Absolute Essentials Of Christianity - Part 2 Of 2 Series

The Bible

The foundation of Christianity is the Bible. It is the only dependable source for humankind to know God's voice. It has the answers to all eternal questions. The focus of all Scripture is ultimately on Jesus. It is the blueprint of Heaven and the only reliable source of truth for all moral and spiritual information by which humans can successfully live each day and build a foundation for any endeavor. In its original text, the Bible is the all-inclusive, inerrant, divinely inspired word of God (2 Timothy 3:16).

The Bible was written with a consistent theme by about 40 authors over an approximately 1,500-year period in three languages on three continents with no evident contradictions. Its writers were scholars, ranchers, shepherds, and fishermen.

The Old Testament Timeline

The Book of Job is considered the oldest book in the Bible. BC 2000-1500

The stone tablets of the Ten Commandments given to Moses. BC 1500-1400

The original 39 books were completed. BC 1400–400

The original 39 books were canonized BC 300

The Greek Septuagint was produced. BC 250–200

New Testament Timeline

The historic church has had the complete written “logos/rhema/graphe” Word including all 27 books of the New Testament (NT) since approximately 90 AD. Here is the timeline for each NT book:

Matthew 35-60 AD

James 40-46 AD

1 Thessalonians 50-52 AD

2 Thessalonians 51-53 AD

Galatians 53-56 AD

1 + 2 Corinthians 56-57 AD

Romans and 1 Peter 57-58 AD

2 Peter, 2 Timothy, Luke, Jude, Acts 58-67 AD

Philippians 59 AD

Titus, Philemon, Mark - no later than 61 AD

Ephesians, Colossians, 1 Timothy, Hebrews 61-63 AD

John, 1 John, 2 John, 3 John 63-80 AD

Revelation 89-95 AD

The entire New Testament could be reconstructed from the writings of the early Church Fathers, such as Clement of Rome who wrote a letter to the church at Corinth in 95 AD that contained numerous OT Scriptures as well as the writings of the Apostles Jesus had hand-picked, that were considered as sacred Scripture. Another early church father was Irenaeus, who lived from 130 AD to 202 AD. In his writings, He quoted from 24 books of the New Testament over 1,800 times.

Justin Martyr wrote a letter known as his first Apology to the Roman Emperor around 150 AD in which he described what happened during a typical Sunday church service. He wrote that the Scriptures of the OT (the writings of the Prophets) and the writings of the NT were read out loud and then a message (discourse) was preached, songs were sung, people prayed together and took communion. Then, an offering was taken, part of which was used to help those who were sick, as well as widows and orphans, and all those that were in need (First Apology, 67).

There was also Origen Adamantius who lived from 185 AD - 254 AD in Alexandria, Egypt. He was a theologian and scholar who made over 18,000 references to the books in the NT in his writings. There are many more.

The Bible Is Reliable

The Bible has been translated many times in a one-step process from the original languages into multiple languages throughout history. However, it has never been rewritten. There are approximately 5,700 copies of the Greek manuscripts that were made very close to the time of the originals, and they all agree with each other with 99.5% accuracy. The .5% variation would include textual misspellings or minor word alternations. There are also over 19,000 copies in the Syriac, Latin, Coptic, and Aramaic languages, bringing the total supporting New Testament manuscript purity to over 24,000 copies.

God the Father, just as He spoke in the past in the Old Testament, continues to speak to His people today through the New Testament by using His own Words spoken to Jesus, who then spoke to His Apostles, who wrote them down, which made up the New Testament (Luke 10:16; John 13:20, 17:17-20). The writers of the New Testament constantly appealed to the Scriptures alone as their base of authority in declaring what was and was not actual Biblical teaching (Matthew 21:42; John 2:22; 1 Corinthians 15:3-4; 1 Peter 1:10-12, 2:2; 2 Peter 1:17-19; Acts 17:11).

The Foundation of the Church

The church was built on the teaching (Scriptures) of the Prophets and Apostles found in the Old and New Testaments (Ephesians 2:19-20). The Bible is the authoritative source for the proclamation of the church and the norm by which that proclamation is tested. It cannot be changed by any additions, subtractions, or modifications offered by anyone, no matter what position or authority they claim to hold. Once a person attempts to conflate various verses, supplement, supersede, distort, or subtract from the Bible, they enter into heresy.

The writers of the New Testament lived in poverty. They suffered tremendous persecution by the two most powerful cultures of the day. They willingly endured political disgrace, beatings, stonings, imprisonment, and execution about the claims of Jesus and what He did while boldly insisting to their last dying breath that they had physically seen Jesus bodily raised from the dead.