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Is the Bible really true?

sermon by Manfred Schreyer

(Dan 9:24-27 NIV) "Seventy 'sevens' are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy. {25} "Know and understand this: From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven 'sevens,' and sixty-two 'sevens.' It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble. {26} After the sixty-two 'sevens,' the Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed. {27} He will confirm a covenant with many for one 'seven.' In the middle of the 'seven' he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on a wing of the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him."

Most people are bothered by those passages in Scripture which they cannot understand. The Scripture which troubles me most is the Scripture I do understand. -- Mark Twain

Surveys indicate that 91% of Americans own a Bible and 85% consider themselves to be Christians but only 40% say they are born again. More than half (56%) believe that their entrance into Heaven will be decided based on their behavior (good works) during their life. Although 80% believe the Bible is the inspired Word of God, 61% believe the Holy Spirit is not real. Of those Americans that say they attend church weekly (40%), 17% say they tithe (give 10%) while only 3% actually do. Charitable giving of any amount is only done by 40% or less of all American households.

More copies of the Bible were printed last year than in any previous year. Although it is the most outstanding piece of literature ever produced, many, "enlightened" Americans seem to know little or nothing about it.

A few years ago, a test of Bible knowledge was given to five classes of high school seniors. Most of them failed the exam completely! Some were so confused that they thought Sodom and Gomorrah were lovers, or that the gospels were written by Matthew, Mark, Luther, and John. Others said that Eve was created from an apple, and that the stories Jesus used in teaching were called parodies. More than 80 percent of the pupils could not complete such familiar quotations as "Many are called but few are (chosen)";

A Gallup poll conducted some years ago revealed that 60 percent of Americans did not know what "the Holy Trinity" was. Sixty-six percent couldn't say who delivered the Sermon on the Mount, and 79 percent were unable to name a single Old Testament prophet. When people are questioned about the Bible on radio or television, it is remarkable and disconcerting to see their complete lack of knowledge on the subject. Some are almost as confused as the little boy who wrote on his test paper that "the epistles were the wives of the apostles, and that Sodom and Gomorrah were husband and wife."

I am often asked:" Do you believe every word in the bible? I must tell you the truth I have often thought about that question for myself and I m more and I have become more and more convicted that I believe every word in the bible. Well, you may say : We expect that, but we also have to be honest, that we sometimes toy with the idea of self-interpretation or we are in a great wrestling match with reason / science/ and the word of God.

Today I would like to share some evidences that the Bible is true:

If one will seriously investigate these Biblical evidences, he will find that their claims of divine inspiration (stated over 3,000 times, in various ways) were amply justified.

The remarkable evidence of fulfilled prophecy is just one case in point. Hundreds of Bible prophecies have been fulfilled, specifically and meticulously, often long after the prophetic writer had passed away. For example, Daniel the prophet predicted in about 538 BC (Daniel 9:24-27) that Christ would come as Israel's promised Savior and Prince 483 years after the Persian emperor would give the Jews authority to rebuild Jerusalem, which was then in ruins. This was clearly and definitely fulfilled, hundreds of years later.

Roundness of the earth Isaiah (Isa 40:22 NIV) He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in.

Law of conservation of mass and energy (2 Pet 3:7 NIV) By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.

Hydrologic Cycle (Eccl 1:7 NIV) All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they return again.

Vast number of stars (Jer 33:22 NIV) I will make the descendants of David my servant and the Levites who minister before me as countless as the stars of the sky and as measureless as the sand on the seashore.'"

Law of increasing entropy (the degradation of the matter and energy in the universe to an ultimate state of inert uniformity) (Psa 102:25-27 NIV) In the beginning you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. {26} They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment. Like clothing you will change them and they will be discarded. {27} But you remain the same, and your years will never end.

Paramount importance of blood in life processes (Lev 17:11 NIV) For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one's life.

The remarkable structure of the Bible should also be stressed. Although it is a collection of 66 books, written by 40 or more different individuals over a period of 2,000 years, it is clearly one Book, with perfect unity and consistency throughout.

Finally there is the Daniel passage:

Click here for chart

Some say there are contradictions: Take the Cain and Abel story? "Cain must have married one of his sisters!" Some argue that Cain went into the land of Nod and found a woman there!

Well that creates a problem with the passage in Romans and Corinthians:

Therefore, even as through one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed on all men inasmuch as all sinned (Romans 5:12).

1 Corinthians 15:45 that Adam was "the first man." God did not start by making a whole group of men.

Knowing that we can assume that there was no other race on earth and he must have begotten one of his sisters, because the Word of God tells us that we are all descendants of Adam and Eve. Consequently we can not be from another created race! The law forbidding marriage between close relatives was not given until the time of Moses Ref: Leviticus 18- 20. Provided marriage was one man to one woman for life (based on Genesis 1 and 2), there was no disobedience to God's law originally when close relatives (even brothers and sisters) married each other.

(2 Tim 3:15-16 NIV) and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. {16} All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.

(2 Pet 1:20-21 NIV) Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. {21} For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.