Proof the Bible is the Word of God

The Bible is a miracle! The existence of the Bible is evidence of the one Who works miracles.

No Contradictions

First, the Bible was written by about 40 different human writers who lived over a period of about 1500 years (50 generations). Many of these writers had no opportunity to collaborate with each other and yet, there are no contradictions in their writings! Like no other book, the writers all agreed on such themes as morality (which certainly has changed drastically in a few generations in our society), child rearing (likewise a changing philosophy), husband and wife relationships (which have been altered in a single generation), the character of God, the way of salvation and the birth, life, death and resurrection of the Saviour of mankind, in minute details.

Scientifically Correct Hundreds of Years in Advance

Second, where the Bible speaks on scientific subjects, it is accurate centuries ahead of its time. For example, in a book entitled "None of These Diseases" by S.I. McMillen, M.D. ¹, the doctor cites various hygiene laws God gave to Israel. These were far ahead of the knowledge of the scientific world of that time. Here are a few examples.

Deut. 23:12-13. Thou shalt have a place also without the camp, whither thou shalt go forth abroad: And thou shalt have a paddle upon thy weapon; and it shall be, when thou wilt ease thyself abroad, thou shalt dig therewith, and shalt turn back and cover that which cometh from thee.

We may be prone to laugh at something like this in our day. However, in the eighteenth century in Europe, human excrement was cast into the streets of cities in ignorance, giving rise to epidemics of typhoid, cholera and dysentery.

Gen. 17:12 And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which [is] not of thy seed.

The command to circumcise Jewish boys on the eighth day was no accident. The important blood clotting vitamin K2 in blood is not manufactured in a baby's intestinal tract in normal amounts until the 5th to 7th day of their lives. A second element necessary for blood clotting is prothrombin ³. The presence of this element decreases in an infant for the first 3 days of its life, then suddenly spurts to a maximum level on the eighth day, after which it settles to its norm for the rest of the child's life.

We will cite just one more example. In relatively recent years the medical professions have been warning against the build up of cholesterol in our veins since it may cause clogging and a heart attack. A large source of cholesterol is animal fat. Hear what God told Moses centuries ago ⁴.

Lev 3:17. [It shall be] a perpetual statute for your generations throughout all your dwellings, that ye eat neither fat nor blood.

Relative to other areas of scientific fact centuries ahead of scientists, see

Isa 40:22. [It is] he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof [are] as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in:
Eccl 1:7. All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea [is] not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again.
1Cor 6:18. Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.
Job 26:7. He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing.

Prophecy

A third proof of the miracle of the Bible, and thus proof there is a God Who is the author of the Bible, is prophecy.

For example, would anyone care to select a large metropolitan area and predict in advance, and in detail, how that city will be destroyed? The Bible did, and not with just one city, but many!

City of Tyre

The two great cities of Phoenicia were Tyre and Sidon. Ezekiel as a captive in Babylon made some very specific predictions about the seacoast metropolis of Tyre. In Ezekiel 26 and 27 the destruction of Tyre was given in detail (592-570BC)

Ezek 26:3. Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I [am] against thee, O Tyrus, and will cause many nations to come up against thee, as the sea causeth his waves to come up.
Ezek 26:4. And they shall destroy the walls of Tyrus, and break down her towers: I will also scrape her dust from her, and make her like the top of a rock.
Ezek 26:5. It shall be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea: for I have spoken [it] saith the Lord GOD: and it shall become a spoil to the nations.
Ezek 26:7. For thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will bring upon Tyrus Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, a king of kings, from the north, with horses, and with chariots, and with horsemen, and companies, and much people.
Ezek 26:12. And they shall make a spoil of thy riches, and make a prey of thy merchandise: and they shall break down thy walls, and destroy thy pleasant houses: and they shall lay thy stones and thy timber and thy dust in the midst of the water.
Ezek 26:14. And I will make thee like the top of a rock: thou shalt be [a place] to spread nets upon; thou shalt be built no more: for I the LORD have spoken [it] saith the Lord GOD.

Nebuchadnezzar came against Tyre in 585 BC (fulfilling vs 26:7). The siege lasted until 573 BC. When he broke down the gates of the city he found most of the population had escaped by ship to a city they had built on an island about a half mile out into the sea.

Sometime after defeating the Persians in a battle in 333BC, Alexander III in a southern campaign demolished old Tyre and used the materials and dirt (fulfilling verse 26:4) to build a causeway to the new city which had been built out in the water. After a long siege, the island city was destroyed and the materials cast into the sea (fulfilling 26:12).

Eighteen years after Alexander's defeat of Tyre on the island, Antigonus laid siege to the city and again destroyed it. The Moslems were next to win and occupy it for a time but were defeated by the Roman Crusaders. Still later, the Moslems again retook and utterly destroyed the city with a vengeance, seeming to hate the very stones on which the Crusaders walked. All these "waves" of conquerors fulfilled vs 26:3.

Today, Tyre is literally a place for local fishermen to spread their nets to dry. The proud commercial seaport of ancient Tyre has never been rebuilt (fulfilling vs 26:5 and 14) ⁵.

Numerous other cities could be cited about which series of prophecies to minute detail were fulfilled. Only a few more of the Bible references will be given here to complete the point:

City of Samaria

Hosea 13
Micah 1

(Estimated fulfillment by chance: 1 in 40,000 ⁶

Cities of Gaza & Ashkelon

Amos 1
Jeremiah 47
Zephaniah 2

(Estimated fulfillment by chance: 1 in 12,000 ⁷

Kingdom of Edom and its capitol, Petra

Isa 34
Jeremiah 49
Ezekiel 25 and 35.

(Estimated fulfillment by chance: 1 in 10,000 ⁸

And yet we have not considered the greatest, oldest and most detailed of all Bible prophecies, those that pertain to the birth, life, death and resurrection of the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ!

In 1956 a book was written about the grand prophecies regarding the Lord Jesus ¹⁰. It contained the following challenge to the world.

"We Challenge the world - $1,000 Reward Offered!"
"We hereby challenge the world with this double challenge; and we will give $1,000 reward to any one proving either of these two propositions:
(1) Show that there is another book than the Bible in the literature of the world that contains prophecies about a coming Messiah, similar to those in the Bible; and after a lapse of four hundred years gives evidence of a definite fulfillment, in twenty or more details.
(2) Produce any "Christ," living or dead (other than Jesus of Nazareth) who can fulfill even half of the predictions concerning Messiah that we give in this book. We would ask of any who claims or who claimed to be the true Messiah:" (12 specific events relative to the Biblical Messiah are then listed.)

To our knowledge, this reward has never been claimed!

THE LORD JESUS CHRIST

His Birth

Location:: Micah 5:2. (about 700 BC) But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, [though] thou be little among the thousands of Judah, [yet] out of thee shall he come forth unto me [that is] to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth [have been] from of old, from everlasting. (Fulfillment: Matthew 2:1)
Method:: Isa 7:14. (about 650 to 750 BC) Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. (Fulfillment: Luke 1:27)
Time:: Dan 9:25. (about 500 BC) Know therefore and understand, [that] from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince [shall be] seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks 11: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. 26. And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof [shall be] with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.

His Lineage

Gen 12:3. (1907 BC 12) And I will bless them that bless thee (Abraham), and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed..mb3
Gen 49:8. (1660 BC) Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise: thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies; thy father's children shall bow down before thee. 9. Judah is a lion's whelp: from the prey, my son, thou art gone up: he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up? 10. The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be
Isa 11:1. (713 BC) And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse (David's father), and a Branch shall grow out of his roots:
Jer 23:5. (597 BC) Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth.

His Life

He was to be preceded by a forerunner (John Baptist):

Isa 40:3. (712 BC) The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

Mal 3:1. (397 BC) Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts. (Fulfillment: Luke 1:17; Matthew 3:1-3)

He was to enter Jerusalem riding on a colt:

Zech 9:9. (494 BC) Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he [is] just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass. (Fulfillment: Matthew 21:1-5)

He was to bear the sorrows and grief of his people:

Isa 53:4. (712 BC) Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. (Fulfillment: Matthew 8:17)

He was to be rejected by his brethren:

Psalms 69:8. (993 BC) I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother's children. (Fulfillment: John 5:7)

He was to be rejected by the rulers:

Psalms 118:22. (1018 BC) The stone [which] the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner. 23. This is the LORD'S doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. (Fulfillment: Matthew 21:42, 45; Acts 4:11-12)

His Death

He was to be forsaken by his disciples:

Zech 13:7. (494 BC) Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man [that is] my fellow, saith the LORD of hosts: smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered: and I will turn mine hand upon the little ones. (Fulfillment: Mark 14:27 and 50)

He was to be sold for 30 pieces of silver:

Zech 11:12. (494 BC) And I said unto them, If ye think good, give [me] my price; and if not, forbear. So they weighed for my price thirty [pieces] of silver. (Fulfillment: Matthew 26:15)

His price to be given to purchase the potters field:

Zech 11:13. (494 BC) And the LORD said unto me, Cast it unto the potter: a goodly price that I was prised at of them. And I took the thirty [ pieces] of silver, and cast them to the potter in the house of the LORD. (Matthew 27:3-8)

He was to be smitten, spit on, mocked and beaten:

Isa 50:6. (712 BC) I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting. (Fulfillment: Mat 27:26-30)

Psalms 22:7. (993 BC) All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying 8. He trusted on the LORD that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him. (Fulfillment: Matthew 27:43)

Micah 5:1. (704 BC) Now gather thyself in troops, O daughter of troops: he hath laid siege against us: they shall smite the judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek. (Fulfillment: Matthew 27:30)

He would be silent before his oppressors:

Isa 53:7. (712 BC) He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. (Fulfillment: Mark 15:3-5)

Lots would be cast for his vesture:

Psalms 22:18. (993 BC) They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture. (Fulfillment: Matthew 27:35)

His hands and feet would be pierced:

Psalms 22:16. (993 BC) For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have enclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet. (Fulfillment: John 20:25-27)

Zech 12:10. (494 BC)...and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced...

Yet, none of his bones would be broken:

Psalms 34:20. (1029 BC) He keepeth all his bones: not one of them is broken. (Fulfillment: John 19:33-36)

He Was To Be Crucified (Crucifixion was a means of death invented hundreds of years after the writing of Psalms 22. At the time of the writing of Psalms 22, Jewish capital punishment was stoning.)

Psalms 22:14.(993 BC) I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels. 15. My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death. 16. For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have enclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet. 17. I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me. (Fulfillment: Mark 15:24-38)

His grave was to be with the wicked and the rich:

Isa 53:9. (712 BC) And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither [was any] deceit in his mouth. (Fulfillment: Matthew 27:38 and 57-60)

His Resurrection

He was to be raised from the dead:: Psalm 16:8-10. (1014 BC) I have set the LORD always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope. For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. (Fulfillment: Matthew 27:53; 28:6, Mark 16:6)
There were witnesses to his resurrection:: 1Cor 15:3-8 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep. After that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles. And last of all he was seen of me also...

Remember the mathematical discipline called "probability?" Above are over 20 prophesies regarding the Lord Jesus Christ from his birth to his resurrection. The probability of these all happening to a single person is 1 in 246 quintillion (246+15 0's). There are not just 20, however, some have estimated as many as 333 such prophecies!!! There is no need to calculate that probability for if a person will not be satisfied with 1 in 246 quintillion they are not to be convinced!

How about you? Are you sufficiently convinced to make the Bible priority reading in your life? Are you convinced enough to obey the word of God as it applies to your life today?

Psalms 19:7-11 The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover by them is thy servant warned: and in keeping of them there is great reward.

It Works!

The fourth evidence that proves the Bible to be the word of God is one which every person may test for themselves. The Bible simply works!

On the subject of raising children (future lessons will center of this subject), those who have made application of the word of God in their families have only regretted they did not follow the Bible more closely.

Pro. 29:17 Correct thy son, and he shall give thee rest; yea, he shall give delight unto thy soul.

The Biblical instructions on husband and wife relationships* and order in the home are today contrary to popular belief, but when obeyed the home is abundantly blessed.

Psalms 128:1-4 Blessed [is] every one that feareth the LORD; that walketh in his ways. For thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands: happy [shalt] thou [be], and [it shall be] well with thee. Thy wife [shall be] as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house: thy children like olive plants round about thy table. Behold, that thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the LORD.

The same may be said on all of the subjects on which the Bible speaks, including salvation and forgiveness of sins. For one who has come to Christ and experienced the personal relationship between God and themselves, no additional proofs of the Bible are needed.

1JO 5:10 He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son.

Whence but from heaven, could men unskilled in arts,
In several ages born, in several parts,
Weave such agreeing truths? Or how, or why,
Should all conspire to cheat us with a lie!
Unasked their pains, ungrateful their advice,
Starving their gain, and martyrdom their price.
-Dryden.

__________

¹ S.I. McMillen, M.D., None of These Diseases, Pyramid Publications, New York, N.Y., 1971
² Ibid, p. 20
³ Ibid, p. 21
⁴ Ibid, p. 85
⁵ For detailed study: Josh McDowell, Evidence that Demands a Verdict, Here's Life Pub., Inc., San Bernardino, CA, 1989
⁶ Ibid, p. 283
⁷ Ibid, p. 285
⁸ Ibid, p. 293
⁹ Ibid, p. 308
¹⁰ Fred John Meldau, Messiah in Both Testaments, The Christian Victory Pub. Co., Denver, CO, 1967, pp. 43-44
¹¹ For detailed study, Alva J. McClain, Daniel's Prophecy of the Seventy Weeks, Zondervan Pub., Grand Rapids Michigan, 1929
¹² Dates from this point on are from: Edward Reese, The Reese Chronological Bible, Bethany House Pub., Minn, MN, 1977, p. 512