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Is the Bible True?

You Asked for It Sermon 1
- Christianity is and always has been under attack
o Since Jesus returned to be with God, Christians have been
martyred, murdered for their faith
non-Christians have constantly persecuted Christians
and they have continually attacked the validity of the
Bible
o Why attack the Bible?
without the Bible, we as Christians have no basis for
our faith
One of the first steps to someone turning their back on
their faith is doubting the Bible as truth
o Some of you may be doubting tonight
some may not know why we should believe the Bible is
true
o Your pastors, youth pastors, myself, have failed you in our
lack of teaching you how to defend your faith
- 1 Peter 3:14-15
o You will likely face persecution through life if you believe that
the Bible is true and the Word of God
o Peter tells us to always have a defense ready
this is where I and others have not adequately
equipped you

o A defense for what?

for the Hope we have in Christ
my HOPE is that Christ's death is enough to pay for my
sins
my HOPE has been given to me through the Bible
I see that God has continually kept His promises
and that He promises me eternal life bc my trust
for salvation is in Jesus
BUT if the Bible is not true, then I have no HOPE
SO we must have a defense of our faith ready!
to defend against the attacks of others
and to defend the Bible to your own flesh which
will at times stir up doubt
Illustration: Standard Comebacks; your mom goes to college
Napoleon Dynamine
#1: THE STANDARD ARGUMENTS
- I want to begin by giving you all some examples of poor
arguments that some Christians have used that simply do not
stand up against scrutiny
- 1. Some say The Change in their life proves the Bible is true
o this simply does not cut it
o atheists have said that they have found inner peace through
their religion
o muslims have radical changes in their behavior due to their
religion
o any religion i can think of leads to some change in a person's
life

o even secular humanism (a religion) is the idea that all truth is

determined by each person and we should live as we see
best, leads to people feeling okay with their actions
o Now the Bible will change your life if you give your life to
Christ, but that does not prove it's truth
- 2. Some say the Bible is true because they have faith that it is
o Hebrews 11:1 says "Now faith is the assurance of things
hoped for, the conviction of things not seen."
o I am not saying that we do not need to take things by faith,
because we all need to have faith that it is true
o but, saying I believe the Bible is true because I have faith is
saying that the Bible is true because I believe it
that puts ME as the one that determines truth
and would make all truth relative to every single person
- 3. 2 Timothy 3:16 "All Scripture is breathed out by God and
profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in
righteousness,"
o using this passage, which says God is the ultimate author of
the Bible, is not a sufficient defense
o It would be a circular argument, using the Book in question
to prove itself
o this does not mean that Scripture is not useful in apologetics,
because if God did not claim to write it in verses like 2
Timothy 3:16, then we would have no reason to believe He
did

- 4. Some say the Bible is true because of the consistency within it

o The Bible was written by 40 authors over a period of 2000
years
o There are no inconsistencies within it that cause it to
crumble
o How do we know it is the same as it was before?
o It is consistent with the trusted manuscripts that have been
found
we do not have the original, but all the trusted copies
we find line up with those we have today
o of course, in the translation of the Bible over thousands of
years, between many languages, there are some minor
wording differences between different translations
but that is expected, since some words in Hebrew,
Greek, and Aramaic have multiple uses in English and
other languages
o This is not saying that our English translations are useless
in fact they are near perfect translations of the original
o this however, still does not prove the Bible is truth
- 5. External Evidence
o Archeology
archeology continually confirms truths in the Bible

Critics of the Bible once claimed that King David never

existed
but in 1993 Tel Dan was discovered and
archeologists found a broken stone that said "the
king of Damascus killed the King of Israel who
was of the house of David"
Critics doubted the existence of the Babylonian king
"Belshazzar" from the book of Daniel
but in 1854 Archeologists discovered 4 time
capsules placed by King Nabididus of Babylon
that held prayers for himself and his son Prince
Belshazzar
Critics said that "Pilate" never existed
but in 1950 an inscription was found dedicating a
theatre to Pilate
and now, the British Museum has a bronze coin
that was minted by Pilate in AD 30/31
in fact, no archeological dig has ever found anything to
disprove an iota of the Bible
they have always confirmed it
Still, it does not prove that the ENTIRE BIBLE is true
Garden of Eden has never been found
Archeology at best, proves that SOME of the Bible is
true
o Predictive Prophecy

Daniel 2 prophesied the next 3 world empires to the T

including the Roman Empire
Isaiah 40:22 "It is he who sits above the circle of the
earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who
stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads
them like a tent to dwell in;"
said that the Heavens/Space was stretched
actual evidence that has been discovered in the
1920s by scientists and leaves Big Bang
Theorists scratching their heads to explain (INFO
WE WILL TALK ABOUT IN LATER WEEKS)
Isaiah 40: 22 also shows us a belief in a
circular/spherical earth long before that was believed
as fact
NO BIBLICAL PROPHECY has failed to come true
But even this does not PROVE that the ENTIRE BIBLE
is TRUE

ILLUSTRATION: "It is dangerous to drive when it is snowing. It

is snowing now. Therefore it would be dangerous to drive right
now."
o

What is this an example of?

Logic

#2: THE STANDARD OF LOGIC

- The Proof of the Bible's Validity comes from the standard of Logic
used to prove truth
o Only by the Bible can we determine if anything is actually
true

Colossians 2:2-3 "2 that their hearts may be

encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the
riches of full assurance of understanding and the
knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ, 3 in whom
are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
Logic: comes from the mind of GOD
Only by taking the Bible as truth, does logic make
sense
Without the Bible, Logic has no standard to measure
by
Logic has laws
such as, no true statement can contradict
another true statement
o we cannot say "the stop light is red" and
"the stop light is not red" at the same time
and they both be true
one assumption people make is that the laws of
logic have always been and always will be the
same, and that they are the same everywhere

But HOW CAN WE KNOW they have always

been the same and will always be the same and
are the same everywhere?
o Scientists can say they know that because
they have observed it, but they have not
observed it before their life-time or before
man-kinds records. They cannot know
logic will not change in the future
if they claim to know those things,
they will be saying they are GOD
o No one but GOD has universal knowledge
and has always existed
ONLY with a Biblical mindset can someone say
that the laws of logic are steady and unchanging
Only by believing God is the source of all
knowledge as seen in Colossians 2:2-3

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ILLUSTRATION: Who all is taking a science class right now?

- What do the majority of scientists believe about the origins of
the earth? What would you guess they believe about the Bible?
#3: THE STANDARD OF SCIENCE
- Science allows us to see and describe the predictable consistent
way in which our universe normally behaves
o science is based on the uniformity of nature
meaning the laws of nature will always remain
consistent
every time chemical A is added to chemical B reaction
C will take place
o We always assume nature will behave in the future as it has
in the past
We assume Gravity will behave on Friday as it did on
Monday
o Genesis 8:22 "While the earth remains, seedtime and
harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night,
shall not cease.
Only God is in a position to tell us that the laws of
nature will never nor have never changed
o Apart from the Bible is there any way to KNOW that the
future will act as it has in the past
We simply MUST know that nature is uniform, the laws
of nature will not change, or else science is impossible

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- CLOSING
o Romans 1:18-21
God has revealed Himself to everyone through Nature
Science and Logic demand that there is a God
who can be the source of uniformity
o we cannot have scientific truth, logical
truth, without knowing that the laws for
those are unchanging
o we cannot have truth at all if the laws of
nature and logic are changing
o so, there must be a God, there must be a
Bible that declares truth
All Men reject God
none of us have ALWAYS been a Christian
even though people look around us at a majestic
creation that points to God, we naturally desire to
dismiss it
o that is why so many do not believe
We must have a defense for the truth of Scripture.
o If the Bible is not true, we cannot KNOW anything at all as
FACT

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- 2 Corinthians 10:4-5 "4 For the weapons of our warfare are not of
the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. 5 We
destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the
knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,"
o We do not have a defense that is of this world
o our defense for the truth of the Bible has divine power
o all who criticize the knowledge of God will fail
some may think they have won the battle against
people who have not been taught
but they will one day see the TRUTH as they stand
before God on judgment day