The Bible's Authenticity: Why I believe in the Bible

1)  Is the Bible the word of men or the word of God?
2)  Is the Bible fairytales or is it historically reliable?
3)  Is ALL the Bible truthful and accurate or only parts of it?
4)  Can the Bible really be accurate (After so many years of translation and existence)?
5)  What makes the Bible so different than any other book from religion and/or history?

Seven aspects of credibility for the Bible:

1) Archeology - The Bible is a historically accurate book (25,000 archeological sites corresponding to different details of the Bible)

• New archeological finds resolve perceived discrepancies... example - Luke 2 (Census proved true when it was not believed to be since no proof to idea had been found).  There is more time placed into trying to disprove the Bible than any other religion or document, and rightfully so.  If people are going to give credibility to a faith that is based off a single book, then they should want to verify its validity; however, most of the research isn't done by people who are in the faith, but rather those that oppose it.  Regardless, the more people search, the more supporting evidence found - regardless of the reason for the search.
• The Bible isn't a myth or legend, it's about real times / real places / real people.  These items, because of their physical nature, are able to be proved/disproved via archeology.
• No archeological discovery has ever controverted a Biblical reference.  Granted, faith isn't established only with credibility; however, credibility is needed to support a faith.

2) Revelation - The Bible claims to infallibly reveal the word of God

• The Bible doesn't make trivial claims... it makes outrageous claims - revealing the very mind and word of God
• All scripture is inspired by God ... (2 Tim 3:16 says this outright, though at that time it was mainly referring to the Old Testament since most of the New Testament wasn't written then.  Of course that automatically opens a line of questioning regarding the scripture that had not yet been written. Without digging for anymore info, I can tie in Hebrews 13:8 stating that God's word is unwavering and is the same yesterday, today, and forever.  If all scripture is inspired by God, constant and unwavering, then 2 Tim 3:16 would also include the passages that will later enter the Bible as we know it [after the books are canonized].  See also 1 Peter 1:22-25 and Math 5:17-18.
• There are about 3,000 "God says..." type of statements thru the Bible.  I'm saying this in response to some modern movements (such as the Jesus Seminar) that say that God/Jesus wouldn't have said this or that, for one reason or another [accusations which, by the way, contain no supporting evidence and are shun by most scholars].

3) Origin - The Bible's unity, structure and subject matter infer a supernatural origin

• The Bible was constructed over a 1500 year period of time, thru 10 countries, working in 3 different languages, with a cast of 2,930 people, 1551 places, producing 66 books, 1189 chapters, 31,000 verses, with over 40 authors from over 20 occupations with every conceivable topic covered (data gleaned from a seminar by Chip Ingram - biblical scholar)
• Total unity is conveyed, given all this diversity
• 2 Billion published (just since 1455)
• Truthfulness and honesty about all the characters - even unfavorably... it talks about how a person was great in this fashion, how God found favor with them, and then we find out the sins they did. You see the full story, not an impartial one based on hidden agenda.  (remember that God

4) Fulfilled Prophecy - sets the Bible apart from any other religious writings

• Judgment of Tyre (Ez 26) - Prophecies are VERY specific
• Daniel 2 & 7 ... EXACT and precise prophecy. In fact, these predictions were so precise that scholars still wish to push the time out to when this scripture was actually written. In their eyes, that is the only way that Daniel could have written all that he did. He mentions stages of rule, kingdoms, names of people not known, etc.,.
• In comparison, Jean Dickson (one of today's fortune/future tellers) give predictions in many popular magazines that are so general and yet is still a percentage wrong.  An example of her predictions was the mention that one of our celebrities was going to get into an accident this year... kinda like reading a fortune cookie.  ;)
• 25% of all the Bible (when written) was prophetic
• Jesus' fulfillment of scripture:
  • Chances of any man fulfilling just the top 8 prophesies (according to a scholar by the name of Stoner) is 1 in 10^17th, which is just like covering Texas with a 2 foot deep layer of silver dollars, marking one with an X, mixing all the coins up, and letting a blindfolded person pick the coin out.
  • Jesus fulfilled over 300 - not just 8.

5) Jesus' claims and authority

• Jesus claim to be God; His life was a fulfillment of prophecies.  Jesus first claims the resurrection will happen, then appears to about 500 eyewitnesses over 40 days thereafter... to both believers and non-believers.
• Jesus' view of the Bible: He emphasized the importance of the Old Testament (Matt 5:17-19), saying He "did not come to abolish but to fulfill" and that all would be fulfilled.  Jesus is directly called the Word of God: "And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth." - John 1:14; "and His name is called The Word of God." - Revelation 19:13.
• Consist and unchanging characteristics of God:  Jesus went on to say in Matthew 24:35 that "Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away."  God says: "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end" - Revelation 21:6a,  and "For I, the Lord, do not change" - Malachi 3:6a.  James 1:17 says "Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow."

6) The Transmission - The Bible's purity and perseverance throughout history is miraculous

• Painstaking processes of the scribes.  After writing, they would use some algorithm to check certain letters on each page, and if one character was found in this manner to be incorrect, the whole piece was thrown out.
• Historical accuracy test : earliest copy, time written, and number of identical copies made ... I can't remember the correct numbers, but you can look it up in Josh McDowell's Evidence that Demands a Verdict.  Just looking at some other books for reference, there were 7 copies of Plato's 1st writing - 900 years after the fact. Aristotle's 1st writing was 1400 years later, and the Iliad was 500 years later. The Bible's first well credited writing is now 120 AD... placing it less than 90 years after the fact. However, there are other findings that point to even before this. The documents very well may have been there, but the parchment of those days (unless stored VERY well) didn't last long. Later animal hide was used that would stand up to more years.
• Another example is the Dead Sea scrolls...
• The scroll of Israel was found on papyrus, stored in clay jars, and was compared to the latest translation (at that time was about 1000 years later) and only one word was different ("light") and may have had a few characters different, but the modern copies were 95% identical - that's pretty good for copies and copies all written by scribes.

7) Impact of the Bible - Power to transform life and history of nations unparalleled

• Examples of the Bible transforms people is both in the Bible and around us daily.  There are many examples in the Bible and in real life, so I won't provide a specific one... but I will give a couple scriptures:
• Heb 4:12:  "For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart."
• 2 Timothy 3:15-17:  "and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.  All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work."

As with all topics, there is a certain level of personal investigation and identification needed. Here are a couple questions to consider, if you are indeed taking an open and honest look into the credibility of Christianity and/or the Bible:

1) Are you willing to examine the evidence for yourself?  Being open minded is a good start; that’s what allowed me to learn non-biased views on other religions thru college.  One can do this from a third person standpoint by looking at literary pieces discussing the selected topics. Erwin W. Lutzer has a book called "Seven Reasons Why You Can Trust the Bible", and I've heard good reviews but I haven't read it.  Lee Strobel's "The Case for Christ" addresses some good issues from a skeptical point of view.  I've glanced thru the Revised Edition of "Evidence That Demands a Verdict" by Josh McDowell, which is more a compilation of notes than a book.  However, the 367 pages of fine print has so far warded me off.  <smirk>  Anyway, I’m sure there are others of both greater and lesser impact.

2) Are you willing to read the New Testament or just one book out of the New Testament and make up your own mind? Some people recommend the book of John, if you are just reading one book, because it's a lot of Christ's life; personally I prefer the writing style in other books. One note if you do read John, or any book for that matter. Just as you would another piece of hard reading (philosophy/psychology/logic/poems/parables) - take a little while to try to identify what is actually being said instead of just reading thru it like a novel. If you just spend a week (couple hours a night) looking at a book, you could gain an opinion on the topic based on first hand experience.

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