God's Word - Fact, Fiction or Foolishness?
| 03 June 2008
The Bible. God’s Word?
In a radio discussion several years ago, [where I was a guest] a dear brother who has been a part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, shared a frightening trend, that the Word of God no longer holds the position of Supreme authority over faith and Doctrine in our Christian lives, and in particular among our Christian leaders - our pastors. That discussion brought to light a serious issue in modern, American, Church culture. The Bible is no longer widely accepted as the infallible, inerrant and inspired Word of God. We are not here to discuss the veracity of translation or transcriptional matters (process of recording and repeating the manuscripts from generation to generation) but rather to ask a simple question, Is the Bible God’s Word?
In light of the conversation with our Lutheran brother (who was clearly disturbed that the catechism of Lutheran teaching was rapidly moving away from the infallible, inerrant, and inspired position) maybe it is finally time to discard the Bible as an antiquated book that is out of touch with the lifestyles and sophistication of the modern world. Is it time to rid ourselves of this relic? This left-over from an “unenlightened era”? This bigoted, narrow and hateful declaration of a maniacal and overtly masculine God-figure? The critics (who are often self-deluded) cry, “YES!” A culture that has found a re-emerging fondness for what is pagan and narcissistic says definitively, “YES!” So-called theologians and church leaders are all to often among those declaring, “out with the old…” Unfortunately, Many Christians seem to be saying yes, if by nothing other than their own unwillingness to submit to its teachings.
When we consider the Bible, we who claim to be followers of Christ must be willing to be intellectually honest. Is the Bible God’s Word? Does the Bible Contain God’s Word? Is the Bible Fact? Is it Fiction? Is it Mere foolishness? How a person answers these questions often exposes the role that God and Faith play in their lives and their willingness to submit their own lives to a Divine Authority.
One thing is certain; the attacks on the veracity of the Bible are a dime-a-dozen. Our goal in this series of articles is to briefly examine some of the leading questions about the Bible. Too many Christians are unwilling to dialogue with the skeptic. We brashly state our view, but cannot engage in an honest discussion that seeks to answer the critics questions. I am convinced that Christians need to be bold, but also honest and willing to answer the hard questions. Not every follower of Christ will have all the answers, but collectively, we must bring the Authority of God’s Word back to a place of pre-eminence in cultural and spiritual discussion. Instead of merely wishing people would accept the Bible, we must take the Bible to them. We must take the Bible into the discussion about life, relationship, spirituality, authority, culture, law, nature among many other areas of discussion. If you are not willing to discuss the veracity of the Bible and its claims, you may be doing nothing more than fooling yourself. The Bible must ultimately be accepted by faith, but God never dismisses the critic who is truly seeking and neither should the follower of Jesus. We must be patient, willing to teach so that some might come to repentance.
One question I often hear asked is , “how can a person be certain that the Bible is truly God’s Word?” To those who trust that God has spoken through its pages, this question seems to be heresy. No, it is not heresy, it is a legitimate question that should find a careful response from the Christian community. If I am to be truly honest with the skeptic, I must be willing to explore and answer this question along side of them instead of simply dismissing it as irrelevant or unimportant. We can be certain that the Bible is God’s Word from both internal and external evidence. The remainder of this article will briefly explore some internal evidences that the Bible is God’s Word.
We can read in the Bible itself such passages as 2 Timothy 3:16-17
All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
This passage makes no equivocation about the source of the Words contained in the Bible. The Apostle Paul uses a specific word here, (transliterated) theopneustos. Theopneustos is a combination of two greek words; theo meaning God and pneustos meaning breathed. The Bible, then, declares itself to be “breathed by God.” We use the term inspired to define the process of God establishing His Word in written form. Though the critic will certainly not accept all internal claims, they should not be so readily dismissed from discussion. After all, we claim to believe the Bible is God’s Word. When a Christian chooses to cite and use internal evidence, we are being consistent with our faith and world-view regarding the Author and authority of the Bible. Far too many Christians blow-off the internal evidence when answering the critics questions. This is a serious mistake, since God has declared, “My Word will not return void…” As we stated in our opening article, what is often missing is FAITH. Simple Trust. The Bible does not open with a treatise on its own veracity, but immediately points the reader to GOD… (”in the beginning, God created…”) As the internal evidence mounts, we see a consistent pattern emerging. The Book states to us, “I am the Word of God?" thus the author’s identity, intent and integrity become factors of discussion. If we dismiss internal evidence, then we approach the topic in a purely scientfic manner which destroys the powerof faith in sharing truth. We begin to seek “signs” rather than simply express a standard of belief based on internal evidence of the Bible.
The Bible itself declares:
because no prophecy ever came by the will of man; instead, moved by the Holy Spirit, men spoke from God. (2 Peter Chapter 2, verse 21)
We see in this passage, that there were human agents who were moved by the Holy Spirit to record thoughts and declarations of God almighty. This includes the historical, poetical, prophetical and practical portions of Scripture.
Jesus, as recorded in the Bible states to Satan during the temptation:
Then the tempter approached Him and said, “If You are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” But He answered, “It is written: Man must not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God (Matthew Chapter 4, verses 3-4)
Another internal evidence that should be considered is the consistent foretelling and recorded fulfillment of prophetic declaration. If we consider prophecies about the Messiah that are particularly fulfilled by Jesus we find over 300 such in the Old Testament. The prophecies of the Bible are often so specific, that critics claim they “must have been written after the fact.” Yet when examine the prophecies in the Old Testament book of Isaiah alone, written 800 years prior to Christ’s coming, we find that each and every one that is related to the earthly ministry of Jesus is absolutely fulfilled in the minutest detail.
Here are links to some excellent charts and resources that give detailed internal evidence that the Old Testament Prophecies were indeed fulfilled by Jesus Christ.
Jews For Jesus: http://www.jewsforjesus.org/answers/prophecy/evidence
Messianic Prophecy Bible Project:http://www.messianicbible.com/prophecies.asp
Life of Christ (Ken Palmer): http://www.lifeofchrist.com/life/prophecy/
Many other prophecies claimed by some well-known prophets seem to be just as accurate, however, upon closer inspection we often find that there are inaccurate details, or stretched or altered statements. With the Bible, we have over 2000 years of manuscript evidence that not only suggests, but infallibly proves that the prophecies of the Old Testament are not only very accurate, but so precise that they are indisputable.
One such prophecy is that which pronounced the obliteration of the city of Tyre, Hank Hanagraph states:
Tyre was no small, obscure village. It was a great Phoenician city and a world capital for over 2,000 years. It was to the sea what mighty Babylon was to the land. Yet, in the heyday of its power, the prophet Ezekiel had the audacity to predict for it a violent future and ultimate destruction. This downfall would be due to Tyre’s flagrant wickedness and arrogance, traits that were personified in its ruler, Ittobal II, who claimed to be God.
and again says:
History bears eloquent testimony to the fact that all this is precisely what happened. Many nations did come up against Tyre — the Babylonians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Muslims, and the Crusaders, to name a few. And Nebuchadnezzar was indeed the first of these invaders, who — after a thirteen year siege — broke down the walls and towers of mainland Tyre, thus fulfilling the first of Ezekiel’s prophecies. Nebuchadnezzar massacred all of Tyre’s inhabitants except for those who escaped to an island fortress a half mile out in the Mediterranean Sea.
Centuries after Ezekiel’s body had decomposed in his grave, Alexander the Great fulfilled a major portion of the prophecy. In order to conquer the island fortress of Tyre (without the luxury of a navy), he and his celebrated architect Diades devised one of the most brilliant engineering feats of ancient warfare. They built a causeway from Tyre’s mainland to the island fortress, using the millions of cubic feet of rubble left over on mainland Tyre. Thus Tyre was scraped bare as a rock, just as Ezekiel predicted.
(Full Article Here: (Copyright 1994 by the Christian Research Institute, P.O. Box 7000, Rancho Santa Margarita, CA 92688-7000. )
The Bible also provides such internal evidence as the proclamation of God’s Word by various individuals, and the resulting change in the lives of others. That evidence works outward from ancient to modern times. Not only does the Bible record lives changed by its own proclamation, we have a continual evidence of lives changed by the declaration and reading of this book right up to modern day. Though somewhat more subjective, the latter proof is often undeniable as we see such great men as George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower who all had distinctly altered lives as a result of reading the Bible. The Bible impacted these and countless others over the ages to such a degree that many even chose to die for the sake to the truth contained in its pages.
Our next article in this series will focus on the power of changed lives as evidence that the Bible is God’s Word.
This article was originally written and published on Pastor Matt's blog site http://asine4.us and is included in original form here.