welcome to this episode of real Christianity my name is Dale Partridge reach week I offer 15 to 20-minute answers to tough theological and pastoral question this is 100% listener supported audio Ministry of relearn. Org and for those who don't know our mission a tree learn.org is to educate and equip ordinary Christians to plant biblical confessional and missional house churches for more information just visit relearn. Org house well guys Welcome to our brand new format for this podcast we did 100 episodes with both my wife Veronica and I and going forward we are going to be doing this new format so welcome back we've been off for the last couple weeks but we are excited to have this new shorter format so I have a question for you if you ever wondered where we got our Bible and how is it actually put together the more than that how can we
 know that the scriptures are as trustworthy as the gospel how can we trust that the Bible that's in our hands is actually without air and trustworthy and put together by the holy spirit this is an important question and we're going to unpack this discussion but first I want to make two quick announcements one if you guys haven't heard of our product stand in Victory. Org this is a program on Breaking Free from the bondage and addiction to pornography if you are struggling with pornography addiction if you are struggling with just having regular habitual usage of pornography and you are looking to be set free we would love for you to check out the resource that we created at standing victory.org again that stand and victory.org this is a short 3 video with 3 PDF pack step by step gospel centered program
 for Breaking Free from the bondage of pornography again you can check that out at standard victory.org the second thing I wanted to talk to you about is our ultimate marriage program is there some other resources that we have for really creating Healthy Families within healthy churches until ultimate marriage.com is Veronica and I six-week marriage Mentor program it's filled with Incredible biblical information on how to generate demonstrate to your children a Biblical Union in this is a great gift for somebody who is going through many premarital it's right about to get married or a great wedding gift this is also great for somebody who's in the probably the first 10 to 15 years of marriage we've been married for 10 years going on 11 but we also have couples that have been married for 20 years who have gone through the program as well but it's a great resource
 30 minute videos with a great PDF for resource to discuss with your spouse it's the testimonials are just amazing again you can go to Ultimate marriage.com to watch a video about that all right let's get into today's question this question is from Jackie and Oklahoma City and she asks Pastor Dale if the Bible is to be a Thor Tatum in the life of a Christian the immediate question for me becomes wasn't this book put together by men how are we to know that what we have in our hands is truly God's work was anything left out deal can you help me with these questions so I can have a subtle to confidence in the scriptures okay Jackie this is a great question you're not alone in your Curiosities you're just not I got this question several times I want to start off by saying that while there is a solid apologetic argument with historical archaeological
 in a moral and cultural evidence for your question the central source of our confidence in the scriptures comes from the evidence of the Gospel in our own lives that we received through the scriptures stay with me here for a second I'll explain what I mean the miracle of the Gospel isn't that it changes what you do they dead religion and behavior modification can change what a person does the miracle of the Gospel is that it changes what you want to do and that is like the gospel really changes our affections and our desires the gospel gives us a new and restored heart and this renewal is called being born again and one of the evidences of someone who has truly been born again use their trust and hope and confidence in the scriptures now I'm not saying that a born again Christian is just blindly believing in the scriptures without sufficient evidence
 again there is incredibly strong arguments will talk a little bit about them but they are believing in the scriptures that they're born again because a miracle happened in them and something basically changed radically within your soul and they can't deny that and so their conversion their new life in Christ becomes their Central evidence and primary source for their confidence in God's word right faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God but I know what you're thinking how does the miracle of the Gospel connect to the reliability of the Bible and so let me give you a few reasons so first the Bible is the Earthly Source or kodak's if you will of the Gospel it's where God has chosen to preserve the good news is it's also the agent by which salvation comes about again I I said earlier Romans 10:17
 teen so faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God and so they're there is never been a person who has come to Faith outside of hearing or reading the word of God and this could include reaching personal reading time one-on-one discussions a personal encounter with Christ if you were alive then I will he was in the Earth or if you were Paul even a dream inspired by christ-like were often hearing about in the Middle East my point is that you cannot separate faith in Christ from the word of Christ and yeah I think about a story of Martin Luther when asked about his successful Ministry accomplishments he wants responded I simply taught preached and wrote God's word other than that I did nothing the word of God did it all so that's my first point second point is you you cannot separate the word of God
 from the work of God and so God created all things including your way to Salvation and your personal election to Salvation by the power of what by the power of his word and so Jesus himself is referred to as the word that became flesh and so to have confidence in God while lacking confidence in his word is theologically irrational now to have faith in Christ is to also have faith in the scriptures the two again are inseparable and I'll explain why in my next point which which is really this are we going to believe in Jesus while not believing in Jesus is belief in Scripture
 and what I mean by that is are we going to bet our lives and our eternity on Christ but not the whole Christ because the whole Christ includes a belief in the authority of scripture because during Jesus his Earthly Ministry Jesus quotes or references 78 different verses from 16 different Old Testament books Genesis Exodus Leviticus Numbers Deuteronomy 1st Samuel First Kings second chronicles songs Isaiah Jonah Michael Hosea Malachi Zechariah and Daniel the scriptures the word of God because of the wisdom of God and so are we really going to validate Jesus as their savior but imply that he was a liar or a lunatic when it comes to his teaching an affirmation of the scriptures throughout his Earthly Ministry that would be weird and absurd Matthew 5:17 through 18 Jesus says do not think that I have come to abolish the law
 are the prophets I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them for truly I say to you until Heaven and Earth pass away not a Niota not a. Will pass from the law until it is all accomplished basically Jesus is saying I didn't come to abolish the scriptures but to fulfill what is said in the scriptures so in other words it's impossible to disconnect Christ from the scriptures because belief or because to Believe In Christ wild doubting the very scriptures that predict prepare and speak of him is to doubt Christ so hopefully you're you're hanging with me here but Matthew 19 3 through 5 and mark 10:6 the rate we see Jesus speaking of other scriptural realities like creation of Adam and Eve he speaks of marriage and the Order of a marriage he speaks about Sin and direct historical reference to
 issues and an event that happened in Genesis and throughout the Torah Stephen speaks of Jonah in the belly of the great fish he talks about the flood and Noah's Ark he references Sodom and Gomorrah Abraham and Isaac and Jacob right so he discusses the the lives of so many people we know we talked about David and Solomon again in accordance to the scripture so to doubt the scriptures is really to doubt Christ you cannot have one without the other but again I think the heart of your question Jackie comes from a desire to better understand the New Testament so let me close by touching briefly on the reliability of the New Testament books and the canonization of the Bible so the word Canon means an officially recognized list of authoritative Books Okay I'm going to say that again the word Canon means unofficial
 recognize list of authoritative books so you might hear like the canonized scriptures or the Canon of scripture in seminary world in the theological world that's a common phrase there are 39 canonized Old Testament books in our Bible they were written from about 1,400 BC to about 400 BC and there are twenty-seven canonized New Testament books in our Bible that were written between 50 a.d. and 9080 into the other we get the 66 books in the Canon of scripture in the Bible that you have probably at your house is going to have 66 books in it and the Old Testament you know was recognized and canonized in Jerusalem during the fourth Century BC I'm so that was before right when Jesus is there he was quoting canonized scripture now the 27 books of the New
 estimate Cannon were circulated for about a hundred years B by making handwritten copies and so remember that I didn't have the internet didn't have cars and things were slow so true about a hundred years by making handwritten copies and bringing them to other places were more copies could be made and you know and bring them other places were more copies to be made and historically we see that by the end of the second century which is you know this a 190 you know 90% of the New Testament was recognized by the early Church in fact that you in the writings of the early church fathers that we see they mentioned several times that there's a list of letters that are generally accepted as a list of canonized
 scriptures and so there was a there was a list of letters that were totally cannot canonize there was a list of books that were being debated currently at that time and there was a list of books that were rejected at that time and you can go look at really beautiful evidences of this all the way back into the way early church yeah it wasn't actually until 397 a.d. about three hundred years after Revelation was written so it took about three hundred years at the Council of Carthage that we see the 27 books of the Canon formally recognized now is a recognized and not declared like they didn't declare these books as canonized because they had some sort of authority to do so they recognized because this is wasn't just a bunch of men
 deciding which books were permitted in which weren't know that this was a formal acknowledgement or a public acknowledgment of the organic Spirit lead process that occurred over the previous three hundred years so basically it in a non internet World it took time for these 27 books by way of you know copying preaching reading and you know what I was a textual scrutiny and Theological Unity it took a bunch of this to emerge the genuine authoritative and inspired scripture and so by the time we get to Carthage three hundred years later the functional Canon had already been in place in the churches for nearly two centuries but a final observation according to sir
 criteria like was the the specific letter written directly by an apostle or someone who traveled with an apostle does the content of the letter have contradicting theology with the other accepted books in the church and other authoritative books from Apostles had the letter been universally accepted by the churches that was a big one if if a portion of the church and a region the church would reject that that wasn't accepted there were looking for Universal acceptance by the churches and the people at that are at were incredibly
 theologically Adept in terms of paying attention this is this is again you know that this isn't an era of of uneducated human being is actually coming from an era of philosophy and high thinking and there was some major scrutiny to get what we have today and you do historians were really good at their job because they were they were keeping history it's a week we knew the original manuscripts from these false manuscripts that were emerging and I'm going to give you a resource to to to watch a video that you guys can watch to understand that a little bit more but these became the final standard they gave us the New Testament and so when we think of the Gospel of Thomas or the Epistle of Barnabas and we asked why are those
 put it in the New Testament these books weren't rejected by a council of men they were rejected universally by the early church for their heresies their inconsistency and unreliability when measured against the other vital criteria that I was talking about and so there's always somebody that comes up it's about Jesus that he was
 he was married to Mary you know or whatever it doesn't line up with the historical
 scriptures that were canonized and it doesn't line up with the theology that was you know it was there during that process the bottom line is this I believe in a God who can protect his word in the world this is one of the major arguments that the Jehovah's Witnesses in the Mormons claim against the church they say that the Bible has been corrupted and they needed a new revised Bible write the Book of Mormon or you know the translation that the Jehovah's Witnesses use write the this means that they believe in a God who can't protect his own word in the world and needs men to help him to put it back together it's absurd it reveals how small their view of God truly is it said what Jesus says in Matthew 24 35 Heaven and Earth will pass away but my words will by no means pass away
 if you met that I believe the 66 books of the Bible that have been canonized and produce the fruitfulness of the New Testament Church of the last you know almost two thousand years telling Immaculate and remarkably unified story with the Old Testament that lines up perfectly with the ology and prophetic Revelation that all culminates in the person of Jesus Christ if you read it you cannot escape the supernatural strength that comes from its Unity but again this is a very important topic and if you are placing your Hope and Faith In Christ you should you should settle this discussion in your own heart and it's not going to be by listening to the short podcast this is a massive theological topic I had to do a class and read an entire
 a book just on the topic of canonization and that's just a little bit that I know about it so let me close by offering a few great resources for your journey and I will also link these resources on the post page for this episode a tree learn.org this is episode 101 titled how did we get the Bible and so here's a few resources and I'll give you three of them and I think you should really take the time to to look at them and so first resources of YouTube video its title how do we get the Bible by Southern Seminary another YouTube video that you're going to want to sit down and watch I'd watch this during Seminary it's titled New Testament Bible reliability by dr. Daniel Wallace the guys actually pretty funny but you got to watch the whole thing that you got to watch the whole thing make a commitment to watch the whole thing
 if you want to get super deep and you want to study this there's a book by FF Bruce titled the Canon of scripture against these resources will be linked for you on the post page again this is episode 101 how did we get the Bible for you guys answering that question if you're a regular listener to real Christianity thank you if you haven't left your review yet would you please do so just go to the podcast app on your phone and tap the Stars you don't even need to write anything but if you do write something I will read it and they are very encouraging to us thank you guys for listening to this episode my name is Dale Partridge and we will see you guys next week
 thank you for listening to this episode of real Christianity if your regular listener to this show would you perfectly consider making a donation to support our ministry effort simply visit relearn. Org donate again that's real learn.org for donate and for those looking to explore the idea of joining or planting a church in your home you can download our free pdf ebook titled the basics of biblical House Church by visiting relearn. Org house lastly do you have a theological question you would like answered on the show The Mayor question a tree learn.org for question thanks for joining us on this episode of real Christianity will see you next Wednesday