Can We Trust The Bible? (Part 2)

Now, let's look at the supposed contradictions in the Bible and the martyrs in this series on, Can We Trust the Bible? The Great Commandment, Jesus replied, Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, and with all of your mind, in Matthew 22. We see this in some books, Love the Lord your God with all of your mind, by J.P. Moreland. The doctor wrote this first in 1997 and then revised it in 2012, a great book on how Christians can use their mind to love the Lord. Here also on the slide is a website for Southern Evangelical Seminary, and on their homepage it says, The tomb was empty, but your mind shouldn't be. I love that. So what do the skeptics and the atheists say? Well, according to the American atheists, they say it is a central dogma of all fundamental Christians that the Bible is without error. To be an atheist, one need only be able to laugh when such obvious nonsense is offered as being, quote, divine truth. And then we have Dr. Bart Ehrman, he has on his website the 50, quote, contradictions in the Bible, the biggest, most shocking differences, okay? And then we also have Jonah David Connor in his book, All That's Wrong with the Bible, and obviously in Western culture, I could go on and on and on. So this is a four-part series. This is history two. We're going to be talking about the supposed contradictions in the Bible, and that the Bible was written by these mere men of old. So again, my name is Jason. I am not a historian, I'm not an archaeologist, a theologian, or even a philosopher. So I'm going to be referencing two key works in this talk. First, I'm going to introduce you to Dr. Jason Lyell. He has written a book on the 420 supposed biblical contradictions. And then we're also going to be looking at the book by John Fox, The Book of Martyrs. Can we trust the Bible?

Let's look at it. And specifically, let's dig into contradictions. But before we start talking about contradictions, it's important for us to define terms. So what is a contradiction? Let me use an example to define what a contradiction is. If I was to say, hey, it is raining, okay, it's raining. But then if I was to insert, it is not the case that it is raining, well, it can't be raining and it is not the case that it's raining at the same time. That would be an example of a contradiction. Let's say for instance, there was a car crash. And number one, the car that crashed was driving fast. Okay, it's possible. A lot of times we've experienced ourselves when there's a car accident, somebody was driving fast or too fast. But then also, the car that crashed was red. Now, if there was a car that was driving fast and somebody else said the car was red, is that a contradiction? Not necessarily. Because if it was a red car that was driving fast, that could have been the car that crashed. Well, the Bible is full of contradictions. We hear this all the time in Western society. Well, so what is a Christian to do with this situation? Well, I would recommend step number one, we just need to stop and take a deep breath and shift the burden of proof, not on the Christian, because we didn't make that claim. We have to shift the burden of proof on the person that made that claim, in this case, the atheist or the skeptic. For instance, we can ask, have you read the Bible yourself? Now we want to say that and ask that with compassion and see what they say. And then also, which contradictions are you speaking to? Do you mind sharing those?

An interesting thing happens when we ask those questions. A lot of times, at least in my experience, when I ask if somebody's read the Bible themselves, the answer, if they're honest, is they say, no, I haven't. But also, secondly, this claim that it's full of contradictions, hey, do you mind pointing out which contradictions you're talking about so we can talk about those specifics, oftentimes more than not, they do not know what those contradictions are. So the contradiction argument, it is a persuasive argument for many skeptics, number one, because it's so easy to parrot. Even a five-year-old that's heard their mom or dad or kid at school say, the Bible Bible so full of contradictions. Well, it's like a bumper sticker. It's so easy to just repeat again and again and sound confident in your skepticism or atheism. And number two, it's a persuasive argument because if the Bible is God's Word, then there should be no discrepancies, there should be no contradictions. So let's dig in. In Genesis chapter 3, Scripture says, Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, Did God really say? So this fact of questioning God's Word, questioning Scripture as a skeptic, has been going on since the beginning of creation. This is not something that's new that's happened in the 21st century. Now most biblical contradictions revolve around what's called context or their lack of context. Let's do a real-world example with real estate. Many of us have either bought a house or land or know a family member that's bought a house or land. And let's say, for instance, somebody says, I just bought the most amazing house. I got it for next to nothing. And then we say, as their friend or co-worker or, you know, family member, wow, that's amazing. Where? And this is a key word. Where is that house located? Well, I'm not sure, but that doesn't matter, because I got a super great deal. Now, if you're familiar with buying and selling houses, land, any kind of real estate, there should be a big red flag at this point when somebody says, I bought real estate, but it doesn't matter where it is. Well, it can make a huge, huge deal, as you can see as an example of the picture on the screen, because in real estate, location is everything. And in

fact, every realtor knows this adage. It's about location, location, location. Now, in theology, when we're studying the Bible, it's not necessarily about location. It's about context. Context is everything. So we're talking about the Bible and Scripture and theology. It's about context, context, context. I want to introduce you to Dr. Jason Lyles. He has a PhD in astrophysics. He is a really smart guy, and for years, he has heard in Western society people saying all the time, the Bible's full of contradictions. So finally, he said, you know what, I'm gonna do some research on this, and in 2017, he published this book, Keeping Faith in an Age of Reason. This book is fantastic. He went through the internet and tried to find the longest list he could of all these supposed contradictions, and he found a site that had about 420 of these supposed contradictions. And in the book, which is about 240 pages, he goes through each of these 400 contradictions one at a time and refutes them using logic and reason, and in most cases, context. And one of the things that I really like about this book is at the end of it, he does kind of a summary, and what he does is he systematically looks at all these different supposed contradictions, and he starts to see a prevailing narrative. In fact, he finds they fall into a couple of different categories, and that's what we're gonna dive into here in just a minute. The other thing at the back of the book that I really like is he has an index. So somebody says, oh, there's a contradiction, and I can tell you it's in Judges chapter 3. Well, you can literally, in the back of this book, go to the index where it has scriptural references, and where it says Judges chapter 3, it'll tell you what page that supposed contradiction is on. So this is a really good book just to have on your library, just even as a reference book. You'll notice on the screen I have two QR codes. I'll link to these down in the description of this video. The first one is a 30-minute interview with Dr. Liles, and he's being interviewed about the book and about these supposed contradictions, and it's just a really great listen, just 30 minutes. The second one is a 60-minute interview with Dr. Liles, and he's talking about how we got the Bible. Now, if you watched History 1, which I went through how can

we trust the Bible, I went through 10 different examples, evidences of why we can absolutely rely on the Bible. Now, what Dr. Liles does is he takes a deep dive into things like the Hebrew and the Septuagint, and he is much better versed in things like Hebrew than I am, and that's a really good listen to that 60-minute interview if you've got a moment. So let's look at this book. At the back of his book, he looks at these critical errors that the skeptic and atheist has made, and what he's found is, as you can see on the slide at the top, over 195 of these supposed contradictions are failure to read the carefully or in context. So let's call that bucket number one. In bucket number two, Dr. Lyles has 89 examples of what's called a bifurcation fallacy. Sounds like a big word, sounds really complicated, but we're gonna do some examples in a minute to show that it's a really easy fallacy to overcome and what bifurcation means. So let's call that bucket number two. In bucket number three, the doctor found 62 examples of equivocation fallacy. Sounds really smart, sophisticated. I'm gonna show you how easy it is to weed out that contradiction fallacy. And let's say that's in bucket number three. And then finally in bucket number four, we're gonna examine the 41 examples that Dr. Lyles found, a failure to distinguish the different times. This is a fallacy, we'll dig into that more in bucket number four. So in bucket number one, the contradiction of context. So let's look at an example of this.

Well, the Bible claims, and let's say a skeptic or an atheist says, the Bible claims there is no God. It says it in Psalms 14.1. So what do you say, Mr. Christian? It says it's a self-reviewed document, the Bible, because if the Bible says there is no God, then it can't be true. Well, let's look at this. And the big but, when you read the entire verse and look up what actually it says and what happens, it says the fool has said in his heart, there is no God in Psalm 14.1. Context changes everything. Now let's look at bucket number two, the contradiction, the bifurcation fallacy. This is when you have a false dilemma, the so-called either or fallacy. So stating that there's only two exclusive options, when in fact there might be a third possibility or maybe even a fourth possibility. So an example of this would be if somebody stated either the traffic light is green or it's red. It's one or the other. Well, we know from human experience, there is a third option. That street light could be yellow. So there's not just two options. There's, in this case, actually three options. So that's why that statement is a fallacy. Now in bucket number three, we have the contradiction

that's called the equivocation fallacy. So this is when a person shifts the meaning of a word within an argument. So they would maybe use the example, James in chapter one says, God cannot be tempted. But Mr. Christian in Hebrews chapter four, it says that Jesus, who's God was tempted in all things. Sounds like a contradiction. Well, no, because the word tempted is used in two different senses. So it can mean tested, which Jesus was, but it also can mean enticed, which Jesus was not. Therefore, it's not a contradiction because Jesus was tested, but he was not enticed. So another example of this equivocation fallacy is if you've ever debated the merits of evolution with somebody else, the term can mean a lot of different things. And when debating evolution, people can change the meaning of that word evolution within just debating with one person in another. So it's so important to define what you mean. So for instance, if I'm debating somebody in evolution, I wanna know exactly how they're defining that term before we even get into a debate or discussion about it, because we might be talking about two totally different things, but using the same word. And then bucket number four, the contradiction of a different times fallacy. So here's an example a skeptic might use.

Did Jesus, Mary and Joseph, did they go to Egypt or did they go to Nazareth? Because Matthew says one thing, Luke says something different. This must be a contradiction. Well, not so fast, because they first went to Egypt in Matthew two, but then later they went to Nazareth. You see how at different times in history, they were in different places. It's not a contradiction. All right, so let's go back to context. So we're gonna do a couple more examples of this bucket number one, this context. The skeptic would say, who killed Goliath? I think many of us are familiar with the history of David versus Goliath. So the question is who killed Goliath? In the book of Samuel chapter 17, it says David, but in second Samuel chapter 21, it says it was Ilhan. Well, who was it? Well, David slew Goliath and Ilhan killed the brother of Goliath. Specifically, if you look at King James chapter two, second Samuel chapter 21, you will see. this is very clear and is not a contradiction at all. It's context. Example, in context number two, is what is the human lifespan? Because in Psalms 90, it says that it's 70 to 80 years, but in Genesis chapter 6, it says 120 years. Well, let's look at context, and you can see here on the slide, this is a really cool age chart. If you've never seen this before, you can just google Adam to Joseph age chart, and there's a whole bunch of these. And what's really cool about

this is you can see all the way up to the top left of this chart from Adam all the way down to Joseph, and this showcases the age lifespans of people. And back before the flood, you can see that line that kind of goes down almost the middle, the flood. Before the flood event, people lived for hundreds of years, and then after, lifespan started to kind of teeter off. But I digress. If we go back to this example of contradiction of context, was the human lifespan 70 to 80 years or 120 years? Well, in chapter 6 of Genesis, it's not addressing human lifespan at all. Rather, the 120 years marks the time given to humanity before this flood, this global event, would come and basically kill everybody that wasn't on the ark. And so it's not a contradiction at all. It's context. And then an example in our second bucket, we're going to look at bifurcation. So the skeptic would say, which genealogy of Jesus is right? Because in Matthew 1, it says one thing, and in Luke chapter 3, it says completely different. So which one is true? Is it this one or it's this one? Now look at the answer. The answer is both, because in the book of Matthew, Matthew is describing Joseph's family bloodline, his genealogy. But over in the book of Luke, Luke the author is describing Mary, the mother's bloodline of Jesus. This is not a contradiction, because we have a mother and a father for a baby. And then looking at this bifurcation, let's do just another example, just to help you understand what a bifurcation is. Fallacy. The skeptic would say, who asks for the best seat in heaven? Because in Mark chapter 10, it says that James and John, but in Matthew chapter 20, it says their mother asked who would be at the best seat next to Jesus. So is it the boys or did mom ask? Well, it's not bifurcation, because it's both. James and John and their mother asked on their behalf. So the answer would be both. It wasn't either or. Now let's look at bucket number three, which are some examples of equivocation. Remember, this is when somebody is changing the definition of a word within an argument. The example that could be given is, when did the flood finish? Keywords finish. Was it 40 days and 40 nights according to Genesis chapter 7, 17? Or was it 150 days and then it was finished? Because that's what it says in verse 24. Well, this does take a little bit of reading in this chapter of Genesis and understanding the full flood account, because it depends on how one defines finish. The flood occurred in multiple stages. The term finish is really undefined. So just to dig a little deeper into the flood account, when you read chapters 6, 7, and 8 of Genesis, it opens up with the floodgates of the deep burst forth and the floodgates of heaven burst forth, and it rained for 40 days and 40 nights. Okay, that's one anchor point. But if you read on,

then you see that the water of the global flood continued to rise and rise and rise until it apexed. It hit its highest point at day 150, which is what scripture says. And then what happens is the floodwaters begin to recede. I think of a bathtub, and when somebody pulls the plug out of the bottom of it, it's not empty immediately. It takes time for that water to recess, to go away. And so scripture finally concludes in chapter 8 talking about the floodwaters receded, and there was dry land at day 371. So this is over a year-long flood global catastrophe event. So again, understanding the full context of what's happening with an example like of the flood is very important. But number two, when we're looking at this equivocation example of a fallacy, you have to define the term. What do you mean, Mr. Skeptic, by the word finish. When did it finish? Do you mean at day 40, 150, 371? You have to understand what's going on there. A second example of equivocation, right, as we're in bucket number three, is the skeptic says, do humans have free will? So can we decide? Well, in Deuteronomy chapter 30, it says yes, but in Acts 13, it says nope. What is the Christian to do with this supposed contradiction? Well, first of all, because it's an equivocation fallacy, we have to define the term free will, because it can mean one of several things. It doesn't simply mean yes or no. And if we look at the final bucket, bucket number four, the contradiction, the fallacy of different times, the first example would be the skeptic says, did the city of Ai exist after Joshua destroyed it? Because in Joshua chapter 8, it says that it was destroyed, but in the book of Nehemiah in chapter 8, it says it still exists. For instance, it says people coming from Ai. So which one is it? Was the city of Ai destroyed, or was it not destroyed by Joshua? Well, remember, this is a contradiction of different times. Well, Joshua did destroy Ai, just like it says in the book of Joshua, but Nehemiah lived a thousand years later. Plenty of time for a new city, the same name, to develop over a long period of time. A lot of things can change and happen over a thousand years, a different time. And in example number two of this fourth bucket of different times fallacy, the skeptic may say, what animals can human eat? Because in Genesis chapter 1, it says no animals can be eaten, but in chapter 9, it says that you can eat them all. So which one of these is it?

Well, let's look at the different times. God originally had designed humans and animals as vegetarians, but at a later time, after the flood, God permitted meat-eating. So this is a fallacy of different times. So now let's shift gears and really kind of zero in on the martyrs. Here skeptics refer to this from time to time that the Bible was written by mere men, and they're saying this and they're being very specific about it for a reason. So what we're going to be looking at is, were these just mere men in the past, or is there something more going on? Were these, in fact, extraordinary men of history? We're going to look first at the Old Testament prophets, then we're going to look at the New Testament apostles, and then finally the early church fathers. I'm not going to get into gruesome detail, but I do want to highlight why I think these men were absolutely extremely extraordinary and not mere men of history. So first off, when we look at the Old Testament prophets, we look at the prophet Isaiah. He was sawn in two. We look at Jeremiah, who was beaten and then stoned to death for his beliefs. Ezekiel was stoned. Amos, the prophet, was tortured severely, clubbed to death. And then finally, Zechariah was stoned in the temple courtyard. These men were martyrs for the Old Testament and for their faith. This is the book, John Foxe's Book of Martyrs. If you've not read it, I would highly recommend it. It is not something you read every day, just like you wouldn't watch The Passion of the Christ every day, but if you've not never seen the movie, The Passion of the Christ, or have not read this church history, John Foxe's Book of Martyrs, it is incredible. It really is highlighting the question, what will you be willing to die for? What hill would you be willing to die for? In the biblicalchristianity.com, it says that John Foxe's Book of Martyrs, first published in 1563, arrived during a tense period of English history. The author, John Foxe, wanted to spotlight the sacrifices made by Protestants that were being persecuted during the reigns of Mary I and earlier. I do want to just highlight just a quick video that I think does a great job of talking about this book and about John Foxe. Foxe was born in 1517 in Boston, Lincolnshire, England. This was a

significant year as it marked the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. He was born into a family of comfortable means, which allowed him the opportunity to receive a good education. He attended Brasnow's College, Oxford, where he excelled academically, eventually earning his master's degree. Fox's studies focused on classical literature, philosophy, and theology, which fostered in him a strong love of learning and critical inquiry. In his early adulthood, Fox experienced a spiritual transformation. He became increasingly concerned with the corrupt practices in the Catholic Church and embraced the Protestant beliefs sweeping across Europe. But this change was not without personal cost. Fox began losing favor with academic and religious authorities, who were staunchly Catholic, and it eventually led to his dismissal from Oxford College. These early struggles set the stage for Fox's lifelong commitment to the Protestant faith and his desire to document the suffering of others who shared his belief. After being expelled from Oxford, Fox struggled financially, working as a tutor and sometimes enduring periods of poverty. His strong beliefs and refusal to conform made him a target during the reign of Queen Mary, known as Bloody Mary, for her severe persecution of Protestants. As Mary sought to restore Catholicism in England, Protestant reformers faced imprisonment, torture, and even execution. Fox, aware of these dangers, decided to flee England and took refuge in Strasbourg and then Basel, Switzerland. While in exile, Fox continued to study, maintaining contact with fellow Protestant reformers, and writing extensively about the plight of the faithful back home. Fox's exile was a dark period for him, full of hardship, isolation, and a fear for his friends and colleagues who remained in England. However, it also provided him with the unique opportunity to observe the Reformation across Europe, strengthening his resolve to document and preserve the stories of those who had suffered for their beliefs. Fox's Book of Martyrs was first published in 1563 by John Day and was a massive success upon publication. It became a staple in Protestant homes, second only to the Bible in popularity for many years. The graphic details and courageous accounts of martyrs served to strengthen the Protestant community and inspire reformers throughout England. Fox's work also had an enduring impact on literature, religious thought, and the development of Protestant identity in England. This book has been criticized, of course. Some have argued that Fox exaggerated certain details or presented the martyrs in

overly dramatic terms. However, it remains an invaluable historical document and is respected by many for its in-depth look at the lives and sacrifices of early Protestants. John Fox's life and work exemplify dedication to a cause greater than oneself. His commitment to documenting the hardships faced by Protestant martyrs has inspired countless readers to value and protect their own religious freedom. As we close, let's remember that Fox's Book of Martyrs is not just a history book, but a testament to resilience, faith, and courage, qualities we can all draw upon in our own lives. So, this is Josh McDowell in the book, More Than a Carpenter, and I'm going to quote him here. He says, "...the perspective I often hear is, well, these men, they died for a lie. Many people have done that. So, what is the proof? Yes, many people have died for a lie, but they did so believing that was true. What was the case with the disciples? If the resurrection had not happened, obviously the disciples would have known it. I can find no way that these particular men could have been deceived. Therefore, they not only would have died for a lie, and here's the catch, but they would have known it was a lie. It would have been hard to find a group of men anywhere in history that would die for a lie if they knew it was a lie." And, The Wizard of Oz, faith and false hope. Hopefully, we've all been exposed at some point to this famous story, whether we've read it or we've seen the movie over the years. If you're not familiar with it, let me just give you a quick synopsis of it. We have Dorothy, who was dropped into The Wizard of Oz, and she wants to get back to her home in Kansas. So, if we remember what happened, she met with some friends that said that we need to bring you to the Emerald City, because at the Emerald City, there is a wizard, The Wizard of Oz, and he is the only one, he is your only hope to get you back to Kansas. Well, as we follow through the story, spoiler alert, The Wizard of Oz was found out. The man behind the curtain was that, just a mere man and nothing more. What had happened is, Dorothy had put her hope in a false hope. There was nothing to back it up, and even The Wizard apologized and said, my bad, but there's no way for me to get you back to Oz. Now, the story does end nicely, because she just taps her heels three times, basically wakes up in Kansas, and happily after. But, The Wizard of Oz was not some great, grandiose... oh so wizard that could help her. So we do have to all as humans be careful

on where we place our hope. So as we look at the martyrs and we look at their lives as a testimony, and we move from the Old Testament prophets to the first century martyrs, we have the first martyr in the New Testament and his name was Stephen. In Acts 7, it says, when the members of the Sanhedrin heard this, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him. But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God and said, look, he said, I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. And at this, they covered their ears and yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, dragged him out in the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul. With the New Testament apostles, according to church history, we have James, the son of Zebedee, he was killed by the sword in 44 AD. We have Andrew, who was crucified in 60 AD. We have Matthew, who was killed by the sword in 60 AD. We have James, the son of Athias, was crucified in 62 AD. And then, again, this is another anchor point in history, in July of 64 AD, we have the Roman Emperor Nero, there is a massive fire that breaks out

in the summer of 64 AD all across Rome. It is catastrophic. And many historians and even people of Rome at that time believed that Nero had actually set the city on fire himself half delusional, half crazed, but also because he wanted to expand his palace and wanted some extra real estate. Whatever the case, Nero blamed the Christians. And after that, persecution really ramped up. Peter, originally called Simon, he was crucified upside down in October of that year in 64 AD. We have Thaddeus, who was killed by the arrows in 65 AD. Simon, the zealot, crucified in 65 AD. Paul, who was Saul, who was renamed the Apostle Paul, he was beheaded. Historians grapple whether it was 65, 66, or 67 AD, but definitely within that window of history. And then we have Bartholomew, who was crucified in 68 AD. We have Thomas, famously known as Thomas the Doubter, who was killed by spear in 72 AD. We have the Apostle Philip, crucified in 80 AD. Now, additionally, a name that is not on here is the Apostle John. Now, some think that he got away easier by being banished to the island of Patmos in 94, 95 AD. However, did you know that according to the early church father, Tertullian, John lived only decades, sorry, Tertullian, who lived decades after John, that John was plunged into boiling oil,

perhaps even in front of an audience at the Colosseum or the Circus Maximus, and that John survived this ordeal, though. So he might not have gotten scot-free compared to his other apostles. And then if we finally look at the early church fathers, we have early church father Clement, who lived, some say, between 65 AD to about 100 AD. He lived in Rome. He was, according to church history, he was drowned by anchor. Paul mentions him in Philippians 4.3. We have the church father Ignatius, who lived, some say, around 85 AD to about 115 AD. He lived in Antioch. He was brought to Rome and he was fed to lions. We have early church father Pappius, 90 AD to about 120 AD. He was a friend of the apostle John. Quote, knew others that had seen the Lord. He was martyred. The specifics of how he was martyred are not clear. But then finally, we have church father Polycarp, lived 71 AD to about 155 AD. He lived in Smyrna. He was a disciple of the apostle John. He was burned alive for his faith. These men died for what they knew was true. And then we have Timothy, lived to the time of about 97 AD.

He lived in Ephesus. He was a direct disciple of Paul, and he was stoned. I wanna introduce you to Pliny the Younger. This is a young Roman governor who was a governor in what's now present-day Turkey, and in 112 AD, Pliny, who was a Roman, writes a letter to the Roman emperor Trajan for advice regarding how to deal with Christians. in his province. So let's look at this letter to the Roman Emperor Trajan. In my practice, my Lord Trajan, I refer to you to all matters concerned in which I am in doubt, for who can get better guidance to my hesitation or inform my ignorance? I have never before participated in trials of Christians, so I do not know what the offenses are to be punished or investigated, or to what extent, and I have to be a little hesitant as to whether there should be any distinction on the account of age, or no difference recognized between the very young and the more mature. So he writes this letter to the Roman Emperor, and the Roman Emperor Trajan responds. He says, these people are not to be sought for, but if they are accused and convicted, they are to be punished. But with this caution, that he who denies himself to be a Christian, and makes it in plain that he is not so by supplicating to our gods, although he had been so formally, may be allowed pardon upon his repentance. And this is key, because during this early time of the Church, the Roman Emperor literally is saying all they need to do is recant their faith, and they will be spared. But the early Christians did not do that, because they knew what was true. In Hebrews chapter 11, scripture says, there were others that were tortured, refusing to be released, so that they might gain an even better resurrection. Some faced jeers, and flogging, and even chains, and imprisonment. They were put to death by stoning. They were sawed in two. They were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskin and goatskin, destitute, persecuted, mistreated. The world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in

holes in the ground. These were not mere men. These were extraordinary men. And then finally, to remember what we've went through in history one, and in this talk history number two, this is a memory device. I call it the five fingers. I did not come up with this, so I'm going to give all credit to staff member at Stand to Reason, Alan Schlieman. He came up with these five points. I've kind of tweaked them a little bit. The first one is the testimony of the saints. We look at the early church fathers, the Old Testament prophets, and the apostles, and how they lived and died for something that they were eyewitnesses of. The testimony of the saints on the thumb is a powerful memorance that we can trust the Bible. When we look to the index finger, we can remember history and archaeology that testify to the power of the Bible. And then the big finger, we can look at the transmission, the accuracy of the Old Testament scribes, and how dedicated they were to the accuracy and the transmission of the Old Testament, thinking about things like the Dead Sea Scrolls, and then also into the New Testament, the amount of manuscripts in the early dates of those first century documents. And then when we look at the ring finger, we've got the ring on our ring finger, we think of the unified account from all the way from Genesis to Revelation, how the Bible says one unique unified story. And finally, the pinky. The pinky can be remembered for pinky prophecy. It is almost impossible to accurately and consistently predict the future, but the Bible does it again and again. So pinky prophecy. So those five. When we close our fingers and form a fist, I'm in no way advocating any type of force or fighting back, because we don't need to. The Bible and Christians can rest firm on truth and truth alone. And I've mentioned all these different evidences of why Christians can firmly believe the Bible is true, but you know what? All of these apologetics, all of these evidences, are really just cherries on top. The Bible stands firm on its own, because it is the Bible, it is the Word of God, it is unbelievable. But all these additional evidences help solidify our faith, and also they help skeptics and atheists understand that the Christian is not believing in blind faith that the Bible is true and accurate history, but there is substantial

evidence that helps confirm the historicity of the Bible. So some resources. Obviously we talked about Dr. Jason Lyles' book, Keeping Faith in an Age of Reason. It's an excellent book to read. read or if at minimum to have on your bookshelf as a resource, John Fox's Book of Martyrs, a fantastic history account of the martyrs. And then finally, I talked about this in History One, but it's such a good book. I think everybody should have it, and it's a great gift to give to people. Whether you buy it brand new or even used, it's only a couple of dollars, more than a carpenter, by Josh McDowell and his son, Dr. Sean McDowell. This is a fantastic read. Thank you so much for your time.