Sermonette: Trusting the Bible

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Craig Sablich
Given 08-Apr-23; 17 minutes 2023-04-08

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When I think of the task of developing an idea into a message, what often influences my thoughts is hearing someone asking questions about the reality of God. Sometimes you can hear the sincerity in their emotions and what appears to be a desire to understand. I find myself thinking deeply about their words and this idea of "how would I respond?" challenges my thoughts and my effort to study. Another way to look at this is to ask, "Can I respond?" Have I put in the necessary work to understand God's truth well enough on a given topic to be able to respond, to give an answer that is both accurate and organized in thought. Because, if I am not able to do that, then for me, it is time to get busy and dig—dig out the answers from God's Word.

Let me give you an example. One day I was scrolling through YouTube and came across a video of a young woman on a college campus who had no shortage of comments about trusting the Bible. But in her voice, you could hear some passion, an honest desire to know the answers. She sincerely wanted to know how she can find a way to trust the Bible. She asked, "What is it about this ancient book that I should even care what it says? So, what? I'm supposed to believe that some men wrote the Bible like thousands of years ago and these men wrote about things that happened all the way back to the first people. How would they even begin to know anything about what happened back then? Oh, but I'm supposed to believe some kind of invisible spirit person told him what to write. I mean, this book is centuries old and probably has a lot of mistakes in it anyways, which by the way, there are like 1,000 versions. How can I trust the people who wrote the Bible?"

So brethren, can you put yourself in a situation where this woman is asking you how can she trust the Bible? We sit in God's school each and every Sabbath. Hopefully, we are applying focused study to His truth. We are being trained to teach this woman and many others just like her who really desires to know. If you walked out these doors this afternoon and sat down with her, would you be able to explain in a clear and compassionate, orderly manner, step-by-step, fact-by-fact, why you believe in the Bible? What kind of grade would you give yourself? Would you get an A or a B, maybe a B- or a C? Are we prepared to explain that the Bible is the actual written Word of the Creator of all that is? Should any of us be content with the grade of a C- in this area?

But brethren, we are required by our calling to share the evidence of our faith with those who ask these questions. So I ask, how would you respond? I think the question of how to accomplish this task must be answered by us individually because we all learn and so teach in many different ways. My way would be much different than yours or anyone else's.

Today, I want to share with you some ideas of important facts you can use as an outline for this conversation with someone.

First, this woman asked, "How can we know the Bible is accurate and hasn't been rewritten, twisted in some way by all these different religions?"

Well, we can answer this with the facts. History reveals the Old Testament was gathered together and preserved from the period of about 50 BC to around 100 AD. It is documented that while copying the pages described would go so far as to count the number of words in each individual book, count the number of times a single letter appeared, and even pointing out the middle letter within each book, the middle letter in the first five books of Moses, and even the middle letter in the entire Old Testament, the historical evidence from the Dead Sea scrolls, which dated to the first century BC proved to be word-for-word identical with the book you have in your lap. These scrolls provided solid evidence that the text of the Old Testament has not changed in more than 2,000 years.

The same kind of detail was put into translating and duplicating the New Testament. There are more manuscripts of the New Testament available than any other book from the ancient world. There are over 4,500 Greek manuscripts that are used to compile the King James Bible that have been examined and confirmed they are 95% accurate to the original manuscripts.

But the woman questioned, "Do we even know if the Bible is complete?" Well, there are some in certain religious groups who say the Bible must include the seven books called the Apocrypha. The Catholic Bible contains them along with a few others. So why does not the King James Bible?

Again, we can talk about the facts. The Jews were responsible for preserving the Old Testament and they flat out reject these books as writings inspired by God's Holy Spirit. This decision happened centuries before the Catholic Church came on the scene. God gives us a clue on how the writings of the New Testament were chosen, recorded in Isaiah8:16 where it reads, "Bind up the testimony, seal the law among My disciples." So we have a bit of evidence that the four gospels, all of the letters of Paul, along with the epistles of the apostles, including Revelation, have been gathered up, bound together, and continued to circulate among the early churches. By the time the apostle John died, no other books were included. By the year 170 AD, it is documented that most of the churches were in a complete agreement with the books that are presented in the New Testament. The Catholic Church did not complete their version of the Bible until the year 390 AD.

The woman goes on to claim the Bible is too hard to read. And besides that, it contradicts itself. Now, let us think about this one. Please join me in the book of Isaiah chapter 55. If we believe in this all-powerful sovereign God, whose mind is so far above humans, do you reckon He has the capability to inspire His chosen men to write the words just the way He intends. He tells us,

Isaiah 55:8 "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways," says the Lord. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts."

Brethren, God clearly inspired His book to be written in a style that intentionally appears to be riddled with errors, discrepancies, and contradictions. This method provides an opportunity for a negative person to create excuses, hiding the truth from himself by giving up and not searching the subject out. God's Word is not intended to be understood by those with rebellious attitudes. To understand His instructions it has to be on His terms. He demands that a person make the right choices, apply themselves an honest study, not looking to disprove His word, but to prove it by living it. That is the attitude God desires. God had His Word written just as he designed it: here a little, there a little"; perfect to accomplish His goals, to teach His system of living to those who choose to walk with Him on His path.

Next, the woman speaks of her confusion because of these so-called intellectual, scientific types who cannot even agree on what truth is. You know, it has taken centuries for mankind to develop their form of science in an attempt to understand the origins of life. Within many intellectual groups there are those who believe that man's sciences provide the only true knowledge of the origins of the universe. Yet, through the Bible, God reveals scientific facts thousands of years prior to man discovering and understanding how the universe functions.

Please join me in turning to Job chapter 26, verse 7 where it reads,

Job 26:7 He stretches out the north over empty space; He hangs the earth on nothing. He binds up the water in His thick clouds, yet the cloud are not broken under it.

Right here, God reveals the earth is suspended in space like a floating ball, that clouds contain water. And then He speaks of the shape of the earth. In Isaiah 40, verse 22 where He tells us,

Isaiah 40:22 It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in.

Brethren, even with all the evidence and photographs from space, there are still to this day people who believe in a flat earth.

Another scientific fact that God has revealed is in Leviticus 17:11, "For the life of the flesh is in the blood." This was written some 3,500 years ago, but it has only been 300 years since science discovered that the body is fed with life-giving oxygen by the blood as it circulates throughout the body. God gives a pretty good description of these scientists in Jeremiah.

Jeremiah 4:22 "For My people are foolish, they have not known Me. They are silly children, and they have no understanding. They are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge."

Now, one of the things the woman did not consider is the evidence prophecy provides, establishing even more confidence in the validity of the Bible. No other book on the face of the earth contains such remarkable prophetic material. Human efforts to predict the future cannot even come close—not even the famous Nostradamus. The Bible is full of a wide variety of predictions. All the way from the very beginning of time up to the complete fulfillment of God's plan.

Please turn to the book of Isaiah chapter 41. I want you to listen to this challenge God sends out to any man or other so-called gods.

Isaiah 41:21-24 "Present your case," says the Lord. "Bring forth your strong reasons," says the King of Jacob. "Let them bring forth and show us what will happen; let them show the former things, what they were, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them; or declare to us things to come. Show the things that are are to come hereafter, that we may know that you are gods; yes, do good or do evil, that we may be dismayed and see it together. Indeed you are nothing, and your work is nothing; He who chooses you is an abomination."

Brethren, we all witnessed this actually occur right before our eyes. The ancient Mayan calendar predicted the end of the world, that was supposed to take place in the year 2012. The whole world was on edge watching with anticipation of what would happen. And yet the world continues as before! God inspired men to write prophecies down so that man would be able to prove and recognize the truth of His power. God clearly tells us that what He has prophesied will come to pass.

Isaiah 46:9-10 "Remember the former things of old, for I am God and there is no other; I am Go, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done, saying, 'My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure.'"

There are so many examples of God's power. I do not have the time to go through all the truth here. There is the prophecy of Daniel telling of the world-ruling empires coming on the scene and the timing of the arrival of the Messiah. Jeremiah speaks about the captivity of Judah and the prophecy of Cyrus the Great, who would become king of Persia. In addition, there are over 200 prophecies predicting the arrival and the impact the Messiah would have centuries from the time of the predictions. Each and every one was fulfilled just as predicted. Only the God of creation could have provided these men with the inspiration to write prophecy about these events.

Now, one other thing the woman mentioned was the confusion over so many different religions. They all claim their ancient documents prove their system dates back to the very beginning of time. There have been more books written on the subject of man's purpose than can be counted. All of them have experts attesting to the accuracy and validity that their religious documents teach the truth and they are the only true source of knowledge. Islam has the Koran, Hinduism has the Vedas, Buddhism has the Pali Tripitaka, Judaism has the Torah, and Christianity has the Bible. All of these books claim to contain divine knowledge for life.

But when we consider all these points we just went through, putting these documents to the test of accuracy, completeness, purpose and intent, scientific, historical, and archaeological evidence, along with prophecy, there is only one teaching that stands out above all the rest: this book is the Holy Bible.

Now, even with this evidence, there is one primary fact that this woman failed to mention that is critical to trusting the Bible" faith. Faith is the gift of God to those who choose to do the hard work of digging out the truth from His Book just as it was intended. Brethren, I cannot think of any more important subject that we could possibly face than being able to speak with confidence about the authority of the truth contained in the words of God Almighty. Within the pages of His written Word is the foundation of everything we believe about the way of life we are sacrificing everything for.

I hope this message will inspire you to sit down and really think about this topic. Do the homework of organizing your thoughts and develop a plan to lay out the evidence of your faith so that you are always prepared to respond to give an answer of why you believe the Bible is the written Word of the Creator of the universe. The apostle Peter teaches,

I Peter 3:15 But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear.

In closing, I want to bring to your attention a few resources from the CGG [www.cgg.org] website that can give you a jump start in digging out the truth on this topic. A sermon titled "Forging the Canon," given in February, 2008 by Richard Ritenbaugh; a booklet titled The Proof of The Bible by Herbert W. Armstrong; a sermon titled "What Happened Between the Testaments," given in November, 2003 by Martin Collins; and one other sermon titled "Bible Difficulties by Design," given in the year 2000 by Martin Collins. These are just a few of the many resources available on this topic.

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