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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.
I Believe and I am sure that the Bible is the Word of God - What about you?
Series TBS (Canada)
Annual General Meeting of TBS Canada
| Sermon ID | 41717154388 |
| Duration | 1:05:36 |
| Date | |
| Category | Special Meeting |
| Language | English |
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