Believers Armed and Dangerous

A few years ago, a member of the Church of Christ came to my door and asked if I would like to join a Bible study they were starting.  As we talked, I saw she was from a particular sect of the Church of Christ which believes you needed to be baptized to be saved.  I thought I’d share why that just isn’t so.

The two obvious examples in Scripture are the thief on the cross and Cornelius.  The thief was promised salvation by Jesus (Luke 23:39-43).  When the soldiers came to kill Jesus and the two thiefs, they didn’t need to break Jesus’ legs because He was already dead, He had already died for the thief’s sins.  So, the thief was saved under the New Testament and without being baptized.

Cornelius and his family received the Holy Spirit, a sign of salvation, before they were baptized (Acts 10:44-48).

In 1 Cor. 1:14-17 Paul says he was glad he did not baptize many in the church at Corinth and that baptism is not a part of the gospel.  These passages are all evidence that baptism is not necessary for salvation.

Now we come to 1 Peter 3:21 which seems to say that water baptism saves you.  And, there is a very important point to make here.  When we come across a passage or two which seem to contradict the teaching of the rest of Scripture, we can be sure we are misinterpreting that passage(s).  In the Bible, baptism is always preceded by faith.  Baptism is also used to described a number of things in Scripture besides water baptism.  We are baptized into Christ Jesus and into His death (Rom. 6:3), for instance.  1 Cor. 10:1-5 speaks of the Israelites being baptized into Moses.  So, baptism is often used as a description of aligning with a person rather than an act.  1 Peter 3:21, no doubt tells us that accepting Jesus, faith in Him, saves us.  Water cannot do what the blood of Christ has done.

Then there is Mark 16:16 which says that those who believe and are baptized will be saved.  A couple of points to make here.  First, this passage of Scripture (Mark 16:9-19) is not in some of the earliest manuscripts, but it is in a few.  Some scholars believe it to be an addition or “note to self” by a very early copyist who was making a copy for himself.  When he lent it to a friend, the friend copied it into the text as if it were supposed to be there, and this was passed on through later copies.  So, these scholars don’t believe Mark 16:16 is actually Scripture.

I’d rather stand on the conservative side, though, and accept this as fully inspired until proven otherwise.  So, if we see that baptism is preceded by faith in Scripture, we should offer the same explanation here.  You are not saved if you don’t believe.  And if you believe, you should be baptized.

If baptism doesn’t save you, should you be baptized then?  Well, it’s a command of Jesus Himself (Matt 28:16-20).  And, throughout the book of Acts, we see the same pattern repeated: belief then baptism.  If you have yet to be baptized as a believer, it is something you should certainly consider as a public declaration of your new life in Christ.

 

As usual, the text of this post along with the full text of the passages cited are on the page by the same name, “Baptism”.  You can find that page in the menu.

One of the greatest fears in witnessing is that we might be asked a question we don’t have an answer to.  I’ve spent the last 40 years trying to find answers to the tough questions and still get stumped at times.  I have three observations that may help you when this happens:

1. If I’m asked a question I can’t answer, I will say, “Let me write that down and get back to you.”  This way the conversation can continue on another point, and you won’t be stuck on something you don’t know.  And, since you’ll be getting back to them, you’ll have an opportunity to discuss the Lord with them again.  It will also show them you’re not dodging the question so long as you do get back to them.  You can check with someone who might have the answer, contact this blog if you like, and give them a quick but thorough response.  If you won’t see them again for a while or ever, you can ask for their email address and contact them that way.  Get back to them as quickly as possible, though.  Slow responses imply uncertainty about the Truth.
2. John 14:26 says that the Holy Spirit will teach us and bring what we’ve learned to remembrance at times like these. So, if you’ve done your homework, don’t worry about it.  God wants to draw the lost to Him even more than you do.  There will still be times you are unable to answer, but there will be fewer and fewer of these as you study and share more and more.
3. Devine intervention. I have had this happen a few times in my witnessing.  I am caught flatfooted on a point that means a lot to the person I’m talking with.  God suddenly speaks to me and gives me the answer clearly and directly.  The last time this happened, I was talking to my Jehovah’s Witness friend, John.  JWs don’t believe Jesus was raised from death in His physical body but as a spirit and manifested bodies so the disciples could see Him and believe.  I was chipping away at this using Luke 24:38-39 when my JW friend said, “See.  He had to be a spirit since physical bodies can’t disappear and reappear at will.”  No matter what I said, John stuck to his guns.  Then God said to me, “What about Philip?” (Acts 8:34-40)  I was shocked at the clarity of the answer, so, I said to John just what God said to me: “What about Philip?”  John was visibly stunned by my question and conceded the point.

 

Like I said, this happens rarely, and it’s not a good idea to depend on it.  But, it’s sure exciting when it happens.

 

So, understand these techniques in your witnessing, and don’t worry that you’ll be asked a question you can’t answer.  God will supply just what you need to know.  If not, you can write it down and get back to them.

 

I drive my wife nuts at times when we stand in a line, like at the bank, and I strike up a conversation with the stranger standing next to us.  By the time we reach the window, I often know where the person grew up, how many kids and grandkids they have, plus a whole lot of other infomation, and they know the same about me.

How do I get so much information?  I ask questions and listen to the answers while looking as non-threatening as possible.  It almost always works, but there are times the person doesn’t want to share or doesn’t trust the strange man asking all the questions.

I follow the same process when I witness.  Let me give you an example.  I like to talk with Jehovah’s Witnesses, and when I meet them on the street or at my door, I’ll usually ask them something like, “I understand you believe Jesus was raised from the dead as a spirit creature.  Is that right?”  When I do this, they are more than happy to tell me all about how they believe Jesus was the angel Michael, how He became a good man, and how after His death became the Archangel Michael.

Let me tell you what I’ve done with my question.  First, I’ve directed the conversation to a topic they have very little support for and I have studied extensively.  Secondly, they don’t know what I believe yet, so they don’t usually feel threatened.  And thirdly, I’ve made them think.  This is key when talking with cultists in particular or with talking to most people, for that matter.

As the conversation with my JW friend progresses, I continue to ask questions about what they’ve just said to make them think about it and point out passages in the Bible which contradict their view.  “What do you do with John 2:18-22, then, where Jesus predicted He would raise His own body from the dead?”  Or I might point to Luke 24:38-39 and ask, “Was Jesus deceiving His disciples, then, in Luke where He said specifically that He was not a spirit and showed them His body with wounds in His hands and feet, and asked the disciples to touch Him, feel Him?”  Don’t be a jerk, though.  This is supposed to be done in love and with respect (1 Peter 3:15).

By this time, the typical JW will be on to me but the discussion has started.  She still has to struggle with the biblical text that refutes what the Watchtower organization has taught them.  I neve expect so see them drop to their knees, repent, and ask Jesus into their lives.  Our job is to plant and water.  It’s God Who brings forth the increase.

I first learned this method from the late Dr. Walter Martin, and Greg Koukl at Stand to Reason has since perfected it.  He calls it the “Colombo Method.”

This works with just about anyone, though, not just cultists.  “Why do you believe that?” is often a good opening question if someone says they support some atheistic or odd religious view.

So, next time you feel God is prompting you in a conversation, ask a question or two and see where He leads you.  You might just end up sharing the Gospel with someone who needs to hear it.

As usual, a copy of this blog post with footnotes provided is posted in the menu.

The Oldest manuscripts of the Old Testament that we have date from the second century BC.  The oldest complete book is the book of Isaiah in the Dead Sea Scrolls dates about 150 BC.  Prior to the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947, the oldest complete manuscripts of the Old Testament were found in Greek manuscripts of the complete Bible, Old and New Testaments, and those date to the fourth century AD.  So, you can see the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls pushed back the oldest discovered manuscript of the Old Testament by about 500 years.

The Oldest complete or nearly complete New Testament manuscripts are dated from the fourth century AD.  But, we have much earlier portions of the New Testament.  Up until recently, the earliest manuscript of any of the New Testament was the John Rylands Fragment which contained parts of five verses of John’s Gospel and is dated around 120 AD, about twenty to thirty years after the book of John is supposed to have been written.

Within the last few years a papyrus has been found with a portion of the Gospel of Mark.  This was found in an Egyptian mummy mask.  While the Pharoahs had masks of gold covering their faces, the nobles with less money had to use layers of papyrus sheets to create their masks.  Papyrus was extremely expensive, so sheets of used papyrus were used.  Some archaeologists have taken some of these masks and separated the layers with a process which enables them to read what was originally on the separate sheets.  One of the sheets contains a portion of the Gospel of Mark and is tentatively dated prior to 90 AD.  http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/papyrus-found-mummy-mask-may-be-oldest-known-copy-gospel-180953962/

The Gospel of Mark is believed to have been written around 70 AD.  So, we have a portion of that gospel dated within 20 years of the original.  This lends to the reliability of the other later manuscripts which match the new find.  It also is dated within the “eyewitness period” where there are still people alive when this Egyptian manuscript was written who saw the risen Jesus, who could testify to it’s validity, and who were circulating it as far as Egypt.

Think of it this way.  The assassination of John Kennedy happened in 1963, 54 years ago.  There are still people alive today who were in Dallas when he was killed and could testify to any corrupt description of the events.  This manuscript of Mark is within 57 years of Jesus rising from the dead.  If it were not true, there were eyewitnesses alive at that time who could have refuted it.  That is the value of this portion of Mark, and that is what adds validity to Easter mornings when we say, “He is risen!  He is risen indeed.”

“You Christians!  You quote the Bible to prove the Bible.  That’s circular.  Why don’t you just show me something in another ancient document supporting your view?”

If you’ve shared the Gospel for very long, you’ll run into this challenge from non-believers.  How do you answer it?  Well, here’s one response:

“The Bible isn’t one book, it’s 66 books written by about 40 different writers over a period of 1500 years or so.  All these books record similar experiences with God from people from vastly different cultures and social standing.  We have books written by a shepherd, a king, a Hebrew scholar, a medical doctor, and even a tax collector.

“The books are arranged in a specific order as you can see by the graphic.  This arrangement is not chronological (there are chronological Bibles on the market, though).  They’re organized catagorically:

“The first five books were written by Moses and are considered the books of the law, after that are the historic books, Joshua through Esther.  Then we have the poetic books, Job through the Song of Solomon.  The Major Prophets come next, Isaiah through Daniel.  These books and the Minor Prophets are only called that because of their length, not their importance.  After the Major Prophets come the Minor Prophets, Hosea through Malachi.  That’s the Old Testament.

“In the New Testament, we have similar categories.  The first four, the Gospels, are sometimes called the “Biographies.”  Then comes the historic book, Acts.  After that are the Pauline letters to churches and to individuals (I’m considering the book of Hebrews to have been written by Paul, some disagree), then the “General Epistles” written  by apostles other than Paul and two of the Lord’s half-brothers, James and Jude.  Last but certainly not least is the prophetic book of the New Testament, Revelation.

“So, when Paul quotes Moses or Jesus quotes Isaiah, there is no circular reasoning here.  They are quoting other independent authors who lived in a different time but had the same intimate knowledge of the infinite God of the universe.”

There is plenty of information outside of the Bible to support the Bible.  This is just one approach.  In future posts, we’ll look at the other ancient documents.

I meet with several Christian men at our church on Thursday mornings to share and grow together and to hold each other accountable.  This past week, a very dear friend asked us all our favorite Bible verse.  Well, the verse I try to live my life by is 1 Peter 3:15:  “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every man who asks of you, a reason for the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.”  I hadn’t really thought about which is my favorite verse.

When my turn came to share, I shared the doxology that appears in the last two verses of Jude: “Now to Him Who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, To God our Savior Who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion an power, both now and forever.  Amen.”

I teared up as I recited the passage, and my friend, Abott, asked me why it was so emotional for me.  There are three points here in verse 24 that leave me in awe.  First, that Jesus is able to keep me from stumbling.  He often times will remind me of His presence in a situation or even prevent me from entering a situation where I might fall and disrupt my relationship with Him.

Second, He will present me before the Father faultless.  Faultless!  ME!  Because of His great love, He gave His very life painfully so that He might have me appear perfect in the presence of the Father.  How wonderful that promise is to me.

Third is the point that Jesus will present me to the Father with great joy.  Great joy!  The person who loves me most in all the world is my wife.  We’ve been married over 47 years and know each other pretty well.  However, I know where all her buttons are.  If I decided to push all those buttons, I could no doubt get her to hate me in a very short time.  The thing is, I’ve pushed all of God’s buttons, yet He and His Son want me to spend eternity with them.  I can never get God to hate me.  There is nothing I can do to remove myself from His love, and neither can you.

Whenever I recite the doxology in Jude, I think of myself for the first verse but see the second verse as a thank you, as a praise to the God Who makes the first verse possible and true.  I hope you will too next time you read it.

You know how a passage will stick in your mind for weeks?

A few weeks ago one of our pastors, Tim Fisk, gave a message on 2 Kings 5:1-14.  It’s the story of Naaman, the commander of the Syrian army, a leper who came to the prophet Elisha to be healed.  Elisha didn’t answer the door when Naaman knocked.  He sent his servant to tell the commander to dip himself in the  Jordan River seven times.  No money, no rituals performed, just a simple faith-building instruction — not what Naaman was expecting.  After struggling with the simplicity of Elisha’s instruction, Naaman finally dipped himself in the Jordan and was healed.

I’ve been thinking about infinity and of our infinite God lately.  Infinity is a number which is so large, it does not grow larger with the addition of any other number.  It’s so large a number if you could divide infinity in half, you would have two infinite numbers.  We have no infinite numbers in our entire universe.  The number of electrons in the Universe is an enormous number, but it is not infinite, doesn’t even make a dent.  That’s how big infinity is.

Since God is infinite, He must be infinite in all His attributes: infinitely just, infinitely merciful, infinitely powerful, and so on.  Well, if God, the One who created the universe with just a word, is the God of Elisha, then Naaman had no idea just who’s door he was knocking on.  It was the door of the earthly representative of this infinitely powerful God.

I realized in my study, that creation of our huge and complex universe by an infinitely powerful God was done with no effort at all.  No task requires effort if it is done by Someone who is infinitely powerful.

With that in mind, Naaman’s story tells us of a God for Whom incredible miracles such as healing a leper, is simple and effortless.  There was no effort involved in healing Naaman.  God just willed it, and it was done. Healing Naaman was so low on God’s “power scale,” God didn’t even send His representative, His servant, to the door when Naaman knocked.  He sent His servant’s servant.  God didn’t heal Naaman by having His servant or His servant’s servant go through rituals or rites or even with a wave of Elisha’s hand.  He just gave Naaman instructions to take a step of faith in order to be healed.  Incredible power!

James 5:17 says that Elija, Elisha’s mentor, was nothing special.  He was a human just like us…and like Elisha.  And, here’s the point: you and I aren’t special humans.  It’s the God Who dwells in us Who is Phenomenal.  Like Elisha, we’re representatives of that great and infinite God and there are Naamans out there knocking on our doors.  Let’s keep awake and look carefully for the Naamans God will bring into our lives.

As usual, an expanded version of this post with the passages sited is available on the menu. 

The quick answer is “no.”  Let’s define a couple of terms, “Contradictory” and “Contrary.”  Two things contradict if they cannot both be true.  “The Bible says, Jesus loves me,” and “The Bible does not say, Jesus loves me,” are contradictory statements.  “I was in California today,” and “I was in Arizona today,” are contrary statements, they may seem contradictory, but they can both be true.

So, when we read Mary Magdalene went to the tomb ((John 20:1) but elsewhere that more than one woman went to the tomb (Mark 16:1) there isn’t a contradiction here anymore than saying, “I saw John at the fair yesterday,” and someone else saying, “I saw John, Mary, and their kids at the fair yesterday.”  It’s the same thing with the number of possessed men.  There are two mentioned in Matthew 8:28-34 but only one mentioned in Mark 5:1-20. This seems to be contradictory but is only contrary.  Both can be true, just one of  the possessed was the important one in the story.

No contradictions appear in the passages mentioned.  There are other passages where we do see what appears to be contradictions such as Gen. 22:2 where Scripture says Abraham had only one son.  Yet, in Gen. 25:6, Scripture says he had more than one.  The answer here is similar to that of the passages above.  One son alone is of the line to the Messiah.  One son, Isaac, was the only son of Sarah.  Between Gen. 22:2 and Gen. 25:6, we are told Abraham had other children through Keturah (Gen. 25:1).  So, yes Abraham had more than one son.

This is similar to the old question, “If Adam and Eve had just Cain and Able, where did Cain’s wife come from?  Geographically, it appears Cain’s wife came from the land of Nod.  But, that’s not the question.  Cain married one of his sisters (Gen. 5:3-4).  Then the question of incest comes up.  But, incest was not outlawed until the Mosaic Law (Lev. 18:6-18).  No reason is given why the change, but it’s hard to reproduce if you are forbidden to do so through family members when that is the only option.  It may also be that the gene pool was not corrupt enough to cause problems until the time of Moses.

Both the “Cain’s wife” problem and the “Abraham’s sons” problem are simple problems of ignorance.  Those who pose the problem simply haven’t read the Scriptures concerning these “contradictions.”

As usual, an expanded version of this post can be found in the menu under “Can I Trust My Bible?

Also, Alleged Descrepancies of the Bible is recommended to help answer questions like these.  A link to this book on Amazon can be found under “Recommended Books,” also in the menu.

 

While the Old Testament was passed down to us in a fairly ritualistic fashion, the New Testament, not so much.

The New Testament is a collection of 27 biographies, letters, and a book of prophecy written by about eight authors over nearly 50 years.  These documents were sent to individuals (Luke 1:1-4; Acts 1:1), to particular churches (Rom. 1:7) and to the church at large (Rev. 1:1-3).

When these letters and books arrived, some in the congregation would borrow them to make copies for themselves and friends.  This helped to spread the Gospel.  Occasionally, though, it led to discrepancies.  Let’s imagine I borrowed someone’s copy of the Gospel of Luke.  As I copied it, I might make some comments in the margin as certain passages impact me.  After all, it’s my personal copy, why not include notes?  Two problems arise, perhaps my friend who owns the manuscript I’m copying did the same thing.  I might see what he wrote and, thinking it Scripture, include it in the text as I copy it.  Then when I pass my copy on to another friend so she could copy it, she might well copy my friend’s notes and as well as mine.  Usually, the notes were recognized as such, but you can see how some manuscripts might be corrupted in this way.

In order to deal with this, we have textual critics who compare all the manuscripts with various priorities in mind (age, geographical area where it originated, etc.) in order to come to a complete text which they believe represents as precisely as possible the originals (autographs).  Because of this research, we believe we can reproduce the New Testament with better than 99% precision, and the portions in question are not doctrinal.  This is one reason why most modern translations are made from the oldest known manuscripts.  There is less time from the original writings to the known manuscript for error.

Besides this, even if we had no manuscripts of the New Testament at all (and we have over 24,000), we can reproduce nearly all of the New Testament from the writings of the early church fathers.

So, rest assured that the New Testament you hold in your hand on Sunday morning is the most accurately reproduced ancient document in history.  You can rely on it fully.

 

You can find an expanded version of this post including full text of passages cited in the menu.  This post is included under the item “Can I Trust My Bible”

Helpful books can be found under “Recommended Books” in the menu.

2Just how careful were the guys who copied the Bible up until the printing press was invented?  Does the Bible we have today compare well with the originals (the autographs)?

The copying of the Old Testament was very exact.  According to Geisler and Nix’s A General Introduction to the Bible, there were at least 17 rules that needed to be followed by the scribes when they copied the Old Testament to create a Synagogue Scroll.  Among the rules were these:  “(4) Every skin must contain a certain number of columns, equal throughout the entire codex. (7) The ink should be black, neither red, green, nor any other color, and prepared according to a definite recipe.  (9) No word or letter, not even a yod, must be written from memory, the scribe not having looked at the codex before him. (10) Between every consonant the space of a hair or thread must intervene (11) Between every book three lines….”, etc.

So, you get the idea that the scribes copying the Old Testament had to be extremely careful and reverent at their jobs.  When the scribe came upon the very name of God and needed to copy it, he was expected first to take a bath, dress in newly washed clothes, use a new pen and freshly prepared ink.  This meant when the scribe copied Ps. 4:3 or Ps. 6:2, he had to go through this ritual twice since God’s name appears twice in those verses.

On top of that, the scribe was expected to count the letters in the newly copied page and count the number of letters in the manuscript being copied.  If the numbers matched, he was to hold a thread across the text from the top left corner to the bottom right corner.  Another thread was held from the top right corner of the text to the lower left corner.  If the letter in the center where the two threads crossed was the same as the letter in the same position on the manuscript being copied, then the copy was approved.  If not, it was destroyed.

This extremely conservative approach to copying the manuscripts  gives us the reason why, when the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered, they match almost precisely our modern manuscripts.

So, because today’s Old Testament matches a copy from more than two thousand years ago, we can be pretty certain the Old Testament we hold in our hands and study is an extremely reliable and authentic representation of the Old Testament autographs.  Geisler and Nix say it is more than 99% an accurate copy.  The less than 1% in question contains no doctrinal issues.

 

This post is the second in a series on the trustworthyness of the Bible.  There is a page where the posts are accumulated to create one document for your use in discussing the Bible.  The Page is called, Can I Trust My Bible?  This page can be found in the menus at the side bar or at the bottom of the page.

 

As usual, an expanded version of this post can be found in the menus under “Can I Trust My Bible?