This week we are addressing
the fourth of these eight common questions that those who are skeptical ask as
a challenge to God and the Christian faith, which is “Why
should we believe in the Bible?” Or more specifically, “Why should we believe
that the Bible is the word of God?”
Yesterday, we began to look at several different arguments
for you to consider when it comes to the claim that the Bible is the word of
God. First, we considered the claim
behind the claim that the Bible is the word of God. After all, to claim that
the Bible is the word of God is to claim that God is personal, isn’t it? And
because of that reality it is not at all unreasonable to think that God would
not desire to speak to us as well as part of that relationship.
The next argument we considered was the Bible’s own
claims. The Bible
is not a book. Instead the Bible is a collection of letters that were written
by more than 40 authors from every walk of life
over a 1,600 year span that have been preserved and collected together in what
we refer to today as the Bible. These letters were written in three different
languages over the span of over 60 generations and are divided up into two main
sections, which we refer to as the Old and New Testament.
The Old Testament, which records events of
God’s activity in history from creation of the universe until the events
surrounding the birth of Jesus, is comprised of letters written by prophets,
who individuals who were messengers from God who were sent from God to deliver
God’s message to humanity. Similarly, the New Testament, which records events
of God’s activity in history from the events surrounding the birth of Jesus
through the birth and expansion of the early church, is comprised of letters
written by “Apostles and Prophets.” These Apostles and prophets were individuals
who had received specific spiritual gifts that enabled them to communicate
God’s message to humanity and help lay the foundation for God’s new movement in
history called the church.
God spoke through these human authors
throughout history to communicate His message to humanity throughout history. We
see this dynamic process most clearly in the gospels, which are the accounts of
Jesus life that are found in the Bible. One of the best ways to summarize this
idea of inspiration is to think of inspiration as the process by which God
worked to ensure that what God says the Bible
says and what the Bible says God says.
We then considered the argument surrounding the
character and content of the letters that make up the Bible. The letters that make up the Bible consist of a wide variety of
literary genre. Yet in spite of the amazing diversity of genre, writers,
languages, and time, these letters fit together to proclaim in a single united
voice a grand story. And that grand story can be summarized as the revealing of
God’s glory through His activity in the creation, pursuit, and rescue of
rebellious humanity.
Today, let's consider how Jesus talked about
the letters that make up the Bible. You see, when Jesus talked about the
letters that make up the Bible, He spoke of them as being the very word of God
that carried the very authority of God. We see this reality in a section of an
account of Jesus life in the Bible called the gospel of Matthew. Here is what Jesus had to say about the Old
Testament in Matthew 5:17-19:
"Do not think that I came to abolish the Law
or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. "For truly I
say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke
shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished. "Whoever then annuls
one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least
in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
Here we see Jesus
explain that He did not come to earth in order to get rid of the Old Testament.
Instead, Jesus came to earth to fulfill all the promises and the predictions
that were made in the Old Testament. Jesus came to earth to demonstrate that the
Old Testament was about Him and pointed to Him. Jesus came to earth to follow
and show that the Old Testament was true and trustworthy. Jesus came to earth
to follow and show that the Old Testament was to be followed.
Well, what about
Paul? Did he believe that the Scriptures were the word of God and were
authoritative and without error? Let’s look at what Paul stated in Galatians
3:16:
Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed.
He does not say, "And to seeds," as referring to many, but rather
to one, "And to your seed," that is, Christ.
Here we see that
Paul took the reality that Scripture was without error to the very letter when
He wrote to the Galatians about who was the fulfillment of God’ promise to
Abraham. “It is not seeds, but seed”.
Well what about
Peter. Did Peter think that what Paul wrote was the word of God? Did Peter think that what Paul wrote was authoritative
and without error? This is what Peter said about Paul’s writings in 2 Peter
3:15-16:
and
regard the patience of our Lord as salvation;
just as
also our beloved brother Paul, according
to the wisdom
given him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking
in them
of these things, in which are some things hard to
understand, which the
untaught and unstable distort, as
they do also the rest of the
Scriptures, to their own
destruction.
Now I don’t’ know
about you, but I find this very encouraging. I mean if Peter read some of
Paul’s letters and walked away saying “Wow this is pretty deep stuff. Some of
this is pretty hard to understand” then that gives us the freedom to feel the
same way. But did you notice how Peter referred to Paul’s letters? Did you
notice that Peter placed Paul’s writings as the word of God and without error?
Did you notice that Peter referred to Paul’s letters as the rest of the
Scriptures?
Peter wrote his
letters in 64 A.D., which was within 35 years of Jesus death and resurrection.
Now some of you may be thinking, or have heard others say “Well what about all
the contradictions in the Bible, what about the differences in some of the
stories of Jesus in the gospels?”
Just like the
witnesses to a car accident, the letters that make up the Bible record events
from the perspectives of the writers observing a scene in the life of Jesus.
Now while each writer may describe different aspects of the scene they had
witnessed, everything that they write about that scene is without error.
Now a natural
objection that could be raised here is “Well Dave, aren’t you just making a
circular argument? Aren’t you just using the Bible to prove the Bible? If that
objection resonates in your mind, I just want to let you know that is a fair objection.
And here would be my
response: No, I am not making a circular argument because I am not assuming
that the Bible is the word of God to make the case that Jesus believed that the
Bible is the word of God. I am not making a circular argument because I am not
assuming that the Bible is the word of God to make the case that Paul, Peter,
and the writers of the gospels believed that the Bible is the word of God.
So the question “Is the Bible the word of
God?” ultimately leads us back to the question that we addressed last week,
which is “Who is Jesus? Is Jesus the Son of God?” because the answer to that
question should also answer this question.
Next, let’s take a minute to consider how the
letters that make up the Bible speak to the world we live in. What we discover
when we read the letters that make up the Bible is that its message is timeless
and timely. On the one hand, the message
of the letters that make up the Bible are timeless. The truths contained in
these letters transcend time.
At the same time, the message of the letters that
make up the Bible are timely. The truths contained in these letters speak to
the times and circumstances that we experience in life. In other words, the letters that make up the
Bible contain a message that reflects reality and matches what we experience
and observe about human nature.
You see, the letters that make up the Bible make
sense of some of the most basic and most mysterious aspects of the human
experience. For example, why are human beings’ individuals of immense dignity
and at the same time individuals who can engage in such depravity? When we read
the letters that make up the Bible, we discover that the reason that this is
the case is because human beings have been created in the image of God but have
rebelled and rejected God. When we read the letters that make up the Bible,
these letters expose and explain ourselves, our hopes, dreams, and frustrations
like nowhere else.
Friday, we will look at two additional arguments
surrounding the claim that the Bible is the word of God...
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