Participants:
Series Code: AU
Program Code: AU000084S
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00:01 - I'm sure you've heard this 100 times over,
00:03 the Bible is full of mistakes. 00:05 Today we're gonna look at that claim and we're gonna look at 00:08 what the skeptics never seem to get around to saying. 00:12 [mellow music] 00:21 [music continues] 00:29 [music continues] 00:31 If you were with me last week, 00:33 you already know that right now we're responding to a critic 00:36 who posted questions about the Christian faith online. 00:39 Or to be more accurate, 00:41 she listed questions she would ask God 00:43 if she suddenly found herself 00:44 standing before him in judgment. 00:47 Of course, 00:48 she doesn't actually believe that would ever happen, 00:50 but she'd heard a preacher challenging skeptics on the radio 00:54 to think about what they would say to God 00:55 if they ever found themselves in that situation. 00:58 So last week we addressed her first two questions, 01:01 which were, 01:02 why did you stay hidden, and why did you stay silent? 01:06 And we realized that there was an unfounded accusation 01:09 behind those questions, 01:10 because she then goes on to criticize 01:13 the contents of the Bible. 01:14 And of course, 01:15 the Bible claims to be a communication from God. 01:18 I'm guessing she knows that, 01:20 but she doesn't actually like what this communication says. 01:24 Then we briefly tackled her other question, 01:27 why did you demand faith instead of providing evidence? 01:30 And we saw that God doesn't fit 01:32 into neat and tidy categories 01:34 any more than your other relationships. 01:36 Relationships just don't depend on hard proof. 01:40 And honestly, when it comes right down to it, 01:42 most of us would be hard pressed to actually prove 01:44 the existence of any historical character, 01:47 from Julius Caesar to Napoleon. 01:50 I mean, let's be honest, 01:51 all you've got is a bunch of written history, 01:54 which is precisely the same thing 01:56 we've got for the story of Christ. 01:58 And yet most of us have no problem accepting the fact 02:01 that Napoleon was a real flesh and blood human being. 02:04 I mean, we can see the impact 02:06 of his life on Western culture, 02:08 which of course, is also true of Christ, 02:12 who undoubtedly had a bigger impact 02:14 on Western culture than Napoleon. 02:17 So today we're gonna move on to her next question. 02:20 And the reason we're doing this is because 02:22 these are very common accusations. 02:25 And a lot of people repeat them as if 02:27 they're some kind of slam dunk against Christianity. 02:31 The truth is, as the Bible puts it, 02:33 "There is nothing new under the sun." 02:35 And none of these online accusations are new. 02:39 In fact, they've been around for a really long time 02:43 and none of them has managed to kill off the church. 02:47 So here it is, the question, 02:49 "Why did you reveal yourself in a book full 02:51 of historical inaccuracies and theological contradictions?" 02:55 Now, I can't help but point out once again 02:58 that she's saying this 03:00 right after accusing God of being silent, 03:02 which is the reason I think she's simply unhappy with what 03:05 she's heard about Christianity. 03:08 It's not that God's been quiet, 03:10 it's that she thinks that God is saying things 03:13 that she doesn't like. 03:16 But let's just dig into the accusation itself, 03:18 which deals with the historical accuracy of the Bible. 03:22 Over the years 03:23 a lot of people have told me that the Bible is supposedly 03:25 full of contradictions. 03:28 But here's what I find interesting. 03:29 If I ask these people to point those contradictions out, 03:32 most of the time they can't, 03:34 and that's because they're simply repeating something 03:37 they've heard from someone else, 03:39 and they've never actually read the book. 03:42 But then sometimes they are able to list 03:45 what they think are historical mistakes, 03:47 or as this lady put it, theological contradictions. 03:52 But what I've discovered about that is that most of the time 03:55 these apparent mistakes are actually the product 03:57 of our own misunderstanding. 03:59 Sometimes the text gets confusing 04:01 because we're reading a first century document 04:04 with a 21st century mindset, 04:06 and we're demanding that people who live 2000 years ago 04:10 think exactly like us. 04:12 Other times, 04:14 we expect the literary standards of the distant past 04:16 to be exactly the same as ours. 04:18 So for example, 04:20 some people want the gospel accounts to be sworn affidavits, 04:23 and they're not. 04:24 They're personal, historical recollections of events 04:28 that these people witnessed. 04:31 Now, one of the reasons people love 04:33 to bring up these apparent mistakes 04:34 is because they realize that Christians claim 04:38 inspiration for these documents. 04:40 They believe that the authors of the Bible were writing 04:43 under the influence of the Holy Spirit. 04:46 And of course, the moment the supreme being is involved, 04:48 they say, we should expect 100% flawless writing 04:53 as if the apostles were actually taking dictation from God. 04:58 But if that were the case, 04:59 then you might expect the four gospels 05:01 to be word for word the same, and obviously they're not. 05:06 And that's because the Bible is the product of both divine 05:09 and human effort. 05:11 There's enough of each author's personality in the text 05:15 that he actually allows us to guess 05:17 who the author might have been, if we don't have a name. 05:21 Peter, for example, writes like Peter, it's identifiable, 05:24 and Paul writes like Paul. 05:27 And what that tells us is that the Bible is not a transcript 05:30 of divine speeches that fell from heaven, 05:33 except in some obvious passages 05:35 where the writer actually says, 05:37 here's what the Lord told me. 05:40 So for example, in Exodus chapter 20 05:44 where we find the 10 Commandments, the Bible says, 05:47 "And God spoke all these words." 05:50 Which tells us that that part of the Bible is probably 05:53 a literal transcript. 05:55 But otherwise what we have is the the work 05:57 of the Holy Spirit impressing the minds of believers 06:00 who then took those thoughts 06:02 and recorded them in their own words. 06:05 "All scripture is breathed out by God," 06:08 Paul explains in 2 Timothy 3, 06:10 "And profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, 06:14 and for training in righteousness." 06:18 Now, that's a relatively modern translation, 06:21 but it's a very accurate one. 06:23 Some of the older versions actually say that scripture 06:26 was given by inspiration of God, 06:28 which is another way of saying the same thing, 06:30 and inspired means breathed. 06:34 It kind of goes back to the story of creation, 06:35 where it tells us that "The Lord God 06:38 formed the man of dust from the ground 06:40 and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life." 06:44 In other words, 06:46 you and I became living, sentient beings because of the life 06:49 that God breathed into us. 06:52 But at the same time, 06:54 you'll notice we're all unique individuals 06:56 with our own personalities, 06:58 and yet somehow all of us are still made 07:01 in the image of God. 07:03 And apparently the same holds true 07:05 for the words of the Bible. 07:07 Each of these 66 books has its own personality, 07:10 its own distinct characteristics. 07:13 And that's because they were written by as many 07:15 as 40 different people over 1500 years. 07:20 Yet in spite of all that variety, 07:21 the whole book still displays the presence 07:24 and the truth of God, 07:26 because he's the one who breathed his presence into it. 07:29 I like the way that the second letter of Peter puts it. 07:33 He says, 07:35 "For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, 07:37 but men spoke from God as they were carried along 07:40 by the Holy Spirit." 07:43 Again, the authors of the Bible do not say 07:46 that this book was dictated 07:47 or that it's a word for word transcript from God, 07:50 because it's not. 07:52 That's a caricature of the Bible that we've applied 07:55 to the text, and it's not how inspiration apparently works. 08:01 Now, that doesn't mean the Bible isn't reliable, 08:03 because it is, 08:04 and I still maintain that most of the people 08:06 who say it's full of mistakes haven't actually read it, 08:10 and they're just repeating stuff they heard 08:11 from somebody else. 08:14 They haven't taken the time to read this for themselves, 08:17 at least not honestly. 08:19 And as soon as I come back from a really quick break, 08:22 I'll show you why I think the internal evidence of the Bible 08:26 actually suggests that the Bible is far more accurate 08:30 than you probably think. 08:32 I'll be right back after this. 08:37 - [Narrator] Here at The Voice of Prophecy, 08:39 we're committed to creating top quality programming 08:41 for the whole family like our audio adventure series, 08:44 "Discovery Mountain". 08:46 "Discovery Mountain" is a Bible-based program 08:48 for kids of all ages and backgrounds. 08:51 Your family will enjoy the faith building stories 08:53 from this small mountain summer camp and town. 08:56 With 24 seasonal episodes every year 08:59 and fresh content every week, 09:01 there's always a new adventure just on the horizon. 09:07 - Now, I am not an archeologist, 09:09 and I'm not even a real Bible scholar, 09:11 at least not in the formal academic sense. 09:16 But I will tell you that over the last 30 years 09:18 of studying the Bible, 09:19 I have discovered it's more reasonable to assume the Bible 09:22 is telling the truth than it is not. 09:25 And far from disproving the Bible, 09:27 the spade of the archeologist has usually ended up 09:30 affirming what this book says. 09:32 Take, for example, the case of King Solomon's copper mines 09:35 in a region known as the Timna Valley. 09:38 When the mines were first discovered, 09:40 it was assumed that they couldn't possibly be Israelite. 09:43 And a lot of people said, these have to be Egyptian. 09:46 Why? 09:48 It's because a lot of people thought the stories 09:50 about the splendors of David and Solomon's kingdoms 09:52 were just fiction. 09:54 At best they said these men were just local chieftains 09:58 in a tiny village, 09:59 and there was no way there was an actual kingdom 10:02 like the one described in the Bible. 10:06 And the reason they said that is because they didn't think 10:08 there was enough archeological evidence to support the idea 10:11 of an advanced civilization in Israel 10:14 1000 years before Christ. 10:16 And the mining operation was sophisticated enough 10:19 that they figured, well, this has to be Egyptian. 10:23 But then they sent some of the organic material they found 10:26 to be carbon dated, mostly seeds they found, 10:30 and the results destroyed their thinking. 10:32 The site dated back to 1000 years before Christ, 10:36 to roughly the time of the Bible's King Solomon. 10:40 It turns out it was his copper mine 10:43 and probably the source of all the copper they used 10:45 to build the magnificent temple in Jerusalem. 10:48 Some of the pottery they found suggested the same thing. 10:51 It also dated to about 1000 BC. 10:56 One of the archeologists who worked on the site, 10:58 a guy by the name of Nelson Glueck, said this. 11:01 "As a matter of fact, however, 11:03 it may be categorically stated 11:05 that no archeological discovery 11:07 has ever controverted a biblical reference." 11:11 So in other words, 11:13 archeology has often proved the Bible to be true, 11:17 but it has never disproved it. 11:22 Here's another example. 11:24 And this one is linked to an artifact I once saw on display 11:27 in the British Museum. 11:29 It came from the ruins of the ancient city of Nineveh, 11:31 and it's known as the Taylor Prism because it was named 11:34 after a man who owned the thing for a bit. 11:37 And it's really, really important because it provides us 11:41 with outside verification for a story you find 11:44 in the Old Testament, 11:46 the story where the Assyrian King Sennacherib 11:48 laid siege to the city of Jerusalem 11:51 during the time of Hezekiah. 11:53 And you'll find the Bible's version of that story 11:56 in 2 Kings chapter 18. 11:58 So maybe let's start with the Bible's version 12:01 of what happened so you can see what I'm driving at. 12:04 Here's what it says. 12:07 "In the 14th year of King Hezekiah, 12:08 Sennacherib, king of Assyria, 12:10 came up against all the fortified cities of Judah 12:13 and took them. 12:14 And Hezekiah, king of Judah, 12:16 sent to the king of Assyria at Lachish saying, 12:20 'I have done wrong, withdraw from me. 12:22 Whatever you impose on me, I will bear.' 12:25 And the king of Assyria required of Hezekiah, king of Judah, 12:29 300 talents of silver and 30 talents of gold. 12:33 And Hezekiah gave them all the silver that was found 12:36 in the house of the Lord 12:37 and in the treasuries of the king's House. 12:40 At that time, Hezekiah stripped the gold 12:42 from the doors of the temple of the Lord 12:44 and from the doorpost 12:46 that Hezekiah, King of Judah, had overlaid, 12:48 and gave it to the king of Assyria." 12:53 This is a story about desperate times 12:56 and desperate measures. 12:57 Under any other circumstance, 12:59 it's highly unlikely that a king of Judah would be willing 13:03 to desecrate the temple to appease a foreign invader. 13:07 And if this wasn't true, 13:09 it's highly unlikely that any Jew would make this up 13:12 about one of their very best kings. 13:15 Sennacherib was a particularly cruel man, 13:18 and he was willing to starve 13:19 the citizens of Jerusalem to death. 13:21 He'd just been dealing with a rebellion 13:23 in the city of Babylon, 13:24 which at that time was under his control. 13:27 But while he was over there sorting that out, 13:30 the Philistines decided that maybe they could stage a revolt 13:33 of their own. 13:34 I mean, Sennacherib was really busy in Babylon, right? 13:36 So he couldn't come and stop them. 13:40 The Philistines suddenly deposed their own king 13:42 in the city of Ekron, 13:43 a guy named Padi who was just a puppet for the Assyrians. 13:47 But they were too afraid to keep him in town because, well, 13:50 that might bring the Assyrian armies 13:52 right to their doorstep. 13:54 So what did they do? 13:55 They shipped him to the city of Jerusalem 13:58 because Hezekiah 14:00 had already stopped paying tribute to the Assyrians, 14:03 and he was known 14:04 as the leader of the anti Assyrian movement. 14:07 What better place to send their prisoner? 14:11 And of course, when Sennacherib found out about this, 14:13 it made him really, really mad. 14:15 So he traveled to Jerusalem and laid siege to the holy city. 14:18 And that's where you get the famous story 14:21 from 2 Kings chapter 18. 14:24 And of course, all sorts of scholars over the years 14:26 have questioned the story 14:28 because it ends with this divine miracle. 14:31 185,000 Assyrian troops were suddenly eliminated 14:35 by the angel of the Lord in the middle of the night. 14:38 The skeptics said, oh, that's wishful thinking. 14:41 That never happened. 14:44 But then in 1830, 14:46 as archeologists were digging through the ruins 14:48 of the ancient city of Nineveh, 14:50 they found this six-sided stone 14:52 that had Sennacherib's version of the same story. 14:55 And that version reads like this. 14:58 And I'm gonna abbreviate it just a little bit, 15:00 or we'll be here all day. 15:02 It says, "As for Hezekiah, the Jew, 15:04 who did not submit to my yoke, 15:06 himself, like a caged bird I shut up in Jerusalem, 15:09 his royal city. 15:11 I added to the former tribute and laid upon him 15:14 the giving up of their land, as well as imposts, 15:16 gifts for my majesty. 15:19 In addition to the 30 talents of gold 15:21 and 800 talents of silver, there were gems, cosmetics, 15:25 jewels, large sandu-stones, couches of ivory, 15:28 house chairs of ivory, elephant hide, ivory, 15:31 all kinds of valuable treasures, 15:33 as well as his daughters, his harem, 15:36 his male and female musicians, 15:38 which he had them bring after me to Nineveh, my royal city." 15:42 Now it's exactly the same story 15:44 with only some minor variations. 15:47 The Bible says the payment was 300 talents of silver 15:50 and 30 talents of gold. 15:52 And Sennacherib's account inflates that number 15:54 to 800 talents of silver. 15:57 But before anybody jumps to the conclusion 15:59 that it's the Bible that must be wrong, 16:00 I'd have to ask the question, why? 16:03 Why would we assume that the Jews got it wrong, 16:06 but Sennacherib got it right? 16:08 Isn't it possible that the most powerful, 16:10 the most boastful king in the region would be prone to, 16:14 well, a little exaggeration? 16:16 Yeah, of course he would. 16:18 And there's no reason to assume 16:20 that the Bible's the one that got this story wrong 16:22 because these are the only two sources we've got. 16:26 And the historical record universally remembers 16:30 that Sennacherib was arrogant and widely hated. 16:33 Everybody knew that Sennacherib was an awful person. 16:38 And here's the part of the story that gets my attention. 16:41 That Taylor Prism makes no mention of the way Sennacherib 16:44 was defeated at the siege of Jerusalem. 16:47 The Bible says the angel of the Lord went out 16:50 and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians, 16:54 but the Taylor Prism says absolutely nothing. 16:59 Now, fortunately, 17:00 there are other sources that tell us something awful 17:02 happened to the Assyrians that night, 17:04 including an account from the writings of Herodotus 17:07 who tells us that something very strange happened 17:10 when Sennacherib was campaigning in the region. 17:13 But I see that we're up against the clock, 17:16 so I'll tell you what he said right after this. 17:23 - [Narrator] Dragons, beasts, cryptic statues. 17:27 Bible prophecy can be incredibly vivid and confusing. 17:32 If you've ever read Daniel or Revelation 17:34 and come away scratching your head, you are not alone. 17:37 Our free Focus on Prophecy guides are designed 17:40 to help you unlock the mysteries of the Bible 17:42 and deepen your understanding of God's plan for you 17:45 and our world. 17:46 Study online or request them by mail, 17:48 and start bringing prophecy into focus today. 17:53 - The Bible says that the angel of the Lord 17:55 went into the camp of the Assyrians 17:57 when Sennacherib was laying siege to Jerusalem 18:00 and destroyed 185,000 soldiers. 18:03 And wouldn't you know it, 18:05 Herodotus tells us something similar, 18:07 although he apparently confuses the story 18:10 with a campaign against Egypt. 18:12 An understandable mistake because after all, 18:14 he's writing hundreds of years after the fact, 18:17 and he doesn't exactly have access to the histories 18:20 we've uncovered since his time. 18:23 But just listen to what he says. 18:24 He writes, "The enemy approached, 18:27 but then at night there came a great swarm of field mice, 18:30 which gnawed through the quivers of the invaders 18:32 and their bows and the handles of their shields, 18:35 so that in the morning they found themselves 18:37 quite defenseless. 18:39 They fled and were cut down in great numbers." 18:43 So he's attributing the miracle to field mice, 18:47 which seems somewhat improbable. 18:49 And he says that they were rendered completely defenseless 18:52 so they became easy pickings. 18:54 But 185,000 dead because of broken bow strings 18:59 and gnawed up handles that rendered their shields useless? 19:03 I think in this case, 19:05 the Bible offers us a much more likely scenario. 19:09 It was an act of God. 19:12 So again, as Nelson Glueck pointed out, 19:14 the spade of the archeologist has never falsified a story 19:18 from the Bible. 19:19 In fact, the opposite has happened. 19:22 Archeological finds have verified the Bible 19:25 and occasionally even silenced the skeptics. 19:28 So this idea 19:29 that the Bible is full of historical inaccuracies, 19:32 it's just not true. 19:34 What we found is an awful lot of corroboration 19:37 from outside sources, 19:38 significant evidence to suggest that the Bible 19:41 really is telling the truth. 19:44 In fact, the more you study the content of the Bible, 19:48 the more you begin to realize that it has 19:50 all the hallmarks of being true. 19:53 You might still choose to believe 19:55 that the people who composed this book 19:57 were just conspiring together to write national propaganda. 20:02 But as you make your way through the various books 20:04 of the Bible, you find all these little details 20:07 that suggest exactly the opposite. 20:11 Back in the 19th century, 20:13 a scholar by the name of JJ Blunt took it upon himself 20:16 to catalog a bunch 20:17 of what he called undesigned coincidences, 20:21 details that just happened to be in the text 20:24 and weren't deliberately designed to prove anything, 20:28 and yet somehow still corroborate the truth of the story. 20:32 So for example, 20:33 he noticed something peculiar in Matthew's story 20:36 about the trial of Christ before Caiaphas and the Council. 20:40 Here's what Matthew says, 20:42 "Then they spit in his face and struck him 20:45 and some slapped him saying, prophesy to us, you Christ, 20:49 Who is it that struck you?" 20:51 Now, this seems like a very strange challenge. 20:54 They're slapping Jesus across the face 20:56 and making fun of his claim to be the son of God. 20:59 And after each person slaps him, 21:02 they're telling him to prophesy 21:04 and tell them who the assailant was. 21:07 It's a strange request because it's not hard to see 21:10 who's slapping your face, 21:13 but it turns out that Matthew didn't give us one tiny detail 21:16 that Luke did when he told his story. 21:18 Here's the way he records it in Luke chapter 22. 21:22 He writes, "Now, the men who were holding Jesus in custody 21:26 were mocking him as they beat him. 21:29 They also blindfolded him and kept asking him, 21:32 prophesy, who is it that struck you?" 21:36 Now, you'd think that if Matthew 21:38 was just making this story up, 21:39 he'd bother to tell us that Jesus was blindfolded. 21:43 Because if there's one thing good writers love, 21:45 it's making their stories consistent. 21:48 Being blindfolded would be a really important part 21:51 of the story if it was fiction. 21:55 But if it really happened and it's not a manufactured tale, 21:58 then suddenly this falls right in line. 22:00 Matthew's giving us an actual memory of what happened, 22:04 and he forgets to mention the blindfold. 22:06 And it's only when you compare his story with Luke 22:09 that the whole thing suddenly makes sense. 22:11 You've got one author inadvertently filling in details 22:15 that another author left out. 22:19 And when you find that happening 22:21 over and over and over and over and over, 22:24 as JJ Blunt noticed, well, 22:27 it's got all the earmarks of authenticity. 22:29 It doesn't look like collusion. 22:33 So this idea that the Bible is somehow wildly inaccurate, 22:36 well, the internal evidence actually suggests the opposite. 22:40 It appears to be the recollections of real events 22:43 recorded by real people. 22:45 And I know that today it's become popular in some circles 22:48 to say that Jesus never existed at all, 22:51 that his character and the stories in the Bible 22:54 are absolute fiction. 22:56 But honestly, 22:57 that appears to be wishful thinking on the part of people 23:00 who find it easier to ignore Jesus 23:02 than to wrestle with who or what he claimed to be. 23:06 The truth is, there are no serious historical scholars today 23:10 who find any reason to doubt 23:12 that Jesus was a real historical person. 23:15 They might reject his claim to deity. 23:17 They might reject the idea that he was God in human flesh. 23:21 But they know for sure that he was absolutely real. 23:27 And before you're tempted to join the chorus of people 23:28 who say the Bible is fiction 23:30 or that it's incredibly inaccurate 23:32 or full of theological contradictions, 23:34 maybe, maybe just read it. 23:38 Because once you set aside the stuff 23:40 the skeptics have been telling you, 23:41 I'm guessing you might be surprised at what you find. 23:45 It might just be the case that their criticisms are driven 23:49 by a desire to eliminate the claims 23:51 that God would have on us if this story proved to be true. 23:56 I'll be right back after this. 24:02 - [Narrator] Life can throw a lot at us. 24:04 Sometimes we don't have all the answers, 24:07 but that's where the Bible comes in. 24:10 It's our guide to a more fulfilling life. 24:13 Here at The Voice of Prophecy, 24:14 we've created the Discover Bible guides 24:17 to be your guide to the Bible. 24:18 They're designed to be simple, easy to use, 24:21 and provide answers to many of life's toughest questions, 24:24 and they're absolutely free. 24:26 So jump online now or give us a call 24:28 and start your journey of discovery. 24:32 - One of the claims this unlike skeptic was making 24:34 during her rant against the Christian faith 24:36 was the idea that the Bible 24:38 is somehow theologically inconsistent. 24:42 Now, on one hand, I'd have to admit, 24:43 I can see how somebody might have come to that conclusion 24:45 when they watch some of the disagreements that Christians 24:47 have with each other. 24:49 And some of them might point to the fact that we have 24:51 thousands of Christian denominations 24:53 who all think they're right. 24:56 But what they never seem to mention is the way that 24:58 Christians tend to agree on the essentials, the basics. 25:02 When it comes to the big stuff, 25:03 you'll find a lot more agreement than disagreement. 25:06 Things like the deity of Christ, 25:08 the sufficiency of the atonement, 25:10 the importance of discipleship, 25:12 and the need to surrender your pride 25:13 and repent of your sins. 25:16 There may be a lot of Christian denominations, 25:18 but when you get these people together 25:20 the way I've done all over the world, 25:22 it's remarkable how much agreement you find 25:26 when they just open a Bible and study it together. 25:29 Yeah, there's room for some disagreement on the small stuff, 25:32 and there are times when the Bible doesn't give us 25:34 all the details we want. 25:35 So sometimes we start to invent our own theories 25:38 of how things work, 25:40 and that leads to a lot of unnecessary debate. 25:43 So I'll give this skeptic points on this, 25:46 because a lot of the image that Christians 25:48 have been branded with right now, well, it's our own fault. 25:53 Now, if we had time today, 25:54 I could show you how the Bible actually anticipated 25:57 the fragmentation of the church, and how it reveals that God 26:00 actually plans to reverse that. 26:02 Some people say that the divisions in Christianity are proof 26:05 that somehow the Bible got things wrong. 26:08 But when they read it, they'll see that our current mess 26:10 was actually predicted in the Bible. 26:13 You know, if the Bible is just a work of propaganda, 26:16 it's a bad one. 26:17 In the Old Testament, 26:18 God points out the sins of his own people, 26:20 and he calls them spiritual prostitutes, 26:23 people who sold themselves 26:25 to a bunch of violent and sadistic pagan deities. 26:28 Then in the New Testament, 26:29 the Bible predicts that the Christian Church 26:31 was going to do exactly the same thing. 26:34 I mean, just consider the language you find in Revelation 17 26:37 and compare that with Ezekiel 16, 26:40 and I think you'll see what I mean. 26:43 As I've often told people, 26:45 the biggest problem described in the Bible 26:47 isn't the outsiders, but the insiders, 26:50 the people who actually claim to be members of God's church. 26:53 And that's the point the skeptics usually miss. 26:56 They assume that the Bible 26:57 speaks really well of religious people, 26:59 and then they present the behavior of supposed Christians 27:03 as proof that the Bible must somehow be wrong. 27:07 So you can imagine they're surprised 27:08 when they read the whole thing and discover the Bible 27:10 actually predicted bad behavior from Christians 27:13 and condemns it. 27:14 Now, I think I'll pick that up again another day 27:16 because we have 27:18 some more claims against our faith to talk about. 27:20 But for now, let me just say this. 27:23 You can't really say the Bible is historically 27:26 and theologically inaccurate if you've never read it. 27:30 "Scripture," Jesus said in John chapter 10, 27:33 "Cannot be broken." 27:35 And over the years I've discovered Jesus 27:37 was absolutely right. 27:39 But you know, 27:41 you're never gonna know that unless you actually study it. 27:43 And if you want, 27:45 just head on over to biblestudies.com and have a look 27:46 at some of the free resources 27:48 provided by the Voice of Prophecy. 27:50 Take a look at the Discover Bible guides 27:52 because that's a series of studies that will actually 27:55 take you all the way through 27:56 all the major themes of the Bible in an easy way. 28:00 Thanks for joining me today. 28:01 I'm Sean Boonstra, and this has been "Authentic". 28:06 [mellow music] 28:15 [music continues] 28:24 [music continues] |
Revised 2023-10-12