Why Should We Trust the Bible?
Series: WHY? Answering the Big Questions of Faith
06/22/08 | Tim Schaaf
1. What Is the Bible & How is the Bible Laid Out?
A. The Origin of Scripture
"All Scripture is God- Breathed"
GOD BREATHED=Inspiration
-Not Dictation
-Not Just a godly person writing
- The Holy Spirit working through a person's personality and situations so that every word comes from God.
2 Peter 3:16 "He [Paul] writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction."
B. The Content of the Bible
OT-Foretell and Foreshadow
Pentateuch / Torah = First Five Books
Joshua / Judges / Ruth
1& 2 Samuel, Kings & Chronicles - History of the Kings
Ezra / Nehemiah / Ester = Life in and Returning from Exile
Job/Psalms/Proverbs/Ecclesiastes = Poetry & Wisdom
Prophets - Greater then Minor
4 Gospels-His story from 4 perspectives
Acts-His story continued through the Church
Letters-Christ's glory applied to life
Revelation - Christ sharing God's throne
2. Are the Events Described In the Bible Accurate?
A. The Gospels are the Lynch-Pin
- If the Gospels are accurate and true, then the rest are accurate and true.
- If the Gospels are not accurate and true, then the rest doesn't matter.
B. Reasons to Think the Gospels are Reasonable and True
Eye-Witnesses
1 Cor 15:1-6
Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep.
Luke 1:1-4
Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.
Women as First Eye-Witnesses
Disciples Portrayed as Buffoons
Peter's Denial
Often called faithless
Best Answer: Because God Himself speaks in it.
- We must build our faith on the truthfulness of God
- The Holy Spirit fills our heart with a firm knowledge, and inward "YES", this is true
John Calvin
Let this point therefore stand: that those whom the Holy Spirit has inwardly taught truly rest upon Scripture and that Scripture indeed is self-authenticated ... We seek no proofs, no marks of genuineness upon which our judgement may lean; but we subject our judgement and wit to it as to a thing far beyond any guesswork! This we do, not as persons accustomed to seize upon some unknown thing, which, under closer scrutiny displeases them, but fully conscious that we hold the unassailable truth!
Shocking thought:
- We don't stand as the judge of the Bible
- The Bible, as God's Word, stands over us.
- We believe it is true, because it is, and it is undeniable.
C. What About the Other "Gospels?"
Gospel of Judas opens with Jesus laughing at the disciples for praying before they ate.
But their spirits did not dare to stand before [him], except for Judas Iscariot. He was able to stand before him, but he could not look him in the eyes, and he turned his face away. Judas [said] to him, "I know who you are and where you have come from. You are from the immortal realm of Barbelo. And I am not worthy to utter the name of the one who has sent you." Jesus to Judas: "But you will exceed all of them. For you will sacrifice the man that clothes me."
Gospel of Thomas
Simon Peter said, "Let Mary leave us, for women are not worthy of life." Jesus said, "I myself shall lead her in order to make her male so that she too may become a living spirit resembling you males. For every woman who will make herself male will enter the kingdom of heaven."
Adam Gopnik The New Yorker
[The Gnostic Gospels]...no more challenge the basis of the church's faith than the discovery of a document from the 19th Century written in Ohio and defending King George would be a challenge to the basis of American Democracy."
3. What Is the Purpose of the Bible?
Story Helen Keller "What is Love?"
- "I love Helen"
- "What is love?"
- She drew me close to her and said, "It is here," pointing to my heart, whose beats I was conscious of for the first time. Her words puzzled me very much because I did not then understand anything unless I touched it.
- I smelt the violets in her hand and asked "Is love the sweetness of flowers?"
- No
- Is this not love? - Pointing to the sun
- Puzzled and disappointed - I thought it was strange that my teacher could not show me love.
- Cloudy day, brief showers, suddenly the sun broke through in all its southern splendor
- Miss Sullivan "You cannot touch the clouds, you know; but you feel the rain and know how glad the flowers and the thirsty earth are to have it after a hot day. You cannot touch love either, but you eel the sweetness that it pours into everything. Without love you would not be happy or want to play."
Romans 5:6-11 - You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him! For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
Teaching about salvation through Jesus Christ. (v.15)
The whole Bible focuses on Jesus Christ.
Luke 24:44-49 - the Road to Emmaus.
Story of Moses, Exodus and Passover
Is it about you? - How you can be brave and face the Pharoahs in your life?
No
It shows you that God didn't come to Moses because he was a good man who deserved to be the leader
It says "you all deserve to die because of your sins" "slay a lamb and when the angel of death comes by, you won't have to die for your sins."
Two choices
Its about me ... I have to get this right
Or
Its about Jesus...the Holy God of the Universe put your sins away because Jesus is the lamb of god who takes away the sins of the world. I am God himself come into the world so that you and I can be together for eternity.
Moves from a historical story to a personal encounter with Jesus.
George Mueller.
I saw more clearly than ever, that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was, to have my soul happy in the Lord. The first thing to be concerned about was not, how much I might serve the Lord, how I might glorify the Lord; but how I might get my soul into a happy state, and how my inner man may be nourished. ... I saw that the most important thing I had to do was to give myself to the reading of the Word of God and to meditation on it.
4. Why Do I Believe the Bible?
It Challenges Me and My Culture
It is Honest
It Leads Me to My Greatest Joy
- Its Kept My Marriage Together
- It Helps Me Be a Dad
- It teaches me how to view and use my money
- Its Helped me see the value of Family
- It gives me wisdom on how to deal with Interpersonal Relationships
- Its given me Purpose in Life
- I've found Comfort for the After Life