words of My groaning?
2 O My God, I cry in the daytime, but You do not hear;
And in the night season, and am not silent.
3 But You are holy,
Enthroned in the praises of Israel.
4 Our fathers trusted in You;
They trusted, and You delivered them.
5 They cried to You, and were delivered;
They trusted in You, and were not ashamed.
6 But I am a worm, and no man;
A reproach of men, and despised by the people.
7 All those who see Me ridicule Me;
They shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying
8 “He trusted in the LORD, let Him rescue Him;
Let Him deliver Him, since He delights in Him!”
9 But You are He who took Me out of the womb;
You made Me trust while on My mother’s breasts.
10 I was cast upon You from birth.
From My mother’s womb
You have been My God.
11 Be not far from Me,
For trouble is near;
For there is none to help.
12 Many bulls have surrounded Me;
Strong bulls of Bashan have encircled Me
13 They gape at Me with their mouths,
Like a raging and roaring lion.
14 I am poured out like water,
And all My bones are out of joint;
My heart is like wax;
It has melted within Me.
15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd,
And My tongue clings to My jaws;
You have brought Me to the dust of death.
16 For dogs have surrounded Me;
The congregation of the wicked has enclosed Me.
They pierced My hands and My feet;
17 I can count all My bones.
They look and stare at Me.
18 They divide My garments among them,
And for My clothing they cast lots.
19 But You, O LORD, do not be far from Me;
O My Strength, hasten to help Me!
20 Deliver Me from the sword,
My precious life from the power of the dog.
21 Save Me from the lion’s mouth
And from the horns of the wild oxen!
You have answered Me.
22 I will declare Your name to My brethren;
In the midst of the assembly I will praise You.
23 You who fear the LORD, praise Him!
All you descendants of Jacob, glorify Him,
And fear Him, all you offspring of Israel!
24 For He has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted;
Nor has He hidden His face from Him;
But when He cried to Him, He heard.
25 My praise shall be of You in the great assembly;
I will pay My vows before those who fear Him.
26 The poor shall eat and be satisfied;
Those who seek Him will praise the LORD.
Let your heart live forever!
27 All the ends of the world
Shall remember and turn to the LORD,
And all the families of the nations
Shall worship before You.
28 For the kingdom is the LORD’s,
And He rules over the nations.
29 All the prosperous of the earth
Shall eat and worship;
All those who go down to the dust
Shall bow before Him,
Even he who cannot keep himself alive.
30 A posterity shall serve Him.
It will be recounted of the Lord to the next generation,
31 They will come and declare His righteousness to a people who will be born,
That He has done this.
So, my personal conclusion, which others also share is this: yes, He most definitely was in deep anguish in ways that we will never understand. However, I think that in His final moments before death, He was still bringing the message that He was God's Son...He was making it clear, that He was the long awaited one. He was still about His Father's business.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Stephen Colbert Makes a Stand
| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Bart Ehrman | ||||
| ||||
Thursday, March 12, 2009
A Little Help for My Friends
Several people I know are having some particularly difficult times right now. Please pray for them.
Keri is a bloggy friend of mine. She and I share an Alma mater, which is how I found her blog. Her brother has just had a terribly improbable accident which needs our prayer. He is recovering, but I am truly flabbergasted that this could even happen! Please extend your prayers to him and her.
MyKidsMom and I have also become really good bloggy friends. Strange how you can feel a connection with someone that you have never met and who happens to live on the complete opposite corner of the U.S. But it happens. She's been fighting a tooth battle that needs healing.
A former coworker of mine just found out that his wife has a brain tumor. They don't know a lot about it yet. She'd been having headaches lately and yesterday when he got home from work she didn't know who he was. Then did scans and such and found a mass. That's all of the update that I have, but I am seriously praying for them. They have a 4 year old daughter, a 2 year old son and they are both younger than 30.
Heather also writes for a blog that I follow as well as maintaining her personal blog. She had a huge scare with her daughter this previous weekend and she's still shaken by it. Pray for her and her family.
A major employer here in laying off 1200 jobs in the near future. Many of those are contract workers, but about half are full-time employees. I have several neighbors, friends, and acquaintances that work there. They are understandably concerned.
My sister, who has Parkinson's, has started a new medication. It's supposed to treat an anxiety disorder that often comes with the disease. I can honestly (yet not judgmentally) say that she needs this type of meds. When I last spoke with her, she actually sounded a bit dingy, so the meds have obviously begun working. Pray that not only will these medicines help her deal with her symptoms, but that ways can be found to eliminate many of the symptoms altogether!
Okay...so that's my list for now. I know you don't know these people, but please think of them during your prayer time and send up some special requests on their behalf.
Keri is a bloggy friend of mine. She and I share an Alma mater, which is how I found her blog. Her brother has just had a terribly improbable accident which needs our prayer. He is recovering, but I am truly flabbergasted that this could even happen! Please extend your prayers to him and her.
MyKidsMom and I have also become really good bloggy friends. Strange how you can feel a connection with someone that you have never met and who happens to live on the complete opposite corner of the U.S. But it happens. She's been fighting a tooth battle that needs healing.
A former coworker of mine just found out that his wife has a brain tumor. They don't know a lot about it yet. She'd been having headaches lately and yesterday when he got home from work she didn't know who he was. Then did scans and such and found a mass. That's all of the update that I have, but I am seriously praying for them. They have a 4 year old daughter, a 2 year old son and they are both younger than 30.
Heather also writes for a blog that I follow as well as maintaining her personal blog. She had a huge scare with her daughter this previous weekend and she's still shaken by it. Pray for her and her family.
A major employer here in laying off 1200 jobs in the near future. Many of those are contract workers, but about half are full-time employees. I have several neighbors, friends, and acquaintances that work there. They are understandably concerned.
My sister, who has Parkinson's, has started a new medication. It's supposed to treat an anxiety disorder that often comes with the disease. I can honestly (yet not judgmentally) say that she needs this type of meds. When I last spoke with her, she actually sounded a bit dingy, so the meds have obviously begun working. Pray that not only will these medicines help her deal with her symptoms, but that ways can be found to eliminate many of the symptoms altogether!
Okay...so that's my list for now. I know you don't know these people, but please think of them during your prayer time and send up some special requests on their behalf.
Friday, February 13, 2009
Study of the LDS Church - 7.3 How to Know/Defend the Bible is True - Part 2
For the final lesson in this study, we're going to examine sources that further prove the inerrancy of the currently studied Bible of Christianity in order to further support its validity and dependability.
Unlike the Book of Mormon, there is much verification of the Bible that can be found in archaeology by Christian and non-Christian scientists. The customs, places, names, and events mentioned in the Bible have been validated over and over again. In fact, there is no archaeological discovery that has ever refuted a Biblical reference, according to Nelson Glueck in his work Rivers in the Desert (p.31). As noted earlier in this study, no site mentioned in the Book of Mormon has ever been convincingly located by archaeologists, although this is not due to lack of effort on their part.
As mentioned yesterday, there are many early Christians that have been found quoting scriptures, as we still know them today, as far back as the first and second century after Christ's life on earth. Clement, a leading elder in the first Christian churches in Rome, cites portions of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Justin Martyr, the "foremost apologist of the second century" considered all four Gospels to be Scripture. Polycarp, a disciple of John the Beloved quotes portions of the other three Gospels and refers to them as Jesus' very words. Irenaeus, a disciple of Polycarp, quoted from all but four of the New Testament books (excluding only Philemon, James, 2 Peter, and 3 John).
However, to further support the accuracy of the Bible, there are many non-Christian sources that refer to events and people that are featured in the scriptures. Jewish historian Flavius Josephus (born A.D. 37) made reference to "Jesus, the so-called Christ." Roman historian Cornelius Tacitus (born A.D. 52) wrote of "Christus" who was "put to death by Pontius Pilate." Pliny the Younger (A.D. 112) spoke of the "troublesome sect of Christians." Suetonius (A.D. 120) spoke of disturbances over "Chrestus." These men obviously had no agenda in perpetrating tales that were untrue, but only speaking about events and people who were contemporaries of their own.
Lastly, I will observe what is further support from within the Bible that unifies it as the absolute and infallible account of God's plea to mankind...the fulfillment of ancient prophecies within the life of Jesus Christ himself. For this, I will point you directly to a list of 365 prophecies in Jewish scripture fulfilled by Jesus himself. This is full support of the correlation between the Old and New Testaments of the Bible, and thus further supports their validity.
No further questions or thoughts today. I just wanted to give you more information that would help support your stance of your faith. I pray that throughout this study, you have come to a better understanding not only of the LDS faith and its inaccuracies, but have grown in your own faith. My hope is that through this study you were able to grow closer to God and more dependent on Him for your peace and in the assurance that He truly He who He tells us He is in the Bible.
If you have any questions regarding any part of this study, please feel free to comment anywhere throughout on this blog or email me at mrsnespy @ hotmail.
Unlike the Book of Mormon, there is much verification of the Bible that can be found in archaeology by Christian and non-Christian scientists. The customs, places, names, and events mentioned in the Bible have been validated over and over again. In fact, there is no archaeological discovery that has ever refuted a Biblical reference, according to Nelson Glueck in his work Rivers in the Desert (p.31). As noted earlier in this study, no site mentioned in the Book of Mormon has ever been convincingly located by archaeologists, although this is not due to lack of effort on their part.
As mentioned yesterday, there are many early Christians that have been found quoting scriptures, as we still know them today, as far back as the first and second century after Christ's life on earth. Clement, a leading elder in the first Christian churches in Rome, cites portions of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Justin Martyr, the "foremost apologist of the second century" considered all four Gospels to be Scripture. Polycarp, a disciple of John the Beloved quotes portions of the other three Gospels and refers to them as Jesus' very words. Irenaeus, a disciple of Polycarp, quoted from all but four of the New Testament books (excluding only Philemon, James, 2 Peter, and 3 John).
However, to further support the accuracy of the Bible, there are many non-Christian sources that refer to events and people that are featured in the scriptures. Jewish historian Flavius Josephus (born A.D. 37) made reference to "Jesus, the so-called Christ." Roman historian Cornelius Tacitus (born A.D. 52) wrote of "Christus" who was "put to death by Pontius Pilate." Pliny the Younger (A.D. 112) spoke of the "troublesome sect of Christians." Suetonius (A.D. 120) spoke of disturbances over "Chrestus." These men obviously had no agenda in perpetrating tales that were untrue, but only speaking about events and people who were contemporaries of their own.
Lastly, I will observe what is further support from within the Bible that unifies it as the absolute and infallible account of God's plea to mankind...the fulfillment of ancient prophecies within the life of Jesus Christ himself. For this, I will point you directly to a list of 365 prophecies in Jewish scripture fulfilled by Jesus himself. This is full support of the correlation between the Old and New Testaments of the Bible, and thus further supports their validity.
No further questions or thoughts today. I just wanted to give you more information that would help support your stance of your faith. I pray that throughout this study, you have come to a better understanding not only of the LDS faith and its inaccuracies, but have grown in your own faith. My hope is that through this study you were able to grow closer to God and more dependent on Him for your peace and in the assurance that He truly He who He tells us He is in the Bible.
If you have any questions regarding any part of this study, please feel free to comment anywhere throughout on this blog or email me at mrsnespy @ hotmail.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Study of the LDS Church - 7.2 How to Know/Defend the Bible is True - Part 1
So we've spent many weeks now examining how the Book of Mormon and the other LDS books of their "holy" canon (including the editing version of the KJV Bible) are a collection of false doctrine created by a series of men, beginning with Joseph Smith. These "scriptures" have fooled many into believing what the LDS church teaches and are well clung-to by its faithful members, which number in the millions.
How then do we know the Bible is true? We'll spend the next two sessions dealing with this topic so that when you are challenged by this question from any skeptical friend, you can feel more prepared to answer this question that seems quite difficult to field.
Today we will look at how the manuscripts from which the Bible was compiled were collected, examined and interpreted in order to create the Holy Bible, as we know it today. Tomorrow we will look at other sources that point to the accuracy of this book as the very word of God.
One major difference in the Book or Mormon and the Bible of the Christian faith is the number of manuscripts available for examination. There are more than 24,000 partial and complete manuscript copies of the New Testament and some 86,000 quotations from the New Testament found in works of early Christian leaders. The Book of Mormon plates, however, were "taken to heaven" by Moroni, leaving no evidence of the source of Joseph Smith's writings.
Are their variations in the Biblical manuscripts? Yes. Mormons like to cite that there are 150,000 "variants" in New Testament manuscripts. This seems breath-taking until you look into these variations further. There are 99 of which that hold no significance whatsoever. Many involve a misspelled word or a reversal of terms (ie "Christ Jesus" vs "Jesus Christ"). In fact, only about 50 hold any significance at all. Even then no doctrine of the Christian faith or any moral commandment is affected by them (Rene Pache, The Inspiration and Authority of Scripture, 1978, p. 93). In fact, compiling the most probable wording of the original document is not as hard as one might imagine. Here is an example given in Rhodes book:
By looking at these, it is clear that you can decipher what the original text would have been with a high degree of certainty.
It also is noteworthy that, according to Norman Geisler, "There are more [New Testament] manuscripts copied with greater accuracy and earlier dating than for any secular classic from antiquity." However, we have no problem believing that these texts are the "original." For instance, there are only 643 known copies of works from Homer, which are copied at 95% accuracy. There are 10 copies of works from Julius Caesar, with the earliest copy being cited from A.D. 900--their accuracy is completely unknown. With the New Testament, there are over 5000 copies copied at 99+% accuracy with the earliest copies being from approximately A.D. 130.
So we've covered some evidence of the New Testament support. What about the Old Testament? Well, thanks to the Dead Sea Scrolls, there is now much evidence to support the validity of the Old Testament as well. The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in the mid-20th century in some caves in Qumran. These manuscripts were written approximately 1000 years earlier than any previously known copies of the texts. One fine example of the consistency is in the book of Isaiah. Dr. Gleason Archer said, "Even though the two copies of Isaiah discovered in Qumran Cave 1 near the Dead Sea in 1947 were a thousand years earlier than the oldest dated manuscript previously known (A.D. 980), they proved to be word for word identical with our standard Hebrew Bible in more than 95 percent of the text. The 5 percent variation consisted chiefly of obvious slips of the pen and variations in spelling." (A Survey of Old Testament Introduction, 1964, p. 19, as seen in Rhodes book, p. 170)
It is also important to know how these ancient manuscripts were copied. They went to incredible lengths to preserve what they believed to be the true and infallible Word of God. Every line, word, syllable, and letter were counted to ensure accuracy. If an error were found, the manuscript would be completely discarded and started again.
It is also noteworthy that Christ used copies of the Old Testament in his teachings--copies that were much older than the original texts, and had no problem with their reliability. Since he was the very Word made flesh, this should tell us something about the accuracy and care in the preservation of the ancient texts used to compile the Bible.
No questions today. Just read and digest. I'll be back for the next installment, which will wrap up our study of the LDS faith.
How then do we know the Bible is true? We'll spend the next two sessions dealing with this topic so that when you are challenged by this question from any skeptical friend, you can feel more prepared to answer this question that seems quite difficult to field.
Today we will look at how the manuscripts from which the Bible was compiled were collected, examined and interpreted in order to create the Holy Bible, as we know it today. Tomorrow we will look at other sources that point to the accuracy of this book as the very word of God.
One major difference in the Book or Mormon and the Bible of the Christian faith is the number of manuscripts available for examination. There are more than 24,000 partial and complete manuscript copies of the New Testament and some 86,000 quotations from the New Testament found in works of early Christian leaders. The Book of Mormon plates, however, were "taken to heaven" by Moroni, leaving no evidence of the source of Joseph Smith's writings.
Are their variations in the Biblical manuscripts? Yes. Mormons like to cite that there are 150,000 "variants" in New Testament manuscripts. This seems breath-taking until you look into these variations further. There are 99 of which that hold no significance whatsoever. Many involve a misspelled word or a reversal of terms (ie "Christ Jesus" vs "Jesus Christ"). In fact, only about 50 hold any significance at all. Even then no doctrine of the Christian faith or any moral commandment is affected by them (Rene Pache, The Inspiration and Authority of Scripture, 1978, p. 93). In fact, compiling the most probable wording of the original document is not as hard as one might imagine. Here is an example given in Rhodes book:
Manuscript #1: Jesus Christ is the Savior of the whole world
Manuscript #2: Christ Jesus is the Savior of the whole world.
Manuscript #3: Jesus Christ s the Savior of the whole world.
Manuscript #4: Jesus Christ is th Savior of the whole world
Manuscript #5: Jesus Christ is the Savor of the whole world.
Manuscript #2: Christ Jesus is the Savior of the whole world.
Manuscript #3: Jesus Christ s the Savior of the whole world.
Manuscript #4: Jesus Christ is th Savior of the whole world
Manuscript #5: Jesus Christ is the Savor of the whole world.
By looking at these, it is clear that you can decipher what the original text would have been with a high degree of certainty.
It also is noteworthy that, according to Norman Geisler, "There are more [New Testament] manuscripts copied with greater accuracy and earlier dating than for any secular classic from antiquity." However, we have no problem believing that these texts are the "original." For instance, there are only 643 known copies of works from Homer, which are copied at 95% accuracy. There are 10 copies of works from Julius Caesar, with the earliest copy being cited from A.D. 900--their accuracy is completely unknown. With the New Testament, there are over 5000 copies copied at 99+% accuracy with the earliest copies being from approximately A.D. 130.
So we've covered some evidence of the New Testament support. What about the Old Testament? Well, thanks to the Dead Sea Scrolls, there is now much evidence to support the validity of the Old Testament as well. The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in the mid-20th century in some caves in Qumran. These manuscripts were written approximately 1000 years earlier than any previously known copies of the texts. One fine example of the consistency is in the book of Isaiah. Dr. Gleason Archer said, "Even though the two copies of Isaiah discovered in Qumran Cave 1 near the Dead Sea in 1947 were a thousand years earlier than the oldest dated manuscript previously known (A.D. 980), they proved to be word for word identical with our standard Hebrew Bible in more than 95 percent of the text. The 5 percent variation consisted chiefly of obvious slips of the pen and variations in spelling." (A Survey of Old Testament Introduction, 1964, p. 19, as seen in Rhodes book, p. 170)
It is also important to know how these ancient manuscripts were copied. They went to incredible lengths to preserve what they believed to be the true and infallible Word of God. Every line, word, syllable, and letter were counted to ensure accuracy. If an error were found, the manuscript would be completely discarded and started again.
It is also noteworthy that Christ used copies of the Old Testament in his teachings--copies that were much older than the original texts, and had no problem with their reliability. Since he was the very Word made flesh, this should tell us something about the accuracy and care in the preservation of the ancient texts used to compile the Bible.
No questions today. Just read and digest. I'll be back for the next installment, which will wrap up our study of the LDS faith.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
It's Coming...
Tomorrow I will write the next to last of the Study of the LDS Church Series. I plan on finishing the entire series by the end of the week.
I apologize for the delay in completing this task. Life has been overwhelming lately and although I never intended to drop this by the wayside, it was abandoned until I could catch up for a little while.
Thanks for hanging in there with me!
I apologize for the delay in completing this task. Life has been overwhelming lately and although I never intended to drop this by the wayside, it was abandoned until I could catch up for a little while.
Thanks for hanging in there with me!
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