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Podcast 39 - Is the Bible Reliable
35 Plays5 days ago
Join us as we discuss a foundational aspect of our Christian faith.
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Transcript
Introduction to Hosts and Topic
00:00:09
Speaker
Welcome back to the Grove Hill Podcast. We're glad to have you here today. My friend John Ballard to my left, Kyle Hess to my right. You're my friend as well, by the way. um We're thankful to have you joining us as the three of us are going to turn our attention to something, probably ah um probably one of the number one questions, one of the challenges to the Christian faith by people who are outside of the faith, kind of kicking kicking the tires, asking questions. And it's this this question for liability.
00:00:38
Speaker
All that we believe, all that we think, all that we act on as Christians is based off of this book that is 2,000 years old, um written in a time period, long, long time ago. It's an ancient book. So why in the world do we put our trust in it? Is it something that you would consider trustworthy?
Trustworthiness of the Bible
00:00:57
Speaker
um And as you can tell by the nods of affirmation from both of these guys, in my heart, all three of us firmly believe that the Bible, and this is what we teach at our church, that the Bible is the inerrant infallible word of God. yes And those words are pretty fancy and they sound impressive. But we're going to unpack today this question, does the Bible really truly prove
Personal Faith Journeys
00:01:19
Speaker
itself? does it
00:01:21
Speaker
Does it show time and time again that it is the trustworthy book that it claims to be and and why? um It's not enough just to say that the Bible says it's true because then that's kind of redundant. right now So why do we believe the Bible is true? So First of all, tell me for for both of you, when did you become Christians and was the Bible itself a part of that or is the Bible something you just have grown into as you began your journey? Does that make sense? Yes, sir. All right.
00:01:53
Speaker
I would say ah i came to Christ ah and into that relationship at the age of eight. Thank you, Mrs. Rogers. I don't know where you're at, but although my parents had walked with me. Mrs. Rogers, my third grade teacher. That's not Mr. Rogers. No, not Mr. Rogers. Mrs. Rogers mrs rogers was Filipino. No, she had her own neighborhood.
00:02:13
Speaker
Yes, she did. She was a sweetheart. But she, man, she was ah a woman of the word. and I was blessed to be a part of a Christian school at that point in my schooling. And in this season, I don't know if it was really, you know, I was around it. I was encompassed in it, but I would say when the Bible really became real in my faith it was probably high school. Yeah. Probably 16. It was one of those where I can't explain it. I just had a hunger for it. my school And it was a kind of a, you know, the light bulb per se moment where it was like, man, I just love God's word and I want to know more about it and i want to dive right into it.
00:02:50
Speaker
Yeah, to answer your question, it's like merging onto a highway or freeway or interstate. There's a moment where I was six years old and through scripture, people explained to me what salvation was. And that's when i accepted Jesus. And at that point, it was like my fireproof. Like I didn't want to go to hell. I want to go to heaven. And I knew that Jesus was my savior. But as I grew older, you know I was in Awana and i was in a youth group and all those things. And it transitioned from maybe someone feeding me the Bible to me then feasting off the Bible. And it became my own. the Same thing, 17
Bible's Impact Across Life Stages
00:03:24
Speaker
years old. I had an event happen in my life and it became so real to me that I knew that I needed to rely on this with everything that I am. And so it wasn't like a, it wasn't a instant thing when I accepted Jesus that this became everything to me. I knew truth came from this and it slowly merged into something that was then something I desired to have.
00:03:45
Speaker
It's kind of interesting. Mine parallels that. I accepted Christ at age eight. I grew up every single day of my life, it seemed like, at church and a kid. um But it was a good thing, a pleasant thing for me. and And like you, people taught me the Bible and there were certain verses that I you know memorized and things like that. But the Bible wasn't a personal resource for me. um Strangely enough, I accepted my call to ministry at age 17 and I still didn't know the Bible very well.
00:04:12
Speaker
I just knew what God was saying to me. So I accepted Christ, went to college, and it was there for the first time that I really started getting into the Word. And I wish I could tell you it was because the Holy Spirit was drawing me. It was because of my college classes. I went to a private school, you know private college to to study, knowing I was going into ministry. So those classes forced me deeper, deeper, deeper into it. And as i I unfortunately went to a fairly liberal Christian school, and as they started to challenge the Word of God, I started digging in going, I'm going to defend this thing because I don't know if it's true or not, but I know that the people who've told me it's true, my parents, my grandparents, these...
00:04:51
Speaker
Godly people who've been in life, I know they wouldn't lie to me. So that's actually what got me into the Word. And the like you said, the more I got into the Word, suddenly it became my Word. yeah It was personalized for me, and that's where it really made a big difference. So um I think the reason I ask that question is because I think we all come to the Word at different points, different places, for different reasons.
Understanding the Bible
00:05:13
Speaker
But the amazing, miraculous thing about it is that when you get to the Word, we find that it meets all of us right where we're at. right And that's that's just another proof to me that this is God's Word. And I think it just doesn't apply to kids like that. um we've I've recently watched some people in their older years come to know Jesus. And it's almost like as they first approach the Word, it's with apprehension. And they're kind of like feeling it out. And they read it and they're like almost testing it, confirming it But then there's a moment where it clicks and you realize this is the true word of God. And this is what the source of life comes from. And it's then desired. Right. And so whether six years old through your teenage years or even in your adulthood or even in your elderly age, if you're coming to know what what the word is, you you slowly start to fall in love with it rather than resist it. Yeah. You know, I think one of the things that I have discovered in my journey too is even to this day, at this point, almost, well, more than 40 years later after really being shoved into the Bible and falling in love with it, there are parts of it that still remain a mystery to me. And, um, I think that's kind of God's way of saying, okay, you're not ready for this part. When you're ready for it, you'll come back around and I will show you, I'll reveal it to you. Um, but, but
00:06:33
Speaker
is you As you, listeners out there, if you're thinking about those things, there's questions and not everything makes sense. Don't be overwhelmed by that. Just know that the Bible is a book that will meet you where you are when it needs to. And if you just keep reading it faithfully, keep coming back to it Don't check out on certain parts of it. You'll find it it really is this book that will bless you and at the same time catapult you into a level of living that you never thought
Divine Inspiration of Scripture
00:07:01
Speaker
you could. yeah I had a student ask me the other day, he said, if God desires that all men be saved, why is the Bible so daunting and complicated, right? And there's almost a challenge to it. It's almost like ah a proofing time. The truth of God's Word is so simple But it is. It's surrounded by a lot of words and a lot of pages. And it almost takes intentional effort to spend time with the Lord to discover certain things. And it's almost like He gives us things as we discover it ah to to help us desire more. right And if you spend, like you said, you've been at for years. I've been at it for years. You've been at it for years. And there's still parts of the Bible we get to him we just go...
00:07:39
Speaker
I'm not entirely sure what that's talking about, right? And then later on, maybe it's revealed to us, maybe it's not, right? But is in no way is it something where like I go, man, I don't believe this to be true.
00:07:51
Speaker
I just realized that I may not have a full understanding of what it's talking about right now. I love where the Bible meets every single person. Mm-hmm. it meets the six-year-old that is reading a story for the first time. yeah But it can also meet the expert where I've seen professors that speak vehemently against Scripture. And it meets that so-called expert that knows so much about linguistics and language. And it could be the exact same story and they like to the six-year-old or the expert. And it meets all of the yeah hearts. And it has a sense of no matter who you are,
00:08:27
Speaker
God's word is supernatural. And I think that's ah a piece of the pie that we're going to talk about today. So it's just yeah cool. yeah So let's kind of break down. we We have, I think, five or six points here, some things we want to make about the Bible. Hopefully it will help you understand why we believe it's such a credible and incredible book. that God has given us. The first one is this, the Bible itself claims to be God's words to us.
00:08:50
Speaker
That's an amazing yeah claim. 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17 says that all Scripture is inspired by God. What does that phrase mean, inspired by God? And the inspiration by God just means that it didn't come from any human origin. yeah It didn't come from, oh well, this person said it came from God and they're just over here scribbling around. No, it came from God. It came from the very creator of heavens and earth. Yeah, some translations say God breathed. And it just means that his...
00:09:20
Speaker
He's putting his life touch on it where it's, yes, written by hands of men, but under the authority and permissions of God. I like the way 2 Peter 1, 20 and 21 puts it because it says men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. yeahp There's this incredible union that happens when the writing of the Bible occurred, and that is men using their wisdom, their experience, their personalities inspired by God. So there's a there is there perspective on truth that comes from, ah for instance, Luke being a doctor, Matthew being a former tax collector, John being so intimately close to the Savior. They're allowed to have their personality in it without changing the power of the words that ray God
Preservation and Consistency of the Bible
00:10:04
Speaker
said. yeah
00:10:05
Speaker
um And that's why all the way through Scripture, over and over and over and over again, you hear that famous phrase, thus says the Lord. yeah you know It is indeed the Lord speaking. Back to your original statement of the Bible declaring itself as truth in the Word of God. A lot of people who are new to that might see that as a red flag. Because you're like, oh wait, the source is telling us that the source is the truth, right? yeah um And when it really comes down to it is...
00:10:29
Speaker
is that truth is backed up by facts. Hundreds, and not hundreds of thousands, but thousands of years of truth and facts that we see a consistent thing happening that what it's saying is lived out. And so it's pretty incredible. Yep. um So God superintended this process so neatly, so orderly. That's why in our and in our estimation, the Bible is inerrant and infallible.
00:10:56
Speaker
If God wanted us to have his word, he also wanted us to have it accurately. So he has himself used men through the centuries to fight to protect that word for us. We can see our name, person after person, male and female, who have given their lives fighting to preserve the integrity of this word. And so the claim, it is God's word, I think is backed up by the fact that so many people have given their lives to fight for this word and maintain it for us.
00:11:23
Speaker
um The second point, ah the Bible was written over a period of 1,500 years by more than 40 different guys on three different continents coming from all kinds of different backgrounds. I love that. And yet, tells one single story beginning to end.
00:11:39
Speaker
That's absolutely incredible. yeah i mean I think of the three of us, right? and we're We're pretty like-minded. The three of us are like-minded. But if Jeff over here told us to collaborate and write a story together and gave us the details of the story and the basis of the story, and then the three of us went into separate rooms in real time as it's happening, and we try to finish out that story, there would be endless amounts of contradictions yes in the three of our story just from just from the few minutes of separation. And like you're saying, 1,500 years, 40 different guys spread out through this cultural differences, time differences, before wars after wars times of peace yeah and there's zero contradictions it's incredible i laugh because i think i think about my wife and i experiencing something and then trying to retell that story to the two of us can't even happen yeah no that's not the way it happened baby honey you're forgetting this part yeah there's no doubt in my mind um
00:12:41
Speaker
that This is, and at least for me, this is my perspective. This is probably the single most important thing that just proves to me that God is in this whole book. Because you've got guys who came from royalty. You've got guys who were poverty povertys stricken. You've got fishermen. You've got shepherds. You've got doctors. Murderers. murderers yeah uh all these guys from all these different but backgrounds who are telling this story and even this is even more remarkable to me even thousands of years before there was a jesus they're talking about a jesus yes yes i mean how else do you explain that other than god yeah that's a that's a huge point for me because it's it's near and dear to my heart because anytime i have doubts right um i've been i've been a christian for some time now and there's still times where i'm like
00:13:32
Speaker
is this real? Like a man came and died from my sins and took, and I, I sit there and and this is, I had brought this up before the podcast started. I searched it because I knew this was going to come up and it's Isaiah 53 starting in verse four. It says, surely he has bore our griefs and carried our sorrows. And yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted, but he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and by his wounds we are healed. And it goes on for the whole chapter to talk about this guy that's going to come and take our sin and take our transgression and take our punishment, and he's going to hang on a cross, and they're going to spit on him. And it says all these things hundreds of years. 700 years before Jesus. Hundreds of years. so And so whenever I have doubts, I go look at this history book.
00:14:22
Speaker
And God laid something out to the T where he was going to be pierced. Not his bone would have be broken. All these things. And then it comes true 700 years later to the T. And I go, okay, I'm back on board. yeah Doubts washed away. yeah You were just talking about some of the evidence we have. One of the most provoking evidences, I think, is that we have thousands of manuscripts that verify that this book has not changed. yeah There may be a detail here or there where 300 soldiers versus 450 soldiers or something like that.
00:14:54
Speaker
But for the most part, everything we find manuscript-wise just keeps coming back again again. And I think, too, we've talked about archaeological things before. Dead Sea Scrolls, think it was the 1940s. Yeah, 48. I think somewhere in there, yeah. And how God just continues to provide evidence, even through...
00:15:12
Speaker
the revelation of where people have lived and protected his word. And it's like, okay. And put it up against secular manuscripts or secular works of art. Secular historians from the period. all those things on a same playing field and you match one up against the other. There's no comparison. man Those works...
00:15:33
Speaker
pale in comparison to what the biblical evidence of in in bass of manuscripts that we have is just crazy yeah it's when when the dead sea scrolls i mean we found a lot of stuff ah over the years as people have wandered across the the middle east but when the dead sea scrolls are found that was kind of like for me yeah uh i obviously wasn't there at that point i'm not that old but when i heard about that it was kind of like the final nail in the coffin of the argument there because if we If we had one really good preserved manuscript of everything that we read, it would be a ah a temptation to go, oh that's a great book, but we just have to trust it blindly. But every time we find another manuscript, it just it just goes, man, that's the same as it was 400 years ago. It hasn't changed.
Transformative Power of Scripture
00:16:20
Speaker
Confirmation. The Dead Sea Scrolls did that to an nth degree in ways that we had never done it before. And even to this day, manuscripts that are found over there, maybe one letter here or one letter there, but the message, the story, the thoughts always consistent all the way through it. It's incredible.
00:16:38
Speaker
um Another point, um Jesus himself trusted these scriptures as his reliable source. So talk about that a little bit. done Jesus loved to see use that phrase. It is written. Yeah. So so one of the things I like to really enforce to the the students is, you know, this book has been seen as a book of don'ts. Like, don't do that. Don't do this. Don't do that. And people are like, ah that's keeping me from my freedoms. I don't really want it. Right. But as we look at it, it's all it's all a gift of love to help us navigate the the
00:17:09
Speaker
treacherous areas of this life that can literally kill you, take you down. And so Jesus, um plenty of times, especially when he was being tested in the in the wilderness after he had fasted for 40 days, Satan comes against him and he responds with scripture. So the Lord of the universe, all knowledge at his hands, everything he he knows, he refers to this book in order to help him get through temptation, in order to help him navigate life. And so it's like, if he was using it, then i need it. Right. Right. I absolutely need it. Right. And so the do's and don'ts suddenly become a secondary to the love that this book has. And it's protecting us from stuff. Absolutely. John, a minute ago, you mentioned this. Archaeology has continued to confirm the Bible over and over and over again.
00:17:58
Speaker
um you go throughout the Middle East. I love it reading these stories every now and then. It'll pop up on one of my news feeds or something. Up until recently, scholars didn't believe this city existed, but now we have found it. So the Bible, once again, has been proven true. Even and even in times where they'd be like, hey...
00:18:15
Speaker
We didn't find it. They go 20 feet deeper. Oh, there it is. There it is. Exactly what we're looking for. yeah And you know what's always amazed me? and It shouldn't. But it's always amazed me that when archaeologists dig up three bones from a dinosaur spread over a 500-yard area and can reconstruct an entire dinosaur, and we're supposed to believe what they were able to reconstruct, right but we find stuff like this, they're kind of like, aye. Aye. It's almost like they've put blinders on the nation of Israel in yeah archaeological findings. I think some scientists are archaeological finds. They're like, let's put our Jesus blinders on. No Jesus here. yeah yeah ah But the the Bible has been confirmed in the area of ancient cities they didn't think existed, political leaders. I mean, for a long time, I think...
00:19:03
Speaker
I think until the 1940s, for the longest time, scholars did not believe there was a real King David. They thought he was kind of like ah a fairy tale or yeah like Paul Bunyan or something for us. They've confirmed customs that they thought were weird. They've confirmed places, inscriptions that they have found on things. It's just been remarkable. So the Bible consistently proves itself to be true, and archaeology does as well. All last point, and then we're going to about some counterpoints here.
00:19:31
Speaker
The Bible has changed millions of lives. It's changed mine. I know that to be true. Amen. I think that that's such huge part because it even in circumstances and scenarios, we see where it's totally... That's the part where we have to say it's not human origin. yeah It's divine origin where it does change people's lives. And it's life-changing throughout...
00:20:00
Speaker
It doesn't matter what culture you're in. It doesn't matter what country. It changes lives. But... I know we're getting to the counterpoint, but I believe as Christians, sometimes we start and end only with that argument that it changed my life. And that's wonderful that it changed our life. But as the writer of Luke says, ah I'm compiling all these things because what I'm teaching you, we we need to have something that's backing it up. and So yeah, I think
00:20:32
Speaker
changes lives and man has it changed it's changed my family tree and amen amen um here's the important thing the bible isn't just about information there are guys who have gone through history tremendous guys with lots of knowledge you have some of them who've memorized this entire book and it's never changed yeah So there comes to a point where you have to read and acknowledge what you what you see, but you also have to say, okay, with my mind and my heart, I'm going to follow those things and i allow it to transform you from the inside
Translations and Canon Formation
00:21:02
Speaker
out. that's why the Bible says it is living and effective and has the ability to pierce bone and marrow. there There was a conversation that you brought up a few years ago, and this is, I think, one of the secular points of where they kind of just dissect the Bible. ah they try to make it seem to where it's not supernatural. And that's what changes lives is the fact that Jesus did a supernatural thing. He went and died on the cross, but he rose again three days later. And there's so many things that happen when they try to dissect that, like people dissecting, oh, well, you know, the ark, you know knowing the ark didn't happen, or you have all these things. We've got to take all these supernatural things and look at them for face value and say, we trust in that because just as God did it there, he's doing it in lives today. Yeah. All right. So some common objections. I'm going to throw three out Matthew. You're on on trial in court.
00:21:55
Speaker
Here they are. Let's hear your rebuffles. Number one, the Bible has been translated too many times.
00:22:06
Speaker
Don't everybody jump at once. I mean, the Bible does have a lot of translations. It does have a lot of translations. You go into the Christian bookstore and just look at the wall. ESV, NIV, CSB, King James. Oh, that wasn't good. enough New King James. you know it's a You have to navigate all that. But it all it all um is in an accountable setting. And there's some translations I would say they've taken too many liberties. um But as we were talking the other day,
00:22:32
Speaker
they keep even refining it more because of archaeological findings, because of understanding of culture, and the translations are actually drawing closer to the original manuscripts in their translation. yeah And so you could say, yes, it's been translated and taken too far out, but the more that we have... minds focusing on what culture was back then, the language, all that, and then we're finding out more. It's actually refining and becoming closer to what the original was One of the questions that I always ask whenever somebody asks me that, ah I'll ask them, okay, so what's your understanding of how they translate?
00:23:08
Speaker
And most of the time people don't know. They think, oh, well they grabbed the King James in the 1600s and oh, well then they grabbed the NIV in the 1980 to create the CSB. right And when most people, i would I would even argue to say over half the people don't know how translation no happens. sure So ah ah to preface what Kyle said, there are good translations and they're rough sometimes even. And I would say today there are even bad translations. Because we've got Chinese government, and you know, you've got other governments that are trying to rewrite extract and then rewrite. So good translations, bad translations, good translations,
00:23:50
Speaker
they go back to the original language, yeah the manuscripts, to the Greek, the Hebrew, and the Aramaic, and they do it that way. and And by the way, this is not a short process. This is years upon years upon years. So let me let me teach you a little difference between translation and transliteration.
00:24:09
Speaker
Translation is exactly what John just described. as when they go back, every single time, go back to the original manuscripts we have, the Hebrew, of the Greek, and the Aramaic. That's the three languages it was written in. They go back to that time and time again, and as Kyle pointed out, the more we discover archaeologically, the more we know we are either right or we're getting it more correct by by fixing some few things there.
00:24:32
Speaker
Transliteration is when they go back to another English version and say, we're going to take that version and make it a little bit more user-friendly or whatever. And that's when you start to get into some problems with translation. So let me just throw some some names at you if you're out there looking for Bibles. The New International Version, great translation. The English Standard Version, great translation. The King James, actually very good translation. The New King James, even better. The Christian Standard Bible, good translation. And if you're looking something that's a little bit more readable, but maybe...
00:25:04
Speaker
maybe not as scholarly feeling, something like the Living Bible is okay. But you start getting into some of these other modern transliterations, you do run a great risk of getting into man's opinion versus God's Word. So be very careful about the translation you're reading. But here's the thing you need to hear, and this is the point we need to drive home.
00:25:25
Speaker
When we do translations, we go back to the original language, not from a long chain of previously done English translations, okay? Yes. Second argument, people decided what books should be included and they took out some important books.
00:25:40
Speaker
You hear that one all the time, especially from our Catholic friends. yeah Yes, we do. um God decided what 66 books were going to be in there. God decided what books were going to be in there.
00:25:53
Speaker
um we can look at all the councils that we want to look at. And there were some that were atrociously wrong, you know, in the hundreds of years past. ah But even the councils that were well-meaning at the end of the day, it had nothing to do with the council. It had everything to do with what God, and I believe God's church more than a council, saw as what was truth and what was not truth. Because the the testimonies of some that had imperfection that had some corrections that needed to be made were put to the side because the church saw that as there's not truth in this. As 1 Corinthians 15 talks about the 500 eyewitnesses that saw the the resurrection, that yeah saw Jesus, that was what
00:26:45
Speaker
the first portion of disseminating the gospel, the New Testament, for instance, that's where it was coming from. And so when we have some of these people that will come alongside and say, oh you know, here, what about this? Well, this is how we get to these is by God's institutions, not by these always these counsels. I don't want to totally neglect the counsels because there are some good counsels, but I don't believe that is the end all be all. At the end of the day, it is God and God alone. So, a secondary question.
00:27:18
Speaker
What do you do with the other books? What do you recommend for people to do? Book of Enoch, all those types of things. um I believe i would I would call it an extra biblical resource and some of those can answer can be thrown away. And I say in its entirety,
00:27:34
Speaker
ah Not always, because I think there are some truths in there. yeah yeah They're not filled with mistakes. They're not full, but they're enough yeah where this is a question in the church. Some them can just be seen as historical context. yeah by historical I think that's a great idea, is to use those yeah in that reference. So what we need to recognize is that the early church did not invent the idea of Holy Scripture. What they did is they recognized books that had already been carrying apostolic authority. That's right. If you read the New Testament carefully, you will see that Peter refers to some of Paul's writings. Right. And Paul does likewise for Peter. and So these were things that even among that early church, the new believers were already starting to recognize these letters as being filled with authority for their lives and being inspired...
Addressing Contradictions and Skepticism
00:28:19
Speaker
by the holy spirit to be written right um so it's important um you know people all the time want to why did they throw out this book well it's just enough error and because they recognize the challenge of maintaining the integrity of scripture they didn't want to bring any kind of disparity on scripture so they they just remove those as possibilities all right last one and then we'll wrap up this one you hear all the time there are contradictions in scripture Many people allege their contradictions in context and genre, the audience, those kinds of things.
00:28:52
Speaker
I'm going to go ahead and bring up the the big topic in the elephant in the room. And I think in evangelical circles is, oh, the we're women's places in the church. You know, that's a huge thing. think another thing is the homosexuality. Oh, God is love. Well, if God is love, we brought that conversation up on here. Yeah. And you're not reading the full context of Scripture as a whole. and just as someone is trying to figure out the story, they have to go to all the witnesses. You can't just go to one piece. And God is going to be consistent in his word. Right.
00:29:31
Speaker
One of the ones that always gets brought up to me is over most of Paul's writings, he says that our our salvation is by faith and faith alone. And faith is the only can do it. It's not by works. Then you get the book of James and James says, your works show your faith. Well, that's not a contradiction. They actually go hand in hand.
00:29:50
Speaker
James is saying it's by faith you get saved and works show that you have been saved. it's In other words, be doers of that word is what he later says. Most of the time what you might call a contradiction or a conflict in Scripture is actually driven by your unwillingness to read the entire context of what you're reading. yeah Sure, yeah.
00:30:11
Speaker
And that that means the whole 66 books. You can't just pick out three or four of your favorite books in the Bible and read it and think that you're getting the whole understanding of everything. i would So just thinking in general, if you asked a group of people, do you consider yourself to be a scholar?
00:30:25
Speaker
I would say most of them would say no, right? Like the intellectual side of things, there's not a heavy presence of that. There are a lot of smart people. But if you look at people in the past who went to go seek out those contradictions in Scripture,
00:30:38
Speaker
who considered themselves scholars, right like Lee Strobel and and other men yeahp plenty of other men. C.S. Lewis. C.S. Lewis, who is who sought out to to look at Scripture, dissect it, find the contradictions.
00:30:51
Speaker
ah They ended up face-to-face with truth. yeahp right And yeah the very word that we we're talking about, changes lives, ended up taking these men who were super smart and seeking out contradictions and and they came face to face with the Savior. And so if you're in that position and you're challenged or you're threatened by Scripture, I would encourage you just to allow yourself to let your guard down for a minute and navigate through Scripture and see what the Lord does through His Word.
00:31:20
Speaker
So the greatest evidence that the Bible is trustworthy is not found in archaeological digs or libraries or museums or scientific discussions. It's found in the millions and millions of lives that have been radically changed by the truth that transforms the heart of people who read it. The real question here today really isn't, can I trust the Bible? The real question is, will I trust the Bible? yeah
Conclusion and Invitation
00:31:44
Speaker
And you can find all reasons, all excuses in the world if you're not wanting to really sincerely seek the Lord and His Word. But if you come to the Bible with a genuinely hungry heart, you will find time and time again, this Word will prove itself to be true to you. Yeah.
00:32:00
Speaker
So, great conversation today. I'm glad we were able to enjoy it. Hey, John, do you mind wrapping us up with a word of prayer for those who are seeking God's word Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I am i'm so thankful and reminded. I'll just turn to Exodus 3. I think about Moses in the burning bush, and I think that's what it is with your word.
00:32:23
Speaker
As it is ah a light and a lamp to where we need to go in life, i pray that for those that are searching for that out there, that they would see a burning flame within that you have placed in this living word. And I pray, God, that it intersects our hearts and where we are hardened and where we just don't get it and where we ask the questions of why God or Why did you do this? Or where are where are you?
00:32:49
Speaker
I pray that we find that in your word. And God, we thank you for this time. We pray that you continue to bless it and bless every one of our listeners that they would see life change because you have been inserted into their heart. God, we love you and we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.
00:33:07
Speaker
So we are wrapping up our family series. It's coming Sunday. And after that, we jump right into what is probably one of the most practical books in all of the New Testament. In fact, it's described as being the Proverbs of the New Testament, the book of James.
00:33:21
Speaker
I would love it if you're a seeker and you're trying to find answers for your life or relationships that are going awry or are just peace for your life. Please come join us. Be a part of what God is doing at our church, 8, 9, 30, and 11. Otherwise, continue to follow us here. Like, share, connect with us, send questions or comments. We look forward to meeting you back here next week as we continue to dig into God's Word and learn what a disciple looks like.
00:33:46
Speaker
Have a great week. Bye.