Chapter Three

REASONS WE BELIEVE: CHAPTER THREE

Reasons We Believe In The Bible

Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. II Peter 1:20-21

Many people come with the assumption that the Bible is merely the product of the imaginations of men and will say these kind of things:

It isn't historically accurate; it is fanciful stories.

Even if it were true, it has been passed down so many years we cannot trust the reliability of it.

Here again, so much has written of the scientific and academic support of the Bible. We can hold complete confidence in the Bible on academic and scientific reasons.

Peter tells us the first thing we must understand, of primary importance, is that the Bible is the word of God, which has come about, not by human intention, but by the will of God. Men wrote the Bible under the inspiration of the Spirit of God. It is our intention to give you some proofs for the Bible so you can take it in hand and with full assurance and know it is the reliable, exact Word of God.

I. The Prophetic Element The Bible is like no other book in a variety of ways, especially when it comes to prophecies fulfilled. Buddha, Confucius, Mohammed, The Koran have no prophecies, let alone prophecies fulfilled. The closest thing in the Koran is when Mohammed gives one prophecy that he will return to Mecca and he does. But in the Bible there are hundreds of prophecies fulfilled.

Dr. James Kennedy tracked, for a few years, the top 10 psychics who gave 61 prophecies in the National Inquirer. Of the 61 not one prophecy given for the next year happened in that next year.

In the Bible there are up to 4,000 prophecies given. They are not general, but quite specific; 2000 of these have already been fulfilled.

Lets Look At Some Examples of Prophecies About Various Cities:

What God said would happen did happen:

All these can be shown to have been prophesied and written before the events, because many took hundreds of years to be totally fulfilled:

Tyre: The great city of trade and culture on the Easter coast of the Mediterranean. In Ezekiel 26:10-21 God said it would be destroyed and never rebuilt. That would be like today prophesying that New York city would not only be destroyed and never reinhabited, but also have all these things done to it: Quote, "They shall destroy the walls of Tyrus and break down her towers: I will also scrape her dust from her and make her like the top of a rock. It shall be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea: for I have spoken it saith the Lord God. And they shall lay thy stones and thy timber and thy dust in the midst of the water … and I will make thee like the top of a rock.. Thou shalt be built no more."

Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon later conquered the city but left the walls and most of this Prophecy still undone. 250 years later, Alexander the Great came to conquer it again. By that time, Tyre had built part of its city as a fortified city out on an island ½ mile from the shore. It looked impossible to conquer, but he commanded them to raze the town and scrap everything into the sea to build a causeway out to the fortified part of the city. When he conquered the fortified island, then he had that too scraped and everything thrown into the ocean. All that was left was just a barren rock. The city has not been rebuilt and reinhabited.

Now we may think, maybe this is not a good location for a city, but it is on the Eastern edge of the Mediterranean. Another interesting fact is that at the site there a great freshwater springs that run into the sea. A modern engineer measured the output of these springs and found them to produce 10 million gallons daily, enough fresh water to supply a large modern city, yet it has never been rebuilt after 2500 years.

Sidon: Here too, God prophesied that it would be destroyed but that it would be reinhabited and it is still with us today.

Samaria: The city would be cast down, it would just become a heap and be turned into a vineyard Micah 1:5-6 Which is what it is today.

Jerusalem: It too, would be destroyed, walls destroyed, its inhabitants carried away; but it would be revived and its people would be brought back. It is with us today.

Edom - A Nation of people and cities: God said in Ezekiel 35:3-9, “I will make thee a perpetual desolation, thy cities shall not return. A modern report of the area by a skeptic of the Bible wrote of this area saying "At present all this country is a desert." Yet he says "the traces of many towns are met with". A noted Swiss explorer John Burkhardt says the whole plain presented to the view is an expanse of shifting sands.

Babylon The greatest city of ancient times existed with walls 15 miles in length. Herodotus, an ancient Greek historian, said its walls were 250 feet high and its tower 300 feet high; at their base they were 187 feet thick. He said he refused to write about the tremendously fertile area because people would think he was crazy. History tells us of its fabulous hanging gardens and beauty. Babylon was famous for its mathematics, time measurement and science. It was an impenetrable city and the capital of the empire.

Yet, in Isaiah 13:19 and Jeremiah 51:58-62 God said it would be destroyed; it would be a haunt of wild animals and desolate forever. He said the broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken.

An Interesting Note: The final fulfillment of these prophesies happened in an interesting way. After the time of Christ the walls still stood. There was a Roman Emperor, called Julian the Apostate, in the 4th century. He was a non-believing predecessor after the Christian emperor Constantine. He wanted to return Rome to its pagan ways and greatly persecuted the church. When he was having a problem with the Persians near Babylon, he ordered the walls completely devastated so that they would not afford the Persians any secure fortress. Thus, he helped fulfill the Biblical prophecy of the God he was against.

The Great walls of China remain; but not the great walls of Babylon!

Alexander the Great decided he was going to rebuild Babylon and make it his capital, but immediately after making that declaration he was killed.

II. Historic Validation The historical records detailing the life, teachings, miracles, and resurrection of Christ are overwhelming.

Some scholars have concluded that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is one of history’s best-attested events.

One scholar by the name of FF Bruce says, "Some writers may toy with the fancy of a Christ-myth theory, but they do not do so on the grounds of historical evidence. The historicity of Christ is a axiomatic for an unbiased historian as the historicity of Julius Caesar. It is not historians who propagate the Christ-myth theories."

Basic facts:

1. There is 10 times the amount of evidences for the Bible than there is for any other comparable historical event. Josh McDowell says, “The Bible compared with other writings, has more manuscript evidence than any ten pieces of classical literature combined.”

2. In the first few centuries, no one questions if the miracles of Jesus happened. In fact, the Jewish, Pagan and Roman writers validate the fact they happened by contending with how they could have happened. As an example, one Celsius writing to a Christian in the second century was debating why the darkness happened when Christ died on the cross. He said it had to have been just an eclipse. However, modern astronomy has shown that an eclipse cannot happen during a full moon, which is when Passover/Easter was. Celsius’ argument against how it happened proves it happened.

3. No one questions the existence of the apostles who spread out from Palestine throughout the known world. They turned the world upside down. As one scholar said, "That a few simple men should in one generation have invented so powerful a personality, so lofty an ethic and so inspiring a vision of human brotherhood, would be a miracle far more incredible than any record in the Gospels". Most all of these died tortuous deaths holding to their belief in Jesus and what the Bible taught. Would men die in such terrible ways for a fictitious story they said they believed, that would have been a good time to change their story; but they didn’t!

4. Even if all the first manuscripts of the New Testament had been destroyed we could put 98% of the New Testament back together from quotes included in letters we have from early Christians.

5. The only reason academic people reject all this is not because of evidences but because of a refusal to believe in God and the miraculous. A fact they will often admit.

6. Renowned Jewish archaeologist Nelson Glueck said, "It may be stated categorically that no archaeological discovery has ever controverted a biblical reference."

7. Guess how many archeological sites have been carried out which validate some facts of the Bible. 1,000, 3,000? No! Over 25,000 archeological sites have validated facts of the Bible. Dr. Albright says, "There can be no doubt that archeology has confirmed the substantial historicity of the Old Testament Tradition."

8. With the astounding growth of Archeology it has not been the Bible that has been put to shame, but constantly it has shamed the skeptics. There are many instances in which scholars denied the Bible’s validity since many of the events and towns had never been heard of, thus they attributed the stories to fancy tales; yet later, modern archeology proved the existence of such events, peoples and places.

One Such Example. Everyone who has taken Old Testament in most of the 20th Century in college has been taught the “Source theory”, which states that the much of the Old Testament was not written as it purports to have been written, by Moses. The theory they have taught is that these Old Testament stories were just handed down and developed by oral tradition until about the time of David. One reason for the development of this “Source” theory was because they thought that writing wasn’t even known in the time of Moses.

Yet in 1975, construction workers broke through the ceiling of a large library and made one of the most important archeological finds of the 20th Century. It was a library of thousands of tablets. As scholars read these tablets, they discovered that this was not just a library but also a whole commerce center. They discovered references to other such centers in the Mid-East, some of which they therefore searched for and found. They dated these library / commerce centers to the time of Abraham and the City of Ur. They discovered they used a credit system so people traveling and trading throughout the Middle East could do business; Ur was the largest trade center connected with this system, the New York City of their time. – the original home area of Abraham – who lived a 1,000 years before Moses. My Seminary Professor declared this discovery blew this “Source” theory apart.

III. How The Bible Came To Us It seems God does everything with man out of respect for the partnership which He has made with us; He has given us authority over the world, authority with Christ so that God will speak and work in the world through people.

In the same way God brought the scriptures to us, it says, through men, but only as they were led by the agency of the Holy Spirit.

I have seen some go into seminary, but their faith has been thrown out as some present the scriptures as just a work of men. But, this fact inspires me all the more, rather than tearing down my faith, because I see here too, how God works with people in our history to bring about His Kingdom.

If we just say men wrote the Bible, that doesn’t sound persuasive, but as we study it and see the totality of the results of it we come to see it is a book like none other ever written or could have written by human minds.

44 men over 1600 years, writing in 4 different languages, wrote this book of books which carry a common theme and character and purpose.

We have already discussed the amazing prophetic power it carries which has seen hundreds of prophecies fulfilled over hundreds of years.

Yes, the Bible was birthed out of men’s experiences with God; yes it came out of our history, but that makes it all the more valid. Think of it! If a book just appeared out of nowhere, how much validity would there be too it: no testimony of nations, families, people, to confirm the truth of its events and declarations. No rather, it is better it came out of our history. God has a “His-story” with us.

IV. Changed Lives and Cultures Here is a book that has totally changed the world - what would the world be like if the Bible had never been?

Take for example the 12 common men with no formal education or experience other than following Jesus for three years. (Not even four years like a college education.) They were fishermen, a tax collector, political zealots, etc.

Think about it! These 12 common men, who were with Jesus, go out with an amazing story which would not be easy to sell – a man they knew was crucified and raised from the dead, three days later he ascended bodily to heaven and He is going to come back and rule the world and heaven for He is the Son of God! Given their culture, circumstances, standing, all odds were against them. Yet, they went out throughout the known world and change the world.

What could possibly account for they success? Only the fact that it was true and they had the power and truth to back it up!

II Peter 1:16 We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.

Acts 26: 26 "For the king knows about these matters, and I speak to him also with confidence, since I am persuaded that none of these things escape his notice; for this has not been done in a corner.

V. How The Bible Was “Canonized” The word canon comes from the root word that means “reed”. A reed was used in measuring as a standard or rule. As God worked in people’s lives and society, they recognized God has spoken and they wrote down these things. The things that were written which were recognized as “God-breathed” were eventually compiled by the people of Israel to complete the Old Testament, and by the Christian community to complete the New Testament.

So for instance in regards to the New Testament as time went on and many writings were present, the churches came together because it saw the need to recognize which writings had the weight of authority and genuiness. These early Councils established rules they would go by to separate out the scriptures from other writings. Other writing were as simple as regular letters people had written or general writings telling about events or even fictitious writings (“pseudipigraphical”) some had written. The fact that they had to separate out the fictitious and the normal writings from those everyone recognized as “God-breathed”, inspired writings, gives even more credence to the Scriptures, because they had every chance to exaggerate, falsify or enlarge their story; but they didn’t.

Even the fact that the Bible shows all the faults and failings of the Apostles gives it more genuiness, because if they had been falsifying the whole thing, why not hide their leader’s failings and add more fabulous tales.

The rules they went by in choosing which were to be considered scripture were these:

Did local church communities attest to it’s authority; for instance, would they say things like yes our church knew the Apostle Paul and he wrote this letter to us. It is in our history and we have a relationship with the person and the writing. This goes a long way against what people might think that maybe somebody just made up an imaginative story and threw it out into society and history and somebody picked it up, not knowing where it came from and started believing this incredible story. Were these scriptures collected and used by the people of God as scripture. Is it prophetic. Did it come from a proven man of God. Did it carry a weight of authority. Did they recognize it as having come from the hand of God. Is it dynamic with life-transforming power from God. What about the Apocryphal Books?

The Apocryphal Books were 14 books written between the 3rd and 1st Centuries BC. The Jewish people and the Christians have recognized them as interesting and informative books, but not on the level as scripture.

Jesus never referred to them or quoted them. None of them claim inspiration, and one in I Maccabees 1:27 claims it is not inspired. These books were never included into the Bible until the reformation when the Catholic church added them in the Council of Trent in 1546. This is viewed as suspect since the reformation people like Luther were calling for Biblical support of the Catholic teachings. Not finding support for some of the ideas except in the Apocrypha the Catholic Church declared that now the Apocryphal writings were to be accepted as Scripture.

VI. Accuracy of Transmission One of the common ignorant arguments against the Bible is that it must not be accurate since it has be handed down over so many years; even if it was correct in the first place how do we have any assurance that it has been accurately transmitted to us. This is a valid question, but we have good answers.

One good answer is that we now have confirmation of the accuracy of transmission of Scriptures because of the discovery of old manuscripts such as the Qumran or “Dead Sea Scrolls”. Here in 1947 was a discovery of many scrolls hidden away in the dry desert caves in the Dead Sea area. These scrolls had been hidden there by a religious community that thrived before and during the time of Christ.

Here we found ancient scriptures from the Old Testament with fragments from every Old Testament book except Esther and a complete manuscript of the book of Isaiah. When compared with what we have today and we find that these scripture texts which have been handed down to us over 2000 years show virtually no changes, certainly none that change any thoughts or doctrines. This is an amazing confirmation that the texts copied and recopied over 2000 years were transmitted faithfully.

Again to put some perspective to the manuscript evidence: Homer’s Iliad has only 643 old manuscript copies left from the centuries of copying. But, the New Testament has 5,366 copies of old manuscripts.

Now there are variants, which have crept into the transmissions, such as a variant spelling of a word. Some magnify these to discount the scriptures. But, that is like ignoring an elephant to focus on a gnat. So as some copies followed with the same variant, some people will say, (because there are three thousand manuscripts which followed with this variant), they will say there are a 3000 variants in the transcribed text, thus distorting the issue. But, what scholars tell us is we have 100 percent of the New Testament and we are sure of 99.5% of it. These small changes make no doctrinal changes.

Now in a way these small variants actually help to prove the reliability of the scriptures in this way: They earmark or help track the “families” of copies that have been disseminated out into the world.

The fact is that the scriptures were not disseminated in a single line of copies down through history. Rather than having copies in a straight line in history as a straight pole, the copies of the Bible are more like a tree with copies, early on, being sent out to different areas of the world, to Africa, Asia, Europe etc. Now as we go back to these early copies we can compare, say, the African “family” of copies with the European “family” of copies. If people had been messing with the copies, the changes would be glaringly obvious, but the scriptures have stayed the same, proving the accuracy of transmission. This is an amazing confirmation of consistency of transmission to the Bible Text. In the early centuries, there was no way continents could compare text. They could only transmit accurately the copies they had in hand originally.

Along that same line of thought, we see another great example of comparison of parallel scriptural sources. In the 200’s BC, 70 Jewish Scholars assembled to translate their scriptures into Greek. This version is known as the Septuagint (meaning 70). Thus, there is another translation but in a different language, providing another transmission bible which has continued, also since then, which still remains in agreement with the Hebrew Old Testament. Comparison of the Old Testaments of the different languages agree, which they wouldn’t if the Old Testament Scriptures started being “messed with”.

How could they be transmitted so exactly? Because the scribes went through extreme lengths to assure the accuracy of each text. For instance they would know a text would have a certain number of letters per page and per line. Not only would they proof-read them but they would add up all the letters to assure that there was not one too many or too few. If they found a mistake, they would destroy it, although it may have been one whole day’s work. This would insure there would be no alternative copies floating around to confuse from the original.

The attitude the scribes had was, this was literally the word of God, and every smallest stroke was important. Jesus told us in Matthew 5:8 “For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished.”

When the translators of the King James Bible did their work, they were working off of transcripts that were only 600 years old, going back to around 1000 A.D. Today with the years of modern archeology and discoveries we understand the early languages much better and have hundreds more manuscripts dating much older. One piece of the Gospel of John discovered goes back to 125 A.D. One silver scroll we have of the book of Numbers goes back to 500 B.C.

VII. The King James Version and Translations Some people get very narrow in regards to which translation is best. I will address this briefly. In regards to the King James Version, everybody agrees that the scholars who worked under the directive of King James in the 1600’s did a remarkable job with translating from the Greek and Hebrew. But, the scholarly fact is, with all of the discoveries of Archeology and greater understanding of the original languages, along with a greater wealth of earlier manuscripts, the new translations are better equipped to render a more accurate translation of the original languages.

One thing that happens is, when people first fall in love with God and the scriptures, is that first version they hear and learn from is so precious to them because it rings so true; so when another version is presented that sounds and reads differently, though still accurately, they compare (not scholarly to the original texts and better understanding of original Greek and Hebrew,) all the changes in the new and believe since it is different it is not as good of a translation.

There is another issue with translating any language. Some people get dogmatic and sound correct when they say, there should only be a literal translation. But, here is the issue, do we translate the meaning or the words? Here is an example, do this: translate from English to English this sentence (but you can not use the same words) (as if then, it would be a different language). Translate this: He didn’t lose his cool, but kept his head on straight. How would you translate that? Literally, you could say: “The man kept from getting hot, the vertebrae in the neck remained aligned.” Does that correctly translate what is being said? The meaning, without using the same literal words would be translated: “He didn’t get mad, but kept thinking clearly.” What translators do, when they translate, is to put words in italics when the word isn’t in the original language. Many people take offense at that and say they are taking liberties; no, they are trying to be faithful to show what they are doing while trying to retain the real meaning.

The reality is there are better and worse translations, but they all work off the basic original Greek and Hebrew Bible. So, there are many issues. For instance, the NIV is a good accurate translation, yet it is written to be understood at the Seventh Grade level. The idea is to make the Bible more understandable to more readers. But it, in effect, the words become more generalized and the meaning of “bigger words” which have greater shades of meaning and understanding and not put into place.

Paraphrases are different than translations! Paraphrases are attempts to totally make it sound like today’s common slang and the translators admittedly take a lot of liberties that way, in order to try to communicate the meaning. They make very poor study bibles and admittedly will have the translators biases seep into the paraphrase.

No one translation is perfect; they all have advantages and disadvantages, even failings. But, don’t be too discouraged, because the reality is, the Author of the scriptures is also your Interpreter of the meaning. If you listen to the Holy Spirit, the scriptures are still the Word of God and will come alive to you and the Holy Spirit will speak the true meaning of what is being said into your heart, regardless what version you are reading.

The Bible has changed and impacted more people than any other book, even though people can’t read it in Greek or Hebrew and have to read it in Spanish, Korean, Chinese, Russian, Swahili, etc. It is living and active; it is God’s Hammer, it is God’s Sword! (Jeremiah 23:29, Ephesians 6:17).

Another issue regarding the King James Version is, regardless of the good translation, it is translated into 1600 English. A person from that time speaking English would not be understood on today’s streets, so there is a constant effort to keep the scripture in the common language of our present time.

VIII. The Bible Code There has been a discovery that the Bible seems to contain a code. Now this is not a basis for our faith, but it is very interesting and seems to be verified as an amazing thing.

For some reason, we do not know why, Isaac Newton believed the Bible contained a code and recently when they collected and studied all his papers of his life they discovered he spent more time on trying to find the code than he did on all his other well-know scientific work. 50 years ago a Jewish Rabbi noticed if you skipped every 50 letters in the Torah (first 5 books of the law) it would keep spelling out the word "Torah".

Then a few years ago, another Jewish rabbi thought the computer could be put to work on this and he started finding other words. In fact, thousands of revelations have been found that relate to history. The code appears not just as single words, but words in approximate locations of text with related names, dates, topics closely grouped.

Now some disparage this, and say this could happen in large works such as War and Peace and indeed they have found some words in this manner; however this does not seem to compare with the scope and complexity of the Bible code. Remarkable confluence of words and names surpass any conceivable way any human mind could create such a code. Continued scrutiny will probably show more.

A Jewish reporter from the New York Times reporting on a treaty in Israel heard about this and investigated the story as a sideline. At first he presumed it to be fraudulent. When he went to interview the rabbi he thought he would be shown a bunch of parchments but instead was taken to the computer and had it shown to him. He then took it back and took it to the Pentagon’s Master code official who developed his own computer program to check it out and came back to report that there really is a code system in the Bible.

The theory was then published in a scientific magazine only after several independent studies to prove it. It was then reported to the Jewish government. They have found over 1,000 historical incidents to this date in the Bible code. Much more work is being done on the Bible code and it seems to be valid. It is like God is further revealing His creativity and power and witness to the scriptures. Some think the Bible may be “the Book” referred to in scripture that contains all names and events.

IX. The Bible And Science Many of these following ideas in this section are taken from Grant Jeffries book Creation.

The Bible was not written to be a scientific book, yet some interesting references refer to scientific truths. One such truth we already discussed is the very fact that the Bible says the world was created out of nothing. To the Greeks and modern men up until the last century this was ludicrous for men believed that matter always was.

Another Biblical idea is that the world was created and is running toward an end. This fits the Second Law of Thermodynamics that describes the fact that all systems and elements in our Universe tend to disintegrate. This of course flies not in the face of the Bible, but of evolution, which proposes things are constantly evolving to a higher better development.

In the Book of Job is says in 26:7, “He stretcheth out the North over the empty place and hangeth the Earth upon nothing. What an amazing statement, men in the past could not possibly envision such a possibility.

Scientists talk about a “hole” in the North towards the polar star where there seems to be an unusual gap in the distribution of galaxies.

Job 38:16 says, “Hast thou entered into the springs of the sea?”… Yes underwater exploration has discovered numerous huge springs of fresh waster pouring out of the floor of the ocean.

I will just quote for Grant Jefferies Book Here:

Genesis describes the supernatural creation of man in these words, “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” (Genesis 2:7). Scientists used to ridicule the apparent simplicity of the scriptural account that God used “the dust of the ground” to construct the incredibly complex proteins, molecules, and sixty trillion cells that make up a human being. However, scientists were recently startled to discover that the clay and earth found in the ”dust of the ground” do contain every single element found in the human body….every single element found in the human body exists within the soil.

X. To Duplicate the Bible Let's say: If you were going to duplicate this feat of creating another type of book as amazing as the Bible and start another new religion; here is what you would have to do:

Compose a book that contains a unified theme, which would be written by 44 men of different walks of life in different times and situations and occupations over a period of 1600 years in four different languages. Include in it 2000 prophecies which would be specifically fulfilled over the years to come. Give details accounts of towns, individuals and stories that none of your contemporary civilization has any record or proof of their existence, yet will become proven to have existed by over 25,000 archeological future digs spread all over the middle eastern world about 4000 to 2000 years later.

Foster a made up amazing story of how one of your contemporaries, which was well known, was, contrary to everything they saw and heard, the son of God, who healed the sick, performed miracles, raised the dead, was himself raised from the dead, they all saw him and saw him ascend into heaven and now rules from heaven. Convince hundreds and thousands of these contemporaries to believe this so strongly they would be willing to suffer tremendous persecution and death for the cause of your lie.

Have in it such an amazing quality of inspiration that it will change countless lives, set the foundations of governments and laws and survive the concerted effort of empires to remove it from the world.

Write it in such a way that every time people read it, it would be fresh and revealing and would constantly be the best selling book in the world every week of every year.

XI. References to the Bible "If you are an intelligent person, you will read the one book that has drawn more attention than any other, if you are searching for the truth."

It is impossible to govern the world without God and the Bible. -- George Washington

The whole inspiration of our civilization springs from the teachings of Christ and the lessons of the prophets. To read the Bible for these fundamentals is a necessity of American life. -- Herbert Hoover

In regard to this great book, I have but to say, it is the best gift God has given to man. All the good Savior gave to the world was communicated through this book. But for it we could not know right from wrong. All things most desirable for man's welfare, here and hereafter, are to be found portrayed in it. -- Abraham Lincoln

John 10:35 Jesus said "the Scripture cannot be broken"

John 19:24 "This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled which said, "They divided my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing." So this is what the soldiers did."

Acts 1:16 and said, "Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled which the Holy Spirit spoke long ago through the mouth of David concerning Judas, who served as guide for those who arrested Jesus--"

II Timothy 3:16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Matt. 24:35 Heaven and earth will pass away,but my words will never pass away.