Isn't the bible just the writings of men?
by Robert Kiser

This is a concern that I have came across many times. So I am going to provide a few logical reasons why I personally accept the bible is the word of God.

I can understand why many people claim the Bible isn't the actual word of God because it was written by mankind. For example if someone questioned me personally who authored the Book of Acts? I'd declare Luke wrote the Book of Acts. So how can I name a man as the author and after that turn around and say that it is the word of God? In theological circles they call that verbal plenary inspiration. In plain English all that means is that God used individuals to be able to express precisely what he wanted to say while still including some of the personality as well as feelings of the writer to come through.

That really is quite a claim and it is reasonable to question whether that is true or not.

It is the qualities about the bible that are over and above mankind's abilities that make it convincing. For starters the bible isn't just one book. The Bible actually contains 66 books.
There are no less than forty distinct writers. It includes a period of time period involving around 1500 years. It was written upon 3 different continents, Africa, Asia and Europe. The authors of the books came from various backgrounds or lifestyles. As an example we've got a doctor, kings, fisherman an ex-Pharisee and so on as writers. You'd expect these people coming from different backgrounds covering a 1500 year time frame span would certainly have different world views. Theoretically it ought to be hopeless to get all of them to agree about controversial topics like God, sin, salvation and so forth. Yet they do agree on these controversial topics so much so that all 66 books from the various authors are cross referenced.

Just try to go out on the street and find 40 different individuals with different backgrounds that all live in the same time period and get them to write their opinions on these types of controversial topics and find out if they all agree. Although you may pick out the 40 different people from the same church denomination you would have some discrepancies. Now if they all worked as a group you might be able to obtain some clarity. However the actual writers from the Bible could not get together as a group. The writing contains a 1500 year time span on three different continents. Now I personally find that thought provoking!

Most people deny the bible because it records things about God, judgment and miracles. The thing of it is that these types of things happen to be woven all throughout actual bible history. The biblical history has been confirmed repeatedly even in the areas which skeptics stated the Bible was wrong. I will give you one example. There are those that did not believe Sodom and Gomorrah existed due to the fact nobody had found the actual ruins of those cities. Well that might be simply because God destroyed them! Well anyhow there is an archeological discovery where they unearthed the city of Ebla. Now Ebla is not mentioned inside the Bible. What's significant about it is they found a lot of clay tablets. In these tablets they discovered that Ebla had actually traded with Sodom and Gomorrah. This demonstrates they did in fact exist and it is a good example of the Bible being historically correct clear back to the book of Genesis. You can read about this in DR. Clifford Wilson's book called the Ebla Tablets.

Since what we can confirm is indeed verified for what reason would we reject it? Are we to reject it simply because it records miracles as well? Who's to say that miracles don't happen?

There are more things in the bible that are beyond mankind's capacities. I know that the Bible is not a textbook on science however there are things in the bible which declare scientific details in which no one in that period of time knew. One example is Job lived a couple of thousand years before Jesus was born. Job said in chapter 26 that God hangs the earth on nothing!

This concept that the planet was suspended upon absolutely nothing wasn't even thought of by scientist for thousands of years after Job. Currently with our satellites as well as trips into space we realize this to be true. But that was not known in Job's day. How did he realize that? There are lots of other examples that are similar in which the Bible declares things well before mankind actually discovered they were true.

Another area that is more than mankind's creating abilities is prophecy. There are hundreds of prophecies in the bible. Many of these prophecies have already been fulfilled. So you can just examine what the Bible said would happen and then check if that is in fact what did take place. For example in the Bible Daniel foretold a few hundred years of major world history before it even happened. Daniel told that Babylon would be conquered by the Medes and the Persians and they would in turn end up being conquered by the Greeks. Then Daniel informs us of a divided empire which would replace the Greek empire. In history that was the Roman Empire.

So I just touched on a several things which are beyond mankind's capacities that convince me that the Bible isn't just a book, but instead it really is exactly what claims to be the written word of God.

Last, but not least is that I can say I've had personal experiences as well through answered prayers etc. God is has been and still is at work in my life.

Is the Bible more than simply the writings of men? Yes it is the written word of God!

ReasonableAnswers.org

Robert Kiser is the author of a few free pdf books and the . 
Roberts books explains and defends the Christian Faith. His book also includes a section on Cults including Mormonism and Jehovah Witnesses. https://archive.org/details/@robert_kiser

Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com







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