Bulletins - First Baptist Church of Huntersville West Virginia

How Deep The Father's Love For Us
The Bible is not just another ancient book—it is the inspired, preserved, and proven Word of God.
The Bible doesn’t change because truth doesn’t expire.
Why Reliability Matters
Billions of copies printed - the Bible is widely considered the most purchased and most distributed book of all time with an estimated 100 million sold/distributed annually - Guinness estimates that between 5 and 7 billion copies have been printed and sold
For comparison - the entire Harry Potter series has sold approximately 600 million copies, and Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities - one of the best-selling individual novels - has sold over 200 million.
It has been translated into more than 700 languages
Countless lived changed by its testimony and many of those willing to die as martyrs because of that testimony
Yet skeptics still ask: “Can we really trust the Bible?”
Here is what is at stake:
If the Bible is just another ancient book, then its claims are only human opinion and demand nothing of us.
But if t is truly God’s Word, then it demands our trust, obedience, and attention.
The Bible is not man reaching up to God… it is God speaking down to man.
It is a book like not other…
The Bible is Inspired by God
2 Timothy 3:16–17 CSB
16 All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
“Inspired” or God-breathed (theopneustos) - God is the ultimate origin of Scripture.
The words did not start in human minds but proceeded from the “mouth” of God.
Because they come from God, the writings carry His divine authority and character.
“God-breathed” does not usually mean divine dictation where the human authors were robots.
Instead, it refers to God’s Spirit “carrying along” human authors 2 Peter 1:21 “21 because no prophecy ever came by the will of man; instead, men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” - so that they used their own styles and personalities, yet recorded exactly what Good intended.
As the inspired, God-breathed word it leads to 3 conclusions for us as believers
Inerrancy: Since God is truthful and cannot lie, His breathed-out Word must be free from error
Infallibility: It is a reliable and sure guide that will not fail in its purpose
Sufficiency: It contains everything needed to equip a person for a godly life.
The unity of Scripture: The Bible was written over a span of 1,500 years, by more than 40 different authors, on three continents, in three languages, yet it tells one unified story without contradiction.
The writers included kings, shepherds, fishermen, a doctor, a tax collector, and a military general.
It was written in palaces, prison, wildernesses, and during times of both war and peace.
Despite these differences, the entire collection from Genesis to Revelation maintains a single, cohesive message centered on God’s redemption of humanity through Jesus Christ.
There is complexity in the scriptures - data visualizations have identified over 63,000 internal cross-references, showing how the various books intricately link to on another
The claim: this amount of consistency is “humanly impossible” for any other collection of 66 books written by different people across different centuries - this unity is evidence of a single divine Mind (the Holy Spirit) guiding the human writers
Take the theme of the “Sacrificial Lamb” and trace this motif from Genesis to Revelation
The Shadow - Genesis 22 - Abraham is told to sacrifice Isaac. When asked where the lamb was, Abraham prophesies, “God Himself will provide the lamb.”
The Passover - Exodus 12 - Each family is instructed to kill a lamb and put it’s blood on their doorposts so the judgment of death will “pass over” them. The lamb’s blood saves the people.
The Prophecy - Isaiah 53 - Writing 700 years before Jesus, Isaiah describes a coming Savior who would be “led like a lamb to the slaughter” to bear the sins oof the people.
The Identification - John 1:29 - John the Baptist sees Jesus and declares: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”
The Fulfillment - 1 Peter 1:18-19 - Peter (a fisherman) writes that believers were ransomed “with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.”
The Triumph - Revelation 5 - In the final book, the “unified story” ends with the Lamb (Jesus) sitting on the throne of heaven, being worshipped by all creation.
The “Lamb” is just one example. We can find similar 1500-year-old threads for:
The Temple: Starting as a Garden (Eden), then a Tent (Tabernacle), then a Stone Building (Temple), then a Person (Jesus), the a group (the Church), and finally a City (New Jerusalem)
The Serpent-Crusher: Starting with the promise in Genesis 3:15 “15 I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.” and finally completed in Revelation 20:10 “10 The devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet are, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.”
If you took just 10 modern authors from the same country and asked them to write on a controversial topic (like politics or religion), they would likely disagree. The fact that 40 authors oover 60 generations agreed on the nature of God, the problem of sin, and the solution in Christ is what we can call the “internal miracle” of the Bible.
Last week we used an analogy of an orchestra to describe the fine-tuning of the universe - now imagine a symphony being played by that orchestra but the symphony was written by 40 different composers across centuries without benefit of having the previous composers work yet the arrangement flowed in perfect tempo and key from beginning to end.
The Bible is Textually Reliable - The Manuscript Evidence
The Power of Numbers
In the ancient world, books were copied by hand. The more copies we have, the more we can cross-check them to find the original wording.
Inside the numbers:
5,800 + Greek manuscripts
10,000 + Latin manuscripts
9,300 + other language manuscripts
total: 25,000 + copies
By comparison: The average ancient work (like those of Plato or Aristotle) survives in just a handful of copies - usually fewer that 20. Even Homer’s Iliad, the most popular secular work of antiquity, has fewer than 2,000 surviving copies.
If someone doubts the Bible because of its manuscripts, they most also throw out EVERY other piece of ancient history, which has far less evidence.
2. The Power of Proximity (Timing)
Critics often claim the Bible’s story was changed over centuries like a game of telephone. However, the time gap between the original events and our earliest copies is exceptionally short.
For most ancient historians (like Tacitus or Caesar), the earliest copy we have written 800 to 1,000 years after the original.
We have fragments of the New Testament, like John Rylands Fragment which is also know as Papyrus 52. It contains a few verses from the Gospel of John (John18:31-33 on the front and 18:37-38 on the back). Theses verses record the trial of Jesus before Pontius Pilate and the famous question, “What is truth?” (ironic huh)
Most scholars date the fragment to the first half of the second century - approx. A.D. 125-150. It is written on both sides of a single piece of papyrus, which proves it came from a codex (an early form of a book) rather than a scroll. The gospel of John was written between A.D. 85 and 95 - so at most the copy is within 70 years and at least within 30 years.
Full copies like the Codex Sinaiticus (Aleph) is the oldest manuscript that contains the complete copy of the New Testament appear within 300 years - it is a codex and it consists of over 400 large leaves of high-quality parchment (animal skin), originally containing the entire Bible in Greek. Now it contains the complete NT, about half of the Old Testament (the Septuagint), and two early Christian works not found in modern Bibles: The Epistle of Barnabas and The Shepherd of Hermas.
The Codex Sinaiticus along with the Codex Vaticanus are the primary “anchor” for modern Bible translations. When you see a footnote in your Bible saying, “The earliest manuscripts do not include this verse,” it is often referring to the evidence found in the Sinaiticus.
It contains roughly 27,000 corrections, showing how seriously early scribes took the task of “correcting” the text to match other authoritative copies they had available.
It proves that by the 300s, the 27 books of the NT we have today were already viewed as a single, authoritative unit.
The manuscripts are too early for myths to have replaced historical facts without eyewitnesses speaking up.
3. The Power of Precision (Quality)
With so many copies, there are bound to be “variants” (differences in spelling or word order). However scholars can reconstruct the original text with incredible accuracy.
By comparing early witnesses like Papyrud 46 (dated c.200 AD) with later ones like Codex Sinaiticus, scholars can confirm that the New Testament iis 99.5% pure in terms of its content.
The vast majority of any variants are simply spelling errors or minor “slips of the pen”. Not a single major Christian doctrine is put in jeopardy by these variations.
Even with thousands of scribes over 1,500 years, the message of the Bible has been preserved with forensic-level detail.
The Bible is Historically Confirmed - Archaeology
The Bible isn’t a book oof “Once upon a time,” but a book of “In the year that King Uzziah died.”
Archaeology serves as a “reality check” for the biblical narrative.
The Verification of People
For years, skeptics argued that many biblical figures were mythical. Archaeology has a habit of digging up their names.
The House of David: Until 1993, there was no physical evidence for King David outside the Bible. Then, the Tel Dan Stele (a 9th century BC basalt stone slab) was discovered, featuring an inscription from an Aramean king boasting oof his victory over the “House of David.” The events mentioned in the inscription parallel the accounts in 2 Kings 8-9.
Pontius Pilate: Critics once doubted Pilate’s existence because he wasn’t in Roman records oof the time. In 1961, the Pilate Stone was found in Caesarea, explicitly naming him as the “Prefect of Judea”.
The Bible constantly names real people who held real offices at the exact time the text claims.
2. The Confirmation of Places
Luke is often cited by archaeologist as a world-class historian because of his pinpoint geographical accuracy.
The Pool of Siloam: For centuries, scholars couldn't find this pool (mentioned in John 9) and thought it was a symbolic literary device. In 2004, construction workers in Jerusalem unearthed the actual pool, exactly where John said it was.
The Hittites: In the 19th century, critics mocked the Bible for mentioning a "Hittite Empire" (Genesis 15:20) that didn't appear in any other records. Archaeology later discovered their massive capital, Hattusa, in modern-day Turkey.
While there is no official tally, the estimate is that thousands oof archaeological discoveries have verified or supported biblical accounts.
Jewish archaeologist Nelson Glueck stated: “It may be stated categorically that no archaeological discovery has ever controverted a biblical reference”.
53 individuals in the Old Testament alone—including kings, governors, and priests—whose existence has been confirmed through seals, inscriptions, or monuments.
Archaeology has confirmed the existence of dozens of ancient cities once thought to be mythical, such as Nineveh, Jericho, and the Hittite Empire.
Archaeologists have identified more than 25,000 sites in the Middle East that date to biblical times. While not every site provides a "smoking gun," the sheer volume of data provides a massive framework of historical and geographical accuracy for both the Old and New Testaments.
The notes include the top 10 discoveries that are widely considered the most influential for verifying the people, places and cultural details of the NT.
TOP 10
1. The Pilate Stone - this 1961 discovery at Caesarea Maritima provided the first physical proof of Pontius Pilate's existence and confirmed his actual title as "Prefect".
2. Caiaphas Ossuary - Found in 1990, this ornate limestone "bone box" is inscribed with the name of Joseph son of Caiaphas. Scholars are confident it belonged to the same High Priest who presided over the trial of Jesus.
3. John Rylands Fragment (P52) - This tiny scrap of the Gospel of John is the oldest New Testament manuscript fragment. Its existence in Egypt by ~AD 125 proves the Gospel was written and circulating remarkably early.
4. Pool of Siloam - Once thought to be a late literary invention, the actual pool from the time of Jesus was accidentally rediscovered in 2004 during sewer repairs. It matches the description in John 9, where Jesus healed a blind man.
5. The Gallio Inscription - Discovered at Delphi, Greece, this inscription mentions Gallio as the proconsul of Achaia. This find is crucial because it allows historians to pin down the exact date the Apostle Paul stood trial before him—likely AD 51–52.
6. Heel Bone of the Crucified Man - Found in 1968, the remains of a man named Yehohanan featured an iron nail still embedded in the heel bone. This provided the first physical proof of Roman crucifixion methods, specifically confirming that nails were driven through the feet.
7. Pool of Bethesda - Found near the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem, this pool was unearthed with exactly five porticoes (colonnades), just as described in John 5:2. Skeptics previously doubted its existence because of its unusual architecture.
8. Erastus Inscription - In Romans 16:23, Paul mentions Erastus, the city treasurer of Corinth. Archaeologists in Corinth discovered a 1st-century paving stone inscribed with his name and title, confirming his historical role.
9. Sergius Paulus Inscriptions - The Book of Acts mentions Sergius Paulus as the proconsul of Cyprus. Multiple inscriptions found in Cyprus and Asia Minor verify a man of this name held this specific office during the mid-1st century.
10. The Nazareth Inscription - This imperial decree (possibly from Emperor Claudius) prohibits the "moving" of bodies from tombs under the penalty of death. Many apologists argue this edict was a Roman response to the empty tomb of Jesus and the ensuing "stolen body" rumors.
The “setting” of the Bible is grounded in physical geography that can be visited and verified today.
3. The Validation of Customs
Archaeology also confirms the culture of the Bible, showing that the authors were intimately familiar with the time they wrote about.
Fulfilled Prophecy Proves Divine Authorship
The general consensus is that the Bible contain approximately 2,500 prophecies, with about 2,000 already fulfilled.
The remaining 500 or so are typically categorized as “end times” prophecies that relate to future events
The most famous set of fulfilled prophecies concerns the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
Total Count: Most scholars identify between 300 and 450 specific Messianic details in the Old Testament that Jesus fulfilled.
24-Hour Fulfillment: At least 12 distinct prophecies were fulfilled in the final 24 hours of Jesus' life alone, including his betrayal for 30 pieces of silver and his silence before his accusers.
In the 1950s, mathematician Peter Stoner calculated the probability of one person fulfilling just a small fraction of these prophecies by chance.
8 Prophecies: The odds of one man fulfilling just 8 specific prophecies (like being born in Bethlehem or entering Jerusalem on a donkey) are 1 in 10^17 (one hundred quadrillion).
Stoner famously illustrated this by imagining the state of Texas covered 2 feet deep in silver dollars. If you marked one coin, blindfolded a man, and had him pick one on his first try, those are the same odds as one person fulfilling just 8 of those prophecies.
The odds for 48 prophecies jump to 1 in 10^157, a number that exceeds the total number of atoms in the observable universe.
Scripture is Eyewitness Based and Honest
Several NT writers go out of their way to establish their credentials as firsthand observers - John, Peter, even Luke while not part oof the 12 stated - Luke 1:1–4 “1 Many have undertaken to compile a narrative about the events that have been fulfilled among us, 2 just as the original eyewitnesses and servants of the word handed them down to us. 3 So it also seemed good to me, since I have carefully investigated everything from the very first, to write to you in an orderly sequence, most honorable Theophilus, 4 so that you may know the certainty of the things about which you have been instructed.”
One of the most compelling aspects of the eyewitness claim is that the authors wrote while hostile witnesses were still alive. 1 Corinthians 15:6 “6 Then he appeared to over five hundred brothers and sisters at one time; most of them are still alive, but some have fallen asleep.”
This was an open invitation for skeptics to go and interview the survivors - if the resurrection hand’t happened, the early church would have been easily debunked.
In the 1st century, a woman’s testimony was generally not admissible in a court of law. Yet, all four Gospels agree that women were the first eyewitnesses to the empty tomb.
The "Criterion of Embarrassment": If you were making up a story in that culture to convince people, you would never choose women as your primary witnesses. The only reason to include them is that they actually were the ones who saw it.
The New Testament writers lacked the typical motives for lying (money, power, or status) and instead displayed hallmarks of brutal honesty.
If you are inventing a hero to start a movement, you don't make them—or yourself—look foolish. Yet the biblical authors recorded:
The Disciples' Failures: They are depicted as slow-witted, argumentative, and cowardly. Peter, the "rock" of the church, denies Jesus three times; the rest flee during the crucifixion.
Jesus’ "Hard Sayings": They included moments that were difficult to explain to outsiders, such as Jesus saying he didn't know the hour of his return (Matthew 24:36) or crying out "My God, why have you forsaken me?" on the cross.
The "Scandal" of the Resurrection: As mentioned, they named women as the first witnesses. In a 1st-century court, women's testimony was often considered worthless. Using them as primary witnesses was "social suicide" for the story's credibility unless it was simply the truth.
Unlike the "Acts of Paul" or other later Apocryphal writings, the canonical Gospels don't paint the authors as legendary heroes.
Matthew identifies himself as a tax collector—a hated profession viewed as a traitor to the Jewish people.
Paul repeatedly calls himself the "chief of sinners" and reminds his readers that he used to murder Christians (1 Timothy 1:15).
The “Cost of the Lie”. This is the most famous argument regarding their honesty, popularized by Charles Colson (who compared it to his experience in the Watergate scandal).
The Argument: People lie to get out of trouble, not to get into it.
The Reality: Every single apostle (except perhaps John) faced torture and execution for their testimony.
The Logic: While many people will die for a lie they believe is true (like a religious extremist), no one willingly dies for a lie they know is a lie. If the disciples had stolen the body and invented the resurrection, they would have cracked under the pressure of execution. As Colson noted, "Watergate showed that even the most powerful men in the world couldn't hold a lie for three weeks; the apostles held theirs for forty years under threat of death."
Skeptics often point to differences between the Gospels as "contradictions," but apologists like J. Warner Wallace (a cold-case homicide detective) argue these are signs of genuine eyewitness honesty.
Detective Perspective: When witnesses' stories are identical, it's a sign of collusion (they got their stories straight). When stories have slight variations in perspective but agree on the core facts, it's a sign of independent, honest observation.
The Internal Witness
If the Bible is truly "God-breathed" (2 Timothy 3:16), it should produce a unique, observable effect on the human character that other books do not.
Scripture describes itself not as a static record, but as a proactive force. Hebrews 4:12 “12 For the word of God is living and effective and sharper than any double-edged sword, penetrating as far as the separation of soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”
Unlike a math textbook or a novel, the Bible is "interactive." Readers across cultures and centuries report that the text seems to "read them" as much as they read it, convicting them of flaws and offering comfort in a way that feels supernatural.
Historical Transformation of Society
Human Rights: The biblical concept of the Imago Dei (Image of God) provided the foundation for universal human rights and the abolition of slavery.
Science: The belief in a rational, "Law-giving" God encouraged early scientists like Newton and Galileo to look for laws in nature, assuming the universe was reliable because its Creator was.
Literacy: Because of the Protestant emphasis on "Sola Scriptura" (Scripture Alone), the drive to translate the Bible led to the spread of mass literacy and the invention of the printing press.
The Changed Life
The Bible is the most translated and distributed book in history.
It resonates equally with a scholar in Oxford, a tribesman in the Amazon, and a prisoner in Siberia. Apologists argue that a purely human book would be "culture-bound," but the Bible’s ability to transform lives across every conceivable cultural barrier suggests it addresses a universal human "design" known only to its Creator.
The case for the Bible’s reliability isn't based on a single "smoking gun," but on a convergence of evidence that spans history, science, and personal experience.
When you look at these four pillars together, they form a "beyond reasonable doubt" argument for its authenticity:
The Bibliographic Pillar: The Bible has more manuscript evidence than any other book of antiquity. With finds like the John Rylands Fragment and Codex Sinaiticus, we can be 99.5% certain that what we read today is what was originally written.
The Archaeological Pillar: From the Pilate Stone confirming the trial of Jesus to the Tel Dan Stele proving King David's existence, archaeology has consistently moved biblical "myths" into the category of "historical facts."
The Internal Pillar: The honesty of the writers—who recorded their own failures and relied on "discredited" witnesses like women—suggests they were interested in truth, not propaganda. This is reinforced by the "statistical miracle" of fulfilled prophecy and the unified story told by 40 authors over 1,500 years.
The Experiential Pillar: Finally, the transforming power of the text provides a "living" proof. The Bible has reshaped entire civilizations and continues to radically change individual lives, a feat no other piece of literature has matched.
As apologist Josh McDowell famously put it, the Bible is "reliable, historical, and life-changing." It doesn't just ask for "blind faith"; it provides a massive intellectual foundation to support that faith.
"The Bible is not just a collection of ancient stories; it is the living breath of God captured on the canvas of history. It was written by kings and fishermen, across three continents and fifteen centuries, yet it speaks with one heartbeat and one voice.
When we dig into the dust of the earth, we find the Pilate Stone and the House of David whispering that these stories are true. When we look at the thousands of ancient manuscripts, we find a text preserved with such supernatural precision that the gap between the original pen and our modern page has vanished.
Men did not die for a clever myth; they laid down their lives for what their eyes had seen and their hands had touched. The Bible does not just give us information; it offers us transformation. It is the only book where the Author is in love with the reader. Let us not just study this Book; let us stand upon it, knowing that while the grass withers and the flowers fade, the Word of our God stands forever."
- - 2 Timothy 3:16–17CSB

Why Reliability Matters

The Bible is Inspired by God

The Bible is Textually Reliable - The Manuscript Evidence

The Bible is Historically Confirmed - Archaeology

Fulfilled Prophecy Proves Divine Authorship

Scripture is Eyewitness Based and Honest

The Internal Witness

2 Timothy 3:16–17CSB