This morning, we're going to set a foundation, because before we get into what the Bible says, we need to understand something about the Bible itself. Now, there are several names that we use for the Scriptures. One is the Scriptures, the other we do call it the Bible. We also call it the Word of God. Now, the term Bible simply means book. Scripture certainly means writings, and the Word of God expresses this as a revelation from the God who created us. The reason it has been given to us, the reason God has revealed himself to us, is he wants us to know him, he wants us to know what he has done, and he wants us to live according to that. That's why we have this. Now, we often put the word holy before each of these terms, the adjective, because we want to distinguish it from all other books, all other writings, and all other claims to a revelation from a deity. The Holy Bible, the Holy Scriptures, the Holy Word of God. Now concerning the Bible, our statement of faith found in our Constitution says this. We believe the Holy Scriptures, consisting of the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments, to be the verbally and plenary inspired Word of God. His only special revelation to man, the final authority for faith and life, inerrant in the original writings, infallible, and God-breathed. Now don't let some of the words throw you there. Verbal and plenary simply means that we believe that God so superintended the human authors that as they were writing this, they were able to write in their own personalities and yet put down exactly what God wanted. Verbal means the very words there are what God wanted. Plenary means the whole message is exactly what God wanted. That's what we mean by verbal and plenary. Now, at one time, that statement was commonly believed across our nation. It is no longer. While most Americans still have a high regard for the scriptures, a large portion no longer believe this statement to be true. They hold some other belief other than that God directly revealed himself to man. And because of those increasing attacks on the Bible and that widespread belief that it contains errors, it's very important we begin this series of sermons with laying this foundation of why we believe the Bible to be true, why we believe we need to yield to what it says and follow it. Now, our starting place to explain that is to explain a little bit about epistemology. That is, how do we determine what is true? What is our source of knowledge? that you may remember from philosophy. I remember I was a senior. I always do things backwards, even in college. I took a freshman course my very last quarter at university. Actually, it was an advantage. I was 23 by that time, already had a lot of school behind me. I understood why I believed what I believed and knew why I got there. But a lot of 18-year-olds don't. And they're very shocked when they start trying to figure out, well, how do I know anything? Well, we know what we know, and we know why we know it. And it's a solid conviction that we have. It's not speculation. It's not a leap of faith. Now, I want to begin with this. Again, this may be a little philosophical, but we need to lay a foundation as we come and approach the scriptures themselves. What is your source of knowledge? How do you determine what is reality and what's an illusion? Now philosophers describe several competing ideas on how a person knows what is true. Among them are conscience, various forms of empiricism, that is your senses, there's various forms of rationalism, there's also the claim of revelation from some divine being, or a combination of all of them. Let me comment briefly on each. First, there's a lot of people who follow conscience. Many people live by the adage expressed by Jiminy Cricket so long ago, always let conscience be your guide. Recall that? This is becoming increasingly common in our society as we move more and more into a postmodern world. These are people who do what they feel like, whatever pops in their mind, because they are the ultimate source with whatever they're feeling at the moment. And so we have people who can hold two things that are diametrically opposed to each other, but they feel this way at this moment and this way at this moment, and their conscience is not going to tell them one way or the other, so they go forward. Now, the problem with conscience and the problem with Jiminy Cricket's advice is it's always been bad. That is not good advice. Why? First of all, the conscience, like everything else, is affected by the fall of man and descent. It has been corrupted. Your conscience when you're born has certain things true about it because God's instilled it there, but it also is corrupt. It certainly doesn't understand everything. It is also very limited because it can only react upon what is already known. If you don't know about it, it's not going to affect your conscience. And third, your conscience can be trained. It can be trained to that which is good. That's what we strive to do in walking with Christ. That's why Paul can talk about conscience so much and its importance. We train it through the Word of God, but it also can be trained to evil. There are certainly enough out there that have consciences that are so seared, so depraved, they do things which are rehensible to anybody in society, and they don't even feel bad about it. They think it's a good thing. Remember Don Richardson in his book Peace Child talks about trying to reach a culture in which they believe that the ultimate good thing was deceiving their enemies. If you could lie to them and deceive them in thinking you're a friend and then betray them and kill them, you've achieved the epitome of their society. Their conscience were trained that way. So the conscience is not a great place to say, this is my source of knowledge. This is how I determine truth. It's important for us. We want to train it. We're going to be sensitive to it, but it is not our source of truth. It's not our source of reality. Other people take an empirical approach by defining reality by what they perceive from their senses. Now, that's foundational to all forms of materialism, including scientism and hedonism. In scientism, anything that cannot be known through the physical senses is disregarded. That's a fairly common view among atheistic naturalists. They believe all things have to be explained through natural processes, through physics, through what they can sense with their five senses, and if they can't, then they disregard it. It's not important. Hedonists make their decisions of life based simply on what pleasure will it bring to one or more of their physical senses. The major problem with this view is, of course, that we all know by experience that our senses can be deceived, no matter what sense it is, touch, taste, smell, hearing, and sight. If you don't believe that, we've got a track in the back that's all about visual illusions, that you're seeing something that's not there. All of our senses can be fooled. They can be deceived. So empirical claims must be verified by more than one test, and the more tests there are, the better. Our senses are important, they give us a lot of information, but we always have to understand they're limited. Then there's rationalism. Rationalism has generally been the realm of philosophers who believe they can come to a knowledge of reality by logic and thinking. Now the weakness of this view is threefold. First, just like man's conscience, the mind is corrupted. A lot of scriptures deal with this, but all of us recognize it as well. Anybody graduate number one in their class? Obviously, they're people who have greater abilities than you mentally. That means you're limited compared to them, right? So even from the most basic thing, we understand our minds are limited, they're corrupted, they do not work as well as they should. We commonly hear this adage that we only use about 10% of our brain power. I think a lot of people use a lot less than that. but understand that 100% is not available to you. You have a corrupted mind. We also have the problem that it's limited by the information available. You don't know all things. You don't have access to all knowledge. And so what your mind can even wrap itself around is limited. And then a third area that it's limited is that the supernatural cannot be known simply through logic and comprehension. Certainly we give names to concepts, things like eternity, omniscience, omnipresence. We can have a concept of it, but can anybody actually understand what those things are? And if you think you're comprehending that, then I'd like you to explain to me the nature of the triune Godhead. You see, no one's been able to wrap that one up. We can do things to try to explain it, but nobody understands it. Why? God is infinite, we are finite. So logic, thinking through things, important, very important, but certainly not the final basis for understanding reality. Now there are various forms of rationalism and it's often mixed with other ideas. And so there's a lot of hybrids. In fact, most approaches to knowledge of reality are mixtures of various ideas. And in fact, a multivariate approach to understanding how you can know something is important because we want to play one against the other to gain a confidence. My senses can be fooled, so I use things that are not so much to my senses. Tim Winters is a pilot. You've been working on instrument rating. He was a Navy pilot and had to fly by instruments. It's because those who fly by their seat of the pants often find their seat buried in the ground or the side of the mountain. That's it. So instead of going by your sense of touch, you have to go by your sense of eyesight and watch gauges that aren't so fooled to make sure you're in the right place. We compare things. We think through things logically. We compare that to what our senses are. Our senses are saying one thing, but you know logically this doesn't make sense. It must be something else. And so we know there's something going on. We want to compare everything. But that brings me to the last approach of a source of knowledge. Supernatural revelation or a claim to that. All theistic religions have some claim in this area. The question is, does the evidence exist to tell us the claim is true. Obviously, a claim attributed to a supernatural source cannot be verified if the claim only affects that which is unsupernatural. You have supernatural revelation that describes both heaven and hell. Can you know what that is? No, because you can't go both places, check it out, and come back and report, can you? We don't know. It's a claim. Truth claims from a divine source, a supernatural source, can only be verified when they intersect with the natural world. And so we look and examine carefully those claims when it does intersect there to see if the claim is true. If the claim is false, then we know that not only is that claim false, but the source of it is also false. Now, for the rest this morning, I want to briefly look at the various things that verify the reliability and the veracity of the Bible. Now, let's start with what Scripture says about itself. What does it claim? 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17 describes the fullness and the fact of inspiration. All Scripture is inspired by God and is prompt for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness that man of God may be complete, thoroughly furnished unto every good work. 2 Peter 1.21 describes the men and the method of inspiration. For no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men were moved by the Holy Spirit and spoke from God. Okay, so it wasn't just their religious musings. The claim is God was speaking through them. In Exodus 17.14 and Jeremiah 30.2, we find that they were commanded to record the very words that God was telling them. He dictated, they wrote it down. In 1 Peter 1.10.11 and 1 Thessalonians 2.13, we find that both Peter and Paul recognized, they understood, that they themselves were speaking and writing God's Word. That's their claim. Biblical writers, especially those in the New Testament, often quote from other sources and claim them to be scripture. The New Testament quotes a lot from the Old Testament. We can list pages and pages and pages of those quotes. But just an example of the types, Matthew 1, 22 and 23 quotes from Isaiah citing him as a prophet who foretold the future, something that was true. Acts 4, 24 and 25 quotes David and says he was speaking by the Holy Spirit. In Hebrews 3, 7 it quotes from Psalm 95 and specifically states that it was from the Holy Spirit that that psalm was written. So the claim is that it's from God. In 2 Peter 3.15 and 16, the apostle specifically states there that the writings of Paul, though difficult to understand, are scripture. He claims that they are the word of God. We also find the Bible itself claims to be many things, including perfect, Psalm 19, verse 7, that it is right, Psalm 19, verse 8. It is pure, Psalm 19, verse 8. that it is true, Psalm 19, verse 9, and John 17, 17, unchangeable, Psalm 119, verse 89, and eternal, Matthew 24, 35. These are things that scripture says about itself. These are its claims. And those are very strong claims. Well, what evidence is there that they're true? Where do these claims intersect with the world we can interact with and test? Well, let's start with the physical world, okay? Now, the reason I'm doing that is because Scripture itself claims the physical world reveals something about God. In Psalm 19.1, it says, the heavens are telling the glory of God and there expands as declaring the works of his hands. So if we go out and look at what we call general revelation, the world around us, we should come to certain truths about the God who created it all. In addition, Romans 1, 19 and 20 tells us that since the creation of the world, God's invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen being understood through what has been made so that all men are without excuse. The very fact that you live and breathe and interact in this physical created world says there's enough knowledge for you to understand there is a God and He has revealed things to you. Now, the various religions make different claims regarding the nature of creation. And as we examine those claims, we can quickly determine whether this is a system that is true or a system that is false. For example, in Hinduism, the explanation for earthquakes is that the earth rests on the back of four elephants. And these four elephants, in turn, are on the back of an extremely large turtle. And when the elephants move or the turtle shakes, the earth shakes and therefore you have earthquakes. Now since we live in a time that man has circled the globe in every single aspect, we've been able to go outside our atmosphere and even take pictures of the earth from space so we can see the whole thing at once from all the different angles. We are aware that the earth does not sit on four elephants which stand and turn on the back of a large turtle. Now that tells us something about the claims of Hinduism, doesn't it? It's false. Its claim is false. What are some of the things that scriptures talk about that we find in reality in our physical world? Here's just a couple of them. How about the fact that the earth is round, Isaiah 40 verse 22 and Proverbs 8, 27. Too bad in the Middle Ages, that wasn't examined. It was there all the time. How about the fact the number of stars cannot be counted? And they can't. Jeremiah 33, 22, and Hebrews 11, 12. How about the law of conversation of matter and energy described in 2 Peter 3, 7, Genesis 2, 1 and 2, Exodus 20, verse 11, Hebrews 4, 3 and 1, 3. How about the hydrologic cycle? Ecclesiastes 1.7, Job 36, verses 27 and 28. There's the law of increasing entropy, that things go from order to disorder. They lose their energy. Psalm 102, verses 25 through 27. Isaiah 51.6, Genesis 3.17, and Romans 8.21 and 22. We'll go on, because there's more. There's atmospheric circulation. Ecclesiastes 1, verses 6 and 7, Job 28, 25, and 37.9. The fact that life is in the blood. You realize George Washington could have lived longer if they had recognized this? They bled him to death, as they bled a lot of people to death, because they were following the ideas of the ancient Greeks instead of what Leviticus 17.11 tells us directly. Gravitational field described in Job 26 verse 7. He hangs the earth on nothing. Springs and the oceans, Job 38.16, Genesis 7.11, 8.2, and Proverbs 8.28. Did you know stars emit sound? Job 38.7, Psalm 19.1-3. Animals reproduced after their own kind, Genesis 1.21 and verse 6.19. There are some scientists who still struggle with this one. The earth and the moon were formed separately, Genesis 1.1 and 14-19. What is described in the Bible matches the physical realities of the earth, including many things that were not known and even denied by the quote unquote scientists until modern times. That's why I gave you this list. They're all there in scripture and they were not known until modern times. Many of them flatly, absolutely denied by the ranking men of knowledge of their time. Now in two weeks we're going to get into the creation account of Genesis 1 and I'm going to show you why Genesis 1 is true and that evolution is a fairy tale for grown-ups and it is not science. I'm adamant about that one. It is a fairy tale for grown-ups. It is not science. The Bible is true. So we can go in the real world, the world around us, we can test these things and find that scripture is completely accurate. What about historical accuracy? The Bible has been attacked many times over the centuries by those who claim that it's wrong in its recounting of historical events. Yet further study always ends up showing the Bible is accurate, it's the scholars who are wrong. For example, in the early 1900s, scholars said the Bible was wrong because in Genesis and Exodus, it mentions the Hittite culture. They didn't know anything about it. So the Bible must be wrong. That was until an archaeologist discovered the Hittite capital. It's about 90 miles east of Ankara, Turkey. There's an extremely large library. We now know more about the Hittite culture than we do most other ancient cultures. The Bible was true. The experts were wrong. Liberal scholars have scoffed at Luke. His historical axiom and book of axioms say he's wrong because he names certain places one thing, he gives titles to particular people and places and says, those weren't the words used and that's not what they were. They said he was wrong for the word he used for the assembly of theater at Ephesus and that he exaggerated the number of people theater held. That was until the theater was excavated and found out it held exactly 25,000 people just like Luke said. And they had found an inscription that used the exact word, ecclesia, for the assembly that was held in that theater, not just for worship of Diana, but for public meetings as well, just like Luke said. They said that Luke was wrong. He used the wrong title for the officials in the city of Philippi. That was until they found an archaeological finding that used exactly that title for those men in Philippi who were the magistrates. Luke was right. The supposed historical experts were wrong. There is also a general truth that any culture will describe its own history in the best light possible. Victories or magnified defeats are minimized. The good qualities are going to be broadcast widely, proclaimed. The bad qualities, you try and sweep that under the rug. Don't let people know about that. That's especially true in ancient literature because the kings at that point held sway over your life. You say the wrong thing, no head. And without a head, you have a hard time writing. Nothing to control your hand. Now in our culture, we have a lot more contention, so American society does proclaim both. In ancient literature, no, not under a king that held sway over your life. We gain a greater degree of confidence in the Bible from the fact it doesn't do that. Victories and defeats are presented side by side. The great victory of Jericho is followed immediately by the defeat at Ai. King David, his glories are proclaimed, but so are his great sins and failures. The Bible proclaims both. The next time you're reading something in which the writer claims the Bible is not true about some historical event, give some careful consideration to which source is more likely to be true. Either the writer, who was not present when this event occurred, could not interview anybody who would have been present when it occurred, and has his own agenda. Or the references from some pagan culture, and the writer of which must bow to the desires and wishes of the king whom he was serving, or he could lose his head. Or the biblical writer who had to please his God, and that God demanded him to be truthful in all things. Which source would you think is more accurate? Consider as well this. Archaeology is the friend of the Bible. It's proven to be an excellent friend because there are so many things that unquestionable archaeological findings have demonstrated where the Bible is completely accurate in its history. At the same time, though there are many claims the Bible is incorrect based on some archaeological findings, nothing is legitimately unquestioned in those archaeological findings that proves the Bible to be wrong. Much like the Hittites or like Luke, as the process goes forward, we find that the archaeological conclusions were wrong, not the Bible. Nothing has ever been demonstrated in archaeology that disproves the Bible on any event in history. Another thing we can look at that gives us confidence to believe the Bible is reliable is the biblical writers themselves. These were men of high integrity, proven by their positions as religious leaders of the time. These were men such as Moses, Samuel, Ezra, Isaiah, Jeremiah, the other prophets. All the books of the New Testament are written either by an apostle or someone writing under his authority. They often wrote about things they themselves personally were eyewitnesses to, such as Matthew, John, Peter. Or they were people who had access to eyewitnesses and interviewed them, such as Luke and Mark. Much of the writing of the prophets was material they received directly from the Lord. The phrase, thus saith the Lord, occurs 492 times in the Old Testament alone. Paul and John received much of what they wrote directly from the Lord. 2 Corinthians 12, 1 talks about that. Galatians 1, 11 through 17, Revelation 1, verse 11 and forward talk about that. We find that these men were not autocratic. They didn't demand unquestionable obedience themselves. They were humble men who saw themselves simply servants of God. In fact, they welcomed others to check out what they said with the writings of previous prophets. Acts 17.11, we find the Bereans were commended for doing exactly that. In addition, we find that they wanted their writings circulated widely. That wasn't just for purposes so their message gets out, but it also serves as a way to test what they're saying is true. The gospel accounts were written while those who were eyewitnesses were still alive. We have a greater confidence because if there was something wrong with what they said, there would have been protests against it. They would not have been accepted within the church. There were people alive who had seen these things happen. If they had not wanted any questioning about what they were writing, they would have waited until the eyewitnesses were dead, then write. Then who can question you? There's also prophecy. This is prophecy in the sense of predicting events that's going to occur in the future through a direct communication of God. And it is another major reason to believe the Bible is a reliable source of truth. Now, the Bible itself cites prophecy as a means of determining the veracity of the prophet. Over in Deuteronomy, chapter 18, verses 21 and 22, the test of a prophet is explained. Moses said this, and you may say in your heart, how shall we know the word which the Lord has not spoken? This is regards of a false prophet has said something. Verse 22, when a prophet speaks the name of the Lord, if the thing does not come about or come true, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken, the prophet has spoken presumptually, you shall not be afraid of him. It goes on and says you should stone him. 100% accuracy. 99% isn't good enough. 100%. So the way to test whether someone's actually getting revelation from God or not is to test for 100% accuracy. That's still an important test because there are many religions that claim it. There are many cults that claim it. There's many aberrant Christians who are claiming it now that they're receiving direct revelation from God and making prophecies. When they're foretelling the future, if it doesn't come true exactly the way they said, they're false. Don't be afraid of them. They're liars. They're false prophets. They're in trouble. Now, it's important to point out as well that the Bible, the biblical prophets foretold things in minute detail, not just generalities. Things like Midnight Star, National Enquirer, and who else has these predictions? Ladies, Home Journal, these goofy things, they have these predictions. Well, that's sort of like these fortune tellers, you know, it can apply to anybody. If you predict it's going to rain in Poughkeepsie in the month of May, What does that mean? Maybe you live there and saw that it rains in May. You're really a wise person. But if you said it's going to rain at the Poughkeepsie on May 17th between 2 and 5 p.m. they're going to get three inches of rain. It will not rain in LaGrange. Then what are you going to say? That's my new detail. When it's fulfilled, you can only conclude that he got this from some other source that's supernatural. That's not educated guessing. If it rained one inch instead of three, what do you say about the prophet? He's a liar. He's wrong. There are many religions and cults that claim all sorts of prophecies. Put them to the test. If they're not 100% accuracy in their claims to be foretold in the future, do not be afraid of them. And don't be afraid to say to them very directly, is you're a liar and you're listening to the wrong spirits? You need to know the Lord Jesus Christ, because obviously you don't. Because you're not listening to him, you're listening to a different spirit. And I don't care who that is. Why can I be so strong in that? Because the Word of God says it. Now the Bible is filled with many, many, many prophecies that have been fulfilled. Now some of them were filled in these short terms, such as Moses to Pharaoh. If you look at the various plagues that came on, Moses would often give a time of when it would start or when it would end. That was true in the Plague of the Frogs, the Insects, the Livestock, the Hail, and the Locusts. And the last one, which we get Passover from, the Death of the Firstborn, he not only said the time it would, he was specific, it's going to start at midnight. So he only foretold what's going to happen, he said when it would happen. But that was short term. And a lot of times people say, well, the writer who was writing and accounting this later just made that up. You know, he took what he already knew and just projected it back in the past. But there are a lot of other prophecies for things that would happen many years in the future and would not be fulfilled until long after that prophet is dead. So the writer couldn't have worked backwards. It was said hundreds of years prior to its fulfillment. Some of these are extremely amazing. Let me give you some of these because these are the ones that are harder for the ignorant to deny. These are the ones that give us a greater confidence because they demonstrate it is God at work. It's not somebody manipulating things. So here's a few of them. Genesis chapter 15 verse 13, God tells Abram, know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs where they will be enslaved and oppressed 400 years. But I will also judge the nation whom they will serve and afterward they will come out with many possessions. That, of course, is fulfilled in the story of Exodus more than 500 years after it was told to Abram. Now, some will say, but Moses wrote both books. So Moses did that. Okay, how about 1 Kings 12? Here, Jeroboam, the first king of Israel, after they divided from Judah, built an altar in Bethel directly against what God said about building altars anywhere else except in Jerusalem. But he did so. In 1 Kings 13, a man of God comes and he cries out against the altar by the word of the Lord and says this, quote, O altar, altar, thus says the Lord, behold, a son shall be born to the house of David, Josiah by name, and on you he shall sacrifice the priests of the high places who burn incense on you and human bones shall be burned on you. Some 300 years later, we find in 2 Kings 13 that a king was born, he was named Josiah, he is of the house of David, and he does exactly what this prophecy says. That's not the same author. Widely different. Deuteronomy 28, God warns the nation of Israel about what's going to happen if they did not follow the Lord. They got a lot of warnings. They're going to be carried away in captivity, verse 36. In 1 Kings 14, God warned Israel through the prophet Ahijah that this was about to happen because of their worship of false gods and the sins of Jeroboam. The prophet Amos says the same thing in Amos 7.11. When is it fulfilled? Hundreds of years later, 2 Kings 17, Assyria comes in exactly as prophesied and carries Israel away. Similar warning was given to Judah, the prophet Isaiah, Isaiah 39 verse 7, and later the prophet Jeremiah, Jeremiah 25, 11 and forward. said that Judah's going to be carried away into captivity by a particular nation, namely Babylon. That's fulfilled in 2 Kings 24 and 25. But Jeremiah went on, Jeremiah 25, 11, and he says that after 70 years, Babylon is going to be destroyed. That's fulfilled in Daniel 5 when the Medes captured and destroyed it. The story's recorded in Daniel 5, exactly as he had said. Jeremiah also prophesied that after that the Jews would be brought back to Jerusalem, Jeremiah 29.10. Isaiah had already said many decades earlier that that would be due to a king whose name was Cyrus. Cyrus wasn't born yet, and it wasn't a major power. Isaiah 44.28, 2 Chronicles 36.22.23, Nezerah 1.1.2 state that King Cyrus of Persia did exactly that in 538 B.C. Here's one we could spend a couple hours on, it's so detailed. Ezekiel 26, verses 1 through 21. It records a prophecy against the city of Tyre and gives very specific details that are fulfilled over the next 1700 years. It was prophesied that many nations are going to come against this city. The first one is Nebuchadnezzar. 585 to 573, he laid siege to it. He conquers it in 533 BC. fulfilling exactly what verse eight says. Now Tyre was built in two sections. One section was on the mainland. It's in modern day Lebanon. The other is a half mile out to sea on an island. Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the mainland portion. In 333 BC, Alexander the Great came, or 332 BC. He laid siege to it. But he also took the island, because he took all the remaining derbis from that, wiped it clean, threw it into the sea, and built a causeway out to the island, and then conquered it. That fulfilled what verse 4, 12, and 14 said. Antagonists conquered it again in 314 BC, and the remains of the city were then cleaned off like a bare rock. And that's how it was described at that period of time. This was the portion of the mainland, which is exactly what as Eagle 26.4 says. In later years, it was rebuilt, but not as vast as it was. It was a good city, but then in the 7th century, the Muslims conquered it. In the 10th, 11th centuries, it was conquered by the Crusaders, and it went back and forth. So here we still have as many different nations coming against it. Finally, in 1291 AD, the Muslims again took it, And this time they completely destroyed it and nothing has ever been built there again as a city. All that is there now, today, is a little fishing village which fulfilled the very prophecies again given by Ezekiel some 1700 years earlier. It would be a place for fishing nets. There would be no city there ever again, and there's not. It's just a little fishing village. People would seek the kind of commerce that once was there at Tyre and it doesn't exist. The only thing you can trade for there is fish. Just don't trip on the nets because they're laying on what used to be. Understand that the site is still an excellent place for a city. There are springs there that give something like 10 million gallons of water. You can easily have a... city there. Nothing's been rebuilt, no city. Then there's Daniel. Daniel gives many prophecies including the rise and fall of the Babylonian, the Medo-Persian, the Grecian, and the Roman Empires. He talks about all of them. In Daniel 11, He speaks in detail about the account of the Seleucids and the Ptolemy kingdoms. This is at the breakup of Alexander the Great's kingdoms. The Seleucids were in the north, the Ptolemies were down in Egypt, and they went back and forth, and who conquered, and he gives all the detail in there. Who did what, and who went where, and how they did it, and the intrigue, and everything else, three to four hundred years before any of it happened. It is so detailed that modern scholars who discount the Bible and say they don't believe in prophecy said Daniel could not have been written in the 6th century BC, it had to be written in the 2nd century BC because no one could be that accurate. Yeah, God can, and He is. Prophecy helps. Now there are many, many more prophecies including all those concerning the Messiah's coming, His ministry and His return. These things can't be discounted. They're told well in advance. The hand of God is the only thing that could explain them. The final reason to believe the Bible is its own internal character and its preservation. Because both demonstrate God's hand upon us as would be expected of a deity that revealed himself to men. Now think about this logic for a minute. If there is a God and he creates everything, It's logical he can continue to interact with his creation. It's logical to assume that if he's going to interact with his creation and say something about himself, he can preserve the information about himself no matter who is there on earth. Why? Because he's God. He can do those kinds of things. That's simple logic. What has happened with the scriptures demonstrates exactly that. The Bible is often tacked as just a work of men. It's religious musings. But as Lewis Perry Schaeffer wrote, it is not a book as man would write if he could or could write if he would. You understand that? Nobody would write a book like this. And if they wanted to write a book like this, they couldn't. It's unique. Its contents are unsurpassed in subjects treated. It's unsurpassed in quality and variety of literature that's within it. It's unsurpassed in its realistic treatment of man's condition. It was written by 40 authors over a period of 1,500 years, from Moses to John, and yet it's unified in purpose, unified in theme, and in harmony in all of its facts. It shows itself to be the product of one author, though there are many penmen. The Bible is the most read book of all books, even though there are many places that it's illegal to even read it at all, to have a copy. It has been translated into more language than anything else. Nothing compares to the number of languages the Bible has been translated into. It is the most influential book that has ever existed despite the denials of its authority by so many. The Bible answers the philosophical questions, all the great ones. Is there a God? Yes, Genesis 1.1, Hebrews 1.1. Where did man come from? Genesis 2.7 tells us. What's man's purpose? We can find that out in Genesis 1.26 and 27. What is man's nature? Genesis 1.26 and 27. What about man's purpose? We have a lot of places for that. How about John 10.10, Romans 8.29, 11.26, Ephesians 2.10. Is man immortal? Yes, John 11, 25, 26, 14, 14 and 15 tell us that. Let's continue. How about what is truth? Pilate's great question. We're told in the Bible, John 14, 6, John 17, 17. Why does evil exist? Great philosophical question. Isaiah 14, Ezekiel 28, Revelation 20, 10 tells us that. What determines history? Daniel 4, 17 tells us. And by the way, the answer is not man. What is right conduct? Matthew 22.37-39 explains. What is beautiful and valuable? Psalm 27.4, Philippians 4.8 tells us that. What's man's future? Want to know what's going to happen? Read the book of Revelation. The Bible is the best preserved of all works transmitted from antiquity despite all the attempts to destroy it, and there have been many, or to pervert it. We have over 5,000 Greek New Testament manuscripts, some of them dating back as early as the first century, only about 25 years after it was originally written. We have full books written and have the whole copies from the fourth century, so only a couple hundred years after it was written. If we look at additional translations, early manuscripts exist in 14 different languages and there's over 20,000 of these manuscripts. Now the reason all this is important is that the more manuscripts you have, and the closer you are in actual date to when it was written, the higher degree of confidence you can have that the text has been transmitted correctly. There's less time for errors to be brought into it, and there's more things to compare it with to make sure that there is any discrepancies, you can figure out what they are. You only have one copy, you can't figure out if there's any variations. You only have one copy. But yet if we look at other ancient works, That's what we do find. There's only one copy of Tacitus' minor works, there's only two copies of Pliny the Younger, and it's either single or double digit numbers for almost all the other ancient texts, except for Sophocles, which I haven't read, there's 193 manuscripts of it, and Homer's Iliad, there's 643 manuscripts of it. Compare that to what you have for scripture. In addition, the closest in date from its original writing is the Iliad. It's about 500 years after it was originally written. Compare that to the scriptures. Most of the other ancient things are closer to a thousand or more years after the originals were written. And when it comes to the Old Testament, the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls proved the accuracy of transmission of the text over the millennia. The earliest manuscripts of the Masoretic text we had at that point were about 900 AD. The Dead Sea Scrolls are from about 100 BC. So we have a millennia of difference. And in comparing it, we find that there was 95% accuracy in what was there and that 5% variation consisted chiefly of obvious slips of the pen and variations in spelling. That's over a thousand years. That's how careful they were to copy it. Now, if you add in the other translations we have that are also ancient, for example, the Septuagint, that's the Greek translation, we have even more confidence that we can determine the original text of the Old Testament as well as the New Testament. Now, while there are differences in those variations of those manuscripts, none of the variations affect any major doctrine. And a careful comparison yields an overwhelming confidence for us that we conclude that we can accurately determine what God gave to the prophets and the apostles. We really don't have a problem there. Now finite man cannot comprehend an infinite God. But the Bible gives man a vast and adequate revelation for it contains everything that God wants us to know for the present time. Yes, Jeremiah 29.29 says that secret things do belong to the Lord. He hasn't told us everything, but he's told us everything we need to know, as 2 Peter 1.3 says. Everything we need to know for this life, in living in godliness, and knowing Him, has been given to us. And so I can have complete confidence in this book. You can have confidence in yours. Now understand what I'm holding up is an English translation, and there's always problems with translations. Anybody who speaks a couple languages knows that. And so I have to dig around and try and find out what the original words meant, and I compare to try and get that sense, but I have complete confidence that I can figure those things out because I can go back to the originals and have a very clear understanding of what the originals contained. The Bible is what God is revealed to us, that we might know Him, what He has done, and how we're to live. And God is not a man that He should lie, nor the Son of Man that He should change His mind. So what He's put in here is truth. Jesus said it best. He said, Thy word is truth in John 17, 17. Earlier in the Sermon on the Mount, He said that it would not pass away, not until everything is completed. It hasn't happened yet. It hasn't passed away. We have it. We have God's Word. We have the truth. That's why I believe the Bible. I hope you will as well. Father, thank you for your goodness to us. There are so many wonderful things that you have done, but certainly the greatest is the revelation of yourself in the Scriptures. Father, you know how I love to go out into your creation and look around and marvel at what you have done. But Father, more marvelous than the most beautiful sight I can think of in nature, things that demonstrate your power, your beauty, your tenderness, your compassion, do not compare with what I can understand from this special revelation given to us, contained in this book we call the Holy Bible. For it has revealed things about you I could not have known otherwise. It is detailed for me that the character you have and the great and wonderful things you have done, especially your love for me in Jesus Christ, has told me how to be right with you, how to repent of my sin and receive the forgiveness offered in Christ. It tells me how you want me to live. Father, and then by believing it and stepping forward in faith, trusting it to be true, trusting it to be your revelation, I see your hand at work. I plan my path, you direct each step. Father, so thank you for your Word, for this wonderful, wonderful book. Forgive me for how often I do set it aside and don't run to it as fast as I should. Father, and for those as well that are present that have not yet even bothered to pick it up, Father, I ask your Holy Spirit would prod them, prod them to pick it up and start reading the greatest love letter of all time, that they might know you, what you've done, and your will for their lives. In Jesus' name, amen.