Is the Bible Inspired by God?: Silencing the Devil with R.C. Sproul and John Gerstner 

This was one of the most entertaining debates I've seen thus far! This had me smiling with joy through and through. Giggled and chuckled a few times because RC was working up poor Dr. Gerstner nerves, like a little brother poking fun at his big brother. This is such a treasure! You can see their friendship shine through this mock debate!

Dr. Sproul and Dr. Gerstner are one of the greatest tag teams of all time.

Man, I still miss Dr. Sproul... Oh well, I know he wouldn't want us wishing him back here.

Boy I'm glad RC was on our team :)

I love hearing these two interact. You can hear that famous Gerstner growl that RC incorporated into his own speaking style.

I missed the chalk board men.

I love these series. I cant figure out if its like watching two dr. Gerstners or watching two dr. Sprouls. 😂

Lol I tried to have this video going in the background while I studied but I forgot who was who :P

Wonder what year these were recorded. Cool to see where RC got his mannerisms from. True discipleship indeed

Mind blown!!! Thank you Jesus😌

Excellent. These men were true friends. To God be the glory.

During Bible Study we did a mock debate too. I become Orthodox Jews and criticized how Christians interpret the Old Testament... and it was a heated argument and they mad against me 🤣🤣🤣 I mean, mad at my relentless questions and twisting arguments.

I would like to buy these debates on DVD. Is that possible? Secondly, can you imagine if presidential debates were like this and debated on issues that mattered rather then the absurdities they argue about.

This shows clearly how weak Gerstner's arguments are. We do not know from independent sources that Jesus was admired, that he was a miracle-worker. We also know from the legends of medieval saints that they were admired, they were miracle-workers, and their legends were generally written not 40 years after their death as in the case of Jesus, but much earlier.

simplesmente magnifico ! Marcos - Brazil

So glad I found these videos! Great biblical teaching!!! This is gold.

Tbh I am grateful for RC Sproul's, "Let me see if I understand you ..." statements, as Dr. John's statements are a bit too complex for me to grasp what he is in its entirety.

There is a natural choreography that goes on here that would not happen if a true unbeliever were debating Professor Gerstner. Both of these players understand a ladder of logical thought so there is a lovely choreography that's fun to listen to here. Under the hairy hide of a true atheist lies the deep desire to trip every single participant in the Ballroom. So a natural debate between follower of Christ and an unbeliever is frought with ankle breaking stones every third beat.

Who else got all tense while watching this? Had I been RC, I would've been afraid I might give Dr. Gerstner a heart attack ... but that's just me ;) That said, I absolutely LOVED this "debate".

When Gerstner put the burden of proof back in Sprouls court around halfway thru was when I was like, ‘Gerstner GOT’m!’

I love these so much

My first time hearing Dr. Gerstner speak. I see where RC gets his some of his swag from! Lol! 😊Love this debate!

Every Christian needs to hear this, good ground for understanding apologetics.

Dr. Gordon H. Clark began his apologetics with the axiom of Scripture.

I am by no means one of those fire-breathing Presuppositionalists, but I have to say, I think this particular topic in a mock debate would have been far more enlightening had it been Van Til vs. Bahnsen as the Devil's Advocate

I like rc Mohawk ,if he shaved the sides of his head he would have a Mohawk, look how far his hair sticks out on the front of his head lol,I think rc would laugh if he heard me say this lol

because, as a prophet God speaks directly to him.

RC would've made a great lawyer!

In Spanish...Is Excellent!

The adversary is NOT jumping around. He is holding the subject of miracles as supposed proof by seeing how his opponent talks about them in other historical contexts to see if his opponent is consistent.

How are they doing this with straight faces.

Fantastic.

Do a RU-vid search for “It’s in the book.”

Lovely

Dr Sproul with the ultimate steelman. An inspired performance.

Hahah Dr. R.C. is great at this impression

Oh dear! There are so many logical fallacies in these arguments that it beggars belief. Assertion after assertion, jumping to conclusions with no evidence, presuppositions all the way…. Yes it was entertaining but, by Jove, it was pathetic from an epistemological point of view.

It sounds like Dr. Gerstner is arguing that if an ancient writing is true at all, then it is necessarily true altogether. Maybe I am missing something, but that idea seems to strain credulity.

2 Timothy 3:15-17 KJVS [15] And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. [16] All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: [17] That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.

The Old Testament writers had a very limited understanding of the nature of God. They made God in their image: angry, jealous, hostile, omnipotent, judgmental and fearful. Jesus changed everything. To him, God was Our Father. .

This was disappointing. How do we just assume that the New Testament record is generally reliable when it comes to Jesus and His miracles? Would there not be a bias from its writers? If this man REALLY was walking around doing all of this stuff, there should be RECORDS not only in the Bible, but outside as well! Can someone please help me with this?

I feel dumb am I the only person who doesn't understand T-T

The whole point is faith. You hear the Gospel and you hear about Christ and then you respond, either you believed or not. That’s it. Faith doesn’t require any proof, otherwise it’s not faith. How do we know Pharaoh ever existed? Or Napoleon or George Washington ? We can’t. We only believe in what the historical records tell us and we assume they are true. However the evidence is thousands of people who share their testimony about having contact with Jesus in their lives (in any form) and their lives have changed dramatically. Another issue is, why to debate something what doesn’t exist and why “scholars” spend all their lives to discredit the Bible ? Isn’t that nonsense? Why even pronouncing the name of Jesus Christ causes fever and chain reaction in many minds at all ?

Historcity of Muhammed is being questioned...Tom Holland and Jay Smith is a good resource

See "Antiquity Unveiled" for the reality of Jesus.

No.... next question.

I'm impressed at how well R.C. Sproul was able to play devil's advocate, but he missed a couple of glaring problems. First, Gerstner's contention that Jesus's miracles are *inextricable* from his historical existence is extreme, verging on laughable. Of course it's possible that Jesus was a real person, but who was the subject of considerable legendary development. Gerstner would have you believe that Jesus without miracles is like a married bachelor-completely inconceivable. That's just not true. Second, for very obvious reasons, Jesus only ever quoted the Hebrew Bible. There was no New Testament for him to quote at any point during his life, so it's impossible to claim that he ever intended to lend his authority to the specific books of the protestant NT canon. Third, and probably least of all, I think Gerstner failed to make his point that Jesus would have hedged on the books of Moses or Isaiah if he wasn't 100% divinely certain that those were their authors. He referred to those books, as Sproul said, in the way they were understood by his milieu at the time. To expect that he would have gone on and on about the fact that he was only 80% certain or 50% or 30% certain of any given bit of common knowledge at the time is a little ridiculous.

Luke 13:1-5 New Living Translation A Call to Repentance 13 About this time Jesus was informed that Pilate had murdered some people from Galilee as they were offering sacrifices at the Temple. 2 “Do you think those Galileans were worse sinners than all the other people from Galilee?” Jesus asked. “Is that why they suffered? 3 Not at all! And you will perish, too, unless you repent of your sins and turn to God. 4 And what about the eighteen people who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them? Were they the worst sinners in Jerusalem? 5 No, and I tell you again that unless you repent, you will perish, too.”

Scholars are religious people

A mock debate is a mockery of a true attempt to find truth.

No one else thinks this is circular reasoning? Using Jesus to prove the inspiration?

An entirely circular and self serving "debate".

I think that I would have to give this one to Rc. One cannot prove the validity of the Bible without ultimately drawing inference from it. The validity of miracles is only proven from the Bible simply because that outside of the Bible they do not happen. Miracles do not happen today and outside of the Bible they never happened so it is the only available source from which B to prove the point that miracles ever indeed happened.

Please in Spanish!

The bible was written by Greek scribes employed by the Romans. It says what the Romans wanted it to say. No devine guidance involved.

THE ALMIGHTY GOD IS REAL.. YOUR EITHER A TRUE BELIEVER IN" HIS" TRUTH OR NOT. THE devil CAN'T TEACH ABOUT GOD.. THESE demons HAVE A PLACE IN HELL WAITING FOR THEM FOR THE Lies THEY TAUGHT AND TEACHING ABOUT THE LORD GOD ALMIGHTY.

How did the Bible come to be? There was no Bible prior to the 4th Century. There were lots of Christian writing. The Gospel of Thomas the Gospel of Peter for example. The reality is that at this point central to the Church was it's ritual and tradition. Then the Bible came to be. The Church decided some of the works in existence were inspired. Others such as the Gospel of Thomas or Peter were of not great value so they got the boot. Thus thanks to the Catholic Church we have the Bible. That Church filtered out what they saw as the good from the bad. With the Church it was one aspect of the reaching. It was not widely disseminated and played a small role for most Christians. For most Christians the rituals and sacraments of the Church were the most important. Fast forward to Martin Luther the Bible becomes the center of the doctrine and the oral tradition is dumped. We thus have the irony that the authority of the Bible is based on the role of an institution both these guys thinks is wrong and heretical. Thus in seeking to back their view they have to rabbit on about the internal stories in the New Testament suggesting that rather than being stories these are historical facts and thus the various miracles demonstrate truth. All well and good for them but to anyone outside the tradition highly unconvincing. The video is the opposite of short and pithy and is somewhat labored

Gerstner's axiom is Scripture, not Jesus. He admitted he could not prove his axiom. The excursion into historicity is a huge red herring.

Hollywood fare is the modern Bible.

hehehe

“Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you.” (Deut. 4:2.). And yet Paul and the church added a whole New Testament with a different gospel

There are 24K versions of the bible. Which one is the word of God Almighty in your opinion?

GOD IS REAL AND JESUS IS REAL, BUT HIS NAME WAS/IS NOT JESUS, IT WAS CHANGED SO THEY COULD PRONOUNCE HIS IT... MUCH MUCH OF THE BIBLE WAS TAKEN OUT AND REWRITTEN BY THE THESE SAME PEOPLE'S ANCESTORS THAT'S TALKING NOW🤔😱👎

The Bible is not inspired by God but scriptures is inspired by God.

It's a poor author who's manual can't be agreed upon by any two people. The level of petty emotion, cruelty, and remarkable failures displayed by the biblical deity is truly appalling not to mention the remarkable number of errors and inconsistencies in the book.

You can't silence the Devil when he is the author of the Bible.

Know the Bible book is not inspired by God. In the old Covenant there was no Bible book. But the scriptures were inspired by God. But in the New Covenant holy spirit is inspired by God. in the New Covenant God did not give you a Bible book the apostles did not have a Bible book. The Holy Spirit told him what to do. The Bible book came out around the 12th century.

Jesus didn’t say the Bible is the word of God. He said the Old Testament is the word of God.

No the bible book is not inspired by god. They did not have a bible book in those days.

If you find out one of the miracles of the number "19" in the Qua'an, you will completely forget the miracles in the bible.

Some scholars say that the more you study Christianity the more you will become confused. On the contrary the more you study Islam the more you become intelligent and wise.

Historcity of Muhammed is being questioned...Tom Holland and Jay Smith is a good resource