From His Heart

Speaker 1

Is the Bible really true? I mean, the stories in the Bible that you read in Genesis, I mean, was Adam really a real person? Eve? Did everything start with those two people? Was there really a serpent in the garden? Was there really a tree? Was there really a disobedience that caused the fall of all humanity?

Was there really a Noah? Was there really an ark? Was there really a flood? Was Jonah really swallowed by a whale? I mean, we read stories in the Bible and lots of people say, hmm, inconceivable. There's just no way this stuff can be true.

Is the Bible really true? There is truth. There is blessing, there is hope that you always dream of. We can heal, heal.

Speaker 2

The Bible is the book we look to for answers to life's toughest questions. But more than that, it's the book we base our entire faith on, which is of the utmost importance. So how can we know that the Bible is true? That all of it is really God's inspired word?

This is from his heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve. Thank you for joining us today as he's going to share the absolute truth about God's Word and how we can depend on it, no matter the challenge. The lesson is called "Is the Bible Really True?" from the series "Now That's a Tough One: Answering the Difficult Questions of Life."

You'll learn today and tomorrow on the broadcast that without faith and trust in God's word, cultures, families, societies, and lives fall apart because they are separated from the truth that the Creator gave to us.

For information about today's message or our current series, visit our website at fromhisheart.org. Right now though, open your Bible to Genesis 3. Here's Pastor Jeff to answer the all-important question, "Is the Bible really true?"

Speaker 1

Heard about a nine-year-old boy, his name was Joey, and he went to Sunday school. After Sunday school, his mother asked him, "Now Joey, what did you learn in Sunday school?" He replied, "Well, the teacher talked about Moses, and we learned how Moses went in behind enemy lines in Egypt and gathered up all the Israelites. He pulled them out of Egypt in the night, took them out into the wilderness, and then he built a bridge. They went across a bridge on the Red Sea, and then he radioed for help, and they bombed the bridge before the Egyptians could get over, and he saved the day." His mother asked, "Your Sunday school teacher taught you that?" Joey said, "Well, no, not really, but if I told you what they told me, you'd never believe it."

Is the Bible really true? I mean, we read stories in the Bible, and lots of people say, "Hmm, inconceivable. There's just no way this stuff can be true." Is the Bible really true? Now, if your answer is yes, then you can trust and rely on this book because it's really true, and I can build my life on this book. But if your answer is no, then you can't trust this book. You can't rely upon this book, and it's not the source of truth. Or if you're in the middle and your answer is, "I don't know," that's a bad place to be. Because then you're living your life as a question mark, all hunched over, all wondering. I'm not sure if this is true or this is not true. God didn't create you to live life like a question mark. He created you to live life like an exclamation point. If you don't know if the Bible is true or not, it's like driving your car with the brakes on. You don't really go anywhere, and you're just so hesitant. So we want to answer the question tonight: Is the Bible really true?

Now, I have two main points that I want us to really focus in on. Point number one is this: When it comes to truth, there are three categories of people. See if you can guess which category you are in. The first category is those who evaluate truth based on human reason. Lots of people do this when it comes to truth. When it comes to the source book of truth, they go by human reason. They read the Bible and say, "Now, does this make sense to me?" That's how they evaluate truth, based on their mind, based on human reason. Proverbs 14:12 says, "There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death." Lots of times when you trust in human reason, you might read about Adam and Eve, Noah, or Jonah, and say, "Well, there's no way that could happen." Why? Because human reason says that can't happen. Human reason says there can't be a flood. Human reason says, "How can the Red Sea part?" Human reason says that there's no way that Jesus could be born of a virgin. How many people are born of a virgin? So human reason throws out miracles. Many people that read the Bible take out all the miracles because they say, "Well, that can't happen. That's impossible."

Inconceivable Oprah Winfrey, who is probably one of the biggest proponents of new age theology today, when confronted on her show about Jesus Christ being the only way to heaven, she basically said, "Inconceivable." She said, "There's no way that he can be the only way." It didn't jive with her mind, and her human reason said no. Now, is that how you evaluate truth? Is it based on your human reason? Is it based on what makes sense to you? It's really arrogant to think like that because that basically says that you, with your pea-sized brain compared to God, if it doesn't fit in with the way you understand in your finite flawed brain, then it must be wrong. But that's what human reason says: "Hey, this can't be true because it doesn't fit into my head."

There are those who evaluate truth based on church authority, based on what the church says. A lot of people look at truth like that. They say, "Well, you know, whatever the church says." I had a lady say to me several years ago, "I believe whatever my church believes." I asked her, "What do you believe?" She said, "You can't leave my church out because whatever my church says, that's what I believe." They evaluate truth based on the church. Now, that's okay as long as the church is going by the Bible. But when you run into a disconnect and a collision between what the Bible says and what the church says, those who evaluate truth based on church authority say, "Well, the church trumps the Bible." If the Bible says this, but the church says that, they go with what the church says. Galatians 1:8 says, "But even though we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we have preached to you, let him be accursed, let him be eternally condemned."

Do you evaluate truth based on church authority? The third category is those who evaluate truth based on the word of God. Now, everybody in this room can put yourself in one of those three categories. The third category is the category I place myself in: those who evaluate truth based on the word of God. People in this third category look at this book and say, "This book is not the word of man; this book is the word of God. This book is the authority on life." When this book talks about things, you can trust it to tell you the truth. The Bible says in 1 Thessalonians 2:13, "And for this reason we also constantly thank God that when you received from us the word of God's message, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God which also performs its work in you who believe." You accept it as the word of God.

Does that mean you understand everything about it? No. Does that mean when you read it, you might not come across some things that you say, "I don't see how that can be"? You might read a passage of Scripture and another passage that seem like they don't fit together. But Lord, I trust you that this is your Word. I don't have to understand it because I'm not evaluating truth based on my own mind and throwing it out if it doesn't fit in my mind. I am accepting this not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God. How do you evaluate truth: based on human reason, based on church authority, or based on the word of God? As I said previously, I evaluate truth based on the word of God.

Now, the second point: when it comes to the Bible, there are three things that you and I must know. The first thing we must know is that the Bible is the inspired word of God. It is inspired by God. 2 Timothy 3:16 says, "All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work." All scripture, Paul says, is inspired by God. The word "inspired" literally means "God-breathed." All Scripture is God-breathed. God wrote the Bible through men; that's what the Bible says of itself. 2 Peter 1:20 says, "But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke." That's how God wrote his Word.

I find it interesting when the word "inspired" means "God-breathed," and then it tells us in Peter that men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. The word in Greek for "spirit" is "pneuma," which is also translated "wind," which is also translated "breath." Men moved by the Holy Spirit—God breathed upon men, and the wind of God's spirit came upon men, and they wrote. When you talk about the Bible being inspired of God, it doesn't mean that God dictated the Bible to the writers. It doesn't mean that God got in contact with Paul and said, "All right, Paul, pick up your pen. Take a letter. Now, I'm gonna write this down. You get every word." That's not how God did it. God didn't write the Bible as he picked up men writers and just kind of wrote through their hands. It means that God moved that person to write.

God, like a wind would move a sailboat, blew that person into the right place to write the right things. He inspired that person to do that, and he breathed through that person his word. God didn't just write through a person like Paul is a pen, and he picks him up and just starts writing through him. Or Peter's a pen, and he writes through him. That's not the case. Because if that were the case, the Bible would all read the same. All the writers that wrote in Greek would all have the same style. Writers have a particular style. When I write things, I have a particular style. If you read a lot of Max Lucado, you can tell, "Hey, this must be Max Lucado because of the way he writes."

Writers have a style. Paul had a style that he wrote. Peter had a style that he used to write. John had a style that he used to write. If God was just picking them up and writing through them like that, then it would all sound the same. But God, think of how God wrote his word. It's more like playing instruments. Men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. Peter is a certain kind of instrument, like a musical instrument. What would Peter be? Well, Peter was kind of brash. He'd be like a trombone—just kind of out there and loud. The Lord would play through Peter, and you could tell, "Hey, that's a trombone." Then he would put down Peter and pick up Paul, who maybe was like a clarinet. A clarinet doesn't sound like a trombone. But the Lord can play the trombone and the clarinet and the flute and the cello, and he can put that all together.

There are 40 writers of the Bible. He can play through those guys and create a symphony. You can tell this is a different instrument; this sounds different, but they can all play the same symphony, and it can all work together for a beautiful song. That is how God put together the Bible. When the scripture talks about being inspired, that's a good way to think about it. God moved those guys like a wind moves a sailboat. God played through those guys like a master musician would play through an instrument. If you think about the Bible, there are 66 books, 1189 chapters, 31,101 words, and 783,137 letters, all inspired by God.

Some people say, "Well, you know, there's no way that the Bible can be the word of God. Maybe it contains some of the word of God, but it can't really be the word of God." The Bible doesn't just contain the word of God; the Bible is the word of God. The Bible doesn't just contain truth; the Bible is truth. "Thy word is truth." The Bible was written by 40 different writers from all different walks of life. Some were kings, and some were commoners. Some were priests, and some were prophets. Some were, as in Peter's case, fishermen. One guy was a fruit picker—Amos was a fruit picker. Daniel was a public official in the kingdom of Babylon. All sorts of different writers that God used: 66 books over 1500 years, 40 different authors, three languages—Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek—written on three continents in 13 countries, covering hundreds of controversial subjects. Yet the Bible fits together. That is amazing.

Well, how does that happen? It's inspired by God, and God put it together. God used men to put together his word. Some people say, "Well, you know, I can't believe the Bible because there are errors in the Bible." They argue that this isn't the original, so how can this book be what God may have communicated a thousand years ago? The conservative Bible scholars say, "Well, Moses wrote those." But Moses has been dead a long time, and we don't have his original writings. What do we have? We have copies of those. Surely over the years, the copies have changed, and so you can't trust it because things get, you know, just like the stories you tell in school. You play that little game where you tell a story to this person, and then this person tells the story, and that person tells the story. After 10 people, the story is so different, and surely the same thing happened with the Bible, right? Wrong.

Did you know that up until the 1940s, the oldest Old Testament manuscript we had was from 900 A.D.? The Old Testament was finished in writing by 400 B.C. But the oldest manuscript we had was from 900 A.D., 1300 years from the original. Well, that's a long time. You figure in 1300 years, lots of changes, right? Well, in 1947, a great archaeological discovery occurred. Some little shepherd kid was playing around in an area, threw a rock in a cave, heard some shattering of pottery, threw some more rocks, and heard more shattering. They went up there and found one of the greatest discoveries: the Dead Sea Scrolls. In the Dead Sea Scrolls, they found so much of the Old Testament. These documents were from 100 B.C. Remember, up until that time, the earliest document we had was from 900 A.D. They found documents that were a thousand years older than the oldest documents we had.

They checked those documents out and found the whole book of Isaiah in the Dead Sea Scrolls. They especially checked out Isaiah 53 because it had so many prophecies about the Lord Jesus Christ, about the suffering servant. In Isaiah 53, there are 166 words. When they compared the Dead Sea Scrolls from 100 B.C. to the 900 A.D. document, they found 17 letters that were in question. Of those 17 letters, 10 were just spelling differences, and four were stylistic differences. There were only three letters that made up one word that was different, and that one word didn't change the meaning at all of the particular verse. So what they came to realize was the Bible hasn't changed. God has preserved his word. He wrote it through men, and he preserved it through men.

When people say, "Well, you know, science disproves the Bible," I say, "No, it doesn't." They argue, "Science tells us that man wasn't created; man evolved." Hey, last I checked, it's still called the theory of evolution. It's not the fact of evolution; it's the theory of evolution. I thought this was interesting: in 1861, the French scientific community came up with a publication called "51 Incontrovertible Facts that Disprove the Bible." Did you know today there's not one reputable scientist that believes any of those so-called scientific facts? Science changes all the time. They find out new things in science and say, "Oh, we were a little wrong here." The Bible never changes.

You have to remember something about the Bible: the Bible's not a history book, although it has lots of history in it. The Bible is not a scientific book, although it has scientific facts in it. The Bible was written from God to us to teach us about himself, to give us revelation about himself. But when the Bible does talk about history, it's accurate. When the Bible talks about science, it's accurate because it's God's word, and God speaks the truth.

Speaker 2

There's so much more to learn about how trustworthy the precious gift of God's Word is. And Pastor Jeff will return tomorrow to continue this revealing study and show us how we can know that the Bible really is true. It's a message from Pastor Jeff's seven-lesson series. Now that's a tough answer to the difficult questions of life.

You know, we get a lot of people writing and emailing us asking for prayer because they are struggling with their salvation, their sin, and their fear of God dropping them from his family. The pattern is clear: people doubt God because they have trouble trusting in what he has promised in his word. But as we're learning today, and will again learn tomorrow, the Bible is true, and God can be trusted to never let us down.

We're able to bring that kind of message to you and countless others who listen around the world and across this country because of the financial support from those who are blessed by this ministry and want to help others find that peace in the storm. For your gift of any amount from His Heart this month, we'd like to thank you by sending you Pastor Jeff's six-lesson series, "Life's Big Questions," and his booklet, "The ABCs of the Christian Life," both for your gift today from His Heart of any amount. To get them, call 866-40-BIBLE (866-40-BIBLE) or go to fromhisheart.org.

Thank you so much for joining us to expand the reach of From His Heart to more people with the good news that is so paramount for a lost world to hear today. Again, thank you for your prayers and your support. Together we are making a real difference.

Well, time's gone for today. I'm Larry Nobles, trusting you'll join us on Friday for part two of "Is the Bible Really True?" That's next time when we'll open up God's Word and share real truth, real love, and real hope. From His Heart.

Speaker 1

There is truth.

Speaker 2

From His Heart is the listener-supported broadcast ministry of Dr. Jeff Shreve, speaking the truth in love to a lost and hurting world.

Remember, no matter what, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.

Find out more about that when you go to promisheart.org.