Dear Brethren & Friends,
The best-selling book in history is the Bible. It seems a controversial book as there are those who love it as God’s truth while others insist it to be just an ordinary book written by men. As you hear the Gospel message preached today, you would realize the Christian faith is based on this one book called the Bible. I would like to answer some questions that you may have in your mind about the Bible.
What is the Bible?
The Bible is the Word of God. All that God wants us to know of Him is found in the Bible. It is the only Book that God gives to mankind to know the truth of Himself as the true and living God and the way to come to Him. How do we know the Bible is really the Word of God? Because the Bible declares it plainly and clearly in 2 Timothy 3:16 that “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God”. You will find in the Bible it is always “Thus saith the LORD”. A book will tell us what it is whether it is a novel, a history book, a cookbook etc. The Bible tells what it is – God’s inspired Word to mankind.
Isn’t the Bible written by men?
We must know that the Bible is not a book that arrived in complete form at one point in history. Instead, the Bible has 66 books written over a period of about 1,600 years by at least 40 different authors on 3 different continents. How did these various men over such a long period of time write the Bible? The answer is found in 2 Peter 1:21 “For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”
The Bible has One Real Author who is God
God moved and breathed His Word into the hands of the human authors to write His Word. Hence, the real Author of the Bible is God Himself. This is clearly seen in the 66 books of the Bible as one united Book without contradiction theologically, morally, ethically, doctrinally, scientifically, historically, or in any other way.
The Bible with 66 books is really one complete story of the beginning of the world, the fall of mankind into sin, the salvation plan of God through Jesus Christ and finally the end of this world and the new Heaven and Earth. If God is not the Real Author, the 40 different human authors who lived over a span of 1,600 years would have written different stories and even contradicting each other. Yet you will not find that in the Bible at all.
Is the Bible Reliable?
If the Bible is God’s Word, then it has to be 100% reliable and without error. God is perfect and His Word must be perfect too. Are there evidences to show the Bible is reliable? The answer is an absolute YES!
The Bible is reliable in its prophecies. In the Old Testament, there are hundreds of prophecies of a Saviour who will come – His birth place, His virgin birth, His life as a suffering servant, His betrayal, His crucifixion death, His resurrection etc. Every of these prophecies written hundreds of years before Jesus Christ was born were all fulfilled in Him, the Son of God who became the Son of Man. The prophecy of the Bible in the different world empire that would reign is all accurately fulfilled and seen in history of the Babylon, Persia, Greek and Roman empires. The historical accuracy of the Bible shows clearly God is the Author of the Bible who is sovereign and knows everything from the beginning to the end. This is our confidence in the Bible as it is the Word of God.
The Bible is reliable in its scientific evidence too. The truth of the Word of God tells us that God “hangeth the earth upon nothing” (Job 26:7). How did Job know that the earth hung in space before the age of modern astronomy and space travel? God told Job to write it. The scientists of Isaiah’s day didn’t know the topography of the earth, but Isaiah said, “It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth” (Isaiah 40:22). The word for “circle” here means a globe or sphere. God created the earth and His Word stated it clearly even before scientists of today discovered this fact.
The Bible is a Book of the Ages
Finally, the Bible is not a book of the month, but the Book of the ages. 1 Peter 1:25 says: “But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the Word which by the gospel is preached unto you.” No book has ever had as much opposition as the Bible. Men have laughed at it, scorned it, burned it, ridiculed it, and made laws against it. But the Word of God has survived. And it is applicable today as much as it was yesterday and will be for tomorrow too.
The Bible is so majestically deep that scholars could swim and never touch the bottom. Yet so wonderfully shallow that a little child could come and get a drink of water without fear of drowning. The Bible is the Word of God. Lives are transformed for those who believed and trusted in the Bible which is indeed the Word of Life. Will you not trust and believe the Bible today which is the Word of God?
Elder John Leong