This is teaching 1 of 10. These are the major doctrines from the Bible that(LORD willing) I will be posting every week. In this study, we will basically learn about the Bible. I will cover the four major subdivisions: Revelation, Inspiration, Illumination and Interpretation. I hope and pray this study will give you a better understanding of God's love letter---the Bible. The Bible 1. Revelation. DEFINITION---The Bible was reveal to man by God. Turn to your Bibles to Hebrews 3:7. In this verse we read "Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, "Today if you hear His voice..." God through the Spirit speaks to us through the Bible and He will speak to each one of us today! I. Why is the Bible true? a. Prophecy. Turn with me to Isaiah 44:6-7. This is God speaking through the prophet Isaiah, which reads "Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel, and His Redeemer, the LORD of hosts: ' I am the First and I am the Last; besides Me there is no God. And who can proclaim as I do? Then let him declare it and set it in order for Me, since I appointed the ancient people. And the things that are coming and shall come, let them show these to them." I don't know one man in this planet who can proclaim something then comes true. For centuries people have proclaimed prophecies but none of those predictions ever came true. For example, the founder of the Watchtower Soceity, of the cult, Jehovah's Witness, Russel Tazze, predicted on 1914 Jesus second coming. Well 1914 came and went and Jesus didn't return. This is just to show you, that Taze wasn't God but a falliable man. God is challenging all those who predict the future saying "If you are God, like I am, proclaim something and let's if it comes to pass" but no one could be found. There's only one Person, that I know who predicts the future and it comes true: God Himself because no other God exist. --Over one hundred prophecies were fulfilled at Jesus first coming. Check this out, this is amazing. Turn to me to Micah 5:2. let's read "But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, through you are little among the thousands of Judah,yet out of you shall come forth to Me the One to be Ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting". Turn to Matthew 2:1-6 and keep your finger there, we will get back to it. This prophecy was proclaimed 100's of years in advance before Jesus birth in Bethlehem. During the days of the prophet Micah, the little town known as Bethlehem didn't exist but look what happened. Now let's read Matthew 2:1-6 "Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem(born where?) of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, 2. saying. "Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him." 3. When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. 4. And he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. 5. So they said to him, "In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet(which prophet? Micah) 6. 'But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are not the least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you shall come a Ruler who will shepherd My people Israel." It blows my mind each time I read that passage in Matthew. Moving on! --Two amazing prophecies about technology Turn with me to Zechariah 14:12. Let's read "And this shall be the plague with which the LORD will strike all the people who fought against Jerusalem: Their flesh shall dissolve while they stand on their feet, their eyes shall dissolve in their sockets, and their tongues shall dissolve in their mouths". With the invention of the atom bomb this prophecy is true today. For those who watched the movie Terminator 2, do you remmeber the part where Sarah O' Connor is behind a face seeing herself in the future as the world goes up in flames? If you haven't I will try to describe it for you. In the movie, Sarah falls asleep on a bench. The scence begins with the future Sarah in a playground with some kids. Later, the Sarah of the past, is behind a chain link face and banging the fence to get the future Sarah attention. All of sudden a flash of light goes off in the sky--turning everything into Hell. The building, people, trees and cars go up into flames as a wall of fire destorys everything on it path leaving everything bare. Then the wall of fire burns the future Sarah, the kids and playground turning them into ashes. Sarah of the past is still banging on the fence, and gets engulfed by the fire, dissolving her eyes and tongue, leaving her skeleton with her mouth wide open, still clinging on the fence. That's exactly what the prophet Zechariah said hundreds of years in advance before the invention of a nuclear bomb. That is amazing and who else knew the future? Only God. This next prophecy will trip you out. Don't we serve an awesome God? Turn with me to Revelation 11:7-9. Let's read "When they finished their testimony, the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit will make war against them, overcome them, and kill them. And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our LORD was crucified. Then those from the peoples, tribes, tongues, and nations will see their dead bodies three-and-a-half days, and not allow their dead bodies to be put into the grave. John from Heaven is seeing a vision of the future of the Antichrist killing the two witnessing during the Tribulation. Now how exactly will the world witness such an event. By making a painting of them or taking pictures with a camera sending millions of copies through out the world? The satelite has enabled people to watch almost every channel in the world from American to Iraq. With the invention of satelite now is possible everyone will see the two witnesses dead in Jerusalem for 3 1/2 days. Continuing... b.Archaelogical Discoveries. --Over 25,000 artifacts have been found from the Bible. You could see them today in displayed, for example, in Israel. c. The Bible's Unity No other religious book in the world is like the Bible. You will look for example at the Book of Mormon--it was written by one man, Joseph Smith. Notice the following about the Bible: --66 different books --40 different authors --Written over a 1,500 year period --In 3 different continents --In 3 different languages(Hebrew, Greek and Latin) Christians might ask but what about the Book of Thomas or the Book of Judas? Those books were written centuries after Jesus resurrection. Also, you can't find Jesus or even the Apostles quoting from those two books. Scholars long ago rejected these books because they weren't inspired by God and decided not to be included with the 66 books of the Bible. 2. Inspiration: DEFINATION-- God saw to it that when men wrote down His revelation, they so without error. Let's read Hebrews 3:7 "Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: Today, if you will hear His voice". Is He speaking to you? a. The Bible is preserved by God forever. The Bible has been mocked, rejected, spit upon, torn apart and burned..you name it. But we still have the Bible and we don't know if those men are alive or dead. It is the most sold book in the world today and millions of lives have been changed after reading it. Turn with me to Isaiah 40:8 we read "The grass withers, the flowers fades, but the Word of our God stands forever". In a garden there's grass and different spieces of flowers. When spring and autuum come the grass blades turn colors from green to light brown. Flowers also begin to lose their natural beauty and the color fades. As time passes, the grass falls apart and the flowers begin to crumble---being blown away by the wind. As seasons come and go, the Word of God will stand forever--it will never wither or fade away. b. The Bible was inspired by God. Turn with me to 2 Timothy 3:16-17 "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable(it sure is) for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man(or woman) of God may be complete, throughly equipped for every good work". Now who inspired the Bible? God did! How is it profitable? doctrine, reproof, correction, instruction in righteousness. And right now, you're learning about the doctrine of the Bible. Turn to your Bibles to 2 Peter 1:21. We read "for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit." Did men secretly in a part the world in a room decide what to write in the Bible? If that where true, we are in deep trouble and have no hope. But its not true because God Himself used men led by the Spirit to write down every word He said and is the truth. Listen to what Jesus said in John 17:17 "Your word is truth". Now if it was false what Jesus said in John wouldn't be there. But Jesus knew very well that God's Word is the truth, that's why he quoted it in the Gospels or else it was false. Next time you open the Bible, thank God for keeping it error-free! 3. Ilumination. DEFINATION--The Holy Spirit must enable people to understand and embrace the truth of Scripture. a. The Bible can't be understood without the Holy Spirit Turn with me to 1 Cor 2:12. Let's read "Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things(from the Bible) freely given to us by God" I grew up in a Catholic home and my mother in Spanish will read me the Bible everyday--it didn't make no sense--I understood Spanish but not what she read. Every Sunday she will take me and my sister to a Cathoilc Church and when the service began, the priest will read from the Bible, I heard him, but couldn't understand one word he said. In my pre-teen years, I met a Christian man who had a church home that taught the Bible. He will come to my house every Friday and will invite me for Bible studies. Each time he read the Bible, I didn't understand absolutely nothing! The last time I seen him was when he gave me a free Bible(still have it today). I could tell you from my teen to adult years, each time I read the Bible, it was all giberish, boring and stupid(forgive my language but that's the truth). I don't care if you're smart or even have a high I.Q, if you never received the gift of the Holy Sprit which only comes when you repent of all your sin and placing your faith and trust upon Jesus Christ alone for your salvation, you will never, ever, understand the Bible. Once you have the Spirit living in you, as you grow as a Christian, He will help understand truths of the Bible to build a solid foundation. b. The Bible is useless to unbelievers Drop down to v.14 Let's read "But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. You talked and talked to your unsaved family members, friends and co-workers about the Bible but got frustred because they didn't understand what you told them, they're "the natrual man". The natural man is a person who is spiritually dead to "the things of God" separated from Him because of sin because they haven't been regenerated(made alive) by the Holy Spirit. Senior Pastor Chuck Smith the founder of the Calvary Chapel Moverment said "Teaching is for believers and preaching for unbelievers". That's why when we talk to them, for example, about the doctrine of creation, some of them believe there's no God and the universe came into existence 'by itself" or random chance. So it will be foolish to them that God created the heavens and the earth in six days from nothing. 4. Interpretation. DEFINITION--We must be diligent students of Scripture to understand its deeper teachings. A student is someone who learns from his teacher, in that case, Jesus is our Teacher and we are His students. The same word could also be a 'disciple' or learner. Jesus in John 8:31 "Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him "If you abide in my Word, you are My disciples indeed." a.The Bible will teach us who truly loves God Turn with to 2 Tim 3:13-15 Let's read: "But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. But you(Christian) must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have know the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. This world is getting more evil than ever before and as the years go by it will get worse. Just the other day, I seen on the news one teen girl getting beaten senseless by eight girls after being locked in a house. They beat her so much, she lost consciousness and when she woke up, took turns beating her. They her left in a bloody mess, impairing her vision on her right eye and leaving bruises on her body. And to top off, after the police arrested them and got booked--were "laughing" in Juvinile Hall, at the poor girl. That remains me of Proverbs 2:14 "who rejoice in doing evil". That's how evil the world is today and it is no wonder that Paul instructed us in Ephesians 5:15-16 "See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools(like the world) but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Jesus also said in Matthew 24:12 " And because of lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold." That is happening now and will continue to increase until Jesus second coming. Also, there are people in Christian churches who call themselves "Christian", but their lives don't show they are a follower of Christ. They call themselves Christian but living in sin which doesn't show they love God. The Bible clearly teaches that those who are living in sin and don't practice righteousness in their life are not a child of God(1 John 3:7-8). People are being deceived and deceiving people, including Christians with false doctrines in various churches. One doctrine that is floating around in the church today is about Jesus going to Hell and fought Satan to declare victory at the cross. That is wrong because the Bible doesn't teach that, nowhere is it found in the Gospels! The Christian who loves the LORD and enjoys studying the Bible will continue to learn from pastors and teachers about the Bible. The Bible will "make you wise for salvation through faith which is Christ Jesus" and you will know you're 100% saved and going to Heaven. b. The Bible will gives us discernment to not be deceived Turn with me to Acts 17:11. Let's read "These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so." After Paul and Silas secret departure they arrived at Berea. In Berea, there were Jews in the synagogue who weren't simple-minded to any teaching but wise as they listened to Paul and Silas teach. During those days there was false doctrines going around and these Jews knew their stuff. These group of people were known as the Bereans. Whatever was contrary to the Scriptures they rejected it as false. They knew the Scriptures so well that nobody deceieved them. They were very sharp and didn't believe anyone unless what was taught came from the Scriptures. It is interesting that our LORD and Savior Jesus Christ said in Matthew 24:4 "..."take heed that no one deceives you". For those who are new believers in Christ, might be deceived by a Mormon, Jehovah's Witness or even in churches that call themselves 'Christian'. Paul said "that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting".However, you already know what to do---be sharp like a Berean. You are that child now because you are leanring the basics of the faith. But as baby craves for milk--craved for the Word of God. 1 Peter 2:2-3 "as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the LORD is gracious". And He has been gracious to you, for teaching you the Bible. c. The Bible gives us hope Turn with me to. Romans 15:4 "For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and confort of the Scriptures might have hope". People who don't have a relationship with God have no hope where they'll go in the afterlife. But for the Christian there is hope because the Bible teaches us the day we die, we will go to Heaven to be with Jesus Christ. In Psalm 119:81, we read "My soul faints for Your salvation, but I hope in your word". That is encourging for us because when we go through hardships and problems, and nothing could saves us, where else could we run to for answers, TV, magazines or ungodly friends? No, the Bible. There's so much taught in the Bible about our hope I will only give you one truth, turn to your Bibles to 1 Peter 1:3. Let's read this important verse: "Blessed be the God and Father of our LORD Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through(what?) the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead". Did you get that? On Easter morning, Jesus resurrected on the third day proving He was God, conquering death and sin, so now we could live a new life in Him and in the future live with God in Heaven(v.4). Brothers and sisters we have hope because of Jesus resurrection. However, there are people today who in churches, college campuses and universities who teach Jesus never resurrected and saying Christianity borrowed it from pagans. There is an inconsistent teaching that so-called gods thousands of years ago resurrected on the third day like Jesus did, destorying the faith of young Christians. Also there's a video in youtube.com called 'Zelgeist' teaching the same thing(if you are grounded in the faith, watch it, otherwise, don't attempt). The truth is that there were sects of pagans in early Christianity who taught people about so-gods dying and raising from the dead. So after Jesus resurrection, they borrowed 'the resurrection' and to this day still remains. If Jesus never resurrected there's no hope for the Christian. Listen to what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:14-19 "And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty(or in vain) and your faith(in Christ) is also empty. Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up--if in fact the dead do not rise. For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not raisen(as people say), you faith is futile; you are still in your sins(and going to Hell) Then also those who have fallen asleep(died in Christ) have perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ(which is only in Him), we are of all men the most pitiable(for making up this story). But we have hope because Jesus Christ did resurrect from the dead. In the next verse Paul tells us Jesus indeed resurrected from the dead and so are we in the future. "But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those(Christians) who have fallen asleep. It is true and has been proven(read the Case for Christ)! Also, who will someone die for something that isn't true? No one will but Christians who kept the faith until the end, died horrible deaths and knew fully well that Jesus resurrection was real. That is our hope that no one could ever take away! Praise the LORD, that Jesus resurrected on the third day and that we also will resurrect in the future. Marantha--the LORD is coming! I hope and pray you enjoyed this study, I surely did. LORD willing, we will continue next week with the second doctrine: God. Also if you don't have a relationship with God right now and would like to, pause for just a second. Listen I don't know why you read this study but it might be that God is speaking to you. I don't know what is keeping you from repenting of all your sin and receiving Jesus Christ, as LORD and Savior. Pride might be the problem, let go and let God. You might say "I am fine I don't need Jesus right now" or "I go to church and read the Bible" or even "got baptized as an infant". That's good but you might not be 100% sure on the day you die will go to Heaven. You have been trying all these years finding peace in wrong places but your search was fruitless. What do you got to lose? Nothing more than an eternity separated from God forever and ever. If you decided to receive Jesus Christ as LORD and Savior, I would ask you now to close your eyes and bow your head down. And say this simple prayer: LORD Jesus, I repent of all my sin, thank you for dying on the cross me and resurrecting on the third day. LORD Jesus, come into my life as my LORD and Savior, filled me with Your Holy Spirit and write my name in the Book of Life, in Jesus name I pray, Amen and Amen. Love you, all, God bless you!