Is the Bible Reliable? | Explore God Series | Menlo Church Sunday Service

In the exploration of the Bible's reliability, a central theme emerges: the Bible is not merely a book but a library, a collection of texts written by various authors over a millennium, inspired by God. This distinction is crucial as it underscores the complexity and depth of the biblical narrative, which is far more impressive than a singularly authored text. The Bible tells a true story about a real problem with a profound solution, encapsulating the human experience and God's redemptive plan.

The narrative of the Bible unfolds in four parts: creation, fall, redemption, and restoration. This pattern is not only evident at the macro level of the entire biblical story but also in individual stories within the Bible and in personal journeys with God. The Bible contains historical facts, and while science and archaeology may not have uncovered all evidence yet, what has been discovered often aligns with the biblical account. For instance, the Hittites, once thought to be a fictional group due to a lack of archaeological evidence, were later confirmed to have existed, validating the Bible's historical accuracy.

Prophecies within the Bible, such as those in Isaiah, written centuries before Jesus' earthly ministry, have been substantiated by discoveries like the Dead Sea Scrolls. These ancient manuscripts predate Jesus and align closely with the text we have today, suggesting a divine narrative at play. The central claim of Christianity, the Gospel, is that God created humans with dignity and worth, but humanity sinned against God. Jesus, both God and man, lived a perfect life, died, and was resurrected to offer eternal life to those who follow him. This exclusive claim is rooted in the Old Testament, delivered in the Gospels, and explained throughout the rest of the Bible.

The Bible is also a story of God's complex love, which includes wrath against enemies, power over obstacles, and divine knowledge to prepare and guide individuals through life. This love is not defined by contemporary standards but by God's superior understanding. The Bible presents a loving story, sometimes through descriptions of a broken people that God works with, rather than prescribing a sinless world.

Another myth addressed is the notion that the Bible is a scientific textbook to be taken exclusively literally. The Bible was never intended to serve as such and should be examined within its literary genres. The Bible contains various genres, including Jewish law, historic narrative, poetry, wisdom literature, prophecy, gospel accounts, and letters, each requiring a different approach to study. Understanding the Bible's genres helps avoid misinterpretation and allows for a richer comprehension of its message.

The Bible's reliability is further emphasized by the personal testimony of an individual with severe dyslexia who struggles with reading but finds clarity when reading the Bible. This experience aligns with the Bible's description of itself as living and active, discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. The Bible is presented as a source of truth and guidance, regardless of one's belief in its divine origin.

The Bible's transformative power is available to all, and individuals are encouraged to read it, such as starting with the Book of John, to discover its message for themselves. Resources like "How Not to Read the Bible" by Dan Kimball are recommended for skeptics or those returning to faith, providing a deeper understanding of the Bible's context and addressing common misconceptions.

In conclusion, the Bible is a reliable collection of historical documents that report supernatural events in fulfillment of prophecies, claiming divine origin. It is a story of redemption and love, offering a profound solution to the real problem of human sin. The Bible's message is timeless and continues to speak to the human condition, inviting readers to explore its depths and encounter God within its pages.

**Key Takeaways:**

- The Bible is a complex library of texts that tells a cohesive story of humanity's creation, fall, redemption, and restoration. This narrative framework is not only a macro-level pattern but also reflects individual experiences with God, demonstrating the Bible's relevance to personal spiritual journeys. [31:17]

- Archaeological discoveries, such as the evidence of the Hittites, support the Bible's historical claims. These findings, along with the fulfillment of prophecies like those in Isaiah, provide tangible evidence that the Bible's narratives are grounded in historical reality. [32:28]

- The Bible's depiction of God's love is multifaceted, encompassing wrath, power, and divine foresight. This conception challenges contemporary understandings of love, offering a more profound and robust definition that aligns with God's character and purposes. [39:55]

- Recognizing the different literary genres within the Bible is essential for proper interpretation. Each genre, from poetry to prophecy, contributes to the overarching story of God's redemptive work and requires a unique approach to study and understanding. [41:46]

- Personal engagement with the Bible can lead to transformative experiences, as evidenced by individuals who find clarity and meaning in its pages despite challenges such as dyslexia. The Bible's self-description as living and active is validated through these encounters, highlighting its enduring relevance and spiritual power. [50:23]

### Bible Reading

1. **2 Timothy 3:16-17 (ESV)**
> "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work."

2. **Isaiah 53:10-12 (ESV)**
> "Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors."

3. **Hebrews 4:12 (ESV)**
> "For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart."

### Observation Questions

1. According to 2 Timothy 3:16-17, what are the purposes of Scripture?
2. How does 2 Timothy 3:16-17 describe the origin of Scripture?
3. In Isaiah 53:10-12, what specific actions and outcomes are attributed to the "righteous one"?
4. What does Hebrews 4:12 say about the nature and effect of the word of God?

### Interpretation Questions

1. What does it mean for Scripture to be "breathed out by God" as stated in 2 Timothy 3:16-17, and how does this impact its authority?
2. How can the purposes of Scripture listed in 2 Timothy 3:16-17 (teaching, reproof, correction, training in righteousness) be seen in the broader narrative of the Bible?
3. How does the prophecy in Isaiah 53:10-12 align with the New Testament understanding of Jesus' mission and sacrifice?
4. In what ways does Hebrews 4:12 illustrate the transformative power of the Bible in a believer's life?

### Application Questions

1. Reflect on a time when Scripture provided you with teaching, reproof, correction, or training in righteousness. How did it equip you for a specific good work?
2. Considering the Bible as a library of texts inspired by God, how can you approach your Bible study to better understand its diverse genres and messages?
3. How can the fulfillment of prophecies, such as those in Isaiah 53, strengthen your faith in the reliability of the Bible?
4. Identify a specific area in your life where you need the living and active word of God to bring clarity or transformation. What steps will you take this week to engage with Scripture in that area?
5. Think of someone who is skeptical about the Bible's reliability. How can you use the historical and prophetic evidence discussed to have a meaningful conversation with them about faith?

Day 1: The Bible's Narrative Framework
The Bible's grand narrative of creation, fall, redemption, and restoration is not just a distant historical pattern but a reflection of our own spiritual journeys. This framework helps us understand our place in God's story and the relevance of Scripture to our daily lives. It invites us to see our personal experiences through the lens of God's overarching plan for humanity. [31:17]

Ephesians 1:9-10 - "He made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ."
Reflection: How does viewing your life as part of God's grand narrative change your perspective on current struggles or successes?

Day 2: Historical Foundations of Faith
The Bible's historical narratives are not myths but are grounded in archaeological and prophetic evidence. Discoveries like the existence of the Hittites and the fulfillment of prophecies in Isaiah lend credibility to the Bible's accounts, affirming the trustworthiness of Scripture. [32:28]

Jeremiah 30:3 - "The days are coming,' declares the Lord, 'when I will bring my people Israel and Judah back from captivity and restore them to the land I gave their ancestors to possess,' says the Lord."
Reflection: How does archaeological evidence of biblical events strengthen your confidence in the truth of Scripture?

Day 3: God's Multifaceted Love
The Bible reveals God's love as complex and multifaceted, encompassing wrath against sin, power over creation, and wisdom to guide us. This divine love surpasses our contemporary understanding and challenges us to embrace a more profound and robust definition of love. [39:55]

Hosea 11:1-2 - "When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. But the more they were called, the more they went away from me."
Reflection: How does the Bible's portrayal of God's complex love influence your relationship with Him and with others?

Day 4: Literary Diversity in Scripture
Understanding the Bible's diverse literary genres is crucial for proper interpretation. Each genre, from poetry to prophecy, offers unique insights into God's character and plan. Recognizing these differences enriches our study and application of Scripture. [41:46]

Psalm 78:2-4 - "I will open my mouth with a parable; I will utter hidden things, things from of old—things we have heard and known, things our ancestors have told us."
Reflection: What is one genre of biblical literature you have not explored deeply, and how can you approach it with fresh eyes to gain new insights?

Day 5: The Bible's Transformative Power
The Bible's self-description as living and active is confirmed through personal encounters with its text. Individuals find clarity and meaning within its pages, experiencing its transformative power regardless of personal challenges like dyslexia. [50:23]

Hebrews 4:12-13 - "For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart."
Reflection: In what ways has reading the Bible transformed your thoughts or actions, and how can you continue to allow it to shape your life?

**Questions**

What? Hey, good morning, Menlo Church! Welcome back. We are continuing a series called Explore God.

During the last few weeks, we have been in discussion groups and in services across all of our campuses, asking some big questions about faith, with the goal of hopefully discovering, or maybe for some of us, rediscovering a faith together.

I want to give a special welcome to our campuses around the Bay Area in San Mateo, Menlo Park, Mountain View, and Saratoga, and to those of you joining us online. We're actually joining more than 160 other Bay Area churches in this important conversation around faith together in this season.

Today, we're going to approach a pretty big topic that can be, honestly, kind of polarizing. We're going to be asking the question: Is the Bible reliable?

I could give you a quick yes or no, but that would make the sermon so short, right? What would you even do with your time?

But honestly, we probably have some instinctive answer to a question like this, and whether for you it's a quick yes or a quick no, it's likely that the answer is more nuanced than we want to give it credit for.

Together, we're going to examine that subject over the next few minutes.

Before we begin, I want to reiterate something that you have heard me say if you've been around Menlo for a little while. As important as this conversation is, as big of a deal as we believe the Bible is—and we do—the Bible is not the foundation of our faith.

Ready? Gasp! Go! Oh, that was a good one! You guys crushed it. Great job! Don’t tell the 8:30; you were way better than they were.

But like we talked about last week, the resurrection of Jesus actually happening 2,000 years ago—that's the foundation of our faith. The Bible is the authority for our faith, and that distinction is really important because we will not see eye to eye on every detail of biblical interpretation, and that's okay.

We can have unity in the gospel without uniformity in every scriptural interpretation. One of the ways that we describe that here at Menlo is something we call generous orthodoxy—that we can have unity in the essentials while we still continue to wrestle with the rest.

Now, before I go any further, I'm going to pray for us. If you've never been here before or never heard me speak, I pray kneeling. The reason that I do that is because this thing we're about to talk about, this thing we're about to read—the Bible—it's actually reading us too.

We need God's help to be able to make sense of it in our lives, to be able to understand where it might show up or how it might show areas that we need God's direct intervention with.

So, wherever you are in your faith discovery process, would you humble yourself wherever you are and pray with me?

God, we recognize that we simply cannot do this without you. Would you be with us over these next few minutes? Would you help us, God, to see you truly as the North Star of our lives?

No matter what the Bible has been or represented, God, maybe open our eyes to what it could mean for us in the days ahead. It's in Jesus' name, amen.

So, when did you realize that your parents weren't perfect and didn't know everything?

Now, for some of us, we chuckle, right? Because of the way that you grew up or how you think about your parents today. But it's easy as kids to have this idea of your parents, on some level, as this all-knowing superhero.

Over time, there are these little cracks in the wall; there are these little pockets of discovery about their humanity. Maybe it was a fight you weren't supposed to see. Maybe it was an injury that they struggled to recover from. Maybe it was a financial setback that changed how you lived.

Those things sort of shined a light that you didn't know before. Our childhood memories can go from magic to nostalgic pretty quickly. We know that our parents aren't perfect, but we can still think back to Christmas mornings, or we can think back to special vacations, or we can think back to long road trips that we have stories we still tell now, even years and years later, like it was yesterday.

It's fun, but at some point, you stopped depending on them for your daily solutions to problems the way that you had to out of necessity as a kid.

I remember seeing my mom with my aunt when I was little, and they interacted like friends in a way I'd never seen my mom do before. I remember traveling to Southern California, where my parents grew up, and my dad showing me some of the things he loved about Southern California that he could remember as a child. I'd never seen that side of him before.

I remember years ago for my dad and months ago for my mom going through their things after they died and reading the things that they had left that opened a portal into their thoughts and feelings I didn't know before. They were more nuanced than I had given them credit for.

We are great, by the way, at giving that credit to ourselves, aren't we? If you have kids, you probably remember the moment when you realized how unsure you were as a parent.

As a parent, you think to yourself, "I don't think they should have just let me take these kids home; I have no idea what I'm doing." And if you're honest, you realize that as unsure as you are in that moment, your parents had the same level of living unsure as parents of you. And that's a scary moment.

I think that sometimes that's how we see the Bible too. If we're honest, if we're honest, we maybe grew up in church, or maybe you didn't, but the Bible was just sitting on the shelf somewhere in your house, and it represented sort of this magic spell book.

It had power you didn't know; it contained information you weren't aware of. But over time, maybe in church, maybe Sunday school, maybe it was in college, your understanding of the Bible changed, and not all the time for the better.

You went from magic to nostalgic in your view of the Bible. It was a cute memory from your past, but it couldn't help set the trajectory for your future, right? After all, we've heard the objections: the Bible is full of contradictions, full of violence and genocide often condoned or commanded by God.

The descriptions of nature and history are at odds with science. It's written by ignorant and ancient people who have no relevance to us. Christians themselves can't even agree on what it's saying. Why should we waste our time?

Some of you are like, "Finally, you're saying what I think!" You know, the thing is, even Christians wrestle with this sort of cognitive dissonance, fearful: Can I really depend on and trust the Bible? But also remembering and clinging to verses like this one: "All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man or woman of God may be complete, equipped for every good work."

So, which one is it?

Well, I have good news for you. Just like we talked about last week, the Bible can handle your scrutiny. It has been holding up to the weight of that scrutiny for thousands of years. But we have to offer some clarifications for what it is and what it's trying to do.

Let me give you the bottom line of our time together. If you don't take anything else with you today, remember this idea: Here's what the Bible is: The Bible is a true story about a real problem with a profound solution.

It's a true story about a real problem with a profound solution. Even if you've never seen it that way, give me just a few minutes to try and show you by debunking a few of the myths that we can sometimes settle for in our understanding of the Bible.

The first myth about the Bible is that it is a book written by God. The truth is that the Bible is actually a library written by dozens of people over more than a thousand years, inspired by God.

Now, that may feel like a distinction without a difference, except if no one's ever told you that before, and then you hear that, it can feel like they deceived you. It can feel like it was kept from you.

The thing is, the Bible as a library that communicates a central story is actually way more impressive than the way that sometimes we think about or settle for understanding the Bible.

Like we talked about this summer, sometimes our faith starts very simple out of necessity, and it grows over time. I have good news for you: as your faith matures, your understanding of the Bible can handle it. God's word can take it.

The central story of the Bible can be broken down into these parts: creation, fall, redemption, and restoration. If you've never heard that before, at the macro level of the entire story of the Bible and all of human history, that's the pattern.

If you look at individual stories within the Bible, and honestly, even in your journey with God, that is the same pattern that God is regularly showing to you and to me—that there's this progression God wants to do in our lives and in the world.

There are definitely parts of the Bible that are designed to be understood as historic facts, even if science or archaeology has not caught up yet.

Here's the thing: with less than 5% of discoverable archaeological evidence found in the world, we as human beings just simply haven't found everything yet. So, with 5% of the information available saying we haven't found something, well, there's 95% still available to be found. That doesn't say a whole lot yet.

But I can tell you there are examples that do show this over time—that there are things that have been dismissed for a long time as completely unbelievable in the Bible that turned out to be very believable.

In Joshua 1:4, we see a group of people named the Hittites who are referenced, and for centuries, scholars used this to discredit the Bible. They had found no archaeological evidence to support the Hittites. Every time the Bible conversation came up, "Well, what about the Hittites?"

Well, the thing is, if you kind of fast forward to 1834, French scholar Charles Texier found the first Hittite ruins in the exact region that the Bible described they would be.

Not everything's been discovered yet, and so that's going to be true throughout the Bible. But this is a believable book. This is a book that the things it describes we have consistently found evidence that they are in the direction of reality.

Another example comes from a passage that's considered a Messianic prophecy or a promise about the savior of the world in the book of Isaiah, written more than 700 years before Jesus' earthly ministry, with passages like this:

"Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief. When his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days. The will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul, he shall see and be satisfied. By his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many and makes intercession for the transgressors."

That feels like a pretty specific example of what Jesus would do, right? As a matter of fact, it was so specific that because the most recent copies we had for a very long time were dated after Jesus' earthly ministry, every scholar would just say, "Well, obviously that was written after Jesus was on Earth. There's no way that that could have been written before."

And because the documents that we had couldn't prove it, it was like, "Well, that's a hard conversation."

Well, fast forward to the 1940s and the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and everything changed. With more than 3,000 pieces of manuscript evidence and a full Isaiah scroll, they went to this scroll that was dated more than a thousand years older than anything we had and hundreds of years before Jesus' earthly ministry, and it was shockingly accurate to what we had today.

That actually God had this big story that he was even telling back then. Our archaeology had caught up again. This big story that God uses an entire library of books to communicate has unity across what is shared with every reader throughout human history.

I shared this last week, but it bears repeating that the central claim of Christianity is what's called the gospel—that God made you in his image with infinite dignity, value, and worth, and that humanity, you and me, sinned against God and continue to do it by living in rebellion against his ways.

So God sent Jesus, his son, to Earth, fully God, fully man, to live a perfect life in your and my place, to die for us, and to come back from the grave so that now you and me, we can turn from our way, our patterns of rebellion against God, choose to follow him, and experience life with him forever.

And that forever starts now, and it's the only way to experience that eternal relationship. That exclusive claim is called the gospel, and that exclusive claim was predicted in the Old Testament, delivered in the gospels, and explained throughout the rest of the pages of scripture that you and I might model it in our lives.

That story told first in the creation narrative, then throughout God's selection of a specific people, Israel, then offered to all in the person and work of Jesus, is still the story of the Bible today.

The Bible is a true story about a real problem with a profound solution.

The second myth about the Bible is that God is love, and therefore everything in the Bible confirms that character. The truth is that God is love, but he defines that concept as the supreme being, not us.

Now, no matter how limited your news consumption is, you have heard about the atrocities taking place in the Middle East over the last week or so. It's easy to create a moral equivalency and to take a side based on our heritage or our political leanings.

But as Christians, we are people of peace, rooting for an end, praying for an end to the bloodshed taking place even right now.

And while Israel today looks quite different than the picture of Israel in the first five books of the Bible, we pray especially for this place because I believe that God has a specific plan for this group of people.

As we see how God will ultimately deliver the world and restore it, the Middle East, the areas that we're talking about, will be the epicenter of that future reality.

I know that this plan that God still has for this specific group of people can contradict the view that we think, "Well, if God is love, he wouldn't do it this way in this 21st-century kind of love."

But our kind of love is confusing a little bit, right? We say things like, "I love my spouse," and "I love my kids," and "I love this restaurant." We say, "I love this sports team."

To be fair, some of you, when you say you love a specific sports team, it's on par with how much you love your spouse, but that's a different sermon.

We use one word to describe many things, but that's not actually what the word love means when we see it written in the pages of scripture. It's much deeper than that.

Believe me, by the way, you want God to be the one who defines love. Our definition of love is fickle and frail, but God's faithful definition of love extends us even when we aren't faithful back.

God's love is still extending towards us. We may have picked a different Old Testament nation to bless or to have a plan for than Israel. We may have a different way to save humanity than sending Jesus.

But trust me, God's plan is better. God's plan is trustworthy. God's plan is worth setting your life on.

If God was simply a weak but welcoming divine figure, as we would describe love in the 21st century, when something was wrong in your life, he would be powerless to do anything about it.

We want the version of love that we hear in the Taken movies, when Liam Neeson, out of love for his daughter, wages a one-man war to get her back from the enemy. That's the kind of love we want.

We want God picking up the phone to the kidnappers and saying, "I have a very special set of skills." That's the kind of love we want.

We want a God whose love is so powerful that it includes wrath on the enemy for our protection, power over the obstacle for our deliverance, and divine knowledge to see what's coming in your life and to prepare you and me for it, that we would walk through it faithfully with him.

That's the kind of complex, real love that God extends to you and me.

See, the pattern in our life meets the problem that comes when we treat God like little kids treat parents.

See, when little kids come up to parents and there's something that we really want and our parents are holding it back from us for our good, if we're the kids in the scenario, we say this with puppy dog eyes: "I thought you loved me."

And that's what we say to God, isn't it? But the kind of love that God has for us is so much better than that.

The late, great Tim Keller challenges our view of the scriptures this way: He said contemporary people tend to examine the Bible looking for things they can't accept, but Christians should reverse that, allowing the Bible to examine us, looking for things God can't accept.

God's love, his definition, it's different than ours, and his is better. The Bible shows us things that don't all seem loving, but they are all part of a loving story.

And because it is a library, they are often descriptive of a broken people that God is working in spite of, rather than a prescriptive pattern picturing a world without sin that simply doesn't exist.

The third and final myth that we're going to take a look at is that the Bible is a scientific textbook that should be taken exclusively literally.

The truth is that the Bible never intended to be a scientific textbook, and we should examine it within the literary genres that we are reading.

This library that we have, either on our shelves or maybe on our phones, contains this incredible story of God redeeming sinful humanity through a sinless savior, and it happens through the story of God using broken people to get it done.

With that in mind, there are a bunch of different genres in the Bible. One of the reasons that we get in trouble is because we don't think about it that way.

We read all of the Bible as though it's exactly the same, trying to communicate with us in exactly the same way.

And so maybe you've never heard it this way, but here are the parts of your Bible, and each one brings a different way of reading.

There's the Jewish law, there's historic narrative, there's poetry, wisdom literature, prophecy, the gospel accounts of Jesus' life and ministry, or letters, what oftentimes get called epistles.

Studying each one of these takes a different approach. They're all telling the same story, but one of the reasons we get in trouble is because we expect them to do it the same way.

I enjoy watching movies with my kids, but I'm not going to try and watch the new PAW Patrol movie with the same storytelling filter as Braveheart or Top Gun, right?

I saw the new PAW Patrol with our young kids. Actually, there is no storytelling filter; you just survive it if you have to. Just letting you know, they're different.

Even when we're looking at the same thing, we can have different perspectives, but we should do the work to unearth why we shouldn't just make assumptions.

As a matter of fact, there's a friend of mine who uses a structure to explain this that I'm going to use for you.

You're wondering why is this dry erase board up here? No reason, actually; I just wanted you to wonder this entire time. That's not true.

He uses a description or a framework of how to describe this that I think is really helpful. Some of us grew up in what sometimes gets called a fundamentalist environment, and in this environment, you know the questions that you're allowed to ask; you know the things you're not allowed to ask.

Others of us grew up in more of a progressive environment, and you got to ask different questions. In this one, there were different priorities.

And before you think, "Oh, he's talking about politics," don't twist this up with politics. I'm talking about the way we think about and understand the nature of the Bible.

On the fundamentalist side, here's the thing: we have questions and ideas that we're allowed to ask, and the primary filter that we're thinking about this through is the literal interpretation of the Bible.

Some of you are like, "Yeah, I'm glad that that's up there; that's the way I think about the Bible."

If you grew up in a more progressive environment around the Bible, for you, maybe you think about it as literary. You are immediately trying to think about how do I take this thing that's hard to understand, hard to explain, and process it through what I'm reading about.

They sometimes get pitted against one another, but they're actually not at odds. When we understand the Bible as a library, we can understand that this is points along a spectrum.

Our goal is to avoid the extremes on either side of this. On this side, we are concerned primarily with accuracy. We want to be right, and we are concerned with the metaphysical: What does this actually mean? How do I describe the reality as I see it?

And yeah, my handwriting is incredible.

On the literary side, we are more concerned with artistry, and we want to know how is God, through this beautiful picture of how he's working the world, creating art and the metaphorical.

And so the metaphorical sometimes gets pitted against literal, but even the most conservative person theologically knows there are parts of the Bible that are literal and parts of the Bible that are metaphorical.

When Jesus says, "I am the door," he wasn't then getting hinges installed onto the side of his body; it was a metaphor.

And then when Jesus goes to Thomas after he's come back from the dead and he says, "Thomas, touch the wounds in my hands," that wasn't a metaphor; that was something that literally happened.

It's understanding that the text itself helps shape our understanding in the individual components of how we read and understand it.

Now, here's the thing: on this side, people will absolutely, in the extremes, sit under the authority of the Bible, but sometimes what happens is we trade ignorance.

We're just not going to ask that question; we're not going to read the next book; we're just going to stop discovering it for a false sense of certainty.

And so now I don't have to look any harder; I don't have to keep digging or growing; I'm good; my understanding is set on the extreme.

On this side, we trade arrogance of, "I know how this works; I don't really have to have a whole lot of faith. If I don't believe it, I don't have to," and we trade that for autonomy.

And so God doesn't get to call the shots in my life; I do. If I don't like the way that he is describing something that I should live a certain way, I'm just going to ignore it entirely.

Now, here's the thing: we all live along this spectrum somewhere. There are very few of us that live in the extremes that I just highlighted.

And so even if you think you know somebody in your life that you are like the closest friend of and you think we're on the same page, we think exactly the same way on this stuff, you don't.

As a matter of fact, the challenges of life and obstacles do this crazy thing along the way where at some points in your life, you're going to find yourself on different points of this map.

And based on what you're studying, you're going to find yourself on different points in this map, and that's a part of life.

When you face challenges and obstacles, when you face adversity in your life, you may find yourself at a different spot.

Jesus starts everybody down here with this call to come and see: come and see that the Lord is good; come and see that there is hope, that that hope is eternal, that it's bigger than your circumstances.

But if you walk with Jesus long enough, you will discover that "come and see," as you faithfully follow him, becomes "come and die."

For all of us, that what it means is self-denial, that what it means is that what I want, I surrender for what I really need and the bigger plan that God is going to do in my life.

I hope that as you see this, what you don't see is, "Well, if you think this way or you think this way, you can't be a part of Menlo."

I'll tell you what: at Menlo, we have people all over the map, and that's okay. I hope that we can always be a place where no matter where you are or what you believe, you can find belonging in here, even with a different set of beliefs, even on your way to discovering and accepting Jesus for yourself, even if you don't see the Bible the same way.

But can I offer a resource for you, especially if you're skeptical about the Bible? If you find yourself kind of writing it off, there's a book called *How Not to Read the Bible* by Dan Kimble, and it addresses a lot of the big issues I talked about early on in our time together in more detail than I can give in 30 minutes.

It's well worth your time. If you're somebody that's skeptical of faith or the Bible, it could be a great resource for you. If you're somebody maybe thinking about coming back to faith, I had a conversation with somebody like that earlier today; it could be great for you.

And I'm so encouraged and impressed, including in conversations this morning, about some of you who are faithful followers of Jesus, and you're consuming these resources so that you are better equipped to have conversations with people in your life who are close to you but far from faith.

That is such a gift that they don't even know you're preparing to give them.

See, in a conversation like this about the Bible, I'm reminded of the 19th-century pastor and scholar Charles Spurgeon. He has a famous quote about the Bible: "Scripture is like a lion. Who ever heard of defending a lion? Just turn it loose; it will defend itself."

I hope you know this about Menlo, but nobody's going to try and twist your arm. You can believe whatever you want. My goal is to help you understand that this is a believable reality, that this is rooted in truth.

And the greatest thing that some of you can do to experience the power of the scriptures is to just open it and read it. Open to the Book of John this week and read the life and ministry of Jesus, and maybe discover a side or a picture that you never thought possible and meet God in the pages that he has preserved for thousands of years for you.

For others of you, it may mean that you buy a copy of a book called *How to Read the Bible for All It's Worth* and discover that some of those areas that you've been studying, assuming things about how to study them, is not maybe the most helpful way to study some of those passages, and it could unlock an experience of studying God's word that you didn't even know was possible.

Now, you may not know this about me, but I have severe dyslexia, a learning disability, and a reading disability. It's been a struggle for me my whole life.

But a unique gift that God has given me is that none of that affects me when I read the Bible, and it's this really fun reminder for me.

I know that's not true for everybody; maybe reading the Bible is really hard for you. But for me, it reminds me how the Bible describes itself: "For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart."

No matter what you believe about it, as you read the Bible, it reads you, and God meets you in it.

If you don't have a Bible, your campus pastor has one that they would love to give you today as our gift to just let you try this.

It's not a magic spell book, but it can be more than nostalgic, and God will meet you and use it in unique and special ways in your life.

Throughout this series, I've tried to be very honest with you about the fact that I can't convince you of any of this. Ultimately, this is a decision that you will make, and I'm simply trying to show you a reasonable faith that is worth considering.

The rest is up to you and God, but I believe the Bible is God's word, and I believe that because of some very specific reasons.

I've heard it framed this way: The Bible is a reliable collection of historical documents written down by eyewitnesses during the lifetime of other eyewitnesses that report supernatural events that took place in specific fulfillment of prophecies that claim their writings are divine rather than human in origin.

I believe that to be true, and I think even the claim of it is worth considering for you.

Here's the thing: there's an original movie, kind of a throwback, called *The Matrix*. In *The Matrix*, Morpheus, who's a believer that there is a world that is more real than the one that we can see and lives as though that's the case, is challenged by another character.

That character says to Morpheus, "Morpheus, not everyone believes like you do." And Morpheus just says, "My beliefs don't require them to."

The good news is that the Bible is God's word, whether you believe it is or not. It can do the work that it claims to do, whether you believe it can or not.

That God is real and loves you, whether you believe he is or not. God is pursuing you, even if you don't believe he is. God has a plan for your life, whether you believe he does or not.

So, no matter what skepticism you're bringing to it, no matter what hurt or pain from your past or your present is holding you back, God is still pursuing you with this never-stopping and never-giving-up love that he was willing to give up his own son to restore relationship with you.

So this week, beyond your skepticism, beyond your cynicism, beyond turning off to an extreme, what if together we sought God through his word?

What if together we weren't just the kind of place that talked about this, but we modeled it?

Can I pray for you?

God, I pray for moments like this with people in rooms across the Bay Area, people in front of screens, that God, you would wake us up to the fact that there is something so much more powerful available to us than simply settling for a few minutes in a room or a few minutes talking about this.

This isn't just about passages we see on a screen, God; it's about opening up your book, being in the pages day by day, and meeting you there.

God, thank you for preserving your words for us for 2,000 years as we read the New Testament, thousands of years as we read the Hebrew scriptures. Would you help bring it to life that our life might be more characterized by your ways?

God, we're so thankful, and for those that are thinking about maybe faith discovery and this has been a barrier, I pray that today gave them a path of hope, a path of discovery, a path of permission to see that your word is reliable and they can find you in it.

It's in Jesus' name, amen.

Let's all stand up.

1) "The Bible is a true story about a real problem with a profound solution. It's a true story about a real problem with a profound solution." [30:08]

2) "The Bible as a library that communicates a central story is actually way more impressive than the way that a singularly authored text could be." [30:42]

3) "The central story of the Bible can be broken down into these parts: creation, fall, Redemption, and restoration... that's the pattern God is regularly showing to you and to me." [31:17]

4) "God's faithful definition of love extends to us even when we aren't faithful back... God's plan is better, trustworthy, and worth setting your life on." [38:39]

5) "The Bible shows us things that don't all seem loving but they are all part of a loving story... descriptive of a broken people that God is working in spite of." [40:33]

6) "The Bible never intended to be a scientific textbook and we should examine it within the literary genres that we are reading." [41:12]

7) "The Bible is a reliable collection of historical documents written down by eyewitnesses during the lifetime of other eyewitnesses that report supernatural events." [51:33]

8) "The Bible describes itself as living and active, discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. No matter what you believe about it, as you read the Bible, it reads you." [50:23]

9) "God is pursuing you with this never stopping and never giving up love that he was willing to give up his own son to restore relationship with you." [52:48]