Is The Bible Truly God's Word?
Context
Content
Its Eternal Presence
Its Historical Accuracy
In the late 1800s, the scholar Dr. S. R. Driver ridiculed the idea that Moses wrote what is called the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible—Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Driver claimed, “In the time that Moses was supposed to have lived on the Earth, men didn’t know how to write. So how could he have written the Pentateuch?”
So some scoffed at the Bible for a while until one day, in northern Egypt, a lady was spading her garden when she came across some clay tablets. They were called the Tel el-Amarna tablets and were tablets used for correspondence. They were written from people in Egypt to people in Palestine, or what we call today the Holy Land, centuries before Moses was born. Not only did they know how to write, but also they had a postal service that allowed them to send letters back and forth to one another.
In the book of Daniel is a story about the handwriting on the wall. King Belshazzar saw handwriting on the wall during a feast he made for a thousand of his lords and ladies. The gruesome handwriting told him he was weighed in the balances and found wanting. Do you remember the story? Well, scholars would laugh at that and say, “It’s a fabrication. That never happened because we have the records of the ancient Babylonians, and we know that Belshazzar was not the last king of Babylon. The last king of Babylon was named Nabonitus. Obviously this would appear to be just some pious fraud, some story that somebody made up.”
But one day the spade of an archeologist uncovered a cylinder, and sure enough, the name on it was Belshazzar. More records were found that showed the historians were right when they said that Nabonitus was the last king of Babylon, but they were wrong when they said that Belshazzar was not the last king of Babylon. Nabonitus and Belshazzar were father and son and had ruled together, making them both kings at the same time! Nabonitus was a big game hunter, among other things, and was often gone, leaving Belshazzar in charge. Remember what the king said to Daniel in Daniel 5:16 concerning the handwriting on the wall, “If you can read the writing and make known to me its interpretation you shall be clothed with purple and have a chain of gold around your neck, and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom.” It makes sense now that we understand there were already two kings simultaneously.
Its Prophetic Fulfillment
Its Perfect Unity
Think about this. They came from all backgrounds: some were shepherds, and some were kings; some were soldiers, and others were princes; some were fishermen; some were scholars; some were historians; some were professional men, and some were common laborers. And the Bible is written in different styles and in at least three different languages. But when you bring all that together, it makes one book that has one story beginning with Genesis and going through Revelation.
• The Bible has one theme—redemption.
• The Bible has one hero—the Lord Jesus.
• The Bible has one villain—the devil.
• The Bible has one purpose—the glory of God!
All of its parts fit together.
Dr. R. A. Torrey gave this illustration—let me paraphrase it. Suppose in your city they decided to build a monument honoring all of the fifty states in the union. Stones are gathered from each state. For example, from my home state of Florida, they get coral stone; from Georgia perhaps they would get granite; from Indiana they get limestone; from Nevada, sandstone—all of the various kinds of stones in different colors.
Then let’s suppose that these stones are cut into different shapes; some are square, some are rectangular, some are cylindrical, some have a pyramid shape, some are like a trapezoid, and some have shapes that don’t even have a name. They are cut out in the quarry, put in crates, and shipped by barge, by rail, and by air to your city.
Workmen uncrate these stones and begin to put them together, and they all interface, and they all interlock. There is not one stone too many, not one stone too few. No stone needs to be built up; no stone needs to be shaved down. And when they’re finished, it is a magnificent temple.
You are a thinking person. Would you say that happened by chance? No, any thinking person would say that it did not happen by chance. There would have to have been a master architect who, in his mind, could see that building and had sent out the specifications to the quarry. Is that not true?
You see, when we get this Book written over a period of sixteen hundred years, forty different authors, three different languages, by men from all different walks of life and bring it together, it makes one beautiful temple of God’s truth. Nothing needs to be added or taken away or embellished. There it stands—one Book! We can’t say that just happened, that it was just an accident. No! The unity of the Bible is one of the wonderful proofs of the inspiration of God’s Word—that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God.
Its Transforming Power
Billy Graham started his ministry as a young man, and often when he preached, he would say, “The Bible says, . . . the Bible says.” In 1954, he went to London to preach in the great Harringay Arena. A great crowd was there, including many news reporters. Two men who had come to see the flamboyant American evangelist were sitting up in the stands and discussing Billy Graham. One of the men was a medical doctor. They were finding fault with most everything.
Yet when Billy Graham began to preach, the Word of God began to take its toll. God says, “Is not My word . . . like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?” (Jer. 23:29). The hammer began to fall and conviction fell on that place, and that medical doctor who had been ridiculing Billy Graham said to the man sitting next to him: “I don’t know about you, but I’m going down there to give my heart to Christ.” And the man next to him said, “Yes, and I’ll go with you, and here’s your billfold, I’m a pickpocket.”
Later Graham stated, “I found in my preaching that the Word of God was like a rapier; and when I quoted it under the power of the Holy Spirit, I could slay everything before me.”