Why I believe the Bible #1

Why I Believe the Bible

2 Peter 1:16-21

August 20, 2023

Every week we believers entrust our day-to-day lives based on the truths that this Book contains. It is critically important that we have this right. It is not something that we arbitrarily say is true. If we call ourselves truly Christ-following believers, the Word of God is the key to understanding our worldview.

Over the next several weeks we will be leaving the book of John and answering some questions that have caused serious problems for believers. Unfortunately, kids, it usually starts in Highschool and will be waiting for you throughout your life. It does not stop when you graduate from Highschool. If you go on to college, it gets more obvious.

For years Christians have been sent into the world from church still lacking in the conviction needed to answer questions that the world uses to destroy and chip away at one’s faith. I want all of us to know that it is my goal over the next few weeks to answer these questions and arm each of us for these challenges.

I want you to take notes and if you want to slow down and re-listen to these messages, we have it recorded. Just let me know. Over the next four weeks, we will be looking at “Why I believe the Bible”. This series will arm each of us with what we need to truly believe the Bible and stand for it.

Before I get started, none of this information is my own work. It is a culmination of many men who have gone before me. I am standing on the shoulders of Godly, educated, and wise men who have spent countless hours, days, and years in the study of these topics. On the back of your sermon guide, there is a list of resources and over the weeks it will grow. The one I would ask you to seriously consider is:

https://focalpointministries.org/origins-of-the-bible/

It is the very best resource for this study that I have found and done. I would challenge you as a family to go through the 12-week study. If you want your kids to understand how we got our Bible, it is a must. If you yourself have further questions, this is it.

There are two more resources that are valuable, and I used these to compile this information. One from Michael Kruger. It is shorter but takes a hard look at the “problem with canon” and we will reference him from time to time.

https://www.ligonier.org/learn/series/new-testament-canon/the-problem-of-canon

My favorite resource, and to be honest, my favorite preacher/teacher right now is Dr. Voddie Baucham’s lecture series on this topic. I like him because he speaks my language and I love his direct approach. This is the link for one of many messages on the topic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1XJ7DeR5fc&t=1079s

Okay, now that we have the housekeeping out of the way, let’s get into the message. To get us started, I want to start by playing the other side. The first third of this message will paint a bleak picture. I would rather you hear these questions and situations from me than face these when you have to be able to provide an answer. But know this, I will not leave you at the end of the message on the edge of the cliff. I’ll take you there but will pull you back.

With that said, let me ask you a rhetorical question. Why are you a Christian? Why do you believe the Bible is true and how do you know that you are right? Unfortunately, our default answers are less than adequate not only in our own minds but to those who hear us speak them. Has anyone seen the movie “God’s Not Dead”? In this movie we see the main character sign in for his first science class. In the introduction, the professor demands that all students take a sheet of paper and write “there is no God” and then sign it. The main character is seen sitting in the seat in utter turmoil as the sheets of paper are being passed to the prof around him. He is the only one who stands in opposition.

Unfortunately, this is not isolated. It is in our colleges, in our workplaces, and more concerning in our schools locally. I think all of us have had to come to grips with these opinions. So, let’s do it together.

1. Common objections are not new.

Nate:

a. What was the most outlandish thing you learned in school that troubled you?

b. What basis did this teacher use to tell you that?

c. How did this teacher respond to kids that stuck to their faith.

d. How did you friend warn you about this teacher when you started class?

1. I was raised that way (tradition) and 2. Personal experience. Both are not particularly wrong! But do they really answer the questions? Both are easily destroyed by the person with the microphone.

First: Tradition (that’s how I was raised). That one is easy to answer: Angie what is your tradition? Why? Theresa? Why the orange? Okay Betty is here, Betty, can you tell us the reason behind the orange?

Second: It changed my life. That one is also easily discounted. “I’m glad it worked for you, but it doesn’t work for everyone”.

I chose my son because he has actually had this experience. He actually has had a teacher that thought and acted exactly like this but even worse. He acted more like a bully then a teacher. It is a real issue and although I painted Nate in a corner, he actually has better answers than what he gave me. He knows how to respond. But, even though HE is solid, many of us default to these two responses.

i. That was what I was taught.

ii. It changed my life. I tried it and it works for me.

Many of you just said, “dang, you just took my two answers, that’s all I got.” If that is all we got, how are we going to handle these:

A. Why does the Bible have authority over all other books?

B. There is no way it is accurate because the authors wrote it so far past the events it records.

C. The authors were just a bunch of men who got together and wrote it. How do you know they were not forged?

D. There are so many translations that there is no way accuracy could be sure.

E. What about all the other ancient manuscripts that did not get included? Who made that decision? Did the church make the final call on what was included?

F. The authors were writing letters, not scripture. They never intended that their letters be used as scripture.

G. Science is a better tool to understand than the Bible.

H. I’m a man/woman of science. Fairytales don’t work for me.

ADD YOUR own!

This is by far NOT an exhaustive list! But, these have a common theme and are concerning enough to discuss.

Let’s get back to our go-to answers, how do our answers work with these arguments? Could we do better?

Look, I know I am painting a horrible picture, so I am going to send us a lifeline. I am going to give you a direction for the next several weeks. Imagine if Nate would have said this:

“I choose to believe the Bible because it is a collection of historical documents written down by eyewitnesses during the lifetime of other eyewitnesses. They report to us supernatural events that took place in fulfillment of certain prophecies and claim that their writings are divine rather than human origin.”

Now, how does that response work? How does that stand in response to the above list? We will be working to understand this statement more throughout the next several weeks. But, first, we need to understand the history and reason why Christians have such a inadequate understanding of God’s Word.

THE BACKGROUND:

There are people who make it their life’s mission to discredit and destroy the Word of God at all costs (in my opinion lending to its credibility). In 1934 a man named Walter Bower wrote a book titled “Orthodoxy and Heresy in Earliest Christianity.” In 1934 no one wanted to read this book, especially since it was written in German, and at the time, people had something else on their minds, Hitler was marching across Europe burning down the countryside. It was not until 1971 when the book was translated into English that people actually took the time to really dive into it.

In this book, he argued that the early church fathers all had their own version of Christianity and it was a very diverse time. People had their own opinions and thoughts as to what being a Christian was. Bower claimed that all of Christianity disagreed and no one was on the same page. There was disagreement on who God was, the authority of scripture, and how to be saved along with man other outlandish claims. He also asserted that the books that we have now are just the result of the political victors of the argument. He said that if the other side won, we would be reading a totally different bible.

The problem is that this book was published shortly after another major event in US history, The Scopes Monkey Trial in 1925. This trial was a battle between a Christian lawyer who was ill-prepared and a savvy opposing lawyer. The verdict helped usher the theory of evolution into the public-school setting. It was clear that Christians were ill-equipped to answer key objections. You should read the court transcripts. It was sad. My kids could have done a better job. Unfortunately, it has led to generations of believers struggling to come to a reasonable answer to these objections.

In 1945 a man named Mahabid Ali (not the boxer) was digging in his backyard in Egypt. He found a pot in the ground and brought it to his brother. After much debate, they cracked it open. They found a bunch of dusty old scrolls and thought they could get some money for them. They took them to the market and sold them to an antiquities broker. It was a good thing that the right guy found them. The scrolls included ancient manuscripts call the Gnostic Gospels. These included other gospels and a very different version of who Jesus was. This find was key because it opened the door for other gospels not included in the “approved canon” of scripture and raised questions about our current Bible. They included:

A. Gospel of Peter

B. Gospel of Thomas

C. Gospel of Mary

D. Gospel of Judas

E. Gospel of Jesus’s wife- modern forgery

Some of these have created a ton of ammunition for Bible critics and we have seen great success by authors like Dan Brown. He wrote the novels “Davinci Code”. In his books, he totally ignores documented historical accounts for the sake of entertainment all the while packaging it as fact. His books truly frustrate me.

All of these events and others serve as a tool of the Devil to chip away at the faith of the believer. These events and findings have been used to misrepresent, contort, and change the minds of believing Christians who have not taken the time to study and find what the truth is. We must be better prepared than the generations before us. We MUST arm ourselves and kids better than we have.

But as you will see over the next several weeks it is like a cheap hammer banging away at the solid anvil. The anvil (God’s Word) always wins. The Word of God always wins. To all of these objections, there is a very important response that completely silences the person with the microphone, and I am going to teach it to you. But first, we must know why we have this issue. It is not just because of Darwin, Bower, Ali, or countless others. It is because Truth is divisive.

2. Truth is always under attack.

I know that this was a dark setup. I know that I may have rocked some of you. You may have even wondered about these same questions and had the same concerns. I get it! God gave us minds to think through and question. It is completely okay to ask questions! It is completely good to search for truth. But, when we search for truth, we must look to what IS true. When we add part truth with truth, it stops being true. As believers, we quickly jump to NON-Bible sources to substantiate our claims (archeology, other historical records, science etc.). All can be helpful, but TRUTH is found not in these. It’s found in the Word.

2 Peter 1:16-21.

I know that you are saying this because I said it for years. “You can’t use the Bible to prove the Bible”. It’s called circular reasoning. Let me be clear, my goal is not to prove the Bible is true. It does that and absolutely does not need me to do the job it manages itself. My goal today is to answer the original title of the message series: “Why I believe the Bible”. That very response is key! If we get into “proving the Bible is true”, that is not your job! Just prove why you believe it.

I love what Voddie Baucham says, he said that if we use other sources to “prove” the Bible, that means we are appealing to a higher authority than the Bible. We as Truth followers, must follow the Truth. So, by definition of the authority of the WORD of God, we must appeal to that authority. Voddie went on to quote CH Spurgeon in saying that we don’t need to defend a lion. It doesn’t need defending. So, that said let’s jump into what that lion says about it’s self.

READ TEXT 2 Peter 1:16-21

We can tell that in 2 Peter, he is responding to attacks on the validity of Scripture. This is absolutely NOT a new thing. It is not something that was founded in our lifetime. It has been around since the 1 century and will go on until Jesus comes back. Why is that? Why does truth cause such effort from the opposition? It all goes back to the fall when satan says to Eve, “Did God really say”. The challenge to truth is something built into the depravity of man. Our very sin nature rails against God’s truth.

Romans 3:2-4 “… To begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God. What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? By no means! Let God be true though everyone were a liar…, “

The truth does not change just because we choose to not live by it. The truth of God is the anvil that man beats their head against. It never moves, changes, or varies. But, it does not mean that man will not submit to it. The reason why is that truth comes at a cost to the hearer.

Hebrews 4:12 “For the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of the soul and the spirit, of joints and of the marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”

What makes words on a page to be “living and active”? It is the WORD of God to the Children of God. When the Spirit filled believer reads the WORD of God in Spirit, communication between believer and God happens.

It is no wonder that the Word of God is under attack. No one likes the idea of being cut, pierced to the soul and spirit and our inner thoughts known by a divine judge. These attacks should NEVER surprise us! Now, how are we going to handle the attack though? I said this last week, we as believers are all equipped with a testimony of the truth. But the pastor who proclaims the truth stirs the affections of those who hear it. It is important to know that some affections are not always good.(subjective response) We can in fact trust what we have in our laps!

3. Completely trust in God’s Word.

This final point today will carry us into the next three sermons. We ABSOLUTELY can trust God’s truth, His written Word, and the principles it professes. We will look closely at how in the coming weeks but it is so important that I do not leave you in a position of doubt.

Let’s get back to our text. If Peter uses the Word to defend the Word, we too need to take this approach. This is where the authority to claim truth lives.

Vs 16 “For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ…”

Did anyone remember the response I gave after Nate’s and I’s role play? Remember how Nate could have responded? Let’s take it one claim at a time.

“I choose to believe the Bible because it is a collection of historical documents”.

This statement would end the last objection on the list I gave you above. “I’m a man of science. I’m a woman of science”. Look, if you are a person of science, you then have to admit that science is NOT history. Science is the study of the scientific method. The method states that to be science it has to be “observable, measurable and repeatable. If you are a person of science, you must be losing your mind to use that method for a historical conversation. History can not be measured by the scientific method! It does not work! An to be honest, if you are a “science man/woman” please be careful saying that out loud. It’s like saying I use a hammer as a sowing needle.

To evaluate historical events, we need to use a tool that is accepted and approved by history. It is called the “Evidence-Based Method”.

Meaning: 1. Is it a reliable source: (25,000 archeological digs supporting all of the claims in the Bible). 2. Corroborative sources: supportive documents that collaborate historical events. The 27 books of the NT corroborate eachother along with other historical accounts. The fact that the Bible was written over 3 continents, 1500 years by many different authors should corroborate itself 3. Does it have internal sources/external sources? This goes back to the countless digs that support it’s claims.

These are the methods to prove the accuracy of history and to tip my cards a bit, the WORD of God is the ONLY collection of documents that meet these three requirements in EVERY argument. The scientific method does not apply! Does the Bible ignore science? No, but it was designed to be a collection of HISTORICAL documents.

We use the WORD of God because it passes the Evidence-Based Method better than any other written text in human history. It has yet to be proven inaccurate as to its historical claims and yet, people still argue with its accuracy.

According to Institute of Creation Research:

“The Bible has proven to be more historically and archaeologically accurate than any other ancient book. It has been subjected to the minutest scientific textual analysis possible to humanity and has been proven to be authentic in every way.”

To conclude: “I choose to believe the Bible because it is a collection of historical documents…”

As a historical document, there is not a single other document more studied, scrutinized, and judged than God’s Word. Believers, we can get angry at the scrutiny, or we can look at it as the blessing that it has given. Because of the scrutiny and people trying to prove it wrong, they have offered us all the more support for the validity of its accuracy.

Unbeliever:

I have a question for you. Why does the Bible cause such an uproar? Why is the Bible hated so much? It is because Jesus claims exclusive ownership of the truth. He says that He is the source of truth and the judge to those who choose to ignore that truth. Yike! No one likes the word “judge”. If you are honest, you have to answer the question. Why does that make you so uncomfortable? It is because what He said was accurately recorded in saying “I am the way the truth and the life, no man comes to the father except through me.” Thus, as an unbeliever, the fact that He says this should make us look close at the claims in this collection. Come to the Lord. Come to an understanding of who He is. Who is recorded in the Word of God.