How Can We Trust It? Series

Story about someone who relied on another person’s word and

the person was wrong.

Turn with me to 2 TIMOTHY 3:16-17 “ALL SCRIPTURE IS

GOD-BREATHED AND IS USEFUL FOR TEACHING, REBUKING,

CORRECTING AND TRAINING IN RIGHTEOUSNESS, SO THAT THE

MAN OF GOD MAY BE THOROUGHLY EQUIPPED FOR EVERY

GOOD WORK. I want you to look at that WORD USEFUL (ΦΕΛΙΜΟΣ;

ŌPHELIMOS): PROFITABLE, VALUABLE, RELIABLE.

PROVERBS 30:5 “EVERY WORD OF GOD IS FLAWLESS; HE

IS A SHIELD TO THOSE WHO TAKE REFUGE IN HIM.” Notice that

there is no real distinction between God’s word and God’s person.

BECAUSE HE IS FLAWLESS, HIS WORD IS FLAWLESS.

ISAIAH 40:8 THE GRASS WITHERS AND THE FLOWERS

FALL, BUT THE WORD OF OUR GOD STANDS FOREVER.”

The Bible itself leaves no room for the notion that is NOT

reliable; that it is NOT trustworthy; that it is not accurate.

THE BIBLE IS THE ULTIMATE BASIS FOR FAITH AND

LIVING.

But let’s drill down a bit more. What other evidence is there to help us

answer the question: “How can we trust the Bible?”

1. IT IS HISTORICALLY ACCURATE: IT HAS NEVER BEEN

DISPROVED.

COSMOLOGY

GENESIS 1:1 “IN THE BEGINNING, GOD CREATED THE

HEAVENS AND THE EARTH.”

That word HEAVENS (SHAMAYIM): 1) THE SKY; 2) PLACE

WHERE MOON & STARS ARE; 3) ABODE OF GOD That’s everything,

right? That’s what we call the universe. And you recognize what

universe means, don’t you? Uni-one; verse-statement. The word

universe points to this one verse: In the beginning, God created the

heavens and the earth.

Notice that the Bible says that there was a beginning. When I

was going through high school and college, the standard secular

explanation for the existence of the universe was that it always had

been; that it had no beginning.

But then a new idea began to get some traction. It had been

proposed back in the 1920s and 1930s, but the scientific community was

locked into their assumption that the universe had no beginning. Just

always had been. This new hypothesis became known as the Big Bang

Theory. The overall framework of the big bang theory came out of

solutions to Einstein's general relativity field equations and remains

unchanged, but various details of the theory are still being modified

today. Einstein himself initially believed that the universe was static.

When his equations seemed to imply that the universe was expanding or

contracting, Einstein added a constant term to cancel out the expansion

or contraction of the universe. When the expansion of the universe was

later discovered, Einstein stated that introducing this "cosmological

constant" had been a mistake. Singularity illustration (ON SCREEN).

It hypothesized that the universe began as one hot, dense state, called

singularity, and that it has been expanding ever since. Scientists

estimate that the universe is 13.7 billion years old. They NOW say that

there was a beginning. Sound familiar?

ARCHEOLOGY

Sodom and Gomorrah GENESIS 19:24-25 tells of the

destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah: “THEN THE LORD RAINED

DOWN BURNING SULFUR ON SODOM AND GOMORRAH—FROM

THE LORD OUT OF THE HEAVENS. THUS HE OVERTHREW THOSE

CITIES AND THE ENTIRE PLAIN, INCLUDING ALL THOSE LIVING IN

THE CITIES—AND ALSO THE VEGETATION IN THE LAND.” For

years, secular archeologists said there was no Sodom or Gomorrah.

But recent discoveries have located them. Buildings were discovered

that had burned by fire starting on the roof first. Scientists now concede

that a geological fault line in the area could have erupted, shooting

bitumen up in the air. With such pressures, it could have exploded,

raining down brimstone onto the two cities. Bitumen is plentiful in the

area and there is evidence that layers of sedimentary rock have been

molded together by intense heat.

Jericho Again, secular archeologists for decades contended

there was no archeological evidence for ancient Jericho being in

existence at the time Joshua fit the Battle of Jericho. But that changed

with modern archeological digs. Picture of Jericho dig site (on screen).

Time magazine did a story in March, 1990: “KENYON’S

(Kathleen, secular archeologist) DISCOVERIES AT JERICHO WERE

LARGELY CONSISTENT WITH THE BIBLE STORY. FOR ONE THING,

SHE FOUND THAT THE CITY’S WALLS HAD FALLEN IN A WAY

SUGGESTIVE OF SUDDEN COLLAPSE. . . . MOREOVER, KENYON

FOUND BUSHELS OF GRAIN ON THE SITE. THAT IS CONSISTENT

WITH THE BIBLE’S ASSERTIONS THAT JERICHO WAS

CONQUERED QUICKLY.” Philistine cities

The Bible mentions five Philistine cities: Ekron, Gaza, Askelon,

Ashdod, and Gath. For decades, secular archeologists contended the

Bible was not reliable because these cities did not exist. Well guess

what? They found them! An Associated Press article says,

“Archeologists uncovered a stone block inscribed with the name of the

biblical city Ekron and its kings, the 1st conclusive evidence of the

Philistine city, which was burned more than 2,500 years ago. . . . The