kindle-sync: bookId: '13469' title: 'Questioning the Bible: 11 Major Challenges to the Bible''s Authority' author: Jonathan Morrow asin: B00J48AY0A lastAnnotatedDate: '2015-05-29' bookImageUrl: 'https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91H7-o80uxL._SY160.jpg' highlightsCount: 39

Questioning the Bible

Metadata

• Author: Jonathan Morrow
• ASIN: B00J48AY0A
• ISBN: 0802411789
• Reference: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00J48AY0A
• Kindle link

Highlights

If something can’t be false, then it can’t be true either. And rational investigation becomes impossible. — location: 326 ^ref-43004

In the Bible, faith is always pointing toward a future reality (i.e., things that have not yet happened). The contrast is with sight, not with reason (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:7). — location: 393 ^ref-10557

let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord’” — location: 2622 ^ref-60606

We are responsible to safeguard the integrity of this New Covenant message. In addition, we can’t guard or defend something we don’t understand. Confidence flows from understanding. — location: 2637 ^ref-27316

For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. (Romans 1:19–20) — location: 2649 ^ref-12130

“While not imparting truths necessary for salvation—such as the Trinity, the incarnation, or the atonement—general revelation conveys the conviction that God exists and that he is transcendent, immanent, self-sufficient, eternal, powerful, good and a hater of evil.”3 — location: 2658 ^ref-26652

“Knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:20–21). — location: 2677 ^ref-6698

“When all the facts are known, the Bible (in its original writings) properly interpreted in light of which culture and communication means had developed by the time of its composition will be shown to be completely true (and therefore not false) in all that it affirms, to the degree of precision intended by the author, in all matters relating to God and his creation.”8 — location: 2708 ^ref-10420

Interpretation seeks to ensure we understand what the Bible is actually asserting in a given passage and what level of precision is intended by the author of that passage. — location: 2714 ^ref-30364

Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ … in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began and at the proper time manifested in his word through the preaching with which I have been entrusted by the command of God our Savior. (Titus 1:1–3) — location: 2728 ^ref-45481

That men necessarily make mistakes is in the end self-defeating. Are men capable of saying or writing anything that is true? (Insert “yes” here unless you think you are never capable of saying or writing anything that is true!) — location: 2736 ^ref-60785

From the human perspective, infallibility refers to “the quality of neither misleading nor being misled and so safeguards in categorical terms the truth that Holy Scripture is a sure, safe, and reliable rule and guide in all matters.”12 — location: 2749 ^ref-39982

“But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 3:14–15). — location: 2763 ^ref-43580

There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, — location: 2769 ^ref-28999

With that said, however, the main themes and teachings of the Bible are clear. One of the reasons we know this is that children are capable of grasping them: — location: 2775 ^ref-25224

And we certainly don’t know God exhaustively (though we know him truly through his Word). — location: 2788 ^ref-16312

Moreover, when God gives revelation, it does not need to be supplemented: “You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you” — location: 2790 ^ref-46413

Begin with the (general) historical reliability of the New Testament and the resurrection timeline to get the core teachings and claims of Jesus front and center. — location: 2825 ^ref-49654

As I read page after page, the words were food to my soul. I didn’t have the categories for this at the time, but I simply recognized God’s familiar voice as I read the Bible. — location: 3919 ^ref-28046

For example, take my belief that there is a tree in front of me. This belief is not based on any other beliefs because I am just directly aware of the tree in front of me and in this sense it is properly basic. — location: 3939 ^ref-44522

No further explanation is needed. — location: 3942 ^ref-3963

Unless of course, what the senses are experiencing is a vision or a nightmare, etc. In that case, the experience is valid, but the tree is not actually, physically where I perceived it to be. I need clarification from an external source of this fact, or to be awaken from my dream/vision.

But perhaps our Muslim friends could argue the same way concerning the Q’uran. How do we decide between the two? At this point I think it is important to provide an argument that is publicly accessible and not circular. For example, we want to avoid arguments like the following: “The Bible is the Word of God because Jesus Christ (who was God) said it was and we know that Jesus Christ said it was because the Bible, God’s Word, says so.” — location: 3954 ^ref-54737

“We are left with the secure historical conclusion: the tomb was empty. … I regard this conclusion as coming in the same category, of historical probability so high as to be virtually certain, as the death of Augustus in AD 14 or the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70.”9 — location: 4000 ^ref-7739

Jesus affirmed the permanence, comprehensiveness, and precision of the Old Testament, — location: 4008 ^ref-9989

Jesus affirmed the divine origin and inspiration of even the particular words used in the Old Testament: — location: 4011 ^ref-10746

Jesus lived under the moral authority of Old Testament Scripture.10 — location: 4015 ^ref-44339

Jesus submitted to his God-given mission as revealed in the Old Testament. — location: 4019 ^ref-22421

During his public debates with the Jewish leaders of the day, he appealed to the Hebrew Scriptures to settle the matter. — location: 4023 ^ref-7973

Jesus provided for the New Testament. — location: 4027 ^ref-7434

Jesus appointed and equipped his apostles to be his authoritative witnesses and spokesmen in the world (Luke 6:13; cf. Acts 1:8). — location: 4028 ^ref-59651

Jesus promised his apostles the unique inspiration and guidance of the Holy Spirit: — location: 4030 ^ref-16509

The apostles understood that they were speaking and writing with the authority of Jesus himself — location: 4033 ^ref-40011

that if God raised Jesus from the dead, then the most likely reason was to confirm the truthfulness of Jesus’ teachings. If we are correct in this, then the inspiration of Scripture follows as a verified doctrine, affirmed by God Himself when He raised Jesus from the dead.”11 — location: 4038 ^ref-62186

We all experience doubts at one time or another simply because we cannot know everything about everything. — location: 4043 ^ref-31220

There is a big difference between struggling to believe in God and setting oneself against God. — location: 4046 ^ref-55297

The most common forms of doubt concerning the Bible originate from intellectual issues, emotional issues, and lack of spiritual growth. — location: 4052 ^ref-38587

The longer it remains foggy, the harder it is to address. — location: 4055 ^ref-51351

Of all the varieties of doubt, intellectual doubt is the one that is best helped by reading and study. You must be persistent. If something is really bothering you, work at finding a reasonable answer. — location: 4056 ^ref-30893

Finally, we can experience doubts concerning the Bible due to lack of spiritual growth or our moral disobedience to a command God has revealed in Scripture. — location: 4067 ^ref-36000