Bible Doctrine – Proofs of Inspiration

Okay, now that we’ve seen the men that God used to write the Bible. I want to take a look at the many proofs of the inspiration of the Bible. I will do this in two ways. First, we will take a look at what the Bible says of its own inspiration, and secondly, discuss how history has shown its indestructibility.

First, the Bible says of itself that it is inspired. Let’s take a look at some Scriptures that speak to the issue of inspiration.

2 Timothy 3:16 All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;

2 Peter 1:21 for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.

Did you also know that the term, “Thus says the Lord” is used over 3800 times in the Bible? Of course, that by implication means that God said it!

Second, history has shown that the Bible is indestructible.

In 303 AD, the Roman Emperor Diocletian issued an edict that Christians and “their book” were to be destroyed. The persecution on the church was brutal. He then built a monument over a burned Bible with the words “Extincto Nomene Christianorum”, meaning “the name Christian is extinguished”. Twenty-five years later (some say nine), another Roman Emperor named Constantine declared Rome to be a Christian nation and commissioned fifty copies of the Bible to be made and paid for at government expense. Not much chance of that happening in our day!

The infamous Voltaire once said, “One hundred years from now there will be no Bibles on earth except one which will be in a museum.” Now there are stories that his home was purchased by the Geneva Bible Society and they used it to print and store Bibles. Unfortunately, the veracity of that story is questionable as much as we would like for it to be true. However, it is true that one hundred years after Voltaire’s death, a first edition of one of his works sold for a mere eleven cents in Paris, while the British paid the Czar of Russia half a million dollars for a Bible manuscript. Apparently, Voltaire’s predictions were a little hasty!

The Bible even speaks to its own indestructibility.

Isaiah 40:8 The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever.

Isaiah 55:11 So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; It will not return to Me empty, Without accomplishing what I desire, And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.

Isaiah 59:21 "As for Me, this is My covenant with them," says the LORD: "My Spirit which is upon you, and My words which I have put in your mouth shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your offspring, nor from the mouth of your offspring's offspring," says the LORD, "from now and forever."

Matthew 5:18 "For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished.

Matthew 24:35 "Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away.

Luke 16:17 "But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one stroke of a letter of the Law to fail.

The bottom line is that the Bible that we have in our hands today is the inspired Word of God.

The Anvil

Last eve I paused before a blacksmith’s door and heard the anvil ring the vesper chime.

And looking in, I saw old hammers on the floor, Worn by the beating years of time.

“How many anvils have you had,” said I, “To wear and batter all these hammers so?”

“Just one,” said he, then with a twinkle in his eyes, “The anvil wears the hammers out you know.”

And so I thought, the anvil of God’s word, For ages skeptic blows have beat upon.

Yet though the noise of falling blows was heard, the anvil is unharmed and the hammers gone!

Blessings,
Dwayne