Beyond Sunday with Pastor Nic
Join me for a more personal look into the weekend sermons, as well as some thoughts on theology, marriage, parenting, and leadership. I will also explore some of your most asked questions throughout the year.
www.nic-williams.com
Beyond Sunday with Pastor Nic
The Bible: More Than Just a Great Book
What makes the Bible different from every other book in history? When someone challenges the reliability of scripture, how do you respond? These questions lie at the heart of our Christian faith, yet many believers struggle to articulate what makes God's Word uniquely authoritative and trustworthy.
This episode explores three fundamental concepts that unlock our understanding of scripture's divine nature. Revelation shows us how God deliberately chose to make Himself known through the Bible. Inspiration explains the miraculous process by which God worked through human writers to create His perfect Word. Illumination reveals how the Holy Spirit helps us comprehend spiritual truth when we engage with scripture.
The Bible's reliability isn't based on blind faith but stands on remarkable evidence. With over 5,300 New Testament manuscripts—compared to just 10 copies of Julius Caesar's Gallic Wars—the Bible's documentary support far exceeds any other ancient text. Ancient scribes followed elaborate protocols counting every letter to ensure perfect transmission. Forty-plus authors writing across 1,500 years maintained astonishing consistency while addressing controversial subjects—something no human editorial committee could achieve.
Most compelling is Jesus' own treatment of scripture. He quoted it as authoritative, called it the "Word of God," and affirmed its most contested narratives including Noah, Adam and Eve, and Jonah. For anyone who respects Jesus yet questions other portions of the Bible, His comprehensive endorsement poses a significant challenge.
Understanding biblical inspiration transforms how we approach life's decisions and challenges. As J.I. Packer noted, biblical authority means treating God's Word as having "decisive force for your life." When conflicts arise between scripture and cultural values, personal feelings, or popular opinion, the divine origin of the Bible means it always deserves the final word.
Join us as we explore why the Bible isn't just another religious text but God's perfect letter to humanity—a truth that changes everything about how we live.
Hey podcasters, welcome back to another edition of Beyond Sunday. Today I want to continue what we talked about last week. If you don't remember, I'm going through the Foundations class from Kay Warren and Tom Holliday out of Saddleback. I went through this years ago and it was incredible information and I saw it on my shelf the other day and thought you know what? This would be great information to get out to you. This doesn't come from me, it comes from them, but it is incredible the way they really do lay the foundations of our faith for us. And so today I want to talk about the Bible.
Speaker 1:Suppose that you're sitting next to a friend right now who's never been to church. The two of you stop for coffee on your way home. You start talking and having a conversation about faith, about the Bible being a unique book containing God's truth, and your friend looks at you and says I'm sure the Bible being a unique book containing God's truth. And your friend looks at you and says I'm sure the Bible is a great book and I'm glad it helps you, but how is it different from any other great book? I think a lot of people would have a hard time answering that. I think they would try, but they've never really thought it through. Sometimes we view the Bible as a textbook or another great book, but it is more than that. It is a holy book. It has the corner on truth for your life. Your friend has just raised three important questions and these can be addressed by examining three words. To see the Bible for what it really is, we must first understand these three words. The question how is the Bible different from all really is? We must first understand these three words. The question how is the Bible different from all other religious books? Is answered by the truth behind the word revelation. The question wasn't it written by people just like you and me? Is answered by the truth behind the word inspiration. The comment that it's so hard to understand is addressed by the truth behind the word illumination. So let's take a few minutes and unpack those words together today.
Speaker 1:Revelation. Revelation means that God has chosen to reveal his nature and his will to us through the Bible. The Bible was written so that God could show us what he is like and what he wants us to be like. An understanding of God comes solely through His decision to reveal Himself to us. Ezekiel 38.23 says it this way. And so I will show my greatness and my holiness and I will make myself known in the sight of many nations. Then you will know that I am the Lord. What do you say to someone who tells you the Bible is no different from any other book? In this episode today we're going to look at four classic ways that we know the Bible is from God and three reasons why we know we have the right books.
Speaker 1:The second word is inspiration. Inspiration is the process through which God gave us the Bible. God worked in the hearts of human writers to inspire them to write down His words. God's words, written through these people, are perfect, infallible. They're trustworthy. 2 Timothy 3.16 says all scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right Again. That's 2 Timothy 3, 16. If what I read in the Bible are only the ideas of men, I can take it or leave it. But once I'm convinced that God said these words, what I read takes on a new authority. It should be life-changing. It should be something that we hold so tightly to. The third word we talked about is illumination. Illumination is the Holy Spirit's work of bringing light to the words of the Bible as we read them. Illumination is the means by which we understand the Bible, luke 24, 45 says. Then he opened their minds so they could understand.
Speaker 1:I had a unique call with my niece the other day. She doesn't call much, but she texted and said Uncle Nick, could you talk for a few minutes? And so I reached out to her and, beyond any pleasantries or how are you doing? She said I need help reading the Bible. I don't understand everything I read, I don't know where to start, and just a litany of lists. That, honestly, was the same list that most people give over time as they're looking at the Bible, whether new believers or seasoned believers, just trying to dig in and not finding their way. And so I decided to sit down and write a book, and I've got the book about half written since last week, just pouring through this idea of how do you study the Bible. More on that later.
Speaker 1:I want you to listen to the words expressed by Chuck Swindoll. He said if I could have only one wish for God's people, it would be that all of us would return to the Word of God that we would realize that His book has the answers. The Bible is the authority, the final resting place of our cares, worries, griefs, tragedies, sorrows and surprises. It is the final answer to our questions, our search. That's the goal of this study and the one that we'll do next week. Not only that each of us would have a new love for and commitment to the Bible's answers, but we would share that love for God's Word with others. How do we know the Bible came from God? You may be asking yourself. If the Bible shows us who God really is, how do I know I can trust it? Every Christian needs to understand four classic proofs of the reliability of the Bible. These proofs answer the questions we hear from others and that you may be asking yourself.
Speaker 1:First, the external evidence says the Bible is a historical book. The number of manuscript copies and the short length of time between the original manuscripts and our first copies of the New Testament. Norman Geisler I had a class by him in seminary. Not by him, but we studied one of his theology books he writes for the New Testament. The evidence is overwhelming. There are 5,366 manuscripts to compare and draw information from, and some of these date from the 2nd or 3rd centuries. To put that in perspective, there are only 643 copies of Homer's Iliad, and that is the most famous book of ancient Greece. No one doubts the existence of Julius Caesar's Gallic Wars, but we only have 10 copies of it, and the earliest of those were made 1,000 years after it was written. To have such an abundance of copies of the New Testament from dates within 70 years after their writing is absolutely amazing. Why didn't God allow us to have the original rather than relying on a number of copies? One possibility would be that we would worship that old document Rather than reading it and following his living word. It would be put in glass somewhere and we would just celebrate its existence.
Speaker 1:By the way, it's important to understand that Bibles are translated from these original copies, which were written in Hebrew, aramaic and Greek. Many people have the idea that the Bible has been passed down from language to language over the centuries and thus may have been changed many times, and that's just not true. When a Bible translation is done, the translator goes back to the early manuscripts in the original languages. Now a note here there are a lot of translations, and some of those stick closer to the original than others, and so you need to do your homework when you pick a translation of the Bible that you're studying, or you need to at least know how reliable it is. There are some translations, like the New Living Translation, that is a great read. It is simpler for most people, but it is not a close translation. It is a loose translation, so while it's great to use as a study, it shouldn't be your primary. Now, the extreme care with which scriptures were copied is pretty amazing.
Speaker 1:The earliest Jewish scribes the Old Testament copiers, if you will. They followed a strict code to ensure accuracy in their copies. Here are a few of the rules they followed meticulously Each scroll must contain a specified number of columns, all equal throughout the entire book. The length of each column must not be less than 48 lines or more than 60 lines. Each column's breadth must be exactly 30 letters. The copyist must use a specially prepared black ink. They must not copy from memory. You got to remember that they studied scripture, they memorized scripture, but when they were copying the scriptures down, they were not allowed to do it from memory. The space between every consonant must be the size of a thread. The copyist must sit in full Jewish dress.
Speaker 1:Later, scribes added other requirements that they could only copy letter by letter, not word by word. They were trying to make sure it was perfect in the copying. They counted the number of times each letter of the alphabet incurred in each book and if it came out wrong they threw the whole scroll away and started over. They knew the middle letter of the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Old Testament and the middle letter of the entire Old Testament. After copying a scroll, they counted forward and backward from this metal letter. If the number of letters did not match what they knew to be correct, they destroyed the scroll and they started over. This isn't like retyping on your keyboard and trying again. They are literally handwriting and starting over.
Speaker 1:The second the internal evidence says a Bible. The internal evidence says the Bible is a unique book. Internal evidence is the evidence that you see in the Bible itself. If you studied archaeology or history, you could see the reliability of the Bible just by reading it. Look with me at just two of the ways we can see from the pages of the Bible that is trustworthy and unique.
Speaker 1:First off, the majority of the Bible is from eyewitness accounts. We all know the value of an eyewitness account. When I was in college, I worked at a bank, and the first bank I worked at was in a shady part of town and so we had constant training on. If somebody came to your teller and they walked away, you'd get quizzed on. How tall was that person? What did that person look like? What were features on them, which is not really reassuring when you're working a job at a bank. They're basically telling you you're going to get robbed at some point, so make sure you can identify people. And, truth be told, I was not great at it, but when we talk about eyewitness accounts, we all know the value of those. When a prosecutor can call upon someone who saw what happened, the prosecution has a greater chance of winning a conviction.
Speaker 1:One piece of evidence that historians look for in assessing the reliability of any document is the number of generations that passed on a story before the story was written down. In other words, is the information first-hand or second-hand? The events of the Bible were primarily recorded in the generation in which they were experienced, by those who experienced them. The Bible is filled with eyewitness accounts. The second thing is the amazing agreement and consistency throughout the Bible. Josh McDowell writes he said that the Bible was written over a period of about 1500 years in various places stretching for all the way from Babylon to Rome. The human authors included over 40 persons from various stations of life kings, peasants, poets, herdsmen, fishermen, scientists, farmers, priests, pastors, tent makers and governors. It was written in a wilderness, a dungeon, inside palaces and prisons, on lonely islands, and in military battles. Yet it speaks with agreement and reliability on hundreds of controversial subjects. Yet it tells one story from beginning to end God's salvation of man through Jesus Christ. No person could have possibly conceived of or written such a work, meaning it could only come from Christ.
Speaker 1:The third thing we look at is the personal evidence that says the Bible is a powerful book. The Bible is the world's best-selling book. Most people know that it was one of the first major books to be published on a press the Bible and in whole or in part, has been translated into more than 3,000 languages. Millions of lives have been changed through the truth in the Bible. Remember personal testimony is just one of the four proofs that the Bible is God's book.
Speaker 1:The fourth Jesus said the Bible came from God. Have you ever heard someone say I trust what Jesus said, but not the rest of the Bible. Jesus himself spoke with confidence about the rest of the Bible. If we trust what Jesus said, we have no choice but to trust all the Bible. Jesus recognized the Spirit as the author. Matthew, chapter 22,. He says why? Then Jesus asked did the Spirit inspire David to call him Lord? David said the Lord said to my Lord, sit here at my right side until I put your enemies under your feet. Jesus, quoting from what David wrote in Psalms, recognizes that the Spirit inspired David's words. Secondly, jesus quoted the Bible as authority In. Secondly, jesus quoted the Bible as authority In Matthew 22,. Jesus told the Sadducees that not knowing the Scriptures was the reason they lived in error without knowing God's power. Jesus replied you are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God. That's Matthew 22, verse 29.
Speaker 1:In Luke 11, jesus clearly tells us that God's Word is not just history or poetry. It is to be obeyed, he said. Blessed, rather, are those who hear the word of God and obey it. Thirdly, jesus proclaimed its uniqueness. Jesus reminded us that the Bible stands above all other books and all other writings. In fact, he told us that the Bible stands above all that we see, even in the physical universe.
Speaker 1:Matthew 5.18,. I tell you the truth until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen will by any means disappear from the law. Until everything is. John 10.35,. Scripture is always true. Fourthly, jesus called it the Word of God. Mark 7.13,. Thus you nullify the Word of God by your tradition that you have handed down, and you do many things like that. And you do many things like that. Fifth, jesus believed that people and places in the Bible were real. He believed in the prophets. We see that in Matthew 22, 40, 24, 15. He believed in Noah. We see that in Luke 17, 26. He believed in Adam and Eve. We see that in Matthew 19, 4. He believed in Sodom and Gomorrah. We see that in Matthew 10, 15. He believed in Jonah. We see that in Matthew 12, 40. It's interesting that these last four Noah, adam and Eve, sodom, gomorrah and Jonah are found in the portions of the Bible most often attacked as fables or just good stories by those who distrust its historical reliability.
Speaker 1:The very parts of the Bible that are doubted today are affirmed by the words of Jesus himself. John MacArthur writes that the Bible is the only completely trustworthy source of knowledge about God. Man can't learn all he needs to know about God from human reason, philosophy or even experience. God alone is the source of knowledge about himself, and he has chosen to reveal himself in the Bible and in no other book. So how do we know that we have the right books? This is a question that I get periodically, as people look at the books of the Bible and know about the Council of Nicaea and that they put all these books together.
Speaker 1:First off, it's the testimony of the Bible, right? Jesus recognized the Old Testament canon, the word canon referring to the list of books that are accepted as scripture. Jesus said in Luke 24, this is what I told you while I was still with you. Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets and the Psalms. When Jesus mentions the law, the prophets and the Psalms, he's affirming all three major divisions of the Old Testament. Peter recognized part of the New Testament canon. Peter wrote in 2 Peter 3.16,.
Speaker 1:Some things in Paul's letters are hard to understand. Can I get an amen Talking about Romans? Right, some things in Paul's letters are hard to understand and people who are ignorant and weak in faith explain these things falsely. They also falsely explain the other scriptures, but they are destroying themselves by doing this. Paul also recognized the equal inspiration of the Old and New Testament in a single verse 1 Timothy 5.18. For the scripture says do not muzzle the ox while it is treading out the grain, and the worker deserves his wages. What does it mean when we say the Bible is inspired? What does it mean when we say the Bible is inspired?
Speaker 1:Inspiration means that God wrote the Bible through people 2 Peter 1.21,. No prophecy ever came from what a person wanted to say, but people led by the Holy Spirit, spoke words from God. The details of how God inspired the Bible are a matter of great debate and conjecture. One thing is obvious as you read the Bible he didn't use people as robots. You can clearly see people's personalities and their passions in what they wrote. God created a perfect Bible through real people. He moved them internally to create a word that will last forever. Inspiration means that the Holy Spirit is the author. Look at Acts, chapter 1, verse 16. The scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke long ago through the mouth of David, acts 28.25. The Holy Spirit spoke the truth to their forefathers when he said through Isaiah, the prophet, ezekiel 11.5. Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon me and he told me to say who wrote the Bible? God did, but he worked through people, but ultimately he is the Bible. God did, but he worked through people, but ultimately he is the author. The fact that God created a perfect book through so many imperfect people is one of the greatest miracles.
Speaker 1:Now, two important words to understand. First is verbal. God inspired the words, not just the ideas. We see that in Matthew 5, 18, 22, chapter 22, verses 43 through 44. Jesus based his argument on the single word Lord. But the other word is not just verbal plenary. God inspired all, not just part 2, timothy 3, 16. It says in Psalms 18, 30, as for God, his way is perfect. The word of the Lord is flawless. He is a shield for all who take refuge in him.
Speaker 1:Inspiration means that God's word is to be our final authority, psalm 119,. How can a young person stay pure? The answer by obeying your word. Psalm 33, 4,. For the word of the Lord holds true and we can trust everything he does. Understanding inspiration increases my confidence in the Bible. The truth behind inspiration is that I can trust his word above my feelings. I can trust his word above my values. I can trust his word above my opinions. I can trust his word above what culture says. Ji Packer defines authority as when you treat his word as having decisive force for your life. That means whenever there's a conflict between what the Bible says and the way I feel, or what I've been taught, or the opinions of others, or what seems reasonable or what culture is doing. Whenever I have a difference of opinion with the Bible for any reason, the Bible is always right.
Speaker 1:I want to encourage you to take some of what we talked about today, to take some of these truths about the Bible, to take some of these words that we've studied today and allow them to permeate your heart. Spend some time thinking about the evidence that the Bible exists, how we know where the Bible came from. Think about illumination and inspiration and revelation. Allow this week to be a moment of you really understanding why we believe the Bible and why it has such authority in our lives. I hope that this week's episode is encouraging to you. I hope you step away from the podcast today and have more respect for the Word of God and more excitement to understand that you are reading a letter from God Himself to you. I hope you have an incredible week. Until next time, keep walking in the Word of God.