This is the transcript of Restitutio episode 530: Why Should You Read the Bible? with Sean Finnegan

This transcript was auto-generated and only approximates the contents of this episode.

Hey there, I'm Sean Finnegan. And you are listening to Restitutio podcast that seeks to recover authentic Christianity and live it out today. 
Today we are beginning a new class called read the Bible for yourself. Whether you are new to Scripture or you've been reading it for. This class will empower you to read and understand the Bible like never before. You'll gain key insights into the context, content, and application of Scripture so that you can take your reading and understanding to the next level. Today, I want to begin with the question why should you read the Bible for your? Why is this book even worth your time? For those of you who have been reading it for? Years you get it, but. How would you inspire a desire in someone else to go through the hard work of learning to read the Bible proficiently? Maybe you have a friend. Maybe you have a child. Maybe you yourself are brand new to reading the Bible. And just want to gain a little understanding to make the process easier. Whatever your situation is. This episode is going to show you why everyone, even non Christians, should put in the effort to. Read the good book. Here now is episode 531. Read the Bible for yourself. Part one. Why should you read the Bible for yourself? Well, hello. I'm Sean Finnegan. And you are here taking the class. Read the Bible for yourself. And today this is part one. Why should you read the Bible for yourself? I'm excited about this time. I think it's going to be great. And I'm very excited to delve into the scriptures. I I believe I have a very high opinion of the Bible. I think it's really worth your time. You're going to develop a deeper understanding of what the Bible is in this class. You're going to learn to read Scripture within its historical context and really think through how to apply it in your own life. The idea is to empower you to become even better. Or if you're new to this, to to gain some skill at reading the Bible and interpreting it and applying it to your own life. We're going to go section by section through the Bible. After a little while, we'll look at how to read the Old Testament historical narrative, how to read Old Testament law, how to read the wisdom literature, the Psalms and the, you know, different sections of the New Testament. And when we're done, my prayer is that you will feel empowered to read the Bible. For yourself so. We have to begin somewhere and where I want to begin is with the question why should you care? Why should you even want to read the Bible? So that's what we're going to do right now is look at that question. And basically my point is simply this. The Bible is fascinating. The Bible is worth your time. It is incredibly intriguing. I think there's more to it than that, but there's certainly not less to it than that written by over 40 people over 1000 year period of time. It has stood the test of time. We're going to look at 3 facts about the Bible. We're going to look at the preservation of the manuscripts, the handwritten copies of the Bible. We're going to look at the translations and finally sales. So first up, manuscripts manuscripts. You can almost hear the word hand in there if you have some Latin familiarity, or maybe some French. It's handwritten, is what the word manuscript means. There are many ancient documents that have survived the ravages of time that exist in museums around the world and. The Bible is not special in that regard because there are lots of other ancient documents until the year in the 1400s, when you Johannes Gutenberg developed his printing press and and books started getting printed. After that, we don't really have too many handwritten copies anymore. So when we say manuscripts we. We are generally talking about pre printing press and certainly then in the 20th century we have digital text, you know, so it's a whole different kind of. Information. But the manuscripts are ancient texts.
You may have heard of the Dead Sea Scrolls is probably the most famous biblical collection of manuscripts found. I like to call it the belly button of the earth. The lowest place on the planet is the. Dead Sea? I don't know. If you know that, but the Dead Sea. Is a very dry region, very hot, and they found some clay pots in a cave and. Believe it or not, they had the most ancient manuscripts of many parts of the Bible in. There. So that's an example of a manuscript. What I want to do is look at comparisons and so I've got a list here of Greek manuscripts of other ancient literature, Greek literature, and we can compare that to the New Testament. The New Testament is the second part of the Bible. The first part is called the Old Testament. Second part is called the New Testament. Since the New Testament was written in Greek, is comparable to many of these other documents. So we have facilities. He wrote a book called The Annals and 30 three of those manuscripts survive in museums around the world through sides, wrote the history of the Peloponnesian War. 96 of those manuscripts survive. Plenty of the elder wrote a Natural History of the world. 200 of those survive. Demosthenes has his speeches. 340 of those survived. Homer. Iliad. Absolute superstar, right. 1757 copies of Homer's Iliad are extant. On the planet. Which is incredible. Absolutely insane to think about that, that many scraps of paper, ancient scraps of paper, would have survived. But then when it comes to the New Testament, we are just amazed to see 5795 fragments and entire manuscript scrolls. Or codices have survived 5795, it's a staggering number when you compare it to the other ancient documents in its class, it is just. Kind of amazing. It really is amazing. Now if we add in the ancient Armenian, Coptic Gothic, Ethiopian, Latin, Syriac, Georgian and Slavic translations. And we don't just count the Greek. The original Greek manuscripts. We also count the early translations that are ancient, and they're written on papyrus. Is 23,769 and that's just the New Testament. It's just it's just the same. Now it gets, it gets even crazier. So Homer's Iliad has 1757 copies, right? The New Testament has 13. Times as many copies have survived. But what what's incredible about it is that the Iliad is is fairly long, 52,000 words. The New Testament is insanely long. It's 138,000 words. So it's not like you're just copying some little short thing. This is a massive endeavor. Copying even just the second portion of the Bible. In fact, the Bible is 2 1/2 times. Longer than Homer's Iliad. But wait, there's more. We add in the Hebrew Bible, there's another 306,000 words. In the Bible. And many more manuscripts. The New Testament, as it turns out, is only 31%. If you if you count by the original language, is not by like an English translation. The New Testament is 31% of the entire Bible. So the Bible has far more copies than any comparable ancient document. What does that tell you? A lot of people over a long period of time have considered it. Worth copying? That's all it. Tells you, but I love that I love to see that so many human beings, and not necessarily westerners or people from this country, but people from all different places. That they have been copying this for so many centuries. It tells me that there's there's something going on here, something of interest. Let's look at our second fact, which is languages. When a book is particularly engaging, people translate it into other languages. 
If A book goes Viral it may even get translated into dozens of languages. So I have a table here of a number of different best translated books. These books have been translated to many languages the the one on the top there Jr. tokens, the Lord of the Rings has been translated into 57 languages. I don't even think I could name 57 languages. You know that's that's a lot of land. Mark Twain's adventures of Huckleberry Finn, 65 languages. JK Rowling, Harry Potter, 85 languages Mohammed's Quran 102 languages. Joseph Smith's Book of Mormon, 115 languages, and so on. Of course, the the the top one there. Feeding Pinocchio, which has 260, is. The little Prince, which is a French book. By Antoine de St. Exupery I think I pretty much butchered that, but anyhow 505 incredible staggering 505 languages, this little kids book is just a superstar. Popular book translated so many times, but what about the Bible? 698 languages? 698 languages. Look, I'm not making this stuff. These are just facts just found on the planet. What does that tell you? Well, it tells you the Bible is the most translated book of all time. Which is crazy because the Bible is so long. It's so long to translate the Bible and the Bible is written not in modern it's not like written in modern English or French or Chinese. It's written in ancient languages that are hard to understand and learn about. And this book, on average is about 1300 pages long, which is 13 1/2 times as long as. The little Prince. If your average person really worked at it, he or she could learn ancient Greek, ancient Hebrew, ancient Aramaic, and translate the Bible. But probably take your whole life.
because you now you gotta learn these three languages and Hebrew and Aramaic are very similar, so it's it's not too bad there, but you know, ancient Hebrew and ancient Greek are not similar. They're they're not even like in the same ballpark. They're just totally different. Different than to be able to translate all the way through would take a long and yet we have the Bible in more languages than any other book on the planet. That to me is a staggering thought. So many people over many years have considered the Bible worthy of getting into their language. All right, let's move on to money. They say money talks. Let's talk about sales. What people spend their money on tells you what they value. Let's look at some top selling books, Leo Tolstoy's war. Piece 36 million copies sold book originally written in Russia and course have been translated, but 36 million copies. So the Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown 80 million. Skipping down a little bit, we have Charles Dickens, a tale of two cities, 200 million copies sold. Wow. And then, of course, the little prints again 200 million as well. But what about the Bible? How much does the Bible sell? It's just not even close. It's like it's so embarrassingly the the gap is so embarrassing that. Like on the Wikipedia page, they won't even. Put the number because it's just like it makes all the other books look unpopular. They estimate, and this is just an estimate from the year 1815 to today. So we're not talking about the 1st 18 or so centuries of the Bible being around, says 1815 to today, 5 to 7 billion copies of the Bible have been sold. It sells 80 million copies a year. Year after year after year, that's just that's. Incredible stacked side by side. Assuming only 1 1/2 inches per Bible and 5 billion Bibles sold, this adds up to 118,000 miles. The earth is only 24,901 miles around the equator, which means that if you just stacked all the Bible soul from 1815 to today around the equator of the earth, you could wrap the entire planet 4.7 times in the. Bibles that have been sold. It's just a staggering, staggering number. What kind of book are we talking about here now? Of course, this doesn't prove the Bible. Is from God but. If the Bible were from God, it would make sense that he would want to make sure it's preserved extremely well in comparison to all other ancient documents that it would be translated so many people from many different tribes and nations and languages would be able to read it, and that people would recognize there's something different about this book and. Be able to value it as they have so. Aren't you curious? What this book says? Right. Does this make you like, oh? What's what's in there? What's in this? This unusual book aren't you curious about God, about life, about eternity? These are the the subjects that the Bible addresses. Why should you read your Bible for yourself? That's really that's really the question, right? Well, I think first of all, it's fascinating. It's intriguing. A lot of other people from a lot of different backgrounds have all thought this book is worth their time. But secondly, you should read it for yourself because there's a lot of misinformation. Out there. So I want to give you a pop quiz. Which two of these sayings are from the Bible? Here we go. Cleanliness is next to godliness. 2:00 AM I my brothers. Keeper 3 God helps those who help themselves. 4 This too shall pass. 5A Living Dog is better than a dead lion. 6 God works in mysterious ways, and seven moderation in all things. It's hard to spot the fakes. It's hard to spot the fakes when they train experts on counterfeit money. They have them study real money. Because by studying the genuine article, when you encounter a fake, you could spot it a little bit easier. Just like becoming an expert in understanding what genuine money looks like, you know it has a hologram. It has, you know, color stripe on it. It has a certain font, it has a certain proportion. All these different things. You can then be able to spot the fake much easier. And so that's part of what we're going to be doing. In this class is just developing. Your your skills in the Bible so that you are not going to be easily deceived. Because let's face it, there's tons of. Misinformation out there. I don't care what your source is, whether you you want to look at. Podcasts, YouTube videos, Christian radio published books. Everyone would agree all Christians would agree that not all of it is accurate because some of us got to be wrong because there there's plenty of conflict within it. So the safest thing for you to do is to develop your ability to. Read the Bible for. Yourself. This first one here. Cleanliness is next to godliness. John Wesley said that in 1791. In a sermon he preached. Am I my brother's keeper? Who said that? Kane Kane said that speaking to God in Genesis 49, so that's one of our two correct statements from the Bible. God helps those who help themselves. Well, that's an actually an ancient Greek saying. And originally it said the gods help those who help themselves, not God, but the gods. Because you know the Greek gods. Of course they want you to be self-sufficient. They don't want to be. Bothered by your problems? #4, this too shall pass. This is an ancient Persian saying from the 12th century, popularized by Edward Fitzgerald in the 1800s in English. A living dog is better than a dead lion. Ecclesiastes 9 four that is from the Bible, and it's definitely true. Living dogs are way better than dead lions in my opinion. I don't know. Number six. God works in mysterious ways. William Calper in 1774 wrote a hymn that said God moves in a mysterious way and that eventually gave birth to this, saying that we have in English, but it's not from the Bible and the number 7 moderation in all things. That is from a Greek poet named Hessian from the year 700 BC. It's not bad. It's just not in the Bible. That was my point. For the record, I think the Bible is more than just an interesting book. I think it's a book that can change your life, that you can be going in One Direction just like a train. And then you change tracks and go in a different direction. And I believe that because. I believe the Bible is inspired. I believe that God is behind Scripture that he is. He has worked to produce it, to help it to be brought into existence in the 1st place, but then he's also here now as you read Scripture to help you apply it to your life and to imbue it with the spiritual power it says in Second Timothy, Chapter 3, verse 14. Through 17 continue in what you have learned and firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have known sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. So this is talking about the scriptures. He calls them here sacred writings that are able to instruct you. You can find instructions in the Bible. It goes on. All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, reproof, correction, and training and righteousness so that the person of God may be proficient equipped for every good work. So that you know I'm using the NRSV UE that stands for new revised standard version updated edition for this class. It's a fairly new translation, it's only a couple of years old. I can get into why I picked this one later in the class. We're going to look at translations and all that. Suffice it to say, it's not perfect. But it does have a good balance between being a very literal translation and also being readable. Alright, so verse 16 it says this scripture is inspired by God. This does not mean that God dictated every word of the Bible, and the person heard it as a voice in their ear and wrote it down. Although sometimes I think that happened like with the prophets, when they say thus says the Lord. I think they are quoting God because God speaks in the first person, but that doesn't mean that every part of the Bible is dictated. But I believe, however God did it, which he doesn't exactly tell us how he inspired, how he caused what he wanted to be written to. Be written, we do know. That what the authors wrote is what God wanted. Them to write. That's what we know. How exactly it happened? What's the mechanism? He doesn't explain, but that scripture is inspired by God. It's actually from a Greek word that means it's breathed out by God. So God was behind the production of Scripture such that what he wants written is what is written. The second point here I wanted to look at is that it's useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness. We need this. We need teaching, we need to know how to believe and and what to think about the world and what to think about God and what to think about each other. And we also need. If we're really honest, we do need. Reproof from time. To time we need to be set. Straight. Maybe we can at least agree other people. Need to be reproved. Maybe not, maybe not you, but. Somebody you know, your your neighbor? Needs to be approved from. Time to time your coworker needs. It some correction, we need training and righteousness and this is really what the Bible is for and I love this list. Here the end result of Scripture is that you. Will become proficient equipped for every good work that you would. You would have what you need for life so that you can lead a godly life and that you would be able to lock in with what God says is right. The idea is simple. If God inspired the authors who wrote the different books of the Bible, then the Bible has God's authority in it. Just like if you cause something else to be done in a similar kind of way, it would have your authority on it because God is behind Scripture, ensuring that what gets written is what he wanted. He backs it up, he imbues it with authority, which means if you disagree with the Bible, you're wrong. Let's just put it this way, if there if there is a God who created the heavens of the earth, he probably knows more than any one of us probably, definitely come on. He definitely knows more than any one of us. So if we are going to disagree with him, we are the ones that need to yield. We need to bend and we need to change. The Bible is God's insider perspective on life. Think about that for a moment. Now you can read the Bible academically. Just and there's lots of scholars that do this. They're called critical scholars and they have their own rules for how to read Scripture. You can read it as fiction. You don't believe any of. It's true. You're just curious about it. You treat it like a bunch of stories or myths. You can read the Bible as entertainment. It is actually enjoy it's it's world class literature. I remember hearing the the testimony of one man who had become an author and he was really big into literature and he he wasn't a believer and but he just he just really wanted to understand the underpinnings of all the great masterpieces in the English language. And so we read the Bible to get the back story on what has inspired so many other people, right? I mean, it is really incredible like that you can read. The Bible as. An outsider looking to understand the Christians in your life. Maybe you have some Christian friends and you're like, you know, I want to understand these strange people. Let me read their holy text. Right. That's fine. But I recommend. You read the Bible. As inspired Scripture, I think if. You want to. Get maximum impact you. Read it as inspired Scripture and understand it as having God's authority on. It I'd like to end with a cautionary tale. In the 1980s, there was a man named Vernon Howell. He joined a group of Bible believing Christians, and he studied the Bible diligently. He got fixated on the Book of Revelation and. If you ever read the Book of Revelation, we'll we'll get to it in this class. But if you ever read the Book of Revelation, there's all these visionary symbols and somewhere almost like a dream of of like a fantasy genre. We've got Dragons and stuff. It's pretty cool, actually, but anyhow. He, he, he. Started applying these these visions and these prophecies to. His own life. Part of the group decided. To move in together and live out their convictions. And at this time, how we'll change his name. To David koresh. Which he instituted polygamy. That's where you marry multiple women. Based on his reading of the Bible. And he stockpile weapons based on his reading of the Book of Revelation. The idea that there was going to be a great apocalyptic Armageddon at the end of time. Ohh shoot. We need to get some weapons here. This guy is thoroughly biblical in what he did.
The Bureau of Alcohol, tobacco and firearms took notice of David Koresh and his Branch Davidians. In 1993 and alerted the FBI, who then launched a raid. In Waco, TX on this group. After 51 days, they shot tear gas canisters into the compound, resulting in a fire that killed 79 people. It was a disaster. It's. A disaster in American history. And here's here's the thing. The story shows us the story of David Koresh, shows us. You can read the Bible, you can study. It you can treat it. With respect, you can believe it's inspired by. God and you can still get it totally wrong. That's why it's an important story for us to think with. You also need to learn how to. Interpret the Bible. So just treating it with respect and reading it and believing. It is not good. Enough. You also have to learn how. To interpret it. Correctly and you're going to learn how to do that in this class. We're we're going to get into that subject in just a few sessions here. The same book. That inspired Koresh and the Branch Davidians, and the whole crisis there in Waco, TX, that same book inspired mother. Teresa and you know, huge improvements in law and people that founded hospitals and all kinds of humanitarian agencies that a lot of times are named after a St. or after an Angel or after some person from the Bible. We get life saving homeless shelters, food banks, the abolition of slavery and countless change lives. So the same book is is inspiring. Yes, some wackos, but also a lot of other good things. And what's the difference? The difference is how do you interpret it? So we're going to get. Into that in this class. Let's review. The Bible is a fascinating book because it has way more surviving manuscripts. It is available in way more languages, and it has sold way more copies than other books. The content of Scripture alone should make you want to read it, since it teaches you about God, life, morals and eternity. This class will help you develop the ability to discern between the genuine and the counterfeit. God inspired Scripture, making its authoritative contents useful for belief and practice. Even recognizing the authority of Scripture and studying it assiduously do not guarantee correct interpretation. So what do you think? Are you excited to? Read the Bible for yourself. I hope you. Are next time we'll look at what you need to know about your Bible. As we continue to learn how to read the Bible for yourself. Well, that brings this teaching to a close. What do you think? Come on over to restitutio.org and find Episode 531, part one of our read the Bible for yourself class. And leave your feedback there. Speaking of feedback, Sam wrote in on episode 529 saying do you have your book available in Kindle format as well? Well, Sam, I've got good news for you. It might have taken the publisher weeks to get it done. I'm not really sure. The whole process is somewhat of a mystery to me. But it's now out. As a Kindle book, if you're an ebook person, and if you would like to get my book called Kingdom Journey, it's now available on Amazon. You can get the paperback version or the Kindle version someday. There may be a hardback version, and I am still hard at work on the. Audio version which is a ways off. I can just say right? You know, I've recorded maybe half of it, but it all needs to be edited so I wouldn't hold your breath on that. If you really want to get the book, probably best to get either the print or the Kindle. For now. I will certainly let you know when the audio version is available, so check that out. You can just search Amazon for Kingdom. Bernie or my name Sean Finnegan, as it turns out, there are many Sean Finnegans in the world, even on Amazon. There are three or. Four of us who have written book. Curse of having a very ethnically matching name, first name, last name, Irish, Irish. So anyhow, I put the P in just to distinguish myself a little bit from the other. Sean, Finnegans although it is also the case that P is the most common middle initial for Sean Finnigan's in the world too, I am not making this stuff up. But anyhow, you should be able to find it. It's called Kingdom journey. Sean Pefe and again. And thanks to those of you who have rated the book we've got, I think 7 ratings in so far and five or six reviews on Amazon. And if you are willing to also write a review, it really helps a lot because. Is this is a gauge people use to judge whether this book is worth their time? Is it legitimate? Is it credible? How many reviews does it have? Oh, just it just has seven reviews. I don't know. So yeah, if you're the type that doesn't mind doing an Amazon review, I of course would certainly appreciate it, especially if you also give it a high rating. So. Thanks to those of you who have done that, I realize a lot of people. The book is still very new. A lot of people have not yet read it, so Please wait till you read it before. You give me a review as that would be the best way to do it. Bobby Wolfe wrote in on last episode 530 God's Heart First Shalom. It was a stand alone sermon I put out last week and he says every one of your sermons makes me and my wife laugh, think and learn. Brother, we are very blessed to have you and very thankful that you allow us who without technology. Would be deprived of your sermons the opportunity to be a part of your church, Shalom, Pastor Sean. We love you, brother. Well, thanks so much, Bobby Wolfe for writing in. I it's always encouraging to hear from you and from folks who are blessed from the work that I do. I do try to when I preach, preach in such a way that it's not just saying everything straightforwardly the same way that I've said it. 100 other times I really do. For better or for worse, I really do try to find new ways to say the same. Thing and that I think is really important, especially for people in my own church locally here in New York where they are going to hear a lot of material, just like in any church, you're going to hear this a lot of repeat material over and over again because. That's really important and you always have new people coming in and you have a lot of people that are not focused for whatever reason. One particular week. I mean you can you, I've seen this now that I've been pastoring for nearly 20 years. You see somebody who has sat. Week after week, year after. Year and they have no idea on a certain subject that you know you have preached multiple times in their hearing. And hey, it's all a mystery to me. I wish I had better insight into how the whole thing works. But then one day it sinks in and the person was like, Oh my goodness. Did you know I'm? Yeah, yeah, I've been teaching that for 10 years. They're like, oh, this is incredible. So, hey. However, it works. I hope that people stay engaged. I think one of the greatest. Sins of preachers. Today is being boring and I really strive to avoid that, and so I'm glad to hear feedback from people like you. Someone named Mulu, Messel wrote in on YouTube for our last episode and said. You going to start calling Jesus, Yeshua. And why are you posting vids of the Wailing wall? You know, typically I don't respond to these, but this is like red to a bull. I just can't not say something here. Why do I say Jesus instead of Yeshua? Here's my response. The brim of rich Omarim Yeshua, but. In English we say Jesus did you catch? The first part of that sentence. No, you didn't. Well, that's because it was Hebrew. And what I said is. If we are speaking in Hebrew, we say Yeshua. But in English we say Jesus and look, this is just the way it is for names. If you want to speak Hebrew, God bless you, say Yeshua. It makes sense. But we're speaking English and the way you say Yeshua in English is Jesus. And I think we need to have a little freedom in Christ on this subject and not make a big deal out of it. So many people will learn to say Jesus in Hebrew and a couple of other words, and then now they're going to get on their high horses and criticize others. Not that I'm saying this particular person is doing that. I'm just saying I've. Definitely encounter that a lot. And I don't think it's a helpful approach. I think we need to stay accessible to non Christians and that's certainly my greater concern as a pastor, as a teacher, is that some rando comes in off the street or is dragged there by a family member or it comes because they're interested in a girl or a guy in the congregation and they're they're just there and they don't really know what to. I don't want to alienate them, or I certainly also don't want to compromise, and they know the name Jesus. They have no idea what you show is and Yahoo and you're Yahoo and so on and so forth. So anyhow, that's my reasoning for that. And then the same person goes on to ask why are. You posting vids of the whaling? Well, if you. Listen to the episode I talk about the Wailing wall and I talk about the Jewish practice of prayer and the best way to understand the Jewish practice of prayer is to watch Jewish people praying, and a few years ago, when I was at the Western Wall, which they prefer to call it, not the wailing. I was able to take some videos of Jewish people donning this is this rocking motion where they go back and forth while they're saying their prayers and they're dressed in their prayer shawls and they have their scripture boxes on their foreheads and on their arms and. They're wearing their tassels, you know, it just shows you what it is. Deuteronomy Chapter 6 is talking about. So it was as an illustration. Of episode 529. So if you haven't taken a look at that yet and you're interested in Jewish prayer, customs and stuff, take a look at Episode 529, which is called remember, and you'll see what we're talking about here. All right, well, that's enough for today. Thanks, everyone for listening in to the end. If you'd like to support us, you. Can do that. At restitutio.org, we'll catch you next week. And remember, the truth has nothing to fear.