Beth Yeshua Messianic Congregation

1. Beth Yeshua Messianic Congregation Shabbat Service, Saturday November 30, 2012 The Bible: Is There Proof that It is the Word of God? http://www.bethyeshua-idaho.com/

2. Carl Sagan Jewish- American astronomer, astrophysicist, cosmologist, author, science popularizer and science communicator in astronomy and natural sciences, submitted:

3. “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.” In This Observation he was correct.

4. Though many assume that Sagan was an atheist, in 1981 he said, “An atheist is someone who is certain that God does not exist, someone who has compelling evidence against the existence of God. I know of no such compelling evidence…” Wakin, Edward (May 1981). "God and Carl Sagan: Is the Cosmos Big Enough for Both of Them?". U.S. Catholic: 19–24. http://www.uscatholic.org. Retrieved 7 April 2012.

5. “Because God can be relegated to remote times and places and to ultimate causes, we would have to know a great deal more about the universe than we do now to be sure that no such God exists. To be certain of the existence of God and to be certain of the nonexistence of God seem to me to be the confident extremes in a subject so riddled with doubt and uncertainty as to inspire very little confidence indeed.”

6. So Saying, One Must Believe (or NOT) in God On the Basis of Faith!

7. It Takes as Much or (in My Opinion) More Faith to Believe that there is NO God, than to Believe IN the Existence of God!

8. That’s Why We Have Been Going Through the Hebrews 11 “Faith Hall of Fame Chapter”

9. Hebrews 11:1 Tells Us: 1Trusting is being confident of what we hope for, convinced about things we do not see. 2 It was for this that Scripture attested the merit of the people of old. 3By trusting, we understand that the universe was created through a spoken word of God, so that what is seen did not come into being out of existing phenomena.

10. Sha’ul Writes In Romans Chapter 1: 18 What is revealed is God's anger from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people who in their wickedness keep suppressing the truth; 19because what is known about God is plain to them, since God has made it plain to them.

11. 20For ever since the creation of the universe his invisible qualities - both his eternal power and his divine nature - have been clearly seen, because they can be understood from what he has made. Therefore, they have no excuse…

12. Is There Empirical Evidence That There is a God? And That the Bible is the Word of God?

13. With Regard to the Existence of God Even Devout Scientists such as Carl Sagan, a Jew, would approach His Existence with skepticism.

14. The First Element of Faith: Believing that God Exists 6 And without trusting, it is impossible to be well pleasing to God, because whoever approaches him must trust that he does exist…

15. The Second Element of Faith: That He is a Rewarder of those who seek Him Out “…and that he becomes a Rewarder to those who seek him out.”

16. The Third Element of a Biblical Saving Faith: Living(Actions/Doing- Works) the Life of a Person who believes in the One, True God!

17. Doing What He Says Well, where do we find that Information out? Of Course, in the Word of God!

18. So, What’s the True, Revealed Word of God?

19. With Regard to the Bible Being the Revealed Word of God… • There are lots of “Scripture” out there that make the Same Claim!

20. What makes the Bible DIFFERENT and SOLELY the True Word of God?

21. The Bible Says it is the Word of God Some thirty-eight hundred times the Bible declares, “God said,” or “Thus says the Lord.”

22. 2 Peter 1 20 Above all, you do well if you recognize this: No prophecy of scripture ever comes about by the prophet’s own imagination, 21 for no prophecy was ever borne of human impulse; rather, men carried alongby the Holy Spirit spoke from God.

23. 2 Timothy 3:15 “…and how from infancy you have known the holy writings, which are able to give you wisdom for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16Every scripture is inspired by Godand useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the person dedicated to God may be capable and equipped for every good work.”

24. Men Inspired (or Moved) by God Wrote the Bible Scripture!

25. Inspiration – “In Breathed” Vs Expiration – “Out Breathed” When someone dies, we say that they “expired” or “breathed their last”

26. “God breathed” Inspiration establishes that the Bible is a divine product. In other words, Scripture is divinely inspired in that God actively worked through the process and had his hand in the outcome of what Scripture would say. Inspired Scripture is simply written revelation. "Scripture is not only man's word, but also, and equally God's word, spoken through man's lips or written with man's pen" (J.I. Packer, The Origin of the Bible, p. 31).

27. Plenary Verbal Inspiration The word plenary means "full" or "complete". Therefore, plenary verbal inspiration asserts that God inspired the complete text(s) of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, including both historical and doctrinal details. The word verbal affirms the idea that inspiration extends to the very words the writers chose.

28. Regarding Inspiration: 1) The idea is not of mechanical dictation, or automatic writing, or any process which involved the suspending of the action of the human writer's mind. http://www.theopedia.com/Inspiration_of_the_Bible

29. 2) The fact that in inspiration God did not obliterate the personality, style, outlook, and cultural conditioning of his penmen does not mean that his control of them was imperfect, or that they inevitably distorted the truth they had been given to convey in the process of writing it down. http://www.theopedia.com/Inspiration_of_the_Bible

30. 3) Inspiredness is not a quality attaching to corruptions that intrude in the course of the transmission of the text, but only to the text as originallyproduced by the inspiredwriters. http://www.theopedia.com/Inspiration_of_the_Bible

31. 4) The inspiredness of the biblical writing is not to be equated with the inspiredness of great literature, not even when (as is often true) the biblical writing is in fact great literature. The biblical idea of inspiration relates not to the literary quality of what is written, but to its character as divine revelation in writing. http://www.theopedia.com/Inspiration_of_the_Bible

32. So, The Bible Says it is the Word of God Is that a Valid Argument to Prove that it IS the Word of God?

33. Bible Believers Accused of Circular Reasoning

34. Is that a valid argument? In a court of law, the accused has the right to testify on his own behalf.

35. BUT That testimony MUST be considered in the light of ALL the evidence.

36. Does the Evidence Support the Bible’s Claim to be the True Word of God? We have to consider the evidence, both external and internal, which support the claims of the Bible.

37. Internal and External Evidences There are both internal and external evidences that the Bible is truly God’s Word. The internal evidences are those things within the Bible that testify of its divine origin.

38. First Internal Evidence = Unity One of the first internal evidences that the Bible is truly God’s Word is seen in its unity. Even though it is really sixty-six individual books, written on three continents, in three different languages, over a period of approximately 1500 years, by more than 40 authors who came from many walks of life, the Bible remains one unified bookfrom beginning to end without contradiction. http://www.gotquestions.org/Bible-God-Word.html

39. Some were kings, some peasants, still others were philosophers, fishermen, physicians, statesmen, scholars, poets, and farmers. They lived in a variety of cultures, in different experiences and often were quite different in their make up.

40. Yet there is a Unity Throughout the Entire Book! This unity is unique from all other books and is evidence of the divine origin of the words which God moved men to record. http://www.gotquestions.org/Bible-God-Word.html

41. Regardless of this diversity, as one book, it is: … bound together by historical sequence, type and antitype, prophecy and fulfillment, and by the anticipation, presentation, realization, and exaltation of the most perfect Person who ever walked on earth and whose glories are manifest in heaven… Lewis Sperry Chafer, Systematic Theology, Vol 1, Kregel, Grand Rapids, 1947-48, p. 52.

42. Second Internal Evidence= Fulfilled Prophecy The Bible contains hundreds of detailed prophecies relating to the future of individual nations including Israel, certain cities, and mankind. Other prophecies concern the coming of One who would be the Messiah, the Savior of all who would believe in Him. Unlike the prophecies found in other religious books or those by men such as Nostradamus, biblical prophecies are extremely detailed. http://www.gotquestions.org/Bible-God-Word.html

43. There are over three hundred prophecies concerning Jesus Christ in the Old Testament. Not only was it foretold where He would be born and His lineage, but also how He would die and that He would rise again. There simply is no logical way to explain the fulfilled prophecies in the Bible other than by divine origin. There is no other religious book with the extent or type of predictive prophecy that the Bible contains. http://www.gotquestions.org/Bible-God-Word.html

44. Throughout Scripture, hundreds of prophecies were made by Old Testament writers concerning the Messiah, the future kingdom on earth, the restoration of Israel as a nation, and their return to their Promised Land. In the New Testament also many predictions are made of events to come. As Scripture unfolds, about half of these prophecies have already been fulfilled, but others, following the same pattern of literal fulfillment, are subject to fulfillment in the future. Lewis Sperry Chafer Systematic Theology, Vol. 1, Abridged Edition, Walvoord, Campbell, Zuck, p. 53.

45. The perfect precision of prophecy extending to such details as the place of Christ’s birth, the character of His execution, the very words He would speak on the cross testify to the absolute accuracy of the Word of God. In Scripture, prophecy is just as accurate as history. Lewis Sperry Chafer Systematic Theology, Vol. 1, Abridged Edition, Walvoord, Campbell, Zuck, p. 53.

46. Third Internal Evidence = The Bible’s revelation of God The Bible’s revelation of God is unique among all the religious writings of either antiquity or of more modern times. While the Bible is a very ethical book, it never divorces its code of morality from a personal relationship with the God of the Bible, teaching that God’s laws are not meant to hinder joy and pleasure, but to enhance man’s capacity to know and love God and people. Morality is to be a product of knowing and loving the God of the Bible.

47. Fourth Internal Evidence = The nature, condition, and cure for man’s sin Only the Bible describes man’s condition in sin as it really is and demonstrates the impossibility for man to deal with his sin and sinfulnessapart from God’s grace solution in the person and death of His Son.Every other religion in the world, past and present, has man seeking to obtain his own salvation or gain God’s favor by some form of human works or religious activity. Only the Bible presents a solution for man’s sin that is truly life changing, when properly embraced and believed.

48. Fifth Internal Evidence = The ethics and Morals of the Bible The ethics and morals of the Bible cover all areas of human conduct from the home, the husband/wife relationships, parent/child relationships, to human conduct in society as with employers and employees, neighbors and enemies, and the state and its citizens. It covers morals on all levels as well as business, economic, and social spheres.

49. But as mentioned previously, the ethics and morals of the Bible are unique in that they are always related to one’s belief in the existence of God and one’s relationship with Him; in this way, the motives themselves are judged. Ethics and morals are never simply a matter of outward conformity to the moral standards of Scripture as other religions or religious books do. The emphasis of the Bible is “search me O God, and know my heart.”

50. Sixth Internal Evidence = The Bible as Revelation Beyond Human Comprehension The extent of Bible revelation is beyond human comprehension. Like a telescope, the Bible reaches beyond the stars and penetrates the heights of heaven and the depths of hell. Like a microscope, it discovers the minutest details of God’s plans and purposes as well as the hidden secrets of the human heart. Lewis Sperry Chafer Systematic Theology, Vol. 1, Abridged Edition, Walvoord, Campbell, Zuck, p. 51.