The veracity of the Bible

[Alison]

I posted this elswhere and thought I'd post it here too.

HOW DO WE KNOW THAT THE BIBLE IS TRUE?

[*]It's one of the few books that makes the claim to be the Word of God. The phrases, "Thus says the Lord," or "the Word of the Lord" are used hundreds of times. It claims to be the uniquely inspired communication from our Creator to us: All Scripture is inspired by God (2 Timothy 3:16). [*]The amazing unity of the Bible: it is unique. It was written by forty authors from different backgrounds over 1500 years and yet reads like it was written by one author. [*] People have heard that the text of the Bible has been corrupted over the centuries, but the Hebrew Scriptures have been meticulously transmitted, as the Dead Sea Scrolls demonstrate. Thousands of New Testament documents, some of them written very early, in the First and Second Centuries, show that the text of the Bible has not been corrupted, but have been faithfully transmitted. [*]Recent discoveries demonstrate that the Scriptures are accurate historically. Great archeologists believe that the Bible is historically accurate. William Albright, who was the world's foremost biblical archeologist, writes: "We can already say emphatically that there is no longer any solid basis for dating any book of the New Testament after about 80 A.D." (From More Than A Carpenter, pages 42-43). William Ramsay is regarded as one of the greatest archeologists ever to have lived. Although initially skeptical about the accuracy of the Book of Acts, after some research he became aware of the meticulous accuracy of its historical details, and his attitude changed. He concluded that 'Luke is a historian of the first rank... this author should be placed along with the very greatest of historians'" (From More Than A Carpenter, pages 43-44). [*]The Bible reflects accurate scientific knowledge of the universe. "Some examples: the Earth is round (Isaiah 40:22); the Earth is suspended in space without support (Job 26:7); the stars are countless (Genesis 15:15); the water cycle, sea currents (Psalm 8:8); living things reproduce after their kind; many insights into health, hygiene, diet, physiology (such as the importance of blood, e.g., Leviticus 17:11, the eighth day after birth being high in blood coagulant); the first and second laws of thermodynamics (Isaiah 51:6)." From page 18 of The Revised and Expanded Answers Book, edited by Don Batten, Master Books, 1990. [*]The Bible describes reality better than any other philosophy or religion or worldview: It tells us why the universe has laws, design, order, complexity, simplicity, elegance, and beauty: because there is a Great Designer. It tells us why there is beauty, love, wisdom, justice, truth and personality: these are not the results of chance processes, and random activity, but they come from God who has these attributes. It tells us why there is evil, suffering, death, injustice in the world: it's due to mankinds sin and resultant alienation from God. It tells us that life is ultimately meaningful, full of purpose and eternal significance. Our lives are not the result of the chance coalition of impersonal atoms that ultimately mean nothing. But, someone observed that if a person believes that the universe comes from a Big Bang, which took place some 20 billion years ago, and that we are the result of billions of years of time and chance; that we evolved from an amino acid primordial soup, then we amazingly grew into a simple cell which learned how to reproduce itself; then we developed into a bacteria, or a one-celled animal, then a slug or a fish, then an amphibian, then a lizard, then a small mammal-like rodent, then we further evolved into monkeys and ape-like men, and then finally into Homo-sapiens (which means "wise man" - which is an ironic name for anyone who believes you can go "from goo to you by means of the zoo!"); if a person believes that this universe will continue for billions of years, and then experience either a gradual heat death, ultimate entropy, so that there is no activity, or that the universe will start contracting, and all the galaxies will begin to reverse themselves, and everything will return to its beginning point - one singularity, where perhaps it will form another Big-Bang; if a person believes he is ultimately nothing more than glorified slime mold, an advanced sea slug, a meaningless bit of temporary matter, and that when we die we die, because there is no after-life, no God, and therefore no moral or spiritual absolutes, no

[John81]

Thank you! :)

[ltl]

AMEN. May I add further points.

- The Bible is the only religious text that has gone under frequent attack throughout the whole world. The non-Christian religious hate it, as it offends them by saying that Jesus is the only way to Heaven. The seculars hate it, because it tells them the Law and the will of God, that He hates evil - and exposes their sin. Even many of those within professing Christianity itself hate it, because it restrains them from fulfilling their sinful lusts and following their wicked pleasures.

- The Biblical God is the only supernatural being whose name is being cursed by both the heathen and professing Christians alike. You'll never hear the names of the gods of this world being used as a swear word. But you'll hear God's name - all three persons of His Trinity - being cussed and used as an exclamation by so many alike.

- Do you notice that it is in particular the NEW TESTAMENT that has undergone the most criticism? As you look at the MVs, you will notice that at least two thirds of the perversions happen in the NEW TESTAMENT.

All these point out the fact that Satan is trying to distort the True Word of God, turning Man's eyes away from the Saviour, and to idols instead. May we hold fast to the Scriptures that has held our faith firm for the past centuries. (I am talking about our Baptist forefathers from the times of the Waldernesians) SOLA SCRIPTURA!

[IM4given]

:goodpost: Amen and Amen! This thread keeps getting better and better!