Stephen Williams is the founder of Prepare the Way Ministries. He was born in 1966 in Madison, Wisconsin and grew up in Ithaca, New York and Cupertino, California. Before becoming a disciple of Christ in 2001, his life revolved around swimming and singing--he qualified for the 1984 and 1988 Olympic trials in swimming and attended the University of California at Berkeley on a swimming scholarship. He graduated with a degree in economics and worked as an economic consultant before pursuing a teaching career. Stephen spent ten years teaching in the Cupertino Union School District.
    After becoming a Christian, he became increasingly aware of current hostility towards Judeo-Christian values in our culture and education system. Despite his commitment to honor policies against proselytizing in school, he was censored by the principal from using primary source documents with Christian references while teaching U.S. history because he was a professed Christian. He was prevented by his principal from teaching a lesson on the Declaration of Independence using William Penn’s “Frame of Government” and Samuel Adam’s “The Rights of the Colonists," because "the district honors separation of church and state in school." With the help of the Alliance Defense Fund, he filed a federal court case in November of 2004, which gained national media attention. The case was settled out of court in the summer of 2005 and a written policy was put in place that allowed primary source documents with Christian references to be used in Cupertino classrooms.
   Surprised by the lack of awareness within the body of Christ about the level of hostility towards a Christian worldview in public schools and society, as well as the role Christianity played in shaping our country, Stephen felt led to start a teaching ministry on this subject. Having been on the front lines in the Church/state battle and having spent ten years immersed in the public school system, he offers a unique perspective in his seminars on the subtle ways, and not so subtle, our culture can erode the Biblical worldviews of our youth. He gives practical advice for Christians on how to exercise their rights in the area of Church and state, navigate through an increasingly secular society, as well as uphold a Christian worldview.
    He currently resides in Bend, Oregon with his wife and three children. His wife, Sarah Williams, has a Ph.D. from Stanford in environmental engineering, and partners with him in this ministry.

Outline & Notes

Why Is Trusting the Bible Important?
·    The Bible is the source of truth and the basis of a Christian worldview. 
·    If the Bible is not trustworthy, then we cannot have confidence in our faith.
·    If the Bible is not reliable, then we cannot share our faith with others effectively.

Where Did the Bible Come From?
·    Definition of “Bible”
·    How many authors? Over what time span?
o    66 Books, 39 Old Testament, 27 New Testament
o    Over 40 authors from diverse backgrounds, shepherds, kings, tax collector, fishermen, historians
o    Written over a time span of 1,600+ years
o    3 different continents (Africa, Asia, Europe)
o    3 languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek)
·    Old Testament Canon--39 Old Testament Books (Genesis - Malachi)
·    New Testament Canon--27 New Testament Books (Matthew - Revelation)
·    All books likely written between 40-90 AD
·    Generally agreed upon by all Christians in the 2nd & early 3rd century well before Constantine’s Council of Nicaea in 325 AD

Testing a Document’s Validity
·    Bibliographic evidence:  How do we know that our Bible is the same as the original?
·    External evidence:  How does the document align with facts, dates and people from history and archaeology?
·    Internal evidence:  What does the Bible claim about itself?

Bibliographical Evidence
·    How do we know that our Bible is the same as the original?
·    Lie: The Bible we read today is totally different from what was originally written (e.g. telephone tag)

textual criticism: the scholarly study of the text of a written work, often, specifically, in an effort to determine the original or most authoritative form of that work

The New Testament
o    Over 5600 Greek manuscripts extant
o    Over 10,000 manuscripts of the Latin Vulgate.
o    Over 9200 other translations
“To be skeptical of the resultant text of the New Testament books is to allow all of classical antiquity to slip into obscurity, for no documents of the ancient period are as well attested bibliographically as the New Testament.” - Prof. John Warwick Montgomery

External evidence 
·    How does the document align with facts, dates and people from history and archaeology?
·    Lie: The Bible is made up of myths and legends, not on actual history.

Christian Sources: 
·    The entire New Testament, except 11 verses, can be reconstructed from the writings of 2nd & 3rd century Church fathers like Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Tertullian, and others, who quoted the Bible prolifically (36,289 times).
·    This also shows that the accepted canon of the books of the Bible happened long before the 4th century when the Roman empire adopted Christianity. -- Josh McDowell, Evidence That Demands a Verdict

Non-Christian Historians:
·    Greek writer Lucian satirically notes (~ 170 AD): “The Christians, you know, worship a man to this day-the distinguished personage who introduced their novel rites, and was crucified on that account… You see, these misguided creatures start with the general conviction that they are immortal for all time, which explains the contempt of death and voluntary self-devotion which are so common among them; and then it was impressed on them by their original lawgiver that they are all brothers, from the moment that they are converted, and deny the gods of Greece, and worship the crucified sage, and live after his laws.”
·    Roman Historian Tacitus writes (116 AD): “Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated… called Christians by the populace. Christ, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus”
·    Historian Josephus in The Antiquities of the Jews (94 AD): “Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man; for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles. He was [the] Christ. And when Pilate… had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him; for he appeared to them alive again the third day; as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him. And the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day.”
Archaeology:
·    Israel (Merneptah stela13th BC), House of David (inscription 10th BC), David (Tel Dan stela 9th BC), YHWH & Omri (Moabite Stone 9th BC), Ahab (Kurkh Monolith of Shalmaneser III 9th BC), Jehoram & Ahaziah (Tel Dan stela 9th BC), Jehu (Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III 9th BC), Joash (Tell Al-Rimah stela of Adad-Nirari III 9th BC), Uzziah, Menahem, Pekah, Ahaz, Hoshea, & Hezekiah (Annals of Tiglath-Pileser III 8th BC), Manasseh (Prism B of Esarhaddon; Rassam Cylinder of Ashurbanipal 7th BC), Jehoiachin (ration documents of Nebuchadnezzar 6th BC), Herod (Wine Jug 1st BC), Pilate (inscription 1st AD), James brother of Jesus (Ossuary 1st AD)

Archaeology:
·    “It may be stated categorically that no archeological discovery has ever controverted a single biblical reference. Scores of archeological findings have been made which confirm in clear outline or in exact detail historical statements in the Bible.”     -Noted Archaeologist Prof. Nelson Glueck

Internal evidence 
·    What does the Bible claim about itself?
·    Can the authors of the Bible be trusted and couldn’t they have made it all up?
·    Lie: The authors of the Bible conspired to make up a new religion and lied about what happened.

Unity and Consistency
·    66 Books, 39 Old Testament, 27 New Testament
·    Over 40 authors from diverse backgrounds
·    shepherds, kings, tax collector, fishermen, historians
·    Written over a time span of 1,600+ years
·    3 different continents (Africa, Asia, Europe)
·    3 languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek)
·    =>God’s Redemption of Humankind Through Christ

Fulfilled Prophecy
·    16 Messianic Prophecies fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth – Born of a Woman (Gen 3:15 - Gal 4:4), Born of a Virgin (Isaiah 7:14 - Matt 1:21), Cutoff 483 years (Dan 9:24), Abraham’s Seed (Gen 12:1-3; 22:18 – Matt 1:1; Gal 3:16), Of the Tribe of Juday (Gen 49:10 – Luke 3:23, 33; Heb 7:14), Of the House of David (2 Samuel 7:12 – Matt 1:1), Born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2 – Matt 2:1; Luke 2:4-7), Anointed by the Holy Spirit (Isaiah 11:2 – Matt 3:16-17), Heralded by the Messenger of the Lord (Isaiah 40:3; Mal 3:1 – Matt 3:1-2), Would Perform Miracles (Isaiah 35:5-6 – Matt 9:35), Piercing His Hands and Feet (Psalm 22:16 – Luke 23:33), Crucified with Thieves (Isaiah 53:12 – Luke 23:38), Praying for His Persecutors (Isaiah 53:12 – Luke 23:43), Buried in a Rich Man’s Tomb (Isaiah 53:9 – Matt 27:57-60), Casting Lots for His Garments (Psalm 22:18 – John 19:23-24), Would Rise from the Dead (Psalm 16:10 – Mark 16:6; Acts 2:31), Would sit down at the Right Hand of God (Psalm 110:1 – Hebrews 1:3)

=> Chance one man could fulfill all these = 1X1045

# of people who have ever lived ~1X1010

Discussion Questions

1.    “Is it reasonable to doubt that Christianity is true in light of all the evidence? Probably not. In fact, in light of the evidence, you ought to have a lot more doubts about atheism and every other non-Christian belief system. They are not reasonable. Christianity is.”    -Geisler & Turek, I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist

2.    How can we respond to a generation that is skeptical that the Bible is the standard of truth?

Resources

Suggested Books:
Josh McDowell, New Evidence that Demands a Verdict
Lee Strobel, The Case for Christ, The Case for the Real Jesus
William Lane Craig, On Guard
Craig Blomberg, The Historical Reliability of the Gospels

Download The Reliability of the Bible from Prepare the Way Ministries:
Go to PreparetheWay.cc and click on the “Resources” tab then click on “Resources to Download”

Websites:
www.PreparetheWay.cc
www.Josh.org
www.leestrobel.com
www.reasonablefaith.org