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THE AUTHORITY OF THE BIBLE
2 PETER 1:17-21
Series:  Armenian Evangelical Confession of Faith - Part Three
Article 3

Pastor Stephen Muncherian
November 16, 1997

In 1990, Robert A. Seiple, president of World Vision, writing in World Vision Magazine, wrote this personal account. “In 1915, a Russian Armenian was reading his Bible when he was beheaded. I saw the Bible - large, thick and well used. Inside was a reddish stain that permeated most of the book. The stain was the blood of this man, one of more that a million casualties of a religious and ethnic holocaust.”

Our forefathers lived believing in the absolute supreme authority of the Bible over their lives - the holiness of Scripture. To them - the Bible stood above governments - above clergy - above the church and her traditions. It was supreme in authority and the words of the Bible were trusted and read - even in death.

We are continually challenged by the legacy of our forefathers. A precious and costly legacy of faith and commitment. In the Armenian Evangelical Confession of Faith, Article 3, adopted in July, 1846 - this statement of our forefather’s belief is recorded. “We believe that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments were given by inspiration of God, and are a revelation of His will to man, and the sufficient and only rule of faith and practice.”

This morning - as we’re continuing our focus on our beliefs and practices as an Armenian Evangelical Church - looking at our forefather’s beliefs and practice and the teaching of the Bible - we want to ask this question: “What place does the Bible have in our lives today?”

I’d invite you to turn with me to 2 Peter 1:17-21 - to these verses which challenge us with the authority of God’s word over our lives today. As you’re turning - I want to share some background material - to help give the setting for what Peter is writing about.

The Gospel writers record an event which we have come to call “The Transfiguration”. Jesus has been teaching about His going to Jerusalem and His death. A teaching which greatly worried the disciples. They needed a confirmation as to who Jesus really is.

Jesus takes Peter, James, and John with Him up a high mountain. And while they’re on that mountain Jesus is completely changed - transfigured - His face is shining like the sun and His clothes become white as light. The three disciples are given a privileged glimpse of Jesus’ Godly glory.

As they are standing there - Moses and Elijah appear talking with Jesus - and a bright shinning cloud passes over them and the voice of God speaks from the cloud. “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to Him!” This scene is a powerful confirmation - by God - that Jesus really is the Messiah - the Christ - the one that all the Old Testament prophets spoke of.

Now, 2 Peter 1:17-21:  “For when He - Jesus - received honor and glory from God the Father and the voice was borne to Him by the Majestic Glory, ‘This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,’ we heard this voice borne from heaven, for we were with Him on the holy mountain.  And we have the prophetic word made more sure. You will do well to pay attention to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.  First of all you must understand this, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, because no prophecy ever came by the impulse of man, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.”

There are two truths in what Peter is writing that I’d like to share this morning - because they challenge us to think about what place the Bible has in our lives today.

1. JESUS VALIDATES THE GODLY INSPIRATION OF SCRIPTURE - THE BIBLE REALLY IS THE WORD OF GOD

Our forefathers said, “We believe that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments were given by inspiration of God.” In plainer language - this means that the writing of Scripture resulted from a cooperative activity between God and human authors. God exerted enough influence in them - without controlling them completely - to guarantee that the original manuscripts - not later copies or translations - the original manuscripts as they wrote them rendered the thoughts of God free from error in what they affirm or teach.

Have you ever thought about how important your name and address are? The details of your name and address set you apart from the other 5 billion people living on planet earth. With even greater detail, God wrote an address in the Bible to single out His Son, the Messiah, the Savior of mankind, from anyone who has ever lived in history - past, present, or future.

A minimum of 200 plus years before Jesus was born prophecies were written concerning who the Messiah would be - how He could be identified. Imagine one of our ancestors - 200 years ago - living someplace in central Turkey - trying to predict your name and address today.

In the Old Testament there are 60 major messianic prophecies and approximately 270 ramifications that were fulfilled in Jesus Christ. The chance that any one man might have lived down to the present time and fulfilled all just 8 of these prophecies is 1 in 10 to the 17th - a one with a lot of zeros after it.

To put this into perspective - suppose we take 10 to the 17th silver dollars and lay them on the face of Texas. They’ll cover the entire state two feet deep. Mark one of these silver dollars and stir the whole mass thoroughly, all over the state. Blindfold a man and tell him that he can travel as far as he wishes, but he must pick up the one marked silver dollar and say that this is the right one. What chance would he have of getting the right one?

He’d have the same chance that the prophets would have had of writing these eight prophecies and having them all come true in any one man - providing they wrote them in their own wisdom. Over 300 prophecies were fulfilled in the coming of Jesus Christ - only God could have accomplished that.

There are a tremendous number of proofs for the Divine inspiration and infallibility of scripture. Among them - Peter - speaking of Jesus - says - verse 19:  “And we have the prophetic word made more sure.” The fulfilled prophecies of Jesus Christ prove the Bible as the inspired word of God.

Peter’s second truth that we want to focus on is really a point of application - What place does the Bible have in our lives today? Peter says that:

2. GOD’S WORD DEMANDS OUR RESPONSE

As Peter puts it, because we have the certain word of God - verse 19 - “pay attention” to it. The God inspired Bible has the right to command authority over every part of our lives. Or as our forefathers stated it, the Bible is “the sufficient and only rule of faith and practice.”

Amy Carter brought an assignment home one Friday night while her father was still President. Stumped by a question on the Industrial Revolution, Amy asked her mother for help. Rosalynn was also fogged by the question and, in turn, asked an aide to seek clarification from the Labor Department. A "rush" was placed on the request since the assignment was due Monday.

Thinking the question was a serious request from the President himself, a Labor Department official immediately cranked up the government computer and kept a full team of technicians and programmers working overtime all weekend... at a reported cost of several hundred thousand dollars.

The massive computer printout was finally delivered by truck to the White House on Sunday afternoon and Amy showed up in class with the official answer the following day. By the way, her history teacher was not impressed - Amy got a “C” on her paper.

Supreme authority commands unquestioning respect - obedience - trust. Some people say that, “The Bible is an ancient book written for another time. We have greater scientific knowledge and face different challenges today. I believe in God - but surely you can’t take the Bible literally - it just doesn’t apply.”

Its hard to understand how we can say in one sentence that the Bible is the inspired word of the God who is infinite - timeless - all knowing - all powerful - our creator and sustainer - and our Savior - and who has communicated with us exactly what He desires from us - and in the same sentence claim that His word is not sufficient to guide us in faith and the daily living of our lives.

Imagine a man who takes a bottle of medicine from his medicine cabinet. Looking at the instructions on it, he says, “I'm sure they're correct. I have all confidence in the source of the medicine. I know who wrote these directions. I believe everything about it. I know this will relieve my headache, if I just take it.” But he takes the medicine bottle and puts it back on the shelf.

A recent Barna Research Group Survey - conducted among a random probability sample of 641 adults - found that one half of all Americans do not read the Bible and that the majority of all born-again Christians only read the Bible once or twice a week, or not at all.

The resulting lack of Biblical knowledge is not surprising. Among Christians in the survey, 22% thought there actually is a Book of Thomas in the Bible, and 13% said they had not idea. Three quarters of the Christians surveyed knew that the Book of Isaiah is located in the Old Testament, while 11% thought it is in the N.T., and 13% didn’t know where Isaiah was.

42% of the Christians thought that the phrase, “God helps those who help themselves” was a Biblical quotation. By the way - it was Benjamin Franklin who said that.

Olympic gold medal gymnast Mary Lou Retton said, "Here's what it takes to be a complete gymnast. Someone should be able to sneak up and drag you out at midnight, push you out on some strange floor -- and you should be able to do your entire routine sound asleep in your pajamas. Without one mistake. That's the secret. It's got to be a natural reaction.”

The Bible must have authority over our lives - not just when it seems reasonable or convenient - or fits our framework of understanding and experience - the Bible must have authority over our lives in all things. God’s word should be so deeply imbedded within us that our natural reaction will be to live in obedience to it - to live as it teaches us to live as an integral part of our nature.

Our forefathers believed that the Bible was to have supreme authority over their lives - above church - clergy - government - to rule over us in all matters of faith and practice - in ever aspect of our lives.

Here’s the question: How precious is the Bible to you? Can you live without it? For a day? A week? I think most of us struggle with this - the need to read - to study - to meditate and memorize - counter-balanced by competition from everything else. And yet, as I was preparing this study - I was again reminded that this really is the God inspired message of life for each one of us. These words of Peter - “pay attention” - encourage each of us here - this week give the Bible the place of priority - of authority - that it demands - that it deserves.

Its said that when the famous missionary, Dr. David Livingstone, started his trek across Africa he had 73 books - in 3 packs - weighing 180 pounds - all of them seemingly vital and important. After the party had gone 300 miles, Livingstone was obliged to throw away some of the books because of the fatigue of those carrying all his baggage. As he continued on his journey his library grew less and less - he had to keep dumping books - until he had only one book left - his Bible.