The Bible is the Word of God

I want to say that I really like your picture. I have a shirt that has that flag on it. Let me start with the Unity it shows. The Bible is not just a book of great moral lessons, Though it contains those in abundance. It is not just a book of beautiful writing, Though it is full of wonderful prose and poetry. It is not just a book of history, Though it includes authentic and reliable historical information. It is not just a book of wisdom, Though it has the finest wisdom literature known to man. And it is not just a book of prophecy, Though it includes hundreds of specific predictions that have come true. It is not just one of the classics. It is like no other book ever written. It is the living Word of God with the power to transform hearts, To convert, To comfort, And to sustain. The Bible is truly divinely inspired, It is infallible, It is indestructible, And it is inerrant. The Bible is unique inits unity, Its circulation, Its translation, Its teachings, Its influence on literature, Its impact on civilization, And its durability. Jesus affirms the infallibility of the Bible, Declaring, "The Scripture cannot be broken" (John 10:35). Likewise Isaiah exclaims, "The Word of God stands forever, " adding that"my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not be empty, But will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it" (Isaiah 40:8, 55:1). Paul describes Scripture as "the oracles of God" (Romans 3:2). Throughout history the Bible has been subject to attack-from anti-Christian emperors to godless Communist despots to irreligious university professors-but has withstood all challenges. Christians who wouldn't forswear it have been persecuted and martyred throughout the ages. Among thousands of examples, The Roman emperor Diocletian outlawed the Bible and decreed that any Christian caught with one would be executed. Maximian issued an edict that all Christian churches were to be destroyed and all copies of the Bible were to be burned. In 1546, Peter Chapot brought a number of Bibles in the French language to France and sold them there, And as a result was tried, Sentenced, And executed within days. This martyrdom continued into the modern era, With particularly severe punishments meted out for Bible possession throughout much of the Islamic world. The same goes for Communist nations; in Communist-era Romania, For example, The Baptist Ioan Clipa was repeatedly arrested by the secret police for distributing Bibles. He suffered a nervous breakdown and eventually committed suicide. French Enlightenment philosophe Voltaire predicted Christianity would cease to exist within one hundred years of his lifetime, At which point Bibles would only be found in museums. But the Bible endures. In fact the Geneva Bible society used his house and printing press to print Bibles 50 years after he died. Nineteenth-century Oxford professor M. Montiero-Williams, Who spent forty-two years studying ancient Eastern books, Made this stunning claim in comparing them to the Bible: "Pile them, If you will, On the left side of your study table; but place your own Holy Bible on the right side-all by itself, All alone-and with a wide gap between them. For. . . There is a gulf between it and the so called sacred books of the East which serves the one from the other utterly, Hopelessly and forever. . . A veritable gulf which cannot be bridged over by any science of religious thought. " Through the ages, Legions of critics have sought to undermine the Bible by exposing its supposed inaccuracies, Inconsistencies, And errors, Its allegedly unreliable transcriptions and reservations, And the ostensibly dubious authenticity of Jesus' recorded statements. As archaeological finds have verified names, Places, And events described in the Bible and as its prophecies have been fulfilled, Critics have resorted to new attacks, Arguing for example that certain prophetic books couldn't have been written by their known authors because they lived before the prophecies occurred. Well, That's the point of a prophecy, Isn't it? But many critics deny the very possibility of supernatural prophecies, So when confronted with them they resort to strained, Unsupportable arguments. Similarly, They reject the Bible's account of miracles not because the eyewitness accounts are unreliable, But because they believe miracles are impossible. So yes, If you refuse to believe that biblical prophecies and miracles are even possible, You will also probably question the Bible's authenticity. But you'll have a lot of explaining to do. Its Unity People have long believed in the divine inspiration and authority of the Bible, And the Book itself offers abundant evidence for it. For example, The Bible maintains a unified, Continuous message across its sixty-six books, Which were written over some 1, 500 years by the forty authors. If you read it enough you can't help but notice it has the same voice of authority throughout. I'm not saying each book has a similar style or that the authorial "voice" of each biblical writer is identical, As if they were scriveners merely transcribing dictation by the Holy Spirit. I'm saying that even through the medium of these unique, Individual human beings writing in different historical time periods, In different geographical settings, And sometimes in different languages, There is a distinct voice behind the voice. In my own reading of the Bible, Just as I get the innate sense that there is divine authority behind Jesus' teachings, I can't help but feel the authority of the one God of the universe behind the entirety of Scripture. This is all the more impressive when you consider that other sacred books are the product of one man, And therefore present no problem of continuity that one would expect from a book written by such diverse and remote authors. As Daniel Fuller observes, "In no other literature besides the Bible do some forty authors or editors, Writing in a period of over a thousand years, In places and cultures as widely separated as Rome and Babylon, Succeed in developing a body of literature that even at first inspection gives an indication of being a unity. " Once you begin reading the Bible in earnest you hardly need a reference Bible to notice that major and minor themes, Pronouncements, And teachings are sprinkled seamlessly throughout the Testaments to create an amazing, Unified whole. I`m telling you that the Bible`s interconnectedness is so striking to me on that basis alone I would be a believer. It`s hard enough for one person writing quickly to remain consistent. But to present such a consistency of message themes with this diverse authorship over such a long time period would be unimaginable without a sophisticated conspiracy, And even then, It would be nearly impossible to pull off. Indeed, I will confess that I am convinced there was a conspiracy in the authorship of the Bible, But that it was a divine conspiracy, And that God Himself was the force behind the singular, Remarkable integration that I witness each time I read it. I am certain that this alone could be as convincing proof as many will ever need that this book was given to us by God. Evangelical Author Chuck Missler`s description of the Bible as "an integrated message system" resonates with me. Similarly, Dr. Walter Elwell aptly describes the Bible as having "one heart beat" and as "an organic unity because an infinite God orchestrated its production. " But perhaps Dr. Colin Peckham puts it best: The Bible is a unique phenomenon, Wholly unrivaled in the world of letters. It is a literary marvel, A moral miracle. It is not the product of one editor who chose his contributors, Mapped out his course of study, Gave each assignment and then brought them all together in a neatly bound volume. Its writing is as diverse as can possible be imagines. . . . The vast differences in every aspect of its production are obvious to even the most casual observer. The authors are so different and remote from one another that they would not have been acquainted nor could they have conspired together for either evil or good purposes. . . . What a dreadful muddle it would all be if there was no central controlling influence; but it all fits together like a hand in na glove. The unity is miraculous and marvelous. Unity in Diversity Granted, There is plenty of diversity amidst the unity, But in my view, This only adds to the book`s credibility, Just as the variances in the gospels suggest those accounts were not the product of a neatly crafted human conspiracy. As H. H. Rowley wrote in 1923, "It is unnecessary to close our eyes to the diversity in order to insist on the unity or to close our eyes to the unity in order to insist on the diversity. " As for the unity, "It is not a static unity, But the dynamic unity of a process (of progressive revelation). " Progressive revelation is a key concept here. Some humanists tend to see humanity moving forward toward enlightenment or possible even perfection. But this is at odds with the biblical worldview. When we speak of progressive revelation to describe the unfolding of God`s Word, We do not mean to suggest that man`s spiritual development has increased over time or that humans are spiritually evolving to greater heights. "There is no automatic spiritual growth of mankind, And the Bible nowhere tells the story of such a growth, " notes H. H. Rowley. "It does not tell how men by the exercise of their minds wrested the secrets of life and the universe from a reluctant Unknown, But how God laid hold of them and revealed Himself through them. If there is any truth in this, Then a unity of te Bible is to be expected. If God was revealing Himself, Then there should be some unity about the revelation, Since it was the same Being Who was being revealed. " But there was still diversity, Says Rowley, Because God revealed Himself to men of "limited spiritual capacity and could only reveal to each what he was capable of receiving. " To be cont