The Bible, yes that’s the book for me
By Kenny McKinley
2nd Tim 3:16, 2nd Peter 1:20-21
The Bible is the greatest book ever written, it tells us not only how to live on earth, but how to get to heaven. The Bible is also the greatest literary work ever written, and is still the number one best seller of all time. Its pages contain amazing stories, prophecies, poetry, and practical advice for every situation. But it is more than just great reading, and it is more than great literature. It is the Word of God. We just read in 2nd Timothy how all Scripture is given by inspiration of God. The Bible is Gods way of revealing Himself to man. You see, God didn’t have to give us a Bible, and we would be stuck wondering how we got here, what our purpose in life is, what the future holds. But in the Bible we find the answers to all those questions. We learn that God created us, we didn’t evolve, and we learn that God created the heavens and the earth, not the big bang. We learn that because of mans rebellion sin entered the world, and that’s why we have so many problems in the world today, but we also learn that even though man turned away from God, God chased after him, and that He sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to seek and to save that which was lost. And we learn how Jesus achieved that salvation for us, by dying on the cross. We learn all those things from Gods inspired Word.
So what does it mean when we say that the Bible was inspired? What did Paul mean when he wrote to Timothy and said that all Scripture is given by inspiration. Well, in the Greek language that word “inspiration” literally means, “God breathed”. The Holy Spirit guided the writers of Scripture, so that what they wrote was of divine authority, and without error. Now that doesn’t mean that they didn’t have their own writing styles and preferences when it came to writing, because you can tell the difference between Moses’ writings, and David’s writings. And you can tell the difference between Paul’s writings and Peters writing’s. But what it does mean, is that even though they were able to write in their own styles and in their own way, what they wrote was according to God’s standards, without error, and exactly the way God wanted it done.
I hope that everyone understands the value of a solid foundation, whether your building a play house for your kids, or a fifty story building, you’ve got to have a good, solid foundation, otherwise what your building will collapse. The doctrine of inspiration is foundational to Christianity, because if you think about it, if the Bible wasn’t inspired by God, then it was the imagination of men, and if it was the imagination of men, then who’s to say anyone is really saved at all? Or that we’re even doing the right thing by coming to church on Sundays, and trying to live the Christian life. If the Bible wasn’t inspired by God, then were all in big trouble.
But it was inspired by God.
The Bible was written over a period of nearly 1,600 years. It was written on three different continents, Europe, Asia, and Africa, and in three different languages. And not only did God use men to write His message, He used men to protect His message, and to make sure we believers today would have His Word just like the early church did. In John 10:35 Jesus said that the “Scripture cannot be broken”, and in Matthew chapter five Jesus said, “For assuredly I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass away…” A jot and a tittle were like the dot of an I, and the crossing of a T. So what Jesus was saying is that the Word of God would remain until heaven and earth passed away. Now that means that the Bible we have today is true, or it means that Jesus was telling us a lie.
Now I’ve heard people say that the translations of the Bible we have today are not correct. That is the argument that Jehovah’s Witnesses or Mormons make, and I’ve also heard that our Bible that we use today isn’t complete, that there are more books, but people that make those kinds of arguments do not understand the cannon of Scripture.
Now when I say the Cannon of Scripture I’m not talking about some big gun, or artillery. The word Cannon comes from the Greek language and it means a measuring rod, or a standard. It’s the standard that the church has used to determine if a book was inspired by God or not. And that is how we got the 66 books in the Bible that we have today, 39 in the Old Testament, and 27 in the New Testament. Now the Catholic Bible has some extra books that they call the apocrypha, but they are not part of the Biblical Cannon, and the Catholic Church even says that they are not. The Catholic Church says that the apocrypha in their bible is for historical and devotional purposes only. It isn’t to be confused with Scripture. Meaning that it’s not from God, and it doesn’t measure up to the standard (the Cannon).
So what is this standard, well, it’s the prediction of prophetic events, the fulfillment of those prophetic events, inerrancy, and contextual continuity. Now if you’re like me your saying, “what does that mean?” Well for starters it means that if their was a book telling of something Jesus did, but it didn’t match His revealed character, or the fulfillment of an Old Testament prophecy it was thrown out and not put into our Bible. It means that if there was some writings that stated that God said, or did something completely against His revealed character, then it could not be inspired by the Holy Spirit, and so it was thrown out, and never added to our Bible.
That means that the Bible you and I have today is God’s revealed Word. And that we can trust it. But what about the translation issue.
I’ve heard people say “The Bible translations we have today are wrong, and not accurate.” Well let me ask you a question then, did Jesus lie when He said, His word would never pass away? Did Jesus lie when He said not one jot or title would pass from it? If God is able to create a world, and a universe, and all that exists from nothing, don’t you think He is able to keep His word intact?
In the summer of 1947 a young Arabian boy, lost track of one of the goats he was supposed to be watching. This boy lived in the region known as Qumran, in the Middle East, near the Dead Sea. And in this area there are thousands of little caves, in the hills around the Dead Sea. Well, this boy went looking for his lost goat, and he thought it might have wandered into one of those caves so he threw a rock into the cave hoping to scare the goat out, but instead he heard a crash, the sound of pottery breaking. The boy ran home and told his father what had happened and the next day they went and checked the cave to see what was inside. They found old worn out jars, and broken pottery. Inside of those jars were old scrolls with leather backing. Today we call them the Dead Sea scrolls--the oldest manuscripts of the Old Testament ever found...written more than 100 years before Jesus was born. 1000 years earlier than any of the other manuscripts available. The Dead Sea scrolls answer the question...is our Bible today different than it was thousands of years ago. And if it is, what’s been changed?
Well they found some minor misspellings in our modern Bible and that’s about it, the content of our Bible today is the same as it was thousands of years ago.
It’s absolutely amazing how the scribes would copy the bible down through the ages. These Jews who copied the Old Testament had very strict laws for copying. They would count every word of the book they were working on, then they would count the middle word, then the middle letter. So say a book had 7,000 words, and say the middle word was God. The middle letter of God would be "o". So what they would do is begin copying word for word, when they finished they would go back and count the words. If they had the same amount of words, 7,000 in our example, that was good. Then they would find the middle word and the middle letter. If the middle letter in the middle word was different, they would rip up the copy and start all over again. God has made sure the Bible has been preserved for thousands of years.
Ok, but what about the New Testament? Well the New Testament has far more manuscript evidence than any other ancient work. There are more than 24,000 manuscript copies of the New Testament, with only a 25 year time span between the original and the earliest manuscript copies. The next closest book is the Iliad, it has 643 manuscript copies with a 500 year time span between the original and the copies. You would think that Shakespeare, which has been in existence less than 250 years, should be far more uncertain and corrupt than the New Testament, which is now almost 2000 years old. But in every one of Shakespeare’s 37 plays, there are a hundred or more readings still in dispute.
You say, well what does all that mean Kenny? It means that the New Testament writings are superior to all comparable ancient writings. It has more manuscript evidence than any other book in existence. In other words, the Bible I’m holding in my hand today is made from a copy that is extremely accurate - that is close to an exact duplicate of the original. God is not the author of confusion. He has made sure that His Word has stood the test of time. Jesus has kept His promise and not one jot or tittle has passed away.
This Bible says the same thing that the Bible Mathew, Mark, Luke, John, Peter, and Paul used. Remember that Scripture we read in 2nd Peter, chapter one verse 20? Peter said, “No Scripture is given to private interpretation.” That is why in the Disciples of Christ we use the same Bible they use in the Baptist Church, and it’s the same Bible they use in the Methodist Church, and it’s the same Bible they use in the Presbyterian Church, and it’s the same Bible they use in the Assemblies of God Church, and it’s the same Bible every true denomination uses. The only exception is the Catholic Church and like I already said, they do not say that the apocrypha is part of the Scriptures.
The only churches or religions that have different Bibles are the cults. And that’s because they interpret the essential doctrines found in the Bible the way they want, but again according to Peter they aren’t supposed to do that.
It is very important to you and I that our Bible is correct, and accurate, and true. It’s important because it tells us that God still loves us. He loves us enough to make sure we have His Word, which can help us in this life here and now, and can help us have eternal life with Him forever. It’s important to us because God loves us enough to let us know who He is, and what He has done for us. And it’s important because God loved us enough to write a book that tells us how we can spend eternity with Him in heaven.
ALTER CALL
