Lead:

One common objection you’ll hear about the New Testament is “…but it was put together by men hundreds of years later.” Here’s how geographic distance is part of dispelling that untruth. #conversationalapologetics #forthehope

Intro:

One common objection you’ll hear about the New Testament is “…but it was put together by men hundreds of years later.” Today in our All Our Minds segment we look how to respond to this based on geographic independence.

As we get going, though, you know the drill for a new book — there’s a new video from The Bible Project on the book of Colossians. Just go to forthehope.org and use the search function for 947 to find today’s notes and you’ll find it at the bottom.

BUT…I’ve never said this before. You reeeeeeally should watch this one. It says stuff we’re just not going to get to in our short trip through Colossians.

Finally, would you tell me what you don’t like about the program? Seriously. I’m always looking to improve. Shoot me an email to hello@forthehope.com with what you think I can do better or something that just bugs you.

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Bible:

Passage: Colossians 1-2
Translation: LEB (Lexham English Bible)
Verses: 52
Words: ~1059

All Our Minds:

Today’s segment comes from J. Warner Wallace’s excellent work. Some of my comments will only be in the podcast, but you can grab his The Case for the Reliability of the New Testament free Bible insert here.

The bottom line

When you encounter someone objecting that the New Testament was just something put together by men hundreds of years later, just one of the ways you respond is this:

Acknowledge that the church did formally confirm the New Testament books we now have in about 364AD, BUT…
The documents were reliably preserved before that. It does not logically follow that, since they were affirmed in 364AD that they were therefore corrupt and unreliable.
The earliest apostles and believers were eyewitnesses and reliably preserved the testimony of eyewitnesses. Their letters and writings were sent far and wide.
Those who were collectors of these writings were separated by great distance and yet still agreed which writings were authoritative because they were already being accepted as Scripture.
Finally, if someone wanted to make something up that wasn’t true, they might be able to get their hands on some manuscripts and change them, but they couldn’t do that with many many more.
We now have more than 5800 New Testament manuscripts. And the fact that they they come from different places and sometimes even different languages is a strength, not a weakness. It’s a powerful part of why select books became accepted as Scripture, a fact that was later affirmed officially.

Wisdom:

Passage: Psalms 132
Translation: LEB (Lexham English Bible)
Verses: 18
Words: ~295

Love you!

-R

ForTheHope is a daily audio Bible + apologetics podcast and blog. We’ve got a passion for just keepin’ it real, having conversations like normal people, and living out the love of Jesus better every single day.

Roger Courville, CSP is a globally-recognized expert in digitally-extended communication and connection, an award-winning speaker, award-winning author, and a passionately bad guitarist. Follow him on Twitter -- @RogerCourville and @JoinForTheHope – or his blog: www.forthehope.org.

Sources and resources:

Thank you for supporting this ministry should you choose to use the Amazon affiliate links below.

Not used today, but stuff I like:

D. A. Carson, For the Love of God: A Daily Companion for Discovering the Riches of God’s Word., vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1998).

Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993). <—this, and it’s OT companion, are great commentaries if you like something more than a study Bible and less than a set of 66 books — they add a lot of interesting details. Keener’s a killer apologist, too.

The Story of Reality, Greg Koukl — Love this book. A killer intro to the Christian worldview that is philosophically and theologically sound while being accessible to all readers.

#947: Colossians 1-2 | New Testament reliability because of geographic distance | Psalms 132