The Bible is unarguably an incredible book. It is the best-selling, most quoted, most published, most circulated, most translated, most influential book in the history of mankind. [1] There is no close second.
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- How can we know that the Bible isn’t just an ancient book of fiction and folklore?
- Haven’t the contents of the Bible been tampered with down through the centuries?
- Isn’t the Bible out-of-sync with scientific discoveries?
- What makes the Bible any different than other religious books like the Quran or the Book of Mormon
Those are questions that intelligent, critical thinking people are asking today and those are questions they have a right to ask. I think they should be asking those questions. Those are questions I used to ask (you can read my story here). And God’s heart for His people is that we be able to provide answers to people (e.g., 1 Peter 3:15, Jude 1:3). Copyrighted material. Do not copy and paste online.
So, in this article I’m going to lay out a broad, but somewhat concise overview of ten different lines of evidence that I think demonstrate (when considered in their totality) that the Bible is indeed what it claims to be: the trustworthy Word of God—written by men yes—but men who were guided by God as they penned the words they penned (2 Peter 1:21, 2 Timothy 3:16).
The first line of evidence for the Bible is…
1. FULFILLED PROPHECY
Of course sports analysts, political experts, and even weather forecasters seem to enjoy making predictions about the future, but our failure rate quickly reveals how inept humans are at foretelling events even just a week in advance. This is one of the reasons the Bible’s fulfilled prophecies are so astounding!
Over and over again, the authors of the Bible rightly foretold future events (often times, hundreds of years in advance). The Bible is literally filled with hundreds of specific, detailed prophecies about persons, places, and events—many of which have already come to pass.
Consider a few of the prophecies made regarding Jesus. Of course, long before Jesus was born, the Old Testament prophets told us a Savior was coming who would make a way for mankind to be forgiven of our sins and reconciled to God.
The Old Testament prophesied this Savior would be born of the seed of Abraham (Gen. 12:1-3, 22:18), of the tribe of Judah (Gen 49:10), and in the lineage of David (2 Samuel 7:12f). Micah 5:2 said that He would be born in Bethlehem, that He’d come while the temple was still standing (Malachi 3:1), that He would be born of a virgin (Isaiah 7:14), that He would open the eyes of the blind, unstop the ears of the deaf, and cause the lame to walk (Isaiah 35:5-6), that He’d be rejected by His own people (Psalm 118:22; 1 Peter 2:7). The Scriptures foretold the precise time in history when He would die (Daniel 9:24-26), how He would die (Psalm 22:16-18, Isaiah 53; Zechariah 12:10), and that He would rise from the dead (Psalm 16:10; Acts 2:27-32).
These are just a few of the prophecies that were fulfilled in Jesus’ life. And there are hundreds of other prophecies about the rise and fall of nations, prophecies about the regathering of the Jewish people back into their homeland (something that’s being fulfilled right now in our own lifetime)….
The fulfillment of these prophecies is compelling evidence that these men spoke with the aid of the all-knowing, all-powerful God written about in the Bible—the God who declared:
“I am God, and
there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done.”
In other words, God says here, ‘There’s no one else who can do this!’ And that is certainly the case. No other book in the world is able to substantiate its claims with this kind of supernatural ability to rightly foretell human events. There are no fulfilled prophecies in the Quran, the Hindu Vedas, the Book of Mormon, or any other sacred religious writings. Not one.
Fulfilled prophecy is something that sets the Bible apart from every other religious book.
SKEPTIC: “Hold on a second Charlie. Maybe the disciples just made up all of these things that Jesus supposedly did. Perhaps they read all of those prophecies in the Old Testament and decided to make up an elaborate story about Jesus fulfilling them!”
Ahh, that is a legitimate concern (that the disciples were just lying, just fabricating the whole story about Jesus). Well, I’m going to address that concern and show you why I don’t think they were lying later on in the study when we get to evidence number eight.
If you’d like to learn more about fulfilled prophecies, I urge you to pick up a copy of this fantastic book: Every Prophecy of the Bible by Dr. John Walvoord.
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by CHARLIE H. CAMPBELL
Director of The Always Be Ready Apologetics Ministry
Author of Scrolls and Stones: Compelling Evidence
the Bible Can Be Trusted
Full article found here at
