The authenticity of Scripture is one of the three pillars of faith: God, the Bible, and Christ. If any of these fail, the entire Christian system falls. We are living in a growing culture of skepticism and unbelief. Believers in Scripture no longer represent the vast majority; at best, it is 50-50. If we are going to change these numbers, we need to go on the offense. An offensive Christian is an evangelistic Christian. The purpose of this article is not to defend the truth but to train the saved to teach the lost. Several years ago, we published an evangelistic tool titled, Believe the Bible. This three-booklet series is fashioned after Back to the Bible. The question format is designed to take one from unbelief to faith in God, His Word, and His Son. Lesson B is titled, Bible Inspiration.
Because the Bible claims God as its author, it is unique in all the world, regardless of your belief in its teachings. Observe that people are not investigating the writings of Shakespeare and Poe for divine authorship for an obvious reason—they do not claim God as the author! The Bible makes this claim clear and complete from Genesis to Revelation. There should not be any resistance to this affirmation as you provide several examples from the text. Here are a few excerpts from the study:
Genesis 6:15
Noah was instructed to build the ark using the length of ______, the breadth of it ______, and the height of it ________.
*The ratio he used to build the ark is 30:5:3. This is the perfect ratio for building a large vessel for seaworthiness and not for speed. The US Navy used this ratio in WW2 to build the U.S.S. Jeremiah O’Brien to carry cargo!
Job 38:24
The Lord told Job that light could be ________, which scatters the east wind upon the earth.
*When a narrow beam of sunlight passes through a prism, it is divided into a spectrum. This was supposedly not discovered until the time of Sir Isaac Newton.
Genesis 17:12
God told Abraham to circumcise male children on day _________.
*On day 8, a male has the greatest blood clotting ability in all of life. It is the perfect day to perform surgery.
Deuteronomy 23:12-14
Did the Bible command Israel to bury their human waste?
*The Black Plague was a result from improper disposal of human waste; 13 million people died.
Leviticus 11:3, 29-31
God forbids eating reptiles. Name a few reptiles that are specified as unclean. _________________________________________________________________.
God states these reptiles are unclean and forbids touching them even when they are _________.
*As high as 90 percent of reptiles are carriers of Salmonella bacteria.
Although these are greatly abbreviated due to space, they are sufficient to demonstrate a supernatural influence. There are only two choices: 1) The Bible is lucky when it makes these accurate pre-scientific statements, or 2) The Bible is inspired. The conclusion will be obvious. Since most of us are not scientists, notes are included below some questions to provide you with the information needed to find the correct answer.
Perhaps no internal evidence is more powerful than prophecy. There are two important points you will need to make for this section to reach its full impact. First, emphasize the notes below each question. The time frame between the prophecy and fulfillment make educated guesses as an explanation impossible. Second, emphasize the mere volume of these prophecies. We are not talking about a few lucky guesses but rather hundreds and hundreds of divine statements. The premise of all prophecy is Jeremiah 29:8. If it does not come to pass, then the Bible is not inspired. I doubt any other book is willing to withstand the scrutiny of such a difficult test! Once again, the reader is left with two choices: lucky guesses or divine knowledge. Here are a few excerpts from the study:
Zechariah 11:12
How many pieces of silver did the prophet Zechariah foretell would be used for hire?
Matthew 26:14-15
How many pieces of silver did they promise Judas to betray Jesus?
Zechariah 11:13
The prophet said the 30 pieces of silver would be cast unto the ___________.
Matthew 27:6-10
What did the chief priests purchase with the 30 pieces of silver?
*There are over 500 years between Zechariah’s prophecy and Matthew’s record.
Isaiah 50:6
What would they do to His face, according to the prophet Isaiah?
Matthew 26:67
What did they do to the face of Jesus?
*There are over 700 years between Isaiah’s prophecy and the record of Matthew.
As the evidence builds, we transition from the internal to the external. The Bible is not only a book of science and medicine but also a book of history, geography, and archeology. Unlike fairy tales and writings of fiction, the Bible accurately describes real nations, people, places, and events with precise detail. Here are some examples:
Archeology
Exodus 23:28
God was going to help Israel drive out the Hivite, Canaanite, and the _________ nations.
*Outside of the Bible, there was no evidence of the Hittite nation and some claimed this was a Biblical error. In 1906 Hugh Wincker discovered the Hittite capital and more than 10,000 clay tablets from its library.
Daniel 7:1
In the first year of _________________ king of Babylon Daniel had a dream and visions of his head upon his bed.
*Outside of the Bible, there was no record found of this this Babylonian king until 1876. Sir Henry Rawlinson discovered more than 2,000 tablets concerning Babylon that confirmed Belshazzar became king.
Luke 3:1
Pontius Pilate was the ___________ of Judah during the reign of Tiberius Caesar.
*There was no evidence this famous Bible character ever existed until 1961 when a stone tablet was found with this inscription: “Pontius Pileate, Prefect of Judah.”
Ethics
Matthew 5:44
Jesus said we should not hate those who are our enemies; in contrast, we should __________ our enemies.
Romans 12:20
Paul said if your enemy is hungry, _________ him; if he thirst, give him ____________.
Luke 6:28
Jesus said, “____________ them that curse you, and _________ for them which despitefully use you.”
The study ends by appealing to common sense. If men had wanted to write the Bible, they could not have written it, and if they could have written the Bible, they would not. It contains an ethical code found nowhere else in societal code. If men wrote the Bible, what society can explain its high ethical and moral code? Who would have written a book that defies natural human responses? There is only one logical explanation to the origin of the Bible, and any open-minded, honest prospect will be forced to agree that the Bible contains characteristics of divine origin, and that God is the only logical explanation.