June
21, 2003
IS
THE BIBLE RELIABLE?
"For
I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none
like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient
times things that are not yet done, saying, 'My counsel shall
stand' " (Isaiah 46:9, 10, NKJV).
Can the
Bible be trusted? Is it reliable? Much of the world, even
the Christian world discounts the Bible today, especially
the Old Testament. Yet Jesus said, "If
you do not believe his writings
(Moses),
how will you believe My words?" (John 5:47). Paul
testified that "All Scripture is given by inspiration
of God" (2 Timothy 3:16).
God makes
the claim that He knows and declares "the
end from the beginning." The Lord through Amos
tells us, "Surely the Lord God does nothing, unless He reveals
His secret to His servants the prophets" (Amos 3:7). If the
Bible is historically accurate and God's declarations come
true, then we can know whether or not the Bible is reliable.
Paul tells us, "Do not despise prophecies. Test all things;
hold fast what is good" (1 Thess. 5:20, 21).
Has God
reliably revealed the future, "the
end from the beginning"? Let's take a look at
some of God's declarations "from
ancient times" and see if His predictions came
true.
There
are many prophecies in the Old Testament regarding the coming
of the Messiah. "We have found Him of whom Moses in the
law, and also the prophets, wrote" Prophecies
regarding Jesus.
The prophecies
of Daniel, given about 600 years before Christ, and the prophecies
of Revelation, written between 90 and 100 AD, have been fulfilled
in accurate detail right down to our day and they reveal what
is yet to come. God has accurately revealed the course of
human history centuries before the events took place. The
prophecy revealed to Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel
2 has been fulfilled with amazing accuracy right down
to our own day.
An amazing
prophecy in the Old Testament relates to Tyre, a Phoenicia
city and seaport. "Thus says the Lord God: 'Behold,
I am against you, O Tyre, and will cause many nations to come
up against you, as the sea causes its waves to come up. And
they shall destroy the walls of Tyre and break down her towers;
I will also scrape her dust from her, and make her like the
top of a rock. It shall be a place for spreading nets in the
midst of the sea,... and you shall never be rebuilt, for I
the Lord have spoken" (Ezekiel 26:3-5, 14). The
Destruction of Tyre
Friend,
there are many prophecies and predictions in the Old Testament,
some that were conditional and others that were unconditional.
Therefore, if prophecies are not fulfilled as God says they
would be, then God is a fake and His claims are false. However,
if the prophecies are fulfilled as God spoke them, then we
may rest assured that God is true, and He and His Word are
reliable. You may trust that God and the Bible are reliable!
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