II Peter 1
20 – Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation.
21 – For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
II Timothy 3
16 – All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,
17 – so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
Hebrews 4:12
For the Word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
You may remember that last week I pointed out in my sermon that SUFFERING is an unavoidable part of life in this fallen world of ours. All people who live on this planet-good and bad-endure painful, difficult times. As Jesus said, The rain falls on the just and the unjust. (Matthew 5:45 ) Well, with that in mind, let me ask you a question. When times of suffering come your way-when you go through the inevitable trials and tribulations of life-what do you lean on for strength?
Let me get more specific. Let’s say the trial you are face concerns a decision you must make at work-a decision that deals with questionable ethics. You don’t want to do the wrong thing but you’re not sure what the right thing is. You know what everyone else does, but you are not sure if that is what you should do. You need something to help you decide exactly which action to take, something to help you discern which course would be right and which would be wrong. You need an ethical compass to help you find your way. Well, if something like this were to happen, where would you turn for guidance?
Let me give you another scenario. While getting dressed one morning you notice a dark mole on your side, just above your waist. A few days later you observe that it is surrounded by red flesh and that it is becoming increasingly sensitive to touch. You’re disturbed about it so you go to the doctor. He refers you to a surgeon who does a biopsy after which he informs you it is melanoma…one of the worst kinds of cancer. In times like this where would you turn for comfort and peace?
Or, what about this: You’ve worked very hard to prepare yourself for your career and you have done very well in it. But thanks to the ever-changing job market you discover that position is to be eliminated. Your expertise is in fact now obsolete. It appears that within a few months, you may loose everything. The awful reality of financial bankruptcy suddenly looms like a massive shadow. Where do you turn? How do you stay on your feet?
One more: The phone rings in the middle of the night. It’s a police officer. He tries to be tactful but tells you that someone you love very much has been in a horrible automobile accident. The victim-your loved one-suffered a tragic death. The officer asks you to come down and identify the body. What would you do in the hours that follow? How would you handle the grief? What would give you the courage to accept this and go on?
Now, as Christians we know that in times of suffering like this we would turn to God. Our experience has shown us that as Psalm 46 says, He is, an ever present help in times of trouble. But we know this because we have read this and other wonderful truths like it in God’s Word, the Bible. Our own struggles with trials and tribulations have taught us that this Book of books is one of God’s most precious gifts to us. It is an absolutely trustworthy and reliable handbook for life. In its pages God has given us specific guidance that helps us know what to do when we face ethical decisions. It also gives us the comfort and strength we need when we endure times of hardship. It even tells us how to prepare ourselves to face death itself. We know by experience that the Bible directs us to the only One Who can give us the shelter we need as we go through life’s storms. So, like the Apostle Peter we would say, Lord to Whom [else] shall we go? [Only] You have the WORDS of life. (John 6:68 ) But today’s seekers often resist this way of thinking. In fact, MANY of them question whether or not the Bible really is trustworthy and true. When asked why they feel this way, they list several reasons…beliefs they hold about the Bible that are not true. Well, this morning I want to begin by reviewing-and countering-a few of these faulty opinions.
The first is the misconception held by many seekers who say that the Bible…
1. …is full of CONTRADICTIONS and ERRORS.
They point out things like the fact that the gospel writers’ accounts of the events surrounding Jesus’ resurrection don’t agree. After all, they say Matthew says there was 1 angel at Jesus’ tomb while John says there were 2. Others cite the fact that, whereas the GOSPELS say that Judas hung himself, the book of ACTS says that his bowels gushed out. But, these seeming contradictions are easily reconciled. Concerning the angels, Matthew didn’t say there was ONLY one, so his account doesn’t really conflict with John’s. John was just providing more detail by saying there were two. I don’t know if you’ve noticed or not but whenever you have two angels, you always have one.
And, as for Judas’ suicide, when you put all the biblical accounts together you get a complete, non-contradictory story. He apparently hung himself from the branch of a tree that grew on the edge of a cliff. It was against the law to touch a dead body in those days. So, somebody came along later, found his body, cut the rope and the bloated body fell on the rocks below. When this happened the bowels gushed out, just as the Bible said so these two accounts are not contradictory; they are complimentary.
Norman Geisler, president of Southern Evangelical Seminary in Charlotte, North Carolina has written a book entitled, When Critics Ask and in it he has devoted nearly six hundred pages to setting the record straight when it comes to every one of the Bible’s supposed contradictions and errors. He writes, Of the over 800 allegations I’ve studied, I haven’t found a single error in the Bible, but I’ve found a lot of errors [made] by it’s critics. And then, another objection many seekers raise when it comes to trusting the Bible is their belief that…
2. ….it is HISTORICALLY and SCIENTIFICALLY inaccurate.
Over the years many people have said that, in their opinion, the Bible is basically a huge collection of fables because modern archeology doesn’t support the events that it chronicles. For example, they say it lists the names of the kings of Israel…when there is no proof that these kings ever really lived, much less ruled. But over the years as archeologists have dug and dusted their finds, they have discovered concrete proof of the existence of every one of the forty-seven kings in the exact places the Bible said they had reigned.
In fact, there have been THOUSANDS of archaeological finds in the Middle East that support the biblical record. The narratives about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were once considered legendary, but as more has become known these stories are increasingly corroborated. The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah was thought to be mythological, until evidence was uncovered that these cities were situated just as the Old Testament says. Archaeologist Clifford Wislow writes that he has found, …permanent evidence of the great conflagration that took place [in Sodom and Gomorrah] in the long distant past. The Bible makes about three dozen references to the Hittites and critics used to charge that there was no evidence that such people ever existed. But in recent years archaeologists digging in modern Turkey have discovered the records of this wicked nation. In his best-selling book, The Bible As History Werner Keller writes, In view of the overwhelming mass of authentic and well-attested evidence now available, as I thought of the skeptical criticism which from the eighteenth century onward would fain have demolished the Bible altogether, there kept hammering in my brain this once sentence: ‘The Bible is right after all.’ The more we learn about the people and the times that the Bible describes, the more we see how historically accurate it is. And you know…the fact is, we don’t have archeological evidence like this for any other religious book from the ancient world.
Other seekers steer clear of the Bible because they think it’s teachings contradict SCIENTIFIC fact, but this is just not true. Now, the Bible is not a book of science but whenever it deals with scientific information it always does so in line with proven scientific truth. For example God’s written Word described the science of Hydrology, or the cycle of water, long before scientists did! In Psalm 135:7 it says, God causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth. This is what scientists now call evaporation. Then in Job 26:8 (the oldest book in the Bible) we read, He binds the water into thick clouds. and then in chapter 36 it says, He makes the small drops of water…they pour down rain as vapor.
In 1959 the science of Isosticy-the study of the balance of the earth-began. Scientists discovered that the earth must be in perfect balance so that it can rotate evenly. In other words, the weight of the earth has to be perfectly balanced like the tires on your car. But in Isaiah 40:12 we read, Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a BALANCE? So not until 1959 did scientists understand what the Creator of this world inspired Isaiah to write thousands of years ago!
The Bible also teaches that the earth is not flat but round. It took a long time for Christians to understand this but that is exactly what God’s Word says. Scripture records that Jesus said that when He returns some will be sleeping and some working, a teaching that recognizes the fact that the earth is round because it is always day on half of it and night on the other half…further proof that these words were inspired by the Creator of this universe.
Most intelligent scientists realize now that our world did not just happen but that it is the product of intelligent design, just as the Genesis record states.
And then another objection many seekers have when it comes to the Bible is their belief that…
3. …it promotes things like SLAVERY and the SUBJUGATION of women.
Well, people who think this must understand-there is a difference between what the Bible REPORTS and what it ENDORSES. For example, Peter denied Christ. But just because the Bible reports that does not mean that it recommends that we do the same. And, the Bible does make reference to slaves and masters but no where does it say that it is God’s will for one human being to own another. In fact Paul made a rather radical statement for his day when he said in Galatians 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all ONE in Christ Jesus. By the way, in our country the Abolitionist movement was propelled forward by Christian people, people who understood and lived by teachings like this that are found in the Bible. In the 18th century, almost 100 years before slavery ended in the U.S., John Wesley wrote,
Have your father , have you, has any man living a right to use another as a slave? It cannot be. Liberty is the right of every human creature, as soon as he breathes vital air, and no human law can deprive him of that right which he derives from the law of nature.
Today slavery still exists but not in countries that are predominantly Christian In fact slavery tends to thrive in countries most noted for their oppression of Christianity. Sudan is a good example. So, contrary to the opinion of some, the Bible teaches that every human has a God-given right to live in freedom.
And, the Bible also has a very high opinion of women. In the New Testament Jesus and Paul both treated women with a sense of dignity, respect, and equality that defied the cultural norm of their day. Women were a part of Jesus’ inner circle. In fact the male disciples admitted in their gospels that the women were last to leave the Cross and first to arrive at the tomb. Acts 21 refers to four women who prophesied. Romans 16 says that Pheobe was a deacon. Now, people who want to keep women in their place may quote some Bible verses out of context, but the overall teaching of scripture is that men and women are equal in God’s eyes, and should be treated equally.
So, people who criticize the Bible in any of these ways I’ ve mentioned don’t really understand it. They have bought into misconceptions about Scripture that just aren’t true.
Well, what can who know that God’s written Word is trustworthy-what can we tell seekers to help them discover how precious, how priceless, how authoritative and reliable the Bible really is?
1. Well, first of all, I would recommend that you point them to the UNITY of it’s message.
I say this because the clarity of the Bible’s central message IS truly amazing, especially when you consider how it was written. You see, this Book of books was written by different men…most of whom never knew each other and yet their writings carry the same theme. The 66 individual books that make up the Bible were composed over a period of about 1500 years in places all the way from Babylon to Rome. There were approximately 45 different authors ranging all the way from kings to poets, to prophets, to a physician, to farmers and shepherds, to fishermen, to a tax collector, to apostles, a pastor, and other spiritual leaders. Not a one of these men knew that he was writing what would become a part of the Holy Bible. Yet when gathered together into the canon of Scripture, they tell a complete story. If someone should read the New Testament without a knowledge of the Old they would ask, What came before this? If one should read the Old Testament without a knowledge of the New, he would ask, Where is the rest of this story? When properly understood no book contradicts the others. No book adds to previously written truth except to enlarge upon it or explain it. And these things cannot be said about any other set of books. The only reasonable explanation of this is that they have a common author — GOD through His Holy Spirit.
Have you been on a committee that was assigned a task? I admit that one of my least favorite tasks as a pastor is going to committee meetings not because I don’t enjoy your company but because it is almost always very difficult to get a group of people to agree about anything especially if there is any degree of variety in the committee’s make-up. This makes it very tough for a committee to make a decision. I heard once that a camel is actually a horse designed by a committee.
So the fact that this committee of 45 vastly different people could write the words of this book and produce a volume characterized by unparalleled unity is in itself a powerful testimony of the fact that it is God’s word and as such is completely trustworthy. No group of people could even come close to doing this, unless they were inspired by the same source. So this book does not just contain the word of God. This IS THE WORD of God. The Bible does not just contain truth. As Jesus said in John 17:17, Your Word IS truth. As the Baptist Faith & Message puts it, it is truth without mixture of error.
And then, another thing I would point out to seekers who question the reliability of God’s written word is…
2. …the unprecedented RELIABILITY of the Bible’s oldest manuscripts.
Now, most intelligent people don’t believe the headlines that they read in papers like the NATIONAL INQUIRER. They know their sources are just not trustworthy. But you can’t say that about the Bible. It is AS reliable as the NATIONAL INQUIRER is unreliable. Let me explain why this is so. Experts judge HOW reliable a historical document according to two standards. The first is how long of a span of time there exists between the original document and the oldest copy. The other is how many of these old copies or MANUSCRIPTS there are in existence. Now, of course we don’t have the original copy of the Old or New Testaments. Those crumbled to dust long ago. But the Bible still passes both of these test standards better than any other ancient writing. For example. Homer’s Iliad….remember the story of the Trojan Horse? Well, it has the greatest manuscript authority of any non-Christian ancient work. There are about 650 surviving ancient manuscripts of the Iliad and the earliest dates back to the third century. Now the Iliad was written in 650 B.C. so that means there is a 1000 year span between the time it was written and the earliest surviving manuscript, but it is still considered authoritative.
Aristotle’s POETICS was written in 343 B.C. The earliest copy in existence is dated 1100A.D. That’s a span of 1400 years, but no one doubts its authenticity either. I remember in my High School Latin class we translated Caesar’s HISTORY OF THE GALLIC WARS. It was written around 50 B.C. There are less than a dozen existing manuscripts of this work and its unquestioned manuscript authority rests on nine or ten copies dating 1,000 years after Caesar’s death at the hands of Brutus and the others.
When we compare the manuscript authority of these classic works to that of the New Testament-well, lets just say the comparison is almost embarrassing in contrast. Over 20,000 copies of the New testament manuscripts are in existence today. And, the earliest fragments date back to the second century-a span of not dozens of centuries but of only a few decades from when the original copies were penned. Sir Frederic Kenyon, who was the director and principal librarian at the British Museum and second to none in authority when it comes to issuing statements about manuscripts concludes: The interval between the dates of original composition and the earliest extant evidence becomes so small as to be in fact negligible, and the last foundation for any doubt that the Scriptures have come down to us substantially as they were originally written has now been removed. Both the authenticity and the general integrity of the books of the New Testament may be regarded as finally established.
All this goes to show that the New Testament has more manuscript authority than any piece of literature from antiquity.
3. And then a third thing to point seekers to is the fact that the Bible’s PROPHECIES always come true.
There are literally thousands of examples but I will mention only a few. In Ezekiel 26 the Bible prophesied that the city of Tyre will be destroyed. Listen to the words, They will destroy the walls of Tyre and pull down her towers; I will scrape away her rubble and make her a bare rock. Out in the sea she will become a place to spread fishnets, for I have spoken, declares the Sovereign Lord. She will become plunder for the nations, and her settlements on the mainland will be ravaged by the sword. Then they will know that I am the Lord.
Now, Tyre was a powerful kingdom. They had a navy. You may remember that it was King Hiram of Tyre who sent the cedars of Lebanon to King David to build the temple. No one would have thought that so powerful of a nation would ever fall. But the Bible predicted it in stark detail and this is exactly what happened! King Nebucanezzer destroyed the mainland city. And so people moved off to an island off shore from the original city. Then years later Alexander the Great came along and sent a boat out and asked for supplies for his army…the people of Tyre said no. I guess they thought they were safe out on the island. So Alexander took all the rubble of the original city threw it in the sea and built a causeway. Then he marched out there and destroyed the place. To this day fishermen dry their nets there on that island. It has never been rebuilt
There are prophecies all over the Bible like this. Ezekiel chapter 30 accurately prophecies the fall of the mighty nation of Egypt. The prophet Nahum, Jonah’s successor, said that Nineveh would be destroyed by a flood. This was a huge city with a 100 foot high inner wall-fifty feet thick. Half mile out was another wall. Today, archeologists have studied this site and found that Nineveh fell in the month of AV and there is a strand of pebbles that show it was destroyed by a massive flood.
“But the greatest example of the Bible’s fulfilled prophecies concerns the birth, life, death, and resurrection of the Jesus, the Christ.”
Of the more than 2000 prophecies found in the Bible, 333 deal with the coming Messiah. There is no other individual in the history of mankind whose entire life has been so prophetically and predictively detailed. These prophecies deal with the date when He would be born, the exact place, and that He would be born of a Virgin. They set forth the details of His ministry, His character, His betrayal for 30 pieces of silver, His crucifixion, the piercing of His hands and feet, His burial in the grave of a rich man, His resurrection from the dead, His ascension to heaven, His proclamation to the Gentiles, and scores of other particulars.
Mathematician Peter Stoner says that the chance of any one person fulfilling even eight of these Old Testament prophecies is one in ten to the 17th power. That’s one with seventeen zeroes after it. To comprehend this staggering statistic Lee Strobel suggests that we imagine the entire world being covered with white tiles that are one and a half inches square, every bit of dry land on the planet and the bottom of just one tile is painted red. Then picture one person being allowed to wander for a lifetime around all seven continents. He is permitted to bend down only one time and pick up a single piece of tile. What are the odds it would be the one tile whose reverse side was painted red? The same as that of just eight of the Old Testament Prophecies coming true in any one person as it did in Christ.
Stoner went a step further and said that the chances of any one person fulfilling 48 of the prophecies were ten to the one hundred fifty-seventh power. This would be like trying to find a single predetermined atom among all the atoms in a trillion trillion trillion billion universes the size of our universe! And Jesus didn’t fulfil only eight or even only forty-eight of these prophecies. He fulfilled all 333 of them! This in itself is a powerful testimony to the veracity of Scripture because as Geisler says, The Bible is the only book that is supernaturally confirmed in this way.
So when seekers question the trustworthiness of the Bible tell them about the amazing unity of it’s message and about the reliability of its oldest manuscripts and make sure they see that its’ prophecies all come true. But the best thing to tell seekers when they question the Bible is…
4. …that it WORKS.
Since I became a Christian 40 years ago, I have tried to live according to the principles of this book. There have been times when I have failed to live up to this commitment. But I have learned a basic truth. When I do live according to the teachings of the Bible, my life works. That doesn’t mean that these past 40 years have always been easy…because sometimes obedience is the hardest path to follow. As the Bible says, the narrow road is the most difficult to traverse. But when I live according to the principles taught in Scripture, I experience the presence and the power of God in my life. I have found that just as God says in Philippians 4:6-7, when I am anxious or worried, if I talk to Him about it, if I pray, …the peace of God which transcends all human understanding fills my heart and mind. I have discovered that if I trust in the Lord with all my heart and lean not on my own understanding… well then just as Proverbs 3 promises, God makes my paths straight. He tells me what to do and what to say. My marriage is best when I obey the teaching of Ephesians 5 and …love my wife as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her… In my conversations with people who are angry with me I have found that …a gentle answer DOES turn away wrath… just as Proverbs 15:1 says it will. I could go on and on reciting verse after verse but suffice it to say that I have not come across a single promise or precept or principle in the Bible that does not do what it says it will do. God’s word…WORKS. In my opinion it is completely trustworthy…one hundred percent reliable. And I am not alone in this. Over the centuries millions and millions of people have discovered the same thing. In fact, thousands of faithful Christians have given their lives rather than reject the teachings of this Book. Why? Because it works. Like me they have found that when we read it, and believe it, and apply it to our lives, we are never the same.
You know, I think the best way to summarize the make-up of this book is to say that it is an invitation from Creator to creation. In this book God invites you and me to live our lives according to His wisdom. He invites us to give this book authority in our lives, to adopt it as our guidebook, our instruction manual for life.
But the most important invitation you will find in these pages is God’s written offer…to know Him personally-to walk with Him daily. And, it is only in accepting THIS invitation that we can understand the Bible completely for when we become Christians God’s Spirit comes to guide us in our study. Well, like all invitations God’s word calls for our response. You may want to do so by bowing your head silently and committing to center your life around the teachings of the Bible.
You may want to come publically this morning and join this church pledging to help us as we obey God’s word and work to fulfill our great commission. Or you may want to walk forward and publically accept God’s invitation to a personal relationship. However you feel led, won’t you come as we stand and sing?