Episode 12 of the Evangelist's Podcast
Has the truth of the bible been compromised? Has the text been changed? How can we trust it when there are so many variances in the manuscripts?
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[audio http://revivalmedia.org/medias/audios/TEP012.mp3].
In the podcast we reference a fascinating debate between James White and Bart Ehrman here:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Dp3A4FwAaQ]
While the texts may have some hiccups...the message remains the same and infallible.
The finite contains the infinite. God makes use of what He has in this fallen world. Earthen vessels. That's what a BIG GOD does. Little gods (such as allah) need perfect texts in perfect books.
Bart is surely just a fundamentalist. Many in the USA believe that for the Bible to be the word of God it must be absolutely perfect. Bart is saying because it isn't absolutely perfect it isn't the word of God. The whole tone of the discussion showed who was being sensible. Bart used hyperbole, rhetoric and spurious statistics to shock while James used quiet wisdom. 1-0 to James.
I have had some thoughts about the foundations of the authority of the NT. I thought of 2 foundations initially: The authority of the apostles who wrote it and the authority of the early church who chose what to put in and leave out. But then I thought where do these two get their authority: from Jesus the Messiah the Lord. The foundation of the authority of the NT (OT too?) is that Jesus is vindicated as the Son of God by the resurrection of the dead. Now some protestants have it the other way round thinking that Jesus is raised from the dead because the authoritative NT says it. Is'nt this subordinating Jesus authority under NT authority? But all authority is given to Jesus. We need a Christocentric Christianity not a bibliocentric one. Does this lead to the Christocentric hermeneutic favoured by Glen. Maybe.
Textual critics of the Bible object that if Scripture is "breathed out by God", such a treasure would not be found in mere "jars of clay". But that's exactly where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found when a shepherd boy threw a stone into a cave and broke one of the jars! But for textual critics, the discovery meant more manuscripts, and that undermines the truthfulness of the Bible! The logic is that more manuscript evidence means more variances and therefore more confusion, rather than more clarity.
"The grass withers,and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.”
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