Every religion in the world claims to be right and the others wrong. Many people have genuinely wondered which religion, if any, is the right one, since all profess to be from God. Anyone can write a book with moral teachings. However, no book can be claimed as 100% accurate and divinely inspired of God without being unbiasedly questioned and producing satisfactory evidence that its claims are legitimate.
Many religions fear scrutiny of their religious texts and teach their followers to believe without question, lest their followers lose faith after questioning and thinking for themselves. The Bible has been hostilely scrutinized and challenged from every possible angle all throughout history. These challenges have revealed the supernatural unity, prophetic, scientific and archaeological reliability of the Bible, all proving its divine inspiration. The Bible remains open to any challenges. The God of the Bible does not encourage blind faith and brainwashed loyalty, but commends those who seek Him with all their heart, promising that they will find the truth.
“Ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.” Jeremiah 29:13
Sections
- Scripture’s unity proves the Bible is true
- Fulfilled prophecies prove the Bible is true
- Scientific accuracy proves the Bible is true
- Archaeological discoveries prove the Bible is true
Scripture’s unity proves the Bible is true
The Bible was given by God to forty different men from many different backgrounds and occupations (shepherd, soldier, farmer, fisherman, tax collector, medical doctor, king, etc).
It was written in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek over a period of 1,600 years in 66 books.
However, the unity of the Scriptures is so perfect, with one central message. There is one central message with one central theme from beginning to end.
The Bible links perfectly from beginning to end with no contradiction, even though the writers could not possibly have collaborated together. This proves that the Bible was not invented by man, but divinely inspired by God.
Fulfilled prophecies prove the Bible is true
Any supernatural claims must be authenticated by supernatural proofs. God Himself challenges all religions to prove that they are really “from God” by predicting the future:
“Show the things that are to come hereafter that we may know that ye are gods…” Isaiah 41:23
The Bible is the only book in the world that correctly predicts the future hundreds of times, without making any mistakes. No other book does this. Any man can write a book with moral teachings, but religions such as Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam contain no cases of clearly fulfilled prophecies. This proves that they are not from God.
The Bible contains hundreds of specific, highly detailed prophecies concerning Jesus Christ, individuals, nations and world events.
Fulfilled Prophecies concerning Jesus Christ
The details surrounding Jesus Christ’s birth, life and death directly fulfilled hundreds of specific prophecies made hundreds, even thousands of years before He was born.
Many skeptics insisted that the Old Testament prophecies, particularly those from the book of Daniel and Isaiah, were written after Christ’s birth because they were too accurate. However, in 1947, a Bedouin shepherd discovered hundreds of copies of the Old Testament prophecies in the Dead Sea caves, dated at least a hundred years before Jesus Christ was born. Archeological discoveries prove the Bible is true.
Consider some of the fulfilled prophecies regarding Jesus Christ.
| Prophecy | Old Testament Reference | New Testament Fulfilment |
| Virgin birth | “A virgin shall conceive and bear a son…”
Genesis 3:15, Isaiah 7:14 |
“The angel Gabriel was sent from God… to a virgin espoused to a man… and the virgin’s name was Mary.” Luke 1:26-27 |
| Born at Bethlehem | “Bethlehem… out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel …” Micah 5:2 | “Joseph… went up from Galilee…unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem.. to be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child…”Luke 2:4-7 |
| Visited by wise men with gifts | “Gentiles shall come…and kings…” Isaiah 60:3,6,9 | “When Jesus was born… there came wise men from the east…when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.” Matthew 2:1, 11 |
| Infants killed at His birthplace | “A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rachel weeping for her children…because they were not”
Jeremiah 31:15 |
“Then Herod… slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old…” Matthew 2:16 |
| Perform miracles | Behold, your God will come … the eyes of the blind shall be opened, … the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap… and the tongue of the dumb sing…” Isaiah 35: 4-6 | “Jesus answering said unto them… the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the poor the gospel is preached.” Luke 7:22 |
| Betrayed by a friend | “And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands?.. He answer, …I was wounded in the house of my friends.” Zechariah 13:6 | “One of his disciples, Judas Iscariot…” John 12:4
“Jesus said unto him, Judas, betrayest thou the Son of man with a kiss?” Luke 22:48 |
| Betrayed for 30 pieces of silver | “They weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver…” Zechariah 11:12 | “Then Judas, which had betrayed him… brought again the thirty pieces of silver…” Matthew 27:3 |
| Betrayal money used to buy potter’s field | “Cast them to the potter..” Zechariah 11:13 | “And the chief priests took the silver pieces…and bought with them the potter’s field..” Matthew 27:6-7 |
| Forsaken by disciples | “Smite the Shepherd, & sheep shall be scattered” Zechariah 13:7 | “All the disciples forsook him, and fled.” Matthew 26:56 |
| Falsely accused in trial | “False witnesses did rise up…” Psalm 35:11 | “Many bare false witness against him, but their witness agreed not together.” Mark 14:56 |
| Silent before accusers | “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth.” Isaiah 53:7 | “And when he was accused of the chief priests and elders, he answered nothing…” Matthew 27:12-15 |
| Scourged and spat on | “I hid not my face from shame and spitting.” Isaiah 50:6 | “And they spit upon him, and took the reed, and smote him on the head…” Matthew 27:30 |
| Nailed to the cross | “They pierced my hands and my feet…” Zechariah 12:10, Psalm 22:16 | “They crucified him…” Mark 15:25
“Thomas… said unto them, except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails…I will not believe.” John 20:25 |
| Given vinegar to drink | “In my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink…” Psalm 69:21 | “And the soldiers also mocked him, coming to him, and offering him vinegar..”Luke 23:36 |
| Garments gambled for | “They part my garments among them, and cast lots…” Psalm 22:18 | “And they crucified him, and parted his garments, casting lots.” Matthew 27:34 |
| No bones broken | “He keepeth all his bones: not one of them is broken.” Psalm 34:20 | “The soldiers…brake the legs of the first, and of the other..but when they came to Jesus, and saw that he as dead already, they brake not his legs.” John 19:32-33 |
| Words on the cross | “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Psalm 22:1 | “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Matthew 27:46 |
| Buried in a rich man’s tomb | “His grave … with the rich in his death.” Isaiah 53:9 | “A rich man … named Joseph…laid it (Christ’s body) in his own new tomb…” Matthew 27:57-60 |
| Raised bodily from the dead | “thou wilt not suffer thine Holy One to see corruption” Psalm 16:10 | “Ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here: for he is risen, as he said…” Matthew 228:5-6
“Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see…” Luke 24:39 |
Fulfilled Prophecies about Nations & World Events
Prophesy of Jerusalem and the Temple’s destruction
In 538 BC, Daniel prophesied that Jerusalem and Temple would be destroyed after Israel rejected her Messiah.
“After threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off…and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary…” Daniel 9:26
This was fulfilled in AD 70, when Roman general Titus destroyed Jerusalem, killing one million Jews, and capturing thousands of Israelites as slaves.
Prophesy of Edom and Petra’s desolation
Jacob’s brother Esau founded Edom in 1800 BC (Genesis 36:8). In 1450 BC (350 years later), Edom refused to help Israel pass through her land (Numbers 20), and delighted in persecuting Israel. Petra, also known as Mt. Seir, was Edom’s strongly fortified capital city built into a rock cliff, accessible only by a very narrow entrance. This made them feel invincible.
However, in 600 BC, Jeremiah prophesied that Edom would become a desolation that people would marvel at but never inhabit again.
“O thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock… I will bring thee down from thence… Edom shall be a desolation: every one that goes by it shall be astonished…no man shall abide there.” Jeremiah 49:16-18
Today this great city is desolate, uninhabited, and one of the major tourist attractions in Jordan.
Prophesy of Media-Persian army’s defeat by Alexander the Great
In 533 BC, Daniel prophesied that the Medo-Persian army would have great strength and influence, but would be destroyed by small but powerful Greece under its first great leader.
“A ram which had two horns…I saw the ram pushing westward, and northward, and southward; he did according to his will and became great… The ram…having two horns are the kings of Media and Persia.” Daniel 8:3-4, 20
“An he goat came from the west on the face of the whole earth.. and he came to the ram… and smote the ram, and brake his two horns: and there was no power in the ram to stand before him…The rough goat is the king of Grecia.”Daniel 8:5-7, 21
This was fulfilled when Alexander the Great defeated Darius III’s army in the battles of Granicus (334 BC), Issus (333 BC) and Guagamela (331 BC).
Prophesy of mainland Tyre’s destruction by Nebuchadnezzar and Alexander the Great
Tyre was a wealthy and prosperous port city in ancient Phoenicia. In 590 BC, Ezekiel prophesied that King Nebuchadnezzar would destroy the mainland city of Tyre, other nations would scrape the city debris like the top of a rock, and the bare site would become a place for fishermen to spread their nets.
“I will bring upon Tyrus Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon…” Ezekiel 26:7
“Many nations…shall destroy the walls of Tyrus, and break down her towers… scrape her dust from her, and make her like the top of a rock.” Ezekiel 26:3-4
“It shall be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea…” Ezekiel 26:5
In 573 BC, King Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the mainland city of Tyre, and the city dwellers fortified the island of Tyre instead.
In 332 BC, Alexander the Great attempted to conquer the island of Tyre. In order to reach the island, he demolished the old city on the mainland, and built a causeway from the mainland to the island with the debris of the old city. Alexander’s engineers laid the stone, timber and dust remains of old Tyre into the water in order to build the causeway.
This site became bare as a rock for fisherman to dry their nets, and Alexander’s causeway still remains today.
All these prophesies were predicted in great detail with no possibility of guessing that this would take place, yet all are correctly fulfilled. This proves that the Bible is not from the mind of man, but authored by the true God who wrote the future before it happened.
Scientific accuracy proves the Bible is true
Though the Bible is not a scientific manual, everything it says about science is accurate. Its scientific statements were made thousands of years before satellites, telescopes, microscopes, etc, were invented – so the writers had no way of knowing that their statements were true. Instead, many of the Bible’s scientific statements contradicted popular “scientific” beliefs and practices at the time (such as a flat earth, blood-letting to remove “bad blood”, etc). No man-made religious book could reveal new scientific information, because it is limited to man’s current state of knowledge. However, the Bible contains numerous scientific facts unknown to man at the time of writing, proving that the Bible is divinely inspired by the All-knowing Creator God.
1500 BC: Earth suspended in space (Job 26:7).
This is obvious to our modern generation, as we have seen the actual pictures of the earth hanging in space, but to previous generations it was not obvious and there were many commonly-held myths about the earth sitting on the back of Atlas or a turtle or an elephant, etc.
712 BC: Earth is a sphere (Isaiah 40:22)
When Isaiah wrote this, people thought that the earth was flat, and that you could sail off the edge of the earth.
1500 BC: Air has weight (Job 28:25).
It was not until the 17th century that Galileo discovered that atmosphere has weight, and the modern science of aerodynamics is based on this scientific fact. Further, the weight of air is important in the function of the earth’s weather. “The ‘weight of the winds’ controls the worldwide air mass movements that transport the waters evaporated from the oceans inland over the continents” (Morris, The Remarkable Record of Job).
1520 BC: Springs of the sea (Job 38:16).
Man had no way to know about the fresh-water springs on the ocean floor by firsthand observation until recent times. Modern science has discovered that there are thousands of underwater springs that add millions of metric tons of water to the oceans each year.
1520 BC: Light has a way and that darkness has a place (Job 38:19).
That is, light is not to be located in a certain place or situation. Neither does it simply appear, or disappear, instantaneously. Light is travelling! It dwells in a ‘way,’ always on the way to someplace else. Though usually travelling in waves, sometimes it seems to move as a stream of particles, but it is always moving. When light stops, there is darkness. Thus, darkness is static, staying in place; but light is dynamic, dwelling in a way” (Morris).
1520 BC: Light creates wind (Job 38:24)
But it is only in recent times that modern weather science has discovered that wind is created as the sun heats up the surface of the earth, causing the hot air to rise and cooler air to fall, creating weather systems.
1520 BC, Hydrological cycle (evaporation, atmospheric circulation, condensation, precipitation, run-off) (Job 36:27-28; Ecclesiastes 1:7; Jeremiah 51:16).
The process of evaporation and condensation was not discovered until the 17th century and not well understood until the 20th.
Plants and animals reproduce after their kind (Genesis 1:11, 12, 21, 24, 25).
This is in perfect harmony with everything that can be observed and tested by modern science. There is great variety within kinds, different types of roses and dogs, but there is no reproduction between kinds, between roses and dandelions or dogs and penguins. Breeding experiments have demonstrated that there are genetic barriers that restrict change. The fruit fly has been used in genetic experiments since the early 1900s. Tens of millions of fruit flies have been bombarded with x-rays, doctored, and poisoned. The result has been a variety of mutant fruit flies but no evidence that the fruit fly could evolve into some other type of insect or animal. This is proof of the Bible’s 3500-year-old statement that all creatures reproduce according to kind.
The heavens cannot be measured and the stars are without number (Genesis 22:17; Jeremiah 31:37).
Before the invention of the telescope, man could see only a few hundred stars with the naked eye, but the very first book of the Bible says they are without number. This has been confirmed by modern science. There are 300 billion stars in our Milky Way galaxy alone. In 1999, observations by NASA astronomers, using the Hubble Space Telescope, suggested that there are 125 billion galaxies in the universe. The most up-to-date star count was announced in July 2003 as 70 sextillion observable stars (70,000,000,000,000,000,000,000). This was the conclusion of the world’s largest galaxy study, the Two-Degree Field Galaxy Redshift Survey, which is considered 10 times more accurate than previous ones. The team of scientists did not physically count the stars. Instead they used some of the world’s most powerful telescopes to count all of the galaxies in one region of the universe and to estimate how many stars each galaxy contained by measuring its brightness. They then extrapolated these figures out to the whole universe visible through telescopes. This massive figure, of course, probably accounts for only a tiny percentage of the actual stars.
There are paths in the sea (Isaiah 43:16; Psalm 8:8).
Since the 19th century the ocean currents or paths have been charted and ships travel these paths just as trucks travel on roads. Writing in the mid-1800s, Matthew Fontaine Maury, Superintendent of the U.S. Navy’s Depot of Charts and Instruments in Washington, D.C., observed, “There is a river in the ocean: in the severest droughts it never fails, and in the mightiest floods it never overflows; its banks and its bottom are of cold water, while its current is of warm; the Gulf of Mexico is its fountain, and its mouth is in the Arctic Seas. It is the Gulf Stream” (Maury, The Physical Geography of the Sea, 6th ed., 1856, p. 25). Since then, other sea paths have been discovered.
Life is in the blood (Leviticus 17:11).
This was written about 3,500 years ago, but it was not understood scientifically until recent times. For centuries doctors used “bloodletting” as a healing method. George Washington, America’s first president, probably died prematurely because of this bogus practice. Modern medicine has learned what the Bible has taught all along, that the life of the flesh is in the blood. The amazing system of vessels and capillaries transports the marvellous blood cells with their life-giving oxygen and other necessary elements to every part of the body. The blood also forms a major part of the infection fighting and clotting systems, which are necessary for the “life of the flesh.”
Though other ancient books are filled with gross scientific blunders, and science books written a mere 100 years ago are filled with errors, everything the Bible says about science is scientifically accurate. This proves that God authored the Bible because He created the world and knows all the details about it.
Archaeological discoveries prove the Bible is true
Dead Sea Scrolls
Many modern scholars scoffed at the idea of Biblical prophecy, particularly those of Daniel and Isaiah. They claimed that these so-called “prophesies” must have been written and compiled several years after Christ’s birth, because they are too detailed and accurate.
However, in 1947 a Bedouin shepherd stumbled across clay pots containing scrolls in the Qumran caves along the Dead Sea. This sparked a discovery which led to the search for more scrolls. Between 1947 and 1956 some nine hundred manuscripts were discovered in eleven caves around Qumran. Over two hundred scrolls were portions of the Bible itself, dated 250 BC–AD 68. The astonishingly accurate scroll of Isaiah was found completely intact, and dated to 125 BC.
This means that the scribes of the Dead Sea scrolls had access to copies of the Old Testament long before the New Testament was written. Therefore, Old Testament prophesies were written well before Christ’s birth, proving that God inspired His Word and has preserved it for us today.
King David written on Tel Dan Stele
Sceptics denied that King David ever existed. However, a stele was discovered at Tel Dan with the expression “House of David” carved upon it, dating from 900-850BC.
©2011 Zev Radovan, www.BibleLandPictures.com
This stele contradicts the sceptics, and proves that the Bible’s historical account of the United Monarchy under King David is true.
King Belshazzar mentioned on Nabonidus Cylinder
The Bible recorded that Belshazzar was king of Babylon, but critics of the Bible claimed that Belshazzar was never king in Babylon, and that Nabonidus was not his father.
However, archaeologists discovered a cuneiform cylinder from King Nabonidus dated to 550 BC which mentioned his elder son Belshazzar by name.
Pilate’s existence confirmed on Dedication Stone
However, in June 1961, an old amphitheatre seat in Caesarea Maritima was discovered to be a temple dedication stone turned upside down. Its original face bore the inscription: “Tiberieum, (Pon)tius Pilatus, (Praef)ectus Iuda(eae).”
REFERENCES
http://www.wayoflife.org/index_files/the_bibles_proof.html
https://answersingenesis.org/archaeology/6-archaeological-finds/
https://answersingenesis.org/archaeology/does-archaeology-support-the-bible/
https://answersingenesis.org/archaeology/dead-sea-scrolls-timeless-treasures/