The Bibles amazing unity.
Despite being penned by more than 40
authors from over 19 different walks of life over some 1,600 years, the
Bible is a consistent revelation from the beginning to the end. Indeed
the first and last books of the Bible, Genesis and Revelation, dovetail
so perfectlytelling of Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained
respectivelythat they speak powerfully of their divine authorship.
The Bibles amazing preservation.
In spite of political and religious persecution, the Bible remains. The Roman Emperor Diocletian, following an edict in ad 303, thought he had destroyed every hated Bible. He erected a column over the ashes of a burnt Bible to celebrate his victory. Twenty-five years later, the new emperor, Constantine, commissioned the production of 50 Bibles at the expense of the government! In the eighteenth century, the noted French infidel, Voltaire, forecast that within a century there would be no Bibles left on the Earth. Ironically, 50 years after he died, the Geneva Bible Society used his old printing press and his house to produce stacks of Bibles. The Bible is today available in far more languages than any other book.
The Bibles historical accuracy.
Nelson Glueck, famous Jewish archaeologist, spoke of what he called the almost incredibly accurate historical memory of the Bible, and particularly so when it is fortified by archaeological fact.William F. Albright, widely recognized as one of the great archaeologists, stated: The excessive scepticism shown toward the Bible by important historical schools of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, certain phases of which still appear periodically, has been progressively discredited. Discovery after discovery has established the accuracy of innumerable details, and has brought increased recognition to the value of the Bible as a source of history.Sir William Ramsay, regarded as one of the greatest archaeologists ever, trained in mid-nineteenth century German historical scepticism and so did not believe that the New Testament documents were historically reliable. However, his archaeological investigations drove him to see that his scepticism was unwarranted. He had a profound change of attitude. Speaking of Luke, the writer of the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles, Ramsay said, Luke is a historian of the first rank
he should be placed along with the greatest of historians. At many specific points archaeology confirms the Bibles accuracy. There are many particulars where sceptics have questioned the Bibles accuracy, usually on the basis of there being no independent evidence, only to find that further archaeological discoveries have unearthed evidence for the biblical account.
The Bibles scientific accuracy.
Some examples: that the Earth is round (Isa. 40:22); the Earth is suspended in space without support (Job 26:7); the stars are countless(Gen. 15:5); the hydrologic cycle;sea
currents;living things reproduce after their kind; many insights into health, hygiene, diet, physiology (such as the importance of blood, e.g. Lev. 17:11); the first and second laws of thermodynamics (e.g. Isa. 51:6), and many other things.
The Bibles prophetic accuracy.
The Bible states that the accurate foretelling of events is the province of God. God said: I have foretold the former things from the beginning; and they went out of My mouth; and I made them hear; I acted suddenly; and they came about.
I declared it to you from the beginning. Before it happened I revealed it to you; lest you should say, My idol has done them, and my graven image, and my molten image, has commanded them. (Isa. 48:3, 5) One will search in vain for one line of accurate prophecy in other religious books, but the Bible contains many specific prophecies. McDowell documents 61 prophecies regarding Jesus alone. Many of these, such as His place, time, and manner of birth, betrayal, manner of death, burial, etc., were beyond His control. McDowell also thoroughly documents 12 detailed, specific prophecies regarding Tyre, Sidon, Samaria, Gaza and Ashkelon, Moab and Ammon, Petra and Edom, Thebes and Memphis, Nineveh, Babylon, Chorazin-Bethsaida-Capernaum, Jerusalem and Palestine. He shows how these prophecies were not post-dictions. The probability of all these things coming to pass by chance is effectively zero. Only the wilfully ignorant (2 Peter 3:5) could deny this evidence that God must have inspired these prophecies.
The Bibles civilizing influence.
The Bibles message elevated the blood-drinking barbarians of the British Isles to decency. It is the basis of English common law, the American Bill of Rights and the constitutions of great democracies such as the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The Bible has inspired the noblest of literaturefrom Shakespeare, Milton, Pope, Scott, Coleridge and Kipling, to name a fewand the art of such as Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael and Rembrandt. The Bible has inspired the exquisite music of Bach, Handel, Haydn, Mendelssohn and Brahms. Indeed, the decline in acceptance of the biblical world-view in the West has been paralleled by a decline in the beauty of art. Today the message of the Bible still transforms. Animistic tribal groups in the Philippines are today still being delivered from fear, and former cannibals in Papua New Guinea and Fiji now live in peace, all because of the Gospel.
