It's not secret that the Bible is the most famous book in the world; as a matter of fact, it has the record for the most sold and read copies worldwide. Beyond it being just a book, however, many believe (including myself) that the Bible is not just any book, but God's word. Like me, many believe that the Bible can be trusted and serves as a spiritual guide in this world. After all, the Bible does openly states:
"All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work..." - 2 Timothy 3:16-17
Many others, however, believe the Bible is just another fiction book with made up tales and stories to entertain. Of course, the question becomes: who's right and who's wrong? Can the Bible be trusted? With a science and engineering background, I am a fan of asking questions and finding evidence. I like to have answers when people ask me and, throughout my life, I've met many that don't agree with me in that the Bible is the true word of God. In this blog post I talk about the main 3 reasons why I believe the Bible is 100% reliable and the context are not just mere stories, but actual historical events. Before beginning the discussion, let me summarize the reasons we'll further 'dig-into':
The fulfillment of prophecies in the Bible
The historical and archaeological evidence we have confirming the accuracy and veracity of Bible references, text, and characters.
The contextual smooth flow of information in the Bible despite having been written by 40 authors in a span of more than 1,000 years
Although we'll focus on the three mentioned, it is important to state that there are many other reasons why the Bible can be trusted. For instance, it provides a moral compass for humanity; the teachings of the Bible do not go against our inner selves standard ethical and moral reasoning. Also, specially during the dark ages when Christians were killed by the thousands, there are many recorded instances where people were killed in horrible ways and they died praising the God of the Bible. Some burned alive, others devoured by lions, others buried alive... still, they died as if death was a victory in their lives. Clearly there was something about what they believed and had been shown in the Bible that transformed them. In short, many reasons why to trust the Bible is the word of the living God... but, I will write about the main three that made an impact on my personal life.
Reason #1: Prophecies in the Bible
The topic of prophesies in the Bible is a very complex and very deep one. Probably hundreds of books could be written just touching on the accuracy of Bible prophesy - but, I'll keep it to a few paragraphs. As I mentioned, for me, the accuracy of Bible prophecy in the context of the History of the world is just 'mind-blowing'. As a believer, if I was asked why do I believe the God of the Bible is the one true God and why do I trust in the Bible, without hesitation I'd say because of the accuracy of Bible prophecy. For me is, without a doubt, the strongest argument to believe the Bible was indeed divinely inspired. Bible prophecy is not vague but detailed, clear, and precise. This unlike man-written prophecies, such as those of Nostradamus, which are so general that any event in the world could be attributed to them and even then they don't clearly depict the picture of what actually happened.
Before commenting on Bible prophecy, I do want to point out that in the religious world, there are three approaches to interpret Bible prophecy: (1) preterism, (2) futurism, and (3) historicism. Simply put, preterists state that the prophecies in the Bible were fulfilled many many years ago and have no relevance today; futurists, as the name suggests, state that prophecies have not fulfilled and will not be until far in the future, and then historicism interprets prophecies as unfolding in parallel with human history. I believe and I use the historicism approach because the prophecies in the Bible that have already been fulfilled, always follow history. Also, because the Bible is clear with timeframes and historic references, hence it makes logical sense to study Bible prophecy in light of historic events. Finally, on a separate note, I believe that the Bible interprets itself - meaning, there's no need to look anywhere but the Bible to interpret the Bible. Everything that I share concerning Bible prophecy and interpretation comes from the Bible itself - no human interpretation or external references.
In this section I will only cover one portion of the many prophesies in the Bible and is that related to the Book of Daniel, Chapters 2, 7 and 8. I selected this particular portion of the biblical prophetic picture because for me, the prophecies of Daniel were the first ones I got to study and learn. As expected... I fell in love with Bible prophecy. It awakened in me a curiosity that was (and is) very hard to let go off. Without much else to say... let's dig into Bible prophecy!
Prophesy and historic events
For this discussion and as stated, I will focus on the prophesies on the book of Daniel in the Bible, specifically Chapters 2,7 and 8. First off, experts estimate that the book was approximately completed in the year 530 BC when the Medo-Persian empire (~539 BC - 331 BC) was ruling. In Chapter 2 Daniel registers the King of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, as having a dream that disturb him. In his dream he saw a big statue composed of different metals/materials; the head of gold, the chest and arms of silver, belly and thighs of bronze, the legs of iron, and the feet partly of iron and partly of clay. As the verses indicate, God provides Daniel with the interpretation fo the dream to share with the King. As Daniel begins his interpretation it reads:
"...you are this head of gold. But after you shall arise another kingdom inferior to yours; then another, a third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over all the earth. And the fourth kingdom shall be as strong as iron, in as much as iron breaks in pieces and shatters everything; and like iron that crushes, that kingdom will break in pieces and crush all the others. Whereas you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; yet the strength of the iron shall be in it, just as you saw the iron mixed with ceramic clay." - Dan 2:38-43
Note that right away the Bible interprets itself and gives us a crucial piece of information; each part of the statue represents a kingdom / empire. Babylon was not to be an eternal empire despite the glory attributed to it. After Babylon, another empire would rise, and then another, and then another and then... what seems like a divided empire. At this point we're left with just the fact that there were going to be sub-sequent empires to Babylon.
Chapter 7 is a "redo" of the statue dream but with much more details than what God gave originally in Chapter 2. Here the kingdoms are presented not as part of a statue, but as 'beasts'. Then in Chapter 8 God uses animals again, 'beasts', to represent these kingdoms to come... and then it gets interesting (more interesting that is...):
"The ram which you saw [one of the 'beasts' in Chapter 8], having the two horns—they are the kings of Media and Persia. And the male goat is the kingdom of Greece. The large horn that is between its eyes is the first king. As for the broken horn and the four that stood up in its place, four kingdoms shall arise out of that nation, but not with its power..." - Dan 8: 20-22
Wait, what? Remember, from the context you can say that Daniel was writing while living under the Babylonian empire. Yet, living from within the Babylonian empire he's revealed that the Medes and Persians, just as history records, were the empire to follow. In a more revealing detail, in Chapter 7 the Medes and Persians are represented by a bear that has a one side 'higher' than the other, and in Chapter 8 they are represented by a ram with 2 horns and one is longer than the other... interesting that although a shared empire with the Medes and Persians, the Persians are recognized as being the most powerful of the two (one higher than the other). By the text we just read you can clearly tell that the 'horn' on the animal is representative of a king/empire so the inference that a longer horn means a more prominent king/empire is in harmony with the context.
Skeptics will say that since Daniel also lived during the Medes and Persians empire, he knew that to be the case so he wrote after history had happened but... he didn't lived, not even close, to the years when the Greeks took over the Medes and Persians and became an empire. How could he had possibly know that and actually name the empire to follow the Medes and Persians years ahead? Also note that in Chapter 8, the Greek empire is represented by a goat... let us read the verses that speak to when the goat (Greece) took over the Ram (Medes and Persians):
"And as I was considering, suddenly a male goat [Greece] came from the west, across the surface of the whole earth, without touching the ground; and the goat had a notable horn between his eyes. Then he came to the ram [Medes and Persians] that had two horns, which I had seen standing beside the river, and ran at him with furious power. And I saw him confronting the ram; he was moved with rage against him, attacked the ram, and broke his two horns. There was no power in the ram to withstand him, but he cast him down to the ground and trampled him; and there was no one that could deliver the ram from his hand. Therefore the male goat grew very great; but when he became strong, the large horn was broken, and in place of it four notable ones came up toward the four winds of heaven." - Dan 8:5-8
Why do I put in red some parts of the text? Recall the previously shown text, Daniel 8:20-22. It indicates that the first horn in the goat is a king [horn = king/kingdom], and then once that one is broken at the "top of his strength", 4 kingdoms emerged out of that nation. Isn't this exactly what happened with the Greek empire? Alexander the Great was the First King, the sole authority in the Greek empire until his early death at the 'top of his conquests' if you may; when he was the strongest. Right after his passing, his four generals: Cassander, Ptolemy, Antigonus, and Seleucus, took over the empire. So you see how the events that were to unfold in the Greek empire were accurately predicted many years before.
There's much much much else to the prophecies of Daniel 2,7, and 8 that make them very interesting and revealing but, I just wanted to share quick glimpse of the accuracy of these prophesies. Just as we saw, the Bible has many other prophesies that speak and attest to the power of God. There were many prophesies made at almost the beginning of the world (to Adam and Eve and on) regarding the coming of Jesus. Prophecies that talked about his birthplace, his time to come, the way He was to live and even how He was going to die... all centuries before Jesus ever touched this planet. And yes, Jesus did came to this planet as we'll talk in the next section.
Let's read a glimpse of the Chapter titled: "The Fingerprint Evidence" in Lee Strobel's book 'The Case for Christ'. In this Chapter, he's interviewing Louis S. Lapides:
“First, I asked [Strobel] Lapides whether it’s possible that Jesus merely fulfilled the prophecies by accident [Old Testament Messianic prophecies]. Maybe he’s just one of many throughout history who have coincidentally fit the prophetic fingerprint. “Not a chance,” came his response. “The odds are so astronomical that they rule that out. Someone did the math and figured out that the probability of just eight prophecies being fulfilled is one chance in one hundred million billion. That number is millions of times greater than the total number of people who’ve ever walked the planet!”
Excerpt From: Lee Strobel. “Case for Christ/Case for Faith Compilation.” Apple Books. https://books.apple.com/us/book/case-for-christ-case-for-faith-compilation/id602500717
If any single person predicts events with such an accuracy hundreds of years before it happened, the man or woman will go down straight to history books. Yet, we have this amazing book called the Bible, and many still question the veracity of it. Only God can show you his mysteries and help you understand more his word.
"Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know." - Jeremiah 33:3
One more thing before moving on, I am a Bible prophecy fan. If you want to learn more, have questions, would like to have a discussion regarding prophecies in the Bible, please feel free to reach out! Shoot me an email and I'll be happy to help you answer a question or we'll both dig into it and learn together!
NOTE: In the "Resources" page on this site, I have listed the ministry "Secrets Unsealed" which focuses on Bible prophesy studies and have lots of free downloadable material regarding Bible Prophecy. Check it out!
Reason #2: Historical and Archaeological Evidence for Jesus and the Bible
As with prophecies, there's plenty of information out there that speaks to the historical validity and accuracy of the Bible. Specific to this discussion, there is much written evidence for the existence and life of Jesus, not only in the Bible, but from reliable external sources. As I read the book "The Case for Christ" by Lee Strobel, I came to realize that as a Christian I took for granted the fact that God exists and that the Bible is inspired by him - with this mindset, I never really set myself to dig too much further into this. Last year I purchased the mentioned book and read it. To my astonishment, although faith in God is still needed, not much faith is needed to believe in the existence, life, and sacrifice Jesus did for us; as the center of Christianity, without Jesus, there's simply no Christianity. Lee Strobel in his book sets out to either prove or disprove the existence of this character who has one of the most recognizable names in the world throughout ages. For more on this particular topic of the evidence in favor of the Bible, I would highly recommend you to take a read at Strobel's book.
First off, God aside, the Bible has been proven to have reliable historical accounts; more specifically, the gospels in the New Testament are considered by many history experts to have reliable accounts of historical facts. The gospels have as much historical credibility as any other conventional history book used to teach a course. In Strobel's interview with Bruce M. Metzger, an expert in New Testament studies, Metzger discloses that compared to other old historical documents, such as Homer's Iliad or Tacitus (Roman historian) writings, the amount of manuscript copies of the New Testament that have been found is overwhelming. The amount of New Testament greek copies exceed 5,000 while for other important history manuscripts, such as Tacitus or Josephus (jewish historian) documents, manuscripts found are less than 100 collectively. Why is this important? Because the more manuscript copies one has of a particular text, the more it's possible to compare and see whether we can arrive at the same conclusions. The less manuscripts, the more we are forced to just believe the few authors or author of the document. The fact that the Gospel books in the New Testament have such a large number of manuscripts to back it up, and none deviate from the context, means what we're reading has historic value, credibility, and reliability. Remember, we're only using as reference the number of greek-language copies. The Bible has been translated into many languages and copies in other languages have been found as well.
More evidence is presented in 'The Case for Christ' when Strobel interviews Edwin M. Yamauchi, Ph.D. In the recorded interview, Dr. Yamauchi speaks to non-biblical, non-christian, and very reliable sources which openly and explicitly record the existence of Jesus. More specifically, both Tacitus the Roman historian and Josephus the jewish historian (none of them a Christian or follower of Jesus), have recorded and recognized Jesus by name as having walked among us. Josephus even records Jesus as having been called "Christ" which means "Messiah"; this speaks to the fact that people did indeed believe he was the Son of God made man. Furthermore, other historians in in the Roman Era, such as Pliny the Younger, record the fact that Christians were persecuted and killed if they didn't refused their beliefs. Evidence that suggests a significant group of people, back in the Roman times, did believe in Jesus who began the Christian movement. As manuscripts and historian accounts further provide evidence of the veracity and reliability of the Bible, archaeology has dug evidence proving this as well. In his book, Strobel does interview John Mcray, who wrote the book "Archaeology and the New Testament" who in his experience, believes that archaeological findings only strengthen the accuracy and veracity of the Bible.
As mentioned initially, there's just too much evidence from a historical and archaeological perspective that corroborate the authenticity and credibility of the Bible. Going through it all in a post is too complex, but its out there for you to find and read. If nothing else, feel free to ask and we can work together to uncover more of that evidence! As with the prophecies... history and archaeology are added to the list of things proving that the Bible is not only credible, but the word of God.
“For me, the historical evidence has reinforced my commitment to Jesus Christ as the Son of God who loves us and died for us and was raised from the dead. It’s that simple.” - E. Yamauchi (Excerpt From: Lee Strobel. “Case for Christ/Case for Faith Compilation.")
Reason #3: Putting the Bible Together
This discussion is a very short one and is basically a question for you to think about. The first book in the Bible, Genesis, was written by Moses. The last book in the Bible, Revelations, by John the disciple. Experts estimate that Moses was born around 1,500 BC and John wrote the Book of Revelations around the year 95 AC; Almost 1,600 years in between. To that we add that the Bible history actually spans more than 2,600 years of history. The Bible had many authors in between (40 to be precise), passed between generations... and finally put together many years later. What explanation, other than divine intervention and a Master Designer, could you have for a book with such background maintaining one coherent, constant, and rational context that does not contradict in any point? ... think about that.
There are many who believe the Bible contradicts itself at different points. If you are one of them, I'd be happy to hear what your thoughts are and why you believe as such; reach out! For my next book, I'm trying to put together "apparent contradictions" against the biblical God and why they are not really contradictions. I want to gather as much information as possible.
Conclusion
The book, the Bible, is an amazing piece of work in both the literal/historian sense, and in a spiritual sense. Is one book that has changed the lives of millions and one of the reasons many were willing to die for rather than give up their beliefs during the Dark Ages. The Bible has changed my life and I 100% believe its the word of God. What about you?
CALL TO ACTION:
Never take people's opinion for granted. As there are many Bible believers, there are many unbelievers with all sorts of arguments against the Bible. There are a LOT or arguments against, but one by one you can take them, studied them, and arrive at your own conclusions. Many that went down that path, such as Lee Strobel himself, were radically changed by Jesus and ended up believing the Bible is the word of God. I challenge you to never take other's arguments or statements for granted.
Until next one and God Bless you!!
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