How do I know the Bible is True?

Intro

Find the dollar

get 2 volunteers

2 bins with $20,005 in them. Of course $20,000 is fake, but there is $5 real dollars in them.

You 2 are going to race to see who can find the most dollar bills in their bin first.

[30 second timer]

After the timers up ask the winner

How did you know which money was real?

What are you going to do with all your winnings?

Thanks, you can have a seat.

Give ‘em a hand!

Story

Back in 2015, there was an uproar in the art community,

you’re all well aware of this I’m sure, right?

but in case you’re not, several very expensive art pieces, like $8 MILLION dollars each, may have been fakes.

So it makes international news, and a global expert in art forgery is brought in to discover the truth. During his investigation, he found that many of them were indeed fakes. But HOW he figured it out is what’s interesting.

He said he found paint that was made with synthetic materials, that wasn’t even invented when the original painter was alive. So because of this it was a fake.

It didn’t matter what synthetic material it was, or where that fake paint came from, he knew it was a fake because it didn’t match the original. It didn’t match his standard. Everything else could line up perfectly, but if any part of that paint wasn’t available to the original artist, it wasn’t real.

the same thing happens with counterfeit money, the people up here searching for the real money didn’t need to find all the individual differences of the fake money, they just saw that it didn’t match what real money looks like, so therefore it’s false.

is there such a thing as subjective truth? meaning is there ONE truth?

well, yes, logically there has to be ONE truth. If each of us could create our own truths, then if my truth says yours is wrong, is it truly wrong? I could say gravity’s not real all I want, but if I drop something what happens? It falls down, regardless of my belief.

truth from merriam-websters dictionary

real things, events, and facts

when a statement is in accord with (lines up) fact or reality

then I was thinking, why do people always choose merriam-websters dictionary? I mean, they’ve been around for almost 200 years giving people information about language, but maybe there’s a better definition out there.

So I did some digging and found this definition:

“The truth is like a lingering fart...everyone can smell it, everyone knows its there, but no one wants to admit it.”

While a bit crass, that is a pretty good definition. Both definitions are in agreement that there is a Truth, that is the same for everyone. It’s reality, it’s fact, which means it has to be the same for everyone. Whether I choose to believe it or not, well that’s up to me.

Ok, so I’m going to come back to this at the end, but now, one of my favorite ways to show the Bible is true.

When proving the Bible’s authenticity you have to do more than just quote Bible verses. You need to connect the Bible to real-world, historical proofs.

I brought this stage prop to see if anyone could guess what I’m talking about, anyone?

[point to tire, have some kids guess, maybe offer prompt of “the city of ...”]

The City of Tyre! That’s right!

How many of you have heard of the city of Tyre?

about 100 miles North of Jerusalem is the city of Tyre and we see it mentioned a decent number of times in the Bible, but I want to focus on a prophecy about it in Ezekiel.

I believe we’ll be talking about prophecy in a month or so, but to explain in one sentence: prophecy is when God gives info about something to someone. And often it’s about what’s happening now or will happen in the future.

Tyre is a city in modern day Lebanon, near Israel. Over time it grew so big that it expanded to take up a nearby island as well. The island was about 2600 feet away from the mainland. That’s a bit farther than from here to that weird 5-way intersection over there. Or it’s like 8 football fields long of ocean. So that’s just to paint the mental picture of this city.

Ezekiel 26 is where all these verses are going to be. I’m just going to point out a couple key verses.

We know from chapter 26, verse 1, that God gave Ezekiel this info about 580 years BEFORE Jesus.

Ezekiel 26:3–6 (halfway through verse 3)

I will raise up many nations against you, just as the sea raises its waves. They will destroy the walls of Tyre and demolish her towers. I will scrape the soil from her and turn her into a bare rock. She will become a place in the sea to spread nets, for I have spoken.” This is the declaration of the Lord God. “She will become plunder for the nations, and her villages on the mainland will be slaughtered by the sword. Then they will know that I am the Lord.”

goes on to talk about King Nebuchadnezzer coming against the city and laying siege to it, then he repeats the prophecy but adds an important piece in verse 14:

Ezekiel 26:14 CSB

I will turn you into a bare rock, and you will be a place to spread nets. You will never be rebuilt, for I, the Lord, have spoken.” This is the declaration of the Lord God.

So to summarize the things that are prophesied against the city by Ezekiel (Slide 1 - bullet points)

many nations will rise up against it

city will be completely destroyed

city will be scraped to the soil and turned into bare rock

become a place in the sea to spread nets

plunder for the nations

never be rebuilt

After Ezekiel we still see Tyre mentioned in the Bible, but we don’t see ANYTHING else about what happens with this prophetic word against the city.

So keep those things in mind. Now, leaving the Bible, let’s look at history. This is all from Britannica and UNESCO.

Just a couple years after this prophecy, Nebuchadnezzar does lay siege against the city and destroys a bunch of it. He tries to take over all of it but isn’t able to.

Then it’s taken over by Persia for about 200 years

Then it’s taken over by Alexander the Great in 332 BC (yeah Alexander the Great was 300 years before Jesus was born!)

Then Egypt takes it over, then Rome, and the list goes on and on

Each of these countries destroyed and looted the city of Tyre until it was a shell of it’s former self.

So that covers the (Slide 2 - 2 bullet points crossed off)

raise up many nations

plunder for the nations

but what about the rest?

Let’s go back to Alexander the Great’s conquest of the city, because that conquest was way more intense than the others. We’ll call him Alex for short.

So Alex comes up to this city and completely destroys the mainland part. He sees the island and decides he wants it too. But taking boats to get all his army over there would be way too difficult, so what does he do?

He completely flattens the city, pushes all of it into the water and makes a land bridge to get to the island. Remember how far that was? This land bridge was 8 football fields long and 2 football fields wide!

So he gets to the island and completely decimates it, I mean he takes every wall, every brick, every things down and wipes it out.

Alex literally changed the maps by doing this. Once he made that land bridge, it turned that island to a peninsula, and it’s been a peninsula ever since.

After Alex’s conquest of the city, it rapidly declines. It’s no longer this huge hub of trade and basically just defaults to fishing since they’re on the Mediterranean coast.

That fulfills the parts of the prophecy about (slide 3 - all but one bullet point crossed off)

city will be completely destroyed

city will be scraped to the soil and turned into bare rock

become a place in the sea to spread nets

But it leaves one part still left

it would never be rebuilt.

So as I mentioned earlier, there is a modern day city of Tyre in Lebanon.

So you might ask, “how could this part of the prophecy be fulfilled?”

Well i’m glad you asked!

[Slide 4 - PICTURE of CITY of TYRE]

So this is a modern day aerial image of Tyre. The big shape is roughly the part that Alex the Great filled in to make his landbridge

The modern day city of tyre sprang up around the ruins of the old site. You can see right in the middle there on the marker, that’s all protected land. It’s considered a World Heritage site so it can’t be built on, renovated, or anything. So the city of Tyre that is there today, is built around the ruins of the City of Tyre that Ezekiel prophesied over.

So everything that was prophesied in the Bible about the city of Tyre, happened and is provable by Britannica, which you may recognize from your schoolwork as a huge educational resource, known for their accurate coverage of people, places, events, and histories.

I mean do you get how crazy that is, this is history that your taught in school, about Alexander the Great’s conquests, proving the Bible true! And this is just one example! There’s so many more that we could dig into.

[keyboard cue]

Closing

So how do you know the Bible is true?

Remember that truth means it’s accurate and lines up with facts and reality

The City of Tyre is just one example of the Biblical texts lining up with what we’re taught in history classes.

And why is this important?

If you want to be able to realize fakes, to see lies that you’re believing, it starts with knowing Jesus. and the best way to do that is through the Bible. Remember the art forgeries and the money? When you KNOW the truth, the lies will stand out as obvious fakes, because they WON’T line up with the reality of Scripture.

So what do you do with all this information?

I encourage you to ask yourself if you believe the Bible’s true

If not, why not? What’s causing you to doubt it? We’d love to talk to you and look at what doubts you have.

If you do believe it’s true, then read it! Know it! So when you see a lie, when you see a fake, you recognize it because it’s not THE truth found in Scripture.

Pray to close.

Link to art forgery story

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/jun/15/how-to-spot-a-perfect-fake-the-worlds-top-art-forgery-detective

Tyre

https://www.britannica.com/place/Tyre

https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/299