Family School at Faith Baptist Church
S.S.S. Study "Forever Settled"
Can the Word of God be trusted? And Why?
Week 1
In order to answer the question of can the word of God be trusted we must first examine our beliefs about the author of it.
Is God there?
If there is no God then there would be no standard of righteousness, no standard of morals, no objective in life, and that is what some who have never heard the gospel live in everyday.
In Genesis the option of doubting God's existence is not found. "In the beginning God" not gods or a god or someone or something but God.
Psalm 14:1, 53:1
These are the only 2 places in the bible where you find the phrase "The fool hath said".
Hebrews 11:6
Now if you understand and believe that God exists, it becomes possible that His written word exists, (someone who doesn't believe God exists cannot believe His written word does).
So God exists, what is He like? The written words of a man are only given attention if that man is trustworthy, if you cannot trust the man you cannot rust his written word. The same holds true for religion, angels, and gods (little g).
Galatians 1:8 But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.
The cult of Mormonism is based completely from John smiths supposed conversations with an angel and in the front page of the book of morman it says "another gospel of Jesus Christ" how uneducated in Gods word must a "Christian" be to leave the bible and follow that cult!
So to know that a written word can be trusted we must know the attributes of He who wrote it.
(some) Attributes of God
Numbers 23:19, Ezekiel 12:25-God does not lie
1st Peter 1:16 -God is holy
Psalm 119:137, 145:17-God is righteous
1st Corinthians 1:9-God is faithful
Deuteronomy 32:4-God is just
Psalm 18:30, Matthew 5:48-God is perfect
Knowing these things to be true about God we can confidently put our trust in the fact that His written Word is as He is,
Truthful
Holy
Righteous
Faithful
Just
Perfect
How it was when the Catholic Church suppressed the Bible:
“So scanty was the supply of Bibles at this time, that but few of those who craved its teaching could hope to possess the sacred volume. But this lack was partly made up by
the earnestness of those whose interest was awakened in the Bible. If only a single copy was owned in a neighborhood, these hard-working laborers and artisans would be found together, after a weary day of toil, reading in turn, and listening to the words of life; and so sweet was the refreshment to their spirits, that sometimes the morning light surprised them with its call to a new day of labor, before they thought of sleep."
Notice the wrath of the government toward this group of fervent Christians:
“Our sovereign lord the King, . . . by the assent of the estates and other discreet men . . . assembled in Parliament, has granted, established and ordained that no one within the ... realm or any other dominions subject to his royal Majesty presume to preach openly or secretly without first seeking and obtaining the license of the local diocesan...and that henceforth no one either openly or secretly shall preach, hold, teach or instruct, or produce or write any book, contrary to the Catholic faith or the determination of holy Church, nor shall any of the [Lollard] sect hold conventicles (unorganized gatherings for worship) anywhere or in any way keep or maintain schools for its wicked doctrines and opinions; and also that henceforth no one shall in any way favor anybody who thus preaches, conducts such or conventicles, keeps or maintains such schools, produces or writes such books, or in any such manner teaches, informs or excites the people ...And if any person within the said kingdom and dominions is convicted by sentence before the local diocesan or his commissioners of the said wicked preachings, doctrines, opinions, schools and heretical and erroneous instruction . . . then the sheriff of the county...shall, after such sentences are proclaimed, receive those persons ... and shall cause them to be burned before the people in a prominent place, in order that such punishment may strike fear into the minds of others, to the end that no wicked doctrines and heretical and erroneous opinions (against the Catholic faith, the Christian law, and the determination of holy Church), nor their authors and favorers, be sustained ... or in any way tolerated.”
Foxe adds thus:
“The Lollards were tracked to the lonely, unfrequented places where they met, often under shadow of night, to worship God. Neighbor was made to spy upon neighbor; husbands and wives, parents and children, brothers and sisters, were beguiled or forced to bear witness against each other. The Lollards’ prison again echoed with the clanking of chains; the rack and the stake once more claimed their victims."
Convicting enough for today's lukewarm Christians, one of the common charges brought against these godly believers was not only their possession of a Wycliffe Bible but their ability to repeat from it by heart.
Among the many burning victims were:
John Badby, a tailor, 1410.
Two London merchants, Richard Turming and John Claydon at Smithfield, 1415.
William Taylor in 1423.
William White, 1428.
Richard Hoveden, 1430.
Thomas Bagley, 1431.
Richard Wyche in 1440.
Joan Broughton became the first woman to burn at the stake in England, perishing at
Smithfield with her daughter, Lady Young, beside her.
The history of the real English Bible is a history unlike that of the NIV and other generic counterfeits; it is a history that is bathed in blood. Foxe continues:
One Christopher Shoemaker, who was burned alive at Newbury, was accused of having gone to the house of John Say, and "read to him, out of a book, the words which Christ spake to his disciples . . . " In 1519 seven martyrs were burned in one fire at Coventry, "for having taught their children and servants the Lord's prayer and the ten commandments in English
You had better be thankful for the bible you have!
Jeffrey Lynn
All studies will now be available for use at www.thepreachpage.com
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