The Bible: Is It Really God’s Word
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Someone described the Bible using the acrostic: Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth. I like that! A mother gave her son a Bible before he went to war. She wrote on the flyleaf, “This book will keep you from sin or sin will keep you from this book.” That soldier became my Bible college Professor. At a prison church service the men were given the opportunity to tell how they came to Christ. A young man shared with us that when he was in the county jail someone gave him a Bible. He intended to use it to roll some smokes when he ran out of cigarettes. He carried it around for days so no one else would take it. The thought came to him that he should at least read some of it before he made his smokes. He began reading the New Testament where he met Jesus the Son of God and committed his life to Christ. His life is being transformed as he devours the Word of God in prison. |
Someone asked me how I know the Bible is really God’s Word and not just written by men. Consider some of the evidences that the Bible is true.
First – THE BIBLE IS THE BEST SELLING BOOK IN THE WORLD. Over 150 million copies are printed every year. No other “book” comes close.
Second – THE BIBLE CLAIMS TO BE WRITTEN BY GOD. Many believe that man wrote the Bible, but the Bible claims that God is the author. “All scripture is given by inspiration of God” (II Timothy 3:16). “Inspiration” means God breathed. (II Peter 1:21) Someone said that “thus says the Lord” and similar phrases are used over 3,000 times in the Bible. No other book claims to be written by God himself.
Third – HISTORICAL EVIDENCE SUPPORTS THE BIBLE. No one has been able to identify a single historical mistake in the Bible. If men wrote the Bible historical mistakes would be found after all this time. Today we have over 24,000 ancient copies or portions of the New Testament. No other work of literature even comes close to having so many ancient copies. If you can believe the historical and archaeological evidence for the Bible, don’t you think you can believe the spiritual part?
Fourth – FULFILLED PROPHECIES VALIDATE THE BIBLE. What’s the only book that contains hundreds of very detailed prophecies? The Bible. There are over 300 prophecies concerning the birth, manner of death, and resurrection of Christ. Hundreds of other prophecies that have been fulfilled point to its divine authorship.
Fifth – SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE SUPPORTS THE BIBLE. Radio and light waves, multiplied billions of stars and galaxies, the unseen atom, and hundreds of other discoveries of man were already described in the Bible. (Jeremiah 33:22; Job 26:7; 38:25, Hebrews 11:3)
God used men to write the Bible. He can use an imperfect person to do something perfectly. We know that God can’t err. And now that we know that the Bible is the Word of God, we know the Bible can’t err either. Surely God would preserve the Bible and keep it free of mistakes.
Jesus told the parable of the wise and foolish man who built their houses – one on the rock and the other on sand. “Everyone who hears these sayings of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand and the rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat on that house and it fell. And great was its fall” (Matthew 7:24-29).
Be a wise man and build your house on the Rock – Christ Jesus – as you read and obey His Word.
by: Cliff Sanders