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Why does it matter how historians determine what is true? (QUICK NOTE: this is a lesson that is especially good to look at the PowerPoint video of it, here is the link: https://youtu.be/gvTRyfFtujU The Bible805 site https://www.Bible805.com, has links to all the videos of the podcasts) In the previous lesson, we talked about the importance of truth and how truth is that which corresponds to reality. We then talked about how history is a useful way to determine what corresponds to reality and how this is foundational to determining if a religion is true. But how do historians go about figuring out what corresponds to reality? Obviously, we don’t have time machines; we can’t go back to the events themselves. What historians do have as they evaluate the truth of scripture is tangible evidence. Like a CSI, (a crime scene investigator) a good historian carefully examines the evidence before making conclusions. He or she should not have a pre-determined bias before examining evidence. For example, when evaluating prophecy, you shouldn’t date events after the prophecy was given simply because you believe predictive prophecy isn’t possible. If you do that you aren’t objective; you have an anti-supernatural bias. You should look at the evidence and THEN draw conclusions. The categories for historical evidence that testify to the truth that is in the Bible are geography, archeology, artifacts, and documents. In this lesson, we’ll look briefly at each one. The evidence isn’t difficult to understand, but the results are fascinating as they confirm the tangible reality of our faith. Following is a PDF of the NOTES, Questions, and Infographic and links to the PODCAST and VIDEOS on the lesson.

Before we begin, this lesson is part of a 4-part foundational series: How Truth & History confirm that we can trust the Christian Bible Though each lesson is useful on its own, all four lessons in this series go together for a complete understanding of the topic The 4 lessons in this series are: •       #1 What is Truth?. . . and how historical truth relates to religious truth •       #2 How do historians determine Truth?. . . why geography, archeology, artifacts, and documents matter •       #3 How is the historical truth of the Christian Bible unique? part one. . . a comparison with the Hindu and Buddhist scriptures •       #4 How is the historical truth of the Christian Bible unique? part two. . . a comparison with Muslim and Mormon scriptures This series was created to give you a solid foundation for trusting the Bible. It doesn’t do much good to study the Bible if you look at it as merely a humanly created book. If, as this series will demonstrate, it is the creation of our God, who exists outside of time, yet entered into time into our world to redeem His creation, it changes everything. The Bible and the many historical facts that are clearly available to anyone who looks at them, and that this series will share, will give you confidence in the Bible and the God who gave it to us. You will develop a firm foundation for your spiritual life and factual knowledge to share with others. Link to notes, questions, handouts: https://wp.me/pazrJD-11e Go to Bible805.com for more resources to help you know, trust, apply, and teach the Bible.

As you have read through the Bible from first to last, it’s all been about Jesus. He created a perfect world for humanity to enjoy and to walk with Him. When they disobeyed, He promised a Redeemer. The entire Old Testament talks about this future Redeemer, the importance of salvation by faith, and how the sacrificial system was a picture of what was coming. The prophets continually reminded the people that the Redeemer, the Messiah was coming. And the New Testament records the life, death, and resurrection of the Messiah, Jesus and the creation of the church He left to represent Him. Jesus, reminding ourselves that the book of Revelation is not a puzzle to be solved but as the first words in the book remind us, it is a REVELATION of Jesus Christ. In this lesson, after introductory comments on Revelation, we’ll look more closely at a revelation of Jesus, we’ll take an in-depth look at the “I Ams” of Jesus in the book of John. We’ll end with a reminder that though this is the end of our reading in the Bible, it is only the beginning of “the great story, which has no end and in which every chapter is better than the one before (C.S. Lewis).” Link to blog, notes, and videos: https://wp.me/pazrJD-10M

Our study of the New Testament is about so much more than an overview of books, or a historical tour. It is the culmination of God’s rescue plan for the people He created. The development of God’s changed, redeemed people is what we’ve been learning about. All else will fade (churches, buildings, denominations); God’s people will not. And it is those people (you) who will reach the world with God’s message of salvation. How we become that, the spiritual formation of God’s people is what these “Pastoral Epistles” are about. Earlier New Testament writings clarified the theology of salvation--that we are saved by grace alone through faith alone—in other words, Jesus’s death on the cross accomplished all the WORK of salvation. By faith, we accept it—without any work or merit of our own. That is the foundation of our faith. But once we are saved—God expects us to live as HIS saved, redeemed people. Though previous books taught this; how we are supposed to live is the emphasis (instead of theological issues) in these books. We will look at various passages in the books that explain and clarify this, and we only have time for a few—please study more to understand and apply fully! Here is the link to the blog, notes, and transcript of the lesson: https://wp.me/pazrJD-114

How do we act when bad things happen to us? We always have a choice—we can retaliate; we can throw a pity party; we can blame others.  Or we can trust God no matter what and try to respond in a way He wants us to. In what are called the “Prison Epistles” Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon we’ll look at how the Apostle Paul responded in a very difficult situation. This lesson about them is much more than a history lesson about Paul because what we do, how we respond to challenging situations is the clearest evidence possible of what we truly believe and WHO we truly believe in. We can voice all sorts of positive things, affirm things that sound good— but how do we react in the realities of life? NOTHING outside us causes/forces us to act in a certain way; we respond based on what is already there.  From bad language to bad actions, difficult times give us a chance to see what is in our hearts and work on changes if necessary. In these letters Paul helps us respond in ways that please God and make life much better for us. Link to the Blog, PDF of Notes, video and teaching resources is at: https://wp.me/pazrJD-10W

The content here may seem an overly intense way to encourage you to read through the Bible in Chronological Order, which Bible805 (https://wp.me/pazrJD-OO) has a variety of ways for you to do, but we are living in a time when truth seems to have lost its connection with objective reality in the minds of many and a simple encouragement to read through your Bible in the coming year didn't seem like enough. Times are tragic when now truth for many is defined by whatever social media we follow or whatever we tell ourselves is true. Jesus succinctly summed up our situation when he said, "You are in error, because you don't know the Scriptures." Truth, goodness, and beauty, the truly good life, and salvation are all found in the Scriptures, in God's Word. Truth is not humanly generated and when we forget that, when we listen to an authority other than God's Word to guide our lives, life does not go well. The following example inspired by the movie, Zone of Interest, though extreme I pray will be instructive and motiving for you to consider. For the transcript and links to all resources go here: https://wp.me/pazrJD-OO Link to the video: https://youtu.be/4w_frPQrPco?si=RC9PK7hATX6i4mVS

Romans is one of the most significant books in the Bible because it is a complete and systematic explanation of the Christian faith.  It is different than the other letters of the New Testament that were written to address specific problems in specific churches. The focus of this book was to clarify the Christian faith and our salvation—to show from start to finish that it is by grace alone through faith alone, not adherence to Jewish laws, or human effort, that salvation is possible. At the same time, it also clarifies God’s continuing expectations for those who have accepted His gift of salvation and challenges them to walk worthy. In this lesson, we’ll talk about both parts of the book. Link to the blog, notes, links to other media: https://wp.me/pazrJD-10d Link to the Podcast Video: https://youtu.be/p98S4NIbKg0 Link to the PowerPoint Video: https://youtu.be/0CFmIqkZl74?si=ILyjpkj0sVfRuYXM

A struggle for most of us who follow Jesus is that we know we should be better than we are. We know God called us to live lives that reflect our Savior, but far too often our lives reflect our world instead. As we learn in reading Paul's letters to the Corinthians, this struggle is nothing new. We can grow and become all God wants us to be, and these books and this lesson about them will help us do that. Paul begins by reminding the Corinthians of their high calling as believers and then challenges the church with specific examples where they are not living according to that calling. He doesn't leave them with negative accusations but goes on to challenge them with the reality of the abundant spiritual gifts they've been given as a church to help them live into their calling. This is a great reminder to us that the best way to grow is to focus on the positive things the Lord wants us to do. If we are wholeheartedly pursuing our calling and working hard to express the gift of love which is described in detail in 1 Corinthians 13, we will become the people God intends us to be. This lesson will give you specific ideas and challenges to do that. Here is the link to the notes, infographic, and videos of the lesson: https://wp.me/pazrJD-YM

As we learned in our previous lesson on Acts and Hebrews, when Paul first began preaching this new message of salvation in Jesus, he began by showing how Jesus was the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. As he moves further away from Jerusalem and begins to preach to people who aren’t as familiar with the Bible, he runs into both new questions and new challenges. Many of these are specific to the particular location he writes to and these letters to the Thessalonians are a good example of this as he confronts a new source of persecution that is political, not simply a religious disagreement. In the midst of this challenge, Paul encourages the young Christians with a reminder of the coming of Jesus and specific advice on how they ought to live as they wait for Him. In the lesson, we look at the familiar commands to “Pray continuously,” “Give thanks in all things,” and “Rejoice always” along with ideas on how to practice them in our lives. To help us remember these commands and the hope we have as we obey them, the lesson also has a link to a free download of the printable, “All will be well,” by Dame Julian. CLICK HERE at the Bible805 Images site, (www.Bible805Images.com) and you can download the saying in a variety of sizes and formats—they make great gifts at any time. Simply click on the "BUY NOW" button and a free download of all the images in a variety of sizes is yours. NOTE: I recently made everything on the Bible805 Images site FREE or PWYW (I greatly encourage simply clicking "Buy Now" and get them for free). There are many images of verses and sayings that can encourage people in their Christian lives--please take advantage of them and tell others about them. Paul’s reminders and challenges in these letters give us hope and encouragement as we work and wait for our Lord Jesus. Here is the link to the downloadable notes/transcript: https://wp.me/pazrJD-Yt Here is the link to the FREE printable "All will be well": https://bible805images.com/b/V2kyq  

Hebrews has a reputation for being a difficult book to understand and it is if you simply pull it out of context and without at least some knowledge of the Old Testament that it is based on, try to figure out what it is talking about. This is sad because Hebrews was intended to be a book of explanation—of how Jesus fulfilled all that was pictured in the Old Testament, how His life was the reality of what was promised before. But if you don’t know what the Old Testament promised and pictured about the coming Messiah, you’ll have a hard time understanding Hebrews. This lesson will help you understand the messages in it. This lesson is a little longer and more complex than some because it covers some complex topics, but it is well worth your time to read, listen, or watch it to help you grow as a disciple of Jesus. The lesson is also a great example of WHY it is so important for you to read your Bible, your entire Bible in chronological, historical order to be able to understand it. Bible805 has lots of resources to help you do that and next year we’ll be doing it again online and in the live class, click the following link to go to the transcript and notes: https://wp.me/pazrJD-Ya

What is the point of being a disciple? We certainly don't hear a lot about it in churches today with the emphasis from many pulpits is a combination of happy life promises, and moral outrage over whatever the latest conservative news channel is reporting, mixed in with pleas for money. What an extraordinary shift that is from the message of Jesus, from the first of his ministry when he called followers beyond merely attending his sermons, to joining with him in his life, to one of his final commands where he commanded them to share the life they'd lived for three years and to go and make disciples of all nations and to teach them to obey all he'd taught them. Regardless of the place of discipleship in many churches today, discipleship was important to Jesus. Disciples, making them, teaching them, living with them, were a priority of his life. This lesson looks at one passage, Luke 14:15-35 on how Jesus describes in various ways what it means to be a disciple. Regardless of how important it is to any group we are part of or people we fellowship with, because discipleship is important to Jesus, it needs to be important to us. No matter what the challenges and demands of our life, we need to grow in it. I pray this lesson is useful to help you do that. If you would like to teach the lesson, the source materials for it are available through the Bible805 Academy (https://www.Bible805Academy.com) where you can download the source PowerPoint, editable notes, questions, the video and podcast without advertisements or distractions, and other related materials. All these materials are available for $2.99 a lesson, $5.99 a month, or $36 a year. There are many lessons on the site and free ones for you to try. As a member of the Bible805 Academy, I grant you permission to make unlimited copies of the materials and to edit them as needed for your audience. They are offered at this extremely low price so that any church, regardless of size or location has access to in-depth Bible teaching resources. If even that cost is too much, simply email me at [email protected] and I'll give you free access. CLICK HERE to go to the Bible805 Academy.

It's common to hear, even from those who seem very knowledgeable about the Christian faith and the Bible that "the Trinity is very hard to understand" or that "the Trinity is a mystery," or a similar statement. I STRONGLY disagree! Our God wants us to know Him and understand Him and I don't believe the essential doctrine of the Trinity is difficult when it is explained correctly and supported from what the Bible clearly teaches. That's what this lesson attempts to do. I don't claim credit for the basic ideas or the organization of them. I was fortunate to have an excellent Bible teacher when I was young in my faith who clearly taught the basic doctrines of the Bible. In years of study since then, in graduate school studying church history, seminary, and many years of study and teaching, I've refined the presentation of it and this lesson in various forms has proved helpful to people. Following are the Handouts for the Lesson, along with notes, questions, and infographics on it, the podcast, and videos of the lesson. All these materials are free for you to use and share. If you would like to teach the lesson, the source materials for it are available through the Bible805 Academy where you can download the source PowerPoint, editable notes, questions, the video and podcast without advertisements or distractions, and other related materials. All these materials are available for $2.99 a lesson, $5.99 a month, or $36 a year. There are many lessons on the site and free ones for you to try. As a member of the Bible805 Academy, I grant you permission to make unlimited copies of the materials and to edit them as needed for your audience. They are offered at this extremely low price so that any church, regardless of size or location has access to in-depth Bible teaching resources. If even that cost is too low, simply email me at [email protected] and I'll give you free access. CLICK HERE to go to the Bible805 Academy.