828. The Inspiration and Inerrancy of the Bible

Welcome to The Daily Platform from Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina. The school was founded in 1927.

The evangelist Dr. Bob Jones Senior's intent was to make a school where Christ would be the center of everything, so he established daily chapel services today.

That tradition continues with fervent biblical preaching from the University Chapel platform must not listen to a sermon preached by Dr. Dan Olinger of the Bob Jones University seminary John chapter 10 please John chapter 10 Jesus is in an animated discussion with the unbelieving Jews. I don't think he considers them his enemies, but they consider themselves they consider him their enemy and so they cast themselves as enemies and they stand in opposition to him and as a conversation takes place that results in these Jews picking up stones verse 31 to stone him. And Jesus says I've done many good things. Which of these good things are you about to stop me for and they say were not stoning you for a good work were stoning you for blasphemy because you have made yourself equal with God. So Jesus is arguing for his life here.

Not that he values his life he came to give it but he came to give it in the father's good time. So this is not the time.

The time is not yet, so he's arguing for his life and he says you know your Scripture says something it says ye are God's. And in the context he's talking about human beings.

So what's the problem with my calling myself God and I wonder whether there was a little twinkle in his eye as he said that and then he says in verse 35 if he called them gods, under whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken and he goes on to make the rest of his argument. As you know, they don't kill them. At that point they kill him later in the timing and plan of God. But Jesus makes this almost offhanded statement as though everybody knows this is true, the scripture cannot be broken. You know we talk about about a lot around here. I don't know if you've noticed that we we treated as the standard for all that we think and say and do and we don't always execute perfectly, but we want to we try to we say that this book is the word of God. So are we right now we well I'll note. For starters, that the Bibles seems to have that impression about itself. It claims to be the word of God and I'm gonna run very quickly through some verses that most of you probably already know this is just getting us to our main point this morning. The Bible says of itself that it is God breathed and says it's given by inspiration of God, and that word inspiration for openness dose means God breathed, that is God breathed out the words that are in the Bible. He spoke. The Bible contains the words that God has to say. It goes on to say that the authors the human authors of this book didn't think these things up on their own, and son Peter says in second Peter chapter 1, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation that is to say, these guys just didn't think it out. It's not just their opinion and the very next verse says that holy men of old spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, and you probably heard that word moved is the same word that's used in acts 27 of the windstorm driving Paul's ship across the Mediterranean and eventually it was going to shipwreck it on the island of Malta and we know that these were seasoned sailors and they were at the mercy of that storm and there's a little pond going on there because you probably know what to tell something we don't know.

Bear with me. You probably know that the in Greek, the language of the New Testament the word wind in the word spirit of the same word Numa and so there's a little pond going on there. There they work.

The authors were blown along by the holy when the Holy Spirit so thereunder under the direction under the driving influence of God himself. As they write and it's very extinct to me that there is evidence in Scripture that they were aware of that they knew this just wasn't just their own ideas. Paul says to the Thessalonians in chapter 4. This we say unto you by the word of the Lord.

He's about to give that little paragraph about the rapture and the voice of the archangel of the trump of God and the dead in Christ arise first, and so on. But he is aware as he gives the Thessalonian believers that information that he's writing the word of God. He is self-conscious about and some writers of Scripture are aware that other writers of Scripture are writing the words of God self turnover to first Timothy chapter 5 if you would first Timothy chapter 5 in verse 18 Ali start ring verse 17. Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor that is of double pay, especially they who labor in the word and doctrine for the Scriptures.

Seth thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treaded out the corn and the scripture saith the laborer is worthy of his reward. Now thou shall not muzzle the ox, where does that come from a constant Deuteronomy from the books of Moses, the Torah law is something that every Jew would recognize as the Scripture. Even the Sadducees who had issues with their view of their own Scripture that even the Sadducees accepted the law of Moses is the word of God.

Where does the line. The laborer is worthy of his reward come from it comes from the gospel of Luke.

Luke, of all people. Why is that so interesting. Well first of all, Luke is a close friend of Paul. They traveled together. He was part of Paul's retinue. There's some's suspicion that he may have been Paul's personal physician. We know it was a physician. That means that Paul knew that Luke snored the know that Luke had bad breath, not off Luke snored or had bad breath or not.

That's not my point. My point is, Paul knew Luke. He knew that he didn't have a halo shining over his head. He knew all of Luke's foibles whenever they were and yet he recognized Luke's gospel as the word of God.

He put on a parallel to the law of Moses and it's also expect to make that the ink on the gospel of Luke was barely dry when Paul wrote this. It was brand-new work and yet Paul was aware that his friend had written a gospel that was the word of God. Peter famously says that Paul's writings are Scripture, and when you consider that Paul dressed down Peter Monday in front of everybody. And he was right. That's a remarkable statement so this is what the Bible says about itself and we started in John chapter 10 with Jesus. Routine observation. Of course you know the scripture can't be broken. Jesus apparently thought that to.

Now there's an elephant in the room.

I don't know if you can see him but I suspect that you've thought of him.

This is an extraordinary claim. This book, unlike all other books is the very words of God is this book written by lawyers. Is it written by people who thought they were telling the truth or just out of their minds diluted how we know are we just supposed to accept. I hope you have asked that question. At some point in your walk with God because if you're not asking those questions. You're not doing due diligence with the truth. Looking anybody can write thus saith the Lord on a piece of papyrus and that doesn't make it so does it. There are other books in this world, both ancient and modern, that make similar claims Islam has the Koran and the hadith. The Mormons of the book of Mormon Christian scientists have science and health with the key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Glover Patterson Eddie followers of the Baha'i faith and the writings of Baha'u'llah. Buddhists have the Baha'i and sutras. The Egyptians had the book of the dead Hindus have been leaders in the Upanishads, Zoroastrians have the investors and more recently roster fire ants hold the writings of the late Emperor of Ethiopia. Haile Selassie to be sacred well that in marijuana Scientologists take very seriously the writings of L. Ron Hubbard, most especially Dianetics and members of the Holy Spirit Association for the unification of world Christianity, otherwise known as the Unification Church take very seriously the writings of the lights on the moon, especially his work, the divine principle and we not accept any of on what grounds do we say this is different.

This one is from God. You have to believe this one isn't it reasonable, isn't it reasonable to expect that such an extraordinary claim would be greeted with a polite request for evidence thus saith the Lord really got the evidence for that.

But to make some observations about that question. First of all, the sovereign God and Creator of the universe doesn't really owe us any evidence know you think I'm setting up a copout.

I'm not but I just make out observation. He doesn't owe us any evidence. He has been good to us. He has given us everything we need for free. We have air and water and food and light and warmth and relationships and God has been abundantly generous to us and when somebody has been kind to you the reasonable responses to trust him. But you know what you're facing here is not really the question whether to trust God. The question is whether God has actually written this book and the very God who is so kind to us has not called us to be naïve or to be stupid. God is an intellectual being. He's a thinker and we are made in his image and he has called us to exercise that image by our reason. He's aware that his book makes an extraordinary claim and he invites us to examine if the claim is true that this is the word of God, we would expect that there would be some evidence for that fact. So here's the million dollar question. Is there any evidence and I'm talking about concrete, measurable, falsifiable scientific level evidence. The Bible is an extraordinary book but it's not like the other books as I sometimes say there's something going on with this book I like to suggest that there are such evidences and I'm gonna give you a couple I met a mention one fairly briefly and on the spend the rest of our time focusing on the second one I observed and I noticed this because before I was a teacher here. I was working for a publisher BJ you press for 19 years I was involved up to my eyeballs which granite is not very deep in the publishing industry and I was involved in manuscript development putting books together. Books by single authors by married authors and books by groups of authors the Bible as you know is not by a single author in the human sense it's by a group of authors about 40 we suspect over a period of about 1500 years, and even the critics would acknowledge the Bible was written over many centuries. So were not that far apart on on the this issue and most of the authors never met most of the other authors now, you would not expect a document developed under those circumstances to be coherent to have literary unity.

I actually preached on this idea a year ago here in connection with our series on Christ in the Old Testament, and I noted that the three sections of the Hebrew Scriptures, the law and the prophets, and the writings all fit together. Perfect. The law presents the need for a perfect priest and the prophets present the need for a perfect profit and the writings present the need for a perfect king and the New Testament.

When you turn the page introduces us to Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham, who is a perfect profit.

He reveals God clearly and accurately. He is a perfect priest. He offers a sacrifice that puts an end to all of the other sacrifices and in the book of Revelation at the end of the New Testament.

He is presented to us as the perfect king who reigns in righteousness, so what's the phenomenon so impressed with. While the Bible is a complex book, but it tells one story and it tells the coherently and it tells it without contradiction that astonishing to anybody's ever had any experience with publishing. Now I don't have time to go into the contradiction question. That's a large question and it's it's a one that deserves attention. But I don't have time for. Here, let me just give you one statement in a couple resources for that question.

If you have legitimate questions about my study that issue for a long time and it is my studying opinion that most of the great majority more than 90%. More than 95% of the allegations of contradiction in the Bible are just silly. They're just silly. They don't rise to the level of scholarly inquiry and I will have time to get examples, but I could if you wanted to, and come see me in my office. I'll be glad to talk to you about that. If you'd like more information on that. Let me recommend a couple of works of Walter Kaiser's hard sayings of the Bible and Norman Geisler's when critics ask lots of good information in there. So that's my first measurable verifiable objective evidence the Bible is literarily coherent. It does not contradict itself. It develops its literary themes coherently over the centuries and across multiple authors, most of whom never met most of the others and let me suggest that the critic who is the one insisting on approaching these matters scientifically and naturalistic leak needs, the burden of proof. I would suggest is on him to explain how the data came to be naturalistic. I don't think you can do the second major evidence that I like to present this morning is fulfilled prophecy. The fact is that the Bible makes predictions that are verifiable and you can evaluate whether those predictions were accurately fulfilled or not. There are lots and lots of examples of that. I'm a give you just a couple first because they're clear. Second, because I like them and third really easy to remember because they both involve the number 78 Jeremiah in his pride in his book of prophecy predicts that Israel is going to be in captivity in Babylon for 70 years. That's measurable. Let me run down the very quickly. I want to bore you with dates but historical dates are not nearly as interesting as present day went.

But for the sake of the numbers.

Let me run down this list in 606 BC Nebuchadnezzar shows up reports a bunch of people from Jerusalem, including Daniel almost 10 years later in 597 shows up again reports a bunch more people, including the King Jack Anaya who is under divine curse 586 is the big one. That's the third and final deportation. And that's the time when the temple was destroyed almost 50 years later, Babylon falls belch as his feast, you remember that and Cyrus the Persian captures the city of Babylon and establishes the Medo Persian Empire. Cyrus is enlightened and he realizes that if the people in your Empire are happy, they're less likely to rebel. So one of the first things he does is he says that all of the peoples in the Empire who have been displaced by the previous administration can go back to their homeland, and a lot of them do.

And some Jews do in 536 Zerubbabel leads a group of Jews back to Jerusalem in the first return 16 years later, the prophet Haggai and Zechariah exhort the Jews in Jerusalem to rebuild the temple, which is still in ruins. They get to work and it takes them four years to finish, and in 516, the second temple is dedicated not what's the meaning of all those dates.

Will you see any patterns in their from 606 which is the first deportation to 536 which is the first return is exactly 70 years. Watch this from 586 which is the destruction of the temple to 516 to the reconstruction and dedication of the temple is exactly 70 years know that means that rascal Jeremiah was right twice with the same prophecy is not remarkable, shouldn't you say what was going on with his book now, unless you think I'm just cherry picking my numbers. How else would you measure in exile from the first deportation of first return from the if the destruction of the temple is a defining event in the exile than from the destruction to the rededication. Those are the measurements you take and both of them are 70 year 21 more Daniel chapter 9 is a very famous prophecy about 70 weeks. He says from the going forth of the commandment to establish and rebuild Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince, and specifically the cutting off of Messiah the Prince will be 69 weeks now. Prophecy can be hard to interpret and but I think this is a a careful and reasonable reading of that prophecy.

Artaxerxes issues a letter and order a command to rebuild the city of Jerusalem in 457 BC.

You can read that letter in Ezra chapter 11 if each of Daniel's weeks is a period of seven years, and pretty much everybody agrees on that, then that's 483 years from 457 BC now. I said interpreting prophecy is hard there all kinds of specific views and variations on this reading. I have seen papers that argue that the 69th week was fulfilled at 3 PM on Passover. At the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. That would be awesome but I examined the guys theory and I'm not sure he really establishes that there are some assumptions in their there is a question of the Jews use the lunar year and the we use a solar year 5 1/4 more days and so you got that all I'll say to in order to be conservative and not presumptuous. All I'll say is that takes you right into the region of A.D. 31 Messiah.

In fact, died critics like to say that Daniel was written late because he predicts the early death of Alexander the great and the division of the Greek empire in the four quarters and they say nobody could call it that accurately, so Daniel must've been written after the death of Alexander the great wide and solve the problem doesn't because Daniel we know is not written after the death of Jesus Christ, and Daniel prophesies the year at least a year of his death. So where do we go from here we are faced with the simple fact that the book claims to be the word of God. There's no question about that. There is solid evidence objective verifiable, measurable evidence that it is in fact extraordinary. So what are we to do about you can choose to live under the burden of doubt and fear and worry and eat yourself up from the inside or you can choose to resist and receive the word to grasp its power and to live out its promises. This is an extraordinary book you can trust it will rebuke you. It'll challenge you. It'll convict you, but I assume it will never let you down. It will never disappoint you. Let's pray father, we thank you for this remarkable word. We thank you that you have spoken and you have spoken to us and you have spoken to us on paper where we can read and study and meditate and carry your word. I pray for those that your word says that it is a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces.

It also says that it is a gentle rain, like showers upon the grass. I pray for those who are in need of a shower today.

Showers upon the grass. They are tired and dirty and weak and worried and they just need refreshment will you make your word a refreshment to them this day.

I pray for those whose hearts are rocks that are in need of a hammer and brokenness. Would your word crush their arrogance and their apathy and their resistance today. Would your spirit draw them to the father would he open their eyes to understand the Scripture would he convict them of their gross sinfulness and would he create life in them. We pray in Jesus name, amen.

You've been listening to a sermon preached by Dr. Dan Allender seminary professor at Bob Jones University.

Thanks again for listening and we look forward to the next time as we study God's word together on The Daily Platform