• What is 'tradition'?
• The two extremes on Tradition (all, none)
• Jesus vs. "tradition" (his quotes of Is 1!)
• Where does doctrinal development come into "sola scriptura"?
• Are the scriptures self-interpreting or do we need 'something else'?
• What about our knowledge of history, language, culture, etc.--not in the Bible?
• A Holistic view--the issue of starting point, Christ-centrism, and iteration

• The point of the parables :

  Luke 8:10 He said, "The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that, " 'though seeing, they may not see though hearing, they may not understand.'

• 2 Peter 3.16 : He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.

• The point of the revelation--salvific

• Westminster Confession 1.7: "All things in Scripture are not alike plain in themselves, nor alike clear to all yet those things which are necessary to be known, believed, and observed for salvation, are so clearly propounded and opened in some place of Scripture or other, that not only the learned, but the unlearned, in a due use of ordinary means, may attain unto a sufficient understanding of them"

• e.g. " Contradictions " in the Bible (but remember Mt 22):

  Matt. 22:41 While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, "What do you think about the Christ ? Whose son is he?" The son of David," they replied. He said to them, "How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him 'Lord'? For he says, " 'The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet." ' If then David calls him 'Lord,' how can he be his son?" No one could say a word in reply, and from that day on no one dared to ask him any more questions.

• Revelation seems to accelerate the spiritual journey of the individual (e.g. Pharaoh in Exodus)

• Remember, it is a disclosure model
  • Ps. 18:25 To the faithful you show yourself faithful, to the blameless you show yourself blameless, to the pure you show yourself pure, but to the crooked you show yourself shrewd.
  • Ps. 25:14 The LORD confides in those who fear him; he makes his covenant known to them.
  • Prov. 3:32 for the LORD detests a perverse man but takes the upright into his confidence.

VI. Skeptical Issues

• For Christian Growth into Christlikeness
• For the work of Theology and worldview construction
• For the habit of personal study
• For our attitudes toward His Book
• For sharing His message with others
• For worship!

Final Exam

1. Why do we have to test 'external revelation'?
2. Why couldn't the Bible have been more precise or scientific?
3. Name two 'errors' that were answered over time, through archeology.
4. How was the canon determined?
5. How does P52 bear on the question of the reliability of the mss. we have?
6. Refute: In OT times, scribes were not concerned with accuracy of transmission--the concept of a sacred canon just hadn't developed yet."
7. Name one kind of revision that HAD TO BE MADE to the OT text over time?
8. What is the significance of the NT nomina sacra in relation to scribal discipline in NT transmission?
9. Name two safeguards used to ensure the OT text was copied reliably?
10. What support for OT mss. reliability did the Dead Sea Scrolls give us?
11. What is the main argument against the Conceptual theory of inspiration?
12. Does Inspiration refer to the process of the writing or the product ?
13. What is the difference between 'native' interpretation and 'literal' interpretation?
14. To 'experience' more of the clarity of scripture, what must we do?

Matching: Match the skeptical objection on the left with a possible answer on the right.

A. The bible we have today, as a translation		1. If God acted in history, religious
of a translation of a translation, is probably 		truth could be expressed in historical
so 'watered down' that we don't even HAVE the		terms. The writers didn't need myth--
Bible".							they had the exodus, captivity, etc.



							2. Actually, it is not clear from arch.
							who borrowed from whom, but the
B. The church changed so much of the bible		general rule is that the more complex
to further its financial and political agenda.		(the outside myths) is based on the
							simpler (the OT versions).



							3. People don't die for something
C. All the miracles stories about Jesus were		they KNOW is a lie--yet the apostles
added much later, to make the founder look		all died or were exiled for their claims.
more powerful.						And besides, there were too many
							witnesses still alive to get away with it.
							



D. The apostles made up the whole story about		4. But the earliest records we have
Jesus the Messiah and his resurrection.			(within a few years of the events) all
							describe the miracles, even with all
							those eyewitnesses still living. And
							they never did find the dead body of
E. The bible is literally teeming with errors!		Jesus Christ to refute the resurrection.




							5. The main groups didn't, and what
							little was done by individuals, we can,
F. It is common knowledge that the Bible is based	and do, catch through the abundance of
on older myths from the surrounding cultures.		ancient mss.



							6. Actually, we don't need to use 
							translations at all. We have more than
G. Sure Jesus believed the OT--just like all the	enough ancient mss (24,000 for the NT!)
other 1st Century Jews. As God became Man,		to avoid the 'creeping errors' of the 
he had all the knowledge limitations of the men		telephone game.
in his day. He was just simply wrong about it.
							7. Actually, the number of alleged 
							errors in the bible GOES DOWN over
							time. We have so many cases where
H. The bible is just myth--true myth--and not to  	Biblical 'problems' were solved through
be taken as historical fact. That would make 		archeological discovery, that it makes 
it more a history book, than a great religious  	more sense to simply suspend judgment.
and spiritual work.		
							8. But He corrected them on many
							points in which they were in error.
							Plus, He was never wrong about 
							anything else, and he showed advanced
							knowledge often.

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