Barry,

It was a real dream. The pastor was Gareth Crossly, former elder at Little Hill, Evangelical Church Wigston Magna.

Towards the end of the dream I began to choke not being able to sum up my point, but is was real and very clear.

Yes I am familiar with the debate and am not trying to put forth any new proposition as though it were my own idea.

I do not rely on dreams as some of my dream are not so good but have no problem with the proposition that God still speaks to men in dreams. and any other means. With this proviso that it does not speak contrary to scripture and that it honours Christ and his word.

Joseph’s Coat Of Many Colours

Genesis Genesis 37:19 “Here comes that dreamer!” they said to each other.

http://biblehub.com/kjv/genesis/37.htm

From: “RSLcrown@aol.com” <RSLcrown@aol.com>

To: nbpttc@yahoo.co.uk

Sent: Monday, 15 July 2013, 9:15

Subject: Re: I had a dream last night

Dave

Was this a real dream as it is very long and detailed.

Barry,

It covers an old debate.

Academics want to make a name for themselves, especially amongst their peers. To do this its no good

Confirming what others have done - you have to do something novel, something new, especially if it shows your predecessors wrong and you have come up with a new better thesis.

A corruption

Basing the Bible on one text, no matter how old is statistically very dodgy. The majority text is far better statistically as it is based on the assumption that most copies will be serious attempts at absolute accuracy. Scribing mistakes are unavoidable, so the majority text is best. Any text that differs significantly from the majority text is a corruption whether it is old or new.

More Than Two Coreections Destroyed

Interestingly, the Jewish scribes copied the old testament using an elaborate checking system. Scribe means ‘counter’ After copying a sentence they would count the number of words on the original and the new sentence. They would count to find the middle letter in both etc etc, so they made very few mistakes. Those made were corrected, but a page would be destroyed and rewritten if it had more than 2 corrections. As writing a page was very laborious the scribe had a strong selfish incentive to not make mistakes besides his reverence for the word of God.

Dead Sea Scrolls confirm accurate copying

The oldest manuscript of Isaiah was 1000 years old. A copy of Isaiah was discovered amongst the dead sea scrolls dated about 100-200 BC. When they were compared they were identical apart from a few trivial scribing errors. 1100 years of copying and they were the same.

New Testament accurate

The new testament was copied with equal reverence, so like Isaiah only trivial errors happened. Text with significant changes from the majority text are manifest corruptions often with unpalatable portions of scripture modified or omitted. The variations in the texts that are the basis for the majority text are quite small are obvious errors that can easily be corrected within the context of the sentence, Some a single word changes that make the scripture comply with the mistaken theology of the scribe. Even contentious sentences are not a problem as two renderings have two meanings. One agrees with the rest of the Bible while the other is at odds with it.

A Temptaion to Correct

Imagine scribing or translating James after doing all the previous books in the NT. When James says a man is justified by works??? The temptation would be to change works to grace, but works is correct as James is talking about true faith that is fruitful in good works. Faith justifies, but works that do not justify show (justify) the faith as being the true faith of Gods elect.

Anyway, the example of Isaiah shows that genuine copies agree and that those that have significant difference (no matter if old or new) are corruptions to be rejected.

John Owen on Inspiration

I read John Owen on the inspiration of Scripture. Unlike the crude Muslim Story of God dictating the Koran to . God uses the whole of his providence to bring the scriptures into existence. Paul’s letters were usually written in response to trouble in the churches. Paul’s whole life was a training. All David’s troubles led to the Psalms. David was born with the gift of poetry. His life experience as a shepherd led to psalm 23.

The WHole of Providence Preserves the Bibe

If the whole of providence creates the Bible then the whole of providence will preserve it. This includes corruptions of the Bible and false Gospels and false Bibles (Koran) as Paul says ‘heresies must abound that the TRUTH may be made more manifest.

Secualar News Confirms The Acuracy of Biblical History

About 20 years ago the BBC did a series of documentaries (about 30) on the various religions in the world. Keenly watched them all as I was interested to see what each gave their adherents, as they must get something out of it, some need must be met. I was truly amazed to realise that each was staggeringly impoverished and was like eating chalk compared to the glory and feast of the Gospel. It was not just that the Gospel was better, richer. It was in a different league entirely, infinitely beyond the earthiness of fleshly religion.

Attempts To Refute have Failed

One of the attacks on the Bible comes from archeologists who say that no archeological remains have been found in Israel that support the Bible. They have the dating system wrong by about 300 years (derived from Egypt) A dig were Solomon had a place showed only peasant dwellings and so undermined the Bible.. However, a later dig going down 300 years showed the remains of large stone walls with layers of wood between every third or fourth joint in the stone blocks. The wood was a shock absorber for earthquakes. This is described in the bible.

I saw a program were the archeologist was scathing about David having a city and ruling in a desert part of Israel. He had students scour the desert collect signs of human habitation. All they could find ON THE SURFACE was remains of peasant dwellings. David never existed said the archeologist. A few month later another archeologist unearthed the gate posts to a city in the same desert. Each post weighed over 40 tons and he said that to do this would require a sophisticated culture with a central government and coordinated effort and has the riches to pay for such massive works.

I will tell the amazing story about Jericho and the collapsed walls another time.

Statue of Joseph in Egypt

A modern archeologist has found a statue in Egypt in the remains of a palace that contains Israelite graves.

It is a man wearing a coat of many colours. I have a picture of this in his book

Barry