September 3rd: How Can I be Sure the Bible Is God’s Word?
An overview of the unique nature of the Bible
Hebrews 1.1-2 “God, who…spoke in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son.”
God speaking to us. This is absolutely foundational. On this foundation rests the entire edifice of Christian truth.
BCF 1.1 tells us that natural enquiry and intelligence are “not sufficient to provide that knowledge of God…necessary for salvation. Therefore it pleased the Lord…to reveal Himself, and to declare His will.”
Reveal = unveil something otherwise hidden. God is invisible – we cannot know what He is like unaided.
True religion must consist of revealed Truth.
How can we be sure the Bible is God speaking to us, unveiling Himself?
The answer is in the Bible itself. It shows us itself that it is God’s Word.
Student – I know the Bible claims it is, how do I know it is?0
How does a jeweller know a diamond is genuine? He examines it in detail.
If we examine the Bible carefully we are assured it is genuine.
1. INEXHAUSTIBLE
There is no book in the world that you can read your whole lifetime and find that it is like the widow’s cruse of oil.
You can read a scientific thesis several times. Eventually you will master it.
You will never master or exhaust the content of the Bible, not even after decades of daily study.
If it were a human composition you would soon discover everything it had to say.
It would be pointless reading anymore.
But the Bible goes on yielding up riches of new thought.
It is quite unlike any other book. Value it.
Be like the Berean believers who “searched the scriptures daily” (Acts 17.11).
2. TIMELESS – ETERNALLY YOUTHFUL
Millions of books lie forgotten in libraries. Most books lie forgotten on shelves after 50 years.
How many 500 year old books have you read?
Yet millions read the Bible daily, 2000 – 3500 years old.
It is never out of date – all other textbooks are rewritten regularly.
Science books are out of date in 10-20 years. 400 year old science books have only curiosity value.
Academic textbooks constantly revised.
Scripture never needs revision, updating.
Every secular subject has to be rewritten, but not Bible truth.
It stands supreme above time.
3. ACCURACY
In the 19thC liberals attacked the Bible’s inerrancy. It was declared historically unreliable.
But at the same time interest in archaeology rose.
Eg 1. Ur of the Chaldees. The very existence of Ur was denied by Bible critics until it was discovered in 1854.
Excavated in early 1900s. Sophisticated, wealthy, 2-storey houses, main drainage, ‘modern’ commercial system.
Eg 2. Belshazzar. The Babylonian king at the time was Nabonidus, not Belshazzar. Unheard of outside Daniel, even by Herodotus 90 years later. ‘Sheer fiction’. Babylonian chronicles discovered showed Nabonidus entrusted the kingship to his son Belshazzar while he was away. Hence the offer to Daniel to be third in the kingdom.
Eg 3. Hittites only mentioned in the Bible. 1906 the capital unearthed in Turkey. An empire.
Eg 4. Nineveh was declared a phantom metropolis, unearthed 1842, Ashurbanirpal’s palace 71 halls.
Dates of the Hebrew kings perfect.
4. UNITY
Imagine a project, starting AD400 and finishing AD2000, to put a religious handbook together.
Wildly different ideas. Add a chapter every 25 years > 66 chapters. 1600 years.
Miracle of 40 authors, kings to unlettered fishermen, writing over 1600 years.
Writing on the subject of religion and God; yet perfectly in unison.
5. INDESTRUCTIBLE
Savagely criticised, banned, burnt, ridiculed. Yet still the world’s best seller.
Scientific thesis once published must endure criticism and close examination. Errors or deficiencies show up in time.
But after 3500 years of minute examination by billions, there are no proven errors.
Wonderfully preserved even though hand-copied for most of its history.
1948 Dead Sea scrolls. Copy of Isaiah the same as the text we use today.
6. FULFILLED PROPHECY
Detailed. Christ to be born in Bethlehem, of the tribe of Judah, betrayed for 30 pieces of silver.
So detailed that critics decided that Isaiah was written after Christ.
But the Dead Sea Isaiah scroll is dated 100-200BC.
Man cannot foretell the future.
7. HONESTY OF THE WRITERS
Ancient kings never recorded defeats. Sennacherib is silent on the destruction of his army at Jerusalem.
Bible records many defeats and failures by the Israelites.
Writers to their own disadvantage and shame. Eg David and Solomon.
It is hard to own up to an individual, family, large meeting – but to the world.
8. UNIVERSAL
Not just Western or Eastern. The Gospel spread to China early on.
All cultures, countries, people, eras.
Profound for the wise, and simple for children.
We ‘grade’ school books – elementary to advanced. The Bible is for all.
It makes the simple wise.
9. POWERFUL TO SAVE
Saul became Paul. It ennobles peoples, even savage tribes.
In Welsh revival of 1904, absenteeism almost eliminated.
No other religious book changes people.
10. IT IS UNIQUE
It “gives all glory to God” [unique in literature] and makes “full disclosure…of the only way of man’s salvation” (BCF 1.5).
Without it we can know nothing about God. Plunged into darkness.
No purpose for life, no truth, salvation, knowledge of God.
Without it mankind stumbles in night.
BCF 1.5 “By all this evidence the Scripture more than proves itself to be the Word of God.”
Treasure it, read it, love it – for here is God’s voice, speech, Word.
Psalm 119.89 “Forever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven.”
