Susan Dies: 0:38

Welcome to the One Yes At A Time Podcast. My name is Susan Dies and I'm here with my cohost, Keidra Hobley.

Keidra Hobley: 0:43

Hey everybody.

Susan Dies: 0:44

And today we are celebrating what God has done already with the launch of our podcast, and the release of our first two episodes. We were just talking about it, and just praising the Lord for that. And Keidra, I don't know about you, but my heart is so full.

Keidra Hobley: 0:59

Oh yeah.

Susan Dies: 0:59

What's so exciting to me is that every single download represents the heart of somebody who wants to grow closer.. Mm-hmm... in their relationship with the Lord and that is what motivates me. Yes. And I know that that is what motivates you. And Of Course, I want people to listen, but what I want far more than the numbers is just to make a difference in the lives of those who are listening by sharing the truth of God's word. Because we know from our own experiences with God, that as we get into God's word and we apply it to our life, and we align our lives with his will, that it positions us to receive the outpouring of God's blessings and his grace. And all that he has for us.

Keidra Hobley: 1:40

Yes. And I just wanna say thank you to everyone who shared feedback or shared how the first couple of episodes have blessed your life because that encourages us to keep going. So thank you for that.

Susan Dies: 1:49

That's right, that's right. I got to thinking about the fact though, that not everyone believes that the Bible is God's word. Not, everyone believes that it's absolute truth. Meaning that every word of it is true. So many people approach the Bible as a book that you just go to when you need affirmation. Mm-hmm. Or you need some words of encouragement. Maybe you need some inspiration, but they don't necessarily see it as the book to go to when they're looking for answers to life. Yeah. Or direction... or even the standards by which we live our lives. And that wasn't always true. As a country, we used to, look to the Bible. In fact, when America was founded, according to the study that was done in 1988 by a man named Donald Lutz, who wrote Origins of American Constitutionalism, that's a mouthful. Mm-hmm. The Bible was the most frequently cited source in political literature from 1769 to 1805. And what falls in the middle of those dates is 1776, which we know is when? That America was founded. Our founding fathers, some were Christians and some were not, they did look to the Bible as the source for truth when they were penning the Constitution and when they were defining what, we as Americans would be like, what our society would look like. And really all we have to do is look at our justice system, and our laws, and the moral constructs of our American society to see that they are heavily influenced by biblical principles. But we've also seen over time that in our country, where 70% of people say that they're Christians, meaning they identify as a Christian, they've moved away from the Bible as the source of truth. And I wanna share some statistics today that I think are really maybe alarming, disappointing, concerning. And since our podcast is based on our belief that the Bible is God's word and that every word of it is true, and that if we apply it to our lives, we will experience that true freedom that God offers us in Jesus. I think it's important that we talk about this, and that we answer a couple of questions. Number one, can we trust that the Bible is truly God's word? Mm. And if so, what evidence are we basing our belief on? Because if some of our listeners don't believe that the Bible is truly God's word, and we can't clearly convey why they should trust it, they're not gonna have the motivation to put it into practice when we challenge them and encourage them to say yes to it. Mm-hmm. And so this is a key episode that I hope our listeners will find interesting. I hope that you'll stick with this to the end so that if we have any doubters, you'll have the opportunity to weigh the evidence for yourself and hopefully make that conscious choice to say yes to the Bible as the ultimate source for truth. Are you ready?

Keidra Hobley: 4:27

I'm ready. But I do wanna interject here because there may be some that are listening, that are thinking, well, I already believe in the Bible. Well, I don't want you to tune out either, because you may run across someone who does not believe the Bible and then something we share... you may be able to share with them to help them to see why the Bible is the absolute truth.

Susan Dies: 4:43

That's a great, point. Mm-hmm. Alright, well before we dive in, I wanna share a few statistics with you and with our listeners that underscore this need for the discussion that we're having today. And these stats are hot off the press. This was one week ago today. Wow. This is from the Barna group. Do you know who the Barna group is?

Keidra Hobley: 5:01

I know of the Barna Group.

Susan Dies: 5:02

Okay. The Barna Group, is a research group out of Arizona Christian University, and for the past 40 years they have tracked how faith influences our American culture and how our American culture influences our faith. And the Barna group did what they called an American worldview inventory. They wanted to find out if our worldview as Americans, is it secular or is it biblical?

Keidra Hobley: 5:25

Okay.

Susan Dies: 5:25

And I think even without a survey, we already know the answer to that, right? I mean, did we really need a survey for that? But listen, they track it, okay? And so. This is how the report began. It says, A new national study shows that most Americans no longer believe in absolute moral truth, and instead rely on feelings and cultural norms to make their moral decisions.

Keidra Hobley: 5:47

Ooh, that's scary.

Susan Dies: 5:48

It is scary. Interestingly, they found that the data was the same for both Christians and non-Christians, which to me is astounding, and you're gonna see why I say that in just a moment. This study revealed that 90% of American adults, Christians, and non-Christians have embraced a blending of secular and biblical worldviews. Mm. Just, let's just put it all together. 74% of American adults trust feelings over facts to discern moral truth. 69% of Catholics, 61% of Protestants, and 50% of conservative Evangelical Christians admit to rejecting the idea of absolute truth.

Keidra Hobley: 6:31

Ooh, that breaks my heart.

Susan Dies: 6:32

Mm. So in a nutshell, this is basically saying that the Bible is no longer the source that the majority of Americans turn to for truth. The majority of Americans are just basing their decisions on their feelings. And it's interesting to me that we would choose feelings that change.. Yeah... over facts that never change, to determine the decisions that we're gonna make.

Keidra Hobley: 6:55

Mm-hmm. And we wonder why we have the outcomes that we have.

Susan Dies: 7:00

That's right. It's dangerous, really. Yeah, because for societies to work... for our communities to work... for our families to work... for our churches to work.. Mm-hmm... for our own life to work, there has to be a standard by which we determine what is right and wrong, what is good and bad, what is lawful and unlawful. Otherwise, we have confusion and chaos, and unfortunately that's exactly what we're seeing in our nation today. Mm-hmm. Our country has actually embraced something called pluralism. Okay. Do you know what that is?

Keidra Hobley: 7:30

More than one.

Susan Dies: 7:31

More than one. That's right. Pluralism is the idea that multiple, and even contradictory, moral viewpoints can all be true.

Keidra Hobley: 7:40

Uh, yeah.

Susan Dies: 7:41

In fact, this same study revealed that 47% of Christians have embraced pluralism. Wow. Almost half of Christians. Which to give people the benefit of the doubt is probably birthed out of our desire to be compassionate... and to seem that we are not intolerant... as we're often accused of being, but in our desire to be liked and accepted, and to be seen as someone who accepts everybody, we've compromised the truth. Yeah. And the standard that God has given to us to live our lives by is now no longer the standard, even with many Christians. But a person who is following Jesus... we just gotta say this... cannot follow Jesus in the world at the same time. Right? These are two separate paths. They do not run parallel, and they take us in opposite directions. And so at some point, Christians who have embraced pluralism are gonna find themselves at a crossroad, and they're gonna have to make that choice regarding which direction that they're gonna take.

Keidra Hobley: 8:40

Yeah.

Susan Dies: 8:40

And we can either follow God and look to his word as the standard for absolute truth and clear direction for our lives, or we can follow the world it's ever changing standards for truth that tend to pull us in every direction. But the beauty of it is as it was from the beginning of time, even with Adam and Eve, we get to choose.

Keidra Hobley: 8:59

That's right. We get to choose. That's free will.

Susan Dies: 9:02

That's right. But to do that, we need some facts. So I gave you a little homework in preparation for our time together today. I ask you to research how can we know for certain the Bible is God's word... that every word of it is true and trustworthy... and I can't wait for us to talk about this today. I didn't know any of what we're gonna talk about today until I was probably in my late thirties because most people who grew up in church are raised on scripture. We never really question.. Right... if it's God's word. But one Sunday we had a guest speaker who talked about the need for Christians to know why they believe what they believe. Yeah. And you know, I never really thought about that, that so many people, especially those who are raised in church, and in their different religions... they never question.. Mm-hmm.. 'Why do we believe what we believe?'... so that we can determine for ourselves? And so for a lot of years, the faith that we have is really the faith of our parents. Mm. And so at some point in life, we come to that crisis of belief or that moment in time in our own life where we have to find faith for ourselves. And this is such a great place to start. Where did the Bible come from... and how can we be sure that it's God's word and not just a bunch of stories that are made up by men? What did you learn?

Keidra Hobley: 10:13

I think I learned from, uh, I guess looking at it from an author's perspective. Mm-hmm. Like for example.. Because you are an author.. Because I am an author... and, I help authors Yes... birth their books. And so I was helping an author just last week with her book. And I found it interesting that the greatest way I was able to assist her was to identify the inconsistencies in her book. Mm. And so, just something as simple as if this happened in chapter three, there's no way this could have happened in chapter 12. Right. And pointing those things out to her that she didn't even realize. So why do I say that? Because when I looked into why I believe the Bible is the absolute truth... and it's reliable... came from the fact... when I found out that... some of this I knew, a couple of these I didn't... but here's how I wrote it out in one big long run on sentence. The summary of what I found. The Bible absolutely had to be inspired by someone supernatural in order for it to have 66 books, written over 1500 years, by over 40 different writers, that lived on three different continents, who spoke three different languages, that when brought all together, told one story that collectively made over 300 prophecies, all of which Jesus fulfilled. Wow. Like you have to know that there had to, like, God had to do all of that. There's no way man could have done that.

Susan Dies: 11:33

Right. The 300 prophecies are the ones that were just about Jesus. Just Jesus. There were hundreds of prophecies throughout scripture that have also been fulfilled. Yes. So that is amazing.

Keidra Hobley: 11:44

Yeah. And not only that, but the Bible tells us in John 17:17 that the word is truth. That's right. And we know there that the word that it's referring to is the Bible.

Susan Dies: 11:54

So the Bible claims to be God's word, but just because the Bible claims to be God's word, we know that that doesn't necessarily convince the doubters. That's what's called a circular argument. So we need something outside of scripture to validate what the Bible claims to be true. But for anybody willing to look at the evidence that we're gonna, uh, share today... the unity of this message throughout bible is stunning. For all the things that Keidra mentioned to be true... and then for all the stories to come together with one beautiful theme... the theme of the Bible is Jesus. Mm-hmm. The Old Testament is pointing to Jesus. And Jesus came in the New Testament, and of course Jesus is always pointing us back to the Father, but the old and the New Testament both point to Jesus, and the evidence is overwhelming for divine inspiration, even for the skeptic if they're willing to consider it. The other thing.. You mentioned prophecies. About one fourth of the Bible is prophecy. Mm-hmm. Which is basically just predictions about people, and places, and events that would happen in the future. And about two thirds of all the prophecies in the Bible, including the 300 that you mentioned about Jesus, were fulfilled down to the smallest detail. Mm-hmm. For example, that he would be born of a virgin. Yes. Uh, that he would be born in Bethlehem. That his ministry would begin with a forerunner or a messenger. Someone who would prepare the way for his ministry. That Jesus would enter Jerusalem as a king, riding on a donkey. Yeah. That Jesus would be betrayed by a friend for 30 pieces of silver. Mm-hmm. That is so specific. That's exactly what happened. That Jesus would die by crucifixion.. Mm-hmm... at a time when stoning was really the preferred method. There was a guy in the 1950s, his name was Peter Stoner. He was the chairman of mathematics and astronomy at Pasadena College, and he calculated for just eight of those prophecies about Jesus to be fulfilled exactly as predicted. Is one in 10 to the 28th power. Yeah. That's a lot of zeros. Yes. In other words. It is a statistical impossibility for Jesus to fulfill over 300 prophecies exactly as predicted. He would have to be God to be able to do that.

Keidra Hobley: 14:07

Absolutely. I think it said something about, in his study, he found that it was 10 to the hundred and 57th power... so 10 with 157 zeros... in order to fulfill all 300 of them, or something crazy like that. Wow. Yeah.

Susan Dies: 14:20

Wow, wow. That is incredible. So again, that's a statistical improbability, but the Bible is also filled with all kinds of other evidence... some historical, some geographical, that talk about people and places and events all recorded with incredible accuracy that has been proven through historical writings outside of the Bible, but also through the archeological discoveries that affirm exactly what was written down right down to the smallest detail. I think one of the greatest. Discoveries as recent as 1994. I love that God has allowed us to just discover things. Yeah. That confirm and affirm all the things that are written in the Bible, but he didn't allow people to discover it all at once. I mean, people are still mm-hmm. Finding these things. And in 1994, all these stories in the Bible that we have about King David, he was the first king that God chose for Israel.. For centuries, skeptics pointed to the fact that nothing of David's had ever been discovered... no archeological evidence to prove that he ever lived. And then in 1994, they discovered a stone slab... in Northern Galilee where his kingdom was.... that was inscribed with the words, The House of David, as well as other references to him as king. Another great example is the book of Luke. It is full of historical and geographical information, probably more than any other book in the Bible. And one of the world's most renowned archeologists who was also an agnostic, his name was Sir Ramsey, made it his life's mission to disprove Luke's account of the gospel because if he could prove that it's full of errors he could in turn say, well, if this isn't true, then none of of the Bible is true. That's true. Mm-hmm. True. Trying to disprove the Bible by saying that it's full of mistakes, that it's not trustworthy. But after 30 years of research and trying to prove that it was untrue, Ramsey finally admitted that the book of Luke contains no historical or geographical errors, and that he should be named among the world's greatest historians. He then.. Wow... converted to Christianity.. Mm... and wrote a book on the trustworthiness of the Bible.

Keidra Hobley: 16:25

Come on. Come on. That's right.

Susan Dies: 16:27

The Bible is also filled with scientific information and discovery, things that were spoken about hundreds, even thousands of years before they were discovered and not one thing, not one scientific discovery has ever been able to refute the Bible. In Isaiah 40:22 the prophet wrote, "The Lord sits enthroned above the circle of the earth." Mm-hmm. So he talked about the fact that the earth was round long before that was discovered. In Job 26:7 he says, "He suspends the earth over nothing"... talking about gravity... and indeed the earth is suspended in space. Mm. In Ecclesiastes 1:6-7, the writer is describing the atmospheric circulation and stages of the water cycle. In Psalm 8:8 it's talking about ocean currents. And so we have all these things. We have historical discovery. We have archeological discoveries. We have scientific discoveries all pointing to the validity, and the truth of scripture... but we also have eyewitness accounts. Mm-hmm. We can't discount that. The 12 apostles... over 500 witnesses who all testified they saw Jesus alive after his death and resurrection. Thousands of followers who converted to Christianity after hearing these eyewitness accounts, many of whom were persecuted and killed for not recanting, their testimony. Listen. People are willing to die for truth.

Keidra Hobley: 17:51

Yes.

Susan Dies: 17:52

They're not willing to die for a lie. No one is gonna be tortured and killed for a lie. People were tortured and killed for the truth, and because they died as martyrs.. Mm-hmm... for this message, it only fueled the fire that helped Christianity spread throughout the known world. And then there's changed lives. Yeah. Your life and my life.. Mm-hmm... and the billions of other people down through the centuries who've had an encounter with the living God of heaven, whose lives have been changed. People who've had an encounter with Jesus... and experienced his love and his forgiveness... who by faith, received him as their savior... who then turned from their sin and Jesus began to just radically transform their life from one that was steeped in sin... and one that was going the opposite direction of God... to one that now seeks to live a life that honors God. The point being that Jesus changes everything when he comes to live on the inside of us. It reminds me of those buses all over town that we see from the Word of God church... that have Jesus Changes Everything painted on them. You can't miss the buses, and you can't miss the difference in the life of someone who is truly walking with Jesus. Yeah. Because he does change everything. If we say that we are following Jesus, but nothing is different in our life.. Mm-hmm... to show that we are walking differently from this world, then something is wrong with that. Yes, absolutely. Then finally, Jesus testified to his own authority. In fact, when he began his public ministry, he read a scripture from the prophet Isaiah that was written seven hundred years before he was born, and when he finished reading it, he said, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." Mm-hmm. And so Jesus himself quoted God's word. He taught it, he lived by it, and he claimed that not one word of it would pass away.. Amen... until every bit of it was accomplished. I think about that verse that says, "Your word, have I hidden in my heart that I might not sin against you." So when we know what God's word says, it's more likely that we're gonna make the right decisions because we're gonna be able to base it on the truth of God's word, which we know was written for our best.. Yes... and to teach us how to live a life that honors God. But again, everyone has to consider the evidence and make a decision. Yeah. And if we conclude that it is God's word, then it is time that we get serious about putting that into practice in our lives, making the decision to align our lives with it so that we can experience all that God has for us. But ...if you're still skeptical, then my suggestion is a simple test. Try just picking one thing out of God's word. Put it into practice in your life... and see if what God says isn't true. That's so good. Find out for yourself because I promise you that whatever God says is gonna be exactly the way he says it is. For the Christian, it's so important that we know why we believe what we believe... and for anyone willing to look at this evidence objectively, there's just no other conclusion that we can come to, because the Bible passes the test. Yes. It is the word of God and as such, it is the only reliable source for absolute truth and it can be trusted 100%. Jesus said it this way in Matthew 24:35.. He said, "Heaven and earth will pass away.. Yes... but my words will never pass away." The point being that God's words are eternally true. They were true when he spoke them and they're gonna be true in eternity. We can trust it, and our hope today is that after this podcast, if you have ever doubted God's word that you will trust it too. Amen. Amen. All right. Keidra, would you pray for us as we get ready to close out our time together today?

Susan Dies: 21:34

Absolutely. Father, we thank you so much for your word. We thank you that your word, the Bible, is the absolute truth. We pray, dear Lord, that those who may be questioning it, that you would reveal yourself through your word in their lives experientially, that they may have an encounter with you, that they would test you and see that you are faithful to your word. We thank you for it. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.