Why Should We Believe That Our Bible Is True?

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Believe Bible is True

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The Book you can Trust

1 Peter 1:22-2:3
Since you have purified your souls
in obeying the truth through the Spirit
in sincere love of the brethren,
love one another fervently with a pure heart,
23 having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible,
through the word of God which lives and abides forever,
24 because
“All flesh is as grass,
And all the glory of man as the flower of the grass.
The grass withers,
And its flower falls away,
25 But the word of the Lord endures forever.”
Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you.
1 Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking,
2 as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word,
that you may grow thereby,
3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.(NKJV)

Take your Bible and hold it. I want to talk to you about what you’re holding.

You all are holding something that is unlike anything else that in 5,000 recorded years of human history has ever been produced on this planet.

This Book is not from this planet. This is the very breath of God breathed out.

How to Defend What We Should Believe About Inerrancy

This is the very voice of the infinite, endless of days, eternal, all-powerful Creator of the universe who has communicated to us and has intercepted, intersected and invaded time and space and spoken to us.

This book is unlike any book. It’s unlike any other piece of any part of this civilization of humanity that ever existed.

I hope you realize when you hold this book it’s different.

It’s special.

There are seven reasons why I believe that the Bible is absolutely true.

It’s absolutely true in all 3,566,480 letters.

All 810,697 words, all 31,173 verses, they’re all the very word of God.

All 1,189 chapters and 66 books written by the most unusual group of kings and peasants, philosophers and fishermen, poets, statesmen and scholars. Written from the wilderness, the dungeon, on a rocky hillside, inside of a prison, a boat, an island and the rigors of military conquest, the book of books, the word of God comes to us.

Why Trust the Bible?

This evening we begin an Apologetics Series, with a look at our Bibles. This is one of the greatest studies we could ever share. Why?

Because the Bible is the Revelation of “all that God wants us to know” about “everything we need to know.”

Remember: If He hasn’t revealed it in His Word, either it is a secret (Deut. 29:29) or it is unimportant to us now.

So the more of God’s Word you TRUST, the more you know about all that really matters in life.

Why is this book like no other book? Why can you trust the Bible? Seven reasons.

May I impress upon your heart that the book you hold in your hands is unlike any other in the Universe? And with that truth deeply upon our hearts, in the days ahead, shouldn’t we treat it differently, read it diligently, wait before it expectantly and from it learn to live triumphantly?

There are 7 reasons why I believe the Bible is true:

…because Jesus believed it.
…because all the apostles and prophets were convinced it was the very Word of God they spoke
…because of its supernatural survival
…because of its divinely engineered unity
…because of its amazing prophetic accuracy
…because of its absolute scientific accuracy
…because of its complete historical accuracy

Number one.

The first reason why I believe the Bible is utterly true can be distilled down to one or two words. Jesus (and the second word is) Christ. Jesus Christ utterly was convinced that the book you hold in your hand was the word of God. Now that does it for me. I mean, I don’t need anybody else’s opinion, but I’ll give you six more reasons. But Jesus believed this book. Jesus believed this book, and over and over we find the Lord Jesus asking everyone who questioned Him, He’d say to them, “Haven’t you read? The scriptures say…” That’s how He answered those who came to Him.

He believed in:

Jesus believed in the Verbal (every word) Inspiration of the Scriptures [Matthew 5:18]

In His Private Life [Matthew 4 quotes Deuteronomy] He uses it in His struggle with Satan.
In His Public Ministry [Matthew 5-7 quotes Isaiah 61:2] He uses it to teach multitudes by the Sea.
In His Personal world [Matthew 24 quotes Daniel & prophets] He uses it to explain the future to His disciples.

Jesus believed in the Inerrancy of the Scriptures [John 10:35; 17:17] so much so that one out of every ten recorded words of Jesus are Old Testament quotes![1]

Historical Reliability of Scripture as in

Adam and Eve (Matthew 19:4-5);
Abel [Matthew 23.35]
Noah and flood (Matthew 24:37-38)
Abraham (John 8:56)
Moses and the Bush (Mark 12:26)
David (Matthew 12:3)
Elijah (Luke 4:25)
Daniel (Matthew 4:17)
Jonah (Matthew 12:40-41)

Jesus believed the Bible you hold. He read the Bible that you read. He prayed the words of the word of God that you and I have today.

Number two.

The second reason why I believe the Bible is true is because the apostles and the prophetswere absolutely convinced that it was God’s Word. Just write apostles and prophets, okay? The second reason why I believe that the Bible is true is that all the apostles and all the prophets, thousands and thousands of times, over and over repeated that the words that they were saying were not their own. Do you remember what Paul said?

1 Thessalonians 2:13 For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but
as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe. NKJV

It’s the word of God. That’s an apostle speaking. The prophets said the same thing. In the Old Testament 8,000 times they say the Lord, the Lord said. And it comes out. Did you know that the apostles and prophets believed that this book came from God? And if Jesus Christ believed it, that settles it for me. But Jesus and all those who were closest to Him, all those who knew God face-to-face, those who were His emissaries, they say that the book that you hold in your hand is the very word of God. The apostles and prophets secondly are the second reason why I believe the word of God.

Number three.

The third reason why I believe the Bible is the Word of God is the Bible’s survival. There is no other reason that you can explain why this book exists. There has never been any book more targeted for destruction than this book. It has endured through the ages despite being the target of empires and emperors, despite armies being sent and dispatched to utterly destroy it and to rid the earth from it. Infidels have waged their war against this book.

But, the Bible stands like a rock undaunted through the raging storms of time. Its pages burn with the truth eternal and they glow with the light divine. The Bible stands though the earth may crumble. It will firmly stand though the hills may tumble. I will take my stand on this firm foundation for the Bible stands. Remember that song when you were a little kid? It’s still true.

Number four.

The fourth reason is because of the Bible’s absolute unity. If you look at the Bible, there is an incredible unity demonstrated in the fact that 40 forty different men wrote the Bible, most of whom who never saw each other and didn’t even know each other. They were living on three different continents. They were writing over sixty generations of time – 1,600 years. Most of them never saw what the other one wrote. And yet, this book has an absolute unity. It fits together better than the most machined parts. It totally unites. And when you look at this book, you find that there’s an unmistakable fabric that was woven from prison to palace, from desert to dungeons, from hillsides to holy places with one common denominator. There’s one shared theme. There’s one united message. There’s one system of doctrine. One system of ethics. And there’s only one plan of salvation. There is a supernatural, unearthly unity to this book.

Number five.

The fifth reason I believe the Bible is God’s Word is prophetic accuracy. And we’re going to have a fun time. We’re going to spend a whole service looking at the absolute accuracy of the prophecies of the word of God where God told exactly what was going to happen right down to the nth degree, and every single thing God said happened.

I hold in my hand the ONE Book that God wrote-the Bible. That one book has TWO parts-the Old Testament and the New Testament.

Those two parts are made up of SIXTY-SIX individual books we call the thirty-nine Old Testament books and the twenty-seven New Testament books.

This one book, made up of sixty-six books, has a total of 31,103 verses.

Of all the verses in the Bible, 8,352 verses are prophetic or speak to future events. All Biblical predictions about the future in these thousands of verses can be grouped into 737 different predictions[2].

Of these 8,352 verses, 6,312 (or 522 different predictions) have already happened to the letter, JUST LIKE God’s Word said they would.

That leaves just about 2,040 verses with 215 specific predictions from God about the end of the worldthat are in process of being fulfilled. [3]

So, the Bible contains many specific events that would signal the end of days for life on planet earth as it has been for the past several thousand years.

Each of the prophetic signs Christ and His apostles gave are specific and not vague.

Jesus explained to us in Matthew 24, verses 8 and 33-34-that these events would begin at the same time, run concurrently, and crescendo like the pains of a woman giving birth-the closer we get to His Second coming.

Matthew 24:8, 33-34 All these are the beginning of sorrows. 33 So you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near-at the doors! 34 Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place.

The list of Biblical Signs of Christ’s Return will not actually be full blown until the Tribulation time.

Each of the signs of Christ’s Return He said–are trends.

These trends are speeding up-the last seconds of the countdown clock of Christ’s return are clicking down.

Each day the prophetic picture Christ painted grows clearer.

Each of these signs were captured by the apostles and prophets between 2,000 and 3,500 years ago.

Now they are happening in our lifetime!

But, in all of history–ONLY our generation has seen EVERY ONE of these events starting to unfold.

Number six.

Scientific accuracy. Did you know that every time God speaks of a scientific issue in the Bible it is utterly accurate? Utterly. Did you know just in the last two decades they’ve come up with the reality of the Bible where it says God separated the light from the darkness, and they found out that over 97% of our universe is made of dark matter?

They just found that out, and God said I separate the light from the darkness. And darkness and dark matter. They don’t even know what it is. And God created it all and He separated it, and we are living in the part of the universe that God described for us and it’s exactly, scientifically the way God said. The Bible addresses such things as isostacy and geodesy. It talks about the hydrological site??? We’re going to go through all of that. And the Bible is 100% scientifically accurate. And usually it’s about a light year ahead of science. Because God tells the truth. And this book, you can trust.

Why not join me for an incredible journey through the Scriptures. Look at the incredible scientific accuracy and authenticity of a book THOUSANDS OF YEARS AHEAD OF SCIENCE! If you have heard of some passages of the Bible that are in dispute . . . just wait! It takes a while for science to catch up with God! Here are the specific areas we will look at.

Astronomy: Number of Stars. Up to the time of Galileo and Kepler (17t
h Century) most of the scientific world thought there were 1,000 stars. But God has always said

Jeremiah 33:22 As the host of heaven cannot be numbered,
neither the sand of the sea measured:
so will I multiply the seed of David my servant,
and the Levites that minister unto me. (KJV).

In fact, astronomers are more unsure each year. As our reach extends further into the heavens what were thought to be stars are becoming galaxies. Galaxies are becoming clusters of galaxies and so on. Their numbers are beyond estimation or calculation. Yet – God made them. Genesis 1:16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: [he made] the stars also. (KJV) TRUST HIS POWER! God names them. Psalm 147:4 He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by [their] names. (KJV) TRUST HIS PLAN! God sustains them. Colossians 1:17 And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. (KJV)TRUST HIS CARE! And His Word has always said so! TRUST HIS WORD!

Astrophysics: Dark Matter

Job 38:19 Where [is] the way [where] light dwelleth?
and [as for] darkness, where [is] the place thereof, (KJV)

99% of the mass of the Universe is dark matter we don’t even know what it is.

Gravity

Job 38:31 Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion? (KJV)

One of the major areas of study in astronomy is the gravitational tug of stars and systems.

Oceanography:

Job 38:16 Hast thou entered into the springs of the sea?
or hast thou walked in the search of the depth? (KJV)

There are teeming life systems surrounding the toxic hot springs at volcanic vents, two miles down in the dark ocean depths unknown until this century.

Ornithology: Job 39:26-30 Doth the hawk fly by thy wisdom, [and] stretch her wings toward the south? 27 Doth the eagle mount up at thy command, and make her nest on high? 28 She dwelleth and abideth on the rock, upon the crag of the rock, and the strong place. 29 From thence she seeketh the prey, [and] her eyes behold afar off. 30 Her young ones also suck up blood: and where the slain [are], there [is] she. (KJV)Migratory navigation not even closely imitated until satellite navigation, yet God built it into fish, birds and even insects!
Zoology: Job 38:41 Who provideth for the raven his food? when his young ones cry unto God, they wander for lack of meat. (KJV) They arrive with precision against all odds. But how do those 50,000,000 Bristol Bay sockeye salmon get home each year? How do they know the exact time to return to their spawning spot from as far as 4,000 miles away? And to all return every time those same three weeks in June and July! They never miss their mark. Why? God gave them an absolutely focused sense of direction. God has placed some nearly unbelievable senses into the animal world. Look at migratory birds. They fly thousands of miles exactly to their destination. How? Scientists conclude they have a sense of the earth’s magnetic fields, like an internal compass. The King of the Universe, our Creator, didn’t leave us out. How’s your compass? Our directional capacity far exceeds the animal world’s awareness of magnetic fields or one part per billion of where we were spawned. No, we have a direct line to the Creator. We have Him. He starts and finishes all we ever need. LOOK UNTO HIM!
Meteorology is the study of our atmosphere. Only a few hundred years ago was it found that air above us has mass or weight. However in the first and oldest book of the Bible nearly 4,500 years ago Job said Job 28:24-25 For He looks to the ends of the earth, [And] sees under the whole heavens, 25 To establish a weight for the wind, And apportion the waters by measure. (NKJV)
Hydrology is the water cycle of the Earth. Water circulates from the ground and seas to the air and back again. Scripture explicitly documents this fact. Ecclesiastes 1:7 All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea [is] not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again. (KJV) Note: this was written 1000 BC before anyone knew of the hydrological cycle. Go back 4500 years ago to the oldest book in the world and listen to God discuss Evaporation, Condensation, Vapor Clouds and Precipitation – all the elements of hydrology, through Job. Job 36:27-28 For He draws up drops of water, Which distill as rain from the mist, 28 Which the clouds drop down [And] pour abundantly on man. (NKJV) Now that is Scientific Precision! Psalm 135:7 He causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth; He makes lightning for the rain; He brings the wind out of His treasuries. (NKJV) Job 26:8 He binds up the water in His thick clouds, Yet the clouds are not broken under it. (NKJV) Job 28:10-11 He cuts out channels in the rocks, And his eye sees every precious thing. 11 He dams up the streams from trickling; [What is] hidden he brings forth to light. (NKJV)
Isostasy is the relatively new study of the rotational balance there is in our global earth between the height of mountains and the depths of the oceans. The desire to understand earthquakes and such has caused this scientific inquiry. There must be a balance for the earth to not wobble. Did God know about this? He sure does. Listen to Isaiah 600 years before Christ

Isaiah 40:12 Who has measured the waters in
the hollow of His hand,
Measured heaven with a span
And calculated the dust of the earth in a measure?
Weighed the mountains in scales And the hills in a balance? (NKJV)

Geodesy studies the shape, size and gravitation forces on the planet. Although science thought the world flat for a time the Scriptures have ALWAYS affirmed the truth. The Earth Rotates (turning on an axis) is a fact that up to the 1400’s was absent from science. The thinkers of the day said the earth was flat. The Hindu writings affirm that it rested on the backs of elephants. But God gives Scriptural truth in

Job 38:14 It takes on form like clay [under] a seal (turning a cylinder in a axis to sign documents), And stands out like a garment. (NKJV)

Wow, it rotates and it’s suspended in space!

Job 26:7 He stretcheth out the north over the empty place,
[and] hangeth the earth upon nothing.

The Earth Is Round Isaiah 40:22 [It is] He who sits above the circle of the earth, And its inhabitants [are] like grasshoppers, Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. (NKJV)

Geology Job 38:4-6 Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding. 5 Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it? 6 Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof; (KJV)
The Laws of Science: First Law of Thermodynamics. There are some rules of operations for our Universe. These are called the laws of thermodynamics. The 1st Law states ‘ultimately nothing is destroyed’. This also means that mass and energy are conserved. God says Isaiah 40:26 Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these [things], that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that [he is] strong in power; not one faileth. (KJV) Ecclesiastes 1:10 Is there anything of which one can say, “Look! This is something new”? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time. (NIV) So thousands of years before it was discovered God states that He keeps things from ‘missing’ and there is really ‘nothing new’. The Second Law Of Thermodynamics states that although there is a conservation of mass and energy (1st Law) all matter in the Universe is still involved in a breakdown going from order to disorder. Declining from the ORDER of the Cosmos to CHAOS and ENERGY to ENTROPY. The Scriptures affirm this Law although evolution denies it! Romans 8:21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. (NIV) why because it has been cursed in Genesis 3.

Finally, not only did Jesus Christ believe it, and the apostles and prophets believe it, it survived, it’s absolutely united, it’s prophetically accurate, it’s scientifically accurate. You know what the last thing is? It’s historically accurate. There has never been proven one historical error in this book.

Well, what does that mean? It means that the book that you hold in your hand, you can trust. And if you can trust this book, then you ought to read it every day. In fact as it says in Psalms 132 you shouldn’t find a place for your head to lay at night if you haven’t found a place for God in your life.

How do you let God into your life? Well, I’ll tell you a little secret. This is the voice of God, the breath of God. This is the spirit of God, distilled down onto paper and if you want to let God into your life, you ought to open this every day. And if you open up the morning paper or if you open up the Good Morning America or if you have to start your day with Rush instead of with God, then that’s a mistake. And if you end your day with the sleazy wickedness of the night shows instead of with the glories of the eternal, infinite God, shame on you. Shame on me.

Read it to be wise. Believe it to be safe. Practice it to be holy.

This book contains light to direct you, fruit to sustain you, comfort to cheer you.

It is the traveler’s map, the pilgrim’s staff. It’s the pilot’s compass, the soldier’s sword, the Christian’s chart.

Here paradise is restored, heaven is open, the gates of hell are disclosed.

Read it slowly, frequently and prayerfully.

It is a mine of wealth, a paradise of glory and a river of pleasure.

The Bible. The book you can trust.

We thank You for Your Word, Oh God, forever settled in heaven. Turn our hearts by way of Your Word to the cross of Christ. Where we first met Christ was in Your Word. Where we grow with Him is in Your Word. And the Christ of the Word is the only One we’re ever going to know because Your Word is forever settled in heaven. Open our eyes to behold wondrous things from Your Word for Christ’s sake, Amen.

[1] Scroggie says that the Gospels total 3,779 verses. The words of Christ total 1,934 of them. Jesus quotes the Old Testament 180x so just under 10% of His recorded words are Old Testament quotes!

[2] Bible Prophecies can be divided into EIGHTEEN chronological categories (by the timing of the events). There are only FIVE categories of the eighteen left to be fulfilled. They are: church prophecies, Second Coming prophecies, Millennial prophecies, Final Judgment prophecies, and New Jerusalem prophecies.

[3] J. Barton Payne, Encyclopedia of Biblical Prophecy (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1980), pp. 631-675.