You’re invited to a free, three-part Bible-study series that will answer these questions: Where does the Bible come from? Why are there so many different versions of the Bible? How do we know the Bible is the reliable Word of God?
What are the Dead Sea Scrolls and the ‘Gnostic Gospels’? What are the earliest copies of the Bible?The study series will be held at Holy Family Life Center, 155 Holy Family Lane, in Luling.
Dates: January 17th, 24th, & 31st. Times: 7:00 p.m. – 8:15 p.m. each night.Where does the Bible come from and how do we know Scripture is reliably God’s word?
Famed Bible expert Dr. Brant Pitre will explain all that and more in a dynamic three-part bible study in Luling – and you’re invited.
“It’s a topic that I’ve always wanted to address,” says the internationally recognized speaker who received his doctorate in theology from the University of Notre Dame.
“In recent years the news media has made a big deal of what they’re referring to as the ‘Lost Gospels’ of Judas and Thomas and the Dead Sea Scrolls,” adds Pitre, who lives in Destrehan with his wife and three children.
In fact, National Geographic just aired a documentary calling the Dead Sea Scrolls “one of the most significant archaeological discoveries of the 20th century.”
The documentary went on to describe them as “lost chronicles from divergent Christian groups in Jesus’ time that Church leaders chose not to include in the Bible.
“During the first centuries after the birth of Christ,” the documentary continued, “in a shifting political environment, church leaders shaped the New Testament around four Gospels.
“In recent years, long-lost chronicles have been found – chronicles that were hidden during those turbulent times.
“Such manuscripts describe a world of ideas that has been lost to us for nearly 1,700 years.”
Pitre, who specialized in the study of the New Testament and ancient Judaism while in college, is well equipped to address questions raised by National Geographic and others about the “lost Gospels.
“A lot of people just want to know: What are these lost Gospels, who wrote them, when were they written and should they be in the Bible too? I’m going to spend a whole night answering these questions,” Pitre says.
Businesswoman Toni Landeche, of Luling, says Pitre is one of the few people that can take such a complicated subject and make it understandable. “And he does it with a sense of humor,” she says.
Pitre’s interest in the origin of the Bible started when he began dating his wife, Elizabeth.
“I grew up Catholic and my wife was Baptist,” he says. “Protestant Bibles have 39 books in the Old Testament, while Catholic Bibles have 46 books.
“The debate we got into was, ‘Which of these was the ‘real’ bible and why are there different versions of the Bible?’
In order to answer that question you have to answer another, ‘where does the Bible come from, anyway, and who decided which books got in and which did not?’”
“We’ll address those questions. There’ll be new stuff for anyone who comes whether they think they know everything or nothing.”
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