The Reliability Of The Bible

Facts We Learned This Week

The Bible means book

The scriptures is translated into over 2000 languages

Thus says the Lord in OT: over 2000

Who copied OT portions: Scribes

Took a bath and put on clean clothes

Counted and recounted the letters

If they made a mistake they restarted over

They didn't acknowledge anyone when they were copying

Used new ink for writing the name God.

The dead sea scrolls were discovered in 1947 and show how well copied the Bible was.

The most loved book of all time.

The best seller

The most translated

One of a kind

Mary Jones saved up for 6 years to get her own Bible.

William Carey left England to translate

How do we know the Bible is true? The Bible proves itself when you read it! The Bible needs nothing outside of itself to prove it. It is self-authenticating. It is the ultimate authority.

How reliable is it’s message then? That’s Peter’s point here. Men were claiming that the message he preached concerning Jesus was a fairy-tale, made up. Peter her is affirming that instead of a fairy tale, that his message was 100% true and 100% reliable.

The Bible is Reliable

This is no myth

myth: a story without basis in fact, a legend.

Example:

The cree legend of wesukechak. This legend is about how wesukechak was cheated by the weasel out of marrying the chief’s. The weasel was supposed to help wesukechak to win the daughter but instead he claimed her for himself. So the weasel to this day “stops and listens and trembles” as if wesukechak is still chasing him.

The Bible is No Myth. It’s based in real actual events.

Instead Peter says, “I was an eye witness.” These were first hand accounts of what men saw and experienced.

Not just one eyewitness but multiple eyewitnesses.

1 Cor 15

English Standard Version Chapter 15

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures,

4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,

5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.

6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.

7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.

8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.

An eyewitness account hold weight in any fair court. They are often used to ascertain what is true in a court trial. It carries credibility especially if accompanied by two or three persons.

Peter Says we saw him with our own eyes!

The Content of Peter’s Message

Reliable for what??

Are you to use the Bible as the textbook for science, mathematics?

Deals with one particular subject!! Jesus!

The Bible isn’t merely a book to teach you how to live or to teach you what is right, but it is a book with one overarching goal, to show you Jesus Christ!

John 5:39 ESV

39 You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me,

The message of the Bible is a reliable record to teach you about God and what he desires from his creatures.

Jesus is the subject of the Bible! NOT YOU

That he is:

God the son: honored with glory and position.

He’s the beloved Son of God that was perfectly pleasing to the father.

Something more reliable

The More Sure Word

The written word is more reliable than my first hand experience.

Application:

We need that Spirit today!

It’s more reliable because it origin is from God!

Inspiration: God breathed. God carried men along in such a way that they were able to write freely and yet were sovereignly guided to write the very words of God!

Methods of Bible Writing

Dictation: John in Revelation

Historical Research (Luke)

Dreams visions, hearing the Lord’s voice, standing in the council of the Lord.

First hand, eye witness testimony preserved through the power of the Spirit.

Ordinary Letter writing (Paul)

God’s providential oversight and direction of the life of each author was such that their personalities, their backgrounds and training, their abilities to evaluate events in the world around them, their access to historical data, their judgment with regard to the accuracy of information, and their individual circumstances when they wrote were all exactly what God wanted them to be, so that when they actually came to the point of putting pen to paper, the words were fully their own words but also fully the words that God wanted them to write, words that God would claim as his own. Gruedum

So it was men writing, but it was God’s word!!! Sovereignty exerted!

Proof: Prophecies of Jesus and the probability

Somewhere between 2 and 400 prophecies were fulfilled by Jesus.

What are the odds??

Professor of mathematics Peter Stoner gave 600 students a math probability problem that would determine the odds for one person fulfilling eight specific prophecies. (This is not the same as flipping a coin eight times in a row and getting heads each time.) First the students calculated the odds of one person fulfilling all the conditions of one specific prophecy, such as being betrayed by a friend for 30 pieces of silver. Then the students did their best to estimate the odds for all of the eight prophecies combined.

The students calculated that the odds against one person fulfilling all eight prophecies are astronomical-one in ten to the 21st power (1021). To illustrate that number, Stoner gave the following example: “First, blanket the entire Earth land mass with silver dollars 120 feet high. Second, specially mark one of those dollars and randomly bury it. Third, ask a person to travel the Earth and select the marked dollar, while blindfolded, from the trillions of other dollars.”¹

Point: We can trust the Bible it is a sure guide.

The Bible is Profitable

“You Do well”

The metaphor of a lamp.

Psalm 119:105 ESV

105 Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

This world is a spiritually dark place. Darkness was pervasive until the invention of the light bulb. You needed a reliable source of light to guide you. Something to guide you and guard you from harm.

It guards you from what is wrong and teaches you what is true.

“I believe in Christianity as I believe that the Sun has risen, not only because I see it but because by it, I see everything else.”

Until the Day Dawns

The coming of Christ will completely illumine us and shine in our hearts.