The Bible Is Trustworthy

Is the Bible trustworthy in its claim to be God's Word? I can definitely say that there are sound evidences to support the position that the Bible's claim to be Divinely-inspired is trustworthy.

There are both internal and external evidences that the Bible is truly God's Word. The internal evidences are those things in the Bible that testify of its own Divine origin. External evidences are sources of information outside of the Bible which testify that the Bible is accurate.

INTERNAL EVIDENCE.

Internal Constistency.

The Bible is amazingly self-consistent; that is, it does not contradict itself. This is despite the fact that it is made-up of 66 books, written by more than 40 different authors of different professions over a time-span of 1600 years, in 13 different countries and three continents. It tells one 'big story' of God's plan of salvation that culminates in Jesus the Christ. This internal consistency is exactly what we would expect if the Bible really is what it claims to be – God's revelation to mankind.

Fulfilled Prophecy.

One of the strongest arguments for the trustworthiness of the Bible is its 100% accuracy in detailed predictions of the future – events and people that were future to the writers but are now in our past.. These future predictions are called 'prophecies'.

Let me give a hand-full of examples for your consideration:

1. Abram's Descendants To Be Enslaved 400 Years Before Being Set Free.

In Genesis 15, God tells Abram (later named Abraham) that his descendants would become as numerous as the stars, that they would be enslaved in a foreign land, the oppressive nation would be punished, and that the fourth generation would return to Palestine as a new nation

This detailed prophecy was wonderfully fulfilled in the events recorded in the books of Exodus, Deuteronomy, and Joshua. Abram's grandson, Jacob/Israel, took his family to dwell in Egypt (Exodus 1:1-5). The Israelites had multiplied so mightily that their number was as numerous as the stars in the night's sky (Exodus 1:7; Deuteronomy 1:10). The Egyptians enslaved the Israelites (Exodus 1:9-11; Deuteronomy 5:15). God punished the Egyptians with plagues until the Israelites gained their freedom (Exodus 3:6-9, 19-20). The new nation of Israel was taken from Egypt and brought back to the promised land of Palestine (Exodus 12:40-41; Deuteronomy4:32-34; 31:23; Joshua).

2. Jericho To Be Rebuilt By One Man At Terrible Cost.

May are aware of the historical story about Joshua and the 'Battle of Jericho' told in Joshua chapter 6. Much less well-known is the fact that Joshua prophesied that Jericho would be rebuilt by one man and that one man would be cursed by God for rebuilding - the man's eldest and youngest son son would die during construction (Joshua 6:26). About five centuries later, this prophecy found its fulfillment in the life and family of a man named Hiel - 1 Kings 16:34, “In his (King Ahab) days Hiel the Bethelite built Jericho; he laid its foundations with the loss of Abiram his firstborn, and set up its gates with the loss of his youngest son Segub, according to the word of the Lord, which He spoke by Joshua the son of Nun.” Scholars have calculated that the probability that this could be fulfilled by chance is 1 in 10,000,000.

3. The Israelites/Jews Would Be Rescued from Babylonia by Conqueror Cyrus.

Due to the extreme wickedness of the Israelites/Jews, God had the Babylonian Empire conquer the Israelites/Jews and bring them into captivity in Babylonia. The prophet Isaiah was told by God that a future conqueror, named Cyrus, would destroy the Babylonian Empire along with most of the other nations of the Middle East. This same Cyrus, said Isaiah, would decide to let the Jewish exiles go free without any payment of ransom and that the city of Jerusalem and other Judean cities would be restored (Isaiah 44:28; 45:1-6, 13). Isaiah made this prophecy 80 years before the Israelites/Jews were taken into Babylonian exile, 150 years before Cyrus was born, and 180 years before Cyrus, leader of the Medo-Persian Empire, performed any of these feats. Scholars have figured that the odds of Isaiah accurately foretelling all these particulars by chance would be 1 in 10,000,000,000,000,000.

4. Daniel Prophesies of Three Future Empires and the Establishment of Christ's Kingdom.

The prophet Daniel, who began foretelling the future by the “God of Heaven” in ca. 600 BC, revealed the next four world empires. In Daniel 2:31-45, the Prophet proclaimed that after the then-existing Babylonian Empire, would come the Medo-Persian, Grecian, and Roman Empires. During the Roman Empire, the Kingdom of God would be established and it would eventually bring-about the end of the Roman Empire. We know that the everlasting Divine kingdom was established by Jesus during the Roman Empire (Luke 2:1-7; 3:1-3, 21-23; 9:27; Matthew 28:18-20; Acts 2:29-36).