Examining the Evidence (ver. 1.3)
Compiled and Edited by Dennis Crawford
| Chapter | Title | Page # |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Common Sense Reasoning | pg. 4 |
| 2. | The Bible Claims Divine Authorship | pg. 5 |
| 3. | It Has Endured the Test of Time | pg. 7 |
| 4. | Unity of Scriptures | pg. 8 |
| 5. | Fulfilled Prophecies | pg. 9 |
| 6. | The Bible As A History Book | pg. 12 |
| 7. | Scientific Foreknowledge | pg. 16 |
| 8. | Science and the Bible | pg. 17 |
| 9. | Astronomy | pg. 20 |
| 10. | Oceanography | pg. 21 |
| 11. | Physics | pg. 23 |
| 12. | Medicine | pg. 23 |
| 13. | Biology | pg. 24 |
| 14. | Geology - The Great Flood | pg. 26 |
| 15. | Archaeology | pg. 26 |
| 16. | The Dead Sea Scrolls | pg. 29 |
| 17. | Atomic Physics | pg. 31 |
| 18. | Intelligent Design: In Nature: | pg. 31 |
| 19. | Mathematics, etc | pg. 31 |
| 20. | Conclusion | pg. 35 |
One of the most important issues a person searching for truth faces is the question of the Bible’s inspiration. Is it a book from God? Is the Bible really believable? Are the teachings of the Bible reliable? Does the Bible apply to us today? If the answer to these questions is “no,” then nothing matters in religion and you and I are wasting our time! On the other hand, if the answer to these questions is “yes,” then everything matters, and we ought to consider very carefully what the Bible teaches!
The “intelligent” people of today see the Bible as a great myth that should be scorned and rejected. They say that to believe the Bible is a sign of weakness. They say the Bible is a work of man who needed a God, and therefore he created one in his mind, and began to write about Him. They explain the Biblical account of our creation by saying that because people did not understand their beginnings, they made up a theory of a great God who created all things. They usually believe this without even considering other rational alternatives to examine, because of being “closed-minded” due to their preconceived beliefs.
Others, though they do not disdain the Bible, look at it as a wonderful work of men. They claim it is a book to be admired and studied; a book of great value to society in molding character and shaping lives. But they, too, deny that it is a book from heaven.
Even in the religious world, there is a sharp disagreement concerning the inspiration of the Scriptures. Some religious groups now teach that the Bible is inspired, but in the same way that Shakespeare, Beethoven, and Poe were inspired when they wrote their works. They say, “God blessed these men with the ability to write profound works. Similarly, God blessed the men who wrote the Bible with the ability to pen their beliefs in profound ways.” This theory is called “Universal Inspiration.”
Other religious groups teach that the Bible is inspired in its general principles and ideals of righteousness, but not in its historic facts, specific statements of doctrine or commands. They say, “God guided the general teachings, but not the specific writings.” This theory is called “Partial Inspiration.” Many religious groups are now holding to this theory.
Despite the views of many in our society, we maintain that the Bible contains God’s Word. It is inspired in all that it says. The men who wrote the Bible, wrote exactly what God wanted them to write, without error or contradiction, while still retaining their own character and style.
First, if the men who wrote the Bible were liars, and knew they were liars, why would they write a book that condemned liars to a devil’s hell (1 Timothy 1:9-10; Revelation 21:7)? If hypocritical men invented a Savior, why would they invent a Savior who condemned hypocrisy (Matthew 23)? Why would false witnesses write a book condemning false witnesses? Why would proud, boastful men write a book that praised humility and self-sacrifice? Surely we need not go further to see the fallacy. When individuals organize a religion or “club,” they naturally make rules that will fit their lifestyle and ease their conscience. If ordinary men lied and created a Bible, they would not make it self-condemning.
Second, if ordinary men wrote the Bible, why do they depict themselves in a “bad light” from time to time? Why would they have their Savior born in a barn? Or grow up in Nazareth? Or die on a Roman Cross with thieves? Why would the disciples admit their cons- tant lack of faith in Jesus as their Savior? Why would Peter’s denial be highlighted as it is in the Gospels? Why would Paul’s past life be presented? Etc. Human nature would have caused the writers to depict Jesus as a “hero” and their own role in history as faultless.
Third, if ordinary men wrote the Bible, what motive could they have had? What did they have to gain? They did not gain money. They did not gain comfort. If they were living a lie, they did not gain happiness. And if they were living a lie, they did not gain a home in heaven. These individuals, because of their faith, were considered the scum of the earth in the eyes of many, and most died horrible deaths as their reward. People do not go to such lengths (sacrifice of time, money, suffering) without motives. The disciples, by lying, had nothing to gain and everything to lose.
The Bible was written by many different men, most of whom were of very ordinary background. They were shepherds, farmers, a tax collector, fisherman, and a tent-maker --- unlearned and ignorant men in comparison to the “Scholars” that existed in the first century. Yet, these simple, ordinary men wrote with exaltation, and confidently claiming that their writings were from God. They gave God the credit for everything they did. These very ordinary men produced a book that has lasted for thousands of years, and is still the single best-selling book in the world. Is this not incredible? It is very incredible, unless we under- stand that the Bible is not merely a work of man, but of God. Common sense leads us to this conclusion.
rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,
so that the man of God may be
thoroughly equipped for every good work,”
(2 Timothy 3:16-17)1
In this passage, Paul makes three important claims about the Bible:
1) It’s teachings are inspired --- they come from God;
2) Because the Bible represents God’s Word, it’s teachings are authoritative --- they are useful for teaching, rebuking, correct- ing, and training in righteousness; and
3) It is complete, giving us all that we need to know in order to serve God properly. A proper relationship with God depends on a proper understanding of these truths. Peter said,
came about by the prophet's own interpretation.
For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man,
but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit,”
(2 Peter 1:20-21)
To illustrate let us take for example the Constitution of the United States of America. We have the original document signed by the founding fathers stored at the National Archives and Records Admin- istration, in Washington D.C. What if it burnt to the ground and the original document of the Constitution was destroyed? Would the Constitution of the United States be in doubt?
Not at all, because we have so many copies in every law library and school in the United States, and probably throughout the world --- that there would remain no doubt at all as to what that original document said. The same is true of the Bible --- there are so many copies that have been found [over 24,633 from 10-225 years after Christ’s death], that there is very little doubt ( 99.4%) as to what the original documents said. The 0.6% that remains is almost exclusively “slips of the pen” words misspelled, wrong punctuation, etc. --- that there remains no doubt at all as to any fundamental doctrine of Christianity!
So, according to the Bible, when we read from its pages, we are not reading the words and thoughts of some frail mortal such as you and I. We have before us the mind of the Eternal God, the All-Powerful and Omnipotent Creator.
Fortunately, this subject does not come down to mere subjective speculation, or “our word against your word.” There is ample evidence, internal and external, verifying the validity of the Bible: many books have been written on the subject. Obviously, in this limited format, the best we can do is to survey a few pieces of the evidences that point to the Bible’s inspiration.
the Test of Time
First, it has survived the threats and warfare of those who have hated it. Throughout the ages, people have tried to destroy and discredit the Bible. Roman emperors of the first three centuries tried to destroy it. They were unsuccessful. In the centuries to follow, the Roman Catholic Church tried to keep the Bible out of the hands of the people. They made it a crime to translate the Bible into a language other than Latin.
They later made it a crime to own a Bible without receiving authorization from the Roman Catholic Church. In 1229, the Catholic Church forbade reading or studying the Bible, except by church officials. Despite these formidable attempts by the Catholic Church to keep people from reading the Bible, it is now printed in nearly every known language, and is available throughout the world.
Robert Ingersol, the famous infidel of the Nineteenth Century, once held a copy of the Bible and boasted, “In fifteen years, I’ll have this book in the morgue.” In less time than this, Ingersoll was in the morgue. Voltaire, the Philosopher, boasted that within 100 years, the Bible would be found only in museums. Nearly 200 years later, the Bible is still available in most societies. Ironically, after Voltair’s death, his house was purchased by the Geneva Bible Society. From the same presses that once printed Voltaire’s atheistic literature, thousands of Bibles were printed.
Second, the Bible has survived the false religions that have been built upon it. The teachings of the Bible have been misrepresented by many through every age since its writing, yet, it’s truths live on.
Years have come and gone, and the Word of God continues to be published and read by people everywhere. Surely this must suggest that there is something special about the great book. As one writer once wrote, “The Bible is an anvil that has worn out many hammers.” Jesus said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away,” Mark 24:35. “For all men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the Word of the Lord stands forever,” (1 Peter 1:24-25). No other book has had to endure what the Bible has endured, The fact that the Bible is still available is evidence of its inspiration.
Allow me to illustrate. Suppose someone in England wrote two lines of music, someone in Greece wrote three lines of music; someone in Germany wrote five lines of music, I wrote a couple of lines of music, and so on. Also suppose that like myself, all of the other writers were generally unskilled musicians. Yet, we each wrote the same melody, in the same key, with the same timing and rhythm, etc., so that when the music was brought together, it made a beautiful, complete symphony. What would you think? If you are like me, you would say, “Impossible! Unless each of these amateur musicians were being guided by some master musician.”
Consider the Bible. This collection of 66 books was penned by at least 40 writers, from four continents, over a period of 1600 years, yet contains no contradictions! Some wrote in Palestine, some in Egypt, others in Asia, Rome, Babylon, and Persia. They were from prisons, palaces, and islands. They were from different backgrounds. Because they were separated by time, distance, circumstances, and backgrounds, many of the authors never saw, spoke to, or even heard of any of the other men that helped pen the pages of the Scriptures. Yet, when all of these books were brought together, they were all in perfect harmony, without contradiction or discrepancy, telling of the spiritual history of humanity and God’s provincial care. They all wrote of the same God, the same events, the same Savior, the same fears and the same hopes.
What do you think? Impossible? Sure it is ... unless they were guided by the same Master-Mind. That mind of the Eternal Creator God!
1) In the 26th chapter of Ezekiel (592-570 BC) seven things are predicted to happen to the city of Tyre. They occurred exactly as stated in the Bible. Check your history books.
2) In Micah 4:10, 150 years before the event, Micah prophe- sied that the kingdom of Judah would be taken captive by Babylon. In Jerimiah 25:11-12 it was further prophesied that the captivity would last for exactly 70 years. Check your history books, both came true exactly as prophesied.
3) The prophet Isaiah foretold that a conqueror named Cyrus would destroy seemingly impregnable Babylon and subdue Egypt along with most of the rest of the known world. This same man, said Isaiah, would decide to let the Jewish exiles in his territory go free without any payment of ransom (Isaiah 44:28; 45:1; and 45:13). Isaiah made this prophecy 150 years before Cyrus was born, 180 years before Cyrus performed any of these feats (and he did, eventually, perform them all), and 80 years before the Jews were taken into exile.
4) The exact location and construction sequence of Jerusalem's nine suburbs was predicted by Jeremiah “last days," that is, the time period of Israel's second rebirth as a nation in the land of Palestine (Jeremiah 31:38-40). This rebirth became history in 1948, and the construction of the nine suburbs has gone forward precisely in the locations and in the sequence predicted.
One of the major Old Testament prophecies concerning Christ's coming as the Messiah is from the book of Daniel. First, when Daniel recounted and interpreted Nebuchadnezzar's dream, he revealed that God would establish the Messianic kingdom during the time of the Roman Empire (i.e., the fourth kingdom represented in the king's dream --- Daniel 2:24-45). Roman domination of Palestine began in 63 BC, and the Empire continued until AD 476.
Second, the Christ was promised to come before "the scepter" departed from Judah (Genesis 49:10). If this prophecy has reference to the Messiah ("Shiloh") coming before God's people lost their national sovereignty and judicial power ("septer"), then He had to come before the Jews lost their power to execute capital punishment (John 18:31). When Rome deposed Archelaus in AD 6, Coponius was installed as Judea's first procurator, "The procurator held the power of jurisdiction with regard to capital punishment" (Solomon 1972, 13:117). Hence, Christ was predicted to come before AD 6 (4, pp 176-178).
Third, Daniel predicted that the Messiah would come, die, and bring and end to "sacrifice and offering" before the destruction of Jerusalem (cf. Daniel 9:24-27: Matthew 24:15; Jackson). Jerusalem was obliterated by Rome in AD 70.
Fourth, the Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem of Judea (Micah 5:2). It is a matter of historical record that Jesus was indeed born in Bethlehem while Palestine was under Roman rule, before Judah lost her judicial power, and before the destruction of Jerusalem (see also Matthew 2:3-6 and Luke 2:1-6). (7,45)
Many of the prophecies concerning the messiah were totally beyond human control, such as:
Birth: Place, time, manner of Death: Peoples reactions, piercing of side, burial, & resurrection: Where did His body go?
By using the modern science of probability in reference to just eight of these prophecies --- the chance that any man might have lived to fulfill all eight prophecies is one in one hundred trillion!
To illustrate this: If we take 100 trillion silver dollars --- and lay them on the face of Texas, they would be two feet deep. Now we mark one of these silver dollars and stir the whole mass thoroughly --- all over the state. Now blindfold a man and let him travel as far as he wishes, but he must pick only one silver dollar. What chance would he have of picking the right one? The same chance that the prophets would have of writing just eight of these prophecies and having them all come true for any one man --- if they had written them without God's inspiration!
The chance of any one man fulfilling all of 48 prophecies is one in 10 to the 157 power. The electron is about as small an object as we can imagine. If we had a cubic inch of these electrons and tried to count them, it would take us (at 250 per minute) 19,000 times 19,000 times 19,000 years to count them. Now mark one of them, and thoroughly stir it into the whole mass. What chance does our blindfolded man have of finding the right electron? --- The same chance as one man of fulfilling 48 of the prophecies about Christ, without being the Son of God!
Jesus Christ Fulfilled Every Prophecy Written About The Coming Messiah--- Over Three Hundred Of Them!
Would that have been possible had He not been who He claimed to be, the Son of God?
The ancient city of Babylon of the famous king Nebuchadnezzar yielded 2500-year-old cuneiform tablets (now located in the British Museum) that contained the name of Jehoiachin king of Judah who with the inhabitants of Judah were deported to Babylon as prisoners after the conquest of Judah by Nebuchadnezzar and dated and described the conquest itself. This substantiates the story recorded in the Bible in 2 Kings chapter 24. (8/301-304) Any historical statement made in the Bible that has archeological, geographical, or scientific references that have come to surface have been verified by the physical evidence pro- vided by discoveries in these different areas.
Lucian, a Satirist of the second century, who spoke scornfully of Christ and the Christians. He connected them with the synagogues of Palestine and alluded to Christ as: “... the man who was crucified in Palestine because He introduced this new cult into the world ... Furthermore, their first lawgiver persuaded them that they were all brothers, one of another, after they have transgressed once for all by denying the Greek gods and by worshipping that crucified sophist Himself and living under His laws.” (11)
Flavius Josephus, born AD 37, a Jewish historian, became a Pharisee at age 19. In AD 66 he was the commander of Jewish forces in Galilee. After being captured, he was attached to the Roman head- quarters. He says, “Now there is about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call Him a man, for He was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to Him both many of the Jews, and many of the Gentiles. He was the Christ, and when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principle men among us, had condemned Him to the cross, those that loved Him at the first did not forsake Him; for He appeared to them alive again the third day; as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning Him. And the tribe of Christians so named from Him are not extinct at this day.” (12)
“In the whole story of Jesus Christ, the most important event is the resurrection. Christian faith depends on this. It is encouraging to know that it is explicitly given by all four evangelists and also by Paul. The names of those who saw Him after His triumph over death are recorded; It may be said that the historical evidence for the resurrection is stronger than for any other miracle anywhere narrated; for as Paul said, ‘If Christ is not risen from the dead then is our preaching in vain, and your faith is also in vain.’ “ ( 5/18)
In his book, “Who Moved the Stone?” (6) Frank Morison, a lawyer, tells us how "he had been brought up in a rationalistic environment, and had come to the opinion that the resurrection was nothing but a fairy tale happy ending which spoiled the matchless story of Jesus. Therefore, he planned to write an account of the last tragic days of Jesus, allowing the full horror of the crime and the full heroism of Jesus to shine through. He would, of course, omit any suspicion of the miraculous, and would utterly discount the resurrection. But when he came to study the facts with care, he had to change his mind, and he wrote his book on the opposite side. His first chapter is significantly called, ‘The Book that Refused to be Written’. The rest of his volume consists of one of the shrewdest and most attractive written assessments I have ever read...” (2/54-55)
Professor Thomas Arnold, was for fourteen years the famous headmaster of Rugby, author of the famous three-volume “History of Rome”, appointed to the chair of Modern History at Oxford, was certainly a man well acquainted with the value of evidence in determining historical facts. This great scholar said in his work, “Sermons on the Christian Life --- It’s Hopes, It’s Fears, and It’s Close” (6th edition, London, 1859, p. 324):
“The evidence for our Lord’s life and death and resurrection may be, and often has been, shown to be satisfactory; it is good according to the common rules for distinguishing good evidence from bad. Thousands and tens of thousands of persons have gone through it piece by piece, as carefully as every judge summing up a most important cause. I myself have done it many times over, not to persuade others, but to satisfy myself. I have been used for many years to study the histories of other times, and to examine and weigh the evidence of those who have written about them, and I know of no one in the history of mankind which is proved by better and fuller evidence of every sort, to the understanding of a fair inquirer, than the great sign which God has given us that Christ died and rose again from the dead.” (7/425-426).
On the Sunday morning following Jesus' burial, almost 2,000 years ago, something happened that changed the course of history from BC (before Christ) to AD (Latin "Anno Domini" - the Year of our Lord). That something was so dramatic it completely changed eleven men’s lives so that all but one died a martyr's death, and turned the world upside down. That "something" was an empty tomb. An empty tomb that a 15 minute walk from the center of Jerusalem would have confirmed, or disproved!
Job wrote of God, “He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing,” (Job 26:7). At the time Job wrote this, there was virtually no scientific knowledge concerning the universe. The last thought of the average man was that the earth sat upon nothing! Some thought that it rested upon the back of a great turtle, while others held equally ridiculous theories. How was Job able to know that the earth was suspended in space, thousands of years before such could be proven? He must have had help from Someone greater than himself.
This verse also revealed, centuries before human exploration confirmed the fact that the north polar region of the earth is a barren “empty space” --- a barren, frozen wasteland, a permanent ice cap with no land underneath. Submarines are able to navigate under the ice cap because there is nothing underneath it to prevent them.
Isaiah wrote, “It is He that sitteth upon the circle of the earth,” (Isaiah 40:22). It was believed for more than twenty centuries after Isaiah wrote that the earth was flat. At the close of the 15th century, when Columbus made the famous voyage, there were still many who held to this erroneous belief. Yet, Isaiah confidently declared that the earth was round. How could he learn such information on his own?
There are numerous other passages that could be noted. For example, the Bible declared that there were channels or rivers that flowed through the Seas (2 Samuel 22:16). The Bible gives good and accurate teachings concerning the control of disease prevention (Leviticus 13:45; 14:1-47); geographical information; astronomy, biology, and oceanography. The Bible writers were centuries ahead of their time! They must have been guided by a higher power!
Science, which is knowledge, is the organized body of observa- tion and experiment on present (repeatable) processes. Science can examine and analyze present processes and materials, but science cannot conclusively say how things came into existence, because origins are not subject to experimental verification. Science can only show what can be verified now, not what has happened in the past. That is for historians, biographies, and autobiographies.
but He who built all things is God”
(Hebrews 3:4)
If the God of the Bible is a Reality,
He cannot contradict His speech
in Nature by His speech in Scripture.
Science is simply the process of discovering the mechanisms of nature, which God has put in place to make our universe work as it does. Science has opened up the secrets and meaning of nature, the creation of God. Both science and theology deal with the same universe; one part is physical and the other invisible. Through the Scriptures we discover the origin, purpose and end of the created universe. The reliability of the Scriptures can be validated by logical examination of evidence, just as valid scientific data can. Through science we find clues, analogies, confirmations of the existence and nature of the invisible universe. (2/28)
All conflict between Science and the Bible falls into the realm of interpretation of facts --- which are based upon assumptions (assumptions which can be in error!). No fact of science is in conflict with the scriptures! To set science against theology is simply to oppose Creation to Revelation, and Nature to Redemption. It is the uniform testimony of Scripture that the God and Christ of creation are the God and Christ of redemption.
It is the interest of science to amass all the facts about the universe in its countless facets; it is the function of the Bible to give these data their purpose and theological orderings. Science without Scripture sets forth the universal scheme as blind, meaningless, and purposeless never knowing of an hour of creation, or consummation, and in the perspective of an infinity of years and an immensity of space our human hopes, joys, tragedies, aspirations, civilizations, intellectual and artistic achievements are meaningless, insignificant and trivial.
It is the insistence of the Biblical revelation that God is the God of all humanity, of the entire world, and of all the universe. Both science and Christianity deal with the same universe. The emphasis in science is on the visible universe, and of Christianity the emphasis is on the invisible universe, but it is one universe! (2/28-29)
2)Isaiah said, "It is He [God] who sits upon the circle of the earth" (Isaiah 40:22).
The Hebrew word Isaiah used for "circle" means literally something with "roundness" or "spherically". Of course, the people of Isaiah's time (and for many generations to come) thought the earth was flat, not spherical. Another lucky guess?
3) Psalm 19:5-6 contains several interesting facts. In speaking of the sun, the psalmist says that "His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and the circuit unto the ends of it; and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof."
For many years, Bible critics scoffed at the Bible stating that this verse taught the old false doctrine that the sun revolves around the earth! Then, it was recently discovered that the sun is in fact, moving through space. It is not stationary, as was once thought. In fact, it is estimated to be moving through space at about 600,000 miles per hour, in an orbit so large it would take an estimated 200,000,000 years just to complete one orbit! Another lucky guess?
Oh, another thing, there is another gem tucked away in these two verses. The writer hints at the fact that the sun is the source of the energy of the earth ("and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof"). An amazing statement, considering when it was written, is it not?
The Water Cycle
The Mississippi River, when running at an average rate of flow, dumps approximately 6,052,500 gallons of water into the Gulf of Mexico --- per second. Remember this is just the water from this one river. There are thousands of rivers worldwide dumping enormous amounts of water into the oceans! Where does all that water go?
Ecclestiates 11:3a states that "If the clouds be full of rain, they empty themselves upon the earth."
Amos 9:6b reminds us that
More than 2,000 years prior to their discoveries, however, the scriptures indicated a water cycle! A lucky guess??? Right!
Indeed, he found just that! He was the first (of whom we have a written record) to recognize that the seas were circulating systems with interaction between wind and water. His book on Physical Ocean- ography is still considered a basic text for the studies of that sort. The book: ”Pathfinder of the Seas" by Matthew Fountain Maury (publish- ed in 1927 by C.S. Lewis for the U.S. Naval Institute) recounts the entire story. Maury "took God at His Word" and found that Word to be fully accurate!
In three places the Bible affirms that the earth is wearing out in Isaiah 51:6 and Psalms 102:26, and Hebrews 1:11 all say that, "... the earth will wear out like a garment". This is precisely what the Second Law of Thermodynamics says: everything is running down, wearing out; energy is becoming less and less available for use; Entropy (a measure of randomness, disorderliness, lack of structure) is increasing.
That of course, means that eventually the universe will "wear out". The Bible writers knew it, and stated it clearly. We didn't discover it until a few years back. How did the Bible writers know?
According to the Old Testament, circumcision was to be performed on the eighth day of a newborn male's life. (Genesis 17:12). Why the eighth day? In 1935 Professor H. Dam proposed the name "Vitamin K" for the factor in foods which helped prevent hemorrhaging in baby chicks.
We now know that Vitamin K is responsible for the production of prothrombin by the liver. If Vitamin K is deficient, there will be a prothrombin deficiency and hemorrhaging may occur, since both Vitamin K and prothrombin are necessary for proper blood clotting. Oddly enough, it is only on the 5th through the 7th days of the newborn male's life that Vitamin K begins to be produced (usually produced by bacteria in the intestinal tract). It is only on the eighth day that the percentage of prothrombin climbs above 100%!
The only day in the entire life of the newborn that the blood- clotting element prothrombin is above 100% is day eight. Therefore, the best day for circumcision is eight day! Did Moses have access to modern day scientific knowledge, or did God tell him to write this?
Genesis 3:15 says, "... between her seed and thy seed", revealing that a female (as well as a male) possessed the seed of life. Such, however, was not believed in Moses' day, or even until recently. Ancient writers believed that only the male possesses the seed of life, and that the female was nothing more than a "glorified incubator". One writer even suggested that you could deposit the male semen in the warm mud, and the result would be the same as depositing it in the human female! How was Genesis so accurate?
“The dictum ‘All life from preexisting life’ became the dogma of modern biology, from which no reasonable man could be expected to dissent." (7) The experiments which formed the ultimate basis of this law were first carried out by such men as Francesco Redi (1688), Lazarro Spallanzani (1799), Louis Pasteur (1860), Rudolph Virchow (1858). It was Virchow who documented that cells do not arise from formless matter, but instead come only from preexisting cells. (1,vol. IX,#6/22). This law has no exceptions. This, by the way, is one of the many major flaws in the theory of evolution!
Thousands of years before the "Law of Biogenesis", Moses declared that things reproduce "after their kind" (Genesis 1:11-12, 21, 24). You don't get bananas from corn stalks, buffaloes from zebras, or dogs from cats, or something from nothing! Moses was right on target, but how did he know these things --- since the science of genetics wasn't instituted until the year 1900?
Paul, in 1 Corinthians 15:39 says that there are four fleshes --- those of men, beasts, birds, and fishes. Today, even evolutionists acknowledge this truth. These fleshes are different indeed in their biochemical makeup. But how did Paul, an itinerant preacher, know this?
Paul also said that it is God who gives all life (Acts 17:25). For centuries men tried to prove spontaneous generation true; they attemp- ted to "create" life through naturalistic processes, yet always without success. Men may alter the state that life is, but they cannot create it. But, how did Paul know this almost 2,000 years ago? Another of those lucky guesses? (1/Vol 1, #9, 33)
Many huge fossil beds have been found where great numbers of many different types of animals were together. The Flood explains this: as waters rose, animals sought higher ground and eventually were all together, then swept off together where currents deposited them along with loads of sediment.
The quick-frozen Mammoths in Siberia are in favor of the Flood. The Grand Canyon: water cut through material not yet consolidated after it had been deposited by the flood.
How would you get all those animals in the Ark? Ernst Mayr, a leading taxonomist, list 17,600 species of mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians: Taking sheep as the average size for the animals (You can fit 240 sheep into a two level box-car); The Arc was a huge box that would have space for 522 boxcars (the measurements are in Genesis 6:15). This means all 17,600 would fit, leaving plenty of space for food and people. So maybe the Flood and Noah's Arc aren't so far-fetched after all?
1) Civilization began in Mesopotamia: The Fertile Crescent has been proven to be the cradle of civilization.
2) The long lives of patriarchs before the flood. Archeology has revealed men living great lengths of time:
The Sumerian's, lived in ancient Mesopotamia from 4000 to 3000 BC, (sometimes called "the cradle of civilization") and seem to have been the oldest people to make use of writing. These people made contributions to many areas, which still influence us today in Astronomy, Mathematics, Geometry, Fine Arts, and Architecture. Their day was divided into two twelve hour segments, and their architecture may have been responsible for constructing the famous "tower of Babel" (4/9-14), from which all languages seem to have originated (6/47).
Cuneiform from excavations of the capital city of Mari, have produced records of familiar Biblical names such as Peleg, Serug, Nahor, and Terah, as well as the city of Haran where Abraham lived, as well as the city of "Ur of Chaldees" in his youth. (5/26-28) From them has been recovered a record called The Sumerian King list which tells of kings reigning from 10,800 to 64,800 years. The Bible is pretty conservative com- pared to these, and suggests that before the Flood there was a water canopy around the earth which created a greenhouse effect removing the harmful rays of the sun (see Genesis 2:6-14).
3) The Great Flood: Archaeologists have found many ac- counts of a Great Flood, which are amazingly parallel to the Bible (Genesis 6-8). Most striking similarities are: divine judgment; of a hero who constructs a boat; even of sending out birds. Mere coincidence?
Today many believe that Noah's actual ark is still in existence on Mt. Ararat in Eastern Turkey, near the border of Russia and Iran. Some claim to have seen it; due to its being under snow most of the time, and being located close to the Russian border, it has been extremely difficult to prove this conclusively.
At the foot of Ararat lies the little Armenian village of Bayzit, whose inhabitants have for generations recounted the remarkable experience of a mountain shepherd who was said to have seen one day on Ararat a great wooden ship. A report from a Turkish expedition in 1833 seemed to confirm the shepherd's story since it mentioned a wooden prow of a ship which in the summer season stuck out of the south glacier.
The next person to claim to have seen it was Dr. Nouri Archdeacon, of Jerusalem and Babylon. This agile ecclesiastical dignitary undertook a journey in 1892 to discover the sources of the Euphrates. On his return he told of the wreckage of a ship in the eternal ice: “The interior was full of snow: the outer wall was of a dark red color.”
In the First World War a Russian flying officer, named Roskowitzki, announced that he had spotted from his plane “the remains of wreckage of a fair-sized ship” on the south flank of Ararat. Although it was the middle of the war, Czar Nicholas II dispatched a search party without delay. It was supposed not only to have seen the ship, but even to have photographed it. All proof of this, however, perished --- presumably in the revoltion.
From the Second World War there are likewise several cases of aerial observation. They come from a Russian pilot and four American fliers.
These later reports brought into the field the American historian and missionary Dr. Aaron Smith of Greensboro, an expert on the Flood. As the result of years of labor he has collected a complete history of the literature on Noah’s Ark. There are 80,000 works in seventy-two languages about the flood, of which 70,000 mention the legendary wreckage of the Ark.
In 1955, in the early morning of July 6th, Fernand Navarra from France, searching for the most famous ship in history, succeeded to his great surprise in salvaging three fragments of a wooden beam embedded in solid ice on top of the mountain. The timber was at least 5,000 years old, although whether this was actually a relic of Noah’s Ark it is of course impossible to say.8
4) Stories like the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9); Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 18-19); Jericho (of Joshua 6) are no longer regarded as myths --- have been proven by archeology.
On the floor of the cave were several large jars, carefully sealed, containing leather scrolls, wrapped in linen cloth. Because of this, the scrolls were preserved in excellent condition from about A.D. 68, about thirty years after Christ's death.
The problem before the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls was, "How accurate are the copies we have today of the Bible, compared with the text as originally written?". Because the text has been copied so many times, can the Bible be trusted?
One of the scrolls found was a complete manuscript of the Hebrew text of Isaiah. It is dated by Paleographers at around 125 B.C. This is more than 1,000 years older than any manuscripts previously possessed before this time.
The "Isaiah copies" proved to be word for word identical with our standard Hebrew Bible in more than 95% of the text! The remaining 5% consisted chiefly of obvious slips of the pin and differences in spelling. This demonstrates the unusual accuracy of the meticulous copyists of the scriptures. [Read Isaiah 53, and comapre it with Christ's suffering and death on the cross in the New Testaament Gospels--- if you want to really blow your mind! pdc]
Each of the fifty chapters of Genesis are either illuminated or confirmed by some archeological discovery, as are most of the remaining books of the Bible! These are housed in the Museum at Jerusalem, but make a world-wide tour on a regular basis.
Previous to this critics of the Bible had said:
1) "Moses' time was prior to all knowledge of writing." ? At Ebla, tablets were found containing writing from times prior to Moses' time.
2) "Various uses of the name for God indicated more than one author for the book of Genesis"?
At Ebla, a Cannitish text was discovered, dated at the time Moses lived, that used five different names for God --- in a single narrative!
3) "The five 'Cities of the Plains' (Genesis 14) did not exist, and the kings and events listed there were fictitious and historically unreliable." ?
The Ebla archives refer to all five “Cities of the Plains” on one tablet ... in the exact same sequence and spelling as in Genesis 14; (these kings were made to pay tribute to Ebla)!
4) “The Priestly Codes and moral legislation recorded by Moses were far too developed to have been written by him." ?
Tablets containing law codes were discovered at Ebla, demonstrating that other civilizations at the time of Moses possessed elaborate judicial proceedings and case law!
"How could there be a fire big enough to burn up the whole world?" they said. Two generations later science discovered atomic energy. In these verses God is prophesying how the world would come to an end through an atomic reaction that actually melts the basic building blocks of matter itself. That is an atomic physics statement from a fisherman of 2,000 years ago! Mere chance? No chance!
Creationism typically starts with a religious text and tries to see how the findings of science can be reconciled to it. Intelligent design starts with the empirical evidence of nature and seeks to ascertain what inferences can be drawn from that evidence. One of these "Intelligent Design” features can be seen in the area of:
In the Bible
Mathematics is a genuine, fundamental part of our universe. These fundamental mathematical laws have been discovered as we poke and probe at the how and why things predictably behave the way they do. There are things in Mathematics we have to accept by faith, or we can’t do the math! Much of our knowledge and practice of Mathematics must be by faith, because the reasons are not understood, but we know they are true --- because it works reliably and consistently.28
If the God of Creation is the God of the Bible we would expect to see these same mathematical precisions demonstrated with the Bible, would we not? If the God of the Bible is a reality, He cannot contradict His speech in Nature by His speech in Scripture!
(Hebrews 3:4)
In the summer of 1882, a young American immigrant from Russia named Ivan Panin was just graduating from Harvard. He was an agnostic traveling the country, often lecturing on atheism. He was a brilliant mathematician, multi-lingual scholar and literary figure. Panin became converted to Christianity and began to study the Bible Script- ures. Knowing Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek, he began to read them in the original languages.
Both Hebrew and Greek are unique in the fact that they do not have a numbering system. They do not use special symbols for their numbers (like our Arabic numbers 1,2,3 etc.). They use instead the letters of their alphabets to represent numbers. Aware of the numerical values of the Greek and Hebrew alphabets, Panin experimented one day by replacing the letters with their corresponding numbers in the Scriptures. Suddenly, his trained mind saw evidence of a mathematical pattern, far beyond random chance, or human ability to construct!
He later supplied a representative of the Nobel Research Foundation with over 43,000 sheets of his studies accompanied by his statement that this was his evidence that the Bible is the Word of God. Their reply was "As far as our investigation has proceeded ... we find the evidence in favor of such a statement." Panin then issued a challenge throughout leading newspapers of the world to offer a "natural explanation" or refute the facts; not a single person was able to do so.
What Panin found:
Psalms 12:6
He found that the number of words in a vocabulary is divided by 7. The number of proper names, both male and female, is divided by 7. The number of words that begin with a vowel is divided by 7. The same with consonants; words that occur more than once; all the words that occur only once; also the number of words beginning with each letter of the alphabet. And on and on ... anything you can devise to check! He stated, "the longer you stay on a passage, it would continue to yield further and further evidence of patterns within patterns!”
In this verse alone there are 30 different features of 7. The chances of this happening accidentally is 1 in 33 trillion! Every paragraph, passage and book in the Bible can be shown to be constructed in the same marvelous way. How could men separated by thousands of years in time write this book in their own unique style, without the power of God guiding them?
Matthew 1:1-11 has 49 words (7 x 7) in the original Greek, with 28 words that begin with a vowels (4 x 7), and the remaining 21 (3 x 7) begin with a consonant. 7 end with a vowel, and 42 end with a consonant (6 x 7). The 49 words have 266 letters (38 x 7); 140 are vowels (20 x 7); 126 are consonants (18 x 7). Of these 49 words, 14 occur only once (2 x 7); 35 occur more than once (5 x 7); 42 are nouns (6 x 7) that have exactly 49 letters (7 x 7). Male names occur 56 times (8 x 7), and women's names appear 3 times (a prime number), and the letters of their names add up to 14. However far do you want to check it ... It keeps coming out the same!
Every word, chapter, and book in the Bible checks out this way. The Bible has its own built-in self-checking mechanism against someone tampering with it! Take out one letter and it damages the whole pattern! How could mere fishermen and tax collectors have conjured up something as remarkable as this mathematical pattern? 3
One mind, one author --- one God, many different writers, but one Writer! Can you imagine the kind of Mind that would do this, and not even care if you found out?
This book, God’s book, teaches us what to believe, how to live, how to worship, etc. We should make it our goal to live by the teachings of the Bible, for the Bible also reveals that a vast eternity awaits each of us. And, where we spend eternity will be based on whether or not we live in accordance with the teachings of the Bible!
2. Green, Michael, “Man Alive”, Downer’s Grove, Ill, 60515: Inter-Varsity Press, 1968
3. MsDowell, Josh, “Research in Christian Evidences”, 1986
4. McDowell, Josh. "Evidence That Demands a Verdict", Here's Life Publishers, 1986.
5. Smith, Wilbur M., “A Great Certainty in This Hour of World Crisis”, Wheaton: Van Kampen Press, 1951
6. Morison, Frank, “Who Moved the Stone?”, London: Faber And Faber, 1967.
7. Smith, Wilbur M., “Therefore Stand: Christian Apologetics”, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, copyright 1965.
8. Keller, Werner, “The Bible as History”, Bantam Books, N.Y, .1988
9. Bruce, F.F. (ed.), “The New International Commentary on the New Testament”, Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1971. 10. Annals XV. 44, 112 A.D.
11. The Passing Pereguis, Early second century
12. Antiquities, xviii.33.- Early second century
13. Curtis, George, “The Military Discipline of the Romans from the Founding of the City to the Close of the Republic”, An abstract of a thesis published under the auspices of the Graduate Council of Indiana University, 1928.
14. Dion. Hal, Antiq. Rom. VIII.79
15. Jim Crouch, Christian Expositor Journal, March 1993, pgs. 19-26, P.O. Box 725, Buffalo, MO 65622.
16. Hyma, Albert, "Ancient
History", New York: Barnes & Nobel, Inc., College Outline Series
17. Seller, Charles E. & Russel, Brian, "Ancient Secrets of the Bible", New York: Dell Publishing
18. Free, Joseph, "Archaeology and Bible History". Wheaton: Scripture Press Publications
19. Ivan Panin (various works), "Bible Numerics," P.O. Box 206, Waubaushene, Ontario, L0K 2C0
20. Keller, Werner, The Bible as History, Bantam Books,, 666 Fifth Avenue, N.Y., N.Y. 10103
21. Kirk, David, "Biology Today", New York: Random House, 1975.
22. Ramm, Bernard, "The Christian View of Science and Scripture", Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Ferdmans Pub. Co
23. McCormack, R., "The Heptadic Structure of Scripture," Marshall Brothers Ltd., London, 1923;
24. E.W. Bullinger, Numbers of the Scriptures; F.W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (7 vols.)
25. Thompson, Bert & Jackson, Wayne, "Reason & Revelation", Apologetic Press, Inc., Montgomery, Al, 36109.
26. Browne, Ordo Saeculoreium, et al.
27. Bert Thompson, Ph.D, “Reason and Revelation" (Science in the Bible), Apologetics Press, 5251 Millwood Road, Montgomery, All. 36106.
28. Hannah Fry, Phd, Magic Numbers, Hannah Fry Official website , UK
29. Dawkins, Richard; The Blind Watchmaker (New York, NY: Norton, 1986), 1
30. Meyer, Stephen; Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design (San Francisco: Harper One, 2009), 173-323.
31. Behe, Michael; Darwin’s Black Box
32. Lukin, Casey; The Top Evidence for Intelligent Design
33. Gauger, Ann; Science and Human Origins
34. Guillermo Gonzalez, PHD and Jay Richards, PHD; Introduction to The Privileged Planet
35. Evolution News Science; Using Statistical Methods to Model the Fine-tuning of Molecular Machines and Systems
36. Pratney, Winkle; Holy Bible Wholly God’s Word, a Bible tract.
37. Panin, Ivan: Panin’s Greek & English Parallel New Testament, 1934, pub. Mark Vedder, 2017
What If?
Please ask your-self this: if all the historical, scientific, and prophetic and every other statement made in the Bible are true and accurate --- then what about the what the Bible says about the choices that you make now (or don't make) --- that can affect your eternal future (eternal life or death)? Is it not in your best interest to study it to find out what God requires of those who would be His children, and live with Him in eternity? (Romans 8:14-16).
Remember, the Bible says that we will all be judged by His Word on that final day (John 12:48: Revelation 20:12-15)!
50 Key Questions
Are You a Christian?
Understanding the Bible
What Must I Do To Be Saved?
Once Saved, Always Saved?
Acceptable Worship
Are We Under the Ten Commandments?
Why did Christ die?
The Empty Tomb
The Lord’s Supper
Through Faith
One Faith
Why So Many Churches?
Church History, Summary of
Choosing a Mate
Is Conscience a Safe Guide?
Cut and Paste Religion
Baptism and Forgiveness
How to Be Born Again
The Thief on the Cross
The Rapture
Armageddon
Heaven
From Heaven, or From Men?
Heaven -- Don't Miss it!
Lazarus and the Rich Man
You're a Good Person
For a list of free Bible studies, information or comments: Text or call Dennis Crawford at 253-396-0290, e-mail: BibleTruthsToU@gmail.com, www.BibleTruthsToU.blogspot.com, www.LettheBibleSpeak.com, or www.NewTestamentChurch.org.
1) Hear The Gospel – the Death, Burial and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
(I Corinthians 15:1-4; Mark 4:20,24; Luke 8:21; John 5:24 ).
2) Believe The Gospel – That Jesus Died for our sins, was Buried and Rose on the third day, to prove that He is God.
(Mark 1:15; 16:16; John 1:12; 8:24; Acts 16:31; Galatians 3:26).
3) Repent Of Your Sins - Turn from your own ways and follow God's ways.
(Matthew 4:17; Mark 1:15; 6:12; Luke 13:3-5; Acts 2:38; 3:19; 17:30-31; 26:20).
4) Confess Christ – As the Son of God, Lord and your Savior.
(Matthew 10:32; Romans 10:9-10; 1 John 4:3; 2 John 7)
5) Be Baptized For The Forgiveness of Your Sins - by full immersion in water, in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
(Matthew 28:19; Acts 2:37-38; 8:35-38;16:30-33; 22:16, 38; Romans 6:3-4; 1 Corinthians 12:13; Colossians 2:12-13; Galatians 3:26-27).
6) Continue Steadfast Unto Death; in an attitude of Obedience to Bible teachings, learning, fellowship, and acts of goodness to others.
(Matthew 5:6,16; 7:21;15:14; Luke 6:46-49; Acts 2:42, 47; Romans 2:13; 12:1-2, 10-12; 1 Corinthians 15:58; 2 Corinthians 13:5; Galatians 6:6-10; Colossians 1:22-23; 2:5-8; Hebrews 3:14; 5:9; James 1:22; 2:14 &26; 2 Peter 1:4-8; 3:17-18; 1 John 1:9-10).
* Upon a Scriptural Baptism, the penitent believer is added to the Lord’s church by the Lord (Acts 2:47)
Romans 16:16
Friday, August 21, 2015
The Bible's Claims for Itself
But, before beginning to examine the above "evidences," there is one other point that needs examination. Would not a Book that is supposedly given from God also claim that it is from God? There are many who claim that other books are from God, but within their pages are no such claims. How could a Book from God not tell us it's source? Let's examine what is claimed within the pages of the Bible about the source of the knowledge contained therein.
Inspiration can be defined as the mysterious process by which God worked through human writers, employing their individual personalities and styles to produce divinely authoritative and inerrant writing [Geisler, GIB. 39]. The Bible claims to be His word; it has come from His very mouth --- and this claim is supported by evidences from every area we care to examine.
Some examples are:
Exodus 32:15, which reads, speaking of the stones the Ten Commandments were written on, "And Moses turned and went down from the mountain, and the two tablets of the Testimony were in his hand. The tablets were written on both sides; on the one side and on the other side they were written. Now the tablets were the work of God, and the writings was the writing of God engraved on the tablets."
Numbers 1:1; Deuteronomy 6:1; 10:1-2; 29:1; 31:24-26 also make such claims to inspiration. Genesis alone makes no such direct claim. However Genesis too was considered to be a part of the "Book of Moses" [see 2 Chronicles 35:12 and Nehemiah 13:1]; and by virtue of this association carries the same divine authority. Whatever holds true for one books holds true all the books in that section, i.e. "The Law," and the "Prophets."
The books of the Prophets were considered to be the rest of the Old Testament, other than the first five books from Genesis to Deuteronomy --- also contain the same type of claims of inspiration from God. We find examples in Danial 9:12; Jeremiah 25:11; Ezra 1:1; 5:1, Zechariah 7:12, to name a few. Such phrases as "The word of the Lord came expressly to Ezekiel," Ezekiel 1:3; " Hear O heavens, and give ear, O earth! For the Lord has spoken! " Isaiah 1:2; "The word of the Lord came to me saying .." Jeremiah 1:11. Similar statements can be found throughout the books of the Prophets. The characteristic prophetic introduction "thus saith the Lord" and similar expressions are found in the Old Testament hundreds of times.
The prophets were the voice of God not only in what they said, but also in what they wrote. God commanded Moses, "Write these words" Exodus 34:27. The Lord ordered Jeremiah to "Take yet another scroll, and write on it all the former words that were in the first scroll" Jeremiah 36:28. Isaiah testified that the Lord said to him: "Take a large scroll and write on it," and again God told him: "Now go, write it before them on a tablet, and note it on a scroll, that it may be for time to come, forever and ever" Isaiah 30:8. A similar command was given to Habakkuk: "Write the vision and make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it" Habakkuk 2:2.
The vast majority of the books of the Old Testament (about eighteen of the twenty-four) explicitly claim that they are God's words to men. But all of the books of the Old Testament were written by men accredited of God, who almost without exception, claim them to be the authoritative word of God.[Geisler, GIB 69-10].
In a real sense, Jesus Christ is the key to the inspiration and canonization of the Scriptures. It was He who confirmed the inspiration of the Hebrew canon of the Old Testament; and it was He who promised that the Holy Spirit would direct the apostles into "all truth," the fulfillment in the New Testament. [John 14:26; Acts chapters 1 and 2].
According to Ephesians 2:20 the church is "built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets". The word "apostle" should not be limited to the twelve apostles. Paul was an apostle [Galatians 1; 2 Corinthians 12]; as was Barnabas [Acts 14:14]; James wrote with divine authority [James 1:1]; and there were others with prophetic gifts in the first century [i.e. Agabus in Acts 11:28]. The gift of either an apostle or a prophet would qualify one to receive a revelation [see Ephesians 2:20], and several New Testament writers qualify as "prophets" [i,e, Mark, Luke, James, and Jude].
Acts 2:42 records that the believers "continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and fellowship." One way the authority of apostolic teachings, then, is seen not only by virtue of it's equality with the prophets, but by it's fundamental to the church.
Peter refers to Paul's writing as "Scripture" [2 Peter 3:16], and 1 Timothy 5:18 draws from both Luke 10:7 and Deuteronomy 25:4 in applying the phrase "for the Scripture says." If the writings of Luke, who was not an apostle, are quoted as Scripture, and Peter, who incidentally was rebuked by Paul [Galatians 2:11], considered Paul's books to be Scriptural --- then it follows that the New Testament as a whole should be regarded as Scripture. It would be be included in the statement "All Scripture is inspired of God" 2 Timothy 3:16.
The character of God demands inerrancy. If every utterance in the Bible is from God, and God is a God of truth --- as the Bible declares Him to be --- then the Bible must be wholly truthful, or inerrant!
Modern Day Revelation?
For example, Joseph Smith, the founder and author of the Mormon scriptures (Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, Pearl of Great Price), presents God as being an exalted man, who lived on some planet out in the universe, who earned the right to godhood by being faithful and doing good works. This is completely counter to everything that the Bible says about the person, nature and character of God. Further, there are irreconcilable contradictions between Mormon scriptures, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price which clearly establishes its human authorship. God does not contradict Himself as the LDS Standard Works do. For example the Book of Mormon states that God created the heavens and the earth, yet they teach that he was born a man on some planet out in the universe that already existed and that he has a mother and father who had a mother and father and so on back in time. Yet, how then could their god be the creator of the universe in which he was born into and only after a human life was exalted to becoming a god?
The contradiction in their Scriptures shows its blatant error which give proof of its human authorship. The LDS Scriptures do not compare to the Bible on any level and are proven to be historically, culturally and doctrinally to be in gross error with known history, archaeology, and science, therefore it is shown not be from God. In contrast the Bible is proven to be historically, culturally and doctrinally accurate in its statements proving it to be the Word of God.
None of the "later" so-called scriptures can meet even one of the standards on which the canon of the Bible was established. This is an extremely powerful argument that God is not giving new revelation today. One unmistakable and recognizable trait of a false preacher or church is its acceptance of modern day revelation. In every case the new revelation leads men away from God's truth and thus into doctrinal error and away from God.
The same is true of modern-day "creed-books" of denominations. They cause division within the church by teaching doctrine(s) that are not in harmony with the Scriptures. The only "creed-book" that is needed is God's Word the Bible! We must heed the warnings of God's word --- to not add, nor take away from it! We must, "study to show ourselves approved unto God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly divides the word of truth," 2 Timothy 2:15; of which we have example of in Acts 17:11. In other words, we must "Speak where the Bible Speaks. Be Silent where the Bible is Silent"!
and Final Revelation
The Statements Against Adding or Taking Away from the Bible Speaks Against God Giving New Revelation.
Another strong reason for rejecting that modern day revelation is from God is taken from His very Word, the Bible. Note the following Bible passages that warn about adding or taking away from the Scriptures:
Deuternomy 4:2, "You shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall you diminish from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you."
Deuteronomy 12:32, "Whatsoever I command you, observe to do it: you shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it."
Proverbs 30:6, "You shall not unto His words, lest He reprove you, and you be found to be a liar."
Revelation 22:18-19, "For I testify unto every man that hears the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and [from] the things which are written in this book."
When the canon of Scripture from God was complete God had said all He needed to say to man. This was true throughout the process of revelation. When Moses finished the Pentateuch under the inspiration of God there was no need of further revelation at that time. They had the Law and God's instruction to live their lives by. As time went on God through the other prophets revealed more and more truth about Himself and His plan for the World.
This process of revelation continued until the whole of God's plan was completely revealed with the completion of the Book of Revelation. Some would try to limit the warning of not adding or taking away from the Scriptures to just that of the Book of Revelation. However, its place as the last Book of the Bible and its revealing of what was past, present and future makes this limitation implausible (Revelations 1:19). God not only revealed the truth of John's day in the Book of Revelation, but in 18 of its 22 Chapters reveals what the future will hold until the end of this age and to eternity future.
The Bible says that we each will live eternally, either in heaven or hell, depending on whether we obey God. The Bible also says we must: believe (Romans 10:17), repent (turn from sin --- Romans 3:23; Acts 17:30), confess Jesus Christ as the Son of God (Romans 10:10), be baptized by full water immersion into Christ for the remission of sins (Galatins 3:27; Acts 2:38; 8:35-38; Mark 16:16), and to be faithful until death (Revelation 2:10). If you were to die right now, would you go --- to heaven or hell?
* Much of the above information was adapted from "The New Evidence that Demands a Verdict," by Josh McDowell, pgs 333-349.
** Also from Cooper Abrams article "Is God Giving Men Revelation Today?" www.Bibletruth.org
Friday, March 13, 2015
2) Bible Evidences MENU
The Bible, consisting of 66 books; written over a period of 1500 years [40 generations]; by over 40 authors from every walk of life; in three continents [Asia, Africa, and Europe]; in three languages [Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek]. Yet it contains an amazing unity and conformity on hundreds of controversial subjects! There is a harmony within the Bible that is not possible in a book written by mere men!
The Old Testament Law provides the "foundation for Christ"; the historical books show "the preparation" for Christ"; the poetical works "aspire to Christ"; and the prophecies display an "expectation of Christ. " The New Testament gospels ... record the "historical manifestation of Christ"; Acts relate the "propagation of Christ"; the Epistles give the "interpretation of Him"; and in Revelation is found the "consummation of all things in Christ." [Geisler/Nix, GIB'86, 29].
Let's examine the evidence to see if this is indeed the "Word of God," as it claims to be!
..the Booklet,"Is the Bible From God, or From Man's Imagination?" is available free! (Just contact us and we will send you the free booklet in digital or paper format)
Science And The Bible
Science, which is knowledge, is the organized body of observation and experiment on present (repeatable) processes. Science can examine and analyze present processes and materials, but science cannot say conclusively how things came into existence, because origins are not subject to experimental verification. Science can only show what can be verified now, not what has happened in the past. That is for historians, biographies, and autobiographies.
If the God of the Bible is a reality, He cannot contract His speech in Nature by His speech in Scripture. If the Author of Nature and Scripture are the same God, then the two “books” of God must eventually recite the same story ... as science discovers more and more and continues to discard theories that contradict the reality of nature. Science merely documents nature, while God is the reality lying behind all phenomena, supporting it, directing it, and explaining it. We must be ready to hear the voice of science and the voice of Scripture on common matters. Scientific knowledge is invaluable for a knowledge of the Bible --- at least to know it fully and completely.(2/25)
Science is simply the process of discovering the mechanisms of nature, which God has put in place to make our universe work as it does. Science has opened up the secrets and meaning of nature, the creation of God. Both science and theology deal with the same universe, one part is physical and the other invisible. Through the Scriptures we discover the origin, purpose and end of the created universe. The reliability of the Scriptures can be validated by logical examination of evidence, just as valid scientific data can. Through science we find clues, analogies, confirmations of the existence and nature of the invisible universe. (2/28)
If one were to put into operation an automotive plant so fixed that as the finished products were driven off the assembly line they would drop into the maws of the huge smelter from which they were originally derived, it would be judged as a case of a perverted and fantastic mentality. Yet this is precisely the type of analogy much of modern science is following. It is the intent of science to amass all the facts about the universe in its countless facets; it is the function of theology to give these data their purpose and theological ordering. (2/27)
OF SCIENCE
2) Isaiah said, "It is he [God] who sits upon the circle of the earth " (Isaiah 40:22).
The Hebrew word Isaiah used for "circle", means literally something with "roundness" or "sphericity". Of course, the people of Isaiah's time (and for many generations to come) thought the earth was flat, not spherical. Another lucky guess ?
3) Psalm 19:6 contains several interesting facts. In speaking of the sun (vs. 4), the psalmist says that "His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and the circuit unto the ends of it; and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof."
For many years, Bible critics scoffed at the Bible stating that this verse taught the old false doctrine that the sun revolves around the earth! Then, it was recently discovered, that the sun is in fact, moving through space. It is not stationary, as was once thought. In fact, it is estimated to be moving through space at about 600,000 miles per hour, in an orbit so large it would take an estimated 200,000,000 years just to complete one orbit! Another lucky guess ?
Oh, another thing, there is another gem tucked away in these two verses. The writer hints at the fact that the sun is the source of the energy of the earth ("and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof"). An amazing statement, considering when it was written, is it not?
The idea of a complete water cycle was not fully understood or accepted until the 16th and 17th centuries. The first substantial evidence came from the experiments of Pierre Perrault and Edme Maroitte. Astronomer Edmund Halley also contributed valuable data to the concept of a complete water cycle. More than 2,000 years prior to their discoveries, however, the scriptures indicated a water cycle. How? Just a lucky guess?
2) Matthew Fontaine Maury (1806-1873) was once confined to bed during a lengthy illness. His son, who had been asked to read for him from the Bible, turned to Psalm 8 and upon reading verse 8, drew his fathers immediate attention. The verse reads, "The birds of the heaven, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passes through the paths of the seas". It had never been noticed by Maury before. Using this verse he decided to find the "paths of the seas".
Indeed, he found just that! He was the first (of whom we have a written record) to recognize that the seas were circulating systems with interaction between wind and water. His book on physical oceanography is still considered a basic text for studies of that sort. The book, Matthew Fontaine Maury: Pathfinder of the Seas, by C.S. Lewis (published in 1927 by the U.S. Naval Institute) recounts the entire story. Maury "took God at His Word" and found that Word to be fully accurate!
3) Job was asked by God (Job 38:16), "Hast thou entered into the springs of the sea? or hast thou walked in the recesses of the deep?". The Hebrew word for "recesses" (or "trenches") refers to that which is "hidden, and known only by investigation." What then were these "recesses of the deep" (the Hebrew for "deep" is the word for seas or oceans)?
Man, in previous centuries, thought of the seashore as nothing but a shallow, sandy extension from one continent to another. Then, in 1873 a team of British scientists searching in the Pacific Ocean found a "recess" 5 1/2 miles deep. Later, another team of scientists found in the Pacific ocean a trench more than 6 miles deep! How did Job know the recesses of the deep were there, when they weren't discovered for centuries?
In three places the Bible affirms that the earth is wearing out in Isaiah 51:6 and Psalms 102:26, and Hebrews 1:11 all say that, "... the earth will wear out like a garmet". This is precisely what the Second Law of Thermodynamics says: everything is running down, wearing out; energy is becoming less and less available for use; Entropy (a measure of randomness, disorderliness, lack of structure) is increasing.
That of coarse, means that eventually the universe will "wear out". The Bible writers knew it, and stated it clearly. We didn't discover it until a few years back. How did the Bible writers know?
In fact, human red blood cells can carry 270 million molecules of hemoglobin, each.. If there were any less, there would not be enough residual oxygen available to sustain life after, say, a good sneeze, or a hard pat on the back! We know today that "the life of the flesh is in the blood". But it wasn't known even as recently as in George Washington's day. He was bled to death through the blood-letting process of that days doctors. How was Moses so accurate ???
According to the old testament, circumcision was to be performed on the eighth day of a newborn male's life. (Genesis 17:12). Why the eighth day? In 1935 Professor H. Dam proposed the name "Vitamin K" for the factor in foods which helped prevent hemorrhaging in baby chicks.
We now know that Vitamin K is responsible for the production of prothrombin by the liver. If Vitamin K is deficient, there will be a prothrombin deficiency and hemorrhaging may occur, since both Vitamin K and prothrombin are necessary for proper blood-clotting. Oddly enough, it is only on the 5th through the 7th days of the newborn male's life that Vitamin K begins to be produced (usually produced by bacteria in the intestinal tract). It is only on the eighth day that the percentage of prothrombin climbs above 100%!
The only day in the entire life of the newborn that the blood-clotting element prothrombin is above 100% is day eight. Therefore, the best day for circumcision is the eight day! Did Moses have access to modern day scientific knowledge, or did God tell him to write this?
· Genesis 3:15 says, "... between her seed and thy seed", revealing that a female (as well as a male) possessed the seed of life . Such, however, was not believed in Moses day, or even until recently. Ancient writers believed that only the male possesses the seed of life, and that the female was nothing more than a "glorified incubator". One writer even suggested that you could deposit the male semen in the warm mud, and the result would be the same as depositing it in the human female! How was Genesis so accurate?
· Thousands of years before the “Law of Biogenesis”, Moses declared that things reproduce "after their kind" (Genesis 1:11-12, 21, 24). You don't get bananas from corn stalks, buffaloes from zebras, or dogs from cats. Moses was right on target, but how did he know these things --- since the science of genetics wasn't instituted until the year 1900?
· Paul, in 1 Corinthians 15:39 stated that there are four fleshes --- those of men, beasts, birds, and fishes. Today, every evolutionists acknowledges this truth. These fleshes are different indeed in their biochemical makeup. But how did Paul, an itinerant preacher, know this?
· Paul also said that it is God who gives all life (Acts 17:25). For centuries men tried to prove spontaneous generation true; they attempted to "create" life through naturalistic process, yet always without success. Men may alter the state that life is, but they cannot create it. But, how did Paul know this almost 2,000 years ago ? One of those lucky guesses? (1/Vol1, #9, 33)
In 1885, Edward Suess was one of the first geologists to publish a study based on the geologic framework of all countries. His research led to his discovery that all land surfaces had been under water, especially in his observations of the world's mountain ranges. This explains why you find shells on the tops of mountains. Coincidence?
Many huge fossil beds have been found where great numbers of many different types of animals were together: Flood explains this: as waters rose, animals sought higher ground and eventually were all together, then swept off together where currents deposited them along with loads of sediment.
The quick-frozen Mammoths in Siberia is in favor of the Flood.
The Grand Canyon: water cut through material not yet consolidated after it had been deposited by the flood.
How would you get all those animals in the Arc?
Ernst Mayr, a leading taxonomist, list only 17,600 species of mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians:
· Taking sheep as the average size for the animals (You can fit 240 sheep into a two level box-car);
· The Arc was a huge box that would have space for of 522 box cars (the measurements are in Genesis 6:15). This means all 17,600 would fit leaving plenty of space for food and people. So maybe the Flood and Noah's Arc aren't so far-fetched after all
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1)
Civilization began in Mesopotamia: The Fertile Crescent has been proven to be the cradle of civilization.
2) Long lives of patriarchs before the flood . Archaeology has revealed men living great lengths of time:
The Sumerian’s, lived in ancient Mesopotamia from 4000 to 3000 BC, (sometimes called “the cradle of civilization”) and seem to have been the oldest people to make use of writing. These people made contributions to many area which still influence us today in Astronomy, Mathematics, Geometry, Fine Arts, and Architecture. Their day was divided into two twelve hour segments, and their architecture may have been responsible for constructing the famous “tower of Babel” (4/9-14), from which all languages seem to have originated (6/47). Cuneiform from excavations of the capital city of Mari, have produced records of familiar Biblical names such as Peleg, Serug, Nahor, and Terah, as well as the city of Haran where Abraham lived, as well as the city of “Ur of Chaldees” in his youth. (5/26-28) From them has been recovered a record called The Sumerian King list which tells of kings reigning from (10,800 to 64,800???) years. The Bible is pretty conservative compared to these, and suggests that before the Flood there was a water canopy around the earth which created a greenhouse effect removing the harmful rays of the sun (see Genesis 2:6-14).
3) The Great Flood: Archaeologists have found many accounts of a Great Flood which are amazingly parallel to the Bible (Genesis 6-8). Most striking similarities are: divine judgment; of a hero who constructs a boat; even of sending out birds. Mere coincidence?
4) Today many believe that Noah's actual arc is still in existence on Mt. Ararat in Turkey: some claim to have seen it; due to its being under snow most of the time, and being located close to the Russian border, it has been extremely difficult to prove this conclusively.
5) Stories like the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9); Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 18-19); Jericho (Joshua 6) are no longer regarded as myths --- have been proven by archaeology.
"How could there be a fire big enough to burn up the whole world?", they said. Two generations later science discovered atomic energy. In these verses God is prophesying how the world would come to an end through an atomic reaction that actually melts the basic building blocks of matter itself. That is an atomic physics statement from a fisherman of 2,000 years ago! Mere chance? No chance!
Now both Hebrew and Greek (the New Testament languages) are unique in that they do not use special symbols for their numbering system, but instead use the letters of their alphabets to represent numbers. Each letter can actually represent a number, too.
Aware of the numerical values of the Greek and Hebrew alphabets, Panin experimented one day by replacing the letters with their corresponding numbers in the Scriptures. Suddenly, his trained mind saw a mathematical pattern. The verses he had studied bore unmistakable evidence of "an elaborate mathematical pattern, far beyond random chance, or human ability to construct!"
This study marked a turning point in his career, and from that time until his death in 1942, he devoted his entire life to the study of Bible numerics. He later supplied the Nobel Research Foundation with over 43,000 sheets of his studies accompanied by his statement that this was his evidence that the Bible was the Word of God, and was acknowledged by them, "As far as our investigation has proceeded.. we find the evidence overwhelming in favor of such a statement."
Panin found that patterns of prime numbers, such as 11, 13,17, 23, "but especially 7", were found in great clusters. When you add up the sum of all numerical values for different words, sentences, paragraphs, passages, and whole books, you find the same pattern in each of these forms!:
- 1) The number of words in a vocabulary divides by 7.
2) The number of proper names, both male and female, divides by 7.
3) The number of words that begin with a vowel, or a consonant, divides by 7.
4) The number of nouns is divisible by 7, as are the words that are not.
5) The same for words that occur more once in a sentence, paragraph, book, or the whole Bible divided by 7.
6) Even the number of words beginning with each letter of the alphabet are divisible by 7!
7) And on and on the list goes ... limited only by your imagination!
Genesis 1:1, the very first sentence in the Bible states "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." In the Hebrew that comes out exactly 7 words, that have exactly 28 (4 x 7) letters, 3 nouns (God, Heaven, and Earth), one Hebrew verb (created). Taking the letters of the nouns and substituting their numerical equivalents and adding them up, you get 777 (111 x 7)! The verb had a numerical value of 203 (29 x 7). This process can be carried out as far as you want to go!
Matthew 1:1-11 has 49 words (7 x 7) in the original Greek, with 28 words that begin with a vowels (4 x 7), and the remaining 21 (3 x 7) begin with a consonant. 7 end with a vowel, and 42 end with a consonant (6 x 7). The 49 words have 266 letters (38 x 7); 140 are vowels (20 x 7); 126 are consonants (18 x 7). Of these 49 words, 14 occur only once (2 x 7); 35 occur more than once (5 x 7); 42 are nouns (6 x 7) that have exactly 49 letters (7 x 7). Male name occur 56 times ( 8 x 7), and women's names appear 3 times (a prime number), and the letters of their names adds up to 14 . How far do you want to check it. It keeps coming out the same!
Every word, chapter, and book in the Bible checks out this way. The Bible has it's own built-in self-checking mechanism against someone tampering with it! Take out one letter and it damages the whole pattern ! How could mere fishermen and tax collectors have conjured up something as remarkable as this mathematical pattern? (3)
One mind, one author --- one God, many different writers, but one Writer! Can you imagine the kind of Mind that would do this, and not even care if you found out?
All conflict between the Science and the Bible falls into the realm of interpretation of facts --- which are based upon assumptions (assumptions which can be in error!). No fact of science is in conflict with the scriptures! To set science against theology is simply to oppose Creation to Revelation, and Nature to Redemption. It is the uniform testimony of Scripture that the God and Christ of creation are the God and Christ of redemption. It is the interest of science to amass all the facts about the universe in it’s countless facets; it is the function of the Bible to give these data their purpose and theological orderings.
Science without Scripture sets forth the universal scheme as blind, meaningless, and purposeless never knowing of an hour of creation, or consummation, and in the perceptive of an infinity of years and an immensity of space our human hopes, joys, tragedies, aspirations, civilizations, intellectual and artistic achievements are meaningless, insignificant and trivial.
Science in harmony with the Scripture and human life with all it’s hopes, joys, tragedies, aspirations, civilizations, intellectual and artistic achievements become the very center of the universe. It is the insistence of the Biblical revelation that God is the God of all humanity, of all the world, and of all the universe. Both science and Christianity deal with the same universe. The emphasis in science is on the visible universe, and of Christianity the emphasis is on the invisibility universe, but it is one universe! (2/28-29)
The more one studies the Bible, from any perspective (Science, History, Prophecy, Numerology, Etc.), the more it's reliability is established ! You can put any test that you want on this book and nothing is even in the same class. No other work of man in any language even faintly resembles the intricate structure and design of the Bible. The Bible is not just a book --- it is God who has spoken in history, and presents His Truths of the invisible, or spiritual side of the universe. They are just as “true” as the God’s physical truths science documents for us. Truth is truth and facts are facts no matter who develops them!
The Bible will, and has, stood the test of time and is worthy of your investigation. The truth welcomes examination. Find out for yourself: is the Bible what it says it is, the word of God? Or is it just another book in a sea of books?
The Bible also says that we each will live eternally, either in heaven or hell, depending on whether we obey God. The Bible says we must: believe (Romans 10:17), repent (turn from sin --- Romans 3:23; Acts 17:30), confession of Jesus as the Son of God (Romans 10:10), baptism into Christ for the remission of sins (Galatins 3:27; Acts 2:38; Mark 16:16), and to be faithful until death (Revelation 2:10). If you were to die right now, would you go --- to heaven or hell?
2) Ramm, Bernard, “The Christian View of Science and Scripture”, Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Ferdmans Pub. Co.
3) Panin, Ivan, “Bible Numerics”, Waubaushene, Canada LOK 2CO
4) Hyma, Albert, “Ancient History”, New York: Barnes & Nobel, Inc., College Outline Series
5) Seller, Charles E. & Russel, Brian, “Ancient Secrets of the Bible”, New York: Dell Publishing
6) Free, Joseph, “Archaeology and Bible History”. Wheaton: Scripture Press Publications
7) Kirk, David, “Biology Today”, New York: Random House, 1975.
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