Michigan Camp Meeting 2022: Knowing the Time

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Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

Reasons to Believe

Travis Smith

01 Does God Exist? Does It Matter?

You are about to enjoy a presentation recorded at the 2022 Michigan Conference Camp Meeting held at Cedar Lake, Michigan.

We pray that the Lord will bless you as you listen.

Father in heaven, we ask that you would be with us as we study your word this morning and seek to get some answers why we believe in Christianity.

We ask this in Jesus' name, that your spirit would bless and that you would help us to be attentive and eager listeners.

In this seminar, good to see some familiar faces.

In this seminar we want to answer a few questions.

If you can't see the screen or me, I would invite you to come and get over here so that you can see the whole thing.

And if you say because that's what I was brought up in, the secular, the Hindu, the Jew, the Muslim, the Buddhist, would not accept that answer, right?

And we need to give reasonable answers for what we believe.

What reasonable answers do you have for your religious view?

So therefore, this is a seminar in Christian apologetics.

Has anybody here ever heard of that word, apologetics?

1 Peter 3 15 says, but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is within you.

Most everything that is on the slides is on your handout.

I made some last second changes like I'll do every day this week.

This part is not on, so you're going to have to take notes and write 1 Peter 3 15.

Okay, so 1 Peter 3 15, sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and always be ready to give a defense.

A defense to everyone who asked you for a reason for the hope that is within you with meekness and fear.

So we need to have reasonable answers why we believe what we believe, okay?

I can do this to any Christian denomination in the world, right?

So this isn't a case for Christianity, not necessarily a case for Adventism.

Now, we're not going to get into Greek and Hebrew too much, but a little bit is good.

This word right here, defense, in some versions it's answer.

Apologetics is not apologizing for being a Christian.

Jew or Muslim or Buddhist that I'm a Christian.

It means to answer, clearing of self, to give a defense.

So that's what the word apologetics means.

So therefore Christian apologetics would mean give an answer for Christianity, okay?

It simply means to give an answer for what you believe.

And so this class is gauged to give you some ammunition so that your secular friends at work, your Jewish friends at work, or your Buddhist friends, or wherever, you can have some answers to give them why you are what you are.

We are going to talk about today, does God exist?

Wednesday and Thursday we're going to talk about How can we prove this?

So we're actually going to spend 3 days on why we believe the Bible.

Because if we can't start there, we have nothing to offer anybody, right?

So don't miss, especially, I mean don't miss any of them, right?

But Don't miss Wednesday and Thursday because this is just fabulous information.

Proving the Scriptures from Old Testament archaeology, proving the Scriptures from New Testament archaeology, and then Friday we're going to make a case for the resurrection of Christ and the case for the empty tomb.

So you're not going to want to miss any of them.

Some people believe that faith is believing in what you know isn't true.

Many people believe that if you become a Christian, you are committing intellectual suicide.

Now, how I created this series of presentations was actually for a young lady named Nicole, who is in my church.

She was dating the head elder's son for 8 years, and he wouldn't marry her because she was not a Seventh-day Adventist.

And when I got to my new church in Edenville, I made friends with her, asked the question, Hey, do you guys know how to get a Bible study?

And so I asked her, do you, would you like to study the Bible?

And so she had Bible studies from the previous pastor.

She'd been to a couple evangelistic meetings, and I created this series just specifically for her, and I baptized her 2 weeks ago.

And there's going to be a wedding soon at my church.

So, her family is secular, makes fun of the Bible, makes fun of religion, then you have this weird Adventist stuff with this Ellen White sister that we believe in and it's even a little bit more weird, right?

Christianity is a thinking person's religion.

You do not put your brain on the shelf and let everybody do your thinking for you.

It is an intelligent step into the light.

02 Why I Believe the Bible

Beings condescend and talk to us about the authority of Scripture this morning.

Why should I believe the Bible is inspired?

Why is the Bible that you hold in your hands, you know the Greek word Biblos just means books, that's what the word Bible means.

Why is the scriptures that you hold in your hands better or more authoritative than the scriptures that the Muslims have or the Hindus or the Jews or whatever scriptures the holy scriptures that the handouts for today are right here, guys.

I got 4 more reasons today than are on the notes.

So maybe I will rework this handout and then redistribute it tomorrow because there's some information on here that I don't know how you're gonna take notes if you don't have what I have on the paper, okay?

John, the handout's circulating around there.

Why is the scriptures that we have superior to the holy writings of other world religions.

Now, if you stood up and said, well, I believe that the Bible is inspired because 2 Timothy 3, 16 says, all scripture is God-breathed, right?

And if you said, well, 2 Peter 1, 19 through 21, if you just quoted me those 2 statements I would pretend like I was a Muslim and I would say you got to have more than that for me and if I was a Buddhist I would say that is not a sufficient answer.

You have to give me reasons why you believe that your holy writings are more authoritative and superior to my holy writings, right?

Because we believe it because we believe it is not an answer.

You gotta have logical reasons why you believe the authority of scripture, right down front.

At best, they would think you're unintelligent because you're following what you believe blindly.

And at worst, they would think you were intellectually dishonest.

I believe it because I believe it is not an answer.

You must have reasons to believe and so I'm gonna give you ammo.

We're gonna give 10 reasons why we believe the Bible is inspired.

Number 1, cohesive unity, and we're gonna make comments on all 10 of these as we go along this morning.

Internal declaration, life-changing power, and you know, all of these are together.

You know, like when we reveal the Antichrist in our evangelistic meetings, not 1 of them falls or stands on their own, but when you combine all the reasons, it makes it a little more believable.

Internal Declaration just says the Bible is inspired because the Bible declares itself to be inspired.

Now is that good enough for a Muslim or a Hindu?

Perennial and Universal Appeal Bible Prophecy Principle and Self-Incrimination Literary Structure of Many Books Principle and self-incrimination, this is a really good 1.

Literary structure of many books, this is a really good 1 too.

And destructibility, historical and geographical accuracy, that's what we're talking about on Wednesday and Thursday.

Don't miss Wednesday and Thursday when we talk about archeology.

The Bible describes reality better than any other religion or worldview.

Now let's go through all 10 of these together.

Evidence number 1 of the Bible's authority, Cohesive unity.

Although more than 40 authors of varied backgrounds wrote the Bible over a 1600 year period, I mean, you've got kings, Nebuchadnezzar wrote Daniel 4, right?

You've got Fishermen, you've got doctors, Luke, right?

You've got people from all ladders, all the spectrum of the socioeconomic scale that God used to reach minds.

So you've got smart people to reach really smart people.

You've got common people to reach really common people, and you have all all manner of in-between because God wants everybody to be reached.

So although it has taken 1, 600 years, it has unity on all points of faith giving evidence of a divine mind guiding the thoughts of each human writer.

And you understand that the prophets are not God's pen, they are God's pen men.

So we believe that God inspired the thoughts of the prophets, and then the prophets wrote down the tenor of what God said using their mood, their education, and the information that was available to them at that time.

Okay, now have you ever played the whisper game where you say something like elephants wear rabbit shoes at nighttime and you whisper it in the person's ear, and then they say, and then it turns into something absolutely crazy, not resembling anything of the first message, right?

The Bible has said the same thing over its entire existence.

It's okay if a prophet gives extra biblical information and we have a lot of criticism for Ellen White when she gives extra biblical information when the reality is every prophet gave extra-biblical information because all the prophets added to the prophets' previous works.

Anti-biblical or contradictory, not so much.

And so, the Spirit of the Lord has inspired the prophets, and there seem like there's contradictions in Scripture, but when you are looking for reasons not to believe the Bible, you'll be able to find some, right?

But when you carefully study and when you compare Scripture with Scripture, the contradictions explain themselves, okay?

So the Scripture says the prophets are subject to the Spirit of the Prophets.

And we know that the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Godhead.

He's a third person of the Godhead, amen, and He has inspired the Scriptures.

So, Therefore, when Moses says this about salvation, Micah and Daniel and Hosea and John are all going to say the same thing.

Jesus gave a clear reason for divorce, and that is adultery.

But if you read in 1 Corinthians chapter 7, Paul adds another reason for divorce because, because, Secular individuals or pagans were marrying, right?

And there was evangelism going on and Christians or pagans were becoming Christians and now their lifestyle doesn't match up anymore.

And the Christian who used to be a pagan wasn't fun to be married to anymore.

And the state and the church were a lot of times united in those cultures, and it would cause big problems in the home, and so to accommodate, Paul added another reason for divorce, and it's abandonment.

When a pagan spouse leaves its Christian other spouse, that was a reason for divorce.

Okay, so that's extra biblical but not anti-biblical.

And Paul, under the Spirit, added that reason for divorce.

Now you could think, well, you added to the words of Jesus, but the testimony of Jesus is a spirit of prophecy, right?

And so when God gives new information, it's done under inspiration.

So that's an example of extra-biblical that does not contradict the statements before.

So, concepts such as the Godhead, salvation, the sanctuary, All 44 authors of the scriptures, all the authors of the scriptures, say the same things on these subjects.

We're gonna start off with the simple, then we're gonna go to the complex.

The Bible's inspired because the Bible declares it to be inspired.

Now, we have 9 more reasons after this to prove to you or demonstrate to you why we believe that the scriptures are inspired.

And we understand that when prophets are envisioned, they don't breathe because God is breathing for them.

So the Bible declares it's inspired in many places.

It is what it says, or it is either a book of lies.

So we asked the question, how could a book with such high moral claims?

I mean, Jesus talks about that narrow gate.

How could the Scriptures be God's Word if they are filled with lies?

03 Evidence of Old Testament Archaeology

Father in heaven, we thank you for this time that we have to spend time talking about Old Testament archaeology.

They dig in the sand and prove the scriptures and you guide them.

Lord, we thank you for these discoveries, which gives us grounds for faith, reasons to believe.

The evidence of archaeology from the Old Testament.

Mark Twain once said, there are 2 times in a man's life where he should not speculate.

When he can afford it and when he cannot.

The Bible says it, hey if you need a handout, the Bible says in Hebrews, biblical archaeology.

Many believe that the Bible is a book of myths and legends.

Some dismiss it completely because it is a religious book.

However, biblical archaeology demonstrates that the Bible is historically accurate.

Why is it important that we understand that the Bible is historically accurate?

You understand that lots of people who question the Mormon faith want to go and there's this hill and somewhere in New York which is called Kimora and they have wanted to do archaeological digs there and they have forbidden them from doing any digging there probably because there isn't anything there to discover.

But when you go digging in the sand over in the biblical lands you will find much evidence, a ridiculous amount of evidence to demonstrate the Bible's historicity.

And it's important that we understand that we can trust the Bible historically.

If we cannot trust the Bible historically, then we cannot trust the God of the Bible.

We cannot trust the the Bible spiritually.

But if we can trust the Bible historically, then we can trust the Bible spiritually, and the historical part of it provides the way for us to understand the spiritual aspect of Scripture.

Alright, now, the Bible is basically, as I said yesterday, the history of humanity from God's perspective.

The Bible is also a book about how God sent his son into the world to make atonement, you all understand that word atonement?

It's separated, at 1, meant making 2 who are at odds 1 together again.

It's not that God is at odds with us, we are at odds with him and he provides Jesus the mediator to make us at 1 again.

It's a book about how God sent his Son into the world to make atonement for the sins of a planet that has been led into rebellion.

We can have our sins forgiven and receive power to overcome.

Jesus gives his people salvation from their sins, not in their sins, Matthew 121.

But if we don't accept the Bible historically, then how can we expect the spiritual message of Scripture?

And so biblical archaeology helps restore faith in the Scriptures historically so that we can receive the Scriptures spiritually.

Now Rabbi Nelson Gluick, post-Holdiger, PhD, says, it may be stated...

It may be stated that no archaeological discovery has ever controverted a biblical reference.

There has been no find that they have made, well, this can't be true, the Bible's not inspired.

Biblical archaeology verifies the truthfulness of God's Word.

That's why we're spending 2 days on it in a series on Christian apologetics.

In fact, biblical archaeology has converted many atheists into Christians, such as James Agresti.

Are you familiar with the movie Is God Dead?

Eric Mertexis, which is 1 of the books that you can buy if you want to further study out these things, anything by William Lane Craig, anything by Ravi Zacharias, and this guy, Eric Martaxis, if you want to dive deeper into Christian apologetics, this book is fabulous.

1 of these is James Agresti, an aerospace engineer, so he's no dummy, right?

An aerospace engineer who in his book Rational Conclusions describes being a 25 year old atheist determined to study the Bible to document its errors.

But what he encountered surprised him, and by the time he was finished, he was instead persuaded of its truth.

But 1 of the main reasons for his about-face was that he learned about the archaeological record.

Echoing Rabbi Gluick, Agresti concluded, I have yet to encounter archaeological evidence that shows any part of the Bible to be inaccurate.

Okay, so let's ask a very important question.

What are the criteria that biblical archaeologists use to determine what is and what is not a legitimate archaeological, biblical archaeology discovery.

The discovery must be directly related to biblical people or groups, places or events.

It must be, or it must be related to the composition of the Bible itself.

So they don't find a pot and they're like, oh, the Bible is true.

It's got to be related to some person, place, or thing in scriptures mentioned directly, like the Nebuchadnezzar 2 prison that we saw yesterday, where the officials in Babylon are mentioned, and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego's name is on that prison.

So, let's get our shovels out, let's go digging and see what we can discover.

What has been discovered by archaeologists to demonstrate the Bible's historicity?

So we're going to look at the top 10 Old Testament archaeological finds, okay?

The Assyrians were deep enemies of God and the Scriptures.

But throughout history, they have actually helped God's people prove that the Scriptures are in fact inspired.

The Assyrians had a practice of naming each year after a person, and they called that person a lemu.

Can Somebody hit the left light on the back so we can get a little bit.

This Lemuelist was found at an excavation in Nineveh.

Many of these lists were found and put together and 250 years of Assyrian names were on them.

1 of them actually named a solar eclipse which has been dated to June 15, 763 BC.

So we have 250 years of Assyrian chronology absolutely dated perfectly.

When you compare the annals of the Assyrian kings, where they mention the Hebrew kings, we see interaction between some of the Hebrew kings that were mentioned in the Bible and the Assyrian kings that are mentioned here in history.

The Kirk monolith of the Assyrian king Shalmaneser III.

So we have proof of the biblical character, King Ahab.

King of Israel as 1 of the kings of a Western coalition who fought against him at the Battle of Karkar in 853 BC.

So somewhere on this monolith is King Ahab.

His name is written down on this monolith.

Next we have the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III.

This monolith sits today in the British Museum.

It depicts King Jehu paying tribute to Shalmaneser in 841 B.C.

Each of these boxes tells a different story.

Here is a closer look at the 1 that we are interested in today.

So the inscription here reads the tribute of Jehu son of Omri.

Okay, we have Jehu and Omri mentioned in the scriptures and now the Assyrian king has Jehu and Omri in history found in the sand somewhere in Nineveh.

04 Evidence of New Testament Archaeology

Father in heaven, we thank you for this time that we have to spend time in your word.

Lord, we ask that you would bless in Jesus' name.

The evidence of New Testament archaeology, Biblical archaeology, why is it important?

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