(Pastor Bob's sermon notes can be found on bible.org)

      The Bible claims to be the Word of God and the ultimate source of absolute truth. Over the last several weeks we have put the text of the Bible to the test.  We have explored the inspiration, history and uniqueness of the Bible.  Last week we began a two part series examining the reliability of the Bible in four critical areas of research summarized by the acronym MAPS.

            MAPS = Manuscripts, Archeology, Prophecy, Science (Hank Hanegraff – CRI)

      In Deut 18:18-22, God makes it clear that the test of true prophecy is 100% accuracy. Having a 75% success rate wasn’t good enough.  In fact, anyone claiming prophetic utterance was to be stoned to death if even one of their prophecies failed to be fulfilled. 

      I’ll leave it to you to figure out what would have happened to so-called prophets like Jean Dixon had she lived in the time of the OT.  This is probably the reason that no other religious book dares to make predictions regarding future events.

                  (e.g. – Jehovah’s Witness, Mormons, other cults)

  In fact, when the Bible was written, about 1/4 of the material contained in it was predictive.

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(Pastor Bob's sermon notes can be found on bible.org)

      As Christians, we believe that the Bible is the inspired and infallible Word of God.  What we believe and how we live is based on the truth of its contents.  The reliability of the Bible is so critical that if you can destroy the credibility of the Bible, you can virtually destroy Christianity. 

      It is not surprising, therefore, that the first recorded words of Satan in Scripture are his statement to Eve in the Garden of Eden, "Did God really say....?"  He tried to create doubt in Eve's mind about the truthfulness and credibility of something God had said.  And ever since that time, he has worked hard to undermine the credibility of the Bible through any means possible.

      So the questions are: “Can you trust the Bible?”  “Is it really the inspired, infallible Word of God – or just the words of fallible men?”  Is there any rational reason for believing it is God’s Word other than blind faith?”  “And if so, what are those reasons?”

Today, we will consider the authenticating proof for the reliability of the Bible from the Manuscript Evidence and the Archeological Evidence.  Then next week we will finish our series as we cover the Prophetical and Scientific Evidence for the Bible’s reliability.

I The Manuscript Evidence

      How do we know the words in the Bible we read today haven't been changed over the centuries by translators?

      Manu – scripts = “By hand”

      Scholars realize that with all ancient documents, including the Bible, we do not have any of the original documents.  Therefore, the first thing that must be determined is the reliability of the copies we have.  Are they an accurate copy of the original?  To determine that, there are three things that must be investigated.

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(Pastor Bob's sermon notes can be found on bible.org)

      Definition:  “Biblical inspiration may be defined as God's superintending of the human authors so that, using their own individual personalities (and even their writing styles), they composed and recorded without error His revelation to man in the words of the original autographs so that what they wrote was precisely what God wanted written.”

            (Dr. Charles Ryrie)

      2 Timothy 3:16-17 “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

      God-breathed = “Inspired”

      By the time 2 Timothy 3:16 was written, all of the New Testament books had already been written except for 2 Peter, Hebrews, Jude, and the apostle John's writings.  In view of this, Paul was including both the OT and the NT books in the phrase "all Scripture is God-breathed".

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(Pastor Bob's sermon notes can be found on bible.org)

      The Bible has been called “The Greatest Book Ever Written.”  It has also been called the Book of Books -- partly because it is the book that surpasses all other books in authority, having God as its ultimate author, but also because it is made up of many individual books.

      “The Bible is not an account of human efforts to find God, but rather an account of God’s effort to reveal Himself to humanity.  It is God’s own record of His dealings with people in His unfolding revelation of Himself to the human race.  The Bible is the revealed will of the Creator of all humanity, given to His creatures by the Creator Himself, for instruction and guidance along life’s path.”  Halley

      Its central focus is the story of God redemption of mankind through the sacrifice of His One and Only Son to those who would believe on Him and accept Him as their Savior and Lord.  The Bible was written that people might believe, understand, know, love and follow Jesus Christ.  Our acceptance or rejection of Him as our Lord and Savior determines for each of us eternal glory or eternal ruin – heaven or hell.

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One of the greatest gifts we can give one another is self-disclosure: Our thoughts, our dreams, our life. Enjoy this audio replay of a message Pastor Bob Hallman delivered from Psalm 19 he titled: Divine Self Disclosure. 

Listen as Bob describes the indescribable gift when self-disclosure happens with God. 

We pray you'll enjoy this message as Bob shares scripture, personal stories, and personal application of God's Word to our lives. 

Blessings, 

The Epic Life

REPOST: was missing the audio

1. He was a devout Jew from the tribe of Benjamin

Pastor Bob Hallman gave this message in 2006.

Many people go through life waiting for the“one big break” that will turn their life around and bring them success, riches, fame, and power:1. Insider scoop on a once-in-a-lifetime stock tip2. A call from Nashville, Hollywood or the NBA3. A multi-million-dollar lotto ticket. Because of this we might be tempted to think of Genesis 41 as a record of Joseph’s much-deserved “lucky break.”

But we would be wrong on three counts:

enjoy the rest of the message. 

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George Fox, the famous author of Foxes Book of Martyrs,  said: “There are three sorts of dreams:1. A multitude of business sometimes cases dreams(Eccl 5:3)2. Then there are the whisperings of Satan in the night-season.3. Finally, there are the speaking's of God to man.”

Some 11 years earlier, in Joseph’s youth, he had dreamed two separate dreams: 1. One where his brother's sheaves of wheat bowed down to his. 2. The other where the sun and the moon and the eleven stars bowed down to him.

The meaning of these dreams seemed obvious at the time: God was going to elevate Joseph above his brothers and even his own father and mother. But from behind the bars of his prison cell, Joseph must have wondered what sort of dreams he had actually had so many years earlier. 

Enjoy the rest of the message

Music by BeauWalker from Pixabay

n 1995 Dr. Laura Schlessinger, who is the second most listened to talk radio show host in the nation, wrote a book called,10 Stupid Things Women Do to Mess Up Their Lives. It was a best seller!

So, she wrote three more: 10 Stupid Things Men Do to Mess Up Their Lives, 10 Stupid Things Parents Do to Mess Up Their Lives, 10 Stupid Things Couples Do to Mess Up Their Lives.

Her writing is filled with practical sage advice on how not to goof up your life. But the truth be told, Dr. Laura was scooped by God by 4000 years!! Because in Genesis 38, we have a record of the decisions and actions that Judah made to goof up his life. And by studying this sordid chapter, we can avoid the kinds of self-destructive actions that goofed up the life of one of the patriarchs of the faith.

#1 Way Judah Goofed Up His Life: He failed to place a high priority on his relationship with God. This is evident in the life history we have of Judah so far in the book of Genesis He was the fourth born son of his mother Leah and his father Jacob. He was the one who had suggested to his brothers that they sell Joseph into slavery (Genesis 37:26) for a profit. He was a man of little or no spiritual depth.   Enjoy the rest of the message. 

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According to George Fox, author of Foxes Book of Martyrs, there are three types of dreams:

~3. Dreams that come as the result of God speaking supernaturally to man

Job 33:14-18 “For God does speak-now one way, now another--though man may not perceive it. In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on men as they slumber in their beds, he may speak in their ears and terrify them with warnings, to turn man from wrongdoing and keep him from pride, to preserve his soul from the pit, his life from perishing by the sword. ”But sometimes dreams are nothing more than hidden desires of the soul, and as a result, are rarely fulfilled in the manner we might hope: After waking up one morning, a woman told her husband, "I just dreamed that you gave me a pearl necklace for our anniversary. What do you think it means?"

"You'll know tonight." he said. That evening, the man came home with a small package and gave it to his wife. Delighted, she opened it to find a book entitled "The Meaning of Dreams. "We all have had dreams in life:

Visions in the night as well as hopes and aspirations for the future.

In the text of Genesis 37, Joseph experienced both the visions in the night and the aspirations for his future. But before the dreams of God would be fulfilled in his life, Joseph would know firsthand the perplexing and agonizing experience of when “Dreams Turn into Nightmares.”

Enjoy the rest of the message

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