Truth and History Series; overview and links to lessons, podcasts

Truth & History, Lesson 1 what is truth — This series of podcasts is an important foundation for continuing podcasts about the Bible as it shows how we can trust it based on historical truth.

I did this series as a start to the podcast and as a foundation for the Bible 805. In it, we look at how we determine truth in a world where the term no longer has a firm foundation. But truth is essential for us to know how to live today and for our eternal future.

I believe the Christian Bible is a source of truth, but I didn't want you to believe that just because it's my opinion. Based on the results of many years of spiritual study and searching, I'm sharing what I learned. I'm not a professional theologian or historian (though I've had graduate training and studied widely in both areas), but a fellow traveler and pilgrim, a writer and teacher for Jesus who wants to share what I think are some exciting realities about why we can trust the Bible.

I also wanted to give you this background before we start the year's study of reading through the Bible in Chronological order. It isn't essential that you listen to these before we start, but I do recommend it because I think when you see how the Bible is based on objective truth, verified by secular history, you'll be motivated to read the whole book.

Below are the lessons in order, just click on the blue link to go to a post that has the podcast, plus some additional materials. Sadly, I'm not totally organized or consistent on the show notes or extras with each lesson, some are more useful than others and I'm still figuring out exactly what I'm going to be doing in this area. You can also listen to the podcasts on your favorite phone or podcast ap, it's available on iTunes and many others, CLICK here for a link to the various sources.

Truth and History: Lesson One, What is Truth?
https://wp.me/pazrJD-1

Truth and History, Lesson Two: How History Helps Us Determine the Truth of the Bible
https://wp.me/pazrJD-Y

Truth and History, Lesson Three: The Historical Uniqueness of the Christian Bible
https://wp.me/pazrJD-1i

Truth and History, Lesson Four: Old Testament: Overview and Historical Anchors
https://wp.me/pazrJD-1W

Truth and History, Lesson Five: The Apocrypha: Overview and Historical Anchors (or in this case, lack thereof)
https://wp.me/pazrJD-2g

Truth and History, Lesson Six: The New Testament and Historical Anchors, plus the Gnostic Gospels
https://wp.me/pazrJD-2q

Truth and History, Lesson Seven: Canonicity, why we have the books we have in our Bibles
https://wp.me/pazrJD-2W

Truth and History, Lesson Eight: How we got our English Bible, plus comments on modern translations
https://wp.me/pazrJD-39

How is the historical truth of the Christian Bible unique? part two. . . a comparison with the Muslim and Mormon scriptures

2021-02-05 by bible805

How do the Koran and the Book of Mormon compare to the Christian Bible?

They are much more recent than Hindu or Buddhist scriptures, so aren’t they more trustworthy?

According to the writings of each religion, not only are they more trustworthy, but both religions claim that they are the most correct scriptures. By the law of noncontradiction, they can’t both be true. So, how do we evaluate them to determine whether the trustworthiness of each?

That’s what we will talk about in detail in our lesson/podcast today. The podcast is below and below that the transcript of the lesson.

[Read more…]

How is the historical truth of the Christian Bible unique? part one. . . a comparison with the Hindu and Buddhist scriptures

2021-02-05 by bible805

Aren’t all religions the same?

Don’t they lead to the same place and aren’t all their holy books similar?

If you’ve asked questions like these, I’ve some fascinating history that helps answer these questions.

In the last two lessons/podcasts we’ve talked about what is truth and then how historians determine what is true. Please listen to them as background for this and the next lesson/podcast.

In this lesson/podcast we’ll apply what we talked about as we evaluate the historical truth of the Hindu and Buddhist scriptures and compare that with the Christian Bible. I’ll be giving you the background and overview of each religion, some samples of their scriptures, and then a historical analysis of them.

Below is the podcast and following that, notes on it.

[Read more…]

Truth and History Series: How we got our Bible and why we can trust it

2018-12-30 by Yvon Prehn

I believe the Christian Bible is a source of truth, but I didn’t want you to believe that just because it’s my opinion. Based on the results of many years of spiritual study and searching, I’m sharing what I learned. I’m not a professional theologian or historian (though I’ve had graduate training and studied widely in both areas), but a fellow traveler and pilgrim, a writer and teacher for Jesus who wants to share what I think are some exciting realities about why we can trust the Bible.

I also wanted to give you this background before we start the year’s study of reading through the Bible in Chronological order. It isn’t essential that you listen to these before we start, but I do recommend it (if not before, at some time) because I think when you see how the Bible is based on objective truth, verified by secular history, you’ll be motivated to read the whole book. [Read more…]

Truth and History, Lesson Eight: How we got our English Bible, plus comments on modern translations

2018-12-30 by Yvon Prehn

Church Councils formalized the Canon of the 66 books of scripture but the CANON had been determined by God and accepted by the people of God long before Councils.

But just because the canon was decided that didn’t mean ordinary people could read it. The Primary Bible for centuries was Jerome’s Latin Vulgate, but most people couldn’t read and even if they did, fewer and fewer spoke Latin, the language of the Vulgate. In addition, because they were hand-copied, books very expensive to reproduce and the few that were copied were primarily in monasteries.

But with increased literacy, the printing press, economic growth, some incredibly brave people, and the Reformation everything changed and that’s what this podcast is about.

Additional materials, quotes of early plus a chart of the various translations are below:

[Read more…]

Truth and History, Lesson Six: The New Testament and Historical Anchors, plus the Gnostic Gospels

2018-12-30 by Yvon Prehn

The New Testament is a reliable historical record of Jesus and the early Christian church.

For purposes of our time and study, we will focus primarily on what these documents tell us about Jesus—we don’t have time to do more and honestly, if what they tell us about Jesus can’t be trusted, the rest really doesn’t matter.

To do that we will first establish the historical reliability of New Testament documents, then we’ll look at New Testament non-canonical writings, particularly the Gnostic “gospels.” These documents are much more dangerous than OT Apocrypha which was not inspired scripture, but still talked about the same God—these documents present a distorted image of the Jesus of history, far from the real Jesus who is the only Savior. Below the podcast is a copy of the PowerPoint slides of the presentation.

[Read more…]