Do We Still Need the Bible Today? Part 2 by Samuel H Johnson

Do We Still Need the Bible Today? Part 2  

 Our teaching today is part 2 of the answer this question DO WE STILL NEED THE BIBLE TODAY? let me repeat that question DO WE STILL NEED THE BIBLE TODAY?  

Before I begin let me do a quick review of Part 1.

I am looking at the seminal explanation of why you can trust the Bible which was first done by the great Bible Apologist and Scholar Dr. Voddie Baucham, who is currently the Dean of the Seminary at the African Christian University in Lusaka, Zambia in Southern Africa. He stated that - The Bible is a reliable collection of historical documents, written by eyewitnesses, during the lifetime of other witnesses, who reported supernatural events that took place in fulfillment of specific prophesies, and claim that their writings are of divine and not human in origin.

In Part 1, I demonstrated that the Bible was a reliable historical document which was a collection of the writings of more that 40 authors. I explained why the idea that the Bible has errors to be false. I showed that the Bible had more manuscripts, earlier manuscripts and more reliable manuscripts than any ancient books of in the libraries of universities and institutions of higher learning. I also explained that one reason people don’t want the Bible to be true is because they don’t want to be held accountable to the Bible’s moral and ethical standards.

Today we will look at the three remaining points.

• 1.    The Bible was written by eyewitnesses, during the lifetime of other witnesses
• 2.    The writers reported supernatural events that took place in fulfillment of specific prophesies.
• 3.    The writers claim that their writings are of divine and not human in origin.

Let us begin with point # 1 – The Bible was written by eyewitness during the lifetime of other eyewitnesses. Now there is no doubt that eyewitness testimony is best and most reliable evidence of the truth for any ancient book of the first century. It is the best evidence to confirm what really happened. The great majority of the writers of the New Testament were eyewitnesses.

Let me demonstrate why eyewitnesses are so vital to the authenticity of any historical writing. Suppose a college student was doing research about the life of US President Abraham Lincoln. The student would look at the writings of current historians who wrote about President Lincoln. The student would also look at the writings of those who lived during that time, observed and worked with Mr Lincoln. Who would likely to be the most credible writers? Of course – those who lived at the time President Lincoln was alive. The same rule must be applied for the writers of the Bible.

Let us look at the writings of some of the eyewitnesses who wrote about the Bible. Of course, the most credible authors would be the disciples of Jesus.

Look at Peter, the most well-known of the twelve apostles of Jesus. The Apostle Peter was one of the leading disciples of Jesus and this is what he wrote in 2 Peter 1:16 - 18 “For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty”.

Peter is saying that he did not make up stories and fables, but he was an eyewitness among the twelve. He was there with Jesus throughout Christ’s three and a half years ministry. He saw the healings and miracles. He then further writes in the next two verses:

17 For He (that’s Jesus) received from God the Father honor and glory when such a voice came to Him from the Excellent Glory: "This is My Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."  And we heard this voice which came from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain.

He is testifying of a specific event which took place when Jesus and his inner circle of disciples (Peter, James and John) were on the Mount of Transfiguration. This event was also documented by another disciple, Matthew.

Matthew also documented the arrest and trial of Jesus under Pontius Pilate, the crucifixion, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. These were actual events which were corroborated by non-biblical, historical sources and archaeology.

Let’s turn to another eyewitness, Apostle John. Now look what the Apostle John writes in his eyewitness testimony. In I John 1:1-4 "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"  John is saying the they heard Jesus, they saw Him with his eyes, touched Him and proclaimed what all he observed and experienced This is bold, this is clear.

He then writes in the next three verses; read carefully "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."

-       This is eyewitness testimony; he emphasizes seeing, touching, fellow-shipping with Jesus. Then he also states that it gives him joy to report his testimony. These men are not shy to report their actual experiences.

So far, we have identified the eyewitness testimonies of Peter, Matthew and John, three disciples of Jesus. Let us look at the other writers of the four gospels, Mark and Luke. These two men were closely associated with the apostles. Mark traveled extensively with the Apostle Paul and was very close to the Apostle Peter. He was an eyewitness to the events of the life of Jesus.

Luke was special, he was a medical doctor and historian. He was detailed, orderly and comprehensive in writings of his gospel and the book of Acts. Hear how Dr. Luke introduces his gospel in the first chapter of Luke:

"Many have undertaken to compile a narrative about the events that have been fulfilled among us, just as the original eyewitnesses and servants of the word handed them down to us.  It also seemed good to me, since I have carefully investigated everything from the very first, to write to you in an orderly sequence, most honorable Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things about which you have been instructed"

This is awesome testimony from Luke as he makes several points: 

• Luke is writing to an official named Theophilus, providing his reasons for writing his gospel 
• Many people were writing about the events surrounding Jesus and Luke needed to do this also. But he was relying on the original eyewitnesses.
• He wrote an orderly report after first investigating and researching everything
• His goal was to give the reader a clear understanding of what took place

Luke also wrote the Book of Acts which is a documented narrative of the activities of the early church. He traveled extensively with the Apostle Paul on his missionary journeys. In the book “I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist” by Frank Turek and Norman Geisler, they noted that Luke “correctly recorded the names of local politicians, local slang, local weather patterns, local topography, local business practices; and even the right depth of the water a quarter mile of the island of Malta, where their ship was about to run aground. In fact, Frank Turek and Norman Geisler wrote that Luke documented over 84 such details in the last half of the book of Acts. Classical scholar and archaeologist William M. Ramsey was skeptical of Luke’s writing, but he wrote “I began with a mind unfavorable to it [Acts] … but more recently I found myself often brought into contact with the Book of Acts as an authority for the topography, antiquities and society of Ancient Minor. It was gradually borne in upon me that in various details the narrative showed marvelous truth”. Luke was indeed a master historian"

I gave you the writers of the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John as eyewitnesses who were authors in the Bible. Some of you may ask - why these writers did not all write the identical things about Jesus. Think about this – if you were to ask four authors to write about the Presidency of Barack Obama you would not get the identical document. The point is that each writer may have a different focus or goal. Independent sources usually tell the same story with differing details depending upon their emphasis and goals. This is exactly the point with the four gospels.

Matthew’s goal was to demonstrate to the Jewish audience that Jesus was the promised Messiah of the Old Testament.  Matthew traced the genealogy back to Abraham, the father of the Jewish people. Mark’s goal was to show Jesus as the servant who came to serve, and his gospel is brief and straight to the point. Luke, the doctor and historian, wrote a detailed gospel in a chronological order. Luke’s genealogy goes all the way back to Adam and Eve which demonstrated his goal of an orderly gospel. John, on the other hand, wanted to show that Jesus was God in the flesh. So, you find Jesus making statements like these in the Gospel of John:

Before Abraham was, I am – John 8:58

I and my Father are one – John 10:30

I am the resurrection and the life – John 11:25

I am the way, the truth and the life – John 14:6

So, it is a normal expectation that the gospels were four perspectives on the same story, the life of Jesus Christ. In addition, all four gospels mentioned women as eyewitnesses naming Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, Salome, Joana and of course Mary the mother of Jesus

Now there is another eyewitness whose writings are vital to this discussion, the only and only Apostle Paul. Hear what Paul writes in I Corinthians 15:3-8

"3 For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. 6 After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. 7 After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. 8 Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time"

Paul made several points 

1    - He identified the gospel, the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
- He identified the early eyewitnesses, the twelve apostles
- He identified 500 eyewitnesses of Christ activities after His resurrection of which the overwhelming majority were alive when Paul wrote 1 Corinthians. 
- He also said he was an eyewitness who met Jesus supernaturally on the road to Damascus

Now skeptics may question the truthfulness or bias of the eyewitnesses. How do we know that these writers did not have something to gain personally? I will look at a couple of reasons (there are at least 10 reasons of explanation). First, remember that there were hundreds of eyewitnesses to the resurrection of Jesus. If the writers were not truthful, they could be easily exposed as charlatans by some of those eyewitnesses. Also, by following Jesus, writing and proclaiming His messages, all these Bible writers were risking everything – their lives, their livelihood. They abandoned their centuries old Jewish faith to follow Jesus, only to be hunted and persecuted. Almost all of them were martyred (hanged, murdered, crucified, stoned to death). No sane person would risk life and limb to write and promote a false faith knowing that they are signing their death warrant. The New Testament writers must have seen strong evidence for the gospel to turn from Judaism to the gospel of Christ.

There is also the principle historians call “the principle of embarrassment” It states that – generally authors do not write or embellish facts that are a personal embarrassment or make themselves look bad or foolish. The New Testament is full of embarrassing, negative, compromising facts about the writers. The Gospels are full of this – the disciples flee and left Jesus, Peter denied Him three times, they failed many tests, were fearful, showed little faith, lied and were cowards. Many reports showed them as uncaring, selfish cowards. They even wrote embarrassing things about their leader Jesus, who they were willing to give up everything to follow, and even willing to sacrifice their lives for the promotion of the message of Christ. The men ran away and hide when Jesus was arrested and crucified. It was the women were first to visit Jesus tomb. Writers tend to leave out such embarrassing facts. The writers of the Bible did write about all these unflattering moments.

So, I just addressed that the Bible was written by eyewitnesses, during the lifetime of other witnesses. Next, we said that the Bible "Reported supernatural events that took place in fulfillment of specific prophesies"

There are many supernatural events in the new Testament that confirmed specific prophecies made by the Old Testament prophets. The prophesied birth of Jesus is one of the greatest supernatural event that fulfilled Old Testament prophesies. The first prophecy of Jesus birth can be found in Genesis, the first book of the Bible, specifically Genesis chapter 3:15 “I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel”   That seed that will strike the serpent Satan’s head is Jesus.

The virgin birth of Jesus was prophesied by the prophet Isaiah over 700 years before the birth of Christ. Hear what the scripture says in Isaiah 7:14 “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Emmanuel”

-       That was a supernatural prophesy that was fulfilled when Mary gave birth to Jesus recorded in gospels of Mathew and Luke. Emmanuel means God with us

The prophet Isaiah prophesied the coming birth of Jesus through the line Israel’s king David.  Isaiah chapter 9: 6-7 "For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. ⁷ Of the increase of His government and peace There will be no end, Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, To order it and establish it with judgment and justice From that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.”

-       A part of this prophesy was fulfilled with the first coming of Jesus to die for the sins of all humans to give them a chance for salvation and redemption from hell. The second part of this prophesy will be fulfilled with the second coming of Christ to rule the earth, beginning with the 1,000-year rule described in the Book of Revelation 20

 The crucifixion of Jesus Christ was prophesied in Isaiah 53, over 700 years before the event occurred. There is hardly any Bible scholar who would dare dispute that Isaiah 53 speaks specifically of Jesus' death on the cross.

There is a fascinating prophesy in the Book of Psalms Chapter 22, written by David, which described some of the events occurring during the crucifixion of Jesus on the cross. We can read the confirmation of this in the book of Matthew chapter 27 which was written over 1,000 years after the prophecy.

Prophecy	Fulfillment
Psalm 22:1 My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? [why art thou so] far from helping me, [and from] the words of my roaring?	Matt 27:46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
Psalms 22: 8 [Old Testament, 1,000 years earlier] “He trusted in the Lord, let him rescue Him; Let Him deliver Him, since He delights in Him!”	Matt 27:39-40 [New Testament, 1.000 years later] And those who passed by blasphemed Him, wagging their heads and saying, “You who destroy the temple and build it in three days, save Yourself! If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” Matt 27:42 He saved others; Himself He cannot save. If He is the King of Israel let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe Him. 43 He trusted in God; let Him deliver Him now if He will have Him; for He said, ‘I am the Son of God
Psalms 22:18 They divide My garments among them, And for My clothing they cast lots.	Matt 27: 35 “And they crucified him, and parted his garments, casting lots: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, They parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots

 There are several other passages in Psalms that you can read on your own. There is no question that the prophecy of Psalms 22 was fulfilled over 1,000 years later in the Gospel writings

Now we know that Christians celebrate Pentecost as the marker for the beginning of the New Testament church. This was documented in the Book of Acts chapter 2 by Luke when the Holy Spirit descended upon the apostles and other followers of Jesus and they spoke in languages (tongues) that they did not learn or know. The result was that Jews who were visiting Jerusalem from many foreign nations could understand the apostles in their own language. For example, it would be like if I was invited to Portugal to speak at a conference. I am speaking in English and I have a translator who translates what I say into Portuguese. If suddenly I started speaking in Portuguese, a language I did not learn or know. This basically is what happened to the apostles in Jerusalem that day. This supernatural event was prophesied by the Old Testament prophet Joel in Chapter 2 which the Apostle Peter confirmed.

 There is one other supernatural event that I want to mention. This was a prophesy by the Old Testament prophet Daniel. In Daniel 2, he prophesied about three future world empires before they came into existence – the Medeo-Persian Empire, the Grecian Empire (founded by Alexander the Great) and the Roman Empire.

The final point is that the authors of the Bible claim that their writings are of divine and not human in origin

The authors of the Bible who I demonstrated were eyewitnesses stated clearly that they were inspired by God to write. Very few of them were men of higher learning – most were farmers, fishermen, warriors, former killers and shepherds. The Apostle Paul, kings David and Solomon were exceptions. The authors of the Bible were vessels used by God to write the scriptures with the message of the restoration of humankind back to God so that His Kingdom can be reestablished on earth

Several of the Apostles clearly stated that they were moved or inspired by God. The Apostle Paul wrote these words to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:16 “All scripture is given by the inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness”

Again, Paul confirms he did not get his revelation from human origin. He wrote in

Galatians 1:11 "For I make known to you, brothers, the gospel that has been proclaimed by me, that it is not ⌊of human origin⌋. 12 For neither did I receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ"

The Apostle Peter wrote in 2 Peter 1:21 (NKJV) 21 for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit

When you read many of the Books of the Old Testament prophets you find this common phrase “And the Word of the Lord came to me saying….”

The prophets are all announcing that it is God’s words they are writing. Therefore, all Christians must be very careful when they claim “The Lord told me to tell you this or that…”

-       God is too much God for people to take this lightly claiming conversations with God. God is so awesome that you would literally faint if God really spoke to you as often as some people claim. Just be careful.

Well I believe that have demonstrated that the Bible is a reliable collection of historical documents, written by eyewitnesses, during the lifetime of other eyewitnesses. They reported supernatural events that took place in fulfillment of specific prophecies. They claim that their writings were of divine and not human origin.

So, do we still need the Bible today? The answer is a definite Yes, the Bible is very relevant and vital in our society today.

I want to thank all of you for reading. Please share this information with others, your family and friends. We  provide foundational principles so we can to see advancement in our lives, the lives of our young people and in our communities. 

Remember that you always need to Hear and Do the Right Thing. Knowledge is powerful, but the wisdom of God is the principal thing. Until next time, Peace