[Music] five good reasons to believe the model you would have noticed of course being here last night that I quoted the Bible regularly last night many times I'm quoting the Bible as a kind of authority source as a as a source in which it's understood that I want you to take this book seriously but there are of course people out there that don't regard the Bible as anything other than a piece of dusty ancient literature just as we mentioned yesterday there are very intelligent people on both sides of the equation when it comes to the existence of God there are very intelligent people that would say the idea of God's existence is is false it's untrue some would even go so far as to say it's absurd we realize that there are very smart very educated very intelligent people that would take that position conversely there are also very intelligent educated and smart people that would say no and we looked at many of them last night they would say no in fact there are very good credible reasons to believe in the existence of God the same is true with Scripture so what we're gonna do today is we're gonna give you five good reasons to believe that the Bible is what it certainly appears to be claiming to be it appears to be claiming to be a kind of divine source of instruction and information when it comes to scripture I'm coming to scripture with a degree of faith that is to say I believe that it is what it claims to be that's divine information and instruction given to us through the words of human beings but it does require not a leap but a step I would say an intelligent and defensible and reasonable step forward a step of faith and I'm gonna give you today five good reasons to believe the Bible and to believe that it is what it claims to be now remember last night we concluded with this idea that God invites us not just to know intellectually or information 'le about him God invites us to know him personally and certainly Psalm 34 verse 8 says o taste and see that the Lord is good and we used the illustration of gelato you might have a belief an intellectual belief or an asset based on past experience that that Danish is going to taste really good and that gelato is going to taste really good but not until you had actually tasted the the food the ice cream or the Danish could you then say it is good and this is the key if someone were to come to you at that moment when you've had that experience that sensory taste filled amazing experience if someone were to come to you and say that doesn't really taste good to you you would be entirely nonplussed by that you know proposition he'd say well I'm sorry excuse me say that again no that Danish does not taste good to you that gelato does not taste good in your mouth you would say well with all due respect how do you know what's happening in my personal experience right even if an extremely educated extremely erudite person came to you and said hey I can show you scientifically I can reason you through philosophically that that Danish does not taste good to you you would say with all due respect to you your education and your degrees I know personally and certainly that this tastes very good to me by way of analogy the psalmist invites us not just to observe God as a kind of dessert on the other side of the counter he says give it a taste try it for yourself invite God into your life invite God into your heart the word skeptics fascinating word we sometimes talk about skepticism or a sort of reserved judgment I'm not so sure about belief in God or about religion or in this case about the Bible and people have a sort of reservation about that fair enough I think divine claims should be held in tension they should be held with a certain degree of skepticism I want to just think momentarily about that word skeptic or skepticism the word actually comes from an ancient word a Greek word that means to view from a distance to view from a distance now let me just unpack that here for a moment to be skeptical or non-committal about an idea or an ideology that's okay right you might stand aloof from a concept or from an idea and you might say I'm non-committal about capitalism or about socialism or about whatever it might be Marxism you can stand aloof from the idea over here you can observe it you can try to better understand it and decide if you want to commit yourself intellectually to it you want to become a devotee you can remain skeptical of the idea okay this is key though but God the God of Scripture is not an idea God is a person and while you can remain skeptical about a philosophy or an idea the only way to get to know a person is to at least temporarily suspend your skepticism and come to know them when you suspend at least temporarily or provisionally your skepticism about scripture and about God God promises that he'll come through God promises he'll come through the psalmist says just trust me on this try the gelato tastes the Danish Oh taste and see that the Lord is good because God is not an idea because he's not a concept because he's not a philosophy God is a person and the only way to get to know a person is to at least provisionally or temporarily suspend your skepticism and give him a try and I can tell you was somebody who opted to give God a try over 20 years ago I can resonate deeply with the psalmist taste and see that the Lord is good so how about the Bible this is of course the document that we're using here it's actually not one document it sort of looks like it because it's between you know two leather you know in this case leather-bound covers so it looks like it's a single volume but in fact the Bible is made up of many volumes sixty-six books in the case of the Christian Bible and I'm quoting this book and I'm referring to this book as a kind of authority right I'm I'm describing this book as a source of information and instruction from God but is there any good and credible reason to believe that this record that this record of God and of his actions in human history is believable and credible the answer is yes I'm going to give you today five of those reasons just as we were walking out last night I had one of the attendees say to me Vanessa she said to me well wait a minute wait a minute wait a minute she asked a series of very insightful very excellent questions and the nature of her questions were about how do we know things for certain and she she was using a mathematical illustration and and I was trying to understand and interact with her mathematical illustration well in the course of our illustration we were talking about the answer to the question what is three squared whilst three squared is nine you have one correct answer right now I suppose if we're gonna say there are an infinite number of numbers you would have virtually an infinite number of long answers 27 would be a wrong answer 54 would be a wrong answer 3870 2.6 would be a wrong answer to the question of what's 3 squared but this is the key point I want to sort of drive at here while there are while there is only one correct answer and lots of wrong answers there are answers that are more wrong than others right so if somebody said oh 3 squared is 10 he would say no no you're close but if somebody said that 3 squared is 344 you'd say you're well off right I'm going to suggest here that I do not have a perfect understanding and assessment of who and what God is I don't have a 9 I do not have perfect possession of who and what God is and frankly neither to you none of us possess full apprehension full awareness of who and what God is we might believe in God we might have been walking with God for 10 20 30 40 or more years that even you do not you're learning every day and so the idea here is that scripture is trying to get human beings from different cultures from different backgrounds with different personalities as close to the correct answer as possible and while you might not have it exactly right scriptures desire and intent and design is to get us as close as possible to who and what God really is and to his interactions with human beings throughout the course of history okay so we're gonna strive for that correct answer we'll get as close as possible and in some cases we might actually hit the mark but you're not always going to have full apprehension and awareness of who and what not is so let's start with the most obvious to me the most obvious reason to believe the Bible and that is that the story itself is compelling the story of the Bible itself is compelling I mentioned just a moment ago that this is not one book or one volume even though it looks like it in fact this is some 66 books but I'm maintaining here today that these 66 books tell the same story they're telling that story in different time periods from different perspectives written by different authors 40 different authors but at the bottommost level they're all telling the same story right the same story and I'm gonna maintain that that story is absolutely compelling now let's talk about what that story is this man here is Alvin Plantinga Alvin Plantinga is an analytical philosopher he's also a committed Christian regarded by many as the greatest Christian philosopher on the planet today he's written a number of books several of which I've read and one of which I read recently titled where the conflict really lies published by Oxford University Press fascinating book and in that book as as Plantinga was discussing the relationship and the apparent hostility between the scientific worldview and the biblical worldview he said something that I thought I loved that and I grabbed ahold of it and I've quoted in many dozens of times since having read that book about four years ago and Plantinga said this describing the story that scripture tells he said this overwhelming display of love and mercy is not merely the greatest story ever told Plantinga says it's the greatest story that ever could be told it's not just the greatest story that has been told in some descriptive sense he's saying this is the greatest conceivable story you can't imagine a better story than the story that's being told by Scripture well what is the story that's being told by scripture I suppose of time allowed we could begin in Genesis chapter 1 and I could read you the whole story it would only take us about 60 to 80 hours right I know that because I've listened to the Bible on audio and it was about 67 hours read by Alexander Scourby and I love this voice this beautiful sonorous voice reading in the old Elizabethan English of the King James and took about 70 hours to listen to that so I could read you the whole story or I could give you a summary of the story or better yet Plantinga will give us here a summary of this story that he says is the greatest story that ever could be told he says according to the Christian story God the Almighty first being of the universe and the creator of everything else was willing to undergo enormous suffering in order to redeem Creek who had turned their backs on him he created human beings they rebelled against him and constantly go contrary to his will instead of treating them as some oriental monarch would he sent his son the word the second person of the Trinity into the world the word became flesh and dwelt among us he was subjected to ridicule rejection and finally the cruel and humiliating death of the cross horrifying as that is Jesus the word the Son of God suffered something vastly more horrifying abandonment by God exclusion from his love and affection my God my God why have you forsaken me Jesus cried out on the cross all this to enable human beings to be reconciled to God and to receive eternal life Plantinga says that's not just the greatest story ever told that's the greatest story that ever could be told the story itself the story of Scripture these 66 books is absolutely compelling and I'd like to summarize it this way that the basic story of Scripture can be summarized like this God was broken to heal human brokenness God was not broken by necessity God was not broken because something was imperfect in him because there was some fault or obsolescence in him God was voluntarily broken to heal human brokenness and we'll come back to that point God was broken in order to heal human brokenness and so plantinga's assertion that this is the greatest story that ever could be told is a fascinating one and I want to do a little thought experiment here I want to invite you and I want to ask you the question seriously can you think of a better story just allow your creative imagination to run wild imagine the best possible story the best possible good news can you think of a better story than this idea that there is a God that he is good and that he himself would be voluntarily broken to save his rebellious subjects I challenge you to try to imagine a better story not a story in terms of just a conceptual story or a fantasy but a story that that let's just say the you were given ultimate authority and power over the narrative of the universe for just one moment right and you could decide what's ultimately true about the universe what would you select let's just say that in some weird you know parallel universe you got to decide what is true what version of the story would you choose would you decide that there was no God there was no meaning there was no purpose in the universe very likely you would not choose that as the great story of the great narrative of Scripture I myself have listened to many debates or too many debates over the years between Christians and other theists and atheists and one of the things that I have really appreciated about the intellectually honest atheists that I have listened to in these debates is that many of them have granted the point that they wished the Christian story was true I mean they will say things like well of course we would want there to be a God if he was as good as you are describing but I just don't think it's true so I want you to imagine here for a moment let's just say that you had that power you had that prerogative that you got to choose what is the great narrative what is the great story and you are given say a month or a year as much time as you needed to come up with the best possible story the best possible news Plantinga says you couldn't come up with better news than this you couldn't come up with a better story than this because it's not just the greatest story ever told he says it's the greatest story that ever could be told and I invite you I challenge you those of you that are here and those of you that are watching I invite you to try and imagine stretch the boundaries of the parameters of your imagination and creativity and see if you can come up with something that would have been better good news or a better story than this idea notice this from CS Lewis I love this idea will quote him quite a little bit in this series so CS Lewis says what you regard as defeat he says I think of as a miracle because for God to make things that are not itself for himself and thus to become in a sense capable of being resisted by his own handiwork and notice this is the most astonishing and unimaginable of all the feats that we attribute to deity try to imagine something greater than the idea that God created creatures that possessed genuine free will genuine volition who possessed it to such a degree into such an extent that they could resist the Creator he says you think that's a defeat I think that's the greatest that is such an insight that is such a that is such a revelation into the person that God is and so number one the story is just utterly compelling what a story a story so good that I challenge you to imagine a better story if you were given charge of the narrative of the universe which of course you and I don't have control of the narrative of the universe but if you did just imagine trying to come up with a better story than that which leads then into the second reason why you should believe the Bible and why I believe the Bible and that is that the story is not only aesthetically pleasing it's not only compelling it is experientially persuasive the story is experientially persuasive now I need you to follow me here on a little bit of a journey it's gonna be slightly circuitous but I think you'll get a feel for the strength of the point here what do I mean when I say this story is experientially persuasive well we're gonna go to the very last book of the Bible the very last book of the Bible is the book of Revelation and in the book of Revelation we will spend a little time in this series in the book of Revelation not a lot but we will spend some but for those of you that are familiar with the book of Revelation you would be aware that it's all kinds of images and symbols and and frankly some imagery that people find scary they find it frightening they find it intimidating I myself when I was first becoming a follower of Jesus tried to read read through the book of Revelation and I became kind of freaked out a little bit and so I admit that the language is a little strange it's a little weird but when we use the internal cues and the internal Clues within the book itself to interpret the symbols and images it actually becomes one of the most beautiful books in all of Scripture okay it says in Revelation chapter 12 verses 7 to 9 and war broke out in the most unlikely of places in heaven right we think of war as in the Middle East and war in Afghanistan we think of wars all over the world but you don't tend to think of heaven as a place racked by war and the closing book of this the closing book of this great story of scripture says war broke out in heaven Michael who's the head of the Angels and his angels fought with the Dragon and the dragon and his angels fought so here's a further unpacking of the nature of this war but they did not prevail nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer so the Great Dragon was cast out that serpent of old called the devil and Satan who deceives the whole world he was cast to the earth and his angels were cast out with him what this passage does here three verses revelation 12 7 8 and 9 is gives us an insight into something that is at the very core of this book and that is this idea that conflict lies at the heart of reality I want to say that again there is a conflict that lies at the very heart of reality the reality that you and I find ourselves experiencing every day both externally we'll talk about that but also internally this idea that conflict is part and parcel of the reality that you and I take so for granted one of the most influential modern theologians and somebody who's written many books several of which I've read is a man by the name of dr. Greg Boyd and Greg Boyd speaking to this idea of conflict says something that's so simple so succinct so easy to understand that it's it's hard to forget it you'll just remember this maybe for the rest of your life he says in my view creation the world around us looks like it has been influenced by a cosmic predator because for eons it has been influenced by a cosmic predator he says very simply and I think very accurately the world looks like a war zone because it is a war zone right the old saying it looks like a duck and it waddles like a duck and it quacks like a duck it very likely is a duck Boyd says the reason the world looks like we're at war is that we are at war he's not talking just about a war between nations and a war between regions and tribes he's saying no the whole world is a war zone moments ago we read the devil and Satan and that word Satan comes from the Hebrew word it's a transliteration of the hebrew word soutane and the word simply means an enemy or an adversary or an opponent that God has been resisted back to Louis's point about the greatest the greatest attributable act to all of deity is not just that he's so strong and so powerful and so mighty and so wise but that he made something that was capable of resisting him and this figure that is capable of resisting God is none other than a suit on an enemy an opponent an adversary think sort of George Lucas Star Wars but on a on an actual cosmic scale and what Boyd is saying here is I think that that story the story of Darth Vader and of the Empire and all of that while that specific version of the story is not true that idea lies at the heart of reality as we know it understand it and experience it every day which you sort of think about right now in the world superhero movies are just going crazy right I can remember when I was growing up there were I don't remember maybe a few superhero movies I don't remember Batman was a movie that kind of came out and I think they tried a Superman movie but now nowadays it's like superheroes superheroes superheroes superhero right there's Ironman and there's spider-man and there's Batman and there's Superman and there's Black Panther all of these different superhero movies hugely popular right Marvel and DC are making huge amounts of money and here's the idea why why would these movies be so I don't want to say universally popular but widely popular I myself don't really like superhero movies but clearly they're tapping into something and here's the idea I believe they're tapping into something that we all know intuitively and we all know observational II whether or not we could put our finger on it perfectly we all have the sense that in some significant sense we are in danger and we need a deliverer that the world is in imminent danger and that the human race is in imminent danger I mean you just can't escape every one of these movies with slight variations on a theme is telling the same story humanity's in danger there's a great cosmic villain or a great criminal and the whole world will be threatened unless the hero intervenes right that story has been told over and over and oh again and I think the reason that stories like this and other similar stories not superhero stories but the James Bond's and the Jason Bourne's and these versions these other versions of the story are telling the same story and the story is we are in danger and we need someone to deliver us Boyd's observation is that the world looks like a war zone because it is a war zone and I'm suggesting that we are all in some intuitive sense aware of this Boyd continues throughout its long history the world has reflected both I love this both the beauty of an Allgood creator as well as an exceedingly evil cosmic destroyer maybe there's something to the Star Wars and the Marvel movies and the DC movies tapping into something that we know intuitively in our psyche that we and not just me personally but we as a race we as a as a planet are in grave danger and we need a deliverer we need a savior I'm suggesting here that this is not something merely external to us the world around us in external war scripture goes so far as to say that this war is actually something that's taking place inside of you as well not just an external war an external conflict and hostility but an internal war and conflict and this is probably best described there are many such passages but probably best described in one of the most fascinating autobiographical passages and all of Scripture found in the New Testament book of Romans written by the Apostle Paul notice what Paul says for I have the desire to do what is good I would say that's true of myself but I cannot carry it out for I do not do the good I want to do but the evil I do not want to do this I keep on doing now says Paul if I do what I do not want to do it is no longer I who do it but it is sin living in me that does it so I find this law at work although I want to do good evil is right here present with me for in my inner being I delight in the law of God but I I see another law another principle at work in me notice this two-word phrase here waging war waging war not just external to me but waging war he says inside of me against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me what a wretched man I am what a helpless distraught needy man that I am notice what he says here he says it's almost like I'm a prisoner in my own body I'm a prisoner in my own mind there are things that I really want to do and I want to do them consistently and I do occasionally do them I do episodically do them but I don't consistently do them but I do find that it's very easy for me to do the things that I don't want to do when I think later about those things in sober reflection now I'm not going to ask you to raise your hands but I imagine that all of you in this room and every person outside of this room can resonate with this basic idea that we are in some significant sense at war with ourselves that there's the desire to do the right thing always do all people under all circumstances but there's another principle Paul calls it a law there's something warring inside of me and that is I want to be selfish I want to be self-centered I want to have the best and most important position now whatever manifestation that takes in your life and in mine I think Paul's point here is a valid one and that is that all of us are not only aware of an external conflict in the wider world we are we have front-row seats to an internal conflict taking place in our own hearts where we know we're not the best versions of ourselves and try as we might we find it difficult to succeed I've mentioned several times here that I became a follower of Jesus in my early 20s the age of 23 prior to becoming a follower of Jesus I was really into music and in my case I was really into punk rock music I was a skateboarder and became a skateboarder at a very young age at 11 years old and from about the time of my early teens so say 13 14 I became very interested in punk rock music right the Dead Milkmen and the Dead Kennedys The Sex Pistols all of these sort of bands and punk rock music really appealed I think to to a wayward teenager who was looking for some meaning some purpose than who had a lot of angst toward the world a lot of frustration and so not only did I enjoy the punk rock music over time I started learning to play it and I became a bass player and a singer and I was in bands for the better part of almost 10 years and wrote many songs with my various bands we had several bands different friends rearranging different permutations you know the last band that I was ever in was a band called single file line single file line and the last punk rock song I ever wrote the lyrics to that song the last lyrics I ever wrote were the opening line of that song it was a song called self same self same and that song was born out of a frustration that is absolutely consistent with almost synonymous with what Paul was describing moments ago that is the thing I want to do was the thing I find it so difficult to do and the thing I don't want to do I find really easy to do this idea of self same was the idea that I want to make improvements I want to be a better version of myself but I continue to fall and to fail now I was not yet a Christian but I was very familiar with what Paul was describing this internal conflict now listen to these lyrics from this song self saying I have walked this path 1,000 times before I've breathed ignition to the motions but still indifference restores let me just pause there I've done this over and over and over and over again there were things in my life that I didn't like about myself I've walked this path a thousand times before I've breathed ignition I've I've gotten my gumption up I've got my energy up I've got my I'm gonna change this time I've breathed ignition into the motions but I still come back to a state where I can't really change it that indifference eventually restores when I fail again and again and then this line lessons in sincerity do not come easy I change the need so the actions please me I could just talk myself out of I I had this strong desire to be the best version of myself but when I would fail and when I would fall and when I would crumble despite my own enthusiasm and ambition I would just say well it's not possible or I I that's not actually the person I want to be I would try to play this mental game where I would talk myself into being something other than what I knew I had been called to be I had some sense that I was to be the best version of myself and I wrote this song out of punk-rock frustration and angst or that I couldn't become the best version of myself and so I'm contending here that the biblical story is experientially persuasive because it exposes us not only to external conflict in the world around us where we feel that we need a deliverer and a savior to come and rescue humanity from its plight but also internal conflict external conflict manifests itself in a lot of different ways and probably some of you can relate to some of these maybe all of these anger at injustice and pain I mean there's not a person in this room who doesn't feel at times great anger and I can speak not because I know you and not because I would presume to be able to speak on your behalf but just because the universality of human experience says that we are angry at the way the world is am I wrong or am i right we look at certain things and we think why is that that way that should not be that way it should be different and so we have this sense of anger and injustice and pain we are sometimes finding ourselves in confusion over the state of the world I I have to tell you as a father of two teenage boys it pains me some of the conversations I have to have with my son's I have to have conversations with my sons that my father did not have to have with me because the world has so changed the world has become so different it just appears as though the whole world is about ready to tumble off into oblivion so I have to have conversations with my son about the nature of the world about the extinction of species and the plastics fill in the oceans and you know terrorists getting their hands on you know mass weapons of mass destruction and other things these are conversations that probably begin to exist when I was younger but I'm having to talk to my boys about this and I have on a number of occasions noted the frustration and confusion in their face they didn't choose to be born into a world that's so difficult and so weird and so so unfortunate and yet this is the world in which they find themselves also very beautiful we'll get to that in a moment there's a certain helplessness that we feel about this external conflict to bring about mass change I know that there are many of us that have expressed considerable frustration both both and internally at world leaders why can't they make a difference in the world right we it's it's easy to make fun of politicians and to mock them I would like to suggest that the truth of the matter is is that you would probably do no better if you were in those positions as well I'm not giving every politician a pass here I'm simply saying that it's hard to make real and lasting change in the world because the world is at odds with some I'm suggesting supernatural force it's not just problems that are contained here on earth that we can solve and we can sort of find the solvency within our own in you know intelligence and creativity now there's something else going on and it makes us feel helpless and then finally all of us have some inborn nation' desire for something better a hope for something better not just externally but internally as well all of us in this room will know elements of these and perhaps all of these frustration over repeated failings like the song I just sung for you a moment ago I have walked this path 1,000 times before breathe ignition to the motions but still indifference restores lessons and sincerity do not come easy I changed the need so the actions pleased me I was frustrated the title of the song gives gives it away self saying self Same Same Same wanting to be a better version of yourself shame and guilt from an awareness of our failings what the Bible calls sin despair a sense of almost resignation that's what I meant by the line indifference restores okay fine if I can't be the best version of myself then I'll just be whatever version ends up coming out the other end of the wash right I just a resignation to the way that things are and then a fear a fear that begins to creep in that tells you you will never be all that you should be or as we talked about yesterday all you ought to be that moral imperative you just think men the world really is going to get away from me and I'm not going to become the best version of myself and then finally this creates not only an internal reality but dysfunction in our relationships around us a world that is characterized by conflict both internally and externally CS Lewis again in his book Mere Christianity says the first thing we quoted this last night but I want to repeat it again the first thing to get clear about Christian morality is in this department Christ did not come to teach any brand-new morality the golden rule of the New Testament do is you would be done by is a summing up of what everyone at bottom had always known to be right Lewis says there is an internal incorrigible intuitive knowledge of basic morality about the world and when we fall short of that moral standard that we are somehow aware of it creates internal conflict and when you have this collectively corporately and universally it creates external conflict which is a situation we find in the world today lots of people selfish people self-centered people self-interested people short-sighted people looking out for themselves and when you get 7.5 billion of those people on a planet the world will experience conflict seemingly unsolvable conflict and so I'm suggesting here that conflict is at the heart of the way that we see ourselves and the way that we see our world John chapter 14 verse 20 Jesus says this is so fascinating in light of this this saturated conflict Jesus says I am leaving you with a gift oh great a new Lamborghini a new Porsche a new house a new swimming pool perhaps a cheese danish i'm leaving you with a gift Jesus says no not a Danish and not a not a German sports car I'm leaving you with a gift something you are going to need if you're going to manage life on this conflicted planet what is it Jesus what do I need I leave you peace I give you peace I give you peace internally and in the way you view the world external to yourself I give you peace peace of mind and of heart and the peace that I give is a gift that the world cannot give so do not be troubled anxious wrecked with shame guilt fear dysfunction despair indifference do not be afraid or troubled I give you peace what if what we need is not Iron Man flying to the rescue with his you know lasers and I don't know much about Iron Man but what if it what we need is not Superman and his red cape what if what we need is God to give us a piece to implant a piece into our heart that would enable us to number one have internal peace and external peace to be able to understand and combat the conflict that we find external to us and internal to us we'll talk about that piece in our next program reason number three why I believe the Bible and why I think you should too is that Jesus is the most influential person in human history for good reason Jesus Christ is the most influential person in human history for good reason in 2013 Stephen sienna and Charles B Ward's even SCANA is a computer scientist Charles Ward is a Google engineer right these two fellas got together and they published a book they wrote a book that was published by Cambridge University Press just five years ago six years ago right Cambridge University Press is the oldest publishing house in the world and one of the most academically reputed publishing houses the world over right so this isn't just some fly by the seat of your pants fly-by-night book no the question that they asked in the book is given away by the title who's bigger where historical figures really rank what if we could somehow rank who the most influential person is in all of human history who are the top three who are the top five who are the top ten who are the top 100 most influential people in human history and with their computer background in their google analytics background this was something that would have been very difficult to have done even 20 years ago right but now we actually have ways of measuring by computer formulas they had all these fascinating algorithms and and then they would they had their sort of an initial algorithm and then they modified that by knowing that many of the most modern Google searches and other searches would be skewed toward modern figures and so they had an algorithm for that and they put it all together and what came out the other side was the most influential people in human history the New Republic wrote in December 4th 2013 the year was what the book was published Stephen SCANA and Charles Ward are keenly interested in even delighted by rankings in particular they are interested in ranking people along one dimension significance significance who are the most significant people in human history would you like to see their list I'll give you their top ten here's the top ten here's the top 10 skinny and Ward's list who's at the top of that list Jesus now let me show you the rest of the list and I'll make a few observations about the list itself number one Jesus number two Napoleon number three Mohammed number four you'll be happy with this Rochelle William Shakespeare number five Abraham Lincoln number six George Washington number seven Adolf Hitler number eight Aristotle number nine Alexander the Great and number ten Thomas Jefferson now just a few brief observations first of all note that most of those many of those people are political leaders of some sort or another Alexander the Great Napoleon Abraham Lincoln Thomas Jefferson George Washington political leaders leaders of very powerful nations notice that also most of them are more modern figures right so Washington would be you know comparatively modern Hitler would be modern Jefferson would certainly be modern and Abraham Lincoln would be reasonably modern Napoleon as well okay like within the last few hundred years only three of those figures are properly what you would call ancient Alexander the Great Jesus and Aristotle right with Mohammed coming somewhere sort of in the interim period in the six hundreds seventh century so so here's the fascinating thing why would Jesus be on this list and he's not just on the list as one of the most influential people skia and ward said he is analytically by an objective measure now there are people who argue with their measurement I'm sure I'm sure there are people that said well if you tweak the list this way and you make the parameters this way I would like to suggest that no matter how you rearrange that list whatever your specific parameters are if you're looking at significance in human history Jesus will come out on top in any reasonable and defensible list and he certainly did in ski Anna and ward's well this kind of makes sense because Jesus himself this obscure nomadic rabbi from 2,000 years ago first century Judaism said these words and I when I am lifted up from the earth a reference to the his death by crucifixion I will draw I well what's that word everyone I will draw all people to myself something about me will be attractive something about me will be drawing something about me will draw people to me which raises this very important point a point that I have noted many times in my 20-plus years as a follower of Jesus the transcultural popularity of the Bible which of course tells the story of Jesus is astounding David what do you mean by transcultural popularity well that Jesus is not only popular within his own culture and within his own sort of group of people Jewish people right there's only about you know there's less than 10 million Jews on the planet today but Jesus is not only popular among Jewish people he's Americans read the story of Jesus and Australians read the story of Jesus and Ukrainians read the story of Jesus and Japanese read and love the story of Jesus Jamaicans read and love the story of Jesus people from Afghanistan read and love the story of Jesus people from New Zealand all over the world this is really quite fascinating because most classics literary classics I'm venturing out in territory here Michelle I'm in year ground most classics are largely popular within the culture context and time in which they're written right and so Russian classics are largely popular in Russia now there are some of course the Tolstoy's and the Dostoevsky's that branch out but but Norwegian classics Norwegian pieces of Norwegian literature would be largely appreciated by known by and read by Norwegian people so - with Japanese classics and American classics and largely those classics remain within the culture and in the context of the situation in which they were written there are some outliers admittedly but but but Jesus is universally popular right you'd be hard-pressed to find a country on earth that would not have followers of Jesus even many countries in which it's illegal to be a follower of Jesus why should Jesus be so risen and so radically significant well there are lots of answers that could be given to this question but I'd like to suggest that the best answer I have ever personally come across is articulated profoundly by James a Francis and he writes this you might have heard this before I just love this I couldn't leave it out Francis writes here is a man who was born in an obscure village the child of a peasant woman he grew up in another village he worked in a carpenter shop until he was 30 and then for three years he was an itinerant preacher he never owned a home he never wrote a book he never held an office he never had a family he never went to college he never put his foot inside a big city he never traveled 200 miles from the place he was born he never did one of those things that usually accompany greatness he had no credentials but himself while still a young man the tide of popular opinion turned against him his friends ran away and one of them denied him he was turned over to his enemies he went through the mockery of a trial he was nailed up on a cross between two thieves while he was dying his executors gambled for the only piece of property he had on earth his coat when he was dead he was taken down and laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend 19 long centuries have come and gone and today he is the centerpiece of the human race and the leader of the column of Progress writes Francis I am far within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever march all the navies that were ever built all the parliaments that ever sat and all the kings that ever reigned put together have not affected the life of mankind on this earth as powerfully as has that one solitary life you can make the case as to why a Thomas Jefferson or a George Washington or an Abraham Lincoln or an Adolf Hitler or an Alexander the Great should be you know in the top ten list of the most influential and significant people in human history they were leaders of powerful nations how does this man born to a peasant mom obscure dies at a very young age never writes anything never makes any great contribution is not the never makes any great you know political country why should this man be the most influential person in human history well I'd like to suggest it's because the story of Jesus is simply uninvent Abel the story of Jesus is on Inventables it's the story that no one could have written the story that Plantinga said to remind ourselves not just the greatest story ever told but the greatest story that ever could be told if you were going to create a story if if I was going to create a story and we didn't already have access to the story of Jesus just pretend that this whole story this whole story of God becoming a man and making his you know dwelling among let's just pretend that you don't know that story if you were gonna write a story of a savior of a deliverer of a redeemer you know what story you'd write you write the same story I'd write you'd write the same story that all the Hollywood writers are writing and the comic book writers are writing you'd write a Superman as a Batman a Iron Man you would write a story of a deliverer coming to deliver in the normal ways that deliverers deliver right through force and through power and through stratagem and through violence that's the story that you would write you would not write a story of a man being crucified by the Romans a man of obscurity and of seeming insignificance saving the world that's a story that you could not have invented no one would have invented that story and it's not just an invincible story it's not just a compelling story I'm suggesting to you here this morning it is a story and a life worth orbiting your life around it is the best story now we move away from the actual content of the story the nature of the story and I want to sort of pan out a little bit here and talk about the actual Bible itself what about the the evidentiary case to be built for the Bible in terms of its manuscripts and its authenticity can we make a reasonable case that this book even is why should we take this book seriously I remember not long after becoming a follower of Jesus one of my former punk-rock friends who regarded what I had done in becoming a follower of Jesus is absolutely trattoria I just couldn't believe that I would surrender independent thinking and and my free thinking to become a follower of Jesus to become a Christian to become a religious person and one of the things Mike Gregg great guy one of the things that he said to me and I'll never forget this is he said why should you take this book so seriously I mean why not make green eggs and ham your holy book we all familiar with that have you ever heard of the book green eggs and ham by dr. Seuss right and it sounded I remember we were sitting in a restaurant and when he said that he received a chorus of approval from the others at the table you know who were also similarly confused by and frustrated by my conversion to Christianity and and when it seemed as though he had dealt a death blow to my you know folly the folly of Christianity why take this book so seriously why not green eggs and ham why not make that your holy book and on the surface of it it seems like a reasonable question I mean why choose this book among the many millions of books that I've been written except this first of all the story of green eggs and ham is not it's a nice story as I recall but it's not a story you would orbit your whole life around doesn't tap in to the to the basic essence as I'm suggesting here that scripture does of what reality is fundamentally about both internally and externally but the most obvious reason that you would not make green eggs and ham your holy book your religious book is it makes no such claim to be a divine instruction or divine information it makes no kind of claim but when a book does make that kind of a claim when a book makes the claim to be in some significant sense divine from God that's an extraordinary claim and don't forget this very simple idea ordinary claims require only ordinary evidence but extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence if I tell you that I'm a 46 year old man with two teenage sons that's been married for 20 years you probably would not say I'm not so sure about that proven because this is quite an ordinary claim there are lots of 46 year old people there are lots of people that are men there are lots of people that have teenagers and there's lots of people that are married so these are ordinary claims for which you would not ask for proof but if I made an extraordinary claim if I said I have a garage full of German supercars or if I said I own my own private island or I'm leaving this afternoon's presentation in my own private helicopter these are these are usual claims and you would say really you have a private helicopter you have a garage full of German sports cars you really own your own Island you would want proof for that you'd want evidence for that because the the more extraordinary the claim the greater the claim the greater the evidence to substantiate a de buttress that claim the Bible is claiming in some significant sense to be a divine book well that's an extraordinary claim that requires extraordinary evidence and I want to give you some of that extraordinary evidence reason number four why you should believe the Bible is that the historical manuscripts are reliable for most archaeologists WF Albright said following the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947-48 he said that the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls was quote the greatest archaeological find of modern times now that's disputable that's debatable but the point is is that to even suggest that the Dead Sea Scrolls should be mentioned among the greatest archaeological finds is remarkable because the Dead Sea Scrolls were basically ancient copies of the Old Testament why should a gent copies of the Old Testament be one of the greatest archaeological discoveries of all time well to quote another archaeologist Bryant wood here's why the Dead Sea Scrolls have provided Old Testament manuscripts approximately 1,000 years older than our previously our previous oldest manuscripts they have demonstrated that the Old Testament was accurately transmitted during this interval during this period when we compared the new manuscripts that were discovered in 1947-48 with the modern manuscripts course these are ancient manuscripts we found that the degree of similarity and of consistency was absolutely remarkable they were virtually identical right for all intents and literary purposes they were identical which is fascinating because there were no computers there were no hard drives there was no internet there was no you know a USB drives there were no printers there were nothing there were none of the technological means by which you would normally preserve data and information of course in this day and age data preservation and data security is a big deal how do you preserve almost perfectly the Old Testament when it's being written on pieces of papyrus pieces of leather and on the scapula's of animals right how do you do that it's a remarkable thing that this book is not only supernatural in its car it is I'm suggesting supernatural in its preservation there are about 25,000 manuscripts of the New Testament the Dead Sea Scrolls were the Old Testament well let's talk just briefly here about the New Testament 25,000 manuscripts Daniel Wallace who is a New Testament manuscripts scholar says this and a follow this New Testament scholars face an embarrassment of riches compared to the data that classical Greek and Latin scholars have to contend with the average classical authors literary remains number no more than about 20 copies we have more than 1,000 times the manuscript data for the New Testament than we do for the average greco-roman author not only this but the extant manuscripts of the average classical author are no earlier than about 500 years after the time that he wrote in the New Testament we are waiting for mere decades for surviving copies the very best classical author in terms of extant copies is Homer author of the Iliad The Odyssey manuscripts of Homer number less than 2400 copies compared to the New Testament manuscripts that are approximately 10 times that number if it were a horse race this horse has lapped the other horses not once but several times in terms of ancient literature in terms of ancient copies the New Testament is so much better a testitude than any other ancient work it is just not even a question not even a question and not just at a station in terms of the number of them but that period the intervening period between the events that are being described and when those events are recorded in many cases is hundreds of years in the case of the New Testament it's it's a 2 or 3 decades which by historical standards is like tweeting the very next moment it's like it's like literally just the next moment from a historical perspective no wonder John W Montgomery wrote to be skeptical of the resultant New Testament text or the books of the New Testament is to allow all of classical antiquity to slip into obscurity for no documents of the ancient period are as well attested bibliographical II as the New Testament that nothing even comes close Norman Geisler another biblical scholar writes the New Testament is the most historically accurate and reliable document from all of antiquity if one cannot trust the New Testament at this point then what one must reject all of ancient history which rests on much weaker evidence clearly the case for the manuscript chiral veracity and authenticity of the Bible is profound whether we're described in the Old Testament or the New Testament there are very good hard-nosed archaeological evidence based reasons to believe that this book is preserved virtually exactly as as it had been originally written in the original authors manuscripts and then finally reason number five the Bible's prophecies are accurate a prophecy is not a prediction prediction has an element of risk a prophecy is a foretelling of a future event which is which is similar to but different from a prediction I might predict who will win the Superbowl or I might predict who will win the next presidential election but inherent within the idea of prediction is the element of risk or of uncertainty a prophecy is a biblical prophecy is not a prediction of what might be it's a foretelling of what will be notice this Isaiah chapter 46 verses 9 and 10 God describes his ability to not only know but to tell the future he says remember the former things of old for I am God and there is no other I alone am God and no one else is God and I'll show you one of the things that sets me apart in my singular deity I am God and there is none like me how so what makes you so special what are you able to do that others are not declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things that are not yet done I have the capacity not only to know the future but to declare the future and Jesus in the New Testament said something very similar notice I've purposefully italicized here two words that I want you to hone in on as I read this quotation from Jesus in John chapter 14 verse 29 jesus says now I tell you before it comes to pass that when it does come to pass you may believe that I am he these words are the key words I tell you before so that you can believe I like to say it this way historians tell us the past and journalists tell us the present but only God can accurately reveal the future before it happens that would be a supernatural act the ability to tell in advance the future there are many prophecies and scriptures some of which we will look at in our five good reasons series things like Israel's failures their judgment and captivity the Old Testament book of daniel contains some of the most remarkable and historically accurate prophecies ever we will look at at least two of those many messianic prophecies Jesus himself uttered prophecies that came to pass and then the endtime prophecies of the book of Revelation again not risky predictions but accurate divined for tellings of future events five good reasons to believe the Bible I've made my case here today and I hope at some level you have found this case persuasive or resonant whether you were already a believer in the Bible now you have some more reasons to continue on your journey with God or if you're somebody that's saying I'm not so sure about scripture I'm not sure about the believability or the awesome authenticity or the veracity of Scripture let me review those five reasons for you number one the story is compelling number two the story is experientially persuasive not only the greatest story ever told but the greatest story that ever could be told describing not just external conflict in the world around us in which we have an internal sense that we need a deliverer or a Savior but one that is so totally consistent with our own internal conflict one in which we need peace and Jesus says my peace I give to you I'll give you a gift the gift of peace number three Jesus is the most influential person in human history for good reason number four the historical manuscripts are reliable and number five the Bible's prophecies are accurate these are five good reasons why you should believe the Bible and I'll tell you this the same is true of Scripture that is true of Jesus Oh taste and see that the Bible is off [Music]
