The Bible: Is It the Inspired Word of God?

Bible Studies

NO ORDINARY BOOK

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. Written words on their own do not have this kind of power. However, if the Bible is the inspired word of God, then its words have the weight and power to affect such profound change. In The Bible: Is It Really Accurate and Reliable?, we concluded that the Bible is truth and not fiction – that it is historically reliable and its authors are credible. For those reasons, we can look to the Bible to answer the question: Is the Bible the inspired Word of God?

GOD BREATHED

The Bible was written by ordinary men with no extraordinary power or authority. The authors did not profess the words they wrote as their own, but claimed they were the words of God. Paul, in 2nd Timothy 3:16 says that “All scripture is inspired by God.” Inspired comes from the Greek word theopneustos which means God-breathed. Over and over again, both the Old and the New Testament make reference to scripture as the Word of God.

PROPHECY

In the Old Testament, God spoke through prophets like Moses and Jeremiah. These prophets were chosen by God to communicate His message to the world. Jeremiah provides a great example of how prophets were chosen and used by God. Jeremiah 1: 5-10 says:

“The Lord said to me, ‘Before I formed you in your mother’s womb I chose you…I appointed you to be a prophet to the nations.’ I answered, ‘Oh, Lord God, I really do not know how to speak well enough for that’…The Lord said to me…’But go to whomever I send you and say whatever I tell you…’ Then the Lord reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, ‘I will most assuredly give you the words you are to speak for me. Know for certain that I hereby give you the authority to announce to nations and kingdoms that they will be uprooted and torn down, destroyed and demolished, rebuilt and firmly planted.”

The Old Testament is filled with prophecies relating to the rise and fall of nations and kingdoms.

Prophecies in the Old Testament were written hundreds, if not thousands of years before they came to pass. An example of an Old Testament prophecy relating to the fall of a nation is recorded in Ezekiel. Between 587-586 B.C. Ezekiel predicted that many nations would come against the city of Tyre and that eventually Nebuchadnezzar would destroy it. In Ezekiel 26:12, Ezekiel predicted that the stone, timber and rubble of the ancient City of Tyre would be thrown into the sea.

“They will plunder your wealth and loot your merchandise; they will break down your walls and demolish your fine houses and throw your stones, timber and rubble into the sea.”

This prophecy came to pass when Alexander the Great attacked Tyre in 333-332 B.C. His armies threw the stones, timber and rubble of the City into the sea to make a land bridge. This bridge is still there.

There are hundreds more prophecies recorded in the Old Testament that later came to pass. The accuracy of these prophecies is uncanny and the likelihood of them coming to pass is low, unless of course, they were given by God to the prophets supernaturally.

In addition to prophets predicting the rise and fall of people and nations, the prophets predicted the coming of Jesus Christ. There are over 300 prophecies concerning Jesus.

There are prophecies which told when he would be born,

“A period of seventy sets of seven has been decreed for your people and your holy city to finish their rebellion, to put an end to their sin, to atone for their guilt, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to confirm the prophetic vision, and to anoint the Most Holy Place. Now listen and understand! Seven sets of seven plus sixty-two sets of seven will pass from the time the command is given to rebuild Jerusalem until a ruler—the Anointed One—comes…” Daniel 9:24-25

his lineage,

“When your days are over and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and blood, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father, and he will be my son. When he does wrong, I will punish him with a rod wielded by men, with floggings inflicted by human hands. But my love will never be taken away from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.’” 2nd Samuel 12-16

that he would die and rise again.

“I keep my eyes always on the Lord.

With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.

Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;

my body also will rest secure,

because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead,

nor will you let your faithful one see decay.

You make known to me the path of life;

you will fill me with joy in your presence,

with eternal pleasures at your right hand. Psalm 16:8-11

ONE MAN FULFILL ALL THESE PROPHECIES?

What are the chances that one man would fulfill these prophecies? College students decided to conduct a scientific study to help answer this question. They used only 8 of the prophecies concerning Jesus. Upon completion of the study, they determined that the chance that one man would fulfill just 8 of these prophecies was 1 in 1017 . I have trouble imagining that number, so I’m going to use the visualization that Peter Stoner in his book Science Speaks used:

Imagine that we took 1017 silver dollars and laid them across the entire state of Texas. By the time we got done, they covered all of Texas and were two feet deep. Then we marked one of the silver dollars and blindfolded a man and told him that he could go as far as he wanted, but he must pick up the marked silver dollar. His chances of picking up that marked silver dollar represent the chances that one man would fulfill all eight of these prophecies.

The same probability applies to the chance that a prophet would have of writing these prophecies and having them fulfilled in one man. Nearly impossible, right? The only logical conclusion is that the prophets could not have predicted these future events on their own, but that they were given these prophecies by the inspiration of God – just as the Bible states.

Peter makes clear in 2nd Peter 1:20-21 that “no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” This shows, without doubt, that the writers of the Old Testament were not relaying their own message, but the message of God. This doesn’t mean that they were robotically writing words on a piece of parchment, but that God was using their own personalities and backgrounds to produce a divinely inspired text.

SPEAKING THROUGH JESUS

In the New Testament, God speaks through his Son, Jesus. In John 4:29, Jesus says: “For I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me to say all that I have spoken.” Jesus’ words are recorded in the Gospels – the first four books of the New Testament. After Jesus’ death and resurrection, God spoke through the authors of the New Testament. Jesus, while speaking to his disciples before He ascended to Heaven, said: “But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.” John 14:26 Those same disciples wrote much of the New Testament as the Holy Spirit moved them along just as Jesus said He would. A large majority of the New Testament was written by Paul who was appointed by Jesus “as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen and will see of me [Jesus]” Acts 26:16

DYNAMIC AND TRANSFORMING POWER

No one can deny that the Bible possesses a dynamic and transforming power. Hebrews 4:12 talks about this power: “For the word of God is alive 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.” Though written long ago, these words were not written for one time period, for one audience, or for one purpose. These words are alive and active – they are God speaking to us. God didn’t just speak once when the scripture was written, but he spoke then and He continues to speak. These words can penetrate our hearts and expose us like no other written word because these are unlike any other written word – they are God-breathed.

So how can we know that the Bible is the inspired Word of God? First, the Bible says it is the inspired word of God. Second, the Bible accurately predicts the rise and fall of nations and the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus. And third, the Bible possesses a dynamic and transforming power that could not possibly be from man, but has to be from God.

Believing the Bible is the inspired word of God is not enough. A person can believe the Bible, but without faith, this belief has no power, no meaning. There is no transforming work. The Bible is just words. Faith activates the dynamic and transforming power of the message of the Bible. Next time, I will talk about faith.