4/7/19 - Can We Trust the New Testament? - Luke 19:1-19 - Dr. Peter Williams

In the spring of 1989 syndicated talk show host Larry King interviewed Shirley MacLaine on the New Age. When a Christian caller challenged her view with an appeal to the New Testament, MacLaine brushed him off with the objection that the Bible has been changed and translated so many times over the last 2000 years that it's impossible to have any confidence in its accuracy. King was quick to endorse her "facts." "Everyone knows that," he stated and the conversation moved on.

The case against the BIble's reliability goes like this...How can we know that the documents we have in our possession accurately reflect originals destroyed almost two millennia ago? Communication is never perfect; people make mistakes. Errors are compounded with each successive generation - have you ever played the telephone game?? By the time 2000 years pass, it's anyone's guess what the original said.

This criticism comes from those who don't know the real issues. They are ignorant of the facts. The question of authenticity is not really a religious concern at all; it's an academic one. It can be answered in an academic way which is completely unrelated to spiritual convictions. So I'd like to introduce you to our special guest speaker this Sunday: Dr. Peter Williams. He is the principal of Tyndale House Cambridge. I had the privilege of studying at Tyndale House in the summer of 2015 and the library is remarkable. Dr. Williams is a also a lecturer on Hebrew language at the University of Cambridge. He earned his M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D., at the University of Cambridge studying ancient languages related to the Bible. Prior to leading Tyndale House, he was a Senior Lecturer in New Testament in the University of Aberdeen. In other words, this guy knows his stuff and I'm super glad he will be with us. Dr. Williams helps us understand that the facts reveal the Bible has not been altered and can be trusted!