William Tyndale once said that “a plough boy with the Bible would know more of God than the most learned ecclesiastic who ignored it.”
The Bible (God’s Word) is a remarkable book. It was written over the course of thousands of different years, by numerous authors from all walks of life and on three different continents. Despite that, the sixty-six books of the Bible form one cohesive story the covers the creation, fall, redemption of man throughout human history.
Given by God and recorded by man, the Bible has much to say about itself, and I’ve written about that in prior posts:
Http://waynestocks.com/2008/10/15/gods-word/
Http://waynestocks.com/2009/03/21/psalm-119-the-word-of-god/
When I originally envisioned this article, 25 Reasons I Believe the Bible, I planned on simply listing 25 items which support the inspiration and inerrancy of the Bible. I am still going to do that in this installment, but as I started to research and read, I realized that Why I Believe the Bible requires a lot more than a list. The inerrancy and reliability of the Bible is foundational to any true belief in Jesus Christ, and belief in Jesus Christ is mandatory for eternal salvation. When we start to sacrifice the basic principal that the Bible is the inerrant word of God, we place ourselves in the position of God deciding which parts we like and which we don’t.
In my testimony (Http://waynestocks.com/my-testimony/), I share about how important it was for me to accept the truth and validity of God’s Word in order to accept the truth and validity of his son. With that in mind, over the course of the next several months, I intend to expand on each of the items included in the list of 25 Reasons I Believe the Bible presented below. I hope that each article will spark some discussion or questions, and I hope that in reading the following articles you will come to accept the validity and accuracy of the Bible. Most importantly though, I hope that you will either be strengthened in your faith, or come to faith, in him who the scriptures tell us about – my Lord Jesus Christ.
With that said, here are 25 Reasons I Believe the Bible:
- Introduction to Series [07/29/2009]
- #1 – The Bible’s Claims About Itself (Inspired By God)
- #2 – The Bible Call Us to Test It
- #3 – The Bible is a Book of History
- #4 – The Bible is Internally Consistent
- #5 – The Bible is Unique Amongst Books (Literary Uniqueness)
- #6 – The Supernatural Survival of the Text
- #7 – The Reliability of Transmission of the Old Testament
- #8 – The Bibliographic Evidence for the New Testament
- #9A – The Process of Canonization (Old Testament)
- #9B – The Process of Canonization (New Testament)
- #10 – Eyewitness Evidence
- #11 – The Honesty of the Bible About Its Authors and Heroes
- #12 – The Hardships Encountered by the Authors and Their Unwavering Faith
- #13 – The Validity of the Old Testament is Confirmed by Jesus and the New Testament writers
- #14 – There is Abundant Non-Biblical Evidence for the Existence of the Jesus Portrayed in the Bible
- #15 – The Bible Has Been Thoroughly Tried and Never Found Lacking
- #16 – The Bible’s Significant Influence on Civilization
- #17 – The Bible’s Impact on Individual Lives
- #18 – Archaeological Proof for the Old Testament
- #19 – Archaeological Proof for the New Testament
- #20 – The Non-Messianic Prophecies of the Old Testament
- #21 – The Messianic Prophecies of the Old Testament
- #22 – The New Testament Prophecies made by Jesus
- #23 – The “Types” from Old Testament Foretelling the Coming Messiah
- #24 – The Bible does not contradict Science
- #25 – The Bible is Unique Among Other Religious Texts
I hope that this series will be enlightening, but it will certainly not be comprehensive. I have utilized a number of different sources from experts in various fields to compile this information. What I hope to do with these posts is provide a framework. If you’re interested in one or more of the areas listed above, I would encourage you dig further and do your own research. The Bible has withstood thousands of years of people trying to prove it wrong, and it has never disappointed!
I look forward to reading what you have to say about the individual items on this list; should be interesting! I do however have one semi-critical comment, or perhaps it could be an open question: Having made this list, which contains a solid group of very valid points, aren’t you leaving out the most important piece of the puzzle? The one which holds all the rest together? It would seem to me, that behind all of the logical reasons you have laid out, it all comes down to a movement of the Holy Spirit which brings you to faith; THAT is the one reason why you (or I) believe these 25 reasons. I have trouble with defenses of Christianity which make it seem like any ‘reasonable’ person, if they study the facts, will come to know the Lord. Not only does Scripture illustrate this to not be true, but I think we can all see in our experience that this is not true either. I know none of this has to do with your original intention of writing the blog, I’m just curious to hear your explanation. Is it not by the Grace of God alone that you and I have been blessed to have our eyes opened to catch a glimpse of His truth? Without this, even your own list would not convince you. I am reluctant to pull logic back into the equation, but for what it’s worth, I also think that by leaving space for faith-because-of-Grace, it keeps the argument you’ve laid out from becoming circular: “I believe the Bible is true because it says it is,” which begs the question, “Well, why do you believe what it says?” I just think the temptation to answer the latter question with a series of propositions, rather than a creedal statement of faith, is symptomatic of the Modern desire to twist (religious) Faith around enough to try to pass it off as (the Enlightenment’s) autonomous reason. Hopefully non of this came across as negative! I don’t by any means intend it to be anything other than friendly prodding!
Ben,
Thanks for the comment. I appreciate your insight and your semi-critical comment/open ended question. 🙂 I agree with you wholeheartedly that absent the prodding of the Holy Spirit moving in someone’s life, any attempt to convince them of the validity of the Bible will be useless at best and counter-productive at worst. After all, the wisdom of God is foolishness to the world.
I also agree that there are many who feel like they can use logic and reasoning to prove the existence of God. I am not one of those people. The Bible says that without faith it is impossible to please God. Accordingly, by definition, belief in him must be by faith, and that faith if given to us by the grace of God.
That said, God has provided plenty of evidence of his existence and grace. He does not ask for blind faith to believe him, but belief does require a step of faith. My point in this series is merely to demonstrate the evidences provided to us by God that the Bible is his revealed word to human beings (again given by grace).
Put another way, I believe you are right that it is the Holy Spirit working in our lives that enables us to believe the Bible, enables us to believe the Christ died on the cross for our sins and rose to conquer death on the third day, and to draw us to Him. However, I also believe that one of the ways God works in our lives through the Holy Spirit is by providing evidence for his existence. That is what I hope to explore in this series – the evidence for the book given to us by God. I hope that makes sense.
One of the reasons I believe the Holy Spirit works through such evidence to draw people to God the Father is because that is how he worked in my life. He convinced me of the validity of his word, not by logic, but by the supernatural nature of the book. Once I had accepted that, he used that to draw me to the cross of Christ.
Finally, I will do my best not to argue that I believe the Bible is the Word of God because it says it is (though I do intend to address what it says), my argument is the Bible is true, and here are some of the things the Holy Spirit used to convince me that it is true and to continue to strengthen my faith.
Thank you again for your comments, and for the record I did take your comment as friendly (and welcome by the way) prodding. After all, iron sharpens iron.
I have never read the bible because I have never understood how it was any different than mythology. There are lots of writings about Venus and Zeus but that doesn’t seem real to me either. I hope your posts will help me have faith in Gods Word.
As a Sunday School Teacher, I appreciate this blog. Always wanting to learn more about God from the Bible and from teachers such as you. Thank you.
God is a rewarder of those who diligently (honestly, intentionally, wholeheartedly) seek after Him.