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EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the first of a series of articles on the Authorship of the Bible. This material was presented at the 7th Annual Western Oklahoma Summer Lectures, conducted by the Northeast church of Christ in Elk City, Oklahoma in June 2004.A noted infidel, Robert Ingersoll, said, "The inspiration of the Bible depends upon the ignorance of the gentleman who reads it. Contrary to this skeptical view, the inspiration of the Bible is provable in logical and reasonable ways to the intelligent person. There are seven basic proofs of inspiration which will be briefly covered here, although information providing further confirmation in each area is limitless. Some people feel that science disproves the Bible, but the Bible and true science are in complete agreement and harmony. Only an Omniscient Author could have produced the Bible because things "discovered" in relatively recent times were stated matter-of-factly centuries ago in the Bible. Moses stated, 1,500 years before Christ, that, "God formed man of the dust of the ground" (Gen. 2:7). Chemical analysis, a science of modern times, informs us that man's body contains 16 of the earth's crust elements. Genesis 9:5 states that our life is in our blood. Three thousand years later in 1609, William Harvey discovered the circulatory system and how that blood carries food and oxygen to all parts of the body and gathers waste to rid the body of it. Isaiah said in 745 B.C., "It is he that sitteth above the circle of the earth" (Isa. 40:22 ASV). It was not until Columbus discovered the New World in 1492 and Magellan later sailed around the earth that it was discovered to be round (a "circle"). Two thousand years before Christ, Job wrote, "...the morning stars sang together" (Job 38:7). The Hebrew word, translated sang literally means, "the emittance of a loud creak, shrill, or stridulous sound." In 1942, the U.S. Army accidentally discovered the "sound" of stars. This discovery directly led to the invention of the radio telescope used in Astrophysics. Job also wrote about Meteorology when he said, "For he draweth up the drops of water, which distill in rain from his vapor, which the skies pour down, and drop upon man abundantly" (Job 36:27-28). Though Aristotle is generally given credit for being the first to understand the water-vapor cycle, it was not until 1841 A.D. that the origin of the clouds was discovered. Health and sanitation were topics of discussion by Moses in the book of Leviticus. Yet, it took Louis Pasteur, in the year 1892 A.D., to discover how sickness and disease may be transmitted through germs. Whenever the Bible enters scientific territory, whether it be biology, astronomy, or any other area of science it speaks with absolute accuracy. To have been written in antiquity, revealing scientific facts that could not have been known to mere man, is proof that God is the Author of it. Dr. Wehrner von Braun said, "Science and religion are not incompatible. While science tries to learn more about the creation, religion tries to learn more about the Creator." Regarding Dr. von Braun's remark, it might also be said that science and the Bible are not incompatible. When considering science and the Bible in their relationship to one another, three facts must always be kept in mind. First, it should be noted that the Bible is not a science textbook. Second, one must understand that there is a vast difference between true science (things actually known and demonstrable), theoretical science (speculation), and hypothetical science (assumption and supposition). Third, man can misinterpret the Bible in matters related to science — such as the case of the pre-Copernican religionist who taught that the sun revolved around the earth. True science and the Bible are always in agreement. Conflicts come only in mistaken interpretations of the Bible and/or science. One of the greatest proofs of the Bible's inspiration is prophecy and its fulfillment. Hundreds upon hundreds of prophecies are found in the Bible dealing with nations, people, and especially Christ. Only God could know the future, as well as the past. Fulfillment of Biblical prophecies is not a "majority of the time" affair, but an absolute matter dealing with the fulfillment of minute intricacies. Space allows only two considerations. In 592 B.C., Ezekiel predicted that the mainland city of Tyre would be destroyed, that many nations would wage war against the city, that Tyre would be made flat like the top of a rock, that fishermen would spread their nets over the site, that the debris of the city would be cast into the water, and that the city would never be rebuilt or found again (Ezek. 26:3-21). Nebuchadnezzer destroyed the mainland city of Tyre in 573 B.C. Inhabitants of Tyre fled to an island one half mile off the coast and built a powerful "new" Tyre. In 333 B.C., Alexander the Great waged war against the "new" Tyre. He took the debris of the "old" Tyre and built a mole from the shore to the island, leaving the "old" city as a bare rock. Ancient Tyre has never been rebuilt, and today fishermen spread their nets over the rocks where Tyre used to be. Peter M. Spooner wrote, "If Ezekiel had looked at Tyre in his day and had made these seven predictions in human wisdom, these estimates mean that there would have been only one chance in 75,000,000 of their all coming true. They all came true in the minutest detail." This story could be repeated with Sidon (Ezek. 28:22-23), Samaria (Hos. 13:16; Mic. 1:6), Babylon (Isa. 13:19-22) and others. Prophecy concerning Jesus is mind boggling. We cannot go into the details of each, but note the prophecies listed below, followed by Scripture references where it was made in the Old Testament and fulfilled in the New Testament.
Dr. Hawley O. Taylor stated that "the odds" of only 25 prophecies being fulfilled at a predestinated date, in one man, would be about one chance out of a thousand trillion. |