ONE HEARTBEAT AWAY -PART 23

                                              ONE HEARTBEAT
          AWAY
    
         PART 23


(Mark Cahill's Book)
 
What is the Bible ?  It is a compilation of 66 books written by  more than 40 writers over a period of 1,600 years that reads like one book by one author. 
  
The unity, harmony, and accuracy of the Bible cannot be compared with that of any other book. The Bible is by its very existence, evidence of a Divine Hand writing through devoted men.

if you have a favorite holy book other than the Bible, you may want to argue that. Let me explain to you why the Bible is unique.

One Bible scholar stated it this way:

Consider for a moment the sheer miracle of the Bible. It was written by over 40 writers during the span of more than 60 generations (around 1,600 years) !  These writers were from a variety of backgrounds; kings, herdsmen, soldiers, fishermen, poets, statesmen, scholars, priests and prophets.

The writers wrote on the continents of Asia, Africa, and Europe in the languages of  Hebrew, Greek, and Aramic. Yet  (the Bible)  manages to present one unfolding drama of redemption. How is it possible that the Bible could have been written in the most complex and counterproductive way imaginable, and yet manage to fit together so accurately?

The Bible is the best selling book of all time.

Many books have  sold thousands, some have sold millions, some have even passed the ten million mark.

 By comparison, Bible sales are about 150 million per year, with approximately four million Bibles in print, in over 2,000 languages. No other book even comes close. There is something about it that draws people all over the world to want to  read it.

Now, the fact that there are billions of copies around doesn't mean that the Bible is true, but because it is the best-selling book in history, shouldn't  you take a look at it? You don't want to be one of those people who feel free to critique or claim to "know"  the Bible without actually having read it.

The Bible claims to have been written by God.

All other religious texts were written by men who claimed to be speaking for God. Men wrote the Bhagavad Gita: men who knew Mahomed, or knew of him, wrote the Koran long after his death; a man wrote the book of Mormon, claiming that an angel gave him the translation of  ancient golden plates; Mary Baker Eddy wrote the central book of Christian Science, 'Science and Health with key to the Scriptures.'
First published by Eddy in 1879.

Only the Bible claims to have been written by God  speaking to men. Over 3,000 times the Bible says, "Thus saith the Lord."  What other book ever written has ever said something like that so many times?  In no way, shape, or form is that book claiming human authorship.

When I discovered this fact, my question was; "Is there any evidence to prove the supernatural origin of the Bible?  I found out that there is a wealth of information  - from history, archaeology, science and prophecy - that shows the Bible is indeed the Word of God.


Don't agree with me
 until you read the
 following evidence. 
Then decide for yourself one way or the other.

Historical Evidence Supports The Bible.
To prove something historically, you have to look at several things. One thing to consider is the early or original manuscripts of that document.  Then we must ask: How close to the original is what we have today?  In the case of the Bible, today we have over 24,000 ancient copies of portions of the New Testament. The next closest in all of antiquity is Homer's Illiad, of which we have 643 ancient copies.

John Warwick Montgomery said:  "To be skeptical of the resultant text of the New Testament books is to allow all of the classical antiquity to slip into obscurity,
for no documents of the ancient period are as well attested bibliographically as the New Testament.

Also among ancient writings, there is no other text that has manuscripts that come as close in time to the original writing as the Bible does.We would never dismiss the old texts of the Illiad
or the Odyssey, and we shouldn't dismiss the Bible when it has much better documentation to back it up.

In addition, the book must also be free of any known contradictions. If a book contradicts itself  then it  isn't reliable. Dr. Gleason Archer said:  "As I have dealt with one apparent discrepancy after another and have studied the alleged contradictions between the Biblical record and the evidence of linguists, archaeology, or science, my confidence  in the trustworthiness of Scripture has been repeatedly verified and strengthened."

Many people claim that there are contradictions in the Bible, but when asked to identify one, they can't.  Some say they have read it cover to cover - but they only did it once, years ago.

This tells us some people         are basing their eternal           destiny on what they                 read when they were twelve. Be sure you don't  just believe what other people say without checking out the facts for yourself.

The external evidence for the Bible is also amazing. Tacitus, a Roman historian, and Josephus, a Jewish historian, both support the historical accuracy of the Bible. For example, there were seventeen secular historians who wrote about the death of Jesus by crucifixion. This could not have been concocted by a group of men ; External historical records attest to the truth of  the Bible. 

The Bible accurately describes history down to the smallest of details, and history attests to the accuracy of Scripture. For example, the rise and fall of great empires like Greece and Rome (Daniel 2: 39-40) and the destruction of major cities ( for instance; Tyre, Sidon; Isaiah 23) are described in the Bible.

Tyre's demise is also recorded by other  ancient historians. They tell how, after King Nebuchedezzar of Babylon failed in a thirteen year attempt to capture the seacoast city-Alexander the Great laid siege to it for seven months and completely destroyed it and its inhabitants. 

Intensive and prolonged study have shown how historical accuracy of the Bible is far superior to the written records of Egypt, Assyria and other early nations.


next post   24th August