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By Heidi Barry
As Christians, the Bible, the Word of God, is the very foundation of our faith. But in our current age of secular scientific thinking and religious ambiguity, this foundation is under constant attack. Scientists ridicule the creation account, historians nit-pick at genealogies and stories, and religious leaders downplay its importance to the Christian faith. In such a climate, doubts naturally arise. Is the Bible really the Word of God? Can we know for sure? The answer is a resounding “yes”! This article is the first in a three part series taking a closer look at the Bible and evidence showing that it is, indeed, the Word of God. There
is little disputing the fact that the Bible has influenced our world more
than any other book. The Bible itself, however, is the source of much controversy.
While it is widely known that the Bible consists of 66 books written over
thousands of years by 40+ authors, the agreement stops there. Some dismiss
the Bible as a collection of fables and myths that have been distorted
by generations of re-telling. Others claim that God wrote the Bible through
those 40+ authors. Most people have concluded that it is a matter of faith,
and no one will ever know for certain the true origin of the Bible. However,
a close examination of the Bible reveals undeniable proof that it was written
by God.
The Future The Bible claims to be written by God. This claim
alone, however, has no weight. Anyone can write anything and claim to be
anyone. Realizing this, God included things in the Bible to substantiate
His claim. One of God’s unique characteristics is His ability to see the
future. Humans have tried every possible method of foreseeing the future,
but with limited success. Trapped in the dimensions of time and space,
humans can only remember the past and live in the present. God, however,
does not exist in the same dimensions of time and space. The future is
as clear to Him as the present is to humans. He demonstrated this ability
in the Bible as verification of His authorship.
Prophecies For this reason, God filled the Bible with prophecies. Many people throughout history have tried to use the Biblical prophecies as a way of foreseeing the future, but this is not the purpose God intended for them. The prophecies were intended primarily for those who came after the prophesied events had occurred, as evidence of the prophecies’ origin. Jesus indicated this in John 14:29: “And now I have told you before it comes to pass, that when it comes to pass, you may believe.” This was also indicated by the way the prophecies were written. Most prophecies came in three parts: the first part foretold events within the prophet’s lifetime, as a way of verifying the prophet’s authenticity. The second part related to the Messiah’s first coming, as fulfilled by Jesus Christ. The last part spoke about the Messiah’s second coming, which has not yet occurred. Most prophecies were written in such a way that it was impossible to discern to which of the latter two categories a specific prophecy belonged until after it was fulfilled. This led many of the Jews in Jesus’ day to reject Him because He didn’t, at that time, fulfill the prophecies we now know to be related to His second coming. Over 1,817 specific predictions on 737 matters
have been identified, many of which have already been fulfilled. Over 300
prophecies predicted details of the Messiah’s birth, genealogy, ministry,
and death, and were all fulfilled by Jesus Christ. The probability of even
48 of these prophecies being fulfilled by one individual has been calculated
to one in 10157. To better comprehend this number, consider that scientists
estimate that there are about 1066 atoms in the entire universe. God, as
the only being who could foresee Jesus’ birth, life, death, and resurrection,
is the only person who could have written those prophecies.
Types The use of types is another technique frequently used by God in the Scriptures. A type is a figure that is a foreshadowing of something to come in the future. Most of the well-known stories in the Old Testament have meaning beyond what is apparent on the surface. These types usually refer to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. For example, the story of Abraham offering his
son Isaac in Genesis 22 was a type of the sacrifice God made of His Son,
Jesus Christ, 2000 years later on the very same spot. The seven Jewish
feasts had prophetic significance; the first three referred to Jesus’ first
coming, the fourth referred to the church, and the last three referred
to Jesus’ second coming. Ruth and Esther, the two books in the Bible named
after women, both contained types; Ruth foreshadowed the relationship between
Jesus Christ and the Church, and Esther was a type of Jesus, showing His
advocacy for His people. The Bible is full of types, each one foreshadowing
something that had not yet happened when the text was written. The consistency
between these types, and their prophetic nature, evidences the fact that
the Bible was written by one source—God—who could foresee the future.
The Number Seven The Bible’s consistent structure and design is also evidence that it was written by one author. One example of this is the heptadic structure of the Bible—the recurrence of seven, or an exact multiple of seven. Obvious examples of this, while far too numerous to list here, include the seven days of creation, the seven years of service Jacob gave for each of his wives, the seven good years and seven famine years faced by Joseph in Egypt, and the seven feasts of Israel. This pattern is repeated throughout the Bible. That over forty authors could maintain such consistency when they didn’t even know each other is amazing, though one might come up with a plausible explanation for it. But the number seven and its multiples can also be found hidden in the structure of the text in ways that are too remarkable to be coincidental. For example, in the book of Matthew, words that appear nowhere else in the New Testament occur 42 times (7x6) and have 126 letters (7x18). This could be dismissed as a coincidence, except that the same thing occurs in every book in the New Testament. This is too remarkable to be a coincidence, and there is no way it could have been planned by the human authors. The only logical explanation is that one author wrote the New Testament, planning the structure and use of words in order to leave a pattern proving that He wrote it. This is but one example found in the 43,000 pages of notes left by Ivan Panin, who spent 50 years of his life researching the heptadic structure of the Bible. The origin of the Bible is the subject of much heated debate, but a careful examination of the Scriptures reveals undeniable proof that it was written by God. Most people, however, are unaware of these facts. The authenticity of the Bible is considered by many to be a trivial question in today’s world. They couldn’t be further from the truth, however. It is a subject deserving everyone’s careful consideration, seeing as the answer is of eternal importance. For more information read “Cosmic Codes:
Hidden Messages from the Edge of Eternity” by Chuck Missler.
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