Jeff Schreve - Why Should I Believe the Bible?
Summary:
The preacher wants to encourage believers to understand not just that the Bible is true, but why it can be trusted as God’s reliable Word. Drawing from passages like Hebrews 4:12, 2 Timothy 3:16, and John 17:17, he highlights the Bible’s claims to be God-breathed, living, and truth itself. In the end, he concludes that its uniqueness, historical and scientific reliability, fulfilled prophecies, endurance through persecution, and above all its power to transform lives prove that we have every reason to believe what it says about itself.
The Story of Josh McDowell and the Young Christian
Josh McDowell was leading a conference on the issue of the Bible. You know he wrote «Evidence That Demands a Verdict.» He’s done lots of study in this area, and he was at a Christian school. He went out into the audience and talked to a girl. He said, «Let me ask you a question.» He had a Bible there, and he said, «Now, are you a Christian? Have you put your faith and trust in Jesus?» She said yes.
He asked her, «Do you believe that this book is the Word of God?» She said yes. He said, «Do you believe it is true?» She said yes. He asked, «Do you believe it is historically accurate and reliable?» She said yes. He then asked, «Why?» She didn’t say anything; she just had a kind of pregnant pause and a little nervous laugh. She didn’t know what to say because she believed all that, but she didn’t really know why she believed it. She didn’t know how to articulate that.
Josh, not wanting to embarrass her, said, «You know, I’ve done this in many different instances. I could ask ten people in the audience, 'Why do you believe the Bible is true and reliable? Why should someone else believe the Bible is true and accurate and reliable? ' And so many Christians don’t have an answer for it.» I asked one friend the same questions, just curious what this person would say. I said, «Why do you believe the Bible is accurate and reliable?» She said, «Because God says so.» I said, «Well, okay, that’s not a great answer,» but I mean that’s like telling your kids, «Why is this, Daddy?» «Because I said so.» That shuts down the argument. I think for a lot of us, we just say, «Well, God said it, and we get a bumper sticker: 'God said it, I believe it, that settles it.' And don’t ask me any more questions.» But for someone who’s struggling to believe, «God said so» might be a little harder for them to accept.
What Does the Bible Claim About Itself?
So we want to talk today about why I should believe the Bible. But in order to do that, first of all, we want to back up a question and answer the question: What does the Bible claim concerning itself? What are the claims of the Bible? If I say, «Why should I believe the Bible?» I need to know what the Bible is. I need to know what it claims. Now, the Bible makes some big claims, and I want to share three of them with you.
First Claim: The Word of God, Not the Word of Man
First of all, the Bible claims to be the Word of God, not the word of man. Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians chapter 2: «For this reason we also constantly thank God that you, when you received the Word of God which you heard from us, accepted it not as the word of men but for what it really is, the Word of God, which also performs its work in you who believed.» What was Paul preaching? Not the word of men; he was preaching the Word of God. The Thessalonians received it as the Word of God, and that’s what it really is.
Our home verse for this message, Hebrews 4:12, says that the Word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword. It’s living; it’s alive; it’s a different kind of book, and it’s active. That word for active is «energes,» which means it has energy. That’s where we get our English word «energy» from the Greek word «energeia.» The Bible, as the Word of God, is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, 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 is different from any other book. You read other books, but this book reads you. Because it’s alive, there’s something about this book that is different from all other books.
As one man said, «Men don’t reject the Bible because it contradicts itself; they reject the Bible because it contradicts them.» It’s able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart; it is a convicting book. It’s sharper than any two-edged sword, so it cuts to convict, and it cuts to bleed. So many of us, as Jesus said, «Men don’t come to the light because their deeds are evil,» and so they want to back away from the light because the Word of God is sharper than any two-edged sword.
Second Claim: Inspired by God, Not Invented by Man
So, it’s the Word of God, not the word of man. Secondly, it is inspired by God and not invented by man. The scripture makes that clear in 2 Timothy 3:16: «All Scripture,» all Scripture, Old Testament and New Testament, «is inspired by God.» That literally means that it is God-breathed. The Greek word for inspired is «theopneustos,» which means God-breathed. «Theo» means God, «pneustos» coming from the word «pneuma,» which is the wind, the spirit, the breath. We read about that in John chapter 3, where Jesus said to Nicodemus, «The wind, the pneuma, blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it.» So is everyone who is born of the Spirit. The pneuma, wind, spirit, breath—all those are the same Greek word. So when it says that it’s God-breathed, it means that God blew His life, His breath, into the Word.
You remember how God created man in Genesis chapter 2? He reached down and formed man from the dust of the earth, and He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul. Well, that’s what God did with His Word; He breathed life into His Word. That’s why it’s living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword. Peter says, «Just in case you think we made this stuff up,» in 2 Peter chapter 1, «we didn’t follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For when He received honor and glory from God the Father, such an utterance was made to Him by the majestic glory: 'This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.' 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 rises in your hearts.»
«But know this first of all: that no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.» What’s he saying? He’s saying we didn’t just come up with this stuff; we didn’t imagine it; we didn’t invent it. There’s no prophecy of Scripture that came forth from someone’s own heart. Men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. To be moved by the Holy Spirit is a sailing term; sailors would raise their sails, and the wind would catch the sails and move them along. That’s what it means to be inspired by God. Men were blown along by the wind of the Spirit of God and spoke the words that God wanted them to speak.
Now remember this: The Bible is not dictated by God; it’s inspired by God. You say, «What’s the difference?» Well, God didn’t take Paul, for instance, and grab him like a pen and say, «Now I’m gonna write and use Paul as my pen, and Paul’s head is the ink.» No. The Bible writers, the men, they’re not pens; they’re instruments. They sound different. Paul and Peter are very, very different in how they write and how they communicate. Just like in an orchestra, you know a flute doesn’t sound like a tuba, but they can be played by the same person. Different sounds, but the same one blowing breath into them. That is how the Bible presents itself— inspired by God, not invented by man.
Third Claim: The Truth of God, Not the Musings of Man
And thirdly, it is the truth of God, not the musings of man. It’s not the thoughts and ideas of man; it’s the truth directly from God. Jesus said in His great high priestly prayer in John chapter 17, «Sanctify them, speaking to the Father, sanctify them in truth; Thy Word is truth.» «Thy Word is truth.» What? Just the New Testament? No, the Old Testament. All Scripture is inspired by God. Father, Your Word is truth.
And Jesus believed the Bible. Jesus believed the Old Testament. Jesus believed in Adam and Eve; He talked about that. Jesus believed in Noah; He talked about Noah. Jesus believed in Cain and Abel; He talked about Abel. Jesus believed in the prophets. Jesus believed in the history that is given in the Bible. Jesus quoted from the Old Testament; He believed it. And need I remind you that the one who believed it is the one who died and rose again from the dead, just like He said He was going to do.
So, the Bible makes these claims: This is the Word of God, not the word of man; it’s divinely inspired as God-breathed; it’s alive and it’s true. So this brings us to our original question: Why should I believe what the Bible claims? You might have a friend, you might have a neighbor, you might have someone in your own family, or someone at school who says, «Well, you know, I don’t believe the Bible.» Do you just dismiss it like that? Many people say they don’t believe the Bible, and they don’t even know what’s in the Bible. They don’t know that the Bible claims all these different things.
Reason One: Unique, Reliable, and True
Let me give you three reasons, or many reasons, but three reasons why you should believe the Bible. Number one: The Bible has proven itself to be unique, reliable, and true. It’s proven itself to be unique, reliable, and true. Now when we talk about the Bible, we kind of refer to it as just one book. I mean, this is the book called the Bible. But this isn’t one book; really, this is 66 books—39 books in the Old Testament and 27 books in the New Testament. It’s written over a period of 1500 years, written by 40 different authors. These authors come from different walks of life; some were kings, some were fishermen, some were farmers, some were shepherds, some were prophets, some were priests. All sorts of different walks of life, and it was written in three different languages: Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. It was written on three different continents: Europe, Africa, and Asia.
I mean, the Bible—think of 1500 years with that many authors and people living in totally different governments and cultures, and yet the Bible has a common theme. The Bible has a common storyline; the Bible has a common message, and the message is the message of salvation. That’s what the Bible is all about; it’s the message of salvation. It’s the message that says, «Hey, God created it all, and man fell. But then God is seeking after man. Man doesn’t seek after God; God seeks after man.» God has made a way where there seemed to be no way, and there’s salvation in no one else except through the Lord and through His provision.
In the Old Testament, God promised them a Savior, and they were saved by faith in God’s provision. In the New Testament, we are saved by faith in God’s provision. We just know what God’s provision is. You see, Old Testament people got saved by looking forward to the cross of Christ; New Testament people get saved by looking back to the cross of Christ, but it’s still the cross of Christ—God’s propitiation for our sins—that saves us, God’s sacrifice that saves us.
And the Bible all comes together; it has that common message, common theme, and common storyline. Now think of what other book you could put together. You go to the library; you go to the greatest library in the world, and here’s the assignment: Come up with 66 books that are written over a span of 1500 years from men of all different walks of life and put those together and see if you can come up with a message that is common—a storyline that is common, a theme that is common. Well, how are you going to do that? That’s impossible.
A professor challenged a student who said he didn’t believe in the Bible. He said, «Well, let me tell you about the Bible.» He told him, «Here’s your assignment: you go find 66 books from 40 different authors, and you find where it all comes together.» Listen, you can’t get five historians that talk about the situation with Lincoln being shot to give you the same five accounts. They all come up with different things; it’s going to be contradictory. That’s with five; how about with 40? And how about with 40 who lived 1500 years apart? The Bible is unique.
You know that the Quran, which Muslims say is such a holy book, was supposedly given from the angel Gabriel to Muhammad, and he dictated it word for word—one book, one man that wrote it. I think it was an angel, but it wasn’t Gabriel; it was the fallen angel Lucifer who gave the revelation. But the Bible is very unique, and it is a book that is reliable and true.
The Bible is not a science book, but it does speak about scientific things. The Bible is not a history book, but it does speak about history. The Bible is not a book of poetry, although there’s poetry in it. In all these different genres, whenever the Bible speaks on a subject, the Bible is true. Some people say, «Well, you know, I can’t believe the Bible because of science.» I had somebody fill out a questionnaire after visiting my church. They wrote back their thoughts and said they didn’t like me at all. I was curious; they didn’t grade me well, and they gave me a one. I think they wanted to give me a zero, but that wasn’t an option in the grading system. They said, «We came here and we were excited because we liked the children’s ministry, but that preacher got up there, and he’s so anti-science that we’re never coming back.»
I’m not anti-science; I don’t believe in evolution, but evolution isn’t science. Evolution is a flimsy scientific faith. Science has to go into the lab; scientists test repeatable things in the lab to ensure this happens repeatedly. When that happens, whether it’s a chemical reaction or something like that, they say, «Well, science has proven X.» We can’t do that with creation. Are you going to do that with creation?
Incidentally, the more science discovers about cells, the more it shows that this universe was designed by an intelligent designer. The more scientists dig deeper into microbiology and things like that, they realize, «No, this just didn’t all happen.» They believe that nothing times nothing equals everything. But the true scientist says, «This can’t happen; it’s impossible.»
Now, let me just tell you some instances where people have said, «Well, I’m not going to believe the Bible because it doesn’t match up with science.» Science is constantly evolving. I do believe in that kind of evolution; science is discovering and finding things more and more. Many years ago, the science of that day thought the Earth was flat. We learned people thought the Earth was flat, and they said, «Don’t go too far on a boat, or you’ll fall off.» That was the science of the day. The Earth is flat.
You know what God said? He says very clearly in Isaiah 40:22 that the Lord sits above the circle of the Earth, literally above the sphere of the Earth. Isaiah 40:22 was written in the 700s BC; God was telling us in His Word that the Earth is not flat; the Earth is a globe.
The ancients, when they were trying to figure out what the Earth rested on, came up with ideas. Maybe you’ve seen one of those ideas where the Earth rests on the back of Atlas. Some of the ancients said, «The Earth rests on the back of elephants. And when there’s an earthquake, the earthquake happens because the elephant shakes.» You say, «What a bunch of dummies!» Well, that was a long time ago. That was just what they thought. You know what God says in His Word? In the book of Job, which is probably the oldest book in the Bible, God says that He hangs the world on nothing. What have we figured out? God hangs the world on nothing! His Word is true.
You know what God says in His Word? That you can’t number the stars because they’re like the sand of the sea? Sure, there are too many of them, but way back when, the early astronomers looked and numbered the stars. They said, «There are 1023 of them; I numbered them.» The Bible says you can’t number them. The Bible is false, right? But I numbered them! The Bible must be false.
Then another astronomer came after the first and said, «No, I’ve counted them. There are more than that; there are 1035.» They found some more. And then in this age of super telescopes, what do they tell us? There are billions and billions and billions and billions and billions of stars. You can’t count the stars; there are just too many. Yes, that’s what God said in the book of Isaiah: You can’t count the stars. They are like the sand of the seashore. The Bible is true concerning science; the Bible is true concerning what it says about history, and archaeology is discovering this. When they dig something up, and all of a sudden they say, «Oh, wait a minute! This is different from what we thought, ” it reveals that what the Bible said is true.
Let me give you an example. In the book of Daniel, Daniel chapter 5, when Belshazzar has a big feast, Daniel chapter 5 describes how the enemy surrounds the city of Babylon. Babylon had those giant walls, and he said, „We’re fine. They can’t get in here, ” so he had a feast, toasting his gods. He brought in the vessels of the Lord of Israel when they conquered Israel in 586 BC, mocking the God of Israel. Then all of a sudden, a hand appeared on the wall. You remember that: the writing on the wall, „Mene Mene Tekel Upharsin.“ He didn’t know what that meant, so he heard, „Hey, there’s a guy in your kingdom; his name is Daniel, and he interprets dreams and stuff like that.“
So he called Daniel in, and Belshazzar said, „If you can interpret this, I’ll make you the third ruler in Babylon.“ Historians said, „Well, we don’t have a record of someone named Belshazzar; there’s nothing in the Babylonian record indicating there was someone named Belshazzar as king.“ For many centuries, people said, „The Bible must be wrong because we don’t have any records of that.“
Isn’t it interesting that in 1853, an inscription was found on a cornerstone of a temple built by Nabonidus, who was the king? All the records show that Nabonidus was the king. The inscription said this was to the false god, and he wrote, „May I, Nabonidus, king of Babylon, not sin against thee, and may reverence for the dweller in the heart of Belshazzar, my firstborn favorite son.“ All of a sudden, it’s like, „Oh, there was a Belshazzar.“ What did they determine? They determined that Nabonidus was co-ruler with his son Belshazzar, and that’s why Belshazzar told Daniel if he could interpret that writing, he would make him the third man in the kingdom. His daddy was number one, he was number two, and Daniel would be number three.
And all the skeptics had to backtrack and say, „Okay, well, maybe we’ll have to find something else that’s wrong.“ Hey, the Bible is reliable, and the Bible is true. How about prophecy? How can you have a book that predicts things that are going to happen in the future, and then they happen? No other book has that with 100% accuracy. Did you know, when Isaiah wrote, he wrote in the 750s BC, a hundred and fifty years before a man named Cyrus was born, and he wrote about Cyrus. He was going to send the people back to rebuild the Temple of Jerusalem. He names him by name in Isaiah chapter 45, a hundred and fifty years before this guy was born. What happens? A man named Cyrus comes to the throne, the king of the Medo-Persian Empire, and he releases the exiles to go back to Jerusalem to rebuild the city and rebuild the temple.
What a coincidence! How does that happen? God is the one breathing His Word; it is reliable and true. The prophecies concerning Jesus, concerning the Messiah—somebody counted them up and said there are 48 prophecies concerning the Messiah. Now for Jesus to fulfill all of those prophecies, things like where he is going to be born—that’s pretty tough to finagle. But it says in Micah that he’s going to be born in Bethlehem, and Jesus was born in Bethlehem.
All the different things about Him: „Out of Egypt, I called My Son, ” and He was in Egypt and came back to the Land of Israel. He was born of a virgin—that’s hard to finagle too! All these things that are said—in fact, somebody said mathematically, if you take eight prophecies, just eight of the prophecies concerning Jesus, the chance for those to be fulfilled is 1 times 10 to the 17th power. You say, „What is that?“ It’s a one with seventeen zeros after it; it’s a huge number.
To help you understand, here’s an analogy: If you take the state of Texas and fill it two feet deep in silver dollars and put one red „X“ on one silver dollar, hiding it somewhere in the state of Texas under two feet of silver dollars, and you send a blind man out and say, „You got one shot—see if you can pick up the red „X.“ That’s the probability that that would be fulfilled in one man. That’s just eight prophecies!
You know the probability that Jesus would fulfill all 48 of the prophecies is 1 times 10 to the 157th power. That’s just a mathematical way of saying, „It ain’t gonna happen; it’s impossible, and yet it happened in Him.“ Why? Because He’s God, and because the Bible is true, and because God knows the end from the beginning—that’s why.
So, the Bible has proven itself to be unique, reliable, and true.
Reason Two: Withstands Time and Scrutiny
Secondly, the Bible has withstood the test of time and scrutiny. People have come against the Bible for years, trying to destroy it. Let me tell you something: The devil hates the Bible. The very first thing he ever utters to a human being is, „Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden? ’“ He takes the Word of God, twists it a little bit, and puts a question mark behind it to get you to question, to get you to doubt, and to ask, „Well, I don’t know if I can trust what God says.“ That’s how the devil works; he’s attacking the Word of God.
And why? Because the Word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword; because the Word is truth, and the devil is a liar and the father of lies. Scripture says in 1 Peter chapter 1, „The grass withers, the flower falls off, but the Word of the Lord stands forever; it endures forever.“ People try to destroy the Word, but it still stands.
Diocletian was emperor in Rome in the late 200s AD and into the early 300s AD. He hated the Bible; he hated Christians, the whole idea of the New Testament God, and the notion of the cross. He wanted to obliterate it. So he began a fierce campaign to stamp out Christianity from the Roman Empire. He gathered as many Bibles as he could, burned those Bibles, destroyed churches, and killed Christians. It was an awful time. Diocletian thought he had gotten all the Bibles; he burned the last batch and erected a monument on the ashes of these burned Bibles, chiseling on the monument these Latin words, „Extincto nomine Christianorum.“ That means „the name of Christian is extinct, ” in 303 AD.
In ten years, Emperor Constantine reportedly put his faith in Jesus Christ, and he turned Rome into a Christian nation. In ten years, the name of Christian is extinct? I think not! „The grass withers, the flower falls off, but the Word of the Lord stands forever.“
You know, one of the greatest testimonies about the veracity of Scripture is in the New Testament. The New Testament, the Old Testament, was written over a long period of time, covering many years. The Old Testament covers from the beginning until about 420 BC. The New Testament spans about a hundred years, written from the late 40s until 95 AD. When the New Testament writers talked about Jesus and the things Jesus did, the people who read that, the people who heard that said, „Yeah, I was there. I saw that. I can testify to that.“ There were 500 people that saw Jesus when He rose from the dead. He appeared to more than 500 at one time. Wow! All those people could give testimony; what they’re saying is true.
If what those guys said in the New Testament was made up, they would have been laughed out of town. Had people just said, „Hey, that’s not true. I was there; He didn’t do that, ” they never said that. Why? Because it was true. When Paul gave his defense to the king, he said, „You know these things to be true; this wasn’t done in a corner somewhere. This was blasted all over the place because everyone was talking about Jesus.“
Hey, the Bible has withstood the test of time, and it has withstood the test of scrutiny, and it still stands.
Reason Three: The Bible Is Life-Changing
Lastly, the Bible is life-changing. One of the greatest testimonies to the veracity of the Word of God is the fact that it changes lives. It will change your life. Peter wrote, „For you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring Word of God.“ The seed of the Word of God is imperishable; there’s life in this book because it is the Word of God, not the word of man. It’ll change your life if you spend time in it.
Now listen, here’s the thing: some people spend time in this book; some liberal theologians are dicing it up and slicing it up to find hidden faults. You’re not going to find that if you come to the Word of God with an honest and good heart. That’s what Scripture says when the sower went out to sow, and the seed landed on the good soil. It’s an honest and good heart, and if you have an honest, good heart, if you have a seeking heart, the seed takes root in your heart and produces a crop—thirtyfold, sixtyfold, even a hundredfold.
But if you’re a scoffer, a mocker, if you say, „Well, I already come to the Bible saying the Bible’s not truth, and now I’m going to move heaven and earth to try and prove what I already have decided is true,“ if you have that kind of heart, it’s not going to change your life; you’re just going to try and find things like Daniel chapter 5: „Ah, we got them because there is no Belshazzar, ” and then the archaeology proves that you’re like, „Ha, back to the drawing board! I’ve got to find other things in the Bible that aren’t true.“
Now listen, this is the thing about the Word of God: You say, „Well, does the Word of God change people’s lives, or does Jesus change people’s lives?“ The answer is yes, because it’s very, very difficult to separate the Word of God and the Son of God, the Word of God and the God of the Word. They’re together. That’s why Jesus in Revelation chapter 19, when He comes back at the second coming, it says He has a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called the Word of God.
The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory. He’s the Word of God, and that’s the God of His Word; they’re connected. Now for man, his word might not be his bond, but with the Lord, His word is His bond, and Scripture says He’s magnified His Word according to all His name. So there’s a connection there, and when you seek the Lord, you find Him, and you seek Him in His Word.
One of the greatest stories I’ve ever come across was a story that Adrian Rogers told. I’ve shared it with you, but it bears repeating. He said when he was pastoring in Florida, a man from NASA came. He was driving in his car, saw Adrian in the parking lot, and said, „Hey, are you the preacher?“ He said, „Yes.“ The man said, „Would you speak to my wife? I need you to talk to her.“
He said, „What’s wrong with your wife?“ He said, „She’s wanting to commit suicide, and I don’t want her to.“ He said, „Okay, I’ll speak to her on one condition: you come with her when I talk to her.“ The man agreed. So they came together with Adrian Rogers, and Adrian began to ask questions. He said, „Lady, tell me what’s going on.“ She let out a tale of woe about her husband: how he beat her, how he was an alcoholic, and how he was a womanizer. She just had wrecked and ruined her life, and all she wanted to do was die.
Adrian realized quickly that the problem was with the husband. He turned to the husband and said, „Sir, can I ask you a question? Are you a Christian?“ The man said, „No, I’m an atheist.“ Adrian said, „Now listen, I wasn’t asking for information; I was just opening the conversation.“ The man said, „Yes, I know there’s no God.“ Adrian said, „Well, speaking of knowing things, do you think you know everything there is to know?“ The man said, „No.“
Adrian said, „Do you think it would be generous of me if I said you knew 50% of all there is to know in the universe?“ The man said, „Well, yeah, that’d be pretty generous.“ Adrian continued, „Don’t you think it stands to reason that the God you say doesn’t exist could exist in the 50% of the knowledge that you don’t have?“ The man responded, „Well, I never thought of it that way.“
He said, „I guess I wouldn’t be an atheist; I’d be an agnostic.“ Adrian said, „Ah, now we’re getting somewhere!“ An agnostic says they don’t know. Adrian said, „You know another word for agnostic is ignoramus.“ But he didn’t tell him that. He said, „An agnostic knows they don’t know. Let’s see if you’re an honest doubter or a dishonest doubter.“
He said, „An honest doubter says, 'I don’t know, but I want to know.' A dishonest doubter says, 'I don’t know, but I don’t want to know.' You can’t find God for the same reason a thief can’t find a policeman; they don’t want to find him. Sir, which kind of doubter are you?“ The man said, „I’d like to think of myself as an honest doubter.“
Adrian said, „We can test to see if you’re an honest doubter!“ The man asked, „How could we test that?“ Adrian wrote a statement: „God, I don’t know whether you exist or not, whether the Bible is your word or not, whether Jesus Christ is your Son or not; I don’t know, but I want to know. Because I want to know, I will make an honest investigation, and because it’s an honest investigation, I will follow the results of that investigation wherever they lead me, regardless of the cost.“
Adrian asked the man, „Would you sign that statement?“ The man responded, „Say it to me again.“ So he repeated it. The man said, „Alright, I’ll sign that statement. But how am I gonna know?“ Adrian said, „Ah, the Gospel of John!“
John at the end of his gospel says, „These things are written, John 20:31, so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, and believing, have life in His name.“ He said, „Sir, if you will spend time in the Gospel of John and ask God to reveal Himself to you—if He’s really true, if He’s really real, if Jesus is really His Son, if the Word of God is really true—God will reveal Himself to you.“ The man said, „Alright, I’ll do it.“
Adrian said that man came back in a few weeks and said, „I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.“ He got on his knees and prayed to receive Christ, weeping his heart out. Adrian said years later, he received a letter from that man, who was now a Bible teacher. In his letter, he wrote, „Mr. Rogers, I want to thank you for spending time with me, this former general in the devil’s army.“ Hey! You know what? This book changes lives.