2 Peter 1:16-21

 16 For we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. 17 He received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” 18 We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain.  19 We also have the prophetic message as something completely reliable, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. 20 Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. 21 For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

The well-known children’s hymn declares: “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” But with all the doubts cast on the Word of God by the critics of the Bible in the last two or so centuries, we could revise the song to something like, “Jesus loves me? I don’t know. I wish someone could tell me so!” When the Bible says something, can we trust it? The answer is a resounding yes.

3 overall points:
1) Not myths

16 For we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power…

The Greek word used there---“stories”---is MYTHOS, from which we get the word myths. These aren’t myths, these aren’t fables. These are facts rooted in history.

There are many attacks on the Bible. The latest one is the claim that supposedly about 70% of the NT documents are “forged.”

A new book by a major NT scholar is sure to make mincemeat of many people’s faith. Needlessly. The scholar is the iconoclastic Dr. Bart Ehrman, who teaches religion at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He’s a former evangelical who lost his faith at liberal schools (Princeton Seminary and Rutgers). The book is called Forged: Why the Bible’s Authors Are Not Who We Think They Are. Ehrman said on a radio broadcast that about 75% of the NT documents are supposedly forged. They’re frauds. Dr. Sam Lamerson heard Ehrman on a radio broadcast say words to this effect: “I want to be the scholar that uses the F-word about the Bible. I want people to know that these books were forged.” “Forged” is a strong word. Several of the NT books claim no authorship at all. Church tradition has attributed them to various writers, but the biblical text itself does not claim authorship for these particular books. For instance, none of the four Gospels (of which tradition names the writers as Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) actually have the names of the authors at the beginning of their documents. But if a document is anonymous, how could it be a forgery?

Dr. Paul Maier, a professor of ancient history at Western Michigan University and a first rate scholar of the NT and its history, told me, “Both [Ehrman] and his publisher [HarperOne] are guilty of cheap sensationalism with little or no regard for the truth.” Ehrman’s book went on sale today (March 22, 2011). Just in time for Easter, he, his publisher, and the lackeys in the media who go for all the anti-faith iconoclasm get another chance to try and cash in.

Darrel Bock
Many of the people, who today, write against Christianity actually came out of an original conservative Christian background of one kind or another. Sometimes, we make the Bible more precise than it’s designed to be, and we don’t appreciate the kind of Bible that God has actually given us in the process. So, as a child is growing up and hits teenage years or hits collage, they begin to ask questions that the text itself is raising.  And rather than engaging people on the substance of that question, they simply say, “Don’t go there,” or “That’s liberalism,” or “You can’t ask that question.”  Well, they can’t shut off their minds.  The impression gets created that somehow conservative Christianity has something to hide, there’s something to cover up. When they leave their conservative roots, they don’t just tweak it, they swing completely over to the other side. Tthe important of this story is… is that brittle fundamentalism is the ideas that when it… when… when a false perception of Christianity cracks, it doesn’t just have a crack, it shatters like a windshield.

C. S. Lewis, the great scholar of Oxford and Cambridge, once said:
“. . . . when you turn from the New Testament to modern scholars, remember that you go among them as a sheep among wolves. Naturalistic assumptions . . . will meet you on every side---even from the pens of clergymen.”
Naturalistic assumptions---the idea that the supernatural is impossible---is the foundation of much unbelief in the Bible. Such scholars assume that the supernatural cannot happen.
 

It’s ironic that he and many other scholars of the New Testament do not believe that miracles are possible. Therefore, when they read the Gospels—which are loaded with miracles—already off the bat, they don’t believe much of what they’re reading.
 It’s almost like somebody reading someone else’s mail.
 Why are they even concerning themselves with this stuff if they don’t believe it?
Norm Geisler: The critic approaches the Bible with an anti-supernatural presupposition.  He doesn’t believe in God and he doesn’t believe in miracles.  Now, if you don’t believe in God and you don’t believe in miracles, you come to the Bible, and the Bible is a supernatural book uh... that was produced by a supernatural God, then you’ve got a biased against it, you’re not gonna be able to accept it.  So, he doesn’t come neutral.  He comes with his own presuppositions and his own presuppositions are opposed to what the Bible claims.

Norm
A lot of people say the Bible is full of errors: you can’t trust the Bible.  Well, I spent 40 years researching that topic and wrote a book entitled, When Critics Ask, and concluded that there was not a single error anywhere, except in the critics. I found that the Bible didn’t have any errors, but the critics were full of errors.

Of course, there are some difficult passages in the Bible. But there are answers. Trust what we don’t understand, based on that which is clearly understood---such as the fact that Christ rose from the dead.

There ARE answers. I think of a young man who grew up in Pompano and went to a local church nearby. As he was teenage, he had many questions, and his youth pastor couldn’t answer them all—and he wisely recommended he go see Dr. Kennedy over at the Presbyterian church. And Al Mohler did. And he got the answers.
He went on to become the young president of the seminary that had gone liberal. It was no longer believing in the authority of the Bible or in the atonement and resurrection of Christ.

-Mohler took over on March 26, 1993. Faculty members came to see him and tell him his chapel message was “theologically unnuanced.” Faculty members told him it that Moher’s proposed changes/regime will not last. You will not be acceptable. Mohler said to their leader, “You’re fired.” He responded that that can’t happen. According to his contract, because he had tenure, Mohler can’t do that. It wouldn’t hold up in a court of law. Mohler said here you take the wording of this contract as meaning something. But the word of God means whatever we want it to say.
 

2) Eyewitnesses
….but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. 17 He received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” 18 We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain.

Peter was an eyewitness of the transfiguration. This must have been one of the highlights of his entire life.

1 John 1 NIV
1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. 2 The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. 3 We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4 We write this to make our[a] joy complete.

God said, this is My beloved Son. Why did God send His Son? Because we need Him for eternal life.

Christianity is based on their testimony

-Sam Lamerson says: “it seems to me, almost absurd to think, that we, in the 21st century can sit in judgment on eyewitnesses who actually saw what it was that Jesus did and said and say, ‘Well, sorry Matthew, you may have been there, but I’m from the 21st century.  I know that didn’t happen.’”

3) God is the source of the Bible

20 Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. 21 For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

Reliable? Yes.
Prophecies-list in REAL MESSIAH-350 prophecies from the OT, that we know for a fact were written and sealed hundreds of years before Christ. How do we know that? 1) the Greek translation called the Septuagint and 2) the Dead Sea scrolls found in 1948 were believed to be sealed in 120 BC. The Dead Sea scrolls contain all the books of the OT except Esther.

As to prophecy, DJK notes:
Nothing vaguely resembles this in any other book in the world. Consider the sacred writings of other religions: Twenty six volumes which claim to be divine Scriptures, or are claimed to be by their followers (since many of them make no such claim themselves), have no specific predictive prophecies. But the Old Testament has many specific predictions which Jesus of Nazareth fulfilled. All of these prophecies were written between c. 1500 B.C. and 400 B.C., so you can see the incredible difficulty that would exist in trying to engineer this.

Lee Strobel, a former skeptic, likes to say that the Old Testament gives us a thumbprint: “It says when you find the person that fits this thumbprint, that’s the Messiah. That’s the Son of God, and throughout history, only Jesus Christ has had that thumbprint.”

-There’s a saying among the Christians in Egypt:
"The Bible protects/defends it's followers; however, the Koran needs it's followers to protect/defend it!"

 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God,
 and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof,
 for correction, for instruction in righteousness.
2 Timothy 3:16
 

-Jesus’ seal of approval-
Theologian and author John R. W. Stott says Jesus= view of Scripture is the ultimate apologetic for its veracity. He writes:
The overriding reason for accepting the divine inspiration and authority of Scripture is plain loyalty to Jesus . . . . If Jesus endorsed the Old Testament, setting upon it the stamp of his own approval, he also foresaw the writing of the Scriptures of the New Testament, parallel to the Scriptures of the Old Testament. Indeed, he not only foresaw it, he actually intended it, and he deliberately made provision for it by appointing and authorizing his apostles.

Tertullian wrote, “We Christians are forbidden to introduce anything on our own authority, or to choose what someone else introduces on his own authority. Our authorities are the Lord’s apostles, and they in their turn choose to introduce nothing on their own authority. They faithfully passed on to the nations the teaching which they had received from Christ.”

-Christ’s rez

Subjective impact of Word of God

Close-Billy Graham story

---portions of the following are © from Answers in Genesis

Who is Charles Templeton? Fuelled by concern about the spiritual state of post-Depression youth, mass evangelism exploded onto the American scene in the 1940s. Thousands of young servicemen and civilians streamed to arenas to see the programs, which included preaching, music, and various acts.

One of the leaders in this movement was a young man from Canada, Charles Templeton, born in 1915. He was generally acknowledged to be the most versatile of the new young evangelists. Templeton soon rose to prominence, even surpassing another dynamic young preacher, Billy Graham. In 1946, he was listed among those best used of God by the National Association of Evangelicals.

As the pastor of the rapidly growing Avenue Road Church in Toronto, which he had started with only his family and a few friends, Templeton also became one of three vice-presidents of the newly-formed Youth For Christ International organization in 1945. He then nominated his good friend, Billy Graham, to be field evangelist for the new ministry. Templeton, Graham, and a few others regularly spoke to thousands, winning many to Christ both in America and in Europe.

Newspapers and magazines carried reports of his meetings informing readers he was winning 150 converts a night. In Evansville, Indiana, the total attendance over the two week campaign was 91,000 out of a population of 128,000. Church attendance went up 17%.

However, despite his popularity and seeming success as an evangelist, all was not well with Charles Templeton. The more he read, the more he found he was beginning to question the essentials of the Christian faith, because he could no longer believe God’s Word beginning with Genesis.

In a conversation with Billy Graham concerning Templeton’s desire to attend Princeton Theological Seminary, Templeton stated:

‘But, Billy, it’s simply not possible any longer to believe, for instance, the biblical account of creation. The world wasn’t created over a period of days a few thousand years ago; it has evolved over millions of years. It’s not a matter of speculation; it’s demonstrable fact.’

Templeton warned Graham that it was ‘intellectual suicide’ to not question the Bible and to go on preaching God’s Word as authoritative.---end of AIG quote---

After graduating from Princeton, Templeton eventually lost his faith and even wrote an autobiography, FAREWELL TO GOD.

Meanwhile, Billy Graham struggled with his own doubts.

Christianhistory.net writes:
Shaken by his friend Charles Templeton’s growing skepticism of biblical authority, Graham wondered whether he could continue to preach. The doubts grew so strong that he even considered going back to North Carolina to work as a dairy farmer. With evangelistic meetings being planned for Los Angeles that fall, Graham needed a quick resolution one way or another. He conferred with Henrietta Mears, who founded the Forest Home Christian conference center where he was speaking. He confessed his concerns to God and wrestled for an answer. Fortunately for evangelicals, Graham resolved to accept God’s Word by faith. "I’m going to allow faith to go beyond my intellectual questions and doubts," Graham prayed, "and I will believe this to be Your inspired Word."
And the rest, as they say, is history.

This reminds me of the argument between some Jewish people in John 7. Some believed Jesus was the Messiah. Others said, How could He be? He’s from Nazareth, but the Bible says when the Messiah comes, He’ll be from Bethlehem. What they didn’t know was that Jesus was born in Bethlehem. So some of those who may have rejected Jesus did so based on their ignorance.

Those parts we don’t understand we should take by faith based on the parts we do understand. I mentioned earlier the resurrection. When Jesus Christ walked out of that tomb 2000 years ago, He settled all of these questions.

My wife made an interesting observation to me the other day. She said the Bible is the only book in the world where the author is always present when you read it. When these skeptics who study the Bible just to tear it down, when they read the Bible with the assumption that miracles can’t happen, therefore, they reject the message of the Bible a priori, before the fact, they are in a sense excluding the author as they read it.

Billy Graham: "The intellectually proud…cannot understand that faith goes beyond learning, knowledge and even reason, and accepts that which may not even appear logical to the mind."

David says in Psalm 119:89. Forever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven.

Jesus loves me? This I know, for the Bible tells me so.