Rev. David Holwick ZJ
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
October 31, 1999
1 Thessalonians 2:13-20
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[I am sure a better title is possible. I was tired.]
I. What does the future hold?
A. This week, will Ward 3 be represented by a Jesse Ventura clone?
1) Will an esteemed councilman get trounced, in spite of all
his ads in neighborhoods he doesn't even represent?
2) A year from now who will our next president be?
B. The future is hard to predict because it is always changing.
1) The Word of God doesn't change.
II. How God speaks to us.
A. Does God really communicate in words?
1) Modern attitude - they write their best thoughts about God.
a) Modern people stand in judgment over it.
b) We can pick-and-choose what we like.
c) Our skepticism is due in part to the multiplicity of
religions and their "scriptures."
2) Revelation from above.
a) Prophets, Jesus, and apostles believed in revelation.
1> God gave them a message.
2> They didn't make it up.
b) God communicated with a variety of methods - voice,
meditation, visions.
1> The only consistency is its origin - the mind of God.
B. The Word of God comes through ordinary people.
1) God rarely speaks directly to people.
a) Only three times in gospels does God speak to a crowd.
b) He prefers to use spokesmen like Paul.
2) Personality of writers of Bible comes through.
a) Unique - most were not popular but hated, rejected people.
b) They were convinced God was speaking through them.
1> Jeremiah - fire in bones. Jer 20:5
2> Paul - woe to me if I don't preach. 1 Cor 9:16
c) 1 Thess - Paul equates his preaching with OT Scripture.
1> Not so much his sermons, as the content - the gospel.
2> Thessalonians heard it so clearly it was like
hearing it directly.
3> Israelites had same reaction to Moses.
3) Preachers and Word of God.
a) Are my sermons the words of a man, or word of God?
The billionaire John D. Rockefeller, Sr., was a devout
Baptist but most of his children were not as sure.
In 1910 his daughter Edith a crisis of religious faith,
For a long time, she had suspected that preachers
dressed up their personal beliefs as gospel truth.
"I never heard a Baptist minister say anything from a
pulpit that convinced me he was Divinely inspired,"
she once remarked.
The upshot, she recalled, was that "as the minister
finished his sermon one Sunday I walked from my pew
and out into the air vowing never to return and
I kept that vow."
#4773
b) My sermons are words of men, but gospel is of God.
C. Danger - revelation can be faked.
1) Others claim divine revelation.
a) Mohammed and Koran.
b) Joseph Smith, with gold tablets and Book of Mormon.
2) How to tell the true Word?
III. Clear evidence of the Word of God.
A. Bible is absolutely accurate. [adapted from Chuck Colson]
Walking past a newsstand this week, you may noticed the
cover of U.S. News & World Report.
Alongside a painting of Adam and Eve, the cover asks the
question, "Is the Bible True?"
Flip open the magazine and you'll find that the answer is
a confident "yes!"
U.S. News has summarized exciting new archeological evidence
that confirms the historical accuracy of the Bible.
For example, a few years ago, a group of archeologists found
an Assyrian stone tablet in Northern Israel dating from
the ninth century B.C.
The Aramaic inscription listed Assyria's foes.
Included in the list were the words "king of Israel" and
"house of David."
The significance of these findings is that they toppled
years of archeological skepticism.
Many archeologists have long questioned the historical
accuracy of the Bible, maintaining that there was no such
person as King David.
They pointed to the lack of any reference outside the Bible
to David in the archeological remains from Assyria, Egypt,
or Babylon.
They argued that David's name, a Semitic word meaning
"beloved," was evidence that biblical writers created a
legendary king to create a glorious past for Israel.
But now archeology has given proof that King David was an
historical figure after all - exactly as the Bible teaches.
This latest discovery isn't the first time the evidence has
confounded the skeptics.
For instance, Kenneth Kitchen, an Egyptologist at the Univ of
London, told U.S. News about a detail in Genesis.
In the story about Joseph, his brothers sell him into slavery
for twenty silver shekels.
Documents recently discovered in Syria agree that this was
the price of a slave in 1500 B.C.
In later centuries, the price typically paid for slaves in
Israel was ninety to one hundred shekels.
If the biblical account was made up later, as skeptics have
argued, then the authors would have picked a sum much
closer to the going rate at the time.
Secular scholars approach Scripture from a naturalistic
perspective that discounts the supernatural.
Since the Bible records miracles as though they really
happened, the Bible is simply rejected out of hand.
The Bible is reduced to stories that merely illustrate
theological points, while containing little that is
historically accurate.
But, as the U.S. News article illustrates, this distinction
is crumbling under the weight of evidence.
Yes, the Bible IS true.
#4912
B. The Bible changes people. 2:13b
Everyone has heard of the Mutiny on the Bounty.
Do you know the rest of the story?
Nine mutineers with six native men and twelve Tahitian women
put ashore on Pitcairn Island in 1790.
One sailor soon began distilling alcohol, and the little
colony was plunged into debauchery and vice.
Ten years later, only one white man survived, surrounded by
native women and the children they had had.
In an old chest from the BOUNTY, this sailor found a Bible.
He began to read it and then to teach it to the others.
The result was that his own life and ultimately the lives
of all those in the colony was changed.
Discovered in 1808 by the USS TOPAS, Pitcairn had become a
prosperous community with no jail, no whisky, no crime,
and no laziness.
#4811
C. Word often arouses violent opposition.
1) It ignores all human achievement.
a) Grace alone.
b) Jesus alone.
2) It exposes human pride.
3) It forgives blatant sinners.
[for below, see sermon at Old Testament: Minor Prophets: Zechariah 8:20-23]
IV. Jews and the Word of God.
A. Harsh passage.
1) It has been used through the centuries to beat up Jews.
2) Is it authentic?
a) Some scholars think it is a portion of a Gentile
pamphlet against Jews.
b) But there is no textual evidence for this.
c) Paul is not condemning Hebrews, but Jewish opponents.
3) Balance with Paul's other statements. [7 years later]
a) Romans 3:1 - there is much advantage in being a Jew.
b) Romans 9:3 - Paul would accept a curse for them.
B. God isn't done with the Jewish people.
1) Calling/chosenness is still valid.
2) Deuteronomy is just as harsh.
3) Hardening, then revival among Jews predicted. Rom 11:25-29
a) Zechariah 12:10, they weep over one they pierced.
4) Their conversion precedes Second Coming. A sign?
C. Signs of softening are happening even now.
1) Conversions, messianic synagogues...
V. God will take severe measures to awaken people to reality.
A. Wrath at last.
1) Paul foresaw what was coming in A.D. 70.
B. Christians are not immune to judgment.
1) Letters to churches in Revelation: God can remove them.
2) Peter - judgment begins with house of God. 1 Peter 4:17
3) My feelings that church is in for rough times.
a) "Post Christian" world.
b) It is too big and smart for our old-fashioned God.
C. God sends disasters to wake us up.
1) AIDS epidemic.
2) Troubles in our personal life.
3) Heed his Word and repent.
===========================================================================
The first half of the sermon borrows from "The Mysterious Word," a sermon
by Rev. Ray C. Stedman, December 20, 1987, #4091 in the Peninsula
Bible Church database at http://www.pbc.org. An outline follows.
SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
#4773 "Titan - The Life Of John D. Rockefeller, Sr.," by Ron Chernow,
1998, page 597.
#4811 "Old Time Religion," based largely on "Final Authority", by
William P. Grady, in Australia's Fair Dinkum E-zine;
http://members.iweb.net.au/~dinkum/dink43.htm, editor Andrew
Craig.
#4912 "Written In Stone: Archeology & The Bible," by Charles Colson,
Breakpoint Commentary, October 27, 1999. His article alludes
to "Is the Bible True?" by Jeffery L. Sheler, U. S. News &
World Report, October 25, 1999.
These and 4,900 others are part of a database that can be downloaded,
absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
=======================================================================
Other relevant material:
In a posting to the American Baptist Evangelicals Online discussion web,
Dr. Kille wrote:
It is, however, possible (even by persons of deep faith) to question
whether the gospel text is historically accurate, or whether it does
reflect the concerns and issues of the early church, and not Jesus.
Many critics of scholarly approaches to the text leap to the
assumption that such questioning and study is necessarily faithless
and sterile. Much of it has been, and many practitioners have been
unbelieving people. But this does not mean that those who still
question are without faith. I submit that we (yes, I include myself
here, having earned a Ph.D. in biblical studies and yet drawing
meaning, direction and support for my faith from the scriptures) can
ask questions and even doubt the historical and theological validity
of maintaining a rigid literalism and historicism.
Jeffrey McCleary responds:
Once again it is implied that we should be guided by the light of the
"scholarly approach". But which scholarly approach should we follow? I
went to Westminster Theological Seminary (no slouches they when it comes
to scholarship) yet their "scholarly approach" leads them to defend the
historicity of Scripture rather than doubt its veracity. The individual
who a priori believes it is an open question as to whether the Bible is
true, and so unsurprisingly finds many errors, is then forced to try and
salvage some help from a document that he she believes from the beginning
cannot be taken with confidence as speaking the truth. That may be OK
when reading a newspaper, a news magazine or anything else written by man
but when I want to base my life, and my hope of eternal life, on
something I want to do so on a document I believe is wholly true.
This issue was clearly addressed in the many writings of an apologist
named Cornelius Van Til. He was a presuppositionalist and correctly
identified that the crux of our views stem from what we bring to the
matter being addressed. We do not come to anything as a blank slate.
I believe the Bible is accurate not because I can prove it completely
(that would require God's Word to submit to my limited abilities and
knowledge) but because by His grace He opened my eyes to see that
Scripture is, by nature, divinely inspired, produced by God who was
capable of guarding it against error. I believe in infallibility while
I recognize that the Bible was written by men (inspired by God) who
conformed to the literally models and practices of their day, although
not in ways that would violate truth.
Doubt the Bible if you will, others have done so in the past and it has
withstood their misgivings. I will continue to preach the Bible as true,
without the caveats, exceptions, etc., that drain away its power and
assurance. To my mind there is no way we can seriously tell people
"Believe this passage, but we can't be sure about that one" and expect
them to have a solid faith structure. How can they when the foundation
of that faith is built on questionable material from a book that may or
may not be true or accurate?
I believe in bringing to bear the best methodologies our minds can
devise to study the Scriptures. I'm no anti-intellectual. But in
holding "rigidly" to a Bible that is completely true, I'm no religious
simpleton either. Actually, I believe it's a false dichotomy to suggest
that one must choose between a sophisticated approach to Biblical study
that assumes error or a sentimentalistic view of the Bible that disallows
honest inquiries.
Scholarship that asks the hard questions yet assumes the enduring truth
and accuracy of Scripture seems to me to provide the best contribution
toward a theologically healthy people of God.
#4575 Internet: American Baptist Evangelicals Online (ABE Connect),
Jeffrey McCeary, jmcc@acsworld.net
*
"A consistent evangelical is open to accept any view of the critical
origin of the books of the Bible except one that would flatly contradict
the Bible's view of itself."
#4371 "Biblical Authority: Where Both Fundamentalists And Neo-evangelicals
Are Right, " by Kenneth S. Kantzer, Christianity Today,
October 7, 1983, page 10.
*
===========================================================================
Notes from Ray Stedman's sermon, "The Mysterious Word":
I. The Bible is unchanging.
A. Life is very unpredictable.
B. The Word of God doesn't change.
II. The Thessalonians received the Word of God.
A. The Word of God comes through ordinary people.
1) God rarely speaks directly to people.
2) They heard it so clearly it was like hearing it directly.
a) similar with Moses.
B. Danger - it can be faked.
1) Example: Joseph Smith.
2) How to tell the true Word.
a) God's actions in the world always agree with his words.
b) Predictions must come true.
III. Clear marks of the Word of God.
A. Bible is absolutely accurate.
B. The Bible changes people. 2:13b
1) Mutiny on the Bounty example.
C. Word often arouses violent opposition.
1) It ignores all human achievement.
a) Grace alone.
b) Jesus alone.
2) It exposes human pride.
3) It forgives blatant sinners.
IV. God will take severe measures to awaken people to reality.
A. Wrath at last - Paul foresaw what was coming in AD 70.
B. God sends disasters to wake us up.
1) AIDS epidemic.
Copyright © 2024 by Rev. David Holwick
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