VBS ended and we with it we finished a 2 part study on the truth about what the Bible is and its archeological and historical origins. Ask yourself, if you gave someone else the access to your social media account and ask them to manage it, what would they write about you? Would they show you as you try your friends to see you or would they see something else about you?

The Bible is not a storybook, or the history of some people written by those who won wars and battles. It is the lifestory of real people and their struggles with doing the right thing and their relationship with God. The Bible is REAL, is TRUTH and is THE WORD OF GOD. It has the only thing that God can offer: LIFE and TRUTH, because GOD is both the creator of Life and the only Truth.

The Bible is full of facts confirmed by history, archeology, and science (even when the scientists grunt about it). But facts alone are incomplete, while truth is, well … TRUTH. Truth puts the facts in context, gives understanding and wisdom and that is exactly what we discovered. And just like the VBS verse says in Jeremiah 29:13, when we seek God with all our heart, He reveals the Truth to us:

What God promised in the Old Testament through prophecy and what Jesus fulfilled in the New Testament is evidence that everything God said in the Bible is true. It really happened!

So let’s SEEK the facts about the Bible and then let’s FIND the truth about what it all means.

BIBLE FACTOIDS

66 Books: 39 OT & 27 NT

40+ Writers written in a period of 2000+ years

Super-Ultra-Verified: the earliest surviving sources of the OT manuscript date from 650 BC to the earliest NT texts from 150 AD (see image below)

Common theme through all books (OT & NT): Humanity is separated from God by a barrier called Sin, and God designs a plan to redeem all of us through a savior: The Messiah

Inspired by God: although the writers are different people in different languages, the Holy Spirit of God is the author – 2 Tim 3:16-17, 2 Pet 1:21

I want to challenge you to take this moment right now and open the Bible yourself and let’s try to re-read the passages that we talked about.

Prophecy comes TRUE: the birth of Jesus

Read it again in Isaiah 7: 13-14; Isaiah 9:6; Micah 5:2

The Messiah was going to be born in the bloodline of David, to a virgin (impossible! you say, but it was predicted after all), in Bethlehem and he would be called “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

Prophecy comes TRUE: Jesus was rejected

Read it again in Isaiah 53:1-3

Jesus was betrayed by one of his disciples, and the all the other ones fled when he was arrested, nobody stood up for him, the same people that had praised him when he entered Jerusalem after performing the miracle of resurrecting Lazarus were now saying he should be crucified.

Prophecy comes TRUE: Jesus had to suffer

Read it again Isaiah 53: 4-7

Jesus was accused and beaten and tortured, but He did not defend himself because He knew the will God and He obeyed Him out of love for us.

“We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
    each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
    the iniquity* of us all.”

*iniquity=sinfulness

Prophecy comes TRUE: Jesus was sacrificed

Read it again Isaiah 53: 8-9

To make the prophecy even more certain Jesus reveals that He has to die to his disciples (Matthew 16:21–23, Mark 8:31–32, Luke 9:21–22.)

But as if it wasn’t enough, Jesus predicted His death a second and a third time after that (Matthew 17:22–23, Mark 9:30–32, Luke 9:43–45. Matthew 20:17–19, Mark 10:32–34, Luke 18:31–34)

To many people it seems that Jesus died because he was caught for causing trouble and executed by the romans, just like many upstarts in history seeking power. But actually we saw that He knew that all of this had to happen and still CHOSE to offer his life as a sacrifice for us. Jesus says this about His life:

 “No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.” – John 10:18

Prophecy comes TRUE: JESUS LIVES

Read it again Isaiah 53: 10-12

“After he has suffered,
    he will see the light of life^[d] and be satisfied^[e];
by his knowledge^[f] my righteous servant will justify many,
    and he will bear their iniquities.”

Unlike some people in the Bible that were resurrected by other Men of God: like the son of the widow by Elijah, or the son of the Shunammite woman by Elisha, or Jairus daughter by Jesus, etc. No man resurrected Jesus, Jesus rose from the empty tomb because He offered his Holy life, free from sin, as a permanent payment for our sins. Jesus Christ is God, because only God can face death and live. Jesus lives and God’s word is true again and again!!! (Juan 19:17–20:18)

Go tell it on the mountains

In the New Testament, God shows the connection between the words written by the prophets hundreds of years before and what events were going to happen with detailed facts. The moment when Jesus was born was already in God’s plan, and everything happened leading to His death and resurrection is TRUTH just as He had promised.

So let’s be encouraged and tell the TRUTH to others without reservations or shame, but boldly and with the same love that Jesus showed for us.

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes…” – Romans 1:16a