“The B-I B-L-E, that’s the book for me, I stand alone with the Word of God the B-I-B-L-E.”
This is a line from a popular children’s song that helps teach about the importance of the Bible and that it is, in fact, the Word of God. This teaching is not just for children but for every human being on the face of the earth. God has given His word for all people to know. But what is it about the Bible that would make us believe it is God’s word given to us? First of all, it is what the Bible claims of itself. It claims to be the only guide that we ever need (2 Timothy 3:16-17), and it claims to be the thoughts and Words of God (2 Peter 1:20-21). So how do we know that these are the words of God given to us?
The Bible claims to be inspired of God. There are three types of inspiration. The first is general inspiration or to say the authors have been inspired just like William Shakespeare and others, but they were not inspired by God to do their writings. The second type is partial inspiration in which the writers are told by someone (not God) in a general way what to write and then put the text in their own words. Neither of these first two types of inspiration are what the Bible claims. The Bible claims the third type which is called verbal plenary inspiration. Verbal meaning the words are inspired, plenary meaning all the words are inspired or that every single word written is given by the inspiration of God and was written down for us. The Bible claims that every word written has been “breathed” or “spirited” or written by the inspiration of God. All a skeptic of the Bible would have to do in order to prove inspiration wrong is find one statement that cannot be harmonized with the principle of inspiration. Nothing has ever been found that contradicts what the Bible says.
The second reason for believing the Bible is the word of God is what is not found in it. There are no contradictions in the Bible. There are sixty-six books in the Bible, written by about forty different men, by the guidance or inspiration of God, over about a 1600-year period of time. These men wrote in three different languages and for the most part did not know each other. In spite of this, the Bible is in perfect harmony throughout its pages. Just think about taking sixty-six individual books from forty authors over a 1600-year period of time who were not inspired of God and making one book with their writings. Would it have contradictions? Would it be all mixed up? Would it lack total harmony? Yes, to all of these questions. But what we see with the Bible is there are no contradictions, no mix ups, but total and perfect harmony through all of its pages. Incredible!
Finally, we can know the Bible is God’s word because of its scientific accuracies. We are told of “The circle of the earth” (Isaiah 40:22), the fact that the stars cannot be numbered (Jeremiah 33:22), and that the sun has an orbit (Psalm 19:6). Photos from satellites have confirmed the earth is indeed a circle. Scientists have recently discovered the impossibility of numbering the stars. They tried it and failed! Scientists have also recently discovered the sun has an orbit like the earth, only many times larger. How did these men writing so long ago know these things? It was God who said it through inspiration. We could go on to talk about 100 % accurate Bible prophecies, historical accuracies, and many other things that prove the Bible’s inspiration. If we know these things are true, and believe the Bible truly is the word of God should we not just simply read, study, and live according to the great principles that are found in its pages? YES!
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