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Should You Defend the Bible? (Part 1)
Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, but we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.
In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.
Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.
Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry. Mike Abendroth, your host today, and we are back on the air. Here we are again on the radio, and I'm just adjusting my dial. Are there dials on radios anymore?
Well, on my mixing board, there are dials, and if you have a topic that you'd like me to address on No Compromise Radio ministry, why don't you write me, info at nocompromiseradio .com, info at nocompromiseradio .com, and so if you have a question, you can write me.
If you have a comment, you can write me, or if you have a topic that you'd like me to talk about. I can't say I'll talk about every one of them that you want me to. Maybe there's some kind of political thing I could care less about or something.
If I didn't think it made good radio, maybe I'd throw it out. If I thought it was provocative, I might just do it. So write me, info at nocompromiseradio .com. That would be great. Well, today I'd like to talk to you about defending the Bible.
Should you defend the Bible, or should you not? Isn't it true we've all been in situations and circumstances in our lives? As Christians, where people would say, how do you know it's the word of God? How do you know that God wrote it?
What do they usually say? You can just hear it, can't you? Kind of that swarmy look and that kind of tone of condense, condensation.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
They're condescendingly talking to you. Maybe that's better. I wish we had kind of grammar resets on the show, but you know, in the old days, I remember I did a, we had something called Narrow Gate Ministries, and I was preaching the gospel in basically a garage where there was a bunch of Harley Davidson parts.
And we had a couple camera angles, and I'd try to do it just right, record over, record over, record over. And then after a while, you just have to say, let it go for 28 minutes. We'll throw it up on cable TV in Los Angeles.
Just let it go. I mean, so people make mistakes when they talk. Build a bridge, get over it. Keep going, forward. Forward. So what do we do when people say, you know, the Bible's not true? I would say if you're listening today on WVNE or iTunes or NoCompromiseRadio .com, you probably do the opposite of what I'm going to recommend.
You probably begin to talk about why the Bible is true. And you'll say things like, the Bible's true because it's changed my life. By the way, I'm glad the Bible's changed your life. But does that really convince someone?
I don't think it would convince anyone. Short of God drawing John chapter six, these people to himself, and then they maybe come to a conclusion. Short of that, that's not enough. That's not going to work.
That's not going to be helpful. If you talk about, well, let's look at the back of my Bible compared to the Book of Mormon, and look at the Book of Maps. Look at all the maps. Let's talk about all the archeological sites and digs and historical accounts that have been proved true by archeology and history.
And let's go to the British Museum and take a look at that. It's amazing to go there to British Museum, by the way, and see the confirmation of Sennacherib and all kinds of other people in the Old Testament.
But does that prove the Bible? When I used to work out in Gold's Gym in North Hollywood, California, and there's all kinds of movie stars there and other people, and I'd meet folks and they'd say, well, you know, what about this verse of the Bible?
If you could help me figure that out, that might in fact break the case. And I might believe the Bible and therefore believe God and therefore believe I'm a sinner, therefore have to look to Jesus Christ for forgiveness.
And I'd go do all my homework and look everything up and it usually had to do with some kind of so-called problem of the text. Some, you know, synoptic gospel said one thing in Mark and another thing in Luke, and how do they go together?
Judas hung himself in one account and Judas, you know, had his gut split open in another account, how does it go together? And then I would do my research, report back to the guy, and then he'd say, well, you know, that's true and I understand that, but what about this verse?
What about that verse? And it would go on and on and on. I'd realize this doesn't work. Even pragmatically speaking, although that's not the test of truth, is it? Does it work or does it not work? But it doesn't work.
Try to teach people that, look at all the prophecies. Do you know what percent, you know, the percentages of all these prophecies coming together to be true? See, what we forget is we forget that people don't want to believe the Bible because they don't want to answer to God.
They don't want to believe the Bible. They can't believe the Bible because it's going to affect their lives. Who likes to have a conscience when you sin? Nobody wants to, so they do everything they can, Romans chapter one, to suppress that.
So today I want to talk about this issue. Should you defend the Bible? And what school of thought should you use? The school of thought that says, I will use evidences to prove the Bible true. My own personal life, archeology, fossil data, layers in the stratosphere.
I don't know what people use these days. And they will go to books like Evidences that Demand a Verdict by Josh McDowell. And so should we go that route? By the way, I think evidences are great for Christians, but that'll be a little bit later.
Or do we go by the presuppositional route? And the presuppositional route will have some things and some ideas and some concepts and theological things that they presuppose. So today, the defense of the Bible as the word of God.
Basically, the overall response I have to should we defend the Bible, the answer is, yes, we defend the Bible by proclaiming it and therefore proclaiming Christ crucified. The defense of the Bible is to proclaim it and therefore proclaim Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
Now that was easy, let's close in prayer. No, it seems easy, but it's harder than we think. Now, I want to say early on that as a Christian, you have to remember that your guide is the word of God for not only what you do, but what you believe.
Or in this case, I should have said what you, not only for what you believe, but also how you do things. And 2 Corinthians 10 helps us remember that we are to think, many times, counterintuitively, contra the world.
Our rules of engagement, our strategy for war is not determined by Geneva, not determined by ourselves, not determined by West Point, our rules of engagement and strategy for war are determined by God Himself.
And whether it's conventional warfare or some kind of covert ops, God's rules are to be followed. And the Lord is concerned, not just by the end, what your result is, but He is also concerned with the means.
And just like the person in the war should forget his civilian ways, men in the military, women for that matter, dress differently, act differently, they have a different vocabulary, they have a different way to go about almost everything.
And that way is according to military regulation. And so listen to Paul's words as we kind of frame this in our mind. We do not war according to the flesh, 2 Corinthians 10 3, though we walk in the flesh.
I mean, you're in the flesh, but you have to be very careful because you're going to tend to want to war according to the flesh, especially if you walk in the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.
You need to fight a battle for the Bible in a spiritual way. Otherwise, the weapons that you use are going to be like rubber bands shot at Panzer tanks in 1944. They're not going to work. And it's going to be my contention that evidence that archeology, prophecy, changed life, manuscript evidence, it's all like shooting rubber bands to the heart of the unbeliever.
It's not good strategy. It's not a good way to carry on a campaign. 2 Corinthians 10 4, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. It is good to be wise here.
And it is good for us to use howitzers, not spit wads. If we're fighting a battle against invisible foes, we need a special set of engagement rules. Conventional warfare will just not work. Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, Ephesians 6, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.
And so we have to be careful. You have to be careful that when you're going to defend the Bible, that's what we're talking about today. Mike Abendroth, NoCompromiseRadio .com. How do you defend the Bible?
Do you defend the Bible? And what I want to say before we even get to the issue is you have to think biblically. And 2 Corinthians 10 5, we are destroying speculations in every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God.
And we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. What we're going to try to do is to subdue thoughts. That's what we're after. Continually demolishing citadels of the enemies, as Kistermacher would say.
We need to cast down imaginations and go against speculations and reasonings. And it's going to mean we have to use the Bible properly. If you're going to go for the kill, if you're going to cut the head off the enemy, and I mean their thoughts, I don't mean the unbelievers, that would be dumb.
If you're going to take prisoners of war for the gospel and lead people away as captives, you have to think according to the Bible. So early on, when we think about defending the Bible, my question to you is this.
Do you use your own smarts, your own intelligence, your own personal testimony, your own knowledge of manuscripts, of evidences like archeology, prophecy, et cetera, do you use those things? Or do you say to yourself, now, hmm, there's a certain kind of strategy I should have, and it's probably found in the Bible, and I should do that, no matter what I think, feel, or deem appropriate.
You need to defend the Bible by preaching the Bible and thereby preaching Jesus Christ. That's what you need to do. So let me give you some reasons you must defend the Bible by proclaiming it and therefore proclaiming Christ crucified.
Let me give you some reasons for that. What should you do and why should you go about it? Let's talk about the why first. Reasons you defend the Bible as the word of God, by proclaiming it, number one, you can't prove the Bible to be true with anything less than the Bible.
Everything else is less than the Bible, and if you're going to use anything less than the Bible to prove the Bible to be true, I'm not sure you're thinking properly. You cannot prove the Bible to be true with anything less than the Bible.
You need to stick with what changes people, and that is the word of God. And you are to proclaim the word. You are not to defend the word. As Spurgeon used to say, if the lion's in the cage, why stand next to the cage with spears and swords?
Why not just open up the cage? You can't prove the Bible to be true even with miracles. Why should you do it with any lesser kind of evidence? The scriptures are greater than any kind of miracles. I even think of Jesus' words in Mark 13, heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
Truly, I say to you, Matthew 5, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot will pass away from the law until all is accomplished. Here is the point. Miracles don't prove anything to an unbelieving heart.
Miracles don't prove anything to an unbelieving heart. We can't prove the Bible's inspiration by less than biblical ways. Let me say it this way. Luke 16, 31. But he said to him, if they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone rises from the dead.
Do you remember that passage in Luke 16? Do you remember Lazarus and dives as they call it? And the response is, if they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone rises from the dead.
That is fascinating. Remember the real Lazarus story? How did the Pharisees respond? You think, okay, let's do some kind of miracle. Then people will believe the Bible. That's the whole signs and wonders deal that John Wimber came up with years ago, power evangelism.
But miracles don't change the heart of an unbeliever. It's utter futility to try to prove the Bible. You can't prove the Bible. Remember Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. Remember he said, Lazarus, come out.
The man who had died came out. This is John 11. His hands and feet bound with linen strips and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, unbind him and let him go. Many of the Jews, therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he did, believed in him.
But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council and said, what are we to do for this man performs many signs. We go on like this, everyone will believe in him and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.
But one of them, Caiaphas, who was the high priest that year said, you know nothing at all, nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.
He did not say this of his own accord, but being the high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation. What's the point? The point is the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered together and said, he raised somebody from the dead, but that doesn't prove anything that he said.
People aren't going to be persuaded by someone being raised from the dead. One man said, this speaks powerfully of the singular sufficiency of scripture to overcome unbelief. It's not a miracle that overcomes unbelief.
It's not an evidence that overcomes unbelief. It doesn't change anyone. So why don't you use the Bible to proclaim the truth of God? Number two, what's the second reason you should defend the Bible by proclaiming it?
Defend the Bible by proclaiming it. Don't waste any time defending the Bible. It's a waste of time. We can talk personally between you and me, as my father's friend would say, just between us girls. It is a waste of time to try to defend the Bible.
And then to go get the books, Ellard Harris, Laird Harris on canonicity, and Geisler on general introduction, F .F. Bruce on the canon of scripture. You can give that all to the unbeliever. They might even find it fascinating, but that's not going to cause them to believe.
That is not going to cause them to believe. If you want to defend the Bible, then defend it by proclaiming it. That's what you ought to do. Number one, because of what we just talked about. Anything less than the Bible can't change the heart of man.
Reason two, you must remember the depravity of man so that you proclaim the Bible, not defend it. Remember depravity. First, you can't use miracles to make people believe. Second of all, you have to remember total depravity.
You need to remember depravity or else you will slip into man-centered, evidential kind of apologetics. You'll slip right into that because what you believe determines what you do. And if you, on the flip side, have evidentialism for your mode of operation, evangelistically, apologetically, I wonder if you really believe in the depravity of man, in total depravity.
The fall, I'm not so sure. Listen to the fall's effect on the mind of unbelievers in Ephesians chapter four. Now this I say and testify in the Lord that you must no longer walk as Gentiles do in the futility of their minds.
They're darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to every practice, to practice every kind of impurity.
So these unbelievers, do you know what? They have a defective mind. They have a mind that won't receive the things of God. They have a mind that won't worship God or give Him thanks. They have a futile mind, a mind that says, you know, I don't have a useful aim or goal.
It should be God, it should be Jesus worshiping the creator. But no, their thinking now becomes futile and they won't receive the revelation of God and they have a mind now that's useless, worthless, empty, meaningless.
One man said the original purpose of the mind was to be able to comprehend God's revelation. But due to the fall, a person's mind is unable to accomplish that goal. Hence the futility of their minds conveys the idea of not being able to perceive the revelation of God for which it was designed.
What futility, one man translates it, good for nothing notions that they have. Now, these unbelievers that you talk to aren't stupid. They don't have low IQs necessarily. I don't think Paul would run around and think Aristotle was a dunce and Socrates was silly.
I don't think he would think that at all. But their philosophies are moronic, stupid and they don't work. They don't work at all. What a man believes and what a man is determine what a man does. And so you have certain mental thoughts, it will determine your morality, won't it?
Unbelievers have a defective mind that will not worship or thank God. And sin leads to more sin. Augustine said the punishment of sin, sin. And so they are dense and dumb and deaf and unresponsive. It's like the doctor taking one of those little hammer, those knee hammer things for your reflexes and it hits and nothing happens.
These people have given themselves over to sensuality. They have become callous. They worship, but they worship themselves. And so why would you use manuscript evidence or let's talk about some kind of creator.
People are always in intelligent design. Well, that forgets that rationalism has been affected by depravity. You can't use a method of apologetics that assumes the unbeliever can grasp the gospel message with simple, sufficient, rationalistic argumentation.
Man's mind is not neutral. And if you just give him rational truths, undeniable truths, then he'll say, okay, that tipped me over. That doesn't work because of total depravity, because of Ephesians chapter four that we just talked about.
Man's not autonomous in his reason. No, he's incapable of grabbing hold of truth. And Aquinas back in the 1200s, like this kind of apologetics that said, let's give proofs, let's give historical facts, let's give natural theology, let's give miracles.
Let's give Newton, he was a Christian and some kind of compelling reason for man to believe. That just essentially comes from the early influence of Greek humanistic philosophy. That kind of Alexandrian mindset, according to George Zemeck.
Rationalism is ultimately based on self-sufficiency and the self-sufficiency of human reason. It does not grasp the depth of total depravity. Colossians one, although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, unconverted man cannot apprise and appraise spiritual truth.
So what should you do? You're going to have to preach the word of God to these people because faith comes by hearing a message of Christ. And you said, well, I thought that doesn't work. Well, it doesn't work to try to prove the Bible true.
But if you preach the gospel and God saves through the preaching of the gospel, Romans 10, they'll respond with a belief in the Bible. I am certain. Show me somebody who's been born from above and I'll show you somebody who hears his voice.
So no compromise radio. Today we're introducing this topic. Do we defend the Bible? The answer is no. But to change things around a little bit the way we think, defend the Bible by proclaiming the Bible.
That's what we want to talk about today. Defend the Bible by proclaiming the Bible because miracles, signs and wonders and experiences don't work, neither do any attempts that try to play on the rational thinking of man because man's mind is empty.
So this week, if you want to preach the gospel, I would love that. But don't waste any more time. If you've got 10 minutes to talk to an unbeliever this week, make nine and a half minutes preaching the gospel and about a half a minute telling them why this other part isn't going to work.
No compromise radio. Defend the Bible by preaching the Bible. And therefore, since the Bible talks about Christ Jesus, you'll be preaching Christ.
No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life transforming power of God's word through verse by verse exposition of the sacred text.
Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at six. We're right on route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.
The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff or management.