Lesson 5: Why I Believe In The Authority Of The Bible

A. INTRODUCTION

1. Voltaire, an atheist and opponent of Christianity, tried to translate Psalm 51 into a poem, i.e., “Create in me a clean heart, O God.” He got a great horror of hell.

2. A. W. Pink, “Christianity is a religion of the Book. The entire edifice of Christianity stands or falls on the divine inspiration of the Bible.”

3. Logic: (a) Since God is who He is – an infinite loving redeemer – we expect a plan of salvation powerful enough to save mankind. (b) Since man is what he is – sin – limited, needy - we expect a God to give people a message of help. (c) Therefore we expect the message to be authoritative, accurate, and reliable.

4. REVELATION: an act whereby God gives knowledge about Himself we could not otherwise know. A question of content. INSPIRATION: supernatural guidance of the Holy Spirit and the writers of Scripture whereby they wrote the Word of God accurately and reliably. A question of accuracy. INERRANCY: what is inspired is authoritative. A question of trustworthiness.

B. WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS ABOUT ITSELF

1. God breathed. “All Scripture is given by inspiration” (2 Tim. 3:16). “Theopneustos,” i.e., God breathed out.

a. Source is God, inspiration comes from Him.

b. Life, breath is life; the Bible has God’s life.

c. All Scripture, “graphe” is singular or one unit.

2. God moved. “No prophecy of Scripture is of private interpretation, for prophecy never comes by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:20-21).

a. All Scripture, “graphe” is singular, i.e., all inclusive Scripture.

b. Guided, to be moved is “phero,” to be picked up as carrying a baby.

c. Both man and Holy Spirit expressed their distinctiveness.

3. Dual – authorship. Since the Bible claims it was reliably written by both God and man, I must treat it with the greatest obedience, or repudiate it as a fraud.

C. HOW JESUS USED THE SCRIPTURES

1. Jesus trusted Scripture. “It is written” (Matt. 4:1-11).

2. Jesus argued verb tense of Scripture. To Sadducees who didn’t believe in the resurrection, He said, “I Am the God of Abraham . . . God is not the God of the dead, but of the Living” (Matt. 22:32). He didn’t say, “I WAS,” but “I AM.”

3. Jesus defended Scriptures. “The Scriptures cannot be (broken) untrue” (John 10:35, LB).

4. Jesus included smallest letter. “Till heaven and earth pass away, not one jot or tittle will by no means pass away” (Matt. 5:18).

5. Jesus interpreted Scriptures exactly. Jesus read Luke 4:18-19 from Isaiah 61:1-2 and stopped in the middle of the sentence to separate His first and second coming.

6. Conclusion. Since Jesus treated every word and letter of the Scriptures authoritatively, how can I do differently?

D. HOW THE BIBLE WAS GOTTEN TO US

1. Autographs. The original language of Hebrew or Greek (Koine, i.e., common). These were inspired and accurate.

Plato – 7 copies of his writings

Aristotle – 5 copies of his writings

Bible – 40,000 copies

2. The 66 books of Scriptures were collected in Ta Bibla, i.e., The Book.

3. Original book stayed in possession of addressees. Scribes copied and circulated. Every church wanted a copy. Why?

a. Message of an apostle

b. About Jesus Christ

c. When apostles died, church needed authoritative message

d. Used in public worship

e. To counteract false doctrine

f. To reject apocryphal books

g. Persecution by Dioclesian destroyed all sacred books

4. Original autographs were lost because of

a. Use

b. Dioclesian’s persecution

c. Fire or accidents

d. Didn’t realize importance

5. What we have.

a. Latin Vulgate, 8,000 copies

b. 2,200 Lexionaries

c. Ostra, i.e., Chester Beatty’s Papyri; constructed the entire New Testament

d. Patristic quotation of church father’s of the whole Bible, 36,000 quotes

e. Early Syrian, Coptic (Egypt) and the Plesheba (The Samaritan Bible)

f. Early text in capital letters in Africa (few)

g. Majority text (later) in small letters (minuscule) found in Europe (many)

6. Over 10,000 translations of entire Bible into the language of people.

7. The Bible is the most verified book in history.

8. Why do so many reject and attack its veracity? Because (a) it condemns their thoughts and actions, (b) it calls them to repent, or else, (c) it demands a God-centered life, (d) it challenges them to worship God only and to deny self.

If you have never really accepted Jesus as your personal Savior, would you do it right now? Do not delay or put it off. If you would like to receive Christ by faith, pray this simple prayer in your heart:

Dear Lord,

I acknowledge that I am a sinner. I believe Jesus died for my sins on the cross, and rose again the third day. I repent of my sins. By faith I receive the Lord Jesus as my Savior. You promised to save me, and I believe You, because You are God and cannot lie. I believe right now that the Lord Jesus is my personal Savior, and that all my sins are forgiven through His precious blood. I thank You, dear Lord, for saving me. In Jesus’ name, Amen.