INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE

The Bible is Indestructible

INTRODUCTION

Perhaps there is no greater need within the world, the religious world, or even our own brotherhood, than to re-establish the claim of the Bible’s inspiration

This is true because so often when folks engage in religious discussion today, appeal is made to book, chapter and verse to settle the controversy, and often, the resultant attitude toward the book, chapter and verse cited is: “So what if the Bible says that. It is an ancient book which has no right to tell me what to do.”

People who make such statements are ignorant of the fact that the Bible is “God breathed” (2 Tim. 3:16-17).

In view of the modern attitude toward the Bible, we must once again dedicate ourselves to demonstrating that the Bible is beyond mere human production.

Although men were employed in the writing of Holy Scripture, these men “spake from God, being moved by the Holy Spirit” (2 Pet. 1:21)

Fortunately, God has not left us without witness concerning the proof and demonstration of the inspiration of the Bible. Numerous strands of evidence, both internal and external, are abundantly available to the student who wishes to ascertain the nature of the Book of books, the Bible.

DISCUSSION

The Indications of Its Indestructibility

The Claim of Incorruptibility

1 Peter 1:23-25

“Incorruptible” is translated from the Greek word aphtharos. This same word is employed by Paul in 1 Timothy 1:17 to describe Jesus as “immortal”

Therefore, the words of Christ are just as indestructible as Christ is Himself.

Jesus said ... Matthew 24:35

In fact … Luke 16:17

Almighty God has the power to breathe life into the Scriptures (John 6:63) and to keep them alive (Heb. 4:12).

The Word of the Lord is settled forever in heaven (Psa. 119:89).

The apostle John spoke of his love for the truth, for others who loved the truth, and expressed his confidence that the truth that abided in him and others would be with them forever (2 John 2).

Furthermore, since Jesus declared that the words which He has spoken will judge us in the last day (John 12:48), He obviously expected for the Bible to survive until judgment day!

Indeed, the Bible claims to be indestructible. However, it is one thing to claim indestructibility and quite another to demonstrate it.

It is rare for a book to survive twenty years of perennial success even if it undergoes no criticism or persecution. An even smaller percentage of books survive for a hundred years. The percentage of books which survive for 1000 years is so minuscule that only the tiniest of fractions could be used to number such books.

Yet the Old Testament is over 3500 years old while the New Testament is almost 2000 years old. It has been centuries since the Bible’s claims to indestructibility were made. Accordingly, the continued existence of the Bible today stands as a testimony to the veracity of its claims to be indestructible.

The chronology of invulnerability

Suppose that there was a man who had lived upon this earth for 1800 years. And suppose that during this 1800 years that this man had often been thrown into the sea and yet could not be drowned; that he had frequently been thrown to the wild beasts who were unable to devour him; that he had many times been forced to drink deadly poisons that never did him any harm; that he had often been bound in chains and locked in prisons and dungeons, yet he had always been able to throw off the chains and escape from his captivity; that he had repeatedly been hanged till his enemies thought him dead, yet when his body was cut down he sprang to his feet and walked away as though nothing had happened; that hundreds of times he had been burned at the stake, till there seemed to be nothing left of him, yet as soon as the fires were out he leaped up from the ashes as well and as vigorous as ever!

We would call such a man indestructible! Such a man would be superhuman!

Yet this is exactly how we should regard the Bible! This is practically the way in which the Bible has been treated. It has been burned, drowned, chained, put in prison, and torn to pieces, YET NEVER DESTROYED

Bernard Ramm wrote: A thousand times over, the death knell of the Bible has been sounded, the funeral procession formed, the inscription cut on the tombstone, and committal read. But somehow the corpse never stays put.

One of the more ancient attempts to destroy the Word of God was that of King Jehoiakim. During the fourth year of Jehoiakim’s reign as king, God instructed Jeremiah…

Jeremiah 36:2-6

This message did not prove to be a popular one - Jeremiah 36:16

Jeremiah 36:21-23 … disregard for the word of God!

Did Jehoiakim succeed in destroying the Word of God and reducing it to dust and ashes? Not in the least! Jehoiakim learned that the Word of God is incombustible. Whereas Jehoiakim was able to destroy the ink and material upon which God’s message was recorded, he was not able to destroy the message itself. The king of Babylon did come, and he did destroy the land. God’s prediction was not nullified by the blasphemous actions of Jehoiakim.

Jeremiah 36:27-28, 32

Note what Jeremiah said earlier about Jehoiakim

Jeremiah 22:18-19

Jehoiakim died in disgrace, but the Bible lives on

One of the infamous tyrants of world history was Antiochus Epiphanes, a Syrian ruler who came to prominence during the period between the Testaments

Upon becoming ruler in 175 B.C., Antiochus Epiphanes dedicated himself to severe persecution of the Jews. He accomplished such by destroying their temple, selling Jewish citizens into slavery, forcing Greek culture and religion upon them and seeking to destroy all their copies of Sacred Scripture. Sabbath observance, circumcision, and observance of all Jewish laws were forbidden under penalty of death.

Antiochus Epiphanes ordered his officials to conduct a monthly search to determine if anyone possessed a copy of the Law of Moses or had been circumcised in accordance therewith. Offenders were put to death.

Today, the name of Antiochus Epiphanes is largely a lost name in the dusty pages of ancient history books. On the other hand, the Old Testament Scriptures which he sought to destroy, live on!

One of the most egotistical enemies of the Bible and Christianity was Diocletian, emperor of Rome in the early part of the fourth century A. D.

He was Jehoiakim “gone to seed” because he took great pleasure in the burning of every copy of the Scriptures he could get his hands on.

Moreover, after a couple of years of these persecutions, he became so arrogant that he claimed to have exterminated the Christian writings from the face of the earth. He even erected a monument over the ashes of burned Bibles with the inscription: Extincto Nomine Christianoru - “Extinct is the name of Christians.” He also fashioned a medal with the engraving, “The Christian religion is destroyed and the worship of the gods restored.”

Diocletian’s boast was premature, to say the least, especially in view of the fact that just twenty years after the alleged extinction of the Sacred Writings, another emperor by the name of Constantine dedicated himself to put the N. T. in all of the churches of his empire.

In fact, Constantine offered a sizable reward to anyone who would deliver a copy of the Scriptures to him. Within twenty-five hours Constantine was offered fifty copies of the Word of God.

Therefore, it is not the Bible that has been reduced to dust and ashes, but rather it is Diocletian whose physical remains are nothing but a heap of dust and ashes! Can you imagine Diocletian’s stunned countenance if he returned to the earth today to discover that more had been written about the Bible than about any other thousand volumes combined?

What would Diocletian think of his medal and his monument today if he knew that the Bible has been translated into more languages than any other volume and that it has been sent into more regions of the earth than any other book?

It seems that a hatred for the Bible and an arrogant claim of extinguishing it often go hand in hand. E.g. the French infidel Voltaire (1694-1778), declared in 1778...

“One hundred years from my day there will not be a Bible in the earth except one that is looked upon by an antiquarian curiosity-seeker.” He bragged, “It took twelve men to start Christianity. One will destroy it.” He called Christ “the cursed wretch.”

Geisler and Nix observe that “only fifty years after his death the Geneva Bible Society used his press and house to produce stacks of Bibles.

Moreover, approximately two hundred years after Voltaire’s prediction that the Bible would be eliminated from the earth, a first edition of Voltaire’s work sold in Paris for eleven cents. On that very same day, December 24th, 1933, the British government purchased an ancient New Testament manuscript, Codex Sinaiticus, from the Soviets for half a million dollars. This ancient manuscript, dating about 350 A. D., is still on display in the British Museum and highly prized.

Thomas Paine is remembered by many students of history as an author whose writings served as a catalyst to the colonists declaring their independence.

Unfortunately, Paine took his talented pen in hand and authored The Age Of Reason, a work in which he ridiculed the Bible and its claims. Amazingly, Paine avowed a belief in God, but his words in The Age Of Reason implied otherwise, so much so that it became known as “The Atheists’ Bible.”

Like Voltaire, Paine boasted of the coming demise of the Bible, except that Paine was much bolder in his assessment of how soon the Bible would be obsolete. He said, “In five years from now there will not be a Bible in America. I have gone through the Bible with an axe and cut down all its trees.”

The fact of the matter is that within ten years of this arrogant claim, Thomas Paine was a largely forgotten man. The sunset of his life was spent in bitter isolation. In fact he is reported to have said: “I would give worlds if I had them, had The Age of Reason never been written…O Lord, help me! Christ help me!...Send even a child to stay with me, for it is hell to be alone. If ever the devil had an agent, I have been that one.”

Ironically, after Paine died, his printing press was also employed to print Bibles and Biblical materials.

Robert Ingersoll, an American agnostic, held up copy of the Bible on one occasion and arrogantly asserted “In fifteen years I will have this book in the morgue.”

Ingersoll was correct in affirming that something would be in the morgue in fifteen years, but it wasn’t the Bible. It was Robert Ingersoll. Furthermore, after his death, a man by the name of Robert Garry sat and wrote Bible lessons at the very desk at which Mr. Ingersoll had worked to try to discredit the Bible.

Another unnamed poet lauded the indestructibility of God’s Word when he wrote:

Despised and torn in pieces, by infidels decried,

The thunderbolts of hatred, the haughty cynic’s pride -

All these have railed against it in this and other lands

Yet dynasties have fallen, and still the Bible stands!

The Implications of its Indestructibility

The clearest implication of the Bible’s indestructibility is that its author must be indestructible. Moncrief’s little poem concisely expresses the thought:

The Book of God will stand secure

When sun and stars decline;

Its ageless truths will still endure

To prove its Source divine.

Melvin J. Wise gives a more extended explanation: It is an indisputable fact that what man can produce man can destroy. Why, then, if the Bible is a mere product of mortal man, have nineteen centuries of assault upon the Bible been unable to destroy it? Down through the centuries enemy after enemy has come forth to war against God’s Word. But this Holy Book has survived despite the frequent and continued attempts to destroy it. Again and again the most powerful governments in the world sought to eradicate it from the earth. Men have died on the gallows for reading it, and they have been burned at the stake for possessing it. If the Bible had been man’s book it would have gone down in defeat and would have been forgotten centuries ago.

Another implication of the indestructibility of the Bible is that God’s providence has seen the Bible through thick and thin in order that we might have it today. W. J. Russell eloquently paints a picture of how God’s providence has protected the Bible unto this very day:

“The last book of the Bible was written nearly 1,300 years before the invention of printing. And when you think how those many centuries horde after horde of heathen barbarians swept like destroying blight over the lands where the Scriptures had a home; when you think of all the great libraries of the world, those for example at Alexandria and Constantinople, and Athens and Rome, were destroyed by fire; you see that it is a wonderful thing that the Bible has come to us in its integrity. How true are the words: ‘The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, but the word of our God shall stand forever.’

…Nations have been born and have passed away since the Bible was written. New customs have come into existence and formed parts of the government of the world. Manners have changed, dynasties have crumbled, while the Bible alone, in spirit, has remained the same, fresh, true, and indestructible as its Author. Linguists have assailed its language - tested, tried, analyzed and weighed it in the balance, and yet not an iota of its truth has grown weaker, nor one ray of its light dimmer. Age has failed to affect its power. It has flourished, while its adversaries have been entombed one after another, and it never bade so fair as at present to be the Book of Truth, and the Most High has ever been its conservator and defense.”

CONCLUSION

One of the most eloquent poems describing the enduring nature of the Scriptures is attributed by some sources to Reuben Saillens, a denominational preacher from Paris, France:

Last eve I passed beside the blacksmith’s door,

And heard the anvil ring the vesper’s chime;

Then looking in I saw upon the floor

Old hammers worn with beating years of time.

“How many anvils have you had,” said I,

“To wear and batter all these hammers so?”

“Just one,” said he, and then with twinkling eye,

“The anvil wears the hammers out, you know.”

And so, I thought, the anvil of God’s Word,

For ages skeptic blows have beat upon.

Yet, though the noise of falling blows was heard,

The anvil is unharmed, the hammers gone.

Let the skeptics scream and cry against the Bible. The more they pound and the more they shout, the more they wear their hammers out!

It’s Unity and Accuracy

INTRODUCTION

The Bible is here, it therefore must somehow be explained.

Is it what it claims to be?

Is it genuine in all respects?

Is it trustworthy? Is it inspired?

The inspiration of the Bible is indeed a weighty matter, and of extreme importance.

1. If it is inspired of God, then it is supremely authoritative.

2. If it is not inspired of God, then...

Today due to skepticism and modernism, many believe that the Bible is little more than a good book, written by a few good men giving us a few good teachings.

How did the Bible get here, and how do we know that the Bible is not just another good book written by man?

The Bible claims to be the inspired word of God.

This is easy to see as we look through its pages.

There are 3,800 claims of inspiration in the Old Testament alone. Let us notice just a few claims throughout the Bible…

2 Timothy 3:16-17

2 Peter 1:20-21

1 Corinthians 2:13

Exodus 20:1; 24:4

Deuteronomy 5:22

The fact that such claims are made, would not, of course, guarantee the genuineness of the assertion.

Many books claim inspiration (e.g. The Book of Mormon; Science And Health, With Key To The Scriptures ), and these, of course, are frauds!

The question is, is there enough evidence to prove that the Bible is the inspired word of God? The answer is YES!!!

DISCUSSION

THE UNITY OF THE SCRIPTURES

The Bible exhibits a unity that - on purely human terms - is quite simply baffling. In order to appreciate that unity, one must first come to terms with how the Bible was put together

Do you think that it seems reasonably possible that 40 men, from varying backgrounds, and scattered across more than 1,000 years, could have designed some 66 metal components, which accidentally came together to form a precision machine that would revolutionize the world?

Not hardly! That would be impossible!

Yet this is precisely the kind of thing that happened in the case of the Bible

The Bible was written by some 40 different men over a period of about 1600 years.

These writers varied in culture and education

There were kings, shepherds, fisherman, tax collectors, doctors, and even a dresser of sycamore trees.

The Bible was written in three different languages

And in all of this was produced a volume of 66 books that is characterized by such an amazing unity and beautiful continuity that it could not be explained by human origin.

For example, from Genesis to Revelation there is a marvelous unfolding of the general theme of man's fall from his holy estate, God's plan for his redemption (as carefully worked out across the centuries), the atoning death of Jesus, and the ultimate victory of the Christian system.

No serious student of this matter can fail to be awed by this vast body of consistent evidence that can only argue for an inspired document.

Moreover, there are countless instances of minute agreement between the biblical writers in matters of history, culture, geography, biography, etc., for which there is absolutely no explanation save there was a divine oversight involved in the production.

The Unity of Theme - Redemption

Genesis 1-2 … Redemption Planned

Genesis 3-11 … Redemption Required

Genesis 12 - Malachi … Redemption Prepared For

Gospel Accounts - Redemption Affected

Acts - Redemption Shared

Epistles - Redemption Explained

Revelation - Redemption Realized Through Prophecy

THE ACCURACY OF THE BIBLE

If the Bible is the verbally inspired word of God, one ought to be able to expect it to be absolutely accurate in the various areas of subject matter upon which it touches.

Works that are strictly human, no matter how scholarly are characterized by unintentional mistakes.

When the Encyclopedia Britannica was first published, it contained so many mistakes regarding places in America that the publishers of the New American Cyclopedia issued a special pamphlet exposing the blunders of its rival!

In 1992 the Texas State Board of Education was looking at 10 History textbooks, and to their amazement, found that they contained 3,707 mistakes. One textbook even said that the atomic bomb was dropped on Korea!

The Bible, though, is always amazingly accurate in its historical and geographical details.

For example, at least 40 times the Bible mentions a race of people called the Hittites, and for years critics scoffed at the mention of the Hittites in the Bible because secular history and geography failed to provide documentation that they ever existed.

In 1906 the Hittite capital was uncovered in Turkey, and more than 10,000 clay tablets were uncovered and some of them tied in with patriarchs in the book of Genesis.

Everything that the Bible had said about the Hittites corresponded exactly! The Bible was not mistaken, it has been right all along!

In the book of Acts there are mentioned 32 countries, 54 cities, 9 Mediterranean islands, and 95 specific people (62 of which are not mentioned elsewhere in the New Testament)

In the 1800's Sir William Ramsey, a scholar who was a skeptic of the authenticity of the Book of Acts, set out on an archaeological expedition in Asia Minor in hopes of proving the inaccuracy of the Book of Acts.

After years of research, literally digging up the evidence, Ramsey was forced to conclude that Acts was historically accurate.

Only inspiration of God could account for such accuracy.

With every turn of the spade the Bible is proven to be accurate!

Many critics have accused Isaiah of having made a historical mistake when he wrote of Sargon as king of Assyria (Isaiah 20:1).

For years, this remained the sole historical reference - secular or biblical - to Sargon having been linked with the Assyrian nation. Thus, critics assumed Isaiah had erred.

But in 1843 there was unearthed historical evidence that established Sargon as having been exactly what Isaiah said he was - king of the Assyrians.

At Khorsabad there was discovered Sargon’s palace. Apparently, from what scholars have been able to piece together from archaeological and historical records, Sargon made his capital successively at Ashur, Calah, Nineveh, and finally at Khorsabad, where his palace was constructed in the closing years of his reign (c. 706 B.C.).

The walls of the palace were adorned quite intricately with ornate text that described the events of his reign. Today, an artifact from the palace - a forty-ton stone bull (slab) - is on display at the University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute (“weighty” evidence of Sargon’s existence).

Isaiah had been correct all along. And the critics had been wrong - all along

In Exodus 1:11, the story is told of how the Israelites were forced to build the treasure cities of Pithom and Raamses for the Egyptian ruler.

Exodus 5 records that, initially, the slaves made bricks containing straw, but later were forced to use stubble because Pharaoh ordered his taskmasters not to provide any more straw.

Excavations at Pithom in 1883 by Naville, and in 1908 by Kyle, discovered that the lower layers of the structures were made of bricks filled with good, chopped straw. The middle layers had less straw with some stubble. The upper layers contained bricks that were made of pure clay, with no straw whatsoever

In at least two places, the Old Testament speaks of the Horites (Genesis 14:6; 36:21). Until approximately 1925, no one ever had heard of the Horites.

Once again, however, archaeology revealed the factual accuracy of the Bible. About 1925, archaeological discoveries helped explain the existence of this formerly unknown nation.

Free and Vos have commented that “Horite” derives from the Egyptian Hurru, which is “...a general term the Egyptians applied to southern Transjordan...,” and that “...the Hebrews adopted it from the Egyptians” (1992, p. 66). Thus, both Egyptian and Hebrew cultures were intertwined with the Horites. Contrivance – or concordance?

Numerous passages indicate that Moses wrote the Pentateuch (2 Chronicles 34:14; Ezra 6:18; Nehemiah 13:1; Exodus 17:14; John 5:46; Mark 12:26).

Having been adopted by the royal family of Egypt, he would have had access to the finest schools, best tutors, and greatest libraries which that country had to offer, thus securing for himself an impressive education (see Acts 7:22).

Yet Bible critics suggested that Moses could not have written the Pentateuch because the art of writing was not developed until well after his death (c. 1451 B.C.).

This criticism, however, has been blunted by many archaeological discoveries. We will mention one...

The Code of Hammurabi, (c. 2000-1700 B.C.) was discovered in 1901-1902 at the ancient site of Susa in what is now Iran. The Code of Hammurabi was written several hundred years before the time of Moses (c. 1500-1400 B.C.).... This code, from the period 2000-1700 B.C., contains advanced laws similar to those in the Mosaic laws.... In view of this archaeological evidence, the destructive critic can no longer insist that the laws of Moses are too advanced for his

The Code of Hammurabi established beyond doubt that writing was known hundreds of years before Moses. In fact, the renowned Jewish historian, Josephus, confirmed that Moses authored the Pentateuch (Against Apion, 1,8), and various non-Christian writers (Hecataeus, Manetha, Lysimachus, Eupolemus, Tacitus, Juvenal, and Longinus, to name only a few), credited Moses as having authored the first five books of the English Bible (see Rawlinson, 1877, pp. 254ff.).

Joshua 6, tells how Israel conquered the walled city of Jericho.

For six day they marched once around the city. On the seventh day they went aroung it seven times. The priests blew their trumpets, the people shouted, and when they did, "The wall fell down flat" (Josuha 6:20). The people then rused straitway into the city and burned it. They took none of it to themselves. They saved Rahab who lived in a house upon the wall and who had helped them previously.

Starting in 1929, Dr. John Garstang, excavated the ruins of ancient Jericho. His discoveries corresponded remarkably with the Biblical account. Jericho, he found, had a double wall, with houses built across the two walls. This explains how Rahab's house could have been built upon a wall.

He learned that the wall was destroyed by some kind of violent convulsion such as that described in the Bible, and that when the wall feel that it fell outward, down the hillside, or as the Bible says, it fell down flat.

Had the wall been destroyed by the battering rams of an enemy army, the walls would have fallen inward instead of outward. Furthermore, the city had been burned. Once again, the spade of archaeology has established the accuracy of the Bible.

In Acts 13:7, mention is made of Sergius Paulus, the proconsul of Cyprus.

For a long time, skeptics contended that Luke should have called him proprietor instead of proconsul since this was the usual title.

However, stones and coins discovered on Cyprus, have positively established that the governors of Cyprus were proconsuls.

One such coin found at Soli on Cyprus bears the inscription, "Paulus the Proconsul", very possibly referring to the very man mentioned in Acts

CONCLUSION

The science of archaeology seems to have outdone itself in verifying the Scriptures. Famed archaeologist William F. Albright wrote: “There can be no doubt that archaeology has confirmed the substantial historicity of the Old Testament tradition”

Nelson Glueck, himself a pillar within the archaeological community, said: “It may be stated categorically that no archaeological discovery has ever contridicted a Biblical reference. Scores of archaeological findings have been made which conform in clear outline or exact detail historical statements in the Bible” Such statements, offered 30+ years ago, are as true today as the day they were made.

Jerry Moffitt observed: Over thirty names (emperors, high priests, Roman governors, princes, etc.) are mentioned in the New Testament, and all but a handful have been verified. In every way the Bible accounts have been found accurate (though vigorously challenged). In no single case does the Bible let us down in geographical accuracy. Without one mistake, the Bible lists around forty-five countries. Each is accurately placed and named. About the same number of cities are named and no one mistake can be listed. Further, about thirty-six towns are mentioned, and most have been identified. Wherever accuracy can be checked, minute detail has been found correct - every time!

SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCES

INTRODUCTION

A fact possesses the quality of being actual. Therefore, a fact is irrefutable.

Thus, the facts in a case testify to the truth of whatever the case concerns.

Furthermore, the nature of truth is that it is absolute and objective. Truth is just what a thing is - it is reality.

Hence, truth does not contradict truth any more than reality contradicts reality.

When the Bible speaks of facts pertaining to secular history, sociology, anthropology, geography, biology, zoology, and so on, harmony, and not contradiction, between the Bible and such disciplines is found.

Therefore, scientific facts do not contradict Biblical facts, and scientific truth does not contradict Biblical Truth.

This cannot be said of scientific theories. Theories are not proven. They are at best educated guesses.

Thus, in such disciplines as archaeology and oceanography, we may be sure that there is no contradiction between these disciplines of study and God’s Word.

To the contrary, the facts found in archaeology and oceanography serve to authenticate Bible facts and prove its inspiration.

DISCUSSION

SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCES

Job 26:7

This is a well-known fact today, that the earth hangs on nothing.

There are no suspending wires, no supporting beams

People in Job’s day thought ... four elephants standing on a turtle, or a strong man ....

How did Job know this? A lucky guess?

Jeremiah 33:22

Hipparchus (150 BC) - 1,026 stars ...Ptolemy (150 AD) counted 1,056 stars

The late Carl Sagan counted 25 sextillion stars (that it is 25 with 21 zeros behind!), and he said he is not even close to finish counting

How did Jeremiah know this? Did he pull out his telescope or go up in his space ship?

Just another lucky guess?

Isaiah 40:22

"Circle" = KLUG = roundness, sphere

The people in Isaiah's day and even up to the time of Columbus thought the earth was flat.

How did Isaiah know the earth was round?

Just a lucky guess?

Psalm 8:8

Matthew Fontaine Maury (1806-1873) was once confined to his bed during a lengthy illness

His son read Psalm 8 to him

Maury dedicated his life to finding these paths in the sea

He was the first to discover that there were circulating systems in the sea.

Ships today use these currents to expedite sea travel.

Just another lucky guess?

Job 38:16

It has been recently discovered that there are fresh water springs in the sea.

How did Job know this?

Job also mentions the "depth" ("recesses of the deep" - ASV) = refers to that which is hidden and known only by investigation.

Man in previous centuries thought the ocean to be a shallow extension from one continent to another

There have been found recesses in the oceans up to seven miles deep

How did Job know about these recesses?

Just a lucky guess

Genesis 2:1

"Finished" = past definite tense = indicates an action completed in the past, never to occur again.

This is exactly what the "first law of thermodynamics" states i.e. neither energy nor matter can be created or destroyed (it simply changes form).

How did Moses know this? Did he go Harvard University?

Was it just another lucky guess?

Isaiah 51:6

Isaiah informs us here that the earth is wearing down

This is exactly what the "second law of thermodynamics" states, that everything is wearing out.

This has been a very recent discovery

How did Isaiah, 1,000's of year before hand know about this? Just a lucky guess?

Leviticus 17:11-14

Life is in the blood

Blood carries oxygen that makes life possible

Hemoglobin carries the oxygen, and there are 270,000,000 molecules of hemoglobin per red blood cell

If there were any less, we couldn't live

Life is in the blood

They bled poor old George Washington to death not knowing this

How did Moses know this? Just a lucky guess?

Genesis 17:12

Commanded to circumcise on the 8th day

Vitamin K which helps clot the blood doesn't start producing until the 5th day and on the eighth day it is at its highest level

The 8th day was the first safe day for circumcision.

How did Moses know this? Did he do research in his laboratory at MD Anderson?

Was it just a lucky guess?

PROPHECY

The prophet Isaiah based the credibility of his message on the validity of predictive prophecy. To the promoters of idolatry in his day, he issued a challenge… Isaiah 41:22

Isaiah was asking this: "You, who claim to speak revelations in the name of your gods, does subsequent history verify your predictions?"

Well, what about the Bible? Does it pass the prophecy test?

Exactly what is predictive prophecy?

It is a miracle of knowledge, a declaration or presentation of something future, beyond the powers of human wisdom to discern or to calculate.

In order for prophecy to be valid, the following criteria must be present:

Proper timing (i.e. significantly preceding the fulfillment).

Specific details - not vague generalities or remote possibilities.

Exact fulfillment - not merely a high degree of probability

The prophecies of the Bible fit these standards exactly!

Prophecies concerning the rise, decline and fall of various nations.

In Deuteronomy 28:47-68 the demise of Israel is foretold as a result of her future rebellion

Deuteronomy 28:53

2 Kings 6:28-29

b. Because of Israel's rebellion Isaiah foretold:

That the Lord would raise up the Assyrians to punish... Isaiah 10:5-6

And, that Assyria would later be destroyed… Isaiah 10:24-25

History reveals that this is exactly what happened… 2 Kings 17:24 … 2 Kings 18:13

Many others could be given

Prophecies concerning people

a. In 2 Kings 18:13, we are informed that Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, came up against the fortified cities of Judah and took them

Assyrian records indicate that they took 46 cities

In recent times historians were puzzled why Sennacherib did not take Jerusalem

The Bible tells us! It was prophesied that he would not

2 Kings 19:32-33

2 Kings 19:35-36

b. It was further foretold that Sennacherib would return to his own land and there fall by the sword.

2 Kings 19:7

Some 20 years later, he was assassinated by his sons with a sword… Isaiah 37:37-38

Or what of good king Josiah? His work was foretold (and called by name) 330 years before it was fulfilled (1 Kings 13:2; 2 Kings 23:15-20)

There is also King Cyrus (he being called by name) who foretold of 150 years before his birth (Isaiah 44:28; Ezra 1)

Prophecies concerning the Messiah

There are more than 330 distinct prophecies in the Old Testament concerning Jesus, everyone relating to His earthly life, and everyone coming true.

Notice just a few examples:

Born of a virgin (Isa. 7:14)

Seed of Abraham (Gen. 12:2)

Tribe of Judah (Gen. 49:10)

Family line of David (2 Sam. 7:13-16)

Bethlehem the place of birth (Micah 5:2)

Betrayed for 30 pieces of silver (Zech. 11:12)

Hands and feet pierced (Psa. 22:16)

Raised from the dead (Psa. 16:10)

He would set up His kingdom during the time of the Roman empire (Dan. 2:44)

What is amazing is that all these prophecies were made from 5,000 to 300 years before they were fulfilled

CONCLUSION

If the Bible is the inspired word of God, and the evidence clearly shows that it is, then surely intelligent men and women will want to give their attention to it.

It is only by means of this medium that God communicates His will to humanity in this age.

Let us therefore explore the rich pages of His book and be impressed with its fascinating record of divine history and the plan of salvation that is sets forth for mankind.