Over the last two weeks we’ve looked at the proofs that God exists using reason alone. Another one of the big proofs that God exists is the presence of the Bible. If you carefully examine the Bible you soon begin to discover that it is a supernatural work. Therefore God exists because otherwise the Bible should not exist.
So what are the reasons that the Bible is clearly a supernatural work? There are several and I plan to look at a few of these over a couple of weeks. The first reason the Bible is clearly supernatural is because of the extraordinary unity and harmony in the contents of the Bible. JC Ryle wrote a clear statement on this and is worthy quoting in full:
‘We all know how difficult it is to get a story told by any three persons…in which there are not some contradictions and discrepancies. If the story is a long one and involves a large quantity of detail, unity seems almost impossible among the common run of men. But it is not so with the Bible. Here is a book written by not less than thirty different persons. The writers were men of every rank and class in society. One was a lawgiver. One was a warlike king. One was a peaceful king. One was a herdsman. One had been brought up as a publican; another as a physician; another as a learned Pharisee; two as fishermen; several as priests. They lived at different intervals over a space of 1500 years and the greater part of them never saw each other face to face. And yet there is a perfect harmony among all these writers! They all write as if they were under one dictation. The style and hand-writing may vary, but the mind that runs through their work is always one and the same. They all tell the same story. They all give one account of man, one account of God, one account of the way of salvation, one account of the human heart. You see truth unfolding and developing under their hands as you go through the volume of their writings, but you never detect any real contradiction or contrariety of view.’
Thus the Bible is supernatural because there is internal consistency within it. If you could find one contradiction between writers then you would find an error in God and prove that the Bible is not supernatural. But despite centuries of examination noone has been able to prove the Bible is contradictory. That such a book could be written by men is impossible. Instead it is right to affirm that God exists and that ‘All Scripture is God-breathed’ (2 Timothy 3:16).
Joel Radford.
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