 Well, all right, we can begin once again there when oh, hi when the No, when the when the break time came Everyone vanished so quickly. I mean, I don't think even the rapture will take place that fast So, you know after we finish Don't do that, you know amazing vanishing act like just stick around for a minute or two So that I can talk about the ass I know assignment, which you know because you it would be a written assignment If you can just stick around for a few seconds and I give me a chance to talk Okay, so yeah, all right, let's move on so we were we were able to you know talk about the Old Testament canon and Kind of get an idea of how it must have come together How the Lord would have spoken to them from time to time and say no write down my words And then someone would have written it down and then they would have carefully preserved it so all of that took place over a period of time and around 435 BC, you know the Old Testament was finalized and so writings which were written in the 200s Second century BC like in around 200 to 50 BC those writings Were not regarded as scripture So you have many books which were written at that time, you know book of Tobit book of Judith Book of Sirash You know So these are all other books which were written around 250 BC 200 BC and around that time so when the Translation of the Hebrew Bible Into Greek was being done, you know it was those 70 elders who came together and They sat down and they did the translation work to convert the Hebrew scriptures into the Greek language simply because many of the people were no longer familiar with Reading and writing in Hebrew. I'm sure at home. They still spoke in Hebrew with one another But when it came to reading and writing now people were using the official language. They were using Greek so The spiritual leaders realized that it would be good if the Hebrew scriptures can be translated into Greek Then at least the people can continue to know the scriptures. They can continue to read in the Greek language So the translation took place. I think probably around Maybe around 150 years before the Birth of Christ probably I need to find out my dates. I don't remember exactly. So but whenever that Translation was done the people who are doing the translation work They not only translated the canonical Old Testament books But they also translated some of these, you know The book of Tobit and the book of Judith and the book of Sirash and all of that So when you look at your Septuagint, which is the you know name which is given to the Greek translation of the Old Testament You not only find the Old Testament books Translated into Greek. You also tend to see some of these other books mentioned but these are not Old Testament canon and When we see Jesus coming along, you know, I'm sure he also would have read from the Septuagint He was familiar with Hebrew. He, you know, because he was after all, you know, he Well worst in the scriptures. I'm sure he would have specialized in Hebrew and you know read it and written it But he was also familiar with Greek So he would have also read the Septuagint But you never see him quoting even once from these other books We don't find any quotations from Tobit or Judith or Sirash or any of the other books So we also must take care to make sure that we differentiate between Inspired word of God and the other writings these books of Tobit and Judith and all our good books Well, at least most of it is good. Some of it is a little strange and you wonder my goodness. Is this in any way? In line with what we believe in so okay So all of it cannot be accepted but some of it is just good writing, you know But it is not inspired word of God and we need to kind of you know maintain that distinction. All right Now when people were writing these things, you know During that time, I know around 200 BC to 50 BC around the time when they were writing these things They also wanted to add something to the scrolls which were already written like for instance book of Daniel They wanted to add a few extra passages to the book of Daniel the same way with Esther book of Esther They added some additional details to the book of Esther But we don't accept those as Canonical as inspired word of God because these were later Additions at that time when the original writer was inspired to write God did not say those things These were things which were added many hundreds of years later And so it would be wrong for us to regard those extra additions as scripture Okay, so even though we have us, you know a passage some passages in the book of Daniel About how these three men go into the fury furnace and you know while they are in the furnace a Bednego is supposed to have you know said this long prayer and That's an additional writing. So we don't really know whether he actually said a prayer in there or not But this is long prayer of a bed Nego, which is written Which is an act which is an additional writing which was written much later There's also this is a song of the three Jews So all these three people in said the furnace was supposed to have sung a song Or maybe the sang a song after coming out of the furnace don't really remember the details But you know these are all extra things which were added to the Original scrolls and we do not accept the additional writings as scripture The same way even with regard to the story of Esther There's this long prayer which is written out which she is supposed to have prayed before going to the king Okay, that's a later addition that prayer was written out much later It was not part of the original writing. So we would not we will not regard that prayer of Esther as a Original writing inspired by God In the same way it also talks about how when she goes to the king she feints She's so scared that she feints now that is not there in the original, you know writing which God gave So these are all things which we will regard as non canonical Okay, so and there's a term that is used for these writings. They are called the apocryphal writings the word apocrypha literally means something which is hidden Something which is secret and I'm not very sure why on earth They went and used that particular term for it because these were very open writings They were available for anyone to read anyone who knew how to read and write could take those things and read them The word apocrypha actually talks about secret hidden Teachings which only some special people will know But there was nothing hidden about these apocryphal writings they were just simply written out for people to read and They hoped that people would accept them as divine But then we do not because we know that they were not part of the original canon so So the so yes, it is true that The Catholic Church does regard some of the apocryphal writings as part of scripture But then based on the timeline of these writings, we would not accept them because we believe that around 435 BC itself You know, whatever God had to say was said and after that God, you know Just like God had warned the people and said you will long to hear my voice and hear my words and my instruction But no longer will you hear it because you know, you have chosen to harden your hearts So those so those years of silence began after 435 BC God did not speak anymore just like you want He stopped speaking and we hear his voice next only when John the Baptist comes along and Starts proclaiming in the desert and start preparing the way for the messiah who will be coming So this is long period of silence and these writings were written during that period of silence So we do not regard them as God's words. Okay, so Coming to the New Testament canon Well, if we look at maybe we can read out one or two verses John chapter 14 verse 26 if we could have someone read out John 14 26 John 14 26, do I have the wrong reference? Okay, so When Jesus was with his disciples on the earth those three years He taught them many many things in those days The rabbi, you know the teacher would teach his followers you know many godly things and They were not very big on writing because they didn't have no notebooks and all that in those days And papyrus was something expensive. So you can't just use papyrus for a whatever what I you know It's expensive. So you just can't write randomly everything that comes into your head. So Mainly the followers of any rabbi what they would do is they would buy heart memorize Everything that the teacher is saying the teacher would try to present his teachings in a in an easy way, you know using poetic kind of words easy to remember kind of words and they would literally buy heart all those teachings So even Jesus disciples also would have done that they would have memorized huge chunks of teachings and when we look Now when these You know some of these people who later went on to write the New Testament books when they wrote they did not write in in Aramaic You see when Jesus and his disciples and they would have been speaking in on a day-to-day basis They would have used Aramaic. Aramaic was the normal language used at that time Hebrew was like little ancient Hebrew was no longer spoken at home Aramaic is what people would generally speak among themselves, you know in their family service Among their friends. So Jesus would have done his teaching in Aramaic now when I know When you have Matthew writing his book, he does not write in Aramaic He writes it in the Greek language But what he is doing is in his mind. He's translating whatever he has learnt in Aramaic And he's translating it into Greek and writing it down. So someone one scholar thought it would be very interesting Let's take all these, you know, they are these writings and translate them back into the original language Aramaic Because that's what Jesus would have taught and and when they did the translation. They saw something very interesting In Aramaic when you do the translation the whole wording becomes very easy to memorize It's like short short sayings the wordings are phrased in such a way that it will be easy for you to buy heart and remember and repeat again and again in Greek that kind of Sentence construction is not seen it gets covered up So when these when Matthew sat down and wrote, you know, his gospel in the Greek language We don't exactly catch the Sentence construction the original sentence construction But when we take the Greek wordings and we take them back into the original Aramaic Then we see that the sentence construction becomes very easy to remember because they use certain I don't remember the exact terminology. Okay they used to beat to beat rhythms three beat rhythms Jesus is supposed to have used to beat rhythms for I think for For warnings, he used three beat rhythm wordings for you know teachings on on how to You know on on very important matters like salvation and all of that I can actually look up that and you know and and Let you know because it's interesting So Jesus very consciously spent time Thinking how do I say my teachings in such a way that my disciples are able to memorize it and Remember it and then later on be able to write it down and pass it on to future generations So he used these to beat rhythms three beat rhythms The simple kind of sentence constructions to compose his teachings in such a way that people can memorize them and Store them in their hearts and then pass it on to other people and that's how learning took place So here what Jesus is telling his people is you know, the Holy Spirit will remind you of everything that I have taught you So don't worry when the time comes you will be able to remember Recollect all that I have taught and then you will be able to put it down in writing and you will be able to pass it on to future generations so That is how the New Testament began to be formed when it was first spoken It was spoken verbally and the disciples Memorized it and when they were told by Jesus, you know go into the surrounding villages and minister if you remember He sends sends out the 12 disciples and says go and preach what I have taught you What do you think they went and taught? How do you think they prepared their sermons? They basically were telling whatever they had memorized from Jesus That's basically what they went and spoke in all those villages and then later on when Jesus sends out the 70 people And just go forth and preach. They what they have got the 70 people had memorized that's basically what they went and shared and So that when it came to the time of writing people like Matthew, they sat down They translated what they had learned into the Greek language and they wrote it out in the Greek language So that's so that's basically how I know this process took place and then if we can also maybe read John chapter 16 verse 13 Okay, so here Jesus says another thing first He told right in John 14 26 the Lord said the Holy Spirit will will remind you of everything that I have said to you And here the Lord says to them he the Holy Spirit will guide you into all truth Some of the things which the disciples had memorized they didn't quite understand at that time It's only after Jesus died and he was resurrected then they fully understood Oh, this is what he meant when he said such and such a thing That is when they got greater clarity and so now when it came to the time of actually writing down The Holy Spirit helped them to understand the words which they had memorized So this is all involved in the process of the I know composition of the New Testament and So finally you have, you know When it comes to the actual writing you have this Matthew and John the two disciples Whatever they have written down they have written down Based on all that the Holy Spirit has reminded them of what was originally taught by Jesus All those things which have they have memorized the Holy Spirit has brought it back into their minds And then they were able to write down their Gospels and also the Holy Spirit led them into all truth Help them to understand what they had memorized at that time So at certain places they were able to add details that this is the meaning of what Jesus said when he spoke those words So so in this way Matthew and John wrote what about the book of James and then what about you know Yeah, James you see was a half brother of Jesus So he also at that time when Jesus was there, of course, you know, he was not very keen on Following Jesus because his immediate family Thought that he was mad They had such a low opinion of him and the ministry that he was doing Even though they were seeing all the miracles that he was doing They you know, they at one point they come and they say that no, he is out of his mind They say that he is you know, not in his correct mind. That's the opinion they had of him But once Jesus died and once he was resurrected The family had to you know, accept the fact that a dead person Has come back to life after three days And so there is no doubt that he is indeed divine and at that point of time James also probably would have Learned from the other disciples all the teachings which Jesus has taught so James when he is writing his book He would have based it on whatever he has learned from the other Disciples and also, you know from his own interactions with With with Jesus, whatever he had learned In the same way Peter Peter also was someone who was there with Jesus So what when when he wrote his Epistles he would have based all that he's writing on what Jesus has originally taught So these are people who are directly in contact with Jesus And so whatever they wrote We can trust that it is Truly from Jesus and it is truly from God We can believe that whatever has been written by these people is divinely inspired What about Paul? Paul was not there when all these disciples were getting mentored and they were by hearting and memorizing Paul was not there with them But Paul he says something very important If we can look at Galatians chapter one versus 11 and 12 So Paul says something very bold He says, you know what this gospel which i'm preaching I did not learn it from the disciples He in fact if you were to look at, you know, their entire Galatians chapter one and Galatians chapter two He explains in great detail. I did not go to Jerusalem go to the disciples and learn from them the gospel Rather Jesus Christ himself appeared to me by a revelation and personally taught me the gospel So we are able to accept whatever Paul has written as divinely inspired because Paul clearly says that Everything that he wrote is not from human origin It was not received from any man nor was he taught by anyone But by a direct revelation from Jesus Christ And so all the writings of Paul we also accept as being Divinely inspired What about Mark and Luke? Mark and Luke were not disciples But they were in close relationship with the disciples For the simple reason that Mark was the translator for Peter Wherever Peter would go and do ministry, Mark would go along with him And so Mark would have learned from Peter all that Jesus has taught And so when Mark is doing his writing, he would have been very careful to do it in, you know, in line with the Holy Spirit In the same way Luke Luke even though he was not a disciple He was in direct connection with Paul His ministry was in direct connection with Paul because, you know, he on missionary journeys. He traveled along with Paul So So we accept the writings of these people as divinely inspired because either these were all people who are directly in touch with Jesus Or they were people who were in direct touch with the disciples of Jesus Okay, so which is why we consider all of these particular New Testament books as being inspired word of God Um And that is why whenever these New Testament writers are writing they place whatever they are writing on equal grounds Uh With whatever the prophets taught in the Old Testament. Let's look at a couple of scriptures Second Peter Chapter three verse two if we can have someone read out second Peter three two Yeah Over here, you know Peter is saying I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets And the command given by our Lord Jesus Lord and savior through your apostles So he is saying whatever the prophet said and what are the apostles said Please recall both of them because both of them are from God Both are divinely inspired is the point that he is making Um In the same way first Corinthians 14 37. What does Paul say first Corinthians 14 37 Okay, what I am writing to you are the commandments of the Lord They are divine divinely inspired scripture Another third one. Let's look at second Peter 3 15 Yes, so how was Paul written? He has written with the wisdom that God gave him Okay, so Based on all of this we accept these particular books of the New Testament as inspired Canon, okay, so Um We have not talked about Jude Jude is also Accepted as divinely inspired scripture because Jude was also was a Brother of Jesus and he was in close association with James. Okay, so, uh, James and Jude Because of their Direct association with Jesus and later on with the disciples We are able to accept their writings Also as inspired In fact, that just leaves us with the book of Hebrews We do not know who the writer of Hebrews is Some people say it is Paul, but then some people are not sure But whoever the author of Hebrews may be we see um a very clear comparison between the Old Testament and You know, it's it's connection to the new covenant And so it is accepted as divine scripture because this particular book Makes a direct connection between the Old cover Old Testament and what was written over there about The messiah and how that is fulfilled over here, you know in the present By whatever Jesus Christ has done so that entire book of Hebrews talks about How Jesus Christ fulfilled the Old Covenant and so based on the content of that book and also because The the style of writing is similar to that You know used by Paul it is accepted as part of divine scripture so We can have confidence That whatever we are reading in the Old Testament And in the New Testament was specifically given by the Creator God to humans as His word From his throne to be taken seriously to be accepted as canon as the standard Which God has set for human beings. So this is the standard which you are meant to follow You know, if you want to live on this earth, what are the instructions given in this canon? What are we how are we told to live? What principles are we supposed to adopt all that is mentioned given in that standard which has been set for humans? So we accept this Bible as the canon which will determine all of that Now coming to another important concept, which we would have to look at, you know If we are dealing with this doctrine of the word of God, it is this whole idea of inspiration now When we say inspired word of God Are we saying that God literally dictated word by word? What Ezekiel should write down did God, you know, sit next to Ezekiel and say, okay, write down first sentence No, write this and the next Or did God just tell him this is what I want you to write now write it down in your own words And then guided him inspired him Enabled him as he is writing to write the correct things So it's not like I said God just left him on his own and said, you know, I told you what to write now Go and write it in your own way. However you want. No, even as the man was sitting there writing God inspired and enabled him and guided him to put down the correct things Okay, so when we are saying inspired word of God We are not talking about dictation as in literally word by word dictation But at the same time, we're also not saying that, you know, the person was just left to write on their own Whatever they wanted. It was all guided by the spirit because why does what is I know Earlier we saw in the scripture, right where Peter is talking about Paul's writings and he says By the wisdom of God, he wrote, you know, that's the wording that is used over there that he wrote by the Wisdom of God, where was that scripture? Yeah, second Peter 315 So in the same way, all the people who wrote their books, they wrote it by the wisdom of God So we can be sure that whatever has been written is actually correct Now, why do we say that, you know So the there are terms that are used is They say they call it dynamic Writing As in God gave the thoughts God gave the concept And then they were asked to put it down in their own words So which means whatever they have learned, you know, the style of writing which they have learned, they would be using that They would be using that They would be using examples from their background, from their culture So they would be using their style of writing for the concepts are coming directly from God and Whatever details they have been able to get from the people around them They would include over there as they are writing. So in that sense, there's a local flavor to what is being put down But the whole thing is being overseen and the whole thing is being supervised by the Holy Spirit himself So that there is no mistake And so when we look at, you know, these gospels Matthew, Mark, Luke, John Some of them, they all mentioned the same event Like for instance, all the four gospels will talk about the empty tomb You know, after Jesus was resurrected from the dead All four of the gospels will talk about the empty tomb But look at the way they write it. Each of them writes it differently Why? Because there is no dictation going on They have they all are aware of the of what has happened and God wants them to write down about it But they are writing it from their own angle. So some of them will write certain details Other people will leave out certain details Some of them will only make one observation and the other person will make an observation Which seems to be slightly different from what the other person has said So, for instance, let's look at, you know, some of the details If you look at Matthew chapter 28 Versus 2 to 5, you know, where it talks about The empty tomb Here it says there was a violent earthquake for an angel from the Lord came down from heaven And then it talks about how the angel rolled away the stone All of those details are given in your book of Matthew But when you go to Mark, you don't see any of those details In Mark, it just talks about a young man dressed in a white robe Who was sitting on the right side You know, of the You know, the clothes which are laid out over there Jesus is no longer there But the burial clothes are still over there and this young man dressed in a white robe Is sitting on the right side of these pieces of cloth And then when you come to Luke, Luke chapter 24 verse 4 There it says Not one man, it says two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning Stood beside them So what happened? Was there one angel or were there two angels? So are we saying that somebody made a mistake? Or are we saying that both of them are correct? Let's look at John 2011 to 12 There it says they saw two angels in white seated Whereas earlier we saw in Luke, it says two men who were standing So were they sitting down? Were they standing? What's going on here? Have they made a mistake? Is this inspired word of God? My goodness, is there a controversy over here? You know, those are all the questions which would arise in our minds So we need to kind of understand how this whole thing would have been, you know, Composed You see, different people would have gone to different Eye witnesses to find out what happened over there. They were not there, right? These people who wrote were not there on that empty tomb that day Who was there? The women There was a bunch of ladies who went over there They are the ones who actually saw with their eyes, heard with their ears They are the actual direct eye witnesses and ear witnesses So these other disciples talked to them, asked them what happened How, you know, so based on what they have heard from the direct eye witnesses They have written down their accounts So different people would have Caught different details and whatever details they caught that is basically what they have written down Let's just use one example. Do we have time? Okay. Let's just use one one basic example Let's say I ask all of you, you know, let us assume that I ask all of you to take out a piece of paper And I want you to convey a message I want to convey a message to Pastor Diana Okay, and I'm saying please convey this message to her in writing And so I basically tell you that this is what I want you to say Okay This is the message I want you to please convey to her I went to her house with some people and When I went to her house, I saw her cat Uh, you know, it was sitting in the hall In the middle of the hall it was sitting on the mat And it was staring at something And I was wondering what it's staring at and then I realized that the cat is staring at a rat And I want you to come please convey this message to her You know, please write it down and you all sit down and you sincerely write down You're all going to be no if I if I collect all of your papers and then look at what each of you has written Each of you would have used a different sentence construction And each of you would have put in different details Those of you who know the color of the cat would have probably mentioned that Some of you would you know Would have asked for clarification. What is the size of the rat? And you would have put that down, you know in your particular thing So each of you would have come out with a different, you know, uh, different details in your writing But this of course is just human writing In the case of the divine scriptures, which we are talking about here You see they have collected details from the eyewitnesses. They have Been told, uh, you know, uh things which they have heard from the disciples all these things they have put together But now they are not doing the writing on their own They are being guided by the holy spirit to include some details Leave out some details so, uh When we come to this whole thing about, you know, I've seen your hand, but I'll just, you know, if I want to finish what I am saying um When it comes over here about some people seeing one angel some people seeing two angels Just one verse that we can, you know, uh, look at, um, you know, that's that would be in john chapter 20 Versus 11 and 12 Uh, if you could just read out that one thing, you know, we can just, you know, close this issue So john chapter 20 versus 11 and 12 Yeah, okay, so She's standing outside the tomb. She's not inside. She's standing outside the tomb And she's crying and she looks inside And she sees two angels What happened to the other ladies? Where are they? I thought they all were supposed to be inside the tomb, right together and then angels Yeah, they either see the angel sitting or standing But here you talks about her all alone outside and when jesus encounters her, where are the others? The others are not there Only she's there So i'm just assuming these ladies go over there and the body is missing and they are very concerned And they start I think they they split up and went searching Searching for the body to find out where it is And so different people encounter the angels at different points of time Some of them see one person some of them see two persons of them see you see the angel sitting so them See they're coming back and forth They're hunting And so at different points of time they would have come in one would have seen the angel sitting one would have seen this angel standing They're kind of somewhere, you know, they're just summarizing what they have seen and they're telling about it So which is why you have variations But look at the look at this interesting and important thing When these four gospel writers are writing the gospel, they don't match stories and say, uh, let's all tell the same story You know, let's polish up the details and let's tell the same story They don't They just simply stay faithful to whatever they have heard and they faithfully record what they have been told They don't change the facts. They don't meddle with the facts If they were trying to you know, um Cook up a story They would have all told the same story But they do not do that. They stay sincere to what they have heard They stay sincere to what they have been told and they just record it as they have received it No meddling with the scripture done at all And so this is one proof that there was no, um Conspiracy behind what was written. They all frankly wrote Whatever they were was directly given to them. No meddling with the facts at all So we need to understand how carefully they revered what they were doing, you know, they did not take it lightly They were putting down facts about jesus' death and resurrection and they did not want any, um, uh, you know any kind of Wrong message to go out in the future So they were so careful to remain faithful to whatever they had heard and they just wrote it down as it is with the guidance of the holy spirit they did not try to Um to To make it uniform to make it look good. They left the controversies as it is So we you know that that actually adds to the authenticity of what was told. Yes. Now if you can go ahead In the middle of a systematic theology We'll discuss that later Okay No, it's just that it has nothing to do with systematic theology. So All right, um Okay, we still have a little bit of time So I hope I mean, you know, you're clear about the whole idea of inspiration. It was not dictation It was uh The they had the freedom to put put down things in their own words But at the same time, it's not random putting down of words. They are being led By what they have been told by trustworthy eyewitnesses and they're putting down whatever they heard from the eyewitnesses They're not going by what other people are saying They're staying faithful to what they have been told and they are being Led by the holy spirit because they are writing it by his wisdom. And so the entire Process of writing has been done most carefully Just coming to one last point, you know, which some people raise regarding this issue So maybe we can just look at that Or should we move on into another thing in the last 10 minutes Okay, fine. Let's um Yeah, fine. Okay. Okay. We still have about seven minutes minutes left. Um Some people say that the Old testament and the new testament were written so many thousands of years ago So, how do we know that what we are holding in our hands today is accurate information? Maybe somebody changed it You know over the hundreds of years which were there thousands of years which were there Maybe somebody changed the original wording. So maybe what we have today is not really original wording Is what you know, some people Accused and uh, so they say that maybe the bible that we have with us is not trustworthy So, how do we really find out whether something is accurate and trustworthy or not? We try to find the most ancient handwritten copies which are available And then we compare the copies to see are there differences between copy one and copy two If there are many many differences, then we think oh my goodness is not really very trustworthy This this particular copy is saying this this this and this copy is saying something completely different So then we say oh my this is not very accurate But if all the copies are Very very similar with only one or two minor differences, then we think oh, okay Looks like these hand handwritten copies were all conveying the same information Which means they were very carefully transmitting the details Which means no changes were made over the centuries and which means we can trust You know what we have with us today That's basically how you know you Historians deal with all ancient writings. I mean one of the most Famous important ancient writers was this man named Homer H-O-M-E-R and he's supposed to have written these two Fictional writings, okay, one was Iliad and the other was something called odyssey So Right now there are 643 handwritten copies of the Iliad, which are available No, the rest of them are so ancient they got destroyed but At the moment there are 643 copies of the Iliad available So what do what do historians do they put all the copies together and they compare and contrast They see how similar the wordings are in all of the different copies and based on that they try to decide The Iliad which we have today. Is it accurate or not? And they and most people accept that the Iliad is very very accurate And they do it on the basis of 643 copies which are available On the other hand, there are 5500 copies of the New Testament available And if you knew when you match all the copies you find almost absolutely no differences between all of the copies The only differences you find are spelling mistakes in some places There are spelling mistakes and in some places, you know, there are variations Like what we talked about one person says we saw one angel and other person says we saw two angels So there are some variations like that and yes, there are spelling mistakes in certain places But absolutely nothing which will affect doctrinal matters There is no variation between two copies where you think oh my goodness here It says this about doctrine and here it says this about doctrine. No Regarding mad doctrinal matters, it's perfectly clear. It's perfectly uniform in all of the copies It's only when it comes to spelling Sometimes there are spelling errors because the people who are doing the copying Maybe they got sleepy or maybe they got careless and so they copied it wrong But when it comes to matters of doctrine in all the 5500 copies which we find of the New Testament There's absolutely no variation So if you can trust the Iliad which has got just 634 copies and say that is accurate Why do you point fingers at the Bible and say oh, this is so inaccurate? Look so many spelling mistakes. Oh, this Bible is inaccurate And also another thing, you know this odyssey which the which this man wrote the earliest available copy of the odyssey the oldest available handwritten copy is 2200 years after the original 2200 years after Homer finished writing odyssey For 2200 years people were making copies copies copies And after 2200 years when somebody wrote a copy that is available in our hands on the other hand the New Testament 120 years after the death and resurrection of Jesus The first how I know handwritten copy that was written at that time is in our hands today We still have it with us today It's only one one of a small fragment But we have a copy which was written just 120 years After you know The death and resurrection of Jesus and all the wordings which are there in that fragment are exactly identical to the Bible that we have today As for complete copy of the entire Bible Old Testament and New Testament. We have one copy which is 325 years After the resurrection of Jesus and the other copies 350 years after the resurrection of Jesus So if you can trust a book, you know odyssey Whose copy is 2200 years later if you can trust that Why don't you trust the bible whose copies we have which were written just about 350 years After the resurrection of Jesus, which means that they're that original they're that ancient and that correct And uh, they're available to us So we have an entire copy of the old and your old and new testament from 325 ad and another entire copy from 350 ad those are the earliest available handwritten copies that we have with us today And when we look at the wording in that and when we look at the wording in our bible today It is almost completely identical except for those spelling mistakes that i'm talking about and small variations Like, you know, one person will say that ahazaya lived for This many years and another one will say ahazaya live because there's a small mistake over there and the number would have changed so Very small errors like that It doesn't affect the doctrine or the teachings of the bible in any way those small variations So we the bible that we have with us is something that we can trust completely All right Yeah, if we had more time, we could have looked into further details, but then we'll close with this So, uh, let's just assume there are no questions because there's no time to answer them. Let's just close with the word of prayer Lord, we just thank you so much for what we could learn Today from this first session of systematic theology. Thank you a lot that um You have preserved your word for us so carefully We thank you a lot that we can genuinely take the bible and believe in what it says because Your people over the centuries Took the care to record your writings as accurately as they could and with your guidance And so lord, we know we know that we can trust your scriptures today And I pray your father that even as we read your scriptures We would not only just learn from it intellectually, but we would also apply it in our everyday lives Lord, we pray that even as we go through the rest of this course Even as we go through the different doctrines, you would speak to us You would bring a live each doctrine to us so that it becomes something that we can really personally apply In our everyday lives, you do that for us a lot even as we go through each of the doctrines Thank you lord in jesus name amen Thank you so much