The Grand Jury - Level 1_The Skeptic

Level 1: Skeptic begins at the only intellectually honest starting point. Before asking whether the Bible is inspired, divine, or personally binding, we first ask whether the document itself is admissible.

• Is the text we possess today substantially what the original authors wrote?

• Is it historically anchored?

• Has it survived transmission reliably, or has it been repeatedly altered beyond recognition?

This level does not ask you to abandon doubt. It asks you to discipline it.

Skepticism is valuable only when it accepts the same burden it places on belief. A conclusion inherited from culture is still inherited, even when that conclusion is unbelief. Here, every position must answer honestly to the evidence.

You will examine four major exhibits:

1. First, the bibliographic test compares the New Testament manuscript record with the surviving copies of Caesar, Tacitus, Homer, and other ancient works.

2. Second, the Dead Sea Scrolls provide a sealed control sample, allowing us to test whether the Hebrew Scriptures were meaningfully changed across centuries of transmission.

3. Third, archaeology places specific biblical claims on trial, including the Hittites, Belshazzar, Pontius Pilate, and the House of David.

4. Fourth, the hostile witness rule examines details the biblical writers preserved even when those details embarrassed their leaders, weakened their public case, or created theological difficulty.