hey folks. Welcome to Sunday's edition of the Daily Bible Podcast. What's up? We're glad you're back with us. And we are back in numbers and Mark, but we, we did have a couple of questions written in, so we'll tackle one today and, and we will get to the other one tomorrow. Alright. The first one is this. Yep. If there is such a thing as a discrepancy or critique in the Bible, how often does that happen? It's a good question. And how can we know that some of the bigger things haven't been altered by different authors since they were first established? Yeah, so it's a, a great question. This is building on what we were talking about a couple episodes ago, I believe, with textual criticism. That's right. And textual criticism, as we mentioned, is not something that we need to fear or something that we need to be. Skeptical of or, or to make us doubt our text. In fact, it's, it's quite the opposite. We're not exactly sure how many variants there are. A variant is what we're talking about, a discrepancy in the text. And so a variant could be anything. That could be something with word order. It could be spelling. It could be an emission here or there. It could be an. Addition, in the text there's anywhere, for example, in the New Testament, between 300 and 400,000 variants. That number sounds like, oh, man, can we trust anything until you realize that so many of those are very small and we're dealing with a lot of manuscripts, and that's one of the reasons why we have so many different variants. Some of the other texts that you're gonna find out there, historical texts or literary texts, don't have nearly as number. As many variants because they don't have nearly as many manuscript copies. When we talk about the New Testament we're dealing with, we have somewhere around 5,500 to 6,000 Greek manuscripts of the New Testament. That should give us a great deal of certainty about the Bible that we have because we have those manuscripts stretching of our vast period of time. I think the earliest editions of the gospels that we have, we have fragments that are from the first century ad of, I believe, the gospel of John. And so we can look at at at elements that go all the way back there. And all the way forward and we can compare these manuscripts that stretch the, the timeframe here. So the question is how do we know something hasn't been altered? And, and that's one of the answers, is because you have things that some of these manuscripts written within 50, 60 years of the eyewitnesses of the autographs, when the autographs would've been written, the autographs being the original documents. We don't have original documents on any of the Bible books, but we have copies that are very near to those. And you have things that were written within the time that these eyewitnesses that heard the originals that were there to witness these things, were still living. And then we can see that they're consistent across the board, across thousands of years now of church history, almost 2000 years of church history. So especially with the New Testament, we have such a strong, I believe it's a 98 to 99% degree of certainty that what we have in our, english standard version that we're reading though it's a translation is what was originally written by the authors of the Bible. In the Old Testament, it's a little bit different, a little bit trickier because we're dealing with a lot of material that was written on papyrus early on, and so that was an organic material that naturally decayed. And so we don't have as many manuscript copies of the Old Testament. However, the oldest manuscript that we had for a long time before we found the Dead Sea Scrolls was about a thousand years. Newer than the Dead Sea Scrolls? Well, when the Dead Sea Scrolls were found, which contained the Old Testament, there was a, a match. There was a a, an agreement between that previously oldest manuscript that was a thousand year gap in the Dead Sea Scrolls. So. We have an an immense degree of, of reliability and trustworthiness in our Bibles, and we can read it and we can look back and say, okay, there haven't been massive alterations. And you can guarantee there's enough enemies of Christianity out there that if there were any massive discrepancies in manuscripts to be able to hold up to say, look, this, this manuscript said Jesus didn't die, or this manuscript said that Jesus didn't ever claim to be God. The enemies of the church would immediately be. Putting it front and center and saying, look at this. The reality is we have manuscripts that agree, there's a lot of differences. Word order, spelling, vari variations here and there, but nothing that undermines the substance of what it means to be a believer. So that is the process of textual criticism. That's what we were talking about the last time this came up and. What we're saying here is that really the fact that we have so many manuscripts is the reason we have so many of these variations. But that's actually the very reason we're confident that what we have is close to the original, close enough where we could say we have confidence. We have the original information there. There's questions in some larger passages like we mentioned John nine and the, the woman caught in adultery, and then the end of Mark 16, the ending of, of Mark, where the last, what, 15 verses or so mm-hmm. Are disputed. In fact, those are probably certainly not part of the gospel of Mark. All that said, though, what we do have, we have great confidence in, because there are so many copies, it would be impossible to add something to the scriptures or take it away without somebody noticing people. Copy these things by hand. We're not photocopying, you're not copying and pasting into a text thread because it was copied by hand. All there were so many proliferations of these copies that it was just impossible to add or take away from the times that we do have some of these, again, the John nine and then mark 16 or because of later editions where someone's like, I don't know where this piece fits. I'm just gonna put it in here anyway, just to be safe. I'd rather put something in there than take something away. And so now we have some debatable passages. But other than those two pieces, everything else in our New Testament, inner Old Testament, we feel largely confident about. Yeah, yeah. John eight, the woman caught adultery, and it's not always John eight, it's, it's a portion of John eight portion, whole thing. Yeah, so the scriptures are absolutely reliable. If you've got questions about any of those specifics, we'd love to to answer those too. So if there's something that's stripping you up, feel free to write in on that. There's a lot of good resources out there for you to get some, some good answers on that. The book by Frank Turk, I don't have enough faith to be an atheist, gets into some of this and, and the New Testament reliability, that's a pretty accessible book that's. That deals with some entry level textual criticism, things. That's a good resource for you if you are curious about more and want to know more about this. But man, textual criticism is our friend in, in a lot of ways. That doesn't mean all textual critics are our friend, but the process is, yeah. Is friendly to us because it gives us an even greater confidence in the Bibles that we have. That's true. You gotta be careful in that, that arena. It's. Laden with scholarship that, you know, they don't have a commitment to our Bible. They don't have a commitment to our faith or any of those things. And so it's not that we, we. Have any issue with the information out there, it's just that information can be skewed Yeah. And distorted to say things that it doesn't always say everything we interpret from the world around us. It is, well, lemme say it this way, facts are interpreted. Yep. Um, there are no such thing in my estimation of as brute facts. We're all interpreting through the lens of something and Christians interpret all of creation and everything God has put in our creation through the lens of what does God tell us about this? How does God want us to understand these things? So if you're gonna look up anything on YouTube about this, I do know Wes Huff has a video or two out there. Some of your normal apologetic guys or put stuff out there? Sean McDowell. Mm-hmm. I think Cocal has some things. Who's the other guy you just mentioned? Frank Turk. Frank Turk. I think he has some stuff out there. Those are fine and reputable. We'd encourage you to take a look at those guys. Yeah. Yeah. There's no such thing as brew facts. I would say there, yeah, I, I'm, I'm, I don't know if this is a Van Tillian thought Okay. That I got from, I, I, I think that's, I think it's Van Till. Yeah. But yes, I would say there's no such thing as brute facts. You have to interpret those facts into a system of meaning. Okay. So two plus two is four. Well in, in, in your understanding of how create, well, that's disputed today. So there you go. That's disputed. That's not, it's, it's, that's white mathematics now. So I, I, I would say that as a Christian, I interpret that through the lens of God has created an organized system where math is a thing. In the first place. Math comes from God, right. Scientific exploration and empiricism. That, that's, that's because it's in God's organized system. Mm-hmm. So everything that I see and understand has to fit within a framework of worldview. So I'm gonna say there's, there's not a brute fact that we can say, we both agree on this. We we're both interpreting it from different. Worldviews, ultimately natural laws, gravity there's a god of the gravity. And so I would say that makes perfect sense in my worldview because God defines gravity, right? He's, he made that right. We can agree that it exists, but all the information surrounding it would say, well, you understand it differently than I do. In fact, in fact. An evolutionist will look at gravity and say, well, look at what evolution has done. Sure. This is fantastic. Yeah, no, I, I'm with you on that. I think the way we inter Yeah, for sure. But the evolutionist is gonna agree. Gravity exists, right? So there's, there's a base fact. 'cause if you take the evolutionist, the Hindu, the Buddhist, the Muslim, and the Christian to the top of a building, and all of them step off the building, the brute fact is they're all falling. Yes, I would say that the difference though is that every fact has to fit within a framework of understanding. So a fact doesn't exist in isolation. It exists among a network and a web of other facts, and it's only in that network that it makes sense. I'm probably saying it in a way that you would, you, you would, you're not taking issue with it, but I'm saying it in a way that's different than what you've heard it before, but I'm pretty sure I feel, I feel largely confident. I'll, I'll just check right now as soon as we wrap up this section. I think it's Van Till. Yeah. And this is something that is, is there in present in, even in the, the world of English. I know my wife was writing her thesis in college and in dealing with this idea of the, the author even being the first interpreter that can you really know? What the author's intent is, and there's, there's this question of the author's writing things that the author's interpreting as the author's writing things down, and so they're interpreting what they're actually writing there. Well, the more philosophical you get about the study of knowledge epistemology, right? The more doubt enters your mind of what do we actually know about anything? Can I trust my senses? And that's why today one of the prevailing theories about reality is that this is all a simulation because how can you know otherwise? And it would make perfect sense that we're in a simulation if there's design, right? If there seems to be a beginning and an end that we can discern from the way that astronomy works and the way that we have Redshift and all these things, it makes perfect sense that we'd be in a simulation. Or alternative theory, the Bible's right and has been telling us the truth this whole time. God has designed us. He made us, we're in a story, it's not a simulation, but it is God's story and we are players in his story. Right, right. Yeah. There is a designer. Yep. It is Van Till. Okay. Van Till argues forcefully against the concept of brute facts, viewing them as fundamental philosophical error that undermines sound. Apologetics. Yeah. Okay. Well I'll have to look into more. Yeah. So Norman Geister writes about this. Okay. Yes. Yeah, I wasn't, I wasn't taking issue with you necessarily. Just threatening that out. 'cause that's a statement that I think some people would hear and be like, wait a minute. Well, I, I haven't, yeah, I, I haven't looked at it recently. So it's one of those things that stuck in the crevice of your brain. It's like, oh, I'm just gonna pull this out now. One of those things, you know? Yep. Yep. Well, let's get into our daily Bible reading today. We're in numbers chapter seven in Mark chapter four, numbers chapter seven timeframe. We're about a month prior to where we've been because we're looking back to the point at which the Tabernacle has been completed and the dedication ceremonies are taking place because that's really what Chapter seven is all about. It's all these different tribes and notice, it's, it's each tribe is bringing their offerings and the offerings are gonna be the same. And for each of them, they're, they're all bringing these things as they've been instructed by Moses to the Tabernacle, to the Levites to be able to be offered so that the tabernacle would be appropriately. Dedicated, and, and this was, I think nobody would be able to sit, sit there and think, oh, this is no big deal what we're doing right now. Th this was evidence that this is a massive, a massive shift in the worship of Israel, in the process of what's going on here that this is a new chapter in the life of Israel, that now the tabernacle is created. And here we have all of these offerings, all of these animals losing their lives, being slaughtered, being sacrificed, being offered for this process of, of consecrating the tabernacle. Then at the very end it says, Moses went into speak with the Lord and heard the voice speaking to him from the above the mercy seat. I, I know we've, we've talked about Moses hearing the voice of God for whatever reason this time right now, it's, it's just striking me of what that must have been like to listen to the voice of God, the audible voice of God speaking to you. That must have been unbelievable. To sit there and realize this is the, the one we were just talking about. The God who has designed everything is communicating with Moses is audibly communicating. Speaking to Moses, that's something that we read and I think gloss over 'cause we take it for granted as Christians, but it's a pretty amazing thing to, to consider that the God of the universe broke into time to speak to us. And, and he still does to us through the, the word of God today. Well, this. In my mind, it two, it does two things for me. It does, it does gimme a sense of, wow, this is amazing. And, uh, I, I don't even know how this works. It's a, he's a, he's speaking as a disembodied voice. Yeah. He's violating the laws of human physics. There's no vocal chords. There's no sound waves to, to vibrate from a voice box. Right. This is God making a voice appear out of nothing. And I think that all by itself is just. I don't know mind blowing about how that would work, but that also interestingly gives me a sense of, okay, maybe when these people are hearing voices in their attic and they're, you know, they're in these h haunted houses, air quotes here, maybe they are hearing disembodied voices. 'cause it is perfectly consistent with the, with the devil's. Ploy in his, his strategy to take the real and to counterfeit it. Mm-hmm. So now I'm, I'm wondering now if that gives me, in my mind, at least room to say, okay, maybe there's room for voices, disembodied voices apart from the Lords that are trying to deceive and to distort. That makes sense to me. We're talking about spiritual warfare today at church, by the way. Oh, are we, are we talking about disembodied voices? I don't know about that. Maybe, but we are talking about the reality of spiritual warfare and Christ's victory over the enemy. So, okay, well throw, throw in some disembodied voices. Talk about that. Yeah. So this whole chapter is interesting to me for, for so many, so many reasons. One of the things I learned here at the beginning of the chapter, verse five, he says, accept these gifts from all the tribes that they may be used in the service of the attentive meeting, and give them to the Levites. Well, that's kind of cool. I mean, so the Levites are getting all the, they're the recipients of these things. Obviously it's for the tent or the tabernacle, rather. But he says here and give it to each man according to his service. And I think that's really cool because that shows me that God is not a God who's just, he's not a communist. He's not just saying everyone gets their fair share and, and, and it's the same amount he is distributing according to his, his. Judgment, what he deems is right and fitting for the task at hand. And this per this fits perfectly with the way that he's designed us as people. He's given all of us different capacities and different abilities according to his pleasure. And we fulfill our, our function, our job. I, I even think about the parable of the, of the soils. You know, you get a 30, 60 and a hundred fold return on some of these guys. You have parable of the talents. You have a one talent person, a two talent person, and a five talent person all of them, but the single talent guy doubles it. So I see the beauty of God in Diversely spreading his gifts according to his judgment, and those are not equal. I think that's kind of cool. That is cool. That is cool. And Paul kind of picks up on that in the church too and says, this is the way the church works. This is the way the church works well together when we all use our varied giftedness to come together and serve together the, I can't say to the hand, I don't need you. We all need each other. Even those that don't produce as much as the others. Yeah, they're still important and necessary to what the church is about. Yeah, and you bring up a good point too, because even in the first century church, there was a cer this, this concern that, oh, I'm not getting as much honor as this guy because he's a, he's an I, you know, I'm just a lowly toe, you know? And, and Paul's like, well, sometimes you give greater honor to the parts that are less visible, for obvious reasons. I think he's making a point there about. Parts of the body that are more honorable, but they just, they're just different. They're not the kind that you show to everybody. Right. It's, it's fascinating to me because we live in a culture where equity and inclusion is one of our cultural values increasingly so, and I think there's something healthy in that. I wouldn't say all of it is good, but I wouldn't say all of it's bad either equity and inclusion. I think God is unequal. God is not fair. The way that we defined it, and I've said this before and it's provocative, but I think it's true, God is okay with not being fair. He divides and he gives things as he sees fit and it's based on his judgment to what he thinks makes the most sense, and we ought to be okay with that. Yeah. You know, when we give our kids gifts, sometimes we, you know, we we're trying to be equal and not cause in fighting and Oh, you're clear to the favorites and Dad doesn't like you, Josh, and all those things. But God is not that. I think this is the wisdom of God. He's not a copy and paste God. He's not a cookie cutter God. Yeah. He treats us individually and I love that we see this in numbers chapter seven. Yeah. That's great. That's great. Well, let's turn over to Mark chapter four. Mark chapter four. As we continue, Jesus is continuing to teach these parables, and again, he's making a point. A parable is a story with a point or. Story with a moral, you could put it that way even. But he's trying to use these illustrative stories to make a a point to the people that are listening to him. So he starts with this idea of a lamp. That the lamp is there to give light. Nothing is hidden, he says, except to be made manifest, nor is anything secret, except to come to light. Everything's gonna be revealed. He with ears to hear, let him hear. That's gonna impact the way that we live our lives. Aware of the fact that everything is going to be re revealed, laid, bare, exposed. He talks about the, the parable of the seed. The, the kingdom is like a man that goes out and scatters seed on the ground and he sleeps and rises and listen. The what happens overnight? The seed grows. How does the seed grow? Well, it's not the man who scattered it. The man who scatters it, he's asleep. The seed is gonna grow and it's going to sprout and it's gonna come up. And he does not know how. This reminds me of what the Apostle Paul says in one Corinthians when he says, look Paul May plant an apostles may water, or vice versa, but God is the one that's gonna cause the growth. And so here we get Jesus making a very similar point. He is going to cause the growth. And then we go out and we harvest what God is making ready when we share the gospel, when we. Go out and, and spread the word of God, and, and people respond in faith. That is because God has, has made it ready, God has prepared it, and we get to bring in the harvest there that he has already made ready. You get the mustard seed. This idea that the kingdom of God is intended to grow. And that's something that's important for us to think about too as we think about even our church, that our church should be growing if we're doing the, the work of the gospel, if we're doing the work that God has called the church to do, the church should grow. A church that has no plans to grow is a church that has left on the table, one of the massive. Purposes of why we're still here, which is the great commission, and so we should be a church that's looking to grow, that's looking to become a larger body. And I know a lot of times you'll hear people say, well, I like our church because I like the size of it. And I, I understand that, but every time I hear that, I think to myself, man, I, I hope they're gonna be like a frog in a boiling pot of water because we want to grow, we wanna kill. Yes, yes. That's it. No, we want to grow, but we just hope that that as we grow, you're not sitting there uncomfortable. We hope that you're sitting there and as we grow, you still feel all the things that you'd love about a smaller church where you get the connections and the relationships and stuff that those stay intact. But maybe you'll look up one day and be like, oh man, we're two services, three services, whatever. And. It's been growing because that's what the church is called to do because that's what God wants to do. The the kingdom is like that mustard seed. That mustard seed is gonna grow into one of the biggest trees known to Earth, and we're a part of that growth as we take the gospel to the lost. Chapter four then continues on with the calming of the storm, which is, for the rest of the chapter that is today's reading. So we, we finished chapter four today with the calming of the storm. And again, this is I think I've said this before, just a scene that I wish I had been there because the storm, the sea goes from wavy and choppy and tossing every. Thing around it and crashing into the boat to completely placid and calm. And that would've been an amazing sight. So much so that the disciples are afraid and they are filled with great fear. Not of the storm anymore, but now of Jesus. And they say, who is this? That even the wind and sea obey him would've been fascinating to be there and to experience that, I think I would've been just as terrified as, as they were. I would've been totally fine, like totally expected. Jesus, you'd been diving in the water, being like, oh man, finally. My takeaway from chapter four today is in verse 24, he said to them, pay attention to what you hear with a measure you use. It will be measured to you and still more will be added to you for the one who has more will be given and from the one who has not even what he has will be taken away. If you want more revelation from God, I think what this is telling us is respond right, and you'll get more light if you take what God has given you through the word, from what you understand, and some of us, you know, we're still learning from what the Bible says and we're elementary in our understanding. That's okay. If you want to be exposed to more of what God has to show you. I think our job is to respond to what we do have and if we respond positively to what he gives us, I think he's saying, I'll give you more. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. And if you're, if you, what you do hear, you respond to. Positively too. I think he's saying I, I'll give you more to work with. I'll give you, I'll entrust you with more information, more light if you respond. Right. Well, hey, let's pray for our church and our, the rest of our day and we will be done with this episode. Lord, we thank you for whatever. You have in store for us this day. We thank you for church. We thank you for being able to gather together as the body of Christ and and to worship you. We pray for a great day as a church family today. We've got a lot going on, a lot of exciting things going on at church today and, and even just in the, the coming weeks. We're, we're looking forward to all that you're going to do even as we approach the Easter season. But Lord, keep us in your word. I pray that we would be in your word, not just on Sundays, not just when we show up to church or even on Wednesday nights for our students with our student ministry or adventure club, but that we would daily, individually as your people. Be in your word, even as Pastor Rod was just saying that we would desire more and that you would give us more as we give ourselves over to the study of your word. So I pray this all in Jesus name, amen. Keep in your Bibles. Tune in again tomorrow for another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast. See you. Bye.

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