Credentials ———–

    So what are this book’s credentials?  I could say to you, “I have just
written a book, and it is the Word of God.  It’s a great book, took me a year
to write it.” And you would have every right to say, “PROVE IT!”

There are 30 or 40 books in the various world religions, each one claiming to
be a superior revelation.  Jesus said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but
My words shall not pass away”  (Matt.24:35).  How important do you think the
earth is?  Well, Jesus says, “Heaven and earth will pass away…”

    The Bible does not attempt to defend its inspiration. You will not find
any verse that says, “This book is really true, so you better believe it!!” 
But here is an interesting thing.  Genesis opens with the words, “God said,” 9
times in the first chapter.  The  statement, “Thus says the Lord” appears 23
times in the last Old Testament book — Malachi.  So you have “God says” from
Genesis to Malachi.

    “The Lord spoke” appears 560 times in the first five books of the Bible
alone. Isaiah claims at least 40 times, his message came directly from the
Lord; Ezekiel, 60 times, and Jeremiah, 100 TIMES!  And at least 3800 times in
the Old Testament, “The Lord spoke” appears.  And the Lord Jesus quoted from
at least 24 different Old Testament books  — that’s right, He just quoted.

    These are facts that will be valuable for a person with an open heart —
not that you have to throw your head away in order to believe these facts;
but, if you do not want to believe, nothing will convince you.  Voltaire, 250
years ago, held a copy of the Bible in his hand and said, “In 100 years this
book will be forgotten, eliminated.”

    What is hilarious is that 100 years later, to the day, his house was made
the headquarters of the Geneva Bible Society, and they were distributing
Bibles out of his house!  God has an incredible sense of humor!

    Say you were going to write a book, and this was how you had to write it:
take 40 different writers for a start, totally different writers — some
highly educated, even doctors.  Then get some farmers.  Go and dig a guy out
of a ranch and say, “I would like you to help me write a book.”  Then you find
some fishermen — you go down to the wharf  —  a couple of guys from San
Francisco, and say, “Hey! listen, help us write a book.”

    And they say, “Sure, fine…we will help you.”  And then you get them to
write on the following things:  religious themes, poetry, ethics, science,
pholosophy, the creation of the universe and where it’s going (throw in a few
things about where they think it will all end.)  You collect all that, and
then … oh, by the way, you have to separate these people so they can’t
communicate by phone or telegram.. .only  possibly word of mouth, passed down
over the years.

    Ah yes, years…you collect all this stuff over about one and a half
thousand years, and compile the whole thing in one book.  What would you have? 
I suggest you take a biology textbook from 60 years ago, and compare it with
one today.  And that is just 60 YEARS!  I know what you would have, you would
have the most motley junk you have ever seen in tour whole life — with people
totally contradicting each other!  But that is not what you have when you read
your Bible.  The more you read this book, the more incredible the unity of it. 
Because the more you get into it, the more incredibly detailed it is, and you
find there are not 40 people who wrote it, but one person.