How Do You Know the Bible is Divinely Inspired?
Isn’t the Bible just comprised of the opinions of some people from a few thousand years ago? If so, why would I care to spend time reading it? It certainly wouldn’t impact my life today.
What if the Bible really was inspired by God? In that case, I could certainly understand why I would need to take note of what it says.
So how do we know if it was inspired by God or not? Simple: biblical prophecy.
How did the biblical authors get the details about events, that would happen hundreds of years later, so precisely accurate? For example, according to the Bible Knowledge Commentary, the book of Isaiah was written over many years of Isaiah’s life, but particularly between the late 700s A.D. and the early 600s A.D., ending at his death - most likely no later than 660 A.D. Yet, Isaiah 53:4-6 is an extremely detailed account of Jesus’ death:
“Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him.”
It doesn’t get much more precise than that! How did Isaiah know so accurately how the Messiah would die? Not only that, but he also knew the purpose and reason for the death of the Messiah! That is just one example from the NUMEROUS examples of biblical prophecy.
I could list more examples here (and I give two more in the video), but my words would fall far short of the works already done on this topic. I strongly recommend the two books mentioned below because they eloquently present many biblical prophecies, their fulfillment, and in some instances, the statistical likelihood of their fulfillment. They are incredibly well done and well worth anyone’s time spent reading them.
- The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel
- Evidence that Demands a Verdict: Life-Changing Truth for a Skeptical World by Josh and Sean McDowell
When people ask me how I know the Bible is divinely inspired, my immediate response is biblical prophecy, because there is just no other legitimate way to explain the miracle of biblical prophecy without divine inspiration. Therefore, since I know the Bible is divinely inspired, I know the importance it has for my life. I would be foolish to place my trust for eternity in the mere words of humans who lived a couple millennia ago; however, I would be very wise to place my trust in the words inspired by the omniscient God of the universe.
Mr. Pierce
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