Transcript

Dr. Jessica Peck: There is a crisis of worldview going on

>> Dr. Jessica Peck: Hello and welcome to the Dr. Nurse Mama show, prescribing Hope for Healthy Families here on American Family Radio. Here's your host, professor, pediatric nurse practitioner and mom of four, Dr. Jessica Peck. Well, hey there, friends, and welcome back to my favorite part of the afternoon, getting to spend time with you, prescribing Hope for Healthy Families. And today is a great day because we are having another Worldview Wednesday. If you've been listening along in 2025, you know that periodically we've been having time where we pause on a Wednesday to talk about Worldview. It is so important. There is a crisis of worldview going on and you have got to be intentional about helping your kids to develop a biblical worldview. Just taking them to church, that is great. I cheer you on. I'm so happy that you're doing that. But it's not enough. We have got to learn about God's Word on our know. I've been working with Dr. Josh Mulvihill. He has been joining us to do a very slow walk through his book about biblical worldview. And we've been talking about concepts about biblical worldview. What is it? How do we get it? And we're really diving into the authority of scripture today. In case you've missed it, go back and listen to the other episodes so that you can catch up. Dr. Josh Mulvihill is highly qualified, so, so experienced, and he serves with a really wonderful ministry called Renewanation where he's the executive director of church and Family Ministry. And he has a passion for biblical worldview to equip the church and families and schools to help our kids develop a biblical worldview. And he does that through speaking, through preaching, through writing, through consulting, and through collaborating right here on the radio. So today we're going to dive into a conversation that really I feel an urgency about. It is the authority of scripture, its role in building a strong and lasting biblical worldview for our families. Did you know that there are almost 25,000, about 25,000 early manuscript copies that support the New Testament's reliability? That is far more than any other ancient text. But we have a culture full of confusion and shifting values, and many families are just struggling to stay grounded. So we are going to explore why God's Word can be trusted and how it offers the firm foundation our homes so desperately need. So, Josh, welcome back to the show. Thank you so much for joining us for another edition of Worldview Wednesday.

>> Dr. Josh Mulvihill: It has been so fun to do this for the past, I don't know, a couple months and I am, I'm just grateful to be having this conversation, Jessica, that I share the urgency that you have. This is such a critical time, especially for parents, grandparents, with our kids. And, thanks for just, thanks for having me.

>> Dr. Jessica Peck: Oh, thanks for doing this. I mean, this is such an important conversation and I have learned a lot. And your book is Biblical Worldview, what it Is, why It Matters, and How to Shape the worldview of the Next generation. And I do, Josh, I do feel an urgency about this because there's, there's an urgency from the enemy. There are so many forces at work to attack our kids. We know that Satan comes to steal, to kill, to destroy, and then he is walking around like a prowling lion. And I feel like, Josh, in this culture, I see so much apathy and really apathy from parents coming towards those other voices that are crowding into our kids lives through other influences, primarily media. But we, we say, oh, we're so busy, our life's going so fast, we don't really have time to do these kinds of things. Well, the enemy has time and he is using it. And we have just got to use our time to dive into this. So before we even start talking about the authority of scripture, Josh, I think we need to set up the case for why this is so important, because when we're talking about, we're going to dive into some of the historical accuracies, people are going to say, oh, I don't have time for that. But, but let's just call them out and let's call ourselves out. That's a lie. Isn't that a lie?

>> Dr. Josh Mulvihill: Yes, it is. and, you know, this whole idea of, authority, you know, it is one that is absolutely critical, but it sometimes feels a little academic in its language.

>> Dr. Jessica Peck: Yes.

>> Dr. Josh Mulvihill: And so sometimes we think, oh, man, I don't. Is that really an issue I deal with or that my kids deal with? And I will emphatically say, yes, it is. you know, every one of us have these times when the Bible is, it can be either subtle or a direct assault. That the Bible's, you know, it's undermined raises a question in our mind about is this, is it believable? Is it really true? Is it really God's word? and I would love to know, Jessica, can you remember a time when the Bible was attacked in some sphere for you or undermined, that you kind of raised the question about, is the Bible, is it real? Is it true? Reliable? Can you remember any time like that in your life?

>> Dr. Jessica Peck: You know, Josh, I love how you always turn the tables on me and you start asking the hard questions, but it's only fair. So, yes, you know, I will say that I was very fortunate to have been raised in a home where I was taken to church. I was exposed to the Bible regularly. My grandmother read it to me all the time. I was always very, deeply invested in God's Word. And I went to a Christian school where I was equipped with. To learn about God's Word. So for me, you know, honestly, I can say that I've never come to a crossroads thinking, is it true? The crossroads that I had. I actually, I hadn't thought about this in a long time. So here. Here we go. But I was working one day, and I was working, with a physician and we had worked with. With another person in the medical, office that was very antagonistic to my faith and just very critical and always asking questions. So I don't think. And I rem. Asking me and challenging me on that. And I thought my question was not do I believe the Bible's true? But how can I say it? I know it, but I don't. I can't defend it. I can't articulate it. And that was convicting for me. Did you ever wrestle with that, Josh?

>> Dr. Josh Mulvihill: I had the, probably the biggest assault to God's word happened in one of the most unlikely places. It was a seminary classroom. while I was getting theologically trained, I was already a pastor and I.

>> Dr. Jessica Peck: This is disheartening.

>> Dr. Josh Mulvihill: Thematics very. I sat in a systematic theology class at what was considered at the time a conservative, Bible college. And the professor opened our systematic theology class with a statement that, like, this is the first, you know, first line out of his mouth. You know, oh, this is going to be an interesting course. He made the statement that the Bible is not God's word. That it. I'm paraphrasing, but that it was equivalent to the collection of a whole bunch of people's experiences from. With God. Like they would gather, like our journal, entries from you and me and, you know, a couple dozen other people, make them into a book. And that's what the Bible was helpful to kind of glean from other people's experience with God, but. But nothing special. you know, in that regard, you know, it's like, oh, wow. so that. That class for me ended up being a, A, deep dive into how do I defend the, the authority of God's word, which is, of course, the last place you think of Doing that. But, it also.

>> Dr. Jessica Peck: In seminary.

>> Dr. Josh Mulvihill: Yeah. It also goes to show, you know, we need to be on our toes and as parents and grandparents, that we need to not just assume, because it has Christian ah. In the title or whatever, that it's, you know, that it's safe with our children. And also, as we prepare our kids and our grandkids with what we're talking about today, if they. More than likely it's, you know, it's when, not if, but if they, you know, come in, contact with some of these arguments that seek to undermine scripture in their eyes, you know, they are. Their view of God's word has already been fortified and can withstand that. And m. It leads to a good point. A lot of times we spend a lot of time teaching what's in God's Word and need to do that. We want our kids to believe that, but we also need to spend time kind of building up God's Word. Kind of the idea, that it's. It is, truthful and reliable and without error. And it is to be the authority in our life. and that becomes really the foundation of a biblical worldview. It's the first of two words. Biblical. You can't have a biblical worldview without having a really. It's true. But we kind of assume that our kids have been. Most of our kids are, you know, they're around the Bible a lot. And so we almost make the assumption, well, they're just.

Josh: There's a lot here about the authority of God's word

They're going to believe it's true. And, I would just say don't, don't just don't make that assumption. Because for some kids, that. That might not be the case. And so we want to, you know, we want to do what we can to, to help our kids see this. This isn't a blind faith. This is. This is, You know, this is. There's a lot here about the authority of God's word that can build a really strong faith.

>> Dr. Jessica Peck: You know, I've heard people say before, God said it, I believe it. That settles it. And there is a time and place for that kind of sentiment, because the truth is we won't ever understand everything about God and His Word this side of heaven. And I repeat this quote often, that if God was small enough to be understood, he wouldn't be big enough to be worshiped. And there are some things that are just outside of our understanding that God's ways are higher than our ways. His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. And if we, if we worshiped a God who could be broken down and understood and replicated, even as we see society trying to do. In some ways, that really wouldn't be much of a God to worship. But at the same time, in this postmodern age where there is increased skepticism, increased attack, what we've, what we've said up until this point, if I could just summarize it here, is that it's important for you to know why you believe the Bible's true and why the God's Word is the ultimate authority. And so, Josh, I want to walk through these eight reasons, if we can. I'm not going to promise that we'll get through all of them if we don't get the book, but we're going to try to walk through these eight reasons why we can believe the Bible is the word of God. And like you said, Josh, this may feel a little bit academic, but this is so important. And so we're going to break it down and make it really simple because, I mean, I'm not, I'm not seminary change, but I don't know, maybe that's a good thing after what you said. No, I digress. I digress.

Eight reasons to believe the Bible is the word of God

But, Josh, that first concept is self authentication. And what is that? Let's talk about that.

>> Dr. Josh Mulvihill: So the Bible claims that it is the word of God. So, you know, phrases like, all scripture is inspired by God. I love that word. All. It's not like part. Again, it's the whole Bible, old and new. you can look at what different people in the New Testament believed about the Old Testament. Jesus and Paul and the other writers. And they spoke of the Old Testament as the word of God, as authoritative, believing its laws. they didn't speak of it with skepticism. It was conviction. And, the Bible itself claims it is the word of God. So again, that some will say, well, that's kind of a catch 22. It's circular reasoning, you know, in that regard. It's not an argument from outside of the Bible, but it's significant in that the people we look to in the New Testament believed, what we're talking about with the Bible itself. So I think that's a, that's a helpful thing to notice, as we kind of start the conversation.

>> Dr. Jessica Peck: Absolutely. That all scripture is inspired by God. It's not a parable, it's not a poem. M. It's not a good words to live by, but this is the actual word of God. And you share a lot of that about. The witness of Jesus vindicates, you know, the authority of the Bible. That Jesus believed the Psalms were inspired by the Holy Spirit. He believed that the laws God gave to Moses were to be believed and obeyed. And he believed that all scripture would be filled and cannot be broken. And so when we come back, we're coming up on a break here, Josh, we'll talk about those other principles that you have, eight reasons to believe the Bible is the word of God. And just to give you a preview of where we're going, we're going to talk about the transformation of lives, circulation. These statistics are jaw dropping in and of themselves. The unity of the message, the fact that it is indestructible. We'll talk about some archeology and some manuscript evidence. So those are things that we will dive into and prophecy when we come back. So much more to talk about with Dr. Josh Mulvihill from Renewanation author of Biblical Worldview, what It Is, why It Matters, and how to shape the worldview of the next generation. I hope and pray that you'll go back and listen to every one of these episodes in the series and that you'll prayerfully think about how to be intentional about helping your family develop a worldview. We'll be right back after this break.

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Josh Mulvihill talks about the authority of Scripture on Worldview Wednesday

I thank you for making room in your schedule to listen in on this Worldview Wednesday where I'm talking to Dr. Josh Mulvihill. He is the executive director of Church and Family Ministry at Renewanation And we are taking a very slow walk over a year breaking down chapters from his book Biblical Worldview, what it is, why it matters, and how to shape the worldview of the next generation. We are in our fifth episode of this journey where we're talking about intentionally taking steps to help your family develop a biblical worldview. And today is all about the authority of Scripture. We've, we're walking through eight, reasons to believe that the Bible is the word of God. And we just talked about something called self authentication, that the Bible is the inspired word of God. And I want to skip ahead a little here, Josh. We'll go back to transformation here, but I want to skip to circulation because the Bible is the best selling book of all time. No other book compares with this. I'm reading this straight out of your book and this is confirmed by news sources. and we know I wrote a book, a good book sells about 10,000 copies and an incredible book is about a hundred thousand. And there's a few books that you see at the bookstore that say, you know, 1, 2, 3 million copies sold, but the Bible has sold anywhere they estimate, 5 to 7 billion copies in the last 1500 years. That is absolutely mind blowing. And that doesn't necessarily prove the Bible is true, but it does say that there's something very special about it. It is the most, the best selling book of all time, translated into more than 2,000 languages, accessible to more than 90% of the world's population. What makes this book so desirable from people throughout time, throughout the ages, throughout countries, across. It's just everybody has a hunger for this book. What does that tell us about the authority of Scripture? Josh.

>> Dr. Josh Mulvihill: I think the answer to that is pretty simple. Could the Bible be so special that it's actually the word of God? And that's why it has proven to you know, be translated across so many different languages to you know, every culture and so many copies. Just to put that in perspective, the 5 billion number, they don't most book lists. If you look up the best selling books, they don't even put the Bible on the best sellers list because it's in a category of its own. It blows the best selling books of all time away. You could do this, you could search online, see what the best selling books are. I did it out of curiosity. so here are some of the 10 highest selling books of all time. So you can start to drum roll.

>> Dr. Jessica Peck: I'm guessing it. Yes, I'm guessing in my mind already.

>> Dr. Josh Mulvihill: Yeah, I'll just mention a couple. We only have 10. But the 10th all time is the lion, the Witch and the wardrobe at 85 million.

>> Dr. Jessica Peck: Really?

>> Dr. Josh Mulvihill: You know that, that's one that one of all of us has probably read. number six all time on the list is Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, which I think that's the first book. It's got a different, that's a, that's the English title for England. A little different than the American title. That's 120M million copies. fourth all time is the Lord of the Rings, 150 million. And the first most sold book of all time, this one shocked me. was don Quixote at 500 million.

>> Dr. Jessica Peck: I never would have guessed that. Never.

>> Dr. Josh Mulvihill: I didn't either. That one. Yeah, that one surprised me. I thought it was like, I thought Pilgrim's Progress was up there. That's kind of what I always had heard. But, but maybe it's not. But I don't know. But anyways, the point is, you know, those books are wildly popular and they don't even like, scratch with the Bible. And I do think it just proves that there is something really, really special, really different, really unique about the Bible that it is. It just, it's in its class of its own.

>> Dr. Jessica Peck: And you know, you hear so many people who share their testimony about reading the Bible about even people who had no other exposure to any religious content, any other religious teacher. Somebody just gave them a Bible and the power of God's word to transform their lives. We'll go back to number two, transformation of lives. We all can tell testimony after testimony about how God has transformed lives.

So Josh, how has the Bible transformed your life

So Josh, how has the Bible transformed your life.

>> Dr. Josh Mulvihill: Oh man. You know, I think I desire right over evil. At least now that I am a follower of Christ. not that there is not a battle with, sin ongoing, probably will always be until eternity that we come to the end of our life. you know, I think the the way that we live and act and treat people, it's just, it's different than the world and we should be able to see. We have the conviction in our heart. We have the hunger for the things of the Lord. Those, you know, the ability to see and to understand the world in a way that would be confusing a purpose for living. all these things, they don't come through our own power. They come through the transformation of Christ in our heart. I think one of the most dramatic examples of this that I've seen. When I was 17, I traveled to the Auca Indian tribe in Ecuador. a little short term trip I did with my church to support some missionaries there. And they flew us out in this little teeny plane to the Auca tribe. And they are, you might not recognize the name, but they're the tribe that murdered the five missionaries. Jim, Elliot, Nathane. yep, all those. And you know I land with a little six seater plane in the, on this grass strip in the jungle and this tribe comes out and you know, here these, I shook hands with the, with chemo and with the different individuals, M. Minkai that literally they themselves took wooden spears and drove them through the bodies of these missionaries. And here I shook their hands, I shook the hands of murderers and I looked them in the eyes and what I saw was joy and transformation. And this tribe that was violent and just you hear about what life was like before, before the gospel came to them, completely transformed to the point that my parents thought it was safe for a 17 year old to go with a murderous tribe, in the jungle. And you know, that doesn't just happen through any other means than the gospel coming and transforming an entire people. and you know, that's true for myself, that's true for everybody that comes into contact and of course transform lives. They don't, they don't mean the Bible is true necessarily, but Testimony is a powerful apologetic that, you know, it's not the point. Our stories aren't the point. They are the pointer really to make much of God and to make much of the truth of God's word.

>> Dr. Jessica Peck: Wow. Well, that is really amazing, Josh. That's something new to me. I didn't know that you had that Experience. I had a much smaller, safer version of that, actually, at a Steven Curtis Chapman concert where he had one of those people come, with him on tour because he played some of the music that was in one of his albums. But, yeah, seeing that, just seeing him praising God on the stage, I mean, you cannot deny that there is something miraculous in these transformations that you see. And you may see it in, some. A native who. Who killed a missionary, or you may see it in somebody like my father in law who came to know Christ later in life. And Josh he is a man transformed when people. And he'll. He's very candid about this transformation. He said, I was angry, I was bitter, I was broken, I was unhappy. And now he is full of joy. And actually, he was just telling me not too long ago that he went to go see one of his co workers. He was an executive and, you know, has been retired for quite some time. And one of his coworkers from his business days was, was. He learned he was on hospice and he went to talk to him and it was like his coworker didn't even recognize him. Like, who is this man? But told him, come back, I want to hear more about this. I want to know more about this. It's so compelling when you see that kind of transformation. I think there are. Every parent should have those stories that they can point to, that they have seen and they've personally witnessed to attest to the authority of scripture. And oh, my goodness, we could do. We could talk for that about the whole time. But let's go on to number four. And this is unity of message, and this is really important. So hang with me for a little bit here. I'm going to give some information, Josh, that you give in your book. But the Bible was written by dozens of authors over 1500 years, covering hundreds of topics. We got 66 books. And yet it does not contradict itself. And let me read this from. From what you wrote, because I think this is really informative. You said, consider that Moses was educated in Egypt, Daniel and Babylon. Joshua was a military commander, David a musician, Solomon a king, Amos a shepherd, Peter a fisherman, Matthew a tax collector, Luke a doctor. All of these people were written, had very different backgrounds, writing from Asia, Africa, Europe, in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek. And yet it does not contradict itself. How can that be, Josh? How can we just be amazed by that, really thinking about this ancient manuscript that has such unity and message.

>> Dr. Josh Mulvihill: Yeah. The only possible answer is it's not the work of man. It is the work of God that he, brought it all about. I love what second Peter one says, it says no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. And so how that worked is a little mysterious. Obviously God spoke through dreams and visions and sometimes direct dictation like the Ten Commandments. but, but it, you know, it's definitely the work of God. And I love, you know, if, if I were to ask you what can you summarize the Bible in a single sentence? You know, a lot of people would say, well, it's all about Jesus. and that's not, not untrue. I think it's just kind of part of the story. the best summary that I've heard of the Bible is, ah, pretty short, really concise. It's this, God's glory in salvation through judgment. So all that stuff you just mentioned, all the different authors over a long course of time, m. It is making that same focus. God's glory in salvation through judgment. So God is glorified through his Word. That is the purpose of the Bible. It is that happens in salvation. So think about like the story of Noah and the ark. The door is open. Salvation, obviously only eight people, but also through judgment, God is glorified. In this case, it was the whole world. Or think of David and Goliath, you know, salvation the Israelites through the archetype of David as Christ and judgment, the Philistines. We could keep going. You know, it's almost ad nauseam. God's glory is the central theme that happens in salvation through judgment. And we see this cover to cover, story to story throughout the Bible. and you know how difficult that is to get everybody on the same page, just even in small stuff. You know, I don't know if anybody ever played that game growing up, like telephone, where you whisper something in somebody's ear and they whisper it to the next person. You go around the circle and you know, the person at the end tries to say what they heard from, you know, that's all changed. you know, this, it is nothing short of God's work, a miracle that we have something like the Bible. And the unity of message is a good testation to that.

>> Dr. Jessica Peck: You know, I hear a lot of people talk about how they will push against that and say the Bible contradicts itself and this is why it's so important. Josh, I think no matter what you do, if you're a nurse like me, if you're a Mailman. Like some of our listeners, if you. Whatever you do, whatever your occupation, we need to study the Bible. And one of the examples that I heard just recently over the Easter season was, you know, Jesus saying on the cross, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? But one of the things I learned is that in Jewish culture, when, when they didn't have, you know, the Psalms numbered like we did, and so they would say the first sentence, the first word, the first sentence of the psalm, and then everybody would know what that psalm was. And so when you see that, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? That comes from Psalm 22. And if you read that whole psalm, I don't know about you, Josh, but I read this and I, I was just shaken to my core because I see here is Jesus on the cross, still proclaiming, because that psalm goes on to say, yet you are enthroned as the Holy One, you are the one Israel praises. And you, our ancestors put their trust and they trusted you, and you delivered them to you. They cried out and were saved, and you, they trusted and were not put to shame. And it just talks about, you know, goes along just Jesus is preaching even from the cross, even not saying those words, saying, referencing back to that. And that's one of the. Just many reasons why we need to study our Bible and to know what that is and be able to. To speak in an informed way. And it's just such, a blessing to us when I learn about the faithfulness of God and my goodness. Josh, we're running out of time, which is our usual, but we will talk when we come back. And we're coming up against a break about indestructibility. The Bible really has been attacked for centuries. It has been outlawed in so many countries. We know stories of people trying to smuggle in a Bible or hiding a Bible as their most precious possession and protecting that at all costs. And the Bible has undergone more scrutiny than any other book. But despite all of those attacks, the Bible proves itself to be true again and again and again. And many people are. Are just converted to Christianity just by reading it. And when we come back, we'll also dive into archaeology. Now, my pastor is very, is. Has traveled in the Holy Land quite a bit, and I always find myself fascinated by these stories. So we'll have Much more with Dr. Josh Mulvihill when we come back. Talking about on this Worldview Wednesday, his book Biblical Worldview. What it is, why it matters, and how to shape the worldview of the next generation. Today, we're talking about the authority of the Bible and how you can be confident in telling other people why you believe it is God's word. You don't want to miss what is left of the conversation. Don't go away. We'll be right back. On the other side of this break.

>> Podcast AFA Spots: The month of June has been hijacked by the anti Christian culture to show their pride in something God calls an abomination. When you support afr, you help us continue to stand for godly values and provide the resources for you to stay in the know about the enemy's tactics. To say thank you for your gift this month, we'll give you the booklet Inside the LGBTQ push of the nineteen nineties to help strengthen your convictions. Just go to afr.net/offers afr.net/offers Run To The Father by Cody Carnes so I run to the Father again and again and again and again.

Worldview Wednesday focuses on biblical worldview and raising families rooted in truth

>> Dr. Jessica Peck: Welcome back, friends. That is Run To The Father by Cody Carnes. And hey, that's what I do every morning, every noon, every night. I am always running to my father for comfort and hope in a world that seems like it is so chaotic. And we are here on Worldview Wednesday talking with Dr. Josh Mulvihill If you hear some chaos outside my studio, yes, that is happening. We're having some construction noise that we are fighting against. It just seems to be our lot in life. But hey, nothing is going to stop us from giving you this message that you need to have today. We are talking about biblical worldview and raising families who are rooted in truth is not easy in today's world. But it is absolutely possible. And despite all of the noise to the contrary, the Bible remains the most historically reliable book in existence. And we are talking about the unshakable authority of scripture and why building a biblical worldview at home is one of the greatest gifts that we can give our children and future generations to come. We've talked about eight reasons you can believe the Bible is true. We're about three quarters of the way through that list. We've talked about self awareness, self authentication. I'm going to make sure I say that right, meaning that all scripture is God breathed. We talked about the transformation of lives. We've talked about circulation. We talked about unity and message and its indestructibility.

Josh: The Bible has more manuscript evidence to support its authenticity than any other literature

And Josh, I want to jump to the archeology because as we see these exciting advances in technology and science, we're seeing more and more proof that, ah, the Bible is true and reliable. So I want to know what you have to say about archeology and how have you visited any of these places? It's on my bucket list to do. I have not been, yet. I want to go.

>> Dr. Josh Mulvihill: I did actually. I went to Israel. And it is worth the trip. it brings the Bible to life. And I will tell you if it's possible make, it happen. And if not, it's amazing what you can actually do with technology today, how you can almost visit the, Holy Lands with, Google Maps and zoom in on stuff that's kind of cool if you want to do that, actually. but yeah, the archaeology, you know, the Bible makes a lot of references to people and places and events, and all of those are verifiable. And so, you know, if the Bible is making all these incorrect claims about details and about people, obviously individuals would be all over the Bible as inaccurate. But we can literally take the Bible, go to Israel today, and the events and the things we read about in the Bible, you're like, wow, I'm standing right here in the very place that this event happened or this, you know, this thing took place. And it is, it's pretty crazy. So, you know, man, we could list so many different ones, but like the city of Jericho, the walls fell flat. Like the Bible says there's archaeological evidence for that. There's a ring they've discovered with the name Pilate on it. David City is there. There's just so many things. And it's not just Christians that look at the Bible as a helpful resource in this regard as true and accurate archaeologists, non Christian archaeologists, like, they have the Bible in their back pocket to help them with archaeological discoveries because it's been so accurate and so helpful. And so that's kind of a fun one if you ever want to get on the Internet, do a search and kind of sit down with kids and just look at the different kinds of things that have been discovered that verify, what we read about in God's word. And of course, you can never afford a trip to Israel. It's well worth it.

>> Dr. Jessica Peck: That is good to know. It is definitely on my bucket list. And then of course, we have the Dead Sea Scrolls. And I don't want to pass over the fact that you said there's archeological evidence to support that the walls of Jericho fell flat. I mean, that is just absolutely amazing. And even more than that, no archaeological evidence has ever been found to contradict what the Bible says. And the events of the Bible are true. So we have this archaeological evidence which yes, absolutely. A fun virtual field trip to take. But we also have manuscript evidence. And you say that the Bible has more manuscript evidence to support that it is true than any 10 pieces of classical literature combined. Don Quixote, take it or leave it, which I still can't believe that was it. Yeah. So what is the manual manuscript evidence that you have learned about Josh? that that helps to, helps us to have confidence and the authority of Scripture.

>> Dr. Josh Mulvihill: So there's so much manuscript evidence for the New Testament that if we say we can't believe that the, we can't take that as evidence for the authenticity, reliability of the Bible, then what that means is you have to literally throw out all the classical works of antiquity, all the old books, because they have the amount of evidence to support their authenticity and accuracy is a fraction, I mean just like a minute fraction compared to what we have of the New Testament. Some have even said we have so much manuscript evidence that if every new test, you know, if every Bible in our homes in the world was confiscated and taken away, we could literally rewrite the New Testament completely accurately just from the manuscript documents from antiquity that we have found, literally that many exist. And of course what we can do is anytime you find an old scroll you mentioned, what were those?

>> Dr. Jessica Peck: The Dead Sea Scrolls.

>> Dr. Josh Mulvihill: We have an entire book of Isaiah and the Dead Sea Scrolls from beginning to end, 100% there, over 2,000 years old. So we can take that and we can compare it with the Isaiah in our Bible today and say, okay, has it changed? Are there errors? And the comparison, when you do that, the comparison, it's like 99.9% accurate and a lot of times the errors are in it's non content kind of areas. Well, I didn't change the content. It was like, well you misspelled this word or you missed that punctuation or something minute like that. But that gives a lot of confidence in the Bible. And not only that, but our earliest versions of the manuscript copies that we have are super close to the original date with which they were written. So you know, we have entire books of the New Testament within 50 years of when it is believed each of those books were written. When you think about other books in history, like the most, you know, the most common book of antiquity that we have copies of is the Iliad by Homer. We believe they have like 6, 700 copies. And the time gap from when it was first written to the first copy we have is like 400 years. So we only have like 600 copies and there's hundreds of years in between. Who knows if it changed in that 400 times. But nobody questions is the Iliad that we have reliable? Can we believe that this is the story that was written the New Testament? It is like thousands and thousands of copies within a very short time. So in other words, people were still alive that saw Jesus, knew Jesus knew the New Testament writings when these copies are already being made. I mean there's nothing like it. And that helps to build confidence that the Bible we have today is the Bible that was written Old Testament, New Testament, you know, thousands of years ago.

>> Dr. Jessica Peck: Well, it's so insightful and you share that the Jewish culture, they preserved it, it like no other manuscript, just as you described. They kept tabs on every letter, every syllable, every word, every paragraph. They even had special classes of men within their culture. That was their only job, was to preserve and transmit those documents with perfection. And that is absolutely amazing.

The Bible has hundreds of events that are foretold and very specifically sometimes

And then even beyond that, when we look at the past, we can also look to the future and look at the words of prophecy, a fulfilled prophecy in the Bible. And so what do we see as fulfilled prophecy?

>> Dr. Josh Mulvihill: So the Bible has hundreds of events that are foretold and very specifically sometimes. And you know, we could look at ones that I mentioned are Isaiah 53. We get details of the crucifixion literally hundreds of years before, Christ. we get names of individuals like Cyrus the King of Persia, referenced by name in Isaiah 44. And of course Daniel talks about the rise and fall of every, major kingdom, in his book in Daniel. we could keep going, the list is super, super long. but when we see prophecy, the Bible talks about the idea that if someone makes a prophecy and if it doesn't come true, then that individual is a false prophet. And so for the Bible this is kind of a self authenticating claim. If the Bible is going to make predictions about the future and those come true, that is again an evidence that while there is truthfulness here and some individuals, look at the, the detail of the predictions and they say, well, this couldn't have been predicted. It's so detailed. This had to be written after the event happened or after this person lived. because of course the world, the secular world can't imagine, those kinds of predictions being made and coming true. And that would make sense if it's the work of man, but if it is truly the work of God, then he is capable of, he's sovereign over everything. So he's able to share those details in Communication with humans, who captured them in writing and bring them to conclusion, bring them to, happen. so those eight things, they build confidence that God's word is true and accurate and we can, we can stake our life on it and we should live our lives according to it.

>> Dr. Jessica Peck: That is really convicting. And when you look at the list of messianic prophecies that were fulfilled in Jesus, you're so right, Josh. I mean, there are so many details talking about him being born in Bethlehem, being presented with gifts, that his ministry would begin in Galilee, that he would have a ministry of miracles, that he was a teacher of parables, that he was going to go into Jerusalem on a donkey, he'd be betrayed by a friend he sold for 30 pieces of silver. The money was to be thrown in God's house. I'm reading through this list, that I have in a book resource that I have. But I mean, I only read down like, maybe, a, fifth of the list here. All of these details that were there, like you said, hundreds of years before it happened, and then it happened exactly like it was going to happen. And, you know, it goes back to what we're talking about is biblical authority. And as you say in your book, Josh, I mean, authority is not very popular. I feel like we have a love hate relationship with authority. We love to have it, we hate to submit to it. And, so what, what encouragement would you give for families who are navigating all of the forces in this world that would come against the authority of God's Word and for us to stand on that and to submit to it? What. How would you encourage families?

>> Dr. Josh Mulvihill: Well, I would encourage all of us to build our life, our home, our ministry on the foundation of God's Word, that we would, resolve to believe what we find in the Bible, whether we like it or not. You know, there's great danger in trying to receive some of what the Bible teaches and rejecting other parts. There's also a temptation to look to other sources as authority in our life. And we, you know, we do this sometimes with science. We become pragmatic people. And, you know, there's a lot of other areas of our life that we say we believe in God's authority, but functionally we look to other sources. So of course the goal is, will we actually use God's Word as the source to make decisions, to choose right and wrong, to live our lives according to that? And so I guess the, that's the encouragement. Do we, you know, do we believe God's word is true and will we, live according to it as we have, you know, daily decisions and actions and, encourage our kids to do the same?

>> Dr. Jessica Peck: You know, I. We don't have time to dive into this. Maybe next time, Josh. But you're right. You know, for somebody in a scientific profession, I see a lot of conflict between science and scripture. But there really is no conflict conflict, because science, God created science. And when we look at science, you know, I see so many discoveries that are made in science that are just there in scripture, almost like the prophecies that we were talking about. And you think, yeah, God said that in His Word, and now we just know how that works. God and his grace and his mercy and his wisdom has given us a little more insight. Especially for me, you know, being a nurse practitioner, looking at what we've learned about the human body, I mean, really, it's amazing that we did not, as a people, map the human genome until the 21st century. Till about the early 2000s is when we were able to say that we have DNA. And then we look back and we see in Psalm 119 that we are fearfully and wonderfully made, and God knew us in the womb because we have DNA from the moment of conception, a unique DNA genetic code that is affirmation of Scripture. And if you're looking at how does the Bible have functional authority in your life, some of the things Josh shares in his book are turning to God's Word for guidance, testing your thoughts and ideas with God's Word, taking every thought captive with the Bible and teaching the Bible to your family. I pray that the Lord will bless you and keep you and make his face to shine upon you. I pray that you will listen to the other episodes of this and get a copy of Josh's book Biblical Worldview, or take other steps to intentionally help your family develop a biblical worldview. We'll see you on the next Worldview Wednesday. The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family association or American Family Radio.