Can We Still Believe the Bible is the Word of God?

Introduction

I’d like to make a couple of observations before we begin. First of all, is this microphone on or not? No. Let’s see if I can get that fixed. Is it on now? Wonderful. So far I’m batting a thousand on problems with microphones. A couple of observations before we begin this evening. First of all, you have wonderful singing. God be praised. Sometimes in a big building like this, the singing isn’t all that good. It kind of gets lost. The building, it seems, is planned well for the reverberation of the music. And you sing out. And I thank God for that. It’s a joy to sing with you today. And the second thing I want to observe is you have some pretty sharp young people.

And they’re pretty sharp. They have some I’d say mature thoughts about this general theme of uh does God exist and evolution, creation. So it was a real joy. You can be thankful to God that you have such young people in an age when many young people are turning other directions. And I know that’s not an accident. I think a corollary to that is that there must be some wonderful parents doing their job.

So it’s a joy to be with you and to share some of these things with regard to evidences, both for God Himself, and that the Bible is the Word of God. In fact, I will begin this evening by saying this. I believe, and I suspect most everyone in this audience believes, if not everyone, that this book is the Word of God, containing the Old and New Testaments. It is God’s testimony to his people throughout the centuries, from the time of creation until the present time. It is his guide from earth to heaven for creatures made in his image. I believe this Bible is inspired by God. What I mean by that is verbally inspired, infallible, and inerrant. Verbally inspired means God gave it to us in the words he chose.

Infallible means there are no mistakes. Inerrant, nothing left out that we need.

Postmodernists look at everything in relative terms. There is no such thing as absolute truth, except that one statement. Everything is subjective and situational. I thought I’d share with you a quote from this book, The Closing of the American Mind by Alan Bloom. Some of you may have read this. It’s an interesting book. One virtue or our virtue is his opening chapter. There is one thing a professor can be absolutely certain of. Almost every student entering the university believes, or says he believes, that truth is relative. I interrupt the quote to say that’s standard on college and university campuses in our country and around the world. If this belief is put to the test, one can count on students’ reaction. They are uncomprehending. What do you mean?

Truth is not relative. That anyone that should regard the proposition as not self evident is absolutely astonishing. As though he were calling into question two plus two is four. These are things you don’t think about. The students’ backgrounds are as various as America can provide. Some are religious, some are atheists, some are to the left, some are to the right, some intend to be scientists, some are humanists, some are professionals or businessmen, some are poor, some are rich, but they are unified on their relativism and their allegiance to equality. And the two are related by moral intention.

And listen, folks, if you don’t believe that, that’s the way it is on campuses. Dr. Bloom says that’s a part of the contributing to the closing of the American mind. Relativism is necessary to openness, so people think. And this is the virtue. The only virtue which all primary education for more than 50 years has dedicated itself to inculcating. Openness and relativism go together. It’s the great insight of our times, supposedly. The true believer is the real danger. That’s us. And you keep your eyes open, beloved. It is becoming more and more the case in our society. That folks who truly believe that there is a God and that this book is his word are becoming the danger. The point is not to correct mistakes and really be right.

Rather, it is not to think you or anyone else is right at all. Because right is whatever you determine it to be. Usually the students can’t defend their opinions very well. And I might say, this little group of youngsters that we were talking to a little earlier, they’re pretty good. They’ve done some thinking about defending themselves. And I’m thankful to God for that. We’re going to be in more and more need of that in the generations that come. Need to be able to stand up and be counted. So openness and relativism are the virtue. And in view of that, we must be tolerant of everything except being intolerant. And you and I would be considered intolerant. I think it’s a spirit of our age. And it is something we need to be prepared to face.

Modernism had already challenged the authenticity of the scripture and the notion that the Bible is God’s word. Concluding instead that it’s the work of man. Most denominational groups that claim to follow this book in some fashion or another have long since given up the notion of absolute inspiration of Scripture. If you don’t believe me, go do some investigating and sit at the feet of some of the preachers and other pulpits in this town and investigate what they really believe. The infallibility of Scripture, its inerrant nature, and its verbal inspiration has been given up by most denominational groups. In light of all this, I’m asking the question tonight. The Bible is the Word of God. Can modern man still believe this? I can tell you that many would say absolutely not.

Not anybody that’s informed. So it is to that I wish to turn our attention for a few minutes tonight. And I began this evening with an apology. An apology because we will obviously be very limited in what we can say about this very broad subject this evening. So it is my hope that this tiny introduction to the subject can spur you to dig more deeply if you wish to do so, so that you can be better prepared as to why you believe what you believe. And if you’re here this evening or you’re listening to this tape and you’re not a believer that the Bible is the word of God, I want to issue this challenge to you. My experience has been when I talk to people who deny the Bible is the word of God, they know almost nothing about the Bible.

And yet they’re convinced it’s not the word of God. My challenge to you would be will you take the challenge to dig deeply and find out what the book is about? Investigate it as deeply as you want. I’ve been studying this book for 40 years. I’m more convinced than ever that it is the word of God. And I wish you would challenge yourself to dig deeply and find out.

1. What the Bible Says About Inspiration

What does this mean from a biblical perspective? I think it’s very important to establish first what the Bible says about inspiration. What does that mean? Because inspiration itself is a nebulous term and can be used lots of different ways in the English language. So let’s investigate. What does the Bible say about this? And we’ll start with 2 Timothy chapter 3. Hope you have your Bibles with you. And let’s open together. I like to give time for folks to turn to passages. So make your pages rustle, and I will know if you’re turning. This is a personal quirk. I like PowerPoint. There’s some nice things it can do for you, but I will never put scriptures up there. Just because I want you to open your own Bible.

And I know there’s different views about that. Some folks think it’s good to have it up there. But you know what you do when you have it up there? You don’t look at your own Bible. You look up there. My personal view is I’d rather you look at your own Bible. 2 Timothy chapter 3. Verse 16. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction and righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. In my version of the Bible, I use the New King James. That is the only verse in the New Testament that contains the word inspiration. It comes from a Greek word that literally means God breathed.

So here’s what it says. All scripture is given by God’s breath or by the breath of God. It is God breathed. What’s that saying? What the Bible says about Scripture is that God is the source of it. It comes from him. If it’s Scripture, it’s God breathed. It is not so much talking in that passage about how God uses man to produce it. It is talking instead about the source. Psalm 33, verse 6 says, By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. Scripture, thus, is of divine origin by the breath of his mouth, and it is profitable for all holy and helpful purposes that God has ordained. God is the source, and he has a purpose for it to make us complete.

That’s what the Bible says. Let’s go a little further. 2 Peter chapter 1. The passage on the board before you, the reference is verses 20 and 21. We’re going to back up just a little bit. I want to start with verse 15 of 2 Peter chapter 1. Thank you for turning with me. And if you’re visiting this evening and you don’t know where these passages are, you can scoot over next to somebody close to you, and they’ll help you. Verse 15. Moreover, I will be careful to ensure that you always have a reminder of these things after my decease, says the Apostle Peter. For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.

For he received from God the Father honor and glory when such a voice came to him from the excellent glory. This is my beloved Son in whom I’m well pleased. Bible students remember that event. Peter, James, and John were privileged to go up on a mountain with Jesus. And as they watched, he was transfigured before them. And his face shone as bright as the noonday sun. And his garments were bright. And Peter fell to the ground and said, Let’s make a tabernacle for you, Jesus, and for the other two characters that joined Jesus on that mountain. Moses and Elijah. And then the voice came from heaven. Read it here with me. Verse 18 or verse 17. When we heard the voice which came from the excellent glory, this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

We heard this voice which came from heaven. We were with him on that holy mountain. Peter said, We didn’t make this up. We were eye witnesses. We heard the voice, we saw the transfigured Messiah. It’s real. Then he says in verse 19, we also have the prophetic word made more sure. Which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. Knowing this first that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation. For prophecy never came by the will of man. But holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. This passage, beloved, tells us why prophecy is even more sure than eyewitnesses. It’s because prophecy didn’t come by the will of man.

Men, holy men whom God chose were carried along by the Holy Spirit when they spoke and when they wrote.

I’ll give you time to turn here. These are critically important passages in terms of what does the Bible teach with regard to inspiration. And the reason I start here is because if you’re going to accept the Bible, you need to accept what the Bible says about itself. 1 Corinthians 2, beginning in verse 10, says, But God has revealed them to us through his Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.

2. Old Testament Claims: Thus Says the Lord

These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. Some versions say, comparing spiritual things or combining spiritual things with spiritual words. What does 1 Corinthians 2 tell us about inspiration? It says, beloved, that the Holy Spirit directed these men, these holy men of God, that it gave them the words God wanted them to speak. Now that’s what the Bible claims, among other things. Let’s look at some of the claims in the Old Testament. There are over 3,800 introductory formulas like this. Thus says the Lord. The word of the Lord came to me.

Over 3,800 different references like that in the Old Testament. The men who wrote this book said, this is what God said. Let’s look at Exodus. It’s chapter 4 as an illustration. One of thousands. Exodus 4, verse 12 says, Moses being spoken to by the Lord. Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say. Verse 15. Now you shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth, and I will be your mouth and with his mouth, and I will teach you what you shall do. That’s one illustration of many. Where the men who wrote this book said, This is what God said. I will teach you what I want you to say. Then you say it. Let’s look at one other.

In Jeremiah chapter 26 and verse 2. Thus says the Lord. There’s one of those 3800 introductory expressions. Stand in the court of the Lord’s house and speak to all the cities of Judah, which come to worship in the Lord’s house, all the words that I command you to speak to them. Do not diminish a single sentence. Is that what your version says? You’re not doing anything. No, that’s not what your version said. I know it isn’t, because that’s not what mine said. It says, all the words that I command you to speak to them, do not diminish a word. Jeremiah, you tell them exactly what I’m telling you, and don’t you leave out one word. Now let me ask you something. If you believe that this is God’s word, Old and New Testaments, would you want to leave out one word if God said it?

I don’t think so. Now, to go to the Bible and say, the Bible claims for itself it is the Word of God does not prove it’s the Word of God. I understand that. But I do think it’s important to establish from the beginning what does the Bible claim for itself? And wouldn’t it be interesting if nowhere in the Bible anybody said this is God’s word? And then we tried to say, well, it really is God’s word. They just don’t say it. That’d be a little harder proof, wouldn’t it? So while I’m not trying to argue that the fact that somebody says I’m speaking for God makes it true, I am trying to tell you the Bible is full of expressions from one end to the other where people are saying this is what God said, and this is what inspiration means.

3. What About the New Testament?

So that’s an introduction to this subject based firmly upon references to what God says. Now, what about the New Testament? Let’s look briefly. I already told you, 2 Peter 1, verse 21. We looked at that one a while ago. It says, prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. So let’s look at chapter 3 and verse 16. Peter says in verse 16, as also in all his epistles, referring to the epistles of Paul, speaking in them of these things, and which are some things hard to understand, which those who are untaught and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they also do the rest of the scriptures. It appears that the Apostle Peter considered the Apostle Paul’s writings to be a part of Scripture in the New Testament.

2 Peter 3 and verse 2. Let’s read 1 and 2. Beloved, I now write to you the second epistle, both of which I stir up your impure minds by way of reminder, that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets and of the commandments of us, the apostles and the Lord and Savior. Does the apostle Peter put the words of the prophets in the Old Testament on a par with the words of the prophets and the apostles in the New Testament? He lumps them together, beloved. One is Scripture, so is the other. What about Jesus Himself? Matthew the fourth chapter, verses 1 through 11. Let’s not turn to that. You just answer my question. You don’t have to answer it out loud.

That’s the passage that tells us about the temptation of Jesus. He was tempted three times, wasn’t he? And with each of the temptations, do you remember the first words that came out of his mouth? It is written, said Jesus. Referring then to the authoritative nature of Scripture that was written to answer the devil’s charges and temptations. Oh, listen, we could do many lessons on Jesus’ respect for the authority and the power and the inspiration of Scripture. Jesus said the Old Testament was authoritative. John the 12th chapter. You remember when he talked to the disciples just before they before he left them, he opened their minds to the scriptures of what was written in the Old Testament. But what about his words? John 12, verse 48. He who rejects me and does not receive my words, he has that which judges him, the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day.

John 12, 48. We’re going to be judged by the words of Christ. That implicates that they’re important, doesn’t it? And Jesus said in John 14 and John 15 and John 16 that he was going to send his Holy Spirit to his apostles when he left John 14, 26, but the helper of the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. Jesus said, My words are going to judge you. I’m going to give the Holy Spirit to my apostles. They’ll remember every single thing I said, and they will tell you what you need to know. Chapter 16 and verse 13. However, when he, the Spirit of truth has come, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak of his own authority, but whatever he hears, he will speak, and he will tell you things to come.

And we’ll not turn to Hebrews chapter 2, but the passage says, How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? Which at the first began to be spoken unto us by the Lord and was confirmed unto us by them that followed him or them that heard him. And he confirmed it. The God of heaven confirmed it by the signs that followed. Various miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit. Yes, what the New Testament teaches is that Jesus Christ and His apostles were speaking God’s message that everybody needed to heed. It is consistent from one end of the Bible to the other. It claims to be his word. It claims we’ll be judged by it. It claims to be inspired. Well, what evidences are there to support this claim?

Just to say that makes my knees not. That’s a huge subject. We have 15 minutes left if I quit preaching on time.

4. Internal and External Evidences

So obviously, we will but touch the veritable hem of the garment. But I have first laid for you the groundwork. What does the Bible say about itself? Don’t you miss that. Either the Bible is inspired of God, or it’s the biggest fraud that’s ever been. There is no middle ground here.

So, what other evidences are there to support the claim that the Bible is the Word of God? Well, I would suggest there are a lot of internal evidences, and one place I like to start with people who are not believers in the Bible is with the Bible itself. Let’s examine it together. And then when we get through examining it, we will need to ask ourselves: couldn’t men have produced this? The marvelous unity of the Bible, to which I wish to come back in a few moments, and that is the one item on this whole list I’m going to expand on just a little bit tonight. It’s profound and rational doctrine. Listen, beloved, the doctrines of this book are unlike any other doctrines you’ll read anywhere else.

Could man have come up with these? Is the question you have to answer? The purity of its ethics. The Bible stands alone in the purity of its ethics. Fulfilled prophecy. You examine the pages of this book, Old and New Testaments. You will see numerous statements made, which we can establish were written down, recorded prior to the events it discusses, and the events came about in history exactly as they were predicted. You think that ought to take several lectures? Fulfill prophecy. Investigate for yourself. And then the man, Jesus Christ. Investigate Jesus Christ, would you? Find out about this person as he is unveiled to us in the New Testament and in prophecies in the old. Hundreds of prophecies pointing to the coming of Messiah. Jesus Christ the man fulfilled every one of them.

And then presented such teaching the likes of which nobody’s ever seen. Investigate the man Jesus and tell me men could have made up such a man. There are also external evidences. Evidences outside of this book that support the claims of this book. One great source of fascinating study are the historical and factual accuracies of the Bible. Supported by archaeological evidence and historical documents, otherwise, extra biblical documents and archaeological finds. You see, the Bible is written in such a way that it’s not just a poetry book, it’s a book of history. It’s a book of events. It talks about real people in real places in real time. So you can go examine other sources and see if they impinge on what the Bible says. It’s a massive subject.

At my school where I teach, we have a whole semester course on just archaeology in the Bible. You’re interested in that subject? I’d like to refer you to some people and some books you can get to to dig in deep. I didn’t mean to play on words there. There’s much to learn. And the Bible is massively supported by archaeological evidence to undergird what it says. And historical evidence and documentation of all kinds. It’s scientific accuracy. It’s amazing that this book written beginning 1,500 years before Christ does not contain a lot of the ridiculous views about the world that were in the world at that time. The way it expresses things, there’s modernist today. And while I do not believe, and it is absolutely so that this book is not a scientific textbook, when it speaks of things about our world, it is accurate.

Prophetic accuracy. One can examine prophecies using extra biblical information and show that the Bible, while it many times has been challenged about some of the things that is said through history, to the point people said, the Bible says that. It’s not supported by the external evidence, therefore the Bible is false. Come along a few years later, a few hundred years later, sometimes a few 50 years later. And the Bible is once again supported and substantiated.

5. The Unity of the Bible

Not a whole subject in its own. But I want to return now for the last few minutes to the unity of the Bible. This internal evidence that seems to me so powerfully supports this book could not have been written by men. And here’s the way I’d like to approach that. The writers of this book span over about 1,600 years. And I want you to notice as I flash them on the screen here, the different sources of these writings. The earliest writer of the Bible, Moses, about 1500 BC, wrote books of law and history in the Hebrew language. Moses, trained in all the wisdom of Egypt. A very intelligent man, well trained. He was an academician, you might say. He went to university. He wrote the earliest books of the Bible.

Joshua, 1100 B.C., book of history in Hebrew. David, the shepherd boy, the poet.