Men created the Bible

INSPIRATION - The Bible as God's Mouthpiece

The concept of the Bible being inspired by God does not have to do with the fact that it is inspiring, though it certainly has been that for millions of people over the centuries, but to the idea that it is a God-produced product. Actually, the statement that the Bible is God's mouthpiece is an accurate metaphor, for within Christianity the truth presented in the Bible is literally believed to be God-breathed or better yet, God-exhaled.

The question for many people, though, is how can the idea of inspiration be proven? For even if the reliability question is answered satisfactorily, the issue of whether the Bible is God's creation for man or simply man's creation about God must still be addressed. Reliability does not necessitate inspiration.

For example, most everyone knows the story of Moses bringing the Ten Commandments down from Mount Sinai to the Hebrews (either by reading about it in Exodus 20 or watching Charlton Heston in the movie). Moses claimed the commands were given to Him by God and were actually inscribed by God's own hand on the tablets of stone (Ex. 31:18). So how did the people validate that claim? They had not seen God do it with their own eyes. Did they recognize God's penmanship? How were they sure that the words were truly God's and not just forged by Moses?

According to the Biblical text, the answer to that question is that they saw the evidence of God's passage through their world. Thunder, lightening, a dense cloud descending upon the mountain, a heavenly trumpet sounding, a holy glow around Moses too intense to view with the naked eye - all of these signs accompanied Moses' ascent and descent on the mountain. The people also experienced an emotion unique to the moment - a trembling fear. Their conclusion was that God had indeed been present as Moses claimed and was involved in the delivery of the commandments.

Whether one believes that story or not, the testing procedure is valid. If the Bible is truly inspired by God then we must look for evidence that God passed that way. We must look for markers that reveal the Bible to be a divine communication. We must look for God's fingerprints, if you will, on the document. For if the Creator of the universe exists, and if He has gone to the effort to communicate to us, it is logical to assume that we would find traces of His involvement on it.

One of those traces could be the simple fact of the Bible's durability. One would expect that if God made the effort to communicate with His creation in this way that He would ensure its longevity, both in format and significance. Thus, the fact that the majority of the Bible was written between 2000 - 3500 years ago and has survived to this day in its entirety is remarkable. Concerted efforts in certain time periods to destroy all copies of the Bible notwithstanding, the sheer number of copies (currently over 42,000 of the Old Testament and 24,000 of the New Testament) available have virtually guaranteed its permanence. This is in contrast with oral traditions that have come and gone throughout world history or written traditions that have not survived natural disasters, wars, or other kinds of human destruction. The Bible's ability to endure over time is one marker of its inspiration.

Another marker is the fact of its continuity. Though it was written over the course of 1500 years by 40 different authors from every walk of life, in 3 different languages, across 3 different continents, from diverse cultures and time periods - the thematic unity and harmony displayed from cover to cover is unprecedented. Though it covers an extraordinary amount of subjects, the story of God's redemption of man consistently unfolds as one transcend theme that separates it from all other human collaborations, collections, or anthologies. Simply put, no known group of humans from any era has pulled off a similar feat in the body of world literature.

A third marker that one would expect to find in a book written by God would be its accuracy regarding the world as we know it. It would not make sense for the Creator of the universe who had all knowledge of time, history, and space to not pass that knowledge on in an accurate fashion. This is often called the external evidence of the Bible test. For instance, a field like archaeology should be able to verify the accuracy of places and cultures mentioned in the Biblical text. Historians should be able to corroborate its timeline. Anthropologists should be able to verify cultural development, social patterns, and linguistic evolvement. Scientists should be able to find a harmony between the claims of the Bible and the evidence they see before them. In other words, one would expect that the ongoing research in these fields would consistently find evidence that validate its claims, not invalidate them.

A simple case in point could be the scientific misconceptions the majority of ancient religious documents have had regarding the nature of the universe. While the Hindus believed the earth rested on giant elephants or turtles, and the Greeks on the back of Atlas or Hercules, the Bible simply stated that God "stretched out the north over empty space; He hangs the earth on nothing" Job 26:7. The idea that the earth was free-floating in space, literally resting on nothing solid, was a remarkable claim around 3000 BC. It flew in the face of the common beliefs of the time and for most of human history until the advent of modern astronomy. Was it just a good guess? It could be, if the preponderance of evidence from every field of research did not make it just one of the innumerable details the Bible got right. The pattern has been that as time goes on and more research is done, the evidence continually confirms the accuracy of the Biblical record. Fortunately, there are countless books and web sites available devoted to each of these areas so you can verify it for yourself. One such resource, a tape series entitled Reasons to Believe will soon be available on this web site.

Another marker of God's involvement with the Bible is the hundreds of prophecies it contains that have come to pass over its history. These fulfilled prophecies are considered internal evidences of the Bible's inspiration. For instance, the prophecies regarding Jesus' birth in the town of Bethlehem (Micah 5:2, Matthew 2:6); his parent's flight to Egypt (Hosea 11:1, Matthew 2:14-15) due to Herod's persecution (Jeremiah 31:15, Matthew 2:16-17); that he would be rejected by his own people and betrayed for 30 pieces of silver (Zechariah 11:4-13, Matthew 27:3-10); die a horrible death (Isaiah 53:3-5, Matthew 27:27-44); and have his clothes divided by casting lots (Psalm 22:18, Matthew 27:35). These are but a few of the 300 hundred prophecies fulfilled by Jesus' life, and make up a portion of those offered in the Bible. And while there have been many so-called seers or prophets in world history, the sheer number found in the pages of the Bible and the detail in which they were offered must be accounted for.