THE BIBLE
2 Timothy 3:16-17
All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is
profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in
righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for
every good work. - 2 Tim 3:16-17
BIBLE = “Basic
Instructions Before Leaving Earth”
1.
(Hold up) Most unique book - many written -
spiritual, wisdom, truth, etc - and many of them can have a place in our lives,
but none hold a candle to this book.
a.
This is the one book that not only changed the
world, but it will change your life, even your eternal destiny.
b.
My objective is that after today you will have a
new understanding, and a new passion for this book.
Where did the
bible come from?
2.
When I was young - knew "of" - president
takes oath on, sits on my dad’s shelf, that Pastor Clay is always bugging us to
read.
a.
We consider the bible as one book, yet it is in
reality it is made up of 66 different books, written by 40 different authors,
1600 years: Moses (1400 BC), the apostle John (90 AD);
b.
Penned by men, but inspired by the Holy Spirit
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. – 2 Peter
1:21
3.
However, it’s not just a book of random writings
that were slapped together:
a.
It is a panorama that spans the history of the
physical universe, the history of man, and the main thesis is the ultimate plan
that God has for mankind.
Panorama of the
Bible
4.
It begins in Genesis with the eternal God of
creation, who spoke the universe into existence, and in particular one planet,
the earth – unique among all other planets.
a.
It describes how God formed mankind in His own
image from the elements of the earth, and it goes on to present mankind as the
object of God’s love.
b.
It describes the fall of man by a single act of
disobedience, at the urging of the enemy of God, the fallen angel Lucifer.
5.
Our bible gives the account of how God chose one
man, Abraham, through whom God would birth a nation that would possess a land,
and through whom God would reveal Himself to all of mankind.
a.
The bible prophetically foretold that God would send
a Messiah, born into this chosen nation, who would be fully man and fully God,
b.
The bible then records how God delivered on that
promise with the birth of Jesus the Christ in the town of Bethlehem.
6.
Through the gospels it gives us the eyewitness testimony
of the life, ministry, and death of His Son Jesus Christ,
a.
It gives us the eyewitness account of the event
that literally changed the world; The resurrection
of Jesus Christ.
b.
It declares the powerful truth of the gospel
message: That man can be reconciled to
God through a relationship with His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
7.
Throughout the epistles this book presents the principles
of how man can live in obedience to God, and thus live in harmony with God and
his fellow man.
8.
The bible concludes with a vision of the future:
a.
It describes a time when the enemy of God,
Satan, will fully control the levers of power in this world,
b.
He will collect the armies of the world to
gather in great valley in the middle east called Armageddon, to do battle with
the Son of God.
c.
The bible gives a description the return of the
Lord Jesus Christ, this time as a mighty warrior king
d.
Who will lead the army of God in a war that will
end all wars, and the enemies of God will be defeated, and cast into a place
reserved for them - Hell.
e.
It goes on to describe a 1000 year reign of the
Lord Jesus Christ on this earth, then a
final judgment of all beings – human and angelic -
f.
And finally an eternal existence in a new heaven
and a new earth, where God and His people will live together in peace and
harmony.
Quite frankly, there is no other book in existence that so boldly
covers the range and scope as this book.
Divided into 2 sections: Old and New Testament
Panorama of the
Old Testament
9.
The Old Testament is divided into four
categories: The Law, history, the Prophets,
and the Psalms,
a.
The first five books (The Law) were written by
Moses.
b.
The the historical books were written by men
such as Joshua, Ezra, Samuel, and Nehemiah.
c.
The Psalms and Proverbs were written by David,
Solomon, and a man named Asaph.
d.
The prophetic books were written by the men
whose name they bear (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel…)
e.
all of which point to the The Lord Jesus, as He
confirms in Luke 24
These are the words which I spoke to you while I was
still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law
of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.” (Luke 24:44)
10. The
first complete assembly of the 39 books of the OT was in the city of Alexandria
around 200 BC, which we now call the Septuagint.
Panorama of the
New Testament
11. The
New Testament can be separated into four groups:
a.
The Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John
b.
Historical:
Acts: the acts of the Apostles
c.
Epistles:
The letters of Paul and the other Apostles
d.
Prophetic:
The revelation given to apostle John during his exile on the Island of
Patmos.
12. But
what is interesting about the bible is the fact that it is really old!
a.
It’s believed that the earliest manuscripts date
back to 1400 BC, which means these some of these writings have survived for 3,400
years!
b.
So the question many ask, and rightly so, is
“How do we know it's maintained its integrity?”
How do we know if
the scriptures are accurate?
There are essentially two ways to validate the integrity of
a work...
#1 Method of
duplication - SCRIBES
13. In
ancient times text was written on parchment, which would break down over time,
and so the Jews employed men called “scribes.”
a.
A Scribe’s sole responsibility was to make exact
copies of the original scrolls, and the way they did this is revealed in the
name they were given:
b.
The Hebrew word for scribe is caphar (saw-far),
which literally means “to properly score,” or “to count”;
c.
They earned this title because of the method
they used to ensure accuracy in duplication:
d.
After the scribe finished copying a scroll, that
scroll would be reviewed by counting:
e.
They would count all of the words and letters.
f.
They would count the number of times a
particular word occurred of the scroll,
g.
They would locate the middle word and the middle
letter of the scroll, comparing all of these with his original scroll.
h.
All of these checks would validate the integrity
of the scroll.
14. What’s
so fascinating about this is that it’s exact the same error-checking method
that is used today to keep your bank balance accurate!
a.
This incredibly accurate system of
error-checking devised by the Jewish scribes is known today as a “parity check,”
and its used millions of times each day worldwide by computer networks.
b.
Whenever a data packet is transmitted across a
network, a known value is embedded into that packet (Ex: The alphabet), and
that known value is checked at the receiving end.
c.
If the value is correct, the integrity of the
packet is affirmed.
#2 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL
TEST
15. This
tells us that the scribes had a way to keep the scriptures error-free, but how
do we know someone didn’t just change the text on purpose?
a.
It’s a valid question, given that nearly 3400
years have passed since the first books were written.
b.
So there is another test, called the
bibliographical test.
c.
This test entails gathering all of the ancient
manuscripts that were written in different times, by different authors, and in
different locations, and comparing them one to another.
d.
If they match, then the manuscripts have
maintained their integrity.
Dead Sea Scrolls
16. In
1947 something incredible happened: The
discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls
a.
The Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of 900
documents, discovered in eleven caves on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea
b.
That contain sections of Genesis, Exodus,
Leviticus, Numbers, Deut, a complete copy of Isaiah, large parts of Daniel,.
c.
Before the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the
earliest Hebrew manuscripts of the bible were texts were from the 10th century
(1000 years) after Christ.
d.
However the Dead Sea Scrolls have been dated to
the 200 years BEFORE Christ – 1100 years earlier!
e.
And guess what:
These scrolls were essentially duplicates of the later manuscripts, in
other words, validating the integrity of the OT.
The words of the Lord are pure words, like silver
tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. You shall keep them, O Lord,
You shall preserve them from this generation forever. - Ps 12:6-7
New Testament - No
Scribes
17. In
addition to manuscripts, scholars have access to the writings of early church
fathers, because they often quoted from the original work (just like today I am
quoting verses),
a.
So we can not only use manuscripts, we can also
examine the writings to see if they match the passages we have today.
b.
(The NT is quoted so often in ancient writings
that if you burned every bible, you could reconstruct a nearly complete NT,
lacking only 11 verses, using only quotes from non-biblical works!)
18. So
how does the NT stand under the bibliographical test?
a.
Here’s where it gets crazy: there are a total of
24,970 ancient NT manuscripts, in different languages and from different
periods of history.
b.
(38 times more copies than another other ancient
text, the closest work is Homer’s Iliad, coming in at a distant second with 643
copies.)
c.
Out of 7,956 verses contained in the bible,
scholars have identified a grand total of 40 lines that have some variation,
(by the way, none of those variations affect biblical doctrine or principles.)
d.
That is 99.995% accuracy! (compare to networks)
TRUTHFULNESS
19. Just
because something had maintained its integrity doesn't mean it is TRUE. So how
can we validate the truthfulness of the word of God?
20. Three
ways: Historical accuracy, scientific accuracy, and predictive accuracy.
Historical
Accuracy
So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It
shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it
shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it. - Is 55:11
21. Over
the centuries many claims have been made against the bible for its supposed “historical
inaccuracies.”
a.
Claims such as:
the Hittites never existed; Sodom and Gomorrah never existed; there was never a prefect named Pilot; crucifixion was not practiced in the first
century, etc.
b.
All of these and more claims have been leveled
against the bible to call into question its historical integrity.
22. However,
beginning in the mid-1800’s, the science of Biblical Archeology was birthed,
and archeological finds, contrary to what many critics asserted, began to
CONFIRM the accounts found in the bible.
A few examples:
King David
23. Up
until 1993 not a shred of evidence could be found anywhere outside of the Bible
that David the king of Israel ever existed
a.
And so “it had become fashionable in some
academic circles to dismiss the David stories as an invention of priestly
propagandists who were trying to dignify Israel’s past after the Babylonian
exile.”
b.
The critics’ verdict was that David was “nothing
more than a figure of religious and political mythology.”
24. Well,
their skepticism regarding David “collapsed overnight” in 1993 when a 3000-year-old
inscription was discovered in the town of Dan.
a.
The broken and fragmentary inscription
commemorates the victory of an Aramean king, Hazael, over his two southern neighbors: Jehoram of
Israel and Ahaziah of Judah
b.
The inscription reads “I killed Jorham, son of
Ahab, and Ahaziah, son of Jehorum, of the of the House of David.”
c.
This was an amazing discovery as it not only
verified that David was an actual historical figure, and King of Israel, it
validates eight kings of the bible!
d.
U. S. News & World Report religion writer,
Jeffery Sheler, said:
"The fragmentary reference to David was a
historical bombshell. Never before had the familiar name of Judah’s ancient
warrior king, a central figure of the Hebrew Bible and, according to Christian
Scripture, an ancestor of Jesus, been found in the records of antiquity outside
the pages of the Bible. Skeptical scholars had long seized upon that fact to
argue that David was a mere legend…Now, at last, there was material evidence,
an inscription written not by Hebrew scribes but by an enemy of the Israelites
a little more than a century after David’s presumptive lifetime. It seemed to
be a clear corroboration of the existence of King David’s dynasty and, by
implication, of David himself." [Sheler, Is the Bible True? 60–61.]
Pilate
25. The
New Testament authors tell us that Pontius Pilate was the Roman governor of
Judea at the time of Christ who oversaw Jesus’ trial and then sentenced Him to
death by crucifixion (Matthew 27:2; Luke 3:1).
a.
Critics claimed he was made up...
26. No.
In June of 1961, a team of Italian archaeologists was digging in Caesarea,
northwest of Jerusalem.
a.
While digging in the jumbled ruins of a Roman
theater, they found a limestone block about three feet tall and two feet wide
that had been turned upside down and reused as part of a flight of steps during
one of the renovations of the theater.
b.
It bore an inscription in Latin mentioning
“Pontius Pilate, Prefect of Judea.”
27. In
other words, Pontius Pilate was an actual historical person, that he reigned in
the very position ascribed to him by the Gospels, and that as prefect he would
have had the authority to condemn or pardon Jesus, just as the Gospel accounts
report.
a.
Nelson Glueck, who appeared on the cover of Time
magazine and who is considered one of the greatest archaeologists ever, wrote:
“No archeological discovery has ever controverted
[overturned] a Biblical reference. Scores of archeological findings have been
made which confirm in clear outline or in exact detail historical statements in
the Bible. And, by the same token, proper evaluation of Biblical descriptions
has often led to amazing discoveries.” [Nelson Glueck, Rivers in the Desert, p.
31.]
28. These
are the words of a man who has been credited with uncovering more than fifteen
hundred ancient sites in the Middle East. [“Archaeology: The Shards of
History,” Time, December 13, 1963.]
*For more examples, go here:
http://www.alwaysbeready.com/archaeological-evidence-for-the-bible
Scientific Accuracy
29. Over
the centuries critics have pointed out supposed “scientific inaccuracies”
contained in the bible, yet sadly for the critic, each inaccuracy has in fact
been proven to be - ACCURATE!
30. WE’RE
MADE OF DIRT: The 59 elements found in
the human body are all found on the earths crust. It wasn’t until 1735 that
scientists understood this.
And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground,
and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living
being. Gen 2:7
31. GRAVITY:
Scientists discovered that the Earth is held in place by invisible forces in
1650, you can find this in Job 26:7.
Job 26:7, “He [God] hangs the Earth on nothing.”
32. ROUND
EARTH: Scientists believed the earth was flat until the 1500’s; God says this
in Isaiah 40:22.
It is He that sitteth upon the circle of the earth...
Isaiah 40:22
33. Jet
Stream: “The wind blows south, and then
turns north. Around and around it goes, blowing in circles.” Eccl 1:6
34. Water
cycle “He draws up water from the oceans and pours it down as rain on the
land.” Amos 9:6
35. God
even gave the perfect design ratio for ships in Genesis 6, which we still use
today.
36. Before
the invention of the telescope, astrologers believed the stars could all be
numbered.
a.
Hipparchus, Ptolemy, and Johannes Kepler
(1571-1630) counted the stars at around 1000…
b.
However, when Galileo (a devout Christian)
pointed his telescope to the heavens in 1608, he discovered that these previous
counts were just a little bit off…
c.
A new study, published in the journal Nature,
suggests there are a mind-blowing 300 sextillion stars (in other words, you
can’t count that high…)
“The host of heaven cannot be numbered, nor the sand
of the sea measured.” Jeremiah 33:22
*For more examples, go here:
http://www.eternal-productions.org/101science.html
37. POINT?
One by one each scientific fact described in the bible has been proven TRUE…
any that remain simply haven’t been proven true YET.
Predictive
accuracy:
Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass
away until all these things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my
words will not pass away. – Matt 24:34-35
38. Many
books have been written that speculate on what the future will hold, some
people manage to come close, others are just hilarious,
a.
But the bible is unique in that it not only
boldly foretells the future, it also has the historical accuracy to validate its
declarations.
39. For
example, in 5th century BC the prophet Daniel describes the great Empires of
the world, Babylon, the rise of the Persian, Greek, and Roman Empires, hundreds
of years before these empires even existed,
a.
In chapter 9 Daniel foretells the exact day that
Jesus Christ will enter Jerusalem, nearly six hundred years before it happened.
b.
He gives such precise detail that the main argument
of the critics is that Daniel must have been written sometime in the 5-6th
century AD because Daniel couldn’t have possibly known these things!
40. The
prophet Ezekiel accurately foretold the rebirth of the nation of Israel:
a.
Before 1947 many critics claimed the bible to be
unreliable because of all of the prophetic passages that referenced the nation
of Israel, especially the book of Revelation, because Israel no longer existed
as a nation.
b.
Then in 1947 the prophecy given in Ezekiel 37
came to pass!
c.
(If you really want to really freak out, then
take a read through Ezekiel 38, the nations that will attack Israel are ALREADY
ALIGNED!)
41. POINT: Time and history have validated each
predictive event that the bible has given us.
a.
The only prophecies that have yet to be
fulfilled are those relating to the return of our Lord Jesus Christ:
(Not a betting
man… but let’s take a swing at the statistics... Odd’s of all Jesus prophecies
[360 / 300 fulfilled] coming true, compare to lottery ticket – would you buy
one?)
42. So,
if someone says to you “the bible is full of contradictions and errors…” you
now have an answer, as the bible encourages us to do:
… always be ready to give a defense to everyone who
asks you a reason for the hope that is in you.
1 Peter 3:15
The Uniqueness of
the bible
43. The
bible is unique among any other book ever written in the history of mankind.
The Bible is
Unique
44. Unique
in its survival: We have more copies of
ancient manuscripts of the bible than any other ancient document, 40 times
over!
45. Unique
in its translation: The bible was one of
the first books ever to be translated into another language (250 BC
Septuagint), but as of now it has been translated into over 1300 languages
worldwide (I didn’t even know there were so many languages!), and the work is
still on-going.
46. Unique
in its circulation: you can tell a lot
by a book by how many are sold, and the bible is at the top of the best-seller
list over any other book, a thousand times over:
a.
Over 6 BILLION printed! 50 bibles are sold every
second of every hour of every day!
b.
The Bible, the world's best-selling book, is
also the world's most shoplifted book.
47. Unique
in its criticism: The bible has been
studied, scrutinized, and critiqued more than any other book in the history of
man:
a.
For thousands of years scholars, critics, and
theologians have inspected every single word of the bible.
b.
Multitudes of highly educated and intelligent
men have attempted to find errors or contradictions, yet the bible still stands
as a work of bulletproof integrity.
c.
As one elder French statesman noted, “the bible
is an anvil that has worn out many a hammer!”
48. Unique
in its harmony: Written over a 1600
year span, by more than 40 authors from every walk of life (The adopted son of
an Egyptian Pharaoh, kings, warriors, priests, prophets, a doctor, a fisherman,
a Pharisee)
a.
It addresses hundreds of controversial subjects
ranging from marriage, divorce, remarriage, sexual relations, adultery,
honesty, leadership, parenting…
b.
And yet from Genesis to Revelation each of these
areas is addressed with an amazing degree of harmony. (when do 40 men agree on
anything?)
49. Unique
in its portrayal of the human condition:
It is a fact that we as a race are enamored with ourselves; we hide our
flaws, and embellish our strengths
a.
The bible gives us the cold hard truth about
man, whether he be a beggar or a king;
The heart is deceitful above all things, and
desperately wicked; who can know it? -
Jer 17:9
b.
Brutally honest with its subjects (if it were
made up by men, it would have been much kinder!)
50. The
bible is unique in its effect on civilization:
No other book has had a greater influence on society than the teachings
of the bible.
a.
Morality, law, interpersonal relations, charity,
character, leadership, even our own constitution - the great “American
Experiment”
b.
the bible presents the highest ideals known to
man, and those ideals have shaped our world more than any other book in
existence.
c.
Regardless of whether a person even believes
what the bible says, if that person lives according to the truths and
principles found in the word of God, that person will live a blessed life!
51. But
the one final truth that I would point out to you this: The bible is unique among any other work in
its ability to transform the life of the person who reads it.
Transformation
52. I
love to read, and over the course of my life I’ve read many books that have
helped me in many areas...
a.
But the one book that has had the most profound
impact on my life has been the bible.
b.
The first ten years of my Christian life I
barely cracked my bible. I was a Christian, but I was a “dry Christian”
c.
I didn’t do the things I used to do, but to be
honest I thought about them – a lot!
d.
For me living the Christian life was a ‘mind
over matter’ thing, and it was always a struggle.
53. But
something happened, I started meeting with a few of my buddies study our
bibles - and something really strange
started to happen...
a.
I started to notice that my heart and mind began
to change…
b.
Instead of thinking about sinful things all the
time, I started wanting to think about the things of Lord. (it kind of freaked
me out!)
c.
I found myself not having to fight my flesh as
much, not being drawn to carnal things, not having the desire to do those
carnal things
d.
My life and my marriage began to improve: My
wife was like “what’s gotten into you?”
It was like I was somehow being transformed from the inside out!
For the word of God is living and powerful, and
sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and
spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents
of the heart. - Heb 4:12
54. I
hate to describe it this way, but it was as if I had drank a magic potion, and
it was changing me, re-coding my DNA; I was becoming a new person!
a.
I began to experience Eph 4:
be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you
put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness
and holiness. - Eph 4:24
55. The
word of God began to renew my mind, His wisdom began to guide my decisions, His
truth began to show me where I was off-course
All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is
profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in
righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for
every good work. - 2 Tim 3:16-17
56. Even
to this day, nearly 30 years after I became a Christian, the bible continues to
teach me, inspire me, lead me, and challenge me!
a.
Whenever things get uncertain, or I face a
challenge, or I start to drift off course…
b.
God will give me a word, a scripture; I’ll read
something that speaks to my situation,
c.
The word of God will renew my mind, bring clarity
to the situation, illuminate the path
Facts vs Feelings
57. The
word of God grounds us in the truth, allowing the Christian to traverse this
life based on FACT vs FEELINGS
a.
People sometimes make wrong decisions based on false
information…
b.
Or they make emotional decisions based on feelings
that may or may not be based on reality
58. Taking
in the word of God allows us to make godly decisions based on the truth of Who
God is to us, who we are to Him, and based on His promises to us!
a.
One of the most powerful things you can do as a
Christian is to memorize (make a list if you can’t!) the promises of God,
b.
And make it a practice to LIVE and PRAY in
alignment with those promises!
c.
(why do you think God invented smart phones! Charles
Stanley “In Touch” app)
59. It
is the one book in history that carries the message that they sinful heart of
man can be redeemed, and that a person can be transformed into a new creation!
Oh, the joys of those who do not follow the advice of
the wicked, or stand around with sinners, or join in with mockers. But they
delight in the law of the Lord, meditating on it day and night. They are like
trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit each season. Their leaves
never wither, and they prosper in all they do. Ps 1:1-3 (NLT)
The Challenge
60. And
that, my friends bring us to my challenge for today: The big question, the “so
what”
a.
I don’t know where you are today with respect to
spending time in God’s word.
b.
But I want to challenge you; Take it seriously, become a student of your
bible, open it each day as ask God to speak to you,
c.
Ask the Holy Spirit to teach you, and reveal
spiritual truth
d.
Seek to understand, be willing to obey.
61. If
you will set this as a pattern in your life, I guarantee, within six months you
won’t recognize yourself!
a.
You will walk in a new wisdom, new power, new
confidence, because you’ll be walking in the ways of God.
62. Go
home and read Ps 119 - make a list of the blessings that will come from
spending time in God’s word!
For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do
not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge
of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that you may walk worthy
of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and
increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to
His glorious power. (Col 1:9-11)
Copyright © 2014 Clay Ritter.
This data file is the sole property of Clay Ritter. It may be copied only in
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Calvary Chapel of Wilmington, 2831 Carolina Beach Rd, Wilmington NC, 28412, or
via email to office@calvaryofwilmington.org.
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