Why You Can Believe The Bible

Going back to the States, and we will have been gone just right out a month. So it has been a long trip and we are growing weary, but it has been a fruitful time here and we're very grateful, very grateful to the Lord for the opportunities that he's provided. Tonight, I have an opportunity to address an issue that I think is of utmost importance. I believe that tonight we're going to deal with answering the most important question for any Christian to answer. Now, as I say that, for those in the room who are Christians, you're probably thinking that, well, I don't know. The most important question is probably you know, what must I do to be saved? Or maybe the most important question is whatever fill in the blank. But once you've answered that question, there's another question that's going to be asked, and that question is going to have to do with the authority upon which you base your answer, And so ultimately you're going to have to answer the question, why the Bible? Why do you choose to believe the Bible? Why the Bible above other books? Excuse me, sorry, why the Bible above other books? Why the Bible instead of other books? Because ultimately everybody has their own set of beliefs. Everybody has their own set of books. Everybody ascribes various authority to these books. So that's a question that we need to answer. It's a question that people are right to ask. If you're here tonight and you're not a Christian, you're right to ask this question. Your right to want to know the answer to this question. It is the critical point. This is the crux of the matter. Why the Bible? Because everything else that we discuss, everything else that you discussed with a Christian person is going to hinge upon that question, why the Bible? And so I want us to answer that question. As we begin answer that question, I'm reminded of a group of students that I spoke to at university in the United States. It was one of the Ivy League schools. It was at Dartmouth, and I was there sharing for a couple of days, and we talked about these and other sort of apologetic type issues, and this is one of the questions that was raised, and people wanted to know sort of, you know, how to deal with this and how to respond to this. Everywhere that I go, Christians, Christians young and old, want to know how to deal with this issue and how to respond to this issue, and so I did. I shared with the students there, you know, how to deal with this and how to answer this, and shared with them why it was important tell them the story of you know, the professor on the college campus in a lecture hall, probably not unlike this one. There are those professors who are eager to engage Christian students, especially early in their college experience, because there are some people who feel like it is their duty, it is their obligation to disabuse college students of the myths that they have come to believe, and they see Christianity and a belief in the Bible as one of those myths. And so the professors usually have an encounter that goes something like this, there's an issue that's raised in class, and there's a student Christian student who disagrees, who takes issue with whatever it is has been raised. And so the student raises their hand and they have a problem, and they say, I have a problem. Here's my problem with that. That's wrong. It's wrong because of you know whatever. So here's issue A. And then here's their objection to issue A. I object to it because it's wrong. Okay, you object to it because it's wrong, but based on what authority. And then the student will say, well, the Bible says now, the professor starts to salivate. It's not to get good right now. The Bible says, okay, great. So then the question comes why the Bible as opposed to any other authority. Why the Bible are not Koran? Why the Bible are not the teachings are Confucius or the Mahirishi Maheshiogi or the guy who lives down the road. Why not, you know? And then the student is going to have to answer that question. And unfortunately, for most Christians, there are one of a couple of answers that we are accustomed to giving. We'll start with the worst, and the worst one is this, Well, I deleat the Bible because that's the way I was raised. At this point, it's hard for the professor not to grin, just openly in front of everyone. He hopes this is the answer that's come, you know, because it's how you were raised. It's interesting that you believe this and yet your authority is the Bible, because that's how you were raised. And yet you sit here on a college campus asking me to teach you things. Evidently your Bible is not all that sufficient, is it. If your Bible was capable of giving you all this knowledge, why do you need me? Secondly, if your parents who raised you were capable of giving you all the answers, then why is it that you need me? Thirdly, have you not already learned things about what your parents were wrong? Thank you very much. So your parents are fallible, you know, by the time you get to a room like this, you know your parents are fallible. You know they told you things just weren't true. You know, you go out in the cold and they tell you put a hat on, you know, so that you don't get a cold, and then you learn that the cold is a virus and you can't catch it through the top of your head. And you're like, you know that just lied to me. You know, stop looking like that or your face will get stuck like that. Oh no, it won't. You know, all these things that they told you, they just weren't true. But this Bible thing you believe that Now all of a sudden, we're in trouble. Here's the other thing. You believe your Bible, but other people were raised to believe other holy books. So ultimately, if all you have is that's the way I was raised, then you and the Muslim and the Buddhist and whomever else are ultimately just engaged in a you know, mature version of my dad's bigger than your dad, right, I mean, ultimately, that's how I was raised. But fine, this is how I was raised. You know, Well, my parents raised me better than your parents raised you. That's all we got. Well, there's another possible response, And in this day and age, we really like this response because we believe that that experienced trumps all. You know, you can't argue with a person's experience, and so we'll say something like, well, well, well I tried it and it changed my life. Good for you. That's awesome. You tried it and it changed your life, because you're the only person who's ever tried anything and it's changed their life. Right, And maybe he'll tell you a story. Tell your story about a guy who was from the United States. He was raised born and raised in the Midwest, part of a large family. My mother had mental problems, father was murdered when he was young. He ended up having to go to Boston to live with his oldest sister. But there. When he was in Boston, he ran in to a crowd that was quite unsavory. And having run into this crowd that was quite unsavory, he became quite unsavory, and before too long he found himself in prison in Massachusetts. In prison in Massachusetts, there's some men who approached him about his need for his life to be changed. They approached him about this Messiah that he needed to meet and encounter and to whom he needed to bow the knee. But he couldn't. He simply could not. Until one night in his cell, he had a personal, vivid encounter with this Messiah and he bowed the knee. His entire life changed. He became a model prisoner, ended up getting out of prison early, became one of the most famous preachers in the United States. There are streets named after him to this day. He was responsible personally for opening over one hundred houses of worship. His name was Malcolm X. His messiah, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, whom he later came to realize was a fraud. So he left the Nation of Islam, actually became an Orthodox Muslim, and then the Nation of Islam assassinated him. So he had an experience. It changed his life and he was wrong, And by the end of his life he knew he was wrong. That encounter in his cell in prison was fraudulent, and yet he based everything on it. Or how about the guy who went to alcoholics anonymous, and you know, he's going through these twelve steps and he gets to I believe what is probably step three or so, and he had to declare a higher power. He didn't want any of the religions. But there's this light that comes on and off outside his room, you know, every night and every morning, and he just says, for grins and giggles, that's going to be my higher power. The light that goes on and off every evening outside of his room. He hasn't had a drink in over a year, which means that according to your logic, his light has as much authority as your Bible because he tried it and it changed his life. Well, I know that look so of me all to saying, Okay, you took my two best answers. I'm hoping you to give you another one, and I will. I'll give you the answer that I gave to that group there at Dartmouth, and how to deal with situations like this and specifically with them in dealing with the situation with a professor. Got an email about a week later, and a young lady who was at that meeting, she emailed me and she said, it happened. It happened. It happened just like you said it would happened. Were they're in class. It was a biology class. They're bringing up something, they're talking about, some evolutionary stuff, and I just I don't know. Next thing, I knew, my hand was in the air, and I said something, and he goes, you know, why do you object to this? And I said the Bible, And you know, she goes, I knew it didn't happen, but I could see him salivating in my mind, just like you said. You know, his eyes just got all big. And then he just questioned me, you know, why do you believe the Bible? And so I just gave him the answer that you gave. So she looked at her professor and she said, I choose to believe the Bible because it's a reliable collection of historical documents written by eyewitnesses during the lifetime of other eyewitnesses. They report supernatural events that took place in fulfillment specific prophecies and claim that their writings are divine rather than human in origin. And so the professor said, I'll have to give back to you. Gentlemen up here, says can you write that down for us? No, but I'll do you one better. I'll teach it to you tonight. Okay, all right, but I'll be even one better than that. I'll show you where it came from. If you have your Bibles, you can open to Second Peter chapter one. If you don't have your Bible, look on with someone Second Peter chapter one, Second Peter Chapter one. I know some people are already upset, Yeah, because they're doing well. You can't use the Bible to prove the Bible. That's circular reasoning. My goal here is not to prove the Bible. My goal here is to answer the question. The question is why I choose to believe the Bible. Okay, I'm not here to prove the Bible. I'm not here to defend the Bible. I agree with Charles Spurgeon. I would no more defend the Bible than I would defend a lion. You don't defend a lion, you just let him loose. He'll defend himself. Amen, we went and saw some lions today. They didn't need any defending. Okay, So I'm not I'm not here to defend the Bible. I'm here to answer that question. I'm here. I'm here to explain to you why I choose to believe the Bible, and the answer to that question, for me resides in the Bible itself. Now, why would I appeal to the Bible in this way? Because there is no higher authority than the Bible. If there is no See, if I were to appeal to another authority, I would be conceding the fact that there's a higher authority than the Bible. So this might be a problem in any other area and any other field. However, I'm making any argument that this is the highest authority. Therefore, by definition, I cannot appeal to another authority. Okay, all right. Second Peter, Chapter one, beginning of verse sixteen, Peter writes, and again he's responding. Notice he's responding to questions and or accusations about the authority of the scriptures. For we did not follow cleverly devised myths. When we may known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty, for when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was born to him by the majestic glory. This is my beloved son, with whom I'm well pleased. We ourselves heard this very voice born from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain. And we have something more sure, the prophetic word, to which you do well to pay attention, as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of scripture comes from someone's own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man. But men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. So there's Peter's response. Now, it is this from this response that I derived the answer that I gave to you. So I'll give it to you step by step, because every point here is important. First, it's a reliable collection of historical documents. Can you say that with me? It's a reliable collection of historical documents. So yet again, it's a reliable collection of historical documents. One more time. It's a reliable collection of historical documents. This is important. It's important that it's reliable. It's important that it's a collection. It's important that it's historical. All of these things are important that we have a collection of historical documents. Now, the Bible is unlike many other holy books in that the Bible is actually a collection. You don't have just one individual who says that he heard from God and everybody has to listen to him. It is actually a collection. The Bible was written on three different continents, Asia, Africa, and Europe. The Bible was written in three different languages, mainly Hebrew and Greek, with a little bit of Aramaic. The Bible was written by over forty authors from multiple walks of life. We have people who were kings and generals, people who were fishermen, you know, tax collectors. We have people from doctors, historians. We have people from all walks of life, over forty different authors from all sort of walks of life who give us sixty six volumes. The sixty six volumes cover hundreds of various subjects. They were written over a period of more than fifteen hundred years. Now, let me recap three continents, three languages, more than forty authors, hundreds of subjects and topics, written over a period of fifteen hundred years. This is a reliable collection of historical documents. It is not just one individual making a claim. This is incredibly important. Oftentimes we don't think about the Bible in this way, you know, we just think about the book that we have. You know, we don't comprehend that all of this came together in order to give us the Bible. Okay, And this actually adds to the credibility of the Bible, the fact that it is a rely a collection of historical documents. Listen to this from Luke's Gospel. Luke was a physician and an historian and doctor. Luke writes chapter one, verse one of his Gospel, inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the Word have delivered them to us, it seemed good to me, also, having followed all these things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you. Most excellent theophilis that you may have blind faith in what I know that you may have certainty concerning the things that you've been taught. Here's what's interesting. Luke was not an eyewitness. He doesn't claim to be an eyewitness. He's a historian who claims to have traced the information from the eyewitnesses. A lot of people say, you know, why do we have to have four god Gospels? Well, because all of these gospels are telling the same story from different perspectives, and the fact that this man was not an eyewitness but collected information from individuals who were eyewitnesses. Some of his chief eyewitnesses, interestingly enough, happened to be female eyewitnesses. That's why we get much many things from Mary's perspective, because Mary and Peter were two of the main eyewitnesses that he relied upon. But anyway, he gets information from eyewitnesses, and he openly says that he wasn't an eyewitness, but that he collected the information from the eyewitnesses, and that he has followed everything closely for some time past and he wanted to write an orderly account. Here's another reason why we have multiple gospels. Luke's goal is history and chronology. Okay, Luke's goal is I want to give you the things as they happened in order. John's goal is evangelism. John says clearly, I write these things so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ. So his goal is evangelism. That's so John orders his gospel around seven major signs. That's the way he organizes his gospel. Mark's gospel. Mark's gospel is the shortest of the gospels. Mark is about brevity, and Mark his favorite you know, one of his favorite words is you know, straightaway and straight away and immediately okay, and he's just boom boom boom boom boom, you know, and it is brief, just the facts, man. That's Mart's goal. Matthew is writing to a Jewish audience, and he wants to demonstrate that Jesus is the promised Jewish Messiah. So Matthew's gospel emphasizes these things. That's why, for example, he starts with a genealogy. Okay, so Matthew's pointing backwards. That's why we have this gospel written away. It's written fifth time. I talk more about that, but just know that the idea here is that we have a reliable collection of historical documents, Luke is saying, here and know uncertain terms. This is an historical document. Notice what Peter says. We did not follow cleverly devised myths when we may known to you the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, these weren't myths. These weren't a collection of myths. These were facts. But notice the next phrase. But we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. Here's the second part. We have a reliable collection of historical documents written by eyewitnesses. Can you add that with me? Let's say it together. A reliable collection of historical documents written by eyewitnesses. One more time, a reliable collection of historical documents written by eyewitnesses. He says, we were eyewitnesses. Go with me, if you will over to First John, First John. A couple of pages over First John. We wanted what happens is First John, chapter one, beginning at verse one. Wat's what he says here. Notice his choice of words, that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and have touched with our hands. Concerning the Word of life. Think you're trying to make a point there. I don't know. Maybe verse two will help. The life was made manifest, and we have seen it and testified to it, and proclaimed to you the eternal life which was with the Father and was made manifest to us. How about verse three this autumn it's not a Maybe give us some idea of what he's aiming at here, right, that which we have seen and heard, we proclaim to you. Also we've seen, we've heard, we've touched folks. We have a reliable collection of historical documents written by eyewitnesses. This is important. These weren't people who later on had a vision. These were people who were eyewitnesses to events. And we're not just talking about New Testament, New Testament and Old Testament. We're talking about eyewitnesses to events who wrote about events that they saw themselves. So we have a reliable collection of historical documents. That's good. But we have a reliable collection of historical documents written by eyewitnesses. That's even better. But they're written during the lifetime of other eyewitnesses. It's had that one. We have a reliable collection historical documents written by eyewitnesses during the lifetime of other eyewitnesses. One more time, we have a reliable collection of historical documents written by eyewitnesses during the lifetime of other eyewitnesses. Come on now together, we have a reliable collection of historical documents written by eyewitnesses during the lifetime of other eyewitnesses. That is incredibly important. There are a lot of people who don't like that, don't believe that, who argue with that. They want to date the Bible late, and so on and so forth. But there's a huge problem there. Go with me to first Printhians. Now we're going to go backwards. First Printheens, chapter fifteen. One Printiens, Chapter fifteen, Paul writing here, she's very important. Now I would remind you, brothers of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you're being saved. If you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you've believed in vain, for I delivered to you, as a first importance, what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephus. That would be Peter. Then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then do all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared to me. Also stop, if you do the math, there are at least three hundred and one eyewitnesses to the resurrection who were alive when First Corinthians was written. At least three hundred and one eyewitnesses to the resurrection who were still alive, who were still alive, who were still alive when First Corinthians was written. Now, before we move on from here, we're on a college campus. So I need to address this issue because there's always you know, the smart guy who goes, well, you know, you got a real problem here, because you know you said there that he was you know, he he appeared Deceiphus or to Peter, and then to the twelve. You got a problem. That's one of the that's one of those contradictions in the Bible right there. Why well, because Judas hanged himself, how could he appear to the twelve? If Judas hanged himself, he would only have appeared to eleven because Judas had already hanged himself. That's interesting, very interesting that that would appear to be a contradiction unless you read like the rest of the Bible, because then you would discover that in Acts chapter one, Judas is replaced by Matthias, and the requirements was that he would have been an eyewitness to everything from the beginning. You see, the twelve. That was an important number. That's why they replaced number twelve when he hanged himself, so that there would still be a twelve. And by definition, being in the twelve meant that you had to be a witness to the resurrection. So there's no contradiction here. But thanks for playing. But that just goes to the heart of our presuppositions when we read the Bible. You know, there are those who read the Bible like a judge trying to find something wrong, trying to find something working hard to find something wrong. And you know what I've found is that when people are reading the Bible like that, they have all these aha moments ah, and then you answer and they don't go, wow, I was so wrong. They just go, Okay, fine, I'll find another one. You know, there have been twenty five thousand, more than twenty five thousand archaeological digs related directly to the subject matter of the Bible. Over twenty five thousand. Not one of them has contradicted anything that we have in a Bible in the Bible, and the overwhelming majority of them have confirmed and affirmed the things that we find in the Bible. But here's what's interesting. When you find something in the Bible, and as we've done thousands upon thousands of times, that confirmed something in the Bible. There were individuals in the Querinius. Quarinius was no governor. We've never found his name anywhere. So you find Quarinius's name in an archaeological dig, and those people don't go, oh, we were wrong, please forgive us. They just go, whatever, we'll look so you know what I mean, And it's nothing, and you don't hear articles about it. But then somebody goes, you know, we found you know, the Gospel of whomever, and its front page news all around the world, right because it promotes the theory that we want to promote that undermines the Bible. Then you find out that it wasn't authentic, and nobody hears about that right. But what we find here in this text is again over three hundred and one eyewitnesses to the resurrection who were still alive when First Corinthians was written. Why is this important? This is important because that means that the gospel message, that the message of the Bible, is falsifiable. It was falsifiable. This is important when you're testing the veracity of a claim. If somebody's making the claim and that claim can't be falsified, means you can't test the claim, right, not a very strong claim. If you can't test the claim, that means you I just gotta trust you because there's nothing I can do to falsify your claim. I just got to trust you. This claim was falsifiable when Paul wrote it. It was a falsifiable claim, and yet it was never falsified. That's a piece of evidence that has to be weighed. Okay, a reliable collection of historical documents written that bywitnesses during the lifetime of other eyewitnesses. But there's a problem, and here's the problem. The problem is, you know, we're all educated people, and unfortunately we're over educated people because we have truth and lies and everything else. And because we're over educated people, all of us believe we know things about this claim, this whole claim that you know, we have a reliable collection of historical documents and byewitnesses during the lifetime over the eyewitnesses. You know, that's not exactly true. This stuff was actually written later. I mean in that right, haven't we heard that this stuff was written later? You know? And then there's this Constantine guy, you know, and he puts stuff together, and then he said get rid of other stuff, and you know, all this sort of stuff. And so there are a couple of things that we need to deal with when we talk about the Bible in this way. Again, a reliable collection of historical documents written by eyewitnesses during the lifetime of other eyewitnesses. I'm claiming that the Bible's written early. I'm claiming that the New Testament is written early. I'm claiming that the New Testament is done with by the end of the first century, early maybe into the second century, depending on how you date revelation, but that it's early, that it's very early. And there are those people who are you know, they're going to argue against this on a couple of different fronts. I'll deal with the easier, and first that the Bible is not reliable because it's been translated so many times. You can't trust what we have because it's been translated so many times. So maybe what he is saying is true about something out there somewhere, but it's not true about what we have today because it's been translated so many times. Have you heard this? Come on, I need hands, I need hands. You've heard this, Okay, great, I've heard this. People have told me, people at reputable schools have told me about professors who've made this claim. The people who make these claims, this particular claim, are either ignorant or evil or both. And I'm not just being mean. Let me explain to you why, because the Bible has been translated so many times. And they'll say, it's like the game of telephone, right, the game has different names in different parts of the world. Okay, but you know the game. You whisper into the ear of this person, and then he whispers into his ear, he whispers into his ear, and so on and so forth, and then we come all the way down here and you have to tell me what this guy whispered into your ear. By the time it gets to you, it sounds nothing like what I whispered into the ear the first person, right. And so this is the argument that they make about the Bible being translated so many times, and about us not being able to trust the Bible because of how many times it was translated. This bothers me a great deal. It bothers me a great deal that there are people who claim to be intelligent who continue to make this argument, and it bothers me that there are Christians who don't laugh at them. Because here's the problem. If I am the Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic manuscripts, I don't just whisper into his ear and then everybody else have to hear what I told him. See, I'm reading from the English Standard version. This translation was done in the early two thousands. They didn't just go back to the next oldest translation and from that, they went to the Greek, Hebrew and Arabic manuscripts themselves, which means the game actually goes like this. I speak to him, and then I speak to him, and then I speak to him, and then I speak to him, and I speak to him. I speak to him, I speak to him, I speak to him, I speak to him, and then I speak to him so that when he says what he heard, it's the same thing that that guy heard because he got it from the same source. That's why people who make this argument are either ignorant or they're evil or both. How can any intelligent human being argue against the validity of the Bible because of the number of times it's been translated. Listen, if you would bother to go learn how to read Hebrew or Greek or Arameic, you could go to the source yourself. These translations can be tested. They are software that you can use to test these translations against the documents that they're translating. There's no hiding here. In fact, we are more capable today than we've ever been at translating the Bible. Yeah. Well, the documents that we have are just late documents, and we don't know what there were in those earlier documents. Okay, all right, let's look at that for a moment, shall we, when we're talking about the manuscripts themselves, because there are some issues that we have to talk about there. When it comes to the Bible. It's true we don't have originals because of the material that these originals were written on. We don't have originals. But let's limit ourselves tonight just to the New Testament, shall we. Just when we're talking about the New Testament, we don't have any originals, but we do have documents that date back as early as a d. Eighty one hundred to eighty one twenty. That's within a couple of decades of the completion of the New Testament. We can go back and put our hands on documents that were dated within a couple of decades of the completion of the New Testament. How many manuscripts do we have the New Testament. We have over six thousand manuscripts or portions of manuscripts in the New Testament, over six thousand, over six thousand manuscripts or portions of manuscripts, and we can go back to within a couple of decades of the last writings. If that doesn't sound impressive to you, it's because you don't deal with ancient writings. For example, if we're talking about Aristotle's poetics, we have less than a dozen manuscripts of Aristotle's poetics, and the earliest one that we can go back to is over one thousand years after the writing Julius Caesar's Gallic Wars. Again, less than a dozen over one thousand years between the last writing and the first manuscript we can put our hands on. The best example that we have in terms of number of documents is Homer's Iliad. Homer's Iliad, we have a few hundred manuscripts, but the earliest one we can put our hands on is written two thousand, one hundred years after the original. And people have the audacity to question the New Testament. That's ridiculous. If it was a fight, they'd stop it. They wouldn't even let it start. If the Bible is not considered reliable or trustworthy in an institution like this, then there is no ancient document that should ever be considered trustworthy at an institution like this, because none comes close to the Bible. Yeah. Well, but then we know that there's the whole over zealous monk theory, right, and that it's these monks and it's this Constantine guy. Again, that's more Dan Brown than it is. Okay, that's da Vinci code, that's the movies. That's that's not that's not actual history. But but even even if we even if we were to go there, Okay, there's a few problems Number one, there's a manuscript problem, and there's six thousand Greek manuscripts or portions of manuscripts. So if we have these, you know, monks during the time of Constantine who are going to go back and who are going to change the New Testament, they would have to find six thousand Greek manuscripts and portions of manuscripts, change them all the exact same way. Don't share your ink word, don't get caught, and never tell anybody what you did. There's a second layer of problem. You know, Jesus said, go and make disciples of Panta ta Ethne every people group, every ethnic group. Right. Problem with people groups is they speak different languages. So within the first couple of centuries, the New Testament is translated into Syriac, Coptic and Latin. So now you're over zealous. Monks during the time of Constantine have to go find six thousand manuscripts, change them all the exact same way. Don't share your ink work, don't get caught, don't tell anybody what you did. Then learn how to lie in Syriac, Coptic and Latin as well as you lie in Greek, because if you don't, there's going to be a problem, because now the Greek manuscripts won't match the translations into these other languages, so you got to change those right, And then again, don't share your ink work, don't get caught, don't tell anybody. There's a third layer of problem. The early church fathers. The early Church Fathers had this horrible habit of quoting and writing commentaries on the New Testament, so much so that if all we had were the writings of the Early Church Fathers, we would be able to reproduce the New Testament all but eleven verses. So now our over zealous monks have to find six thousand Greek manuscripts. Lie, don't share your ink work, don't get caught, don't tell anybody what you did learn how to lie in Syriac, Coptic, in Latin as well as you lie in Greek. Go get all those things from around the world, make sure your lies match, get them back. Don't tell anybody what you did. Find all of the writings of the early Church fathers, and make sure that their commentaries now match all the lies that you told in Syriac, Coptic, Latin, and Greek. That's fantasy. That's fantasy. Okay, that's absolute fantasy. So we have a reliable collection of historical documents written by eyewitnesses during the lifetime of other eyewitnesses. All right, so far we just got a good history book. Now it gets good back in our passage, verse seventeen. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was born to him by the Majestic. This is my beloved son, with whom I'm well pleased. We ourselves heard this very voice born from heaven, for we were with him on the Holy Mountain. Now we have a reliable collection of historical documents written by eyewitnesses during the lifetime of other eyewitnesses, and they report supernatural events. Let's say that together. We have a reliable collection of historical documents written by eyewitnesses during the lifetime of other eyewitnesses, and they report supernatural events, not superhuman events. Superhuman events. That's like sports highlights. Okay, these are supernatural events. They're talking about the amount of transfiguration. They're talking about when Jesus was transfigured on the mountain and he was visited and he's a Moses. Like Peter said, we just need to build some stuff right here, and never leave. This was awesome. The Bible is not just a bunch of rules about religion. The Bible is a collection of supernatural events. These men claim that Jesus healed the sick. These men claim that Jesus walked on the water and the Pierce de Resistance. Friday he was dead, Sunday he was risen. These are not just the writings of a religious community trying to pass down their rules and regulations. We have those. You can go to Cumran and you can find those, right, That's what we have at Cumran. By the way, we also have a collection of old Testament books that were older than anything that we had before the nineteen forties when we found the Cumran scrolls, but again that's the old estimate. We wouldn't have time to get into all of that as well. But these individuals are saying that there are supernatural things that happen. When Moses crosses the Red Sea and Pharaoh's army is drowned again, this is supernatural. These are the types of things that we have in the Bible. But not only are these supernatural events, but there's supernatural events that took place in fulfillment of specific prophecies. We're not talking about general and Austrodamus type prophecies. Okay, we're not talking about faith healer prophecies. Doesn't take a whole lot for me. I mean, if I just know anything about the human condition, I know, I mean, there's somebody in this room and you're suffering from a back condition. Right, There's somebody in this room and you lost your job not long ago. There's somebody I mean in a room this size. You know, that's not what I'm talking about here. That's not the kind of prophecies that I'm talking about. The predictive prophecies said I'm talking about. I'm talking about, for example, the prophecies in Isaiah fifty three. For example, in Isaiah fifty three, Isaiah over seven hundred years before Jesus was born, prophesies that Jesus will be born and that he will be the suffering servant. Isaiah fifty three is a powerful passage. But maybe it's not old enough for you. It is a powerful passage. I've taken trips to Israel, taking service trips to Israel to lead tours, and I've met some folks there who are part of a group called one for Israel, and they do outreach to Jews in Israel. And one of the things that they do is just called the Isaiah fifty three project. And one of the individuals, he's an American and he went over. He did actually did military service with the Israeli military. He lives there now. He serves at Biba College there now. And you know, oftentimes they will re Isaiah fifty three and they will ask their Jewish friends and counterparts, I'm going to read something for you, and I want you to tell me who it's about and where it's from. And then the Jewish calendar, the way the Jewish reading year goes, there are a number of things that they don't read in their reading year. One of the things that they don't generally generally read Isaiah fifty three. They every fifty two, they're fifty four, but they won't read fifty three. And so this gentleman had his Bible that he got from the military. He was talking to a friend of his that he had served with in the military. So I want to read you something. You tell me who it's about and where it's written. He reads Isaiah fifty three. This gentleman says, that's about Jesus. It's in the New Testament, and all he does at that time is remove the book that he had behind this Hebrew Bible and shows the man, no, this is from your Hebrew Bible. That's Isaiah fifty three. Immediately the gentleman just became angry because he knew what that meant. Life and death of Jesus was in fulfillment of prophecy. But we're not going to go there tonight. I'm just not old enough. I need something older seven hundred years. Come on, man, you know what's seven hundred years. How about we go back over one thousand, and we go back over a thousand, and we go to Psalm number twenty two. Now, if I wanted you to turn to Psalm twenty two, let's say we're first century. Let's say we're you know, Jewish people were talking about the Bible and Arabic. I wouldn't be able to tell you to turn to Psalm twenty two. We've only had chapters and verses for the last several hundred years. I would have had to tell you to turn to the title of Psalm twenty two, which would have been the first line I would have had to tell you open your scroll to Eli la ma sabaktani, which means, my God, my God, wife, you're forsaken me. Does that sound familiar? This is what Jesus says while he's on the cross. So Jesus quotes the title of a song while he's being crucified. Now, if I say past me and out o ja Savior, what's the next thing that comes to your mind? Here, m humble cry right, amazing grace, I'll see you the sound right, And that's just here. What if I was about to be executed and I said the first line of a song, and then you watch me die, you'd probably think about the rest of that song the whole time I was dying. Ps. Two, My God, my God, Why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me from the words of my groaning? Oh? My God? I cry by day but you do not answer, And by night but I find no rest. Looking Verse six, I am a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by the people. All those who see me mock me, they make mouths at me, they wag their heads. He trust in the Lord, Let him deliver him, let him rescue him, for he delights in him. That's what's being said to Jesus. That's how he's being mocked while he being crucified. Go down to verse twelve. Many bulls that encompassed me, strong bulls of Bashan surround me. They open wide their mouths at me like a ravening and roaring lion. I am poured out like water. All my bones are out of joint. Why because you're kneeled to a tree. My heart is like wax. It is melted within my breasts. Interesting, after he dies, they pierce him in the side, thrusting upwardly. They pierced the pericardium in blood and water rush out. Looking next this. My strength is dried up like pochard. My tongue sticks to my jaws, which would make you say I thirst. You lay me in the dust of death. For sixteen for dogs encompass me. That is a reference to gentiles. Guess what Roman soldiers are Gentiles? A company of evildoers encircles me. He's crucified between two of them. They have pierced my hands and feet. By the way, not everyone who is crucified was pierced in the hands and feet, tied to the cross, so that it took days for them to die. I can count all my bones. They break your bones in order to hasten your death. Jesus was crucified right before a high holy day. He needed to die quickly so that his body wasn't hanging on the cross during the passover. But they didn't have to break his bones because he said into the hands I commit my spirit, so none of his bones were broken when he was crucified. They stare and gloat over me, and they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots. That was written a thousand years before Jesus was ever born, and it was written by a man who never once in his lifetime saw a crucifixion. Well, how do you know, because crucifixion had not yet been invented. That's how I know. We have a reliable collection of historical documents written by eyewitnesses during the lifetime of other eyewitnesses. They report supernatural events that took place in fulfillment of specific prophecies. And this is why Peter says in verse nineteen, we have something more sure, the prophetic word, to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. He's saying, listen, these fulfilled prophecies. Again, these aren't necessarily going to save you, you say, by grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ alone. But maybe you're here tonight and you say, well, I hear all that, but I still don't believe. Hey pay attention to it, though, Pay attention to fulfilled prophecy. Like a man out at night in the dark who sees a lamp shining. The human eye can see a lamp in the dark from over a mile away. And if you see it, what do you do? You watch it. You watch it and see if it's getting closer. He says, Listen, if nothing else, if nothing else, if you sit here tonight and you say, well, I'm not convinced, that's fine, just watch like you're watching a light in the distance, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. Because that's what you need. You need the day to dawn, and you need the morning star Jesus himself to rise in your heart. You need to be made alive by him. That's what you need. But for now. Watch, don't take your eyes off this. Read about more of this. We don't have time to tonight, but read about more. Okay, our time is getting away from us. Let me in with this, he says verse twenty, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man. But men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. Finally, they claimed that their writings were rather than human in origin. So let's put it together together with me. We have a reliable collection of historical documents written by eyewitnesses during the lifetime of other eyewitnesses. They report supernatural events that took place and fulfillment of specific prophecies, and claim that their writings are divine rather than human in origin. They claim that this is from God thousands of time. And the Lord said, and the Lord spoke to Moses saying, and the Lord spoke to and the Lord said, and thus said the Lord. All over the Bible, this is God's words, not men's words. They're claiming that these are God's words. And by the way, when these prophecies are fulfilled, it gives credence to that, does it not? That this is God who is speaking? And oftentimes you have individuals wholl say, well, I just can't get there. I can't go there. Why because men wrote that, Men wrote that, and I just can't believe it. Then you can't believe anything written in any book because men wrote them, right, that's ridiculous. I can't believe that. Well, because men wrote that, Yet you believe yourself. Huh, yeah, you don't believe what men wrote because you believe they might be fallible. You know that you're fallible, and yet you believe you. How can you believe you and not believe in them? What makes you so trustworthy? But that's another problem, this whole problem, this whole idea that we have. You know, and I've had people say this, Well, you know, I'm just I'm a man of science, and unless these types of things can be proven to me scientifically, then I just have I just oh. When people say that, I just want to give them a hug. I really do, I really do. I really do. Because they believe that they're so super intelligent and they're demonstrating their ignorance. I just want to hug them. I just want to put my arm around them and say listen, listen, listen, listen. I'm telling you this because I'm your friend. Don't ever say that to anybody else, because you do sound like an idiot. What do you mean, Well, I mean you know the scientific method. You understand the scientific method. Well, yes, and the scientific method. Something has to be observable, measurable, and repeatable. Right. History is not observable, measurable, or repeatable. You don't use the scientific method to prove historical events. So if you say you need scientific evidence for this, you sound like an idiot. You don't use the scientific method to prove historical events. You use the evidentiary method like you would in a courtroom. So what do you do? Well, I don't know. You ask about reliability of sources, You ask about the corroboration of sources. You ask about the internal and external evidence that supports these sources. These are the kind of questions that you ask, who are the witnesses, Are they reliable and trustworthy witnesses? Is this falsifiable? Are there other things that are contradicting this? Or are there other things that are confirming this? These are the kind of questions that you ask in the evidentiary method, and when you ask those questions, you come away with things like three continents, three languages, over forty authors, most of whom never met one another. They write as sixty six volumes. These volumes address hundreds of different subjects and topics and come together in a cohesive unit that tells one redemptive story, and it's written over a period of more than fifteen hundred years. Therefore, you have corroboration, you have reliability. You have twenty five thousand, twenty five thousand archaeological digs related directly to matters discussed in the Bible that have confirmed what we find therein. You have the writings of contemporaries who confirm what we find herein. Therefore, the intelligent man is not the man who says I simply can't believe that. That's the fool. The intelligent man says, I choose to believe the Bible because it's a reliable collection of historical documents written by eyewitnesses during the lifetime of other eyewitnesses. They report supernatural events that took place in fulfillment of specific prophecies, and they claim that their writings are divine rather than human in origin and if that's not enough, I tried. It changed my life.