There are standard tests historical documents go through to find out if their historically reliable. And the Bible pulls through: both looking inside and outside to other books that talk about the events of the New Testament!  

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0:00 - INTRO

1:50 - 3 TESTS: 1. BIBLIOGRAPHIC TEST (*Check out Ep. 52), 2. INTERNAL TEST, 3. EXTERNAL TEST

2:35 - 2. INTERNAL TEST: what’s written in the NT. ERRORS IN THE BIBLE? NO ERRORS IN THE BIBLICAL MANUSCRIPTS: overwhelming majority: of variant readings are grammatical, word order, synonyms. Bruce Metzger: LESS THAN 40 OF 20,000 LINES - NOT SURE WHICH IS ORIGINAL ( in Geisler & Nix, A General Introduction to the Bible (1986), 475.).

5:06 - WE AREN’T MISSING ANYTHING; WE HAVE TOO MUCH.

6:19 - VARIANT READINGS HELP CONFIRM THE ORIGINAL TEXT. 5,000 MANUSCRIPTS PROVE ORIGINAL MESSAGE

8:03 - CONTRADICTIONS IN THE BIBLE? (2. INTERNAL TEST cont’d). SO-CALLED “CONTRADICTIONS” ARE INTERPRETATION MISTAKES. Still conveys message of Bible.

10:45 - REVIEW!: MANUSCRIPTS (1. BIBLIOGRAPHIC, 2. INTERNAL, 3. EXTERNAL), AUTHORS

11:24 - 3. EXTERNAL TEST:  HISTORICAL WRITINGS? ARCHEOLOGY? *Gary Habermas, The Historical Jesus: 17 NON-CHRISTIAN WRITINGS that confirm NT.

13:08 - 140+ ARCHEOLOGICALLY CONFIRMED FINDINGS

14:00 - SO WHAT?

15:47 - WHAT’S YOUR NEXT STEP? ASK SOMEONE WHO DOUBTS

17:00 - THANK YOU & WRAP UP

FURTHER RESOURCES: (1) Geisler, Norman. "New Testament, Historicity of."   In Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics (1999). (Updated as The Big Book of Christian Apologetics: An A to Z Guide (2012)). (2) Geisler, Norman. (2002). Systematic Theology, Volume One: Introduction, Bible. Bethany House. (digital, used). (3) Habermas, Gary. The Historical Jesus: Ancient Evidence for the Life of Christ. College Press Publishing (1996).

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