Sermon Illustrations on the reliability of Scripture

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Background

The Authenticity of Scripture

For centuries the world of Islam has claimed that the Gospels are muharrif (corrupted) because they do not offer readers an accurate record of what Jesus said and did. For different reasons, some modern scholars have come to the same conclusion. The debate over the authenticity of the Gospels as records of what Jesus said and did raged over most of the twentieth century and continues on into the twenty-first.

Two Examples of Long Memories

As an amateur yet serious student of the American Civil War, I am constantly amazed at the sheer volume of material, which was preserved orally for half a century and longer, surrounding the key figures in that conflict. These recollections are called “reminiscences.” The Americans involved in the war knew they were experiencing events critical for their very existence as a nation. Abraham Lincoln, Robert E. Lee and T. J. (Stonewall) Jackson were key figures in those events. Authors of books and essays on the American Civil War have drawn on these reminiscences, which flowed from people who knew and interacted with those towering personalities.

Colleagues remembered what Lincoln and Lee said and did because of their pivotal roles in the conflict and because the conflict itself was an identity-forming epoch. Reminiscences of historic personalities were also passed down through the twentieth century. Television documentaries made in recent decades about Winston Churchill and John F. Kennedy naturally include interviews with eyewitnesses. In these documentaries people who knew these famous men are asked questions.

As they reply, with recollections of fifty-year-old conversations or stories, their voices pick up, the pace quickens and their eyes begin to flash. How can they remember back that far? Why are these recollections so vivid? The answer is simple—the eyewitnesses know they are talking about key figures in critical events, and, as a result, their memories reproduce those sayings and stories with accuracy and ease. Russian historian Edvard Radzinsky recently collected oral tradition about Czar Nicholas II focusing on the last six months of his life, a period for which there are almost no documents.

Once the Russian public learned that Radzinsky was seeking information about the czar, individuals began to search him out and tell him their stories. The events they described had been passed from grandfather to son and then to grandsons and granddaughters for more than seventy years. They were recalling the czar! How could they forget?

Radzinsky was often able to confirm the material he heard by cross checking the same story as it came to him from a variety of sources. While there were sometimes differences, the similarities were striking. In the end Radzinsky produced a 430-page book, much of which came from seventy-year-old oral tradition. All of this took place among the Russians—without the controls I discovered in the Middle East. Was the Russian grandfather telling the truth or trying to impress his grandchildren? There was no surrounding community to correct the recitation. In the Middle East there is.

The Danger of Service Alone

The fact that our works are done in the service of God is not enough, by itself, to prevent us from losing our interior life if we let them devour all our time and all our strength. Work is good and necessary, but too much of it renders the soul insensitive to spiritual values, hardens the heart against prayer and divine things. It requires serious effort and courageous sacrifice to resist this hardening of heart.

Thomas Merton, The Last of the Fathers (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1954)

Stories

It Was Churchill

In the 1990s Winston Churchill’s granddaughter, Celia Sandys, set out to write a book about her famous grandfather. She intended to dedicate one chapter to the eight months Churchill spent in South Africa during the Boer War. Consequently, she traveled to South Africa to visit the places where Churchill was known to have been.

During a national television interview she asked viewers to contact her if they had any information about her grandfather. They did. Sandys was overwhelmed and delighted by the deluge of calls, faxes and letters she received and decided to write not a chapter but an entire book about Churchill’s sojourn in South Africa.

The book, now published, focuses entirely on the eight months he was in the country, and the information she gathered was almost all passed on orally, again, without any community controls. By the time those conversations and stories were related to her they were nearly one hundred years old. How could people remember? The simple answer is—it was Churchill! He was already a well-known figure when he went to South Africa. The question is: How could they forget?

Tear it out!

Dr. William Evans, who pastored College Church from 1906–1909, was an unusually accomplished man. He had the entire King James Version of the Bible memorized as well as the New Testament of the American Standard Version. Dr. Evans also authored over fifty books. His son, Louis, became one of the best-known preachers in America and for many years pastored the eminent First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood. When Dr. William Evans retired, he moved to Hollywood to be near his son, and when Louis was away he would substitute for him.

One unforgettable Sunday Dr. William, as he was affectionately called, spoke on the virgin birth. All were amazed when he raised his Bible and tore out the pages that narrate the birth of the Lord. As the tattered scraps floated down toward the congregation, he shouted, “If we can’t believe in the virgin birth, let’s tear it out of the Bible!” And then as he drove home his point, he tore out the resurrection chapters, then the miracle narratives, then anything conveying the supernatural. The floor was littered with mutilated pages.

Finally, with immense drama he held up the only remaining portion and said, “And this is all we have left—the Sermon on the Mount. And that has no authority for me if a divine Christ didn’t preach it.” After a few more words, he asked his listeners to bow for the benediction. But before he could pray, a man in that vast and sedate congregation stood and cried, “No, no! Go on! We want more!” Several others joined in. So Dr. Evans preached for another fifty minutes.

Dr. Evans was right. You cannot pick and choose from the Bible what you want to believe is inspired. The Bible does not present itself that way. Even more, the Bible will have no sustaining power for life if you make yourself the arbiter of what you will and will not believe about it.

Significantly, the text before us, containing the Bible’s most famous statement of the inspiration of Scripture, is set in the context of continuance—going on, remaining in the gospel. What Christians believe about the Scriptures has everything to do with their continuance and service in the faith.

Kent Hughes and Bryan Chapell, 1 & 2 Timothy and Titus: To Guard the Deposit, Preaching the Word (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2000), 235–236.

Analogies

Two Examples of Long Memories

As an amateur yet serious student of the American Civil War, I am constantly amazed at the sheer volume of material, which was preserved orally for half a century and longer, surrounding the key figures in that conflict. These recollections are called “reminiscences.” The Americans involved in the war knew they were experiencing events critical for their very existence as a nation. Abraham Lincoln, Robert E. Lee and T. J. (Stonewall) Jackson were key figures in those events. Authors of books and essays on the American Civil War have drawn on these reminiscences, which flowed from people who knew and interacted with those towering personalities.

Colleagues remembered what Lincoln and Lee said and did because of their pivotal roles in the conflict and because the conflict itself was an identity-forming epoch. Reminiscences of historic personalities were also passed down through the twentieth century. Television documentaries made in recent decades about Winston Churchill and John F. Kennedy naturally include interviews with eyewitnesses. In these documentaries people who knew these famous men are asked questions.

As they reply, with recollections of fifty-year-old conversations or stories, their voices pick up, the pace quickens and their eyes begin to flash. How can they remember back that far? Why are these recollections so vivid? The answer is simple—the eyewitnesses know they are talking about key figures in critical events, and, as a result, their memories reproduce those sayings and stories with accuracy and ease. Russian historian Edvard Radzinsky recently collected oral tradition about Czar Nicholas II focusing on the last six months of his life, a period for which there are almost no documents.

Once the Russian public learned that Radzinsky was seeking information about the czar, individuals began to search him out and tell him their stories. The events they described had been passed from grandfather to son and then to grandsons and granddaughters for more than seventy years. They were recalling the czar! How could they forget?

Radzinsky was often able to confirm the material he heard by cross checking the same story as it came to him from a variety of sources. While there were sometimes differences, the similarities were striking. In the end Radzinsky produced a 430-page book, much of which came from seventy-year-old oral tradition. All of this took place among the Russians—without the controls I discovered in the Middle East. Was the Russian grandfather telling the truth or trying to impress his grandchildren? There was no surrounding community to correct the recitation. In the Middle East there is.

The Swoon Theory

The “swoon theory” argues that Jesus never really died, only appeared to have died, and then came back to life while buried in the tomb. It’s an interesting idea, one that was popularized in a book in the 1960s by a man named Hugh Schonfeld. Schonfield argued that Jesus had not only not died on the cross, but had in fact faked his own death and resurrection. What foresight on the part of Jesus!

Pastor Greg Laurie shares a story about the “swoon theory” from a local newspaper on the topic:

“Our preacher on Easter said that Jesus just swooned on the cross and that His disciples nursed Him back to health. What do you think? Sincerely signed, Bewildered.” So somebody at the newspaper wrote back, “Dear Bewildered, beat your preacher with a cat o’ nine tails with 39 heavy strokes. Nail him to a cross, hang him out in the sun for six hours, run a spear through his heart, and embalm him, and put him in an airless tomb for 36 hours and see what happens.”

Stuart Strachan Jr., Source Material from Greg Laurie, Article: “Could Jesus Have Survived the Crucifixion?”, Christianity.com

Humor

The Swoon Theory

The “swoon theory” argues that Jesus never really died, only appeared to have died, and then came back to life while buried in the tomb. It’s an interesting idea, one that was popularized in a book in the 1960s by a man named Hugh Schonfeld. Schonfield argued that Jesus had not only not died on the cross, but had in fact faked his own death and resurrection. What foresight on the part of Jesus!

Pastor Greg Laurie shares a story about the “swoon theory” from a local newspaper on the topic:

“Our preacher on Easter said that Jesus just swooned on the cross and that His disciples nursed Him back to health. What do you think? Sincerely signed, Bewildered.” So somebody at the newspaper wrote back, “Dear Bewildered, beat your preacher with a cat o’ nine tails with 39 heavy strokes. Nail him to a cross, hang him out in the sun for six hours, run a spear through his heart, and embalm him, and put him in an airless tomb for 36 hours and see what happens.”

Stuart Strachan Jr., Source Material from Greg Laurie, Article: “Could Jesus Have Survived the Crucifixion?”, Christianity.com