Concrete - What We Believe and Why

The Bible (Bibliology)

In this new series, I want to dive into the essential doctrine of the Christian Faith. These are things that are not up for debate, they are clearly stated in the Word of God and therefore believers must have unity on these issues. But why do we need to know doctrine? Because what we believe determines how we behave. If you and I dont believe the right things about God, then we will not be able to live the way God expects us to live. So we begin today with the only place we can begin… the Bible!

The Bible is the Foundation for all we believe and practice as Christians. Therefore, it is important to know the history of the Bible and how we can know that it is the Word of God. Everything that we will go over in this series is based on what the Bible has to say about those things, so therefore, we must know why the Bible has authority. We must know WHY we can trust that the Bible is the Word of God.

There will come a time in your life, if it hasnt already, where the Devil and the World will try to question the authority of Scripture. It was the very first tactic Satan used in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3). You will have friends, family, teachers, professors, and others who will question why you believe what a book says. They will claim that it is not perfect, that it is outdated, that it is full of contradictions, that it was written by man, that it is a book of fairytales and stories, etc. So the question will then become, “Why do I believe the Bible is the Word of God?” We need to be Concrete on the answer to that question.

What is the Bible? The finished, written Word of God which reveals: His Person, His Work, and His will for mankind.

finished = completed. Nothing else needs to be added to it

Written Word of God = God revealing Himself through the written Word

His Person = Who He is

His Work = What He does

His Will for Mankind = His desires for us

So how do we know the Bible is True/Actually the Word of God?

I. The Inspiration of Scripture

2 Timothy 3:16; 1 Peter 1:10-11; 2 Peter 1:20-21.

The Greek word for “inspired” means “breathed”. So the literal translation would be that the Bible is “God-breathed”. It was literally breathed out by God

Its Definition - The miracle by which the Holy Spirit guided the writers to record the Word of God without error, without omission, and without exaggeration

The object of Inspiration was not the man but the writings; the writers were not inspired, the scriptures were.

Its Extent - (1 Corinthians 2:12-13) How far does it go?

Verbal - It extends to the very words used

Every word of scripture is a God-chosen word (Galatians 3:16) “ Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.”

There are NO incidentals/coincidences in the Bible. Every Word, sentence, phrase was chosen ON purpose and FOR a purpose.

“there are no luxuries in the Bible, only necessities”

Plenary - it extends to all parts (history, biography, genealogy, etc)

The Bible either stands together or it falls together, there are not any parts that are not inspired

Example: those who claim that the Genesis account of Creation are just allegory or exaggerations of what actually happened. If this is true, then how can any other portions of Scripture be trusted? Its either ALL the Word of God or NONE of it is!

II. The Evidence Of Its Authenticity

What evidence then do we have that the Bible truly is the Word of God? Anyone can claim that their book/writing is from the Lord, but where is the evidence for that claim? Lets examine

The Testimony of the Bible Itself

The Old Testament alone uses the phrase “saith the Lord” or “Thus saith the Lord” over 3,800 times

It claims to be indestructible (Matthew 24:35 “35 Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.” )

It claims to be incorruptible (1 Peter 1:23 “23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.” )

It claims to be indispensable - you cant live without it (Matthew 5:18 “18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.”)(Matthew 4:4 “4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” )

It claims to be inexhaustable - you can never stop learning from it (Psalm 92:5 “5 O Lord, how great are thy works! And thy thoughts are very deep.”)

Some may claim that the Bible itself saying that it has authority is not a legitimate claim to its actual authority, but no other book on earth makes the claims that the Bible makes.

There will be people who will ask you to prove the existence of God without using the Bible, but dont give into that line of thinking! The moment you concede, you have already lost the argument because you are removing the foundation of your belief system. That would be like telling that person “prove to me God doesnt exist by ONLY using the Bible” or like saying “prove to me that Newton’s law of Thermodynamics is true but you cant use anything youve ever read in a textbook or read in an article, etc”

The Testimony of the Unity of the Text

The Bible has a unified doctrine. It was written by 40 penmen with different levels of education and different classes of society, separated by 1,500 miles, sprawled out over 1,600 years… and yet their message is one. It is not contradictory to each other!

All of Scripture points to the same God and points to the same story of Redemption.

The Gospel Records are a prime example. Some would claim that the fact that the gospel records do not state all the same facts means that it contradicts itself, but this is untrue. The 4 gospels are 4 different perspectives of the same events, therefore there will be different details shared each time

eyewitnesses to a car accident

The Testimony of History and Archaeology

All of the historical accounts of the Bible have been proven to be true.

Archaeologists continue to discover more and more evidence that prove that different events of the Bible

Egyptian Cart Wheels at the bottom of the Red Sea

Fossils of sea creatures found at the tops of mountains

The possible discovery of Noah’s Ark in Turkey

The Testimony of Scientific Accuracy

Many claim that Science contradicts God’s Word, but in reality Science actually confirms it! The Bible has been ahead of science since the beginning of time

For centuries, Scientists believed the Earth was flat, but the Bible has always taught that the Earth is round (Isaiah 40:22 “22 It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, And the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; That stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, And spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in:”)

For centuries, Scientists believed the earth was being held up by something, but Job, The Bible’s oldest book says otherwise (Job 26:7 “7 He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, And hangeth the earth upon nothing.”)

The Atom is made up of vibrations (Genesis 1)

The Testimony of Miraculous Preservation

There have been many rulers, nations, and countries that have tried to ban the Bible and even destroy it, but it has stood for centuries and is still the best selling book of all time

Even with no printing press, the time and effort that was put into copying scripture and distributing it is truly amazing.

Every Generation has had access to the Word of God due to God’s protection and preservation of it and due to God’s people working to protect it and propagate it.

The Testimony of Influence on Lives and Nations

Our nation itself was founded upon principles found in the Scriptures.

55 out of 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence were regular attenders of a Christian Church.

Common Law is founded upon Scripture especially Leviticus 19.

For example, early Christians founded the first hospitals, orphanages, and feeding programs, challenging the prevailing view of the time that it was better to let the sick, poor, and orphans die.

The Testimony of Fulfilled Prophecy

A prophecy is pre-written history. It is more than just a prediction of future events. It is the telling of those future events as FACTS before they ever happen.

Isaiah 45:1–3 “1 Thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, Whose right hand I have holden, To subdue nations before him; And I will loose the loins of kings, To open before him the two leaved gates; And the gates shall not be shut; 2 I will go before thee, And make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of brass, And cut in sunder the bars of iron: 3 And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, And hidden riches of secret places, That thou mayest know that I, the Lord, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel.” - Written 150 years before Cyrus was even born

Isaiah’s prophecies of Christ were written roughly 700 years before Christ was born

There are an estimated 1,800 prophecies in the Bible and around 1,000 of those have been fulfilled. The remaining ones have to do specifically with end times and last days, which have not yet occured

The Testimony of Jesus Christ Himself

Jesus Christ has affirmed some of the most criticized portions of the Bible

Noah (Matthew 24:37–38 “37 But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. 38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark,”)

Jonah (Matthew 12:40 “40 For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”)

He constantly quoted it (Matthew 4)

Matthew 24:35 “35 Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.”

Conclusion

With all of these truths, we can be certain that we hold in our hands the very truth of the Word of God. We can be confident that it is inerrant, infallible, and indestructible!

We can be concrete in our basing our entire lives and eternity on the words found in this marvelous book!