Some surprising facts about the Bible - part 1 (2021-01-16) ​

0:00:01 in this episode i want to share with you some surprising facts about the bible nowhere does 0:00:09 the christian bible claim to be the word of god or inspired of god or to be a revelation of god 0:00:18 so how do christians reply to this fact well they usually quote a couple of passages from the 0:00:24 new testament the one they quote most often is a passage in 2 timothy 3 16 which reads 0:00:33 all scripture is inspired by god and is useful for teaching for reproof for correction and training 0:00:39 in righteousness so that everyone who belongs to god may be proficient equipped for every good work 0:00:48 so this sounds like a pretty good verse proving that the christian bible is the word 0:00:52 of god does it not well not really because what they've done is they've taken a verse 0:00:58 out of context and they've tried to make it do more work than it can actually do 0:01:04 if you read a couple of verses before which i'll now do uh from 1 timothy 3 12 0:01:10 up to 17 you'll see what i mean i'll just read the whole context and look it up for yourself so you 0:01:17 can get a good sense indeed all who wants to live a godly life in christ jesus will be persecuted 0:01:24 but wicked people and imposters will go from bad to worse deceiving others and being deceived 0:01:31 but as for you timothy continue in what you have learned and firmly believed 0:01:38 knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have known the sacred writings 0:01:46 that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in christ jesus all scripture 0:01:52 is inspired by god and is useful for teaching for improved correction and training in righteousness 0:01:57 so that every everyone who belongs to god uh may be equipped for good work 0:02:04 so if you read it in context it seems clear that the scriptures that paul is referring to 0:02:10 are those that timothy have known has known since he was a youth and indeed in paul's time but the 0:02:17 only scriptures that existed at that time were the jewish scriptures what we call the old testament 0:02:23 the new testament hadn't been written then the canon of scripture was only finalized in the about 0:02:30 the fourth century a.d and even then there was still disputes so that's several centuries later 0:02:37 so this text this protest one timothy 3 16 at the very most is referring to 0:02:45 the old testament and not to the new testament to the christian bible so when i say this to 0:02:52 christians they say oh well there's another verse i said great another verse let's uh let's hear it 0:02:56 and the second verse they wheel out is a letter called the second letter of peter 0:03:03 sorry chapter 1 verse 20 to 21 and that reads as follows 0:03:10 first of all you must understand this that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one's own 0:03:16 interpretation because no prophecy ever came by the by human will but by men and women moved by 0:03:24 the holy spirit spoke from god so this is talking about no prophecy of scripture is a matter of 0:03:32 one's own interpretation it comes from uh those who are moved by the holy spirit fair enough 0:03:38 but note this passage refers only to biblical prophecies in the old testament 0:03:46 most biblical books do not contain prophecy for example the book of job or the psalms or 0:03:52 the book of proverbs or the song of solomon's etcetera most books don't contain prophecy 0:03:58 so it can't even be referring to the whole of the old testament let alone to the christian 0:04:03 bible which contains uh books all the way from genesis all the way to the book of revelation
0:04:10 also there is a major problem with this letter's authenticity according to the most distinguished 0:04:17 christian scholarship and all other scholarship it is a forged letter let me show you what i mean 0:04:26 here we have uh this text which is the oxford dictionary of the christian church and uh the 0:04:35 article here on two peter the second letter of peter 0:04:40 concludes after a survey of the uh the evidence of the authorship and the dating of the letter 0:04:48 it concludes this these indications of date and the difference in style and interest from 0:04:54 juan peter make it virtually impossible to hold that saint peter was the author 0:05:01 the letter was received into the canon i into the list of bible books with considerable hesitation 0:05:09 its date is probably the second or third christian generation perhaps 150 a.d so this uh uh this 0:05:20 oxford dictionary of the christian church is probably the most distinguished and reputable 0:05:25 single reference work in existence uh and it says that it's virtually impossible to believe 0:05:33 that saint peter wrote this or wrote this letter isn't that amazing so um to peter's testimony 0:05:42 is extremely doubtful anyway because it's almost certainly a forged letter but there are further 0:05:49 problems um and uh just to give you uh one last problem before uh there are many but there are 0:05:57 some passages in the new testament believe it or not that even deny they are revelation from god 0:06:04 for example paul's letter to the corinthians known as 1 corinthians chapter 7 verse 12 says 0:06:12 and he's teaching here about marriage and divorce and the details of the subject and the teaching 0:06:16 don't really concern us but the status of what he teaches what does he say about this he says in 0:06:23 verse 12 to the rest i say i and not the lord that if any believer has a wife who is an unbeliever 0:06:31 and she consents to live with him he should not divorce her now the point here is that he says 0:06:39 what i'm teaching you is what i am saying and it's not from god 0:06:45 so it's not revelation from god now what paul says may be true it may be perfectly wise and 0:06:52 holy and godly teaching but its status is as paul's opinion a man he says it's not revelation 0:07:00 from god so at least that passage cannot be taken as the word of god as revelation from god 0:07:08 now just to conclude by way of contrast there is a hundred percent agreement amongst the 2 0:07:15 billion muslims in the world about the contents of the quran no one doubts that the 114 surahs 0:07:22 or chapters of the book are the actual speech of god himself the quran refers to itself repeatedly 0:07:30 as a revelation from god as the speech of god as a book given by god himself and if anyone doubts 0:07:37 that they are not a muslim as simple as that every chapter virtue every chapter in the quran says 0:07:42 that so given there's so much confusion amongst the peoples of the book about their scriptures 0:07:50 what does the quran say in quran chapter 5 verse 48 it says in muhammad assad's 0:07:57 translation and unto thee o prophet we have vouchsafed this holy writ 0:08:04 setting forth the truth confirming the truth of whatever their remains 0:08:09 still of earlier revelations and determining what is true therein judge then between the followers 0:08:16 of earlier revelation in accordance with what god has bestowed from on high and do not follow their 0:08:23 errant views forsaking the truth that has come unto thee that that's muhammad assad's translation 0:08:30 of quran 5 48. so this is claiming for the quran that it is divine writ it's the actual word of god 0:08:41 and confirming whatever truth there still remains of the earlier revelations implying that there 0:08:47 was uh elements that have been lost judge them between uh the followers of the earlier revelation 0:08:54 what the christians and jews say in accordance with what god has bestowed from on high in other 0:09:02 words the holy quran and in this passage this is the message of the quran the assad's translation 0:09:10 there's a little uh footnote to this passage that i've just read uh footnote 65. he says 0:09:19 the the participle mohamed for those who know arabic will know what i'm referring to 0:09:24 is derived from the quadrilateral verb heimanna he watched over a thing or controlled it 0:09:31 and is used here to describe the quran as the determinant factor in deciding what is genuine 0:09:38 and what is false in the earlier scriptures so if you like the quran is like a quality control which 0:09:46 people can use to determine what is true and false what is from god and what is the opinion of a man 0:09:53 for example so that's how islam sees its role vis-a-vis the scriptures of the people of the book 0:10:01 this is part one of a two-part video about some surprising facts about the bible and 0:10:08 in the next video which i'll be making shortly we'll see some more surprising facts until then