To start there are many verses that speak of God as a judge and that He will judge the world. When I say that God is a judge I do not mean that He is going to wear a black robe and have a gavel but that He pass judgment on people for their sins. 2 Timothy 4:8 speaks of Jesus as a righteous judge and Psalm 75:7 speaks of “God the Judge”. Being a judge God loves justice Psalm 33:5, 37:28 and Deuteronomy 32:4 says all His (God’s) ways are justice. Think about it, if God exists we want Him to be just and punish evil, we just differ on what we say should be punished. Two verses that had a big impact on me and caused me to start talking to people even more than before about God’s judgment are Daniel 7:9,10. The parts of these verses that spoke to me most are where it speaks of God as “the Ancient of Day” and “the court was seated, and the books were opened”. God is not kidding about judgment. Other verses that speak of God judging the earth is: Psalm 9:8, Psalm 96:13 and Psalm 98:9.

Another part of scripture that tells of God’s judgment is Revelation 20:11-15 commonly known as “the Great White Throne Room Judgment”. This passage of scripture talks about how God at the last days will raise everyone up to judge those who have rejected God’s free gift of salvation in Jesus Christ. This passage is almost a continuation of Daniel 7:9-10 because it speaks of God having books that He is going to judge people from. Verse 15 says that “anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire” and verse 14 says that “this is the second death”. Revelation 13:8 speaks of the Book of Life as the “Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” and in Revelation 3:5 Jesus says that He can blot people’s name from the Book.

The last indicator of God’s judgment is the fact that Jesus died. If God does not have any wrath and judgment for sin, Jesus would not have had to die, but He did die. Jesus said in Mark 10:45 that He came to give His life as a ransom. In John 10:17-18 Jesus said that no one took His life from Him but that He laid it down, ultimately to save us from our sins by taking our place of punishment. In the Gospel accounts, Matthew, Mark and Luke all record how Jesus prayed that if it was possible that “this cup” (His death) would pass from Him Matthew 26:39-44, Mark 14:36-41, Luke 22:42-45. The cup did not pass from Him and He was crucified and died Matt 27:35, Mark 15:24, Luke 23:33, John19:18. Jesus was crucified because God being just has to punish sin but God wants to give us mercy Romans 6:23. Justice is giving someone what they deserve and mercy is to not give someone what they deserve. So God could fulfill both of His natures He sent His Son to take the place of punishment for us, so He could be just, punishing our sins in Himself, and merciful offering us forgiveness. So all we have to do now to receive God’s mercy is to put our faith and trust in Jesus and repent for our sins. These reasons show that God will judge everyone one day; the question is then is your name written in the Book of Life?

As I said in the beginning, God owes us no good thing but if He gave us what we deserve then all of us would go to hell. Every time we sin it’s as if we slap God in the face saying “I don’t care what You say is right and wrong, I am going to do what I want to do”. Every time we do something God said not to do, such as lying, stealing, lust after someone (Matthew5:28), use God’s name in vain, or fail to put God first in our life above everyone and everything else we sin. Being the creator of existence we owe everything to God.

God does love us but not the kind of love many people think and hope of. Many people hope God loves them so much that they can do whatever they want and God will be fine with that, but this isn’t the kind of love God has for us. God loves us by taking our place of punishment that we deserve for sinning against Him (Romans 5:8). The fact that Jesus brutally suffered and died on a cross shows that God has judgment for sin even though He has love for us. It says in Titus 3:5 that we are saved by His mercy. All He wants us to do is repent from our sins and put our faith and trust in Him. We don’t deserve God’s mercy or salvation but of love He made a way for our sins to be forgiven. So next time you or anyone thinks to demand something of God, as though He has to obey us, just remember He isn’t our servant and remember He could give us what we really deserve.

I. Definition of Inspiration

A. The 5 Aspects of Biblical Inspiration

1. Revelation

a. Definition of Revelation

1) Communication of truth that cannot be otherwise discovered

b. God has been revealed through:

1) Nature

2) History

3) Conscience

4) His Son

5) His Word

2. Inspiration

a. having to do with the recording of the truth

1) Holy Spirit moved upon human beings to write the 66 books of the Bible

3. Authority

a. The Bible is the divine authority of God

1) It’s authority affects all humanity

b. God has spoken; we must submit

4. Inerrancy

a. The Bible (as a whole) is inerrant and infallible

1) It is without error in the original manuscripts

5. Illumination

a. No one can understand the Scripture

b. The Holy Spirit enlightens the mind of the believer to understand the Bible

B. Erroneous Concepts/Theories of Inspiration

1. ’Natural inspiration’ or ‘intuition theory’

a. Inspiration is just a superior insight of a human mind

1) This would put great worship songs on the same level as the Bible

2. ‘Dynamic’ or ‘partial-inspiration theory’

a. The Bible is infallible on subjects of faith and practice but it can be wrong about history or science

1) How can we know then which parts are true?

2) How can we tell the difference between which parts are essential to faith and practice and which parts are not?

3) II Tim 3:16 à all Scripture is God-breathed!

3. Thoughts, not the words, are inspired

a. God suggested the thoughts of the revelation but left the words up to the writer

1) I Cor 2:13 “not in words taught by human wisdom, but… by the Spirit.”

2) Pache: “Ideas can be conceived of and transmitted only by means of words.”

4. The Bible contains the Word of God

a. The Bible is a human book which God can make his Word at the moment of personal encounter

1) This is a very subjective approach to Scripture

2) This position takes away the objective approach to Scripture

3) Man’s interpretation is often fallible… the Scripture is infallible

5. The ‘dictation theory’

a. The authors of the Scripture were nothing more than pens

1) This view ignores the differences in style of the writes

2) The beauty of the Bible is that it is a God-breathed book, that has a human character

C. The Biblical Doctrine of Inspiration

1. Inspiration is unexplainable

a. It is an act of the Holy Spirit

2. Inspiration is limited to authors of Scripture

3. Inspiration is essentially guidance

a. The Holy Spirit supervised the selection of words to be used in writing the Scriptures

4. The Holy Spirit kept the authors from error and omission

5. Inspiration includes the words, not just thoughts and concepts

a. This is only in the original autographs

1) Not in any of the versions (ancient or modern)

2) Nor in any Hebrew or Greek manuscripts in existence

3) All but the originals contain some errors

- No doctrine is affected by this

I. Definitions

A. What is the “CANON” of Scripture

1. “a reed or rod; a measuring rod; a rule or standard.”

2. “an authoritative decision of a church council.”

3. As it relates to the Bible – “books which have been measured, found satisfactory, and approved as inspired by God.”

II. The Canon of the Old Testament

A. Threefold division of the O.T.

1. The Law

2. The Prophets

3. The Kethubhim

B. The Law

1. Also known as the Pentateuch

a. Believed to have been written by Moses

b. Placed at the beginning of the O.T.

c. Foundation of the O.T.

C. The Prophets

1. All the books that were written by a ‘prophet in office’

D. The Kethubhim (divided into 3 sections)

1. Poetical books

a. Psalms, Proverbs, and Job – literary character

2. The Megilloth

a. Song of Solomon, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes

b. Read at the Jewish feasts

3. Non-Prophectical Historical Books

a. Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Chronicles

b. Written by men who were not ‘prophets in office’

E. Old Testament Canon: Facts

1. Completed by Ezra and the members of the Great Synagogue

2. 5^th century B.C.

3. Evidence

a. Josephus (1^st century A.D.)

1) Spoke of 22 books in the Canon specifically

2) Records same threefold division of the O.T.

3) Indicated that the canon was completed in the reign of Artaxerxes (A historical match to the time of Ezra)

b. Ezra fits the role from Scripture

1) Called “the scribe” (Neh 8:1; 12:36)

2) “a scribe skilled in the law of Moses” (Ezra 7:6)

3) “the scribe, learned in all the words of the commandments of the Lord.”

4. The Apocrypha

a. Included in the Septuagint, but never into the Hebrew canon

III. The Canon of the New Testament

A. The Formation of the N.T.

1. It was not the result of an organized effort

2. It seemed to have shaped itself

a. Evidence for the genuine nature of the books

B. Criteria for a book to be included in the N.T.

1. Apostolicity

a. Author had to be an apostle or relate the words of an apostle

2. That it could be read publicly

3. Universality

a. Was the book excepted by the Christian community

4. Spiritual character

5. Evidence that the book was inspired by the Holy Spirit

C. The N.T (in it’s current form) was accepted very early

1. By the end of the 2^nd century

a. All but 7 books were recognized as apostolic

2. By the end of the 4^th century

a. All 27 books were recognized by all the churches

The Facts: A book is credible if it is truthful on the subject it describes.

If the current book differs from the original, it is said to be corrupted.

Therefore, in order for a book to be credible it has to be truthful on what it presents and the text must be unchanged.

1. The Credibility of the Books of the O.T.

1. 1. The proof from Christ’s acceptance of the O.T

a. Jesus quoted and endorsed many teachings of the O.T.

1) the creation of the universe by God (Mark 13:19)

2) the direct creation of man (Matt 9:4)

3) the person of Satan and his promotion of evil

4) the destruction of the world by a flood in the days of Noah

5) the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah

6) the rescue of Lot

7) the burning bush

that Moses was the author of the first 5 books (Pentateuch)

9) manna in the wilderness

10) the existence of the tabernacle

11) Jonah and the big fish

12) the unity of Isaiah

b. If Jesus was God in flesh – he would speak the truth of past events

1) His testimony must be accepted as true or He must be rejected as a religious teacher

1. 1. The proof from history and archaeology

a. The O.T. accounts of life in Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, Medo-Persia, etc corresponds to history

b. It mentions rulers and is accurate on their names, positions and the matches them correctly to the nation they ruled

c. Archaeology gives us many confirmations of the Biblical accounts:

1) Babylonian “Epic of Creation”

2) Babylonian legends of ‘the fall’

3) Tablet in Babylon containing account of a worldwide flood

4) Battle of the kings (Gen 14) confirmed

5) Hieroglyphics confirm writing before Abraham

6) Archaeology confirms Jews in Egypt

7) The Hittites (Asia Minor and Palestine)

Tel el-Amarna (Judges)

9) Archaeology is continuing…

1. The Credibility of the Books of the N.T.

1. 1. The writers of the N.T. were capable

a. qualified to testify

1) Matthew, Peter, John – eyewitnesses

2) Mark, interpreter of Peter

3) Luke, companion of Paul

4) James and Jude were brothers of Christ

b. wrote through empowerment of the Holy Spirit, not just from memory

1. 1. The writers of the N.T. were honest

a. Moral tone, regard for truth, circumstances of their accounts: prove integrity

b. What was their motive? Endangered social standing, prosperity, and lives

1. 1. The writings harmonize (to be compatible or in correspondence)

a. The Gospels complement one another

1) GoJ can be fitted with 1^st three Gospels

2) Acts sets the backdrop for 10 of Paul’s epistles

3) Hebrews, the epistles, and Revelation fit in the 1^st century

b. Doctrines of the N.T. harmonize

1) Christ is called deity throughout

2) Paul and James do not contradict (emphasis)

3) Unfolding of doctrine NOT contradiction

4) 27 books of N.T. present harmonious picture of Jesus

1. 1. Their accounts agree with history and experience

a. Many references to contemporary history in the N.T.

1) census when Quirinius was governor (Lk 2:2)

2) The acts of the Herod’s

b. Experience

1) If you grant the experience of a personal, loving, omnipotent, loving God, miracles are not only possible but probable

2) Miracles further confirm God’s revelation

]]> http://www.thingsnotknown.com/2009/06/the-credibility-of-the-bible/feed/ http://www.thingsnotknown.com/2009/06/essential-doctrines-of-christianity/ http://www.thingsnotknown.com/2009/06/essential-doctrines-of-christianity/#comments Mon, 15 Jun 2009 08:27:14 +0000 admin http://www.thingsnotknown.com/?p=304

The Bible itself reveals those doctrines that are essential to the Christian faith. They are 1) the Deity of Christ, 2) Salvation by Grace, and 3) Resurrection of Christ, 4) the gospel, and 5) monotheism. These are the doctrines the Bible says are necessary. Though there are many other important doctrines, these five are the ones that are declared by Scripture to be essential. A non-regenerate person (i.e., Mormon or Jehovah’s Witness, atheist, Muslim), will deny one or more of these essential doctrines. Please note that there are other derivative doctrines of scripture that become necessary also, the Trinity being one.

I. The Deity of Christ

A. Jesus is God in flesh (John 8:58 with Exodus 3:14). See also John 1:1,14; 10:30-33; 20:28; Col. 2:9; Phil. 2:5-8; Heb. 1:8

1. 1 John 4:2-3: “This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.”

a. The above verse needs to be cross referenced with John 1:1,14 (also written by John) where he states that the Word was God and the Word became flesh.

b. 1 John 4:2-3 is saying that if you deny that Jesus is God in flesh then you are of the spirit of Antichrist.

2. John 8:24, “I said, therefore, to you, that you will die in your sins. For if you do not believe that I am, you will die in your sins.”

3. Jesus said that if you do not believe “that I am” you will die in your sins. In Greek I am is ‘ego eimi,’ which means ‘I am.’ These are the same words used in John 8:58 where Jesus says “…before Abraham was, I am.” He was claiming the divine title by quoting Exodus 3:14.

a. The Greek Septuagint is the Hebrew Old Testament translated into Greek done by Jews around 250 B.C. They translated Exodus 3:14 as ‘ego eimi’ “I AM”.)

B. Jesus is the proper object of faith

1. It is not simply enough to have faith. Faith is only as valid as who you put it in. You must put your faith in the proper person. Cults have false objects of faith (false gods); therefore, their faith is useless — no matter how sincere they are.

2. If you put your faith in a guru, a philosopher, or a past teacher (and not Jesus) to save you from your sins on Judgment Day, then you will be in a lot of trouble, no matter how sincere or strong your faith is. You might have great faith, but so what? Faith in something false has the same effect as no faith at all.

C. The Doctrine of the deity of Christ includes:

1. The Trinity - There is one God who exists in three persons: The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. They are all coeternal and of the same nature.

2. Monotheism - There is only one God in all existence (Isaiah 43:10; 44:6,8; 45:5,14,18,21,22; 46:9; 47:8). Mormons believe that many gods exist though they serve and worship only one. Therefore, they are polytheists which excludes them from the camp of Christianity.

D. The Hypostatic Union - That Jesus is both God and man.

1. The sufficiency of the sacrifice of Christ - The sacrifice of Christ is completely sufficient to pay for the sins of the world and it is only through Jesus’ sacrifice that anyone can be saved.

2. As God - Only a perfect sacrifice to God is able to cleans us from our sins. This is why Jesus who is God in flesh, died for us.

a. He had to die for the sins of the world (1 John 2:2). Only God could do that.

3. As man - Jesus must be man to be able to be a sacrifice for man.

a. As a man He can be the mediator between God and man (1 Tim. 2:5).

II. Salvation by Grace

A. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God — not by works, so that no one can boast,” (Eph. 2:8-9).

B. “You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace” (Gal. 5:4).

1. This verse and its context plainly teach that if you believe that you are saved by faith and works then you are not saved at all. This is a common error in the cults. Because they have a false Jesus, they have a false doctrine of salvation. (Read Rom. 3-5 and Gal. 3-5).

2. You cannot add to the work of God. Gal. 2:21 says, “I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”

C. “Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin,” (Rom. 3:20).

1. “However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness,” (Rom. 4:5).

2. “Is the law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law,” (Gal. 3:21).

III. The Resurrection of Christ

A. “And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith,” (1 Cor. 15:14). “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins,” (1 Cor. 15:17).

B. To deny the physical resurrection is to deny that Jesus’ work was a satisfactory offering to God the Father. It would mean that Jesus was corrupt and needed to stay in the grave. But, he did not stay because his sacrifice was perfect.

C. These verses clearly state that if you say that Jesus did not rise from the dead (in the same body He died in — John 2:19-21), then your faith is useless.

IV. The Gospel

A. “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!” (Gal. 1:8-9).

1. Verses 8 and 9 here in Galatians are a self declarative statement that you must believe the gospel. The gospel message which in its entirety is that Jesus is God in flesh, who died for sins, rose from the dead, and freely gives the gift of eternal life to those who believe.

2. Furthermore, it would not be possible to present the gospel properly without declaring that Jesus is God in flesh per John 1:1,14; 10:30-33; 20:28; Col. 2:9; Phil. 2:5-8; Heb. 1:8.

B. 1 Cor. 15:1-4 defines what the gospel is: “Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,”.

1. Within these verses are the essentials: Christ is God in flesh (John 1:1,14; 10:30-33; 20:28; Col. 2:9); Salvation is received by faith (John 1:12; Rom. 10:9-10), therefore it is by grace; and the resurrection is mentioned in verse 4. Therefore, this gospel message automatically includes the essentials.

V. Monotheism

A. There is only one God (Exodus 20:3; Isaiah 43:10; 44:6,8))

B. “You shall have no other gods before Me. 4 You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, 6 but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments,” (Exodus 20:3-6).

1. We can see that God will visit iniquity on the descendents of those who do not follow the true and living God.

Secondary Essentials

Secondary essentials are necessary truths, but there is no self-declared penalty for their denial — yet they are still essential to the Christian faith. Again, by way of example, Jesus says that he is the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father but by him, (John 14:6). I call this a secondary essential because there’s no penalty associated with its denial. Nevertheless, it is a statement of absolute truth and is an essential Christian teaching that cannot be denied.

I. Jesus is the only way to salvation

A. “Jesus *said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me,’” (John 14:6)

1. Jesus declared that he was the only access to God the Father. To deny this is to deny what Jesus said.

II. Jesus’ Virgin Birth

A. “’Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,’ which translated means, ‘God with us,’” (Matt. 1:23).

1. Without the virgin birth, my we cannot substantiate the doctrine of the incarnation of Jesus being God in flesh. This would put at risk what Jesus said above in John 8:24, where he said, “I said, therefore, to you, that you will die in your sins. For if you do not believe that I am, you will die in your sins.”

III. Doctrine of the Trinity

A. Matt. 28:19, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,” (See also, Matt. 3:16-17; 1 Cor. 12:4-6; 2 Cor. 13:14; Eph. 4:4-6.)

B. This doctrine is not represented by a single verse per se, though it is hinted at. The doctrine of the Trinity is arrived at systematically by looking at the totality of Scripture. It is, nevertheless, the proper representation of scriptural revelation concerning the nature of God.

The Bible talks continually about repenting from sin (Matthew 4:17; Mark 1:15; Luke 13:3; Acts 2:38; Acts 3:19; Acts 17:30) just to name some of the verses on repentance. Repentance is a change of mind and change of direction, if you are going one way to repent is to do a 180 degree turn and go the opposite direction. If someone comes and punches you in the face, comes and apologizes to you but then comes and does it again, were they ever really sorry? Chances are not. The same goes for God. He knows our hearts 1 Samuel 16:7, so He knows if we are truly sorry and want to change. If someone has not truly repented from their sin and turn to Jesus then there is a problem and Jesus does know who is His 2 Timothy 2:19.

Many people think that if they simply believe in God and/or Jesus died on a cross for their sins, that we are automatically saved, but this is not true because even demons know this, James 2:19. It is true we are save by believing that Jesus died for us but it matters what we do with that knowledge. Many people simply know this and yet they don’t truly commit their lives to Jesus. Some just do whatever they want thinking that because they know that Jesus died on a cross for them they are safe but this also is not true. We should be living for Jesus and not ourselves, Romans 8:5-6. If we set our minds on the things of this world we are actually said to be against God, Romans 8:7. John said that if we love the world then we don’t have God’s love in us, 1 John 2:15. The difference really boils down to do you look at Jesus just as fire insurance or have you truly committed your whole life to Him and been born again (John 3:3)? If you truly believe that you actually repented and put your faith and trust in Jesus then, are you an on fire Christian for Jesus Christ or are you lukewarm? If you are lukewarm then be careful because Jesus said what he will do with those who are lukewarm Revelation 3:16. I encourage you to think through your faith, is it real? Check the websites out at the bottom.

www.whatifimpretending.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8APpLIWTBZE&feature=channel_page

One reason we should turn to God now is because none of us are guaranteed tomorrow. By the end of today, over 150,000 people will die around the world. No one is guaranteed that they will have the chance to repent later on in life. 2 Corinthians 6:2 says, “behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” (KJV) God wants us to come to Him now not later.

Another reason people should turn to God now is that the older someone gets, the harder it is to change their ways. People become steeped in what they do and the longer that they do some activity; the harder it is to stop. Look at people who do drugs, the longer they do them, the harder it is to stop. Though I know some people can and do get addicted to drugs even after doing them once, still what is harder; for someone who did drugs for about a week to quit or someone who did drugs for 10 years to quit? The person who did drugs for 10 years has become use to their addiction. The longer we stay in sin, the longer we do the things that God has said not to do, the harder it becomes for us to stop doing whatever it is we are doing.

A final reason that people should turn to God now is taken from Genesis. When Moses went to the Pharaoh and told him to let the Hebrew people go, Pharaoh refused. The Bible says that Pharaoh hardened his heart every time that God sent some plague on Egypt to punish Pharaoh for not letting the Hebrew people go. There came a point though where the Bible says that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart. God will let us do what we want but we will be punished for it. We can choose to reject God but there comes a point, we don’t know where and we don’t know when, but God says that He will stop trying to save us and let us do whatever we want and reap the consequences of our actions. This is very scary to think there is a point where God will stop trying to save us. Due to this reason and the other reasons, it makes sense how the Bible declares “now is the day of salvation.” 2 Corinthians 6:2 (KJV)

1. The Bible consists of 66 books: 39 in the OT and 27 in the new. The Bible took about 1600 years to write. It was written in three languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek) by about 40 authors and is internally consistent throughout.

Reliability of the Bible

1. The Bible is 98 percent textually pure. Through all the copying of the Biblical manuscripts of the entire Bible, only 1% has any question about it. Nothing in all of the ancient writings of the entire world approaches the accuracy of the biblical documents.
2. The 1 percent that is in question does not affect doctrine. The areas of interest are called variants and they consist mainly in variations of wording and spelling.
3. The NT has over 5000 supporting Greek manuscripts existing today with another 20,000 manuscripts in other languages. Some of the manuscript evidence dates to within 100 years of the original writing. There is less than a 1% textual variation in the NT manuscripts.

1. Some of the supporting manuscripts of the NT are:

1. John Rylands MS written around 130 A.D., the oldest existing fragment of the gospel of John
2. Bodmer Papyrus II (150-200 A.D.)
3. Chester Beatty Papyri (200 A.D.), contains major portions of the NT
4. Codex Vaticanus (325-350 A.D.), contains nearly all the Bible.
5. Codex Sinaiticus (350 A.D.), contains almost all the NT and over half of the OT

When were the gospels written?

1. None of the gospels mention the destruction of the Jewish temple in 70 A.D. This is significant because Jesus had prophesied its destruction when He said, “As for these things which you are looking at, the days will come in which there will not be left one stone upon another which will not be torn down,” (Luke 21:5, see also Matt. 24:1; Mark 13:1). If they were written after the 70AD destruction don’t you think they would have included the event?
2. Matthew: The various dates most widely held as possible writing dates of the Gospel are between A.D. 40 - 140. But Ignatius died around 115 A.D. and he quoted Matthew. Therefore Matthew had to be written before he died. Nevertheless, it is generally believed that Matthew was written before A.D. 70 and as early as A.D. 50.
3. Mark: Mark (the disciple of Peter received his information from Peter) is said to be the earliest gospel with an authorship of between A.D. 55 to A.D. 70.
4. Luke: Luke was written before the book of Acts and Acts does not mention “Nero’s persecution of the Christians in A.D. 64 or the deaths of James (A.D. 62), Paul (A.D. 64), and Peter (A.D. 65).”8 Therefore, we can conclude that Luke was written before A.D. 62.
5. John: The John Rylands papyrus fragment 52 of John’s gospel dated in the year 125-135 contains portions of John 18, verses 31-33,37-38. This fragment was found in Egypt. It is the last of the gospels and appears to have been written in the 80’s to 90’s.
1. An important note is the lack of mention of the destruction of the Jewish temple in 70 A.D. But this is understandable since John was not focusing on historical events and was most probably written 20 or so years after the destruction of the Temple. John focused on the theological aspect of the person of Christ and listed His miracles and words that affirmed Christ’s deity.

1. Book of Acts
   1. If what is said of Acts is true, this would mean that Luke was written at least before A.D. 63 and possibly before 55 - 59 since Acts is the second in the series of writings by Luke. This means that the gospel of Luke was written within 30 years of Jesus’ death.

1. Similarly, the book of Acts which was written after the gospel of Luke by Luke himself. Acts is a history of the Christian church right after Jesus’ ascension. Acts also fails to mention the incredibly significant events of 70 A.D. which would have been extremely relevant and prophetically important yet it is not mentioned in Acts. Why? Because it was written pre-70 AD.
2. Acts does not include the accounts of “Nero’s persecution of the Christians in A.D. 64 or the deaths of James (A.D. 62), Paul (A.D. 64), and Peter (A.D. 65),”1 and we have further evidence that it was written very early and not long after Jesus’ ascension into heaven.
3. “At the earliest, Acts cannot have been written prior to the latest firm chronological marker recorded in the book Festus’ appointment as procurator (Acts 24:27), which, on the basis of independent sources, appears to have occurred between A.D. 55 and 59.”3
4. “It is increasingly admitted that the Logia [Q] was very early, before 50 A.D., and Mark likewise if Luke wrote the Acts while Paul was still alive. Luke’s Gospel comes before the Acts (Acts 1:1). The date of Acts is still in dispute, but the early date (about A.D. 63) is gaining support constantly.”4

Information is obtained from carm.org

The Apostle Matthew was killed in Ethiopia with an object called a halberd which is close to an axe.

Mark was killed in the city of Alexandria, in Northern Egypt, after being dragged through the streets of that city.

Luke was hung on an olive tree in Greece.

The Apostle James, brother of John, was beheaded in Jerusalem.

The Apostle Philip was hung up against a pillar in the city of Heiropolis and stoned to death.

The Apostle Bartholomew was flayed alive, which means he had the skin ripped off his back.

The Apostle Jude was shot to death with arrows.

The Apostle Andrew was bound to a cross and left to die.

Barnabas was stoned to death.

The Apostle Paul, after a variety of floggings, tortures and persecutions, was beheaded in Rome.

The Apostle Thomas was run through the body with a lance in southeast India.

The Apostle Peter was crucified in Rome, upside down.

James, the half-brother of Jesus was beat and stoned by the Jews; and finally had his brains dashed out with a fuller’s club.

Stephen was stoned at Jerusalem.

Much of the information was obtained from alwaysbeready.com