Genesis 2:16-17 (NASB)
“The LORD God commanded the man, saying, ‘From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.’”
Genesis 3:1-3 (NASB)
Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?”
The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’”
What did the devil do here?
Did He really say that???
Misquoted the commandment.
Lied about the outcome
Created doubt in the Lord and the commandment
That doubt still exists
The New York Times reported a study about the diminishing belief in the devil among Americans. Two-thirds of Americans do not believe in the devil as a living entity. In a randomly selected survey of over 1,000 Americans, pollsters asked whether they agreed that Satan is “not a living being, but a symbol of evil.” 43% percent agreed with the statement. That means over 135 million Americans believe that Satan has no influence but that Satan is just a symbol of evil.
Why would we believe that?
Who in the Bible had actual encounters with satan?
Adam, Eve, Jesus, Michael the Arch Angel
The devil misquoted Scripture with Adam and Eve
The devil took Scripture out of context with Jesus
Who is this? (photo of Bill O’reilly)
What book did He just write? (photo of Killing Jesus)
I have not read the book. I have listened to interviews with BO himself regarding the book.
In this morning’s message I am just using BO’s book Killing Jesus as an example. There are multitudes of books that could be used.
I am not ganging up on BO. It is just that since it is a newly released book and a hot topic in the Christian community it is a good reference.
Here are some of the things BO said about the differences between his book and the Bible.
(What the Bible says)
Matthew 2:13-14
“When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. ‘Get up,’ he said, ‘take the child and His mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the Child to kill Him.’”
“So he got up, took the Child and His mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: ‘Out of Egypt I called My Son.’”
(What BO says)
BO said in his interview that Joseph and Mary did not flee to Egypt with the infant Jesus. Instead they fled toward Egypt. He states that it would have been impossible for them to travel that far.
(What the Bible says)
In Luke 23:33-34a
“When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified Him there, along with the criminals - one on His right, the other on His left. Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.’”
(What BO says)
BO says that it would be impossible for Jesus to say that from the cross and be heard because of the suffocation factor and the spectators were kept a distance from the cross.
By the way, BO says that Matthew and Luke embellished quite a bit in order to convince people that Jesus was the Messiah.
Embellish - to enhance (a statement or narrative) with fictitious additions.
So, the parts of the Bible which are unexplainable or which we doubt are fictitious elements added into the story for the purpose of enhancement.
BO did not specify all of the parts which he believes are embellishments and which were truth so we’ll just have to figure it out on our own …
Now, BO says that Killing Jesus is NOT a religious book, but, it has the very effect of meddling in the Christian faith because claiming that certain parts were fictitious and added for effect casts the Bible as a work of man and not of God.
Why? Doubt. Creating doubt in the Holy Scriptures.
BO says, “If you want to take the Bible literally that’s your right to do that.”
What is implied in that statement?
I’ve done all of this research and I do not take the Bible literally.
Doubt.
Objective - we need to have discernment.
And to determine just how great our God truly is!
In order to have true discernment we need to:
Know God’s Word - what it says and what it does not say
We need to have a relationship with Jesus (saved)
We need to have continually open communication with the Holy Spirit
We need to be living a life free from the distraction of sin
We need to know the voice of God!
Because something is in a book or on the internet or on 60 minutes and it claims to be thoroughly researched does not mean that it is the truth.
OK. So, we’ve got BO saying that he has done exhaustive research on the historical aspect of the crucifixion of Jesus.
He gathered this information from Roman, Jewish and islamic history and wrote the book 2000 years after the crucifixion of Jesus.
Can anyone tell me when the islamic religion was created?
610 AD by muhammad writing in a cave with the koran being dictated to him by the angel Gabriel - how can the historical perspective of isalm be accurate?
Now, BO says that he was told in the middle of the night by the Holy Spirit that he should write Killing Jesus.
He also said in the same interview that he always get’s ideas in the middle of the night such as the idea of writing Killing Lincoln and Killing kennedy. Were they messages from the Holy Spirit as well?
The idea here is not to disparage BO. He may very well not even realize that he is sowing seeds of doubt in the minds of millions of readers.
Galatians 1:8-9
“But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse!
“As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse!”
So, we’ve got BO’s take on the crucifixion of Jesus.
Now, what about this guy?
Luke 1:1-4
“Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word.
“With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.
OK. So, here’s our choice. BO writing almost 2000 years after the death of Jesus. His information is based on general knowledge about crucifixions at that time. It is based on Roman secular history. It is based on hostile Jewish history and it is based on history written by a guy starting a new religion 600 years after the time of Christ.
Or … we can believe Luke who spoke with eye witnesses of the events and carefully interviewed and recorded all available witnesses that he could find. Then he wrote it down only 30 years after the event actually happened.
2000 years after the event vs 30 years after the event
Based on hostile historic writings vs eyewitness accounts
A well educated modern investigative reporter vs a well educated reporter in the actual timeframe of the events
Which do you think is more accurate?
When we read the Gospels and come across the miracles do we praise God because we have a glorious and powerful God or do we reject them off hand because we do not understand them?
Do we doubt them?
Just what kind of God is Yahweh?
Isaiah 40:28
“Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary and His understanding no on can fathom.”
Is that the kind of God we serve or do we serve a god so frail and feeble that we need to embellish stories about him in order to get people to believe?
(Creation)
When we read about the Lord creating all that exists do we believe that we do indeed have an all powerful God who can do whatever He wishes
Or
Do we set that aside as the ancient narrative of a simple people who were doing the best they could do to explain the world around them.
(Healing)
When we read of the Lord healing the demon possessed do we believe it or do we explain it away as some sort of miracle counseling by Jesus.
How big is God? Big enough to do everything the Bible says He did or is He a little god reduced to only the size of what we can believe could be done by a human.
What about this?
Matthew 17:24-27
“After Jesus and His disciples arrived in Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma temple tax came to Peter and asked, ‘Doesn’t your teacher pay the temple tax?’”
“Yes, He does,” he replied.
“When Peter came into the house, Jesus was the first to speak. ‘What do you think, Simon?’ he asked. ‘From whom do the kings of the earth collect duty and taxes - from their own children or from others?’
“From others,” Peter answered.
“Then the children are exempt,” Jesus said to him.
“But so that we may not cause offense, go to the lake and throw out your line. Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you will find a four-drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for My tax and yours.”
Describe how the talipia species of fish holds its eggs and then its young in its mouth until they are old enough to be released and then how they pick up a rock or some other object and hold it in their mouth in order to keep the brood from coming back in.
Did God create the tilapia thousands of years ago with this method of brooding its young? Did the Lord ordain for someone to lose a four drachma coin in that particular spot for that particular fish to pickup when its young were old enough to go out on their own? Did the Lord prompt that particular fish with the coin in its mouth to bite on Peters hook in the water?
Was that a great and powerful God or embellishment?
Let’s let God define Himself as He is described in His Holy Word.
Let’s not remake our thinking of God according to what we are capable of understanding because then we end up with a god that is made in our image instead of the other way around.
