From His Heart

Speaker 1

Today on From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve, the answer to one of life's biggest and most important questions.

Speaker 2

Why should I believe the Bible? Can I believe the Bible? Is it true? Is it accurate? Is it reliable?

It's not just about knowing things about the Bible. In case you're ever on Jeopardy, you can be, hey, if the category is the Bible, I got this down. It's not just knowing facts and figures and little trivia things about the Bible.

But here's the question, is the Bible true?

Speaker 3

You there is bless. There is hope that you always dream love. He can heal every scar from his heart.

Speaker 1

Welcome to From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve, who this month is answering life's biggest questions. That's the title of the six-message series we're in now. And today, a question that is critical to learn so you can make sure you can make sense of the world: Why should I believe the Bible?

Of course, the fact is, if the Bible can't be relied upon, then we have no foundation upon which to stand morally. And worse yet, we don't have what we need most—a Savior.

This six-message series, along with Pastor Jeff's new booklet, the ABCs of the Christian Life, are our special gifts of thanks to you for your support this month of any amount. You can get this series in the format of your choice. Just go to fromhishheart.org and make that gift today.

But first, have your copy of God's Word open and ready to begin, as Pastor Jeff clearly explains, "Why should I believe the Bible?"

Speaker 2

Josh McDowell was leading a conference on the issue of the Bible. You know, he wrote *Evidence That Demands a Verdict*. He's done lots of study in this area. It was at a Christian school, and he had this girl in the audience. He went out into the audience and talked to her, asking, "Let me ask you a question." He had a Bible there and said, "Have you put your faith and trust in Jesus?" She replied yes. He then asked her, "Do you believe that this book is the word of God?" She said yes. He continued, "Do you believe it is true?" Again, she said yes. He asked, "Do you believe it is historically accurate and reliable?" She said yes once more. Then he asked, "Why?" She didn't say anything; she just had a kind of pregnant pause and a little nervous laugh. She didn't know what to say because she believed all that, but she didn't really know why she believed it. She didn't know how to articulate that.

Not wanting to embarrass her, Josh said, "You know, I have done this in many different instances. I could ask 10 people in the audience, 'Why do you believe the Bible is true and reliable? Why should someone else believe the Bible is true and accurate and reliable?' And so many Christians don't have an answer for it." I asked one friend the same question, just curious what this person would say. I said, "Why? Why do you believe the Bible is accurate and reliable?" She replied, "Because God says." I said, "Well, okay, that's not a great answer." It's like when you tell your kids, "Why is this, Daddy?" and you respond, "Because I said so." That shuts down the argument. I think for a lot of us, we just say, "Well, God said it, and we get a bumper sticker: 'God said it. I believe it. That settles it.' And don't ask me any more questions." But for someone who's struggling to believe, "God said so" might be a little harder for them to accept.

So we want to talk today about why I should believe the Bible. But in order to do that, first of all, we want to back up and answer the question: What does the Bible claim concerning itself? What are the claims of the Bible? If I say, "Why should I believe the Bible?" I need to know what the Bible is. I need to know what it claims. Now, the Bible makes some big, big claims. I want to share three of them with you.

First of all, the Bible claims to be the word of God, not the word of man. Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians chapter 2, "For this reason we also constantly thank God that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, 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." What was Paul preaching? Not the word of men. He was preaching the word of God, and the Thessalonians received it as the word of God. And that's what it really is. Our home verse for this message, Hebrews 4:12, says that the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword. It's living; it's alive; it's a different kind of book. And it's active. That word for active is *energes*, which means it has energy. That's where we get our English word "energy" from the Greek word *energes*. The Bible is the word of God, living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. The Bible is different from any other book. You read other books, but this book reads you. Because it's alive, there's something about this book that is different from all other books.

I like what one man said: "Men don't reject the Bible because it contradicts itself. They reject the Bible because it contradicts them." It's able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. It is a convicting book. It's sharper than any two-edged sword, cutting to convict and cutting to bleed. As Jesus said, men don't come to the light because their deeds are evil, so they don't want to come to the light. They back away from the light because the word of God is sharper than any two-edged sword. So it's the word of God, not the word of man.

Secondly, it is inspired by God and not invented by man. The scripture makes that clear in 2 Timothy chapter 3, verse 16: "All scripture, all scripture, Old Testament and New Testament, is inspired by God." That literally means that it is God-breathed. *Theo neustos* is the Greek word for inspired. "Theo," meaning God, and "neustos," coming from the word *pneuma*, which is the wind, the spirit, the breath. We read about that in John chapter 3, where Jesus said to Nicodemus, "The wind, the *pneuma*, blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it." So is everyone who is born of the spirit, of the *pneuma*. When it says that it's God-breathed, it means that God blew His life, His breath into the word. You remember how God created man in Genesis chapter 2? He reached down, formed man from the dust of the earth, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul. Well, that's what God did with His Word. He breathed His life into His Word. That's why it's living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword.

Peter says, "Just in case you think we made this stuff up," in 2 Peter chapter 1, "we didn't follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For when He received honor and glory from God the Father, such an utterance was made to Him by the majestic glory: 'This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.' So he says, we have the prophetic word made more sure, 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. But know this first of all, that no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God." What's he saying? He's saying we didn't cook this stuff up. We didn't imagine this stuff. We didn't invent this. There's no prophecy of scripture that came forth from someone's own heart. Men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.

Now, to be moved by the Holy Spirit—that's a sailing term. That's what sailors would do. They'd get their sails up, and the wind would catch the sails and move them along. That's what it means to be inspired by God. Men were blown along by the wind of the Spirit of God, and they spoke the words that God wanted them to speak. Now remember this: the Bible is not dictated by God; it's inspired by God. You say, "What's the difference?" Well, God didn't take Paul, for instance, and grab him like a pen and say, "Now I'm gonna write, and I'm gonna use Paul as my pen." The Bible writers, the men, they're not pens; they're instruments. They sound different—Peter and Paul are very, very different in how they write, in how they communicate. Just like in an orchestra, a flute doesn't sound like a tuba, but they can be played by the same person. It's a different sound, but the same one blowing breath into them. That is how the Bible presents itself: inspired by God, not invented by man.

Thirdly, it is the truth of God, not the musings of man. It's not the thoughts and ideas of man; it's the truth directly from God. Jesus said in His great high priestly prayer in John chapter 17, "Sanctify them in truth; Thy word is truth." What? Just the New Testament word? No, Old Testament word? All scripture is inspired by God. "Father, your word is truth." Jesus believed the Bible. He believed the Old Testament. Jesus believed in Adam and Eve; He talked about that. Jesus believed in Noah; He talked about Noah. Jesus believed in Cain and Abel; He talked about Abel. Jesus believed in the prophets. He believed in the history that is given in the Bible. Jesus quoted from the Old Testament. He believed it. And need I remind you that the one who believed it is the one who died and rose again from the dead just like He said He was going to do.

So the Bible makes these claims: this is the word of God, not the word of man. It's divinely inspired; it's God-breathed, it's alive, and it's true. This brings us to our original question: Why should I believe what the Bible claims? You might have a friend, a neighbor, someone in your own family, or somebody at school who says, "Well, you know, I don't believe the Bible." Do you just dismiss it like that? Many people say they don't believe the Bible, and they don't even know what's in the Bible. They don't know that the Bible claims all these different things. Let me give you three reasons. There are many reasons, but three reasons why you should believe the Bible.

Number one, the Bible has proven itself to be unique, reliable, and true. It's proven itself to be unique, reliable, and true. When we talk about the Bible, we kind of refer to it as just one book. I mean, this is the book called the Bible. But this isn't one book, really. This is 66 books—39 books in the Old Testament and 27 books in the New Testament. It's written over a period of 1500 years by 40 different authors. Those authors come from different walks of life: some were kings, some were fishermen, some were farmers, some were shepherds, some were prophets, some were priests—all sorts of different walks of life. It was written in three different languages: Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. It is written on three different continents: Europe, Africa, and Asia. The Bible is just remarkable.

Think of 1500 years with that many authors, people living in totally different governments, totally different cultures, and yet the Bible has a common theme. The Bible has a common storyline. The Bible has a common message. And the message is the message of salvation. That's what the Bible is all about. It's the message of salvation. It says, "Hey, God created it all, and man fell. But then God is seeking after man. Man doesn't seek after God; God seeks after man. God has made a way where there seemed to be no way. There is salvation in no one else except through the Lord and through His provision." In the Old Testament, God promised them a savior, and they were saved by faith in God's provision. In the New Testament, we're saved by faith in God's provision; we just know what God's provision is.

Old Testament people got saved by looking forward to the cross of Christ. New Testament people get saved by looking back to the cross of Christ, but it's still the cross of Christ—God's propitiation for our sins that saves us. God's sacrifice saves us. The Bible all comes together, and it has that common message, common theme, and common storyline. Now think of what other book you could put together. You go to the library, the greatest library in the world, and here's the assignment: come up with 66 books that are written over a span of 1500 years from men of all different walks of life and put those together. See if you can come up with a message that is common, a storyline that is common, a theme that is common in those 66 books written by 40 different authors. How are you going to do that? That's impossible.

A professor challenged a student who said he didn't believe in the Bible. He said, "Well, let me tell you about the Bible." He told him, "Here's your assignment: you go find 66 books from 40 different authors, and you find it where it all comes together." Listen, you can't get five historians to talk about the situation with Lincoln being shot to give you the same five accounts. They all come up with different things. It's going to be contradictory. That's with five. How about with 40? And how about with 40 who live 1500 years apart? The Bible is unique.

You know, the Quran that the Muslims say is such a holy book was supposedly given from the angel Gabriel to Mohammed, and he dictated it word for word—one book, one man that wrote it, Angel Gabriel. I think it was an angel, but it wasn't Gabriel; I think it was the angel Lucifer, the fallen angel. That's who gave the revelation. But the Bible is very unique, and the Bible is a book that is reliable and true. You know, the Bible is not a science book, but it does speak about scientific things. The Bible's not a history book, but it does speak about history. The Bible's not a book of poetry, although there's poetry in it. In all these different genres, whenever the Bible speaks on a subject, the Bible is true.

Some people say, "Well, you know, I can't believe the Bible because of science." I had somebody fill out a questionnaire on me. We send out a questionnaire to people that visit the church, and it's just anonymous. But they wrote back, and man, they didn't like me at all. I was kind of perked up; I was like, "Man, really?" They graded the sermon from one to five—one is the worst, five is the best. They gave me a one, and I think they wanted to give me a zero, but they couldn't. That's not one of the options. They said, "We came here, and we were excited because we like the children's ministry, but that preacher got up there, and he's so anti-science, and we're never coming back." I'm not anti-science. I don't believe in evolution, but evolution isn't science. Evolution is a theory—a kind of flimsy scientific faith. That's what evolution is. Science has to go in the lab. Science is repeatable things. They test things in the lab to make sure, "Okay, does this happen over and over and over again?"

When that happens, whether it's a chemical reaction or something like that, they say, "Well, science has proven X." We can't do that with creation. How are you going to do that with creation? Incidentally, the more that science discovers about cells, the more it shows that this universe was designed by an intelligent designer. As science gets deeper into microbiology and things like that, the ardent atheists say, "No, this just all happened." We believe that nobody times nothing equals everything. But the true scientist is saying, "This can't happen. It's impossible that this happens."

Now, let me just tell you some instances where people have said, "Well, I'm not going to believe the Bible because it doesn't match up with science." Science is constantly evolving, and I do believe in that kind of evolution. Science is discovering things; they're finding out things. Back in the day, many, many, many years ago, the science of the day thought that the Earth was flat. We learned about that. People thought that the Earth was flat. People were going to go out on the boat and say, "Oh, don't go too far, because if you go too far, you're going to fall off." That was the science of the day: the Earth is flat. You know what God said? He says very clearly in the scripture in Isaiah 40:22 that the Lord sits above the circle of the Earth—literally above the sphere of the Earth. Isaiah 40:22, written in the 700s BC, God was telling us in His Word that the Earth is not flat; the Earth is a globe, the Earth is a sphere.

They used to say, the ancients, when they were trying to figure out what the Earth rests on, came up with all kinds of ideas. Maybe you've seen one of those ideas where the Earth is on the back of Atlas, and he's holding it up. Some of the ancients said, "Well, the Earth rests on the back of elephants." And when there's an earthquake, the earthquake comes to be because the elephants shook. That's why there's an earthquake. You say, "What a bunch of dummies." Oh, it was a long time ago; that's what they thought. You know what God says in His Word in the book of Job, which is probably the oldest book in the Bible? The Bible says in the book of Job that God hangs the world on nothing. On nothing. What have we figured out now? God hangs the world on nothing. His Word is true.

You know what God says in His Word? You can't number the stars because they're like the sand of the seashore. There's too many of them. But way back when, in the early days of astronomy, you know what they did? They looked and numbered the stars and said, "You know how many stars there are? There are 1,023." I numbered them. The Bible says, "You can't number them, but I numbered them." The Bible's false. Somebody else came after that first astronomer and said, "No, I've counted them. There's more than that. There's like 1,035." So they counted and found some more. Now, in the days of the super telescopes, what do they tell us about the stars? There are billions and billions and billions and billions and billions of stars. You can't count the stars; they're just too many. Yeah, that's what God said in the book of Isaiah: you can't count the stars; they're like the sand of the seashore. The Bible is true concerning science.

Speaker 1

You're listening to From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve today. And the truth is, the Bible is true concerning science and everything else it addresses today. You've heard part one of the lesson called "Why Should I Believe the Bible?" It's from Pastor Jeff's six-lesson series, Life's Big Questions. Other profound questions in this series include: Does God really exist? Why am I here? Is true happiness really possible? How could a good God allow so much suffering? And what lies beyond the grave? This series is designed to help you find these kinds of answers and more in order to bring knowledge to your mind and peace to your heart.

Pastor Jeff is offering two special resources this month for your gift of support to From His Heart Ministries. The first is this six-message series, Life's Big Questions, with answers to the most foundational and sometimes controversial questions we have about God. The second resource is a bonus booklet entitled The ABCs of the Christian Life, both for your gift today of any amount to From His Heart. The series is available on a USB flash drive, CDs, DVDs, or as an immediate MP3 download. Just call 866-40-BIBLE (866-40-BIBLE) or go to fromhisheart.org to make that gift and request the series and the booklet.

Thank you for helping us change the world by sharing the Word of God. We couldn't do it without you. Thank you too for being here today on From His Heart. I'm Larry Nobles, trusting you'll be here again tomorrow for part two of this pivotal question for our culture and our world: Why should I believe the Bible? Join Pastor Jeff Shreve on Wednesday when he'll again open up God's Word and share real truth, real love, and real hope from his heart.

Speaker 3

There is treasure, there is blessing, there is hope that you always dream Love, we can heal every scars.

Speaker 1

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 He has a wonderful plan for your life.

Find out about that when you go to fromisheart.org.