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Is Everything the Bible says true?
But how do we know the Bible is true? How do we know it is a true revelation of God? Can we use the scientific method to prove the Bible is true? There are some questions you might have heard people ask, or maybe you have asked these questions. The scientific method is not infallible and the man trying to prove the Bible is not infallible. Bear in mind we are talking about absolute proof. Instead, what we do is assume the Bible is true, and that God exists as a beginning assumption. In other words, we begin with faith. All worldviews begin this way, i.e. with assumptions that cannot be proved. However, once that assumption has been made, the hypothesis can be tested. If the Bible is God's Word we should expect it to mirror reality, i.e. state things as they really are. We would expect the Bible to tell us things that we can know experientially. We would expect that accuracy has been maintained as it has been copied down through the centuries. The Bible is a supernatural book. It was written by 40 human authors over a period of 1600 years and copied by hand thousands of times. Yet there is one unified theme in the Bible as a whole, and the text that we have today is essentially the same as the original manuscript.
Scientific Accuracies of the Bible
Many people doubt the Bible for various reasons. One of them is that the Bible is not accurate scientifically. But this just isn't so. The Bible is not a book about science, but when it does speak scientifically, it is accurate. In fact, it was far ahead of any other writing of its time. Please consider the following.
- The Spherical Shape of the Earth
"He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in"(Isaiah 40:22, NIV).
The Hebrew language did not have a word for "sphere." Circle is quite sufficient.
- The Earth is suspended in nothing
"He spreads out the northern [skies] over empty space; he suspends the earth over nothing" (Job 26:7, NIV).
- The Stars are Innumberable
"He took him outside and said, "Look up at the heavens and count the stars -- if indeed you can count them." Then he said to him, "So shall your offspring be" (Genesis 15:5, NIV).
- The Existence of Valleys in the Seas
"The valleys of the sea were exposed and the foundations of the earth laid bare at the rebuke of the LORD, at the blast of breath from his nostrils" (2 Samuel 22:16, NIV).
- The Existence of Springs and Fountains in the Seas
"In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, on the seventeenth day of the second month -- on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened" (Genesis 7:11, NIV). See also Gen. 8:2; Prov. 8:28.
- The Existence of Water Paths (Ocean Currents) in the Seas
"O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!...When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,...You made him [man] ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet...the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas" (Psalm 8:1,3,6,8, NIV).
- "He wraps up the waters in his clouds, yet the clouds do not burst under their weight" (Job 26:8, NIV).
- "He draws up the drops of water, which distill as rain to the streams; the clouds pour down their moisture and abundant showers fall on mankind" (Job 36:27-28, NIV)
- "The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes, ever returning on its course. All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they return again(Ecclesiastes 1:6-7, NIV).
"In the beginning you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment. Like clothing you will change them and they will be discarded"(Psalm 102:25-26, NIV).
Unique Historical Accuracy
The historical accuracy of the Scriptures is likewise in a class by itself, far superior to the written records of Egypt, Assyria, and other early nations. Archeological confirmations of the Biblical record have been almost innumerable in the last century. Dr. Nelson Glueck, probably the greatest modern authority on Israeli archeology, has said:
"No archeological discovery has ever controverted a Biblical reference. Scores of archeological findings have been made which confirm in clear outline or in exact detail historical statements in the Bible. And, by the same token, proper evaluation of Biblical descriptions has often led to amazing discoveries."
Two examples
From the Old Testament: a certain Belshazzar is mentioned in Dan. 5. The Bible refers to him as the king over Babylon and because Daniel interpreted the writing on the wall for him, he was elevated to the 3rd highest position in the kingdom. The critics believed Belshazzar was a myth since his name was never mentioned in the historical records. Archaeologists now know from ancient discoveries that Belshazzar was a co- regent with his father, Nabonidus, who had taken up residence in Arabia. Perhaps this explains why Daniel could only be elevated to the 3rd highest in the kingdom!
From the New Testament: Luke tells us (Chapter 2) that a decree was issued whereby all citizens were to return to the land of their inheritance in order to be taxed. The passage also says that Quirinius was Governor of Syria at the time. The critics said Luke was inaccurate on both counts. The people were not taxed in this way and Saturninus was Governor, not Quirinius. Separate archaeological discoveries have vindicated the Bible at both points.
Fulfilled Prophecies
How do you respond to someone's claim that the Bible is not inspired? Is there a way to prove inspiration or, at least, intelligently present evidence for its inspiration? The answer is "Yes!" One of the best ways to prove inspiration is by examining prophecy. There are many religious books in the world that have many good things to say. But only the Bible has fulfilled prophecies--with more fulfillments to come. The Bible has never been wrong in the past, and it won't be wrong in the future. It claims inspiration from God (2 Tim. 3:16). Since God is the creator of all things (Isaiah 44:24), then He is also the creator of time. It is under His control. Only God, then, would always be right about what is in the future, our future.
Fulfilled prophecy is strong evidence that God is the author of the Bible because when you look at the mathematical odds of prophecy being fulfilled, you quickly see a design, a purpose, and a guiding hand behind the Bible. If just one prophecy failed then we would know that God is not the true God, because the creator of all things, which includes time, would not be wrong about predicting the future. Deut 18:22 says, "If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the LORD does not take place or come true, that is a message the LORD has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously" (NIV). Isaiah 46:9-10 says, "Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me. I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please."
One approach to use with an unbeliever is to turn to Psalm 22 and read verses 12-18. This is a detailed description of the crucifixion--1000 years before Jesus was born. After you read the section ask him what it was about. He'll say, "The crucifixion of Jesus." Then respond with something like, "You're right. This is about the crucifixion. But it was written 1000 years before Jesus was born. And on top of that, crucifixion hadn't even been invented yet.. How do you think something like this could happen?" After a brief discussion, you could show him (or her) a few other prophecies like where Jesus' birthplace was prophesied (Micah 5:2), that He would be born of a virgin (Isaiah 7:14), that His side would be pierced (Zech. 12:10), etc.
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Born of the Seed of the Woman |
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Genesis 3:15 , "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel." |
Matthew 1:20 , "But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit." |
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Born of a Virgin |
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Isaiah 7:14 , "Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel." |
Matthew 1:18, 25 , "This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary...was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit... But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus." |
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Son of God |
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Psalm 2:7, "I will proclaim the decree of the LORD: He said to me, "You are my Son today I have become your Father." |
Matthew 3:17, " And a voice from heaven said, 'This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.'" |
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Seed of Abraham |
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Genesis 22:18 , "and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me." |
Matthew 1:1, "record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham:" |
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Son of Isaac |
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Genesis 21:12 , "But God said to him, 'Do not be so distressed about the boy and your maidservant. Listen to whatever Sarah tells you, because it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.'" |
Luke 3:23-34, "Now Jesus himself was about thirty years old when he began his ministry. He was the son, so it was thought, of Joseph, the son of Heli...the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham, the son of Terah, the son of Nahor," |
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House of David |
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Jeremiah 23:5 , "The days are coming, declares the LORD, "when I will raise up to David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land." |
Luke 3:23-31 , "Now Jesus himself was about thirty years old when he began his ministry. He was the son, so it was thought, of Joseph, the son of Heli...the son of Mattatha, the son of Nathan, the son of David," |
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Born at Bethlehem |
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Micah 5:2 "But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times." |
Matthew 2:1 , "After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem." |
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He shall be a Prophet |
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Deuteronomy 18:18 , "I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers; I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him." |
Matthew 21:11 The crowds answered, "This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee." |
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He shall be a Priest |
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Psalm 110:4 , "The LORD has sworn and will not change his mind: 'You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.'" |
Hebrews 3:1, "Therefore, holy brothers, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess."
Hebrews 5:5-6, "So Christ also did not take upon himself the glory of becoming a high priest. But God said to him, 'You are my Son; today I have become your Father.' And he says in another place, 'You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.'" |
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He shall be a King |
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Psalm 2:6, "I have installed my King on Zion, my holy hill." |
Matthew 27:37 , "Above his head they placed the written charge against him: THIS IS JESUS, THE KING OF THE JEWS." |
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He shall judge |
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Isaiah 33:22, "For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; it is he who will save us." |
John 5:30, "By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me." |
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He would be preceded by a Messenger |
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Isaiah 40:3, "A voice of one calling: 'In the desert prepare the way for the LORD; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God.'" |
Matthew 3:1-2, "In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the Desert of Judea and saying, 'Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.'" |
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Rejected by His own people |
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Isaiah 53:3 , "He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not." |
John 7:5, "For even his own brothers did not believe in him."
John 7:48, "Have any of the rulers or the Pharisees believed in Him?" |
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His side pierced |
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Zechariah 12:10, And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one mourns for an only son. |
John 19:34, "Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus' side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water." |
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Crucifixion |
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Psalm 22:1, 11-18, "For the director of music. To the tune of "The Doe of the Morning." A psalm of David. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?...Do not be far from me, for trouble is near and there is no one to help. Many bulls surround me; strong bulls of Bashan. Dogs have surrounded me; a band of evil men has encircled me, they have pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones; people stare and gloat over me. They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing." |
Luke 23:33 , "When they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified him, along with the criminals -- one on his right, the other on his left."
John 19:33, "But when they came to Jesus and saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs."
John 19:23-24, "When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom. Let's not tear it, they said to one another. "Let's decide by lot who will get it." This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled which said, "They divided my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing." So this is what the soldiers did." |
The Mathematical Odds of Jesus Fulfilling Prophecy
"The following probabilities are taken from Peter Stoner in Science Speaks (Moody Press, 1963) to show that coincidence is ruled out by the science of probability. Stoner says that by using the modern science of probability in reference to eight prophecies, 'we find that the chance that any man might have lived down to the present time and fulfilled all eight prophecies is 1 in 1017." That would be 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000. In order to help us comprehend this staggering probability, Stoner illustrates it by supposing that "we take 1017 silver dollars and lay them on the face of Texas. They will cover all of the state two feet deep.
Now mark one of these silver dollars and stir the whole mass thoroughly, all over the state. Blindfold a man and tell him that he can travel as far as he wishes, but he must pick up one silver dollar and say that this is the right one. What chance would he have of getting the right one? Just the same chance that the prophets would have had of writing these eight prophecies and having them all come true in any one man."
Stoner considers 48 prophecies and says, "we find the chance that any one man fulfilled all 48 prophecies to be 1 in 10157, or 1 in
100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,
000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,
000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, 000, 000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.
The estimated number of electrons in the universe is around 1079. It should be quite evident that Jesus did not fulfill the prophecies by accident.
Manuscript Evidence
The Old Testament
Scribes were professional transcribers of the Bible from antiquity, trained to copy documents. There are three main families of manuscripts of the Old Testament: The Massoretic Text, The Dead Sea Scrolls, and the Septuagint. The Massoretic Text. It dates to about A.D. 1000. A group of Jews known as Massoretes were professional copyists who developed meticulous techniques to assure accuracy. The texts they had were all in capital letters. There was no punctuation nor paragraphs. They numbered all of the verses, words and letters of each book. They counted the number of times each letter was used in each book. They calculated the middle verse, middle word, and middle letter of each book. Comparisons of Massoretic texts of the 10th century with Greek and Latin versions of first century show remarkable agreement.
The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in 1947. They include a complete copy of Isaiah and fragments of almost every book in the O.T. They are dated around 100-200 B.C. This antedates by more than 1000 years the oldest Hebrew texts in the Massoretic tradition. The error in copying in this great period is very minimal. For example, of the 166 words in Isaiah 53, only one word is in question, and it does not change any sense of the passage. This is typical of the whole manuscript. The Septuagint It is a greek translation of the O.T. from around 200 B.C. by 70 Jewish scholars in Alexandria. It also confirms the accuracy of the Massoretic text.
The New Testament
There are more than 4000 ancient Greek manuscripts containing all or portions of the N.T. that have survived to our time. The writing materials most often used were papyrus and parchment. There are 2 excellent parchment copies of the entire N.T. which date from 325-450 called codex Vaticanus and codex Siniaticus. The earliest piece we have is a portion of John dated from 130 A.D., the Rylands fragment, containing John 19;31-33, 37. From five of these fragments alone, we can construct all of Luke, John, Romans, I & II Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, I & II Thessalonians, Hebrews, and portions of Matthew, Mark, Acts and Revelation. Versions: In addition to the actual Greek manuscripts, there are 1000 copies and fragments of the N.T. in various languages, and 8000 copies of the Latin Vulgate, translated by Jerome about 400 A.D. C. Church Fathers: A further witness to the text is found in the thousands of quotations of Church fathers (the early Christian writers). If all of the N.T. manuscripts were to disappear overnight we could produce the entire N.T. with the quotes of the church fathers with the exception of 15-20 verses.
Conclusion: Sir Frederic Kenyon, former director and principal librarian of the British Museum, in "The Bible and Archaeology" wrote, "The interval between the dates of original composition and the earliest extant evidence becomes so small as to be, in fact, negligible, and the last foundation for any doubt that the Scriptures have come down to us substantially as they were written has now been removed. Both the authenticity and the general integrity of the books of the N.T. may be regarded as finally established. To be skeptical of the 27 documents in the N.T. and to say they are unreliable is to allow all of classical antiquity to slip into obscurity, for no documents of the ancient period are as well attested bibliographically as these in the N.T."
Unique Structure
The remarkable structure of the Bible should also be stressed. Although it is a collection of 66 books, written by 40 or more different men over a period of 2,000 years, it is clearly one Book, with perfect unity and consistency throughout.
The individual writers, at the time of writing, had no idea that their message was eventually to be incorporated into such a Book, but each nevertheless fits perfectly into place and serves its own unique purpose as a component of the whole. Anyone who diligently studies the Bible will continually find remarkable structural and mathematical patterns woven throughout its fabric, with an intricacy and symmetry incapable of explanation by chance or collusion.
The one consistent theme of the Bible, developing in grandeur from Genesis to Revelation, is God's great work in the creation and redemption of all things, through His only Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Conclusion
Christianity rests on the assurance that the Bible is completely accurate. It may contain statements that are (1) figures of speech; (2) non-technical descriptions; or (3) difficult to understand. But actual errors would fall into a different kind of category. If there are any errors in Scripture, no matter how small, the book can no longer be our standard of truth. I become the standard of truth, as I determine which Bible statements are right and which are wrong. And if I can't trust God to get the facts straight on things like dates and measurements (where I can check on Him), why should I expect Him to be more accurate in areas like sin and salvation (where I can't check on Him)?
The Bible doesn't use the word "inerrant," but the idea is obvious.
Psalm 19:7-9 - "The law of the Lord is perfect ... the testimony of the Lord is sure ... the commandment of the Lord is pure ... the judgments of the Lord are true forever."
Psalm 119:43 - "the word of truth."
Psalm 119:142 - "Thy law is the truth."
Psalm 119:160 -"Thy word is true from the beginning."
John 17:17 - "Thy word is truth."
An inaccurate Bible contradicts God's character quality of absolute truthfulness.
Titus 1:2 - "God who cannot lie."
Hebrews 6:18 - "It is impossible for God to lie."
Some consider this a minor issue, but the idea that the Bible contains errors opens the door to serious spiritual danger. When people decide they have the authority to label one verse as a mistake, they soon find others that they consign to the "error" category. I've watched it happen over the years. Each generation rejects more and more Scripture, as it gets in the way of their own opinions.
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