Theological Coffeehouse: The History & Nature of Scripture

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Connor Coskery: 00:00

Okay. Can you hear me? Like, people in the back and everything. We got a little microphone going. See?

Connor Coskery: 00:06

We learned lessons from last time. Alright. Okay. Well, since this is about scripture, how about I read some, and that's that's how we'll that's how we'll begin. So here we go.

Connor Coskery: 00:21

This comes from second Timothy, And let's listen carefully because this is the word of god. So all scripture is breathed out by god and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness. That the man of god may be competent, equipped for every good work. When I was in college, I I went to this, breakout session at a conference, and, and it was called, how it it posed the question, how can we know that the Bible is true? And I sat down, and I was ready to get, take all these notes.

Connor Coskery: 01:11

And the guy just kept yeah, this is how I take notes. Just in it is with a crayon and and it's very illegible. And so I'm ready, and he just starts reading me verses. Not just me. I mean, there are other people there.

Connor Coskery: 01:25

It wasn't just the 2 of us and some. So, so he starts going through all these verses, and I was like, this this is the cheapest breakout session of this entire conference. Like he's just he's reading scripture to me, and that that's a circular argument. Like that that can't stand. And really, the for the most part, that was arrogance on on my part.

Connor Coskery: 01:46

But but also I mean, the conversation is is pretty long standing. What what is scripture? What is the purpose of scripture? What is the nature of scripture? Where does it come from?

Connor Coskery: 01:59

What what are we what are we trying to accomplish when we read the scriptures? I mean, all of these questions. And for many of you, many of you, you are believing Christians, and so you see the Bible in some sense as authoritative in some way. Because as a Christian, you are you are aligning yourself with Christ who is revealed in the scriptures. So if you consider yourself to be a Christian, then then this is a really big question for you to ask.

Connor Coskery: 02:34

And and this is the question of of the night is can I trust my Bible? Now to just in case you've got somewhere to be, the answer is going to be yes. So if you have to leave at the break or anything like yes. You can trust your bible. Now we're gonna we're gonna kind of break that down as to why and and what to like Joel said, this has to do with worship.

Connor Coskery: 03:05

I mean, the end goal is devotion to God and confidence in god. That's that is that's where this is headed. This is not so we can become better arguers. I mean, we could we could do that. I don't know how profitable that would be.

Connor Coskery: 03:26

The the objective is not that we, can look at a whole bunch of different verses, and I see this issue here and this issue here and try and try and work that out. That elite that's not it tonight. Now that doesn't mean that those aren't good pursuits or necessary pursuits, but that's not our objective tonight. But really, it is to look at the canon itself, what is scripture, and then to to move through and look at what is the nature of scripture, and what what has god made the scripture to be, And then what is the overall purpose of that scripture? So that's where we're that's where we're headed.

Connor Coskery: 04:05

So if you've got a notebook and that kind of thing, it it will probably be helpful because I'm I'm gonna try my best to to move quickly through some of these things because like Joel, going through Romans at the next one, we bite off more than we can chew, like, every time we we come to these things. But that's because at the end of this, I'm not going to stand up and say, and that's all there is to say about the Bible. Like, that's not going to happen because that's stupid. So this is the beginning of a conversation. And for some of you, you've been in this conversation for a long time, and so it picks up much later on.

Connor Coskery: 04:43

You you know the terms. You you know, a lot of the conversation, who's saying what, names of theologians, and all that kind of stuff. And for others, you know, we're we're coming into this very fresh on the scene and and just wanting to know, you know, how do I go to the scriptures in devotion to god, and trust him and and press in to know him? So with respect to where all of us might fall in this, we're we're gonna begin with the canon of Scripture. So like many things we we go back to Moses.

Connor Coskery: 05:19

So Moses, good guy, intelligent guy. I mean, he is trained up in the finest of schools in Egypt. I mean, he he gains this ability, to know literature and to write. And so it has always gone back that the, 5 books of Moses now the 5 books of Moses are Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. That's known as the Torah or the law, the teaching, and this is what Moses is responsible to have written.

Connor Coskery: 05:56

Now there are parts in that, of course, like where, you know, Moses dying or something like that where didn't write, you know, but just because that's difficult. But, you know, the the the scope of of this, the 5 books of Moses, go back to Moses himself. God has called this man that that that has walked through so much of this history, but at the same time is inspired to talk about things that he was not present for. Now a lot of that would be oral tradition that was passed down and that he was was was responsible for writing down, But this is the first time god's word is written down. We see that beginning at Mount Sinai with the Ten Commandments, where god writes the law for the people, and Moses is responsible for handling that and taking that to the people.

Connor Coskery: 06:47

So already, something that we see from Moses is that god desires to communicate with humankind, and that's key. I mean, that that I mean, if we're gonna talk about scripture, we have to first recognize that, you know, there is a God and that he wants to communicate with his created people. And so Moses is charged with writing the Torah. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Following that, we get we get Joshua, that's, the successor to to Moses.

Connor Coskery: 07:29

And then then we move we we have Ruth where we get the ancestry of of David. Now some of these this is gonna be this is gonna mess with some some order and everything as we kind of look through these things. But, we have to see how these things are are broken down. And so maybe what would be most beneficial is for us to see how the Jewish people break down, still to this day, how they break down the Hebrew Canon, the Tanakh. Okay?

Connor Coskery: 07:55

That's a fun one. You get to make the whole Tanakh. Okay. So Tanakh, the t in Tanakh is Torah, like I just talked about, the the what Moses is in charge of writing. And then we get the Nevaim, and that's the prophets.

Connor Coskery: 08:10

From that, we get the former prophets, Joshua, Judges, Samuels, often not broken into 1 and 2, but Samuels, Samuel, then kings, same thing, 1 and 2. The latter prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and then the 12 12 prophets. Then we get, the Ketuvim. Those are the writings. That's where we get the the poetry, the 3 poetical books, the Psalms, Proverbs, and Job, the historical books, Daniel, Ezra, and Nehemiah, which are sometimes linked, and Chronicles 1 and 2.

Connor Coskery: 08:50

And then the 5 roles. In the 5 roles, we get Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, and Esther. These 24 books of the Hebrew canon, it was clearly understood to be closed and authoritative. I mean, as these as these writings came, as the as especially with the with the prophets as they came and they were they were writing these letters and they were declaring these things, the canon really was defining itself. Now as god would speak through the prophets, and so they would recognize these men as the mouthpieces of god, thus saith the lord, which you see all over the Old Testament.

Connor Coskery: 09:30

And, I don't know if I have a count of this, but I think it's somewhere in the 5 100 of how many times in the Torah what Moses was in charge of. You get, thus says the lord. The lord says this. And so they firmly believed as they were looking at the Torah, the Nevim, and the Ketuvim, the Tanakh, the Hebrew Canon, that they were looking at the words of god, and the word of god was being declared to them. Now, there are other writings, and I've I've got one back at the office, where I was at books a million, and and I was looking at the Bible section.

Connor Coskery: 10:17

And, and if you're like the heir to the Books A Million thing, this is not against you or anything like that. I know they're Birmingham based. So just in case that you anyway, so the the books that are there, you've got a wide selection of Bibles there. I mean, you've got like the big, white, hardback family Bible, which I like to carry around. And and then you've got like little pocket size.

Connor Coskery: 10:40

You've got the Psalms of the New Testament. I mean, there's so many different texts of the Bible. In fact, when I was my my very first job here in Birmingham, the guy that I worked with, he we're talking about how I was going to start going to to seminary, and he said, you know, I'd like to believe that the Bible is true, but which one? Which Bible? Like, essentially thinking that, you know, there's the NIV Bible, there's the ESV Bible, and and, you know, to some extent, he's he's on to something.

Connor Coskery: 11:12

Because when I was just flipping through one of the bibles, all of a sudden I'm I'm at books a million reading from the book of Tobit. I'm reading from 1st Maccabees. You know, this was a this was a Catholic bible that carried with it the Apocrypha. And so really, and and I'd I'd like to point out a couple dates. I think I've got them here.

Connor Coskery: 11:40

We're just gonna go through some of the some of the last, the the later, prophet writings. So with Ezekiel, we're right around 593 to 571 BC. And then Daniel 606 to 536 BC, Haggai 520, Zechariah 520, and Malachi 435 ish. K? So so 435 is where we get this last writing of a prophet.

Connor Coskery: 12:17

And then these other writings start happening, and these writings really go for quite some time, from around 200 to I mean, some things even after like, some things can be even counted as 100 AD. I mean, so there there's a there are a lot of writings that are still happening that some are attributing to the Old Testament. Now, you you might have heard of some of these books before. Tobit, Judith, the rest of Esther. That's Esther 10 4 through 1624.

Connor Coskery: 12:50

The Book of Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Barak, son of the 3 children or song of the 3 children, which is added to Daniel, the story of Susanna added to Daniel. I love this title the most. Bael and the dragon. Who wouldn't I mean, that sounds good, but, you know, not canonical. So Baal and the dragon, also added to Daniel.

Connor Coskery: 13:19

I mean, if you're gonna put Baal and the dragon, it's gonna go in Daniel. And so that's added as Daniel 14. And then you've got the Maccabees, 1st and second Maccabees, also recognized, like, 3rd, 4th Maccabees where you have the story of Hanukkah, you know, the Maccabean revolt. And so all all these writings start happening, and it at first, it's kind of separate. You know, they're they're not clearly not viewing that as the Old Testament canon, like the Tanakh.

Connor Coskery: 13:54

But some people start recognizing it. And and and when you get the Septuagint, which is the the Greek version of the Old Testament, it's included in that. And so there are a lot of people that that were seeing that as scripture, as the word of god And so we really have to to deal with this as Christians, because if we're gonna say that we believe in the scriptures, we're we're gonna really focus in and say that if I disobey scripture, that I'm disobeying god, if there are books that belong in there that aren't that aren't in your bible, that matters. So we have to ask this question, what about the Apocrypha? Okay.

Connor Coskery: 14:40

So what I think the best way that we can get at this question is to ask this other question. Did Jesus see the Apocrypha as authoritative or as essentially as scripture? Did Jesus see that? Because the Septuagint was was a widely used translation of the Tanakh that that was circulating at at at his time. And so if it's circulating, did he recognize?

Connor Coskery: 15:12

Did he use that? Did he in studying, you know, he's studying Isaiah. He's studying these different sections of scripture. Did he view the apocrypha as the word of god? And so here is, what I think is an interesting it's one way it's one way to approach this and to think through this question.

Connor Coskery: 15:31

And that is if you have a bible, turn to Luke 11. And if you don't have a Bible, try and find someone that's got one. Or use your if you've got one of the magic phones, use a magic phone. Fancy magic phones. For those of you that are using a magic phone, you're already there, so I'll start reading.

Connor Coskery: 15:57

Those of you with those old book things, you'll catch up. Luke 11. Now now Luke, this is a gospel writing. This is New Testament. This is a record of the life and death and resurrection of Jesus.

Connor Coskery: 16:16

And so we're we're gonna look to that in in hopes of maybe gaining a better understanding of answering this question. Did Jesus see the apocrypha as canon, as authoritative scripture? Look at verse 49. Verse 49. Alright.

Connor Coskery: 16:39

Therefore, also the wisdom of god said, I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and persecute. So that the blood of all the prophets shed from the foundation of the world may be charged against this generation. From the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, it will be required of this generation. Okay.

Connor Coskery: 17:11

So Jesus is saying some very intense stuff there. But one of the things he's talking about is that that the the killing of these prophets prophets, the men speaking on behalf of god, and god speaking through these men, these men that were killed, that their blood that there will be a generation charged with their blood. So, Jesus is declaring this, and and one of the things that he says to give the scope of it is from Abel to Zechariah. Abel to Zechariah. Now, Abel killed in Genesis 4.

Connor Coskery: 17:55

Okay? So Genesis, you know, beginning. But who is this Zechariah? Okay. If you really wanna get fancy and turn with me to second Chronicles chapter 24.

Connor Coskery: 18:09

2nd Chronicles 24. Who is this Zechariah? We know Abel, Cain, Abel, we know we know his death, that's easily recognizable to the ear, but but who is this Zechariah? 2nd Chronicles 24. Starting with verse 20.

Connor Coskery: 18:36

Then the spirit of god clothed Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada, the priest. And he stood above the people, and he said to them, thus says god, why do you break the commandments of the lord? So that you cannot prosper. Because you have forsaken the lord. He has forsaken you.

Connor Coskery: 18:54

But they conspired against him. And by command of the king, they stoned him with the stones in the court of the house of the lord. Thus, Joash, the king, did not remember the kindness that Jehoiada, Zechariah's father, had shown him, but killed his son. And when he was dying, he said, may the lord see and avenge. Zechariah, 2nd Chronicles, not the last prophet to be killed.

Connor Coskery: 19:25

The last prophet to be killed is found in Jeremiah, and that's Uriah. Uriah, this the son of Shema Shemaiah. Awesome. Okay. So Uriah is the last one.

Connor Coskery: 19:43

We see that in in Jeremiah. But Jesus is referring not to Uriah, chronologically the last one killed. He refers instead to Zechariah. Why? Because as as I, was talking through just a minute ago with the Ketuvim, As we see as we see the Hebrew canon in its form that the the Jews had it, which is different than than some of our order.

Connor Coskery: 20:22

2nd Chronicles was the end, or Chronicles was the end. And so Jesus is saying from Genesis to Chronicles, and all the prophets in between, their blood, their debts, a generation will be charged with that. And so instead of instead of appealing to the chronological order of these things, he's he's appealing to the canon. And in doing so, he gives this this little window, And through this window, we can see how Jesus was looking at the canon of scripture. Now other issues come into the Apocrypha, such as teaching wild theological things that the rest of scripture doesn't talk about or that we know who the author is, and it doesn't align with the order of something like Esther or Daniel.

Connor Coskery: 21:14

Or we don't know who the author is, and it says crazy things. Like, the I mean, it and so it's from this, from the Apocrypha, that bad theology started making its way into the church. And so then we come to the problem of the Apocrypha and the Reformation. You see, the first person to take the Apocrypha out of the translation was the big man himself, Martin Luther. So so he removes it, and he still translated it.

Connor Coskery: 21:48

He still he still said, like, there there are valuable qualities to this, but it is not the authoritative scripture. And also what you get out of that are things like prayer prayers for the dead, you know, purgatory. I mean, these are things that are appealed to in things like Tobit and and other areas of the Apocrypha. And so as this translation started moving as as, you know, as it went into the the Greek and then went into the Latin, and then ultimately, we zoom zoom out and we see the time of the Reformation. I mean, for for a considerable amount of time, the church was still translating and in some senses looking at the Apocrypha as scripture.

Connor Coskery: 22:34

Yet the Jews at that time were not doing that, and the Jews did not view that as the holy scriptures. Okay. Because of time, we have to move fairly quickly. Jerome, who, he he's the trans he translated the scriptures into Latin. He he said this, and this is in the, the Church of England's, the 39 articles.

Connor Coskery: 22:57

They they're quoting Jerome that says that the church the church can read the Apocrypha for for, instruction of manners or example of life, but it is not to be something that we would establish doctrine on or that we would see as authoritative as the scriptures themselves. Now, I'm I'm belaboring this, I know, but if, again, we are going to say that we submit ourselves to the scriptures, we need to know what they are, and we need to know what is not. Now, even the ESV has a version that has the Apocrypha as something beneficial to read in more of a historical sense, but not in line with scripture. There are some, biblical society, forgetting at what point this is. I mean, clearly, it's after the Reformation.

Connor Coskery: 23:52

They said, if it's not scripture, the Apocrypha, it's not worth our money printing it. And so that was actually one of the major decisions in saying, well, we're it's just not even gonna be, like, an appendix. It's not gonna be in the back. It's because it costs money to print these Bibles that we're trying to get into the hands of of people. So why would we why would we spend the money on that?

Connor Coskery: 24:16

So interesting little point in that. If you want, to know more about the Apocrypha and what some of the the chapters talk about and and what they are. A great book on that is How We Got the Bible by Ralph Earl. It's a solid name. I I feel like I I think I saw him in Nashville.

Connor Coskery: 24:36

But How We Got the Bible, it's a really great book. It gives really concise little snippets of of the process of translation and transmission and and and the Apocrypha and how how we came to, see our canon the way that we have. So alright. So we break into this time between the testaments. And so, I mean, how how important is it for us to see, like, the canon is closed.

Connor Coskery: 25:05

The Jewish people, they see it as closed, and they they revere it, and they they're studying it. And then all of a sudden, like, even the concept of a new testament I mean, I think we take that for granted, like, that anyone would say that a new writing could be authoritative scripture. Like, something huge must have happened for any Jew to say at that time, that, like, that record, that's authoritative. And I don't I don't know I know I don't always see that. I don't I don't know about you, but I I don't think about that when I'm looking at the New Testament.

Connor Coskery: 25:46

Like, it's huge that it doesn't just stop with Malachi, and then we just have oral tradition or something going about this Jesus. But there are holy scriptures written because the messiah that was prophesied about in the old testament, throughout the old testament, is revealed in this new testament, in these words of holy scripture. So we'll move to that, and and I'll give a my goodness. More than I can chew. More than you can chew.

Connor Coskery: 26:22

More than all of us can chew. Okay. So the new testament. Writings begin right around 40 AD with, with more than likely with James. And then moving to Galatians, Paul starts starts writing his missionary letters.

Connor Coskery: 26:38

I mean, he he is on the field or in prison. Like, that's kind of it's one or the other for the most part. So, he's out there traveling to these churches and so it it's amazing that that really these early writings for the church before we even get to gospel accounts begins with these missionary letters to churches. I mean, what what a treasure to to hear these words of someone that's actually out there ministering. That that's that's our our kind of our first our first word, our our first dispatch from the field, these letters of Paul.

Connor Coskery: 27:16

Thessalonians, then we get Mark's gospel around 53, 55 AD. Matthew writes his. Paul with, his letters to the Corinthians from Ephesus and then Macedonia. In 57 I love this language. Paul winters in Corinth, and he writes Romans.

Connor Coskery: 27:34

It's just an easy an easy winter, just pounding Romans out. So, 60 to 70, we get the letter to the Hebrews, 62 through 63. Peter writes his first letter from Rome. 60 2, Paul arrives in Rome and remains under house arrest. And while under house arrest, he writes Ephesians, then Philippians, Colossians, Philemon, then we get Luke.

Connor Coskery: 28:02

You know, so we got house arrest. Luke's just hanging out. And he's busy that that entire time. I mean, he's got 2 years hanging out. He's a gentile, hanging out in this kind of, you know, unknown area.

Connor Coskery: 28:14

And what does he do? He interviews everyone he can who knows Jesus. Like, you met him. You you heard him teach. Like, you you spent time with him.

Connor Coskery: 28:26

What was it like? I mean, I would imagine I mean, imagine Luke sitting down with Mary and saying, tell me what it was like when he was born. See, we're gonna get to inspiration, but in that, like, inspiration is is all a part of god also utilizing what these authors have experienced in in researching and knowing and having these conversations with men and women and gaining a better and clearer understanding the events that took place in Jesus' life. We've gotta move. 6264, so that's where you get Luke and Acts written by by Luke.

Connor Coskery: 29:15

Majority of the New Testament right there, Luke, Acts, not Paul. So 62, 64, you get first Timothy, Titus. 64, 67, Peter writes his second letter. Jude writes his letter. We get Paul with second Timothy, and then Peter and Paul are martyred in Rome.

Connor Coskery: 29:36

67, this is when, you know, the, Jerusalem is about to be ransacked and overturned. The temple will be destroyed, all of that. That's where you get the Qumran community with their scrolls hiding those in a cave before everything gets destroyed and burned, which the, I mean, that whole area, the amount of digging and the stuff that they found there of long tables with ink wells still, you know, still present where they would have rolled out these long scrolls and copied the text. We have so much. Okay.

Connor Coskery: 30:11

So, 85 to 95, John writes his letters 1st, 2nd, 3rd John, probably in Ephesus. 89 to 95, John writes his gospel. And then 95, 96, he is exiled and writes Revelation. So there, the New Testament writers in pretty fast and furiously, I mean, turn out all like, when especially when you look at a 1000 years to get the Old Testament, and right here from 40 to 96 AD, New Testament writings. And, yes, there are other writings that are happening, and even some of them that are recognized by the church as beneficial and edifying, like they as they circulated.

Connor Coskery: 30:58

But in this time, people weren't deciding the canon. It it was it was surfacing in a sense. Like, god was was protecting letters, circulating letters, and bringing them to the top, to where when when in 367, Athanasius lists the 27 books of the New Testament as the full canon. That's that's for us the the first time we see, like, this this written down order. And then in the council of Carthage in 397, that's when you get the East and the Western church agreeing in what the the canon of the New Testament is.

Connor Coskery: 31:46

Now there's a lot of turmoil, but it we don't get this Dan Brown moment where all these guys are sitting around, and they're like, we've really gotta nail this down. Like, anybody Hebrews, you feel good about that one? Let's do up or down vote. Like, that that's not happening. Like, they're they're these letters have circulated.

Connor Coskery: 32:05

And then at this time, they're agreed upon as the full canon of scripture. Amazing stories about the manuscripts. I mean, just the the stories out there of of a young boy who's lost a goat, like you do every day, you know. He he loses his goat. He's looking around.

Connor Coskery: 32:28

He throws a rock in a cave, as we all would do if we lost a goat, and he hears a shattering sound, and that is a jar, this large pottery holding the Dead Sea Scrolls, what is what are referred to as the Dead Sea Scrolls. I mean, these scrolls that I mean, the the dates on them of of Isaiah and all just every Old Testament book is a scrap or a piece of scroll is present in one of the caves except for Esther. But all the other ones are they're present, and and that that's an amazing testimony to the old testament canon. Now with with the copying, I mean, the the tedious work of of these people as they're copying these manuscripts, Also, there's no separation between words. Like, I I got to see some very old manuscripts, at the British Library 3 years ago, hoping to see them again next week.

Connor Coskery: 33:35

But in At the British Library, these these manuscripts are just It's amazing, but all capital letter, Greek letters. I was in the thick of, you know, studying Greek. I was with a professor. I don't want to say his name because Okay. I was with a professor, and he was having a hard time.

Connor Coskery: 33:56

I had no chance. Like, I was just like, those are pretty letters. Like, they're really they that looks awesome. But he was having a hard time deter like, seeing, like, where does one word end or where the next one begin? And, I mean, it's so complicated.

Connor Coskery: 34:10

So they were copying these down, and some of these manuscripts of the of the New Testament and Old Testament, they were done by ear. Like someone would sit in the middle, and then you have a room of maybe less than 70 people or so. I mean, imagine if I started reading this manuscript, and you were letter by letter writing it down, letter after letter after letter. Is there the possibility that maybe one of you might get a little bit confused at what I've said? I'm gonna say there's a chance.

Connor Coskery: 34:37

And so that's where you do see what what I refer to as textual variance, and that happens in the manuscripts that we have, these very old manuscripts. You know, a letter off here, a space here. I mean, numbers varying from place to place, and those are so, so numerous, but also so minute. I mean, the the vast majority of these textual variants are so minor. And maybe a letter off here or something changed there, or a church had a copy of Ephesians.

Connor Coskery: 35:13

And when they were writing it out because they were reading it to their own church, they didn't they didn't put to the church in Ephesus. Like, they just said to you guys because we're not in Ephesus. And so, you know, they and and then the next one the next copy made might not have Ephesus in it. But with the thousands of manuscripts that we have, it is phenomenal how much they agree. Phenomenal, and we have more scraps of papyrus to to goat skin to all these different things to testify as close as possible to the original, what are often called the autographs, the original manuscripts of scripture.

Connor Coskery: 35:49

It is amazing. There there is no other ancient document has anywhere close I mean, we're looking, like, from a 1,000 copies to some ancient Roman history that's built upon 20 copies. I mean, it is phenomenal. And and we can we can talk about these things later, but we now have over 5,000 manuscripts of the Greek New Testament in whole or part. And from that, we can we can trace, like, when they move.

Connor Coskery: 36:20

Like, you can you can look at a map and see how these these different letters moved throughout the early church and to see, oh, that's where that's where this problem came in. That's where this problem came in. Because they're copies of of a copy of a copy of a copy. And the amazing thing is that the more copies we have, the better the testimony we have to what the authentic original manuscript would have said. And to me, I that that is just a phenomenal, staggering act of god's providence to keep his word protected through all of this.

Connor Coskery: 36:55

It's it really is amazing when when you get into to the study of it. So we can talk about that more if we if we need to. So all right. What do we mean, when we're talking about the nature of scripture? Okay.

Connor Coskery: 37:09

I'm gonna I'm gonna hit a couple of points here pretty quickly, and then, I imagine we'll unpack this with question time. So first off, the inspiration of scripture. What do we what do we mean when we say that it is inspired? Okay. The inspiration.

Connor Coskery: 37:27

God utilized the culture and conventions of the Penman's Milieu, a Milieu that god controls in his sovereign providence, and that in that, he guards against misinterpretation to imagine otherwise. Like, so, essentially, what that means is god breathes that that's that's what in in second Timothy, what we see is that god has breathed his word in inspiring the author. Not just like an artist is inspired, like this this kind of passion or desire to to create, but that he has given the words and the meaning of his holy word to these authors. They were inspired by God because we're saying scripture is God communicating with his people. Therefore, he must be the genesis of this information, the genesis of this meaning conveyed to us.

Connor Coskery: 38:26

They must be inspired by god. And, again, not just like in this passion or desire to create, like someone's inspired to paint a picture or to write a song, but that they are inspired by god himself, that he breathes out through his spirit. He has breathed out his word to these authors as they pinned these original autographs. So So that's it. 2nd Timothy 316, all script all scripture is inspired by god, breathed out.

Connor Coskery: 38:58

Theo neustos, breathed out by God. Inspiration means that scripture was breathed out by God into these human minds by the Holy Spirit. Scripture is the spirit breathed expression of god's word to us. 2nd Peter chapter 1 verse 21. Prophecy never had its origin in the will of man but men spoke from god as they were carried along by this by the holy spirit.

Connor Coskery: 39:27

Being born along by the holy spirit, men spoke from god. The idea of the inspiredness of scripture is a biblical truth. Alright? Now, all of these terms connect with each other, so inspiration leads into the infallibility, the issue of the trustworthiness of scripture. How do we trust the words of scripture?

Connor Coskery: 39:54

Well, because they are breathed out by the Holy Spirit, that he carried along the author to write these scriptures. And so because of that, because of that interaction between god and the writer, that is the infallible work of god. That he would be true and would not mislead or lead to error as he is conveying this to the author. Now, we do have to keep in mind, and and this is one very quick story, Bradley Byrne running for governor not anymore, but he was. But there's this big charge against him that Bradley Byrne does not believe in the Bible as true.

Connor Coskery: 40:39

And that whole thing had to do with a a statement. He was given a yes or no question of do you believe the Bible is literally true, yes or no, by a newspaper in Mobile. He didn't wanna answer. He was he emailed them and was like, that is not really just like a yes or no question. That's a that's a literary question.

Connor Coskery: 40:54

I mean, that's a genre question. And he said he he so that was his answer, and they said, well, his ambiguous answer, like, damn, that really kind of great story there. And so then, Berne is at a Piggly Wiggly, and he's no one no one's surprised by this. Okay. So he's at a Piggly Wiggly.

Connor Coskery: 41:14

It's actually a press conference. He's taking questions. He's getting this endorsement. Yeah. Press conference?

Connor Coskery: 41:19

Yeah. Wouldn't you? So he's there, press conference, and someone says, what about this whole thing that you don't believe the Bible is true? So he's defending them and all that. Emails start going out from churches.

Connor Coskery: 41:28

Don't shop at Piggly Wiggly, like they're aligning themselves to this guy that doesn't believe the Bible. Like, crazy things are happening. So all this happens. And all of this because how we use and how we define these terms, it changes our conversation. Like we have to be very clear with the with the words that we're choosing to use here.

Connor Coskery: 41:49

Because if you have a definition and I have a definition and they don't match up, or we're gonna use the same word, that's gonna be problematic. And so we have to be very careful with defining these terms. So inspiration, then then that moves to infallibility. And with that infallibility, we do recognize And and there was this, meeting in the seventies in Chicago, and it was they they drafted the Chicago statement of biblical inerrancy. All right?

Connor Coskery: 42:13

And from that, just a very brief word, the history must be treated as history, poetry as poetry, hyperbole as and metaphor as hyperbole and metaphor, generalization, approximation as what they are, and so forth. Differences between literary conventions in Bible times and in ours must be observed. So we have to recognize the genre in in which it was written, the time that it was written, and that God was breathing to these individuals on purpose, like with their milieu and and with David as he wrote the Psalms or with Solomon. Like, at these different times, he's he's breathing this out purposefully, and it is not with the intention to lead us to to error or to mislead us in any way. So infallibility.

Connor Coskery: 43:03

In infallible signifies the quality of neither misleading nor being misled, and so safeguards in categorical terms the truth that holy scripture is sure, safe, and reliable rule and guide in all matters. So there's our definition. A subissue that comes into play there is the issue of inerrancy. That's a textual issue. Okay?

Connor Coskery: 43:27

Infallibility, we're talking about the authors, we're talking about God, we're talking about the original autographs, the original writings. Infallibility really has its genesis in that place, and then inerrancy to the text of were there any mistakes that were made in the text. Now with this, we have this supreme opportunity. This author, I can Snyder, I believe is her last name, has this wonderful way of saying it, that with these terminologies, we can get lost in the labyrinth of theological terms and missed the point completely that god is true. See?

Connor Coskery: 44:06

And that his word given to us does not lead us to error, but leads us the spirit in the scriptures leading us to all truth, And god is no mixture of error, but he is pure and true. So if we have inspiration, it's inspired by god, that it's true and trustworthy, the things that he has said, and then that moves us to authority, that the scriptures are authoritative. So what do we mean when we say authoritative? We affirm that scripture is the inspired and infallible word of god and is therefore to be trusted and obeyed. If the scriptures are disobeyed, we are indeed disobeying god himself.

Connor Coskery: 44:47

Scripture is authoritative for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for the training in righteousness. I love this phrase that when we submit to Christ, if we refuse or reject a submission to the scriptures, we indeed are not submitting to Christ. See, that is the objective here. Discipleship. And in that discipleship, what Joel talked about earlier, worship, honor, praise to god, that we would read these things and we would submit.

Connor Coskery: 45:21

One last kind of personal thing, and and, we'll we'll take a a break here in just a second. I was at a wedding, and we were all talking at the reception. And this girl was we're talking about weddings and all the cliche, you know, verses that always get thrown out. And, And she said, I you know, I really I when it comes especially to to things about marriage and submission, I I really just I can't read Paul. I don't like it.

Connor Coskery: 45:51

So, I don't read it. You see, that that puts us in the driver's seat of authority. Okay? See, when we recognize the authority of scripture, what we're saying is the problem is not in the stars. The the problem is not in the scriptures.

Connor Coskery: 46:09

The problem is in me. See, I have the ability to constantly. That's my biggest, you know, concern in this and even getting up in front of you to talk about these things, the authority of scripture, the purity of scripture, all of these things, is because I can and I do constantly. But god does not because he is pure and perfect and holy. You see, that's the holiness, that he is other.

Connor Coskery: 46:34

See, I'm unholy, subject to air constantly. And so but if we put ourselves in the driver's seat and we say that I determine truth, which is quite popular in in our in our age, that I determine truth, and you might read something in your Bible and it leads you to this kind of truth, I read this kind of truth, and and we have these differences, Ultimately, we're saying is that we submit to the word of god because we are submitting to god, and that is the authority of scripture. It is not generated solely in the text itself, but from god himself. We're not deifying the text, but we're seeing the work of the spirit, the testimony to the son, and the providence and and and sovereign hand of god protecting his word for his people. So, we didn't get to to the revelatory text and all that.

Connor Coskery: 47:29

We'll we'll we'll I'll hit on a few of those things before we get into questions, but this time, stretch, do jumping jacks, buy lots of things. A huge, huge thank you to Urban Standard before we go any further. Buy lots of things. And tip, tip, be kind. Alright.

Connor Coskery: 47:49

We'll see you back here in, 10 minutes. So I am gonna go over a couple of things just to fit just to just to close out nice nice and lately. So a couple of things. One, Canon. I realize that sometimes I'm saying things that don't make sense.

Connor Coskery: 48:09

So, that's my problem, not yours. So canon as as the rule or the standard, like that's the that's the scope of the scriptures, the books that belong to the canon, what is, decidedly the canon of scriptures. That's the rule of scripture. And so that those are the limitations, to the scriptures. Another thing, reformation was around 1500, 15 50, like that's that's the time of Martin Luther.

Connor Coskery: 48:35

So really the Apocrypha, which Apocrypha means hidden, that that's that's really like around, you know those are the general things there. So like that that's kinda what's happening there. And then, a few more things on authority of scripture, and then I'll wrap up, with revelation real fast. So when we when we are trying to ask these kinds of questions about the authority and the infallibility and the inspiration of scripture, we do have to recognize that we see through lenses in our culture, in our society that we didn't necessarily put in front of our faces. Meaning that our culture that we were born into, that we have, you know, become accustomed to, there are certain viewpoints and worldviews that we did not ask for but are there.

Connor Coskery: 49:37

And like I was saying with the postmodern thought of when it comes to issues of relative truth or the question of any any truth in existence, that when we say canon and we're looking at rule or standard, we're saying that that scripture is a standard of truth, capital t truth, because god is capital t truth. And so we are appealing to something that not only our culture but really, if we get down to it, ourselves, like, we war against absolute truth. We want and that that's essentially what I was trying to get at with that story with the, with the girl saying that about Pauline riding. Like, I don't like that. I don't want that.

Connor Coskery: 50:19

So I'm gonna separate myself, not see that as authoritative, but I will put author I I will see authority in other areas of scripture, you know. We are in the driver's seat for that. And so I I wanted to, you know, clarify just one thing with that and with a quote from one of my favorite theologians. He's an existential theologian, so some things you wouldn't necessarily wanna follow him down. But this is just such an amazing quote, and so, I'll kinda close out some of the authority section, on this.

Connor Coskery: 50:49

So the matter is quite simple, Kierkegaard. The Bible is very easy to understand, but we, Christians, are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand, we are obliged to act accordingly. Take any words of the New Testament and forget everything except pledging yourself to act accordingly. My God, you will say, if I do that, my whole life will be ruined.

Connor Coskery: 51:21

Herein lies the real place of Christian scholarship. Christian scholarship is the church's invention to defend itself against the Bible, to ensure that we can continue to be good Christians without the Bible coming too close. Dreadful is it to fall into the hands of the living God. Yes. It is even dreadful to be alone with the New Testament.

Connor Coskery: 51:49

He also said, just that this has nothing to do with this, but he also said the problem with Christians today is that no one wants to kill them anymore. Intense guy. You know, he had a little fire to him. But what an amazing thing, like, that we will use these arguments about errors here, errors there. I've got this verse.

Connor Coskery: 52:10

You've got that verse. We'll proof text as much as we can, which means just like picking verses just to stab each other, like real no context, that we would do that in circles and circles and enter into that labyrinth of theological dialogue to keep ourselves from actually obeying the word of god. Now, we'll we'll give lip service and say that's absolutely not what we're trying to do. But I mean, we we almost have to like question ourselves. We have to we have to really call ourselves out and say, Am I pursuing this Christian scholarship, or these debates, or these different arguments and things?

Connor Coskery: 52:48

Am I going to the text of scripture? Am I going to god's holy word just so I can win an argument? I mean, how's how often have we done that? Rich Mullins quote and you know, it's it's a little loosey goosey, but but he says, if we were given the scriptures for anything, it wasn't to prove that I'm right and you're wrong. It's to prove that god is right and the rest of us are just guessing.

Connor Coskery: 53:12

I mean, the we we have when we see the authority of scripture, it puts us in our place, and it's a place we don't always want to be in. Right? We have to recognize that. I don't like to submit to anything or anyone, and God's word is no exception. No exception.

Connor Coskery: 53:33

I have to yield and humble myself before God's authoritative word and say, the problem is here. And I might not understand it. It might be difficult, and I can see a verse here and a verse here, and it's difficult, and I recognize that, and we don't just sweep that under the rug. But we say, god is authoritative and pure, and I will submit to his word. Because when I do that I'm submitting to him.

Connor Coskery: 54:01

Okay. So that that kind of closes out the section on authority. And then that revelation really, I mean, that's continuing this whole idea from the very beginning that god is seeking to communicate with his creation, his people. He's doing this through the scriptures because my own experience now god reveals things to us in various ways. But in these times, he is he is he has spoken to us.

Connor Coskery: 54:26

He's revealed things to us through his son and the record of that is the that's the scriptures. K. That that whole thing kinda comes from the beginning of the book of Hebrews. So but this this is what we are engaging in is that god is communicating to us, and and that if left to my own accord, if I am the definer of things that are true, that if that's if I'm in that captain's chair, that I can't interpret these revelations, that cabin generally. I can't interpret these things.

Connor Coskery: 55:01

That's why I must appeal to the authority and the rule, the canon, the standard. That's how I understand my experiences. That's where the existential philosophy that was happening, like that, they started moving into experience and the things that we experience. And and some of those arguments are beautiful and and beneficial even, but but what they can miss the point on is that the way we even understand the things we experience, the spiritual experiences that you have had from your conversion to your being discipled to as you've discipled others or shared your faith, you know, all those different spiritual experiences that you've had, they are only understood and interpreted when they are interpreted alongside the rule, the standard, the canon of scripture. That's how we understand them, and that's how we put them in their place.

Connor Coskery: 55:51

And we can understand them rightly and grow as disciples in what I said at the very start, devotion to god devotion to god and confidence in him. And so that that leads to the answer to the knight's question, can I trust my bible? And the answer, yes. But why? Because we can trust our god.

Connor Coskery: 56:14

That's why. It's not because you've got a really good argument about this verse or that verse. It's not because you you've studied the Greek or the Hebrew and and you can translate somebody under the table which is a weird thing to do. Not not because of that. You trust as you go devotionally to the scriptures, and you open it up, and you read it to encounter God himself.

Connor Coskery: 56:37

The reason you can do that with confidence is because you can have confidence in our God. You see, that's what that's what it means to come to the scriptures in faith, trusting in him. And also know that that is where faith is wrought in us. And so going back to that breakout session that I thought was so useless, He was doing something beneficial. He was saying that it's not a circular argument.

Connor Coskery: 57:06

It's a spiritual argument. The scriptures testify to the truthfulness of God's word, And we can we can take root in that, and we can we can trust in that. And so as it testifies to itself, meaning god testifying to himself, we can trust that because he is trustworthy. So, of course, a million things that we could go into here. Just one one last thing that I'd like to close with.

Connor Coskery: 57:37

Two verses since since I just appealed, but it's acceptable to look to the scriptures to testify to themselves. Isaiah 48, it says the grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our god will stand forever. And almost in a an amazing harmony note coming from the New Testament. Christ himself saying, heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. See, this this is the confidence.

Connor Coskery: 58:15

This is the devotion that should be our objective. And understand that many of you have have entered into discussions that might be heated about different areas of all these things, but is you know, really question yourself. Is my objective devotion to god, is my objective confidence in him, and ultimately what those things lead to is is worshiping him. Is that the goal? Because if not, I would just caution, stop.

Connor Coskery: 58:49

Stop. It doesn't mean you can't use those arguments or that that that they don't have their place in walk away from that. Go go go come to his word anew starting tonight. In a fresh way, come to his word, and lay down your agenda of battle, and submit yourself to his authoritative word that will not pass away. Everything we see around us will pass away, heaven and earth, the flowers of the field, the grass, and the grass is our flesh as well.

Connor Coskery: 59:33

Our our bodies will fade away, and long after we're gone and your argument is long forgotten, God's word will stand. And that's what we can trust, the scriptures.