Untitled Sermon

Can We Trust the Bible?

The Doctrine of Inerrancy

What Do the Skeptics Say?

You Can’t Trust People

There are Many Versions

Contradictions

Science Disproves It

Even Christians Can’t Agree

“I Choose to Reject It”

What Does the Bible Say?

When God Speaks, It’s Perfect

Psalm 12:6 ESV

The words of the Lord are pure words, like silver refined in a furnace on the ground, purified seven times.

Psalm 19:7 ESV

The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple;

Proverbs 30:5 ESV

Every word of God proves true; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.

God is the Sole Author

2 Timothy 3:16 ESV

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,

2 Peter 1:21 ESV

For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

Jeremiah 1:12 ESV

Then the Lord said to me, “You have seen well, for I am watching over my word to perform it.”

God’s Word is Truth

John 17:17 ESV

Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.

John 1:1 ESV

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

John 14:6 ESV

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Psalm 119:160 ESV

The sum of your word is truth, and every one of your righteous rules endures forever.

1 Kings 8:56 ESV

“Blessed be the Lord who has given rest to his people Israel, according to all that he promised. Not one word has failed of all his good promise, which he spoke by Moses his servant.

God Cannot Lie

Numbers 23:19 ESV

God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?

Titus 1:2 ESV

in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began

Hebrews 6:18 ESV

so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.

The Scriptures Directly Quote Each Other

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What Does Church History Say?

Irenaeus, 130-202 AD

“[We are] most properly assured that the Scriptures are indeed perfect, since they were spoken by the Word of God and His Spirit … all Scripture, which has been given to us by God, shall be found by us perfectly consistent …” (Against Heresies, II, xxviii).

Clement of Rome, 35-90 AD

Clement of Rome (fl. c.90-100): “Look carefully into the Scriptures, which are the true utterances of the Holy Spirit. Observe that nothing of an unjust or counterfeit character is written in them” (I Clement, xlv).

Justin Martyr, 100-165 AD

And Trypho said, “Being shaken by so many Scriptures, I know not what to say about the Scripture which Isaiah writes, in which God says that He gives not His glory to another, speaking thus ‘I am the Lord God; this is my name; my glory will I not give to another, nor my virtues.’ ”

And I answered, “If you spoke these words, Trypho, and then kept silence in simplicity and with no ill intent, neither repeating what goes before nor adding what comes after, you must be forgiven; but if [you have done so] because you imagined that you could throw doubt on the passage, in order that I might say the Scriptures contradicted each other, you have erred. But I shall not venture to suppose or to say such a thing; and if a Scripture which appears to be of such a kind be brought forward, and if there be a pretext [for saying] that it is contrary [to some other], since I am entirely convinced that no Scripture contradicts another, I shall admit rather that I do not understand what is recorded, and shall strive to persuade those who imagine that the Scriptures are contradictory, to be rather of the same opinion as myself. With what intent, then, you have brought forward the difficulty, God knows. (Dialogue with Trypho 65, in ANF 1:230)

Augustine, 354-340 AD

“Lord, surely your scripture is true, for you, being truthful and Truth itself, have produced it … ‘O man, what my scripture says, I say’” (Confessions, XIII, xxix

Reformation Confessions

Westminister Confession 1646

“The whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for His own glory, man’s salvation, faith and life, is either expressly set down in Scripture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture: unto which nothing at any time is to be added, whether by new revelations of the Spirit, or traditions of men

1689

Is this Really THAT Important?

Without Inerrancy, There is No Absolute Truth

Inerrancy is Why We Doctrine to Begin With

How Do We Know We Have the Bible?

Next Study: Preservation and Translation