Search here for:
On the Bible as Divine and Truthful Revelation
The little girl who asked me the question was probably only about eight years old. It was a Sunday morning. I was at the door of my study when she just walked up and said: "Pastor Daryl, how do you know that the Bible is true?"
Her question is certainly among the most basic of all questions about the Christian faith. As a matter of fact, if such a question can be satisfactorily answered, most of the ten thousand other questions waiting in line behind it can just turn around and go home.
It's trueÑalmost every other critical question about life is already very sufficiently answered if the Bible, in fact, really is true communication from the great Creator of life. If we can be certain that the Bible is an accurate revelation from God, the search is automatically over when it comes to further questions about man's purpose, ultimate destiny, or standard of morality, etc.
So, question of questions: is the BibleÑthis Book of 66 books, Old and New TestamentsÑreally, truly, a uniquely inspired word of special revelation from the Almighty God and Creator of the Universe, directed in good faith to the inhabitants of this planet?
Now of course we must realize that a 'yes' answer here will necessarily imply that it is then the Christian Scriptures that exclusively reveal truth. But how do we know that truth is not also (or else) to be found in the Koran, or in the Tripitaka, or in the Bhagavad-Gita, or in the Book of Mormon, or in the Humanist Manifesto?
Let us work very hard to be objective here. If a given individual had never been raised in any particular faith tradition, what then, after a careful study, would that individual choose to believe? If a totally unbiased being were to land on Earth from somewhere beyond our solar system, and if such a being was to look at all the facts, study all the options, and consider all the religious alternativesÑwhich way would he go? Who would get his vote, and why?
We must begin by immediately concluding that we are unable, on the basis of traditional empirical scientific methodology alone, or on the basis of reason alone, to establish the scriptures of any particular system of faith as being from God, be it Islam, Buddhism, Humanism, Christianity, or any other. By reason alone no scripture is ever finally established as exclusively representative of truth. But here is the pointÑviewed dispassionately, there is overwhelmingly more and better evidence for the Bible being of Divine origin than there is for that of any other scripture of any other faith in the history of the world.
This evidence includes:
1) archaeological discovery.
2) the astonishing unity of the Biblical message (in light of the fact that the Christian Scripture was written by over 35 men living on three continents over a span of more than 1500 years).
3) the survival and the circulation of the Biblical manuscripts.
4) and the reliability of the documents (by all accepted standards of reliability).
But by far the most powerful evidence that the Christian Bible is the unique and truthful revelation of God Himself is the amazing record of its fulfilled prophecy. Over 2000 specific, precise, highly definitive prophecies in the Bible (many made four or five centuries previous to their actual realization) have been fulfilled in the most minute detail. In the Old Testament alone there exist over 300 references to the coming Messiah, His ministry, and His suffering. An example: read and compare Psalm 22:18, written by David in 1012 B.C., to Matthew 27:35, written in 33 A.D. The odds of even 48 such prophecies being fulfilled in one person are one in ten to the 157th power.
No other sacred writing of any individual or religious system in history has ever even attempted to make, let alone claim the fulfillment of, such far-ranging prophecies as does the Bible.