Why I Believe Part 2 — Shane Idleman

Good evening. Looks like we might get a little snow tonight, right? That's okay. I'm fine with that. You know, let me just open in prayer. Just that song, Lead Me to the Cross. I mean, I wish they could just go 20 more minutes because that's what this is all about.

You know, that's why we're here. That's why we preach. That's why we teach. That's why we worship. It's all about the cross. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, I pray that tonight your word would be honored.

Lord, I pray that your Holy Spirit would convict, that your Holy Spirit would draw. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, bring back the prodigal son and the wayward daughter. Lord, just go out in the conviction and the power of your word.

Lord, I pray that you just use me as a humble vessel, Lord, to preach your word. Lord, with clarity and direction, Lord, I pray that lives would be changed tonight and would lead us to the cross. In Jesus' name, amen.

Contending for Truth and Sound Doctrine

I might briefly recap because I see some new faces and that's kind of the whole reason why we recap is with Saturday nights, we have 30, 40 people gone and 30, 40 people new people, and so it's kind of interesting dilemmas I've explained before, but we've been in a series on answers for a confused church and what we're doing is we're contending for truth in a postmodern culture.

I mean, if you look at how many times Jesus said, I tell you the truth, it was something like 75 times in the New Testament. He said, verily, verily, I tell you the truth, but our culture wants to oppose the truth, but the church is called to stand for the truth and having done all, stand, stand on the word of God.

So we're in a series on answers for a confused church and we talked about judging, right? When do you judge? In what situations do you judge? Do you judge gossip? Do you judge backbiting? Do you judge, we talked about judging church discipline.

We talked about judging elders or choosing leaders, and the last point that we were talking about judging on was last week, we talked about judging sound doctrine and that's one thing our culture doesn't like us to do.

They don't like us to judge sound doctrine and what I mean by that is a correct understanding of God. We are called to do that, we are commanded to do that, to preach sound doctrine, to stand up for sound doctrine.

Paul said, I've been appointed to defend the gospel. See, a lot of times we don't wanna offend anybody, we don't wanna upset anybody, we don't wanna say anything controversial, we'll just keep our mouth shut, but the Bible says, no, contend for sound doctrine because we talked about last week, a proper understanding of God is fundamental.

How you perceive God is fundamental to your faith. Do you think God doesn't want us to have a correct understanding of him or his nature? I mean, all the different religions out there and that's what, with Christianity, when we say Christ is the only way, the only truth, the only life, sometimes we say it apologetically.

The Exclusivity of Christ

You know, like, I know it's, yeah, but you know, we're supposed to say it, he is the only way, the only truth and the only life. No man can come to the Father except through him. We don't have to apologize for it, we don't have to candy coat it, we don't have to run from it.

Christ declared it, Paul declared it, why can't we? We are commanded and we referenced those two scriptures last week, if you have them in your notes or you should have them in your notes, the importance of sound doctrine, Titus, he's talking about, Paul's talking about leaders that were to hold fast, holding fast the faithful word as he has been taught, Titus 1 .9, that he may be able, here's that word, by sound doctrine, both to exhort and convict those who contradict.

Wow, the God of the Bible's actually saying we are called, we are commanded to exhort, which is to challenge. We're called to challenge doctrine that's not sound. When they said that God is in the trees and in the planet and God's within us, we're called to say no, he's not.

We're the creation, he's the creator. He transcends us, he doesn't live in a little box here, he has created us, but we tend to worship the creation instead of the creator, as we learned in Romans 1 .8.

So he said that's the importance of exhorting, which is you're basically convincing, and then you convict those who contradict. See, when you speak the truth in love, when you genuinely speak it in love, and you say, no, that's not correct, and here's why, that is supposed to convict the person, and they begin to think about, boy, maybe I've missed it or maybe I didn't get it right, and I talked last week about not putting down certain groups, but I gave the example of the Jehovah Witness and the Mormons, when they come to the door, I can't just agree, I have to say, here's where you're wrong, here's where you're in error.

A lot of what you're teaching directly opposes the Bible. If I keep silent and say nothing, by saying nothing, I say something. You realize that by saying nothing, we say something? I talked to you about the time I was at the Mormon bishop's house for an hour and a half and just listened, okay, and that makes sense, now let me show you the scriptures and what they say.

They don't wanna hear it, it's time to leave, it's time to get out of the house. Why, because it's convicting, it's convicting. The truth can stand the test of time. Truth does not run from questioning, it invites it.

Have you ever thought about that? People say, I don't know, I'm questioning the Bible, let's sit down, let's talk, but when you question a different belief or a different religion, they don't wanna talk, they're not open for that.

They don't wanna hear it, they don't wanna debate it, why? Because it's not true. Anything that is not true is a lie, and I can say that in love. We have friends, I've told you before, they're Mormon, Hindu, Buddhist, Jehovah's, we have friends, we take them to dinner, have lunch, friends, but we can't fellowship, you see what I mean?

We can't be united for the cause of Christ because what a person believes directly opposes God's word. And don't get upset at me, that's what this says. Not me, not my opinion, it's what the word of God says.

That's why we're supposed to do that, we're supposed to exhort and convict those who contradict, will contradict what? Well, and I also talked about Galatians 1 .8, but if we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel than what you have heard, let him be accursed.

And that's a strong word, it's that word anathema in the Greek, let him be accursed, it's an accursed thing. So if we preach any other gospel, any other gospel, the Bible says they're to be accursed, anathema.

Why is that? Because any other gospel leads people astray. Any other gospel, any other teaching that opposes God leads people astray. You might say, Shane, well, what is truth? Well, John MacArthur would say, truth is that which is consistent with the mind, will, glory, and being of God.

Just remember that, truth is whatever is consistent with God. God's word says man is sinful, man has fallen, the world says, no, we're great, aren't we such good people? We're actually gods ourself, no, we're not.

So whatever God's truth says, the world often opposes it. That's why he said if anybody preaches any other gospel, and I don't always like to do it, but when error comes up, we are commanded to defend the truth.

The problem is a lot of people don't know how to defend the truth, so they get tongue-tied. You know, well, the Bible just says, and I believe it, and that settles it. Well, that's good, but you have to know what you believe and why you believe it.

Teaching the Next Generation to Defend the Faith

And I wanna go back to that verse for a minute and just take a rabbit trail. He said, he's telling Titus, hold fast, because this is on my heart, it's been on my heart all week. Hold fast that you may be able by sound doctrine, by sound doctrine, by sound teaching, you may be able to convince those who contradict.

And that's what's happening in our culture today. That's why young adults by the millions are leaving the church. That's why when kids get into universities, they're being taught error and they're being drifting away from the faith because they're not being taught sound doctrine.

When a professor laughs at them for believing in a creator, they should be able to defend that position and say, no, sir, we did not come from a premortal ooze, we're not two planets hit and we evolved, we should be able to defend that.

The problem is kids are going in not knowing how to defend their faith. Not knowing, oh, I don't know, I guess I was taught that. No, they should be able to defend in the universities go, but now they're being mocked and laughed at and ridiculed.

If you say you're a Christian in the university, you'll be downgraded, you'll be scorned, you'll be ridiculed. The problem is we're raising up a whole generation that does not know the word of God. That's why Paul said, parents, parents, raise your children in the fear and admonition of the Lord.

That word admonition is nototheia in the Greek. It means to put in their mind the things of God, to put in their mind the conviction of the Holy Spirit, to put into them the things of God. That's your job.

It's not to go earn six figures and build a house and have tons of cars and take vacations. It's to plant the things of God into the next generation. And I'm getting tired of people complaining and oh, the church is this and we're losing a whole generation.

Yeah, because we're not putting into them the things of God. We're not planting into their mind the things of God. As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. That's what we're happening. And I just listen to radio programs all the time at the universities.

I mean, kids are just going in there and it says kids are losing their faith. You don't really lose your faith. The problem is your foundation wasn't strong enough. They should be able to go in there and almost laugh at the professor.

Underneath they're like, oh, I can't believe they believe this and here's why. Look at creation. Look at archeologically. We talked about that last week. Scientifically, prophetically, you can prove this to make professors so upset that they just get mad and tell you to leave.

Because you can hit every single one of their arguments if we're teaching children. And a lot of people might say, I don't even know myself. That's why I turn off American Idol and get into this. Turn off Desert Housewives, I don't know if it's still on, but get into this.

I mean, let's be honest. We're entertaining ourselves to death. I've got a whole sermon on that, so I won't waste my time on that one. But think about it. And a lot of people, somebody came up to me, I think a few weeks back, and said, why do Christians, I mean, they use such strong words like cult and heresy.

Defining Cults and Heresy

But let's just think about a cult. A cult, if you just define what a cult is, it's any group or denomination that opposes the historical tenets of the Christian faith. That's all it is. If they don't teach Christ alone, saved by grace, God, if you don't have a right relationship, it is a cult.

It's leading people astray. So it's not some weird word that we just pull out sometimes. It just means any group that does not teach the foundations of the Christian faith. That is an occult, that's a cult.

When you say you're the only right church, and you've got this new understanding of the gospel, and that a lot of the Bible's good, but there's something, you're a cult. It's okay to say that. And heresy just means a self-willed opinion that opposes the truth.

In other words, if somebody has an opinion that opposes the truth, and they're teaching that, that's heretical. The problem is we got it backwards when you hear words like William Tyndale and Martin Luther and John Huss and Whitecliffe and a lot of the reformers.

Many of those guys were burned at the stake because they were called heretics. The problem was the church got it wrong. Those men were bringing people back to the word of God, not further away from it.

Because they wanted to get the word of God into the people's language in their tongue, they didn't want the church to just have this secret teaching and people couldn't learn. They were called heretics.

But they're actually, that was a wrong terminology because they were leading people back to the truth. Many of the reformers in the early church, and you get into the Spanish Inquisitions and what was done in the name of Christianity.

It's a mess. So just think about that, heretic and cult. I mean, I know they're kind of weird words, but that's all they mean is groups that directly oppose what God's revealed word has said. You might say, well, Shane, who's to say you're right?

Well, the Bible, the Bible, this. How do you really know you're the right way? What about all these other groups? Aren't they sincere? Yeah, but you can be sincerely wrong. Think about that. And we talked last week about archeologically.

There's never been any find archeologically that has disproved the Bible. All these discoveries have proved the Bible. Scientifically, prophetically, all these things prove the Bible. Think about that.

We have, and we talked last week, you have to have a right understanding of God. Truth invites questioning, and that's why we all just can't get along. All these different groups and movements and ecumenical and let's get all the religions together, you can't.

It doesn't work. Because there's one faith, unity of the body, unity of Christ, unity of sound doctrine. Just remember that. You guys hear this word all the time, unity, unity. Why can't we be united?

Well, unity comes from having a proper understanding of God's word. We are united in this. And then when I'm united in this, I can be united with my fellow man. But if somebody teaches or believes things that directly oppose this, there isn't unity there.

There's no unity at all. So let's get into this week. Oh, before I do that, I want to remind you guys, remember all religions can be wrong, but all religions cannot be right. Let me say that again. All religions can be wrong, but they cannot all be right.

One Way, One Truth, One Life

Think about that. A lot of them claim exclusivity, right? They're the only right way, but they can't all be right. There can only be one way, one truth, one life. It's not like God created all this and just said, okay, now go have fun, do whatever you want to do.

So we showed how this is accurate scientifically, prophetically, the consistency. If you guys weren't here last week, I encourage you to get a CD we have of last week's message because I go into more detail about the accuracy of the Bible and the conviction of the Holy Spirit.

We feel that conviction before salvation. We feel that confirmation after salvation. The Spirit in us cries, Abba, Father. We see the consistency from Genesis to Revelation. There's so many truths there.

That's why I believe. That was last week's message. Why do I believe? Why can I stand up here with the authority of God's Word and proclaim this in the power of the Holy Spirit? Because it's true. It's true.

Scripture's Inspiration and Its Power to Transform

Now, if you have your Bibles, open to 2 Timothy. 2 Timothy. I'm gonna go all the way to verse 16. 2 Timothy, verse 16. If you don't have your Bibles, you can just listen. I'll read it. All Scripture, not some, not chosen portions, all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable.

Here's the key. Here's why the Bible was written. If any of you want to know, all Scripture is given by inspiration of God. I hear a lot of people turning. I'm still in 2 Timothy, chapter three, actually, verse 16.

Chapter three. I was just checking to see if you were paying attention. Page 1 ,588 in my Bible. That doesn't help, huh? Okay, 2 Timothy, chapter three, verse 16. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and it is profitable.

Here's the reason we preach and we read and we teach. It is profitable for doctrine, which is a correct understanding of God, for reproof, to correct people, which is just kind of a different word for correction, for instruction in righteousness, in other words, how to live, come out from among them, be holy, be set apart.

Obedience brings power. Think about that. Obedience to God's word brings power to your life. If any of you right now are feeling distant from God, Bible seems boring, church is irrelevant, I'm not willing to worship, I'm just standing there wondering when it's over, it's because, and many times, there's no obedience occurring to God's word.

When you are in open rebellion to the word of God, there is no peace, there is no comfort. Hard is the way of the transgressor. Obedience brings power. When you submit your life to the power of the gospel, when you lead holy lives, and I'm not talking about perfection, I wouldn't be up here if I was, but I'm talking about those who wanna honor God in the holy life, set apart, feeding their minds on the things that are pure and noble and honest, not making terrible choices all day long, you'll have the power and anointing of the Holy Spirit because obedience brings power.

Let me go back again. All scripture is given by inspiration of God. And it is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. Why, Paul? Well, because the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

And then he says, Timothy, I charge you, therefore, before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead in his appearing in his kingdom. See, make no mistake about it, he will judge us.

It's not this mild, meek, turn-the-other-cheek Jesus, it is, like John said, I saw heaven open, and behold, a white horse, and he who sat on it was called Faithful and True, and he judges the nations, he judges us.

A .W. Tozer said many years ago, I love him because he is my savior, but I fear him because he is my judge. See, that's a healthy respect and a healthy balance of God. Paul said he's going to judge at his appearing in his kingdom.

So he said, because of this, Timothy, because the souls of man are on the line, preach the word. In a nutshell, he said, preach the word, Timothy, be ready in and out of season, for the time will come, and it's here now, when they will not endure sound doctrine.

The world doesn't want to hear it. They want to shut it up, shut your mouth, all these laws are being passed. I bet you'll see the Bible begin to be, they'll want to get rid of it, they'll want to get rid of Christian radio.

I'm not being alarmist, I'm just being real. They want to silence us. So that's why he said, Timothy, be ready in and out of season, for the time will come, when they will not endure sound doctrine, but they will heap up for themselves teachers that tell me what I want to hear.

Tell me what I want to hear. Tell me it's okay to do all this stuff and say all this stuff. If we don't come to church sometimes and not get convicted, something is wrong. When I'm putting messages together, I get convicted.

I need to be nicer to my wife and my kids, I shouldn't have, conviction is good. That's what the Bible does. It convicts, and then my job is to come up here and preach it and convict some more. And as I'm preaching, I get convicted.

So if conviction is a bad thing, always remember this. The Bible convicts before it saves you. It condemns you before it frees you. Always. There's always conviction and condemnation, not for bad, but to bring us to repentance.

Who's gonna repent if they're not convicted? Nobody. Who's gonna put their trust in Christ if they're not convicted and challenged? Nobody. Nobody. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires.

See, here's what people do. Oh, tell me what I want to hear, Oprah. Some of the guys on there, I don't know to laugh or cry. I don't watch it, I heard, okay? But according to their own desires, because they have itching ears.

Basically, what does that mean? That means, tell me what I want to hear. What's the newest craze? What's going on? Tell me, I'm looking for teachers who tell me what I want to hear. That's why you have to be careful.

Just because a church is a mega church and huge, doesn't mean the gospel's being preached. Sometimes it could mean he's telling them what they want to hear. So they look for those type of people in the last days, and they look for teachers, and they will turn their ears, look at, they will turn their ears away from the truth, and they'll be turned aside to following fables.

Think about that. He's saying, in the last day, people are not gonna want to hear this. They're gonna look, does this sound like our culture? Don't tell me what God's word says. Don't tell me what the Bible says.

I don't want to hear any of that junk. Tell me that I'm a nice, good person. Tell me that God is within me. Tell me that I'm gonna be a God someday. Tell me all these wonderful things. It's a lie from the pit of hell.

They will not endure sound doctrine, so people look for people to tell them what they want to hear. So back to why I believe with that versus the foundation. You might say, well, Shane, all scripture is given by God.

Yeah, but who put the Bible together? Who's to say you're right? What about all these other? Well, I'm getting there, trust me, but get next week's CD for sure because I cover a lot of ground up to this point.

How God Communicates Truth Through Scripture

Now, I'm often asked, well, how would God communicate? Think about this. People say, well, how do you know? I mean, how would God communicate? And let's think about this. How would a God, a creator, Jesus said he's not a person, he's spirit, and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

Here's that word again, truth. Jesus said, I tell you the truth 75 times. This was written so that you would know the truth. You think there's something to that? See, but we suppress the truth. We don't want to hear it.

But the truth, it's the truth that sets us free. So what God would do is, I mean, people say, well, what about audibly, dreams, visions, the written word, all these different things. It always has to do with the mind.

God communicates through man. I mean, if you study the mind, the ability to process information from years ago and be able to bring it up, respond, taking it, I mean, the mind is absolutely amazing. That's why Paul said, oh, wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of sin and death?

But with the mind, I serve the law of God. But with the flesh, the law of sin. See, our mind, that's how God would communicate. So in the Old Testament, you saw visions and dreams and God maybe spoke audibly or, why?

Because the mind, I see a vision or have a vision or a dream or audibly, it's filtered through my mind, is it not? For as a man thinks in his heart, so is he. So that's how God's gonna communicate. And what better way than reading, processing through our mind that we can pass down?

I mean, to me, it makes perfect sense. It's like, well, why doesn't he just write something on the sky? Probably because we wouldn't believe it. Oh, that's not God, that's some aliens. And we blame everything now.

I mean, I told you guys a few months ago, another rabbit trail, but it's all right. They're interviewing some of the top minds in the world today, wondering, they don't believe in God. Well, how do we get here?

And Gary, remember, we were talking about this. Well, I think aliens brought us in on the back of crystals. What? What? What? You wanna know why? Because this convicts. They don't want there to be a Lord because they wanna be Lord of their own life.

That's the bottom line. That's the bottom line. They don't wanna give up the so-called good life. They don't wanna bow to their need to a creator. And that's what happens. And what happens, we talked about last week, is when we confirm this archeologically, scientifically, prophetically, now we're gonna get into the validity of this.

Historical and Manuscript Evidence for the Bible

So I believe that's why God used the Bible. It's written word that we read, and through our mind, we can understand it. And it's passed down. We say, well, who's to say the Bible's correct? Well, I'm glad you asked.

First, let's look at the Old Testament. I won't spend too much time here because the Old Testament really isn't under as much scrutiny as the New Testament. You're right, a lot of people doubt the Bible.

They say, I don't know, it was put together by a bunch of guys. I mean, it's good for you. It's got some good teaching in it. But if you look at the Old Testament, isn't as, you know, the Da Vinci Code and all that garbage, if I may use that term.

There's another book out, the Da Vinci Deception. Why don't you read it to kind of balance that one off? But they talked about really questioning the New Testament. But the Old Testament, all you really need to know is what Jesus said, for it is written.

Jesus confirmed the Old Testament. He confirmed the law and the prophets. He said, I didn't come to abolish that. I came to fulfill it. Jesus quoted the Old Testament continually. In the Old Testament, we see Genesis.

We see the creation of man, the fall of man, the redemption of man, the chosen people. We see Exodus, those people leaving the land of Egypt. We see numbers, them being numbered and led astray. We see Deuteronomy.

Or Leviticus, I forgot about, but Leviticus talks about the Levitical priesthood. That's why God initiated that, because without the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sin. So all this is consistent.

And then you get to Deuteronomy, where God says, if you honor my commandments, if you obey my voice, if you hearken diligently, I will set you high above all the nations of the earth. And then we get into Judges and Joshua and Ruth and 1 Samuel, Kings and Chronicles that talk about the children of Israel.

And then the prophets, the major prophets, who called the children of Israel back. So we see a consistent theme there. And all Jesus did was confirm it. He said, it is written. You shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

Haven't you read? Isn't it written? To me, that's proof enough. If Jesus quoted it, that's good. Not only that, we talked about a lot of the archeological discoveries are found from the New Testament.

A lot of, I mean, if you read some of these books on science and how they see that the universe is expanding and that the sun is actually decreasing. Well, how did, who started the sun? Who started the universe?

I mean, all this stuff is so consistent that you almost have to have more faith not to believe it, to be quite honest with you. So you look at the Old Testament, it really isn't disputed, it's Christ confirmed it.

Not only that, the Jewish tradition has passed it down. We talked about the Dead Sea Scrolls that they found, the Book of Isaiah, the same Book of Isaiah we read today. But then if you get into the New Testament, the New Testament, how do we know what we're reading is valid?

Well, first you have to remember, it is consistent with the Old Testament. It's not like we have the Old Testament and then this New Testament that really, okay, the Old Testament, the New Testament reveals what was already foretold in the Old Testament.

They go together, they're interwoven. You can't really read one without the other. I would encourage you to always be reading in the Old and always be reading in the New Testament. Now with the New Testament, this is what eyewitnesses, you could not be a book in the Bible without eyewitnesses that actually saw the event, right?

Saying, well, Shane, they could just say that. But remember from last week, these are men who actually died, died, hung upside down, beaten beyond recognition, had their brains gashed out, drugged across, because they wrote a lie?

Absolutely not, so they had to be eyewitnesses. All of them were eyewitnesses. Paul, you might say, well, he came later. He did, but I believe he is the 12th disciple. They chose Matthias or Matthias, however you wanna pronounce it.

What happens when Judas hung himself, killed himself, they said, okay, the Scripture must be fulfilled, going back to the Old Testament again, that another take his place. So they said, well, gosh, I mean, let's just pick somebody.

Isn't that like what we always do? We don't count on God, let's just do it ourselves. So they cast lots, pick this guy we never hear of again. But then Paul has this Damascus Road experience, knocked off his beast, said, Lord, what must I do?

And he met the risen Savior, and he wrote most of the New Testament. So he was an eyewitness to this. Not only that, not only do we look at the eyewitness, we look at the message. See, to me, this was one of the things that really did it for me.

This message reaches all people, all times, all cultures, all creeds, all continents. This is truth to the African jungle, to the tundra, to the shores of California. I mean, this message, if this was just the invention of men, they would have wrote it based on where they lived.

I mean, it reaches everybody. The truth is the truth. The next thing that's interesting is we have more proof of the New Testament than any other ancient writings, period. As a matter of fact, there's 24 ,000 old manuscripts we have, and the closest second is Homer's Iliad with 643.

We don't question those guys. Oh, great story, Homer's Iliad, but we have 24 ,000 manuscripts of the New Testament in our possession. Also, the early church fathers quoted the Bible. These are guys like Justin Martyr, Polycarp, Jerome, Ignatius, Irenaeus, all these guys that came right after the disciples in the first century, second century.

They quoted the New Testament, the Old Testament. They quoted the Bible. It's been said that we could probably write the entire Bible. Now, I didn't verify this, so let me say it. I'm speculating, but I think going off of memory, I think we could write the entire Bible, not just the New Testament, by the writings of the early church fathers.

If you didn't even have the Bible, you just had the writings of early church fathers, you could grab their commentaries, you could grab everything they wrote, and you'd be able to put the Bible together.

So they confirmed it. I mean, if the guys who lived that time, they confirmed it as well. And then what comes up a lot is the Council of Hippo in AD 393 and the Council of Carthage in AD 397. This is what a lot of that Da Vinci book was based upon.

A council came together, and they said, we'll pick these gospels, we'll pick these books. They give us more power, they put down women. It's like they chose all these books at this council, and that's how we got the Bible.

But all the council did was they recognized these are the 27 books that have been authentic and have been taught since the conception of the church. That's all the council did. They didn't choose all these books, they just said these are authentic.

These are the manuscripts that have been passed down for the last 300 years. So you see the difference? It wasn't they were choosing all these different, well, let's take the gospel, no, we don't want the gospel of Thomas, we don't want the gospel of Judas, let's take this and gospel.

No, they just said these 27 books are what the church has been teaching for many, many centuries. And they just kind of put their stamp of approval on that. Also unique in its survival, no other book has been challenged, burned, tried to get rid of than the Bible.

I mean, if that doesn't tell you something, nothing else does. I mean, they tried to get rid of this book over and over and over again. Now, we're gonna get into an interesting topic. Translations, or how do we get the Bible, and how do you know it's all reliable?

Bible Translations and the Consistency of Christ's Deity

But what happened is, right after Jesus' time, maybe 80, probably 80, 90, 80, 100, 110, 120, all these letters that we read, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, 1 Corinthians, Philippians, all these letters went out.

That's how they got word of reading, and it got through our mind, and that's how they got these letters out. And also they translated them for missionary purposes, like we do today. Greek, you hear Martin Luther, he did the German New Testament.

You've got, you'll hear the Latin Vulgate from Jerome. It's where the Roman Catholic Church gets some of their stuff. And all these, but these are later, but earlier, the manuscripts went out. All the Gospels, the messages went out, and they started to translate them in their own language.