Is The Bible Truth?

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INTRO:

The Bible has been called the Greatest Book in the World. It is, at the same time, both the most read and most loved Book of all time, and the most hated and most ridiculed Book of all time.

-Cable Television’s czar, Ted Turner, mocks the Bible and calls Christians losers.

-The 18th century humanist Thomas Paine said that the Bible was more likely "the work of a demon" than the Word of God.

-The millionaire Robert Ingersoll claimed that only the ignorant could believe in the inspiration of this Book.

Which brings me to the question I want to ask tonight: Is the Bible true?

-Do you have to check your brains at the door to believe that the Bible is God’s Word?

-Can you be intellectually honest and believe that this Book, cover to cover, is the truth?

-Are its claims reliable?

-Can the Bible be trusted?

I. THE BIBLE CLAIMS FOR ITSELF DIVINE INSPIRATION

A. It’s writers claim to have written for God

1. The word "scripture" refers to that which has been written down.

a. That which is written is inspired – God breathed.

b. The words on this page began with God.

2. All scripture means that every word is inspired and that every word is equally inspired.

a. There are no errors – no myths, no fallacies, no fact that can be debunked.

b. There are no contradictions - every word agrees with every other word because

they all come from the same source – the mind of God.

That’s an impressive claim, but you would expect no less of a Book that claims to have a supernatural origin.

B. Jesus accepted it as truth

1. He referred to the creation as a literal event.

2. He spoke of the first man Adam as an historical figure.

3. He spoke of the miracles of the Bible as fact.

This is a book that claims to be true – unmixed with error of any kind.

But can we believe that and be intellectually honest?

In the 2nd millennium AD, can we still have complete trust in the Bible?

II. HOW DID WE GET THE BIBLE?

God could have sent down the Bible, bound in black leather, with gilded edges, sewn with silk, with every word printed in indelible India ink.

-He chose instead to give it to us in a way that is so unique that it is one of the outstanding evidences of its supernatural origin.

*40 men were used to record these words

*They wrote over a period of 1500 years

*They inscribed God’s word on sheepskin and goatskin, papyrus and parchment.

*It was written in different settings

-The first five books were written in the desert wilderness of the Sinai Peninsula.

-At least four letters of Paul were written while he was in prison.

-Daniel wrote from the courts of Babylon

-Some of the psalms were written while David kept sheep in the hills of Judea

It was originally written in three languages: Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek

Yet, when you read the Bible as a whole, recorded over all those years by so many different men, written under so many different conditions, you will find that it tells one story and follows one theme.

-It bears the mark of one author – God.

-And there are literally thousands of manuscripts spanning hundreds of years, preserving the complete text of the Bible intact and unaltered proving that the Bible we hold in our hands accurately preserves all that was written. That cannot be said of the writings of Shakespeare or any other book of antiquity.

III. INTERNAL PROOFS OF THE BIBLE’S INSPIRATION.

A. Is the Bible Scientifically accurate

1. The Bible is not a textbook on science, but it is scientifically accurate…

a. In the 10th century BC, Solomon wrote that God inscribed a circle on the face

of the deep – that the face of the oceans is rounded, not flat. Proverbs 8:27

b. In the 8th century BC, Isaiah wrote that God is seated above the circle of the

earth – that from space you see a rounded, or spherical, earth. Isaiah 40:22

c. Job, the oldest book in the Bible, written about 2000 BC, stated that God hung the earth on nothing. Job 26:7

***Hindus taught that the earth was supported on the back of a giant elephant that stood on the back of a giant turtle and when the elephant wiggled, it caused an earthquake.

***Greek mythology taught that the earth was supported on the shoulders of Atlas.

One of the evidences of the supernatural origin of this book is that there is not one single absurd myth or legend or fable found within its pages.

2. Concerning the origin of life,