Ten Evidences for the Trustworthiness of the Bible
By Charlie H. Campbell
1. FULFILLED PROPHECY
Fulfilled prophecy is something that sets the Bible apart from every other religious book.
There are 26 other religious books that people of faith believe are divinely inspired…
The Hindu’s …
--Vedas
--Bhagavad-Gita,
--Mahabharata
--Upanishads
The Muslim’s…
--Qur'an
The Mormon’s…
--Book of Mormon
--Doctrine and Covenants
--
The Buddhists…
--Tripitaka
Of these twenty-six books,
none of them, not a single one, contains any specific, fulfilled
prophecies! The Bible, however, 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.
A quick check
reveals quite a few fulfilled prophecies in quite a few of those books, such as
the Koran.
Charlie is a terrible, terrible scholar. At the very least it would be
appropriate here to discuss some of the claimed fulfilled prophecies of the
other religions and argue why they don’t count or something. Charlie is either
ignorant, or lying to me. Neither is good.
And the authors of the Bible did not just predict some vague things like Nostradamus or Jeanne Dixon (who by the way, have proven to be wrong over and over again), they were very specific.
Consider some of the more than 100 different and very specific prophecies made concerning the Messiah, who the Old Testament prophesied would come.
The Old Testament foretold, hundreds of years in advance, very specific details about:
--the Messiah's ancestry
--that He’d be born of the seed of Abraham (Gen. 12:1-3,
--of the tribe of
--of the house of David (2 Samuel 7:12f), etc.
None of these are verifiably true at this point
--the
city in which He would be born (Micah 5:2)
--that
He’d come while the temple was still standing (Malachi 3:1)
--that
He would be born of a virgin (Isaiah
Not verifiable, some linguists point out that the word translated as
“virgin” can also mean “young” it is suspected authors may have made
the translation fit the prophecy
--that
He would perform miracles (Isaiah 35:5-6)
Unverified that he did
--that
He’d be rejected by His own people (Psalm 118:22; 1 Peter 2:7)
--the precise time in history when He would die
(Daniel
9:24-26; 483 years after the declaration to reconstruct the city of
It doesn’t really say he will die 483 years after the declaration,
it also says some other things should happen that appear to have not happened:
"Seventy 'sevens' [a] are decreed
for your people and your holy city to finish [b]
transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in
everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the
most holy. [c]
25 "Know and understand
this: From the issuing of the decree [d] to restore
and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, [e] the ruler,
comes, there will be seven 'sevens,' and sixty-two 'sevens.' It will be rebuilt
with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble. 26 After the sixty-two
'sevens,' the Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing. [f] The people
of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end
will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have
been decreed.
--how He would die (Psalm 22:16-18, Isaiah 53; Zech 12:10)
--that
He would rise from the dead (Psalm
Not verified that he did. Fuck, if this were verified there would be
no debate!
--And there are many more...
All of these prophecies were fulfilled.
1947 a shepherd boy tending his father’s sheep in
There in
These scrolls had been hidden in caves by the Essenes, a Jewish sect living in
These scrolls and writings (now known as the Dead Sea Scrolls) represented every book of the Old Testament except the Book of Esther, and are considered one of the greatest discoveries in modern times.
It’s manuscript evidence like this Isaiah scroll that dates back to about 100 B.C. that proves, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that the Old Testament, and its many prophecies concerning the Messiah, was finished long before Jesus was even born.
This isn’t accurate, the dead sea scrolls are not
ancient copies of the old testament. Terrible scholar once
again Charlie.
THE SKEPTIC ASKS:
“How do you know that the Dead Sea Scrolls date back to before Christ?”
But if dating techniques show
that the biblical account of creation is wrong, they are flawed right?
FUCK YOU ASSHOLE
=)
Teams of scholars determined the scrolls age by examining. . .
1. The pottery that housed the manuscripts
2. The weave and pattern of the manuscript cloths
3. The form of the characters
4. The spelling of the words
5. The coins found alongside the manuscripts
6. They also used Carbon-14 Dating
2. Archaeological Verification
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.
Dr. Nelson Glueck probably the greatest modern authority on Israeli
archeology, has said…“No
Nelson died in the
1970s, is this intentionally misleading or is Charlier
retarded?
archeological discovery has ever controverted [overturned] 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.”
In every instance where the
Bible can be, or has been checked out archaeologically, it has been found to be
100% accurate.
I doubt that was
true in 1960, its certainly not true now
The Bible has proven so accurate that archaeologists often refer to it as a reliable guide when they go to dig in new areas.
In
fact, even though less than 1% of the material available to excavate in the tells in
...there have been more than 25,000 discoveries within the region known as “The Bible Lands” that have confirmed the truthfulness of the Bible.
Entire books have been written on this topic. Allow me to give you three examples.
The first one has to do with…
A. Pontius Pilate
The Bible says that he
was the Roman governor of
For years critics of Christianity were skeptical of whether Pontius Pilate was a real historical
person or not because there was little mention of him outside of the Bible.
But the day came in
June of 1961, when a team of Italian archaeologists led by Dr. Antonio Frova, were excavating the Mediterranean port city of
It was there in the jumbled ruins of an ancient Roman theater that they uncovered a large 2’ x 3’, 5” or so thick, limestone rock.
The inscription on the rock amazed the archaeologists.
It read in Latin: “Pontius Pilate, Prefect of Judea, has presented the Tiberium to the Caesareans.” (Scholars believe that the Tiberium refers to a temple or some other kind of public structure named after the Roman emperor Tiberius, who reigned from 14–37 A.D.)
This stone is on
display today in the
The second example has to do with…
B. Caiaphas
Caiaphas, the Bible tells us, was the Jewish high priest at the time of Jesus crucifixion.
Was he a make believe character?
Some thought so, that is
until 1990, when the Caiaphas family tomb was accidentally discovered by
workers constructing a water park just south of
Archaeologists were hastily called to the scene.
When they examined the tomb they found 12 ossuaries (limestone bone boxes) containing the remains of 63 individuals.
On the outside of the most beautifully decorated of the ossuaries was inscribed the words: “Joseph son of Caiaphas.”
What’s incredible is that Josephus (that Jewish historian of the first century A.D.) in his writings (Antiquities 18: 2, 2; 4, 3) documents that that was actually the full name of the high priest who arrested Jesus, “Joseph son of Caiaphas.” (Saying “son of” was a way of referring to the family name).
Inside
the ossuary archaeologists found the remains of a someone
approximately 60-years-old at the time of his death...the actual bones of
Caiaphas, the high priest mentioned in the Bible. Today Caiaphas’ ossuary is also on display in the
A third example as to do with…
C. David
David
of course was the most loved of all of
Some liberal scholars though had denied that King David was a historical figure because there was no mention of him outside of the Bible.
Their
skepticism changed in 1993. It was then, at an excavation at Tel-Dan in
In 1995 Time Magazine
did a story on this discovery and stated, This writing—dated to the 9th century
B.C., only a century after David’s reign—described a victory by a neighboring
king over the Israelites…The skeptics’ claim that King David never existed is
now hard to defend.”—Time,
It’s because of discoveries like this that men like...
Millar Burrows, (a
Professor at
Like I said, there are literally thousands of these archaeological discoveries that point to the Bible being an accurate and trustworthy historical document.
Now, this is something that has not proven to be the case for other supposed “holy books.”
Consider the Book of Mormon.
“Not one piece of evidence has ever been found to support the Book of Mormon -- not a trace of the large cities it names, no ruins, no coins, no letters or documents or monuments, nothing in writing. Not even one of the rivers or mountains or any of the topography it mentions has ever been identified.” (Dave Hunt, p.156, In Defense of the Faith; also see p. 107 in The Case for Christ, by Lee Strobel)
Nothing which demonstrates that the Book of Mormon is anything other than an early 19th century piece of American fiction, invented by Joseph Smith (see painting to right) has ever been found.
National Geographic Society
stated on
“Archaeologists and other scholars have long probed the hemisphere's past, and the Society does not know of anything found so far that has substantiated the Book of Mormon.”
The Smithsonian Institute in
“The
Smithsonian Institution has never used the Book of Mormon in any way as a
scientific guide. Smithsonian Archaeologists see no connection between the
archaeology of the
So we have two strong evidences that the Bible is trustworthy…
1. Fulfilled Prophecy
2: Archaeological
Verification.
Homers
works mention a lot of
real people and places too, and real events. Are they historical? Or legends and myths?
3. THE BIBLE’S Internal Consistency.
What do I mean, when I speak of the Bible’s internal consistency?
I am talking about the Bible’s internal harmony. From the first book of the Bible, Genesis, to the last book, Revelation, the Bible is absolutely consistent.
THE SKEPTIC SAYS…
“Why is that an evidence of divine origin? There are plenty of books that are internally consistent.”
Well, let me give you 7 reasons why the consistency of the Bible is a big deal, and an amazing evidence of it’s divine origin.
1. The Bible addresses life’s most controversial questions.
--How did the universe come into existence?
--Does God exist? And if so, what is He like?
--Why does man exist?
--What is our purpose for being here?
--Why is there evil and suffering in the world?
--What happens to me after I die?
2. The Bible is a collection of 66 different documents.
It might be easy to have harmony of thought in a single book like the Qur’an, that contains the teachings of a single man.
But the Bible is not a single book.
It a compilation of books: 39 books in the OT and 27 books in the NT.
3. The Bible was written by approximately 40 different authors.
4. Many of the Bible’s authors came from different educational and cultural backgrounds
--Peter was a fisherman
--Paul was a scholar
--Daniel was a prime minister
--Asaph was a musician
--Matthew was a tax collector.
--David was a shepherd then a king
--Luke was a historian and medical doctor.
The Bible’s consistency gets even more amazing when you consider fourthly that…
5. The Bible was written over a period of approximately 1500+
years, covering some 60+ generations.
Not only were the authors separated from each other by hundreds of years in time, but...
6. Many of the authors were separated by hundreds of miles geographically.
Many people don’t realize this, but the Bible was written in a variety of places on three different continents.
a. Africa (Egypt)
b. Asia
c. Europe (Rome for instance!)
--Paul wrote 4 letters imprisoned in Rome, located in Italy.
--The Apostle John, wrote while a prisoner banished to the Isle of Patmos in the Mediterranean Sea.
--The prophet Ezekiel wrote his work while held captive in Babylon.
--Jeremiah was in a dungeon.
--Luke wrote while traveling.
--Daniel wrote from a hillside and in a palace.
7. The Bible was written in three different languages.
--1. Hebrew
--2. Aramaic
--3. Greek.
In spite of these 7 different factors, when we look at the Bible as a whole, we find it to be a…
1. Consistent
2. Harmonious
3. Perfectly unified
...account of how God is seeking to reconcile sinful mankind back to Himself through the person of His Son, Jesus Christ!
If you’re not convinced that this is an amazing evidence of the divine origin of the Bible, go through your neighborhood and ask just 10 of your neighbors, what their beliefs are on: the nature of the universe, the meaning of life, the origin of evil, the way of salvation, etc. and you’ll immediately see how likely it is to have a variety of contradicting opinions!!!
Ignoring the fact for now, that it is not internally consistent (examples: two differing accounts of creation where things happen in different orders, two different sets of 10 commandments, 4 accounts of Christ that are not completely consistent) We ignore the fact that the bible was put together along with some editing to make things consistent. Texts were chosen to be part of the bible based on how well they fit in to the story. You can find gospels of jesus that are even less consistent, but they aren’t in the bible. That isn’t an accident, its humans doing what humans do.
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 (see list of names and sources on p. 270, I Don’t Have Enough Faith To Be An Atheist by Norman Geisler and Frank Turek)
Because of engravings and statues, etc., we even know what 18 of them looked like! (12 from the OT and 6 from the NT). External verification of what the Bible says has led to a radical change of view among liberal scholars regarding the person of Jesus. Some had at one time put forth the false idea that Jesus never even existed; that He was merely a mythological character!
But, today the existence of Jesus is hardly even debated within informed scholarly circles.
Q. The reason why?
There are over 39 sources outside of the Bible that attest to more than 100 facts regarding Jesus’ life, teachings, crucifixion, and resurrection.
One of those external sources, was the 1st century Roman historian Flavius Josephus (see portrait below).
In his writings Josephus verifies that…
--Herod the Great
--Herod Antipas
--Caiaphas
--Pontius Pilate
--John the Baptist
--James “the brother of Jesus,”
--Felix
--Festus
--Jesus
…were all historical figures.
Listen to one of Josephus’ statements about Jesus of Nazareth. I have purposely taken this from the Arabic text, of Josephus’ writings called Antiquities, chapter 18:63-64, a text that is unchallenged by most critics of the Bible.
Josephus wrote QUOTE:
“At this time there was a wise man who was called Jesus. And his conduct was good, and (He) was known to be virtuous. And many people from among the Jews and the other nations became his disciples. Pilate condemned Him to be crucified to die. And those who had become his disciples did not abandon his discipleship. They reported that He had appeared to them three days after his crucifixion and that He was alive; accordingly, He was perhaps the Messiah concerning whom the prophets have recounted wonders.”
These are not the words of the Bible or a Christian, but a Roman historian writing outside of the pages of Scripture.
Josephus wasn’t the lone voice. There were others as well:
--Cornelius Tacitus (ca. A.D. 55 –120)
(a Roman Historian by who wrote around A.D. 115. Although he was not a Christian but he did verify a number of historical events: Jesus lived, that He was from Judea, lived during the reign of Tiberius (A.D. 14-37), and was executed by Pontius Pilate, who governed the province of Judea from A.D. 26-36.)
--Gaius Suetonius (the chief secretary of Emperor Hadrian (A.D. 117 –138)
--And others.
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 & INSIGHTS.
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.
This might be considered a miracle in itself.
Without exception, every ancient religious writing has certain unscientific views of astronomy, medicine, hygiene, etc.
The Qur’an says in Surah 18:86 that the sun sets in a muddy spring.
Qur’an 18:86
“…when he reached the setting-place of the sun, he found it setting in a muddy spring”
The only exception to these kinds of errors, among ancient religious writings, is the Bible.
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.
There are lots of them. For time’s sake I will give you a few quick examples.
1. The Sun
In contrast to the Qur’an, the Bible teaches that the sun is actually on a circuit through space.
Writing of the sun in...
Psalm 19:6, David said…
“Its rising is from one end of heaven, and its circuit to the other end.”
For many years critics scoffed at this verse, claiming that it taught that the sun revolves around the earth. Scientists at that time thought the sun was stationary. However, it has been discovered in recent years that the sun is in fact on a circuit through space, just like the Bible says. It is traveling at approximately 600,000 mph.
2. The Shape of the Earth
When the rest of the world believed the earth was flat, Isaiah declared that the world was round…
Isaiah 40:22
“It is He who sits above the circle of the earth…” NKJV
The Hebrew word there for circle [“chuwg”] can also be translated “sphere.”
When did Isaiah write these words?
A. Between 740 and 680 B.C.
That was at least 300 years before Aristotle suggested, in his book On the Heavens, that the earth might be a sphere.
Other
verses are Proverbs
More than 2,000 years later some people still believed that Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) was going to sail off the edge of a flat planet in 1492 A.D.!
3. The Suspension of the Earth
Before Isaac Newton discovered gravity Hindus believed that the earth rested on the back of an elephant who stood on the back of a turtle that was swimming in a great endless sea. The Greeks believed that the mythical god Atlas carried the earth on his shoulders. But Job, the author of one of the oldest books in the Bible, went against the philosophy and science of the day and proclaimed more than 4,000 years ago that which has only been scientifically provable since the advent of satellite and rocket technology in the 20th century, and that is this:
Job 26:7
“…He [that is, God] hangs the earth on nothing.” NKJV
4. The Stars
Before the telescope was invented, man was able to number the stars.
--The Greek astronomer and mathematician Hipparchus (190-120 B.C.) said there were exactly 1,026 stars.
--The astronomer, and mathematician Ptolemy said there were 1,056 stars.
--The German astronomer, Johannes Kepler (1571-1630), counted 1,006.
The whole thought of the stars being uncountable was contrary to modern science until the invention of the telescope.
When Galileo first pointed his telescope to the heavens in 1608, we discovered there were a lot more stars than anybody had ever imagined, just as Jeremiah had said…
Jeremiah 33:22
“…the host of heaven [a reference to the stars] cannot be numbered, nor the sand of the sea measured…” NKJV
Amazing, jeremiah recognized that the sky
had more stars than anyone could count.
Today, based on powerful telescopes & modern satellite photographs, scientists estimate the universe contains approximately 100 billion galaxies containing approximately 200 billion stars each. Carl Sagan (1934-1996), the world famous astronomer, said, “The total number of stars in the universe is greater than all the grains of sand on all the beaches of the planet Earth.” (Cosmos, p. 196). That is enough stars for every person alive on planet earth to personally own approximately 2 trillion stars each.
“Counting at a rate of ten stars per second it would take over 100 trillion years. Surely the host of heaven cannot be numbered!”
-Dr. Mark Eastman, “Science and The Bible” @ marshill.org
If you want more of these kinds of amazing scientific insights I’d recommend that you check out some of these websites:
marshill.org
answersingenesis.org
icr.org
Now, how did the authors of the Bible know that the stars were uncountable, that the earth was round and hangs on nothing?
Perhaps it was based on the calculations done by an ancient greek who figured out using
geometry that the earth was round and how big it was? Does the author presume
humans are too stupid to figure these things out without insight from god? Fuck
you! Or perhaps when they said circle
they meant circle.
Furthermore, the stars aren’t uncountable,
it would just take a long time
Were they taking lucky guesses? I don't think so. Their flawless accuracy rules that out. The Bible says in…
2 Peter
“holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.”
God, who knows all there is to know about the universe He created, superintended the writing of the Bible to make sure that what He wanted written, was written.
So we have first, the witness of…
1. Fulfilled Prophecy
2. Archaeological Verification
3. Consistency
4. Eternal Verification
5. Scientific Accuracy & Insights
You can remember these with the acronym F.A.C.E.S.
It doesn’t take long to find scientific
errors in the bible, there are plenty of them. Some are mentioned here:
http://www.skepticfiles.org/atheist/genesisd.htm
6. The MANUSCRIPT EVIDENCE
Manuscript? What is a manuscript? A manuscript is a hand-written copy of an ancient document that predates the invention of the printing press in 1455.
There have been those (including the Mormons and Muslims) who have falsely asserted that the Bible has undergone corruption down through the centuries as it was copied and translated.
But the evidence actually proves otherwise.
Today there survive 24,633, partial and complete, ancient handwritten manuscript copies of the New Testament alone, not to mention the tens of thousands of Old Testament manuscripts that survive today dating back to as early as the third century B.C.
These hand written manuscripts have allowed scholars and textual critics to go back and verify that the Bible we have in our possession today is the same Bible that the early church possessed 2,000 years ago.
You can view these manuscripts yourself at places like...
--the
--the
--the Smithsonian Institute
--
--the National
Library at
--
CHURCH FATHERS
Even if we did not have any manuscripts, we have the writings of the church fathers.
By church fathers we are referring to those leaders in the Church, of the first three centuries A.D. that followed the original disciples.
Men like Justin Martyr, Eusebius, Tertullian, Polycarp.
These men in their writings and correspondence with other believers and other churches quote NT Scripture over and over again.
In fact, the early church fathers refer to the NT Scriptures over 86,000 times.
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. (There are only 11 verses in the New Testament that were not quoted by the church fathers).
Q. So then, what kind of proof is the Muslim or Mormon able to offer to prove that the Bible has been changed or corrupted down through the centuries?
A. None. To demonstrate or prove that the Bible has been corrupted, the Muslim or Mormon would need to be able to hold up ancient copies of the Bible and say...
“Look, here’s what the Bible used to say, and here is what
the Bible says now. It has been changed.”
But that is exactly what the Mormon and the Muslim can not do. WHY?
When you go back to the ancient copies of the Bible that are still in existence today in museum’s and library’s around the world, you quickly come to the conclusion, as numerous secular scholars have, that the text of the modern Bible has not undergone corruption.
Isaiah 40:8
“The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever.”
Jesus said in Matthew 24:35
“Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.”
7. THE BIBLE’S FORTHRIGHTNESS ABOUT IT’S AUTHOR’S & HERO’S FAILURES.
The Bible’s openness about it’s very own author’s sins and failures is a seventh reason that I believe the Bible is an honest work.
It’s 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.
In fact, they freely confessed that they were just sinful, ordinary men.
Consider some of the failures and shortcomings the writers of the Bible told us about...
We read of…
--Noah’s getting drunk shortly after getting off of the ark.
(Gen. 9:21)
--Abraham, lying (on more than one occasion) about Sarah being his wife.
(Gen. 12:13; 20:2)
--There was Moses’ outburst of anger, how he misrepresented God, and wasn’t even allowed to enter into the promise land.
(Num. 20:10-11)
--There was
(for example, see the book of Judges).
--David’s adultery and subsequent murder of Uriah
(2 Samuel 11)
--The disciple’s argument over which one of them was the greatest
(Luke 22:24)
--Peter’s denial of the Lord (Matt.26:72)
and his fear of being seen eating with Gentiles (Gal.2:11-12)
--The disciples falling asleep twice when Jesus asked them to pray
(Mark 14:32-41)
--Paul, confession that he was…
--“a wretched man” (Rom
--the “chief” of sinners (1 Tim.1:15)
--We also read of Paul and Barnabas arguing so heatedly over whether or not Mark should be allowed to travel with them, they parted company and went separate ways! (Acts 15:38-39)
Q. Do these sound like the kind of things that men making up the Bible would write about themselves?
A. Not 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.
Add to this 7th evidence the fact that these men...
--imparted
to the world the highest standards of conduct the world has ever seen, and we only strengthen our case.
Plenty of works of fiction have flawed heroes
8. THe WIlLINGnESS OF JESUS’ DISCIPLES TO SuFfER
The disciples, went to their graves, one-by-one, suffering and dying martyrs death, for their on-going belief and preaching that Jesus’ resurrection was an absolute fact of history!
Historians, men like Flavius Josephus and Eusebius, and others (both secular and in the church) record for us that for preaching the gospel…
Matthew:
was slain with a sword in a city of
Mark:
died in
Luke:
was hung upon an olive tree in the
James:
was beheaded in
James
the Less: (as he’s called in Mark
Philip:
was hung up against a pillar at Heiropolis in the
Bartholomew: was flayed alive.
Andrew: was bound to a cross, and left to die.
Jude: was shot to death with arrows.
Matthias: (the apostle chosen to replace Judas) was first stoned, and then beheaded.
Barnabas: was stoned to death by the Jews at Salonica.
Paul:
that former enemy of Christ (Acts 9) after various tortures and persecutions, was beheaded in
Peter:
was crucified (just as Jesus told him he would be in John 21) at
Thomas:
the former skeptic of the resurrection (John
Guys 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. If anybody knew whether or not
Jesus was alive after His resurrection, it would have been the disciples. They
were in a unique position historically, that allowed them to know whether what
they were saying was true or not. They actually lived in
9. THE BIBLE’S TRANSFORMING POWER FOR GOOD.
The Bible claims to be living
and powerful (Heb.
Down through the centuries, it’s words have...
--Converted millions of unbelievers to faith in Jesus Christ as Lord.
Millions of people, who would testify that they were immoral, vile sinners, drowning in…
--drug addictions
--alcoholism
--pornography
--gambling
--and the like
…have had their lives transformed into godly men and women as they have studied and followed the teachings of the Bible.
--The Bible’s words have comforted countless people in their sorrows.
--What words of wisdom the Bible contains!!
People on every continent, in more than 2,000 languages, look to the Bible to guide them through life’s perplexing and confusing circumstances.
--What words of inspiration the Bible contains!
The Bible has inspired people to…
--build hospitals
--start universities
(most of the world’s greatest universities—e..g. Harvard, Yale,
--launch humanitarian efforts to the poor
--abolish slavery
(William Wilberforce, an evangelical Christian and member of the British Parliament in the early 19th century, was the one largely responsible for the abolition of the slave trade)
--work for the equality of people among different races and women
--investigate the universe scientifically
--and further the development of great art and music.
(A great book on this topic is What if the Bible Had Never Been Written? by D. James Kennedy & Jerry Newcombe. Another excellent book by them is What if Jesus Had Never Been Born? also by Kennedy and Newcombe).
Philip Schaff, speaking of Jesus’ influence, aptly wrote...
“...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 philosophers and scholars combined; without the eloquence of schools, He spoke such words of life as were never spoken before or since, and produced effects which lie beyond the reach of orator or poet; without writing a single line, He set more pens in motion, and furnished themes for more sermons, orations, discussions, learned volumes, works of art, and songs of praise than the whole army of great men of ancient and modern times.” [Philip Schaff, after spending a lifetime of researching the impact of Jesus in: Why I Am A Christian, p.220-221]
The Bible’s ability to powerfully transform lives and cultures for good is just another piece of the evidence that this Book is the inspired Word of God.
Huge portions of the world submit to the Christian faith. As
such, good things and terrible things will be done seemingly “Because of
it”. This trite passage ignores any of
the bad things that have happened “because” of Christianity and mentions some
of the good things.
Millions of people drowning in:
--drug addictions
--alcoholism
--pornography
--gambling
--and the like
Have managed to better their lives WITHOUT the bible too, or
with “other” holy fiction books. The only
constant is that people can do good things, no matter their faith or lack thereof.
The Christian faith helped inspire hundreds of years of
inquisition, which was just nasty, awful, stupid stuff. But Hitler was equally
nasty without the help 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!!
The One who, not only claimed to be the Son of God, but proved that He was the Son of God by…
--His resurrection from the dead (Rom. 1:4)
Not verifiable at this time
--Fulfilling hundreds of Old Testament prophecies
Hundreds now? lol
--His sinless life
Not verifiable at this time
--His miracles
Not verifiable at this time
Jesus, the Son of God, testified that the Bible was the Word of God.
Jesus affirmed at least six things that were true about the Bible.
1. Without Error
In John 17:17, Jesus said in His prayer to His Father…
“Thy word is [What? Full of contradictions, and errors? No.] truth.”
Jesus taught secondly, that the Bible was...
2. Historically Reliable.
Jesus affirmed as historically true some of the most disputed passages of the Old Testament, including...
--the story of Jonah in the whale (in Matt.
--the destruction of the world by a flood in the days of Noah (in Matt.24:37-39)
--and others (see p. 5-60, Dan Story, Defending Your Faith, and Geisler, p. 559, Systematic
Theology, Vol. 1)
He testified thirdly, that the Bible was…
3. Divinely Authoritative (Matt. 4:4-10)
as He, over and over, said to Satan, “It is written...it is written...it is written...”
4. Scientifically Accurate.
For example, when He taught on marriage He referred to the literal creation of Adam and Eve (in Matt. 19:4-5)
5. Infallible, (Dependable, or Unbreakable)
when He said in John
John 10:35
“The Scripture cannot be broken”
And He taught sixthly that the Bible was…
6. Indestructible, in Matthew
Matthew 5:18
“For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass away from the Law, until all is accomplished.” (NAS)
If Jesus was a prophet of God, as even the Qur’an teaches, or even if He was a good teacher (as so many are willing to believe today) it would be wise for us to take His Word on the matter, and He taught that…
…the Bible is a…
--historically reliable
--divinely authoritative
--scientifically accurate
--dependable
--error free
--indestructible Book.
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 10 of these evidences, when taken together, build a strong case for the trustworthiness of the Bible.
ABOUT CHARLIE CAMPBELL
Charlie Campbell has been on
staff as a pastor at Calvary Chapel Vista in
BOOKING
If you would like to have Charlie Campbell speak at your church, conference, Christian school, or retreat please call 760-726-4224 or email him at CharlieCampbell@CalvaryChapel.com. References available.
For additional resources,
audio messages, notes, DVDs, that will help you always
be ready to defend the faith (1 Peter