Some people — even self-proclaimed Christians —
today have one basic belief about the Bible — that it
shouldn’t be believed! But things didn’t used to be that 
way. Prior to the late 20th century, virtually all people
who claimed to be Christians understood Scripture to
be inspired and preserved — in other words, sacred.
They believed God had given us His Word and that
these Scriptures were to be followed. The Bible is
supposed to judge us, but some people would like to
judge the Bible instead.
However, the Bible is trustworthy, and that
trustworthiness begins with the core truth of
inspiration: The Bible was written by God through
men.
Many skeptics have pointed out that the Bible is not
proven to be God’s Word just because some of its
verses say so. Then we come to The Da Vinci
Code, a novel by Dan Brown that mixes historical
fact with fiction to confuse people about the authenticity
of the Bible. The book raises a number of questions: “Is
it true that man wrote the Bible hundreds of years after
Jesus lived?” “Did people really fight over what the
Bible was going to say?” “What if the things that ended
up in the Bible weren’t what God really meant
the Bible to say?”
Christians have answers because the Bible’s divine
origin is supported by compelling evidence.
There Is Unity to the Bible
The entire Bible was written by about 40 individuals
over 1,500 years. These writers included a farmer
(Amos), a doctor (Luke), ministers (such as Ezra and
James), political leaders (David, Solomon), political
prisoners (Daniel, John), a musician (Asaph), a
fisherman (Peter) and a tax collector (Matthew).
Moses, who wrote the first five books of the Old
Testament, grew up wealthy in Egypt, became a
fugitive, herded livestock, then eventually led a nation.
Paul, who wrote 13 books of the New Testament, was
professionally trained in religion, theology and
philosophy, and before he became a Christian led a
movement to hunt down the followers of Jesus Christ.
The Bible writers were rich and educated, poor and not-
so-educated; they came from a wide variety of social
backgrounds.
Yet the Bible contains a unified, consistent message. It
could be summarized as “God’s Savior, and how you
may know Him” or “The kingdom of heaven, and how to
get in.”
The agreement woven throughout all 66 books written
by different people at different times strongly points to
the Bible’s heavenly origin. Though humans did the
writing, the Bible is the product of one author: God.
Churches and Christians didn’t choose the books they
wanted to put in the Bible. They eventually recognized
the books that God had chosen. Bible expert J. I.
Packer puts it this way:
The church no more “gave us” the canon than Sir
Isaac Newton “gave us” the force of gravity. God gave
us gravity by the work of His creation, and similarly, He
gave us the New Testament canon by inspiring the
original books that make it up.
The Bible Is Supported by
Archaeology
Though the Bible is not just a history book, the events
and people recorded in its pages are historical. Over
the past couple of centuries, the science of archaeology
has advanced our knowledge of the people, places and
culture of Bible times. In the process, archaeology has
proven, over and over, that the Bible is accurate in its
historical facts.
For example, proof of King Jehu (see 2 Kings 9-10) was
discovered on an obelisk (a column of stone) found in
1846. The obelisk contains words and pictures
recording Israel’s conquest by an Assyrian king. The
obelisk’s information perfectly confirms what was
recorded in the Old Testament.
Fulfilled Prophecy
Fulfilled prophecy distinguishes the Bible from any
other religious book. The Bible accurately predicted
events hundreds of years in advance because God was
the author.
Some time between A.D. 30-32., Jesus predicted that
the Jewish temple would be reduced to rubble
(Matthew 24:1-2, Luke 21:5-6), an unthinkable
occurrence for the Jews of that day. Religious leaders
would have ridiculed the idea that their massive temple
could be razed. Yet in A.D. 70, the temple was indeed
destroyed.
Additionally Isaiah 11:11-12, which was written more
than 700 years before Christ, predicted that the Jews
would one day return to Israel, after having been
dispersed to points all around the world. At one time,
skeptics pointed to this prediction (and a similar one in
Ezekiel 37:21) as a prophecy that had never come to
pass. Yet since the rebirth of the Jewish nation in 1948,
Jewish individuals have indeed returned to Israel “from
the four quarters of the earth.”
Why Inspiration Matters
Because the Bible is God’s Word and what it says was
true when it was written, it is still true today and will be
true tomorrow and forever. In the most crucial issues of
life — like God, human nature, right and wrong, sin,
forgiveness, death and eternity — you can’t afford to
guess what is true. Your life depends on whether what
you believe is, in fact, true.
The origin, accuracy and relevancy of the Bible are
important to each of us. Fortunately, the evidence
strongly indicates that the Bible is indeed God’s Word,
preserved for us to read, understand and follow. Nearly
500 years ago, the great reformer Martin Luther gave
us his take on God’s Word:
In the Bible God speaks. The Scriptures are His
word. To hear or read the Scriptures is nothing else
than to hear God himself.
You could spend your entire life, as some scholars
have, researching the evidence in support of the Bible’s
accuracy. However, as Luther said, if you want to hear
the voice of God, open your Bible. A good, easy-to-
understand starting point is the gospel of John in the
New Testament.
You may want to pray the words of Psalm 119:18 as
you begin to seriously study the Bible: “Open my eyes
that I may see wonderful things in your law.”
Adapted from Stand: Core Truths You Must
Know for an Unshakable Faith by Alex McFarland;
published by Tyndale House; copyright 2005.
