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:

Forever, O Lord, your word

is firmly fixed in the heavens.

Your faithfulness endures to all generations;

you have established the earth, and it stands fast.

By your appointment they stand this day,

for all things are your servants.

If your law had not been my delight,

I would have perished in my affliction.

I will never forget your precepts,

for by them you have given me life.

I am yours; save me,

for I have sought your precepts.

The wicked lie in wait to destroy me,

but I consider your testimonies.

96I have seen a limit to all perfection,

but your commandment is exceedingly broad.

Psalm 119 verses 89 through 96, NIV

Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.

Psalm 119 verse 105, NIV

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

2 Timothy, chapter 3 verses 16 and 17, NIV

VK: I’m Victoria K and today on Anchored by Truth we are starting a new discussion series about the Bible brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. I’m in the studio today with RD Fierro, author and the Founder Crystal Sea Books. RD, would you like to say hi to everyone?

RD: Hi, Everyone.

VK: Ok. So much for long introductions. I guess you’re saving time for the good stuff. Well, last week we used one of our humor pieces to do a slightly longer introduction of Crystal Sea than RD did of himself this morning. But there are probably some listeners who didn’t get a chance to hear that piece so we’d like to start today by listening to another humor segment Crystal Sea has produced just to tell you a little more about what we do.

---- Branding Piece 2

VK: Obviously, you can tell from this segment and last week’s that Crystal Sea is focused on the Bible. We would like everyone to discover or rediscover the amazing treasure that is found in God’s word. But today there are a lot of people who may never have read the Bible all the way through or perhaps not at all. And there are a lot of people probably consider the Bible just to be just another ancient book with little or no relevance to today. So, why don’t we start with a basic question, RD? Is the Bible still relevant in the 21st century? Is it still important? And - if so, why?

◦ Two rebellions/one redemption. The context of the Bible is set within the grand framework of God’s ordering all of His creation. There are two orders of sentient beings God created: angles and men. Both rebelled. God elected to redeem only one of the groups.

◦ Is the Bible still relevant? The short answer is because the Bible is the word of God and since God is eternal His word is eternal. But I also recognize that we live in an age and culture where we prize pragmatism and results, so a slightly longer answer, though, is that the Bible still has the power to change lives and society for the better. In fact surveys consistently show that people who read the Bible and pray regularly report higher levels of happiness and satisfaction with their lives and surveys also show that they are consistently more generous and charitable in their communities and with their neighbors. I firmly believe that the Bible is demonstrably true and for me that’s enough but I fully recognize that people who are unfamiliar with the Bible need to know more about it before they could come to the same conclusion.

• Our opening says that the Word of God is inspired, inerrant, and infallible. What does that really mean?

◦ Let’s start with inerrancy because that’s the easiest to understand. Human beings are occasionally inerrant. Sometimes I correctly get all the things that my wife sends to me to the store to buy.

• Ok, what about infallibility?

◦ This is a higher standard than inerrancy. Human beings may occasionally be inerrant but they are never infallible.

• And what about inspiration?

◦ Is given by inspiration of God - All this is expressed in the original by one word - Theopneustos. This word occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. It properly means, God-inspired - from Theos, "God," and pneō, "to breathe, to breathe out." The idea of "breathing upon, or breathing into the soul," is that which the word naturally conveys. Thus, God breathed into the nostrils of Adam the breath of life Genesis 2:7, and thus the Saviour breathed on his disciples, and said, "receive ye the Holy Ghost;" John 20:22. The idea seems to have been, that the life was in the breath, and that an intelligent spirit was communicated with the breath. The expression was used among the Greeks, and a similar one was employed by the Romans. In regard to the manner of inspiration, and to the various questions which have been started as to its nature, nothing can be learned from the use of this word. It asserts a fact - that the Old Testament was composed under a divine influence, which might be represented by "breathing on one," and so imparting life. But the language must be figurative; for God does not breathe, though the fair inference is, that those Scriptures are as much the production of God, or are as much to be traced to him, as life is; compare Matthew 22:43; 2 Peter 1:21. The question as to the degree of inspiration, and whether it extends to the words of Scripture, and how far the sacred writers were left to the exercise of their own faculties, is foreign to the design of these notes. All that is necessary to be held is, that the sacred writers were kept from error on those subjects which were matters of their own observation, or which pertained to memory; and that there were truths imparted to them directly by the Spirit of God, which they could never have arrived at by the unaided exercise of their own minds. (consult the Bible commentary by Albert J. Barnes on 2 Timothy 3:16 available from biblehub.org)

◦ Verbal plenary inspiration means that every word found in the Bible is given to us by God (verbal), everything in the Bible is authoritative (plenary), and every word is also divinely directed (inspired). But, this does not mean that everything referenced in the Bible is also morally proper. For example, the Bible might record someone's lie or a murder even though lying and murder are not approved of in Scripture. But the recording of the events is under the direction of God and is accurate. 

◦ Plenary inspiration” meant that all the words of Scripture are God’s words (the word plenary means “full."

◦ The “full” inspiration of the Scriptures, in the sense that the whole Bible is inspired, not simply portions of it.

◦ God through the Holy Spirit directly guided the exact words recorded by the biblical writers as they wrote the Scriptures."

◦ Verbal plenary inspiration stands in opposition to partial inspiration which limits the inspired quality of the Bible in various ways whether it be restricting inspiration to doctrinal matters, or one author was inspired where another was not, or there are mistakes in historical events and geographical locations but the main thoughts are correct.

• Consult michaeljkrueger.com for more information. Dr. Michael J. Kruger is Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at Reformed Theological Seminary in Charlotte, N.C. and the President.

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 Messiah who was promised in Genesis 3:15:

---- Adoration of the Son, 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!”

Psalm 119, verse 105, NIV

2 Timothy, chapter 3 verses 16 and 17, NIV

Resources Cited or Recommended

https://carm.org/what-is-verbal-plenary-inspiration-of-the-bible

https://www.michaeljkruger.com/ten-basic-facts-about-the-nt-canon-that-every-christian-should-memorize-8-the-nt-canon-was-not-decided-at-nicea-nor-any-other-church-council/

https://probe.org/the-dead-sea-scrolls/

https://answersingenesis.org/bible-characters/moses/did-moses-write-genesis/