Thru the Bible

Steve Schwetz: How can we be sure that the Bible is the Word of God? Well, Dr. J. Vernon McGee says one item is conclusive proof. Welcome to Thru the Bible. I'm Steve Schwetz, your host on this five-year journey through God's entire Word. If this is your first trip on the Bible Bus, welcome aboard, my friend.

Sitting around you are listeners from more than 250 languages worldwide. So, as you climb aboard, my friend and Thru the Bible's president has a letter to share that reminds us of just how much we all have in common.

Greg: It's pretty amazing, Steve. And you and I have had the privilege of traveling around the world—not everywhere, but we've been a lot of places. And this is true. Even though we do have people listening and watching in more than 250 languages living in different countries and cultures, our hearts are really the same.

We wrestle with the same things: desires, fears, longings, and our prayers echo one another. And we know that because of the letters. Here's a great letter that—why don't you get started with this letter that I think reflects this so well?

Steve Schwetz: This is Robert in Alabama. He really says it beautifully: "The World Prayer Team is a way for me to connect with fellow believers who are praying for each other and for the Kingdom to grow. As I read updates each day, I've learned a few things. One, often those we pray for have the same or similar hopes and fears that I have."

Greg: And you and I can relate to that. I think of sitting in a home group in a tin shed in Bangladesh with you and hearing the prayer requests of the people in that group—praying for their son's physical ailments and disabilities, praying that marriages would be healed, praying for someone's salvation. Those are common. That could be happening in your small group tonight.

Steve Schwetz: Number two, "They pray for their family for protection, safety, salvation, as I do for mine. They desire for friends and relatives to come to know Jesus. That as I struggle with sin in my life, there's someone else out there with the same problem, and as I pray for them, I believe that they are praying for me." That's so key.

Number five, I continue on: "That as I pray for these fellow Christians in countries where they face death or persecution, it makes me thankful that I live in a country where I can openly be a Christian. In short, the World Prayer Team helps make the world a smaller place and hopefully brings us as believers to a greater understanding of each other."

Greg: What a great letter. So many truths are coming out of that letter that you pointed out. Also, you might say, "What's the World Prayer Team?" Well, Steve loves to say it's easy to sign up.

Steve Schwetz: Just go to TTB.org and sign up today. It's super easy.

Greg: It is. And every day you will get, Monday through Friday, a different country you'll be praying for. I'd say the majority of them have a great testimony and give you an insight into what other believers are wrestling with around the world. And that's what Robert is talking about here.

Steve Schwetz: It really gives you a greater awareness of the larger body of Christ and the victories and challenges that they face. I know sometimes you feel like, "Gosh, am I the only one?" and I don't hear about these testimonies and how's the Lord moving around the world.

When you get on the World Prayer Team, you have front-row seats to the best of the best in terms of what's going on, and there is so much. There's so much that we don't even know about, but there's so much that we are getting feedback on, and it will reinvigorate your prayer life if it needs some invigorating and it’ll even give it more rocket fuel if you’ve already got a great prayer life. Greg, it's time to get to our study. Why don't you pray for us?

Greg: Father, just thank you that we get to be a part of this work that you're doing with so many people around the world. And your Word is changing people's lives, the Gospel is impacting people deeply, and we pray you'll continue to do that. In Jesus' name, amen.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Now, friends, today we continue on with guidelines for the study of Scripture. I've spent a great deal of time here talking about the book that we're going to go through in the next five years—the Bible. And I want to say a good word on its behalf, and that's the reason we've taken this extra time, as it's being attacked as no other book is today.

Now, we come actually today to our last study in the Bible itself, and next time we'll begin to talk about the guidelines that we suggest to you for studying the Bible in light of all that we've already said. Now, I know at this particular juncture that someone is going to say to me, "But Dr. McGee, how do you know that the Bible is the Word of God?" Well, it's a good question, and it should be asked and answered, and we would like to offer our answer to the question.

There are many ways of proving it. There's internal evidence and which, of course, we'll be examining as we go through the Scripture, and I've called attention to some already. One of the objective proofs, one of the external proofs, has been the marvelous preservation of the Bible. There have been times when actually the Bible has been reduced to just one volume, and there was a king of old we read about him in Jeremiah, and when the word was sent to him, he took a penknife and he cut it to pieces.

But it's quite interesting that we have that word today. There have been a great many Bible burnings. There's a great deal of antagonism to it. They don't burn it today because we're a little too civilized, we think, in this country, so the way they do is just outlaw it in our schools and in many other places. And yet we talk about that we have freedom of religion and that we have freedom of speech today.

And wouldn't a person be free if he wanted to read the Bible? And as we've suggested before, they deny themselves of the greatest literature when the Bible is denied to young people today. In spite of all the attacks, though, that have been made upon it, it still exists. And of course, it's one of the best sellers. There were for many years it was the best seller, and it's not today. I regret to have to say that, but it is true that it's not the best seller at the present time.

And that is certainly a commentary on our contemporary society which reveals that the Bible is not really occupying the place that it once did in the history and the life of this nation. Now, I think the preservation of it is worthy of consideration. Another way in which we can know is the fact of archaeology. The spade of the archaeologist has turned up many things that have proven that it is the Word of God.

Now, for instance, there are those that many years denied the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch on the basis that writing was not in existence in Moses' day. And for that reason, he could not have written the Pentateuch. You haven't heard anyone advance that theory recently, have you? Well, of course not. Now, for years, the spade of the archaeologist has turned up writing that goes much farther back than Moses, so that is no longer a valid argument.

And then we find that the spade of the archaeologist has turned up again and again evidence of that. The city of Jericho and the walls that fell down—now, there has been some argument, but I think that it's pretty well established that walls fell down. And I'll let them debate about the time and all that sort of thing. I believe that the Word of God has been substantiated there and in many other ways. Archaeology has demonstrated the accuracy of the Word of God and many of the manuscripts that have been found do that.

It's quite interesting when these Isaiah scrolls, Dead Sea Scrolls, were found, my, the liberal leaped at that because he thought he found an argument that would discredit the Bible. It's quite interesting how it has not discredited the Bible, and it seems that the liberal has lost a great deal of interest in the scrolls, the Dead Sea Scrolls, that were found. There are many ways in which we could go into this. This is a field into which I do not care to enter at any great length.

Now, I want to give a reason if I were asked, "What do you have as a conclusive proof? If you just had one thing to suggest, what would you suggest as be a conclusive proof that this is the Word of God?" And you know what I would suggest? I would suggest fulfilled prophecy. Fulfilled prophecy. I believe that that is the one proof that you can't escape, you can't get around. And the Bible is filled with fulfilled prophecy.

One-fourth of the Scripture when it was written was prophetic, was prophecy. That is, it announced things that were to take place in the future. Well, a great deal of that, in fact, a great deal more than people imagine, has already been fulfilled. Again, we could turn to many places where this has been fulfilled exactly. You'll find that there were many local situations that were fulfilled even in the day of the prophet.

Micaiah was a prophet who told old Ahab that when he went out to battle, he'd lose the battle and he'd be killed. And old Ahab didn't like it because his false prophets had told him he'd have a victory and he'd return as a victorious king. But he didn't like what Micaiah said, and he said, "Lock him up. Feed him water and bread. That's all you give him. And I'll take care of him when I get back." And Micaiah shot back the last word. He said, "If you come back, the Lord hasn't spoken by me."

Well, evidently the Lord spoke by him because Ahab didn't come back. He was killed in the battle. He was defeated. And he attempted to camouflage himself, but you see, a soldier, one of the enemy, the Scripture says he pulled a bow at a venture. That is, when the battle was about over, he just had one arrow left in his quiver, and he just put it in there and he just shot it out in space.

But you know, that arrow had old Ahab's name on it, and that arrow wandered around, went around trees and around rocks and down this road and up this path, and finally, it found old Ahab. The only thing is it didn't do it quite that way. It just went right to its mark like an arrow. Why? Because Micaiah had made an accurate prophecy. And Isaiah in the same connection said the Assyrian wouldn't shoot an arrow into the city of Jerusalem.

Well, now that's interesting. A soldier shot an arrow by chance, a bow at a venture, and wouldn't you think that among 300,000 soldiers that one might be trigger-happy and pull the bow back? And there would be the bow at a venture and he'd let an arrow fly over the wall of Jerusalem. Well, he didn't. Isaiah said that if the enemy shoots an arrow inside this city, you can be sure that I am not God's prophet.

May I say to you, those were local fulfillments of prophecy. But Isaiah also said a virgin would bring forth a child, and that was 700 years away before it was literally fulfilled. And then if you want a final proof, there were over 300 prophecies concerning the first coming of Christ. They were all literally fulfilled. He was hanging there on the cross and dying and there was one prophecy that had not been fulfilled, and that was, "They gave me vinegar to drink." And he cried out, "I thirst," and the enemy himself went and fulfilled prophecy.

May I say to you, it's a most amazing thing. But man can't guess like that. It's been rather amusing to watch the weatherman. During the summer season in Southern California, he does fine, but when we get to the change of seasons, well, your guess is as good as his. He doesn't always hit it. Now in the nation Israel, a prophet had to be accurate, and if he wasn't accurate, why, he would be put to death.

God said that you always know that a thing has to come to pass that he says. He has first of all to speak into a local situation which Isaiah did, and then he can speak out yonder to the future as Isaiah did. We can look back and know that it was fulfilled. But there are so many other prophecies. Tyre and Sidon are over there today exactly as God's Word said 2,500 years ago they'd be, and there they are.

May I say to you that Egypt today is in exactly the position God said it would be in. All of these are amazing, friends, and that's one of the greatest proofs. You see, man just can't be that accurate. Man can't guess like that. As we said, the weatherman misses it. Let me show you that actually, according to mathematical law, mathematical law of problematical conjecture, why, man could never, never prophesy.

Now, let me give you just a very simple illustration of this. Suppose that I right now would make a prophecy. I don't know where you are, and I don't know what the weather is. But suppose I'd say to you right now, wherever you are, that it's going to rain tomorrow. Well, may I say to you, I'd be 50-50% chance of being right because it's either going to rain or it's not going to rain. It'll do one of the two.

Now, for some of you, it probably would be accurate, others it wouldn't be accurate, but I'd make the statement. Now, suppose though I'd add to that and I would say it'll start raining tomorrow morning at 9:00. And that'll be another uncertain element. Now, I had a 50-50 chance of being right at first. Now I have a 25% chance. Every uncertain element that is added here reduces the chance of being right 50%, you see, the law of problematical conjecture.

Now, suppose that I not only say it's going to start raining at 9:00, I say it'll stop raining at 2:00. Well, believe me, friends, that's reduced our chances now another 50% which brings it down to 12.5%. Can you imagine my chance of being right now? It'd be just 12.5%. But suppose you add 300 uncertain elements. And may I say that there's not a ghost of a chance of being accurate, of being right. You just couldn't hit it. It'd be impossible.

And yet the Word of God hit it, my friend. It was quite accurate. And if I even would dare to come along and have given these three uncertain elements and then I would add another one, I'd say then at 2:00, it's going to begin to snow. Well, I want to tell you, by then, friends, there would be somebody come forward and lead me away—probably the man with the little white coat—and he'd say, "My, you need to be put away, boy, because of the fact that you are doing something that is absolutely ridiculous and something that could never come to pass."

Now, the Word of God has moved into that area. That to me is absolute proof that this is the Word of God. There is nothing to compare to this at all. Now, I have only given very little of fulfilled prophecy. May I say to you that in the Word of God, there is prophecy after prophecy, and they have been fulfilled and not only fulfilled but fulfilled literally. And by the way, that gives, I would think, the method in which prophecy for the future is yet to be fulfilled.

Now, there is one final, well, in fact, there are really two final reasons that I offer as proof that this is the Word of God. One is the transformed lives of believers today. I have seen what the Word of God can do in the lives of men and women. I'm thinking right now of a man who listened to this program up in Oakland, California. I know this man. This man was—I'm not going into detail in his life at all.

But he probably had as many problems, he had as many hang-ups, he was in as much sin as any man that I know anything about. And did you know that this man began to listen to the radio program? And I hear people just hear it for the first time and converted. That's wonderful, and I think it's possible. But this man listened to it for week after week, and he became antagonistic. He became angry.

He said to me that, "If I could have got to you when you told me, when you were teaching the Epistle to the Romans, that I was a sinner," he said, "I would have hit you in the nose." And frankly, friends, I think he could have done it. He's much bigger than I am and much younger than I am. I'm glad he couldn't get to me. That's another reason to appreciate this radio, by the way. You can keep a big fellow like that at arm's length, and you can still call him a sinner.

And so this man now turned to Christ. May I say to you, it's been wonderful to see what God has done in his life. Sometime ago, I read a letter of an entire family way back in Indianapolis through the Word of God. They came to a saving knowledge of Christ, and an entire family is changed. May I say to you, friends, that again and again and again and again, this could be multiplied of those who've had their lives transformed by coming to Christ.

Now, let me give you a reason that's a rather personal reason. And I generally am personal, but this may be even a little more personal. When I finished seminary, I was what would be called a preacher who preached in the realm of the defense of the Gospel. And I attempted to defend the Bible. In fact, I think every message I had entered into that area. And I felt that if I could get just enough answers to the questions that people have for not believing in the Bible, that I'd be able to just mow them down.

And I attempted to get them. And I found out that in certain cases though where I could answer the individual, that the worst thing in the world to do would be to whip a man down intellectually. The minute that you do that, you've made an enemy, and you'll never win him for the Lord. And so I found out that I was being self-defeated by that method. So I moved out of the realm of apologetics because I was an apologetic preacher.

And I moved into another area of just giving out the Word of God simply as we attempt to do it. And the reason that I've done this is because there's been a certain development in my own life, and that is I've reached the place today where I not only believe that this is the Word of God—may I say this to you, and I don't want to appear to be overly dogmatic, and that is I want to say that I know it's the Word of God.

And I know it's the Word of God because of the fact that the Spirit of God has made it real to my own heart and my own life. That's the reason that I know this is the Word of God. And that was the thing that you recall that Paul talked to the Colossians about. He said to them that they might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. And he prayed for that.

And that would be the thing that I'd want people to pray about. I thank God for the great army of folk that continue to remember us in prayer. Friends, I also want to be filled with the knowledge of his will in wisdom and spiritual understanding because I found out that the Spirit of God can confirm these things to your heart and that you don't need archaeology. Some young preacher said to me sometime ago, "Dr. McGee, isn't it wonderful that they have discovered this?" and he mentioned something in particular.

And I said, "Well, I don't see anything to be excited about." And he was greatly disappointed and even chagrined that I was so far away from it that I did not respond in any way. And so, why, he says, "What do you mean? Is it possible that this doesn't impress you?" Well, I said, "Did you know I already knew it was the Word of God long before the spade of the archaeologist turned that up?" And he said, "How did you know it?" Well, I said, "The Spirit of God's been making it real to my own heart."

Friends, may I say to you—and this has been personal—I pray for you who listen to this program as we enter into the five-year program that the Spirit of God is going to make the Word of God not only real to you to incorporate into your living, but he's going to give you that assurance that you can say today, "I know that it's the Word of God." And if the Bible says two plus two equals five, I'll know that sometime in the past or sometime in the future, two plus two is going to equal five. But the interesting thing is the Bible doesn't say that. It's only man who make errors with figures, not the Word of God. So until next time, my beloved, may God richly bless you.

Steve Schwetz: To read or study more on this subject, we’ve got several resources by Dr. McGee that'll firm up your convictions. Just get our app or visit TTB.org to check them all out yourself. And those are also great ways to hear this week's Sunday sermon, "What is Doctrine?" or call 1-800-65-BIBLE if you need help finding a radio station that carries it.

I'm Steve Schwetz, praying that you'll experience God's grace and peace as you walk with him in his Word. 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?