The Inspiration of the Bible-I

(Watch the video of this post in the right hand column. There is a slight error on the video. I say that Micah wrote 500 years before Christ; he actually wrote approximately 700 B.C. That error is corrected in the written version below.)

The attacks on the Bible and Christianity continue unabated from the secular left and those who do not wish to submit themselves to the will and dictates of the Christian God. These so-called “intellectuals” think that, in their cleverness, they have disproven the divine inspiration of the Bible. In fact, it is no longer even an issue among them. Just like Al Gore has said that the debate on man-caused global warming is over, even so the debate on the Bible’s inspiration is over.

I beg to differ.

The Bible gives many evidences that it could not have been written by man. Indeed, the Bible is not the kind of book man would have written if he could have or could have written if he would have. But, in this video, let me just give one line of reasoning which powerfully proves the divine authorship of the sacred volume. I speak hear of predictive prophecy.

Men do not, and cannot, know the future. Oh, we can make some good guesses about what might happen in the near future, but we certainly have no knowledge of what will happen, say 500 years from now. God, who can see the future, does have that knowledge. And in the Old Testament, He demonstrates it.

That the Old Testament predicts the coming of some great personage is not a subject for debate, and I’ll only mention it in passing. Deut. 18:18-19, Ezek. 36:23-24, Is. 40:3, 42:1, Zech. 5:9 and many other passages speak of the coming of the Messiah; the Jews understood this, and some, to this day, still await his coming. But He’s already come—Jesus of Nazareth. And the Old Testaments tells us of that coming is ways that humans could not possibly have known.

For example, in Micah 5:2, that prophet tells us that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem of Judea. How did Micah, writing some 700 years before the event, know that? Zechariah 9:9 speaks of his riding into Jerusalem on a donkey—something that Jesus did some 500 years later; Zechariah also said he would be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver (11:9). How was it possible for the prophet to know what would happen 500 years afterwards? Isaiah chapter 53 perfectly describes Christ’s work, including his trial, death, and burial. Isaiah lived well over 700 years before this event. That would be like someone today telling us, accurately, what was going to come to pass in the 2700s of our era. There is no way we humans have that kind of ability. How did Isaiah do it? The prophet Daniel, in chapter 2 of his book, tells us when God’s kingdom, the church, would be established—in the days of the Roman empire, three great empires beyond the Babylonian in which he lived. There is no way Daniel could have known of these empires or when God would set up His kingdom on earth. Indeed, in Dan. 9:24-27, the prophet predicts the exact year the Messiah would be crucified. Folks, if you want to read about the life of Christ, you can read the New Testament. Or you can read it beforehand in the Old Testament. Only God could have this kind of knowledge. Thus, only God could have written these books.

There is one more passage I want to study with you quickly. In Isaiah 44:28 and 45:1, we read this language: “Who says of Cyrus, He is My shepherd, and he shall perform all My pleasure, saying to Jerusalem, you shall be built, and to the temple, your foundation shall be laid. Thus says the Lord to His anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have held—to subdue nations before him and loose the armor of kings; to open before him the double doors. So that the gates will not be shut.” Folks, Cyrus, king of Persia, allowed the Jewish people to return to their homeland, in 536 BC, and rebuild their sacred city and temple. You can read this even in the Bible—Ezra writes about it. Cyrus was born over 100 years after Isaiah died, and yet the prophet names him by name, as the one who would restore Jerusalem. How did Isaiah know that? There’s only one way. God told him. And if someone wants to shout, “But that’s just an interpolation in Isaiah. Somebody wrote that after Cyrus lived,” my only response is “Prove it.” Every single manuscript we have of Isaiah, going back even before the time of Christ, has these two passages in it. There is no physical evidence of interpolation. If you want to stick with evidence, Isaiah ben Amoz wrote this—by the inspiration of God—over 150 years before it happened. There is no other explanation.

I can, and will soon on this blog, take the story of Noah and the ark and prove that the Bible is inspired of God. But what I’ve done here is sufficient for the moment. The Old Testament predicts, hundreds of years in advance, with minute accuracy, of the coming of Jesus. Men could not have done that without the aid of an all-seeing, all-knowing God.