Can We Trust The Bible?
Breaking The Da Vinci Code -2
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 Timothy 3:16,17
Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
- 2 Peter 1:20,21
God’s word is alive and working and is sharper than a double-edged sword. It cuts all the way into us, where the soul and the spirit are joined, to the center of our joints and bones. And it judges the thoughts and feelings in our hearts…
- Hebrews 4:12 (NCV)
Prayer…
TODAY – is our 2nd week of a 3 week study that we are calling, “Breaking The Da Vinci Code.” LAST SUNDAY – we answered the question, “Who Is Jesus, Really?” AND – the answer was that Jesus is…
WELL – just as The DVC had something to say about Jesus (That He was just a mortal man) … IT – also has something to say about the bible… AND – once again, Dan Brown uses the mouth of the English scholar Sir Leigh Teabing to express his views… IN – this scene in the book He is talking to Sophie about the Bible…
“The Bible did not arrive by fax from heaven…”
“I beg your pardon”
“The Bible is a product of man, my dear. Not of God. The Bible did not fall magically from the clouds. Man created it as a historical record of tumultuous times, and it has evolved through countless translations, additions and revisions. History has never had a definitive version of the book”
“More than eighty gospels were considered for the New Testament, yet only a relatively few were chosen for inclusion – Matthew, Mark, Luke and John among them…”
“Who chose which gospels to include?” Sophie asked.
“Aha!” Teabing burst in with enthusiasm “The fundamental irony of Christianity! The Bible, as we know it today, was collated by the pagan Roman Emperor Constantine the Great… ”
(page 231 & 254 paperback).
QUESTION - what do you think about this book?
• Do you think that it is a product of man or a product of God?
• Do you base your; faith, life, hope and eternity on what is written in these pages?
QUESTION – IF God exists… , IF A: non-contingent, uncaused by anything else, self-sufficient, self-reliant, powerful, intelligent, always existing, unique, good & moral God who loves us, were to write a book – what kind of book would it be?
WELL - I think among other things a book written by God would be; Unique (in a class of it’s own), Accurate (we could trust what it says) Supernatural (it would know some stuff that only God could know)… and it would be Transforming (it would radically change the lives of people). )
QUESTION – is there such a book…. WELL TODAY – I want to make the case for the bible being that kind of book… BUT – before I do that I want to spend a few minutes talking about how we got the bible.
UNDERSTAND – Teabing was right about a few things about the bible;
• It did not arrive by fax from heaven
• And it did not fall magically from the sky
HOWEVER – the bible is not a product of man or the collation of Constantine.
How Did We Get Our Bible?
(at this point in the message I used a large chart. I basically said - something to the effect of, "Thousands of years ago, God spoke... and last week you went into Wal Mart and bought a bible. A lot happened in between. I think if we are going to base both our lives and our eternal destiny on this book we should have an idea about where they came from.")
The chart just showed the flow from God speaking to Walmart)
GOD - had something that He wanted to say to the people tat He created both in His image and to reflect His glory. The One True God – had some words that He wanted to breathe onto paper.
AND – so he spoke to men. This is called Revelation.
THEN – the biblical writer (let’s say Paul) PUT – that revelation down on paper
THIS PROCESS – is called Inspiration. This where God breathes life
Into their writings, WHILE – allowing them to write in their own style.
I MEAN – in their writings – you can see their personalities; their life experience
And even their grammatical ability. (Luke had an awesome command of the Greek
Language where John – really did write like a fisherman.)
THEN – the books were copied and circulated to the various churches; in Europe,
Asia, Africa and the Middle East. NOW – the scribes who copied this took great care in what they were doing. They would count every word in the book they were copying (let’s say a book had 3081 words . Then they would find the middle word and the middle letter. After copying they would count the words and then find the middle word and letter
and if it was wrong they would tear it up and start over.
Manuscripts
Canonization
(The Process of recognizing Scripture)
YOU SEE – not only did the people that God actually spoke to put words down and paper
and called it Scripture, but so did a bunch of other people as well.
THEREFORE – from the very beginning the churches that were spread across the world
Had to figure out a way to ‘RECOGNIZE’ what was Scripture
and what was not Scripture.
UNDERSTAND – no one decided what was Scripture or what was not…
QUESTION - what’s the difference between deciding and recognizing the books of the bible?
LET ME - try to explain the difference with an illustration.
Let’s that I am able to give you a copy of my DNA
(the genetic information that makes me who I am).
AND – then I were to tell you that somewhere in this building is my son…
Using that DNA you could find my son.
NOW – some of the people that you would come upon
In this search it would be obvious that they were not my son.
FOR – others it would require a closer look (DNA)
UNDERSTAND – when in came to God’s people
determining both the OT and the NT Scripture, they were looking for God’s DNA.
They were looking for the finger print of God in the writings.
The Following Criteria Help Them To Find God’s DNA
1) Authorship – who wrote?
Was written by a prophet, an apostle (or someone who one)
When was it written (Books that were NOT written within 30-70 years of the time of Christ
may have been consider religious and helpful but they were not recognized as Scripture.
2) Authenticity
Are there any factual or historical errors… For an example an inspired book that said George Washington was America’s first king and he ruled from Podunk Massa chutes.. would be rejected. Also they asked if there were any doctrinal errors in it. AND – if it sounded like something God would say… does it have His DNA .
NOW – I know that you have heard about all the writings that the church has suppressed from Scripture… LIKE – the Gnostic Gospels… Brown refers to them in the DVC. Let me read just a sample from them and see what you think…
3) Authority - is there a thus saith the Lord kind of feel to the book.
4) Acceptance – was there wide-spread acceptance among established churches that the writing were Scripture?
5) Dynamic Nature (this is the most subjective criteria) does this book transform lives?
UNDERSTAND - the Formation of the bible was not a one time one place event. Rather it was a process that happened over time within the global community of faith.
AND – pretty much the books that we have in our NT were the ones recognized by the churches and quoted by the church Fathers as Scripture by the close of the first century.
“Given the geographical distances, the limitations of communications, and the diverse backgrounds of the churches, such agreement is remarkable.” – Erwin Lutzer (The Da Vinci Deception).
Canon
Translations
Versions
Wal-Mart
You
REMEMBER – I said that if the ONE TRUE GOD were to write a book that it would BE - Unique (in a class of it’s own), Accurate (we could trust what it says) Supernatural (it would know some stuff that only God could know)… and it would be Transforming (it would change people’s lives…)
The Bible Is Unique
Webster must have had the bible in mind when he wrote the definition of the word ‘unique.’ CHECKOUT – this definition of the word unique; 1. one and only; single; sole. 2. Different from all others; having no equal. OKAY – I want to talk about several was that the bible is different from all other books in the world and how it has no equal…
The bible is unique in it’s composition
The bible was written over a period of 1500 years; in 3 languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek), on 3 continents (Asia, Africa, Europe) and it was written by 40+ different writers from all walks of life; including kings, military leaders, peasants, poets, fisherman, prophets, statesman, priests, scribes, scholars, shepherds, fig pickers and even an IRS agent…
The bible was written in many different places; Moses wrote in the wilderness, Jeremiah in a dungeon, Daniel in a palace, Paul behind prison bars, Luke while traveling, John while in exile on the island of Patmos.
The bible was also written during different moods; some wrote from the heights of joy, others wrote from the depths of sorrow and despair, some wrote during times of certainty and conviction, others during days of confusion and doubt.
AND - the bible was written in a wide variety of literary styles – in this book we have: poetry, song, romance, law, biography, prophecy, historical narrative, parable and allegory.
UNDERSTAND – there is no other book like the bible in it’s composition – it truly stands alone. I challenge anyone to find a book written over a period of 1500 years, in 3 languages, by 40+ men, AND YET fit together so perfectly…(it ain’t happening)
The bible is unique in it’s circulation
NOW – it is pretty impressive that this book has sold over 40 million copies and that it was the number one best selling adult novel for 26 weeks…. BUT – this book sells between 60-100 million copies every year! AND – the total number of bibles sold is estimated to be around 6 billion! IT’S - the most published book in history – no other book even comes close.
In 2005 – the total number of bibles distributed by the United Bible Societies (entire bibles; testaments and portions of scripture) totaled 373 million!
The bible is unique in it’s translations
The bible was one of the first books ever translated – in 250 BC the Hebrew Old Testament was translated into the Greek language and given the name Septuagint (LXX). The work was originally produced for Greek-speaking Jews living in Alexandria who could no longer read Hebrew.
AND - according to the United Bible Societies, the bible (or portions of it), have been translated into more than 2,400 languages…- these languages represent over 90% of the worlds population.
The bible is unique in it’s survival
UNDERSTAND - attempts to destroy the Bible have always been a part of this remarkable book’s history. In 303 A.D., the Roman Emperor Diocletian issued an edict to destroy all Christians and their Bible. The persecution that followed as a result of this edict was one of the most brutal in Roman history. Toward its end, Diocletian ordered a monument to be erected and on it he had these triumphant words inscribed, "The name Christian is extinguished." Twenty-five years later, however, Diocletian was dead, and his successor Constantine legalized Christianity and ordered 50 Bibles prepared at the government expense.
AND - in 1776, Voltaire, the French philosopher, announced that, "One hundred years from my day, there will not be a Bible on earth except one that is looked upon by an antiquarian curiosity-seeker." Yet, one hundred years later, his very own house and press were being used to print and store Bibles by the Geneva Bible Society. Ironically enough, at a public auction held one hundred years to the day of Voltaire’s prediction, the first edition of his work sold for 11¢ but a Bible manuscript was purchased for over half a million dollars! As Peter put it in 1 Peter 1:24,25;
“All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord stands forever…”
– 1 Peter 1:24,25
The bible is unique in it’s influence
UNDERSTAND - the bible is without a doubt – the most influential book the world has ever seen… It has set more pens and brushes in motion then we could even imagine. The bible has influenced such great artists as; Raphael, Leonardo Da Vinci, Rembrandt and Michelangelo, and great Musicians like Bach, Handle, Beethoven…The bible has inspired over 400; great works of art and musical compositions.
AND – not only has the bible had great influence – on the arts, but on nearly every other walk of life…. The bible has influenced governments, philosophy and judicial systems for hundreds of years..
AND – the bible has influenced many of histories greatest people…
Abraham Lincoln: I believe the Bible is the best gift God has ever given man.
Charles Dickens: The New Testament is the very best book that ever was or ever will be known in the world.
Woodrow Wilson: When you have read the bible, you will know it is the Word of God, because you will have found in it the key to your own happiness and your own duty.
And as Sir Walter Scott lay dying, he said to his friend and biographer, John Lockhart, “Read from the book.” “Which book?” asked Lockhart. Scott replied, “There is but one.”
The bible is unique in it’s continuing appeal
For centuries – people; young & old, rich & poor, educated & uneducated, male & female, kings & peasants, slave and free - people from all over the world – in different places, from different cultures have read this book… THINK ABOUT IT – the Psalms are over 3,000 years old… AND – just as these words then -- they speak today…
QUESTION – how many other books containing 3,000 year old poetry do you read on a regular basis? I bet as many as I do – zero!
NOW – people read books all the time, AND – most of the time when they are finished with a book they put it away in a closet or on a shelf and then they look for another book… that will entertain them, help them escape or teach them something new.
BUT UNDERSTAND – it’s different with serious bible readers… YOU SEE – they never seem to finish the book AND even if they do they are never tempted to put it away for good. RATHER – they start it over again – or they go back over various portions of the bible again & again & again…
LISTEN – if God were to write a book – it would be unique [Different from all others; having no equal] - The bible is unique!!!
The Bible Is Accurate
The bible is accurate historically
QUESTION - is the Bible good history or bad history? Which is it? Do you know?
Let me start with some easy examples of what bad history might be. You listen to these phrases and tell me why it’s bad history.
Number one: World War I was a bitter four-year conflict fought from 1890 to 1894. Good history or bad history? Why is it bad history? What’s wrong? The dates are wrong. (now some of you are bad students. You didn’t think there was anything wrong with that whole statement right there). The dates were wrong. World War I was fought between 1914 and 1918. UNDERSTAND - good history pays attention to dates and gets them right. Bad history doesn’t.
Second statement: World War II was a bloody conflict between Allied and Axis forces fought on the battlefields in Central China from 1939 to 1945. Are the dates right? Yes, the dates are right. What’s wrong? The place. The geography is wrong. World War II was not fought in Central China, but mostly in Europe, the South Pacific, and a few other places. LISTEN - good history gets geography right.
The third statement: The Soviet Union premier, Margaret Thatcher, will always be remembered as the leader who engineered the unraveling of the USSR Why is that bad history? It’s the wrong what? It’s the wrong person. It’s Gorbachev, not Thatcher. YOU SEE - Good history pays attention to the people facts.
OKAY - Here is one more: Michael Jordan played basketball for over a decade for the Chicago Bulls in the 80s and 90s, but his play was just average. Now you think, are the dates right? Yes. Is the place right? Yes. You know the person is right. BUT - the whole storyline is wrong. The essence of what the statement is about is wrong. I MEAN - Michael was a little better than average, don’t you think?
LISTEN - bad history, among other descriptions, could be defined as any account of an actual event that plays loose with dates, places, people or storylines.
OKAY - all of that to say that when you study the Bible and you compare it to accepted history, the events surrounding the teachings of the Bible have all been well established historically. LISTEN - the Bible is not bad history. In fact, the Bible is not just good history, the truth is that the bible has proven to be outstanding history – even better than the records of secular historians..
YOU SEE - not only does the Bible pass the muster with regard to dates, geography, people, and storylines that it references, but what has happened in recent years with the advent of archaeology is that the bible has proved to be true and secular history and bible critics were proved to be wrong.
Let me give you a couple examples.
For many years, secular scholars scoffed at the notion that Moses could have written the first five books of the Bible. The historians claimed that in the days of Moses, people were preliterate (couldn’t read or write). So they said, "This is an obvious situation where the Bible is bad history."
Many years later, however, archeological digs uncovered tablets, scrolls, and writing instruments that clearly show that a good portion of Moses’ entire culture was literate, in fact, quite intelligent and sophisticated. All the secular historians could do was say, "Oops, maybe the Bible isn’t such bad history after all."
Then the critics of the Bible kept pointing to a people group mentioned several times in the Old Testament, a nation called the Hittites. The secular historians said, "Look, no such group of people ever existed. This is purely fictional. There’s no record of them anywhere. The Bible is bad history."
Then in until 1906 when archaeologists unearthed not only evidence that the Hittite nation once existed, but the archaeologists located their capital city and 40 other key cities that made up the Hittite Empire.
Friends, this kind of thing has happened scores of times in the last hundred years where what was thought to be bad history in the Bible suddenly became good history because of archaeological evidence.
• It happened the story of the walls of Jericho coming down outward away from the city… Until a dig in 1930 showed that is exactly what happened.
• The name Pilate was said to be a figment of the Gospel writer’s imagination. There was no historical record of the famous Governor who gave the go ahead for Jesus’ crucifixion. Then, in 1961 a helicopter was flying down the coast of Israel and noticed a strange circle in the sand. That led to an excavation of an entire city named Caesarea Philippi and a magnificent amphitheater. On the walls of that amphitheater was a plaque dedicating it to the man who built it: Pontias Pilate, Governor of Judea.
IT – is as if every time a shovel goes in to the ground another critic of the bible gets buried. THERE have been over 25,000 archeological discovery that have backed up the history of the bible.
Dr. Nelson Glueck, probably the greatest modern authority on Israeli archeology, has said:
"No archeological discovery has ever controverted a Biblical reference. Scores of archeological findings have been made which confirm in clear outline or in exact detail historical statements in the Bible. And, by the same token, proper evaluation of Biblical descriptions has often led to amazing discoveries."
The bible is accurate in it’s text
[Can we trust that the bible we have today is what the authors wrote..?]
If you enter just about any university, before you even have time to watch your first football game in the fall – a professor will more than likely give you an assignment to read; Plato & Aristotle, towering giants. I MEAN – their writings have had enormous influence on thought over the years.
AND LISTEN - no one questions, the content of their works - no one questions, the reliability or historicity of the text - no one questions, whether or not their writings have been passed on to us responsibly, or whether or not some errors – have crept in along the way… NO – the Plato & Aristotle we have today is simply taken as accurate representations of what the authors originally wrote…
BUT - did you know that there are only 12 existing copies of their hand written manuscripts… Only 12 to study and compare in order to determine the accuracy and transformation quality throughout the years.
NOW – how many manuscripts do you think there are for the NT – 20? 30? 120? (yeah that would be good - to have 10 times as many manuscripts of the biblical text) WELL – there is a whole lot more than 120 copies…
Person; Lived (Wrote) Earliest Copy Time gap # of Copies
Plato (Greek philosopher) 427-347 B.C. A.D. 940 1300 yrs 7
Aristotle (Greek philosopher) 384-322 B.C. A.D. 1100 1400 yrs 5
New Testament A.D. 40-100 A.D. 130 70 24,970
AND – you could add to that number the 86,000 citations of the NT we find in the writings of the early church fathers who lived before A.D. 325.
OKAY – how about the OT, is it accurate?
In 1947 – the world experienced what may be the greatest archeological find of all time. A shepherd boy tosses a rock into some caves near the Dead Sea and hears a jar broke.. AND – God gave to the world a gift he had protected for nearly 2,000 years… The Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS).
AND – in one dramatic stroke, 1,000 years were hurdled in terms of age of OT manuscript we had. (Before DSS oldest 900 AD after ~ 200 BC)… And let me make 2 quick points;
• 99.5 % accuracy in those 1000 years of coping the text (the 5 % is mostly spelling & slips of the pen)
• Now have prophecy of Christ – 100+ years before his birth.
The Bible Is Supernatural
UNDERSTAND - the bible knows stuff that only God could know… AND – there are just 3 things I want to talk about that point to the bible being supernatural… The First is;
Fulfilled Prophecies
“And do not forget the things I have done throughout history. For I am God--I alone! I am God, and there is no one else like me. Only I can tell you what is going to happen even before it happens. Everything I plan will come to pass, for I do whatever I wish.”
Isaiah 46:9,10
QUESTION – why did God give prophecies of things to come? To give proof to people that he alone is God!!
NOW UNDERSTAND – there hundreds of bible prophecies that have been fulfilled, specifically and meticulously through the centuries… I only have time to share a few…
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. In fact, it waxed and waned for the next 1,600 years until finally, in A.D. 1291, 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 fish with nets.
In their 1976 book, Science Speaks (pp. 72-79), Peter Stoner and Robert Newman tried to attach some real-world (yet conservative) probabilities to each of these predictions. If we assume that Ezekiel made some “good guesses” about Tyre’s fate, what would be the chance that he might guess correctly every time? That chance, said Stoner and Newman, turns out to be 1 in 75,000,000. To offer an analogy, an individual is twice as likely to be killed on the ground by an airplane during his or her lifetime, than to make the same number of predictions Ezekiel made and have them all come true… [How could Ezekiel do that? I suggest God told Him, would do you think? – if you don’t think God did – you may want to watch out for falling airplanes…]
JUST – one more example…
Jesus
There are over 100 prophecies in the OT about Jesus, prophecies about his birth, his ministry, his teachings and his death… AND – because of the Dead Sea Scrolls we now have manuscripts of these prophecies that date 100 or more years before Christ birth…
Someone has calculated the odds of just 8 of those prophecies coming true in any one man – is the same odds as covering the state of Texas with silver dollars 2 feet deep and having a blindfolded man pick out the one marked coin…
GUYS – I wish I could tell you more BUT – I just want to wet your appetite BUT fulfilled prophecy points to the fact that the bible is supernatural… It knows stuff that only God could know….
Pre-Science Knowledge
Another striking evidence of divine inspiration is found in the fact that many of the principles of modern science were recorded as facts of nature in the Bible long before scientist confirmed them experimentally. OKAY – some examples would include:
2,000 years before Columbus proved that the world was not flat, the prophet Isaiah had already spoken to the roundness of the earth… (Is 40:22)
In Job 36:27,28 we see the bible talking about rain & evaporation processes.
In Numbers 19:11-13, Moses told the people of Israel that to touch a dead body made you unclean. Now that may seem obvious to us but it didn’t to people only 150 years ago. In 1847 in Vienna Austria an obstetrician named Ignaz Semmelweis - noticed that 1 out of 6 women who checked into deliver a baby never checked out. He couldn’t figure out why they were dying OR what caused the infection and fever that was killing them… Then one day he observed his medical students – do there normal stuff – perform autopsies and then wash their hands in a bowl of bloody water, dry them with a common towel and go and examine the living women (today we cringe at that – duh!). After this he ordered them to wash their hands in chlorine after autopsies and the death rate went to almost zero… YOU SEE – germs were a new discovery in 1847 – but God new about them all along…
The bible was also very clear about keeping people with infectious diseases like leprosy away from the rest of people (Lev 13:46). AGAIN – obvious to us BUT if people would have followed the bible’s teaching - in the 14th century the 60 million people (1 in 4) who died from the black death may have lived…
AND (and this is gross) - up until the 18th century human waste was dumped right into the streets spreading disease and killing millions. I mean people would just dump it out from second and third story windows… In London in 1846 Edwin Chadwick a member of the board of health in London – trying to figure out how to stop a cholera epidemic that had killed over 16,000 people…
He found that people who were poor and lived in basements were more likely to die. Why? Because this is where the raw sewage form the streets settled… If only they would have followed what Moses said 3,000 years earlier in Dt 23:12,13 people would not have had to die…
QUESTION – when does the OT – tell the Israelites to circumcise their sons? On what day? (the 8th day – Genesis 17:12) Why is that? In 1935 professor H. Dam discovered vitamin K – which is what causes the liver to make a substance known as prothrombin – which helps blood to clot… AND what he also discovered is that on the 8th day the levels of this blood clotting agent is at a level 2 times the normal level and it only occurs on this day. Day 8 is the perfect day for circumcision… because the bleeding would be able to clot better…
OKAY – just one more… Up until even the 19th century doctors believed that harmful vapors entered the blood and caused sickness… HENCE – the practice of putting leaches on people to draw out these vapors… veins and arties located just above the elbow were also opened to bleed the patient.. {this is what killed George Washington). HEY – have you ever seen a barber pole – WELL – in the middle ages they did more than cut hair – Barbers kept a fresh supply of leaches stored in a basin on top of the pole. I wonder how many people would have lived longer if only they would have listened to the bible – YOU SEE; 3,000 years earlier Moses said, “the life of every creature is in the blood.. (Lev 17:11,14) QUESTION – how did Moses know that?
Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. 2 Peter 1:20,21
AND – one final proof that the bible is supernatural;
The Bible Transforms Lives
LISTEN – there is no book that speaks to us like the bible. No book that better understands human life and human relationships.
In this book we find out how to be a better: husband, wife, parent, child, person
In this book we are taught how to control our anger, tongue and our money…
This book is full of wisdom for life. It seems to know exactly what we need to do to have: joy, peace, hope, purpose, freedom…
QUESTION – how can this book know people, know you, know me – so well? I mean at times it understands us better then we do…
How is this book able to expose us for who we really are?
How is it able to straighten us out and help us do what is right?
How can this book know so much about us….?
May I suggest that the reason is because it was written by the one who created us? Created you?
WHY – does it transform lives because it is true!!!
