The bible is full of statements making the claim to be the actual word of God. Moses writes in preface to the ten commandments in Exodus 20:1 “And God spoke all these words saying…”. The meaning here is pretty clear. Moses is claiming that he didn’t just make these commandments up – but that they came direct from God Himself. This is true of the prophets as well; Isaiah says in Isaiah 1:10 “Hear the word of the Lord…” again, the meaning is obvious; what they spoke and wrote was not just their own opinions and ideas. I could go on and on citing these kinds of claims of inspiration until they reached well into the 100’s. The point is clear: the Bible claims to be inspired by God. This claim of inspiration is so frequent in the Bible that perhaps this causes many to miss its significance entirely. Bible critics are often guilty of this when they casually dismiss this claim of inspiration by saying: “well, of course the Bible claims to be the word of God, but simply claiming such doesn’t make it so!” And that is very true, one should not accept divine inspiration simply because a particular book makes the claim. But what is often missed in all of this is the actual rarity of the claim of divine inspiration amongst religious documents. Many critics of the Bible seem to be operating under the mistaken presumption that the world is full of religious books and documents representing all the various religions that can be found in the world today, and ALL of them are claiming to be inspired by God. With all the competing claims of being the “real” word of God, who can sort it all out? Why should the claim of one of those documents (like the Bible) be any better than the supposed claims of the 100’s of other documents and books touted by all the other religions of the world? Well, if such were actually the case you might have a point. But such is simply not the case. In truth, the claim of divine inspiration is exceedingly rare, as pointed out in an article written by Eric Lyons:
“The fact is, the claim of inspiration at the hand of God is extremely rare. Many books assert special importance, while others claim to be a kind of “creed book.” But, as Kenny Barfield noted in his book, Why the Bible is Number 1, only seven documents exist in the whole world that openly claim divine inspiration.” (The Claim of Inspiration by Eric Lyons, http://www.apologeticspress.org/articles/1760)
What this means is this: When you are pondering the claim of divine inspiration of the Bible you are NOT dealing with a bewildering array of claims and counterclaims all clamoring for recognition and acceptance as the “real” word of God. The actual “field” is very small. In reality the claim of divine inspiration is rare. Indeed this claim should be considered seriously. Evidence needs to be presented that can substantiate such a bold claim. Let’s take a look at the evidence that substantiates the claim that the Bible is indeed the word of God.
1. Predictive Prophecy
One of the most powerful evidences for the inspiration of the Bible is the many fulfilled prophecies that it contains. The ability to predict future events with 100% accuracy demonstrates an ability that man does not possess and gives credence to the claim of divine inspiration. Below is a list of some of the prophecies in the Old Testament that foretold the coming of Jesus Christ.
Prophecy Fulfilment
Born of a virgin: Isa. 7:14 …………………..…..……. Mt. 1:18-25
Born in Bethlehem: Micah 5:2 …………….……..…. Mt. 2:1-6
Gifts brought to Him: Ps. 72:10-15 …….……..…. Mt. 2:1,11
Preceded by a messenger: Isa. 40:3 …………..…. Lk. 3:2-4
He will perform miracles: Isa. 35:5-6 ….……….. Mt. 9:35
Teacher of parables: Ps. 78:2………………….……. Mt. 13:34-35
Triumphant entry to Jerusalem: Zech. 9:9 ……. Lk. 19:35-37
Rejected by His own people: Isa. 53:3 …………. Jo. 7:5, 1:11
Stone of stumbling to the Jews: Ps. 118:22 ….. I Pet. 2:7
Light to the gentiles: Isa. 60:3, 49:6 …………… Acts 13:47-48
Sold for 30 pieces of silver: Zech. 11:12-13 .… Mt. 26:15 (Mt. 27:5-7)
Executed among criminals: Isa. 53:12 …………… Mt. 27:38
Resurrected from the dead: Ps. 16:10 ……..….. Acts 2:31
Some object to the actual fulfilment of the prophecies by claiming that the prophecies are not really prophecies at all, they were simply written after the fact and thus “fulfil” themselves. Yet this common objection does not take into account the fact that the Old Testament can be verified as being written to a minimum of 250 years before the actual birth of Christ. The Septuagint is a Greek translation of the Old Testament which was completed in the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus (285-246 BC). The Septuagint itself contains these prophecies and as such the objection that the prophecies were merely written after the fact is false.
Others object by contending that the fulfilment of Old Testament prophecies in Jesus was deliberate. That is, that Jesus and his followers being aware of the Old Testament prophecies merely did the things that they predicted the Messiah would do so it would look like Jesus “fulfilled” them. This objection might seem plausible until we realize that many of the prophecies concerning the Messiah were totally beyond the human control of Jesus, and/or his followers. For instance, Ps. 22:16 predicted that Jesus hands and feet would be pierced. This would require the cooperation of not only Jesus and his followers, but also the Romans who executed Jesus. Why would the Romans cooperate to “fulfil” this prophecy? It was predicted that Jesus would be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver (Zech. 11:12-13), again, how did Jesus or his followers get the Jewish authorities (who hated Jesus!) to go along with this prediction so it would have the appearance that Jesus “fulfilled” this Old Testament prediction? There are simply too many predictions in the Old Testament that are totally beyond the control of either Jesus or his followers to deliberately “fulfil” for this objection to be plausible.
Still others object contending that fulfilled prophecy in Jesus was a mere coincidence. Or that the prophecies are so vague that many people could fulfil them. But when you consider again the above list of just a few of the many prophecies concerning the Christ it is immediately apparent that they are NOT vague! Being born of a virgin is not a vague or imprecise statement! Neither is being born in Bethlehem or being betrayed for thirty pieces of silver or being raised from the dead! As for the mere coincidental fulfilment of the prophecies by Jesus, consider the following taken from Josh McDowell’s book “Evidence that Demands a Verdict”:
In his book Science Speaks, Peter Stoner took just 8 specific prophecies concerning the Christ and calculated that the odds in Jesus just “accidentally” fulfilling all 8 would be 1 in 10 to the 17th power (That’s 100,000,000,000,000,000 otherwise known as one hundred million billion!) – So staggering is this improbability, and so difficult a concept is it to comprehend, that Stoner illustrates it thus: “…we take 10 to the 17th power silver dollars and lay them on the face of Texas. They will cover all of the state two feet deep. Now mark one of those silver dollars and stir the whole mass thoroughly, all over the state. Blindfold a man and tell him he may travel as far as he wishes, but he must pick the one (marked) silver dollar and say that this is the right one. What chances would he have in getting the right one? Just the same chance that the prophets would have had of writing these eight prophecies and having all come true in any one man, from their day to the present time, providing they wrote them in their own wisdom.” (Josh McDowell, Evidence that Demands a Verdict, pp. 174)
The Old Testament prophecies of Jesus were not vague and imprecise statements allowing great latitude in their potential fulfilment. Neither is it reasonable to contend that Jesus’ fulfilment of Old Testament prophecy is mere coincidence. Jesus precise fulfilment of Old Testament prophecy demonstrates that the Bible is indeed the true word of God.
Article by: Gary Dent