Doctrine of the Bible: The Testimony of Scripture to Itself November 22, 2009.

Doctrine of the Bible:

The Testimony of Scripture to Itself

November 22, 2009

THE TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTURE TO ITSELF

“There is no better book with which to defend the Bible than the Bible itself.”

- D. L. Moody

“In effect, God signed every page of the Bible. We have every reason to believe that His signature was not forged. God has spoken and He has told us so.”

- Erwin Lutzer

THE LAW

1. Explicit Claims Exod 32:16 The tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets.

THE LAW

1. Explicit Claims

2. Claims by Association

3. Successive Affirmation Josh 1:8 This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.

THE PROPHETS

1. Spoke on behalf of God Isa 7:7 Thus says the Lord GOD.

THE PROPHETS

1. Spoke on behalf of God

2. Wrote on behalf of God Exod 34:27 And the LORD said to Moses, “Write these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.”

THE PROPHETS

1. Spoke on behalf of God

2. Wrote on behalf of God

3. The latter prophets affirmed the former– Dan 9:2 I, Daniel, perceived in the books the number of

years that, according to the word of the LORD to Jeremiah the prophet, must pass before the end of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years.

– Ezra 1:1 Now the prophets, Haggai and Zechariah the son of Iddo, prophesied to the Jews who were in Judah and Jerusalem, in the name of the God of Israel who was over them.

– Zech 7:12 …the law and the words that the LORD of hosts had sent by his Spirit through the former prophets.

THE WRITERS OF SCRIPTURE

1. David 2 Sam 23:2 The Spirit of the LORD speaks by me; his word is on my tongue.

2. Solomon 1 Kgs 4:29 And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding beyond measure, and breadth of mind like the sand on the seashore.

3. Jeremiah Jer 1:9 Then the LORD put out his hand and touched my mouth. And the LORD said to me, "Behold, I have put my words in your mouth.

THE WRITERS OF SCRIPTURE

“No man can prophesy without the Spirit. No man can teach others unless he himself be taught. The Spirit is God’s witness in any human situation. It is through the Spirit that with the need there always comes the power. And it is the Spirit who gives the prophet the strength and the courage to bring to men the message of God, whether that message be consolation or condemnation.” - William Barclay

NEW TESTAMENT AFFIRMATION OF THE OLD

• 2 Pet 1:21 For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

• Matt 5:17 Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.


• Matt 1:22 All this [the virgin birth] took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet.

• Matt 22:44-45 The Lord [Yahweh] said to my Lord [the Messiah], “Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet?” If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?

• Matt 2:4-5 [Herod] inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet.”


• Matt 12:3 But He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him: how he entered the house of God and ate the showbread which was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests?”

• Luke 24:25 And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!”

NEW TESTAMENT QUOTATIONS OF THE OLD

• Heb 10:15-17

• Jer 31:33-34

NEW TESTAMENT QUOTATIONS OF THE OLD

• Heb 10:15-17 And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying, “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds,” then he adds, “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.”

• Jer 31:33-34 “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the Lord, “I will put My law within them, and on their heart I will write it . . . for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”

NEW TESTAMENT CLAIMS

• Heb 1:1-2 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.

• Acts 4:31 And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.

NEW TESTAMENT CLAIMS

• Eph 2:19-20 …the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets…

• Acts 2:42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching…

THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS

• “The chief reason why the Christian believes in the divine origin of the Bible is that Jesus Christ himself taught it.” - John Stott

• “Christ absolutely trusted the Bible; and though there are in it things inexplicable and intricate that have puzzled me so much, I am going, not in a blind sense, but reverently, to trust the Book because of Him.”

- H. C. G. Moule

THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS TO THE OT

1. Entirety Matt 5:17-18 Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.


1. Entirety

2. Historical reliability Matt 12:40 For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.


1. Entirety

2. Historical reliability

3. Prophetic accuracy

4. Sufficiency Matt 4:4 Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.


1. Entirety



4. Sufficiency

5. Inerrancy John 17:17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.


1. Entirety



4. Sufficiency

5. Inerrancy

6. Infallibility John 10:35 Scripture cannot be broken.


1. Entirety



4. Sufficiency

5. Inerrancy

6. Infallibility

7. Divine authorship Matt 22:31 And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God…


1. Entirety



4. Sufficiency

5. Inerrancy

6. Infallibility

7. Divine authorship

8. Authority Mark 7:9 And [Jesus] said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition!”

THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS TO THE NT

• John 16:12-13 I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.

• John 14:26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS

“How do we get to the sixty-six books from the slender base that has been established? The short answer to this is that we get it through the authority of Christ. It is because He endorses the Old Testament and makes provision for the New that both Old and New have this authority.” - Paul Helm

THE TESTIMONY OF THE APOSTLES

• 1 Cor 15:3-4 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.

• Acts 17:11 Now these [Berean] Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.


• Acts 1:16 Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus.

• Rom 9:17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”

• Rom 3:2 The Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God.


• 1 Thess 2:13 And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.

• 2 Pet 3:15-16 And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.


• 1 Tim 5:18 For the Scripture says, "You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain," and, "The laborer deserves his wages."

• Deut 25:4 You shall not muzzle an ox when it is treading out the grain.

• Luke 10:7 And remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they provide, for the laborer deserves his wages.

DIVERSITY

• Written over a span of 1500 years (c. 1400 BC – 100 AD)

• 66 books

• 3 languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek) in different genres

• 3 continents (Asia, Africa, Europe)

• About 40 different authors from many different walks of life

UNITY

• Compare with the Koran

• “One way in which the Bible substantiates its own authority is its amazing coherency and symmetry. Its consistency over centuries and through the pens of multiple authors is nothing less than astonishing.”

- R. C. Sproul

THE TESTIMONY OF FULFILLED PROPHECY

“The Bible claims to be a true document that comes from God Himself. But if this is the case, the Bible must be reliable not only when speaking of past or present events, but also when predicting the future. This is an important point, since a staggering 27 percent of the Bible deals with predictions about the future.” - Walter Kaiser

THE TESTIMONY OF FULFILLED PROPHECY

• Isa 46:9-10 I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done.

• “Nowhere is the uniqueness of the Bible more evident than in the supernatural nature of its prophecies.”

- Robert Saucy

FULFILLED PROPHECY

• Abraham’s seed Gen 17:19 God said, “No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him.”

• Promised land Gen 15:18-21 On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give this land…”

FULFILLED PROPHECY

• Fall of Tyre Ezek 26:14 “I will make you a bare rock. You shall be a place for the spreading of nets. You shall never be rebuilt, for I am the LORD; I have spoken,” declares the Lord GOD.

FULFILLED PROPHECY

• Fall of Israel• Fall of Judah• Length of Israel’s captivity Jer 29:10 For thus says

the LORD: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place.”

MESSIANIC PROPHECY

• Luke 24:27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, [Jesus] interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

• Isaiah 53

LESSONS LEARNED

• Greater confidence?

• Greater love?

SCHEDULE

09/27 Introduction

10/04 How did we get our Bible?

10/11 How do we know we have the true Bible? (Part 1)

10/18 How do we know we have the true Bible? (Part 2)

10/25 Why are there so many different translations?

11/01 How do we know the Bible is true? (Part 1)



11/22 The testimony of Scripture to itself

11/29 Thanksgiving

12/06 The testimony of the early church

12/13 The testimony of extrabiblical sources

12/20 The testimony of changed lives

12/27 Christmas

Doctrine of the Bible: The Testimony of Scripture to Itself November 22, 2009.

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Transcript of Doctrine of the Bible: The Testimony of Scripture to Itself November 22, 2009.