Sermon Tone Analysis

How can I know the Bible is accurate?

How can we know if the Bible is true?

How do we know the Bible hasn’t been changed?

Maybe it is full of mistakes?

How do we know if people have tampered with the Bible and changed it?

A. Prophecies

Floyd Hamilton, in The Basis of Christian Faith, writes, “Canon Liddon is authority for the statement that there are in the Old Testament 332 distinct predictions which were literally fulfilled in Christ.”

(Hamilton, BCF, 160) J. Barton Payne lists 191 in his Encyclopedia of Biblical Prophecy.

Peter Stoner, in the book Science Speaks, examines the mathematical probabilities that apply to the fulfillment of just 8 of these prophesies.

McDowell, Josh.

Evidence That Demands a Verdict (p.

230).

Thomas Nelson.

Kindle Edition.

the Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem.

He would be preceded by a messenger.

He was to enter Jerusalem on a donkey.

He would be betrayed by a friend and his hands and feet pierced.

His betrayer would be given thirty pieces of silver.

The betrayal money would be thrown into the house of God and used to buy a potter’s field.

He would be silent before his accusers.

His hands and feet would be pierced and he would die accounted among criminals.

McDowell, Josh.

Evidence That Demands a Verdict (p.

231).

Thomas Nelson.

Kindle Edition.

McDowell, Josh.

Evidence That Demands a Verdict (p.

230).

Thomas Nelson.

Kindle Edition.

We find that the chance that any man might have lived down to the present time and fulfilled all eight prophecies is 1 in 1017 [10 to the 17th power).

That would be 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000 (17 zeroes after the one).

In order to help us comprehend this staggering probability, Stoner illustrates it by supposing that] we take 10 (17 power) silver dollars and lay them on the face of Texas.

They will cover all of the state two feet deep.

Now mark one of these silver dollars and stir the whole mass thoroughly, all over the state.

Blindfold a man and tell him that he can travel as far as he wishes, but he must pick up one silver dollar and say that this is the right one.

What chance would he have of getting the right one?

Just the same chance that the prophets would have had of writing these eight prophecies and having them all come true in any one man, from their day to the present time, providing they wrote them according to their own wisdom.

Lets look at a few of them:

McDowell, Josh.

Evidence That Demands a Verdict (p.

231).

Thomas Nelson.

Kindle Edition.

and

McDowell, Josh.

Evidence That Demands a Verdict (p.

231).

Thomas Nelson.

Kindle Edition.

B) Historical Evidence

McDowell, Josh.

Evidence That Demands a Verdict (p.

54).

Thomas Nelson.

Kindle Edition.

“all told, probably between fifteen and twenty thousand texts of the ancient versions of the New Testament remain.

McDowell, Josh.

Evidence That Demands a Verdict (pp.

51-52).

Thomas Nelson.

Kindle Edition.

5800 ancient Greek manuscripts

Church Fathers Cite the New Testament.

Some of the these guys were taught by the original disciples of Jesus.

so extensive are these citations that if all other sources for our knowledge of the text of the New Testament were destroyed, they would be sufficient alone for the reconstruction of practically the entire New Testament.

McDowell, Josh.

Evidence That Demands a Verdict (p.

63).

Thomas Nelson.

Kindle Edition.

McDowell, Josh.

Evidence That Demands a Verdict (p.

63).

Thomas Nelson.

Kindle Edition.

C) Bible does not contradict itself.

For example of Matthew and Acts gave conflicting versions of the death of Judas Iscariot.

Matthew relates that Judas died by hanging himself.

But Acts says that Judas fell headlong in a field, and “he burst open in the middle and all his entrails gushed out”

Judas must have hanged himself off the side of a cliff, the rope gave way, and he fell headlong into the field below.

It would be the only way a fall into a field could burst open a body.

the traditional site of Judas’s death: a field at the bottom of a cliff outside Jerusalem.

McDowell, Josh.

Evidence That Demands a Verdict (p.

70).

Thomas Nelson.

Kindle Edition.

McDowell, Josh.

Evidence That Demands a Verdict (p.

70).

Thomas Nelson.

Kindle Edition.

D) Archaeology proves the Bible is accurate

No one fact in the Bible has been proven wrong by archaeology.

Not one archaeologist has proven that the Bible is wrong in the facts it gives about cities, kings, and customs.

in 1947 Dead Sea Scrolls were found in a cave in Isreal that dated back over 100 years before Christ.

It contained all the Old Testament books except one.

There was no difference found between the scrolls and the Bible we have today.

E) The Bible says it is God’s Word

McDowell, Josh.

Evidence That Demands a Verdict (p.

229).

Thomas Nelson.

Kindle Edition.

F) Jesus said the Bible is God’s Word

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