_|_ | C O P | N E T The Bible's Inerrancy ===================== A Sunday School Lesson High School Level Introduction ------------ A great number of non-Christians claim that the Bible is not the word of God to man, and some others think of it as being just a valuable book of ethics and morals. Unfortunately, if we, Christians, do not know enough about the Bible, we may lack the critical knowledge to defend its inerrancy and unchangeability. The Bible is the word of God spoken by His Holy Spirit to His servants. Not only that, but it is the truth; Jesus said: "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth." (John 17:17) Additionally, the word of God is revealed to all people, from all ages and until eternity; Jesus again says: "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away." (Matthew 24:35, Mark 13:31, Luke 21:33). Facts we should know about the Bible ------------------------------------ The Bible is the oldest book; its main and only theme is God, man, and God's salvation for man. The Bible was written over 1600 years in three languages (Hebrew, Chaldee - also known as Aramaic, and Greek) by more than 40 writers of different ages, and in different eras. Those were disciples, kings, ministers, priests, scribes, physicians, wise men, shepherds, fishermen, and tent makers. Moses was a minister, then a prince, a shepherd and a prophet. Samuel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, and Jonah were prophets. David and Solomon were kings and wise men. Ezra was a scribe. Zechariah was a priest. The Bible (66 books) consists of the Old Testament (39 books) and the New Testament (27 books), each complementing and clarifying the other. Saint Augustine said that the New Testament was hidden in the Old Testament, and that the Old Testament was manifested in the New Testament. There are also ten other books which are used by all the Orthodox and Catholic Churches, but which the Protestant Church has not recognized (they question their sources). These books are Tobia, Jehodette, the End of the book of Esther, Wisdom, the Wisdom of Joshua son of Sirach, the Letter of Jeremiah the Prophet, Baroch, the End of the book of Daniel, First Macabees, and Second Macabees. These make the total of 76 books in the Bible. These books are full of history, laws, teachings, prophecies, poetry, prayers and wisdom. Inerrancy proofs ---------------- 1) Conservation of the Bible for 35 centuries: The Bible faced all sorts of wars since the beginning of its oldest books. Several kings and emperors resisted it and sought to destroy it (Antiochios, Neron, Dometian, Tragan, Valerian, Diocletian, Maximian, and several Muslim rulers). Recent writers and philosophers maliciously questioned its accuracy (Voltaire, Lenin, Bertrand Russell, and others). All those went away and remained the Bible as God said "for I will hasten my word to perform it." (Jeremiah 1:12). 2) The Bible's wide and miraculous spread: Being the most widely spread book in spite of the resistance and wars against it, the Bible was preached in the early Christian centuries with very primitive transportation means. The Bible was translated into tens of languages before the invention of printing machines, and afterwards to more than 1500 languages and dialects. Much more than 500,000,000 (five hundred million) copies have been distributed since 1804 all over the world as Jesus said "And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations" (Matthew 24:14). 3) The character of its writers: The writers of the Bible were righteous people full of virtues like purity, honesty, self-sacrifice, and most of them performed miracles. Their strong faith was not shaken by misery nor illness (Job). They were persecuted for their preaching and prophecies. Several of them became martyrs and proclaimed the word of God until the last breath. 4) The Bible's effect on people's lives: The undeniable strong effect of the Bible on the lives of people, and particularly sinners, is a proof that it is a Divine word. The Bible convicts the evildoers, changes their lives and renews their hearts and minds; it makes saints out of sinners, preachers out of the atheists, and happy successful out of miserable and sorrowful. 5) Historical, monumental and scientific proofs: Scriptures found in the dumps of Ashur, and a pillar from Babel, dating from centuries before Moses' account of the creation in Genesis, are kept in England. They describe the creation, the fall of Adam and Eve, the flood, Noah's ark, and the Tower of Babel. These are all identical to Genesis' record. Other discoveries, like Rosette's Stone and Moab's Stone, support the historic account of the Old Testament. Scientific observations were occasionally able to explain parts of the Bible. For instance, during the sixteenth century Galileo observed what Isaiah the prophet has written in 750 B.C., "It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth" (Isaiah 40:22). Similarly, Isaac Newton observed the laws of gravity about which Job has written around 3500 B.C. saying "He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing." (Job 26:7). 6) Fulfilment of the Scriptures: Thousands of years after they were written, all the prophecies about Christ were fulfilled. They described His miraculous Birth from a virgin (Isaiah 7:14), Him being the Mighty God (Isaiah 9:6), His miracles in healing the blind, the deaf, the dumb and the lame (Isaiah 35), His Passion, His suffering, His trial, His silence, His crucifiction between two thieves and His burial in a new tomb (Isaiah 35), Him being filled with the Holy Spirit, wisdom and justice (Isaiah 11:3-5), and Him being the only Savior of the whole world (Isaiah 63:1-5). King David's Psalms are also full of prophecies about Christ being the Eternal Son of God (Psalm 2), the Crucified (Psalm 22), the Good Shepherd (Psalm 23), the Risen from the dead (Psalms 16, 24, 47, 68), the King God, the Righteous, the Just (Psalms 45, 72), the Eternal Priest and God (Psalm 110), and also about Judas' betrayal (Psalm 41:9, 55:12-14, 109:6-20). Others prophesied about the massacre of the children of Bethlehem in His childhood (Jeremiah 31:15-17), His new covenant (Jeremiah 31:31-34), His triumphant entry to Jerusalem (Zachariah 9:9-12), the spear that pierced His side (Zachariah 11:12), His birth in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2), and His first coming (Daniel 9:24-27). A huge number of detailed prophecies from tens of prophets and saints with hundreds and thousands of years separating them, which come to fulfilment all together in Jesus Christ. This is the ultimate irrefutable proof of the accuracy and inerrancy of the Holy Bible and that its Divine author is the Holy Spirit (II Peter 1:20-21, II Timothy 3:16). Jesus Himself pointed out the fulfilment of those prophecies in His person (Luke 4:21, Mark 12:35-37, Luke 24:44-47). 7) The testimony of Jesus Christ Himself: Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Word of God, Himself, Who is infallible and faultless, witnessed to the truth of the Bible, the accuracy of its accounts, and its verses, the words of God, by referring to the Old Testament and using some of its verses. The contemporary claims that some of these truths and stories (such as the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the flood, and the story of Jonah) are only myth can only be false claims since Jesus Christ used them and referred to them. Among the references Jesus made to parts of the Old Testament are references to the fall of the devil (Luke 10:18), the creation of Adam and Eve (Matthew 19:4), Abel's death (Matthew 23:35), the flood (Matthew 24:37), the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (Luke 17:18), Lot's wife (Luke 17:32), Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses (Luke 20:37), the Law (John 7:19), divorce in the Old Testament (Matthew 19:8), Elijah and the widow when he stopped the rain by his prayer (Luke 4:25), Elisha healing Na'aman the Syrian the leper (Luke 4:27), Jonah (Matthew 12:40), and numerous other references from the prophecies of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Zachariah, Malachi, and the Psalms. Conclusion ---------- This is a glimpse about our Holy Bible, the word of God. Blessed are those who keep it and follow its teaching. Blessed are the wise who build their lives on its commandments and love it, for they should never fail. Reference: Maher R. Hanna, Proofs of the Bible's inerrancy, Second Edition, St. Fam Coptic Association, Los Angeles, CA., 1986.