The credibility of the
B i b l e
Jesus Christ says:
"Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God."
(The Bible: Matthew chapter 4, verse 4)
The Bible is the true word of God. It is God's revelation to us humans and gives us ans-wers about who we are, where we come from and what the meaning and goal of our existence is. Through the Bible, God speaks to us by showing us who and how he is and what his intentions are for us humans (see: Living in freedom and peace).
The Bible, consisting of the TaNaCh ("Old" or First Testament) and the Gospel of Jesus Christ (New Testament), was carefully writ-ten down over the course of thousands of years by God-fearing people and contem-porary witnesses under the guidance of God's Spirit. It finally concludes with the last book of the New Testament - the Reve-lation of Jesus Christ - which was recorded as an eschatological prophecy by the Apos-tle John in the second century AD.
The Bible offers a variety of exciting and real testimonies and stories in which peo-ple impressively describe their experiences with God. It also contains divinely inspired teachings and wisdom that help us under-stand the meaning of our existence and that show us the way to a truly fulfilling life in community with God, our Creator. That's why the Bible is also called the "Book of Life" (see: Who is God?).
At the same time, God's Word is the stan-dard for our lives and the basis by which we are judged by God. It is not for nothing that Jesus compares God's Word with the physical food that we eat every day. What bread is to the stomach, the Bible is to the spirit. People need both to live.
More than just a book
God the Lord speaks:
"I have spoken it, I will also bring
it to pass; I have purposed it,
I will also do it."
(The Bible: Isaiah chapter 46, verse 11)
Tie Bible is the most frequently printed and at the same time the most read book in the world. In total they are now available in 636 languages; the New Testament even in 1442 languages. The Bible consists of 66 indivi-dual books that were written down over 1,600 years by at least 40 different, God-in-spired people from a variety of time periods and social backgrounds. Together they form a uniform and completely coherent overall work.
More and more archaeological excavations testify to the reliability of the historical accounts of the Bible. The finds mainly in-clude inscriptions, clay tablets, seals and papyri. In this way, all the names, buildings and events mentioned in the Bible, which for a long time were considered fictional, are confirmed as real.
In addition, the Bible contains around 6,400 prophecies, of which over 3,200 have already been fulfilled with the greatest precision over a period of several millennia since they were written. The mathematical proba-bility calculated in this context for the exact fulfillment of the biblical predic-tions far exceeds human imagination.
handed down reliably
"Your word is true from the beginning: and every one of
Your righteous judgments endureth for ever."
(The Bible: Psalm 119, verse 160)
Some people, especially Muslims, are of the opinion that the Holy Scripture and there-fore the original message of God has been distorted. However, these claims turn out to be false and unfounded.
There are a total of three manuscripts of the Old Testament:
1. the Masoretic text in Hebrew
(ca. 600-1000 AD)
2. the Septuagint in ancient Greek
(3. Jahrhundert BC)
3. the Qumran Dead Sea Scrolls
(408 – 318 BC)
The Masoretic Text was copied over a period of 400 years. The copyists were extremely thorough when copying, counting words and even letters to ensure an error-free co-py of the text. If errors were suspected in the original text, a corresponding marginal note was added. It can be assumed with cer-tainty that the Masoretes - who themselves were very religious people - would under no circumstances have intentionally falsified the Holy Scriptures, as they considered this a crime.
When the so-called Qumran Scrolls were found in 1947 next to the caves at Khirbet Qumram on the Dead Sea and in other ar-chaeological sites on the western shore of the Dead Sea and in the lower Jordan Valley, they could be compared to the Masoretic text. It was confirmed beyond a doubt that the Bible text was transmitted extremely faithfully.
The so-called Septuagint is the oldest conti-nuous translation of the Old Testament from the Hebrew-Aramaic into the ancient Greek language, which began around 250 BC. originated in Hellenistic Judaism - primarily in Alexandria. This copy is also very similar to the other two, although there are some minor differences.
It can therefore be stated that no other work of antiquity was handed down with such a high level of accuracy as the Old Testament.
There are over 16,000 copies of the New Tes-tament in various languages. The oldest of them date back to the fourth century AD. These texts have been thoroughly examined and compared with each other by various text researchers over many centuries. It was found that the texts available today cor-respond to over 99% of the original manus-cripts.
From this it can be concluded that the origi-nal Word of God was handed down reliably and unadulterated.
The true word of God
"For the word of the Lord
is right; and all his works
are done in truth."
(The Bible: Psalm 33, verse 4)
It was God's intention from the beginning to reveal himself and his plans to us humans so that we would recognize that God exists and that his word is true. The countless at-tempts in the past centuries to destroy the Bible and to suppress the divine truth it con-tains, which brings salvation to humanity, could not prevent God's word from sprea-ding throughout the world and to this day Finds access to people's hearts.
The numerous fulfilled prophecies are decisive evidence that the words of the Bible are completely reliable, both with regard to prophecies that have already come to pass and future prophecies whose fulfillment is yet to come. Over hundreds of the exact biblical predictions from the To-rah, Psalms and the prophetic books refer to Jesus Christ, the Savior of all people predes-tined by God (see: Fulfilled prophecies about Jesus).
In addition, the crucifixion of Jesus is histo-rically documented by various non-biblical sources. Furthermore, the resurrection of Jesus is the best-attested event in the world (see Video: The case for Christ).
conclusion:
No other book can convince with such
a variety of outstanding and detailed testimonies and arguments regarding
its credibility as God's Word as the Bible.
Above all, every person who still doubts
the truth of the Bible has the opportunity to ask God himself. Anyone who does this with a sincere heart can certainly expect
an enlightening answer from God.
"Your word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path."
(The Bible: Psalm 119, verse 105)