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Preached:LR
Is the Bible from God?
Christianity 101 (Lesson 3)
Introduction
A.God is, and Jesus is His Son. Now that we have looked at those lessons andestablished those as facts, we need to move on to another claim of God. Isthe Bible a book from Him; in other words, is the Bible divinely inspired?B.Before answering the question, let’s make note of the fact that the Bibleclearly claims to be from God.1.Probably nowhere is that more evident than in Second Timothy 3:16: “AllScripture is given by the inspiration of God.”2.Peter also made mention of the same:3.But there are also more subtle claims in the Bible. Scores of times as youread through the Bible, you will see phrases such as, “The Lord said,” or“The word of the Lord through the prophet.”4.In fact, if you add up all the times the Bible uses phrases like that, andverses that claim inspiration, you will have a total of 3806 claims withinthe pages of the Bible for its inspiration.C.Also, before we answer the question,we need to make sure we know what weare talking about. What exactly does “inspiration” mean?1.We use that word in so many ways today. We speak of an artist beinginspired to paint a great masterpiece, or a composer being inspired tocreate a score.2.We also turn that meaning around and speak of reading a book, seeing apainting, or hearing a classic musical piece and then saying that it“inspired” us to do great things.3.While these are not unscriptural definitions, we need to make sure we aretalking about something far more when we think about Biblical inspiration.4.The word inspiration comes from two Greek words. The first is
Theos
andis a word for God. The other comes from a word that means “breathed” or“spirited.” You’ve read other translations that say in Second Timothy 3:16that “all Scripture is breathed out by God.” The English Standard Version,for example, translates the verse in that way, and that’s exactly what Paulwrote.5.When we think of inspiration in this literal way, it brings even more to theforefront the claim of the Bible to be directly from God.D.One more thing, very quickly, and that is the idea that every
word 
is inspired.Now I understand that, as translate from Hebrew or Greek to English,sometimes those who do those things have to take one Greek word and makeit 2 English words, or vice versa, but we are speaking of the original writings.Every word is inspired!
 
E.But, if we were studying with someone about the Bible, we could boldly makethat claim, but how do we go about proving it? How do we show someonethat the Bible is from God—that it is a divinely inspired book?
BodyI.Perfect Unity
A.The first thing we can look at in the Bible is the backgroundinformation and see if it contains errors in message, tone, or theme.B.As you turn from Genesis through Revelation you will find one centraltheme: God’s love for fallen mankind, and the plan of God to redeemHis creation.1.While there are many other topics discussed in the pages of theBible, each of the 66 books provides a glimpse into that theme.2.The Father and Son are the central thoughts of every book of theBible, and we see how the Father was willing to plan for man’sredemption, even though it meant sacrificing the Son.C.You may say, “Well, there are a lot of books that have a commontheme. There are scores of good novels that hold our attention with agreat story, so just having a unified theme or story doesn’t necessarilymake the Bible stand out.”D.But when we pause to consider several facts about the Bible’s makeup,it becomes truly remarkable that there is a unified theme.1.You’ve heard the facts many times. The Bible was written by about40 human authors from 3 continents and they wrote in twolanguages—Greek and Hebrew—and a distinct dialect—Aramaic.Even more amazing than that, though, is that they wrote over aperiod of some 16 centuries.2.And, add to those amazing facts how diverse the writers and theircircumstances were. David wrote many of the Psalms from thegrassy fields of a shepherd. Ezra wrote as a Bible scholar—a scribe.Luke wrote from the perspective of a physician, while Paul wrote asa hater of Christianity turned missionary. Moses had a royaleducation, while Amos was a rough-around-the-edges countrypreacher.3.Keep in mind that a vast majority of the Bible writers never meteach other and they lived in totally different times. However, whenwe turn to the pages of the Bible, we find perfect unity.4.For example, take the time to read First and Second Kings and Firstand Second Chronicles. Their similarity is amazing, but it alsoproves that they are both correct. Joshua chapter 1, though writtenmuch later than Deuteronomy, picks right up where that final bookof Moses left off. There arealso many times where one writer refers
 
to another and they do so perfectly. Daniel 9:2 refers to Jeremiah,while Ezekiel 28:3 refers to Daniel. On and on it goes.5.However, as you read through the pages of the Bible, there isperfection in theme. Add to that the fact that the writers alsomentioned many themes connected with the major theme of theBible and they all agree. One writer said: They [the authors] covered topics as diverse as eschatology,soteriology, theology, psychology, geography, history, medicine,and many others. All this being true, one might expect that sodiverse a group of men, writing on so varied a group of subjects,over such a lengthy span of time, would have produced a bookthat would be a tangled mishmash of subjects more often thannot marred by an incredible number of inconsistencies, errors,and incongruities. Yet this hardly is the case. In fact, quite theopposite is true. The Bible exhibits such astounding harmony,such consistent flow, and such unparalleled unity that it defiesany purely naturalistic explanation. It is as if the Bible were amagnificent symphony orchestrated by a single Conductor”
(Thompson, In Defense of the Bible’s Inspiration
 
, page 27).
E.It amazes me how people can pick up the Bible, read it with an openmind, and fail to see the unity found in it. When we realize all thevaried topics covered—yet the unfailing connection to a central andvital theme—we will be moved to say, “Oh how love I thy law!”F.Before moving on, let me give you a brief quote from James Orr: “Theimpartial mind cannot ignore the fact that in the writings whichconstitute our Bible there is a unity and progression, a guidingpurpose, culminating in Jesus Christ and His redemption, a fullness andpower of religious truth, which place them in a category, and compelthe acknowledgement, of a unique origin answering to their uniquecharacter” (
quoted in Thompson, page 29).
*However, if the unity of the Bible were not enough, we can also look at:
II.Prophecies Made; Prophecies Fulfilled
A.In any book that would claim to be from Deity, the reader would expectthere to be some predictions made. However, it is fascinating to readthe prophecies made in the Bible for several reasons. We can noticehow long ahead of the fulfillment the prophecies were made. We canalso notice that these were not just general predictions. Theprophecies of the Bible are filled with minute details that proved theprophets to be speaking for God.B.There are hundreds of prophecies found in the pages of the Bible, andwe could spend an entire sermon on many of them, but we just want tolook at a few and notice the amazing detail.1.In First Kings 13, we are told of a coming king named Josiah. Wealso read of exactly what he would do to bring spiritual revival to
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