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Wondering What to Believe?

  1. Does Nature Give Proof of God?
    8 Digging Deeper
  2. Can I Hear God's Voice?
    8 Digging Deeper
  3. Who is God?
    8 Digging Deeper
  4. Who Wrote the Bible?
    8 Digging Deeper
  5. Can I Trust the Bible?
    7 Digging Deeper
  6. Is there a Right and Wrong?
    7 Digging Deeper
  7. Why Does God Allow Evil?
    9 Digging Deeper
  8. Who Am I?
    7 Digging Deeper
  9. What is the Meaning of Life?
    7 Digging Deeper
  10. Does God Love Me?
    5 Digging Deeper
Lesson 5, Digging Deeper 3
In Progress

The significance in the magnitude of New Testament manuscripts compared to other ancient manuscripts.

Among the reasons that could be true would be the following:

a. The documents of the New Testament were highly valued because they were the writings of apostolic men (apostles and friends of the apostles) who were directly connected with Jesus of Nazareth.

b. These documents contained important spiritual messages related to pleasing and serving God. These were the words of eternal life (John 6:63) that would guide God’s people (2 Timothy 3:16-17).

c. Love for Jesus created an intense, passionate desire to copy these valuable messages and make them available to others.

d. Pagan governing authorities and other persecutors sought to destroy these documents so it was necessary to make many copies and send them to others who would also make copies.

e. God in his providence preserved these documents so that his word could be faithfully transmitted to people everywhere then and in future generations.

f. After the death of the apostles, oral transmission alone of the word could result in faulty understanding and practices, especially with succeeding generations. Written documents would provide a strong foundation and correction against misunderstandings and wrong interpretations.