Why Should I Trust The Bible? Series

“WHY SHOULD I TRUST THE BIBLE?” 2 Tim. 3:16-17; Heb. 4:12

FBCF – 9/30/23

Jon Daniels

INTRO – Kids’ song – “The B.I.B.L.E., yes, that’s the book for me. I stand alone on the Word of God. The B.I.B.L.E.”

Or the old hymn written in 1787: “How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith in His excellent Word!”

This “DEEP-Construction” sermon series is designed to help us stand strong & build our lives on the firm foundation of the “excellent Word” of God. We believe & teach & preach that the Bible is the Word of God. We believe:

- It’s a living book – 2 Timothy 3:16-17 – “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (NIV) We will come back to this verse later.

- It’s an authoritative book – “The authority of Scripture means that all the words are God’s words in such a way that to disbelieve or disobey any word of Scripture is to disbelieve or disobey God.” (Wayne Grudem, https://gracequotes.org/topic/authority-bible/)

- It’s a powerful book – “God’s Word is His supernatural power for accomplishing His supernatural work…Preaching the content & intent of God’s Word is what unleashes the power of God on the people of God, b/c God’s power for building His people is in His Word…” (https://gracequotes.org/topic/bible-power/)

- BF&M – “The Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is God’s revelation of Himself to man. It is a perfect treasure of divine instruction. It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter. Therefore, all Scripture is totally true and trustworthy. It reveals the principles by which God judges us, and therefore is, and will remain to the end of the world, the true center of Christian union, and the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and religious opinions should be tried. All Scripture is a testimony to Christ, who is Himself the focus of divine revelation.”

EXPLANATION – 2 Timothy 3:16-17 (996); Hebrews 4:12 (1003)

While most of us will agree & even “Amen” the statements I made about the Bible, there are many who don’t hold the Bible in high regard, don’t agree w/ those statements, & have chosen to base their lives on some authority other than the Bible. Many, if not most people who are deconstructing their faith are doing so b/c they’ve decided that the Bible is not God’s Word, is not trustworthy, is not true, is not the final authority, & should not be followed.

- Joshua Harris – used to be pastor of a strong evangelical megachurch – now says he doesn’t believe any of the stuff he used to teach.

- Bart Campolo (was an evangelical Christian youth pastor. Now an atheist. Son of Tony Campolo) – “I passed through every stage of heresy. It starts w/ sovereignty going, then biblical authority goes, then I’m a universalist, now I’m marrying gay people. Pretty soon I don’t actually believe that Jesus actually rose from the dead in a bodily way.” Sad snowball effect!

Many people who have deconstructed their faith or are in process of deconstructing have done so due to their beliefs about the Bible.

- We as evangelical Christians hold to what is known as the historic view of the Bible. We believe that Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation, is inspired by God & trustworthy in what it affirms. Some folks like to say, “God said it. I believe it. That settles it.” Better to say, “God said it. That settles it whether I believe it or not.”

- The opposite view of the historic view is known as the progressive view. Those who hold to this view would say that the Bible is not the fully inspired Word of God, but rather it contains God’s Word. They would say that “Many of its teachings [do not reflect] God’s view of things, but the culturally conditioned views of the people who wrote it.” (Sean McDowell, Set Adrift: Deconstructing What You Believe Without Sinking Your Faith, p. 66-67).

- And then there are those who simply reject the Bible completely. Don’t care what it says. Not going to read it. Have no desire whatsoever to even think at all about what it says about how to live one’s life.

There’s no doubt that there are sayings & teachings & stories in the Bible that are hard to understand. But that’s not a reason to reject it & consider it untrustworthy. Why trust the Bible?

APPLICATION – There is no other & has never been another book like the Bible.

WHY TRUST THE BIBLE? Many strong, scholarly reasons given by trusted pastors & theologians.