Can I Trust the Bible?

Why should anyone trust a 2000-year-old book?
This sermon examines the credibility of the Bible in light of contemporary opinions.
https://www.anushjohn.com/post/can-i-trust-the-bible

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Transcript

Anush 0:02

Good morning. I have been shown in the files of the war department that you are the mother of five sons who died gloriously in the field of. I feel how weak and fruitless must be, any words of mine, which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. I pray that a Heavenly Father may asate the anguish of your bereavement and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and the lost and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly, a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom. Yours very sincerely and respectfully, A Lincoln that was a letter written by Abraham Lincoln to Mrs. Bigsby when she lost five of her sons in battle. The 1998 Steven Spielberg movie, saving Private Ryan was based on this story, except it's not true. Mrs. Big Speed did not lose five sons in the field of battle. And this letter was not written by Abraham Lincoln. This morning we are gonna look at a letter and check the validity and the credibility of that letter. In a sermon entitled, can I Trust the Bible, we are gonna see if the Bible is a trustworthy document. I've divided this sermon into four parts, and in the first part we will look at the instability of contemporary opinion. Now the sermon is on whether we can trust the Bible or not, but I wanna change the question around and ask what contemporary opinion can we trust? What contemporary opinion can we trust? I'm, and I'm not gonna talk about subjective issues like art and music and architecture or fashion. All those are subjective issues and opinions can change, from day to day. But I wanna look at objective contemporary opinions and see if they are stable and trustworthy. First, let's look at cultural morality. Is cultural morality dependable and unchanging? In the past, shoplifting used to be a crime, but there are certain cities in America where groups of people can go into a store and ransack the store and come out. The guards don't do anything. The police doesn't do anything. The DA doesn't do anything. And even if he does anything, they are let go the next day. What was cultural taboo 10 years ago is culturally accepted today. What was a perversion 20 years ago is lauded today. So you see how unstable cultural morality is. Second, let's look at science. Is science completely accurate, stable, and trustworthy? Now, since the enlightenment of the 17th and 18th centuries, science replaced religion as the arbiter of, opinion and morality. About three weeks ago, we called somebody to have our roof checked out, and we knew the roof was changed about 25 years ago, and we wanted a change. So the roofer came and looked at our roof and uh, he said, you know, in the past they used to do two roofs 25 years ago. You have two roofs, you've got one roof. And then they thought it was a great idea to put another roof on top of it. That's not what we do. Now, that is an all school thinking. And as he's telling me this, I thought to myself, you just told me that what they did 25 years ago is old school, and that's not how you do it. How do I know that what you're saying now is not garbage in 25 years? It may well be, you see in the field, let's say for, electrical work, you had, copper wires in the past and you had to change it all to aluminum wiring. And how do I know, in 25 years, you don't have to change all the aluminum wiring to titanium. You see how scientific opinion changes. But one of the best examples of a changing opinion in the hard sciences is in the last a hundred years in the field of cosmology. Now the Bible talks about God creating everything. He created the universe, but science said that the universe was UNC caused uncreated, eternal and static, that the universe was eternal. But in 1917, Einstein's observation of gravitational forces upended this model. And based on his work, Russian mathematician by the name of Alexander Friedman and Belgian astronomer by the name of George's LaMere, they found out based on, Einstein's work that the universe is actually expanding. Then Edwin Hubble, based on Redshifts, he, found out the Recessional motion of the stars and confirmed that the universe is expanding, that there was an isotropic expansion of the universe. And so when they extrapolated the expansion of the universe backward, they came to a singularity, which they called a big bang. And you see how the opinion has completely changed. It took about 70 years since, Einstein said it, and the opinion completely changed To say the universe was eternal to saying that the universe had a starting point called the Big Bang in many scientific fields. What was standard opinion 50 years ago is obsolete now. Third, let's look at the field of medicine. Is medical opinion permanent? No guidelines and recommendations change constantly. About 10 to 12 years ago, I was in medical school and one of the rotations that we had in medical school was a psychiatric rotation. The school where I studied medicine, we had a psychiatric hospital and then there was another building across the road where we had our theory classes, so we would have to walk from one to the other. one afternoon I found myself walking from one building to the other with the head of the department of psychiatry at the hospital. And of course I had some questions because we were, uh, studying about psychiatric medicines for the pediatric patient population. And so then I asked them this question, are we a hundred percent sure that we know all the irreversible side effects of the medicines that we are giving to our pediatric population? He said, we are not. So then I had another question because I have always questions I asked him. Is there a chance that in 20 years from now we will turn back and say, man, I wish we did not give those drugs to that set of patients. He said, yes, there is a chance. We cannot trust medical opinion completely because we don't know. We don't know fully. But the other main reason why we cannot trust science or medicine completely is because both of them are corrupted with cultural morality. Just as an example, and I'm not arguing for or against the motion, just as an example, let's say that there is a valid double blind, randomized controlled study that is available to say that there is nothing like climate change. right. Let's say that there is a study that comes out. Will that be released? No. Why? Because cultural morality is the gatekeeper and it will not let studies come out that affects the culture. And so I cannot trust the opinions or the scientific field and medicine completely because they are corrupted by cultural morality. So if there are studies that go against medicine, but they're culturally appropriate, that will come out. You can see surgeries being done today where it is, it is culturally appropriate, but against medicine, but it's okay to do it in this context of unstable opinion. I want to talk about the stability and the credibility of the Bible. Second, let's look at the rational credibility of the Bible. The credibility of the Bible is one of my favorite topics, one of my subtopics in all of apologetics. There are many reasons why the Bible is credible. About four months ago, I was invited to speak at a church in Dallas where I spoke on the topic, is the Christian faith relevant today? And I gave multiple reasons of why the Bible is credible. There are so many reasons, so I'm gonna give you two other reasons that I did not say at that time. First, let's look at archeology. In 1812, Swiss Explorer, Johan Ludwig, Burkart saw some black stones with strange writing in the city of Hamma in northern Syria that did not resemble Egyptian writing. In 1834, French Explorer, Charles Texier saw a huge city with a wall three miles long with writing on it. That was similar, that did not resemble, Egyptian writing. And this was in Northern Turkey. The other one was in northern Syria. And, the architecture also did not, reflect Greek or Roman architecture. It was a completely different architecture and different writing, and they didn't know what it was. Even the local people in Northern Turkey didn't know the origin of the rooms. They didn't know which civilization was here before them. Over the course of the next 50 years, they found numerous examples of this writing over a span of 800. And they didn't know what it was. Finally, in 1880, at the London meeting of the Society for Biblical Archeology, William Wright and Archibald Sati made their formal claim based on the Bible that this civilization were the long lost hitite. But scholars criticized them because they made their claim based on the Bible. Until German archeologist Hugo Winkler would decipher 10,000 clay tablets and the uniform writing on them and say, yes, this was indeed the Luan language, which was the language of the Hitite. What does the Bible have to say about this? Apparently a lot in Genesis after 23 verse 17 and 18, it reads, so, Efron's Field was deeded to Abraham as his property in the presence of all the hitite who had come to the gate of the city, the second most sacred site. In Judaism was the burial site of Abraham, and the burial site of Abraham was owned formally by Hittites. And then you come to Deuteronomy and you find verses where it says that the Hittites were living in the land when, the people of Israel came from, Egypt to Kanan. Moses w writes that the Hittites were already there in the land. And then you come to Second Samuel and, Cheba, the, the wife of David, her former husband was Uriah. The Hitite you see over several centuries. And there is 46 mentions of the word hitite in the Bible. But no mention of the Hitite in any writing in anti. There is no other ancient document that talks about the hitite, even though they were spread over 800 miles and over, hundreds of years. There are hundreds of such thousands of such examples where the Bible is used as a historical document to corroborate archeological findings when there is nothing else, and it shows the credibility of the Bible. Second, let's look at prophecy. Now, prophecy is something that's very unique of all religious books. The Bible has prophecy in it, and it is very unique. There are many Old Testament and New Testament prophecies. There are many Old Testament prophecies that were fulfilled by Jesus in the New Testament. On, on 1 24 hour day on Good Friday, Jesus fulfilled 37 prophecy. And the prophecies Jesus fulfilled were, prophesied 500 to thousand years before Jesus was born. So it's not like, well, I'm gonna make a prediction two years from now. And you know, and no, that's not how, it's, these prophecies that Jesus fulfilled were between 500 to thousand years before, he was born. In fact, David, thousand years before Jesus predicted the method of crucifixion, of piercing the hands and feet 400 years before the Romans even invented it. He talked about the crucifixion. So what are the odds of one person fulfilling eight prophecies by chance? What are the odds? Not 37 prophecies, but eight prophecies of one person fulfilling eight prophecies by chance. And that is one intent to the Power 17, one Intent to the Power 17. That's one followed by 17 zeros. And in a book called Science Speaks by Peter Stoner several, several decades ago, he gave an example of what those numbers mean. And many people have used his illustration over the years, and I'm gonna adapt it myself. Let's say that I've got nothing to do this coming week. And so I take silver dollar coins and I go across every state in the Northeast except Maine. And I scatter silver dollar coins across Maryland, dc, Pennsylvania, New York, Delaware, Connecticut, uh, except Maine, you know, New Hampshire, Vermont. Uh, and, and Rhode Island. You know, let's not forget Rhode Island. Um, and I scattered these silver dollar coins up to two feet in height. Now that is 250,000 square miles. If there's somebody online watching from outside the US that's 676,000 square kilometers. And if you're watching from outside the us, that is the entire space of France. in Asia. It is all of the Philippines and all of Japan. In Africa, it is all of South Sudan. In South America, it's all of Venezuela and Chile. That's the area. Okay? So I go out this next week and I spread out silver dollar coins all across the northeast except Maine for a height of two feet. And then I need a volunteer. Ma'am, what's your name? Darlene Darlene and your last initial r r. So I ask Darlene, can you, can you be my volunteer? She says, yes. Um, under duress and, uh, Uh, and, and I take one of those silver dollar coins and I write, uh, Darlene what? R Dar, d r and, and I spend the next week going around the entire 250,000 square mile region. And I mix up all these coins and I throw this Dr. Coin right in the middle of it. And then I tell Darlene, Darlene, now's your time. I blindfold her and I ask her to go anywhere. She. She has one chance. In one chance she can go anywhere in the Northeast or anywhere in France where these, these coins are cowed for two feet in height and she puts her hand in wherever she wants and she picks it out. What are the odds that the first coin she picks up is the coin that has her initials on it? That is the odds of one person fulfilling eight of these prophecies. By chance, Jesus didn't fulfill just eight prophecies. He fulfilled 37 prophecies on one day and 300 prophecies in his lifetime. There is no other book that is like the Bible in the way that, it can make the claim. The Bible is clearly not of human origin, and because it is of divine origin, it is therefore credible. Amen. Third, let's look at the experiential credibility of the Bible. Its transformative power. Hebrews chapter four, verse 12, reads, for the word of God is alive and active, sharper than any double its sword. It penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit joins and marrow. It judges the thoughts and the attitudes of the heart. 50 days after Jesus rose again on the day of Pentecost. in Acts chapter two, Peter stood up and he preached the gospel, and the Bible says that people were cut to their heart when they heard the word of God and 3000 of them God converted. The word of God has changed thousands and millions of lives just by listening to it. Let me tell you one story about it. When I was 19 or 20 years old, I was still back in India and I used to lead three bible studies a week, and two of them were in pharmacy schools in India, we call them Pharmacy College, college of Pharmacy. And one of them was at a dental school. So I would do three bible studies a week. And the way that I did it was I, I took my guitar along, I had some printed song sheets. We all sat around in a circle and we sang some songs. There were some Christians, some Hindus, some Muslims, Then I had these little booklets of the Gospel of John that we gave out, and we went from John one. The first week we did John one, uh, second week weed, John two, and we kept going in one of those colleges by the name of K l E College of. The first week that I was there, there were about 12 to 15 students sitting around in a circle. We did our singing and I gave out the Gospel of John and we started to discuss it. And, and as we were discussing it, I recognized that there was a Hindu kid about 17 years old. He was sitting in the corner and, he was not a pharmacy student, but he was a relative of a friend who happened to be there. And so he showed up. So I talked about John chapter one, and then, we were done. I took all the, stuff back and as I was writing my motor back and hour back home, I remember thinking this to myself in my P sized brain. I thought, man, I wish that we were doing John chapter two instead of John chapter one, because there was the miracle of Jesus turning water to wine. John chapter one has a profoundly theological passage of the first 18 verses. You can spend three lifetimes studying it, and you'll never, plumb the depths of that passage. And I thought to myself, I wish I was not doing John chapter one. I wish that kid was there when we were doing John chapter two, because I knew that I would not see him again. I never saw that kid again. But about six months later, I got a phone call on a Sunday morning. I picked up the phone and somebody told me that Abi Sheik got baptized today. His dad, who is from a violent, fringe Hindu group, was coming to stop the baptism with his friends, but he came too late. And that kid, that 17 year old kid got baptized. Today, ladies and gentlemen, I had underestimated the power of God's word. The Bible has transformed lives and cultures for 2000 years, and it can change your life and mine. We asked the question, can I trust the Bible? I suggest that the Bible is more trustworthy than any contemporary opinion today. If the Bible is trustworthy and we are down to our, our fourth part of the sermon, if the Bible is trustworthy, how is our Bible reading? Let me ask you a question. How many of us read the Bible for 30 minutes this morning? Uh, uh. Actually, I'm, I'm not asking you to raise your hands, It was a rhetorical question. you know, it's a rhetorical question because I put my hands down. If I raise my hand then, but thank you. Thank you. For those who raise How many of you read your Bibles 30 minutes this morning? I understand. You know, it was, uh, you know, we had to, we had to get ready, come to church. We had to eat our, eat our weedies and come to church. But how about yesterday? How about 30 minutes yesterday, radio Bible, 30 minutes yesterday. How about this past week? 30 minutes, every day, this past week. Are there portions of the Bible that we have never read? If so, why? Why is there a portion of the Bible that we have never read? Second Timothy three 16 says, all scripture is God breathed all scripture. Every part of scripture is God breathed. How does God speak to us? How can we find out God's will? The only objective way that God speaks to us is through the Bible. The only objective way. He may give impressions or dreams or visions or other ways, but those are all subjective and all subjective ways of knowing God's will have to subject to the objective way of knowing God's will, and that is the Bible. If there is a discrepancy between the Bible and your dream or vision or anything else, Guess what? Steps aside the subjective way, step aside. Because the objective fact of God is the only objective way that God speaks to us. Yeah. How do we know about heaven and Hell and about ourselves, about God, about Jesus Christ, about the Holy Spirit, about sin and morality. If we don't read our Bibles, how do we know? I suggest that we read our Bibles 30 minutes every day. That's a minimum time. If you can, if you can read three hours every day, that's fantastic. That's great. But 30 minutes are like a minimum time. But you gotta regiment it because if you don't regiment it, it's never gonna happen. It's gonna get crowded out. So if in your how you make a rule, I say, you know, daddy's gonna be reading his Bible from eight o'clock to eight 30 every evening. And that's a set thing in the house. Or Mama's gonna read her Bible from nine to nine 30. Or kids one and two are gonna read it from seven 30 to eight and kids three and four are gonna read it from 10 to 11, 10 to 10. We need to regiment it. If we don't regiment it, we will wake up in the morning and we'll think, man, I need to read my Bible, but we are too tired. We go back to sleep and then the day goes by and then in the evening we are too tired and there are so many other things to do and that we are not gonna read it. I understand. We get through certain busy periods. If you have zero time for social media and zero time for tv, and zero time for entertainment, and then you can read a Bible only five minutes. I get it. Otherwise, let's put a time on it. Let me tell you a story. About 22 years ago, I was still back in India those days. I, got into a partnership. in private practice with my best friend. Now, before I bought, my share, he was in a partnership with that practice with another friend of ours. So when I came, one guy sold his side of the practice to me, and we both became partners. And so when I got there, there was an established practice going on with established staff. And one of the staff was a young lady who was in her early twenties, who was a Muslim convert. She had become a convert before I got there, and she was very passionate about the Christian faith and between patients. She would read her Bible at the beginning of the day. She would come early from from home because she was the only convert. The others were all Muslims at home. So she would come early and read her Bible. At the end of the day, she would read her Bible before she went back. The first year I got there, we wanted to do some renovation work. So I told my staff, let's shut the office down for about a week. All of you go home and my partner and I will come and we'll do the renovation for a week. In the middle of the week. About three days into the renovation, this young lady comes, and when she came, she's usually very bubbly and cheery and very personable, but now she was not. She was very subdued, and we said, well, Reshma, why are you here? You can, you can go home. You don't need to come back for three days. She set a quick high and went right through the renovation into her corner where her bag was kept packed up because of the renovation. She opened her bag, rued through it, took out her Bible, and started to read it for three days. She didn't read it and she was parched. She was famished. She was starving and now all she could think about was to open the Bible and read it and fill herself and get satisfied with the words of life that were in that Bible. How is the passion for our Bible reading? If we didn't read the Bible for three days, would we miss it? If not, then we need to regiment it. Regiment it until it becomes a habit and until we miss it. What is the main reason for the supremacy of the Bible? Yes, it is because it is God breathe. But the other reason is that the Bible talks about Jesus. The focus of the Bible is Jesus. On resurrection Sunday, Jesus was walking with two of his disciples from Jerusalem, seven miles to this little town called ESAs. Let's pick up the story in Luke chapter 24, verse 25 and 27. He said to them, how foolish you are and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory? And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the scriptures concerning himself. The Bible is all about Jesus Christ is the focus of our attention, and he is the answer to our deepest needs. When the ancient Hindu Saint Christ lead me from lives to truth, Jesus says, I am the truth. When the ancient Hindu Saint says, lead me from darkness to light. Jesus says, I am the light of the world. When the ancient Hindu Saint says, lead me from death to immortality. Jesus says, I am the resurrection and the life. Ladies and gentlemen, he did not come merely to preach the gospel. He himself is the gospel. He didn't come merely to give bread. He said, I am the bread. He didn't merely come to shine a light. He said, I am the light. He didn't merely come to show the door. He said, I am the door. He didn't merely come to name a shepherd. He said, I am the good shepherd. He didn't merely come to point the way he said, I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life. I'm gonna give the opportunity for two groups of people to respond to the summit. If there's anyone here who's never come into a personal relationship with Jesus, I'm gonna ask you to stand up and they're gonna pray together. If you're hearing the sermon now or later, you can raise your hand or stand up wherever you are. Secondly, if there's anyone who wants to commit to reading their Bible 30 minutes every day, you can also stand up and we will pray together. Yes, if there's anyone here who's never invited Jesus into your life, You can pray this simple prayer after me. The prayer itself is not a magical prayer, but if it's something that you mean from the bottom of your heart, God will answer it. You can pray something like this. Dear Lord Jesus, I am a sinner and I cannot save myself. Thank you for your life, your death, your resurrection. I ask you to come into my life and make me complete. I ask you to change me from the inside out. I ask you to be the Lord of my life. Help me to live for you. Thank you for the promise of eternal life. Heavenly Father, I pray for the rest of us. You have put into our hands the word of life. And we have ignored it. You have given us everything we need for life and godliness into our hands, and we have ignored it. I pray that you would give us the strength to make a stand. Help us to move things around so that we can make time to spend with you because time will not automatically come. Help us to make time to read your transforming word that can transform our lives. Help us to learn more and more about you as you reveal yourself through your word. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Now, be the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father in the sweet fellowship of the Holy Spirit. Be with us both now and forevermore. Amen. Thank you.