Part 1: Evidences
The Bible has been revered over the centuries as the Word of God. It has also been criticized as being nothing more than good literature. Some say that although it is truly the Word of God it is not God’s complete revelation to mankind.
The Holy authenticity and completeness of the Bible are evidenced in many remarkable ways. Its story unfolds without contradiction. Its history and science are free of error.
The Bible is not a science book, but what it teaches about our physical world is accurate. What it tells us is very different from the teachings of the ancient scientists and wise men of long ago. Modern science has since proven the truth of the Bible’s scientific teachings. The writers of the Bible could only have known these truths by revelation from God.
Some ancient kings and cities are named in the scriptures. Not long ago, archeologists laughed at the Bible because known history had told of none of these. Later findings, however, showed the truth of Biblical accounts.
The verses and the books of the Bible give a continuing, unwinding story from the days of creation until the writings of the last apostle. There are no disagreements between any two of the Bible’s verses. This is so despite their having been many different writers often widely separated by centuries and miles.
The Old Testament is history. It tells of the law that God gave to the Jewish people. It also unfolds the promise of the coming savior and His new law for all humankind. The New Testament is based on the teachings of Jesus and, later, those of His inspired apostles. This provides the rules whereby Jesus’ followers can achieve salvation and how His church is to worship, work and be organized. It proclaims itself to be inspired of God through the Holy Spirit. It tells that it is final and must never be changed or added to.
There are thousands of fragments from many ancient texts of the original Biblical writings and they verify that we have the entire, accurate text. Studies confirming the accuracy of these restored documents have been and are thorough. This has required vast, careful scholarship and research over hundreds of years. These studies show that the Bible we have today is comparable to the manuscripts and letters used by the ancients. Jesus said in Luke, Chapter 21, Verse 33, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.” We can conclude that divine providence has preserved the Holy Bible for our use today.
In
Second Timothy, Chapter 3, Verse 16 we read:
All
Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and
training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for
every good work.
The New Testament contains many admonitions that no one is to add to or take away from the Word of God. As the scripture, above, tells us the man of God is thoroughly equipped by this knowledge. If the Word lacked anything and needed additions, it could never have thoroughly equipped anybody until all of the revelations were complete. But, Christians were thoroughly equipped at the time Paul wrote this letter to Timothy.
Thus we conclude that the Bible is a valid, historical document. It is the complete and final Word of God.