The Word of God

Best-selling author, speaker, and advocate for Christian apologetics, Dr. Alex McFarland. Best-selling author and apologist, Dylan Burrows. Together bringing you truth.

For a new generation, this is TNG Radio. One of my favorite verses of Scripture is found in Psalm 119, verse 93, which basically says this, I will never forget your words, for through them I found life. Alex McFarland here, along with Dylan Burrows, and today on the program, we're going to be talking about the Bible. How can I trust the Bible?

Can I be sure that the Scripture is trustworthy? And, you know, in John chapter 1, it begins very famously, the Word of God says, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.

All things came into being through him, and apart from him, the Word, nothing came into being that exists. In other words, there is this written Word, Scripture, but there's a living Word, Jesus. On today's program, we're going to talk about knowing the Word, both the living Word and the written Word. Dylan, it's great to be with you, my dear friend, and I know you've spent your life as a scholar studying the evidence for Christianity.

You've written numerous books, including best sellers, and you and I have worked on a number of projects together. Let me ask you this, in all of your years of scholarship and writing and research, how convinced are you, Dylan, about the trustworthiness of the Bible? Well, the Bible gives very specific reasons about where it came from and what it means. It does talk about, like you said, it being from God. It talks about in 1 Peter chapter 1 that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. Prophecy did not have its origin in human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as though they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. These are the words of Scripture, but then as you investigate it, you see that it's externally verified by aspects of archaeology, by aspects of history, by aspects of science. And as we look at the evidence, we see if you give Scripture the benefit of the doubt, if you say, okay, I'm going to believe what Scripture says unless you give me a specific reason otherwise, it has a very high level of accuracy that stands above and beyond all other sources of ancient literature.

Absolutely, absolutely. And folks, I want to give some facts here about the Word of God as depicted in John chapter 1. It talks about the eternality of the Word. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. In verse 2, it says He was in the beginning with God.

Not it, but He. Jesus is called the living Word, the Logos, the physical representation of God to the human race. Folks, if you want to know what God is like, look at Jesus.

If you want to know how to have a relationship with God, turn to Jesus. Jesus said, search the Scriptures for they testify of me. When you hear preachers or writers talk about the living Word, that's Christ. The written Word, that's Scripture. And Dylan, wouldn't you agree that if you accept the Word and you read it with an open mind, it will point you to Christ Jesus the Savior? Yes, and I think each of us, even after we become a Christian, have to wrestle with this issue of what does the Bible mean? Is it accurate?

Is it trustworthy? Can I count on its words in the difficult areas of my life? I became a Christian at age 12. I believed in Jesus Christ, but when it came to understanding the Bible itself, there was so much I did not know, and as I read it, there were confusing parts, and I thought, can I trust this?

Is there something wrong about this? And then, like many people, you go to college and you're given skeptical views about Jonah and the big fish being a myth, and about Noah and the flood not really happening like the Bible said, and it gives you doubts. And it's in those times of doubt that you need to take the next step, and the next step is evaluating the evidence. Not just believing the opinions, but evaluating the evidence, praying to God, give me wisdom, give me insight, and search where the evidence goes and find the most reasonable conclusion. And I think, Alex, you've done this as well earlier in your life, and as you look at the evidence, what are some of the things that stand out to you when it comes to God's Word and its power in our lives today?

Well, great question. As a young Christian going to UNC Greensboro back in the 80s, at 21, I gave my life to the Lord through a Monday night Bible study. And I began to read books by Josh McDowell, and I read the footnotes and discovered Norm Geisler and C.S.

Lewis and Francis Schaeffer, and then eventually came across the writings of one of your mentors, John Ankerberg. But Dylan, do you know what? I know this is going to sound very subjective, but as an English major, I was reading the Bible and the Gospel of John, and I read the Gospel of Mark, and all I can say is it just had the ring of truth. I mean, I had immersed myself in the literature, and I could tell.

And again, believe me, I realize this is going to sound very subjective, but I could just tell this was different. And Dylan, let me tell you something that made a big impact on me. And by the way, if you're just tuning in folks, we're talking about the Word of God, the trustworthiness of the Bible. Okay, I'm reading Genesis 37 through 45, the story of Joseph. And then very famously in Genesis 50, Joseph says to his brothers, you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. And one of the commentaries said that Joseph was a picture of Jesus. So I'm reading this, and I thought, okay, wow, Joseph was misunderstood and rejected by his immediate family. Jesus was misunderstood and rejected by his immediate family. Joseph emerged alive from an intended grave.

Jesus emerged alive from an intended grave. Of Joseph, Pharaoh said, whatever he says, do it. Of Jesus, Mary said, whatever he says, do it. Joseph gave a banquet and his family members came, and at the banquet they were given gifts. Jesus is having the marriage supper of the Lamb, and at that banquet you will be given gifts, gold, silver, precious stones. Joseph was betrayed for the price of a slave in his day, 20 pieces of silver. Jesus was betrayed for the price of a slave in his day, 30 pieces of silver. And Dylan, I remember, I'm reading this, I'm cross-referencing the Old Testament, New Testament. I'm a college student and I said, this book is different. This is God's book.

It has the ring of truth, it has the power to change lives, it's got external verification like archaeology and manuscripts, but even internally the content is absolutely unique. And if you read it and get the message, it will bring you to Jesus. I became thoroughly convinced in the trustworthiness of the Bible.

And 30 years later, all of my research has only validated that conviction, Dylan. Amen. And if you're just joining us, this is Truth for a New Generation Radio. We'll be right back after this break.

Stay with us. Attention all Christians who believe that America needs a spiritual revival, an awakening, a message of the gospel for our times. This is Alex McFarland encouraging you to attend the 2018 edition of Truth for a New Generation, the Conference on Apologetics, Worldview and Evidence for the Christian Faith, Greensboro, North Carolina, March 23 and 24.

Hear an amazing lineup that includes Josh McDowell, apologist J. Warner Wallace, Lauren Green and Todd Starnes, both from Fox News, attorney Abe Hamilton III of the American Family Association, music by the bands and orchestra from North Greenville University, and much, much more. Sessions for all ages equipping you to share your faith confidently in any situation. Visit Truth for a New Generation dot com.

That's Truth for a New Generation dot com TNG 2018 to save a nation. March 23 and 24 brought to you by North Greenville University, where Christ makes the difference. If you're a Christian parent, you of course want to instill a biblical view of life in the hearts of your children. If you're a pastor, you want to offer ministry that draws young families to your church. This is Alex McFarland encouraging you to check out my new book and video curriculum, The 21 Toughest Questions Your Kids Will Ask About Christianity. Why do bad things happen? I interviewed hundreds of children, ages 5 to 12, and we address actual questions from actual children, the spiritual issues that are on the minds of your kids.

Did Jesus ever sin? The book and video lessons are great for groups of any size and was produced with the goal of equipping kids to stand strong for Christ in any situation. The 21 Toughest Questions Your Kids Will Ask, the book, study guide, and video series. You'll find it at AFASTORE.net. That's AFASTORE.net. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we have seen your glory like the rising of the sun. You have conquered all our darkness.

The battle has been won. The Word of God is spoken. We are changed forever.

The power of sin is broken. We are... Welcome back to the program, John Chapter 1, Dylan Burroughs, Alex McFarland, TNG Radio. And speaking of TNG, folks, Truth For A New Generation is coming up really, really soon. We don't want you to miss it. The theme is Save A Nation. Incredible speakers like Josh McDowell. Folks, go to the website truthforanewgeneration.com.

There are a lot of great things. One thing, Dylan, we're going to be screening the movie The God Who Speaks. It's a feature length film by American Family Studios that answers the question, where did the Bible come from?

And why is the Bible authoritative? Great footage from Josh McDowell and Erwin Lutzer. The last filmed interview ever of R.C.

Sproul is in this movie. I'm in it. And we're going to show that. There's going to be a VIP lunch, a private lunch with great panelists like Tina Marie Griffin, who's an expert on Hollywood. She's an actress. Former Muslim Kamal Saleem, an expert on counterterrorism, is going to be talking about reaching Muslims with the gospel so much. I could tell you, Todd Starnes from Fox News. But folks, you don't want to miss it.

March twenty three, twenty four. There's a major prayer banquet the night before. And all of this, if you want to be a part of what God is doing, Truth for a New Generation, go to the website, register.

This would be a phenomenal event to bring a young person to. And whatever the size of your group, you need to be there to know how to understand the faith, delve deeply and fruitfully into God's word, and to be able to share your faith confidently in any situation. Dylan, we so desperately need the gospel in our country. The Bible talks about revivals.

History tells us about great awakenings. Why not us? Why not now?

Why not in this generation? Let's pray. Let's prepare. Let's see a great move of God. Because, Dylan, I think God probably is more eager to send an awakening than we're even willing to ask for it.

That's certainly the case. And I know you're not the only one asking that question. Why not us?

Why not now? Why not this generation where God would come and save a nation and move in a powerful way? And much of that depends on us turning to Him and turning to His word as we're discussing here in John chapter one.

You mentioned Josh McDowell, who will be a speaker at Truth for a New Generation this March. And as I was starting my journey in reading scripture, I came across his work and looked at his reasons for trusting the Bible. And one that stood out to me that I had never considered before was the idea of fulfilled prophecies. And by that I mean there were things that were written hundreds of years in advance that spoke directly about the life of Jesus. It's been catalogued that more than 300 prophecies were fulfilled by Christ's first coming.

I'll give you one example. In Daniel 9, 24 to 27, Daniel predicted over 500 years ahead of time, actually 483 years ahead of time to be exact, that there would be Jews returning to rebuild Jerusalem. And at that time, that was completely unexpected.

That was completely unthinkable, but yet it was done. And you look at that as one example. You look at Isaiah 7, where it speaks of the one who would be born of a virgin. You look at the story of Jesus, it's very clear that one of the biggest and most significant supernatural aspects of his birth was the virgin birth. And that was spoken of 700 years before he came to this earth. And those, like I said, are just two of over 300 regarding his first coming. And as the Jews of the time of Jesus looked at that, that was perhaps some of the strongest evidence for the first generation of people who came to faith in Jesus Christ.

Wow, that's powerful. Well, in the first segment, we talked about the eternality of the Word. You know, in Matthew 24, 35, Jesus said, Heaven and earth will pass away, but my word will never pass away. The eternality of the word. Let's talk a little bit about the omnipotence of the word. The Bible says that scripture is like a two edged sword, sharp and powerful.

It's able to pierce through our our heart, our emotions, our mind. The word of God gets our attention. But in John Chapter one, where it's talking about Christ, the living word, Jesus has power, creation, power, the power of life. It says all things came into the world into being by him. The King James renders it very famously.

There was not anything made apart from him that was made. Now, Dylan, when I read John 18, 35, Pilate asked Jesus, what is truth? And Jesus says an amazing thing that no other person could say.

And we're talking about the power of life, which is in God's hands, the ability to create out of nothing, the ability to give life. Jesus tells Pilate, for this cause, I came into the world to bear witness to the truth. Read John 18, you'll find that that conversation.

Pilate is standing in front of the one who is the personification, the embodiment of truth. And Jesus says, I came into the world for this purpose. Now, none of us could say legitimately that we chose to come into this world. I mean, our parents conceived us and we were born, but we had nothing to do with it. How could Jesus say, I chose to come into this world? I orchestrated, planned and chose my entry into the stage of human history. The only way he could say that is if he were prior to human history. And indeed, he was, he is. His entry into the world was supernatural. His exit from this world, the resurrection, the ascension, supernatural, his return to this world. Truly, Jesus, the living word has all the power. He is omnipotent, isn't he, Dylan?

Yes. And as you mentioned, John one is one of the most powerful verses speaking to that issue, talking about the Word was with God and the Word was God, referring to Jesus himself. There are some religious groups that teach that Jesus was a created being, that he was not eternal with God, the Father and God, the Spirit.

This is not what the New Testament teaches. Here and in other places, we see that Jesus was around from eternity past. He was involved in all of creation. If you read Colossians 1, it speaks to that issue. And he's been involved from eternity past and will be involved into eternity future. So we see the written Word tells us about the living Word, Jesus, in a way that very clearly speaks of him as God, as one defined as omnipotent, as you said, all powerful, that there's no power greater than him, because he created all other powers. And Scripture even says that one day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

So he has the eternality of the Word, as you mentioned, the omnipotence of the Word, and the authority of the world, that everything was made through him, and he has power over all things. So these are some of the topics that we want to address to help you as you're growing in your walk with Christ. Stick with us. We'll be right back in a moment to talk more here on Truth For a New Generation radio.

We'll be right back. 1 Peter 3.15 tells us to be ready always to give an answer for the hope we have. We're instructed to be prepared to defend our faith. This is Alex McFarland for the Life Answers Teams, students we train at North Greenville University, a leading Christian college in South Carolina. The Life Answers Teams are made up of students who will inspire and equip your congregation. These apologetics teams we train speak in churches to youth groups and train Christians of all ages to address key issues of our times from a biblical perspective. Like is there a God? Is the Bible true? What about gender and moral issues? Call me at 864-977-2008 and we will arrange for the Life Answers Team to come to your church and give a presentation that will benefit your people for years to come.

864-977-2008 and always be ready. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it. That's John 1 verse 5. Welcome back to the program.

Alex McFarland here with Dylan Burrows. We're talking about the Word of God. I do want to mention before we conclude here, we've got a brand new app. It's free if you go to whatever mobile device you use.

If you go to the app store, you'll find that it works for all devices. The TNG app, Truth For a New Generation. Dylan, I'm really excited about this because there are several features. My traveling schedule is being put up on there. There's information about the TNG conferences, but there's also a searchable wiki of apologetics issues.

Right now, there are over 150 articles that I've written that we posted on there. If you've ever wondered, what about archaeology? What about fulfilled prophecy? What about atheism, Islam, moral issues? You name it. If it's a Christian worldview topic, it's on the TNG app.

You can search it. There's also the Gospel. There are tips on witnessing.

Dylan, we've also got a 30-day evangelism plan. Folks, maybe you're like me. 30 years ago when I became a believer, I was such an introvert.

I was so shy. I was probably the least likely person to become a witness for the Gospel. Yet God began to use me. God wants to use you.

We've got on the TNG app a 30-day plan for every day of the month, a scripture, a principle, a prayer, and an action. You can change somebody's eternity. God will use you to lead someone to Christ.

We ask you to go to the web store and get that app totally free. We just want to put resources in your hands that will help you in your walk and your witness. John 1 verse 5 speaks about the authority of the Word, that the darkness stood against the light, but it could not overcome the light. The light eclipses the darkness. Some translations will say the darkness did not comprehend it or overcome it. Isn't it good to know that the light of Jesus, the power of God, the change of the Gospel, it will not be vanquished.

It will not be snuffed out, will it? No, and that's an encouraging truth for those of us who are struggling in different areas. There's another scripture that talks about, greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world. I'm often comforted by that thought when times are tough. I think about where the Apostle Paul talks about Satan being crushed underneath the feet of God at some point in the future. And so we know that ultimately God restores all things.

He has power over all things. But even in our daily lives here and now, there may be a struggle, but the power of Christ is far superior to any other power, to any other struggle you're going through. And it's spoken of right here in John 1. And I love this idea of the authority of the Word, but also the embodiment of the Word, what theologians call the incarnation, that Jesus didn't just show up, but he became like us.

He became human. He became one of us, literally camped among us or dwelt among us, so that he could relate to us in a personal way that you could not do in any other form. So these are some of the aspects that I think stand out for us as we look at the living Word as well as the written Word. But tell us a little bit more about this idea of the redemption of the Word. I think that's an important aspect we want to talk about in our last few minutes here.

Sure. Well, in John 1, verse 14, it says, And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw his glory as the glory of the only begotten of the Father, the Son of God. OK, so Christ took on a human body, came to Earth, lived a sinless life, and he was able to die on the cross and pay for our sins. We call that the atonement, the turning away of wrath. He propitiated, he paid for our sins because he was God incarnate. Now, listen to this redemption.

This is wonderful. Verse 12, and to everyone listening to this program, this is God's Word for you. It says, But as many as received him to them gave he some translations say power to become the children of God.

Others say the right. In other words, Jesus has the authority to give you eternal life if you will turn to him. Matthew 28, 18, 19 and 20 speak of the authority of Jesus. He said all power in heaven and earth is in my hands.

And the word is jurisdiction. Jesus Christ and he alone can give you eternal life. As many as received him to them gave he the power to become the children of God, even to those who believe on his name, who were born not of blood or of the will of the flesh or the will of man, but the will of God. So how do you receive him?

Well, it's very simple. You admit that you're a sinner and you believe. What do you believe? Well, you need to accept that Jesus really is the son of God, not just a good man, but he is the son of God, as he said. And when he went to that cross, yes, he did it for the world.

But friend, he did it for you. There's a law of logic that the parts make up the whole. The whole is the world, the parts are people. You're a person. Christ gave his life for you. Do you believe that?

Sure, sure you do. You know, he loves you deep down. You know, you've got to realize God loves you and then you've got to be willing to turn to him and believe that he will accept you because he will. And Dylan, I want to give just a couple of verses in John six, verse thirty seven.

Jesus said, the one who comes to me, I will not reject. So if you're listening to this program and you've never turned to Christ, do do it today, just ask him and say, Lord, I'm sorry for my sins and I believe you died on the cross and Lord, I'm asking you to forgive me and you rose again. And I'm asking for that eternal life and I receive it. I believe you and I want to follow you. And if you pray, Jesus will hear you and Jesus will receive you.

You can go to our website, Alex McFarland dot com. There's an explanation of the decision you've just made and what to do now. First steps as a believer. If you go to the app, there's the gospel. We have a book that we give out to thousands of people every year on what does God say about my relationship with him? And we're always updating it. And we've got a brand new updated edition that's coming hot off the press.

We'll send you one for free if you contact us. But Dylan, I believe that God wants every person, number one, to know Christ and number two, to grow and be used. And isn't that just the most exciting adventure of all to be in a relationship with the Lord and to be used by the Lord?

It certainly is, Alex. And I think about so many people who have heard the message of salvation. And I think if I believe that's it right, I get salvation, I go to heaven, I don't go to hell. Well, that's the gift of God. Yes, that's eternal life. That's a wonderful thing. But it starts there.

It doesn't stop there. Jesus has come to give us life and to give us life abundantly. So we hope that these words have encouraged you, have helped to equip you so that you not only accept Christ, but you grow in Him and you share Him with others. This has been Dylan Burrows and Alex McFarland at Truth For A New Generation Radio. Thanks for being with us.

Join us next time. Truth For A New Generation, in association with Alex McFarland Evangelistic Ministries, exists to equip Christians with a biblical worldview through conferences and camps. For information about upcoming events, visit truthforanewgeneration.com or give us a call at 877-YES-GOD-1. That's 877-YES-GOD and the number one. TNG radio is made possible by the friends of Alex McFarland Evangelistic Ministries, P.O. Box 485, Pleasant Garden, North Carolina, 27313. That's P.O. Box 485, Pleasant Garden, North Carolina, 27313. Or give online at alexmcfarland.com or truthforanewgeneration.com. Thanks for listening and join us again next time as we bring you more truth for a new generation on TNG radio.