Is The
Bible Accurate?
Steve W. Reeves
INTRODUCTION:
A. I
was recently talking with my youngest daughter.
She is 27 years old and works for the
logistics
department of Urban Outfitters in High
Point,
North Carolina. In her office are several
young ladies
who are Muslims. As she has approached the
subject of faith with them they have
challenged her, “How do you know you are
right?” “How do you know the Bible is
true?” they have asked.
B. You
and I are living in a time of great social upheaval.
1. We live in a very pluralistic world.
Mass communication coupled with the instant
access of information on the internet
and the popularity of social networking has
given rise to a proliferation of
ideologies.
2. With so many world-views and options to
choose from many people have have
chosen the path of relativism.
Relativism is the view that one choice is just as good
as the other and what works for me might
not work for you.
3. LaGard Smith has written, “Never in our
lifetime has the challenge of preaching
been so great. In this relativistic,
non-judgmental age the message of sin and
salvation
couldn’t be more foreign to our thinking.”
C. In
this pluralistic age what are we going to do with the Bible?
1. Is there any difference between the
Bible and the Koran?
2. Which is more valid, the Bible or the
Book of Mormon?
3. The message of the Bible is that it
alone is the inspired word of God.
a. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 – “All Scripture is
inspired by God and profitable for teaching,
for reproof, for correction, for
training in righteousness; 17 so that the man of
God may be adequate, equipped for
every good work.”
b. 2 Peter 1:20-21 – “But know this
first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a
matter of one’s own interpretation, 21 for no
prophecy was ever made by an act of
human will, but men moved by the
Holy Spirit spoke from God.”
c. Galatians 1:8-9 – “But
even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you
a gospel contrary to what we have
preached to you, he is to be accursed! 9 As
we have said before, so I say again
now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel
contrary to what you received, he is
to be accursed!”
D.
What are the implications for us if the Bible is not true?
1. If you take the Bible and its influence out
of culture, you would eliminate much of
the music, art and, architecture of the
past 2,000 years.
2. The details of Jesus’ life and teachings
would be lost.
3. The hope of the resurrection would be
gone.
4. The church would not exist. Everything
we do in worship would be meaningless.
Our presence would be foolishness.
5. You are here because you believe something
about this book.
E. If
you were asked, as my daughter was, “How do you know the Bible is accurate,”
what would you say?
I. THE CLAIM OF THE BIBLE.
A. A good place to begin your investigation
of the Bible is to notice what it says about
itself. Throughout the Bible the writers
made the assertion that it is inspired by God.
1.
Immediately before Paul wrote that all Scripture is inspired by God he told
Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:14-15, “You,
however, continue in the things you have
learned and become convinced of,
knowing from whom you have learned them,
15 and that from
childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to
give you the wisdom that leads to salvation
through faith which is in Christ
Jesus.”
B. No one held a higher view of Scripture
than Jesus.
1. Often in his teaching he would say,
“Have you not heard?” or “Have you not
read?”
2. Jesus saw Himself as the fulfillment
of the Old Testament scriptures.
a. In Matthew 5:17 He said, “Do not
think that I came to destroy the Law or the
Prophets. I did not come to
destroy but to fulfill.”
b. In Luke 4:21 after reading a
portion of Scripture from Isa. 61:1-2 to
the people
gathered at the Synagogue in his
hometown of Nazareth He said, “Today this
scripture is fulfilled in your
hearing.”
c. When Jesus was tempted by Satan
in Matthew 4:1- 11 He referred back to
Scripture in each instance.
1.) It is written man shall not
live by bread alone – Deut. 8:3.
2.) It is written you shall not
tempt the Lord your God – Deut. 6:16.
3.) It is written you shall worship the Lord your
God and Him only shall you
serve – Deut. 10:28.
C. The Bible makes the astonishing claim
to be inspired by God Himself.
II. THE HONESTY OF THE BIBLE
A. These men who were inspired by God to
write the Bible were not writing for
personal profit. They certainly were not
writing for the sake of popularity. They
gained absolutely nothing from a
personal standpoint for writing these things.
B. The Bible was written with eyewitness
testimony.
1. If you are testifying in court what
do the attorneys want to know? Do they want to
know what you’ve heard in the
break-room at work or at the beauty shop or
coffee shop? They want to know “what
did you see?” They want eyewitness
testimony.
2. There are scores of details in the Bible
written by eyewitnesses and
verified through secular sources such
as archeology. These writers were telling
the truth.
C. The writers of the Bible wrote with
such honesty that they included their failures
and successes.
1. When you submit a resume’ do you tell
about your failures? You present yourself
in the best light possible.
2.
Writers of the Bible were honest. They wrote about Abraham lying, David
committing adultery, Peter denying
Christ. The apostles are presented as those
who stumbled along not understanding
Jesus. Peter sinks after he walks on
water. Peter, James and John fall
asleep in the garden. The Bible says the
apostles argued with each other.
When the pressure was on and Jesus was
crucified they all fled in fear
except for John. These are things you
would not make up.
3. Who discovered the empty tomb
according to the Bible? Do you realize that in
the Jewish culture of the first
century no mention would have been made of the
women?
4. The writers were honest enough to
tell us not that everyone who heard Jesus
followed Him. Some rejected Him like
the rich young ruler (Mt. 19) of the crowd in
John 6. Some hated Him. Thankfully,
many loved Him.
III. THE
EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY
A. As you consider the accuracy of the
Bible consider how it has been passed along
to us.
1. Let’s begin with the Old Testament.
a. By the time Jesus came to earth
the Old Testament canon consisting of thirty-
nine books had been accepted and
translated out of their original Hebrew
and Aramaic into the Greek
language. This version was known as the
Septuagint.
b. When the Dead Sea scrolls were
found (1947) they predated any existing Old
Testament manuscripts. Some of
them date back to 300 years before Christ.
That’s just one hundred years
after the last of the Old Testament books were
written. What they revealed when
they were compared to later Hebrew
manuscripts was that there were
no significant differences. There was nothing
that changed the meaning of a
text.
2.
The New Testament.
a. With the exception of the book of
Revelation the books of the New Testament
were all written before 70 a.d.
b. As the church was still in its
early years there were several criteria used to
determine if a book should be
considered authoritative.
1.) Apostolic. They had to have
been written by an apostle or by someone who
had close connection to the
apostles (such as Mark and Luke).
2.) This assured that all of the
New Testament was based on eye-witness
testimony.
B. Of all books from the ancient world we
have more copies of the New Testament or
parts of the New Testament than the
others combined.
1. There are twenty manuscripts from
Tacitus who is considered the most reliable
ancient Roman historian.
2. There are 600 ancient copies of Homer’s
Iliad.
3. The New Testament either full
manuscripts or portions – 24,633! Most of these
dating back to within 50 to 150
years of the original writing.
C. Time does not permit me to talk about
the huge amount of archaeological
evidence that has proven the Bible to be
true.
IV. THERE HAS NEVER BEEN A BOOK LIKE THE
BIBLE
A. The Bible has been the bestselling, most
published and most translated book in all
history.
It has been read by more people than any other book. According to the
Guinness World Records, the Bible is the
best-selling book of all time with over 5
billion copies sold.
B.
Can you think of another book that has survived as many attacks as the Bible?
1.
People laugh at it, mock it, scorn it, ridicule it, doubt it and attempt to
destroy it
and it continues to thrive.
2.
Last week in the small community of Hector, Arkansas, a house and its contents
were totally destroyed by fire.
Everything was a complete loss except two Bibles.
The covers had been burned and the glue
that bound them had been melted but
not a word was lost from the text. This
is indicative of the history of the Bible.
a. Up until the time of Constantine
Christianity was not a legal religion in the
Roman Empire.
b. Of Diocletian (284-316), the ruler
immediately preceding Constantine,
Eusebius, the historian said,
"royal edicts were published everywhere,
commanding that the churches be leveled to the ground and the
Scriptures
destroyed by fire" (Church
History, Book VIII, Ch. 1). Diocletian ordered that if
one had a copy of the Scriptures
and did not surrender it to be burned, they
would be killed if it were
discovered,.If anyone knew of one who had a copy of
the Scriptures and did not report
it they would be killed. Albert Henry Newman
in his Manual of Church
History said, "Multitudes hastened
to defy the
horrible tortures and refused with their latest breath to surrender the
Scriptures
or in any way to compromise
themselves" (Newman, Church History, p. 169).
3. Voltaire, the French Philosopher, was an
atheist. He once predicted that within
one hundred years of his life (he
died in 1798) the Bible would have been swept
out of existence. After his death
his home was used as a book depository for the
Geneva Bible Society. People have
forgotten Voltaire. They do not forget the
Bible.
V. WHAT SHOULD YOU DO?
A. Do not accept what people say about the
Bible. Investigate for yourself. If you
were to ask me what I think about the
book, “The Choice” by Nicholas Sparks which
is currently at Number 4 on the NY Times
Best Seller’s list I would have to say, “I
don’t know.” I haven’t read it. I have
heard it’s good. I have read a Nicholas Sparks
book. I know it has been made into a
movie but I’ve never read it.
1. A lot of people who have formed
opinions about the Bible have never read the
Bible.
2.
I know a man who did not believe the Bible. He had heard that there were
contradictions in the Bible He started reading. When he ran across
something
that sounded like a contradiction he
wrote it down. He read more and soon
understood what he thought had been
a contradiction. By the time he finished
reading the Bible he was convinced.
His name is Durley McLarty, father of Dr.
Bruce McLarty.
3. Kyle Butt of Apologetics Press in
Montgomery, AL, wrote. “After the Bible has
been put under the high-powered
microscope of criticism, and dissected by the
razor-sharp scalpel of supposed
contradictions, it rises from the surgery with no
scratches or scars, none the worse
for wear.”
4. Can you think of another book written
over 1500 years aby about 40 men in
different parts of the world? They
had different occupations, different languages,
different backgrounds. You can’t get
two people in the same room to write a
volume like this without
contractions.
B. Be diligent in your pursuit of
knowledge.
1. You will not know everything about
the Bible overnight or in a week or a month or
a year.
2. I was speaking to Norma Snook this
past week. She told me that for years she
has read through the book of
Proverbs once a month. She said, “Every time I
read it I see something I hadn’t
seen before.” That’s why the writer of Hebrews
said, “or the word of God is living
and active and sharper than any two-edged
sword, and piercing as far as the
division of soul and spirit, of both joints and
marrow, and able to judge the
thoughts and intentions of the heart.”
CONCLUSION;
A. I
want to conclude with a song this morning: Join me in the singing of “Ancient
Words” by Michael W. Smith.
Holy words long preserved for
our walk in this world,
They resound with God's own
heart Oh, let the Ancient words impart.
Words of Life, words of Hope Give
us strength, help us cope
In this world, where e'er we
roam Ancient words will guide us Home.
CHORUS:
Ancient words ever true Changing
me, and changing you.
B. Are
you living your life according to those “Ancient Words” today?
