The Bible is of Divine Origins

Thanks Con! Con claims, ["Pro failed to uphold his share of the BoP."] Is the Bible of Divine Origins? The answer is, yes it is and if the Bible is truly a book from God to men then it ought to have evidence of that it ought to have God's fingerprints all over it. And it does!! To help know and remember those evidences, we have the acronym FAITH so believers can know their faith is grounded, the assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen (Hebrews 11:1), and not simply wishful thinking. The acronym FAITH is presented as a mnemonic aid to guide us through five lines of solid reasoning that demonstrate the Bible is divine rather than human in origin. Each letter in the acronym FAITH serves as a guide to each line of reasoning. F = Fulfilled Prophecy The F in FAITH stands for Fulfilled prophecy. Unlike any other book in history, the Bible offers hundreds of specific predictions, many made hundreds of years in advance, with such hair splitting accuracy that critics of the Bible try to dismiss them by pretending they were written after and not before the historic events took place. [A. Micah 5:2, the birthplace of Jesus was predicted (matthew2:6) B. Genesis 12:3, 21:12;49:10 teach the descendancy of Jesus. C. Isaiah 53 a great evidence of prophecy. Voltaire suggested expost-facto. D. Psalm 16:10 and His resurrection.] Human beings can know the future with such accuracy, only if it is told to them by an omniscient being. Just one real case of fulfilled prophecy should be enough to establish the Bibles supernatural origin and we have hundreds of them.. A = Answers to Life's Big Questions The A in Faith is to remind us that the Bible uniquely provides Answers to lifes big questions, in a way thats internally coherent, and is also consistent with how we observe the world to be. It explains where time and space come from, where the universe and our world come from, and especially where we come from. It explains both the uniqueness of man, created in God's image, and also the brokenness of man. It describes our ultimate destinies and how we've been granted the power and dignity to choose which destiny we want for ourselves. The Bible tells us who God is, who we are, why we are here and what happens to us when we die. Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth Of course, other religions also provide answers to life's questions, but the difference with the Bible is that its consistent with how we observe the world to be. The second pillar then in the faith model is divine insight into the world and human kind: Answers to life's big questions. I = Integrity or One(1)ness to the Bible The I in the FAITH model stands for the Integrity or unity or oneness of the Bible. [D. It comes to us from over 40 different writers, that lived 1500 years apart, who spoke different languages and had different occupations and yet wrote a work without one contradiction.] The Bible is a compilation of 66 books, written by 40 or more authors, from different cultures, in 3 languages, on 3 continents, over a span of 1500 years, yet it forms a seamless story from the creation to the ultimate destiny of mankind with perfect unity on hundreds of topics. Although comprised of 66 books, it is not a collection of 66 different stories but one seamless story of God's creation, man's rebellion and God's response. Consider how different the backgrounds of the authors are: David: a shepherd king Luke: a physician and historian Joshua: a general Matthew: a tax collector Paul: a rabbi Peter: a fisherman Written in a diverse array of situations or conditions: Dungeons Battlefields Palaces The wilderness On a range of controversial subjects: Who is God? Where did man come from? What is mans destiny? How are we different from animals, and what special value do we have? What is right and wrong? What is the problem with mankind? How do you solve mankind's problem? Take just a handful of contemporary authors from similar backgrounds and ask them to comment on just one moral issue and you'll get a deeply divided array of opinions. Yet the Bible is internally consistent. It tells the past and future history of Gods creation and mans role in it, despite being written by dozens of authors that each had only one little piece of the puzzle revealed to them. If the Bible is not divinely inspired, it would take a far greater miracle than the existence and guiding hand of God to assemble 66 books by 40 authors over 1500 years into such a unity of theme, structure, history and message. T = Time Tested Nature of the Bible The T in the FAITH model stands for the Time Tested nature of the Bible. How did the Bible come to be? It wasn't done behind closed doors by a church council as some critics allege. Nor were the books haphazardly assembled without special criteria. The word canon means measuring rod and is applied to the official list of authoritative books accepted by Christians. In fact, the agreement of the early church on the canon is yet another reason to believe in God's hand on the Bible. It starts when God authorized the writing of a manuscript and his people recognized it as such so they were preserved, in the Ark of the Covenant, for example. The Old Testament was the accumulation and consolidation of those books that were accepted by the Jews. Christ then ratified the Old Testament through his frequent references to it as God's word. The books of the New Testament were written in the second half of the first century, generally to churches or individuals. As the books and letters were distributed throughout the ancient world, there was a similar process of selection and verification done by the early believers. And right from the outset the church had a functional canon, meaning they had specific books that were accepted as authoritative even when others were not yet written. There was very careful criteria applied before accepting a book as canonical for example: it had to be written by an apostle or someone with a firsthand relationship with the apostle to ensure apostolic authority, Within a generation of the lives of the apostles, every book of the New Testament had been cited as authoritative by a church father. The 27 books of the New Testament were ratified by the church councils of Hippo in 393 and Carthage in 397, but these councils didnt add or subtract anything from the canon they simply recognized the list of 27 that had long since been recognized by the early church. And they did this in response to heretics such as Marcion an early second century unorthodox Christian, who didn't like Jews so he threw out the Old Testament and whatever books in the New Testament that referred to the Jews. In response, the early church simply ratified the books of the Bible to stop nonsense like that from occurring. The Bible has endured and prospered despite centuries of persecution. Throughout history critics have tried to ban, burn or eliminate the Bible. The Bible has received more hate, abuse and criticism than any other book, yet it endures. In 1778, the French philosopher and writer Francois Voltaire, predicted Christianity would be swept from existence within 100 years, yet just 50 years after his death, his house and printing press were used by the Geneva Bible Society to print Bibles. If the Bible were not a book of God, man would have destroyed it long ago, yet the Bible has been copied and circulated more extensively than any other book in human history, translated now into more than 1700 languages. H = Historical Accuracy of the Bible The H in the FAITH model represents the Historical accuracy of the Bible. [A. Geographically- Acts 8:26 and Acts 24:11 B. Historically- The ancient Hittites were not believed to be real people, but the Bible was proven to be true on this mater.] If God is acting through history and those events are recorded in his book, then that book must be historically accurate. And the Bible isn't just historically accurate in that other eyewitnesses and accounts acknowledge the same history as the Bible, but the Bible is frequently the first book to record history. It's an ironic double standard that the Bible is frequently challenged as to its historic authenticity when events are found only in the Bible and nowhere else, yet no other historical documents are forced to pass that same test. I believe that I have clearly held up my share of BOP!!! I will let the voters decide though. I would like to note that Con hasn't successfully refuted my claims with his unconvincing arguments. I want to thank the voters for their time and consideration. This has been a remarkable experience, Thanks Pro!! May the best arguments win!!!