The Bible: Can I Trust It?
There are three types of evidence that, as Josh McDowell puts it, "Demands a Verdict."
The first of these is External Evidence: evidence outside the Bible itself; evidence that has nothing to do with what's in the Bible, just general evidence for the authority of Scripture and the fact that it is a unique, supernatural book.
The first of External Evidence is: The Bible is pre-eminent among all literature.
It is pre-eminent in its circulation
It is read by more people in more languages than any other book in human history by far. Over 300 times, almost 350 times, the Bible has been translated completely into different languages. No other book comes close to that. Portions of the Bible have been translated into more than 2,000 different languages. In fact, people have gone out repeatedly to places where the language isn't even known and learned the language for the express purpose of translating the Bible into that language. Just the numbers of Bibles cause it to be pre-eminent in its circulation.
Even 30 years ago, the British and Foreign Bible Society, in order to meet its demands, had to publish 32,876 every day. That’s 1,369 an hour, 22 a minute, 1 copy of the Bible every 3 seconds, and that was only a part of all the Bibles that were being printed.
In 1998, annually, the Gideons were placing and distributing more than 45 million Bibles. This averages 1 million copies every 8 days or 86 copies a minute.
Since 1815-1975, 2.5 BILLION Bibles have been printed and distributed.
There's not a book that comes close to that. So we see the Bible is pre-eminent in circulation.
The Bible is pre-eminent in it's influence.
No other book comes close to influencing human history like the Bible. More books have been written about the Bible, more books quote the Bible. It has a greater effect on the development of human language. More books have been written to assist in the study of the Bible.
Bernard Rohm, the theologian says, "From the Apostolic Fathers dating 95 AD to modern times there is one great literary river streaming from the Bible." There are Bible dictionaries, Bible encyclopedias, Bible lexicons and atlases, geography's, just as a starter. There are also bibliographies around theology, religious education, hymnology, missions, the Biblical languages, Biblical history, religious biographies, religious devotional works, commentaries, philosophy of religion, evidence, apologetics, and on and on. An endless stream of writing, all in response to people facing up to and dealing with the Book God wrote – the Bible.
It's amazing when you think about it. You can't really avoid it. The Bible is pre-eminent in it's influence. But you might say, "Now wait a minute. There are other books written about God. What about the other religious writings? What about all those Eastern books? What about the Koran?"
Lots of people have written books about God, But God only wrote one book. It's called The Bible.
It's pre-eminent among literature, it's pre-eminent in its circulation, it's pre-eminent in its influence, and pre-eminent among all religious writings.
It's preservation against attack.
God has preserved the Bible from the attack of men and time.
It goes without saying that the Bible is ever and always under attack. There are many people, men and women who have given themselves through out human history who have tried to wipe God's Word from the face of the earth. Always, always, always failing. No book as been so burned and banned and outlawed as the Bible. The Bible could not still exist today were it not God's Book and had He not miraculously preserved it and kept it. For so many have spent themselves so inexhaustibly to try to erase it's influence in human history.
One example: (and this is the one I like the best) The noted French infidel, Voltaire who gave his life in France for the eradication of all Christianity was quoted as saying (he died in 1778), "Within 100 years of my death, Christianity will be swept from existence and will have passed into history." But what happened? Voltaire has passed into history while the circulation of the Bible continues to increase, carrying blessing where ever it goes. Concerning the boast of Voltaire on the extinction of Christianity and God's Word, only 50 years after his death, the Geneva Bible Society purchased Voltaire's house in France, used his own printing press to produce stacks of Bibles. That is just an irony of human history. Please understand, the Bible has been preserved by Almighty God from the attack of man and time.
That is why this book is so unique. This is God's Book and God wrote it and has preserved it.
Compare it to William Shakespeare. "In regard to the New Testament there are just a few, just a handful of passages where we wonder whether that was in the original. There are some very, very little things like word changes and word spelling that one could say, "Which is right, which is not." Not one of those variant readings, (they are called), not one of them changes any principle doctrine of the Christian faith compared with the well known writings of Shakespeare. Did you know, there are whole large gaps, whole chapters and whole acts missing out of the works of Shakespeare? But no one ever tells you that. You go watch the play and they have filled in whole sections because the manuscript evidence for Shakespeare is so sparse that in many places we have no idea what he really wrote. And that's just a few hundred years ago. But you go back hundreds, and hundreds, and hundreds of years before that and the evidence for the Bible is like the Sears Tower and the evidence for Shakespeare's work is like a three story walk-up. You have absolutely no reason, none, to wander whether you hold in your hands a pure, preserved copy of God's Word.
Here is an interesting attack on the trustworthiness of the Bible. One of the places they use to ridicule a lot was the book of Isaiah. They use to say, "All that stuff in Isaiah that talks about Jesus, that was really written after Jesus was born. Isaiah 53, ‘all we like sheep have gone astray, He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our inequities,’ all those prophecies, somebody wrote those after Jesus was born and slipped it in."
Well, listen to this. For years the oldest copy of the Old Testament that we had was dated 900 A.D. and it was a concern, at least for some.
Back in 1947 there was this little shepherd boy who threw a stone up into a cave and he heard this crash and he went up to check to see what it was. Then a whole bunch of people went up to see what it was. You know what they found? They found the Dead Sea Scrolls; 40,000 manuscripts, 1000 years older than they had ever seen before. Well the papers, even before they studied them, the newspapers in the late 40's were writing, "what are we going to find out about the Old Testament” and all the guys who for years had been criticizing the Old Testament saying that the text was greatly corrupted, and it isn't what it use to be and it was changed over time, they pulled out the book of Isaiah, that was one of the things they found in the Dead Sea Scrolls, an entire copy of the Book of Isaiah, a 1000 years older than any copy they ever had before. This is what they found. "Of the 166 words in Isaiah 53, there are only 17 letters in question." That, after 1000 years of copying, and copying, and re-copying 10 of these letters are simply a matter of spelling which does not affect the sense. 4 more letters are minor stylistic changes. The remaining 3 letters comprise only one word, the word "light" which is added in verse 11 which doesn't affect the meaning of the text. Thus in one chapter of 166 words there is only one word of 3 letters in question after 1000 years transmission and this word does not significantly change the meaning of the passage. God has preserved His Word. God Almighty wrote a Book. And as men were copying and re-copying, He was guiding their pens and making sure, like no other book in human history by far, that we could hold in our hands the uncorrupted, unadulterated, uncompromising Word of God.
The truths of Christianity and the support for God's Word have satisfied the greatest minds of Christian history for 2000 years and the people of God need to stop backing up and stop wondering if they have a reliable document.
Now let's talk about Internal Evidence.
Internal Evidence: evidence from within the Bible itself.
The amazing agreement we see in the Bible.
For the sake of time this morning let me just say, there is amazing agreement when you consider there were 40 authors over a period of 1500 years that wrote the books contained in the Holy Bible which you hold in your hand this morning.
Let's talk just a moment about fulfilled prophecy. All through the Old Testament are prophecies, things that were written before they happened whether it was moments, days, years or even centuries. No other book has that. Consider with me for just a moment just the prophecies concerning Jesus Christ. Do you realize, for example, that Isaiah 9 tells us that the promised child would establish an eternal kingdom? Isaiah 7 says that He would be born of a virgin. Ps. 72 says that the promised one would be worshipped by shepherds and kings. Micah 5 says that the promised one would be born in Bethlehem. Some might say that this is just luck, lucky guesses. Well, hang on for a second. There are over 61 major prophecies concerning the life of Jesus Christ that were written from 500 – 4000 years before He was born. Now, just take 7 or 8 of those. Scientists, unbelieving scientists tell us that that statistical probability of just 7 or 8 of those prophecies coming true in one person is 1 in 10 to the power of 17, or 1 in 100,000 trillion. That is a big number. Josh McDowell describes it this way. "Take the state of Texas, cover it in silver dollars 2 feet deep, put a blindfold on a person, put a red dot on one of the silver dollars and ask him to wade out into the state of Texas and lay his hand out on the right silver dollar." You say, “How much time do I get?" Hey, there is absolutely no possibility that all of the prophecies in regard to the Christ Child could have come true to the letter as they did apart from the truth that I bring you this morning.
God wrote a book. There is external evidence for it. There's internal evidence for it. Now, let's talk about experiential evidence as we close
Experiential Evidence:
How the Bible that impacts us, and the proof that this is not just another book.
Think about your own life. Some people wouldn't understand this, but you folks are going to understand this. You have seen this to be true. If this is God's book, then this book is going to impact me and influence me in a way that is different than any other book. True or false? This isn't going to be like reading Reader's Digest. This book is going to make an impact if this book was written by Almighty God. Now notice this, first of all and don't you agree?
The Word of God is gripping. There is something about the Scriptures that when you read it, it gets down into your heart, it just penetrates you. Hebrew 4:15 “The Word of God is living and powerful. It is sharper than any two edged sword. It's able to pierce to the dividing asunder soul and spirit. It's a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." Do you know what that means? It means that when I pick up this book and read it, it knows what I am thinking and it's going after me about stuff that I need to be gone after about. If I'm not telling the truth, the Bible grips me about it. If I am not loving my spouse the way that I should, the Bible grips me about it. If I'm not living in dependence of God, the Bible grips me about it. If I have a secret sin, I don't want to read the Bible, because when I do, it grips me. True or false? That's because it is God's Book. The Bible is gripping. But notice this also.
Next we see that the Bible is comforting. That is a totally different subject. The Bible is comforting, isn't it? You would have to agree.
Now, how would you like to write a book like that? Could you write a book that would touch every person that opens it with an open heart? Could you write a book that would lift the burdens of every sincere person who opened its pages? Could you do that? No! And no man has ever lived that could do that. It's God's Book. It is comforting. But also notice this.
The Bible is convicting. Isn't it? The Bible is so convicting. It convicts us of our sins, doesn't it? Since we have all experienced that, I won’t spend more time on that this morning.
The story is told by John McArthur about a man that came into his church so weighted down with guilt and so burdened and he said, "I need your help. I've got this heavy cloud over my life. I'm an abortionist. I kill babies for a living and I can't shake the weight that I am bearing." And John said, "Here read the Gospel of John." So he picked it up, read it for a whole week. John said, "and figure out who Jesus is."
He comes back into the office a week later, sits down in front of John with a big smile on his face and says, “I know who He is. He is God's Son. And he begins to parrot back to John the thesis of the Gospel of John. He's God's Son and He came into this world and died for our sins and he rose again and if we place our faith in Him, and trust in Him we can have our sins forgiven."
John said, "That's not in the Gospel of John." He said, "No, I got so excited I read the book of Romans too.
Isn't that great? Listen, that's God's Word. God wrote a book and it is griping, it is comforting, and it's convicting and lastly, it’s freeing. How many people here have been set free by the truth in God's Word? Millions We believe in this book.
Conclusion:
I trust I have shared enough information with you in this short article to motivate you to do more research if this hasn't been enough to convince you.
1.
For those of you who may have not given serious consideration to the seriousness of the claims of God, I trust that you realize what the title to Josh McDowell’s book says, “Evidence That Demands A Verdict. Promise me, promise yourself this morning that today will make the beginning of more serious investigation into this book that God wrote, The Bible: yes you can trust it!
2.For those who have already put great trust and confidence in the Bible, I trust your faith will be even stronger than it has been in the past and that you will be able to say with even greater confidence, God wrote a book. It is the Holy Bible and I will trust it even more so than I have in the past.
Application:
Read the Bible. Apply the Bible. Commit to spending more time reading and studying it.
(This article is about 4 pages printed)
