Why We Believe the Bible Is True

I believe the Bible to be the Word of God the same way I believe Jesus Christ to be the Son of God, the same way I believe God to be the God of Scripture who is a holy Trinity, the same way I believe that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone and that is because God has wrought that confidence in my heart. Welcome to Grace To You with John MacArthur.

I'm your host, Phil Johnson. So, what do you think? Should you read the Bible and worship the God who wrote it because it can help you get things you want, like a better job or good health or a spouse? Well, as you'll see today, the Bible demands your trust not because it gives you everything you want, but because it gives you everything you need. John MacArthur will show you why you can trust God's Word, continuing his compelling study titled Making a Case for the Bible. Now, John, before we get to the lesson, you have built your entire ministry on the conviction that Scripture is the Word of God. And many times along the way, you've taught messages on trusting the Bible and on the sufficiency of God's Word and on defending the Bible, as you're doing in our current study. Would you say that the authority of Scripture is under any more attack nowadays than in the past? No, I don't think the Scripture is under more attack today than it is at any other time.

It's always under attack. You go back to the Garden and what is Satan saying? Has God said? He denies that what God said was actually said by God, and he creates doubt in Eve's mind, and because he was able to get her to buy into the fact that she couldn't trust God, she couldn't trust what he said, the entire human race fell. Satan hasn't changed his strategy. When Jesus sort of characterized Satan, he said he is a liar.

He is a liar from the beginning. And the big lie is that the Bible's not true, the Bible isn't written by God, you can't trust the Bible, and that comes in all kinds of forms, but it's always out there. Every generation of Christians needs, then, to fight the battle against that lie and that deception, and to uphold the authority, inspiration, and inerrancy of Scripture. I read an article written by one of our professors at the Master Seminary about a professor who's been almost four decades at a quote-unquote Christian college, who in his kind of finale wrote a paper on the fact that all the Gospel writers don't agree, and Matthew presents Peter as an apostate.

How could he come up with that? Well, because he doesn't believe the Scripture is true, authoritative or inerrant, and he says that. So he bought the lie, just like Eve did, and everybody who follows his influence plunges into the same deception.

Thanks, John. Friend, don't believe the lies that cast doubt on Scripture. Today's lesson will show you compelling reasons why you can believe that the Bible is true.

With that lesson now, here again is John MacArthur. How did we come to believe the Bible? Why do we believe it? Are you smarter than everybody else? Are we just really the sheer intellectual elite of the world? Or did somebody lay down a case for biblical veracity that was just profound and inescapable? Did we go through some process of being exposed to rational evidences for believing the Bible? Are we the...either the most intelligent people, or the most clear thinking rational people, or are we those who have been most exposed to the clearest, most precise and best explanation of the Bible's truthfulness? Is that why we're here?

Well I don't think so. We're the not many noble, not many mighty. We're the lowly, the nobodies, the nothings.

We're not the elite of the world. How in the world did we come to this conviction that we live by every objective, by every single word that proceeds out of the mouth of God? And why are you buying Bibles? And why are you buying study Bibles and commentaries and devotionals and daily Bibles and books about the Bible?

Where did you get all this confidence? Why do you want to study it? Why is it so important for you to hear the Word of God explained?

Let me give you some comments from some past guys who left an impression. Martin Luther, the Bible, the Bible cannot be understood simply by study or talent. You must count on the influence of the Holy Spirit.

How about Zwingli, another reformer? Even if you received the gospel of Jesus Christ directly from an apostle, you cannot act according to it unless your heavenly Father teaches you. And John Calvin held the same view that the Word of God is believed when God reads it. And John Calvin held the same view that the Word of God is believed when God regenerates the heart. Listen to what Calvin wrote. The testimony of the Spirit is superior to reason.

Very important statement. The testimony of the Spirit is superior to reason. For these words will not obtain full credit...the words of Scripture...in the hearts of men until they are sealed by the inward testimony of the Spirit. Scripture carrying its own evidence along with it deigns not to submit to proofs and arguments but owes the full conviction with which we ought to receive it to the testimony of the Holy Spirit.

Profound statement, absolutely accurate. We are not the noble and the mighty and the erudite and the elite. We're not the sages and the wise. But that is not what gets you to confidence in the Scripture. And Calvin said it, it is not reason, it is the testimony of the Holy Spirit which is superior to reason. I believe the Bible to be the Word of God the same way I believe Jesus Christ to be the Son of God, the same way I believe God to be the God of Scripture who is a holy Trinity, the same way I believe that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone and that is because God has wrought that confidence in my heart. Does it stand the test of reason?

Yes, but that is not the source of that conviction. It is the inner witness of the Spirit to our hearts. It is the Spirit that witnesses with our spirit that we are the children of God. It is the Spirit that witnesses with our spirit that the Word of God is in fact true and reliable. In 1 Thessalonians 1, 4 and 5, Paul said regarding his own preaching in the revelation that came from God through him, knowing your election, how that our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance. Why is it that some people hear the preaching of the gospel and it comes in power and it comes in the Holy Spirit and it comes in assurance, Paul says, knowing your election? Because God chose you to understand this. First Corinthians 2, 4 and 5, my speech and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom.

You don't need that. But in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. There is a preacher and his preaching was plain and straightforward and simple, not in the words of human wisdom. He preached Christ and Him crucified. He kept the message very clear, very straightforward. He did not craft his preaching in cultural fashion in order to make it acceptable to human reason. He says it was not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.

My preaching was straightforward and simple. It had massive impact which is no testimony to my skill as an orator, but is great testimony to the Holy Spirit and His power. And he says that your faith, your faith in the truth should not stand in the wisdom of men, not because it was such a reasonable and such a rational presentation, but in the power of God. We believe in the Word of God because we have been empowered by the Holy Spirit to go beyond where reason could ever take us.

I remember one time years ago when I was speaking at a college, it was Whittier College. They asked me to come out on three nights and prove the Bible was true. Well I was fairly young and thought this is great, I believe it's true and I think I can lay down some evidences.

And so I crafted a whole long list of evidences. The Bible is true because of its unity, it never contradicts itself. The Bible is true because of its scientific accuracy. It says He hangs the world on nothing.

That's pretty significant. It says the earth is turned like clay to the seal, rotated on an axis, that's what they would do with clay when they would embed a signature into soft clay. It talks about the course of the sun that runs from one end of space to the other. The whole hydrological cycle has unfolded in the book of Isaiah. You can talk about a lot of scientific things. The scientific accuracy in a rather primitive scientific world when these things were written, that's testimony to the veracity of Scripture. And then I talked about its historical accuracy, archeological discoveries and all those kinds of things. And I went through all the details. I talked about miracles, how else can you explain the miracles that were seen by hundreds and thousands of people, miracles that had no other explanation, the miraculous events, the miraculous nature, the miraculous attestation in the life of our Lord and the life of the Apostles and their associates who wrote the scriptures.

I went through all of that. I even made a point out of the person of Jesus Christ who was so transcendent no one ever could have invented Him. And I laid down all the evidences carefully and I frankly thought the proof was overwhelming.

Yet to my knowledge, not one single person was convinced in the whole student body. And I went away thinking that there's something else going on here, more than reason. And I began to realize what it says in 1 Corinthians 2.14, and if you will, turn there. That was just the introduction.

Now we're going to get to the text. First Corinthians 2.14, here is the summation of the problem. But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually examined, appraised, discerned. Well that's the answer. It's impossible. Evidences aren't going to cut it on their own. Human reason can't get you there. The natural man does not because he cannot. The natural man does not because he cannot. He does not believe because he cannot believe. And there is a certain profound reality to this cannot. He is unable because he's natural and not spiritual.

He doesn't have any spiritual apparatus. Furthermore, he is unable, look at 2 Corinthians chapter 4, this is compounding his inability. Paul says in verse 3, if our gospel is veiled...look, we preach the gospel and people don't all believe.

We know that. If it is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. It is veiled to those who are perishing. It is veiled to those who are headed for hell.

In whose case, verse 4, the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God. They don't because they can't. They can't because they're natural, not spiritual. They can't because they're dead, not alive. They can't because they are blinded by the God of this world who is, as you well know, Satan.

But there's even more. Go back to Matthew chapter 11 to show you how profound their condition is, how this is to say how deep is their darkness. In Matthew chapter 11, Jesus speaks in verse 25, He answered and said this, I praise Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou didst hide these things from the wise and intelligent and didst reveal them to babes. Oh boy. Now you have not only the natural condition, making it impossible for somebody to believe, you not only have the satanic condition, making it impossible for somebody to believe, but you have the divine judgment in which God has hidden these things from the wise and intelligent.

Why? The answer is in verse 26 and here's the answer Jesus gave in His prayer to the Father. Yes, Father, for thus it was well-pleasing in Thy sight. That is the only answer.

Are you ready for that? There's no other answer because He wanted it that way...because He wanted it that way. It pleased God to hide these things from the wise and the prudent. You can't get there through reason, even reason at its peak, reason at its pinnacle. How can Einstein, arguably one of the most intelligent men who have ever lived, how can he go so far and never come to understand that there has to be a God and the reasonableness of the God of the Bible being that God?

How is it that all the scholars can even pore over the Bible and make their searches for the historical Jesus and chase around studying the life of Christ and pore over the Old Testament and there have been tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of Old Testament scholars and rabbis who read the Scripture and there are all kinds of quote-unquote New Testament scholars and teachers in universities and seminaries in religion departments who don't get it and they have minds that are off the charts. And the answer is this, the natural man can't get there because it's in a different dimension. The natural man's darkness is compounded by satanic blindness.

He is so strongly attracted to the kingdom of iniquity that he runs from the truth which exposes his sin. And then you have God Himself limiting...limiting His disclosure of the truth, hiding it from the wise intelligent and revealing it to babes. This was so demonstrated, wasn't it, in the choice of the Twelve Apostles? Twelve absolute nobodies? None was a rabbi, none was a teacher, none was a preacher, none was a synagogue ruler, none was a Pharisee, Sadducee, none was scribe, just ignored all the scholastics, all the elite, as many as seven of them might have been fishermen, guys that work with their hands.

One was a scummy tax collector, social outcast. And why did God do that? And the answer comes in 1 Corinthians 1 verse 26, and we've alluded to it, let me take you to it, consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things that are strong and implied God has chosen the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not that He might nullify, the things that are that no man should boast before God.

Now listen to the next verse. By His doing you are in Christ Jesus. It is only by God's doing that you've come to believe the truth of God's revelation. It is by His doing you are in Christ who became to us wisdom from God. The only thing that ever makes anybody embrace divine wisdom is God's work in that heart.

Wisdom from God, righteousness, sanctification and redemption all come from God because God has chosen to give it to us so that just as it is written, verse 31, let him who boasts boast in the Lord. You can't get there through the natural process of human reason. That's why when you're trying to deal with a non-believer, you can stack up and stack up and stack up all kinds of evidences, all kinds of reasonable arguments. And believe me, the truth is rational and the truth is reasonable, but that doesn't take people there. If you want to present the case for biblical authenticity, and I want to do that every single time I step in this pulpit, I do not get up here and tell you what are the reasonable evidences that the Bible is true, I just open it up for it is sharper, more powerful than any other weapon.

It carries its own power with it. Turn back to Matthew chapter 11 and just be reminded of this tremendous passage. Verse 25, I praise Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou didst hide these things from the wise and intelligent, didst reveal them to babes.

Why? Because it was well pleasing in Your sight. Now look at the next verse. All things have been handed over to Me by My Father and no one knows the Son except the Father, nor does anyone know the Father except the Son...listen to this...and anyone to whom the Son wills to...what?...reveal Him. The only people who believe the gospel, the only people who believe the Bible to be the Word of God are the people God has chosen, the people to whom God has revealed Himself and those to whom the Son wills to reveal the Father.

Very selective and yet...don't you love that next verse? Because this is secret and we don't know who these people are, comes this invitation, come to Me, all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. The balance of the sovereignty of God is that invitation. Now I want you to turn to Matthew 13 verse 11. He answered and said to them, His disciples had just asked Him the question, why do you speak in parables? Parable is just an analogy, illustration.

But if you don't explain it, it becomes a riddle. So why do you speak to them in parables? Why are you speaking to the multitude in parables? He answered and said to them, I love this, to you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted. Do you feel privileged?

Do you feel privileged? You're sitting here as a direct result of a sovereign choice by God in eternity past to disclose to you His truth. To them it has not been granted. So, I speak in verse 13 to them in parables because they see and don't see, they hear and don't hear, they don't understand. And this is exactly what Isaiah said and he takes us back to Isaiah 6 when God told Isaiah, go preach, but know this, the people will hear but not understand. They will see but not perceive. The heart of this people has become dull with their ears, they scarcely hear, they've closed their eyes, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and return and I should heal them. But blessed are your eyes because they see and your ears because they hear, for truly I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see and didn't see it and to hear what you hear and didn't hear it.

Wow, are we privileged. And all these people, rabbis and people in religion and scholars and students chasing all around trying to figure things out and you've got all the other people looking in every realm of philosophy and trying to interpret religion and here we are, all the nobodies and nothings and lowly and we understand it because as verse 11 puts it, it has been granted to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. Why do we believe the Bible?

Because it was given to us to believe it. That's John MacArthur, Chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary, helping you stand up for God's word in a study John calls Making a Case for the Bible, here on Grace to You. And friend, if you're benefiting from this study, just a reminder that your support allows us to broadcast biblical truth to almost every corner of the English and Spanish speaking world. If that kind of ministry resonates with you, consider partnering with us when you contact us today. You can mail your tax-deductible donation to Grace to You, Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412. You can also give online at gty.org or you can express your support when you call, 855-GRACE.

That number, by the way, translates to 800-554-7223. Thank you for helping us take the gospel of Christ and biblical truth to your community and to communities around the world. Again, our phone number is 800-554-7223 and our website, gty.org. When you visit the website, gty.org, take advantage of the thousands of free resources available to you there.

You can read blog articles addressing hot button issues for the church. You can supplement your Bible study with three daily devotionals written by John. You can download any of John's more than 3,600-serving books, including the Bible. You can download any of John's more than 3,600-sermons in MP3 and transcript format.

And all of those resources are free of charge at gty.org. Now for John MacArthur and our staff, I'm Phil Johnson with a couple of questions for you to think about. Why are unbelievers hostile to biblical truth and how should knowing the answer to that question affect your gospel presentation? Consider that when John returns with another half-hour of unleashing God's truth, one verse at a time, on Tomorrow's Grace to You.