“Lighten up; it’s only a book!” Have you ever heard that about the Bible? Have you ever thought that about the Bible? For me, I’ve actually based my whole world view on the Bible. Why? Because I have an assurance that “All scripture is God- breathed” and therefore I set eternity and all that I do and teach on that truth. I know that everyone doesn’t agree with this. A lot of folks question the validity of scripture and speculate whether it can be trusted or not. Many people suggest that “because the Bible was written such a long time ago and was translated so many times” that it just can’t be reliable for us today. If that is true, then the Bible rightly should be questioned. But there are many good reasons to trust the authenticity of the Bible and its inspiration by God. Below I’ve posted a summary list a friend and I put together which offers 8 major proofs for the authenticity of the Bible. What else would you add? How does this affect your view of scripture? How does this affect your view of God and His Kingdom? How does it affect the way you do life today?
1. Fulfilled Prophecy. There are thousands of prophecies that were made in the Bible centuries before their detailed fulfillment. There are more than 300 concerning Jesus Christ. Only God can accurately foretell the future.
2. Unity of the Bible. The Bible is a collection of 66 individual books that were written over a period of 1600 years, in three different languages, on three different continents, by numerous men, most of whom did not know each other. Yet there is complete unity and harmony from beginning to end.
3. Historical Accuracy. Although the Bible gives countless thousands of historical facts, it contains no historical errors. Such perfection could not even be approached in a mere man-made historical record.
4. Archaeological Confirmation. Hundreds of Bible facts have been substantiated by the science of archeology. In every case where archaeology and the Bible have come together, the Bible has been confirmed without exception.
5. Reliability of Scriptures. From the New Testament alone there are 5,366 manuscripts to draw from, with many of those being from the second century. That figure does not include additional fragments and other random portions. That is compared to only 643 copies of Homer’s Iliad, which is the most famous book in ancient Greece. There are only 10 copies of Caesar’s Gallic Wars and no one in the ‘educated’ world questions those, even though the earliest copies we have date 1000 years after the event. By contrast, we have some sections of the New Testament that were written within 70 years of the original events. The John Ryland’s fragment is a perfect example of this reality.
6. Preservation of Scripture. Although unbelievers have attacked the Bible throughout its existence, they have been unable to discredit it. Although it has been legally banned by civil governments, it has been preserved and remains the world’s bestselling book. Jesus said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away.” (Mark 13:31)
7. Influence in the World. The transformed lives of millions of Christians is an irrefutable argument for the Bible being from God.
8. Testimony of Jesus Christ. The Son of God who died for our sin and rose again from the dead, repeatedly quoted the Scriptures with authority and attributed them to His Father.
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