Many of us have questioned if the Bible is trustworthy. We wonder if the Bible sometimes is an old book that doesn’t match up with real life. Voltaire, a French Enlightenment writer, believed that the Bible was useless and good only for kindling a fire. He was a heavy critic of Christianity, and said that the Bible would be an outdated book and only seen be in museums in the 1700s. However, the Bible still exists and is not in museums. Even though the Bible exists, is it trustworthy? Can we believe it? This is the third blog on this topic. Please check out “Can Youth Truth the Bible- Scripture Claims,” and “Can You Trust the Bible?- The Publishing Process” to get more information on the Bible. Today I want us to look at a mixture of internal and external evidence to see if the Bible is something we can trust or not.
Science can be a beautiful thing that helps us understand the world that we live in. We have learned a lot of valuable stuff from science that helps us understand animals, our bodies, and other useful things. However, history shows that sometimes science has not caught up with claims in the Bible. Consider some thoughts below
Medicine
It was a widely held belief in the 1600s that many illnesses were as a result of too much blood. Doctors during that time would cut people and let them bleed out, hoping that blood would drain out the illness. However, later on, science revealed that blood helps kill diseases and draining the blood of people would hinder their healing. In this instance, the Bible was ahead of science because the Bible says that “life is found in the blood (Leviticus 17:11; Leviticus 17:14).
Another example of how science was behind the Bible was during the 14th century when the “Black Plague” killed many people in Europe. Doctors and scientist alike were confused about what to do. However, the church ended up brining a beneficial answer to the plague. The church said it would be useful to quarantine people, separate the sick from the healthy. This idea of quarantining people was based on scripture found in the Bible (Leviticus 13:46; Numbers 5:2). Quarantining people was one of the keys that defeated the Black Plague.
Earth
It is widely known that the earth sits on top of nothing. This was always in the Bible from the beginning (Job 26:7), not to mention the oldest book in the Bible, Job. Despite this, the ancient Egyptians believed that five marble pillars supported the earth. The ancient Greeks believed that the earth rested on the shoulders of the god named Atlas. The ancient Hindus believed that the earth rested on the backs of elephants, and the elephants rested on the back of a huge tortoise. The tortoise rested on top of a coiled serpent in a cosmic sea.
Another interesting thing is that the earth was believed to be flat until the 1400s whenever it was discovered to be round. Amazingly is that 700 years before the earth was revealed to be round, the Prophet Isaiah said that the earth was a “circle (Isaiah 40:22).” The word “circle” in Hebrew means “globe” or “sphere.” Once again, science needed to catch up with the Bible.
Archaeology
Archaeology which mostly digs up old artefacts and learns about history, has proven the Bible accurate many times over. One example is that for many years it was believed that Moses could not have written the ten commandments on tablets because there was not a written language. However, archaeologist found tablets known as “tel-el-armana,” which were letters and business transactions in a written language. The tel-el-armana tablets existed even before Moses, which proved that there was a written language during his time. Next, these tablets showed that there was not only a written language but a mail service.
Prophecy about Jesus
No book has as accurately predicted the future to the degree that the Bible has without being proven wrong. There are LOTS of prophecies in the Bible that have been proven correct. For one, there are over 300 Old Testament prophecies about Jesus which came true in the New Testament (see below).
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Jesus would be born of a virgin – The prophecy is found in Isaiah 7:14, and the prophecy is fulfilled in Luke 1:7.
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Jesus was to be born in Bethlehem- The prophecy is found in Micah 5:2, and the prophecy is fulfilled in Luke 2:4.
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Jesus was to be born in the tribe of Judah- The prophecy is found in Genesis 49:10, and the prophecy is fulfilled in Matthew 3:3.
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Jesus would speak in parables- The prophecy is found in Psalm 78:2, and the prophecy is fulfilled in Matthew 13:34.
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Jesus was to ride on a donkey – The prophecy is found in Zechariah 9:9, and the prophecy is fulfilled in Matthew 21:1-5
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Jesus would heal the brokenhearted – The prophecy is found in Isaiah 61:1, and the prophecy is fulfilled in Luke 2:4.
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Jesus would be rejected by his own – The prophecy is found in Isaiah 53:3, and the prophecy is fulfilled in John 1:11.
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Jesus would stand silently as he was accused- The prophecy is found in Isaiah 53:7, and the prophecy is fulfilled in Matthew 15:5.
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Jesus’s robe would have lots cast for it – The prophecy is found in Psalm 22:18, and the prophecy is fulfilled in John 19:23.
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Jesus would be sold to his enemies for 30 pieces of silver – The prophecy is found in Zechariah 11:2, and the prophecy is fulfilled in Matthew 26:15.
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Jesus would be buried in a rich man’s grave – The prophecy is found in Isaiah 53:9, and the prophecy is fulfilled in Matthew 27:57-60.
Doctor Charles Ryrie, a famous theologian, points out that, it would require two hundred billion earths, each populated w/ four billion people, to come up with one person who could achieve one hundred accurate prophecies without any errors in sequence. But, in Christ’s coming alone, there were not one hundred, but over 300 prophecies fulfilled! It is no coincidence that this happened; it was a miracle and proves that the Bible is a trustworthy book written by a divine author.
Other Prophecies
Other than Jesus, there were other prophecies that were fulfilled in the Bible that are worth noting.
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Babylon will rule over Judah for 70 years (Jeremiah 25:11-12), and it happened in 516 BC.
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Babylon’s Kingdom will be permanently overthrown (Isaiah 13:19), and it happened in 539 BC.
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Babylon will be reduced to Swampland (Isaiah 14:23), and it happened in 539 BC.
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The Jews will survive Babylonian rule and return to Israel (Jeremiah 32:36-37), and it happened in 536 BC.
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The city of Nineveh will be destroyed by fire (Nahum 3:15), and it was proven correct by an archaeologist in the 1800s.
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Tyre will be attacked by many nations (Ezekiel 26:3), and it happened in 573 BC, 332 BC, and 1291 AD.
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Tyre’s stones, timber, and soil will be cast into the sea (Ezekiel 26:12), and it was fulfilled between 333-332 BC.
There are many more prophecies that could tell you about especially the amazing ones in the book of Daniel which predict reigns of kings and countries. All of which were fulfilled. Daniel even predicted when the Messiah, Jesus would come. So if all of these prophecies have come true then what about the future prophecies in the Bible? What about the return of Jesus? They undoubtedly will come true.
Conclusion
Everything from science to archaeology to the prophecy has proven that the contents of the Bible are trustworthy. If anything from science or archeology seems to be in contradiction with the Bible, history seems to have proven that we just need to wait. The Bible can fend for itself and has stood the test of time contrary to what Voltaire and other sceptics believed. If all of these things have proven true, then the Bible is something that you can trust. The question then remains, will you trust in it?
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