Thru the Bible

Steve Schwetz: Can an intelligent person believe the Bible? Well, that’s what our teacher Dr. J. Vernon McGee talks about this time as we make our way through the Bible. I’m your host Steve Schwetz, and I’m so glad that you’ve hopped aboard the Bible Bus for our fourth message in his small but important series called Guidelines for Understanding Scripture.

It’s a practical series, and more importantly, it lays the foundation for all of our studies of God’s word, beginning in Genesis next week. So, if you missed one of the first three messages in this series, they’re available anytime on our app or at ttb.org. Or if you’d like some help finding a local radio station that carries Thru the Bible, call us at 1-800-65-BIBLE.

Let’s pray as we dive into our study. Heavenly Father, thank you for your word that helps us understand your plan and purpose for our lives. We pray for those who are listening who don’t yet know you, Lord. Please speak to their hearts, prompting the faith response that would change them forever. Thank you that your word will reach far and wide according to your promise. In Jesus’ name, amen. Here’s Thru the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Now we want to return to the study of the Bible, and we’re talking about the Bible now, and we mentioned the fact that there are four great divisions, and I spoke on revelation, inspiration, illumination, and interpretation. Now these are such important subjects that I’m returning to them today just to add a word or two as we go along, because very candidly, we are dealing with a book today that’s under attack as no book has ever been under attack.

Dr. McGiffert years ago made this statement—he was a great professor, by the way, of history, but he took this viewpoint and I’m quoting him now—"And there are probably few Protestant theologians today who treat the early chapters of Genesis as sober history." And may I say to you, these statements like that could be multiplied ad infinitum.

For instance, Dr. C.H. Dodd. He said long ago, it became clear that in claiming for the Bible accuracy in matters of science and history, its apologists had chosen a hopeless position to defend. The harm has been done to the general conscience by allowing the outworn morality of parts of the Old Testament to stand as authoritative declarations. Now, may I say to you, these are very serious attacks, and they can be multiplied today, and even in some of our so-called conservative seminaries today, some very strange things are being said.

In Vassar College, for instance, and I was interested in noting this, that Mary McCarthy writing on the Vassar girl back some time ago in Holiday magazine. She said that the curriculum of the college was as it had always been, with just one exception, and the curriculum went something like this: the English language, its literature, other modern languages, the ancient classics, and so on and so on.

And then finally it says, and I’m reading now, "Last and most important of all, the daily systematic reading and study of the Holy Scriptures as the only and all-sufficient rule of Christian faith and practice." And Mary McCarthy said the curriculum, except for the last proviso, remains the basis of the Vassar education. In other words, the Bible has been kicked out lock, stock, and barrel.

Now, let me put over against this some very interesting statements, because of the fact that we are living right now in a day when the divisions among so-called Christians just doesn't happen to be according to denominational lines. And it was as far back as 1902 that a cabinet minister in Great Britain made this statement, and I’m quoting him, "The old denominational barriers are growing shadowy and unreal. The real division that is coming is between those who believe that the Bible is the word of God and those who do not." And that’s where we are today, by the way.

And I personally resent the statement that some of these men make that no intelligent person today believes the Bible and that no intelligent person could believe the Bible. Let me quote from Gladstone, probably one of the greatest legal minds Great Britain ever produced, and they’ve had some giants, by the way. Here is what he says, and I’m quoting him now, "Talk about the questions of the day, there is but one question and that’s the gospel. That can and will correct everything. I’m glad to say that about all the men at the top in Great Britain are Christians."

Now that was back in 1902, and may I inject something else? That may be back of Great Britain’s present problems. Now I’m reading again from Gladstone. "I have been in public position fifty-eight years, all but eleven of them in the cabinet of the British government. And during those forty-seven years, I have been associated with sixty of the masterminds of the century, and all but five of the sixty were Christians."

May I say to you, that’s a tremendous statement. I personally think that part of the problem we’re having in the world today is that we have too few Christians at the top, and therefore, we have too few who know the most important book in the world, which happens to be still the word of God itself. Now, not only is that true of this man Gladstone, but may I say that other great men down through the history of the world have taken that position.

Michael Faraday, and I suppose that he was the greatest scientific experimenter the world has ever seen. And there’s a very few men that enter a laboratory today and pour acid in a test tube or look through a microscope that don't have to pay tribute to this man here. He was a genius. And this is what he said: "But why will people go astray when they have this blessed book of God to guide them?"

And then Sir Isaac Newton, he was born way back yonder, and he was a scientist, and he made this statement. He says, "If the Bible is true, the time will come when men shall travel fifty miles an hour." And Voltaire, the skeptic in that day, answered like this, "Poor Isaac, he was in his dotage when he made that prophecy. It only shows what Bible study will do to an otherwise scientific mind."

And may I say, we can see today what it did do. It proved that Voltaire was very much mistaken and proved to be very much a fool in many respects in his attack upon the Bible and that Sir Isaac Newton probably knew something that he did not know. May I say to you, these are remarkable statements that we have given to you here, and I could multiply these and bring in today many that believe the Bible.

Now, that leads me to say a word concerning the first of these four very important subjects that relate to the Bible. Revelation means God hath spoken, and "thus saith the Lord" occurs over twenty-five hundred times in the scripture, and the scripture does claim that it is plenarily, verbally inspired of God. Now that brings me to the second great subject, which is inspiration, and inspiration guarantees the revelation that we have from God.

It was not too many years ago that Great Britain bought Codex Sinaiticus from the Russian government for the British Museum, and that was back, by the way, in 1933, and they paid at that time one hundred thousand pounds, that’s half a million dollars, to get that document. This is what Sir George Kenyon, who was the late director and principal librarian of the British Museum, and here was the statement he made, and I’m quoting, "Thanks to these manuscripts, the ordinary reader of the Bible may feel comfortable about the soundness of the text. Apart from a few unimportant verbal alterations natural in books transcribed by hand, the New Testament we now feel assured has come down intact."

May I say to you, that was one of the most important discoveries that was ever made. You can be sure today that we have that which is as close to the autographs as anything possibly can be. And not only that, inspiration still guarantees the revelation that we have. Now we believe actually that the autographs are the ones inspired, and for that we believe in verbal plenary inspiration.

Now when we talk about verbal plenary inspiration, we want to be very clear what we mean about that, and that means that we believe that the words are inspired and that we believe that all the words are inspired. So that today it’s the words and, of course, not the thoughts, and we’ve already amplified that I think a great deal. And it was way back yonder, Irenaeus, one of the church fathers, said, "The scriptures indeed are perfect, forasmuch as they’re spoken by the word of God and by his spirit."

Augustine made this statement. He says, "Let us therefore yield ourselves and bow to the authority of the Holy Scripture, which can neither err nor deceive." May I say that we need to recognize that we have a book that is fully inspired, and as that great giant of Princeton years ago said, "Whatever the Bible says, God says." And he speaks in this book to our hearts and to our lives.

Now, I want to move down because actually last time I did not amplify enough concerning illumination and interpretation. And I’d like today to amplify a great deal what we said last time about illumination. Now illumination means that you and I have a book, and we have said it’s a God book. It’s a human book written by men who were expressing their thoughts, but when they do that, they are writing down the word of God.

And the marvel of it, and the thing that makes it supernatural, is that God without destroying their personalities—he didn't turn them upside down like a fountain pen and write with them—they wrote what was in their minds and hearts, but the spirit of God so guided them that many of them actually wanted to look into the things they wrote about but couldn't. That’s what Peter says. And they wrote without error.

Now, Moses made mistakes, and he wrote about those mistakes, but the writing about those mistakes, there was no mistake, my friend. That, may I say, is a record that when he’s giving to us the word of God, that we are getting a revelation from God. Now in view of the fact that that is true, we’re dealing with a book that takes more than just mental acumen in order to understand.

Paul made a very interesting statement, and that statement is simply this—he says, and I’ll have to turn to it now, it’s found in 1 Corinthians 2 beginning at verse 7—"But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory. Which none of the princes of this world knew, for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written, eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love it."

Now, you and I today get most of what we know through the eye gate and the ear gate, or by reasoning, by thinking, rationalizing. Now, actually Paul says here that there’s certain things that eye hasn't seen, certain things that ear hasn't heard, and there’s certain things that you can’t even get into your head at all. Well, how in the world are you going to get them?

Well, a great many in the past have taken this verse of scripture to a funeral, and I’ve heard it used at a funeral years ago like this, that Brother so-and-so, he was a great fellow, didn't know too much down in here—and that’s the inference always—but now he’s gone up there and he’s really got on his thinking cap now, and he knows things he didn't know before. Well, I think maybe that’s probably true. I think we’re going to get quite an education, we’ll get a new degree when we move up there, but that’s not what this verse says.

Paul says there’s certain things right down here long before you get to the undertaker. There’s a lot of things down here that you and I can’t get through the ordinary natural means that we learn. Well, how are we going to get them? Verse 10 now: "But God hath revealed them unto us by his spirit, for the spirit searcheth all things, yea the deep things of God." Now the Holy Spirit has to be our teacher.

Now you will recall that back on the day of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, he walked down the Emmaus road and joined himself there with a couple brethren that were walking along. He entered into their conversation, by the way, and he asked them what in the world it was that had engaged their conversation.

Well, the very interesting thing is they said, "Well, is it possible you’ve been around here and you don't know what’s taken place in Jerusalem?" He said unto them, "What manner communications are these that ye have one to another as ye walk and are sad?" And the one of them whose name was Cleopas answering said unto him, "Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem and hast not known the things which are come to pass there in these days?"

In other words, he says, "Why if you were just a stranger around here, you should have known about this." And he said unto them, "What things?" And they said unto him, "Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet"—you notice that *was*; far as they’re concerned he’s gone, but he was talking to them—"and he was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people. And how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death and have crucified him."

And you remember he predicted that, and the very interesting thing, prophecy had been saying it for years. And then they expressed that faint hope that had died out: "But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel, and beside all this, today is the third day since these things were done." And they went on to tell about it, what they knew and what had been found out when they left Jerusalem, that the women had reported, apparently not many paid too much attention to what the women said.

And not only that, verse 24, "Certain of them which were with us went to the sepulcher, found it even so as the women had said, but him they saw not." And then their hopes dimmed, and darkness entered their hearts. Now listen to the Lord Jesus. And he said unto them, "O fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory?"

And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. Friend, wouldn't you love to have been there that day and have heard him go back into the Old Testament and lift out the scriptures concerning himself? And when he finally made himself known to them as they sat at the meal—you see, it’s when you’re feeding on the word of God and feeding on him, that’s when he reveals himself in all of his glory.

And this is their comment: "And they said one to another, did not our heart burn within us while he talked with us by the way and while he opened to us the scriptures?" You see, we’re studying a book, friend, it’s different from any other book. It’s not that I’m just believing today in the inspiration of the Bible, why I believe that this is a closed book unless the spirit of God will open your heart and make it real, by the way.

And so, I find that he continued teaching at that time because when he returned to Jerusalem, he appeared to the disciples, and then will you notice down in verse 44 of Luke 24. And he said unto them, "These are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and in the Prophets and in the Psalms concerning me."

Let me pause there. He believed Moses wrote the Pentateuch. He believed the Prophets spoke of him and that the Psalms, that all of them pointed to him. Now, here is the great verse: "Then opened he their understanding that they might understand the scriptures." And friends, if he doesn't open your understanding, you’re just not going to get it, that’s all. And that’s the reason we ought to approach this book in great humility of mind, and I do not care how high your IQ is.

I hope I’m talking right now to some young graduates of some of our seminaries today who think they know it all. Well, may I say that I went through that period, too. I thought when I was in seminary I knew it all, but I’ve found out since then that there are one or two things I don't know. I’m going to keep reading here because it’s important.

And he said unto them, "Thus it is written and thus it behooved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations beginning at Jerusalem, and ye are witnesses of these things." Now will you notice how they’re going to witness? They’re going to have to have a little help, in fact, they’re going to have to have a whole lot of help.

Verse 49: "And behold I send the promise of my Father upon you, but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high." In other words, you will have to have a teacher to open the word of God to your understanding. Now, I go back to 1 Corinthians again and this passage that I was reading. And he goes on to say, Paul does in 1 Corinthians 2 verse 13, "Which things also we speak not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God, they’re foolishness unto him, neither can he know them because they’re spiritually discerned."

I’m never disturbed when one of these unbelievers, even if he’s a preacher, who comes along and says today he no longer believes the Bible is the word of God. He never did believe it to tell the truth, but may I say to you, that’s the way he should talk. I mean, after all, if you’re not a believer, you couldn't believe it. It takes the spirit of God.

And you know, it was Mark Twain that made a very interesting statement, and he was no believer. He says that he was not disturbed by what he did not understand in the Bible; he said what worried him were the things he did understand. And there are things you can understand and it’s that that keeps many away from the word of God.

It was Pascal who said, "Human knowledge must be understood to be loved, but divine knowledge must be loved to be understood." There needs to be that illumination. It was Robert Alfred Vaughan who made this statement, speaking of these unbelievers in their conceited rejection of the light without until they have turned into darkness their light within.

And that’s what Paul meant when he says that they would not receive the love of the truth and God would let them believe a lie. The unbeliever’s said some harsh things about us, but God has said some very harsh things about him. We’re going to say just one further word on illumination and then talk on interpretation next time. May God richly bless you.

Steve Schwetz: Join us next time for more of Dr. McGee’s guidelines for understanding scripture. Until then, get our app or visit ttb.org and download Dr. McGee’s booklet of the guideline series called How to Understand the Bible. It’s a great summary of these first ten studies of how and why we study God’s word together. You can even print it out and tuck it in the back of your Bible as we tour God’s word together or maybe share a copy with a friend.

And if you’d like to get in touch, super simple. Just call 1-800-65-BIBLE or email biblebus@ttb.org. Well, I’m Steve Schwetz, and as always, I’m going to meet you back here for another great adventure in God’s word next time.

Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain, he washed it white as snow. Thru the Bible exists to take God’s whole word to the whole world, and we invite you to stand with us with your faithful prayer and financial support. Where will God’s word go today?