Introduction // The most crucial question for Christians is "Why the Bible?" as everything in Christian faith hinges on this.
Emmanuel Tuscaloosa Building Blocks
Why I Believe the Bible Ep. 1
The following audio is brought to you by Immanuel Baptist Church in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. More information about our church can be found at ImmanuelTuscaloosa.org. The most crucial question that we have to answer, that any Christian has to answer, is why trust the Bible. I think your worksheet says why the Bible, it should say why trust the Bible, write that in there for me since I forgot. Why trust the Bible? And really everything in the Christian faith hinges on this. Now let me let me qualify that just briefly. Everything in the Christian faith hinges on the resurrection of Jesus Christ, period, right? But if we're going to know about the resurrection of Jesus Christ, it must be told to us. It must be recorded for us. We must actually have evidence that we believe that he rose from the dead. That is what the Bible is there for. So as some have put it, hey, we are Christians. We believe in the Holy Trinity, Father, Son, the Holy Ghost. We don't believe in the Father, Son, the Holy Bible. That's not the Trinity. Trinity is the Father, Son, the Holy Ghost. That is true. However, the Bible, we believe, is God's authoritative, revealed word about himself. So if we can't trust the Bible to actually and accurately reveal who God is, then we really can't know God very well at all, can we? So when it comes to Christianity and us being able at the coffee table, as we talked about during the apologetics building block the last this just a few weeks ago, if we're sitting at the coffee table with our unbelieving friend or maybe our believing friend who is losing confidence in the faith or perhaps we're just having a conversation with a Christian friend. If it's all well and good, if we present Christ and we can say who he is and what he has done for them, but if we don't have the ability to take the scriptures, open them and find in them a trustworthy record of God's revelation of himself to them, then really all we're standing on there is a matter of opinion. And at least to your friend, couldn't they also come back with and say, well, yeah, I've been reading the Quran and I find in it God's revelation of himself. What is it that separates the Bible from everything else? Why is it that we believe the Bible and why can we trust it in comparison to other documents around the world, other holy books around the world? So so much of the Christian faith and our belief in the resurrection of Jesus hinges on our ability to trust in the Bible itself. Now, a lot of times when we're backed into corners, Christians often answer the question when they're asked, now, why is it that you trust the Bible? So picture yourself like in a college setting or something like that, a student being questioned by his professor or something like that. Being asked, why is he trusts the Bible? Some of the sometimes the responses that come to the surface for us or maybe the ones that we thought about the most, maybe the ones that are in our back pocket, we that are on the top of our mind are something like that's how I was raised or it changed my life. So we either go to our past, well, this is what my parents have always taught me or our personal experience. Well, I mean, I've gone to church my whole life and this is the change that I've seen in my life. Those are good things, right? Those are valuable things. I would say those are that that is what we would call a personal testimony. The Bible is not authoritative if it has solid words in it, but it has no impact at all, right? So demonstrating the impact on your life is valuable and important. However, it's inadequate if we're engaging in a conversation with the unbelieving. And the reason is because those, you know, evidences, this is how I was raised, it changed my life. They can be easily dismissed because what you're presenting ultimately is something that is not unique to Christianity. There are many Mormons that you could sit down with who would testify that the Book of Mormon has changed their life, that they can testify that they were raised in Mormonism. And it seems to have worked for them. So you see these these claims that you're making while they are helpful, they're helpful on the back end after we have established the authority of God's word first. And we've gone through and demonstrated that. But here's there's some problems. I want to go back to the passage that I just passed up in 1 Corinthians. I want you to read this. And I want you to see as we're engaging in this conversation over God's word with the unbelieving, what exactly we're up against. Paul gives us this in 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verses 18 to 21. For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing. But to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. For it is written, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart." Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom. It pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. So what is Paul saying here? Turn it over to you. What is Paul saying here? Yeah. So at first there's the basic point that those who are outside of Christ are blind, is there more than he's saying than even just that? They're certainly blind. What does that mean for you when you're arguing the power of God's word to the unbelieving? It makes sense to whom? Yeah. So there are those in Christ to whom the salvation, the gospel message makes total sense and is representative of the power of God. That is, for those who are in Christ, it makes sense. The lights come on. I see this. This is God's own power revealed to us to save us. But what does it mean in that college setting, you're talking with your very wise professor who is dying the whole atheist. What does it mean for them? How do they see the gospel? Timothy? Yeah, so essentially by the world's standards, what you're arguing in the town square sounds like foolishness to those who are perishing. Just to clear the air here and just admit something that is basically true. What we believe as Christians sounds weird. So you're telling me God's son came to earth as a baby. He grew up, had his diaper changed, went through adolescence, had acne, grew up to an adult, lived a perfect life, died on a cross, was buried and three days later got up from the dead and now he has gone to the right hand of God and is seated and he's going to come back one day and the dead in Christ are going to rise from the dead when he returns. He's going to create the world anew in a new heavens and new earth and the wicked he's going to throw into the lake of fire for all of eternity. That basic message of the gospel sounds very, very weird to people who are not Christians. Sometimes it sounds very weird to people who are Christians. They go, okay, tell it to me again. Make sure I have the basic points down. So just to kind of put forward what you're saying when you sit down at the coffee table with your friend who is unbelieving or in the classroom with your atheist professor, what you're going to argue for the the gospel sounds very, very weird. Now in order, just humanly speaking, for someone to go, okay, let me entertain this for just a second. There must be some substantial reasons that you have for actually believing it and you shouldn't be ashamed of this. Listen, yes, the righteous live by faith, but that doesn't mean that faith is completely blind to facts. There are evidences that we also believe as reasons why we believe the Bible is true and those are the things that we're going to spend a lot of time on. Now this is Peter's charge to us in 1 Peter 3 verse 15, which is the verse cited down there. He says this, "But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and respect." I want you to see a couple of things about this verse here that is of particular importance. One is that the Christian here in his heart is honoring Christ the Lord as holy. And what does that mean in his heart honoring Christ the Lord as holy? What does that mean he's doing? He's representing him. He's an ambassador. So that means that there are people that are observing him being an ambassador. So if he's honoring Christ the Lord is holy in his heart that spills out into his actions every day of the week. People are seeing that and look at what happens. This is what Peter says, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you. So the example that Peter is giving is one who actually lives in accordance with his beliefs that is demonstrated to other people. They see the hope that is in him and they go, "Hey, why is it that you act this way?" And they ask the question to him. So then he responds, what does that mean? That he's able to give a response. Go ahead. Yeah. Right. So what does it mean if you're living that out not only are you living it out but in your heart honoring Christ as holy is also continually thinking about the reason for the hope that is within you. That's the reason when someone asks you, "Hey, why do you believe this?" You're able in a moment's notice to get evidence for the hope that is within you. So this is something that you're contemplating. This is something you're thinking about. These are arguments that are well-rehearsed. In other words, Timothy. So that means if we're giving evidence for the hope that is within us, giving a reason, a well-reasoned defense as Peter uses the word an apologetic for the hope that is within us. That means that there are things that we're thinking about, reasons why we believe this, reasons for not only what we believe but why we believe it. These are things that the personal aspects of our life absolutely play into that but it's more than just that. Personal transformation stories are powerful but they're not unique to Christianity. They can be paralleled by other religions or belief systems. The experience alone cannot serve as the foundation for biblical authority. It doesn't mean that experience isn't important. It means that experience alone can't form the basis for biblical authority. So instead this is what we're going to do. We're going to take a explanation, a short little paragraph that I'm going to put up here every week and we're going to do our best to commit it to memory. This is something that you can kind of sit on. You can think about and any time anyone asks you why do you believe the Bible or perhaps you just want to throw it out there at some point as a reason for which you think the Bible is credible, you can maybe use this. This comes from a pastor and professor named Vodibakam and I think he summarized it really well. It's very good. I think it's worth committing to memory. The Bible is a reliable collection of historical documents written by eyewitnesses during the lifetime of other eyewitnesses. They report supernatural events that took place in fulfillment of specific prophecies and claim that their writings are divine rather than human in origin. Let's say that again. The Bible is a reliable collection of historical documents written by eyewitnesses during the lifetime of other eyewitnesses. They report supernatural events that took place in fulfillment of specific prophecies and claim that their writings are divine rather than human in origin. Now, I want to show you where that comes from. This is how the Bible defends itself. First, 2 Peter, chapter 1, verses 16 to 21. "For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father and the voice was born to him by the majestic glory, this is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased. We ourselves heard this very voice, born from heaven. For we were with him on this holy mountain." So he's not talking about the baptism of Jesus. He was talking about the transfiguration. Peter was there. "And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your heart, knowing this, first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation, but no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit." Now, if you look at that at those six verses, what you'll find there is basically Peter's stating what we just said about the Bible. The Bible is a reliable collection of historical documents written by eyewitnesses during the lifetime of other eyewitnesses. "Not following cleverly devised myths," you understand. "We saw him. This is the basis of the confession of the entire New Testament. It's on the basis of people that saw him. They didn't hear the report of somebody else and then go right about him. They saw him. I heard the voice come from the clouds. I saw him transfigured. John says in his gospel, "We beheld his glory as of the only begotten of the Father." We're reading eyewitness accounts of Jesus himself. Ear witness accounts of the voice of God testifying, "This is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased." Not only that, but Peter is writing at a time when other people who are eyewitnesses could correct the record. And even further than that, Peter is not only writing at a time when other eyewitnesses could correct the record, but they also are writing at that same time. And all of these men are facing horrific torture for what they are telling. So what you have in the Bible is something entirely different than you get from basically anywhere else. No, in fact, my main reason for believing the Bible is not because it has had a profound impact on my life, though it has. It's not because it worked for me, though it did. No, the reason that I believe the Bible is because it's a reliable collection of historical documents written by eyewitnesses during the lifetime of other eyewitnesses. It reports supernatural events that took place in fulfillment of specific prophecies and it claims that its writings are divine rather than human in origin. That's what he gets to. He says, "No one follows these myths. In fact, we were holy men wrote as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. This is divine rather than human in origin." So these are fantastic claims that the Bible is making. There's no question about that. The Bible is unabashed in its claim that this book is divinely written, not human. So your job then is to back that up. Here's how I know this is divine rather than human in origin. So we've got to unpack all of that over the course of 13 weeks. How do you defend that? Go ahead. 100% agree with you. Part of the process, though, of learning. So if those of you in the back couldn't hear that, Millie was basically saying, "Hey, I'm in a position very similar to them in that I know that I need to learn." Jesus says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit. I don't know at all and I can understand people questioning that." And that is absolutely true. We're 100% in that spot. We will always be learners. If this is genuinely the Word of God, then you should expect that someone who is brand new could drink from the waters. I think it was maybe Gregory the Great. It has a famous kind of saying several hundred years ago. The Bible is, as it were, a stream by which the lamb can drink and the elephant can float at large. So it is because it is the Word of God, it is both. It is a place where the new can come and drink, nibble at the waters, so to speak, and where the elephant can jump in and never reach the depths because it is the Word of God. But it also is our job to keep coming back to the waters, to keep learning. In order for someone who is unbelieving on the other side, to do that, they do have to understand that that's exactly what it is. This is the Word of God. And in a world that is blind to the gospel, that the good news sounds like foolishness to their ears. The obstacle that's in front of you is a spiritual one, right? The Holy Spirit is going to have to open their eyes to see the truth of His Word. And all of that is aided by your presenting the gospel to them, making it clear, by your understanding of what the Word of God is and arguing for its effectiveness. All of those things matter in the grand scheme of things. So as much as we can take in, and as much as we can use in our apologetic to others, giving that well-reasoned defense for the hope that is within it, the better. So that's our goal. That's what we're wanting to do, is unpack that and understand what it is that we're actually reading and giving ourselves to. So the defense of the Bible's authority has to be rooted in the Bible itself. And here's the reason why. There is no higher authority. So there is kind of one school of thought that says, look in the town square, when you're arguing for the good news of Jesus with unbelievers, well, you can't use the Bible to argue for the good news because they don't believe the Bible. The problem with that notion is that if I have to appeal to external authority to validate the Bible, then which one has the higher authority? The Bible or the external authority? Well, if the external authority has had to validate the Bible, then the external authority has the higher validity. But in reality, what we're claiming is that the Bible is the authoritative word of God. It's divinely written and divinely inspired. In which case the Bible is the supreme authority? So how do we take the Bible, open it and say, well, let's see what God says about these things. And you tell me, if it's true, go ahead, James. I know what you're going to say. Go ahead. And it would be nice to be able to do that now. And I think by arguing first for the Bible's authority with our friends, establishing it as authoritative and as God's word, and then being able to use it, teach it and explain from it is a far better tool of evangelism than throwing this out and saying, let's just argue on the basis of human reason and logical love that God is true. Right. Yeah. That's right. Yeah. You're essentially, yeah, and that's exactly what you're doing. Throughout the Bible, you're playing by their rules. Now, let me clarify here, too. And let me say that there are ways and approaches and certain times that you're able to do this in certain times where you're more handicapped. You have one hand tied behind your back or something like that, perhaps in the workplace or, you know, I can imagine a professor, a Christian professor who gets up in front of the classroom and says, well, let's just do a Bible study instead of, you know, complex mathematics or something like that. And probably not good. That's probably not the thing that you need to be doing at that moment in time. But so I'm not saying that, well, always and ever, you only take the Bible and you only argue from it, as we talked about in the last building block over the summer, there are apologetic arguments that we use that we help people understand and really even just open their mind to the fact that God could exist and things like that. But ever and always, we're moving back toward the Bible as authoritative once you put this on the table and once this becomes, in the eyes of both of you, an authoritative source, well, now you really have the advantage. That's the point is once this becomes the source of authority, you have the advantage in the conversation because it's the word of God. The Bible is not just one book. It's a collection of historical documents. It's written across three continents, Asia, Africa, and Europe. In three languages, Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic, there's brief passages that are written in Aramaic. By over 40 authors, from various walks of life, over 1500 years, I think this is probably one of the things in studying the Bible that is the most appealing, not only to people, but to Christians, but I think that is the most helpful, even for me, is the discipline of biblical theology. For some time, we have been on Wednesday night going through connecting the Bible's storyline from beginning to end. At feast, once a month, on Mondays, we're going through slowly the book of Revelation. And it's just once a month, we're just kind of opening, taking a little passage at a time. The next time we get there, we've forgotten what we talked about last time. So we review and then we go back into the next little bit. And that process, when you look at, say, like the book of Revelation, for instance, what you're going to see is how many storylines and threads that John is picking up from Genesis all the way through and bringing to a conclusion. What you begin to see is how tightly held together the story of the Bible actually is. And then when you take a step back from that, you say, this is one very complex yet at the same time, very simple story told by over 40 people who spoke three different languages, who lived on three different continents, who lived over 1500 years apart in some cases. Now let's do an exercise. Sit around the table with your family at dinner, and one of you start a story. And the next one, continue it. And then tell about a paragraph and then kick it to the next one and the next one and the next one and the next one and the next one. And you'll see how wild this story gets after that long. Or play a game of telephone. You say one thing in the ear of somebody and then let them pass it down from person to person. And of course, by the end, the story is wildly different than what you originally told at the beginning. What you'll see is that for 40 people over three continents, speaking at least three different languages, telling one consistent story from beginning to end is impossible. And yet when you give yourself to even the study of biblical theology and see what story line the Bible is actually telling from beginning to end, what you'll see is this cannot come about by human origin. There's just no way. The Bible itself is streaming to you. This is divine rather than human in origin. The Bible was written by eyewitnesses who recorded events. They personally witnessed. For example, we have Luke who is Luke himself was not an eyewitness, but the gospel of Luke is not Luke's own story. Luke is a physician. We know that, but he's also a historian and he tells you what his method was for establishing the Bible's story. Look at Luke one to four. I know that's not the passage cited right here, but I've got it in your packet. We're going to go ahead and read it here. In as much as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, just as those from the beginning where eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also. He's not denigrating those others. He's saying they were good too, they're eyewitnesses. It seemed good to me also having followed all things closely for some time past to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught. Theophilus literally means God lover, but it was also a common name back then. So we don't know if there was somebody who said Luke, I want you to go investigate the details for me and give me an orderly account. And he's reporting this back to a man named Theophilus. Or if he's writing to you, God lover, for you to understand that this is an orderly account. In other words, what Luke has done in his gospel is he has gone back to the original sources. He sat down with them and he has interviewed them. And this has probably been some time past. He's been taking notes. This would be the only gospel that you read where Mary treasured things in her heart. You get insight into what Mary was thinking when certain things were happening to her and around her. When the shepherds came and they said they saw angels in the fields over the fields and told them to come here and then they walk away glorifying God. It says Mary treasured these things in her heart. Now how does Luke know that? It's obvious. He sat down and talked to Mary herself and got her account. So what you're reading in the Bible are eyewitness accounts. They're books that are written based on other eyewitnesses. So the events of the Bible, particularly the New Testament, were documented within the lifetime of other eyewitnesses during the lifetime of Mary as an example. And during the lifetime of Luke and Paul and John and James. And so what does that do then? Well it provides a check against fabrication. In what you'll notice, this is one particular pet peeve of mine is, especially if you're reading like commentaries and things like this on people's take on the Bible, there's always a question when it comes to the book itself. One particular, take a book, any book of the Bible as to when it was written. And what you'll notice is that there are many people who comment on the Bible who want the date of the writing to be as late in the timeline as possible. And why is that? Because it explains how they could get prophecy right by human origin. It makes it human rather than supernatural in origin. So in other words, if the prophecy that is recorded there in the Bible is recorded because somebody already witnessed it being fulfilled and then recorded it, that doesn't make it a prophecy anymore, does it? It makes it a newspaper. But instead what the Bible is saying is this was recorded in the Old Testament before this ever took place. This was recorded before we ever saw this being fulfilled. This prophecy of Moses that said you're going to go into the land, you're going to commit idolatry and you're going to go live in the land that is not your own. Now if that's written down by somebody who's already in Babylon after they've worshiped other gods, it's not quite as impressive as it. But if those first five books of the Bible are written in fact by Moses as we believe they are, since they are called the Book of Moses, then that is a prophecy about what's going to happen to the nation of Israel that in fact ends up coming to fruition. So it's check against fabrication. If this is written by our witnesses, during the lifetime of other eyewitnesses, if it's written close to the time of the resurrection, let's say, then it provides a check against fabrication. Paul in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 tells the church that, listen, I don't think I put that one down, sorry, I know y'all are flipping for it, I'm sorry, he tells the church in 1 Corinthians 15, this is the gospel that we believe, and the reason that we believe it, that Jesus rose from the dead, is because there were 500 eyewitnesses to his resurrection. Many of them are still alive to this day. What does that mean? You can go talk to them. You can go ask them. They'll provide evidence that this actually happened. It's a check against fabrication. So the consistency across multiple accounts and the willingness of the authors to include detailed eyewitness testimony underscores the Bible's reliability as a historical document. So you've got not only in the gospels, do you have four different people writing these accounts, but the accounts across the gospels are remarkably consistent. Now, a lot of hay is made when you talk to unbelievers about the discrepancies. Well, was this one man that was possessed by demons or was it two men possessed by demons? And things like this, these are little nitpicky details, which there are good answers for, but at the same time, you're pointing out these little minor things, but look at the story itself. Then on the third day, he rose that there were women that went to the tomb, and this is what they saw and when they got there. This is what was recorded. And the consistency across those stories is remarkable. The consistency across first and second kings and first and second chronicles, first and second Samuel, first and second kings, and first and second chronicles is remarkable. There's consistency across multiple accounts of the same story, gives credibility to the Bible's authority. So in defending the authority of the Bible, instead of focusing merely on its personal effect, will this work for me? Well, it's had an impact on my life. We can also focus on the historical reliability, the consistency of eyewitness accounts, the fulfillment of specific prophecies, and what that does then is say it's more than just personal for me. The personal matters. It actually has an impact on my life, but it's more than that. It's also reliable. It's trustworthy, and it's been proven trustworthy over time. See the gospel message itself, the resurrection of Jesus Christ is crucifixion. It was all falsifiable at the time. The apostles are coming forward in the city where it happened, and they're preaching the resurrection of Jesus. An event that if they wanted to was easily falsifiable, they could either demonstrate that there was a body. They could point to the tomb where the body lay. They could hold the disciples up and say, hey, look, they stole the body, and one of the disciples would, at the risk of being tortured to death, likely confess. But it wasn't falsified. The argument that the Bible cannot be trusted due to multiple translations is also flawed. This is another argument that you'll hear from many people is that, well, the Bible has passed through so many hands what we have now couldn't possibly be reliable. So the illustration comes like the game of telephone. It was told to somebody initially, and then it was passed down and changed hands over time, and then it got to the point where it is to us today, and who knows what we got here in this copy of the New Testament or the Old Testament? How do we know that it's reliable? But it's not like the game of telephone. The Bible has actually been translated from its original source material from Greek, from Hebrew, from Aramaic. The translations that we have in English are translated directly from Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic, not from a translation of a translation of a translation of a translation. Not only that, but the New Testament alone has over 6,000 manuscripts or portions of manuscripts, some dating back to within decades of the original writing. Now you take something like the New Testament, for instance, that has 6,000 manuscripts or portions of manuscripts and compare it to something like Homer's Odyssey or any of the works of Plato, which no one questions. It pales by comparison those writings compared to what we have in the New Testament. Bible translators are the envy of the world's translators. No one that's translating the works of Plato into another language has what biblical translators have in terms of the amount of resources available to them, the amount of original source material available to them. Not only that, but as time goes on and as the New Testament is studied over and over, we can actually see and verify where the mistakes happen. We can see at what century the mistakes started to occur. We can sometimes even pinpoint a manuscript that caused the problem to begin with. So the discrepancies that are there in the translation of the Bible even have an example and a reason for those discrepancies. We can point them out. So all of that we've got to unpack. We're going to be going through for the next 13 weeks archaeology. We're going to go through Bible translation, the basics of Bible translation. We're not going to translate anything. Just saying, we're going to understand how it takes place. Manuscripts, papayri, we're going to talk about all of those kinds of things that are important for our understanding of the Bible. Questions right now for the introduction. Glad James. Yes. So James says that's what we were arguing is that the Holy Spirit was the one active and without that this wouldn't be possible. That's what the Bible is claiming about itself. That's what Peter is claiming there is saying, we didn't follow these myths. We weren't like reporting to you things that we've just heard that were passed along. No, holy men wrote as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. So the other part that we've got to understand too and we're going to unpack is what is it that Christians believe about the Bible? What is it that I'm defending? When I sit down and I make a statement, my belief statement about the Bible, what is it that we as Christians actually believe? And that's important, that the Bible is inherent and inspired and is infallible. What are those words even mean? And what is it that we're arguing for when we say that to the unbelieving? Yeah, go ahead. Yeah. So question was, with the New Testament, eyewitness accounts are super important. With the Old Testament, what do we do with eyewitness accounts? Because it's not as clear in the Old Testament. For one, we do have eyewitness accounts. So for instance, the Psalms are records of David's own hand. Some of them are records of David's own hand. So there are some eyewitness accounts there. Even with the Book of Moses, the first five books in the Bible, we would say that those are especially from Exodus on eyewitness testimony from Moses. The thing that we don't have necessarily is during the lifetime of other eyewitnesses. So we don't have that same kind of validity in the Old Testament. But what I think is also really valuable is archaeological record, which is another kind of foundational piece for the Old Testament's validity. And here's why that archaeology is a mixed bag, right? Because people are digging in the dirt and there are things that they have not discovered, right? But so far, the things that they have discovered have come back to affirm time and again what the Old Testament has been saying from the beginning. So here's one example. The Bible claims David was a king in Israel. History had never affirmed that until not only a few years ago. There was archaeological stone called a stela that was discovered and in in Dan. It was an archaeological discovery. And one phrase on this stone was recorded, the house of David. And before then, David didn't exist because there was nothing that we've ever found that said David was an actual king except for the Old Testament record. And so when archaeologists found the house of David referring to the nation of Israel, they realized David was, in fact, a king. And I know these sound like small little things, but there's thousands of these. Thanks for listening. If you live in the Tuscaloosa area and are looking for a church, we'd love for you to visit. Our service times are Sunday mornings at 1030 and Wednesday nights at 615. [ Silence ]