What proof do we have that the Bible is true?

As we have already seen, there is first of all the Bible's own claim to be the inspired Word of God. But can the biblical Christian prove this claim? There is plenty of historical and scientific evidence for the Bible's validity and evidence in the form of fulfilled prophecy. The Old Testament contains over 300 references to the Messiah that were fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Computations using the science of probability on just 8 of these prophecies show the chance that someone could have fulfilled all 8 prophecies is 1017 power, or 1 in 100 quadrillion.

As for scientific evidence, archaeologists have proved again and again the accuracy of Scripture accounts, the names of peoples, places and dates. Nelson Glueck, eminent Jewish archaeologist, has categorically stated that "no archaeological discovery has ever controverted a biblical reference."' William F. Albright, recognized as one of the greatest of archaeologists, testified that there is no doubt that archaeology "has confirmed the substantial historicity of Old Testament tradition.

There are evidences, on every hand, many and varied and of the very best; evidences both direct and indirect. The world is full of them, and they may be seen every day; museums of antiquity contain them; evidences of the Bible's veracity are writ large on Egyptian and Assyrian monuments and temples; the ruins of buried cities and the tombs of forgotten kings abound with them, even mummies bearing mute testimony to what the "scripture of truth" declares; and the spade of the excavator brings to light fresh witnesses every year. The natural sciences, astronomy, geology, physiology, anatomy, including even that most exact of all sciences, mathematics, all bear united and harmonious witness to the truth of Scripture, written with "the finger of God."

The marvellous and detailed fulfilment of its prophecies; the perfect harmony between its various parts, indited as they were under varying circumstances and at different epochs; the utter failure of its critics to substantiate their charges of imperfection; the impossibility of the human mind, trained and cultured though it be, to fathom and exhaust its teachings—all these, and many other facts, testify to the divine authorship of the Bible.

Very much can be said to prove the inspiration of the Bible. One unassailable proof is prophecy. There are over three hundred prophecies in the Old Testament concerning Christ, and these have been strikingly fulfilled. It is impossible, in the nature of things, that the prophecies could be made to fit the fulfilment; or the fulfilment the prophecies.

When the late King of Spain died, the nation waited and hoped that an infant should be born who would prove to be the King of Spain. Suppose a prophet arose and announced that the expected infant would be a son, his prophecy might be fulfilled, but thereby he could not lay claim to anything more than a happy guess. But suppose he ventured on over 300 prophecies, many of them of an extraordinary nature, covering the life and death of the King, and prophesied hundreds of years before the event, and every prophecy was fulfilled, what conclusion could you come to then?

The external evidence of the divine authenticity of scripture is very weighty, especially when we consider that to the Jews were "committed the oracles of God," and from time immemorial to the present, it is well known that they have retained the different books of the Old Testament pretty much as we have them, and regard them as given to them by Jehovah. Our object now, however, is not to look so much at the external evidence, as to the internal testimony the scriptures give of their being the word of God. It is interesting, however to know, that in the early centuries of what is called the Christian Era, there is abundance of proof from the writers of that time, that they quoted largely from the books of the New Testament. It is said also, that Lord Halles, a Scotchman, having searched the writings of the so-called Christian Fathers who lived during three hundred years after Christ, found, with all their blunders, nearly all the writings of the New Testament as we have them in different parts of their books.

If Scripture had been framed on a lie, this could not have been sustained in perfect consistency throughout the writings of the inspired penmen. Slips, inconsistencies contradictions would have occurred. Yet not one inconsistency can be discovered, however microscopically the Scriptures are examined. This is most convincing.

One of the most striking proofs of inspiration is the fact that the Bible is a collection of books by different authors, written at different times, the first and last books differing by a period of many hundreds of years. And yet there is a perfect unity of design running right through the whole Bible, the separate parts being perfectly linked up with each other, so that it is evidently the work of one mind producing the harmonious whole — even the work of the Spirit of God. The various authors lived and died, and yet the true Author remains from the first book to the last, all being fitted in according to His mind. I hope to show later, more in detail, how the various parts fit in one with the other, each filling its place so naturally that, until removed, one is not aware how important it is. The existence of a Master Mind guiding the hand of the various writers must be admitted by all serious students of Scripture.

Yes, my beloved friend, I do believe the internal evidences of the Word of God are, at once, the most precious and powerful of any that can be produced. If it be true, as one of our own poets has told us, that "God is His own interpreter" in providence, it is none the less, but very much more true that He is His own interpreter in Scripture. If God cannot make me understand what He says, no man can; if He does, no man need. When this solid ground is clearly seen and firmly occupied, we are, through grace, prepared to meet the insolence of infidelity, the ignorance of superstition, and the feebleness of many of our modern apologies for the written Word of God. And, in addition to this, we are in a position to estimate at their proper value all the external evidences that can be produced in proof of the divinity of our precious Bible. Such evidences are of the deepest interest. Who, but the most thoughtless, can fail to be arrested by the very history of the Book? Take that one fact of its having been, for over a thousand years, in the custody of a corrupt and apostate church that would, most willingly, have crushed it into annihilation. There lay the peerless volume, buried in the dark cloisters of Rome, chained, like a hated prisoner, in the gloomy vaults of her monasteries. Who watched over it there? Who preserved it? Who warded off the destructive hand? Who but the One Whose Spirit penned its every line? Who can fail to see the Hand of God in the preservation of the Book, just as distinctly as we recognize His Spirit in its inspiration?

To proceed. The multiplicity of copies of the Scriptures running into many hundreds, laboriously engrossed by hand in many a place and during many centuries, first of all proves the existence of the original. There can be no possible doubt of the existence of the sixty-six books that compose the Bible. Second, it proves the high regard in which they were held, a regard extended to no other writings, this attitude towards the Holy Writings being quite unique. Third, the effect of these writings in the spread of Christianity proves them to be living and powerful.

The Lord Jesus Christ appealed continually to the prophecies about himself as a proof of His mission; the Apostles did the same. These prophecies are in great detail. If not true, how easy it would be to prove that Jesus is not the Christ; but if true, then the conclusion is irresistible that the book is given by the inspiration of the Spirit of God, and that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, the One of whom all the prophets from Moses to Malachi wrote.