When great controversy exists, pay attention. The battle is likely being fought over truth. My children fight over what the truth is about toy ownership.
The civil war battled out who decided what was true for African American slaves and states' rights. The Middle East fights over the truth about land ownership and religion.
In fact, the truth about religion has been a battle since Eve chose to believe what the snake said as truth instead of what God said.
Many of us have had the same struggle as Eve at times. How does one discern what is really true? It would be easy to say that the Bible has the answers to all of our questions. Yet at mainstream bookstores, the Bible is sold on a shelf shared with other "religious" books. What makes it more special?
The Bible asserts that it is more than a good book. It is living, powerful and shaper than any two-edged sword. And, as Chip Ingram said in his recent study, Why I Believe, you don't have to throw away your brains to trust that the Bible is exactly that.
It can be trusted as God's divine word and our ultimate authority in life decisions, and there's a heap of evidence to back it up, such as:
- The Bible is historically accurate. Close to 25,000 sites of people or places in the Old Testament correspond with archeology. Sir William Ramsey, an archeologist on a search to prove that Luke's writing of Acts was full of errors, concluded that Luke's history was remarkably accurate. He also proved that all 13 of Paul's books really were written by him. Scriptural origins are remarkably diverse yet unified. Author Terry Hall wrote that the Bible includes writings from 40 authors, 3 languages, 20 occupations, 10 countries, 2,930 characters, 1551 places over 1,500 years. Its work is also multifaceted. It includes unfavorable stories about it's authors, like Moses' account of committing murder, instead of a one-sided glimpse of just the praiseworthy stuff. The Bible is honest, and despite the variations in authors and cultures, the Bible is unified. Remarkably, consistant messages are threaded through each book.
- Jesus referred to the Old Testament as "scripture" and stated that the actual words were God-breathed. In Matthew 22:31 Jesus said, "Have you not read what was spoken to you by God..." Was Jesus a liar, or was He telling us the truth about God's inspired word?
- God set the standard for prophecy: if what a prophet says does not come to fruition, he is not a true prophet. That standard is met among God's prophecies in scripture. The Bible includes specific prophecies which have been fulfilled. God named King Cyrus in the book of Isaiah nearly 150 years before Cyrus was born. Close to 300 specific predictions about Jesus Christ in the Old Testament were met in the New Testament. For further examples, see this article from ReasonsToBelieve.org. As Ingram said, "When God can tell you what's going to happen in advance, you can trust what he's going to say about the present and about the future."
- Copies made of scriptures were meticulous. One error required the destruction of that copy. The Dead Sea Scrolls found in 1947 were finished copies of scripture written more than 200 years B.C. By comparing our modern text to these ancient scrolls, it was proven that the messages in scripture have been preserved through centuries of translations. Also, the number of historical copies of scripture is thousands more than popular writings by Caesar, Aristotle and Plato. Since their writings are considered authentic, shouldn't the scriptures be even more trustworthy?
- The scriptures are covered with prophecies in which do not come from the mind of men. "Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. 2 Peter 1:20-21
- Finally, the Bible claims to be the very words and mind of God. 2 Timothy 3:16 says that all scripture is God-breathed. At this point, a decision must be made: Is the Bible making an erroneous claim about itself, or is the Bible true in its entirety? Many scriptural phrases suggest divine inspiration. For example, a variation of "Thus says the Lord" is written nearly 3,000 times in scripture. Either these words are incorrect, and the Bible is just a book of fables, or it is true in its entirety. No choice exists in the middle.
The Bible is powerful, life-changing, and thus controversial. Ingram describes in his study how this book impacts culture. He says, "any book that makes absolute moral and theological assertions is likely to make many people uncomfortable. When faced with a challenge to one's viewpoint, lifestyle, or desires, most people in our culture naturally bristle and look for alternative explanations. And often, at least regarding the Christian Bible, this aversion is expressed through intellectual objections."
Evidence abounds to silence those objections. However, although God has provided enough data to prove that He is Lord and His word is trustworthy, it seems that He leaves enough unanswered questions to require faith on our part to trust in Him.
Hebrews 11 says, "Faith is... the evidence of things not seen." The Bible may be well-studied, but without faith, the soul is still empty. And without love, this pile of evidence is no more than a resounding gong or clanging symbol. When reading scripture with faith and love, the critic is drowned out and the humble are taught. And though the evidence in this article is convincing, the impact scripture brings to one with a seed of faith is even more thunderous.
It's this child-like faith that leads us to sing, "Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so..."
Note: This article cannot contain all the evidence pointing to the reliability and authority of scripture. For more information, consider reading McDowell's Evidence that Demands a Verdict. Also see Chip Ingram's "Why I Believe" study, which includes a DVD on the following topics: the resurrection, life after death, the Bible, creation and the God of the Bible. Information not otherwise attributed in this article arose from that study.
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