Stumped? How you can know the Bible is true

We each one of us need to get the reality of the authority of the Bible squared away once and for all. I remember reading a quote in Questions of Life years ago that made a deep impression on my soul.

"It is very important to hold on to the fact that all Scripture is inspired by God, even if we cannot immediately resolve all the difficulties. If we do, it should transform the way we live our lives. When Billy Graham was a young man several people (among them one was called Chuck) started to say to him, "you can't believe everything in the Bible". He began to worry about it and started to become very muddled. John Pollock in his biography of the evangelist, records what happened:

So I went back and I got my Bible, and I went out in the moonlight. And I got to a stump and put the Bible on the stump, and I knelt down, and I said, "Oh, God; I cannot prove certain things. I cannot answer some of the questions Chuck is raising and some of the other people are raising, but I accept this Book by faith as the word of God. I stayed by the stump praying wordlessly, my eyes moist....I had a tremendous sense of God's presence. I had great peace that the decision I had made was right"

[Questions of Life P.76]

Now I have something you might like to do.

This sermon by Matt Chandler is as good a one on the authority of Scripture as I have ever heard called Ultimate Authority Revealed (19th September 2010). We are called to always have an answer for the hope that we have (1 Peter 3:15) and this means equipping ourselves to be able to answer the question, "How can I know the Bible is true?" I don't care if you are a new Christian or the leader of a Church you are going to find this helpful and we all must refresh ourselves in our ability to answer this question confidently.

Imagine someone asks you that question today and then you have 15 minutes with them fully attentive and hungry to listen. How sure are you in your capability to walk them through an answer, to give them texts and to help them understand why Biblical authority is crucial to their lives?

"Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect,..."

So why not get a pen and paper and listen to it. This will be a truly valuable time I promise you. Make notes. Look up the passages. See how the Bible itself demonstrates its authority. This 60 minutes will I think be a huge help to you in understanding how the Bible was put together, who wrote it and why we must bring our lives before the God it reveals in humility, reverence, obedience and awe.

Once you have done this another thing will occur. You will have untold confidence to evangelise. You may have noticed that people and Churches that don't believe Scripture has authority don't do any evangelism. It may even unlock a passion to do this for the very first time and look what went on to happen to Billy Graham? May the same be true of you I pray