1/15/22 Trustworthy in Christ

Can I Trust the Bible

Can I Trust the Bible

Calvin / General

God Questions

Prophesy

One subject that separates the Bible from any other book is prophecy. The prophecies are precise. Many times they’re hundreds, even thousands of years in advance. And they are fulfilled to the smallest detail!

1.Not weird but proven.

A prophecy in Ezekiel 26:1-6 reads,

Ezekiel 26:1In the eleventh month of the twelfth year, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, because Tyre has said of Jerusalem, ‘Aha! The gate to the nations is broken, and its doors have swung open to me; now that she lies in ruins I will prosper,’ 3 therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am against you, Tyre, and I will bring many nations against you, like the sea casting up its waves. 4 They will destroy the walls of Tyre and pull down her towers; I will scrape away her rubble and make her a bare rock. 5 Out in the sea she will become a place to spread fishnets, for I have spoken, declares the Sovereign Lord. She will become plunder for the nations, 6 and her settlements on the mainland will be ravaged by the sword. Then they will know that I am the Lord.

Three years later, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon surrounded Tyrus. But before he came, the people of Tyre escaped to an island, a half-mile offshore. After thirteen years of siege, the Babylonians "broke down her walls" and "broke down her towers", destroying the city on the mainland. By that time, the escaped people had re-built the city of Tyre on the island. And because Nebuchadnezzar had no navy, the city on the island remained untouched. Even though Nebuchadnezzar, destroyed the city, he didn’t fulfill Ezekiel’s prophecy. But 250 years later, Alexander the Great took the rubble Nebuchadnezzar’s destruction left, and they "scraped her dust", the wood, rock and stubble from the destroyed city, and they built a causeway, like "the top of a rock". They marched on the rubble-causeway, into the island and destroyed it. And if you travel to site of old Tyre today - you’ll see fisherman "spreading their nets" to dry on what was Tyre! Exactly, as Ezekiel prophesied around 586 B.C.! Over 2500 years before it happened!

One more example: Babylon which destroyed Tyre in the first place. Babylon--60 miles south of Baghdad, Iraq. It was largest and most powerful nation on earth at one time. Bible said it too would be destroyed. Not only destroyed, but become a pile of rubble and "never be inhabited" (Isa 13:20)

Isiah 13:20 She will never be inhabited

or lived in through all generations;

there no nomads will pitch their tents,

there no shepherds will rest their flocks.

This is specific. Lots of cities destroyed and built up again. WWII, London rebuilt. German cities like Munich, Frankfurt, Cologne, and Berlin became rubble by allied bombs, rebuilt. Jerusalem destroyed twice. Visit it today. Hiroshima and Nagasaki rebuilt after Atomic Bomb. Say Babylon never be inhabited. Never means never. Babylon destroyed in 539 B.C and is simply a pile of rubble. If every skeptic gave $1 surely they could rebuild Babylon and prove Bible wrong. 2500 years to do it. But God said never. Bible says when Babylon is destroyed it will stay that way forever.

There were over 300 prophecies fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ. Genesis predicted a Savior to earth. Revelation predicts He is coming again. The Bible predicted Jesus thousands of years before he was born!

2.Precise, detailed prophecies

Where He would be born (Micah 5:2),

Micah5:2 “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,

though you are small among the clans of Judah,

out of you will come for me

one who will be ruler over Israel,

whose origins are from of old,

from ancient times.”

The New International Version. (2011). (Mic 5:2). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

How He would be born, (Isaiah 7:14)

Isaiah 7:14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin h will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel

The New International Version. (2011). (Is 7:14). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

Also how He would die (Psalm 34:20), that he’d be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver (Ps 55:12,13; Zech 11:12,13), his side would be pierced, but he wouldn’t have broken bones (Ps 22, 34), soldiers would gamble for his coat (Ps 22:18) and Resurrected (Ps 16:10). IF so many of these prophecies about his first coming fulfilled, we can trust it when it says that Jesus is coming again for those who are living for him.

Most Convincing: In summer of 1947 a young Arabian boy, Juma, lost track of one of the goats he was supposed to be watching. Region was Qumran, in Middle East. Lowest point on earth. Hillsides overlooking dead sea. When one of his goats wandered into a cave, the boy chased it. Lost...Hillside overlooking the dead sea, there are thousands of little caves. He threw a rock into the cave opening hoping to scare the goat out...heard crash--sound of pottery breaking. Ran home told his dad that there were ghosts in the cave. Father said, "No, no. not ghosts." Maybe there’s treasure in the pottery. Maybe silver or gold. Next day, they went and checked out what happened. Looked inside one of the caves and found old worn out jars, and broken pottery. Inside were old scrolls with leather backing. Took scrolls, sold to trader, who was going to sell to them to a shoe cobbler. Since the scrolls had a leather backing, the shoe cobbler was going to rip them up and make shoes out of them. Good thing didn’t happen. Eventually some Israeli scholars secured them, They looked in caves, found over 20 caves full of scrolls. the Dead Sea scrolls--the oldest manuscripts of the Old Testament ever found...written over 100 years before Jesus was born. 1000 years earlier than any of the other manuscripts available. Every book in whole or fragments of the Old Testament, except Esther. Some fragments. Isaiah scroll best from verse 1 to end. These scrolls would answer the question...is our bible today different than these older records. What’s been changed? Conclusion---nothing.

Listen to the report as described by an archeology magazine (Biblical Archeology Review). "An inscription has been found on an ancient bone box, called an ossuary, that reads “James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus...The Aramaic words etched on the box’s side show a cursive form of writing used only from about 10 to 70 A.D., according to noted paleographer André Lemaire of the École Pratique des Hautes Études (popularly known as the Sorbonne University) in Paris, who verified the inscription’s authenticity. The ossuary has been dated to approximately 63 A.D.In the first century A.D., Jews followed the custom of transferring the bones of their deceased from burial caves to ossuaries. The practice was largely abandoned after the destruction of the Jewish Temple in 70 A.D. No one knows for certain why the practice started or stopped, but it provides a rare period of self-documentation in which commoners as well as leaders left their names carved in stone.

Also very interesting is the finding that...Laboratory tests performed by the Geological Survey of Israel confirm that the box’s limestone comes from the Jerusalem area. The patina--a thin sheen or covering that forms on stone and other materials over time--has the cauliflower-type shape known to develop in a cave environment; more importantly, it shows no trace of modern elements."

In other words... this ancient ossuary is authentic, from the first century, and is written about the time of Jesus. Even the stone particles verify it’s authenticity.

3. 40 different authors – Kings, herdsmen, soldiers, fishermen, statesmen, priests, prophets, a tent maker and a Gentile physician.

Written in 3 languages: Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic.

4. All for salvation and good works

2 Timothy 3:14–17 14 But you should continue following the teachings you learned. You know they are true, because you trust those who taught you. 15 Since you were a child you have known the Holy Scriptures which are able to make you wise. And that wisdom leads to salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for showing people what is wrong in their lives, for correcting faults, and for teaching how to live right. 17 Using the Scriptures, the person who serves God will be capable, having all that is needed to do every good work