Part 5 The Bible is Real

A.M. Sermon

Spring Hill, TN

2/11/07 a.m.

Series: “Discovering the Spiritual Realm” (Pt. 5)

Text(s): Ezekiel 26:7-14

Summary: In PART 5, we explore the proof that the Bible is the exclusive message from the Creator to mankind and the source of all information about the spiritual realm.

“The Bible is Real”

Introduction:

A. A Message from God?

1. In our pursuit to “discover the spiritual realm” we must first accept the evidence that God is real. Before one can ever come to believe in the spiritual realm, he must believe in God existence. In the last lesson, we set forth to prove that God is real.

2. Having come to know the reality of God’s existence, we must depend upon God to tell us about himself and the spiritual realm in which he resides.

3. The only real knowledge that we can have about the spiritual realm must come from God and his communicating to us about that place.

B. Is the Bible the Real Message?

1. Has the Creator and Designer of heaven and earth given a message to mankind?

2. Can it be demonstrated that God has in fact directly communicated a message to us?

3. Is there a document or a set of documents that claim to be from God?

4. Can the origin of such a document be proven to be from God Himself and not from man?

5. In this lesson we are going to investigate the Jewish and Christian writings collectively known as the Bible.

6. Can it be proven that the Bible is, in fact, a message from God that can give us insight into the spiritual realm?

I. THE BIBLE’S CLAIM TO BE FROM GOD

A. Few documents claim divine origin

1. In the pursuit to find some document or message upon the earth that might possibly be a message from God, we must first find a document (or set of documents) that make the claim to be from God.

2. The world is full of literature, books, and writings both contemporary and ancient. It is almost beyond comprehension to consider the number of volumes of books that are within the world.

3. Of all the books upon the bookshelf of the world’s library, how many of these books make the claim of divine authorship rather than being the product of humanity’s pen?

4. The percentage is actually rather small.

5. Kenny Barfield noted in his book, Why the Bible is Number 1, only seven documents exist in the whole world that openly claim divine inspiration (1997, p. 186).

6. These documents would include the book of Mormon, some of the writings of Mary Baker Eddy (Christian Science), some of the Hindu Vedas, and when the Catholic Pope speaks ex cathedra (from the throne).

7. When seeking to discover if there is a message on earth from God, we can quickly limit the list by finding the documents that make the claim to be from God.

B. Does the Bible make the claim?

1. The phrase “thus says the Lord” occurs some 418 times in the NASB and “God said” some 46 times.

2. Passages such as 2 Samuel 23:2 proclaim, “The Spirit of the LORD spoke by me, and his word was on my tongue.”

3. Acts 1:16 affirms, “Brethren, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit foretold by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus.”

4. 2 Timothy 3:16, “ All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.”

5. “There are 2,700 such statements in the Old Testament alone, all of which make direct claim that the Bible is the Word of God” (Ridenour, Who Says God Created 1967, p. 2; qtd by Bert Thompson “In Defense of the Bible’s Inspiration Part I”).

6. Clearly, the Bible makes the claim to be a message directly from God.

II. IS THE BIBLE’S CLAIM VALID?

A. The basic argument for divine origin

1. There is a simple test to determine whether a book that makes the claim is actually from God or not.

2. If a book possesses qualities A, B, and C where the total situation involved in having such properties makes it clear that the book is beyond human production then that book is from God (see Thomas Warren, Harding Graduate School Lectures 1971 page 17).

B. The test for divine origin and the Bible’s exclusive claim

1. Any book that claims divine origin can be put through this test to determine if its claim is valid.

2. However, one does not have to test every book that claims divine origin and eliminate every one to discover God’s true message.

3. Why? Because the Bible makes an additional claim, it claims to be the only message from God.

4. Regarding the message of faith contained within the Bible, Jude 1:3 says, “contend earnestly for the faith delivered once for all to the saints.”

5. In a similar way, Galatians 1:8-9 instructs that no one should accept any additional messages (even from angels) other than the gospel message presented in the Bible.

6. Since the Bible makes the claim to be the exclusive message from God, if it can be proven that the Bible is of divine origin all other supposed divine-books will be proven false.

III. THE BIBLE’S DIVINE ORIGIN

A. Unified proof

1. One quality we would expect from a book of divine origin would be a book with a unified message.

2. Surely it is possible for men to produce a single book with a unified message, however, the manner in which the Bible was produced with its unified message is such that makes it beyond human production.

3. Imagine for a moment that forty contemporary scholars with the highest academic training possible in the single field of study such as history were chosen and assembled together in a room (Thompson, ibid.).

4. These men are then asked to produce a twenty page paper on the single topic of the causes of World War II.

5. What kind of consensus would these men come to on the topic?

6. They would likely agree on a few major points, but undoubtedly their production would be more noted for their major disagreements rather than points of agreement. How much more true would this be if a group of religious scholars were assembled to do the same thing?

7. Now consider the manner in which the writings of the Bible were produced (Bert Thompson, ibid.):

“The Bible was written by more than forty different men from practically every walk of life. Nehemiah was a royal cupbearer. Peter was a fisherman. Luke was a physician. Matthew was a tax collector. Solomon was a king. Moses was a shepherd. Paul was a tentmaker. Furthermore, these men wrote from almost every conceivable human condition. David wrote from heights of joy on the rolling, grassy hills of Judea. Paul wrote from pits of despair caused by Roman incarceration. They wrote in three languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek), from at least two continents (Europe and Asia), over a period of time that spanned sixteen centuries (approximately 1500 B.C. to approximately A.D. 100). And they covered topics as diverse as eschatology, soteriology, theology, psychology, geography, history, medicine, and many others.

All this being true, one might expect that so diverse a group of men, writing on so varied a group of subjects, over such a lengthy span of time, would have produced a book that would be a tangled mishmash of subjects more often than not marred by inconsistencies, errors, and incongruities. Yet this hardly is the case. In fact, quite the opposite is true. The Bible exhibits such astounding harmony, such consistent flow, and such unparalleled unity that it defies any purely naturalistic explanation. It is as if the Bible were a magnificent symphony orchestrated by a single Conductor. The “musicians” each may have played a different instrument, in a different place, at a different time. But when the talented Maestro combined the individual efforts, the end-result was a striking masterpiece.”

8. The message of the Bible being produced over such a large amount of time, by such diverse human penmen, yet with such unified agreement cannot be explained by means of human production.

9. Remember, if the Bible possesses qualities beyond human production, it must be from God.

B. Prophetic proof

1. One of the greatest proofs for the divine origin of the Bible is that it contains valid, specific, predictive prophecy.

2. If it can be shown that the Bible contains prophecy that is so specific (not vague and subject to interpretation) and that it cannot be explained by chance only by divine means, then the Bible can be shown to be of divine origin.

3. There must be sufficient time between the prophecy and its fulfillment to demonstrate that the prophecy could not have been a simple “forecast” of potential human events which happened to occur as predicted.

4. There are numerous examples throughout the Bible that clearly demonstrate valid, specific, predictive prophecy. Here we will closely examine but one; yet the same can be demonstrated time and again.

5. One of the most impressive examples is concerning the city of Tyre (in Lebanon). Notice the prophecy made in Ezekiel 26:7-14.

6. Ezekiel prophesied from about 590-573 B.C. He predicted that King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon would destroy the city of Tyre (26:7-8) but later many nations would come against the city (26:3).

7. He predicted that the city would be scraped clean like a bare rock (26:4) and the stones, timbers and soil of the city would be cast into the sea (26:12). The area would become a place where fishermen spread their nets (26:5) and it would never be rebuilt to its former glory (26:14). The prophecy is extremely detailed and specific.

8. What does history record about this city? Tyre is geographically a coastal town of an inland city, with part of the city located on an island ¾ ‘s of a mile offshore.

9. In the year 586 B.C., Nebuchadnezzar besieged and destroyed the mainland city but unknown to him many inhabitants fled to the island, and remained unchanged for the next 241 years.

10. In 332 B.C., Alexander the Great was able conquered the city on the island.

11. History records that Alexander literally “scraped clean” the inland city of all its debris and used those materials (stones, timbers, soil) to build a land bridge to the island.

12. Alexander inflicted severe damage upon the city, but it remained intact for the next 1,600 years until it was finally crushed by the Muslims in A.D. 1291.

13. The city never regained its position of wealth and power. Ezekiel prophesied 1,900 years into the future and predicted that Tyre would be a bald rock where fishermen cast their nets, and so it is to this day (see Bromling, 1994, p. 96; Major, 1996, pp. 93-95).

Conclusion:

A. There are many more proofs that we could examine (such as scientific foreknowledge) that demonstrate that the Bible possesses qualities that could not be of human production.

B. We have demonstrated that the nature of the Bible’s unified message and means of production demonstrate that it is beyond human production, and the valid, specific predictive prophecy of the Bible demonstrates the same.

C. Remember, that if a book has characteristics that show it to be beyond human production, then it must be from God.

D. We have demonstrated that the Bible indeed does possess these qualities.

E. Therefore, the Bible is a message from the Creator of heaven and earth.

F. In addition, since the Bible affirms itself to be the ONLY message from God, then we see the Bible to be the complete and totally sufficient message from Him.

G. We must totally depend upon God’s message for all accurate information about the spiritual realm.