Often we have heard it said, “Do not believe everything you read.” This adage, which helps us to avoid naïve and gullible thinking, is a good rule of thumb. Yet, when it comes to the Bible, can a strong and well reasoned exception be made? The Bible is hands down the most influential work of writing ever produced. A survey by the Bible Society concluded that around 2.5 billion copies were printed between 1815 and 1975. More recent estimates since 1975 put the number at 5 billion. The Bible is the most translated book having been translated into over 3,400 languages.
So, why has the Bible been so widely read? The Apostle Paul, makes this claim regarding it:
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness…
2 Timothy 3:16
He describes “all” (each and every) Scripture as coming from the very breath…out of the mouth…of God. God-breathed is most likely a term Paul coins to describe the direct connection of the Bible with God’s very breathed-out words. Peter writes in a similar way:
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
The claim of the Bible is that its authors were inspired (God-breathed) to write the very words of God. Jesus, himself, affirmed the inspiration and authority of the Bible at the smallest details:
For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.
Matthew 5:18
Jesus asserted the accuracy and authority of the Bible right down to the…”the smallest letter…the least stroke of the pen.” Paul, Peter and most importantly Jesus affirm the supreme authority of the Bible. The Bible claims for itself a divine and ultimate authority in all matters of what we believe and what we practice as Christians.
Should we believe this claim? Let me give you four reasons why I say, YES.
The Bible’s Claim to Divine Authority.
More than 1,900 times in Scripture the authors claimed their message was from God. These are found in expressions such as. “Thus says the Lord” or “God said.” The unity of the Bible is an assurance of its inspired authorship.
- It was written over a period of fifteen centuries, by more than forty different human authors, in three different languages on three different continents.
- The unity of the Bible is quite surprising given the very diverse backgrounds of the writers. These authors run the gamut: kings, royal officials, fishermen, tax collectors, shepherds, prophets, priests, and even a physician.
- Though they wrote from different periods of world history and from different personal backgrounds, there is a unified message displaying divine authorship which was able to weave their messages together.
With this claim to divine authorship, either the Bible is miraculously true or the product of men deeply deluded. If someone wrote a biography on Ronald Reagan and repeatedly said, “Ronald Reagan said to me…,” and we discover the writer never met Reagan, much less had a conversation with him, what value would we place in the book? None. Rather, it would simply reveal the twisted mind of the author. Similarly, with the Bible’s claim to divine authorship, it is either God-breathed or born of human deception.
Historical Reliability
Biblical archaeology is a study of the past based on the excavation and evaluation of sites, artifacts and documents surrounding the events and history of the Bible. From this field of study, there has been mounting evidence confirming the historical reliability of the Bible. Here are some examples of where people who were critical of the Bible had to change their minds about the Bible’s accuracy.
- It used to be said that the Old Testament writers invented the Hittite tribe (Judges 1:26), since their existence could not be independently confirmed outside of the Bible. However, some ten thousand clay tablets were discovered at the site of what was later to be known as the Hittite capital. The existence of the Hittites is now extensively proven..
- The existence of Solomon’s reign and his thousands of horses (1 Kings 10:26-29) was at one time questioned. But in Meggido, which was one of five chariot cities, excavations have revealed the ruins of thousands of stalls for horses and chariots.
- William Ramsey, a highly respected archaeologist, set out to prove that Luke’s history was filled with errors but emerged from his study surprised, saying, “Luke’s history is unsurpassed in trustworthiness.” Among many other facts, he discovered that Quirinius was twice governor of Syria, first when Christ was born and again at a later period. (Luke 2:1-2)
This is a very small sample among literally hundreds of times that archaeology has supported or proven the biblical accounts.
Prophecy
Here are a few astonishing examples.
Example # 1: The prophet Isaiah, who prophesied from 700-680 BC, actually names the king who will rule the Persian Empire and let the Jews return to rebuild Jerusalem from Babylon 150 years before the decision was made…
…who says of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd and will accomplish all that I please; he will say of Jerusalem, “Let it be rebuilt,” and of the temple, “Let its foundations be laid.”’
Isaiah 44:28
Cyrus is mentioned as the man who will let the Jews return to their land and rebuild Jerusalem more than one hundred years before he was born. Cyrus ruled over the Persians from 559–530 BC and during his reign he conquered Babylon in 539 BC. Historians tell us that his decree that allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem was issued in March 538 BC. Isaiah prophesied from 700–680 BC. That means Isaiah named Cyrus and foretold the decision he would make some 150 years before he arose to be king.
Example # 2: Ezekiel (590–570 BC) prophesied that God would raise up Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, to come against Tyre with his army of horsemen and that the people would be destroyed. Here is a description of what Tyre would eventually look like when God’s judgment was over:
...this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am against you, Tyre, and I will bring many nations against you, like the sea casting up its waves. They will destroy the walls of Tyre and pull down her towers; I will scrape away her rubble and make her a bare rock. Out in the sea she will become a place to spread fishnets, for I have spoken, declares the Sovereign Lord. She will become plunder for the nations, and her settlements on the mainland will be ravaged by the sword. Then they will know that I am the Lord.
Ezekiel 26:3-6
These predictions began to be fulfilled by Nebuchadnezzar. To understand how this happened, we must keep in mind that Tyre was both a coastal city and an island city. The coastal area was besieged by Nebuchadnezzar for thirteen years and destroyed. (586-573 BC) But many people were able to escape to the island using ships. A half-mile from the shore, they built strong fortifications to keep Nebuchadnezzar, already exhausted from conquering the coastal city, from taking the island. For 240 years the island area of Tyre survived while its mainland was in ruins. It appeared that Ezekiel’s prophecy would not be completely fulfilled. In 333 BC, Alexander the Great built a causeway by pushing the ruins of the coastal city into the sea; yes, even the dust was cast into the sea, just as Ezekiel predicted. Alexander, then, organized a flotilla of ships from several conquered nations, including 80 from Sidon, Aradus, and Byblos; 10 from Rhodes; 10 from Lycia; and 120 from Cyprus. As predicted, many nations came against Tyre, affirming the Bible’s prophetic accuracy.
There are hundreds of these kinds of prophecies which could be cited not to mention the dozens which were fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
Cultural Influence
For the sake of space, let’s consider just one aspect of the Bible’s influence: the promotion of freedom for people personally and culturally. Several years ago, my family and I went to Philadelphia to visit several historic sites. Among the places visited was the famed Liberty Bell. As we gazed at the cracked monument, we read these words: “Proclaim LIBERTY throughout all the Land unto all the Inhabitants thereof.” This inscription comes from the Bible in Leviticus 25:10. It reflects the fact that where belief in the Bible is widely held the message of freedom rings loudly.
From Moses to the Messiah, the Bible is a story of the recovery of freedom. Jesus declared that he had come to “proclaim liberty to the captives.” (Luke 4:18) Horace Greeley (1811–72), founder and editor of the New York Tribune, observed: “It is impossible to enslave mentally or socially a Bible-reading people.” The case can be made that only cultures founded with a strong influence from the Bible have viewed freedom as a virtue worth dying for. Theodore Roosevelt observed of the Bible that “no other book of any kind ever written in English has ever so affected the whole life of a people.”
That is in part why presidents of the United States raise their right hand to take the oath of office and place their left hand on a copy of the Bible at their inauguration. When Martin Luther King stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D. C. to deliver his famous “I Have a Dream” speech, he thundered, “We will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.” He cited words which come directly from the Bible in Amos 5:24.
It is for good reason that over the last 50 years that the Bible has been the most read book world-wide with 3.9 billions copies sold. No other book comes in a close second. Psalm 18:30 declares, “As for God, his way is perfect: The LORD’s word is flawless…”
For additional equipping:
Memorize: 2 Timothy 3:16
Story of Grace 