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Is the Bible true?
The Bible has withstood
attacks from critics for centuries, because we can easily make a compelling case
for it's complete accuracy.
Consider the astounding
prophecies. The Bible recorded the downfall of cities like Babylon, Nineveh,
Tyre and Sidon - predicting that the cities would never be rebuilt. Today, none
of those cities exist. The prophecies of Daniel were so profound that critics
complained that the book must have been written after the events took place.
Unfortunately for the critics, secular historians mention the book's existence
shortly after Daniel said he wrote the book.
Archaeologists are powerful
witnesses to the Bible's accuracy. The early books of the Bible include the
names of Egyptian pharaohs whose identities were unknown outside the Bible's
pages. Yet excavations done in the last fifty years have found ancient records
confirming their place on the Egyptian throne. Lee Strobel was an agnostic
reporter who intended to use archaeology to disprove the Bible. The result was
his conversion to Christianity and his book "The Case for Christ"
which documents how archaeology verifies the Bible's timeline.
Isaiah recorded that the world
was a globe (Isaiah 40:2) and Job stated that the earth was suspended on nothing
(Job 26:7). Yet most people believed the world was flat until the great
explorers sailed around the world in the 15th century AD. Moses recorded that
the blood was the source of life for mankind; it would take medical science
until the 1600's to understand this.
Recent motion pictures such as
the "DiVinci Code" sought to undermine the integrity of the Bible. Yet
understanding how the Bible books came into being is actually a faith-building
process. Until 1947, the oldest known manuscript from the Old Testament dated
back to 900 AD. But then Bedouin shepherds discovered scrolls in vases hidden in
caves near Jerusalem, a find now known as the "Dead Sea Scrolls".
Portions of every Old Testament book with the exception of Esther were found;
and an examination of the scrolls made an astounding conclusion: the scrolls
dated back before the birth of Christ - more than a thousand years older than
the previous oldest text - and yet the texts were virtually identical. Examining
the copies of the book of Isaiah, the researchers found that only a few Hebrew
letters were different (none effecting the meaning of the text) even though the
copies were written over a thousand years apart. God had truly protected His
Word!
But the most powerful example
of the Bible's authority is evidenced by the changed lives of its readers. Each
Sunday, churches in every city and town include men and women who will tell you
that the Bible is unlike any other book in the world. The Words in the Bible are
Living Words that bring hope, comfort and direction - just as the writer of
Psalm 119:105 said to God, "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for
my path."
You can learn more about the
Word of God by listening to:
Just Thinking (Monday through
Friday at 6:15am)
Back to the Bible (Monday
through Friday at 9:35am and 7:30pm)
Telling The Truth (Monday
through Friday at 11:00am)
Through The Bible (Monday
through Friday at 12:30pm, Sunday at 3:15pm)
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