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Why We Trust The Bible

Unit 9 / Lesson 5

Why We Trust The Bible

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Teacher's Prep

  • Games

    • Trust Fall

      • You may want to set up a table and chair for advanced versions of the trust fall (falling from a chair or table).

      • Note: in this version of the trust fall, it’s not just a single person catching, but a group of people with arms out. For a visual, see this: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Ye6ULFxxfhY

    • Snacks and Chatting

    • Scoop the Snowballs

      • Watch this video to see what it is like

      • For every group of four children, prepare

        • 1 bowl

        • 1 scoop

        • 1 table

        • About 50 cotton balls

        • A blindfold (disposable COVID masks make great blindfolds if they are worn over the eyes)

      • Note: have some tongs available in case some children have trouble with the scoop. Younger children can use the tongs, or their hands.

  • Teacher’s Study


    Intro

    SLIDE 1

  • Gathering

    • How was your week?

    SLIDE 2

  • Intro Activity: Trust Fall

    • Instructions

      • We will start this point by doing a trust fall! 

      • The idea is to stand in front of a GROUP of your friends. They'll all have their arms out to catch you, and then you need to tip backwards like a board without bending your knees.

      • Now you all have a choice. You can do the trust fall if you want, or you can watch and maybe help catch people.

      • Instructions for Teacher:

        • Very importantly: we need a GROUP of people to catch one person. You may want to play this short video that shows what a trust fall is like: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Ye6ULFxxfhY

        • Set up the catchers. Pick some of the stronger people you have available. Then, ask who would like to do the trust fall.

        • For those who are willing to do a trust fall, try a next-level trust fall, where they fall off a chair into the arms of the catchers.

        • You might even be able to do a super-next-level trust fall, where someone volunteers to fall off a table -- though you would have to make sure the catchers are strong and ready.

        • When everyone has had plenty of chances to do a trust fall, form a circle to debrief

    • Debrief

      • We started off with the Trust Fall game, because it helps us to understand our lesson today. It can be a scary thing to trust other people, but it really helps to know who’s going to catch you. If the people behind you are great friends who would never let you get hurt, that will help you lean back and do something that looks impossible.

  • Relevance

    • It's sort of like that for anyone who wants to trust the Bible. The Bible tells us to trust a bunch of stories that tell us how to live. Sometimes those stories tell us some pretty difficult things, but if we know something about the people who wrote those stories, we’ll have an easier time trusting them.

  • Big Question

    • Our big question today is: why should we trust the Bible?

  • Big Idea

    SLIDE 3

    • Our big idea today is, we have great reasons to trust the Bible.

      • First, we have great reasons to trust the New Testament. The New Testament is the second half of the Bible, and it talks about Jesus and the first Christians. 

      • Second, we have great reasons to trust the Old Testament, which is the first half that talks about all God did before Jesus came along.

  • Bible Reference

    SLIDE 4

    • Our goal today is to understand two verses in the Bible:

      • 2 Timothy 3:16 (CEV)

        • 16 Everything in the Scriptures is God's Word. All of it is useful for teaching and helping people and for correcting them and showing them how to live.

    • This verse tells us that we have a chance to know God's words for us, and God's words can do great things for us.

    SLIDE 5

    • God's words are useful for teaching, helping, correcting and showing people how to live. That's what the Bible says about itself. But how do we know the Bible is right? That’s what our lesson is about.


    Point 1

  • Our first point is, we have great reasons to trust the New Testament

    • This is the second half of the Bible that talks about Jesus and the first Christians.

    SLIDE 6

  • Game: Snacks and Chatting

    • Instructions

      • We will start this lesson with snacks and chatting! We'll have about 10 minutes to chat about our week in little groups.

      • Please form groups of four and spread out to different parts of the room. We'll get you some discussion questions and some snacks once you are in your groups.

      • Teacher: distribute discussion questions and snacks. Allow kids to connect for 10 minutes.

    • Debrief

      • Normally, when our friends tell us stories, we believe them even though we weren't there to see those things happen. Normally, we have good reasons to believe our friends. Most of our friends tend to be honest. They have no reason to lie to us about their week. Their stories make sense and match with other things you know to be true.

    SLIDE 7

    • Sometimes we will have more than one friend who was in the same place, and they saw the same thing and they'll tell the same story. Then, we can be extra sure that they are telling the truth.

    • Those are the kinds of reasons why we believe the stories about Jesus and the first Christians.

    • Let's read something that one of Jesus’ friends wrote for us. The friend’s name was John.

  • Bible Reference

    SLIDE 8

    • 1 John 1:1-2 (ICB)

      • We write you now about something that has always existed. We have heard. We have seen with our own eyes. We have watched, and we have touched with our hands. We write to you about the Word that gives life.  He who gives life was shown to us. We saw him, and we can give proof about it. And now we tell you that he has life that continues forever. The one who gives this life was with God the Father. God showed him to us.

  • Explanation

    SLIDE 9

    • John was saying, "I saw Jesus! I watched Him, and I touched Him with my hands. I saw what He did, and that's why I can tell you He's not just a man, but He is God."

    SLIDE 10

    • Now how do we know that John is telling the truth? We have a bunch of reasons. First, he had no reason to lie. History tells us that John got into a lot of trouble for talking about Jesus. If John had just made up those stories and he knew they were not true, he had every reason to stop telling the story. So, it would make no sense for him to lie to us.

    • Another reason we believe John is because his story makes sense. The different parts of his story fit with each other, and his story also fits with other things we know from history.

    • And finally, John is not the only one who talked about Jesus, but many people talked about Jesus and many people wrote about Jesus. Because many honest people were saying the same thing, we can be extra sure that they were telling the truth.

    • The whole New Testament is like that. It was written either by people who saw Jesus, or by people who talked to those who saw Jesus. And, their stories all agree about those things. 

  • Application

    • But sooner or later, we will find people who tell us we can’t trust the Bible. You might have teachers or friends who think the Bible is just another book. If we are willing to do some work, we will be able to see if they are right or wrong. When people disagree with us, we can take a close look at the stories in the Bible, and we can ask ourselves if the stories make sense, if they fit with everything else we know, and if the stories are told by people who are honest and have no reason to lie.

  • Discussion Question

    SLIDE 11

    • Let's stop for a discussion question.

    • Some people actually don’t want the Bible to be right about the things it talks about. Why might someone not want the Bible to be right?


    Point 2

  • Our second point is, we have great reasons to trust the Old Testament.

    • This is the first half of the Bible that talks about all God did before Jesus came.

    SLIDE 12

  • Game: Scoop the Snowballs Challenge

    • Instructions

      • Teacher’s setup

        • For every group of four, set up

        • A table

        • A bowl

        • A scoop

        • About 50 cotton balls

        • A blindfold

      • We’ll start this point with a game! It's the Scoop the Snowballs challenge!

      • Let's watch a video to see what it is like:

      • Here's how it works. You will be in teams of 4. Each team will gather around a table, and you will take turns being blindfolded and scooping the snowballs into a bowl.

      • Each of you will have two minutes to scoop as many snowballs as you can. Only the person with the scoop can touch the snowballs, but the other people on your team can talk to you, encourage you and give you advice. If you're really struggling with the scoop, maybe you can switch to tongs.

      • Teacher: run four rounds of the game so that each child can have a turn. Each child will have two minutes to get as many snowballs as they can into their bowl.

    • Debrief

    SLIDE 14

    • We played this game because we rely on our friends to tell us what we can't see.

    • That's what we can do when we read the first half of the Bible. It's like our friends from the second half are telling us what's going on.

  • Bible Reference

    SLIDE 15

    • There is an important verse in the New Testament: 

      • 2 Timothy 3:16 (CEV)

        • Everything in the Scriptures is God's Word. All of it is useful for teaching and helping people and for correcting them and showing them how to live

  • Explanation

    • This verse talks about the Scriptures. Everyone back then knew what the Scriptures were. Back when the New Testament was written, the Scriptures were the whole Bible before Jesus came along. We call that part of the Bible The Old Testament. This verse teaches us that everything in the Old Testament is God's Word.

    • In the New Testament, all the writers and all the heroes treated the Old Testament as God's Word.

  • Application

    • This is good to know because the Old Testament can be hard to read sometimes. There are parts of the Bible that almost nobody reads, because those parts are so hard to understand.

    • There are some stories from the Old Testament that everyone knows. We’ve all heard about David and Goliath, and about the time Moses split the Red Sea in two. But, when we know that the whole Bible is God’s word to us, we will have a reason to learn even the hard parts, because God’s words are really good for us.

    SLIDE 16

    • Even if we can understand just one verse properly, it can change our life for the better.

  • Discussion Question

    SLIDE 17

    • Let's stop for a discussion question.

    • Why does it matter that we know what God says to us in the Bible?


    Conclusion

    SLIDE 18

  • Let’s wrap up our lesson by going over the big ideas again.

  • Our big question today was: "Why should we trust the Bible?"

  • Our answer was, we have great reasons to trust the Bible. First, the New Testament gives us every reason to believe that it is telling the truth. The New Testament is good history and we can see that it is not lying. Second, we can trust the Old Testament because the New Testament tells us it is God’s Word.


    Short Film

  • We'll end with a short film! This one is called, Io - Inner Self

  • It reminds us that some stories are about imaginary things, but other stories are about real history. And, we can remember that the Bible is about real history.

  • Teacher, show this video:


    Ending

  • Teacher: if you have extra time after the lesson, you may want to play some games together, or do a Bible memory drill for a prize, or sing some songs.


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