God’s Word, Reliable and True (part 2) I want to start today by making these statements: God’s Word is Reliable and True…, the Bible is miraculous in it’s origination/preservation/circulation. The Bible is the book of the Ages. Would you agree? - No book has been the object of more attacks, more scorn than the Bible. No book has ever been despised and rejected like the Word of God. It’s been burned…, ridiculed…, outlawed, but amazingly, the more it is attacked, the more it multiplies! The bible is here to stay and very much alive like our God, Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ: Hebrews 4:12 says 12 For the word of God is alive (repeat) and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. The bible is supernatural…, it’s a force beyond scientific understanding or the laws of nature. Living and existing outside of human understanding…, yet every word is profitable for everyday living. 2 Timothy 3:16 16 All Scripture is “God-breathed” and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, and that speaks to the external evidence of why God’s Word is Reliable and True…, but Now the internal evidence………. 1. Scientific Accuracy The Bible revealed scientific facts hundreds and thousands of years before science learned about them. While it is true that the Bible is not primarily a science book, not a text book designed to speak to your mind, but rather a love letter to speak to your heart, we should remember that the God of salvation, is also the God of creation…, and when the Bible does speak on scientific matters, it speaks with complete authority and absolute certainty and accuracy. Every once in a while you’ll hear about modern science disagreeing with the Bible. What should we do when this happens? - Be patient, and give science time to catch up! Science has always needed to catch up with the Bible. Some examples: Medicine: As recently as the 1600’s doctors and scientists still believed that many illnesses and diseases were a result of the human body having too much blood. For instance the Barber shop, the pole out front with its red and white stripe…, it’s not a candy-cane; the red stripe signified that you could go there to be “bled”. Doctors would prescribe that you go to the barber to be bled! It sounds weird I know, but being “BLED” was a common practice at one time: When George Washington became ill, his doctors bled him 3 times, the 3rd time they removed almost a quart of blood, and he died! But now, science knows, it’s the blood that fights diseases, brings nourishment, repairs tissue, promotes growth. If only they had read Lev. 17:11, “For the life of a creature is in the blood…” In the 14th century the black plague decimated the population in Europe…, 1 in 4 people died during the plague. (count 1, 2, 3, dead!) It wasn’t the scientists or doctors who brought the plague under control…, it was the church. The church applied a principle to the situation that was unheard of in that day, but which we take for granted today…, quarantine. Leviticus 13:46 46 As long as they have the disease they remain unclean. They must live alone; they must live outside the camp People in Moses’ day didn’t know anything about microbiology. They didn’t know what a germ was. Or what virus was…, but God gave them the principle of quarantine. In the 1800’s a physician in Vienna named Semovice, was in charge of a hospital there. He noticed that pregnant women were coming in for routine exams and immediately after exams, many of them were dying of infection. Semovice noticed that doctors were entering the OB area from all other areas of the hospital, including the morgue, without washing their hands. He made it a rule that the doctors threw a fit over…, wash your hands. Sounds pretty normal today, but the doctors of the time thought it was ridiculous, it will slow them down. The medical field today knows to wash up, but only because science has caught up with the Bible in this area. Thousands of years ago, Moses said in Numbers 19 Numbers 19:14-19 14 “This is the law that applies when a person dies in a tent: Anyone who enters the tent and anyone who is in it will be unclean for seven days, 15 and every open container without a lid fastened on it will be unclean. 16 “Anyone out in the open who touches someone who has been killed with a sword or someone who has died a natural death, or anyone who touches a human bone or a grave, will be unclean for seven days. 17 “For the unclean person, put some ashes from the burned purification offering into a jar and pour fresh water over them. 18 Then a man who is ceremonially clean is to take some hyssop, dip it in the water and sprinkle the tent and all the furnishings and the people who were there. He must also sprinkle anyone who has touched a human bone or a grave or anyone who has been killed or anyone who has died a natural death. 19 The man who is clean is to sprinkle those who are unclean on the third and seventh days, and on the seventh day he is to purify them. Those who are being cleansed must - wash - their - clothes and bathe - with - water, and that evening they will be clean. What are the Principles here? Quarantine, washing with water, changing clothes…, time interval for bacteria to die Mold or bacteria in home was cover in Leviticus 14:33-57 How did Moses know these things? How did he come up with this information in these books he wrote? - God, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God.” – “God breathed” I’m sure glad that when we read the sanitary code Moses wrote down, the medical field agrees, aren’t you? Again, all scripture is given by inspiration, “God breathed”. Astronomy: We take for granted that the earth is suspended in space, hanging from nothing. Ancient Egyptians believed and taught that the earth was supported by 5 marble pillars. Greeks believed earth rested on the shoulders of the god Atlas. Hindus believed the earth rested on the backs of elephants and when they shook, that was an earthquake…and the elephants rested on the back of a huge tortoise, which was on top of a coiled serpent in the midst of a cosmic sea. Aren’t you glad you won’t read that foolishness in the Bible? Job said in the oldest of Biblical writings: Job 26:7 7 He (GOD) spreads out the northern skies over empty space; he suspends the earth over nothing. That was a radical thought until just a few hundred years ago. How did Job know that the earth was suspended over nothing a few thousand years ago? - All scripture is given by inspiration – “God Breathed” Nobody believed the earth was round until 1492. “Columbus, you’re gonna sail off the end of the earth…but 700 years before Christ, Isaiah said that God “sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, Isaiah 40:22 Circle in Hebrew means: globe or sphere. 150 B.C., Astronomer named Hipparchus laid down his pencil and smiled, “it’s done”! He believed he had counted all the stars in the sky. 1,022. That was the number used in Universities for 250 years. Then Ptolemy came along and laughed, 1,022, that’s ridiculous, there’s 1,026…, he found 4 more. And that was science for 1,300 years. Then Galileo came along with his invention, the first crude telescope, he looked thru it for the first time, and gasped. We know now that there are billions and billions of stars in each of the galaxies, which are innumerable. What did the Bible say long before any of them were even born? Jeremiah 33:22 22 I will make the descendants of David my servant and the Levites who minister before me as “countless” as the stars in the sky. (repeat) God said to Abraham, your seed will be “countless”, like the stars of heaven. Again, Science has always needed to catch up with the Bible. Science is not the only witness we call to the stand today, also the witness of history: Historical Accuracy: Not a history book, but it is “His Story, God’s story”. And historians have always needed to catch up with the Bible. The Bible records the fact that Moses wrote the first 5 books of the Bible, and Jesus verified that in the New Testament. For many years, unbelieving historians laughed at the thought that Moses wrote the Pentateuch. ‘That’s impossible’, they said, for there was no written language when Moses lived. Archaeologists continued their work, and in 1887 in N. Egypt 300 clay tablets were unearthed, we know them as the “tel-el-armana” tablets. What were they? Letters and business transactions between Egypt and Palestine, dated centuries before Moses was even born. And now it has been proven not only did they have a written language, they had a postal service. (It might have been quicker than the one we’ve got today! – that was a little jab a Roger, sorry buddy.) Remember the story in the book of Daniel of Belshazzar seeing the handwriting on the wall? For centuries histories mocked that story as mythology, stating that they have the Babylonian records, which show that the last king of Babylon was NOT Belshazzar, but was Nabonitis. As a matter of fact, they say, we have no record anywhere that any Belshazzar ever lived! One day a clay tablet was found by archaeologists which revealed the truth: Nabonitis was the father of Belshazzar, and they were co-rulers, ruling together! Nabonitis traveled the world, his son ruled the kingdom. Now we have a better understanding of Daniel 5:16 16 Now I have heard that you are able to give interpretations and to solve difficult problems. If you can read this writing and tell me what it means, you will be clothed in purple and have a gold chain placed around your neck, and you will be made the third highest ruler in the kingdom.” What if that tablet had never been found? Should we doubt the Bible, no! But isn’t it great how God makes His truth known, often times with an exclamation point tacked onto the end. In the late 1800’s, Sir William Ramsey was a well-known archaeologist and historian. He was a professor of humanities at Aberdeen University. He was considered to be the world’s leading scholar on Asia-Minor, and it’s geography and history. He read the book of Acts and said, “the book of Acts is a highly imaginative and carefully colored account of primitive Christianity” (in essence, “my knowledge of history, I have no respect for Luke as a historian”) Then he went to the Middle East for the express purpose of proving the Bible wrong in its history. He came home and wrote the book, “Luke, the beloved physician” in which he proclaimed Dr. Luke to be one of the world’s foremost historians. Here’s a quote from Sir William Ramsey…, this was after looking carefully at the evidence: “I take the view that Luke’s history is unsurpassed in its trustworthiness. You may press the words of Luke in a degree beyond any other historian, and they will stand the keenest scrutiny, and the harshest treatment.” History is still catching up with the Bible just like Science is too. Today we’ve covered the Scientific Accuracy…, Historical Accuracy…, now the 3rd category: Prophetic Accuracy. No book in history has dared to predict the future to the degree the Bible has…, without being proven wrong. (repeat) For the sake of time, let’s narrow it down to just the prophecies that dealt with the coming of Christ, 2000 years ago. Over 300 direct prophecies in question, like: Is. 7:14 He would be born of a virgin - Lk. 1:7 it happened! Micah 5:2 born in Bethlehem - Lk. 2:4 that happened! Gen. 49:10 born of tribe of Judah - Mt. 3:3 that happened! Psalm 78:2 Jesus speaking in parables - Mt. 13:34 that happened! Zech. 9:9 ride on colt of a donkey - Mt. 21 that happened! Is. 61 heal broken-hearted - Lk. 4:18 that happened! Is. 53:3 prophesied Jesus being rejected by own: He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. In John 1:11 it happened! - 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Is. 53:7 Prophesied Jesus would stand silent before accusers - Mk. 15:5 that happened! Ps. 22:18 cast lots for His robe - Jn. 19:23 that happened! Ps. 22 (hundreds of years before crucifixion ever invented or thought of) prophets said they would pierce His hands and feet, and it happened! Zech. 11:12 predicted Jesus would sold by enemies for 30 silver - Mt. 26:15 that happened! Is. 53:9 says Jesus would be buried with rich and proclaim Jesus innocents - Mt. 27 that happened! From prophecy to reality, one by one they all came true. Was this a long list of coincidence…, or something else? Dr. Charles Ryrie points out that, by the law of chance, it would require 2 hundred billion earths, each populated with four billion people, to come up with one person who could achieve one hundred accurate prophecies without any errors in sequence. But, in Christ’s coming alone, there were not one hundred, but over 300 prophecies fulfilled! And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Ill.—cover the state of Texas with quarters, 2 feet deep, mark the back of 1 of them with an “X”. Fly a man in and drop him anywhere you want in the state, blindfold him, and ask him to find that quarter with the “X”…, the first try! That’s the same chance of just 8 of the Bible’s prophecies being fulfilled by coincidence! It’s more than just a coincidence…, it’s evidence that demands a verdict! The problem, Mr. skeptic…, is we love our sin, and if the Bible is true, we stand condemned! The Bible: is salvation to the sinner, sanctification to the saint, sufficient to the suffering, satisfying to the scholar. It’s so deep the scholar can swim in it for a lifetime without ever touching bottom, yet so simple, a child can approach it for a drink, without fear of drowning! I love the bible’s depth, but the greatest truth I’ve ever learned is this: Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so! God’s Word, Reliable and True…, What say you?
Posted on: Mon, 17 Nov 2014 11:43:50 +0000
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