A perennial question in the Christian life is whether we can truly trust the Bible. With all the years that have come and gone between the original writings and now, can we really be sure the Bible hasn't just been corrupted like a long game of telephone, or twisted by this or that whim of ancient scribes? And what about those few passages or verses in the Gospels that are put in brackets and have strange footnotes about how the "earliest manuscripts" either do or don't contain them? In this week's episode, we try to take a pastoral look at how the field of study known as "textual criticism" not only doesn't challenge our trust in God's Word but actually deepens and strengthens it.
Recommended Resources for Further Study:
- Can I Really Trust the Bible?, by Barry Cooper
- How We Got the Bible, by Greg Lanier
- How God Preserved the Bible, by Richard Brash
- The Truth About the Bible and Early Christianity: Wes Huff, Michael Kruger, Daniel Wallace
Visit www.almondvalley.org for information about Almond Valley Christian Reformed Church in Ripon, CA.
Music by Jonathan Ogden used with permission.
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