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Proof that the Bible is the Word of God

Proof that the Bible is the Word of God. Overview. The Bible’s claim 3 Types of evidence Archeological Scientific Prophetic Conclusion. Introduction. No proof when dealing with unseen Science calls this Hypothesis testing and certainty factors The Bible calls this faith.

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Proof that the Bible is the Word of God

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  1. Proof that the Bible is the Word of God

  2. Overview • The Bible’s claim • 3 Types of evidence • Archeological • Scientific • Prophetic • Conclusion

  3. Introduction • No proof when dealing with unseen • Science calls this Hypothesis testing and certainty factors • The Bible calls this faith Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. (Hebrews 11v1)

  4. The Bible • 66 books • Approx. 40 different authors • kings, peasants, philosophers, fishermen, herdsmen, poets, statesman, doctors, prophets, priests etc. • period of 1600 years • ONE MESSAGE

  5. The Bible’s claim • Supernatural authorship • “Thus saith the LORD” (4000 expressions like this) • Either is what it claims • Or it is a book of lies (that teaches people not to lie)

  6. The Bible’s claim 16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, (2 Timothy 3v16)

  7. Methods of “proving” the Bible • Key methods • Archaeological • Scientific • Gematria • ELS • Medical, etc. • Prophetic

  8. Archaeological evidence • External testimonies to the veracity of the Bible • The more we learn the more the Bible is proved • Statements that seemed incorrect are now proved

  9. Archaeological evidence • Cyrus and the rebuilding of temple - The BIBLE 22 ¶ In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfil the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah, the LORD moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and to put it in writing: 23 ``This is what Cyrus king of Persia says: ```The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah. Anyone of his people among you- may the LORD his God be with him, and let him go up.’ (2 Chronicles 36)

  10. Archaeological evidence • Cyrus and the rebuilding of temple - External evidence • Cyrus’ cylinder • Contains details of this decree and the return of Jews to Jerusalem

  11. Archaeological evidence • The Bible talks about • Assyria fighting against Israel • Jehu as king while Assyria rule • 2 Kings 12-13

  12. Archaeological evidence • Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III was found….has picture of King Jehu bringing tribute money

  13. Archaeological evidence • Many more • Sennacherib’s prism • City of Jericho • etc...

  14. Scientific evidence • Scientific or Mathematical methods • Often quite complex • Use statistics to demonstrate the veracity of the Bible

  15. Scientific evidence • Equidistant Letter Sequences (ELS) • Gematria • Other • Medical • Legal • etc.

  16. ELS Defined • Discovery of encoded names and events (relating to the 19th century) in the book of Genesis • Discovered by three mathematicians • Submitted to the prestigious scientific journal Statistical Science

  17. ELS not chance • Editor Robert Kass, said: • "Our referees were baffled: their prior beliefs made them think the Book of Genesis could not POSSIBLY contain meaningful references to modern day individuals, yet when the authors carried out additional analyses and checks the effect persisted." ("Equidistant Letter Sequences in the Book of Genesis", Statistical Science, August 1994, p.306 )

  18. How does it work? • Hebrew text of Genesis was converted to an array of letters • Found coded words • Also found related words

  19. Examples • Zedekiah near Mantanya (his original name) • Hanukkah near Hasmoneans (Family who lead army taking temple from Assyrians)

  20. What was found? • Selected, at random, 300 related Hebrew word pairs • All 300 found • Statistical odds of this occurring by chance • 1 in 50 quadrillion (50,000,000,000,000,000)

  21. The Conclusion • "We conclude that the proximity of ELS's (Equidistant Letter Sequences) with related meanings in the Book of Genesis is NOT DUE TO CHANCE." • ("Equidistant Letter Sequences in the Book of Genesis", Statistical Science, August 1994, p.434 )

  22. Gematria • Gematria is a method of exploring the interrelationship between words and ideas based upon a numerical analysis of the Hebrew letters

  23. The Ivan Panin Challenge • Sunday, November 19th, 1899, the NEW YORK SUN • Matthew 1v1-17 • Feature 1: 49 (7x7) words • Feature 2: 28 (4x7) begin with a vowel • Feature 3: 21 (3x7) begin with a constant • Feature 4: 266 (38x7) letters • etc...

  24. Numeric Test applied to Matthew 1v18-25 • 13 features to do with the number 7 • Feature 1: 161 (23x7) words • Feature 2: 77 (11x7) vocabulary • Feature 3: 28 (4x7) used by angel • Probability of occurring by chance • 1 in 96,889,010,407 • And on it goes…other books, other passages

  25. The Challenge • “Let Mr W.R.L. try to write some 300 words intelligently like this genealogy, and reproduce some numeric phenomena of like designs.” • The challenge still remains unanswered!

  26. Genesis 1 Miracle • Miracles of 7 • 1. It contains 7 words. • 2. The total number of letters is 28, or 7 x 4 • 3. The sentence divides into two equal parts: the first three words, 'In-the-beginning God created,' contain 14 letters, and the remaining four words contain 14 letters.

  27. Genesis 1 Miracle • Miracles of 7 cont. • 4. The second half of the sentence divides again into two equal prts: The two words for 'the heavens' contain 7 letters, and the two words for 'and-the earth' contain 7 letters. • 5.The three nouns, God, heavens and earth have together 14 letters. • 6. The numeric value of these three nouns is 777, or 7 x 111….etc..

  28. Prophetic evidence • Predicting events before they happen • Hundreds of prophecies • Many very easy to understand • Some even taunting unbelievers to disprove them!

  29. Prophecy of Jesus in OT

  30. Fulfilled approx. 300 prophecies Probability of one person fulfilling 48 prophecies Prophecy of Jesus in OT 1 in 10,000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000!

  31. 605 BC - Babylon was the power of the world King Nebuchadnezzar was king Hanging gardens - Seven wonders of the ancient world Prophecy of Babylon

  32. Prophecy of Babylon - Position

  33. Prophecy of Babylon - Isaiah 13 19 ¶ Babylon, the jewel of kingdoms, the glory of the Babylonians' pride, will be overthrown by God like Sodom and Gomorrah. 20 She will never be inhabited or lived in through all generations; no Arab will pitch his tent there, no shepherd will rest his flocks there. 21 But desert creatures will lie there, jackals will fill her houses; there the owls will dwell, and there the wild goats will leap about. 22 Hyenas will howl in her strongholds, jackals in her luxurious palaces. Her time is at hand, and her days will not be prolonged.

  34. 539 BC Cyrus the Great of Persia captured it City began to fall into ruin No longer inhabited - prophecy fulfilled How long could this continued? Prophecy of Babylon - fulfilled

  35. 323 BC Alexander the Great Conquered the world - easy to build a city Alexander the Great dies Prophecy of Babylon - fulfilled

  36. 1979 Saddam Hussein Dictator thought about rebuilding the city Gulf war, sanctions...... Prophecy of Babylon - fulfilled

  37. The Egyptians were masters of all things; Architecture, Engineering and Building, Mathematics, science, Art and Literature, medicine Prophecy of Egypt

  38. Prophecy of Egypt • 586 BC Ezekiel said • Ezekiel 29v8-16 “It will be the lowliest of kingdoms and will never again exalt itself above the other nations. I will make it so weak that it will never again rule over the nations.” (v15)

  39. Prophecy of Egypt fulfilled • 2500 years later • “There is drastic overpopulation in relation to the countries resources...” • “Sadly today the nation is heavily dependent upon foreign aid, without which it would not survive....”

  40. Prophecy of Israel • There are many and detailed • God prophesied that they would be scattered throughout the world • God prophesied that he would bring them back

  41. Prophecy of Israel - Scattering "Even a Biblical prophet could not have foreseen the cataclysms the 20th century would visit on the chosen people" (Time Magazine, February 6, 1995) "You will live in constant suspense, filled with dread both night and day, never sure of your life. In the morning you will say, 'If only it were evening', and in the evening you will say 'If only it were morning', because of the terror that will fill your hearts and the sights that your eyes will see." (Deut 28v66,67)

  42. Prophecy of Israel- Regathering Moses says, Leviticus 26 44 Yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them or abhor them so as to destroy them completely, breaking my covenant with them. I am the LORD their God. And Ezekiel concurs... Ezekiel 36 24 “For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land.”

  43. Prophecy of Israel -Regathering • For almost 2000 years they remained scattered • In 1948 it began to be fulfilled as the Jewish people returned to the state of Israel

  44. Something to ponder...

  45. For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when [there is] no peace. (Jeremiah 8v11) For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape (1 Thess 5v3).

  46. How Soon? Time Magazine - November 2, 1998

  47. Summary

  48. Summary • There is a lot of evidence • Scientific • Archaeological • Prophetic • And other…. • However it is all only evidence

  49. The Conclusion • Step of faith And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. (Hebrews 11v6) Evidence is there - We must take the step of faith!

  50. Thank you

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