Why Believe in the Bible

The Bible is the most popular book in the world, with 100 million books sold/given away each year. It was written over a period of 1,500 years, from around 1,400 BC (time of Moses) to 100 AD (after Jesus' Ascension into heaven). The entire Bible is made up of two distinct parts - an Old Testament part, and a New Testament part. The Old Testament part represents the first two-thirds of the Bible and the New Testament the last one-third. The Old Testament provides a history of the great events and people from the beginning of creation, all the way up to about 450 years before the birth of Jesus Christ. Some of these historical accounts include: 1) God's creation. 2 ) Noah and the Flood. 3) The lives and events of the early Patriarchs of Judaism (Abraham, Isaac and Jacob). 4) Moses' freeing of the Israelite slaves in Egypt, and their Exodus from Egypt and 40 year journey to the promised land of Canaan, and 5) The history of the people of Israel and Judah over the next 950-1000 years; including the events of the kings, prophets and notable figures of that period. The New Testament on the other hand is an account of the life of Jesus Christ as written by His apostles and disciples, as well as accounts of others to grow the Christian church around the world. It is also the fulfillment of many of the prophecies of the Old Testament through Jesus Christ's birth, ministry, death, and resurrection. According to an article about Ancient Manuscripts by Josh McDowell Ministries, "The Bible is the most vetted document in the history of the world."

The Bible is a collection of many thousands of manuscripts. The New Testament of the Bible alone represents a collection of over 25,000 manuscripts that have been compiled over the years from around the world. These manuscripts were written in Greek (5,800), Latin (10,000) and some other languages (9,300), and were written on papyrus, leather scrolls, parchment, and other forms of communication of the day. To give you some sense as to the total number of pages, Josh McDowell Ministries states that the 5,800 Greek manuscripts alone consisted of 2.6 million pages of Biblical history. The 25,000 manuscripts of the New Testament have been translated and vetted by a multitude of scholars over time and amazingly found to support each other as to the life of Jesus Christ. Why? 2 Timothy 3:16 of the New Testament tells us that “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach what is true.”

The Old Testament of the Bible contains some 2,500 prophecies of things that were to happen in future times - of which 2000 have already been fulfilled.

Also amazing is the fact that the Old Testament of the Bible contains some 2,500 prophecies of things that were to happen in future times - of which 2,000 prophecies have already been fulfilled. This to truly an amazing fact.

The New Testament concentrates on Jesus Christ's birth, life, death on the cross, resurrection from the dead on the 3rd day, His return after His resurrection on 12 separate occasions to groups of 1 to 500 people each time, and then His ascension into Heaven forty days after His resurrection, as viewed by His disciples. What is so remarkable about Jesus' life is that so many of the great prophets of the Old Testament (Moses, David, Isaiah, Micah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Zechariah, Malachi and Others) foretold his life with amazing accuracy 450-1,400 years before Jesus was even born. Further, over 300 prophecies of the Old Testament regarding the Messiah (Jesus) have been fulfilled by Jesus' actual life, as reported in the New Testament. The probability of this happening is zero, or 'could never happen.' The only explanation for this ever happening is that all of these prophecies were inspired by God and meant to give validity to the Bible itself. It should be noted here that all of the Old Testament documents have been meticulously reviewed in detail by many, many authorities over the years (Roman historians Tacitus and Suetonius, and Josephus the Jewish historian to name just a few), and the words of the Bible still hold true.

According to the Bible, God sent his son Jesus as the perfect/blameless substitute payment for the past and future sins of all mankind, so that we could have eternal life with him in heaven; if we should accept this free gift of God and believe and have faith in His Son. Jesus mentions several times in the Bible that not only is he the "Son of God," but also the pathway to eternal life. In John 14:6 Jesus states, “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No One comes to the Father except through Me." After Jesus' resurrection from the dead, He appears to His apostles and disciples several times, and commissions them to spread His 'teachings to all the nations of the world, so that people could be saved; and today 2.4 billion of the 7.6 billion total people in the world call themselves Christians, and say that Jesus is their Savior and Redeemer. Jesus Christ was truly 'Fully God' (Son of God) and 'Fully Man.' In my opinion, he was the greatest man that has ever appeared on earth, and his hundreds of miracles (40 recorded in the New Testament alone) attest to this fact. Not only did he raise three persons from the dead (John 11:1-44, Luke 7:11-15, Luke 8:41,42,49-55), but he healed the sick (Matthew 9:35), healed the paralytics (Mark 1:12), healed the deaf (Mark 7:31-37), the mute (Matthew 12:22) and the blind (John 9:1-7), healed lepers (Luke 17:11-19), performed exorcisms (Mark 5:13), turned water into wine at the Cana wedding (John 2:1-11), fed many thousands from just a few fish and loaves of bread (Matthew 14:13-21), walked on water (John 6:16-21), calmed the seas (Mark 4:35-41), etc. These, it would seem, were truly not the works of an ordinary man, but one given authority by His Father in heaven.

There are many reasons why I personally believe in the Bible, and also the life of Jesus Christ: 1) The fact that 2,000 of the 2,500 prophecies in the Old Testament were fulfilled by the New Testament several hundreds of years later is an amazing fact that speaks to the validity of both books of the Bible. The probability of this ever happening without Divine intervention is absolutely zero. 2) The fact that the Bible has been so heavily vetted and authenticated, validates the content of the entire Bible. 3) The fact that Jesus' life was one that fulfilled over 300 prophecies mentioned in the Old Testament regarding the coming of a future Messiah (Jesus); all prophecies made by prophets many centuries before His birth, attest to who Jesus really was, and is. 4) That the accounts mentioned in the Bible by a multitude of Jesus' disciples (at different times) show an incredible consistency in the stories told of his life. 5) That Jesus' life was one filled with amazing deeds and miracles that could not be attributed to anyone other than the 'Son of God,' and 6) While on earth Jesus spoke continually about His Heavenly Father, and the fact that he is, in fact, the 'Son of God.' He states over and over that he came to earth to do the will of His Father above. He knew that his mission on earth was to die for the sins of all mankind, so that all mankind could have eternal life, if they believe and have faith in Him. Jesus knew what course his life would take, and he knew that he would die on the cross, be resurrected from the dead, and ascend into heaven on the 40th day after his resurrection.

The life of Jesus Christ, as outlined in the New Testament of the Bible, is in my opinion "The Greatest Story Ever Told", and if you have never read the Bible (and particularly the New Testament), I would encourage you to do so. I would start with the New Testament and the Gospel of Matthew, and then continue on from there, It is an enlightening book that could well change your life. I know it did mine. I owe the reading of the Bible to a new life that has purpose, and a total belief that eternal life in Heaven is mine. If you do choose to start reading the Bible, you may want to refer to notes at the bottom of each page (by chapter and verse) for clarification of any passages that that you may need help to understand.

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References:

1. Bible (New King James Version). Old and New Testament.

2. Dr. Hugh Ross, “Fulfilled Prophecy: Evidence For The Reliability of The Bible,” Reasons To Believe.

3. “Biblical Prophecies Fulfilled by Jesus,” CBN.com.

4. “How Many Times Did Jesus Appear After His Resurrection,” Biblocality.com

5. Justin Taylor, "An interview with Daniel B, Wallace on New Testament

Manuscripts," thegospelcoalition.org, Mar. 22 ,2012

6. David Limbaugh, "Jesus on Trial"