Are the Scriptures Really God's Word?

Many people today have scorned the Bible as an ancient book, written by uneducated nomads, and therefore they reason within themselves that it cannot possibly be reliable, much less from God.  Their reasoning is that of a man, a lower creature than the Creator, and therefore without understanding.  God frequently made a point of using the weak and vulnerable to show His strength and power.  The writers of the Bible were guided by the Holy Spirit to tell the people what God needed them to know.  They were God’s secretaries.

It only takes a little time to read and study to find out for yourself. Do you really want to gamble with your soul, and take the chance that you might be wrong?

Established and documented facts regarding the Bible:

1. There are 39 books of the Old Testament and 27 books of the New Testament which comprise the Bible today.  The books were written by about 40 different authors of different trades and education, during different centuries and different locations, over a period of approximately 1,600 years (about 1500 B.C. to about 68 A.D.).  The writers were fisherman, farmers, military leaders, and kings.  Some wrote in Hebrew, others in Aramaic, and still others in Greek.  And, yet, the central theme and message from start to finish is about the Messiah, the Savior, Jesus Christ.  From Genesis to the final verse in Revelation, the entire book declares the knowledge and preeminence of the Savior, Christ; that through Him all nations of the world would be blessed.  

If we put 40 different writers in different rooms today, and having the advantage of all being trained and educated journalists, and gave them each one part of the same subject matter to write about, do you think it possible they would be capable of writing without error, and all writing seamlessly about the subject?  Even if we gave them 1600 years to do it, they could only agree without error under divine intervention!

2.  Archaelogical evidences abound that confirm the writings and information in both the Old and New Testaments.  See: http://www.apologeticspress.org/APContent.aspx?category=13&article=1347, and http://www.apologeticspress.org/APContent.aspx?category=13&article=1420.

3.  The Bible, especially the New Testament, is the only book in existence with the amount of manuscript evidence confirming its text.  Even the documented evidence of Homer’s Illiad does not compare, and may not be taken as complete.   Since the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947, there are over 25,000 manuscript fragments and documents that support and confirm the Bible today.  See: http://www.apologeticspress.org/APContent.aspx?category=13&article=1310.  

4. The Bible has been violently opposed and oppressed for centuries. Some of the Kings of Israel hid the Old Testament, and kept it from the people.  Antiochus Epiphanes tore the Hebrew scriptures in pieces and burned them in an attempt to destroy God’s word.  Diocletion ordered the burning of every copy of the Bible found in any Christian church in the Roman Empire.  During several papal rules, they ordered the burning of Bibles claiming they were vulgar and inaccurate.  The Fourth Council of Trent ruled that allowing the Scriptures to circulate among the people would do more harm than good, and withheld absolution of sins from anyone who had a copy until they handed it over to the Catholic church.  

An act was passed in 1543 forbidding the people to use Tyndale’s version of the Bible, and mandating a royal license for the privilege of reading the approved version in the assemblies.  Thousands of copies of Tyndale’s version were burned.  

If the unbelievers could not burn it, they attacked it with scorn and false argumentative pagan and human reasoning, a tactic in full bloom today.  The fact that we have the Bible today, fully confirmed by such overwhleming evidence, is a direct testimony of the work of the Holy Spirit in preserving it.  It is the best selling book of all time!

You can rely upon the scriptures in their original form.  The King James Bible, even though it has one major flaw (technically not an error but a transliteration of “baptizo” in the Greek, which means immersed), it is still one of the best.  The closest and most exact is Young’s Literal Translation, which I check against the King James for accuracy.

If you are not sure of the origiinal meaning of a word in a translation, get a Greek and Hebrew lexicon. Avoid at all costs the commentaries of the Catholic church and the Scoffield Refernce Bible.  (See my articles at contributor link above for It’s Not The End of The World, especially Part VI, to understand why.)

You should also read the following article at Apologetics Press, entitled 3 Good Reasons to Believe the Bible is From God.  See: http://www.apologeticspress.org/APContent.aspx?category=13&article=5089.  There are many well researched articles about the inspiration of the Bible at www.Apologeticspress.org.  I highly recommend reading and studying all of them.  All of the information at Apologetics Press is written by educated men of science and history, and is invaluable. 

You cannot know until you look it up.  You cannot have faith in something you do not know.  What does it cost you, but a little time?