Recently I had opportunity to speak to a group of students in our local Christian school about the reliability of the Scriptures. From those messages comes forth this series of posts I plan to entitle: “You Can Trust Your Bible”. In this series, we will explore four major areas of the Bible that have been under constant attack for the last 250 years. Let me mention what those are and then explain the significance of each of them for anyone who is a follower of Jesus Christ.
Genesis Thru Deuteronomy.
This provides the foundation of the whole Bible. Critics have denied that Moses wrote it, discredited its details on history, and have dismissed its Divine authority.
Daniel.
Daniel’s prophecies give some of the greatest proofs for the Bible’s Divine inspiration. The Book of Daniel has been attacked for its claims, its setting in the 6th century b.c. during the Neo-Babylonian and Medo-Persian empires, its prophetic predictions, authorship, and history.
The Gospels.
These four documents introduce us to the Person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, including His life, death, resurrection, and ascension. These have been opposed as lacking accuracy in history, not representing the actual Jesus, and their authorship.
1,2 Timothy & Titus.
Paul the Apostle wrote these three letters to instruct churches on how to conduct themselves and what to teach. These three books, known as the “Pastoral Epistles”, have had doubt cast upon them as written by Paul. Their authority is denied by critics who complain about the teachings found within them.
A startling statistic
Summit Ministries, a Christian ministry devoted to training Christians on how to defend their faith, surveyed 18-25 young adults on matters of faith and practice. Here is what they found:
“We talk a lot about young people walking away from the church, abandoning their Christian beliefs. The research is scary – studies show that as many as 70% of Christian students leave the church during college.”
The number one reason they cite for why young people leave their faith after high school:
“No Grounding — At best, many young believers don’t know why they believe what they believe. Often, those who think they do have never had their foundation of faith seriously challenged. Worst, many 18- to 25-year-olds have no hold on what Christianity actually teaches at all.”
The Bible is to judge us, rather than we judge the Bible
If you ever go off to college or have attended one, you may take what is called a “Philosophy of Religion” course. Such courses are so named because in their definition of "religion", they refer to how human beings respond to what they perceive to be the presence of God and His Divine revelation. In such courses there are oftentimes baked-in assumptions about God, what constitutes reality, and whether or not Divine revelation, miracles, and authoritative Divine revelation are even possible. Philosophy of Religion is a branch of Philosophical study that can have limited value in shedding light on questions raised in the study of theology. Whether the questions it raises and the answers it attempts to give prove helpful is an area of constant debate among its practitioners.
Systematic Theology (Biblically based theology that is) goes with the assumption that God has revealed Himself in history and through the Bible, most-notably in the Person and work of Jesus Christ. There can be some overlap in philosophy or religion and theology, however either one must be under subjection to the truth of God's Word, the Bible. As with all disciplines, the danger can run where the philosopher of religion or the theologian can come-off as a judge of the Bible (a magisterial or "know-it-all posturing"), rather than letting the Bible judge him or her (which would be a "ministerial" positioning or "I'll admit I don't know everything" point of view).
In as much as such courses can raise interesting questions, and even be taught by Godly Christian professors, most of the time such courses promote Higher Critical theories and liberal theological views of the Bible.
Why our young people need equipped with tools for defending the Bible as God's Word
Young students and young adults that claim Christ as their Savior and Lord need equipped so that when exposed to criticisms of the Bible, they'll be less likely to succomb to them. If not in a college classroom, many Christians will find criticisms of Divine inspiration and reliability of the Scriptures online, in discussions with co-workers, or sadly, sometimes even in churches that departed long ago from a Biblical worldview.
In this opening post I want to lay out for you: “You Can Know Who Wrote Genesis Thru Deuteronomy.” We will begin to consider arguments that affirm the Mosaic authorship of Genesis through Deuteronomy, otherwise known as "The Pentateuch" (meaning "the five", as per the Greek name for the first five Biblical books) or "Torah" (the Hebrew name of these five which means "that which teaches or guides").
1. Affirming that Moses wrote Genesis thru Deuteronomy.
This may not sound like an important topic, since whether Moses, or Bob wrote the Bible shouldn’t matter all that much. Right? Well, it does matter when the man Moses himself, other parts of the Bible, and even Jesus affirm that Moses wrote these five books, which are sometimes called “The Pentateuch” (meaning “The Five”) and other times “The Torah” (meaning “that which guides or teaches”). If Moses did not write the Pentateuch, then anyone else who claims He did would be wrong. That's the main idea as to why the traditional and Biblical view of Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch must be defended, as well as why opposing ideas (which I'll get to in future posts) must be answered.
Next time I'll lay out the case for how we affirm that Moses wrote the Torah, as well as in later posts mention critical views opposing Mosaic authorship, followed by posts that answers such criticisms.
