From: barnejd@wkuvx1.bitnet
Newsgroups: talk.religion.misc
Subject: Proofs of the Bible (Long, but filled with information)
Date: 11 Nov 92 13:12:32 CST
Organization: Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, KY

Considering the traffic on Biblical evidences, I tought I'd post this
excerpt from a letter I wrote recently on Bible evidences.  Replies on
the net or by email (though I can't promise I'll be prompt) are
welcome.
                                          -Jeff

===========================================================================
  You said (in not quite so many words) that I can't use the Bible to prove
the Bible.  I could use that same reasoning to say don't use science to
prove science, but I'll just say this - in a trial, a man is allowed to
testify on his own behalf.  Likewise, treating the Bible as we would any
other historical document, let's look at it.

  It was written by 40 or so different men over a period of 1500 years on
three different continents, yet still retains an incredible unity - of
doctrine, of style, of morality, and of theme.  Even if I accepted the
atheist's claim of 100-300 errors (which I do not - if you have any of
these you'd like to put forward, please do), its accuracy would still be
staggering.
  Using the legal-historical method is the only way to prove the Bible's
accuracy ("beyond reasonable doubt").  One cannot use the scientific method
(repeating it in a controlled environment) to examine the Bible for the
same reason he cannot use it to prove Abraham Lincoln ever existed or other
historical events.
  Comparison to other documents:

ANCIENT LITERATURE             # MANUSCRIPTS           PROXIMITY TO
                                                       ORIGINAL COPY
-----------------------------  ----------------------  -------------
Livy's History of Rome                 20                500 yrs
Caesar's Gallic Wars                   10                900 yrs
Tacitus' Annals                         2                800 yrs
History of Thucydides                   8              1300+ yrs
History of Heroditus                    1               1000 yrs
Writings of Aristotle                   5              1400+ yrs

  Now remember - all of these are universally regarded as accurate.  Let's
compare them to the New Testament - 24,633 total MSS and 5338 complete MSS!
The second-most is Homer's Iliad, with only 643.  In addition, these date
to within 40-300 years of the autograph.  To reject the accuracy of these
is to reject all we know about the ancient world as historically inaccurate
as well.
  Until 1947, though, we were not as fortunate with the OT.  The earliest
fragments dated to about AD 850, the earliest complete copy to AD 1010. 
This all changed with the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947; these
documents dated from about 250 BC to AD 50.  One who is familiar with the
deterioration of historical reliability might well expect such to be found
when compared to the 1000-year later copies, but the translations of the
Scrolls has confirmed the accuracy of the Masoretic texts.

  You asserted God is inconsistent because he had an old law and a new one. 
In actuality, there were three periods of time (dispensations), each with
its own law: the patriarchical dispensation (from Creation to the giving of
the law on Mt. Sinai), the Mosaic dispensation (from Mt. Sinai to the
crucifixion of Christ), and the Christian dispensation (from the cross to
the end of time).  The laws of each led into the other.  The Patriarchical
era led up to the selection of Abraham and his descendants to be the chosen
people of God.  This came to fruition when they were given their own law,
the Law of Moses; note that the NT (in Romans) says the Gentiles had a law
under which they could obey God, but turned from it, so God left them to
their own devices.  The Old Law, in turn, led up to Christ the Messiah and
the establishment of the church.  Christ's death took the Old Law out of
effect, fulfilled it (Gal 3:23-25, Heb 9:15-18, 10:1-9, Col 2:14,16).  The
Jews' knowledge of the morality God would have them behave in (remember -
the Gentiles' religion consisted frequently of idol worship, sexual
practices, sacrifices [sometimes human], etc., so the moral code of the NT
would be new to them), etc. helped to get the church "up and running".
  For example, Acts says that elders were appointed in all the
congreagations at that time (a few years after Christ's death), yet
elsewhere in the Bible it says that elders are not to be novices
(pertaining to knowledge of the Word).  A contradiction?  No, the Jews were
well acquainted with what God expected of them; the Gentiles knew nothing. 
The change in laws was more a doing away with the ceremonies (no need for
sacrifices when Christ's blood has been shed) of the OT and an extension of
the practices as God meant for them to be: the prohibition on divorce for
any reason other than adultery, etc.

  Proof for the Bible being the Word of God:
1) It claims to be - as I said, every man is allowed to testify on his own
    behalf, so the Bible's claim must be counted as evidence, even if that
    evidence is taken a little more lightly than some of the exterior evi-
    dence.  I trust we can agree that the Bible claims to be the sole rev-
    elation of God to man; no Apocrypha, no additions, etc.
2) The unity of the Bible - A unity of facts, purpose, and teaching.  Its
    theme is that of the salvation from sin.  It begins with the creation,
    sin marring it, and God conceiving a great plan to redeem man from his
    sins, and goes from there.
3) The great moral teachings of the Bible - No other book has ever
    condemned immorality so severely or demanded as high a standard of
    righteousness.  It is virtually unique among religious documents.
4) Its Unparallelled Impartiality - "Human books extol the virtues and
    suppress the vices of their heroes.  Not so with the Bible.  It makes
    no attempt to conceal, minimize, or apologize for the weaknesses,
    mistakes, and wrongdoings of even its greatest characters.  It tells of
    the sins of friend and foe alike." (Jimmy Thomas - I could think of no
    better way to phrase it in my own words).
5) The Brevity of the Bible - So much, virtually a history of the world, is
    packed into so few pages.  It tells the 33-year life of the most
    important man ever to walk the earth in four short books.
6) The Life of Jesus - That Jesus existed is virtually indisputable.  The
    testimony of those closest to him indicated His sinless perfection.
    Such a perfect person could never have been so perfectly created by any
    man.
7) The Fulfillment of Prophecy - Modern self-proclaimed "prophets" usually
    get about 10-20% right; the Bible's all come true in exactly the way
    predicted.  The odds of Jesus fulfilling (whether accidentally and/or
    by design) the prophecies applying to Him are beyond calculation.
8) The Bible's Scientific Foreknowledge - One of the areas I personally
    find fascinating.  Being pre-scientific, it should attribute the
    workings of nature to colorful myths and be woefully inaccurate - if it
    was written by man. In the 19th century, Herbert Spencer first
    announced the 5 fundamental facts of science; yet the Bible covered all
    5 in the first 2 verses: "In the beginning [time - jdb] God created the
    heavens [space] and the earth [matter].  And the spirit of God moved 
    [force] upon the face of the waters [motion]."
      The Bible said the earth was round (Is 40:22, Prov 8:27, Lk
    17:34-36).  Not too long ago, great minds were convinced the earth was
    held up by Atlas or something like him; read Job 26:7 to hear what the
    Bible claimed.  Moses knew about a plurality of seas, all with one 
    common bed (Gen 1:9-10).  Solomon knew about the rain/evaporation cycle
    (Eccl 1:7), as did Amos and Job (Amos 9:6; Job 36:27-28).  After read-
    ing Psalm 8:8, Matthew F. Henry charted the sea currents which are still
    recognized today.  Until recently, doctors had no idea how that blood
    contained, in essence, the life of man, but the Bible did (Lev 17:11,
    14).  Scientists cannot distinguish between the blood of races of 
    people, just like God said in Acts 17:26.
9) The Bible's Undeniable Influence for Good - When taken in its purity
    (I do not consider the adulterated version pushed by denominations
    to be pure), it has done nothing but good.  It makes those who
    would obey it the model parents, friends, neighbors, and citizens, if 
    obeyed.

  These are the main reasons.  Next letter I'll examine creationism vs.
evolutionism - why if the supernaturalistic viewpoint is refused that
evolution is the only half-way logical alternative, the closed-mindedness
of those who insist upon naturalism, and the holes in the evolutionary
theory.
  I accept the KJV is not definitive.  I myself use the New American
Standard Version when preaching (which I have done parttime), but have to
from time to time defer to the KJV in parts where the KJV is truer to the
original and most consistent texts (ex: Mt 1:25, where "firstborn" is left
out, probably due to the fact that Catholics recopied many of the texts,
and Mt. 19:9).  It takes examination of all versions.  I would recommend
you read Jasper James Ray's _God Wrote Only One Bible_ for a defense of the
KJV; any efforts I make will repeat large sections of his work.  I disagree
with some of his conclusions, but his data is accurate.