Guidelines for Growth - Part 2 — J. Vernon McGee

Now, when we talk about verbal plenary inspiration, we want to be very clear what we mean about that, and that means that we believe that the words are inspired and that we believe that all the words are inspired, so that today it's the words and, of course, not the thoughts.

And we've already amplified that, I think, a great deal. And it was way back yonder, Irenaeus, one of the church fathers, said, The scriptures indeed are perfect, forasmuch as they are spoken by the word of God and by his Spirit.

Augustine made this statement. He says, Let us therefore yield ourselves and bow to the authority of the holy scriptures, which can neither err nor deceive. May I say that we need to recognize that we have a book that is fully inspired, and as that great giant of Princeton years ago said, Whatever the Bible says, God says.

And he speaks in this book to our hearts and to our lives. Now, I want to move down because, actually, last time I did not amplify enough concerning illumination and interpretation, and I'd like today to amplify a great deal of what we said last time about illumination.

Now, illumination means that you and I have a book, and we have said it's a God book. It's a human book written by men who are expressing their thoughts, but when they do that, they are writing down the word of God and the marvel of it.

And the thing that makes it supernatural is that God, without destroying their personalities, he didn't turn them upside down like a fountain pen and write with them. They wrote what was in their minds and hearts, but the Spirit of God so guided them that many of them actually wanted to look into the things they wrote about but couldn't.

That's what Peter says. And they wrote without error. Now, Moses made mistakes, and he wrote about those mistakes, but the writing about those mistakes, there was no mistake, my friend. That, may I say, is a record that when he's giving to us the word of God that we are getting a revelation from God.

Now, in view of the fact that that is true, we're dealing with a book that takes more than just mental acumen in order to understand. Paul made a very interesting statement, and that statement is simply this.

He says, and I'll have to turn to it now, it's found in 1 Corinthians 2, beginning at verse 7, but we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery. Even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world unto our glory, which none of the princes of this world knew, for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

But as it is written, I hath not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. Now, you and I today get most of what we know through the eye gate and the ear gate are by reasoning, by thinking, rationalizing.

Now, actually, Paul says here that there's certain things that eye hasn't seen, certain things the ear hasn't heard, and there's certain things that you can't even get into your head at all. Well, how in the world are you going to get them?

Well, a great many in the past have taken this verse of scripture to a funeral, and I've heard it used at a funeral years ago like this, that brother so-and-so, he was a great fellow, didn't know too much down here.

That's the inference always, but now he's gone up there and he's really got on his thinking cap now, and he knows things he didn't know before. Well, I think maybe that's probably true. I think we're going to get quite an education, we'll get a new degree when we move up there, but that's not what this verse says.

Paul says there's certain things right down here long before you get to the undertaker. Now, a lot of things down here that you and I can't get through the ordinary natural means that we learn. Well, how are we going to get them?

Verse 10 now, But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit, for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. Now, the Holy Spirit has to be our teacher. Now, you will recall that back on the day of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, he walked down the Emmaus Road and joined himself there with a couple of brethren that were walking along.

He entered into their conversation, by the way, and he asked them what in the world it was that had engaged their conversation. Well, the very interesting thing is they said, well, is it possible you've been around here and you don't know what's taken place in Jerusalem?

He said unto them, What manner of communications are these that ye have one to another as ye walk and are sad? And the one of them whose name was Cleopas answering said unto him, Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass there in these days?

In other words, he says, why, if you were just a stranger around here, you should have known about this. And he said unto them, What things? And they said unto him concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet.

Notice that was. As far as they're concerned, he's gone. But he was talking to them, and he was a prophet mighty indeed in word before God and all the people. And they go on, How the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death and have crucified him.

And you remember, he predicted that. And the very interesting thing, prophecy had been saying it for years. And then they expressed that faint hope that it died out. But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel.

And beside all this, today is the third day since these things were done. And they went on to tell about it, what they knew and what had been found out when they left Jerusalem, that the women had reported.

Apparently, not many paid too much attention to what the women said. And not only that, verse 24, certain of them which were with us went to the sepulcher, found it even so as the women had said, but him they saw not.

And then their hopes dimmed, and darkness entered their hearts. Now listen to the Lord Jesus. And he said unto them, O fools and slow of heart, to believe all that the prophets have spoken, ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory?

And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them and all the scriptures the things concerning himself. Friend, wouldn't you love to have been there that day and have heard him go back into the Old Testament and lift out the scriptures concerning himself?

And when he finally made himself known to them as they sat at the meal. You see, it's when you're feeding on the word of God and feeding on him, that's when he reveals himself in all of his glory. And this is their comment.

And they said one to another, did not our heart burn within us while he talked with us by the way and while he opened to us the scripture? You see, we're studying a book, friend. It's different from any other book.

It's not that I'm just believing today in the inspiration of the Bible. Why I believe that this is a closed book unless the spirit of God will open your heart and make it real by the way. And so I find that he continued teaching at that time because when he returned to Jerusalem, he appeared to the disciples.

And then will you notice down in verse 44 of Luke 24, and he said unto them, these are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses and in the prophets and in the Psalms concerning me.

Let me pause there. He believed Moses wrote the pen at you. He believed the prophets spoke the hymn and that the Psalms that all of them pointed to him. Now here is the great verse. Then opened he their understanding that they might understand the scriptures.

And friends, if he doesn't open your understanding, you're just not going to get it. That's all. And that's the reason we ought to approach this book in great humility of mind. And I do not care how high your IQ is.

I hope I'm talking right now to some young graduates of some of our seminaries today who think they know it all. Well, may I say that I went through that period too. I thought when I was in seminary, I knew it all, but I found out since then that there are one or two things I don't know.

I'm going to keep reading here because it's important. And he said unto them, thus it is written and thus it behoove Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day and that repentance and remission of sin should be preached in his name among all nations beginning at Jerusalem.

And you're witnesses of these things. Now will you notice how they're going to witness? They're going to have to have a little help. In fact, they're going to have to have a whole lot of help. Verse 49, and behold, I send the promise of my father upon you, but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high.

In other words, you will have to have a teacher to open the word of God to your understanding. Now I go back to 1 Corinthians again and this passage that I was reading. And he goes on to say, Paul does in 1 Corinthians 2, verse 13, which things also we speak not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.

But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, their foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because they're spiritually discerned. I'm never disturbed when one of these unbelievers, even if he's a preacher who comes along and says today, he no longer believes the Bible is the word of God.

He never did believe it, to tell the truth. But may I say to you, that's the way he should talk. I mean, after all, if you're not a believer, you couldn't believe it. It takes the Spirit of God. And that's the reason I quoted Bishop Hadley the other day when he said, there is more meaning in every word of holy writ than we shall ever get out of it.

And you know, it was Mark Twain that made a very interesting statement, and he was no believer. He says that he was not disturbed by what he did not understand in the Bible. He said what worried him were the things he did understand.

And there are things you can understand, and it's that that keeps many away from the word of God. It was Pascal who said, human knowledge must be understood to be loved, but divine knowledge must be loved to be understood.

That's very, very important to get, by the way. There needs to be that illumination. It was Robert Alfred Vaughan who made this statement, speaking of these unbelievers in their conceded rejection of the light without until they have turned into darkness their light within.

And that's what Paul meant when he says that they would not receive the love of the truth and God would let them believe a lie. The unbelievers said some harsh things about us, but God has said some very harsh things about it.

I'd like to give you this statement of Bishop Pollock. He says, the Bible is a corridor between two eternities down which walks the Christ of God. His invisible steps echo through the Old Testament, but we meet him face to face in the throne room of the new.

And it is through that Christ alone crucified for me that I have found forgiveness for sins and life eternal. The Old Testament is summed up in the word Christ. The New Testament is summed up in the word Jesus.

And the summary of the whole Bible is that Jesus is the Christ, a statement by Bishop Pollock. And it was Mr. Spurgeon who said, I can never doubt the doctrine of plenary verbal inspiration since I so constantly see in actual practice how the very words that God has been pleased to use, a plural instead of a singular, are blessed to the souls of man.

May I say these are tremendous statements coming from men of the past, and it's very difficult to eliminate and to blot out what these men have said. The wisdom of the ages has not really settled in us today.

As a generation, we've really got the world in a mess. Now we were talking about illumination, the fact that the Spirit of God must take these words and make them real to us. The reading of the Bible can become almost profitless, past time by the way.

And it is a book, though, that will bless you even if you do not have the spiritual truth open to you. It's a, Gertie said, the mere ethical teaching of the Bible would alone stamp it as the greatest literary treasure of mankind.

May I say to you that that was one of the saddest things that took place when the Bible was taken away from the public school, why they took away the best production of literature, and then they flooded it with some of this dirty, filthy modern literature today.

What hypocrites for men to say they didn't want the Bible taught to their children because it contained stories that might soil their mind. Believe me, my friend, they're getting them soiled today in our schools and in the name of freedom, and it's nothing in the world but dirt.

Why is it that when we talk about freedom of speech, what we really mean is we want to talk dirty, and we want to look dirty, and we want to be dirty. That's freedom. Well, it is because man is totally depraved.

When he's given freedom, that's the direction he wants to go. It was John Milton who said, there are no songs comparable to the songs of Zion, no orations equal to those of the prophets, and no politics like those which the Scripture teach.

It's a wonderful book just to read. It was Webster who said, if there be anything in my style or thoughts to be commended, the credit is due to my kind parents for instilling into my mind an early love of the Scriptures.

What about you today, Christian parent? Are you making a Daniel Webster in your home or a little hippie? You'll be making one or the other, I can assure you. And apparently, Webster thought it came about because his parents taught him the Word of God.

May I say to you, the Spirit of God, though, will have to open your mind and heart if you're going to understand spiritual truth this year. And Paul writing to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 2, verse 13, which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Spirit teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.

And may I say to you that Paul says that the Spirit of God is our teacher. And that's one of the reasons that we have prayed that the Spirit of God would teach us on this program, because, may I say, if he doesn't teach me and teach you, we're not going to get anywhere as far as the Bible is concerned.

We're dealing with a supernatural book, if you please. The Lord Jesus Himself said in John 6, 63, it's the Spirit that quickeneth the flesh, profiteth nothing. The words that I speak unto you, they are Spirit and they are life.

A great man of the past made a statement concerning one of the greatest writers of the past, and he says his words, if you cut them, would bleed. Well, may I say to you, that's true of the Word of God.

And the Lord Jesus said, the words I speak unto you, they're Spirit and they're life. The Spirit of God can make it real to you. And in John 17, in his great high priestly prayer, in verse 18, he made this statement,.

For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me, not the thoughts, the words which thou gavest me, and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me.

It was back in Exodus 20, verse 1, where Moses wrote,. And God spake all these words saying. It was God who did the speaking. That's what Moses wrote. It's very difficult today to reject the Bible without impugning it as an evil book.

Now, notice what he said in John 3, verse 17 and 18,. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed on the name of the only begotten Son of God.

In other words, may I put it very frankly to you, the Lord Jesus said that if you don't accept this word, you're condemned. If you accept it, you're saved. That means that you've accepted and received him as the Savior of the world.

Now, I want to make just one or two other statements. You remember that when Simon Peter answered him after he had inquired of them, What are men saying about me? And they said everything. They still say that.

You can get about as many answers today as as many people as you happen to ask. And therefore, there are many viewpoints of him. But he said to Simon Peter, or he said to the apostles, and Simon Peter answered, and I think he answered for the others, Whom do men say that I am?

And whom do you say that I am? He said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Now, you remember what our Lord said to him? He said to him, Flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee, but my Father, which is in heaven, he's the one, and blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah.

And I say to you, only God today can open up the Word of God for us to really understand it. And our Lord said, the Father opened it for Simon Peter, and the Lord Jesus taught them and opened up their understanding before he left.

But he said he was going to send the Holy Spirit, as we saw in Luke, wait for the promise, because he's the only one that can make this thing real. And he had said to them, yonder in the upper room, you will recall in John 16, verses 7 through 11, I have yet many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now, howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth, for he shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak, and he will show you things to come.

And he went on, he'll take the things of mine and show them unto you. And may I say I leave this subject of illumination by saying only that the Spirit of God today can open your mind and heart to see and to accept Christ and to trust him as your Savior.

How wonderful. I have always felt as I entered the pulpit how helpless I am, because, believe me, Vernon McGee can't convert anyone, and I feel just that way before this microphone right now. But I not only feel weak, but I also feel that I'm mighty, not mighty in myself, but that the Spirit of God today can move out you unto where you are, riding in your car, in your home, doing housework, sitting down at a meal, or wherever you might be, in your place of business, wherever you might be, right now, the Spirit of God can take these dead words and make them real and living to you, incorporate them into your life, and give you an excitement, an enthusiasm that only he can give today.

Now, may I say that it's nice to take all the vitamin pills that you can today. My doctor keeps me loaded with them. But I want to say to you, my friend, the Spirit of God can give you something that vitamin pills can never give you.

Now, let's come to this fourth subject, interpretation. I've already spoken of the versions, and I'd like to just add this to that also. I've had to move so speedily the other day, and I forgot that we're going to be together here five years, so we have a little time to talk about these things.

The question often arises, what about the versions that we have today? The translations, are they dependable? And what about the modern translations? Can we depend upon them? Now, I want to make this statement recognizing that it is a blanket statement, and it's a generalization.

And as the French proverb has it, all generalizations are untrue, including this one. And therefore, the fact of the matter is, I cannot recommend the modern translations. Now, I recognize that there are some good things in them.

In fact, in most of them there is. Even one or two put out by the liberals today. It's excellent Greek in places. But I found out that today we are so divided doctrinally that every group that attempts to translate the Bible just naturally injects into his translation his particular viewpoint.

Therefore, if the liberal's going to do the translating, you may get just a little taste of liberalism. And if the fundamentalist is going to do the translating, you'll get his bias in certain places.

I feel that the man who did the original translation, or man who believed that it was the Word of God and that they handled it like that, and actually certain words they wouldn't translate. They just transliterated them.

Abba, for instance, Abba, Father. They didn't dare translate that word Abba. And the same is true of baptizo, baptized. They just transliterated it. And yet we have so many today that want to be dogmatic about things.

And you see, that's the danger today in these modern translations. And then actually some of them are not too good in their translating. I would like to take this position, which I do, that they are interpretations.

Now, I have my bookshelf right where I prepare my messages. I have that bookshelf filled with all the translations, good, bad, and indifferent. And I refer, sometimes I'll refer to 15 different translations.

Why? Just see what these men have to say. And me, I look at them as a form, not of translation, but interpretation. And I would like to call them that. I said concerning one the other day, which I'll not specify right now, somebody said, is this a good translation?

And I said, well, it's owing how you look at it. I said it's a marvelous interpretation, but a lousy translation. Now, when you translate, you have to take something out of one language and put it into another language in comparable terms, identical terms if possible.

And the thing that most of these modern translations are trying to do is to get it into modern speech. And to get it into modern speech, many times they really miss what the original is saying. And I personally, as I've said before, I stick by the authorized version.

I don't find it too difficult. The haths and thousands of these don't seem to bother me. In fact, I guess through the habit of the years that they add a note of reverence. And I personally would recommend the American standard version of 1901 of being more accurate than any other.

I feel like the new Schofield reference Bible has made a tremendous step forward in this connection in making certain distinctions and corrections that needed to be made. I personally still use the old Schofield reference Bible.

I know my way around through the book. And after all, the old scout will follow the old trail because he knows that. And that's the reason that I use it. I'd recommend it also, of course. I'd like to give you here something that's quite interesting in this connection of translation.

And it comes from a man who actually was a rank unbeliever, George Bernard Shaw. And he had some harsh things to say about religion, that is about present-day churches and present-day Christianity. But notice what he says concerning the translation that we have in the scripture.

He says the translation was extraordinarily well done because to the translators what they were translating was not merely a curious collection of ancient books written by different authors in different stages of culture, but the Word of God divinely revealed through His chosen and expressly inscribed scribes.

In this conviction they carried out their work with boundless reverence and care and achieved a beautiful artistic result. He's talking about the authorized version. That's George Bernard Shaw. Now, actually, there are, frankly, in interpretation certain, I think, rules that should be followed.

And today the great difference among some of us conservatives is the fact that we differ on interpretation. We believe the Bible is the Word of God. We believe it's plenary, verbally inspired. Now, this may surprise some of you, but one of the leading Pentecostal leaders of this country today, he and I have had lunch together, and he wants us to resume this.

And we sit down and talk about our mutual differences and also about where we are in agreement. And you know we agree more than we disagree. Fact of the matter is, I think I'm about to convert him, friends.

And I say that facetiously because he's a wonderful man of God, and I love him in the Lord, and I respect him. And you know why? Because he believes this book is the Word of God just like I do, and he loves the Lord Jesus maybe more than I do, and he trusts him as his Savior just as I do.

And so he and I can sit down together and we can disagree, and I can just tell him that one of these days he's going to see it as I see it. And he said, yes, and that day I see it as you see it, you're going to change also, and we both will see it eye to eye.

Well, that day is coming. Now, there are certain rules that we need to keep in mind. One is the overall purpose of the Bible, and that's the reason I'm teaching all of it, is because I believe you need to have it all before you can come to any dogmatic statement concerning any particular verse of Scripture.

And that is something that's important, to take all verses that are related to that subject in consideration. That's important. And then also, we ought to always consider the Scripture to whom it's addressed.

Now, way back yonder, God says to Joshua, arise, go over this Jordan. Now, you know, when I was over in that land, I crossed the Jordan River. That's when you could cross it then without being shot at, and I crossed over.

But I didn't cross it to fulfill that Scripture, and I didn't say to somebody, well, now I've obeyed the Lord, I've crossed over Jordan. No, when I read that back in Joshua, I have a feeling that the Lord is talking to Joshua.

But I believe there's a tremendous lesson there for me. All Scripture is not to me, but all Scripture is for me, and that's a very good rule to keep in mind. And then we ought to always consider the immediate context, either before and after Scripture.

And then, as we've indicated, there should be a consideration of all Scripture relative to a certain passage of Scripture. And then there should be an attempt made to discover what the original says. Now, you recognize in our versions we have certain translations, and they're good.

They give to us meaning. I think that when you're reading that American Standard Version of 19 .1, you're right close to what the Lord said. But the important thing is, determine what the exact text. And that's the reason in several of our study books I attempted to give a translation, and as I've said a thousand times, I wouldn't recommend that to anybody.

But we did attempt to go back to the original, and I think that's imperative. Let me give you a rule that years ago I heard Dr. David Cooper, the late Dr. David Cooper of Southern California give. He said this, and this is a good one.

When the plain sense of Scripture makes common sense, seek no other sense. Therefore, take every word at its primary, ordinary, usual, literal meaning, unless the facts of the immediate context studied in the light of related passages and axiomatic and fundamental truths indicate clearly otherwise.

Now, that may be a little complicated, but I want to tell you that's just about as fine as you could possibly have. And remember, he said heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.

And he said, forever, O Lord, thy word is settled in the heavens. The psalmist said that. The Bible was born in the East and clothed in Oriental form and imagery. The Bible walks the ways of all the world with familiar feet and enters land after land to find its own everywhere.

It's learned to speak in hundreds of languages to the heart of man. It comes into the palace to tell the monarch that he's a servant of the Most High and into the cottage to assure the peasant that he's a son of God.

Children listen to its stories with wonder and delight, and wise men ponder them as parables of light. It has a word of peace for the time of peril, a word of comfort for the time of calamity, a word of light for the hour of darkness.

Its oracles are repeated in the assembly of the people, its counsels whispered in the ear of the lonely. The wicked and the proud tremble at its warnings, but to the wounded and the penitent it has a mother's voice.

The wilderness and the solitary place have been made glad by it, and the fire on the earth has lit the reading of its well-worn pages. It has woven itself into our dearest dreams so that love, friendship, sympathy, and devotion, memory, and hope put on the beautiful garments of its treasured speech, breathing of frankincense and myrrh.

A Bible, the Word of God. Now we come actually to our last study in the Bible itself, and next time we'll begin to talk about the guidelines that we suggest to you for studying the Bible in light of all that we've already said.

It was Dryden, by the way, who wrote, Whence but from heaven could man unskilled in arts in several ages born in several parts weave such agreeing truths or how or why should all conspire to cheat us with a lie, unasked their pains, ungrateful their advice, starving their gain and martyrdom their price.

This is a tremendous statement that is made here concerning the Word of God. Now, I know at this particular juncture that someone is going to say to me, but Dr. McGee, how do you know that the Bible is the Word of God?

Well, it's a good question, and it should be asked and answered, and we would like to offer our answer to the question. There are many ways of proving it. There's internal evidence in which, of course, we'll be examining as we go through the scripture, and I've called attention to some already.

One of the objective proofs, one of the external proofs, has been the marvelous preservation of the Bible. There have been times when actually the Bible has been reduced to just one volume, and there was a king of old, we read about him in Jeremiah, and when the word was sent to him, he took a penknife and he cut it to pieces.

But it's quite interesting that we have that word today. There have been a great many Bible burnings. There's a great deal of antagonism to it. They don't burn it today because we're a little too civilized, we think, in this country, so the way they do is just outlaw it in our schools and in many other places, and yet we talk about that we have freedom of religion and that we have freedom of speech today, and wouldn't a person be free if he wanted to read the Bible?

And as we've suggested before, they deny themselves of the greatest literature when the Bible is denied to young people today. In spite of all the attacks, though, that have been made upon it, why it still exists, and of course, it's one of the bestsellers.

There were for many years it was the bestseller, and it's not today. I regret to have to say that, but it is true that it's not the bestseller at the present time, and that is certainly a commentary on our contemporary society, which reveals that the Bible is not really occupying the place that it once did in the history and the life of this nation.

Now, I think the preservation of it is worthy of consideration. Another way in which we can know is the fact of archaeology. The spade of the archaeologists has turned up many things that have proven that it is the Word of God.

Now, for instance, there are those that many years denied the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch on the basis that writing was not in existence in Moses' day, and for that reason why he could not have written the Pentateuch.

You haven't heard anyone advance that theory recently, have you? Well, of course not. Now, for years the spade of the archaeologists has turned up writing that goes much farther back than Moses, so that is no longer a valid argument.

And then we find that the spade of the archaeologists has turned up again and again evidence of that, the city of Jericho and the walls that fell down. Now, there has been some argument between Miss Kellogg and the fishermen who first excavated there, but I think that it's pretty well established that walls fell down, and I'll let them debate about the time and all that sort of thing.

I believe that the has been substantiated there, and in many other ways archaeology has demonstrated the accuracy of the Word of God, and many of the manuscripts that have been found do that. It's quite interesting when these Isaiah scrolls, Dead Sea scrolls, were found.

My, the liberal leaped at that because he thought he found an argument that would discredit the Bible. It's quite interesting how it has not discredited the Bible, and it seems that the liberal has lost a great deal of interest in the scrolls, the Dead Sea scrolls, that were found.

There are many ways in which we could go into this. This is a field into which I do not care to enter at any great length. Now, I want to give a reason. If I were asked, what do you have as a conclusive proof?

You just had one thing to suggest. What would you suggest as be a conclusive proof that this is the Word of God? And you know what I would suggest? I would suggest fulfill prophecy. Fulfill prophecy. I believe that that is the one proof that you can't escape, you can't get around.

And the Bible is filled with fulfill prophecy. One-fourth of the scripture, when it was written, was prophetic, was prophecy. That is, it denounced things that were to take place in the future. Well, a great deal of that, in fact a great deal more than people imagine, has already been fulfilled.

Again, we could turn to many places where this has been fulfilled exactly. You'll find that there were many local situations that were fulfilled even in the day of the prophet. Micaiah was a prophet who told old Ahab that when he went out to battle, he'd lose the battle and he'd be killed.

Old Ahab didn't like it because his false prophets had told him he'd have a victory and he'd return as a victorious king. But he didn't like what Micaiah said and he said, lock him up, feed him water and bread, that's all you give him, and I'll take care of him when I get back.

And Micaiah shot back the last word. He said, if you come back, the Lord hasn't spoken by me. Well, evidently the Lord spoke by him because Ahab didn't come back. He was killed in the battle, he was defeated, and he attempted to camouflage himself.

But you see a soldier, one of the enemy, the scripture says he pulled a bow at a venture. That is, when the battle was about over, he just had one arrow left in his quiver and he just put it in there and he just shot him out in space.