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This fall for our Bible study we’re going to talk about the Bible. Don’t we always talk about the Bible? Yes, but this fall we’re going to talk about what the Bible has to say about itself and what it contains inside it. So we’re going to ask all these big fun hard questions about the Bible that the Bible asks and answers about itself. What is it? Why is it so important? Why is there no other book like it? Should you know it? Should you trust it?
Let’s read Ex 20:1-21 and 31:18
[Icebreakers] How do you make the number 7 even without addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division? (Take out the “S” - Seven)
-How many sides does a circle have? (2, the inside and the outside)
-What weighs more, 16 ounces of soda pop or 16 ounces of solid gold?
-As I was going to St. Ives, I met a man with seven wives. Every wife had seven sacks, every sack had seven cats, every cat had seven kitts. Kitts, cats, sacks, wives, how many were going to St. Ives? (1, just the one going to St. Ives)
-Ok here is another math problem. What percent of the Bible is written by God and what percent is written by humans?
1) Some people say the Bible is written 100% by humans.
Problem: But if that’s true then the Bible is just some old guys’ thoughts on God. So why listen to it?
Answer: That’s not what the Bible says about itself. The Bible says it is the inspired word of God. 2 Timothy 3:16 says, “All Scripture is breathed out by God.” Paul is talking about the divine inspiration of the Bible.
The divine inspiration of the Bible means that God’s Spirit “breathed into” the writers of the Bible to write what God wanted them to say and nothing else.
2) Some people say that the Bible is halfsies inspired - the Bible is 50% inspired by God and 50% inspired by man.
Problem: So the historical stuff or the science stuff that we think they got wrong - that’s the human inspired stuff and so not all the Bible is inspired by God.
Answer: Hmm, problem with that is how do you know which is part is inspired by God and which part is inspired by man? What people end up doing is making the Bible say whatever they want it to say and they end up making God say whatever they want him to say. The apostle Paul says, “All Scripture is breathed out by God.” So there are no parts that are more or less inspired.
3) Some people say the Bible is written 100% by God.
Problem: This would be like if the human authors of the Bible went into a trance, their eyes rolled back, and they’re just out of it while they scribble a bunch of stuff on paper. Then they wake up and say, “What happened, I blacked out, oh did I just write Leviticus?”
Answer: But we know that’s not what happened. The apostle Peter says that Paul’s letters are hard to understand because Paul is so brainy. Paul talks personally about his friends. Paul talks about his own struggles and suffering. Paul’s writing doesn’t sound like Peter’s and the way Peter writes is different from the way John writes. The Bible is clearly a human document!
All those people have got their math wrong. The Bible is not 100% written by man, not100% written by God, not 50-50. Here’s the right math. The Bible is 100% authored by God and 100% authored by man. How does math work out? That’s a mystery.
The Apostle Peter says in 2 Peter 1:21, “No prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” This means God breathed his Word through his prophets of the OT and the Apostles of the NT. God used the intellect, skills, and the personality of these human authors to write down that which was divine.
So who wrote Exodus?
Moses.
And, who wrote Exodus?
God.
So can we trust the Bible?
Yes, because it’s written by God.
But can we understand the Bible?
Yes, because it’s also written by people so it’s human communication to humans.
And together all the books of the Bible tell the one true story about God and about us and about life and death and about this world that is going to end and our need of Jesus and about his life and death and resurrection and the gospel of his salvation and the hope of heaven.
So to all those who say, “I wish I could hear God speak”- that’s what the Bible is; that’s exactly what God has done in his Word. All you need to do is go to the Bible!