Our youth group has started a series called "The Reason for God" based on the book by Timothy Keller. It tries to help give foundation for answering the tough questions such as "What about all the evil in the world?” or, “How can there be only one way to God?". Awesome stuff. Our Youth Pastor, as well as all the Youth Leaders, are focused and intentional about trying to prepare our youth for the world they are going to face once they graduate from high school (or before). They are an amazing group of people that are truly making Jesus famous in the lives of our youth each day. If you are a member at WBC and haven't stopped by "the shack" lately, go in and check them out. Josh is preaching and teaching straight from the Bible and your children are growing because of it.
Anyway...back to the topic at hand. Josh gave us all a handout called "Is the Bible a myth?" which contained a lot of information about the Bible. I've been a Christian almost all my life and yet was still surprised to learn some of the information on this sheet. Here are some things I learned:
*There are over 5,000 Greek manuscripts existing today that support the New Testament and another 20,000 manuscripts in other languages.
*The gospel of Luke was written within 30 years of Jesus' death, the gospel of Matthew between 50 and 70 A.D., the gospel of Mark between 55 and 70 A.D., and the gospel of John between 80 and 90 A.D.
*The odds of Jesus filling the prophecies:
-The odds of Jesus fulfilling 48 of the 61 major prophecies concerning Him is 1 in 10 157 (that's 10 to the one hundred fifty-seventh power!), or a one with 157 zeros behind it. Yet, HE DID!
*Around 52 AD, Thallus wrote a history of the Eastern Mediterranean world ...the work has been lost and only fragments of it exist in the citations of others. One scholar who knew and spoke of it was Julius Africanus who wrote 'In speaking of Jesus crucifixion and the darkness that covered the land during this event, the writings of Thallus said "On the whole world there pressed a most fearful darkness; and the rocks were rent by an earthquake, and many places in Judea and other districts were thrown down". This proves true the Bible's descriptions of the darkness that took place at Christ's death.
*Scientific Accuracies in the Bible
-The spherical shape of the earth Isaiah 40:22
-The earth is suspended in nothing Job 26:7
-The stars are innumerable Gen. 15:5
-The existence of valleys in the seas 2 Sam. 22:16
-The existence of springs and fountains in the sea Gen. 7:11, 8:2, Prov. 8:28
-The existence of water paths (ocean currents) in the seas Ps. 8:8
-The water cycle Job 26:8, 36:27-28, 37:16, 38:25-27, Ps. 135:7, Ecc. 1:6-7
-the fact that all living things reproduce after their own kind Gen. 1:21, 6:19
-The nature of health, sanitation, and sickness Gen. 17:9-14, Lev. 12-14
-The concept of entropy, that energy is running down Ps. 102:26
I can't wait to go learn more next week!!!
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