My presentation tonight is not a sermon. It's also not really a meditation. I think you will receive that most of the time on your Sundays, also on these gatherings. I thought I'd use the opportunity tonight to do some strengthening of our convictions. Hopefully you share the title of the subject. I am sure that the word of God, that the Bible is the word of God. I believe and I am sure. Not too long ago, I had a good introduction to this topic. That was on Tuesday when I traveled from Milwaukee to Calgary and sat next to a man who wore quite an Austin, a great, great cross on his neck, and that's always an opportunity for me to seek to establish some kind of relationship. Well, I had some interesting conversations in the airplanes, but this was one of the more unique ones. about his view of the scripture. And I had some practice on what I have to speak on tonight. I do not know whether he took my view. Sir Isaac Newton said in the early 1700s, 1600s, if the Bible is true, the time is coming that men shall travel at 50 miles an hour." Interesting, huh? I don't know what text he used. He didn't tell me. Voltaire, a vocal atheist and philosopher in the French quarters, wrote, poor Isaac, He was in his dotted, that means his senior years. When he made that prophecy, it only shows what Bible study will do to an otherwise brilliant and scientific mind. Then Voltaire went to go and made his own prophecy. He made the prediction that the Bible would be extinct by 1850. And voila, you know some French, it's still here today. So Voltaire was wrong too. And Isaac Newton was somewhat right. He didn't realize it would go a little faster than 50 miles an hour. But note what Newton said, if the Bible is true. And I say, since The Bible is true. That makes a big difference. That little word, if or since, is a crucial difference. But how can you say that? That the Bible is true, with certainty, with conviction. How sure are you that the Bible is true? It's not simply a statement of blind faith. You just believe that. Sometimes our young people will be questioned, will be challenged on that statement. For how can you prove that the creation of the entire universe really happened in six days? You believe that. Are you sure? We say, I am sure. I'm positive. Is that really true? And here comes again a challenge. How could you justify? How could this book justify? And if this is a Bible written by God from cover to cover, how could you justify ethnic cleansing? When God tells the Israelites to completely eradicate the Canaanites culture from the littlest infant to the oldest senior, You're sure that Bible is so true, and it's truly the Word of God? How could there be inaccuracy in the Bible? Now, let me tell you, I'm not speaking out of my own heart here. I'm just bringing some challenging statements to you that have come across my pathway over the years. Turn to Hebrews 9, will you? If this Bible is truly divinely inspired, if this is the true word of God, and if this is from cover to cover, verbally inspired by the Spirit of God, how could there be inaccuracies in the Bible? The question is asked. Now, what is there for inaccuracy in the Bible? Well, let's read Hebrews 9, see if you could answer that one. The apostle describes a tabernacle. Verse 2, tabernacle was made, the first, where it was a candlestick. He is talking about the holy place. And the table, and the shulbert, which is called the sanctuary, would call it the holy place. And after the second veil, the tabernacle, which is called the holiest of all, which had the golden incense or golden censer, and the Ark of the Covenant. Isn't that golden censer supposed to be in the holy place? And wasn't there only an ark in the Holy of Holies? Hmm, yeah, you're right. Well, but you say that this Bible isn't vinely inspired. Is there not a mistake here? Let's turn to Mark 15. It says there in Mark 15 verse 25, and it was the third hour, and they crucified him. That is well. But why does it say in John 19 verse 14 then, and it was the preparation, and it was about the sixth hour? And at that point, Jesus is still in Pilate's hall. And Mark says, on the third hour, he got crucified. And John says, on the sixth hour, he's still in Pilate's hall. Now, you say the Bible is divinely inspired and every word of truth? Let's turn to Leviticus chapter 11, verse 6. as God is describing for the Israelites, what animals are clean and which are unclean. And then we come to verse 6, and the hare or the rabbit is an unclean animal because it cheweth the cud. but it divideth not the hoof." He's unclean to you. Now, those of you who have dissected the rabbit and the hare, and those of you who are in rabbits and hares, do you ever see your hare or your rabbit chewing the cut like the cow and the goat and the sheep and the camel and the giraffe? But you say that this Scripture is divinely inspired. There's a mistake here, because the hare is not, having more than one stomach even, Now, when I review some of these issues to you in a few moments, and there are no doubt hours I can fill, how do you feel when you so get challenged on that statement, I am sure and I believe that the Bible is the word of God? Do you feel a little bit intimidated? Would you feel a little bit silenced perhaps, or at least awkward? Of course, we are taught, and we are correctly taught, that the Bible is inerrant and is infallible. Inerrant meaning the Bible is unable to err. And that the scripture is infallible, it is a trustworthy guide to salvation and life of faith and will never fail its purpose. We're taught that, we believe that, we will confess that, then You get someone who has studied a little bit more about the scriptures, and you will begin to feel a little bit intimidated. And then to respond with, I believe it is true because I feel it to be true. It's not quite sufficient. Because I meet a Mormon man, and he says, and I believe it to be true, the Book of Mormon, because I feel it to be true. And I turn around to the next corner, and I find this man who believes the Koran is the truth because I believe it is true. Are you not convinced about that, Mormon? Are you not convinced about it, Islam man? Will he be convinced it is true when you say, I believe it is true because I feel it to be true? Or how about this one? Well, it is true because my church tells me it is true. Or I have always believed it to be true, so it must be true. And my parents and my grandparents always believed it was true, so it is going to be true. Now, if you feel, my friends, that's a very weak way. of trying to support your statement, I believe and I'm sure the Bible is the Word of God. The purpose of my talk tonight is to build your confidence, not to prove that the Bible is the inspired Word of God. That I cannot, neither can I prove that the universe was created in six days. That's a matter of faith. And I say to everyone that I sit next to or speak to that believe in evolution, I say, you are a greater believer than I am. Don't you know that? Even though you think a very bright scientific mind because you're an evolutionist, you have more faith than I have in the beginning of the world and of the universe. But I am positive in my mind. I am fully convinced in my heart. that when I say to people that this book is the word of God from cover to cover, word for word, in the original manuscript, obviously. Friends, the Christian faith is a faith that is based on a book. that is a historical book with verifiable facts and teachings that makes the scripture in all of the world's religions unique. Every religion has their own books. But the scripture towers above all those other religious books as in Himalaya. compared to Ontario, because you're going to have no mountains here, do you? You get to feel the difference. The scripture. is a historical book with verifiable facts, a book that is proven to be 100% historically accurate, a book that is not biased in its historical reportings, as no other history book ever is. See, we in the United States, especially in the northern part of the United States, we study the history of the Civil War. And of course, I, being an ordiner, have read all the history books of the Civil War from the northern perspective. That's biased. If you take up the history books that are written in the southern states about the Civil War, you get a totally different history. There's not a single historian who is unbiased. When I write a book about the Dutch, guess what it feels like? But the historian that is writing in the Bible is the only historian who's never been biased, honest about its own heroes in a way that no other history book ever has been. Friends, when we look at the Bible, we have a book that is scientifically 3,500 years ahead of time. And I'll show you some aspects of that tonight. It silenced my companion on Tuesday when I marshaled out a few of the facts that the Bible set out from the earliest page that is 3,500 years before the scientific discoveries ever brought it to light. And I challenged my partner. How did that old man there 3,500 years ago know these facts that we didn't discover till 100, 150 years ago? I want you to think about that. This book bears the evidence and the internal evidence of being divine and beyond human. It speaks to the heart of every human across every culture. Perhaps you say tonight, it's not necessary to give reasons for my faith. Isn't faith just a faith thing? Aren't we just to believe it? I want to remind you of this brilliant definition of faith in our Heidelberg Catechism. What is faith? It is, first of all, a certain knowledge. Notice that saving faith is based on knowledge. And it's also in hearty confidence. It's intimately related to that certain knowledge. So saving faith is not just a blind faith. Saving faith is a faith that is based on the historical teachings and all the teachings that God has placed in the word of God and in the gospel. So also with my faith in the Bible as the word of God. My assured confidence that the Bible is the inspired word of the divine word of God is not disconnected from some beautiful fact that no one can gainsay. And therefore, friends, as Peter is telling us in 1 Peter chapter 3, that we are, as Christians, not to be intimidated by the challenging world as we sometimes really feel, but rather that we sanctify the Lord God in our hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asks of you a reason for the hope, that's what we started with tonight, that is in you with meekness and fear. So why do I believe and am sure that the word of God is a divinely inspired scripture, that the Bible is a divinely inspired scripture. Now, my first, of course, answer would be 2 Timothy 3.16. Critical, if you remember that in some translations this verse is terribly twisted. Sometimes it's only one word. For example, some translations would translate this verse, all scripture that is given by inspiration of God. Did you notice the difference? Maybe you should take the text out and listen to what I say. One word makes all the difference. All scripture that is given by inspiration of God. Some translations have put it that way. Put the word that in there, all scripture that is given. implies that some scriptures are not given. So our King James Version, that's why we are in the TBS, aren't we? It's stating it correctly. All scripture is given by the inspiration or breathed by the Spirit of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction. I will quote that verse, but that verse, no doubt, will strengthen us believers, but will do little to convince the skeptic. The second evidence that this is the word of God is what we kind of heard this evening in the opening word already. God sometimes speaks that word with so much sweet power and conviction. That you can speak against the whole world. This is what he said. I feel, I experience the experiential spiritual power of this word as a living witness of the Holy Spirit to my heart. And indeed, that is a strong argument. Thou has caused my heart to hope on this word and my affliction, and this is my comfort in my affliction. But it's still, again, a very subjective argument to speak in support of the statement. Tonight, I want to propose to walk with you through various other rational evidences that support our view of the scripture. The Bible is divinely inspired. First of all, suppose there was a man who lived 3,000 years ago on this earth. This man has oftentimes been thrown in the sea, and yet he didn't drown. He has been frequently cast before the wild beast. They haven't been able to devour him. He's been many times made to drink all kinds of deadly poison. It has never done him any harm. He's often been bound in iron chains and locked in prison dungeons, and yet he's always been able to throw off the chains again and to walk out of that captivity as fresh as ever. This 3,000-year-old man has often been hanged till his enemies thought him dead. And when they take their body down, it sprang back to his feet and walked away as though nothing had happened. This 3,000-year-old man that hundreds of times has been burned at the stake, and still there seems to be nothing left of him. And as soon as the fire is out, he leaped out of the ashes fully alive. Obviously that is not a man. No man is like that. But this is exactly what happened to this book. This 3,000 year old book has been treated like that over and over and over and over and here we are standing in 2017. And the Bible is still the best seller in the world today. That's remarkable. Over the centuries, the Bible has been an inexhaustible source of inspiration and comfort and teaching at all ages, in all cultures, in all social levels, in all intellectual levels. It is like the bread of Jesus. It keeps on multiplying and multiplying and feeding multitude after multitude and after multitude, and still it is not exhausted. That's remarkable. still is having commentaries after commentaries after commentaries written on it. There are commentaries written on the books of Aristotle and Socrates and all these wise men of Greek, but nobody's writing a new one. Everything has been said that this should be said, but not about the Bible. That's remarkable. The Bible stands as a sole survivor of 4,000 years of opposition. No book has been so intensely hated, persecuted, opposed, watered down, changed. Kings have made laws to burn all copies and kill any translator. And today, it stands undaunted by all of history's attacks. To me, as a strong support that this book is not an ordinary book. This book is remarkable, as no other book ever has been. The Bible, friends, is the only book in the world that has made numerous predictions about historical events that took place literally sometimes hundreds and even more thousands of years later. Staggering predictions are made about cities, about nations, people are named that weren't even born and existed, about an empire that wasn't even there at that moment as a growing power. No other religious book in the world has ever dared to do that. Have you noticed that? No such predictions in the Quran. No such predictions in the book of Mormons. No such predictions in the books of the Hindus and of the Buddhists. Why not? What's obvious? If you make a prediction about things hundreds of years later, you better be right. You would discredit your own writing. And that's exactly the test that God has given in the prophets, in the scriptures. The test of the prophet was the true prophet is that what he predicts should happen. Well, that's a strong evidence, wasn't it? I will not tonight now take you through all those various prophecies, of course, but that's impossible. But the amazing details that Ezekiel tells about the city of Tyre and Sidon, if you can read it yourself, it's just staggering how it is fulfilled. Most of the prophecies of the Bible, friends, are concentrated on one single person, Jesus Christ. As you page through the Old Testament, There are about 300 distinct details prophesied about Jesus Christ. As I was reading and researching this, I called my daughter, who is a math major. Does a lot of calculus stuff. So I said to her, I says, give me a figure here, Christina. If I have 10 detailed facts about one event to take place in the future. What is my, I'll use the word, chance that that would happen? Well, I got a figure that I wasn't counting on when she came back with the answer. And you can see that yourself, friends. If I make a prediction that tomorrow we're going to have rain in Ontario, I could be 50% right, right? Now, if I predict that tomorrow at noon we have rain, my chance of 50% is reduced to 25% already, because now I've got two variables. And if I say, tomorrow the rain will start at 12 o'clock and ends at 1 o'clock, it goes down again half. It's 12.5% now that that is going to be happening. Now, you can imagine that if you keep on adding more and more details, The number gets quite staggering. Mathematically, at least, it is impossible. Mathematician Steiner, with the help of 600 students in his university, did all kinds of calculations that the likelihood that all the prophecies regarding Jesus Christ would be fulfilled in one person at one time in the point of history. And the mathematical chance that that would happen is For 600 prophecies, did I say 30? There are over 600 details about Jesus Christ in the Old Testament. That that mathematically would take place in one person is a 10 to the power of 157. For those of you who know math, that's a one of 157 zeros behind it. That is a mathematical impossibility. This book fulfilled on every detail in the life of Jesus Christ. The third argument, the third support for the strength of the statement that we make and that we believe, I believe, and I'm sure the Bible is the Word of God. Imagine that you would compose 40 musicians. out of the world, each striking a different instrument, all living in different places of the world over different times, and ask them all to write one piece for the grand symphony that we're going to listen to thousands of years later. Imagine that we have all these various composers and all writing a little piece for this symphony and then we get them together after about maybe a thousand years and we have this whole orchestra playing together. What do you think it's going to sound like? There's no communication between these 41s. It's going to be like our kindergarten is making music. That's not the scripture. These 40 different authors who write on different places of the history of the world, when you finally read the whole symphony, as it were, in the scriptures, there is one unity blending together in the most beautiful harmony. That tells me one thing. There was one grand director moving all 40 as they wrote our peace. No other book. has such remarkable unity on all the core teachings that are deep and challenging teachings than the Bible has, which is written in a manner that is defying all logic. Over three languages, over 1,600 years is this book written in different circumstances, in tents, in deserts, in cities, in palaces, in dungeons. Some author is a judge, and some author is a farmer. Another author is a king. Another author is a fisherman. And yet, all of them harmonize in this most brilliant beauty of the unity of the scripture. I already said something about the honesty of the authors, about the heroes, and about the nation. That's unlike any history of the world. I leave that now. I could speak about the completeness and the relevance of the Bible's message. Isn't it amazing that this book which has been completed about 2,000 years ago, when so many changes have taken place in our society, so many things have changed culturally and technologically and in every aspect of our life, and yet exact same message that fits and that suits and that speaks to the heart of man. Nothing new needed to be added. It needed not to be rewritten. It needs not to be updated. Even though it is such an old book, it feeds the heart of the sinner when he seeks for salvation. It speaks about the very same matters and the very same needs, meaning the very same needs that man has always had, no matter what culture. It is so brilliant, beautifully. to experience that when you go across the world and you meet Christians from a totally different culture, and they're eating and drinking the same truth that you grew up with, and you experience a spiritual unity with people that you would not be able to live with unless you change your totally Western way of living. And yet, this unity, the feeding of that same book, that Abraham and David and Daniel and the apostles and Jesus read. Nicodemus came to Jesus at one night and he says, we know that thou art a teacher come from God. Now, how did he know that? He says, for no man can do such miracles that thou doest accept God be with him. Strong observation from Nicodemus. He says, when I see all these miracles, there's only one conclusion. Thou art a man come from God. Apply that same logic to the Bible, will you? There's no book that has done so much good to the lives of societies, men and women, than the Word of God. I think it was Ironside, he was speaking once in California, a lecture on religion and on the scripture. And as he was speaking, somebody walked up to the podium and handed him a little piece of paper. And the paper said this, I challenge you tomorrow night in the council hall, LA downtown, to have a live debate about Christianity versus atheism. All expenses paid. signed, and I forget who signed it. And Ironside was looking at this piece of paper, and he says, accept it under one condition. I will bring 10 people along as my witnesses. to illustrate out of their life how that the teachings and the power of the word of God has changed their life from the gutter to the rescue or the salvation, I should say. And I require you to bring 10 people along who can testify that having adopted the creed of atheism, has so dramatically improved their life that they're willing to testify. If that iron sight headed into the next day, Throughout the middle of the morning of that day, he received a letter. And it says these words, the proposal to debate you this night in the LA downtown city hall is withdrawn. You see, my friend, the point that I'm trying to illustrate is the scripture is a book. Like no other book, which is obvious for us, the divinity is stamped on it. The influences of the Holy Scripture touches every department of human life for the better. The world has become, wherever the Word of God is taught and obeyed, a better place to live. Where the Bible teachings are truly obeyed, women and children are given dignity. No other book has ever done that. Where the scriptures and the influences of the scriptures are experienced, man become real man. And what is a real man? It's a man who serves and sacrifices as he leads. Where the Bible teachings are obeyed, economics will be fair. Government power will be wholesome. Naked cruelty is changed to tender love. Lust transformed into purity. Greed becomes giving. Revenge gives way to forgiveness. There's no other book that's ever done that. Anywhere in the world in any society Let's then have the logic in our mind that Nicodemus said thou art from God Because no one can do miracles like thou does this is a book from God for no other book can do things like this where does among people and societies in the world Now, historical, this book is accurate. I sat next to that man in the play to Denver last week, I mean Tuesday, and he said to me, this book, that's an entirely unhistorical book. It is a complete story people have written about God and about how we are to live. It is absolutely nothing historical to him. I said, you know, young man, I wasn't my age probably, but a little bit younger maybe, I said, you are an historical illiterate. Do you know that? He said, sorry, you're talking to me, but I have a bachelor degree in history. So let's talk. You give me your facts about it. This book is an historical Figment of imagination and I'll give you my evidences. So come forward. Let me hear all he had none to offer So okay now it's my turn then right? So now it's my turn to just show you how historically accurate this book is. I At that point we got breakfast and that was the end of it and he put on his earphones and he never talked to me again. Too bad, really. But that was the end of that story. This is just a statement to make, right? This is the most historical book in all the whole world. Archaeologists upon archaeologists have tried to disprove the Bible as being historically incorrect. Prince William Albright, a great archaeologist, he said, Discovery after discovery has established the accuracy of innumerable details of the Bible and has brought increased recognition to the scriptures as the most reliable source of history. Now, that's quite a statement to make, isn't it? If you want to really know how accurate the history is, then compare it to what the scripture tells you. Not one single archaeological find has ever discredited a single detail of this Bible book, of this Bible. These are all evidences. And as we sometimes have to give a reason for why we believe what we believe, we would do good to prepare ourselves with a few of those details in our mind so that we can answer also with some conviction those who are speaking to us about, ah, that's a book that, you know, the church tells you is the book of God, and your father and your mother have told you that, but there is no evidence. There is. There's all kinds of evidence. Now, my last group of evidence is the scientific evidence. The Jewish scriptures of the Old Testament And also the Christian scriptures of the New Testament are interwoven with an abundance of objective and controllable facts that science has begun to discover in the last centuries. I'm not exaggerating, friends, when I say this evening that our holy scriptures, is 3,500 years before scientific discovery on details we never understood. I could probably spend the next two hours with you yet, but I won't do you that, I'll give you that favor of not marching you through all the details that the Old Testament would give us on this. But let me just give you a few. You're still puzzling about that hare, aren't you? Let's go back to Leviticus 11 again. That hare, he cheweth the cud. Maybe children here have rabbits or have hares in our backyard. We notice that God called the hare unclean because it cheweth the cud, divided not the hoof. Now we know that. He is to be unclean unto you. It was in 1882. That's about 3,500 years after Moses wrote that. The veterinarians and friends discovered that the hare and the rabbit indeed chew the cud. We've never known that. They found that out. If you take your time, you'll find it out yourself. But you have to rise up really early in the morning. That's sometimes our problem, isn't it? Very early in the morning. Besides their regular dung, the rabbit and the hare poo out little balls that are formed in the lower intestines of their bodies that happen to be full of important vitamins and nutrients. And these are vital for the survival of the hare and the rabbit. And immediately after pooing early in the morning, he turns around and he re-eats those little balls. And they are processed in a little part of the rabbit's stomach for the second offloading of nutrients. Of course, along with that, he probably also eats the other particles, which carry the diseases. And therefore, God says, unclean. Amazing, isn't it? Bible, 3,500 years ahead of the discovery of these veterinarians. If you go on Leviticus chapter 12 for you, you're hopefully still there. We read in verse 3, in the eighth day, the flesh of the foreskin of the young boy shall be circumcised. The eighth day. You know how particular God is about the Sabbath day. Rightfully so. It's a holy day. All labor has to cease except what is emergency, what is necessity, and what is charity. What happens if baby Aaron is born on the Jewish Friday? 1, 2, 3, 8 is going to be the Jewish Sabbath day. And on the eighth day thou shalt circumcise the foreskin of this little boy, even if it's a Sabbath day, even if it happens to be the day of atonement. God gave the command that Israelite may break the Sabbath day for something that is not an act of charity, it is not an act of emergency, and it is not an act of necessity, at least. We thought it wasn't an act of necessity until the medical world discovered something that the creator knew from the very beginning. And he told Moses, verbally inspiring him to command the child to be circumcised on the eighth day. Those of you in the medical world, you know that a child that bleeds before the eighth day, that can be fatal to the baby. In our society, I think, they maybe still do that. Quite often the baby gets a vitamin K injection the moment they're born. Why is that? Because vitamin K is vitally important for blood clotting. And vitamin K is produced in your intestines. And these little baby intestines are completely sterile as they are born. There is not a single gram of vitamin K produced in a child until he has lived for a couple of days outside the womb. And on the eighth day, the level of vitamin K is 110%. along with the chemical called protrobine, produced by the liver, which is coming to the bloodstream of mom, but not enough for the baby to clot the blood sufficiently. On the eighth day, the liver has produced a level up to 110% of what we need. God says, on the eighth day, I want you to do that surgery. That's stamped with divinity, isn't it? You read in Leviticus continually about the laws of the unclean animals and all the cleanliness rituals that are given by Moses. Undoubtedly, my friends, to you some of these laws may still not make a whole lot of sense. But I am sure that the Jewish people, they made absolutely no sense. These vast majorities made no sense to the common sense of the people in those days with what knowledge they had. But just like our little children who don't always have the ability to understand everything, we say to them, you do that because your mom says so or your dad tells you. Later on, you'll understand. Now, so God does in the book of Leviticus. He knows these Jewish people, and he knows the people of those days, have no clue why these laws are good, and that the God sets into place to protect his people every law that God makes. It's always good. The law is the sweetest revelation I shouldn't say the sweetest. Let me rephrase that. The law is such a sweet revelation of the love of God. Keep it in mind. The law is like a fence that this caring Creator sets around His creatures and says, now look, inside the fence it is safe, outside it is dangerous. Now I say this fence around you that you do not want to eat this, this, this, this, and that. Everything inside the fence is okay to eat, but everything outside the fence, don't eat. God knows the reasons. Our little children have no clue why they have to wash their hands before they eat. They're fine eating with the dirtiest hands possible, right? They have no clue why these nails have to be trimmed and these black old lines are so dirty. We know they are, but they don't. So it is in the Bible time with the old Jewish people in the beginning of the Bible. Moses had to repeat, I, the Lord, am holy, and you do this because I tell you so. And though often these things are set in a religious context, let us keep in mind they are not moral and religious laws. They are set in the religious context so that the people would obey. Jesus himself later on makes this very clear statement in Mark chapter 7 verse 15 about these eating clean and unclean. He then very rightly corrects the thinking by saying this, there is nothing from without a man that entering into him can spiritually defile him. These Jewish people, these food items are not spiritually defiling you, but what comes from out the heart, that's spiritually defiling you. So Jesus gives a correction there. We must not look at all these laws in the Old Testament as strictly religious or spiritual, but they are placed in a religious context because these people didn't know and understand anything about what was healthy and unhealthy. Now recall that Moses was a graduate student of the University of Egypt. There were no greater and more advanced universities in the world of those days than the universities in Egypt. They were renowned for their anatomical knowledge. The Egyptian universities and doctors were renowned for the experimentation of surgery. They have found mummies where it is evident that they have done brain surgery, just like we do. A couple holes in the brain and cut that skull open. Now, of course, there's no little piece there that tells you that the patient survived, but they did at least try brain surgery. Moses is educated in that. But all these great doctors of Moses' days had absolutely no clue about bacterias. So when you reopen the pharmaceutical book of the University of Egypt in Moses' days, and you have a festering infection on your finger, well, this is the recipe. To fight the infection on your hand, you need to ground up a donkey hoof. You mix it with either some cow or human dung, fresh milk, some worm blood and oil, warm up the little paste and put it on the wound. Guaranteed success. I don't know what the success is. The hand fall off perhaps, but no cure of the infection. This is what Moses gets to listen to. And this is the thinking in Moses' days. All diseases in the Egyptian mindset always were contributed to demons. And therefore, all kinds of magical formulas and rituals were used. But notice when Moses writes Leviticus 18, verse 15. I must have misquoted that. Sorry, Leviticus 18, the first five verses. And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, and there comes this strong statement, I am the Lord your God. Remember, fathers and mothers, you say to your children, and I am your father, and therefore you do this now. Well, that's correct to say to a little child. They don't have to have all kinds of explanations. They have to learn to obey. After the doings of the land of Egypt wherein ye dwelt, shall ye not do? And after the doings of the land of Canaan, whither I will bring you, shall ye not do? Neither shall ye walk in their ordinances. Ye shall do my judgment and keep my ordinances to walk to him. I am the Lord your God. You shall therefore keep my statutes, my judgment, That's if a man do, he shall live in them. You must not interpret that statement, he will be saved, he will be spiritually saved. That's not what Moses is saying. He will not have all the Egyptian diseases come upon him. The question is often challenged. I've heard it so many times over my life. Well, if ethnic cleansing is wrong today, why could God command ethnic cleansing? by having a whole Canaanite culture murdered from the little infant to the, yeah, then you stand there and you think, yeah, yeah, that was the Old Testament days, and that's maybe not so right. We kind of wiggle our way out of that. Friends, don't have to wiggle your way out of that. You know what the average age of the Canaanites were? The average age was 18 years old. They were so infested with sexual transmitted diseases that whole society was so utterly corrupt that God says the only way that I can spare you from having these sexual transmitted diseases come into the nation of Israel is that there has to be entire extermination of this entire society. There's a medical reason for it as well. The abominations of the country were all to do with an absolute, horrendous, lewd behavior. The Canaanites are known for that in the history books, outside of the Bible. See, there's a reason for that. And therefore, Moses is telling these people of Israel, from the very beginning of Genesis 1 to the end of Deuteronomy, we are not living by the Egyptian ways. And since these first five books of the Bible show facts of science which today we know are based on truths that were discovered by one of my forbearers, that's a little bit of a pride issue of course, but Antonius van Leeuwenhoek in the city of Delft. He had the bright idea one day to take a little cup out of the moat in Delft And to take a little cup, that is the water they drink from. That's the water that they are using to wash their vegetables. That is the water that the kids are getting their bath in. That's the water about 10 meters farther down the stream is a little outhouse that kind of hangs right over the edge of the water and everybody goes to their outhouse thing there. That's the same water, okay? And Antonius von Leeuwenhoek has a bright idea to take a cup of that water and put it under the microscope. And he begins to say, what kind of creepy crawlies are all this in here? It looks clear as crystal, but it is not clear as crystal. And he discovers the bacteria. We didn't know that. This is what is infested with diseases. Even today, we know 80% of all sicknesses in the world are caused by unclean water. Every time I go to India, I get a stomach problem. I never have stomach problems in my life. I'm one of those that have sinus problems but no stomach problems. But if I go to India, I get it. The water's polluted there somehow. Something in it that I can handle. They created new that, friends. They created new the truth of the bacterias. These bacterias were not known to Napoleon. Did you know that more of Napoleon's soldiers died coming out of Russia from a little, very tiny little soldier, he didn't know about, called the typhus exanthematicus. It's a bacteria that lives in your clothes and it multiplies because of lack of washing. And as these soldiers are returning, they don't wash their clothes, they don't even wash themselves, and hundreds and thousands die. just because of that bacteria. Now you understand why this book is the only book in the history of the world's nations that tells its people you have to wash several times a day, including your clothes, with clean water. Egyptians didn't teach that. The Canaanites didn't teach that. The Babylonians didn't teach that. God teaches that. Why? God knows about that little bacteria. It lives in clothes, and it loves moist conditions. Oh, it's hot there in Israel. Moist conditions multiplies and will kill the inhabitants of the clothing. God knew that mice and rats are the carriers of rabies and fleas and trichins and forms of titus and therefore any accidental touch with any unclean animal immediately makes a person unclean, immediately has to separate himself, immediately has to wash himself. Common sense to us, totally not common sense to the Israelite. a totally common sense to the Creator who knows the dangers that are there. You see, friends, in Numbers 19 we get the very strange command that if a man is dying in his tent, all the food that is uncovered in the tent is unclean and must be thrown out. I'm sure that people might have gone to Moses. Moses, why in the world do we have to throw this food out? Well, what's wrong with this food? Look, it looks fine. But you have told us that God has said that when someone of us dies in our tent, that we have to throw the food out because it's unclean. Moses says, because the Lord God said so. Why? Because Moses didn't know either. But God said it, and thus saith the Lord is the most repeated phrase in the Bible. Now we know people that were dying in a tent in Israel were not dying usually of old age because people didn't usually die of old age in the old days. Most people died of sickness, coughing and coughing and coughing in their last moments. And as we cough, all these bacteria and all these viruses are flying through the air, landing on that food. The air is humid, remember? Moist. Wonderful place for bacteria to go and explode. And God says, that's unclean. Now he says, that seed that's in that tent, that you were not intending to eat, but the seed that you were intending to use for sowing, that's clean. Moses, same seed, except we were going to use it to plant with, and this is the vessel we were going to eat from. Why is this one clean and this is unclean? Well, we know, right? When that seed is sown in the ground, well, those bacterias won't do any harm. Science is 3,500 years behind the biblical knowledge. Friends, this book is divine. And the strongest evidence of that is found in the first five books of the Bible. If we indeed go through it and study it all through. Now, I understand that you can, that we need to come up to a close here because it's getting late, but God knew All these things about cleanliness and uncleanliness and clean animals and unclean animals, did you know? How did Moses know what animals were dangerous for our health and what didn't? No, he didn't. God told him, he says, Moses, these are the unclean and these are the clean animals. Today we know. It's amazing really that the same grouping that Moses makes in the Bible 3,500 years ago is the exact same grouping that the official food inspections agencies today would make. Isn't it amazing? And it's mostly because of the deadly parasites. that are in all the animals that are unclean and that is absolutely not found in the clean animals. And these parasites are so timely, you need a very, very strong instrument to even discover them. God knows. And that tells me, this wasn't written by Moses. Yeah, it was written by Moses, but this was inspired by God himself. Who knows the facts of his creation as no one else? Now, let me come to a conclusion here. How did Solomon know in Ecclesiastes 1 that there was a water cycle? Water goes in the rivers, goes in the oceans, goes back in the clouds, goes back on the mountains, goes back in the rivers, goes back in the rivers in the ocean. How do you know that? Ah, you say Solomon was a very wise man. Well, he certainly was. But he was also inspired. It's not until the 1600s that this fact of the water cycle is actually established. In Job 28, Job speaks about the weight of the wind. the weight of the wind. It's only 350 years ago we actually discovered that air has weight. In Psalm 8, verse 9, David writes about whatsoever passes through the paths of the sea. When Moray's youngest son was reading this psalm to him while he was sick, and he read that the paths of the seas, he was a seaman, it alerted him to something that he had somewhat suspected. And he began to do his research, and he discovered indeed there are paths in the oceans that we know today. And he writes a book in the 1860s that is still used today. about all the currents that flow through the ocean, the past, and you say, how did David know that? David? When he sits at night and he writes about the stars, the work of thy fingers, what is man? Thou hast made him dominion over the fish and the fowl and the fish that swim to the paths of the seas. Do you get the feeling tonight? There's more to this book. And some people, there is divine evidences for that I am sure and that I believe that this book is the word of God from cover to cover. I rest my case. I hope I've given you some ammunition, some weapons, some ability to also support your own confession hopefully, perhaps also stronger tonight after what we have looked at.