The Strand Study Bible

LUKE

LUKE

1656

all alone– and with a wide gap between them. For there is a gulf between it and the so-called sacred books of the East, which severs the one from the other utterly, hopelessly, and forever… a veritable gulf which cannot be bridged over by any science or religious thought. 12 There is no book on the face of the earth that comes anywhere close. Saying that any book, anywhere, written by anyone, could on any level compare to the Bible, would be a statement of ignorance. 5. The Bible is preserved despite the onslaught of attack upon it Well-known writer, Dr. H.L. Hastings once noted, “If this book had not been the book of God, men would have destroyed it long ago. Emperors and popes, kings and priests, princes and rulers have all tried their hand at it; they die and the book still lives.” The celebrated French poet Voltaire (1694-1778) said that within one hundred years of his time, Christianity would be “swept from existence and passed into history.” Yet fifty years after his death, the Geneva Bible Society used his house and printing press to produce stacks of Bibles. 13 It goes without saying that the Bible is ever and always under attack. Since the Old and New Testaments were written, people have given their lives to destroy God’s Word. The irrefutable record of the Bible’s survival despite this onslaught is evidence that it is a supernatural book. No other book has been so burned and banned and outlawed as the Bible. From Roman emperors to Communist leaders to college professors, many have taken it upon themselves to attack God’s book. Why this book? Why are people always attacking the Bible? Travel to any state school in America and try to find someone attacking the Koran. No, instead they talk about that book with respect. Check out a secular college campus and try to find someone attacking the Books of Mormonism. Why is no one doing that? Because Almighty God has only written one Book that convicts people of their sin and the necessity of being reconciled to Him –the Jewish Scriptures! 6. The Bible is the oldest religious book in the world Better than half of the Old Testament was already written (starting with the book of Job - c. 1600 BC through Isaiah – c. 700 BC) before Hindu Literature (the second oldest sacred writings, which started c. 700 BC) even got off the ground. 7. The Bible was written over a period of approximately 1600 years (from c. 1600 BC - 96 AD), by over forty different authors, all perfectly inspired to reveal what God wanted to say to His creation, as the centuries continued to unfold *Compare the Bible to that of Hindu Literature (I Ki 6:38), which has “no known author,” and was complied within a “matter of years” (c. 700 BC). In fact, better than half of the Old Testament was already written, starting with the book of Job (c. 1600 BC) through Isaiah (c. 700 BC), before Hindu Literature (the second oldest sacred writings, which started c. 700 BC) even got off the ground. *Compare the Bible to that of the teachings of Buddha ( Dan 4:33 ), which came to us from one man (Gautama Buddha - c. 500 BC), and was compiled just “four months” after his death by some of his disciples. *Compare the Bible to that of the Apocrypha , a term used to describe a collection of 13-19 books of ancient Jewish writings which has “no known authors” and were written between 250 and 50 BCThe term “ apocrypha ” means, “hidden” and came to mean “of doubtful origin.” While the Roman Catholic Church regards the Apocrypha as authoritative Scripture, the Jews and Protestants do not. The Evangelical Dictionary of Theology notes: Both the status of these books and the use of the term apocrypha have been in confusion since the early days of the church. In a restricted sense, the word denotes the above-named books in contradistinction to the Pseudepigrapha, or false writing; but in the broader sense the word refers to any extracanonical scripture. 14 Three reasons why Jews and Protestants reject the Apocrypha as inspired Scripture 1. It contains numerous historical and geographical errors For example, in total contradiction to the Bible and history, where it states that Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, successfully invaded and eventually conquered Jerusalem in 586 BC, the book of Judith claims that a beautiful and devout Jewish princess saved Jerusalem from Nebuchadnezzar by beguiling him. Other books within the Apocrypha teach false doctrines, such as praying for the dead. 2. Though known to Christ and his disciples, the ancient Jewish historians (Josephus and Philo) and early Church Fathers

(Jerome, Melito of Sardis, and Cyril of Jerusalem) never quoted from it 3. It was never declared to be authoritative until the Council of Trent in AD 1546 W.H. Griffith Thomas in How We Got Our Bible notes:

The additional books which are found in the Greek Old Testament, called the Apocrypha, were never part of the Jewish Scriptures, and were never regarded as Scripture by those who knew the Hebrew language. These books were not written in Hebrew, and were not included in Scripture by any body of Christians until the Church of Rome arbitrarily decided to include them at the Council of Trent in the sixteenth century. In addition to other points, which could be mentioned, these books contain inaccuracies in history and doctrine, which make it impossible for them to be regarded as part of the Word of God for man. 7

*Compare the Bible to that of the Gnostic Gospels , a collection of some fifty “questionable” apocryphal gospels, written between c. 50 and 200 AD According to the Evangelical Dictionary of Theology , the Gnostic Gospels , also referred to as the