The Bible

Two things need to be said right up front:

- If you’re looking for absolute proof that the Bible is God’s inspired Word, you may not find it here. If, however, you are sincerely seeking truth, you will conclude that the Bible at least deserves serious consideration.

- There is no substitute for reading the Bible yourself. It’s easy to criticize or ignore something based on the opinions of others. Learn more about the Bible by reading each topic below. Then get your own Bible, and commit to reading it every day.

 It Is Unique

Let’s first consider the uniqueness of the Bible. Despite being written over 1,500 plus years by at least 40 authors from all walks of life, the Bible is amazingly unified. The entire book deals with God’s redemption of humans, both the Old and New Testaments. It also deals with a wide range of topics–especially controversial ones–yet does so consistently. What are the odds that 40 people from different time periods, cultures and situations would agree 100 percent on just one of those controversial themes, much less all of them?

The Bible is also unique from the standpoint that it has been read by more people and published in more languages than any other book in history. By 1966 it had been translated into 240 languages and dialects. The Bible has survived through time, persecution and criticism like no other book. The Dead Sea Scrolls are a recent example of how the book has been accurately preserved and translated over the years. History books are full of people who, in response to the Bible, have led remarkable lives in service to both God and their fellow man.

 It Is Prophetic

Another unique aspect of the Bible is prophecy. No other book has so many documented predictions about the future which have come true. There are literally hundreds of fulfilled Old Testament prophecies that both the New Testament and secular historians have verified. One of the most dramatic prophecies is found in Isaiah 44:28 and 45:1, where the prophet Isaiah predicted that a man named Cyrus (who wouldn’t be born for another 100 years) would become king. He further prophesied that Cyrus would give the command to rebuild the Jewish temple which was still standing in the prophet’s day.

 It Is Accurate

Above and beyond its remarkable predictive powers, the Bible has been shown to be historically and scientifically factual, accurate in every way.  In addition to harmonizing with secular historians, archaeology has repeatedly verified the book’s historical accuracy. For instance, the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were considered by many as mythological until recent excavations uncovered 15,000 non-Biblical tablets which mentioned both cities. Apparent internal and external inconsistencies or contradictions such as this example, at closer examination, are either unsubstantiated cannot be separated due to a lack of information.

From a scientific viewpoint, the Bible contains dozens of insights on such things as hydrology, geology, astronomy, meteorology, biology and physics. The Bible even has references to dinosaurs.  As for Biblical miracles, their presence does not contradict science–it’s the height of human ignorance to discount what we cannot rationally explain. Besides, anyone who is even willing to consider the existence of a supreme being surely must also be open to the possibility of supernatural acts.

 It Is God’s Word

A multi-authored book that is unified, consistent, read by more people than any other book, historically accurate, compatible with science and full of amazing predictions is, by anyone’s standards, unique.  But is the book that is also called “God’s Word” just that? Did God write the Bible?  The Bible’s writers certainly thought so. The Old Testament, for instance, contains almost 2,600 different statements such as “And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying…” or “The word of the Lord came to me…”

Jesus himself said this about the Bible in Matthew 5:18: I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.

From these passages and others we see that the Bible is not just an inspired piece of literature or God’s partial revelation. It’s also not a book dictated by God using human robots, nor is it human beings writing down their own spiritual thoughts. Every word of the Bible is inspired from God, free of error and exactly what God wanted to say. Somehow, some way God used fallible human beings to receive and record his infallible Word.

 Conclusion

So where does that leave us? The Bible, no matter how we look at it, is one of the most unique books in the history of the written word. The Bible also claims to be the very words of God.  The only definitive way to verify the importance and accuracy of the Bible is to try reading it for yourself. Start with the book of John in the New Testament. Above all, don’t make up your mind just by reading this or by listening to the opinions of others. Find out for yourself. Give the Bible a fair chance.