This Page: A (Not So) Brief Defense Christianity Are the Biblical Documents Reliable? - Introduction

Mind Games Survival Course Manual

V. Introduction

1. Three Errors To Avoid
   1. Do not assume inspiration or infallibility of the documents, with the intent of attempting to prove the inspiration or infallibility of the documents. Do not say the bible is inspired or infallible simply because its claims to be. This is circular reasoning.

   2. When considering the original documents, forget about the present form of your Bible and regard them as the collection of ancient source documents that they are.

   3. Do not start with modern "authorities" and then move to the documents to see if the authorities were right. Begin with the documents themselves.

2. Procedure for Testing a Document's Validity.
   In his book, Introduction in Research in English Literary History, C. Sanders sets forth three tests of reliability employed in general historiography and literary criticism. These tests are:
   1. Bibliographical (i.e., the textual tradition¾from the original document to the copies and manuscripts of that document we possess today

   2. Internal evidence (what the document claims for itself)

   3. External evidence (how the document squares or aligns itself with facts, dates, persons from its own contemporary world).

   It might be noteworthy to mention that Sanders is a professor of military history, not a theologian. He uses these three tests of reliability in his own study of historical military events.
   We will look now at the bibliographical, or textual evidence for the Bible's reliability.

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