Amazing Evidence For The Trustworthiness Of The Bible
This article is taken from Charlie Campbell’s website which you can find at: www.alwaysbeready.com
The word Bible comes from the Greek word “biblos,” which means “book.” The Bible is unarguably an incredible book! The Bible is the best selling, most quoted, most published, most circulated, most translated, most influential book in the history of mankind. Now these are interesting facts, but do they prove that the Bible is actually true? No. Why should anybody believe that the Bible is actually true? Might not the Bible be a fraud? Might not it be an ancient book of mythology, filled with the fanciful, yet deceitful writings of men? Why should I trust the Bible? Those are questions that intelligent, critical thinking people are asking today. Those are the questions I used to ask about the Bible. We need to, as Christians, be able to answer these questions (1 Peter 3:15). So, I’d like to share with you some of the evidence that I think demonstrates that the Bible is indeed what it claims to be, the inspired, trustworthy Word of God.
1. Fulfilled Prophecy
Fulfilled prophecy is something that sets the Bible apart from every other religious book. The Bible is filled with hundreds of specific, detailed prophecies that were written hundreds of years before their fulfillment! In fact, an amazing 27% of the Bible (more than 1 out of every 4 verses) contains what was predictive prophecy at the time that it was written. (Deuteronomy 18:21-22)
Peter Stoner, a mathematician, and Professor Emeritus of Science at Westmont College, in his book Science Speaks (Moody 1963) calculated the odds of a single man fulfilling just eight of the prophecies that Jesus fulfilled as the mathematical improbability of 1 in 10 to the 17th. That is a HUGE number. One in ten to the seventeenth power. That’s a one with seventeen zeros after it (100,000,000,000,000,000). If we had 100 quadrillion 1” x 1.5” tiles we could cover every square inch of dry land on planet Earth. The fact that these prophecies and hundreds of others have been fulfilled, even though they were spoken hundreds and even thousands of years before their fulfillment, is strong evidence that a God, who is all-knowing and all-powerful, orchestrated the Bible’s completion (Isaiah 46:9-10).
2. Archaeological Discovers
“Archaeology can never prove divine inspiration, and we are not claiming that it can, but archaeology can help establish the fact that the Bible is a historical document” Quote by Charlie Campbell
For the past 150 years archaeologists have been verifying the exact truthfulness of the Bible’s detailed records of various events, customs, persons, cities, nations, and geographical locations. In every instance where the Bible can be, or has been checked out archaeologically, it has been found to be 100% accurate. The Bible has proven so accurate that archaeologists often refer to it as a reliable guide when they go to dig in new areas.
3. The Bible’s Internal Consistency
The Bible addresses life’s most controversial questions. The Bible is a collection of 66 different documents. It a compilation of books: 39 books in the Old Testament and 27 books in the New Testament. The Bible was written by approximately 40 different authors. Many of the Bible’s authors came from different educational and cultural backgrounds. The Bible was written over a period of approximately 1500+ years. Many of the authors were separated by hundreds of miles geographically. The Bible was written in three different languages, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. In spite of these seven different factors, when we look at the Bible as a whole, we find it to be a consistent, harmonious, perfectly unified account of how God is seeking to reconcile sinful mankind back to Himself through the person of His Son, Jesus Christ!
4. External Verification
Many people don’t know this but there are dozens of writings outside of the Bible that verify the historical accuracy of many of the names of people, places, and events mentioned in the Bible. In fact, external sources verify that at least 80 persons were actual historical figures, 50 people from the Old Testament and 30 people from the New Testament.
A great book for those of interested on reading more about external verification of the life of Jesus, is The Historical Jesus: Ancient Evidence for the Life of Christ by Gary R. Habermas.
5. The Bible’s Amazing Scientific Accuracy and Foresight
Even though the Bible was completed 2,000 years ago, long before the invention of the microscope, the telescope, satellites, etc. it does not contain any scientific errors. Not only is the Bible free from scientific errors, it miraculously makes known numerous, accurate scientific facts about the universe thousands of years before modern scientists caught up. For 101 examples you can go to www.eternal-productions.org/101science.html
6. The Manuscript Evidence
A manuscript is a hand-written copy of an ancient document that predates the invention of the printing press in 1455. Today there survives more than 24,000 partial and complete, ancient handwritten manuscript copies of the New Testament alone, not to mention hundreds of Old Testament manuscripts that survive today dating back to as early as the third century B.C. There are enough quotations from the early church fathers that even if we did not have a single manuscript copy of the Bible, scholars could still reconstruct 99. 86% of the New Testament that we have today.
7. The Bible’s Forthrightness About Its Author’s And Hero’s Failures
Its forthrightness in this regard makes it absolutely unique among all other religious books. Unlike the authors of other religious writings the authors of the Bible did not seek to cast themselves in good light or to elevate themselves at all. The author’s openness about these kinds of details helps me to believe that these men were being honest about the things they wrote about.
8. The Willingness Of Jesus’ Disciples To Suffer
The disciples went to their graves, one by one, suffering and dying martyr’s deaths for their on-going belief and preaching that Jesus’ resurrection was an absolute fact of history! The disciples sealed their testimony that Christ was alive with their own blood. They went to their graves still affirming that the events which they had witnessed had actually occurred. I find it hard to believe that these men were lying. People may be willing to die for something that they think is true, but nobody willingly dies for something they know is a lie.
9. The Bible’s Transforming Power For Good
The Bible claims to be living and powerful (Hebrews 4:12 , Psalm 19:7-10) and that has indeed proven to be the case. Millions of people, who would testify that they were immoral, vile sinners, drowning in drug addictions, alcoholism, pornography, gambling and the like, have been transformed into godly men and women as they have studied and followed the teachings of the Bible.
10. The Testimony Of Jesus, The Son Of God
Another reason that you can be sure that the Bible is trustworthy is because Jesus said it was! Jesus did not just claim to be the Son of God, He proved that He was the Son of God by His resurrection from the dead (Rom. 1:4), fulfilling hundreds of Old Testament prophecies, living a sinless life, and performing a multitude of miracles. If Jesus is the Son of God, we can trust what He had to say about the word of God.
The force of this evidence is cumulative. If I was to present these arguments individually one might be inclined to argue that the evidence was inconclusive (that mere archaeological evidence does not convince them that the Bible is truly the Word of God). And that is valid. But, all ten of these evidences, when taken together, build a strong case for the trustworthiness of the Bible.