Hey guys!
Now, this is the fourth video of our series called
'Can we really trust the Bible?'
And in this video, we're gonna look at the proof of non-biblical writers.
Now, there are a lot of skeptics out there who say;
"You know, you can't really trust the Bible
or any stories of it, because there's just not enough
truth outside of the Bible...
It's just something the church made up
to control people."
But is that true?
No, if we look at the facts, it's definitely not true.
There are a lot of non-biblical writers that actually prove to us
that you can trust the Bible because it is true.
Let's have a look at it!
Now, first of all, you need to know that there is an enormous
amount of external evidence that prove to us
that the Bible is true.
Like the excavation of Jericho which showed us
that the walls actually did really fall.
Exactly as described in the book of Joshua.
Now, archaeology definitely confirms scripture, as I have already explained in my previous video,
but there is also a lot of evidence of non-biblical writers
who confirm the events that happened in the Bible.
Now, there's a lot of them, so I'm just gonna focus, in this video,
on Jesus Christ.
Many people say 'Jesus was just a myth - He didn't exist...
It's just made up'
But then, as is usually the case;
new evidence proved them wrong.
They found non-biblical accounts of Jesus, from contemporary writers,
Like: Josephus, the Babylonian Talmud,
Pliny the Younger, Mara bar-Serapion, Tacitus and others who wrote about Jesus and Christians.
Let's have a look at Tacitus first:
Who was Tacitus?
His real name was Publius Cornelius Tacitus.
He was a senator and a historian of the Roman Empire in the first century AD.
So he basically examined reigns between 14. AD and 70. AD
And then when he wrote about Nero,
he first mentioned the Christian sect and then he said the following about Jesus;
"...Christus, the founder of the name,
was put to death by Pontius Pilate,
procurator of Judea in the reigning of Tiberius."
Now, of course this can be trusted because he can be seen as the enemy
of Jesus Christ, in that time, so he had no reason to lie.
We can clearly see that he confirms the existence of Jesus,
His followers, and that He was put to death by Pilate.
The Babylonian Talmud.
Now, if you've never heard of this before, it is basically a collection
of Jewish writings
that covers the history of the Jews after the time of the Bible.
And the Sanhedrin also talks about Jesus. For example;
In Sanhedrin 43A, it talks about how Jesus led many Jews astray.
And you remember in the Bible when they wanted to stone Jesus?
The Talmud says; 'He is going to be stoned because of His sorcery.'
Now, this is very interesting because it not only proves that Jesus existed,
but also that He had supernatural powers.
Now, of course they didn't want to admit that it comes from God,
so they said it came from sorcery or from evil.
Josephus.
Who was Josephus?
Flavius Josephus. He was born in Jerusalem
and he was a Romano-Jewish scholar and historian
and he also lived in the 1st century AD.
And this is what he wrote;
"At this time, there was a wise man who was called Jesus.
And His conduct was good, and He was known to be virtuous.
And many people from among the Jews and other nations
became His disciples.
Pilate condemned Him to be crucified and to die."
Now listen to what he says next;
"And those who became His disciples did not abandon His discipleship.
They reported that He had appeared to them after His crucifixion
and that He was alive: accordingly, He was perhaps the Messiah
concerning whom the prophets have recounted wonders."
This is amazing isn't it?
It comes from a Jewish writer, a non-christian,
in Arabic translations.
He had no reason to lie because he had no reason to confirm any Christian teachings.
Let's look at the next one!
Mara bar Serapion
Now...
I hope that is how you pronounce his name, but anyway...
he wrote a letter to his son, who is also called Serapion,
and he wrote about the unjust treatment of three wise men.
1. The murder of Socrates 2. The burning of Pythagoras
and 3. The execution of "The Wise King" of the Jews.
Which is Jesus.
Pliny the Younger.
Pliny the Younger was the Roman governor of Bithynia and Pontus.
And he wrote a letter to Emperor Trajan in around 112 AD,
and he asked him,
how should he deal with the Christians?
And in his letter he also writes how they "sing responsively a hymn to Christ
as to a God."
So this clearly shows us that the early Christians clearly regarded Jesus Christ as God.
There're also other outside sources that you can read like Lucian and Suetonius [I think...
I'm not sure how you pronounce his name]
But the non-biblical writers who wrote about the events of the Bible,
clearly confirm the following;
1. Jesus was a good-natured and virtuous man.
2. He was believed to be the Messiah and a god.
3. His disciples claimed that He had risen from the grave.
4. And He was a man who had supernatural power.
5. And He was a teacher who amassed a large following.
So these are the facts!
We have multiple sources outside of the Bible
that clearly show us
that Jesus is not some kind of myth or
somebody that's just made up by the church to control people.
The events of Jesus Christ
are TRUE.
He died on the cross 2000 years ago, for your sins and for mine.
He rose from the dead
from the grave
and He's gonna come back again!
Are you ready?
Because I sure am.
Now,
in the next video we're gonna continue this series of
'Can we really trust the Bible?'
and we're gonna look at science vs. what the Bible says.
And you know, we gotta talk about these things
because there're a lot of people out there who say
'You know, I don't really know if I can trust the Bible
because
it's not scientifically correct.'
Or is it...?
Well that's what we're gonna talk about in the next video. So don't miss it!
If you haven't subscribed yet, please do
and then I'll see you in the next video.
Now, remember;
God loves you
and I love you too.
BYE