Is The Bible God's Word?

We’re continuing in our series Seeking Truth in a World of Counterfeits. We’ve asked the question of what is truth, and we determined that truth had to exist outside of us. If we were going to have truth, if we were going to have a right or wrong, if we were going to have morals, the source had to be outside of humanity. But what was this moral giver?

So we then asked,

Does God Exist?

And we discussed the vastness of our universe, the immeasurable complexity of our own bodies and we wondered how did this all start. We took a step back and realized that somewhere, at sometime, someone or something had to set all of this into motion. There had to be an instigator and we wondered, if this instigator, “God” exists, can God be known? Our conclusion was yes, that God has revealed Himself in the Creation. And so now we’re going to look at two ways that God has made Himself known, beginning this week with what is often referred to as God’s Word, the Bible.

What is the Bible?

It is popular today to bash the Bible and its legitimacy. It’s just a bunch of men’s opinions.It’s a collection of writings. Let’s look at what the Bible is and how it is unique from any other book we have.

Written over about a 1500 year period

Written by more than forty authors from every walk of life, including kings, military leaders, peasants, philosophers, fishermen, tax collectors, poets, musicians, statesmen, scholars, and shepherds

Written in different places:

By Moses in wilderness

By Jeremiah in a dungeon

By Daniel on a hillside & in a palace

By Paul inside prison walls

By Luke while traveling

By John in exile

Written on three continents

Asia

Africa

Europe

Written in three languages

Hebrew

Aramaic

Greek

Written in a wide variety of literary styles including:

poetry

history

song

romance

didactic treatise

personal correspondence

biography/autobiography

and more...

The Bible addresses hundreds of controversial subjects. Yet from Genesis through Revelation, these writers addressed them with an amazing degree of harmony.

In spite of its diversity, the Bible presents a single unfolding story: God’s redemption of human beings

I would challenge anyone to find any collection with such diversity and yet maintain such cohesion.

Geisler and Nix put it this way: “The ‘Paradise Lost’ of Genesis becomes the ‘Paradise Regained’ of Revelation. Whereas the gate to the tree of life is closed in Genesis, it is opened forevermore in Revelation”

McDowell, J. (2006). Evidence for christianity (p. 23). Thomas Nelson Publishers.

Evidence for Christianity 1A. Unique in Its Continuity

Finally, and most important, among all the people described in the Bible, the leading character throughout is the one, true, living God made known through Jesus Christ

Is the Bible God’s Word?

Well, the Bible claims to be:

2 Timothy 3:16–17 NIV

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Hold on, so the Bible claims to be God’s Word to us, how do we know that it is true? After all, we are seeking truth in a world of counterfeits.

The Bible sets for itself an incredibly high standard.

Deuteronomy 18:22 (ESV)

when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the Lord has not spoken;

Think about that. If one is to make a prophecy in the name of the Lord it must come to pass for the person to truly be considered a prophet. There is not room given for exceptions. So, how does the Bible live up to this incredibly high standard?

Norman Geisler and William Nix in their book, A General Introduction to the Bible, put it this way:

Evidence for Christianity 1B. Prophecy

No unconditional prophecy of the Bible about events to the present day has gone unfulfilled. Hundreds of predictions, some of them given hundreds of years in advance, have been literally fulfilled.

Not one, not a dozen, but hundreds of prophecies made and fulfilled exactly as they had been foretold. And this is not the rewriting of history, we can show the prophecies when they were written and see when those prophecies come true.

And we can’t even predict the weather!

Fulfilled prophecy is a strong indication of the unique, divine authority of the Bible. There is definitely a level of credibility from the sheer number of prophecies fulfilled that you don’t get from any other book.

Evidence for Christianity 6A. Unique in Its Influence on Literature

In his now classic Anatomy of Criticism, world-renowned literary critic Northrop Frye observed that “Western literature has been more influenced by the Bible than any other book” (Frye, AC, 14).

Evidence for Christianity 6A. Unique in Its Influence on Literature

“Western literature has been more influenced by the Bible than any other book”

Evidence for Christianity 6A. Unique in Its Influence on Literature

Twenty-five years later, Frye wrote: “I soon realized that a student of English literature who does not know the Bible does not understand a good deal of what is going on in what he reads: The most conscientious student will be continually misconstruing the implications, even the meaning” (Frye, GC, xii).

I had a professor in college who basically said the same thing.

So why would we consider the Bible God’s Word?

Again, it claims to be:

2 Timothy 3:16–17 ESV

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

It constantly points us back to God-

Proverbs 3:5–6 ESV

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

Psalm 119:105 ESV

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

Joshua was commanded to not let the Law depart from him:

Joshua 1:8 ESV

This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.

A mentor of mine when asked, “How can you know the Bible is true?”, responded with, “I used to have a long answer for this with all kinds of evidence, now I just say, “Read the Bible and do what it says, and you’ll see.”

Now that means read it as it is written, not just picking up a passage here and there.

In his classic book, What’s Wrong with the World?”, G.K. Chesterton wrote: “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.”

Too many self professed “Bible believing” Christians struggling with issues today don’t seem to view the Bible as a reliable source for answers to those issues. In a recent survey only about half responded that they would consult the Bible when dealing with a difficult issue.

How about you?

With all the evidence of the Bible ‘s credibility and authority, with all the support of it being God’s Word to us, how often do you read God’s Word?

Do you put it into practice?

James 1:22–23 ESV

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror.

Our God still speaks. God speaks through His Word that we have in the Bible. God speaks and reveals himself through his creation. How are we responding?

We asked the question

Can God Be Known?

The answer is a definitive YES! In God’s Word we read of God’s witness, of his plan to redeem the world. Geisler and Nix put it this way:

Evidence for Christianity 1A. Unique in Its Continuity

“The ‘Paradise Lost’ of Genesis becomes the ‘Paradise Regained’ of Revelation. Whereas the gate to the tree of life is closed in Genesis, it is opened forevermore in Revelation”

The fact is that the unifying thread from sin and condemnation to a redemption to a life of complete transformation and eternity with our Creator.

Imagine yourself as a young lover. Your beloved pens you a letter of compassion, sharing with with you their love for you and the lengths to which they have gone and will go for you. Would you leave such a letter unread? That in my mind is the essence of what we have in what we call our Bible. So, I leave you with these words from Augustine,

Take up and read.

Where to start? There are lots of ways to read your Bible. I think one of the most important thing is to read it. All of it.

You might start at the beginning and read it cover to cover. Or perhaps you want to start by reading the Gospels.However you choose to do it, the important thing is to do it.

Now I want to be clear, you’re not going to be less loved by God for not having read the Bible. However, you will be missing out on much of what God has for you. In your faith you will be living by second hand information given by your favorite book, devotional, or preacher.

Summer is a time many people take up a good book. Why not take up the Good Book. One of my favorite ways to read the Bible is a 90 day read through, cover to cover. I like it because its short enough that I can commit to it, and I’m always surprised by the connections I’m able to make because it hasn’t been 6 months since I read Genesis, when I’m reading say…Ezra. It takes between 45 minutes to an hour for me, and I’m not a particularly fast reader.

However you do it, I want to encourage you. If you need help, let’s talk. I don’t want it to be hard to get started, and I want to encourage you in your journey.

Next week, we’ll be talking more about the God’s Word, as God’s Word comes to us and dwells among us.

Is the Bible God’s Word - YES! After 40+ years of studying it, I really believe it is.

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