Is The Bible Reliable - Part 4

II Timothy 3:14-17

One day a young boy was watching his pastor-father write out his sermon in long hand. “How do you know what to write?” The boy asked.

“God tells me,” the father replied.

The boy tilted his head, quizzically squinted one eye and asked, “Then why do you keep scratchin’ stuff out?”

We believe the Bible is the inspired Word of God. But what do we mean by that? How is the Bible inspired? And does that make it different from other writings?

    Artists often talk about their works being inspired. What they mean is that there seems to be some inexplicable, maybe even supernatural process behind their art. James Taylor once said, “I don’t really write songs, I’m just the first one to hear them.” Some artists say they don’t really create, at least not on their own. It’s as if the songs or works of art already “exist” somehow, and the artist simply discovers them, or painstakingly uncovers them.

But is that the same thing as the inspiration of Scripture? Did the Scriptures somehow already exist and the prophets and apostles merely uncovered them? Is the Bible inspired in the sense the artists talk about? If so, is it on the same level as other works of art? I think even James Taylor would agree that the Bible is a few steps above “Fire and Rain,” “You’ve Got a Friend” and “How Sweet It Is to Be Loved By You.”

    The Latter Day Saints make an interesting claim about the Book of Mormon. They say that in 1822 the angel Maroni told Joseph Smith where to find the Book of Mormon, which was written in a from of hieroglyphics on tablets of gold. Later Joseph Smith sat behind a curtain and translated the tablets to a series of several secretaries. By now you know that no one pretends we got the Bible in a similar manner.

    Similarly many Muslims believe that the Koran is an exact replication of The Book of Books, which rests eternally by the side of Allah. The Koran, they say, was dictated by the angel Gabriel to the prophet Mohamed over a period of 20 years. Again that’s significantly different from what we know about the Bible.

    II Timothy 3:16 says, “All Scripture is God-breathed …” That’s a very literal and accurate translation. The Bible isn’t merely inspired, like many great works of art. The Bible is “God-breathed.” But what does “God-breathed” mean?

MEANS OF INSPIRATION -- DICTATION?

Some people think this means that God whispered His Word to the Bible writers. They believe God dictated the Bible to the Prophets and Apostles.

Now, sometimes that’s exactly what happened. In the Book of Revelation, the risen, glorified Jesus speaks to the apostle John in a vision. In chapters 2 and 3 He dictates seven letters to seven churches. “To the angel of the church of Ephesus write:” (Revelation 2:1) “To the angel of the church in Smyrna write:” (Revelation 2:8) “To the angel of the church in Pergamum write:” (Revelation 2:12) and so on. There is no godly reason to doubt that John wrote precisely the words Jesus told him to write. The exact words Jesus spoke.

We find the same thing often in the Old Testament. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos or some other prophet will introduce a message with words like, “This is what the Lord says.” Or they’ll interject the phrase, “declares the Lord.” We find a perfect example in Isaiah 55:8-9 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD. ⁹ “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” The point is clear. That prophecy or pronouncement was dictated to the prophet by God. These are the very words of God.

Other times, however, it doesn’t seem that God is dictating the message at all. Remember Luke 1:1-4 Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, ²just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. ³Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, ⁴so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.

Luke carefully investigated everything from the beginning. Apparently he read what others had written. He talked to eye-witnesses. He did his research. Now why should he go to all of that trouble if the Lord was just going to dictate to him the words of the Gospel and of the Book of Acts, which Luke also wrote? Did all of Luke’s hard, historical research count for nothing? Of course not. Luke used it as he wrote. Luke recorded what he had learned.

Does that mean that Luke and Acts are not inspired by God, or that they are somehow less inspired than Revelation or the Prophets? Not at all. It just means that dictation isn’t the only means of inspiration God uses. God can do anything. He can even inspire historical research! Luke and Acts are still the inspired Word of God. If you doubt it, read them. They were just inspired in a different fashion from some other parts of Scripture.

You know, there are places where the Bible repeats itself, almost word for word. Sometime compare Psalm 14 with Psalm 53. One almost seems to be a copy, or better and edition of the other. There are passages in the books of Kings and the books of Chronicles that tell the same stories in very nearly the same words. The stories about King Hezekiah are fascinating. When we compare II Kings 18-20 with Isaiah 36-39 we find many places where the two accounts are word for word the same. When we read II Chronicles 29-32 we get a different slant on the same story.

Likewise, when we compare Matthew, Mark and Luke we find great similarities in the wording. In fact one excellent way to study those Gospels and to get a sense of the unique flavor of each one is to compare the similarities and differences in parallel passages.

Sometimes the Bible echoes in one place what it said somewhere else. Are the echoes in anyway less inspired? No. Even if the author of II Kings copied and edited passages from Isaiah, even if Luke took his cue from Mark or other early writings, God still guided these authors. After all, those passages were worth repeating! God still gave us His Word through the words of Scripture.

If we take the Bible at face value – and we’ll talk more about that next week – we see that, while all of it is inspired, not all of it was inspired by means of dictation. There is no reason to believe that God whispered in Paul’s ear as he wrote, “Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes to the church of God in Corinth …” (I Corinthians 1:1-2.) If so, then what do we make of verses like I Corinthians 7:12, where Paul said, “To the rest I say this (I, not the Lord).” Did God whisper those words in his ear or not? If not, and if inspiration means dictation, how are they inspired Scripture?

The Bible says that all Scripture is God-breathed. But if that doesn’t mean “whispered,” if it doesn’t mean “dictated,” what does it mean?

-- THE BREATH OF LIFE

Think for a moment about other places in the Bible where we are told that God breathed. Listen to Genesis 2:7. The LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. God breathed into Adam, and Adam came to life. Likewise God breathed His life into the authors of Scripture. God breathes life into the Scriptures themselves, and into us as we read them or hear them. Hebrews 4:12 says, “For the word of God is living and active.” All Scripture is God-breathed.

Or consider John 20:22. The risen Jesus appears to His disciples. He sends them out into the world, And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” The Lord breathed His Spirit into his disciples. The Lord still breathes His Spirit into His people. And the Lord breathes His Spirit into the Scriptures and infuses them with a power and an authority and a holiness infinitely beyond all mere human writings. For these writings are not merely human. Yes, they are written in human words. They’re not written in the words of angels (I Corinthians 13:1) or of dolphins or whales or any other creatures that may be able to communicate. They are written in the words of women and men. But they are not merely human words. For all Scripture is God breathed. And that makes them the very Word of God.

SEVEN SIGNS OF INSPIRATION

But how can we know the Scriptures are inspired? How can we know the Bible is the Word of God? Let’s look at seven ways we can know that.

-- MAJESTY

First, think about the majesty of the Bible, the sheer quality of the literature itself. Think about the 23^rd Psalm, the 90^th Psalm, the 103^rd Psalm. Think about the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), the great “Love Chapter” in I Corinthians 13 and countless other passages. Is there anything in Shakespeare or Sophocles or Ibsen or Pope that can match the beauty of these? Is there anything in Aristotle or Kant that can compare with the unfathomable depth and soaring grandeur of these? Judge for yourself. Read the Koran, the Upanishads, the Bhagavad-Gita, the sayings of Confucius or Lao Tse and see if anything in them has the power to stir your soul like the words of Scripture. Read and compare, and I bet you will say, “Yes! This is the Word of God.”

-- HARMONY

Or consider the harmony of the Scriptures, how all the parts fit together. Dozens of authors wrote over thousands of years, yet through them all, the Lord produced one unified message. This part supporting that part. One passage shedding light on another.

Some people will tell you that the Bible is full of contradictions, but that’s only true on a very superficial level. The better we understand the full scope of Scripture, the more we see how it all congeals. How it “jells.” For example, several times in the Gospels we come across things like Matthew 16:20 Then [Jesus] warned his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Christ. But in Matthew 28:18-20 Jesus says, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. ...”

First Jesus says not to tell anyone, then He says to go and tell everyone! Isn’t this a contradiction? Not when we understand these verses in the context of the whole story. The first happens during Jesus “earthly ministry.” This is before He goes to Jerusalem, where He is tried and crucified for claiming to be equal with God. Jesus didn’t want His disciples to have to testify against Him. The second happenss after God has raised Jesus from the dead and demonstrated His plan to save the world through Christ. That message must be told.

If you were to go to a piano and play a “middle C” (that’s the white key right before the two black keys) then play a “B” above, or to the right of that (that’s the white key just after the three black keys), it would sound horrible. Dissonant. However, if you were to play those two notes in the context of a C Major 7^th chord (for example, every other white key from “middle C” to “B”) you would hear a beautiful, lush harmony.

The Bible is like that. Taken out of context, different parts of the Bible can seem to clash. But when we take the whole thing together, it’s a gorgeous, moving symphony.

That’s why we should never be satisfied treating individual verses of Scripture like the scripts inside a fortune cookie. It’s okay to memorize individual verses of Scripture and to meditate on them. In fact, it’s very good to do that, and I strongly encourage you to do so. But when we understand those verses in the context of the grand sweep of Scripture, each verse becomes more powerful, more meaningful, more beautiful. The Bible fits together as an intricate, harmonious whole.

-- ONE STORY

Similarly, the Bible tells one story. Oh, there are twists and turns and hundreds of sub-plots. There are many intriguing little stories that can stand on their own: the story of Joseph, the stories of David, Elijah and Elisha and so on. But they are all woven together into one rich, textured, multicolored cloth.

And no, it doesn’t read like a novel from cover to cover. Genesis through II Kings tells us the story up to a certain point. I Chronicles through Nehemiah and Esther tell the same story from a different perspective, then carry it a bit farther. Then we have books of poetry, proverbs and prophecy that bring out some of the details of the story we’ve heard so far.

Next come the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, telling about the life of Jesus from four points of view. After that the Book of Acts tells us the history of the early church, particularly Peter and Paul. Then we have a collection of early church letters from Paul and Peter and James and John and Jude, the letter to the Hebrews and finally the Revelation of the end of history.

From start to finish, it is all one grand story of God’s dealings with humanity. From Genesis to Revelation it’s the story of what God has done, is doing, and will do through Jesus Christ.

Yes, even the Old Testament is about Christ. It points to Christ and prophesies Christ. And the Old Testament is incomplete, unfulfilled without the New. Look for example at Psalm 22 and compare it with the records of Jesus’ passion in the Gospels. In fact, the Gospel writers go out of their way to quote that psalm and other parts of the Old Testament in order to show how, in Christ, the Old Testament prophecies were fulfilled.

All of Scripture is one epic story. From In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1) to "I am making everything new!" (Revelation 21:5) it is the story of God’s great salvation for his people in Christ. Again, dozens of authors over thousands of years were used by the Holy Spirit to write one great saga of God’s eternal love. Surely this is the word of God.

-- HISTORY

Fourth, consider the historical accuracy of the Bible. Time and again skeptics have doubted that the historical information in the Bible could be trusted. For example, some historians proposed that King David never really existed, but that he was just a mythical figure. Then inscriptions regarding David and dating from about a thousand years before Christ were discovered. So much for that theory.

I’ve heard of a number of cases where archeological finds confirmed what the Bible said happened, but I’ve never heard of any that disproved a biblical account. I don’t know enough about Archeology to say that that field bolsters the reliability of the Bible as a historical document. But people like William Albright and William Ramsey know Archeology extremely well, and that’s exactly what they say. That doesn’t surprise me at all. This is the Word of God.

CHANGED LIVES

Or consider the effect the Bible has had on people’s lives. How many unbelievers have come to faith through reading the Bible? Who can count the number of people whose lives have been changed for all eternity because of an encounter with the Scriptures?

St. Augustine had fought against becoming a Christian all his life. Then one day as he was sitting in a garden he heard a voice saying in Latin, Tolle lege. Tolle lege. “Take and read.” It sounded to him like a chant from a children’s game. But there was a Bible next to him, so he picked it up and started reading. That very day Augustine gave his life to Christ.

CS Lewis was a professor of Classics at Oxford University. He set out to prove that the Bible was false. But the more he examined it the more he became convinced that this really is the Word of God. He became a Christian, and perhaps the most insightful Christian writer of the 20^th Century.

Josh McDowell has a similar testimony. He too set out to discredit the Bible, but the Bible proved him wrong. Today he leads a ministry that is sharing the Gospel message with people all over the world.

It shouldn’t surprise us that the Bible changes people’s lives. What John said about the purpose of his Gospel is really true about Scripture as a whole. “But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have faith in his name.” (John 20:31)

You see, God’s Word is creative. God’s word accomplishes things. Psalm 33:6 says, “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, all their starry host by the breath of his mouth.” Isaiah 55:10-11 say, “As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and to not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: it will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” God’s Word is potent. God’s Word changes lives.

MOLDING THE FAITHFUL

And not just the lives of unbelievers. The faithful are also nourished and strengthened by Scripture. God’s Word teaches us, guides us and helps us. It comforts us and confronts us. It challenges us and encourages us. When we read it or hear it and follow it, it molds us more and more into the likeness of Christ.

Scripture is majestic. The Bible fits together as one harmonious whole. It is historically accurate. It tells one great story. It changes the lives of unbelievers and strengthens the lives of believers. All of these are evidence that the Bible is the inspired Word of God. All these point to the fact that All Scripture is God-breathed. But none of these is the main way we know that Scripture is God’s Word.

-- THE SPIRIT SAYS SO

The main way we know that Scripture is God-breathed is that the Holy Spirit Himself seals its truth in our hearts. The same Spirit who inspired the Scriptures speaks to our hearts as well, convincing us that this is God’s Word. The same Spirit testifies that these words are the bearers of eternal Truth.

That’s why we always pray before we read the Bible. We don’t want to simply read words on a page. We want to be touched and transformed by the living, creative Word of God. So we ask God to breathe life into the Scriptures that they may come alive to us. We ask God to breathe life into us, so that we can understand His truth in the deepest parts of our souls.

The Holy Spirit alone convinces us that the Scriptures are God’s Word. If you doubt that, I simply ask you to try it. Ask the Lord to breathe on you. Ask the Holy Spirit to fill you as you read the Scriptures. Then read. Tolle lege. Not just a verse or two. Not just a chapter here or there. Read. Read the Bible expecting God to speak to you. If you’ve never read the Bible before, you may want to start with the Gospel According to John. Then read the other Gospels and the rest of the New Testament. Read the Psalms. Then read the whole Old Testament. Read with an open mind, and an open heart. See if the Spirit doesn’t convince you. Surely this is the Word of God.

For the last four weeks we’ve been investigating the question, “Is the Bible reliable?” Reliable? My friend, it’s the Word of God! All Scripture is God-breathed.

HOW TO COME TO SCRIPTURE

Now once we know that Scripture is God-breathed, once we understand that the Bible is God’s Word, that changes the way we read it or hear it. That changes the way we come to Scripture. First, because this is God’s Word, we can only approach it humbly and obediently. We can’t change it or ignore the parts we don’t like. We can’t correct Scripture. It corrects us. We can’t cut out the parts of the Bible don’t appeal to us. On the contrary, God uses the Bible to cut out of us those things that don’t please Him.

Second, because this is God’s Word, we come to Scripture full of joy and expectancy. Remember that God loves us and wants us to live life to the fullest. God wants us to know the joy and peace and hope and love that come from living the way He wants us to live, the way He designed us to live. God wants to conform us into the image of His glorious Son. And the God-breathed Scriptures are His favorite tool for getting us in shape.

Last week I invited you to start a love affair with the Bible. I know some of you have done that. Some of you have started reading your Bible more. That’s great. Keep it up. God will work wonders in your life through the Scriptures. I know there are things that are hard to understand. It isn’t always easy to see how something that was written to people who lived so long ago can be relevant to us today. And we will take up that topic next week. But for now, keep reading. Don’t just read it religiously, read it passionately. Lustfully. Insatiably. Marvel at its majesty. Revel in its harmony. Get swept up in its epic story. Let it change you. Let it comfort you. Let it confront you. Let it conform you into the likeness of Jesus. Open yourself to the Holy Spirit and ask Him to fill you, to teach you, to guide you. Tolle lege. Take and read. For this, my dear friends, this is the Word of God.

See the Westminster Larger Catechism, answer to question 4. “The Scriptures manifest themselves to be the Word of God by their majesty and purity; by the consent of all the parts, and the scope of the whole, which is to give all glory to God; by their light and power to convert sinners, to comfort and build up believers unto salvation. But the Spirit of God, bearing witness by and with the Scriptures in the heart of man, is alone able fully to persuade it that they are the very word of God.”