INTRODUCTION:

1. In talking with many people, religious people included, I am finding many who do not believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God.
   1. Among these, I have never found one who: Was a student of the Bible, or even read it to any extent. However they had read other books that try to disprove the Bible and the inspiration of the Bible. Reading these books, they had been misinformed about what the Bible taught.
2. There is no other book that tells us about God, man and his purpose, his destiny, how we should live and etc.
3. How can we find out if the Bible is the divine revelation from God as it claims? "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." (2TIM 3:16).
4. The Bible itself claims to be a product of God, revealed to selected men who were led in writing what they wrote by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
   2PET 1:21-22 "Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. For prophecy never had it's origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit."
5. It seems the logical thing to do is to first settle in our minds whether we really believe that God exists. Is He the one and only true God? If He is, do we believe that He is capable of giving His instructions in a manner that would be understandable and preserved so that we can still believe it's accuracy?

I. DOES GOD EXIST?

1. Evidence from the Bible.
   1. The Bible never tries to prove there is a God. It assumes that the reader accepts that God is.
   2. The Bible does say something about those who would disbelieve, "The fool says in his heart, there is no God." Psalm 14:1
   3. There are two possible reasons that the Bible does not spend time trying to prove the existence of God:
      1. The idea of God was universal when the Bible was being written and hence no proof was needed.
      2. The evidence in the world around us of the existence of God is so strong that the bible states that only a fool would deny his existence.
         1. ROM 1:18. – "The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19. since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. 21. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23. and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles”.
   4. The evidences in the Bible itself that shows it to be the product of divine intelligence. The prophecies of coming events, people, kingdoms, all of which did not exist at the time of the writing show that divine intelligence directed the prophet when these all came about exactly as they were predicted.
      1. Compare 25 Prophecies of Christ in the Old Test. fulfilled in the New Test. – (Chart at the end of this lesson).
2. Cause and effect.
   1. Man and the world about him exist, this is unquestionable, but how did these things come to be? There are only two possible explanations. Either, (1) Something or someone has always existed, or (2) there was a time when absolutely nothing, (mind or matter) existed. Since we cannot conceive of something coming out of nothing, our minds refuse to accept the second possibility. To suppose that in the complete absence of power and volition nothing became something is too preposterous to be argued.
   2. Has matter always existed and has it been transformed to its present state by the process of organic evolution?
   3. Or is that which is eternal, a Mind, which we call God, who brought all things into being by his creation?
   4. It is obvious that for every effect there must first be a cause. The world itself is the effect. What is the cause? Is it unintelligent matter - or is it intelligent God?
      1. We know that inert matter can cause nothing unless it is acted upon by some other agency.
      2. Without intelligence and design, inert matter does nothing, becomes nothing else, and goes nowhere.
3. From design. When we observe houses, spacecraft, computers, etc., we know that these things did not just evolve from inert matter; a designer designed them all. Design demands a Designer. "For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything. HEB 3:4.
   1. Manx shearwaters, (birds) which were removed from their nesting burrows in Wales, flown to the United States in crates, returned successfully from release points out side their normal range...One of these birds, released in Boston, Massachusetts, returned to its nest 3,200 miles away in 12 days and 12.5 hours! Encyclopedia Britannica (1957), s.v. "migration."
      1. This account went on to say that the bird probably had to fly at right angles to its normal direction of migration, and that the 250 miles per day average speed suggested it took the shortest possible route.
      2. Dr. G.V.T. Matthews of Cambridge University "credits" birds with...ability to estimate the sun's arc accurately. He claims for them the equivalent of a sextant and chronometer running on "home time." With these they can learn their geographical location anywhere on earth." (Audubon Nature Encyclopedia, "Animal: Navigation," Vol.1 [New York: Curtis Pub. Co., 1965], p.89.)
      3. These birds had never been to the U.S.. How do we explain how they made it back to their native nesting place in Wales? Was it chance? They did not have time to "develop" a navigational capability to navigate over the 3,200 miles of open ocean. They had never made the trip before so even if they had landmarks (which the ocean doesn't provide) they would not have recognized them. You might say it was instinct but where does instinct come from? From a designer, God!

II. GOD'S REVELATION - THE BIBLE

1. If there is a God, and we have viewed only a few reasons to believe that there is, it is reasonable to believe that God would reveal Himself to man.
   1. Nature reveals God's power, but not His personality.
   2. It was essential that a special revelation be made to reveal His personality and will. There was no other way for God to make Himself known to man.
2. God reveals Himself through the Bible.
   1. Nature is insufficient to tell:
      1. Where man came from?
      2. Where man is going?
      3. What man's purpose is?
      4. What man's relation to God is?
      5. What God's character is, (moral or immoral)?
      6. What is right - what is wrong?
   2. The Bible reveals all these things and much more.
   3. There is no other book, philosophy, or thing that tells man what he needs to know other than the Bible.
3. How did God reveal His will to man?
   1. Through the prophets in the Old Testament, 2 Peter 1:20-21.
      1. 2PET 1:20. Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. 21. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
   2. Through the apostles and prophets in the New Testament, Ephesians 3:2-5.
      1. EPH 3:2. Surely you have heard about the administration of God's grace that was given to me for you, 3. that is, the mystery made known to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly. 4. In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, 5. which was not made known to men in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God's holy apostles and prophets.
         1. Notice that this mystery which was not known has now been made known, written down, and when we read this mystery made known to the apostle Paul, we will be able to have his insight (understand it as he did). It is no longer a mystery how God would save Jew and Gentile in one body, the church through the gospel.
            1. Ephesians 3:6 (NIV) 6 This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.
            2. The church is that one body - Ephesians 1:22-23 (NIV) 22 And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.
            3. Christ is the Savior of the church, His body: Ephesians 5:22-27 (NIV) 22 Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.
4. How do we know that what God revealed to His prophets and apostles is what we have in our Bibles today?
   1. If God can create and control the universe, do we deem it incredible that He can reveal His will to us and then protect it's accuracy?
      1. The apostle Paul stated how God revealed His will to him and how we can know that it is accurate.
         1. 1COR 2:10 but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 11. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12. We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. 13. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.
         2. EPH 3:3-5 Above.
   2. The bibles we have today that are translated by a translating committee were translated from the ancient manuscripts of Hebrew (in the O.T.) and the Greek and Aramaic (in the N.T.) into our language.
      1. The Koine Greek in which the New Testament was originally written became a dead language shortly after the New Testament was written and therefore the language did not change in the meaning of words as the Classical Greek now spoken changes. (Classical Greek is known as a "living language" as it changes slowly through the years so that words take on slightly different meanings from one period to another).
         1. Words spoken 2,000 years ago in the Koine Greek (unlike the classical Greek) mean the same today as they did then.
         2. From Papyri (letters, legal documents, birth certificates, etc. found from Archaeological digs and finds (written in Jesus’ day), words in the Greek can be checked and compared to find the exact meaning from the literature of that same era by examining the way they were used at that time.
         3. If we want to check out the meaning of a word in the English today we go to Webster's Dictionary and find its meaning. The same thing can be done with a Greek word by going to the Greek dictionary.
   3. Each time a new version comes out, the translators go back to the ancient manuscripts and translate from them. This is a safeguard to keep the Bible accurate rather than just translating from one translation to the other.
      1. One can tell how each translation was done by turning to the Preface of their particular translation and reading about how it was done.
      2. Any translation that was not done by a group of translators or translating committee with proper credentials is to be considered questionable as to its accuracy and bias.
5. The Bible itself is the strongest evidence of its authenticity and of its divine origin.
   1. It is profound and rational in its doctrines.
      1. The doctrine of God – Is Personal; Holy; Loving; Just; All wise; All-powerful; and teaches that there is only One God.
      2. The doctrine of Man – Presents him as a personal, moral, thinking being.
      3. The doctrine of Salvation - Man given a choice, chooses sin; God's eternal plan to save man in Christ.
   2. The Purity of its Ethics.
      1. Righteousness is always exalted, praised (Heb. "tov")
         1. PS 1:6 For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.
         2. PROV 10:7 The memory of the righteous will be a blessing, but the name of the wicked will rot.
         3. MIC 6:8 He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
         4. ISA 1:16. wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight! Stop doing wrong, 17. learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.
         5. MATT 5:8. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. 20. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.
      2. Evil is always prohibited, denounced.
   3. In the Unity and consistency of its teaching.
      1. Written by 40 different authors.
      2. Written over a period of 1600 years.
      3. Written over 60 generations.
      4. All from varied backgrounds (Amos the shepherd, Peter the fisherman, Paul the tent maker, David the king, Luke the physician).
      5. Written at different times in the life of the writer (Moses in the wilderness, Jeremiah in a dungeon, Daniel on a hillside and in a palace, Paul inside a prison, Luke while traveling, John on the Isle of Pathmos).
      6. Written during different moods: (some writing from the heights of joy, others from the depths of despair and sorrow).
      7. Written on three continents: (Asia, Africa, and Europe).
      8. Written in three languages: (Hebrew, the language of the Old Testament; Aramaic; and Greek, the language of the New Testament era. Greek was the international language at the time of the writing of the New Testament).
   4. Its subject matter includes hundreds of controversial subjects.
      1. Controversial subjects would create opposing opinions when mentioned and discussed. Biblical authors spoke on hundreds of controversial subjects with harmony and continuity from Genesis to the book of Revelation. In their writings there is one continuing unfolding story: "God's redemption of man."
   5. The writers having been from varying backgrounds, and writing over a period of 1400 - 1600 years, and from three continents (great cultural differences), and written in so many literary types (history, law, poetry, parable, biography, personal correspondence, prophecy, and etc), were in agreement the one with the other without contradiction. This is not just a collection of writing because the writers are writing on one central theme, "God's plan of redemption for man."
   6. Take any ten writers, give them a controversial subject to write on and see if any two of them agree!
   7. All the writers of the Old and New Testaments agree with and support each other in spite of their backgrounds. There were great periods of time between the writings of Old Testament and New Testament books as well as great cultural differences and yet the writers agree with each other and their writings blend with each other perfectly.
   8. The only conclusion that we could come to about all this is that there had to be only one Author who guided all of them. This is the claim of all the writers of the Bible. They claim to have been guided by God.
   9. The Bible is truly the one and only authority that all men must go by since it is the revelation of God’s mind, His will for all men to live by.