What we believe about the Bible is paramount to our Christian faith and how we view God. As Christians, we must grapple with questions like these: Is the Bible really the inspired word of God? And if so, was the Bible passed down from generation to generation accurately? The answer to these and related questions are important because, as Christ-followers, we are called to base our entire lives on what is recorded in a book written over 2,000 years ago. For that reason, we need to be sure we understand what we believe about the Bible and why we believe it. We need to settle in our hearts this question once and for all: Is the Bible the real deal? Here, we will look reasons we can believe the Bible.
Changed Lives
One of the biggest witnesses that the Bible is true is its power to dramatically change a person’s life. The Bible is not just any ordinary book. Its message has caused people from all generations, all walks of life, and all nationalities to radically change the direction of their lives. I know the Gospel message transformed me. I was one way and now I am another.
Written words on their own do not have this kind of power. The Bible is living and active and its words are powerful. They get deep inside of you and rewire you. They change you from the inside out. You become a new creation. You are born again!
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 2 Corinthians 5:17
Archaelogy
The more we dig the more we discover that archaeology supports what the Bible says. Excavations bring to the surface evidence of places and events mentioned in the Bible showing that what the Bible says can be believed. Dr. Joseph Free, late chairman of archaeology at Wheaton College stated in his book Archaeology and Bible History: “Archaeology has confirmed countless passages which have been rejected by critics as unhistorical or contradictory to known facts……Yet archaeological discoveries have shown that these critical charges…..are wrong and that the Bible is trustworthy in the very statements which have been set aside as untrustworthy…..We do not know of any cases where the Bible has been proved wrong.”
If you want to know more about the Bible and its archaeology check out this slide show.
Science
A mantra we hear a lot is that Science and the Bible don’t like each other. They can’t mix. That is simply not true. The more science “progresses,” the more we can see that the Bible was right all along! This chart is floating around the internet. Look the verses up, do some research, see what you think.
Prophecy Fulfilled
The Bible is full of prophecies that predict future events. Prophecies in the Old Testament were written hundreds, if not thousands of years before they came to pass. According to “The Encyclopedia of Biblical Prophecy” by J. Barton Payne, there are 1,239 prophecies in the Old Testament and 578 in the New Testament. There are around 333 prophecies about Christ. Out of these 333 prophecies, 109 were fulfilled at Christ’s first coming, and 224 will be fulfilled at His second coming. Here are a few prophecies that were recorded about Christ and fulfilled in the New Testament.
But the Bible doesn’t only predict the future Christ, it also foretells other future events. Daniel predicted the rise and fall of 5 kingdoms (Daniel 7:6, 8:5-8, 11:2-4), Ezekiel predicted the fall of Tyre (Ezekiel 26), and Isaiah predicted the rise of the Persian King, Cyrus (Isaiah 44:28, Isaiah 45).
God’s intent has never been to leave us in the dark but to reveal His plans through His chosen messengers, the prophets (Amos 3:7). God knows that when we see His Word come to pass, our faith increases and we trust Him more. Prophecy is a gift from God.
All four of these reasons are good reasons to believe that the Bible is the real deal, but they are not enough on their own. Next time we will look at what the Bible says about itself and why we can trust it. Then we will explore what Jesus said about the Bible. If He believes its true, then so should we.
