Can I Really Believe the Bible?
What makes the Bible worthy of our trust? We live in a culture that more and more questions authority, truth claims, and traditional Christian beliefs.
So what are we to believe about the authority and trustworthiness of an ancient sacred book that is thousands of years old?
What would your answers be if your unbelieving friend asked: Why do you believe the Bible is true? What was God’s purpose in giving us the Bible? Is the Bible vital and relevant today?
Rev. Henry Ward Beecher was a popular and prominent Christian minister in the United States in the mid-1800s. He was often visited by his friend, lawyer and political leader, Robert Ingersoll.
The friendship between Rev. Beecher and Ingersoll was an odd one, since the attorney was nicknamed “The Great Agnostic” and had a national reputation as a caustic critic of the Bible.
Through the years Beecher never gave up his efforts to convert his unbelieving friend. During one visit, Ingersoll told Beecher all about an “amazing new book” he had recently read by Charles Darwin, and how it explained that everything came into being WITHOUT GOD!!
“Well, where did human beings come from, according to your Mr. Darwin?” asked Beecher. “From apes,” Ingersoll announced smugly! “Ah,” said Beecher, “and the apes came from?”
“Lower animals,” Ingersoll replied. “And the lower animals arose from still lower forms, and on and on, until you go all the way down the chain of life to the one-celled creatures that first formed in the seas.”
“And where did the seas come from?” asked Beecher. He continued, “And what about the origin of the world itself? And how do you explain the sun, the moon and the stars?”
Ingersoll spread his hands. “They just happened. We don’t need some mythical deity to explain such things.”
Later that evening, Beecher took Ingersoll into his library to show him some new books he had just purchased.
Ingersoll’s attention was immediately captured by a unique globe on Beecher’s desk that depicted the stars and constellations of the night sky.
Ingersoll examined the beautiful globe very closely, trying to find the manufacturer’s name so he could buy one for himself. “This is a truly wonderful globe,” he said. “Who made it?”
“Why, nobody made it,” said Beecher, with a big grin on his face. “It just happened.”
The opening proclamation of the book of Genesis is bold and unmistakable: The first four words of Genesis make it abundantly clear that EVERYTHING that exists had a divine Author: “In the beginning God . . .”
The Bible Is a Supernatural Book
Many people today assume that the Bible is full of errors and contradictions. Confusion and doubt about the Bible being God’s Word are becoming as common inside the church these days as they are in the broader culture.
What do you believe about the Bible? Do you truly believe the Bible is God’s Book? Does it come from man or from God? Is it on the same level as the daily newspaper or does it really speak with divine authority?
Is the Bible really the inspired Word of God or is it just a collection of humanly devised myths and fables? Can we trust Scripture?
Isaiah 40:8 (AMP) The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.
Hebrews 1:3 (AMP) God is upholding and maintaining and guiding and propelling the universe by His mighty word of power.
Luke 1:37 (AMP) With God nothing is ever impossible and no word from God shall be without power or impossible of fulfillment.
The Holy Bible is a supernatural book! It is unique among books. It declares itself to be authored by God Himself, the Creator of the universe.
The one and only true and living God inspired and used 40 different writers from all walks of life to pen the Scriptures over the course of 1600 years. The Bible is a written history of God’s saving grace and His divine plan for man.
Even though the Bible is an ancient book, its truths are still as relevant today as when they were first written thousands of years ago.
Because the Bible is God’s revelation to mankind, its principles are timeless, giving answers to every question and need in your life.
2 Timothy 3:16 (TLB) The whole Bible was given to us by inspiration from God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives; it straightens us out and helps us do what is right.
- The Bible exists to reveal the one true God, explain the way of salvation, teach us to live a godly life, and equip us to serve the Lord.
The Bible has great power to change our lives when we trust that it is the absolute Word of God.
2 Timothy 3:16 (NIV) All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.
The Bible claims that ALL Scripture is “God-breathed” and ALL Scripture is all true and trustworthy! ALL Scripture means ALL Scripture…
- ALL Scripture: The part about Adam and Eve? Balaam’s talking donkey? Jonah and the fish? A massive worldwide flood in Noah’s day? Lot’s wife turned into a pillar of salt? The Red Sea divided and crossed?
- ALL Scripture: Joshua stopping the sun? A raven feeding a man? Battles fought and won with trumpets? Elijah’s bodily ascension into heaven? An iron axe-head made to swim? Daniel protected by angels in a den of savage lions?
- ALL Scripture: A miraculous virgin birth? Water turned into wine? Ten lepers instantly cured? Miracles of disabled people walking, and blind people seeing? A small child actually raised from the dead?
- ALL Scripture: A man instantly delivered from a legion of demons? A little boy’s lunch feeding more than five thousand people? A disciple walking on water? Peter’s shadow healing the sick? Miracle cures from Paul‘s handkerchiefs?
All Scripture has one Author, God Himself. The Bible claims to be the very Word of God, but how do we know? What real evidence do we have that the Bible is really God’s Book, the inspired Word of God?
There are many evidences that we might explore, but here we will examine five scientific proofs that support the uniqueness and reliability of the Bible.
The Bible is not a scientific textbook, but it is scientifically accurate, even from its earliest pages.
Five Scientific Reasons You Can Trust the Bible
Throughout history, popular scientific opinion was typically against and skeptical of what the Bible declared as scientific fact until new scientific discoveries supported the accuracy of God’s Word.
For example, in 1861 the French Academy of Science published a list of 51 “indisputable scientific facts” which supposedly proved the Bible in error.
Today there is not a single scientist who would support any of those supposed “indisputable facts” because modern science has disproved them all!
Psalm 119:160 (NKJV) The entirety of Your Word is truth.
The Bible does not present itself as partially true, or mostly inspired, or almost flawless. The Bible is trustworthy! All of it!
Over the centuries the Bible has been rigorously tested for scientific accuracy, and it has never failed.
Whenever the Bible makes a scientific statement, it is always proven correct and usually science just needs time to catch up!!
God’s Word offers many specific examples of amazingly accurate science – examples like these…
1. Planetology: The Bible Reveals The Earth Is Suspended in Space.
For centuries the ancients believed the earth was held up by Atlas, or rested on huge pillars, or was carried on the back of a gigantic turtle swimming through some cosmic sea.
Another theory presented the earth as carried on the back of an enormous elephant, and the shaking of the elephant accounted for earthquakes.
But today we know the earth is suspended in space. God revealed this scientific fact in the book of Job, written about 1500 BC and long before man had any idea of the truth.
Science didn’t discover that the earth hangs upon nothing until 1650 AD.
Job 26:7 (NLT) God stretches the northern sky over empty space and hangs the earth on nothing.
- How did Job know that the earth hung in space before the age of modern astronomy and space travel? Supernaturally the Holy Spirit gave him this scientific insight.
2. Geophysics: The Bible Reveals The Earth Is Round – A Circular Sphere.
For thousands of years man believed the earth was flat, but now we know the earth is a globe.
The prophet Isaiah, writing 750 years before the birth of Christ, revealed that the earth was a globe long before science discovered it.
Isaiah 40:22 (NLT) God sits above the circle of the earth. The people below seem like grasshoppers to Him! He spreads out the heavens like a curtain and makes His tent from them.
The word translated “circle” here is the Hebrew word that indicates something spherical, rounded, not something that is flat or square.
At a time when science believed that the earth was flat – the Holy Scriptures inspired Christopher Columbus to sail around the world.
The Bible refuted the flat earth theory centuries before scientists actually disproved it. When Columbus sailed out of the harbor, many expected him to sail off the edge of the earth.
Proverbs 8:27 (NKJV) When God prepared the heavens, He drew a circle on the face of the deep.
Isaiah 40:22 (MSG) God sits high above the round ball of the earth. The people look like mere ants.
- How did Isaiah know that the earth was a globe when the scientists of his day didn’t know the topography of the earth and believed it was flat? He knew by Holy Spirit divine inspiration.
3. Astronomy: The Bible Reveals The Numbers of Stars Are Limitless.
Before the invention of the telescope, man actually believed that the stars could be numbered. The great Ptolemy gave the number as 1,056. Tycho Brahe cataloged 777 and Kepler counted 1,006.
The scientific minds and astronomers of those days were certain that they could count the number of stars.
Since the invention of the telescope by Galileo in 1609, and the wonderful discoveries of the Hubble telescope in the 1990s, we now know that the number of stars cannot be counted.
Today, astronomers estimate that there are over 300 billion stars in our Milky Way – with more than 100 billion galaxies in the universe!
Many centuries before the telescope was invented, the Holy Spirit revealed this scientific fact in the Bible.
Jeremiah 33:22 (NLT) The stars of the sky cannot be counted and the sand on the seashore cannot be measured.
- How did Jeremiah know 2,600 years ago that the stars are countless in number? He knew because God spoke to Him and revealed this truth.
4. Oceanography: The Bible Reveals Ocean Currents Exist In The Sea.
For thousands of years scientists knew nothing about sea lanes and ocean currents. Therefore, they drew no water charts for sailing lanes.
Then in 1839, when Matthew Maury, considered the father of oceanography, became ill, his son began reading the Bible to him. Maury was astonished when he heard the expression “paths of the sea” in Psalm 8:8.
This was a life-changing discovery and Maury said, “If God said there are paths in the sea, then I am going to find them.”
Taking God’s Word seriously, Matthew Maury began diligently searching for these paths. As a result, he spent several years charting the paths of the seas and the currents of the ocean – and his discoveries revolutionized travel.
In 1855 Matthew Maury published the first modern oceanographic text, “The Physical Geography of the Sea.” His guide repeatedly supports the scientific truth revealed in the Bible 3000 years before…
Psalm 8:8 (ESV) …whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
- Maury became known as “the pathfinder of the seas” and confirmed the Bible as scientifically accurate. We are indebted to his discovery of the warm and cold continental currents.
Psalm 8:8 (NLT) …and everything that swims the ocean currents.
5. Hematology: The Bible Reveals Blood Is The Source of Life.
The great biological truth concerning the importance of blood in our body’s mechanism has been fully comprehended only in recent years. Up until 130 years ago, sick people were “bled,” and many died because of the widespread practice of bloodletting.
By removing a sizeable amount of blood from a patient, scientists and surgeons believed that any disease could be treated.
Suffering with a throat infection in 1799, George Washington, the 1st President of the United States, had 4 pints of blood removed from his body, a process that contributed to his death.
Bible truth is clear: If you lose your blood, you lose your life. The reason doctors today give their patients a “blood test” is because blood carries an incredible amount of information about the health of the flesh.
The Book of Leviticus, written in 1400 BC declared that blood is the source of life: “For the life of the flesh is in the blood” (Leviticus 17:11).
God’s Word is not filled with errors. It is filled with truth, including scientific facts.
The blood carries water and nourishment to every cell, maintains the body’s temperature, and removes the waste material of the body’s cells. It also carries oxygen from the lungs throughout the body.
In 1616, William Harvey discovered that blood circulation is the key factor in physical life – confirming what the Bible revealed 3,000 years earlier. There is no better way to describe the function of blood in relation to the human body than to say, “The life of the flesh is in the blood.”
- The simple fact is that as science advances, it discovers what God declared thousands of years ago in the Bible.
The Bible Is Scientifically Accurate
Many scientific facts were recorded in the Bible thousands of years before scientists actually discovered them. Don’t accept the charge that the Bible is filled with scientific errors.
- Modern science seems determined to try and explain God away, and refuses to acknowledge any evidence of the supernatural. But the scientific truth of Scripture is a major reason to accept the Bible as God’s Word.
“Science is the glimpse of God’s purpose in nature. The very existence of the amazing world of the atom and radiation points to a purposeful creation, to the idea that there is a God and an intelligent purpose back of everything. An orderly universe testifies to the greatest statement ever uttered: In the beginning, God!” – Arthur H. Compton, Nobel Prize winner in Physics, 1927
Does science discredit the Bible or God? Absolutely not! Science, the Bible and faith are not at odds.
Not a single scientific fact or discovery has ever disproven a biblical statement. In fact, the advances of science have repeatedly confirmed the accuracy and trustworthiness of God’s Word.
Science confirms the Bible! In the court of truth, the Holy Spirit testifies to the authority of Scripture, and all the evidence lines up.
