March 28, 2004 2 Peter 1:21ff
“Can I trust the Bible?” (pt. 2)
NOTE: unless otherwise indicated, all quotes are from the “Tough Questions” series by Judson Poling and Garry Poole published by Zondervan
INTRODUCTION
Last week, before anyone else got here, Mike and I were setting up the equipment. I came a little more casual than normal last week – no tie, no sportcoat and shirt collar unbuttoned. Mike came in with tie and double-breasted coat. He looked more like a preacher than I did, so I suggested that he preach that day instead of me. I told him that the message was on the Bible, and I even told him what he could say: “The Bible is true. We all believe it. Let’s go eat.” Short, simple and to the point. And some of you may have felt like that might have been more appropriate. Why do we need to hear a message on the truthfulness of the Bible? Why? Because everything hangs on it. Because many people who claim to be Christians don’t believe that everything in the Bible is true. Because the religions of the world are constantly challenging the truthfulness of the Bible. Because if we really believed that the Bible is true, then we would be living according to it. Because if we really believed the Bible is true, then we would be telling other people its message. So it is obvious to me that, no matter how loudly we proclaim our belief in the Bible, we still have a long way to go before we put our complete trust in the things recorded there. That is my purpose once again today – to build up your faith and confidence in the Bible as the only true word of God.
So far, we have looked at two of four reasons that we can believe the Bible is accurate and true.
1. The Bible is an accurate transmission of God’s words.
2. The Bible is an accurate historical record of God’s world.
Even if those two statements are true – and I believe with all my heart that they are – they do not prove that the Bible is from God. Webster’s dictionary has been accurately transmitted from the original authors to the book that sits on my shelf and the history book that your kids learn from in school could be proven to be accurate in what it records. What makes the Bible God’s book? Two things.
3. The Bible only contains accurate prophecy of God’s will.
We live in world of self-proclaimed prophets. You see their predictions at the grocery checkout every year. You read general prophecies in your fortune cookie or in the newspaper horoscope. You listen to analysts and stock brokers to help you make financial decisions. You decide what you are going to wear based on the weatherman’s prophecies. So what’s the difference between these predictions of the future and Biblical prophecy?
“Bible predictions came true centuries later.
”Bible prophecies were very specific, unlike those who say something like, ‘Good fortune is coming your way.’ [like a fortune cookie]
“The Bible writers exalt God with accurate teaching about Him, whereas psychics tend to exalt themselves and make money off the gullible public.” – p. 38 (leader guide) NOTE: Paul obviously wasn’t in it for the money. He collected money for others, but never for himself. He gave up that right in order to advance the cause of the Gospel. (2 Cor. 11:9)
Bible prophets had to have a 100% accuracy rate.
(Deu 18:21-22 NIV) You may say to yourselves, "How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the LORD?" If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the LORD does not take place or come true, that is a message the LORD has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously. Do not be afraid of him.
What if you placed that kind of standard on today’s physics? The fact is that none of them would stand that kind of test. Let’s look at just a few of the Bible’s prophecies.
Cyrus
“Imagine taking a trip to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and visiting the State House where the Constitutional Convention took place in 1787. During the tour, your guide points to a document dating back to the year 1820. The piece of parchment tells of a man named George W. Bush from Austin, Texas, who would be President of the United States within the next 200 years.
“QUESTION - how could someone even know that a man named George W. Bush would be born in the United States? And how could someone know more than a century before Mr. Bush ever was born that he would be President of the United States? Furthermore, how could someone in 1820 know that a man from Texas (named George W. Bush) would be President of the United States when Texas wasn’t even part of the Union yet?
“Such a prophecy truly would be amazing! Yet, obviously no such prediction was ever made. YOU SEE - despite all of the publicity that “psychic hotlines” are getting these days, only God can foretell the future.
“AND – he does so in regards to a man named Cyrus and two nations: Babylon and the Medo-Persian Empire. Through his prophet Isaiah God vividly described how He would destroy the powerful kingdom of Babylon (13:19; 21:9), through the hands of the Medes and Persians (Is 13; 21:1-10) led by a man named Cyrus (42:28; 45-1-7). This is a remarkable prophecy, especially since Cyrus would not even [be] born until almost 150 years after Isaiah penned these words. AND - not only did Isaiah predict that Cyrus would overthrow Babylon, but he also wrote that Cyrus, serving as His “shepherd,” would release the Jews from captivity and assist them in their return to Jerusalem for the purpose of rebuilding the temple.
(Isa 44:28 NIV) who says of Cyrus, ’He is my shepherd and will accomplish all that I please; he will say of Jerusalem, "Let it be rebuilt," and of the temple, "Let its foundations be laid."’
“AND - all of this was written almost two hundred years before Cyrus conquered Babylon (539 B.C.). Amazing!”
Tyre
“In Ezekiel 26:1-14, the Bible foretells with miraculous precision the destruction of the city of Tyre. The prophet Ezekiel predicted that Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon:
· would destroy the city (26:7-8)
· that many nations would come up against Tyre (26:3)
· that the city would be leveled and scraped clean like a bare rock (26:4).
· that the city’s stones, timbers, and soil would be cast into the sea (26:12).
· that the surrounding area would become a place for the spreading of fishermen’s nets (26:5).
· And, finally, the city never would be rebuilt to its former glory (26:14).
“WELL GUESS WHAT - secular history records that each one of these predictions came true. Tyre was a coastal city that had a somewhat unusual arrangement. In addition to the inland city, there was an island about three-fourth’s of a mile offshore. Nebuchadnezzar besieged the mainland city in 586 B.C., but when he finally was able to take the city in about 573 B.C., his victory was hollow.
“YOU SEE - he did not know that the inhabitants had left the city and moved to the island—a situation that remained virtually unchanged for the next 241 years.
“Then, in 332 B.C., Alexander the Great conquered the city—but not with ease. To get to the island, he literally had his army “scrape clean” the inland city of all building timbers, stones, and dirt. He then dumped those materials into the ocean, thereby building a “land bridge” to the island. Yet even though Alexander inflicted severe damage on the city, it still remained intact.
It wasn’t until 1,600 years later in “A.D. 1291, [that] the Muslims thoroughly crushed Tyre. The city never regained its position of wealth and power.
“The prophet Ezekiel looked 1,900 years into the future and predicted that the city of Tyre would be a bald rock where fishermen gathered to open their nets. And that is exactly what history records as having happened. Modern-day travelers who have visited the site of ancient Tyre report that only a small colony of people exists there. And guess what the people do for a living? They [use nets to fish.]” -
Jesus
“There are over 100 prophecies in the OT about Jesus, prophecies about his birth, his ministry, his teachings and his death…” When the wise men came to Herod trying to find out where Jesus was born, the scribes pointed to the prophecy found in Micah 5:2.
(Micah 5:2 NIV) "But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times."
(Isa 7:14 NIV) Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.
“Someone has calculated the odds of just 8 of those prophecies coming true in any one man – [are] the same odds as covering the state of Texas with silver dollars 2 feet deep [marking one of those coins] and having a blindfolded man pick out the one marked coin…”
“Even if a modern-day psychic had a ninety percent accuracy rate, would he or she pass the [biblical test for a true prophet]? How would this test rate a prophet like Joseph Smith of the Latter-day Saints (Mormons), who made several prophecies that never came true – even though he made some which did?” – p. 18 The Bible is the only book that would dare to claim a 100% accuracy rate, and it is certainly the only book that can verify that accuracy. The reason is simple. It is the only book from God.
And since the Bible is the only book from God, then it alone can give us complete and accurate information about God and the realm that He rules.
4. The Bible alone contains only accurate theology of God’s ways.
If you wanted to find out information about someone, and you didn’t have the option of talking with them personally, where would you go? You would probably try to find either information that had been written about that person or even better, information that that person had written. That way, you can learn about actions that that person has done, words that they have said, and beliefs that they hold dear.
Still, in every human book, the author writes with a certain amount of bias – his own individual perspective – and you have to keep that bias in mind as you read the book. You can’t take everything at face value just because it is in print. He may be fudging the details and putting his own personal spin on events in order to promote his own agenda. That very kind of thing appears to be happening in relation to the staff of President Bush. A few months ago, one of the President’s former financial advisors came out with a scathing book about the President and how he pushes his will through above the objections of anyone else. This week, another former official who worked under Condoleeza Rice said that the administration knew a great deal prior to 9/11 that could have prevented that tragedy. Who’s telling the truth? In a situation like that, we really can’t know. All that we’ve got to go on is the character of the people who are talking to us and what we believe their motivations to be.
When it comes to God, what kind of character does He have? I could list off a whole slew of positive characteristics, but the most important one in view of what we’re talking about here is that God is true. That means that it is impossible for Him to lie. He doesn’t put spin on things. And what motivation does God have in communicating His message with us? What could He possibly gain through it all? You. That’s it. He already has all the power. He already has all the riches. So because God’s character is impeccable and His motivations are pure, all that God has said in Scripture has to be the truth.
What about the parts that God didn’t write? Yes, God wrote it all in the sense that it was all inspired by Him. But, as we saw last week, there was human involvement in the writing of the Bible too. These guys didn’t always tell the truth in their daily lives. The Bible even records lies that they told. They were sinners. Some of them showed some pretty bad character flaws. How can I trust that they got it right when they recorded information about God and His character? As we saw last week, these writers were accurate about how they recorded history even when that history was not exactly flattering toward them. I mean, if you had been Moses, would you have recorded that you broke the first set of the Ten Commandments in a fit of anger? If you had been Joshua, would you have recorded your military blunder in presumptuously sending only a few thousand soldiers to capture the city of Ai instead of sending the whole army? The fact that these writers recorded history accurately – the good and the bad – gives me reason to trust them when they record things about God. My faith in these writings is bolstered by two other factors as well.
The message the Bible teaches about God is unified
Think about the process that went into the Bible’s composition:
- “It was written over 1400 years.
- “It was written over 40 generations.
- “It was written by over 40 authors from all walks of life (kings, peasants, philosophers, poets, fishermen, statesmen, scholars, doctors, businessmen, etc.)
- “It was written on three continents (Asia, Africa, Europe) in many different places (dungeons, palaces, while traveling, the wilderness)
- “It was written in three languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek)” – p. 14
The variety that was involved in the process of recording God’s message to mankind is both a positive thing and a potentially bad thing at the same time. It is helpful if you have information from many different sources – many different authors. If your information only comes from one source or from one group, then there is a high probability that that information is going to be skewed in one direction. That is why when your kids are doing a research report in school, they have to get information from many sources instead of just one. The more perspectives you have, the better the chance that you get at the truth. And the more sources that you have who tell you the same thing, the better the chance that what they are telling you is the truth.
With all these differences in the biblical writers, there is the potential for disunity and disagreement. But there is no disagreement! They present the same God, the same means of salvation and the same life of faith that brings God’s blessings. That fact that all these authors are so unified gives evidence that there was one guiding Influence behind the whole process. “The fact that there is variety and yet consistency in spite of having many different authors gives the Bible greater credibility that God is behind its inspiration.” – p. 31 (leader guide)
It is this issue of unity that creates problems for some people. I have encountered people – maybe you have too – that claim that there are contradictions in the Bible. Though they claim contradictions are there, if you handed them the Bible, most of them could not point to any contradiction. So let’s beat them to the punch. Let’s take a look at one area where the biblical writers seem to contradict each other.
All four of the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, record that when Jesus was crucified, the Roman officials hung a sign on the cross specifying the charges against Jesus. They are in agreement on the placement of this sign. But they disagree on what exactly this sign said.
THIS IS JESUS, THE KING OF THE JEWS (Matthew 27:37)
THE KING OF THE JEWS (Mark 15:26)
THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS (Luke 23:38)
JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS (John 19:19)
Though the differences are not great and all four renditions have essentially the same meaning, they are not in complete agreement. How do you explain that? Is there a contradiction here? No, not really. Part of the answer could be in the information that John tells us about this sign.
(John 19:20 NIV) ...the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek.
The sign was written in three languages. “If the inscriptions were slightly different in the different languages, one gospel writer could have recorded only what one language said...” – p. 34 And any of you who have experience with other languages know that there is no exact way – one and only one correct way – to translate what is said in one language into another language.
Here’s another potential problem. Most of you probably know the story of the feeding of the 5000. How many loaves of bread were there? (5) How many fish? (2) Where did they get the food? (small boy) Did you know that two of the gospels also tell of a time that Jesus fed 4000 people? In that story there were 7 loaves, a few fish, and it was the disciples who provided the original food. Is this a contradiction? Which story is right? Both are. Jesus simply did the miracle twice with slightly different details each time.
“...partial information recorded in each Gospel” is not necessarily “contradictory information.” – p. 34 Just because one source included information that another source leaves out does not mean that they are contradicting each other. It means that they are complementing each other.
Having “four writers [about Jesus’ life] rather than just one give[s] us a fuller perspective, guarding against bias or failure to include the most relevant details.” – p. 37 The writers of the gospels include different details because they have different purposes in their writing and different audiences. I wouldn’t write the same stuff in the same way to my girlfriend that I was writing to my mother. John was written to the Greeks to show that Jesus was God. Matthew was written to the Jews to show that Jesus was King. Mark was written to show the humanity of Jesus. Luke was written to show Jesus as a servant. There are some things that are only found in one of the four books. A few things are found in all four. But rather than contradicting, they complement and fill in the details that the others left out. But the message of the four is all the same – Jesus lived, died, and rose again in order to bring man salvation from their sins.
The message the Bible teaches about God is powerful
Hebrews 4:12 (NKJV) “For the word of God is living and powerful...”
(2 Tim 3:16-17 NIV) 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.
(2 Cor 5:17 NIV) Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
The Bible is true, but it is more than just true. It is also powerful. The truths recorded there, when acted upon in your life, have the power to change your life.
One of the best examples of this in the Bible is in the life of Peter. As Jesus was being beaten and prepared for crucifixion, Peter, in fear, denied that he had ever known Jesus. Less than 50 days later, Peter stood at the temple in the middle of Jerusalem and loudly proclaimed to the crowd gathered there that though they had killed Jesus, He wanted to offer them life. What changed Peter? It was the message that Jesus had given to Him. Jesus told Peter that He recognized Peter’s failure – what the Bible refers to as sin – but He also told Peter that He had forgiven that sin, that He loved Peter in spite of how much Peter had hurt Him and that He wanted to restore Peter and use Him to help accomplish His mission on earth. Jesus gave Peter a message of forgiveness, love, acceptance and purpose. Do you know how powerful a message like that is?
Some of you do. Your life has been changed by Jesus. You have experienced the power of this message personally. In a world of revenge, anger, retaliation and meaninglessness, Jesus’ message – the message recorded in the pages of the Bible – can change any life.
Listen to the story of David, a prisoner serving a 365-year sentence for murder. An inmate gave him a New Testament and Psalms. One night in his cell, he picked it up after ignoring it for the longest time and began reading Psalm 34. By the time he got to v. 6 it melted his heart. There he read, “this poor man cried and the Lord heard him, and saved him from all his troubles.” David remembers that night well and later wrote, “It was at that moment, in 1987, that I began to pour out my heart to God. Everything seemed to hit me at once. The guilt from what I did... the disgust at what I had become... late that night in my cold cell, I got down on my knees and I began to cry to Jesus Christ. I told Him that I was sick and tired of doing evil. I asked Jesus to forgive me for all my sins. I spent a good while on my knees praying to Him. When I got up it felt as if a very heavy but invisible chain that had been around me for so many years was broken. A peace flooded over me. I did not understand what was happening. But in my heart I just knew that my life, somehow, was going to be different.” Sixteen years later David Berkowitz, a.k.a. The Son of Sam, leads Bible studies inside the walls of his prison, devoted to spending the rest of his life in prison where he now says the Lord has placed him so he can reach still more.
CONCLUSION
There are other places that you can find truth. But there is only one place that you will find truth with no mixture of error – only one place that you can come to and know that every word you read is true – only one place that you can come to and find truth that has the power to get you right with God. But even that truth is only effective in your life if you put it to use.
During Superbowl XXXVII, FedEx ran a commercial that spoofed the movie Castaway, in which Tom Hanks played a FedEx worker whose company plane went down, stranding him on a desert island for years. Looking like the bedraggled Hanks in the movie, the FedEx employee in the commercial goes up to the door of a suburban home, package in hand.
When the lady comes to the door, he explains that he survived five years on a deserted island, and during that whole time he kept this package in order to deliver it to her. She gives a simple, "Thank you."
But he is curious about what is in the package that he has been protecting for years. He says, "If I may ask, what was in that package after all?"
She opens it and shows him the contents, saying, "Oh, nothing really. Just a satellite telephone, a global positioning device, a compass, a water purifier, and some seeds."
Like the contents in this package, the resources for growth and strength are available for every Christian who will take advantage of them. How long has it been since you opened the package containing God’s love, guidance and power for daily living? How long has it been since you presented its truth to someone else?
