Is the Bible made up?

Homepage Christianity? In Depth Is the Bible made up?

This is a good question; after all virtually every main world religion claims that their message is the one from God so how do you know who is right?  The answer to that is to look at the evidence and consider the logic.

Virtually every world religions book, with the exception of the Bible, has been written by one person, or at least based on the teaching of one person. I think you would agree that it is easy for one person to invent something and for that concept to be reasonably consistent.  After all, the author does not have to consult anyone else's imagination. 

The Bible is quite different from any other world religions book because it has been written over a period of 1,600 years by over 40 different authors!  Think of that!

Could you imagine asking 40 people to write a book about God?  What do you suppose that God would look like?  The answer I believe is this - you would get 40 different gods, because they have their origins in 40 different authors who have had to dream up the god that they are writing about.

This is evidence that the Bible is authentic as the Word of God. Why? Well you have to remember that the Bible has over 40 authors, most of whom lived at different times in history, from different social backgrounds and circumstances, yet all have written consistently about the character, nature and plans of God. 

Think of it logically, how on earth can 40 different authors (many of whom have never met each other) come up with an invented God whose character and purposes have not changed over such a vast period of time?  Surely this would only be possible if the information came from ONE source. Now what might that source be?  I believe it stands to reason that the source must have come from God himself, who alone is unchanging year after year, decade after decade, century after century. Hence the consistency of the plans, purposes and character of God as found in the Bible. 

I have heard that avid followers of soap operas can tell if a soap gets a new scriptwriter because the scriptwriter ends up changing the character in the soap ever so slightly. This is because they have their own imagination and ideas to bring to that character.  But this fact is certainly not reflected in the Bible - imagine it, how many human ideas and imaginations would need to be utterly consistent for 1,600 years - 40.  Does that sound plausible?  I don't think so. Once again I believe the source influencing those human writers was the eternal God himself. Indeed, that is what God says regarding the Bible.  Consider the following passages of scripture:

2 Peter 1:20

Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. 21:For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit..(NIV)

2 Timothy 3:16

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17:so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. (NIV)

So scripture itself testifies that the Bible is not a man made idea that has been dreamt up to give us a cosy feeling that we are not alone in the universe.
The other thing about the Bible is that much of it is prophetic!  That means predicting something before the event even happens. An example of this can be seen in the case of the prophecies surrounding the circumstances of Jesus' life death and resurrection. 

His place of birth was prophesied in the Old Testament in 700 B.C. "But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times." Micah 5:2 (NIV)

Fulfilment in New Testament

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, 'Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.'   Matthew 2:1-2  (NIV)  

His birth of a virgin (700 B.C.)

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son. (Isaiah 7:14) (NIV)

Fulfilment in New Testament

This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 1:18) (NIV)

His triumphal entry (500 B.C.)

Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.  (Zechariah 9:9) (NIV)

Fulfilment in New Testament

The next day the great crowd that had come for the Feast heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, 'Hosanna!' 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!' 'Blessed is the King of Israel!' Jesus found a young donkey and sat upon it.At first his disciples did not understand all this. Only after Jesus was glorified did they realise that these things had been written about him.             (John 12:12-16) (NIV)

His betrayal by a friend (1000 B.C.)

Even my close friend, whom I trusted, he who shared my bread, has lifted up his heel against me.  (Psalm 41:9) (NIV)

Fulfilment in New Testament

Then Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve, went to the chief priests to betray Jesus to them.  (Mark 14:10) (NIV)

His crucifixion (700 B.C.)

He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. (Isaiah 53:3-5) (NIV)

Fulfilment in New Testament

When they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified him, along with the criminals - one on his right, the other on his left. (Luke 23:33-34) (NIV)

His resurrection (1000 B.C.)

.because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay.   (Psalm 16:10) (NIV)

Fulfilment in New Testament

You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this. (Acts 3:15) (NIV)

It has been estimated that the probability of all the 61 major prophecies of the coming messiah being met in one man is the equivalent to a 1000,000,000,000,000,000 to 1 chance!  Just to give you an idea of how vast that is, the probability of a person winning the national lottery is only a 14,000,000 to 1 chance. Pretty slim, you would have to agree.

Ok you say, but humans wrote the Bible none the less, so it is still written by man isn't it?  Yes, in a way it is.  But there are two things to say about this. Firstly God did not use men like typewriters. In other words he did not by-pass their human characters and personalities but rather God knew exactly how those human personalities would write.  Let me explain by means of an illustration:

Imagine a stained glass window.  It has a beautiful picture on it in bright colours..got the picture?  Now let me ask you, do you think the creator of that picture had an idea as to what he wanted the finished product to look like? Of course he did.  The artist knew that a blue piece of glass would produce the right effect as it was struck by sunlight to create water in the finished picture, and he knew that the same sunlight reflecting through green glass would produce a green field. The same sunlight was hitting the different colours of glass, but producing exactly the right image at the other end.

In a similar way imagine that the different writers of the Bible are like those different colours of glass, each one with their own unique qualities and personalities.  God by means of His Holy Spirit touched those different peoples hearts (like the coloured pieces of glass being struck by the same sunlight) in order to produce exactly the image that he wanted (the Bible).

There are many other evidences that convince me that the Bible is not just a dreamt up story from the mind of a man. It's historicity with regards to the origins of the Jewish people, the numerous amounts of archaeological evidence and the impact and change that the Word of God has upon the millions of Christians throughout history are also evidences that testify to is authenticity. Might I urge you to read it for yourself and ask the living God to impact your life as you read his word regarding His plan of salvation? 

Further Reading and Research

• Joch McDowell, Evidence that demand a verdict (Alpha 1998).
• Josh McDowell, More than a carpenter (Kingsway 1995).
• Bill Bright, A man without equal (Scripture Union 1988).
• FF.Bruce, The New Testament Documents (IVP)
• Kirsten Birkett, Unnatural enemies (St Matthias Press 1997).
• Sir John Houghton, The search for God (Lion 1995).
• Phillip E. Johnson, Testing Darwinism (IVP 1997).
• Michael Poole, A guide to science and belief (Lion 1994).
• David Wilkinson, God, the big bang and Stephen Hawking (Monarch 1997).
• John Blanchard, Does God believe in Atheists? (Evangelical Press 2000)
• Ernest Lucas, Can we believe Genesis today? (IVP 2001)
• Stephen Gaukroger, It makes sense (Scripture Union 1988).

To purchase these books online try www.wesleyowen.com or www.amazon.co.uk

See: Are the Biblical Documents reliable? at Leadership University

by Colin Webster of Cornerstone Evangelical Church

(Reproduced with the kind permission of Cornerstone Evangelical Church)