Is The Bible The Word of God

(1) Ken Loucks - Is the Bible the Word of God - YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZ__8mMD-SA

Transcript:
(00:01) you know that I uh I don't know how many weeks ago it was now. It's been a few. I I I said I'd like to kind of go through the fundamental beliefs of the church and just walk us through what we believe and why we believe it. You know, the ones I've done so far, I really just wrapped up the God is series and I was thinking, okay, so I looked at the next one in line and it is the word of God.
(00:26) I said, okay, when was the last time we covered the inspiration of the Bible? like, is it the word of God? And I was thinking, I can't remember the last time I heard a sermon on that. Been a while. I'd like to do that, but I'm not going to just look True Confessions. I like to be entertained when I write a message as much as anybody I I want to it what needs to be interesting to me.
(00:50) So, I tried to create an interesting way to look at this. So, I'm going to be presenting to you today four proofs, four ways that we know the Bible is the word of God. Now, let me back up and say this. When I was at camp this year, there were a number of questions. The kids have a number of questions. And uh I think the primary the primary issue that I detected in some of the questions is is that there's a skepticism that some people have in questioning things that are in the Bible, which essentially stems from the idea that the Bible may be dubious as opposed to the question or
(01:24) its source. But if we're truly believe that the Bible is the word of God, then we trust the Bible first. It is our default document. It is where we go to say that's true no matter what else is being said. But in order for us to have the confidence to say that this is the word of God and therefore we trust it first. Every other question is dubious.
(01:50) Every other accusation must prove itself. The Bible is defenseless. It is I shouldn't say defenseless. The Bible is to be presumed true. Meaning, it does not have to defend itself. The question should defend itself. The Bible is assumed to be true.
(02:09) But that's only possible if we really believe that's the fact, that it really is the word of God. And so, I want to walk through proofs that the Bible is the word of God. I was interested in this idea. There are billions of people who still profess not to believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God. Some dismiss it as the writings of men with ancient stories that are myths or fables.
(02:41) Others argue that while it may contain wisdom, it cannot be trusted to be the very word of God. and still others even further accuse it of contradictions, errors and being out of touch with modern life. That's why it's so important for us to know that it is the word of God so that we can start from it and analyze everything else that we get. You know, 2 Timothy chapter 3 and verse 16.
(03:07) 2 Timothy chapter 3 and:e 16 the Bible makes a bold claim it says all scripture is given by inspiration of God that means all scripture is God breathed a bold claim the question is can we prove that because if that's true then it demands our faith our obedience and our trust If it's just merely the work of men, then it carries no more authority than any other human book. This is why this is so important.
(03:47) So, I want to examine the evidence through four powerful proofs that show the Bible is exactly what it claims to be, the inspired word of God. I want to begin with historical and archaeological accuracy. historical and archaeological accuracy. Because if we're going to say that the Bible is the inspired word of God, then we have to establish its authenticity.
(04:12) It's not enough to say that the Bible we hold here claims to be from God because it does in multiple ways in various different places. It makes that claim. What we really need to find out is has it been preserved faithfully? Is it historically reliable? Has it been altered or amended in any way that we should know about? If the text doesn't mean anything, we have to know that what was written long ago is the same text that we read today.
(04:47) I begin with Isaiah 40:8, which I have on the screen. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever. Just another of the bold claims made by the Bible. But how do we know it's true? Because for many years, skeptics have claimed that the Bible has been corrupted.
(05:13) They argue that the Old Testament we read today was the product of centuries of copying and editing. So, we cannot trust that it's the original record. But here's the thing. In 1947, all of that changed with the the discovery of the Dead Sea Scroll. For centuries, critics mocked the Bible for mentioning nations or people for which there was no evidence.
(09:28) Take the Hittites for example. The Old Testament refers to them over 40 times. Critics have had previously claimed that there was no such people as the Hittites because we had no archaeological evidence. Let's look at one early reference because this is one of the earliest in fact if not the earliest over in Joshua chapter 1 and verse4. Joshua chapter 1 verse 4.
(09:59) This is God's promising of giving land of the Hittites to the Israelites. It says verse four says, "From the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites and to the great sea toward the going down of the sun." Uh, thank you, Tony. I've got one here.
(10:24) The land of the Hittites was to be given to Israel. The skeptic says there was no people called the Hittites. Yet in the 19th century in 1906, is that the 19th or the 20th? That's the 20th century, isn't it? The late 19th century, skeptics dismissed them as biblical myth.
(10:50) But then in 1906, archaeologists uncovered the ruins of the Hittite capital at Hatusa along with thousands of clay tablets recording their language and history. The Bible was right. There was a people called the Hittites, and God gave their land to Israel. Another striking discovery came in 1961 when an inscription was found in Cesaria Meritima that bore the name of Pontius Pilate the Roman governor who condemned Jesus to death.
(11:25) Notice Matthew chapter 27 and verse two. Matthew chapter 27 verse 2. And when they had bound him, that is Christ, they led him away and delivered him to Pontius Pilate, the governor. Well, before this discovery, some scholars doubted Pilate's existence because he appeared only in the Bible and a few scattered references. Now, archaeology has placed his name on a stone right there.
(13:04) 2 Samuel 7:16 2 Samuel 7 verse 16 where it says, "And your house," this is talking about King David, "and your house and your kingdom shall be established forever before you. Your throne shall be established forever." Skeptics once scoffed at the Old Testament reference to the house of David was legendary, but not real.
(13:46) But in 1993, an Aramaic inscription was unearthed in Teldan mentioning the house of David. It stands as the earliest extra biblical evidence for King David's dynasty. What critics thought didn't exist has been proven by archaeology. The reliability of the Bible's historical details demonstrates that it is not a book of myths or fables.
(14:20) Every time archaeology finds something, it validates the Bible. Never have we uncovered something in archaeology that disproves the Bible. Nelson Gluke, Glue Ee K. Apologize to Mr. Gluke if I said his name incorrectly. One of the most respected Jewish archaeologists of the 20th century said, quote, "It may be stated categorically that no archaeological discovery has ever controverted a biblical reference.
(14:58) Scores of archaeological findings have been made which confirm in clear outline or in exact detail historical statements in the Bible." That should give us great confidence on its own. If the Bible has been preserved faithfully in history and confirmed by archaeology, then really what we need to analyze next is the writings themselves. We're going to notice something interesting because point two is the unity of the Bible. the unity of the Bible.
(15:35) Back in 2013, Becca and I were able to go to Scotland for the feast. And we toured, we went in, we flew into Edinburgh, Pitts, the United States would pronounce Pittsburgh, but it's spelled like this. Like, in other words, we would call this Edinburg. The Scots do not pronounce the gh in Scotland.
(16:01) Okay? If you go alarmed to pronounce that correctly. That's Edinburgh. We walked around Edinburgh Castle, which is quite a long walk by the way. There's a lot to it. What's interesting to me to me about this is it began as a hill fort in around 900 BC. Was completed as we see it basically today. It's construction. Okay. In 58 in 1588.
(16:29) So over the process of what that 2400 years this castle was constructed if you walk it in consistency and coherence in its design and verse uh 38 and 39 Giel says and now I say to you keep away from these men and let them alone for if this plan or this work is of men it will come to nothing. But if it is of God, you cannot overthrow it, lest you be even found to fight against God.
(17:12) And really, at the end of the day, that's where our faith in the Bible comes from. Our belief in the Bible comes from the fact that God himself preserved these words. If this is the work of men, it could not have withstood the test of time that it has. No other work has been able to do that. Only the Bible has held up to every form of scrutiny because the one behind it is God.
(17:35) And we cannot overthrow the work of God, no matter how hard we try. And we've been trying as human beings for some time now to do that. If the Bible were simply a human project written across that much time and that many cultures, we would expect confusion, contradiction, and disunityity. But instead, the Bible is marked by a continuous unfolding story.
(18:06) It is the plan of salvation revealed from Genesis through Revelation. We see at the beginning here a figure identified for us in Genesis chapter 3 and verse 15. The earliest pages of our Bible opens up to a messianic prophecy. Verse 15 says, "And I will put enmity between you and the woman." We see in verse 14 where he's talking to the serpent which was Satan who had deceived Eve.
(18:44) And so here in verse 15 it says, "I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel." There's no doubt, there's no controversy that that is a messianic prophecy about Jesus Christ. The law and the prophets establish the framework of covenant and promise.
(19:12) Thinking about this idea that God has revealed salvation throughout the pages of our Bibles from Genesis through Revelation. The Psalms and the wisdom books express the longing for deliverance. The Gospels record the coming of the promised savior.
(19:32) and the writings of Paul, Peter, and John and the other apostles explain the work of Christ and the hope we have of the kingdom. Revelation brings it all to a glorious conclusion. Genesis presents us here with this first promise of a redeemer given at the dawn of human history. That promise is carried forward through the covenant with Abraham, through the line of David, and ultimately fulfilled in Christ. The Bible's message is not random or some fragmented piece of work.
(20:06) It's a unified testimony to God's purpose woven together over centuries. Notice Paul the Apostle also referring to that very seed that we just read about in Genesis 3:15 over now in Galatians 3 and verse 16. Galatians 3:1 16. Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made.
(20:43) He does not say and to seeds as of many, which some would argue would be the descendants of Abraham, all of his descendants. But Paul says, "No, that's not what's talked about here." He does not say, "And to seeds as of many, but as of one and to your seed, who is Christ." The consistency from Genesis to Paul's writing right there is a message that talks about the seed, the Messiah, though written centuries apart.
(21:18) FF Bruce whom we read a quote from earlier, he's the respected New Testament historian. He once wrote, quote, "The Bible is not simply an anthology. There is a unity which binds the whole together. An anthology is compiled by an anthologist. But the Bible was written by many men over many centuries. Yet it is a unity. And this unity is evidence of the one mind behind it.
(21:52) And of course, Peter, let's notice second Peter chapter 1 helps us to understand that mind. Second Peter 1 21. Second Peter 1 21 says, "For prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit." And so Peter helps us to understand how God inspired the writings and the consistency of the scriptures across so many different individuals, geographies, continents, languages, and time.
(22:45) This is why Isaiah 700 years before Christ could write of a suffering servant and the apostles could recognize its fulfillment in the crucifixion of Christ. Notice Isaiah 53:5. Isaiah 53 verse 5 speaking of the Messiah. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him and by his stripes we are healed.
(23:22) The Bible contains this unified plan of God revealed progressively, consistently, and truthfully over centuries. Theologian Gleason Archer summarized it this way. Quote, "The Bible written over a span of 1500 years by more than 40 human authors is an amazing demonstration of the unity of God's revelation.
(23:51) It speaks with one voice about the most controversial subjects known to man. Wherever it is possible to check the Bible's statements against historical and archaeological data, the Bible proves to be accurate. John 5. John 5:39. In Christ's own words, he says, "You search the scriptures, for in them you think," He's talking to the He's talking to the Pharisees who think they have identified the way to eternal life by obedience to the very strict laws they've created. And Christ says, "You search the scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life, but it is these
(24:42) scriptures which testify of me, the real means of eternal life. So he declares the unity of the scriptures saying that all of them ultimately testify of Christ from Genesis to Revelation. The Bible has a single center. Jesus Christ is that center. He is the promised messiah and the coming king.
(25:13) So the Bible's unity is a powerful evidence that it was inspired by God because human authors separated by centuries, cultures, geographies, and languages could never have produced such a harmonious whole on their own. The only explanation is that behind their writing was one divine author guiding their words by his spirit. Point number three, scientific accuracy and foresight.
(25:46) The Bible is amazingly scientifically accurate. It doesn't present itself as a textbook on science, but when it identifies something we can see in science, it's accurate. Now, that's very different from the societies, from the cultures that Israel was surrounded by. For example, ancient Babylon belief about the world.
(26:21) The world is made from the carcass of the slain sea goddess Tiiamat. Half her body becomes the sky, half the earth. The gods are birthed to fight and the cosmos is the outcome of divine violence. Explanation for the cosmos. According to the ancient Babylonians, ancient Egypt, the sky goddess N arched over the earth and over the earth god GB, held apart by the air god Shu.
(27:00) The sun sails across N in a solar boat by day and travels through her body and the underworld by night, battling the chaos serpent Apous. And yet for centuries, Egyptians believed that. What about the Greco Romans? Here you have Atlas physically holding up Earth and the heavens. The earth is encircled by the river god oceanis.
(27:36) Natural phenomena are assigned to discrete competing deities. For example, the world the uh the the winds are personified as gods. Many Roman citizens thought this was true. This is true. what we call mysticism or mythology. There's no basis in reality. What's interesting is when you consider the advancements of science, we it hasn't been a stagnant effort, has it? Science continues to advance in its methodologies, in its capabilities. There isn't anything that has held up.
(28:15) No belief such as the three I just showed you has ever held up to any level of real scrutiny. We know that. But yet, the Bible continues to hold up. when no other explanations do, the Bible does. We're familiar with the water cycle, correct? We've identified this a long time ago. When we test statements of the Bible against what we know scientifically, we find harmony over in Job 36.
(29:04) We find recorded for us Job 36 27 and 28. Job 36 27 and 28. For he draws up the drops of water which distill as rain from the mist which the clouds drop down and pour abundantly on man. It is the water cycle, evaporation, condensation, precipitation, collection. an ongoing cycle we all know is true, observable.
(29:51) Ecclesiastes 1, Ecclesiastes 1 and verse 7. Another observable truth. All the rivers run into the sea. Yet the sea is not full. To the place from which the rivers come, there they return again. Remarkable statements of fact that we have observed and scientifically have proven. The Bible also hints at the ordered pathways of the oceans.
(30:37) How many of you have watched Finding Nemo? Like with our grandkids? Come on, you guys. You've got to show them. Finding Nemo by now. They're old enough. Finding Nemo is a great story.
(30:55) At one point, you know, he's trying to get from I think he's trying to get from New Zealand to Australia is where I think the little fish is trying dad fish is trying to get to find his baby fish. And he finds this this uh what do they call a a herd, a pack of turtles? Is there a name for that? whatever it's called, flock, I don't know. But he finds a bunch of turtles and they're surfer dude turtles. It's kind of funny actually.
(31:14) You got to think about that. And they're where they're swimming or trying to get to is this current that's going on in the ocean because it moves very fast because we have well documented and understanding that there are these streams, these flowing paths within the ocean. They were later identified. Before I get to there, let's look over here at Proverbs chapter 8 verse 8 or excuse me, Psalms, Psalms 8:8 and note the Bible's accuracy once again.
(31:57) Psalms chapter 8 verse 8, the birds of the air and the fish of the sea that passed through the paths of the sea. You know that it was that writing that spurred Matthew Fontaine Mauy, Matthew Fontaine Mauy, who's often called the father of oceanography, to chart the prevailing currents and wind circuits.
(32:21) And so we have maps like this that show us the prevailing current that we know as or have identified as the Gulfream. Well, the Bible doesn't call it a Gulfream. It calls it a path. But it's a path. It's moving faster. It stays together. There are reasons for that. If you want to talk about the math, come see me later. I can explain it. But this is not something that is controlled by fickle deities or some kind of fable. It's reality that we've been able to validate. And it's a simple statement in the scriptures.
(32:55) Of course, the Bible makes another statement that we know all too well is also true. Leviticus 17 and verse 11. Leviticus 17. For the life of the flesh is in the blood. Simple enough statement. It needs no other context than it because it is and it stands on its own. We know today that oxygen transport, immunity, nutrient delivery and waste removal all depend on blood. That is how our bodies function.
(33:36) And so what we know, what we have discovered scientifically about the human blood is a statement given to us by God many centuries ago. This is how he designed us. We've only validated that what he said was true. Another thing that we practice today, I think we live through four years of this little thing called quarantining.
(34:04) Correct? But notice Leviticus 13:4. Again, the Bible identifies this and God gave this technique, this practice long ago to ancient Israel to preserve health. Leviticus 13:4. But if the bright spot is white on the skin, this is identifying leprosy.
(34:29) So if the bright spot is white on the skin of the body and does not appear to be deeper than the skin and its hair has not turned white, then the priest shall isolate the one who has the sore 7 days. We call that quarantining today for good reason. It protects health to not expose somebody to something that you have. And what about what we know about the the heavens? We've been trying to chart and identify and count the host of heaven for a long time now.
(35:06) We've got telescopes and we've got spaceships out there that are doing just that. P taking pictures of everything. video, film, the whole deal to try to get a an idea about the scope of the heavens that we cannot see clearly from this tiny speck we call earth. But Jeremiah 33, God says essentially, good luck. Jeremiah 33:22, a simple statement that by observation we know to be true.
(35:47) As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, nor the sand of the sea measured, we can estimate. The best we can do as human beings is estimate. We take a certain amount and we measure that and then we calculate out whether or not that amount what that would be on a larger scale. That's an estimate. That's not a count. And that's all we can do with the stars of heaven is estimate what we think is out there. We cannot count them. God said so it's true.
(36:22) One other thing to note, Job 26:7. Again, back to Job again. Statements that we know are true, but that have also been proven. Job 26:7. It says, "He, that is God, stretches out the north over empty space. He hangs the earth on nothing." We fully realize this when we land on the moon, which appears to be hanging on nothing, and they turn around and they take a picture of Earth, which appears to be hanging on nothing. We understand gravity.
(37:02) Then we begin to understand, oh, the universe is being kept up by means we don't fully comprehend except we understand this thing called gravity. And we can compute, we can calculate, but we can't fully appreciate and understand why it is this way because we didn't do it. God did it. What's funny is if you look at mythology, it describes the earth as being on the back of a turtle as one or on the back of Atlas as another. But here the scripture says no, it hangs on nothing.
(37:39) And we can see that that's true. Isaiah chapter 40, we also know that the earth is not flat. in Isaiah chapter 40 and verse 22 again speaking of God it says it is he who sits above the circle of the earth now this phrase circle of the earth the Hebrew term denotes a circle or horizon an observer's way of describing Earth's roundness without understanding geometry.
(38:31) At minimum, it refuses the flat Earth imagery and speaks of what people actually see. Every once in a while, I'll stop and I'll try to contemplate the flat earth ideology. That's purely for my own entertainment because you've seen the pictures. you know, the earth somehow ends somewhere if it's flat and then there's these ships and somebody envisions a ship going off the edge of the ocean, you know, like where's it going? There's no good explanation for that.
(38:54) It doesn't loop under. I don't know what the exp honestly, it's why it's fun to contemplate. I have no idea how this flat earth thing would work. All right. So we can see then that when the Bible makes a claim, it gives details that we only corroborate scientifically. We've not yet discovered something that the Bible claimed to be true that we somehow scientifically proved wasn't true. The same thing archaeologically.
(39:25) Every time we find something in archaeology, we find out that the Bible's true. We've never found anything in archaeology that says the Bible isn't true. All right. The last section I want to cover a fulfilled prophecy. I want to focus on Christ because to me it's the most interesting thing to contemplate. We've established that the biblical text is authentic and well preserved, that its message is unified across centuries and authors, and that where it touches nature, it speaks without myth, mysticism, or mythology. It's accurate, and it's provably so. So now we look at this final piece,
(40:04) prediction and fulfillment. God declaring in advance what he then brings to pass. I looked up to say what other great works are there of all the history of men in which we have a prophecy recorded that later came true and which was not written first or written after the fact as though it were prophecy.
(40:27) And the answer is zero. Only the Bible has prophecies written centuries in advance that came true later. We know the Bible wasn't edited backwards. We went through that. And so if the And remember the Dead Sea Scrolls give us the book of Isaiah 250 years before Christ, unedited. So all of those prophecies were there long before Christ.
(40:57) So we didn't write those prophecies in afterwards. Notice Deuteronomy chapter 18. Deuteronomy 18:22. It says when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord. If the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You shall not be afraid of him. You know Jeremiah was competing against prophets who while Jeremiah was saying you're supposed to go into captivity to Babylon because God has decided that's what's going to happen. And you have a whole bunch of prophets that keep prophesying to the leadership. No, you don't. God
(41:50) wants us to stay here. They were not inspired by God. And nothing that they predicted came true. Just as God said it would not. Isaiah 46:es 9 and 10. Let's look at this. Just one more corroborating statement. Isaiah 46:es 9 and 10. Isaiah 46:9 says, "Remember the former things of old, for I am God and there is no other. I am God and there is none like me.
(42:36) " comma declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things that are not yet done saying my counsel shall stand. I will do all my pleasure. Only the creator God only the almighty can make a statement that whatever he says will happen will happen because only he can actually make what he says happen happen. Here's just five prophecies of Jesus Christ.
(43:09) I'm I'm going to just show you five just to give you a sense of things said about the Messiah that came true. Micah chapter 5 and verse two where it says, "But you Bethlehem Epherea, out of you shall come forth to me the one to be ruler in Israel." Messianic prophecy about Jesus Christ. Matthew 2 1-6 fulfilled with the birth of Jesus Christ. Where? In Bethlehem.
(43:38) Zechariah 9:9. Behold, your king is coming to you lowly and riding on a donkey. We go to Matthew 21:es 1-7. We see Christ entering Jerusalem for the last time on a donkey. Zechariah 11:12 and 13. So they weighed out for my wages 30 pieces of silver. This is 400 years before Christ.
(44:12) How does somebody know what the value of betrayal is 400 years from now? They weighed out for my 30 pieces of silver, but more than that, throw it to the potter. Matthew 27:3-10, we have Judas's price of betrayal at 30 pieces of silver. He mourns and regrets what he's done, and so he tries to give it back, and they won't take it.
(44:36) So, he throws it on the floor, the temple. They gather it up, and they give it to the potter for his field. Isaiah 53:7, he was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. We read in Matthew 26 62 and 63 that Jesus said nothing when accused. They kept silent. Psalm 22:16, they pierced my hands and my feet. John 19, the crucifixion.
(45:16) This is 8 verses 18 and then 37. They shall look on him who they pierced. There was no such thing when the psalmist was writing this. There was no such thing as crucifixion. Hanging someone on a stake or on a tree, nailing their hands above and their feet below. No such thing as that. Now, some might argue, well, Christ could have arranged that.
(45:51) Let's can we just think about that for a second? Who let's that the person who might think Christ could have arranged that himself doesn't believe he's the son of God. So you can dismiss godly intervention here. Somebody arranging for themsel would somehow can you tell me how this would work? Could you ar did you arrange where you were born? I was born in Santa Rosa, California.
(46:12) I have no say in that. There's there's no megaphone. There's no connection inside where the baby talks to mom. Moms, you have to validate this for me. Are your babies talking to you in the womb? Probably not. So, I'm going to go with he could not arrange his birthplace. Okay, you could say, well, he could have arranged for riding on a donkey.
(46:37) That's true. But here's the thing. Either the Messiah arranged some or none. If he arranged some for himself, then he's not the Messiah. We've already failed that one on the first one. He couldn't arrange where he was born. Do you think Christ 400 years afterwards could have predicted somehow? Think about what what the conspiracy would be if Christ had somehow to guarantee that 30 pieces of silver were involved in his betrayal.
(47:08) So then he would have had to conspire with the priests against himself to offer 30 pieces of silver. He would have had to conspire with Judas to only accept 30 pieces of silver and to have some remorse or at least fake it and then go back and try to give it back to them.
(47:29) And then he would have had to conspire for not only that to happen, but then they would take that money and buy conveniently the potter's field for 30 pieces of silver. Like, do you believe that? No way. It's like, come on. that stretches credul beyond any reasonable amount. So there's two of them. That's just virtually impossible. I suppose he could have arranged to be crucified. Think about that though.
(47:54) Really? How bad do you have to behave? He would have had to become a thief cuz the other guys were thieves. He wasn't a thief. That wasn't what he was accused of. So could he really have arranged to be crucified? I don't think so. something to consider when you're thinking about whether or not this could happen.
(48:12) But here's what's interesting to me. So, there's this project, and I know Mr. Veil touched on this a few months ago. There was a a book written called Science Speaks, published in 1958 by mathematician Dr. Peter Stoner. Now, he's a professor and he's a professor at a Protestant university in Southern California.
(48:38) And his objective was to show these students the virtual absolute confidence you could have in the Bible because of fulfilled prophecy specific to Jesus Christ. I gave you five examples of fulfilled prophecy. Stoner looked at eight. Okay? Then he did a statistical probability analysis. What are the chances that one person In all the world at any time, this is how broad this question is.
(49:07) To give the best possibility for chance, what's the chances that one person could deliberately fulfill eight messianic prophecies? The number is astonishing. He says it's one. The chance is one in. So, it's one for chance versus God gets a one followed by 17 zeros. Okay? 17 zeros. I I had to look up what's that number? 100 quadrillion.
(49:44) Does your mind lose it after like a billion anyways? I mean, mine does. I have no way of conceiving a 100 quadrillion. It's a one followed by 17 zeros. It's a big number. You know how big it is. Let's say that chance gets a colored silver dollar and we're going to mix it in with a bunch of other silver dollars.
(50:05) One in 10 to the 17th silver dollars. So 10 to the 17th silver dollars. 100 quadrillion silver dollars. If you spread that out across the state of Washington, that number of silver dollars, the pile would be four feet deep of silver dollars. Now, because this is random and it's chance, we take someone, we blindfold them, we drop them someplace in the middle of the state, and we tell them to wander around as much as you like.
(50:43) And when you feel good, stop, reach down as deep as you want to go into that four feet and pull out the one chance. Chance gets the one. God gets the 100 quadrillion. Okay, so that's a big number, isn't it? He then looked at 48. 48. that one person could somehow fulfill on their own 48 messianic prophecies. The number, they don't have a number for it. They can't describe the number. They can just tell you that it's a 10 followed by 157 zeros.
(51:25) So I I got to playing around with that and I said, "Okay, can we how deep of the state of Washington would that many silver dollars be?" And it's like, "No." Okay. I said, "All right, how about the United States?" Way too small. about the world. Not even in the ballpark.
(51:43) It's beyond it's it would be a a globe around our entire universe of silver dollars. It's like it's too big of a number to even comprehend. It is impossible. Christ fulfilled over 300. You couldn't even conceive of that number. No human mind could. Like I said, Dr.
(52:17) Stoner conducted this statistical analysis because he wanted the students to have absolute confidence in the veracity, accuracy, and inspiration of the Bible. The God who made the Messiah fulfill 300 prophecies is the author of this book. We can believe this book. We have other fulfilled prophecies. I'll give you just a couple. Isaiah chapter 45 and verse one. Isaiah 45 and verse one. I'm still here in Isaiah. You might be as well.
(52:50) It says, "Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have held." Here Isaiah, you know how long before this happened, predicts Cyrus, the king of Persia, conquering Babylon, which happened in 539 BC. This was written around 700 BC almost. What is that? 700 minus 5. It's like 140 years. 160.
(53:27) I'm looking at some of my math guys. 160 years it looks like to me this was written and his name predicted before he was born. Here's another interesting one. Let's look at Ezekiel 26:12. Ezekiel 26:12. This is speaking of tire. It says, "They will plunder your riches and pillillage your merchandise.
(54:04) They will break down your walls and destroy your pleasant houses. They will lay your stones, your timber, and your soil in the midst of the water." This is a very specific prophecy about the fall of Ty in 332 BC by Alexander. What Alexander did was use the debris from these cities that were on the coast to build what's called Alexander's causeway, a road to the island on which Ty was built.
(54:39) Precisely as predicted by Ezekiel. Ezekiel was writing 200 years before this. The point is that God gives specifics when he gives prophecy that can be checked. They can be validated. We can look and see. Did this happen? It's granular how much detail we get on something like the causeway, how and where the materials would come from and that it happened exactly as predicted.
(55:20) You know, one prophecy fulfilled might be dismissed. A cluster of related fulfillments becomes harder to ignore, but hundreds rooted in texts demonstrabably older than the events, surpass coincidence. This is God's own credential embedded into scripture. Speaking to this reality, Luke records of Christ in Luke 24 27.
(55:51) Luke 24 27 He says, Luke says of Christ, "And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself." Remember, we looked at that issue, the unity of the scriptures. And Christ here affirms he has been the central figure throughout the scriptures.
(56:35) Since we know the text is authentic, that's what we covered in point one. Its message is unified. Point two, its outlook on creation is sober and enduring. We looked at that in point three. And its prophecies fulfilled with precision. Point 4. The inference is not speculative. We know absolutely the prophecies fulfilled by Christ alone eliminates any real possibility that God did not orchestrate Christ's coming.
(57:09) Eight prophecies already overwhelm chance. 48 rocket past comprehension. 300. Coincidence isn't even a category anymore. It's not even remotely possible. The odds are too infinitely small to contemplate. It's just not possible unless God himself did it.
(57:37) The Bible is the inspired word of God and there really is no doubt about it.