Why I Trust the Bible
Is it arrogant to claim that the Bible, of all the religious books in the world, is the Truth and that there is only one God and only one way to God, Jesus Christ? If you are convinced Jesus is the only Way, the only Truth, the only source of life, the only Savior; that the Bible, alone, of all the religious books in the world, is the Truth - the very Word of God - You’re going to be considered arrogant by a lot of people in our culture right now. But whether or not what you believe is arrogant will, in the end, depend on whether or not it is true! If the Bible is, in fact, the written Word of God, to believe that without compromise is not arrogance but humble submission to the truth! If there is, in fact, no other way of salvation for sinners other than faith in Jesus Christ, to trust Him alone for salvation is not arrogance, but humility.
Stuart Briscoe tells the story of a time he was talking to somebody who said, “Do you think you have eternal life? Do you mean to stand there and tell me that you think you have eternal life?”
I said, “Yes, and I don’t think it, I know it.”
He said, “I think you’re arrogant.”
I said, “I can understand that.”
He said, “Nobody, but nobody can know that they have eternal life.”
So I said, “Now I think you’re arrogant.”
He said, “Why?”
I said, “Because you presume to know better than the Word of God. The Word of God says that these things are written that you may know that you have eternal life. Who is arrogant? Somebody who believes the Word of God or somebody who knows better than the Word does?”
But how do you know you can trust the Bible as the final authority for what you believe? Is belief a jump into the darkness, just hoping it will be true? Or are there good reasons for the things you believe?
The apostle Peter deals with this question in II Peter 1:12-21. Peter knows he will die soon. The people to whom he is writing will no longer be able to ask him questions about what he saw and heard while he was with Jesus for those three years. He wants to assure them that their faith rests on something solid. He writes: 12 So I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have. 13 I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body, 14 because I know that I will soon put it aside, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me. 15 And I will make every effort to see that after my departure you will always be able to remember these things.
Peter’s claim is that his message is not a human invention, not a cleverly invented story. 16 We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ…
Lots of people look at the Bible and say, “That’s just a collection of stories. Those things never happened. What the Bible describes can’t happen: angels, demons, God becoming man, miracles. It can’t happen!” That kind of skepticism isn’t new. Peter heard the same thing! “It’s just stories someone made up.”
Peter says, “No, we didn’t make this up as a clever invention to start some kind of religious movement.” We told you what we saw and heard - what we witnessed:
16 We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. 17 For he received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, "This is my Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased."
18 We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain.
Peter is saying, “We didn’t make this up! We were eyewitnesses of these things.” And then he says the written Word is more certain than personal experience: 19 And we have the word of the prophets made more certain, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.
He was talking about the experience Peter, James and John had with Jesus that we call the Mount of Transfiguration. On that mountain, the veil of Christ's glory was drawn back and those three disciples saw him changed. He was glorious, shining, talking with Moses and Elijah. And they were overwhelmed!
They heard the voice of God Himself speaking from heaven, confirming the identity of Jesus: He is the Son of God! But comparing the voice he heard from heaven with the written Word of the Prophets - that is, the Old Testament Scriptures - Peter says we have something more certain; we have something more certain than hearing a voice from heaven. He's not saying that he wasn't sure the voice he heard was the voice of God. He's saying what is written down is more certain. It is more permanent than his experience.
Think of this: When you hear something, you can forget it. You can wonder if you really heard it. But what iswritten down is a permanent record. He is saying the written message is a more solid ground for your faith to rest on than a voice from heaven would be.
Peter goes on: 20 Above all you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. 21 For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
If that is true, then what the Bible says, God says! And what God says is always completely trustworthy!
You say, “wait a minute. Peter is saying he saw two men appear from nowhere, men who had been dead for hundreds of years! And he is saying he saw Jesus changed so that he radiated light? He’s saying he heard God speak audibly? How can I believe that? How can I be sure it wasn’t imagined? Maybe it was an hallucination? Maybe it was just a vision - something he saw in his mind.
Peter is not making a philosophical claim. He’s not stating an opinion about religious things. He’s saying “this happened!” This is something that Happened at a specific time and place in history. But can a claim like that be verified? How do I know it really happened?
Historical events cannot be repeated. Therefore, knowledge of anything in the past is always dependent on the testimony of witnesses - on an historical record.
If you weren’t there, how can you know what happened in the past unless someone tells you? And if the event is far enough in the past that the eye-witnesses are dead and gone, we are dependent on the written historical record they left behind. Historical events cannot be verified the same way a math problem can be. But historical claims can certainly be falsified by an investigation of the evidence.
Some things in our world can be verified repeatedly. If an accountant tells the Securities and Exchange Commission “This is our total profits and losses,” someone else can work back through the books to check the math. If a scientist tells you this result will always follow these steps, you can do the experiment again and check the results. But you can’t repeat any historic event to be sure it happened. On the other hand, you can certainly investigate the evidence to see if what is reported fits the facts. The Bible claims to be a written record of things God did in history. It is not a textbook on biology or chemistry or archeology or philosophy or medicine or geography. But when it speaks about anything that touches on one of those fields, the Bible doesn't lie to us. It is not mistaken. So the Bible, if it is true in all its parts, can't possibly teach that the world is flat or that two plus two equals five, or that some event happened at some other time than we know it happened from other historical records.
If the Bible is accurate, it won't tell us that Julius Caesar was emperor when Jesus was put to death, or that Caesar Augustus was responsible for the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. If it did, it would be relaying false information to us. And it never does.
I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Jesus also said, "The Scriptures cannot be broken..." (Matthew 5:18).
That’s what Peter is claiming too! Could Peter’s claims have been investigated? How? You can talk to the other witnesses. He wasn’t alone on the mountain. The other apostles could be consulted. You can investigate Peter’s character: is he a reliable person? Does he tell the truth or does he tend to make up stories? Suppose I talk to a friend about his fishing adventures this week and he tells me a story about catching a huge fish. How do I know what he said is true? I wasn’t there! And I can’t back up to yesterday to see if what he told me happened while he was out fishing actually happened! Why should I believe what he said? I have to weigh the evidence: what do I know about him as a person? Is he generally reliable? While many fisherman are notorious for stretching and embellishing the truth, I’ve fished with my friend before and I know that he hasn’t been one to stretch the truth! I have no reason to disbelieve what he says! But if his wife tells me that he was home all day working in the yard on the day he says he was fishing, and if she can show me the pile of weeds he pulled, I would have reason to doubt what he told me about his fishing trip.
Do you have a good reason for disbelieving Peter’s claim? Do you have any reason to believe that Peter was lying, stretching the truth, or making up stories? Are the things Peter claimed about Scripture confirmed in other ways? Are the things he says about Jesus confirmed in other ways? What Peter describes is a supernatural event. And supernatural events, by definition cannot be verified scientifically. They are SUPER-natural - above the natural. Science can only investigate the empirical realm: what you can see, taste, touch, smell, hear, measure and weigh. But it would be incredibly arrogant to say that because the human tools for investigating a supernatural claim can’t produce a conclusion with mathematical certainty that the supernatural doesn’t exist. What about human souls, angels, demons, life beyond death, or God Himself? Humility, it seems to me, would force us to say with Shakespere’s Hamlet: “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy!”
Peter says the Bible can be trusted because what is written is what God says. God worked through the writing so it is trustworthy! When the Bible says something will happen, it will happen. The Bible is INFALLIBLE - it will never be mistaken. And the Bible is INERRANT - it contains no mistakes.
The Bible communicates truth, not error. And whatever it says can be trusted.
Go back and check out the evidence. Did the things God said through the prophets about what would happen when the Messiah came into the world happen in exact detail just as God said? The more you investigate the more you will be impressed by the tremendous accuracy of predictive prophecy. God doesn’t make mistakes!
You may still say, “But how can I be sure the Bible is a reliable guide to ultimate truth?” Christianity does ask you to believe things you can’t see: You can’t see God now (though you can certainly see his fingerprints all over creation) You can’t see Jesus for yourself. You have to rely on a written record made by those who did know him. You can’t see the Holy Spirit or your soul. So how can you be sure?
Francis Schaeffer used to put it like this: Suppose you were lost in the Alps. Your view of the steep cliffs beneath you disappears into the fog. Night comes on. Ice begins to form. If you keep climbing, you'll certainly die. There you are, clinging to a ledge with numb fingers. You turn to your climbing partner and say, "If we stay here, we're going to die before morning. We'll freeze to death. I think we should let go of this ledge and jump into the fog and darkness. Maybe there is a wide ledge below us.. If there is, we'll have a place to set up a shelter until morning. Why not risk it, we'll die anyway if we stay on this ledge."
That kind of jump would be a blind leap of faith. And that’s how most people think of faith. You just believe it, with no reason for believing. You just do it. Then you find out if it is true or not. But, Schaeffer said, imagine the same scenario: the same cliff, the same predicament – it’s cold, night falls, ice is forming, you can't see anywhere to turn and death seems immanent. Suddenly, from somewhere nearby, you hear a voice shouting into the darkness: "I can see you are stuck on the cliff. You can't see me, but I can see just where you are. I am a Swiss Guide. I've been guiding climbers in these mountains for 35 years. I know that if you jump from where you are, there is a safe, sheltered cave on the ledge below you. You will be able to stay there until morning, when I can come and get you."
That's a different situation, isn't it? You can question the guide to determine whether or not he does indeed see you and as to whether or not he knows what he’s talking about. Then, if you choose to, you jump. It's still foggy and dark and you can't see if what the guide says is true. But it is not a blind leap of faith! There are reasons for believing him.
It's the same with the Bible. You don't have to blindly believe the Bible. You can question it and test the answers. You can see if it fits reality. You can see if it is true and reliable and worth putting your trust in.
Christianity does not ask you to believe something for which there is no evidence! There are always good reasons for belief! Faith without some reason for the belief would be irrational. It would not be what Christians mean by faith! Faith is a conviction that the God who can’t be seen does in fact exist and that what He has revealed is true on the basis of the reasonable evidence that has been provided. To believe something, it has to make sense. It has to provide the greatest coherence for what you see and experience in the world around you. What you believe may be wrong, but there are always reasons for why you believed it in the first place.
The Bible, as an historical document, is defended by arguments for the reliability of the record. It is defended by showing the accuracy of archeological references, historical references to people and places, genealogies, etc Yes, I know that in the end you believe the Bible to be God’s Word because God’s Spirit brings you to that conviction. But God’s Spirit does not convince you to trust something that is not trustworthy and reasonable!
John ends his gospel account by saying, “These are written that you might KNOW that Jesus is the Christ…”…that by believing you might have life through His name. In the book of Acts, Luke tells about the apostles arguing that God had given “many convincing proofs…” that Jesus was raised from the dead.” The apostles were convinced there were rational reasons for believing that Jesus is the Son of God - that what the Bible teaches is true.
I spent my senior year of college at the University of Miami as a religion major. I was the only evangelical Christian (only one who believed Jesus is the only savior…etc.) I had two theologically liberal Presbyterian professors as my teachers. One was an angry liberal who despised evangelicals. The other was a very gentle and kind liberal who accepted my opinions with a grain of salt and believed everyone would get to heaven one way or another. The students in my religion classes asked questions and raised objections to Christianity that I had never heard before. When I was a student at Moody Bible Institute, nobody was allowed to ask those questions! I know students at Moody had questions, but they didn’t voice them. The cultural climate didn’t allow for that kind of discussion. It was considered unbelief to even ask tough questions of Christianity
During that year at the University of Miami I found John MacArthur on the radio. On my way home for lunch every day, I would listen to MacArthur teach. He was (providentially) giving a series of messages on why he trusted the Bible. He went through all the classic evidences in support of the Bible being Trustworthy as the Word of God:
He talked about the Manuscript Evidence: Until the time of the Reformation, the biblical text was preserved by the laborious and time-consuming process of copying it by hand, over and over again. Until the printing press was invented, there was no other way to make new copies. It was first copied on papyrus sheets, or on parchment - sheep skins. Thousands of ancient manuscripts and fragments of manuscripts of the New Testament have been preserved. When compared, there are spelling variations, and other variations, but in terms of the content – the ideas being taught - there is very little variation.
We have classics of ancient Greek literature: Plato, Homer, Caesar, Tacitus. Few historians doubt the history relayed by Caesar in the Gallic Wars, which was written around 50 BC. Only 9-10 good MSS remain, and the oldest is some 900 years later than Caesar's original. Almost 1000 years between the original writing and the oldest manuscripts we have. Compared with the Bible, the difference is striking! There are literally thousands of manuscripts and fragments of manuscripts of the Scriptures. The books of the New Testament were written in the latter part of the first century and we have manuscripts that date back to the fourth century. What that means is that later manuscripts can be checked against earlier ones to see if the text was being changed. The accuracy is staggering. The text has been preserved through the centuries. John Warwick Montgomery said: "To be skeptical of the resultant text of the NT books is to allow all of classical antiquity to slip into obscurity, for no documents of the ancient period are as well attested bibliographically as the NT."
MacArthur talked about Fulfilled Prophecy. One of the greatest indications that the Bible is inspired by God is prophecy - that is, predictive prophecy. God told the prophets to write about events in the future and what they wrote was so accurate that there is no way the human mind could have done it. Only a God who knows everything and who controls the flow of human history could give us such detailed descriptions of history before it happened. Prophecy is not just guessing at the future. It is a statement of historical fact that is known only to God. It is writing history before it happens. Some people say that fulfilled prophecy doesn't prove the Bible is the Word of God. But unfulfilled prophecy would certainly prove that the Bible wasn't the Word of God.
One of my favorite examples in MacArthur’s messages was this one: Ezekiel 26 - a prophecy against Tyre:
Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I am against you, O Tyre, and I will bring many nations against you, like the sea casting up its waves. They will destroy the walls of Tyre and pull down her towers; I will scrape away her rubble and make her a bare rock. Out in the Sea she will become a place to spread fishnets, for I have spoken, declares the Sovereign LORD (v. 3-5).
v. 7: For this is what the Sovereign LORD says: From the north I am going to bring against Tyre Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, king of kings, with horses and chariots and horsemen and a great army. he will ravage your settlements on the mainland with the sword; he will set up siege works against you, build a ramp up to your walls and raise his shields against you. He will direct the blows of his battering rams against your walls and demolish your towers with his weapons...14 I will make you a bare rock, and you will become a place to spread fishnets. You will never be rebuilt, for I the LORD have spoken...
Tyre was one of the great cities of ancient Phoenicia. The Phoenicians were sailors. They had traveled around Africa and established trade routes to the east. Tyre was a magnificent fortified city with walls 150 feet high and 15 feet thick. The walls protected the city from any land attack and the navy protected the city from the sea. Three years after Ezekiel made this prediction, Nebuchadnezzar came down out of Babylon and did exactly what was predicted. He laid siege to Tyre. Military tactics in those days called for cutting off supplies to a fortress city - no food in, no supplies - after a while you literally starved the enemy out. Nebuchadnezzar's siege lasted 13 years. At the end of that time he stormed the city, smashed the walls and broke down the towers. Smashing down the towers wasn't always done when a city was taken, but it was in this case, exactly as Ezekiel had predicted. But when Nebuchadnezzar's army finally smashed its way into that city, they found nothing of any value, because the people of Tyre had moved everything of value to a little island a half mile offshore. There they sat, safely thumbing their noses at the enemy. The king of Babylon went back home, and the new little community of Tyre flourished for the next 250 years.
Only part of Ezekiel's prophecy had been fulfilled. The city had been destroyed and the towers demolished. But what about the timber and stones being thrown into the water. That hadn't happened.
Then a young military genius by the name of Alexander came on the scene. He defeated the Persians - the second great world empire described by Daniel in his prophetic dreams. He was out to conquer the known world. He came into Phoenician territory with 33,000 infantry, 15,000 cavalry, and a few ships sailing along the coast. He kindly asked the people of Tyre to open their gates to him and surrender quietly. They refused. They felt secure out there on their island, which by now had been fortified with a high wall.
Alexander figured out that the only way to take that city would be to build a bridge out to the island. And it had to be a substantial bridge. He set about building a causeway that was 200 feet wide, stretching out for a half a mile. It was hard work. And do you know what he used for material? He used what was left of the original city of Tyre. He took the stones and bricks and began to toss them into the sea. As the water got deeper, the work got harder. And the people in the walled city didn't help much. They tried as hard as they could to rain down arrows on the workmen. So they had to work with shields protecting them. Gradually the bridge got closer to the city.
Alexander realized that once the bridge was finished he would still have to deal with the walls. So he built high towers that could be rolled on wheels. When the time came, these towers would be rolled down the causeway and up against the walls. His soldiers would then be able to march right into that city. As Alexander's men used the rocks and debris from the old city of Tyre, they were unwittingly fulfilling the prophecy of Ezekiel. God had said the site of that city would be scraped bare. And since Alexander’s army was being attacked from the sea as they built the causeway, he went back to the cities and nations he had previously conquered and demanded that they provide him with ships. He gathered a fleet from Sidon, Byblos, Rhodes, Macedon and other places. So, as Ezekiel had predicted, many nations were coming against Tyre.
Finally the causeway was finished. Alexander rolled his towers to the walls. The Greek soldiers swarmed into Tyre. In the battle, 18,000 people of Tyre were killed. Another 7,000 were later executed. 30,000 were sold into slavery. The city was completely destroyed. And Alexander did all this in seven months.
Philip Myers, an historian, wrote: Alexander the great reduced Tyre to ruins in 332 B.C. She recovered in a measure, but never to the place she previously held in the world." He goes on to say that the once great city is now as bare as the top of a rock, and fishermen dry their nets there.
Jerusalem was destroyed and rebuilt 17 times. Tyre has never been rebuilt. And it never will be. Why? Because more than 2500 years ago a Jew in Babylon prophesied that it would never be rebuilt.
Was that just a good guess by Ezekiel? You could go on and on with examples of this kind of fulfilled prophecy. What does it do for the Bible's claims to be true? It provides pretty strong evidence that the Bible is reliable and trustworthy.
MacArthur talked about the supporting evidence in Archeologywhich consistently affirms the historical reliability of the Bible. When the Bible says a certain town was in a certain place, and they investigate, the evidence is there.
He talked about what the Bible Says About Itself: You never find a biblical writer saying something like, "Friends, I know you're not going to believe this, and that it will sound ridiculous to you, but this is the Word of God. God actually gave me these words to say." There is an air of authority in the Bible writers. They speak boldly and all of them write with the same confidence - that God was speaking through them. The apostle Peter said: “no prophesy of scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation….men wrote as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (II Peter 1). Paul wrote: And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is at work in you who believe (I Thessalonians 2).
And finally, MacArthur talked about what Jesus thought about the Bible. Jesus so identified Himself with the Scriptures and interpreted His own ministry in light of the Scriptures so clearly that it is impossible to discredit the Old Testament Scriptures without weakening the authority of what Jesus taught. He appealed to the Scriptures as an infallible authority. When tempted by the Devil, he appealed to the Bible - "It is written..." When the Sadduccees tried to trick him, he said that they didn't know the Scriptures or the power of God and then quoted directly from the Old Testament text. He said that the Scriptures cannot be broken, and that not even the smallest letter would pass away until it was all fulfilled. He referred to Old Testament characters like Abraham and Noah and Abel. He accepted the OT record of creation and the flood. He believed the story of. Noah's ark. He referred to Jonah being in the belly of the great fish for three days and nights. And Jesus saw His life as a fulfillment of Scripture. He submitted Himself to it. He began his ministry with a quotation from Isaiah: "The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor..." After reading that passage, he sat down and said, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." He was claiming to be the one who truly fulfilled those words.
Look through the gospels and ask yourself, "What did Jesus think about the Scriptures?" It is beyond doubt that he took it as the authoritative Word of God in written form. Some who deny the inspiration and inerrancy of the Bible will still say they believe Jesus was a good teacher. But think about it: If Jesus believed the Old Testament literally, completely, and if he was wrong about the creation, the flood, the historical events - that is, if what he believed never really happened - then Jesus was mistaken. If the Scriptures contain errors of which Jesus was unaware, then He was mistaken. If he was mistaken, he was not God; he was not the Savior; he was not a good teacher - he taught error! If Jesus really knew that these Old Testament stories were mythological, but taught the people that they were true, then he wasn't a Good teacher: he was a deceiver. He wasn't honest or holy.
The only other possibility is that He was right in his assessment of the Scriptures: they are the written Word of God, without error: infallible, authoritative, binding. Belief in the deity of Jesus Christ demands a belief in the full inspiration of the Scriptures.
WE tend to say: Prophecy has been fulfilled, The Bible is scientifically accurate, miracles were done to authenticate it, it is archeologically accurate, and the Bible's message has changed the lives of millions of people. Therefore it must be the Word of God. The more accurate way of saying it is this: "The Bible is the Word of God. That's why prophecy has been fulfilled and that's why miracles took place. The Bible is the Word of God. That's why when it touches on science or archeology or geography it is accurate. God doesn't make mistakes. And because the Bible is the Word of God, it changes lives."
What John MacArthur was arguing is that there are good reasons for believing the Bible is indeed the WORD OF GOD that what is says is true and accurate and trustworthy. Hearing those evidences at that time in my life strengthened my conviction that what I was asked to believe in the Bible was reasonable. I became more convinced that the Bible’s explanations are the most reasonable in the world!
Several years later I found John MacArthur’s book, Why I Believe The Bible, It was the written manuscript of the series of messages I had heard that year on the radio. He explained somewhere that he gave that series of talks over a three week period at a private college in California, trying to convince unbelievers that the Bible is the Word of God on the basis of its unity, its scientific and historical accuracy, the evidence for the miracles, and its archeological evidence. And he said, "I thought the evidence was overwhelming, yet to my knowledge not one person became a believer."
There I was listening to his messages and finding them a tremendous source of encouragement. But, as far as he ever knew, all his arguments didn’t convince any non-Christian to surrender his heart and mind to Christ in faith. Why not? Because unbelievers cannot accept the legitimate proof about the Bible. They are blind to it. It's a heart-blindness. They will not receive the truth.
Paul writes in I Corinthians 1 and 2: …the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God (I Cor. 1:18)….The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned (I Cor. 2:14).
Confidence in the Bible begins with the work of the Holy Spirit. How do we get others to come to the conclusion that the Bible is the truth and that Jesus is “the Truth, the Way and the Life”? Paul says Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God (Romans 10). He asks, How will they believe on Him of whom they have never heard? And how will they hear unless someone preaches? Someone has to tell them the truth! Again, Paul says, For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel - not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. Paul wasn't trying to cultivate a following, a group of disciples who were committed to his school of speculation. He didn't philosophize about God. He didn't get into interesting speculations. He didn't come with words of human wisdom - interpreting the truth through the filters of his cultural context. Paul understood: “It is not my reasoning ability that draws people to Christ. It is not my thoughts about God that attract people to Christ. It is God’s Spirit working through God’s revelation of himself in his written Word that changes lives. The Gospel is an announcement of an event in time; in history; not a philosophical idea invented by man. The Gospel announces: the Word became flesh and dwelt among us...(John 1).
Paul says: For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate. Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? Where in human history have you ever found a wise man, a scholar, or a philosopher who has found his own way to God by his wisdom or study or philosophy? It has never happened! Fallen man wanders farther away! He might come up with good ethical principles - with a nice moral code - but man never has and never will work his way to knowledge of God on his own.
Paul gives a similar message in Romans 1. Surrounded by evidence of God's power and wisdom, people choose to trust their own wisdom. They "suppress the truth in unrighteousness." Paul says what is known about God is evident within people. God has made it clear. From the realm of nature (the realm of God’s creative work), God's power and nature are clearly revealed. God’s existence and character should be understood through what God has made. Ultimately, Paul says, people are without excuse before God for their unbelief. Every time you look at a mountain you should think of God's greatness. When you see a sunset, you should be reminded of God's glory. When a baby is born, you should see God's creative handiwork. But the amazing thing is that an astronomer can look at the thousands of stars, in all their beauty and order and still miss the fact that there is a Creator. A scientist can study cells or microscopic organisms through his microscope and see all the intricacies of life and still not see that there is a Creator.
In I Corinthians Paul writes, For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know Him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. It’s not the task of preaching that is foolish. It’s the message that is considered foolish by an unbelieving world. But the message of the cross of Christ - considered absurd by many - is the message God uses to save people. Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,
The Jews of Paul’s day wanted God to meet all their criteria by providing irrefutable and tangible proof before they would believe Jesus was the Christ. How many miraculous signs did the Jews of Jesus' day see? Miraculous signs were done through the apostles too. But even the resurrection of Jesus didn't satisfy them! They were still not convinced. The fact is, the demand for proof is often an evasion - an excuse for not believing. The Greeks look for wisdom, Paul says. In the philosophical schemes of the Greeks, the idea that God would become man and that God would suffer in the place of sinners was absurd! The mindset of both the Jews and Greeks of Paul’s day great out of man's rebellion against God – man’s refusal to bow the knee to God and his determination to make God fit his own desires and ideas.
What are the modern counterpartsto these Jews and Greeks Paul is talking about? These two groups are representative of all unbelieving people. People who don't want to surrender their wills to GOD will always find an excuse for rejecting the gospel.
17 For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel - not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. 18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.....24 but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength.
The message of the cross is the means God uses to draw people to faith in Christ. The message of the cross is what we refer to as the Gospel: God became man - fully God, fully man in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus lived under the law - he lived perfectly, sinlessly. Jesus voluntarily laid down his life in the place of sinners, who deserved God's wrath and punishment. In the place of others, he suffered horribly for the sins of those he represented. He died an atoning death so a just and holy God can forgive sinners in a just and righteous way. He was then raised to life by God the Father as evidence of redemption being accomplished and as the reward he had earned for all those whom He represented. He ascended into heaven and is now seated at the Father's right hand ruling with all authority in heaven and on earth. That’s the essence of the message of the cross.
We need to tell people that the Gospel calls for a response. God calls you to repent - to turn from trusting yourself, trusting your relative goodness to earn you a good standing before God some day - to see your sin and turn from it and to take hold of Jesus by faith as Savior. Ask Him to forgive you, to pardon you from all your sin, to make you a new creature in Christ Jesus. God's power changes lives! God has determined to save from eternal punishment those who believe in the crucified Christ. As we proclaim this message, God calls men by the gospel message. God’s Spirit convinces people what they are hearing is true - that it is offered to them! He draws them to Christ. God breaks down people's resistance and pride. He overcomes the stumbling block and leads people to Himself through the message of the cross.
That message is Good News when you finally see the truth about yourself! God's power is real power - power that accomplishes something. It doesn't originate in us, but it is offered to us. It's the power of salvation from sin, the power to deliver you from the bondage of sin, the power of God working in you to change you, the power of God to keep you for all eternity.
Paul says: 4 My message and my preaching were not with persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, 5 so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power. Wouldn’t you think the best way to convince people to believe would be to show them the power of God? Give them demonstrations of God’s existence and power. Give them visible, dramatic evidence to convince them God is really there. Do you remember the prophet Elijah on Mount Carmel (I Kings 18). He proposed a test: “Let’s see which God is the true and living God. Get your altar ready, put a sacrifice on it, and then pray to your god to send down fire and burn up the sacrifice. The God who answers by fire is the true God. It seemed like a reasonable challenge! The prophets of Baal went first. They built their altar and slaughtered an animal. They chanted and prayed and called on their god and nothing happened! Finally Elijah said “It’s my turn.” He built and altar, gathered up wood for the fire, killed the animal and put it on the altar. Then he had the whole thing drenched with water. Finally he went aside and prayed, asking God to show his reality and power to the people. And God did! Fire came from heaven and burned up the water, wood, water and rocks. All of it was burned up. And when the people saw this demonstration of God’s power, they said, "The LORD, He is God!" But did they follow the LORD in faith? No! And Elijah went into a depression thinking he was the only one left who believed in God. The dramatic demonstration of God’s power didn’t convince unbelieving people to believe.
How many demonstrations of God's power did the Pharisees see from Jesus? Clearly the things Jesus did were not things any man could do in his own strength. God had to be with him. But did they believe? No!
Jesus told the story of a man in torment in hell who begs for someone to be allowed to rise from the dead to go back to warn his brothers so they won’t wind up in hell. But he is told that even if someone rose from the dead they wouldn’t believe. Jesus was right. Even the undeniable evidence that Jesus had risen from the dead did not convince most people to believe.
Paul says his message and preaching were not with persuasive words. He didn’t try to talk people into believing on the basis of how well he could put his arguments together. Instead he relied on a demonstration of the Spirit’s power. The demonstration of the Spirit’s power Paul is talking about is conversions - God's power changing people's lives; people responding to the message. As God’s Spirit applies His Word to people's lives, God's power changes hearts. He changes lives!
That ought to be encouraging to you when you think about how you can talk to your friends about Jesus.
Charles Spurgeon said: The power that is in the Gospel does not lie in the eloquence of the preacher, otherwise men would be the converters of souls, nor does it lie in the preacher's learning, otherwise it would consist in the wisdom of men. We might preach until our tongues rotted, till we would exhaust our lungs and die, but never a soul would be converted unless the Holy Spirit be with the Word of God to give it the power to convert the soul.
The Bible isn't written in a code language. It’s basic message is plain and simple. But to accept it, to respond to it in faith, to love it and be moved by it, takes a work of God’s Spirit in a person's life. The “natural man” - unregenerate man (man who hasn't received the new birth) - cannot know or understand the things of God. They are spiritually discerned in contrast to things that can be naturally discerned.
God’s Spirit brings people to faith. God’s Spirit convinces people that the evidence is trustworthy and sufficient. He doesn’t convince you to believe something for which there is no evidence or to believe something contrary to all the evidence. He changes your will so you will accept what is clear and plainly true! When you understand this, you can praise God for giving you a heart to understand and respond to God's Written Word in faith. Praise God for giving you life through His Spirit.
Whether or not people believe in Christ ultimately doesn’t depend on your words but on God’s Word and God’s work. We are called to present what God has said and to trust God to work in people’s hearts! | 
