Defending Scripture While Preserving the Gospel

[00:00:47] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]:
Hello Freedom House Central Campus!
[00:00:50] You guys excited to be in God's house today?
[00:00:52] It is awesome to be here with you.
[00:00:54] I just love you guys.
[00:00:55] You're awesome.
[00:00:56] You're at least my third favorite campus to preach to, I tell you.
[00:01:02] Some of you will get that later.
[00:01:03] That's okay.
[00:01:03] My name's Olin Carter.
[00:01:04] I serve here on our teaching team.
[00:01:07] And if you're new to Freedom House Church, something that is very special about our church is that we've always been built on the faithfulness of many, not just like the personality or celebrity of one person.
[00:01:19] And I love that.
[00:01:20] And so what that means is everything we do here as a church, from the parking lot to our kids' ministry to even the teaching and the preaching of God's Word, we do it as a team.
[00:01:30] And I love that.
[00:01:31] So can we give some honor to our senior pastors, Pastor Troy and Penny?
[00:01:35] They don't ask us to do that, but I always love to honor them because of their heart.
[00:01:39] They allow all of us to step into our gifts and to do this as a team, which I just think is awesome.
[00:01:45] Man, we've been in a great series over the summer, Hot Seat Summer.
[00:01:49] Are you guys enjoying it?
[00:01:50] Learning some good stuff.
[00:01:52] Yeah, we're taking on the hard topics.
[00:01:53] If you're new, if you haven't been here for any of this series, the Hot Seat series, it's not about you being on the Hot Seat.
[00:02:00] It's about me being on the Hot Seat.
[00:02:01] It's you guys putting us in the Hot Seat to answer all the tough questions, biblical questions, controversial questions, and we have been having a blast doing just that.
[00:02:11] Now, before I jump into the Word today, wanna take a moment and just greet our online campus.
[00:02:17] We have folks joining us all around the world.
[00:02:19] We have folks joining us right now in North Carolina, Georgia, Virginia, Florida, New York, Massachusetts, Michigan, Pennsylvania, California, Iowa and Minnesota.
[00:02:34] You guys give it up for them.
[00:02:37] We love you guys very much.
[00:02:38] You're part of our family and we just love you and thank you for being with us today as well.
[00:02:44] And so, these topics have been incredible.
[00:02:46] If you were here for the last time that I spoke in this series, I talked about what I think has been one of the most controversial topics
[00:02:55] Probably inside the church world in the last five, six years, and that is how do Christians engage with politics, with political issues, cultural issues?
[00:03:05] How many of you seen, been a little battling about that?
[00:03:08] Yeah, anybody been paying attention?
[00:03:10] Yeah, last four or five years, it's been a very hot topic.
[00:03:12] in the Church.
[00:03:14] So we tackled that one.
[00:03:15] Today I'm going to talk about something that has actually become one of the hottest topics on the web with young people today outside of the church.
[00:03:26] It matters inside the church greatly as well, but there's really been an argument or a debate going on outside in the world about this topic.
[00:03:36] And so what is our question for today?
[00:03:38] It's a big one.
[00:03:39] Can I trust
[00:03:42] The Bible.
[00:03:43] Can I trust the Bible?
[00:03:47] Now, why are we tackling this?
[00:03:49] Because some of us as Christians, you know, you hear that and if you've been, you know, like me, you've been in church, you know, a long time, your whole life grew up in church, you know, we kind of instinctively trust the Bible.
[00:04:00] We rely on the Bible.
[00:04:01] We read the Bible.
[00:04:02] The Bible is kind of our authority and we go to the Bible for everything.
[00:04:06] But let me just tell you,
[00:04:07] that is not what's happening out in the world okay when you leave the the doors of this church and you go out into public you go online especially with young people man it is everywhere that is the debate can we trust the bible there's all these arguments and contentions attacks against the bible and it goes something like this they say the bible we have today
[00:04:34] It's just a translation of a translation of a translation of a translation.
[00:04:41] It's been edited and revised and added to countless times.
[00:04:45] It contains thousands of errors and contradictions.
[00:04:49] And to top it all off, even if we had the originals, which we don't, it was written by human beings.
[00:04:58] The Bible was written by human beings.
[00:05:00] Ignorant, limited, fallible human beings wrote the Bible.
[00:05:05] How could we ever trust a book like that?
[00:05:08] And why would I ever give it authority in my life?
[00:05:13] It was written by ancient people that had, they lived in a totally different time, a totally different culture,
[00:05:19] They had no idea, no knowledge or understanding of life today or anything about me as an individual.
[00:05:26] They couldn't have known our modern challenges, what we face today.
[00:05:31] And let's face it, their morals were archaic at best.
[00:05:36] I mean just think about women's rights slavery polygamy animal sacrifices the mass killing of women and children these people were basically barbarians compared to us today and I am supposed to listen to them tell me how to live my life give me a break the Bible is just the world's longest game of telephone
[00:06:01] These are the poorly communicating ancient myths that the church has modified change to assert control over the masses.
[00:06:13] Now have any of you heard any of these kind of arguments before?
[00:06:16] I hear a lot of see a lot of heads bobbing up and down and because they're everywhere right now and I want to ask a question and be honest I'm not going to ask for a show of hands I'm not going to embarrass you but be honest in your heart if you were to face these types of questions arguments against the Bible the credibility of the Bible the inspiration of the Bible if you encountered these arguments at lunch today
[00:06:45] Do you feel equipped to defend the Scripture?
[00:06:50] Would you be confident to say, oh no, let me talk to you about that?
[00:06:57] Now listen, if you're sitting there thinking today, and I can read many of your faces, and you're going, I don't know, man.
[00:07:06] Like, wow, that's a lot.
[00:07:07] I don't know if I would know what to say.
[00:07:09] I've got some good news and I've got some bad news.
[00:07:12] Let me give you the bad news first.
[00:07:14] Bad news is in a short amount of time, I can't even scratch the surface on the topics of biblical inspiration, biblical inerrancy.
[00:07:25] I mean, there are whole seminary courses on that.
[00:07:27] I can't do it justice.
[00:07:29] I can't scratch the surface.
[00:07:30] But let me tell you the good news.
[00:07:32] The good news is the most common arguments against the Bible are actually so flimsy, in just a few minutes, in just half an hour, I can show you how to rip them apart.
[00:07:45] Sound good?
[00:07:46] Are you guys ready to dive into these common arguments against the Bible?
[00:07:52] All right, here's what we're gonna do.
[00:07:53] I wanna encourage you, number one, take some notes.
[00:07:56] Take some notes.
[00:07:57] If you're not taking notes, I'm gonna have the ushers come by and bonk you on the head.
[00:08:01] They're walking the aisles and they're just gonna bonk you if you're not taking notes.
[00:08:05] You gotta write some stuff down.
[00:08:07] I'm gonna put a lot of this on the screen for you, because I'm gonna be going fast, all right?
[00:08:12] So I've got a lot of the books and resources and topics.
[00:08:15] I'm gonna put some stuff up on the screen for you to help you out.
[00:08:18] But we're gonna tackle four of the most common arguments against
[00:08:23] and Prophesy.
[00:08:24] And then we're gonna end with some powerful reasons why I believe we can and should trust the Bible.
[00:08:32] All right, you guys ready?
[00:08:33] Number one, number one, if you're taking some notes, number one, the transmission argument.
[00:08:39] Now, if you're a car guy, I'm not talking about your five-speed transmission.
[00:08:44] All right?
[00:08:45] The transmission argument.
[00:08:48] The Bible, they say, they claim, was written by humans.
[00:08:52] It was just written by people to record oral traditions and then copied by hand thousands of times.
[00:09:00] This is an argument about how we got our Bible, about how the Bible was passed down through the ages.
[00:09:09] And how many of you know the Bible is not a new book?
[00:09:12] It was not written last week.
[00:09:14] It might be on the New York Times bestseller list, but it ain't a new one, right?
[00:09:19] It's an old book.
[00:09:20] It's actually a collection of books, 66 books, and they are very, very old.
[00:09:26] And so there's two important attacks or insinuations in this argument.
[00:09:31] All right, number one, they're insinuating that the Bible
[00:09:38] that the Bible is human, not divine in its origin.
[00:09:44] So where it came from, the source of the Bible, the origin of the Bible, this argument, they're claiming, ah, it's just human.
[00:09:53] It's just written by some guys.
[00:09:55] Listen, this is important because if it's true, it undercuts the unique authority of the Bible.
[00:10:00] If the Bible is just a book written by other people just like any other book, then listen, it ain't got no more authority in my life than Webster's Dictionary.
[00:10:08] There's no reason to live by the Bible if the Bible was just written by some guy in a cave somewhere.
[00:10:13] Like, you know, okay, well, I got 100 other books.
[00:10:17] Why should I listen to the Bible over those books?
[00:10:20] That is their argument.
[00:10:21] Our argument number two, or attack number two, is that the Bible was transmitted.
[00:10:25] Now, that word transmission or transmitted, it just means how we got it over, passed down through the years, through the centuries.
[00:10:35] It was passed down.
[00:10:36] And so their attack there is that it was transmitted or passed down by a flawed human process and is therefore certain to have errors and cannot be completely reliable.
[00:10:50] We're gonna really focus on argument one because we're gonna really talk about argument two through our attack two throughout all the different four arguments.
[00:10:57] So we're gonna really focus on this first attack on the inspiration of Scripture.
[00:11:03] And this argument is actually quite simple to defeat.
[00:11:08] The accusation defeats itself.
[00:11:10] I'm never going to defend the divine inspiration of the Bible.
[00:11:13] That'd be like defending the genius of Albert Einstein or the talent of Picasso.
[00:11:19] It's silly.
[00:11:20] Somebody walked up to me and said, you know, I don't think Albert Einstein was all that smart.
[00:11:24] I want to be like, okay.
[00:11:26] Like, what are you talking about, dude?
[00:11:27] Isn't he like the guy that we use as the model of what being smart is?
[00:11:32] Like, what are you talking about right now, right?
[00:11:35] It's kind of self-defeating, that argument.
[00:11:37] And I'm not going to argue with someone about the inspiration of the Scripture.
[00:11:42] If someone comes to me, ah, the Bible is just written by some guys.
[00:11:45] God didn't have nothing to do with it.
[00:11:47] God wasn't involved.
[00:11:48] It's just a people writing some stuff down.
[00:11:52] I would simply ask the person making this argument against the Bible to explain to me how a book written by men without the inspiration of God could possibly predict events centuries in advance with laser-like precision.
[00:12:12] How it could maintain consistent themes over thousands of years with 40 different authors.
[00:12:18] How it could withstand countless attempts to destroy it or discredit it, often by the most powerful people and nations on the earth.
[00:12:25] Roman Emperor says, I'm gonna burn every copy of the Bible.
[00:12:29] He had the power to do it, yet he failed.
[00:12:34] How a book written simply by men could transform billions of lives.
[00:12:41] How it could still remain the most read, studied, and loved book in the world.
[00:12:47] and this book written by mere humans without god's help didn't come from some great civilization i mean it didn't come from the egyptians didn't come from the babylonians didn't come from the persians the greeks or even the romans no this this book that changed history that predicted the future that was stood attacks by the most powerful people in the world this book
[00:13:13] Most widely read book in the world.
[00:13:14] It came to us through the tiny, tiny little nation of Israel.
[00:13:21] This dot on the map, this nothing of a country, this insignificant, powerless, oppressed people group called the Jews.
[00:13:30] And you want me to believe, you expect me to believe that that book came through that people and did all that and God had nothing to do with it.
[00:13:41] If you can explain that to me, I will eat my shoes.
[00:13:48] I'll eat them one at a time.
[00:13:49] I'll take them off.
[00:13:49] I'll eat the shoelaces and all.
[00:13:54] Because there is no explanation for how that is possible.
[00:13:58] The Bible authenticates itself by existing.
[00:14:02] Because the fact that we have it and how we have it testifies that God
[00:14:09] was all involved in it now regarding the manual copying of the scriptures over the centuries this is actually not a problem at all it actually serves to validate our modern bible and its authenticity now imagine for a moment that we had an original the word of god and this word of god was brought to us by one guy he comes out from behind the curtains
[00:14:38] and He unveils it.
[00:14:40] Ha!
[00:14:40] Here it is!
[00:14:41] The Word of God and God gave it to me, only me, and I'm unveiling it to you and you can trust me.
[00:14:49] Wink, wink.
[00:14:50] This is it.
[00:14:51] This is the Word of God.
[00:14:55] None of us would believe that.
[00:14:57] None of us would believe if the Word of God came through one person and that one person claimed
[00:15:06] To be the one to give us God's Word.
[00:15:09] We see that in other religions.
[00:15:10] The Quran, written by one dude.
[00:15:15] Muhammad.
[00:15:18] How easy would it have been for him to change it around, to just give us his opinion, what he thought, right?
[00:15:23] The Book of Mormon, written by one dude.
[00:15:27] Joseph Smith.
[00:15:29] How you gonna trust that?
[00:15:31] Dianetics for Scientology, written by one dude.
[00:15:34] Ron L. Hubbard.
[00:15:37] That guy's crazy.
[00:15:41] They made a movie out of one of his books, didn't they?
[00:15:43] It's terrible.
[00:15:44] It's terrible.
[00:15:46] Guy's nuts.
[00:15:47] We wouldn't trust that.
[00:15:49] We wouldn't give it any credibility, but yet the Scriptures, because it has thousands and thousands of manuscripts, it makes it impossible for any one man or country, and see, this is one of the most common attacks today against the Bible.
[00:16:04] Joe Rogan, there's a famous clip of him straightening out some Christian or some believer on his podcast saying,
[00:16:10] Oh, everybody knows that the Bible, it's not even really the Word of God.
[00:16:14] It was put together by Constantine and the Roman Catholic Church.
[00:16:19] They just chose what books went into it and what books didn't go into it, and they just controlled it.
[00:16:25] If you take two minutes to dig a little bit deeper, you would understand that because there were thousands of manuscripts of all these books of the Bible scattered all around the world, it was impossible for one man to change it or edit it.
[00:16:41] How would you find all those manuscripts?
[00:16:45] They didn't know where they were.
[00:16:46] Many of them weren't discovered until like 1940-something.
[00:16:51] So how would the Roman emperor even know they existed?
[00:16:55] How would he find them all?
[00:16:56] And how would you edit handwritten copies without us being able to tell?
[00:17:03] See, the fact that there are thousands and thousands of manuscripts of all of the different books of the Bible actually prove because they actually go together.
[00:17:13] When you compare them, they tell the same story.
[00:17:16] It actually proves that the Bible is true and that it's accurate.
[00:17:22] All right, argument number two.
[00:17:24] Argument number two is called the Da Vinci Code argument.
[00:17:26] I called it that so you'd remember it.
[00:17:30] Because all these people have seen a movie and then they take what they see in the movie and they think it's real.
[00:17:35] It's crazy.
[00:17:36] The argument is that the Bible was assembled and modified by the church so it could be used to control the masses.
[00:17:42] This is a conspiracy theory argument.
[00:17:45] And it's amazing what people will believe when they see it in a movie.
[00:17:50] Can I tell you, dinosaurs, you know, Jurassic Park, you can relax.
[00:17:55] We don't have dinosaurs, okay?
[00:17:57] For real, yeah.
[00:17:59] They're all dead.
[00:18:01] They're not bringing them back.
[00:18:01] They're not going to eat you.
[00:18:03] It's okay.
[00:18:03] Superman, not real.
[00:18:06] Didn't happen.
[00:18:07] And the Da Vinci Code made up.
[00:18:10] And so people watch the Da Vinci Code and then they go,
[00:18:15] Well, see, the Bible, it's been edited.
[00:18:18] The church, they changed everything.
[00:18:21] Oh, my goodness.
[00:18:22] A lot of this argument is focused on what's called the biblical canon.
[00:18:26] Now, everybody say canon.
[00:18:28] This is not canon, C-A-N-N-O-N, canon go boom.
[00:18:32] This is C-A-N-O-N, canon standard or rule.
[00:18:36] The canon of Scripture are the books that are in the Bible
[00:18:40] If they're in the canon.
[00:18:41] If they're not in the canon, they're outside the rule.
[00:18:43] They are not considered scripture.
[00:18:45] Why did some books make it in and some books didn't?
[00:18:48] People with this argument, imagine a smoke-filled room somewhere with a handful of powerful people picking the books that go in the Bible.
[00:18:56] Like there were all these books.
[00:18:58] You had Genesis and Exodus and Leviticus and you had Malachi, you had John, you had Galatians.
[00:19:06] You had all these books and like these guys sat in a dark room and they just went,
[00:19:09] Yes, yes.
[00:19:12] I like this one.
[00:19:13] John is good.
[00:19:14] But oh no, Enoch, I don't like that one.
[00:19:17] Let's get rid of that one.
[00:19:20] Somebody asked me about Enoch in between services today.
[00:19:26] And that's this theory that goes forth, that they hand-chose, they selected the books that would go in the Bible and not the ones that were left out of the Bible.
[00:19:36] This way of thinking is in vogue today.
[00:19:39] It's popular in a culture that's lost all trust for its leaders and institutions.
[00:19:44] Listen, we're a cynical culture.
[00:19:46] We see oppression lurking behind every corner.
[00:19:49] We don't trust pastors, leaders, politicians, government, colleges, universities.
[00:19:54] We don't trust anything anymore, right?
[00:19:56] And so this kind of argument is very, very popular today, especially with young people.
[00:20:02] This view, it might sound juicy on a conspiracy theory podcast, but it just isn't historically accurate.
[00:20:10] It's just not how it happened.
[00:20:12] The church didn't decide what went into the canon.
[00:20:16] They recognized what books were sacred scripture.
[00:20:22] They didn't decide what books, they didn't pick and choose books that were in and books that were out.
[00:20:27] No, they recognized the books that were Scripture, that the church had been using, were using as Scripture.
[00:20:35] Dr. Michael Kruger, he's right here in Charlotte, he's the professor, he's the dean actually at Reformed Theological Seminary, has spent his whole academic career on the New Testament canon, studying this, writing books about it.
[00:20:49] He gave this great analogy the other day.
[00:20:52] He said it would be like asking someone how they pick their parents.
[00:20:56] I meet your parents and I go up to you and I say, man, you got some great parents.
[00:21:00] How'd you pick them?
[00:21:02] You would probably look up like, wait, what?
[00:21:06] I didn't pick my parents.
[00:21:07] What are you talking about?
[00:21:08] My parents predated.
[00:21:10] They made me.
[00:21:10] I didn't pick them.
[00:21:12] Wait, what are you talking about?
[00:21:14] He said it is the same thing with the Bible.
[00:21:17] The early church recognized the New Testament books that carried apostolic authority.
[00:21:25] They recognized the books.
[00:21:27] These books were widely used and copied and were cited thousands and thousands of times by the early church fathers in the first century, the second century, the third century.
[00:21:37] And so the common view that the church picked the Bible, listen, the church didn't make the Bible, the Bible made the church.
[00:21:47] the church came out of the scriptures and they recognized the books and they distributed and used the books that were written by men who had walked with Jesus and people that knew those people they were first century books they were written by eyewitnesses they weren't written later on
[00:22:09] I've got a great resource for you if you want to dig deeper into this and listen guys i don't expect you to buy 17 books i'm a little bit of a nerd so i buy a lot of books um don't feel that pressure to read all these books however if one of these arguments maybe there's a family member i had people in between services yeah my kids are dealing with this i've been getting this question my my son went off to college and now he's coming back and he's got these questions about you know whatever about the scriptures if one of these issues
[00:22:37] is really top of mind for you.
[00:22:39] Maybe get that resource, okay?
[00:22:42] And dig into it a little bit.
[00:22:43] Learn a little bit more about it.
[00:22:46] So the resource is The Canon Revisited, Establishing the Origins and the Authority of the New Testament.
[00:22:52] It's by Dr. Michael Kruger.
[00:22:54] You can also check out a lot of his talks on YouTube for free.
[00:22:57] and he does a great job talking about that now before we move on to the next one i gotta hit this one quick how many of you have ever heard of the apocryphal books raise your hand if you've heard of the apocryphal books okay a little bit more this service than last service so y'all are way smarter
[00:23:14] You can tell first service you guys don't know anything.
[00:23:18] Like second service rules.
[00:23:21] Now what are the apocryphal books?
[00:23:23] The Catholic Church, Catholics have seven books in their Bible that we do not have in our Bible.
[00:23:30] I'm not going to spend a lot of time on it because to be quite honest it's not a big deal to most people.
[00:23:35] But I did want to arm you so you know what that's all about.
[00:23:38] Okay, and so very quickly, here's what you need to know.
[00:23:40] Number one, we are Protestants.
[00:23:43] Everybody say Protestants.
[00:23:45] That comes from to protest.
[00:23:47] What does that mean?
[00:23:48] It means we're mad.
[00:23:50] Protestants are just mad all the time.
[00:23:51] We're mad about everything.
[00:23:52] We're mad.
[00:23:53] We're not taking it anymore.
[00:23:54] Kind of, kind of.
[00:23:56] Martin Luther got angry at some of the abuses of the Roman Catholic Church.
[00:23:59] They were not according to God's Word, and so he put his 99 Theses up on the door, packed it there, and started the Reformation.
[00:24:06] This was in the year 1517, and that is where Protestant churches, non-Catholic, Christian non-Catholic churches, we broke away from the Catholic Church.
[00:24:16] We are called Protestants.
[00:24:17] Now, Protestants,
[00:24:19] have always historically rejected these other seven books.
[00:24:24] Now, why?
[00:24:25] Why?
[00:24:25] Because these books were Old Testament, not New Testament.
[00:24:28] Where did our Old Testament come from?
[00:24:30] What people group?
[00:24:32] The Jews.
[00:24:34] It made sense to the Reformers that if the Jews don't have these books in their Bible, why would I put it in mine?
[00:24:44] And the Jewish people do not have these seven books in their canon.
[00:24:48] And so the Jews don't regard these as scripture.
[00:24:52] And so the early church didn't regard these as scripture.
[00:24:56] And so the Catholics in the 1600s, Council of Trent kind of added these or made them scripture.
[00:25:05] The Jews in Palestine at the time of Jesus did not accept these books as scripture or use them in their Bible.
[00:25:11] by the end of the first century all Jews rejected these books as scripture and most interesting to me nothing in these books were ever quoted or referenced by Jesus or by the Apostles okay so Jesus quoted Old Testament Scripture all the time he never quoted from those books all right let's move on to the juicy one here number three if you're taking notes today this is get ready
[00:25:38] The moral argument.
[00:25:40] The moral argument.
[00:25:42] The Bible, they claim, condones slavery, the mistreatment of women, and genocide, among many, many other horrific, horrific things.
[00:25:53] Now this has become a very common argument today.
[00:25:57] And there is nothing that self-righteous people love more than to feel morally superior.
[00:26:04] Now see, I'm not pointing a finger trying to be harsh, but if you're not a Christian, if you're a Christian, we get our righteousness from who?
[00:26:12] Jesus.
[00:26:14] So His righteousness becomes my righteousness.
[00:26:16] If I don't have His righteousness, I'm trying to produce my own righteousness.
[00:26:20] So by definition, I'm self-righteous.
[00:26:22] And when you're self-righteous and someone points out your sin, it is only human to want to point back at them and to say, oh yeah, well, you're worse than me.
[00:26:36] So that's where this argument comes from.
[00:26:38] Regarding some of these specific arguments, unfortunately, I got a time limit, I can't go into all of them, so I'm gonna pick one, and it's one of the hottest ones online being debated on college campuses today, and that is slavery.
[00:26:54] They claim that the Bible, God's word, endorses or condones slavery.
[00:27:00] Now let me give you some facts.
[00:27:02] Number one, slavery in ancient times in the Bible, in the Old Testament, is not the same as race-based chattel slavery practiced here in America.
[00:27:14] The Old Testament servitude was limited and most often used as a form of debt repayment.
[00:27:33] Not other countries, but in Israel, it was limited, it was regulated, and it was most often voluntary.
[00:27:40] And so 99% of the slavery going on that you read about in the Bible, it was prisoners of war, or it was people who voluntarily entered a temporary term of servitude to pay off a debt that they owed.
[00:27:56] Number three, God has worked through his people to bring gradual reform within cultures, different cultures.
[00:28:01] We see that all throughout the Bible with different things.
[00:28:04] I heard a non-Christian Bible theologian talking about this the other day, and he said, oh, that's bunk.
[00:28:11] You know, God, all the time in the Scripture, if God thinks something's bad, he just outlaws it.
[00:28:15] That's crazy.
[00:28:16] God doesn't do anything gradual in any of this stuff.
[00:28:19] And I'm like, what?
[00:28:21] What about divorce?
[00:28:23] Because God allows divorce in the Old Testament.
[00:28:29] He regulates it, He limits it, but He allows it even though it's not His best and it's not His will.
[00:28:36] How do we know that?
[00:28:36] Because Jesus, talking to the Jews, He says, yes, Abraham allowed you to give them a writ of divorce.
[00:28:45] Why?
[00:28:46] God allowed it because of the hardness of your heart.
[00:28:50] Because of the hardness, it was never God's best.
[00:28:55] The New Testament undermines slavery in its ethical foundations.
[00:29:00] You can read the book of Philemon.
[00:29:02] 1 Timothy chapter 1 verse 10.
[00:29:05] These verses directly challenge the ethics of slavery.
[00:29:09] And finally, Christianity led to the abolition of slavery in the West.
[00:29:16] Why do we not have slavery today?
[00:29:19] Because of Christians and because of the Bible.
[00:29:23] The most famous person that started in Great Britain the abolition of slavery was William Wilberforce, who was a devout man of God, who used the Scripture to argue against it.
[00:29:36] And so the most common thing they'll say is, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:29:39] But in the South, and we're in the South, so this really hits us.
[00:29:43] In the South, they used the Bible to defend and prolong slavery.
[00:29:49] The thing they leave out is that the Bible they used to do that was modified.
[00:29:55] They took certain scriptures out.
[00:29:57] They twisted it.
[00:29:57] They only allowed selective readings from the scripture.
[00:30:00] Why?
[00:30:01] Because the slave owners knew that if you let them read the entire Word of God, that it would destroy slavery.
[00:30:11] And guess what?
[00:30:13] It did.
[00:30:14] It did.
[00:30:16] And so slavery has been eradicated primarily, why?
[00:30:20] Because of Christians and because of God's word.
[00:30:25] Now here, I'm gonna give you a great resource on these moral questions.
[00:30:30] It's called, Is God a Moral Monster?
[00:30:33] by Paul Koppen.
[00:30:36] Great book.
[00:30:37] I have this book.
[00:30:38] I'm actually in the middle of reading this book.
[00:30:39] Phenomenal book.
[00:30:40] Dr. Frank Turk recommends this book all the time.
[00:30:43] Wonderful job in the book.
[00:30:45] And typically what we find is people who have never read the Bible making claims about complex issues like this in the Bible that they have no understanding of.
[00:30:54] And let me just help you.
[00:30:54] When you're debating or you're talking to people about Scripture, church, religion, faith, and they kind of poke their chest out at you and they say, oh, yeah, I've read the Bible.
[00:31:06] When someone tells me they've read the Bible, I know the Bible's not true.
[00:31:11] I had a college class.
[00:31:15] I had an entire semester, and I read the Bible.
[00:31:21] I am licking my chops.
[00:31:23] I'm like, really?
[00:31:24] You've read the Bible?
[00:31:25] Let's take a tour.
[00:31:27] Let's have some fun in the Word today, because let me promise you, they have not read the Bible.
[00:31:33] I've been reading the Bible my whole life.
[00:31:35] I learn stuff every week.
[00:31:37] God's not impressed because you read the cliff notes once in a college class for one semester.
[00:31:44] Does not make you an expert.
[00:31:45] And so when someone sticks their chest out at you and says, oh, I've read the Bible, good, good.
[00:31:51] Let's have a conversation because I guarantee you their knowledge, mile wide, inch deep.
[00:31:59] Not very thorough.
[00:32:01] Our last one, last one, the credibility argument.
[00:32:05] The credibility argument.
[00:32:06] They say, they claim, that the Bible is full of contradictions and errors.
[00:32:14] There's historical errors.
[00:32:16] There's grammatical errors.
[00:32:17] There's misprint.
[00:32:18] The dates are wrong.
[00:32:19] It says this guy, but it means this guy.
[00:32:21] There's so many errors.
[00:32:22] There's thousands of errors.
[00:32:24] And I think this one might be the most intimidating for Christians because it touches our sensitivity of not knowing our Bible good enough.
[00:32:33] They bring this out.
[00:32:34] Oh, did you hear about this?
[00:32:35] Did you hear about that?
[00:32:36] Did you hear about this issue in the Bible?
[00:32:37] And we get a little gunshot because I'm like, oh, I don't know if I know enough.
[00:32:41] I don't know if I know how to explain that.
[00:32:44] Now, let me help you.
[00:32:45] I'm going to give you some very practical advice.
[00:32:47] All right, number one, get rid of the shame.
[00:32:50] Get rid of the shame.
[00:32:53] Listen, if you are a newer Christian,
[00:32:56] No one expects you to know the Bible like a Christian who's been saved in the church reading the Bible for 50 years.
[00:33:01] You're not gonna know as much scripture.
[00:33:03] That does not make you any less God's child.
[00:33:07] It does not diminish the Holy Spirit that lives in your heart one iota.
[00:33:13] There is no difference in how the power of God
[00:33:17] The anointing of God, the wisdom of God that can operate through you versus someone who's been in church for 50 years.
[00:33:24] You're just as much God's child if you got saved last week as if you got saved 20 years ago.
[00:33:31] So ditch the shame.
[00:33:33] But if you really, really, really feel
[00:33:37] that you just don't read God's word enough and I hear this all the time hear this all the time from Christians I just I should I should read more I should read I should have read yesterday I should have read more this week I should I shoulda if you're struggling with that shame let me help you take the Bible from being a duty get rid of it feeling like a duty being this burden this duty that you have to fulfill and change it by prayer go to God and pray that he would make it your delight
[00:34:07] When you switch the Bible from duty to delight, everything changes.
[00:34:14] everything changes you'll begin to pour over God's Word and I'm not telling you not to set a specific time of day to read your Bible that's great habits are great that's good but sometimes we get so regulated in our Bible reading it's like oh you know I read my Bible for 30 minutes I'll check the box if I went to my wife and I'm like hey honey I got some time for you we're gonna you know you just pour it out your heart give it to me I mean I'm all yours right now all right go
[00:34:41] Come on.
[00:34:42] Let's wrap it up.
[00:34:42] Let's go.
[00:34:43] I got stuff to do.
[00:34:43] Come on.
[00:34:44] Let's move.
[00:34:44] Let's go.
[00:34:46] I'm sorry.
[00:34:46] I'm out of time for today.
[00:34:48] How many of you know I would not have a great evening?
[00:34:52] The romance meter in my house would not like be breaking the bank.
[00:34:55] Can I get an amen?
[00:34:57] Right?
[00:34:58] And it's the same thing with God.
[00:34:59] Don't go to God like it's a drudgery, a ritual, a duty.
[00:35:03] Pray that He would give you the desire
[00:35:06] to go spend time in His Word.
[00:35:08] Now, what do we do with this question?
[00:35:11] What do we do with this question?
[00:35:12] Turn this question on them.
[00:35:17] How do I do that?
[00:35:18] So simple.
[00:35:19] Hey, you got a problem with the Bible?
[00:35:21] Man, that's great.
[00:35:23] Sounds like you got tons of them.
[00:35:24] Give me one.
[00:35:24] Let's settle on one big one.
[00:35:26] What's the biggest contradiction?
[00:35:28] What's the biggest error in the Scripture that really bugs you?
[00:35:32] You can't trust the Bible because of it.
[00:35:34] Give it to me.
[00:35:34] What is it?
[00:35:35] When they tell you what it is, say, all right, listen, I'm gonna make a deal with you.
[00:35:39] I will go and study this for you and I will get you an answer.
[00:35:44] But when I come back to you and I have an answer for you for why this isn't a problem, it's not a contradiction, I show it to you, I give you the evidence, I explain it, I show you the verses, everything is there.
[00:35:54] You have to agree to come to church with me.
[00:35:58] Shake on it.
[00:36:00] Let me tell you, most of them will not shake your hand.
[00:36:03] Because they're not interested in humbly coming before God and learning His Word.
[00:36:09] They're just trying to get you to shut up.
[00:36:12] They're just trying to get God out of their life because they're in sin and they like it.
[00:36:18] That's just the truth.
[00:36:21] And so pray, be prayerful.
[00:36:23] Don't sit there getting some long, protracted argument with them.
[00:36:26] Just say, hey, I'll go track, I'll spend the time to track this down, but you gotta make a commitment to me.
[00:36:31] Because if I spend that time to answer your contradiction, I wanna see you in church.
[00:36:35] And finally, go deep, go deep.
[00:36:37] They always wanna attack the general.
[00:36:38] They'll say things like lots of errors, tons of contradictions, totally, totally not credible.
[00:36:45] The Bible, you can't trust the Bible.
[00:36:47] They never wanna focus on one.
[00:36:51] Go deep.
[00:36:53] Go deep.
[00:36:53] Let me help you with this just for your confidence level.
[00:36:55] This is a quote by Nelson Gluick.
[00:36:58] He was an esteemed archaeologist, historian.
[00:37:00] He was not a Christian.
[00:37:02] He was a Jewish man, highly regarded historian and archaeologist.
[00:37:07] He said this.
[00:37:08] He says, It may be stated categorically that no archaeological discovery has ever controverted a biblical reference.
[00:37:20] Scores of archaeological findings have been made which confirm and clear outline or exact detail historical statements in the Bible.
[00:37:31] So here you have one of the leading archaeologists in the world, not a Christian, telling you they have nothing science or archaeology or history has ever produced, has ever proven the Bible wrong.
[00:37:45] Now I'm gonna give you a great resource, put it up on the screens for you here.
[00:37:49] It's called The New International Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties by Gleason Archer.
[00:37:55] Encourage you, if these kind of things interest you, great book.
[00:37:58] It's actually a newer resource for me and it's awesome because when you're reading the Bible and you ever read the Bible and you see something and you're like, wait a minute, doesn't that contradict this?
[00:38:06] Or you're trying to make sense of it?
[00:38:08] In this book, you just go to the reference,
[00:38:10] It tells you.
[00:38:11] It's awesome.
[00:38:12] It just says, yeah, turn here, look at this, boom, problem solved.
[00:38:15] It makes it so simple, because this guy has done all the research for you.
[00:38:20] It's incredible.
[00:38:21] All right, why should we trust the Bible?
[00:38:25] I'm gonna take a few minutes before we end today
[00:38:28] We're Christians.
[00:38:28] We believe the Bible, right?
[00:38:30] Can I get an amen?
[00:38:31] Why should we?
[00:38:33] Why should we?
[00:38:34] What's the positive case?
[00:38:36] Why should we trust the Bible?
[00:38:38] 2 Peter chapter 1 verse 16.
[00:38:41] It says, For we did not follow cleverly devised myths,
[00:38:45] When we made known to you the power and coming of our lord jesus christ but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty for when he received honor and glory from god the father and the voice was born to him by the majestic glory this is my beloved son with whom i am well pleased we ourselves
[00:39:06] and Prophesy.
[00:39:07] Heard this very voice born from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain.
[00:39:13] And we have the prophetic word, more fully confirmed.
[00:39:18] Underline that, highlight that, more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your heart.
[00:39:31] Verse 20, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of what?
[00:39:35] Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation for no prophecy has ever been produced by the will of man.
[00:39:44] But men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
[00:39:53] This tells us that Scripture is more fully confirmed, more convincing.
[00:39:58] What he's telling you is this.
[00:40:00] Peter was there the day it happened.
[00:40:02] He was on the mountain.
[00:40:03] He said, if you had been there with us, we were eyewitnesses.
[00:40:08] We saw the heaven's part.
[00:40:09] We heard the voice from heaven saying, this is my beloved son.
[00:40:16] He says, guess what, guys?
[00:40:17] The Bible is more fully confirmed than that.
[00:40:23] You can have more confidence, be more convinced in the promises of God that God loves you, that Jesus died for you, that He will change you, that you can go to heaven, that you can have a relationship with God, that you can have the Holy Spirit, that you can read the Scriptures and understand.
[00:40:40] He says you can know more about God, you can be more convinced by reading the book than if you were on the mountain and you heard the voice yourself.
[00:40:53] He said that is more fully confirmed.
[00:40:57] Isn't that incredible?
[00:40:58] Listen, the Bible claims to be inspired by God.
[00:41:05] It claims that, and that's so important because many of these theologians, they'll tell you, oh, the Bible, they didn't even know what they were writing.
[00:41:11] They were just guys writing stuff down.
[00:41:13] The Bible doesn't claim to be inspired.
[00:41:15] The Bible doesn't claim this.
[00:41:17] They didn't claim this.
[00:41:18] We just read it.
[00:41:19] It's so clear you'd have to have help to misunderstand it.
[00:41:27] so clear the bible claims to be inspired by god and what's more jesus trusted the bible and i got one basic rule in my life if you die and can raise yourself from the dead i'm listening to you you got credibility with me i mean if you die and then get up
[00:41:54] Three days later and walk and talk, eat food, cook me dinner after you were dead and buried for three days.
[00:42:06] I'm listening to you.
[00:42:09] You got some credibility in my book.
[00:42:11] And Jesus Christ trusted the Bible.
[00:42:15] Look what he says, Matthew 4, verse 3, And the tempter came and said to him, If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.
[00:42:24] But he said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.
[00:42:37] Now just by itself that sounds real good.
[00:42:40] But when you know that Jesus is quoting Deuteronomy.
[00:42:45] So he's going to the Old Testament and he said it is written and he takes the Old Testament and he says this came out of the mouth of him.
[00:42:56] This came out of the mouth of God.
[00:43:01] I'm gonna trust it.
[00:43:03] When a man died, rose again, points to the book, and he says, that came out of God's mouth.
[00:43:09] That's enough for me.
[00:43:12] Like, color me convinced.
[00:43:14] And Jesus quoted from the Old Testament 78 times just in the four gospels.
[00:43:23] He quotes from the Old Testament.
[00:43:28] John 17, verse 16 and 17, Jesus says, They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
[00:43:34] Sanctify them, change them, set them apart in the truth.
[00:43:40] What does he say?
[00:43:41] Your word is life.
[00:43:47] So Jesus not only believed that the Bible was inspired by God, that it came out of God's mouth, he believed that it was trustworthy and reliable.
[00:43:57] Your word is truth.
[00:44:00] Last one, the universal church confirms the Bible as trustworthy.
[00:44:09] Now why is that so convincing?
[00:44:11] Because if you've been a Christian for five minutes, you know this, Christians love to fight and argue about everything.
[00:44:16] We can't agree on nothing.
[00:44:18] Go find you a Baptist, Methodist.
[00:44:19] Then they'll argue over the color of the carpet.
[00:44:22] Have a church split.
[00:44:23] Like, I want red carpet.
[00:44:25] If you don't want blue carpet, you ain't even of God.
[00:44:27] Like, we will argue about anything.
[00:44:29] We come up with stuff to argue about.
[00:44:31] But let me tell you, there's one thing that all churches agree on.
[00:44:35] Whether you're Catholic, whether you're Eastern Orthodox, whether you're Mainline Protestant, whether you're Evangelical, whether you're Charismatic, Spirit-filled, doesn't matter.
[00:44:47] Doesn't matter what church you attend, they all agree on this, that the Bible is the inspired Word of God and that it is trustworthy.
[00:45:02] They all agree.
[00:45:03] The 66 books that we have in our Bible can be trusted.
[00:45:11] So why do I trust the Bible?
[00:45:13] Because the Bible tells me to.
[00:45:15] Well, that kind of sounds like circular reasoning, doesn't it?
[00:45:18] Well, not really, because if I have to appeal to any other authority than the Bible, then there must be an authority over the Bible.
[00:45:24] But there is no authority over the Bible.
[00:45:26] It's the ultimate authority.
[00:45:29] So number one, I believe the Bible because the Bible says to.
[00:45:31] It claims to be inspired by God.
[00:45:34] Number two, because Jesus trusted the Bible.
[00:45:37] And he not only died, he got up.
[00:45:40] And he's the only one I know of that's done that.
[00:45:43] and finally the Universal Church that follows Jesus.
[00:45:47] We disagree on a lot of stuff but we all agree on that.
[00:45:51] That the Bible is God's Word.
[00:45:54] That it is inspired and that it is trustworthy.
[00:45:58] Will you stand on your feet with me today?
[00:46:01] Let me read you before we close what Freedom House Church believes about the Bible.
[00:46:05] This is taken from our website.
[00:46:07] Our core beliefs as a church
[00:46:11] It says the Bible is the inspired Word of God and is therefore our authoritative and infallible guide in all things.
[00:46:19] It contains a record of God's heart for people since the beginning of time and can give life and freedom to everyone.
[00:46:28] I want to end with this today.
[00:46:29] I want to give you something that you can kind of process and think about, and more so to help with other people who maybe have doubts or questions about the Bible.
[00:46:38] See, I believe the Bible is God's Word, but I believe we must approach the Bible the right way, with humility and with curiosity.
[00:46:47] I was thinking about this the other day.
[00:46:49] You know, if you were in another country, foreign land, with a
[00:46:53] All-Powerful King, a king that can do anything.
[00:46:56] There's no limits.
[00:46:57] There's no Congress.
[00:46:58] There's no limitations on his power, what he could do.
[00:47:02] And you, you stood before that king today.
[00:47:04] He could kill you.
[00:47:05] He could order your death, just like that.
[00:47:08] You stood before this king.
[00:47:11] You wouldn't insult him.
[00:47:12] You wouldn't go in there with your head up and your nose in the air and being all arrogant and condescending.
[00:47:19] How do I even know you're the king?
[00:47:22] Who are you to tell me what to do?
[00:47:25] You know who I am?
[00:47:26] You wouldn't act like that.
[00:47:27] You'd be a fool.
[00:47:30] If you can meet the wisest, most knowledgeable person in the world, maybe you've got an undiagnosed disease, and this is like Dr. House, you know, this is like the person that can diagnose it.
[00:47:41] You've got five minutes, man, to go in and to get the answer to your question.
[00:47:47] You wouldn't go in that room.
[00:47:49] and ask fortune cookie questions like, could God make a rock so big even God couldn't pick it up?
[00:47:57] You'd be an idiot.
[00:47:58] You'd go in there, I got five minutes, man.
[00:48:01] This person's got the wisdom.
[00:48:02] This person is a genius.
[00:48:03] I've gotta learn what they know.
[00:48:08] And if we had a 78-year-old World War II veteran, decorated, hero, in this service this morning, he walked from those doors we put him up here on this platform
[00:48:19] Not one of you in this room would walk up to that man and say, hey, let me tell you how it really happened.
[00:48:28] Every one of us would stand on our feet and we would salute.
[00:48:34] Why?
[00:48:34] Because of his sacrifice and because of his character.
[00:48:40] I'll tell you a little something about God.
[00:48:43] He's an all-powerful King.
[00:48:46] There are no limits to his power.
[00:48:49] He has all wisdom, all knowledge, anything you could ever want to know, it's in the book.
[00:48:56] He knows it.
[00:48:57] He can help you.
[00:49:01] And just like that 78-year-old World War II veteran, let me tell you something, Jesus Christ gave the ultimate sacrifice, and He has the perfect character, and He deserves our respect and our trust.
[00:49:17] So when we understand
[00:49:21] not just that it's a book but who wrote the book when we come with a heart of humility curiosity we come before the king and we say hey god i don't know a thing would you help me would you show me i believe he'll open the book to you amen amen would you bow your heads for just a moment close your eyes we want to give the holy spirit just a moment before we
[00:49:50] We go home today.
[00:49:51] I'm sure you got some plans maybe.
[00:49:55] Thinking about lunch right now, your friends, going to the pool.
[00:50:00] Nothing wrong with that.
[00:50:04] But the next 60 seconds could determine your eternity.
[00:50:11] And I want to ask you to take just a moment to engage with what I'm telling you.
[00:50:16] Because this book, the Bible, it's got one story, one narrative.
[00:50:20] From Genesis to Revelation, it tells one story about one person.
[00:50:25] His name is Jesus.
[00:50:27] It tells the story of how as people we have fallen short, we've sinned against God.
[00:50:33] And from the very beginning of our sin, he's had a plan to redeem us.
[00:50:39] He sent his son Jesus to die on a cross for your sins and for mine.
[00:50:43] And here's what he asks.
[00:50:46] Just trust me.
[00:50:48] He says, will you just trust me?
[00:50:49] Will you humble yourself, acknowledge those sins that I paid for, and will you just trust me?
[00:50:58] If that's you today and maybe for the first time you want to put your faith, your trust in Jesus Christ, if you're online today and you want to raise your hand, you want to receive Christ,
[00:51:08] For the first time listen we have people that will pray with you there's a little button there in the chat you can press if you're in this room today and you want to leave here a different person your sins gone forgiven full of the Holy Spirit so you can get in the book so you can know God walk with God if that's you today will you be bold right now don't worry about the other people in the room nobody's looking at you every head is bowed every eye is closed will you be bold right now and lift up your hand and say yes to God
[00:51:37] Amen, Amen, Amen.
[00:51:38] I see those hands.
[00:51:40] Hands all across the room.
[00:51:42] Church, let's pray with them.
[00:51:44] Listen, we're gonna join in with you.
[00:51:45] Pray, if you lifted your hand, pray this prayer by faith right now.
[00:51:49] Just say, Father God, thank you for your word.
[00:51:54] Your word is truth.
[00:51:56] I trust your word and I trust you because you sent Jesus to die for me.
[00:52:03] He rose again.
[00:52:05] and He's alive today.
[00:52:08] I confess out of my mouth, Jesus is Lord.
[00:52:13] He's my Savior.
[00:52:14] He's my Lord.
[00:52:16] And I ask you now, make me new.
[00:52:19] Change me.
[00:52:21] Forgive me of my sins and fill me with your Holy Spirit so I can read your Word and I can walk with you every day.
[00:52:31] Thank you for doing it.
[00:52:33] You have saved me.
[00:52:34] I receive it right now.
[00:52:36] By faith.
[00:52:38] In Jesus name.
[00:52:40] Amen.