The Bible is
the bestseller of all time. It is the book most read
and studied, and it is the most controversial book
on the earth today. Some say that it is the Word of
God, while others question the validity of that
claim. There are many reasons for us to believe that
it is the Word of God. We would like to present a
few of the key reasons here and invite you to read
with an open mind and make your own conclusion.
Four Criteria for
Identifying the Word of God
God created
man and wanted to communicate with man, it is
reasonable that He would do so through a book,
something unchangeable and understandable to man.
Such a book would have to meet a few requirements.
It would have to identify God as its source; its
standard of morality would have to match God's
standard of morality, which would have to exceed the
highest moral standards of mankind; it would have to
reveal God and His purpose for creating mankind; and
it would have to be widely available. Our first
reason for believing that the Bible is the Word of
God is that it satisfies all the above criteria.
Three Books Claim
Divine Authorship
There are
only three major books that claim divine authorship
- the Bible, the Koran, and the book of Mormon. All
other books can be eliminated from consideration
immediately.
The Bible Has the
Highest Moral Tone
The moral
tone of the Bible is clearly higher than that of the
other two, matching God's love and righteousness.
Both the Koran and the Book of Mormon allow
polygamy. Only the Bible promotes the idea of one
husband to one wife. Not only does the Bible condemn
divorce, but it even condemns lusting after another
in the heart as adultery. In addition, only the
Bible teaches that hating others in the heart is
like committing murder (because murder comes out of
a heart full of hatred). It teaches not only to not
hate one's enemies, but also to love them. Only the
Bible portrays the highest standard of love, a love
completely free of all self-interest, jealousy, and
pride. A society that truly follows the Bible is
guaranteed to have love, oneness, peace, and rest.
The Bible Reveals God
and His Purpose with Man
The Bible
reveals God, who He is, what He intends to do, the
origin of man, and God's purpose in creating man.
Neither the Koran nor the Book of Mormon indicate a
clear purpose for man; in these books the
relationship between God and man is merely that of
Creator and creature, of Judge and defendant, with
the "good" ones being rewarded in the hereafter. The
Bible, however, reveals that God created man as a
vessel to contain Him as life so that man may
express Him in His divine attributes and represent
Him to rule over the earth. Thus, it reveals not
only God's creation of man but also God's desire to
live in man so that man may live in Him, resulting
in an absolute oneness of God with man. No other
book reveals God and His purpose with man.
The Bible Is the Most
Available Book
Finally, the
Bible is the book most available to man. All or
portions have been translated into approximately two
thousand languages. In 1989, 600 million copies were
sent out to a world population of 5.5 billion. The
Bible has virtually saturated the world. This is
because it is the book of God's communication to
man. People all over the world now have an
opportunity to read it and to know God.
Fulfilled Prophecies
Prove the Bible
Our second
reason for believing that the Bible is the Word of
God is that so far all of its prophecies have been
fulfilled. Teachings, reasonings, ethics, and the
like are subjective and can be easily written by
anybody. However, if any book contains hundreds of
predictions of events far in the future whose
outcomes were not obviously determinable at the time
they were recorded, and if not one of them fails,
that book must be the Word of God.
The Bible contains prophecies written from
4000 BC to 700 BC concerning Jesus Christ's person,
birth, living, death, resurrection, and second
coming in glory. Except for His second coming, all
of them were fulfilled 2,000 years ago.
All of the Bible's prophecies concerning
Israel's past and present have been fulfilled. Such
prophecies include the possession of the good land
(Palestine), the building of the temple, the falling
away, the destruction of the temple and Jerusalem,
the captivity in Babylon, the rebuilding of the
temple and Jerusalem, the destruction of the temple
and Jerusalem again (AD 70), the restoration of the
nation (1948), and the return of Jerusalem (1967).
Only the prophecies concerning the end of this age
remain to be fulfilled.
There are not enough pages here to enumerate
all the prophecies in the Bible which have been
fulfilled. These fulfilled prophecies should prove
to anyone, including you, that the Bible has to be
the Word of God, for it is impossible for man to
predict the future with such infallibility.
Consistency Proves
the Bible
Our third
reason for believing that the Bible is the genuine
Word of God is its consistency. The various books
which comprise the Bible were written in a few
different languages, by approximately forty writers
with different backgrounds, over a period of sixteen
hundred years. Yet it has a common theme, an
introduction, a development, and a conclusion.
Although the Bible was written by so many men, all
of them were led by the Spirit of the one God.
The Power of the
Bible
The power of
the Bible to change people's lives, thoughts,
directions, and behavior testifies to the validity
of the Bible as the Word of God. The fact that many
people have loved the Bible enough to die for it
also testifies to its validity. Talking to a
Christian who truly believes the Bible is unlike
talking to anyone else - that person has actually
experienced God.
You Must Prove It to
Yourself
All of the above reasons may be convincing, but
there is only one way to prove to yourself that the
Bible is the Word of God. That is to do what it says
and see if you get the promised results. One verse
says, "Whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall
be saved" (Rom. 10:13). If you say, "Lord Jesus, I
call on Your name. Save me from the bondage of sins.
Save me from my inability to be good and proper.
Save me from my daily anxieties, fears, and
frustrations. Lord Jesus, save me," you will
experience His salvation. Another verse says,
"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see
God" (Matt. 5:8). You can test this verse by saying,
"Lord Jesus, purify my heart that I may see God." If
you pray with an open heart according to the words
of the Bible, you will be saved and see God in your
spirit through Jesus Christ. Then you will know that
the Bible is God's Word to you.