Why Do You Believe What You Believe, pt. 2 "The Bible"

Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so. Little ones to Him belong. They are weak but He is strong. Yes Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. The Bible tells me so.

            Ok, so this book, or more accurately, this collection of books, which is very thick and hard to read, hard to understand, and even harder to apply the principles taught in it… this book, described as two cows hugging a tree, one of the most polarizing books in all of history, tells me that Jesus loves me. Why should we believe that? What makes the Bible an accurate source of information? I heard of a magazine article the other day that said if you want to have fulfilling sex you should wait. I agree that you should wait. I disagreed on how long you should wait. They suggested waiting a whole month. The Bible doesn’t just suggest, it commands us to wait until we’re married. Again, what makes this article false and the Bible true? When two sources are saying opposite things, one necessarily has to be wrong. So how do we know the Bible is the one telling us the truth?

There used to be a day and age where the Bible’s authority was unquestioned. If you had a problem with the Bible you had a problem with yourself. It’s not that way anymore. It’s popular to question authority, and the ultimate authority is God, and His Word. I remember one time I was substitute teaching for a P.E. teacher in Ohio. He had a list of all of the mistakes and contradictions in the Bible in his desk. I saw it and wanted so bad to refute them, but I didn’t know if he was doubting the accuracy of the Bible or if a friend was and he was refuting them for him. But one of the listed problems of scripture concerned the ark. Name for me where the ark comes into play in the Bible: 1) Noah’s Ark; 2) The Ark of the Covenant. One was a boat that carried at least two of every kind of animal in the world. The other was a large box, able to be carried by two people, which stored a piece of manna, the Ten Commandments, and the very presence of God. This person wondered how such a small box could contain every type of animal known to man. They were either too dumb, or not intellectually honest enough to consider the fact that the word “ark” may have allowed for two different meanings.

Reading 1: Mark 5:1 (Gadarenes) Reading 2: Luke 8:26 (Gadarenes) Reading 3: Matthew 8:28 (Gergesenes) There are three different people telling the same story, but one of them takes place near the town of Gergesenes where the other two take place in Gadarenes. They both can’t be right. So which is it? Mark is considered to be the oldest of the four Gospels (Matt, Mark, Luke, John). It is believed that the other gospel writers relied on Mark’s narration for some of the details. Luke was not native to the area, and would not be familiar with the geography to notice a discrepancy. It is believed that one of the people in charge of the copying of scriptures noticed the error and fixed it in the Gospel of Matthew. How do we know that Matthew’s version is the correct version? The town of Gadara was anywhere from 50 to 150 miles away from the Sea of Galilee, whereas Gergesa was right on the shore. If those pigs ran 50 to 150 miles before going swimming it is no wonder they drowned.

Does that mean there are errors in scripture? Theological errors—no. Typographical errors—yes, but extremely minor and of no importance to anything significant. Does this cause me concern? No, because I don’t worship the Bible. I worship the God who wrote the Bible. Is the Bible wrong then? No. We don’t have an original copy of the Holy Word. What we have are copies, but today I will prove to you that our copies are extremely reliable, and worthy of our trust.

Josh McDowell was a very intelligent atheist in college. He was challenged, and therefore, set out to be the one to prove Christianity wrong. In his studies he found overwhelming proof that Christianity was not wrong and turned his life over to Christ. He is now one of the greatest minds Christianity has produced. In his body of work he wrote a two volume encyclopedic style book called Evidence that Demands a Verdict. For the most part, all of my references will be coming from that source.

Here are some interesting facts about the Bible.

-It was written over a span of about 1,500 years.

-It was written by more than forty authors from every walk of life including: kings, military leaders, peasants, philosophers, fisherman, tax collectors, poets, musicians, statesmen, scholars, and shepherds.

            -Moses was a political leader and a judge, trained at universities in Egypt.

            -David was a king, poet, musician, shepherd, and warrior.

            -Joshua was a military leader.

            -Daniel was a prime minister

            -Solomon was a king and a philosopher

            -Luke was a doctor and a historian

            -Peter was a fisherman.

            -Matthew was a tax collector

            -Paul was studying to be a rabbi.

            -Mark was Peter’s secretary.

-It was written in different places:

            -Moses was in the wilderness.

            -Jeremiah was in a dungeon

            -Paul was in prison.

            -Daniel was on a hillside and in a palace.

            -Luke was travelling.

            -John was exiled on the island of Patmos.

-It was written in different time:

            -David in times of war and sacrifice

            -Solomon in times of peace and prosperity.

-It was written during different moods.

            -Heights of joy.

            -Depths of despair.

            -Certainty and conviction.

            -Confusion and doubt.

-It was written on three different continents:

            -Asia

            -Europe

            -Africa

-It was written in three languages:

            -Greek

            -Hebrew

            -Aramaic

-It was written in many different writing styles:

            -History, poetry, song, romance, personal letters, memoirs, satire, biography and autobiography, law, prophecy, parable, allegory

            In spite of this great time span and diversity of authors, settings and writing styles, there is one common theme throughout the 66 books of the Bible—God’s redemption plan for man. From cover to cover, the Bible focuses its attention on Jesus Christ.

            The Bible stands alone in its ability to survive through the generations. The original writing of a book of the Bible is called an autograph. There are no autographs that we have discovered yet. A copy of the original is called a manuscript. The older, or closest to the original version is generally considered to be the most accurate (The oldest fragment dates back to 2400 BC). The more manuscripts that are found, the easier it is to check for errors and mistakes. How do we know that the people copying the text were good at their jobs? Because they took it very seriously. They wrote one word at a time and then counted every letter per line to make sure that there was an accurate accounting for each letter and word. 

            How does the Bible compare to other ancient works? In my 33 years I have never heard anyone argue that Homer did not write The Odyssey or The Iliad, but I have heard people say some pretty disrespectful things about the Bible. How many manuscripts do we have of The Iliad? 643. How many do we have of the New Testament alone? 24,970. Homer wrote The Iliad around 800 BC and we found our oldest mss of that work around 400 BC, a difference of 400 years. The New Testament was written between 50 and 100 AD and we have mss from 114 AD, anywhere from 4-50 years old.

            Another way we can tell the reliability of scripture and how it was kept pure through copying is by reading secondary sources who quoted the Bible in their works. It is argued that even if we didn’t have all of the mss that we do have, we could put one together just using the writings of the church fathers and their quotations of the Bible. A church father is two steps away from Jesus. The apostles were disciples of Jesus. The church fathers were disciples of the apostles. Just looking at the writing of seven of these church fathers (Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Tertullian, Hippolytus, and Eusebius) there have been 36,289 quotations from scripture.

            What does all of this mean and why should you care? If the Bible is true and accurate, and even though I just scratched the surface here tonight, I believe I gave enough convincing evidence to prove that it is, then we must believe and do what it tells us to do. From the very first book of the Bible to the very last it screams to us about Jesus. We have to take that truth and accept it. After what I’ve shared here tonight, there will forever be a thought in your brain that you can’t run from, “The Bible is the most accurate and documented to be correct book the world has ever known.” You can’t get away from that fact, and that means you can’t get away from Jesus. Jesus is not hidden in this book. He wants to be found by you. Please if you are not a believer in Jesus Christ, I challenge you to read the book of John, and then pray this simple prayer, “God, if this is for real, then show me.” That’s it. For you believers, it’s time you start acting like this is God’s word for you. Stand up for it. Defend it. Believe it. Read it. If Jesus personally sent you a letter in the mail, would you read it? I believe you would, but are your actions proving you wrong?