Apostle describes his personal en counters with the Lord. Luke’s rec ord is not simply hearsay. The mi nute accuracy of the verifiable de tails in his writing have been so well demonstrated by disinterested and even antagonistic investigators, that Luke’s reputation as a reliable historian is universally acknowl edged. Perhaps more important than the date of the original writings is the age of the oldest surviving copies, as well as the number that have survived. Altogether, there are nearly 5,000 Greek m anu sc rip ts which have been found. We can ap preciate how wealthy the New Tes tament is in manuscript attestation by comparing the textual material for other ancient historical works. In school you may have read Caesar’s Gallic War, composed between 58 and 50 B.C. Of this there are about ten good manuscripts, with the oldest some nine hundred years later. There is very good reason to trust the texts of the Bible. By the recognized rules of historical evidence, our eye witnesses to the life of Jesus must be accepted. These writers had the added advantage of divine protection from faulty memory and careless misquotation. From the beginning, the church accepted as in sp ired Scripture only the writings of the apostles or men closely associated with them. Pains were taken to es tablish the work beyond all doubt. Paul recognized this in nearly all of his epistles. He carefully guaranteed his authorship (I Thess. 2:6-13; II Thess. 3:7; I Tim. 4:1). II Peter 3 shows that the Scriptural writers recognized each others’ work as in spired. While we don’t have the orig inal manuscripts or autograph of the New Testament writers, we do know that they were in existence as late as A.D. 200. Tertullian, a church leader who lived about that time, wrote that the originals of the New Testament books could still be in spected in the churches founded by
the apostles. We do have portions that date earlier than even Tertul- lian’s time. For nearly 1400 years, until the printing press was invent ed, all copies of the Scripture were made by hand. A copying scribe might catch things inaccurately. By comparing one copy with another, tracing what we call families of textual critics have been able to see which of these variances are abso lutely correct. So thoroughly has it been done, that we can rest assured that our best Greek text of the New Testament today is substantially that which was originally written. If you have a Scofield Reference Bible, you’ll find many areas of question carefully documented in marginal notes. No major doctrine rests upon a disputed passage of the Bible. As we read these accounts concerning Christ’s virgin birth, incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection, as ex plained by the Gospel writers, we know that they are absolutely accu rate. The Bible is wholly inspired, archeologically, geographically, and scientifically. The Bible fully reveals the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Kindness is the language that even the deaf can hear and the dumb can understand. Great leaders, like diamonds, are products of great pressure. See the teeming millions marching. Marching to a dark unknown. Hear that haunting cry of terror! Hear that agonizing groan! Souls are dying every moment, Sinking into Christless graves, Who will hasten to their rescue, Who will tell them Jesus saves? Hear their broken-hearted pleading Hear their wailing of dire pain. Christian, heed your Lord’s commission, Do not let them cry in vain. —George F. Santa 33
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