Shifting Perspectives - Biblical Conversations about Topics that Matter - Episode 10

welcome to shifting perspectives

biblical conversations about topics that

matter let's get to

[Music]

it hey everybody welcome back to another

episode of Shifting perspectives and

this is a this is a really important

topic that we're getting ready to dive

into and I think it's a lot of fun but I

also think it's a CH for both those who

are skeptical and those who are

believers I think that you know whenever

we talk about this topic today this is

this is where many new and as you say

even even seasoned Christians really

have trouble defending their faith and

understanding exactly uh where they're

going in in life sometimes so I hope

this this uh next few minutes and next

couple of sessions as we go into this

really lay out some important things to

help you be better and stronger whenever

it comes to sharing the gospel yeah so

let me let me throw out there because I

think there's a lot of people I've been

doing this what now this is my 33rd year

in Ministry um 34th year yeah I'm old

you're old Carl I don't know what

happened but over the course of that

time the number of people that have

asked the question to me both both those

who are not of the faith and those who

are of the faith of why do we find the

Bible believable and trustworthy worthy

that number I can't even begin to count

over the course of that time so it's a

really important question so so first I

would encourage you as you're watching

this take a moment to like it take a

moment to share it but also put some

comments in there ask some questions

that we can possibly help Define this a

little better because there's a lot of

information that we're going to go

through probably right fairly quickly

just to try to keep this short and you

might have a question that didn't get

answered and we want to answer those

questions yeah absolutely I mean we're

talking about the Cornerstone of

Christian belief and that is the

infallible word of God um you know if if

we lose that then you know the

Cornerstone is broken right and this

Cornerstone is not broken that's right

we know it you know I like you I've

studied it for a lot of years and it

this was one of the most interesting

studies I took I ever undertook and I

did I started 20 years ago in just this

area of why do we really believe this

book that's right yeah and so it's

really really important and that's

really kind of the great segue to start

with the first the first part of this if

you will and and we so we start with the

Bible we first have to kind of Define

what it is that we're talking about so

um the Bible in itself is not a

book but you know what's interesting is

if it's it's it is the number one

selling book of all time if you if you

put book in in the category of that over

a million copies a year yeah million cop

so there is a significant interest in

the world in biblical topics and

biblical conversations and there's also

a s significant amount of skepticism yes

but for a Christian the Bible we hold a

very high value on the Bible and what it

says As a Christian maybe not so much as

what others are and maybe it's being

bought for those who are curious or who

have an interest but for those who of us

who have come to Faith the bible really

is a high value to us yeah in it we find

uh these four core principles that we

believe that we stand on and and and

this is kind of what we're going to

Define as we go through this is why

these core these four core values there

are that the Bible is an errant the

Bible is without error the Bible is

infallible in other words it will not

fail in its purposes and the

truthfulness of it accomplishes its

purpose um and and we can talk about

some scriptures you know Isaiah 55 says

that the word of God will not return

void but it will accomplish all of his

purposes so the Bible won't fail it's

infallible in that then the Bible is

authoritative right it is what we build

our lives on it's not the foundation of

Christ but the Christ that we come to

comes from the Bible right yes and so uh

it's the it's the Bible of the C uh it's

the Christ of the Bible not the Christ

of YouTube or Facebook or you know some

other ideas that are out there that that

often times are you know I love Jesus

and I have a relationship with him but

it's not the it's not the Jesus that the

Bible teaches us about right exactly a

lot of false teachings you know and even

false Bibles out there that do not

follow the original the original

manuscripts and the original writings

things being added things being removed

you know and when you talk about the

word of God I mean Jesus is referred to

as the word of God right these are

Jesus's words these are the ones study

that's why we're very particular about

you know what is taught and and read and

understood not to get into um you know

these other areas where where confusion

may arise as you start taking things out

and putting things in so as Christ's

perfect word for his perfect goal of

accomplishing the the ministry here on

Earth uh we have to be comfortable and

understand and have Rock Solid

confidence in um you know this book

which is a combination of books of being

the inherent word of God right

absolutely and so so that's three and

then the fourth one is that the Bible is

sufficient it is sufficient for us to be

able to build our lives on and and so we

get that from scripture we get those

four things from scripture because the

Bible actually teaches those four things

um and and so like like Scott said this

is not a book it's a collection of how

many books are are in the Bible we got

66 of

66 different books in the Bible there's

39 in the Old Testament 27 in the new um

and what we what we like to say about

the Bible as a starting place is the

Bible is a compilation of books written

by

eyewitnesses every one of these books

that we find in the Bible was written by

an eyewitness to the Life of Christ to

the ministry in the Old Testament to the

prophetic words that pointed to Christ

matter of fact there's a lot of script

ures that point to that fact that it was

written by eyewitnesses and so these are

these are historically accurate

eyewitnesses or eyewitness accounts but

you know what's interesting about those

eyewitness accounts that are written in

this is that we say that the

eyewitnesses that wrote these were in

the presence of other eyewitnesses yes

and eyewitnesses if you look if you go

to court today I mean that's that's one

of the Lynch pin right I mean you get an

eyewitness to to to get on the stand and

testify and and point to you know a

defendant um that carries a lot of

weight and that's significant for us to

even begin with exactly and that's what

you have here is not just each book

being an eyewitness but multiple

eyewitnesses so you've not got two

people standing there saying hey I saw I

saw Carl do this you've got 200 or 2,000

or 5,000 or 50,000 in some cases saying

we all saw the same thing we were coming

together and then all the books mees

those things together where they become

eyewitnesses to each other as we and we

talked about in the past these Golden

Threads that run through the Bible the

books become eyewitnesses of themselves

absolutely and that's what ties it

together into that that tapestry that

can't be broken absolutely and so when

you begin to think about that as a as an

example um we're just a few short weeks

away from Easter um which is one of the

Paramount holidays for Christians

because we are celebrating Easter um

really we're celebrating the death

burial and resurrection of Christ yes

him going to the Cross which we talk

about the gospel over and over and over

again but but the gospel of him going to

the Cross doesn't end there he goes into

the ground and then he rises again we

celebrate that and and let me just take

a moment here and invite you if you

don't have a place to go for Easter um

that is a great place to step in and

find out about this Jesus and this Jesus

of the Bible that ultimately gave his

life for you and and for me um but one

of those eyewitness accounts that we

talk about is found in 1 Corinthians

1 Corinthians 15 · chapter mention

chapter 15 Paul wrote 1 Corinthians um

and in 1 Corinthians 15 as he's

describing the gospel and specifically

the resurrection he's really talking

about the resurrection in 1 Corinthians

15 he says that besides Jesus being seen

after the resurrection by the TW

Apostles by James Jesus's brother by

others he then says there were over 500

MH eyewitnesses to Jesus's resurrection

that didn't write books of the Bible

that you know are not even touted by

name but just the fact alone that there

were that many who saw him and then we

have some other evidences when we talk

about eyewitnesses you know a book of

eyewitnesses accounts that were

witnessed by other eyewitnesses there

were people not just of the faith who

were

eyewitnesses um we have Romans

historians uh tactus is his name you

know I get all screwed up because The

Story Keepers videos for kids has a has

a character that's a Roman Centurion

named tacticus and so I always get them

anyway there's a Roman historian during

that time frame named tacus who writes

of Jesus's death burial resurrection and

his life and so you know that's

completely outside of the faith

tradition that's not Paul writing a book

of the Bible that's somebody who's not a

Christian who is testifying to the

things that that we know and and so not

just a Roman historian but we also have

this fellow by the name of flavius

Josephus flavius Josephus was a Jewish

historian also not a Christian by the

way correct but he wrote of Jesus's life

death and Resurrection so this is a

compilation of eyewitness accounts that

were witnessed by eyewitnesses that can

testify ify to its veracity that it is

truthful and the the the story that we

find here which is really the story it's

God's story isn't that what we call it

yeah you know and it is and you know to

add to what you're you're saying there

is you realize and and this goes back to

understanding timelines but the the the

common images out there is that Jesus

was put in the grave and then he

ascended to heaven and all these all

these references that you're creating

come from the fact with he was on Earth

after the resurrection for 40 days right

absolutely he was walking the Earth he

was meeting with people he people saw

him not just not just per say Christians

and Jews but the the Romans that you're

talking about this wasn't a quick thing

I mean he was walking around showing

himself here feel the scars you know

touch touch my side having conversations

and all those things that are reference

in those in those writers and many

others that you're talking about you

know we have to realize it wasn't a he

went in the grave and we never saw him

again so his body was stolen it was he

walked out of that grave and was saw

many times for many days yeah that's

right so so this is a collection of 66

books that are written by eyewitnesses

from uh or in the presence of other

eyewitnesses um and that's just one

beginning of why we believe the Bible um

the next thing that you could say from

that is this is 66 different books that

were written on three different count

continents by 40 different authors mhm

over 1500 years 1500 years right 1500

years a century and a half and those 40

authors um you know they weren't pastors

who were educated Scholars priests you

know what what you would call that you

had everything from Kings who wrote

books to those who were priests prophets

fishermen you know all different walks

of life isn't that wonderful that God

uses mhm every single person every

single person in every single range

demographic all the other all the other

metrics I mean it's not isolated to the

rich or to the poor or to one color or

another I mean he used everybody one one

occupation verse is he he brought them

all together and revealed the word to be

written down for a purpose for a purpose

to bring the gospel and bring we call it

history right it's his story The

revelation of God in his word over 1500

years 40 different authors of all walks

of life over three different continents

number one best

selling book M of all time of all times

and has stood the test of time for over

2,000 years and also the most

scrutinized book it is also the most

scrutinized book people have spent

tremendous time energy lifetime studies

I can give you three or four of those

spent the lifetime trying to debunk that

Y and almost every one of them come to

the same conclusion and that is that the

Bible is so true and so perfect that

they end up giving their life to Christ

Y and there's many of those people out

there that uh set out on that purpose to

debunk and only to find that it's it's

perfect you know one of those is an

interesting uh sidebar as we wrap up

here one of those um is is a fellow by

the name alast strobl um and he set out

because his wife came to Christ to

debunk the whole resurrection of Jesus

thing ultimately did all of the factual

research as a um investigative

journalist a guy who knows how to dig

exactly you know and so from a guy who

knows how to dig who ultimately came to

the realization that this is true and

gave his life to Christ you can find his

story his testimony in both a book and a

movie it's called the case for Christ

right um and so let me encourage you as

we wrap this one up again this is just

the beginning as we begin to talk about

the Bible why it's trustworthy and

believable um go check that movie out I

bet you can find it on Amazon Prime or

on you Youtube or somewhere or go watch

that story or if you're a reader like I

am get the book and and read the book

and and let that encourage you as well

as you're on a journey of why is this

Bible trustworthy and with that we'll

wrap up this session and we'll jump into

another session on the same topic you

all have a great week we'll see you next

Friday we'll talk to you later byebye

see you Friday