Dial In with Jonny Ardavanis - Paul Twiss - Can we trust the Bible?

Episode Date: November 4, 2021

Jonny Ardavanis is the Dean of Campus Life at The Master’s University, a Camp Director at Hume Lake Christian Camps and hosts the podcast Dial In with Jonny Ardavanis. He is passionate about the Gospel and God’s Word and desires to see people understand and obey it. Dial In with Jonny Ardavanis: Big Questions, Biblical Answers, is a series that seeks to provide biblical answers to some of the most prominent and fundamental questions regarding God, the Gospel, and the BibleIn this episode Professor of Theology Paul Twiss answers the question: “Can we trust the Bible?”Subscribe to stay up to date with each episode! Watch on YouTubeFollow on InstagramVisit Our Website

Hey guys, my name is Johnny Artavanis and this is Dial In. If you haven't already, if you could please subscribe and rate the Dial In podcast. This helps enable other people to discover the podcast and the show and hear more biblical content. With that being said, in this episode I sit down with Professor Paul Twiss and ask him, how do we know if we can trust the Bible? Is the Bible reliable? This is obviously a huge question because we as Christians predicate everything we believe upon God's word. So if you're ready, let's dial in. Well, Paul, thank you for sitting down. I would love for you to introduce yourself

and who you are, what you do before I ask you this importance question that I have for you down. I would love for you to introduce yourself and who you are, what you do, before I ask you this importance question that I have for you today. Yeah. My name is Paul Twist. I work at the Master's Seminary. I teach in the Bible Exposition Department. So one of the classes I teach every year is Bible Survey. As the guys come into the seminary, we just walk through Genesis to Revelation every year. And then it's also my privilege to teach some languages. I do some Greek grammar and some Hebrew exegesis, and it's a joy. I enjoy it. And that's a real accent. This is a real accent. I might say that's a real accent, John. And where are you from, for the people that are wondering? I'm from the UK originally. So I

grew up in the southeast of England and moved over here nine years ago now to study at TMS as a student. And we ended up staying a bit longer than we thought, did a bit more study, and then that turned into a faculty position. So God has been very kind to us. Good. Well, I want to ask you a question today. You know, if you look at a dollar bill in the United States, it says, in God we trust. And yet that idea, that construct is difficult because many people don't trust the Bible that declares who God is. And so it's hard to really live a life of trusting God when much doubt is thrown upon the scriptures today. And so I wanted to ask you today, Paul, can we trust the Bible? And what are the evidences that suggest and really confirm for a Christian that the Bible is true?

What would you say? There's many ways we could answer that question. As a foundation, I would just begin with saying, yes, absolutely, we can trust this book. It has stood the test of time over hundreds and hundreds of years. It has stood up to every level of scrutiny that has been brought upon it. No contradictions have been found. And it displays just a wonderful, a remarkable level of internal consistency, of unity. So just a very kind of obvious way to point to that consistency. In the Old Testament, there's many prophecies given. God raised up these prophets, they projected forward, and they spoke of things that would come to pass. And we can turn to the New Testament and find so many of those prophecies fulfilled

to the letter with a very high level of specificity. Now, that's remarkable in and of itself. If I could broaden that beyond just the notion of prophecy being fulfilled, think about the fact that this book has been written by many human authors. So the Bible is composed of 66 books written by many human authors. The Bible tells us we're carried along by the Holy Spirit, and they wrote the very words of God Himself. That internal unity, that consistency that I talk of is demonstrated as we read through

from Genesis to Revelation, and we see the theology complementing itself from book to book. There are no theological contradictions. There's no one author saying something different to another. In fact, quite the opposite. So one of the things I like to do is to show people how from Genesis to Revelation, there are these themes, these ideas being painted in redemptive history, that God is working out a plan. And again, remember, these themes are being recorded by many human authors along the way. Perhaps I could give just a few examples. So we start in the Bible with God setting up Adam above all of the created order, and he sets him up, I often say, like a vice regent. God is the ultimate king, but he sets Adam on earth,

reigning over the created order as his representative, his vice regent. So that introduces, just by way of a hint, this kingly motif. Adam then rejects God. He disobeys God, and we have Genesis chapter 3, the fall. And in there, God makes a promise of a seed, an individual that will come and that will right the wrong. And the picture given is of the seed, the individual crushing the head of the serpent. Now, even that image is a well-known kingly image in the cultural time of that day. So there again, that hint of this kingly theme.

We move on, and it's only a few chapters later that God says to Abraham, kings will come from you. He makes that promise. From you, from your line, there will be kings. In Genesis 49, the promises given to the tribe of Judah are very regal in their nature. There's this individual that will come from the line of Judah who will hold a scepter in his hand and the obedience of the nations will be unto him. And then you move forward to the time of David and God says, from you, David, there will come a king.

And he makes these promises, this covenant, this kingly covenant. And then jumping forward to the time of Christ, Jesus shows up and says, and I am that king. kingly covenant. And then jumping forward to the time of Christ, Jesus shows up and says, and I am that king. He says, I'm the son of God, the Messiah, and that's the kingly claim that he makes. And of course, people don't like it and they reject him. And ultimately he's crucified, but he shows that he is the promised king who has come to make all the wrong things right. The apostles talk in their epistles a lot about this kingly notion and the implications for the church today. And then the Bible ends in Revelation with the kingdom finally being established in all of its fullness when Christ returns. So there's just one

example of how there's a theme that's developed all the way through Scripture such that we can sit here with the Bible in our hands, we can read it from beginning to end and see this remarkable internal unity, this consistency, which testifies to the trustworthiness of this book. You mentioned, you know, that there are no contradictions in the Bible. You know, one of the rebuttals that so many people would return is say, well, what about all of the apparent contradictions? And you said, well, there are none. So maybe can you define for me the difference between biblical tension and biblical contradiction?

There are no contradictions, but there is at some times tension. Like, for instance, if God is totally sovereign and I'm totally responsible, how do we reconcile those two realities? So can you help me explain that? Yeah, it's good to point out there are tensions. So there are no contradictions in the Bible, but are there tensions? Absolutely. It's important to remember this is not an easy book to read,

and nobody ever said it would be. The truth is accessible, but this book requires a lot of study. We are to read it and we're to come to terms with it and to think hard about it. So a tension that we might point out is just simply in the first two chapters of Scripture. We read Genesis chapter 1, God's creative work, and in Genesis chapter 2 chapter 1, God's creative work, and in Genesis chapter 2, we read of God's creative work. And people often point to that and say, can you see how there's a contradiction?

There really isn't a contradiction. I understand how on first reading, you might say there's a tension here, but if we apply ourselves and we really wrestle with what's going on, we can see that in all of these cases, there is a solution to be found. With that particular example, at the very beginning of Genesis, we see the seven days in which God created and then on the seventh day rested,

and that forms the prologue to the whole book of Genesis. What then happens in chapter two is it's as if we go back and we see the sixth day when he created man from a slightly different camera angle. And that's fully acceptable. That's entirely appropriate that we might tell a story in that way. And so when we come to see that actually it's a question of perspective, we're just looking at the same event from a slightly different vantage point. All of a sudden, there's by no means any contradiction, and we find a satisfactory resting point by which we can understand the tension. There are some theological tensions, and you just alluded to one, God's sovereignty and man's responsibility. And we can go anywhere in the Bible and see that the text affirms both.

The text teaches that God is utterly sovereign. He is responsible for all things. He is the author of life and he governs the world. He is the king over the universe. And we can see time and time again that the Bible places on man a responsibility, a responsibility to repent of his sins, to put his faith in Christ. That's a theological tension that the Bible gives us. And it's right that we ponder and we wrestle with these things, but it's very important that we don't label these tensions as a contradiction just because we don't necessarily have the answer upon first glance.

Now, Paul, we can look objectively at the historicity of the Scripture and see that it lines up with even secular accounts of what transpired over time, and we can look at the accuracy of the manuscripts and how they're dated and whatever that might be. But talk lastly just about the Holy Spirit's influence in providing the conviction necessary for the Christian to be able to confirm and affirm that this is the Word of God.

How it's not just merely an apologetical rebuttal, because Satan knows more apologetics than C.S. Lewis. What is the Holy Spirit's influence in giving us a conviction that this is true? Yeah. Well, you're exactly right. There's lots that we could say about the evidence and the historical data surrounding this book that would give us more confidence in it. There's lots we could say there. But we must also pay attention to the role of the Holy Spirit in our reading of the Scriptures. The Holy Spirit gives us eyes to see the truth. And it's when we would put our faith in Christ, repent of our sin, acknowledge Him as Lord,

that the Holy Spirit is pleased to help us read this book. As an unbeliever, if you come to this book, you may see lots of things going on, but you don't see what you see when the Holy Spirit opens your eyes. The Holy Spirit has this relationship with the Word of God. He helps us to see and to apprehend the truth. And therefore, it's critical that as we approach this text, quite simply as Christians, we ask God to help us. We would pray to God and say, as I read this book, Holy Spirit, open my eyes to see the truth, soften my heart to receive it so as to be changed into the likeness of Christ and live a life that honors the Lord. Yeah, and we can pray with the psalmist,

you know, open my eyes, oh God. And maybe what would be just your final wisdom to someone who wants to believe the Bible is true, but just has been surrounded by so much doubt in their own life that's been cast upon their trust in the Scripture? How would you call them and just exhort them to ask? Would you just say, well, ask God for that trust and dependency just to believe that it's true? What would you say? Yeah, I would say don't overcomplicate the issue. Don't make it unnecessarily complicated. I understand that we all bring experiences to the text. We bring things to the table that can be a great hindrance to us as we seek to discern the truth. But if you would put those things to one side and understand that the objectivity of this book is not dependent on who you are or what you bring to it.

The trustworthiness of this book is not dependent on who you are or what you bring to it. Just come to it with simple childlike faith, asking God to help you believe, and then engage in it, trusting that it is indeed His Word and He has spoken to us the truth. Paul, that's so helpful. Thank you for your time. My pleasure.