Stephanie Salvador, a member of GCW, shares some reasons on why she finds the Bible is a book she has to take seriously.
Let me share with you some reasons why the Bible is worth reading by everyone.
The bible consists of 66 books written by 40 different people over the span of 1500 years
and there’s no other book like this in history. Understood properly and in context, there are no contradictions within it. No other book is quite like it!
The Bible is historically accurate and includes details about real people that really existed and events which really did happen.
Moreover, for hundreds of years the Bible has been used in archaeology to find evidence of buildings, places, and even kings, many of which have been proven to match their biblical descriptions. This means the Bible is historically accurate and includes details about real people that really existed and events which really did happen.
Another thing that makes the Bible quite remarkable are the number of prophecies that are proved to be true. For example, there are at least 300 prophecies from the Old Testament which are shown to be fulfilled by Jesus in the New Testament. The chances of one person fulfilling so many prophecies are virtually impossible, never mind many of them!
And there was no way the prophecies were inserted into the Bible after the events they talk about happened because the first translations of the Old Testament into Greek (the spoken language of the day) were done around 250 BC - so still a long time before Jesus was born. Surely this also points to the fact it’s no ordinary book!
For a couple of examples of these prophecies, take a Bible and look at Isaiah chapter 53 and Zechariah chapter 11 and see the remarkable similarities between Jesus' death and betrayal as portrayed in the first four books of the New Testament.
Hopefully you can start to see that it makes sense to carefully take a look at such a book.
The big thing that probably prevents many people taking the Bible seriously is the resurrection of Jesus. The New Testament writers knew this though and tell us that there were many eye witnesses of him.
There was also ample opportunity for the governing powers of the time to disprove him coming back from the dead but they could never produce his dead body. Another compelling reason for believing it to be true is that nearly all Jesus’ disciples died martyr’s deaths for proclaiming they had seen him alive and worshipped him. They subjected themselves to severe persecution, torture and death because of this - they must have thought it really was true! Afterall, surely nobody would die for something they knew to be false?
In many places around the world, Christians still are persecuted for believing Jesus has risen from the dead. It has had such a profound impact on the lives of millions of people (to the extent where they are willing to put their lives on the line) that, again, makes this book worth giving serious consideration.
Afterall, surely nobody would die for something they knew to be false?
These points we’ve touched on are barely the tip of the iceberg when it comes to
considering reading the Bible.
There is a wealth of apologetics that exist on the Bible’s behalf and a blog post could never do them all justice. However, our hope is that it might just provoke a thought which leads you to find out more for yourself or even get in touch with us to discuss our faith in the words of the Bible in more detail.
If you want to get in touch, you can contact us through our Facebook page or email info@gracechurchwakefield.org.uk.
“Can I trust the Bible?” by R.C. Sproul is available for free as an e-book and is a very helpful
short book for anyone wanting to understand more about the veracity of the bible.
