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I. The proof by the history of the Jewish people
А. Chosen by God
B. Becoming a great nation
C. Being led by the judges
D. The height of their experience
E. Degradation
F. Being tossed to and fro
G. The recovery of the temple and the city of Jerusalem
H. The Lord’s first coming to them
I. The destruction of the temple and the city; their being scattered again
J. Their being kept as a people
K. The restoration of the nation of Israel
II. The proof by its indestructibility
III. The proof by its spread during persecution
А. A Bible hidden inside a chair
B. A Bible baked inside a loaf of bread
IV. The proof by the word of the Lord and other writers of the Bible
V. The proof by ancient documents
А. Three main ancient manuscripts
B. Books and letters of early believers
VI. The proof by archaeology
А. The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls
B. The discovery of clay tablets
C. The discovery of Nineveh
The history of the Jewish people also proves that the Bible is the Word of God. The Jewish people are a special people. They are the chosen people of God. Their forefather is Abraham, chosen and called by God to be the head of the chosen race. Nearly all of the Old Testament is their history (Gen. 12:1 — Malachi).
Abraham’s grandchild, Israel, with his descendants, seventy in all, went down to Egypt in search of food and eventually grew into a nation. They were enslaved and persecuted in Egypt for hundreds of years. God sent Moses to deliver them from the tyranny of Pharaoh and to bring them out of Egypt. After escaping Pharaoh’s army by crossing the Red Sea, they wandered in the wilderness for forty years. Finally, under the leading of Joshua and the assistance of Caleb, they entered into the good land that God had promised Abraham. They divided up the land into portions for each tribe and family. Every one had a portion of the good land as their inheritance from God (Gen. 46:1 — Joshua).
Not long after the children of Israel settled in the good land, they began to turn away from God. God allowed their enemies to attack them. They cried to God to save them, and He gave them a judge who delivered them from their enemies. This cycle continued for several hundred years (Judges).
God raised up Samuel to be His prophet, and Samuel anointed David the king. David conquered all their enemies and brought peace to the people of God. In addition, David secured the site and collected the wealth and material needed to build the house of God. Solomon, his son, built the house of God in Jerusalem. That was the height of the experience of the children of Israel — they had God dwelling among them; they had peace and prosperity in the good land that God had promised Abraham (1 Sam. 3—2 Chron. 9:28).
Degradation began after the temple was built. First, the children of Israel left God and worshipped idols. Second, they set up two other worshipping centers, Dan and Bethel, outside of God’s chosen place for worship, Jerusalem. These two actions were very evil in God’s eyes and offended Him, causing Him to temporarily give the people up (1 Kings 11:5—13:34).
The Lord prophesied in Jeremiah 24:9-10, “I will even give them up to be tossed to and fro among all the kingdoms of the earth for evil; to be a reproach, and a proverb, a taunt and a curse, in all places whither I shall drive them. And I will send the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, among them, till they be consumed from off the land that I gave unto them and to their fathers.” The army of Babylon came up against them and killed many, destroyed the temple and the city, and carried many of the remaining ones away to Babylon. The army even took away the vessels from the temple and placed them in their own idol-filled temple (Jer. 6—27).
After seventy years in captivity, as prophesied by Jeremiah (Jer. 29:10-14), the Lord stirred up Cyrus the king of Persia to allow the people to go back to rebuild the temple and the city of Jerusalem. The children of Israel returned and, after much struggle, finished the work (2 Chron. 36:23 — Ezra 6; Neh. 2:9—7).
After a few hundred years, the Lord came to His people, fulfilling the prophecies in the Old Testament. He was born of a virgin (Matt. 1:23), lived a perfect, genuine human life (2 Cor. 5:21), was rejected by His own people (John 1:11), then was delivered up to the chief priest and the scribes and was put to death on the cross (Matt. 20:18-19), and was resurrected on the third day according to the Scripture (1 Cor. 15:4 Matt. — John).
Before the Lord was crucified, He prophesied in Matthew 24:2 that not one stone of the temple would be left upon another. This indicated that the temple would be destroyed and the people would be scattered again. This prophecy was fulfilled in A.D. 70 when a Roman prince, called Titus, came and destroyed the city and the temple. When the people crucified the Lord, they said, “His blood be on us and on our children” (Matt. 27:25). Since then they have been suffering from evil treatment, the edge of the sword, famine, and pestilence. They have been consumed from generation to generation.
The Roman army, in A.D. 70, killed approximately two million people. Over half of the remaining ones died of starvation. The rest were sold off to be slaves. Fifty years later, another fifty thousand were killed because they rebelled against the Roman Empire. Every one was scattered throughout the earth to suffer for centuries. Before the second world war, tens of thousands were killed in Russia. They were driven to an open area and massacred by machine guns and grenades. During the second world war, six million people were killed by the German army. Various devious means were used to execute them. They were like sheep led to the slaughterhouse (Psa. 44:22; Jer. 12:3).
Numbers 23:9 says, “Lo, it is a people that dwelleth alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations.” They were not like any other people. The culture, food, and living habits of all other people were dirty. Only the Jewish people were clean. Therefore, to them, the other people were considered to be swine and dogs. They would not live and eat with other people, so they dwelt by themselves. They were without a country for 2,500 years, but they were preserved as a nation. It usually takes about five hundred years for a people to lose their identity after their country is destroyed. However, because of God’s prophecies in the Bible concerning Israel, He kept them separated from the different nations among whom they dwelt, so that they would remain a distinct people.
The Lord kept them as a people so that, after 2,500 years, they could restore their nation. According to the Bible, the nation of Israel had to be restored before the end of the world could come (Rom. 11:26-27). The restoration of the nation of Israel took place in 1948. According to human concepts and experience, this is impossible. With man it is impossible, but with God all things are possible (Luke 18:27). The Bible also prophesied that “Jerusalem will be trampled by the nations until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled” (Luke 21:24). Jerusalem was returned to God’s people in 1967. This fact also confirms the Lord’s word that His second coming is near (Matt. 24:33-34).
Because the Bible and the people of God are tied together, their history and existence today proves to us that the Bible is truly the Word of God.
During the course of human history, there has not been a book that has been attacked as much as the Bible. Every attack has failed; the Bible has never been destroyed. People can easily destroy a car or a building. Almost everything that exists can be destroyed. However, the Bible, the Word of the eternal God, is indestructible. It is indestructible because the Author is eternal and needs a book to speak for Him eternally. The people who attack the Bible wither away, but the Bible has remained from the beginning until now. Finite people existing in time can never destroy something that is infinite and eternal. Conversely, the more people try to destroy the Bible, the more people read it.
Around A.D. 300, Caesar Diocletian of the Roman Empire used many cruel methods to try to do away with the Bible. He almost destroyed every copy of the Bible that existed at that time. He also killed tens of thousands of believers. He erected a monument with an inscription that claimed that the Christian faith had been exterminated (Extincto Naminechristionorum). Twenty years later, the Bible reappeared in public again.
There was a high official in England called Engersol. He vigorously opposed the Bible. He sought out every copy of the Bible and burned it. But after he died, his residence was bought by the Bible Society for printing Bibles. Engersol died, but the Bible lived on. No one can outlast the Bible. No one can destroy the Bible.
The spreading of the Bible under persecution proves that the Bible is the Word of God. Most people will give up something if they are persecuted for possessing it, but not the Bible. When people in Europe were persecuted for having Bibles, they refused to give them up. Many copies were confiscated and burned. It was dangerous to have a Bible around; nevertheless, people would not part with their Bibles even at the risk of severe persecution.
At that time, a Bible-loving family in France had a Bible. They would have given up anything but their Bible. If the Catholic Church found out that they kept a Bible in their house, they would have been prosecuted. They did not want to bury their Bible in the ground; they wanted to read it every day. They figured out a way to hide the Bible inside a hollow part of a chair. They would use the chair for sitting until it was time to read the Bible. Then they would flip the chair over and open up the secret compartment to take out the Bible. This is how they protected themselves and continued to read the Bible every day.
One day, a “Father” of the Catholic Church came to search their house. Try as he may, he could not find the hiding place of the Bible. As the whole family watched nervously, he sat down on that very chair to think about where it could possibly be hidden. Everyone was relieved when he finally gave up and left, disappointed.
Due to persecution, this family later immigrated to America, where they could read the Bible freely.
A sister in Europe kept a Bible against the will of the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church. He had “decreed” that anyone found hiding a Bible would be executed. One day the “Fathers,” carrying out the decree of the Pope, came to search her house. It happened that she was baking bread. When she heard that the “Fathers” were at the door, she wrapped her Bible with the dough that she was kneading. Her Bible was baked inside a loaf of bread. The “Fathers” left empty-handed; the sister and her Bible remained safe and secure. She, too, due to persecution, moved to America, where she was free to read the Bible.
There are many testimonies of this sort. It is impossible to record them all here. These testimonies prove to us that the Bible is the Word of God. People do not risk their lives for other books like they do for the Bible.
The Lord Jesus said to the Jews, “For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote concerning Me. But if you do not believe his writings, how shall you believe My words?” (John 5:46-47). The Lord often quoted and referred to the Bible. This shows that He believed that the Old Testament was the Word of God. He referenced the Old Testament forty-nine times in the Gospel of Matthew. Here are a few crucial references He used in the four Gospels:
The Lord said in Matthew 5:17-18, “Do not think that I came to abolish the law or the prophets; I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, Until the heaven and the earth pass away, one iota or one tittle shall by no means pass away from the law until all come to pass.” He not only believed that the Old Testament was the Word of God, He was on the earth to fulfill what was written.
Can we use what was written in the New Testament to prove that the Old Testament is the Word of God? Yes, we can. The Bible was not written by one man; the Bible was written by approximately forty people. People might not believe the author of a book if he were to say in the last chapter of his book that the foregoing chapters were true. However, when a series of writers profess belief that the foregoing books are the word of God, which is the case with those who wrote the Bible, it is very believable. Time after time, the writers of the Bible would quote the previous books and then record additional revelation from God. When King David wrote some of the Psalms, he quoted the previous books of the Old Testament, such as the Pentateuch, and then added further revelation (Psa. 119:135 — Num. 6:25; Psa. 119:166 — Gen. 49:18). Other writers, such as Peter, Paul, and John, also quoted verses from the Old Testament in their writings (1 Pet. 2:6 — Isa. 28:16; John 1:23 — Isa. 40:3; John 2:22 — Psa. 16:10; Rom. 9:17 — Exo. 9:16). The Lord and the New Testament writers quoted from the Old Testament hundreds of times. Forty writers taking almost 1,600 years to write the Bible while at different times quoting earlier writers is strong proof that the Bible is inspired by God.
Some people who doubt that the Bible is the Word of God may not be able to argue with the previously mentioned proof, but they may argue that the Bible we have today is not necessarily the same as the original Bible. It is true that there is not one single copy of the Bible’s original manuscripts left today. But there are manuscripts, documents, and letters from ancient times that tell us that the Bible we have today is accurate.
There are over 2,300 manuscripts of the Bible. Manuscripts are ancient copies of the Bible. None of them are complete. There are three main ancient manuscripts.
The Codex Vaticanus, or the Vatican Manuscript, is stored in the Vatican Library, Vatican City, Italy. The Vatican is the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church where the Pope resides. The Roman Catholic Church has possessed this manuscript for over five hundred years. This manuscript was copied during the mid fourth century A.D. It is very large in size, about one square foot and 759 pages. Although it is missing some pages, it is the most complete manuscript.
The Codex Sinaiticus, or Sinaitic Manuscript, was copied on over one hundred sheep skins, probably in the fourth century. It was discovered accidentally by Dr. Tischendorf of Germany in 1844 in a monastery at the foot of Mount Sinai. It had been placed among waste paper and was just about to be burned. He rescued it, and it was later stored in the National Library in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It was sold to England in 1934 for five hundred thousand dollars, and it is now kept in the London Museum.
The Codex Alexandrinicus, or Alexandrian Manuscript, is kept in the National Library of the British Museum. This manuscript has four volumes. There are some missing pages. It is believed to have been copied by a martyr named Thekla during the fifth century. It was presented to the Patriarch of Alexandria in 1078.
It is good that we have so many different manuscripts, so that scholars can compare them and produce the most accurate and complete set of the books of the Bible. When we read the Bible, we can be sure that it is correct.
Today’s Bible is the same as it was in the first few centuries.
The apostle Paul’s co-worker Clement (Phil. 4:3) wrote a letter to the church in Corinth. In his letter, he referenced the words of Peter, James, John and Luke. He also quoted from Acts, Romans, Corinthians, Thessalonians, Titus, James, Peter, and Hebrews. Similar letters have been discovered that quoted verses from the New Testament.
One believer during the end of the second century quoted over 2,500 verses from the New Testament in his books. Another believer wrote several books at the beginning of the third century. His books quoted two thirds of the New Testament. Other books from the first centuries include hundreds of quotes from the New Testament.
By comparing the ancient manuscripts, the letters, and the books of the ancient believers, we can see that today’s Bible is the same as the ancient Bible. How we praise the Lord that He has preserved the Bible for us until now.
The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in 1947. They were stored in eleven caves northwest of the Dead Sea, fifteen miles from Jerusalem. They were copied on sheep skins. It is estimated that the Dead Sea Scrolls were copied in 100 B.C. They did not contain the complete Bible. Isaiah was complete, but other books were only partially complete. These scrolls serve the purpose of confirming that the Old Testament we have is authentic.
According to history, there were believers who had moved to those caves to escape the sinfulness of the cities. They most likely stored the scrolls in the caves when they fled from a war in that area. How sovereign of God to arrange such an event to preserve this valuable proof!
Seventeen thousand clay tablets, dated from 2300 to 2500 B.C., were discovered in the northern part of Syria. These clay tablets recorded human history as far back as 2900 B.C. They tell about Abraham’s sixth great-grandfather Heber, Noah’s ark during the flood, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and Jerusalem. These clay tablets prove to us that what was recorded in the Bible is not fictitious.
The Bible talks about a city called Nineveh, the capital of Assyria. It was a sinful city. Jonah was sent to preach the gospel there. He refused to go and was swallowed by a great fish. After he repented, the fish spit him out. He then went to Nineveh and brought the city to repentance (Jonah).
Nineveh was destroyed during a war. It was buried under sand for thousands of years and eventually discovered last century. The archaeologists found writings concerning many things recorded in the Bible that had not yet been recorded in history books.
In the writing, canonization, and preservation of the Bible, we can definitely see the sovereign hand of God. For example, when the Codex Sinaiticus was about to be burned, a scholar “just happened” to be passing by who could recognize its value and rescue it. Because of this, we now have three manuscripts that can be compared so that we can know with assurance that the Bible we have today is accurate. The preservation of the Dead Sea Scrolls was sovereignly arranged by God for us. If it weren’t for the war, the believers living in caves near Jerusalem would not have hidden them in the caves. The manuscripts would have become worn out from much use and we would not have them today. As it was, these precious manuscripts were stored so well that they could be preserved until their discovery almost two thousand years later.
We praise the Lord for giving us such a great gift — the Bible. The proof in these two lessons increases our faith in and appreciation for the Bible. The Lord and His lovers suffered much to preserve the Bible for thousands of years so that we, the lovers of the Lord, may have this great gift. We need to treasure the Bible and study it as the most precious thing we have.
