How do we know the Bible is the Word of God

As Christians, we don’t question whether the Bible is the Word of God.  Christians, however, should understand why we accept and believe it is.  Christians will say, if they are unable offer an explanation, “I believe by faith.”  Sure we believe by faith but God has never demanded that we believe in blind faith.  In the Old Testament, people believed because God always gave reasons to believe.  God proved His prophets were acting and speaking on His behalf through acts of miracles.  Even Jesus proved who He said He was through miracles and signs.  We should, as Christians, know why we accept and believe that the Bible is God’s Word.  Blind faith is only an answer if we do not know why and certainly is not something that we should be sharing with non Christians.

There are over 300 prophecies written concerning Jesus before He was born.  Our science has the technology to date the manuscripts and scrolls and science has shown unequivocally that the manuscripts and scrolls of the Old Testament were from long before Jesus appeared on earth.  The prophecies are not very accurate or 99.99% accurate, they are 100% accurate.  It is mind boggling the accuracy of the prophecies concerning Christ.  It was written before His appearance as to His birthplace, His ancestry, the flight to Egypt, His betrayal, the method of His death, casting lots for His garments, etc.  Even if someone wanted to be an imposter, there would be no way to engineer such things as the correct parents to have the correct genealogy, the events of birth or the birth place.  These type of events are not in anyone’s control and cannot be engineered.

The Bible was written by over 40 different authors over a period of approximately 1,600 years.  The authors lived in different time periods with very different backgrounds.  The Bible was written in different continents.  Yet the Word of God does not contradict itself.

Archeological findings are not disproving any claims made in the Bible but in fact are authenticating what the Bible has claimed.  Science has been playing catch-up with the claims of the bible.  Examples of science playing catch-up are:

Before the invention of the telescope, Hippocrates numbered the stars at around 1,022.  It was later revised and revised and revised.  In our galaxy alone, there are billions of stars.  Jeremiah 33:22 claims that the stars are innumerable and Genesis 22:17 claims that the stars and and numbers of grains of sand are equal.  Science today estimates that the gross number of sand grains on the earth’s seashores are the same as the estimated number of stars in the universe.  Simply amazing.

Genesis 1:1 is clear that the universe had a beginning.  People used to that the universe was eternal.  Albert Einstein has confirmed that the universe had a beginning and it is accepted science that the universe began.

The bible claims that the universe is expanding.  Most scientists believed the universe was static including Albert Einstein who later admitted his mistake.  Edwin Hubble demonstrated that galaxies were actually receding from the earth.  Today astronomers agree that the earth is expanding.  The Bible already claimed that (Jeremiah 51:15, Job 9:8).

The geographic center of the earth is Jerusalem (Ezekiel 5:5).  Interestingly a computer analysis of the earth’s land has confirmed the Bible’s claim.

Noah used “slime and pitch” in building the ark.  An oil company executive at Standard Oil Company sent one of their geologists to find out if there was still oil there.  Standard Oil was very, very successful.  That oil company executive read Exodus 2:3 and that was the basis he used in sending a geologist.

Our modern day linguists have determined at all of mankind at one time had one language.  These linguists have confirmed Genesis 11:1.

Jonah wrote about mountains at the bottom of the ocean floor.  There is no possible way Jonah could have known that.  In fact, it was only in the last century that science has determined that there are huge mountains on the ocean floor.

In the book of Job, God talked about the ‘springs of the sea.’  With the depth of the ocean and huge water pressure, it has been impossible to explore such depths until more recent history when submarines specially constructed to withstand such enormous pressure.  We now know that there are springs on our ocean floors.

These is only a sampling on how our modern technology is catching up with the claims of the Bible.  It is staggering that people of those days were writing things that they could not have possibly known with such accuracy and over such a long period of time with as many authors as it took to write the bible.

The Bible does not paint the writers or people in a favorable light.  It records in detail the faults of the authors such as King David’s sins of adultery and murder yet he is described by God as after His own heart.

Eyewitnesses attest to the truthfulness of the Bible from Moses of the Old Testament to Paul of the New Testament.

There is no other book that can make the claims the Bible has with such accuracy.  We have not been asked to believe the bible on blind faith.  God has always given His people reasons to believe.  He did that with the saints of the Old Testament and with the saints of the New Testament.  There is no reason to claim that by faith we believe that the Bible is the Word of God.  Sure, we have faith but God gave us reasons.  In this short blog post, I have only listed a few.

Prophecies being fulfilled with 100% accuracy, people speaking of things that only in today’s technology have we been able to determine are true, historical accuracy of cities spoken of in the bible confirmed by archeological digs attest to the Bible being the Word of God.  There is no other book in the world that has been able to do what the Bible has done.

God declares that man is in need of salvation. With the astronomical accuracy rate the Bible has proved to be, there is no reason to believe that the Word of God is inaccurate in matters of salvation.

When we are questioned as to why we believe that the Bible is God’s Word, we do not need to respond “I believe it by faith.”  That will not help a non Christian who does not have your faith and is an unconvincing argument.  God proved to people of the Old Testament through miracles and did the same with the people in the New Testament.  We can do the same.  It is a miracle that a book written by over 40 authors scanning over 1,600 years in 3 continents can have a 100% accuracy rate in prophecy and history.  There is no other book that can make this claim.

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 2 Timothy 3:16 (ESV)

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