Voddie Baucham - Why I Believe the Bible

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hello, and welcome to her faith and family. With doctor
Richard Land, I'm Perl Parper. Today we want to welcome
back to the program Body Bancam.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Body has become one of the most sought after Bible
teachers in America, and his energy and passion always inspires
his audiences. So I know you're not going to want
to miss today's broadcast. He's going to share with us
the importance of evangelism. Not only that, he's going to
help us become more effective at sharing our faith. Body

(00:30):
was led to the Lord by a college friend, and
at the time he knew nothing about Jesus or the Bible,
so I guess you could say he has some first
hand experience.

Speaker 1 (00:40):
Let's listen in.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
As he speaks to the Southern Baptist of Texas Evangelism Conference.

Speaker 3 (00:46):
You heard earlier that I came to Christ my freshman
year in college. That was actually the first time that
I'd ever heard the Gospel because my mother, who raised
me as a single teenage mother in Los Angeles, California,
was a practicing Buddhist and so Buddhism was the only
faith that I knew growing up, and it wasn't until

(01:06):
I got to college that I was actually introduced to Christianity,
and so because of that, I have a different perspective
than most on the Christian faith. I want to share
with you tonight what it is that brought me to
that place where I was able to see and to
hear and to understand and place my faith in the

(01:27):
Lord Jesus Christ.

Speaker 4 (01:29):
How it is that he opened my eyes, brought me
from darkness.

Speaker 3 (01:33):
Into his marvelous light. And it just happened to be
very intellectual. That's the way I'm wired. That's why I
was put together. And I'm grateful that God put a
man into my life who when he started his presentation,
you know, he had when these presentations that he had
been taught.

Speaker 4 (01:52):
I believe it was ee evangelism explosion back then.

Speaker 3 (01:55):
He started this presentation and came to realize that, you know,
he was trying to help me connect the dots as
it relates to the Gospel, but I didn't really have
enough dots for him to help me connect. So he
backed up from his planned presentation.

Speaker 4 (02:11):
And he said, this is the Bible, and that's where
we started.

Speaker 3 (02:18):
And he came back every day for about three and
a half weeks, every day answering questions. Questions that I
had that he could answer, he would answer on the spot.
If he couldn't answer them on the spot, he would
go get information and come back later. But after about
the first week he had taught me how to go
and find answers myself to these questions, because folks, it

(02:39):
is not a crime to investigate Christianity.

Speaker 4 (02:45):
And we got to stop.

Speaker 3 (02:46):
Treating people who want to investigate Christianity like somehow they
are less than. God never called us to a blind faith.
If that was the case, he would not going through
the trouble of providing and preserving and protecting for us
his self revelation in the Bible.

Speaker 4 (03:08):
And so I just want to answer that question for you.

Speaker 3 (03:10):
Open your Bibles with me to the Book of Second Peter,
Second Peter, Chapter one. I just want to tell you
why I choose to believe the Bible. Certainly not because
I was raised that way and I wasn't. And by
the way, would you please promise me that if somebody
asks you why you choose to believe the Bible, you
will never ever in your life give that as your answer.

Speaker 4 (03:32):
Why do you believe the Bible? Yeah, as high as
raised don't do that. Please, please, just please don't do that.

Speaker 3 (03:44):
I mean, if you feel like that, just kind of
hold it under your breath.

Speaker 4 (03:47):
Don't announce it to other people. Amen. Can we at
least go that far? Or there's another one.

Speaker 3 (03:52):
Because we live in this age where experience is king,
because we've sort of been kind of inundated with postmodernism.

Speaker 4 (04:00):
We believe that experiences.

Speaker 3 (04:02):
Kings are the most powerful thing that we can say
to people about why it is that we believe in
the Lord Jesus Christ and why we believe what the
Bible says about Jesus is because we've tried it and
it works for us. And so with boldness we stick
out our chest and they say, you tell me about
this Jesus and you get that information from your Bible.

Speaker 4 (04:22):
But why is it that you believe the Bible?

Speaker 3 (04:24):
And we stick our chest out and we say, because
I tried it and it works for me. Hold on,
is that your final answer, Because if it is, you've
got a small problem. Actually it's a large problem because
if that's your answer, what you just did was you

(04:45):
opened a logical hole big enough to drive a mack
truck through. Because if you choose to believe the Bible
because you tried it and it works for you. Then
what do you say to the individual who went to
a twelve step program. They told him I believe on
this third step that he had to have higher power.
Couldn't think of anything. So he looks outside his window.
There's a squirrel who visits faithfully every day. He decides

(05:06):
that that squirrel outside of his window will be his
higher power. He hasn't had a drink in the last
five years. He tried it and it worked for him.
Or how about the Mormon that lives better than.

Speaker 4 (05:18):
Most of the members of our churches. I can't say amen.
You ought to say ouch. They tried to book a
Mormon and it worked for them. Is that our answer?

Speaker 3 (05:33):
No, I'm not saying that that's unimportant. It's very important.
But the Bible's not true because it works for us.
It works for us because it's true. So we don't
start with our experience here. There is something far beyond
that experience can lie to you and can deceive you.

(05:54):
And so I just want to pose another answer to you.
It's an answer that I derived from this Passenger scripture,
and I'll show you how it is that I derived
it from this passage of scripture. But I just want
to give it to you first as we get started,
all right, Because it's a reliable collection of historical documents
written down by eyewitnesses during the lifetime of other eyewitnesses.

Speaker 4 (06:14):
They report to us supernatural events.

Speaker 3 (06:16):
That took place in fulfillment of specific prophecies.

Speaker 4 (06:19):
And claim to be divined rather than human in origin.

Speaker 3 (06:25):
Let's look at the text to Peter chapter one, beginning
of verse sixteen. For we did not follow cleverly devised
tales when we made known to you the power and
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. But we were eyewitnesses
of his majesty. For when he received honor and glory
from God the Father, such an utterance as this was
made to him by the majestic glory. This is my

(06:47):
beloved son, with whom I am well pleased. And we
ourselves heard this utterance made from Heaven when we were
with him on the holy mountain. So we have the
prophetic word made more sure, to which you do well
to pay attention, as to a law shining in a
dark place, until the day dawns. In the morning star
arises in your hearts. But know this first of all,

(07:07):
that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one's
own interpretation, For no prophecy was ever made by an
act of human will, but men moved by the Holy
Spirit spoke from God.

Speaker 4 (07:24):
Seems like he's answering a question, doesn't It.

Speaker 3 (07:29):
Like someone has some kind of objection to what it
is they were proclaiming, and he is responding as to
the nature of the authority of their proclamation. That he
is defending the accuracy, the authority, and the historicity of
the teaching of the Apostles that we now know as

(07:51):
the New Testament, which has its root and foundation in
the Old Testament scriptures.

Speaker 4 (07:58):
He is defending a k in the Bible. So what's
his argument.

Speaker 3 (08:03):
I'm glad you asked first of all, that it's a
reliable collection of historical documents.

Speaker 4 (08:08):
Look you what he says.

Speaker 3 (08:09):
For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we
made known to you the power and coming of our
Lord Jesus Christ. When we've told you about Jesus, we
did not share with you myths or fairy tales or legends.
This was not the Gilgamesh epic that we were sharing
with you. We were sharing factual information with you. Not

(08:31):
only that, it's a reliable collection of historical documents written
down by eyewitnesses during the lifetime of other eyewitnesses. Look
at what he says next. But we were eyewitnesses of
his majesty. We saw it. We were there by the way.
Turn with me to the right, if you will, the
book of First John. That's close enough. Look at me

(08:54):
seeing First John those first few verses. I'm not sure.
I think there's a point of emphasis here. Maybe you
can help me figure it out. Verse one, what was
from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have
seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and
touched with our hands. Concerning the word of life.

Speaker 4 (09:10):
I don't know. Maybe he's getting at something, maybe not.
Maybe Verse two will help us. And the life was manifested,
and we have seen and testify and proclaim.

Speaker 3 (09:20):
To you the eternal life which was with the Father
and was manifested to us. It's building. Maybe verse three
will shed the ultimate light what we have seen and
heard we proclaimed to you. Also we were eye witnesses.

Speaker 4 (09:41):
And there's something about eyewitness accounts.

Speaker 5 (09:44):
You know.

Speaker 3 (09:44):
I brought my son with me, and I can remember
my son you know, trying to train my son when
he was smaller, and trying to teach him to do
what he's told, and also trying to teach him to
tell the truth.

Speaker 4 (09:54):
Boy, I get little kids to tell the truth.

Speaker 3 (09:56):
Whoa those people who believe you know that we're you know,
basically good, they don't have kids. I remember one day
with my son, Son, I'm trying to teach him not
to touch the outlets.

Speaker 4 (10:14):
You know, don't touch those things.

Speaker 3 (10:15):
You tell them no, you spake that little head and
all that stuff, and you know, just no and okay.

Speaker 4 (10:20):
And he gets that. He doesn't like that when he's
spanking his hand. He's sitting over there. One day, I've
told him, no, I've spank his hand.

Speaker 3 (10:26):
We've gone through this twice now, sin rose up in
the boy looked at.

Speaker 4 (10:33):
Me, looked at the plug, looked at me, looked at
the plug. Son. Did you touch that plug? Oh, sir? Okay,

(10:57):
So we're gonna try that again. And you got a choice.

Speaker 6 (11:02):
Dad can get you for touching the plug, or he
can get you for touching the plug and lying about it.

Speaker 3 (11:06):
But before you speak, let me inform you I saw
what you did.

Speaker 4 (11:14):
Son. Did you touch the plug? True story. I love you.

Speaker 3 (11:28):
He couldn't lie anymore because it was there was a witness,
So Peter says, a reliable collection of historical documents written
down by eyewitnesses and touch it during the lifetime of
other eyewitnesses. I love First Ridians fifteen. Paul is making
his argument for the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Speaker 4 (11:49):
After he was resurrected.

Speaker 3 (11:51):
He appeared to Peter, and then he appeared to the disciples,
and then he appeared to five hundred.

Speaker 4 (11:57):
Brotherren at once.

Speaker 3 (11:58):
And I loved this line, most of whom remain until now,
although some have fallen asleep. That means the majority of
the five hundred plus eyewitnesses of the resurrection were around
when First Corinthians was written.

Speaker 4 (12:14):
Oh, I know you've been to school, you ede immicated,
and you've heard all this.

Speaker 3 (12:23):
Well, actually, the Bible's been translated so many times, and
what they've done during those translations is they've actually sort of,
you know, done a lot of reduction in order to
make the things line up. And so what we have
actually is not what really happened, but we have what
was written by the later community. I love that the
later community, these nameless, faceless people there's these over zealous

(12:49):
monks that have gone around and they've changed things so they.

Speaker 4 (12:53):
Look like they line up. But it wasn't really written
that early. It was written much later. Really, they messed
around and let me go to school too. Guess what
I know.

Speaker 3 (13:06):
I know that if some over zealous months were going
to change the Bible, they would have had problems. Three
problems in particular. First, they would have had a manuscript problem,
because when we just talked about the New Testament, they
would have had to locate some six thousand manuscripts or
portions of manuscripts and change all of them the exact.

Speaker 4 (13:26):
Same way, not allowed their inkwork.

Speaker 3 (13:28):
To show, and then get them back where they stole
them from before anybody saw them.

Speaker 6 (13:36):
Those six thousand manuscripts, that's no big deal, right. How
about Julius Caesar's Gallic Wars we got ten manuscripts. How
about Aristotles Poetics? We got five? How about Herodotus we
got less than ten. New Testament six thousand. Well how

(14:01):
about when they're written? Because they say these things are written.

Speaker 3 (14:03):
So late, Well, we've got manuscripts or portions of manuscripts
that can take us back as early as eighty one
twenty to one fifty. Oh, that's a long time after
the originals. Oh really, With Julius Caesar, it's about nine
hundred years. With Gallic wars Estota's poetics we got about
thirteen or fourteen hundred years. That's the earliest thing we

(14:25):
can put our hands on. With Homer about twenty one
hundred years. The earliest thing we can put our hands
on the New Testament within the lifetime of eyewitnesses. So far,
we just got to give history book. It gets good.
Now they report to us supernatural events.

Speaker 4 (14:44):
Little what he says.

Speaker 3 (14:45):
Here, he says, for when he received honor and glory
from God the Father, such an utterance as this was
made to him by the majestic Glory.

Speaker 4 (14:52):
This is my beloved son, with whom I'm well pleased.

Speaker 3 (14:55):
And we ourselves heard this utterance made from Heaven when
we were with him on the Holy Mountain. Now we
got supernatural stuff happening, not superhuman stuff.

Speaker 4 (15:04):
Supernatural.

Speaker 3 (15:07):
We're not talking about things that you know are just
out of the ordinary. We're talking about a withered hand
growing back. We're talking about a man who is blind.
It's got nothing in his head to see with able
to see We're talking about a paralytic who's never walked
in his life being told to raise up and take
his cot and walk.

Speaker 4 (15:28):
We're talking about.

Speaker 3 (15:29):
One of my favorites, Jesus saying, go to the other
side of the lake and I'll meet you.

Speaker 4 (15:39):
Later on on the ship, I see something like this.

Speaker 3 (15:45):
Hey, did Jesus say how he was coming?

Speaker 4 (15:55):
Know why? Because he's coming?

Speaker 3 (16:07):
Oh, my favorite Friday Dead Sunday risen not just superhuman
but supernatural events. So we got a reliable collection of
historical documents written down by eyewitnesses during the lifetime of
other eyewitnesses. They report super natural events. By the way,

(16:29):
these events took place in fulfillment of specific prophecy. Now
I know you know this, but I just want to
do it anyway because I just love to do it.
Turn with me and your Bibles to the left a
Psalm number twenty two. Now, realize, if I was asking
me to turn the Psalm number twenty two and we
were living, oh some random time like the first century
eighty thirty, just to pick something out of the air,

(16:50):
let's say eight thirty, and we're around Jerusalem.

Speaker 4 (16:53):
Since we're just being random.

Speaker 3 (16:54):
Here, we're around eighty thirty, we're around Jerusalem, and let's
say we're people who like to talk about the Old
test and I don't know, just pick a language, Arameic.

Speaker 4 (17:02):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (17:05):
If I wanted you to turn the Psalm number twenty two,
and we're living somewhere around eighty thirty, and we're living
in Jerusalem, when we refer to your Testament, air man,
I can't tell you to open the Psalm number twenty
two because there were no chapters in verses until a
few hundred years ago. I would have to tell you
to open to the title of Psalm number twenty two,
so I would have to tell you to open your
scroll too.

Speaker 4 (17:21):
And let my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
That ought to sound familiar.

Speaker 3 (17:27):
It's precisely what Jesus said when he was being crucified.
Why on earth do you make reference to Psalm number
twenty two when you're being crucified. I know you know
the answer, but just bear with me because I like this.
My God, my God, why have you're forsaken me?

Speaker 4 (17:42):
Look at verse six.

Speaker 3 (17:43):
I'm a worm and not a man, a reproach of men,
despised by the people. All who see me sneer at me.
They separate with the lip. They wiped the head, saying,
commit yourself to the Lord, let him deliver him, let
him rescue him, because he delights in him. Sound familiar,
that's just being said while Jesus is being crucified. Look
at verse twelve. Many bulls are surrounded me. Strong bulls
obasion have encircled me. They opened wide their mouths at
me as a rating and roaring lion. I'm poured out

(18:04):
like water on My bones are out of joint. Why
because you're being crucified. My heart is like wax, It
has melted within me. Interesting pierce him in the side,
thrust thing upwardly with a spear. Blood and water rush
out as you pierce the pericardium. My strength is dried
up like ponstured. My tongue clings to my jaws. I
first dogs have surrounded me. Huh gentiles? Could those be

(18:28):
Roman soldiers? A band of evildoers has encompassed me. One
on the right, one on the left. They pierced my
hands in my feet. I can count all my bones.
Why because your legs didn't have to be broken to
hasten your death. They look, they stare at me they
divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they
cast lots. That was written a thousand years before Jesus

(18:51):
was born by a man who never once saw crucifixion
in his life, because crucifixion had not yet been invented.

Speaker 4 (19:00):
And now the juicy part. They claimed their writings are
divine rather than human in origin. Lo what he says.

Speaker 3 (19:08):
Know this, First of all, no prophecy of scripture as a
matter of one's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever
made by an act of human will. But men moved
by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. That's where people
have problems.

Speaker 4 (19:21):
Men wrote the Bible. I just love that you're saying
that's the word of God. But men wrote the Bible.

Speaker 3 (19:31):
But the men who wrote it claimed that they were
writing the word of God. Yeah, but he's written by men,
and you can't rely on things that are written by men.

Speaker 4 (19:39):
Here's what I want you to do. Then, if you
believe that.

Speaker 3 (19:44):
You know a college student who study in mathematics and
they've been taught the Patagorian theorem and they got it
wrong on the test, I want you to tell them
to look at their professor and say you can't mark
me off on that because that information came out of
a book that was written by men. As a matter
of fact, if that's your problem with the Bible, I
want you to get rid of every book that you have,

(20:07):
because everyone you have was pinned by men. If your
argument is that information is inherently unreliable because men take
pin to paper, you can.

Speaker 4 (20:16):
Never trust anything else that you ever read in life.
You got to do better than that. Well then they
try to do better.

Speaker 3 (20:23):
Than that, and they said, well, okay, but I believe
that stuff you can prove to me scientifically. At this point,
I need to confess something to you. As a man
who lives inside of me, his name is bad Vodie.

(20:43):
I try to only let him out at night late
once a week when nobody's around.

Speaker 4 (20:50):
But sometimes he escapes.

Speaker 3 (20:55):
And one of the times he tries to escape is
when people say.

Speaker 4 (20:58):
This about the Bible. I believe that you can prove
it to me scientifically.

Speaker 3 (21:03):
When that happens, I clinch my fist and try to
grab real tight before bad vote. He just goes off
and does his thing. However, usually I fail. I have
to confess that please pray for me, because he doesn't
do things the way that I would like to do things.
He doesn't do things, doc the way you taught me

(21:24):
to do them. Bad vote, he doesn't operate like that.
Bad vote would have flunked in doctor Fisher's class. I
just have to admit that, because he hears that and
just goes off. He's just wait a minute. Did you
just say to me that you'll believe the Bible if.

Speaker 4 (21:35):
I can prove it to you scientifically. We have serious
problems here.

Speaker 3 (21:39):
The first problem is you stating that indicates to me
that you don't even deserve to be in this conversation.

Speaker 4 (21:45):
However, I'm going to allow you.

Speaker 3 (21:46):
To stay in this conversation because I'm gonna enjoy this
because you saying that indicates two things to me.

Speaker 4 (21:52):
Number one, you have no clue about the.

Speaker 3 (21:55):
Authority or histericity of the Bible. And number two, you
don't even know anything about the scientific method. If you did,
you would realize that in order to perform the scientific method,
something has to be observable, measurable, and repeatable.

Speaker 4 (22:08):
News splash.

Speaker 3 (22:09):
Historical events are unobservable, measurable, and repeatable. You can't use
the scientific method to prove that. George Washington was our
first president. So if you actually have a problem with
the Bible because you can't apply the scientific method, you've
got a problem with history itself. Now that we've settled
the fact that you don't deserve to be in this conversation,
let's go back to the real issue at hand, which

(22:31):
is this, if something is written, the only way you
can question it is if you don't have corroboration or
there's internal inconsistency. We can't find any internal inconsistency, and
we've gotten multiple corroboration. We got three languages, Greek, key Brew,
and Arama. We got three continents, Asia, African, Europe. We
have over forty authors, most of who never met one another,

(22:52):
because they wrote over a period of some sixteen hundred years.
Look in your dictionary. That would be the very definition
of corroboration. So unless you have anything that would negate
what we find in the Bible, you have to accept
the fact based on the evid history method, not the
scientific method, that the Bible is a reliable collection of

(23:13):
historical documents written down by eyewitnesses during the lifetime of
other eyewitnesses. They report to us supernatural events that took
place in fulfillment of specific prophecies and claim that their
writings are.

Speaker 4 (23:24):
Divined rather than human in origin.

Speaker 3 (23:27):
And I know that I missed verse nineteen because that's
where the gravy comes from. Because the gravy is Oh,
by the way, I tried it and it works from me.

Speaker 2 (23:40):
This is for Faith and Family with doctor Richard Landa.
I'm Harold Harperin. Today we've been listening to a message
delivered by Vodi Baca at a recent evangelism conference sponsored
by the Southern Baptist of Texas Convention. I know that
Vode's message has encouraged us all to be ready to
give a defense for the hope that is within us.
You can find some additional information about Voting and his ministry,

(24:02):
as well as the ministry of the Southern Baptist of
Texas Convention when you visit our website.

Speaker 5 (24:06):
At faith Infamily dot com.

Speaker 1 (24:08):
When you're there, be sure to check out our.

Speaker 2 (24:10):
Online bookstore and pick up a copy of Vodie's book,
The Ever Loving Truth. All you have to do is
log onto our website at faith infamily dot com for
Faith in Family Radio is produced in Nashville, Tennessee by
the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. For more
information about our guests and past programs, just visit our website.

Speaker 5 (24:28):
At faith infamily dot com.

Speaker 2 (24:30):
Once you're there, you can also find out more about
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so please be sure to drop us a note when
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Speaker 5 (24:45):
At faith infamily dot com.

Speaker 2 (24:47):
Our producers for today's broadcast are Amber Chesser and Matt Hawkins.
I'm Harold Harper, and I hope you'll join us again
next time or for Faith and Family with Doctor Richard
Lamb