Can The Bible Be Proven?

Last updated on: September 29, 2016 at 11:11 am by Jack Wellman

Can The Bible Be Proven? 2016-09-29T11:11:01-05:00 Jack Wellman

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Can the Bible be proven as true?

The Spirit’s Help

The first thing that should be mentioned is that Scripture cannot be understood without the Holy Spirit’s intervention. Even the nature of our sinful state, the identity of Who Jesus Christ is, and the desire to repent and trust in Christ is all a work of the Spirit of God. The Apostle Paul wrote that “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned” (1st Cor 2:14). That’s why “the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1st Cor 1:18), and why we need “the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you” (John 14:17), so “in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe” (1st Cor 1:21).

Every Word is True

The Bible says “God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it” (Num 23:19) because it is “by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie” (Heb 6:18). The Apostle Paul adds “Let God be true though every one were a liar, as it is written, “That you may be justified in your words, and prevail when you are judged” (Rom 3:4), and “the word of the LORD is upright, and all his work is done in faithfulness” (Psalm 33:4). After the Prophet Daniel revealed Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, the king said “Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, for all his works are right and his ways are just; and those who walk in pride he is able to humble” (Dan 4:37). Only God could have revealed this dream to Nebuchadnezzar and then revealed its meaning to Daniel, so for King Nebuchadnezzar, that was all the proof he needed to know that God’s Word stands true.

Fulfilled Prophecy

There are at least 700 prophecies about Jesus that are spread throughout the Bible that have come to pass, and most of these were written about Him several hundred years before He was even born of a virgin. The Apostle Peter wrote that “we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts” (2nd Pet 1:19), and “Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories” (1st Pet 1:10-11). Even Jesus betrayal was foretold in the Old Testament and in the New Testament as Jesus Himself said, “The Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born” (Matt 26:24). Jesus reminded His disciples of His betrayal, “Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory” (Luke 24:26)? Yes it was. A simple reading of Isaiah 53 shows that this was part of God’s sovereign plan from before the beginning of time and what was told to come to pass by God, must come to pass (and indeed, has).

Thus Says the Lord

The phrase “Thus says the Lord” appears 418 times, so if it were of human origin, we would have read somewhere in the Bible that message originated from a certain author or from man, but we never see that anywhere in the Bible because “no prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Pet 1:21). Peter writes, “you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation” (2 Pet 1:20). When others criticize the Bible as being written by men, then I would ask, “What did they not learn that did not from man?” The difference is these men were agents used by God’s Spirit Who moved them to record the words that God wanted them to write down. It’s like my computer and keyboard was the means used to write this article, but no one would say that this article was only written by a computer.

Manuscript Evidence

There are about 6,000 complete or fragmented Greek manuscripts of the New Testament and 10,000 Latin manuscripts with over 9,000 manuscripts in various other ancient languages that all agree contextually, and by authors of who most had never met. The dating of Matthew’s Gospel goes as far back as A.D. 60 and scholars agreed that Mark wrote the first Gospel, which places the composition of Mark to within 20 years of the events that took place and were recorded in his Gospel, so the fact is the gospels were written within the lifetimes of those who were eyewitnesses, and is convincing evidence that it’s valid. Today we know that the Old and New Testament manuscripts have been preserved by the thousands, and in history, there are no other ancient works of antiquity that are comparable. And, there are dozens of ancient historians who wrote about the severe forms of Christian persecution that are also recorded in the New Testament which occurred in the first century, having taken place in Rome, Antioch, and Judea (present day Israel and Lebanon) among others locations. These ancient historians included such men as Publius Cornelius Tacitus, Josephus, Tertullian, Julius Africanus, Rome’s Suetonius (A.D. 110), and the Roman governor Pliny Secundus (A.D. 100-110) and all of these men wrote these historical accounts before A.D. 250 and make direct references to Jesus, which affirms the historicity of New Testament about His life and death.

Conclusion

It’s not my responsibility to convince anyone that the Bible is true because these things are revealed by God Himself through the Holy Spirit and cannot be ascertained by simple empirical knowledge alone. It takes the Spirit of God to open the Word of God and reveal the Living Word of God, Jesus Christ. It’s not of human effort but by the Spirit of God, just as Jesus told Peter after his profession that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God; “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven” (Matt 16:17). Jesus adds that “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day” (John 6:44), which means I can’t reveal the things of God to you but only God can. That’s the work of the Holy Spirit, but God will not extend the knowledge of His grace until a person humbles themselves before Him (James 4:6).

Article by Jack Wellman

Jack Wellman is Pastor of the Mulvane Brethren Church in Mulvane Kansas. Jack is also the Senior Writer at What Christians Want To Know whose mission is to equip, encourage, and energize Christians and to address questions about the believer’s daily walk with God and the Bible. You can follow Jack on Google Plus or check out his book Teaching Children the Gospel available on Amazon.

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