Faith-Filled Summer #2: The Bible

This summer I’m talking about what and why I believe, and this week I’ll touch on the topic of the Bible as the Word of God. Some of these aspects I’ll explore later in greater detail.

Basically there are five things that immediately come to mind when I think of the Bible’s extraordinary reliability:

 

Historical references

Prophecies

Scientific insight

Knowledge of human nature and divine wisdom

Accurate inspiration for personal experience

 

Let me start by saying that the Bible wasn’t written as a history textbook, science book, or a book of prophecy but if it’s the Word of God I would expect it to be accurate wherever it makes a claim.

Recently my church has been going through a series called Artifacts that addresses historical support for the Bible. I’ve enjoyed hearing accounts of how sources outside the Bible verify its historical claims. In the most recent sermon, my pastor referenced an ancient clay prism that records the attack of an Assyrian King (Sennacherib) on King Hezekiah and how the Assyrian army conquered so much of the Jewish realm but stopped short of conquering Jerusalem. Many details recorded in the Bible are verified on this clay prism that was commissioned by Sennacherib. This is of course just one of many of the historical events, realms, battles, people and places that are written in Scripture with astounding accuracy.

Here is a link to the sermon my pastor did just this weekend which talks about the historical accuracy of the Bible. If you’re reading this on Monday the most recent sermon from yesterday may not come up yet, but frankly any sermon from this series is worth your time!

Prophetic accuracy is another exciting and compelling area verifying the Bible as the Word of God. There are about 2500 prophecies recorded in the Bible, and 2,000 have already been fulfilled—with 100% accuracy. The remaining prophecies concern future events, so with such an established track record it’s a safe bet that it’s only a matter of time before the remaining prophecies are fulfilled. For a brief list of about a dozen prophecies (such as some fulfilled by Jesus, others regarding the Jewish dispersal and return to Israel which was fulfilled in 1948, among others) click here. It’s an interesting list because it includes the probabilities of having such a prophecy fulfilled with such accuracy.

One of the most controversial subjects in the Bible centers around the age of the universe. I’m married to a Physics teacher, so how science relates to the Bible has been an area I’ve enjoyed exploring. There are several camps when it comes to science and the Bible, but here are three I’ve encountered recently:

The Bible speaks only in metaphorical terms, it’s not to be read literally, so there is no real science in the Bible
The Bible speaks of the creation event literally, but interpreted with big chunks of time regarding creation (not 7 – 24 hour days)
The Bible speaks plainly and literally in all things, including creation

I know devout Christians who believe the world was created 6 to 10 thousand years ago; I know equally devout Christians who believe God created the world billions of years ago and used evolution to get us where we’re at today. Personally, I’m in the middle camp. I do believe God used great periods of time rather than six literal, 24-hour days of creation, but I don’t hold to evolution at all, except within species (in other words, I don’t believe we evolved from apes or little fish-like creatures escaping a primordial soup). Let me be quick to add that this topic may seem divisive within the church, but the one area that binds all three camps together is belief that God is our creator and He sent His Son Jesus to die for us—on that all Christians agree, whether they believe in a young or old universe. We all need to celebrate that as the most important element of our faith.

The last two items on my list speak for themselves. The timeless wisdom in the Bible is evident to anyone who reads it, and once someone reads the Bible as the Word of God and not just another book it’s amazing how miraculously something written so long ago applies to people today. It’s a timeless book of divine insight into human nature—showing we certainly haven’t evolved much in the thousands of years since the Bible was recorded.

I’m hoping to keep all of my posts as brief as possible, so I’ll end this for today. But if you have any time, please do take a peek at the sermon and the list of prophecies.

Celebrating all the ways the Bible is different from every other book is one sure way to deepen our faith.

Finally I want to share the winner of last week’s contest for my four, gently used Christian fiction titles. And the winner randomly chosen by Punchtab is:

Barbara Waite

Please check back next week when I’ll be giving away another set of four Christian titles.