66 Books. 40 Authors. One Truth.

0:00 How could you possibly say you don't trust the Bible? And then if you have it, you don't even read it? The greatest story ever told beyond that is life. It's eternity. The maker, the guy, the creator of the universe, spoke the universe into it. He spoke into creation. Billions of light years away, it's him. He always was, always will be, and he made you. And he made me to spend eternity with him. Wow. Welcome to the Ignite with Barry McGuire podcast. How would you like to have the time of your life for the rest of your life? How would you like to defeat fear effortlessly, knowing for sure God is hearing and answering your prayers and directing your steps and making everything work for good?

0:43 This is exciting. Here's the question. How would you like to ignite your life? Stay tuned. Hi, everybody. Welcome back to Ignite. I want to talk about the Bible for a couple minutes. Can I do that? It's everything to me. It's everything to us. It's God's inspired word. And he speaks to you and to me on a personal basis. It's God's inspired word. You can read the Bible and have the facts of the Bible, but then he speaks to us out of the Bible. It's called Ramah. It's when the Word speaks to you at that moment and you know that's meant for you. It's amazing.

1:25 God became flesh and dwelt among us, but the beginning is the Word, and the Word was God. The Word is God. It's God in the Word. I just... I'm shocked in America today, we are, at least we have been, the most Christian nation in the world. And Bibles are everywhere. I think they're in like 80 some odd percent of the households today. And yet the studies say that those who actually read the Bible are down in like the 20 percentile or less, even in Christian homes.

2:09 And when I'm talking to people, well, you just keep, I don't care about the scripture. How else can you talk to me about God? Well, you got me there. I guess I can't. If you read anything that I write, the book that I wrote, whatever, you'll see it's filled with scriptures. That's on purpose because I don't care about what I think. I just care what God thinks. And I want to make sure that everything I speak is in accordance with God's word. There's a lot of things being propagated today in the name of the church, in the name of God, in the name of Jesus, that are false.

2:53 They're false doctrines. AI is going crazy in this stuff. Folks, if you don't know the word of God, you can't really trust anything you hear. My pastor Jack Hibbs is being replicated right now with false doctrine. It's his words, his mouth. But it's not the word of God. They're corrupting it. AI is, we're just the beginnings of all that. But the word, why should I trust the word? Some of you, I can't trust. Why so much business? Why so much trust? Why are you depending so much on the word, on this thing you call the Bible?

3:35 Well, first off, it is God's inspired word. I'm gonna talk about how many authors and all that kind of stuff, but before that, it's God's inspired word. If these were just 40 authors writing their version of the same thing, they wouldn't match. I mean, if you and I both saw a car accident right now, And they came and they interviewed you and they interviewed me. You know that we would not be saying the same things because I saw something different than you did. You know that.

4:16 This is God's word. And if you haven't experienced it, you probably haven't, but many have and I understand. And I have a smidgen, what am I? I pedal car racks. But I wrote a book and I felt like it was inspired. And do you know, in the wee hours of the night, sometimes 11 o'clock or 1 o'clock in the morning, it just started downloading on me. And as fast as my fingers could type, God was downloading on me and reminding me of things and sharing things and putting scriptures together. And I'm writing, and it was inspired. I'm sorry, I'm not bragging.

4:56 I don't brag anything but God. Yeah. But even as a guy who pedals car wax, I'm nothing. But even I experienced a touch of inspired writing, even me. So we had 40 writers, get this, 40 authors. There's 66 books, okay, in the Bible, written by 40 authors. Got that? That mile wide sale. Can you imagine 40 authors writing 66 books that all agree? I mean, come on. Oh, but they did it over a span of 1,500 years. Yeah.

5:38 Oh, and they wrote from the perspectives of where they lived, and they lived on three different continents over 1,500 years. Oh, and they... Some of them wrote in Hebrew, some in Aramaic, and some in Greek. And they all agree. You don't believe the Bible? Really? There's no other document in the history of the world where it comes remotely close to the Bible. In this short time, we could always talk about so many things. I think Bible prophecy, if you read just the scriptures of Bible prophecy, you can't help but say the Bible's real.

6:20 It's real. You look at all the prophecies about Jesus. I mean, there's like, I say there's 400 specific references to Jesus, but more importantly, there's over 300 specific prophecies about Jesus, and he fulfilled every one of them. What are the odds? They're infinitesimal. It's impossible. You can't do that. He was born in the house of David. You know, he was in the lineage of David. That was prophesied by Isaiah and Jeremiah. Both of them talked about that. A thousand years earlier.

7:02 How did they know that? They prophesied that a virgin would conceive and give birth to a son, Emmanuel. Again, that was in Isaiah. He'd be born in Bethlehem, this little city of no attention at all. It was nothing in Micah. It even talks of that. He'd be born in the city of no report. And he was. It even talks about how he was betrayed for 30 pieces of silver in Zechariah. His crucifixion is covered completely, but how he was broken. Even to the parting of the garments, the whole thing is all there.

7:47 It's confirmed by history. Roman records, they have it. It's all there. The scriptures were written... by first-hand reports, you know, most of the New Testament is written by people within 60 years of Jesus and his crucifixion. There's Josephus. Read Josephus. He wasn't even a Christian. He captured it exactly. There's the Dead Sea Scrolls, right, that absolutely confirms the Old Testament. All the Old Testament books are there. They're there. They discovered them back in the 40s, you know, and into the 50s. They were still reading them. You know, that one that thrills me the most? I've been there.

8:27 I've been to the museum. I've seen them. The one that was captured entirely in one manuscript, not pieces put together, but one manuscript. You know which one it is? It's Isaiah. Do you know that Isaiah prophesied the virgin birth? And God being with us, and he was being pierced for our sin, our iniquities. I mean, he goes on and on and on in the book of Isaiah. You know, their book, the Jewish people he loves, it's his people. And they react so strongly against Jesus. And like the best guy of all, I think, Isaiah, prophesied Jesus.

9:10 That's in the book. Why should you trust the Bible? Why? Again, all the New Testament writing written by people who were there, they saw it firsthand. There's thousands of manuscripts documenting the Bible. There's no other Bible. There's no other document in the history of the world that has the confirmation of its truth, of its writing, of what had happened, what it says. Like the Bible, there's nothing. The Jewish scribes were legendary. They hand-wrote Scripture, right?

9:50 And when they replicated it, they hand-wrote it again. And they find them over hundreds of years later. And in the handwriting of the scribes, it's exactly to the word of the one that was written before. It's so exact. Most importantly, I think, is the disciples who, I mean, you read the account of the disciples, they were just like us. I'm grateful they were just like us. They were fleshly, and they were worldly, and they were weak.

10:30 And when Jesus was taken to the cross, Peter, the one that said, I'll stand up for you. Who me? I don't even know him. And he was the best. The rest of them were hiding. They're gone. They deserted him. After all that ministry, they saw the miracles. They saw him raising people from the dead. At the time when he's going to be crucified, taken to prison, and then crucified, they ran from him. They were like us. We probably would have done the same thing. Fearful, worldly, earthly, sinful. You know what happened after that? When he came back, when he rose again, and he spent 100 days with them, and they felt the nail prints, and he shared with them, and then he ascended.

11:24 And then those 12 guys, 11 guys, they went out and changed the world. Here we are at this day and age because of them And every one of them stood and fought the fight and spread the word, knowing what was ahead of them and standing proudly. And 11 were martyred, beheaded, stabbed, you name it. Peter, the one that denied him, he was crucified upside down. This is the word of God. This is the Bible. Should you trust the Bible? Seriously? Seriously?

12:07 How could you watch this and you don't trust the Bible? And then if you have it, you don't even read it? The greatest story ever told beyond that, it's life. It's eternity. The maker, the guy that created the universe, spoke the universe into it. He spoke it into creation. Billions of light years away, it's him. And he always was, always will be. And he made you. And he made me to spend eternity with him. Wow. But I digress. 1948, prophecies that we're aware of that have been fulfilled. You think about it, Ezekiel, Isaiah, Deuteronomy, they talked about how the Jews are gonna be scattered all over the earth, and they were.

12:50 The Holocaust, all that, and then it says, they're gonna be brought back to their own land again. And they did, 1948. Unbelievable! We're taking for granted now We're talking about alignment. That whole land was theirs way before there was anything about Muslim or anything else. I mean, it's almost a joke if it wasn't so deadly serious. He brought them back just like he said he would 2,000 years, 1,500 years earlier. It was prophesied that that's exactly what happens in the Bible. And you're questioning whether you should trust the Bible?

13:34 You know, you look at the alignment of nations today, those that are preparing for the reading, Ezekiel 38, you'll see what's going on today. You can see we're getting ready for that. It could happen at any moment. And do you know that all the way back in the early scriptures, it talks about who would be friends and who wouldn't be of the Middle Eastern, leave alone us. It talks about how Saudi and Jordan and the Emirates, they will all be supporting Israel. And yes, Gog and Magog and Russia and Turkey and Iran and Syria will all be the opposers. That's all written out ahead of time. It's all there. Go to the Bible. How does that happen? If it wasn't God-inspired, how would these men know that?

14:19 That very thing is dividing the church today. Even in America, we know that in the end days of Scripture tells everybody departs Israel. They're going to be on their own. Even America. You want to know where we are in Bible prophecy? It's even when America turns its back on Israel. And we're doing that big time. Even in the church today. Who would ever believe that Israel would be a controversy in the church? And, you know, there's this explosion of knowledge. Boy, have we seen an explosion of knowledge.

14:59 Daniel 12 talks about that. AI, everything. Boy, are we seeing an explosion of knowledge. Unprecedented by anything else. The history of the world. The amount of doubling and tripling of knowledge in a short period of time. That's all happening right now. But I'll give you one that's even stronger than that. And you can't get away from this one. We've all heard about the cashless society, you know, where you don't have to have money anymore and you won't be able to lose your identity anymore. It's called by having a mark. And you see there's a number of technologies out. They've tested it already. It's already working. And it just makes sense, quite frankly. I can't lose a mark. You won't see the mark, but they can put it on my arm or my forehead.

15:43 And wherever I go, I just do that. I just put my car, I just put my arm and boom, and I'm in. It's the case of society. We know that's gonna happen, it's inevitable. It's gotta happen. It's the only way we can have absolute security. It makes sense. Do you know that the Apostle John was banished to the Isle of Patmos and he wrote the book of Revelation And he said amazing things. If you want to read an amazing book, even if you have a hard time understanding it, keep reading it and you'll see these gems. And this one I love the best. You can't argue this, folks.

16:23 Listen, now understand, Paul, there was no electricity. There was donkeys and carts. There's no electronics. None of that. And God inspired him. He couldn't have come up with this. But yea, verily, 2,000 years ago, he says, and he, who is the Antichrist, who's about to come, I don't want to get into that right now, required everyone, rich, poor, doesn't matter, everyone to be given a mark on the right hand or on the forehead. That's in Bible prophecy, in Revelations. And no one could buy or sell anything without that mark. It's Revelation 13.

17:06 Go to Revelation 13. You don't believe the Bible? Read that one verse. That's happening right now. Oh. The Bible's real. Yeah. In 2 Timothy chapter 3, It really describes our world today. It goes like this. But know this. In the last days, perilous times will come. Are they perilous? I mean, everybody's worried about what's going to happen next here, there, and everywhere. For men will be lovers of themselves. Are we not seeing that? They just love themselves. Whatever is good for me, it's the me generation.

17:48 Lovers of money. Yes. Got to have more money, even in the church. Boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents. Parents have the least standing of every—in the history of the world, parents have never had such poor standing with their kids to the point where the kids are suing their parents. Unthankful, ungrateful, unholy, unloving. Loving, but not even knowing what loving is. Unforgiving, slanderers without self-control. The world is out of control. They were seen as everywhere you look. This passage describes despisers of good. They despise good.

18:29 Traitors, lovers of pleasure. Give me pleasure. Anywhere you want to go, go on your phone. You can't get away from it. Lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. Having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof. And we're seeing that in the church today. My God. So much happening in the church today that is despicable and breaking God's heart. And you know what? Gen Zers have had enough. They're a hope for tomorrow. They're a hope for tomorrow. They get it. And they've had enough of the hypocrisy and the offerings and the failures and the simple little sermons.

19:15 Have a good day. They've had it. They want truth. And they're coming. I just read an article of what's going on with Gen Zers in England. It's so exciting. They are hope for tomorrow. They really are. I digress. We're telling people who are always learning and never able to come to truth. We're learning about all this stuff, big stuff. Our heads are exploding with all that knowledge, but never understanding the truth, that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came and died for my sins, for your sins. There's a problem with the world today. I'll kind of close this up, but I used to get mad, really mad, really mad.

20:01 Those people should go to hell, put them in jail. I had strong feelings. I was convicted of that decades ago. I realized that I'm the chief of sinners. Even Paul said that. Because the people around us are doing the dumb things and saying the dumb things. The politicians, you know, they're not stupid. They're lost. They're not evil. I mean, some maybe, I mean, there's some that are giving off. God just gives them over. I shudder to think of being in that situation. God just gives you over to sin. But that's a few in number, and that's not for us to judge.

20:42 I'm talking about people that will get up and shout with the blood vessels popping out of their necks, and they'll be saying these things. It'll be kids on the street or the politicians in Washington, and they're saying things that are so insane, they make no sense whatsoever. They're saying because they're blinded. Scripture tells Satan puts shields over their eyes so they can't see. They're lost. It says they think, they see evil as good, and that's the only Scripture in the whole Bible that explains what's going on today. They say evil is good and good is evil. We're evil. I'm evil because I love them and I want to know God loves them. Good is, I won't go down the list, but you know what it is.

21:24 It just doesn't make any sense at all. They're lost. At the bottom line of the gospel, why you should trust the Bible is that God's love never stops. It never stops. They're never gonna stop doing what they're doing until somebody tells them God loves them. And I just pray, God, Help us to see them as God sees them. I pray that I see you as God sees you.

22:07 That's the answer to everything. Love your neighbor as yourselves. Here's the solution. Move everybody every day closer to Jesus. You're not going to get in a box. He's not putting you in a box. He's not forcing you to do anything you want to do. He's setting you free. He sets you free. Whoever knows the Lord is free and free indeed. The Bible is true. It's a thousand times over. It's true. God loves you. And His love for you never ends. And He wants you to spend eternity with Him forever. And you know what? He sent His Son to die on that horrible cross to make that possible.

22:50 I pray that you not wait to make that decision until it's too late. Please hear me on that. God bless you. If you enjoyed today's podcast, please let us know. Subscribe now to continue receiving my podcast and add your comments to help us attract more viewers. See you next time on the Ignite with Barry McGuire podcast.