Sermon Tone Analysis

“What does the Scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.’”

[1]

If you have walked in the Faith for very long, you will have been challenged by some dear soul who does not believe the truths of Christ the Lord.

Such benighted souls appear to delight in asking what they imagine to be unanswerable questions.

Among such supposedly difficult questions they delight to pose are gems such as these:

• “Where did Cain get his wife?”

• “If God is good and all-powerful, how come there is evil in the world?”

• “What about the innocent pagans who never had a chance to hear the gospel?”

Because the questions are asked so frequently, it is difficult to take them seriously.

However, occasionally such questions do provide opportunity to explore great theology, if the questioner is serious about such pursuits.

Among these old saws that outsiders imagine unanswerable is one that we will consider today: “How were people saved before the death of Christ the Lord?”

The question is important, presupposing as it does, the necessity of the death of Christ.

Christians should recognise as well that the question is important because it points to the importance of making the Good News of Christ’s sacrificial death known to those who are lost.

Finally, the question is important because whether the questioner understands the issue or not, the question acknowledges the need to believe Jesus the Son of God.

Whether intentional or not, the questioner tacitly confesses, “Without faith it is impossible to please [God]” [HEBREWS 11:6].

Moreover, the question presupposes the accuracy of the biblical account.

Otherwise, there is no possibility of answering the question.

Pause for a moment to absorb the point that was just made.

To ask the question, “How were people saved before the death of Christ the Lord?” presupposes that an answer is possible.

Since the question relates to an activity God initiates and controls, God alone can provide an answer.

In order to discover the answer to the question, we must either have private access to the mind of God, in which case we are at the least equal to God, or we must rely upon that information which God has revealed through His Word.

We must accept that the Bible is what it purports to be, or we must appeal to some other writing that qualifies as “the Word of God.”

Let me take a brief moment to address the facts that point to the veracity and authenticity of the Bible as the very Word of God.

The accuracy of the Bible speaks of the divine origin.

The Book of Mormon has never guided an archaeological dig—not one!

The same can be said of the Doctrines and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price.

The Quran is unreliable as a source of historically verifiable information; no reputable archaeologist would think to consult the Quran as a reliable guide to ancient events.

The same deficit attends the Bhagavad Gita, the Kitab-i-Aqdas, the Tao Te Ching, the weird writings of Ellen White, Dianetics, the Divine Principle of the Unification Church, the Guru Granth Sahib or the Avesta Collection.

Though these writings are deemed sacred by their several devotees, they fail the test of accuracy.

Prophecy points to the accuracy of the Bible as the Word of the True and Living God.

At the time of writing, over two-thirds of the Bible was prophecy.

Time and again the matters of which God’s prophets spoke came to pass.

It has been said that in the birth and death of Yeshua Ha-Mashiach over seventy specific prophecies were fulfilled.

Moreover, the prophets had an amazing track record.

This is as stated through Moses, who wrote: “The prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.

And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the LORD has not spoken?’

—when a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the LORD has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously.

You need not be afraid of him” [DEUTERONOMY 18:20-22].

Nearly three quarters of the prophecies that are recorded in the Word have come to pass.

Those which are unfilled all point to the fulfillment of days as this present age draws to a close.

And what of these other writings presented as sacred?

Have they proven trustworthy when purporting to speak prophetically?

Do they not fall under the condemnation of the Word?

“If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass, and if he says, ‘Let us go after other gods,’ which you have not known, ‘and let us serve them,’ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams.

For the LORD your God is testing you, to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul” [DEUTERONOMY 13:1-3].

Let me speak of the character of the Word, as well.

It is with good reason that the Bible is frequently referred to as “The Good Book.”

If a sacred writing purports to be from the Lord, one would expect it to reflect the character of God.

Ask yourself some simple questions.

Is God concerned only that a person should be self-fulfilled?

Is God capricious?

Is God blood-thirsty?

Does the Living God condone lying?

Or brutality?

Or does He compel agreement through coercion?

These other writings advocate and condone such manifestly wicked acts; but the Bible speaks of making bad men good through transforming their heart.

No one is particularly shocked when Sikh extremists murder for the cause of their religion.

When Islamic jihadists detonate explosive belts to slaughter innocent people—even other Muslims who disagree with the point of view of the jihadis—we are not terribly surprised.

Few people express surprise when followers of the Religion of Peace behead school girls or butcher journalists.

When Hindu mobs attack and burn others who do not agree with them, we are not surprised.

However, we are shocked, astonished, flabbergasted when people calling themselves Christian murder or maim or menace in the name of the Faith.

It is incongruous when professing Christians fail to live according to His teachings.

Assuredly, the Bible reveals its divine origin through the message it delivers and through the character of the Book itself.

There is yet one other matter of significance in giving the reader of the Bible confidence in this glorious book that the Lord God has given to mankind.

How can we know that the Bible we read has been given by God? Can we be confident that His Word has been accurately transmitted?

No one would argue that a translation, however good that translation may be, is divinely inspired.

However, we may be confident that the original autographs, the original writings have been preserved through the multiplicity of manuscripts available to us in this day.

Scholars have at their disposal over 5,300 copies of the Greek New Testament.

The diligent scholar can reproduce accurately precisely what was written at the first.

Many of these manuscripts go back to the early years of the Second Century.

In addition to Greek manuscripts, we have ancient manuscripts in Amharic, various Syriac translations (Old Syriac, the Peshitta and the Philoxenian) and Egyptian versions (Memphitic, Bohairic, Thebaic and Fayumic).

When it came to copying the manuscripts of the Old Covenant, great care was taken to ensure that the text was not corrupted.

The manuscripts were copied onto animal skins—vellum.

The vellum was precious, costly.

As the copyist would pen the letters, he would count letters on each line.

If at some point the letter count did not match, the entire vellum was destroyed because it had been corrupted.

Whenever the copyist came to the Name of God—YHWH—he would bathe before proceeding.

He would use a new pen for each letter.

When he had finished inscribing the Tetragrammaton, he would again bath before again taking up his task of copying.

I do not relate these extreme procedures to commend them, but to demonstrate how serious the copyists viewed the work in which they were engaged.

Should it be any surprise that when among the Dead Sea scrolls was found a copper scroll of the Book of Isaiah, that it agrees in toto with the various texts available to the scholar in this day.

Were one to begin at this point to reconstruct the Bible using only the manuscripts and references from ancient writers quoting the Scriptures, that one could reproduce our Bible as it exists today.

We can be confident when we pick up a sound translation of the Word today that it is based on solid evidence that we know precisely what God was communicating.

For the sake of comparison, think of this.

Only ten manuscripts remain of Julius Caesar’s “The Gallic Wars”; and the earliest manuscript dates to one thousand years after the original autograph.

There are but seven manuscripts of Pliny the Younger’s “History,” with more than seven hundred fifty years elapsed after he had written.

Thucydides’ “History” has but eight manuscripts available, the earliest having been written thirteen hundred years after he penned that text.

Herodotus’ “History” also has but eight manuscripts; and the earliest was written thirteen hundred years after he lived!

There are one hundred ninety-three manuscripts of Sophocles’ writings, the earliest inscribed fourteen hundred years after he died.

There are nine manuscripts of Euripides; and the earliest was copied fifteen hundred years after he had lived.

There are forty-nine manuscripts of Aristotle, the earliest of which was written fourteen hundred years after he had died.

Scholars don’t debate whether these authors lived or whether the copies should be discarded.

Yet, they imagine that the Bible is somehow flawed; such people reject the Word because they contend it was “written by men.”

Mere men? Absolutely!

However, as the Word testifies concerning these holy men of God, “No prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” [2 PETER 1:21].

God Himself superintended the writing of this book, ensuring that His Word would be available to all mankind.

Surely, the Psalmist spoke truth when he wrote, “Forever, O LORD, your word is firmly fixed in the heavens” [PSALM 119:89].

In this context, let me point out one further matter of interest.

Next to the New Testament, there are more extant manuscripts of Homer’s “Iliad” than any other ancient book.

“Iliad” is undoubtedly the most renowned book of ancient Greece; there exist six hundred forty-three copies of manuscript support.

The New Testament has about twenty thousand lines; the “Iliad,” about fifteen thousand six hundred lines.