The Proof Is There: The Bible Is God’s Inerrant Truth!
Word-Of-The-Day: ‘<God said to Daniel during Medes’ King Darius’ 1st Year,> “Now then, I tell you the truth…”’ (Daniel 11:2a); ‘(20) Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. (21) For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.’ (1 Peter 1:20-21); ‘(4b) …you will be able to understand <Paul’s> insight into the mystery of Christ, (5) which was not made known to people in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God’s holy apostles and prophets.’ (Ephesians 3:4b-5)
God reveals to His people the meaning behind His Word, and the revelation of His glorious Plan through the definition, understanding and comprehension of it through the Holy Spirit. For the Believer, our Faith comes through our commitment and trust in the Bible and its’ accounts. The Faithful Christian can (and should) take the Bible completely at its Word. It is, to the Believer, inherent and without mistake, completely and perfectly the historical account of Creation, from the formation of the universe to the future of what will occur at the End Times and beyond for all eternity, from cover to cover.
We who believe have the Holy Spirit which validates the Bible’s legitimacy. As we grow in sanctification from our starting point of Salvation, our belief should transition our Faith into Knowledge; we first belief in Christ, then we grow into a knowledge of Christ and who He is. We know the Bible is true because the Spirit that indwells provide us the evidence that Jesus is who He says He is, the Bible represents what it states, and the events and actions documented inside all are True and occurred as they are written.
For the non-believer, those who may believe that, yes, Jesus was a real person who was venerated but executed, or that while acknowledging Israel did have an ancient kingdom in antiquity, may not believe everything the Bible states. To the secularist, it is unfathomable for the universe to be created by the spoken word of God, but just had to be ‘something from nothing’, the Big Bang or some other catalyst that took billions of years to get to where we are today. They believe, in the faith of secular science, that a fish decided one day to grow legs, come out of the water, and walk onto the beaches, then morph over eons into the mammals we see today, including us humans.
This is admittedly hard for Christians to overcome in their witnessing to the Truth of Jesus. But the evidence of the Bible is not just in the Spirit that dwells within the Believer, but the evidence that is found within the physical Creation itself. The history of the Bible continues to be found in the archeological records, in discoveries made over the centuries and into today that give underpinning to the historical accounts of the Old Testament.
The accounts of Egypt’s Pharoah Rameses II have been found in ruins close to Cairo and the Nile Delta; the fall of Jericho’s wall have been verified through the analysis of the shattered bricks surrounding its location. The Ark that carried Noah and the animals is seen in an outline next to Mount Ararat in eastern Turkey, and preliminary scans show voids that are shaped like rooms that could be the pens the animals were kept in.
Even the accounts of Jesus that some may consider folklore are found to be accurate, with the remnants of gardens found under the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, the traditional site considered by many in the Christian Faith to be the location of the crucifixion and the Tomb where Jesus’ body was laid. More evidence is found verifying the accounts of the Great Flood, of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and of reign of David.
We also have the accounts of prophecy, or the prognostications of events documented and recorded prior to them occurring, within the Bible. Daniel 11 and 12 provides, at the time he recorded these prophecies, of the future, to likely provide to King Darius and his fellow Israelites to provide a ‘head’s up’ on what was to come after the reign of Darius through the End Times. This glimpse into the future was given to Daniel by God through the Holy Spirit, and backed by the prophecy of John in the book of Revelation.
Other prophecies, including the Messianic prophecies fulfilled by Jesus, are also at their time of documentation future events that were either fulfilled and proven correct, are currently being fulfilled and proven correct, or will be fulfilled in the future to be proven correct. The fulfilled prophecies, proven as true by the historical record, further should prove to the skeptics the validity of the Truth of the Bible.
For the Faithful Christian, we should always point to the Bible as our foundational source of Truth, and use it along with the witness of our actions and words, to bring the Word of the Lord to those who do not yet know it. For some, like Thomas who was one who needed physical proof in order to conquer his doubt (‘I need to not only see but touch the wounds of your crucifixion, Jesus, before I can fully accept you’ve come back from the dead…’), they want to see proof.
It is not improper to point to these archeological findings to demonstrate the validity of the Bible, and to grow their acknowledgement that the Bible’s Truth is there in front of them. The Bible says it happened, and there is verifiable evidence that they can see and research. The Bible, as alluded to in 1 Peter 1:20-21, is not man-made conjecture but verifiably God’s Word through the archeological evidence and the prophecies fulfilled that demonstrate God’s eternal omniscience.
The ‘mystery’ that Paul reveals, that God provided Jesus to be the sacrifice for all men, both Jew and Gentile, the promised Messiah to provide Salvation to all who believe. It is throughout Paul’s writings, and culminates in his statement in Ephesians 3; the prophecies throughout the Bible all point to Jesus as the Messiah, and the one who will reign – for those of us who fully trust and obey Him – as our eternal King.
While it is the job of the Holy Spirit to provide this revelation to the non-believer, we must ensure to use our Knowledge, acquired through our own Sanctification journey, and through pointing to the evidence provided by both the confirmation of prophecies and the physical evidence continuing to be discovered, to direct those non-believer to the point where they ask the question, ‘What must I do to believe? Help me, Lord, with my unbelief!’. This is the goal of the Great Commission, to equip ourselves with the ability to get the non-believer we are witnessing to, to ask this one question – the Holy Spirit will then take it from this point on, and prayerfully have them join our heavenly Family.
