Credentials
So what are this book's credentials? I could say
to you, "I have just written a book, and it is the Word
of God. It's a great book, took me a year to write it."
And you would have every right to say, "PROVE IT!"
There are 30 or 40 books in the various world religions,
each one claiming to be a superior revelation. Jesus
said, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words
shall not pass away" (Matt.24:35). How important do
you think the earth is? Well, Jesus says, "Heaven and
earth will pass away..."
The Bible does not attempt to defend its inspiration.
You will not find any verse that says, "This book is
really true, so you better believe it!!" But here is
an interesting thing. Genesis opens with the words,
"God said," 9 times in the first chapter. The statement,
"Thus says the Lord" appears 23 times in the last Old
Testament book -- Malachi. So you have "God says" from
Genesis to Malachi.
"The Lord spoke" appears 560 times
in the first five books of the Bible alone. Isaiah claims
at least 40 times, his message came directly from the
Lord; Ezekiel, 60 times, and Jeremiah, 100 TIMES! And
at least 3800 times in the Old Testament, "The Lord spoke"
appears. And the Lord Jesus quoted from at least 24
different Old Testament books -- that's right, He just
quoted.
These are facts that will be valuable for a person
with an open heart -- not that you have to throw your
head away in order to believe these facts; but, if you
do not want to believe, nothing will convince you. Voltaire,
250 years ago, held a copy of the Bible in his hand and
said, "In 100 years this book will be forgotten, eliminated."
What is hilarious is that 100 years later, to the day,
his house was made the headquarters of the Geneva Bible
Society, and they were distributing Bibles out of his
house! God has an incredible sense of humor!
Say you were going to write a book, and this was
how you had to write it: take 40 different writers for
a start, totally different writers -- some highly educated,
even doctors. Then get some farmers. Go and dig a guy
out of a ranch and say, "I would like you to help me
write a book." Then you find some fishermen -- you go
down to the wharf -- a couple of guys from San Francisco,
and say, "Hey! listen, help us write a book."
And they
say, "Sure, fine...we will help you." And then you get
them to write on the following things: religious themes,
poetry, ethics, science, pholosophy, the creation of
the universe and where it's going (throw in a few things
about where they think it will all end.) You collect
all that, and then ... oh, by the way, you have to separate
these people so they can't communicate by phone or telegram..
only possibly word of mouth, passed down over the years.
Ah yes, years...you collect all this stuff over about
one and a half thousand years, and compile the whole
thing in one book. What would you have? I suggest you
take a biology textbook from 60 years ago, and compare
it with one today. And that is just 60 YEARS! I know
what you would have, you would have the most motley junk
you have ever seen in tour whole life -- with people
totally contradicting each other! But that is not what
you have when you read your Bible. The more you read
this book, the more incredible the unity of it. Because
the more you get into it, the more incredibly detailed
it is, and you find there are not 40 people who wrote
it, but one person.
HELP FOR NEW CHRISTIANS
OK! New Christian...What Now? | Bible verse for every letter of the alphabet.| Church History Summary.| The Christian Message.| Election. | Is Hebrews 6 a warning? | Seven Incontestable Questions. | Ironside: Agnosticism. | Issues Of The Heart - J. MacArthur. | Natural Laws and God's Laws. | Possession: The Devil Made Me Do It! | The Preisthood Of All Believers. | Why Jesus? | Knowing Why You Believe - Evidence - Bible. | Discussions With Unbelievers. | Inerrancy. | What Does It Mean To Be A Christian? | First Adam; Then Eve; then what? | What Will People Think? | Perfect For All Time. | Jesus Is Lord. | Spiritual Strength And Power. | The Biblical Calendar Of History. | Studying Your Bible. | Computer Analysis Of The Books Of The Bible. | Early Christianity - Is The Record Sound? | The Bible - The Most Popular Book. | Credentials Of The Bible. | Doomed - to Hell. | Faith And Works In The Plan Of God. | Others Can But You Can't. | Impositions - giving to God and by God. | Why Did Christ Die? | The Successful Christian - #1. | The Successful Christian - #2. | Is It What We Say Or What We Are? | Forty-day Bible Study. | Is Baptism Necessary For Salvation? | How To Overcome Sin - Charles Finney. Death. | Why We Reject This Version. | How Does God Keep His Promises? | Radical Genesis Evangelicals.
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