I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist Part #2: Flawed Documents or the Christian’s Declaration of Independence? When most atheists look at the Bible they think that they are looking at a book which is filled with errors. At the outset it is easy to understand how one might come to the conclusion that it is just a compilation of flawed documents. I mean come on; the original New Testament (NT) writings did not survive the past 2,000 years. The NT (originally written in Greek) was just hand copied over and over again down through the centuries. Have you ever played the game telephone? If you have, you know that what the message started out as was not what it ended up as. Thus, how could NT today be even close to what it was some 2,000 years ago? This resulted in over 5,400 early copies of the Greek NT manuscripts which we have today. Let’s examine the evidence of those 5,400 copies. The results from comparing these 5,400 copies reveal that they are “98% identical!”* The majority of these differences have no significance: like spelling mistakes, slight word order differences or the like. That brings the accuracy to an astounding 99.5%! No other writing from history has that many manuscripts (the closest is Homer's Iliad with 643 manuscripts) with that high of accuracy. Intentional Christianity: July 2023
Furthermore, contained within these minute differences, one finds not a single theological change in the NT. “Simply put, if we reject the authenticity of the New Testament on textual grounds we'd have to reject every ancient work of antiquity and declare null and void every piece of historical information from written sources prior to the beginning of the second millennium A.D.”** So what difference does all of this make? It means that the Bible is trustworthy. It is God’s Word period! It is a book which is not based on fairy tales but rather historical facts. It is a Declaration of Independence. “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery” (Gal. 5:1). Christ has freed us from the punishment which sin requires (Rom. 6:23). We are free of guilt and shame (Rom. 8:1). We are free to come to the Father with our requests (Heb. 4:16). We are God’s children and coheirs with Christ (Gal. 4:6; Rom. 8:15). We are free to love others (Gal. 5:13). It is on account of our freedom in Christ that our lives produce the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23). And Christ has freed us as Christians to be able to truly live (John 10:10). We are free to think. Atheism is a blind faith. It is believing something which has no rational or historical evidence supporting it. While on the other hand, the historical evidence supporting the NT is rock solid. Therefore, this month as we celebrate the freedoms which we have in this country, we as Christians can also celebrate the freedoms which we have in Christ. “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:36). In Christian love, —Matt *Daniel Wallace, "The Majority Text and the Original Text: Are They Identical?" Bibliotheca Sacra, April-July, 1991, 157-8. **Stand to Reason, “Is the New Testament Text Reliable?” by Greg Koukl; available from http://www.str.org/articles/is-the-new-testament-textreliable#ANCHOR19.
• July 9— Fellowship Luncheon • July 30— Singspiration Sermon Series: The Jesus I Never Knew • July 2—#23: We The People (Luke 19:45-48) • July 9—#24: Living Under Jesus’ Authority (Luke 20) • July 16—Keith Wise is preaching • July 23—#25: The Return of Christ (Luke 21) • July 30—#26: Come to the Celebration (Luke 22) Contact: 10152 East Coe Road St. Louis, MI 48880 989-681-3185 [email protected] Preaching Minister: Matt Boughan 989-710-1116 [email protected] Office Administrator: Jan Fowler 989-388-7041 Assistant Office Administrator: Faith Best 989-763-5068 [email protected] Eldership: Phil Leonard (chairman) 989-388-1935 Larry Bond 989-463-6979 Dennis Fowler 989-763-5579 Deacons: Jack Dougherty Don Engler Roger Freeze Randy Hawkins Bruce Leonard Steve Leonard Darryl Quidort Coe Church of Christ Schedule of Events Regular Service Times: Sunday: Sunday School 9:00 am Worship 10:00 am Monday: Ladies Bible Study 1:00 pm Ministerial Office Hours: Wednesday-Friday: 9:00 am-12:00 pm Additional times available by appointment “Coe Church of Christ exists to reach out to the lost, and to train people to maturity in Christ through discipleship, worship, and fellowship, completely following God’s Word.”
The Jamaica Bible Seminary is a Bible College established to train leaders for the New Testament Church. The curriculum offered at JBS is based on the belief that the Bible is the full, final, and inerrant Word of God. The Divine message of the Bible can only be understood by the application of sound principles of study and interpretation. Jamaica is a poor island. Food is very expensive and wages are low. The average Jamaican worker earns about $50 a week. The Jamaica flag is a tri-colored banner in green, yellow and black. The green is for the lush verdant country and the abundance of growing things. The yellow is for the golden sunshine that warms the land. And the black is for the many hardships that the country has endured with patience and courage of faith. Jamaica is hungry for the word. It is not unusual to have power outages on the island and the students getting up at 2 a.m. in the morning when the lights come back on to prepare for the morrow's lessons. It is not unusual for a student to travel 4 hours across the island to study God's Word. It is not unusual for a 6 hour Bible class on a typical day to expand to 7 hours because of student interest. The teachers and instructors that go to the island have to raise their own support and come from varying backgrounds, They have all united in the common cause to train men for the ministry and women to teach in Christian schools, many churches, mission groups, Bible Colleges, and benevolent organizations have united in sending Bibles, books, chairs, tents, desks, cricket and sports equipment, work teams, medical doctors, nurses, teacher trainers and teachers, The students come from various churches on the island, These fellowship groups include Jamaica Evangelism, Jamaica Christiaan Mission, Church of Christ, incorporated and several other Restoration Movement Churches and Missions, This cooperative spirit has spread to the island churches, and previously divided leadership has now publicly joined hands and hearts and efforts to cooperate in building the kingdom of God in Jamaica. Attendance has grown in the churches. Camp efforts for reaching youth have embraced unity and have become more effective. Local Jamaican churches are beginning, as a mission of their own, to support not only their own preachers but also new church planting efforts and even scholarships for the Jamaican men in training. The ministers in Jamaica are thankful for our financial support and prayers. "We are looking forward to greater things as we continue to work together as we build the kingdom of God here on earth until He comes. May God continue to bless you in your endeavors as we look forward for your continuous support by looking to the Creator for His provisions. On behalf of the Church we send our love to you and we encourage you to continue to do what the Lord has called you to do and never get weary in well doing, but always abound in the works of the Lord” (Nathan Stewart, Minister of Top Hill Church of Christ). Missions Moment: Jamaica Bible Seminary