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As stated in the past two weeks, I’ve compiled the Reasons to Believe series notes into a blog, in case anyone needed to refer back to them. Below are the notes on the final sermon of the series: AMP (Archaeology - Manuscript Evidence - Prophecy). The below notes have been filled out a little to help others follow them.

There is a lot of information here, so bullet points or notes were best. These notes follow along with the sermons. They are better explained if you are able to listen to the sermons along with them. The messages can be found at:

www.youtube.com/@fbcwortham-texas

www.fbcwortham.com/podcasts/media

Remember, the series was necessary to:

- Build our confidence in the reliability of God’s word
- Help us with answers for those that might have questions about our faith

As Christians, we need to be able to provide answers for our faith (1 Peter 3:15). In apologetics, they say to be a rock in the shoe of the skeptic.

I pray that God will solidify His word in our hearts so we can speak of Him and it boldly to others. Don’t ever question His love for you. He loves you more than you can imagine and He has given His infallible word to show you that.

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Reasons to Believe: AMP
Archaeology - Manuscripts - Prophecy

Isaiah 40 : 8: The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever.

 1. Archaeology

Matthew 24 : 35: Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.

  1. Over 25,000 archaeological discoveries have been made pertaining to the Biblical issues. Nelson Glueck, Jewish archaeologist - "... no archaeological discovery has ever contradicted a biblical record”
  2. Caiaphas, high priest (Matthew 26:3)
    1. Archaeological Discovery - 1990
    2. Grave bearing his name
  3. Pontius Pilate, governor (Luke 3:1)
    1. Archaeological Discovery - 1961
    2. Limestone - “Pontius Pilate, prefect of Judea”
  4. Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19:24)
    1. Archaeological Discovery - Circa 1973
    2. Ruins had high concentrations of sulfur - consistent with Biblical account, cities burned

2. Manuscripts

Matthew 5 : 18: For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.

Old Testament

  1. KJV Old Testament translated from Masoretic Text (Circa AD 900)
  2. Dead Sea Scrolls discovered in 1947 (Date back to circa 200 BC)
    1. Both sets of manuscripts match - God preserved His word
    2. Most modern Bibles translated from Dead Sea Scrolls

New Testament (Due to time constraints, this was not covered in the original sermon)

  1. Two items of significance
    1. Number of copies speaks to how influential a document was
    2. Accuracy between the copies speaks to how it was preserved
  2. Most historical documents - less than 20 copies
    1. Basically 0% accuracy between those 20 copies - uncertainty of which copy is correct
  3. The less copies of a document, the more accuracy between the copies
  4. The more copies, the less accuracy between the copies
  5. New Testament breaks that rule - more manuscripts, but still better accuracy
    1. New Testament - Almost 6000 manuscripts - 99.5% accuracy between copies (Differences are minute and do not affect meaning or doctrine)
    2. Unheard of in ancient history, impossible unless God was involved
    3. New Testament was translated straight from these reliable manuscript copies

3. Prophecy

2 Peter 1 : 21: … prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.

  1. Over 2,000 prophecies of the Bible have been fulfilled
    1. Probability of 10 to be fulfilled correctly is 1 / 10
    2. Probability of all 2000 fulfilled correctly is impossible without divine involvement

Examples

  1. Name and Actions of Cyrus, King of Persia (Isaiah 44:28-45:1)
    1. Prophesied - Circa 700 BC
    2. Cyrus lived over 100 years later
  2. Closing of the Golden Gate (Ezekiel 44:2-3)
    1. Golden Gate (Eastern gate of Jerusalem, in which Jesus made his triumphal entry on Palm Sunday (Matthew 21)
    2. Prophesied - Circa 550 BC
    3. Sultan Suleiman closed and sealed in 1541
    4. Remains sealed to this day, fulfilling Biblical prophecy

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