Welcome to a firm foundation presented by Princeton ministries with Dr. Ken Smith. This is Carol Smith, Ken’s wife. Please enjoy.

Last eve, I passed the blacksmith’s door and heard the anvil ring, the vesper chime. Then looking in, I saw upon the floor old hammers worn with beating years of time. How many anvils have you had, said I, to wear and batter all these hammers? So just one, said he. And then, with twinkling eye, the anvil wears out the hammer, you know. And so thought I, the anvil of God’s word. For ages, sceptics, blows have beat upon. Yet, though the noise of falling blows was heard, the anvil is unharmed, the hammers gone. Perhaps we live in an age like other ages, where the Bible has been attacked from every side. There seem to be critics by the score who would speak against the Bible.

As a matter of fact, some of my greatest critics that I have met who are opposed to the Bible, many of them have never even read it, let alone to read it closely. Dr. Bruce Metzger from Princeton Seminary has devoted his life to the study of God’s word. And perhaps one of the most common street wise phrases about the Bible is that the Bible is full of contradictions. Don’t you know? And yet, when asking Dr. Metzger that question, having devoted himself to literally decades of study, the precise meaning of words, his conclusion is that after all of those years, the word of God. The scripture is God’s word without contradiction. Well, we are told in Isaiah, chapter 40, it is the word of the Lord that will stand forever. When you look at the Bible, it is, in fact, unique.

As a matter of fact, there is no book that has ever been written in the history of man to compare to the Bible. For in this book, we find it was written over a 1600 year span. 1600 years covers some 60 generations. It was written by 40 plus authors. They came from every background imaginable. Fishermen, herdsmen, generals, a prime minister, a doctor, king, tax collector, a rabbi. It was written in the wilderness. It was written in prison. It was written in palaces. It was written during war. It was written during peace. As a matter of fact, the broadness of this book is so great that actually it was written not in one town, not in one nation, but it was written from Asia, from Africa, and from Europe.

And if that does not confound the formula enough, we find that it was not written in one language. But depending upon the location, we find it was written in Hebrew, it was written in Aramaic, it was written in Greek. There is no book in the history of mankind to compare to the wide diversity of people, places, topics that have been brought together between the covers of the book that we call the Bible the Holy Scripture. And it is from this firm foundation that God has spoken to us and declared his word. And it is God who has declared this word shall stand forever. Well, because the Bible has such a firm foundation, it has, in fact, withstood incredible scrutiny and examination. In the year 303, there was an emperor by the name of Diocletian. Diocletian saw the movement of the Christian faith.

He saw that it was rooted in the Bible. And so Diocletian executed an imperial letter. This went out to all of the Roman Empire. The purpose of that letter was to give this order that all churches were to be raised to the ground, that all bibles were to be burned in the fire. Anyone found having a Bible under the imperial letter of Diocletian would have all of their civil liberties removed, and they would face the consequence of opposing the emperor. Well, you would imagine with the effort of the Roman Empire to destroy this scripture, to remove it from the hands of men and women. If ever there was a power that could destroy the scripture, it certainly was the power of Rome.

And yet the next emperor, Constantine, commissioned a man named Eusebius and his job to prepare 50 copies of the Bible to make sure that it would be intact. And it would be in that generation of Constantine that the declaration would be made that the Roman Empire would take to itself the Christian faith. And so the efforts of Diocletian were found to be weak and incapable of the movement of God’s word. We find that the Bible is unique in the form of its survival. There has been no book that has been more brutalized, that has faced greater attack than the scripture. You can find emperors, popes, kings, priests, princes, rulers of all type, who throughout the history of the world have attempted to destroy God’s word. They’ve all tried, and they have also all failed.

Bernard Ram tells us a thousand times over; the death bell of the Bible has sounded. The funeral procession formed, the inscription cut on the tombstone, but somehow the corpse has never arrived. In the last generation of seminary students, there was a teaching which is referred to as higher criticism. Now, for most of us, this is not very interesting, because most of us simply want to read the Bible and receive the message of encouragement, of teaching from the Lord. But for those who have gone through the experience of seminary, they understand that it is very important what the presuppositions of that training are. Well, in the last generation, one of the presuppositions was related to a way of teaching called higher criticism. Now, higher criticism taught a hypothesis, and that was referred to as the documentary hypothesis.

Now, the problem that people found as they read the Bible is that as they read the first five books of the Bible, they found it to be a very advanced language. And it was the belief of the higher critics that no such advanced language existed in the days of Moses and the writing of the five books that begin our scripture. And it became common knowledge in the seminaries, and then it became common knowledge in the churches that the Bible really was not written, those first five books by Moses. But according to the higher critics, they developed some personalities. They gave them these letters of identification. They called them Jep and D. Now, the belief was that these four sources, over the course of years, began to take the oral words of this primitive Moses that had been handed from generation to generation.

And these sources then began to compile them. Well, the higher critics said that there was continued addition, changing correction to the text. And so in some verses, they were able to point out what they thought were as many as three writers on any particular verse. Well, this went along very well in the seminaries and was taught and accepted as the learned viewpoint until the spade of the archaeologist discovered a stone. It was called the black steel. And upon this piece of archaeological slab was found the writings of a man named Hammurabi. Now, they knew that Hammurabi’s dates were much before the time of Jesus. They knew exactly where Hammurabi lived as far as chronology. But the question was, did these tablets date back at the time of Moses?

And if they did, then that simply meant there was an advanced language in place so that Moses could have written those first five books. Well, as they dated the black steel, they found out not only did it find its origination before Moses, but it even was pre Abraham. And they found that here, in fact, according to archaeological discovery, was in place an advanced language so that Moses was able to write those first five books of the scripture in the nuance and the beauty of the pentate. Well, once this occurred, we find that higher criticism began to disappear from some seminaries, and in others, it continued with little reference to the discovery of the black steel. Nelson Gleck, who was a former president of the Jewish Theological Seminary and considered to have been one of the three greatest archaeologists, said this.

It may be stated categorically that no archaeological discovery has ever controverted a biblical reference. William Albright, who is known as one of the great archaeologists of this century, states, discovery after discovery has established the accuracy of innumerable details and has brought increased recognition to the value of the Bible as a source of history. There was a time when the higher critics delighted to say that there were no group of people called the Hittites until the spade of the archaeologists discovered that group. There was a time when the higher critics delighted to say that there was no place called Sodom and Gomorrah destroyed by fire, until they uncovered, in the precise location of that place, a town that had been destroyed by fire as they unearthed the ash of Sodom and Gomorrah. The anvil, we are told, wears the hammers out.

You know, the Lord said, my word will stand forever. The Bible is a firm foundation to build a life on because of the words that are written in this book. It’s the only volume that has ever been produced by man or a group of men in which is to be found a large number of prophecies. Prophecies are spoken of as declaring events before they will occur. And in the scripture, it’s estimated that approximately one third of the Bible is related to prophecy. There are prophecies about nations, there are prophecies about cities. There are prophecies about the coming Messiah, Jesus Christ.

Bernard Ram, in a book called protestant Christian Evidences, tells us nowhere in all of the Greek and Latin world, in all of their literature, even though they use the word prophet and prophecy, nowhere in all of that literature can be found any specific prophecy of any historical event. Wilbur Smith, who has been through the years a great scholar in the field of studying comparative religions, in a book called the incomparable book, in reference to the scripture, he says that there is not to be found in any other writing the prophecy of a saviour who will be born. And so Mohammed cannot point to any prophecies stating that he would be born someday, nor can Confucius, nor can Buddha.

It is only Jesus Christ who, in the teaching of the New Testament, continually referred back to the Old Testament as fulfillment of prophecies that spoke very clearly about the place that he would be born, the ministry that he would carry, and his purpose of dying on the cross. This is unique to the Christian faith. The fact that there are prophecies in preparation of the coming Messiah, but also the foundation of the scripture, is very firm for those who love Jesus Christ. Because of the words that have been spoken by Jesus, statistically speaking, the gospels are the greatest literature ever written. In all that man has ever written, there has never been a book that has been more read by people than the Bible. There has never been a book more quoted by authors. There has never been a book translated into more languages.

There has never been a book that has been printed on more pages than the Bible. There has never been a book that has captured on the canvas the message of Christ through the artistry of the artist. There has never been a book that has set to music more composers. There has never been a book that has spoken to as many people as the scripture, God’s word. I remember several years ago reading about Elizabeth Elliott, who went to translate among the Colorado Indians. She got there and found an impossible task. Her translator was shot, her notes were stolen, and she left wondering if the year that she had spent among the Colorado Indians was of any value in the overall purposes of God.

Last year, I was in the warehouse of the International Bible Society, and as we walked down the rows of the various scriptures that have been translated in German, in Italian, in all manner of language, there was a little pile of scripture. And he said, this is our newest translation. It’s for a small group of Indians in Ecuador called the Colorado Indians. And so this day, the Colorado Indians have God’s word, and God has promised that his word will endure forever. But there is, in the overall reading, from Genesis to revelation, one purpose for the recording of God’s word. And there is a theme, theme, God’s redemption of man. And in this book is to be found the message about the person of Jesus Christ who came to tell us of the love of the father for his creation.

It’s interesting, the number of people who have been critics of the Bible and yet push come to shove so often, many of them wind up to speak great words of support about the Bible. An example is H. G. Wells, noted historian. And one time he was asked, according to the rules of history, who would you say was the greatest person who has ever lived? And Wells said, according to the test of history, Jesus Christ stands first. Thomas Carlisle refers to Jesus as our divinest symbol. Higher has the human thought not yet achieved? Rousseau asks this question. Can the person whose history the gospels relate be himself a man? What sweetness, what purity is in his manner? What affecting goodness in his instructions, what sublimity in his maxims, what profound wisdom in his discussions? What presence of mind? Yes.

If the life and death of Socrates are those of a philosopher, the life and death of Jesus Christ are those of a God. So said Rousseau. I was talking to someone recently about literature, and I was surprised to find out that in all of literature, there has never been penned a character who is perfect, that if you look through literature, you will find that even the noblest heroes that we can think of from a literary point of view, all of them have some character failure. It’s said that perhaps the greatest example of the writing of man that is produced in trying to perfect a subject is in the character of King Arthur, that he comes closest in the literary world to a perfect character.

And yet even King Arthur has a character flaw in his trust, in his inability to accomplish the purpose that held, according to legend, of that holding together of the Round Table. And it’s only when we come to Jesus Christ that we find, in fact, a perfect character, the perfect example of humility, the perfect example of aggression, and yet love, the perfect example of compassion, the perfect example of a man. And it has been said that even though the gospels were written by ordinary men, simple men, not trained as literary geniuses, that if the scripture were simply made up by those who wrote the gospels, what we would have before us is an example in literature that is an impossibility, that throughout the ages, writers have attempted to draw that character who is perfect.

And here we are to believe that some simple men talking about the life of Jesus, have captured in four gospels the perfect character of Jesus Christ. I think it is the words of Christ that have become perhaps the most firm foundation for a man or woman to live their life. Philip Schaff of Yale said this. This Jesus of Nazareth without money and arms, conquered more millions than Alexander, Caesar, Mohammed, and Napoleon without science and learning. He shed more light on things, human and divine than all the philosophers and scholars combined without the eloquence of schools. He spoke such words of life as were never spoken before or since, and produced the effects that are beyond the reach of any orator or poet.

Without writing a single line, Jesus has set more pens into motion, furnished more themes for sermons, discussion, orations, works of art, and the songs of praise than the whole army of great men of ancient and modern times.

Thank you for listening to a firm foundation presented by Princeton ministries. This programming is supported by you, the listener. You may go to our website, princetonministries.org, or send your donation to Princeton Ministries Post Office Box 2171, Princeton, New Jersey 8543. That’s Princeton Ministries Post Office Box 2171, Princeton, New Jersey 08543. The Lord bless you, and Dr. Smith looks forward to hearing from you. We would like to thank Rones web development company for making this webcast possible. You can find their link at the bottom of our website. Princetonministries.org.