12 reasons why we should believe in the scriptures ...
Stand
for reasoning!
There are two lines of proof of the reliability of the
scriptures, the external and the internal. These different kinds
of evidences may be put down, without separation, somewhat as
follows:
1. The Formation and Unity of the Bible. There are
sixty-six books written by nearly forty men, who lived at
various times, and yet these books agree in making a perfect
whole. These writers were of different classes and occupations.
They possessed different degrees of training and lived in widely
different places and ages of the world. The perfect agreement of
their writings could not, therefore, be the result of any
collusion between them. The only conclusion that can explain
such unity is that one great and infinite mind dictated the
scripture.
2. The Preservation of the Bible. That the Bible is a
divine book is proven in that it has survived the wreck of
empires and kingdoms and the destruction of costly and carefully
gathered libraries and that, too, when there was no special
human effort to save it. At times all the constituted powers of
earth were arrayed against it, but it has made its way against
the tide of fierce opposition and persecution.
3. Its Historical Accuracy. The names of towns,
cities, battles, kings, empires and great events, widely apart
in time and place, are given without a blunder. The ruins of
cities of Assyria, Egypt and Babylon have been unearthed and
tablets found that prove the accuracy of the Bible narrative.
These tablets corroborate the stories of the creation and fall
of man, of the flood, the tower of Babel, the bondage in Egypt,
the captivity, and many other things. This accuracy gives us
confidence in the reality of the book.
4. Its Scientific Accuracy. At the time of the writing
of the Bible. there were all sorts of crude and superstitious
stories about the earth and all its creatures and processes. It
was humanly impossible for a book to have been written that
would stand the test of scientific research, and yet at every
point it has proven true to the facts of nature. Its teachings
areas to the creation of all animal life is proven in science,
in that not a single new species has come into existence within
the history of man and his research or experiment. David said
the sun traveled in a circuit (Ps. 19:6), and science has proven
his statement. Job said the wind had weight (Job 28:25) and
science has finally verified it. That the earth is suspended In
space with no visible support is declared by Job, who said that
"God hangeth the earth upon nothing", Job 26:7.
Besides these and other specific teachings of science which
correspond to Bible utterances, the whole general teachings of
the scripture is sustained by our investigations. Many theories
have been advanced that contradicted the Bible (at one time a
French Institution of Science claimed that there were eighty
hostile theories), but not a single such theory has stood.
Wherever a teaching of science contradicting the Bible has ever
been advanced, it has been proven false, while the Bible was
found to correspond to the facts.
5. Its Prophetic Accuracy. At least sixteen prophets
prophesied concerning future events. They told of the coming
destruction of cities and empires, calling them by name. They
told of new kingdoms. They told of the coming of Christ, his
nativity, the place of his birth, and the result of his life and
death and made no mistake.
Christ himself showed how their old prophecies were fulfilled
in Him. He told the destruction of Jerusalem and the nature of
his Kingdom and work, all of which has been shown to be true. No
other but a Divine book could have foretold the future in
detail.
6. The Richness and Universality of Its Teachings. Its
contents are fresh and new to every age and people. Its
teachings furnish the highest standards for right human
government and for personal purity of character. Its virtues are
superior to all others. Every generation finds new and wonderful
treasures in it, and while hundreds of thousands of books have
been written about it, one feels that it is still a mine, the
riches of whose literary excellence, moral beauty and lofty
thought have scarcely been touched.
7. The Fairness and Candor of Its Writers. In
portraying its heroes, the Bible does not attempt any gloss.
Their faults are neither covered up nor condoned, but condemned.
This is unlike all other books.
8. Its Solution of Man's Difficulties. What is the
origin of the world? What is the origin of man? How came sin in
the world? Will there be punishment of sin that will satisfy the
unfairness and inequalities of life? Is there redemption for
weak and helpless man? Is there a future life? These are some of
the questions that have troubled man in all ages. The Bible
alone answers them in a simple yet adequate way. It alone gives
us the knowledge of the way to secure happiness. Its remedies
alone furnish a certain balm for bruised human hearts.
9. Its Miracles. The Bible, which records how God sent
his son and others on special missions, also tells how He
attested their work by signs or miracles. These miracles were
performed in the presence of creditable witnesses and should,
therefore, be believed. Moreover, they are so different from the
superhuman deeds of ancient mythology as to stamp them as divine
and true and at the same time to discredit all the false.
Bible miracles are never for mere exploitation or for
personal profit to the one who performs the miracle. They are
for the good of others. The blind and deaf and lame are healed.
The sick and dead are raised. Lepers are cured and sins
forgiven. Moreover, those who perform the miracle claim no power
of their own, but attribute it all to God and only perform the
miracle that God may be exalted.
10. Its Spiritual Character. It is evident that man
alone could not have conceived the lofty ideas of the scripture.
All his experience proves that he can not produce anything so
far beyond himself. These high truths therefore, have come from
a greater than man.
11. Its Fruit. No other book will do for man what the
Bible does. The spread of its truths makes man better. Wherever
the Bible goes civilization and enlightenment follow. This is
so, no matter what the former condition of the people. Where
everything else fails, the Bible succeeds in lifting men out of
ignorance and shame.
12. Its Own Claims to Divine Origin.
(1) It clearly claims to be the the word of God.
(a) All scripture
is given by inspiration Of God. 2 Tim. 3:16.
(b) God spake unto
the fathers by the prophets, Heb. 1:1.
(c) Holy men of God
spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. 2 Peter 1:21.
(d) He spake by the
mouth of his holy prophets, Luke 1:70.
(e) Which the Holy
Ghost by the mouth of David spake. Acts 1:16.
(f) God showed by
the mouth of all his prophets. Acts 3:18.
(g) By the
revelation of Jesus Christ, Gal. 1:12.
(h) Not as the word
of men, but as it is in truth the word of God, 1 Thess.
2:13.
(2) It claims to be a good book and to be given for man's
good. Both of these claims have been amply justified. But it
could not be a good book and claim what is not true. This it
would do if it ware not the Word of God.
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