This content explores the truthfulness and validity of the Bible through internal and external evidence, and then addresses the purpose and impact of financial giving within the Christian faith.
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hello there my name is
pastor and my name is Pastor Dapo aay in
the last session we spoke about the
subject of the Trinity and why there is
a need to pray when God knows all things
and on today's session we're going to be
discussing about the Bible we're going
to be asking questions like how do I
know that the Bible is true how can I
prove that the things written therein
are real and true um and as Believers as
Christians as children of God the first
thing to note or the first thing you
need to note is that the Bible sets the
standard for everything else that we
believe we don't believe anything
outside what the word of God says we
don't believe anything outside what the
Bible says and so if its origin and
validity is put to question then it
means that there's a question on our
faith and so that's why we need to
answer this question is the Bible true
how can we prove that the Bible is true
first I want us to Define what the Bible
is the Bible is from the Latin word
tabia and it means a collection of books
the Bible is a collection a compendium
of different books written by over 40
authors and within the space of 2,000
years many of these authors come from
different countries classes and
profession however their writings still
form a unified salvation story but we're
going to continue looking at the reason
why the Bible is true over to you Pastor
yeah thank you Pastor D so to establish
the truth and the validity of the Bible
there are some questions we just must
answer and the first question is is the
Bible properly copied is the Bible
properly copied and in answering this
question it means must put the Bible to
the same test we put other literatures
of history and one of such tests is what
we call the biographical test and it
tends to answer the question it tries to
answer the question how many manuscripts
are available uh are it content the same
or at least similar and the second
question I'll answer both questions is
out short is the interval between the
date of the original documents and the
date of the earliest available
manuscript let me explain a manuscript
is simply a book or a document that is
hand written or copied by hand and so
the question is how many manuscript do
we have let me use an example to just
pin the picture before I give us the
fact imagine a lecturer starting a class
gives a handout and it says you know
we're using this material for the next
2,000 years of course the man cannot
leave 2,000 years now how do we know
after 2,000 years that the handout that
we still have is the same one that the
lecture gave knowing that the original
copy probably will be missing by that
time so the first question is how many
copies of the original and out do we
have now remember manuscript is
underwritten document so if we have only
four copies of this handout We can
question how how are we so sure that
this is still the same material that the
man gave 2,000 years ago imagine we have
5,000 copies now to a large extent if we
have 5,000 copies then we can check
those copies and we can come to a good
conclusion 5,000 copies then to a large
extent this could be the this could be
the same material even though we don't
have the original anymore but this can
still give us a valid can see help us
test the validity of the original
document and that's exactly what we're
talking about and to give the fact is in
the New Testament alone we have over
5,686 known Greek manuscripts over
10,000 Latin vgat and at least 9,300
other versions in the world no other
document matches up to this number so
what what that means is we have this
amount of copies of the of the New
Testament Elon the Des scroll was
discovered in
1947 in kran cave near the Des which is
where the scroll got is named from and
in the Des scroll they consisted over
800 Scrolls and each contain a portion a
portions from the every book of the Old
Testament now the entire manuscript of
the book of Isaiah was found in the Des scroll
scroll
and year the age of this scroll dates
back to 75 BC now comparing the
manuscript of the book of Isaiah that
was found in Des scroll with the
earliest one we have which was
1,100 years apart we discover that it it maintains
maintains
95% accuracy so go back to the handout
example I gave so imagine you compare
one that was you know maybe 1,900 years
ago and one that is 20 years apart now
up to 1,100 years apart comparing the
two copies we realize that it contains
95% accuracy and the 5% differences are
just in spelling and you know omitted
letters and misspelled words of course
if you and copy something you're bound
to make few mistakes but nothing that
changes the core meaning of the word so
it means that the Bible passes the biographical
biographical
test and the second question is the
years apart the Book of John for
instance um the earliest Christian
manuscript available today a fragment of
the papus papus is a material in which
they use in writing back then and with
the oldest one being papus p52 a
fragment of the Gospel of John dated
around 125 to 150 ad what this means is
the Book of John was written right in a
lifetime of the people that lived or
that the book the materials contained so
so what is and um this is important
because to give the validity of a
material are there people that leave at
that time to give credit to it for
instance if I write about World War One
World War One you can't trust it because
I didn't leave that time but if somebody
write about the Civil War which was just
about 80 plus years ago then people can
people just lived and witnessed it are
still alive so you can give validity to
it or not so the Bible passes this Bal
test in the number of the manuscript and
also in the years apart another test
that we can take the Bible through um to
see and validate its authenticity is
called the internal evidence test the
internal evidence test is simply data
that comes from the Bible itself and it
simply answers the question is the
document free of known contradictions
that's what it answers this means we're
try that we're trying to understand if
the Bible is inter
coherent so the information that the
Bible has from different parts can we
check and corroborate the story and many
people you know Skeptics talk about um
contradictions within the Bible but what
is really a contradiction a
contradiction is something like this let
me give you an example examine statement
one statement one says eyes are foreseen
statement two says the only part of the
body that can be used for seeing is the
leg leg this is a contradiction that's
how to identify a contradiction so many
of the things you would see in the Bible
are not contradictions most times they
just need to be corroborated so let's
check and see um some examples that are
obvious within the Bible especially in
the New Testament the first example is
the gospel there the four gospel
accounts Matthew Mark Luke and John they
all offered independent test testimonies
of the life of Jesus his death burial
and resurrection and they all turned out
to be complimentary and similar they did
not write their accounts together
remember that they lived at different
times or even were at at different wrote
their manuscripts at different points
but they all corroborate they all all
their stories come together to form a
unified salvation story like we said
before Skeptics however you know have
argued in some parts that the stories
don't match the stories do not cor
corroborate or there are contradictions
within the Bible but on proper
examination of these stories you will
find out that they do not contradict one
another or each other um let's look at
the example of the story of judas's
death according to the Book of Matthew
or according to Matthew's account um it
was said that Judas died by hanging
himself but in the book of Acts the the
record was that Judas um fell headlong
and his body bust open this looks like a
contradiction or some form of
incoherence but it is not it is just the
story from different points or different
angles of its happening it's just like
um listening to the news and maybe on a
particular TV station as the same news
is said as on another TV station but
this TV station tells it from the lens
of someone who is seeing it from a
different side of happening that's how
you see that's how this story is this
story of Judas um so it was not a
contradiction but a story from different
angles for example like Matthew said yes
Judas Iscariot hung himself and in the
book of Acts the story ends up telling
us that he fell head headlong so it is
said or research shows that the place
where Judas hung himself was beside a
cliff so when he hung himself over time
and over a period of time the whatever
he used to hung himself but um cut and
then he fell on the cliff that's where
his body bust open so it wasn't really a
contradiction and the story is coherent
when you look at it he fell he hung
himself fell headlong and his body was
open so that's corroboration there and
not uh uh incoherence so the story of
Judas es scariot is coherent another
thing to check or another example
another way we can verify the internal
evidence um especially looking at the
gospels and generally the entire Bible
is by looking at prophetic predictions
the Bible contains predictions that had
actually happened things that were said
and indeed came through for example in
the book of Isaiah the prophet wrote
about Jesus's life and death in the book
of Isaiah 53 and that was written over
700 years before Jesus was born these
prophecies were fulfilled and it shows
that the Bible is accurate another
internal test is to check the things
that Jesus spoke about about himself
were they true were they confirmed and
the answer is yes Jesus believed that
the Bible is true he often quoted in his
teachings he often quoted the scriptures
in his teachings and this is significant
because he was the person that was
prophesied about and he could preach
about himself he could teach about
himself right from the Bible so this
shows us that the Bible is true even
from internal evidence and of course
this leads us to the last point and
that's external evidence which is the
opposite of internal evidence and what
this tries to do is to tell us do we
have data do we have writings do we have
facts that comes from outside materials
outside the Bible which proves that the
Bible is true and what the question this
try to answer is do other materials
confirm or deny the internal testimony
provided by the document themselves and
we have examp examples in historical
writings and in archaological evidences
I'll give us a few of them for
historical writings we have the writings
of tacitus of Josephus of Babylonian
talud and Pini the younger for instance
not tacitus in his writing help us
understand that a person by the name of
Christos that's Christ was crucified by
Pontius Pilate during the reign of
emperial Tiberius and this corroborates
the gospel's account of crucifixion and
know writings of Josephus gives us the
lifetime of Jesus tells us that Jesus
was a wise man you know he was a doer of
Wonders and that Christ also recounting
the crucifixion under Pontius Pilate um
the Babylonian ton which is um Jewish
rabic writing help us know about the
execution of execution of a man called
yesu um which often Associated to Jesus
and suggest that he was a on on the eve
of the Passover which aligns with the
New Testament accounts of of Jesus's
crucifixion and of course P the younger
also um a Roman Governor um pling the
younger is a Roman governor who wrote
the series of letters in the early 2nd
Century ad and one of which addresses
the the existence and practice of the
early Christians in his letter he
mentioned how Christian worshiped Christ
as God you know meeting regularly a and
of course this corroborated the
brightens in Act of the Apostles of the
life of the early Believers and of
course the other proof is archaeological
evidences and we have examples e
ezekiel's tunel in 2 Kings 20 verse 20
and 2 chonicles 2:3 still exist to date
this T exist today we have the pool of
betesda which archaeology discovered in
Jerusalem and matches closely to the
description in the Bible we we have the
tail Dan steel uh which is a stone in
the 19 9th century BC that mentions the
House of David letting us know that the
House of David truly is an historical
fact and we have the Mosaic um the
Mosaic in megiddo M Meo mentioned in
judges 5: 19 and 1 Kings 9:15 and um
this also proves you know Northern the
prison in Northern Israel also we have
the Des scroll which contains books
Scrolls um that shows reliability and
preservation of scriptures over 2,000
dating back to 2,000 years and lastly we
have the Kias oor kyasi and this was
discovered in November 199 and it's
believed to be to belong to kaas the
high priest mentioned in the gospels all
these are evidences outside the Bible
that proves the events within the Bible
to show that this are not just know
mythical stories or somebody's invention
but this truly happened as the Bible
says they they did and also we have
archaeological findings eological
evidence and I'll give us a few on the
first one is ezekiah tunnel so remember
the event in 2 Kings 20 ver2 and also in
2 Chronicles 32:30 when there was an
Assyrian Siege against Jerusalem and
King ezekiah built a tunnel to protect
the water supply in Jerusalem that exact
tunnel was found and this shows and
proves that that event truly and really
happened also we have the pool of
betesda do you remember the poll in John
5 ver1 where Jesus heed a man that has
been bed reading for 38 years yes
remains of that pool still exists today
in Jerusalem it was discovered and this
shows that the life of Jesus and the
Miracles he performed especially the one
recorded about P of bet betesda truly
really happened also we have the tell
than steel many people have argued that
there's no King in in Jerusalem by the
name of David but a still was discovered
where someone you know said he fought
somebody by the name of David and this
proves that truly there was a dynasty by
David so David truly was a king in
Israel also we have a mosaic in megido
mego was listed in the Bible a few a few
times in judges chter 5 and first king
chapter 9 so we know that there's a
place called megido in Bible History and
now a mosaic was found and on that mosic
was written God Christ Jesus and why why
is this relevant many people have argued
that Jesus was just you good teacher
Rabbi that lived in in in history and
not worshiped as God many people have
pointed to the C Council in isah as
being the perpetrator of making Jesus
God but this mic dated long before the
Council of neria and if it was written
God Jesus Christ it shows that Jesus was
truly believed to be God by the early
Christians and he was worshiped as God
and of course we have the Des scroll and
this was a discovery of several parts in
Kuman cave near the de dead seene and
where we are have over 800 Scrolls
containing various books literally all
the books of the Bible and this truly
shows the preservation of B of of
scriptures for over 2,000 years showing
that the scriptures that we have today
are still the same as and as they've
always been and also we have kyasi and
this is a box that is used to keep the
bones of the deceased and is believed to
belong to someone called Kias which you
believe was the high priest that was
involved in the tri of Jesus so to prove
that the tri of Jesus the crucifixion
actually existed and tying it to Kaa the
high priest which also is historical
figure so all these are historical
archaeological evidences that proves and
validates events in the Bible all right
thank you very much Pastor T um I hope
that you see or that you now see that
the Bible can indeed be trusted and the
Bible is really true we have looked at
both internal and external evidences
that prove the validity and the
authenticity of the Bible now we're
moving over to something very important
and Believers usually ask this question
why does God need my money does God even
need my money and why does he need my
money indeed the first thing to note
about the subject of money is that it is
a heart matter money is always a heart
matter in fact someone said and rightly
so that money is a spiritual stethoscope
it shows the state of your heart just
like that young lad in the Bible who
brings to Jesus the Five Loaves and two
fish not caring um at all what it will
be used for or how it to be used it was
really about the heart that this boy
this young boy had to give that away at
that point in time and that's the heart
we have to have when it comes to giving
and so that's why we are looking at at
this subject the major question that
people always ask why does God need my
money especially since he created
everything since he's the owner of all
the cattles on the hills on 10,000 Hills
and the rest of it like it says in Psalm
50 and verse 10 to 12 well let me answer
that question for you your money is an
opportunity to partner with God in his
work like we just said if you go to the
book of Psalm 50 and verse 10-12 it says
God says every beast of the forest is
mine and the cattle on a thousand hills
meaning that God does not indeed need
anything from you he only extends us an
opportunity and a privilege to be a part
of what he's doing in our day so he owns
everything you're right he owns the
whole world he created the world and so
he does not need our money per se but he
extends that opportunity to us to be
part of what he's doing in our day yeah
and of course that's so beautifully um
explained and brings to the second point
that money is a tool for worship there's
a verse that captures this perfectly and
that's Proverbs 3 verse 9 to verse 10
and I read say honor the Lord with your
wealth and the first fruit of your crops
then your bound to be filled to
overflowing showing that our money is an
opportunity for worship and of course
when we understand why the why Israel
gave all they did it was a sign the
reason why they brought their tithe the
first fruit to God is to acknowledge God
gave this to us in the first place so
this does not belong to me and we must
see ourselves as also stewards of God's
resources in Matthew chapter 25 vers
14:3 it tells the story of the parable
of the of the steward of the P of the
talent and to show that everything that
God gave for us is a means to worship is
a means to acknowledge Him as the source
and the owner of everything so your
money can be a good to to worship Romans
12 verse1 it says it say therefore I
besee you by the merage of the Lord to
present your bodies a Living Sacrifice a
translation says put everything you're
eating you're moving you're sleeping put
it on the altar as worship so our money
also will also show that truly our
Allegiance and our our Allegiance is to
God and is superior and preeminent
before all things so when you give don't
see it as God needing your money see it
as a means to show worship your
reverence and submission to God another
reason um why this is important to note
is because your giving has an impact on
the kingdom of God yes giving has a
profound impact on God's kingdom and on
God's work and back to what I shared as
the first point you know that your
giving is an opportunity your money is
an opportunity extended by God to you
for you to be a part of what he's doing
if you look at the Bible you will see
texts repl with how the early Believers
related with money Acts chapter 2 and
verse 44 to 45 for example it says now
all who believed were together and had
all things in common that is all their
resources were in common it says and
sold their possessions and goods and
divided them among all as anyone had any
need so the money they had even as it
people were to meet needs within the
kingdom acts 4 and:
32-35 it's a long read but it just
explains that the multitude were of one
heart of one soul and none of them owned
anything personally in quote everything
they had they had together in common so
your money is for Kingdom impact your
money is to be used and has an effect on
the kingdom of God there's so many other
texts replete um with explanations on
how even poor Believers handled money 2
Corinthians chapter 8 and verse 1-4
explains how the church at Macedonia and
the people within that church related
with money they were poor the Bible
notes that they were in deep poverty but
they were liberal and they were even
willing up to go above and beyond by
giving themselves first and also giving
from what they had imagine poor people
giving from what they have the little
that they have to meet the needs of
others within the kingdom trust that
your money is not for anything else but
for Kingdom impact furthermore um the
impact of your giving cannot be
overemphasized the giving of Believers
all around the world and including your
local assembly ensures that the gospel
spreads across the world ensures that
missionaries do not go hungry ensure
that ensures that schools are built
ensures that hospitals reach where they
need to be reached so that's what your
giving is really for it's for Kingdom
impact and of course summarize all this
is to let you know that is Art over
amount and of course the story of the
WID in mark 12: 41 to ver 44 summarizes
this this Widow gave just two coins and
Jesus made a statement said this poor
Widow has put in more than all the
others so this shows us clearly that God
doesn't measure given by the amount but
by sacrifice and by your heart so as you
give to the Lord as you partner with
what is doing in Celebration Church
first let it come from a place of loving
God love his work and trusting
everything that he's doing fully we
trust that this session has been a
blessing to you and that you're looking
forward to the next session please know
that the next session is on evangelism
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