The Bible is not just a collection of ancient texts; it's a divine communication that offers everything we need for a meaningful relationship with God. In this episode, we dive into the intriguing question of whether the Bible is human or divine, exploring three compelling reasons that affirm its divine authorship. First, we’ll look at how the Bible’s content is rooted in true history, providing a solid foundation for understanding its significance. Next, we’ll discuss the unique nature of biblical prophecy, revealing how predictions made centuries ago have come to pass, indicating an author who exists outside of time. Finally, we’ll highlight the consistent voice throughout the Bible that resonates with divine truth, distinguishing it from other religious writings. Join me as we unpack these ideas and discover why understanding the Bible's divine nature matters for our faith and daily lives.

Takeaways:

• Understanding the Bible as the Word of God involves recognizing its historical context and authorship.
• The unique nature of biblical prophecy supports the belief that God is its ultimate author.
• The concept of progressive revelation shows how the Bible's teachings are consistent throughout its books.
• Individual choices matter in our journey of faith, even with God's sovereignty over history.
• Exploring the Bible can lead us to a deeper relationship with God and understanding of His will.
• Resources are available to help new readers engage with the Bible effectively and meaningfully.

Links referenced in this episode:

• bible805.com

Welcome to the Bible 805 podcast. God wants us to know him and.

The Bible is one of the ways he's communicated everything we need for our.

Salvation and a closer, more personal walk with him now and forever. In this podcast, which comes out every.

Wednesday morning with supporting materials published by.

Friday each week on www.bible805.com I take sometimes difficult sounding Bible topics and them easy to understand and apply. At least that's what my students tell me. See for yourself as we get started on our topic today, which is the Bible. Human or Divine?

Three Reasons We Know God really Is.

The Author of the Bible There are two ways to view the Bible. The first one is that the Bible, though it might contain useful and inspiring content, is primarily the work of human authors.

Second, that the Bible is the Word of God. And here is a summary that says it quite well.

We believe the Bible is not merely contains the unique and authoritative Word of God which teaches all that is necessary for faith and life.

The prominence of God's Word over our lives shapes our priorities and the unrivaled authority of the Bible directs our actions to be in concert with with Christ's very best for our lives.

This is from ecopress.org this statement presupposes that God is the ultimate author of the Bible, that He spoke through human offers and though they expressed it in their own way, that the content is ultimately God's. That's the presupposition from which I do all my teaching and from which I suggest applications.

But just because I believe it, why should you believe it? That's what I'm going to share with you today. We're going to look at three areas.

First, we'll establish that the Bible's content is anchored in true history. Second, with true history as our foundation, we'll then look at how only an entity outside of the human timeline could be the author of the Bible.

This reality of God outside the human timeline is illustrated in what we call prophecy, which isn't simply about end times. Scary stuff. Prophecy is simply a prediction about something that is to come.

And we'll examine what makes biblical prophecy unique and what predictive prophecy is all about, and if our lives are predetermined or not because of it. Third, and finally, we'll talk about the one voice we hear throughout the Bible.

Now, admittedly this is a much more subjective topic, but one very meaningful to me and I trust it will be to you also. Now about the Bible and true history.

This is really exciting.

There are six identifiable periods of time during this span. Now, the following slide for those of you watching the video, illustrates them.

I'm going to describe them to you for the podcast, but please do go to the Bible805 website for this lesson because you'll be able to download a very helpful infographic on this. Now, during each period of time, there are clearly identified human authors that wrote during those times.

Secular history, Jewish history, Christian history, all verify that they wrote at those times about their current situation and about various events that were taking place at that time. But they also wrote about future events.

Now, this dating of events and people who wrote during this time, again it's confirmed by Christian, Jewish and secular history. There may be minor dating controversies, but the overall times and events are clear. I mean, it's obvious for example, that.

Jesus was born after 1 AD.

He wasn't born hundreds of years previously.

The exile of the Jews took place in 586 BC.

There's absolutely no historical doubt about that. Now there may be again a few minor controversies, but we know and there is a consensus on when these different things happen.

You don't have to believe in any divine authorship or or intervention to accept this history.

The patriarchs at that time included Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph. Joseph goes down to Egypt during that time. Now Job, we assume wrote during that time. I have a whole series of lessons on that and in world history.

And this is when Moses leads the people out of Egypt. The Exodus takes place and Israel settles in Canaan.

Now, the ones who wrote during this time, obviously Moses is the primary writer, Joshua and Samuel, and the New Kingdom was in Egypt. And the Trojan War and the Bronze Age collapses during this time in world history.

The various kings and the kingdom of Israel as a separate political entity. Saul, David and Solomon are the primary figures.

And David, Solomon, and then asap, also the psalm writer are some of the writers but during this time too, we date Jonah, Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, Micah, Nahum, Zephaniah, Habakkuk and Jeremiah.

From the internal evidence of their writing, what they talk about, all of the things that they mention, the kings that existed during their time, there is historical consensus that these individuals wrote during this time. Rome was founded then, and the first Olympics also took place in world history at this time.

Then after the kingdom we have the exile and return, which is the next really big event in the history of Israel. And this goes from 586 to 330 BC. The Jews returned to Israel after their 70 year exile in Babylon. The temples rebuilt.

Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel are the primary writers at this time. But also Haggai, Zechari, Malachi and Ezra and Nehemiah are also writing at this time.

Babylon and then Persia dominate Cyrus the Great and classical Greece arises at this time. And Confucius and Buddha also live during this time in world history.

Then the time in between the two Testaments, historically there's the Maccabean Revolt, but no biblical books that are in the Protestant canon are written during this time. During this time though, Alexander the Great rises to power the Hellenistic kingdoms and the rise of the Roman Republic takes place.

And then we get to the time of the New Testament, the life of Jesus, the early church, Paul's missionary journeys, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, Paul, James, Peter and Jude all are writing at this time. And of course the biggest thing going on at this time, well, actually two things.

The Roman Empire is over the entire world and Jerusalem is destroyed in 70 AD. So these are the major periods of world history that take place when the Bible was written. So do download this infographic.

Now here's where it gets interesting.

If there's a passage in the Bible that predicts a specific event, say it's written by one of the prophets, for example, Isaiah, way back when he wrote, and we know he lived at that time, all the evidence points to him living at that time. And then later that event takes place in verifiable history. That provides evidence to me anyway, that the Bible is the word of God.

This isn't a minor feature of the.

Bible, but it's a major thread throughout the entire Bible. There are, and depending upon whether you.

Count direct or indirect ones, up to.

300 Prophecies like this about Jesus alone. Now we know again that all the stuff the prophets wrote about him took place hundreds of years before he was born.

I mean, there's no debate about that.

And then because they all lived and prophesied and wrote back during Old Testament times and then he lived between a couple thousand to hundreds of years after they wrote. But they have very specific prophecies about him. Now not only are there prophecies about.

Jesus alone, there are some additional ones from now. One prophetic website has some really interesting ones they talk about first of all.

The non messianic national prophecies. They say that there's maybe 20, 25 of them.

I'll just highlight a few for you.

Talk about Israel's exile to Babylon. Isaiah and Jeremiah both predicted this between 100 and just a few years before. But exactly what was going to happen.

Babylon's fall is predicted in Isaiah and this was before Babylon even was a world power. But Isaiah predicted it. Cyrus, he named him by name 150.

Years before his birth.

The fall of Tyre is predicted in Ezekiel 26. The return from the exile is predicted long before it happened.

Now there are specific events predicted and fulfilled in prophecy like this throughout the entire Old Testament. But then there's also some really interesting prophecies about individuals.

There's about 10 to 15 of them that get very specific.

Josiah is named 300 years before his.

Birth in 1st Kings 13:2 and talks about exactly what he's going to do.

Hezekiah's healing and the sign of it is talked about in Isaiah 38, Nebuchadnezzar's rise in Jeremiah 25, Zedekiah's fate in Jeremiah 34 and Ezekiel 12.

These are named individuals that the Bible.

Says will have a specific outcome and and then later that happened. Now all of these examples come from a website entitled about Bibleprophecy.com but there are similar lists. This isn't the only website.

This isn't any sort of news flash or anything out of the ordinary.

It's simply another listing of content that.

Was said at a certain time and then happened at a later time, exactly as it was foretold. And we won't get off on this more.

There are many, many studies, books and all kinds of things about biblical prophecy, but it is a feature of the Bible.

Now how did this happen?

Now one way for this to have.

Taken place is to show that the.

Author of these prophecies exists outside of.

Time and communicated to us what would.

Happen in the future. We look at it as prophecy, but.

For the one communicating to us outside of time, it isn't extraordinary at all,.

But simply communication from their viewpoint.

Now here's an analogy that might help.

Now imagine you're at a parade. You're watching with a friend. But then your friend leaves you and a few minutes later you get a text where your friend announces that she.

Was able to get into the announcer's.

Booth above the crowd because she has a friend there.

She can see the whole parade beginning.

To end from up there.

Now, you don't believe your friend was able to do this, and you respond by saying something like, okay, prove it now.

Because your friend can see what is coming in the parade and you can't, she tells you what will happen in the future of the parade.

A huge float with Star Trek characters will come by, and since nothing like this has been in the parade so far, you respond with, I'll believe it when I see it. In a few minutes, the float with.

Star Trek characters comes by and you realize your friend really is up in the announcer's booth.

Now, if you, from above the level of the parade, allowed your friend to make a prophecy about what would happen.

Now imagine that the parade is the total history of our universe and humanity.

And instead of an announcer's booth, God.

Is outside of time, seeing, knowing the.

Beginning from the end.

And he wants us to believe that we have a right to expect proof of that, just as we would from our friend at a parade. That's why he gives us prophecy to clearly tell us what is going to happen.

Now, following is an infographic that illustrates it, and again, this will be in your handouts.

But this infographic shows how instead of.

The announcer's booth, we have God above all of what happened in eternity, past.

Creation, Old Testament history, New Testament, our present, the rest of human history, and.

The glorious ages to come.

Now, how does this work out in the Bible? In the Bible, God tells us what is coming hundreds, if not thousands of years before the events happen. These events are written down ahead of.

Time by his prophets and the biblical writers. Which again is why it's so important to date when the biblical documents are written.

Because you won't see it unless you.

Understand that when events later happen exactly.

As predicted, we should recognize that the.

God outside of time knew what would.

Happen and had a hand in bringing it about. For example, the most numerous predictions in the Bible again are the many prophecies about Jesus. We may not know exactly when certain.

Things were written, but we know. We certainly know that the Old Testament was written long before Jesus lived. From his family lineage to the place.

Of his birth, his life work, and the details of his death and resurrection, it was all written about, prophesied about, literally from the beginning of humanity. In addition, the prophecies about Jesus, they're about so much more than the details of where he would be born and all that sort of thing.

Now think about this. This is important with how people view him. Most people look at Jesus as a good man, an aspiring preacher who unfortunately,.

By chance, lived when Rome was in charge of the world. In that world, Jesus had no idea how radical his teachings were or that.

He was going to be crucified by the Romans. His death is seen by many as.

Tragic and one that took him by.

Surprise as much as it did his followers. Understanding the prophecies about Jesus and that the God who gave them knew exactly what was going to happen.

We believe, in contrast, that his death was not an accident, but an event foretold from the earliest days of human life and throughout the Old Testament. And we see this not only because of the fulfillment of basic prophecies about his life, but also because of what is known as progressive revelation.

In addition to specific events, God shares with us the planning, directing, revealing of the whole story, the redemption of the world in the Bible. He does this from the start of the Bible by giving us the seeds of all the key doctrines of the Bible. Sin, redemption, grace.

When Abel made his offering pleasing to God, it was an animal sacrifice. Job offered animal sacrifices, so did Abraham, all prior to the Levitical laws.

Sacrifices were clarified after the Exodus and ultimately with Jesus when John saw him and said, behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. All of the previous teaching about sacrifices were fulfilled with Jesus death on the cross.

The later books of the Bible expand and clarify but never change the teaching of a needed sacrifice for sin. And again, it progresses until I just.

Want to really emphasize this.

Jesus as a final sacrifice. The plot line moved through the Old Testament and that's why now I mentioned it briefly, but I want you to just.

I want to repeat it because it's so important. Think about this.

All of the people in John the Baptist's audience had heard about the sacrifices, the meaning of the sacrifices, that God demanded a sacrifice for sin. They had experienced thousands of lambs being sacrificed, all of these sorts of things.

Imagine what it meant to an audience steeped in the Old Testament when John the Baptist saw Jesus and announced, behold the Lamb of God. That takes away the sin of the world, his audience all knew what John was referring to.

Finally, all the previous teaching about sacrifices were fulfilled with Jesus death on the cross.

The later New Testament writers expand on and will clarify the meaning of his death until in the final book of Revelation, John has a vision of Jesus as both lion and lamb.

The plot line of a needed sacrifice for the sin of an innocent winds through the entire Bible through the centuries and the voices of many, but its truth is progressively revealed by the one author, God behind it all.

Jesus view of the fulfillment of prophecy and progressive revelation is stated when he talks about things like this, where he constantly affirmed his belief in the reliability of the Old Testament scriptures and the progressive revelation of God when he answered critics and where he said search the scriptures for in them you think you have eternal life and they are they which testify of me. And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the scriptures concerning himself.

Not only Jesus but other New Testament authors refer to and confirm progressive revelation as the Old Testament is quoted over 200 times in the New Testament, always as a further revelation, not a contradiction or a declaration that previous teachings were wrong or false.

Paul does this extensively in Hebrews, although we aren't certain of the author, there we see a clear explanation of what was first taught in the Old Testament, now made real in the life of Jesus. Now a conclusion about progressive revelation or the prophecy. This is a type of prophecy that it illustrates.

From it one can conclude that our Bible has one author, God, who worked through human authors. But it was God who kept in mind the whole plot of the salvation story because he wrote it outside of time.

God carefully planned and though it took many centuries to tell it all, the basic plot lines, the key themes do not change but expand and are fulfilled. This consistency of progressive revelation is a unique characteristic of the Christian Bible. Other religions totally change their doctrines, ignore.

Blatant contradictions, define progressive revelation as the option to change their mind about important topics or upfront, admit that they can change it however and whenever they want.

All of these things that are in other religions, please see the teaching about.

Them and about other religions on the Bible805.com website. But this whole idea brings up a troubling personal question.

And that is, does progressive revelation mean everything we do is fatalistically determined? We can't help but ask the question what about me? Is my future out of my control? Do my decisions mean nothing?

And if they don't, why bother with anything? God's sovereign will over time and history versus human choice Is the core question here, an illustration that helped me understand it.

I heard from Rick Warren many years.

Ago, and it goes something like this.

Human history. The big picture is like an ocean liner. The direction is certain, the route is.

Set, the captain is in charge, it's.

His ship, his word is law. And the passengers have a copy of his law, his guidelines, his manual, the Bible, obviously, for them to get the most out of the journey.

But within the ship, the passengers are given quite a bit of freedom. Individual actions do not affect the final destination that's determined by the captain.

However, individual decisions greatly affect the traveler's time on the ship. There's a crew with assigned tasks, and if they don't do them, things don't go well.

Also, each passenger is responsible for his or her actions, his or her attitude, and based on them, what they get or don't get out of the trip. There's individual freedom.

Whether they're a helpful passenger on the journey, a peacemaker and joy producer, or a dead weight, a bore, a constant complainer, or someone who gets thrown in the brig. They can't change the destination of the ship, but their actions greatly affect their experience of the journey.

Remember, for our analogy, all the passengers have access to a copy of the instruction manual for how to live the best way possible to get along with others, for their joy and peace on the journey. No one forces them to read it, but they're responsible if they don't.

The passengers do well to keep in mind that this is not a meandering pleasure cruise that never ends, but one with a definite destination and harbor that will be reached. Because Christianity has a linear view of time and history, many religions believe in a cyclical view of time.

Eastern religions, reincarnation going round and round. Samsara, the infinitely repeated cycles of birth, misery and death, all caused by karma. Christianity is quite different.

It teaches a personal Creator started it all. Not in personal matter, not karma. Genesis teaches creation ex nihilo, out of nothing. And with that our universe began.

I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God. Who is, who was, who is to come? The Almighty.

In addition to a clear beginning, Revelation 21 and many other places teaches us that a time will come when there will be an end to our present universe and a new heaven and a new earth. Remember the earlier illustration? God created time, rules over all that happens and will bring it to an end when he sees fit. Important conclusions.

Because a Christian faith presents time as linear, there is no reincarnation, no do overs. Though God is clearly in control of the ship of human history.

And he wrote the guidebook, our Bible, for how to live best, as he has shown us through prophecy, history, progressive revelation.

He won't force us to read it, but we do well to remember that at the end of the journey, each passenger will need to give an account to the captain first of all, over which ultimate decision each has chosen, of darkness or light.

And for those who have chosen to trust the captain on their journey, for their time on the ship and how they use the resources they were given, no matter where we found ourselves in first class or working in the galley, I've come to think of this life as our first assignment for the captain. We're all assigned a place, a work to do, and Scripture is very clear that what we do in this life matters.

For what assignments will be given in the ages to come, C.S. Lewis puts the reality of our meeting with the captain in a much better way now. Here he switches to the metaphor of a play, but it's the same idea.

Here's what he says in the World's Last Night precisely when we cannot predict the moment, we must be ready at all moments. The curtain may be rung down at any moment. We do not know the play.

The author knows, and we're led to expect the author will have something to say to each of us on the part that each of us has played. The playing at will is what matters infinitely. Bible 805 is committed to helping you play your part in Infinitely well.

I hope from this lesson you've become convinced that God, not humans, is the author of the Bible and that the Bible is truly a book which teaches all that is necessary for faith and life, for living and dying and serving God forever. And that should be an essential priority for you to know it well and to live it obediently.

All the resources of Bible805.com are available freely to help you do that. And all the resources of the Bible805academy.com are available for you to freely download, modify, use without attribution to teach the lesson.

This PowerPoint, the notes discussion guide, all of those things are all there for you. One more thing. The voice of one author in the entire book. This final point is subjective, but I think it's really important.

Jesus said his sheep recognize his voice. When we read the canonical books of the Bible, we hear one voice. We see this most clearly in contrast.

If we in contrast, read the books of the Apocrypha or the Gnostic Gospels, there's obviously a different voice in them. We're Going to look at just one example, the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas.

It's very different than the four gospels in our Bible, though some contemporary media want you to believe it's the same.

I think you're going to easily hear the different voice behind even this short example from the Gospel of John and then, in contrast, the Gospel of Thomas. Now, the setting of the passage that I'm going to read you out of both books is the last supper Jesus has with his disciples.

First of all, I'm going to read to you from the Gospel of John, from the Christian Bible. This is John, chapter 14. Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God. Trust also in Me. In my Father's house are many rooms.

If it were not so, I would have told you I'm going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me so that you may also be where I am.

You know the way to the place that I'm going. Thomas said to him, lord, we don't.

Know where you're going.

How can we know the way? Jesus answered, I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

A little bit later he went on to say, Jesus replied, if anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me will not obey my teaching.

These words you hear are not my own. They belong to the Father who sent me all this.

I've spoken to you while still with you, but the counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I've said to you. Peace I leave with you. My peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your heart be troubled and do not be afraid.

Now next, I'm going to read you the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas. Just listen to the voice here.

These are the secret sayings that the living Jesus spoke and Didymus, Judas, Thomas recorded number one. And he said, whoever discovers the interpretation of these sayings will not taste death. 2.

Jesus said, those who seek should not stop seeking until they find. And when they find, they will be disturbed. When they are disturbed, they will marvel and will reign over all.

And after they have reigned, they will rest. Jesus said, if your leaders say to you, look, the Father's kingdom is in the sky, then the birds of the sky will precede you.

If they say to you, it's in the sea, then fish will precede you. Rather, the Father's kingdom is within you and it is outside you.

When you know yourselves, then you will be known and you will understand that you are children of the living Father. But if you do not know yourselves, then you live in poverty, and you are poverty.

Jesus said, lucky is the lion that the human will eat, so that the lion becomes human. And foul is the human that the lion will eat, and the lion will still become human. Oh my. Obviously, there are two very different voices.

Not only different, but one, the Gospel of John, is clear and peaceful. The other, the Gospel of Thomas, is just confusing. Satan's communication is often like that. It stirs us up. It is upsetting. It is confusing.

When you know the Bible well, if.

Someone says, well, the Bible teaches this.

Or that, even though you may not be able to immediately recall a chapter or verse, you know it's not from your Lord. Finally, in answer to the question, is the Bible human or divine? And who wrote it? This is the question each person must answer.

I trust the evidences of a God outside of time, predictive prophecy and the one voice of the Bible have helped you see that the Bible is divine in its origin. But more than that, I encourage you.

To just read the Bible.

Bible 805 has resources for you, and.

I'm going to share a little bit.

More about them in just a minute. And more than any argument or lesson, allow the God of the Bible to speak to your heart and life.

Introduce yourself to your God, the one voice of the Bible, and ask him to make Himself known to you through His Word. And I promise you, he will. Now, I want to share a couple of resources with you.

I don't often do this in my lessons, but these are so very, very important. These are two books that I've put together. They're both available on Amazon.com very inexpensive,.

Just barely covered the printing costs and stuff on them. I think they're $9.99 each or something like that.

But the one that's really, really good,.

Well, they're both good. But this one, it's for people just.

Starting to read the Bible. It's entitled Start A Plan for Curious People to Begin Reading the Bible. It starts you out in the New Testament.

It starts out in Matthew and goes through how really people early in the church would need to have learned about God, about Jesus, the different things that they needed to learn about the history of the church, the Christian faith, the basics, how to live it, not only.

Has a Bible reading plan, it answers.

Your questions about what translations to use about Bible helps and there are journaling pages included in the book. So again start here A plan for curious people to begin reading the Bible.

I think it will help you a lot and it's a great book for new Christians people just starting out in the faith than to read the entire Bible. The book not safe but good. Why it's important to read your Bible in chronological order and how to do it.

The title kind of says it all,.

But when you're ready to read the entire Bible, reading it in chronological order is the way you will truly see the history of the Bible. So I trust that these resources and this lesson will help you get into God's Word. It's the most important thing you can do.

Set aside time for it, do it and listen to your God tell you how much he loves you. That's all for now.

Please check out the Show Notes, a complete downloadable transcript, graph expansion and related materials at www.bible805.com until next time, I'm Yvonne Prynn, your fellow pilgrim, writer and teacher for Jesus, and I'd like to close with this benediction.

May you know the invitation of God to move from confusion to clarity, from wandering to rest, from loneliness to knowing you are loved, from turmoil to peace, from wherever you are in your spiritual journey to a growing knowledge of God's Word and in your personal relationship with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.