On the surface the Bible's claim to
authority may appear to be self-proclaimed. Innumerable verses contain phrases
that designate the Lord as the source of that which is being expressed.
However, going just a little deeper will reveal that the evidence declares
God's revelation is not just an empty claim.
Throughout the Old Testament, God
spoke to His people through His prophets. Today’s prophets, psychics, and
guides would not have faired well in that environment: "But
a prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded him to
say, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, must be put to
death." Dt 18:20. The law
required false prophets to be stoned to death, if even one statement they made
"in the name of the Lord" was not fulfilled perfectly: "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." Dt 18:22 The reason
for this seemingly harsh punishment is that fulfilled prophecy was, and is
today, the authentication of God's word. If it was not perfect, it was not from
God. He declared this Himself: "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." Is 46:9&10.
Through predictive prophecy and
revelation of knowledge alone God provides much more evidence for the truth of
His word than any court would need to satisfy a "reasonable
doubt". Predictive prophecy, simply put, is telling the future.
Unlike the riddled quatrains of Nostradamas; or "percentage
predictions" of an Edgar Cayce or a Jean Dixon, the Bible is 100% perfect
in fulfilled prophecy. Approximately one third of the Bible was predictive
prophecy when written. Over 300 specific prophecies about Jesus alone were
fulfilled perfectly by Him when He came over 2,000 years ago. They named
specific cities, methodology, events, character traits, persecutions, betrayal,
resurrection, etc. One example in Psalm 22
says, "a band of evil men has encircled me,
they have pierced my hands and my feet." This describes part
of the crucifixion, a penalty that would not be known to the world for another
600 years at the time it was written. No other book in the world attempts to
authenticate itself by telling the future, because it is too easy to be proved
wrong. In Isaiah 44:6-8 God challenges this very
thing of any “other” gods. God is unique
and the Bible alone stands perfect, with its testimony of God's inspiration
intact.
Revealed knowledge, simply defined,
is being told of a truth before man, science, the fossil record, or anything
else has proved it by another means. Each time the world has set out to
disprove the Bible using scientific evidence or any other means, it has only
proved its own lack of knowledge. Once again the Bible stands perfect with not
one statement disproved. It is interesting to me that Columbus sailed the ocean
blue in 1492, over 500 years ago, to prove to a disbelieving world that the
Earth was round; yet Isaiah, some 2700 years ago wrote, "He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth…"
Is 40:22. Before the earth was
proved in fact to be round, "Flat Thinkers" may have pointed to this
verse while trying to prove God was not the author of the Bible; thinking they
had found an obvious error.
Earlier this century people were
claiming that the Bible had to have been written long after the dates declared
because the historical information given was too specific and accurate to be
foretold. Shortly after this, in 1947,
the "Dead Sea Scrolls" were discovered, establishing, even to
scholars with no interest in God, the dates of the writings to be well before
the events in question.
Today we have The THEORY of
Evolution. It's taught as fact even though the actual evidence supports the
contradicting Biblical account. It seems dishonest scientists will scramble for
any explanation they can dream up to avoid accountability to a universe
creating, man ruling, God. BANG!!!
The only thing evolving is Darwin
The Bible is God's revealed message
to us, His creation. There is not one thing in all of history, archeology, the
fossil records, scientific discoveries, astrology, or anything else, that
proves the Bible wrong on any single point. Overwhelmingly, the evidence in
this world (and beyond) supports the Bible's account of creation, history,
wisdom, and revelation. The evidence declares that the Bible is inspired by
God.
We know from the Bible that God is
holy, perfect, unable to lie or contradict Himself. So then we can safely
conclude that anything that disagrees or contradicts the Bible is NOT from God.
This is the most important fact that needs to be understood in discovering the
truth. The Bible is the only thing in this world that we know with certainty to
be from the only true God. Everything and everyone claiming God's inspiration
needs to be "checked out" by the only verifiable authority of
God. Even the teachings of Paul (who was inspired to write most of the New
Testament) was "examined" against the
Scriptures by the Bereans; and they were praised for doing so: "Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the
Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined
the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul
said was true." Ac 17:11
If fallen man had misunderstood
God's inspiration, you would think that God would have corrected the errors
while He was with us, but instead, Jesus quoted the Old Testament continually
and declared of His own words: "Heaven and earth
will pass away, but my words will never pass away." Mt 24:35, Mk 13:31,
& Lk 21:33. See also Mt 5:17-20 "…not
the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear
from the Law until everything is accomplished…"
Jesus declared His words as well as
the Scriptures of His day (the Old Testament) to be the eternal truth of God: "If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man
will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the
Father and of the holy angels." Lk 9:26. His words were also
promised to be reminded by the Holy Spirit to His servants, which foretells of
the inspiration of the New Testament: "All
this I have spoken while still with you. But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit,
whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind
you of everything I have said to you." Jn 14:25&26.
Even in the first century shortly
after Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection, it was recognized that God was
inspiring Scripture; Peter said of Paul 's
writings: "He writes the same way in all his
letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things
that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as
they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction." II Pe 3:16.
So apparently, fallen man did not
misunderstand God's perfect message, but was "carried
along" by the Holy Spirit to give us God's perfect message: "Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of
Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. For prophecy never
had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried
along by the Holy Spirit." 2Pe 1:20&21
The Bible was written in the common
language of the day, to be understood and used for daily living as the
authority of God: II Timothy 3:16 boldly states
that: "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful
for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the
man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work."
God is not a human being, but He is
a person. Actually, He is three persons, God the Father, God the Son, and God
the Holy Spirit. That is hard for us to understand, but we have to allow God
some room to be bigger than the nice neat box of our understanding that we can
fit Him into. Think about H2O for a minute. What is it? Most of you would say
water, and that is correct. But isn't
ice also H2O? How about steam? Yes, all three are H2O. The very core of
their being is the exact same, but their characteristics are quite different.
Think also about your father. He was also a son. He was probably also a
husband, very different roles, responsibilities, and relationships, yet the
same man. The three persons of God are not that simple because they are very
distinct and separate persons with different roles; yet they are the one true
God.
To help us better understand who
this mysterious God is, God the Son, The Word, came and lived with us,
revealing God to us: “The Word became flesh and made
his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only,
who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” Jn 1:14 Yes, God is very personal, just as your mother
or spouse is very personal (not just any mother is your mother). God is
personally offended when we make other things or people our god and put them in
His place.
Obviously this doesn't even scratch
the surface of the available evidence for the truth of the Bible as God's
inspired word, but, hopefully, this gives you enough information to see that it
is worth looking into more deeply if you so choose. There are many excellent
books that deal with this subject specifically and in more detail. The best
however, is the Bible itself. Read it for yourself and let God reveal its truth
to you personally. Also, check out some
other topics in this series now that you may have a better understanding of
what the Bible is.
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