From His Heart

Guest (Male): This is From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve. Thank you for joining us today. The Bible, God's inspired and infallible scripture, is the book upon which Christians base our faith and where we find the answers to our toughest questions. But is the Bible really true? We'll find out for sure today as Pastor Jeff explains how we can know the integrity of God's word and that the Bible is accurate in everything it reveals.

This message is one of seven in Pastor Jeff's powerful and timely series called, "Now, That's a Tough One: Answering the Difficult Questions of Life." Once we've aired a message, it's available to hear again online at fromhisheart.org. Just click the Listen link. If you missed any so far, you can catch up there. Right now, open your Bible to the third chapter of the book of Genesis. Here's Pastor Jeff Schreve with a message and an answer to this question: Is the Bible really true?

Dr. Jeff Schreve: We read stories in the Bible and lots of people say, "Inconceivable. There's just no way this stuff can be true." Is the Bible really true? I have two main points that I want us to focus in on. Point number one is this: When it comes to truth, there are three categories of people.

First category: those who evaluate truth based on human reason. Lots of people do this when it comes to truth and the sourcebook of truth. They go by human reason. When it comes to the Bible, they read the Bible and say, "Does this make sense to me?" 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. This can't be true because it doesn't fit into my head.

Well, there are those who evaluate truth based on that. Number two, there are those who evaluate truth based on church authority. 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, what these folks who evaluate truth based on church authority do is say the church trumps the Bible. And if the Bible says this but the church says that, I go with what the church says.

There are people that do that. Galatians chapter 1 and verse 8 says this: "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: those who evaluate truth based on the Word of God. Everybody in this room, you can put yourself in one of those three categories. People who are in this third category, you look at this book and you say, "This book is not the word of man. This book is the Word of God. This book is the authority on life."

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. Second point: When it comes to the Bible, there are three things that you and I must know.

First thing we must know: The Bible is the inspired Word of God. It is inspired by God. Second Timothy chapter 3 and verse 16, Paul tells Timothy, "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.

People say, "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. Sixty-six books over 1,500 years, 40 different authors, three languages—Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek—written on three continents and 13 countries. It covers hundreds of controversial subjects, yet the Bible fits together. That is amazing.

How does that happen? It's inspired by God, and God put it together. God used men to put together His Word. 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.

The book of Daniel is a book that is often attacked by the liberals because Daniel said that the last king during the reign of Babylon was a king named Belshazzar. The archaeologists said, "There is no king Belshazzar. There was a king Nabonidus. Nabonidus is talked about in the documents that we have uncovered. Nabonidus was the last king of Babylon. So Daniel doesn't know what he's talking about, and whoever wrote Daniel doesn't know what they're talking about because there is no king named Belshazzar."

They were really eating crow when some archaeologist found and uncovered a tablet which mentioned on the tablet the name Belshazzar, who served as co-regent with his father, Nabonidus. For so many years, you had these people that would say, "See, the Bible's not true because we have fact here that nobody ever mentions some king named Belshazzar."

Just because they don't have anything that mentions that doesn't mean the Bible's not true. You just let archaeology keep uncovering things, and all of a sudden they found that tablet. It does mention a king named Belshazzar. Maybe the Bible is true. God preserves His Word. The Bible's inspired by God. You can trust that the Bible is true.

There are prophecies in the Bible, prophecies about Jesus, Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah, where He was going to be born, what He was going to do, and how He was going to give His life a ransom for many. That's Isaiah 53; it is all about the Lord giving His life. There are 61 really strong, rock-solid prophecies.

Somebody did a study and they said, "For eight of those prophecies to be fulfilled, what are the chances of just eight of the 61 being fulfilled?" The statistics, when they took it to a statistician to find out how likely it is that eight of those just eight would be fulfilled, the answer was, statistically speaking, one times 10 to the 17th power. That's a one with 17 zeros.

We don't really know what that is. What does that mean? This is the way the statistician put it in a way that we could understand it. For eight of these prophecies to be fulfilled, he said one times 10 to the 17th power would be like taking the state of Texas and filling it with silver dollars two feet deep, putting an X on one of the silver dollars, mixing it in the whole state two feet deep, dropping you in blindfolded, and saying you have one pick in all the state of Texas to pick the silver dollar that has the red X on it.

Do you think you'd pick the right one? Those are the odds that just eight would come true. That's one times 10 to the 17th power. You know what the odds are for 48 prophecies to come true? One times 10 to the 157th power. It's impossible for somebody to just luckily hit all of these prophecies. Obviously, God wrote the Bible. He did it through men. The Scripture is inspired by God.

You and I need to be solid on that. You and I need to know that. But not only is the Bible inspired by God, number two, the Bible is attacked by Satan. He hates the Bible. He hates the Bible. Why does he hate the Bible? Because Romans 10:17 says, "So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God."

He doesn't want you to walk in faith. He doesn't want you to put your faith and trust in Jesus. So he tries to destroy the Bible so he can destroy your faith, so he can destroy your relationship with God and your walk with God. When you see how the devil works and how he worked in the past, you can understand how he works today.

The Bible's very very clear how he works. In Genesis chapter 3, we see how the devil works. The first time we read about the devil in the Bible is in Genesis chapter 3. "Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, 'Indeed, has God said you shall not eat from any tree of the garden?'" Question mark.

How does the devil work when it comes to the Word of God? He wants to get you to question it. He wants to get you to question. That's what he did to Eve. That was the very first thing out of his mouth was to get her to question. "Indeed, has God said you shall not eat from any tree of the garden?" He got Eve to start questioning what God had said.

Once he can get you to start questioning, then he can get you to say with Oprah, "That can't be," because he gets you into human reason. What does your human reason say? This can't be true. I just can't see how Jonah could be swallowed by a great fish and still live. What kind of a crazy story is that?

A flood and one boat, and everybody getting in, all the animals coming two by two into a boat? No way. How is that going to happen? He gets you to start questioning. Once he gets you to start questioning, then he moves one step further to get you to start disbelieving. He wants you to question God's Word. He wants you to deny God's Word.

As he began to talk to Eve and started to question, "Has God really said this? Surely God wouldn't make a tree and then say you can't eat from it. I mean, that just doesn't sound right. Are you sure you heard God right?" She says, "I think He said this, but..." He gets her to question, then he gets her to deny it.

When she said, "We can't eat from the tree. We can't even touch it lest we die," he said, "You surely shall not die." That's the exact opposite from what God said because God said in the day you eat from it, you shall surely die. But he says you surely shall not die.

That's how the devil works. He gets you to question, then gets you to deny the Word of God. What happens if you deny the Word of God? What happens if you live your life as a Christian and you question this book and you begin to deny this book and you do like so many do in liberal seminaries where they say the first 11 chapters of the book of Genesis aren't true?

They're just stories. It's just a story to help you understand. They were just trying to present things in a way that people could kind of understand and just a good little story there. I like what Adrian Rogers says. "If Genesis 3, the fall of man, is not true, if that is fantasy and fiction, then John chapter 3 is a farce."

John 3 says you must be born again. Why do I have to be born again? You have to be born again because in Genesis chapter 3, you fell when Adam and Eve fell. That's why you have to be born again. The whole Bible falls like a house of cards if this part is not true, but this part is true.

You have to wonder, too, who's the one that starts to say this is true and that's not true? I'm of the opinion either all of it's true or none of it's true. Because if you start to pick and choose and say, "This is true but that's not true," then you become God. You become the one that determines truth and one that says, "Yes, this passes my test, but no, this doesn't pass my test."

People have questioned the Word of God and they've gone from questioning to denying. Once you start denying the Word of God, you go down the tubes. The Bible is food for your soul. It's milk; it's meat. We need it. We need to build our lives on it.

If you don't build your life on it and you don't receive it and you don't believe it, you go down the tubes. We've seen that with denominations that begin to question the Word of God, that begin to deny the Word of God. I love the story of Billy Graham and Charles Templeton. Billy Graham, household name, everybody knows who Billy Graham is.

Billy Graham and Charles Templeton were contemporaries. They both began to preach around the same time and they both started in smaller crusades that got bigger and bigger. Charles Templeton was the one that most people said was the better preacher than Billy Graham. That guy has so much potential. He has so much power in his life.

Charles Templeton began to read things. He began to question things. He began to look at evolution and he began to believe what science said over what Scripture said. He started to have a lot of doubts. He was talking to Billy Graham and he said, "Listen, Billy, you got to start questioning these things. I don't know if I really believe the stories in the Bible anymore, especially the first 11 chapters."

He started to have a lot of questions. What did he do with his questions? He went to seminary at Princeton. Bad move. That's a liberal place. He went there, and after he went to seminary at Princeton and got with those professors who filled his mind full of questions, he began to jettison the Bible. He began to jettison what he believed.

He has recently died, Charles Templeton. The last book he wrote, he got out of the ministry and he rejected everything. The last book he wrote was called Farewell to God. It was his life story about how he jettisoned the things that he was taught and the things that he supposedly once believed.

He was talking to Billy Graham at the time that he was going through all his questions and doubts. Billy Graham had some questions come into his mind. Billy Graham was in California. Billy Graham got alone with God. He went up into the foothills and he got alone with God.

He said, "God, I'm struggling. I have all these questions." He took his Bible, he had his Bible, and he put it on a stump. He opened it and he put it on a stump. He said, "God, people are saying this about your Word and saying that about your Word and I have questions. They ask me things about how does this fit together and how does that fit together, and I don't have the answers."

"But God," he said, "I believe this is your Word. God, I'm going to preach it and I'm going to live it and I'm going to believe it whether I can understand it or explain it or fit it all together or not." He just threw out the questions. He threw out the denials and he said, "I am believing your Word."

God blessed Billy Graham's preaching like He's never blessed another preacher before. Billy Graham has preached to kings and princes. He's preached all over the world. He's led hundreds of thousands of people to faith in Christ. He was at a precipice in his life. He was at a crossroads in his life.

Am I going to believe this book or not? Charles Templeton chose to disbelieve it and he went down the tubes. Billy Graham chose to believe it and his life took off and his ministry took off and God used him and is still using him today even in his old age in a great way for the kingdom.

The devil wants you to deny it and question it. Maybe you're here and you're saying, "I don't know if I can trust the Word of God." I want to tell you, you can trust God's Word. If you study it and study it and study it, you won't find hidden flaws; you'll find hidden beauty.

The last point I want to make: Not only is the Bible inspired by God, not only is the Bible attacked by Satan, but the Bible's worth your time. It's worth your time to read it. God encourages us to read it. Study to show yourself approved. The Scripture 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. The Bible is worth your time.

The book of Proverbs chapter 16 and verse 20 says, "He who gives attention to the word shall find good." I want to encourage you: Give attention to the Word. Give time in your day for the Word of God. Take time to memorize the Word of God and get it down in your heart. "Thy word," the Scripture says, "have I hidden in my heart that I might not sin against Thee."

When you're struggling, I tell people this all the time, when you're going through a hard time, spend time in the Word of God. The Word of God can lift your spirits. The Word of God can speak to your heart. David said, "When my anxious thoughts multiply within me, Thy word brings consolation to my soul."

If you're going through a hard time today, you need to spend time in the book of Psalms because Psalms will just speak to your heart and encourage your heart and it'll help you through the tough times. The book of Psalms can be summed up like this: Life is hard, but God is good. It helps you focus in on the good God who loves you. Is the Bible really true? I believe the Bible's really true.

Guest (Male): As Pastor Jeff Schreve has said on From His Heart today, the Bible is inspired by God. It's attacked by Satan.