21 Nov Book it! (Because a Bible that is falling apart indicates a life that isn’t!) Part 13

Posted at 08:00h in Uncategorized by

To truly love, learn and live the Word of God…you must trust the Word of God!  That is not the easiest thing in the world to do as this culture is attacking the validity of the Bible in a vicious way.The Bible tells us, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away” (Matt. 24:35).  Over the next number of months I am going to share with you some fascinating truths that will help you defend the Word of God to an antagonistic culture.  This is called “apologetics”.  Now I know this is a fancy theological term, but it is derived from the Greek New Testament.  

The Bible tells us in II Timothy 4:16, “At my first defense no man stood with me, but all men forsook me: I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge.”  The Greek word translated “defense” is “apologia”.  This is a Greek compound word “apo” which means ‘‘from” and “logia” which means “words”.  Put these two words together and it means “a well thought out reasoning from the word.”  With this in mind, please allow me to share with you:

7 Truths to Trust the Word of God:

  1. The Bible is historically accurate (Ps. 33:4).

Now let me share with you “Three Tests of Historical Accuracy”:

  1. Eyewitness accounts (I Cor. 15:6).  

In our legal system today, the validity of any eyewitness accounts are always accepted in a court of law.  Here in I Corinthians 15:6 the Bible tells us, “After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part  remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep.”

As you can see, over 500 people saw Jesus after He was resurrected.  This is so important, as the resurrection was the focal part of what the disciples taught in the book of Acts!  

I remember a number of years back around Easter when Time Magazine came out with an issue endeavoring to refute the resurrection.  They had four theories:

  1. The “swoon theory”.  In this theory the magazine said Jesus didn’t actually die.  He simply “swooned” on the cross.  He then was taken down and later revived in the tomb.  The problem with that “brilliant” thinking is that when Jesus was pierced in the side, both blood and water came out (see John 19:34).  Any doctor will tell you that this signifies a ruptured heart.  No one recovers from a ruptured heart.
  2. Jesus’ enemies took the body.  The problem with this silly argument is readily apparent.  If his enemies took the body, wouldn’t they have produced it for all the world to see?  This would have immediately put a stop to all those resurrection messages Jesus’ disciples were preaching and the Christian movement would’ve been immediately stopped.
  3. Jesus’ friends took the body.  Are you aware that all of the disciples (with the exception of John) were mercilessly martyred?  They were killed in some of the most horrific ways.  Peter was crucified upside down, for example.  If you knew everything you were preaching was simply a hoax…would you die a cruel torturous death for a hoax?  Yea, me neither!
  4. Mass hallucination.  This is my favorite one of the bunch.  Time Magazine pontificated that the 500 plus people who were eyewitnesses to Jesus’ resurrection were all under some mass hallucination!  Who slipped the opioids into your corn flakes, Time Magazine?  I think you have to be on drugs to believe that non-sensical theory!

Join us next week as we continue 7 Truths to Trust the Word of God from our series Book It!…