Christian Evidences Series (Part 3)
The Bible is the Word of God

INTRODUCTION:
1. The Bible is the most amazing and wonderful Book the world has ever
known.
(a) It occupies an unchallenged position amid the myriad of books, and
has never had a serious rival.
(b) It is an incomparable Volume, and never has any other book
approached it in content or distinctiveness.
(c) It is the one Book of all books known to man worthy of its unique
title of the "Bible"-the Book.

2. The Bible itself forms an invincible argument in the area of
Christian evidences.
(a) The Bible is a Book that must be reckoned with by those who deny
Christianity, its God, and its Founder.
(b) The Bible is the very basis of Christianity, and to disprove it
would be to destroy the foundation of Christianity.
(c) Yet the Bible has resisted every attempt through the ages to
disprove it, and no other book could have survived the vigorous attacks
made upon the Bible.

3. The Bible proposes numerous vital issues which must be met by the
unbeliever:
(a) The Bible has existed for thousands of years, and its very presence
in the world must be accounted for.
(b) The Bible asserts that it is the product of divine revelation and
inspiration.
(c) There is conclusive evidence of the reliability of the text and
canon of the Bible.
(d) There is a supernatural atmosphere about the Bible found in no other
book.
(e) The reliability and integrity of the Bible have survived every
attempt to disprove them.
(f) The hope of the Christian religion is established upon the integrity
of the Bible.

4. This study will present some reasons why Christians accept the Bible
as being the inspired Word of God.
(a) In our age of skepticism, the Bible has been subjected to ridicule,
with unbelievers urging that it is no more than a book of superstition,
folklore, and the common religious beliefs of an unenlightened age.
(b) If the Bible does not merit our faith in it, surely the age of
superior knowledge in which we live could prove this.
(c) Must Christians accept the Bible as God's Word merely upon blind
faith, or is there valid evidence to support our belief that it is a
divine revelation?

I. THE UNIQUENESS OF THE BIBLE:
1. The Bible is a book distinctly and remarkably different from any
other book ever written.
(a) It is so different in nature and content that this presents one of
its most impressive aspects.
(b) It offers to the world a Book of inimitable style, character,
content, message, meaning, and purpose.
(c) Since no other book has ever been produced like it, the very
uniqueness of the Bible separates it from all others.

2. The Bible is unique for the manner in which it was written.
(a) About 40 persons participated in the writing of the Bible, and about
1600 years were required to write it.
(b) Its writers were men of widely differing positions: kings, prophets,
priests, statesmen, fishermen, shepherds, the untutored, the educated,
scribes, poets, military leaders, a tentmaker, a doctor, and prisoners.
(c) The authors of Biblical books wrote under widely varying
circumstances: while on thrones, in prisons, in exile, in captivity, some
despised and some honored.
(d) The contents of the Bible presents a variety contained in no other
book: autobiography, biography, history, sermons, psalms, proverbs,
poetry, prophecy, romance, oratory, drama, doctrinal discussions, civil
legislation, governmental decrees, parables, direction for worship,
apocalyptic visions, personal letters, general letters, rituals, maxims,
philosophy, hymns, obituaries, character appraisals, and miracles.
(e) The circumstances under which its authors wrote are also unique:
many writers of the Bible were unknown to one another, they lived at
different times, they wrote in different countries, they wrote in
different languages, they wrote upon different subjects, and they wrote
in different circumstances.
(f) Despite these astonishingly diverse situations, there is a wonderful
unity in all the writings of the Bible.

3. the Bible presents a uniqueness in its physical structure seen in no
other book.
(a) The Bible, though comprising one unified volume, is actually
comprised of 66 separate books.
(b) Although there is evident a master Mind that produced it, the actual
writing was done by 40 writers.
(c) The Bible contains two major divisions: the Old and the New
Testaments. They are as unlike in character as two separate books could
be, but are perfectly harmonious.
(d) Some of the individual books are vastly different in character, yet
in complete accord with one another.
(e) The two major divisions of the Bible were written in different
languages (Hebrew and Greek), but this presents no problem whatever in
the harmony between them.
(f) The length of Biblical books varies greatly from five books
containing only one chapter to Psalms which contains 150 chapters. The
difference in the length of books or chapters, however, does not affect
its harmony.
(g) The language of the Bible is unmatched in majesty of style.

II. THE INFLUENCE OF THE BIBLE IS SUPERNATURAL:
1. Ever since the Bible became available to the masses it has exerted a
supernatural influence upon the lives of men.
(a) No other book has been able to arrest the attention and grip the
soul of man as has the Bible.
(b) It has always been the most important Book in the world to those
who have given it serious consideration.
(c) It possesses a supernatural force of attraction that draws men to
it. Matthew Arnold said, "To the Bible men will return, because they
cannot do without it."

2. The Bible is the most widely circulated book known to man.
(a) The Septuagint, completed around 170 B.C., was the first important
translation of a book ever made. This was a translation of the Old
Testament from Hebrew into the Greek.
(b) The Bible was the first book printed on movable type. This was done
by Johannes Gutenburg in 1455. One of the three existing copies of it
was purchased by the Library of Congress in 1930 for $305,000.00. Copies
of the Bible are the most valuable books in the world.
(c) The Bible is the only book ever sent by cable across the ocean, and
it forms the longest telegram ever sent. On May 20, 1881, the revision
of the New Testament was finished in England. The following morning the
books of Matthew through Romans were printed in the "Chicago Times" and
the "Chicago Tribune."
(d) The number of copies of the entire Bible, New testaments, and
portion of the Bible printed run into astronomical figures. No book has
ever presented serious competition to the Bible as the world's most
popular book.

3. The Bible is the most translated Book the world has ever known.
(a) It has been said that the cream of human literary production could
be defined as those books translated into three or more languages.
(b) No book has ever been translated and retranslated so many times as
has the Bible, for it has been translated into every major language and
dialect in the world.
(c) The last figure available indicates that the Bible has now been
translated into 1061 languages and dialects.

4. The Bible is the most popularly used book in the world.
(a) In 1952, Thomas Nelson and Sons employed a firm to determine the
extent of Bible reading in America.
(b) The report revealed that 90% of all Protestant families have Bibles,
and most of them have more than one Bible; that 95% of Americans read the
Bible at some time, and 41% read it at least once a week.

5. The bible has exerted the most profound moral and ethical influence
of any book the world has ever known.
(a) Horace Greeley stated: "It is impossible to enslave mentally or
socially a Bible-reading people. The principles of the Bible are the
ground work of human freedom."
(b) Lord Bacon said, "There was never found, in any age of the world,
either religion or law that did so highly exalt public good as the
Bible."
(c) The Bible has become the supreme standard of right and good among
men and nations everywhere.
(d) Everywhere the Bible goes it exerts a transforming influence upon
men. Lifting them to the greatest heights of moral and spiritual
attainment.

III. THE BIBLE IS INSPIRED OF GOD:
1. The supreme claims made by the Bible for itself is that it is God's
divine revelation to man, and as such that it is a supernatural and
inspired Book.
(a) The Bile contends that in its production God moved in a miraculous
manner upon its writers to enable them to infallibly record His will.
(b) Indicative of its divine origin, the Bible is represented as being
"the word of God" (Eph. 6:17), "the oracles of God" (I Peter 4:11), "the
writing of God" (Exodus 2:16), the "wisdom of God" (Luke 11:49), the
"word of his grace" (Acts 20:32), and the "word of truth" (James 1:18).
(c) Many times in the Old Testament it is stated that God spoke to such
men as Moses (Num. 5:1; 14:10), Joshua (Joshua 3:7; 5:9), Jacob (Gen.
35:15), and David (I Kings 6:12; 2 Sam. 23:2).
(d) The writings of Moses were recordings of what God had spoken unto
him. (Exodus 20:1; 24:4; 25:1)
(e) Twenty times in his writings Jeremiah affirmed that "the word of the
Lord came unto me." (Jeremiah 1:4)
(f) Forty-six times Ezekiel affirmed that "the word of the Lord came
unto" him. (Ezekiel 1:3)
(g) Repeatedly the prophets contended that God spoke to them. (Isaiah
1:2; Jonah 1:1; Haggai 1:1; Zech. 4:8; 2 Peter 1:21)
(h) A host of Scriptures affirm that God spoke through men to reveal His
will to them. (2 Sam. 23:2; Isaiah 1:2; Jer. 1:7; Ezek. 2:7; Matt. 1:22;
Mark 12:36; Luke 1:70; Acts 1:16; Hebrews 1:1)
(i) The writers of the thirty-nine Old Testament books affirmed more
than 2,000 times that God spoke to them.
(j) Almost half of the book of Exodus (48%, or 15,750 words) is an
account of what God spoke directly.
(k) In the 40 chapters of Exodus alone, it is stated 161 times the "God
spake these words."

2. The New Testament also extends the same claims as to its divine
origin.
(a) Jesus attested the authority of the Old Testament by frequently
quoting from it and referring to it as the "word of God" (John 10:35)
and the "wisdom of God" (Luke 11:49).
(b) Jesus promised to endow the apostles with divine power, to make
revelations through them, and to inspire their teaching. (Matt.
10:19-21; John 14:26; 15:26-27; 16:13)
(c) The apostles steadfastly maintained that the truths that they taught
were divine revelations. (I Cor. 2:13, 19; 14:37; Gal. 1:12; I Peter
1:11-12; 2 Peter 3:2; Rev. 22:16)
(d) the grand claim of the New Testament is that the Scriptures are
inspired of God. (2 Tim. 3:16-17)

Last modified: July 10, 2008