Dr. J. Vernon McGee (4:05)
Now, friends, today we continue on with guidelines for the study of Scripture. I've spent a great deal of time here talking about the book that we're going to go through in the next five years, the Bible. And I want to say a good word on its behalf. And that's the reason we've taken this extra time as it's being attacked as no other book is today. Now, we come today to our last study in the Bible itself. And next time we'll begin to talk about the guidelines that we suggest to you for studying the Bible in light of all that we've already said. Now, I know at this particular juncture that someone is going to say to me, but Dr. McGee, how do you know that the Bible is the word of God. Well, it's a good question, and it should be asked and answered. And we would like to offer our answer to the question. There are many ways of proving it. There's internal evidence in which, of course, we'll be examining as we go through the Scripture. And I've called attention to some already. One of the objective proofs, one of the external proofs has been the marvelous preservation of the Bible. There have been times when actually the Bible has been reduced to just one volume. And there was a king of old. We read about him in Jeremiah, and when the word was sent to him, he took a pen knife and he cut it to pieces. But it's quite interesting that we have that word today. There have been a great many Bible burnings. There's a great deal of antagonism to it. They don't burn it today because we're a little too civilized, we think, in this country. So the way they do is just outlaw it in our schools and in many other places. And yet we talk about that we have freedom of religion and that we have freedom of speech today. And wouldn't a person be free if he wanted to read the Bible? And as we've suggested before, they deny themselves of the greatest literature. When the Bible is denied to young people today, in spite of all the attacks that have been made upon it, why, it still exists. And of course it's one of the best sellers. For many years it was the best seller, and it's not today, I regret to have to say that. But it is true that it's not the best seller at the present time. And that is certainly a commentary on our contemporary society which reveals that the Bible is not really occupying the place that it once did in the history and the life of this nation. Now, I think the preservation of it is worthy of consideration. Another way in which we can know is the fact of archaeology. The spade of the archaeologists has turned up many things that have proven that it is the word of God. Now, for instance, there are those that many years denied the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch on the basis that writing was not in existence in Moses day, and for that reason why he could not have written the Pentateuch. You haven't heard anyone advance that theory recently, have you? Well, of course not. Now, for years, the spade of the archaeologists has turned up writing that goes much farther back than Moses. So that is no longer a valid argument. And then we find that the spate of the archaeologists has turned up again and again evidence of that. The city of Jericho and the walls that fell down. Now, there has been some argument, but I think that it is pretty well established that walls fell down. And I'll let them debate about the time and all that sort of thing. I believe that the word of God has been substantiated there and in many other ways. Archaeology has demonstrated the accuracy of the word of God. And many of the manuscripts that have been found do that. It's quite interesting when these Isaiah scrolls, Dead Sea Scrolls were found, the liberal leaped at that because he thought he found an argument that would discredit the Bible. It's quite interesting how it has not discredited the Bible. And it seems that the liberal has lost a great deal of interest in the scrolls, the Dead Sea scrolls that were found. There are many ways in which we could go into this. This is a field into which I do not care to enter at any great length. Now, I want to give a reason. If I were asked, what do you have as a conclusive proof? You just had one thing to suggest. What would you suggest as be a conclusive proof that this is the word of God. And you know what I would suggest? I would suggest fulfilled prophecy. Fulfilled prophecy. I believe that that is the one proof that you can't escape, you can't get around. And the Bible is filled with fulfilled prophecy. One fourth of the scripture, when it was written, was prophetic, was prophecy. That is, it announced things that were to take place in the future. Well, a great deal of that, in fact, a great deal more than people imagine has already been fulfilled. Again, we could turn to many places where this has been fulfilled. Exactly. You'll find that there were many local situations that were fulfilled even in the day of the prophet. Micaiah was a prophet who told old Ahab that when he went out to battle, he'd lose the battle and he'd be killed. Old Ahab didn't like it because his false prophets had told him he'd have a victory and he'd return as a victorious king. But he didn't like what Micaiah said. And he said, lock him up, feed him water and bread, that's all you give him, and I'll take care of him when I get back. And Micaiah shot back the last word. He said, if you come back, the Lord hasn't spoken but me. Well, evidently the Lord spoke by him, because Ahab didn't come back. He was killed in the battle. He was defeated and he attempted to camouflage himself. But you see a soldier, one of the enemy, the Scripture says he pulled the bow at a venture. That is when the battle was about over. Why, he just had one arrow left in his quiver and he just put it in there and he just shot it out in space. But you know, that arrow had Old Ahab's name on it. And that arrow wandered around, went around trees and around rocks and down this road and up this path and finally it found Old Ahab. The only thing is, it didn't do it quite that way. It just went right to its mark like an arrow. Why? Because Micaiah had made an accurate prophecy. And Isaiah in the same connection said the Assyrian wouldn't shoot an arrow into the city of Jerusalem. Well now that's interesting. A soldier shot an arrow by chance, a bow at a venture. And wouldn't you think that among 300,000 soldiers that one might be trigger happy and pull the bow back and there would be the bow at a venture. And he let an arrow fly over the wall. Jerusalem. He didn't. Isaiah said that if the enemy shoots an arrow inside this city, you can be sure that I am not God's prophet. May I say to you, those were local fulfillments of prophecy. But Isaiah also said a virgin would bring forth a child. And that was 700 years away before it was literally fulfilled. And then if you want a final proof, there were over 300 prophecies concerning the first coming of Christ. They were all literally fulfilled. He was hanging there on the cross and dying. And there was one prophecy that had not been fulfilled. And that was they gave me vinegar to drink and he cried out, I thirst. And the enemy himself went and fulfilled prophecy. May I say to you, it's the most amazing thing, but man can't guess like that. It's been rather amusing to watch the weatherman during the summer season in Southern California. He does fine, but when we get to the change of seasons, well, your guess is as good as his. He doesn't always hit it. In the nation Israel, a prophet had to be accurate. If he wasn't accurate, why, he would be put to death. God said that you always know that a thing has to come to pass, that he says he has first of all to speak into a local situation, which Isaiah did. And then he can speak out yer to the future, as Isaiah did. We can look back and know that it was fulfilled. But there are so many other prophecies. Tyre and Sidon are over there today, exactly as God's word said 2500 years ago they'd be, and there they are. May I say to you that Egypt today is in exactly the position God said it would be in. All of these are amazing friends and that's one of the greatest proofs. You see, man just can't be that accurate. Man can't guess like that. As we said, the weatherman misses it. Let me show you that actually, according to mathematical law, mathematical law of problematical conjecture, why, man could never, never prophesy. Now let me give you just a very simple illustration of this. Suppose that I right now would make a prophecy. I don't know where you are and I don't know what the weather is. But suppose I'd say to you right now, wherever you are, that it's going to rain tomorrow. Well, may I say to you, I'd be 50, 50% chance of being right because it's either going to rain or it's not going to rain. It'll do one of the two. Now, for some of you it probably would be accurate, others it wouldn't be accurate. But I'd make the statement. Now suppose though, I'd add to that and I would say it'll start raining tomorrow morning at 9 o' clock and that will be another uncertain element. Now, I had a 50, 50 chance of being right at first. Now I have a 25% chance. Every uncertain element that is added here reduces the chance of being right 50%. You see, the law of problematical conjecture. Now suppose that I not only say it's going to start raining at 9 o', clock, I say it'll stop raining at 2 o'.
