For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,’ we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain. And we have something more sure, the prophetic word, 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, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
-2 Peter 1:16-21 (ESV)
- It is one thing to believe that God exists (General Revelation).
- It is another thing to believe that God has revealed himself in the person of Jesus Christ (confirmed in the historical reality of the resurrection)
- It’s still another thing to believe that God has revealed His truth, will, expectations, precepts, and future in the Scriptures!
How can we know beyond reasonable doubt that the Bible is indeed God’s revelation to us?
1. That it is unique among all books?
2. That it has supernatural origins?
If the Bible is the Word of God to us, then shouldn’t His fingerprints all over this book?
1. If the Bible is God’s revelation to us:
The Bible should claim to be the Word of God revealed to us.
We do not want to claim something that the Bible does not claim for itself.
- Just because the Bible claims it does not make it true.
- However, if it is the Word of God, it should make it clear that it is.
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
-2 Timothy 3:16-17
For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,’ we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain. And we have something more sure, the prophetic word, 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, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
-2 Peter 1:16-21 (ESV)
Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.
-Matthew 24:35
2: If the Bible is God’s revelation to us:
The Bible should be accurate in its historical references.
The Writers of the Gospels have been proven to be first rate historians. They are absolutely perfect in references to people, places, events, rulers.
We have the privilege of living in a generation that can see every time an historical reference has contradicted the Bible, the biblical reference has proven to be the more trustworthy source.
There can be no doubt that archaeology has confirmed the substantial historicity of the Old Testament tradition.
-William Albright
Every time we make a discovery of an artifact from the ancient world, the Biblical record is confirmed, which is why secular and religious scholars alike have declared that if you can’t trust the history of the Bible, you can’t trust any ancient text.
The Old Testament makes frequent references to the Hittites—an enemy nation to Israel. Historians disputed the accuracy of this reference until 1906 when an archaeological dig:
1. Uncovered and confirmed the existence of the Hittites
2. Unearthed the capitol city and
3. 40 other cities that make up their empire.
There’s no question that archaeological findings have enhanced the New Testaments credibility. No discovery has ever disproved a biblical reference.
-John McRay
The Bible is completely accurate in its historical references and we should expect this of the Word of God if they were indeed, “carried along by the Holy Spirit.”
The Book of Mormon mentions a vast civilization that existed in the Americas 600 B.C. to A.D. 400 and names the tribes, cities, mountains, rivers and coinages.
Not one single historian inside or outside the Mormon church has produced a single piece of artifact or evidence that would sustain any of the claims of the Book of Mormon.
Mormon leaders would say “That's just the way it is. You have to accept it by blind faith.”
This is not the way the Bible uses the word, “Faith.”
- Pistis: Faith, belief in the future based on the substance of the past or present.
- The Bible says Faith should be based on evidence.
From what is factual in the past I can trust what I don’t see in the future. If I have kept my promises in the past, you will trust me to keep my promises in the future.
Faith in the historical Jesus is not “blind faith” but is based upon:
1. Historical records
2. Trusted eyewitness testimony
3. Powerful circumstantial evidence of the past
The evidence of His resurrection is the reason I trust Him for my future!
Jesus is not some made-up fictional character who is supposed to inspire me to live a good life. The books of the Bible are history, recording events happening in real time and real space.
Even if we did not have the Bible, from other trusted historical records we would know that:
- There lived a man named Jesus, born in Bethlehem, in the house of David, raised in Nazareth, who was a Jewish teacher.
- He performed miracles and exorcisms.
- He had a three and a half year teaching ministry with thousands of disciples.
- He was crucified under Pontius Pilate during the reign of Tiberias.
- Thousands upon thousands believed He rose from the dead.
- His ministry and teachings spread beyond Palestine so that there were thousands and thousands of Christians in Rome by A.D. 64.
- Christ-followers included people from all walks of life—rich, poor, educated, uneducated, slave and free who worshiped Jesus as the One and True God.
Eyewitness Accounts: Jesus’ life, death, burial and resurrection are confirmed…
- by the Romans Historian, Tacitus
- and the Jewish Historian, Josephus.
Thallus is an early historian who wrote a three-volume history of the Mediterranean World.
- Thallus’ work is often quoted by Theophilus of Antioch who died around A.D. 185
- Most scholars date Thallus’ writings around A.D. 50.
- Thallus—a respected historian—refers to the earthquake and darkness at the time of Jesus’ crucifixion.
The Bible is history, not legend!
With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.
-Luke 1:3-4
This is what history looks like: it carefully investigates people, places, dates, and genealogies!
I have been reading poems, romances, vision literature, legends, and myths all my life. I know what they are like. I know none of them are like this.
-C.S. Lewis
The Vedas (the Hindu scriptures) are filled with myths and legends.
- It does not claim to be strictly historical and most of it cannot be verified. It's unverifiable.
- One claim from the Hindu scriptures is that people from other worlds (aliens) that were part of kingdoms much more advanced than ours, existed on earth before the modern kingdoms of man came into existence. With absolutely no proof (or attempts at proof).
The Quran was written in A.D. 610 to A.D. 632 by one man, Muhammad, while having an epileptic seizure-like experience claiming that it was dictated to him by Allah.
- It has stories about Abraham. Moses, Jesus.
- It was written 600 years after the New Testament.
- It’s a book of corrections.
- It’s a book that is angry at Jews and Christians and often calls for their extermination.
- It’s a book of legend and commentary, with some history thrown in.
- One man claims to have received the revelation of God with no corroborating evidence.
Buddhists do not really have a religious text but they do have a collection of writings that are called the Tripitaka that communicate their beliefs.
- Once again, it is not a history book, nor does it claim to be.
- The Tripitaka is more of a commentary on the philosophy of life.
Ganesha, Hindi God who removes obstacles
Shiva and Parvathi are the gods of destruction. Parvathi was lonely and created a son out of clay. Shiva returns home to his partner Parvathi, but is prevented from seeing her by the son whom he has never met. In anger, Shiva decapitates his own son. When he discovers this, he finds, an elephant, and attaches the head to his son. The son becomes known as Ganesha and is worshipped as the “remover of obstacles.”
Claiming to be the revelation of God does not make it so.
Feeling that something is the Word of God does not make it so.
There must be objective proof. The evidence must point toward this conclusion.
Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus and all other primary religions understand that the Bible and Christianity are in direct opposition to their teachings.
Each claim they want to respect Jesus as a prophet or religious leader—but demand that He is not the Son of God nor did God raise Him from the dead, because if Jesus is truly the Son of God, that would make Jesus King and their religion null and void.
If the Bible is true, then every other religion is false.
The religious world joins forces with a secular world that seeks to discredit the Bible. The secular world would say, “Yes the Bible is an historical book in its original form, but it has been changed from the original - wherever we say and whenever it conflicts with our teachings, especially in places where it claims that Jesus is God.”
Has the Bible been altered from its original content and forms?
Manuscript Authority: 24,000 manuscripts (within same generation)
Homer's Iliad: 643 Fragmented copies
New Testament: 5,600 copies
Why is this important?
First: With this many manuscripts we can contrast and compare.
Second: The latest manuscripts compare well with the earliest manuscripts.
The Dead Sea Scrolls
The Dead Sea Scrolls are ancient Jewish Manuscripts found between 1946-1956, dated around 3rd Century B.C.
How do we date?
1. Paleography: the most precise and objective way to date a manuscript. Ancient scribes possess a particular writing style and letter formations that allows us to narrow the date.
2. Physical and Chemical Analysis:
- The material on which the manuscript was written.
- Leather scrolls were used prior to the use of Papyrus, and stones were used before the use of Leather.
- Ink color and punctuation identifies time periods.
3. Carbon-14 and AMS are two other techniques that can provide precise dating.
Dead Sea Scrolls are the greatest archaeology discovery in the 20th Century. They contain the entire book of Isaiah and thousands of fragments from all other Old Testament books, except for the book of Esther, Until the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the oldest surviving copy of any Old Testament writings were the Masoretic Text, dated around A.D. 916.
The difference in dates between the oldest copy of text, A.D. 916, and the newly discovered Dead Sea Scroll of Isaiah was 1,000 years!This provided opportunity to judge the copying accuracy of the Old Testament documents, since it would be easily discernible which errors crept in over 1000 years.
The documents proved to be 95% textually identical! The 5 percent that was different were mainly misspellings of words and did not constitute any threat to the content, doctrine, or reliability of the text.
This shows how unbelievably accurately it was transmitted, because they are identical to the Old Testament you and I read today.
The Dead Sea Scrolls do a lot to validate the Old Testament due to the fact that they are nearly identical to the versions of the Old Testament we read today, and because they are dated to 300-400 B.C.
Before the Dead Sea Scrolls were found, Old Testament critics often asserted that many Old Testament books were written well after their events allegedly occurred - sometimes even as late as A.D. 1000. The Dead Sea Scrolls confirm that these books were written around 300 B.C. at the very latest.
This is particularly important for prophetic books, like Daniel. Old Testament critics asserted for a long time that Daniel must have been written well after A.D. 0, because it's prophecies about the Roman empire are so unambiguous and vivid. The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls lends credence to the book of Daniel being an actual prophecy.
The last foundation of any doubt that the Scriptures have come down to us substantially as they were written has now been removed.
-Sir Frederick Kenyon, Former Director of the British Museum
Dr. Simon Greenleaf wrote the book, Treatise on the Law of Evidence, which continues to be esteemed by many legal scholars as the greatest volume ever written on the use of empirical evidence to prove or disprove historical truth claims.
Greenleaf was an antagonist toward Christianity, and he would mock the “resurrection myth” to his students, who challenged him to prove his assertion by using his analytical skills.
After his research, Greenleaf concluded that any honest cross-examination of the evidence for the resurrection of Christ would result in “an undoubting conviction of their integrity, ability, and truth.” Greenleaf was intrigued by what he found concerning the trustworthiness of the manuscripts of the Bible and their amazing consistency.
After his research he argued:
1. The New Testament accounts of Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection exist today with effectively the same text they were originally written in as early as 28 years after the events took place.
2. This evidence presumes for us that the Gospel accounts are reliable.
3. The burden for proving that these documents are not accounts of the actual events rests upon the opposing parties who allege these claims.
The Jesus Seminar
The Jesus Seminar thrives on casting doubt. They claim that the idea that Jesus was Divine, performed miracles, died on the cross, rose from the dead, and people saw him was concocted later by his disciples to spark a movement and become adopted by political powers to push their own political agendas.
A movie promoting this theory is The Da Vinci Code, which claims Jesus was a great but clearly human teacher who was made into a resurrected God by church leaders, who did so to gain status and support in the Roman Empire. The implication was that the Gospel is nothing more than legend, manipulated by men for political purposes.
Two Major Problems with the “Legend Theory”
1. The Gospels were written much too early to be legend!
- Luke is considered by those who study Literary Antiquity to be a first-rate historian.
- Names, People, Places, Dates are all accurate.
- Not one archaeological find over the past 2000 years has contradicted a single reference by Luke.
- Luke states that he has spoken with eyewitnesses and has confirmed their stories about Jesus, which means he is recording history within the same generation the events occurred.
2. The Apostle Paul, a well educated and prolific writer and recorder of the early church, wrote 15-20 years after Jesus.
For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep.
-I Corinthians 15:3-6
In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!
-Philippians 2:5-8
This is a hymn written before the book of Philippians, just a few years after Jesus’ death and resurrection.
Before the book of Philippians was written, Jesus claimed to be God and the resurrection led to the Christians worshipping Jesus as God from the very beginning.
Belief in the Deity and Divinity of Jesus was part of the dynamic from the beginning in the growth of the early Christian church.
[Dan Brown says] that the Emperor Constantine imposed a whole new interpretation on Christianity at the Council of Nicea in 325. That is, he decreed the belief in Jesus’ divinity and suppressed all evidence of his humanity. This would mean Christianity won the religious competition in the Roman Empire by an exercise of power rather than by any attraction it exerted. In actual historical fact, the church had won that competition long before that time, before it had any power, when it was still under sporadic persecution. If a historian were cynical, you would say Constantine chose Christianity because it had already won and he wanted to back a winner.
-C. John Sommerville
You could write documents 200-300 years after an event and say anything you wanted. It would be difficult to test. However, New Testament Documents are written within the same generation! Not enough time for legend! These were public documents—constantly being circulated!
3. If the Bible is God’s revelation to us:
The Bible should be unique and distinguishable from all other historical and religious books. It should have the fingerprints of God.
- Yes, the Bible is a book of trusted history.
- Yes, the Bible we have today is an accurate reflection of what was originally written.
- Yes, the Bible accurately records, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Jesus lived, was crucified under the Romans, was buried in the tomb owned by Joseph of Arimathea, and was raised from the dead.
But there is something else that sets it apart from any other book ever written.
Biblical Prophecy
Men who lived a 1000 years before Jesus walked Palestine delivered and recorded more than four dozen prophecies about Jesus life and death and ministry, all of which came true, to the detail.
Bookshelves are full of self-proclaimed prophets and their general predictions (Example - Nostradamus).
In most cases, so-called modern prophecies are typically untestable. A number of events could possibly be looked at as somewhat fulfilling that which has been predicted.
A study made by psychics in 1975 showed that out of the 72 general predictions made by the world’s top psychics, only six were fulfilled in any way and those six predictions could have been made by anyone with:
- a general knowledge of world trends
- and an understanding of historical patterns.
This is not the kind of prophecy we see in the Bible.
The only plausible explanation for the fact that men who lived hundreds and hundreds of years before major events could make specific predictions and get it right every time is supernatural.
The prophets of the Bible said that under the inspiration of God they were going to tell us what was specifically going to happen several centuries in the future.
Prophecy of Jesus' Lineage
The prophets foretold Jesus' lineage right down to the House into which he would be born.
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.
-Isaiah 9:6-7
The prophets pinpointed the exact place of His birth and specified his ancestors.
- Descendant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
Zechariah, who lived 500 years before Jesus was ever born, prophesied:
- In the house of the Lord.
- and the money would be used to buy a Potter’s field.
I told them, ‘If you think it best, give me my pay; but if not, keep it.’ So they paid me thirty pieces of silver. And the Lord said to me, ‘Throw it to the potter’—the handsome price at which they valued me! So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them to the potter at the house of the Lord.
-Zechariah 11:12-13
David wrote details about Jesus’ death and mentioned his betrayal, and even made reference to the type of death before the Crucifixion was invented.
I am poured out like water, and all my bones are disjointed. My heart is like wax; it melts away within me. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. You lay me in the dust of death.
-Psalm 22:14-16
Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away. Yet who of his generation protested? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was punished. He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand. After he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
-Isaiah 53
Isaiah 53 is more than prophecy; this is theology of what is to come - something the Jews still did not understand and something that Isaiah could not have fully understood.
The Bible also makes bold predictions that can be tested still today.
Prophecy of Ezekiel 26
In the 5th century B.C., there was a strong and vital city on the Mediterranean Coast, Tyre.
Eziekiel made an assertion that Tyre would be utterly destroyed and that no city would ever be built on that sight again. People in that day thought he was delusional!
But a few 100 years later, the prophecy was fulfilled and the city of Tyre was ultimately destroyed.
These prophecies are so specific that Bible critics and critics of Christianity do not spend time disputing the fact that prophecies are not specified or exact, nor that they were written hundreds of years before they happened.
The odds of one person fulfilling just 8 of the many prophecies about the Messiah are 1 in 100 million billion (10¹⁷)—the same as a blindfolded person randomly selecting a single marked coin from a pile covering the entire state of Texas three feet deep.
Mathematician Peter Stoner says that the probability of fulfilling all forty-eight specific prophecies of the Messiah is so minuscule that it is plausible to say that such a thing cannot happen without supernatural intervention.
But the things which God announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets, that His Christ should suffer, He has thus fulfilled.
-Acts 3:18 (NASB)
A popular response to all of this: The theory that Jesus maneuvered His life to fulfill the prophecies. The theory is that Jesus was well-read and knew what had been prophesied. So, he arranged his life and circumstances to make sure these predictions came true. For instance, we read in Zechariah that the Messiah would ride a donkey into Jerusalem, so He arranged it to be so.
Could this have happened? Yes.
But how could Jesus control or know:
- The Sanhedrin offered Judas 30 pieces of silver to betray him
- His ancestry or the place of His birth
- The soldiers gambling for his clothing
- There would be false accusers at an invalid trial
- He could be born precisely when he was
- The Sanhedrin used the money for betrayal to buy a Potter’s field
The only plausible explanation for the fulfillment of specific prophecies written hundreds of years before Jesus was born is:
- The Bible is God’s story.
- Jesus is His Son and revelation to us.
This is why the Bible:
1. Is the most published book in world history.
2. Is the single most translated book in world history.
3. Has survived bannings and eradication attempts by kings, princes, and rulers.
4. If the Bible is God’s revelation to us:
It should transform lives.
There are three types of approaches to the Bible by the Christian.
One: The Bible is a conglomeration of good advice for how to live a successful life.
- They don’t see the Bible as God’s Word but as a book that contains some of God’s words. The individual still determines what is acceptable and what is not.
- This is why you have churches that affirm the sin of homosexuality, lesbianism, sex before marriage, and adultery.
- When the Bible contradicts “their truth”, “their truth” supersedes.
In our church all are welcomed because we are all sinners. But even though God accepts us as we are, He does not want us to remain as we are.
He transforms us through the Spirit and the Word.
2. They see the Bible as God’s Word but have little to no knowledge of what it says or how it can transform their lives.
- They see the Bible as a list of do’s and don’ts.
- They see the Bible as a moral guide only.
- They see themselves as justified under it.
- They don’t pore over it. They don’t understand its transformational power. They read for knowledge only.
3. They see the Bible as God’s Word and dive into it every day to discover the words and thoughts of the One who made everything. As a result—they are being changed.
- When they discover an area of their life that does not match up with the Bible’s teaching, they begin to do the hard work of spiritual transformation.
Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.
-Philippians 2:12-13
And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
-2 Corinthians 3:18
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