The Bible: a txt msg from God?

I agreed to go to church with my Dad last weekend, and thankfully Cody agreed to endure it with me. Here is a summary of the sermon, and quotes with commentary.

The pre-sermon began with a series of video-interviews. The interviewer asked people on the street, “Do you read the Bible?” Most of the people said they did not, and the interviewer asked, “Why not?” and most of the people replied by admitting, “I don’t know.” The point here was, apparently, that the people who do not read the Bible don’t have a good reason for why they don’t read it. Not sure what the point of this was, unless maybe it was to make the people who don't read the Bible for no apparent reason seem a little... stupid?

After the interviews came a skit. General cynicism aside, the skit was extremely obnoxious. Three people sat in a row on stools, a man in the middle and a woman on either side of him, and they quoted this verse (each saying a couple of words at a time):

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness. 2 Timothy 3:16

One of the women began asking how ALL parts of the Bible could be considered useful to modern people. She told the man to open his Bible to Leviticus 7, which reads:

The guilt offering is to be slaughtered in the place where the burnt offering is slaughtered, and its blood is to be sprinkled against the altar on all sides. All its fat shall be offered: the fat tail and the fat that covers the inner parts, both kidneys with the fat on them near the loins, and the covering of the liver, which is to be removed with the kidneys.

The woman asked how this could be useful to her, and… I’m sorry to say… the question was never answered. The other man and woman went on in their excited speech about something else, and it was only moments later that I realised no answer was given to the question. (Cody thinks they said something about covering it next week)

So finally Pastor Bob came up and began the sermon. Here is how it went (anything in quotes is what Pastor Bob actually said):

The BIG question: Can the Bible be trusted?

The answer, of course, is YES, and here are the reasons:


Part I:

The Bible says about itself that it is trustworthy.
We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. 2 Peter 1:16
This made me think of a Sam Harris quote: How do we know that our holy books are free from error? Because our books themselves say so.

“The Bible is the most influential book ever written.”
This is, simply, a totally subjective statement, and subjectivity is exempt from being considered valid.

“No other book comes close [to the] magnitude [and the] mystery [of the Bible].”
Again, this is entirely subjective.

The Bible is a collection of 66 books -
It took 1500 years to write, was written by 40 authors, and is a single story.
I'm not sure what the point here is...

The Bible has been in circulation for a long time and has lasted for a long time.
Yes it has, along with many other texts of different religions...


Part II:

There are 24000 manuscripts of the New Testament and these were written within 25-85 years of the events they discuss.
The point here was that there are many many more copies of New Testament manuscripts than of many other documents, such as writings by Plato, Homer, etc. and we don't question the validity of those. Of course, what was glossed over entirely was that the Bible makes huge claims about the nature of the Universe which are inaccurate and unreasonable. It doesn't matter if what Plato or Homer wrote was altered because people are not basing their lives off of their writings.

After 2000 years, the Dead Sea Scrolls were found.
Sweet! And this discovery somehow proves the Bible can be trusted?

“Make sure you know the manuscripts have been mistranslated [before assuming they have been].”
Shouldn’t we also request that those who assume the Bible has been translated correctly go find out for themselves that it has?

“The Hebrews memorized the words [before they were written down] and quizzed each other.”
I don’t even know what to say about this one. Anna, I hope you have something…


Part III:

“The Bible is totally consistent with archaeological findings.”
It may be stated categorically that no archaeological discovery has ever controverted a biblical reference. – Archaeologist Nelson Gluek
I’m afraid that I’m missing something important here, because this just screams Bullshit! to me. What about the theory of evolution? Or the age of the Earth? I'm not sure why he said this.

Archaeology has, in fact, backed up stories from the Bible:
Ex. 1: The walls of Jericho – God told the people who blew the walls down not to take any of the food. When the site was discovered, it was evident that a lot of food had been left, which was unheard of when people ransacked a city.
Ex 2: For a long time there was no evidence that the Hittites ever really existed, but then a site was discovered that proved their existence.


Ending:

“What if this book really is God-written?”
What if the Koran is really God-written? What if the Bhagavad-Gita is really God-written? I don’t think this is a valid point unless we’re going to ask it about all other religious texts.

He ended the sermon with two similar questions:
1) Why would the Bible continue to exist if people had been persecuted for believing in and advocating it?
2) Why would people believe it if it’s not true?

Well, the answer to #1 could only be, Because it’s true!
And I’m not sure what the point with #2 is.
People are always believing things that may or may not be true, usually for comfort: My boyfriend cheats on me, but he loves me. The weather channel says it will be sunny on Thursday. I believe my pets have souls and go to Heaven.

I assume the point is to leave the *audience* concluding something like, Well, people never continue to believe things if they’re being persecuted, and, People never believe in things that aren’t true, so the Bible must be true (and all the other people in the world who have totally different beliefs… well, this doesn’t apply to them, they’re just deluded).

I was thinking I would return next week to hear more, but now I see on the handout thing that it says,

"Next week join us as we continue in part two of our series txt msg… It could change
your life.
(Changing your mind verse) “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than
any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and
marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” Hebrews 4:12"

which looks to me like the first sermon of the series is all that is being offered in terms of evidence for Bible's trustworthiness. I am very disappointed, and will certainly not return if the focus is now going to be changing your mind. I haven't even been convinced of the Bible's accuracy! What would convince me to change my mind about accepting it as truth?

I'm also curious why he is giving this convincing type of sermon to people who already believe...