The Amazing Truth of the Bible B

It's the only book that gives the account of special creation. It is by far the purest of trust God's Word for every decision, every relationship, every trial, in short, for every part of every day. John calls this series, Is the Bible Reliable?

So follow along now as John begins today's lesson. Now the critics of inspiration usually bring up three areas of problems and we're going to look at the Word of God and see if we can answer them. The critics attack on the area of the fact that the Bible makes disclaimers to inspiration and secondly on the area of transmission. Thirdly, they attack on the area of difficulties. Now I call it difficulties, they call it errors.

But I like difficulties better. They say that if you're going to say the Bible is inspired, how do you account for all the mistakes in the Bible? I mean, there are mistakes every place. The errors in the Bible are very elusive. They aren't errors.

You know what they are? They're difficulties masquerading as errors. You say, well why did God allow difficulties? I mean, why are there parts of the Scripture that are hard to harmonize?

And there are. Why isn't it just easy? I know why it's hard to harmonize.

I'll give you some reasons. Number one, it disproves collusion. You know, the critics would like to push all the dates of the Bible way up and have all the Bible writers sort of in the same little glob writing and that way they could explain how come they all said the same thing. But the very fact that there are difficulties to harmonize shows that they didn't really get together, that it isn't a forgery. Because if the Bible is a fraud and it was forged and it was cranked out of collusion, it's going to agree with itself, right? I mean, if you wanted to write a book that would be believable, man, you'd make everything whack together, wouldn't you?

And the fact that there are any difficulties at all is a good indication there wasn't any collusion in the writing. I'm giving you another reason for difficulties. I think there are difficulties here because it forces you to do what?

You got it. Study. And I think that there are difficulties in the Bible because we have to close so many gaps. What do you mean by that?

I mean there are gaps. For example, some things are difficult to us because we don't understand culture, we don't understand the culture in which it was said. Other things, we don't understand the geography. We don't understand the history of the times. We have a terrible language problem.

We're trying to figure out what Hebrews meant when they used Hebrew words several thousand years ago. You see, by having to face all these huge gaps, there is difficulty. One other thing, difficulty is always the product of brevity and summary. You know, when you get a whole historical incident reduced to five verses, man, you've got a lot left out, right? And when there's anything left out in summary or brevity, it's difficult. So I believe that God allowed these difficulties to disprove collusion, to force us to study, that they are there because there's just difficulty in closing all the gaps.

And that they are there because they are products of brevity and summary. One other thing, I'm glad there are some totally insurmountable, absolutely beyond conquest kind of problems because that means God's ways are higher than man's ways. And it speaks of a divine author.

The critics claimed a host of errors in 1850 and they were all recanted in 1950. Second Peter 3.16 is interesting. It says in all of Paul's epistles, speaking in them of these things in which are some things hard to be understood. The Bible agrees, it isn't easy. Second Peter 3.16, in which are some things hard to be understood. Peter's kind of really kind of cute to hear Peter say this. He says, you know that Paul, he's awful hard to understand.

Peter is a lot easier than Paul. But there are abbreviated stories. There are gaps of culture, gaps of language, gaps of geography, gaps of history and gaps of custom and it's difficult.

It's not error, it's difficulty. Well, let me give you some of the things they say and I'll try to answer them. Number one is where did Cain get his wife? That is so easy to answer. He married his sister. You see, but that's not right.

But the definition of that came later. I mean, if you're going to have everybody coming from one family, somebody's got to marry somebody in the family. In fact, did you know that in Genesis 5, 3 and 4 it says that Adam lived 930 years and begat many sons and daughters? And over a period of 930 years, you better believe that those sons and daughters also begat many other sons and daughters.

In fact, one man figured out that Cain could have chosen his wife from 35,000 people. Let me show you another one that they bring up. Joshua 10, the Battle of Gibeon.

Remember this one? And this is where they criticized the Scriptures being unscientific. The Lord won the battle, verse 10 says. But verse 12, then spoke Joshua to the Lord in the day when the Lord delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel and He said in the sight of Israel, Son, stand thou still upon Gibeon and thou moon in the valley of Agilon. And the sun stood still and the moon stayed until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven and hastened not to go down about a whole day.

And there was no day like that before or after it. Now you see that people say, oh, isn't that funny? You see, they had the idea that the sun went around the earth. You see, there was erroneous scientific information here. They thought the sun was going around the earth.

Oh, isn't that terrific? Son, stand still. Technically he should have said, earth, stop revolving if he was a scientist. But friends, the Bible is written from the human perspective.

It is written in not scientific language but a human language. You get up in the morning, you throw your curtain up and you look out and you say, oh, what a lovely earth revolving. No, that is a sunrise. You say, oh, that isn't very scientific.

Of course it isn't. You're looking at it from the human viewpoint. In the evening when you look out to the west and you see above the layer of brown, the layer of red, and you say, what a lovely earth revolving.

No, it's a sunset. We talk about the four corners of the earth, we don't believe it's square. We talk about the fact that the North Pole is on the top and we say Australia is down under. And the old scientists used to laugh when somebody said the earth was round because they said, isn't that stupid to imagine men going around hanging like some sort of suspended creatures by their feet. You see, they couldn't think those thoughts. When the Bible gets into scientific areas, it speaks from the human viewpoint. It is not intended to be a textbook on science. It is just as accurate for Joshua to say what he said as it would be for you to say that it's a lovely sunrise because in his view that's exactly what happened.

The sun stayed right where it was. And that's the simplest way to describe it. We still do it. Let me give you another illustration. Second Kings 18, and here's another one that they used to criticize. Second Kings 18, 14, the great king of Assyria was a man named Sennacherib and the king of Israel was a fine man by the name of Hezekiah and there was a war. And I want you to notice as we look at verse 14, and Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria to Lakish saying, I have offended.

Withdraw from me that which thou putest on me will I bear. And the king of Assyria appointed unto Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold. Now Hezekiah was commanded by Sennacherib to pay three hundred talents of silver, thirty talents of gold.

Archaeologists digging found most interesting information in regard to this very battle. In fact, they found the records of the transaction between Sennacherib and Hezekiah. But what was interesting was it was Sennacherib's own official account that they found. And when the archaeologists found it, Sennacherib's account said eight hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold. So there was a discrepancy and so they said, see here again, the Bible is in error.

They never thought Sennacherib could make a mistake. Plus the fact they were dealing with later manuscripts and they did find the original record of Sennacherib. Want to know something interesting? Archaeologists continued to dig and the more they dug about Assyrian life, the more they found out and recently they have discovered that the standard of calculation for gold in Judea and Assyria was the same. So thirty talents of gold in Judea, that would be the way they would say it. Thirty talents of gold in Assyria, that's the way they would say it. But the standard for calculating silver was different and, in fact, they have discovered that it took exactly eight hundred Assyrian talents to make three hundred Jewish talents.

The Scripture was right to the very number. You see, folks, these aren't mistakes, it's just that we need further information. Do you understand that?

Further insights. But what about theology? Well they're always saying that Paul and James disagreed. Look at Romans 4. In Romans 4 Paul talks about Abraham.

They say the Bible not only makes mistakes numerically, scientifically, etc., etc., and as I've showed you all of them are not mistakes at all, but they say theologically it makes mistakes. It says in chapter 4 of Romans, verse 1, what shall we say then that Abraham our father as pertaining to the flesh hath found? In other words, what particular works were beneficial to him? For if Abraham were justified by works, he had something of which to glory but not before God. For what saith the Scripture? Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness. Now in verse 4 he says to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace but of debt. So here it says Abraham didn't get his salvation by what? By works, he got it by faith. Now go to James 2.21 and in James 2.21 it says, Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Now you see they say you have right here a disagreement, an absolute contradiction.

You have justified by grace and faith in Romans 4 and James 2 justified by works. But friends, if you study the passage, you find it something very interesting. Paul is referring to Genesis 15. James is referring to Genesis 22. Paul is referring to the time that Abraham actually was redeemed, actually was termed righteous. In Genesis 15 when he believed God, James is referring to the time when Abraham offered Isaac as a visible indication of the reality of his faith. Paul is saying you're saved by faith. James is saying and your true salvation will become visible by what you do. There is no disagreement.

One is a corollary to the other. Yes, Abraham was justified by faith, but his faith validated his salvation in chapter 22 when he showed how he really believed God. And that's all James is saying. He's saying, of course you're saved by faith, but I'll tell you one thing, if your life doesn't reveal your faith, there's no faith there, right? That isn't a contradiction at all.

So you see, with careful study, with any kind of scholarship, with the findings of archeology, the difficulties melt away. And the Bible stands under all the assaults. That's defense. The Bible can defend itself. What about offense? Let me just give you some quick thoughts.

And this is just a brief thought or two. Can the Bible positively testify to its authority as well as defending itself? Can it attack? It's got a good defense.

What's its offense like? Let me give you several thoughts. I think the Bible...the Bible is trustworthy because of its uniqueness. I mean, let's face it, folks, there's no book like this in existence. And as I said last time, if you don't believe God wrote it, you have a problem.

Who did? Professor Montiori Williams, the former Bowdoin professor of Sanskrit, spent 42 years studying Eastern books and this is what he said, quote, "'Pile them, if you will, on the left side of your study table, but place your own Holy Bible on the right side, all by itself, all alone and with a wide gap between them. For there is a gulf between it and the so-called sacred books of the East which severs the one from the other utterly, hopelessly and forever.'" He said after 42 years of studying Eastern sacred books, they don't belong in the same place with the Bible.

For example, just take the Hindu Bible. In the sacred writings of the Hindus, you find such fantastic nonsense as this. The moon is 50,000 leagues higher than the sun and shines by its own light.

Night is caused by the sun setting behind a huge mountain several thousand feet high located in the center of the earth. This world is flat and triangular and is composed of seven stages, one of honey, another of sugar, a third of butter and another of wine. And the whole mass is borne on the heads of countless elephants which in shaking produce earthquakes. That's the sacred writing of the Hindus. Errors regarding the material world are common in...mostly common in Homer, in Greek and Roman mythology, in the wild disordered books of the Hindus, the traditions of the Buddhists, the greatest geniuses even of ancient philosophy such as Aristotle, Plato, Pliny, Plutarch, Lucretius and others wrote such absurdities that if one such absurdity was found in the Bible, it would totally and forever discredit its inspiration. But there's not one of them in the Bible, not one. James Orr, speaking of the Moslems, Zoroastrian and Buddhist Scriptures said this, and I quote, "'It is the simple fact that there is nothing that can be properly called history in these other sacred books of the world.

They are as every student of them knows for the most part jumbles of heterogeneous material loosely placed together without order, continuity or unity of any kind,'" end quote. The Bible is unique. It has been read by more people, published in more languages, at least 1,280 plus languages, studied, criticized more than any other book. God wants it circulated and it's getting circulated. The first major book ever published was the Bible, wasn't it? On Gutenberg's Press. By 1932, the London Bible Society says there were one and a half billion Bibles in print, 1932.

And nobody knows how many billion there are now. It's the only book that gives the account of special creation. It's the only book that gives a continuous historical record from the first man to the present era to the future. It's the only book of ancient history that gives history a purpose. It is by far the purest religious literature with the highest moral standards. It is the only book of antiquity containing detailed prophecies of events to come accurately. And it is the only book which has proven to convict men of sin and lead them to salvation. There's no book in the world like the Bible.

It's uniqueness. Second, I think the Bible is true because of its unity. Whenever you see the unity of the Bible, you have to see one author, 66 books, 40 plus human writers, nearly 1,600 years all the way from Moses who wrote the first one in your Bible to John who wrote the last one and you've got unity through the whole thing. One man wrote in Syria, another in Arabia, another in Italy and Greece. They wrote in the desert of Sinai, the wilderness of Judea, the cave of Adullam, the prison at Rome, the barren island of Patmos, the palaces of Zion and Shushan, the rivers of Babylon, etc., etc. In three languages, different lifestyles, different occupations, locations, events, poetry, history, theology, proverbs, parables, allegory and on it goes and every bit of it is one harmonious whole. A mastermind control it all.

It's not pell-mell, it's not scattered. Just to show you how the Bible is done, let me show you this. In the Old Testament you have salvation prepared. In the gospels, salvation affected. In the Acts, salvation preached. In the Epistles, salvation explained. In the Revelation, salvation fulfilled. Perfect historical continuity.

It's going from somewhere to somewhere else and it gets there. One of the most beautiful tributes to the Bible was paid by Billy Sunday. This is what he said, I want to read you this, it's really beautiful. Twenty-nine years ago with the Holy Spirit as my guide, I entered at the portico of Genesis. I walked down the corridor of the Old Testament in the art gallery where pictures of Noah and Abraham and Moses and Joseph and Isaac and Jacob and Daniel hung on the wall. I passed into the music room of the Psalms where the Spirit sweeps the keyboard of nature until it seems that every reed and pipe in God's great organ responds to the harp of David, the sweet singer of Israel. I entered the chamber of Ecclesiastes where the voice of the preacher is heard and into the conservatory of Sharon and the lily of the valley where sweet spices filled and perfumed my life. I entered the business office of Proverbs and on into the observatory of the prophets where I saw telescopes of various sizes pointing to far off events, concentrating mostly on the bright and morning star which was to arise above the moonlit hills of Judea for our salvation and redemption. I entered the audience room of the King of Kings catching a vision written by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Then into the correspondence room with Paul and Peter and James and John and Jude writing their epistles.

I stepped into the throne room of Revelation where tower the glittering peaks where sits the King of Kings upon His throne of glory and I cried out, all hail the power of Jesus' name, let angels prostrate fall, bring forth the royal diadem and crown Him Lord of all. The Bible is unique and it is united. Lastly, I think the Bible vindicates itself by its indestructibility. You see, the Bible is God's Word and because it is God's Word it partakes of God's nature, right? And God is eternal so it is...what?...eternal.

Psalm 119 89, forever, O Lord, Thy Word...what?...is settled in heaven. You know, throughout history Satan has attacked the Bible. Celsus cried with his brilliant genius and failed.

Porphyry tried with the hammer of philosophy and failed. Diocletian, the Roman emperor, tried the most concerted attack ever against the Bible. He tried to destroy Christians, that's right, he was a real killer of Christians, but he also attacked the Scripture. In 303 A.D., three hundred years after Christ, he brought to bear against the Bible all the military and political power of Rome. He issued proclamations that every Bible had to be burned, every manuscript. Naturally, Christians didn't do it, so the imperial government then demanded that the Scriptures be given up and anybody who didn't give them up would be executed, murdered.

That failed. He killed a whole lot of Christians, burned a whole lot of Scripture manuscripts. The penalty of death was carried out. Many Christians died. In fact, he burned so many Christians and burned so many manuscripts that he finally erected a column.

You know, they used to...whenever they'd get a great victory, they'd put up a big triumph arc. You know how many arcs of triumphs there are and how many great columns of victory there are in ruins around the world? Well he put up a great huge triumph column and it was called Extincto Nomine Christianorium which means the name of Christians has been extinguished and they built this huge thing.

You know something? Twenty-two years later, the first church council met at Nicaea and enthroned the Bible as the only infallible judge of truth in the world. Twenty-two years after he erected his column, Thomas Paine in the age of reason 200 years ago presented his genius, and I mean he was smart. He was one of the geniuses of his age. And he presented his genius as an attack on Christianity and boy he really went after it. He felt his arguments would destroy forever the Bible. He predicted that in a few years the Bible would be out of print. On returning to America, he boasted, and I quote, when I get through, there will not be five Bibles left in America. Fifteen hundred years after Herodotus wrote his history, there was only one copy.

Twelve hundred years after Plato wrote his books, there was only one copy. We've got 13,000 manuscripts of the Bible. Oh, by the way, going back to Voltaire, 50 years after his death, the Geneva Bible Society used his house and his press to print Bibles.

Oh, incidentally, going back to Diocletian, 25 years after his efforts, Constantine commissioned Eusebius to prepare 50 copies of the Bible at the expense of the Roman government. H. L. Hastings says, infidels with all their attacks make about as much impression on this book as a man with a tack hammer would on the pyramids of Egypt. When the French monarch proposed the persecution of Christians, says Hastings in his dominion, an old statesman said to him, sire, the church of God is an anvil that has worn out many hammers. So the hammers of infidels have been pecking away at this book for ages, but the hammers are worn out and the anvil still endures. Praise the Lord for his word. Amen. What a book.

United, unique, indestructible. The grass withers, the flower fades, the word of God abides forever. That's John MacArthur, chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary, laying out practical reasons you can be confident that the Bible really is what it claims to be. It's the word of God. The title of John's current study here on Grace to You, Is the Bible Reliable? John, today you had a lot to say about some of the hard-to-understand aspects of the Bible. And along that line, we heard from a caller to our Q&A line who raises a question that I'd like you to hear. So let's listen to that question, and then John, you can respond.

Hi John, my name is Brian. I love your ministry and I've learned an incredible amount from your study Bible. I have a question about two seemingly conflicting things that you've said in the series that you've aired. In the Backwards of Grace, you mentioned the total inability of man, and that goes well with Ephesians 2, where it says we're dead in trespasses and sins. However, in your series, I believe on the Antichrist, you also said that man would respond to the light he was given, that the complete light of the gospel would be given to him. So that doesn't seem to square with me. I mean, if it's totally inability and we're dead in trespasses and sins, how can we have any capability to respond even to the light of the gospel as explained in Romans 1 in Creation? So I'm hoping you can reconcile this for me.

I'm hoping I didn't miss something there. Thank you very much, John. Well, the answer is relatively simple. Apart from the Spirit of God, no one can respond to the truth. We're dead in trespasses and sins, we're controlled by the God of this world, the powers of darkness, we're children of the devil. Romans chapter 3 lays it out.

There's none righteous, there's none who seeks after God. So we understand that total inability. But at the same time, we also understand that you can respond to the truth, but only when the Spirit of God opens up your understanding. That's why we talk about regeneration as being the initial work of the Holy Spirit. If you're dead in trespasses and sins, you have no mechanism to respond to the truth until you are given life. And that's essentially what Jesus said to Nicodemus. You have to be born from above, and that is the work of the Holy Spirit. Trusting in the work of the Holy Spirit, the dead heart becomes alive, the dark becomes light, and you can respond to the truth. Thanks John. Friend, if you want to get a stronger grip on issues like God's sovereignty and salvation, I recommend you go to our website and look for the series of messages called The Doctrines of Grace.

Do that today. Our web address is GTY.org. This 10-part series will answer questions like, Does God choose the people He saves, or do sinners choose God? And, Did Christ die for the sins of everyone or only for those He saves? Those are complex issues, but John's series breaks them down so that they're clear. The title one more time, The Doctrines of Grace. Free to download in MP3 and transcript format from our website GTY.org. And if you have a Bible-related question, give our Q&A line a call. The number there is 1-661-295-6288. You can leave a message with your question, and you may hear John answer it on a future broadcast. The Q&A line number one more time, 661-295-6288. Now for John MacArthur and the entire Grace To You staff, I'm Phil Johnson. Look for Grace To You television this Sunday on DirecTV channel 378, or check your local listings. And be here at the same time tomorrow to consider this question, What is so important about the miracles recorded in the Bible? What is the takeaway for you and me today? Tune in for our next 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth one verse at a time on Grace To You.