Jeff Schreve - The Truth About The Bible

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Where do we find the truth about issues relating to spiritual truths? In the Bible. And the very first question is, «Yeah, but can I trust that the Bible is true»? Well, what does the Bible say about itself? Hebrews chapter 4, verse 12, «For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and 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 calls itself the Word of God.

The apostle Peter in 2 Peter chapter 1, this is what he said concerning the Word of God. «For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For when He,» Jesus, «received honor and glory from God the Father, such an utterance as this was made to Him by the Majestic Glory. 'This is My beloved Son with whom I’m well-pleased.' And we ourselves heard this utterance made from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain. So 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 arises in your hearts. But know this first of all…»

This is primary. This is of utmost important. «Know», utmost importance, «Know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture…» Nothing in the Bible is a matter of one’s own interpretation. «For no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God». The Bible is the Word of God. It says of itself. It’s inspired by God, and men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. Can you really trust that the Bible is the living and active Word of God? Let me give you three reasons why the answer to that question is yes.

Reason number one, the Bible is a unique book. It is a very unique book. It’s every year the number one best-selling book, the Bible. And we get it as one book. If you have brought in a Bible today, there’s a Bible in the pew rack, it’s one book. But the Bible really isn’t one book, the Bible is a unique book because of certain characteristics of the Bible. Number one, it’s a collection of 66 documents. It’s 66 books that have been collected together in one book. There are 39 books, documents, writings in the Old Testament and 27 writings, documents in the New Testament. And we put them together and we get 66 books of the Bible that make up, as we talk about the Bible, just one book, but it’s really a collection of 66 documents. That’s why when people say things like, «Well, that’s just in the Bible…» You know, you discount things because, «Well, that’s in the Bible. I don’t believe the Bible».

Well, if the Bible was all written by one person, then you could kind of throw that out. «Well, I don’t believe that». You know, the Quran is reported to have been dictated by God to Muhammad through the angel Gabriel. And it was written after his life, but over a 23-year-period Muhammad got this dictated to him and he had some men write this down. But it’s directly the Word of God, so they say. And the Bible is not like that, it’s a collection of 66 documents. So if you say, «Well, I don’t believe the Quran 'cause I don’t believe Muhammad,» well, that’s one guy and that’s easy. I don’t believe him either. I think he had a encounter with the demon, not the angel Gabriel but the father of lies Satan.

And so we say, «Well, yeah, but we have way more authors than that, human authors. We have 40 different authors». See, it’s a collection of 66 documents written over a period of 1,500 years by 40 authors. Well, then you start to perk up a little bit. It’s like, «Okay. Well, wait a minute. If I say, 'Well, I don’t believe Matthew, '» then you have Mark. «Well, what about Mark? He says almost the same thing as Matthew». «Well, I don’t believe Matthew and Mark». «Well, what about Luke 'cause he says the same thing as Matthew and Mark»? «Well, I don’t believe him either». «What about John»? And you start having all these other witnesses and sources.

So it’s written over a period of 1,500 years by 40 authors. It begins with the writings of Moses. The first five books of the Bible are called the Law of Moses or the Pentateuch or the Torah. The Old Testament goes from the writings of Moses, 1,400 BC to the 400s BC, the last book of the Bible the book of Malachi. Then you have the 400 silent years, and then we get into the birth of Christ probably around 5 BC when Jesus was born in Bethlehem, and then you have his life. He was crucified, according to scholar Harold Hoehner, he was crucified on April 3rd 33 AD and he rose again from the dead on the third day and he appeared to his disciples for a period of 40 days. Different occasions that he appeared to them. He ate with them. They touched him. They knew it wasn’t a ghost, and then he ascended to heaven.

Acts chapter 1, he said to wait in Jerusalem until the promise came from the Father, the promise from on high, which was the Holy Spirit that came upon them on the 50th day, the Day of Pentecost. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. Peter preached, Acts chapter 2, and 3,000 were saved. And then we start, that’s the birth of the church, and you have letters that are written in that time period. The New Testament, those 27 books of the New Testament were written around 46, 47 AD till about 95 AD.

So you have about a 50-year gap in there or 50-year timeframe in there that they’re writing the New Testament. Obviously, we know that the New Testament is way shorter, a shorter period of time than the Old Testament because the Old Testament is written over a period of 1,000 years. The New Testament is written over a period of about 50 years. Fifteen hundred years by four hundred authors. It was written on three continents in three languages. Written in Europe, written in Asia, written in Africa as Jeremiah wrote some from Egypt. Written in three languages: mostly Hebrew in the Old Testament, a little bit of Aramaic in the Old Testament, and all Greek in the New Testament. Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. And it deals, this is what is so interesting and unique about the Bible. It deals with controversial subjects over those 1,500 years by those 40 different authors in 3 continents and 3 languages and the discussion of those topics is in perfect harmony.

I mean, controversial topics talking about where did it all start, where did it come from, who made everything, how was the earth made, and, you know, what happens when a person dies, and what lies beyond, and why is there evil, and why is there suffering, and why, why, why. The Bible answers those questions. It deals with controversial issues such as sexuality, and morality, and immorality, and idolatry. And all of the Bible writers, it all fits together. It all dovetails together, which is amazing. You get 3 guys from the same hometown to write about things and they’re not going to agree; much less you get 40 guys from over 1,500 years from different parts of the world and they write about it, no way are they going to agree unless it is the Word of God.

So it’s a unique book. Secondly, the Bible is a proven book. Not just a unique book but a proven book. Can you trust the Bible? Yeah, you can trust the Bible. Well, why? Because it’s proven. It is time-tested. It is proven. Now, back to Peter. 2 Peter chapter 1, verse 16, he says this. And 2 Peter deals a lot with false teachers who had come in to deceive. He said, «Listen, let me tell you something about the false teachers». He has a whole chapter. 2 Peter chapter 2 is all about false teachers. He says, «Those guys they conjure up these stories, but we don’t do that». «We did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty».

And he tells about his experience he had with Peter, with James and John when they went up to the Mountain of Transfiguration and Jesus pulled back the veil of his humanity and let them see his glory. He said, «I was there. I saw it, and I saw, with Jesus as he began to shine like the sun I saw Moses who represents the law, I saw Elijah who represents the prophets. They’re all giving glory to Jesus. I heard the voice of the Father as a cloud engulfed us and the voice coming from heaven saying, 'This is My beloved Son with whom I’m well pleased.' I didn’t make that up,» Peter said. «I was there».

So the Bible is not a book of fables and myths like the false teachers have carefully craftily-designed tales. The word for tales in the Greek is the word mythos from where we get… mythos, I’m sorry. From where we get our word myth. The Bible isn’t a book of myths. It isn’t a book of fables. It has parables in it. It has apocryphal language in it. In the book of Ezekiel, the book of Revelation where… the book of Daniel where you read about things, but all those symbols that are given in the Bible, you know, a beast with ten horns. Those are symbolic language. It doesn’t mean there was an actual beast with ten horns. It’s trying to use apocryphal, symbolic language for us to understand. It’s not a book of fables and tales and myths. Interesting. Very interesting.

Paul says in 2 Timothy chapter 4, he tells Timothy, «Preach the Word». And when he tells Timothy to preach the Word, he’s telling every preacher everywhere, «You preach the Word. Be ready in season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with great patience and instruction for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. The people you’re preaching to, they won’t want to hear sound doctrine. They’re going to want to have their ears tickled because it feels good». «Just tell me things that I want to hear. Don’t tell me about Jesus and holiness and judgment. Don’t tell me about that». They said in Isaiah’s day, «Prophesy to us illusions. Speak to us pleasant words. Let us hear no more about the holy one of God».

And wanting to have their ears tickled, it says they will turn away from the truth and turn aside to myths. Peter says, «We’re not sharing with you myths, we’re sharing with you the truth». So it’s not a book of fables and myths; it is a book of documented eyewitness testimony, corroborated eyewitness testimony. I like the definition that Voddie Baucham gives concerning why he believes the Bible. He says this: «It is a reliable collection of historical documents written by eyewitnesses during the lifetime of other eyewitnesses of supernatural events that took place in fulfillment of specific prophecies and claimed that they were written under divine origin rather than human origin».

That’s why I believe the Bible. And I like that. They were written by eyewitnesses. Matthew was one of the 12 disciples. He wrote the Gospel of Matthew. You say, «Mark, where did Mark come from? He wasn’t one of the 12». No, but he was a companion of Peter and the early church father says Mark wrote Peter’s Gospel. So Matthew, Mark, Luke. Luke was a historian who spent a lot of time with the apostle Paul on his missionary journeys, and he did the research to write the Gospel of Luke and then to write the book of Acts. And then John. John was the one who laid his head upon Jesus’s chest at the Last Supper, John the beloved disciple.

Well, those guys write about Jesus. They are eyewitnesses, or they had a close encounter with eyewitnesses of the things they wrote. It’s a book of documented eyewitness testimony, and it is a book of fulfilled prophecy. That’s the one that really is a thorn in the craw of liberals and liberal theologians because they look at the Bible and they say, «Okay. As long as we can say that it doesn’t have any fulfilled prophecy in it, then we can just say, oh, people wrote afterward. After these things happened, then they wrote about it».

So they have a real problem in the book of Isaiah. Isaiah has lots of fulfilled prophecy in it and some of it fulfilled in a relatively short amount of time. For instance, Isaiah chapter 45, this is what the Scripture says. «This is what the Lord said to Cyrus, His chosen king». Who was Cyrus? Cyrus was called Cyrus the Great. He was the king of the Medo-Persian Empire. The Medo-Persian Empire defeated Babylon in 539 BC. Cyrus the Great was born in around 590, 580 BC. Isaiah wrote in the 700s BC about a guy who wasn’t born until 590 BC, and he calls him by name.

«This is what the Lord said to Cyrus, his chosen king: 'I took you by your right hand to help you defeat nations, to strip other kings of their power, and to open city gates that will not be closed again. I do this for my servant, Jacob. I do it for my chosen people, Israel. Cyrus, I am calling you by name. You don’t know me, but I know you. I am the LORD, the only God. There is no other God except me. I put your clothes on you, but you still don’t know me. I am doing this so that everyone will know that I am the only God. From the east to the west, people will know that I am the LORD and there is no other God.'»

Now, it stands to reason if you have a book that is divinely inspired by God that it could predict the future with accuracy because the Bible says of God He knows the end from the beginning. God sees everything. He knows everything. God doesn’t learn anything. It wasn’t like, you know, the Lord, He’s not near as smart, you know, last 1,000 years as He is today because He’s had 1,000 years to really bone up on things. No. From the time eternity past God has known everything. God is outside of time. He knows everything and so He can tell you the end from the beginning because He sees it all, He knows it all. He is God. God doesn’t ever learn anything.

So can you believe the Bible? You bet you can. Why? Because the Bible is a unique book, because the Bible is a proven book, and thirdly and finally because the Bible is a divine, human book. It’s a divine, human book. So Peter says, «Hey, we didn’t make this stuff up. We didn’t follow cleverly-devised tales. We were there. We heard him when we were with him on the holy mountain». 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 arises in your hearts. But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God». The NIV says this. «No prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things».

Men were moved by the Holy Spirit. They spoke from God. The Bible is a divine, human book. It’s divine because it just didn’t drop out of the sky. It’s human because it didn’t just drop out of the sky. It’s divine because it used human authors to write the Word of God. And so the Bible is not dictated by God. That’s how the Quran is. It’s dictated by God and the writers are just scribes. It’s like a secretary comes into the office and the boss just says, «Okay, take a letter. Write all this down». She’s just writing all that down. Boom, there it is. That’s coming from the boss. That is dictated. The Bible is not dictated, the Bible is inspired. So what does that mean? Inspired means that it’s breathed by God. So it is inspired by God.

2 Peter chapter 3, «All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work». God breathed His life into the Word, and He used men, no women wrote the Bible. He used men to write His Word. And so don’t get the idea that inspiration is God writing the Bible through some guy. So let’s say Peter. «Okay, I’m going to write 2 Peter». God picks up 2 Peter. He picks up Peter like a pen. He’s just going to start writing. And then when He wants to write, «I’m going to write 1 John,» He picks up John like a pen. He just starts writing.

So He have the Peter pen, the John pen, the Paul pen, the Matthew pe… not like that at all. «Why do you know it’s not like that»? Because then it would all sound the same because the writer was God and those men would just, they would just be dictating what God said. Think about the writers in Scripture because all Scripture doesn’t sound the same. Paul doesn’t sound like Peter. Peter doesn’t sound like John. John doesn’t sound like Matthew or Mark. Those guys have distinguishing characteristics in their writing. And so think about them more like musical instruments. And so the Lord is playing musical instruments.

Now, we know that a tuba doesn’t sound like a flute. It is going to be a way different sound than a flute. And a flute doesn’t sound like a clarinet and a clarinet doesn’t sound like a trumpet and a trumpet doesn’t sound like an oboe; but all those instruments can be played in the same symphony playing the same song, and that’s how God brought us His Word. That is divine inspiration. And He didn’t bypass those guys, He spoke through those guys. Men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. The book is inspired by God. It’s profitable for man. That’s why it says, «All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work».

How do we do that? Through the Word of God. The Bible says in verse 19 of 2 Peter chapter 1, Peter says, «Hey, we have the prophetic Word and that is a sure Word, and we had this experience on the Mount of Transfiguration that just solidifies what God had said. That’s true, and we experienced that». And he said, «You do well to pay attention to that. You do well to pay attention to the book as a lamp shining in a dark place, shining in a murky place, shining in a filthy place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts».

It says in the book of Psalm, Psalm 119, «Lord, Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path». And that’s the world we live in. It’s a dark, murky, dirty world and we have the light of God’s truth, God’s Word. And so it lights our path so we know where to go. «Thy Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path». It is profitable for man, and it is going to last forever. The Word of God will last forever. «Heaven and earth,» Jesus said, «will pass away, but my words shall not pass away».

Peter says in 1 Peter chapter 1, «The grass withers and the flower falls off, but the Word of the Lord abides forever. And this is the Word which was preached to you». Can you trust the Word of God? Yes, you can because it’s true, it’s reliable, it’s proven. It’s a unique book. It’s a divine, human book. Now, Jesus is called the Word of God and Jesus is divine and human.

The Bible is a divine book, but it’s written through men. Men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. How do you live your Christian life? You live it as a human trusting the divine. Anything you do in the flesh is wood, hay, and straw, but when you yield yourself to the power of the Holy Spirit and you live your life in the power of the Holy Spirit, as Paul said, «I’ve been crucified with Christ and it’s no longer I who live but Christ lives in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and delivered himself up for me». When you live your life that way, it’s divinity working through your humanity all to the glory of God.