Why I choose to Believe the

Bible
Voddie Baucham

Grace Family Baptist Church

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Most Christians can be backed into a corner with two or

three questions. Ask them what they believe about any
subject, then ask them why they believe what they believe. By
this point you'll have them where you want them since they
would likely have said they believe what they believe because
the Bible says so. Now comes the third and final question...
Why do you choose to believe the Bible? At this point you will
either get stammering and stuttering, or something worse.
This message answers this most pivotal of questions in a
winsome, cogent, memorable way.
Why I choose to Believe the Bible l Voddie Baucham

My brother did preach, didn't he?

Let me say I'm honored to be here tonight. But let me give you a little
bit of the back story. Dr. Gaines contacted me a while back and invited
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me to come preach there at his church there in Gardendale later this
summer. And after that invitation was sort of extended tentatively, he
said, “I need to check you out first.” So what do you do in June 19 th …?

So I'm sort of here in view of a call to see if I'll still be able to come
later this summer.

I want to share something with you tonight that is a burden for me,
mainly because of the backstory that was shared with you about my
life; about my having come to faith late in life, not having grown up in
church, not having grown up around Christians or around Christianity.

I was raised in the projects of South Central Los Angeles by a single

teenage mother who was a practicing Buddhist. And I never heard the
gospel until I got to college. And I had questions, numerous questions;
questions that needed to be answered.

And I met someone who took the time to answer my questions. And the
wall that I want to talk about tonight is not necessarily a wall that we
usually think about. It's a wall, in fact, that hasn't been torn down
necessarily BY OUR ADVERSARY, but in many instances it's been torn
down BY US.

You see, we responded to sort of rationalism and logical positivism and

secular humanism, and in responding to those things that were so
heady that they led us away from the passionate pursuit of a holy God,
we have come almost full circle. Now the pendulum has swung in the
other direction. And now in many instances we have become ANTI-
INTELLECTUAL and we've moved beyond anti-intellectualism to now
we've almost moved into MYSTICISM. We are in a place where
“theology” and “doctrine” are bad words.

We are in a place where there's a generation coming up that will

believe anything if you say it with enough feeling. So, there is an
intellectual wall that needs to be rebuilt. We need to be a people who
continues to “love the Lord our God with all our heart, all our soul, all
our MIND, and all our strength.”

So, I want to do three things for you tonight. One thing is this, I want to
answer what I believe is the most important question that we can
answer in our culture today.

And secondly, I want to make an observation about that answer and

then issue a challenge.

If you would open your Bibles with me, please, to the book of 2 Peter. 2
Peter chapter 1. Let me give you the question. Here is the question
that I believe is the most important question for us to be able to
answer; because legitimate questions deserve legitimate
answers.
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Peter says in 1 Peter that “We are always to be ready to give an
apology, an “apologia”, a reasoned response to anyone who asks us
the reason for the hope that is within us.

Here's that question. That question is:

“Why do you choose to believe the Bible?”

That's the question. We must be able to answer that question in our

culture today.

It's a legitimate question that deserves a legitimate answer. But you

see, because of anti-intellectualism, we hear that question and usually
we'll say something like, “Well, I believe the Bible because I was raised
like that.”

Well, bless your spirit if that's your answer.

But please don't go out of here and say that to anybody. I beg you,
please don't do that; because that is not A REASONED RESPONSE.

“I was raised that way” just doesn't cut it.

Or sometimes, because we live in this culture of experientialism,

sometimes because of this postmodern culture where what's true for
you is not necessarily true for me and “the experience is king”, there is
another answer with which we have become accustomed that we think
is a great answer to the question, and it goes something like this:

“Why do you choose to believe the Bible?” “Well, I choose to believe

the Bible because I tried it and it worked for me.”

We say that and then we sort of back up a couple of steps, you know,
… kind of let the answer sit there! like we really just did something.

What you did was open a logical hole big enough to drive a Mack truck
through. That's what you did. Because if your only answer is you
believe it because you tried it and it works for you, what about that
individual who used to be an alcoholic ten years ago? And he went to
an AA meeting and they told him he needed a higher power. He
couldn't find a higher power. There's a squirrel that came outside of his
window every morning. He decided that squirrel was going to be his
higher power. Hadn't had a drink in 10 years. Guess what? He tried the
squirrel. The squirrel worked for him!

According to your logic, his squirrel has as much authority as your

Bible.

In the words of Regis Feldman, “Is that your final answer?”

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I hope it's not.

Let me give you an answer to that question, that I believe is better

than “I was raised that way”.

Or it's better than, “Well, I'm Southern Baptist and that's the way we
believe.”

Or it's better than “I tried it and it works for me.”

I want to tell you why I choose to believe the Bible. Because I don't
believe the Bible because I was raised that way, because I wasn't.

I don't choose to believe the Bible because I tried it and it worked for
me. My mother's Buddhism worked for her. That's why she was a
Buddhist. I need something more than just “because it works”.

Here's the answer. I'll give it to you and I'll unpack it for you:

I choose to believe the Bible because it's a reliable

collection of historical documents written down by
eyewitnesses during the lifetime of other eyewitnesses.
They report to us supernatural events that took place in
fulfillment of specific prophecies and claim that their
writings are divine rather than human in origin.

Response from the congregation: Amen.

In case you think I just made that up … 2 Peter chapter 1, beginning at

verse 16.

Somebody going to come get me when these lights go off …?

I'm nervous already. Lights haven't even started going off yet. All right:

16 “For we did not follow cleverly devised tales, when we made

known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,
but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
17 For when He received honor and glory from God the Father,
such an utterance as this was made to him by the majestic
glory. “This is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased.”
18 And we ourselves heard this utterance made from heaven
when we were with him on the holy mountain.
19 So we have the prophetic word made more sure, to which
you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark
place until the day dawns, and the morning star arises in
your hearts.
20 But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a
matter of one's own interpretation.
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 21 For no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will: but
men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.”

Now let's unpack this. First of all, the Bible is a reliable collection of
historical documents. Look at what he says here in verse 16:

“For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made

known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

We did not follow cleverly devised tales. We did not follow myths or
fairy tales or legends. We did not follow things that were made up.
Luke puts it this way in his prologue:

1 “Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile an account of

the things accomplished among us,
2 Just as they were passed down to us by those who were
beforehand eyewitnesses and servants of the Word,
3 it seemed fitting to me, having investigated everything
carefully from the beginning, to write it out for you in
consecutive order, most excellent Theophilus,
4 so that you might believe God on blind faith.”

No. “so that you might KNOW THE EXACT TRUTH about the things you
have been taught.”

We have a reliable collection of historical documents, not myths, not

fairy tales, not legends. This is not the Gilgamesh epic here. These are
things that actually transpired in history and were recorded for us. Not
only do we have a reliable collection of historical documents, but they
were written down by eyewitnesses during the lifetime of other
eyewitnesses.

Look at what he says: “But we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.”

We SAW!

Anybody love crime dramas? I love crime drama. You know, when I was
a kid, I used to watch Quincy. Anybody used to watch Quincy, you
know, growing up? You know, nowadays they got this, what is it, CSI or
whatever. Everybody's all excited about CSI. CSI is just Quincy on
crack. That's all that is, y'all.

Quincy was the MAN! I mean, he'd figure that stuff out, you know!

You know what would mess up an episode of Quincy or CSI or whatever

else you want to watch?

If early on you have corroborating eyewitness testimony. You got no

mystery then.

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That's what we have when we read the Bible: CORROBORATING
EYEWITNESS TESTIMONY.

Turn with me to the right, if you will: and look at what John says in his
epistle. Look at what John says (1 John 1:1):

“What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we

have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched
with our hands concerning the word of life.”

Look at verse 2:

“The life was manifested and we have seen and testified and
proclaimed to you the eternal life which was with the Father and
was manifested to us.”

Verse 3:

“What we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also.”

Eyewitnesses. A reliable collection of historical documents written

down by eyewitnesses.

But I also said during the lifetime of other eyewitnesses. In 1

Corinthians chapter 15, Paul says that Jesus was resurrected. “After he
was resurrected, he appeared to Peter. Then he appeared to the
twelve. Then he appeared to all of the disciples at once. Then he
appeared to over 500 brethren at one time:, and he says these words,
“most of whom remain until now.”

When you do the math, you realize that when 1 Corinthians was
written, there were over 300 EYEWITNESSES, AT LEAST, of the
resurrection of Jesus Christ who were still alive during that time!

Oh, I hear you. You are well-educated people. You've heard the
arguments.

“Yes, brother, I understand that, but you see what happened was,
there were individuals who came and doctored the Bible up, and it's
been translated so many times, and it's been changed so many times.”

And when I talk to college students sometimes, they tell me about this
myth of these overzealous monks who went out and CHANGED the
Bible so that things would match up, so that it would look like we have
older documents than we actually have.

“And in fact” (and I think they're really telling me something when they
tell this) “you know, we don't have any of the originals.” Ooooh!

Like I'm supposed to shake in my boots when they tell me that.

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Listen to me. If overzealous monks want to change the Bible, can I
explain to you what they would have had to do? Three levels of
conspiracy.

Level number one: They would have had to have a manuscript

conspiracy.

When we're talking about just the New Testament itself, there are over
6,000 manuscripts or portions of manuscripts for the New Testament
itself. Now, that may not sound like a lot to you, but can I compare it to
a couple of things?

Julius Caesar's Gallic Wars, that's all we know about Julius Caesar and
his conquest, we have around ten manuscripts.

Aristotle's Poetics, we have nearly five manuscripts.

When it comes to the writings of Herodotus, we have less than ten

manuscripts.

When it comes to the writings of Homer, less than ten of each of his
writings.

When it comes to the New Testament, We have 6,000 manuscripts or

portions of manuscripts for the New Testament.

Folks, that's not even close.

“Well, you don't have the originals.”

No. We really don't. But guess what?

We can get earlier than A.D. 120 with some of the copies that we have!

When it comes to Julius Caesar's Gallic Wars, the earliest thing we can
put our hands on was written 900 years after the original. But nobody's
tearing down the walls in college because they're reading Caesar.

When it comes to Aristotle, the earliest thing we can put our hands on
was written 1,400 years after the original.

But when it comes to the New Testament, we can put our hands on
documents that were written within decades of the originals.

So if these overzealous monks wanted to doctor the Bible, what they

would have to do is find over 6,000 manuscripts, change all of them,
not show their ink work, get them all back where they stole them from,
and never tell anybody what they did.

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That's just level number one.

Here's level number two.

Jesus said, go and make disciples of “ta ethne”, every people group.
Funny thing about people groups, they tend to speak different
languages. So within the first few centuries, we have the Bible
translated into Syriac, Coptic, and Latin. So now these overzealous
monks have to find 6,000 Greek manuscripts change those, doctor
them up, don't show your ink work, get them back, go find all the
Syriac, Coptic, and Latin translations of those Greek manuscripts;
change those to match the lies that you told in another language, and
get those back where you stole them from, and that's just level number
two!

Now you got level number three.

The early church fathers had this terrible habit of writing commentary
on the New Testament, so much so that Bruce Metzger argues:

“If all we had of the New Testament was the quotations and
citations by the early church fathers, we could reproduce over
95% of the New Testament just from their writings.”

So now these overzealous monks have to find 6,000 manuscripts and

portions of manuscripts, steal them, change them, don't show your ink
work, get it back without anybody finding out. The have got to find
Syriac, Coptic, and Latin translations. Change those to match the lies
that they told in the 6,000 manuscripts. Get those back where they
stole them from, and then find all of the writings of all of the early
church fathers. Change those to match the lies that they told two
layers ago. Get those put back. Never tell anybody what they did, and
never ever get caught.

Help you if you believe that!

We have a reliable collection of historical documents written down by

eyewitnesses during the lifetime of other eyewitnesses.

So far we just got a good history book, now it gets good. They report to
us supernatural events. Look at what he says here.
Verse 17:

“For when he received honor and glory from God the Father,
such an utterance as this was made to him by the majestic
glory. This is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. And
we ourselves heard this utterance made from heaven when we
were with him on the holy mountain.”

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Now we got the Mount of Transfiguration. Now we got supernatural
events, not superhuman events. We have supernatural events. Stuff
you can't get good enough to do. We're not talking about
psychosomatic healings. We're talking about a woman with an issue of
blood who is healed instantly. We heard earlier about the man with the
withered hand healed instantly. Men who were blind from birth, deaf
from birth, mute from birth, men who were lame from birth, healed
instantly!

One of my favorites: Jesus tells the disciples, “Y'all go over to the other
side of the lake. I'll meet you.” Later on, on the boat, somebody, I don't
know who, they say, “Hey, did Jesus say how he was coming?”

“No. Why?”

“Because he... He coming.”

Or my favorite of them all … Friday dead. Sunday risen!

We have a reliable collection of historical documents written down by

eyewitnesses during the lifetime of other eyewitnesses. They report to
us supernatural events, and those events took place in fulfillment of
SPECIFIC PROPHECIES. We're not talking that general Nostradamus
type stuff. SPECIFIC PROPHECIES.

For example, when Jesus is on the cross, interestingly, when he's on

the cross, I don't know, let's just imagine. Go back, shall we, if we will.
Let's go back, you know, first century and we're Jewish people and we
probably talk about our Old Testament, maybe we use Aramaic when
we speak to one another. And I want you to open your Bible, for
example, to Psalm number 22, which is where we're going here for a
moment. If I wanted you to do that, I couldn't tell you to open to Psalm
number 22, because we've only had chapters and verses for a few
hundred years.

If it was the first century and I was speaking to you in Aramaic and I
wanted you to turn to Psalm number 22, I would have to tell you to turn
to the title of Psalm number 22, which would have been the first line of
Psalm number 22.

So I'd have to tell you to open your scroll to, “Eloi, Eloi lama
sabachthani!” or “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Now that ought to sound familiar because it's exactly what Jesus said
while he was being crucified. I know you know this, but I like it so
much. Let's do it anyway.

Psalm number 22, verse 1:

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

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Look at verse 6.

“I'm a worm and not a man, a reproach of men and despised by

the people. All who see me sneer at me. They separate with the
lip. They wag the head saying, commit yourself to the Lord. Let
him deliver him. Let him rescue him because he delights in
him.”

Sound familiar? That's what's being said to Jesus while he's being
crucified.

Look at verse 12.

“Many bulls have surrounded me. Strong bulls of Bashan have

encircled me. They open wide their mouth at me as a ravening
and roaring lion. I'm poured out like water. All my bones are out
of joint. My heart is like wax. It is melted within me.”

Interesting! Pierce them in the side. Puncture the pericardium. Blood

and water rush out!

Look at verse 15.

“My strength is dried up like potsherd and my tongue cleaves to

my jaws.”

How about this wine vinegar on this sponge, Jesus? Because you did
say “I thirst”.

Verse 16.

“Dogs have surrounded me.” Folks, that's Gentiles.

“A band of evildoers has encompassed me.” One on the right and one
on the left.

“They pierce my hands and my feet. I can count all of my bones.” Why?
Because nobody had to break your legs to hasten your death.

“They divide my garments among them and for my clothing they cast
lots.” Folks, that was written a thousand years before Jesus was born. It
was written by a man who never once saw crucifixion in his life
because crucifixion had not yet been invented.

That is why Peter can say, back in our passage, verse 19: “So we have
the prophetic word MADE MORE SURE.”

We have a reliable collection of historical documents written down by

eyewitnesses during the lifetime of other eyewitnesses. They report to
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us supernatural events that took place in fulfillment of specific
prophecies.

We just looked at a couple of examples of that. And then here's the

kicker.

They claim their writings are divine rather than human in origin. Look
down with me at verse 20.

“But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a

matter of one's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever
made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit
spoke from GOD.”

They claim these are God's words and not theirs. THAT'S WHY these
prophecies were fulfilled hundreds or thousands of years afterwards.
That's why they use phrases like, “and thus says the Lord”, “and the
Lord spoke to Moses saying”, “and God said to Abraham.”

They say these are God's words and not men's words.

Oh, I hear you. But see, that's the problem. Nobody wants to believe
that because they know that men wrote the Bible. And when we say it's
the word of God, they say, “No, it's the word of men because men took
pen to paper. And you cannot trust things that were written by men.”

That's always interesting to me. You know why? Because back in

school, I don't remember anybody, you know, in the Math class. You
got something wrong, you know. You're supposed to use Pythagorean
theorem there. You know that “A squared plus B squared equals C
squared” thing, you know? You didn't use Pythagorean theorem there.
You got this wrong. You can't mark me off for that!

That came out of a math book. A man wrote that math book. That
means it's fallible.

Just because a man took pen to paper doesn't mean you can't trust
what's written. The question you ask is this: “Is what's written reliable?
Is it internally consistent? Is it corroborated?”

What's corroboration?

I don't know, maybe three languages, Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, three

continents, Asia, Africa, Europe, over 40 authors, most of whom never
met one another, who wrote over a period of some 1,500 years and tell
one singularly woven together story. How's that for corroboration?

Thank you.

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Here's another one. And I just have to admit, I like it when people use
this one. Because there's part of me that, you know, I don't like to talk
about in Sunday school.

His name is Bad Vody. Try to let him out at least once a week late at
night when nobody's around. He loves this one. When people say, “You
believe that Bible, but I'm a man of science, and unless you can prove
it to me scientifically, I just can't believe that.”

See, at that moment, I try to grab on the Bad Vody and hold him real
tight and not let him go. Because I know what he'll do if I let him go. He
won't be Christian. He just won't. Sometimes I think he's not even
saved because of the stuff that he wants to say. Because I would be
gentle with the people. Bad Vody wouldn't even be gentle. He'd say,
“You…!” He'd look at them and he'd say something like this, “Listen,
you don't even deserve to remain in this argument, but I'm going to let
you stay in the argument because I'm going to like what's about to
happen to you. Because intellectually, I'm about to beat you like a tied-
up goat. So hold on right where you are, all right?”

How are you going to sit here and tell me you're a man of science and
you'd believe it, you know, if I proved it to you scientifically? Why do
you want me to use the scientific method? Do you not realize that you
don't use the scientific method on historical events?

That proves you don't even deserve to be in the argument. Here's the
scientific method. In order to use the scientific method, something has
to be OBSERVABLE, MEASURABLE, AND REPEATABLE.

Folks, you can't use the scientific method to prove that George
Washington was our first president.

Why? Because his presidency is not observable, measurable, and

repeatable.

See, they messed around. Let me go to school.

You don't use the scientific method there. You have to use A MORE
EVIDENTIARY METHOD there. So what you do is like what we do in a
courtroom. You say, do we have any eyewitnesses?

Well, I just told you we got some of those.

Do the eyewitnesses tell the same story?

Yep, Friday dead. Sunday risen.

They say something's going to happen, and it happens exactly the way
they said.

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You see, we have no external evidence that would argue against the
Bible's claim to be the Word of God.

None!

So the REAL INTELLIGENT THING to do is to believe what it says. So I

don't choose to believe the Bible just because I was raised that way.

I wasn't.

I don't choose to believe the Bible just because I tried it and it works for
me.

I choose to believe the Bible, now say this with me if you will:

“Because it is a reliable collection of historical

documents written down by eyewitnesses during the
lifetime of other eyewitnesses; they report supernatural
events that took place in fulfillment of specific
prophecies and claim that their writings are divine rather
than human in origin.”

I told you I wanted to do three things.

Number one, I wanted to answer this question. That I believe is a

pertinent question in our culture that we have to be able to answer. It's
a legitimate question that deserves a legitimate answer.

Secondly, I told you I wanted to make an observation. Pastors in the

room, listen to me. I just shared an EXPOSITORY SERMON. I preached
the text in its context. I did not try to be more creative than God.

Response: Amen.

It's what I like to call expository apologetics. The Bible answers every
relevant question. “All Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for
teaching, rebuking, correcting, training in righteousness.” All of it. “His
divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness
through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and
excellence.”

Here's what I'm worried about. There's a lot of us who believe in the
inerrancy of Scripture. But some of us don't preach like we believe in
the sufficiency of Scripture.

Don't let anybody tell you that exposition is a thing of the past. I hope I
didn't bore you, because a lot of people say exposition is boring. I hope
you weren't bored. A lot of people say exposition is irrelevant. I believe
I just answered what I would argue is the most relevant question that

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our culture is asking; and did it “verse by verse, precept upon precept,
line upon line”.

Which brings me to the third thing: and that's the challenge.

We have got to teach the people of God:

Number one, that the Bible has the answer, and

Number two, how to learn it and give it.

Anybody who can memorize this passage of Scripture in its context can
learn how to give the answer that I just gave you.

Anybody. Anybody.

Folks, that's why we wrote “The Ever-Loving Truth”. That's why I wrote
“The Ever-Loving Truth” Bible Study. That's what it's all about; for
people to get this into their minds so that when somebody asks them a
question, like, “Why do you choose to believe the Bible?” they don't
have to fumble around and hymn in the hall. They don't have to give
some lame answer like, “You know, I was raised that way…” or “I tried
it and it works for me”. They can look people in the eye, like a young
lady from Dartmouth College where I was teaching this, who looked a
science professor of hers in the eye -- and for the first time in her life
felt confident enough to speak up in the classroom and looked at him
and said, “Well, sir, I choose to believe the Bible because it's a reliable
collection of historical documents written down by eyewitnesses during
the lifetime of other eyewitnesses. They report supernatural events
that took place in fulfillment of specific prophecies and claim that their
writings are divine rather than human in origin.” And by the way, if you
want to, you can put some gravy on top of it.

“I tried it. Worked for me.”

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