How do we get our English Bibles? What are the documents that the Bible translators work from? Haven’t all of the original documents been lost or destroyed? Is it true that all we have now are copies of copies and that they are full of errors?

The questions of Bible translation are difficult and complex. Some scholars would have you believe that we are in an impossible position because we don’t have any original documents and all we’re left with is a bunch of error-ridden copies of copies [of copies of copies…]. Like in the game “Telephone” where a message is passed from person to person and is inevitably changed at the end, the message of Scripture has been passed on so many times that we can’t possibly discover the original. Bart Ehrman even says that there are more errors in our New Testament documents than there are words!

And technically speaking, he’s right. There are more errors than the words. And we don’t have any of the original documents. All we have are copies of copies and all of them are at least slightly different from each other. <sarcasm>What a hopeless state we’re in! We can’t possibly trust the Bible! My whole system of faith is falling apart!</sarcasm> 

While it would certainly be easier if we had all of the original manuscripts of the Bible, we are not without hope. We can identify, with as much assurance as possible, the original readings of Scripture. As the man says, “There’s an app for that.” Our app is called textual criticism, and it is a proven scientific method for determining the original reading of ancient texts. Let’s do a contemporary English example.

Imagine that you’ve got five pieces of paper that are all supposed to say the same thing, but they’re all different. Your task is to reconstruct the original message of which these five are copies. Let’s look at them:

1. Thee Bucki’s will win the national champion ship this year.
2. The Buckees wil wind the nashunal championship this year.
3. The Buckeyes will win the Big Ten Championship this year.
4. The Wolverines will win the National Championship this year.
5. The Buckeyes will win the National Championship this decade.

Now let’s examine each one in turn. #1 was clearly written by someone unfamiliar with college football, but you can still discern a coherent message if you know what they probably meant to say. #2 was written by an awful speller. #3 was written by someone who lacked faith. #4 was written by a heretic. #5 was written by a revisionist historian.

With these five texts in front of you, you can begin to piece together the original message. The first word is obviously The, with the only variant being a misspelling. The second word is interesting, not because of the misspellings, but because of #4’s insertion of “Wolverines”. In this instance, you would likely conclude that the original reading is Buckeyes, but you may also add a footnote that says something like, “one obviously heretical document substitutes Wolverines”. The third, fourth, and fifth words are easily discernible: will win the. The sixth word is interesting because you have another substitution. But which one is it? By all appearances it should be National, but if document #3 is unusually credible and strong, it could be Big Ten. In this case, it’s wisest to go with National, but to also include a footnote for Big Ten. The seventh and eighth words are clearly Championship this. The final word seems obvious, but we have another example of a single pesky variant. Here again, we’ll choose year but have a footnote for decade.

So our final text would read: The Buckeyes¹ will win the National² Championship this year³.

And we can be quite certain that this is, indeed, the word of the Lord.

Okay, so I made that word up. But many of us experience a deep, irrational fear of evangelism. I know I do. Where does this fear come from? Why is it so crippling?

When I was in college, I spent two summers in Myrtle Beach attending Great Commission Ministries’ Leadership Training program. One of the primary components of that program—the component I dreaded the most—was beach evangelism. For those of you who have never had to endure had the opportunity to experience beach evangelism, let me describe the basic steps of it for you. 

1. Walk up to someone you don’t know and ask them, “If you were to die tonight, how confident are you that you would go to heaven?”
2. From there, share the good news that Jesus died for their sins and that, if they accept him as their Savior, then they can be absolutely certain that they’ll go to heaven when they die.

I’ll leave aside all of the theological and sociological problems I have with this approach to evangelism and just say that this is the most terrifying thing I’ve ever done. I used to pray that it would rain on our designated beach evangelism days. In fact, the only fond memory I have beach evangelism is the day that it actually did rain and I got to sit down with my partner and talk about our lives (and how much we both hated doing beach evangelism).

But, if we are honest, it can be just as terrifying to share the gospel with someone we know and love. Perhaps more than anything else, fear is what keeps us from sharing the gospel with others. What are some of your fears as they relate to evangelism? Here is a list of some of the fears that creep in when evangelism comes up:

• The message will be rejected (or you will be rejected)
• They will ask a question for which you don’t have an answer
• The conversation may devolve into an argument
• You will reflect poorly on Jesus
• You will come across as overbearing, judgmental, and close-minded

Did you find your fear in that list? Perhaps you could add to it. Evangelism makes us vulnerable. We are communicating a message that is both loved and hated throughout the world—almost no one is neutral when it comes to the cross. The message of the cross is, perhaps, the most divisive message in history. Paul said that, to those who are being saved, we [evangelists] are a fragrance of life; but to those who reject the gospel, we are like the stench of death. 

Despite our evangelophobia, our fear of evangelism, God commands us to proclaim the good news that Jesus is the Christ, that he died for our sins, that he was buried, and that he rose again on the third day. He also commands us (more than anything else in the whole Bible) to not be afraid! The next time you feel fear creeping in, let these verses come to your mind and give you courage.

I John 4:18 | There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

II Timothy 1:7 | For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.

I Peter 3:15 | But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.

Joshua 1:9 | Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.

If we are motivated by love, empowered by the spirit, fully prepared, and assured of God’s presence with us, then there is nothing to be afraid of! 

The temple in Jerusalem was, in the first century, the center point of Jewish national identity. It was the heart and soul of Jewish culture and faith, and represented her status as the chosen people of the one true God. Despite her enslavement to Rome, she still had her temple, and was therefore free to worship YHWH rather than the Roman pantheon and emperors.

The temple was not, however, without its detractors. Some Jews regarded it as a symbol of the corruption of the nation. They thought it a sham, and the worship that went on there to be illegitimate.

Jesus’ own relationship to the temple was, naturally, more nuanced than either blind acceptance or outright rejection. His intention all along was to replace the temple with himself.

Jesus closed the “Sermon on the Mount” with these words: “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”

The “house on the rock” is a clear reference to the temple and its location in Jerusalem (it is often called the “Temple Mount”, and today the mosque built on the old temple grounds is called “the Dome of the Rock”). In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is laying the groundwork for his own replacement of the temple. The true temple, he says, will not be built on a rock in Jerusalem, but on something stronger—my words and your faith in action.

Toward the end of his life, when on trial before the chief priests, Jesus was accused of saying “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.” (John records him saying these words when he clears the temple, in chapter 2.) Jesus, of course, did say this, and when he said it he was standing in the temple courts. Jesus was not referring to the temple building, but rather to his own body. He was not claiming to be able to reconstruct the temple building after its destruction. He was claiming to be able to resurrect his own body after his death.

Though he was being intentionally vague, and few, if any, seemed to catch it at first, Jesus changed the meaning of the word “temple”. The building on the rock was no longer the temple; that is, it was no longer the place where YHWH met with his people. That place—that temple—was now Jesus himself.

In Mark 13, Jesus prophesied that the temple would be destroyed within a generation. “Do you see all these great buildings?” replied Jesus. “Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down. …I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.” In 70 AD, less than 40 years after Jesus made this prophesy, the temple was completely destroyed by the Romans. Jesus was vindicated.

What got him into the most trouble in his lifetime was most likely his enactment of this temple destruction. We think of it in terms of “cleansing”, but it was really a judgment. When Jesus ran out the moneychangers and turned over the tables, he was not merely condemning the commercialization of worship. He was condemning the whole temple system—attacking the very core of Jewish identity and practice.

This was an act of reorientation. The people of God most no longer orient themselves around the temple building, but now they must be oriented around the person of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the King. Jesus and the temple could not coexist. You either met God at the temple, or you met God in Jesus. The destruction of the temple in 70 AD vindicated Jesus’ claim (and fulfilled his prophesy) that he is the new temple. God is now present to his people only in and through Jesus Christ.