Introduction
A Prefatory Note
That the Bible should be our chief source book in this Bible
study course goes without saying. But inasmuch as the Bibles
that are currently in use differ from one another in
contents and in the number and arrangement of the books they
contain, a word of clarification is in order.
The Hebrew Bible contains only the Old Testament books,
which number 39. The so-called Protestant Bible has both the
Old and the New Testament books, which together number 66 —
39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New. The Catholic
Bible also has both the Old and New Testament books, but
together numbers 74 books - 47 in the Old Testament and 27
in the New. In addition to the same 39 books as the others,
it has 8 so-called Apocryphal books, recognized as forming
part of the Old Testament only by the Roman Catholic church.
The 39 books listed in these Bibles have in common that they
are all translated from a single source; namely, the Hebrew
Bible. In content, therefore, the differences are minimal.
So, any edition of the Bible which has an accepted
translation of the Hebrew text can serve as a source book in
this course. However, for the sake of uniformity and your
convenience, we recommend that you use a Bible which has the
Old and New Testaments in one volume. Even better would be a
Bible which also has a reference-text system, which would
lend itself to further study of the Scripture references to
be mentioned.
This introductory lesson does not present the Bible material
in historical sequence, as the lessons which follow, for you
are to be introduced to a miscellanea of somewhat unrelated
Bible passages. The first references are to the Book of
Psalms (Tehillim in Hebrew), projecting a twofold
picture of man upon the screen of life. The following
references note that the Bible itself gives unmistakable
evidence that it is what it claims to be, the inspired Word
of God.
Belief In God
The first scene is that of a man who in wonder exclaims,
"The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament
sheweth his handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and
night unto night sheweth knowledge" (Psalm 19:1-3). As the
picture changes we see man raising his eyes heavenward and
hear him meditatively say, "When I consider thy
heavens...the moon and the stars, which thou has ordained;
what is man that thou art mindful of him?" (Psalm 8:3-4).
And, facing the vicissitudes of life, these words come over
his lips, "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the
shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me;
thy rod and thy staff they comfort me" (Psalm 23:4).
Disbelief In God
The second scene is that of a man who scoffs at the very
idea that there should be knowledge with God (Psalm 73:11).
In his heart he says that there is no God (Psalm 14:1). He
is prosperous, carefree, and has more than the heart could
wish (Psalm 73:3, 5, 7). More than heart could wish, that
is, of things material, but what of his soul? Obscured to
view here are the lasting truths of life. Of this man Psalm
52:7 says, "Lo, this is the man that made not God his
strength; but trusted in the abundance of his riches."
Prosperity, carefree life, more than heart could wish — are
these the fruits of a godless life? When the Psalmist
thought upon these things he was troubled, and said, "When I
thought to know this, it was too painful for me; until I
went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their
end." (Psalm 73:16, 17). The Psalmist did not understand
until he came to view the matter in the light of God's Word.
"Slippery Places!" "Desolation!" "Terror!" Indeed! for, as
the New Testament says, "...it is appointed unto men once to
die, but after this the judgment" (Hebrews 9:27). Or, as
Longfellow said in his poem of life,
Life is real, life is earnest,
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.
Antidote For Skepticism
Apologists and theologians long ago devised a series of
so-called proofs and arguments to meet those who refuse to
accept the internal evidence of the Bible for what it is —
the Word of God. These proofs and arguments are generally
presented in the following order: ontological, cosmological,
teleological, ethnological, moral. These, and similar proofs
and arguments, are logical and proper, but not necessarily
conclusive. In the book of Job (Ieyou in Hebrew) the
question is posed, "Canst thou by searching find out God?"
(Job 11:7). The implied answer is NO. A New Testament book
has this statement, "...the world by wisdom knew not God..."
(I Corinthians 1:21).
While the foregoing proof and arguments may be said to be
dated, the following reflective thoughts on Genesis 1:1 are
timely.
Indeed the more one understands the complexity of the simplest phenomena of either the animated or inanimate world, the more sensible does this statement seem (the statement made in Genesis 1:1). So many conditions are necessary before life as we know it can exist on this earth that it is a mathematical absurdity to say that it just happened. The distance of the earth to the sun, the speed of its rotation on its axis, the amount of heat reaching us from the sun, the tilt of the earth on its axis, the size and relationship of the moon to the earth, the thickness of the earth's crust, the proportion of sea to land, the density of the atmosphere, and so on — all these are in exactly the right relationship to each other. Science is constantly discovering the basic laws apparent in the physical realm and many of these laws are of the most complex nature. To say that our orderly universe with its well defined laws, its amazing complexity and its abundant evidence of design just happened is like saying that Webster's Unabridged Dictionary resulted from an explosion in a printing plant.
A Page From History
A tale of two cities, cities frequently mentioned in the
Bible, will serve to introduce the trustworthiness of Bible
prophecy. This is the tale of Tyre and Sidon, both one-time
prosperous maritime centers. Tyre, we are told, became the
most celebrated maritime city of the ancient world. But
today the site where it once stood is desolated, while Sidon
has retained much of her former status to this day. And,
note well, this is as foretold centuries before by the word
of the prophet Ezekiel.
Both of these cities are spoken of several times in the
Bible in connection with Israel, sometimes as having been
friendly, more often as having been hostile. The 27th
chapter of the prophecy of Ezekiel (Y'chezkal in
Hebrew) tells us to what great prominence Tyre had risen.
Hailed as "a merchant of the people of many isles," this
chapter recounts her greatness verse by verse. However,
before the 27th chapter was ever written, the prophet had
already spelled out the city's doom. This judgment is
described with considerable detail in Ezekiel 26:1-5. Note
especially that the second verse of this chapter tells us
this would befall Tyre because it held Jerusalem in
contempt, and in this instance Jerusalem was representative
of all Israel.
While the 26th chapter of Ezekiel gives a summary of what
was to befall Tyre in the course of time, the following is a
brief account of how these predictions were fulfilled.
Tyre was totally destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar after a siege of thirteen years (B.C. 573), and the latter city, which rose out of its ruins, recovered its ancient wealth and splendor after seventy years as was foretold in Isaiah 23:15-17 (Y'shaiya in Hebrew). When it was taken and burned by Alexander in 332 B.C., it once more regained its strength, and nineteen years later withstood both the fleets and the armies of Antigonus. But then, after being successively taken by the Saracens, the Mamelukes and the Turks - in whose hands it still remains — it became a place for the spreading of nets." Thus disaster befell Tyre because the Lord God had thus spoken, "And I will make thee like the top of a rock: thou shalt be a place to spread nets upon; thou shalt be built no more: For I the Lord have spoken it, saith the Lord God" (Ezekiel 26:14). [Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, p. 527.]
The prophet Ezekiel also spoke of Sidon. It too was to be
harassed and invaded by its enemies, but in this prophecy no
mention was made that it would be destroyed (Ezekiel
28:20-23). Sidon was taken in turn by the Babylonians,
Persians, Egyptians, Mongols, and the French. Yet, despite
all, Sidon is said to have retained much of her prestige as
a maritime center to this day.
Why do we single out the tale of these two cities and cite
it with so much detail? On one hand, to give credence to
what a New Testament reference says, namely, "... prophecy
came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God
spake as the were moved by the Holy Ghost" (2 Peter 1:21).
On the other hand, to accentuate the fact that, "Known unto
God are all His works from the beginning of the world" (Acts
15:18), also a New Testament reference.
Furthermore, this page from history gives immutable evidence
that the prophet Ezekiel was not usurping authority when he
prefaced these prophecies with "Thus saith the Lord." This
can be said as well regarding all the Old Testament prophets
of the Lord god. But what about preachers and Bible teachers
today? Are they too authorized to speak after this manner?
We raise the question because the Bible warns against false
prophets and teachers. How can one tell tale false from the
true?
The Criteria
Who, scripturally speaking, are false prophets and false
teachers but those who supposedly acknowledge that God has
spoken, but arbitrarily give deceptive and misleading
interpretations which falsify the truth? That they have
existed from of old is written on many pages of the bible,
beginning with the great falsifier of which Genesis 3:1-5
speaks. Note the falsification, "Yea, hath God said, Ye
shall not eat of every tree of the garden? ... Ye shall not
surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat
thereof, then your eyes shall be opened." Note also Jeremiah
5:30,31: "A horrible thing is committed in the land; The
prophets prophesy falsely ... and my people love to have it
so ..." Again note Jeremiah 29:8,9: "for thus saith the ...
God of Israel; Let not your prophets ... deceive you ... for
they prophesy falsely unto you in my name: I have not sent
them."
But how does one distinguish between the true and the false?
Isaiah 8:20 gives a very good clue. The translations of this
verse generally reads, "To the law (torah) and to the
testimony (teudah): if they speak not according to
this word, it is because there is no light in them." (Though
the Hebrew text lends itself to a somewhat different
translation, this gives the sense quite well). It means that
if they speak not according to that which God has spoken,
the speak not the truth.
How shall one then know who does or does not speak the truth
respecting the vital issues of life, if he knows not what
the Lord God has spoken or revealed on the matter?
Summation
So, with this introductory lesson as background, we posit
that the Bible on the one hand gives immutable evidence that
it is indeed what it claims to be, the inspired Word of God;
and, on the other hand, it is the infallible rule by which
to measure the credibility of those who supposedly are its
proponents.