Frequently
Asked Questions
3. Is The Bible really word
of God?
No
matter what you think about the Bible everyone agrees
that it is quite unique.
This is a book like no other !
1. It was written by over 40 different authors over
a 1,500 year span. These authors were from every walk
of life, from kings to peasants.
2. It was written on three continents, Asia, Africa
and Europe. It was written in a number of different
places: In the wilderness, in a dungeon, on a hillside,
in a palace, in prison, and while traveling on the
road.
3. It was written at different times: During
war and during peace. In times of great joy and in
times of
great sorrow and despair.
4. It was written in three different languages, Hebrew,
Greek and some Aramaic.
5. The Bible has been read by more people and published
in more languages than any other book.
6. The Bible has withstood vicious attacks. Many have
tried to burn it, ban it or outlaw it. From the days
of the Roman emperors to the more recent communist
countries, many have tried to rid the earth of it.
Lets
look at the reliability of the text of the Bible :
Extreme care was taken to make sure no mistakes were
made whenever a scroll was copied. Here are a few of
the safeguards they took:
1. No word or letter, not even a yod, could be written
from memory, without first looking at an authentic
copy called an exemplar.
2. They counted the number of times each letter of
the alphabet occurs in
each book....and if it came out wrong they threw the
scroll away.
3. They knew the middle letter of the Pentateuch and
the middle letter of
the whole Bible. After copying a scroll, they found
the middle letter and then counted forward and backwards
from it, and if it came out wrong they destroyed the
scroll and started over.
So much for the mechanics of it, let's look at some
of the things it wrote about :
The Bible mentions 40
different non-Hebrew kings of the countries that were
around the Hebrew nation. These kings
lived between 2,000 years before Christ to about 400 years
before Christ. Critics said that the Bible just made these
names up, that there were no such kings because mention of
them was found no where else outside of the Bible.
But then
as archaeologists made new discoveries it was found
that not only did the kings exist, their names are spelled
correctly and they appear in correct chronological order
to all the other kings which that country had during it's
history. BUT THE REALLY BIG SURPRISE WAS THE FACT that these
kings were listed in correct chronological order with respect
to kings of all the other countries. When it said two kings
went into battle together against three other kings, (mentioning
them all by name,) IT NEVER GOT IT WRONG. FOR THIS TO HAPPEN
BY ACCIDENT IS ONE CHANCE IN 75 WITH 22 ZEROS AFTER IT. (750
sextillion?)
The critics really thought they had found a
huge error when the Bible said that Belshazzer was king of
Babylon because
historical writings said Nebanitas was king, but after an
archeological dig they found that Nebanitas had decided to
wage a war in a distant land and made his son king while
he was gone. Guess what the son's name was? Your right, it
was Belshazzer.
AS A MATTER OF FACT THE CRITICS HAVE BEEN
FOUND WRONG IN EVERY CASE! You would be hard put to find
any near-eastern
archaeologist who now questions the accuracy of the Bible.
In
testing the historical reliability of the Scripture we should
use the same criteria by which all historical documents
are tested :
A. One of the main tests is how many
copies we have from antiquity. So let's
compare the Bible with the next most
existing number of copies of an ancient manuscript.
1.
That would be the "Iliad" by
Homer - we have 643 copies. Outside
of the Bible, this was the most read
book in antiquity. We only have 49 copies of Aristotle's
work and only 7 of Plato's.
2. So how many ancient MSS do
you thinks we have of different parts
of the Bible? WE HAVE 34,590 !!
IT CAN BE SAFELY BE
SAID THAT NO OTHER WORK OF ANTIQUITY HAS BEEN SO ACCURATELY
TRANSMITTED. NO ARCHAEOLOGICAL DIG
HAS EVER SHOWN THE BIBLE TO BE WRONG !!
The text
might be reliable but is it inspired ?
1. Remember we saw that the Bible was written over
a 1500 year period by
over 40 different authors.
A. These authors spoke on hundreds of controversial subjects
with
agreement and unity from Genesis to Revelations. In other
words they don't
contradict each other.
B. Whether it is a system of philosophy or religion a system
is prepared
by a single person. He lays down the rules and works out
the details until
we have a system. It is the work of one mind during a given
period of his
life. This has been done many times and we understand how
it's unity is
maintained and everything is properly connected.
C. The Bible is not that sort of thing at all. On the contrary.
The Old Testament was written over a period of about 1500
years by many different
authors.
It is easily seen that it would be very difficult
to maintain unity of ideas under these circumstances. AS
A MATTER OF
FACT, EXCEPT FOR THE BIBLE IT HAS NEVER BEEN DONE! Where
do you find any other such thing in the history of the earth?
This cannot be explained on natural grounds.To assume that
such a thing is the result of a human invention that held
throughout the centuries would require infinitely more faith
than to believe that God was behind the authorship of the
Bible.
2. If the Bible were inspired, we would expect the
Bible to say so itself. (While a mere claim does not prove
anything
in itself, the lack of a claim would be very damaging.)
A. All through the Bible we have such statements as "The
Word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah," Jer
13:1 or "Thus saith the Lord unto me." Jer 14:1
B. 2 Peter 1:20-21, "Above all, you must understand
that no prophecy of
Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation.
For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but
men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy
Spirit."
C. 2 Timothy 3:14-17, "But as for you, continue in
what you have learned
and have become convinced of, because you know those from
whom you learned it, 15 and how from infancy you have known
the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for
salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture
is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting
and training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God
may be thoroughly equipped for every good work."
1 Is Jesus God?
2 Can Christianity be proved?
3 Is The Bible really word of God?
4 What so special about Christianity?
5 What about all the war and suffering caused by Christians?
6 If my good deeds outweigh my bad deeds can I still reach Heaven?
7 What happens to those who’ve
never heard of Jesus?
8 If God is so good why does he allow evil to exist?
9 Truth and tolerance, what does
Christ require?