"God Wrote A Book" - Human Agency

"God Wrote A Book" - Human Agency 2 Peter 1:16-21 (ESV) 1. The Writers 2. The Scribes 3. The Fathers 1. Why did the early church make such a big deal about eyewitness testimony about Jesus (2 Peter 1:16-18; 1 John 1:1-3)? What is the value of their testimony (as recorded in the New Testament) for us today? Also, read Acts 4:13. What's the power of the statement that "they had been with Jesus"? 2. Read 1 Peter 1:8 and discuss how the eyewitness testimony contained in the New Testament makes the truth of that verse possible. 3. Is the Bible unique among all books ever written? If so, what makes it so unique and on what basis do we claim that it perfectly reveals the heart and mind of God? 4. According to Phil, scribes hand-copied the New Testament manuscripts for 1,400 years prior to the invention of the printing press. What are your thoughts about the claim that, in spite of numerous minor copying errors over those 1,400 years, we can be certain that over 99% of what we have in the New Testament is exactly what the Apostles wrote? (This is a great topic for further discussion at Monday's FaceBook Live Q & A.) 5. Are you surprised to hear that there were "other" Gospels floating around that did not make it into the New Testament? Think about the criteria for including/excluding books from the New Testament: Jesus as Christ, Jesus as fulfillment of the Old Testament, Jesus' death as atoning sacrifice, and Jesus' resurrection. Why were these specific criteria so important? 6. Why is it so important to know the true story of how we got the Bible, especially in light of popular-level fiction like "The Da Vinci Code"? Don't forget to go to www.slido.com and enter event code #63918 to submit your questions for our FaceBook Live Q & A session on Monday night (7:00-8:00 PM). You can submit your questions anytime. And don't forget to "like" which questions you want answered the most - the questions with the most "likes" will get answered first! See you on Monday night!