Welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. In John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” The goal of Anchored by Truth is to encourage everyone to grow in the Christian faith by anchoring themselves to the secure truth found in the inspired, inerrant, and infallible word of God.

Script/Notes:

The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

Isaiah, Chapter 1 verse 1, ESV

Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.

The Gospel of Luke, chapter 1, verses 1 through 4, ESV

In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.

Acts, chapter 1, verses 1 through 3, ESV

VK: I’m Victoria K and today on Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books we are continuing our discussion on the relevance of the Bible today with RD Fierro, an author and the Founder Crystal Sea Books. RD, what kind of clever greeting do you have for everyone today?

RD: Greetings, Everyone.

VK: That will work. I like someone who can say a lot in a few words – or 2 words to be exact. For the last few weeks we’ve been starting on a light note with some humor pieces that Crystal Sea has produced just to introduce ourselves. Why break with tradition now?

---- Branding Piece 4

VK: Wow. It took Jerry a little while to get his name in there didn’t it?

RD: Well, one of the great things about Jerry is his persistence.

VK: Indeed. Ok. Well, let’s persist in our discussion about the Bible and its continued importance to today. So far in our programs we have seen that we consider the Bible – the Word of God - to be inspired, inerrant, and infallible. And we saw last time that we can be confident that the text we read in our Bibles today is the same as that that was contained in the original documents – the autographs. All this has been leading up to the really big question. How can we know that the Bible is the word of God?

And we ended last week’ program by giving a brief overview of how you would start to answer this question. But you said that you’d like to start today by reminding people why the question itself is so important.

RD: Yes. Before you start out on a journey it’s a good idea to know where you’re going and why you’re going there.

◦ It’s been my experience that just about everybody sometime during their life is going to ask the question “why I am I here? Does my life have a purpose?” And they usually want to know that on two levels. First, for their own life. Second, for the human race in general. They want to know if there’s an ultimate purpose behind everything. They want to know the “secret to the universe.” If nothing else, the widespread popularity of books that purport to divulge such secrets tells you how strong this urge is in people.

◦ Moreover, the popularity of DNA tests and ancestry research sites tells us that there’s a real hunger among our society – as well as other societies – to understand our past. To, in effect, know “where we come from.”

◦ Well, in a very real sense the Bible is what provides us the ultimate answer to these questions.

• But of course the Bible isn’t the only book or story that some would claim provide those answers?

◦ No of course, it’s not. That’s why it’s important to understand how we can distinguish between the Bible and the other books and sources that offer competing truth claims. And while we can’t ignore those other sources a complete discussion is beyond the scope of today’s program. But in my opinion the Bible can be clearly distinguished from those competing truth claims in ways that support the Bible’s reliability and validity. This is a really interesting area for discussion but we need to save that for a later time.

• A few shows back you mentioned that you sometimes talk about “Two Rebellions – One Redemption” as a way for helping people start to understand the grand saga of creation, the fall, and redemption. Is that part of what you’re referring to?

◦ Absolutely, we can’t understand why we’re here or what our purpose is unless we understand that we are all part of a really big story and we know what that story is all about.

◦ Imagine for a second you pick up a book that’s a love story set against a backdrop of a great war. While certain parts of the story would be similar no matter which war it was, other parts of the story are going to be vastly different depending on whether it was World War II, the Norman conquest of Britain in the 11th century, or Hannibal’s invasion of Italy during the 3rd century BC.

◦ Well, reading and studying the Bible allows us to understand our own story and the place we occupy in the grand saga. Reading and studying the Bible gives us context for the world in which we live and for the meaning of our own lives.

◦ As a brief review the Bible tells us that man is not the only sentient race that God created. God also made the angelic order. Both men and angels ultimately rebelled against God, but there was a difference in what instigated the rebellions. The Bible tells us that man’s rebellion was the result of an external source of temptation – namely Satan’s lies to Eve in the Garden of Eden. As far as we can tell, the angels who fell and that we now call demons rebelled despite the absence of any external temptation and notwithstanding that the angels all had a direct apprehension of God’s existence and attributes.

• And God chose to redeem some of the race of men, but there’s no mention of a similar redemption for the demons, the fallen angels. Why do you think that is?

◦ I wish I knew. I don’t, but I think it’s an interesting subject for prayer and meditation because I think it helps us those of us who have experienced God’s mercy to more fully appreciate that mercy.

◦ At least part of the answer probably lies in the fact that when God kicked the demons out of heaven He demonstrated His power and justice, but it did not demonstrate the depth of His genuine compassion and mercy. After Adam and Eve fell God sovereignly and unilaterally initiated a covenant of Grace and through the unfolding of that covenant He has demonstrated that compassion and mercy.

◦ In a very fundamental way the Bible is simultaneously a description of the covenant, a record of the covenant’s progress through history, and our assurance that the covenant’s final fulfillment is guaranteed. So if we don’t read and study the Bible we miss all that, and there’s just no way we can comprehend the part God designed for us in His grand plan.

• It reminds me of Shakespeare’s observation that “all the world’s a stage. And all the men and women merely players.”

◦ There are certain close parallels to be sure, but there is one critical difference. In a stage play there are actors with speaking parts and in some scenes there are extras who are more or less part of the backdrop. In God’s drama there are no extras. We all have important parts to play and the better we understand the Bible the more prepared we are to fulfill our assigned role.

• And that’s why we’re doing these opening episodes of Anchored by Truth on the Bible. We want people to find a renewed interest in understanding for themselves what the Bible says. We also want them to rediscover their own role in the big story so they’re not limited by the small stories that swirl around us every day.

◦ Exactly.

• But of course if the Bible isn’t truly the Word of God there would be no point in us investing time and confidence in it. And that’s why it’s important to explore reasons why we can have confidence that the Bible has attributes that support its claim to being God’s word.

◦ Yes. So last time we took a very brief look at four lines of evidence that help support the claim the Bible makes for itself in 2 Timothy 3:16. But before we review the four lines I’d like to take a second to think about what attributes a book, or any form of communication, that purported to be from God would possess. Let’s bear in mind that the God, according to the Christian faith, is a being that is very different from all other beings. God is self-existent, infinite, omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. In short, God is transcendent. God is not a part of His creation any more than a painter is part of his painting. Nevertheless, in addition to being transcendent God is also immanent, meaning He interacts with His creation in any manner that is consistent with His sovereign purposes.

◦ So, if such a being were to provide a revelation to any of His creatures – such as men – that revelation would not only reflect the traits of the creation but it would also have to be consistent with that being’s character. This is to say that the revelation would have to not only be true and accurate and consistent with reality, but it would also have to possess the fingerprints of a supernatural entity. The Bible does this. (17.02)

• So, in essence, you’re saying that any communication that authentically came from God would reflect God’s attributes as well as making sense in the real world. So the Bible as the Word of God would have to have some evidence of supernatural origin in addition to being verifiable through natural means. Can you give us a couple of examples of the divine fingerprints that you referred to?

◦ The Bible displays a remarkable degree of unity for a collection of books that were written by over 3 dozen human authors over a span well in excess of a thousand years.

◦ The Bible has displayed the ability to not only influence lives but to transform them, and this impact has spanned time, geography, culture, and the explosion of technology. The word of God continues to influence lives in a world where we can reach around the world in seconds just as much as it did when moving a message from Jerusalem to Rome would have taken months or at least weeks.

◦ The Bible contains hundreds of prophetic utterances and some commentators count well over 1,000. Hundreds of those prophecies have already been fulfilled. In a large number of cases the fulfillment came hundreds of years after the prophecy was originally made. This record would only be possible through the influence of a supernatural being. Human beings can’t predict with certainty who will win elections, major sporting contests, or TV singing competitions. Any human who knew for certain the level of the stock exchange at the end of any current year could easily become the richest person of all time.

• Ok. Those all make sense. Human beings can’t predict the future. But there have been a large number of times Bible prophets have not only prophesied about event that would occur to their near future but also events that would take place hundreds of years into the future. And the Bible’s ability to influence people for the better for centuries shows that the Bible has real power. As the Bible says in Isaiah God’s word will not return to him void. Well, in the short time we have left can you give us an example of how we can see that the Bible is also grounded firmly in the real world?

◦ Sure. The Bible is grounded in history. It is filled with specific dates, times, places, and names and even secular historians use the Bible as a reference document when they’re doing investigations into the ancient Middle East. And there have been some remarkable examples where the Bible was proven to be right about a time or place even when other historical confirmation was lacking for a time. For instance the book of Jonah records the episode of the prophet first running away from his assignment to preach to Nineveh which was the capital of the Assyrian empire. Then after being swallowed by the great fish Jonah finally complied and as a consequence of his preaching the entire city of converted. For centuries Nineveh was lost to history but in the mid-19th century its ruins were rediscovered. In a similar way much of the Bible’s historical record can be examined using evidence, logic, and reason and when it’s tested it has proven to be remarkably accurate. For additional information about the historicity of another book of the Bible that’s often challenged listeners may way want to go to reknew.org and check out their article on “is-the-book-of-acts-reliable?”

VK: Sounds to me like a good time for a prayer. Today's prayer comes from another one of Crystal Seas’ offerings, the book Purposeful Prayers and is dedicated to the Creator God whose creation activity was described in Genesis, in chapters 1 and 2:

---- Adoration for the Creator, radio version.

We hope you’ll be with us next time and we hope you’ll take some time to encourage some friends to tune in too, or listen to the podcast version of this show.

If you’d like to hear more, try out crystalseabooks.com where “We’re not famous but our Boss is!”

Isaiah, Chapter 1 verse 1, ESV

The Gospel of Luke, chapter 1, verses 1 through 4, ESV

Acts, chapter 1, verses 1 through 3, ESV

Internet Resources Cited or Recommended for further Study

https://crossexamined.org/historical-accuracy-book-acts/

https://www.blueletterbible.org/faq/don_stewart/don_stewart_804.cfm

https://www.christiancourier.com/articles/1311-accuracy-of-the-book-of-acts-the

https://www.christiancourier.com/articles/264-cyrus-the-great-in-biblical-prophecy

https://reknew.org/2018/12/is-the-book-of-acts-reliable/

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/torrey_ra/fundamentals/25.cfm

https://www.bibleinfo.com/en/questions/is-bible-true