The Bible – Ramifications of Erroneous View of Its Accuracy
Contrast the Lives of Two Men
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844 – 1900) is known by most. He was raised in a Christian home and served as a medical orderly during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71.As a result he wrote angry tirades against the existence of God. He is the founder of existentialism and most remembered for his concept of the ‘German Superman’ which would later inspire Nazi Germany.
Jean Henri Dunant (1828 – 1910). Unknown by most, Dunant was a young man with deep commitment to Christ who was raised in a Christian home. He eventually got caught up in business concerns and later went to the Battle of Solferino (fought with France and Sardinia under the Command of Napoleon III against Austria under the Command of Emperor Franz Josef in 1859) for a business permit. He began to wonder about priorities, which led to the founding of Red Cross. The greatest treasure in his life was what Christ had done for him in saving his soul.
The contrast between these two men demonstrate that you become what you worship and take on the attributes of the one you revere.
Extreme Nationalism and Socialism
The quote above from Adolf Hitler was found hanging on the walls of Auschwitz. We already know the horrors of what happened in that place.
Charles Darwin (1809 – 1882) was teaching with no evidence, that humanity evolved. At this same time, effectively without any evidence, scholars in Germany begin to teach that the Scripture itself evolved in how it came together.
Archeological Blunder
They departed from Ijim and camped at Dibon Gad. They moved from Dibon Gad and camped at Almon Diblathaim. They moved from Almon Diblathaim and camped in the mountains of Abarim, before Nebo.”
Numbers 33: 45 – 47
Dibon is one of the last places Israel encamped before moving to Mount Nebo and from there across the Jordan River into the Promised Land. Incidentally, in this vicinity, we have now found the Moabite Stone (also called the Mesha Stele) which confirms Israel’s presence and King Mesha of Moab (who shows up in II Kings 3: 4-8)
“It is quite clear that the Biblical writers knew nothing about events in Palestine before the 10th Century B.C.E.”
Gosta W. Ahlstrom concluded Dibon could not be a true site for the Israelites, for no late Bronze Age stratum (artifacts) were found where they were digging. In other words, he concluded erroneously that the account of Numbers 33 was a fabrication. Instead, it should have been concluded that we had not yet located archaeologically the actual site. Ahlstrom (Swedish) held a joint appointment at the University of Chicago Divinity School and the Dep’t of Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations. He is what we would call in archaeological circles, “a minimalist”. In other words, he has bought into a worldview that sees the radical criticism as the way in which the Bible was put together. Because of the erroneously held worldview, discoveries are completely missed.
Scholarly Response to Ahlstrom
Charles R. Krahmalkov is a historian, expert in ancient maps, and a professor of ancient Near Eastern languages and northwest Semitic philology at the University of Michigan.
“Does the failure of a team of archaeologists to find a Late Bronze Age stratum at the ruins of ancient Dibon lead to a conclusion that no city existed at the site (at that time)? If one holds to the Biblical tradition, the archaeology of Dibon reveals only that the Late Bronze Age city, the city of Joshua, has not yet been found.”
“Egyptian maps from the Late Bronze Age period, when the Exodus occurred, list sites described in the Book of Numbers. The maps provide at least a partial answer for some modern scholars who question the historical authenticity of the Exodus account because archaeologists have found no evidence that the cities of Dibon and Hebron existed in the period from 1400 B.C. to 1200 B.C.”
Charles R. Krahmalkov
“This is … confirmation that the historians of ancient Israel did preserve an amazing record of that period.”
Post-modernism
Jean Francois Lyotard (1924-1998) – This French philosopher is regarded as the father of post-modernism. You can make the case that the philosophy that now largely holds sway in western universities and in our media, postmodernism, was a natural outcome of radical criticism.
Simplifying to the extreme, I define postmodernism as incredulity toward meta-narratives… A meta-narrative is any ‘large story’ that pretends to give an all-encompassing explanation of anything, especially an overarching story of the history of life in an attempt to legitimize some version of truth.”
Jean Francois Lyotard
Insulation, not Isolation
Daniel Baird Wallace (born June 5, 1952) is an American professor of New Testament Studies at Dallas Theological Seminary. He is also the founder and executive director of the Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts, the purpose of which is digitizing all known Greek manuscripts of the New Testament via digital photographs. In addition, he served as senior New Testament editor for the NET Bible.
“Those in ministry need to close the gap between the church and the academy. We have to educate believers. Instead of trying to isolate laypeople from critical scholarship, we need to insulate them. They need to be ready for the barrage, because it is coming. The intentional dumbing down of the church for the sake of filling more pews will ultimately lead to defection from Christ.”
Daniel B. Wallace